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BIG CYPRESS SEMINOLE INDIAN RESERVATIONBIG CYPRESS
Big Cypress, FL
SET 1: Runaway Jim, Funky Bitch, Tube, I Didn't Know, Punch You in the Eye, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, Roggae, Split Open and Melt[1] -> Catapult, Back on the Train, Horn, Guyute, After Midnight[2]
SET 2: Meatstick -> Auld Lang Syne[3] > Down with Disease[4] -> Llama, Bathtub Gin, Heavy Things, Twist -> Prince Caspian > Rock and Roll, You Enjoy Myself[5], Crosseyed and Painless, The Inlaw Josie Wales[6], Sand -> Quadrophonic Toppling[7], Slave to the Traffic Light, Albuquerque[8], Reba, Axilla[8], Uncle Pen, David Bowie, My Soul, Drowned -> After Midnight Reprise, The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Bittersweet Motel, Piper -> Free, Lawn Boy, Hold Your Head Up > Love You > Hold Your Head Up, Roses Are Free, Bug, Also Sprach Zarathustra[9] > Wading in the Velvet Sea > Meatstick
[1] Unfinished.
[3] Accompanied by fireworks.
[4] Accompanied by fireworks; unfinished.
[5] Vocal jam based around the word "cheesecake."
[6] Trey on acoustic guitar.
[7] Debut.
[8] Trey altered lyrics to reference cheesecake.
[9] Began with the signature Hood drum roll.
This was the second show of the Big Cypress festival. Fish was introduced as 'Soda Jerk' during I Didn’t Know. Split Open and Melt and Disease were unfinished. Melt contained A Love Supreme teases. After the ensuing Catapult, Trey remarked: “Only at the largest concert in the world could we get away with playing a song like that.” After Midnight made its Phish debut. The late set, also known as “The Show,” began at around 11:35. “Father Time” was on stage, pedaling on an exercise bike that powered a large clock. The sounds of the clock’s gears could be heard through the sound system. About ten minutes before midnight, “Father Time” collapsed from exhaustion and the clock stopped. Then, a large fan boat entered the concert field and approached the stage. Early in its journey, the fan boat exploded away and revealed the hot dog used in the 1994 New Year’s stunt. While the band rode the hot dog to the stage, an instrumental version of Meatstick began to play over the P.A.. The band reached the stage and fed several meatsticks to Father Time, reviving him so that the clock could continue moving toward midnight. The band then took the stage and played Meatstick to begin The Show. Dancers were on stage prior to Phish reaching it. Auld Lang Syne and Disease were accompanied by fireworks. Heavy Things was recorded live and rebroadcast as part of ABC television’s New Year’s Eve coverage. In a humorous effort to confuse the home audience, Trey instructed the crowd to yell the word “cheesecake” in lieu of cheering at the end of the song. After twice giving the example of yelling the word once, Trey changed his mind and instructed the crowd to chant it, adding for them to say it like they were pissed. Trey then introduced the band for the rebroadcast and offered a message of peace and harmony for the world where he reminded people to drive in the right lane unless passing another vehicle. Meatstick was subsequently teased as the New Year approached in the central time zone. Crosseyed included a DEG tease. YEM included a vocal jam based around the word “cheesecake” and Trey altered the lyrics to Axilla and Albuquerque to reference the word. Inlaw Josie Wales featured Trey on acoustic guitar. Quadrophonic Toppling debuted, albeit with different music than on The Siket Disc, and included My Soul teasing from Mike. Rock and Roll included an After Midnight tease. Love You included band introductions; Fish introduced Page before the song and Mike and Trey afterwards, and the band as “Phish 2000” (see November 2, 1990). Piper contained Bug teases from Page. 2001 began with the signature Hood drum roll. After the show closed with yet another version of Meatstick, the Beatles song Here Comes the Sun was piped through the crowd at sunrise. Two breakouts were played: Crosseyed and Painless (first since August 13, 1997, or 159 shows), and Love You (first since July 5, 1997, or 179 shows).
Overall: 4.753/5 (1176 ratings)
Tube, Split Open and Melt, Catapult, Down with Disease, Bathtub Gin, Twist, Rock and Roll, You Enjoy Myself, Crosseyed and Painless, Sand, Quadrophonic Toppling, Slave to the Traffic Light, After Midnight, Piper, Roses Are Free, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Meatstick
After Midnight tease in Rock and Roll, Dave's Energy Guide tease in Crosseyed and Painless, Bug tease in Piper, Harry Hood tease in Also Sprach Zarathustra, A Love Supreme tease in Split Open and Melt, My Soul tease in Quadrophonic Toppling
The Siket Disc 1
Dec 31, 2019: Phish - New York, NY
Dec 31, 2014: Phish - Miami, FL
Dec 31, 2007: Del McCoury and Friends - Nashville, TN
Dec 31, 2006: Trey Anastasio Band - Atlantic City, NJ
Dec 31, 2005: Benevento/Russo Duo featuring Mike Gordon - Fort Lauderdale, FL
Dec 31, 2005: Trey Anastasio Band - New York, NY
Dec 31, 2005: North Mississippi Allstars - New York, NY
Dec 31, 2005: The Black Crowes - New York, NY
Dec 31, 2004: Benevento/Russo Duo featuring Mike Gordon - New York, NY
Dec 31, 2004: Jazz Mandolin Project - South Burlington, VT
Dec 31, 2001: Vida Blue - New York, NY
Dec 31, 2000: Phil Lesh & Friends - Oakland, CA
Dec 31, 2000: Warren Haynes and Matt Abts - Oakland, CA
Dec 31, 1996: Phish - Boston, MA
Dec 31, 1993: Phish - Worcester, MA
Dec 31, 1986: The Phones - Londonderry, VT
Review by waxbanks
Most mid-period Phish fans who've heard this show love it. If you're not a fan of Phish's spacey late-90's improv, you might find it a bit samey; e.g. the last 20(!!) minutes of Roses Are Free head back to ground that'd already been adequately covered (you might say) by the last 10 minutes of Rock'n'Roll and the 15-minute 'Quadrophonic Topplings' jam and even the last six minutes of the *show-opening* Disease jam. That's a lot of twinkling ambient-textured psychedelia to sit through in one listen. If you're in the right mood, on the other hand, or happen to enjoy that sort of thing, you might call NYE '99 the canonical Phish show. Trey memorably thought so - he came offstage with Fishman thinking the band was done for good, and a little more than nine months after this night it was. It took them a decade to fully recover and regroup after this spiritual/musical peak.
Both camps have it, I think. The ferocious concentration and intensity of '97 were gone by this point in the band's arc, as was the larking bounce of 1998, but there's a miniaturist's precision to the sound-assembly and quiet interplay nonetheless. By late '99 the ambient excursions of fall '98 has started to integrate fully into the band's sound; even the driving rhythmic songs here start with Trey piling sonic sediment atop the rhythm bed, and the great guitar declamations are more rare than ever.
It worked, and works. Fans weren't prepared for how deep the band dug at this show: not just a jammed-out Roses but a great distended 35-minute dance trance (perhaps); not just a swampsick Drowned > After Midnight > Jam but a slow sludgy all-the-time-in-the-world chillout; not just the maybe-best-ever 22-minute Sand but a supernaturally patient 'Topplings' coda that bled into a rare effects-laden solo for Gordon on the bass; not just a wee-hours Bowie but a wailing mid-90's throwback with ostentatious virile noisemaking from Trey. The Twist previews the canonical 6/14/00 Fukuoka version, R'n'R billows and bellows and explodes before dissolving into heady narcoticism, and the whole thing feels like a hypnagogic descent into another world.
It may indeed try your patience and it's less varied than you'd expect from a seven-hour Phish performance, but the after-midnight show remains the dream-logical endpoint of a certain style of Phish, the experience they spent the last decade chasing (before their 2009 renaissance). There are late-90's shows to hear before this one, but Big Cypress remains an essential passage for Phish fans.
Review by whatstheuse324
Anything that could be said about 12/31/1999 has pretty much been said, so instead of beating a dead horse, I'm just going to point out the most memorable experiences I had on this epic day/night/day.
We were hanging out at the campsite next to our bus, FLAPJACK 2000, getting geared up for the night that was to be. We made it to the concert field a little late, so Runaway Jim started up as we were getting through the fence. I spent the entire early set all the way in the back of the field, Trey side. It was fantastic. There was a ton of room to dance and move, I was hanging out with most of my crew and some pretty girl dressed up like an angel. The sound was still very good in the back. At one point during SOAM>Catapult, a giant cloud moved in front of the sun and giant rays of sunbeams were cascading down on all of us in the field, it was very spectacular. After Midnight, as mentioned in other reviews, was off the hook, everyone was pumped.
As the set ended and the mass exodus began clearing out of the concert field, my crew and I were like salmon swimming up the river. We made it to about fifty yards from the stage, Trey side, right next to the railings that were put in place. Little did we know that the spot we picked was perfect for what would be coming. We sat in that spot for five hours and waited, taking shifts holding down the fort. Finally, Old Man Time did his thing, collapsed on the bike, we were all wondering if it would ever be midnight, and then the Meatstick started playing...Anyway, when Phish rode the Hotdog through the crowd, they drove right past our spot. We ended up with leis and I think some Jolly Ranchers from Page. They drove to the stage, fed the meatstick links to Old Man Time, and got ready for the countdown.
As I mentioned in my 12/30/1999 review, I was with seven other friends from Rutgers and we drove down in our bus together. Although it was hard to be with everyone at the same time during the festival, we all made it together for the midnight celebration. When the clock struck midnight, we had an enormous group hug and huddled together as a team in joyous jubilation. It felt like we won the Stanley Cup. I will never forget that ever.
Suddenly, I was completely soaking wet.
A group of kids behind us from Chicago let about five bottles of Champagne spray through the air. I was pissed off for about .5 seconds and let it go with everything else. There was nothing that was going to stop this utter feeling of amazing triumph and being "there" in that exact moment in time.
Down With Disease = Greatest Fireworks EVER
All of the giant beach balls made it over my head during Bathtub Gin. One of my favorite jams of the whole festival is the last four or five minutes of Gin. It mellows out completely after the vocal jam in the middle and there is a sense of overwhelming calm. It was almost like the eye of the hurricane so to speak. It felt like the band and audience alike were able to take a breath in this pristine moment, soak it all in, realize that there was no where else in the world that was having more fun than we were, and gave us a minute to get ready for the marathon that lay before us.
I get chills thinking about it.
CHEESECAKE!!! will never be the same.
Slave to the Traffic Light stands out to me because I was with my friend Felipe at that moment and it was his favorite song.
Bowie, Reba, YEM, Sand>Quadraphonic Toppling...words won't describe them.
By the early hours of dawn, the concert field looked more like a civil war battlefield. People were just collapsed and laying around everywhere. I am proud to say that I made it on my feet the entire time. Sunrise was euphoric. Hood tease>2001 was unforgettable. Trey's beautiful solo out of Wading in the Velvet Sea giving way to the Meatstick let us all know that the end had come. I will never forget the absolute silence of 80,000 people slowly walking away during Here Comes the Sun on the PA.
We got in FLAPJACK 2000 within the hour and made it out of Big Cypress by noon. It was a much more quiet drive back to New Jersey than it was driving down. Everyone was spent. We made it back to Rutgers before midnight on 1/2/2000 and carried on with our lives once again. But we were not the same.
Since then, I only see my friend Achal on a consistent basis. Our friend Aland, fearless driver/owner of FLAPJACK 2000, passed away long before his time in 2012. I spoke at his funeral about this trip and how he provided me with one of the best weeks I will ever have. I still think about the group hug at midnight, and although I will never see some of those guys again, we will always walk together forever.
Review by Poster_Nutbag
i'm not going to try and review big cypress, i don't have the bandwidth for such a major undertaking, but i thought i would share my thoughts on some highlights, as others have done.
day set: great set. it was a laid back vibe, with everyone enjoying themselves and not taking things too hard. we stood near the back of the field, near a relay tower and had great sound and plenty of space. the melt>catapult was SICK, but the highlight of the day, if not the entire weekend, was the after midnight. you can hear it on the tapes, but to be there and feel the shockwave of energy that swept through the crowd once everyone realized what song they were playing, was one of the most magical experiences i have had with this band. you have to remember, we knew they were playing one long set all night, but we really didn't understand how it would work in practice. after midnight was the statement that we needed from the band that it was going to be ON.
we had all planned to nap after the first set, but we were all WAY too hyped up from the after midnight to sleep.
the midnight set was just amazing. so surreal in moments (the sunrise during roses, the band just walking off the stage at the end of the set) and so intense at others (after midnight tease in drowned, all of rock and roll, a 4am bowie). but my favorite moment was the hood tease before 2001. needless to say at this point we were all, uh, dazed, you might call it. but even in that state, once fishman hit the drums the entire crowd seemed to stop for a second and say "wait, didn't they already play hood this weekend? did they forget? are we misremembering? do we even care?". it was another great moment to experience in the middle of all that madness. it was phish being phish.
the walk back to our campsite was another thing. no one was talking. it was silence from 80,000 people. no one could quite understand what had just gone on for the previous 7 hours. people passed out everywhere, some sitting in chairs some under blankets. and the wordless crowd filed out calmly, everyone blissed out in their own special way. we got back to the campsite and decided the only sensible thing to do was make screwdrivers. we sat there, drank our drinks, and laughed for what seemed like hours trying to put into words what had just happened. one of those magical times.
If you were there.... you know!
Review by jonnyd
Simply life changing.
Review by ColForbin
The anticipation was palpable on NYE - everything was colored by the fact that we had an epic show promised later. So let's skip to the show, after a fun ride on the skywheel.
Afternoon Set (1:46): Runaway Jim, Funky Bitch, Tube, I Didn't Know*, Punch You in the Eye, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, Roggae, Split Open and Melt -> Catapult, Get Back on the Train, Horn, Guyute, After Midnight
This set had a GREAT SOAMelt. The jam quickly veered away from the SOAM beat/bassline into Type II territory, and then Catapult appeared out of the blue. I almost think this was planned, though, because the band was chatting with each other before starting up SOAM, and laughing while they did it (I don't think they take Catapul very seriously).
After Midnight was the other highlight: I have never seen a group of people (the fans AND the band) so excited in my life. The vibe during this song was just an exciting thing to feel, and the cheering was louder than any of the cheering later in the night.
THE SET
Midnight->Sunrise Set (7:45): Meatstick -> Auld Lang Syne, Down with Disease -> Llama, Bathtub Gin, Heavy Things, Meatstick tease, Twist Around > Prince Caspian > Rock and Roll, You Enjoy Myself, Crosseyed and Painless, Minestrone, Sand -> Quadrophonic Topplings, Slave to the Traffic Light, Albuquerque, Reba, Axilla, Uncle Pen, David Bowie, My Soul, Drowned -> After Midnight reprise, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Bittersweet Motel, Piper -> Free, Lawn Boy, HYHU > Love You > HYHU, Roses are Free, Bug, Harry Hood intro tease > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Meatstick
The stage was lit up to reveal a father-time like figure with a cubist head (think Picasso) riding a stationary bike next to a giant clock, making the clock run with his riding. Then, at about 10 of midnight, he stopped pedaling and slumped over the handlebars . Then, a couple minutes later the band showed up on an airboat (which I couldn't see at all) and then the sides fell off to reveal the band on the 1994 NYE Hot Dog (Meatstick) while a pre-recorded Meatstick played over the PA system. They rode through the crowd throwing out Lei's and beef jerky. The got to the stage, got off the hot dog, and fed father time a LONG string of sausages. This revived father time who started furiously pedaling and advancing the clock quickly to 1 minute beofre midnight. The countdown then appeared on the jumbotron and the boys started actually playing Meatstick on their instruments (I think...they could have been faking it to the recording but it got much louder when the picked up their instruments). All the while there were girls on the stage dancing the meatstick.
As the countdown reached 10, everyone started to scream the numbers, and when we all yelled happy new year it was pure magic. I don't use words like magic often - but I felt my heart burst within my chest, full of love, full of happiness, joy, every synonym in the damn book. How can I get across how special I felt as I listened to the most amazing band in the world auld lang syne, heard fireworks bursting in the sky while kissing the love of my life in the first moments of the year 2000? I can't explain it - but my one sincere wish is that everyone can feel that good at least once in their life. I just felt like I was reborn - really sensing the world for the first time - like I was coming out of Plato's cave. Amazing, amazing, amazing. IT a thousand times over.
DWD, which seems to be the traditional NYE song now, was overshadowed by a great fireworks display - much better than those at the summer festivals. But they should be right? This is the big year of the three zeros! DWD was LONG, but hard to get a good grip on with the way I was feeling. The Cheesecake Heavy Things was hilarious, and I'm disappointed that the didn't show it on ABC. The rest of the set blurs for me...the big jams were Rock and Roll, YEM, and Sand - the biggest jam of them all. I had a hard time maintaining after splitting a bottle of Korbel with Ann, and we headed back to our tent during Bowie (about 4AM). Luckily, we were camped close enough to still hear the concert clearly while wrapped up in our warm sleeping bags. I listened to much of the rest of the show in a half-asleep haze, unfortunately missing the Piper and Roses, but that's what tapes are for, right? My experience had already reached perfection at midnight, and I have absolutely no regrets about not being able to stay up.
Ann and I had initially planned on leaving on the second, but the fact that the traffic had completely blocked the water and port-o-potty trucks from getting through told us that we should probably get in line too. We packed up our stuff and got in line to get on 2nd Ave....and then didn't move for 6 hours. But once we did start moving, it took us only about 2 hours to get back to Ft. Lauderdale. We grabbed a room at the HoJo (mainly because it was right next to Denny's), took a much needed shower, and ordered a pizza. Mmmmmmm...a perfect end to a perfect weekend. Thank you Phish!
Review by User_27592_
So glad that this show holds up on playback as well as it does because honestly that is about the only way that I have memories of this show. I am not proud of that but I am also not the only one that was in that state. I was always a "its about the music first and foremost guy" but this night seemed a bit different, due to the hype around Y2K, the fact that we were secluded in the Everglades, and we had to have a plan to be able to rage for 7 hours after already doing the festival thing the night before and getting too little sleep. Combine that and you kinda get the perfect storm.
Case in point- I had been hunting a deep crosseyed and painless for quite some time by that point, and when we all gathered in the morning to compare setlists all of my buddies started clowning on me because that was missing from my setlist and recollection and they all knew I was chasing it for a while. Kind of a snapshot of what the night was like.
The thing that impresses me the most is the collective stamina. The jams that they were playing at 4AM were just as sick as the stuff around 1AM. The crowd was still dancing and wanting more as the sun came up. It was truly a moment of band>crowd energy that created something that I do not think could ever be recreated. They painted a masterpiece where all of the pieces came together and equalled perfection.
I think that one of the most enduring legacies of this show is its wide acceptance in the Phish community. The 99 sound was polarizing to say the least. For me, its my favorite sound ever. I saw every Phish show that year so Cypress was the metaphorical icing on the cake. But even those that found the 99 sound to be too repetitive or too groove based still found a way to celebrate what they were hearing and seeing that night.
In terms of the music itself, Cypress Sand is my favorite version of my favorite phish song (since 2001 is not a phish song). The Crosseyed is long, creative and weird. The Roses is kind of the bizarro world cousin to the Nassau Roses- it is a BIG version, but instead of finding the pocket like Nassau its a full on psychedelic shred fest.
Another beauty of this show is how different jams have been my favorite over the years. Right now I am loving the DWD since the release of the videos. I honestly forgot how amazing it was, even have hearing it several times since, but seeing it blew me away.
If you have not watched the videos, devote an hour and a half a night for a week and do it. Whether there or not, it is an amazing experience to share it.
Review by bostonron
This Rock and Roll starts off like many others, but with a little something on it. You can feel the energy even throughout the song portion, that can sometimes feel stale and mundane. They slam into the jam segment, Trey going off. They slide, rather quickly, into a nice steady groove. As with most jams this era ('99/'00) Mike shines. He builds a groove for them to jam on for a few minutes. There are little tension/release peaks throughout this part of the jam. The energy is at a 12. Straight raging. This jam continues over three minutes then the boys slide organically into a different theme/groove. Mike teases After Midnight and the boys find their way into a staccato like groove. The jam eventually mellows out into a much less aggressive theme. Trey takes it down a notch and allows Page to come in a bit on piano and organ. Fish switches the beat up with a main focus on cowbell (we NEED more cowbell!). Some fun interplay within a fun, bouncy groove. This jam has an almost song structure to it. With what seems to be a basic groove and "chorus" like middle parts that build in intensity each time leading to a little Trey breakdown. Sounds like he really wants to solo. He rips a cool little bluesy riffs but backs off as that doesn't really go anywhere. Then the real magic begins...
The jam takes a serious turn into much darker ambient space that was so common this era. There is definitely that relaxed undertone you can hear during festivals that really manifests itself in jams like these. On my AUD you can hear a group of people chanting "L...O...V...E" over and over again. They fade quickly when the music gets there. Really mellow ambient full band jamming builds slowly in intensity for almost seven minutes before Fish acts on Mikes cue to take the beat up a notch. He just comes in, leading with the snare and BOOM! we're in a deep, dark, dirty, space groove. Mike creates this wall of sound with his bass. Alien invasion music. Spaceships landing on my face. Fish speeds up his beat with Mike dropping bombs. Trey, holding back this entire time, comes in (albeit not smoothly), but finds his place and shreds. There is that classic Trey swagger in his playing. Snapping notes that go right through your brain. Dark space rock and roll now. They jam on this theme for a few minutes and they let the jam fall slowly back to earth. Resting this baby's head on a pillow so gently, this jam winds way down.
One of my all time favorite jams.
Review by WayIFeel
Is it just me or is Fishman playing the shit out of the Cowbell this show.
Review by makisupalope
Every time I have to fly the red-eye from Cali->FLA I listen to this show...timing out the set appropriately, of course. Watching the sunrise out the window during that Roses jam is just indescribable. Brings me back to that moment in the middle of the Everglades every single time.
Review by Beenjammin
I don't care what period of Phish you enjoy the most. Whether its 93-94, 95-96, 97, or whatever, 12/31/99 is THE best show Phish has(and probably will) play. You can fit all of set II on 6 CD's. SOME of the highlights of this absolutely mind-blowing, jaw-dropping concert are: you can really tell how special this concert is after the Heavy Things for ABC. Twist>Caspian>35minute Rock and Roll is absolutely outstanding, particularly the R&R. Several different major themes are visited in the song, and it's when you really start hearing HOW UNBELIEVABLY IN SYNC Fish/Mike were on this night. All 4 of the guys play great throughout the show, but Fish especially is on another planet, and Mike is dialed in completely. The Sand>Quad. Toppling is one of the best jams I've ever heard Phish play, clocking in at around 40 minutes. The Bowie is WILD, and segues into My Soul. Drowned>After Midnight Reprise is another 25 minutes of pure bliss - you can hear the crowd going absolutely apeshit when Fishman switches the beat from Drowned to After Midnight. PERFECT placement of Horse>Silent, and THOU SHALT NOT OVERLOOK Piper>Free. I've never heard Trey get so wild so quick in a Piper jam - he uses his digitech whammy pedal masterfully for the first 10 minutes, and then uses delay loops the last 10 minutes of Piper while Page leads the jam. They come around for a 2nd verse of Piper lyrics, and at that point Fish's drumming is so ridiculous that Trey is laughing his ass off while trying to sing the lyrics. Free is also long and an excellent version. The Roses is 35 minutes, and absolutely wonderful. SO MUCH to say about this concert, including the excellence of the 1st set as well. I disagree with the previous reviewer who says the show is full of sounds from 99. It has sounds from 99, but the collective tightness, transitions, and funk remind me more of a show from 95 or 97. You MUST listen to this show, it will change your perspective on Phish - they left absolutely everything on the stage this night.
Review by jerryguscia
I used to think this set was, to quote Bug, "overrated". I listened to specific parts and thought,"wow, that's good jamming, but..." and think of better versions. I actually listened to the whole show this morning (from 12-7:20) and ...wow. My review's below, but I must give a word or two. The reason this show is amazing (best ever is still a word I would like to fend off because I think it's all perception, some don't like spacey and ambient) is the fact that there is not one low-point (that I could find) for 7 and a half hours. Phish went up there and kept up greatness for 7 and a half hours. These songs are all GREAT versions and have incredible communication with all 4 seeming possessed by something. Anyways, here it is (from the thread I made):
"Okay, so I'm ready for my review (I'm going to listen to Roses later today):
First off, WOW, what a first set! I loved the Tube, Funky Bitch (which I don't usually enjoy), Roggae (it seemed even more beautiful than usual on this wondrous night), Back on the Train (a little funky, this one), and that dark effect Page added during Guyute (which was certainly no slouch). And that Split! Holy crap, it was shredding, then it settled into one of the most beautiful grooves ever! And I loved how you could tell they were excited during "After Midnight", they were enjoying and you knew what was coming.
Now, The Show (I know why it's billed as such). Disease shreds balls for half the time, then it settles into the jam style of the night: thoughtful, mellow, and patient jamming (with fun for all of the guys). Then the way Llama jumps out is like when the bad guy bursts through the walls during a romance scene in a comic book or something, it was awesome; Trey and Page once again DESTROYED! Then that Gin...that freaking Gin, the vocal/instrumental harmony jam is incredible (with Cactus doing some major awesome here, don't miss him, his voice is killer on this one) and then it settles into perfection in space (it's beautiful). Then...hilarity ensues with the ABC coverage, all that needs to be said is "Cheesecake".
Actually, I keep looking over the setlist and I can't go on, everything was a highlight. The Reba, the YEM, the Sand -> Quadrophonic; all of them are astounding versions of each song with beautiful jamming. It's spacey, ambient, and majestic. It's seriously like someone made a 7-hour "Best of 1999" and this was it. While they felt they were done, I feel that this was just the next big step (from all of '95 to the funk/jam evolution in 96 to the straight destruction of America in 97 to the beautiful ambience in 98 to here); I'm so glad they're back and can't wait to see where they go next.
My personal favorites from The Show: Gin, Twist -> Caspian > Rock and Roll, YEM, Crosseyed, Inlaw, Sand -> Quadrophonic, Slave, Reba, Piper, and 2001. But once again, everything was top-notch."
Review by cheesestick
What a classic. Wish I could remember more of it than I do, but I do remember it being a fantastic time. Dancing straight from 12 to six was a test of stamina (among other things). I remember laughing out loud several times, nodding several times, being enthralled by the lights for 2001. Probably the best show I've ever been too. Been relistinening to the entire weekend again and again. I can only say one thing: Cheesecake.
Review by Hose_jam
Split Open and Melt>Catapult
Timing's are from the AUD's attained from phishows.com Let's hope for a SBD release at some point!
6:40 Page plays a riff that sets the theme for the next few minutes, dark theme, jam moves out of structure.
8:25 Classic phish, enter in major key for a few measures then back to dissonant sound. Mike really pushing the sound here.
9:30 Has some great interplay with Page and Trey, lots of tension.
9:50 Everyone is in on the groove. Everyone is playing a lot of notes....10:10 is probably when I'd throw up my arms and yell "Hell yes!"
11:00 Gordo takes over and changes the groove. This is when the jam separates itself from typical to epic phish jam.
12:00 Full minute of just settling into the groove. Page comes in after Trey with a very fitting keyboard. Fishman has a pretty awesome drumbeat going on here..very spacey, almost gets a little "third stone from the sun" feeling...but funkier.
13:10 Trey stops playing fast licks and just vamps on one note adding a lot of rhythm.
14:25 I just love the lick Trey starts to play. Great melody that he dances around for a few minutes. Page’s grand piano works perfectly with Gordo and Fishman completely locked in.
15:25 Fishman switches over to the snare and works the bass drum. Near 16:00 Fishman has a very nice line of fills.
16:20 Trey and Page have some great interplay, doing some classic phish jam two chord vamp. Page is particularly quick on the Grand Piano.
17:45 Is just funk. Page on clav, Trey doing rhythm section, Fishman keeping the ride cymbal steady as Mike just crushes his basslines.
18:50 Trey takes the effects off, Fishman drops into a
->CATAPULT
:20, love the work Mike is doing on the bass, bending notes, shit is so spacey
Overall, the jam is just one of those jams that puts a smile on your face. Like i said, it’s spacey yet has an upbeat feel, very melodic, very rhythmic, everyone does their part.
Review by Brandonclick77
One of the deepest and most organic experiences I've ever had with music and this band...Collective consciousness indeed...
Review by antelopehood
This will forever go down as the best Phish show in history. I just don't ever see Phish matching or exceeding the magnitude of this event. For those of you who weren't there, I'm truly sorry. The highlights go on and on..just to name a few from the "The Show": Disease, Bathtub, Twist>Caspian>Rock and Roll, Yem, Crosseyed, Sand>Quadrophonic Toppling, Drowned>After Midnight Reprise, Piper>Free, and perhaps the greatest jam of all time (no exaggeration) Roses Are Free. 25 to 35 minute jams were a constant force, guiding us to the beautiful sunrise in the Everglades. The musical and emotional journey that we, as phans, shared with Phish was unprecedented. I can only hope that at some point in the future, Phish will release this on an epic DVD so all of you who couldn't attend can somewhat relive this unbelievable adventure. It was Phish at their greatest.
Review by SlavePhan
It looks like there's been a release of some sort of this show on video (the midnight-sunrise part at least).
If you want to relive a bit of it, it's worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXAe7q3qcvw#t=19734
It cuts off at the tail end of Piper, so, unfortunately the amazing Roses and the fun Lawn Boy and Love You aren't shown. Neither is the sunrise, which really was a sight to see. But, after looking for years and years for video of this show, this is a gigantic and epic release, sure to satisfy you for a while until the band decides to release it all.
Review by dsluz
I still get chills when I think back to this show, even though it's been so long. YEM -> crosseyed. THE REBA. Free. Quadrophonic Toppling - where were we all (spinning, spinning, spinning, spun)? Roggae still breaks my heart, and the split open into catapult, oh god, that was great. Wow. To everyone who was there, don't forget the feeling.
Big Cypress! Wow, what can I say? It's probably futile to try to capture the essence of even just the music upon relisten, not having been in attendance, but I do that, so I'll try. Split Open and Melt -> Catapult in the first set evolves into a groove that would reappear in permutations throughout The Set... it's almost as if Big Cypress had its own unprecedented and never-again-repeated jamming style, akin to the cowfunk of Fall '97. The highlights are too many to address individually, and you'll want to hear it all, anyway, but Rock and Roll develops a really unique jam with a quasi start-stop thing going on with plenty of cowbell from Fishman. The Cheesecake vocal jam is probably legendary, as it should be. An older review on here mentioned how noteworthy it was that Phish pulled off a "note-perfect" Reba and Bowie in the wee hours of the morning on New Year's Day, and that's true. The huge Roses Are Free (I think the longest one ever) is another one of the many, many reasons to listen to this entire festival. I'll conclude with this: I don't just have Phishtory memorized, but I think I may viddy around and see if this "millennial jamming" was entirely unique to Big Cypress or not... my hunch is that it is, and that makes this all the more of an outstanding achievement in the field of excellence.
Review by Midcoaster
One of the single greatest accomplishments in the history of rock and pop and whatever the heck else people want to call it. The fact that this isn't one of the most notoriously amazing and lavished with praise musical events, ever, is simply testament to the fact that most people are jealous that they don't get it!
Stupidly, I chose to stay in PDX for the Millennium, thinking I was being the "good boyfriend." I was in a phase of practicing "modesty" or something. (Yeah, right.) A buddy had tickets for me and everything. In 2003, I downloaded the entire thing from a then nascent nugs.net (gdlive.com, if I remember correctly), and then lay on my Maine floor while it snowed outside, listening to the midnight set all the way through, disc after disc. Oddly, I will always associate the sounds of Quadrophonic Toppling with the look and feel of cold, blustery, February snows hissing at my windows.
We have a few that get away from us. (I have a few boxcar loads, but that's another story.) This is one show for which there is no such thing as hyperbole. Truly an amazing accomplishment!
Review by freebirdrising
what can I say, 15 years after I attended this show, I am now still moved to make a comment, as it stands out as one of the most important and influential experiences of my life. i flew out from portland, or. the flight was 1/3 the length of the traffic jam. after NYE 95, i vowed to go to the Y2K new years no matter what. In 98 i had a trip where I had a vision of Y2k apocalypse and total nuclear meltdown and icecaps melting and the oceans rising. so when they announced they were going to play on a dried up swamp bed in the florida everglades....it became a pilgramage... opening up the whole weekend with water in the sky, holy moly premonition. well, the tidal wave of ecstacy hit during prince caspian, where all 80000 of us got swept up in the gigantic wave of ecstacy and it was pretty much like, "oh, duh, of course our collective 'drowning' is going to feel good.
I saw soooo much crazy shit....some poor kid freaking out and getting dragged away in some random van while he was trying to get into the gate...that sucked....upon entering the venue, the people said, stay off the streets, people got bit by snakes and died the night before. death was the theme of the weekend for me. there wasn't enough water, people were so dehydrated and thirsty, someone stole my gallon of water before the big show. so intense. In the end, we all died and were reborn stronger, better, faster (insert 6 million dollar man sound effects here). thanks trey, mike, page, fishman...and the rest of the 80000+ of us.
Review by scott_towler
There isn't much I can say here that hasn't already been said, so I'll share one anecdote from the day and let you all be:
This was my second show ever, with the night before being my first. I was on such a high from the previous night that I decided I wanted to be on the rail for the entire New Years show. Me and my friends went over to the concert field and I can't remember exactly how it went down, all I remember is that next thing I know there was about 75 of us running towards the rail as fast and hard as we could. My buddy tripped and fell, but I couldn't wait for him. I kept running hard, sweating my ass off. I WAS NOT going to miss my chance to be up front for what could be the most important night of live music in my life.
Long story short, after we all got to the rail and secured our spots, the mounties rode in (yes, like Canadian mounties) and gathered us all up and made us leave. Turns out we had rushed the field early-- it wasn't opening for another hour. So we all got ushered out, tails between our legs.
I wound up standing about 15 rows back that night, still close enough to see the band's pupils dilate, but far enough away that I could take in the sunset, the crowd, and the stage show/flying hot dog.
It is still regarded as one of the best nights of my life.
Review by Philbombs77
Most of what could be said about this show has already been expanded upon in the comments. But the two most memorable moments, for me, were the fusion of sound and firmament.
1) As Phish began 2001, the sky was turning a soft pink, with scores of gray clouds hovering harmlessly above the festival grounds. The sun was sitting patiently on the horizon, ready to greet us all.
2) During Meatstick (reprise) and into "Here Comes the Sun" on the PA, the Florida sunrise was in full force and I remember feeling like I'd just woken up from hypnopompic dream. Everything was bright and beautiful, yet serene and foggy.
Fans will forever be arguing the merits of this show over another one. But apart from its length, the defining and unique element of this life-altering set was being able to experience dawn with Phish, their music, and 80,000 other people.
Review by n00b100
Just putting this here for posterity's sake.
http://forum.phish.net/permalink.php?commentid=1357345314
Here's a TL;DR version - Cypress is probably in the top 1% of Phish shows ever played, but competition gets pretty stiff in that upper level, and between the long jams that tend to lean towards homogeneity, the unavoidable, but still mentionable lack of setlist flow (seriously, you guys that scream about Joy popping up mid-set would do well to think about how this set is structured), and just my own personal bias that December 1999 was not particularly a peak for the group, I don't think this show is any sort of contender for best ever. On tape, of course. I'm not going to argue with anyone that was there and says it's the best show ever.
Review by skippy11
I wasn't there and it took me the past 3 days to finish the whole show but it was so badass! I was imagining what time in the morning it was during what songs and I felt like I was there! too make it even better after 8 hours of holyshitness they played here comes the sun over the PA after meatstick. good stuff wish I could have been there. my dad was there and he said it was the peak of badass
Review by MzRprz
For one moment - all was right in the world and the epic center of this rightness was Big Cypress.
Review by BassPlayer
and "After Midnight" gets my vote for most appropriate cover tune.
Review by ADAWGWYO
I'm gonna come clean and let it all out....
I slept through most of this show. I partied waaaayyyy to hard all through the day/night before and just wanted to catch a nap. Woke up twice during David Bowie and thought I was cool. My friends tried to get me up, but no go. I woke up several times during the night and listened to the music.... from my tent.
Still amazing! I was physically there and had some sweet dreams.
Review by CornFromAJar
What can you say about THE SHOW? I get chills just thinking about it.
Review by IdRatherBeOnTour
Best Show EVER!!! There's no show even close to NYE 1999. To be in the middle of nowhere in the Florida everglades with Phish, 100,000 fans and not knowing if Y2K could happen. I didn't want to be anywhere else cause I knew if shit hit the fan we'd all take care of each other. A big thank you to Phish, and to all those who attended. You gave me the time of my life and memories to cheer me up til the day I die!!
Review by montaigne
The 2001 jam is fantastic. One of my favorite versions. They started the beginning of Hood, which they had already played, and after a few notes, funked right into a SICK 2001.
Review by JOEB7891
The Bathtub Gin is super crazy. Nobody has mentioned the Gin. This Bathtub is way way out there with
a huge vocal jam. I think that it gets lost being right after the DWD>Llama. I remember standing in the swamp just in awe over this gin. The band totally freaks out. The energy was so intense that it took about 2 weeks after this show to realize how big this event was and how once in a lifetime concert this was. I don't know if there will ever be that much energy as when the clock stuck 12:00 and the band ripped into DWD.
Like the other person said in their review. You can use every word there is and they still cannot describe
the feeling.
Amazing...
Review by paulj
Okay, I'm listening/watching the video from this show and all the memories are flooding back...I've only listened to snippets of The Show over the past 10-12 years and it is indeed standing up to the test of time. What a way to ring in the New Millennium! Download and enjoy while the video is still up on YouTube. In the meantime, I'll put in a plug for LivePhish.com to release an official DVD: Come on, guys, you know we want to buy it!
Review by Jake0712
Truly the GREATEST MUSICAL EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE! For those of you who were not there...it's very difficult to explain.
Where do you ever see a band playing for 9 hours (1 hour 45 minutes 1st set, the 7 hours and 15 minutes "THE SHOW SET")?? Again, you have read all of the reviews above, this is no different. I don't have any words to say....
Review by TimmyB
Phish at Big Cypress on New Years Eve was simply a historically legendary night. There was nowhere on the planet I would have rather been as we counted down into the new millennium.
I've attended over a thousand of concerts & I've seen over a thousand acts & Phish on December 31, 1999 is one of top 10 gigs I have ever witnessed.
When friends ask what's the longest concert I've ever seen & I tell them about "the set" that started at 11:35 pm & ended at dawn they are dumbfounded. My friends are also are blown away with the fact that it took 18 hours to get out of the concert site after Big Cypress ended.
Both nights of Big Cypress should be released on LivePhish, CD & on BluRay & DVD.
Review by Fluffhead27
This show was the greatest musical experience I have ever had. It's also the reason I still travel to see Phish. Too many great moments to write about. I hope this is released from the vaults some day.....
Review by phishncincy
Had to be there and experience it! I pray everyday something like this happens again. Phish walks off after putting it all out there to the Beatles "Here Comes The Sun" over the pa as the sun rises! Next time just give us more time to recover! Camping closed at noon that day. The 20 hour drive in our '78 VW bus was rough!
such an amazing experience, thank you Phish!
Review by mikeolgi
For all that were there, you know...for all that were not, sorry you missed it Remarkable show indeed, even made it with a fever and 18 hours of traffic, truly memorable. I don't think Phish will ever be able to play a show like this again, but that is why we are all still engaged to this day, no show is ever the same!
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Park Hill Legacy
Park Hill Today
Stedman Elementary
Home » Schools » Stedman Elementary
Stedman Elementary, at 29th and Dexter, was built in 1923 and named for Dr. Arnold Stedman (1839-1913) a president of the Denver School Board who also co-founded the Medical Department of the University of Denver and was its first Professor of Obstetrics. Before moving to Denver, he served in the Union Army in the Civil War. Major alterations and additions to Stedman occurred in 1929, 1950, and 1966.
Today, Stedman describes itself this way:
We are a diverse and committed community, seeking the personal success and academic growth of every student.
We are a dedicated and loving community, supporting and caring for each other far beyond the classroom.
We are a growing and joyful community, enjoying new opportunities, classmates, neighbors, and friends.
We are an eager and knowledge-hungry community, continuing to improve our academic achievement and celebrating our GREEN designation for academic growth!
We are Stedman. A community growing together.
Stedman Elementary Website
DPS Schools in Park Hill
Hallett Academy
2950 Jasmine St
The Odyssey School
6550 E 21st Ave
Park Hill Elementary
2940 Dexter St
Contact PHNEE
Want to learn more or get involved?
Sign up for the PHNEE Email Newsletter
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Molecular & Computational biology
Smoker-survivor genes may have long ancestral history of fighting toxins
by University of Chicago
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Longevity genes that helped humans survive ancient airborne toxins may be the same genes that make humans resilient to pollution from fossil fuels and cigarette smoke today, according to a study published in the December 2019 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology. In "The Exposome in Human Evolution: From Dust to Diesel," Ben Trumble (Arizona State University) and Caleb Finch (University of Southern California) examine the myriad toxins that humans have encountered through our evolutionary history and the immunity-related genes that have countered their harmful effects. "We hypothesize that adaptation to ancient pathogens and airborne toxins may, in some cases, be protecting us today from novel airborne pollutants such as cigarettes and diesel smoke," Trumble and Finch write. "Further inquiry into these unexplored domains of genetic processes may inform the future of human health and longevity during global warming."
Trumble and Finch's paper is a detailed examination of the human exposome—the interactions between human genes and the various environmental hazards we encountered through our evolutionary history. Each new environmental hazard posed a unique threat to humans and was addressed with various genes related to immunity. The authors focused in particular on genes of host defense and brain development during the evolution of the long human lifespan.
As human ancestors diverged from great apes, they encountered an array of new environmental hazards. First, as sub-Saharan Africa shifted from forest to savanna, humans breathed mineral dust and fecal aerosols from roaming herd animals and ingested pathogens from rotting meat. With the discovery of fire, humans were exposed to toxins from smoke and the charred meat that they cooked. Later, as hunting and gathering gave way to an agricultural life, humans were exposed to new toxins from domesticated animals and limited sanitation in dense living quarters. Although an understanding of infectious disease and hygiene emerged, the industrial revolution ushered in the modern-day hazards airborne pollutants and cigarettes.
Trumble and Finch found that some genes appear to have provided benefits through long stretches of evolutionary time and in very different environments. The gene AHR appears to have made archaic humans more resistant to toxins in domestic cooking fires than their Neandertal counterparts. "AHR is important in detoxifying response to modern domestic smoke, including responses to cigarette smoke," they write. "We hypothesize that genetic adaptations to ancient airborne toxins may play important roles in ameliorating the effects of exposures today, including the survival of some elderly lifetime cigarette smokers."
Many other genes grew to lose their benefits over time, or, in the case of ApoE, became dependent on the environment in determining which version is the most beneficial. The ancestral version of ApoE was highly beneficial for survival in environments with high levels of infection. However, it also negatively impacts artery and brain aging, and is associated with shorter life spans. A newer version of the gene appears to have more beneficial effects, including lower cholesterol in meat-eating populations. The fact that the ancestral version of ApoE is still prevalent in the population is an important example of the human environment changing faster than our gene pools can keep up, Trumble and Finch write. It may regain its adaptive value, however, as global warming promotes the recurrence of global infections through the expansion of insect populations, such as malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Understanding the extent of these historical gene-environment interactions is key to meeting future global health challenges. "Understanding the full breadth and history of the human exposome will inform the future of human health and longevity during the emerging ecological shifts from dust to diesel and beyond."
Researchers propose the 'Alzheimer's Disease Exposome' to address environmental risks
More information: Benjamin C. Trumble et al, The Exposome in Human Evolution: From Dust to Diesel, The Quarterly Review of Biology (2019). DOI: 10.1086/706768
Journal information: Quarterly Review of Biology
Provided by University of Chicago
Citation: Smoker-survivor genes may have long ancestral history of fighting toxins (2019, November 25) retrieved 18 January 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2019-11-smoker-survivor-genes-ancestral-history-toxins.html
To survive in the human gut, bacteria need genetic 'passcode'
How differences in the genetic 'instruction booklet' between humans and Neanderthals influenced traits
Researchers develop mouse model of human gene involved in Alzheimer's disease
New study shows cognitive decline may be influenced by interaction of genetics and... worms
Where there's smoke—and a mutation—there may be an evolutionary edge for humans
Surveying all the proteins on a neuron's surface
Plant organ growth is not so different from animals
'Living fossil' may upend basic tenet of evolutionary theory
The mysterious, legendary giant squid's genome is revealed
Jumping genes threaten egg cell quality
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Analysis of Poem The Blue Bowl by Jane Kenyon
Updated on March 17, 2018
Jane Kenyon | Source
Jane Kenyon and The Blue Bowl
The Blue Bowl focuses on the burial of a cat and is a touching poem that gives the reader a sensitive, detailed snapshot of family life.
Burying a beloved member of the family is always difficult and the speaker in this poem is no exception. The world is changed by such a loss or rather the emotional world we inhabit is never quite the same again.
This is the poem's theme - the contrast between the interior and the exterior, the emotional world and objective reality. When an animal humans have loved dies, there is always a vacuum left to fill and a sense of closure isn't easy to attain.
Jane Kenyon had an ongoing battle with depression most of her adult life. Poetry helped her put things into perspective, although she often was modest about her achievements, or didn't think she wrote well:
'I can't write a line that doesn't sound like pots and pans falling out of the cupboard.'
Domesticity and life on a rural farm, suffering and tranquil moments all feature strongly in her work which are mostly written in a calm, natural and straightforward manner.
Her most famous poem was inspired by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, who she translated, and is called Having it out with Melancholy, a nine part poem dealing with the subject of depression and drugs.
The Blue Bowl was first published in Poetry Magazine in 1987 and appeared in the book Otherwise: New and Selected Poems, 1996.
Always keen to help other writers, a lover of nature, her empathy towards those in need of healing seems clear:
'We have the consolation of beauty, of one soul extending to another soul and saying, I've been here too.'
The Blue Bowl
Like primitives we buried the cat
with his bowl. Bare-handed
we scraped sand and gravel
back into the hole. It fell with a hiss
and thud on his side,
on his long red fur, the white feathers
that grew between his toes, and his
long, not to say aquiline, nose.
We stood and brushed each other off.
There are sorrows much keener than these.
Silent the rest of the day, we worked,
ate, stared, and slept. It stormed
all night; now it clears, and a robin
burbles from a dripping bush
like the neighbor who means well
but always says the wrong thing.
Analysis of The Blue Bowl
The Blue Bowl is a free verse poem of 16 lines, a single stanza. It has no set rhyme scheme or regular consistent meter (metre in British English).
The tone is hushed, subdued, down to earth but it also suggests an undercurrent of fateful unease. There is an acceptance that somewhere along the line in life things will disappear; there will be loss but also a need to put these losses into perspective.
Reading through this short poem, which begins and ends with a simile:
like primitives (because they've used their hands, because they're country folk)
like the neighbor (an actual neighbor or a fictional type who always misunderstands a situation)
the reader is taken into a sad world, one that is both innocent and experienced enough to know that sadness comes in degrees. Losing a pet cat is awful but there are far worse things happening to animals and people out in the world.
The fact that the cat is buried with a bowl is significant. Just what sort of bowl it is we're not told, but it could be a food bowl, a symbol of love and nourishment and something the cat could take with it as it makes the journey to wherever it's going.
Not the internal rhyme of bowl/hole and toes/nose and hiss/his as the poem progresses, binding lines and meaning. And some alliteration brings texture to the sound - scraped sand....fur, the white feathers...than these.
The detail described as the cat lies in the ground and the sand and gravel are scraped back in, is revealing and intimate. Though there is no name for this animal he must have been loved - perhaps he was a working cat, who had to earn his keep.
Nature is very much in evidence after the burial. A storm comes and goes and a robin is noticed next day, singing. Such a natural thing to happen...but, the speaker cannot yet take it in for what it is, an expression of beauty, an outburst of communication.
The speaker seems to imply that the robin's song is an irritant; it doesn't quite fit in with the speaker's emotional world. This last line shows that the burial of the cat has upset the family emotionally, as expected, and that even a simple robin's song cannot bring happiness or joy, yet.
It's difficult to know what to do with a neighbor who is always saying the wrong thing. They cannot help it but it means that the recipient has to adjust their head and heart and sometimes that is a challenge.
Analysis of the Poem "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes
Analysis of Poem "Mindful" by Mary Oliver
Analysis of Poem "What The Living Do" by Marie Howe
Analysis of Poem "Acquainted With The Night" by Robert Frost
Analysis of Poem My Skeleton by Jane Hirshfield
An Analysis of Poem "The Flea" by John Donne
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Roo Borson's "Talk"
Updated on July 25, 2019
Roo Borson
Introduction and Excerpt of "Talk"
Revealing disdain for her fellow human beings, especially men, the speaker in Borson's piece, "Talk," fabricates classifications that defy common logic but reveal an amateurish fascination with human psychology. This piece reads like the sad result of a women's studies crash course in bashing the male of the species!
This postmodern genre has blossomed for scribblers the ilk of Adrienne Rich, Carolyn Forché, Margaret Atwood, Eavan Bohland, and too many others. Borson remains one of the lesser known angry women, but her vitriol is nonetheless acerbic.
The shops, the streets are full of old men
who can't think of a thing to say anymore.
Sometimes, looking at a girl, it
almost occurs to them, but they can't make it out,
they go pawing toward it through the fog.
The young men are still jostling shoulders
as they walk along, tussling at one another with words.
They're excited by talk, they can still see the danger. . . .
The entire piece may be read at "Talk," Blue Sky Morning.
The speaker of this piece contrives four groups of people, then denigrates each group based on the act of talking.
First Versagraph: Losing the Power of Speech
The speaker is an observer of social mores, reporting her conclusions using four groups of people and how they engage in the act of conversation. She begins with the group called "old men"; she reports that these old men who fill the streets are simply incapable of thinking of anything to say anymore. Perhaps because of dementia or simple exhaustion, these old fellows seem to have lost the power of speech as well as the power to think of something about which they could converse. However, when they see a girl, they are almost motivated to say something, but alas, the words never come to mind as they go "pawing" through the brain fog of their diminished capacity mind.
Second Versagraph: Razzing Replaces Words
The speaker then tackles her second group of "young men"; she professes as little respect for this group as she does her first group of old men. To her, these young men "walk along" haughty and boisterous as they go "tussling at one another with words." They are not actually communicating; they are merely razzing each other, probably engaging in a mental one-upmanship. The speaker claims that this group is excited by talk. Unlike the old men who cannot even think of anything to say anymore, these young men "can still see the danger" in their conversing, and it rouses them. The speaker allows the reader to fill in the exact nature of the "danger" they perceive.
Third Versagraph: Feministas Scope Their Victims
The speaker moves on to her third group, "old women." She exhibits her disdain for these old women by painting them as "haggl[ers] for oranges." She attempts a clever turn by claiming, "their mouths / take bites out of the air." This ugly image yields to the assertion that the old women, at least, know the value of oranges. The speaker then clips logic by asserting, "they had to learn everything / on their own." All the radical feministas will bristle with pride of recognition of woman-as-victim, as the attitude foreshadowed in the first two versagraphs begins to complete its shape.
Fourth Versagraph: The Incompetence of a Tacky Image
Then finally, the woman-as-victim rubric is complete as the speaker laments that of the four groups the "young women" have it the worst of all, because they have been taught nothing by their elders—that lack of education expressed a nobody as "bothered /to show them things," as if merely being shown stuff constitutes knowledge and understanding. Thus, these poor confused creatures put forth faces that resemble "little lakes before a storm."
Let's consider that image, "little lakes before a storm": Visualize what a face would look like if it, in fact, resembled a lake before a storm! Would not a lake before a storm likely be calm? Would it show confusion? There you have it: the incompetence of this tacky image. Must have sounded clever to the scribbler at the time, but it lacks anything resembling meaning.
Those young women are so stupid that they do not understand why they are sad, but the speaker knows they are sad—because of confusion. What exactly are they confused about? Well, your guess is as good as the next fellow's. The speaker then returns to the second group of young men, remarking that the confused sadness on the faces of the young women is good luck for the young men, who will be able to take advantage of these young ignorant females. The men will never understand the women, but they will be excited by the women's stupidity and have endless fun tinkering with them, until these young toughs become like the first group of old men, who cannot think of anything say, but vaguely remember buggering young girls through the fog in their brains.
Women's Studies Doggerel
This piece of doggerel reads like an exercise from a women's studies workshop focusing on poetry and the beleaguered female. Separating humankind into groups and assigning them positions that demean the female demographic has become the main mission of the current "Women's Movement," which unknowingly victimizes the very demographic that they bemoan as already victimized. This appalling piece merely continues that divisive perspective as it casts aspersions on each group it identifies.
Nothing about this piece can be taken as useful or helpful to humanity; it takes its place among those contrivances that threaten the reputation of the art of poetry. The feelings displayed in this piece are fake, contrived, and hollow, without a nod to the qualities that make poetry worth reading and life worth living—truth, beauty, love, simplicity, balance, harmony, insight, genuine sorrow, measured yearning, etc. A balanced melancholy would go a long way toward boosting the awareness and quality of this piece. Sadly, it remains without any poetic quality or shred of human dignity.
Roo Borson reading some of her pieces
Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"
by Linda Sue Grimes0
Richard Blanco's "One Today": Deconstructing Inaugural Doggerel
Edith L. Tiempo's “Bonsai”
Carl Sandburg's "Young Sea"
Pablo Neruda's "The Future Is Space"
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Blog > President's weekly report — December 31, 2015
President's weekly report — December 31, 2015
December 31, 2015 I By ROB RIVETT
School choice supported in Montana
PLF sued the Montana Department of Revenue to fight a rule that forbids children who want to attend religious school from getting scholarship assistance.
In May 2015, Montana became the 43rd state to adopt a school choice law. The law creates a tax incentive for individuals and businesses to donate money to a scholarship fund to help kids afford private school. But the Montana Department of Revenue cooked up a rule that cripples the program and imperils constitutional liberties. The rule bans religious schools from participating in the program. Most of Montana’s private schools are religious, so the ban has whisked away most of the choices from Montana’s first school choice experiment before students can even apply for aid. We allege that this rule is not mandated by the new law, violates the First Amendment by discriminating against religious institutions, and violates the Equal Protection Clause. For more detail, see our blog here.
Free speech on teh interweb
PLF filed this friend-of-the-court brief in the DC Circuit in Pursuing America’s Greatness v. Federal Election Commission. This case involves FEC’s attempt to ban Facebook fan pages with names like Run Bernie Run or I like Mike Huckabee. According to the FEC, a political committee like a Super PAC cannot use the name of the candidate it supports in a website domain name or the title of a social media page. Our brief explains that the naming prohibition goes too far and violates the First Amendment and basic reason. Indeed, the FEC’s prohibition suggests either that the FEC has too much time on its hands (since “idle hands make for the devil’s playground”) or doesn’t understand how teh newfangled interweb works. For more, see our web post here.
Reply brief filed in PLF’s Obamacare challenge
We filed this reply to the government’s opposition to our petition or cert to the Supreme Court in Sissel v. Department of Health & Human Services, our challenge to Obamacare based on the fact that the taxes in Obamacare did not originate in the House. The Constitution’s Origination Clause is explicit that all bills to raise revenue should begin in the House, the body closest to the people. But with Obamacare, Harry Reid took an existing House bill on veterans benefits, stripped out every single word, and inserted Obamacare in its place. We’re arguing that such “gut and amend” tactics cannot be allowed to avoid a clear Constitutional mandate. For more background see our most recent blog post on the case here and see Scotusblog’s take here.
Guarding against coach-felons in youth sports is not discriminatory
We filed this amicus brief in Hardie v. NCAA. The NCAA sponsors high school basketball tournaments and prohibits anyone who has been convicted of a felony from coaching in them. Dominic Hardie, a black high school basketball coach with felony conviction for drug possession on his record, has sued the NCAA for racial discrimination, arguing that the rule has a “disproportionate impact” on minority coaches. PLF, the Center of Equal Opportunity, and Competitive Enterprise Institute filed this Ninth Circuit amicus brief in support of the NCAA — and against disparate impact — earlier today. We argue that disparate impact liability is problematic because it encourages what the Equal Protection Clause forbids: discrimination on the basis of race. For more, see our blog post here.
Loss in Oregon condemnation case
We suffered a loss here in an Oregon inverse condemnation case, Oregon v. Alderwoods. The case dealt with the right of access and whether compensation is due when access is restricted. Our brief focused on preserving the right itself. Thankfully, the opinion adopted much of our argument that a right if access is inherent in property ownership although it did not find a taking in this particular case because of the availability of alternative access routes. For more, see the blog post we filed upon the filing of our brief.
Armstrong v. Kadas December 29, 2015
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Migration 17.1
Posted on January 8, 2013 by wildbow
“Francis!” The word was an admonishment. “Where do you think you’re going with that?”
He hung his head. The luggage he was hauling behind him was on wheels, but he propped it up so it stood straight, sticking his hands into his coat pockets. He reluctantly turned to face his mother.
“We have family over. Your Uncle Felix came all the way from California. I think they might want to spend some time with you this Christmas.”
“You arranged that. I made these plans weeks ago, I told you about them.”
“Nothing that involved luggage,” she folded her arms. Olive skinned, with a hawkish expression, his mother managed to look intimidating even though she was an inch shorter than him.
He bent down and placed the luggage flat on the ground. He unzipped it and opened it for her to see.
She sighed. “It’s not a productive pastime.”
“I’d say it’s pretty productive. We stand to make a pretty decent amount, here.”
“You’re going to make money?”
“We already are. But the thing is, depending on how today goes, we could make a lot more.”
“You’re dissembling, Francis.”
He cringed, more at hearing his name than in response to the accusation. “I was going to save it for an announcement in front of the family tonight, after we see how it goes. We have stuff to hash out first, and it probably won’t be pretty.”
She gestured for him to go on.
He frowned. “We’re on the verge of getting a sponsorship. It’s pretty generous, too, even split between the five members of the team. And it’s in addition to what we already make. Contract’s just for one year, and if we prove ourselves, show we can hold our own, we could get a bigger, better contract when we renew the terms next year.”
“This sounds a little too good to be true.”
“We’re good, mom. Ridiculously good. The sponsors have been talking about us being on the international stage.”
“And just who is us?”
“This is starting to feel like an interrogation.”
“It should. Who’s on the team?”
“Well, there’s two answers to that question-”
“Francis,” she made it sound like a warning.
“You don’t know all of them.”
“Mm hmm. Is your alleged girlfriend in this group?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Her, Ms. Newland’s daughter-”
“Oh, lovely.”
“No, she’s cool. Then there’s this girl named Jess, there’s Cody, and Luke.”
“You left yourself out.”
He smiled sheepishly.
“You’re not in the group.”
“Yet. Like I said, we have stuff to hash out,” he said. He tried to force the smile from his face and failed.
“It’s dangerous to mix business and friendship.”
“I’m being careful.”
She gave him a sharp look.
“Go. Be back by two.”
“Can’t. Going to take all day. I’ll be back seven-thirty-ish.”
“Seven. If you’re late for dinner I’m taking your biggest present back to the store for a refund.”
“I don’t know how long it’ll take. I can’t make any promises, and all of this is kind of important to me.”
“Then decide if it’s worth losing the present.”
He rolled his eyes. “I guess it is. Love you, mom.”
“Go. Get lost.” She smiled as she said it.
He zipped up his luggage and headed outside.
It was crisp. Fat snowflakes drifted down from above. He tugged his scarf tighter and headed out, the bottom edge of the luggage wiping out his footprints behind him, the wheels serving as the only trace of his passing.
His breath fogged up in the air, making his scarf damp around his mouth. This moisture, in turn, froze, making the fabric of his scarf stiff.
It wasn’t a short walk to the bus stop, and getting the luggage onto the bus was a chore. It didn’t help that it was crowded, packed with men, women and children eager to finish their Christmas shopping. He should have felt bad about the awkwardness of having his luggage there, getting in people’s way as they got on the bus, but he didn’t. A part of him thrived on being annoying. He liked to think it nourished him.
He even felt a little smug. He’d finished his shopping in September. Half of his motivation had been to avoid the hassle. Half was so he could lord it over friends and family.
Getting off the bus with his luggage was twice as hard as getting on. He made his way into the coffee shop and scanned the crowd.
He saw her, but he didn’t hurry to her side. Instead, he spent a moment standing by the door, watching as she stood at the end of the short line. Her cheeks were red from the cold, and the snowflakes had melted into droplets on her eyelashes. Some flakes still clung persistently to her straight brown hair. She made her way to the front, and ordered. While she waited, she dabbed at the snow, wiping her eyes and hair, and then tucked her hat into her pocket.
Seeing her rub her cheeks to warm them, he felt an urge to hold her as tight as she could bear, to feel her cold cheek against his, to warm her with his body, and to let her warm him in turn. It caught him off guard in its suddenness and intensity.
He took a deep breath and crossed the coffee shop to wait by the far end of the counter. He jammed one hand in his pocket, as if that could keep him from following through on the impulse. After a few seconds, he pulled it out again. He did have self control.
Her face lit up as she saw him. He, in turn, snapped a smart salute. “Captain Noelle, ma’am!”
“Don’t!” She blushed. “People are going to stare.”
“I don’t mind.”
He smiled and led the way to the nearest empty table. He used one foot to slide the luggage bag against the wall and then pulled her chair out for her.
“I can’t tell if you’re being a gentleman or if you’re trying to sweeten me up for this talk of ours.”
“I’ll take that as a good thing. It means I still get the brownie points, but you won’t be hard on me to make up for the fact that I’m being conniving.”
“Besides, it’s my prerogative to treat you well, right?”
She smiled a little and took another sip of coffee.
“We are boyfriend and girlfriend?” he asked. He could see the smile fall from her face. He hurried to speak before she could protest. “Probationary boyfriend and girlfriend. You know you can still break this off any time, right? Don’t give a second thought to my feelings.”
“That’s not it. I like you, Krouse.”
Francis Krouse felt something jolt inside him. It was like surprise but not. He already knew she liked him, but hearing it said… he felt his face warming up, and distracted himself by untucking and folding his scarf.
Finding himself unable to look directly at her, as embarrassed at his own embarrassment as anything else, he replied, “I like you too.”
“I just- I worry I’m not being fair. We don’t actually-”
“We do what we want to do, right? We enjoy each other’s company?”
“Yeah.” She sipped at her coffee again, then put it down to rub her hands for a second. “I enjoy your company.”
Tentatively, he reached out and placed his hand over hers. Cold. He reached out with his other hand and placed it under hers to help warm it.
“Look at this. Krouse is being sweet,” a girl said.
He turned in his seat to see the others. Marissa wore a pristine white jacket with a fur ruff. Between her delicate features and the way her blond hair glittered with the moisture of the snow, she looked almost angelic.
Luke was almost the opposite. Grungy, mismatched, dressed in layers, with a plaid green button-up shirt under a blue jacket, and a red t-shirt beneath that. His beard was a thin teenage scruff. He bumped fists with Krouse before sitting down. Krouse was almost embarrassed to realize he was doing something so stereotypically ‘cool’. It had started as something they did ironically and turned into habit.
Jess was the last to join them, navigating between the chairs, tables and other customers, making sharp turns as she wheeled herself to the table. Her hair was shaggy, she had three piercings in one ear and thick eyeliner around her eyes. A shopping bag sat in her lap and more were hooked over the handles of her wheelchair.
“I’m sorry, Jess,” Noelle apologized the second the girl arrived. “We should have found a table closer to the door.”
“She keeps saying she doesn’t want us to treat her different,” Krouse said, shrugging. “Don’t see why we should have.”
Jess gave him the finger. “There’s a middle ground that lies between being an asshole and being so accommodating that you make me feel like a freak. The others have found that middle ground, I don’t see why you can’t.”
“I’m doing exactly what you asked for and not treating you any different than I’d treat a non-cripple.”
“Alright, alright,” Marissa said. “Let’s not get into another argument. We’re short on time.”
Noelle nodded, “We don’t have long before we have to get ready, and we really should figure out what we’re doing. You guys got my emails?”
Marissa sighed, the mood changing in a flash. “Yeah.”
There were nods from the others. Krouse stayed very still, watching them.
“This makes things complicated,” Luke said. “You’re in charge, though, so you get the final say.”
Noelle made a face. “I know, but the problem is we’re not just teammates. We’re friends. And you guys know that Krouse and I are dating. That complicates things. I don’t think I have the perspective to make the call on my own. I put my thoughts in the emails, I’m just hoping you guys can give me some direction. If you say we shouldn’t-”
“No. The shitty thing is that the logic is sound,” Luke said. “No offense, Krouse, but this would be a lot easier if you sucked and we could kick you to the curb.”
Krouse shrugged.
Luke went on, “Look, if we were talking about staying local, being casual about this, or even sticking to the national level, we’d keep Cody. He’s reliable, but he’s not at the level we need if we’re actually going international. He’s boring, he doesn’t have fans. He won’t get any future sponsors interested. To top it off, he’s too traditional. He won’t surprise our opponents. They know how to deal with people like him.”
Noelle nodded. “Say what you will about Krouse, like how he’s crap when it comes to calling shots-”
“Or even the fact that he’s prone to ignoring orders if he thinks it’ll help us. Um, he’s right so long as it’s just him operating solo, but yeah… The thing is, if we’re talking about the big picture, international recognition and going head to head with the best in the world… Krouse has the natural ability to change things up, so we can adapt our strategies to whatever they’re able to pull off.”
“And he has fans,” Jess said. “As many as any two of us combined.”
Krouse couldn’t help but smirk.
“As a call for the good of the team, it makes sense,” Luke said. “But in terms of our friendships, well, Cody’s going to be hurt. He put in a lot of effort helping us get to this point. He’s my friend, just like Krouse is. This is a pretty big betrayal, kicking the guy off the team right before we get our sponsorship.”
“Will the sponsor be okay with this?” Jess asked.
“As long as we prove we’re ready this afternoon,” Noelle said.
“You know the arguments Cody’s going to make,” Marissa said.
“Can I say something?” Krouse asked.
He could see them glancing at one another, trying to decide.
“So long as it’s helpful,” Jess replied.
“Look. Cody is a type A personality. Like Marissa-” he saw Marissa’s expression change and added, “I don’t mean that in a bad way. Marissa and Cody are training the hardest and practicing the most. That’s respectable. The difference is, well, we’ve all seen how much time Cody puts in. And I think he’s hit his ceiling, and he knows it. He’s not keeping up, and I don’t know how much he’s going to improve over the coming months or years.”
“And me?” Marissa asked.
“I don’t know how close you are to hitting the ceiling, but you have natural talent and ability that Cody doesn’t. I would have zero worries with you backing me up, even on the world stage.”
She pursed her lips.
“Anyways, we’re talking about Cody. He’s not improving. If I’m on the team, I’m going to work harder, I’m going to improve in every department, and I fully expect you guys to kick my ass to make me do it. And I’ve been pretty excellent already.”
“If you fuck this up for us, you know we’ll never let you live it down,” Luke said.
Luke sighed and said, “I’m caught between two friends, so I can only make this call in terms of the team and in terms of the business. I think we should go with Krouse. He’ll put in the work, and we all know he’s good. Some practice and we’ll get everything coordinated, and we’ll be far stronger for it.”
There were nods all around.
Luke continued, “Krouse was saying that Cody and Marissa are type A personalities. He’s not wrong. Marissa’s who she is because of the megabitch.”
Marissa frowned, but she didn’t argue the point.
“And Cody’s who he is because he can’t stand to lose. So how’s he going to react if he finds out he’s been bumped for Krouse?”
Nobody responded. It was too easy to imagine.
“We’re in agreement, then?” Noelle asked. She was hunched over her coffee, both hands wrapped around it for warmth. She didn’t look happy. “Last chance for objections, or to say if you’re having second thoughts. I won’t be angry if you do.”
Did she want there to be a good argument against this, so there wouldn’t be a confrontation?
Nobody spoke up.
“Let’s go deliver the bad news then.”
While Krouse and Jess navigated their way past the maze of tables and chairs, Marissa hurried to the front counter and ordered. She joined them outside a minute later, handing one donut to Noelle, who accepted it with a roll of her eyes.
They’d chosen the donut shop because it was only a block away from Luke’s apartment. It made for a short walk to their destination.
“Krouse, you want to take the elevator with Jess, rest of us will take the stairs?” Noelle offered. She turned to Luke, “Cody here already?”
“Probably. My brother said he’d stick around long enough to let him in before he went shopping.”
“So you want to break the news to him without me there,” Krouse said.
Noelle and Luke nodded in unison.
“Alright,” Krouse agreed.
“Krouse is being cooperative?” Jess commented, quirking an eyebrow. “I’m impressed. And a little unnerved.”
He smiled at that, and he looked to Noelle as he said, “Good luck.”
A moment later, it was just him and Jess in the lobby, along with two elderly couples who were sitting in the chairs in the mini-lounge by the doors, talking.
“You must be nervous,” Jess said.
“Never,” he smirked.
“See, I have you figured out. You have a tell, when you’re lying.”
“The more overconfident you act, the more nervous you are. And when you’re feeling down, you poke at people, provoke them. I think you get some validation out of it, like, if you can test people and they’re still your friends after, you can feel confident in that friendship.”
“Ohhh, seems like you spend a lot of time thinking about me. Maybe a little bit of a crush there? Eh? Unrequited love?”
She broke into laughter, too sudden and hearty to be anything but genuine.
He shook his head a little and let her go first into the elevator before following with his luggage.
“What-” he started speaking, but he stopped when she broke into another fit of giggles. “Come on, now.”
The thing was, he mused, Jess would probably be a good match for him. She was probably the best when it came to keeping him in line, keeping him real, and calling him on his shit. She wasn’t bad looking either.
But she was in a wheelchair, and though he sort of wished he could be the kind of person who could take that in stride, he had to admit he wasn’t.
Then there was Marissa, the most attractive member of their group by far. Nobody would deny it. Tall, blond, slim, with a body honed by years of dancing and ballet. She was good looking enough that it was intimidating. Odd as it was, nobody in the group had asked her out, as far as he knew. Marissa’s mother played a part in that; nobody wanted to deal with the megabitch.
Noelle, oddly enough, had been the girl they’d fought over the most. It was odd because she didn’t have Marissa’s head-turning beauty or Jess’s confidence. It made her more approachable, in a strange way, up until the point where Noelle had shut down any and all advances. Getting close to her had been a slow process, one with a lot of missteps on his part and skittishness on hers.
He had a sense of what the story was behind that. Marissa knew too, by all indications, but he hadn’t asked. That was Noelle’s private story, to be shared when she was ready.
The moment the elevator doors parted, he could hear the shouting.
“You assholes! I didn’t want him on the team in the first place and now you’re replacing me with him!?”
“Calm down, Cody.” Luke, ever reasonable. “Shouting isn’t going to help, and it’ll bother the neighbors.”
“He’s manipulating you! He’s a slimy creep, and you know this is exactly why he’s dating Noelle. Or don’t you find it a little suspect that they started dating almost right after we voted her captain?”
Krouse glanced at Jess, who furrowed her brow as she looked up at him. They stepped out of the elevator and paused outside of the door to Luke’s apartment.
Oliver and Chris were standing outside the door. A more different pair was hard to imagine. Chris was Marissa’s friend. After Marissa had dropped all of her old hobbies and joined the team, Chris was the only one of her friends who’d stuck around. Krouse didn’t see why, but Chris tended to have girls all over him. He was worlds different compared to Oliver, who was short, pear shaped, his blond hair cut in an unfortunate bowl-style that wouldn’t have suited someone four years younger.
“You idiots!” Cody swore. “You know he planned this. Asshole thinks he’s so smart, and you just feed that delusion!”
Chris mouthed the word ‘wow’.
“Cody,” Noelle started, “We talked it over-”
“Without me!”
“Because we knew you’d react like this, and we wanted to be sure we all agreed before we moved ahead.”
“And I bet Krouse was there, wasn’t he?”
“He was.”
“Real fair.”
“He kept his mouth shut,” Noelle said.
Not exactly true, Krouse thought.
“He was still there. You think the others are gonna say he sucks and he doesn’t deserve a spot on the team while looking him in the eyes?”
It was Luke who answered him. “Honestly? Yeah. We would.”
The directness gave Cody pause. Krouse decided to head inside. He found Luke, Marissa and Noelle standing together against a red faced Cody.
“You.” Cody narrowed his eyes. “You dick.”
“I’m honestly sorry,” Krouse said. “If there was a way for the deal to include all of us, I’d take it without question. We can only have five.”
“But you have no problem stabbing me in the back for your own benefit.”
“It’s more for everyone’s benefit-”
“Except mine.”
“Really, I am sorry. I know how hard you’ve worked.”
“I work twice as hard as anyone else,” Cody stabbed a finger at Krouse, “Ten times as hard as you.”
“And you’re only about as good as Mars,” Krouse said, shrugging, jerking his thumb in Marissa’s direction. “And if I’m better than you while putting in as little effort as you say, how much better will I be when I’m trying?”
Cody clenched his fist, and Krouse could tell that he was about to swing. He grit his teeth and braced himself for the hit. Better to take it than-
“Cody,” Luke cut in, putting himself between the two. “You’re pissed. You’re allowed to be pissed. I would be too, if I was in your shoes.”
“I thought we were friends,” Cody replied. The emotion in his voice was raw enough to make Krouse cringe.
“We are. But this is business. And we need to get to business, because we only have a little time to get ready. You can hit him, or you can stay. Pick one.”
“Stay and watch him make his debut?” Cody asked, bitter.
“This isn’t set in stone yet. If he fucks up today, if this doesn’t work out-”
“We’re boned,” Cody finished.
“No. We’ll drop him and reinstate you, we’ll apologize to our sponsors-to-be and we’ll move ahead.”
“So I hit him or I stay and watch him crash and burn?”
Cody smiled. “I’ll stay.”
“Wonderful.” Krouse smiled back. “We really should get ready.”
Everyone else was already set up, so they took on the job of prepping the room. Luke shared his apartment with his brother and another roommate, but both had vacated for the day, leaving Luke the freedom to rearrange the furniture. He recruited Marissa and Oliver to help with the moving of the stuff he hadn’t been able to shift on his own.
Chris took the job of pulling the curtains closed, reducing the light that streamed in through the windows to a few glowing slivers that stretched across the floor.
Cody stood by with his arms folded.
“Here, Noelle,” Krouse said. He set his luggage flat on the ground and unzipped it. There were computers inside, each half the size of a regular desktop, wrapped in layers of towels and plastic sheeting.
“Thanks for the loan. Don’t trust mine with the sheer amount of crap my cousin downloaded onto it.”
“Actually…” He trailed off, sticking his hands in his pockets. “I took my old machine, I replaced the power supply, formatted it, installed a clean OS and done all my usual tricks for clearing out the crap that we’ll never use and optimizing it. You can consider it an early Christmas present.”
She stared at him, and he tried to interpret her expression. A used computer for a present, would she be offended? Or, conversely, was she bothered at the idea that he’d given her a two-year-old, two-thousand-dollar machine and that he might want something of equivalent value?
She hugged him for the first time in recent memory. “It’s great. Thank you.”
“I know the hardware is two years old, but it’s still better than most.”
She hugged him tighter, then let go, “I don’t know how to thank you, and I don’t want you to take this as me dodging the subject or being ungrateful, but we really should prep.”
“For sure,” he smiled. His body was buzzing from the physical contact.
With Oliver’s help, Luke had pulled the couch away from the wall and turned it around, and arranged desks and tables in its place. Five computers were set in a row. Noelle and Krouse left their computers off, but the others started up. A few mouse clicks and the loading image for Ransack appeared. The game’s login screen music played over the speakers of each computer, each out of step with the others.
Krouse looked at Chris and Oliver. Second stringers. He’d been one of them, more or less content to watch as everyone else had all the fun. Oliver was trying to get to a competitive level, but he wasn’t very good. Chris only participated to keep Marissa company and to earn some pocket money.
“Let’s talk strategy for tonight’s tournament, then,” Noelle said. “Krouse is new, they might not expect him, but Jess is our best overlord. I think she should go first, Krouse second, I’ll follow up, then Luke, then Marissa if we get that far in the best of five. Any complaints?”
There were shakes of the head.
“We’re up against the Chork Pops, North American team. They’ll lead with Mark Key as their overlord. We know him. He likes to stall and put every resource towards making a brutal end-boss surrounded by traps and trap spells. Kind of the opposite of Jess. I’ll take the lead as tank and team captain for round one. Krouse, you have any idea what you want to do?”
“I’ve been practicing with an illusion-subtlety-assassin hybrid class.”
“Illusion sucks,” Cody muttered. “And a three-way hybrid? You’re spreading your points too thin.”
And this is why I’m on the team and you aren’t.
“I take the first opportunity to invade our dungeon, use the subtlety and assassin part of my build to pick them off as opportunities come up. Our core group’s pretty strong, so they’ll be fine as a trio. Since it’s normal to fall behind when invading, they won’t notice I’m weaker with a shallow point spread. Endgame stage, I can return to the enemy dungeon to help against the boss, I’ll whip out the illusion magic and we’ll make a play. Circle around, or get him to activate the traps too early-”
He stopped as a rumble shook the building.
“What was that?” Krouse didn’t hear who asked the question. One of the other guys.
The power cut out, the music from the computers cutting off, the lights going dark.
“Shit! The tournament!” Luke swore.
The light that leaked in around the edges of the windows dimmed, the curtains simultaneously billowing inward. Except the windows were closed.
Krouse didn’t have two seconds to wonder what was going on before he felt a momentary weightlessness. He felt himself tipping over, stepped back to catch his balance, and found the floor tilting, out of reach of his foot.
A heartbeat later, the windows were directly overhead, and he was falling. He started to scream, but he managed only a monosyllabic, “Ah!” before he fell onto the side of the dining room table, tumbled to one side and slammed into the chairs, the wind knocked out of him.
Noelle wasn’t lucky enough to have the dining room beneath her to break her fall. Wood splinters flew as she hit the chair. The table that had held the computers followed her, striking hard and then sliding across the wall to rest against what had been the ceiling.
The wires connecting the computers to the power bar and the power bar to the wall came free. One computer tower dangled, swung, bounced and fell, a projectile aimed directly for Krouse’s head. He threw himself toward the space under the dining room table, as much as he could with the chairs beneath him. The computer punched a hole in the wall.
Noelle wasn’t so lucky, nor was she as free to move out of the way. The remainder of the computers and computer monitors came free of the wall and fell on top of her.
The others had been further back, had fallen against the wall that framed the kitchen, to Krouse’s right. He could only hear their shouts and screams, the heavy thuds of bookcases, books, couch and television falling on top of them.
Then stillness, with only the sound of a high, steady scream to break the silence.
The apartment had turned on its side. The windows loomed high above them, curtains hanging straight down. Dim light streamed down into the otherwise dark room.
“Noelle,” Krouse gasped, staggering to his feet. He climbed over the heap of furniture, tentatively setting foot on the wall to circle around to get to her.
She was limp, blood streaming from her mouth and nose. She wasn’t the one screaming.
“Come on,” he muttered, making his way to her and carefully dragging her out of the pile of computers. He checked her pulse: not strong, but there. Her breathing was thin.
Had to get her help. Just had to get out of there. He looked around. The kitchen door was a solid ten feet above the new ‘floor’, the ledge that the others were on, the wall that had encircled the kitchen, was five or so feet above that. Every surface around him was flat, featureless, with nothing to climb.
One of the girls on the upper level was muttering, “Oh god, oh god, oh god,” over and over. Marissa or Jess. The girl who wasn’t repeating the words said something he couldn’t make out.
And that keening, it wasn’t stopping. Didn’t she need to catch a breath? He covered his ears.
It didn’t help. Must have hit my head.
“Hey!” He shouted. “We need help!”
Luke peered over the edge, face pale as he looked down at Krouse.
“Noelle’s hurt,” Krouse said, a tremor in his voice.
“Chris is dead,” Luke replied, oddly calm.
They stared at each other, eyes wide, experiencing mutual shock. Luke seemed to break free of the spell first, disappearing from sight.
It was a few minutes before Luke returned, throwing down a knotted sheet.
Carefully, Krouse picked Noelle up and arranged her so she draped over one shoulder. It was awkward; she was nearly too heavy for him to lift. He managed to keep hold of her with one hand and gripped the knotted sheet with the other, wrapping it around his hand and wrist so he couldn’t lose his grip. He could hear Luke giving orders to the others. They began hauling him up.
Once he was high enough, he set foot on the doorframe by the kitchen, stepped on the half-inch ledge as they lifted him again, then accepted Luke’s hand in getting up to the ledge.
Jess was caught, her wheelchair trapped beneath the couch and a bookshelf, and she had a thread of blood trailing from the corner of one eye, which was bloodshot.
Cody was reeling up the knotted sheet, avoiding looking back at Chris while Oliver attached another sheet at the end.
Krouse glanced at Chris and then looked away. The boy lay against the wall, his head bisected by the top of the bookcase. Already, Krouse could detect the cloying odor of mingled blood, urine and shit. Marissa knelt by her friend’s body, holding his hand, unmoving. She’d stopped chanting in shock.
“What happened?” Oliver asked, sounding very much like a little boy. Not that he was. They were in the same class, the same age.
“Could have been an earthquake” Luke suggested, still sounding strangely calm. “We need to find out how to get out of here.”
“Noelle needs a hospital,” Krouse said.
“We need a way out of here first.” Luke looked up at the windows, ten feet above their heads. Neither the floor nor the ceiling offered anything to grip. “All the stuff from the bedroom and closet fell into the front hall.”
“Then we go out the window,” Krouse said, looking up. “We can use the couch and bookcases like ladders.”
The work was grim, quiet, as they moved the furniture, sharing the burdens between four of them at a time. Nobody looked at Chris, nor did they touch the bookcase that had fallen on him.
Twice, they had to rearrange and reposition the parts of their improvised ladder as resounding impacts shook the building.
Krouse was first up, followed by Luke, who carried Noelle. As her boyfriend, it smarted to let someone else carry the burden, but Krouse knew Luke was stronger, more athletic. Going first meant he could help them up and ensure Noelle didn’t fall.
He was glad the snow had stopped, but there was a strong wind, and it was painfully cold. They hadn’t brought jackets and gloves up with them, and getting clothes from the front closet would be nearly impossible. They’d have to find shelter soon. He perched on the building’s concrete exterior, waiting for the others.
He stared out at the city around him. Snow had been stirred into clouds, and half a dozen buildings had obviously been knocked down, judging by the remaining wreckage. Luke’s apartment building had toppled. How did it not collapse in on our heads?
He turned his attention to his girlfriend, reached over, and squeezed her hand. Noelle still hadn’t woken up.
Cody came up with Jess riding piggyback, her wheelchair abandoned. Oliver and Marissa were the last to ascend.
“That music,” Marissa complained. “Driving me crazy.”
“Music?”
“Like an opera singer singing a high note and never stopping for breath. Only it changes a little if I pay attention to it.”
The scream.
“You hear it too?” Krouse asked. He pressed his hands to his ears to warm them.
“I thought it was a siren,” Oliver said.
“It’s not,” Krouse replied. “It’s in our heads. Try covering your ears.”
One by one, they did.
“What the hell?” Luke asked.
But Krouse saw Jess’ face, the dawning look of horror.
“I know what it is,” she said. She started looking around, twisting around from her perch on Cody’s back to search the cityscape around them.
Another earthshaking crash and a flash of light drew their eyes to the same spot.
Three buildings floated in mid air, a distance away, the lower floors ragged where they had been separated from the ground. One by one, they were hurled through the air like someone might lob a softball. Even with the impact happening half a mile away, the ground shook enough to make them stumble.
There was a flash of golden light, and the mass of some irregular shape hurtled in their general direction. The impact seemed mild for the size of the object that landed. It was hard to make out through the cloud of snow and debris.
Then it unfolded, so to speak. No, it isn’t that big. But ‘big’ was a hard thing to define.
She seemed human, but fifteen or so feet tall, waif-thin, and unclothed. Her hair whipped around her, nearly as long as she was tall and platinum-white. The most shocking part of it all was the wings; she had so many, asymmetrical and illogical in their arrangement, each with pristine white feathers. The three largest wings folded around her protectively, far too large in proportion to her body, even with her height. Other wings of varying size fanned out from the joints of others, from the wing tips, and from her spine. Some seemed to be positioned to give the illusion of modesty, angled around her chest and pelvis.
Each of her wings slowly unfurled as she stretched them out to their limits, and the snow and dust around her was gently pushed away. The tips of the largest three wings raked through the building faces on either side of the four lane road, tearing through concrete and brick and bending the steel girders that supported the structures.
She rose off the ground and settled on her tiptoes, as if the massive wings were weightless or even buoyant. There were parts of her that were see-through, Krouse realized. Or not quite see through, but porous? Hollow? One hand, one leg, some of her hair, her shoulder, they were made up of feathers, the same alabaster white of her skin, intricately woven and sculpted into a shape that resembled body parts, with enough gaps that he could maybe see the empty darkness beneath.
She turned to one side, and Krouse could make out her face. Her features were delicate with high cheekbones. Her eyes were gray from corner to corner. And cold. There was nothing he could point to, no particular feature or quality that could help him explain why or how, but seeing her face made it harder to ascribe any kind of human quality to her. If he’d been thinking she had a sense of modesty before, he didn’t now.
She raised one wing to shield herself as a beam of golden light speared through the clouds. Feathers glowed orange-gold as they were blasted free, disintegrating into tiny sparks and motes of light as the remains drifted away.
The screaming in his head was louder, Krouse realized. There was a new undercurrent to it, a thread that seemed to point to the sound taking shape, altering subtly in pitch. What had been a single note was now shifting between two.
“It’s the smurf,” Cody breathed.
“The Simurgh,” Jess corrected, her voice small. “What is she doing here? Why is she here?”
“Shut up and run,” Krouse said. “Run.”
This entry was posted in 17.01 and tagged Ballistic, Genesis, Noelle, Oliver, Simurgh, Sundancer, Trickster by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
125 thoughts on “Migration 17.1”
chibipoe on January 8, 2013 at 00:12 said:
Noelle. Mars. The Travellers? Oh my….
Damali on January 8, 2013 at 00:14 said:
of course everyone is white
Endochrom on January 8, 2013 at 00:35 said:
Marissa and (presumably) Krouse are the only persons who are more or less going to be explicitly white. Everyone else is unspecified.
Where is it said that Krouse is white? He’s described as brown skinned in Dinah’s interlude.
Oh really? Didn’t notice that. I assumed because the name Krouse sounds very germanic (or something along those lines).
Pinkhair on January 8, 2013 at 20:02 said:
I wonder if he was named after Ray Francis Krouse, the old football player.
Not sure who you mean by everyone, but in Plague 12.3 Trickster unmasked and was described as being brown skinned.
DeNarr on January 8, 2013 at 00:53 said:
Why would you think Francis was white when his mother was described as Olive skinned?
Kim on January 8, 2013 at 09:48 said:
Olive means mediterranean. And try telling any Sicilian he’s got black blood…
Race isn’t binary. Try telling a white supremacist that a Sicilian is as ‘white’ as him.
Herp, didn’t know why I lead that saying race isn’t binary. My bad.
Secret Weapons on January 8, 2013 at 19:16 said:
Or, ya know, so other combination of ethnicity that leads to skin that tone. The idea that all people that look like X are of a certain ancestry is not really very accurate, especially when dealing with things like skin tone.
paradoxius on February 28, 2014 at 23:47 said:
We knew that Marisa had blond hair from before we knew what her power was, Trickster has dark skin and I would guess is mixed race (hence the German surname), and this chapter tells us nothing else pertaining to ethnicity.
Gilgamesh on September 29, 2018 at 00:35 said:
Even if that was the case, what a strange compliant. It’s an incredibly superficial observation to make, made worse by the fact that (as the other comments have pointed out) you’ve observed something that simply isn’t there.
Abrakadabra on September 25, 2019 at 02:02 said:
Wow. Complaining about fictional characters skin coloration. Seems pretty racist to me…
For those who aren’t in the know – this week is the release of the bonus arc paid for with donations way back in September or something. The last few arcs took longer than I anticipated (and we hit the target amount for donations quickly) so yeah. A bit late in coming, but here it is.
There’ll be, barring exceptional circumstance, a chapter a day until next Tuesday.
Scrambles on January 8, 2013 at 01:09 said:
This is like a second Christmas 😀
*ahem*
On the first day of Wormmass my wildbow gave to me; the start of some origin stories.
I fully expect you to keep this up throughout the arc, now.
So, the Travellers were gamers in an mmo? Or some sort. Trickster is Francis? And Simurgh. I have been waiting to see that Endbringer on screen.
Anzer'ke on January 8, 2013 at 07:42 said:
Ironically they are now going up against the end boss for real.
Dis on January 9, 2013 at 03:05 said:
The game looks to be a competitive format Dungeonland.
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/dungeonland
What kind of game was it? Link is dead now
Fijal on September 24, 2019 at 21:20 said:
“[…] a co-operative hack and slash game that takes players on a deadly tour through a medieval theme park.”
web.archive.org/web/20150619154821/https://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/dungeonland
Three Lefts Make a Right on January 8, 2013 at 00:24 said:
Finally, the Simurgh appears. A backstory on the Travelers and an Endbringer attack? This is gonna be a good week.
mc2rpg on January 8, 2013 at 00:24 said:
I am kind of baffled that so many people that know eachother are going to trigger. The Simurgh.must be deliberately trying to make crazy villain teams or that sort of shit just wouldn’t happen. We only have two confirmed new supers coming out of Leviathan, even though there are probably more that just didn’t show up.
I’m kind of hoping people remain baffled through much of this arc, until stuff starts falling into place.
Admiral Matt on January 30, 2018 at 07:06 said:
Wild mass guessing: Oliver.
deuseldorf on January 8, 2013 at 01:35 said:
I can’t remember the chapter (Clockblocker’s interlude), but it was explained that sometimes people trigger in groups. Chances are there was just one trigger event shared by 6 people.
Ah, I was going to bring this up, but decided to hold back to see if anyone else would. That chapter is 9.3, I believe, and it’s mentioned that there’s something that tends to happen with simultaneous triggers.
I see what you are saying. The Travelers that we have seen have 1 predominant power which implies that they were not part of a multiple trigger event. (Unless they are hiding a bunch of extra powers.) So really we should remain baffled until the dramatic reveal.
“Another pattern we will be exploring is the apparent effect of multiple trigger events occurring in the same time and place. There is a very strong correlation between coinciding trigger events and individuals displaying three or more powers rather than one or two predominant ones.”
TheAnt on January 8, 2013 at 02:03 said:
Well that could mean that Noelle and only Noelle has multiple powers. The Travelers are very powerful, it makes me wonder what powers Noelle has. Based on the sheer size of the vault doors, and the 40 people in one night quote, I am going to guess that at least one power is a shifter/brute. She can change into something big, mean, and tough. Based on the fact that Coil and Co. hid in her vault in the dark, she doesn’t have strong senses.
Hexa on July 6, 2016 at 07:46 said:
I agree with the Brute or Shifter power, but I’d guess her senses are actually enhanced: the darkness being to prevent overwhelming her.
Yog on January 8, 2013 at 03:20 said:
I wonder – what a group secondary trigger would be like? Is it even possible?
The Smurf! This is great already. Travelers origin! It seems that their powers are linked, which is an interesting wrinkle here.
“packed of men” With men?
“in one ear, with thick eyeliner” the ‘with’ is a bit awkward there, maybe change it to and or expand the sentence a bit?
I’ll admit that my first thought as I started reading that first line was of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, with Pee Wee snarling, “Francis!”
So we finally see the queen bitch of this universe, who looks the most human. While throwing some buildings around is scary, it doesn’t seem to be nearly as destructive as the other two endbringers and Scion has already arrived. I wonder what this note of hers will do considering that she is considered more dangerous than Leviathan. Mass hallucinations, suicide, or just drive people nuts like she did with Mannequin? So I am guessing the Travelers all have a trigger event at the same time, which I think Wildbow says was very rare. Maybe this ties into Noelle? If the Simurgh can see the future, maybe she saw that if she attacked at this spot, at this time something bad would be born.
Wageslave on January 8, 2013 at 01:52 said:
So getting a ‘Doctor Who’-ish sort of vibe from this. That’s not a *bad* thing.
And the other thing to note is that if Krouse isn’t there then this whole situation could have gone a lot differently. And a group that finds its center in such a tumult would be hard-pressed to pull apart even though they may truly hate each other for what they perceive as the ‘other person’s faults’.
Amazing so far, and just by being alive for more than two minutes after seeing the Simurgh they’ve probably weeded themselves out of a select pool.
The Simurgh seemed the most intelligent after intercepting Amy’s message. Maybe she intentionally is letting them survive because of the potential damage Noelle may someday do.
NightmareWarden on April 21, 2015 at 03:42 said:
Just a note for future readers: when I read that part it did NOT seem like the Simurgh intercepted that message. Amy worked on a message and at the same time the Simurgh shifted its course. As a result of Armsmaster’s alterations to Dragon’s coding the Simurgh information was “filed” in the same place as Birdcage messages.
Mike on August 8, 2019 at 21:09 said:
IIRC earlier it was said her attacks were “worse in some ways” implying she does less direct damage but more lingering damage or psychological damage.
My WAG is she causes trigger events somehow.
MrMoray on January 8, 2013 at 00:46 said:
Hmm. Maybe this noise in their heads helps causes trigger events.
And maybe I need to proofread my comments before hitting “post.”
You and me both brother. I doubt it would induce trigger events on purpose just because the more people with powers there are to fight the Endbringers, the less damage they can do. I guess it would depend just what percentage of the “villains” show up to fight them and the damage the villains do compared to the Endbringers. More villains are born than heroes, so if most of them don’t care enough to fight the endbringers or are too crazy/evil then the Endbringers than it would do more damage in the long run to cause more people to have trigger events.
dubloe7 on December 25, 2013 at 02:03 said:
But if The Simurgh knows that it will trigger Noelle, and that Noelle will blow up in the future…
Irrevenant on April 16, 2014 at 23:22 said:
Thus far capes, even in vast quantities, have been unable to do anything to an Endbringer beyond dying en masse and annoying it until Scion shows up.
There’s no indication that more capes, hero or villain, would be of any concern to the Simurgh whatsoever.
Individuo on January 8, 2013 at 01:02 said:
I think they where playing a MOBA (5 players team?)
Anyway, awesome chapter, and we will get a lot of needed background for the Travelers
Reveen on January 8, 2013 at 01:07 said:
You’re gonna make me feel terrible for wishing savage beatings upon Trickster aren’t you?
Well, could be worse. When I first saw the arc title as “censored” I thought for a second we we’re going to see Taylor do through a booze-feuled downward spiral.
That was me not wanting to give away the arc title & have someone guess/spoil prior to the arc starting. Changed it in the table of contents only.
Though, in retrospect, the ‘next chapter’ link would have had it in the url.
Hydrargentium on January 8, 2013 at 02:06 said:
Typo: “other wings of varying size” — Beginning of a sentence, so of course should be “Other”.
Once again, great characterization, Wildbow. Man, I love this shit.
Gnarker on January 8, 2013 at 03:49 said:
Finally a glimpse at the third one, and I’m loving it. Interesting description. And the fact that the one that can sling around buildings is considered the weakest in a fight, and fighting not her specialization in the first place…; Yup, humanity’s screwed.
What are her powers exactly?
Telepathy has been stated, Iooks like we’re going to see the specifics soon. I find it intersting taht the music thing kinda reminds me of how Cherish perceives emotions. Empathy would be sort of a prerequisite.
Telekinetics is being demonstrated above.
Clairvoyance of some sort seems likely, seeing as she was in the exact right spot to intercept Panacea’s prayer.
So the theme of her is “mental powers”.
Would have been funny if the Travelers had played City of Heroes.
Someguy on January 8, 2013 at 04:13 said:
Smurf is evolving!… Smurf evolves to Simurgh!
Max on October 7, 2014 at 23:15 said:
Well played, sir. Well played.
Seras on January 8, 2013 at 04:27 said:
I am not going to lie. Out of the three endbringer introductions this is the only one that left me honestly scared. I think it was the realization that they were hearing singing in their minds but it was just scary to read through that section. Well done Wildbow.
Psycho Gecko on January 8, 2013 at 05:59 said:
Reminds me somewhat of an angel.
Which leads us to…Psycho Gecko’s Wild Guess-O-Rama-Palooza!
1. The endbringers are either agents of deities or past passengers, members of a former pantheon. The two beings are either members of a new attempted pantheon of deities, or their passengers are. The times of gods having epic heroes with supernatural or enhanced abilities. Cauldron is present as mankind replacing god with science and multiverse theory (which would have interesting repercussions on monotheistic religions).
1.A. The endbringers could be the trinity, indicative of the prominence of monotheism over polytheistic religions that came before. Except the modern knowledge of it is corrupted by time. Behemoth as Yahweh (energy manipulator, capable of putting lights in the sky, setting bushes on fire, creating burning pillars in the sky), Simurgh as Asherah (Yahweh’s wife, Queen of Heaven), and Leviathan (regenerates no matter what they use to kill him) as Jessie.
1.B. They are indicative of past gods who survived from other pantheons. Poseidon = Leviathan, for example.
1.C. The endbringers are the trinity from 1.A. or something like it. The two beings are Adam and Eve, with Eve forced into painful birth (although it’s someone else’s pain) as they are fruitful and multiply. They are forever cast from the Garden (Earth) but do try to have their children enter into it, who are considered cursed with the sins of the parents.
2. IF YOU ARE TIRED OF THE RELIGIOUS TALK, SKIP DOWN HERE for a different kind of theory. Noelle is another Nilbog type of power. She’s the only one with a trigger event as the others of her friends all died. As part of her trigger event. Maybe she became cannibalistic and consumed her dead friends in a disaster with no food or maybe they only died, but somehow she created fully functional copies of those alive when she got her powers or who died soon before. She gave several of them powers as a result, and was able to hear enough to want to break out because she’s still linked to them, though the Travelers themselves don’t know about this or the link.
2.A. Considering her cannibalism, a grain of truth in Wendigo legends? Someone who eats human flesh either transforms into a monster or is possessed by a spirit and becomes violent and hungers for more human flesh.
Religion in the Wormverse hasn’t been discussed much, leading to a lot of speculation on what capes did to the world other than setting the third world to ‘boil’.
Leading ME to a lot of speculation, I mean.
I bring it up more because so much of religion and mythology features monsters and people with special powers in it. Even the comics tend to have some mythology with the likes of Hercules and Thor showing up. Though it gets updated to a modern setting obviously when Hercules stops a charging Thor with a purple nurple.
Idea 2 is my favourite.
Mine too. Fits in with the tone of the story much better.
WyldCard4 on January 8, 2013 at 19:04 said:
An idea for two. One of her separate powers is causing trigger events. She has others, but that is one of them. She MIGHT also absorb the new powers of the people she eats, explaining just why she is so dangerous. She will just grow more and more powerful, and her rampage is likely to make more and more capes, two thirds of which are going to be villains. Definitely something that Simurgh would want to unleash.
Forty five people eaten, low end for numbers. That could equal a lot of power for Noelle. Lots of options. Definitely enough for the Endbringers to care, especially with the chance of a runaway power expansion.
She’ll be as strong and flexible as Hercules and Gumbie combined! (Gumbercules? I love that guy!)
And nearly as immortal as Cole from Charmed! (I love that villain!)
High Five for the Futurama reference 😀
Francis Krouse: jerk, gains ability to swap positions/perspectives.
Jess: in a wheelchair, gains ability to create idealized bodies capable of walking, flight, and so on.
Marissa: pushed to be the best, gains strongest offensive ability which is too strong and specialized to use casually.
A pattern begins to emerge.
G.S. Williams on January 8, 2013 at 06:47 said:
That pattern isn’t new.
Taylor — lowly, nerdy, eye for details, treated like she’s insignificant — controls insects and shows that little details matter.
Imp — overlooked, ignored, neglected, is able to disappear from people’s senses.
etc. etc — Wildbow creates extremely organic characters with intention and design. No surprise that it relates to the plot as a whole.
I meant that they’re getting their opposite, but doing it that way also suggests getting what they want in some sense. In that case, Trickster might just want to manipulate people instead of being the jerk whose power needs them and can swap perspectives between/with them.
Stereo on January 8, 2013 at 14:21 said:
Noelle: Simultaneously approachable and very hard to get.
I’m interested in the fact that, assuming you’re right, there’s only Ballistic left, and two guys to fill the slot – Cody and Luke. Attitude wise I’d favour Cody, but the Travelers already have Oliver in the wings, so maybe Luke is too.
Yeah, I was wondering which one was Ballistic, and couldn’t decide on either either.
Mr. Walaa on January 8, 2013 at 19:05 said:
I think it’s Cody just based on the dynamics between Ballistic and Trickster and Krouse and Cody. Though I could be wrong as Ballistic does not strike me as a Type A
Matthew on January 8, 2013 at 06:58 said:
Holy shit, the Simurgh is goddamn Dark Phoenix! 😀 “Broad spectrum psionic, no manton limitation, run motherfuckers, run!”
Lyrics I made up years ago (sung to the chorus of Simply Irresistible by Robert Palmer):
She’s a crazed killer mutant,
With her TK force.
Well you don’t want to fight her,
‘Cause she’ll nuke you of course.
She used to look good to me, but now I find her…
Simply indestructible.
Loki-L on January 8, 2013 at 07:12 said:
Interesting. I am not sure whether I care for these people yet. The whole power of swapping yourself out for someone else certainly makes a lot more sense with the benefit of the backstory at least.
Before this chapter I had the impression that the Travellers used to be a tighly knit team of friends who were workign at capes together and who suffered some sort of misfortune that caused their former leader to turn into a monster and that destroyed their team dynamic. Now it looks as if the Travellers have always been the way they are now since they got their powers and that Noelle was only their leader before they gained powers.
In an earlier chapter the Travellers already identified themselves as having faced an Endbringer.
Legend called out, “Capes! If you have faced an Endbringer before, stand!”
I watched as the rest of the Protectorate, about a third of the out-of-town Wards, Bambina, half of a commercially sponsored cape team and the Travelers stood. I couldn’t help but notice Armsmaster lean over toward Miss Militia, whisper something in her ear, and point at the Travelers. Miss Militia shook her head.
I guess they mean the events in the current arc or perhaps they were so traumatized by it that they later when they had the chance choose to help with a different endbringer attack. I wonder what Armsmaster and Miss Militia whispered about.
Probably a “did you know that…” or “when did they…?”
“I would totally tap that.”
scherzo on November 25, 2018 at 11:26 said:
(Miss Militia shakes head)
“Damn Colin, you a freak”
tieshaunn on January 8, 2013 at 07:19 said:
Great chapter, wildbow, but I must say, you are getting predictable in your unpredictability. Though I did not immediately identify the travelers (only once noelle appeared), I immediately rejected the idea of the “team” being a superhero-/villain-team. instead, I though they might be either a group of artists (thus the circus-theme of their group) or a bunch of gamers (and yay, I was right).
also, i’d like to know what kind of online-games they play in a world where tinkers can create future-tech – including hypermodern videogames (if someone can write a true AI, then there are bound to be several people who can write super-immersive videogames).
What would be even *more* disturbing is if the ‘game’ was designed to act like a psychic beacon (a la Kerrigan v. Zerg, original Starcraft) by heretofore unseen powers and it *worked* before it even came fully on-line. Whups. Talk about not having a chance to do a force-build up!
JessieLaurent on January 8, 2013 at 08:19 said:
I was the opposite. I guessed pretty early on that it was the Travellers, but I thought they were super-heroes, maybe independant ones or the like. And then they started talking about endbosses and Illusionists and I was like…oh…Oh…what?
And the Simurgh showed up and my final reaction is…
Wildbow you magnificent bastard, you’ve done it again!
I think I’m going to love this arc.
twofoe on October 26, 2013 at 13:25 said:
With all their talk of “going international,” “getting a sponsor,” and so forth, I thought the travelers were part of a competitive cape team. Like… capture the flag with superpowers. The problem I had with that theory was that their powers are way too lethal, and I couldn’t see how someone like Sundancer could be useful in such a sport.
Though it doesn’t seem to be happening in the Wormverse yet (see Triumph’s origin), sports wIth super powers could be really interesting
Sundancer as area denial, perhaps? (It doesn’t cause a fowl to make part of the field lethal, as long as no-one’s there…)
But in that game, Movers like Trickster would be hideously unfair (well, if the other side didn’t have one too).
eduardo on January 8, 2013 at 09:45 said:
Interesting arc.
Finaly we get to understand what keeps these guys together.
And, by the end we will probably find why Taylor is f…k…d again when we learn about Noele`s powers.
Oh shit, I think I get it;
Trickster’s the support caster.
Sundancer and Ballistic are the blaster mages.
Genesis is the pet spawner.
Noelle’s the tank/endboss.
Their powers match their roles in the game they played! 😀
Perhaps the Simurgh grants ‘wishes’ to those it chooses. Chooses which, and grants them, as it likes.
Perhaps idle thoughts about wanting that building over there to not be blocking your view, or your choice on a character creation screen.
Oh, I get it. Real cute! Whatever we think of, if we think of J. Edgar Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover will appear and destroy us, okay? So empty your heads, don’t think of anything. We’ve only got one shot at this.
“The choice is made!”
Whoa, hold on!
“The Traveller has come!”
I couldn’t help it. It just popped in there. I tried to think of something innocent from my childhood, something that could never do any harm.
It’s the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
I’ve added the link to the next chapter. Yes, I know it doesn’t go anywhere (yet). Sorry to disappoint.
I’m out tonight, and I’m not sure how long it’ll take (attending writer’s circle, critiquing other writers’ work, maybe grabbing dinner while I’m out, after) and I wanted to be sure the next chapter was all hooked up and organized in case I wound up getting home too late. Probably won’t, but I prefer to play it safe.
STH on January 8, 2013 at 15:40 said:
Sorry Wildbow, but you no longer receive points for being amazing. This decision was reached after the Monarch arc managed to destroy our rating scales for fifteen consecutive chapters.
You’ll have to settle for a 10/10. Again, I’m terribly sorry.
I have to say, I’m really enjoying the descriptions of the Endbringers. I especially like the use of asymmetry to reinforce both the unnaturalness/inhumanity of these creatures, and their inherently chaotic natures.
Wildbow, was that deliberate (as in you decided specifically to use asymmetry to symbolise chaos), or synergistic (as in it just seemed like the right way to describe them, based on your feelings/ideas about them), or serendipitous (as in you didn’t even notice that the characteristics you chose were appropriate for this aspect until after you’d made them concrete)?
I still think the old depictions of angels had something to do with Simurgh’s description. All the wins, the inhuman-ness. The singing in a human mind (choirs of angels, you know).
…the ability to sense a praying girl in prison and act accordingly to affect something on earth in response.
all the wings*
There’s probably a fair bit of Endbringer worship going on, let alone people working heroes and monsters into their sermons. I mean if religion can adapt to new technologies (plastic explosives, hand guns, planes, television, radio, assorted other money managed pipes for propaganda) in reality then I’m sure it can manage this setting.
I’m a little hesitant to ascribe these characteristics purely to angels, they pop up in a lot of legends and myths.
Kore on January 8, 2013 at 21:22 said:
To slightly alter one of my favorite quotes:
“The Endbringers cannot help but kill us. If they did not come at us with their blades and their malice, so we could hate them, we would have to love them. There is nothing in between, not for creatures of such majesty. We would have to love them; and, in loving, die; not like Romeo died, or Juliet, but like the night dies that loves the sun, or the fire dies that loves the sea. In embracing the alien, in striving to grasp that which lies forever beyond us, we would extinguish ourselves.
-from A PHILOSOPHY OF TREASON, by Augusta Valentina (suppressed)”
An apt quote when put in context with some exposition you’ll get in the next chapter.
Religion adapted to WW2 era technology very well if you look up Cargo Cults and John From.
If any of you are artistically inclined, I would love to see some fan art of the Endbringers. Or if you have any friends that are good at that kind of thing, get them into Worm so they can do it.
Horatio Von Becker on March 11, 2014 at 16:22 said:
My guess? The Simurgh is made from a great many birds. Apparently, parrots can get as smart as human three-year-olds. Now imagine how much processing power a few thousand small children would have. Then imagine them as a networked organic supercomputer. Animated by one to five Passengers. I wonder whatt would Glastig Uaine say about any of the Endbringers, especially the Simurgh.
A few thousand parrots, not a few thousand toddlers, I mean. Also, I am aware that there is only one T in “what”, that was a touchscreen induced typo.
A sincere thank you to Andrew for the donation. I apparently have a lot of fans named Andrew, I’ll note.
Loosely scheduled another bonus chapter for the 7th of Feb, but that’s so far off I’m not going to make it a hard & fast date. I’ll set it in stone once we’re a few weeks closer to it (once I know my schedule – I know I’m traveling some Jan/feb, and don’t want to set it for a day I’m going to be on a train).
And while I’m thanking people, let me thank deuseldorf for the review on Webfictionguide. That’s the sort of thing that draws in new readers and reminds old readers that Worm exists, and it matters. Thank you.
I’ve been thinking about making an account on WFG and leaving a review there. Would you rather have a string of reviews one after the other, or would you prefer I wait a couple of weeks?
If you wanted to wait to throw one down there in a few weeks, I might prefer that.
Cruel Angel’s Thesis plays softly in the background.
One of these Tinkers really does have to get around to making a giant mecha Evangelion.
Fake Name on June 10, 2013 at 17:49 said:
>He nodded. “Yeah. Her, Ms. Newland’s daughter-”
I know from later chapters that you’re actually listing two separate people (Noelle and Marissa), but the first time I read this I thought Krouse was saying his girlfriend was Ms. Newlands daughter (ie, Noelle Newland).
You might want to find less ambiguous way of phrasing this.
Agreed. Maybe an “and”?
