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Army Considering Pass/Fail Option on ACFT for Sergeant Promotions
Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, conduct the Army Combat Fitness Test at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Oct. 2, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Cody Parsons)
Military.com | By Matthew Cox
The U.S. Army may do away with making sergeant promotions dependent on high Army Combat Fitness Test scores and base them on a go/no-go system instead.
Currently, sergeants trying to get promoted to staff sergeant can get 180 promotion points for maxing the Army Physical Fitness Test. Army leaders are considering changing that policy since the new ACFT, which becomes mandatory on Oct. 1, 2020, will be much harder to max.
"Right now, the APFT is extremely weighted on your promotion points -- 180 promotions points. That's a pretty big chunk," Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston told an audience of soldiers at the 2019 Association of the United States Army's annual meeting this week.
"One course of action is ... to make it go or no-go on the ACFT," he said. "That is one of the things we are going to look at."
Related: Men and Women Seeing Different Failure Rates on Army's Gender-Neutral Fitness Test
Maj. Gen. Lonnie Hibbard, who is in charge of overseeing the ACFT as commander of the Army's Center for Initial Military Training, said such a change may make sense since promotions to other ranks already follow a go/no-go system for fitness scores.
"If you look at the officers' and the senior noncommissioned officers' side of it, it's pass/fail," he said. "Either you get 180 points or whatever the points are going to be if you pass, and you get zero points if you can't."
Army leaders are also considering lowering the number of promotion points sergeants can get for ACFT scores and raising points for achievements such as professional military education, Grinston said.
"So, if I go to Ranger School, maybe I get more promotion points," he said. "We are looking at maybe taking that down and then maybe give you more points if you score expert with your rifle because that is soldier lethality."
ACFT program officials are hoping that evaluating test scores from the two diagnostic ACFT tests active soldiers are required to take and the one diagnostic Reserve component soldiers must take in fiscal 2020 will help make these policy decisions, Hibbard said.
"We have got a year until Oct. 1, 2020 -- until those decisions have to be made," he said.
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
Read more: New Army Chief Wants to Let Soldiers Stay Longer at Favorite Duty Stations
Military Headlines Army Army Fitness Fitness Promotions AUSA Conference Association of the United States Army - AUSA
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Black Twitter Calls Out White Celebs Defrauding Colleges So Their Mediocre Kids Can Get Accepted
Yet, let a Black student get into a prestigious school, affirmative action is blamed.
Celebrities That Gave Up Kids For Adoption
Roseanne Barr is one celebrity that gave up her kid for adoption becuase she couldn’t afford to pay the bills…
Ko Show Fitness- Puff Daddy Workout [Video]
Some of your favorite celebrities stay in shape by working out and eating right. Diddy is one that that…
Ray J Reportedly Had A Melt-Down On The…
A recent incident on the set of Celebrity Big Brother proved to be a little too much for the singer.
Mayweather Behind Chris Brown and Soulja Boy Boxing…
Even after Soulja Boy issued an apology to his fans and fellow music colleagues (Chris Brown, Lil Uzi, Quavo)…
Ciara Told Future Never To Speak Her Name…
Ciara and Future have been pretty low-key with their drama over the past couple of months, but the former pair…
Serena Williams, Gabby Douglas And Simone Biles Serve…
The 2016 Rio Olympics may officially be over, but that doesn’t mean that some of your favorite athletes just disappear…
Serena Williams Shows Off Her Dancing Skills
It goes without saying that Serena Williams is one of the greatest female athletes of all-time, but you may be…
Kerry Washington, Shonda Rimes And More Band Together…
The 2016 Democratic National Convention is officially underway and kicked off Monday night with a bang, courtesy of FLOTUS Michelle…
Ava DuVernay Documentary Set To Open New York…
Ava DuVernay continues to prove why she is one of the busiest women in Hollywood these days, as details of…
Celebrities React To The Death Of Philando Castille…
Celebrities React To The Death Of Philando Castile
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Lawsuit says NJ Costco didn’t punish worker’s anti-Semitic rant
Erin Vogt
Costco in Hazlet (Google Maps)
A Middletown man is suing Costco after he says a female store employee launched into an anti-Semitic rant against him while he was shopping at the store in Hazlet where his son also works.
Irwin Wayne Levy filed the civil lawsuit in Monmouth County Superior Court on Monday. It claims religious discrimination and negligent hiring and retention practices, while seeking damages in an unspecified amount.
A warehouse manager and a senior manager at the store also are named as defendants in the suit.
In the complaint, Levy said he was checking out on April 7 when his cashier mentioned to her line assistant that he was the father of their coworker, Justin Levy.
At that point, Levy said a senior manager at the store interrupted the conversation and said, “Oh, I know where he [Justin] gets his good looks from” before also asking “how much of Justin is Jewish?"
Levy said he answered that his son "is half Catholic from his mother and half Jewish from me," to which he said the woman replied, “I don’t think so. He [Justin] has to be more Jewish than that!”
He said he asked whether the comment was meant in a good or bad way, to which the woman responded “In a bad way, of course,” while also saying, “Jews only see things in black and white with no grey area; just like Justin.”
A rep for the Costco Wholesale corporate office said Tuesday of the lawsuit: "Unfortunately, I am not able to provide a comment at this time."
Levy said his son reported the incident to the warehouse manager, who called Irwin Levy two days later and asked about the encounter, while also saying she would get back to him with a resolution.
The lawsuit claims that to date, Costco and its human resources department have failed to act on the complaints of unlawful conduct.
“As alleged in the complaint, while shopping at a Costco store and minding his own business, Mr. Levy was subjected to egregious anti-Semitism and discrimination by a Costco employee,” attorney Christian V. McOmber said. "This type of conduct has no place in a civilized society, let alone in a place of public accommodation. Quite simply, Costco has not taken the matter seriously and has not taken accountability for its own obvious failures and the actions of its employee."
Levy said he no longer feels comfortable shopping at the Hazlet store and now goes to different Costco Wholesale locations that are further from his home, which are inconvenient and more costly in time and travel expenses.
Source: Lawsuit says NJ Costco didn’t punish worker’s anti-Semitic rant
Filed Under: hazlet, middletown, Monmouth County
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New Toys of the Day
Amazon’s private label furniture collections feature variety, reasonable prices & free returns
Alison Barretta
- Apr. 25th 2019 3:21 pm ET
@itsalisonb
From groceries to pet food, Amazon continues to expand its portfolio of private labels. Here, we’ll be taking a look at the its home collections: Ravenna, Rivet, and Stone & Beam. Whether you’re seeking traditional designs, bold colors, or casual comfort, you’ll come across something that suits your tastes at a reasonable price. Head below to learn more about Amazon’s private label furniture brands and what they have to offer.
Amazon’s Ravenna line of furniture and decor is characterized as “classic style made simple.” Majority of its pieces feature neutral colors and understated, traditional designs. Ravenna primarily specializes in living room furniture, but also offers lighting, bar stools, and headboards.
It’s possible to furnish a small living room for around $1,000 if you opt to shop exclusively from this Amazon private label collection. For instance, the plush Darian Oversized Pillow Sofa is $599 and features a hardwood frame with 100% polyester upholstery. Add the Parker Circle Shelf Storage Coffee Table at $129. It has a faux marble top and gold-painted metal frame for an exquisite touch. Finish off the room by providing a platform for your HDTV and other media. The Westly Corner Glass Cabinet Entertainment Stand is $299 and has a hexagon design that should fit nicely in most spaces.
In Amazon’s own words, Rivet “[combines] the best in Mid-century and Industrial Modern design.” If you find the Ravenna line to be too tame for your tastes, then Rivet’s bolder colors and unconventional designs may be up your alley. Rivet features a much wider selection than Ravenna, with items for the living room, home office, and bedroom. You’ll also find decor, lighting, and even bedding and rugs.
Notable from this line, though, is the Rivet Memory Foam Mattress. You can get a queen-size mattress for just $379.50. It’s significantly less than the likes of Casper, Nectar, and other popular bed-in-a-box brands. However, Rivet only features three layers of memory foam as opposed to the four offered by most competitors. Still, if you’ve wanted a way to save on a decent foam mattress beyond just buying a topper, this is certainly one way to do it. Reviews are rolling in, but the Rivet mattress has a respectable 4.3/5 star rating thus far.
Stone & Beam
Stone & Beam embodies a “family-inspired, casual comfort” — think farmhouse chic. It’s more ambitious in its designs than Ravenna, but not as out-there as Rivet. This Amazon private label covers almost every room of the house, as it offers pieces for the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and home office. Rugs, bedding, and decor are available, as well.
Sometimes, all you need to refresh your kitchen is a piece that will add storage and functionality. You’ll find plenty of that within Stone & Beam. For instance, the Decatur Wood Counter Height 55-inch Table costs $350. This is ideal if you either need extra prep space or more seating for guests. (Add a pair of matching barstools for $225.) It also has side storage, which you can use to display cookbooks, plates and glasses, or even decorative pieces. A similar, more industrial-looking table from Pottery Barn will set you back $799. Opting for a more down-home style from Amazon will save you at least $150.
Risks in buying Amazon private label furniture?
Yes, buying furniture online can be a big risk, especially if it’s exclusive to an online retailer. You can’t go to a physical store to experience it in-person first, so you won’t know how it feels when you touch or sit on it until it arrives. (Although maybe that could change someday, given Amazon’s relationship with Kohl’s.)
Fortunately, Amazon has taken that into consideration with return policies and warranties that’ll give buyers peace of mind, especially if they’re planning to spring for a big-ticket item like a sofa or mattress.
All three of Amazon’s private label furniture lines provide free returns in 30 days. Ravenna and Rivet offer 1-year warranties, while Stone & Beam extends its warranty period by another two years. As for the Rivet mattress, a 100-night trial is in place — with a full money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied — along with a 10-year warranty.
Now over to you…
Have you ever bought furniture online…without seeing it up-close first? Would Amazon’s free return policies for its private label brands make you more willing to purchase bigger pieces from those collections? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Read more about Amazon’s private label brands
Amazon’s new Belei skincare line is formulated without sulfates or parabens
Oh Solomo: Our guide to Amazon’s in-house grocery label and how it can save you money
Meet the lesser-known Amazon private label household brands: Presto!, Pinzon, more
Exploring Amazon’s private label grocery brands: Wickedly Prime, AmazonFresh, more
What you need to know about Wag, Amazon’s private label pet food brand
Subscribe to the 9to5Toys YouTube Channel for all of the latest videos, reviews, and more!
You’re reading 9to5Toys — experts digging up all the latest technology and lifestyle deals, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Toys on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out the best Apple deals, our daily podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel
Amazon - the best deals on just about anything from Bluetooth speakers and headphones, to kitchen appliances, groceries, pet supplies and literally everything in between
9to5Toys: New tech/lifestyle product news. Up to the minute reporting on the latest technology and lifestyle product introductions, in-depth reviews and notable consumer price fluctuations and tracking across the US retail market on major products. We cover Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung and other major products and ecosystems.
Alison is an Editor at 9to5Toys. Her specialties include skincare, travel, and items you may find in the Things You Never Knew Existed catalog. When she’s not deal-hunting, she’s practicing martial arts or spending quality time with her cats. Send her tips / wholesome memes at alison@9to5mac.com.
Anker's iPhone-matching power banks, more on sale
Hands-on with the fastest handheld translator [Video]
Exclusive deal: Jeda Model 3 wireless iPhone chargers
LEGO unveils new Disney BrickHeadz
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Faculty at the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics maintain research programs that address a wide array of topics that impact both Virginians and people around the world. Research is conducted in five broad areas: agribusiness, environmental and natural resource economics, food and health economics, international development and trade, and rural and regional development.
Agribusiness, Risk Managment, and Policy
Focusing on tools for business decision making. Topics addressed include rapidly changing technology and consumer preferences, impacts from the production, distribution, marketing, and sales of agricultural goods, and the demand for safe and affordable food.
Darrell Bosch
John Bovay
Julien Cadot
Matthew Holt Olga Isengildina Massa Mary Marchant
Kim Morgan Clinton Neill Ford Ramsey
Shamar Stewart
Environmental and Natural Resources Economics
Focusing on the economic impact of environmental and resource problems. Topics include the interdependence between human economics and natural ecosystems and the sustainable management of resources for future generations.
Darrell Bosch Kevin Boyle Michael Ellerbrock
Klaus Moeltner
Kurt Stephenson Wei Zhang
Focusing on economic determinants of food choices and associated health outcomes with implications for policy design and effectiveness. Topics include policy implications of ignoring time allocation decisions in food choices, evaluation of financial incentives to reduce weight, and cost effectiveness evaluation of nutrition and health education programs.
John Bovay Kevin Boyle Susan Chen
Focusing on economic analysis to improve international development and trade policies through a wide array of topics including methods for measuring poverty and inequality, evaluation of public policies for poverty reduction and economic growth, interactions between environment, health and development, methods for measuring technical change, political economy of trade, imperfect competition and intra-industry trade, and the monetary aspects of international trade.
Jeffrey Alwang Charlotte Emlinger Jason Grant
Chanita Holmes Catherine Larochelle Mary Marchant
Bradford Mills George Norton Shamar Stewart
Focusing on factors and policies affecting economic prospects, poverty, and inequality in rural areas and across regions. Topics include energy insecurity and food insecurity in rural America, the evaluation of the welfare impacts of food stamps on rural households, social assistance program targeting strategies, and the local and regional economic impacts of rural policies and programs.
Jeffrey Alwang Bradford Mills Travis Mountain
George Norton
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2019-20 UEFA Europa League, Group Stage
Arsenal Arsenal ARS
Guimaraes Guimaraes GUIM
Gabriel Martinelli (32')
Nicolas Pépé (80', 90'+2')
Marcus Edwards (8')
Bruno Duarte (36')
Nicolas Pepe curled in a pair of stellar free kicks late in the second half to give Arsenal a 3-2 comeback win over Guimaraes in the Europa League on Thursday night.
The Portuguese Liga club scored inside 10 minutes as Marcus Edwards finished off a swift counter-attack with a nice cutback move and strike to give his team a surprise early lead.
- Europa League group stage: All you need to know
Gabriel Martinelli headed Arsenal level just past the half-hour mark, but Guimaraes were soon back in front after Bruno Duarte buried the rebound from a Davidson shot that came back off the post as the visitors took a 2-1 lead into half-time.
With time running down in the second half, Arsenal found their equaliser from a lovely free kick from Pepe, who came off the bench before curling in a shot from 20 yards out for his second goal since arriving from Lille in the summer.
Pepe then provided the winner from a similar set of circumstances, curling in a nearly identical free kick from the top of the penalty area to beat Miguel Silva again and give the Gunners all three points.
"He can gain confidence from tonight. When he scores it's good for him and the team. He's getting better and he helped us tonight to win this match," said Unai Emery, who sent on Guendouzi and Dani Ceballos at half-time.
"Pepe is a very good player and we believe in him totally. We are very happy for him and us because he has two goals and two set-pieces which are perfect.
"He is improving and tonight he has two goals, which are important for us and for him. We didn't play like we wanted but we showed good spirit. It's a good victory."
Arsenal skipper Hector Bellerin admitted it had been a below-par display.
"There's lots of things we've got to improve as a team. We've got to keep the ball better, that's our trademark," he said. "When you give the ball away it doesn't mean you stop playing like that, it's in our DNA."
The win makes it three from three for Arsenal, who are on nine points from three matches to lead Group F ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Information from Reuters was used in this story.
UEFA Europa League Standings
1 Arsenal 6 +7 11
2 Eintracht Frankfurt 6 -2 9
3 Standard Liege 6 -2 8
4 Guimaraes 6 -3 5
Nicol: Inter are favourites to win the Europa League
Steve Nicol says Inter Milan's Serie A title race with Juventus will help them win the Europa League.
Europa League draw: Man United face Brugge, Arsenal to play Olympiakos
Manchester United were drawn against Belgian side Club Brugge in the Europa League round of 32, while Arsenal will meet Olympiakos.
Diogo Jota 'fantastic' for Wolves vs. Besiktas
Nuno Espirito Santo discusses Diogo Jota's hat trick performance in Wolves' win over Besiktas in the UEL.
Ljungberg lauds Bukayo Saka's Arsenal impact
Freddie Ljungberg heaps praise on "amazing" teenager Bukayo Saka in Arsenal's Europa League draw.
Mason Greenwood and Man United youth take advantage of opportunity Europa League presents them
The Europa League is a reminder of how far Man United have fallen, but it's providing an opportunity for the club's youth to build it back up again.
Solskjaer: Manchester United 'need two or three players' to help attack
"We're looking to strengthen in many positions," said Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said after their Europa League win.
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Important Read: Get more out of your centre pivots
Our remote switching units allow for sending simple on/off commands or more complex data over large distances without the need of laying expensive cable and conduit. These units are used to send information like GPS coordinates, pressure and environmental values. This signal can be tapped by other devices like VSD's and other machinery, if they are within range and when equipped with an AgriSense receiver. We make use of two-way communication in all our TX/RX units.
Range on these units vary depending on the physical terrain. Under ideal conditions signal can be propogated up to 30kms away. With dense bush the range may be reduced to 2kms or less. Through using standalone reapeater units we can extend the range of these systems to whatever the application requires. Our radios transmit no more that 50mW (17dBm) which allows it to be used without the need of licensing.
These units are very cost effective and extremely versatile - a very common use for these units include sending on/off signals to a remotely located water pump, the transmitter receiving logic from a float switch, pressure reading, timer or manual switch.
The radio system pictured here is used to relay the pressures of three seperate centre pivots to the bigger VSD control unit on top. The transmitters run on a synchronised protocol which allows for no data collisions while also ensuring the shortest update time between data packets. This complete system ensure constant minimum end section pressure in a system of three centre pivots.
In the video below we have three pressure transmitters that work in a synchronised fashion. These radio units were fitted onto three separate centre pivots to send pressure values to the VSD that feeds all three. (Sound added for effect - units operate without any sound.)
Contact us for pricing and customised solutions
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CYBF/YBY - Bonnyville Airport
Bonnyville, Canada
Bonnyville Airport, (IATA: YBY, ICAO: CYBF) is located 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) north of Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada.
(Airport Infos by Wikipedia)
Open current view/airport in an external service:
OurAirports.com
Random Airports
This app shows satellite views of random airports. Its aim is to introduce you to the variety of airport structures embedded into the landscape. Parts of the website are heavily inspired by David Schmidt's website chuchichechocha.com.
Click on the satellite image or on the button in the control panel to advance to another randomly selected airport.
Click on the button in the control panel to start auto play mode (every 30 seconds a random airport is loaded); Click on the button to stop the auto play mode.
Click on the button in the control panel to search for a specific airport by ICAO code, IATA code, airport name, or location name.
Click on the button in the control panel to show additional information about the current airport and to open the current view in a variety of external services (e.g. Google Maps).
Click on the button in the control panel to toggle fullscreen mode.
Unlike other mapping websites, it is not possible to change the view by panning it around with the mouse or to change the zoom factor.
Technologies and Data Sources
This app is based on the Google Maps API, which on the one hand provides a powerful programming interface for web-based mapping applications, and on the other hand opens access to high quality satellite imagery for places all over the world.
The backend is realized in Python with the help of the excellent Flask micro framework.
The locations of airports have been imported from the public domain data provided by the aviation enthusiasts at OurAirports.com. The app displays randomly selected airports of the categories 'large_airport','medium_airport' and 'small_airport' for which runway coordinates are available.
Furthermore, the user interface incorporates icons from Font Awesome and fonts from Google Fonts.
This is brought to you by me, Florian Pigorsch. Feel free to contact me via Google+ or mail. The source code of this app can be found at Github.
Random Airports has been featured on several websites including
the AvGeek Weekly Newsletter on 2015/01/16,
the Maps Mania blog on 2015/01/03
Here's a list of 10 random airports:
LIRV - Viterbo Airport
LTBK - Gaziemir Airport
CZNL - Nelson Airport
KGKT/GKT - Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport
CYHF/YHF - Hearst René Fontaine Municipal Airport
C44 - Toutant Airport
KMOR - Moore Murrell Airport
8TE4 - H & F Properties Airport
K0R3 - Abbeville Chris Crusta Memorial Airport
LFCW - Villeneuve-sur-Lot Airport
This app shows satellite views of random airports. Its aim is to introduce you to the variety of airport structures embedded into the landscape.
Click on the satellite image or on to advance to another randomly selected airport.
Click on start 'auto play' mode (every 30 seconds a random airport is loaded).
Click on to search for a specific airport.
Click on to show infos about the current airport.