Were people calling Simurgh the Smurf before this chapter and that line was added as a community inside joke, or was the nickname so memorable that people kept using it?
I’m sure I saw it called that in the comments earlier (though I suppose those could have been re-readers).
hammerade on December 30, 2013 at 23:10 said:
“Could have been an earthquake” needs a period.
Your story has been missing periods lately. Maybe it’s pregnant.
Pregnant with a spin-off? Pity it miscarried in the end.
And we though the Othersiders was just a joke…
Uh oh, one of these people does not make it to Brockton bay, and I have a feeling that it’s not because he decided to pursue the career in professional gaming…
TARDISES on June 30, 2014 at 13:48 said:
Wait…. A blonde girl named Maris(s)a? This sounds awfully familiar…
Why am I thinking of giant lasers right now?
hunter on May 18, 2017 at 13:57 said:
i see what you did here
Sweet we finally get a hands on view of the Simurgh! Definitely the tiniest one of the bunch and it can’t be a coincidence that she looks like a creepy angel bird hybrid. And both telekinetic and telepathic eh? Interesting. Very interesting. I notice the Travelers have one extra in their group…poor Cody. We will miss ye when ye die a horrible death shortly.
I would go for multiple triggers like others but since the thing with Clockblocker had mentioned that that tends to come with multiple powers per person there’s probably going to be a different answer. Maybe another thing like Skidmark found. That would probably fix Noelle too due to the regenerative nature. This gives context for when they stood up as having faced an Endbringer before too. Wow these guys have almost as raw a deal as the Undersiders.
Clownie on March 10, 2015 at 15:03 said:
>“Could have been an earthquake” Luke suggested
Missing punctuation in quotes.
axle on July 12, 2015 at 00:26 said:
They were video gamers!? I did not expect that, I thought they were talking about super hero sponsorship.
Lol, He called it the smurf, I only found that funny because I’d been referring to it that way ever since I first read the name. 🙂
WARNING, the following could potentially be offensive to the devoutly religious: I realized after typing that I came across a bit condescending, I don’t intend to offend anyone here.
Disclaimer over with, here’s my actual comment:
Wow, I hope we see what Wormverse religion is like at some point: such an obvious “angel” will have upturned the Judaism, Christianity, and Islam cluster of religions: an angry angel that doesn’t care to tell humans what they did wrong; a punishment perhaps? Or rogue, a second Satin? “REPENT, FOR THE ENDBRINGER IS NIGH!”
And I can’t even begin to guess for other religions I know even less about. Sorry, religions are something I’m a bit ignorant about.
There would be lots of people flocking to religion in desperation, but also lots of people deciding that they don’t like how their “gods/angels/spirits/whatevers” act after all and trying to stop them (or fix the aftermath, or hide).
At least it would give a naytheist like me (If there are some sort of gods, there’s no reason to think they’d be benevolent) some proof, so it’s not all bad. Just almost all bad. 🙂
Unfortunately I doubt we’ll get much of a look at this, since I think I remember Wildbow saying that religion was (like rape) too sensitive a topic for him(?) to feel able to tackle. But then, I think it was in the same comment thread where he said he couldn’t write romance: I point you to the scenes between Noelle and Krouse.
greatwyrmgold on January 2, 2020 at 08:55 said:
I’d say “Wait ’til you see the Fallen, you’ll love/hate them,” but it’s been three and a half years, so you’ve probably seen them in Ward too.
Guns on September 13, 2016 at 09:38 said:
Its cool that everyone is talking about a mass tigger event. But didn’t Genesis get her trigger event really earlier? (I’m thinking maybe at 5 or 6?) Surely the group would know or maybe Wildbow might hint at her having a power. Otherwise, really interesting chapter. I’ve been waiting for the Simurgh for a while now, figure she would be next after leviathan. Skitter talked about tactics and so on, so it will be interesting to see how a non-brute-shifter (or something like that) end bringer fights. Additionally the way she talked about tactics and “win the battle lose the war” style made me wonder how Smurgh attacks, if its one massive strike or staying for weeks.
Jarl Zarl on April 3, 2017 at 07:26 said:
Necro-Comment
To clarify, she said that she’d been in a wheelchair since a young age (6ish I think?) and implied that her powers came later without explicitly confirming one way or the other
Taylor made some assumptions about Genesis’s powers that were flat wrong. Oops.
wafflepudding on September 14, 2016 at 10:28 said:
I was expecting this chapter to reveal that, with the Travelers as only gamers, the Wormverse is just a game. The Endbringers are bosses. The strange fourth dimension is only a glimpse into the real world. And our precious protagonists are only AIs that no-one knows are sentient, in a world that is quite certain to end. Sure Skitter can handle that.
My hopes were dashed as soon as their apartment fell over.
jmdlugosz on April 17, 2017 at 18:31 said:
«I made these plans weeks ago, I told you about them.» comma splice
April on January 3, 2018 at 17:00 said:
If you want a sense of these game teams, this film may be helpful: Good Game, tracing a Starcraft Team (Evil Geniuses) in 2011 (when this arc was set), made in 2013 (when this arc was written!)
http://ninehourfilms.com/index.php/film-work/good-game.html
(It’s available on steam and amazon prime.)
“What is she doing here? Why is she here?”
They already know how this is supposed to work. The Simurgh is “supposed” to descend on places on the verge of turning on each other, places like Bosnia ’90s Bosnia. She turns people against each other, creates irreparable human division and conflict.
She is not supposed to be a first world problem.
Live and learn.
Very good, very good.
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Curiosity’s Search for Ancient Habitable Environments at Gale Crater, Mars
Duration: 1:09:28 | Added: 27 Apr 2017
4th Annual Lobanov-Rostovsky Lecture in Planetary Geology delivered by Professor John Grotzinger, Caltech, USA
The Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, touched down on the surface of Mars on August 5, 2012. Curiosity was built to search and explore for habitable environments and has a lifetime of at least one Mars year (~23 months), and drive capability of at least 20 km. The MSL science payload can assess ancient habitability which requires the detection of former water, as well as a source of energy to fuel microbial metabolism, and key elements such carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The search for complex organic molecules is an additional goal and our general approach applies some of the practices that have functioned well in exploration for hydrocarbons on Earth. The selection of the Gale Crater exploration region was based on the recognition that it contained multiple and diverse objectives, ranked with different priorities, and thus increasing the chances of success that one of these might provide the correct combination of environmental factors to define a potentially habitable paleoenvironment. Another important factor in exploration risk reduction included mapping the landing ellipse ahead of landing so that no matter where the rover touched down, our first drive would take us in the direction of a science target deemed to have the greatest value as weighed against longer term objectives, and the risk of mobility failure. Within 8 months of landing we were able to confirm full mission success. This was based on the discovery of fine-grained sedimentary rocks, inferred to represent an ancient lake. These Fe-Mg-rich smectitic mudstones preserve evidence of an aqueous paleoenvironment that would have been suited to support a Martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy and characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. The environment likely had a minimum duration of hundreds to tens of thousands of years. In the past year simple chlorobenzene and chloroalkane molecules were confirmed to exist within the mudstone. These results highlight the biological viability of fluvial-lacustrine environments in the ancient history of Mars and the value of robots in geologic exploration.
Oxford Physics Public Lectures
John Grotzinger
mars rover
curiosity mars rover
Mars Science Laboratory rover
habitable environments
ancient habitability
microbial metabolism
and phosphorous
complex organic molecules
The Department of Physics public lecture series. An exciting series of lectures about the research at Oxford Physics take place throughout the academic year. Looking at topics diverse as the creation of the universe to the science of climate change.
Features episodes previously published as:
(1) 'Oxford Physics Alumni': "Informal interviews with physics alumni at events, lectures and other alumni related activities."
(2) 'Physics and Philosophy:...
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<iframe width="640" height="400" src="https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/embed/fca914e788a8441d5cb5" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Worklodges
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The Blue Studio is our largest and most luxurious light filled loft —1080 square feet / 100 meters sq.—with three separate levels. The Studio is fully furnished and has a private telephone, and a wireless Internet connection, with utilities included.
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Agile at Scale Clinic
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Product Portfolio Management: Essential for Agile at Scale
The Agile at Scale clinic is designed to help people attempting to do Agile beyond the team, whether it be small scale (< 50), mid-scale (50-300), or large-scale (300+). Much of this focuses on general Lean-Agile approaches. Because the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a particular approach to Agile at scale, it has its own section in the clinic.
Why this clinic?
Leaders and managers aren’t looking for “Agile at scale;” they are looking for ways to help their software organization do a better job for the company. And just as importantly, to be noticed within the company (especially its higher levels) for doing so. The value of Agile at scale is that it is helpful towards both ends.
People typically ask two main questions about Agile at Scale:
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The first question is for if you’d like to see more about how Agile at scale can help. We will be adding information about this as we go.
The second question is the subject of the rest of this clinic.
The clinic is organized into five sections; each section focuses on a general topic in doing Agile at scale and offers a collection of frequently asked questions we have heard in our coaching experiences and from users of this portal.
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Only “take” the sections that apply to you. For instance, if your organization is small, the “Foundations” section may give you all the answers you need.
http://www.netobjectives.net/webinars/EffectiveAgileAtScaleWebinarSeries_Session01A/EffectiveAgileAtScaleWebinarSeries_Session01.mp4
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Why Is SAFe Popular? (9/6/2018)
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What Traits Are Typical in Successful Agile at Mid-Scale and Above? (10/6/2016)
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What Value Does the Middle Manager Add in Mid-Scale Agile? (10/5/2016)
How Can We Deliver the Most Value from Available Resources? (10/3/2016)
How Can We Release Innovation in Software Development? (Leveraging “Laws”) (10/3/2016)
How Does Agile at Scale Increase the Delivery of Business Value? (10/2/2016)
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Gut microbiota disturbance during helminth infection: can it affect cognition and behaviour of children?
Guernier, Vanina, Brennan, Bradley, Yakob, Laith, Milinovich, Gabriel, Clements, Archie C.A., and Magalhaes, Ricardo J. Soares (2017) Gut microbiota disturbance during helminth infection: can it affect cognition and behaviour of children? BMC Infectious Diseases, 17 (58).
View at Publisher Website: http://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-016-2146-2
Background: Bidirectional signalling between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract is regulated at neural, hormonal, and immunological levels. Recent studies have shown that helminth infections can alter the normal gut microbiota. Studies have also shown that the gut microbiota is instrumental in the normal development, maturation and function of the brain. The pathophysiological pathways by which helminth infections contribute to altered cognitive function remain poorly understood.
Discussion: We put forward the hypothesis that gastrointestinal infections with parasitic worms, such as helminths, induce an imbalance of the gut-brain axis, which, in turn, can detrimentally manifest in brain development. Factors supporting this hypothesis are: 1) research focusing on intelligence and school performance in school-aged children has shown helminth infections to be associated with cognitive impairment, 2) disturbances in gut microbiota have been shown to be associated with important cognitive developmental effects, and 3) helminth infections have been shown to alter the gut microbiota structure. Evidence on the complex interactions between extrinsic (parasite) and intrinsic (host-derived) factors has been synthesised and discussed.
Summary: While evidence in favour of the helminth-gut microbiota-central nervous system hypothesis is circumstantial, it would be unwise to rule it out as a possible mechanism by which gastrointestinal helminth infections induce childhood cognitive morbidity. Further empirical studies are necessary to test an indirect effect of helminth infections on the modulation of mood and behaviour through its effects on the gut microbiota.
gut microbiome; microbiota; helminths; mental health; Microbiota-gut-brain axis; central nervous system
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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BREAKING: Fidel Castro Health Update
Posted: June 16, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Foreign Policy, History, Humor, Politics | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Dictator, Fidel Castro, Havana, murder, Poverty, satire, Socialism, Torture | Leave a comment
BREAKING: Important Fidel Castro Health Update
Posted: June 16, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Foreign Policy, Global, History, Politics | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Dictator, Fidel Castro, Havana, Little Havana, Socialism | Leave a comment
Qué Lástima! Countdown Begins a Year Out from Raúl Castro’s Retirement
Posted: February 27, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Diplomacy, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Communist Party, Cuba, Cuba–United States relations, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Miami, President of Cuba, Raúl Castro | Leave a comment
Mimi Whitfield and Nora Gámez Torres report: A year from now — on Feb. 24 — something is expected to occur in Cuba that hasn’t happened in more than 40 years: a non-Castro will occupy the presidency.
The coming year will be one of definitions in Cuba. But right now there is only uncertainty — not only about how the transition will proceed but also about the future of Cuba’s relationship with the United States with President Donald Trump at the helm.
In 2013, Raúl Castro told Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, the parliament, that he planned to retire from the presidency of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers on Feb. 24, 2018. His heir apparent became Miguel Díaz-Canel, a party stalwart who at the time was promoted to first vice president of both councils.
When Castro retires as president, the Cuban Constitution also calls for him to relinquish his post of commander in chief of Cuba’s armed forces. A Cuba without a khaki-clad Castro commanding the Revolutionary Armed Forces is something many younger Cubans have never experienced.
Díaz-Canel’s ascension next Feb. 24 — a date that has long had resonance in Cuba history — is not assured, but most observers believe that a new National Assembly that will be seated then will rubber stamp him as Cuba’s next president and he will replace the 85-year-old Castro.
Even with a successor, Castro is still expected to retain consider clout. He has said nothing about stepping down as chief of Cuba’s powerful Communist Party and Cuba’s military leaders are solid Raúlistas. Read the rest of this entry »
FIDEL CASTRO HEALTH UPDATE
Posted: February 6, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Humor, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: anti capitalist, Communism, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Mass murder, Miami, satire, Socialism, Torture, Totalitarianism | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Fernando Díaz Villanueva: How to talk to a Socialist
Posted: January 26, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Economics, Education, Global, Health and Social Issues, History, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Dictatorship, Fernando Díaz Villanueva, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Socialism, Socialismo, Totalitarianism, video | Leave a comment
.@RightWingIowa Captain America DGAF if you’re a National or International Socialist, he’s gonna fuck your socialist face up pic.twitter.com/RD3tBsDTcT
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 26, 2017
BREAKING NEWS: Obama Update
Posted: January 21, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Humor, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Divisive, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Obama Era, post colonialism, Presidential Inauguration 2017, Progressivism, Race Baiting, satire, SCOAMF, Socialism | Leave a comment
Posted: January 5, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, History, Humor, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: Cold War, Communism, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Miami, Socialism | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Rep. Steve Cohen: ‘Donald Trump And Fidel Castro Are Similar!’
Posted: January 3, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Democratic Party, DNC, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, GOP, media, news, Steve Cohen, video | Leave a comment
The Survival of the Left
Posted: December 31, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Art & Culture, Economics, Education, Global, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Communism, Cuba, Democratic Party (United States), Fidel Castro, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Hoover Institution, Law, Left Wing, Marx, Marxism, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Progressivism, Socialism, Soviet Union, Stanford University, Thomas Sowell | Leave a comment
Thomas Sowell writes: Biologists explain how organisms adapt to their physical environment, but ideologues also adapt to their social environment. The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
“The academic world is the natural habitat of half-baked ideas, except for those fields in which there are decisive tests, such as science, mathematics, engineering, medicine;and athletics. In all these fields, in their differing ways, there comes a time when you must either put up or shut up. It should not be surprising that all of these fields are notable exceptions to the complete domination by the left on campuses across the country.”
“You might think that the collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe would be considered a decisive failure for Marxism, but academic Marxists in America are utterly undaunted. Their paychecks and their tenure are unaffected. Their theories continue to flourish in the classrooms and their journals continue to litter the library shelves.”
In the humanities, for example, the test of deconstructionism is not whether it can produce any tangible results but whether it remains in vogue. So long as it does, professors skilled in its verbal sleight-of-hand can expect to continue to receive six-figure salaries.
“Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. Even countries that were once more prosperous than their neighbors have found themselves much poorer than their neighbors after just one generation of socialistic policies. Whether these neighboring countries were Ghana and the Ivory Coast or Burma and Thailand, it has been the same story around the world.”
Discredited elsewhere, the nostrums of the left live on in public television.
Nor is economic failure the worst of it. The millions slaughtered by Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot for political reasons are an even grimmer reality.
People who live and work in a world where there is a business bottom line, an athletic scoreboard, a military battlefield or life-and-death surgery may find it hard to fully appreciate the difference between that kind of world and one in which the only decisive test is whether your colleagues like what you are saying.
“These endowed and insulated institutions, often full of contempt for the values of American society and Western civilization, are not the only bastions of the left counter-culture. So are Hollywood and Broadway.”
Academia is only one of the places where wholly subjective criteria rule;and where leftists predominate. Endowed institutions such as foundations and museums likewise often face no test other than what like-minded people find “exciting” and what enables those who run these institutions to get the heady feeling that they are “making a difference.” The same is true of cultural institutions supported involuntarily by the taxpayers, such as the Smithsonian or the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities.
Taxpayer-supported “public” radio and television are similarly insulated from reality and similarly dominated by the left, not only in the United States but in other countries as well. All the nostrums of the left that have brought hunger to millions in countries which used to have surplus food to export, all the pretty words and ugly realities that have caused millions more to flee the lands of their birth, these nostrums live on in public television;much like old classic movies with familiar lines that the audience of aficionados can recite along with the characters on the screen.
These endowed and insulated institutions, often full of contempt for the values of American society and Western civilization, are not the only bastions of the left counter-culture. So are Hollywood and Broadway. Although show biz faces the financial need to get an audience, the truth of what they portray is hardly crucial. Read the rest of this entry »
As Socialism Shattered Venezuela, the Useful Idiots Applauded
Posted: December 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, History, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Communism, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Havana, Hugo Chávez, Jimmy Carter, Marxism, Miami, Nicolás Maduro, Oliver Stone, Raúl Castro, Salon Magazine, Socialism, Soviet Union, United States, Useful Idiots, Venezuela, Vladimir Lenin | 2 Comments
Venezuela this Christmas is sunk in misery, as it was last Christmas, and the Christmas before that.
Jeff Jacoby writes: When the Cold War ended 25 years ago, the Soviet Union vanished into the ash heap of history. That left the West’s “useful idiots” — Lenin’s term for the ideologues and toadies who could always be relied on to justify or praise whatever Moscow did — in search of other socialist thugs to fawn over. Many found a new heartthrob in Hugo Chavez, the anti-Yanqui rabble-rouser who was elected president of Venezuela in 1998 and in short order had transformed the country from a successful social democracy into a grim and corrupt autocracy.
“Violent crime is out of control. Shoppers are forced to stand in lines for hours outside drugstores and supermarkets — lines that routinely lead to empty shelves, or that break down in fistfights, muggings, and mob looting. Just last week the government deployed 3,000 troops to restore order after frantic rioters rampaged through shops and homes in the southeastern state of Bolivar.”
An avowed Marxist and protégé of Fidel Castro, Chavez gradually seized control of every lever of state power in Venezuela. The constitution was rewritten to strip the legislature and judiciary of their independence, authorize censorship of the press, and allow Chavez to legislate by decree. Before long, the government acquired a stranglehold over the economy, including the huge and profitable energy sector. (Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.)
“In the beautiful country that used to boast the highest standard of living in Latin America, patients now die in hospitals for lack of basic health care staples: soap, gloves, oxygen, drugs. In some medical wards, there isn’t even water to wash the blood from operating tables.”
With petrodollars pouring in, Chavez had free rein to put his statist prescriptions into effect. The so-called Bolivarian revolution over which he — and later his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro — presided, was an unfettered, real-world example of anticapitalist socialism in action.
[Read the full story here, at The Boston Globe]
Venezuela since at least the 1970s had been Latin America’s most affluent nation. Now it was a showpiece for command-and-control economics: price and currency controls, wealth redistribution, ramped-up government spending, expropriation of land, and the nationalization of private banks, mines, and oil companies.
And the useful idiots ate it up.
In a Salon piece titled “Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle,” David Sirota declared that the Venezuelan ruler, with his “full-throated advocacy of socialism,” had “racked up an economic record that . . . American president[s] could only dream of achieving.” The Guardian offered “Three cheers for Chavez.” Moviemaker Oliver Stone filmed a documentary gushing over “the positive changes that have happened economically in all of South America” because of Venezuela’s socialist government. And when Chavez died in 2013, Jimmy Carter extolled the strongman for “improving the lives of millions of his fellow countrymen.”
In the real world, however, socialism has transformed Venezuela into a Third World dystopia.
Venezuela this Christmas is sunk in misery, as it was last Christmas, and the Christmas before that. Venezuelans, their economy wrecked by statism, face crippling shortages of everything from food and medicine to toilet paper and electricity. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 22, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, History, Humor | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictator, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Miami, murder, Oppression, Terror, Torture | 1 Comment
EXCLUSIVE: Fidel Castro Health Update
Posted: December 21, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Global, Humor, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Miami, murder, Police state, Socialism, Stalinism, Tyranny | Leave a comment
Garry Kasparov: The U.S.S.R. Fell—and the World Fell Asleep
Posted: December 19, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Diplomacy, History, Politics, Russia, Think Tank | Tags: Aleppo, Bianna Golodryga, Che Guevara, Communism, Cuban Revolution, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Garry Kasparov, Marxism, Mikhail Gorbachev, Miloš Forman, Moscow, Moscow Kremlin, President of Russia, RUSSIA, Soviet Union, United States, Vladimir Putin | Leave a comment
25 years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, plenty of repressive regimes live on. Today, the free world no longer cares.
Garry Kasparov writes: A quarter-century ago, on Dec. 25, 1991, as the last Soviet premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned after a final attempt to keep the Communist state alive, I was so optimistic for the future. That year and the years leading up to that moment were a period when anything felt possible. The ideals of freedom and democracy seemed within the reach of the people of the Soviet Union.
“It is difficult to describe what life in the U.S.S.R. was like to people in the free world today. This is not because repressive dictatorships are an anachronism people can’t imagine, like trying to tell your incredulous children that there was once a world without cellphones and the internet.”
I remember the December evening in 1988 when I was having dinner with friends and my mother in Paris. My family and I still lived in Baku, capital of the then-Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, where I was raised, but I had become accustomed to unusual freedoms since becoming the world chess champion in 1985. I was no longer accompanied by KGB minders everywhere I went, although my whereabouts were always tracked. Foreign travel still required special approval, which served to remind every Soviet citizen that this privilege could be withdrawn at any time.
“The U.S.S.R. ceased to exist in 1991, but there are plenty of repressive, authoritarian regimes thriving in 2016. The difference, and I am sad to say it, is that the citizens of the free world don’t much care about dictatorships anymore, or about the 2.7 billion people who still live in them.”
My status protected me from many of the privations of life in the Soviet Union, but it did not tint my vision rose. Instead, my visits to Western Europe confirmed my suspicions that it was in the U.S.S.R. where life was distorted, as in a funhouse mirror.
Miloš Forman
That night in Paris was a special one, and we were joined by the Czech-American director Miloš Forman via a mutual friend, the Czech-American grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
We were discussing politics, of course, and I was being optimistic as usual. I was sure that the Soviet Union would be forced to liberalize socially and economically to survive.
“The words of John F. Kennedy in 1963 Berlin sound naive to most Americans today: “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free,” he said. That for decades the U.S. government based effective foreign policy on such lofty ideals seems as distant as a world without iPhones.”
Mr. Forman played the elder voice of reason to my youthful exuberance. I was only 25, while he had lived through what he saw as a comparable moment in history. He cautioned that he had seen similar signs of a thaw after reformer Alexander Dubčekhad become president in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Eight months after Dubček’s election, his reforms ended abruptly as the U.S.S.R. sent half a million Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia and occupied the country. Many prominent Czechs, like Messrs. Forman and Kavalek, fled abroad.
[Order Garry Kasparov’s book “Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped” from Amazon.com]
“Gorbachev’s perestroika is another fake,” Mr. Forman warned us about the Soviet leader’s loosening of state controls, “and it will end up getting more hopeful people killed.” I insisted that Mr. Gorbachev would not be able to control the forces he was unleashing. Mr. Forman pressed me for specifics: “But how will it end, Garry?”
I replied—specifics not being my strong suit—that “one day, Miloš, you will wake up, open your window, and they’ll be gone.”
“Ronald Reagan’s warning that ‘freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction’ was never meant to be put to the test, but it is being tested now. If anything, Reagan’s time frame of a generation was far too generous. The dramatic expansion of freedom that occurred 25 years ago may be coming undone in 25 months.”
It is difficult to describe what life in the U.S.S.R. was like to people in the free world today. This is not because repressive dictatorships are an anachronism people can’t imagine, like trying to tell your incredulous children that there was once a world without cellphones and the internet. The U.S.S.R. ceased to exist in 1991, but there are plenty of repressive, authoritarian regimes thriving in 2016. The difference, and I am sad to say it, is that the citizens of the free world don’t much care about dictatorships anymore, or about the 2.7 billion people who still live in them.
The words of John F. Kennedy in 1963 Berlin sound naive to most Americans today: “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free,” he said. That for decades the U.S. government based effective foreign policy on such lofty ideals seems as distant as a world without iPhones. Read the rest of this entry »
Crackdown in Cuba: Hammer Comes Down Hard on Dissidents After Castro Death
Posted: December 19, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Global | Tags: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Cuba, Dilma Rousseff, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista, Havana, Miami, Raúl Castro, Santiago de Cuba, United States Secretary of Defense | Leave a comment
In the first such anti-dissident operation since Fidel Castro’s death last month, President Raul Castro seemed to indicate the Americas’ only one-party communist state was in no mood for dissent.
Havana (AFP) – Authorities across Cuba have cracked down on dissidents, arresting dozens, keeping others from marching in Havana, and detaining an American human rights lawyer, activists said Sunday.
“There was a joint operation at 6:00 am in Santiago and Palma Soriano. They searched four homes, and so far we have 42 reported arrests — 20 in Santiago, 12 in Palma and 10 in Havana…They threatened me, and said by calling the demonstration I was facilitating public disorder…. disobedience and espionage.”
— Jose Daniel Ferrer, head of the Patriotic Union of Cuba
A roundup in the country’s east snared dozens and derailed street protests planned to demand that political prisoners be freed.
“There was a joint operation at 6:00 am in Santiago and Palma Soriano. They searched four homes, and so far we have 42 reported arrests — 20 in Santiago, 12 in Palma and 10 in Havana,” Jose Daniel Ferrer told AFP by phone.
The 46-year-old, who heads the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), had called the demonstrations to demand that political prisoners be set free. Castro insists there are no political prisoners, just lawbreakers.
Ferrer said he was detained in Santiago, Cuba‘s second biggest city, at a police unit known as Micro 9.
“They threatened me, and said by calling the demonstration I was facilitating public disorder…. disobedience and espionage,” Ferrer said.
Most arrests of dissidents in roundups are brief. Sometimes, the authorities prevent them from leaving their homes to attend a protest or march.
Ladies in White, shut in
In Havana, the award-winning Ladies in White group, which presses for the release of jailed dissidents who are their relatives, said that at least 20 of its activists were “under siege,” kept from attending their weekly march. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 13, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Communism, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Karl Marx, Marxism, Socialism | Leave a comment
Carlos Eire: Requiem for a Despot
Posted: December 9, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, History, Terrorism, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Americans, Barack Obama, Communism, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Human rights, Little Havana, Marxism, Miami, President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, Socialism, Terror, Torture, United States, Xi Jinping | Leave a comment
Slavery is what Fidel’s revolution was about. Brooking no dissent, he enslaved a nation in the name of eternal class warfare, creating a new elite dedicated to suppressing their neighbors’ rights.
Carlos Eire writes: Dead at last, dead at last. Fidel Castro has shuffled off this mortal coil, at the age of ninety. Unfortunately, his death comes a bit too late—about sixty years too late. Millions of his people had been awaiting this moment for well over half a century. And as we Cubans rejoice, we weep. Our losses over the past six decades have been far too great, and so our glee is far from unbridled.
“Fidel justified his repressive policies by insisting that the Cuban people were incapable of achieving social justice by any other means.”
Slavery is what Fidel’s revolution was about. Brooking no dissent, he enslaved a nation in the name of eternal class warfare, creating a new elite dedicated to suppressing their neighbors’ rights. He pitted Cubans against one another, replacing all civil discourse with invective and intimidation.
“Likewise, many of Fidel’s First-World admirers view Cubans as postmodern equivalents of Rousseau’s noble savage—as primitives who are uncorrupted by civilization and incapable of comprehending Enlightenment notions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—or perhaps as swarthier versions of Mussolini’s unruly Italians, that is, hot-blooded Latin rustics in need of a strong leader who can make their trains run on time.”
Fidel boasted that he was loved by the Cuban people and spoke for us, that he was our very embodiment. But these were some of the boldest of his many big lies. The Cuban people he spoke for were but a monstrous abstraction, a figment that he projected onto the world stage. Flesh-and-blood Cubans had to be forced to attend his interminable speeches, or, as now, his funeral.
“Fidel portrayed those who fled his dystopia as selfish troglodytes. These nonconformists were vilified not just by Fidel but by all those around the world who believed his lies, including many eminent intellectuals, artists, and journalists in free, affluent nations.”
Dissenters were demonized. If you objected to his self-anointing as Maximum Leader or disdained his dystopian vision, two painful choices were open to you. Just two.
You could oppose him. But if you dared, even by murmuring in the dark, you faced imprisonment, torture, or death. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans were brave enough to suffer these consequences, but the world beyond the island’s shores ignored them, even denied their existence.
“Why does the First World display so little indignation over Fidel’s labor camps and prisons, his torture chambers, and the summary executions with which he purchased his shamefully inadequate healthcare and indoctrination programs?”
The other option was to beg for the privilege of banishment. Nearly two million Cubans chose that route, but millions more never got the chance. No one knows how many have died trying to escape by sea without his magnanimous permission.
“Why do so many well-heeled tourists flock to the ruin Cuba has become? Why are so few of them offended by Cuba’s endemic racism, or the apartheid laws that deny ordinary Cubans access to the finest beaches and hotels in their own homeland?”
Fidel portrayed those who fled his dystopia as selfish troglodytes. These nonconformists were vilified not just by Fidel but by all those around the world who believed his lies, including many eminent intellectuals, artists, and journalists in free, affluent nations. Lately, the tyrant even seemed to gain approval from His Holiness, Pope Francis, who paid him a very cordial visit.
[Read the full story here, at First Things]
For the millions of Cubans who remained in Fidel’s kingdom, the losses were even more profound. As they waved tiny Cuban flags at mass rallies and waited in line for necessities with their ration books in hand, as they listened to Fidel’s promises of a very distant glorious future, these Cubans watched others leave by the hundreds of thousands. When nearly two million refugees flee from a small island nation, everyone who remains is touched by loss. The exodus is all the more galling when those who have fled prosper in exile and those who remain become ever more destitute. Read the rest of this entry »
Comunismo Funciona! The Jeep with Fidel Castro’s Ashes Breaks Down, Has to be Pushed
Posted: December 4, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Diplomacy, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Bay of Pigs Invasion, Che Guevara, Communism, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban Revolution, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Funeral, Havana, Marxism, Raúl Castro, Socialism, Soviet Union, United States | Leave a comment
Incident during farewell acts dictator Fidel Castro in Cuba. The jeep carrying the ashes of the Cuban leader, who died last November 25, is broken during the official procession to Santiago de Cuba. The soldiers guarding the vehicle had to push him, creating an unusual image. [Note: Translated from Spanish, Original source here]
The snapshot for the story is a story in acts of remembrance of former prime minister (1959-1976) and President of the Republic of Cuba (1976-2008), which will conclude on Monday with a private and family farewell at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery .
Las cenizas de #FidelCastro tienen que ser empujadas por los militares. Se rompe el jeep que las trasladaba (AP) pic.twitter.com/7LeRKvKwBi
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) December 3, 2016
Before the funeral procession, renamed Freedom Ride, it has traveled over a thousand kilometers across the Caribbean island, including the Moncada Barracks, the starting point of the Cuban Revolution that triumphed in 1959.
Posted: December 1, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, History, Humor, Terrorism | Tags: Communism, Dictatorship, Doctor, Fidel Castro, Havana, Marxism, Miami, PSA, Socialism, Tryanny, vintage | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Cruz: A Dictator is Dead, But His Repressive Legacy Will Not Follow Him to the Grave
Posted: November 30, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, History, Mediasphere, Terrorism | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Cuban exile, Democratic socialism, Dictator, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Florida, Havana, Latin America, Marxism, Mass murder, Miami, One-Party State, Oppression, Raúl Castro, Socialism, Ted Cruz, Tyranny | Leave a comment
“Cuba’s longtime oppressive dictator Fidel Castro is dead. Let me be absolutely clear: We are not mourning the death of some revolutionary romantic, or a distinguished statesman.”
“We’re not grieving for the protector of peace or a judicious steward of his people. Today we are thankful. We are thankful that a man who has imprisoned, and tortured, and degraded the lives of so many is no longer with us. He has departed for warmer climes.”
[VIDEO] Cuba’s State-of-the-Art Universal Health Care Innovations
Posted: November 30, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Global, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Cuban Health Care, Democratic socialism, Fidel Castro, Havana, Health Care, Hospitals, Marxism, Socialism or Death, Universal health care | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Media Praises Castro as ‘Reformer’
Posted: November 30, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, Free Beacon, Havana, media, news, video | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] 3 Ways Bitcoin Is Promoting Freedom in Latin America
Posted: November 29, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Bitcoin, Capital Controls, Caribbean, Currency, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Latin America, Nicolás Maduro, Pope Francis, Raúl Castro, Venezuela | Leave a comment
How bitcoin is allowing Venezuelans to circumvent capital controls, Brazilians to get around tariffs—and might one day improve Latin America‘s overall business climate.
Important Fidel Castro Health Update: Ten Out of Ten Doctors Agree, Condition Fatal
Posted: November 29, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Entertainment, History, Humor | Tags: Communism, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, Havana, Little Havana, Marxism, Miami, Socialism | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] American University Students Prefer Castro Over Trump, ‘Made Endless Possibilities for the Cuban People’
Posted: November 29, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Education, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook | Tags: American University, Barack Obama, Center for a Free Cuba, college, Communism, Cuba, Cubans, Cultural Marxism, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Havana, Justin Trudeau, Marxism, Miami, propaganda, Raúl Castro, Socialism, useful idiot | Leave a comment
Justin Holcomb reports: Some students at American University would prefer Fidel Castro over President-elect Donald Trump and were not afraid to let their voice be heard on at the liberal elite school.
Fidel Castro’s firing squad, fatally enforcing long-term favorability
“I mean, right now I don’t think Donald Trump is very good, and I know that Fidel Castro has done some good things for the world so I’d say he’s proven himself at least in the long term to be more favorable.”
Raud Castro, preparing a Cuban citizen for a personal introduction to Marxist utopia
“I mean, right now I don’t think Donald Trump is very good, and I know that Fidel Castro has done some good things for the world so I’d say he’s proven himself at least in the long term to be more favorable,” one student said…(read more)
Social justice warrior Fidel Castro, displaying his instrument for enforcing endless possibilities.
American University students. Risk of being shot by Trump firing squad: 0%
[VIDEO] DONALD TRUMP, COMMUNIST REVOLUTIONARY: Former Mexican President Compares Trump To Fidel Castro
Posted: November 29, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Global, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism, White House | Tags: Adam MacDonald, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, media, Mexico, news, President Fox, Vincente Fox | Leave a comment
‘His Schedule Doesn’t Permit it’
Posted: November 29, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Canada, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Cubans, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, United States | Leave a comment
Outrage and mockery about Trudeau’s fond words for Castro has threatened to end the Liberal leader’s long honeymoon.
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Andrea Hopkins reports: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not attend the funeral of Fidel Castro, his office said on Monday, days after Trudeau’s warm comments about the late Cuban leader sparked a backlash.
Trudeau referred on Saturday to Castro as a “remarkable leader” and expressed his sorrow at the death of “Cuba’s longest serving president.”
Trudeau acknowledged on Sunday that Castro had been a dictator as political opponents called on him to boycott the funeral.
Outrage and mockery about Trudeau’s fond words for Castro, who had been an honorary pallbearer at the funeral in 2000 of Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has threatened to end the Liberal leader’s long honeymoon.
Noting the “many questions” about whether Trudeau would attend the funeral, spokeswoman Andree-Lyne Halle said in an email the prime minister would skip the event. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Comics, Entertainment, Global, Health and Social Issues, Humor, Politics | Tags: Bay of Pigs, Communism, Cuba, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, Havana, Little Havana, Marxism, Miami, Socialism | Leave a comment
Covert CIA Plot to Wait Until Fidel Castro Dies of Old Age Successful
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Diplomacy, Entertainment, Global, Humor | Tags: Caribbean, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Cuba, Cuban exile, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Little Havana, Raúl Castro, satire, United States | 1 Comment
Langley, VA – A decades-long plot to get Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to pass away peacefully in his sleep has come to fruition, according to a statement from the CIA. “We are proud to announce that our 53 years of patience have finally paid off,” said CIA spokesperson Ryan Trimarchi. “It seems silly in retrospect…(read more)
Source: The Beaverton
James G. Zumwalt: How The New York Times Used Fake News to Help Fidel Castro
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Global, Mediasphere, Terrorism | Tags: Batista, Charles M. Blow, Che Guevara, CNN, Cold War, Communist Party of Cuba, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Democratic Party (United States), Fidel Castro, General Fulgencio Batista, Miami, Raúl Castro, Soviet Union, The New York Times, United States | 1 Comment
There is irony in the convergence of two story lines this month.
James Zumwalt writes: In the aftermath of a contentious U.S. presidential campaign, the first involved concerns over the rise of fake news stories online. As one critic notes, they “proliferate on social media… often shared more than real news is.”
That critic suggests, “To remove the appeal of fake news, people need to value debate and discussion with those who hold opposing views.” Sadly, as the presidential campaign demonstrated, the public leaves its education to the Internet and not debate.
“During a triumphant 1959 visit to New York City, Castro claimed his ‘greatest ploy’ was fooling Matthews. Castro said he only had twenty men left at the time but convinced Matthews he had control of a huge army.”
But such fake news stories are not an evolutionary evil of the Internet. The rise of fake news stories to manipulate public sentiment existed long before the Internet became a gleam in Al Gore’s eye. Late 19thcentury America bore witness to “yellow journalism”—the practice of sensationalizing stories to stir up public sentiment and newspaper sales.
New York Times reporter Herbert Lionel Matthews with Fidel Castro
“When questions surfaced in early 1957 regarding whether Castro was even alive, Fidel agreed to a NYT interview, at his mountain hideout, with reporter Herbert Matthews. Matthews’ article gleefully reported Castro was still alive and the Cuban government was fighting a ‘losing battle’ against him. Matthews described an abundance of activity and troop movements in and out of Castro’s hideout.”
The second storyline this month involved the death of Cuba’s nonagenarian former president and dictator, Fidel Castro, 90, who unabashedly took credit for having long ago fed the New York Times (NYT) fake news.
[Order Armando Valladares‘ book “Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro’s Gulag” from Amazon.com]
In 1952, a coup by General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the democratically elected Cuban government. The following year, Castro and a small group of followers formed “the Movement.” The group undertook sporadic guerrilla operations against Batista.
[Read the full story here, at Breitbart]
By 1957, the Cuban Revolution had stalled. The NYT began publishing a series of pro-Castro articles portraying him as a freedom fighter seeking to restore democracy to the island nation.
Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. holds up four fingers to indicate the four Pulitzer Prizes won by the New York Times, as winners for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize are announced at The New York Times newsroom in New York April 15, 2013. Also pictured are (from L-R): CEO Mark Thompson, Sulzberger, Assistant Managing Editor Susan Chira, Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal (obscured by Chira) and Executive Editor Jill Abramson. REUTERS/Ruth Fremson/Pool
“Despite the NYT’s post-U.S. presidential election demands for more responsibility monitoring fake news, in writing about Castro, its reporting staff failed to get the word. The newspaper pays tribute to the brutal dictator as ‘the fiery apostle of revolution’ who ‘bedeviled 11 American presidents…’ Only buried deep therein is any reference made Castro wielded power ‘like a tyrant.’”
When questions surfaced in early 1957 regarding whether Castro was even alive, Fidel agreed to a NYT interview, at his mountain hideout, with reporter Herbert Matthews. Matthews’ article gleefully reported Castro was still alive and the Cuban government was fighting a “losing battle” against him. Matthews described an abundance of activity and troop movements in and out of Castro’s hideout.
“This salute stands in stark contrast to a book written by the ‘Cuban Solzhenitsyn,’ as Armando Valladares is known, who spent 22 years in the country’s dungeons. Titled ‘Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro’s Gulag’, his book is credited with revealing Cuba’s communist tyranny to the same extent Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago revealed Soviet despotism.”
The articles elevated Castro’s profile, giving him credibility both at home and abroad and helping propel his rise to power. In January 1959, the Batista government fell—and Fidel, the avowed democratic leader, established a revolutionary socialist state. In 1965, the Movement revealed its true colors, becoming the Communist Party.
“His legacy in Cuba and elsewhere has been a mixed record of social progress and abject poverty, of racial equality and political persecution, of medical advances and a degree of misery comparable to the conditions that existed in Cuba when he entered Havana as a victorious guerrilla commander in 1959.”
— The New York Times’ final Castro salute to Fidel Castro
During a triumphant 1959 visit to New York City, Castro claimed his “greatest ploy” was fooling Matthews. Castro said he only had twenty men left at the time but convinced Matthews he had control of a huge army. Matthews’ observations supported this as he wrote, “From the look of things, General Batista cannot possibly hope to suppress the Castro revolt.”
Castro accomplished this ploy by marching “the same group past Matthews several times and also stag(ing) the arrival of ‘messengers’ reporting the movement of other (nonexistent) units.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Ralph Peters: ‘Trudeau Has the Intellectual Heft of Cotton Candy’
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Education, Health and Social Issues, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Canada, Cotton Candy, Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau, media, news, Ralph Peters, video | Leave a comment
[VIDEO] REWIND January 11, 1959: Rebel Leader Fidel Castro on CBS ‘Face the Nation’
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, History, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Caribbean, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista, Little Havana, Miami, Miami Herald, Raúl Castro, United States | Leave a comment
Shortly after leading rebel forces in overthrowing Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro appeared on the Jan. 11, 1959 edition of Face the Nation.
[VIDEO] Montage: American Media Grieve Castro’s Death
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, History, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: ABC, American Media, Bernie Sanders, CNN, Cold War, Communism, Cuba, Cuban Americans, Cuban Revolution, Cubans, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictator, Fidel Castro, Geraldo Rivera, Little Havana, Marxism, Mass Murderer, media, Miami, MSNBC, National Review, NBC, news, NRO, President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, Socialism, video | Leave a comment
In an almost unbelievable video, American members of the media praise ruthless dictator Fidel Castro in the wake of his death.
[VIDEO] Cuban-Americans Humiliated By Obama’s Comments on Castro’s Death
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Global, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Angus Deaton, CNN, Cuba, Cuban Americans, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, Havana, Little Havana, media, Miami, news, video | Leave a comment
Castro, Chavez, and ‘Bad Luck’
Posted: November 28, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Africa, Angola, Barack Obama, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Caribbean, Che Guevara, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Havana, Latin America, Little Havana, Miami, Raúl Castro, The New York Times | Leave a comment
Castro and his ilk showed us that under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.
Robert Heinlein once wrote:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.em
This is known as “bad luck.”
Glenn Reynolds writes: I thought about this statement this weekend, reading two news stories. The first was about the tide of Venezuelans taking to boats to escape Venezuela’s economic collapse. As The New York Times reported, “Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East.”
“Although many among Western political and entertainment elites still think of Fidel Castro fondly, such people are, at best, what Lenin called ‘useful idiots.'”
“But after President Hugo Chávez vowed to break the country’s economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class fled to more welcoming countries in droves, creating what demographers describe as Venezuela’s first diaspora.”
[Read the full story here, at USAToday]
Now, in their absence, things have gotten worse, and it’s poorer Venezuelans — the very ones that Chavez’s revolution was allegedly intended to help — who are starving. Many are even taking to boats, echoing, as the Times notes, “an image so symbolic of the perilous journeys to escape Cuba or Haiti — but not oil-rich Venezuela.”
Well, Venezuela was once rich. But mismanagement and kleptocracy can make any country poor and Venezuela — as is typical with countries whose leaders promise to soak the rich for the benefit of the poor — has had plenty of both. Read the rest of this entry »
Justin Trudeau Backtracks, Explains
Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Humor, The Butcher's Notebook | Tags: Canada, Communism, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau, Left Wing, Marxist Sympathizer, Mass murder, One Party Rule, Prison, Socialism, Torture, Tyranny | Leave a comment
Kim Jong-un Declares 3-Day Mourning for Death of North Korea’s ‘Close Friend and Comrade’ Fidel Castro
Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Barack Obama, Cold War, Cuba, Cuban Missile Crisis, Fidel Castro, Havana, Little Havana, Miami, President of Cuba, Raúl Castro | Leave a comment
North Korea and Cuba maintained close ties throughout the Cold War era. Havana has remained one of Pyongyang’s strongest international allies for over half of the century.
Vasudevan Sridharan reports: North Korea has declared three days of mourning beginning on Monday, 28 November to mark the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Hailing the Cuban revolutionary as a “comrade and close friend” of North Korean people, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also penned a condolence letter to President Raul Castro.
“He was the close friend and comrade of the Korean people who made all efforts to strengthen the friendly and cooperative relations between the two parties, governments and peoples of our two countries and extended firm support and encouragement to our efforts for national reunification and just cause with the invariable revolutionary principle and obligation for over half a century.”
The ruling party’s central seat of power – the presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly and the cabinet had jointly decided that there will be a three-day mourning period – Pyongyang’s state-run mouthpieces say. According to the regime-backed Rodong Sinmun, the North Korea’s top political bodies have decided to “hoist flags at half-mast at major organisations and designated places”.
“Though he passed away, the precious feats he performed will remain forever in the hearts of the peoples of our two countries and the hearts of progressive mankind.”
The death of Castro, who came to power in 1959 ushering in a communist revolution, was announced on Friday, 25 November. Cuba had declared nine days of mourning to commemorate the 90-year-old. Read the rest of this entry »
Artista Cubano Arrested for ‘He’s Gone’ Graffiti Following Fidel Castro’s Death
Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Barack Obama, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Central Intelligence Agency, Cuba, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Havana, Little Havana, Miami, President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, Soviet Union, United States | Leave a comment
Maldonado had reportedly begun to spray-paint the words ‘he’s gone’ along the streets of Havana. Police are reportedly stationed outside his door, preventing anyone from entering the apartment. Maldonado’s mother fears police are planting evidence in his house to keep him detained on false charges.
Frances Martel reports: Cuban secret police have abducted the anti-communist artist Danilo Maldonado, according to his mother, who told the Spain-based Diario de Cuba that he had taken to the streets late Friday to celebrate the death of dictator Fidel Castro.
“They asked the landlady for his key, they broke into his house and took him away. We don’t know where,” María Victoria Machado González said of her son, calling his arrest an “abduction.” “He went out last night to celebrate Fidel Castro’s death, to place signs all over Havana,” she noted.
“They asked the landlady for his key, they broke into his house and took him away. We don’t know where… He went out last night to celebrate Fidel Castro’s death, to place signs all over Havana.”
— María Victoria Machado González
Maldonado had reportedly begun to spray-paint the words “he’s gone” along the streets of Havana. “The images are already circulating” in Cuba, his mother alleged. Police are reportedly stationed outside his door, preventing anyone from entering the apartment. Maldonado’s mother fears police are planting evidence in his house to keep him detained on false charges.
[Read the full story here, at Breitbart ]
Even if they do not plant any evidence, Maldonado’s mother says the artist kept a collection of about 30 political works, all of which could be punishable under communist law.
Maldonado became famous in Havana for his anti-communist street art and served time in prison in 2015 following an attempted art installation in public. In October 2015, Maldonado was arrested carrying two pigs painted with the names “Fidel” and “Raúl” on their backs, in an homage to the novel 1984. He planned to set them loose in a Havana square. Read the rest of this entry »
Fidel Castro Celebrity Funeral: Newt: ‘Under no circumstance…’ Obama: ‘Let’s DO IT!’
Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Diplomacy, Humor, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Castro Funeral, Death of Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro, Joe Biden | Leave a comment
Source: Boston Herald
13 Facts About Fidel Castro’s Cruelty Should Be Etched into His Tombstone
Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Global, History, Politics, Russia, Terrorism, War Room | Tags: Bay of Pigs Invasion, Che Guevara, Cold War, Cuba, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban Revolution, Cubans, Fidel Castro, Florida, Havana, Little Havana, Miami, President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, Soviet Union, United States | 3 Comments
‘Pointing out to such believers that Castro imprisoned, tortured and murdered thousands more of his own people than any other Latin American dictator was usually futile. His well-documented cruelty made little difference, even when acknowledged, for he was judged according to some aberrant ethical code that defied logic.’
Carlos Eire writes: One of the most brutal dictators in modern history has just died. Oddly enough, some will mourn his passing, and many an obituary will praise him. Millions of Cubans who have been waiting impatiently for this moment for more than half a century will simply ponder his crimes and recall the pain and suffering he caused.
“According to Castro and to his propagandists, the so-called revolution was not about creating a repressive totalitarian state and securing his rule as an absolute monarch, but rather about eliminating illiteracy, poverty, racism, class differences and every other ill known to humankind.”
Why this discrepancy? Because deceit was one of Fidel Castro’s greatest talents, and gullibility is one of the world’s greatest frailties. A genius at myth-making, Castro relied on the human thirst for myths and heroes.
[Read the full text here, at the Washington Post]
His lies were beautiful, and so appealing. According to Castro and to his propagandists, the so-called revolution was not about creating a repressive totalitarian state and securing his rule as an absolute monarch, but rather about eliminating illiteracy, poverty, racism, class differences and every other ill known to humankind. This bold lie became believable, thanks largely to Castro’s incessant boasting about free schools and medical care, which made his myth of the benevolent utopian revolution irresistible to many of the world’s poor.
Many intellectuals, journalists and educated people in the First World fell for this myth, too — though they would have been among the first to be jailed or killed by Castro in his own realm — and their assumptions acquired an intensity similar to that of religious convictions.
[ALSO SEE – Fidel Castro and dead utopianism]
[What Fidel Castro Taught Me About the Radical Left]
Pointing out to such believers that Castro imprisoned, tortured and murdered thousands more of his own people than any other Latin American dictator was usually futile. His well-documented cruelty made little difference, even when acknowledged, for he was judged according to some aberrant ethical code that defied logic.
If this were a just world, 13 facts would be etched on Castro’s tombstone and highlighted in every obituary, as bullet points — a fitting metaphor for someone who used firing squads to murder thousands of his own people.
●He turned Cuba into a colony of the Soviet Union and nearly caused a nuclear holocaust.
●He sponsored terrorism wherever he could and allied himself with many of the worst dictators on earth.
●He was responsible for so many thousands of executions and disappearances in Cuba that a precise number is hard to reckon.
●He brooked no dissent and built concentration camps and prisons at an unprecedented rate, filling them to capacity, incarcerating a higher percentage of his own people than most other modern dictators, including Stalin.
●He condoned and encouraged torture and extrajudicial killings.
[Read the full story here, at the Washington Post]
●He forced nearly 20 percent of his people into exile, and prompted thousands to meet their deaths at sea, unseen and uncounted, while fleeing from him in crude vessels.
●He claimed all property for himself and his henchmen, strangled food production and impoverished the vast majority of his people.
●He outlawed private enterprise and labor unions, wiped out Cuba’s large middle class and turned Cubans into slaves of the state.
●He persecuted gay people and tried to eradicate religion.
●He censored all means of expression and communication.
●He established a fraudulent school system that provided indoctrination rather than education, and created a two-tier health-care system, with inferior medical care for the majority of Cubans and superior care for himself and his oligarchy, and then claimed that all his repressive measures were absolutely necessary to ensure the survival of these two ostensibly “free” social welfare projects.
●He turned Cuba into a labyrinth of ruins and established an apartheid society in which millions of foreign visitors enjoyed rights and privileges forbidden to his people.
●He never apologized for any of his crimes and never stood trial for them.
“This bold lie became believable, thanks largely to Castro’s incessant boasting about free schools and medical care, which made his myth of the benevolent utopian revolution irresistible to many of the world’s poor.”
This Kafkaesque moral disequilibrium had a touch of magical realism, for sure, as outrageously implausible as anything that Castro’s close friend Gabriel García Márquez could dream up. For instance, in 1998, around the same time that Chile’s ruler Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London for his crimes against humanity, Cuba’s self-anointed “maximum leader” visited Spain with ample fanfare, unmolested, even though his human rights abuses dwarfed those of Pinochet.
DO-OVER? Trudeau Humiliated for Statement of Condolences in Which He called Mass Murderer Fidel Castro a ‘Remarkable Leader’
Posted: November 27, 2016 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Global, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: Barack Obama, Caribbean, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Florida, Fulgencio Batista, Havana, Little Havana, Miami, Miami Herald, Miami-Dade County, Raúl Castro | Leave a comment
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Fidel Castro was a dictator and he did not intend to minimize the former Cuban leader’s human rights abuses…but then goes on to double down on his statements of heartfelt sympathy and enduring affection for Cuba’s murderous totalitarian dictator.
The prime minister came under fire Saturday after issuing a statement of condolences for Castro in which he described the former president as “a remarkable leader” and family friend. Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, as well as a number of Conservative leadership hopefuls and U.S. Republican senators, lambasted Trudeau for his choice of words.
“On the passing of his death I expressed a statement that highlighted the deep connection between the people of Canada and the people of Cuba.”
— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Trudeau did not back down from the statement when pressed by reporters Sunday in Madagascar, where he is attending la Francophonie summit of French-speaking nations.
“Yes, his accomplishments will be in various tones of grey — some white, some black — but historians will have to decide this. I see no controversy in describing him as a giant of the 20th century.”
— Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard
“There are people who have many memories and who experienced a great deal of difficulty because of what happened in Cuba, and I am not minimizing any of that,” Trudeau said.
Asked by CBC News senior parliamentary reporter Catherine Cullen whether he believes Castro was a dictator, Trudeau replied: “Yes.”
“The fact is Fidel Castro had a deep and lasting impact on the Cuban people. He certainly was a polarizing figure and there certainly were concerns around human rights. That’s something that I’m open about and that I’ve highlighted,” he added.
“But on the passing of his death I expressed a statement that highlighted the deep connection between the people of Canada and the people of Cuba.”
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, who is also at the summit, defended Trudeau, calling his statement about Castro’s death “well-balanced.” Read the rest of this entry »
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A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland
Richard McElligott (Editor), David Hassan (Editor)
School of Sport
McElligott, R., & Hassan, D. (Eds.) (2016). A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland. Oxford.
McElligott, Richard (Editor) ; Hassan, David (Editor). / A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland. Oxford, 2016. 150 p.
@book{0b04c999207c45a6be60565e1525874a,
title = "A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland",
keywords = "Sport, History, Ireland, GAA",
editor = "Richard McElligott and David Hassan",
isbn = "13: 978-1-138-10129-6",
McElligott, R & Hassan, D (eds) 2016, A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland. Oxford.
A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland. / McElligott, Richard (Editor); Hassan, David (Editor).
Oxford, 2016. 150 p.
T1 - A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland
A2 - McElligott, Richard
A2 - Hassan, David
KW - Sport
KW - History
KW - Ireland
KW - GAA
M3 - Anthology
SN - 13: 978-1-138-10129-6
BT - A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland
CY - Oxford
McElligott R, (ed.), Hassan D, (ed.). A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland. Oxford, 2016. 150 p.
Cover of BookFinal published version, 82 KB
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Yates shares his favourite Berlin hidden gems
Not everyone knows what its like to go from a DIY bedroom-pop artist living in NSW, to a full-time producer operating halfway across the globe in Berlin. Yet that’s the case for YATES, an artist whose mix of soulful pop mixes live and electronic elements into something utterly unique. Since being discovered almost by chance in 2014 he’s been carving a niche of pop/soul/r&b tunes with a lot of heart – a sound perfectly encapsulated on his 2016 debut EP ‘Mercury’.
YATES is one of those artists that is constantly evolving, and there’s no better proof of that than his just-dropped EP ‘Holiday Apartment’ Still recognisably Yates, it’s effortlessly eclectic while showing a much more personal side. To celebrate the release of ‘Holiday Apartment’ via Sweat It Out, we asked YATES for his favourite hidden spots in his current home of Berlin, Germany.
A cosy cafe with a retro feel to it. It’s a top spot to get a warm waffle with a scoop of ice-cream and to catch up with some friends. They’re always playing pretty cool tunes in there and there’s no wifi available, which I like. You may have to fight off the odd hungry sparrow eyeing off your waffle or the occasional thirsty wasp sipping at your freshly pressed orange juice, which is all part of the experience.
Oderberger Straße 44, 10435
Weinbergspark
I enjoy setting up a perch here to drink a beer and watch the sun go down.. At the bottom of the hill is a pond and at the top there’s a restaurant called Nola’s with an amazing terrace. If you’re lucky you might catch an outdoor bar open at the back exit of the park. I had my first and probably last hoola hoop disco sesh there.
When you walk in you’ll first notice the cook working away at his craft to the rhythm of greats such as Hotel California and Riders on the Storm. I love the work that has gone into decorating this place which you can also see in the dishes he creates. The cook adds his own special ingredients and uses a nice contrast of colours making the very tasty dishes look dashing.
Kastanienallee 100, 10435 Berlin
Blumen Café
I always find an excuse to walk into these small nursery florist type shops ever since I started decorating my home with plants. If it wasn’t for this, I probably wouldn’t have noticed that you are also more than welcome to take a seat and have a bite to eat there. It’s also guarded by two large tropical parrots.
Klunkerkranich
This is a rooftop location situated on the top of a multi-story carpark, so there’s plenty of space. It has a wonderful view of Berlin and they also run live shows up there. It’s where I met my now good friend Rene Corbett who I worked with very closely on my most recent EP.
Karl-Marx-Straße 66, 12043 Berlin
FEATURE IMAGE BY EMELIE FLOOD
PHOTOS BY YATES
INTRO BY MAX LEWIS
READ MORE HOMETOWN GUIDES HERE
BE GRATEFUL WE’RE IN THE ‘SAME WORLD’ AS THIS NINAJIRACHI AND YATES COLLAB
PETIT BISCUIT TAKES US THROUGH HIS FAVE PLACES IN PARIS
24 HOURS IN TORONTO WITH RALPH
About: Max Lewis
A triple threat; he writes, makes music, and is a dumb bitch.
Lil Halima takes us through the scenic northern Norway
Get to know A.GIRL & her top spots to hang in Western Sydney
Haiku Hands guide us through Sydney’s Inner West
DJ Boring gives us the rundown of his favourite spots in London
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Another fad from England which continues until today. Everyone knows the English infatuation with tea in the 17th and 18th centuries produced every imaginable tea accessory. These accessories included finely made rare wood objects such as tea caddies, tea tables, tea poi, tea carts, etc. all growing very ornate and expensive by use of rare woods like Cuban mahogany, rosewood, and ebony and by skilled craftsmen in every phase of fine woodworking. There were also many tea accessories made of the famous English Sterling. The skillful silversmiths made thousands of tea pots, tea services, tea spoons, tea cups, and everything tea.
The Nutmeg grater fad also reached its peak in the George III period. During this time Nutmeg, which grows in only one area of the world, became very expensive and therefore popular with upper class English gentry. Nutmeg became so popular that the English silversmiths began to make small sterling Nutmeg graters which could be carried in a pocket or purse so the well-to- do person could open the small grater to expose a grate and rub off some nutmeg which fell into the lower section of the sterling case. The lower section was then opened to shake the spice as desired. These small sterling graters became very popular and also became very beautifully designed and decorated. The estimated value of nutmeg graters depends upon condition, decoration and design, and reputation of the maker. They can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars each.
Sugar Cutters
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Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual > Individual Country Listings > Slovenia - Timor-Leste > Syrian Arab Republic (Syria)
Country Conditions for Mailing — Syrian Arab Republic (Syria)
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce administer sanctions that restrict the mailing of items to certain destinations and recipients, including a broad embargo on items to and from Syria. Many shipments to Syria also require the filing of information with the U.S. Census Bureau. Before mailing any items to Syria, mailers should refer to IMM 510, 520, and 530 and to Publication 699, Special Requirements for Shipping Internationally, for additional information.
Butane gas lighters and refills.
Cigarette paper and machines for manufacturing tobacco or cigarettes.
Coins; banknotes; currency notes (paper money); securities of any kind payable to bearer; traveler’s checks; platinum, gold, and silver (manufactured or not); precious stones; jewelry; and other valuable articles.
Dietary supplements.
Footwear of all kinds and parts thereof.
High-frequency radio receivers (above 100 megacycles).
Margarine and other kinds of artificial butter and materials for its manufacture.
Psychotropic substances.
Soap, except shaving soap.
Stockings of all kinds except wool stockings.
Television equipment.
Used articles of military clothing.
Used clothes made of silk or cotton.
All medical preparations must be approved by the Ministry of Health prior to admission, and quantities are limited to 10 packs per shipment.
Mail may be addressed “Syrian Arab Republic” or “Syria.”
The post office of destination should be written in Arabic if possible, as well as in English.
Addressees are required to obtain import licenses for gift shipments exceeding 250 Syrian pounds in value, and for all commercial shipments.
Global Express Guaranteed (210)
Available for Priority Mail Express International merchandise shipments only
See Exhibit 322.2 for individual country merchandise insurance limits. See Notice 123, Price List, for the fee schedule for Priority Mail Express International merchandise insurance coverage.
Correspondence and business papers.
PS Form 2976-B placed inside PS Form 2976-E (plastic envelope). Endorse item clearly next to mailing label as BUSINESS PAPERS.
Merchandise samples without commercial value and not subject to customs duty.
Merchandise and all articles subject to customs duty.
Coins; banknotes; currency notes, including paper money; securities of any kind payable to bearer; traveler’s checks; platinum, gold, and silver; precious stones; jewelry; watches; and other valuable articles are prohibited in Priority Mail Express International shipments to the Syrian Arab Republic.
Reciprocal Service Name: EMS
Country Code: SY
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NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals -- Game 1: Capitals 3 - Rangers 1
The Washington Capitals spotted the New York Rangers a first period goal, but then they stormed back with three of their own to defeat the Rangers, 3-1, at Verizon Center on Thursday night.
The game started as if it would be a low-scoring grind, but the Rangers finally broke through late in the first period. Carl Hagelin got the Rangers on the board first with equal parts hard work and luck, first digging the puck free from John Carlson. Then, Hagelin darted out from behind the Capitals’ net to goalie Braden Hotlby’s left and tried to wrap the puck around the post. The puck spun off Hagelin’s stick through the blue paint and would have done no harm, but it hit John Erskine’s skate and deflected into the back of the net to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 16:44 of the period.
That was how it remained until the Rangers until the Rangers took a penalty early in the second period. Taylor Pyatt took an elbowing penalty at 3:14, giving the Caps a power play. It stunk. The Caps recorded only one ineffectual shot on goal on that power play, but they saw something, and when the Rangers obliged the Caps by taking another penalty barely a minute after the Pyatt penalty expired, the Caps pounced.
It was about getting pucks to the net. It started with Alex Ovechkin dumping the puck into the far corner to goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s left. Nicklas Backstrom was first to it along the wall, and he worked the puck out to Mike Green. The puck took its turn on the sticks of Backstrom, Green, and Mike Ribeiro, eventually making its way back to Green at the top of the offensive zone. Green loaded up for a slap shot, but directed the shot to Lundqvist’s right and off the end wall. The puck caromed back to the edge of the faceoff circle where Alex Ovechkin was waiting to bat it under the right arm of Lundqvist and in to tie the game at 6:59 of the second period.
Late in the period the Caps put the game away with a pair of goals in short order. The first goal in the sequence came on a simple play, well executed. Steve Oleksy backed his way into the Caps’ zone with the puck, allowing the Caps to regroup in the neutral zone. One Cap, though, got behind the Ranger defense, and Oleksy spied him, firing a long lead pass that Marcus Johansson took at the Ranger blue line. Johansson took the puck in behind Ranger defensemen Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh. Johansson pirouetted into the Ranger zone on his own and snapped a shot under Lundqvist’s left arm to give the Caps their first lead of the series, 2-1.
Just 46 seconds later the Caps were on the board again thanks to the gritty work of Mathieu Perreault. First, Perreault outdueled Anton Stralman for a loose puck in the faceoff circle to Lundqvist’s right. Then, having shed Stralman once, Perreault fended off Mats Zuccarello and Stralman to move the puck to Jason Chimera along the left wing wall. Chimera was patient enough to let Brad Richards back off to defend against a pass to the point. When Richards backed off, Chimera turned and sent an off pace shot to the Ranger net that had the look of seeking a rebound or a deflection. There was neither. The puck snuck through Lundqvist’s pads, and the Caps had a 3-1 lead heading to the second intermission.
For the Caps, the third period was a matter of playing smart and minimizing Ranger opportunities. The Caps managed both, leaving the rest in the hands of Braden Holtby, who stopped all 12 shots he faced in the period to seal the win, 3-1, and give the Caps a 1-0 lead in the series.
-- Only three times in their last 13 games of the regular season did the Rangers face more than two shorthanded situations. The five they faced in Game 1 was the first time they allowed that many to the Caps in a playoff game since giving the Caps seven power play chances in a 4-0 loss to the Caps in Game 5 of the 2009 Eastern quarters.
-- Alex Ovechkin’s goal gave him sole possession of the franchise record for career power play goals in the playoffs. He had been tied at 30 goals with Peter Bondra.
-- The Rangers tilted the ice severely in the Caps’ direction, once they got their skates working. They were outshot by the Caps, 9-0, over the first eight minutes, but they finished the game out-attempting the Caps, 79-53, and outshot the Caps by a 36-22 margin after their slow start.
-- In the game within a game, score it “Braden Holtby: 1, Rick Nash: 0.” Nash recorded eight shots on goal (16 attempts), but failed to record a point.
-- Anybody have Steve Eminger leading the Rangers (and tied with Troy Brouwer for the Caps) in hits with seven? He had those seven hits in less than ten minutes of ice time.
-- It’s hard to know if the first line was efficient, opportunistic, or plain lucky. The Ovechkin-Backstrom-Johansson trio managed only four even strength shots on goal for the game, Johansson getting the only even strength goal.
-- Mike Green gets the all-you-can-eat buffet coupon… an assist, plus-1, three shots on goal, nine shot attempts (team high), two hits, three takeaways, three blocked shots. The only thing he did not do was take a faceoff.
-- Braden Holtby gets marks for using the whole net – and just as important, the pipes – in tending goal. He had a Carl Hagelin shot beat him in the third period, only to find the crossbar, and he pinned another shot against the right post with his blocker shortly thereafter (a shot that was reviewed) to prevent another goal.
-- Speaking of Holtby, his blocker stop of a Hagelin breakaway early in the second period was probably the pivotal point of the game. It was an indication that Holtby was sharp, probably sharper than Lundqvist at the other end.
-- It should escape no one’s notice that Alex Ovechkin was out on the ice in the game’s last minute. True, if it was a one-goal lead he very well might not have been out there, but it was a little thing that showed trust in him to play responsibly in his own end.
-- Speaking of which, a nice block of a Rick Nash shot by Ovechkin with less than four minutes left and the game still in doubt.
-- Joel Ward had a quiet – very quiet – 8:06 of ice time, only a lone takeaway marking his line on the score sheet. But quiet is good as Ward gets his skating legs under him for what could be a long series.
In the end… It could be a long series. That is the recent history of these teams. But the Caps now have the shorter path to the second round, having won Game 1. On the other hand, it is first to “four,” not first to “one,” and the Caps have merely held serve. Both teams can take something from this game. The Rangers dominated possession for long stretches after a slow start. The Caps were opportunistic and made the most of those opportunities. Rick Nash was beastly, if not well rewarded, while Alex Ovechkin had a more well-rounded game than the usual suspects in the media give him credit for.
If there was a difference in this one it was that Henrik Lundqvist did not have an especially good game. Given who he is, one could have expected him to stop each of the three Caps shots that resulted in goals. The Chimera goal was uncharacteristically soft on his part. At the other end, Braden Holtby was sharp, technically not beaten cleanly on a shot from a Ranger stick (the only goal scored as a deflection off a skate). The Caps and their fans would just as soon this continue, but a seven-game series is not seven chapters that repeat one another. It is a story of twists and turns. And this was just the first chapter. Still, it’s a nice story so far.
Labels: 2012-2013 nhl season, 2012-2013 postgame, 2013 nhl playoffs, 2013 stanley cup playoffs, new york rangers, NHL, the peerless prognosticator, Washington Capitals
NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals -- Game 1: Ca...
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Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry – 08
On her way to her father’s former martial arts school, Ayase recounts to Ikki and Stella the story of how he came to end up “mortified” and comatose. His school fell to the whims of Kurashiki Kuraudo. This wasn’t the first school the pointy-toothed punk brought down with his raw brutality.
The last words her father said before he passed out were “I’m Sorry,” but these past two years it’s been Ayase who was sorry she didn’t step in and fight on her father’s behalf, even if it meant she’d have been the one to end up that way. After all, his school is all about pride and protecting.
Aside from that additional insight into the plight of the Ayatsuji Itto-ryuu School, this episode wastes no time at the pool or in the showers, or even with fighting the front-line grunts in Karaudo’s operation.
Flanked by two tough, lovely young ladies, Ikki marches right into the dojo, challenges Karaudo to a duel for control of the school on Ayase’s behalf, and drops the IDs of the guys whose asses he just beat. We didn’t see that fight, but we didn’t need to. The fight that matters is this one.
Not needing any further proof he’s worthy of fighting him, Karaudo stands up and summons his sword, Orochimaru (which is the name of a Naruto arch-villain and happens to resemble Renji’s zanpakuto Zabimaru in Bleach, BTW). It’s a sick-looking blade that can take any form, but more important is just how daggone quick Karaudo is.
While he boasts about how great his sword is, laughs a lot, and bares his silly pointy teeth, Karaudo at least avoids threatening Ayase or Stella, or spewing any other kind of assholish trash talk. This is all about the fight.
Ikki quickly determines Karaudo’s true weapon against the Last Samurai wasn’t just due to his strength or brutality or swordsmanship, but the ridiculously fast reflexes he was simply born with.
He calls the characteristic (not technique) “Marginal Counter”, and it’s the thing he’s exploited in order to successfully bring down school after school, as if to say “all your technique and practice, all your philosophy and discipline, is nothing compared to my raw talent.” He’s the rare bad guy on shows like this that’s actually justified in his arrogance.
But while he’s a tough customer, he’s not flawless, and while he probably didn’t expect going into the fight that a stiff like Ikki would survive long enough to discover his weakness (lack of stamina), he expected even less that Ikki would be having as much fun as he did. The two fighters actually reach a kind of understanding with each other in the fight, making a connection through the mutual fun they’re having that would have been impossible with words or other actions.
At the same time, Stella starts to realize that maybe it wasn’t Karaudo alone who brought Ayase’s father’s school down, but the burden Kaito bore as the leader of the school. At his point in his life, he just didn’t have the glint in his eye or the smirk on his face to defeat Karaudo. But Ikki’s a different story.
But once Ikki has dodged and blocked and parried enough of his attacks and gotten him good and winded, Ikki breaks out Ten-i-muho, the finishing move Kaito once tried on him years ago. Karaudo is wounded, admits defeat, and relinquishes the school, but he’s already looking ahead to Seven Stars, where he now knows he can’t let a battle with Ikki go on too long.
Ayase, meanwhile, who felt so helpless when her father went down, and felt so ashamed when Ikki used Ten-i-Muho so flawlessly, is rebuked by Ikki, who tells her the only reason he was able to use it was because she herself had mastered it so well. He merely stole her skill. She’s a true Ayatsuji Ikki-ryuu successor, and always was, and it’s her duty and honor to re-open the school.
With that, Ikki calls it “Case Closed,” he and Stella hold hands (I loved her line before about Ikki being the “right guy to chase”) until an eavesdropping Alice and Shizuku reveal themselves, sore that they were barely in this “Sword Eater” arc at all. But that was for the best, as it gave Ikki, Stella, and Ayase’s story room to breathe. Speaking of breathing, Ayase’s father eventually wakes up, so happy ending all ’round.
Combined with the cementing of Karaudo’s role as worthy (if uncomplicated) villain, this wasn’t a bad episode of RKC at all.
Author: sesameacrylic
Zane Kalish is a staff writer for RABUJOI. View all posts by sesameacrylic
Author sesameacrylicPosted on Sat, 21 Nov 2015 Categories Anime Reviews, Fall 2015, Rakudai Kishi no CavalryTags a tale of worst one, advancing, alice, ayatsuji ayase, ayatsuji kaito, bested, chivalry of a failed knight, duel, epic battle, 落第騎士の英雄譚, having fun, irregular guarding, itto-ryu, jealous, kurashiki kuraudo, kurogane ikki, marginal counter, martial arts, orochimaru, reflexes, seven stars, stamina, stella vermillion, swordsmanship, ten-i-muho, the last samurai, training
2 thoughts on “Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry – 08”
Cuvie says:
Sat, 21 Nov 2015 at 18:19
I like how they both pass out once they get out of sight from each other
kumashock says:
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 at 10:09
A nice tight and economical episode apart from the usual imouto pushiness at the end.. Scoring it 8 feels about right for this episode.
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Tag: patents
PSYCHO-PASS 2 – 08
We get a double-helping of investigations this week, as Mika conducts her own from the MoE archives while Professor Saiga gets the straight story abotu Kamui Kirito from Dr. Mazusaki. Mika and Saiga learn the same thing by different methods: Kamui wasn’t just the only survivor, but the subject of an unprecedented medical procedure that implanted parts of all 184 of the children who died in the plane crash — including seven of their brains — into Kamui, resulting in a Sybil-proof “compound person.” The Togane Foundation holds all the patents for that procedure.
This collection of body and brain parts is a fascinating concept, and very much akin to Sybil’s own collection of brains. Kamui isn’t just one person anymore, you see; and he’s far more than the sum of those parts.
Mazusaki takes full opportunity of his wise audience of Saiga (and Akane) and doesn’t hesitate to spill the beans, including his personal reason for believing in and supporting Kamui, who is essentially a Frankenstein’s monster. The reason is, Kamui showed him the way to clear his psycho-pass and saved him from ruin. That, and Kamui isn’t just after revenge, but the total upheaval of society, starting with Sybil’s downfall.
In an interesting scene with Saiga, Togane remarks that Saiga is the opposite of Kamui, in that he darkens rather than clears psycho-passes, which he deems more than a skill, but a talent. Because that talent deprives Saiga of his freedom in a Sybil-controlled society, Togane imagines it must be less than ideal for Saiga to have to depend on someone with an unusually clear psycho-pass — Akane. Saiga turns it around on Togane, who registered the highest crime coefficient of all time, now an enforcer beholden to the MWPSB.
Mika continues to tap away in her archive alcove, and the more dirt she finds, the more she worries about her own psycho-pass getting clouded (a highly prescient concern). Akane and Togane then get a scene together after a false alarm at her apartment, where Togane tells her she’s a born detective, with all the pros and cons that comes with. It’s a pretty tense scene even though we know Togane won’ do anything (yet), just because we know how obsessed he is.
What’s truly enlightening about this episode, though, is Mika proving her salt as an investigator, after so many weeks of incompetence. She connects Togane’s mother to Kamui and comes up with the conclusion that Kamui is seeking revenge against the Togane Foundation.
Knowing Togane Sakuya’s history with turning inspectors into enforcers, she also concludes that Akane is his next “experiment” (perhaps his toughest nut to crack yet). His goal is to turn her black, meaning Togane is just like Saiga in being the opposite of Kamui…only Togane turns people black for sport; Saiga does it unintentionally.
She wraps up her report with a recommendation to dismiss or suspend Tsunemori Akane, on the grounds that Togane’s fixation on her, as well as her reckless actions (which have, by the way, cost lives) represent an existential threat to the MWPSB that must be dealt with.
Little did Mika know hitting “send” wouldn’t be sealing Akane’s fate, but her own.
Kasei summons her and congratulates her on her report, but also regrets to report that Mika stepped in the wrong shit and was led right into a trap designed to stamp out anyone who digs too deep into Sybil’s secrets. Togane sidles up behind her with a gun and restrains her, and addresses the chief as “Mom”. That’s right: Kasei is Togane’s mom, whose body died, but whose brain became a part of Sybil.
The mother lets the son do what he wants with Mika, which for Sakuya means using her as a guinea pig for the future eventuality of revealing the truth about Sybil to the public. Obviously, this is the absolute last thing a perfect citizen like Mika wants, and while I’ve never sympathized with her more than this week, part of me also thought “Well, that’s what you get for trying to get Akane fired behind her back!”
Had Mika gone to Akane instead of Kasei, she wouldn’t be in this predicament. But instead Mika stayed true to her character and fell victim to resentment and vanity. I haven’t said this before, and I still think she’s a tool, but still: Poor Mika!
Author braveradePosted on Thu, 27 Nov 2014 Fri, 28 Nov 2014 Categories Anime Reviews, Fall 2014, Psycho-Pass 2Tags サイコパス, compound person, detective, dominator, dr masuzaki, enforcers, ginoza nobuchika, holos, inspectors, interrogation, kamui kirito, kogami shinya, kunizuka yayoi, latent criminals, lethal eliminator, lone survivor, mwpsb, organ transplants, patents, plane crash, police work, professor, psychopass, saiga jouji, shimotsuki mika, sybil system, the truth, togane foundation, togane sakura, togane sakuya, touma kouzaburou, trap, tsunemori akane2 Comments on PSYCHO-PASS 2 – 08
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Tag Archives: colonial ethnology
On the origin of the Punjabi Khatris
12/05/2009 Blogs (Articles)Arora, Bhatia, Bunjai, caste system, Char-ghar, colonial ethnology, DNA fingerprinting, Khatri, Kochhar, Mohyal Brahmins, Parshuram, Punjabi, Sarasvat Brahmins, social anthropology, SoodRajesh Kochhar
This essay first describes how the question of Punjabi Khatri identity arose as part of colonial ethnology. It then briefly reviews the structure and the legends. Finally a hypothesis is proposed to explain the origin of the Khatri caste and its relationships:
i. Persons of Greek extraction who had already been Persianized and were located in the north-west India were absorbed by the ( upper) Punjab Kshatriya clans. Khatri, Arora and Sood are products of this alliance.
ii. These Greeks carried a taint because they were of mixed pedigree,ate beef and otherwise also did not submit themselves to Brahminical discipline.
iii. The taint was transferred to the Punjab Kshatriya clans who accepted them in marriage.
iv. Khatris in Punjab were able to enlist Brahmin support for themselves and self-consciously insisted on calling themselves Khatri.
v. Their brethren who migrated to Punjab hills were not so fortunate. Since the dominant position there was held by the Rajputs, and since Brahmin orthodoxy was strong , they were pushed down in the hierarchy and dubbed Sood. Note that both Khatri and Sood are derived from varna names.
vi. For some reason, Aroras split from the Khatris and established matrimonial alliances in lower Punjab and Sind.
vii. In course of time, structure appeared within the Khatri caste, which loosely split into Char-ghar and Bunjai. From among the later, Sarin and Khukhrain became autonomous.
It should be possible to test or refine the hypothesis by carrying out DNA tests on carefully selected population samples drawn from various castes, sub-castes and clans
Punjabi Khatris are a numerically small but otherwise successful and influential caste group. Many students of current affairs probably know that the community has contributed two prime ministers to India: Inder Kumar Gujral and Dr Manmohan Singh who does not use his Kohli surname.
Though their caste appellation is obviously derived from Kshatriya, denoting the ancient Indian warrior class, the Khatris have traditionally been engaged in professions associated elsewhere with Banias and Kayasthas. They have thus been predominantly though not exclusively traders, merchants and bankers as well as administrative and revenue officials.
From their original habitat in (the undivided) Punjab, the Khatris spread eastwards as far as West Bengal and Orissa and southwards into Gujarat. One of the biggest landowners in the erstwhile Bengal presidency was the Raja of Burdwan, a Punjabi Khatri from the Kapur clan whose ancestor had come over in the mid 17th century as a petty revenue official. The Mahtabs of Orissa are also believed to be of Khatri extraction.
Colonial ethnology
Punjabi Khatris became conscious of their caste identity about 125 years ago. The British with their fetish for categorization and documentation felt that all extant Indian castes should be fit into the Vedic framework of the four varnas. “It was decided by the Government of India in 1885 to make a comprehensive field survey for precise information about the way of life, manners and customs, rituals, marriage practices etc. of the tribes, castes, sub-castes of the country for better administration and ethnographic research.” The task was assigned to a Bengal Indian Civil Service Officer, Herbert Hope Risley, who in 1891-92 published his The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, after “six years of intensive study and survey”. Much to the chagrin of the Khatris through out north India, Risley declared that “If then, it is at all necessary to connect the Khatris with the ancient fourfold system of castes, the only group to which we can affiliate them is the Vaisyas” ( quoted in Seth 1905:iii).
This was unacceptable to the Khatris for whom the villain of the piece was “One Babu Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, M.A., of Bengal”. Risley had based his conclusion on the study by Bhattacharya who in turn was alleged to have deliberately degraded the Khatris “ under the influence of a personal grudge against the Burdwan Raj, publicly attributed by the Honourable Raja Banbihari Kapur, Manager of the State, in his speech delivered before the Khatri Conference at Bareilly, in June 1901” ( Seth 1905:i).
The Khatris marshalled a whole lot of evidence in favour of their higher social status and, wishing to be suitably classified in the 1901 census, submitted a “manuscript volume of about 300 pages of foolscap, dealing with the question in detail” to the census superintendent for North West Province and Oudh (corresponding to the present Uttar Pradesh). The response of the authorities was rather unexpected. It was now proposed to classify “the Khattris, the Kurmis and the Kayasthas” all in a new group called “Castes allied to Kshatriyas who are considered to be of high social standing , though their claim is not universally admitted” (Seth 1905:viii). This “night-mare of impending social degradation” propelled Khatris into concerted action. A three-day conference of “more than four hundred representatives of the numerous Khattri Sabhas, Committees and Associations scattered over the country” was held in Bareilly in June 1901 under the chairmanship of Raja Banbihari Kapur (referred to above).The Khatri leadership was eventually able to convince the British authorities that “the Khattris are generally believed to be the modern representatives of the Kshatriyas of Hindu tradition” (Seth 1905: xiv).
It is noteworthy that the debate centred on the position of Khatris vis-à-vis Vaishyas , Kayasthas and other castes in Bengal and ( what is now ) Uttar Pradesh rather than in the original Khatri habitat, Punjab.
The results of the campaign were summarized in a 1905 book “A Brief Ethnological Survey of the Khattris” written by Moti Lal Seth, deputy inspector of schools and member Khattri Hitkari Association, Agra. This remains one of the primary sources of information on Khatris. A valuable additional and more general source is the three-volume Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and the North West Frontier Province, compiled by a British civil servant Horace Arthur Rose, superintendent of Punjab census operations. The Glossary is based on Punjab census reports of 1881 and 1891 prepared by Denzil Charles Jeff Ibbetson and Edward Douglas Maclagen respectively . It also “embodies some of the materials collected in the Ethnological Survey of India which was begun in 1900, under the scheme initiated by Sir Herbert Risley”.
It must be stated at the outset that in the following, the cultural and geographical setting, rules of endogamy and exogamy as well as hierarchical ordering, etc., that are described here are as they obtained a century ago, even though present tense is employed . There is no implicit approval or disapproval of any practice that is reported. Needless to say, various social groups are far more flexible now than they were in the past. The changes have been particularly rapid after the partition.
A caste is defined by rules of endogamy. It comprises a number of sub-castes or clans which practice exogamy. People do not marry within their clan; they marry into other clans within the caste. The social and ritual status of a caste is assigned by the priestly class. Non-acceptance by the Brahmins of uncooked food and drinking water from a caste group would place it way down on the hierarchical ladder. (Since food is grown by castes ranked low, uncooked food can be accepted.) One of the principal arguments proffered by the Khatris in support of their claim for a high social status was that the Sarasvat Brahmins accepted cooked food from them.
Within related castes, daughters are not given in marriage to clans deemed lower. There is a reason for that. Socially, the girl’s side ranks lower than the boy’s. Marrying a girl from a lower- ranking clan re-enforces this pattern. But if a higher-ranking girl was married off beneath her level, the rules of hierarchy would become fuzzy. (It is noteworthy that the two daughters of Emperor Shah Jahan, Roshan Ara and Jahan Ara, remained unmarried. Shah Jahan is probably the only Mughal Emperor whose all children are from the same mother.)
The varna system that prevailed in very ancient times was a simple one. The current caste system is far too complex to be related to the varna system in any straight forward manner. Brahmins and Banias are probably the only two caste groups that conform to the ancient varna categories.
Perusal of a Sanskrit dictionary would reveal that many castes formed through intermarriages between various varnas. Thus Modak is described as a “ mixed tribe” that “ sprung from a Kshatriya father and Sudra mother” ( Apte 1970:449 ). Also people who came into India from outside at different times were obviously accommodated into the caste system. Castes have split; new castes have been created; and there are examples of vertical mobility. People have migrated within the country and carried their caste identity with them. But the status assigned to them in their new setting depended on the extant power structure and availability of slots. While we try to created the big picture, we should keep in mind caste equations were primarily local.
It is not possible to construct socio-history of any caste group, because of total absence of authenticated source material. There are a large number of legends. It is difficult to say when these legends were created and what factual information they contain. Many legends are a recent creation. When communities prosper and become influential, they seek to upgrade their status retrospectively. There is a widespread tendency to trace the origin of castes, sub-castes and family names to ancient texts. Nobody has ever attributed the origin of their family or clan name to a dishonorable act by their ancestors!
If a group was alienated from the main body, it must necessarily have been small to begin with. It would however grow through marriage alliances elsewhere. Since a caste is endogamous, it must attain a certain minimum size for maintaining its identity. If it becomes too big it must split.
It is ironical that the quest for a higher social status within Indian society required approval from the colonial rulers. Since the Europeans were obsessed with the Sanskrit India, upper-caste Indian themselves went overboard in linking themselves to ancient India, as if there were no intermediary evolutionary stages between the remote antiquity and the colonial present.
The remaining part of this essay is organized as follows. We first review the structure within the Khatri caste and then examine its relationship to other castes (Arora, Bhatia and Sood) which are, or claim to be, related. Aroras are recognized as coming from the same ethnic stock as Khatris but are ranked lower, while Bhatias have always been considered to be separate. Soods, residing in Punjab hills, have not figured in the reckoning. I shall however argue that they are probably closer to Khatri-Arora than hitherto conceded.
I shall then present my own hypothesis on the origin of the Khatri caste and also suggest some specific DNA tests to test the hypothesis.
Aroras
Aroras like the Khatris are urbanite and engaged in similar professions. The Aroras are far more numerous than the Khatris and spread over much larger territory. The Khatris were confined to upper Punjab while the Aroras inhabited not only upper Punjab but also lower Punjab and Sind. In the upper Punjab, the Aroras were more concentrated towards the west while the major Khatri concentration was between the rivers Ravi and Beas. Satluj was the eastern boundary for both. Interestingly, the Bania concentration lay towards the east of Satluj. The absence of Banias in Punjab proper and made it possible for Khatris and Aroras to take up the former’s profession. It may be noted in passing that the upper Punjab Aroras are largely Sikh while their southern counterparts are Hindu. The Khatris however are mostly Hindus. This is interesting in view of the fact that Sikh Gurus were all Khatri ( see below).
Structure within the caste
The primary division among the Khatris is between Char-ghar or Char-jati ( four-clans) and Bavanjai or Bunjai ( from bavinja, 52 in Punjabi). The sub – castes comprising the Char-ghar are Kapoor, Khanna, Malhotra or Mehra, and Seth. In Uttar Pradesh , Malhotra is known as Mehrotra and Seth and Tandon are equivalent. The total number of Bunjai sub-castes is of course much higher than 52. The relationship between these two groups is non-symmetrical. The Char-ghars marry their daughters among themselves but condescendingly accept daughters-in–law from among the Bunjai. Since the Bunjai are a party to this custom, this means that they accept a lower position vis–a-vis the Char-ghar on the social totem pole.
Normally while arranging the marriage of a boy or a girl, the partner should not be chosen from the clan of either the father or the mother. However the Char-ghars, because of the small number of constituent clans, do not follow this dictum in entirety. While the father’s clan is kept out in toto, only the closely related part of mother’s clan is excluded so that two and a half clans are available for striking a matrimonial alliance within the group. For this reason, Char-ghar are also known as Dhai-ghar (Dhai means two and a half) (Ibbetson quoted in Seth 1905:175). It would thus be erroneous to consider Dhai-ghar and Char-ghar as distinct entities as is sometimes done.
There are in addition groups known as 5-jati, 6-jati or 12-jati ( Sometimes the word jati is replaced by ghar). They seem to represent marriage – driven clustering among contiguously placed clans. They have no other significance. The Khatri structure as recorded by Seth ( 1905) and Rose (1911) is over-constructed.
It is a matter of immense proud for the Khatri community that the Sikh Gurus were all Khatris. Guru Nanak was a Bedi; Guru Angad Trehan; and Guru Amar Das Bhalla. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, Guru Ram Das, a Sodhi. All the subsequent Gurus came from the same family. Bichitra Natak names Rama’s sons Lava and Kush as ancestors of Sodhi and Bedi clans respectively ( Seth 1905: 61-62).
There are two offshoots of the Bunjai, namely Khukhrain (spelt variously) and Sarin. The Khukhrain are said to be descendents of Khatris who “joined the Khokhars in rebellion and whom other Khatris were afraid to marry” ( Rose 1911:513). “This group consisted of 8 sections originally”: Anand, Bhasin, Chaddha, Kohli, Sabharwal, Sahni, Sethi and Suri. To these “Chandok have been affiliated in Peshawar, and in Patiala the Kannan section is said to belong to this group” ( Rose 1911 II:509). Seth ( 1905: 215-216) inserts Kari (?) into the list, which is difficult to identify. Ghai are also said to be Khukhrain. According to Wikipedia and web sites maintained by the Khukhrains, they were predominantly located in the area between rivers Jhelum and Chenab with the town of Bhera as their main centre. Interestingly Mohyal Brahmins, rather than the Sarasvats, officiated as their priests.While the isolation of the Khukhrain was at least in part due to geography, the separation of Sarin came about for reasons of social orthodoxy.
Allaudin Khalji
It is said that the “ entire organization” of the Khatris “ underwent a complete change” in the time of Sultan Allauddin Khalji ( r. 1296-1316) on the question of widow remarriage ( Seth 1905 :171). On the death of a large number of Khatri soldiers, a royal proposal was made for remarrying the young war widows. The proposal was eventually abandoned because of vehement opposition from within the community. A small band of Khatris who had supported the proposal were isolated as Sarins. For the rest, the agitation created a social hierarchy was created ; the stronger the opposition the higher the status.
Interestingly, Seth’s account (Seth 1905: 171-175) is couched in modern idiom. One gets the distinct impression that he is backdating his own campaign against the colonial ethnologists! Sample the following: “The subject became the common topic of the day in all Khatri households…monstrous Khattri meetings were held in all parts of the country; and party after party began to pour into the capital”. “Crowded meetings were held at Delhi to submit protests against the proposal to the Emperor; a deputation waited on the Durbar to represent the case… The excitement became a mania and the mania a frenzy”. The royal supporters “could only get a limited number of signatures to what we may call The Khattri Widow Remarriage Bill” (Seth 1905:171-173).
According to Seth, this is when hierarchical ordering within the Khatris was created. “The primary movers of the agitation were considered to be the brightest jewels of their race and given the now proud title of dhai ghars”. They were followed by the Char- ghar, 12-ghar and the Bunjai ( Seth 1905:174).
There are many problems with this story. While the episode may well explain the isolation of the Sarins, it cannot explain the structure within the community in a satisfactory manner. As we have already seen, Dhai-ghar do not have an identity distinct from the Char-ghar, and 12-ghar.etc., do not have a separate entity. It is not clear why social leadership in the hands of the Char-ghar should lead to their refusing to marry their daughters into the Bunjai. Significantly, there does not appear to be any mention of the episode in the Sultanate chronicles of the time. One wonders whether it was an historical event at all.
Kochhars: a case study
It may be instructive to narrate the story of birth of a clan preserved as oral history by the clan itself. A girl was married into the Nanda family . A disaster struck her parents’ family which killed all its members except for her little brother. This orphaned boy was brought up in his married sister’s household . The boy became the progenitor of a new clan, which was named Kochhar for the following reason. The little boy was carried by his sister on her side lap ( called kuchhad in Punjabi).The rescue took place on Baisakhi day which is celebrated as the founders’ day by the Kochhars. As part of the commemoration, Dadi svaad da poorha is cooked, as a homage to a holy man who fed the brother-sister duo on their foot journey. Since now the Nandas became the foster parents of the Kochhars, they would not intermarry. Notably, the Nandas do have an assigned Gotra as can be expected from an old clan, but Kochhar have none.
Although the Kochhars do not carry any living memory of the original sub-caste of their progenitor, according to Rose ( 1911 II:522), he was a Seth. If this be true, it is a remarkable piece of information. The Kochhar as also the Nanda now belong to the lower-ranking Bunjai while the Seth are from the Char-ghar. The creation of the Kochhar clan thus belongs to an era when a Seth girl could be married to a Nanda. Beri are said to be an off-shoot of Chopra ( Rose 1911:517), although details are not known.
Khatri – Arora divide
Khatris claim that they are the survivors of Parshuram’s anti-Kshatriya campaigns. Their ancestors took shelter with a Vaishya friend while their purohits, the Sarasvat Brahmins, interceded on their behalf with Parshuram who in turn spared their life on the condition that they give up arms and take to trade ( Seth 1905:53).
There is another version of the story. After exterminating the Kshatriyas, Parshuram came looking for pregnant women who had taken shelter with Sarasvat Brahmins. The hosts declared the Kshatriya women to be their own daughters and as a proof thereof partook food cooked by the Khatri women ( Seth 1905:64).
This legend is hard to accept at face value. Parshuram belonged to the Bhrigu clan and is said to have lived some 30 generations before Rama and 60 generations before Krishna. According to the Puranas, the target of his wrath were not all Kshatriyas but a specific section called the Haihaya. Accounts of Parshuram’s battles are grossly exaggerated. Surely there were Kshatriyas, including the Haihaya, in the post-Parshuram period (See Pargiter (1922) for details). As far as the Khatri community is considered, if it had taken to trade that early , it is unimaginable that the Kshatriya label would have stuck to it. This legend runs counter to the one cited above which makes the Sodhi and the Bedi direct descendents of Rama. It is very likely that the Parshuram legend is a back formation consistent with known Khatri attributes.
While the Khatris escaped Parshuram’s wrath through the intervention of their purohits, allegedly the would-be Aroras saved their skin by claiming that they were not Kshatriyas but some others (Aur in Hindi).They were accordingly dubbed Aroras and made to constitute a separate endogamous group.
The legend must have been influential in its time because it succeeded in putting the Aroras on the back foot. The Aroras also trace their origin to Parshuram’s time, but claim that their eponymous king Arur truthfully told Parshuram that he indeed was a Kshatriya. The sage was pleased to spare and bless him. The logic here seems to be rather convoluted. If Parshuram could spare Arur for telling the truth, why did he exterminate the others?
No matter when and why the Khatri – Arora split occurred, it must have taken place in the upper Punjab where the Khatris lived. Once the Aroras were refused matrimonial alliances by the Khatris, lower Punjab and Sind were probably added to the Arora fold through marriages. The legend, no matter how unhistorical, does convey the important information that the Aroras and Khatris are accepted as being ethnically the same people, and that they separated before structure developed among the Khatri caste.
I now propose a hypothesis to explain their origin. It would seem that the insistence of the Punjabi Khatris to flaunt their Kshatriya antecedents was a defensive act, whose purpose was to divert attention from an un-Kshatriya taint they carried, This taint , I would like to suggest , was an alliance with the settlers of Greek extraction. It should be kept in mind that what have been called Indo-Greeks had already been Persianized.
Indo-Greeks
Contrary to general perception, north-west India’s acquaintance with Greek elements began not with the Macedonian king Alexander’s invasion ( 326 BC) but two centuries previously during the Achaemenid empire of Iran which at its peak extended from Indus in the east to the Aegean Sea in the west. During the period 546-448 BC, the Persians made repeated efforts to annex Greece. While they were thwarted in their attempts to capture the mainland, they were able to subjugate the Greek states in Asia Minor, including Ionia (from which the Sanskrit term Yavana is believed to come).
One of the consequences of the intermittent Greco-Persian wars was the establishment of Greek settlements in the eastern parts of the Achaemenid empire that is in and to the north of the Hindu Kush region. There were two type of settlers. For some, Hindu Kush was a safe haven. They had earned the wrath of their compatriots by collaborating with the invaders and therefore had to be shifted out for their own safety. For others, Hindu Kush was a Siberia. They had valiantly raised the banner of revolt against the invaders and were consequently deported. In course of time both these types of settlers married locally and partially de-Hellenized themselves.
When Alexander encountered them, he judged them by the actions of their ancestors. Thus citizens of the small hill state of Nysa ( between rivers Kabul and Indus) were treated with consideration , while the Branchidae`( located probably between Balkh and Samarqand) were said to be massacred because their ancestors had yielded up the treasure of the temple of Apollo at Didyma near Miletus to Xerxes ( Narain 1957: 3).
There were pockets of Greek influence in the Punjab plains as well. Greek historians mention Alexander’s friendly encounter with a petty king Sophytes, who either ruled the territory between rivers Indus and Jhelum or, what is more likely, between Jhelum and Chenab. Direct proof of Sophytes’ Greek extraction/ connection has come from the discovery of a silver drachma.
A notable feature of the kingdom of Sophytes was that it attached “uncommon value” to physical beauty. While contracting marriage, the people “did not seek an alliance with high birth but made their choice by the looks, for beauty in the children was highly appreciated”. The love for beauty was carried to an extreme. If “the officers entrusted with the medical inspection of the infants” noticed “any thing deformed or defective” , the children were ordered to be killed (Raychaudhuri 1972 :222).
Greek historians also mention a people called Kathaians who lived to the east of river Ravi and gave a tough fight to Alexander’s army. They also valued beauty very much to the extent that the “handsomest man was chosen as king” (Raychaudhuri 1972 :222).
As is well known Alexander’s invasion was followed by the establishment of an empire by Chandragupta Maurya. His grandson Ashoka (304-232 BC) in his edicts refers to Yavana and Kamboja on his north-western frontier. ( Similarly, there are numerous literary references as well.) Within 25 years of Ashoka’s death, the Greeks from Bactria ( Balkh) came down to the Punjab plains. Demetrios (early 2nd century BC) appears to have held Punjab, as well as lower Indus, Malwa, Gujarat and probably also Kashmir. He was the first one to introduce bilingual coinage with inscriptions in Greek and Kharoshthi. After him the kingdom split into two warring parts with Jhelum as the dividing line. The most prominent later king was Menander ( c. 150 BC) who decoupled himself from Bactria and is known to Buddhist literature as Milind. His capital has been identified with Sialkot. The Indo-Greek rule lingered on till about 50BC, when its last king Hermaeus was dethroned by the Pahlava who also came from the north-west.
The Indo-Greeks were unable to expand into mid-India. They and their early internecine wars were duly taken note of by the Puranas: “There will be Yavanas here by reason of religious feeling or ambition or plunder; they will not be kings solemnly anointed but will follow evil customs by reason of the corruption of the age. Massacring women and children and killing one another, kings will enjoy the earth at the end of the Kali age”. Similarly, Gargi Samhita states that “there will be a cruel, dreadful war in their own kingdom, caused between themselves” (Raychaudhuri 1972:343).
Dharma-sastras do not think much of the Greeks. Atreya Dharma- sastra , which is quoted by Manu-smrti, mentions Yavanas among non-Aryan tribes ( Kane 1990 : 261). Manu-smrti classifies Yavanas as dasyus who speak mleccha language ( Kane 1990 : 326) and forbids Brahmins to dwell in the kingdom of a sudra ( Kane 1990 : 335).
Gautama Dharma-sastra quotes the widely held view that the offspring of a Kshatriya male and a Sudra female was designated a Yavana ( Kane 1990 : 35). It is noteworthy that Gautama forbids beef eating while Apastamba “seems to allow it and cites the Vajasaneyka for support” (Kane 1990 : 1990 :73). Significantly the latter does not mention Yavanas ( Kane 1990 : 73). It is recorded that a Damodara made the Yavanas of Mulsthana ( modern Multan) give up cow slaughter ( Kane 1990 : 806). It would thus seem that the Persianized Greeks, or Yavanas, were looked down upon for their mixed pedigree, for eating beef, and more generally for not subjecting themselves to the Brahminical discipline.
What happened to the Yavanas? It is noteworthy that while the name Kamboja survives as a Punjab caste group, there is no preservation of Yavana in any contemporary caste or ethnic group. I would like to suggest that the Yavanas were absorbed by the Punjabi Kshatriya clans through intermarriage. Product of this alliance was the Khatri caste. Since the Yavanas had been dubbed outsiders or half-castes by the Dharma-sastras , the Khatris deliberately shoved their Greek connection under the carpet, tenaciously stuck to the Kshatriya label, and emphasized their ancient lineage.
I would like to further suggest that the Sood of Punjab hills are the same people. It is noteworthy that the Khatri could claim and obtain high-caste status because their claim was supported by the Sarasvat Brahmins. Since the dominant slot in the hills was already occupied by the Rajputs, Sood were pushed down the hierarchy. It is significant that both the terms Khatri and Sood are derived from the ancient Varna names Kshatriya and Shudra; they are probably two sides of the same coin.
It was stated in the Khatri claims for a high-caste status that their rituals are in accordance with Manusmriti. Going strictly by the book seems to be a deliberate attempt at Sanskritization. It is noteworthy that Brahmins do not have much of a hold in Punjab unlike in the Madhyadesh, for example. The Khatri community is clan-driven rather than gotra-driven. Some of the clans have two gotras instead of one. In some cases, more than one clan share the same gotra. In addition there are cases where the clans do not have any gotra at all.
While a Khatri’s notions about his own handsomeness may be exaggerated, the incidence of fair complexion and sharp features among Khatris seems to be higher than the national average. This may be due to the Greek strain in them. Another contributing factor may have been the beauty-enhancing selective breeding prevalent among the subjects of Sophytes and probably also among the Kathaians, as noticed earlier. The name Sophytes seems to be cognate with Sobti , a Punjabi Khatri clan name. Iran also has a similar sounding surname, Sabouti.
To sum up our discussion so far, we have made the following points.
i. Persons of Greek extraction who had already been Persianized and were located in the north-west India were absorbed by the (upper) Punjab Kshatriya clans. Khatri, Arora and Sood are products of this alliance.
ii. These Greeks carried a taint because they ate beef and otherwise also did not submit themselves to Brahminical discipline. The taint was transferred to the Kshatriya clans which accepted then in marriagel.
iii. Khatris in Punjab were able to enlist Brahmin support for themselves and self-consciously insisted on calling themselves Khatri.
iv. Their brethren who migrated to Punjab hills were not so fortunate. Since the dominant position there was held by the Rajputs, and since Brahmin orthodoxy was strong , they were pushed down in the hierarchy and dubbed Sood. Note that both Khatri and Sood are derived from varna names.
v. For some reason, Aroras split from the Khatris and established matrimonial alliances in lower Punjab and Sind.
vi. In course of time, structure appeared within the Khatri caste, which loosely split into Char-ghar and Bunjai. From among the later, Sarin and Khukhrain became autonomous.
The above discussion is admittedly speculative. There is no reliable source material on the subject and it is not possible to establish any chronology. Fortunately, recent developments in biology can be combined with social anthropology to obtain valuable clues on questions such as the history of Khatris and their relationship with other castes. We can take blood samples from volunteers drawn from different well- defined social groups like Char-ghar; Bunjai ; Sarin; Khukhrain ; Aroras from upper Punjab and from lower Punjab; Soods, Bhatias, etc., and study the results of DNA fingerprinting. What results can be expected from such a study?
The separation between Khatris and Soods should be small. Since because of geographical isolation the Soods have been tightly endogamous, their genetic study can be expected to provide valuable information.
The separation between Khatris and the Aroras from upper Punjab should be less than that between Khatris and the Aroras from lower Punjab.
Given the lack of any worthwhile material on the history of Indian castes, sub-castes and clans , it is time new biology was listed as an aid. The old advice to a young researcher is very relevant here: Try something and see what happens.
Apte, Vaman Shivram ( 1970) The Student’s Sanskrit – English Dictionary ( Delhi : Motilal Banarasidass)
Kane, P.V. (1990) History of Dharmasastra, Vol. I, 2nd ed. (Pune : Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute)
Narain , A. K. ( 1980) The Indo-Greeks ( Delhi : Oxford University Press)
Pargiter, F. E. (1922) Ancient Indian Historical Tradition (Reprint, New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass)
Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (1972) Political History of Ancient India, 7th ed. ( Calcutta : University of Calcutta)
Rose, Horace Arthur (1911) Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and the North West Frontier Province ( Reprinted)
Seth , Moti Lal ( 1905) A Brief Ethnological Survey of the Khattris ( Agra: Khattri Hitkari Association)//
Burying aesthetics to raise buildings, not done! ( Panjab University Campus Chandigarh) 29/07/2019
Raja Ramanna: Reminiscences 07/07/2019
Water water everywhere, but not for you 20/06/2019
Frauds in Indian scientific research 19/06/2019
A learned Brahmin’s Brahminism 06/06/2019
Hinduisms of India: The harsh religion of today is based on illiteracy of texts, is divisive. 11/02/2019
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A Dozen ID-Inspired Predictions
Creationism and social history
List of transitional forms
List of fallacious creationist quotes
In Stephen Meyer's book The Signature in the Cell, he makes twelve predictions that supposedly arise from intelligent design.[1] They are not predictions in the usual scientific sense, in that they are not based on a well developed theory, especially as the predictions are not linked to any designer. Normally in science, one would take observations and formulate a theory from literally thousands of them using the actual data, into testable hypotheses. It's not clear that these predictions are from such a process. Here we discuss the validity of these predictions.[2][3]
1 New information
2 Sources of new information
3 RNA world hypothesis
4 Ribozymes
5 Information processing systems
6 Nanomachines
7 Prokaryotic cells and genetic information
8 Polyphyly
9 Fossil record
10 Hidden functional logic in "bad" design
11 Flagellum
12 Functional amino acid sequences
A Dozen ID-Inspired Predictions RationalWiki Response
New information[edit]
No undirected process will demonstrate the capacity to generate 500 bits of new information starting from a nonbiological source.
What is "information"? It is entirely possible that 500 bits of genetic data that would provide some organism with evolutionary fitness in one habitat is completely useless in another. And Meyer would probably not accept useless genetic data as "information."
Here is where the lack of a rigorous definition of terms will save Meyer and make this prediction always be true; for any counterexample one can claim that there is no "information", or the wrong kind of "information". The radiation spectrum of a star produces information about its temperature, mass, velocity relative to Earth, chemical composition, likely size, the presence or absence of large-enough-to detect masses orbiting it along with their masses and orbital periods etc. Does it require more than 500 bits to describe all the information derived from the star's light? Is it not a nonbiological source? Oh, you meant some other definition of information. Of course you did, dear. And why do 500 bits define a designed system, while less than 500 bits defines a non-designed system?[4]
Sources of new information[edit]
Informational accounting will reveal sources of active information are responsible for putatively successful computer-based simulations.
Analysis of Dembski's use of "active information" indicates that it is bullshit.[5] How, for example, did NASA scientists who didn't know the best antenna "smuggle" the information in if they didn't know the answer in the first place?[6] If this is a real prediction, why does Dembski never use real biological "active information" and quantify it?
RNA world hypothesis[edit]
Future experiments will continue to show that RNA catalysts lack the capacities necessary to render the RNA-world scenario-world plausible.
RNA can be shown to replicate on its own, and hence it is not clear what "capacity" Meyer is referring to. The RNA world is only one hypothesis of the origin of life and other hypotheses could be more valid. As always with most creationist arguments, this isn't a criticism of evolution at all, but abiogenesis, which isn't strictly relevant to evolution. This is also not a prediction about any design model that Meyer has proposed; there is no reason to assume if the RNA world hypothesis is invalid that a design hypothesis is valid.
Ribozymes[edit]
Informational accounting will reveal that any improvements in replicase function in ribozymes are the result of active information supplied by ribozyme engineers.
See above about active information.
Information processing systems[edit]
Investigation of the logic of regulatory and information processing systems in cells will reveal the use of design strategies and logic that mirrors (though possibly exceeds in complexity) those used in systems designed by engineers. Cell biologists will find regulatory systems that function in accord with a logic that can be expressed as an algorithm. The use of the word "logic" here is bizarre; the attribution of "logic" or "design strategy" is at best an analogy to that of engineered systems and at worst a post hoc rationalization, like almost all of intelligent design. It's not clear why Dembski is enamored with an algorithm. The feedback in biological systems is regulated through chemical concentrations, and responds rapidly to restore these levels if they are disrupted. There is no "designer" behind this regulation. Biochemical processes are necessarily composed of multiple discrete steps: chemical reactions that necessarily have an order; does that not make all biochemical processes algorithms? Furthermore, what does Dembski expect cell biologists to actually find that they haven't found already?
Nanomachines[edit]
Sophisticated imaging techniques will reveal nanomachines (turbines) in centrioles that will play a role in cell division. Other evidence will show that malfunctions in the regulation of these machines are responsible for chromosomal damage.
What is the prediction here? That the centriole has some structure that rotates, and can therefore be described as a turbine? What evidence indicates that this is a nanomachine? Serial numbers on the parts? If the argument is that the centriole is nanomachine in the same way that the flagellum is, it won't convince anyone that doesn't already believe in ID. It's hardly an insightful prediction to claim that malfunctions in centriole regulation are responsible for chromosomal damage. What's the supposed counterargument - that malfunctioning centrioles have nothing do do with chromosome damage? How would identification of the structure of the centriole support ID as opposed to evolution?
Prokaryotic cells and genetic information[edit]
If intelligent design played a role in the origin of life, but not subsequently, prokaryotic cells should carry amounts of genetic information that exceed their own needs or retain vestiges of having done so, and molecular biology should provide evidence of information-rich structures that exceed causal powers of chance, necessity, or the combination of the two.
Show in detail that anyone has determined the amount of genetic information prokaryotic cells "need" including the experimental measurement. It appears that this argument is claiming that all the "information" present in eukaryotes like fish, lizards, and humans must have been planted in bacteria at the beginning of life on earth since, obviously, it could not arise later by mutation and selection; so bacteria must have genetic "information" for eyes, sperm, hair, etc. (however you claim to define it).
Polyphyly[edit]
If a designing intelligence acted discretely in the history of life, the various subdisciplines of biology should show evidence of polyphyly.
Polyphyly involves the inability to determine a common ancestor; however, the inability to identify the common ancestor does not mean one doesn't exist. This evidence relies on the absence of evidence, which is always problematic. Furthermore, Meyer never tells us why an intelligent designer would prefer polyphyly over monophyly.
Fossil record[edit]
The fossil record, in particular, should show evidence of discrete infusions of information into the biosphere at episodic intervals as well as a top-down, rather than bottom-up, pattern of appearance of new fossil forms.
What do "top-down" and "bottom-up" even mean in the pattern of fossils, and how would you detect these patterns? The fossil record is far too sporadic to show a real "discrete" event, and population genetics suggest that the normal patterns of variation and natural selection can produce much information rapidly.[7] Furthermore, with millions of organisms born or propagated each day, how could ID show the "top-down" pattern in living organisms today?
Hidden functional logic in "bad" design[edit]
If an intelligent (and benevolent) agent designed life, then studies of putatively bad designs in life—such as the vertebrate retina and virulent bacteria—should reveal either (a) reasons for the designs that show a hidden functional logic or (b) evidence of decay of originally good designs.
Why would the logic be "hidden", and how do you define function? What qualifies as good design or bad design, other than the ability to procreate? Pseudogenes are genes that no longer benefit a species and therefore have been deactivated through mutations. The logic presented here would proclaim all genes to be therefore designed, without any link to the designer. Furthermore, designers are quite capable of bad designs as well.
Flagellum[edit]
If the flagellar motor was intelligently designed and the type-3 secretory system devolved from it, the genes for that code for the bacterial flagellar motor should be older than those that code for the proteins in the T3SS, and not the reverse. Alternately, if the T3SS and the flagellar motor arose by design independently, T3SS should have unique (nonhomologous) genes that are not present in the genome for the flagellar motor.
It is not clear what is inherent about these two systems and the purported design of one or the other that would require any similar or different relationship, as design provides no temporal relationship between the two. Why would the T3SS and the motor having nonhomologous genes imply design? If the motor evolved from the T3SS, it would also be expected that there would be nonhomologous genes due to co-option of other gene products, duplication/mutation, deletion, etc.
Functional amino acid sequences[edit]
The functional sequences of amino acids within amino acid-sequence space should be extremely rare rather than common.
This prediction is vague. What frequency defines "extremely rare" and "common"? What is the actual probability distribution expected, and why does intelligent design predict one distribution over another? If you are looking at all possible amino acid sequences and picking out those that have a 'function', what criteria are you using? Thermodynamic stability? Enzymatic activity? For what reaction, under what conditions? Even if your criteria are well-defined, the 'odds' argument makes a false assumption that evolution must put all the amino acids of a functional protein together all at once, de novo. Furthermore, the winning sequences of numbers within lottery-number-sequence space are extremely rare rather than common, and yet lottery winners exist. Why is design a good explanation for an improbable event?
↑ Meyer, Stephen C. Signature in the Cell, DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design. Harper-Collins: New York, 2009; pp 496-497. http://search2.barnesandnoble.com/BookViewer/?ean=9780061472787
↑ For a bloggers take on some of these predictions, see here.
↑ A series of twelve posts on the predictions may be found here.
↑ For a more detailed criticism of Meyer's information, see Jeff Shallit's blog post "Stephen Meyer's Bogus Information Theory"
↑ A good discussion of William Dembski's use of "active information" can be found at the blog Good Math, Bad Math, for example, this post.
↑ http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/11/evolution_produces_better_ante.php
↑ Information here could mean many species, complexity in form or information in the Kolmolgorov or Shannon sense.
Retrieved from "https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=A_Dozen_ID-Inspired_Predictions&oldid=2046086"
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Cheetah G601
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LHD/RHD
Comp. Ready
FIA HTP
We are proud to offer this rare and beautiful Cheetah G601 - chassis 1 - for sale. This late seventies group 6 prototype car (one of two built) has been completely restored in the UK by the prior owner and is sold in full race-ready condition. It has a low mileage 2.0 liter Cosworth BDG and a current fuel cell, fire extinguisher system and crack testing report.
The car is well documented and even has its original car passport (see attachment below). It also has its current FIA HTP and comes with an extensive spares package which consists of multiple sets of wheels, new bodywork and even includes the bodywork moulds !
Being one of only two Cheetah G601 made, 601/1 has a distinctive racing career which includes 3 participations to the Le Mans 24hrs. As such, it would be a rare and welcome entry for the Le Mans Classic 2014 event and participant to historic race series such as CER and Masters.
The car resides in Belgium where it can be inspected subject to appointment.
Cheetah Automobiles of Switzerland was started up by Lausanne based Swiss-American engineer Chuck Graemiger. Graemiger started out in motorsport in 1964 hill-climbing in the Swiss championship in a Lotus Elite. This was followed by a Sunbeam Imp and then the Imp powered Costin-Nathan sports car in 1967 & '68 before switching to a Chevron B8 which he campaigned until 1970. The following year he raced the one-off British built Daren Mk3 for a season before retiring from competitive driving to start up his own business, Cheetah Automobiles. First car built in 1974, the 01G and was based on what he learned from racing the Daren Mk3. This was followed by the G501 in 1975 and then the G601 of 1976, which two were built., and then a final Gp6 car, the G602. Two Group C cars were then built, the G603 with Cosworth DFV, and the G604 powered by the Aston Martin V8. The company folded in 1986 and all the cars were sold off. It is thought around 10 cars were built in total, although we have only ever counted 7. Not to be confused with the Cheetah built in the '60s by Bill Thomas in California, or the clubmans car built in Australia in the '70s by Derek Fry. Chassis 601/1 has participated in the 24hr of Le Mans multiple times between 1976 and 1979. For the complete race history, see the attached race history PDF-file.
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Robotic Prostate Surgery
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"Chris Ogden - one of the world's leading robotic surgeons" BBC Horizon
Chris Ogden recently presented to ERUS 2019 his radical perineal insufflated prostatectomy series – he is the first Surgeon in Europe to perform this perineal robotic prostatectomy and his series is currently the third in the world along with Dr Jihad Kaouk, Cleveland Clinic, USA.
You can see the ERUS 2019 presentation here.
Chris Ogden was the first UK urologist to present a peer reviewed paper at the national congress BAUS on 100 consecutive robotic prostate operations with full oncological and functional outcomes. His paper on his long term results of robotic prostate surgery was accepted and presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) Congress Meeting and awarded the prize for best paper. He is the first urologist in the world to compare consecutive cases of the ground breaking technologies of HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound) and robotics, presenting at the UK annual conference. He has been a part of the development of Focal day case surgery for treating certain forms of prostate cancer, completing the multi centre INDEX study into the effectiveness of focal therapy, published in 2017.
The national AUDIT for radical prostatectomy within British Urology (BAUS) was made public for the first time in 2015. More recently the three year data outcomes for 2015, 2016 and 2017 have been analysed. The data shows that Mr Ogden is one of the few high volume surgeons in robotic prostate surgery (more than 100 cases a year). In this national analysis, he has had no serious complications (Clavian III or above) and zero transfusion rate.
The three year BAUS national Audit data shows that although Mr Ogden's practice encompasses a higher percentage of more aggressive cancer, T3 or above (53% versus the national average of 45.83%), he demonstrates an overall personal cancer margin rate of 11.8% compared to the overall national rate of 26.3%.
Mr Ogden’s results are equivalent to the best published results of the world leading robotic prostate surgeons: for cancer margins (clearance), urinary continence and sexual function.
Please click the button below to see full BAUS data published in 2018.
VIEW BAUS DATA HERE
Copyright 2015-20 Urologists Limited | Privacy Notice
“The Chelsea Outpatient Centre LLP operates under a joint venture partnership between HCA international and consultants.
The directors of Urologists Ltd have an ownership in this partnership.
Please speak to Mr Ogden/Mr Dinneen if you have any questions regarding this relationship.”
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iRobot Introduces the Root Coding Robot Through Acquisition of Root Robotics
Root robot is uniquely designed to help kids learn coding at home and in school
BEDFORD, Mass., June 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), the leader in consumer robots, has announced the addition of the Root coding robot to its product lineup through the acquisition of Root Robotics. With technology initially developed by a founding group within the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Root is a fun and easy-to-use educational robot that uniquely teaches coding and 21st century problem-solving skills to children as young as four years old. This acquisition supports iRobot’s plans to diversify its educational robot product offerings, further demonstrating its commitment to make robotic technology more accessible to educators, students and parents.
The Root coding robot is a two-wheeled, mobile platform. The robot operates on flat surfaces at home, like tables, floors, and countertops, and vertical surfaces in a classroom, like a magnetic whiteboard. When paired with the companion mobile application, users can instruct Root to draw artwork, scan colors, play music, respond to touch and sound, climb whiteboard walls, and explore the fundamentals of robotics. Root uses three levels of coding language, from simple graphical blocks for young children to full text coding for more advanced users.
„The acquisition of Root Robotics allows iRobot to broaden the impact of its STEM efforts with a commercially available, educational robotic platform already being used by educators, students and parents,“ said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot. „Root also helps increase the reach of iRobot’s educational robot line by offering a proven system for people of all ages, including students in elementary school.“
„The Root coding robot is an incredibly powerful tool for learning to code because it intuitively scales to users‘ abilities,“ said Zee Dubrovsky, co-founder of Root Robotics who will now become general manager of Educational Robots at iRobot. „A four-year-old can begin coding Root using simple pictures and symbols that translate to robot actions. Once a child has mastered graphical coding, they can seamlessly toggle to the next two levels, which introduce hybrid coding, followed by full text coding. This scalable approach is what has been missing from other educational coding robots.“
The acquisition of Root Robotics is not expected to contribute materially to iRobot’s 2019 financial performance. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The Root coding robot is currently available for purchase at https://root.irobot.com for $199 USD. Photos, videos and information can be found at: http://media.irobot.com/.
About iRobot Corp.
iRobot®, the leading global consumer robot company, designs and builds robots that empower people to do more both inside and outside of the home. iRobot® created the home robot cleaning category with the introduction of its Roomba® Robot Vacuum in 2002. Today, iRobot® is a global enterprise that has sold more than 25 million robots worldwide. iRobot’s product line, including Roomba® vacuuming robots and the Braava® family of mopping robots, feature proprietary technologies and advanced concepts in cleaning, mapping and navigation. iRobot® engineers are building an ecosystem of robots and technologies to enable the smart home. For more information about iRobot®, please visit www.irobot.com.
For iRobot Investors
Certain statements made in this press release that are not based on historical information are forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements relating to iRobot Corporation’s expectations concerning management’s plans, objectives and strategies and the expectations for the financial contributions from the acquisition. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. iRobot undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and other risks faced by iRobot, see the disclosure contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Dieser Eintrag wurde veröffentlicht in Education & Studies, English, General, Programming und verschlagwortet mit Coding, irobot, Root Robot von Sebastian Trella. Permanenter Link zum Eintrag.
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Tag Archives: Richard Thompson
The Futureheads – Beeswing
After their critically acclaimed a cappella album Rant, The Futureheads have announced they will be releasing Beeswing from the record as their next single.
The Futureheads artwork for single, Beeswing
Beeswing is originally a Richard Thompson song but The Futureheads have adapted it to make it their own. However, Ross Millard praises the song writing: “”Beeswing was one of my choices for the record. I saw Thompson do it on Jools Holland and thought it was an amazing song. When you’re doing a cappella you’re a lot more exposed when you perform, and the lyrics become really important. So we went for songs that have something to say, that took you on a journey. Some of The Futureheads’ lyrics have narratives but most of them are oblique and syncopated and staccato and minimal. So the folk songs we’ve chosen are the opposite to that.”
Beeswing will be available from June 18. Listen to it here in advance.
You can also catch The Futureheads live, all dates below:
18th: SUNDERLAND, Minster
2nd: MANCHESTER, Beached Festival
24th: SUNDERLAND, Stadium of Light w/ The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
29th: KENT, Hop Farm Festival
13th: GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 2000 Trees Festival
28th: HEREFORDSHIRE, Nozstock Festival
19th: LONDON, Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Tagged as Beeswing, Rant, Richard Thompson, The Futureheads
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GuideLive.com: "Dallas juice shop sells hemp 'edibles' like brownies and smoothies ... but you won't get high " October 3, 2017 11:09 19 Comments
This article was originally posted on the GuideLive.com. Thanks so much to author Jeremy Hallock covering this new offering from Roots.
Businesses in Texas can't legally sell marijuana, not for medicinal purposes and not for fun. But one company in Dallas, Roots Juices, is selling "edibles" made with cannabidiol, which comes from the cannabis plant.
Hang on a minute: These are not the same "edibles" you can buy in Denver. Roots Juices' version — which are sold as gluten-free brownies and strawberry muffins — are infused with cannabidiol hemp oil, commonly known as CBD oil or simply CBD. It's hemp without the high.
Whereas marijuana products are derived from plants with high concentrations of psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD is extracted from low-THC hemp and is a non-psychotropic, which means you will not have an otherworldly experience, or a chill moment on the couch, if you eat one of Roots' brownies.
After selling CBD products for a few months, Roots owner Brent Rodgers says there has been virtually no controversy.
"There's a few people who won't go near it," he says. "But I don't think they understand the product."
Rodgers says CBD items are so popular that he is adding cake balls and lollipops "in about two weeks." The company, which has two shops in Dallas and two in Atlanta, also sells smoothies and shots that contain CBD. The shop even sells bottles of CBD oil; Rodgers says capsules are coming soon.
He believes CBD is a natural fit for shops with juice blends meant to hydrate, energize and cleanse. "We juice a lot of turmeric and life-changing, very strange ingredients and herbs," Rodgers says. Expanding the shop's offerings to CBD products "just made sense," he says.
He takes CBD every day to treat insomnia. Customers have told him it offers relief from anxiety, depression and joint pain; some give it to their children to help control seizures.
Dr. Jane Sadler, a family medicine physician on staff at Baylor Medical Center at Garland, says she has patients who use CBD oil. Studies have demonstrated health benefits, she says.
CBD "may reduce anxiety, help fight cancer, decrease symptoms of schizophrenia, and even improve social recognition with people who suffer from Alzheimer's Disease," she says. But Sadler encourages people to check in with medical providers because "there is no regulation on CBD oil, and it needs to be developed and approved by the FDA."
The legal status of CBD is murky. The Food and Drugs Administration has not approved CBD products "for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of any disease." The Drug Enforcement Administration says CBD "falls within the Controlled Substances Act definition of marijuana" and Texas' policy is still progressing.
But Rodgers insists that selling CBD oil is federally legal because it is below the legal threshold for THC percentage in hemp (0.3 percent or less). Several business owners across the country have also subscribed to this assumption and quickly created a thriving industry with hundreds of CBD products, from massage oils to dog treats.
So, how does it make you feel?
Curious about the effects and benefits of CBD, I visited Roots Juices on Oak Lawn Avenue. It was early afternoon and a self-described "powerlifter who enjoys rock climbing" was buying a shot of cold brew coffee that contained CBD oil. She regularly buys CBD shots and says they help with back pain and post-workout recovery.
I drank a CBD smoothie loaded with greens and, for good measure, ate a brownie.
The CBD had no discernible taste or smell, and in minutes I felt something, but certainly not high. With no pain or exercise to recover from, I noticed the anxiety from too many cups of coffee disappear and started to feel more relaxed. The effects were subtle, but positive, and seemed to wear off after a few hours.
As we've reported in the past, Texas is getting ready for when legal weed becomes a local industry. Marijuana is coming to Texas, our Tiney Ricciardi wrote in May. For now, those in the fitness community seem to be finding Roots Juices' hemp edibles as a sliver of what's to come.
GuideLive.com: "Dallas juice shop sells hemp 'edibles' like brownies and smoothies ... but you won't get high " Posted on 3 Oct 11:09
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Film Intuition: Review Database
By Jen Johans. Over 2,400 Film, Streaming, Blu-ray, DVD, Book, and Soundtrack Reviews. Part of https://www.filmintuition.com
As children, we are urged to deflect insults by recalling the tried-and-true rhyme, “sticks and stones may break our bones but names will never hurt me.” However, even if we repeat that phrase until we’re blue in the face, the secret that no one ever wants to admit is that names do hurt. And still reeling from the pain, it makes us recall another childhood morality lesson, specifically that “actions speak louder than words.” In fact, it’s what we do with those actions — whether it’s as simple as turning around and walking away or striking a blow — wherein we not only reveal our true character but sometimes, whether fair or not, chart the course our lives will take.
In Shotgun Stories, writer/director Jeff Nichols’ startling and deceptively quiet filmmaking debut about a bitter feud between two families, insults and violence coincide. And more than just creating an instant visceral viewer response to the film and its inhabitants, the bleak foreshadowing and bursts of hatred makes one think just as much about what we’re not being presented onscreen. Particularly we find ourselves dwelling upon what isn’t being said or done and what may or may not have happened in the past to the wounded, struggling young men depicted throughout the film. It’s only when you realize you’re that invested in a film that your mind begins to race to understand each nuance as if somehow you can reach inside the screen to intervene or mediate that you realize you’re in the hands of a masterful storyteller.
Produced by George Washington and All the Real Girls director David Gordon Green, Nichols’ award-winning festival favorite has garnered unprecedented word-of-mouth support from such notable critics as its greatest champion, Roger Ebert. It's been frequently compared to a modern day Greek tragedy, a Shakespearean epic, biblical morality play, as well as a new spin on the legendary feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. While every one of those parallels that have been drawn are indeed correct, one realizes more than anything and only within a few moments of Shotgun Stories, that this story is so effective because it's painted using many of the same brushstrokes as numerous other Southern Gothic morality plays, where the sparsely populated canvas is filled with wide open spaces and the dialogue is lean, muscular and only employed when absolutely necessary.
Not to mention there’s something about Nichols’ work that feels as though it could only happen in the United States as the sense that an American tragedy looms heavily as soon as we witness our main character, Son Hayes (Michael Shannon), a fish farm employee with a weakness for gambling, change his shirt to reveal that the overly scarred skin on his back resembles a bullet strewn battlefield. Additionally, upon discovering that the formerly abusive, drunk father who’d abandoned him and his two brothers had passed away, we realize that the father took the American opportunity of a second chance to become a born-again Christian, quit the bottle, and start a whole new family with four sons he’s doted on who live nearby in far better condition than Son’s discarded brood.
While the bitter mother who raised them refuses to go to the funeral, Son and his other apathetically named brothers, the loyal, sweet natured Boy (Douglas Ligon) who coaches children’s basketball and lives in a van overlooking the river, and the youngest brother Kid (Barlow Jacobs) make an appearance wherein, fueled by so many years of resentment and anger, Son curses his biological father and spits on his grave. In this volatile combination of insult and action, a war is declared by the four newest Hayes boys who consider Son, Boy, and Kid to be “a pack of dogs” without manners and they’re all too eager to get revenge.
What begins as a series of hard stares, dangerous pranks, and macho confrontations soon escalates into inevitable violence and although we’re prepared for it early on, it still comes as a shock when the boys start trying to one-up each other with an eye for an eye. Interestingly playing off that biblical warning that soon everyone will be blind, Nichols introduces us to a Shakespearean clown-like character named Shampoo (G. Alan Wilkins). He initially seems to be a laughable slacker but gradually grows into first an observer of the increasing rivalry but also an outside agitator as he not only eggs them on by reporting gossip overheard from the new brothers to the old ones but also in a climactic moment teaches one angry brother how to prepare a shotgun.
Still, admirably, much like the dialogue that is only offered when it’s crucial, the director isn’t one to revel in violence or go overboard in too much symbolism, which is quite a feat for a new filmmaker and especially one who’s following in the footsteps of such a rich historical tradition of classical tales of familial revenge. In the end it’s another one of those excellent, underrated independent films that may otherwise go unnoticed if it weren’t for its tremendous success earning awards and nominations from festivals across the country.
Impressively, Shotgun Stories feels far more naturalistic and real than most Hollywood films which deal with revenge-based violence and benefits from not only stellar acting especially by scene stealer Ligon in a heartbreaking role but also for its crisp cinematography which is punctuated by a nice, subtle score that becomes all the more apparent on repeat viewings, especially considering that the DVD offers an option to watch Shotgun Stories with a music only track from the band Lucero and composer, musician Ben Nichols. Featuring a photo gallery as well as trailers and an insightful audio commentary from writer/director Jeff Nichols, Shotgun Stories is one sleeper you won’t want to miss and one that — much like the effects of a shot — will probably continue to ricochet as more viewers discover this hidden work I highly recommend.
Posted by Jen Johans
Labels: Barlow Jacobs, David Gordon Green, Douglas Ligon, Dysfunctional Family, G. Alan Wilkins, Jeff Nichols, Michael Shannon, Revenge, Tragedy
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‘Ah me! How calm and deep’ (O quanta, qualia)
A neglected masterpiece
By Peter Abelard
Commented by Canon Jim Foley
To view this essay in as a PDF document click here.
I was introduced to this hymn in its English translation when I was a student in Rome and long before I discovered the beauty of the Latin original, not to mention the bizarre career of its author, Peter Abelard. Our choirmaster was one Charlie Renfrew, a former Boy Scout and future auxiliary bishop in Glasgow. No doubt it was ‘under a spreading chestnut tree’ that he discovered a talent for singing choruses around the campfire with accompanying gestures and introduced this talent to the Scots College. Sadly, you will seldom hear this particular hymn sung today, with or without gestures, in spite of the fact that the words are set to a very beautiful melody. At all events, Charlie had an ear for good community singing and I am grateful to him for introducing me to this masterpiece.
At a distance of sixty years, I still don’t find it easy to put my finger on the precise reason for my enduring affection for it, whether in English translation or in the original Latin of Peter Abelard. It may simply be that it captures something of the spirit of those carefree days and youthful promise. With the passing years I now appreciate better that it treats of the ultimate promise of life and refuses to be satisfied with anything less. Our poem begins where life on earth ends and addresses what we now call the Beatific Vision. Before I say anything about the hymn, however, I had better say something about the bold Peter himself.
Himself.
To say that Peter was bold is something of an understatement. He was born in Brittany and endowed with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He could turn his hand to any subject under the sun and, in time, was in great demand as a lecturer in philosophy in the schools of Paris no less. In this capacity he took on the great scholars of his day and reduced them to tears. As sometimes happens with such geniuses, he suddenly decided to adopt a bohemian way of life as a kind of free-lance troubadour, literally swinging from one extreme to another. Peter Abelard was cool long before being cool was cool.
I prefer to pass over in silence his early career as a popular songwriter. He would make many of our modern lyricists blush. It might be enough to mention that it is just as well that most of his vast collection of love songs has disappeared. Whether they were burnt by the Reformers or condemned by the Inquisition need not concern us here. This particular hymn, however, has survived for eight centuries, and with good reason. It is a sustained meditation on the final outcome of a good life in eternal rest.
Ah me! How calm and deep.
Let me pause for a moment at the first verse which really introduces us to the distinctive character of the entire poem. Out of piety I have kept the English version of this first verse in J.O’Conner’s translation (1870-1952), although it might be considered archaic today. He has managed the impossible by offering a fine translation of the first line, a line which is almost untranslatable – O quanta qualia, ‘Ah me! How calm and deep’ is perfect. For the remaining verses I have given my own almost literal translation of the original with no more than a clumsey attempt to keep to six syllables per line as does the original Latin.
Ah me! How calm and deep
those mighty Sabbath days,
the courts above do keep
with never-ending praise!
For weariness what rest,
for valour what reward,
when all in all the blest
indwelleth God the Lord!
O quanta, qualia
sunt illa sabbata,
quae semper celebrat
superna curia!
quae fessis requies,
quae merces fortibus,
cum erit omnia
Deus in omnibus!
The first thing that catches our attention is the fact that most of the furniture has been flitted out of heaven. There are no narrow gates to be negotiated, no trumpet blasts or harps in sight, no register. Nor is there even a passing reference to Purgatory or hell or last judgement.
The first two words, ‘Ah me!’ make it clear that our poet is emotionally as well as intellectually engaged with his theme. Everything in his life is consigned to the past and his eyes are fixed entirely on the future, described as ‘mighty Sabbath Days’. His starting point is a simple claim found in the Letter to the Hebrews that, when everything else has been swept away, ‘There remains a Sabbath rest for man’ (Hebrews 4.9-10).
That deceptively simple claim is an echo of the ambitious attempt of an ancient Jewish scribe to say something about the nature of God. The scribe is at home with the idea of a Creator God and feels free to develop this thought over a period of days which begin with chaos and end with ‘rest’. Each day brings into existence something that is ‘good’ and on the seventh day everything that comes from the hand of the creator is seen to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1.1-2.4). If his epic had ended there, his would have been no different from the myths and legends so popular in ancient literature and published laboriously on tablets of clay or chiselled out on monuments of stone.
However, our wise Hebrew scribe had a trump card up his sleeve. The creator rested on the seventh day. We underestimate our scribe if we think he believed that the creator needed to stop at the weekend for a breather after the work of creating the universe. To see somebody in repose was to see him as he really is. As far as Peter Abelard was concerned, the Creator was no exception. The word used to describe this repose is ‘sabbath’ and is a brave attempt to capture something of the inner life of the Creator. What is revealed in creation is not the full story. The full story is in his Sabbath/rest. That is when God is really at himself.
Our scribe has something more to say. If man is created in the image and likeness of the creator, then he too must have more to him than meets the eye. He too must work for a time but find his ultimate destiny in Sabbath/rest. That one day in the week would be blessed and dedicated to celebrating his true identity. In time that sense of true identity, enshrined in the Sabbath rest, would be considered so sacred that to violate the Sabbath rest would amount to a desicration of the very nature of man, created in the image of God.
Our Christian churches have inherited this instinct for the sacredness of the Sabbath, some more than others. In our Catholic tradition those who consistently choose to ignore the Sabbath rest not only put their eternal destiny at risk, but diminish the quality of their life on earth. Peter Abelard composed his hymn to be sung in the local Convent each Sabbath day in the year. For a time, for obvious reasons, it was featured on the Solemnity of All Saints. Meantime, it seems to have gone into exile.
Jerusalem.
Almost every word in this verse contains an allusion to the Gospel. Pride of place is given to Jerusalem. All four Evangelists are aware of the importance of this city in the history of Israel. Saint Luke particularly dedicates much of his Gospel to Jesus’ final journey to the Holy City and does so with a solemn introduction:
‘The days were fulfilled
for him to be taken up into heaven
and he set his face resolutely to go to Jerusalem’ (Luke 9.51).
We are never allowed to lose sight of this destination. Matthew and Mark attach similar importance to that fateful journey and Saint John describes in detail the experience of five such pilgrimages.
As we move beyond the Gospel narratives, Jerusalem takes on an even more mystical meaning to become the image of paradise. The author of the Apocalypse claims to have been caught up in a vision of Jerusalem: ‘I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God’ (Apocalypse 21.1ff). For our poet it is a place of ‘timeless peace’, of ‘supreme happiness’, of ‘highest hopes fulfilled’, of ‘an end to restless yearnings’ of the human heart. The verse expands the memorable words of Saint Augustine: ‘Our heart is restless till it rests in you, O Lord’ in an attempt to escape from stereotyped images of heaven.
Indeed, Jerusalem
is that praise-worthy town,
where reigns a timeless peace
in happiness supreme.
No hopes can e’r surpass,
the object of our dreams,
the prize exceeds by far
the yearning in our hearts.
Vere Jerusalem
est illa civitas
cuius pax iugis est,
summa iucunditas,
ubi non praevenit
rem desiderium,
nec desiderio
minus est praemium.
What king, what court, what palace?
As a descendant of King David, Jesus could indeed lay claim to royal blood but his kingdom was not of this world (John 18.36). Jesus’ seven parables of the kingdom, that Matthew 13 gathered together, make this only too clear. Verse 3 moves quickly beyond the image of an earthly kingdom with courtiers and palaces, so popular in Christian art, to a kingdom of peace, repose and joy and hints that it is beyond human capacity to describe such a place.
What king is this, what court,
what palace can this be?
Such peace and such repose
such joy beyond compare!
Those alone who enter there
can hope to speak of it,
if what they now behold
is not beyond their skill.
Quis rex! Quae curia!
Quale palatium!
Quae pax! Quae requies!
Quod illud gaudium!
Huius participes
exponant gloriae,
si quantum sentient,
possint exprimere.
Return from exile.
Life, meantime, is seen as a time of exile from our true home. The fall from grace had banished Adam and Eve from their home and their descendants, led by Cain, were destined to be ‘fugitives and wanderers’ on earth (Genesis 4.13). The father of the race, Abraham, had been instructed to leave behind everything that made for security and make for an undefined destination (Genesis 12.1ff). Later generations would describe their ancestor as ‘a wandering Aramean’ (Deuteronomy 26.5). Moses had journeyed for forty years towards a promised land. In the end he was allowed only to wonder at the view from a distance (Deuteronomy 34.1ff). The memory of their exile in Babylon gives way to the prospect of the longed-for return home of a worthy remnant. The influence of faithful prayer would determine the outcome of life’s pilgrimage.
It falls to us meantime
to raise our minds on high,
our home in heavenly bliss
to seek with constant prayer,
our path to Sion’s rest
from distant Babylon,
home at last from exile,
long-suffered for our sins.
Nostrum est interim
mentem erigere
Et totis patriam
votis appetere,
et ad Jerusalem
a Babylonia,
post longa regredi
tandem exilia.
We sing our songs
After a passing glance over a world of pain now left behind, our poet quickly returns to his new heavenly domain. In exile, the Jews had been asked by the residents to ‘sing us one of your songs’, only to be told that this was too much to ask of forlorn refugees far from their native home (Psalm 137.3). Now at last, no longer exiles, they gladly sing their songs of thanksgiving.
There, every evil gone,
and banished from our lives,
safe now, dear Sion’s songs,
we sing with voices raised,
for every gracious gift
your blessed ones return
to you our praise, O Lord.
Illic, molestiis
finitis omnibus,
securi cantica
Sion cantabimus,
et iuges gratias
et donis gratiae
Beata refert
plebs tibi, domine.
Unending Jubilee.
Our poet finds a foreshadowing of the wonders of eternal life in the religious observances of Israel. Creation itself was a kind of cosmic liturgical calendar. The Genesis Creation narrative had already demonstrated a national sense of the great liturgical seasons dictated by the phases of the moon as ‘signs and seasons.’ The weekly Sabbath observance is blessed as an integral part of this governance of daily life. The recurring Jubilee each twenty-five years would sanctify each generation. Sabbath rest follows Sabbath rest in an unending sequence, no longer marking the limitations of time imposed on human life, but celebrating its timeless endurance.
Our poet now, belatedly, makes room for others in that heavenly scene. Men and angels join in their chorus, as heaven and earth are at peace at last as they share their hymn of praise.
There, Sabbath follows on
and Sabbath follows on,
there is no end to joy
for those who keep this feast.
Nor ever can there end
such Jubilee for us
who share the hymn of praise
at one with angel choirs.
Illic ex sabbato
succedet sabbatum.
Perpes laetitia
Sabbatizantium.
Nec ineffabiles
cessabunt iubili,
quos decantabimus
et nos et angeli
The Final Doxology
As often happens with medieval Latin hymns, the final Doxology may not be the work of the original poet, but was added later to render the hymn suitable for liturgical use. Whether this doxology is the work of Abelard or somebody else is open to conjecture. However, it almost defies translation. The Father stands at the head of the Trinity of divine persons as the source of all life and this includes the life of the divine Son (by way of generation and not creation). The Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son. By the time our hymn was composed that much of the theology of the blessed Trinity was already well established in the creeds of the Church.
To the eternal Lord
let glory ever be,
of whom, through whom, in whom
all things come to exist;
The Father source of life,
to whom the Son is born,
the Spirit thus proceeds
from Father and from Son.
Perenni Domino
perpes sit Gloria,
ex quo sunt, per quem sunt,
in quo sunt omnia;
Ex quo, Pater est;
Per quem sunt, Filius;
In quo sunt Patris et
Filii Spiritus.
The last word must lie with Jesus himself. The Evangelist Matthew records his claim to a unique relationship with God the Father, a relationship in which they share the infinities of divine life. From within these infinities Jesus choses the one which best reveals his true identity. This is his gift to the world: He is the incarnation of the Sabbath rest:
All things have been delivered to me by my Father,
and no one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me;
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light. (Matthew 11.25-30).
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Bannen’s Land: An appreciation of Ian Bannen ‘Scotland’s Favourite Actor’ (1928-1999)
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It is no secret that there has been a marked decline in handwriting since the Reformation. Think of those magnificent medieval manuscripts which are now the cherished possessions of museums; many of them with beautiful miniature illustrations married to the text,...
By Canon Jim Foley It is no secret that there has been a marked decline in handwriting since the Reformation. Think of those magnificent medieval manuscripts which are now the cherished possessions of museums; many of them with beautiful miniature illustrations...
By Canon Jim Foley There can’t be many of us left. If there are, I would be happy to hear from them before it’s too late. I am referring to those of us who had the good fortune to take our first steps in rudimentary French, under the guidance of Miss Kathleen McAnulty...
By Canon Jim Foley There is a parcel of land in the Monkland’s District of Lanarkshire, known as Bannen’s Land. The short explanation is that the Bannen family were the proprietors of the land. In time, however, the name would come to have a much wider constituency....
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Archbishop of Perth Australia 1933 - 1968 A Memory by Canon Jim Foley In an earlier blog, entitled ‘A Glimpse of Rome’, I made a passing reference to the Spartan life led by students for the priesthood in the Roman colleges in the wake of World War II, with an...
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A neglected masterpiece By Peter Abelard 1079-1142 Commented by Canon Jim Foley To view this essay in as a PDF document click here. I was introduced to this hymn in its English translation when I was a student in Rome and long before I discovered the beauty of the...
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Contact us by phone, email or via our social media channels.
Saint Augustine's Church, 12 Dundyvan Road, Langloan,
Coatbridge, ML5 1DQ
Email: office@saintaugustines.org.uk Tel: 01236 423044
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Air Algeria #AH5017 Plane Crashed in Mali; Black Box Recovered
Flight #AH5017 dropped off the radar 50 minutes after take off over Mali. French army forces already in the region for security reasons located the crash site. It appeared as though the MD-83 aircraft debris was located in a concentrated area. All 116 people aboard the plane have perished. This incident is the third international plane crash in the past few weeks with the second crash taking place the previous day in Taiwan.
The black box from #AH5017 has been located and taken to Gao in Mali for examination. Flight 5017 from Burkina Faso was expected to land safely at Houari Boumediene Airport in Algeria later that day. Weather may have played a part in the crash as the flight crew requested to change the flight path to avoid a turbulent storms in the area.
A picture of the site of the crash #AH5017 with a French soldier. pic.twitter.com/dGYh1XlQjp
— Baki 7our Mansour (@7our) July 25, 2014
#AH5017 Air Algeria airplane accident Flight 5017 plane crash Swift Air
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The Salvo Blog
Study: Spirituality pays a key role in fighting depression
In “Can Religion or Spirituality Help Ward Off Depression?” (World of Psychology August 25, 2011), a somewhat skeptical John M. Grohol reports,
The new longitudinal research out of Columbia University wanted to followup on previous research demonstrating this correlation between spirituality or religiosity and a reduced risk for depression.
The researchers continued to followup on a set of subjects they had used in the previous study, following them from the 10-year mark (when the older research had ended) to the 20-year mark. The subjects in the study were 114 adult offspring of both depressed parents and parents who had no depression.
At the 20-year mark, had there been an episode of major depression? Only one quarter of the people who said religion or spirituality was important had experienced major depression. Time spent at religious services didn’t affect this outcome.
The really interesting find was that
Those at the highest risk for depression because they were the child of a depressed parent (that genetic and environmental connection that’s important for determining depression risk) had the biggest reduction in risk due to their spirituality or religious nature.
Grohol suggests more research.
These conclusions should be less surprising than they are to some, for several reasons. Religious Christians (all study participants were Christians) tend to live in tightly knit communities which, if healthy, play a strong role in fighting major depression by identifying the warning signs early. Thus many threatened episodes never happen.
Second, traditional Christians expect some level of unavoidable suffering as part of life, accepting it as a test of character (not of faith, because their faith told them to expect it). The same situation might look very different to the person who honestly believes that if things aren’t going well, there is something wrong with him.
Denyse O'Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain. Follow UD News at Twitter!
By Denyse
Aug 28, 2011 3:24:05 PM | Science, Society
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On Why the Multiverse Has to Be
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Simcoe County District School Board » Community » Community Use of Schools
Through our Community Use of Schools program, almost all of our school spaces are available outside of school hours for not-for-profit community groups. Our gyms, fields, auditoriums and classrooms are available for your sporting events, concerts, recitals and more.
A list of all SCDSB elementary and secondary schools, including addresses, are available on our School Search.
Submit your permit application online
Please apply online for a permit. If you have any questions, please contact the permit office (contact information is listed below).
A Permit Clerk will process the application and advise the applicant if the facility is available at the requested time. Once an application is approved, a rental contract will be issued and the applicant will be invoiced. A schedule of fees can be found on pages 10-16 of APM A1220.
Please make an appointment before attending the Permit Office by using the contact information below.
Applicants must be 18 years of age or older, and an individual of 18 years of age or older must be in attendance for the duration of the rental contract.
No rental contracts will be available during Professional Activity (PA) Days, Christmas Break, March Break, Easter Monday and statutory holidays, except for rental contracts to carry out religious services.
Rental contracts will not be granted for the use of school facilities during the two weeks prior to the end of the school year, regularly scheduled maintenance projects, two weeks prior to the school year commencing and during the first week of school.
All rental contract holders must have liability insurance of at least $2 million and name the Simcoe County District School Board as Additional Insured.
Complete List of Permit Rules
If you wish to purchase insurance, please follow these steps:
Wait to receive an eBASE notification by email indicating that your permit has been placed 'on hold' pending the provision of an insurance certificate.
Purchase insurance directly from AON Reed Stenhouse. They are available to answer any questions you might have.
Upload your Certificate of Insurance into eBASE and enter your insurance details.
Barrie, Clearview, Collingwood area schools
Adjala-Tosorontio, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Essa, Innisfil, Midland, New Tecumseth, Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Penetanguishene, Ramara, Severn, Springwater, Tay, Tiny and Wasaga Beach area schools
705-734-6363 ext. 11372
Manager of Planning, Enrolment and Community Use
Community and Facility Use Coordinator (Outreach Coordinator)
Partnership opportunity inquiries
If you are unsure where a school is located, please visit our School Search.
APM A1220 - Community Use Procedures
Policy 2340 - Community Use of Facilities
Frequently Asked Questions - Permits and Facility Use
When buses are cancelled due to inclement weather are permits cancelled?
No, permits are not automatically cancelled when buses are cancelled. Permits will only be cancelled if the schools are closed or the afternoon custodial shift is cancelled. The Permit Office will contact any clients affected in these circumstances and will post cancellation notices on the board’s website. Please note that decisions to cancel afternoon custodial shifts are not made until after 12 noon.
Which schools are available for permitting in the summer?
Each summer the available school facilities change due to construction and maintenance requirements. Schools supplied by well water are not open for indoor summer permitting every year. Please note depending on the timing of your application school facilities may already be booked by other community users. School availability is subject to change due to maintenance projects.
What dates & times are the schools available for permitting in the summer?
Facilities within a school are available Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., from the first week of July up until the last two weeks prior to the school year commencing.
School fields are open May 1st to October 31st. Actual start date is dependent on field conditions. Start time is 6:30 p.m. Please note that wet field conditions may make fields unplayable during the season.
Are schools available on Fridays in the summer?
If custodial coverage can be arranged, permits may be accommodated.
Is air conditioning available and what does it cost?
Air conditioning is available at some locations only. The cost depends on the specific rooms being used and length of the permit request. Your permit clerk will be able to provide you with the cost.
When can summer permits be confirmed?
Due to summer maintenance projects, approvals and confirmations for summer requests cannot be given before June 1st. Summer availability is also subject to change after June 1st.
Can I make alterations to my summer permit?
Alterations may be accepted until the end of June. After June 30th, alterations will not be possible.
I want to book school space for a film or music video shoot. What do I do?
For films, please send a summary of the script to the Assistant Manager of Community Use for approval.
For music videos, please send a copy of the lyrics and a summary of information about the video to the Assistant Manager of Community Use for approval.
Once you receive an approval back you can continue with the permit application process.
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EBT 2020
Late Cancellations
Bowling Jersey
Livescoring (Normal)
Livescoring (Beta)
Late cancellations in tour stops have over the last couple of years developed from a rather marginal problem to a very serious problem with 40-50 late cancellations in the worst cases. The problem has become a real existential threat for many tournaments and might become an existential threat to the whole tour business if nothing is done.
Sometimes a player has valid reasons for a late cancellation. This includes for example illness and injuries. In these cases there will be no sanctions.
A new set of rules has been in effect since 2007, including a system with penalty points, penalties and registration in cases of late cancellations. Late cancellations are defined in three categories and penalty points are given as follows:
Late Cancellation Type A
Type A means that the organizer is notified by the player in the period of 30 days before the first day of the tournament until 8 days before the first day of the tournament. The player will be given 1 penalty point and the organizer will issue a penalty invoice to the player with an amount of not more than half of the maximum fee for a primary entry (€ 80,00).
Late Cancellation Type B
Type B means that the organizer is notified by the player in the period of 7 days before the first day of the tournament until and including the last qualification day of the tournament, but before the qualification squad in which the primary entry was ordered. The player will be given 2 penalty points and the organizer will issue a penalty invoice to the player with an amount of not more than the maximum fee for a primary entry (€ 160,00).
Late Cancellation Type C
Type C is defined as a "No Show", which means that a player fails to appear without having notified the organizer or if the player notifies the organizer after the start of the qualification squad in which the primary entry was ordered. The player will be given 3 penalty points and the organizer will issue a penalty invoice to the player with an amount of not more than the maximum fee for a primary entry plus the maximum fee for a re-entry (€ 280,00).
When a valid penalty invoice is issued and the full amount is received by the organizer latest 30 days after the invoice was issued, the organizer will notify the EBT Administrator and all given penalty points for the tournament will be removed.
If an invoice (A-C) is not paid latest 30 days after it was issued, the player will be given 1 penalty point more, regardless whether the voucher is paid at a later moment.
For late cancellations penalty points will be given, but also 1 point for an illegal pull out in a tournament and furthermore from 0-4 penalty points to players presenting improper behaviour like attacking equipment, attacking other players or officials and other similar, fortunately not very often, occurring happenings. The level of action will decide the number of penalty points given.
Penalty Points and Numbers
Penalty points will be accumulated over a three year period, where after points from the oldest year will be removed. Each time a player is at or passing 4 penalty points, a penalty number is added to the players total of penalty numbers and a penalty will be issued as follows:
If the penalty number is 1, the player will be suspended for 60 days from EBT stops, counting from the day the suspension letter is issued.
If the penalty number is 2, the player will be suspended for 90 days from EBT stops, counting from the day the suspension letter is issued. In addition the player will, through his federation, be invoiced by ETBF with a penalty fee of € 300.
For each time the penalty number is higher than 2, the suspension period will be 30 days higher than the suspension period of the previous penalty number. In addition the penalty fee will be € 300 higher than the penalty fee of the previous penalty number. A suspension of a player from the EBT will in principle never end as long as a player has not paid the penalty fee to ETBF.
(c) 2020 Stichting Bowling Topsport Nederland
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All Saints Catholic School
Why All Saints Catholic School?
All Saints Nursery
All Saints Catholic School Mission Statement "Guiding children to Christ through faith, learning, community, and service."
All Saints Catholic School Philosophy "Christ is the foundation of the whole education enterprise in a Catholic School."
All Saints STEM Fair
Enrichment & Skills Programs
New Kindergarteners
Tour All Saints
Newsletters & Email Blasts
Health/Attendance Office
Field Trips & Activities Registration Forms
TADS Educate Parent Portals and Tuition Accounts
Year at a Glance Calendar
Parent Pick-up and Drop-off Instructions
Out of Uniform & Spirit Wear Guidelines
Parent/Student & Mission Partner Handbook & Policies
Falcon's Nest
Annual Inspection Notifications
After-School Extracurricular (Non-Athletic)
Chess Club & Brick Builders (Legos)
Math Masters
Middle School Drama Club
PTO Movie Night
Mission Partner Opportunities & Requirements
What a Difference a Day Makes
Scrip-Would you like to earn credit for tuition?
Boxtops, Label2Learn & More!
Custom Cash
Guiding Children to Christ Through Faith, Learning, Community, and Service.
Attendance Line: 952-985-9939
School Mass: Friday at 8:30 am
Church School Facebook Search
All Saints Catholic School is accredited by the Minnesota Non-Public School Accrediting Association. Annual reports are submitted to this agency in order to meet Association standards, and an onsite visit occurs every seven years. All Saints Catholic School completed an intensive self-study and validation visit in the spring of 2019. Curriculum evaluation is an on-going process at All Saints Catholic School. Curriculum goals and programs to support those goals are selected after careful study and consultation on the part of the staff.
Annually All Saints Catholic School reports to the MNSAA board. The strategic plan is updated with our accomplishments and, when applicable, new strategies and action steps are added.
Due to this being our year for the validation process and team visit, a new School Strategic Plan was created using the information obtained through our self-study and annual parent survey.
All Saints Catholic School Strategic Plan
Comments from the Onsite Accreditation Team:
The onsite accreditation team would like to thank All Saints School and Parish for your warm welcome and gracious hospitality throughout our visit on March 18-20, 2019. The team had an opportunity to interview stakeholders including Fr. Wilson, Carol Margarit, faculty, staff, students, and parents.
There is a palpable sense of joy among students, staff, and parents of the All Saints Community. The team was impressed by the openness, friendliness, and enthusiasm of the children. They are a good example of what the results of religious education can be, and their attitude is a testimony to the hospitality associated with All Saints Catholic School and Parish. We quickly learned that Catholic education is important to the parents of those children. The teachers with their effort, knowledge, creativity, and skills reminded us of the great things that can happen in classrooms. The relationships among staff are highly collaborative and supportive. All Saints staff really believe in educating all students and they offer many opportunities for both enrichment and support.
The team found that parish and school leadership foster a strong sense of community, academic excellence, and commitment to student spiritual growth. The All Saints Community benefits from the forward thinking and strategic planning of school and parish leadership. Parents and community members are highly engaged in volunteering and supporting All Saints Catholic School. Programs like Strive for Five, the recycling program and Pet Partners are highly innovative and effective.
Thank you for the opportunity to spend time with you and learn all the wonderful things that are part of the All Saints Catholic School experience!
Summary of Visit- All Saints Catholic School
Most Significant Areas of Strength:
All Saints Catholic School lives its mission of guiding children to Christ through faith, learning, community and service. This is particularly evident in the joyful environment and the positive interactions between and among students, staff, and parents.
All Saints has a positive school climate that contributes to a strong sense of community with a high level of collaboration and trust among staff and between staff and parents.
Exceptional leadership supports All Saints Catholic School by responding to the needs and development of faculty and staff, planning for the future of All Saints; and ensuring effective organizational systems.
All Saints is blessed with wonderful facilities that are very well maintained, efficiently used, and includes an innovative school-wide recycling program.
All Saints Catholic school is committed to meeting the unique needs of students through quality instruction, and a broad array of enrichment and support services.
Most Significant Areas Identified for Growth/Improvement:
All Saints Catholic School needs to develop a written process for ongoing evaluation of standards, instruction & assessment and needs a plan to ensure the effective use of assessment data to inform instruction and decision making.
All Saints Catholic School needs to make substantial revisions to their School Strategic Plan to meet the MNSAA quality expectations.
All Saints Catholic School need to develop and implement a plan to address building safety and security concerns.
Our Plan to Address the Areas of Growth/Improvement:
Create a document which will state the processes we use to evaluate the standards, instruction & assessment and needs a plan to ensure the effective use of assessment data to inform instruction and decision making.
Document was created, submitted and approved.
Revise our School Strategic Plan to reduce how aggressive it is (spread action steps out over a couple years). Revisit our challenges in our self-study to ensure they are incorporated into the plan if appropriate.
Plan was revised, submitted and approved.
While this is in our strategic plan, we will create a document to show the steps we are currently taking after reviewing our safety and security.
Four doors were installed during the summer of 2019 to secure the school.
Celebrating Catholic Schools Week - Jan. 26-Feb. 1
19795 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville, MN 55044 Ph: (952) 469-3332 | F: (952) 469-5752
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Shooting Industry Magazine
The Shooting Industry's Business Magazine
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Arms And The Women
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Everyday Marketing
Personal Defense Market
U.S. Firearms Industry
Dealer Advantage
Selling Fun:
Today’s Airgun Market
By Tim Barker
Odds are, there’s not a single airgun for sale in your shop. It might even be the sort of thing you’ve never even considered. After all, why set aside valuable shelf space for “toys”?
Maybe this is the time to remember not all airguns are toys. Most certainly you can walk into any Walmart and find a selection of lower velocity BB and pellet guns designed to look like the real firearms you do sell. But these days, airgun manufacturers offer a wider range than what you’ll find at the big-box stores. Some of them are powerful enough to be used for hunting coyotes, turkey and even deer.
That’s no surprise, of course. History buffs know Capt. Meriwether Lewis carried a Girandoni air rifle on his westward expedition with William Clark. The .46-caliber Austrian rifle could fire more than two dozen times before its air reservoirs had to be refilled by hand pump. The expedition is said to have used the rifle in demonstrations for the Native American tribes encountered along the journey.
AirForce Airguns E-pump Compressor
Advancements In Airguns
Today’s airguns fall roughly into four categories. The variable pump and CO2 guns are the more toy-like offerings. At the upper end are the break-barrel rifles and pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) rifles — along the lines of the Girandoni carried on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Those latter two designs represent some potential for gun shop owners looking to try something different.
Airguns are nothing new for GAT Guns in East Dundee, Ill., where manager Randy Potter said the store has carried them since before he started working there in 1996.
The shop, located northwest of Chicago, gives evidence of a potential market for other stores. This isn’t the case of someone finding a niche and exploiting it through online sales. All of their business is local.
“It’s a good business,” Potter shared. “But it’s still a side business. It wouldn’t exist on its own. It’s a good crossover business.”
The store has about 20,000 square feet of retail space. Airguns get about one percent of it.
With limited inventory space, you must be careful in choosing what to carry. GAT Guns focuses on the stuff you won’t find at the chains and big box stores.
“These are adult air rifles. It’s a whole different level of quality,” Potter said. “We do what’s not being done by anyone else in the area — at least not in this part of the state.”
Their biggest sellers are the break-barrel rifles. They aren’t quite as powerful as PCP rifles (maybe 90% on the best models), but they’re easier to operate when you consider the PCP rifles require some sort of pump for refills. Hand pumps cost around $200, though more serious PCP airgunners use more expensive compressors or scuba tanks.
The average sales price of their airguns is in the $250–$300 range. They don’t even try to compete with Walmart and other stores on the lower-priced, high-volume stuff. When you can only make five dollars on the sale of a Red Ryder BB gun, what’s the point of putting them on the shelves?
SIG Air ASP X-FIVE
Overcoming Sticker Shock
The challenge is getting people to pay prices sometimes higher than what they’d pay for a new firearm. The most expensive air rifle they carry, for example, is the RWS Model 54 at $699.
“A lot of people kind of flinch at the price of these guns,” Potter mentioned. “But you help them understand it’s more than likely going to be the gun they shoot more than anything else.”
They certainly offer advantages over firearms. You don’t need to make a trip to the range to shoot them. They’re cheap to shoot when you can buy a box of 500 pellets for $10. There’s no smoke, so no worries about ventilation if you set up a bullet trap in the basement. And, they’re considerably quieter than a firearm. But they’re not silent — something to consider for customers thinking about shooting in their backyard.
“If you live in an area where you have neighbors, they’re going to know you’re shooting,” Potter noted.
Add-On Potential
As with any other type of gun, there’s an opportunity for additional sales. Not surprisingly, pellets are the top seller. Airguns can be a bit finicky about what they’ll eat, so it’s not uncommon for a new buyer to pick up several brands of pellets when making a purchase.
And there are scopes — generally those designed for rimfire rifles or specifically for airguns. As with regular firearms, a buyer may spend 80 percent or more of the airgun’s cost on a new scope.
Probably not much of surprise, but pellets represent a strong add-on sales category for your airgun hunters or enthusiasts.
Airgun Hunting Sales Impact
Located in an urban area, hunters don’t make up a particularly large part of the business at GAT Guns. However, the top-line air rifles are certainly capable of taking game.
Consider the Benjamin Bulldog by Velocity Outdoor (formerly Crosman). The PCP rifle, selling for around $600, comes in .357-caliber, putting it roughly on par with a 9mm — particularly at closer distances according to Jay Duncan, director of marketing for Velocity Outdoor. It can be fired dozens of times before it needs to be recharged.
As Duncan puts it, “They’re ethical tools for taking game.”
To be clear, these guns don’t achieve the same range of a “powder burner.” The company recommends hunting at 70 yards or closer.
Potter knows of shooters who have successfully used air rifles on coyotes out to 60 yards. The store’s top seller in the PCP line is the Benjamin Marauder; it comes in calibers from .177 to .25.
“These are a dream to squirrel hunt with,” he said. “You can get 20–40 shots before the pressure starts to drop off.”
These guns could see their hunting roles expand in coming years. Duncan said the Airgun Sports Association is lobbying to have airguns included in modern hunting seasons. In some states, they’ve even had success setting up airgun seasons.
(Two prime examples: Texas and New Hampshire have each introduced new guidelines to legalize airgun hunting — with AirForce Airguns and SIG AIR playing integral roles in their home states, respectively.)
“It just gives hunters another option,” he contends. “If you’re going to put guys out there with muzzleloaders, why not airguns too?”
And while the PCP and break barrel airguns deliver the most power, he said there’s still an argument to be made for the CO2 guns, particularly after SIG SAUER sparked new interest in the segment with the introduction of an MPX clone.
Crosman followed suit earlier this year with the debut of its own full-auto MSR-style BB gun, weighing in at a beefy 6 pounds.
“These types of airguns are toys. But they’re fun toys,” Duncan concluded. “You can’t say full-auto BB gun and not have a smile on your face.”
Umarex USA Ruger Yukon Magnum
Dealers, have your say: Do you see airguns as a valuable part of your store’s inventory? Why or why not? Send us a note — comments@nullshootingindustry.com
What Your Customers Are Reading: GUNS Magazine
To match the growth of the airgun segment in recent years, Shooting Industry’s sister magazine GUNS Magazine has added a regular airgun-centric column: Air Power. Aimed at educating consumers on recent developments in the airgun sphere and providing new product reviews, this column represents a fresh forum for the possible recruitment of additional airgun enthusiasts.
“Airguns are just pure fun, even for adults! But, enjoyment aside, air-powered weapons offer the chance for enthusiasts to shoot even in anti-firearm states — so I really believe this part of the industry is only going to grow,” said Brent Wheat, editor of GUNS Magazine. “This is why I think our new Air Power column by well-known writer Tom McHale is a real winner!”
Recent advancements in airgun technology have appealed to greater numbers of customers, with companies like SIG AIR, FN America, Umarex and others manufacturing product with the same controls as their live-fire counterparts. Consumers have realized their utility in training applications, introducing new shooters to the sport or ethically hunting game with a quieter platform — especially if they’re integrally suppressed.
Visit www.gunsmagazine.com for the latest trends in the consumer market.
Read More Feature Articles
Click To Read More Shooting Industry November 2018 Issue Now!
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Defeated By a Dialog Box
I can operate almost any user interface. After all, I have 33 years’ experience using computers and 25 years’ professional experience analyzing bad designs: I know most of the ways interaction designers can confuse or annoy users. I’ve seen it all before. Or so I thought.
Despite my prowess at defeating complicated user interfaces, I was recently stumped by a simple dialog box. I simply couldn’t figure out how to proceed, so I had to close the application and use another program to achieve my goal.
The offending software shall remain nameless; it’s a nice piece of shareware that I enjoy enough to have paid the fee. Also, a single...
Scrolling and Scrollbars
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Best Application Designs
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Defeated By a Dialog Box | Do Government Agencies and Non-Profits Get ROI From Usability?
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Comana Crafts Village is a project of
About the village
Activities for groups
The Romanian Cook House
Reed Processing Workshop
Woodworking Workshop
Luca Blacksmith’s Workshop
“The Story-Grinding Mill” and the Bakery
Verna-cultura Summer School Traditional crafts in contemporary context!
by admin / Wednesday, 11 November 2015 / Published in Press Releases
Verna-cultura Summer School will take place over 13th – 22nd of July 2015 in Comana, Giurgiu county, within Comana Crafts Village site. Traditional crafts in contemporary context!
By taking part in the Summer School, young architects will acquire new skills in the domain of restoring the built heritage. They will therefore have the practical possibility of initiation and knowledge acquisition in terms of crafts, materials and techniques of making vernacular-type traditional construction works, specific both to the restoration of heritage buildings and to building new spaces in the spirit of bioarchitecture. The practical activity will be coordinated by architects, folk craftsmen and specialists in vernacular building practices.
Within this project, young architects will have the opportunity of getting involved into activities carried on the building site of Comana Crafts Village project, a project unique in Romania due to the traditional construction techniques and also to its social, educational and cultural objectives – the building of a small village dedicated to traditional crafts, meant to be a constant source of income for the villagers involved in the project.
“Verna-cultura Summer School. Traditional crafts in contemporary context” is co-financed by the Union of Romanian Architects, within a project carried on by the Paper Mill Association in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture of the University Spiru Haret and the European Foundation for Eco-sustainable Development.
For further details on this project, please use the site www.moaradehartie.ro, the facebook page Școala de vară Verna-cultura, the e-mail echipa@moaradehartie.ro or the telephone number 0743.266.262 – Ion Georgescu – Project Manager.
The first official visit to Comana Crafts Village
Week-End Programme at the Paper Mill and Crafts Village
Press Release – Verna-cultura. Traditional crafts in the context of contemporary architecture
By subscribing to our mailing list you will always be updated with the latest news from us.
Phones: 0723 COMANA (266262), 0743 COMANA (266262), 0372 COMANA (266262)
Email: echipa@satulmestesugurilor.ro
Address: 278-280 Funieru St., Comana, Giurgiu
Project supported by funds granted by the Government of Norway through the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 in the areas of finance green industry innovation in Romania.
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Topic DevOps Culture
SubTopic Team Organization
Taking a look at DOES17
Unmask IT operational risks for resilient apps
Unclog DevOps pipelines with release engineering
Deployment pipeline diagrams expose process and tech gaps
Make IT improvements that benefit the business, not just IT
At DevOps Enterprise Summit 2016
Target talks delivery improvement with DevOps
The benefits of a DevOps transition at DOES16
APIs and DevOps: Bridging the gap
Blurring IT lines with DevOps tooling
American Airlines talks DevOps best practices
IT ops updated with DevOps collaboration
DevOps empowers IT ops
This content is part of the Conference Coverage: Guide to DevOps Enterprise Summit 2017
Crisis forges DevOps best practices at American Airlines, CSRA
There's no better time to institute DevOps best practices than during a broader disruption from a merger and spinoff, according to two large organizations, which tell their tales.
Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer
SAN FRANCISCO -- A period of upheaval following a company spinoff or merger may not seem like a great time to establish...
DevOps best practices, but for two large enterprises, such crises were exactly what drove their DevOps transformations.
When American Airlines acquired US Airways in December 2013, there was initially a lack of trust between the IT teams at each airline as the companies prepared to come together, said Susanna Brown, managing director of operations technology for Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines.
But "we just couldn't keep on throwing bodies at [the problem]," Brown said, speaking here at the DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES). Instead, a new, more efficient way of working was required.
"DevOps ended up being our answer, and the merger became a catalyst for cultural change at American, which really allowed DevOps to take hold within our organization," she said.
Integration has been the top priority of the merging airlines, to move toward increased innovation once the value of the merger is realized. In early 2014, when integration work began, the newly combined organizations had 1,400 systems to bring together and about 2,000 projects to tackle. To date, the integration work is now 70% complete, Brown estimated.
Connecting teams was the foundation, and American Airlines set that stage in 2014 with team-building activities and collaboration technologies that united distributed IT teams in multiple geographies. Intense collaboration was introduced in 2015, and creation of new apps has been the culmination of the rest of the work in 2016. Along the way, the organization also standardized on two DevOps toolchains for Java and .NET workloads, which included configuration management with Puppet and dev and test automation with vRealize Automation from VMware.
More recently, Brown's airline technology group began cross-group collaboration with enterprise technology, which handles network, infrastructure and security for the airlines, as well as customer and corporate technology groups.
While American Airlines has mostly seen success on its integration journey, test automation remains an Achilles' heel of DevOps for the airline, Brown said.
"We recognize that this is an area where we're lagging, so we're trying to create lighthouse projects that we can use to showcase to the rest of the organization," she said.
The application that is furthest ahead in test automation is a flight attendant customer experience tool. Test automation reduced IT labor costs by 85% and testing time by 33%. And by the end of the year, the company expects a testing-time reduction of 66%.
Brown's organization has also created a self-service portal for developers to use to spin up infrastructure and encourage experimentation, though the portal has only begun to get internal traction, said Benjamin Chan, director of shared services for American Airlines, also speaking at DOES.
"You would think the developers would just run to this tool and be so excited, [but] there are always those cultural changes," Chan said. "We've released it; we've got some people on board. And as they're learning in these environments to try new things, or to experiment with software, to try algorithms, they're coming to us."
CSRA spins out, merges in with DevOps best practices
"A crisis is necessary for transformation," Paula Thrasher, director of digital services for CSRA Inc., a government IT services provider based in Falls Church, Va., said she has come to believe following the difficult birth of her company.
CSRA was formed following the spinoff of the North American federal government business belonging to systems integrator Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) and a merger with Fairfax, Va., government IT service provider SRA International, all of which took place in a matter of months in 2015.
Prior to the CSC spinoff, other than some financial systems separated for auditing purposes for the public-sector business, IT was centralized between the government and commercial divisions of the business -- meaning the newly spun-off organization had to re-create an IT department from scratch.
"There was no IT department," Thrasher said. "What started off as a little bit of a shadow project, a network separation project under the auspices of security ... a few months later, it became public that we were going to split the company."
The announcement happened in April; the Securities and Exchange Commission filing date for the split was in October.
"We had to basically build an entirely new IT department, and we had about four months and one week to do it," Thrasher said. There was also no transitional period for CSC to make IT resources available to the new spinoff.
"To pull this off, we realized we had to break all the rules ... we're going to automate everything; it's going to be cloud. We're going to do all the things that you have to do to be fast, technology-wise," Thrasher said.
There was really no other option -- it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to blow up IT and start over.
Paula Thrasherdirector of digital services, CSRA
To create a "minimum viable company," as Thrasher put it, the groups building the new IT department and the groups building out the new company's business functions were forced to collaborate from the beginning.
That stage of the separation process took shape around August 2015, when the team found out about the merger with SRA, which closed in November 2015.
"That was a really rough Monday," Thrasher remembered.
Still, at that time, the budding organization realized "anything other than DevOps was not success," she said. "This was our crisis. It forced us to transform, because there was really no other option -- it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to blow up IT and start over."
To start, the team conducted what Thrasher called "the world's largest scream test ... that's where you unplug a system and you see who screams." This helped rationalize what applications and services to bring forward into the new organization. It also forced the business to tell IT what was truly important.
Along the way, apps were brought out of individual desktops, manually created spreadsheets, and legacy systems and into a cloud-based automated environment, including the automation of tests through Jenkins.
"Obviously, not everybody's going to get the chance to go through the joy of a merger and a separation," Thrasher said. "But the more you can bring the business into your DevOps journey, that's a huge success point."
Beth Pariseau is senior news writer for TechTarget's Data Center and Virtualization Media Group. Write to her at bpariseau@techtarget.com or follow @PariseauTT on Twitter.
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Beth Pariseau - 8 Nov 2016 9:09 AM
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GraphQL vs. REST: That is the question as teams tackle microservices architecture design, and at Pantheon, the choice came with ...
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Car Turns in Front of Link Train
Posted on June 29, 2009 June 30, 2009 by Eric Butler
"Stopped at Othello", by Steven De Vight
Shortly after 5pm today, a car traveling on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South made an illegal turn against a red light and was hit by a passing Link Light Rail train. The driver of the car sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to the hospital. We’re awaiting word about the train’s condition, but hopefully any damage was minor and it’ll be out looking beautiful on July 18th in just 18 days.
The best photos are available at the Rainier Valley Post.
This incident comes one day after we reported about John Niles’ suggestion that Sound Transit be liable for all car vs. train incidents, even in cases like this when the driver made an illegal turn.
[UPDATE: John Niles, in the thread below, points out that he never uses the word “liable,” and is instead using “chargeable” as a way of saying Sound Transit could have prevented it. There’s a strong tone implying negligence in the piece, however, so readers can be the judge. –Editor]
Despite who’s at fault, the city is looking for ways to make the area safer. Earlier today before this accident, KIRO posted a story about merchants who are opposed to the installation new barriers designed to prevent car/train collisions, claiming they would hurt business. According to the story, a few business owners are threatening to block the track on opening day in protest. Seattle Transit Blog would like to remind our readers that standing on any railway, regardless of political motivation, is a very bad idea, and that your chances of successfully stopping a 2-car train are very low.
Also tonight in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, home to many STBers, a family crossing the street was hit by a car. There aren’t a lot of details about this incident yet, but Capitol Hill Seattle reports that at least three people (two of them young children) were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and Seattle Police arrested the driver at the scene. Hopefully everyone injured will recover quickly. To John: should these children be responsible for the driver’s legal fees? Or maybe the city for not grade separating all the crosswalks?
Sound Transit has lots of information about staying safe around Link on their website, including a guide for drivers.
CategoriesUncategorized TagsLink light rail, Seattle, Sound Transit
53 Replies to “Car Turns in Front of Link Train”
Adam B. Parast says:
The answer is obviously no. Whatever your believes, they should never result in using something as important as peoples lives as bartering chip.
James Lamb says:
Hope the guy who got hit by the train got at least a moving violation for the illegal turn on red. Even better if they got a ticket for impeding the flow of mass transit. (Well, it’d have to a warning since there’s no mass on the transit yet.)
L. Smith says:
And, better yet if they recover to full health! (but of course, that’s tertiary).
Erik G. says:
The train totaled his/her PT Cruiser. That driver should be thankful for never again having to be seen in one, if they so choose.
Oran Viriyincy says:
What kind of person drives a PT Cruiser?
I was one of the crew who laid out the location of the curbs this morning. When we arrived, the senior engineers (and probably a PR guy) were already there talking to the business owners.
The business owner who made the threat to protest owns a gas station; also other businesses at that location: drive-through Starbucks, drive through McDonalds. Go figure.
The gas station driveway on Graham is going to be blocked but there’s another driveway to the parking of the Viet-Wah/strip mall just 50 feet up the street which can be used to access the station.
“too bad” is my attitude. Those curbs that prevent accidents were installed in Bellevue and it does take a bit of adjustment to remember where you can access the services you want, but once you are used to it, no issues.
That Gas station owner will just have to lower his price by a couple of pennies and he’ll still generate all the traffic he can handle. People will flock for a price break.
I checked: the other driveway will be blocked, too. If people driving down EB Graham want to access the station or the strip mall they have to make a left on to NB MLK instead of a left on Graham right after the intersection. That reduces the chance of accidents and of cars backing up on to the tracks.
Ben Schiendelman says:
Maybe if they don’t want the c-curbs, those business owners want to pay for the damages when someone gets into an accident? :)
They’re lucky no one sued them when they got into an accident because of the location of their driveway.
MarkS says:
It’s also no surprise Chris Van Dyk signed up to ‘represent’ these auto-oriented businesses. Not only is that guy an avowed rail opponent & Kemperite, but he also likes to brag about his gas-guzzling muscle car on occassion.
“and that your chances of successfully stopping a 2-car train are very low.”
Just wait for the 4-car trains; I gather the odds are even lower?
Attention Sound Transit! We look forward to the release of the on-board “dash-cam” footage!
joshuadf says:
Not far away in the gutter lay a toppled stroller.
Yikes. As someone who’s crossed that intersection pushing a stroller, reading that sentence is terrifying. Hope they’re OK.
Let me see, light rail warning light, red turn light, and a fast train that weighs more than a vehicle. As I like to say, the train will always win, so if it is coming, just save yourself the expenses of insurance, hospital bills, and wait for the train to pass.
Can I ask – why has Sound Transit not invested in 4 quarter barriers on their at grade lines? It seems to me that transit agencies that have implemented them (LA for instance) have seen a measurable uptick in safety.
John Jensen says:
What are those?
at vehicle crossings…
2 quarter barriers:
—–___| —–
—– |___—–
—–___|___—–
Because the valley community didn’t want all that loud noise that goes with them. It’s just like MAX, this won’t happen for very long.
ugh – that didn’t work. stupid input formatter.
in any case – 2 quarter barrier at-grade-crossings have a gate only on the right hand side of the road.
4 quarter barriers have a gate on both the right and the left side, to prevent vehicles from circumventing the gate.
Matt L says:
The crossing involved in this incident has no barriers. The tracks are in the median of the roadway.
LA’s Blue Line has similar crossings, with similar collisions:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/angeles-injuries-train-2162843-humphrey
The gold line has 4 quarter barriers along it’s entire length no?
Though I see what you mean about no barriers on MLK way…
Calgary’s C’train has similar center median alignment, but has barriers to prevent both orthogonal and left turn traffic incursions.
Right, rainier valley residents didn’t want those. In LA, things are very different – they have an endemic problem with running red lights (directly through, high speed) that we don’t have here. We just have some idiots turning, and they’ll learn.
Lightning says:
I don’t care what Rainier Valley residents “want”. What they got was a great system I’d die for. I live in Ballard, which is not sharing in the ST pie. What I want is no collisions, and if barriers would prevent collisions, then they have to be put in, whatever residents “want”.
A lot of things would prevent collisions, but make the area unlivable. You can’t just force things on people that don’t want them – those residents have a right to say how their community should look. And barriers aren’t going to stop plenty of these drivers.
Building light rail prevents collisions. Yes, read it again. The accidents light rail has will be *far lower* than the no-build scenario.
You’ll get a good system too, help us push for one!
Nice! A bus driver, a professional driver still made the crossing in front of an at grade light rail train mistake…
You know if one person walks into a room and hits a chair, he’s a klutz, if two people do it, they’re probably related and also klutz, after the third time, it’s time to move the chair.
That’s what CETA and John and I are complaining about. These accidents could be prevented, and by law should have been with gated crossings.
Gary: monorail gone. Not coming back.
John: CETA is you and how many other guys? Three?
Hey MarkS,
What comment about Monorail is in this thread?
I’m not a member of CETA.
Ben, I’m not trolling this blog, I’d appreciate it if you’d remove the troll comments from MarkS. If he has a reasonable complaint about something I’ve posted fine, but this is just nonsense. (and remove this complaint as well.) Thanks,
Gary, here you claim to be a CETA member:
http://www.monorail.org/discussions/2003/02/10/10
Chris Stefan says:
The problem is people still run gates. I’ve seen this where there is a four segment gate guarding a RR crossing and some idiot will still try to drive around. Thankfully I’ve never seen anyone hit by a train but anyone trying that stunt is in the running for a Darwin award.
On another note for anyone who thinks conflicts between transit ROW and and regular traffic are unique to rail take a look at the Orange line BRT in LA. There are frequent collisions between buses and drivers who ignore the signals. Note this line should have been built as rail, the ridership is so high buses really can’t handle it, even with 80 double articulated coaches the transit agency is trying to get a waiver from Caltrans for. Unfortunately they will need to find funding to build it and change a stupid state law pushed through by a NIMBY legislator.
Are you going to complain until we don’t have cars? Because if we turn that street into a pedestrian thoroughfare, we can eliminate most of these accidents…
More on the LA Blue line here:
http://fixexpo.blogspot.com/2009/01/meshkatis-op-ed-expo-line-approval.html
looks like 821 accidents in 18 years is approx 45 accidents/year over 22 miles of track, is 2year/mile. If we translate that to the LINK…that’s 5 miles of ungated track on MLK, or 11 or so a year. (slightly less than 1 a month) Which is lower than the 1999 EIS forecast by more than 60%. We should be so lucky! And it’s looking like we are on par for it. (1 a month..)
“This is the third incident involving a test train in Rainier Valley, where tracks run in a median at street level. Two were crashes with cars, and in one case, a person walked into the side of a train, according to Sound Transit.
“We’ve been running 20 hours a day for over a month here.”
John Niles says:
While I appreciate the publicity and commentary, Seattle Transit Blog lead articles by Martin Duke and Eric Butler are misrepresenting CETA’s and my position on the accident risk introduced to Seattle by Sound Transit’s (and City of Seattle’s) light rail alignment on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.
The words “liable” and “liability” do not appear on the web page I wrote that explains the increased collision risk from Link’s design.
We only mean this: Sound Transit’s at-grade design increases the probability of fatal collisions with trains, and the design should not have been built.
The page to read if you want to know more about this issue is http://www.bettertransport.info/pitf/linksafetycertification.htm .
My judgment that the at-grade design should not have been built relies upon the Federal Transit Administration document HAZARD ANALYSIS GUIDELINES FOR TRANSIT PROJECTS issued by the FTA in year 2000. There is a hot link to this document on my page, or go directly to
http://transit-safety.volpe.dot.gov/publications/Safety/Hazard/HAGuidelines.pdf.
It’s clear in that guideline that the light rail collision hazard described in the Central Link EIS that is engendered by its at-grade design is category Ic, meaning occasional (“likely to occur sometime in life of an item”) and catastrophic (can cause fatalities). This is a hazard category that is clearly termed “unacceptable” under the Guidelines cited. On page 10 of the Guidelines, the highest priority for corrective action for an unacceptable hazard is “design for minimum risk.” On page 12 is stated the safety principle, “Unacceptable hazards shall be eliminated by design.”
As my own web page describes, the only way Sound Transit could get around this problem is to call collisions like the ones we are already seeing as “non-chargeable.” This is exactly what Sound Transit did.
But there is nothing in the Hazard Guidelines about “non-chargeable” accidents.
The Guidelines I cite are also available for easy online reading at http://books.google.com/books?id=4Gt3cEdGI2IC.
Did you take a peek at that property I pointed out in Hillsboro, OR that faces a light rail line? And any of the two dozen or so homes that do so as well?
You could also take a look at Banfield/Eastside MAX.
I have digital photos of the MAX tracks running down a Hillsboro, Oregon street. With “street view” in Google Earth there are lots of opportunities for anybody to look at light rail tracks running in streets or street medians, for example, the new line in Phoenix.
In Amsterdam, Holland I have observed electric streetcars quietly creeping up behind walkers on the track and ringing the bell to get them to move out of the way.
Sound Transit’s configuration is NOT the least safe of urban passenger train tracks around the planet. Perhaps this makes some people feel good about Sound Transit’s design. Not me.
By lowering the speed of the trains sufficiently, Sound Transit could make the tracks along MLK Jr. Way much safer. But that would make the train less useful as a transportation service.
There is minimal signage, and MAX runs its normal in-street speed in that part of the alignment. I don’t think it’s speed, I simply think it’s making drivers aware of an onrushing train. With MAX running in front of homes where lots of kids live and play, you would think accidents in that particular section would be more common, but they’re not. That’s why I’m wondering if it’s culture or the color of thet rains.
Personally as an aside, I think you could make lots of money if you designed a driver notification system with an inaudible alert. Colored lanes? In-street flashing lights? A big sign that says “Camera Running, you will be fined $X for intentionally crossing when signals are on”?
Lower train speed below automobile speed? Come again?
Let me guess: you don’t think buses should be speed limited on the freeway or on city streets.
AJ: In the long run, all kinds of vehicles on urban streets — cars, trucks, buses, trains — will have better anti-collision technologies installed that reduce the risk of collisions. Some high-end automobiles already have radar-assisted cruise control and automatic braking. I suspect that over time — many years — the frequency of train-vehicle collisions on the MLK segment of Central Link will decrease. That hope is counterbalanced by whatever implications come out of the investigation of last week’s awful tragedy on the WMATA Metro Rail Red Line when the combination of an automated system and a train operator looking ahead failed to prevent a fatal collision.
litlnemo says:
So this was an intersection that normally allows turns, it was just that the guy ran a red light? Sheesh.
The earlier train/auto collision a month or two ago was further north at MLK and Dawson, a left turn at an intersection where they are not allowed, so it may have been a different situation. The thing I noticed about that one is that, unlike the intersections where turns are allowed, the intersection doesn’t have one of those big flashing “TRAIN IS COMING” lights. It could be a good thing to put those in at intersections like Dawson that do allow cross traffic but not left turns, because you know that is where people are going to be stupid and turn anyway. And the signs alert pedestrians too, which can’t hurt. How many cross streets are there that are like Dawson and do allow cross traffic but don’t have train warning signs for the MLK traffic?
I think the small number of accidents (in comparison to Phoenix and Houston, of course) shows either a cultural difference or higher awareness in Seattle. Could it be the color of the trains? Transports en Commun Lyonnais picked white trams for visibility and safety from what I recall, and it’s worked. I would do the needful and go back and read through all those vision docs for the vehicle procurement, but that means translating and that leads to semantic bias.
Our best-case example would be Westside MAX, where MAX rolls within 30 feet of front doors in Hillsboro, and yet, the few and rare accidents occur in wildly illegal ways, like people opening fences to sneak onto the alignment and getting whacked from behind by a MAX train, something that happened earlier this year. Or the dude who drove into the Robertson Tunnel. Banfield/Eastside MAX would lead to one particular argument that is ostensibly relevant to the Rainier Valley alignment, and I’m not going there.
I did want to note that according to the Seattle Times article it took an hour an a half to clear this accident. (Accident at 5pm, cleared at 6:30pm train tests resumed)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009400030_traincrash30m.html
That’s a lot of service interruption (I estimate 10 trains an hour each way, with six minute headways). Does anyone have a link to what the plan is to move the riders when this sort of thing happens again? A bus for the whole route? Run the trains to each side of the accident and trade passengers?
From experiences in Portland, they will run shuttles for the duration from the stop closest to the accident both inbound and outbound. Of course, in 2 years, I only had this happen twice, and at peak hours… it was somewhat crowded, but Trimet ran the buses pretty quickly and close together so it wasn’t too bad, just bumpy and a lot slower. Had a co-worker call in to complain and Trimet sent them a bunch of tickets for their trouble, so it can’t be too bad for a bit of a hassle! ;)
For the record, the issue is generally the scope in which the police are investigating, so it’s really not up to Sound Transit to have a policy beyond shuttling folks since cops have to document absolutely everything.
A single stop bus shuttle seems like a reasonable solution to a problem we all hope happens infrequently. Thanks.
Gosh, “we all hope”. Nice jab.
Notice about how often it happens in Portland – where it’s far less separated than it is here?
fine then heres a solution… close all the grade crossings along MLK and fence the RoW. afterall safety should come before conveinence.
There are gates along the intersections in the SODO area.. They could have put them in place on MLK. If noise is the issue, stop the bell clanging after 9pm and just use flashing lights. Better to be hit by the bar than the train.
pissed says:
Damien,
http://www.fixexpo.org/
I really don’t know how you can say that. While Rainier Valley has a higher proportion of African-Americans than the city as a whole, it also has a large number of Asians, Hispanics, and yes even whites.
Some of the comments I’ve read on a few of the local media sites about this accident since yesterday make it sound as if this sort of thing will only happen in Seattle.
Of course most of us know better…
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=821302
Why? Why would the driver do that and take such a risk? Why? It’s so senseless!
Of course, it’s not “always” the cross traffic’s fault.
http://www.co.washington.or.us/sheriff/media/max_cart.htm
Tri Met Light rail vs Fire truck.
My guess would be that the light rail operator expected the light to change for them as it normally would.
serial catowner says:
What we really have here is a “perfect storm” of driver ignorance. In the old days we had our share of bad drivers, but if you screwed up, you felt terrible- and I mean that literally. Even if you didn’t stab yourself with the steering wheel or dash your brains out on the dashboard, accidents were something to try to avoid.
But today, cars are safe. Run them off the road, cross the centerline, whatever, the worst you’re likely to feel is a ringing in your ears from the airbags. It’s evolution going backwards.
The one thing that might help would be to put a front on the streetcar of big rusty saw blades, axe blades, and oversized barbed wire. The same person who calmly contemplates complete disaster in his airbagged car will scream like a child at the thought of the paint getting scratched.
A friend of mine replaced a front bumper with a rusty I-beam once, and he said it was just wonderful, how careful the other drivers were around him.
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Henry’s Diagnosis Story
#Teampancreas
February 27, 2016 / semisweett1d / Leave a comment
T1D is a family disease. Our family has learned how to recognize and treat a low blood sugar. We make decisions about what to eat and when. We monitor blood sugars 24 hours a day. Henry’s sister also helps. She watches his numbers while they play and distracts Henry during site changes.
Part of Henry’s pancreas may not be functioning, but he’s got a village of support replicating (as close as humanly possible) what his beta cells once did.
Beyond Type 1 is celebrating #Who Do You Love? on their Instagram wall. Of course, Ava is a great addition to #teampancreas.When it comes to diabetes, there’s not a lot to celebrate; however, the way family and friends rally with support and understanding is something to honor.
Siblings are such an important part of living beyond. "I love my big sister Ava because it's sometimes hard to have diabetes. She makes me laugh and plays with with me when I have to get a new site. I like to play with her and Jerry the Bear the most.” #WhoDoYouLove #T1D #BeyondType1#Type1 #Type1Diabetes #Diabetes#WeAreNotWaiting #change #disruptdiabetes #DoGood #SocialGood #philanthropy #awareness #advocacy #inspiration #attitude #disruptlikeabadass #DOC #thisiswhatdiabeteslookslike #sweet16 #type1warrior #DiabetesAwareness #global_family #community #livebeyond
A post shared by Beyond Type 1 (@beyondtype1) on Feb 27, 2016 at 7:10am PST
T1D, Tummy Bugs, & Time
February 21, 2016 February 22, 2016 / semisweett1d / 2 Comments
About this time last year, Henry was taking a bath when he threw up. Matt began checking for ketones and calculating how much insulin he could or couldn’t give to a kid with a tummy bug, while I ran out to the grocery to purchase lots of soda, popsicles, and jell-o with sugar.
Tummy bugs are tricky with T1D. Ketones develop with sickness and when there’s not enough insulin to break down the glucose. In someone with T1D, what clears ketones is insulin and massive hydration, but when someone with T1D is vomiting, the person can’t keep the fluids down so that insulin can be administered safely. As ketones and dehydration increase, probably coupled with a low blood sugar, the likelihood of DKA
(diabetic ketoacidosis) increases. Usually, tummy bugs send Henry to the hospital. Sometimes we ride it out in the ER with an IV and sugar drip, and sometimes he’s admitted to the pediatric unit.
A year ago I was standing in line, anxious and worried, about to purchase a bunch of sugar. As the cashier was ringing my items she asked, “Are you planning a party?”
Hurried and harried, I replied, “Yeah, something like that.”
She then asked me if I’d like to donate a dollar to the JDRF and pointed toward a stack of papers in the shape of sneaker. Our local grocery store participates in the JDRF sell a sneaker campaign, where a person can add $1 to his or her total and the money goes to the JDRF. The total irony of that insane d-moment sunk in, and I inhaled to stop any feeling from overwhelming me.
I said yes, and signed Henry’s mom dx’d 3/6/14 then ran to my car, hoping to get all this sugar home in time to help. A few hours later found us in the ER, and Henry recovered quickly.
There are significant dates, diaversaries (diagnosis + anniversaries), and yearly campaigns, that mark the emotional passage of time that comes from living with a chronic condition. Last week I was standing in the grocery store, purchasing food for dinner, Henry was healthy, playing in the snow at his preschool, a young boy had just passed away from complications resulting from T1D, DKA, and a tummy bug. The clerk asked if I’d like to donate a dollar to the JDRF.
I said yes, and signed Henry’s mom dx’d 3/6/14 then walked to my car, thinking about Andrew’s family, about Henry a year ago, about the relentlessness of time across a chronic condition.
February 15, 2016 February 16, 2016 / semisweett1d / Leave a comment
The ADA’s 2016 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes recently shifted its language to match the ADA’s position that diabetes does not define people, “the word ‘diabetic’ will no longer be used when referring to individuals with diabetes in the ‘Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes.’ The ADA will continue to use the term ‘diabetic’ as an adjective for complications related to diabetes (e.g., diabetic retinopathy) (54.)'” This means that “diabetes” is now used to refer to the person who has it, instead of “diabetic;” for example, “My sister has diabetes,” not, “my sister is a diabetic.”
The name shift seems simple, but it’s packed with emotions, implications, and for some, even anger. I wrote a piece, Diabetic v. Diabetes, shortly after the ADA published the 2016 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, which explained the name change. When I linked to the article on Semisweet’s Facebook page, within seconds, the first comment was, “This is stupid.” Beyond Type 1 featured the article, and it garnered some healthy debate on the Beyond Type 1 Facebook page as well.
Some people see diabetic v. diabetes as splitting hairs or unnecessary political correctness. When I encounter the people who prefer to be called “diabetic,” or at least voice a strong and angry opinion against those asking to be called, “person with diabetes,” I respect their right to be called “diabetic.” In general, it seems these people have lived with the disease for many years— years when the battle was greater because technology wasn’t as advanced and understanding was scarer. Usually, these people are adults; however, children are more sensitive to language, labels, and their implications. In fact, we’re all probably not too far removed from that hateful comment or name someone hurled at us on the playground.
I’m the parent of someone who has diabetes. I couldn’t protect my son from getting diabetes, but I can try to protect him from the implications of being called “a diabetic.” He’s not even in kindergarten yet, and already kids his age have told him he, “can’t eat a certain food because [he’s] diabetic.” He’s been told he can’t play a certain sport because he’s “diabetic.” A neighbor kid didn’t want him in her yard because he’s “diabetic.” He’s brought home treats, like half a muffin or cupcake, from school because he didn’t eat it when the other kids did. We don’t make certain foods off limits, but he’s heard kids his own age tell him what he can’t eat. I wonder what he’s thinking as he watches his classmates eat their treats. He can eat that cupcake or cookie because he has diabetes, but he’s inherited the stereotype that he can’t, because he’s “a diabetic.”
The governing associations like American Diabetes Association are changing their language, and I think this is because our perception and understanding of diabetes is changing. To be “a diabetic” was a certain death sentence 94 years ago. After insulin, to be “a diabetic” meant doctors predicted vastly shorter lifespans; fear and misunderstanding from teachers, relatives, and the larger medical community impacted people’s lives negatively. Women with T1D were told they could not and should not have children (case in point, Steel Magnolias).
In this era of better treatment, people with diabetes can live normal lifespans with fewer complications. As more and more people live longer and better with T1D, we’re starting to understand that living with a chronic disease or condition, like diabetes, has impacts on our emotional health, romantic relationships, and mental health. Having diabetes, means we can talk about this, and if we talk about being “diabetic” versus living with diabetes, there’s a simple paradigm shift at work: a limited life vs. a limitless life.
In images, the paradigm shift looks like this.
Below is the picture of a child who’s just been given a shot of insulin for the first time in 1922, and he’s starting to wake up from DKA. He was in a Canadian hospital with a ward for diabetic children. Just weeks before, his parents sat at his literal death bed.
photo source: Library and Archives Canada
He’s a picture of 4 time Olympian, Kris Freeman. He happens to have Type 1. In the photo, he’s training for another race and is wearing an insulin pump, Omnipod, on his arm.
photo source: http://krisfreeman.net/
In both pictures, we can see the life that insulin makes possible, and what’s harder to discern, but still visible, are the implications of being diabetic versus having diabetes.
Being diabetic once meant limitations, and yes, having diabetes requires my son to make sacrifices and take extra steps, but being a person with diabetes puts the focus on personhood. Thankfully, we’re living in an age when having diabetes means it’s a conversation about what we can do instead of what we can’t, and that’s ultimately the difference between diabetes and diabetic.
Social Media for the Social Good
February 9, 2016 February 9, 2016 / semisweett1d / Leave a comment
“Social Media for the Social Good,” that’s how Kerri Sparling described the project, Spare a Rose Save a Child, on Stacey Simm’s February 2nd podcast, Diabetes Connections. The idea behind Spare a Rose Save a Child is simple: buy one less rose than you would have on Valentine’s Day and donate its cost. By donating $5, the cost of one rose, a child is supplied with insulin for a month.
Living with a chronic condition means you have to secure your oxygen mask first, but when cabin pressure is restored, there’s an awe-filled moment when you can gaze out the window at the top of clouds and be amazed that you’re in about the fourth generation of humans who’ve lived on this earth, to fly in the air, and about the third to be alive since insulin’s been discovered. It doesn’t take long to recognize that access to life-sustaining medicine shouldn’t be relegated to where you were born.
As we were being discharged after our son’s diagnosis, a hospital pharmacist sheepishly walked into our room. He was carrying a large brown paper bag, and at first I thought it was odd that he was holding groceries. I thought maybe he was on his way home to prepare dinner and just wanted to check-in with the doctor, who was going over discharge orders with us. It turns out the sack held a month’s supply of syringes, lancets, ketone test strips, alcohol pads, and two kinds of insulin. As a way of apology, he said this was one of the worst parts of his job, entering the room of a young child who had just been diagnosed with a lifelong disease and letting the family know that they’d be billed around $500 for the month’s supply of medicine and medical equipment the hospital was sending home. He then noted that we had good insurance and would be paying less than that.
And we do have good insurance. In fact, we have access to everything (medical equipment, doctors, education, medicine) that we could possibly need to take care of our son’s diabetes, but this isn’t true for the underinsured, those without insurance, and those living in developing countries. Diabetes is hard, and we have everything we need. Diabetes is hard, and it’s unthinkable for those who don’t have what they need. This Valentine’s Day instead of buying chocolate and flowers, we’re buying insulin for someone. What’s sweeter than that?
Nothing to see here—just hiding behind a pyramid of #rethink juice. 1 carb each people!! #1carb #type1diabetes #type1 #teampancreas #yay #yum
He was born at the start of the decade—and 24 hours after his birth was in the NICU with unexplained seizures that thankfully resolved. 4 years into the decade, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, 7 ENT surgeries, too many hospital trips and stays to count, but this kid wakes up happy, eager, and healthy. A picture for each decade—looking forward to the next decade with him. If you know this little guy, you know he’s a ray of sunshine and fierce lightning—all at once #2020 #dmom #10yearchallenge #type1diabetes #typebadass #livebeyond #proudmama #t1d #resilience #t1dlookslikeme
It’s a tender Tennessee Christmas. Barbecue + insulin #type1diabetes #type1 #bbq #haveinsulinwilltravel #christmas2019 #ridgewood
Holiday baking!! Mandelhörnchen from @smittenkitchen #glutenfree #glutenfreebaking #holidayseason #cookies #type1diabetes #lowercarb
A gut-punching BG check for anyone with diabetes and those of us who love someone with #T1D. I’m working on reframing a lot of what makes me anxious about being a #dmom. This screencap reminds me of the school staff that take care of him daily—they text me from their personal phones—my friends, colleagues, and students who get it and give me space to process and check on me #teampancreas #hypo #sugarasap #dexcom #type1diabetes #wedidnotoverbolusforthedonuts
Living in a T1D home means serious considerations about carbs. Often we find food-free ways to celebrate, but other times we figure out complicated blouses and go all in #hurtsdonuts #allthecarbs #yum #celebrate #bolusmath #donuts
A1C advocacy Animas blood glucose burnout carbs Dexcom diabetes education diabetes equipment diabetes in public diabetes online community (DOC) diagnosis story donate emotions & diabetes guest post history of diabetes care holidays & diabetes hypoglycemia insane diabetes moment insulin insurance newly diagnosed parenting & diabetes preschool & diabetes pumping recipes research resources school & diabetes travel & diabetes
Semisweet shares stories of living with T1D to promote research, better understanding, care, and advocacy for people living with T1D.
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2010, Hardback, 10.20in x 7.87in / 259mm x 200mm, 672pp, AU$147.99
2010, Ebook, PDF, 672pp, AU$147.99
2010, Hardback, 8.90in x 5.94in / 226mm x 151mm, 192pp, AU$35.99
2012, Hardback, 10.24in x 7.68in / 260mm x 195mm, 304pp, AU$89.99
Celestial Healing
Energy, Mind and Spirit in Traditional Medicines of China, and East and Southeast Asia
Marc S. Micozzi, MD, PhD with Kevin Ergil, MA, MS, LAc (Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Qi, and Qi Gong), Laurel S. Gabler, BA, MSc (Thai Medicine) and Kerry Palanjian, BA, MBA (Shiatsu)
Providing a panoramic overview of the medical traditions of China and East and Southeast Asia, Dr. Marc Micozzi offers compelling insights into the influence of the expression of vital energy (qi) in these traditions. He discusses the efficacy of these healing practices, as well as their influences in the West, and potential applications today. Learn More
Rasa Shastra
The Hidden Art of Medical Alchemy
An authoritative account of Asian Medical Alchemy, this book explores the herbo-mineral-metal based medicines used in these ancient healing traditions. The first resource of its kind, it provides exhaustive insight into the history of alchemy's search for immortality, the variety of minerals used, and production methods. Learn More
2014, Ebook, ePUB, 568pp, AU$132.99
Roots of Modern Practice
Charles Buck
Drawing on his extensive experience and study in the field, Charles Buck presents an authoritative and accessible account of the history of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. The book provides an accurate overview, focussing on the key developments that are of most practical relevance to clinicians of today. Learn More
Methodologies for Effectively Assessing Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Research Tools and Techniques
Edited by Mark J. Langweiler, BA, DC, DAAPM, and Peter W. McCarthy, BSc, PhD. Foreword by Kenneth A. Leight, PhD.
Examining the methods and criteria for assessing Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), this book highlights how CAM research must be treated differently to research in conventional medicine. Experts from a wide range of CAM modalities provide background to the therapies and suggest the most effective research methodology for each. Learn More
Foundations of Theory for Ancient Chinese Medicine
Shang Han Lun and Contemporary Medical Texts
Guohui Liu, M.Med., L.Ac., Foreword by Charles Buck
Guohui Liu explains the key concepts of ancient Chinese medicine so that they can be better understood and put into practice by modern practitioners. With the Shang Han Lun as a basis for discussion, it includes information on Chinese culture and philosophy as well as specific issues such as the six conformations and zang-fu organ theory. Learn More
Cosmetic Acupuncture, Second Edition
A Traditional Chinese Medicine Approach to Cosmetic and Dermatological Problems
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Cosmetic Acupuncture introduces an approach to the diagnosis and treatment of cosmetic and dermatological problems based on techniques grounded in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The second edition includes colour photographs and practical instruction on how to perform treatment techniques as well as new material on needling and massage techniques. Learn More
Discussion of Cold Damage (Shang Han Lun)
Commentaries and Clinical Applications
Guohui Liu, M.Med., L.Ac., Foreword by Dr. Henry McCann
Scholar and medical doctor, Guohui Liu, presents a new and detailed translation of the Chinese classic Shang Han Lun. He provides a line by line translation of the text with extensive commentary and descriptions of the clinical applications. The book includes the 112 formulas and the 88 medicinal substances. Learn More
Qigong (3)
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Sinister Resistance
By zinar7 Activities, Games 'n' Stuff, Motorsport
friday_011
I’ve always said: celebrity deaths come in threes. Then again, so do the deaths of my treasured possessions, it seems.
The last week or two have mainly been spent trying to mend, or replace, pieces of electrical equipment that seem to have decided push up the daisies: first, my cellphone; then, bits of my car; and finally, my TV. I’m beginning to think that I have some sort of curse: a sort of Midas Touch that causes electrical equipment to expire by merely being in the same geographical location as me. Perhaps I’m made of magick.
[it’s worth pointing out at this juncture that my digital camera has also developed some sort of fault that I’ve not quite been able to get to the root of; which does mean that the ‘bad things come in threes’ rule has been shattered and that I may have actually broken the universe. If a gaping maw of inter-dimensional cataclysm has opened up near you, then I’m desperately sorry.]
While sorting out a new cellphone and repairs to Big Suze have been no great cause for festivity, this recent state of affairs has forced me to pick up a new TV to replace my old, enormous CRT monolith and finally join the world of High-Definition. I’m not usually one to crow about graphical fidelity or anything, but my, is it purdy. I’ve most recently been playing a lot of Need for Speed: Most Wanted (the PS3 one, although I still sort of maintain that the original one is better, if less pretty) and my goodness does it look good. Obviously, I’m a massive automotive nut and am “well into” motor racing and stuff so am already slightly aroused by the sight of attractive pieces of metal and carbon fibre moving at high speed, but NFS:MW it a delight to look at; with its lovely reflections and lens flare and sunset filtration and gorgeously cinematic, pre-race short films.
Oddly enough for an avid watcher of motor racing and things going fast and things, racing games have never, really, found a particularly special place in my heart: yet, I can’t really explain why. Somehow, the accurate racing simulations (Gran Turismo, Forza, Project Gotham Racing, etc.) have always felt too methodical and not enough like a game to me; requiring expenditure of countless hours in the digital garage, tweaking every last nut and bolt in order to shave hundredths-of-a-second off a lap time. Funnily enough, I adore stat-based /RPG elements in a story-based game with character development and adventurin’, but grow restlessly yawnsome when I’m forced to stare at too many stats and upgrades in other genres (strategy, simulation, etc.). My main motivation, when playing a video game, is still to have fun; whereas simulation games (be them racing, farming or goat simulators), for me, have always placed too many barriers in front of the important business of fun.
Need for Speed has always felt a little different, though; blending some aspects of the engine-tweaking upgradability with the sheer, foot-to-the-floor velocity of OutRun. The movement of Criterion Games developing many of the latter Need for Speeds (Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted and The Rivals) has meant that they’ve absorbed a lot of the features that Criterion previously introduced to Burnout; slow-mo, metal-bending crashes and friendship-ending revenge takedowns. Weirdly, then, NFS:MW feels like a public safety video highlighting the perils of street racing; with time slowing to render every smash, shunt and shimmer in a haunting ballet of wrangled metal. It’s been a genuine delight to take such a perverse amount of pleasure at watching digital cars crashing/breaking in high-definition, perhaps acting as some sort of poetic justice countering everything else that’s doing its best to self-destruct in my life.
In honesty, I’ve played a lot of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I discovered some time ago that racing games were one of those rare instances where I can truly lose myself and forget, utterly about the outside world. Perhaps it’s something about focussing purely on whether the next apex is and how you can tread the very fine line between optimised speed and loss of control that stops the rest of my brain (the bit that constantly worries, questions and fears) from gaining any sort of traction [pun intended]. It’s not necessarily that I have any racing talent or skill (quite the opposite; I’m woefully – almost tediously – average when placed on a track), but more a mindset: I’m not the best at multi-tasking, so if I’m concentrating solely on getting ‘round the track in the most optimal time whilst attempting to keep pace with my competitors, then I can’t possibly be thinking about whether I’m wasting my life. [The delicious irony being that, if I’m spending my time playing video games, then I probably am wasting it to some extent.]
Still, with the long, cold Winter finally behind us and the Spring properly gaining traction, it’s relieving to know that that the motor racing season is once again underway and roaring through some of the world’s greatest arenas of asphalt and dirt. Formula One kicked off delightfully a couple of weekends ago and continues in Malaysia in the next few days; the World Touring Car Championship got started in Argentina a few weeks back, and the British Touring Car Championship kicks off at Brands Hatch next weekend. Formula One will always be my soulmate, but I’m aiming to do better at keeping up with both the WTCC and BTCC this year after losing track [pun sort of intended] of both at some point during the summer of last year. I’ll definitely be going to the BTCC at Thruxton for birthday-related shenanigans, and hopefully also the Formula E race that’ll be happening in London around Battersea Park. I’m still holding out a vague hope of being able to get to an F1 race abroad sometime during 2015, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely. Never say never, though.
But anyway, I’ve probably talked enough about shiny metallic things with wheels for the time being.
tl;dr: CARS.
[Zinar7]
Tagged Cars, F1, Friday, Games, Life, Motor Racing, Motorsport, Need for Speed, Video Games
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How can player characters get by with daily necessities during a delve into Hell?
Recently, one of my players (a barbarian) had to make a pact with Lady Fierna of the 4th to avoid losing one of his friends. He agreed to offer his soul to the disposal of Lady Fierna after he dies in exchange for his friend's life. That friend happens to be a paladin of Bahamut.
After the session ended, I heard the players talk about what happened and what a mistake the barbarian made. The players decided that they want to find a way to delve deep into the nine layers of Hell and find a way to make sure the Barbarian's soul won't be a part of Hell after he dies. They plan to either make a new deal with Fierna or kill her.
However... how can I have Hell accommodate these characters over the long term without them needing to go in and out of Hell on a daily basis? They'll need to find food and water, to buy arrows and other items, and I think they'll need to find rest and lodging and be able to do other generic stuff they'd be able to do in town. But how can they do that?
My party consists of level 2 characters and they are: Barbarian of Thor (now of Fierna), Paladin of Bahamut, Ranger of Artemis, and Rogue of Lolth. We're playing in the Forgotten Realms setting of 5e.
I have a lot of supplements but they're all for D&D 3e and 3.5e. This is my first time running D&D 5e.
dnd-5e campaign-development planes world-building
lly
Drunken CommonerDrunken Commoner
\$\begingroup\$ The discussion attached to this question has been moved to chat. (There were some fair points brought up, but it was beginning to prompt people to answer in comments.) \$\endgroup\$ – doppelgreener♦ Apr 16 '18 at 19:31
The Ranger can take care of the food
The goodberry spell, cast once per day, will provide at least enough food for your party. That means that the Ranger has to have chosen that spell, and burns one each day to keep the party fed. There is an opportunity cost to this: at second level, that's one of two spell slots per day that a Ranger has to use for that purpose. Even as the adventurers gain levels, it's a resource.
Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day. The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell. (PHB, p. 246)
You could instead make part of this adventure a challenge to their survival skills, and apply the foraging rules ...
Water can be via your DM adjudicated foraging rulings
Part of the challenge in the Out of the Abyss published adventure is the party's ability to forage in a difficult area. If you don't want to create entire levels of Hell, all you have to do as a DM is to choose a Foraging DC, and allow the players to try and forage for the water (A Wisdom (Survival) ability check). Those characters with the Survival skill proficiency will have better chances to find water than the others. Using the "help" action should give one of the characters advantage in finding water. There is a related question about foraging in such a setting, and another question about foraging challenges for the Tomb of Annihilation adventure that you may find useful.
The guidance for foraging is in the DMG, p. 111.
\begin{array}{ll} \textbf{DC} & \textbf{Food and Water Availability}\\ 10 & \text{Abundant food and water sources}\\ 15 & \text{Limited food and water sources}\\ 20 & \text{Very little food and water sources}\\ \end{array}
Camping out for rest; do they really need lodging?
The rest requirements don't by default require lodging; the game does not assume that each night an adventuring party rests in "lodging." They are just as likely to "camp out" in the outdoors. You can provide lodging options in the various layers of the hells if you like, and since they are infernal a given lodging area can be a small adventure in itself.
Combat Resources
This is in your hands, and it may not be that big of a problem unless you want it to be one. The party needs to do some planning if they intend to take an adventure into Hell.
Arrows. Typically, after shooting arrows, the ranger can try to collect or retrieve some of the ones he shot.
The ruling I have seen most often is "you can recover half of the ones you shot during this combat."
You can also make a quiver of arrows a treasure/thing to find as part of an encounter.
The party needs to pack a few extra quivers full. Have the barbarian carry an extra quiver full as part of his burden.
The mend cantrip can be useful in conserving and repairing arrows and other items used. (thank you @PhilBoncer for the comment)
Torches: foraging for the materials can provide for torches or perhaps they aren't available.
Hell can be lit by infernal fires, so torches may not even be necessary.
Various animals/creatures have glowing glands to harvest. You can place some giant fire beetles in various layers of the hells.
A giant fire beetle is a nocturnal creature that takes its name from a pair of glowing glands that give off light. Miners and adventurers prize these creatures, for a giant fire beetle’s glands continue to shed light for 1d6 days after the beetle dies. Giant fire beetles are most commonly found underground and in dark forests. (MM p. 325)
Some mushrooms/fungi in the Underdark glow; various glowing flora like this can be found in the hells (via foraging) if you choose to place them in specific parts of, or all, layers of the hells.
The DM's tactical use of a Bag of Holding
One last point: you, the DM, decide when magic items are awarded. As a precursor to this adventure, you may wish to run an adventure that gets them to the River Styx (DMG p. 64, the normal way to get into the hells). Along the way they find (after an encounter) a Bag of Holding. That will allow them to pack any number of mundane items for this trip.
Depending upon how long this adventure lasts ....
Currently you have four 2d level characters:
Barbarian of Thor (now of Fierna); Paladin of Bahamut; Ranger of Artemis; Rogue of Lolth.
When the Paladin reaches 9th level, the spell create food and water becomes available and solves the food and water problem, at the cost of a daily use of a 3rd level spell. It creates:
... enough to sustain up to fifteen humanoids or five steeds for 24 hours. (PHB, p. 229)
\$\begingroup\$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. \$\endgroup\$ – mxyzplk - Justice for Monica May 11 '18 at 3:30
Detail in 5e on this sort of thing is scant and left up to the Dungeon Master.
The 5e Dungeon Masters Guide has the following text on page 64:
The Nine Hells has nine layers.
To reach the deepest layer of the Nine Hells, one must descend through all eight of the layers above it, in order. The most expeditious means of doing so is the River Styx, which plunges ever deeper as it flows from one layer to the next. Only the most courageous adventurers can withstand the torment and horror of that journey.
Avernus.
No planar portals connect directly to the lower layers of the Nine Hells, by Asmodeus's orders. As such, the first layer of Avernus is the arrival point for visitors to the plane.
As a result the designers clearly intended there to be visitors to at least some of the layers of the hells, and those visitors would presumably require some form of sustenance. As such I would expect there to be some infrastructure in place to sustain non-demonic creatures who visit hell.
The last sentence before the start of the Avernus description though suggests your party will end up very dead very quickly given that level 2 characters are generally little better than commoners (and certainly not classified as the most courageous adventurers)
Page 58 of the DMG has this text which is relevant to your question:
Distance is a virtually meaningless concept on the Outer Planes. The perceptible regions of the planes can seem quite small, but they can also stretch on to what seems like infinity. Adventurers could take a guided tour of the Nine Hells, from the first layer to the ninth, in a single day- if the powers of the Hells desire it. Or it could take weeks for travelers to make a grueling trek across a single layer.
This suggests that individual Archdukes or Archduchesses can make a journey that a party is making as survivable or gruelling as they desire on the various layers (if the party has garnered their attention during the party’s stay).
So to a certain extent the ultimate answer is “it depends on what you want the rules to be for your version of the Nine Hells”.
There is some detailed descriptive text on each layer of the Nine Hells in the DMG, but none of it really gives a suggestion either way as to survivability.
It should also be noted that the 5e DMG specifies some optional rules for saving throws that non-native creatures to any of the Outer Planes need to make.
When it comes out in May Mordankeinen’s Tome of Foes is due to have Stat Blocks for all of the rulers of Hell.
illustroillustro
I would suggest that you rule that such mortal needs as food and water are unnecessary in hell. The denizens of hell don't need them. Maybe the characters won't need to eat, or drink down there. Maybe they won't age on the trip either.
If you need a solution for the arrow problem, just have them encounter some type of infernal archers in an early battle. The archers could possess a large number of some magic arrows made of some cursed or magical material which allow them to infinitely reused.
The rest of the normal services of town will have to wait till they crawl back out of The Pit. But you can allow them to find items and such that they critically need either on the corpses of their enemies or in the possession of the unfortunate victims they encounter.
DarrenDarren
\$\begingroup\$ Also a great answer, but I'll stick with the green mark on the answer above as it's more detailed. However thank you for answering! \$\endgroup\$ – Drunken Commoner Apr 16 '18 at 16:42
\$\begingroup\$ Not needing food in Hell could make for interesting storytelling - your players, as denizens of hell (wilful though they are) suffer increasing levels of hunger without being killed by it. \$\endgroup\$ – Vanguard3000 Apr 16 '18 at 21:37
Another problem some users noted in the (now deleted) comments for this question is that a 2nd level party is not suitable to an adventure in a hellish plane, since, besides the hardness of obtain the basics of food and water in Hell, there are high level monsters and dangerous environmental hazards.
So, taking into account that you party has a goal to delve into hell in order to save the Barbarian's soul, a possibility to solve both the low level and the daily needs problems is to "time-skip" the adventures needed for the players to obtain the levels needed to survive this lower plane.
Basically, you can ask the players to improve the levels of their characters until a certain point (for example, the 9th level which allows your Paladin to cast create food and water, as KorvinStarmast answer says). Equipment/gold should be improved as well, according to the appropriated for their new levels.
In-game, this could be justified by the characters realizing that Hell is not for beginner adventures as them, and so they spend a time training to improve their abilities and adventuring to get the needed resources (money, magic items, NPC contacts etc) to their hellish journey.