Click on to toggle fullscreen mode.
Search for airports
You can search for ICAO-codes (4-letter airport codes, e.g. 'KSFO'), IATA-codes (3-letter airport codes, e.g. 'SFO'), airport and location names (e.g. 'San Francisco').
Search queries containing multiple words and/or non-alphanumeric characters may be problematic - try to keep your query simple (e.g. prefer 'Helsinki' to 'Helsinki Airport')!
Here's a list of 10 randomly selected airports:
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1892 Five Dollar Bill Value and Information
1892 $5.00 Five Dollar Bill
The 1892 five dollar bill national currency note was issued between 1882 and 1908.
If your 1892 five dollar note shows the month and date as 1892 then it's the charter date.
That means that the National bank listed in the title was given their Federal charter on that date.
The value of your 1892 five dollar bill is based on the bank that issued the note.
Notes from common banks can be found for a couple hundred dollars.
Notes from scarce banks or desirable states can be worth more than you might think.
Below I have listed all banks that issued 1892 five dollar bills.
If you have a five dollar bill from 1892 and want to know more about it please send me an email
and I will be happy to let you know what you have. If you are interested selling your note I will
give you an honest appraisal and make a serious offer.
Click on the name of a bank to learn more about it. Select a State to Filter on: State CO GA IA ID IL IN KS MA MD ME MN MT ND NE NH NJ NM NY OH OK PA TN TX VA WA WI WV WY
National Bank Name
Note Image
4733 Aspen National Bank, Aspen, Colorado
4716 First National Bank of Creede, Colorado
4776 Smelter National Bank of Durango, Colorado
4691 Fourth National Bank of Columbus, Georgia
4677 Citizens National Bank of Charles City, Iowa
4784 First National Bank of Denison, Iowa
4758 First National Bank of Spirit Lake, Iowa
4745 First National Bank of Woodbine, Iowa
4827 Idaho National Bank of Pocatello, Idaho
4773 First National Bank of Wallace, Idaho
4709 First National Bank of Bushnell, Illinois
4787 Bankers National Bank of Chicago, Illinois
4737 First National Bank of Duquoin, Illinois
4735 Elgin National Bank, Elgin, Illinois
4804 City National Bank of Murphysboro, Illinois
4685 National Exchange National Bank of Anderson, Indiana
4674 Farmers National Bank of Muncie, Indiana
4809 Delaware County National Bank of Muncie, Indiana
4678 First National Bank of North Vernon, Indiana
4800 Farmers National Bank of Shelbyville, Indiana
4688 First National Bank of Vernon, Indiana
4749 Montgomery County National Bank of Cherryvale, Kansas
4742 Farmers National Bank of Salina, Kansas
4703 Park National Bank of Holyoke, Massachusetts
4774 First National Bank of Ipswich, Massachusetts
4753 Traders National Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts
4769 Melrose National Bank, Melrose, Massachusetts
4771 Somerville National Bank, Somerville, Massachusetts
4799 Canton National Bank, Canton, Maryland
4806 Peoples National Bank of Belfast, Maine
4781 Fort Fairfield National Bank, Fort Fairfield, Maine
4727 National Citizens Bank of Mankato, Minnesota
4739 Columbia National Bank, Minneapolis, Minnesota
4807 First National Bank, Princeton, Minnesota
4821 First National Bank of Wadena, Minnesota
4803 Conrad National Bank of Kalispell, Montana
4812 Merchants National Bank, Grand Forks, North Dakota
4820 Crete National Bank of Crete, Nebraska
4793 Peoples National Bank of Claremont, New Hampshire
4740 National Bank of Lakeport, New Hampshire
4693 National Bank of The Commonwealth of Manchester, New Hampshire
4766 East Orange National Bank, East Orange, New Jersey
4724 Second National Bank of Orange, New Jersey
4719 First National Bank of Westfield, New Jersey
4734 First National Bank of Raton, New Mexico
4741 Columbia National Bank of Buffalo, New York
4711 Union National Bank of Schenectady, New York
4772 First National Bank of Cortland, Ohio
4712 New London National Bank, New London, Ohio
4792 Third National Exchange Bank of Sandusky, Ohio
4805 National Bank of Urbana, Ohio
4763 Midland National Bank of Washington C.H., Washington, Ohio
4830 First National Bank of El Reno, Oklahoma
4756 Chickasaw National Bank of Purcell, Oklahoma
4704 First National Bank of Vinita, Oklahoma
4762 First National Bank of Chartiers, Pennsylvania
4730 First National Bank of Duquesne, Pennsylvania
4818 First National Bank of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
4698 First National Bank of Irwin, Pennsylvania
4676 Citizens National Bank of New Castle, Pennsylvania
4832 Philipsburg National Bank, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania
4714 Citizens National Bank of Pottstown, Pennsylvania
4751 First National Bank of Royersford, Pennsylvania
4715 First National Bank of Jonesboro, Tennessee
4710 Amarillo National Bank, Texas
4785 City National Bank of Bowie, Texas
4684 First National Bank of Crockett, Texas
4682 First National Bank of Detroit, Texas
4732 City National Bank of Gatesville, Texas
4743 City National Bank of Norfolk, Virginia
4738 Everett National Bank, Everett, Washington
4796 Puget Sound National Bank of Everett, Washington
4699 First National Bank of Pullman, Washington
4681 First National Bank of Waitsburg, Washington
4680 Superior National Bank of West Superior, Wisconsin
4760 Traders National Bank of Buckhannon, West Virginia
4828 National Bank of Davis, West Virginia
4718 Elkins National Bank, Elkins, West Virginia
4811 Citizens National Bank of Martinsburg, West Virginia
4755 Rock Springs National Bank, Rock Springs, Wyoming
Related Search: 1892 $5.00 Dollar Bill, 1892 $5 Dollar Bill, 1892 $5 Dollar Note, 1892 $5 Note, 1892 $5 Bill,1892 $5 Dollar
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Tag: AT&T Park
APC’s MLB Ballpark Rankings
After touring all 30 MLB ballparks this summer, I get asked almost daily which one was my favorite, and it’s always so difficult to say. I loved them all in one way or another. Even the ones at the bottom of the list had bright spots that I appreciated about them. Even Tampa.
Besides, how am I supposed to pick ONE favorite park? That’s like asking me to pick a favorite fruit or Jeff Goldblum* movie.
How does one compare Fenway Park and PNC Park? Or Safeco Field and Dodger Stadium? Or Marlins Park and US Cellular Field? These pairings have very little in common, but yet they each appear right next to one another on my initial rankings. Do I favor Boston’s history over Pittsburgh’s downtown vista? Do I favor Seattle’ retractable roof over LA’s classic 50’s flare? And how does one even attempt to compare Marlins Park to any other ballpark in the game, let alone perhaps the most basic concrete cookie-cutter park in existence?
Some gorgeous ballparks have terrible teams (San Diego or Colorado, for example) or lousy fans (New York or Los Angeles) while some really ugly ballparks field a championship contending team and have great fans (Oakland, for example).
It’s not an easy ranking to do, and the “right” answer isn’t immediately clear.
What was clear was that I was going to need to put together some sort of algorithm in order to effectively rank these ballparks. I needed to land on some systematic approach to ranking various categories from 1-30 and assign point values for each. I was also going to need to give certain categories more weight than others.
This is still all completely subjective, but it gives me a little bit more to lean on besides a purely arbitrary ranking. Here are the initial 5 categories that I’ve utilized to rank. I should add that this is NOT my “official” list – just a first attempt mock up. Here we go…
Ballpark Design (BD): 65% – This category should obviously hold the most weight, so I’ve given it nearly 2/3 of the score. This category includes architecture, views, features, and history. If you push me hard enough, I may pull out the history and re-rank with that as a separate category. We’ll see.
Surrounding Area (SA): 15% – If I learned one thing about ballparks this summer it’s this: the best ballparks are usually downtown, and they’re usually surrounded by some spectacular spots to hang out and grab some local food and a beer before or after the game. If it’s nothing but parking lot – the experience isn’t nearly as great. This category also includes transportation to and from the ballpark.
Gameplay (GP): 10% – I also acknowledge that my rankings are going to be based primarily on how much fun the single game I attended was. Rather than try to ignore this and eliminate the bias, I’m choosing to include it in my rankings. It’s not a significant percentage, but it’s enough to bump Oakland as high as #26.
Fan Rank (FR): 8% – Every city has diehard fans, but not all of them enhance the experience at the ballpark. This is probably the category that will get me the most flack.
Beer Rank (BR): 2% – The Washington Post did a survey on which ballparks had the best micro-brewery beer selection and ranked them 1-30. I haven’t tweaked these numbers at all, they’re directly from the article linked above. I’m not sure if 2% was enough to influence any one ballpark over another, but it’s a crucial part of the stadium experience.
I need to probably add a history, city, and food category, but this will suffice for now. Let me know what other ideas you have. For now, here’s what I ended up with for my initial results. First place received 30 points in each category. Last place received 1 point. I’ve broken it down into 7 tiers…
Tier 7: I Don’t Care If I Ever Get Back
30. Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay Rays – 2.55 (BD 1, SA 8, FR 2, GP 4, BR 7)
The only thing I liked about Tampa was the old man I kept score with during the last two innings who kept dropping f-bombs. He’s the only reason they didn’t finish dead last in Fan Rank.
29. Globe Life Park at Arlington, Texas Rangers – 3.91 (BD 3, SA 6, GP 1, FR 9, BR 12)
Freezing cold game. Rangers got pounded. No views. Like playing ball in an ugly castle courtyard.
28. Marlins Park, Miami Marlins – 5.97 (BD 6, SA 7, GP 3, FR 7, BR 8)
Modern design, unlike any others, but it just didn’t feel like baseball. The game was so boring that I left my seat to go find a TV with the K-State/Auburn game on it.
Tier 6: The Bronx Bummers
27. US Cellular Field, Chicago White Sox – 7.25 (BD 4, SA 13, GP 14, FR 11, BR 21)
The last ballpark built in the concrete cookie-cutter era of park design. Very basic and unexciting. Good beer selection though and you can’t beat the L train dropping you off right by the park.
26. O.Co Coliseum, Oakland Athletics – 7.33 (BD 2, SA, 3, GP 30, FR 29, BR 13)
One of the ugliest ballparks in the game, and the only one that can really give The Trop a run for its money. This was the best game on the tour though – walk off double and on field fireworks after the game. Impressive tailgating and dedicated fans too.
25. Angels Stadium, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – 8.28 (BD 11, SA 1, GP 2, FR 6, BR 15)
Right around the corner from Disneyland, this ballpark felt like an amusement park. Took 2 hours to drive there in LA traffic. The parking lots surrounding it aren’t lit well at all. All that, and they got torched by the Athletics.
24. Yankee Stadium, New York Yankees – 9.27 (BD 7, SA 20, GP 13, FR 5, BR 1)
Impressive? Sure. The monuments and history are certainly something. Otherwise, Yankees Stadium wasn’t all I had expected it to be. It’s too big for baseball. Big fan of the neverending popcorn bucket. Worst beer selection in baseball.
Tier 5: The Forgettables
23. Chase Field, Arizona Diamondbacks – 10.21 (BD 9, SA 18, GP 5, FR 14, BR 2)
Cavernous interior space. Swimming pool beyond centerfield. Downtown Phoenix is pretty cool, and the fans seem pretty committed for such a young franchise. This might rank higher if the roof was open.
22. Nationals Park, Washington Natinoals – 10.75 (BD 8, SA 15, GP 19, FR 13, BR 18)
Humid. Woof. Fans were making up new chants – even if those chants were basically the J-E-T-S chant with 50% different letters. Stephen Strasburg pitched a gem while I was there. Is there a time of year when D.C. isn’t ultra sweaty?
21. Progressive Field, Cleveland Indians – 10.91 (BD 5, SA 26, GP 16, FR 20, BR 28)
Awkward interior dimensions, distinct 90s ballpark vibe, and not in a good way. Passionate fans. Downtown Cleveland is super cool.
20. Rogers Centre, Toronto Blue Jays – 11.36 (BD 10, SA 16, GP 17, FR 8, BR 6)
Toronto is basically Canadian Chicago, and that’s a good thing. Another “wish the roof had been open” ballpark. This game was in the middle of the pennant race against Seattle, so it was extra rewarding to watch the Jays pile on the runs.
19. Comerica Park, Detroit Tigers – 13.08 (BD 13, SA 9, GP 15, FR 16, BR 25)
Conflicting game watching the Tigers win and move one step closer to clinching the AL Central over the Royals. Downtown Detriot is not great, but Comerica itself was a very nice space. Curmudgeony upper deck vendors too.
18. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Phillies – 13.46 (BD 14, SA 4, GP 24, FR 12, BR 20)
Awesome game. Fourteen inning Chase Utley walkoff. Beautiful ballpark. Delicious hot dog. Ivy covered batters eye was my favorite part.
Tier 4: Middle of the Packers
17. Turner Field, Atlanta Braves – 14.80 (BD 15, SA 11, GP 18, FR 19, BR 4)
How do you not love Hammerin’ Hank Aaron? Turner Field is on the way out, not sure why they need to do away with it. Also, they have a Waffle House out in left field. Overall, Atlanta was extra average.
16. Citi Field, New York Mets – 14.82 (BD 16, SA 12, GP 11, FR 15, BR 16)
AKA Not Ebbets Field. It’s a great ballpark, can’t beat taking the subway to the game. Felt generic. More stuff about the Brooklyn Dodgers than the Mets though.
15. Minute Maid Park, Houston Astros – 15.35 (BD 19, SA 10, GP 6, FR 10, BR 5)
Gorgeous ballpark. Roof was open. I stood with two of my best friends beyond the outfield wall and celebrated the Royals winning on the road. Yordano and Lorenzo both wore #42 on Jackie Robinson Day.
14. Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati Reds – 15.79 (BD 12, SA 21, GP 21, FR 27, BR 29)
Opening Day festivities skyrocket this ballpark very high on the list. Great fans lined the streets for the parade. Cardinals spoiled the game 1-0 for the Redlegs.
Tier 3: The Butter Fans
13. Coors Field, Colorado Rockies – 16.13 (BD 17, SA 22, GP 12, FR 3, BR 17)
Sat 600 feet from home plate with my youth group. Gorgeous views of the mountains. Unfortunately, the fans don’t care much about baseball, they just like being outside on a beautiful night in the city. Fair enough.
12. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers – 17.36 (BD 24, SA 2, GP 9, FR 1, BR 24)
Fans arrive late and leave early to beat traffic. Can’t blame them, LA traffic is rough. Otherwise this ballpark is easily in the top 10, borderline top 5. Also, Vin Scully is the best.
11. Safeco Field, Seattle Mariners – 18.12 (BD 21, SA 19, GP 7 FR 4, BR 30)
See: Houston and Colorado. (Except Seattle is perhaps the most gorgeous city on the planet.) And, like these other two, she’s a beautiful ballpark…butter fans…
Tier 2: Great Venues and Great Fans
10. Target Field, Minnesota Twins – 19.74 (BD 18, SA 24, GP 20, FR 25, BR 22)
That limestone is terrific. Minnie and Paul shaking hands out in centerfield symbolizes a city united over baseball. Twins fans are baseball fans and a quality bunch. Downtown Minneapolis is legit too.
9. Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals – 20.31 (BD 20, SA 17, GP 27, FR 23, BR 11)
Best Fans in Baseball? Eh, but 8th place ain’t bad. Love this ballpark, brick everywhere, arch out beyond centerfield. Opening Day at Busch was rainy, but still a victory.
8. Miller Park, Milwaukee Brewers – 20.90 (BD 22, SA 14, GP 22, FR 24, BR 19)
The ballpark is a retractable roof but all throwback Fenway Green in color. Best old school logo in baseball. Quality fans. Delicious Bloody Mary’s.
7. Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City Royals – 21.24 (BD 25, SA 5, GP 26, FR 18, BR 10)
This might look like a homer pick, but it’s not. Very underrated ballpark. If it was downtown it’d be right at the top. Was there from Opening Day to Game 7. Home sweet home.
6. PETCO Park, San Diego Padres – 21.77 (BD 23, SA 28, GP 8, FR 17, BR 23)
The green space beyond centerfield is the most unique space around the league. Repurposed Western Metal Supply Co. Building is beautiful. Too bad the game was awful.
Tier 1: Heaven on Earth
5. PNC Park, Pittsburgh Pirates – 26.03 (BD 26, SA 27, GP 23, FR 28, BR 27)
Incredible view of downtown. Right on the water. Clemente. Mazeroski, Stargell. Wagner. Yellow bridges. Yellow everything. Completely packed. Last home game of the year.
4. Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox – 26.26 (BD 27, SA 29, GP 25, FR 21, BR 9)
Hard to believe that three ballparks beat out Fenway. The oldest ballpark still standing. The Green Monster is gorgeous and Yawkey Way is probably the greatest baseball stroll in America.
3. Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs – 26.84 (BD 30, SA 30, GP 10, FR 22, BR 4)
Wrigleyville, man – 100 year anniversary season of “The Friendly Confines.” #1 ballpark, #1 surroundings. Only thing the North Side lacks is a winning team, and it’s been a long long time. Maybe Joe Maddon is the difference…
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco Giants – 27.21 (BD 28, SA 25, GP 29, FR 26, BR 14)
The Bay Area treated me well. Oakland and San Francisco were the two best games I saw. Won a $50 Levi’s gift card when rookie Tyler Colvin launched a homer into McCovey Cove. If you go to AT&T Park, I highly recommend the Arcade seats.
1. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles – 28.02 (BD 29, SA 23, GP 28, FR 30, BR 26)
Congratulations, Orioles fans. You’ve made it big. The ballpark that changed the architecture game. Since 1992 retro parks have been the name of design game. B&O Railroad building is the perfect homerun target that no one has ever hit outside of Ken Griffey Jr. in the All Star Game. Down to the open air press box, every single cranny is modelled after ballparks from the past.
There you go. Feel free to tell me where I got it right but more likely where I got it wrong. Again, this is just my first stab at these rankings, you never know how things might change between now and my book release.
-apc.
* – Okay, obviously Independence Day is the right answer. Jurassic Park is a distant second. Maybe Tom Hanks would’ve been a better option here.
Author Adam PaulPosted on November 4, 2014 April 2, 2017 Categories Ballpark Tour, BaseballTags AT&T Park, atmosphere, ballparks, ballparktour2014, Baseball, beer, camden yards, cubs, fans, fenway, giants, kauffman stadium, orioles, pirates, pnc park, red sox, Royals, wrigley3 Comments on APC’s MLB Ballpark Rankings
Game 12: AT&T Park, San Francisco
Something I’ve learned in this life of traveling, ballpark touring, scorekeeping and next-day blog posting: it’s hard work. Harder than I anticipated. Especially when trying to balance it with full time youth ministry and seminary work.
So forgive me for the delay on this post. I’ve been itching to get to it because AT&T Park was such a terrific host.
I spent last weekend in Los Angeles, Seattle and Oakland. San Francisco was my last stop on the West Coast Tour, and it did not disappoint.
Five hours before game time, I was on the field.
My publisher, The House Studio, arranged for me to meet up with Jeremy Affeldt, Giants relief pitcher and all around stud, at the ballpark that afternoon. Jeremy is a two-time World Series champ in 2010 and 2012, and was Setup Man of the Year in 2009. He also wrote a book called “To Stir a Movement: Life, Justice and Major League Baseball” last year. Told you. Stud.
We talked about his journey as a Christian in the MLB – struggles, failures, calling, morality, mission – and it was so awesome to hear him share his experience of God as a professional ballplayer.
I’ll mention part of our convo in this post, but you can read the whole interview with him here.
While I was hanging with Jeremy in the seats behind the Giants dugout, I couldn’t help but glance around as other players arrived at the ballpark.
Tim Lincecum, the Giants starter Monday night, came walking in sporting a yellow and purple Washington Huskies cap, which paired up nicely with his gorgeous mustache. Buster Posey had the night off, so he was out on the outfield grass playing with his little son. Sergio Romo rode in on a custom scooter.
I was borderline freaking out, but I tried to keep calm in front of Jeremy. It was just another day at the office for these guys. Yeah, killer office, man.
Affeldt told me the view from the seats we were sitting in was the most Instagrammed photo of 2013: the Coke bottle and glove beyond the left field wall. I told him that photo has been my Facebook banner photo for the past two years. I was trying to brag because I put it up in 2011 before it was cool. I think I ended up just sounding lame.