Obviously for many parties this approach can remove the fun of the process of leveling your characters gradually, through "on-screen" adventures, but it has two advantages: firstly, it helps your players to achieve their goal now (in RL time, instead of weeks or even months of adventures); and secondly, specially if your players never played a high-level adventure, they can experience how is to have powerful characters (note that this can be a problem for the GM, since it's usually harder to manage higher than lower level PCs).
Another possibility to both problems: give them some artifacts or powerful magic items to compensate their lower level AND help to satisfy their daily needs, which only works during this specific quest.
The ingame reasoning for that can be the following: the Barbarian sacrificed his soul to save his friend, a paladin of Bahamut, a Lawful Good god. According to that Forgotten Realms wikia,
Bahamut was stern and very disapproving of evil, always arguing with Asgorath about his crusade against it. He accepted no excuses for evil acts, and didn't tolerate even minor offenses by evil creatures.
In spite of his stance, he was also considered one of the most compassionate beings in the multiverse. He had limitless empathy for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the helpless.
So, Bahamut would not want to see a devil obtaining another soul to "play", after all he could not tolerate a victory for Evil. And, while he would censor the Barbarian deal with a devil, he could be empathetic toward his sacrifice for a comrade. Consequently, Bahamut offers, maybe toward their clerics of even by his avatar, some powerful items, but these will be removed from them after the journey ends, and can only be used in this quest (so the players can't cheat by receiving the items and engaging in unrelated adventures to get XP and treasure).
Two possible problems of this approach: firstly, it could be hard to balance or manage these artifacts, and secondly, the players can become very attached to the powers of such powerful items, and so they can resent the moment Bahamut recall them.
(as a bonus note: I remember to have read in an old RPG magazine that the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon characters are very low level, coming from RL non-fantasy Earth, but they compensate that by their powerful magic items).
Brian HellekinBrian Hellekin
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged dnd-5e campaign-development planes world-building or ask your own question.
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The department has facilities for research work leading to Ph.D. degree. The areas of
specialization include Cytogenetics, Molecular Cytogenetics, Plant Breeding and
Biometrical Genetics, Mutation Breeding, Crop Biotechnology, Genomics and Seed
Pradeep K. Sharma
(Head of the Department)
Shailendra S. Gaurav
M.Sc.(Ag.), M.Phil., Ph.D.
Plant Breeding, Molecular Genetics,
Crop Biotechnology, Genomics.
M.Sc.(Ag.), Ph.D.
Seed Technology, Genetics, Plant Breeding,
Plant Pathology, Plant Biotechnology.
M.Sc., Ph.D.
Genomics & Proteomics, Molecular Biology,
Advanced Genetics
P.K. Gupta
M.Sc., Ph.D., FNASc, FASc, FNAAS, FNA
Cytogenetics, Genetics, Plant breeding,
Crop biotechnology, Genomics
S.P. Singh
M.Sc. (Ag.), M.Phil., Ph.D.
Biometrical Genetics, Plant Breeding
H.S. Balyan
M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D., FNASc, FNA, FNAAS
Plant Breeding, Crop Biotechnology, Genomics
India is blessed with a wide variety of climates and soils on which a wide range of
horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, mushroom, ornamental plants,
medicinal and aromatic plants, plantation crops, spices, cashew and cocoa are grown. These
crops play a unique and vital role in providing food, nutrition, shelter and also various
employment opportunities, and contribute significantly to our economy. Thus, teaching,
research and extension in various areas of horticulture have been receiving increasing
attention. The department offers theory and practical courses relating to various aspects of
horticulture. The department has a laboratory that is equipped with autoclaves,
microscopes, chromatography chamber, water distillation plant, electronic single pan
balance, hand refractrometer, incubator, oven, laminar flow bench, micro Kjeldahl,
mechanical shaker and vacuum evaporator, etc. The department also has computer facilities
with internet and two acres of land for conducting field experiments.
M.Phil. (Horticulture) Programme
It is a oneyear (two semesters) full time course for students with M.Sc. Ag.
(Horticulture and its allied branches). This programme imparts education to students
in Vegetable Science, Pomology, Floriculture & Landscaping and Post-Harvest
Technology, based on recent advances in the field of Horticulture. The students must
submit a research project at the end of final semester.
The department has a full time Ph.D. programme. The major areas of research include:
Nutritional studies (use of major and minor elements), Standardization and
improvement in agro-techniques, Improvement in plant propagation techniques, Post
harvest management of cut flowers and Application of plant bio-regulators in
horticultural crops, etc.
Olericulture, Floriculture
Pavitra Dev
Olericulture
Departments under the Faculty of Agriculture
offering SelfFinanced courses
The Department was established in 2002 under the Self Financed Scheme (SFS) of the U P
state Government to provide knowledge and training to the students in food processing,
preservation and storage, and thereby better job opportunities. Food Science and
Technology is an interdisciplinary science and involves application of basic sciences and
engineering to study the biological, physical, chemical, biochemical, and nutritional aspects
of food and food products; its processing, preservation and storage; food quality testing and
distribution of the safe and nutritious food.
The department has established well-equipped laboratories for the conduct of practicals in
various aspects of Food Science & Technology. A modern, well-equipped food-processing
laboratory was established recently in the department with financial assistance from the
Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Govt. of India, New Delhi. The equipments in this
lab for the processing of fruits and vegetables and for canning include: extractor, pulper,
washer, crusher, steam jacketed kettler with boiler, milk pasteurizer, homogenizer, chiller,
flat body reformer, can body beader, flanger with air compressor, double seamer, crown
corking machines, etc. The department has its own departmental library with about 1000
M.Sc. Ag. (Food Science & Technology)
It is an interdisciplinary, full time selffinanced programme of two years (four
semesters) duration. There are three courses and one practical in each semester.
Further, each student has to undertake a project work on any aspect related to the
course of study and submit the Project Report at the end of fourth semester. The
evaluation involves both internal (50%) and external (50%) examination systems. The
internal assessment is based on regular quizzes, tests, seminars/term papers.
Coordinator: Professor P.K. Sharma
(Prof. P.K. Sharma is a regular teacher in the Dept. of Genetics & Plant Breeding of the University Campus )
The Department of Plant Protection was established in 1998 under the Self Financed Scheme
(SFS) of the U P state Government to meet the long-standing demand of students, farmers,
pesticide companies and bio-control laboratories, The study of Plant Protection aims at
developing strategies for overall improvement in crop production by minimizing crop losses
due to insect-pests, diseases, weeds, nematodes, rodents, etc. The department has
established well-equipped laboratory facilities for isolation, purification, identification and
maintenance of cultures, mass rearing of natural enemies, mass production of bio-pesticides.
Major equipments in the laboratories are BOD incubator, hot air oven, autoclave, Laminar
air flow, microscopes, Camera Lucida, pH meter, sprayers, Rotary duster, etc. The
department has it own departmental library, which consists of more than 500 books and
journals. A computer lab with internet facility is also available.
The students with M Sc Ag degree in Plant Protection find job opportunities as: (a) teachers
in colleges and universities; (b) scientific/technical personnel in research institutions/labs,
plant protection organizations, plant health clinics, pesticide, bio-control and fertilizer
companies; (c) agricultural officers in banks, FCI, KVKs, etc.
M.Sc. Ag. (Plant Protection)
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time selffinanced programme including the
project work with specialization in Plant Pathology/Entomology. There are four
theory courses (only two in fourth semester) and one practical in each semester. Each
student has to undertake a project work on any aspect related to the course of study
and submit the Project Report at the end of fourth semester. The students also receive
training during their project work in different research institutes/laboratories/other
Universities. The evaluation involves both internal (50%) and external (50%)
examination systems. The internal assessment is based on regular quizzes, tests,
seminars/term papers.
Coordinator: Professor P.K.Sharma
Seed is the basic and essential input in agriculture and it is the carrier of modern technology.
Quality seeds have played a significant role in Indian agriculture in increasing the food
grain production four-fold in the last 50 years, and are definitely going to play a major role
in the future also. The recent developments in the fields of Genetic Engineering, Plant
Biotechnology and Molecular Biology have resulted in the development and release of a
number of high yielding cultivars with resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses; super
hybrids (in rice); transgenics like Bt cotton, etc.
The Department of Seed Science & Technology was established in 2001 under the selffinanced scheme to meet the long-standing demand of students, farmers and seed
companies. The department has well equipped laboratories with Seed Germinator, BOD
Incubator, Infrared Moisture Meter, Seed Divider, Electronic Weighing Balance, Autoclave,
Hot Air Oven, Seed Purity Analysis Apparatus, Seed Counting Boards, Grinding Mill,
Microscopes, Computer, Overhead Projector, etc.
M.Sc. Ag. (Seed Science & Technology)
Each student has to secure a minimum of 30% marks separately in internal and
external assessment of each course and an aggregate of 40% marks in all the courses
is for a pass. A candidate who fails to obtain 30 % marks in internal assessment of
any paper, he/she will not be eligible to appear in external examination of that
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, selffinanced course. It covers both basic as
well as applied courses. Based on the research work carried out, the students are also
required to submit a project report.
Co-ordinator: Dr. S.S. Gaurav
(Dr. S.S. Gaurav is a regular teacher in the Dept. of Genetics & Plant Breeding of the University Campus )
10. Department of Sanskrit and Oriental Languages
11. Department of Fine Arts
12. Department of Geography
13. Department of Journalism & Mass Communication
14. Department of Library & Information Science
The department is a thriving interdisciplinary centre for study with an outstanding
reputation at postgraduate level and beyond, attracting each year a varied contingent of
students from all over the country. The department encourages crossing and re-crossing of
boundaries between disciplines (literature, film, history, performing arts, visual arts, etc.)
because inter-disciplinarity brings about a wide range of critical concepts and approaches. It
extends vocational and professional possibilities and creates a dynamic and more interactive
academic community. The department has a Centre for Canadian Studies and library with a
large collection of books and journals.
The teaching in the department is lively, engaged and on the cutting edge of advances in
theory and historical understanding. Students are imparted a high level of practical skills
which enhance scholarly work and ensure that they are properly equipped for their postuniversity careers. A variety of teaching methods used include lectures, seminars, tutorials,
group discussions, to facilitate different modes of learning; to exercise different skills and to
respond to varied needs at different stages of the M.A. and M.Phil. programmes. We try to
foster individual initiators in learning and to make it an experience to be shared with fellow
students and faculty.
M.A. (English) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course. The syllabus is modelled on the
latest UGC curriculum and provides scope of interdisciplinary studies to the
students.
It is a one-year (two semesters) course based on the study of Research Methodology
and Approaches to Literature, Review of Literature, World Classics in Translation
and Postcolonial Literatures in English. Apart from the theory courses, the students
are required to submit a dissertation at the end of the final semester.
The scholars are encouraged to work on different aspects of literature, cultural
studies and related fields for their Ph.D. programme.
(On leave)
Pratibha Tyagi
Ravindra Kumar
M.A., Ph.D.
American Fiction, Gender Studies, Canadian Drama
M.A., M Phil, Ph.D.
Victorian Literature, Post-Colonial Studies,
M.A., M.Phil., Ph D
American Fiction
The department was established in 2002. The syllabi are based on UGC guidelines and are
designed to prepare the students for the basic degree in the subject as well as for the various
competitive examinations. The department is keenly working in various new areas of
Literature, Language, and organizes seminars, debates, poetry, and story competitions for
developing creative writing skills. The departmental competitions are organized from timeto-time. The department has organized a number of special lectures by eminent scholars of
Hindi literature and Media world. The department is equipped with a departmental library
and computer laboratory. Besides, a language laboratory and media laboratory are also in
the process of establishment. The department is undertaking a major research project
sponsored by UGC. The department is pursuing research in the area of Hindi literature and
regional dialects, its literature and also in mass communication and journalism. Recently, the
department has been sanctioned with a centre for excellence programme by the Govt. of
U.P. Some of our students are working in national dailies, radio, and television as reporters,
editors, photographers and anchors.
(i) M.A. (Hindi) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course. The syllabus is designed as per
UGC guidelines in such a way to fulfil the need of NET/competitive examinations.
(ii) M.Phil. Programme
It is a oneyear (two semesters) course based on the study of Research Methodology,
theories of literature, and different ideologies. The student must submit a
dissertation at the end of final semester.
(iii) Ph.D. Programme
The Ph.D. programme in Hindi is undertaken in Modern Hindi Literature like
modern poetry, novels, stories, satire and critics with various areas of functional
(Vyavsayic) Hindi and media studies.
N.C. Lohani
M.A., D.Phil.
Modern Fiction, Modern Poetry, Criticism,
Functional Hindi, Media Studies
SelfFinanced Course/s offered
(i) M.A. in Vyavsayic Hindi: Journalism & Mass Communication
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time programme with emphasis on language
teaching, mass communication and media writing, information technology and
computers, translation and electronic and print media followed by one month technical
training in the fields of Print/ Electronic Journalism/ Translation/Media writing,
general knowledge and Hindi literature, etc.
(The programme is suspended for the year 201516).
The Department of Russian Language (soon to be renamed as the Department of Foreign
Languages) was established in the year 1969 with Russian language offered as one of the
NonCredit courses for the research scholars of the University Campus. The same year, a
Certificate of Proficiency; a Diploma Course in Russian Language in 1970; and in 1977, an
Advanced Diploma Course in Russian Language & Literature; were started. Since then,
certain courses in French and German languages have also been added, and are being run in
the department under the SelfFinanced Scheme (SFS), namely, Certificate of Proficiency in
French (since 200102); Certificate of Proficiency in German (200304); Diploma Course in
French Language (200304); Diploma Course in German Language (200405); Advanced
Diploma in French Language & Literature (201011). The department is planning to
introduce some more job-oriented and advancedlevel courses in near future.
Any of the abovementioned languages could be studied at the Certificate Course level
without any previous knowledge of the same. The minimum qualification required for
admission is (+2)/Higher Secondary/Intermediate in any discipline.
The Certificate courses aim at the acquisition of basic skills for communication by the
learners, whereas the Diploma courses help in developing a working knowledge in the
language concerned. In the Advanced Diploma courses, the students are introduced to
translation skills, as well as literature. The central objective of the courses is to proceed
towards a bilingual competence for communication. And for achieving the said objectives,
audiovisual materials are used for teaching. The department has a well-equipped Audio
Visual Room consisting of computers, LCD and other projectors, Visualisers, Digital Voice
Recorders, TV, VCD & DVD-players, interactive software and films, which are regularly
used for the benefit of the learners. The departmental library has adequate study material,
and new titles are added every year. For the benefit of the learners, Invited/Guest Lectures
and seminars are also held periodically.
All the courses are parttime in nature, and could be pursued along with other fulltime
degree courses. The course structures of all the languages have been designed by
incorporating the recommendations of the U.G.C. Model Syllabi, and also keeping in view
the increasing demand of foreign language specialists in the fields of management, trade,
exports, computers & IT, hotel & tourism industry, etc., apart from that at various public
and private enterprises. The pass-outs of this department have found suitable placements in
central universities; technical/professional institutes; public schools; hotel & tourism
industry; MNCs like Wipro, Oracle, Infosys, IBM, etc. apart from going for higher studies
elsewhere. For other details, please visit: www.foreignlanguagesmeerut.blogspot.in
Certificate of Proficiency in Russian
It is a oneyear (two semesters) parttime programme, which aims at the
acquisition and development of the basic skills for communication by the learners.
Diploma in Russian Language
It is a oneyear (two semesters) parttime programme, which helps in developing a
working knowledge in the language.
(iii) Advanced Diploma in Russian Language & Literature
It is a oneyear (two semesters) parttime programme, designed to introduce the
learners to translation skills, and the works of the principal figures of Russian
literature in original.
Note: Admissions will be based on merit.
S.K. Dutta
M.A., M.Phil.
Russian Literature.
Certificate of Proficiency in French
Diploma in French Language
(iii) Advanced Diploma in French Language & Literature
learners to translation skills, and the works of the principal figures of French
(iv) Certificate of Proficiency in German
Diploma in German Language
Courses (iv) and (v) above are suspended for the session 201516.
The Department of Urdu was established in 2002. Since then, it is inclined to provide Urdu
students, many chances of jobs in Mass Media and Journalism, so it offers job oriented
programmes; it also offers excellent research opportunities in modern literary trends and
criticism. It imparts education at M.A., M.Phil. & Ph. D. Levels.
The department regularly publishes an Urdu magazine named Hamari Awaz with articles
of the students and eminent Urdu writers. The department has organized a number of
national and international seminars, special lectures/ cultural programmes; published
around 30 books.
Following facilities are available in the Department:
Library: The Department has Hafeez Meeruti Memorial library, with rich collection of
Computer Lab: The computer lab in the department is equipped with 11 Computers, 6
Printers, 3 scanners, Urdu software (In page), and Internet facility.
Audio-Visual Lab: This lab is equipped with LCD Projector, Colour Television, DVD Player,
Audio Player & Recorder, etc.
Sa-adat Hasan Manto Reading room, Premchand Seminar Hall.
(i) M.A. (Urdu): The Department offers M.A. in Urdu, a twoyear (four semesters) full time
programme, with special paper of Mass Media and Computer Graphics along with
dissertation, based on any literary field including seminar and assignments.
(ii) M. Phil Urdu: Students having MA degree in Urdu with 55% marks are eligible. This
programme includes four theory papers in two semesters and a dissertation on any
literary topic related to personalities belonging to Meerut and surroundings.
(iii) Ph.D. Urdu: The thrust area of research is net trends in Urdu Literature, Media and
Fiction. The department has all facilities for research in Urdu.
Md. Aslam Khan (Aslam Jamshedpuri)
M.A. (Urdu, Pol.Sc.), B.Ed., Ph.D.
Modern Urdu fiction, Criticism, Media studies
M.A. Mass Media Urdu: Its twoyear (four semesters) full time, job oriented
course, with specialization in Journalism, Script Writing, Publishing, Advertising
and Marketing, Information Technology, News Reading for TV / Radio,
Anchoring in TV / Radio and Translation etc.
Diploma in Urdu: Its a oneyear Diploma in Urdu especially for those persons
without the knowledge of Urdu Language. Candidates having Intermediate degree
with at least 45% marks are eligible.
(Courses (i) and (ii) of selffinanced scheme are suspended for the session 201516).
10. Department of Economics
Ever since the recognition of economic factors as the key ingredients of the development of a
society or human development, the importance of economics as a subject of study has grown
tremendously. The demand for professional economists is increasing day by day, and
emergence of new areas is the natural outcome of this development. In addition to the
commercial and manufacturing enterprises, both in the public and private sectors, absorbing
a bulk of the manpower trained in economics, today there is hardly any social,
administrative or developmental organization where the services of economists are not
The department of Economics with its team of well-qualified and experienced teachers
provides a thorough and in-depth training in theoretical and applied economics through its
various courses of study. The main objective is to develop skilled manpower capable of
analysing economic problems at different levels of sophistication and suggesting solutions
in terms of policy.
The students of the department have been well received in the job market and their
performance in terms of the success rate at different national examinations has always been
above average. It is reflected through their placements in various organizations which
include the academic and research institutions at higher level, civil services, commercial
banks, the Reserve Bank of India, private corporate houses, etc. The department also has
computer facility to cater to the needs of those applying Econometric techniques, and a
library with a large collection of books and journals.
(i) M.A. (Economics) Programme
It is a two-year (four semesters) full time course.
(ii) M. Phil. Programme
It is a one-year (two semesters) course involving courses in Research Methodology and
Economic Theory and Indian Economy. In addition to the theory courses, the students
It is a research programme culminating in a doctoral degree. The main thrust areas of
the department, with an orientation in quantitative techniques, are Economics of
Industry, Agricultural Economics, Public Finance, International Economics, Finance and
Trade, and Indian Economic Problems and Policies.
N.K. Taneja
Sudhir Sharma
Atvir Singh
V.K. Malhotra
Microeconomics, Development economics: Theory and
policy with special reference to India, Applied
International economics, Macroeconomics,
Public finance, Economics of growth and
development, Quantitative techniques
Indian economic problems, Agricultural economics,
M.A., M.Phil. Ph.D.
Microeconomics, Agricultural economics
11. Department of History
History is no longer treated as mere chronological narrative, but is aptly considered the
discipline of growth and development of society and largely of human civilizations. Thus, it
is inevitable that the various facets of historical knowledge should be properly studied,
interpreted and communicated in order to form a right perspective of the cultural heritage.
The department of History was established in 1977 with M.A. programme for the wider
study of the patterns of life and national and international understanding. In 1981, M. Phil.
programme was introduced with an objective of promoting the scientific, qualitative and
research oriented teaching which provides an insight to analyse the history with a particular
emphasis on the economic and social changes. It is also noteworthy that the Ph.D.
programmes, undertaken in the department are on the latest and innovative subjects. The
department offers comprehensive and intensive courses (based on UGC guidelines) to
prepare the students not only for the specific degree but also enables them to compete in
various competitive examinations. The department has a departmental library, and is also
developing a museum to protect and preserve the rich cultural heritage of the region.
(i) M.A. (History) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time programme consisting of sixteen papers and
four viva-voce/practical examinations.
It is a oneyear (two semesters) course consisting of five courses and a dissertation.
The main thrust areas of research in the department include all periods of historyAncient, Medieval and Modern Indian history.
Ajay Vijay Kaur
Emeritus Professor
Girija Shanker
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Ancient Indian History, Modern Indian History
Ancient Indian History/ Modern Indian History
12. Department of Political Science
Since its inception in 1977, the emphasis of the department has been to initiate and
strengthen the empirical research at grass-root level, both in rural and urban environments.
The themes of the research projects and dissertations try to touch the problem areas relating
to weaker sections of the society. In addition to this, governmental and nongovernmental
institutions, political, social and administrative processes are also being studied. The
department has been publishing Meerut Journal of Political Science and Public
Administration for the last several years, while Prof. Sanjeev K. Sharma has been acting as
Editor of another journal namely Indian Journal of Political Science.
M.A. (Political Science) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course with emphasis on Western and Indian
Political Thought, Contemporary Political Theory and Indian Political System, Public
Administration, International Politics, Comparative Politics, Political Sociology and
Research Methods.
It is a oneyear (two semesters) programme based on courses relating to Indian
Political System, Social Science and Political Research, International Political System,
Indian Political Economy and a dissertation.
Archana Sharma
International Relations, South East Asian Relations,
Gender Studies, Weaker Sections, Rural Development
Sanjeev K. Sharma
Political Sociology, Indian Political Thought,
Rural Communication
SelfFinanced Course offered
Public Administration, a most sought after course among the administrative services
aspirant students, is being offered in western U.P. only by Chaudhary Charan Singh
University, Meerut. The Department initiated teaching M.A in Public Administration in 1997
and offered M.Phil. in Public Administration 2003 onwards. It is a two years duration
competition oriented course offering papers in specialized areas like Personnel
Administration, Financial Administration, Policy Analysis, Organizational Behaviour and
Panchyat Raj.
M.A. (Public Administration)
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time programme. Graduates in any discipline may
Coordinator: Professor Archana Sharma
13. Department of Psychology
The Department of Psychology was established in the year 1970, initially to impart
education to M.Phil leading to Ph.D. degree. Regular M.A programme in Psychology was
started later in the year 1977. The U.G.C. appointed Curriculum Development Committee of
psychology prepared syllabi for BA and MA Programmes and recommended that some
professional courses should be started by Psychology Department. In accordance with the
recommendation of committee, Psychology Department started the first professional course,
Diploma in PMIR (Personnel Management & Industrial Relation) of the university in 1992.
Later on ADACP (Advance Diploma in Applied Clinical Psychology) and MHRD (Master of
Human Resource and Development) were also started by the Department of Psychology.
The department holds an experimental and a testing laboratory with major psychological
instruments both manual and electrical as well as computer based instruments. The testing
lab has a wide range of testing material for measuring different aspects of behaviour,
cognition and brain. The department is now developing facilities like computer lab with
internet access, departmental library with needful text books as well as a clinical lab with
measurement and therapeutic instruments. Efforts are made to focus on various branches of
modern psychological researches including human behaviour especially with a view to
understand and develop our potentials and possibilities to enable our students to cope with
the modern society.
M.A. (Psychology) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time programme including theory courses and a
research project. The areas of specialization are Clinical Psychology, Health
Psychology, Social Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Industrial Psychology and
Community Psychology.
It is a one-year (two semesters) programme consisting of three theory courses, one
specialized paper and a research project in the areas of specialization of the faculty
members of department.
The department offers Ph.D. programme in the areas of specialization of the faculty
members. The research may be carried out in Clinical Psychology, Health Psychology,
Organizational Psychology, Industrial Psychology and Community Psychology.
Head of the Department:
Dean, Faculty of Arts
Clinical Psychology, Guidance & Counselling,
Current issues, Stress Management & Psychic Energy.
Alpna Agarwal
Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Guidance &
Counselling, Experimental Design & Statistics,
S.N. Rai
Social Psychology, Experimental design & Statistics
Master of Human Resource Development (M.H.R.D.)
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time programme aimed at providing training in
the area of Human Resource Development.
Advance Diploma in Applied Clinical Psychology
It is a twoyear (four semesters) programme aimed at providing in-depth training in
the field of Clinical Psychology.
(The selffinanced courses (i) and (ii) are suspended for the session 201516).
14. Department of Sociology
The Department of Sociology was established in 1970. With an aim to fulfil the need of
quality improvement and to bridge the gap between post graduation and research, the
department got started with M.Phil. Programme only. Later M.A. was introduced since 1973.
Since the Indian society is still largely rural and a large segment of population is backward
and weak, the department has been undertaking studies and teaching in the areas of Rural
Sociology, Studies of Weaker Sections of Society and Political Sociology with an emphasis on
the understanding of Research Methodology and Sociological Theory. There is always a field
orientation at all levels of courses to grasp the contemporary social reality.
M.A. (Sociology) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course.
It is a one-year (two semesters) course with a research project.
The department offers Ph.D. programme in the special areas of Rural Studies, Political
Sociology and the Study of Weaker Sections.
Yogendra Singh
M.A. M.Phil., Ph.D.
Rural Studies, Study of Weaker Sections of Society,
Political Sociology.
J.K. Pundir
M.A., LL.B., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Political Sociology, Research Methodology.
Alok Kumar
M.A., M. Phil, Ph.D.
Medico- Sociology, Sociology of Movements,
Y.P. Singh
Sociological Theory, Urban Sociology, Indian Society
Considering the fact there was no facility of Social Work education in the area of Western
U.P., the studies of Social Work got started in the form of a two-year postgraduate
programme, Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) under Self Financed Scheme in the year 2003
under the auspices of the Department of Sociology. It is a two-year job oriented course of
applied nature of Social Sciences for preparing professional social workers. Teaching of
theory courses is undertaken along with regular fieldwork and with a provision of training
(i.e. Block Field Work). Specialization in Human Resource Development, Medical Social
Work and Rural-Urban Community Development are offered.
(i) Master of Social Work (MSW): It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, selffinanced
Note: For admission to M.S.W. programme (as per the guidelines of the Indian Association of
Social Science Institutions IASSI), in addition to marks, onethird weightage is given to the
performance of the candidate in Group Discussion and Personal Interview.
Coordinator: Professor Y. Singh
Departments under the Faculty of Arts
The Sanskrit department was established in July 1969 and started B.A. program while M.A.
in Sanskrit was started in 1986 under correspondence courses. It started regular teaching in
1996 and got its own building in 1998. The Ph.D. program was started in 1997 and M. Phil. in
The demand for Sanskrit knowing person is growing in the modern society. The department
has its well-equipped laboratories for the practical understanding and practice of Sanskrit
learning, related technologies and astrology. For M.A. course in Sanskrit, the medium of
instruction is strictly Sanskrit. The Yajnvidhan, Yoga asanas and project work are the parts
of practical exams in Sanskrit.
M.A. in Sanskrit
It is a two-year (four semesters) full time, selffinanced programme.
Coordinator: Dean, Faculty of Arts
The department of Fine art was established to provide advance training in Painting and
upcoming art trends leading to the award of Post-graduate degree. The training provided
through the courses offered by the Department aims at bringing in the students the
refinement of the perception and awareness of changing art scenario that is not just confined
to the skills of profession alone, but to create the right kind of intellect where one can bring
out a perfect personality of creativity and thought. With this kind of training, the students
obtaining the Post-graduate degree may become freelance artists, designers and visualisers.
They would be qualified for various kinds of jobs like in publishing house, multimedia
fields, teaching and research departments.
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Painting
It is a two-year (four semesters) full time, selffinanced course.
Coordinator: Dr. Alka Tiwari
Process in Geography from traditional to modern began in 1950 coinciding with the
launching of the Five-year Plan for Economic Development and expansion in research and
teaching. The Department of Geography was established in 2004, to attract new talent that is
trained in modern technology, is expected to serve the society effectively with the tools of
mapping and analysis. As a subject, Geography is also very popular with candidates
appearing for Civil Services and other competitive examinations. The department is keenly
working in various new fields as Regional Planning, Industrial Development, Environment
Degradation and Soil Degradation, etc. The department is equipped with a departmental
library, lab and computer laboratory.
M.A. /M.Sc. (Geography)
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, selffinanced programme.
Post Graduate Diploma in G.I.S. & Remote Sensing
It is oneyear (two semesters) selffinanced, joboriented course.
Coordinator: Dr. Kanchan Singh
In an era of globalisation, the need and importance of Journalism & Mass Communication
cannot be over emphasized. It is the result of increasing awareness in the country that Mass
Communication is an essential catalyst for national development and social change.
Thereby, a Post-graduate programme in Journalism and Mass Communication was started
in 2001 and thus the Department of Journalism & Mass Communication came into being at
the C.C.S. University Campus. Due to great demand and need for media professionals
today, there is a need to strengthen university based media education and production
centres. To fulfil this need, the university has set up a wide range of sophisticated media
equipments for its studies, editing and outdoor production work.
The department has good facilities for the students.
Studio: The Department has well equipped studio with all modern infrastructure like
camera (Sony PD170), teleprompter, light system, etc. to produce all kinds of indoor
programmes.
PCR: Production Control Room is equipped with digital video switcher, audio mixer and
Headphone with modern editing section.
ENG: For Electronic News Gathering there are sufficient numbers of handy cams.
Radio Programme Production: In the department the facility of radio program production is
also available. Training of editing sound, mixing, dubbing, anchoring, news reading,
scripting is given to the students on latest electronic equipments and software.
TV Room: For the latest news and knowledge of current affairs a TV room with D.T.H. is
available for the students and also to undertake post production critical analysis of various
programmes which are a part of practical work.
Practical Newspaper-PARISAR: Department publishes a practical newspaper PARISAR
(since 30 May 2008, on Patrakarita Diwas) for the practical training to the students.
Internet: Internet facility is available for the students in the well-equipped computer
laboratory.
Library: Department has it own library and reading room. Reference Books, Textbooks,
Newspapers, Magazines, Journals are available for the students.
Seminar Hall: Well-furnished seminar hall equipped with sound system, LCD projector and
Home Theatre.
Master of Journalism and Mass Communication (M.J.M.C.)
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, selffinanced programme. The course focuses
on different aspects of Print and Electronic Media, Public relations, Advertising, Media
Management, Communication Research etc.
Coordinator: Professor J.K. Pundir
(Prof. J.K. Pundir is a regular teacher in the Dept. of Sociology of the University Campus)
The Department of Library and Information Science was established in the year 2004 under
self-financing scheme with the intention to provide quality education in the field of Library
and Information Science to the students of this region. It was for the first time to the
boundaries of the University campus that Library and Information Science Department was
constituted at par with other teaching departments under self-financing scheme.
The training in the discipline of Library & Information Science is needed for developing and
shaping future managers of Libraries and Information Centres. Such managers with
necessary skills and aptitude are required for converting their respective centres of activities
into excellent sources for accessing the ever-exploding literature and information related to
the various disciplines.
The department has a separate Computer Laboratory with 10 computers and a printer,
which are available for the students. The Computer Lab has round the clock internet
connectivity where students are allowed to access the internet to pursue their studies. The
Department has a separate well-stocked library having a collection of more than 1500 books
on all areas of Library and Information Science. The departmental library also subscribes to
a number of Indian and foreign journals to provide latest information in the subject.
Classification Schemes, Catalogue Codes, and list of Subject Headings are also in the
collection of library.
Keeping the above importance of Library and information Science in view, the department
offers the following programmes of study.
Bachelor of Library & Information Science (BLISc.)
It is a one-year full time, selffinanced programme with annual system of examination.
(ii) Master of Library & Information Science (MLISc.)
Coordinator: Mr. J.A. Siddiqui
20. Department of Education
The Department of Education was established in 1970. It was the only department in the
country, which first started M.Phil. in Education. Later on, M.Ed. course was also started in
1974, which aims at preparing teacher educators. The Department promotes researches in
different disciplines of education and organizes seminars, workshops, lectures in line with
the current trends in education. The Department focuses on all round development of
learners and aims to produce quality teacher educators and other education professionals.
Regular Course Offered
Master of Education (M.Ed.): M.Ed. programme is a twoyear (foursemester) fulltime programme including field attachment and research dissertation. (As per new
NCTE regulations).
M.Phil. in Education: M.Phil. in Education programme is oneyear (twosemester)
full-time regular course with project.
(iii) Ph.D. Programme: The Department offers Ph.D. programme in the areas like Teacher
Education, Measurement & Evaluation, Educational Technology and Lifelong learning.
P.K. Misra
(Head of the Department & Dean)
J.S. Bhardwaj
Vijay Jaiswal
Garima Singh
M.Sc., M.Ed., Ph.D.
Educational Technology, Teacher Education and
Lifelong learning.
M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Educational Technology, Educational Psychology and
Teacher Education.
M.Sc., M.Ed, Ph.D.
Measurement & Evaluation, Educational Technology.
M.A., M.Ed., Ph.D.
Teacher Education, Guidance & Counselling,
Educational Technology, Educational Psychology.
Department under the Faculty of Education
21. Department of Physical Education
The main purpose of establishing this Department was to upgrade the status of Physical
Education producing quality teachers and leaders in the fields of Physical Education by
offering degrees. A large section of youth is attracted to opt for Physical Education as career.
Hence, a separate department within the Faculty of Education has been set up for providing
education in the area of Physical Education. The department has good facilities with
Instructional / Teaching Rooms (with LCD & OHP); Computer Laboratory; Exercise
Physiology Lab; Educational Psychology Lab; Department Library; Sports Equipments;
Conference Hall; Multipurpose Hall; Gymnasium; and Play Ground facilities for Cricket,
Volley Ball, Athletics, Kho-Kho, Foot Ball, Wrestling, Badminton, Basketball, Gymnastics,
Handball, Hockey, Judo, Kabaddi, Softball, Table Tennis & Yoga.
(i) Master of Physical Education (M.P.Ed.): It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, self
financed programme.
(ii) Bachelor of Physical Education (B.P.Ed.): It is a twoyear full time, selffinanced
programme. (As per new NCTE regulations)
Note: The physically handicapped persons are not allowed to take admission, as the courses
involve vigorous physical activity. Married Women candidates are eligible to take admission
in B.P.Ed. and M.P.Ed. courses, but if they get pregnant during the course, they have to
leave the course for one year at least, because all the candidates are required to undergo
vigorous physical training.
Co-ordinator: Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma
(Dr. Sanjeev K. Sharma is a regular teacher in the Dept. of Political Science of the University Campus )
Department under the Faculty of Law
22. Department of Law
A very large number of students wish to pursue Law as a career. Therefore, it was decided
to start Undergraduate and Post-graduate programmes in the Department of Law. The
department is offering 5 year B.A.LL.B. Integrated Course, which enables the student to
meet the requirements of present day business world, and trains the students to meet
international legal standard.
LL.M.:
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, selffinanced course. Admission to this
programme is through entrance test organized by the University.
BA-LL.B.:
It is a fiveyear (ten semesters) full time, selffinanced course.
Coordinator: Dr. K.K. Mittal
1. Department of Botany (Twice Centre of Excellence, U.P. Govt.)
2. Department of Chemistry
3. Department of Mathematics
4. Department of Microbiology
5. Department of Physics
6. Department of Statistics
7. Department of Zoology (Centre of Excellence, U.P. Govt)
8. Department of Biotechnology
9. Department of Environmental Science
10. Department of Home Science
23. Department of Botany (Centre of Excellence, funded by UP Government, granted twice)
The department, established in 1969, is well recognised all over the country as the one
imparting quality education in Botany. It is housed in a double-storied independent
building in serene natural surroundings of mango orchards. Besides giving a thorough
grinding in basic science of Botany, the curriculum adopted in the department also lays
emphasis on deep understanding of the modern branches of the subject. It has sophisticated
equipments like Gas Chromatography, PCR, Fermenter, UV-visible Spectrophotometer,
Electrophoresis Unit, Ion-analyser, Ozone generator, Colorimeters, Quartz double
distillation units, High speed cooling centrifuge, Gel documentation system, FT-IR and
Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometers, HPLC, Image analysers, etc. The department also
has computer and internet facilities. It has well equipped laboratories with sufficient
facilities for study and research in various specialized areas. Every year, several students
qualify NET/GATE, besides PCS/IAS/IFS and other national level tests. Several students
have secured high academic and administrative honours in India and abroad.
Several research projects have been completed and several others are underway. The
department maintains a polycarbonate house, a garden and a herbarium/museum.
M.Sc. (Botany) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course. Courses in the first three semesters
pertain to various aspects of Botanical Science while in the fourth semester students are
provided two electives, besides two mandatory papers.
It is a two-semester programme with four theory courses including research
methodology and a project report. The students complete their project work in
specialized fields of their choice.
The department is well equipped for Ph.D. programmes in Environmental and Heavy
Metal Pollution, Tissue Culture Technology, Developmental and Stress Physiology,
Mycology, Microbiology, Microbial Nanotechnology and Plant Pathology.
Y. Vimala
M.U. Charaya
Bhawana Bajpai
Ishwar Singh
A.K. Srivastava
M.Sc. M.Phil, Ph.D., FBS, FLS, FSPRB
Plant Developmental and Stress Physiology,
Phytochemistry, Plant Tissue Culture
M.Sc., Ph.D., FBS, FPSI
Mycology, Pathology and Microbiology
M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Mycology and Pathology
M.Sc. M.Phil., Ph.D.
Phytochemistry, Plant Physiology and
M.Sc., Ph.D., FBS, FSCG, FSGPB
Cytogenetics and Phytoremediation
M.Sc. (Industrial Biotechnology) Programme
pertain to various aspects of Biotechnology while in the fourth semester students take
up projects.
(This self-financed course is suspended for the session 2015-16).
24. Department of Chemistry
The department of Chemistry was established in the year 2002. Presently department
is offering three post graduate courses M.Sc. (Chemistry), M.Sc. (Biochemistry) & M.Sc.
(Polymer Science & Chemical Technology). M.Sc. in Chemistry is a regular course spread
over four semesters. The curriculum of these courses in first three semesters make the
students aware with different advanced aspects of inorganic, organic, physical and
analytical chemistry; however, in the final semester they are specialized in organic chemistry
by offering courses like organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, environmental science and
polymers. Very high percentage of students qualified UGC/CSIR sponsored NET, GATE
and SLET examinations in the previous years.
The department has successfully organized many National and International
seminars & conferences. An International Conference on Perspectives in Vibrational
Spectroscopy (ICOPVS) was organized in Feb 2006. Another International Conference on
Green Technologies for Greener Environment (GTGE 2010) was organized by the
department during January 27-30, 2010. The department has organized Guest Lectures of
experts from all over the world. The department has collaborated with Institute of Chemical
Engineering Sofia, Bulgaria for carrying out joint research work. The department also
organized an International Conference on Green Technologies for Environment Protection
(GTEP 2011) at Sofia Bulgaria with their collaboration.
The department has started research activities in different fields of Polymer Science
and Chemical Technology such as development of technology for recovering chemicals and
useful products from polymer waste, biodegradable plastics, composites, etc. The
department has separate laboratories for Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry,
Biochemistry, Polymer Science and Technology. Separate computer laboratory with internet
facility and an instrumentation laboratory are available in the department. The department
has acquired sophisticated instruments like Differential Scanning Calorimeter, FTIR,
Spectrophotometer, HPLC etc. The department is developing techniques for industries and
has also filed two patents for period of 20 years. The department has also undertaken
industry sponsored research projects. The University has signed an agreement with M/s
National Moulding Co. Ltd. for the transfer of technology. The Industry has paid Rs. 4.13
lakh.
The department so far has produced 17 Ph.D. students. Over 20 research and review
articles have been published in reputed International Journals with high Impact factors. The
department has filed three Patents and recently one patent entitled A method of preparing
novel organic thermal stabilizers for PVC has been granted by Controller General of
Patent, Govt. of India to the University for a period of 20 years.
The department has produced more than 330 PG students in different streams of
Chemistry, Biochemistry and Polymer Science & Chemical Technology. Most of the students
are either pursuing M.Tech, Ph.D. or involved in R & D work in different Universities and
Research organizations like DRDO, TIFR, BARC, CDRI Lucknow, IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee,
NPL Delhi, NPL Pune, CSIR laboratories etc. The students with specialization in polymer
science and chemical Technology are well placed in industries like Chemical, PolymersPlastic, rubber, fibre, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, oil distillery, sugar manufacturing &
distilleries etc. and are doing best to the industry.
M.Sc. (Chemistry) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course spread over four semesters.
R.K. Soni
M.Sc., M.E. (Polymer Technology), Ph.D.
Physical Chemistry, Polymer Technology
Nazia Tarannum
M.Sc., Ph.D., PDF
Analytical Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry,
Polymer based Sensors
SelfFinanced Courses offered
(i) M.Sc. (Biochemistry):
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course with project work in the final semester.
(ii) M.Sc. (Polymer Science & Chemical Technology):
Co-ordinator: Prof. R.K. Soni
25. Department of Mathematics
Mathematics is the queen of all sciences. It has its independent role to play in the
development of physical, biological and social sciences. That is why its growth over the
years has been phenomenal. In view of this, Mathematics was included in those subjects,
which were started in 1969 at the time of establishment of teaching departments in this
University. Initially, only M.Phil. programme was introduced and later on M.Sc. programme
in Mathematics was also started. The department has a well-equipped computer laboratory.
The department has made its own mark in the field of Mathematics Education. It has a
laboratory for working in Mathematics Education having several innovative educational
games, charts, models and filmstrips.
The department has completed several projects and one major project is underway.
M.Sc. (Mathematics)
It is a one-year (two semesters) course with four theory courses including Research
Methodology and Computer Applications, and a project.
The department has facilities for research in the areas of Fluid Mechanics, Stability
Theory, General Topology, Approximation Theory, Fuzzy Game Theory, Fuzzy Goal
Programming, Fuzzy Transportation Modelling Cryptography, Fuzzy Game Theory,
Mathematical Modelling and Operations Research.
M.K. Gupta
Saru Kumari
General Topology, Approximation Theory, Cryptography
Fluid Mechanics, Stability of Flows
Inventory Modelling, Reverse Logistics
M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D.,
Fuzzy Game Theory, Fuzzy Goal Programming,
Fuzzy Transportation Modelling
26. Department of Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of structure, reproduction, physiology, metabolism and
classification of micro-organisms particularly bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, viruses,
actinomycetes, mycoplasmas, etc. which are relevant in industrial (pharmaceutical, sugar,
textile, leather, paper and chemical, etc.), agricultural, medical and environmental areas.
Microbes by virtue of their small size, simple organization, rapid reproduction and
convenient cultural requirements and extreme sensitivity are exceptionally attractive models
for study of fundamental life processes like genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, etc.
Several day-to-day products like bread, curd, cheese, several fermented foods, vinegar,
enzymes, amino acids, wines, beer, etc. are the result of microbial processes. Microbes are
used as tools to produce antibiotics, vaccines, fermented beverages, chemicals, sugars, high
calorie proteins, etc. Microbes as decomposers are most important components in food chain
of any ecosystem. These are used in agriculture as biofertilizers, biopesticides and are
responsible for agro-chemical cycles. Microbes also attack complex molecules of various
pollutants including pesticides, industrial effluents, and toxic chemical sewage components,
thus, purifying the environment to a greater extent. Some microbes are helpful in
exploration of coal, oil, natural gas, minerals and metals from low-grade ores, thus, are
useful in bioremediation. Students of Microbiology can enjoy the benefits of both
opportunities and facilities to make their careers in various fields of life sciences, biomedical
research and industrial exploitation of microbes and microbial processes.
The department was established in the year 1998. It is well equipped with modern
laboratory facilities for isolation, purification, identification and maintenance of microbes.
Major equipments in the Department are Fermenter, ELISA Reader, FPLC,
Spectrophotometer; Ultasonicator, Microprocessor-controlled photomicrography system,
Air sampler, High speed refrigerated centrifuge, Cell homogenizer, PCR, Electrophoresis
units, Gel Documentation system, DNA hybridizer, Orbital shaking incubators and all
necessary equipments for immunological studies; high quality microscopes including
fluorescent one are available to the students, HPLC, high quality Trinocular research
microscope, Deep Freezer 80oC; Lyophilizer, etc. are proposed to be added soon. The
Department has a well-established Microbial Culture Collection Centre and provides
material to several Colleges including the Medical College. The Department has 45
computers, all on network with 24-h lease line internet facility, and a well-equipped
Bioinformatics laboratory especially for the students of Bioinformatics. The Department has
its own Departmental library with more than 2500 books. The Department regularly
organizes workshops, seminars and exhibitions. The Department provides specialization in
medical, industrial, agricultural and environmental microbiology, and syllabi of all the
courses are upgraded according to the requirements of the courses and in the light of latest
developments. The department is having active academic collaboration with several national
laboratories in India like CIMAP, Lucknow; CTRI, Lucknow; CDRI, Lucknow; CDFD,
Hyderabad; IVRI, Bareilly; CMVL, Meerut; IARI, New Delhi; IGIB, Delhi; AIIMS, New
Delhi, ONGC, Dehradun; NICD, Delhi; etc. where the students have an opportunity to
complete their project work in collaboration of the department.
M.Sc. (Microbiology) Programme
Ph.D. Programme: in the aforesaid specialized fields.
In-charge: Prof. H.S. Singh
(Dean, Science)
M.Sc. (Applied Microbiology): It is a twoyear (four semesters) course with
specialization in Medical/Industrial/Agricultural/Environmental Microbiology. The
course also includes project work during the fourth semester.
M.Sc. (Bioinformatics): It is a twoyear (four semesters) course with a project work
during the fourth semester.
Co-ordinator: Prof. B. Ramesh
(Prof. B.Ramesh is a retired teacher of the Dept. of Genetics & Plant Breeding of the University Campus)
27. Department of Physics
(a DST-FIST supported department with Centre of Excellence under UPSHEC)
The department of Physics is one of the oldest departments in the campus, established in
1969. The department started M.Phil. classes to train students for teaching and research.
Under the teacher fellowship program of the UGC several college teachers completed their
M.Phil. and Ph.D. degree. The department also started M.Sc. classes from 1974. It was
sanctioned a University Leadership Project by the UGC and under this project the
department organized various refresher courses and summer schools for college teachers.
New Physics experiments for B.Sc. were also developed.
The department is engaged in active research in area of Thin Films, Material Science, Liquid
Crystals, Atomic Collision and Condensed Matter Physics, Biophysics and Theoretical
Nuclear Physics. The major experiment facilities available are in Thin Film laboratory and
Liquid Crystals laboratory. The department has conducted several refresher courses and
summer schools. The department is very well equipped for M.Sc. Laboratory courses, as
well as for research work. Major equipments in this department are Vacuum Coating Unit,
Hitachi Spectrophotometer, and Wynker Bridge, Spray pyrolysis set up and furnaces of
various types.
Electronics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, Theoretical Nuclear Physics, Solid state Physics,
Condensed Matter Physics, and Nanoscience.
M.Sc with Specialization in Electronics:
M.Phil. Programme:
It is a oneyear (two semesters) course having four theory courses and a project.
(iii) Ph.D. Programme: Research work supervised in Solid State Physics, Thin film Studies,
Nanoscience, Spectroscopy, Atomic Collision.
V.K. Sharma
Beer Pal Singh
Anil Kumar Yadav
Yogendra Kumar Gautam
S.P. Khare
Deo Raj
Experimental Condensed
M.Sc., M.Tech., Ph.D.
Material Science, Nanomaterials and Thin films
M.Sc, Ph.D.
Atomic Collision
India Marco-Polo Programme for Research, Teaching and Training
Department of Physics of Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut has the sole distinction to be
the only member in Indian-Italian Marco-Polo Programme for research and exchange for
students with University of Catanzaro Magna Graecia, Italy. Under India Marco Polo
Program, MoU (duly approved by the Executive Council/Senate of the participating
universities) has been signed between University of Catanzaro Magna Graecia and CCS
University. A designated number of seats are reserved for postgraduate courses in Medicine,
Surgery, Pharmacy, Nursing; and in Nanotechnology. Under this Indian-Marco Polo
Programme, prospective students will have to undergo a multiple choice eligibility test
conducted in Italian Language by the UMG, Italy at Department of Physics, CCS University,
Meerut. Students will be given Italian language course training at CCS University Meerut.
Job Opportunities and Placement
The students from this department have joined premier institutions such as BARC, TIFR,
IITs, CAT, IUAC, SSPL, DRDO and ONGC. Many students have joined Ph.D. programme in
the universities abroad. A number of students joined Central/State Universities as faculty
members. During last decade more than 85 students have cleared NET/GATE examination
till date. A large number of our students have been selected by UP State Higher Education
Service Commission for Assistant Professorship in colleges of UP and Uttarakhand.
28. Department of Statistics
The department was established in 1981 with M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes. Later, in the
year 1989, M.Sc. courses were also introduced. The department has developed two computer
laboratories for teaching and research work. The department also has a statistical laboratory
equipped with desk, electronic and programmable calculators. To make the courses more
job oriented, we have introduced two courses of computer programming, two courses of
Operations Research and a course of Engineering Statistics at M.Sc. level while at M.Phil.
level, we are running the courses like-Research Methodology, Reliability Theory, Statistical
Inference and distribution and Advanced Bayesian Statistics with R.
A good number of students from the department have passed UGC/CSIR- JRF
/NET/GATE examinations in the past years. The faculty members of the department have
published more than 270 research papers out of which 70% belong to international journals
of repute like-Reliability Engineering and System Safety (U.S.A), Microelectronics and
Reliability (U.K.), Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (U.S.A.),International Journal
of System Science (U.K.), Mathematics and Computer in Simulation (U.S.A.), Journal of
Statistical Computation and Simulation (U.S.A.), International Journal of Systems Assurance
Engineering and Management (U.S.A.), Statistical Methods and Applications (U.S.A.),
Journal of Mathematical and Computational Science ( U.K.), Journal of Quality in
Maintenance Engineering (Saudi Arabia), Communication in Statistics (U.S.A.). Thus, so far,
80 students have completed their Ph.D. degrees each with good publications under the
faculty members of this department. More so, 251 students have also completed their M. Phil
Projects under the faculty members of this department.
The M.Sc./M.Phil. /Ph.D. Statistics passed students have the job opportunities in various
Government and Private Sectors such as: Indian Statistical Services, Ministry of Planning
(Research Officer), Ministry of Transport (Operations Research Officer), DRDO (Scientist),
NCERT (Education/Research), National Banks (Statistical Officer), LIC (Actuaries), Higher
Education (Teaching and research), U.P. Public Service Commission, Dist. Information
Officer and Dist. Statistical Officer, Forest (Statistical Officer). Corporate Sector companies
like Infosys, TCS, HLL, HCL, Oracle, SPSS as Reliability Analyst, Data Analyst, Research
M.Sc. (Statistics) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course. In each semester, there are four
theory courses and one practical.
It is a twosemester course with four theory and one practical courses and a project.
The broad areas of research are-Reliability Engineering, Survival Analysis,
Computational Statistics, Bayesian Analysis, Quality Control, Operations Research and
Applied Statistics.
Rakesh Gupta
Bhupendra Singh
Pradeep Chaudhary
Reliability Theory and Statistical Distributions
Reliability/Survival Analysis, Statistical Inference
Reliability/Survival Analysis, Bayesian Analysis,
Computational Statistics
Reliability Theory
29. Department of Zoology
The Department was established in 1977. The Department was recognized as DST-FIST
department by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The
Department has also been awarded Innovative Assistance Programme (IAP) by the UGC to
impart teaching and research in Toxicology. The department provides advance education at
M.Sc., M. Phil. and Ph.D. levels. Besides giving thorough grounding in basic Zoology, it lays
emphasis on deep understanding of applied aspects of Cell and Molecular Biology,
Biochemistry, Physiology, Immunology, Genetics, Ecology and Animal Behaviour.
With a team of well-qualified teachers, the department offers specialization in the areas of
Parasitology, Fish & Fisheries, Endocrinology and Chronobiology. The department has well
equipped laboratories for Parasitology & Molecular Taxonomy, Nematology, Chronobiology
and Toxicology. Research activities are supported by Government funding agencies like
UGC, DBT, DST and CSIR. Though the central library caters the need of students, the
department has its own library.
M.Sc. (Zoology) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time course having 16 courses with specialization
in Parasitology and Fish & Fisheries.
M. Sc. (Toxicology) Programme
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time programme having 16 courses. Students
undergo training at ITRC, NIOH, NIPER and other apex institutes in the country.
(iii) M. Phil. (Zoology) Programme
It is a twosemester course. In this programme, efforts are made to fully train students
for higher education and research. Besides four regular courses, a student
independently works on a research project. Thus, theoretical as well as practical
training is offered simultaneously. The program has helped the students to clear the
NET/GATE examinations.
(iv) Ph.D. Programme
The department pursues research in the areas of Molecular Taxonomy, Toxicology,
Parasitology, Biomonitoring, Nematology, Immunoparasitology, Fish Biology,
Physiology and Chronobiology. The department has excellent research laboratories
equipped with sophisticated instruments to carry out researches of a high standard.
H.S. Singh
Parasitology, Cyto-taxonomy, Fish Biology
S.K. Bhardwaj
Chronobiology/Physiology
A.K. Chaubey
M.Sc., D. Phil.
Yeshvander Verma
D.K. Chauhan
S.S. Lal
Toxicology, Oxidative stress, Biological monitoring
Parasitology, Immunotoxicology
Immunoparasitology
Departments under the Faculty of Science
30. Department of Biotechnology
Biotechnology has rapidly emerged as an area of activity having potential impact on
virtually all domains of human welfare, ranging from food processing, protecting the
environment, and increasing the agricultural productivity to human health. The total
volume of trade in biotechnology products is increasing sharply every year and it is
expected to soon become the major contributor to the world trade.
The Department of Biotechnology was established in the year 1996 under self-financed
programme. The department has well equipped laboratories with horizontal and vertical
electrophoresis systems, PCR Thermal cycler, -20o C Refrigerator, Electronic Balances,
Laminar Air Flow Hoods, UV-Visible Spectrophotometer, Pentium-4 Computer, UV
Transilluminator, Refrigerated Centrifuges, Water Distillation Unit, Micropipettes, Gel
Documentation System, Hybridization Oven, BOD Incubator with Shaker, ELISA reader,
LCD projector, slide projector, etc. The department plans to procure a few other major
equipments in near future.
M.Sc. (Biotechnology):
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, selffinanced course with dissertation work
in the fourth semester. The project work can be completed in-house and/or other
scientific/ professional laboratory.
Co-ordinator: Dr. S. S. Gaurav
(Dr. S.S. Gaurav is a regular teacher in the Dept. of Genetics & Plant Breeding of the University Campus)
31. Department of Environmental Sciences
The objective of the Department is to become a world-class centre of excellence for
Environmental Science. It was established in 1996 with a mission to impart quality education
and research in different disciplines of Environmental Science. With in a period of sixteen
years, the Department has attracted students from India and abroad. The Department has
made significant contribution producing about 180 postgraduates who are distributed far
and wide. The successful students of the Department are disseminating environmental
education to Society through their respective profession.
M.Sc. (Environmental Science)
It is a twoyear (four semesters) full time, self-financed course with summer training
and project work.
Coordinator: Prof. A.K. Chaubey
(Dr. A.K. Chaubey is a regular teacher in the Dept. of Zoology of the University Campus)
Home Science department was established in 2004. Home science is an interdisciplinary
subject involving the study of foods and nutrition, human development, resource
management, textile and clothing, extension education, end communication. Each of these
aspects is multidisciplinary in dealing with the Art and Science of living. Therefore, during
the study of Home Science, strong emphasis is placed on the individual, the family, and the
community as whole. The department is well equipped with autoclaves, laminar airflow
hood, incubators, ovens, heating plates and high quality microscopes for microbiology
studies. Calorimeters, pH meters, laboratory centrifuge, water bath, distil water unit, energy
regulator sterilizer and all necessary equipments for biochemistry studies are also available.
For hands on experience of the students, outreach activities (like health camp, canteen
projects, health awareness programmers) are planned and implemented regularly. Courses
have been expanded & diversified to meet the emerging needs & challengers in the area of
Food & Nutrition.
Consequently, considering the importance that Home Science places on human
development across the life span, the following programmes of study are offered by the
M.Sc. (Human Development) (only for girls):
Multidisciplinary approach to the curriculum is provided by drawing theoretical &
practical perspectives from ecology, psychology, education, philosophy, sociology,
anthropology and social work. The curriculum focuses on inclusion of life-span
approach.
M.Sc. (Food & Nutrition) (only for girls):
Food & nutrition plays a key role in promoting quality of life of individual as well as
community. The excellent academic program is supported by easy access to the
department, library, laboratories, computer & other necessary facilities.
Coordinator: Dr. Archana Sharma
Number of Seats and Eligibility Conditions for Admission to the Regular Courses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Programmes of Study
Minimum Eligibility Criteria
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Faculty of Agriculture
M.Phil. Programmes
1. Genetics & Plant Breeding
2. Horticulture
Breeding/Agricultural
Botany/
Biotechnology/Seed Science with 55% marks.
Bachelor's Degree with an aggregate of 55% marks,
and second division in Intermediate examination;
or 50% marks in Bachelors degree as well as
Intermediate examination separately.
Masters degree in Horticulture with 55% marks.
M.Sc. (Ag.) Programme
Four years Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture with
50% marks in the aggregate for Gen/OBC
candidates.
2. Hindi
4. Economics
6. Political Science
7. Psychology
8. Sociology
Master's degree in concerned subject with 55%
marks. Bachelor's Degree with an aggregate of 55%
marks including the concerned subject (wherever
applicable), and second division in Intermediate
examination; or 50% marks in Bachelors degree as
well as Intermediate examination separately.
Note: Candidates having M.A. in Public
Administration are also eligible for admission in
M.Phil. Political Science.
Bachelor's Degree with the concerned subject as one
of the main subjects. For Psychology, 45% in the
aggregate, and 50% marks in the subject at
Graduation are mandatory (See #5 of the Note given
on Page No. 45 for calculating the percentage in the
subject).
Note: Subject to deduction as per Note #6 on page
45: (i) For admission to M.A. (Sociology), candidates
having B.Sc. or B.B.A. degree are also eligible. (ii) For
admission to M.A. (Economics), candidates having
B.A./B.Sc. degree with Mathematics as one of the
M.A. Programmes
main subjects, or at 10+2 level; or those with B.B.A./
B.Com. /B.C.A. degree, are also eligible.
PG Diploma / Diploma / Certificate Programmes
1. Advanced Diploma in Russian
Language & Literature.
2. Diploma in Russian
3. Certificate of Proficiency in
Graduation in any discipline and 48% marks in
Diploma in Russian Language or equivalent.
Intermediate (45% marks) and 48% marks in Certificate
of Proficiency in Russian or equivalent.
10+2 or Higher Secondary in any discipline with
45% marks
1. M.Phil. in Education
M.Ed. degree with 55% marks and B.Ed. with
50% marks in Theory & Practical separately, or
55% in aggregate.
2. Master of Education (M.Ed.)
Minimum 50% marks or an equivalent grade in
B.Ed./B.A.B.Ed./B.Sc.B.Ed.
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Master's Degree in the concerned subject with
55% marks. Bachelor's Degree with an aggregate
of 55% marks including the concerned subject,
examination; or 50% marks in Bachelors degree
as well as Intermediate examination separately.
Note: Candidates having M.Sc. degree in
Toxicology are also eligible for admission in
M.Phil. Zoology.
M.Sc. Programmes
B.Sc. Degree (with the concerned subject as one
of the main subjects) with 45% marks in
aggregate and 50% marks in the subject. (See #5
given on Page No. 45, for calculating the
percentage in the subject).
Note: Subject to deduction as per Note #6 on
(i) For admission to M.Sc. (Statistics), candidates
having B.A./B.Sc. Degree with Statistics/
Mathematics are eligible.
(ii) For
admission to M.Sc. (Microbiology),
candidates having B.Sc. degree with Chemistry,
Botany and Zoology/ B.Sc.(M.L.T.)/ B.Pharma/
B.V.Sc./ M.B.B.S. are also eligible.
(iii) For admission to M.Sc. (Physics), candidates
having B.Sc. degree with Physics and
Mathematics along with Statistics are also
eligible.
(iv) For admission to M.Sc. (Toxicology), candidates
having B.Sc. degree with Chemistry, Botany,
Zoology/
Microbiology/
Biotechnology/
B.Pharma / B.V.Sc/ M.B.B.S are eligible.
(v) For admission to Masters degree in
Mathematics, candidates having BA degree in
Mathematics are also eligible. Such candidates
will however get the degree of M.A.
1. Candidates, who already have a post-graduate degree as a regular candidate, are ineligible for
admission to another regular post-graduate programme, provided the same can be pursued as a
private candidate.
2. For SC and ST candidates, 5% relaxation in the above minimum eligibility conditions of percentage
of marks in respect of qualifying examination will be applicable unless otherwise mentioned.
3. Candidates who are appearing in the final year/semester examination of their PG degree programme
are eligible to apply provisionally for M.Phil. entrance examination only. For admission to M.Ed.
course, only those candidates, whose result of qualifying degree has been declared before the last date
of filling-up of the Entrance examination form, are eligible to apply for admission.
4. Two percent marks shall be deducted for each year of gap from qualifying degree for the purpose of
calculation of merit index, without affecting the division of the candidate. However, for regular PG
in those subjects, which are available for private candidates, a gap of more than two years will not be
permissible. However, this rule will not be applicable for Certificate, Diploma and PG Diploma
courses.
5. For calculation of merit index for admission to PG courses, where the same subject should
have been passed by the candidate in the UG class, a formula will be adopted as
mentioned below:
To Total marks obtained in UG course (all papers accounted for the purpose of granting
division), add total marks obtained in theory paper of the desired subject in three years,
add half of total marks obtained in practical papers of the desired subject in three years
(wherever applicable), divide the sum by Maximum marks of UG+Maximum marks of the
desired theory subject in three years of UG+Maximum marks of practical in desired
subject in three years of UG and calculate percentage without rounding off, at least upto
two decimal points.
6. Without affecting the division category, a flat 5% deduction from the Merit Index would be made
in case of admission to the PG courses (wherever applicable), if a subject has not been pursued as
one of the main subjects at the UG level and requested for admission in that particular subject at
the PG level. The other subject/course eligibilities listed for admission to a PG course will also be
subjected to flat 5% deduction.
7. For taking admission to M.A. in Hindi/Urdu/English/Sanskrit, the concerned subject should have
been pursued at the U.G. level.
8. Unless specified, no candidate shall be allowed to take admission in any PG course, without
passing the 10+2+3 or 11+1+3 pattern.
Number of Seats and Eligibility Conditions for Admission to the SelfFinanced Courses
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Programmes of Study
M.Sc. (Ag.) Programmes
(1) Food Science & Technology
(2) Plant Protection
(3) Seed Science & Technology
M.A. & other Masters Programmes
(4) M.A. Sanskrit
(5) Master of Fine Arts (Painting) (MFA)
(6) Geography (M.A./M.Sc)
(7) Master of Journalism & Mass
Communication (MJMC)
(8) Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)
(9) Master of Physical Education (M.P.Ed.)
(10) Master of Library & Information Science
(M.L.I.Sc.)
(11) LL.M.
(12) Public Administration
B.Lib.Sc. or B.L.I.Sc. with 50% marks
LL.B. (3 years/5years course) with 50% marks.
Bachelors Degree with 50% marks in any discipline.
(13) PG Diploma in G.I.S & Remote Sensing
(14) Advanced Diploma in French Language
& Literature
(15) Diploma in French Language
(16) Certificate of Proficiency in French
M.Sc./ Master Programmes
(17) Biotechnology
(18) Biochemistry
Bachelors Degree in Agriculture/Biology (CBZ)
Food science/Bachelors Degree (with Food Science
as a subject) with 50% marks.
Bachelors Degree in Agriculture/Biology Group
(CBZ) with 50% marks.
Bachelors Degree in Agriculture/Seed science/
Biology Group (CBZ) with 50% marks.
Bachelor's Degree with the concerned subject, as one
of the main subjects.
B.F.A./B.A. degree (including concerned subject)
with 50% marks in the aggregate.
Bachelor's Degree (including the concerned subject)
with 45% marks in the aggregate and 50% marks in
the subject. Note: For calculating the percentage in
the subject, see Note # 5 given on Page No. 45.
Bachelors degree in any discipline (preferably BJMC)
with 50% marks.
Bachelors Degree in any discipline with 48% marks.
Bachelor of Physical Education (B.P.Ed.)
or equivalent with at least 50% marks.
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Health and
Physical Education with at least 50% marks.
Second Class Bachelors Degree (45%) in any
discipline.
Diploma in French Language or equivalent.
Intermediate (45%) and 48% marks in Certificate of
Proficiency in French or equivalent.
10+2 or Higher Secondary in any discipline with 45%
Bachelors degree in Biology (CBZ)/Biotechnology/
Microbiology, B. Pharma or B.Tech. Biotechnology or
Bachelors degree in Laboratory/Medical laboratory
techniques with 50% marks.
Bachelors degree with PCM/CBZ /MLT with 50%
(19) Polymer Science & Chemical Technology
(20) Applied Microbiology
(21) Bioinformatics
(22) Environmental Science
(23) Home Science Food and Nutrition
(for girls only)
(24) Home Science Human Development
(25) Bachelor of Library & Information
Science (B.L.I.Sc.)
(26) BA- LL.B. (Five year course)
(27) Bachelor of Physical Education (B.P.Ed.)
Bachelors Degree with (PCM/CBZ/Polymer
Science), B.E./B.Tech. (in any branch) with 50%
Bachelors degree in Biology group (CBZ)/
Microbiology/Biotechnology/B.Pharma/Medicine
with 50% marks
B.Sc.(Ag.)/ Biotechnology/ Computer Science/
Mathematics/ Statistics/ Microbiology/ BMLT with
Bachelors Degree in Science (CBZ/PCM), B.Sc. in
Microbiology/ Biotechnology, MBBS/ BDS, B.E./
B.Tech. in Civil Engineering with 50% marks
50% marks in B.Sc. Home Science/B.Sc. Home Sc.
with Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics/B.Sc. in Food &
Nutrition.
B.Sc. Home Science with 50% marks.
Bachelors Degree (45% marks) in any discipline
under 10+2+3 system
10+2 with 45% marks
Bachelors degree in any discipline with 50% marks
and having at least participation in the Inter
College/Inter-Zonal/District/School competition in
sports and games as recognized by the
AIU/IOA/SGFI/Govt. Of India.
Bachelors Degree in Physical Education with 45%
and studied physical education as
compulsory/elective subject.
Bachelors Degree with 45% marks and having
participated in National/Inter University/State
competitions or secured 1st, 2nd or 3rd position in
Inter College/InterZonal/ District/ School
competition in sports and games as recognized by the
Bachelor Degree with participation in international
National/Inter-University competition in sports and
games as recognized by respective federations/
Graduation with 45% marks and at least three years
of teaching experience (for deputed in-service
candidates i.e. trained physical education
teachers/coaches)
1. For SC and ST candidates, 5% relaxation in the minimum eligibility conditions of
percentage of marks in respect of qualifying examination will be given (except in
cases, where specified otherwise).
2. Two percent marks shall be deducted for each year of gap from qualifying degree for the purpose
of calculation of merit index, without affecting the division of the candidate. However, for
regular PG in those subjects, which are available for private candidates, a gap of more than two
years will not be permissible. However, this rule will not be applicable for Certificate, Diploma
and PG Diploma courses.
4. The university reserves the right to discontinue any course/ programme at any time.
If application forms are less than 60% of the approved number of seats in any selffinanced course, such course will be discontinued and no admissions will be made
during the session 201516.
The admissions to M.Phil., M.Ed, M.P.Ed., B.P.Ed., LL.M. and B.Sc. Nursing programmes
shall be made through Entrance Tests conducted by the University. The medium of Entrance
Test will generally be English, except in case of the language courses. For the rest of the
courses including Masters, Bachelors, Diploma and Certificate programmes, the admissions
shall be made on the basis of online Merit List generated on a common portal for both, the
University Campus and the affiliated colleges.
In case of any ambiguity and dispute, the decision of the Admission Committee shall be
Application Form and Information Brochure
The Information Brochure and the online Application Forms are available on the University
website for Admission: www.ccsuonline.in
Note: The candidates are required to submit a separate application form for each course,
for which Entrance Test will be held.
Entrance Test-cum-Application Fee
The fee (Rs. 700/ for General and OBC, and Rs. 500/ for SC/ST candidates) for the
Entrance Test is charged online while filling up the Application Form through e-coupon,
and no separate fee will be charged for the entrance test.
Submission of Application Form
For M.Phil., M.Ed., M.P.Ed., B.P.Ed., LL.M. and B.Sc. Nursing courses, the application
forms shall be filled-up online (www.ccsuonline.in) and the hardcopy of the online
filled-up application form with one passport size original photograph, selfattested
copies of all required certificates and marksheets, and a copy of online payment proof
are to be sent only by Registered/Speed Post so as to reach the Office of the Dean
Students Welfare, Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut (U.P.)250 004, latest by
30th May 2015. An application sent through courier service or submitted by hand
shall not be accepted in any case.
In case of M.Phil., B.P.Ed., M.P.Ed. and LL.M. if a candidate studying in C.C.S.
University, Meerut, finds oneself eligible of falling in merit, should ensure that his/her
marksheet of eligibility qualification reaches the office of the Dean, Students Welfare,
C.C.S. University, Meerut (U.P.)250 004, within one week of the declaration of the
result of concerned course of C.C.S. University, Meerut. For other Universities the
candidates are required to hold the degree of eligibility qualification at the time of
filling up the entrance exam forms.
(iii) For other courses except those mentioned at #(i) above, the application forms shall be
filled-up online (www.ccsuonline.in). If the applicants name appears in the online
Merit List(s), he/she will be required to submit the hardcopy of the filled-up
application form along with the selfattested copies of all the required marksheets,
degrees, certificates, other documents and the fee submission proof at the concerned
Department of the University Campus/College at the time of admission. A merit list
will stay active for the time specified on the website only. Once the next merit list is
published the claim of the applicants on previous merit list will be cancelled.
(iv) Application Forms incomplete in any respect shall be rejected straightaway.
Application form is to be filled by the student carefully, providing his or her own
mobile number and email ID. The University will not be responsible, if one loses the
chance of admission on account of wrong information in the application form.
(vi) Except in case of M.Ed. and B.Sc. Nursing, the candidates appearing in final year/last
semester of the qualifying PG examination may be allowed to appear only
provisionally in the M.Phil. Entrance Test. However, their position in the Merit List
will be subject to fulfilling the eligibility requirements. A candidate must have passed
B.Ed./B.T./L.T. degree before applying for the M.Ed. Entrance Test.
(vii) A candidate having passed his/her qualifying examination as a private candidate shall
furnish a certificate (not older than six months) of good conduct from the Principal of
the College or Gazetted Officer or an M.L.A./M.P. In case of the candidates of the
departments of Ch. Charan Singh University Campus, the Admission Committee shall
see that there is nothing against the candidate, which may debar him/her from seeking
admission in the class he/she has been selected for admission.
(viii) The self-attested copies of the certificates, mark-sheets and other documents enclosed
along with the application form shall be verified from the original documents at the
time of admission.
(ix) Attestation of the photograph done only by the Principal of an Intermediate/ Degree/
Post-Graduate College/ Head of the Department of University/Gazetted Officer will
be accepted.
The courses, for which entrance tests will be held, the following rules will be uniformly
applied as per the C.C.S. University Executive Council Resolution 18, dated 2.5.2015:
1. For each correct answer one mark will be awarded. mark will be deducted for each
wrong answer. However, in the OMR sheet, if a candidate selects more than one
choice/answer for a particular question, the said answer will not be considered.
2. The weightages will be added as mentioned in the subheading Weightages and
deductions will be considered @ 2% per year of gap upto a maximum of 8% for the
candidates being admitted through entrance test.
3. In case, two or more candidates obtain equal marks in entrance test of a course, the
merit will be decided on the basis of higher marks obtained in the qualifying
(eligibility) examination and if they are also equal, then the merit will be decided on
the basis of seniority in age.
In all the cases, the decision of the Admission Committee will be final.
For admission to the M.Phil. courses, the Entrance Test will be based on a single question
paper of 2 hours duration containing 100 objective type questions, based on 70:30 ratio
between the subject and mental ability (general awareness, aptitude and reasoning), each
with multiple choices having only one best amongst the given choices. The question paper
will be based on the syllabus for M.A./M.Sc./M.Sc.(Ag.)/M.Ed. courses in the respective
subjects of Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut.
For admission to LL.M. course of the University Campus; Meerut College, Meerut; and
N.A.S. College, Meerut, the application form will be filled up and submitted as mentioned
above. The Entrance Test will be of a single question paper of 2 hours duration containing
100 objective type questions, based on 10 questions each from 10 papers of the subject,
namely: Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law of India, Law of Crime (IPC), Law of Contract
(General principles of contract), Law of Torts, Public International Law, Family law (Hindu
and Muslim Law), Environmental Law, Administrative Law and Company Law, each with
multiple choices having only one best amongst the given choices. If the candidate is selected
for the first preference, then his/her name will not appear in the merit lists of other
colleges/Campus.
For the Entrance Test of B.Sc. Nursing, the question paper consisting of 100 questions 25
each from the syllabi of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English of class XII of U.P. Board.
The final merit list for B.Sc. Nursing will be based on the marks of the written test +
weightage, besides fulfilling the minimum eligibility requirements in the qualifying
examination. All the candidates have to qualify the Physical Fitness Test for consideration in
the Final Merit List for admission. The rules of weightage and reservation will be
according to Nursing Council of India.
For admission to B.P.Ed. and M.P.Ed. courses, the Entrance Test will be of a single question
paper of 2 hours duration containing 100 objective type questions, based on the subject, each
with multiple choices having only one best amongst the given choices. For the Entrance
Tests of B.P.Ed., the question papers will be based on the syllabi of the Graduate courses of
C.C.S. University, and for M.P.Ed. the syllabus of B.P.Ed. course of this University. The
final merit list for B.P.Ed. and M.P.Ed. will be based on the marks of the written test +
weightage against the Sports Representation Marks (upto a maximum of 18 marks for
B.P.Ed. only, while for M.P.Ed., the weightage applicable will be as in the case of
M.A./M.Sc.), besides fulfilling the minimum eligibility requirements in the qualifying
the Final Merit List for admission.
For admission to M.Ed. course, the Entrance Test will be held as per the prescribed rules
laid down in the G.O. as reproduced below, besides uniform rules of the University will be
implemented for all the courses where admissions are given through entrance tests
(Executive Council Resolution 18, dated 2.5.2015).
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The centre for Entrance Test will be Ch. Charan Singh University Campus,
Meerut.
Note: The University reserves the right of not conducting the Entrance Test for any
programme of study.
Weightages for M.A./ M.Sc./ M.Sc.(Ag.)/ M.P.Ed./ LL.M.
Applicants falling under categories (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), and (v) given below will be entitled to
weightages mentioned against the same. For the purpose of admission, the weightage shall
be added to the percentage obtained in the qualifying examination (after calculating the
percentage in case of subjects having practical papers/exams), as the case may be, while
determining the rank.
A weightage of four percent will be given in case of a candidate having certificate of
participation at National/ State/ Inter University level in a team/ Individual event
recognised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) or the Indian Olympic
Association (IOA) while pursuing the qualifying degree/class.
(ii) A weightage of four percent will be given to Ch. Charan Singh University graduates, in
case of admission to postgraduate classes.
(iii) A weightage of two percent will be given to candidates having Honours Degree in the
subject in which the admission is being sought at post-graduate level.
(iv) A weightage of four percent will be granted to the son(s)/daughter(s)/spouse of the
employee of Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut and its affiliated colleges.
(v) Three percent weightage will be given to those candidates, who have secured C/GII
certificate of N.C.C., while pursuing the qualifying degree/class.
Two percent weightage will be given to those candidates, who have secured B/GI
Three percent weightage will be given to those candidates, who have served for 240
hours under N.S.S. and participated in two camps of seven and ten days, respectively,
while pursuing the qualifying degree/class.
Two percent weightage will be given to those candidates, who have served for 240
hours under N.S.S. and participated in a camp of seven/ ten days, while pursuing the
qualifying degree/class.
One percent weightage will be given to those candidates, who have served for 240
hours under N.S.S. and participated in a camp of 120 hours, while pursuing the
Note: A candidate claiming weightage/s will enclose copy/copies of relevant certificate/s in support of
his/her claim with the application form, at the time of admission. In no case the total weightage of
more than eight marks (percent) will be given to a candidate. In case an applicant is covered under
(iv) above, the total weightage admissible is up to 12 marks (percent). No weightage will affect the
minimum eligibility conditions prescribed for admission, nor will affect the division category of the
candidate.
Weightages for B.P.Ed.
Applicants who qualify in written entrance test, physical fitness test and are eligible as per
the qualifying examination result, may be given the following Sports Representation Marks
(upto a maximum of 18 marks only) on producing suitable, valid certificate(s) for those
games only, which are listed in the AIU list.
Senior National Position 1st 3rd place
Senior National participation
Inter University position 1st -3rd place
Inter University participation
Inter Collegiate participation (1st place)
Inter Collegiate participation (2nd place)
Inter Collegiate participation (3rd place)
18 marks
Weightages for M.Phil.
Applicants falling under categories (i), (ii), and (iii) given below will be entitled to
be added to the marks (percentage) obtained by a candidate in the Entrance test.
A weightage of four marks, will be given in case of a candidate having certificate of
Association (IOA) while pursuing the postgraduate degree.
(ii) For admission to M.Phil., no weightage will be granted to any candidate on account of
holding UG/PG degree from Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut.
(iii) A weightage of four marks will be granted to the son(s)/daughter(s)/spouse of the
his/her claim at the time of application. In no case the total weightage of more than eight marks
(percent) will be given to a candidate. No rounding off will be done while calculating percentage.
Subject to the provisions stated above, the merit of a candidate for admission shall be judged by the
total marks obtained in the Entrance Test. No weightage will affect the minimum eligibility
conditions prescribed for admission, nor will affect the division category of the candidate
Reservation of Seats
21%, 2% and 27% seats in all courses are reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC categories, respectively. However, reservation of 3%, 2%
and 1% will be permissible to candidates belonging to Physically Handicapped (more than
50% handicap, can be further categorized with 1% each, into distortion of organs, blindness,
and deaf/dumb), Dependent of Freedom Fighter and Dependent of Ex-serviceman
categories within each one of the SC/ST, OBC and general category. Reservation shall be
given as per the prevailing government rules at the time of admission and are subject to
modification by competent authority. Applicants claiming reservation in above categories
shall enclose self-attested copies of supporting certificate/s in the given prescribed proforma
along with the application.
In pursuance of the Letter No. 31/2012NER, dt. 04.06.2014 of Dept. of Higher Education,
Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi, regarding the admission of
Kashmiri Migrants for the Academic Session 201415, the following concessions may be
continued in the Academic Session 201516, provided such a circular is received in time.
(i) Relaxation in cut-off percentage upto 10%, subject to minimum eligibility requirement.
(ii) Increase in intake capacity upto 5% course-wise.
(iii) Reservation of at least one seat in Merit Quota in technical/professional institution.
(iv) Waiving of domicile requirements.
Note: Physically handicapped candidates shall enclose a self-attested copy of the certificate issued by
Chief Medical Officer of the district along with the application. In case, a candidate does not claim
reservation in the application form, he/she will be treated in general category and no change would be
permitted after submitting the application form. In case, the requisite number of eligible candidates of
reserved categories is not available, the vacant seats may be filled by the General category candidates.
a. The merit list will be prepared on the basis of marks secured in the Entrance Test and
weightages vis--vis the eligible candidates only, according to the norms admissible
under the G.O. provisions. No candidate shall be included in the merit list if he/she fails
to secure minimum qualifying marks in qualifying PG examination. In case of M.Ed., the
minimum qualifying marks required are 45% in the entrance test. However, the Entrance
Test marks alone do not determine admission to the M.Ed. programme, but the entrance
test scores and the academic scores (as per G.O.) combined together shall determine the
merit of the student.
The result of Entrance Test will be made available on the University Website
www.ccsuonline.in and will also be given for publication to major local dailies.
Candidates selected for admission will be intimated by the respective departments.
Qualifying the Entrance Test without fulfilling the eligibility conditions will not make
any candidates claim for admission.
b. In courses, where admission is to be made on the basis of merit without the Entrance
Test, the merit of the candidates will be determined as per the common admission rules
for the colleges and the University Campus. The registrations and admissions to these
courses will be carried out online through the common admission portal for the colleges
and the Campus.
A particular Merit List would remain displayed for 23 days, before being
replaced by the subsequent one, if any. Thus, the applicants are advised to
check the Merit Lists regularly, and take care of the necessary formalities
pertaining to admissions.
(ix)
(xi)
(xii)
(xiii)
(xiv)
(xv)
(xvi)
No person who is a history-sheeter according to the police records or has been
convicted for an offence involving moral turpitude shall be admitted to a course in the
university and, if already admitted, his/her admission shall be cancelled immediately
after the facts of the case are known.
Where it is discovered that a candidate has been punished on account of using unfair
means in any examination or has been expelled from any educational institution,
he/she shall not be admitted.
The University has the right to cancel, at any stage, the admission of a candidate if it is
discovered that he/she was not entitled to admission in accordance with the prevailing
rules and regulations. Admission, at any stage, may also be cancelled if deemed fit in
the interest of the University.
discovered that he/she has used for admission the degrees/diplomas/certificates
unrecognised
institutions/fake
universities/institutions/boards. The applicants are, therefore, advised to refer to the
websites of UGC (www.ugc.ac.in), the AICTE (www.aicte.ernet.in) and DEC
(www.dec.ac.in) to verify.
Candidates found using unfair means in Entrance test will not be allowed admission
and will also be debarred from any future Entrance Test.
A student shall not be admitted to any department of the University, if he/she is
suffering from a disease of a nature, which may be detrimental to the health of the
fellow students.
No fresh admission shall be made in the second semester of any programme of study.
Inter-subject transfers will not be allowed at any stage of admission process. The
candidates may however, apply on separate application forms for different courses
depending upon their eligibility.
Admission of students joining the various courses will be provisional and will be
confirmed by the Admission Committee of the University only on the verification of
the certificates in original on the basis of which they are admitted.
Eligibility conditions for admission to PG courses of the campus will be same as
prescribed for admissions to colleges for the same courses.
Eligibility conditions for those courses, which are not being offered in the colleges, will
be as prescribed in the Campus Information Brochure 201516.
If a candidate remains absent continuously for ten days after admission, his/her
admission shall stand cancelled.
Admission of foreign students, if selected, would be subject to a clearance from the
Department of Education, Ministry of HRD, Government of India and Sr.
Superintendent of Police, Meerut. Foreign students are encouraged to apply for
admission under PIHEAD programme of UGC.
For the purpose of admission, the claim of the applicants included in a particular Merit
List shall cease after the scheduled reporting time.
No candidate should be permitted to switch admission to other courses (self- financed
or regular) without completion/cancellation of the first one.
For all purposes, decision of the Admission Committee with the approval of the ViceChancellor, who is the Chairperson, shall be final and binding on each applicant.
Note: The information contained in the Information Brochure is only for general guidance and should not
be treated as a legal document. It could be changed /modified from time to time by the Academic
Bodies/Admission Committee/Authorities of the C.C.S. University, Meerut.
It is to be noted that ignorance of any rule cannot be treated as an excuse for its breach.
The University library is housed in a four-storied modular pattern building in close
proximity of the teaching departments. It has 141450 books, 93730 titles, 26262 bound
volumes of journals and 10300 theses on its shelves. Nearly 4000 documents in the form of
books, theses and dissertations are added every year. It subscribes to about 124 foreign and
180 Indian journals in various disciplines, besides 32 magazines and 17 newspapers, too. The
library is a member of UGC-Inflibnet with 8000+ electronic journals, additionally, it
subscribes 103 e-journals more. The library invests Rs. 1 crore per annum on the acquisition
of reading material. The rate of growth of library collection is about 2500 to 3000 per annum.
During the last five years the library has purchased 15000 new books.
Library membership is open to students, scholars and faculty members of the university and
colleges affiliated to the University. Reference and bibliography services have been specially
planned to meet the growing requirements of library members. Photocopying facility is
provided to members. Online Internet access on large number of terminals is available free
to the faculty and on a nominal payment to the students/scholars of the university.
The library remains open throughout the year except in case of very few gazetted holidays.
It observes working hours from 8 A.M. to 12 P.M. on all working days and from 10 A.M. to
8.00 P.M. on holidays.
University Computer Centre
Ever since its establishment in the year 1990, as a central facility, the Computer Centre is
extending all need-based computational facilities to the students, research scholars and
faculty members of the university campus departments. It offers Computer Science courses
to the students of various departments established under the auspices of the University
Grants Commission. It has also started rendering services to the university administration
like university pre-examination data processing, declaration of results, printing of marksheets, preparation of salary statements, preparation of provident fund statements, etc.
Presently the centre has two servers, 35 Pentium IV, 37 Pentium III and one 386 computer
systems. It has three high-speed line printers (600 lpm and 1500 lpm). Proposals are in the
pipeline to have additional 30 Pentium IV nodes on networking. Since the present ViceChancellor is taking keen interest to establish this centre as a nodal centre to meet all
requirements of the university administration, students and faculty members of the campus
departments, the centre is planning to spread awareness regarding the uses and applications
of computers by providing training to all concerned.
Hostel accommodation cannot be claimed as a matter of right. The university has eight
hostels (six for boys and two for girls), which provide excellent hostel accommodation to a
limited number of bonafide students of full-time courses of the University Campus
departments. While in the hostel, the students are required to pay the fees regularly; be
responsible for the upkeep of rooms, furnishing and fixtures. The university authorities may
ask any inmate to vacate the hostel, if he/she is found indulging in any activity unbecoming
of a student.
Admissions to the hostels are made against the available vacant seats. The Wardens allot the
hostel seats as per the University Hostel Rules and U.P. Government Reservation rules for
SC/ST/OBC students.
In order to regulate community living in the hostel, certain rules have been framed for the
students. These are as follows: a.
The hostels will have to be vacated by the inmates during the summer vacations for at
least 15 days for repairs, etc. The wardens will notify the dates.
Under no circumstance a student will be allowed to stay in the hostel after the
prescribed time.
A hosteller will be given admission to a new course of study only after he/she vacates
the room in his/her possession and produces before the admission committee a
certificate to that effect issued by the warden.
The students of the diploma and certificate courses will not be provided hostel
Students are supposed to conduct themselves in extremely good manner in and
outside the hostels. Payments of hostel fees and dues, proper use of hostel facilities,
common rooms and abiding by the hostel visiting hours are some of the important
points to be strictly adhered to by the hostellers.
At the time of admission to a hostel, a candidate will have to submit an affidavit and
sign an undertaking, that if he/she avails the scholarship from Samaj Kalyan Vibhag of
UP Govt as a hosteller, but leaves the hostel before session-end, he/she will have to
refund the difference of scholarship availed as a hosteller vis--vis a day-scholar, as
soon as it is transferred to his/her account (giving bank details).
For more details, see www.ccsuhostel.com
The university has a Health Centre (Medical Dispensary) located near the Guest House of
the University. It is open from 8 A.M. to 3 P.M. on all days except Mondays, second
Saturdays and University holidays. A medical officer is available for consultation. In
addition, a pharmacist is also available during the working hours. The health centre also has
an ambulance to meet emergencies.
The University has a gymnasium, wrestling stadium and excellent facilities for a number of
indoor and outdoor games. The University is very well known in the country for its
achievements in sports and games, and has produced a number of players of national and
international repute. It regularly organizes athletic meets and inter-collegiate sports
activities like wrestling, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cricket, etc.
Students Canteen
The University has a spacious students canteen that has the necessary infrastructure.
The University has an auditorium with a capacity of more than 1000 seats. The auditorium is
well equipped with light and sound systems for cultural functions, etc.
Central Internet Facilities
The University has created a local area network, which is connected to ERNET through a
leased line. All the departments are connected through this local area network. The
computer laboratories of different departments also have Internet browsing facility. All
departments of the university can make use of Internet facilities by paying the fee prescribed
from time to time. A number of different scientific & academic journals are accessible
through e-consortium managed by INFLIBNET.
Dean Students Welfare (DSW)
The Dean Students Welfare (DSW) is responsible for the welfare of the students in respect
of scholarships, stipends, educational excursions and railway concessions for travel to
hometowns during the summer and winter vacations. The DSW may also communicate with
the parents/guardian of students in respect of any matter, whenever necessary. The DSW
also performs such other duties as may be assigned to him/her by the Executive Council or
the Vice-Chancellor. The DSW is assisted by the Assistant Deans Students Welfare.
Literary and Cultural Council
The Literary and Cultural Council consists of a Chairperson, Coordinator and members
under the patronage of the Vice-Chancellor. The Literary and Cultural Council is responsible
for the promotion of literary and cultural values among the students through various
programmes and competitions organised from time to time. The programmes include
Poetry, Music, Dance, Painting, Debate, Acting, Singing, Story and Essay Writings, etc.
The Womens Cell, SC/ST Cell, Equal Opportunity Cell, Placement Cell, Employment
Bureau, IQAC, IPR Cell, etc. take care of various needs of the students.
The proctorial board consisting of a Proctor and Assistant Proctors assists the ViceChancellor in the exercise of his disciplinary authority in respect of students of the
university and also exercise such powers and perform such duties in respect of discipline as
may be assigned to the proctorial board by the Vice-Chancellor.
The proctor issues identity cards to the students of the university campus on the advice of
the concerned departments. Application forms for this purpose shall be available in the
office of the concerned teaching departments and the students are required to complete all
formalities and obtain the Identity Cards as soon as they take admission/readmission to a
course in the university.
If a student is found guilty of misconduct or breach of discipline or ragging or holding
of introduction nights or such other practices adopted to harass fellow students within
or outside the premises of the university or hostel, the Head of the Department or
Proctor may, according to the nature and gravity of the offence, punish him/her as per
the provisions laid down in Acts and Statutes.
(iii) The Proctor shall have the power to suspend a student temporarily from the University
pending enquiry into his/her conduct in connection with an alleged offence. However,
before awarding a punishment to the student an opportunity of personal
hearing/explanation of his/her conduct in writing shall be given to him/her.
(iv) If the Vice-Chancellor feels satisfied that a student of the university has been guilty of
grave misconduct, or breach of discipline causing harassment to an authority, teacher,
student or employee of the University or of causing destruction to university property,
he may according to the nature and gravity of the offence, punish the student as per
provisions laid down in Act and Statutes.
FEE STRUCTURE FOR THE REGULAR COURSES
The details of the fees are given below. Fees cannot be adjusted against stipends/ scholarships. Nonreceipt of scholarship, etc. will not be contemplated as a valid reason for the late payment of fees.
Fees/dues, once paid will not be refunded to the student leaving the course for any reason what-soever.
Annual Fee in Rupees
Type of fee
Part time course
1. Tuition fee
2. Dearness fee
3. Library fee
4. Reading room fee
5. Medical fee
6. Laboratory fee
7. Games & sport fee
8. Student aid fund
9. Student welfare fund
10. Registration fee
11. Hot & cold weather charges
12. Development fee
13. Admission fee
14. Re-admission fee
15. Identity card fee
16. Migration fee (from fresh
students from other universities)
17. Students union membership
18. Enrolment fee (from fresh
19. Lab security (refundable) once
20. Library security (refundable) once
21. Connectivity fee
22. Membership of Literary &
Full time course
M. Sc./
M. Phil.
M. Sc.(Ag.) (Arts
(Science &
Subjects) Ag. Subjects)
Laboratory fee of Rs. 1000 will be charged from the students of M.A. (Psychology) and
M.Phil. (Psychology) students.
A dissertation/project fee of Rs. 1210 shall be charged from M.Phil. students at the time of
submission of their dissertation.
Examination fee will be charged separately in each semester.
Exam fees of MA/ M.Sc./ M.Sc.(Ag.) is Rs. 500/- per semester (Rs. 150/- for each
practical subject or viva extra); Rs. 550/- per semester for M.Ed. (project fees of Rs.
1200/- extra); Rs. 810/- per semester for LL.B.; Rs. 1340/- per semester for LL.M.
(project fees of Rs. 1210/- extra) will be charged. Besides these, marksheet fees of Rs.
70/-; permission fees of Rs. 140/- for ex-students; registration fee of Rs. 140/- for exstudent; sports fee (odd sem.) of Rs. 45/- for aided courses (except MSc. Ag) and Rs.
60/- for self-financed courses; Degree fee (final year/sem.) of Rs. 220/-, will also be
Students seeking admission to the hostels shall deposit a sum of Rs. 2000/- as hostel security
fee, and another Rs. 2000/- as mess security fee. Both are refundable.
Fee structure may be revised subject to the approval of appropriate authority of the University
or the U.P. State Government.
Fee once deposited shall not be refunded or transferred to any other course in any
All students taking admission to the hostel, shall sign an undertaking (format given) of
deduction of the amount of scholarship which they would be drawing extra as a hosteller
(more than a day scholar of the same course), in case of withdrawing their candidature as
hosteller, before the end of the session or summer vacation in the University Campus.
An undertaking will be given by the student (who is seeking admission at zero fee) for
the payment of the fee to the University, immediately after receiving the reimbursed money
from the Government. In case, the fee is not reimbursed by the Government, the student will
be liable to pay the fees to the University, before appearing in the even semester examinations.
FEE STRUCTURE FOR THE SELFFINANCED COURSES
I. Annual Tuition Fee
M.A. Public Administration
M.A. Sanskrit
Advanced Diploma in French Language & Literature
M.A./M.Sc. (Geography)
Post-Graduate Diploma in G.I.S. & Remote Sensing
Master in Journalism & Mass Communication (MJMC)
Master of Physical Education (MPEd)
Bachelor of Physical Education (BPEd)
Master of Fine Arts (Painting)
LL.M. (Two years)
B.A. LL.B. (Five years)
M.Sc. (Applied Microbiology)
M.Sc. (Bioinformatics)
M.Sc. (Biotechnology)
M.Sc. (Biochemistry)
M.Sc. (Polymer Science & Chemical Technology)
M.Sc. (Environmental Sciences)
Master of Library & Information Science (MLISc)
Bachelor of Library & Information Science (BLISc)
M.Sc. (Home Science) (Food & Nutrition)
M.Sc. (Home Science) (Human Development)
Fee in Rupees
56,225*
* Security Fee of Rs. 1,500/- included.
Note: In addition to tuition fee, the student also has to pay the other
fee and charges of the university, given on the next page.
II. Other Dues of the University for the SelfFinanced Courses
Dearness fee
Library fee
Reading room fee
Medical fee
Laboratory fee
Games & Sports fee
Student aid fund
Student welfare fee
Hot & cold weather charges
Development fee
Re-admission fee
Identity card fee
Migration fee (from fresh students from other universities)
Enrolment fee (from fresh students from other universities)
Lab Security once (refundable)
Library Security once (refundable)
Connectivity fee
Membership of library & cultural council
Laboratory fee and lab security will be charged for only those programmes of study having
practical courses (including M.A. in Sanskrit, M.A./ M.Sc. in Geography).
(ii) A dissertation/project fee of Rs. 1210/- shall be charged wherever applicable.
(iii) Students seeking admission to the hostels shall deposit a sum of Rs. 2000/- as hostel security fee
and Rs. 2000/- as mess security fee. Both are refundable.
(iv) Examination fee will be charged separately in each semester. (See Pages 60 61)
(v) Fee once deposited shall not be refunded or transferred to any other course in any case.
(vi) For courses in School of Business Studies, Rs. 1500/- will be charged as caution money,
separately, at the time of admission in the first year. This fee is refundable.
(vii) The prescribed fee is subject to revision as per decision of the State Government on the
recommendation of the committee constituted as per the directions of the Honble Apex Court.
(viii) All students taking admission to the hostel, shall sign an agreement of deduction of the amount
of scholarship which they would be drawing extra as a hosteller (more than a day scholar of the
same course), in case of withdrawing their candidature as hosteller, before the end of the session
or summer vacation in the University Campus.
Shri V.C. Goel
Pro Vice-Chancellor
Faculty of Engineering & Technology
Prof. H.S. Singh
Prof. P.K. Sharma
Prof. Pratibha Tyagi
Prof. P.K. Misra
Prof. Mridul K.Gupta
Students Welfare
Dean Students Welfare
Asstt. Dean Students Welfare
Prof. Y. Vimala
Prof. Sanjeev K. Sharma
Prof. V.K. Malhotra
Shri S.K. Dutta
Dr. Bhupendra Singh
Dr. Sanjay Kumar
Asstt. Proctors
Prof. J.K. Dhaka
Prof. Aradhana
Dr. Alok Kumar
Dr. Ravinder Kumar
Dr. Alpna Agrawal
Chief Warden
Prof. Sudhir Sharma
Durga Bhabhi Girls Hostel
Assist. Warden
New Girls Hostel
Kailash Prakash Hostel
R.K. Singh Hostel
Dr. Ambedkar Hostel
Maharana Pratap Hostel
New Boys Hostel
B. Tech. Hostel
Prof. Jai Mala
Dr. Ajay Vijay Kaur
Dr. Alpna Agarwal
Dr. Dushyant Kumar
Dr. Dinesh Kumar
Prof. Atvir Singh
Dr. Ravindra Kumar
Prof. A.K. Chaubey
Col. Anil Kumar
Shri Praveen Kumar
Shri A.K. Agrawal
Asstt. Registrar (Accounts)
Shri Arun Yadav
Shri Manoj Kumar
University Health Centre
Dr. P.K. Bansal
University Guest House
In-Charge
Dr. S.K. Tyagi
Dr. J.A. Siddiqui
Professor In-charge
Prof. Archana Sharma
Literary-Cultural Council
Women Cell
Press Spokesperson
Registrar/ Prof. P.K. Sharma
University Sports Officer
Dr. G.S. Ruhal
Registrar (Officiating)
Dy. Registrar
Asstt. Registrar
Shri Prabhash Dwivedi
Dr. Deoraj
Dr. Harish Chandra
Shri V.P. Kaushal
Engineering Section
Jr. Engineer (Electrical)
Jr. Engineer (Civil)
Shri Vikas Tyagi
Shri Maneesh Mishra
Vice-Chancellors Secretariat
PA to the Vice-Chancellor
Shri Pancham Singh Negi (Retd)
PROFORMA FOR AFFIDAVITS
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Author: trailrunner1965
Silent Running (The Long Run 2014 Sep)
September 6, 2014 June 6, 2015 / trailrunner1965 / Leave a comment
Imagine it’s 1972. At the drive-in movie theater, a low-budget sci-fi film called Silent Running is playing. Despite how it sounds, it has nothing at all to do with running (our kind of running, that is). Meanwhile the first wave of the running boom is in full career. Tens of thousands of people are, for the first time in their lives, running…silently, as it were. As a cultural phenomenon, the headphone and “jogging” have not yet met at the intersection of motivation and distraction danger. Fast forward 40 years, and runners and headphones are as close as two peas in a proverbial pod (or should I say, iPod?). In the modern world, the “Sounds of Silence” increasingly refers to an almost forgotten Simon and Garfunkel song, and not much else.
Readers with a long memory may recall that someone using my name once spilled some ink talking up the iPod as a running partner. Confession: that was me. I don’t repent of it. But, as psychologists and philosophers remind us, human variability is one of the few invariables on which we may count. In recent years, I have heard a different calling: nature. It is perhaps no coincidence that this about face has accompanied a personal shift from road to trail running. Whether your bliss is the trail or the road, the benefits of plugging into nature instead of the MP3 are many. Here’s a short list.
Hear your dog. In case your GPS dies on your run, use your dog’s panting to independently check your level of effort. For that matter, use your own breathing, which you can now hear.
So that’s what nature sounds like! Birds, rabbits and mice in the scrub oak, locusts in the fields, toads in the marsh reeds. They—and their sounds—have been present all along. The only thing that’s different is that now YOU are present. Bravo.
Would a cheetah, a Tarahumara, a zen master, Kung Fu, Micah True or Chuck Norris ever wear headphones in their zone? Enough said.
Dances with headphones…and cords…and controls. Imagine a run that doesn’t involve your reinserting ear buds and cord jacks for the umpteenth time, fumbling for your iPod or iPhone’s volume control, repositioning that 70s-style hi-fi speaker headset that’s large enough to be detectable from satellite (and which happens to weigh more than your running shoes). These gyrations and other tell-tale signs of inefficient and needless technological struggle have made you the butt end of several sylvan animal jokes, only you can’t hear the laughter in the trees because…well, you know why.
Be a minimalist. Shoes have gone minimalist. Running clothes, while mercifully not matching the loincloth minimalism of the 70s, employ the most lightweight designs and fabrics available. Take the minimalist movement an additional step. Feel the breeze brush past your ear, feel nothing weighing down your pockets, nothing tugging on your waistband or squeezing on your arm. Less may not really be more. But it can be more fun.
Return to sociability. Wouldn’t it be something to have actually heard what that approaching runner said to you as she passed? Maybe the two of you were like two ships passing in the night without so much as an “Ahoy!” And wouldn’t it be comforting to have heard what those worried looking hikers appeared to have been warning you of as you were entering that thickly-wooded canyon? Save nodding and smiling for your long-winded uncle’s stories. Welcome back to the human race.
Safety. Never again be taken unawares in the forest by that mountain bike on an intercept course with you and your knees (or your dog’s sweet mug). Runners—when they do hear–hear mountain bikers before mountain bikers hear runners. Fact: runners wearing headphones sometimes end up wearing mountain bikes as well. Headphones are easier to remove.
If a tree falls in the forest, YOU will hear it. This goes for falling rocks as well. A variation on this theme could come in handy if you’ve unwittingly blazed a trail through someone’s secret backwoods firing range.
Never again have to postpone your run for an hour while the iPod you forgot to charge recharges. You may find that while your iPod regains its charge you’ll have lost yours.
The sound of silence. Use it to meditate. Use it to analyze your gait or your breathing. Use it to draft that novel or to work out the grand unified theory of physics. Use it to insert a mantra. Use it however you like. Or don’t use it for anything. It’s a gift. And it’s absolutely free. It may be the only waking silence you experience in the course of a day. Why fill it with noise?
But keep your iPod on that charger. Winter is always just around the bend. IPods and other MP3s are most at home with their technological brethren: treadmills, climate control, fluorescent lighting, and television screens. Even the monotony and predictable safety of running on a track warrants or flat-out begs the use of a motivating distraction. Use your iPod today. Don’t use your iPod tomorrow. Run with a partner the day after that. But for goodness’ sake, mix it up. “Chariots of Fire,” “Eye of The Tiger” and “Greyhound” are songs for iPods. But the wind also is a song. Running is a song. Our heartbeats are songs. Our running partners and our dogs are songs. These are the songs that enliven life’s playlist. Play it softly. Play it loudly. Play it on random. Play it on cycle mode. Best of all, it’s always there, whether you’ve remembered to charge it or not.
The Don’ts We Do (The Long Run 2014 Feb)
As the spring thaw approaches, and as we gear up to ramp up our running, it’s time we’re all reminded of running’s rules of thumb: you know, that list of don’ts intended to guide sensible runners to success and longevity in our sport. But as the rebel gene seems to be no less prevalent among runners than among other segments of the population, these don’ts too often become the don’ts we flagrantly do anyway. The point is that we all run afoul of the law sometimes. And some of us—we know who we are—run a little further afoul than others.
The dont’s we do could be enumerated in a far lengthier list than the one found here. In my experience offenses to these rules top the runner’s rap sheet.
Don’t run too long in your shoes. Every running shoe, like every tire, has a recommended mileage rating. If this comes as news to you, then it’s a good bet that you’re an arch offender of this rule (pun intended). Drive too long on worn tread and one of your tires will suffer a blowout. Run too long in a pair of shoes and some part of your body will suffer a blowout. Sure some of us suspect that the whole recommended mileage rating thing is the second cleverest marketing trick in the book, right behind the rinse, repeat directive on shampoo bottles. For example, a devout ultra-marathoner who takes the mileage rating seriously goes through a pair of shoes about every three weeks. If you’re a running shoe manufacturer, this sounds something like cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. In the course of a year our ultra-marathoner is going to spend in excess of $1,500.00 on shoes, a trifling shoe-budget figure only if your name is Imelda Marcos. If you are waiting for your uppers to wear out before you give up on a pair of running shoes, then it’s safe to say that the lowers–the things that protect your feet from the pounding–gave out ages ago. At your next race look at what the competition is wearing. Among the clean day-glow colors you’ll spot a few old-school looks. Think that’s a new retro look? Look again. Those early-model Brooks have seen more mileage than a Chrysler K-car (the three still on the road). And no, running until your shoes look like they were abandoned by a hobo does not make you a minimalist, it makes you a…well, I’ll just stop there. If you’re not going to listen to the shoe manufacturers, at least listen to your body. If you’re achy and can’t shake the feeling, it’s time to trade up to something sold in this decade (at least this century).
Don’t increase mileage too quickly. There is a quantifiable rule that says that a runner should not increase training volume (mileage) at a rate greater than 10% per week. This rule is intended to keep our zeal in check and to spare us shin splints and other nasty effects of too much too soon. But try bringing this rule up to the runner whose cabin fever at February’s end sees quelling relief in a forecast full of 65-degree temperatures. “Say what?” she’ll scream uncomprehendingly from a quarter mile away. The call of nature is just too loud sometimes.
Don’t go out too fast. I’m talking about racing here. We’ve all heard repeatedly that negative-split (second-split faster) racing is the way to garner a PR in style. But how many of us are able to resist being pulled along with the first mile current? As for me, I’ve always thought that negative split-racing was a bit counterintuitive. In sports that are played with a ball it’s thought a very good thing to go into halftime with a big lead. Even when teams play so-so in the second half of such a contest, they often win on the strength of their first-half domination. Why shouldn’t the same hold true in racing? I leave this for elite racers to answer, since I’ve never been able to run a negative-split race in my life that didn’t involve a 5% downhill finishing grade. It seems I’m equally spent at the end of a race regardless of whether I’ve given 75% or 95% effort in the opening mile or two. I’ve heard this from other racers as well. And for those of us already on the fence with regard to this supposedly unassailable racing philosophy, there’s the occasional big running-magazine article that espouses the virtues of the positive split. I used to think such articles were just the aberrant ramblings of bored sportswriters giving vent to their inner contrarian. Now I’m beginning to think that theirs are the sane and refreshingly realistic voices (kind of like the voices of the defenders of that new Barbie who carries a few extra pounds).
Don’t run in the heat of the day. (Because June will be here sooner than we think.) Run in the morning. Run in the evening. Just don’t run in the heat of the day. That’s nice in theory. But I think it was Rudyard Kipling who observed that, “Only mad dogs, Englishmen and runners trying to reach their mileage quotas go out in the noonday sun.” Ok, that might be a paraphrase. Nevertheless, those of us with full schedules know that sometimes there’s no other option but to strike while the iron is hot. This is one instance where doing a don’t could get one into a lot of trouble. Make no mistake: the consequences of heatstroke are not to be compared with those of shin splints or plantar fasciitis. If the rebel in us must thumb his nose at a spiking thermometer, we at least ought to do our best Caleb the Camel imitation (without repeated verbal respects to a certain day of the week) while minding our electrolyte balance and slathering on the sunscreen.
Sure we may break the laws of running. But, like all criminals, we’ll eventually get caught.
Running Ahead (The Long Run 2013 Dec)
December 6, 2013 June 7, 2015 / trailrunner1965 / Leave a comment
We’ve seen the future. And we’re running in it. From the 1960’s 2001, A Space Odyssey to last summer’s Oblivion, running has really gotten a lift from the science-fiction film genre. To be clear, I’m talking about running for fitness rather than running from good-ideas-gone-wrong or alien giants whose slumber we, in our naïve curiosity, cavalier ignorance or profiteering spirit, have disturbed. The origins of the space-running concept are easily traceable. Astronauts need to get in shape to undergo the rigors of launch. And astronauts need to stay in shape to forestall the atrophy of zero and low-gravity environments and shake off cabin fever. Enter fitness running. I’m uncertain as to the actual extent NASA’s early astronaut-training program incorporated running, but in film, when Apollo crew members aren’t needing to keep their lunch down in g-force centrifuges, they’re often sighted bonding over beach runs or undergoing clinical treadmill tests followed by the brazen Hi-C guzzling product-placement scene. As the sci-fi film genre grew to embrace more science and more fiction, human-sized hamster wheels and giant artificial gravity rings (with painted-on running tracks on their inside hub) have become the stock stuff of science-fiction sets, allowing actors and actresses the perfect opportunity to show off their future-fit bodies (CGI abs and all) in fashion-forward Spandex.
It all looks cool at the Hollywood 16 Theatre or on our Bluerays, but what might the future really have in store for running? What do you say we do a little exploring?