It is beautiful though. AT&T Park is situated just south of the Bay Bridge on the west side of the San Francisco Bay on “McCovey Cove” after the former Giants slugger – although, I suspect that it wasn’t called that before the ballpark was built in 2002. The seats in right field are only three rows deep, so occasionally a ball will leave the park entirely and land with a splash in the Cove.
There have been 65* splash homers since 2002. Thirty-five were hit by Barry Bonds. Which means there have been 30 splashes over 12+ seasons. Which means, ignoring Bonds, it happens about 2-3 times a year. So it’s relatively rare. Nevertheless, you can always count on a handful of kayakers parked in the Cove hoping for a souvenir.
* – As of Monday night. Brandon Crawford hit one two days later to make it 66 splashes.
Our seats were in the front row of The Arcade, which is what they call the 3 rows in right field – hoping to see a splash on Monday night.
Second inning, two outs, in his first ever MLB at bat as a starter, Tyler Colvin unloaded on a 1-1 pitch. It sailed over our heads – over The Arcade -and splashed in the Cove. Colvin had a game: 2-3 with a triple and a homer.
I watched the replay and took a screen shot of the home run. Hard to see, but there’s where I was sitting.
We actually got to see another splash homer. Braves’ first baseman, Freddie Freeman, poked one out in the 9th, but we weren’t cheering for the Braves, so…
What an incredible experience for Colvin. He’s probably been working to get into the big leagues for a long time, and to have a game – a moment, really – like that in his first MLB start? Amazing.
Jeremy and I were talking before the game about the pressure rookies feel they first come into the league. They’re still seeking permanent work and the financial security it provides. They want to feel like they’ve made it, and often times they – like Affeldt – don’t experience immediate success when they break into the league at a young age.
Now, I don’t know anything about Colvin’s spiritual life, and I’m certainly not claiming this to be true of him at all. I don’t know if he believes in God and feels a calling on his life like Jeremy and I do. But I wonder what happens to a rookie when they experience immediate success. Do they continue to need God? Or do they begin to rely on their own strength instead?
Jeremy had a great quote about this that I didn’t include in yesterday’s interview post: “They don’t need God, and they’ll tell you that. ‘I’ve got money, I’ve got cars, I’ve got women, I’ve got fame – why do I need God?'” Because of his early struggles in the game, Jeremy has a profound perspective on failure as an athlete.
Success doesn’t cause us to grow. Only failure can do that.
And baseball is a game of failures. “It’s who fails the least that does well in this game,” Affeldt told me, “you have to learn to fail…You base your days, or your trust in God, on your wins and losses – your successes or not.”
I admire Jeremy for his pursuit of God in the midst of his struggles as a professional athlete. It is his frustration, struggle, pain and perplexity that have taught him to find his strength in God and not himself.
That’s what was running through my head when Colvin put the Giants on the board in the 2nd. Where do we find our strength – in ourselves, or in the one we created us in his image? Do our actions reflect that understanding? Is it about us, or is it about our Creator?
It’s a question not just for athletes, but for all of us to consider. When I finish this book, and it’s selling millions of copies and is a NY Times Best Seller*, who gets the glory for that success? Is it about me, the creator of this book, or is it about the ultimate Creator – the one who made me, gifted me, and has already written my story within his Story?
Or when this book flops, and the only people reading it are friends and family who are simply humoring me, reading it out of obligation because of their relationship with me, will I look to God to teach me why I’m not experiencing success for all my hard work? Will I allow the Spirit to grow me, give me strength and persevere in my calling as a follower of Christ?
What is it for you? Can you relate? What has been your experience of failure or success? Where does your strength come from?
I lift my eyes to the hills –
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
San Francisco is a good place to talk about hills too. It’s been four days since I left the Bay and my calves are still sore from walking around that city.
Earlier in the day, I was in a cab headed to Pier 39. My driver and I were chatting about the Giants and their season so far. I told him I was excited to see Tim Lincecum pitch that night, but the driver wasn’t so enthusiastic.
“I don’t know what his deal is. He’s not the same guy he was a few years ago.”
I agreed, but tried to keep it positive. “Totally, but you never know. He could turn it around.”
“I hope so. The Freak is still in there,” he responded, “It seems like any day he could be back to his Cy Young ways.”
It turns out Monday was that day.
Because Timmy and his mustache were awesome.
He was absolutely dominant. He went 7.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 11 K. His breaking ball is a slider-curve combo (slurve) that he can control all around the strike zone. It was unhittable on Monday night.
BJ Upton, by some miracle, had 2 hits – a solo homer and a double – but the rest of the Braves lineup was totally miffed by Timmy the Freak.
When I left for the coast, I thought I was going to get to see Aaron Harang pitch for the Braves. Instead, I saw Gavin Floyd, who did his best Harang impression holding the Giants to 1 run through 6 innings – Colvin’s splash being the only mar to his line.
But in the 7th, the Giants put on 4 straight batters.
Hector Sanchez led off with a single. Brandon Crawford reached on a grounder to first that Freddie Freeman couldn’t corral. Colvin ripped a triple scoring both base runners, and then he scored himself on a Brandon Hicks single. Floyd got to pitch to Lincecum, whom he struck out, before getting hooked, and the Atlanta bullpen shut down the Giants’ bats from there.
But the damage was done. 4-1 Giants headed into the 9th.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy had Affeldt warming up for a long time, and closer Sergio Romo was ready too, but he decided to go with Javier Lopez to start the 9th instead to pitch to the lefty Freeman before bringing in Romo to get righties Chris Johnson* and Gerald Laird.
* – Also, how many people do you know named Chris Johnson? I know at least 5.
Lopez promptly gave up a splash HR to Freeman and left the game after 1 batter with a binary line: 0.0 1 1 1 0 0.
But Romo closed it: 4-3, 4-3, and struck out BJ Upton looking to end it.
The Bay Area really treated me right. Oakland and San Francisco have been the two best games I’ve seen so far, and they stopped my home team losing streak at 6. The home team is now 5-7 on my ballpark tour.
Twelve down. Eighteen to go.
Up next: Colorado Rockies.
Author Adam PaulPosted on May 16, 2014 April 2, 2017 Categories Ballpark Tour, BaseballTags AT&T Park, ballparktour2014, Baseball, braves, giants, jeremy affeldt, McCovey Cove, san francisco, tim lincecum2 Comments on Game 12: AT&T Park, San Francisco
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Population Genetics of a Trochid Gastropod Broadens Picture of Caribbean Sea Connectivity
Edgardo Díaz Ferguson, Robert Haney, John Wares & Brian Silliman
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{"title"=>"Cittarium pica", "url"=>"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cittarium_pica", "timestamp"=>"2019-01-17T15:48:14Z"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/413664"], "description"=>"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Regional genetic connectivity models are critical for successful conservation and management of marine species. Even though rocky shore invertebrates have been used as model systems to understand genetic structure in some marine environments, our understanding of connectivity in Caribbean communities is based overwhelmingly on studies of tropical fishes and corals. In this study, we investigate population connectivity and diversity of <em>Cittarium pica</em>, an abundant rocky shore trochid gastropod that is commercially harvested across its natural range, from the Bahamas to Venezuela.</p><h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>We tested for genetic structure using DNA sequence variation at the mitochondrial COI and 16S loci, AMOVA and distance-based methods. We found substantial differentiation among Caribbean sites. Yet, genetic differentiation was associated only with larger geographic scales within the Caribbean, and the pattern of differentiation only partially matched previous assessments of Caribbean connectivity, including those based on larval dispersal from hydrodynamic models. For instance, the Bahamas, considered an independent region by previous hydrodynamic studies, showed strong association with Eastern Caribbean sites in our study. Further, Bonaire (located in the east and close to the meridional division of the Caribbean basin) seems to be isolated from other Eastern sites.</p><h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>The significant genetic structure and observed in <em>C. pica</em> has some commonalities in pattern with more commonly sampled taxa, but presents features, such as the differentiation of Bonaire, that appear unique. Further, the level of differentiation, together with regional patterns of diversity, has important implications for the application of conservation and management strategies in this commercially harvested species.</p></div>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["genetics", "trochid", "gastropod", "broadens", "caribbean", "connectivity"], "article_id"=>141708, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>2, "page_views"=>11, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/Population_Genetics_of_a_Trochid_Gastropod_Broadens_Picture_of_Caribbean_Sea_Connectivity/141708", "title"=>"Population Genetics of a Trochid Gastropod Broadens Picture of Caribbean Sea Connectivity", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>3, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:28:28"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/830937"], "description"=>"<p><b>Note:</b> Groups of sites were defined based on maximization of between groups variation. As three alternative configurations occurred for both loci with similar values of F<sub>ct</sub>, all three are presented in order of descending F<sub>ct</sub>. Columns indicate sources of genetic variation, the amount of variation accounted for by each source expressed as a percentage, and the fixation indices with associated significance levels determined through 1000 permutations of the data.</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["coi"], "article_id"=>501315, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.t003", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>3, "page_views"=>61, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_SAMOVA_results_for_COI_and_16S_/501315", "title"=>"SAMOVA results for COI and 16S.", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>3, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:21:55"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/830980"], "description"=>"<p><b>Note:</b> Columns indicate sources of genetic variation, the amount of variation accounted for by each source expressed as a percentage, and the fixation indices with associated significance levels determined through 1000 permutations of the data.</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["coi", "16s", "caribbean", "connectivity", "regions"], "article_id"=>501346, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.t002", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>0, "page_views"=>0, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_AMOVA_results_for_C_pica_COI_and_16S_for_the_four_Caribbean_connectivity_regions_9_/501346", "title"=>"AMOVA results for <i>C. pica</i> COI and 16S for the four Caribbean connectivity regions [9].", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>3, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:22:26"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/830697"], "description"=>"<p>Region I- <b>Bahamas</b> [<b>BSS:</b> San Salvador Bahamas], Region II- Southwestern <b>SW</b> [<b>CR:</b> Punta Cocles, <b>PC:</b> Playa Chiquita, <b>BO:</b> Bocas del Toro], Region III-Panama central <b>PC</b> [<b>BV:</b> Buenaventura-Colon-Panama], Region IV- Eastern <b>E</b> [<b>BN:</b> Bonaire, <b>USVI:</b>Virgin Islands, <b>WPR</b>: Puerto Rico (Guajataca, Aguadilla and La Parguera)].</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["locations", "regions"], "article_id"=>501071, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.g001", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>0, "page_views"=>0, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_Sampling_locations_and_regions_for_C_pica_in_the_Caribbean_/501071", "title"=>"Sampling locations and regions for <i>C. pica</i> in the Caribbean.", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>1, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:17:51"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/831017"], "description"=>"<p><b>Note:</b> All p-values were determined with 1000 permutations of haplotypes among populations and significance is indicated with one or two asterisks (*p<0.05 and **p<0.01). Values for COI are in the upper triangular matrix and those for 16S are in the lower matrix. Refer to <a href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675#pone-0012675-g001\" target=\"_blank\">Figure 1</a> for locality abbreviations.</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["matrices", "pairwise", "coi", "16s"], "article_id"=>501387, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.t001", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>1, "page_views"=>3, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_Triangular_matrices_of_pairwise_F_st_values_for_COI_and_16S_between_populations_/501387", "title"=>"Triangular matrices of pairwise F<sub>st</sub> values for COI and 16S between populations.", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>3, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:23:07"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/831044"], "description"=>"<p><b>Note:</b> Significant p-values (p<0.05 and p<0.01) are indicated with one or two asterisks, and based on permutation test results.</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["parameters", "regions", "undifferentiated", "nucleotide"], "article_id"=>501418, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.t004", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>5, "page_views"=>6, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_Summary_of_regional_genetic_parameters_for_regions_with_multiple_undifferentiated_populations_including_values_of_nucleotide_diversity_Tajima_s_D_T_and_Fu_s_F_s_/501418", "title"=>"Summary of regional genetic parameters for regions with multiple undifferentiated populations, including values of nucleotide diversity (π), Tajima's D<sub>T</sub> and Fu's F<sub>s</sub>.", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>3, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:23:38"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/830888"], "description"=>"<p><b>*</b> indicates the maximal F<sub>CT</sub> groupings based on the COI and 16S data, while the shaded region delineates the structure expected from hydrodynamic models of larval dispersal in the Caribbean.</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["numbers", "groups", "samova", "coi"], "article_id"=>501253, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.g003", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>1, "page_views"=>3, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_Values_of_F_CT_for_alternative_numbers_of_groups_in_SAMOVA_for_COI_and_16S_/501253", "title"=>"Values of F<sub>CT</sub> for alternative numbers of groups in SAMOVA for COI and 16S.", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>1, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:20:53"}
{"files"=>["https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/830768"], "description"=>"<p>Each haplotype is labeled and represented by a circle and its area is proportional to its relative frequency by location. For a given haplotype, color coding indicates in what proportion it is found at different sites. Numbers correspond to the positions of mutations occurring in the studied COI and 16S fragments. Median vectors (<b>mv</b>) are represented as small red circles. The sequences (haplotypes) by site have GenBank Accession Nos <i>GU726381</i>-<i>GU726460</i> (COI) and <i>GU733509-GU733607</i> (16S).</p>", "links"=>[], "tags"=>["networks", "coi", "16s"], "article_id"=>501139, "categories"=>["Marine Biology"], "users"=>["Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson", "Robert Haney", "John Wares", "Brian Silliman"], "doi"=>"https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012675.g002", "stats"=>{"downloads"=>1, "page_views"=>2, "likes"=>0}, "figshare_url"=>"https://figshare.com/articles/_Median_joining_networks_for_COI_a_and_16S_b_C_pica_haplotypes_/501139", "title"=>"Median-joining networks for COI (a) and 16S (b) <i>C. pica</i> haplotypes.", "pos_in_sequence"=>0, "defined_type"=>1, "published_date"=>"2010-09-10 00:18:59"}
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ALABAMA SCOTTISH RITE FOUNDATION LEARNING CENTERS
Dyslexia in Alabama
Helping Alabama's Children with Dyslexia!
The Mission of the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation is to make a positive difference in the lives of dyslexic children in Alabama by assisting them in achieving their highest potential.
Help Us Today!Helping struggling readers including those with dyslexia is the primary function of the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation. We began providing reading assistance, at no cost, to children at the University of Montevallo in 1978 with the establishment of the Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders. In 2001, we retained the services of Dr. Denise Gibbs, former professor and Director of the Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders, and established the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation Learning Centers.
We provide dyslexia evaluations at no cost to families and we provide webinars for Alabama educators and for parents to increase awareness and understanding of dyslexia. Our professional development webinars target identification and intervention for students with dyslexia and help equip schools in implementation of the Dyslexia Amendments to the Alabama Administrative Code.
The Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation partnered with a wide network of parents, educators and dyslexia advocates to encourage the adoption of the Dyslexia Amendments to the Alabama Administrative Code in 2015. The unanimous adoption of these Dyslexia Amendments by the Alabama State Board of Education on October 8, 2015 marked a new era for children with dyslexia in Alabama public schools.
Our Foundation is in full support of the Alabama Dyslexia Bill of Rights that formed the basis of the Dyslexia Amendments. We believe that all children with dyslexia should be guaranteed their own 3 R’s. Students with dyslexia should be RECOGNiZED through dyslexia-specific screening, should be REACHED through dyslexia-specific intervention delivered in a timely manner, and will then be taught to READ in order achieve their God-given potential.
Dyslexia Checklist for TeachersRequest for Evaluation
A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization
SCOTTISH RITE MASONS OF ALABAMA
Alabama Scottish Rite Learning Center
3810-C Sullivan St.
© 2012 - 2020 Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation | All Rights Reserved
Powered by Webbering
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__label__wiki
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Pretrip and posttrip requirements.
The following are requirements to assure safety and security of the school bus during operation:
(1) Motor fuel shall not be put into the tank while the engine is running or while passengers are on the school bus. School bus drivers, prior to commencement of any trip, shall assure that the school bus has sufficient fuel to prevent the school bus from running out of fuel.
(2) School bus drivers, prior to commencement of any trip, shall assure that the mirrors, windshield and rear window(s) of the school bus are clean.
(3) Prior to commencement of and during any trip, with passengers aboard, every school bus driver shall ensure there are no articles in the following areas that could impede normal movement, visibility, or emergency egress: The service entrance step well; the entire main aisle from front to rear; the aisles or passage ways to any emergency door; the entire shelf area between the rearmost passenger seats and the rear emergency window (if so equipped).
(4) Tools and other miscellaneous articles shall be carried in appropriate compartments. They shall not be carried loose upon the floor or dashboard area of the school bus.
(5) School bus drivers shall be certain that all brakes, lights, stop signs, warning signal lamps, and other safety devices are working properly before starting on any trip and shall assure that the school bus is equipped with a fully stocked first-aid kit, three reflective triangles, a body fluid clean-up kit and a fire extinguisher certified to be in good working order.
(6) School bus drivers shall check the latch, safety lock, and warning system for all emergency exits prior to each trip and no school bus shall be operated with passengers aboard unless all the emergency exits are functioning properly.
(7) At the end of each trip or route segment, the school bus driver shall thoroughly check the school bus to ensure that no students are left on the school bus. Additionally, the school bus driver shall take reasonable action to ensure that any articles left behind by students are safe, secure, and dealt with according to district policy.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 46.61.380. WSR 16-10-114, § 392-145-041, filed 5/4/16, effective 9/1/16; WSR 07-05-058, § 392-145-041, filed 2/20/07, effective 11/1/07.]
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After Controversy, 500px Returns To The App Store
by Brent Dirks
After being pulled from the App Store last week, popular photo-sharing app 500px has made its return with an updated version. The major addition to version 2.0.3 of the app is a “Report This Photo” button for users to flag questionable content. The update also fixes an issue that would redirect a user after logging in and an issue that resulted in partially downloaded photos. Also, the app now carries the designation that content is for users 17 and older because of “frequent/intense sexual content or nudity.” The 500px app is universal for both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. It can be downloaded in the App Store now. Apple yanked the app last week and commented on its removal:
The app was removed from the App Store for featuring pornographic images and material, a clear violation of our guidelines. We also received customer complaints about possible child pornography. We’ve asked the developer to put safeguards in place to prevent pornographic images and material in their app.
But Apple seems to be happy enough with the changes made to the app to allow it back in the store. Another app, Vine, also made unwanted headlines this week when a pornographic video was featured in the app. Apple didn’t pull Vine but did remove it from the store’s Featured section. Our own Bryan Wolfe had an interesting take on the issue, saying yesterday that Apple should ditch its “selective” censorship policies and let the market decide whether apps like Vine should stay in the App Store.
Vine - Make a scene
Vine Labs, Inc.
Opinion: Apple Should Let Their Selective Censorship Policies Die On The Vine
Twitter Launches Vine Video-Sharing Service For iPhone
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| 0.887756
| 0.887756
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The Lords Of Midnight Retro Classic Sequel Doomdark's Revenge Out Now On iOS
by Aldrin Calimlim
If you're a fan of Mike Singleton's retro strategy adventure game, The Lords of Midnight, whether in its early 8-bit home computer versions or in the form of its iOS port, you'll no doubt be delighted to learn that its sequel has been brought to iOS.
Originally released for ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC in 1985, the sequel is called Doomdark's Revenge. It picks up where The Lords of Midnight left off, at the end of which Doomdark the Witchking is defeated. The revenge in the sequel's title refers to the one exacted by Doomdark's daughter, Shareth the Heartstealer, the Empress of the Frozen Empire.
In the words of Mike Singleton himself, delivered at the time of the game's release:
It is many moons now since the Lords of Midnight first appeared out of the soft, wearing gloom. Those of you who took up their challenge and rode with them to battle against the cruel Witchking will need no reminding of that epic struggle. But now a new epic tale unfolds, the story of Doomdark’s Revenge. The game itself involves both quest and warfare, both exploration and careful strategy. You can play on your own or with friends; there are enough different characters at your command for all the family to join in and struggle against Shareth Heartstealer, Empress of the frozen Empire!
While similar in basic mechanics to The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark's Revenge features a more expansive fantasy world with more characters to meet and more locations to explore — in glorious retro graphics, of course.
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 4.3 or later, Doomdark's Revenge is available now in the App Store for $4.99.
Released in December 2012, The Lords of Midnight for iOS is also available in the App Store for $4.99.
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Doomdark's Revenge
Chilli Hugger
The Lords of Midnight
Blowfish Meets Meteor In This New Block-Breaking Game For iPhone
AppAdvice Daily: Let These Games Be Your Valentine
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How Smart Traffic Signals Can Help Meet Emissions Targets
President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord drew global criticism. While the federal government isn’t taking action, nearly 250 cities across the country have joined the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda to uphold the emissions targets and other environmental commitments contained within the Paris agreement.
Cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all emissions in the United States. In fact, each gallon of gas emits nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This makes them a natural target for municipal level action, since cities have little control over power plants and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Cleaner fuels and more fuel-efficient vehicles are certainly helping mitigate the problem, but the average vehicle stays on the road for more than a decade and standard gas models remain the most popular. Cities are being forced to take different approaches to meet their emissions targets—including changes to transportation infrastructure.
In this article, we will look at how smart traffic signals can help cities meet their emissions targets, while simultaneously improving travel—a win-win for everyone.
Traffic congestion is a natural target for cities looking to meet climate action goals. Click To Tweet
Carnegie Mellon’s Study
Carnegie Mellon launched the Scalable Urban TRAffic Control (SURTRAC) project in 2012 as part of its Traffic21 research initiative. Over a nine-month period, nine traffic signals in Pittsburgh were outfitted with technology that collaboratively adapted in real-time to actual traffic conditions, rather than using standard (but arbitrary) preset timers.
The results were remarkable by any measure: Drivers experienced a 40 percent reduction in vehicle wait time and a 26 percent reduction in travel time. Simultaneously, the researchers found that the technology reduced vehicle emissions by about one-fifth (21 percent) by reducing the amount of time that vehicles were idling on the road.
Diagram of SURTRAC’s Functionality – Source: Carnegie Mellon
The SURTRAC system uses a series of video cameras to provide real-time traffic flow information that is analyzed to determine the optimal flow at a given intersection. The schedule is shared with neighboring traffic signals to indicate what’s coming ahead. The cycle repeats every few seconds to maintain optimal traffic flow.
Smart Signal Technologies
Many cities currently use induction loops that are embedded in asphalt. These sensors can detect any vehicles waiting on a side road and trigger green signals across a major artery. The problem is that these sensors cannot differentiate a single vehicle from a traffic jam—much less cyclists, pedestrians or buses.
Download our checklist of strategies to help your city meet its emissions targets.
The SURTRAC system is only one example of how smart traffic control systems can help reduce traffic congestion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using sensors, processors and machine learning software, these smart solutions can determine traffic density and composition to make more informed signal decisions.
In the future, smart signals could interface with connected vehicle technologies to warn cars when lights are about to turn red, or to enable them to find the most efficient routes given patterns of red and green lights. Traffic lights could even become a relic of the past if and when all vehicles are required to connect to traffic infrastructure.
The problem is that many of these technologies remain in a pilot stage, and the costs for commercial solutions can be extremely high. For example, overhauling a complete network of signals could easily run into the tens of millions of dollars. There’s also the added cost of integration, training and maintenance.
Integrating Smart Technology
A good first step is introducing connectivity to your existing traffic signals, generating reliable traffic flow data and remotely updating the signal timers. That way, you can realize the immediate benefits of signal optimization without the high upfront cost of complexity, while still building connectivity for the future.
Don’t forget to download our checklist of strategies to help meet emissions goals.
Our Glance Connected Traffic Cabinet System works with your existing hardware to add a new level of connectivity. By installing a small device in the traffic cabinet, you can remotely access the traffic signal and gain a new level of control. The traffic signal is seamlessly integrated into the wider Glance software system, which converts raw data into actionable reports.
You can generate easy-to-understand reports based on real traffic data and wirelessly update timing plans for your traffic signals. If there’s a power failure, communications failure or other equipment failure, you can instantly send text or email alerts to technicians. And because Glance configures itself automatically, there’s no costly and time-consuming manual configuration necessary.
Beyond Traffic Signals
Smart traffic signals are just one way that cities can meet their emissions goals.
Bicycle commuting is another way to help reach emission goals through transportation changes. While the federal Bicycle Commuter Tax Benefit was phased out in 2018, cities can encourage bicycle commuting by strategically planning out bike lanes and paved trails to key locations.
More recently, e-bikes and e-scooters have become increasingly popular alternative modes of transportation. E-bikes make it easier to commute long distances, while e-scooters provide a valuable last-mile transportation solution that works in conjunction with public transportation.
Glance Smart City Supervisory System – Source: Applied Information
Our Glance Smart City Supervisory System can provide traffic analytics to help make informed decisions about where bike lanes could be least intrusive to motor vehicle traffic. In addition, our Travel Safely App can integrate with smart city technologies to alert cyclists of unsafe drivers.
Many cities have adopted climate goals over the past couple of years. Because vehicles are a primary source of emissions, they’re a natural target for cities looking to reach or exceed those goals. Smart traffic signals represent one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce traffic pollution—and improve the daily lives of the citizens.
Carnegie Mellon’s pilot program demonstrated that smart traffic signals could reduce emissions by upwards of 20 percent, while greatly improving congestion and commute times for citizens. While these solutions are still in an early stage of development, Glance enables cities to easily and cost-effectively introduce connectivity to start making positive changes today.
How Bus Priority Systems Will Improve Ridership & Reliability says:
[…] other vehicles on the road. For instance, rather than reducing cycle lengths at all times, smart intersections can be used to reduce the cycle length only when a bus is approaching, which limits the negative […]
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Checklist of Strategies to Meet Emissions Targets
Use this checklist as a starting point when developing municipal strategies to meet emissions targets.
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Photo: Philip Cutler
Fringe Review: Magnificence
By Barbara Popel on June 17, 2019
by Keir Cutler
55min / PG / Solo / Storytelling
Magnificence is Keir Cutler’s bouquet to his beloved, talented mother, who died in 2011. He says, “Memories fade, while stories endure.” So he tells us the story his mother, May Ebbitt Cutler, published in the mid-1960s, “I Once Knew An Indian Woman”—an award-winning memoir now sadly out of print. In 1973, The New York Times said it was “simplicity and goodness… stunningly exemplified.”
As a 5-year old child in 1961, Cutler begged his mother to read him this memoir every night. He knew it so well that, as he said, “you’re never really sure if you’ve heard the story, or lived it.”
The story takes place on Lac Mercier in the village of Mont-Tremblant in the 1930s. Cutler’s mother and her family, including his Irish-born grandmother, summered in a rented cottage in the village. They were friends with a Mohawk woman who lived with her children nearby. Her name was Madame Dey. Madame Dey was an imposing, supremely capable woman. She supported her family by doing vast amounts of laundry with great precision for the wealthy cottagers, as well as being the local midwife and unofficial nurse.
Mrs. Cutler’s story details an act Mrs. Dey performed during a crisis, when the rest of the village stood aside, not wanted to get involved. You might say they were afflicted with moral cowardice. Mrs. Cutler calls Madame Dey’s act “magnificence,” meaning doing something great for a noble purpose. As it was.
As the 5-year old Cutler absorbed the story of Madame Dey, childish terrors he had been afflicted with receded. He absorbed his mother’s belief that people were kind and generous, like Madame Dey. He internalized his mother’s favourite quote from Alan Ginsberg’s seminal poem, Howl: “We are golden sunflowers inside”.
“Memories fade, whereas stories endure.” Indeed!
Magnificence by Keir Cutler is playing at Arts Court Library (2 Daly Ave) until Sunday June 23, 2019. Tickets cost $12 online (plus a $2 processing fee) and at the door. Visit ottawafringe.com for the schedule and box office info. Read more reviews at apt613.ca/fringe.
Arts Court,
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Doctor Keir Co.,
Keir Cutler,
See new works at SAW Video’s RESOLUTION showcase—01.17.20 at Arts Court Theatre
Cinema, Sights & Sounds
Ottawa Fringe announces the 10th annual undercurrents program—02.05.20 to 02.15.20 at Arts Court
Festivals, Sights & Sounds, Theatre, undercurrents
Gig Pick: The Sorority + Snotty Nose Rez Kids at SAW Gallery—11.23.2019
Music, Sights & Sounds
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Home › Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Birds of Paradise
Daniel Giraud Elliot: Birds of Paradise
Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Birds of Paradise
A Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise
London, by the Author, 1873.
Lithographs with original hand-coloring
'The plates in this work, almost as magnificent as the birds they portray, were the fruits of Elliot's considerable wealth, Wolf's great artistry and both men's profound knowledge and love of birds' (Dance).
Elliot writes of the illustrations: 'The drawings of Mr. Wolf will, I am sure, receive the admirationof those who see them; for, like all that artist's productions, they cannot be surpassed, if equalled, at the present time. Mr. J. Smit has lithographed the drawings with his usual conscientious fidelity, and in his share of the work has left me nothing to desire... In thecolouring of the plates Mr. J.D. White has faithfully followed the originals; and in the difficult portions where it was necessary to produce the metallic hues, he has been very successful'.
Elliot regards 'brightly coloured waving plumes' as a typical characteristic rather than an indispensable feature of this beautiful species which are presented in three sub-families, Paradiseae, containing the typical Birds of Paradise and their allies, Epimachinae, those species 'characterised by long, slender, somewhat curved bills', and Tectonarchinae, 'species that are in the habit of erecting bowers'.The work is dedicated to Alfred Russel Wallace, to whom Elliot expresses his indebtedness 'for nearly all our information regarding the habits ofmany species'.
Daniel Giraud Elliot was born in New York, but later moved to Chicago to serve as Curator of Zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. His great wealth and interest in ornithology enabled the production of a series of sumptuous color-plate books on birds, long after most publishers had turned to smaller formats and cheaper coloring techniques. Elliot commissioned the best bird artists of the day including Joseph Wolf , Josef Smit, and in the case of the Hornbills, the celebrated Keulemans.
Anker 131; Dance, The Art of Natural History, p. 132; Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 95; Nissen IVB 296; Wood p. 331; Zimmer p. 207.
Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Astrapia Nigra
Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Cicinnurus Regius
Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Paradisea Sanguinea
Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Xanthomelus Aureus
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5 January 2020 · 08:00
The Twelve Days of Christmas:
A Christmastide Tale in Twelve Instalments. With Elves.
The Twelfth Day of Christmas
I sprang forward just as the hall door was beginning to close after the last elf had wafted through the opening. I got my foot in the crack, then pushed outward against the heavy steel panel. I was not letting them take Tom from me again. And if I could not free him, then they would have to keep me as well.
Leaving behind me the sound of the confused muttering of the miners waking from their trance, I stepped through the door. As I had half expected, I arrived not in the darkness of the back alley behind the hall, but in the brilliant sunshine of the fake elven spring. I rubbed my eyes, dazzled by the sudden change in light, and it took me a minute to realize where I was.
I stood among the trees at the edge of the supernaturally green meadow, looking at the gleaming white tent pavilion in the middle, where the elf lady sat enthroned on jewel-toned silk cushions. The elf lord stood beside her, and they gazed with disdain at Tom, who was being helplessly dragged towards them, then thrown on his knees before them.
“You think you can win your way back to your world by trickery?” the lady said, her voice like ice shards. “Do not fool yourself, mortal!”
I could barely stand to look at Tom. He knelt at the lady’s feet, his head bowed, his shoulders slumped. Defeated, he raised his hands, clutching at hers, begging for mercy. Silently. He would not speak—could not speak—please, Tom, do not speak!
“He is not worth your time,” the elf lord said contemptuously, clamping his hand on Tom’s shoulder and yanking him back from her. “Take him away. Guards!”
Immediately, a loud thrumming sound began in the forest behind me.
Tum-tu-rum, tum-tada-rum, tum-tum-tum…
In two rows, one from my right, one from my left, they stepped out from between the trees. Two lines of drummers, dressed in guards’ uniforms, like giant stereotypical nutcrackers. Rum-tada-tum, rum-ta-dum—step by step they advanced into the meadow, converging on where Tom was cowering before the icy elf woman.
Drummers!
I raised my phone, ready to shoot. This was it! One more picture, and we had them all.
But there, what was this? My eye scanned down the line of the red-coated nutcracker elves. Two, four, six—wait! Eight, ten. They had done it again. There were only ten.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a motion. A white figure sauntered out from the crowd milling about the meadow, the pinwheel pattern of the rivets on his Elvis suit sparkling. He carried his snare drum under his arm, and he wandered over, falling into step behind the last nutcracker, sleepily tapping on the drum head with his fingers.
Oh! Thank you, Elvis! Now there were … there still weren’t enough. There were only eleven.
In despair, I looked over at Tom. The elf lord had an iron hand on his shoulder, holding him down on his knees. There was no way Tom could pull off the same trick twice, and the elves knew it, too. A wickedly triumphant look travelled between the elf lord and the lady, and she looked down with a sneer at Tom.
I was not going to let those bastards win. Twelve drummers we needed in the picture, and twelve drummers we were going to have.
Right at that moment, Elvis turned his head, and with eyes that were anything but sleepy looked straight at me.
But I didn’t need him to tell me.
In one motion, I jumped to my feet, whirled around with my back to the scene in the meadow, gave my phone a shake to switch the shooting mode to “selfie”, and with my flat hand started rhythmically thumping on my breastbone in time with the drumbeat of the nutcrackers. Just in case that wasn’t enough, I beatboxed for all I was worth, making popping, clicking and drum-rolling noises I’d had no idea were even possible to produce with my tongue and lips. Then I raised my phone up high, lining it up so all the drummers were in the shot, and pushed the button.
There was a shrill scream from the elf lady. I swung around. She staggered back from Tom; the elf lord snatched his hand from his shoulder and veered away. Both of them were shrinking, shrivelling into themselves—all the elves were. The perfect green meadow faded and darkened to a muddy brown, and a roaring sound came from the white silk pavilion, which slowly collapsed in on itself, turning grey and ragged.
Tom sprang to his feet and ran back to me.
“You did it!” he cried. “Come on, quick!”
He grabbed me by the hand, and together we rushed away from the disintegrating meadow.
I threw one more glance over my shoulder. Where the beautiful illusion had been was only mud and chaos; small splotches of light with Dr.-Seussian outlines flitted back and forth across it.
In the middle of it all, a white-suited figure stood, swinging his hips to a tune only he could hear, his gaze turned towards to an invisible, adoring audience. Then once again, he looked up and right at us, gave a farewell wave, then faded away and I could see him no more.
We ran up the hill and rushed through the door of the crumpling hay shed, ducking in a hair’s breadth before the lintel post came crashing down. It just clipped me on the shoulder as it fell.
And then we stood in Whitewell’s dairy barn, surrounded by the sweet smell of cattle and feed and the soft sound of cows rustling and breathing. Behind us was a solid wall, to our right and left a few empty stalls. One of the cows turned her head, looked at us over her black-and-white shoulder, and gave a deep “Mooooh!”
Tom jumped, stared at the cow for a second, then threw back his head and started laughing. He laughed and laughed until tears ran down his face.
I looked at him with a smile. “Care to tell me what’s so funny?” I said when he finally caught his breath.
“Oh,” he said, wiping the tears from his cheeks with the backs of his hand, “nothing much. Just the contrast from that—” he waved his hand in the direction of the barn’s back wall, “—to this.” He gestured at the cattle. “I’ve never been more glad to see a cow in my life!”
Abruptly he pulled me around to face him. “One more thing,” he said, “and I’m not waiting another minute with this.” He dropped to his knee in front of me and reached into his jeans pocket, still holding onto my other hand. “Mac, my darling, will you marry me?” In his fingers was the princess-cut diamond ring that I had last seen on the elf lady’s hand.
My jaw dropped. “Where—how…”
He grinned. “You’d be surprised what a bit of grovelling can do. Puts you right in front of a lady’s fingers. And if she’s a cheat who’s kidnapped you and tricked you into giving her a ring that was meant for someone altogether different, she deserves what she gets. So will you, my one and true love? You’ve brought them all to me: the partridge, the doves, the French hens…”
“… the calling birds, the gold rings, the geese,…”
“…the swans, the milking maids, the dancing ladies…”
“…and the leaping lords.” I concluded. “But the pipers you delivered yourself.”
“Not really. You caught them on screen.” His face was serious. “And the drummers are entirely to your credit.”
“Mine and Eldon’s,” I said, gulping down a lump in my throat. “I’ll never, ever…”
“…forget him? No. We owe him so much,” Tom said. He squirmed on his knee. “But it’s darn uncomfortable down here. So one more time: will you marry me?”
I held out my left hand, the fingers spread. “Get on with it already, Thomas Rimer. Of course I’ll marry you—do you think I’d go through all that trouble for anyone but my true love?”
He slid the ring on my finger then, and stood up to give me a proper kiss.
The barn door creaked open and Celia wandered in, looking lost and defeated, her streaked grey hair hanging limply around her face and her eyes dull. But then she caught sight of Tom and me, and she whipped up her head, electrified.
“Did you see him?” she cried.
I nodded, and a light blazed up in her eyes. “Where? How?”
I turned and pointed behind us, and as I looked I saw a faint outline of a door in the back wall of the barn.
“Thank you!” Celia’s hand closed on my forearm for just a moment, her face shining. She no longer looked her almost seventy years, but in a flash I could see the twenty-year-old she had been. “Thank you!” Then she rushed past me, her brown hair waving like a flag behind her—brown? Had I really seen that?—and she vanished through the door. For an instant, I saw a bright green spring meadow beyond, and then there was only a wall.
The real barn door burst open, and the oldest Whitewell girl came in, talking over her shoulder. “We have to get the cows done first,” she said, “but as soon as we’re done that, we’ll get going on the search. We shouldn’t be more than—” She turned around and saw us, and her jaw dropped. “What the…?”
Several more figures pushed into the barn behind her. There was Mary-Lou right at the front, Gina, Joe Engelhard—and they all stared at us as if they were looking at a pair of ghosts.
Mary-Lou was the first to find her voice. “What the heck are you doing here? And where have you been the last four days?”
Tom and I looked at each other. Four days? So it was January 5th—the Twelve Days of Christmas were over at midnight, over and done with.
“Where have we been?” Tom said, and he started laughing again.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “You’ll find it hard to believe. It starts with a partridge in a pear tree…”
By Xavier Romero-Frias (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Tagged as elves, short story, Twelve Days of Christmas, writing
The Eleventh Day of Christmas
The door at the front of the hall swung open, and in trooped the remaining workers of Lord’s late shift.
“About time,” Herb greeted them as the Morris dancers stopped their whirl. “Did you bring the tin whistles?”
The big bearded guy at the front of the line hoisted a pink tote bag, its delicate colour incongruous against the coal dust that was permanently ground into the skin of his beefy hands. “That’s why we were late. I couldn’t find them; my damn girlfriend packed them all into here.”
“And of course, he couldn’t touch that bag to check inside it,” one of the others said with a smirk, “it might have made him look more girly than he already is.”
A ribald chorus of laughter greeted this sally, and as the tote bag carrier put his burden on the table perhaps a little less gently than he could have I could hear the metallic sound of pipes clattering together.
“All right, let’s do this thing,” said Herb. “Who’s got the music?”
Marty pulled a sheaf of papers out from underneath the boombox. “You do, genius.”
“Well, yeah, uh,” Herb spluttered. Then he tugged on the straps of his overall bib and squared his shoulders. “Of course I do.” He twitched the papers out of Marty’s hand and started handing them out, seemingly at random.
“I’m not playing,” Marty said, his hands raised in protest as Herb shoved a paper at him. “I’m tone deaf, remember?”
“So will the rest of us be after this,” said the tote bag guy. “I don’t know whose damn idea this was in the first place.” It looked like he still hadn’t gotten over the teasing about the pink bag.
“It’s traditional,” said Herb firmly, plunging his hand into the offending bag and coming out with a bouquet of gleaming metal tubes with bright-coloured plastic whistle heads. “Or at least it will be after this year.”
The big guy made a huffing noise, but he pulled a scarlet-headed tin whistle out of Herb’s hands like he was drawing a straw. The little instrument nearly disappeared in his huge hand.
“I still think it’s stupid,” he said.
“Then why’d you order the things from Amazon?” one of the other fellows said. “You were all for it when Herb brought it up the other day.”
“Because he used to play one in marching band back in high school,” Marty said, “and he was damn good at it too, even I could tell. Herb, do you still need the rest of us, or are we through here with the dance?”
Herb threw a cursory glance around the hall. “If you could stick around for a bit, let’s run through the Morris again after this,” he said. “We could use a bit more practice.”
“All right.” Marty grabbed another can of beer from the table and leaned against the wall next to two other soot-covered miners.
Marty was right—the big guy was good. As soon as he put the little flute to his lips, his bad mood seemed to drop off him. His eyes lit up, and a lilting, dancing stream of notes flowed from the whistle. He never even glanced at the sheet of music lying on the table in front of him.
Herb looked at him with his jaw dropped. “Shit, man!” he said when the big guy’s tune stopped. “Why’d you never tell me about this before?”