A Moon Marathon? A Mars Marathon? Apart from their being some nifty alliteration in the business, these ideas don’t have a lot going for them. This isn’t to say that some intrepid athlete in a bid to secure a place in the history of extreme-running (with an 80-year-old Dean Karnazes or Scott Jurek as coach, maybe, and mountains of corporate endorsement money), won’t pull off a low-gravity, off-world marathon, but I don’t see it ever going viral with the public. Think a city marathon is expensive and tricky to orchestrate! How many runner/amateur astronauts do you suppose will be able to afford the seven-figure race entry fees for the mother of all destination marathons? Yeah, about that many. For those of our offspring whose lives won’t be complete until they’ve left their running footprint on a dead world, Antarctica should be available for the not faint-of-heart. But just think: if you could run a marathon on the Moon, you’d weigh something like 25-35 lbs.–with your space-suit on.
A two-hour marathon. Definitely doable. I believe that within the lifetime of most who read this piece, the two-hour marathon will be broken on a certified (terrestrial) course. Based on historical precedent, we can expect this to involve a crew of prominent sports physiologists, sports psychologists, coaches and pacers in support of an extremely talented and audacious individual. Runners have been zeroing in on this target for a decade now, occasionally posting times in the 2:03-2:04 range. The time is ripe for our toppling this barrier within the next two decades. Historically, once the barrier falls, runners will follow the feat in relatively quick succession. Once Roger Bannister had proven that running a sub-4 minute mile wouldn’t kill a man (as lore required), runners began to break the barrier with increasing regularity (saying a lot for the role of mind in running). Today the world’s best male milers clock times in the low to mid 3:40s. Probably not long after the two-hour marathon barrier is broken, a woman will run a sub-4 minute mile, 12 seconds and change off the present mark.
Holographic training: Absolutely. Bored with your training? Zoom down to your local running store and purchase a holographic recreation of the 2035 London Marathon, replete with encouraging spectators and Gatorade cups littering the ground. Play it in your holographic theatre synced to your interactive treadmill. Still bored? Run right through that guy in front of you and watch him do that twitchy electronic glitch thing. If that doesn’t cure your training doldrums, nothing will. Remember, only boring people get bored.
Deep space running: I support space exploration as much as the next guy, but with advancing years and advancing knowledge, I’m growing skeptical. Skeptical of manned missions, anyway. Sending 175 lbs. of biomass (an average male astronaut) into deep space is, regardless of how easy it’s made to look in film, a rather low-tech idea that flies in the face of Einstein’s physics. Sending your yet to be born great-grand daughter to Tau Ceti for the next intergalactic convention might make as little sense as your flying a privately-chartered jet to Mumbai for an hour-long meeting when teleconferencing is an option (at a minute fraction of the cost). Deep space is a medium that favors unmanned space probes, artificial intelligence and bits of information travelling at light speed. No deep-space biomass, no deep-space running. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.
A fit population. The jury is out. For every hopeful indicator, there’s a countervailing indicator. More people than ever are entering races of all distances, including marathons and ultras. This trend seems likely to continue. And at the same time more people than ever are overweight or obese. And this trend seems likely to continue. How will it end? Like a good sci-fi film (and yes, there have been a few), this plot finds us suspended between alternate endings. One ending is best represented by a spiral—“the curve of life,” as one Renaissance man described it. Now we see the line tending forward, and now backward, but like a spiral staircase, the whole rises throughout its forward and backward motions, topping out on a higher level. The other way ends in stark dualism: there’ll be the very fit, and there’ll be the very unfit; and they’ll live on separate worlds (or they might as well) in disharmony.
In sci-fi, the outcome usually hinges on the courage and commitment of a single hero. Nudge, nudge. (Enter heroic music) You know what to do. Run. inspire. The future may depend on it.
Adopt A Running Partner (The Long Run)
What do you call a running partner who’s always eager to run, perfectly accommodating of your schedule, not afraid to drive the pace but able to ease off uncomplainingly when you ask him or her to, and who’ll never push the boundaries of “conversational pace” with a tempo run yak fest? How about Buddy, Molly, Duke, Jack, Coco or any of the entries on a list of popular dog names. That’s right, I’m talking about man’s best running partner (other than the iPod maybe, but that was another story).
In an age when 1 in every 2 relationships is begun online, it won’t come as a surprise that one can find a four-legged running partner online as well. That’s where I met Dakota (the name his Foster dad had given him): on Craigslist. Dakota is a 2 year-old Border Collie who had been rescued from a high-kill shelter in New Mexico by 4 Paws 4 Life (find them on Facebook at or meet with them at area PetSmarts during Saturday morning adoption events.) The little I’ve been able to glean of Dakota’s history, coupled with his initial unfamiliarity with indoor spaces, and his high-level of canine sociability, leads me to suppose that he had spent his pre-running days carousing with a pack on a reservation, probably with no consistent and reliable source of food, human attention or veterinary care. Fortunately his physical and mental health was excellent, leading to his being deemed adoptable—a very fair assessment considering how well he has adapted to life with a family.
For the runner in search of canine accompaniment, there are many considerations. Endurance athletes should seek the companionship of dogs whose breeding suites them for the style of running in which the athlete participates most frequently. How fast does the athlete run? How often? How far? Over what surfaces? In what weather? There are few healthy dogs that wouldn’t make a great running partner for someone, somewhere. But the key is to find the perfect pairing for human and canine athlete alike. Some of this is just common sense. An elite runner and a short-legged, long-haired, pug-nosed, aging dog? Never should the twain meet—except on the couch over a good film or book. As a running partner, a pug—no offense to your improbably fleet pug—may be better suited to jogging around the neighborhood with a grandma (unless that grandma is Joan Benoit Samuelson). For the faster runner, numerous breeds of hunting, herding or racing dog may be his or her ticket to finding a running partner that can actually keep up. For help in selecting the breed of dog that is right for your running style, consult the Runner’s World article “A Breed Apart” at http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/breed-apart.
When running with a dog, I prefer trails over the road, which is not to say that a dog cannot—like a human—adapt to a sensible degree of road running. Asphalt and concrete can be hard on the paw pads. Walk barefoot across an asphalt parking lot on a hot day and you’ll think twice about asking your dog to run on a road in 95-degree heat. Bring water, especially of you are asking your dog to run long and in hot weather. Pay attention to your dog’s step and gate before, during and after running. Give your dog rest if you notice him or her exhibiting signs of tenderness or distress. If the symptom persists, seek veterinary care. Always remember that when your dog isn’t performing feats of endurance athleticism on the trails, he or she is a member of your family and unlike a pair of running shoes will be front and center throughout many of the 22 or 23 hours a day you and she are not running. Expect your athletically-trained dog to exhibit—like its owner—restlessness when weather or circumstances interfere with your regularly scheduled run. Unlike you, your dog cannot go to the gym and hop on the treadmill (though I’m sure there’s a YouTube video out there ready to prove me wrong).
With Dakota being my third Border Collie running partner, I’ve learned some of the ropes of running with canines, especially Borders (bred to uncomplainingly chase herd animals all day). Like humans, canines can anticipate a learning curve as they tackle the art of controlled running. Be patient with your new running partner. Expect a few tumbles as your dog masters running basics like don’t stop abruptly in front of your human: catastrophe will follow. Bring treats to reward your runner during and especially after a smooth run. Expect to be pulled into the occasional vigorous stride or sprint as a rabbit, fox or bird happens by. Do not expect to run a clean time-trial with a canine, as potty breaks of varying lengths are a requirement and can happen any time (and usually do just when you’re trying to make a mile split look good); be prepared. Keep your dog on leash in neighborhoods as well as urban and suburban trails. Become adept at using a retractable leash or at gathering in the length of your traditional leash to allow the safe and easy passage of fellow pedestrians and cyclists. Remember to cover your car seats if— following a hard rain—you’ll be driving to that trail with the red mud. Don’t be alarmed when your dog goes into a sleep coma hours after an exhausting run. Do read up on running with dogs. There are experts who think it’s a great idea, and experts who don’t. But then there are experts who maintain that human running is a bad idea. And we’ve all decided what to make of that.
Catch as Catch Can (published April, 2013)
April 7, 2013 June 7, 2015 / trailrunner1965 / Leave a comment
Neither our budgets nor our freewheeling approach to training have ever led us to a serious search for a running coach. We have no running partners set on speed dial. We have never been affiliated with a running club long enough to have sat for a club picture. And yet we frequently enjoy the motivational benefit of having a coach, partners and club membership. And it comes without the guilt of accountability, and at no greater cost than our standard gym membership. As with so much that is good in life, we stumble on our coaches, partners and ragtag organization of runners by accident; like the lonely hearts of the world, we just kind of find each other. More than anything, it’s Old Man Winter, that unlovable curmudgeon, who brings us together under the same roof at more-or-less the same time. We are the children of the indoor track, united by a parallel disdain for winter’s murky cold and the hypnotic monotony of the treadmill. We comprise a shifting roster. Participants are continually joining and leaving our ranks, coming without introduction, and going without fanfare. Some runners we see but once. Others we see more frequently than we do your own siblings. All are welcome. All, that is, except those who come in twos and threes and insist on walking, jogging or running abreast; and those who run opposite the posted track direction. These etiquette offenders create more traffic hazards than CDOT at rush hour.
Finding a gym with an indoor track wasn’t easy; most gyms opt to use their outside perimeters in the usual way: it’s here the mats are leaned and the televisions and mirrors hung. We like mirrors: they tell—more candidly than any partner ever did—what is right and what is wrong with our running form. Their advice comes at less cost than any coach’s ever did.
Once we had painstakingly scouted out our gym with an indoor track, tapping into our competitive spirit was relatively easy. Running is never so primal as in those instances when we give chase to a fellow runner—in spite of our counter-prevailing urge to just take it easy. In those moments we are the hound pursuing the rabbit, even if that rabbit regards us with steely indifference. And we should not feel ashamed for being goaded on by something as insignificant as another’s velocity; nothing could be more natural –and more healthy. Left to our own solitary devices, even the best of us tends to underperform; the brightest flame is snuffed out in a vacuum.
No training comes nearer to simulating the conditions of a race than the training that affords a little—or a lot of—racing. We find that by chance we are the fleetest runner on the track tonight. But are we fast enough to lap the next fastest runner before she or we have come to the end of our run? The next night we find, again by random chance, that we are the slowest runner on the track. But are we so dawdling tonight that we can’t hold off the approaching runner for the bell lap of our run? The next night, we are in the fourth mile of our easy run, and some one-and-done lap sprinter tears past us. Do we try to hang with him? Here’s the perfect chance to try out that finishing kick we’ll surely need once spring racing begins.
We indoor track runners are keen on patterns. On this night, every two minutes or so, between weight-lifting sets, a young man enters the track and runs two laps at a pace that just happens to approximate our 5k race pace. Could there be a better invitation to perform that interval work we’ve been putting off? Though the sledding is tough and we hadn’t planned on speedwork tonight, we find that we are disappointed when our man fails to appear for his—or shall we say our—seventh workbout? It’s then we realize that we are running—intervals, no less—for the love of it and not slogging through the motions.
Not all who take to the indoor track are knowing actors in our speed play. Some become—as impersonal as it sounds—mere scenery by which we measure the slope of our training curve. We notice that this month we lapped the tall guy 5 times in an hour, where last month we were only able to lap him 3 times. We are pretty sure he has no idea that he has buoyed our confidence as a straggling standard of comparison. In fact, we prefer that he be oblivious (for fear our gain would be his loss). We may be sure that we have unwittingly boosted another’s assuredness by the same ungainly method. But on certain nights, our little acts of synergism are openly acknowledged—even celebrated—through knowing looks, good natured jeers, self-effacing remarks or mock gloating at the water fountain.
Longer, milder days herald a return to outdoor running. And with as little ceremony as befits the indoor track (that is to say, none), we bid farewell to brothers and sisters—coaches and training partners—whose names we never even knew.
Running Scared (published January, 2013)
January 8, 2013 June 8, 2015 / trailrunner1965 / Leave a comment
Last year, as with every year, in the final weeks before the ball dropped in Times Square, our popular media ran its montage of celebrity entertainers and athletes, statesmen and stateswomen who departed the stage in 2012. Runners—even our running heroes—when they exit rarely make their way into those montages. But that’s not to say that the media takes no notice of their passing. Each year, mainstream media offers a smattering of articles—most little more than footnotes—about runners who perished during or immediately after running this or that high-profile marathon or race. Occasionally one of running’s elite will fall, more or less in his or her prime, usually from a cardiac event. Most running-related fatalities, but especially those involving accomplished runners, are treated in a somewhat predictable and curious manner by mainstream media. The focus is rarely on the life and accomplishments of the runner, but rather on the irony of his or her untimely demise. Running-related fatalities (and even near-fatal experiences, such as that experienced by running icon and Olympic coach Alberto Salazar) renew the seemingly never-to-be-settled debate over the risk-benefit ratio of running and endurance sports in general.
From personal experience, such articles—when they aren’t scaring runners and would-be runners—occasion a bit of water-cooler razzing from those uninitiated or unconverted to the running life. Mostly this is done in good humor. To some extent we runners have it coming as a payback for all the times we have, by our mere motivated presence, unintentionally rubbed our superior fitness, discipline, genetics, etc., into the faces of those who on occasion at least aspire—whether or not they’ll openly admit it—to be more like us. This, however, will be one occasion when our more sedentary friends will profess not to aspire so much to our fit but at-risk state; after all, our heckler will remind us, he is standing in all his unhealthy glory while this or that elite physical specimen is no longer among us, having exited early doing the very thing that was thought to confer his or her advantage. Why endure the privations of clean living, healthy dieting and pushing one’s endurance limits only to succumb to an untimely passing? To punctuate his point, our heckler may even make certain that we see him devouring that second donut with all the marks of an easy conscience on his face.
I am neither a physician nor a sports physiologist, so I will gladly leave all scientific discussion of the merits and demerits of the running lifestyle to professionals. Regarding my personal case, I need no scientist to convince me that running has been integral to my own physical and mental health, and has enhanced the quality of my life and my sleep (before running I was a raging insomniac). In 12 years of running, I have not traced a single deleterious effect to putting one foot in front of the other and high-tailing it. Though I have not been looking to. And there, I think, is the rub.
Had I been looking for reasons not to run, I’m sure I could have found plenty. To quote the Talmud, “We see things not as they are but as we are.” To she who already despises running, something must be inherently wrong with running, she will reason. Her ego—which loves to be right—will find that something, whether it’s really there or not. And the scantiest suggestion—based on anecdote, sloppy journalism and agenda—that the running lifestyle is assailable, will serve to validate her instinct or belief that what she naturally dislikes isn’t worth liking anyway.
Running isn’t for everybody (just watch any episode of Friends that includes Phoebe, um, running). I have no difficulty admitting that. But that’s different than making broad and alarming statements about its being dangerous and at odds with health, fitness, longevity and even, yes, beauty. Why would someone make such dubious claims? In certain transparent cases we need only to follow the money. For example, in one online instance, the untimely deaths of runners was used as exhibit A by a personal fitness trainer who was very clearly trying to amass a base of clients who already loathe running by “scientifically” damning the source of their curses and promoting his program as a running-free safe zone. For his coup de grâce, this “fitness professional” went so far as to link increased cellulite to running, playing on his clients’ vanity.
Every now and then one meets the smoker who, in defending her right to smoke, will trot out the example of the pack-a-day user who happily lived to a ripe old age. With the running and the smoking backlash the same cultural phenomenon is at play. We are all wise by now to the folly of the smoker’s argument. He assigns undue weight to the statistical anomaly of the long-lived, healthy smoker. He amplifies the significance of the few lifelong smokers who beat long odds by surviving into their 90s. Likewise, the irresponsible journalist assigns undue weight to the statistical anomaly of the elite runner who suffers a fatal heart attack in his prime. The vast majority of elite runners do not suffer fatal heart attacks, but every so often, yes, one does. We all have it on the good authority of our parents that life is not fair. In statistical terms this will always mean that a small percentage of people who do all the right things will nevertheless depart young, and that a small percentage of persons who recklessly ignore prudence, common sense and Surgeon General warning labels, and who spend their lives seemingly courting an untimely death will somehow escape one. Dwell if you will on life’s little ironies. Or, to quote a popular running slogan, “Don’t think. Just run.” I know what I’ll be doing.
The Reading Habits of Tortoises and Hares (The Long Run 2012 Oct)
October 8, 2012 June 8, 2015 / trailrunner1965 / Leave a comment
Whether you are a regular subscriber to a running magazine, occasionally “borrow” one from your gym’s magazine rack, or find yourself picking one up at the airport gift shop, this piece is for you.
Even in the internet age, running magazine titles (none of which I will expressly mention here) have proliferated. There are magazines covering the local, national and global running scenes. There are magazines for road runners, trail runners, ultra runners, women runners, and mountain runners. What next? Magazines for vegan runners? For hashers? (I’m sure someone will inform me that such publications already exist.) The ways of splitting the running population up into smaller and more specific groups could continue ad nauseum.
For my part, I’ve always taken interest in what unifies runners: putting one foot in front of the other and reaching, conjuring up the inner child who always wants to get “there” a little quicker. This unity is obvious, simple and beautiful. But as it is in the nature of the zygote to divide itself, it is in the nature of all living things (groups of people included) to split from within. And from there, it’ll get snarky. Count on it.
Having been an off-again, on-again consumer of running magazines over the years, I have identified a fundamental division in the readership. This rift mirrors a schism in the view we runners take of ourselves: “I’m a tortoise” or “I’m a hare.” “I’m a recreational runner,” or “I’m an elite runner (or will be when I reach my goal).” Sure some of us may claim the middle ground (the author included), but we still can’t help but lean to one side or the other, and when pressed will expose our allegiance. When discussing magazines, this allegiance sometimes erupts into open warfare. I have heard more than one zealous reader extol and defend his or her choice of magazine with a passion usually reserved for patriotism or politics. Read between the lines: he or she is actually defending his or her level of commitment to the sport. I have heard haters of a populist running magazine refer to said publication as “Joggers World.” Oh how we runners hate the J word, however slowly we may do that thing we do. I have heard readers of the “low brow” magazine scoff at the elitist publication: “That’s for people who don’t have jobs and kids, who don’t have real lives.”
True, each type of periodical provides plenty of fodder for its detractor. The populist magazine regularly features runners who, with self-effacing humor, expose their rookie mistakes in all their embarrassing glory, document how slowly they, um, run, exhibit how ungainly their form is, lament how badly they struggle with motivation, weight, keeping their shoes tied, etc. This kind of magazine features the running bios and anecdotes of celebrities, actors, politicians and rock stars who’d be unwise to give up their day jobs for a running career. Sometimes things can get really goofy between this periodical’s covers, even carnival at times. This magazine regales us with color and thematic graphics that look like they were stolen from a page of People magazine. If it had a representative font, it might be Comic Sans. This magazine is our good-natured friend; it always laughs with us, not at us. But for those who go looking between its covers, there’s always, I contend, some useful tidbit of serious coaching aimed at the mortal runner among us.
The elite magazine, on the other hand doesn’t laugh at all. It is, like an elite runner at the Olympic trials, all hardnosed business from start to finish. Its representative font would be Times Roman (maybe even Franklin Gothic). Running is hard. Reading about running should be hard. It says, “You want clowns, go to the circus.” This is Sparta! This magazine does not deign to give instruction to the mediocre among us. This magazine toes the line in racing flats. A magazine catering to the elite runner recently ran an article ambitiously titled, “How to Run a 2:03 Marathon.” (No pen names involving animals that waddle here.) Taken as a coaching piece, the target audience for such an article would consist of—optimistically—about a dozen men on the entire planet. Talk about exclusivist! Out of editorial interest only, I read the article. Of course it turned out to be a “how they did it,” article,theybeing the handful of Kenyan runners who actually have run a marathon in less than 124 minutes (about the average length of most films not based on a Jane Austen novel).
So what makes a tortoise and what makes a hare, anyway? It is a matter of self-identification mostly. Ambition, wishful thinking, pride, humility, the ability to laugh at one’s self, whether one’s personality is Type A or Type B, whether the sun is rising or setting on one’s running career, all play a part in the camp with which a runner self-identifies. I think the editors of both types of publication are onto something. Regardless of a runner’s true ability, he or she may respond positively to the inviting atmosphere of a come-one-come-all magazine, the “I’ve got friends in low places” camaraderie of a magazine that doesn’t put on airs. And other runners–irrespective of true ability–respond positively to the set-the-bar-high approach of the elite magazine. These are the folks who reach for the moon, believing that even if they miss they’ll be among the stars.
Snarkiness aside, there’s a little something to help all of us to get “there” a little quicker. And the best news is, that little something is cheap and on sale now at your local newsstand.
Running The Numbers (The Long Run 2012)
June 6, 2012 June 10, 2015 / trailrunner1965 / Leave a comment
As a social sciences major in college, I skated by with a single math course: math for non-majors. I received an A for showing up and feigning interest: sad but true. And what did I need math for anyway? That’s what calculators are for, I reasoned. It wasn’t like I was trying to get into an MIT graduate program.That was long before I discovered running, and started seeing numbers everywhere (though it will never be said of me that I have a beautiful mind).
Running, as we commonly experience it in the West, is an intrinsically quantitative endeavor. At its heart, running is one of the most beautifully simple things; but we cannot resist freighting in with a little Western—a little intellectual—baggage. We measure out courses. We time performances. And that’s just the beginning of it. We record and target mile splits and average paces in our quest for zone-based training runs and record performances. We sometimes run indoor tracks of the oddest lengths: 1/11th, 1/13th or 1/22nd of a mile, where running at a target pace requires more division than a person should ever have to undertake while simultaneously counting laps (and possibly measuring leg turnover in steps per minute, monitoring heart rate and thinking about the stack of work on one’s desk).
And in this little piece I’m not even going to take on that bugbear of the American runner: converting meters and kilometers to miles, and vice versa. There’s a topic unto itself.
Sure there are myriad online calculators and aps designed to rescue runners who took only math for non-majors. (They’ll even say what your pace would have been had you taken your training run in Bogotá, Columbia with a 12 MPH headwind at 67 degrees and 80% humidity—in case you ever needed to know that.) And there are GPS sport watches to monitor our time, distance and average pace with a more-than-acceptable level of accuracy.
Problem is calculators—even phone apps–are a bit inconvenient to use while running. For convenience, nothing beats our hands-free onboard computer.
Now I’m not going to claim that any running math vies with differential calculus—or even Sudoku—for difficulty. But I will say that the most basic math can be a challenge when discomfort and fatigue set in during a challenging run, when we can’t hear our thoughts for our labored breathing. (And after we’ve “hit the wall,” we’re doing well to know what the date is.) Though no Isaac Newton, I’m always running the numbers when I run. Here’s an example: say I run the first mile of a six mile trail run at an 8:37/mile pace, and I decide that today I feel like running an 8:00/mile pace. What should my average pace for the remaining five miles be? My GPS won’t give me that figure (though I broke the bank for the darned thing). The answer is that my average pace should be a shade under 7:53/mile. I’d better get on it! I check my watch frequently and try to hover around the prescribed pace. How did I find my new pace? By taking the 37 seconds that I have to make up and dividing it over the next five miles. The result is that I have to run 7 seconds and change under an 8:00/mile pace for each of the next five miles. Of course I may reassess my pace at 3 or 4 miles and have to run the math again and again as I approach the finish of my run.
And here’s another example. I used to do the bulk of my winter training on the indoor track (a Lilliputian oval) at the Downtown YMCA. (Hey, I felt remarkably liberated—and fast—when I actually started running in a straight line again.) Preliminary to finding my time per lap, I converted my target pace from minutes (e.g., 8:10) to seconds (e.g., 490). I then divided the seconds by 22 (the track is 1/22nd of a mile long). In order to run an 8:10 mile on the Downtown YMCA indoor track, one must maintain a shade faster than a 22 second lap, all the while trying not to endanger stray children and patrons attempting to cross from the encircled weight and cardio machines. Being the instinctive runner that I am, I was always revising my pace and recalculating on the fly.
Of course the math is laughably easy, but even so, it offers the brain a bit of a workout. By now we all know that the “use it or lose it” principle applies not only to physical conditioning but to cognitive conditioning as well. Mathematical thinking (like reading The Long Run) can be a powerful weapon in the war against Alzheimer’s disease and the general deterioration of cognitive function frequently associated with the aging process. Once again, running is a winning ticket. By engaging the mathematical brain, running can chalk up yet another benefit to add to its ever-expanding list of offerings.
Of course in time technology will catch up with the Western runner’s needs and whims. Some computer-age innovation will render the mathematical brain superfluous, and free it from the need for cumbersome calculations and challenging multitasking. As always, this will be part blessing, part curse, and an encouragement to leave off using yet another portion of our brains. But we are runners. We stubbornly, insistently continue to use our legs when convenient forms of transportation abound. We bristle at the easy way. We will forever be throwbacks to simpler times: when we used our legs to get from A to B and still did math in our heads.
The Music On The Streets-Part 2 (The Long Run 2012 Apr)
Ever heard of the Mozart effect? The term speaks to the phenomenon whereby one’s IQ improves following exposure to a few of Wolfgang’s strains, as if a trace of the composer’s genius were transferrable to his listener through the medium of music. Arguably, the effect has been scientifically proven. It doesn’t take a genius to gather that a similar effect is observed wherever running and, say, that modern master of the pop collage known as Beck meet (the “Beck Effect” has a nice ring, I think). Such pairings have been known by iPod-using runners to improve running performance–without elevating red blood cell count. Win, win.
We all march, as the saying has it, to the beat of a different drummer. (For me, an amateur bassist, the bassist is my drummer). This makes the very idea of a perfect running playlist suspect. The perfect playlist is admittedly personal. And it is admittedly fleeting. Of course musical tastes and music catalogs change over time, but usually long before they’ve had the chance to morph much, our brains have long since grown immune to yesterday’s perfect stimuli. What lit a fire under us and made our molecules all wiggly last week may have all the effect of soggy newsprint under a pot of tepid water this week.
Even one’s approach to compiling the playlist is personal. Playlist-making methodologies are as diverse as the runners who employ them. Here are a few approaches with which I have been acquainted.
1.) What’s in a name: Here, one looks for the words run or running in the song title: “It keeps you Running.” “Running with the Devil.” “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down.” “Running on Empty.” “Born to Run.” You get it. Personally, I don’t see how such a loose collection of songs whose only claim to relatedness is a three letter word (or its verb form) can be of much value to one in need of audio adrenaline.
2.) Take your soundtrack to the track: One may build a playlist from songs associated with triumphant scenes in feel-good films. “Gonna Fly Now.” “Eye of the Tiger.” “Chariots of Fire.” “We Are The Champions.” For me, this approach often flirts with the formulaic, the trite and the overplayed. These are frequently the kind of songs whose campy melodies have to be flushed out of your brain with the musical equivalent of a fire hose (Firehose—now that’s a good running playlist band.)
3.) Poetry in motion: One may select pieces of sweeping lyrical or musical beauty in the hope that they will calm the nervous system, freeing the runner to more fully experience his or her run. In this case, peak performance is probably not the objective. Peak enjoyment is. In this frame of mind, my favorite piece is “The Moldau” by classical composer Bedrich Smetana.
4.) The mathematician: While I have not met him or her, I have heard of runners who strive to carefully match the timing of songs to their running cadence. That is too much math for me.
Here’s a playlist of my own (using none of the above methods), made up of songs that I’ve personally road tested over months or years. Included is some insight into the rationale behind the selections. By employing similar rationale, you may be able to compose the playlist that gives your training that extra push or gets you through that slog of a long run (you know we all have them). Tip: Compile multiple playlists and cycle through them to avoid burnout.
Cake, “Going the Distance”: Sure it’s about an overachieving wage-slave, but with a beat like that, who’s hearing the irony? “No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine. He’s haunted by something he cannot define.” That about sums up the recreational runner.
Beck, “Novocain”: Feels like musical dubbing for a documentary about an extreme sport like base jumping. Makes me want to sport a mohawk and day-glow wrap-around Oakleys. Good thing the feeling wears off, right?
CCR, “Chooglin”: My nod to classic rock. Metronomic timing. Biting harmonica all day. Nearly long enough to see Ryan Hall through a 5k. Makes me feel like I’m keeping pace with a train (like in that Superman movie). I’m not running, I’m chooglin—whatever that is.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers, “Give it away”: Sounds like Anthony Kiedis sang it while hopping on a pogo stick. Puts a spring in my step. Just don’t listen to the Weird Al parody of it; it may kill it for you: “…yabba dabba, yabba dabba dabba do now…”
BHS, “Pepper”: “…like an avalanche coming down a mountain…” That’s me—visualize.
Sublime, “Burritos”: Forget the name, remember the bass line. Frenetic. Infectious. A bassist’s equivalent to running a four minute mile.
Rage Against the Machine, “Tire me”: A song whose every measure screams, “I dare you to mess with me!” Includes the line, “Why don’t you get from in front of me?“ Poor grammar but a great mantra for picking off that runner you’ve been trying to reel in for the past mile.
Sting, “She’s Too Good For Me:” This is when a walking bass line becomes a running bass line. Warning: It could be embarrassing—and bad for your form–when you catch yourself playing air bass.
Miles Davis, “Fat time Groove.” A real tension builder. Time your explosive finish with a guitar solo that makes your favorite rock solo sound like junior playing at Guitar Hero. The solo riffs for about four minutes, so pace yourself accordingly.
Finally, I don’t recommend any song that incorporates sirens or barking dogs; such sounds can be very, um, disconcerting. And of course, give your friend the iPod a break now and then, and commune with your own thoughts and with nature.
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FOOTBALL: FA Cup 2012/13 – 5th Round – Live on ITV & ESPN
World football’s most prestigious domestic cup competition reaches the Fifth Round stage as the journey to Wembley continues towards FA Cup glory.
After a Fourth Round full of shocks and notable giantkillings, ITV and ESPN will screen five Fifth Round ties between them this weekend, plus two fourth round replays in the same week.
Leave a Comment » | Football | Tagged: 4th Round Replay, 5th round, Adrian Chiles, Brentford, Chelsea, coverage, draw, ESPN, ESPN HD, Everton, FA Cup, FA Cup with Budweiser, Fifth Round, highlights, Huddersfield, Huddersfield Town, ITV, ITV HD, ITV Sport, ITV4, January, last 16, Leeds, Leeds United, Leicester City, live, live games, Luton Town, Manchester City, Manchester United, Millwall, Oldham, Oldham Athletic, proper, Ray Stubbs, Reading, Round 5, shocks, Southend, Stoke City, streaming, ties, Tottenham, tv schedule, watch online, Wigan, Wigan Athletic | Permalink
World football’s most prestigious domestic cup competition reaches the Fourth Round stage as the journey to Wembley continues towards FA Cup glory.
With the number of teams whittled down from 64 in round three to just 32, ITV and ESPN will screen five Fourth Round ties between them over the final weekend of January, including a triple-header of live TV games on Sunday, January 27.
Leave a Comment » | Football | Tagged: 4th round, Adrian Chiles, Brentford, Chelsea, coverage, Crystal Palace, ESPN, FA Cup, FA Cup with Budweiser, Fourth Round, Fulham, highlights, ITV, ITV Sport, January, Leeds, live, live games, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Oldham, Oldham Athletic, proper, Ray Stubbs, Round 4, Southend, Stoke City, streaming, ties, Tottenham, watch online | Permalink
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ROWING: The Boat Race 2013 – Live on BBC One
BBC Sport will broadcast live coverage of the 2013 University Boat Race on London’s River Thames.
A national institution since 1829, one of the oldest sporting rivalries will resume in the 159th running of the annual varsity contest between Oxford and Cambridge along the testing four-mile course.
All the colour, sounds and atmosphere from the day’s events will be covered in a two-hour broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD on Easter Sunday, with the 2013 BNY Mellon Boat Race set to start at 4.30pm.
4 Comments | Rowing | Tagged: 159th Boat Race, 2013 crews, 5 Live, Andrew Cotter, BBC, BBC One, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport, BBC World News, BNY Mellon, BNY Mellon Boat Race, Boat Race, Boat Race 2013, British Eurosport, build up, Cambridge, Clare Balding, Constantine Louloudis, crews, Dan Topolski, George Nash, Goldie, Helen Skelton, Isis, James Cracknell, John Murray, Martin Cross, Matthew Pinsent, Oxford, race start, Tom James, university, University Boat Race, varsity, watch live, Wayne Pommen | Permalink
RT @SkyCricket: Here is where we stand📋 💯s for Pope and Stokes, plus those two late wickets for Bess have England in firm control in PE… 19 hours ago
RT @rioferdy5: For the past year, myself & Kate have been filming a new @BBCOne documentary... it’s been a huge personal journey and by doi… 1 day ago
#Snooker ⚪ LIVE @Dafabet Masters Quarter-Final, @Yourallypally John Higgins 🆚 @TheCaptain147 📺 7.00pm… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 day ago
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Sports News In Brief
Fan Going To See How First Few Games Go Before Declaring Moral Objection To Watching NFL
Ovechkin Shanks Slapshot Into Stands After Unruly Fan Coughs During Backswing
SEE MORE: Fans
LAKE WORTH, FL—Preparing to denounce football as a dangerous sport that takes advantage of athletes as soon as he could determine his favorite team had no hope of making the playoffs, local Dolphins fan Brad Abbott announced Sunday that he was going to check out the first couple games of the season before declaring a moral objection to watching the NFL. “I was going to come out and say the league is indefensible due to its reaction to domestic abuse allegations, but then we drafted Minkah Fitzpatrick and signed Danny Amendola, so maybe I’ll see what happens first,” Abbott said, asserting that he would immediately take a vocal stance against the league by calling out its policies on social protests the moment the Dolphins hit a three-game losing streak. “The NFL’s response to CTE research has been abhorrent, and as soon as the Dolphins are statistically out of the playoffs, I’ll be boycotting them. I mean, how immoral of a person do you have to be to support Roger Goodell if your team has no shot at the post-season?” Abbott promised that he would not be watching the Super Bowl this season unless someone invited him to a party or the matchup was really good.
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"Listen," whispered Jimmy Skunk to Peter Rabbit as the strange howling sound echoed through the Green Forest. But Peter was listening. He had never heard anything like it. The sound made cold chills run up and down his backbone. What could it be?
Children will love finding out as Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk, Prickly Porky, Granny Fox, Reddy Fox, and other dwellers in the Green Forest react to a new — and scary — neighbor. All ends happily, of course, in this timeless fable by noted storyteller Thornton W. Burgess.
Reprinted in large, easy-to-read type and enhanced with six new illustrations, based on the Harrison Cady originals, this book combines the fun of a good story with gentle lessons about nature, wildlife, and proper behavior.
Reprint of the Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1916 edition.
The Sugar-Plum Tree and Other Verses: Includes a Read-and-Listen CD
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Bishkek: Central Asian Studies
Central Asian Studies is an innovative program preparing students for international careers. Based in the fascinating and historically significant region of Central Asia, this program combines our intensive Russian as a Second Language course with an expansive study of the history, culture, and geopolitics of the region.
The semester program includes travel to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turmenistan. In summer, travel to Uzbekistan and spend a week on horseback in the Kyrgyz mountains.
Spring, Summer, Fall
Anthropology, Central Asian Languages, Geopolitics, History, Identity Studies, International Relations, Russian Language
Bishkek: Russian as a Second Language
In Bishkek, you will find a highly personalized and customizable program of intensive language instruction. Although one of our most popular locations, class sizes in Bishkek are the smallest. You will be able to focus on your language skills through personalized attention and optional, specialized language electives, including study of other Central Asian languages. Peer tutoring and an integrated cultural program focusing on Central Asian cultures will take your learning outside the classroom as can optional travel opportunities and active, recommended home stays.
Central Asian Languages, History, Literature, Russian Language
Cuba-Russia Connection: Studies in Cultural Diplomacy
The Cuba-Russia Connection invites you to an intensive introduction to the history, culture, politics, and economies of two fascinating countries that have played important strategic and often interrelated roles in US foreign policy. We will study these countries from the perspective of cultural diplomacy, learning how each uses its cultural assets for diplomacy and economic gain.
During the course of this program, you will spend twelve days in Cuba, followed by three weeks in Russia. Extend your stay by four additional weeks of intensive Russian as a Second Language study.
Havana, Cuba;
Diplomacy, History, International Relations
Custom Program (Group)
Develop a Program
Are you an educator or organizer looking to lead a group educational program in Eurasia? If so, this is where you start the process.
Summer, not specified, Fall, Spring
Irkutsk: Language and Environment
Language and the environment are both issues of global importance. Irkutsk provides an exceptionally intensive and immersive experience to study both.
Russian as a Second Language forms the core of this program. During the academic year choose between a study of the Environmental History of Russia or more language electives.
Environmental Studies, History, Russian Language
Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, this program takes you to Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia to discuss with local experts the conflicts in all these states, both past and present. You will explore identity as it is shaped by history and culture and consider how group interests and foreign interests influence policy-making and governance in multi-ethnic states. You will search for pragmatic solutions using the experience you gain on the ground. This program provides invaluable experience for anyone interested in diplomacy, policy, or conflict studies.
This program includes Russian as a Second Language study at all levels.
Kyiv: Russian as a Second Language
In Kyiv, an intensive and supportive environment of Russian language study is paired with home stay to provide you with an immersive language and cultural experience. Out-of-classroom experiences and special lectures and workshops introduce you to Ukrainian identity, history, and the issues in contemporary Ukraine. Kyiv is a very affordable option for study abroad, due to the many inclusions in this program (2 meals/day, subway transport card) and the generally low cost of living.
Part or all of your language study in this program may be replaced with Ukrainian.
Russian Language, Ukrainian Language
Moscow: Diplomacy and International Relations at MGIMO
Study alongside Russia's future political and business leaders at Russia's leading institution for international studies. Choose from an extensive list of courses in Russian or English and enjoy regular opportunities to attend talks given by visiting diplomats, politicians, economists, religious leaders, and other experts.
Additional out-of-classroom activities take advantage of the wide intellectual and cultural resources of Moscow in a hands-on program designed to give you broad perspectives on Russian history, geography, international relations, economics, politics, and demographics.
Business & Economics, Diplomacy, Geopolitics, International Relations, Law, Russian Language, Sociology
Moscow: Russian as a Second Language
Moscow, Russia's political and economic capital, is home to not only most of Russia's federal government, but also most of Russia's major businesses and the Russian headquarters of international corporations. The city overflows with NGOs, museums, and cultural institutions. All of this offers students an extraordinary opportunity to make potential professional contacts, understand Russia's current development trajectory, and to take in as much Russian culture as possible in one location. Moscow is also Europe's largest city and a major regional hub for all of Eurasia. It is a diverse city, with cultural infrastructure serving a diverse population. In Moscow, you'll explore all of this as part of your guided cultural program.
Moscow: Semester at HSE
The Higher School of Economics (HSE) is one of Russia's best respected and most modern institutions for studying a range of topics. Classes available in English include Russian Studies (including history, literature, language, and other topics), economics, computer science, sociology, math, and much more.
Business & Economics, History, International Relations, Journalism, Law, Russian Language, Sociology
Spring Break: Introduction to Russia
Join SRAS for Spring Break in Russia! We will take you on a one-week grand introduction to modern Russia, its history, and its impressive culture. Follow knowledgable guides through the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Sample and learn more about the local and regional cuisines. Meet your local peers in both cities to talk about what life on the ground is really like. You'll tour world-class theaters, see a wide variety of art and architecture, and see the places where both local and world history was made. This spring break experience is for anyone with an interest in Russia and its current place in the world.
Moscow, Russia;
Spring_Break
Art & Art History, Business & Economics, History
St. Petersburg and Moscow: Workshop for Museum Professionals
This two-week workshop is truly a unique and high-value experience. Elena Varshavskaya, who has led our art history and museum studies program in St. Petersburg for over 10 years, invites museum professionals to join her for two weeks of extensive exploration of the museums of St. Petersburg, Peterhof, and Moscow meeting curators, restorers, educators, and others.
This program is for museum professionals - from curators, educators, and restorers to those working with media, development ,and administration.
Art & Art History, Continuing Education, Museum Studies
St. Petersburg: Comparative Media Studies - Photojournalism
As Russia's most liberal city and a hub for education, business, and culture, St. Petersburg is a fascinating environment in which to look closely at the opportunities and challenges facing local and global media.
We look at media literacy, media environment, and global trends and examine how journalists and media consumers alike must adapt to a changing environment. Russian and American media will be the primary focus in this comparative study and photojournalism will be the practical application of the course.
This program is aimed at students of journalism, media, communication, international relations, and Russian language or area studies.
International Relations, Journalism, Russian Language
St. Petersburg: Language and Society
Russian as a Second Language is at the core of this program and during the academic year is combined with a range of electives taught in English on culture, history, politics, economics, finance, marketing, and more. Several courses focus on the intersection of these subjects: how the economy affects the arts and the role of cultural movements within society. An extensive cultural program and a weekend trip to Moscow is included. You'll gain a wider, fuller, first-hand perspective on Russia for your future career in government, business, or academia.
Business & Economics, Environmental Studies, History, Hospitality/Tourism, International Relations, Law, Literature, Russian Language, Sociology, Sustainability
St. Petersburg: The Art and Science of Museums
How can cultural and historical heritage be best preserved and transmitted? To answer this question, we will take a behind-the-scenes look at the Hermitage Museum, and explore the many museums of St. Petersburg -- including educational museums at schools of higher learning, scientific museums, museums of ethnography, memorial apartment museums, literary museums, political history museums, and more.
This program is for students of museum science/studies or museum management.
Art & Art History, Museum Studies
St. Petersburg: The Changing Energy Landscape
An increasingly serious attitude toward the Paris Agreement implies a substantial change to world economics through decarbonization efforts. This will require considerable cooperation between the hydrocarbon resource countries and energy consumers. There are many geopolitical and economic obstacles and it is of paramount importance to foster discussion on the future of energy in a decarbonized world.
This interdisciplinary course is aimed at students of economics, business, world economy, political science, international relations, energy studies/security, and sustainability studies.
Business & Economics, Energy Studies, Geopolitics, International Relations, Russian Language, Sustainability
Vladivostok: Russia and the Asia-Pacific
Although a neighbor to the highly successful Pacific Asian nations of Japan, South Korea, and China, Russia's Far East has always lagged in terms of economic development because of historical, geographic, and policy challenges. Today, however, there are several ambitious projects focused on developing this massive and resource-rich Russian region. This program will critically analyze and explore first-hand many of these projects, including the free port, special economic zones, the "Far East Hectare" project, and infrastructure initiatives in terms of both their investment attractiveness and socio-political value.
This program combines Russian language study with economics, politics, and culture in Russia's "Gateway to Asia."
Business & Economics, History, International Relations, Russian Language
Warsaw: Security and Society in the Information Age
Designed and launched jointly in 2015 by SRAS and Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, Poland, this unique program addresses global issues from unique perspectives. Courses in security studies, cybersecurity, terrorism & hybrid warfare, genocide, democracy studies, international relations, diplomacy, Jewish studies, and more. Build your resume even more with a research internship at the Terrorism Research Center.
Summer, Fall, Spring
Criminology, Cybersecurity, Diplomacy, Geopolitics, History, International Relations, Internships, Jewish Studies, Museum Studies, Polish Language, Security Studies, Sociology
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Home » News / Resources » Firearms in Focus » Winchester Australia launches new website
Winchester Australia launches new website
10 November 2014 / In Firearms in Focus
Australian firearms and accessories distributor Winchester Australia has unveiled its new website, featuring a clean, modern look and improved customer experience.
The website, which has been in the pipeline for 18 months, offers users increased access to product photos, videos, social media content and news covering its stable of brands. Indeed, when a user selects a product, the background and colour theme change to reflect the heritage of that supplier brand.
The website has an updated search function, where customers can use the standard category tree or search bar to filter their search based on the product family, brand or shooting application, such as large-game hunting or clay shooting. Featured product information includes the model name, identification code, recommended retail price, product description and specifications and an updated dealer locator.
There is also a new-look Winchester Club, allowing users to sign-up to be the first to hear about new products, events, exclusive specials and prizes. Customers can also use this login to find out stock availability on products of interest.
The Winchester Australia marketing team is already planning more updates to the website to meet the needs of sporting shooters, with updates to be rolled out over the next 12 months.
Luke Mangan Chef Knife takes cooks to the next level
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Posted on October 5, 2013 by Stag Owners Club
We love to hear about our members and fellow Stag owners stories of ownership and what they have been up to with their pride and Joy. Here is a great story from Andrew…..
When I bought my car in early 2007 it came with quite a large history file going back to 1989 including receipts for huge amounts of restoration work, mots, tax discs etc but no Heritage Certificate which I sent for within a few weeks of buying the car.
Surprisingly all the numbers still matched including all the keys but it also showed the car no longer had it’s original registration number. But as my 2000 estate had lost it’s number at 3 years old due to having a private plate fitted I wasn’t really bothered. However, unlike the 2000, the certificate did show the original number of KCK42N.
This must have been in the back of my mind as to why this happened. Had the car been written off? Did someone want to keep the original number? By 2011 whatever the reason I decided I wanted to know and contacted DVLA who advised me to fill in form V888 which I did and sent it off with the £5 fee.
The information which was copies of all the previous owners documents arrived a couple of days after the Norfolk National and I found the 1986 -1989 owner, Mark Balfour had lived about ½ mile from the hotel we were staying at. Had the information arrived a week earlier I would have gone and knocked on the door to see if he still lived there.
It also explained the change of number. In 1978 the car was bought by a Henry Travis who had the number HST 99 fitted to the car and at this time the original number was lost. When he sold the car it was issued with it’s current JTA608N.
The car was supplied new by Hebden Bros, Springs Garage, Todmorden and was supplied to F&T Lumb Ltd of Hebden Bridge and over the next 11 years it had another 10 owners, one for 4 days so presumably a dealer and was twice sold without documents. It also moved around quite a bit, going from Yorkshire to Lancashire, Devon, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Norfolk and back to Yorkshire before I brought it to Derbyshire.
Having worked in Todmorden at one time and knowing the area quite well, when I was told there was a good Vintage Weekend in Hebden Bridge it seemed like a good idea, so form filled in, a room booked in a local pub and we were all set for the weekend. Knowing that if owners put something on their car telling it’s story people do tend to read it so I decided to put a note on the car along with the usual information asking for information about the supplying garage and F &T Lumb. I didn’t really expect to find out much but was hoping it might turn up a dealer sticker, a key fob or possibly someone who knew of the original owner and possibly remembered the car.
We hadn’t been there that long and we had had a walk round when a man, whose name I didn’t get came and told me he had probably done the pre delivery inspection on the car as he worked at the garage during the ‘70s and although they were a multiple BL dealer he did mostly Triumphs. He told me the garage is still there but has been redeveloped and is a filling station. The next person introduced himself as Derek Carlton Crabtree who told me F&T Lumb were egg producers and poultry farmers and suggested I went to the visitors gate and ask for Derek Sutcliffe as he was part of the family and he may be able to help. It turned out it was his car, he had it new as a company car. He had seen me drive in but obviously didn’t recognise the number so thought no more of it so was quite shocked when I told him the story. We also met Stephen Barker, a friend of Derek’s who was at the show with a Ford GT40 replica who also remembered the car well.
As this is a Rotary Club event and Derek is involved with the weekend we had our photos taken for their newsletter and a photo also appeared in the Hebden Bridge Times which Derek very kindly sent me along with a couple of photos taken while he owned the car.
He had the car for 3 years and during that time it had the head gaskets replaced twice after overheating near Keighley and then Penrith. It overheated again in Bristol when Derek’s brother had borrowed it, which apparently took some time to repair as British Leyland were on strike and there were no parts for it.
In March 1978 the car was sold and went to a dealer friend of Derek’s, Geoff Gladsbrook at Hawksclough, Mytholmroyd who used the car for a while until he also encountered overheating problems and sold the car on, presumably to another dealer in Blackburn called Charles Pavelyn as this is the second name the car was registered in. In April 1978 the car was sold to Henry Travis who transferred the private number on to the car.
All in all this was a very good weekend and I think 2 of us had our day made. We were asked to go back next year which we will as it is such a good weekend. Due to the number of exhibits we were there on Saturday, Sunday being for pre 1971.
For info on this yearly event see Hebden Bridge Vintage Weekend
And take a look at the photos from this years event Photos from 2013
This entry was posted in Out and About and tagged Classic Cars, Hebden Bridge, Stag Owners Club, Triumph Stag, Vintage Cars by Stag Owners Club. Bookmark the permalink.
3 thoughts on “Stag Reunited”
One man and his Mustang on October 5, 2013 at 10:44 pm said:
Great looking car and a good story.
Andrew Bradbury on November 13, 2013 at 9:18 pm said:
The question is, do I re apply for the original number or leave this one on?
Stag Owners Club on November 13, 2013 at 10:41 pm said:
Ah why not – see if you can get the original one back!!
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Submit News Releases
Sudan News Gazette
SPEAKER OF SUDANESE PARLIAMENT AFFIRMS IMPORTANCE OF STRENGTHENING TIES WITH JUBA
KHARTOUM, -- The Speaker of Sudan's National Assembly, Professor Ibrahim Ahmed Omer, has affirmed the importance of consolidating the relations between Sudan and South Sudan.
he said this when he received a delegation from the South Sudan Parliament, led by its Deputy Speaker, Jasmine Samuel, at his office here Monday.
Prof. Omer stressed the importance of re-activating the agreement on the four freedoms which was signed between Sudan and South Sudan.
He added that the secession of South Sudan from Sudan to become an independent nation would not affect the historical relations between the two countries.
Samuel expressed her hope that the two parliaments would play their role in enhancing the economic and political co-operation between Sudan and South Sudan.
Source: Name News Network
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The “Sudan News Gazette”, has been designed to publish news from all the sectors and that shows its attribute of catering to the interest of various kinds of readers, which has also helped it to mark its existence among the African region’s top news website.
© Copyright 2019. All Rights Reserved. Sudan News Gazette
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Suddenly, a shot rang out …
Film and TV For No Apparent Reason
The Avengers Episode Reviews
Websites and Other Writing
The Avengers: Traitor In Zebra
Traitor In Zebra (Episode 02-11, December 1962)
Traitor In Zebra or, as I like to call it, Steed In Uniform. This episode follows Steed and Cathy as they infiltrate a government facility currently at work on a new satellite tracking system. The system keeps on being jammed, and the Avengers are on hand to ferret out the real traitor. A man has already been arrested for the crime, but Steed’s not certain that he was the one that did it.
Traitor In Zebra is a middling but amusing episode that allows for both Steed and Cathy to step outside of their closed apartments and get to work in a new milieu. There’s an entertaining sequence in the pub, many gratuitous shots of Steed looking truly spectacular in uniform, and some excellent repartee. Macnee and Blackman have hit their stride as partners. Steed and Cathy evidently enjoy each other’s company by now, their earlier conflict turning to good-natured ribbing. Cathy responds to Steed’s insinuations with a well-placed glare, but neither does she seem to feel badly towards him.
I’ve found that I enjoy the Season 2 episodes with Blackman a bit more than the Season 3, when Steed especially begins to iron out his rough edges and the plots grow more and more outlandish. There is a likable noir-ish feeling to Season 2 that all but vanishes later on. Even the rough camerawork and at times stilted dialogue is charming. You can tell when actors miss their queues, contributing more to the sense that the actors embody their characters, and are forced to adapt to changing circumstances. Season 2 might be for the strong-willed Avengers fan, but it’s well-worth a watch, and Traitor in Zebra one of the more enjoyable episodes.
Author: Lauren
Lauren Humphries-Brooks is a writer, editor, and media journalist. She holds a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies from New York University, and in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. She regularly contributes to film and pop culture websites, and has written extensively on Classical Hollywood, British horror films, and the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres. She currently works as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. View all posts by Lauren
Author LaurenPosted on October 20, 2013 Categories The AvengersTags Cathy Gale, Honor Blackman, John Steed, Patrick Macnee, season 2, The Avengers, traitor in zebra
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The blog is run by an Angry Movie Girl and Delightful Curmudgeon, a contributor to various film and media blogs, writer and exciting conversationalist. Everything from film reviews to Avengers episodes to occasional ruminations on the state of media today. Basically, anything film-related I feel like talking about.
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Rising from the ashes
Guest blog by Sylva Scholar, Louise Hill
We congratulate Louise Hill on successfully defending her DPhil at the University of Oxford. Louise is the third (and sadly final) Oxford-Sylva scholar. Over the last four years she has been researching the impacts of ash dieback. Here Louise describes in her own words what she has achieved, and what our support has meant to her personally. Well done Louise!
It’s been a long road to get here, but four and a half years after starting I have finally finished my DPhil. As the Sylva Scholar, I have been extremely privileged to complete my project at the University of Oxford, with opportunities to meet top scientists, speak at international conferences, and produce the best research that I am capable of.
Louise Hill, Sylva scholar, in Wytham Woods. Photo John Cairns
My research project looked at various different aspects of the ash dieback outbreak in Britain. This disease is one of the most important contemporary challenges to the health of our woods and trees. An invasive fungal pathogen (Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus) [Ed. formerly known as Chalara fraxinea], it threatens the future of common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) as a dominant tree in Britain. The impacts of this loss will be widespread: over the coming decades we are likely to see significant impacts on the health of woodland and non-woodland ecosystems, on associated biodiversity, and on human health and wellbeing as the benefits of ash trees to society are lost.
My project was broad and investigated impacts in many of these areas.
I carried out experimental work to clarify the impacts of ash loss on woodland ground flora and invertebrate communities.
I modelled the distributions of trees and their associated traits and functions (with a paper published in Ecology and Evolution: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.2661/full). This allowed me to investigate the areas and ecosystem types most vulnerable ash loss, and to develop management guidance to help mitigate this loss (paper in review).
In my final year, I investigated the economic impacts, an ambitious project which I am now developing further with collaborators at the Woodland Trust and Fera, and which we hope will produce a high-impact publication with political significance.
Hill et al. (2007) Ecology&Evolution
It’s been a lot of hard work, but I have come away with something I feel really proud of: a project that I could make fully my own, that I believe has contributed to both the scientific understanding of the disease and to practical measures to reduce its harm.
None of this would have been possible without support and input from the Sylva Foundation: the scholarship gave me a fantastic opportunity, and I have tried my best to make the most of it. This experience culminated a couple of weeks ago in an invitation to attend a Plant Health and Biosecurity conference at Highgrove, contributing directly to ideas for future policy.
I hope in the future I can carry on working on research in tree diseases in the future, as this project has given me a real drive to continue in this important area.
Louise Hill
[Note from Ed: Louise Hill’s thesis will soon be available online. We will publish a link as soon as possible.]
More about the Sylva Scholarship
Sadly Louise is our third and final Oxford-Sylva Graduate Scholar, as we have been unsuccessful in fundraising sufficiently to appoint a new student.
Read more stories from our Sylva Scholars
Category: SCIENCE, Sylva Scholar
Tags: ash, chalara fraxinea, dieback, hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus, woodlands
Adopt an Ash and help secure a future for ash trees in Britain
Adopt an Ash on TreeWatch.com
The outbreak of ash dieback caused by Chalara fraxinea is a serious threat to the future survival of ash in Britain. We want volunteers to Adopt an Ash in readiness for a major survey that we will launch in late Spring 2013. This is a new TreeWatch survey that is being developed with our partners.
As one of Britain’s most common trees, the loss of up to 90% of ash trees across of our countryside and our streets, is expected to have a massive and long-lasting impact on the landscape and woodland ecology.
You can help find ‘resistant’ ash trees across the country and track the development of the disease. Your data will be shared with a consortium of forestry and horticultural experts. By adopting your ash tree now you will be ready to take part in a robust scientific survey to be launched Early Spring, by which time the disease will be easy to spot.
We recognise that there are other volunteer projects in existence, such as Ashtag, but we believe that we are well-placed to collect and share data with partners through our tried and tested TreeWatch initiative with the following unique and important objectives:
the main objective will be to try and identify ‘resistant’ trees that could be used in a breeding programme to secure a future for ash in Britain;
the Adopt an Ash tree method supports a relationship with the volunteer and allows repeat assessments to be undertaken;
by asking volunteers to identify and report both the presence and absence of Chalara fraxinea, we will be able to track the progress of the disease on individual trees and across the country over coming years.
For now we are asking volunteers to select trees that they will be able survey next year, and to ‘adopt’ them in the usual way at www.TreeWatch.com/chalara.
By late Spring 2013 the disease will be easier to identify in our ash trees and we will open our survey in time to allow volunteers to report their findings. We will share tree data (note not personal data) with a consortium of leading forestry and horticultural experts.
Category: TreeWatch
Tags: ash, chalara, dieback, pathogen, survey, TreeWatch
Chalara fraxinea – advice for woodland owners
The outbreak of Chalara fraxinea in the British countryside is very major story that cannot have escaped anyone’s notice. Infected sites currently total 115, distributed from SE England, East Anglia and the Midlands, to Scotland, to Wales.
Through the myForest Service, Sylva supports currently some 700 woodland owners who manage about 15,000 hectares of woodlands across Britain. We encourage all woodland owners to keep abreast of a very fluid situation in terms of current status of the outbreak and advice from Government and scientists and how we should all respond. The best place to keep informed is via the Forestry Commission webpage: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/chalara. Meanwhile, Sylva offers the following advice to woodland owners:
Inspect ash trees in your woodland without delay. Before the winter winds remove all leaves, those infected by Chalara can be quite obvious in that they persist after those that drop as usual in the Autumn (see image). On young trees, coppice regrowth or other regeneration the lesions can be quite easy to spot. On older wood they are less clear. Dieback in the canopy may be possible to spot during the dormant season but it is easy to miss.
If you believe that you have Chalara fraxinea in your woodland contact the Forestry Commission without delay. The Forestry Commission are treating C. fraxinea as a ‘quarantine’ plant pathogen, which means that they may use emergency powers to contain or eradicate it when it is found. This is being done in the form of Statutory Plant Health Notices which they serve on affected owners requiring them to remove and destroy affected plants by burning or deep burial on site. This situation may change in time.
Where possible implement rigorous biosecurity measures. Follow the advice of the Forestry Commission’s Biosecurity Measures.
In terms of minimising the impact of the pathogen on ash trees within an infected woodland, current thinking is that the removal and burning of ash leaf litter may reduce the prevalence of the pathogen next year. This may be a practical action in high value sites, such as important biodiversity areas, parklands, garden trees or perhaps notable ancient trees. In larger ash stands clearly this may not be practicable.
Felling of diseased trees. Advice is not yet clear on this issue. Note that finding resistant trees in the ‘wild’ will be very important in creating the foundation for a new population of trees resistant to the pathogen. Felling all ash trees in infected woodlands therefore, cannot be recommended.
Before transporting ash wood, check the Forestry Commission webpage for the latest advice.
Over the coming weeks the Government’s taskforce will be bringing together experts to build up a picture of the current status and the appropriate measures that we should be taking to try and reduce the impact of this devastating pathogen. Our Chief Executive, Dr Gabriel Hemery, is taking an active role in the taskforce and we will be providing up-to-date information here when available.
Photographs taken by Gabriel Hemery during the expert taskforce
visit to Wayland Wood in Norfolk earlier this week.
persistent ash leaves due to Chalara
necrosis in ash stem from Chalara fraxinea infection
Joan Webber, Principal Pathologist and Head of Tree Health at Forest Research, discusses Chalara fraxinea in a Norfolk woodland
close up of Chalara fraxinea lesion on young ash coppice stem
Chalara fraxinea lesion on young ash stem – click to enlarge
ash coppice stools infected with Chalara fraxinea
Forestry Commission information on Chalara fraxinea
Food & Environment Research agency information on Chalara fraxinea
Online discussion forum on The Guardian – with a contribution from the Sylva Foundation
Category: myForest, TreeWatch
Tags: ash, chalara fraxinea, dieback, disease, tree health
Chalara dieback of ash (Chalara fraxinea)
Chalara dieback of ash is a serious disease of ash trees caused by a fungus called Chalara fraxinea (C. fraxinea). The disease causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and it can lead to tree death.
There has been significant media coverage about the arrival of this fungal pathogen in the UK over the last week and with good reason. It is potentially very destructive to our native Ash, as can be seen by looking at our European neighbours e.g. Denmark and Germany.
For further information please follow the link to the Forestry Commission website below. We will aim to update this blog post with relevant information for woodland owners and forest managers as it becomes available.
Forestry Commission – Chalara dieback of ash
Category: New Features
Tags: ash, chalara fraxinea, dieback
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End the Stealth Subpoena
And spare Judge Holmes the need to remind litigants to play nice. Here’ s EZ Lube, LLC, EZL-1 Investments, Inc., A Partner Other Than the Tax Matters Partner, Docket No. 18021-13.
Judge Mark V Holmes sent the parties off to work out whatever salvation they could back in April. For that, see my blogpost “No EZ Telephone ‘Determinations,’” 4/21/19.
Now IRS, the incomers, and the outgoers, all think they can do a Rule 122 on-the-papers, if only they can get some third-party testimony. But they’ll need a judicial subpoena to do it.
Judge Holmes, in his usual expansive style, lets them go to it.
“Our Rules generally make subpoenas returnable only at trial sessions, which can be inconvenient when the division handling the case isn’t scheduled for a trial session in the city involved. The parties have suggested that this case be set for a hearing at the October 7, 2019 trial session to enable a subpoena to be served and returned by that date. The trial judge involved is amenable to this solution.” Order, at p. 1.
Apparently ex-Ch J Michael B (“Iron Mike”) Thornton will be on the bench at that session.
But Judge Holmes wants to make sure there’s no stealthy dealings.
He orders “…that the both parties comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45(a)(4).” Order, at p. 2.
See my blogpost “The Stealth Subpoena,” 7/16/15. It’s really time that Rule 147 was brought into line with FRCP 45(a)(4)
« Before WELL BEGUN 07/01/2019
AfterREDACT AND BE LIBERAL 07/02/2019 »
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Get in on the ground floor of one of the fastest growing furniture stores in the country!
Working in Our Stores
Are you considering a career with Bob's Discount Furniture? Visit one of my showrooms and talk to my team members. Come and see the untouchable values and enjoy some complimentary snacks at my Café! Find out for yourself why so many people are talking about careers at Bob's, where we put the fun in furniture!
Our Sales Associates are a major driving factor behind Bob’s Discount Furniture’s success and expansive growth in the retail industry. Sales Associates find satisfaction in assisting customers with their interior design needs, while offering world class customer service with a low pressure, honest, gimmick-free and enjoyable shopping experience.
If you are interested in a customer facing support role, our Retail Office Associates are champions of the Bob’s Way and deliver world class customer service to all of our guests both face-to-face and over the phone.
Our Product Support Associates are team members who play a vital role by assuring that the stores receive and stage merchandise in a manner consistent with the company’s core values and creative vision; assisting and enabling the stores to achieve established sales expectations.
I am also very proud to offer various leadership career opportunities such as; Retail Sales Support Managers, Showroom Managers, Sales Managers, Store Managers, and Regional Managers. If you consider yourself a great mentor, coach, teacher and have a passion for sales and leading goal driven environments, this might be the right fit for you!
“Being in retail for 12 years, Bob’s by far is the most family oriented company to work for. The relationships I've made throughout with everyone, are some of the strongest business partnerships I have seen. The greatest feeling is the support from the company during military training, Bob’s fully supports work, life and military career balance second to none.”
Jeff Ortelli
Regional Loss Prevention Manager
"I joined Bob’s 7 years ago simply looking for a sales job that paid well. What I found was a company that truly cares about its people, works hard to do what’s right, and provides opportunity to those who work hard. I started as a part-time sales person and was quickly promoted to full time. Now, as one of our sales trainers, I have the great pleasure of meeting all our new hires and helping set them up for their own success stories 'The Bob’s Way!"
Michael Holland
Retail Sales Trainer
“I started with Bob's in 2009 working full time sales. I have to admit I didn’t see Bobs as anything more than a job that would help me pay my bills until I found what I really wanted to do. I fell in love with the family atmosphere in not only the stores, but with the entire company. Over the last 8 years I have had the chance to work in several locations, giving me the opportunity to grow professionally in the company.”
Yehea Adileh
"The difference is at Bob's, everything is accessible, and it’s very transparent. Most people find it refreshing, especially when they see the everyday low prices."
Mark Hearn
ontario (1) >> ontario (1) x
california (1) >> california (1) x
Ontario, CA, CA
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Reporting Scotland Up not Down (Talking-Up Scotland II)
Debunking British Nationalism Daily
As NHS England denies single women Scotland’s IVF service is 100%
Posted byjohnrobertson834 September 11, 2019 Posted inUncategorized
Photograph: Sang Tan/AP
In the Guardian yesterday:
NHS bosses have apologised for justifying denying single women IVF treatment by saying they would be a burden to society and “unable to bring out the best outcomes for the child”:
NHS South East London has said sorry for the “offence and distress” it caused, which prompted 175 single mothers to complain about its “misguided and offensive” language. Guidance explaining the policy was based on a document it had put together that stated: “Single mothers are generally poorer; they are likely to have greater support needs compared to two-parent couples, thereby placing a greater burden on society in general. Aristotle’s principle of equality says treat equals equally, so a couple compared to a couple is equal. A woman or man compared to a couple is not equal, and by attempting to think of them as such has no ground or support.” It added: “A sole woman is unable to bring out the best outcomes for the child.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/09/nhs-bosses-apologise-calling-single-mothers-burden-society
Once more there is a different approach in Scotland. An IVF service which has been 100% successful for 5 years in a row will have had immeasurable benefits reducing both the human and financial costs of infertility. More on this below.
From ISD 30 May 2019:
During the quarter ending March 2019:
The four IVF centres in Scotland screened 366 eligible patients, compared with 385 in the previous quarter.
In all four centres, 100% of patients were screened for IVF treatment within 365 days, 75.7% of which were screened within 182 days.
The 90% standard continues to be met since it was first measured in March 2015.
Why does this matter so much? See this:
Reducing associated mental health complications
Failing to treat infertility can result in problems and further costs for the NHS in other areas. A Danish study of 98 737 women, between 1973 and 2003, showed that women who were unable to have children were 47% more likely to be hospitalised for schizophrenia and had a significantly higher risk of subsequent drug and alcohol abuse.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22020-infertility-may-increase-risk-of-mental-disorders/
Meanwhile in Tory-run NHS England, only 12% of boards offer three full cycles in line with official guidance. 61% offer only one cycle of treatment and 4% offer none at all.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/ivf-nhs-treatment-fertility-lists-wait-patients-lottery-budget-cuts-a8028116.html
A warning for Scotland’s 100% IVF post-Brexit: How moneygrubbing Tory IVF policies are creating massive distress now in England
How IVF became a licence to print money.
As we tumble toward a hard Brexit and trade deals with the USA allowing the private sector into the heart of the NHS, we can see how things will work out in the already privatised IVF service in England and contrast it with the state-controlled and regulated version, in Scotland. See this from the Guardian:
‘Private fertility clinics routinely try to sell desperate patients add-ons that almost certainly don’t help – why isn’t more done to monitor the industry? Around three-quarters of all IVF cycles fail. And results vary with age. Figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) published in March state the average live birth-rate for each fresh embryo transferred for women of all ages is 21%; for those aged under 35, it is 29% – the highest it has ever been. For older women, the picture is bleaker: 10% for women aged 40-42, for example. IVF is expensive. And what makes it worse, says Hugh Risebrow, the report’s author, is the lack of pricing transparency. “The headline prices quoted may be, say, £3,500, but you end up with a bill of £7,000,” he says. “This is because there are things not included that you need – and then things that are offered but are not evidence-based.”’
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/18/how-ivf-became-a-licence-to-print-money
Creating opportunities for the private sector
In Tory-run NHS England, only 12% of boards offer three full cycles in line with official guidance. 61% offer only one cycle of treatment and 4% offer none at all. Private treatment costs between £1 343 and £5 788 per cycle.
Why UK politicians would like more privatisation in the NHS
There are 64 Tory and Labour (New) MPs with ‘links’ to private health care. Why would we trust them to protect the NHS? See this:
https://defendournhsyork.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/selling-off-nhs-for-profit-full-list-of-mps-with-links-to-private-healthcare-firms/
Published by johnrobertson834
Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis View more posts
Majority of UK voters including Scots would encourage a United Ireland and are prepared to vote tactically for a Brexit outcome
Asthma deaths: One big reason why free-prescriptions really matter in Scotland
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Archives Select Month January 2020 (51) December 2019 (116) November 2019 (105) October 2019 (120) September 2019 (99) August 2019 (35)
MacAlba
Talking-up Scotland
SCOT goes POP!
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www.counterpunch.org
caltonjock
Reporting Scotland Up not Down (Talking-Up Scotland II), Blog at WordPress.com.
A Son of Scotland
Counter- propaganda and Citizen Journalism since 2014
So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable. - Aldous Huxley
sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul
Scottish and Uk Politics
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My Mine
Hypnotic Tango
12" / Nowy
Dark Entries / DE238
Produkt w sprzedaży.
Tracklista
A1. Hypnotic Tango (original 12" version)
A2. Hypnotic Tango (instrumental version)
B1. Hypnotic Tango (1987 Powerhouse mix)
B2. Hypnotic Tango (Hypnotic mix)
We are honored to announce the next 12″ in Dark Entries Editions is one of the all time Italo Disco club classics: My Mine—‘Hypnotic Tango’. My Mine were the trio of Stefano Micheli (vocals, keyboards), Carlo Malatesta (vocals, keyboards), and Danilo Rosati (drums, keyboards) formed from the ashes of Italian New Wave group Ipnotico Tango in 1982. They shifted focus from the experimental post punk sounds towards something more commercial with which to try and enter the market, namely to make a record. At that time Carlo was studying in Bologna and he had heard about producer and arranger Mauro Malavasi famous at that time for the many hits produced for Macho, Peter Jacques Band, Change, Luther Vandross, Ritchie Family. The group handed Malavasi a demo tape and four days later they were invited to Fonoprint Studios to record their first single, “Hypnotic Tango”.
Utilizing new electronic instruments like the now legendary Roland TB-303, Danilo improvised a simple but effective synthesizer bass line and passed it through the Roland Echo until something magical came out. “Hypnotic Tango” was released on Progress Record in 1983 and became an international hit across Europe and US dance clubs in New York, Detroit and Chicago, capturing the imagination of House and Techno producers. In 1987 the legendary Frankie Knuckles remixed “Hypnotic Tango” at Seagrape Studios in Chicago, with assistance from studio engineers Tommy White and Brett Wilcotts. Originally released on Danica Records as the “Powerhouse Mix” paying tribute to the Windy City club atmosphere and adding his own "sighs" in the track as well. The Hypnotic Remix This reissue presents 4 mixes of “Hypnotic Tango” including the “Hypnotic Mix” only appearing together once before in 1990 on Rams Horn Records. All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a jacket with original artwork and includes an insert with photos and liner notes by Stefano Micheli.
Tytuł Hypnotic Tango
Wykonawca My Mine
Wydawca Dark Entries
Nośnik 12"
Kategoria Winyle
Numer katalogowy DE238
Inne od Dark Entries
Krootchey
Qu'est C'qu'il A (D'plus Que Moi Ce Negro La?)
Au Velodrome 141
Tam Tam/ Closer
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What is Tedium?
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Ice Cream Fakery
Why you can't find the phrase "ice cream" anywhere on some varieties of Breyers, and whether it being a "frozen dairy dessert" should bother you.
Written by Ernie Smith on Jan 16, 2017
breyers, food, food industry, food manufacturing, frozen foods, ice cream, unilever
A couple of months ago, I was scooping myself a bowl of ice cream, when I discovered something interesting and a little disturbing: Nowhere on the label did the ice cream describe itself as “ice cream.”
The label was for Breyers, a brand that has a long, lengthy history in the ice cream manufacturing game and a pledge to use “high quality ingredients.” But this pledge had been put into doubt by the fact that Breyers couldn’t describe what it was selling as ice cream, but rather “frozen dairy dessert.”
So, what’s the deal? The website Brand Eating explained the whole issue back in 2015. Basically, some of Breyers’ flavors fail to meet a basic criteria for ice cream set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: One, that the dessert is make up of 10 percent milkfat, and that the ice cream has an overrun of 100 percent or less—that is, the ice cream shouldn’t be mostly made of more than 50 percent air bubbles after it’s whipped.
As for why they’d do something like this, New York Times writer Dan Barry got an explanation from Unilever, the company that owns the brand, a couple of years ago.
“People really drove that decision,” Nick Soukas, the company’s onetime director of ice cream, told Barry. That is, according to the company’s research, people wanted a smoother texture than what you can get with normal ice cream. Hence, that’s how we get “frozen dairy dessert.”
(Soukas has since moved on to be in charge of skin cleansing for the company, which sorta makes sense based on this decision.)
So why did Breyers fall out of “ice cream” contention? Well, this clip linked in the Times piece points out two issues: The length of the ingredient list, which includes a lot of extra preservatives, and (because it was left out overnight) the literal deflation of the ice cream.
Despite the fact it had basically been untouched the night before, it was taking up roughly half the package now—because all the air had fluttered out. It’s sort of depressing to think about.
Looks like I’ll be sticking with Klondike Bars—also made by Unilever.
Your time was just wasted by Ernie Smith
Ernie Smith is the editor of Tedium, and an active internet snarker. Between his many internet side projects, he finds time to hang out with his wife Cat, who's funnier than he is.
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Kate Middleton Prince William Princess Charlotte Prince George
Adorable Things Prince George and Princess Charlotte Love Doing at Home All the Time
Gettyimages | WPA Pool
Dec 3, 2019 at 8:12 am UTC By Clarissa Wilson
Prince William and wife, Duchess Kate Middleton now have three young children who they adore very much. Their fans love learning all about what the children are up to every chance they get. And, Prince William and Kate Middleton love updating everyone about what the little Prince's and Princess are up often.
It seems the two oldest children have amazing talents now that they are getting old enough to do different things. What are these two doing now that they enjoy showing off to their parents?
Kate Middleton Won't Be Having Any More Kids, Blames Prince William
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Duchess Kate shared an update recently to the public letting them know what she and Prince William's oldest kids are into these days. It seems the children have amazing performing talents and really love showing mum and dad what they can do. They love to put on performances for Kate and William and do it all the time now.
As for little Prince Louis, he might be too young still at just one-year-old but maybe he will share his brother and sister's talents with them when he gets a little older too.
Gettyimages | Charles McQuillan
Last month, in November, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the Royal Variety Performance that goes on every year. The Royal Variety Performance was at the Palladium Theater in London and when Prince William and Duchess Kate attended last month, they got to meet many of the young children who performed different things showing their talents to the audience.
Although they do take the children with them as much as they can, they still need a date night with just the two of them every once in a while. They took the chance to go alone to the Royal Variety Performance last month without their three children in tow.
However, just because they were there without the three kids, this doesn't mean their children were far from their mind or anyone else's for that matter. Everyone they stopped to talk to asked about the children and what little Prince George and Princess Charlotte are into these days.
For example, one person who asked where the children were since they weren't with Kate and William this time, was Petula Clark, who is a part of the Mary Poppins cast. She asked why the children weren't with the couple and Prince William and Kate Middleton told her that it was because it was a school night for them.
Will William and Kate Become The Stars Of The Show Now?
Prince Harry Makes First Public Appearance Since Denouncing Royal Title
How Prince Harry Has Changed Since Marrying Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Next Steps
Was Meghan Harry's Excuse To Finally Get Out?
Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kate_and_William_thumbnail.jpg
Clark also asked what the kids enjoy doing these days and Kate said they enjoy putting on little shows for them all the time, especially Princess Charlotte. She also told one of the six-year-old female acrobats' that Prince George and Princess Charlotte love doing acrobats too. She said that they are always doing handstands and cartwheels for them in their home.
A few days after the Duke and Duchess attended the Royal Variety Performance, Prince William was honoring a woman by the name of Eileen Fenton with an award for volunteering her services over the years. While he did this, he shared more interesting information about what their two oldest children are good at and enjoy doing.
Cheat Sheet reports that Fenton was the first English woman to finish the race of the English Channel back in 1950. She was very happy to learn what the two oldest are good at doing.
Not only do the two children enjoy putting on different shows for their parents in their home, but they are also very good at swimming and enjoy doing it. Prince William said he and Kate like to teach their children how to swim at a very young age. Because of this, Prince George and Princess Charlotte are good at swimming and love doing it.
Duchess Kate is a good swimmer too and loves swimming. She took the two oldest, earlier this year to a swimming pool at a hotel in Norfolk to let them have fun swimming. Onlookers saw the kids playing in the water and racing each other back and forth in the pool.
It is great that they teach their children to swim and that they love putting shows on for Kate and Prince William. What do you think about this? Sound off with your thoughts on this and let everyone know what you think!
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Hugh Grant Comments On Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Breaking With The Royal Family
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The 67th Annual Tony Awards
“I want to thank Broadway for welcoming me. This city … I’ve never been a stranger to hard work, but your hard work inspires me.” Cyndi Lauper’s words while accepting her Tony Award for Best Original Score represent something about the Tony Awards that separate it from other award shows. And I love an award show, believe me. But between the high-pressure Oscars and the repeat-business of the Emmys, it’s only the Tonys that manage to properly convey the essential truth of any award show: a community of artists (and people in the business of artists) honoring their own. When Cyndi Lauper thanks the Broadway community for welcoming her, the sentiment has a truth to it that I never quite buy from people working in the movies or TV. It’s that quality that makes the Tonys, year-in and year-out, the one award show for which I will cut endless slack. Every poorly chosen performance (The Rascals, let’s say) or technical shortcoming (how is the sound design so spotty every single year?) ends up being pretty easily forgiven when the awards themselves feel like such a genuine celebration of good work. (That the Tonys can manage to put this feeling across while being, at a voting-level, at least, the most business-minded and mercenary of all awards endeavors makes the accomplishment even bigger.)
Lauper’s Kinky Boots proved to be biggest winner of the night, taking home seven awards, including Best Musical and Best Lead Actor for Billy Porter, whose acceptance speech represented the best (what a genuinely sweet shout out to co-star and fellow nominee Stark Sands!) and must frustrating (hey, where’s that cutaway to Stark Sands?) aspects of the telecast. It can’t be an easy prospect to put on a dazzling Tonys when there haven’t been any truly indelible musicals all year. The Pippin revival comes closest, and certainly the telecast made the best of the showmanship and acrobatics therein. But Kinky Boots and Matilda, while quality shows with great admirers, haven’t really put their stamp on the American theater this year. It did end up being a pretty great year for plays, from Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy to the requisite white-people-arguing-at-dinner drama (The Assembled Parties), to the Best Play winner Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike. Which makes it all the more frustrating that the Tonys have still not managed to crack the code on how to better incorporate the plays into the telecast. I know they’re inherently not as easily digestible in short form, nor (usually) as visually arresting as the musicals, but you can’t tell me that a few minutes of Tracy Letts and Amy Morton letting fly with some of Edward Albee’s choicest verbal savagery from Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? wouldn’t have spiced things up a bit. Hell, we could have finally found a purpose for that on-stage vulture in The Testament Of Mary.
No, in these past few years, the heavy lifting of the entertainment portion of the Tonys has fallen to host Neil Patrick Harris. In this, his fourth time around, things have begun to calcify some. It’s hard to see bits like mashing up titles of musicals and plays together (a carbon copy of a bit from last year) or even the end-of-show wrap-up song and not think there’s a formula at work. There are only so many times you can go to the “white non-rapper rapping” well before it gets weird. Which isn’t to take anything away from the on-the-fly writing aspect of the song. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work on the writing side of these shows has been an unsung treasure, and I think the Tonys would be smart to let him take a crack at hosting one of these years. And still, just when I think I’m on the edge of NPH-fatigue, he knocks the opening production number out of the park. Or he takes the stage with Andrew Rannels, Laura Benanti, and recent Tony-winner Ivy Lynn to perform a grousing little number about how television can be a fickle mistress for stars of the stage. Those performances play like gangbusters to the live audience because they’re smart, knowing, and speak to a general sense of rallying around the community. TV may have rejected you, Laura Benanti, but there’s a whole community back here to whom you are an actual goddess.
The business side of the Tonys—the side that knows that Job 1 for the show is to sell tickets—was fed by the recurring presence of Broadway’s longer-running shows. So we get cast members from Chicago and Newsies and The Lion King and Jersey Boys out to introduce various production numbers from the new shows and generally remind us that, yes, Mamma Mia! is still playing, if you’d like to make the trip. I did end up feeling bad that they all got introduced by their characters’ names. These replacement cast members never get to bask in any Tonys glory as nominees, so why not just say their names on very, very low-rated national television? (Though maybe our Velma Kelly from Chicago is glad for a little anonymity after speaking her entire introduction into the wrong camera.)
Oh, hey, there were awards given out at this awards show! Aside from Kinky Boots, the big musical winner was Pippin, which was revived in an imaginative circus setting to great acclaim. It won Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actress for Patina Miller, and Best Featured Actress for Andrea Martin. The 66-year-old Martin thanked her French acrobat co-star for (literally) supporting her through the show, referring to their show-stopping aerial routine that surely cinched her the Tony win.
On the play side, Cicely Tyson won Best Actress for The Trip To Bountiful and gave a very deliberate, very moving, very theatrical speech (she managed to incorporate the “wrap it up” prompter command into a lovely statement on her career) that was nonetheless upstaged by her freaking fantastic dress that resembled a particularly angry bunch of grapes. Tom Hanks was largely (and somewhat resentfully, depending on which theater queens you asked) expected to win Best Actor for Lucky Guy, but Mr. Hollywood ended up losing out to Mr. Chicago, as playwright and Steppenwolf member Tracy Letts prevailed for his turn as George in Virginia Woolf. Hanks’s co-star Courtney B. Vance won Featured Actor and thanked his wife, Angela Bassett, subconsciously reminding everybody to look forward to Bassett’s ultimate Emmy triumph for American Horror Story next year. And in Featured Actress, Judith Light managed to repeat last year’s win in the same category, for arguably the same role, the substance-abusing aunt who tells harsh truths and keeps family secrets in equal measure. (I fear I’m being too glib—Light is fantastic in The Assembled Parties and more than worthy of an award for it.)
So, in terms of a production, the show has begun to flatten ever so slightly into The Usual NPH-Hosted Tonys Experience. But as a moment to share in the sense of inclusiveness that Cyndi Lauper says she felt when entering the Broadway community, it’s hard to top Tony night.
SOLID shot across the movie-musicals bow as Harris calls for his “Tom Hooper Les Mis closeup” and then says Broadway doesn’t need to trumpet their live singing, as they do it eight times a week…
… and then mere hours later, we get a fully lip-synched performance from The Phantom Of The Opera. Speaking of which, were we not promised a “celebration” of Phantom’s 25th anniversary? Whither Sarah Brightman? Michael Crawford? Minnie Driver???
Special shout-out to the performance of “It’s All Happening” from Bring It On, my favorite musical of the season. The sound-design boogeyman was at play at Radio City, but the burst of energy in that number is impossible to mess with too badly.
Vine-able moment to cherish: Alan Cumming and Scarlett Johansson playing pattycake backstage.
Vine-able moment to erase from your memories forever: Neil Patrick Harris frenching Sandy the dog from Annie. No link. Ever.
The performance from Cinderella highlighted why sometimes the increased intimacy of the television cameras is not always the best friend of the stage performer, as the costume flourishes that were so breathtaking for a Broadway audience looked effortful when you were placed right up in Laura Osnes and Victoria Clark’s faces.
Big ups to Best Directors Diane Paulus (Pippin) and Pam MacKinnon (Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?), only the second time both awards were given to women in the same year, all with quite a bit less of the self-conscious, back-patting fanfare that the Oscars went through when they awarded Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. [CORRECTION: An earlier version of this review said this was the first year that two women won Best Director. In 1998, Julie Taymor won for The Lion King, while Garry Hynes won for The Beauty Queen of Leenane.]
Boy are you ever setting a kid up for failure when you tell him to go out there and BE Michael Jackson. All due credit to young Raymond Luke Jr. from Motown: The Musical, but that’s a tall order.
Help me figure out what felt off about Jane Lynch’s Annie performance, will you? My initial theory is that Jane may be concentrating so hard on getting the singing right that she’s not being as funny as she needs to be to make “Little Girls” really work.
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Britain gives Advent's $5 billion Cobham takeover the green light
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has approved Advent International’s $5 billion purchase of defense company Cobham (COB.L) after the U.S. private equity group made commitments to address national security concerns.
Business minister Andrea Leadsom had put the deal on hold to review the sale of air-to-air refueling equipment maker Cobham, which employs 10,000 people and also makes communications equipment for military vehicles.
“I am satisfied that the undertakings mitigate the national security risks identified to an acceptable level and have therefore accepted them and cleared the merger to proceed”, Leadsom said in a statement bit.ly/2PIzbkS published on Friday.
Leadsom had said on Tuesday that the new British government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson was minded to accept the deal after Advent put forward several legal undertakings, including having a number of British executives on Cobham’s boards.
Advent will have to give prior notice to Britain’s defense ministry if it plans to sell all or part of Cobham’s business, and honor existing contracts with the government.
Founded in the 1930s, Cobham’s equipment came to the fore ahead of World War Two and in the 1982 Falklands conflict. Its technology is now used in aircraft such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Eurofighter Typhoon as well as advanced naval vessels, satellites and military vehicles.
However, it is still recovering from profit warnings in 2016 and 2017 that forced it to ask shareholders for cash and prompted Chief Executive David Lockwood to overhaul operations.
Advent bought British electronics company Laird for $1.65 billion last year.
The private equity firm has already won approval from regulators in the European Union, U.S. and Finland for its acquisition of Cobham, whose acquisition was backed by shareholders in September.
Britain approves Advent's $5 billion Cobham purchase
U.S. fund Advent drops takeover bid for Italy's Cerved
London Stock Exchange in talks to combine with Refinitiv: source
LSE's $27 billion deal rehabilitates Refinitiv debt
Posted in BusinessTagged A., advent, COBHAM, M, MERGERS, US
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Election 2020: A date with destiny for Varadkar...
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The Celtics Stay Undefeated in 2019 with a Blowout Win Over the Pacers
Patrick Whalen Game Summaries January 14, 2019
By Patrick Whalen
And just when we all thought this start to 2019 couldn’t get any better the Celtics went out and proved that it could be better. The Celtics were finishing off their homestand against a talented Pacers team and this would prove to be a good test for the Celtics as at the time the Pacers were third in the east. Tonight was the healthiest the Celtics have been in a while as just Aron Baynes was inactive and Horford was still on his minutes restriction but other than that everyone else was fully active. The Pacers meanwhile were without center Myles Turner which made Damontas Sabonis have to step up to the starting position. The Pacers were going to be the Celtics first real test against a potential playoff opponent since their Christmas Day thriller with the Sixers.
The Celtics would jump on the Pacers early as they lead by 6 at the end of the first and by 15 at the half. The Celtics fast start was powered by Marcus Morris and Jaylen Brown who each had 22 points. Morris was 6-8 shooting with 8 rebounds while Brown was 7-12 shooting with 7 rebounds off the bench including this bucket.
Air Brown™ (@AAANe_MAnews) #AAANortheast pic.twitter.com/zQex1Cdj1f
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 10, 2019
Tatum was second in scoring with 20 points on 9-15 shooting and 4 rebounds and even sent some Pacers to the floor.
Tatum twisting the Pacers ankles early 😳 (@AAANe_MAnews) #AAANortheast pic.twitter.com/df9PsGRcp0
Kyrie had a quiet night with just 12 points on 5-9 shooting in just 24 minutes. With this game becoming a blowout the Celtics rested most of their starters which allowed guys like Theis and Rozier some extra minutes. They each had 12 points off the bench while Rozier also had 5 rebounds and 5 assists and Theis had 6 rebounds to go with his 12. Gordon Hayward also had a good night off the bench with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Also Robert Williams had 6 points, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks in 12 minutes of action (Basketball-Reference.com). After leading by 15 at the half the Celtics went out and dominated the third quarter, which they normally struggle in, to lead by 25 going into the fourth. Despite having the reserves in for most of the fourth the Celtics still outscored the Pacers and ultimately won by 27 points with the final score being 135-108.
Despite getting blown out the Pacers still had some good performances from their squad. Sabonis stepped up in the absence of Turner and put up 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Oladipo still had 17 points on 6-13 shooting in the losing effort and Tyreke Evans had 15 points and 5 assists off the bench (Basketball-Reference.com).
This win was a great sign for Celtics fans. The offense was clicking on all levels as the Celtics dropped a new season high with 135 points on a potential playoff opponent and team normally known for their defensive ability. The Celtics also dominated the rebounding battle 48-39 despite having no Baynes and Horford only playing 18 minutes. The Celtics defense was also clicking with 7 steals and 7 blocks. This all-around dominant effort was a great building block for this young team, especially against a potential playoff opponent in Indiana. Up next the Celtics will head down to Miami to take on the Heat as the second game of their back to back. It will be a tough game but the Celtics need to start beating these borderline playoff teams like the Heat consistently if they want to make up ground in the standings as they currently are 25-15 and sit 4 games back of first in the east. Let’s hope the Celtics can stay undefeated in 2019 and carry their momentum on the road.
Also, don’t forget to vote for all your favorite Celtic players to send them to the 2019 All-Star game in Charlotte. Hit the link below and vote, vote, vote to get as many Celtics to Charlotte as we can.
https://vote.nba.com/#/
Published by Patrick Whalen
Just a college kid trying to start a blog about his favorite teams View all posts by Patrick Whalen
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Tag Archives: ArcelorMittal Orbit
Zaun and Harper Chalice secure success from Olympic springboard
Two Midlands security businesses are preparing to celebrate their greatest day in history, exactly four years on from the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.
On 27 July 2012, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the 2012 Olympic Games after apparently surviving a death-defying skydive with James Bond actor Daniel Craig as part of Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s Isles of Wonder Opening Ceremony.
Wolverhampton’s Zaun and Coventry-based Harper Chalice cite their largest-ever contracts as the springboard to the growth and success they now enjoy. They helped make the 30th Olympiad the biggest security operation post-war Britain had ever mounted at a cost of £553 million and involving 10,000 police officers, 13,500 Armed Forces personnel – more than Britain had deployed in Afghanistan at that time – and no less than 70,000 Games Maker volunteers.
London 2012 was widely regarded as a triumph. It was the first Olympics where every participating country included female athletes. It enjoyed packed stadiums and smooth organisation, and the focus on sporting legacy and post-games venue sustainability was seen as a blueprint for future Olympics (including Rio 2016 that opens in nine days’ time).
‘Legacy’ and ongoing community benefit was probably the key factor on which London secured the Games back in 2005 in the face of fierce competition from Paris. London 2012 delivered that in spades, along with a boost to the economy and a genuine nationwide ‘feelgood factor’ that arguably helped turn a faltering post-credit crunch recovery into sustained economic growth.
The regeneration of east London has been spectacular, though many argue about whether the 2012 Games sparked a long-term sustained greater participation in sports and improved fitness levels to combat the obesity epidemic.
Ongoing contracts for manufacturers
The world-class sporting facilities are also part of the legacy, but perhaps less obvious are the ongoing contracts for British manufacturers and service providers, as enjoyed by Harper Chalice and Zaun (among others).
Harper Chalice’s general manager and director Chris Hackett said: “As part of the pre-award process we had to install our systems alongside our competitors for trial and testing by the Government Security Services. The prize for winning was huge – 26 kilometres of PIDs and electric fencing at over 400 zones around the Olympic Park that has formed the basis of the TriSecure complete perimeter protection system that we now provide today alongside Zaun for high-security utilities sites and others.”
Certainly, Zaun’s Games legacy as the principal 2012 ‘Olympics fencer’ keeps running and running. The business has returned to the Olympic Stadium on several occasions, first decommissioning after the 2012 Paralympics, then reconfiguring and removing security fencing for last autumn’s Rugby World Cup and most recently to prepare it as the new home of West Ham United FC and a national competition centre for UK Athletics.
The transformation has included installing the largest roof if its kind in the world, a community track, innovative retractable seating, spectator and hospitality facilities and external landscaping.
The London legacy is about much more than just sporting venues. Zaun has also provided fencing around the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the transformation of the 275 metre-long Olympic media complex into iCITY and innovative ‘green’ acoustic fencing panels for the Chobham Academy on the former Athletes’ Village site.
Zaun’s head of sales, Chris Plimley, concluded: “London’s legacy has touched education, commerce, industry, culture, media, tourism, sport and a whole lot more. We owe a large part of our commercial success to the 2012 Games. London showed how the Olympics can benefit an entire nation.”
Filed under Risk UK News, Uncategorized
Tagged as ArcelorMittal Orbit, Armed Forces, Chobham Academy, Electric Fencing, Government Security Services, Harper Chalice, iCITY, London 2012 Olympic Games, Olympic Park, PIDS, Pro-Activ Publications, Rio 2016, Risk UK, Rugby World Cup, TheSecurityLion, TriSecure, UK Athletics, West Ham United FC, Zaun
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A Swarm of Stars, by James Bruce May
Toppo, God of Maps, stood on his viewing platform looking down at Earth. He longed for just a single pair of eyes to look back, but knew his vigil had to end. Decades ago, he’d watched mankind create a new technology with which to navigate the world. A device was distributed across the planet and billions of people switched their attention from the stars to look instead at small screens glowing in the palms of their hands. Thus, in one sweeping wave, all of his worshippers forsook him.
He wiped a tear from his crystalline eye and flicked it over the balustrade to fall away with a meteorite’s flash. He recalled the golden day when he first put his map in the sky, remembered the excitement of scattering the stars, the elation of sculpting the heavens. The pattern he fashioned was so elaborate, so precise, it would never fail to draw the eye towards his platform, the brightest star of the night by far. After his epic work was realised, he’d basked in the gaze of the lost multitudes for eons.
But now, no one looked up at all. Explorers had run out of room to explore, sailors sold out to sonar and even astronomers, having become obsessed by the dark divides which held the stars in place, no longer trained their telescopes towards Toppo.
The god stood staring at the world turning blue and majestic below. Hadn’t he demonstrated direction to its people, hadn’t he sheltered them from the terrors of the unknown? Hadn’t he given them a sense of the world around them, showed them scale, delineated to them their place in the order of things? And how had they thanked him? With treason. By turning on him. By replacing him.
It angered him.
‘Curse them,’ Toppo said, his breath a nebulous mist. Tendrils of that mist twisted, curled and fell, spinning faster and faster, dropping as arrows towards Earth, spearing through its skies as lightning that cracked and hissed, thumping the ground with a rumble that shook mountains. Trees shuddered and shed their leaves. Birds took wing into a cold, rising wind. Clouds gathered and a bitter rain pelted down, melting street signs wherever they stood, washing road markings away into gutters. Compasses span in drawers, and satellites plummeted to earth, smashing to smithereens in eerie, empty wastelands. Every map in every house, museum and glovebox disintegrated, slipping to the floor like sand through an hourglass. And then, in the blink of Toppo’s crystalline eye, every memory of every path, every shortcut down every alley, the meaning of every landmark, the remembered image of every front door, all blinked out, vanishing to oblivion.
Toppo turned his back on the glowing blue planet and stepped to the edge of his platform. He somersaulted off, performing a graceful dive towards the distant stars. He floated out into their icy light and, arms outstretched, began to heave and haul, push and shove, stir and spin until the sky danced in magnificent, mysterious beauty all around him.
Jean awoke from her nap with a grimace. Her usual urge to go to the loo was much, much more acute. The baby in her womb kicked. Frowning she stretched, glancing at the phone on her bedside table to check the time. It was still the afternoon but her bedroom was dim. She could hear the persistent tapping of rain at the window. Jean’s frown deepened as she felt dampness in her knickers. She pushed the covers back and saw a small amount of pink mucus had escaped. This was the show her midwife had told her about.
Her baby was coming.
She sat up but had to bend over as tightness stretched over her abdomen, squeezing pain downwards like a rolling pin was flattening her as it might flatten a great lump of pastry. She groaned, arms protective over her swollen belly. Her back ached and sweat gathered on her brow as the contraction passed. She took several deep breaths and reached for the phone, pressing the button to call Thomas.
‘Hey babe,’ he answered, ‘how’s it going?’
‘Thomas,’ Jean said, ‘the baby’s coming!’
‘Now? Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Definitely sure. Please come home!’
‘Okay. I’ll leave the office and take a cab. Should be there twenty minutes max.’
‘Be quick,’ Jean said, leaning forward and groaning again.
‘I will,’ Thomas said. ‘Hang in there angel, I’ll be with you as soon as I can!’ The phone speaker rustled and Jean heard her husband say shit shit shit under his breath, but then his voice returned. ‘You’re amazing; this is amazing. I love you. You’re going to be a mum today!’
‘Yes, yes, I love you too. Just come home.’ Jean hung up and pulled the duvet into her fists, clenching her jaw as the tightness returned.
Thomas stood and grabbed his jacket, startling nearby colleagues with his sudden movement.
‘I’ve got to go,’ he told them. ‘Baby’s coming!’
Calls of Good Luck! followed him out through wide glass doors onto the rain-washed street. Several people stood shaking their heads under umbrellas. One man walked back and forth muttering. Thomas pushed past them, looking left and right for a cab. He saw one approach and hailed it. The black car veered across the road, hazard lights flashing, heat spewing from its front grill as it drew up next to him. The driver expelled a huge breath as Thomas opened the door.
‘Home, please,’ Thomas said, ducking in out of the rain.
‘Look, sorry mate, not sure I can take you anywhere right now. Car’s all buggered and I’m having issues.’
‘What? But you have to. It’s an emergency!’
‘Emergency?’
‘My wife’s about to give birth!’
‘She is? Oh bugger.’
‘Exactly.’
‘But I’ve got issues regardless. Something about this rain, it’s messing with my nav system and –’
‘You have to help me,’ Thomas said. ‘It’s an emergency. Come on. Please.’ He looked at the mirror and into the cabbie’s uncertain eyes.
‘All right,’ the driver said after a pause, ‘I’ll try. But the car’s all buggered…’
‘Seems okay to me,’ Thomas said, looking around the interior of the car.
‘All right, I said all right! Where’s your wife?’
‘Home. She’s at home.’
‘No problem,’ the driver said. ‘Where’s home?’
‘It’s,’ Thomas said, but then hesitated. ‘Er, it’s just down the road. Thanks.’ Thomas frowned to himself and sat back. ‘It’s just down the road,’ he said again, his voice quiet.
The driver pulled away, narrowing his eyes at Thomas in the mirror. He stopped at the first junction.
‘Where next, left or right?’
‘I, er…’ A balloon of alarm rose within Thomas, his breathing quickened as he turned to look at the street’s unfamiliar shop-fronts. He pulled a sweaty palm through his hair. ‘Fuck,’ he said. ‘I can’t for the life of me remember!’
‘You can’t remember where your house is?’
‘Well it must be here somewhere,’ Thomas said, eyes wide.
A car behind sounded its horn, so the cabbie took a left. ‘Why not try calling?’
Thomas took his mobile from his pocket and held it to his ear for a moment before snatching it away. ‘Bloody network’s jammed!’
‘Look, try to relax,’ the driver said. ‘It’s just your stress manifesting.’ A father himself, he knew such apprehension well. But as he watched his passenger flinch about behind him, his suspicion solidified. Things had been out of kilter ever since this rain had started beating against his windscreen a little earlier. The downpour was so strong, it’d blurred his view and he’d missed a turning and got lost. He hadn’t missed a turning in twenty years! He’d tried some back streets and found his way onto a busier road, but his sat-nav stopped responding, and when he pulled over to check the map on his mobile, even that couldn’t track his whereabouts.
He’d had that feeling of leaving the house thinking he’d forgotten something, but not knowing exactly what that something was. Yet he remained unfazed, even when he opened his dusty glovebox to see his old street atlas had been mislaid: he knew the roads of this city as well as the moles and birthmarks on his children’s bodies. He set off again, but every time he tried to spot a street sign, he just missed one or the rainwater blurred his vision again, right at the crucial moment. He’d never known weather to have this kind of an impact.
After a while he began to notice other cars driving erratically – performing sudden U-turns, risking dangerous overtakes, stopping without warning – and he suspected that whatever was wrong, it was wrong universally. He had no idea where he was and he became stressed.
Next thing he knew, Thomas was waving him down, opening the door to an altogether more urgent set of problems.
The cab driver watched as his passenger wound down the window to look at the buildings going by. His panic seemed to have passed, and he scanned the streets speaking under his breath: ‘We’ve got to find her; we have to find her.’ The driver nodded to himself, tightening his grip on the wheel. He resolved to do whatever he could to help this man find his wife.
Jean pulled on her coat but had to lean against the wall as another contraction came. Pain cramped into her thighs and about her back, tightening across her tummy and hunching up her shoulders. She leant on the wall breathing hard. She’d waited over half an hour for Thomas, the pain becoming more frequent, less manageable.
‘Where is he?’ she said, clenching her jaw and bending to pick up her bag of essentials. He should arrive any minute, so she thought she’d go outside to wait. She wanted to get to the hospital as soon as possible.
She stepped out onto the rain-washed street, her front door clicking closed behind her. She tried to spot the faces of the people driving by, but the rain on the glass smeared their features like they were painted in running watercolours. She could see no sign of Thomas. The rain was heavy, so she decided to go back inside to call him, but when she turned to walk back into her house, she froze. A row of terrace houses lined the street in front of her. She looked at their doors of red and yellow and blue, but found she had no idea which one was hers.
‘What in the name…’
Her baby kicked again, engendering another bout of pain. She put her hands on her knees, tears gathering in her eyes, but she blinked them back at the sound of screeching brakes. A black cab was swerving across the road, splashing through puddles, speeding and sounding its horn.
‘Thomas!’
Thomas was leaning out of the taxi’s window. He spotted her and pointed towards her. He shouted ‘That’s her!’ and the driver pulled up opposite. Thomas sprang from the car and ran to Jean, pulling her into a close embrace. They stood hugging in the rain.
‘Thomas, I felt so lost!’
‘Thank God we found you,’ he said. ‘I was so worried.’
‘We have to get to the hospital.’
‘What are you doing out here, why aren’t you at home?’
Jean frowned up at him. ‘But I was at home, I was waiting for you –’ she broke off with a groan. ‘Look it doesn’t matter. We have to go. Our baby’s coming, Thom.’
Thomas kept his arm around his wife as they crossed the road to the taxi. He opened the door and they both got in. Jean sagged into a seat and Thomas sat forward. ‘We’ve got her! Well done that man,’ he said to the driver.
Jean looked at the cabbie’s eyes in the mirror. ‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘Pleasure,’ the driver said with a nod.
‘Right! To the hospital,’ Thomas said.
‘Right,’ the cabbie said, concentration covering his face as he sped off.
Jean watched as they left the strange street, looking through the window at the rain falling into the oncoming evening. Lamp-posts flicked on as the car drove down darkening roads. Jean’s contractions came steadily, pain knuckling around her midriff, causing her to gasp and moan. And then her waters broke, soaking her knickers and cotton trousers, seeping into the car seat beneath her.
‘Oh, shit,’ Thomas said.
‘What’s happened?’ the driver said.
Jean breathed through her teeth but did not cry.
‘It’s okay,’ Thomas said, addressing everybody in the car. ‘How far to the hospital?’
‘We’re close,’ the driver said. ‘I’m sure we’re close. Hold on!’
‘I don’t think I can,’ Jean said, kicking off her soaked trousers. ‘Call an ambulance, Thom.’
Thomas took off his jacket and covered Jean’s thighs. He tried his mobile again but it was no use. ‘The network’s jammed, darling. But it’s okay,’ he squeezed her hand, ‘we’ll get there any minute.’
‘Oh, God,’ Jean said, throwing her head back. ‘We’re not going to make it in time!’
The cabbie watched his mirror in disbelief. He knew of other drivers this had happened to, but he never thought it would happen to him. He always got his punters to where they needed to be. He kept searching for signs to the hospital, even listening out for sirens he could follow, but it was no good. He just couldn’t find his way. He looked back into the mirror and met Jean’s eyes.
‘Pull over,’ she said.
Thomas stroked her hair. ‘Darling, we’re nearly there –’
‘I’m not going – to have my baby – in the back of a cab!’
The driver stopped the car, got out and went to the boot. ‘I’ve got a blanket in here,’ he said as Thomas opened the door. The cabbie looked up. ‘Looks like the rain’s stopping, at least.’
‘Good,’ Thomas said. ‘Let’s put the blanket on the pavement by the door.’ He helped Jean climb out of the car. She lay down on the blanket and propped herself up on her elbows. Thomas folded up his jacket and wedged it under her back. He rolled up his shirt sleeves and unzipped her bag to retrieve this and that, trying to think back to all those antenatal classes they’d attended. Then he turned to the cabbie with earnest eyes. ‘Thanks so much for getting us this far,’ he said, standing. ‘Please stay and keep us safe. I swear I’ll make it up to you once this is over.’
‘Don’t worry,’ the cabbie said. ‘And good luck.’ The two men shook hands. Thomas returned to Jean and the driver walked around his car to keep watch. He listened to his passengers, one saying push, the other grunting in pain.
Above the cabbie the clouds began to glide apart. He stood watching the sky, thinking of his own wife, hoping she and the kids hadn’t been caught up in this freak weather. They were probably at home wondering where he’d got to. They’d never believe all this when he told them about it later. The clouds drifted away to reveal the night sky and the driver blinked and rubbed his eyes. He stood and stared, mouth agape. The stars above were swarming. The heavens glittered like myriad diamonds washed in black waves caught by moonlight.
Behind the taxi, Jean heaved and heaved. After a great, long effort, with one final push she gave birth. Thomas delivered their baby, cutting its chord with scissors from the bag, wiping its tiny frowning face with Jean’s spare pyjamas. Jean lay back, listening to the small cries of her firstborn as she watched the flowing stars above, breathless. Thomas wrapped their child and brought it to Jean’s breast.
‘It’s a girl,’ he said. ‘She’s beautiful.’
All across the world chaotic scenes came to a close as men, women and children stood still, casting their faces to the skies. People stood on balconies, on beaches, in city squares, in the middle of roads or country lanes: all looked upwards. Some stood alone but most stood together, dropping whatever they were holding to clasp the hand of the person standing next to them. Millions of mobiles fell from fingers to crack broken on the floor.
The stars, which had spun enchanting through the night, began to settle in place. They twinkled as they came to rest, silent and serene. People began to point as their eyes were drawn across the sky towards the brightest star in the heavens, which winked above like some god’s shining crystalline eye.
James Bruce May read Creative Writing at Greenwich University and Goldsmiths College in London. His work has appeared in HARK Magazine, Open Pen Magazine, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Fat City Review, The Puffin Review, The treacle Well and others.
One thought on “A Swarm of Stars, by James Bruce May”
Wow I love this, thank you – a modern – ancient tale -let us not forget to appreciate natural beauty 🙂
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Orangutan rescued from palm oil plantation had 74 air rifle pellets in her body
Will Metcalfe
Yahoo News UK 20 March 2019
Veterinarians carry out examinations on a critical orangutan named “Hope” after she was rescued from Subulussalam city – Aceh Province.
Shocked wildlife officials who rescued an injured critically endangered orangutan and her starving baby say they found 74 air gun pellets lodged in her body.
The 30-year-old Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) was found with her starving baby, who later died, on a palm oil plantation near the city of Subulussalamm, in Aceh Province, on the island of Sumatra in north-western Indonesia.
The one-month-old baby orangutan was so badly malnourished it subsequently died but its mother is expected to survive despite her injuries and has been nicknamed ‘Hope’.
However Hope, who also suffered broken bones and cuts, has been left completely blind from her injuries.
Experts say ‘Hope” will need a long time care and recovery treatment, especially for mental rehabilitation
Shocked wildlife officials who rescued an injured orangutan say they found 74 air gun pellets lodged in her body.
She was rescued by officials from the Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Aceh and is now being cared for at an animal rehabilitation centre at the Sibolangit nature reserve in northern Sumatra.
Sapto Aji Prabowo, the regional head of the agency, described the people who had tortured and abused the critically endangered ape as “truly barbaric”.
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He said his team had received a report about the orangutans at the palm oil plantation about a week earlier and decided to launch a rescue bid.
The Sumatran orangutan, one of the three species of orangutans, is found only in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Hope is now recovering but her baby died.
The mother orangutan had serious injuries from sharp objects on her right arm and leg and left finger
It is critically endangered with the main threat posed by human activities, especially habitat destruction as a result of palm oil cultivation, and poaching.
Orangutans are among the most intelligent primates.
They use a variety of sophisticated tools and construct elaborate nests each night from branches and foliage.
Gripping Images Show Mourning Koala Beside Dead Companion In Australia Fires
PA Media: World News
Australia wildfires: Koala pictured 'grieving' over dead friend
Locusts threaten food security in Horn of Africa
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Home Tobacco Legislation FDA Clarifies Its Position on Tobacco 21 Enforcement
FDA Clarifies Its Position on Tobacco 21 Enforcement
Tobacco Business
The recent passage of the federal Tobacco 21 legislation signed into law on Dec. 20, 2019 by President Donald Trump has created chaos and confusion among tobacco retailers, leading to various retail associations to press the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clarification [read more here]. The agency has responded to this request, offering some answers to help retailers adjust to this change in the legislation.
In a press release posted on the FDA’s website, agency states that the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was amended on Dec. 20, 2019, making it illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product, including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes to anyone under 21. The FDA states that effective immediately, retailers are not allowed to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21. The FDA acknowledged that retailers will indeed have to retrain their staff and that the agency itself will need to reach out to retailers to assist in re-educating them on the changing law. While this will take time, the FDA reiterates that it expects retailers to follow the law and do whatever necessary to ensure individuals who are purchasing tobacco products are 21 years or older. While the FDA expects retailers to continue to check IDs, the agency says it will continue to only use minors under the age of 18 in its compliance check program.
There are resources available to retailers to help them adjust to the new law, including the FDA This is Our Watch digital age certification calendar that can be updated to reflect the new 21 years minimum purchasing age. Instructions on how to update the digital calendar is available on the FDA’s website. Retailers are also able to order a calendar free of charge from the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products Exchange Lab. Those retailers using the Age Calculator app can also update the age limit to 21 years within the app.
The FDA says that it will be updating its website, regulations and other material in the near future to reflect the higher age limit. For the time being, the FDA’s enforcement of the federal minimum age for purchasing tobacco products is ongoing and the agency is still conducting compliance checks on tobacco retailers, meaning everyone should recognize 21 years as the new minimum for purchasing tobacco products.