The guy shrugged, looking embarrassed. “Didn’t think of it,” he mumbled.
Herb raised his eyebrows, then turned to the others. “Okay! Any other closet James Galways in you lot?”
“James Galways?” one of the other guys asked, tossing back another beer.
“Forget it,” Herb said. “Who can play one of these things?” He held out the bundle of whistles with their coloured plastic heads.
I counted. It would have been too much to ask for there to be eleven—wouldn’t it? Two orange, three green, three blue and two black. Ten. My shoulders slumped.
“Come on,” Herb said, shaking the whistles at the miners. The guys looked at each other, then after some shrugging, embarrassed looks, and shoving each other forward—“You do it!” “No, you do it!”—enough of them stepped up to form the whistle band.
The big guy hadn’t been kidding with his quip about going deaf—the squeaky racket most of them produced from the whistles was painful. He winced.
“C’mon, guys!” he yelled over the noise. “This isn’t rocket science!” He waved his scarlet-headed tin whistle at them.
Scarlet? Wait—I had forgotten to count his whistle in the total! My heart suddenly hammered in my ears so hard the sound drowned out the shrieks of the tortured tin whistles. There were eleven! Eleven pipes, and eleven pipers!
Could you call the noise they were making “piping”? Did it count if it wasn’t actual music? I took out my phone, but my hands trembled so much I couldn’t open the camera.
“Shut up!!” the big guy yelled over the din. About half of the guys listened and took their whistles from their mouths, but three or four of them, who had been making serious inroads into the beer before consenting to try the whistles, had now gotten into a contest as to who could produce the most hideous screeching noise from their instrument, and they fell about laughing, shoving each other back and forth between taking blasts on their pipes, crashing into the people standing next to and behind them. One of those was the blackface elf lord, but he seemed completely unfazed by the jolt. In fact, he was staring at the rambunctious miners with a most peculiar look on his face—was he actually egging them on, somehow?
And why was the hall so crowded all of a sudden—where had all those extra people come from?
“SHUT! UP!” tin whistle guy roared, and when that had no effect, he tore the whistle from the lips of the fellow next to him who was producing a particularly earsplitting shriek, and he smashed it over his skull. The crack of the instrument’s plastic head splitting reverberated right through my bones.
No!! Not the eleventh pipe!
I must have cried out, because several of the faces in the hall turned towards me and stared.
And among the stares were the triumphant-looking silver eyes of not only the elf lord, but also the lady.
In fact, I noticed through the haze of my disappointment, the extra crowd in the hall was made up of the beautiful elf people, more of them drifting in ethereally through the open door at the back. Their deadly beauty seemed incongruous among the coal-faced miners, who had been shocked into acquiescence by the big guy’s outburst and were now at least attempting to generate something akin to music with their pipes. Not that it mattered anymore, as there were only ten pipes left, and the elves knew it and were gloating over it.
I slumped to the ground against the kitchen island and buried my head in my arms. A tremendous fatigue washed over me. Was there any hope left to help Tom? True, it was only the tenth day; not time for the pipers anyway… I pulled out my phone to check the time. 11:59 PM. As I looked, the time clicked over to midnight: the eleventh day had begun.
Slowly it penetrated my consciousness that the sound coming from the other side of the serving hatch between the kitchen and the hall was no longer horrific screeching noises—it was music. Lilting, beautiful tunes, like a Celtic dance. I grabbed the edge of the counter, pulled myself up and looked through the serving hatch into the hall.
What I saw surprised a laugh out of me in spite of myself. The burly miners in their sooty overalls and clunky workboots were dancing—dancing in a gentle shuffle, swaying to the tune of their own melodious piping, a transcendent look on their scruffy faces. Behind them, on the other side of their circle, stood the elf lord, his face miraculously no longer black-smeared, conducting their dance with a wave of his slender white hands, a malicious gleam in his eyes.
His waving hands took on a pulsing rhythm, and the miners became a marching pipe band. A-one-two-three, they marched up the hall, turned a right angle at the end, turned again and marched back towards me; another sharp right, ten steps along the short side of the hall—they walked by me right in front of the serving hutch, their eyes glazed with the spell they were under. My fingers twitched to reach through and grab their sleeves, shake them out of their trance, but I knew it was pointless. They swept past me, turned the corner and marched back up the hall to the tune of their own piping.
The elf lord’s face wore an expression of wicked exultation, and the lady and the other elves beside him clapped their hands in a gleeful rhythm, marking time with the marching players.
But suddenly there was another movement in the corner of the hall that went counter to the swaying movement. A shadowy form that looked different from the elves, not ethereally beautiful, but stocky and dark-haired, was weaving its way through the crowd.
Tom! He had made it out, he was here! My heart did a jump in my chest. We had won, he was free!
But—no. There was something wrong. He looked … he looked off. Wrong-coloured, somehow, as if there was weird lighting on him. Yes, that was it—the light that fell on his head and shoulders looked like sunlight on a spring day, not the blue flickering of the fluorescent tubes that lit up the hall. He wasn’t really here—or was he?
And what was he doing?
The marching band of piping miners had reached the far end of the hall again, the elf lord made them do another right turn, and they strode back towards me, skirling all the while. Suddenly Tom ducked around the backs of two elegantly swaying elves. With three more strides he reached the back of the marching line and fell into step with his piping workmates. Was he caught in the spell as well? No, please no…
Then he raised his two hands, cupped them together to form a ball, put them to his lips, and blew into them through his thumbs. Right over the tune of the pipers I could hear the hooting note of his dove call.
Tom himself was being the eleventh piper!
I whipped up my phone and clicked the shutter button.
Suddenly the scene froze. The piping miners stopped dead in their tracks, several of them with their feet half-raised in mid-stride, and the big guy at the head of the line had his eyes closed, obviously caught right as he was blinking.
The elves turned their head and stared at Tom, their silver-eyed glare like icicles.
“What is this?” the elf lady cried out, her gown swirling up around her as if she was generating a furious wind. “How dare he!”
“We will deal with him,” the elf lord said, and at his imperious hand gesture two of the elves jumped forward and grabbed Tom, their sharp nails digging into his arms. “Take him!” the elf lord cried, and the room became a stream of motion as they dragged Tom backwards, past the immobile miners, and he was taken with them as they flowed out the door.
But as he was borne out between the steel door posts, he turned his head, and he gave me a wink.
The Tenth Day of Christmas
I stumbled through the door of the fake hay shed and emerged into cold darkness. Slowly my eyes adjusted, and I blinked. Not only had I gone from a bright spring day back into a winter night, this wasn’t even the inside of the Whitewell’s dairy barn. I stood in the alley behind the community hall in town, having apparently just stepped out of the back door of the second-hand bookstore next to it. The yellow lamp over the doorway lit up the softly drifting snowfall, and now I became aware of the traffic noises from Main Street on the other side of the hall. Not too late in the night then—this town rolls up its sidewalks by 10:00 PM; nobody is out and about past that hour.
As if to prove my point, a vehicle turned in at the end of the alley and came racing towards me—well, maybe not racing, but still moving rather more quickly than is advisable in a dark, snowy back alley. I flattened myself against the hall’s brick wall and gave the driver the stink-eye as he skidded to a halt on the other side of the hall door. He choked off the engine and leaped from the truck, and now I recognized him: it was Marty Wardle, a coworker of Tom’s. It looked like he had just come off his work shift, his hard hat and lamp still on his head and his face smeared with coal dust.
“Hey Mac,” he tossed over his shoulder as he stabbed the code into the security panel, yanked open the hall door and vanished inside. The door spilled a rush of light, warmth and sound into the darkness. I could make out the sound of a fiddle and drums, and over it all the rhythmic jingling of bells and a strange clacking noise, punctuated by shouts. The door slowly swung shut, but I jumped and grabbed the handle before it closed all the way and left me out in the cold. The stale-coffee-and-industrial-dishwasher smell of the hall’s back corridor assaulted my nostrils just as the music broke off abruptly. I side-stepped into the kitchen, walked around its middle island with the cracked purple arborite countertop worn from decades of community events, and peered through the serving hutch into the hall.
A group of men stood in a circle in the middle, all of them dressed just like Marty in hard hats, dirty work overalls and steel-toed boots, their faces sooty with coal dust.
“About time you got here, man,” one of them called out to Marty, who had just joined the group.
Marty shrugged. “Sorry, had to go back and double-check Valve Six.”
There were a few grunts of approval around the circle as Marty reached for a can of beer from a flat on a side table that also held a large silver boom box. I recognized most of these men—Lord’s Mine employees, all of them, as far as I could make out. It was a little hard to tell under all the soot.
“Well, you’re here now, let’s get on with it,” said a stocky guy whose bib overall strained over a belly that has been the final resting place for at least two fried chickens and a case of Molson Canadian per week for as long as I’ve known him. Foreman Herb Downing has no need for artificial padding when he plays Santa Claus for the local elementary school every December.
He stepped over to the boombox, hit a button, and the Celtic fiddle and drums started up again.
“Where’s my stick?” Marty shouted over the music, tossing back the last of his beer and crushing the can in his fist, then chucking it at the blue recycling bin under the table.
Herb gestured into the corner with his own stick, a thick three-foot-long staff of plain wood.
“A-one-and-two-and-” he counted out, his foot stomping the rhythm, setting the bells tied around his ankle jingling.
Marty snatched up his stick and fell into step in the circle.
Stomp, step, stomp, jump—they struck their staffs together, leapt back out of the circle and back in, stomp, step, and a-clack and a-jingle, stomp, step, shout—the Lord’s Mine Morris Men in action, practising for the Twelfth Night parade on Sunday. It was a sight to behold, and as always, I couldn’t help but tap my foot and beat the rhythm of their dance against my thigh.
Tom was supposed to be one of them—why hadn’t they missed him? At the very least, they should be one man short in the routine! But the pattern didn’t look unbalanced. I started counting the spinning bodies. Two, four, five—Marty, Herb… I lost track and had to start over again. How many were there meant to be? It definitely wasn’t the usual six or sets of four—I knew that when the original owner of Lord’s Mine had brought the tradition over from his native England, he couldn’t find the right number of dancers, so they made up their own to go with their idiosyncratic “costume” of just wearing their work clothes with the addition of bells and staffs.
“Whoa!” Herb yelled as the swing of his partner’s staff went wide and glanced off the burly foreman’s hard hat, knocking it askew. “Watch it there, buster!”
The whirling dancer spun away from him with a stomp of his boot, his bells jingling, a smile on his face. It served Herb right; it was probably his own fault he’d been hit in the head. It couldn’t be this elegant, graceful man’s fault; he was easily the best dancer in the lot. I didn’t even begrudge him having taken Tom’s place in the figures.
Two, four, six, Herb, the beautiful dancer—and I’d lost track again, staring at this man. Who was he? I didn’t recognize him under the blackface. And he was wearing blackface, not just the coal dust layer that the others had on, left over from their work shifts. Full, smeared-on blackface. Didn’t he know that wasn’t acceptable anymore? None of the others were made up that heavily. I looked around the circle of dancers and subconsciously kept counting.
Six, seven—a leap and a stomp, a step and a clack—eight, nine—a stomp and a shout, a leap and—ten! There were ten of them! Ten Lord’s men leaping!
As I whipped out my phone, shook it open and clicked the shutter button, the recognition fell into place: the blackface who had usurped Tom’s place was the seductive elf lord. And just as the shock of the realization ran down my spine like in an icy trickle, he looked up and his silver eyes locked with mine.
There was no more sweet, seductive allure in that glance. It had become a dagger-sharp threat.
The Ninth Day of Christmas
I stepped through the door of the barn out into the meadow. Birds were singing; flowers were blooming all around—daisies, buttercups, Indian paintbrush, black-eyed Susans, you name it. There were even blinkin’ butterflies fluttering over it all. All that was missing was a frolicking little baah-lamb. Baah, Humbug!
This was baloney. I looked around, trying to orient myself. Would I be able to get back? The barn door behind me was still there, except from this angle the building looked like a romantically decayed hay shed, overgrown with picturesque ivy. Whatever—so long as I could get back out through it.
Turning around, I saw that the hyper-beautiful meadow in one direction extended to the edge of a supernaturally green forest, in the other rose up to the brow of a gentle hill. I couldn’t see any point in going into the forest—who knew what lurked there; I didn’t trust all this unreal and unseasonal beauty. I set out in the other direction and crested the brow of the little hill. Beyond that the meadow was curving away down a hillside, a path leading down into a lush green valley.
I had only walked for a few hundred metres when around a bend in the path I came on another green field. This one was not a picturesque alpine meadow strewn with wildflowers, but an equally picturesque groomed lawn, velvety-smooth and emerald green. It was surrounded by a low hedge spilling over with rose blossoms; a tent pavilion stood in its centre, gleaming white in the sunshine, with pennants in every colour of the rainbow glittering from its pinnacle. Beautiful people gently strolled about in front of it, the hems of the ladies’ gowns gliding over the grass, the men bending their shapely heads to hear what their companions were saying. I could hear strains of enticing music, and I was overcome with an urge to go over to find out what was creating this unearthly beautiful sound. I had to hear more of it, had to be near it, experience it, be among those beautiful people, be one of them. Walking on a little ways along the rose hedge, I came to a small opening, a gate just wide enough to let me in—as if it had been meant for me.
I stepped through, and was about to hurry towards the pavilion, when my eye fell on a person. A male person, apparently, dark-haired and dressed in dark blue pants and a grey shirt, sitting on the ground beside a little bush to the side of the path. He intently gazed at a little square flat thing in his hands, not longer than the palm of his hand, and periodically stabbed at it with his finger.
I frowned. There was something familiar about him. Where did I know him from? Something stirred in my memory. Wasn’t this the man I had met just recently—the most beautiful man I had ever seen? The man for whose sake I had come to this place, to be with him forever?
I gazed at him, willing him to lift his head, so I could see his mesmerizing silver-grey eyes, could exchange with him the loving glance that was sure to follow when he caught sight of me.
His fingers fumbled, and the square thing dropped from his hand and landed on his foot.
He flinched, snatched the thing up from the ground, and looked up.
His eyes met mine. Not silver-grey, but brown.
We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.
All of a sudden, it was as if someone had turned a fan on the woolly fog that had filled my brain, and I could see in his eyes that it happened to him at the same time. Tom!
We rushed towards each other, but then Tom froze, throwing out his hands in a gesture that stopped me in my tracks. I opened my mouth to speak, but he frantically shook his head, pressing his fingers to his lips to tell me to be silent. He pointed to his left, and I turned my head to look.
From out of the green trees on the edge of the meadow came a procession of the most beautiful ladies I had ever seen. Stately and lithe, grave and merry, clear and mysterious all at once, they twirled and glided over the meadow, their motion in perfect harmony with the strains of the unearthly music that came from the white silk pavilion. A dance of ethereal beauty, performed by the most perfect physical beings I had ever laid eyes on. Nine of these ladies there were, led by one whose white-gold hair floated past her waist, setting off the silvery blue of her gown.
But wait—I had seen her before! I knew this not with the woolly-headed vagueness that had afflicted me when I first caught sight of Tom, but with a razor-sharp clarity that allowed for no mistake. This was the woman that had been in the house on Carson’s Landing—the one who wore the ring that I had been hoping for.
I turned to look at Tom to tell him what I knew, but I saw him staring at the lady, mesmerized. He moved slowly, as if he was in a trance—and then I noticed what he was doing: he was trying to lift the cell phone he was still clutching in his fingers, but his arm moved as if he was dragging it through molasses.
Nine ladies dancing!
I whipped out my own phone, shook the camera open, held it out and pressed the volume button. The shutter clicked—and with the sound, Tom came out of his trance.
His head flew around and he stared at me, then he pulled me down to the ground beside the little bush, out of sight of the dancing ladies.
I drew breath to protest, but he clapped his hand over my mouth.
“Don’t!” he mouthed soundlessly. “Do not speak!”
I nodded just slightly, and he took his hand from my face. Then he mimed zipping shut his lips.
“Oh-kay,” I formed with my lips, nodding and copying his zip-the-lip gesture for good measure.
He gave a quick nod of approval, then his head came up and he froze.
I cautiously sat up and looked over the bush. There, not ten metres away with his back to us, stood the gorgeous man from Engelhard’s.
My eyes widened. Him! The most wonderful man in the world! He was the one I had come here for! My one true love, my—
Something painfully flicked me on the ear. I hissed in a breath, and the pink cotton candy cloud disappeared from my brain. Tom was holding his thumb over the nail of his middle finger, poised to give me another flick on the ear, but at the sight of the glare I directed at him he hurriedly lowered his hand and changed it into a thumbs-up gesture.
I grinned. Then I pointed with my thumb over my shoulder at the people in the middle of the meadow, towards whom the not-really-all-that-gorgeous guy was strolling now. “What are they?” I mouthed at Tom.
He responded the same way. “Elves.”
I frowned at him incredulously, and he nodded.
“E-L-V-E-S,” he spelled out laboriously in finger alphabet.
“Really?” I mouthed.
He nodded, then he raised his finger in an expression of “I just had an idea.” He took his cell phone and pulled up the notepad program.
“Lured me in,” he typed. “Can’t talk out loud, else stuck. Elvis said.”
That had to be a typo; he probably meant “elves”. And why would they tell him that?
Tom saw the expression on my face, and he shook his head.
“No no no!” he mouthed. “Not elves—Elvis!”
He pointed at the name on the phone screen and then into the crowd around the pavilion, and all of a sudden it was perfectly obvious what he meant. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed the man before, he was so different from the ethereal creatures he was standing among. Although he was tall and dark like several of them, he was dressed head to toe in a white jumpsuit with pinwheel patterns made of rivets all over it, holding a snare drum under his arm as if he was in the middle of setting up the stage for a concert. But most importantly, in spite of his outfit, of his enormous sideburns, and of the ostentatious black curl that dipped into his forehead, even in spite of the dreamy expression on his face as he stared at the elven lady who was now gliding into the pavilion, somehow he looked real.
He was real, even if he had not aged a day in forty-eight years. Celia had been right all along.
Tom tugged my sleeve and held out the phone, showing me the message. “What day is it?”
I grabbed the phone from his hand.
“Jan 1,” I typed.
His eyebrows climbed to his forehead and he took the phone back.
“Took me @ xmas eve,” he typed. “Thought it was only xmas day. U sure it’s Jan 1?”
I shrugged. If this place warped time perception so much that he hadn’t felt eight days go by, it could be just about any date now.
Tom’s thumbs were flying over the keyboard.
“12 days of xmas song will get us out,” he typed, “Elvis said.”
I nodded vigorously. I’d known that! I quickly pulled out my phone, booted up the picture gallery and tabbed through the pictures, starting with the partridge in the pear tree.
Tom’s eyes widened. “Yes!” he mouthed, excitedly jabbing his thumbs up into the air.
But when I got to the picture of the eight girls in the barn—or the eight maids a-milking, as it were—my jaw dropped. There was the barn, and the rumps of the cows, and the four girls I had talked to at first—but in the back half of the barn, which wasn’t nearly as big as it had appeared, there were only a few empty cattle stalls, and scattered among them, four weird things. Splotches of light overlaid with shapes that looked like something Dr. Seuss might have drawn while on drugs. Eew, not attractive.
I quickly swiped the picture to the right—and sure enough, the nine ladies dancing over the meadow were just the same: weird creatures laid over light splotches. The background showed as a stark, empty field, with a few bare trees and not much else. I shivered, and Tom put his arm around me, rubbing my shoulder. He looked down at my phone and gave me a questioning look.
I nodded. Yes, those had been the dancing ladies. But hang on—if it was the nine ladies dancing, it had to be the ninth day! I pointed at Tom’s cell phone where I had typed “Jan 1”, shook my head and made a “two” gesture with my fingers.
Tom frowned.
“Time moving too fast,” he typed, “u gotta get out of here or they get u 2.”
I stared at him. I wasn’t leaving without him!
“Can’t leave til you get all 12 days,” he typed and pointed at my phone.
Get them all? How on Earth was I supposed to pull that off?
Tom took me by the shoulders, turned me around and gave me a gentle shove.
“Go,” he mouthed at me, “please!”
He tapped his wrist where his watch would be, if he ever wore one, and twirled his forefinger in a “hurry up” gesture. Time was passing!
A shot of fear skittered down my spine. What if it was already too late? What if the last few days had already come and gone while we were stuck here talking, and I had missed the mark?
#TheTwelveDaysOfChristmas: The Eighth Day
The Eighth Day of Christmas
I was out early again on New Year’s Day. The streets in town were dead—all the stores were closed, of course, and not even Dinah’s Diner had the “Open” sign out. But I didn’t need any of them, anyway; I was headed out of town.
Right at midnight, while I had been sniffling into my lonesome glass of champagne in front of the TV that showed the ball dropping in Times Square, the penny dropped in my mind. For all of last week, I had been waiting for something to turn up, had been half angry with Tom for vanishing as he did, had figured the police would find him. But as the crowd in Times Square in their backwards count to midnight reached zero, it had burst on me with more explosions and sparks than the fireworks: I had to get Tom back. Filing the missing persons report with the police wouldn’t do it—I had to go myself.
I knew it was something to do with that mansion at Carson’s Landing, and the two gorgeous people who had denied seeing him. With that woman who wore the ring that Joe Engelhard had hinted had been bought by Tom. So I was going back out there, and I was going to look, and knock, and ask questions, until I found something.
But I drew another blank. The fancy house was, this time, actually empty. No answer to my knocking and doorbell-ringing, no response to my wandering around the outside, tapping on windows, and even trying to peer in through the glass. Nobody home. Not even the swans were in sight on the lakeshore.
I got back in my car and stared out the window at the lake. Across the inlet, I could see the big barn of Whitewell’s Dairy Farm, where Celia still lived with her brother’s family. They were the nearest neighbours to the Carson place—maybe they knew where the inhabitants of the lakeshore palace had gone off to.
Fifteen minutes later, I pulled up in front of the Whitewell’s big barn. The door stood half open, and I could hear voices and the sound of machinery. I supposed that even on New Year’s Day the animals had to be taken care of on their regular schedule. I got out of the car and stuck my head into the barn. The warm smell of milk and cattle dung met my nose; black-and-white cow rumps lined up side by side to the right and left of the central walkway, stretching what seemed like a long ways into the distance. There was a rhythmic hissing noise, like some pneumatic machinery, and gently the tails of the cows swished back and forth as if keeping time to it.
Down the central aisle of the barn, a young girl and a guy walked towards me, carrying a piece of shiny machinery with hoses hanging off it. Oh, no, the second person was a girl, too—the short hair and baseball cap had me confused for a moment.
She looked at me with her eyebrows raised. “Hey, anything we can do for you?”
“Hi,” I said, “sorry to bug you while you’re working—”
“It’s okay,” she said, “we’re always working. Life of the dairy farmer. The milking has to be done, no matter what.”
“I guess. Well, I was just wondering. I’m looking for someone—my friend Tom. I’m asking around if anyone’s seen him.”
Another short-cropped girl’s head poked around the rear end of a cow just a few stalls down from where I stood.
“Do you mean Tom Rimer?” the girl asked. “Tallish, dark, drives a black 1970 Chevy pickup with purple fenders?”
“Yes!!” I said. “Yes! Have you seen him? Was he here?”
The girl shrugged. “Sorry, haven’t seen him—but his truck’s been parked by the forest road, just the other side of our property line, for about a week. At least I think it’s his truck.”
Of course it was Tom’s truck; it was the only one of its kind in town. It had been in almost mint condition when he bought it a couple years back; it used to belong to Eldon, the guy that disappeared back in ‘71, and it had sat in storage ever since. Finally, a sign of Tom’s whereabouts!
“Oh!” A fourth girl came out from between two cows further down the barn. “Is that whose truck that is? Do you know if he’d consider selling?”
“Em, you need another truck like you need a hole in the head!” the first girl said.
The Em girl pouted. “But I want it, it’s really cute!”
She sounded like a grade school kid with her Barbie doll collection. Now I remembered: the Whitewells had a whole lot of daughters. Four, or five—yes, there was another one, way down the other end of the barn. Oh, six! Yet another one. That was a lot of girls. As far as I knew, they were all adults, and most of them lived away; they must have come home for a holiday visit.
“So, Tom’s truck is here?” I said, excitement making me feel tingly all over. “Do you have any idea where he went from here?”
The first girl shook her head. “Not me,” she said. “Em? Mara? Cally?” The three girls that were closest to my end of the barn shook their heads. “So, sorry, can’t help you,” she said. “If you want to stick around until we’re done the milking, might be able to talk it over then and see what we can do.” She hoisted her shiny machine and turned to the nearest cow rump.
At the far end of the barn, I could see yet another two figures emerging from between the cattle, and they and the last two that had come out looked like they were staring at me. I gave myself a slight shake. Eight girls. Eight girls in a barn, milking the cows.
Surreptitiously, I took out my phone, booted up the camera, and took a picture of the length of the barn.
The girl farthest down the building was waving at me—beckoning me. Did she want to tell me something? Those four at the other end of the barn hadn’t responded to the first girl’s question. Suddenly I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that they knew something. Something about Tom.
I hitched my purse higher on my shoulder and walked down the long aisle of the barn over the squeaky-clean polished cement. Somewhere half-way down, my foot caught on something—for a split second, it felt as if I had walked into an invisible wall.
But I kept going, walking towards the four girls at the far end of the barn. They just stood there. So did their cows—where the ones at the front of the barn vigorously swished their tails and rustled around in their stalls, these ones held perfectly still. In fact, they looked fake, as if they were nothing but movie props—cardboard cutouts.
I looked at the girls as I got closer. They looked familiar. Really familiar. They looked—they looked just like the other four girls in the front section of the barn. Two of them with short blonde hair, one with medium-length brown hair, one with a ponytail under a backwards baseball cap; all of them wearing jeans or overalls and rubber boots. I looked back towards the front section of the barn, and then ahead to the back section. The one was a mirror image of the other.
“What’s going on here?” I could hear slight hysteria in my voice.
“Nothing,” said the girl who was the double of the first girl. “You want to find Tom? We can help you.”
They were giving me the creeps, with their silent, unwavering smiles and the motionless cows between them. Yes, I needed to find Tom, but not with their help!
“No thanks!” I said. “I’ll be leaving now, thank you!”
With a few strides, I reached the barn door and pulled it open.
In front of me was a spring meadow in full bloom.
31 December 2019 · 08:00
#TheTwelveDaysOfChristmas: The Seventh Day
The Seventh Day of Christmas
My work day had never seemed as long as it did on that New Year’s Eve. I snapped at old Ernie Smith when he took so long to decide which antacid he wanted, the 10 or the 20 mg, and had to apologize; and then had to apologize again when I sent a mom with two sneezing, snotty-nosed, whining kids down the wrong aisle in pursuit of cold medicine. Finally, when I realized I had counted out the one hundred tablets of Malvinia Shoemaker’s heart medication in the double-strength dose instead of the single-strength, I threw in the towel.
“Look, Gina,” I said to the pharmacist, “I think I need to call it a day. I can’t think straight; you’ll have to double-check everything I’ve done in the last hour or two. I’m really sorry. Do you mind if I knock off early? I don’t want to accidentally poison anyone.”
Gina looked over the top of her reading glasses down the empty aisles of the drug store. “Go ahead, I think I can hold down the fort. Are you all right?”
“Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Just—well, you know.”
She gave me a sympathetic look. “It’ll be fine,” she said soothingly. “He’ll turn up.”
“I hope so,” I said and rubbed my aching temple.
Gina raised an eyebrow. “You’re not coming down with something, are you?”
I gave a humourless laugh. “I’m not sure.” Was a case of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” a diagnosable condition?
“Well, better get some rest, then. Give the New Year’s Eve parties a miss.”
“Hadn’t planned on going to one, anyway, even if…” I’d wanted to just spend it with Tom, watch the TV broadcast, toast with a glass of champagne… “Thanks, Gina. I’ll see you Thursday.” I hung my white lab coat on the hook behind the door of the staff room and headed out to my car.
As I put the key in the lock, suddenly there was a hand on my arm. I turned my head and looked into Celia Whitewell’s wrinkle-framed brown eyes, her grey hair hanging wildly around her face.
“This is the year,” she said urgently. “Right around now, that’s when they took him. And every twelve years, the portal opens again; that’s when they come back through. I didn’t manage to get to him last time, or the time before, but now, but now… In the twelve days, every twelve years…”
And a hey nonny nonny, I’m sure. Poor woman.
I soothingly patted Celia’s hand, then gently removed her clutch from my sleeve. But she wasn’t even paying attention to me anymore.
“Every twelve years…” she muttered, and she shuffled away towards the big grey structure of the community hall which was even older than she was.
Where to now? I had called everyone I could think of to ask about Tom, but no luck. However, I still had not gone out to Carson’s Landing to track down that lady. Why had I been procrastinating on this so long? It was almost like I was scared to go out there. But the last person I knew had seen Tom before he disappeared was there. I had to do this.
Resolutely I turned the key in the ignition, shifted the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.
Ten minutes later, I turned down the side road off the highway that led to Carson’s Landing. Old Jimbo Carson had lived right at the very end of it, in a small house—more of a cottage, really—that his grandfather had built there in the days of the gold rush.
The building that stood on the site of Jimbo’s little house now was certainly no cottage—I hardly even wanted to call it a house. “Mansion” was more like it, if not “palace”—a very modern one, at least. Three stories tall, it had two floors of wrap-around decks with Plexiglas railings facing the lake, and the roof on the lake side came to a high peak in the centre, with glass, glass and more glass instead of walls.
I parked the car and turned off the ignition, sitting there and staring at the place. It didn’t look like anyone was home inside that glass castle—was there? They were probably out doing New Year’s Eve somewhere. Maybe I should just leave again.
But no! I’d never find Tom if I was chicken. Tom… I gave myself a mental kick in the pants and got out of the car. Suddenly lights flared up inside the building and over the front door, their brightness making me realize that dusk was not far away.
The door opened and a figure stood outlined against the inside lights.
“Hello! Can I help you with anything?” a beautiful baritone called out to me.
Mr. Jewellery Store Guy! Once again I got that strange fluttering in my stomach and a strong sense of vertigo.
“Umm, uh—” Get a grip, Mac! I gave myself a push away from the car and forced my wobbly knees to walk in the direction of the house. “I’m, uh, looking for someone. Uh, my, my…”
“Yes?” He flashed me that thousand-watt smile, and again it seemed to knock the stuffing out of me.
“It’s, uh, um… Actually, I’m looking for Tom,” I said. “My, uh—he’s a friend. And someone said that—” I was making no sense, and he was still beaming that smile at me. “N-never mind,” I stammered. I was obviously at the wrong place, wasn’t I? “I think I’ll just, uh, go.”
“Yes, maybe you should,” the man said, but the waves of charm that radiated off him made it seem as if he had just issued the most cordial invitation to come into the house.
“Y-yes,” I said, taking a step closer, “maybe…”
“Who is it, Galaeron?” a melodious woman’s voice came from inside the house. I had never heard such an attractive voice before—well, not before I had heard the man’s. This was a woman’s version of the same honeyed, dulcet tones that made me want to sink into whatever it was they were offering, made me want to stay and never leave… I took one more step towards the house.
A woman’s face appeared over the man’s shoulder. White-blonde hair flowed back in ripples from a smooth white forehead; silver-grey eyes that were set at a slant looked at me from under incongruously dark, perfectly straight eyebrows; and a tiny mouth with delicately rosy lips formed into a pout.
“Well?” she said, raising one of her perfect eyebrows.
In her own way, she was as stunning as the man, but I couldn’t stand her—which was what saved me. The antipathy I felt slapped my brain back to functionality.
“I’m looking for my b- my friend Tom,” I said. “About your height—” I gestured at the man, “dark hair, brown eyes. Someone said they saw you,” I looked at the woman, “talking to him on Christmas Eve, and nobody has seen him since.”
She gave an affected laugh, as silvery and metallic as her eyes. “Am I supposed to have done away with him? I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I don’t even remember talking to this—Tom.” She laid her left hand caressingly on the man’s shoulder, as if to say she had no need for the likes of Tom—and what I saw then snapped me out of the last of my daze. On her left ring finger sparkled the princess-cut diamond from Engelhard’s.
“All right,” I said, and I heard a slight hiss in my voice. “I just thought I’d ask. Goodbye.”
I turned to leave, and there on the lake shore beside the house I saw them: seven perfect white swans, swimming in one line along the encroaching ice of the shoreline. I pulled out my phone, shook it to open the camera, and clicked the shutter.
When I turned back to the house, the door was closed and the lights inside had gone dark.
#TheTwelveDaysOfChristmas: The Sixth Day
The Sixth Day of Christmas
I woke up the next morning with a start. What on earth had I been thinking? It was as if that gorgeous man in Engelhard’s had literally driven Tom from my mind! I snatched up my phone from my bedside table and tried to turn it on. All I got was a blank screen. With a groan I realized I’d forgotten to charge it.
A couple of hours later I was at Mary-Lou’s. “And even once it was charged there was nothing,” I said to her. “I’ve gone and filed that missing persons report with the police. They said they’d let me know right away if anything turns up.”
“Then that’s what they’ll do,” Mary-Lou said. “But I’m sure Tom is fine; he usually is.” She picked up a bucket of kitchen scraps by the back door. “Here, Mac, come out to the barn; there’s something you’ve got to see.” She led the way out into the yard and through a side door into her poultry barn. “It’s been a weird day, I can tell you that much! Careful, stay back a bit—they can be nasty.”
“My Chinese geese,” she replied, pointing at a flock of large white birds on the other side of the barn. “Would you believe it—all six of them were laying this morning! I’m not sure what’s gotten into them—usually they don’t lay at all this time of year, but today, the whole gaggle!”
The big white birds waddled towards us, the orange hump over top of their bills making them look just a bit menacing as they honked at us. I took a picture of them anyway.
“Oh shoo!” Mary-Lou said to the geese. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, you silly things.” She put the scraps into the feeding trough the birds all shared, and while they were busy rooting through their treats, she ran her hand under some straw in the corner of the room. “Gotcha!” She drew out a large egg, almost as big as her hand. “There, that was the last one; I think I’ve got them all now. I don’t want the ducks sitting on them yet; it’s far too cold for raising goslings this time of year.”
As we walked back to Mary-Lou’s house, I absentmindedly thumbed through the photos on my phone. The geese—all six of them. The five rings at Engelhard’s. Four birds at Lilian’s feeder, calling to each other. Mary-Lou’s three French hens. Lilian’s two mourning doves, which she called turtle doves. And there, in my parents’ backyard, the partridge in the pear tree.
“Mary-Lou…” I held out the phone to her.
“What?” She took the phone and looked at it. “You already showed me that; it’s the text from Tom that we can’t figure out.”
I snatched back the phone. “Wait—no, that’s not what I meant to show you, my finger must have slipped. But…” I stared down at the text. “Twelve Days of Christmas? The whole thing? Mary-Lou—he means the song. There’s something about that song. And I’ve seen it—every single day since Christmas Day. One item every day. So where is he? What the heck is going on?”
Tagged as short story, Twelve Days of Christmas, writing
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Email | Print Type Size
Overstock.com settles part of feud
As it ends part of long-running legal war, Overstock's case against a short-selling hedge fund rolls on.
By Roddy Boyd, writer
October 14, 2008: 3:17 PM ET
Hedgies decry SEC short selling
(NEW YORK) Fortune -- A chapter in one of Wall Street's more bitter and colorful legal sagas ended Monday when Internet retailer Overstock.com and independent research outfit Gradient Analytics settled their differences.
Overstock (OSTK) sued Scottsdale-based Gradient and then-Millburn, N.J.-based hedge fund Rocker Partners (now known as Copper River) in August 2005 for allegedly colluding to defame Overstock and drive down its share price.
Specifically, the suit claimed that Gradient's series of research reports on Overstock - which, beginning in 2003, were uniformly critical of its accounting and governance - were timed to benefit a group of its short-selling clients, including Rocker.
It also alleged that Gradient made drafts of its research available to Rocker prior to their general release and that Gradient worked closely with the financial media to disseminate its slanted work.
The lawsuit became famous on Wall Street because its filing was followed up by a press conference in which Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne laid out a theory of a vast conspiracy among regulators, hedge funds and the financial media to defame vulnerable American companies. The conspiracy was said to be controlled by a well-known figure from the 1980s whom Byrne dubbed "The Sith Lord." He never disclosed the lord's identity.
[Disclosure: Byrne has singled this writer out for purportedly being under the sway of hedge funds.]
Monday's settlement involved a statement issued by Gradient that apologized for mischaracterizing Overstock's then-board as being non-independent. A spokeswoman from Gradient Analytics declined comment.
Gradient also said it regrets describing Overstock's accounting policies as being outside of generally accepted accounting procedures, or GAAP, which is traditionally a red flag for securities analysts.
In turn, Overstock said it will now press ahead on its case against Copper River.
"This was a great step forward for the litigation in this case," Byrne told Fortune, adding that the removal of Gradient was "a not-so-positive development for Copper River." He characterized Gradient's retraction of its criticism of Overstock's board composition and accounting as "important."
David Shapiro, Copper River's lawyer, said, "We are looking forward to going to trial against these guys; they have absolutely no case." Trial is set for the spring of 2009.
Settlement discussions between Overstock and Gradient have gone on for about six months. Any financial terms were not disclosed.
For Gradient, a settlement made economic sense. It is a small company and its insurance coverage was running out, according to a person familiar with its operations. Much of its free cash flow had to go to defending itself in this case as well as another suit filed against it in February 2006 by Canadian pharmaceutical company Biovail. Moreover, if it lost, it would be unlikely to be able to meet any judgment against it and would have had to file for bankruptcy, according to the source.
Presumably, Copper River, its general partner Marc Cohodes and its founder, the retired David Rocker, have deeper pockets.
It bears noting that Gradient did not retract its critique of Overstock as a risky proposition for investors. In deposition testimony, Gradient co-founder Donn Vickrey said there never had been a conspiracy between his firm and the hedge fund and that Gradient had been writing critically about Overstock a year before the Rocker fund subscribed to its research.
Gradient in particular cited concerns about Overstock's customer acquisition costs and turnover. Overstock has posted just under $200 million in accumulated losses since Gradient initiated coverage in June 2003, having reported small profits in just two quarters since early 2001.
Lehman collapse puts hedge fund in dire straits
Apple scores high in PC World's relability survey
Dean Kamen (still) wants to save the world
Twitter nabs top app maker
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The New Senate: The Defeated, The Retired, The New And The Returning
There will be 14 new faces in the new Senate when it meets for the first time on August 30.
This represents 18.42% of the Senate’s 76 members. Each state has 12 senators, whilst the territories have 2 each, who serve terms concurrent with the House of Representatives. The double dissolution meant that all 76 positions were up for election on July 2.
The fourteen new senators include two (Louise Pratt and Don Farrell) who were Labor senators defeated in 2013.
Ten of the fourteen departed senators were defeated in the election, whilst four retired. [Read more…]
Filed Under: 2016 Federal Election, A.C.T., A.L.P., Election Statistics, Greens, Liberal National Party, Liberal Party, N.S.W., N.T., One Nation, Palmer United Party, Qld, S.A., Senate, TAS, The Nationals, Turnbull, VIC, W.A. Tagged With: Anne McEwen, Anthony Chisholm, Bill Heffernan, Brian Burston, Clive Pamer, David Johnston, Derryn Hinch, Dio Wang, Don Farrell, Glenn Lazarus, Jacqui Lambie, Jan McLucas, Jane Hume, Joanna Lindgren, Joe Ludwig, John Madigan, Jonathon Duniam, Louise Pratt, Malarndirri McCarthy, Malcolm Roberts, Murray Watt, Nick Xenophon, Nova Peris, NXT, Pauline Hanson, PUP, Richard Colbeck, Robert Simms, Rodney Culleton, Sarah Hanson-Young, Sean Edwards, Skye Kakoschke, Stirling Griff
One Nation Wins Two Queensland Senate Seats; Coalition Loses Ground; ALP And Greens Unchanged
The Senate results for Queensland were finalised and announced this morning.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is the big winner, securing two positions, taking its national tally to three. The Coalition has retained 5 of its 6 seats, the ALP has retained 4 and the Greens 1.
The Coalition polled 35.27% of the primary vote and secured the re-election of 5 senators – George Brandis, Matthew Canavan (Nats), James McGrath, Ian Macdonald and Barry O’Sullivan (Nats).
Joanna Lindgren, who entered the Senate in May last year, filling a casual vacancy created by the retirement of Brett Mason, has been defeated.
The ALP polled 26.35%, enough to elect 4 senators: new members Murray Watt and Anthony Chisholm, and returning members Claire Moore and Chris Ketter. Watt and Chisholm replace Jan McLucas and Joe Ludwig, who both retired.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation polled 9.19% of the vote, securing two places. Pauline Hanson will return to the parliament for the first time since she he held the lower house seat of Oxley between 1996-98. She will be joined by Malcolm Roberts.