You can read the full statement on federal Tobacco 21 made by the FDA here. For all the latest legislation and FDA news impacting the tobacco industry, click here.
tobacco 21
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Room101 Releases VI The Dream and Nightmare at Tinder Box Waldorf
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tolde by the weye
Archives for the month of: February, 2013
Family planning involving a river and a tree
February 17, 2013 //
Westvleteren XII – a Trappist beer that scored a perfect 100 on Beer Advocate last year. Six-packs sold for as much as $85 US (image: www.beercrank.ca)
Cardinal André Vingt-Trois has been making headlines during the last few months for sharing his predictable stance on the issue of gay marriage. He has an interesting surname. I was hoping that Vingt-Trois (twenty-three in English) was descended from a long line of Trappist monks, his ancestor named after a famous batch of beer that fetched such a nice price at market that they were able to buy back their monastery from the bank – but it’s actually a little more interesting than that: One of the Cardinal’s ancestors was, as the story goes, left on a doorstep on the 23rd day of the month.
A baby being named after how, where, or when it is found is a Christian tradition dating back to a story from the Old Testament when the children of Israel lived in Egypt as Pharaoh’s slaves:
Hebrews born to serve, to the pharaoh
To his every word, live in fear[1]
Each time some invaders showed up to conquer Egypt, the children of Israel fought against Pharaoh. So, in an attempt to assimilate them, he offered them the hardest and most important jobs in the service of the Sun God: farming and brick and mortar. They helped Egypt exceed its luxurious food security goals and even solved Pharaoh’s treasure storage problems. The children of Israel planned and dug an irrigation system so that when the Nile flooded according to the stars, they made efficient use of its water and grew healthy crops in great abundance. Pharaoh used the ingenuity of the children of Israel to devise ways to haul massive, good quality stones from remote quarries. They built structures so large and sturdy that they can still be seen today from space. In fact, there are still some people around who believe the work was done by aliens!
When the treasure cities of Pithom and Ramsees were finally built for Pharaoh, he was very pleased, but the children of Israel did not take pride and glory in their work or embrace the Egyptian way of life. They wouldn’t walk like an Egyptian, talk like an Egyptian, or even wear Egyptian clothing. They wouldn’t pray to cats and jackals or even people with crocodile heads. They didn’t even eat Egyptian food even though they helped grow it. Well, since they weren’t interested in becoming Egyptian, Pharaoh tried oppressing them in hopes that they would leave, but the more he oppressed them, the more their numbers grew. In a final attempt to rid Egypt of the children of Israel once and for all, Pharaoh made a new law for the Hebrews: “Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”[2]
Shortly after this unusually cruel and utterly uncivilized law came into effect, a Hebrew woman from the house of Levi gave birth to a son. Now, it doesn’t take an alchemist to know that if a baby is thrown into a river it will drown. This woman didn’t want her neighbors to think she was stupid – or worse, a bad mother – so, to avoid bringing shame to the house of Levi, she cast him into the river her own way: “she got a rush basket for him, made it watertight with pitch and tar, laid him in it, and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. The child’s sister stood some distance away to see what would happen to him.”[3]
14th century illustration in an illuminated ‘S’ from Breviary of Chertsey Abbey (Bodlein MS. Lat. Liturgy. d. 42, fol. 006r) (image: LUNA)
Well, as it turned out, Pharaoh’s daughter was taking a walk with her maids that day and she noticed the basket by the riverbank. She ordered one of her maids to go down and get the baby and bring it back to her. When it was opened, Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby crying and “she was moved with pity for it.”[4] She realized it was a Hebrew baby. At this moment, the baby’s sister stepped up and asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and fetch you one of the Hebrew women to act as a wet-nurse for the child?”[5] Pharaoh’s daughter told her to do so and she brought the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed to pay the woman to nurse the baby for her as long as she brought the child to her when the nursing was done. Now, it was against the law to let a Hebrew baby boy live, but we all know that a father (even if he is Pharaoh) can never tell his daughter no. When the baby was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter, she decided to raise the child as her own. Pharaoh’s daughter called the baby Moses[6] because she “drew him out of the river.”[7]
In Marie de France’s Breton lay Le Fraisne (Le Frêne), the heroine received her name in a very similar way as Moses. She was called Fraisne because she was found as a baby in an ash tree outside an abbey.
Though Marie de France’s Lays were written in the 12th century, they may have been quite popular for a couple hundred years, because a 14th century version in Middle English survives in the Aunchinleck Manuscript.[8] Here is the scene from this Middle English telling where Le Fraisne is named:
And for it was in an asche yfounde,
Sche cleped it Frain in that stounde.
(The Freyns of the “asche” is a freyn
After the language of Breteyn;
Forthe Le Frein men clepeth this lay
More than Asche in ich cuntray). (v.229-234)[9]
The reasons why these babies were left out and found are a little different in these two stories but also strikingly similar. In Le Fraisne’s case, it all starts with two rich, noble, and courteous knights who were neighbors. They married around the same time and when the first knight’s wife gave birth to twins, he sent a messenger to tell his friend the good news. Now, the knight who received the message had a wife who was envious, arrogant, and prone to lying. When she heard the news she laughed out loud in a mocking tone and said, “I can’t believe your friend would announce embarrassing news in such a proud way! You know what they say about twins, right? It means two men were involved! Your friend is announcing to the entire land that he is a cuckold!”
Needless to say, the knight was embarrassed and instantly rebuked his wife, “I can’t believe you would say such a thing about my fellow knight and his wife. They are the most respectable people we know!”
The messenger and the servants heard what the knight’s wife said and told everyone they knew what happened. The story spread like wildfire through the entire Breton countryside and before a week had even passed, she was the most hated and despised noble in Brittany.
Well, the same year, the knight’s wife got pregnant and wouldn’t you know it, she gave birth to twins. Now the knight’s neighbor gets his revenge! As you can imagine, the knight’s wife is devastated. She resolves to kill one of the babies. She would prefer to ask for God’s forgiveness than to suffer the humiliation of everyone hearing that poetic justice had been served. The lady’s maid begs not to kill the baby. She promises her lady that she will take the baby to a monastery, leave it anonymously, and never speak of it again to anyone for as long as she lives. The lady agrees and wraps the baby in fine linen and drapes a fine piece of brocaded fabric her husband brought back from Constantinople over the baby. She also ties a golden ring that held a large precious stone to the baby’s arm with a piece of ribbon:
Detail of Le Fraisne lines 121-134 (transcribed below) from Harley 978 (13th century) f. 128v (image: British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts)
En un chief de mult bon cheinsilenvolupent l’enfant gentil
e desus un paile roe
sis sire li ot aporté
de Constentinoble u il fu
unques si bon n’orent veü
a une piece d’un suen laz
un gros anel li lie al braz
de fin or I aveit une unce
el chasten out une jagunce
la verge en tur esteit letree
la u la meschine iert trovee
bien sacent tuit veraiement
qu’ele est nee de bone gent. (v.121-134)[10] Elles enveloppent l’enfant de noble naissance dans une fine toile de linet la recouvrent d’une soierie ornée de rosacesque le seigneur avait rapportée à sa femme d’un séjour de Constantinople:on n’avait jamais vu si belle étoffe!La mere attaché au bras de l’enfant,avec un de ses lacets, un gros anneaud’or pur d’une once:Le chaton portrait une hyacintheet une inscription courait autour de l’anneau.Ainsi quand on trouvera la petite fille,Tout le monde pourra être sure
qu’elle est de bonne famille.[11] (v.121-134) They wrapped the noble child in a cloth of fine linen and then placed over her the finest piece of striped brocade which her husband brought from Constantinople, where he had been. With a piece of her ribbon, the lady attached to the child’s arm a large ring made from an ounce of pure gold, with a ruby set in it and lettering on the band. Wherever she was found, people would then truly know that she was of noble birth.[12]
I love that, a minute ago she was prepared to kill the baby but now she wants whoever finds the baby to know that she comes from a rich and noble family and should be treated with the respect and given the resources rich and noble people are accustomed to receiving.
Anyway, the maid rides out into the night, finds a monastery and places the baby in the branches of an ash tree. When the porter wakes up early the next morning, he sees the brocaded fabric dangling from the tree and when he goes to investigate it, he finds the baby. It’s a baby girl. He brings it to his wife and she nurses the baby. When the baby is done nursing, the porter brings her to the Prioress and tells her all about how he came to find the baby. The Prioress decides to adopt the girl as her niece and she names her Le Fraisne (the ash tree).
Moses and Fraisne are similar in that their births were kept secret, they were found by someone, nursed, adopted by a strong woman (in Moses’ case, Pharaoh’s daughter and in Fraisne’s case, the Prioress), and named based on how they were found.
Moses was in danger of being killed because of Pharaoh’s law and Fraisne was in danger of being killed because her mother was afraid of being humiliated – which is ironic because she’d probably already endured the worst of the public’s ridicule by insulting the knight whose wife had twins.
Elora Danan’s mark from Willow (copyright 1988 Lucasfilm, Imagine Entertainment, MGM. image: rottentomatoes.com)
In George Lucas’ Willow, the evil queen Bavmorda imprisons all of the pregnant women in her realm so she can find and kill a baby girl who is prophesied to end her rule. When the newborn is found with the mark (curiously on the arm which is the same place the ring was fastened to Fraisne), a woman escapes with the baby before the evil queen can kill the her. The woman sends the baby down a river in an ark of rushes. The baby is found by an unlikely hero and the evil queen’s dominion falls. Lucas uses the famous ark of rushes from the Moses story for his tale of a female savior. Now, Fraisne didn’t turn out to be a savior or a great prophetess in Marie de France’s lay, but she does get the chance to be reunited with her mother and she marries the best knight in the land. Marie, though, may have been the first poet to give a girl the chance to play the part of the foundling.
[1] Metallica, “Creeping Death,” Ride the Lightning (Elektra, 1984).
[2] Exodus 1:22, KJV
[3] The Oxford Study Bible Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha, Ed. M. Jack Suggs. Katharine Doob Sakenfield, James R. Mueller (New York, 1992), Exodus 2:3-4.
[4] Exodus 2:6
[6] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of The Bible, James Strong, Hebrew word 4872 מֹשֶׁה Môsheh drawing out (of the water), i.e. rescued. (KJV Exodus 2:10, “And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.”)
[7] Exodus 2:10
[8] “Lay Le Freine: Introduction”, The Middle English Breton Lays, ed. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury (Kalamazoo, 1995). Available online: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/freiint.htm
[9] “Lay Le Freine”, The Middle English Breton Lays, ed. Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury (Kalamazoo, 1995). Available online: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/freine.htm
[10] References to Marie de France in Old French are taken from Lais de Marie de France, Ed. Karl Warnke (Paris, 1990).
[11] References to Marie de France in Modern French translation are taken from Lais de Marie de France, trans. Laurence Harf-Lancner (Paris, 1990).
[12] References to Marie de France in Modern English translation are taken from The Lais of Marie de France, trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby (London, 1999), p.62.
Tags 12th century, 14th century, Anglo-Norman, brittany, court poetry, George Lucas, Le Fraisne (Le Frêne), Marie de France, medieval, medieval storytelling, Middle English, Moses, religion
Categories Breton Lays, Marie de France, Medieval Poetry
February 5, 2013 //
Medieval Tour Guides and The Stations of Jerusalem
Edel Mulcahy is on a quest to popularize the idea of family in the medieval pilgrimage. Lately, she’s been leafing through dusty old guide books of medieval pilgrimage sites and in her latest dispatch, she introduces us to The Stations of Jerusalem from Ashmole 61 – a saddle-book of late medieval miscellany. If seeing one of your favorite saint’s teeth and a holy kneecap is your idea of a vacation, well then, this post is right up your alley!
Tags medieval, Middle English, pilgrimage, pilgrimage sites
Categories Medieval miscellany, reblogs
12th century 13th century 14th century 15th century Aesir Alfred the Great Anglo-Norman Anglo-Saxon archery Arthurian Legend Arthurian Romance Aëlroth Beowulf blood Boethius brittany brunhild Burgundians Burton Raffel Canterbury Tales Chanson de Roland Chaucer Christianity Chronicles of Prydain Chrétien de Troyes Constance court poetry Dark Crystal Das Nibelungenlied dragon dream vision epic poetry Erec et Enide faithful adaptation folktales gore guigemar Gunter hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien Krimhild language Lloyd Alexander Loki Man of Law Marie de France medieval medieval poetry medieval storytelling Middle English Middle High German nature Norse Mythology Odin Old French Peace Corps Pearl Poet Peter Jackson Ragnarök religion Secreta Secretorum Sifried Sigurd Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Snorri Sturluson Song of Roland Song of the Nibelungs Star Wars The Black Cauldron The Knight Thomas Malory Tolkien travel West Africa winter
Breton Lays
Chanson de Roland
Chrétien de Troyes
Das Nibelungenlied
Girls on Parchment
Icelandic Sagas
Medieval miscellany
Medieval Poetry
Medieval Treatises
My Secret Pearl Without a Spot Sightings
Pearl Poet
Today's medieval bloodfest
tolde by the weye on holiday
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Registrars Can Sign Up Now To Sell .blog TLD
Registrars can now sign up on nic.blog for the rights to sell the .blog top-level domain. According to nic.blog, registrars can also sign up to receive more information on the timeline, implementation details, and more.
Pricing for the new gTLD will be standard for top-level domains and will also include premium options for higher-value names.
“Pricing will be in the standard range for new gTLDs, with premium names available in several tiers,” the site said. “High margins for registrars will be guaranteed by an incentive model, rewarding sales above a certain baseline. Final terms will be published in the coming weeks.”
While the launch plan for .blog is still subject to change, the tentative timeline is:
August 2016 (Sunrise): Trademark owners can register .blog domains associated with their brand.
October 2016 (Landrush): .blog domain names may be registered via application.
November 2016 (General Availability): The .blog domain will be open to the general public.
Automattic-owned Knock Knock WHOIS There LLC purchased the rights to operate the .blog domain in 2015 for around $20 million. They plan to activate an estimated 250,000 new names in 2016 alone, with a long-term plan of growth and high renewal rates. You can sign up on https://dotblog.wordpress.com/ to receive updates.
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by Burhan Marriott 7 days ago
Seth MacFarlane Leaves Fox, Signs $200 Million Deal With NBC Universal
Seth MacFarlane is moving to NBC.
Seth MacFarlane signed a new deal with NBC Universal for five years and a total of $200 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Seth’s voice resonates across multiple demographics and mediums. We all admire his ability to create audacious commentary with bold, yet relatable, humor and I look forward to working with him behind and in front of the camera,” said Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios.
MacFarlane is best known for creating the hit show Family Guy and has previously worked with 20th Century Fox Television for over two decades.
“All of us at UCP are huge fans of Seth’s work in television and film,” said UCP president Dawn Olmstead. “In my household, where the ages range from 11 to 52, Seth falls somewhere between an icon and a god. Whether it’s comedy, drama, science fiction, animation or musicals, his virtuoso knows no boundaries. This, combined with our shared desire to play in every sandbox that the industry has to offer, is why I believe we can be a great home for all of his creative pursuits. Plus, working with him just made me much cooler to my kids.”
With NBC Universal, MacFarlane will create and develop new TV projects for both cable TV and streaming.
“I am extremely honored to be partnering with Dawn Olmstead and the entire UCP team,” MacFarlane said. “My relationship with Universal predates this new chapter, and if my experience producing television with UCP is anything like the experience I’ve had producing films with the company, it will be an exciting and creatively fulfilling one for me and for Fuzzy Door. I’m especially inspired by all of the opportunities that NBCUniversal Content Studios has to offer with George and Bonnie at the helm. I will remain indebted to my good friend Dana Walden and the team at 20th for their collaborative partnership over the years, and I look forward to our continued work together on Family Guy, American Dad and The Orville.”
Read more about the deal at The Hollywood Reporter.
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Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez & DJ Khaled Spotted Filming Super Bowl Commercial
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Vince Vaughn Scolded For Shaking Hands With Donald Trump At NCAA Championship
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Kanye West's "Yeezus" Was Almost Called "Thank God For Drugs"
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Donald Trump Likens LSU Tigers To The Military, Hilarity Ensues
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Live Radio Broadcast
2019-20 COMBINED STATISTICS (PDF)
2016-17 SEASON IN PHOTOS
2019-20 GAME NOTES
2019-20 HISTORY AND RECORDS
COMPTON FAMILY ICE ARENA
HOCKEY CAMPS
Irish Up To #12 In Rankings, Quarterfinal Tickets On Sale
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Fighting Irish hockey team moved up to No. 12 in both the USCHO.com poll and to in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls after a weekend split at now #6/7 Boston University to close out the regular-season.
With the split, Notre Dame earned the No. 4 seed and a first round bye in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament and will host a quarterfinal series on March 10-12 at the Compton Family Ice Arena (opponent TBD).
Tickets for the upcoming home playoff series can be purchased here. Individual tickets start at $11 per game, while there is also a special Playoff Four Pack offer, which allows fans to purchase four tickets for $40.
Fans arriving early for Friday night’s game (March 10) will receive a free Notre Dame hockey hat (while supplies last).
Notre Dame joins No. 1 UMass Lowell, No. 2 Boston University and No. 3 Boston College as teams with first round byes.
In this weekend’s first round series (March 3-5), No. 5 Providence plays host to No. 12 Massachusetts, No. 6 Vermont draws No. 11 Maine, No. 7 Merrimack plays No. 10 New Hampshire and No. 8 Northeastern will entertain No. 9 Connecticut.
— ND —
Dan Colleran, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).
Hockey @NDHockey | Go Irish. Beat Buckeyes. (2020)
Hockey Cale Morris Up For Hobey Vote
Hockey @NDHockey | Jeff Jackson Post-Practice Press Conference (01.15.20)
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US launches probe into whether Russia took part in ‘chemical attack’ in Syria
Posted by Pam Vredenburg on April 7, 2017 at 8:30pm
The US has reportedly begun an investigation into whether Russia is linked to the suspected chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib, which Washington claims was carried out by Damascus. It comes after Russia condemned the US strike on a Syrian air base, which killed six people. An unidentified drone, allegedly Russian or Syrian, has been spotted over a rebel-held town in Idlib province after the Tuesday incident Khan Sheikhoun, AP cited US military officials as saying on Friday.
The AP report comes amid an array of reactions to the early Friday Tomahawk cruise missile strike on the Syrian army’s Shayrat airfield near Homs, which US President Donald Trump said he ordered after Damascus “used banned chemical weapons.”
Despite no investigation into the incident, which Russia and Syria said coincided with the bombing of a rebel warehouse storing munitions and toxic substances allegedly used in the production of shells used in Iraq and in some previous gas attacks in Syria, the US and its western allies have jumped to conclusions that Syrian President Bashar Assad bears responsibility for “chemical attack.”
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, commenting on the attack at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, claimed that the US actions “were fully justified” while adding Washington is “prepared to do more,” but “hope[s] that will not be necessary.”
Moscow has decried the US bombing of Syria. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin “regards the strikes as aggression against a sovereign nation,” in violation of international law, conducted “under an invented pretext.”
Russia’s Prime Minister Medvedev said that the attack was conducted “on the verge of a military clash” with Russia and showed that Trump has already bowed down to the establishment he once used to harshly criticize.
Russian deputy acting envoy to the UN Vladimir Safronkov also believes that the US is “afraid” of “real investigation” into the incident which might show that president Assad did not use chemical weapons.
‘US strike encouraged jihadists in Syria’ – former UK Syria ambassador
While the UK government was among those who commended the aggressive action by the US against Syria, a former UK ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford, has sharply criticized the move, questioning the mainstream narrative and warning of dire consequences for the Syrian people.
“If it’s only an alleged chemical attack, then the strike by the Americans can’t possibly be justified. They have delivered the verdict without deliberating on the evidence. What needs to happen, and may yet happen, is the proper UN investigation, but the damage is done,” Ford told RT.
Ford said that the US attack will serve to deteriorate the situation in Syria: “What Trump has done has made it less likely that there can be a negotiated outcome and more likely that there’ll be more fighting and more use of chemical weapons.”
Crucially, the US strike will likely encourage terrorists in Syria to launch attacks, including possible chemical attacks, the former ambassador said.
“If you were a jihadi, would you not be jubilant this morning? Would you not be planning false flag operations to make sure more American involvement was brought on Assad’s head? Of course you would,” Ford said.
Such “false-flag operations” have already been launched by militants as documented in the August report by the UN, he reminded, warning that “we’re all being manipulated by the jihadis and their backers.”
https://www.rt.com/news/383991-us-probe-chemical-attack-russia/
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Alice's Review - Supernatural 7.15, "Repo Man" aka The Consequences of Good Intentions
Written by Alice Jester
Category: Episode Reviews
Created: 20 February 2012
Yeah, thanks Mr. Edlund. You went and did it again. My stomach is tore up in knots, Sam is left burning in Hell (mentally), and I'm stuck with that crushing vision in my head of his subtle yet tragic breakdown until March 16th. Yeah, thanks a lot.
Oh, I know better. This means that Ben is awesome at his job. At Comic Con last year when I interviewed The Vampire Diaries Executive Producer Kevin Williamson, he shared a little showrunner's trade secret when planning for breaks in the writer's room. "When you think about each episode to 22 it's so overwhelming. We try to do tent poles. Here it is and this is going to happen. And then we look at the schedule and see when the breaks are. The network tells you where you have hiatus for four weeks, so we go, ‘Well, maybe we should do that there," so then everyone is hanging for 4 weeks. We like to torture our audiences as much as we torture our characters. It's fun."
Yeah, really fun. At least we went into the break with a bang. Aside from the fact that I'm a quivering mess for dear Sammy (Mark Pellegrino is the best damned Lucifer ever), there's no doubt that we were treated to an old school, intense creep fest that can only be pulled off by so few on the "Supernatural" writing team these days. If anyone is up to the task, it's the creative genius himself. Edlund does funny better than anyone, and he does bone-chilling-mess-with-your-head better than anyone. No matter what the theme he's all about the extremes. We're all about getting absorbed in every minute of it.
This episode has many layered themes and references, all perfectly woven in a fluid story that blurs lines between what is truly evil and what is truly good. It starts by exploring a concept that we've often wondered about, but have never truly seen. What happens to these victims after they're possessed? It has been eluded to in the past, Bobby's comment in "The Magnificent Seven" coming to mind, that a lifetime worth of psychiatry bills is what's in store for these people.
Turns out we that Jeffrey isn't the only possession victim who's psyche we get a vivid look at in "Repo Man." Sam too is struggling with his time being possessed by Lucifer. Far more than we ever realized. His noggin hasn't been good after all and he's much closer to the edge than anyone imagined. So the unraveling begins.
Part of Ben Edlund's legacy in Supernatural is that he loves to take demon stories and twist them around. It was him that came up with the standard that all demons were human once and years in Hell burned away their humanity (and I laugh how Sera Gamble recently mentioned in an interview how they've constantly had to work around that). It was he that promoted the idea of Lucifer as a sympathetic angel, someone who loved his father and saw himself an innocent victim of betrayal ("Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime, especially when I was right?" "Look what six billion of you have done to this thing and how many of you blame me for it?"). Edlund also came up with the hilarious new version of Hell, waiting in line for eternity.
Now for the latest twist. Some demons exist to be talent scouts, possessing evil bastards for the sake of recruitment. They want to help potential serial killers be real serial killers. "Looking for the next generation of superstars, before they get to Hell." It's funny, that's the one thing I would have assumed demons do before seeing this show. I'm shocked this hasn't been shown before now.
Turns out when Jeffrey was possessed those four years ago, he was a serial killer wannabe. This demon came along and taught him to put away those doubts and be all he could be. Jeffrey was a star pupil with one damaging side effect. He craved that demon inside of him. He missed that power, that bond, that pure evil. So he dealt with the loss by becoming a drunk and suicidal. Then, he pulled it all together. Turns out those halfway house programs are not only good at helping decent folk get back on track, but it works for evil bastards as well! He saw the light, it was time to get his demon back.
Since this episode is all about parallels, Jeffrey's story sounds a bit like Sam's after Dean's death, don't you think? After hitting his low, his new found mission involved embracing his dark side for achieving a greater purpose. He ended up doing more damage than Jeffrey, albeit unintentional. That is one blurry line. Good intentions or not, the results are the same.
The thing about Jeffrey that struck me was evil or not, he allowed Sam and Dean to beat him senseless four years ago so they could get info from the demon about Lilith's whereabouts, or at least who her lieutenants were. That could have been the demon telling him so, make the world think we was a stand up guy so he could go on with killing innocents, but the damage was pretty extensive physically. It was a very brutal and vicious beating. "When you left me at the ER, I had three smashed fingers, five teeth out, a broken wrist, nose, cheekbone, collarbone. I had to get 160 stitches, mugged. The doctor on duty said it looked like I got caught in the Spanish Inquisition."
That seems more savage than an average beating, don't you think? It was almost if Jeffrey liked it or something. He certainly understood why it had to be done. "I watched you torture an innocent man to get at a demon. Pretty charge situation, revealing, you guys talked about a lot of stuff, showed a lot of character. God, you were so desperate to fix the world back then. It kills you that people kept getting hurt and you just can't stop it, or I should say it's killed you, shouldn't I?" So at the time he knew what they were trying to do, and also knew it was futile. In a sense, he was probably humoring them. It's what demons would do.
Jeffrey's story ended with the cautionary tale that happens with every demon story. Never trust a demon. It's not like he was going to be greeted with warm fuzzies and happily ever after. He was told he was on his own, but could do all those terrible things he wanted with his own abilities. "All I had to do was loosen the lid on his jar, show him some practical know-how." Yeah, tell that to Dean Winchester with a gun.
I do believe I'm stating the obvious by saying Sam Winchester has faced a lot of crap in his life. To think, his sweet moment of death at the end of season two was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.
Considering how more involved I am with Sam's character than the victim of the week, watching his struggle this week tore me to shreds. It's very tragic, but it always has been in Sam's case. We've suspected for a long time that he has been teetering on an edge, but we really had no idea how close until we finally got to see what he sees. Lucifer is there all the time. This was hinted by Sam's leviathan doppleganger in "Slash Fiction" but man, it's really that bad if not worse. Sam sends him away with one press of his scarred hand, but it doesn't last long. If this was Sam's band aid, the sucker is worn and ready to fall off.
The torment is quite maddening. Lucifer constantly there, begging for attention, waiting for just the right seemingly innocent moment to work his way back in to Sam's psyche. There's no way Sam could have ignored him forever. The truly heart crushing part is that Lucifer didn't have to try hard to get Sam to let him back in. He was patient and found his way through Sam's devotion to Dean. He provided Sam with quick answers, ones that Sam could have eventually figured out on his own. When Dean's in danger though, there's an urgency. There's a panic that sets in and focusing on the solution doesn't happen so easily. So when Lucifer has the easy answer, well, how many stories does the Bible have of people being tempted by The Devil? He wasn't offering world domination back then either. Just an apple. Something simple and seemingly harmless, but the consequences are oh so severe.
In Sam's case, he's losing his greatest gift, his mind. At least Dean did Jeffrey a favor and put some bullets through him. Now that Lucifer has found his way in, its the cage all over again. Sam might be able to resist the burning, withstand the physical pain, but Lucifer is the master of messing with the mind. He's all about breaking and crushing souls, not owning them. He's going with one of the most extreme ways of torture imaginable, he won't let Sam sleep. Sam's mind is already fragile, once the never ending, 24/7 barrage of fear and pain resumes again, Sam will be lost. It's really heart breaking to think about it. He cannot be saved from this.
What makes Sam's story even more tragic is that it's good intentions again that are sinking him. He did it all for Dean. He's been coasting on fumes, hanging in there for Dean on a wing and a prayer ever since he fought his way out of the coma in "The Man Who Knew Too Much." It's the only thing that's been fueling his drive. He's lost Castiel, the Impala, Bobby, they're on the run from Leviathans and have to constantly watch their backs, yet as long as Dean is there, he's okay. While he knows Dean is his weakness, he also knows Dean is his strength. His stone number one. The problem is, stone number one has been sitting on sinking sand for some time. As Sam has also learned in his young doleful life, everything eventually catches up with him.
Going back to "No Rest For The Wicked," which is right around the time that the beginning flashback happened (see sweetondean's review for logic, I back everything she said 100 percent). Dean had it right then, and it still applies now. "Don't you see a pattern here? Dad's deal, my deal, now this? I mean every time one of us is up the creek the other is begging to sell their soul. That's all this is, man. Ruby's just jerking your chain down the road. You know what it's paved with and you know where it's going."
Insert "Lucifer" now instead of "Ruby." The demons get higher, the patterns remain the same. If Sam was told up front that he would be sacrificing his sanity for Dean's welfare, he still would have done it. Demons know how to play him. They always have.
It's Sam's dishonesty with Dean though has sealed his undoing. Deception burned Sam in season four and does so again now. It's no accident that Dean's comments about psychopathic behavior hit a little too close to Sam's situation. "That's what they do, all the time is act, act like they're normal, not balls-to-the-walls crazy." Sam has gone to great lengths in his life to appear normal and strong, but he pushed his luck too far this time. He put up with Lucifer all that time and was lulled into a false sense of control instead of dealing with the very not normal warning signs. He didn't want to believe he would lose control. This is again reminiscent of him being tricked by Ruby in season four. "I won't let it get too far." It's Sam rationalizing that all his crazy is under one umbrella to Bobby, so he's okay. Crazy is crazy, no matter what. He ended up fooling himself and Dean as well. Now they both are about to get hurt.
I understand why Sam did that though. He thought he was sparing Dean and had the best intentions, but he's gotten so good at hiding everything now it's too late to send out the distress call. He's gone past the breaking point. There's nothing he or Dean can do to fix this. Dean has to now go through the very painful and shocking process of watching his brother lose it all and hope that he isn't lost forever. If they're that lucky, time after that will be needed to rebuild.
On a side note, the flames in Sam's eyes at the end took me back to the one other time we've seen that, "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning." When he came back to Dean in that episode from his Hell flashback, the flames were in his eyes before going out. What does this mean? The easy explanation, Sam is in Hell in his mind. Or is it another clue? Yeah, I'll layoff the clues this review. Except I'm backing the theory that Ghost!Bobby put that devil's trap up in the warehouse.
You know what's scarier than what Sam's about to experience? What's going to happen to poor Dean in the process. He really doesn't know what's coming. He thinks that Sam has experienced some miracle cure. We know that from his conversation with the waitress in "Season 7: Time For A Wedding." We know Dean takes losses very hard and is already deeply suffering over what happened recently with Bobby and Castiel, not to mention the Impala. Losing Sam, especially to something other than death could be a blow he cannot take.
What adds insult to injury, Dean has never taken deception well. He's going to have to swallow all that resentment for the sake of his brother. Dean's role is extremely crucial. Once Sam shatters, Dean has to be there to help pick up the pieces. No one else in this universe will be able to do that, not even Sam. I'm sure he'll manage in the short term, but how will that affect him in the future? Will this again shatter his trust in Sam, make him wonder if he is watching a time bomb? Will this fuel his quest for revenge with Dick Roman out of nothing more than sheer frustration? There's a remainder of the season to answer that and probably the next one too.
That does reveal another interesting parallel and/or foreshadowing between what Dean and Sam did to Jeffrey four years ago and what's happening with Dean's quest against Dick Roman now. There is only one time frame when Sam and Dean were committing such extreme acts of torturing innocents to get info from a demon. Right around "Time is On My Side." Times were desperate indeed. The bill was coming due. After Dean went to Hell, finding Lilith became Sam's hellbent revenge obsession. That kind of didn't go well. Interesting, that's where Dean is right now with Dick Roman. There's no new info, and he's on the brink. Sam's calamity might be all it takes to get him fired up again.
What I want to know is just like before, what are they planning on doing when they catch up to the big bad? Lillith couldn't be killed, not until Sam developed his power anyway. Dick Roman can't be killed. This makes Dean's motives murky at best, just like with Jeffrey four years ago. His acts stray more in the personal revenge territory than saving the world. What lines will he cross? Will he be able to do this with his head on straight?
I do like how Dean felt some guilt over Jeffrey and cut him some slack, even if it ended up being the wrong move. It was human. He was probably remembering what happened since their first encounter. After all, Dean did die and for the wrong reasons. It got him nowhere except grievous torture in Hell. He innocently broke the first seal. Sam ended up trusting Ruby, using his powers, and in turn unleashing Lucifer. Dean watched Sam get possessed by Lucifer to save the world and go down to the cage in Hell, only to come back soulless. Getting that soul back came at a high price, a wall holding back all those memories. Which came down. Now Lucifer is tormenting Sam in his mind. Sam has started to crumble. And that could end up fueling Dean's revenge on the latest monster that's ready to do in the world. It's all kind of full circle, isn't it?
So, did I tell you this was a pretty layered story or what? It's quite mind bending all the rabbit holes this episode has burrowed for us. Whether it's by Mr. Edlund's design or a happy accident I don't know, but it works. I didn't even get to mention in this review so many other wonderful things like Nora's contribution to this story, who also parallels with Sam. She uses her knowledge for good, white magic only, yet when it came to the safety of her son, she offered up the dark stuff. She did find redemption though when she was able to save her son. At what cost though? As we've learned, people don't come back from demon possession normal.
I also didn't get a chance to rave about that library scene. I'm not a huge maven of horror stories (aka I've never read Stephen King) but that reminded me a lot of Jacob's Ladder. Totally freaked me out. Poor Sam, he had to really fight hard to send those images in his head away. These types of hallucinations can now only get worse. It's very scary.
My grade is an instant A, easily the most complex script of the season so far and the most nerve shattering. Coming up in a month, Sam goes bat shit crazy. After seeing all he's been through in seven seasons, don't you think it's about time? We can only hope that he comes out the other end better for it. And with his brother by his side.
# rmoats8621 2012-02-20 14:37
Wonderful review, Alice! I loved this episode, too and I gave it an A+. Our heroes are definitely in for a very rough road ahead. Well, I've got 3 weeks to ponder all the possibilities that the show could go. In any event, I will anxiously be awaiting the next episode. What a ride this has been this year!
# Alice 2012-02-20 20:03
Thanks Ruth! I'm just so pleased we've gotten four episodes in a row that didn't suck! They were all actually good, two of them great! Hopefully that momentum will carry through the rest of the season.
# Airbat 2012-02-20 14:41
As always, a joy to read your reviews and I agree mostly with it.
Something crossed my mind reading it. You make it sound like Lucifer tricked Sam into letting him in. That would assume that Lucifer is there. But he isn't. It's all in Sam's head. So when Sam is talking to Lucifer, he's actually talking to himself. I'm no psychologist and therefore don't know what that means but I would guess that Sam already broke after the wall came down, hence the hallucination. With Dean's "stone number one"-help he managed. But that's all. He barely managed. And then they lost Cas, the Impala Bobby and Sam has to watch his stone number one spiral down so it's getting harder and harder to keep himself afloat. One tiny match and the whole forrest is on fire - quite literally.
Also I don't think that Dean is completely unprepared. He waited a long time for the other shoe to drop. It didn't until now, so with everything on his shoulders right now he doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Dean also acknowledged that Sam is as screwed up as he is (Sam's only bigger). I just don't see how Dean could've helped Sam to this point? Dean barely handled himself (see the excesive drinking, lethargy and depression), he was in no shape to help others. And second, what exactly could he do? He can't hold the "stone number one speech" 24/7 to Sam just to ground him.
I think Sam realised that (one had to be blind not to see Dean's state) and for once didn't want to burden his brother further (who's already on the edge).
Sam technically didn't lie to Dean. He told Dean and also Bobby that he's seeing Lucifer (and what a scary thought to see the devil while you brush your teeth) but managing it, which (considering what we saw in the last episode) he did pretty well. At least up to this point where he's not managing it anymore.
We have to see in a future episode how Dean finds out about Sam.
*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILERS*SPOILER*
Considering, we know that Sam end's up in a mental institution, tells me that this situation is far beyond Dean's ability to help Sam.
This said, it doesn't stop me from hoping he finds a way to reach his brother. Dean was always great at that and I would love to see him save Sam (what I'm not hoping for is an angel quick fix).
# Junkerin 2012-02-20 18:00
Yes that is how I see it too. See my comment.
Ah, I'm not convinced that Lucifer isn't there. I do wonder if he's more than an hallucination. Here's my logic. Remember Raphael's vessel in "Free To Be You and Me?" He was a "drooling mess" and had a very special connection to his angel. Raphael could be summoned by the ritual Castiel did through his vessel. It worked.
I'm thinking the bond between angel and vessel (and even demon and vessel) is very different in each case. Remember how Michael promised Dean he wouldn't leave him a drooling mess if he said yes? There is still some sort of weird connection between Lucifer and Sam, complicated by the fact that Lucifer is trapped in a cage in Hell. I do believe this is way more than flashbacks and hallucinations, but what, hopefully more will be revealed. Or maybe not. We really don't know what's going on with Sam right now.
Dean may have been forewarned, but he'll be unprepared. He thinks Sam is managing and handling things just fine. He really has no clue how bad things are. We didn't! It honestly took me by surprise. You are so correct, Dean's reaction in the future will be very interesting.
Oh heavens no, Sam never lied to Dean. I never said that. Deception isn't lying. It also involves not disclosing, omitting things. That has always been a trait of Sam's and it's burned him more than once with Dean. For example, remember "Jus In Bello?" Sam never told him about Lilith, but he didn't lie. Dean took it pretty hard anyway.
Sam said a while ago when things were still shaky that he was seeing Lucifer. He told Bobby that seeing Lucifer was okay. I honestly think Bobby didn't buy that at all, but he died shortly after that. Remember "Death's Door?" Sam's hand grip told us that he was not managing okay. Dean hasn't heard or seen anything about Lucifer and visions since "Defending Your Life." That's months! He is too distracted with other things right now, including trying to pull himself together. He won't see this coming.
# Bevie 2012-02-20 14:50
Loved the review Alice!
Just a thought. What if Jeffrey put the trap on the ceiling just in case the demon didn't want to co-operate with him? And he didn't co-operate, did he? It could have been a bargaining chip for Jeffrey, or he might think so.
That's possible too. I honestly, aside from bringing up the debate in the Let's Speculate article, haven't put too much thought into it. Given the notion that Bobby's ghost might be out there, I figured why not. Two weeks ago the paper that they needed magically appeared. A devil's trap sounded like par for the course.
# Susan Thoompson 2012-02-20 15:03
Great review, Alice, thank you! So that was a bit of a twist, having a victim actually WANT to be possessed. I thought of Dean's line to Bela once, "You're so damaged." I didn't realize Jeffrey was bugnuts until they flat out told us. After he killed that sweet little dog, I was rooting for Dean to blow him away, even though technically he was human. But I think serial killers/animal abusers-killers certainly get a ticket to monsterville.
Sam has done a pretty good job surppressing Luci, but when Dean was in danger, he partnered up. That's a scary door to open. And now we have a month to wait to see if he can get Luci back in the box! danashulpsdanas hulpsdanashulps danashulps!!
Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to mention the dog in the review. It still stings that much!
Glad you liked the review.
# LEAH 2012-02-20 15:22
Is it all in Sams mind, or Lucifer screwing with Sam from the get go? This episode (an A for me also) has me wondering for reasons I mentioned in comments elsewhere. After all, Lucifer was in Sams head when he fell in the pit. Sam had wrestled control back but is it possible that he never completely left and needed Sam to acknowledge him so he could keep torturing him mentally. These are just random thoughts.
Dean and Sam have a rocky road ahead but I am looking forward to seeing where the story takes us.
A quick fix wouldn't be satisfying but these characters are very resilient and Dean has to find a way to not only go on but help Sam in the process!
Alice, great review as usual.
That's exactly what I wonder! When I interviewed Sera Gamble at Comic Con back in July, she said that part of the mystery this year would be what's going on with Sam. Now, she was very vague how extensive or deep that would be, but I still hang onto her saying that. Wouldn't it be cool if Sam's hallucinations are far more than that of a mind going through some extreme PTSD?
If they did a quick fix like Castiel making all things better, my flat screen is shattering into a thousand pieces after I throw my shoe through it with a ferocious velocity! I doubt they will drag it out either, so I hope they have fan satisfaction in mind!
# Geordiegirl1967 2012-02-20 15:33
Great review of a great ep.
I actually don't think there has been any deception on Sam's part yet. He told Dean he had his Luci hallucinations under control, and until the end of this ep he did. He hasn't had time yet to tell Dean what he had to do to rescue him.
On the question of the devils trap; I assumed that Ms Havelock gave it to Jeffrey as one of the sigils he had to paint - hoping he wouldn't realise the significance of it and would just paint it with the rest, then maybe it would trap the demon before it could hurt her son.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the review! It was a bitch to write.
Sam hasn't been honest because he hasn't disclosed the whole truth. He told Dean he had the hallucinations under control in "Defending Your Life." He eluded to things still being handled at the end of "The Mentalists" I think. He hasn't said anything since. He was not okay in "Death's Door" and he flat out said he wasn't okay in "Adventures in Babysitting." Judging by what we just saw, he was holding back. Sam, as much as I adore his spirit, should know by now that skating on those thin lines never works out. He had time. Of course, I'm still not sure Dean could have done anything to save him at this point. But maybe some professional help would have been a start.
I'll support all theories on the Devil's Trap! I really got nothing on it.
# Ginger 2012-02-20 21:09
My theory on the devil's trap is Cas, who we know is still all powerful. I think Cas drank Dean's beer (because Dean was drinking too much), he revealed the paper that told provided the clue about Dean's daughter's *cough, cough* intentions, and he drew the devil's trap to protect Dean. Since we know Cas supposedly has amnesia, I think he is looking out for his friend subconsciously, or he will be lying about the amnesia. Either way, I think his purpose is to get redemption from Dean, given the rather heavy anvil of Cas saying that very thing in Ep. 1 (wasn't it).
Of course, all of this would mean that God resurrected Cas once again, and that seems kind of tired these days.
I'm mulling your article before I comment further. Upon first quick read, we had similar thoughts about Dean, but I want to think a little more.
# cd28 2012-02-21 07:32
My theory is that it's Crowley wearing his invisibility cloak. He's monitoring the Winchesters to see how they're progressing with Dick, and when they seem to be getting off track, he's speeding things up a little for them so that they can get back to business. He drank the beer because he was thirsty.
Bevie, I had the same thought at first but wouldn't Jeffery assume the demon smoke would enter him. Thus entrapping himself.
Excellent review Alice. I like the theory that ghost Bobby had painted the devil's trap. I hadn't heard that before.
I don't think I agree with you completely on your interpretation of what's going on with Sam. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I don't think Sam was deceived into letting Lucifer in, and I don't think his motivations were totally about saving Dean. When Sam started interacting with Lucifer, Dean wasn't answering his phone, so that triggered concern with Sam, but Dean's been in trouble before. There weren't other signs that Dean was in serious danger, and this didn't seem to be enough to get Sam panicking considering the danger they deal with every week. But maybe Sam's emotionally tapped and this was the final straw.
I also don't think Sam was deceived. Lucifer told Sam that he let him in, which implies that Sam did it consensually. Granted Sam didn't know that he wouldn't be able to kick Lucifer back out again, but he still invited Lucifer back in by interacting with him. Sam knew this was a bad idea - it's why he never did it sooner - and I don't think Sam, after all of his experiences with demons and Lucifer, could possibly be deceived by Lucifer anymore.
So what I'm left wondering is why exactly did Sam let Lucifer back in, and what does letting him back in really mean? Edlund drew a parallel story of Jeffrey working to get his demon back because he loved and missed the connection. Jeffrey felt liberated and stronger with the demon. The demon was a little abusive, but Jeffrey loved him anyway. Is Edlund saying this is partly true with Sam too? In the final scene, Lucifer tells Sam that Sam wanted him - implying that is why Lucifer is back in.
For the second question - what exactly does letting him back in mean - I can think of a few possibilities.
First, it's letting his insanity back in. Earlier in the season, Sam couldn't distinguish between reality and hallucinations, and Dean's "stone number one" speech was about giving Sam a tool to know what's real. So does this mean that because Sam engaged the hallucination in some back-and-forth brainstorming, then he can no longer distinguish reality anymore? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Second, if some of the Hell memories are still repressed, it could be letting those traumatic memories back in. Since we haven't been given any indication that Sam doesn't remember everything, I'm not leaning toward this theory.
Third, Lucifer could represent Sam's dark side - the part he always tried to repress. Lucifer begged Sam to stop fighting him and to interact with him. In this case, letting him back in would most clearly mirror Jeffrey inviting the demon back in. This is the theory that I'm leaning toward. It reminds me of a line that Ruby said in season 3 - that Hell is forgetting what you are. If Sam invited Hell back in, maybe he's going to change to someone darker.
Fourth, there's still a psychic connection between Lucifer and Sam, and this is Lucifer's way of getting a foothold into the world outside the cage. This would be interesting too, but it would mean a longer angel story arc, and I don't think the writers would want to go there now.
I think Sam's been worn down by all of this and he needs to stop pretending he's OK and that this demon side of him doesn't exist. Because he was pretending, and not dealing with it openly, this allowed his dark side to get a foothold in his psyche.
Sorry I totally disagree with this interpretation that somehow Sam wanted to let Lucifer back in in some kind of victory for his 'dark side' or some kind of power trip. Letting Lucifer in does not in any way make Sam more powerful. It destroys his sanity. There is absolutely no upside for Sam, no possible reason why he would EVER want that.
Lucifer has been trying to wear him down for a long time. Sam has been using more and more energy resisting. He finally caved this time because, as Alice said, Lucifer used his weak spot which is Dean. Sam let Lucifer help him save his brother and as a result has gambled away his own sanity. That is as big a sacrifice as either has ever made for the other in the history of the show. I think it is unfair to Sam's character, and to the sacrifice he has made to suggest any bad motives for his action.
Maybe fighting his dark side has been what's been destroying his sanity? I don't mean to be unfair to Sam's character. I love Sam. I'm just trying to interpret what I'm seeing on the scene, and I didn't create Sam's dark side, or write Jeffrey's story (obviously a parallel to Sam's story) the way it is - the writers did.
# Amy 2012-02-20 21:31
I agree whole heartedly with this.
I really dont get it. Dean pushes down, lies to Sam and 'fakes it til he makes it' and people worry about him. Sam does the exact same thing and its a witch hunt against sam.
The only difference is that Dean has every person under the sun worrying about him, coming back from the dead to advise him or secretly drink his beer and bolster his self esteem.
Sam is truly alone and isolated in this world. he doesn't have anyone except possibly Dean. But he doesn't want to burdon his already suicidally depressed brother. so where does that leave Sam? No friendly allies giving advice...no ghostly psydo family rushing to his aid.
So yeah, I think its unfair to say Sam is lying or prideful. or wants to be all darkside. Sam just literally has NO ONE on his side. I mean his last known friend literally ripped down his protective psycological barrier...simpl y to distract Dean and gloated over his suffering.
Sam is ALONE>
There's no witch hunt here. Also no one suggested Sam was prideful or lying. I brought up the darkside point because it was suggested in the episode that there can be an appeal to it by those who were possesed. It's possible (and I think implied in the episode) that in Sam's weakened state he let Lucifer in hoping it would give him the strength he needs right now. Lucifer told Sam that Sam "wanted" him, and if Lucifer is Sam's subconscious, that is Sam saying it.
I have issues with the way Dean deals with things but didn't bring it up here because this isn't a competition on which brother handles things better.
# Sharon 2012-02-21 02:24
It is hard to know what the show implys with Sam it has done it so many times since season 4 the bottom line is he wanted to save Dean regardless of wether he let in , invited in Lucifer.
I would be less than impressed with Dean if he bore any resentment towards Sam .
Sam is suffering the consquences of his wall being brought down it was only a matter of time before it became too much and Sams coping mechanism failed . What I do want is this to be about Sam and Sams damage not just another case of how terrible it is all for Dean.
# annie 2012-02-21 11:38
Well isnt that what was implied here, that this is all going to be so much worse for Dean than Sam?
I dont actually think Dean will be the one to save Sam, I think its going to be Cas in some way. Not a cure but a patch job as it were, just so Sam can deal, have some semblnce of a life not that he has had much of one since Jess died but being able to function. I think that would be a satisfactory sort of conclusion to this story for the time being. Sam needs to be hunting things and saving people its who he is.
# anonymousN 2012-02-21 11:40
So yeah, I think its unfair to say Sam is lying or prideful. or wants to be all darkside. Sam just literally has NO ONE on his side. I mean his last known friend literally ripped down his protective psycological barrier...simply to distract Dean and gloated over his suffering.
I agree. I have always maintained that Sam never had a character (a recurring one) who put him first.
# emmau 2012-02-21 12:21
Other than Dean, naturally. I'd agree that Sam has not had the quantity of characters looking out for him Dean has periodically had, but I don't think anyone can beat Sam for having the quality or consistency level of care that Dean has given him throughout this series.
This doesn't mean Sam hasn't been short-changed in terms of connections with other characters, but I don't see where Sam is alone. He has Dean, and has had Dean putting him first his entire life.
Dean putting Sam first his ENTIRE Life is fanon
Yes it is. But it is fanon that took hold which is why Sam gets a rough time from parts of the fandom.
I agree.The idea that Dean puts Sam first everytime is absurd..
All right, fair enough. Dean is a human being, and it is impossible to expect one human being to be solely focused on another human being's wants, wishes, desires, well-being, etc., is unrealistic. Yes, there have been times that Dean has not put Sam first, just as there have been time that Sam has not put Dean first. At the same time, I think it is denying canon to handwave the care and devotion that Sam has received from Dean in his life as insignificant. By Sam's own words, Dean has been looking out for Sam his entire life, and I'd think Sam would be the expert in this situation. My opinion only, of course.
Oh no its just if you had said most of his life or many times i would not have commented that, but to say entire life would be false.I don't expect that from Dean because as you said Dean is a human being but the comments make him out to be otherwise.and having only Dean is not enough Sam is a human being too and it is always beneficial to have a person like how bobby and cas are to Dean in his life.you have to understand i don't mean bobby or Dean should have Sam as their favourite or share a profound bond with him but a charcter other than them..And as for Sam not putting Dean first i never claimed Sam puts Dean first everytime and i atleast would not want Sam too and Sam does not so yeah in that account i agree with you sam does not always put Dean first.
sorry not bobby and Dean but bobby and Cas
I agree. I overgeneralized in my first comment. I think I just reacted at reading Sam is alone and has no one, which seemed to be an overgeneralizat ion as well. Still one hyperbole doesn't excuse another. I further agree that it would be nice for Sam to have a Bobby or Cas-esque character in his life. Given the care of Bobby and Cas at times, I still feel that Sam has gotten the most consistent care, but Sam remains quite isolated. I suppose Dean is now as well. Poor boys.
I have not felt the same way about the care received by Sam
Then I suppose we must agree to disagree.
Good points! The way I see it, Sam wasn't deceived by Lucifer. He was tempted. That's what ole fork tongue is known for! I still think he did it solely for Dean, but yeah, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Lucifer is tricky and there is no way Sam would have not fallen into that trap eventually. It's too subtle. I'm shocked he held out this long. You are right, he is worn down by it all.
I'm supporting your theory number four. I strongly believe there is a psychic connection. You're right though, how much to the writers want to dig into that!
I agree with the word "tempted." That was what I was getting at. While his motivation could have been soley about Dean, I was left wondering about that, after recognizing the parallels to Jeffrey's story and hearing Lucifer say that Sam wanted him. It's hard to imagine Sam wanting anything relating to Lucifer or demons, considering it seems so opposite to the personality that we've been shown, and also given what he's gone through. But the show has suggested that there's something in him that draws him to the darker side, so I'm wondering if that's where they're going again. Lucifer was counseling Sam to be tougher (more like RoboSam) with Nora, and Sam was listening to him. Assuming that Lucifer is part of Sam's psyche, Sam seemed to want to listen to that side of his personality. It helped him get Dean back, but was there something more?
On the other hand, if they go in the direction of this actually being Lucifer in the cage, rather than a hallucination, then Sam "wanting" Lucifer would fall in line with the notion that an angel needs consent to enter a person. So I don't think Lucifer was able to enter Sam just because Sam talked to him. I think Sam, with some thought, consented to allow him back in.
I realy enjoyed your review. But I disagree in some points.
"It’s Sam rationalizing that all his crazy is under one umbrella to Bobby, so he’s okay. Crazy is crazy, no matter what. He ended up fooling himself and Dean as well. Now they both are about to get hurt. "
You can live very good with some kind of crazy look at "A beautiful mind" he doesen´t get cured he has to learn to live with his hallutination.
And that what they are. Hallutination! No devil talking from the cage or what ever.
Sam has horrible memories of his time in the cage. And contion he never learned to live with them (I don´t know if this is possible) but Dean showed/told him how to deal with them so he can funktion. Dean (and Bobby) know Sam still sees Luci, but he nows (because he showed him) how to handel it.
I left a comment up above for Airbat, but I think Lucifer is way more than a hallucination. We have seen in the past that there is a profound connection between and angel and his vessel. Remember Raphael's drooling mess vessel? Jimmy after Castiel left him? Each case is different. Lucifer is still tormenting Sam from beyond the cage. That's more than a messed up head. I'm hoping the next few episodes (or others later) will expand on that further.
# Gwen 2012-02-20 19:04
Interesting review. However, I don't think that Sam has shown any dishonesty or deception towards Dean regarding his hallucinations. He told Dean he was handling them and up until he said 'shut up' to Lucifer in this episode he was handling them and functioning very well. So I hope we won't get any resentment and mistrust on Dean's part afterwards. I'm really hoping Sam's illness will lead to some wonderful big brother scenes from Dean in the upcoming episodes. I really want to see Dean be the one to reach and save his little brother. I adore Big Brother!Protect ive!Dean. The one thing I do not want to see at all is a quick angel fix
This episode was very good indeed. Very thought provoking and utterly heartwrenching. Broken Sammy just about shattered my poor heart. Jared and Mark P were wonderful.
I totally agree. I don't believe Sam has hidden anything from Dean since the scene in the warehouse. He said he was coping and til this case he was.
Dishonesty and deception isn't just lying. It's omitting things. Sam told Dean at the end of "Adventures in Babysitting" he wasn't okay. He didn't really elaborate on that. From what we saw this week, he is soooo not okay. I don't think Dean can grasp how bad it is unless he saw what we did.
I raised the resentment question because the writers love going there. Rehashing old conflicts. Remember Amy? Do I like it? Heavens no. Considering Sam has fallen into old patterns with his self sacrifice, Dean probably will too. That's me guessing. I'm with you, I want to see Big Brother!Protect ive!Dean. I think he'll be there at first, but as things progress, once Sam passes the critical point, you got to wonder how must mistrust will linger.
Sam wasnt going to elaborate because Dean has hardly been fine himself just look at Dean this season would you say anything and he was coping until this week. I just cant see the need to somehow paint Sam has being guilty of something here or am I seeing it wrong?.
# Martha 2012-02-21 06:36
Yeah, I'm also not getting it, Sharon . If Sam had been telling Dean all the details of his hallucinations then a lot of fandom would be calling him selfish for burdening his depressed and struggling brother with his own issues. Sam was only thinking of his brother's wellbeing. I agree with Amy upthread, Sam really is utterly alone.
If Dean does get resentful when Sam only spared the finer details because of wanting to spare his brother any more pain and grief then Dean and I will fall out drastically. I can definitely see Dean getting angry as that's how Dean shows fear, panic and worry and he's surely going to be worried sick over Sam. Hopefully, though, he has matured enough to see the good intentions behind Sam's choices and is able to see Sam's perspective in all of this.
The thing of it all is Sam CAN'T tell Dean due to his (deans) depression. Dean was already willing to let the world die...even those he once loved. He's been willing to commit murder/suicide at the THOUGHT of bobby being dead. Once Dean is at a point of giving up...he's willing to gives up on everything. Sam, knowing his brother knows this. he simply can't reveal how dire his situation is. Though he has mentioned several times he isn't doing well...its like sam was testing the waters, checking for Deans reaction.
And Dean was barely Holding on himself.
So Sam did what Dean was doing , internalizing his situation and showing his brother his game face. otherwise known as protecting their brother from their own traumas.
I geuss I'll never understand why Dean is lauded for this and Sam is penalized.
Sam is in a no win situation with this it seems . At the end of the day he didnt ask for any of this he is suffering because of the act of one individual nor did he ask for Dean to be depressed and swamped by his own issues at the same time.
He did what he needed to do just like Dean does or Dean feels he needs to I cant see what he was supposed to say or when there was a time to say it but that is just me.
I'd say, judging from this website, that Dean isn't lauded for internalizing, showing his game face, or for showing his feelings. Dean, it seems, is in the same no win situation. If he shows emotional issues, he's somehow stifling Sam from showing his emotions, and if he keeps things to himself, he's treating Sam like a child. Therefore, it makes sense that Sam's in the same no-win situation.
As for the time to say something, I don't think this episode is the time when Sam was able to say something. I think next episode is the time. I want Sam to trust Dean enough to tell him the truth, because if Dean has been allowed one constant, it's that he is able to be there for Sam when he needs him (whether Dean being a big brother is a good thing or a bad thing at that moment in canon being a different issue). I hope that's what happens, personally.
(Edited) - Sorry, these threads can be soooo confusing at times even to the site admin! I'm not addressing the lauding comment to you specifically emmau. It's to everyone here.
If anyone is judging the perception of Dean's character on this website based on a few comments in one thread, you haven't been reading our other articles have you? We have some very pro Dean writers on this site that do exactly what you claim we aren't. Check out anything from sweetondean and Pragmatic Dreamer for starters. I feel like I can focus on Sam more in my articles because the others do such a good job at focusing on Dean.
Emmau, you are right though that this was not the episode for Sam to say something. No way he could have done that for he was blindsided by what happened. I was saying he should have done it much sooner, and dealt with the problem much sooner. But that wouldn't make for compelling drama, would it? I'm with you, I hope he tells Dean right away next ep. If not, if he's being tormented constantly and not sleeping, Dean will figure it out pretty quick.
I apologize, Alice, for overgeneralizin g the site. I should have kept my comments to the poster, not to the site in general. While this site, in my opinion, is more slanted to Sam, there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Sorry again for overstepping to make my point.
I would agree that Sam should be more upfront with Dean about what is happening, but this was not the episode where I thought Sam would be able to talk about it. I do hope that in the next episode that he tells Dean, rather than Dean finding out on his own. I want Sam to trust Dean with the truth, and I hope he does.
No worries emmau, apology accepted. It wasn't just you.
For those that haven't been here a while (and I'm not sure if you're one of them) we've had a shift in writers in the last few months. The new ones are more slanted toward Dean, while the Sam slanted ones have left (except me of course). I think you'll find that the balance has definitely changed!
Awww...that's a shame about the Sam slanted writers having left this site. Being a Sam fan isn't always the easiest thing to be, especially out there on the boards and this place has always been my oasis of sanity.
Having said that I love reading all the reviewers on this site. The new ones may be slanted more towards Dean but I find all their reviews beautifully, and equally, fair to both boys. It's a real pleasure to come here after each new episode and read every review and all the comments.
I got to admit, when I do these reviews, I don't exactly think what the fandom would be saying if something happened. If there are those out there that would have called Sam selfish for burdening Dean, being open with him, I would wonder why they couldn't acknowledge that Sam is finally showing some maturity with his brother. Then I'd move on!
Dean has never taken Sam's "omissions" well. Sam has most of the time (except for season four) kept things from Dean out of the need to protect him, or because Dean has enough on his plate. No matter the intention, it's always backfired on Sam. I'm merely suggesting it'll backfire here too. But I'm with you, hopefully Dean will see past that because Sam is royally screwed and desperately needs him. I do wonder though if all that frustration will fuel the Dick Roman thing. It's all a we'll see thing at this point.
# MisterGlass 2012-02-20 19:53
Thanks for the review, Alice! I agree with all the parallels and inferences you draw. Every cycle of sacrifice and secrets builds another layer of tragedy on this tortured little family. Even the people who were adopted into it have picked up the tradition. Trust Ben Edlund to cut through so many layers in one script.
This was so subtle, too, and terribly creepy. The perfect Edlund combination.
# Pragmatic Dreamer 2012-02-20 22:21
Thanks Alice. Thought-provoki ng review for a most thought-provoki ng episode.
I'm intrigued by the notion that maybe the Lucifer that we and Sam are seeing is the fallen angel in the Cage, and not just a hallucination. I can certainly see the logic. And it would explain the hold Lucifer has on Sam. It would also make the hallucinations that much more terrifying -- because they're not actually hallucinations. They're real!
Although I thought the whole Stone Number One speech from Dean, during HCW, was to show Sam that the Lucifer he was seeing wasn't real. That the torture felt different here on Earth, as opposed to the sensation of torture in Hell.
One of my concerns is that if Lucifer is still really tormenting Sam, than how does Sam ever heal or recover? In theory that phone line would always be open, unless they could find some way to kill Lucifer, cut the connection, bring down the cell tower so to speak. It would suggest that Sam's torment is eternal, and I find that incredibly sad, and hopeless.
On the other hand, if the phoneline between Sam & Lucifer is still open, then maybe there is still a chance for a connection between Dean & Michael. I'm still curious as to why Levi!God!Cas told Crowley in MTB "I would have done away with it completely, but I need a threat to hold over my enemies, and we need to keep Michael in Lucifer's cage."
So, your theory makes me wonder if the next sacrifice is for Dean to place a call to Michael in The Cage. (I think Adam has long since been burned out, or sent back to Heaven, or working on a variety of movie projects and does not have a suitable SPN storyline to return to!). I have long wondered if Michael has a role to play in defeating the Leviathans. Maybe that's the weapon to bring down Dick Roman? After all both angels and Leviathans go back a long way. Plus, I would really like to see how Jensen would interpret Michael. I'm curious about the creative storylines and drama that could produce.
What I find interesting about Lucifer & Sam's interactions though is that Lucifer never told Sam anything he didn't already know. He guided him, but he never had foreknowledge. All the information that Lucifer supplied was stuff that Sam had noticed or was already piecing together.
I am wondering if Hallucination!L ucifer is the final part of himself that Sam has to integrate. They were together for a very long time after all.
I also agree with you that Sam never lied to Dean, but he did deceive him. I agree that Sam didn't want to burden Dean when he already seemed so troubled. We've all done that - hidden something serious from someone we love because we don't want them to worry. But that technique almost inevitably backfires. I think Dean will be angry when he finds out just how big of a mess Sam was really coping with. But I don't think he'll resent it. I think he has matured enough to see the reasons for Sam's action, and accept them and move on to helping his brother get better.
I think Sam's complete collapse will come as a huge surprise, and be completely devastating to Dean. And I think it will add to his huge guilt load. (What would Dean be without all that guilt?) It has the potential to be what shakes him out of his funk, and returns him to BadAss!Dean. On the other hand, if Dean believes that Sam is irreparably damaged, doomed to live out his days in a mental institution, then I think we might see a DeathWish!Dean. After all, who would he have left to live for, or to protect?
I know it is supposed to seem that Dean is obsessed with getting revenge on Dick Roman, but I don't think his whole heart is in it. Sometimes I get the sense that Dean feels that revenge is what he should be doing, not what he wants to do. I think in some way, he sees it as something to occupy his time, so he doesn't have to grieve Bobby & Castiel or worry about when Sam is going to break (right about now!) I think pursuing Dick Roman is in some perverse way helping Dean stay sane because it's giving him a purpose. It might, and most likely will end badly though.
I hesitate to mention this, but my tiny complaint with the episode is the amount of mental torment Lucifer was inflicting on Sam. We know that Sam & Dean aren't real people. For instance, mere mortals could never heal so quickly from most of their physical injuries. (Think back to how much Sam bled after the ghouls sliced him in JTS, and yet he seemed mainly okay except for needing more demon blood. Not very realistic) But what I like about the show is generally how believable it is. Except I kept thinking no person could ever appear normal if so much of his mental energy is consumed with hallucinations like that. I'm conflicted because I enjoyed the drama of it, and finally seeing what's going on in Sam's mind, but it frustrated me too because I kept thinking, if it was that bad all along, then there should have been more outward signs. So, I'm choosing to believe that over time the hallucinations were getting worse, and harder to deal with, and that might help explain Sam's desperate plea to Dean to "just don't get killed".
Finally, I know you're not doing clues, but... Another time stamp? And an ambiguous one at that? And Dean is no longer sleeping in the bed closest to the door? What is up with that?
Anyways, I think I've just written a novel here. Sorry. Obviously, this episode gave me WAY too much to think about. (Articles percolating as we speak!)
Pragmatic Dreamer
# Sylvie 2012-02-21 08:32
Hi Alice, that was a great review as usual. Mr. Edlund is such a mad genius. He does funny so well, but I love these mind bending episodes so much more. And I was reminded of "Jacob's Ladder" too in that scene in the library. Just thinking about it now sends chills down my spine. The fact that I'm a librarian chills me even more, that's all I can think about when I see my library patrons. Thanks so much for that visual Mr. Edlund!
As for poor Sammy, oh I'm so very worried for his sanity. Lucifer certainly knew what to wait for to get back into his noggin. While he knows Dean is his weakness, he also knows Dean is his strength. And I must agree with your assessment that not telling Dean about his Lucifer visions is not the same as lying. Sam has always tried to do things his own way, and he was managing pretty well there until he thought Dean was in real danger. We all knew this time was coming.
If TPTB were to leave us hanging for one whole month before we get our next episode, at least they did it with a great big bang.
# Jen 2012-02-21 09:15
I apólogize in advance for mistakes, because english isn't my mother tongue so please bear with me here.
I'm a silent follower/reader of this awesome community for now, means: I'm not signed up here (yet). But I just wanted to say how greatly I love all the discussions on here about the episodes and all.
So, I've been reading all the reviews and I can relate and back all of them to almost 100% percent. One thing that I thought hasn't really been touched on now - and I find that to be interesting or maybe I just understood it wrong - is the ending scene and Deans "speech" about how all psychopaths "act" all the time. From what I read on here most seem to be sure that this refers solely to Sam's state of mind, but I can't help but think it refers to Dean just as much.
Of course Sam has a little more crazy on his plate than Dean right now, but still. I mean Dean is acting like everything's fine just as much as Sam does and he's been doing it for long time as well.
Anyway, just curious what others think about it. I also kind of thought that Jeffrey not only mirrors Sam but also Dean, especially in his relationship to Castiel (and I'm not talking about fanfiction Destiel here) and how he's broken after he leaves.
Okay, I could write a novel, but I'm gonna stop here for now. Anyway, I love to read all your opinions ans reviews, because it just makes SPN even more intersting to me.
# Tim the Enchanter 2012-02-21 14:29
These are mad ramblings (again!) but there have been so many thought provoking points in the article and the comments that I had to put down my honeycomb Hobnobs (man, they’re yummy) and do a bit of thinking.
One of the more lingering questions is in relation to where Lucifer is. Yes, it is highly probable that Lucifer is wholly in the Cage but it is not definite. It is possible that Sams hallucinations are vivid memories but it is not definite. I know the idea is there that they are mere hallucinations and that Lucifer is still in the Cage but the thing is, they are still hallucinations and as such are immensely powerful.
Unfortunately, Sam has been in hell for at least 200 years (at a conservative guess). He has been in the Cage almost seven times longer than he has walked the earth; he has known Lucifer seven times longer than he has known Dean. It really doesn’t matter a whit about a stone number one, or a ‘this is real’ gesture; those were only temporary reprieves.
For Sam at the moment, Lucifer is real. His logical side might say ‘No, Lucifer is in the Cage’ but the effects of 200 years in the Cage tell him otherwise.
Thing is, even if Sam was landed topside fully souled two years ago and never had an hallucination, if he passed the rest of his days living next door to Dean and Lisa, no hunting, no Leviathans, no hiding, no Castiel, no monsters etc then there is still going to be a huge part of Sam that will be convinced that the life he is living is not real. It’s hard to argue against the only thing you’ve known for 200 years.
Compare it to a person who had a terminal disease for the majority of their life and he/she wakes up one morning and is suddenly cured. It’s going to take a hell of a long time to process, and accept as fact, that knowledge. And for Sam, via the hallucinations, the remnants of that disease are still there. In the time Sam has been topside Bobby has died, his ‘friend’ shattered his mind, the world is once again on the verge of being overrun, they’re isolated from damn near everyone and his brother doesn’t think he’s capable of being trusted. Is it any wonder Sam still has doubts as to where he is?
In relation to Sam and the dark side.... Much as I love the guy, we cannot rule out the possibility that there is, always has been, and always be, a smidgen of Lucifer in Sam. It’s possible it was there even before he went in the Cage. (We don’t know where Sam went following his death in Cold Oak. Could he have met with Lucifer then, unbeknownst to him?) Regardless of whether or not he wants it, Sam does have a profound bond with Lucifer, much as Castiel has (had?) with Dean.
Do I think Sam is more susceptible to being swayed to the dark side than Dean? Yeah, I think I do. Given the circumstances under which he was created (and the separation of John and Mary while Mary was carrying Sam raises many questions), I think Sam is more prone to being steered towards that road. However, there is a big difference between being put on that road and going down that road. The biggest and best; angels, Azazel, Ruby and Lucifer have all tried their best to drag him down that road and they’ve all failed. That he strives so ardently to not go in that direction speaks volumes about the inherent good in him. It would a lot easier for Sam to just relent but his decision to not go there shows (to me at least) that there is no fear of Sam being evil.
Sam can be equipped with all the demomic tools and blood he wants but it’s how he decides to use them that dictates the type of person he is. (This is what bugged me the most about Sams powers. Just because they were there and deemed wrong, does not mean that he, or using them, was wrong.)
I sometimes think that Sam has a sixth (or sixteenth!) sense that comes from Lucifer. We saw in this episode how Sam ‘uses’ Lucifer (in a sense) to get what he needs yet it’s nothing he could not have done himself. There’s a part of me that thinks that Sam uses that ‘Lucisense’ almost every day in order to keep himself and his brother alive. During 7.15 when Sam entered the Wiccans Web, just before Nora clattered him, I’m 99.999% certain that Lucifer give a tiny, almost imperceptible shake of the head to Sam, as if in warning.
Sam and Dean have survived in hunting a lot longer than most hunters. As Mary said to baby Dean ‘Angels are watching over you’ and given what they do, and what they’ve faced, they’re either the luckiest SOB’s in the world (and we know that's not true!), or something is watching over them, keeping them alive, and guiding them in a way. It is an angel for Dean; it could be Lucifer for Sam.
However, despite all this ‘Is Sam destined to be evil’ malarkey, Sam has another, much stronger, gene; the protective brother gene. The need to keep his brother safe is not just confined to Dean. It might be more overt in Dean’s case but Sam is just as protective of Dean as Dean is of Sam. (Could this have been nurtured if Sam was in the Cage with Adam?) All sense and reason goes out the window when the other is in trouble. At the moment, Dean is still in a place where he needs to be protected, Sam knows this. (That isn’t a slight on Dean, btw, it just enforces the idea that Sam and Dean need each other to survive.) I’m not sure if the 'bed nearest the door' thing was just emphasised in fanfiction but if not then Dean made a clear statement by claiming the bed furthest from the door and by letting Sam drive etc. He’s not ready yet, he’s not strong enough yet. But he will be, soon.....
In relation to the deception issue. Apart from the fact that Sam has been more open about things than he has ever been, he doesn’t really have a yardstick by which to measure what is right and wrong in relation to the aftermath of Hell. For all he knows, what is happening to him could be totally normal. Dean didn’t talk about Hell or its effect so as far as Sam knows, these hallucinations etc could have been happening to Dean when he returned from hell (for all Sam knows Dean could still be hallucinating/h aving nightmares about hell).
Add to that, even if Dean was in the best of mental health, short of sticking his finger into Sam’s other ear and worming around in his brain pan, there’s not much Dean can do. The wall is down, the hallucinations are there, Dean knows this. And like Lucifer said, and Sam saw, Lucifer can be Dean any time he wants. He could be Dean right now. He could be Stone number one Dean. He could be a future Dean that is helping Sam. God knows, there have been times this season I’ve found it difficult to differentiate been real Dean and Lucifer Dean (yeah The Mentalists, I’m looking at you). Dean is powerless from stopping something from happening but he can be there to help pull Sam together when it does happen.
I don’t think Sam saying ‘shut up’ was intentional acknowledgment or a desire to let Lucifer in so as to get the upper hand. We saw in this episode that Lucifer is there pretty much 24/7 but up until now there really hasn’t been any major break. Was Sam lulled into a false sense of security by the effectiveness of ‘stone number one’? I think so. It must be exhausting to have to be on your guard the whole time, to doubt the whole time, especially when you are, at your core, a positive person (and despite the mountain of crap that has been shovelled on him since day one, Sam is a positive person. He was before hell and he is after hell. Even 200 years of playing Sudoku with Lucifer isn’t enough to change that).
Now it has been said that, even if he knew the consequences then Sam would still choose to do what he did and yes, I believe this to be true because if Dean died Sam would definitely be back in hell, regardless of whether or not he’s topside. I think Sam 'let Lucifer in' because he felt (a) he was already there. Let’s face it, Sam is thinking about, seeing and hearing Lucifer; angel dude is already in. Sam was temporarily stopping him from walking into the living room but Lucifer is already in the house and (b) I dare say that Sam thought he’s be able to get Lucifer ‘out’ again once he was ‘in’. After all, he did it the last time when hell was so much fresher and the hallucinations were so much more vivid.
I think Sam’s refusal to acknowledge Lucifer wasn’t about keeping him out but it was the same thing that probably drove his dad mad for years, good old-fashioned Sam Winchester stubbornness. He was trying (in vain) to wear Lucifer down, to tick him off so that maybe Lucifer would get annoyed and just sod off for a small bit. You could almost see this in his stance on the bed at the end of the episode; he was just sitting on the bed, not letting Lucifer see his fear, trying to weather it out, trying to not to react and so deny Lucifer his kicks, as he had done when dealing with Lucifer prior to that.
There was a question earlier in relation to whether or not Sam felt liberated as a result of being possessed by Lucifer. I think in some small way he did. No-one wants to feel powerless and for much of Sams life he was exactly that; powerless. As a kid he was dragged from post to pillar, thrown into a lifestyle he hated and feared, as an adult he was a puppet for all manner of nasties from angels to demons. Is Sam wrong to now want to get a bit of control, and relishing it when he does get it? Not to me.
After being powerless for thirty years, Dean admitted he tortured souls in hell, and he enjoyed it. Does this make him evil? My ass it does. I gave out extra work to a class yesterday because they were acting like scuts. While I didn’t necessarily enjoying handing it out (especially now that I must correct the bloody stuff) I enjoyed knowing that I was able to hand it out. Does that make me evil? (Memo to all, the answer to that is ‘No’.....)
However, if you or I or Sam or Dean, don’t take some measure of control over what we can control, then we will lose all control and that’s when things will start to get hairy. I think that’s what Sam was doing when he was ignoring Lucifer; he was taking what little control he could of the situation. It doesn’t make Lucifer less effective but at least Sam knew that he was making a stand.
Is Sam okay? Sam has never been ok (ok in comparison to what??) However, he is (was) coping and that is the most anyone can ask for in relation to Sam. He’s learned to take whatever small mercies he can get, whatever small moments reprieve he can get and use them to bolster him to the next small mercy. He’s not thinking ‘I just want Lucifer out of my head and have everything back to normal’. He can’t plan that far ahead. He’s thinking ‘I just want myself and Dean to get through today and we’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow’. When Sam said ‘shut up’ to Lucifer, I feel he was thinking about getting Dean through that day and not worrying about the next. It wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t motivated by power; it was simply survival.
Right, now I must go and correct that extra work. The consequences of good intentions is right!
HA! I enjoyed this as much as Alice's review. While you have good points, it was also entertaining. Loved it!
Tim the Enchanter
Wow dude, when you get on a roll it is impressive. Agree or not, no one can say it's not entertaining and thought provoking. Thoughts seem to pour out of you like a volcano. Great comments!
I'm not going to jump in the middle of all this good discussion, but will comment that I enjoyed the sub-text of this episode probably more than the story being told. The only problem I have is that I'm frustrated that it took 15 episodes to get to this sub-text; which, although intriguing, raised so many confusing questions. And yet, there is still a story to be told on the surface...you know, the Levi, Cas, Bobby ghost or not. I'm really ready to get on with it and get some forward movement going on some of these plots and sub-plots.
# MetamorphicRocks 2012-02-21 22:32
I thought this episode was so very well written and acted. However, I'm not sure how complicated the writers are going to, or can make Sam's mental state.
I'm with those that think Lucifer may be more than just a hallucination. He is so coherent and focused in his conversations with Sam. I think from a writing standpoint, having Lucifer have some sort of psychic connection to Sam makes it easier to get rid of him. Break the connection- Lucifer can go away, then Sam is just left with extremely painful memories (like Dean).
How will they resolve this issue if Lucifer is all just in Sam's head? Will he just stop having hallucinations? Will he learn to function with them, like he did before earlier in the season? (either option doesn't make for a very interesting story for me.) Will he have to be healed from some supernatural force? I think there has to be some kind of dramatic payoff, including some level of resolution for this story to work. And I don't know how that is going to be accomplished.
I'm hopeful, though, that everything is going to come together in a coherent, interesting way when we get to the end of the season.
# Laura 2012-02-23 12:37
I'm sorry but Poor Dean needs to man up for once in his life and take care of Sam for real, not in lip service. Yes, I said lip service. Dean hasn't been the big brother on this show since John died, maybe even since Faith in season 1. I'm done feeling sorry for him, and I'm done thinking of him as a 'family' anything anymore. Dean is going to watch Sam crumble and then make it about himself, just like always. It doesn't make me feel sorry for Dean at all anymore. He's a one trick pony who knows how to manipulate people for attention and he always gets that attention. More so this season than any other one, which is sick, because Sam has just suffered more trauma than practically any other human being on earth and Dean is just jello all the time. Sam, Poor Sam has been sucking it up and dealing with Dean's Issues his entire life. Dean can take his anger and resentment and shove it somewhere unholy. Dean couldn't be bothered to much of a brother or a friend to Sam since season 4, and this is just more of the same. Dean needs to stop moaning about everything and actually appreciate all that Sam has done for him and given him over a lifetime. I'm tired of Dean being babied while Sam is left to tail-spin by himself, with no friends or even family he can count on to have his back. Because Dean's never had Sam's back, not really. And you can bet Dean will do what he always does when Sam loses it, he'll dump Sam and then whine about how hard it is for him, with this big weight on his shoulders. News flash, Dean, Sam's been carrying the same damn weight as you all this time and you've been too egotistical to see it. Wake up and see your brother, Dean!!!! Just love him, stop bitching about him to complete strangers while running off with mirrors of yourself.
I'm sorry for the rant but the lack of insight into Sam this season has left feeling starved and furious. No one should feel sorry for Dean because Sam is suffering. Feel sorry for Sam, the one who suffers.
Because only one of them can suffer and deserve our sympathy at a time?
As the rant, I'll have to agree to disagree that Dean has never paid attention to Sam or been a good friend or brother to him. I think both brothers have made mistakes, and neither one of them really knows how to help each other since their issues are so big. But I think both of them are trying, and to state that Dean doesn't care about what Sam's been going through since S1 is, to put it mildly, a gross distortion of the facts.
As to the lack of Sam insight, I think that's a completely different issue. I can completely agree to that. I'm not sure why that's supposed to be Dean's fault, but I know it's easy to look for a target when you're frustrated, and Dean fans have done the same to Sam in the past. I'm sorry for your frustration and hope the coming episodes help to allieviate it.
I agree Dean looked after Sam but never understood him and Sam for all his selfishness understands Dean better.
and when i say selfish i always roll my eyes
Honestly, I'm not sure Sam understands Dean any better. We're in year 7 now, and Sam seems just as much at a loss on how to deal with Dean and surprised at what Dean knows/reads as he did season 1. I don't mean that as an insult to Sam--as a little brother, it is not surprising that he still sees Dean through that lens. I'd say the same is true of Dean, of course--he loves his brother and does understand him at times, but when viewing Sam through his big brother lens, he has the same blind spots and will find himself surprised by Sam as well. It's the nature of brotherhood, in my opinion.
Oh what i meant was in situations like when Dean's aim is to get Sam away from ruby he does the opposite ..but at the Same time when Sam wanted Dean not to tell yes to michael, not to trust gordan he has managed that fine..ultimatel y the decision was dean's but Sam planted a kernel and the right one that is understanding. just because you love someone/looked after someone/looked up to someone does not mean you understand them and i never implied that Sam looked up to Dean and that is the lens he sees through (awe, etc ..again according to me fanon) ..may be 5 ,4 or 3 years ago i would have thought the same way but Sam does not veiw Dean with that lens 24*7 .
I think we're agreeing here. I never meant to imply that Sam doesn't know how to get through to Dean at any time, and I think S5 is certainly a prime example of that. But sometimes he seems at a loss, like this season. I think the same can be said of Dean--there are times he knows how to get through to Sam, but others when he seems at a loss. I agree that looking after someone/looking up to someone doesn't mean you understand them. I don't know where I mentioned Sam looking up to Dean, but I'd agree that I don't see Sam viewing Dean through a lens of awe very often. I do see him viewing him through a little brother lens (which to me does not only mean viewing Dean in awe--I think we see that little brother lens when Sam is surprised by the idea that what he does affects Dean a la 5.16, or in learning about some of the things Dean knows/reads) but agreed, not 24/7--just like I don't think Dean views Sam as his little brother 24/7.
I don't think Sam is at loss this season simply he is not having the capacity to be stable himself ,i don't think he is trying if seeing how he let Dean's issues slide in that car ride ( sorry bad at remembering episode names)..this is what i picked up but till show tells the reason the reasons will be my personal fanon.And about awe it was not just awe ( in case of striga incident he got a new insight about Dean) as you said i agree it is many other emotions along with awe.About looking after and looking up they were and are part of them being brothers...the things (not the only by long shot) which led to their unique brand ( winchester ) of little and big brother glasses.Sorry my grammer is not good that is why i had reduced commenting but i am enjoying this discussion.
Oh, I'm enjoying this discussion as well! I think the reason I see Sam as at a loss with Dean this season is because this season seems to fall in line with his reaction to Dean's spiralling in S2 and in S4. I see Sam wanting to help in both of those seasons, but ultimately not knowing what to say or do to really get through to him. In S2 I think Sam figured it out in 2.4 and then around Croatoan and Hunted, but in S4 I didn't really see him figure it out because there was no handbook for "How to help your brother cope with hell" and by then he was so trapped in his own problems (I don't mean that disparagingly-- I sympathize a lot with Sam in S4). Therefore, to me Sam being at a loss as to how to deal with what has been the most stable figure in his life spiralling. I think the same can be said for Dean, who through big brother experience, has had more experience looking after Dean but is still thrown when it's something like, "I might go darkside" or "I'm working with Ruby."
Now, I think this season I might be able to agree that Sam's stability has something to do with his interactions with Dean, but this is where the writing has failed, in my opinion. Show has written Sam as "fine" up until this point, which I know he's not, but since they've been insistent on portraying Sam as being in better shape than Dean in hunting and emotional well-being all season that's the canon we have. I think your fanon makes more sense, but I think that's the problem with the writing this season--we've had to create a lot more fanon than we probably should.
I agree that Sam's feelings about Dean are varied and complex, including little brother awe, little brother resentment, and genuine affection. I think Dean's feelings about Sam are just as varied and complex, including big brother care-taking, big brother resentment, and genuine affection. It does all combine into a unique brand of Winchester bonding.
Looking after Sam, I mean. Sorry about that.
I agree with the writing .I have made no bones about the fact I have found the writing for Sam this season odd to say the least. He has appeared up to this episode too 'ok' it is my bugbear with Sams writing .
# Cindy 2012-02-24 18:33
Wow. If that's truly how you view the Dean character, then you've obviously not been watching the same character I've been watching for several years now. I get that people are upset with the way they believe Sam's story has been mishandled this season, but to take it out on Dean, who clearly loves his brother, and would do anything for him, makes no sense.
Sam and sympathy dont tend to go together in my experience . However maybe Dean having so much coverage in past seasons from John onwards of his issues and effects of his life and Sams life it appears while Sam has had so much less that maybe this time some thought rather than it being what Sam does or what act is done against him and how it impacts Dean that it would be Sams time to have a emotional sl that deals with him on that level.
Really we shouldnt of had to wait this long to of seen the damage reeked on Sam by the wall being pulled down while being in a haze of Deans problems again .I am not sure why the season has been done this way? or the creative decision making behind it and that is down to the writers not Dean but it has come across has Sams pain being secondary to Deans depression maybe that wasnt the intention but it just feels that way,
Mybe thats why this episode feels long overdue and welcoming to get that insight and a idea of Sams life as is.
Everyone's experience is different, so I won't speak to that. I will agree that Dean gets the lion's share of the emotional storyline, which is unfair to Sam, and Sam gets the lion's share of the arc storyline, which is unfair to Dean. You'd think after 7 years it wouldn't be hard to share among the boys equally, but that's show.
I further agree that Sam's storyline shouldn't have been put on the back half of the season. I also agree that retreading Dean's depression storyline, while once again (as far as I can tell) not resolving anything except having 7,777 people tell him he doesn't have it that bad and he shouldn't be depressed, is frustrating. I doubt that making Sam's pain secondary was intentional, as Adam Glass seemed to indicate, IMO, that this was show proving that Sam is the best hunter in the world while Dean only gets to have issues part 4. It's unfair to Sam and to Dean.
I expect Dean's POV to come into play as Sam goes through his crisis, just like I expect Dean to ultimately be allowed to do nothing but observe as the action unfolds. Show has its patterns. I share your frustration, I promise--just in different ways.
# Omnia Abbass 2012-02-24 06:48
Hi Alice, I'm a new comer to the Supernatural fan base as I discovered the show a few months back and I'm crazy about it I own every episode of it and I literally have watched each one of them like ten times. I really enjoy your articles and I have read like 90% of them and even though I might have some different opinions from yours at some points, You always open up a new horizon to me to think about from a different point of view.
I have read your review a few days ago yet one sentence hunted me for days:Quote:
To think, his sweet moment of death at the end of season two was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.
I have been thinking about this sentence for days and trying recall everything that happened to Sam since we first met him on season one. I think your are right on that Sam had faced a lot of bad things in his life, things a normal person could never handle, yet he always found a way to accept them and adjust with who he is and what he has done. Since he was a little kid he lost his mom, he had to live an abnormal life no kid could handle and all he wished for was to have this apple pie life every one else takes for granted, he never asked for any thing else (The same thing his mom once wanted and later on Dean wanted too) yet when he tried to have this life he was met by resentment and he was exiled from his family only to be dragged back into the life and lose everything he worked hard to get. Yet the boy could never win, he was dragged again in a role he never asked for, he had to fight the darkness in him and try to do the right thing and even when everybody looked at him different and everybody blamed him for the mistakes he was pushed to do, even the people closest to him, He took that blame like a man, He never complained and never let himself get caught in guilt. He never wished to be brought back from death and if he was left to die (Which some people think was so selfish of Dean to not chose to live without his brother rather than a noble sacrifice) he would have never had to watch his brother die for him, he would never had to drink the daemon blood , he would never have had to go through those painful detoxes, He would never have had to unknowingly start the apocalypse and take the blame for it (even though nobody blamed Dean for breaking the first seal himself), he would never have had to condemn himself to eternity of torture in Hell to save the world only to be brought back soulless and have this mutilated soul shoved back in him forcefully. To me Sam is the reluctant hero who had made every sacrifice silently expecting nothing in return, He never complained about loosing everything and he accepted how his life is headed with the same desire of doing the right thing and now he sacrificed his sanity for saving his big brother and has to bear the consequences. Some people say Sam had gone dark side but I never thought he did, For me he did some shady mistakes like any soldier in battle who has to take some hard options and some innocent people may get caught in the cross fire but each time he was thinking nobly and even when he started the apocalypse he thought he was sacrificing himself by killing Lilith to stop her.
Thank you zombiehigh18 for writing this.It was beautifully written and every reason why i like Sam.I also find that when he makes a mistake he always does everything in his capacity to make it right,when something is done to him (demon blood,pulling his mutilated soul to him..) still he does not blame but tries for making it right or making something good out of it and most of the time forgives and forgets ..
Thank you, I'm actually a fan of both boys, I see them as humans not saints. I see their good sides and their bad sides too. But lately I have noticed this huge hate among fans towards Sam and it makes me sad because no mater how hard he tries, no mater how much he sacrifices, to them Sam can never do anything right and to them the show is all about Dean and Cas, Which is not how I see things.
So, so true. Even Sam in his darkest hour never lost faith in humanity and doing the right thing. That's what makes him special. He never gives up. There's so much stubborn John Winchester in him its scary!
For Sam, the tragedy of his story is everything he's done has been with good intention, but it backfires on him anyway. He tries to do the right thing, tries to make things better for people and what few victories he has are very small. Everything he does, good or bad, ends with greater consequences. He saves the world at great sacrifice to himself and something else comes along and takes over the world. He's left fighting in a situation where he's suffering in a horrible way which others don't suffer, including his brother. He does it all without complaint, but man, you have to wonder how he does it. You have to wonder how he hasn't put a bullet in his brain by now.
I think that's really where the show goes too dark. There's no reward and often no redemption for what he does. He just goes on, mostly for his brother, no matter what's thrown at him. I suppose that's noble, but ever since he died at the end of season two, it's been an endless barrage of tragedy and agonizing pain, physically, mentally, emotionally, everything. So, this is my long winded way of saying that's why I made that comment about being dead at the end of season two! He could have stayed up there in his own blue heaven while Dean carried on without him. I guess that wouldn't have made a good series though, huh?
I honestly would like to see Sam get more of a break in upcoming seasons. This mindless hunting thing to mask all the tragedies in his life just does nothing for his well being. I know he's now damaged beyond repair. There's no happy life for him. But there has to be something more for him than just burying himself in his work. Where's his identity? That's been my frustration with his character so far. I think there's still time to lay that out though.
There's no reward and often no redemption for what he does.
Do you think the boys can ever have a reward? For me I think it's unlikely and I fear the writers will punish us in the end with some heartbreaking ending. I don't know.
But there has to be something more for him than just burying himself in his work. Where's his identity?
Yes you are absolutely right on that, It frustrates me too that all through season 6 (The second half of course) and 7, Sam has no identity any more, he has no dreams of his own, no connections with the outside world and even no driving force to keep going (even for revenge) except for the sake of not letting his brother down, It's completely heart wrenching. I wish the writers would just give Sam a brief moment of completely deserved happiness or some fun on a job like we have seen with Dean several times.
A lot of fans will never forgive Sam for being the special, chosen one brother who had demon blood dripped into his mouth as a baby. They'll never forgive Jared for having his name listed in front of Jensen's. They never will. And for this show to try and appease these "fans" in any way, pretty much makes a mockery of this show's ultimate message of family, and in my opinion, the writers have already done this too much. The door never swings back towards Sam, the way it should have done. Things have not been equal among the brother's treatment and depiction and screen time for a long time now. They always mess up Sam's wonderful storylines so Dean can have another emo rerun of season 2. Hence, the horrid writing for this season.
If Dean were hanging out with a pet rock, they would fight for that pet rock as being a better brother for Dean than Sam is. It's not logical or thought out at all; it's just blind, jealous hatred, and it's eaten the heart of this fandom and the heart out of this show.
What I can never forgive is the writers appeasing this segment of the fanbase. They've destroyed the heart of this show by ignoring Sam so much. I cannot think of another show that would be this deliberately stupid and hateful towards a lead character. The writers are simply thoughtless, imho.
Season 4 broke me as a fan, not because Sam was going dark, but because the writing was so heartless and cruel towards Sam. Hiding his story from us, his reasons for doing what he's doing. Hiding his feelings, and how what happens to him impacts him emotionally. Even now, every time Sam suffers some kind of injury, no matter how bad, the writers blow it off as a joke. If you love or like Sam at all, this is a hard world to live in, a hard family to even believe in. Because if Sam isn't allowed to be a member of his own family, then what is the point of this show really?
This is something i saw in the comments (not all but many) here and in other places when Sam does something like sacrifice himself for the world or now when he interacted with lucifer comments about how he does it not with honorable intentions or not for his brother appears.He may or may not but to sully his intentions before show shows it is pretty bad for me to bear.
To yuor surprise as much as I disliked how the show handled Sam story on season 4, That season was the one I fell in love more with the younger Winchester brother. I saw his motives justified and I never was convinced he went dark side or should be blamed for anything just like no one could blame Dean for breaking the first seal. I don't understand why this fan base insists on this war and hatred towards one of the leads it's not Jared's fault that his name comes first because of the alphabetical order and it's not Sam's fault that he was brought back from death. And it kinda annoys me that writers are dead on pleasing those fans by putting Sam in the background for most of the time. I love Dean I really do, but why does he get to interact with most guest stars, why do we have to concentrate on his feelings and his loss while Sam is totally ignored? It even annoyed me that fans seemed to be excited about Cas' return on the coming episodes upon seeing the new promo than worried about poor Sam who is surely going to suffer beyond imagination because they say he would eventually be fine because the writers wouldn't kill him off, That's a wrong way of thinking in my book.
Yes but to those fans Sam doesnt matter. He is the millstone around Deans neck the one who has pulled Dean down . Cas is the liberator the one who cares for Dean with no strings attatched.
They have romanticized the Dean and Cas relationship( not slash)so Sam is unwanted.
Sams suffering this year hasnt really been paramount to the writers except for the first two episodes it was only in this episode they deemed to show us Sams torment so there isnt encouragement to care.Wether they build on this for Sam or Cas does abit of magic ? will depend on the writers idea of what they want for Sam.
A few days ago I got into a discussion with one of those die hard Dean/Cas fans and she got very annoyed when I said that the boys will never be OK as long as one of them is not. She said that Dean is not Sam's shadow and that he is a person and he has his own world. OK if those fans find Sam to be unwanted why do they watch a show that is supposed to be about two brothers in the first place? For me that's why I loved the show, this love and devotion between the two leads (not slash too). I didn't watch a show about a brother and a nerd Angel. And as much as I love the supporting cast (even the evil ones), I find them replaceable.
Besides I have to add that Cas might have been the liberator (or whatever the term is) on seasons 4 and 5, but on season 6 he totally blew things up and I found it very hard to sympathize with his motives back then. When Cas chose to trust a daemon and go "dark side", He should have known better because he saw the consequences of the same act when Sam did (a cautionary tale) so in my book he had no excuse.
Cas was a villian for most of season 4 nothing more than Dean's Ruby then he evolved to an ally and a friend in season 5
OK I might not be so crazy about Cas either, but I think he was more of an "order following soldier" than a villain on the first half of season 4. He did save Dean from Hell (OK I know he was told to do so but still) and he showed some level of sympathy with the guys at some points. Cas was confused and the human (aka Winchester) perceptive on things was very unusual to him back then and he needed time to understand and choose which side he should be on.
before i reply i want to know what you meant earlier by liberator
Well nothing more than I just explained, he freed Dean from Hell, He was his friend for some time and he was there for him when needed.
However I have to add there were times on season 4 when I couldn't stand the nerd Angel and I couldn't love him less back then
I too feel the Same about other characters than Sam and Dean.Oh .Ok. liberator? maybe, friend i thought he was truly in season 5. sorrry past midnight here and coherent thought has left the building have to go off to sleep land. bye.
There are always extremes in fandoms, and I tend to ignore fans that knock Sam down for Dean's sake or vice versa. To me, those fans are missing the point of the show. It's about both brothers.
Now, having said that, I think the writing is completely uneven when it comes to both brothers. I'm not saying in terms of time devoted, just in terms of character development. I quite frankly have as many frustrations with how they've handled Dean's struggles as Sam's, but at least Dean's have been given more time to be addressed.
The problem with the strategy of isolating Sam and Dean from the rest of the world is that we as viewers aren't connecting with the characters like we once did. We aren't feeling or relating to their struggles. A major reason is supporting characters best bring out the issues of the main characters. When that's taken away, a lot of the richness of the story is gone.
I know Sam and Dean aren't in normal life situations, but these guys always used to be relatable to us anyway. They reacted the way humans do. Now, there's something missing. They aren't hunting for any other purpose than that's what they've been trained to do. They're going through the motions and that's proven to be boring. We aren't seeing Sam's inner pain (except in Repo Man), we aren't seeing why Dean is truly drowning himself in alcohol.
The writers have lost their skill with "show, don't tell." They used to do that perfectly. Just a few episodes that come to mind are "Mystery Spot," "On The Head of A Pin," "Death Takes A Holiday," "Point of No Return," "Dark Side of the Moon" and heck even lesser episodes like "After School Special" focused on using the story to get into these guys heads. Season six was the absolute worst season when it came to doing this.
"Repo Man" did that perfectly, but man, why did it take 15 episodes? Sorry, 13, I think "Hello Cruel World" did a good job too. The show used to weave the MOTW story into Sam and Dean's inner struggles perfectly. Now, not so much. So, in the end to me, it doesn't matter if the focus is on Sam or the focus is on Dean. I'm not getting either of these guys right now.
Hmm, I probably need to do a whole article about this. My comments here probably aren't concise enough.
Yes Alice I agree with you, Though I might say I totally understand the boys' struggles and their inner feelings, The problem is that they need to be addressed more clearly like in "Hello cruel world" and "Repo man" so that we can get over them, I think we need a good supporting cast to bring these issues to the light. I find Sheriff Jodi Mills a good example and I hoped the writers would use the connection she established with the boys further . And I think the boys have to act more mature and learn how to support each other and talk to each other rather than being isolated in their worlds.
I agree with you Alice. However I feel I need to point out, and I am going to be slammed for this, that "Sam" fans are WAY too defensive about his character. Some even mentioned a hatred of Sam by "Dean" fans. I do not believe this is so. Maybe there are some who feel that way but most of the negative comments seem to feel Deans character gets favored in writing, focus, viewpoint, and storyline etc. There is some truth to the comments and Sammys had a hard sad journey. But Deans path hasn't been a bed of roses either. I love both of these characters and do tend to think of them as a unit but Alice is completely correct about them being hard to relate to this last couple years. I think there is such a void that when there ARE bonding, brotherly moments we fall all over ourselves with appreciation.
You are absolutely right LEAH, as a fan of both boys I get sad when I see either of them wildly attacked by the other's fan base. I don't get it, Why do they turn it into a war when both boys are supposed to stick together in the face of the world even in their time of adversity. Yes the two have had it so hard and they both have lost more than enough but none of them is a saint, they both had their share of mistakes.
Oh yes Deans path was not a bed of roses and the "defensive" fans have not implied it but characters in the show comment on Dean's tough childhood and not Sam's .So did Sam have a bed of roses as his childhood? Sammys had a hard journey so acknowledge it on the show we fans acknowledge it but what about the show. How many of the characters have commented Sam individually for saving the world? not all Sam fans are defensive as how all Dean fans are not offensive ..I have not found Dean fans moderating while slamming sam and when that happens i don't refrain from slamming Dean because Sam may not repeatedly remind Dean of his transgressions but i through my comments like to atleast post it..Sam is my favourite but i have always liked Dean too But if any Dean fans show hatred to Sam i don't mind doing the Same to Dean
# au 2012-02-25 12:43
So . . . you like Dean but are willing to trash him to spite fans you feel denigrate Sam? Doesn't that just exacerbate the Dean vs. Sam fighting?
yes.absolutely. I can't sit quite when something bad is said about Sam unreasonably . If it leads to Dean vs Sam then so be it.I will not trash Dean unreasonably only i will comment things which i would not have commented if the original comment were not made.I have found Dean to be unsympathetic, unreasonable... at times and i do not blame Dean or complain immediately for that simply because he is human. but when i see comments saying sam's sacrifice in Swan song was because of some less then honorable intent ( and there have been comments) i get simply incensed but i comply to the rules and reply as politely as possible about Dean's less than honorable intentions..
So instead of defending Sam, you default to trashing Dean? I would think that if you want to defend Sam, you should defend Sam, not belittle Dean. That seems self-defeating, since it will only lead to the fan on the other side getting more offensive. But your coping strategy is your coping strategy, even if it does seem counter-product ive.
Just a little old fashioned tit for tat .Anyone belittle Sam ,belittling Dean will follow
Okay, this has gotten out of control. Please, let's avoid the Sam fan vs. Dean fan debate now. I'm not going to censor what was said so far or issue blame. I understand the issue, but it has no place in this thread.
Quite frankly, I've seen very defensive fans all over the place. This fandom has plenty of extremes. There are always avid Sam defenders, Dean defenders, heck even Castiel and there's always the complaints of favoritism, bias, etc. These comments always seem to be popular whenever I publish a Sera Gamble interview. Lately, I'm getting a lot of backlash even when issuing a criticism about the show in general. Fans are just sensitive. It's the nature of the fandom.
sorry.no more comments of Dean Vs sam from me
BOTH characters have been portrayed as unsympathetic as times. Both have been total jerks at times but when it happens I don't quite feel the intense, angry, kneejerk reactions that some express. I have been unhappy with the course the show and characters have taken at times. I also have bonded with the characters and am very invested in this show so I understand that. But the reality of it is that if this show did not have one or the other of these two great characters it simply not be the superior show it is! It would also not be the same with any two other actors. I think it is fine to express an opinion that differs from others but it is the knocking down of the other character that I do not understand.
Absolutely beautiful comment.Yes BOTH are unsympathetic..
Correction ..BOTH are unsympathetic at times
But why do most knee jerk at Sam ( Sam is selfish one of the knees)
Sorry Alice, your comment wasn't up when I made my last post. Just trying to understand all this.
# percysowner 2012-02-27 11:09
Going back to “No Rest For The Wicked,†which is right around the time that the beginning flashback happened (see sweetondean's review for logic,
An interview on Winchester Radio www.blogtalkradio.com/mediablvd/2012/02/26/winchester-radio--discussion-of-supernaturals-repo-man had Jim Michaels call in and stated the episode WAS set in season three. That is why they added the spotlights to the Impala because the last time they were on the Impala was season three. So one question answered by TPTB.
# Nitewoman7 2012-03-16 00:16
Hi Alice here I am late to the party again Loved this episode but life your got in my way & prevented me from reading your review. Can't wait till tomorrow night. thanks for all your insight and comments. I came to the same conclusion on some points but you showed all the others I missed thank you. I'm scared for Sam but I'm scared even more for Dean as he has said "We've lost enough"
# deepthi 2012-04-13 09:00
I know it's a little late to ask...but what about the devil's trap that appears in the warehouse where Jeffery keeps Nora's son..? I don't think Jeffery drew it considering his want for the Demon. Nobody else knew about the place until then? Can someone help please? I am open to one possibility though --> "Bobby" ! :)
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No to Nuclear: A Solar and Wind Energy Powered African Future
African leaders meeting in The Hague for The Nuclear Security Summit should first ask Western countries to dismantle their nuclear weapons. And then propose a world in which solar and wind power are the main sources for energy. And more […]
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
African leaders meeting in The Hague for The Nuclear Security Summit should first ask Western countries to dismantle their nuclear weapons. And then propose a world in which solar and wind power are the main sources for energy. And more than that commit to becoming the leaders in the production of solar and wind powered energy.
Solar Panels. Photo voltaic solar panels can be used for various applications, including residential, rural, commercial, flexible and portable solutions.
Nuclear weapons are designed to kill civilian populations en mass while destroying their civilization and the very earth they live on. No country large or small, Western or non-Western should have nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iranians are as much a threat as they are in the hands of Russia or the United States. As long the weapons exist, it means that we are living at the mercy of the leaders and political climates, trusting that reason and basic humanism will inform the decision whether to use a nuclear or not.
Atomic Bombs: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Yet history shows that sometimes the right cocktail of dying troops, economy in shambles, fear and bad leadership can create a climate where the civilian population of a country loses empathy with the civilian populations of the “enemy” country. In 1945, the United States used the atomic bomb against the Japanese killing over 100,000 civilians. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament reports that the bomb “ultimately destroyed 13 square kilometers (5 square miles) of the city [and] almost 63% of the buildings in Hiroshima were completely destroyed after the bombing and nearly 92% of the structures in the city had been either destroyed or damaged by blast and fire.” That is the atomic bomb; a nuclear bomb would have decimated everything.
[youtube id=”ncq_Wye43TM” mode=”normal” align=”center”]
In 2003 George Bush proposed lifting the ban on nuclear weapons research in order for the United Sates to develop the masculine sounding, Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator but popularly known as “mini-nukes.” The idea was to arm bunk busters with small nuclear warheads in order to get to the Taliban hiding out in Afghani Mountains. He only stopped because of the amount of opposition from anti-nuclear proliferation activists and congress (the US senate was behind the lifting).
The United State foreign military engagement mantra has become “no boots on the ground.” President Obama has been relying on the civilian killing drones to engage US enemies. The drones have slowly been desensitizing Americans against declaring war on civilians. Is it inconceivable that a president on the right of Bush would not use a nuclear bomb against civilian populations if it will mean no “boots on the ground?” Decency is not enough! We have to have a nuclear weapons free world.
But what about nuclear energy? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency “Nuclear power generates a number of radioactive by-products, including tritium, cesium, krypton, neptunium and forms of iodine” and “impacts the environment through fuel emissions associated with the uranium mining and uranium enrichment process as well as the transport of the uranium fuel to and from the nuclear plant.” Nuclear power uses large amounts of water and nuclear waste runoff “can contaminate groundwater and surface water resources with heavy metals and traces of radioactive uranium.” The radioactive Waste then “is shipped to a few specially designed and licensed disposal sites.” If these sites are to ever become vulnerable the fall-out will be disastrous.
Dumping of Nuclear Waste in Oceans
Radio active materials have been illegally dumped in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The BBC reports that according to Nick Nuttall of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) the 2005 Tsunami, “could have spread illegally dumped nuclear waste and other toxic waste on Somalia’s coast” and that “a preliminary UN report had found that Somalis in the northern areas were falling sick as a result.” The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, a result of an earthquake is a reminder that there are forces so much stronger than our best defenses, that we cannot foresee or even prevent.
Wind and Solar for Africa
But there is an alternative. There is no reason why African countries cannot take advantage and become leaders in the production of wind and solar energies. While harnessing solar and wind energies might not sound as high tech as going nuclear, it is the most revolutionary act that African countries can undertake. It is literally the future. Uranium like oil is a finite natural resource. Energy from the sun and the wind are infinite provided we do not irreversibly destroy the environment. African countries are on the right side of history when it comes to nuclear weapons.
Ngong Hills wind farm in Kenya
The African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (ANWFZ) Treaty remains one of the most comprehensive anti-nuclear weapons treaties of anywhere in the world. African countries can also take the lead and show the West that a world in which solar and wind are the main sources of energy is possible. If indeed human life did originate in Africa, we can contribute it to its longevity. Then we shall not only be on the right side of history, but also guarantee the future.
Are you pro or anti nuclear energy? We invite you to share your thoughts here or our Facebook page.
f t w l
Senegal: Akon finalises agreement to develop ‘Akon City’
Adeyemi Adediran: The Nigerian Harvard Law Student defending a veteran at the U.S. Court of Appeals
Eliud Kipchoge receives Honorary Doctor of Laws and Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya award
Meet Sarah Chan: The first African woman to be Manager, Africa Scouting for an NBA franchise
Nigerian student Taoheed Bayo designed Nike’s Afro-Yute Air Max 1 sneakers
Burn the boat to win the island
About This Is Africa
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Category: Art Walks
Selina San José hosts urban art safari
The art and humor of Hugo Díaz lives on at an Alajuela exhibit
Art City Tour returns to San José for ‘Chepe in the Rain’
VIDEO: This weekend’s Transitarte Festival
Cities filled with art: A visit to the 10th Central American Biennial
The Tico Times - September 24, 2016
The tenth edition of the Central American Biennial has brought a wide selection of paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and music, as well as workshops from artists from throughout the region,…
Costa Rican artist paints himself through history
Amanda Zúñiga - November 24, 2015
Painter Fernando Obando has embraced a new and ambitious project – one that, according to the artist, is the very first of its type. The artist's new exhibit…
New gallery to be inaugurated during the Art City Tour
The Tico Times - November 20, 2015
Tonight's Art City Tour, the periodic and popular event that brings josefinos out in droves for free visits to participating museums and galleries, will feature a brand-new stop: an art…
Arcadio Esquivel exhibits his best-known comic, ‘Wences’ World’
Amanda Zúñiga - October 24, 2015
Cartoonist Arcadio Esquivel, who has been part of the team at The Tico Times since 1983 with his editorial cartoons, is the subject of a new exhibit at…
Charity auction seeks to help Costa Rican kids
Art and social work join forces tonight as Man Yu Fung and other renowned artists unite with the Costa Rican Heart Foundation, the United for Childhood Foundation…
Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center celebrates 70 years
The Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center (CCCN) is celebrating 70 years as cultural bridge between the United States and Costa Rica. It is an English teaching center, but also…
New movement pairs seasoned artists with up-and-comers
Elizabeth Lang - August 23, 2015
The art gallery Artflow has officially inaugurated its first edition of an innovative new creative project: the Somos Dos series of exhibits, which pair the work of…
MADC exhibit ‘Over View’ showcases 47 videographers from 8 countries
The Tico Times - May 20, 2015
https://vimeo.com/66476691 An anonymous man talks about loneliness. We can hear his voice during a crackly telephone interview. There are long pauses between sentences, but we don’t see…
TEOR/éTica exhibits challenge and confound
The Tico Times - April 17, 2015
Everywhere you look in Costa Rica, there is a guachimán watching the street. He might be sitting in a chair. He might be pacing back and forth.…
Artist Justin Griffin-Zúñiga receives first solo show in Costa Rica
[caption id="attachment_62154" align="alignright" width="426"] Courtesy of Justin Griffin-Zúñiga[/caption] In the painting “Vendedor de Copos,” an elderly man stands before a wooden stand. He wears a bushy mustache…
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Teachers report to schools in Kashmir, students don't
This story is from August 19, 2019
PTI | Aug 19, 2019, 11:34 IST
School staff arranging the desks and chairs during the preparation work inside an empty classroom at a school ...Read More
SRINAGAR: Teachers reported to work in many schools in Kashmir as restrictions were eased further on Monday but not many students were seen.