One Nation has secured a stronger preference flow from other minor and micro parties. It now stands a reasonable chance of winning a fourth position in NSW.
The Greens polled 6.92%, re-electing Larissa Waters to a second term
Aside from Joanna Lindgren, only one other previous senator, Glenn Lazarus, was defeated. Elected in 2013 as a Palmer United Party candidate, Lazarus ran under his own banner of The Glenn Lazarus Team, polling 1.66% of the primary vote. [Read more…]
Filed Under: 2016 Federal Election, A.L.P., AEC, Greens, Liberal National Party, Liberal Party, One Nation, Qld, Senate, The Nationals, Turnbull Tagged With: Anthony Chisholm, Barry O'Sullivan, Chris Ketter, Claire Moore, George Brandis, Glenn Lazarus, Ian Macdonald, James McGrath, Joanna Lindgren, Larissa Waters, Malcolm Roberts, Matthew Canavan, Murray Watt, Pauline Hanson
ALP And Greens Back Palmer Motion For Select Committee Inquiry Into Queensland Government
The Senate has voted to establish a Select Committee to inquire into aspects of Queensland government administration.
The motion was moved by Palmer United Party senators and supported by the ALP and Greens. It was carried by 30 votes to 27.
The 5-member Select Committee on Certain Aspects of Queensland Government Administration will comprise 2 ALP, 1 Green, 1 PUP and 1 Coalition members. The PUP Senate leader, Glenn Lazarus, will chair the committee.
The Committee is required to report by March 27, 2015, around the time the Queensland state election is due.
The Committee is charged with inquiring into Commonwealth funds allocated to Queensland since March 26, 2012, when the LNP government led by Premier Campbell Newman took office. It will investigate judicial independence and the separation of powers, environmental law, the administration of prisons and detention without trial. The Committee will also examine Commonwealth oversight of coal seam gas projects in Queensland. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Palmer United Party, Parliamentary Committees, Qld, Senate, Video Tagged With: Campbell Newman, Eric Abetz, Glenn Lazarus, Select Committee
Sen. Glenn Lazarus (PUP-Qld) – Maiden Speech
Senator Glenn Lazarus has delivered his official first speech to the upper house.
Having spoken numerous times on legislation over the past month, each time stating that it wasn’t his first speech, the Queensland Palmer United Party senator joked at the outset that it “is now my first speech”.
Senator Lazarus was elected as a Queensland representative at last year’s federal election. His term began on July 1 this year and will expire on June 30, 2020. He is the Senate leader of the Palmer United Party. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Audio, Maiden Speeches, Palmer United Party, Qld, Video Tagged With: first speech, Glenn Lazarus, PUP
Palmer Party Senate Leader Glenn Lazarus Heckled During First Speech On Repealing Carbon Tax
Senator Glenn Lazarus was heckled by observers in the public gallery during his first speech to the Senate on repeal of the carbon tax legislation this morning.
Lazarus, the Senate leader of the Palmer United Party, spoke in favour of the repeal legislation. He said a global solution was required for a global problem. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Audio, Climate Change, Legislation, Palmer United Party, Senate, Video Tagged With: carbon tax, Glenn Lazarus, PUP, Senate
Senators Sworn In; New Balance Of Power As 2013 Federal Election Finally Complete
Senators elected at last year’s federal election were sworn in this morning. The full effect of the 2013 Federal Election can now be seen in the balance of power in the upper house.
Thirty-six senators were chosen at the election on September 7, six from each State. They were sworn in during a 20-minute ceremony presided over by the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove.
Watch the swearing-in ceremony (20m)
One senator, Deborah O’Neill (ALP-NSW) was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Bob Carr. O’Neill had already filled the final months of Carr’s previous term, following her defeat as the member for Robertson in the House of Representatives. [Read more…]
Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, A.L.P., Abbott, Governor-General, Greens, Liberal National Party, Liberal Party, Opening Parliament, Palmer United Party, Senate, Video Tagged With: Bob Day, Chris Ketter, David Leyonhjelm, Deborah O'Neill, Glenn Lazarus, Jacqui Lambie, James McGrath, Janet Rice, Joe Bullock, Linda Reynolds, Matthew Canavan, Peter Cosgrove, Ricky Muir, Stephen Parry, Zhenya Wang
Another Season Of Valedictory Speeches As Twelve Senators Depart
Twelve senators are about to leave the Federal Parliament as the July 1 changeover approaches.
The departing senators will give valedictory speeches in the Senate over the next two weeks. The first will be given tomorrow by the Nationals Senator Ron Boswell, who has been in the Senate since 1983.
The Senate has 76 members. Each of the six states has 12 senators, whilst the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory have 2 senators each. Senators serve fixed 6-year terms which commence on July 1. Except in the case of a double dissolution, Senate elections are staggered, with half the state-based senators facing the electorate at each House of Representatives election. Territory senators serve terms that are concurrent with the House.
On July 1, the State senators elected on September 7, 2013 will take their places. These 36 senators will serve terms that end on June 30, 2020.
Twenty-four senators were re-elected last year. Of the 12 who were replaced, 7 were defeated (6 ALP and 1 Liberal) and 5 retired (2 ALP, 2 Liberal and 1 Nationals).
The ALP lost one member in each state and will have only 25 senators from July 1. The party lost 3 members to the Palmer United Party (PUP), and one each to the Liberal Democrats (LDP), the Greens and Family First (FF). [Read more…]
Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, Members, Senate Tagged With: Alan Eggleston, Bob Day, Chris Ketter, David Leyonhjelm, Don Farrell, Glenn Lazarus, Helen Kroger, Jacqui Lambie, James McGrath, Janet Rice, Joe Bullock, John Hogg, Lin Thorp, Linda Reynolds, Louise Pratt, Mark Bishop, Mark Furner, Matthew Canavan, Mehmet Tillem, Ricky Muir, Ron Boswell, Sue Boyce, Ursula Stephens, Zhenya Wang
Malcolm Turnbull Pauline Hanson Liberal Party Mathias Cormann RBA Campbell Newman Penny Wong financial crisis Bill Clinton vic1999 Senate Eric Abetz Warren Truss National Press Club Gough Whitlam Laurie Oakes Monica Lewinsky Queen Elizabeth II carbon tax terrorism Wayne Swan A.L.P. leadership John Hewson Barack Obama Peter Costello editorial Julia Gillard Clive Palmer Andrew Peacock Bill Shorten Adam Bandt Peter Hollingworth NPC Denis Napthine AEC Scott Morrison Kim Beazley State of the Union Mark Latham resignation Tanya Plibersek GST asylum seekers John McCain Alexander Downer Bob Brown Christine Milne 2013 Federal Election Iraq Chris Bowen George W Bush Tony Blair Peter Slipper Peter Cosgrove Glenn Stevens 9/11 Paul Keating Anthony Albanese Simon Crean Tony Abbott Stephen Conroy Steve Bracks interest rates Malcolm Fraser first speech Kevin Rudd Budget Peter Beattie Jenny Macklin Jeff Kennett John Howard George Brandis climate change Bob Hawke Julie Bishop Robert Hill Christopher Pyne Joe Hockey Robert Menzies
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Work: The Nutcracker
Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance listings
Composer Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (1840-1893)
Period Romantic
Work type Dance
Upcoming eventsSee more...
StockholmThe Nutcracker
Royal Swedish Opera, Jan 22 19:00, Jan 24 18:00
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
Marius Petipa; Lev Ivanov; Royal Swedish Ballet; Anna Skryleva; Bo-Ruben Hedwall; Ann-Mari Anttila; Royal Swedish Orchestra
RigaThe Nutcracker
Latvian National Opera, Sun 26 Jan
Aivars Leimanis; Latvian National Ballet; Mārtiņš Ozoliņš
MilanThe Nutcracker
La Scala, Oct 03, 05, 06, 08, 09, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20 at 20:00
George Balanchine; Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company; Felix Korobov; Margherita Palli; Marco Filibeck
BirminghamThe Nutcracker
Birmingham Hippodrome, Nov 20 19:30, Nov 21 14:30, 19:30, Nov 22 13:00, Nov 24 19:30, Nov 25 19:30, Nov 26 14:00, 19:30, Nov 27 19:30, Nov 28 14:30, 19:30, Nov 29 13:00, Dec 01 19:30, Dec 02 19:30, Dec 03 14:00, 19:30, Dec 04 19:30, Dec 05 14:30, 19:30, Dec 06 13:00, Dec 08 14:00, 19:30, Dec 09 19:30, Dec 10 14:00, 19:30, Dec 11 19:30, Dec 12 13:00, 18:00
Marius Petipa; Lev Ivanov; Sir Peter Wright; Birmingham Royal Ballet; John Macfarlane; David Finn; Royal Ballet Sinfonia
LilleGábor Káli Conducts The Nutcracker in Concert
Le Nouveau Siècle, Dec 16, 20, 22 at 20:00
Orchestre National de Lille; Gábor Káli
Latest reviewsSee more...
San Francisco Ballet celebrates 75 years of Nutcracker
Terez Rose, 11 Dec
In Helgi Tomasson's production, Michael Yeargan’s scenic design and the late Martin Pakledinaz’ sumptuous costumes create a scene so charming, you just want to climb inside and stay in that world all evening and beyond.
Erina Takahashi sparkles as ENB’s Nutcracker returns
Mark Pullinger, 11 Dec
Despite confused storytelling in Wayne Eagling's version of ETA Hoffmann's tale, ENB's Nutcracker has some lovely dancing.
Balanchine's Nutcracker remains a timeless holiday gift
Ivy Lin, 10 Dec
Balanchine’s Nutcracker may have premiered in 1954, but every year tickets sell out for this festive treat.
The Joffrey Nutcracker rises from the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago
Joseph Houseal, 01 Dec
The Joffrey Nutcracker succeeds in redefining the socio-economic situation of the protagonists, but throws out the baby with the bathwater.
Balanchine's Nutcracker returns in all its annual glory
Philippa Kiraly, 29 Nov
Great story, colorful costumes and sets, dozens of performers all add up to the annual extravaganza of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. Pacific Northwest Ballet's superb artists portray its wonders again.
Tomomi Sato as Marie in Scottish Ballet's Nutcracker
© Graham Wylie
In Europe and North America, there’s no question about which is the most popular ballet ever created: Marius Petipa’s The Nutcracker is miles ahead of the pack. It’s become a staple Christmas family entertainment, even for people who are not habitual ballet-goers.
The Nutcracker’s magic is very deep. The fairy-tale story, which comes from E. T. A. Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, gives boundless scope to children’s imagination, with the biggest flights of fancy coming in Act II in the series of dances performed for Marie and the Prince, each with its own exotic flavour. It all seems to infect stage designers and choreographers: over the years, they have produced a miraculous variety of delightful settings. But the biggest miracle of all is Tchaikovsky’s music, which creates the atmosphere of fairy tale and breathes life into the characters - even the wooden ones.
Children of all ages love The Nutcracker: for many dancers, it was a performance of the Nutcracker that first brought them into ballet. You can read a selection of quotes below from children of all ages who have seen it and never forgotten their experience. By the way, the heroine is either called Clara or Marie: both names are used!
We're very grateful to the Royal Academy of Dance and Central Scotland Ballet School and those pupils who answered our questions, and to Scottish Ballet for the photo.
Whether you're taking a teenager...
I first saw the Nutcracker when I was two, but it had an utterly huge impact on me because 14 years later I can still visualise the breathtaking dancing and hear the incredible music! Definitely one of the biggest highlights of my childhood.
Brogan, 16
My favourite bit is the Pas de Deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince as I love the lifts they do! I remember the first time I went to see it I was quite young, and watching all the children dancing in the first Act, at the Christmas party, was really fun as you don't often get to see children dancing in ballet productions...The music is amazing and the costumes and set are so Christmassy it really gets you in the festive mood! I really enjoyed all of it!
Katrina, 18
...I was at Covent Garden with my dad! I ... remember the opening scene, the toymaker was pottering around his workshop making toys...Last time I was dancing in it and my most prominent memory was of the pas de deux with the prince and sugar plum fairy!...The dancers were dancing with all their hearts, the amount of effort was incredible. They were so perfect!
Aisling O'Keefe, 13
The best part is when Clara goes to meet the different characters in her dream. I remember the King and Queen dancing in the real snow on the stage, and the Sugar Plum Fairy dancing with the Prince in the land of sweets.
Hannah, 13
I've seen it twice and loved the Christmas feeling of it all, the growing christmas tree, the festivities, the land of snow and sweets. Such amazing memories of both performances, was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time!
Clara, 12
Or someone younger...
I think the Nutcracker is magical. I like when the christmas tree grows huge, and when the Nutcracker and the mice fight and the mice jump over their tails like skipping ropes. I think the sugar Plum fairy is pretty and I like it when she dances with the prince in the land of sweets.
Phoebe-Rae, 10
What do you love best in the Nutcracker?
...when [Clara] received a present from her aunty wich is a toy "Nutcracker". Sofia D
...when they pick up all the presents. Sofia L
I love Clara the best. She is about the same age as me and always dances beautifully. The first time I saw it I remember laughing at the Bon-bons! They made me laugh so much! The last time I saw the Nutcracker, I remember the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. My mum was crying (as usual) because it was so lovely. I’ve been a Liquorice Allsort in the Nutcracker with Ballet West. It was nerve-wracking but exciting and amazing to be in such a famous ballet. I loved it! I’m going to be in it again in February.
Eve, 11
I have seen the Nutcracker ballet 4 times and I’ve danced in it too with Ballet West as a Bon-bon. I had to do back flips! My favourite character is Mother Ginger and all the Bon-bons and I like the pas de deux because it is beautiful.
Dayna, 10
My favourite bit was the big skirt Mother Ginger had and all the Bon-bons that were hiding underneath!
Claudia, 11
I saw the Nutcracker with my Gran when I was only 7. I can remember the beautiful dance Clara did when she got saved from the rats and mice... When I grow up I want to dance in the Nutcracker and be a ballerina.
Polly, 10
What do you remember about the first time you ever saw it?
Myla, age 7
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Developer Recommended for Five City-Owned Properties on Howard Street
Ethan McLeod
Five vacant buildings along Howard Street would be recycled as “Howard Row,” a mixed-use development containing 39 market-rate apartments and five storefronts at street level, under a plan selected today by the Baltimore Development Corporation.
After receiving five proposals in a competitive bidding process, the economic development agency voted in closed session to recommend that a team headed by the Poverni Sheikh Group of Baltimore be allowed to purchase and redevelop the city-owned properties at 407, 409, 411, 413 and 415 N. Howard Street.
The recommendation will be forwarded to Mayor Catherine Pugh’s office. If she agrees with the BDC, the Board of Estimates will be asked to approve a sale.
BDC president and CEO Bill Cole said Poverni Sheikh Group’s proposal was judged to be better than the others submitted. “The board felt that it was the best comprehensive project for the city,” he said after the board came out of its closed session.
The developer offered to pay $75,000 for the five buildings, which are in poor condition, and complete the renovations by the second quarter of 2019. Poverni Sheikh Group picked Charles Belfoure as the designer.
Cole said the purchase price is subject to further negotiation, if the mayor’s office chooses to accept the proposal. A total figure for the cost of rehabbing the buildings was not disclosed.
Before making its recommendation, the BDC board was told the agency received five proposals ahead of an April 10 bidding deadline, and three were considered responsive and presented to the staff for further evaluation.
The two other finalists were:
“Howard Station,” an adaptive reuse of all five buildings as 20 live/work artist units and four ground-floor “shells” for restaurant tenants. The development proposed an outdoor “performance garden facing Tyson Street. Michael Hunter of the Washington Baltimore Development Com;pany submitted the proposal and offered to pay $50,000 for the five properties. Cho Benn Holback was listed as the architect.
And “Art Safe,” the conversion of 409 N. Howard Street to a street-level commercial space, a performance space and five live/work lofts for artists. Cho Benn Holback would be the architect. The developer would be Doreen Bolger, former director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. She offered $35,000 for the one building.
Follow Ethan
Senior Editor at Baltimore Fishbowl
Ethan has been editing and reporting for Baltimore Fishbowl since fall of 2016. His previous stops include Fox 45, CQ Researcher and Connection Newspapers in Virginia. His freelance writing has been featured in CityLab, Slate, Baltimore City Paper, DCist and elsewhere.
Latest posts by Ethan McLeod (see all)
Friday Afternoon Headlines: Hogan working on a book; A huge, high-profile crowd for Cummings’ funeral in Baltimore; and more - October 25, 2019
The city is throwing Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis a parade tomorrow - October 25, 2019
Friday Morning Headlines: Councilman files resolution to fix 311 app; Suspicious envelope sent to WBFF-TV; and more - October 25, 2019
baltimore development corporation
Howard Street
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HBR Layout is ‘unlivable’
Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Aug 13, 2019, 06.00 AM IST
Vehicles from the repair shops encroach the footpath and half of the road while the blocked storm water drain overflows during the rains
By Akhila Damodaran
From poor drains to bad roads and footpaths, Ward 24 has problems galore
Encroached footpaths, illegal construction and commercialisation, blocked storm water drains, and bad roads have made HBR Layout ‘unlivable’, residents say.
Madan Prasad, who has lived in the locality since 1992, says he will be moving out shortly. “My daughter was about to get hit by a car the other day when the mechanics were reversing a vehicle after fixing it. Due to lack of space, it is difficult for her school bus to stop on the road and the kids to alight safely,” he says, adding that half the roads are blocked due to the illegal parking. “The footpath on the 80 feet road from BDA Complex to 1st Block is occupied with cars from mechanic shops or tables put up by restaurants. One of the restaurants uses the footpath to grill chicken and meat. No action is being taken despite several complaints to the authorities,” he says. Residents say that the area is not just prone to traffic snarls but there have also been accidents. A lady lost her leg after she got hit by an auto rickshaw and a man died after being hit by a truck, residents say. “Heavy vehicles are not allowed in this area, but they still come here. The authorities haven’t put up appropriate sign boards,” says C Prabhakaran, general secretary of the HBR Layout Resident Welfare Association.
George KX, president of the association, says, the storm water drains (SWD) have become a garbage dump as the fence is broken at most places. “The compound wall of the SWD at 5th block is broken and has a very low height. I have been complaining about the issue and the authorities say they’ll repair the wall. But why can’t they raise the wall’s height and build it in a similar manner like the one on the opposite side? The stench is unbearable,” he says, adding that the side drains have not been desilted in more than six years and they overflow during the rains. “They are not cleaning the drains. Since residents’ houses are at a lower level than the road, they get flooded with dirty water during the rain. The roads get flooded too,” he adds.
We have issued notices to all the shops asking them to clear the footpaths. Work to improve the storm water drain is going on
–P Anand, Ward 24 corporator
Madan adds, “The meat sellers and other commercial establishments come on two-wheelers and throw the waste into these drains.” The residents say that the other side of the layout that falls under another ward is well-maintained, while their ward, which goes up to the 5th block, is being neglected. “The ward committee meeting happened only once. We were informed so late that by the time we reached, the meeting was already over,” they say.
P Anand, corporator, ward number 24, says that action will be taken. “We have issued notices to all the shops asking them to clear the footpaths. Work to improve the storm water drain is going on,” he says.
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State Latest News | Common Ground Fair | Bangor Metro | Susan Collins | Today's Paper
Senate President Mike Thibodeau emerges from budget scuffle as unlikely peacemaker
By Christopher Cousins, BDN Staff • September 27, 2015 7:43 am
Updated: October 17, 2017 10:42 am
NORTH FRANKFORT, Maine — Mike Thibodeau has been called a lot of things: truck driver, father, road builder, husband, shovel-maker, Republican state representative and now, most recently, president of the Maine Senate.
No one ever branded him liberal until Gov. Paul LePage.
It came as a startling statement about a guy who has been one of Maine’s leading conservative voices, particularly during recent debates about landmark issues such as same-sex marriage and expanding MaineCare.
Until recently, Thibodeau, 49, had been one of the governor’s top supporters. Their relationship soured this year during a bruising, intense state budget fight that divided Thibodeau and 20 Senate Republicans into a faction opposing House Republicans and LePage.
During that uncertain time, when state government appeared headed for a shutdown, Thibodeau’s unexpected emergence as a proponent of compromise — in spite of stern rhetoric from others in his party and LePage — earned him plaudits for statesmanship and sensibility.
It also earned Thibodeau and others the governor’s scorn in news conferences, personal letters and radio interviews. Maine People Before Politics, a conservative political action committee that LePage founded and his daughter, Lauren LePage, leads, even placed robocalls to their constituents to vilify them for working with “liberal Democrats.”