Officials said the government has made necessary arrangements for opening of 190 primary schools in Srinagar city as security forces remained deployed in most of the Valley.
But all private schools in the city remained shut for the 15th consecutive day as parents were apprehensive about the security situation in view of violent protests over the past two days. Only Police Public School at Bemina and a few Kendriya Vidyalayas saw a handful of students turning up.
"There is so much uncertainty in the situation that sending kids to school at this stage is out of question," Farooq Ahmad Dar, a parent, said.
Officials in Baramulla district said schools in five towns remained closed. In the rest of the district, schools were opened, they said.
"There is no relaxation in restrictions in Pattan, Palhalan, Singhpora, Baramulla and Sopore towns. Primary schools in the rest of the district are open. We are collecting details about the number of students who have reported at their respective schools," an official said.
A senior Srinagar district official said a few schools on the periphery were opened but in the old city and in civil lines areas, they remained shut due to violence over the past two days.
Authorities had planned to open schools up to primary level and make all government offices functional from Monday.
In Srinagar city, barricades were removed from areas where the situation has remained peaceful since the Centre announced the scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two union territories on August 5.
Markets in the Valley were shut while public transport remained off roads. The movement of private vehicles in the city increased after restrictions were eased.
Delhi: Man convicted of minor's rape attacks female journalist in court premises
Shabana Azmi injured in a car accident on Mumbai-Pune Expressway
Article 370RTI BillPodcast newsLok SabhaShiv SenaYSRCPCongressBJP newsUIDAIIndian ArmyISRO newsSupreme Court
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Quiz answer: Who ratted out the Republicans like this, and when?
I said earlier that you may wish to file this under o tempora, o mores; or perhaps under plus ça change.
These words seem oddly, perhaps astonishingly appropriate to political discussion today. They come from the past, from more than a half-century ago, but they refer to issues that have not yet been solved, and to issues that were resolved, but have come undone, or just come around again.
GOP vs. Dems. Image from Addicting Information, “15 differences between Democrats and Republicans.”
I posed this a quiz in a post a couple of days ago.
Does history repeat itself? George Santayana said history repeats for those who forget what happened before.
Here’s a political speech given in Minnesota. Without hitting Google, can you tell who said this, and when?
Democracy does not work that way. Democracy is a matter of faith–a faith in the soul of man–a faith in human rights. That is the kind of faith that moves mountains–that’s the kind of faith that hurled the Iron Range at the Axis and shook the world at Hiroshima.
Faith is much more than efficiency. Faith gives value to all things. Without faith, the people perish.
Today the forces of liberalism face a crisis. The people of the United States must make a choice between two ways of living–a decision, which will affect us the rest of our lives and our children and our grandchildren after us.
On the other side, there is the Wall Street way of life and politics. Trust the leader! Let big business take care of prices and profits! Measure all things by money! That is the philosophy of the masters of the Republican Party.
Well, I have been studying the Republican Party for over 12 years at close hand in the Capital of the United States. And by this time, I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues.
Since they won’t tell you themselves, I am going to tell you.
They approve of the American farmer-but they are willing to help him go broke.
They stand four-square for the American home–but not for housing.
They are strong for labor–but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights.
They favor a minimum wage–the smaller the minimum the better.
They indorse educational opportunity for all–but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools.
They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine–for people who can afford them.
They approve of social security benefits-so much so that they took them away from almost a million people.
They believe in international trade–so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement.
They favor the admission of displaced persons–but only within shameful racial and religious limitations.
They consider electric power a great blessing-but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
They say TVA is wonderful–but we ought never to try it again.
They condemn “cruelly high prices”–but fight to the death every effort to bring them down.
They think the American standard of living is a fine thing–so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people.
And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.
Now, my friends, that is the Wall Street Republican way of life. But there is another way–there is another way–the Democratic way, the way of the Democratic Party.
Of course, the Democratic Party is not perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But the Democratic Party believes in the people. It believes in freedom and progress, and it is fighting for its beliefs right now.
In the Democratic Party, you won’t find the kind of unity where everybody thinks what the boss tells him to think, and nothing else.
But you will find an overriding purpose to work for the good of mankind. And you will find a program–a concrete, realistic, and practical program that is worth believing in and fighting for.
Now, I call on all liberals and progressives to stand up and be counted for democracy in this great battle. I call on the old Farmer-Labor Party, the old Wisconsin Progressives, the Non-Partisan Leaguers, and the New Dealers to stand up and be counted in this fight.
What clues does that passage contain that it wasn’t said in the past year? Or was it?
I’ll post the answer in a day or so — take a guess in comments.
James said it was Harry Truman, and indeed it was.
President Harry S Truman, image from UCSB American Presidency Project
Truman spoke to a crowd in Minnesota, in the St. Paul Municipal Auditorium, on October 13, 1948, about three weeks before the 1948 election in which he “upset” New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. This was part of Truman’s famous Whistle Stop speaking tour of the U.S.
If the words look like they could have been said today, perhaps we should pay attention to them today, no?
Surely someone has a photograph of Truman speaking in St. Paul — but I haven’t found it yet.
Oral history of the 1948 campaign by William J. Bray, then a special assistant at the White House, from the Truman Library
Full text of the speech, from the University of California-Santa Barbara American Presidency Project of John Woolley and Gerhard Peters
1 Comment | Famous quotes, Harry Truman, History, Politics, Quotes, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: Famous quotes, famous speeches, History, History Mystery, Politics, Quiz, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Who ratted out the Republicans like this, and when?
You may wish to file this under o tempora, o mores; or perhaps under plus ça change.
6 Comments | Famous quotes, History, Politics, Quotes, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: Famous quotes, famous speeches, History, History Mystery, Politics, Quiz, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Epic political cartoons: Steve Benson on GOP and women’s rights
Hard to believe this cartoon was published back in May.
Steve Benson cartoon for the Arizona Republic, May 10, 2013: “Speaking of holding women in captivity . . .”
Apparently the Texas Lege thought it was a model for action, and not a ridiculing of their ideas.
Steve Benson biographical sketch
Benson’s page at the Arizona Republic site
Benson at The Cagle Post (the most ardent promoter of political cartoons in the world)
David Fitzsimmons: Cartoon glitterati crave laughs but don’t clown around on deadline (azstarnet.com)
Steve Benson cartoon: Shelf life (oregonlive.com)
Political cartoons, trivial and inconsequential? I think not | Russ Radcliffe (guardian.co.uk)
Cartoons: Fourth of July (photos.mercurynews.com)
Steve Benson cartoon: Who may I ask is calling, please? (oregonlive.com)
Leave a Comment » | Cartoons, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Political cartoons, Politics, War on Women, Women's rights | Tagged: Arizona Republic, Civil Rights, Editorial cartoon, Human Rights, Political cartoons, Politics, Republican Party, Steve Benson | Permalink
Moral Monday in Raleigh, North Carolina
Unidentified pProtester Thierry Wernaers in Raleigh, North Carolina, in photo by an unnamed photographer:
Protester Thierry Warnaers in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Moral Monday, June 11, 2013; photographer unidentified
Love that sign: OMG/GOP/WTF?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Devona Wyant. Thanks to Thierry Warnaers for writing in to identify himself (see comments).
More, but not all:
Clergy lead Moral Monday protests at NC General Assembly (newsobserver.com)
Clergy lead Moral Monday demonstration (charlotteobserver.com)
Congressman Butterfield To Join “Moral Monday” Protests (witn.com)
Moral Monday takes on clergy focus – a round-up of coverage – Articles (wilmingtonfavs.com)
Hundreds arrested in protests combating GOP attacks on social programs (tv.msnbc.com)
“If it begins in NC, so be it” – rally cries and prayers from Raleigh on Moral Monday – Articles (wilmingtonfavs.com)
More Breaking: 8th Rabbi Joins Statement; N&O Highlights Jewish Clergy (carolinajews.wordpress.com)
The ‘Moral Monday’ movement in North Carolina (dailykos.com)
‘We Are Movement, Not a Moment’: North Carolina Peaceful Uprising Continues (commondreams.org)
North Carolina’s Republican legislature continues to clash with black activists (thegrio.com)
4 Comments | Dissent, Humor, Politics | Tagged: Dissent, Humor, Moral Monday, Politics, protest, Raleigh North Carolina, Republican Party | Permalink
GOP Victory Center, for rent
What’s for rent?
Republican Victory Center, for rent. Location and photographer unidentified so far — can you help identify them? Photo taken after November 6, 2012
Not quite so good as Norman Rockwell’s famous painting, but real. “Republican Victory Center” probably isn’t the name it will be remembered by.
Can you help identify the location, and the photographer? Notice the photographer is portrayed in the reflection in the window.
Election day art: Norman Rockwell (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
Hundreds file into Crocker to see Norman Rockwell exhibit (sacbee.com)
Rockwell exhibit at Crocker paints snapshots of U.S. cutlture (sacbee.com)
Norman Rockwell revival at Crocker (sfgate.com)
Republicans open Victory Center in Tarrant County, Texas – Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
8 Comments | Elections, Humor, Politics, Republican Party | Tagged: Elections 2012, Humor, photography, Politics, Republican Party | Permalink
Romney disavows sex tape . . . the tape, not the sex act
Not an apology. Not an update on information he didn’t have all those weeks ago (8% of Americans do NOT pay income tax, not 47%). Not a clarification.
“Ooooh, please, look at all the flags!”
Ryan Still Channeling Ayn Rand Despite Pretending to Disavow Her Views (crooksandliars.com)
23 Comments | Economics, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party | Tagged: 2012 Campaign, 47%, 53%, Economics, History, Mitt Romney, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party | Permalink
Leaking of GOP ignorance threatens to turn into a flood
My GOP friends tried to say that Todd Akin’s odd views on pregnancy and rape are a brand of stupid unique to him. ‘Don’t think all Republicans are that ignorant,’ they said.
Hey, I worked with Republicans and in the Republican Party for years. I know a lot of bright, intelligent Republicans.
Most of them couldn’t get through the door of the party these days, if they didn’t already have elected or appointed posts. Many Republidans come well-acquainted with libraries, books, critical thinking and an appreciation of art and literature, and at least a rudimentary understanding of science — but alas, they and their views are being smothered by the chuckleheads in the party.
When the Akin flap broke, we were all saddened to learn that he had carried some of those odd views for several years, and that Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and the entire Texas Republican delegation in the House of Representatives joined with Akin last February to try to change the legal definition of rape to match Akin’s views. How embarrassing, not just to be caught, but to have done that stuff in the first place.
“Aberration,” the Republicans said.
Pennsylvania GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Tom Smith told reporters pregnancy from rape is about the same as pregnancy from an out-of-wedlock affair. Photo from Tom Smith campaign
Don’t look now, but that trickle from the dam holding back the stupid swelled to a stream, and it’s threatening to erode the dam and unleash all the stupid behind it.
I refer you to the odd and disgusting case of Pennsylvania Republican Tom Smith, the GOP hope to defeat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, reported in the New York Daily News:
Pennsylvania Senate hopeful Tom Smith sparked controversy Monday after he compared a pregnancy resulting from rape to “having a baby out-of-wedlock” – days after Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) shocked many by claiming that “legitimate rape” doesn’t lead to pregnancy.
Smith tried to distance himself from Akin’s comments at the Pennsylvania Press Club in Harrisburg, saying that the congressman “should have never said anything like that,” the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported.
But when a reporter asked him what he would do if one of his daughters or granddaughters became pregnant as a result of rape, he said that he had “lived something similar to that with [his] own family,” referring to his daughter’s “out-of-wedlock” pregnancy from consensual sex.
“She chose life, and I commend her for that,” Smith said. “She knew my views but fortunately for me … she chose the way I thought. Now don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t rape.”
When pressed by another reporter, the 66-year-old reiterated the comparison of his daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy to becoming pregnant from rape.
“Put yourself in a father’s position. Yes, it is similar,” he said.
Smith, who is running against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in November, later clarified his statements at the same event.
“No … I said I went through a situation [with a daughter]. It’s very, very difficult,” Smith said. “But do I condone rape? Absolutely not. But do I propose life, yes I do. I’m pro-life, period.”
Steve Forbes endorses Tom Smith? The scary question is whether Forbes bothered to learn Smith’s views, or did he perhaps endorse Smith knowing about Smith’s odd views, and hoping Smith would push them in Washngton? Smith campaign image.
One might wonder if the real reason the GOP cut their convention short was to prevent more leaks of the truth about their candidates views and odd positions on issues. Cutbacks in news departments and the shrinking news holes in most newspapers could be partly to blame for these late-breaking stories of stupid. Generally news stories expose gross ignorance and patent stupidity in primary campaigns, and voters of the parties vote away candidates who hold extreme, bizarre, dangerous or silly views. News organizations don’t have the staff to expose these things early, and they get exposed late only on a catch-as-catch-can basis.
But there is a very real danger that some people with money are pushing these candidates because of their odd views. In Texas, Tea Party courtesan Ted Cruz defeated a well-known candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, and part of his appeal may be his odd views that the United Nations is trying to seize U.S. golf courses. Democrat Paul Sadler faces an uphill battle even in Texas where Cruz’s friends in oil pipelines are seizing private farm and ranch land. Cruz claims to fight against an imaginary problem, but he lets the real problems roll right over Texans.
A wise voter without a lot of time to study in depth the views of candidates might be compelled to vote Democratic straight tickets as the safest thing to do, even with a few odd views among Democrats.
How many more? How many other odd, divorced-from-reality views have residence in the penthouses of the Republican mansion? Waiting for one more shoe to drop would be bad enough — ignorance in the GOP seems to be a centipede with dozens of shoes.
Pennsylvania Senate Candidate: Out Of Wedlock Pregnancy “Similar” To Rape (outsidethebeltway.com)
Reporters grill GOP Senate hopeful for comparing out-of-wedlock pregnancy to rape (rawstory.com)
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith: Sex out of wedlock ‘similar to’ rape (dailykos.com)
The GOP War on Women Continues….Pennsylvania Edition (3chicspolitico.com)
Kathleen Parker Just Can’t Take It Anymore (themoderatevoice.com)
Do You Get It? (talkingpointsmemo.com)
The GOP Had Akin Coming (thedailybeast.com)
Maureen Dowd Calls Paul Ryan The ‘Fresh Face’ Of The GOP’s ‘Taliban Creed’ (mediaite.com)
The GOP reaps what it sowed (salon.com)
The Todd Akin Fiasco: When Scientific Ignorance and Religious Extremism Rule Politics (skepticalteacher.wordpress.com)
24 Comments | 2010 Elections, 2012 Campaigns, Campaigns, Elections, Ethics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party | Tagged: 2012 Campaign, Bob Casey, Ethics, Paul Ryan, Paul Sadler for Texas, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party, Ted Cruz, Todd Akin, Tom Smith | Permalink
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April 3, 2000 12:00AM PT
An animated combo of the old Bob Hope--Bing Crosby "Road" pictures and "The Man Who Would Be King," DreamWorks' third major feature cartoon, "The Road to El Dorado," is a strained and pallid concoction that won't fire the collective imaginations of modern children.
By Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Voices: Tulio - Kevin Kline Miguel - Kenneth Branagh Chel - Rosie Perez Tzekel-Kan - Armand Assante Chief - Edward James Olmos Narrator - Elton John
An animated combo of the old Bob Hope–Bing Crosby “Road” pictures and “The Man Who Would Be King,” DreamWorks’ third major feature cartoon, “The Road to El Dorado,” is a strained and pallid concoction that won’t fire the collective imaginations of modern children. The automatic kidpic audience will turn out for this high-pedigree production, but lack of a story that pre-teens will find involving and six of the least memorable songs Elton John and Tim Rice have written will make this only a moderate earner, one certainly destined for lower B.O. than the studio’s “Antz” and “The Prince of Egypt” and more likely to reach the numbers of “Anastasia” or less.
Five years in production, epic buddy picture went through two sets of directors and numerous evolving concepts, arriving finally at a middle ground between outright romp and a serious take on the arrival of the conquistadors in the New World. Subject matter is rife with possibilities, even for a moppet-oriented effort that obviously isn’t going to grapple with such heavy themes as conquest and subjugation. “Pocahontas” showed that it is possible to tread this sensitive terrain with a degree of balance and sensitivity in terms that kids can grasp.
But whenever “El Dorado” threatens to get serious, it backs off, retreating into loud shenanigans between its two mischievous heroes, complete with annoyingly anachronistic mannerisms such as high-fiving and shouts of “Yes!”; vampy scheming on the part of its heroine, who looks and sounds like a Las Vegas tart; rambunctious action sequences and montage-oriented musical numbers that tend to center on general concepts (“The Trail We Blaze,” “It’s Tough to Be a God”) rather than on immediate emotions.
First quarter-hour introduces dark-haired Tulio (voiced by Kevin Kline) and blond-maned Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) as Spanish rascals who delight in creating scrapes and extricating themselves with devilish aplomb. After one prank too many, however, they find themselves trapped in barrels and placed aboard one of Cortes’ ships headed across the Atlantic in 1519. With Cortes’ noble horse, they escape in a lifeboat and finally wash up on a beautiful beach bordered by jungle.
Quickly captured by imposing bronze-skinned natives, the boys think their goose is cooked upon arrival at the fabled city of gold, El Dorado. But the coming of such “gods,” as they are perceived to be, has been prophesied, and, after a bit of lucky shuffling and hocus-pocus, Tulio and Miguel are installed in exclusive quarters atop one of the city’s many pyramids. Local babe Chel (Rosie Perez) is on to their game and blackmails the flummoxed pair into including her in their plan to escape El Dorado with a bounty of gold, courtesy of a large boat to be built especially for them.
Although there is a local chief (Edward James Olmos), he, along with the rest of the community, is dominated by high priest Tzekel-Kan (Armand Assante), a commanding figure who pays elaborate homage to the white strangers at first but gradually becomes skeptical of their presumed divinity. The severe holy man is especially offended by the newcomers’ oh-so-sensitive objections to human sacrifice, first when they prevent an execution, and later after the “gods” manage to win a furious ball game and then insist that the losers, contrary to custom, be spared. In a direct lift from the film “The Man Who Would Be King,” Tzekel-Kan realizes that the visitors are just human beings after all when Miguel bleeds from a cut.
Far too much time is devoted to the two charlatans’ silly arguments about if and how they’re going to pull off their charade, and to contretemps concerning Chel, whom they declare to be off-limits romantically but who manages to come between them nevertheless. By contrast, one of the script’s more promising elements — Miguel’s sudden surge of feeling for the local citizens and their gentle lifestyle when he mingles with them, to the consternation of his anxious partner — is given unduly short shrift. Even if “the allure of the primitive” reps a cliche in the adventure/exploration genre, a bit more time devoted to it would have brought the setting and its inhabitants more to the foreground; as it is, there is no individuation among the native people.
Kline and Branagh (last paired in “Wild Wild West”) give boisterous, spirited readings to their characters, even if Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio’s script provides them with few shadings or interesting traits. Assante registers strongly as the powerful priest.
But the Chel character is so contemporary, and in a vulgar way to boot, as to be incredible and off-putting, and Perez’s urbanite voicing doesn’t help. Even Chel’s motivation is unbelievable: El Dorado is presented as a Shangri-La–like paradise, and no one in this sealed-off city would even know about another place to which he or she would want to flee.
Visual design as overseen by directors Eric “Bibo” Bergeron and Don Paul is colorful, sometimes attractive but never breathtaking. Animation, compositions and editing favor dramatic angles and fluidly changing perspectives that keep things interesting, while the characters are more commonly conceived; a few elements, notably the gold, are rendered with near-photographic realism. The animals on view comprehendingly participate in human endeavors but aren’t anthropomorphized in traditional Disney fashion, while the tunes are vigorous and well sung but, at least at first listen, not catchy or distinctive.
Production: A DreamWorks Pictures release. Produced by Bonne Radford, Brooke Breton. Executive producer, Jeffrey Katzenberg. Co-executive producer, Bill Damaschke. Directed by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron, Don Paul. Screenplay, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio. (Technicolor prints).
Crew: Supervising editors, John Carnochan, Dan Molina; editor, Vicki Hiatt; music, Elton John; lyrics, Tim Rice; score, Hans Zimmer, John Powell; production designer, Christian Schellewald; art directors, Raymond Zibach, Paul Lasaine, Wendell Luebbe; sound designer and supervisor (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Greg King; sound designer/editor, Yann Delpuech; additional sequences directed by Will Finn, David Silverman; casting, Leslee Feldman. Reviewed at Century City Cinemas, L.A., March 28, 2000. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 89 MIN.
With: Voices: Tulio - Kevin Kline Miguel - Kenneth Branagh Chel - Rosie Perez Tzekel-Kan - Armand Assante Chief - Edward James Olmos Narrator - Elton John
Tresor Films Plots $72 Million 'Asterix & Obelix: The Silk Road,' New Projects (EXCLUSIVE)
After delivering two of the highest-grossing French films of last year, Alain Attal’s Paris-based production company Tresor Films (“Sink or Swim,” “Little White Lies 2”) is kicking off 2020 with its most ambitious project yet, Guillaume Canet’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Silk Road.” Co-produced and financed by Jerome Seydoux’s Pathé, “Asterix & Obelix” is budgeted [...]
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Asian Congressthings demand: Obamacare for Illegals
Patrick Cleburne
The always-valuable Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times came up with a zinger this morning: Liberals seek health-care access for illegals Monday September 28, 2009
a group of House Democrats…say it's unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they've been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements.
Interestingly, this effort is being lead by Congressman Michael Honda (D-CA) Chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, rather than by the Hispanics. One wonders why. Hispanic groups outside Congress are on board.
The National Council of La Raza launched its own "flood their voice mail" campaign last week to put pressure on [Senator] Baucus to expand coverage in his proposal to include all legal immigrants and to drop verification language in the legislation that would prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining coverage.
Of course, it is totally obvious that the Democrats plan Obamacare to cover illegals, if surreptitiously and piecemeal. That is why they have been voting down GOP efforts to put teeth in enforcement provisions. As Dinan notes:
Under the 1996 welfare law overhaul, Congress restricted most federal benefits to longtime holders of green cards - those who have been in the country at least five years.
But Democrats chipped away at that rule when they reauthorized the State Children's Health Insurance Program earlier this year and allowed states to cover all immigrant children and pregnant women, regardless of how long they've been in the country.
Joe Wilson was right. This legislation is yet another case social reconstruction and reource transfer being engineered by dishonest means by people who know full well what it will do.
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American Folk Music
American Folk Music. What is it? Where did it come from? What can we learn from this type of music?. What is Folk Music?. Folk music is music created and performed by common people (not the rich) and passed down from generation to generation. What cultures make folk music?. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
What is it? Where did it come from?What can we learn from this type of music?American Folk MusicFolk music is music created and performed by common people (not the rich) and passed down from generation to generation.What is Folk Music?
Folk music is found in every culture and is created by the common people of that culture. Since every culture is a little different, there are many types of folk music. What cultures make folk music?
Indian Folk MusiciansChinese FolkMusicians How are all types of folk music the same?American folk music comes from the common people of America. America, however, is made up of many cultures. The folk music is therefore a blend of many cultures.When immigrants came to America, they sang the songs of their previous cultures. Their previous culture was a part of their identity and helped them remember their past.As different cultures shared songs with one another, musical ideas began to mix together. Thus . . . American Folk MusicWhat is American Folk Music?Most folk songs are traditional songs that are past down from previous generations. In many cases, no one knows who first sang them.Folk songs are rarely ever written down. Instead, people share them to one another orally (by singing).Because these songs arent written down, they change over time (words may change; melodies may lengthen or shorten; two or more songs may be mashed together).
Where do folk songs come from?
Because folk music was created by the common person, any instrument s/he owned could be used. The more popular instruments include:GuitarDouble BassFiddleBanjoMandolinDulcimerHarp
What instruments are found in folk music?
When slaves had no instruments, they made music with their voices.Other musicians create their own instruments out of what they found around the house. These groups were called Jug Bands.
And when there were no instruments?
From the movie Emmet Otters Jug Band ChristmasFolk songs usually have lyrics and those lyrics are often just as important as the melodies.Folk song lyrics deal with almost every type of human activity (work, religion, love, family).Some folk songs describe history so its never forgotten.Other folk songs are fictional and have little meaning. Instead, they are meant for celebrations, for dances, and for enjoyment.What topics are found in folk songs?In America, there are a few types of folk songs we find again and again. The first is a ballad.A ballad is a song that tells a story, often times about real events.
Another type of folk song is the spiritual.A spiritual is a song that deals with religion.African-Americans sang many spirituals . . . some were about their beliefs and others were about escaping slavery and finding freedom.What types of folk songs are there?In additional to ballads and spirituals, many types of folk songs deal with activities or situations:These are some (not all)Work songsPrison songsWar songsSongs for childrenDances (Reels, Square Dances)
. . . other types of Folk Songs?
Polish folk music
2014 north american folk traditions music
Folk Music of Palawan
Folk music part 1
FOLK MUSIC OF THE UNITED STATES Recording ?· FOLK MUSIC OF THE UNITED STATES Music Division ANGLO-AMERICAN…
Birds, Chinese folk music
Music videos folk
TURKISH FOLK MUSIC
Chinese folk music
Stravinsky and Folk Music
Folk Music Trivia Quizes
Folk Music of the United States: Anglo American - loc. . Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads IV. Afro-American Blues and Game Songs ... Library now-records of American folk music from
English Folk Music
Banjo in American Folk Music
AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL “Who’s Who” - bdn-data.s3 ... ?· AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL • Bangor Daily…
Hungarian folk-music. Collecting folk-music in the past
Index [ ] ?· Anthology of American Folk Music (Smith), 53, 54 anti-authoritarianism British underground,…
Country/Folk Music
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Valparaiso | Crown Point | Munster 219.736.8118
Amjad Alkadri, MD
Vivek Mishra, MD
Omar Barakat, MD
Facial Resurfacing
NovaThreads®
CryoCorrect™
Laser Genesis Skin Treatment
Limelight Facial
Neuromodulators
P.R.P Therapies
Valparaiso Office
Munster Office
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Interventional Radiologist and Vein Specialist
Dr. Amjad Alkadri is an Interventional Radiologist and Vein Specialist with expertise in minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Alkadri received his medical degree from the University of Damascus and subsequently completed general surgery and radiology training at Providence hospital in Michigan in 1999. He also completed an Interventional Radiology fellowship at the university of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. Dr. Alkadri is Board Certified Radiology.
After his fellowship in 2000, as part of his dedication to teaching, Dr. Alkadri served for 4 years as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology at the U of I Medical Center. During this time, he performed hundreds of complex minimally invasive procedures using state of the art technologies.
An accomplished physician-scientist, Dr. Alkadri has 20 years experience in the field of Interventional Radiology with special interest in the treatment of varicose veins and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures. He is currently a primary investigator for an ablative cosmetic treatment of the face sponsored by the FDA.
From 2003 to 2013 Dr. Alkadri served as the Chairman of Radiology at Porter Hospital in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Also in 2003, Dr. Alkadri co-founded the Vein Center of NW Indiana. In doing so he introduced innovative laser treatments for varicose veins to NW Indiana. Dr. Alkadri presently serves on the advisory board of BTG, where he advises on new revolutionary treatments for varicose veins.
With four locations in NW Indiana, Dr. Alkadri, is the current president of the Vein and Laser Institute. As president, Dr. Alkadri is responsible for strategic direction, overall administration, recruiting and allocation of resources. The Vein and Laser Institute is one of the fastest growing vein and cosmetic centers in the Chicagol and area.
As a humanitarian, Dr. Alkadri made time on many occasions to travel to his birth country, Syria, to perform needed interventions for those in need of medical attention.
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Home » Which were 2019’s most profitable stocks?
Which were 2019’s most profitable stocks?
by Daisy Nguyen January 5, 2020
Thirty stocks on Vietnamese market at least doubled in value last year, with most gainers being penny stocks.
Nine are listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the country’s main bourse, while the remaining 21 are listed in Hanoi (HNX), where small and mid-cap stocks are listed.
Construction and lighting fixtures manufacturer MBG Group recorded the highest gain in 2019. Listed on the HNX, it started the year at VND4,000 ($0.17) and rose 413 percent to close the year at VND20,500 ($0.88).
The stock began to rise sharply at the end of June, hitting the ceiling several times. By early November it rose to VND58,000 ($2.49) before beginning to violently give up its gains. In the last five trading sessions of the year the stock had no buyers.
Construction firm Vinaconex (VCM) rose from VND14,645 ($0.63) to VND53,000 ($2.28), a 262 percent gain, though only 100 shares were traded on most days.
Though liquidity peaked at 27,000 shares in late July, the last quarter the average was only around 100.
Other stocks achieving the biggest gains last year were finance and advisory firm FIT, which rose 295 percent, property developer Lilama 7 JSC (LM7, 254 percent) and school equipment and books retailer LABECO (LBE, 213 percent).
Most of the biggest gainers were penny stocks.
Bluechip stocks in the VN30, the basket of Vietnam’s 30 biggest stocks in terms of market cap, fluctuated much less, with most price movements associated with business results and prospects of the company.
VCB of lender Vietcombank had opened 2019 at around VND53,000 ($2.28) and ended it at over VND90,000 ($3.87), a gain of 70 percent. It made the highest profits in the banking sector, and announced a slew of other good news.
In November it signed a 15-year bancassurance deal estimated by Bloomberg to be worth around $1 billion with Hong Kong insurer FWD Group Ltd., which was thought to be a strong driver of year-end gains.
IT services giant FPT was second in terms of gains at nearly 63 percent. After divesting entirely from wholesale and retail businesses to focus on technology, its profit margins and operating efficiency doubled from the previous year.
Compared to the two main bourses, the Unlisted Public Companies Market (UPCoM), which is an exchange with less stringent disclosure obligations to encourage trading of shares in unlisted companies, shows a lot more volatility, given that its permits daily price movements of 15 percent, double that of HoSE and HNX.
VNX of tech and marketing firm Vinexad, the biggest gainer on UPCoM, started the year at VND777 ($0.03) and closed at VND60,000 ($2.58), an increase of 7,617 percent. Its 52-week high was an eye-watering VND84,300.
HCS of Hanoi Railway Signal & Telecom JSC was the second biggest gainer, rising from VND6,700 ($0.29) to VND107,600 ($4.62), a nearly 1,500 percent rise.
Again, though, they had very low liquidity, with around only 100 shares changing hands per session on average.
Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index rose 7 percent to 961 points at the end of 2019.
Source: Vnexpress
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Daisy Nguyen
Daisy is a Marketer based in Saigon. She joined Vietnam Insider in early 2017 and covers from Trending, Enterprise to Life and Travel. If you want to share your story, publish a press release or just want to ask something, contact Vietnam Insider via info@vietnaminsider.vn
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NextWho’s To Say Anything About Roommates?
Gunby Equine Center
undergoing renovations
Renovations to the Gunby Equine Center progress to increase horse and rider safety
in the facilities.
Viking Fusion on November 12, 2019
Story by Jacquelyn Pierce, Contributor
MOUNT BERRY, Ga. – The Berry College Gunby Equestrian Center is under renovation inside and out for the first time since it was built in 1940. The barn was designed and used as a chicken house before its conversion to a horse barn in 1972.
“The renovations will modernize the barn and make it safer and easy to use,” said Eddie Elsberry, director of agriculture operations. “It will also give us a better area for teaching labs and research.”
Updated flooring inside the Gunby Equine Center.
The indoor renovations are already underway including newly installed new rubber floor matting and new Priefert horse stalls, with plans to do an outside “makeover” in the fall or winter, according to Elsberry.
Before the renovation, the barn was in need of some significant repairs. Stall doors were nearly impossible to open or close and the feeders were falling apart. The ground was uneven and dusty, putting the horses and riders at risk of tripping or falling.
The renovated spaces will also be beneficial for the equestrian team.
“The team will be able to have more room during horse shows when space used to be limited, and overall the barn will look much nicer,” Kelly Knott, a former equestrian rider and now a student worker at the barn, said.
The renovation of the barn will allow safe entry of horses for when they need to be fed and will allow more aisle room for everyone in a safer environment. Not only will the renovation make a safer riding place, but the facilities will have an updated look.
Building materials inside the Gunby Equine Center.
“Renovating Gunby will help Berry and our team, in that it will make our facilities more appealing to future riders as well as people hoping to keep their horses in the private side of the barn,” Miriam Pitts, the Hunt Seat historian said.
The barn was in need of repairs and it is well on its way to becoming a newly updated space for the current riders and horses as well as those in the future.
“We are thankful that we are able to use some gifted money along with Berry’s investment on the cost of the project,” said Elsberry. “We are excited and anxious to do more as we secure more partnerships from friends of Gunby.”
Posted by Viking Fusion
Who’s To Say Anything About Roommates?
The Berry Good Life: Asa Daniels
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Could ‘Game of Thrones’ have done what it did tonight any better?
Alan SepinwallFacebookTwitterSenior Television Writer
A review of tonight's Game of Thrones coming up just as soon as you punch me in the face the next time I have an idea like that…
“We all fail sometimes.” -Jaime
You guys… Jon Snow is alive!
I know, I know… I'm as shocked as you are.
Which is to say, not particularly shocked, and slightly disappointed at how “Home” presented the resurrection we all knew was coming.
Look, George R.R. Martin did the show no favors with that particular cliffhanger. Even before the NSA started tracking Kit Harington's movements in and out of Belfast, GoT fandom at large had all come to the conclusion that Jon Snow's death wouldn't stick, since it would be awful storytelling to eliminate the only relevant character in what was increasingly turning out to be the most important locale in the entire show(*). And most of us assumed that Melisandre would probably be involved, given that we've seen another Lord of Light priest raise the dead in seasons past.
(*) The show has killed off plenty of major players before, obviously, but virtually always in moments when their character arcs had more or less concluded (Ned and Robb both suffering for their naivete and rigid adherence to an outdated moral code) and/or when there were other people in position to easily assume their role in the larger story (say, with both Cersei and the Sparrow each picking up some of the dramatic slack left by Tywin's death). Killing Jon Snow would have created too big a vacuum in the Castle Black/White Walker storyline and served the show very poorly – and I say that as someone who, by and large, finds Jon Snow to be among the duller of the show's main characters.
A year later, the only surprising thing Benioff, Weiss, and company (represented here by writer Dave Hill and director Jeremy Podeswa) could have done would be to leave Jon Snow dead, but of course that was never going to happen. Given that, the show wasn't particularly well-served by drawing the resurrection out across two of a precious ten episodes, nor by the almost matter-of-fact presentation of it all. That it played out as part of Melisandre's crisis of faith helped a little bit, but the whole sequence played out with a sense of resignation, as if the creative team realized they had no choice but to do the exact thing, in the exact way, that everyone knew was coming, and not mess around with it. Even a small tweak like splitting the scene in two – so that Melisandre's apparent failure happened in the middle of the episode, and Jon Snow only opened his eyes after we had paid visits to Winterfell and the Pyke – might have given the whole thing more energy than this version had to offer.
Unlike a certain other gory Sunday night cable drama, Game of Thrones didn't cheat with how it presented Jon's death or his return to life. He really was murdered, and the means of his resurrection played by long-established rules of the show's fictional universe. But the whole thing still proved to be more trouble than it was worth, with the show's collective audience practically shrugging it off and predicting how it would be undone long before it actually happened. Maybe the show will get great value out of who and what Jon has become now that he's returned from the dead (though Beric Dondarrion seemed more or less the same man after each of his returns), but the show could have accomplished that without letting the viewers get so far ahead of the story. Just as “Home” would have benefited from timing out the resurrection scene differently, the show as a whole probably would have been better off relocating Ser Alliser's mutiny to the start of this season, so that the speculation would have happened over only a week or two at most, and then the show could have gone on with whatever Jon Snow's new role will be post-death.
On the whole, “Home” seemed torn on how much it wanted to wait before getting to the next stage of various plots. Often, waiting became the theme of certain plots, like Meera's frustration over Bran's lengthy apprenticeship with the Three-Eyed Raven or Jaime convincing Thommen to finally pay Cersei a visit. But some scenes lingered exquisitely, like Tyrion's nervous visit to unshackle Dany's dragons (Peter Dinklage: so great he doesn't even need human co-stars to make a scene work), where others seemed as rushed and lackadaisical as Jon Snow's resurrection, like Jaqen accepting Arya's renewed commitment to being no one after only a handful of questions.
Still, Arya's return to the fold of the Faceless Men fit the episode's larger themes about families being brought together, torn asunder, or both. The Three-Eyed Raven lets Bran visit Winterfell in happier times when Ned, Benjen, and Lyanna were kids. Cersei and Thommen get their moment together, and maybe Jaime, Zombie Mountain, and the rest of the Kingsguard may be enough to finally do something about the Sparrow and his people. Theon leaves Sansa in the care of Brienne and Podrick and makes plans to return to the Iron Islands, where another family reunion – between Balon and his brother Euron (played by Danish actor Pilou Asb?k) – ends with Balon being sacrificed to the Drowned God by his long-lost sibling. It's a bad episode to be a nasty old ruler, as Roose Bolton dies only moments after learning his wife has given birth to a son, suffering fatally for keeping Ramsay too close, and/or for keeping Ramsay so afraid of losing his place in the line of succession that he had to resort to such violent measures.
Balon's been gone so long, and was among the show's flatter villains when he was present, that I don't much mourn his death. (I also hope that this business of choosing his heir will have significant bearing on the main story, because the show doesn't need another Dorne-style diversion at the moment.) Roose Bolton, on the other hand, was a complicated and interesting heavy, and certainly moreso than his one-note sadist of a son. This episode is far from the first time something horrible has happened to a baby on this show (the massacre of all of Robert's bastards, the White Walkers taking in Craster's latest son), but whenever Ramsay's involved, both he and Game of Thrones seems to be taking perverse pleasure in it all, without in any way enhancing our understanding of him at this stage of things. (If the murder has to be presented and not alluded to, the scene can still cut away right after Ramsay has released the hounds, rather than letting us hear mother and crying baby be eaten by them.)
But the Lannister scenes on both continents were excellent, it was very satisfying to see Alliser and his other mutineers get their comeuppance thanks to Tormund, Wun Wun, and the rest of the wildlings, and I'm looking forward to much of what seems to be coming shortly, whether Sansa making it to Castle Black to reunite with her resurrected half-brother, Jaime and Cersei going to war with the faith militant, or Bran learning more about Hodor's past. (Hodor!)
Jon Snow's death and resurrection won't be remembered as creative high points for the series. Hopefully, though, what comes as a result of it all will add some retroactive value to all the word games of the last year.
Some other thoughts:
* This week, in Alan Wants a Web Series: Whatchu Talkin' 'Bout, Wyllis?, the story of Hodor as a young, verbal stablehand working for the Stark family. I don't even need to see the sad moment where he loses the ability to say anything but “Hodor.” More Wyllis will suffice. As it is, I thought Kristian Nairn did a nice job of modulating his “Hodor”s to be a bit more contemplative and sad during the scene where Bran tries to ask him about the situation.
* Isaac Hempstead-Wright looks like he's grown about three feet since last we saw Bran. We have some sense of how much time has passed, in that he crossed paths with Jon Snow and the Rangers near the end of season 4, but it still feels like much more time has passed for him than it has for everybody back at Castle Black.
* The Mountain isn't nearly as big as Wun Wun, but I appreciated the symmetry of the casual violence each large creature displayed tonight, with Wun Wun easily smashing the Ranger who fired a crossbow bolt at him, and whatever's left of Gregor Clegane doing similar to the King's Landing drunk boasting of his interaction with Cersei during her walk of shame.
* Max Von Sydow replaces Struan Rodger as the Three-Eyed Raven. It's not the first time the show has recast a role (we've been through two Berics, two Daarios, and three Mountains already). Von Sydow's a big enough deal that you would assume the show has major plans for the Raven besides leading Bran on a few vision quests.
* The season 6 trailer spoiled Tyrion's “That's what I do: I drink and I know things” line, but it was still wonderful in context. I also appreciated Tyrion recognizing that his eunuch humor is tougher to pull off when he has Grey Worm as well as Varys as an audience.
* Still no new locations on the credits map, but happy to see the Pyke animation for the first time in a few years.
What did everybody else think? And remember, don't talk about the books.
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Topics: #Emilia Clarke, #Game of Thrones, #Game Of Thrones Review, #Peter DinklageTags: EMILIA CLARKE, game of thrones, Game Of Thrones Review, Kit Harington, LENA HEADEY, peter dinklage
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Our Dear Leader, Politics
Now that is just harsh
Mark Urbin June 29, 2009
One of the strongest factors in our Dear Leader’s election was that he was not George W. Bush. The far left really hated our former President and demonized him at every opportunity.
Many of those who voted for our Dear Leader did so in hopes that he would immediately reverse every policy of GWB and that unicorns would start pooping Skittles ™. Ya, ya. Obviously reality wasn’t their strong point, or checking up on our Dear Leader‘s history.
Well, reality has reared it’s ugly head and not only has Barack Hussein Obama not closed the Islamofascist detention center at Gitmo, he’s announced that he, like President George W. Bush, plans on holding some of them indefinitely. A policy that made BDS sufferers foam at the mouth when GWB announced it.
Add to that this bit of data. During the election, many liberals complained that President Bush was running the national debt up too high and the Communist Chinese government owned too much of that debt. A lot of fiscal conservatives agreed with them on that. After the election, the fiscal conservatives stuck by their principles and most liberals abandoned theirs as our Dear Leader raised the national debt in six months an amount that it took GWB eight years to reach, selling most of that new debt to the Communist Chinese government.
Facts like these, are causing some honest liberals to describe our Dear Leader as “Bush on Steroids” or “George W. Obama“, and they don’t mean it as a compliment.
energy, Environment, Politics
Republican Congress Critters for sale
The old joke is that a “Honest Politician” was one that would stay bought.
Eight Republican members of congress proved they were for sale by breaking party ranks and voting for the democrat‘s “Cap & Tax” scheme.
Let’s be honest here, the “Cap & Tax” scheme isn’t about the environment and it certainly won’t create jobs. It will make the poor poorer and Al “manbearpig” Gore (owner of a mansion and a yacht) even richer.
The Washington Examiner points out just who paid them off and how much it took to buy their vote.
Stop by Michelle Malkin’s site for a good graphic showing the traitorous eight. Anybody running against them in a primary would be a good person to donate to.
Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
Monday Book Pick: Eye of the Storm
Eye of the Storm by John Ringo
The latest by best selling author John Ringo. It’s the next book in his Legacy of the Aldenata series. “Iron Mike” O’Neil is back, and boy is he pissed!
Monday Book Pick Archive
A lost Stevie Ray Vaughn Gig?
According the the SRV Gig database, Stevie Ray Vaughn played only one show at the Chance theater in Poughkeepsie, on April 28, 1984.
Now, I had a very good time during the early 80s, but I did remember seeing SRV twice at the Chance. So I checked my scrapbook and I have a ticket stub for Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble at the Chance, on Tuesday, July 12. July 12 fell on a Tuesday in 1983.
I also saw SRV at the New Paltz College Springfest concert in 1984 and at the Orpheum Theater in Boston in 1986.
Movies, Science Fiction, Star Trek
Friday B-Movie – Trekkies
A way funny documentary of rabid Star Trek fans. I’m talking serious fans. Worse than me, and I own a Bat’leth. Great movie if you are into Star Trek.
Friday B-Movie Archive
Culture of Corruption, Politics
democrat Culture of Corruption marches on
Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, a democrat and wife of democrat congressman John Conyers (more on him later), has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery according the Justice Department.
Hard left democrat Monica Conyers “had been under investigation for allegedly accepting bribes from a consultant in connection with a City Council vote to approve a $1.2 billion sludge hauling contract”, according the to the Washington Times.
You may remember Ms. Conyers. She was involved in an “open discussion on race” a few months ago.
Speakers advocating for the deal were taunted by the crowd and cut short by Council President Monica Conyers [the wife of House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers], who presided over the hearing like an angry bulldog; whites were advised by the citizens to, “Go home.”
Opponents were allowed to rant and ramble on uninterrupted about “those people” who want to steal Detroit’s assets and profit from the city’s labors.
A pitiful Teamster official who practically crawled to the table on his knees expressing profuse respect for this disrespectful body was battered by both the crowd and the council.
When he dared suggest that an improved Cobo Center would create more good-paying jobs for union workers, Conyers reminded him, “Those workers look like you; they don’t look like me.”
Desperate, he invoked President Barack Obama’s message of unity and was angrily warned, “Don’t you say his name here.”
So, not only is Monica Conyers a racist, she’s a corrupt racist. The very model of a modern democrat.
Culture of Corruption, Environment, Politics
Cap & Tax update
First off, the socialists over at Greenpeace (Hey! Don’t look at me. One of the founders quit after it was hijacked by socialists, that’s his story) oppose the democrat‘s Cap & Tax scheme. They claim it’s “not Science-Based; Benefits Polluters.” In this case, they are probably right.
Then there are 9 damned good reasons why some U.S. environmentalists should heartily oppose Waxman-Markey.
Next we have our Dear Leader‘s political appointees at the EPA suppressing real scientific research and studies that don’t agree with the left’s political agenda
The dems are trying to shove this through after blocking hundreds of Republican amendments and then adding a 300+ page amendment of their own under the cover of darkness last night. What are they hiding from the American people?
One Damn Fine Album
American IV: The Man Comes Around by The Man in Black, Johnny Cash.
Deeply moving, powerful music made by a man near the end of a long and rich musical career, staring his own mortality right in the face.
In the movie Walk the Line, Sam Phillips, the producer at Sun Records asks, ” If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you’re dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up.”
Well, in this album J.R. Cash answered that question with every track. Especially touching are The Man Comes Around, Hurt, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and Personal Jesus.
Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, who wrote Hurt, had the following to say after seeing Cash’s music video of Hurt:
I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure.
E-Commerce, Technology
Leasing ebooks from Amazon
I came to the conclusion a while ago that you don’t buy ebooks from Amazon, you are only leasing them.
First off, the highly restrictive Amazon DRM not only limits access to the ebook to their proprietary Kindle device, it restricts it to your specific device. Once you are done with the ebook, you can loan it to friend or sell it at used book store. If you want your friend to read the book, you have to give them your Kindle, because that is the only place that ebook will be displayed.
Second, Amazon doesn’t pay it’s associates a fee for any Kindle books “sold” through them. Why not? They pay the associates for just about everything else sold through their sites. Could it be that Kindle owners really are not “buying” the ebooks, but are just paying for a very restrictive lease in order to access the ebook?
Next, Megan McArdle just discovered a catch in the Amazon ebook fine print.
…there is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, he said, it’s five or six times but at other times it may only be once or twice. And, here’s the kicker folks, once you reach the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again.
I know people who buy paper books in both hardcover and paperback, but that is a different scenario. You have two separate versions of the book in different formats. One for the shelf and one to carry around and loan to friends. Amazon wants its customers to buy the exact same content, in the exact same format, multiple times, because their business model assumes that their paying customer are thieves.
That is not a consumer friendly business model.
Also posted at Urbin Technology.
Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
Monday Book Pick: The Android’s Dream
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
A fun romp through Interstellar politics, romance, advenure and the Android’s Dream, an electric-blue breed of sheep. Yup, that’s a big tip of the hat to Philip K. Dick. There is also a big jab made a religion based on the rantings of a SF writer of “modest talents.”
The Monday Book Pick Archive.
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Home Science & Space Could the Solar System's Deepest Ocean Harbor Life?
Could the Solar System's Deepest Ocean Harbor Life?
The deepest ocean on Earth is the Pacific Ocean’s Marianas Trench, which reaches a depth of 6.8 miles awesomely trumped by the depth of the ocean on the Jupiter’s moon, Europa, which some measurements put at 62 miles. Although Europa is covered in a thick crust of scarred and cross-hatched ice, measurements made by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft and other probes strongly suggest that a liquid ocean lies beneath that surface. The interior is warmed, researchers believe, by the tidal stresses exerted on Europa by Jupiter and several other large moons, as well as by radioactivity.
Most scientists believe that the sub-Europan seas are locked under tens of kilometers of ice. Heat is then conducted from the warm core by bulk convective motion of ice – huge chunks of frozen material literally carrying the heat away with them as they move up through the icy layer, shuffling and refreezing as they dump heat into space. But Jupiter’s Europa might not only sustain, but foster life, according to the research of University of Arizona’s Richard Greenberg, a professor of planetary sciences and member of the Imaging Team for NASA’s Galileo Jupiter-orbiter spacecraft.
Europa, similar in size to Earth’s moon, and has been imaged by the Galileo Jupiter-orbiter spacecraft. Its surface, a frozen crust of water, was previously thought to be tens of kilometers thick, denying the oceans below any exposure. The combination of tidal processes, warm waters and periodic surface exposure may be enough not only to warrant life, but also to encourage evolution.
With Jupiter being the largest planet in the solar system, its tidal stresses on Europa create enough heat to keep the water on Europa in a liquid state. More than just water is needed to support life. Tides also play a role in providing for life. Ocean tides on Europa are much greater in size than Earth’s with heights reaching 500 meters (more than 1,600 feet). Even the shape of the moon is stretched along the equator due to Jupiter’s pull on the waters below the icy surface.
The mixing of substances needed to support life is also driven by tides. Stable environments are also necessary for life to flourish. Europa, whose orbit around Jupiter is in-sync with its rotation, is able to keep the same face towards the gas giant for thousands of years. The ocean is interacting with the surface, according to Greenberg, and “there is a possible that extends from way below the surface to just above the crust.”
“The real key to life on Europa,” Greenburg adds, “is the permeability of the ice crust. There is strong evidence that the ocean below the ice is connected to the surface through cracks and melting, at various times and places.
( via dailygalaxy.com )
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Author: Dr Dion Terrelonge
Hi there, I am a chartered psychologist, researcher, and stylist. I am fascinated by the connection between clothes and human expression; the way it intertwines with our emotions and thinking, and the way fashion, and all related to it, can serve to inhibit or assist our expression. Plus, I really love shopping :) As a psychologist I am enchanted by human life; and we live that life in clothes
Judging Humans By Their Covers
@midtownuniform
A quick online search for the Patagonia vest soon throws up the sort of thing it now seems Patagonia do not want to be associated with; tech and finance bros. The vest has become so synonymous with Silicone Valley tech types that it is now referred to as the midtown uniform, with a thousand and one instagram posts and memes mocking wearers, believing the uniform to represent privilege, elitism and homogeneity.
Last week I was invited on to BBC radio Scotland with Kaye Adams to discuss just this, as well as what judgements people make about others based on their clothing.
Let’s take a look at some of the psychology that might be at play here and might help us to understand what this midtown uniform displays and the responses to it.
Finding your tribe
Social stratification
Have you ever heard the phrase “looking the part”? This is an example of social stratification in our everyday language. Social stratification is the categorisation of people within society e.g. class. Clothing is just one way that we display sameness and difference, a way for us to say I am like you, but not so much like you, and to align ourselves with those we consider our peers. The Patagonia vest is just one example of this, the hoodie and youth culture is another, and the Park Slope mums in Brooklyn with their number 6 clogs and Salt Straps are another. On a micro-system level, picture an American high school with the Goths and Jocks identifiable by their dress. Clothing is a powerful non-verbal communication, it tells others something of our underlying values, beliefs, tastes and culture. The fact is, people dress similarly to the people they surround themselves with (or wish to); their tribe. This is social stratification and it is nothing new, humans have been doing this as long as they have had fashion; think of King Louis XIV in the 17th century who donned his court in red bottomed heels (sound familiar) to denote nobility, a trend that quickly spread throughout western Europe with others also wanting to show their social standing.
Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionism is where a common set of symbols and understandings emerge over time; in the case of clothes this comes from repeated interactions between an item of clothing, the wearer and feedback from society until a shared meaning is reached. In the case of the Patagonia vest, it was worn by individuals who were or went on to be very successful, such as Dara Khosrowshahi the CEO of Uber. The vest itself did not represent anything but went on to do so through the repeated wearing of such types and the meaning observers made of this based on the character of the wearers e.g. that this item symbolised tech and finance working, success and competence, things that those also in field may want to have been aligned with and by wearing the item may have felt they would also convey. Burberry in the late 90s/late 00s is a prime example of symbolic interactionism, where a brand that wanted to be seen as luxury became popular with footballers, WAGS and as youth streetwear leading to Burberry’s signature pattern being derogatively named the chav-check. Because of who wore the clothes, the clothes took on a new social meaning, and those wearing the brands pattern were seen as belonging to a certain social group.
The judgements we make
That people judge others based on their clothing is a reality of our society, if it wasn’t we would not dress differently for interviews or work where a set uniform is not dictated. But we do; we put on clothes that we think will portray competence, confidence and being a “good fit” (social stratification at play again) and employers expect us to do so even though our clothing is in no way linked to our skill. Even though social media users did not know each of the men they encountered, photographed and mocked in the Patagonia vests, they believed they knew them; they even went as far as to ascribe stereotypical names to memes such as Chad and Brad. To them those donning vests and chinos were seen to be of a certain character. As I said before, clothes give us clues about a person, but they do not tell the whole story and like art, interpretations are subjective.
Self-perception theory
It is not only others making judgements about individuals, but we also make judgements about ourselves based on our dress. A study in the 80s found that individual s rated their competence and intelligence higher when they were wearing glasses even though their test scores didn’t actually differ! A later study in 2005 found that flight attendants wearing casual work wear led to negative self-perceptions such as lack of confidence, authority and professionalism.
Colour in context theory and attribution bias
Negative memes and companies not wanting to provide you with branded vests because of your perceived lack of environmental work is on the lighter side of making judgements about people based on their clothing. Colour in context theory is the effect of colour on psychological functioning including decision making, in different contexts and studies applying this to clothing have found worrying results. A 2014 study by Pazda found that women wearing red were rated as more attractive and as having more sexual intent by men, compared to women wearing white. Women rated women wearing red as more sexually receptive and less likely to be sexually faithful. All of this based on….colour.
Even more worrying are the judgements people make about a woman’s responsibility for her own sexual assault based on her clothing. Studies in the 1990s found that women wearing more fitted or revealing clothing were rated as more likely to provoke sexual harassment. Stepping outside of the psychology lab and into reality, shockingly this is exactly what was seen in a 2018 Irish rape trial where the victims lace thong was cited as possible evidence of consent.
Adomaitis, A, & Johnson, KKP. (2005). Casual versus formal uniforms: flight attendants’ self-perceptions and perceived appraisals by others. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 23(2), 88–101.
Johnson, KKP, & Workman, JE. (1992). Clothing and attributions concerning sexual harassment. Home Economics Research Journal, 21(2), 160–172.
Johnson, KKP, & Workman, JE. (1994). Blaming the victim: attributions concerning sexual harassment based on clothing, just-world belief, and sex of subject. Home Economics Research Journal, 22(4), 382–400.
Kellerman, J, & Laird, J. (1982). The effect of appearance on self-perceptions. Journal of Personality, 50(3), 296–315.
Pazda, AD, Elliot, AJ, & Greitemeyer, T. (2014a). Perceived sexual receptivity and fashionableness: separate paths linking red and black to perceived attractiveness. Color Research & Application, 39(2), 208–212.
Pazda, AD, Prokop, P, & Elliot, AJ. (2014b). Red and romantic rivalry: viewing another woman in red increases perceptions of sexual receptivity, derogation, and intentions to mate-guard. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(10), 1260–1269.
Peluchette.
Dr Dion Terrelonge Fashion, Fashion psychology, Fashion psychology; News, views, and research reviews, Psychology, Style and lifestyle, Uncategorized, Well-being Leave a comment May 12, 2019 May 12, 2019 5 Minutes
What is Fashion Psychology
I realised I launched this blog without first explaining what Fashion Psychology even is. So let me provide you with some brief information to help you contextualise my current and future posts.
What even is Fashion Psychology?
Currently there is not a single agreed upon definition of Fashion Psychology, the governing body that UK psychologists would typically turn to for an understanding of different areas of psychology is the British Psychological Society. However, the BPS does not currently have a definition of fashion psychology nor does it list the emerging field as a career option for budding psychologists. But, not to worry, there are many areas of psychology that aren’t officially listed by the BPS 1) because it tends to only list fields in which you can become a chartered psychologist; meaning a psychologist who can legally practice under said title, and 2) because each core field has a plethora of sub disciplines or investigative areas.
So, in order to provide you with a definition, or at least rough explantion, I turned to the interweb. When you Google, “What is fashion psychology?” you are provided with the following definition:
“Fashion Psychology is the integration and utilization of the science of psychology and the industry of fashion to create manageable therapeutic tools that ultimately assist in the development of desired results in both clients’ perceptions of self, their behaviors, and moods as well as targeted objectives within the business model.“
Source: Careersinpsychology.org
Another explanation which I quite like was offered by Dr Aurora Paillard, course leader of the BSc Psychology of Fashion at the University of Arts London in an interview. Note, the University of Arts is the only establishment in the world to offer degree level courses in Fashion and Psychology, and was the first to do so.
When asked, Aurora describes the role of Fashion Psychologists as:
“Fashion Psychologists study the impact of fashion (clothing, cosmetics, accessories) on wellbeing but also on performance, they also assess consumer behaviour (brand loyalty, consumer decision making, stores atmospherics, etc.), and they work towards ‘Inclusive Fashion’ (a fashion designed for and about everyone).”
I like this definition because of how encompassing it is, and the inclusion of wellbeing, which for me is the crux and most important element of my work around Fashion Psychology, or rather Style Psychology as I prefer to call it.
For those interested in getting in to Fashion Psychology and new to the field of Psychology it is important to draw attention to the convoluted nature of Psychology.
After studying Fashion Psychology you may carry out phenomenal work and push the field forward in the way we need, but the title of chartered Psychologist is typically reserved for those meeting the BPSs criteria for chartered status. Typically, Psychologists are Doctors, meaning they have completed either a Phd or a professional Doctorate. Not all psychology professions require PhDs, like Forensic psychology, but even this requires a degree, a masters and completion of two years post qualification supervised practice.
Having a thousand letters after your name is not the be-all-and-end-all, but it is worth those of us within and linked to the field of Fashion Psychology considering the implications of the title and associated connotations. Like the title, medical Dr, it carries weight; It encourages others to trust in our words, opinions and advice. With such a title comes great responsibility, but not quite as much as Spiderman…
Perhaps, and hopefully as the profile of Fashion Psychology continues to increase, we will see more courses created, more chartered Psychologists showing an interest, more research in the area and perhaps one day Fashion Psychology will be listed by the BPS as a career option, amongst the greats.
Dr Dion Terrelonge Academic research, careers, Fashion, Fashion psychology, Psychology, Research, Uncategorized Leave a comment October 11, 2018 October 11, 2018 2 Minutes
The importance of touch: Amazon’s VR mirror
Photo credit: Neiman Marcus
So, I wrote a little something a couple of weeks back for the brilliant multi-disciplinary platform Mind Fashion (check them out). They, or rather we are a community of design, technology, fashion, art, science and psychology professionals to name but a few who have come together to broaden and diversify the conversation around fashion.
You can read my blog about Amazon’s patent for a virtual reality mirror which allows you to virtually try on clothes and my musings on the possible personal, emotional, cognitive and consumer implications. It is entitled Mirror, mirror on the Wall Do I Want to Buy Them All; Happy reading 🙂
Dr Dion Terrelonge Consumerism, Fashion psychology, Image, Style and lifestyle, Tech, Uncategorized Leave a comment July 5, 2018 1 Minute
Pre Fashion Week Thinking: Fashion and Psychoanalysis
With London Fashion Week (LFW) less than a fortnight away, we’re all excited to see what treats lay in store, presented to us in metaphorical bows of silk, chiffon and lace from our favourite design houses and high street brands.
Increasingly people are stopping to consider the psychology of fashion e.g. what it says of us. McQueen famously spoke of his work as a form of therapy, stating that it was a way to exorcise his demons; suggesting that fashion may not only speak of us, but to us and have psychological and therapeutic benefits. But what does psychoanalysis have to say about the different realms of fashion? Last year I attended the world’s first Fashion and Psychoanalysis conference at UAL, hosted by UAL’s London College of Fashion in collaboration with the Freud Museum London (my old stomping ground).
The conference was hosted over two days with talks from curators, researchers, scientists, artists, fashion designers and more (see end of article for full list of contributors).
But what did I learn from the conference that might help inform my thinking as we slide into fashion week? What lens, or lenses might the thinking shared provide, through which to view the fashion world?
Over my next few posts I will share my most thought provoking ummm…. thoughts from the Fashion and Psychoanalysis conference. Enjoy
Part 1) “Fashion is a substitute for the woman’s penis” Umm, what!?
Hold on, before you spit out your gin fizz, let’s think about this together a little bit. Valerie Steele dubbed the Freud of Fashion maintains that sexuality is central to the study of psychoanalysis and central to fashion. She proclaims that sexual symbolism can be seen all across fashion, and that more overt sexual symbols in the form of fetish themes have also crept in. While showing one Versace campaign picture, she described the “multiply endowed woman”, covered in hard, rigid, erect straps, donned in impossibly high heels.
In this way the woman becomes more powerful, with her many phallices..phalli? Phallics? Symbolic penises (because that’s where all power lies don’t you know). Steele who has researched the connection between fetishism and fashion also shared that high heels are ubiquitous with female fetishism, and although Freud spoke very little about clothing he believed that heels protected men against homosexuality by endowing women with a phallis (Freud, oh Freud oh Freud. This is definitely going too far for me, and in today’s day and age, is just offensive and outdated in times where most women prefer a good pair of Converse ((other brands available)) over a pair of heels and homosexuality is not something that needs protecting against. Anyway, let’s take a deep breath and continue).
Not only is much of fashion tied up with sexuality and fetishism (pun intended), but according to Steele’s research it seems to be sexuality from the benchmark of being a man e.g. endowing ourselves to be more powerful, or for the benefit of men e.g. as above (let’s not repeat it). The shaping impact of male gaze is something we’re aware of, but Steele’s example of the way fashion has shifted attention to different parts of the body over time, is a powerful one e.g. the bum enlarging bustle in the late 1800s, hip widening panniers in the mid 1700s, boob enhancing stays and dresses in the late 1700s and early 1800s, belly flashing crop tops in the 1990’s.
But with our increased knowledge of the impact of male gaze and internalised gaze [1] [2], having more female fashion designers than ever before and the increasing rise of feminism, what are we seeing in fashion now?
Only last month Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss stomped it out on the runway for Kim Jones’ last Louis Vuitton show, in wait for it…..FLATS! Also, just last October Miu Miu sent a plethora (yes plethora) of models down the runway in flats.
Picture credit: Vogue and Indigital.tv
Perhaps the lens therefore is one of change, of shedding of phalli, and of womanliness, for women. Let’s see shall we…
Fashion and Psychoanalysis conference contributors
Zowie Broach
Introductory ThoughtsValerie Steele
Freud and Fashion
Claire Pajaczkowska
In Fashion : Sexual Selection and the Fetish/ Understanding ‘Empathy by Design’
Anouchka Grose
Ugliness+Time: Fashion and the Prisoners’ Dilemma
Shaun Cole
The ‘Great Masculine Renunciation’ Re-assessed
Philip Mann
The Dandy : Pathological Hero of Modernism
Caroline Evans
Denise Poiret and the Material Mnemonics of Fashion
in conversation with Amanda Harlech
Katerina Fotopoulou
Body Imaging: Mentalising and Modifying our Bodily Appearance
Emilia Raczkowska
‘There Remains the Area of Clothes’ – Enclothed Cognition from the Lab to the Couch
Dr Dion Terrelonge Academic research, Fashion, London Fashion Week, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Uncategorized Leave a comment February 11, 2018 April 9, 2018 3 Minutes
Welcome to The Fashion Psychologist
Welcome to the Fashion Psychologist; your one stop shop for all things fashion psychology related. Here I will share easy to read, accessible summaries of academic research relating to fashion psychology from a range of publications; reviews of topical events; and share my views, from a psychological perspective on goings on in the world of fashion, beauty and media.
In the last few years fashion psychology has grown from a small burgeoning field to one that is becoming widely recognised. Fashion, retail and the media are paying more and more attention to the emotional, cognitive and generally psychological implications of the fashion world on individuals and society as a whole. Only last month Elle UK published an article entitled “9 women on how they use fashion to feel empowered: You don’t need a costume to be a real life wonder woman”. Perhaps unwittingly, what they were discussing here was the psychology of fashion; the link between what we wear and how we feel, behave, and even how we think.
In 2014 Professor Carolyn Mair launched the world’s first fashion psychology programme; including the psychology for fashion professionals MA, and the applied psychology in fashion MSc, both at the University of Arts London’s, London College of Fashion. Since then, the programme has seen three cohorts graduate and go off into a range of diverse and exciting roles such as fashion marketing, buying, styling and design; taking with them their newly acquired psychological knowledge. Dawnn Karen in the US has taken fashion psychology and founded the Fashion Psychology Institute, which offers on line training in fashion psychology to those with undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in psychology.
Fashion psychology is not a new field, and in fact was first coined in the late 19th century by American psychologist Henry James. It was also explored and discussed by Brit Thomas Carlyle, most poignantly in his seminal text , Sartor Resartus (1869).
Despite its longevity and newly found popularity, fashion psychology is yet to receive its own academic journal, meaning that fashion psychology students and enthusiasts alike must look to non-peer reviewed publications, pop-psychology articles and text books, which due to their nature, although still highly informative, become dated almost as soon as they are published. In any field of science, whether natural (biology, geology etc) or social (economics, psychology etc) current, up to date academic research is needed, to ensure the advancement of the field. Currently, research on clothing including colour, style, provocativeness, the impact of fashion images on self-esteem, and consumerism in fashion are published across a range of journals such as The Journal of Fashion and Marketing Management; The Journal of Social Psychology; Body Image; and The Journal of Problem Solving. Some of which require paid access.
Here, the fashion psychologist will bring ideas together, taking interesting articles relating to fashion psychology, from disparate sources and summarise and critically evaluate them; all in one place. Welcome to The Fashion Psychologist.
Dr Dion Terrelonge Academic research, Body image, Fashion, Fashion psychology, Psychology, Style and lifestyle, Well-being Leave a comment September 27, 2017 April 9, 2018 2 Minutes
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Cannes Review: Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Everybody Knows’ Leaves a Sour Note on Opening Night
Giovanni Marchini Camia○ May 9, 2018
Disregarding the vomitus of clichés with which Asghar Farhadi introduces the rural Spanish milieu of Everybody Knows, for the first half-hour or so, the Iranian director actually appears to be trying something more structurally daring and compelling than in any of his previous work. In depicting Laura’s (Penélope Cruz) return from Argentina to attend a family wedding in her native village, the film flits through a vast number of characters and locations, drawing a complex web of connections amongst family members, friends and other villagers. The rapid succession of very short scenes disallows for a clear character configuration to emerge. Instead, a feeling of intimate acquaintance between all inhabitants of the small village is established, while the uneasy mix of social classes and scattered intimations of discontent amongst some of the characters hints at a rotten underside to the pastoral joviality on show. The ominous disorientation that arises almost gives the impression that Farhadi has taken a leaf from Lucrecia Martel’s mode of storytelling, but it’s not long before this fanciful notion is shattered. As it turns out, it’s simply a case of sloppy exposition.
Late into the wedding party, Laura’s 16-year-old daughter, Irene (Carla Campra), goes missing from her bedroom. The characters’ fear that she’s been kidnapped is confirmed when they receive a ransom SMS — the standard demands: give us an exorbitant amount of money and don’t call the police, or we kill the girl — and what follows charts the escalating paranoia and dissolution of familial and friendship bonds that accompany the search for Irene, which is led by Laura and Paco (Javier Bardem). It’s not immediately clear who Paco is, but his centrality in the wedding celebrations seems to indicate that he’s in some way part of the family. It later transpires that he is actually the son of the former servant and an old flame of Laura’s, and that the family harbors deep-seated rancor towards Paco for having bought a large piece of land from the debt-ridden father, which he then turned into a thriving vineyard while the father drank away the rest of his fortune. This begs the question: why was he so warmly embraced during the wedding and why is he so dedicated towards helping Laura in the first place? The answer to these conundrums, and the myriad others the film’s glaring lapses of logic will give rise to, is simple: the script demands it.
Overwriting has been the constant weakness in Farhadi’s filmmaking, but here the writer-director — who should really consider passing scriptwriting duties on to someone else for a change — truly outdoes himself. The narrative takes so many ridiculous turns in building up intrigue over who kidnapped Irene while simultaneously digging up buried resentments from the characters’ past, all for the sake of a narrative bombshell some two-thirds of the way in that most will have foreseen long before its embarrassingly earnest reveal. (During the Cannes premiere the audience started laughing at this attempt at heartbreaking pathos, and as the scene dragged on for way too long, Bardem and Cruz’s desperate overacting only added more fuel to the flames.) It would be fun to describe the further contrivances this revelation sets in motion, but that would represent a major spoiler, so suffice it to say that when at long last the identity of the kidnapper(s) is finally discovered, it is of as little consequence as the film’s Spanish setting or its would-be socioeconomic commentary.
Given the script’s reliance on tropes drawn from an extensive catalogue of kidnapping films, were it injected with a healthy dose of irony, all the overcooked plotting and preposterous intrigue could lend itself quite nicely to an enjoyably pulpy genre exercise à la David Fincher’s Gone Girl. Sadly, Farhadi has never demonstrated any capacity for irony, and instead of a bit of fun, all we get is a self-serious farce.
Everybody Knows premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and opens on February 8. Find more of our festival coverage here.
Grade: D
CannesDavid Fincher
Giovanni Marchini Camia
The Climb Trailer: Cannes Winner and Sundance Selection Explores a Biting Bromance
Jordan Raup○ December 27, 2019
And Then We Danced Trailer: Acclaimed Gay Romance Arrives this February
Margaret Rasberry○ December 22, 2019
U.S. Trailer for Beanpole Previews Kantemir Balagov’s Cannes Winner and Russia’s Oscar Entry
Margaret Rasberry○ December 9, 2019
David Fincher and Robert Towne Team for ‘Chinatown’ Prequel Series at Netflix
Jordan Raup○ November 18, 2019
Mati Diop on Her Feature Debut ‘Atlantics,’ Giving Meaning to Lost Lives, and the Hysteria of Cannes
Joshua Encinias○ November 15, 2019
Willem Dafoe Lives a Version of Abel Ferrara’s Life in First Trailer for ‘Tommaso’
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WannaCry Ransomware That's Hitting World Right Now Uses NSA Windows Exploit
Update — After reading this article, if you want to know, what has happened so far in past 4 days and how to protect your computers from WannaCry, read our latest article "WannaCry Ransomware: Everything You Need To Know Immediately."
Earlier today, a massive ransomware campaign hit computer systems of hundreds of private companies and public organizations across the globe – which is believed to be the most massive ransomware delivery campaign to date.
The Ransomware in question has been identified as a variant of ransomware known as WannaCry (also known as 'Wana Decrypt0r,' 'WannaCryptor' or 'WCRY').
Like other nasty ransomware variants, WannaCry also blocks access to a computer or its files and demands money to unlock it.
Once infected with the WannaCry ransomware, victims are asked to pay up to $300 in order to remove the infection from their PCs; otherwise, their PCs render unusable, and their files remain locked.
In separate news, researchers have also discovered a massive malicious email campaign that's spreading the Jaff ransomware at the rate of 5 million emails per hour and hitting computers across the globe.
Ransomware Using NSA's Exploit to Spread Rapidly
What's interesting about this ransomware is that WannaCry attackers are leveraging a Windows exploit harvested from the NSA called EternalBlue, which was dumped by the Shadow Brokers hacking group over a month ago.
Microsoft released a patch for the vulnerability in March (MS17-010), but many users and organizations who did not patch their systems are open to attacks.
Also Read — Google Researcher Finds Link Between WannaCry Attacks and North Korea.
The exploit has the capability to penetrate into machines running unpatched version of Windows XP through 2008 R2 by exploiting flaws in Microsoft Windows SMB Server. This is why WannaCry campaign is spreading at an astonishing pace.
Once a single computer in your organization is hit by the WannaCry ransomware, the worm looks for other vulnerable computers and infects them as well.
"The worm functionality attempts to infect unpatched Windows machines in the local network. At the same time, it also executes massive scanning on Internet IP addresses to find and infect other vulnerable computers. This activity results in large SMB traffic from the infected host" Microsoft says.
Infections from All Around the World
In just a few hours, the ransomware targeted over 45,000 computers in 74 countries, including United States, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Philippines and Vietnam, and that the number was still growing, according to Kaspersky Labs.
According to a report, the ransomware attack has shut down work at 16 hospitals across the UK after doctors got blocked from accessing patient files. Another report says, 85% of computers at the Spanish telecom firm, Telefonica, has get infected with this malware.
Another independent security researcher, MalwareTech, reported that a large number of U.S. organizations (at least 1,600) have been hit by WannaCry, compared to 11,200 in Russia and 6,500 in China.
Screenshots of the WannaCry ransomware with different languages, including English, Spanish, Italian, were also shared online by various users and experts on Twitter.
Bitcoin wallets seemingly associated with WannaCry were reportedly started filling up with cash.
The Spanish computer emergency response organization (CCN-CERT) has even issued an alert that warns users of the "massive attack of ransomware" from WannaCry, saying (translated version):
"The ransomware, a version of WannaCry, infects the machine by encrypting all its files and, using a remote command execution vulnerability through SMB, is distributed to other Windows machines on the same network."
"Power firm Iberdrola and utility provider Gas Natural were also reported to have suffered from the outbreak.," according to BBC.
How to Protect Yourself from WannaCry
First of all, if you haven't patched your Windows machines and servers against EternalBlue exploit (MS17-010), do it right now.
To safeguard against such ransomware infection, you should always be suspicious of uninvited documents sent an email and should never click on links inside those documents unless verifying the source.
To always have a tight grip on all your important files and documents, keep a good backup routine in place that makes their copies to an external storage device that is not always connected to your PC.
Moreover, make sure that you run an active anti-virus security suite of tools on your system, and most importantly, always browse the Internet safely.
decrypt ransomware, EternalBlue exploit, hacking tool, nsa hacking tools, ransomware, Wana Decrypt0r, WannaCry Ransomware, WannaCryptor, windows exploit, windows hacking
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Home > Resource > The Minions of Henry VIII
The Minions of Henry VIII
By David Crowther 3 years ago Jun 04, 2017 9 Comments
Tudors
Tudors: Early
One of the delightful things about the passion for Tudor history is the quality of information freely available about the characters that inhabited Henry VIII’s world. So this page gives a brief summary of the minions that gathered around the young Henry VIII, early in his reign – and then links to find out more if you wish. Which is lazy of me, obviously.
Charles Brandon (1484-1545)
Brandon was as close to the king as you get, a personal friend whose success depended on the King’s favour, who made him Duke of Suffolk. He was Henry’s aristocratic companion in the joust and the hunt and in all court activities, and like Henry was big, physical and athletic. He came close to blotting his copy book by marrying Henry’s younger sister Mary, but after a brief banishment from court, he was rehabilitated and remained at Henry’s side on campaigns in France, often in command of the army or army units. He got on poorly with both Wolsey and Anne Boleyn. There’s a lot about Charles and Mary on various websites – try this one here.
Thomas Boleyn (1476-1539)
Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond and famously father of Anne. Boleyn was made a knight of the Bath at the coronation of 1509. He was one of the sympathizers with the ambitions of the young warlike king and an enthusiastic participant in royal entertainments, especially tournaments. Boleyn was an outstanding diplomat (Henry said that there was no skilled negotiator to equal him), a sophisticated and cultivated man. In 1525 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford, by which time both of his daughters were at the English court. Mary was soon the king’s mistress. Chapuys claimed in 1531 that Anne and her father were more Lutheran than the Lutherans, and a year later he said both were considered true apostles of the new sect. By 1529 he was one of Henry’s small inner ring of councillors, and was promoted earl of Wiltshire and earl of Ormond, but once Anne fell in 1536 the whole Boleyn family followed, and all but Thomas’s English earldom were irretrievably lost. He died at Hever Castle on 12 March 1539.
Francis Bryan (c.1490-1550) ‘The Vicar of Hell’
Bryan was a restless, unscrupulous and promiscuous courtier, who held the favour of Henry VIII all the way to his death. He held a reputation as both a fearless teller of truth to princes and as a trimmer, matching his affiliations to Henry’s views, and swapping sides in battle of court factions as the landscape changed. It’s not quite clear why he became known as Vicar of Hell; it could be his sexual rapacity, his frenetic, restless personality, or his wildness or something else lost to us. Find out more at the Anne Boleyn files website.
Nicholas Carew (1496-1539)
Nicholas Carew was at court from an early age, part of Henry VIII’s own bringing up. He was a groom of the privy chamber by May 1511, an esquire of the body in 1515, and a gentleman of the privy chamber in 1518. He accompanied Henry VIII to France on campaign and to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was an expert jouster and carried out diplomatic missions for the king. Carew concealed his true feelings about Henry VIII’s divorce; he was a close friend of the king, but also felt loyal to Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary; Chapuys told Charles V that he was confident of his loyalty to Catherine. As Anne Boleyn’s position came under pressure, Carew played a leading role in the machinations which eventually destroyed her, and became an ally of Thomas Cromwell. Carew remained in favour with the king but in 1538 Cromwell stage-managed another court purge, and Carew was one of its victims. He was arrested on 31 December 1538, allegedly because a letter found at the home of the marchioness of Exeter implicated him in the treason. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on 8 March 1539.
William Compton (1482-1528)
Compton was a minor knight from Warwickshire, whose career was made by his proximity to the king. He became a page to Prince Henry when duke of York, and a deep and lasting friendship grew up between them. In 1510 he became Groom of the Stool, the most confidential position at the king’s side, and his ‘fixer’. He jousting with the king at his first tournament in 1510. Compton was often entrusted with delicate tasks by Henry: enquiring on his behalf how far the fifth earl of Northumberland’s marriage plans had gone, arranging for the king to meet a mistress, arresting the duke of Buckingham. He served in the military campaign of 1513 and on the Scottish borders in 1523. Compton did enormously well out of the king’s service, holding many offices and building up his landed estates. He played little part in the government of the realm and the administration of the localities. You can find out some more here.
Henry Guildford (1489-1532)
Guildford inherited an annuity of only £10, so service to the king was essential to his livelihood. He was close by Henry’s side, taking part in all the daft japes like appearing in Queen Catherine’s apartments all dressed as Robin Hood and his Merry Men. He was the king’s companion in arms in France, became his Master of Horse and then Controller of his Household in 1522. His influence with the king led to Wolsey’s courting of him. Guildford did not get on with Anne Bolyen – they argued, and as a result he retreated from court for a while. In 1531 he was back, but died before May 1532.
Edward Howard (1476-1513)
Edward was the second son of the Duke of Norfolk. He quickly followed a military path, fighting at Sluys in 1492. It’s probable, but not certain that he became a companion of Henry when Henry was still the Duke of York, and was part of the noble circle around the young king. His path was to take him to a sadly brief naval career; in 1511 he reputedly captured the Scottish ships of Andrew Barton, and as Admiral in 1512 dominated the English Channel. He seems to have been a man of great panache, but maybe too much panache than was good for him; in 1513 he died when attacking a French fleet with too little support, and died by being forced over the side of the galley and drowned by the weight of his armour.
Thomas Knyvett (1485-1512)
Knyvett’s court career started at the tournaments of May and June 1507 and serving as an esquire for the king’s body. He emerged as one of the favourites of Henry VIII, taking a leading part in many tournaments and revels at court. The king made him knight of the Bath at his coronation on 23 June 1509 and appointed him bearer of the king’s standard on 27 July 1509 and master of the horse on 22 February 1510. On the outbreak of war with France in 1512 Knyvett was given command of the Regent, one of the two largest ships in the fleet led by his brother-in-law Edward Howard. He died on 10 August, in an engagement outside Brest, killed by gunfire.
Thomas Parr (1478-1513) and William Parr (1480-1547)
Both grew up in the Tudor court circle, and Thomas in particular was an early intimate of Henry VIII, although he was not to live long enough to enjoy the full benefits of royal favour; he was the father of Catherine Parr, later Henry’s wife. William Parr fought in the vanguard of the English army during Henry VIII’s expedition to France in the summer of 1513, and was knighted in the cathedral at Tournai. An excellent soldier, he fought in several skirmishes along the Scottish border under the earl of Surrey, and fought against the rebels in the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace; Parr swore he would ‘put the offenders in despair and dread’. He was a proud, quarrelsome man, happier on the battlefield than at court. He quarreled with one of Richmond’s tutors, Richard Croke, and by 1530 he had resigned and returned to Horton. William was a supporter of the new religion, and became Cromwell’s chief agent for the dissolution of the monasteries in Northamptonshire. Although constantly ill, he was an important adviser to Queen Catherine (Parr).
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Thomas Wyatt was a poet and diplomat. His career is linked to the later years of Henry VIII’s reign, as he started to make a career at court from 1524. He was tall and handsome, and a talented poet who became increasingly disillusioned with life at Henry’s court. As a diplomat he worked on Henry’s Great Matter to advance the divorce and help Henry marry Anne Boleyn, of whom, he was a passionate supporter. He sailed increasingly close to the wind, spending time in the Tower of London when his protector, Thomas Cromwell fell from grace., but was rehabilitated in 1542 and died on a diplomatic mission for the king.
Of his poetry, Colin Burrows in the Database of National Biography writes: “No other writer in the early Tudor period is known to have experimented in so many genres, or to have left behind such a substantial and varied body of verse. Although Wyatt is often casually referred to as the first ‘Renaissance’ poet, it is more accurate to regard his achievement as distinctively Henrician: he assimilated European forms of verse and a Chaucerian poetic vocabulary to the life and milieu of a Henrician courtier and diplomat”
For more, there is the excellent Anne Boleyn files website and entry on Thomas Wyatt:
David Crowther
HoS 5 Transcript
Transcript for Episode 9b
9 thoughts on “The Minions of Henry VIII”
Knyvert? Usually isn’t it Knyvett? Was that a typo? But granted they spelled it many different ways.
David Crowther says:
Fair point. Your post will now look odd, since I have corrected, but, for prosterity it was a typo. Well, multiple typos.
Last King of Battlestar Earth says:
Let me heartily endorse Wyatt’s poetry. He’s the bees knees. Here’s one of his big hit singles. & the lost love lamented might be Anne Boleyn. How can you argue with a poem that uses the word “newfangleness”?
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.
Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”
It was no dream: I lay broad waking.
But all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness,
And she also, to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserved.
Hello, um Last king (you OK for me to abbreviate your name?) I have to say this is now the pinnacle of my podcasting careers – someone posting poetry. I am so impressed. And love it. Though struggling with teh meaning of newfangleness here…
I think the proper citation would be Led Zeppelin, “Since I’ve Been Loving You” & Robert Plant’s complaints about the “new-fangled back door man.”
In the Wyatt, I think it’s what we used to call in California a modern understanding of divorce. Or break up. She’s dumped him, but she’s sure they can be perfectly good friends. He plays along, but he’s not, as you would say, a happy bunny.
Leni Hurley says:
Nice one, thanks for posting!
Steve Cloutier says:
This is also allegedly about Anne Boleyn
“Whoso list to hunt”
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
What a treat, two poems in a day and both by Wyatt!
I know! Brilliant. not a great strength for me, poetry, so it’s a great way for me to learn something new.
Family Trees: Succession in Henry VIII’s will November 30, 2018
Family Tree: The House of Tudor June 6, 2017
The Family de la Pole October 17, 2016
Was Edward VI’s Devise for the Succession lawful? December 7, 2018
Some opinions about Henry VIII July 19, 2018
Anne Askew, Martyr and Author June 24, 2018
Catherine Howard: Love letter and Confessions April 2, 2018
A contemporary view of the Tudor peerage in 1538/9 March 15, 2018
Katherine Howard, Countess of Bridgewater March 4, 2018
Thomas Cromwell and his reputation January 16, 2018
Anne Boleyn Website links October 14, 2017
The Incident at Grafton September 22, 2017
Bishop John Fisher September 15, 2017
Thomas More: A very brief history June 29, 2017
Henry VIII’s Westminster Tournament 1511 June 5, 2017
Medieval tournaments illustrated glossary June 5, 2017
St Bartholomew the Great June 3, 2017
Henry VIII and his Beard May 13, 2017
Cardinal Wolsey and the Historians May 12, 2017
Cardinal Wolsey: A Timeline May 12, 2017
The Minions of Henry VIII April 28, 2017
Henry VII’s hatchet men: Empson and Dudley February 25, 2017
Early Tudor Court February 5, 2017
New Learning: England’s first Humanists January 22, 2017
Catherine Gordon and Perkin Warbeck January 8, 2017
Medieval Prices and Wages December 14, 2016
Mountjoy, Henry VIII’s Humanist Mentor December 10, 2016
Henry VII and his loyal Councillors November 27, 2016
Henry VII and the historians October 31, 2016
Henry VII Character and Portraits October 31, 2016
The indispensable John Morton July 17, 2016
Speech of Mary I, 1554 March 15, 2019
Robert Kett’s Petition, 1549 September 16, 2018
The Six Articles, 1539 February 1, 2018
John Colet and the Convocation of 1512 September 3, 2017
Lady Jane Grey Quiz November 4, 2018
Henry VIII Jumbo Quiz July 22, 2018
Thomas Cromwell Quiz (Members) January 17, 2018
Queen Anne Boleyn Quiz October 20, 2017
Anne Boleyn Quiz – the Early Years October 13, 2017
The Ladybird matching quiz July 14, 2017
Thomas More Prize Quiz (Members) July 2, 2017
Thomas More Quiz (Non Members) June 29, 2017
Tournament Quiz June 18, 2017
Thomas Cranmer: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch March 18, 2019
Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch November 13, 2018
Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell March 25, 2018
Thomas Cromwell by Tracy Borman January 15, 2018
Tudors by Peter Ackroyd January 8, 2018
Thomas More (Reputations) by John Guy June 30, 2017
The Creation of Anne Boleyn June 22, 2017
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Classical music: This Friday night, Nov. 22, the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet begins its 14-month complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets. Here are programs and information about the six concerts
As you might have already heard, 2020 is a Beethoven Year. Musicians are already marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827, below).
One of the big local events – unfolding over the next 14 months — is that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s acclaimed Pro Arte Quartet will perform a complete, six-concert cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets, which are considered to be a monumental milestone in chamber music and in the development of the genre.
They encompass the styles of Beethoven’s early, middle and late periods, and often served as an experimental laboratory for musical ideas he used on other works. Each of the Pro Arte’s programs wisely features works from different periods, which makes comparisons and differences easier to understand. (You can hear Beethoven biographer Jan Stafford discuss the late quartets in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more about Beethoven’s string quartets, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:String_quartets_by_Ludwig_van_Beethoven
A Beethoven cycle is also what originally brought the Pro Arte Quartet from Belgium — where it was founded by students at the Royal Conservatory in 1912 — to Madison, where they performed it at the Wisconsin Union Theater in 1940. In fact, they were in the process of performing the cycle when they heard that their homeland of Belgium has been invaded by Hitler and the Nazis, and they could not go home.
Stranded here by World War II, they were offered a chance to be artists-in-residence at the UW-Madison. They accepted — and the quartet has remained here since, becoming the longest performing quartet in music history.
For more about the history of the Pro Arte (below, in 1928), go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/pro-arte-quartet/
Current members of the Pro Arte Quartet (below from left, in a photo by Rick Langer) are: David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; and Parry Karp, cello.
PROGRAM I: Friday, Nov. 22, 8 p.m. in Collins Recital Hall
String Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95 “Serioso” (1810)
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130 (1825-6)
PROGRAM II: Friday, Feb. 28, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp” (1809)
String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (1826)
PROGRAM III: Thursday, April 16 (NOT April 23, as was mistakenly listed in a press release), 7:30 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (1806)
String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 127 (1825)
PROGRAM IV: Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132 (1825)
PROGRAM V: Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 (1826)
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 (1806)
PROGRAM VI: Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 (1806)
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130 with the Great Fugue Finale, Op. 133 (1825)
Tags: #AdolfHitler, #Artists-in-Residence, #BeethovenYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrusselsBelgium, #ChamberMusic, #CollinsRecitalHall, #ConcertHall, #DavidPerry, #EarlyQuartet, #EarlyStyle, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #JanSwafford, #LateQuartet, #LateStyle, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddleQuartet, #MiddleStyle, #MusicSchool, #NaziGermany, #ParryKarp, #ProArteQuartet, #RoyalConservatory, #SallyChisholm, #SchoolofMusic, #StringQuartet, #SuzanneBeia, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #Wikipediaentry, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WorldWarII, anniversary, audience, Beethoven Year, Belgium, big, birth, blog, Brussels, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chance, Collins Recital Hall, comparison, complete, concert hall, conservatory, current, cycle, David Perry, development, difference, discuss, early, early style, event, Facebook, fact, forward, genre, Germany, harp, History, Hitler, Home, homeland, idea, invasion, Jan Swafford, Laboratory, late, late style, like, link, local, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, middle, middle style, milestone, moumental, music history, music school, Musician, Nazi, opus, Opus number, Parry Karp, performer, post, posting, Pro Arte Quartet, Quartet, royal, Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Sally Chisholm, School of Music, share, stranded, String quartet, Student, Suzanne Beia, tag, The Ear, understand, University of Wisconsin–Madison, use, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, Wikipedia, Wild War II, Wisconsin Union Theater, wise
Classical music: The Beethoven Year in Madison will include complete cycles of string quartets and piano trios as well as many other early, middle and late pieces. Here is a partial preview
As you may have already heard, 2020 is a Beethoven Year. It will mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. (He lived from mid-December of 1770 to March 26, 1827. Dec. 17 is sometimes given as his birthday but it is really the date of his baptism. No one knows for sure the actual date of his birth.)
Beethoven, who this year overtook Mozart as the most popular composer in a British radio poll, clearly speaks to people — as you can see at the bottom in the YouTube video of a flash mob performance of the “Ode to Joy.” It has had more than 16 million views.
Locally, not all Beethoven events have been announced yet. But some that promise to be memorable are already taking shape. Many programs include early, middle and late works. And you can be sure that, although nothing formal has been announced yet, there will be special programs on Wisconsin Public Television and especially Wisconsin Public Radio.
Here is a partial round-up:
The UW’s famed Pro Arte String Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer), for example, will perform a FREE and complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets in six concerts. It will start later this fall.
This is not the first time that the Pro Arte has done a Beethoven cycle. But it is especially fitting since that is the same Beethoven cycle that the Pro Arte was performing in Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater in May of 1940 when World War II broke out and the quartet was stranded on tour in the U.S. after its homeland of Belgium was invaded and occupied by the Nazis.
That is when the ensemble was invited to become musical artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and accepted – thereby establishing the first such association in the world that became a model for many other string quartets.
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society with the San Francisco Trio (below) plans on performing a cycle of piano trios next summer. No specific dates or programs have been announced yet.
The 20th anniversary of the Ancora String Quartet (below, in a photo by Barry Lewis) will coincide with the Beethoven Year. That is when the Ancorans will complete the cycle of 16 string quartets that they have been gradually programming over the years. Three quartets remain to be performed: Op. 59, No. 2 “Rasumovsky”, Op. 130 and Op. 131.
Adds violist Marika Fischer Hoyt: “We’ll perform Op. 130 in February (with the original final movement, NOT the “Grosse Fuge”), and we plan to do the remaining two quartets in the summer and fall of 2020.”
Here are some other Beethoven dates to keep in mind:
On Nov. 2 in Shannon Hall at the Wisconsin Union Theater, and as part of the WUT’s centennial celebration of its Concert Series, pianist Emanuel Ax (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco), who since 1974 has played many solo recitals, chamber music recitals and piano concertos in Madison, will play Beethoven’s first three solo piano sonatas, Op. 2.
On Dec. 6 at the Wisconsin Union Theater, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Piano Trio will perform the famous “Archduke” Trio, Op. 97. Also on the program are works by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.
On Feb. 1, UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor, who has performed all 32 piano sonatas in Madison, will continue his cycle of Beethoven symphonies as transcribed for solo piano by Franz Liszt. He will perform Symphony No. 1 and the famed Symphony No. 9, the ground-breaking “Choral” Symphony with its “Ode to Joy.” No chorus will be involved, but there will be four solo singers. Taylor said he will then complete the cycle with Symphony No. 2 at some future time.
The Mosaic Chamber Players (below, in a photo by John W. Barker) will perform two all-Beethoven programs: on Feb. 21, a FREE program offers two sonatas for violin and piano (Op. 12, No. 3 and Op. 30, No. 2, and one sonata for cello and piano (Op. 5, No. 1); on June 13, a ticketed program features three piano trios (Op. 1, No. 1; Op. 70, No. 2; and Op. 121a “Kakadu” Variations).
On May 8, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top, in a photo by Mike Gorski), under conductor Andrew Sewell (below bottom, in a photo by Alex Cruz), will perform the popular Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” – a pioneering piece of program music — to commemorate the Beethoven Year.
There is one very conspicuous absence.
You will notice that there is nothing by Beethoven programmed for the new season of the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers).
But The Ear hears rumors that music director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) is planning something special for the following season that might involve both symphonies and concertos, both original Beethoven works and perhaps “reimagined” ones.
(For example, pianist Jonathan Biss, who has just completed recording the piano sonata cycle and who performed with the MSO several years ago, has commissioned and will premiere five piano concertos related to or inspired by Beethoven’s five piano concertos.) Sorry, but as of now only rumors and not details are available for the MSO. Stay tuned!
The Ear would like to hear complete cycles of the violin sonatas and cello sonatas performed, and a couple of the piano concertos as well as the early symphonies and the famed Ninth Symphony with its “Ode to Joy” finale. He fondly remembers when DeMain and the MSO performed Symphonies Nos. 1 and 9 on the same program. Talk about bookending a career!
What Beethoven would you like to hear live?
What are your most favorite or least favorite Beethoven works?
Do you know of other Beethoven programs during the Beethoven Year? If so, please leave word in the Comment section.
And, of course, there is the inevitable question: Can you have too much Beethoven?
Tags: #All-Beethoven, #AncoraStringQuartet, #AndrewSewell, #ArchdukeTrio, #Artists-in-Residence, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BeethovenYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CelloSonata, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralSymphony, #ConcertSeries, #EmanuelAx, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FranzLiszt, #GreatBritain, #GrosseFuge, #JohnDeMain, #JohnW.Barker, #JonathanBiss, #KakaduVariations, #KalichsteinLaredoRobinsonPianoTrio, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarikaFischerHoyt, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MosaicChamberPlayers, #Nazi-occupied, #NinthSymphony, #OdetoJoy, #PianoConcerto, #PianoSonata, #PianoTrio, #ProArteQuartet, #ProgramMusic, #RasumovskyQuartet, #RazumovskyQuartet, #RobertSchumann, #SanFrancisco, #SanFranciscoTrio, #SchoolofMusic, #ShannonHall, #SoloPiano, #StringQuartet, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolinSonata, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WisconsinPublic Radio, #WisconsinPublicTelevision, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WorldWarII, #YouTubevideo, absence, actual, Ancora String Quartet, Andrew Sewell, anniversary, announce, Archduke Trio, Arts, association, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, baptism, Beethoven, Beethoven Year, Belgium, birth, Blegium, blog, bookend, British, career, celebration, cellist, Cello, Cello Sonata, centennial, Chamber music, choral music, Choral Symphony, chorus, Classical music, classicalmusic, commemorate, comment, composer, concert series, conductor, conspicuous, cycle, date, day, death, December, details, early, Emanuel Ax, England, event, Facebook, fall, favorite, Felix Mendelssohn, final, Flash mob, Flashmob, Franz Liszt, free, Great Britain, Grosse Fuge, groundbreaking, homeland, invade, invasion, Johann Sebastian Bach, John DeMain, John W. Barker, Jonathan Biss, Kakadu Variations, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, know, late, like, link, Liszt, local, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marika Fischer Hoyt, Mead Witter School of Music, memorable, Mendelssohn, middle, million, mob, model, Mosaic Chamber Players, movement, MSO, Music, musical, Nazi, Ninth Symphony, occupied, occupy, Ode to Joy, Orchestra, original, Overture Center, partial, Pastoral Symphony, PastoralSymphony, People, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, Piano sonata, Piano Trio, pioneer, pioneering, poll, popular, post, posting, Pro Arte Quartet, program, program music, Radio, Rasumovsky, Razumovsky, reader, recital, reimagined, remember, Robert Schumann, round-up, rumor, San Francisco, San Francisco Trio, School of Music, Schumann, Shannon Hall, share, singers, solo, Sonata, speaks, stranded, String quartet, subscriber, summer, symphony, tag, Television, tour, transcription, TV, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variations, view, Viola, Violin, Violin Sonata, violinist, violist, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, works, world, World War II, WPR, WPT, year, YouTube, YouTube video
Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet performs an all-Italian program four times this month starting this weekend and returns as an ensemble-in-residence at the First Unitarian Society of Madison
The Ear has received the following information to post:
The Ancora String Quartet (below) opens its 19th season with a program of works by three Italian composers more usually associated with opera, or solo violin music, than with string quartets.
Members of the Ancora String Quartet (ASQ, below from left in a photo by Barry Lewis) are violins Wes Luke and Robin Ryan; violist Marika Fischer Hoyt; and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
Violin virtuoso and composer Antonio Bazzini (below) led a rockstar’s life, touring Europe and hobnobbing with Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. He later settled in Milan, winning first prize in the Milan quartet competition in 1864 with this piece. The Scherzo shows Mendelssohn’s influence, and the Andante sostenuto delivers breathtakingly beautiful passages of lyrical romance and tender passion.
Opera great Giaocomo Puccini wrote Chrysanthemums (Crisantemi) in one night, upon hearing the news of the death of his friend the Duke of Savoy in 1890. The six-minute piece expresses the composer’s sorrow, in themes that bring to mind the poignant melodies of “Madama Butterfly.” (You can hear “Chrysanthemums” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The String Quartet in E Minor (1873) by Giuseppe Verdi (below) opens with restrained moodiness, but the drama quickly leaps off the page. Written to pass the time while waiting for the delayed opening of his opera “Aida,” this quartet demonstrates Verdi’s mastery of purely instrumental writing — although the cello solo in the Trio of the Scherzo could pass for a tenor aria. The work ends, surprisingly, with an elaborate fugue.
The quartet is gearing up for four performances in September, listed below.
In related news, the Ancora String Quartet, like the Madison Bach Musicians, will become a Resident Ensemble at the First Unitarian Society of Madison (FUS) starting this fall. We are pleased to reconnect with our FUS audiences, and hope our Regent Street fans will make the trip as well.
Here is the September schedule of the Italian program:
This Friday, Sept. 6, from noon to 1 p.m. in an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Midday with host Norman Gilliland. WPR is Madison station WERN 88.7 FM. The ASQ will perform the entire Bazzini quartet.
This Saturday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the FUS, Landmark Auditorium, Madison. Tickets at the door are $15 for the general public, $12 for seniors and $6 for students.
Sunday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. at FUS, Landmark Auditorium, Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison. Tickets at the door are $15, $12 and $6.
Next Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 6 p.m. at the Germantown Community Library, N112W16957 Mequon Rd., in Germantown. The concert is FREE and open to the public.
Tags: #AncoraStringQuartet, #AntonioBazzini, #Artists-in-Residence, #BenjaminWhitcomb, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #Chrysanthemums, #CommunityLibrary, #CommunitySupport, #Ensemble-in-residence, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #GermantownWisconsin, #GiacomoPuccini, #GiuseppeVerdi, #InstrumentalMusic, #italianComposer, #ItalianComposers, #JohannSebastianBach, #LandmarkAuditorium, #MadamaButterfly, #MadameButterfly, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarikaFischerHoyt, #NormanGilliland, #OperaAria, #OperaMusic, #RobertSchumann, #RobinRyan, #SeniorCitizen, #StringQuartet, #TenorSinger, #TheMidday, #UniversityofWisconsin-Whitewater, #ViolinMusic, #VocalMusic, #WERN88.7FM, #WesLuke, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #YouTubevideo, adult, Aida, Ancora String Quartet, Antonio Bazzini, aria, artists, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, beautiful, Benjamin Whitcomb, blog, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, classicalmusic, community, Competition, composer, composers, Concert, counterpoint, death, door, drama, duke, end, ensemble, Europe, event, express, Facebook, Felix Mendelssohn, First Unitarian Society of Madison, FM, forward, friend, fugue, FUS, Germantown, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, influence, instrumental, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Landmark Auditorium, library, like, link, lyrical, Madama Butterfly, Madame Butterfly, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marika Fischer Hoyt, mastery, melody, member, members, Milan, moodiness, Music, night, Norman Gilliland, opening, opera, page, passage, Passion, performance, piece, poignant, post, posting, prize, public, Puccini, Radio, restrained, return, Robert Schumann, Robin Ryan, Romance, Savoy, schedule, Scherzo, senior, September, share, solo, sorrow, String quartet, Student, subscriber, tag, tender, tenor, The Midday, theme, tickets, time, tour, United States, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, UW-Whitewater, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, virtuoso, vocal music, WERN 88.7 FM, Wes Luke, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, word, work, young person, YouTube
Classical music: Music professor John Schaffer is retiring from UW-Madison. A benefit jazz concert on Saturday, June 1, will celebrate his career as a teacher and former director of the Mead Witter School of Music
Professor John Schaffer (below), who served as the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music for 15 years from 1997 to 2012, is retiring this summer.
A jazz concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, at Full Compass Systems, located at 9770 Silicon Prairie Parkway in Verona, will celebrate his retirement. Details and ticket information are below.
Here is a summary of his major achievements, as compiled by a colleague:
During his tenure as director, John Schaffer:
• Raised more than $10 million for music scholarships, including the Paul Collins graduate fellowships and the Steenbock undergraduate scholarships, more than doubling all student support.
• Secured funding for three endowed professorships: Pro Arte Quartet first violinist David Perry; piano virtuoso and Van Cliburn International Piano Competition bronze medal winner Christopher Taylor; and acclaimed jazz pianist Johannes Wallmann.
• With then-chancellor John Wiley, he launched plans for the new performance facility – the Hamel Music Center — that will open this fall, and raised more than $20 million in private funds for its construction.
• Established the School of Music’s inaugural Board of Visitors, which actively connects the school with a broad community worldwide as it continues to serve in an advisory and support capacity.
• Built strong relations with community organizations including the Madison Symphony Orchestra by establishing the joint residency of the Hunt Quartet – creating further student funding opportunities – and the Independent String Teachers’ Association.
• Established the Perlman Piano Trio (below), an undergraduate scholarship opportunity funded by Kato Perlman.
• Recruited faculty professors/performers with national and international reputations.
• Collaborated with the UW Foundation and Alumni Associations to present UW student performers throughout the country and world.
• Expanded student musician performances across campus, and established the twice-annual Chancellor’s Concert Series.
• Oversaw the planning for the 100th anniversary of the Pro Arte Quartet, the school’s flagship ensemble-in-residence since 1938.
• Established the School of Music recording label, which during its active run released close to 50 albums of faculty artists.
• Created the Wisconsin Center for Music Technology, and was the founding editor of the journal Computers in Music Research.
• Revitalized the Jazz Studies program at UW-Madison that has expanded with additional faculty, new student jazz ensembles and the establishment of a major in jazz performance.
• Was actively involved in music administration on the national level by serving multiple terms on the board of directors of the National Association of Schools of Music, the national accrediting organization. He spent more than a decade training accreditation teams, and performing accreditation reviews of music schools and conservatories throughout the country.
• Served on numerous local boards including those of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Country Day School, the Isthmus Jazz Festival, and the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival.
Schaffer’s own academic work in music theory focused initially on analysis of contemporary and non-tonal music, and in artificial intelligence applications in music theory. When he returned to the faculty from being director, he re-focused his teaching on the history, theory and performance of jazz and developed new courses in the discipline and regularly coached student jazz ensembles.
After a 40-year career in academia, Schaffer is retiring to pursue other interests. For the time being, he plans to remain in the Madison area. Initially trained as a classical guitarist, his performance emphasis long ago evolved to playing jazz bass, and he’ll still be heard gigging around town, playing frequently at venues and series such as Otto’s, Capital Brewery’s beer garden, Delaney’s Steak House, Coda Cafe and the North Street Cabaret.
“The biggest reward over all my years as an educator and administrator is the impact I’ve had on the thousands of students I’ve been privileged to teach and encounter,” says Schaffer. “It’s been immensely gratifying.”
Schaffer’s contributions to music in the greater Madison area will be recognized at a benefit concert, sponsored by the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, on Saturday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Full Compass Systems, 9770 Silicon Prairie Parkway in Verona. UW-Madison Chancellor Emeritus John Wiley will offer commentary and perspective. Light refreshments will be served.
Tickets for the benefit concert are $30 at the door, $25 in advance online. A limited number of student tickets are available at $15. VIP tickets are $150 and include reserved, best-in-house seating, a private pre-concert reception at 6 p.m. and other benefits.
For more information, go to: http://www.jazzinmadison.org/event/jazz-junction-benefit-concert-for-the-jazz-consortium-full-compass/
For tickets, go to:https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4236134
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Classical music: Personal experience, artistic excellence and historical importance drew pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel into planning next year’s centennial season at the Wisconsin Union Theater
Now that Spring Break is over and subscription tickets are available for the Wisconsin Union Theater’s special centennial celebration next season – which includes superstar soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Emanuel Ax — here is an email interview that pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco), the wife-and-husband consultants and planners of that season, granted to The Ear.
For more about the season and tickets, go to two websites:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/classical-music-superstar-soprano-renee-fleming-and-pianist-emanuel-ax-headline-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-wisconsin-union-theaters-concert-series-next-season/
https://union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater/seasonevents/concert-series/
Could you briefly introduce yourselves to readers and tell them both your past and current activities?
We have been performing on the world’s many concert stages for almost our entire lives. In addition to our careers as concert performers, we serve as the founding Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, the premier chamber music festival in Silicon Valley, as well as the Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) in New York City.
Our main responsibility as concert performers is to give the best concerts we possibly can, and we are constantly striving to achieve the highest possible level of artistry in our performances.
In our roles as artistic directors, our responsibilities lie in the programming, casting and designing of concert series and chamber music projects for our organizations. At CMS, this includes designing the programming for our seven different satellite series around the country, plus international partnerships in Taiwan, Korea and Europe.
We are also involved in chamber music programming endeavors beyond Music@Menlo and CMS, having just completed a first-ever chamber music residency at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida. Furthermore, Wu Han is serving as Artistic Advisor to Wolf Trap Chamber Music at the Barns, which entails thematically programming eight concerts per season for the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons.
As artistic directors, we spend much of our time putting ourselves in the shoes of our listeners, measuring their experience and receptivity to chamber music of all periods and styles, and putting together the best programs and artists who will move our audiences forward into ever-increasing engagement with and love of the art.
David was the cellist of the Emerson String Quartet for 34 seasons, and we have been performing together as a duo for about 35 years, and continue to do so as one of our main performance activities.
What are your personal relationships to the Wisconsin Union Theater, and what do you think of it as a concert venue?
Our engagement with the Wisconsin Union Theater goes back quite a few years, but certainly not even close to the beginning of the Theater’s distinguished history. For any performer setting foot on its stage, there’s a sense of slipping into an ongoing tradition of artistic excellence that makes us feel both privileged and obligated to do our best.
The Wisconsin Union Theater and its story in American cultural life is larger than any of us; only the music we play rises above and beyond it all, and as performers, our lucky moment is to represent that incredible literature in a venue as significant and storied as the Wisconsin Union Theater. (Below is the theater’s main venue, the renovated and restored Shannon Hall.)
Why did you agree to be artistic advisors and artists-in-residence for the centennial season? Did your personal experiences in Madison play a role in that decision?
As seasoned artists, we deeply admire and respect the very special place in the classical music tradition and history that the Wisconsin Union Theater (below) inhabits, and the invitation to participate in the Theater’s 100th anniversary was an honor for us to receive. Our experiences playing on this distinguished stage and forming a relationship with the local audience have made our pursuit of the common goal of artistic excellence in the centennial season incredibly fulfilling.
Of course, having performed there in the past gave us a hint of confidence through our familiarity with the place, but we must say we have learned perhaps double what we knew originally through this planning process. Without interfering, but at the same time sharing our uncompromised commitment to artistic excellence, we hope that our presence during the process has been useful, and we know that we look so much forward to seeing the careful thought and hard work of all involved come to fruition.
Is there a unifying or guiding principle to the season you have put together?
The guiding principle behind our work on this historic season is artistic excellence, which in our opinion is what most inspires audiences and best serves the art form of classical music.
Our area of expertise is chamber music, and, as we wanted to share the best of what we can do with the Theater, our focus has been on ensuring that the chamber music offerings during this historic season, and hopefully beyond, reflect the best of the world of chamber music.
In our suggestions, we looked for variety of instrumentations, of composers and periods—in other words, giving as much of an overview of the art as we could within a season.
What would you like the public to know about the Wisconsin Union Theater and the upcoming centennial season?
In the Theater’s centennial season, the audience will have the opportunity to savor a variety of different genres of chamber music, from solo piano to vocal music, as well as a sampling of the very best works of the chamber music canon. Between these various genres, the great composers left a wealth of chamber music that could sustain the art form on its own, but that’s still only the tip of the iceberg.
Our chamber music offerings will include the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which has a long history of performing for the Madison audience. Their December program will include celebrated cornerstones of the piano trio repertoire, including Mendelssohn’s D minor Trio and Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio. (You can hear the opening of the Archduke Trio in the YouTube video at the bottom.) Both pieces have achieved monumental historical significance through their influence in propelling the art form forward from the Classical period to the Romantic period.
The Escher String Quartet performance in January represents the best of the next generation of young string quartets. Their program includes a quartet by Franz Joseph Haydn—the father of the string quartet genre—and the sole quartet of none other than revered violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, who performed in the Wisconsin Union Theater nearly a century ago. Kreisler set foot on the Theater’s stage numerous times, and his rarely heard string quartet nods to the Theater’s long, distinguished history. David will join the Escher Quartet for the beloved Schubert Cello Quintet, which is the “desert island” must-have piece for many music lovers.
Furthermore, in March, we will bring two of the most fantastic musicians in the world to join us for a program of Antonin Dvorak, Josef Suk and Johannes Brahms. This multigenerational cast of musicians includes the incredible young French violinist Arnaud Sussmann (below top, in a photo by Matt Dine) as well as the most important violist of our generation, Paul Neubauer (below bottom). This program is all about the passing down of the baton and the continuous investment in the next generations of artists: Brahms was the one who discovered Dvorak, and Dvorak in turn discovered Suk.
Tags: #AntoninDvorak, #ArchdukeTrio, #ArnaudSussmann, #ArtForm, #ArtisticDirector, #Artists-in-Residence, #BlogInterview, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CelloQuintet, #ChamberEnsemble, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusician, #ChamberMusicians, #ChamberMusicSocietyofLIncolnCenter, #Classicalperiod, #ConcertSeries, #DavidFinckel, #DesertIsland, #EmanuelAx, #EmersonStringQuartet, #EscherStringQuartet, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzSchubert, #FritzKreisler, #Hard Work, #HardWork, #JohannesBrahms, #JosefSuk, #KalichsteinLaredoRobinsonPianoTrio, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #Music@Menlo, #MusicalGenre, #MusicLover, #Must-Have, #NewYorkCity, #PalmBeach, #PaulNeubauer, #PersonalExperience, #PersonalRelationship, #PianoTrio, #RenéeFleming, #RomanticMusic, #RomanticPeriod, #ShannonHall, #SiliconValley, #SocietyoftheFourArts, #SopranoSinger, #SpringBreak, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #ThePast, #ViolinVirtuoso, #VocalMusic, #Wife-and-Husband, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WolfTrap, #WuHan, #YouTubevideo, activities, activity, advisor, American, anniversary, Archduke Trio, Arnaud Sussmann, Art, art form, Artistic director, artistry, artists, Arts, audience, baton, Beethoven, best, blog, Brahms, Canon, casting, celebration, celist, Cello, centennial, choral music, Classical, Classical music, Classical period, classicalmusic, commitment, composer, Concert, concert series, concerto, confidence, consultant, country, cultural, culture, David Finckel, desert, design, dinstinguish, distinguished, duo, Dvorak, email, Emanuel Ax, Emerson String Quartet, engagement, Escher String Quartet, Europe, excellence, expertise, Facebook, familiarity, festival, Florida, forward, Franz Schubert, French, Fritz Kreisler, generation, genre, guiding, Haydn, historic, historical, History, iceberg, importance, important, inspire, instrumentation, international, interview, investment, island, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Haydn, Joseph Suk, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Korea, learn, life, Love, lover, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, member, Mendelssohn, monumental, move, multigenerational, Music, music lover, New York City, obligate, opera, Palm Beach, partnership, passing, past, Paul Neubauer, performer, period, personal experience, personal relationship, Pianist, Piano, piano music, Piano Trio, planner, planning, post, posting, presence, principle, privilege, process, programming, Q&A, quintet, reader, Renée Fleming, Renovation, residence, residency, restoration, Romantic, Romantic period, satellite, savor, Schubert, Season, Shannon Hall, shoes, Silicon Valley, society, Society of the Four Arts, solo, Sonata, soprano, special, Spring Break, stage, star, story, String quartet, style, subscription, superstar, Taiwan, The Ear, theater, thought, ticket, tradition, unifying, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variety, venue, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, virtuoso, vocal, vocal music, wealth, Website, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolf Trap, work, works, world, Wu Han, years, young, YouTube
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Classical music: The Token Creek Chamber Music Festival starts this Friday and marks 30 years with jazz plus music by Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Brahms, Ravel, Schoenberg and John Harbison
Starting this coming Friday, Aug. 16, and running through Sept. 1, the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival will mark its 30th anniversary with the theme of “Sanctuary.” (The festival takes place in a refurbished barn, below, at 4037 Highway 19 in DeForest.)
Add the festival directors: “The term ‘sanctuary’ attempts to capture in a single word something essential about what the festival has meant to players and listeners over all these years. From the start it aspired to offer something of retreat, an oasis, a place of refreshment and nourishment in art, both for musician participants who find a welcoming environment to “re-charge” their work, and for audience attendees who engage in and become a part of it.”
“In our small country barn,” writes prize-winning composer John Harbison (below top, in a photo by Tom Artin) who co-directs the festival with his violinist wife Rose Mary Harbison (below bottom, in a photo by Tom Artin), “we have always remained devoted to the scale and address of much chamber music, which speaks as often in a whisper as in a shout.
“Where larger musical institutions have been habitually frustrated by trying to live in the business model of growth, we have remained devoted to the intensity of the experience, which explains why the music never goes away, rather than to claims of numbers, which begs the music itself to change its very nature.
“Our conviction is that today’s composers, just like Schubert and Mozart, are still striving to embody daily experience, to connect to the natural world, and to ask philosophically and spiritually unanswerable questions, surrounded and interrupting silence, asking only for our most precious commodity — time. We continue to look for valuable ways to offer this transaction to our listeners, and are grateful for their interest over so many years.”
The first two concerts, at 5 p.m., on Friday and Saturday nights, feature the return of a jazz cabaret featuring standard works in the Great American Songbook. For more information about the program and performers, as well as tickets, go to: www.tokencreekfestival.org or call (608) 241-2525.
Tickets for the two jazz concerts are $40 for the balcony and $45 for cafe seating. Tickets for the other concerts are $32 with a limited number of student tickets available for $12.
HERE IS THE LINEUP FOR THE REST OF THE FESTIVAL
Program 2: Music of Brahms at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24, and Sunday, Aug. 25
Johannes Brahms is the only composer whose complete catalogue of chamber music is still in constant use. This is due to his fastidious high standards, and to his ideal temperament for music played by smaller groups of players. His music is universally admired for the astounding combination of sheer craft and deep emotional impact.
The program includes the Regenlied (Rain Song), Op. 57 no. 3; Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 78; the Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op. 38; and the Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60. (The “Rain Song” is used as the theme of the last movement of the violin sonata. You can hear it performed by violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Yuja Wang in the YouTube video at the bottom, which also features the score so that you can follow along.)
Performers are Edgewood College mezzo-soprano Kathleen Otterson (below top); violinist Rose Mary Harbison; violist Lila Brown (below second); cellist Rhonda Rider (below third, in a photo by Liz Linder); and pianist Janice Weber (below bottom).
Program 3: Then and Now, Words and Music – An 80th Birthday Tribute to John Harbison. Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m.
Last February, when Madison launched a citywide celebration of co-artistic director John Harbison’s 80th birthday, bitter cold and deep snow made it impossible for the festival to open up The Barn and join in the festivities.
The Wednesday program – an intimate concert of words and music curated by the Harbisons — is the festival’s belated birthday tribute. Harbison will read from his new book about Johann Sebastian Bach, and Boston poet Lloyd Schwartz (below top) will offer a reading of his poems that are the basis of a song cycle to presented by baritone Simon Barrad (below bottom). The evening will include a discussion on setting text, “Poem to Song,” and the world premiere of new Harbison songs, still in progress, on poems of Gary Snyder.
The program includes: Selections from the Violin Sonata in B minor, with violinist Rose Mary Harbison, and “The Art of Fugue” by Johann Sebastian Bach; “Four Songs of Solitude” and “Nocturne” by John Harbison; the Violin Sonata in G Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the “Phantasy” for violin and piano by Arnold Schoenberg; the “SchwartzSongs” and “Four Poems for Robin” by John Harbison.
Program 4: The Piano , at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, and Sunday, Sept. 1.
The closing program welcomes back husband-and-wife pianists Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang, playing together and as soloists.
Chuang (below top) is acclaimed by critics in the U.S. and abroad for performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and communicative power. Levin (below bottom, in a photo by Clive Barda), who teaches at Harvard University, is revered for his Mozart completions and classical period improvisations.
Their program explores the question of the composer-performer — that is, composers who were also formidable pianists: Mozart, Ravel and Liszt.
Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto, arranged by the composer for chamber ensemble, and excerpts of Harbison’s Piano Sonata No. 2, written for Levin, will be performed. Also on the program are Mozart’s Allegro in G Major, K. 357 (completion by Robert Levin); Maurice Ravel’s “Gaspard de la Nuit”; and Franz Liszt’s “Reminiscences of Don Juan.”
Other performers are: violinists Rose Mary Harbison and Laura Burns, of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Rhapsodie String Quartet; violists Jen Paulson and Kaleigh Acord; cellist Karl Lavine, who is principal cello of both the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra as well as the Chamber Music Director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO); and double bassist Ross Gilliland.
Tags: #AmericanJazz, #ArnoldSchoenberg, #BaritoneSinger, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonMassachusetts, #BusinessModel, #CafeSeating, #CelloSonata, #ChamberMusic, #Classicalera, #CriticalAcclaimed, #DonJuan, #DoubleBass, #EdgewoodCollege, #EmotionalImpact, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #FranzLiszt, #FranzSchubert, #GarySnyder, #GasparddelaNuit, #GreatAmericanSongbook, #HarvardUniversity, #HighStandard, #husband-and-wife, #JaniceWeber, #JazzMusic, #JenPaulson, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnHarbison, #KaleighAcord, #KathleenOtterson, #LauraBurns, #LeonidasKavakos, #LilaBrown, #LivingComposers, #LloydSchwartz, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MauriceRavel, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #MusicCritic, #MusicScore, #NaturalWorld, #NewMusic, #PianoConcerto, #PianoQuartet, #Prize-Winning, #RainSong, #RhapsodieQuartet, #RhapsodieStringQuartet, #RhondaRider, #RobertLevin, #RoseMaryHarbison, #RossGilliland, #SimonBarrad, #SongCycle, #StringQuartet, #TheArtofFugue, #TheU.S., #TokenCreek, #TokenCreekChamberMusicFestival, #TokenCreekFestival, #ViolinSonata, #VocalMusic, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WorldPremiere, #Ya-FeiChuang, #YouTubevideo, #YujaWang, abroad, acclaimed, American, anniversary, Arnold Schoenberg, Art, Arts, aspire, astounding, audience, Bach, balcony, baritone, barn, Baroque, Beethoven, birthday, bitter, blog, Book, Boston, Brahms, Business, Business model, cabaret, cafe, cafe seating, capture, catalogue, cellist, Cello, Cello Sonata, Chamber music, Classical era, Classical music, cold, combination, commodity, communicative, completion, composer, composer-performer, Concert, concerto, connection, constant, conviction, counterpoint, country, Craft, critic, daily, deep, DeForest, director, Don JUan, double bass, Early music, Edgewood College, emotional, emotional impact, environment, essential, evening, experience, Facebook, faculty, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, frustrated, fugue, Gary Snyder, Gaspard de la Nuit, grateful, Great American Songbook, growth, Harvard, Harvard University, high standard, husband, ideal, impact, improvisation, information, institution, intensity, interest, international, intimate, Jacob Stockinger, Janice Weber, Jazz, Jen Paulson, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Harbison, Kaleigh Acord, Karl Lavine, KarlLavine, Kathleen Otterson, larger, last, Laura Burns, Leonidas Kavakos, like, Lila Brown, limited, lineup, link, listeners, live, living composers, Lloyd Schwartz, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Ravel, Mezzo-soprano, movement, Mozart, Music, Musician, natural world, nature, new, New Music, nocturne, nourishment, now, number, numbers, oasis, participant, performer, phantasy, philosophical, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, Piano Quartet, players, poem, Poetry, post, posting, power, precious, prinicpal, program, progress, Quartet, questions, rain, reader, refinement, refreshment, refurbished, reminiscences, retreat, revere, Rhonda Rider, Robert Levin, Rose Mary Harbison, Ross Gilliland, sanctuary, scale, Schubert, score, share, shout, silence, Simon Barrad, singer, snow, solitude, Sonata, song, song cycle, songs, spiritual, String quartet, Student, stunning, subscriber, tag, teach, temperament, text, The Art of Fugue, theme, then, ticket, time, today, Token Creek, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Token Creek Festival, transaction, tribute, U.S., United States, universal, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, use, valuable, Viola, Violin, Violin Sonata, violinist, violist, virtuosity, vocal music, way, welcoming, whisper, wife, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, word, words, work, world premiere, Ya-Fei Chuang, years, YouTube, Yuja Wang
Classical music: The Mosaic Chamber Players perform all 20th-century American music this Saturday night. Plus, a master class about Schubert is TODAY at 4:30
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR SHARE OR TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
ALERT: Susan Youens, a world-famous scholar of the music of Franz Schubert, will give a FREE and PUBLIC master class TODAY at 4:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. Her class is in advance of her appearance and pre-concert lecture at the annual UW Schubertiade this Sunday afternoon, Jan. 27. More information about that event will appear in tomorrow’s blog post.
The critically acclaimed Mosaic Chamber Players will perform a concert of all-American music from the 20th century this Saturday night, Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Landmark Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive.
Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for senior citizens; and $5 for students. Only cash and personal checks will be accepted.
A reception will follow the concert.
Performers are violinists Laura Burns and Wes Luke, cellist Kyle Price, and founder-pianist Jess Salek. (Photos below of the performers are by John W. Barker at a previous concert.) They also play with other professional groups such as the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Ancora String Quartet and the Rhapsodie String Quartet.
The program includes the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Aaron Copland; the Sonata in Three Movements for Violin and Piano by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (below); “Road Movies” for Violin and Piano by John Adams (you can hear the opening in the YouTube video at the bottom); and the Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6, by Samuel Barber.
Tags: #AaronCopland, #All-American, #AmericanComposer, #AmericanMusic, #AncoraStringQuartet, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CelloMusic, #CelloSonata, #ChamberMusic, #EllenTaaffeZwilich, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FrankLloydWright, #FranzSchubert, #JessSalek, #JohnAdams, #JohnW.Barker, #KylePrice, #LauraBurns, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MosaicChamberPlayers, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoAccompanist, #RhapsodieQuartet, #RhapsodieStringQuartet, #RoadMovies, #SamuelBarber, #SeniorCitizen, #SusanYouens, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWSchubertiade, #ViolinMusic, #ViolinSonata, #WesLuke, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #World-famous, 20th-century, Aaron Copland, adult, alert, American, Ancora String Quartet, Arts, audience, blog, cash, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, check, Classical music, composer, Concert, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Facebook, First Unitarian Society of Madison, founder, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Schubert, free, Jacob Stockinger, Jess Salek, John Adams, John W. Barker, Kyle Price, Laura Burns, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, master class, masterclass, Mead Witter School of Music, Mosaic Chamber Players, movement, Movies, performer, personal, Pianist, Piano, post, posting, professional, professor, public, Rhapsodie Quartet, Rhapsodie String Quartet, road, Road Movies, Samuel Barber, Schubertiade, senior, senior citizen, Sonata, String quartet, Student, Susan Youens, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, Violin, violinist, Wes Luke, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: Concerts by UW cellist Parry Karp and the chamber music group Con Vivo take place this Saturday night
ALERT: The Rhapsodie Quartet, featuring members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, will perform a FREE public concert (suggested donation is $5) at the Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, 333 West Main Street, two blocks off the Capitol Square, this Friday night, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m.
The program is the String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3, by Franz Joseph Haydn and the “Razumovsky” String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, by Ludwig van Beethoven. For more information and background, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/rhapsodie-quartet-recital/
It is a busy week for classical music in Madison, and all the listings have still not been included here.
On Saturday night, Oct. 13, two more noteworthy events will take place.
PARRY KARP
A Faculty Concert Series recital by UW-Madison cello professor Parry Karp (below), who is also the longtime cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet, will take place on Saturday night in Mills Hall at 8 p.m.
Karp will be joined by two pianists: his mother Frances Karp, a longtime Madison piano teacher; and Thomas Kasdorf (below), who is pursuing his doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.
The program is an interesting and unusual one.
It features “Hamabdil” (1919), or Hebrew Rhapsody, by Granville Bantock (below), who, Karp says “was a wonderful British composer, a favorite of Elgar.” (You can hear “Hamabdil” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Phantasma for Solo Cello” (2006) is by Jesse Benjamin Jones (below), who is on the faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory.
The Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 30, No. 1 (1801-02), by Ludwig van Beethoven, continues the exploration of Beethoven’s violin sonatas transcribed for the cello by Karp himself.
The Cello Concerto (1956) by William Walton (below), says Karp, who performed it this summer with the English Symphony Orchestra, “is one of the great cello concertos of the 20th century. This version features a piano reduction of the orchestral score.
CON VIVO
Con Vivo (below), the critically acclaimed Madison-based chamber music group, will also give a concert to open its 17th season on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, at 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
Free parking is two blocks away, at the nearby UW Foundation, 1848 University Avenue.
The eclectic program, called “Members Choice,”will include the “Kegelstatt” Trio for piano, clarinet and viola by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and the Suite for Organ, Violin and Cello by Josef Rheinberger (below).
The night will be rounded out by solo works from the group’s talented and veteran performers many of whom also play with other major groups including the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
Tickets are available at the door, and cost $18 for general admission; $15 for seniors and students.
For information, go to www.convivomusicwithlife.org
Tags: #20thCentury, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BritishComposer, #CampRandallStadium, #CapitolLakes, #CapitolSquare, #CelloConcerto, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ConVivo, #EdwardElgar, #EnglishSymphonyOrchestra, #FacebookPost, #FacultyMember, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GranvilleBantock, #Hamabdil, #HebrewRhapsody, #JesseBenjaminJones, #JesusChrist, #JosefRheinberger, #KegelstattTrio, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #OberlinCollege, #OberlinConservatory, #OrganMusic, #ParryKarp, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoAccompanist, #ProArteQuartet, #PublicConcert, #RazumovskyQuartet, #RhapsodieQuartet, #SoloCello, #StringQuartet, #ThomasKasdorf, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWFoundation, #ViolinSonata, #WilliamWalton, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, Arts, Beethoven, Camp Randall Stadium, Capitol Lakes, Capitol Square, cellist, Cello, Cello Concerto, Chamber music, Christ, Christian church, church, clarinet, Classical music, composer, Con Vivo, concerto, degree, doctoral, doctorate, eclectic, Edward Elgar, English, English Symphony Orchestra, Facebook, faculty, First Congregational United Church of Christ, free, Granville Bantock, Haydn, Hebrew, Jacob Stockinger, Jesse Benjamin Jones, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Josef Rheinberger, Kegelstatt Trio, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mead Witter School of Music, Mozart, Music, Orchestra, organ, parking, performer, phantasma, Pianist, Piano, piano reduction, piano teacher, Pro Arte Quartet, program, public, Razumovsky, reduction, Rhapsodie Quartet, Saturday night, Season, solo, Sonata, String quartet, summer, Teacher, Thomas Kasdorf, transcribed, transcription, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Foundation, Veteran, Viola, Violin, Violin Sonata, web site, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
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Green activist lawyer burns himself to death to protest global warming
Anthony Watts / April 14, 2018
A sad case of self-immolation with fossil fuels, to protest fossil fuels
A green activist who was a pioneering lawyer for gay and transgender rights — including in the infamous “Boys Don’t Cry” murder case — committed suicide by setting himself on fire Saturday morning in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
Attorney David Buckel in 2006AP
In a gruesome protest against the ecological destruction of the earth, David Buckel, 60, left behind a charred corpse and a typed suicide note that said he was burning himself to death using “fossil fuel” to reflect how mankind was likewise killing itself, police sources said.
He left the note behind in a manila envelope marked “To The Police,” recovered from inside a black metal push cart he discarded at the scene.
Passersby were horrified to see Buckel’s blackened, prone remains.
“It was just lying there, on its back, knees slightly bent like someone would lie on the sand at the beach,” said Irena Ryjova, 44, who rollerbladed past at around 7 a.m., less than an hour after the immolation.
More recently, he worked as an urban gardener and ecologist with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, helping run what he called the largest composting program in the country to use only renewable sources of energy.
“There’s no denying that sticking with renewable resources means a lot of elbow grease with pitchforks and shovels,” he wrote in a 2016 article on the garden website.
More here at the NYPost: https://nypost.com/2018/04/14/burned-body-inside-prospect-park-appears-to-be-suicide/
h/t to “Charles the moderator”
April 14, 2018 in Climate ugliness.
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356 thoughts on “Green activist lawyer burns himself to death to protest global warming”
charles the moderator says:
HT/me
‘I apologize to you for the mess.’……that was part of the note he left
charles nelson says:
I wonder did he use E10 gasoline, the one that has 10% ethanol?
Don’t know for sure but fossil fuel is what he had to use as Solar wouldn’t work at that hour
Trebla says:
This is really a tragic case. The man was obviously suffering from mental illness. My sympathies go out to his family and friends.
The Northern Garden says:
Trebla, Agreed.
Don Mattox says:
Interesting that there was an article today about Chic-Fil-A being “creepy” about their Christian beliefs and invading New York City.
pyeatte says:
The guy was clearly mentally ill. He should have checked into a psych ward.
Was he mentally ill because he was a radical leftist, or the other way around? Perhaps both lead towards each other, forming a feedback loop?
oxao says:
Patrick: “mentally ill because he was a radical leftist, (radical leftist contributing to his mental illness)” the other way around?”
Which caused the Catastrophic positive feedback loop that ended his life.
taz1999 says:
Well, I disagree with Buckel’s reasoning but, A Jewish friend of mind demonstrated to me through his actions that if you’re not willing to act on you convictions then they really aren’t convictions. So H/T to Buckel’s for taking into his own hand what most all the other CAGW alarmists are ready to inflict on everyone but themselves. The courage of being out of range.
MarcSaunders says:
You are supposed to “act” in order to win the game, not take yourself out of the game. We should follow examples like Gandhi or MLK who issued a clear message. This guy was definitely sick.
Marc, those leaders sought to restore the dignity and relieve the suffering of their people. Buckel’s cause sought to impose indignities, cause suffering, and even kill off the vast majority of humanity. I don’t advocate self-immolation, but then I am philosophically opposed to his worldview.
Phil R says:
MarcSaunders’
You are supposed to “act” in order to win the game, not take yourself out of the game.
Reminds me of Patton (paraphrase, don’t know the exact quote): “Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor bastard die for their country>”
He obviously hadn’t thought it out. The amount of CO2 he released into the atmosphere by burning his carbon-based life form. He was protesting burning of fossil fuels by burning essentially fossil fuel.
rapscallion says:
It diminishes us all when this happens – a man needlessly taking his own life. What makes me angry is that he did it because he was lied to about the supposed global armageddon coming this way. It is they, who should have his death on their conscience. What is even sadder that those responsible don’t care and what is more will see this a ideal publicity to push their agenda. Truly there are some evil people,
Francesco Zerilli says:
More likely he was terminally depressed over a break up with his homosexual lover and used his failed involvement with environmental issues as an excuse to light his fire………[pruned] May he finally find peace with himself.
spetzer86 says:
Why are the only responses to this I can think of in such bad taste I just won’t post them?
I suffer from a similar malady.
Normally, when I see someone doing something unutterably stupid, something that makes no sense, I also have a snarky, sarcastic response. Long ago I had a friend who committed suicide, had warned people, and found a place where no one could stop him.
Before he disappeared, he had left a note saying that it was like looking into a black hole from which there was no escape. The anger he felt was turned inward on himself.
There is nothing but sadness here. If the sense of desperation and anger is so grindingly heavy that the person suffering from it goes this far, sometimes even getting help has only a temporary effect. This is too sad.
If it was a “standard” suicide. It is entirely possible Buckel had a terminal illness and decided to go out in a very public way to leave a mark no one would forget. It was very public, he typed the note. Not the marks of a depressed individual who can no longer cope. Maybe, but I’m betting there more to this than appears on the surface.
texasjimbrock says:
I agree with Sara. It is a very sad case. Apparently, the guy had multiple mental problems that he could not resolve. Sad.
DC Cowboy says:
That may be because you are a decent human being.
IT does not good to mock or try to find something humorous in something like this.
It is sad.
Mike Restin says:
The sadness is in how sick he was and he was not able to get the psychological help he so desperately needed. I would think there might be more to this story than we’ve been told.
gnomish says:
that’s just nature taking its course.
if you love nature- you have to love extinction of stupid.
the question is how can you think that defying nature makes you look good?
that’s what got him to the bbq. who wants to delude himself like that?
Karlos51 says:
will those responsible for filling his head with the garbage that led to him being so deluded that he took his life, please step forward and accept responsibility
crickets..
I thought not.
Writing Observer says:
I am always of two minds when something like this comes up. I feel sadness for the family that have lost a loved one. I feel a greater relief, though, for the fact that no further victims will be taken by a monster.
Undoubtedly, the suicide of a certain Austrian “activist” in prison, after his ignominious failure to achieve his ends, would have been a tragedy to his family. The survival of approximately 80 million people thanks to the avoidance of a vicious and brutal regime, though, would have been a blessing to the world.
Shawn Marshall says:
It is the Culture of Death versus the Culture of Life. Many of us, though too few, believe that God gave us life and wants us to live it fully. Others try to assume the ‘responsibilities’ of God unto themselves; “Ye shall be as gods”. That can only end tragically.
J Hope says:
Sadly the poor guy bought into the new religion of AGW. And now they’ll make him a martyr. That is pathetic.
Ray Cathode says:
This is pathetic, not sad. A perfect example of the morality of self-sacrifice – self-immolation. The great question is not how to die well, but how to live well; not how to destroy one’s life, but how to make something of it.
I share your feelings.
goldminor says:
My first thought as well.
I wonder if the had some medical issues which may have prompted him to carry this through?
He was driven to this by years of CAGW nonsense and looney-left doomer propaganda, and numerous and repeated concerted BS fear-campaigns, some of which others wrote, some of which he wrote—and damaged others.
He was told that 97% of scientists agreed, so it seemed a fairly legit conclusiion.
Which drove him completely insane, bit by bit.
1saveenergy says:
Death is the ultimate solution to all the problems (real or imaginary) of life.
I know of a couple (in their 60s) so convinced of sea level rise that 2yr ago they sold their house (40 ft above HWL) for half its value & moved inland to a small new house (built on a river flood plain)… & this winter got flooded; that’s just increased their belief in CAGW. She now feels suicidal as they cant afford to move again.
And they called me stupid when I showed them the sea level records giving ~ 8″ /100yrs.
What belief in his belief system that was not loony?
He had all that social cred, all that money, not a bad looking guy and no one to share it with.
My belief that on top of group think crazy he was lonely. We know why.
Count to 10 says:
The same can probably also be said of the other lefty causes he devoted himself to.
Chris Hoff says:
They teach this nonsense to 1st graders claiming it will make responsible citizens out of them, even when they know for a fact it isn’t true. Then this is the result, the poor guy probably suffered a lifetime of anxiety, just like a lot of other trusting people.
In my day, the 1960’s, my own grade school teacher insisted that if nothing was done about industrial air pollution, all life on earth would be wiped out in 20 years. That gave me a few sleepless weeks until completing my own research.
pokerguy says:
He didn’t kill himself because of global warming. His life was unbearable for deeply personal reasons. Obviously he suffered from depression. Much more respectable (in his sad mind) to kill himself for supposedly noble reasons.
AndyE says:
I think most psychiatrists would agree that this unfortunate fellow was quite likely suffering from a sort of insanity called paranoia (not to be confused with paranoid schizophrenia). Nothing we can do to prevent this sort of tragedy. Human beings will be human beings. If they come to the notice of psychiatrists in time they should be committed to a mental institution if their enmity and hate is against some other individual person which often is the case.
Serge Wright says:
I was going to post something along the lines of “Now if only all warmists followed suit, the world would be cured from this destructive ideological disease ….”, but changed my mind 😉
James Schrumpf says:
Yeah, but you did anyway.
How exactly did you change your mind?
Probably because you can imagine what the warmist responses would be if this had been a ‘denier’. And you can also remember their joy at the death of Professor Bob Carter. Some say that to follow suit would be stooping to their level. On the other hand, in battle fight fire with fire.
Trust me, other places people had no problem posting such things. People were incredibly crude, mean and thoughtless.
spetzer86, how else can one respond to madness but with bad taste?
eddie willers says:
“It is entirely possible Buckel had a terminal illness”
henryp says:
that was my thought as well
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/14/green-activist-lawyer-burns-himself-to-death-to-protest-global-warming/#comment-2790684
joe - the non climate scientist says:
Maybe he should have consulted Mark Jacobson regarding renewables or maybe he went into severe depression when he realized jacobson is a fraud.
[“Pitchforks” ?? .mod]
Greg Woods says:
Pitchforks are a useful tool for cleaning CO2 from the air…
ClimateOtter says:
Mod~ ‘pitchforks’ is a reference to cleaning out stables. The end product of which can be burned for energy. Sort of.
It can—though it never should be. Let it compost to produce methane.
Ironic, in that I think the leading cause of respiratory illness in the developing world is from burning cow or buffalo dung in small burners for heat and cooking purposes. So in a way, renewables are causing more damage than fossil fuels.
CarolynS says:
No, I think he was just referring to the fact that compost needs to be turned regularly – a jolly hard job actually. I guess they had a really big heap and did it all by hand rather than machinery (probably huffing and puffing and expelling co2 by the truckload as they did so).
If he truly believes that doing without fossil fuels just means more elbow grease, then he has never actually tried the lifestyle he wishes on the rest of us.
tom s says:
Wished….
Sounds like he was about 40 years too late….
Willis Eschenbach says:
Oh, man, talk about the delicate balance between tragedy and comedy … I have to come down on the side of tragedy because no man is an island and each man’s death diminishes me, and because of the inevitable endless sorrow of his family … I’ve been meditating on this topic over on my blog if anyone is interested.
My best to all, enjoy this life, rumor has it we don’t get a second chance if we mess this one up …
You don’t sound like a Hinduist.
It’s true, the Hindudes have another rumor …
I once asked a good friend if she believed in reincarnation. Her response was ‘Yes, you have to keep coming back, over and over, until you learn to do things the right way.”
That made sense to me.
Sara: Sounds like being stuck in an endless transporter loop.
schitzree says:
Personally I hate the theory of reincarnation. How are we supposed to learn from the mistakes of our past lives if we don’t remember them? How can practice make perfect without learning?
There is no improvement in reincarnation. There is only throwing a dart at a target blindfolded over and over until you hit the bullseye purely by luck.
>¿<
Tom Judd says:
Maybe you only do get a second chance if you don’t do it right. Maybe we have to come back over and over till we’re sufficiently perfected for a wondrous beyond.
P.S. I know of someone who believes in reincarnation precisely for that reason.
mikerestin says:
Maybe but, of all the people I’ve ever known, I don’t think any of them reached the level of “sufficiently perfected for a wondrous beyond.” Must be the company I keep.
And what power would be responsible for determining this recycling of life
Mick April 14, 2018 at 6:10 pm
If the recycling happens in the US, that would be the EPA … I believe they have jurisdiction over everything.
At the very least deciding what is and isn’t recyclable
TA says:
The comedian Robin Williams, who committed suicide, said of reincarnation: “If it’s true, my luck, I’ll come back as me.”
Now that sounds like a depressed person to me.
Right – Willis, The Hindus would have it that your chances of a decent second chance are at least several hundred lifetimes away if you mess your Karma up with really bad stuff.
John MacDonald says:
This is so sad. Messing up your Karma with really bad stuff includes suicide. It takes many lives to fix that.
wilpretty says:
The true agent of Karma is Carbon Dioxide.
The flesh of our bodies at death is converted to Carbon Dioxide and Water. These then are taken in by plants and become food for the next generation of beings.
The Ancients were unaware of this. They coined – Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes. The actual process is Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Dioxide.
re. the balance between tragedy and comedy.
Tragedy is what happens. Comedy is how you deal with it. link
… rumor has it we don’t get a second chance if we mess this one up …
Some think the scarier version is that you have to keep coming back until you get it right.
“Tragedy is what happens. Comedy is how you deal with it.”
Might be why we laugh when it hurts too much to cry.
M Simon says:
“Too bad she won’t live. But then again who does.” – Blade Runner
F. Ross says:
“…all those moments…lost in time, like tears in the rain” -Blade Runner
Tim Groves says:
“Give me four.”
“Futatsu de jubun desuyo.”
“No, four. Two, two, four.”
“And noodles.”
“Wakatte kudasai yo.”
I remember a story…
One day, the entire adult population of an idyllic world awakes with a shared vision of a unknown disaster about to end their civilization. After long consultations with the mystic elders, they all agree on the truth of this vision and are resigned to their fate. That night one couple, wishing to spare their children this horror, kill them painlessly in their sleep. The next morning, they awake to an intact world, but find that all the parents in their world have done exactly the same. Vision fulfilled.
May David Buckel lie in peace.
I’m sure you are thinking of “The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury.
Really good film adaptation too with Rod Steiger.
Ben Gunn says:
Willis if the Gerbil survived he might disagree with you.
pameladragon says:
I can think of dozens of totally tasteless and cruel comments, but can’t do it. I feel sad for his family and friends, such a waste of life.
Absolutely. A horrible situation for the people who remain so far.
It is clear that climate anxiety will kill more people, and that is because the mainstream media following the zeitgeist causes it. The West will sink, not because pollution or warming, but because it has driven into a cultural dead end.
RicDre says:
“I feel sad for his family and friends, such a waste of life.”
“The West will sink, not because pollution or warming, but because it has driven into a cultural dead end.”
I agree, though I think that Cultural Madness describes the direction we are headed better than a cultural dead end. This poor man may be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
I wonder if he bought carbon credits to offset the co2 he produced burning himself?
I don’t think we need to make fun of this. It’s such a sad story. Obviously this man had a lot of things going on in his head and probably just needed to seek out professional help to aviod this tragedy. Condolences to his family and friends.
GUS says:
The guy was CUCKOO for Cocoa Puffs. Most liberals are. The earth is dying???? Get a grip.
While “professional help” might work, there is no panacea for dealing with suicidal people. People who cannot cope will eventually kill themselves. That’s the reality of it. Not everyone can deal with life and no therapy or drug can change that. I’m not criticizing or blaming these people—it’s just the reality of life. Not everyone can make it work. Therapy and meds are worth a try, but it may or may not “avoid the tragedy.”
Look at his dating life. He was lonely on top of which the Left fed him constant gloom and doom.
The Left & LGBT in particular fed him a lie.
Condolences to family and friends that were NOT part of the echo chamber of horrors that continuously nudged him toward the edge.
Screw those that were part of the echo chamber (don’t matter if they are family/friends or not).
snap! that was my first thought.
the second was why not a quiet OD and crawl into one of his compost piles for an eco friendly ending..
once i was very ill and did warn my girlfriemnds if they found my coat covering the worm bin, Id taken care of my funeral..pre planned as it were;-) and just leave it alone for a few weeks please.
Tasteless comment.
Wait, maybe if he’d hooked himself up it an inverter, connected to capacitors, which are charged by a solar panel, waiting to go off like a portable defibrillator… That he could have renewably offed himself having died of exposure, or maybe thirst…………. Would ya buy hunger?…
R. Shearer says:
Composting would have been a lot less painful but slow.
he was already there by the time he got his degree in stupid
Or lay down under a huge magnifying lens, after drinking a gallon of corn liquor.
Merinas van der Lubbe says:
YOU just HUSH yer Mouth!! DONT chew give them dang Libberuls ideas to be a-wastin good Corn Squeezins now Dang you!
The sad part is that he died under a false pretext., saying “he was burning himself to death using “fossil fuel” to reflect how mankind was likewise killing itself”.
In reality. global population is increasing at a rate which is faster than at any time in the past. Food production is at a record high and global poverty is at an all time low. A warmer world is a better world.
The real cause of his death is fake left-wing propaganda.
I think the real cause of his death was mental illness.
The man had no grasp of reality, blaming imaginary boogie men for the sky falling is never a path to enlightenment.
cz says:
Sadly it is what religious zealots do.
I think the real cause of his death are all the lies and distortions of the truth the Climate Change Charlatans have foisted on an unsuspecting public over the years, making them think the world is coming to an end because of CO2 emissions. This guy believed their lies so much he felt he had only one option: to kill himself.
BoyfromTottenham says:
Reg, if mental illness was the cause, it seems to have similarly affected a substantial part of the population of Western (and some small third world) countries. This is gonna take a looong time to fix, unless some far greater and more obvious crisis happens – like a serious recession that focuses the collective mind of our politicians on our real problems.
Nor is his alleged choice of death sensible on any level except as a typical suicide.
This character apparently lived and worked in NYC. It is doubtful that his life was carbon free except at a minimal level; i.e. a virtue signal level.
Actually blaming fossil fuel, when one’s life is surrounded and supported by fossil fuels is irrational. Especially after the winter NYC enjoyed this past year.
I do note that he chose a warm spring day, instead of the many very cold spring days just past.
Viewed as a totality, unfortunately, this was a typical suicide.
Why would this matter?
Because, there is zero evidence that a “fossil fuel” event triggered his terminal depression.
The big question is what was the triggering event or events?
Even if this character is trying to make his suicide count for something about which he appears to have a religious belief, other dark events triggered his decision to end his life.
May his tortured soul find the rest and solace he needs.
Reg: I agree. The man had so many problems living inside his cranium that he finally just popped.
It isn’t warmer where I live
Rain, sleet and snow where I live and I can’t put out bird food until the precip stops.
12-14″ on the ground here. Average high is 58F….we may get 30F today if we are lucky. The month to date is about -15 below the ‘average’. Historic on all counts. I am at MSP. We are at our snowiest April ever….approx 22″ to date. We average 2.5″ of usually wet snow in April. We have not been above 52F yet this entire spring. It is causing me to be very down. I don’t get SAD in the winter due to lack of light, but in spring when I am expecting much nicer conditions this kind of weather causes me to be very irritable. We are hoping for our first 60F late next weekend and then hopefully sustained warmth beyond that…long range means are more favorable then…let’s hope so.
Sorry. It is already globally cooling.
Yeah, ‘cooling’ negative 0.15K/decade? Or did you refer to just the last four weeks?
Please come back after 15 years of cooling UAH TLT. In the meantime, meeting 1.5K total global warming for a 30 year period is still very, very much in future. I love to see the pause back, but it appears we get more lukewarm weather instead.
There is no man made global warming. I am not sure why you believe strongly in UAH since they have noted problems with the orbits and the sensors are affected by the sun’s rays which are terrible during the [current] period of the lowest magnetic field strengths in about 87 years.
As far as the other data sets are concerned: they are all biased towards the NH. Not properly balanced to zero latitude like my sample of 54 weather stations.
It is globally cooling. By at least 0.01K per annum since 2000.
Here is a summary of my investigation on that:
Concerned to show that man made warming (AGW ) is correct and indeed happening, I thought that here [in Pretoria, South Africa} I could easily prove that. Namely the logic following from AGW theory is that more CO2 would trap heat on earth, hence we should find minimum temperature (T) rising pushing up the mean T. Here, in the winter months, we hardly have any rain but we have many people burning fossil fuels to keep warm at night. On any particular cold winter’s day that results in the town area being covered with a greyish layer of air, viewable on a high hill outside town in the early morning.
I figured that as the population increased over the past 40 years, the results of my analysis of the data [of a Pretoria weather station] must show minimum T rising, particularly in the winter months. Much to my surprise I found that the opposite was happening: minimum T here was falling, any month….I first thought that somebody must have made a mistake: the extra CO2 was cooling the atmosphere, ‘not warming’ it. As a chemist, that made sense to me as I knew that whilst there were absorptions of CO2 in the area of the spectrum where earth emits, there are also the areas of absorption in the 1-2 um and the 4-5 um range where the sun emits. Not convinced either way by my deliberations and discussions as on a number of websites, I first looked at a number of weather stations around me, to give me an indication of what was happening:
https://i1.wp.com/oi58.tinypic.com/2mnhh74.jpg
The results puzzled me even more. Somebody [God/Nature] was throwing a ball at me…..The speed of cooling followed a certain pattern, best described by a quadratic function.
I carefully looked at my earth globe and decided on a particular sampling procedure to find out what, if any, the global result would be. Here is my final result on that:
https://i0.wp.com/oi62.tinypic.com/33kd6k2.jpg
Hence, looking at my final Rsquare on that, I figured out that there is no AGW, at least not measurable.
Public funded propaganda, pretending to be ‘science’, and a supine media that’s fully complicit in enabling an ongoing global crime of misleading the young and impressionable into mental anguish, ignorance, poor education, stupid attitudes and acts, and much depression and misery, under the FAKE guise of informing and enlightening.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Alan the Brit says:
Agenda 21 anybody?
Bingoid. Murder by propaganda. But those Warmists that caused his death DON’T CARE! The only thing they care about is converting the world to their insane Socialist hell.
Absolutely. All the global data shows that mankind is better fed, more prosperous and longer living than ever before. And the planet is getting greener due to increased CO2 and global warming.
This is the ultimate madness. People who call themselves green demonise and hate the very thing that makes the planet green. Sadly this madness can literally drive people to their deaths.
Will those who continue to create mental stress with their false catastrophic warming propaganda ever be brought before the court to account for their part in this type of tragic death?
Leave it to me to definitely have something to say….
This falls squarely on the laps of all these hysterical liberals, lying so called scientists, news media, etc…
….this is the result they have been looking for…..and they don’t even care
And the left will say it’s Trump’s fault because he’s dismantling the EPA.
mikerestin – don’t forget that Trump dumped the Paris Accord non-treaty!
Hit the nail squarely on the first go. +10
Rubbish comment.
ResouceGuy says:
First we had the Peta Facebook shooter in Calif. and now this. I think the climate psychologists need to do some good here and stop feeding the psychosis.
Michael Jankowski says:
Youtube, not Facebook. And had nothing to do with animal issues…it was over revenue and what she saw as Youtube deliberately limiting her viewership.
mr mike- that’s what she said but the real reason was she was psycho
and this flaming [lawyer] who just offed himself was a liar to the end – he didn’t do it for the erf. he did it cuz he had inverted values = psycho.
s-t says:
The Nanterre massacre refers to an act of mass murder that occurred on March 27, 2002, in Nanterre, France. Gunman Richard Durn, 33 years old, opened fire at the end of a town council meeting, resulting in the deaths of eight councilors, and the injury of 19 others.
He held a Masters degree in political science and a degree in history. According to the police, Durn was an environmental activist, and a former member of the Socialist Party before joining the Greens. He was also a member of the Ligue des droits de l’homme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanterre_massacre
Joel O’Bryan says:
Need anymore evidence Liberalism and mental illness go hand in hand?
Climate change fanaticism is clearly a retreat from rationality.
A Chicken or the Egg problem is the only question.
brians356 says:
“Liberalism is a mental disorder.” Michael Savage
kokoda - AZEK (Deck Boards) doesn't stand behind its product says:
IMO, just proves how mentally unbalanced he was, on multiple counts.
Survival of the fittest.
Ross King says:
The ultimate hypocrisy ….. contributing to AGW.
My thought exactly. Not PC, but true. Couldn’t even stick to his beliefs in death/suicide. I feel sorry for those that will miss him.
This was not a protest. It was self-hatred. It’s actually very difficult for many – if not most – people to love themselves. One has to be at peace with oneself.
Raise your children well. They are our successors in Nature’s grand experiment in bringing forth a being that recognizes the existence of Nature itself. Love your children, and let them love themselves.
HotScot says:
I’m in love with myself.
Severian says:
I don’t know, seems to me I loved myself a lot, especially in high school.
barryjo says:
And now you need eye glasses?????
you can’t love yourself without a reason. that’s something one achieves by achieving one’s values
he just had stupid as his standard of value.
he arrived at the ineluctable conclusion.
it’s all good.
gnomish, it would be more appropriate to say that his view was so narrow and so blocked in that he could NOT see the other side of the coin.
Suicide is NOT the answer to anything.
However when the emotional pain is so high that you can’t bear it anymore, it sure does seem that way.
yes, sara. any rational person understands and agrees with you in any normal context.
the agw cult is not a normal context by any stretch of the imagination but until it leaves corpses strewn on the pavement, those who are too innocently generous to grasp the fact that fabian socialism is loathing of human nature and is an engine of self mutilation and suicide on the installment plan.
so good on crispy mcCritter for showing the station at the end of the line. will it wake anybody up?
if it doesn’t, then let the fries hit the floor. the more the merrier and the sooner the better.
those are the monstrosities that threaten every human bean. they are not to be hugged. they are evil.
do you so love life that you will, in equal measure, hate evil? cuz if you can’t bring yourself to do that, your anguish is self indulgence and pretty much coddles the cooters like all the other enablers.
drednicolson says:
The will to live is powerful. Even when overcome by a suicidal urge, it reasserts itself quickly. A delay, a distraction, an inconvenience, an interruption, any of these can move the individual past that window of impulse and get them thinking “Wait a minute, WTF am I doing?”.
Unfortunately, for some that interruption never comes.
What worries me the most on this is that it WON’T be the last time one of the Climate Faithful chooses to end their life rather then face the world they believe is coming. Many (even Most) of them truly believe that civilization or even the biosphere itself is doomed unless mankind as a whole ‘Decarbonizes’, and as most of us here know that just isn’t possible. As one attempt after another to implement their beliefs fails, they will become more and more depressed.
We WILL see more of the Climate Faithful choosing suicide. We will probably see some choosing to take their families with them. We may even eventually see something akin to Jonestown. In the end it will depend on how much longer their leaders choose to continue pushing them and lying to them.
~¿~
When ideology leads to self destructive dehumanizing madness, it is probably time to question the ideology.
Also true in other areas of life.
Absolutely correct. The ideology IS being questioned, by the rest of us, but someone like this is too blocked by it to even try to question it.
What difference between being blinded by the light and being in the dark?
DonK31 says:
He did what he chose to do. I hope I get to choose the way I go.
If I have a choice, I’d rather not go.
Komrade Kuma says:
A sad event in any terms but this guy just seems to epitomise the psychotic take on carbon/CO2 that people like him have. I mean on a planet where ALL life is carbon based and atmospheric CO2 is the primary vector for the creation of said life, WTF is this obscene and utter hatred of carbon/CO2 all about?
Sad, sad stuff.
Jacob Frank says:
Janice Moore says:
Oh … oh… oh… Weeping…
To God, all that ultimately, really, mattered was that David was a soul in need of love. A soul that God loved, dearly. No, that God loveS dearly.**
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.3934027.1523734475!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/article-park3-0414.jpg
David Buckell, human being.
(youtube – Rascal Flatts)
Oh, why…
The pain just got too great.
That — is why.
With nothing but deepest sympathy for all of Mr. Buckell’s family, for all of his friends… so many friends… You could not have done ANYTHING to prevent this. Weep, be angry, but don’t — feel — guilty. The pain just got too great. That’s all.
With love, only love — and tears,
** I believe in retroactive prayer (yes, I realize that some of you do not believe in prayer at all; this is MY remembrance comment), thus, I prayed just now that God, knowing in advance that I would pray this today, would have made sure that David Buckell believed in Jeshua as his Messiah at some point in his life (even if only after losing consciousness today, accepting the message spoken to him by Jesus in his mind before it was too late to choose). And this may have been futile, but, I am choosing to believe it was not and that David is, right now, in heaven. At peace.
rd50 says:
Wonderful song, no explanation, just the truth about life.
Please forgive my misspelling of “Buckel” — tears make it harder to read …
One more thing, from the lyrics to above song, “Why?” — “They lied.” And that makes me angry. The same lie about human CO2 that caused (but — for — the — requirement of UN-necessary cladding (only there to prevent concrete from emitting CO2 per the lies of the AGWers), most if not all of those people would be alive today) the Grenfell Towers burning deaths of dozens of human beings, killed an emotionally fragile human being.
In Tort law, the “eggshell plaintiff” principle says that the tortfeasor (here, the liars about human CO2) takes his or her victim as he or she finds him or her. The AGWists are guilty of wrongful death. That is, the emotional fragility of Mr. Buckel was not a supervening, controlling, cause preventing their liability.
Angry. Weeping. … just weeping…
Janice,
I’m not religious, but if I were David, I would thank you for that.
Whatever this man’s torment, I suspect he would have found one cause, or another to die for.
He was a human being and deserves respect.
We might brand him mentally ill, but we didn’t know him, so can’t make that assessment. We can only hope that death released him from his torment, for he was tormented enough to kill himself in this way.
My thoughts go out to his family, of course, but also to the people who found him, and the emergency services he selfishly subjected to the most gruesome task imaginable.
We often forget the public servants who must clear up after these people. They are affected as well, but few think of them, least of all the perpetrators.
Crispin in Waterloo but really in Potchefstroom says:
He may not have had a depressive motivation. He may have had a martyr complex, seeking popularity or immortality as a an extreme example who died for ‘the cause’. Maybe he was thinking of the Buddhist monks who self-immolated to protest the war in Vietnam. I see a parallel.
All he proved is that men are mortal. We only get one chance. His has ended. What struggle he failed to overcome in this life, he will face in the next. For anyone considering suicide now or in the future, I recommend first reading or watching, “Life after Life”.
Another book which has been helpful to many was written by a quadraplegic (Joni Eareckson Tada) who wanted to kill herself at one point, When Is It Right to Die?: https://www.amazon.com/When-Right-Die-Euthanasia-Suffering/dp/0756786894#customerReviews
noaaprogrammer says:
Yes, a portion of blame & shame belong to the climate change scare mongers — especially those who know that such hype is not true. To those who believe that climate hype is true — please move on — none of us want to dwell on this and make any kind of self-sacrificing hero out of Mr. Buckel. It would only encourage a rash of such protests. (During the 1960s there were many self-immolations protesting the Vietnam War.)
It could have been worse. There could have been a few more.
TheLastDemocrat says:
Sadly, this helps again to point out that many people are getting their brains pulled into a cult. Like the Hart family tragedy, with the adoptive parents being so goofed up that all parents and kids end up dead, unless the final couple of individuals happen to be found alive somewhere.
This is not mental illness. Please avoid saying that. It is a disservice to people with a mental illness, or with suicidality.
Find time to go look up how a cult works Most importantly, the process by which someone gets sucked into cult thinking – not so much the “characteristics” of cult thinking.
The appeal of a cult is dual: to be following the correct life, and to be virtuous as opposed to being ignorant or being evil.
Cults work by a certain process. In all of this, I have no idea how a cult gets dreamed up. i have no idea what possesses any individual to dream up a cult, either as a True Believer, or as a Deceiver. I will note how INTELLIGENT, NON-MENTALLY-ILL individuals get drawn into a cult.
This is based on my efforts to understand how so many of my intelligent friends and family have embraced the most ridiculous political ideas, AND how they CANNOT have reasonable, cool-headed discussions of political issues.
A cult has an appeal by pointing out some idea or problem, and making the potential member consider the issue – but this apparently dispassionate issue is actually presented in a manner that will lead to favoring one side. “You are against harming wildlife, aren’t you?”
The subtle but necessary subtext comes next. The people doing the “bad” thing or things are either ignorant or evil. Capitalism is bad, polluters are bad, Big Oil is bad, SUV owners are bad, etc.
The rhetoric progresses to include a MORAL evaluation: it is not just dumb that you wasted fossil fuel with your SUV, it was somehow immoral: you were killing off the planet, hurting Gaia, ruining the legacy for future generations, etc. I call this the “virtue” aspect.
We mostly think of cults as being centered around God / gods / divine revelation / great spiritual insight and practice.
But I want to ASK you all to consider: the matter of a cult is the matter of being virtuous versus being ignorant or evil. This can include being virtuous by following a religion, or also by following some tenets of virtue, without a God attached to the virtuousness.This expanded concept includes religious cults, such as Jim Jones, Vernon Howell, and Joseph Smith, but also includes the atheist naturalists, members of the Cult of Man-made Global Warming, etc.
In the long run, dispute and shades of grey disappear, and the promoted view is framed as the obvious, virtuous view, and holders of other views (lukewarmers, etc.) are framed as either ignorant or evil.
In the long run: since the opponent is IMMORAL, the believers, the virtuous, are not “ethically” required to engage in civil debate, to tolerate diverse views, etc. This would be like a Christian church having a meeting to decide if Satanist principles should be added to the Creed in order to be more inclusive. [More later on why Christianity, specifically, is not a cult.]
The process is that you first consider, and accept, some “obvious” things. CO2 is increasing, etc. Then, a subtle process advances. Two main things: the “virtue” issue has to cover a great deal of daily life, so that you get increasingly cut off from other aspects of daily life, and opponents get increasingly framed as distinctly woefully ignorant (often due to the promotion of evil ideas by the Evil Guys), or simply as evil.
It has been close to a decade, but some may remember the flare-up of concern over “phantom” power consumption: that LED light on your Keurig that notes that it is plugged in? EVIL!!!!!! –So, the label of evil gets promoted to cover more and more. Pretty soon you cannot take a s#1t without worrying about how your dung is harming Mother Earth. And, feeling guilty and deciding you would s#1t less if Consumerism did not drive you to eat so much. These virtue-concepts advance on you, and you increasingly see your behaviors, and those of others, as ignorant and or evil. As you grow in Virtue, you shift away from the evil behaviors and thoughts.
At the same time, a lifestyle of Virtue gets advanced. Buy “green,” etc. You can relieve guilt of your evil ways by following the Virtuous lifestyle. Buy a Subaru because their plant is zero-emissions.
The final crucial aspect is this: A cult controls you by getting you to buy in to a World View, but it is an inaccurate World View. It can be shown to be inaccurate to reasonable people by logic and reason.
So, another crucial aspect of the cult is this: there must be mental detours to the obvious reasoning that makes the cult look as foolish as it is – since it is not in accord with reality.
There are two main cognitive tricks that are promoted and parroted to the increasingly duped cult members: name-calling and change-the-topic. They simply are what they say.
If someone counters the AGW idea with some genuine data, you do not have to dispute it; instead, you paint the person presenting the information as “funded by Big Oil,” or an “acolyte of Fox News.” IOW, you do name-calling. Once the reasonable person, who will bust a hole in your world view, is discounted as being a bad or evil person, you DO NOT HAVE TO ENTERTAIN THEIR POINT OF VIEW. This is NECESSARY for a cult to survive.
Also, Change-The-Topic. If someone brings up a point such as “solar cannot possibly handle more than 10% of a nation’s energy need,” the topic GETS CHANGED TO: “Kyoto – we need to reduce demand,” or “Big Oil is subsidized so solar doesn’t have an economic chance,” or “in some cases, we will also depend on wind,” etc.
The “tell” for “change-the-topic” is this: two things: 1. you never get back to your valid point; 2. as you try, you get labeled as being dogmatic, or as being unable to expand a discussion, etc.
Finally, and this has happened to me, and to you all, and to many: once the cult member gets challenged, and gets feet held to the fire, they create a huge emotional tantrum, and fly off in a huff – all the while labelling you as the unreasonable, emotional one. And, no shame: they are merely exiting a discussion with an Evil person.
These cult members CANNOT engage beyond a second round of serious, reasonable discussion on their Cult View.
In may forums, I have PREDICTED exactly when someone will dis-engage form debate, and how. They deny this, and then it occurs, like clockwork. Because a cult world view cannot stand a challenge. Because it does not accord with reality. Why engage? Why predict where the debate will go? I at times also state this: because others are reading the interchange, and can thus become aware of how the rhetoric works.
This guy was a cult member. He guilted himself so far as to lead him to kill himself. Sad. But not mental illness, or just being unintelligent. He suffered from something that sane, intelligent people can get drawn into: a cult.
Why are we told that cults can only be religious? We are told this in our schools so that we don’t catch on: the environmentalist extremists are in a cult. A virtue cult.
[Bonus: why is Christianity not a cult? This would take more explanation to really lay out, but basically a cult CANNOT have you examining its tenets, or questioning authority. In my church, we have The Bible, and leadership, but NO AUTHORITY. You either investigate, explore, ask questions, and accept Jesus ON YOUR OWN TERMS, or you don’t , and we pray that you will, one day. We do not require you to attend church, to tithe, to listen to any preaching, etc. We invite you to learn yourself, with good instructors, and reflect on what you are hearing. IOW: we are very much an open system, regarding our substantiation of our beliefs. We DO have a clear set of beliefs – you cannot change them much, and still claim to be a “Christian.” But, you can – there is no one who will run you down or sue you. Because it is an open deal. We are not afraid of difficult questions or of skeptics. In my church, and among the many Christians I know, there are many who have gone on to teach themselves how to read Hebrew so they CAN investigate scripture on their own. There are those who have gone on to study Egyptology, or Ancient Near East history so they can explore and figure things out; it is NOT a closed system, where dissent cannot be tolerated. How are we like a cult? We have a definite world view, and we believe there is good, and evil, and ignorant. And, we believe in educating others – but not in the way a cult does. And, if a “Christian” adopts Christianity along the lines of this cult process, their life experiences will not go well, and they will fall off the wagon, eventually – i.e., if family simply urges “believe, or be evil.”]
RACookPE1978 says:
TheLastDemocrat
Well-written. Thank you.
Is this your blog, LastDemocrat?
Why so quiet for so long, when you write so well?
Hi – Thanks, Dave. I have a lot of skills and abilities, but operating a blog is not one of them. I tried, but could not figure out how to get menus, shortcuts, etc.
Also, I know I reach a much bigger audience by judiciously dropping relevant comments on sites like WUWT, where many readers will take in the bit of information, judiciously, along with the opinions of all of the other two-bit arm-chair Monday-morning-quarterback know-it-alls.
joelobryan says:
”… once the cult member gets challenged, and gets feet held to the fire, they create a huge emotional tantrum, and fly off in a huff – all the while labelling you as the unreasonable, emotional one.”
Flight from rationality that impairs personal relations that otherwise should matter. A mental illness symptom.
Smart Rock says:
Good analysis, Last Democrat but IMHO you miss the point of the cult. Cults are started, organized and led by men, they have to be charismatic to suck people in, and their ultimate purpose is that they, the leader(s) get to boff all the chicks (I’m not trying to be humorous BTW, this is a serious observation). Any religious content is window dressing.
In that sense, AGW is not a cult, or yes it is a sort of cult but without the charismatic leaders (charisma is not a word that comes to mind when looking at Mann, Gore, Lewandowsky etc.). It feeds on guilt, it promotes guilt, as all the best religions do, and it provides a source for the guilt that some people seem to need and in the post judaeo-christian world there’s critical shortage of guilt, or rather there’s a lot of guilt looking for a place to park itself. AGW gives the true believer all kinds of good things to be guilty about, and those who really, REALLY need guilt, they can wallow in it until they hate themselves for just being alive. Without knowing a thing about poor David Buckel, I can speculate that he was one of these.
I seem to recall that self-immolation was common among buddhist priests in Viet Nam in the 1960s, protesting against the US presence there. I hope it doesn’t catch on among the warmists.
Smart Rock: Just for the record, the buddhist priests in Viet Nam who immolated themselves were coked to the gills on opium. Imitators in the US were not told this and unnecessarily died horrible deaths as a result.
Sure seems like the actions of someone mentally-ill.
Cult…of one? Unless this becomes a regular happening, it is just one sick individual.
Excellent comment.
Very nice comment.
0x01010101 says:
Waste of perfectly good fossil fuel if you ask me…
Are you suggesting he should have bought a gigantic magnifying glass and left the sun to do its work.
Yes, Let the climate cultists climb up on top of the Ivanpah central tower at noon in June.
0x01010101 is correct.
The suicider chose a flashy horribly painful exit method.
A very risky suicide method, to boot!
Any alert passerby with a fire extinguisher could have ended the flames, saved his life and left him painfully maimed for life.
Passerby’s do not even need a fire extinguisher; wrapping the victim in a coat and rolling them can extinguish the flames.
Choosing a flashy method, may be to make a statement; but the flashy method isn’t convincing when the suicide victim claims everyone allegedly will suffer the same fate.
There is a gulf of difference between self immolating and enduring a few degree temperature increase sometime in the future.
Why the flashy exit, then? Some final fifteen minutes of fame? Maybe.
Perhaps it was emulating self immolating monks?
I suspect the flames were a message to someone(s) specific.
We may never know if there was some family member, employer or lover involved in this suicide.
The sheer pain of burning alive could be a martyr complex; where the suicide victim insists on a very painful self punishment. Again, a maybe.
A far more efficient and effective method would have used car exhaust; or virtually any undiluted fossil fuel engine exhaust.
More effective, quieter, very efficient and without the risk that someone would put the fire out, leaving an almost suicide victim in painful burn treatment traction for months.
Car exhaust would not endanger nearby people, trees, pets and waterways (floating gasoline)
One has to wonder how prevelent suicide over climate change is. (or, for that matter, people killing themselves because they’re sick and tired of climate change alarmism) It’s difficult to believe that this sort of thing is an isolated case…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254619/Baby-girl-survives-shot-chest-parents-global-warming-suicide-pact.html
Fffkt! What an outcome from all the public climate p0m and panic. The greens should stop now the immoral raising of hatred and self-hatred.
I don’t remember seeing this case documented. Partly it is good, since suicides are copycatted, but partly it is so wrong since greens should be told what they cause to weaker people.
IIRC, there have been other warmist suicides and suicide attempts in the past.—maybe half a dozen.
I don’t know any, but I have read of people who have decided not to have children because of what they believe regarding climate change.
A form of cultural suicide.
On the old show, “All in the Family,” season 5, show 7, “Gloria’s Shock,” the Bunkers’ daughter, Gloria, and her husband, Mike “Meathead,” have conflict because she wants to have kids, and Mike, the progressive character, does not want to drag another human being into this polluted planet.
Rant at 12 minutes –
Tim Beatty says:
Sadly, this is the outcome and/or genesis of the “sky is falling” syndrome. Regardless of your view of Glabal Warming, the view of humanity is one of life and survival. Whether the planet warms or cools, humanity is not killing itself and the rhetoric that one side or the other is causing death or desiring it is a big problem with the debate.
John anthony says:
Too much cool aid,like Jim Jones followers. There will be more.
John Anthony …. Bring ’em on!
“How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!”
– Thos. Jefferson, 1816
Lies kill. David Buckel’s blood is on the hands of everyone who has hyped the climate scare beyond what the evidence warrants.
Mark Baumer is also dead because of the Climate Warriors’ lies. He died, not intentionally, but because he took risks with his life, on a fool’s errand, to “raise awareness of climate change.”
Eight year old Friday Mukamperezida also died because of those same lies. He was sick in bed when when his home was burned down to make room for a carbon offset tree plantation in Uganda.
Worse yet was the case of Francisco Lotero & Miriam Coletti. They shot themselves and their children, because of their despair over global warming, because they believed the alarmists’ apocalyptic lies. Miraculously, one of their children survived.
Climate alarmism and “climate mitigation” killed those people, and are killing many others, but a lot of radicalized Climate Warriors just don’t care very much. They think of humanity as a blight on the planet, and wish that a large percentage of the Earth’s population would just die and “reduce the surplus population,” anyhow. For example, here’s the first comment on an article at The Independent Online (UK), by one of those Climate Warriors:
http://sealevel.info/climate_activist_misanthropy_01.png
Ironically, “climate mitigation” is also doing immense environmental damage. For instance, the United States now has about 50 million acres devoted to growing Roundup-Ready monoculture corn for producing “renewable energy” (ethanol), to “mitigate climate change.” That’s more than the entire land area of the nine (9) smallest States in the United States, combined. It is an environmental disaster — caused, not by climate change, but by ill-considered efforts to mitigate climate change.
Worse even than the individual and environmental tragedies is the human toll when tens of thousands of people are made destitute because “climate friendly” and “renewable energy” policies turn their homes and gardens into monoculture palm oil plantations for making biofuels. Some of those people do not survive.
The same is true of people whose food is priced beyond their means to pay, because ever-increasing portions of the world’s grain and edible oils are being burned as fuel, to meet renewable energy goals. Even in relatively prosperous Europe the human cost of climate alarmism is heavy. Thousands there are dying because they can’t afford to pay the very high prices of “renewable” energy, to heat their homes:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fuel-poverty-killed-15000-people-last-winter-10217215.html
Here’s a German article, google-translated to rough English:
http://www.sealevel.info/Energie_Die_grosse_Stromluge_Warum_Strom_zum_Luxus_wird-FOCUS_Online-Google_translated.html
Translated title:
“‘The big current lie’: Why electricity becomes luxury”
“In 2014, there were about 40,000 winter deaths in Europe because millions of people were no longer able to pay their electricity bills – so-called energy poverty now accounts for about ten percent of almost all Europeans. Over the past eight years, electricity [cost] in Europe has risen by an average of 42 percent…”
Some people “get it,” though. The Climategate whistleblower was one of them. He (or she) was motivated by his understanding of the tragic cost of climate lies. He wrote:
‘Over 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day.’
‘Every day nearly 16.000 children die from hunger and related causes.’
‘One dollar can save a life’ — the opposite must also be true.
‘Poverty is a death sentence.’
‘Nations must invest $37 trillion in energy technologies by 2030 to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at sustainable levels.’
Today’s decisions should be based on all the information we can get, not on hiding the decline.
ALLAN MACRAE says:
daveburton
Excellent post – thank you.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of this poor, sad man.
These days, I’m happy when a suicide involves only the death of the one person who wants to die, and the victim doesn’t feel the faddish need to make a name by taking other, innocent people with him. There have been so many mass shootings, terrorist bombings, truck attacks and knifings where the suicide is secondary and the killing of as many innocents as possible is primary. Motivations for a high body count vary, of course, but an extra body count of 0 is always good. So on that score, good for him and his discretion. There is at least some dignity there. If that sounds harsh to people’s ears, I’m sorry, but it needs to be said. We should try to celebrate the discretion and “restraint” of solo suicides, IMO, so that this private, solo, individual example, horrible though it may be, might be emulated over other examples where innocents are also killed.
Clay Sanborn says:
Best regards to his family and friends; this is surely a hard thing for them.
Fossil fuels are the greatest boon to mankind’s history. We now have the highest standard of living the world has ever known. Even many poor people today live in better conditions than past Kings and Queens – think on-call heating and air conditioning, electricity, and modern conveniences, like refrigeration, that we take for granted. Fossil fuels helped the Allies defeat the Axis partners in WWII, and now fossil fuels continue to provide energy, plastics, and other materials and benefits for advancements in medicine and technology, and standards of living. Praise God (of the Bible) for His provision.
Steve Case says:
This tragedy is 100% the responsibility of the purveyors of the propaganda that produced it.
If he was truly mentally ill, he would have found a cause to die for eventually.
Climate Change is currently the most fadish.
This is “one” possible solution, but I don’t recommend it
One down, how many million to go.
Bear says:
Sad but better that he took his own life rather than killing others in the name of his ideology. Frankly, given the rhetoric of the CAGW fanatics, I’m amazed that someone hasn’t been assassinated to “save the world from CO2”.
The Unabomber assassinated some folks.
True, though I was thinking more along the lines of an assassination of a well known skeptic who is a public figure. I won’t mention names since I’m not about to give anyone a target.
Ve2 says:
How many millions have they starved to death by forcing up the price of grain with their bio-fuel crap, not to mention the ban on DDT and malaria.
I love it when greenies say DDT was NOT banned. Right, I go and buy some, then, as it was not banned, right? The ban, which is real, caused real deaths which greenies never admit. Slimebags.
Very sad that anyone’s mind can be disturbed that much by hype that it should literally result in a death cult. : (
Because this is a climate blog, and he specified his demise was due to “fossil fuels”, everyone here is far too invested and focused on the wrong thing. The fact is, ALL Darwin Award winners are tragic characters, with the cast ranging from incompetently stupid, invoking hilarity, to mentally ill, invoking more humane responses.
All Greens such as him are to various degrees mentally ill. My condolences to his family, whom I suspect are not that surprised.
Agreed Bob, that was my first thought too, he was particularly vulnerable to obsession and overloading and over-reacting to doomer bunk and greenie drivel. However, pointing out why he became so fatalistic through greenie over-concern, may assist others to steer clear of the extremes of the climate-change neurosis. Genuine Darwin-Award people will always die due to dumb choices, though. Do people like this guy fantasise obsessively that their feeble idiotic act of ‘martyrdom’ will trigger global change and bestow iconic ‘hero’ status?
Will it?
He’lll be plowed-in and totally forgotten—no problem at all.
Unless he wins a Darwin-Award …
the Martyr thing WILL get airtime..
wait just a tiny while for the warmists to begin their “he cared so much etc etc ” campaigns..and fundraise using him as the excuse
gbaikie says:
I would make sure, that he wasn’t murdered.
dahun says:
Many times it is impossible to discuss things with people today or perhaps it has been forever. Very often any reasoned explanation given to another results in a salvo of memorized (or brainwashed) dogma. Rather than an intelligent exchange of ideas it seems to be perfectly acceptable to attack another’s intelligence and repeat slogans rather than be troubled with actually listening to someone else’s opinions or what they suggest as facts. When groups of like minded individuals glom together and reinforce the same idea they become reduced to human lemmings where group pressure allows not even the slightest deviation from the group theology. This man obviously was an extreme example. He accepted the ‘green’ philosophy and convinced himself or was convinced by others that the world was ending and everything was hopeless because every human being didn’t believe as he did. He believed this so fervently that he felt he felt he was the problem and was willing to end his life. We look back on history and ask how so many millions could believe Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao or Al Gore but sadly it happens.
Greg Cavanagh says:
Clearly a sad and foolish move by him. We can at least thank him that he didn’t take his family with him, which happens all too often.
it’s surprising that someone so smart could be so taken in by a lie that is, to be honest, quite easy to see through. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he was so self-righteous, self-centred that he wouldn’t dare challenge even his own beliefs. A very sad outcome, and truly sad for his family and friends who now have to bear his burden.
Pablo an ex Pat says:
I am saddened by this. I believe in the scientific method and the not post modern science. I hope that I would have helped to talk him round from this. Possibly not. Ouch for him and his.
Hoyt Clagwell says:
I’ve never understood (and probably never will) how it is that setting yourself on fire, starving yourself, blocking an intersection, or just being a general nuisance, is supposed to get people to support your cause. How is being obnoxious, or just noxious productive in any way?
Darwin +1
Max Photon says:
He showed us.
Darwinism only works if the selection is done before reproduction for an individual that was likely to reproduce. It is not the survival of the fittest, as usually told, but the reproduction of the fittest. Darwin was poorly understood. Once an individual has finished reproducing and is no longer required for his progeny survival, or has chosen not to reproduce, there is no natural selection involved. His life or death becomes irrelevant for his species evolution. That’s one of the reasons we don’t live longer. There is no reproductive advantage from living longer.
Hey, I’m 73 and can still get the leg over.
You are assuming of course that he wouldn’t have reproduced again at some point.
Oops, soz Ve,
You beat me by seconds….. You ARE vigorous chap!!!
Well then… Lamarck +1
Cold in Wisconsin says:
They first convinced many smart, healthy people not to have kids. That was unfortunate, but ok, their choice. Self limiting perhaps, as there will likely be less liberals in the next generation, but still ok. The next step is actually proposing that people euthanize themselves to save the planet. If society is ok with that, I hope that they will make it less painful and messy for the people who want to go. Personally I am against it, but I see this as the next logical step of their crusade.
This case is truly tragic, and those who promote the idea of CAGW as a crisis should be forced to experience a true crisis. It is a rich, self-important, first world crisis that does not compare in any way to every true human crisis that we see everyday. Logic and rationality are lost and replaced with crazy, irrational drama. So sad.
RAH says:
Well they’re the sane and normal ones! We who do not believe are the extremist reactionary radicals you know!
You know usually those that believe in the 97% like to do things in large groups.
Koolaide?
harry buttle says:
wow, he’d have left two carbon footprints…
Dr Deanster says:
As I recall, a court just found a young lady guilty in a trial where she encouraged her boyfriend to commit suicide. …… may be time for the mentally ill leftist driving this CAGW drivel to answer some questions about the effects their lies and propaganda are having on people.
Seems to me there is no question that the Alarmist are complicit in this poor fellows unfortunate, and untimely death.
R2Dtoo says:
Maybe it is time for the sociologists and psychologists to study the effect of doom and gloom environmentalism on the attitudes of young people. There may well be an association between fatalism and drug use, gang membership and the lack of personal responsibility. Too much free stuff allows survival, but may lead to lack of personal worth. The opioid epidemic, legalizing weed and ease of groupthink all could be involved. The old justification was “here for a good time, not a long time”.
Geoff Sherrington says:
Did he follow the words in the WUWT sidebar?
“Walk toward the fire. Don’t worry about what they call you.”
36.000 people in the UK died in 2016/2017 winter conditions because they can’t afford the fuel to keep warm. Even a labor MP admits to that: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/13/liberal-mp-says-people-will-die-of-cold-because-renewable-energy-drives-up-fuel-prices
Frankly I no longer feel a wit of sympathy and someone should sue his estate and donate the money to what ever organization helps the people who can no longer afford their heating bills because the EU’s version of democrats want to ruin the landscape with their stupid windmills. Good riddance is my thought.
Just as people have become addicted to dopamine reward pathway stimulation from daily social media usage, people have become addicted to dopamine reward pathway stimulation from daily selective moral outrage.
This addict died from an overdose.
by Thirteen Senses
(and fossil fuel)
Most people that commit suicide either have a serious mental condition, or are in a very desperate situation, or both. As such the suicide note was probably a lie and the real cause was other. No doubt he wanted his death to be used politically to advance his anti-fossil fuel advocacy in a pathetic final gesture. It is pretty disturbing that people go to such extremes to defend their beliefs, and not too different from suicide bombers, except that more civilized and less damaging to others. If he really cared about CO2 levels he should have chosen a different method and requested to be buried instead of going up in flames.
“and requested to be buried instead of going up in flames.”
Actually, many people decide to not be buried and choose “going up in flames” instead. They just usually make sure they’re already dead.
I just can’t fathom what he thought he was doing. Perhaps he was thinking of the Buddhist monks immolating themselves in Viet Nam? Again, condolences to his family.
Actually, many people decide to not be buried and choose “going up in flames” instead.
They shouldn’t if they believe atmospheric CO2 levels are a problem. Proper burial is the adequate carbon capture and storage (CCS) solution. I guess incineration prohibition might happen if this pesky CO2 keeps rising.
peanut gallery says:
I’m not gonna bite. This is a set-up to elicit crass remarks from the opposition. Even IF it was an actual suicide, it points to the point that other opinions and logic not matter to these people.
spookyben523 says:
You have to wonder why, if he was so ‘woke’ concerning CAGW, that he chose a way out with such a large carbon footprint.
As sad as it is it reeks of performance art.
Donald Kasper says:
People using fossil fuels arrived to try to save him, but were too late.
astonerii says:
The sad suicide of Adolf Hitler, June 2nd, 1934.
The terribly sad suicide of Joseph Stalin, December 18th, 1904.
The unbelievably sad suicide of Mao Zedong, February 3rd, 1943.
The world devastatingly sad suicide of Pol Pot, March 23rd, 1959.
People who do bad things, bring bad things to life, help the enemies of civilization do not really rate sad statements when they leave this world. While this guy is not on par with the above people, who would have left our world far better off if they had offed themselves in advance of the greatest destructive activities they are known for, the man was part and parcel of the movement that would cause even far worse upon humankind than even those 4 individuals who were responsible for the deaths of as many as 160,000,000 human lives.
And by the way, you are doing him a service by spreading his message on your blog. It is your blog, do what you want. But I certainly would not have given him the coverage if I were in your position.
Yes, it is truly sad. But cAGW, as widely reported in the media, thrives on spreading the mantra of imminent environmental doom and disaster. Such continuous inculcation of messages of despair among the vulnerable will inevitably produce some victims like David Buckel. It is not in bad taste to point this out. He is a victim of the environmental-alarm movement, and there are people in the catastrophic global-warming industry who are culpable.
And I can also name organisations and people who are responsible for spreading a low regard for human life. The BBC were doing it a few days ago:
“What’s the best thing you can do to help save the environment? ”
-‘I’m not having children because I want to save the planet’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-43699464/i-m-not-having-children-because-i-want-to-save-the-planet
He picked the wrong gas.
What did him in was O₂
Pierre Vallieres says:
Not sad at all, better him than me, but then I am a sceptic, so I will continue living and use the fossil fuels to assure myself that my family will not freeze in winter and that the Air Conditioner is working well in summer time, all thanks to fossil fuels. If he is that sicko, someone should have put him in the looney bin long ago,
EternalOptimist says:
There is a section of the cagw chorus that do not believe the hype but believe the end justfies the means. Its worth while invoking the bogey man in order to achieve a green paradise. These are the ones who are knowingly lying, they have blood on their hands.
J Mac says:
Another perverse expression of the human condition, letting ones negative thoughts and irrational fears become the basis for self destruction.
May God have mercy on his tortured soul….
When I read the headline, I suspected perhaps it was weepy, histrionic Bill McKibben.
Death is no solution to the problems of life.
Actually Greens advocate death or destruction of human beings as necessity to save the planet. This guy takes it to heart
Fredar says:
Kill all humans? Please, what humans have done doesn’t compare to what Mother Nature has done. Have you read history books? Countless extinctions, massive natural disasters, huge waste of life. Before we take ourselves out, I recommend we first put Nature on trial. Besides, even if we manage to kill humans, nature and evolution will guarantee that some other species will rise up. Do you want intelligent cats destroying the planet? Only way to save the planet is to destroy it! It will be hard, but we must do it. Is is the right thing to do. For the planet! Kill the planet!
Climate change did not kill David Buckel. Climate change propaganda did.
Dire Wolf says:
Hysterical global warming propaganda, repeated endlessly by nuts and hustlers for years on end, so twisted the man’s mind that he killed himself in a gory display of personal depravity.
People cannot unsee or unknow what this sick man did to himself. I find it hard to feel sympathy for someone who seemed to want to hurt others by harming himself so publicly. It does not make global warming theory any more credible.
Coeur de Lion says:
Murdered by the Greenies
People in his activist surroundings must have seen this coming. Why did no one stop him?
The end justifies the means? In that case I hope those people will be trialled for this.
Like the Buddist monks in Vietnam who assisted in burning their fellows – which this action was likely intended to emulate in the world press! – his fellow cultist probably did know about (or suspected it) and either actively assisted him, or benignly ignored it and did not try to get him professional help, or discouraged him getting help but encouraged his deepening depression and anger. Which, given liberal psychiatry today, may not have helped at all.
Other sites tracking this individual claim he is an activist, a very liberal lawyer active in the homosexual movement. Loss of power in the US government (from being the center of every group in Washington to being rejected in every one of his lifestyle choices) is near-certainly a trigger.
LewSkannen says:
I think it is time we recognized that this whole AGW cultist belief is becoming more and more dangerous by the day.
Robert W Turner says:
More proof that it’s a cult.
willhaas says:
It was so very sad that he was taken in by all of the hype. But the reality is that the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has not control. There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rational to support the idea the the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. The AGW conjecture depends upon the existence of a radiant greenhouse effect caused by trace gases with LWIR absorption bands. Such a radiant greenhouse effect has not been observed in a real greenhouse, in the Earth’s climate system or anywhere else in the solar system for that mater. The radiant greenhouse effect is nothing but science fiction. Hence the AGW conjecture is nothing but science fiction. The guy was taken in by science fiction and because of it suffered a painful horrible death. His action cannot possible have any effect on climate change.
The message in the bottle could just be a ruse to cover up a murder. Other wise, a suicide, women deciding to not have children to ‘save the planet’ and the Lewandowskis who want to sacrifice others for the cause . The goddess Gaia has some seriously challenged customers.
Brian Adams says:
I’ve said before I wish those preaching supreme sacrifice to save Mother Earth would start by sacrificing themselves, but I never intended to be taken literally. Sheesh.
Killing ourselves to “save the planet” sounds illogical. Even if we manage to do it, Mother Nature and evolution will just raise another species. Next we have cats “destroying the planet”. The difference will be that they won’t give a shit. They will rule as supreme leaders of Earth and destroy anything that opposes them. All this of course pales in comparison to what Mother Nature has herself done.
“What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!” -Charles Darwin
“The planet has been through a lot worse than us; been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate techtonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages – and we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?” – George Carlin
The planet will survive just fine. It’s contradictory how we praise the resilience of life and then complain how fragile it is. Ultimately it’s Mother Nature who will eventually destroy the planet and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
Odd, ain’t it? I searched CNN News’ web site, there is not trace of this story there. I believe the MSM will quash it, as it shines light on several unflattering aspects of the AGW hoax.
It made the local papers
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/charred-body-found-prospect-park-walking-path-article-1.3933598
4TimesAYear says:
Are they sure it was suicide? Activists have a tendency to do this type of thing in front of crowds to gain as much attention as possible.
Leo Smith says:
What a staggering waste of a life, and laid firmly at the door of the alaramists.
Even if he was a green snoflake and a lawyer.
Jimmy Haigh says:
Ironic way to go…
I was reluctant to write on this thread – it is too easy to take a cheap shot, hand out a Darwin Award, etc. Let’s not.
First, condolences to the families and loved ones who grieve at their terrible loss.
Next, a reflection on the needless waste of a life, apparently of a good, decent, if troubled man.
Finally, a comment on false global warming alarmism, the alleged cause of this man’s suicide:
There is NO credible evidence that Earth is warming dangerously due to increasing atmospheric CO2 – NONE!
Those who preach this climate nonsense have largely done so for personal gain – and it is the greatest fraud, in dollar terms, in the history of humanity. We have known this reality for several decades. Richard S. Lindzen of MIT wrote the following, published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, June 11, 2001:
“Science, in the public arena, is commonly used as a source of authority with which to bludgeon political opponents and propagandize uninformed citizens. This is what has been done with both the reports of the IPCC and the NAS. It is a reprehensible practice that corrodes our ability to make rational decisions.”
These global warming lies also kill innocent people – not just the late Mr. David Buckel, but millions more who have died due to the forced imposition of costly green energy schemes that are not green and produce little useful (dispatchable) energy.
We are being governed by scoundrels and imbeciles, and the late Mr. Buckel is just one of their many victims.
Regards to all, Allan
Mike Borgelt says:
Sorry, tap, tap, sympathy meter appears to be stuck on zero.
Then again, “The Songs of Distant Earth” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEfJRXL3kJU
HUMANS, never, ever, give up.
Disturbing but credible scenario, given how foolish all too many people are.
I haven’t read the comments so sorry for the repetition if one. I feel an anger at the lies spouted that has led to this man taking his life. Add on the rules and regulations which are holding back third world countries, the useless biofules that made food more expensive for third world countries. Truly an malign type of person pushing this idiocy.
There must be more to this story than simply depression over AGW.
If anything environmental activists should be delighted with the way everything is moving in their preferred political and economic direction . By contrast it is the sceptics, deprived of a voice in MSM, in political parties and in any of the Parliaments or senates houses in the western world who should be suicidal.
I certainly am after reading some of the comments from the UK Govt recently .
Putting together the information from recent news stories on Paul Homewood’s site, concerning the UK drive to all- electric cars by 2030, and 80% renewables by the same date, with the Govt preference for on- shore wind farms, and knowing that solar contribution in winter months is insignificant, the 34% capacity factor for wind to make up the 230GW required means that 20% of the available non urban land in England and Wales will have to be sacrificed for wind farms and power lines.
Goodbye to the green and pleasant land, to National Parks, Green Belts around cities. And that must happen because there is no opposition to it.
Now that is truly depressing.
What a waste. Climate alarmism seems more dangerous than the actual climate change. Green alarmists should answer for this.
Weird that he used fossil fuels to kill himself. Doesn’t that contribute to climate change he believed in? So, thanks for making it worse for the rest of us, I guess? Maybe i’m going to commit suicide by drinking too much water, thus showing to everyone how water is danger to us all.
Peta of Newark says:
Too many people and they are all= want want want.
If its not money they want, its things that they want you to do, or especially not do.
You have less and less control day by day by day.
e.g. Tony Blair, inside 10 years and while Prime Minister, tripled the size of the UK Statute Book.
Since it was created in 1215, Blair tripled the number of crimes you are able to commit
What Matt Ridley recently wrote about in his piece “The Censorious Society”
It is very stressful. Having all this technology watching you, recording everything you do, everything you say, who you say it to, everywhere you are, when you were there.
And if its not generating automatic fines for trivial offences it’s bombarding you either Doom & Gloom or appeals to buy endless junk junk and more junk.
Assuming suicide, what this guy did became his only way to regain control.
Like my younger brother back in 1987, although of course farmers as he was, along with doctors and veterinarians, are the Top Three groups of people who fall foul of suicide.
Wonder why that is…….
Fortunately, most people have worked out a way to handle the stress.
The use sugar
and booze
and cannabis
and opiates
and… Trash TV
and…..nicotine
and….. (what’s *your* poison? Coffee maybe)
and…… the Government Machine (scientists and doctors) say that that is good.
After all, we NEED glucose for ‘energy’ don’t we?
See all the tax revenue tobacco and booze create
And only folks who were gonna go nuts anyway use cannabis. yeah right
And booze is part of the mythical and wondrous Mediterranean Diet
Age of first stroke— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42871861
Loneliness— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42887932
Opium— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42452733
Sugar— https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-sugar-affects-your-body?
And then is half the world either pre, or actually, diabetic?
—– 2 thirds of Americans are. half of all Europeans and at least half the Chinese.
Look at the stress of managing *that* when you’re diagnosed positive
Is it any wonder that the only real growth industry in the Western World is- Healthcare.
and where was the healthcare system for this guy…..
lewispbuckingham says:
He must have been very anxious and depressed,feeling that his ‘cry’ was not being listened to.
Being intelligent is no defence against suicide, in my area of work it is the intelligent and compassionate that kill themselves, more than the detached intelligent, with proportionate in response compassion.
At least, if one happens to be Christian, my comment to the over compassionate is
‘Even Christ took 40 days off, if its good enough for Christ, it should be good enough for you’.
The fear of climate change, an inevitability however caused, has made some of my acquaintances on the streets over anxious.
When mentally ill and ‘psychically processing information’, particularly the current obsession with climate change, they can become more dysfunctional.
Responses vary from putting solar panels on the roof to blowing up coal fired power stations, from those who can, putting them in a position of ‘control’ of the ‘problem’, so in that sense, rational decisions which are sane.
For the mentally ill and poor there is no easy way out.
The problems are beamed to them , especially by our SBS and ABC carriers on the news, with lots of graphic pictures on other subjects, people being washed away by climate change and gassed babies in Syria with the threat of war, to quote two items on tonight’s SBS news in Australia.
When someone commits suicide we have the obligatory ‘beyond blue’ contact details, as if this solves the underlying problems.
The graphic publicity keeps churning out.
This man was trying all he could to solve the problems he saw.
He gardened and no doubt, defended or prosecuted green ideals.
As such he was true to himself.
However it seems , no one he felt listened.
So he defined his life and himself as a response to what others thought of him.
He felt totally useless and life futile.
My thought and prayers are with him and those who he left behind.
The person who felt she could have just dropped in the day before, and all would be well.
The man who had a great job for him at the gardens that could help, but it never happened.
His mentors and friends who told him he was worthwhile, and he never felt that mattered.
For all of us who are diminished by his death.
This was someone who truly believed that humanity was close to committing suicide as a species. There would have been no way to dissuade him otherwise. He had a moral imperative to follow.
You have a similar issue with abortion – one side believes that not allowing abortion is a fundamental oppression of females, while the other believes that it’s murder of babies.
Similarly in war – one of your soldiers who charges up a hill at a machine-gun post, or falls on a grenade to save a comrade is considered a hero. One of the enemy who does the same is considered a fanatic.
The only way to avoid this strange human failing seems to involve having no morals at all. Like me….
Brian Johnson uk says:
Sad for his family and sad that he won’t helped with his low mental state.
Apparently sudden prayers make God jump……. The reality is we only get one life and he threw his away and left his family in torment and guilt….. undeserved imho. Green policies will not save the Earth but stopping Climate Change grants to money grabbing Warmistas would be good for this Climate Deniers soul…
Sad for his family and sad that he now won’t be helped with his low mental state.
Non Nomen says:
Alarmist scaremongering works, as we can clearly see.
He was a truly brave man, leading by example…
Josephine Pasquarelli says:
Very sad that he felt so desolate. People are losing relatives and lifelong friends over politics and now their lives. He should have known at his age that things run in cycles and he did not need to protest in such an horrid fashion for his voice to be heard. Such a shame!
Gamecock says:
In his protest, he showed the usefulness of fossil fuels.
Wight Mann says:
The really sad thing is that this guy gave up his life to make a statement that will be forgotten by Tuesday….as it should. A wasted gesture.
Jim Heath says:
If there is life after death and he finally learns Global Warming is all a lie, he will be awfully annoyed.
John Garrett says:
This is the tragic but logical and predictable result of the self-hatred preached and proselytized by the irrational logic of the extreme environmentalists.
Well that’s one way to solve an non issue with permanent solution…. What a miserable, small minded man, so wrapped up in his own self importance that he gave no thought to those who would find his stupidly charred remains.
Wow. Just.. wow. You truly think and believe that?
When the pain in that man’s life was so much greater than the pain of setting himself on fire, doesn’t that tell you he was in a truly bad place? He needed professional help. I don’t know why he didn’t seek help, or why none was offered. But he was suffering in a way I can’t comprehend, and he choose this because it represented the least painful solution to his pain.
Let that sink in for a second: Setting himself on fire to burn to death was the least painful path.
I feel sadness for this. For him. For the failures of the mental health system that didn’t – or couldn’t – help. For the people who found his remains. For his family and friends. This is a tragedy. His beliefs and “side of the argument” don’t matter; his pain and suffering did.
Pain killer overdose. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Being executed for mass murder. Hell, shooting yourself in the head would be less painful.
He burned on Earth, he can burn in hell. And no, I feel no desire to feel compassion for someone who would use the force of government to lower my standard of living for false reasons. Useful idiots, while not knowing of the falsity of their knowledge, enable those who do, and still represent a clear and present danger to freedom.
You are making several assumptions, so I will also. When he felt the intense pain of his burning skin and he
could smell his own burning flesh, he could not breath anything but hot air devoid of oxygen, he experienced pain and fear like never before and he realized he had made a mistake.
“For the failures of the mental health system that didn’t – or couldn’t – help.”
What is this “mental health system” you speak of, what is the failure you think it had? Is it supposed to know everyone’s state of mind, and to step in when there is a problem?
A creepy thought.
Why not do it in front of people or recording the event on Facebook live if your suicide is a protest? There is, of course, much more to this than meets the eye.
Just Jenn says:
No sarcasm:
Sad. Very sad. Taking the reasoning that he left at it’s face–a demonstration. But the loss of the life, when he did so much to convince the world of the equal rights of humanity, regardless of “morality”….that’s just a tragedy.
Whatever mental condition, be it anger turned inwards, or ego—the sad part is, he suffered. Horrendously suffered in the manner he chose his death.
arthur4563 says:
I guess it’s sad that anyone can be this stupid – stupid for believing that the Earth is doomed, stupid for believing that his suicide has any meaning (no one thinks suicide is a smart or normal thing to do). Of course, anyone who believes transgenders/gays are normal can probably believe most anything.
“Of course, anyone who believes transgenders/gays are normal can probably believe most anything.”
They too are insane.
JoeD says:
ow, that brought back memories (not the self immolation but the park). I grew up on Prospect Park West, crossed it to go to Ebbets Field to watch the Brooklyn Dodgers play, played baseball there often with my dad and uncles and brothers and later my high school friends, fished and road the peddle boats in the lake, got mugged, another time was beaten up and on another occasion had my life threatened. Starting with college, I became a country boy/man/old man.
When someone who means well does something like this, something that makes no sense to the rest of us, the excuses/reasons for it vary. The real reason is to have an ‘effect’ on “other’, whoever or whatever “other” may be, whether it was the war in Vietnam or the current ideology/cult of CAGWerism.
It is an entirely selfish thing to do, generated by anger turned inward. The “effect” is never what the suicide intended, nor have any of them ever seen the results or the real effects of what they did. It is the most selfish act possible.
The post about cults and how they warp the minds of their followers is on the money and I’m glad I read it. Cults feed on an emptiness in the souls of their targets.
My very real concern is that this may become more widespread, destroying the lives of people who could have done something worthwhile.
Now we will never know what this man could really have done with his life.
Alan Fintz says:
It is always difficult balancing the obligation to honor sacrifices for the greater good, with the need to guard against emulating needless self- immolation for an otherwise worthy cause. Media of all kinds — including social media — have a duty to limit the risk that any self-destructive symbolic act might prompt copy-cat gestures by others. We can, if we act wisely, walk that tightrope, and find ways to honor worthy goals, without encouraging more sensitive souls to deprive us of their essential gifts, in a world and at a time ever-more dominated by the more callous and less caring.
Let’s set examples for practical action on climate, that will make more sad, symbolic self-sacrifices unnecessary.
What is the worthy goal here? To cause billions of humans to die from exposure to the environment and starve to death on low nutrition low density farming?
He has done what we only ask of others, not necessarily to take your own life but to simply practice what you preach. If he so firmly believed in the evil done to the Earth by humans then he rightly removed himself as one of the causes.
stewgreen says:
One of the reasons why such suicide is wrong is that it is SELFISH & BULLYING with emotional blackmail
‘ Do what I say or I’ll smash your face in,
… oh I can’t do that, so I’m going to kill myself ..and that will be a punishment to YOU”
.. We should not give into such bullying
My commiseration to his relatives and friends, it’s pressure from the outside world that can drive people to such flawed logic.
He sent letters out to the NYT, among others:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/nyregion/david-buckel-dead-fire.html
“Pollution ravages our planet, oozing inhabitability via air, soil, water and weather,” he wrote in the email sent to The Times. “Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result — my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”
What delusional, and completely backwards thinking. Fossil fuels have made our lives better, not worse, and pollution is less of a problem now in the US, in large part because of fossil fuels creating a vibrant economy which has the means to do things to reduce real pollution.
Nothing about global warming in that. He seems from that to be a fan of renewable energy for another reason—pollution.
dmacleo says:
largest composting program in the country
well, he’s halfway there to being compost. toss him in the pile now rotate often nothing left in few weeks
Where will the first climate Jonestown tragedy occur? Perhaps Oakland or Berkeley or maybe the NYT building
I don’t want to be insensitive, but this might be the result of the endless headlines of doom and despair on top of someone’s depression.
Fossil fuel, or nuclear powered electricity would have been easier.
I gotta believe there was much more going on with him than just his CAGW beliefs.
Sweet Old Bob says:
IMO this should be taken as a warning . Shows how far some alarmists will go .
A short step away from murder . Beware those who use the ” D ” word …
We can conclude he was genuine, and not one of the climate hucksters. So, tricked by the unprincipled organisers of this fraud, he loses his life for no reason. More blood on their hands.
andrewmharding says:
I think this is very, very sad. He was obviously a tormented soul who took his own life in a particularly distressing and painful way. We should add his death to the other 1000’s, possibly millions caused by the AGW myth. The money spent on foolish tidal projects, windmills etc could have supplied water to those who don’t have water and feeding those who do not have food. The high cost of renewable power and preventing cheap energy from shale gas being exploited has no doubt caused hypothermia in the elderly. Before I am accused of being charitable with other people’s money, that is not the case. If money is thrown away it should at least be thrown to relieve misery not as a vanity project for the Left leaning few based on dodgy “science”.
Greg61 says:
My sympathies will remain only with the 1st responders who were needlessly exposed to this event. They are exposed often enough to crash victims and victims of accidental fires, all of which accumulates through their lifetimes and can result in PTSD, similar to what military vets can suffer from.
Must say that I also suspect something else was going on in his life; maybe a deathly disease or -cancer. He probably thought that if he died [soon] due to a natural cause – or disease, his death would serve no purpose. Instead he decided to make himself a martyr for the big ’cause’ he believed in: to make people stop using fossil fuels.
Of course you all know that in IMHO there really is no man made warming due to the burning of fossil fuels; so, that is the real tragedy in this drama/
Mihaly Malzenicky says:
Unfortunately, according to the state of science, the problem is realistic. The last case in history when science was ignored by politics was Trofeo Gyenyiszovich Lisenko and Stalin’s case. Trump now.
Mihaly
What was ignored in that case in history?
2hotel9 says:
Perhaps they are referring to how Lysenko and Stalin used “science” to starve millions of people to death in the heart of CCCP’s most productive farm region?
This is not the first time an individual has committed suicide because of their angst over ‘the planet’
Usually it is a younger person under age 20 and usually they do it in a less gruesome manner but it is more common than you might think.
One step further: who is at fault for that feeling you rightfully describe as “angst”? We can name some of them easily: Alarmists, the Church of Climate and its High Priests, the IPCC, MSM and these pseudo-scientific contributors and quite a lot more. Be their attitude towards a changing climate right or -presumably- wrong: they managed to frighten and scare him to death. They deserve the IgNoble Prize.
The above alarmist individuals and organizations deserve to be bankrupted in a class action suit by the millions of innocent people who have suffered loss or damage due to their ongoing alarmist activity.
That is a class action suit I would happily sign on to! Even if the money does end up going to the lawyers.Bad language either directly or implied not allowed in WUWT MOD
I think eventually, the real tragedy of this horrific incidence will come about when natural drivers become the accepted reason for this small recent blip and will cause millions to so turn away from all conservatism that pollution will explode. People will come to realize they were duped. So in the end his death will result in the very thing he chose to died for because humanity will become jaded to all environmental voices and live in true destruction.
What an idiot. Good riddance. I have zero sympathy for a fool like this except for his poor relatives/family.
You never know, he might have been tormenting them, trying to get them to live the life gaia demands of them to live.
ROBERT CIRCLE says:
He wanted to protest humanity killing itself with the use of fossil fuels, but what he really did was highlight the insanity of the extreme green movement
Will we ever know the real reason he killed himself? Was he facing imminent bankruptcy? Been diagnosed with some fatal disease? Huge personal scandal of some type? Does anyone really care? It had nothing to do with climate, he would have had far more effect on that by remaining alive.
harkin says:
He sure did
scottmc37 says:
I’ve heard of flaming gays, but this is rediculous
Tom Martin says:
Well, there is his 15 minutes of flame
Just did a little web browsing. Found a tribute article which called him a: Community Composting Giant.
At least two words are now accurate.
It shows how strong the beliefs of some Global Warming believers are……
We really need some kind of assisted-suicide program in this country. That way people at-risk will actually have to get help, which could possibly save them or help them before they do something drastic.
When you are so low you don’t value your own life anymore, it becomes very easy not to value the life of others. That’s why we see so many mass shootings, murder-suicides and suicide by cop in this country.
KLohrn says:
I dont think any government program is a good solution to suicide. Most any that I have seen have the opposite effect in the end.
Robert Kernodle says:
Even the act of committing suicide relied on fossil fuel, and the burning of the body introduced more CO2 into the atmosphere, as well as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, mercury, hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride (HCl), NMVOCs, and other heavy metals (I think).
This noble symbolic sacrifice, thus, is the ultimate hypocrisy.
… alarmism gone wildly awry.
Those polyethylene tarps, though amazingly inexpensive, are also quite useful.
I intend to protest the next ice age, but it won’t do any good.
How would one go about protesting the next ice age ? — by freezing your “ice” off ?
John Harmsworth says:
I see AGW mainly as an economic issue. I can’t help but wonder what might be achieved if the vast sums of money wasted on climate research were instead spent on mental health research to relieve the suffering of tortured souls like this poor man.
Gary Palmgren says:
Everyone wishes events like this would not happen. It can become virtue signaling be commenting how sad this is. I believe a more effective way to minimize suicides is to ignore them. I don’t want other depressed people believing they will get a lot of sympathy for ending it all.
My uncle told a story about his bartender handling a depressed patron. The patron said something about shooting himself and the bartender said, “Wait right here, I have something for you.” He went to the back room, returned, and placed a 30-30 round on the bar saying, “Do it right and use this.” The guy got mad and left in a huff. No sympathy in that bar. The end result was the guy was upset at the derision, but it changed his depression into a little anger and he never did kill himself.
douglasproctor says:
This was a man desperate for meaning, a warrior in his soul searching for a war in which to fight. His gay, transgender and green activism didn’t resolve anything, so his acts became, practically-speaking, meaningless. He wanted to be valuable and valued – ehich is why he didn’t burn himself with others watching – that would have been disreputable.
Or so I interpret.
Without meaning the everyday tedium, struggles and absurdities are overwhelming. Which is why we have friends, family, jobs and religion.
Russ R. says:
When you are invested into a cult experience, it becomes your reason for existence. I was born into a religious cult where it was the only world that I knew. Everyone that I knew and loved was invested 100% into the cult, as far as I knew. If they had reservations, they were always couched into “the perfection of the cult, but the inherent weakness of people” who can’t accept God’s plan for the chosen few.
When you start to see through the cult and realize that your choice is to continue to embrace something you don’t believe, or destroy your relationship with everyone you love, that is when the suicidal thoughts become an everyday occurrence.
If you are fortunate enough to survive the experience, you would not wish it on anyone.
I have never meet this man or know anything about him. But if he really believed in the values his cult stood for, I think he would still be alive. The challenge is the transformation from cult member to independent thinker. And that takes time. And it is a daunting task to watch your world implode, and be able to give it time.
Well said, Russ.
McLovin' says:
Very interesting insight, Russ. Glad you made it out in one piece.
John Bell says:
He should have electrocuted himself with a solar panel, or cook himself with mirrors and the sun.
Here are seven threads about depressed warmists and others on WUWT: I suspect I’ve missed a few, such as links in the SEPP weekly posts.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/07/14/more-depressed-scientists/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/03/good-grief-a-support-group-for-the-climate-faithful/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/01/17/oh-ffs-researchers-explore-psychological-effects-of-climate-change/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/14/climate-activists-final-act-as-they-move-into-the-last-stage-of-grief/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/11/27/five-stages-of-climate-grief/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/05/activists-go-thru-5-stages-of-grief-for-the-climate-change-campaign/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/18/joe-romm-of-climate-progress-exploits-the-death-of-robin-williams-for-climate-propaganda/
Mark - Helsinki says:
Mentally ill activist lawyer
Meigs says:
…Disco inferno…
Was this the first known auto-sacrifice to Gaia on behalf of unchanging climate for progeny?
The Church of Omnipotent Greenhouse In Warming should grant him martyrdom.
JustAnOldGuy says:
Judging from the majority of comments so far this man’s death did little more than further convince those holding the opposite view that the cause he espoused is unsound and dangerously false. I suspect his death will do little to convince those who are unsure to endorse his views. He was preaching to the choir and his sermon was incoherent. What a horrible, wasteful, fatal futility he ended up embracing.
I’ll just come out and say it. This guy wins the Darwin Award for stupidity and it’s one less gene stain in this feasting shit pit known as ecofacism.
Meh, you guys are way too polite.
I’m wondering why this has been printed on a site that prides itself in providing quality arguments and information around climate change? Is it to highlight the sadness of the suicide of a man who clearly believed what he was doing made sense, or to throw a bone to the rabid right who like nothing more than to mock those they don’t agree with? If it is the latter, it is pretty low.
Just as this man cried out to be heard, so are a lot of people on this site.
They see futility of death when the problems confronted by this man were either fixable, treatable inconsequential, or, in actual reality,good.
The parallel between extreme green views and self immolation seen in the desire not to have children, the sense of hopeless self worth that ‘I’ am the cause of the destruction of the planet,the ‘logical’ need to eliminate the ‘I’
, the hope that this sends a ‘message’.
The response is cynicism, sadness, derision and a sense of fatalistic conclusion that the catastrophists are
the engineers of their own delusions.
This cry from the heart of many bloggers has to be recognised,particularly by those who see catastrophe through the lens of every news bulletin, who, themselves are the victims of the narrative.
Compassion is a two edged obligation.
@ Lewis …excellent response!
That phrase, “rabid right” is so popular. Perhaps because its alliteration makes it easy for the lunatic left to remember. “A plague on both your houses,” is quickly becoming my favorite quote.
It really amazes me how members of the left actually believe that they are the compassionate ones.
When it comes to soup kitchens, and offering help to the actual needy, nobody tops conservatives.
Leftists on the other hand believe that voting for the government to steal someone else’s money so that it can be spent on the poor is all they need to do.
As to attacking and murdering those who don’t agree with them. The left has racked up a victim list of over 250 million in just the last 100 years or so.
So you are out there helping the poor are you Mark? Somehow I doubt someone who sees the world so cynically would be the first to feed those in need. Anyway my comment was not about that it was about the motive for posting this. Seems to me it was set up to invite all the frothing green haters to put the boot in. And if you read the comments, it seems to have been successful.
Every program created by Democrats/liberals/progressives to “help” people in need has had the exact opposite effect, holding thousands upon thousands of people in perpetual poverty for decades, destroying the basic family structure of inner city communities and spreading dysfunction and hopelessness, all while actually helping a very tiny percentage of people.
As for pity, this man had the benefits of an excellent education, successful career before the bar and life in an open society in which he could live that life as he chose, and he pissed all that away. All so he could become a martyr for the false religion of Man Caused Globall Warmining. What a putz.
Liberals/progressives want “government” to help people, conservatives want people to help themselves.
ripshin says:
With all due respect, alt-right individuals have very little to do with actual conservatives. And, as someone who lives close to C-ville, and knows someone who was at that protest (on the “wrong” side) I can tell you that the views of that side are mostly foreign to me as a conservative. So…no. Sorry. Holding up that incident as an example of the right is false. Flat out incorrect.
Or it highlights the life quandary he was put in by what thing he thought “made sense.” Perhaps it’s clarion call type warning to others who would follow his path into despair. A sense of despair, no less, that is based off disingenuous sources on the matter. Perhaps this serves as a warning to others that if they’re seriously considering an insane decision of this type, they need to step back and do a serious reassessment.
Old school, he had the decency to not take any innocent victims with him.
philsalmon says:
Rest in peace David.
paqyfelyc says:
Christianity has a taboo against suicide for a reason. And showing off one’s own death for the faith and putting the blame on others is even worse.
Perhaps the realization of how much it sucked trying to live w/o fossil fuels overcame his sensibilities and put him in a “no-win” position as an activist, railing agains the very thing that made like much easier.
A direct quote fro the man himself:
If some (… choose your noun…) decides to burn himself up in a blaze of glory to elicit sympathy from me ….. well, I can view it or respond a couple of different ways.
…..) Why didn’t he just jump from a bridge?
…..) It wasn’t what it is reported to be?
…..) He was an attention seeker to the max?
…..) He felt ‘left out ‘ because no one would grope him?
…..) He found out that he was going to be charged in the Russian Collusion Investigation?
…..) He was told that there were videos of him ‘peeing’ on other men in a bed in Russia in what was called a ‘golden showers’ moment but his ‘pee’ was clear from too much beer and ‘they’ wouldn’t publish it?
….. ) He planned a BBQ with special recipe and main course but no one came or chose to eat? A failed chef or poor planning?
*****) What kind of BS got into this guys head? Who put it there? Are they culpable?
*****) Why should I be pressured to feel sorry for someone I’ve never heard of who does something really stupid or just wants my forced sympathy?
*****) Am I just being pragmatic and presenting some readers to view a different perspective void of emotion and forced PC response? Where is my safe space where I don’t have to read about some grotesque suicide and feel the need to endure a mental torment they have tried to force on me with their actions?
*****) Next time I see someone do something stupid or careless and smash their finger, can I console them by smiling and telling them it will feel much better when it quits hurting?
I also had a meditation moment recently
breadonthewater.co.za/2018/04/16/your-will-be-done-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven/
Perhaps Buckel was already dying of some or other disease and he’d rather wanted to die for an issue that he believed in. The real tragedy in this case is that he sacrificed himself for a cause that is a non issue. There really is no manmade global warming.
sorry, the full link is
http://breadonthewater.co.za/2018/04/16/your-will-be-done-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven/
juandos (@juandtres) says:
To bad Buckel couldn’t talk hundreds of thousand of other tree huggers and root kissers to join him the Buckel Broil-a-thon…
Joel Snider says:
This is the level of insanity greenies have achieved.
Just think what they’d be willing to do to you.
LOL@Klimate Katastrophe Kooks says:
So let’s see… he started out as a lawyer, became radicalized into the CAGW religion and became a gardener… then when he realized that his CAGW religion was BS and the planet was actually experiencing its steepest decline in temperature in recorded history, he self-immolated as means of assuaging his cognitive dissonance brought about by the intrusion of reality upon his skewed little kook world.
He deserves, and should get, no respect from anyone. He was a kook who bought into a lie, then took the ultimate step to avoid reality.
It is one thing to douse yourself in gasoline, quite another to light the match.
Big Oil won: a downright opponent felt an ardent longing to leave this world using one of their most popular products instead of an “ecologically correct” one.
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WIZZ AIR INVITES THOMAS COOK PILOTS TO RECRUITMENT DAYS IN BUDAPEST
Wizz Air, Europe’s fastest growing airline group, today announces it will host a series of recruitment events in Budapest at the end of September and in October for Captains and First Officers previously employed by Thomas Cook Airlines.
Wizz Air is offering Thomas Cook pilots the opportunity to join its crew of more than 1400 pilots. Captains and First Officers are invited to Budapest to learn about career opportunities and the benefits of being a Wizz Air pilot.
The leading low-cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, Wizz Air operates one of the youngest and greenest fleets in Europe, with an average age of 4.7 years. Pilots joining Wizz Air have the opportunity to fly the ultra-modern and efficient Airbus A320 and A321 fleet across Wizz Air’s extensive network of 151 destinations across Europe and beyond.
Wizz Air’s future growth plans to triple its fleet to 300 aircraft by 2026 creates a wealth of opportunities for Captains and First Officers looking for immediate entry, fast career progression, an indefinite contract and a variety of roster patterns.
Those interested to attend the recruitment open days can register at https://ldd.tbe.taleo.net/ldd03/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=WIZZAIR&cws=1&rid=513 and https://ldd.tbe.taleo.net/ldd03/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=WIZZAIR&cws=1&rid=511
WIZZ AIR’S UPCOMING RECRUITMENT DAYS
30 September - 1 October 2019
First Officers
Wizz Air Training Center, Budapest
Andras Rado, Corporate Communications Manager said: “Here at Wizz Air we are very proud of the excellent opportunities, compensation and benefits packages on offer to all members of our flight crew. We would like to invite Thomas Cook pilots to join one of our upcoming recruitment days, to learn more about the opportunities Wizz Air has to offer. We are always on the lookout for extraordinary talent and look forward to welcoming First Officers and Captains to Budapest”.
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