Now the second-highest elected official in state government hasn’t spoken with LePage in months. The ordeal has affected Thibodeau where he says it hurts most: at home in his Waldo County district.
“There’s no question, folks I’ve been friends for decades with, they don’t call,” Thibodeau said recently, taking a break from his snow shovel-making business in North Frankfort. “But the guys at the store in the morning who are worrying about hauling a load of gravel, they recognize that I’m a conservative.”
The difference between him and LePage is not ideology, then, but approach.
“I get the fact that the governor has an agenda, but in a representative democracy there’s a lot of people with ideas,” Thibodeau said. “You have to be willing to work with everyone in the process. No one person gets to dictate all aspects of policy.”
Divided chambers
It was a Wednesday afternoon in early June in Augusta. Budget negotiations weren’t going well. Months of work by the Legislature’s budget committee had ended in a stalemate. Legislative leaders were taking over the talks. A budget deal struck the day before had fallen apart overnight. Fingers were being pointed.
Dueling news conferences between House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, and Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond, D-Portland, fiercely criticized the other for reneging on deals and being unwilling to compromise. It was an ugly day for politics in Maine on many fronts.
Except, in the opinion of many observers, for Thibodeau.
In his news conference, Thibodeau emerged as a peacemaker, calling for both sides to return to negotiations as the budget fight looked ever more likely to shut down government
“Because of politics creeping into something that it never should, we end up where we are today, with people pulling back,” Thibodeau said that day, words that established him as a surprising, unexpected voice of moderation — and in opposition to LePage.
It wasn’t always that way. When Thibodeau started presiding over the Senate in November 2014, he faced two important and divisive issues for which he was heavily criticized by opposition Democrats.
First was a razor-close election in the Falmouth-area Senate district. Election night tallies had put Democrat Catherine Breen ahead of Republican Cathleen Manchester by seven votes ahead, but the secretary of state’s office overturned the result in a recount. But 21 disputed ballots left the election unresolved.
With important elections of constitutional officers looming, Democrats called upon Thibodeau to delay seating Manchester in the Senate, but he took the harder line and seated her anyway. Eventually, a re-examination of the ballots gave the seat back to Breen.
The second issue arose in March, when Republican Sen. Michael Willette of Presque Isle came under fire for inflammatory Facebook posts. Thibodeau rebuffed calls from Democrats, the NAACP and others to subject Willette to an ethics probe or discipline him.
Thibodeau’s emergence during the budget came against this backdrop. Alfond, who served as Senate president before Thibodeau, said his leadership style changed considerably.
“I think Mike Thibodeau has evolved as a leader of the Senate, no doubt,” Alfond said. “There were many examples of the evolution, but nothing to me crystallized it more than after Gov. LePage and Lauren LePage started making phone calls in his district. I’ve never seen that done before. He was just so upset.”
Alfond said he thinks being targeted by LePage changed Thibodeau.
“From that moment on I saw Mike Thibodeau really understand that his leadership, this institution and the state Senate are all under attack by the governor,” Alfond said. “It was pretty amazing to be right there by his side for that.”
House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, became another unlikely ally of Thibodeau in budget negotiations, though Eves admits he and Thibodeau are about as far apart ideologically as any two Maine politicians.
“I have to give him a whole lot of credit just for being a man of his word,” Eves said. “When he says something, you can believe it. When you negotiate with someone like that, you can get things done … which was something I was not anticipating going into working with him as presiding officers.”
LePage, through his office, declined to comment for this story.
‘Future of our state’
Thibodeau started driving a truck for his father’s then-fledgling rock-crushing and asphalt business after graduating from Hampden Academy.
Today, he and his wife, Stacy, run their snow shovel-making venture, Mt. Waldo Plastics, which they started in 2014. They have churned out some 50,000 snow shovels since. With winter approaching and orders coming from across New England, molding and assembling the shovels until well past midnight has become their norm.
Thibodeau said the noisy monotony of the hulking molding machine and the repetitive nature of linking scoop and handle are relaxing compared with the stress of keeping government going.
The simplicity of the process mirrors how Thibodeau likes a lot of things in life. His rides a 1969 Ski-Doo snowmobile in the winter. His political campaigning, both for himself and other Republicans, is done from behind the wheel of a red 1947 Mack truck he restored bolt by bolt.
“It gets 5 miles to the gallon,” he said, pointing out the “beautiful” welding job that restored the rig’s formerly corroded undercarriage. “It’ll pull a mountain over, but very slowly.”
Inside his factory, he has another relic: an ice cream machine powered by an antique John Deere hit-and-miss motor that was a familiar tool in farms and factories a century ago. He brings it to fairs and other charity events.
So what’s his favorite flavor?
“Plain vanilla,” he said. “I’m a pretty basic guy.”
It may take something sweeter for the relationship between the governor and the Legislature to improve, though. Thibodeau said this is crucial, but he acknowledged it is up to LePage.
“The sad part of all this is that the governor could be out there taking credit for some of our accomplishments, but it’s been all negative,” said Thibodeau. “I hope the governor reconsiders that because we need him to be successful. We’re talking about the future of our state.”
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that election night results showed Republican Cathleen Manchester winning the Falmouth-area Maine Senate district race. Democrat Catherine Breen led by seven votes in preliminary election night tallies.
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The mystery of why 2.9 billion birds have disappeared from the US in 50 years
Courtesy of Bob Duchesne
Over the years, the eastern meadowlark has become increasingly difficult for Maine birders to find.
By Bob Duchesne, • November 13, 2019 2:00 pm
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The news dropped like a bombshell. Over the past 50 years, 2.9 billion birds have disappeared from North America. One out of every four birds is gone. A team of international scientists under the auspices of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology analyzed the data and released their findings this summer. What on earth happened?
It’s complicated. The simplest answer is that humans just take up a lot of room. Fifty years ago, the U.S. population barely topped 200,000,000. Nowadays, there are more than 329,000,000 of us. It’s not just the expansion of subdivisions to accommodate all the extra people. It’s also the amount of land converted to provide food and energy to meet the needs of an expanding population. Our appetites have even reduced wintering habitat for many of our songbirds. Our yen for coffee has led to the clearing of tropical jungles, just as our hunger for hamburgers has resulted in the conversion of South American grasslands to pastures. Habitat loss is likely the biggest factor in the decline, but it’s not the only one.
Think back to those warm spring evenings when a hatching of insects so fouled the windshield that you needed to turn on the wipers. Bugs pinged off the hood like sleet. When was the last time you saw that? Between wetland drainage and increased pesticide use, there’s a lot of bird food that simply disappeared from the continent.
Some of the other human-induced impacts are well-known, yet well-hidden. Over a billion birds per year are killed by outdoor cats, but it’s hard to recognize the cumulative effect when little Whiskers leaves just one dead bird on the doorstep in the morning.
Windpower gets a disproportionate amount of blame, considering that birds also collide with skyscrapers, communication towers and high tension lines. Most songbirds migrate at night, unaware of obstacles above the treetops. We’re not going to stop building things high into the air, so it’s important to continue research on ways to reduce collisions up there.
The alarming Cornell report is only as good as its supporting data. Fortunately, Americans have been doing breeding bird surveys for half a century, and Christmas bird counts for twice that long. One tool has become increasingly valuable: weather radar. There are 143 stations across the country. The same system that detects raindrops in the air can detect birds in the air. On migration nights, whole clouds of flying birds become visible … and countable. Regrettably, the radar tally shows a decrease of 14 percent over just the past 11 years.
Grassland birds are hardest hit. Over half of them have vanished nationwide. The conversion of farmland to subdivisions accounts for much of the habitat loss. Early haying in the east is a major factor. In Maine, the eastern meadowlark has nearly disappeared. Bobolink numbers have plummeted. In the Midwest, America’s appetite for ethanol has converted miles of grasslands to cornfields.
Shorebird populations have shrunk by a third, decimated by multiple threats. Rising sea levels due to climate change are inundating nesting grounds in the arctic. Warmer temperatures have also led to an increase in predators moving into their colonies. Coastal development has degraded migratory feeding areas.
The shorebird decline is particularly noticeable in Maine. Because of our high tides and extensive mudflats, Maine is a major stopover for migrating shorebirds. Sadly, where I used to see thousands of shorebirds, I now see hundreds, and sometimes not even that.
Birds of the northern spruce forests have taken a major hit. One third of them are gone. Birds of the western forests are nearly as bad off, losing 27 percent of their populations. Even in the east, our forest birds have declined by 17 percent.
What most scares the bejeebers out of ornithologists is the decline in common birds. Almost half the red-winged blackbirds are gone. A third of Baltimore orioles, dark-eyed juncos, and white-throated sparrows have vanished. Blue jay populations have plummeted by a quarter. An estimated 862 million sparrows and 618 million warblers are lost. We’ve worried about endangered species for so long, we failed to comprehend how badly unendangered species were doing.
The sky isn’t falling. Some of the decline is in species that we wanted to decline, such as European starlings and house sparrows. Some of it is explained by natural variation, such as species that rise and fall with spruce budworm outbreaks. Raptors and waterfowl are doing better. We just need to give some serious thought to how the 329,000,000 of us can avoid crowding all other life off the planet.
Bob Duchesne serves as vice president of Maine Audubon’s Penobscot Valley Chapter. He developed the Maine Birding Trail, with information at mainebirdingtrail.com. He can be reached at duchesne@midmaine.com.
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No Fear: Fields Unfazed Amidst Physical Play, Rowdy Crowd
The Singapore Slingers came out victorious in the grueling third game of the ASEAN Basketball League Finals against the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia last Wednesday and are now on the verge of winning the series.
The visiting team was poised and resilient down the stretch amidst the raucous crowd inside GOR Kertajaya where the Knights have been dominant, winning 10 games in their backyard during the regular season. Furthermore, the Knights were riding a six-game home winning streak including the playoffs. But the Slingers remained focus in getting the victory despite the jeers and boos from the crowd.
“It showed the mettle of the team,” John Fields said about Singapore’s gutsy road win. “Like the Memphis Grizzlies – grit-and-grind, we showed it.”
The passionate fans of the Knights let Fields and the rest of the Slingers have it in Game 3. The crowd brought out drums, pot covers, horns, and signs in the hopes of distracting the visitors. They cheered loudly in every Knights’ play while raining boos and shouts against the Slingers.
Fields, in particular, is certainly not a crowd favorite on opposing teams’ home courts. Like a gladiator looking for a fight, he invites the taunts and jibes from the crowd. Things were no different in Game 3 as he relished the opportunity to showcase his game.
“The building didn’t intimidate us,” he simply said. The big man was a huge contributor for Singapore, coming up with 16 points and 14 rebounds. He was also a force on the offensive glass, hauling down eight boards.
As the intimidating center for his squad, Fields also did not let up against the tough physical play against Darryl Watkins and the Knights.
“You got to keep it cool. The refs are doing their best job. You know what I’m saying? They’re only human. They’re doing their best job so we don’t fault them,” he calmly said. “If some calls don’t go our way we just keep our head down and keep playing.”
The Slingers have a chance to close out the series on Saturday but Fields doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.
“Not even thinking about it at all,” he shared on possibly finishing off the Knights in Game 4. “We’re gonna go back here, rest, recuperate, hydrate, and try to just win this Game 4 and have the same mentality like we got our backs against the wall like this game and see if we can bring home the championship. No relaxing.”
ABL abl season asean basketball league feature John Fields singapore-slingers
Game Preview: Macau Black Bears vs Macau Wolf Warriors
Wolf Warriors shock Braves for first win of the season
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Beatlesarama
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By ffrannkk|2020-01-11T10:34:44-08:00January 11th, 2020|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: George Harrison, handwritten lyrics, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, White Album|
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Home > Opinion > Sheep Hunter
Sheep Hunter
The furore over the Americans hunting on Islay shines a useful light on this bizarre and macabre activity. But the more significant pair in this picture (right) are not the unfortunate Larysa and Jason but the figures on the left.
We are used to seeing hunter pics shared and condemned on social media from Africa, where the unspoken thought is: “What sort of downtrodden place would allow people to come over and blast into their wildlife?”
Well folks, that’s us.
Of course we should condemn the individuals posing with their trophies, but we should also understand that that is the norm for whole swathes of privately owned land and estates set aside for deer hunting, hare culling, and grouse moor management [see also ‘Disastrous hare-culling shows big landowners are irresponsible custodians of Scotland.’
Hunting is the inevitable outcome of our distorted patterns of land ownership. Hunting is about class and power, not just bad Americans. Hunting is not some anathema to Scotland, something alien to ‘Scottish values’ – it is at the heart of our rural economy that uses the highlands as a play park and revels in its artificial wilderness.
We’re now told that the Scottish Government is to review ‘culling laws’, but this isn’t really the right focus at all. What we need to review is who owns the land and what they make money from and what a disastrous impact it has on our housing, employment and environment.
Hunting Culture
The whole hunting industry is a combination of a weird culture of male impotence and advanced retro imperialism. The whiff of slightly desperate over-compensation from men in these hunting photos is pretty clear but as Theroux also pointed out about ‘Cecil the Lion’ – it doesn’t really work out as a sign of great bravery and manliness :
“I think the idea is that you are pitting yourself against a fearsome creature, armed only with a hand-powered and relatively primitive weapon. But this is pretty bogus, since the only bow-hunter who faces a lion is going to have men with guns, loaded and cocked, standing either side of him in case something goes wrong.”
I’m not sure if Larysa had such back-up as she bravely faced down the sheep, one can only speculate.
There’s certainly a sexual element to Larysa’s tweets: “There’s nothing sexier than someone bringing home the meat” she squeals in one.
Looking at the flood of images of the American hunters online, you can’t help also thinking that this is an expression of America’s culture of gun violence being exported around the world, but its also about our relationship with nature.
Time reports: “The problem does not stop with lions. Poachers killed between 15 and 20 rhinos in the country in 2014, 60 rhinos in 2013 and 84 (the peak) in 2008. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that 60% of the rhino population in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was killed between 2003 and 2005″ (Prepare to get angrier).
The freak culture of hunting is a celebration of a world that is out of control, a hyper-commercialised blood-lust that thrives on destroying the natural.
By Mike Small
Published on 25th October 2018
Leave a Reply to John B Dick Cancel reply
john Wakenshaw says:
How do you hunt a sheep anytime I am in the country they tend to give you a quick look then get on with chewing the cud ! ” Bringing home the meat ” try the supermarket lady !
Torry Joe says:
These immoral plebs make me sick! The feeling of Godlike power when killing some poor animal for fun (even a hare or a bloody goat), then posing for a ‘ look at me, ain’t I brave’ photoshot is disgustingly pathetic. Shame on everyone involved
Laws must be changed and strictly implemented ASAP.
Bottom line is that people like this piece of shit like to kill and would no doubt kill humans too given half a chance.
Of course as this article brings out, Scotland is an absolute playground for the wealthy wishing to kill.
Good on Luthansa for banning the transportation of hunting rifles and firearms on their planes.
And shame on the Scottish Government who actually intervened last year on behalf of shooters to overturn an earlier Luthansa ban.
No doubt they will do the same again and lobby on the shooters behalf?
Oh I don’t think they would be willing to take on another person. Another person could think, could take steps to to mount a defence, could shoot back maybe. The “hunters” wouldn’t risk that.
No, they’re happier taking pot shots at defenceless animals, sitting targets …and using firearms to do so.
Name the land-owners and companies who provide this sort of activity and who make money out of it. Get into their financial affairs and let the public see how much they make out of it. Get their faces out there! Get out there the faces of those who make use of such “leisure” activities so that their neighbours see them too.
John B Dick says:
LVT is all you need
Diadhaire says:
Willie, while the balance of your comment has merit, the ” people like this piece of shit like to kill and would no doubt kill humans too given half a chance.” is an an extreme reach. Really?
Killing an innocent and defenceless creature for oleasure and then posing with it’s corpse displays the basest of thinking.
Psychologists will tell you that many a serial killer started initially by maiming, torturing and killing animals.
Killing for fun is her pleasure. That’s what makes shit like her tick.
Why are you defending her?
Jim Bennett says:
Janey Godley’s take on it:
https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C5605AQG76V6r1nyqPw/6b0db142ef944f7090c84d3c819a5e3c/feedshare-mp4_3300-captions-thumbnails/1507940147251-drlcss?e=1540551600&v=beta&t=Yp3x4YAvL6DTDwuPEzQGoLFPda70jfl2sMAP_ealUzQ
Josef Ó Luain says:
There are too many influential forelock-tugging, tweed fetishists at the highest levels of the SNP for anything remotely radical to be done about this.
Who owns our country?…definitely not the Scots. Regardless of what the natives think practices by other demented nations continue to think that this is a playground for them.That other wee fat wumman up at the palace seems to have started it …of course you can blame John Brown for not ‘accidentally’ knocking her aff her pony.
An excellent article but a tad depressing..let’s hope the SNP government get a move on and protect our great wildlife from nutcases.
Tom Parkhill says:
Around 35 years ago I had a girlfriend who was very into horses and hunting. She insisted that I come along to a hunt (somewhere near Cambridge) to see that it wasn’t cruel to the foxes. In fact, the hunt never sniffed a fox, but what it left me with was a real unease about what hunting does to people, rather than just what it does to animals. This was the class system incarnate. There were the toffs, and the rest of us – some of them very rich people on horses – who scuttled around just so pleased that we might be associated with the toffs, and their traditions, and sherry, and grace.
I now live in an area in Italy which is overrun by boar. 40 years ago there were no boar, but once a few arrived they were encouraged by those who wanted to hunt, and deliberately cross-bred with domestic pigs. The boar we have now are very big, and not afraid of people. There are a couple of groups of hunters who pick off the boar every Wednesday and Sunday in the winter. Great fun for them. But boar can cause huge damage. We have spend over €4000 fencing our land against the boar, using the cheapest materials available. Those who work the land as a day job – and there are several hundred in the valley – will have spent much more. We are certainly looking at approaching a million euros in fencing in our valley, just to allow some people to hunt. But we are expected to be grateful that they are killing the boar.
A month ago the hunt shot and killed a 19 year-old in our village, in the semi-darkness they thought he was a boar. In fact, the poor young lad was at fault – he wasn’t officially part of the hunt, so he took a shotgun and followed the hunt, God knows what for. He’d bought into the way of thinking and wanted to be close to it.
If hunting is to take place at all, then I think we should accept that it is not, and should not be, a sport, a pastime, or a divertimento. But really, I don’t have any answers.
Dee Graham says:
What a sad sad state of affairs. Reminds me of the many accidental killings in the French Alps caused by groups of hunters
Eleanor Ferguson says:
I can never understand what people get out of killing things. One minute there is some animal full of life and minding its own business, the next it is a bloody heap on the ground. Fun? I think not. Yet it’s reported that Prince William’s son, who is only five, has been taken to watch his father blast game birds out of the sky. To me that is child cruelty. When I think how sensitive I was at that age,it would have have been for me.
“hyper-commercialised blood-lust that thrives on destroying the natural.”
– good description of all animal farming and fishing.
It must all be stopped.
Agreed. The problem is pervasive and lies in the view that the Earth and everything in it belongs to us. Daniel Quinn’s books go into this in some detail. The pain and suffering caused by hunters is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that goes into putting chicken or salmon on your dinner plate.
w.b. robertson says:
meanwhile today we learn that millions in Scottish govt grant money is heading to Orkneys …to eliminate stoats. presumably no one among the ranks of the righteous objects to this – since the toffs have not yet turned to hunting these wee beasties!
The money is not coming from the Scottish Government it is coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund (£2.6 million and the EU Life fund (£3.6 million) not the Scottish Government
Roland Stiven says:
While I hold no torch for trophy hunting or indeed sport hunting, I do recognise the importance of controlling deer numbers- and boar etc in the Mediterranean. I also am not sure (legality aside) whether shooting a domestic or feral animal in their habitat Is somehow more horrid than driving them onto a lorry, herding them through a slaughterhouse and electrocuting them and slicing their throats etc.
SleepingDog says:
To be fair, in the USA livestock is pretty dangerous, and probably the heralds of the post-antibiotic apocalypse which will send superbugs to consume us all. So probably best to quarantine USAmericans especially those who have come into close contact with animals, or who show signs of derangement or sickness.
That particular picture of the deer shows two bullet holes in an area of the animal which would not have killed it outright. It would most certainly have suffered because of two very poor shots well away from the front chest at the shoulders, which is the recognised part of the animal to dispatch it humanely. It is grotesque and largely a blood sport enjoyed by many from outside Scotland. Indeed lots of money changes hands for this ‘fun’. Not fun for most of Scotland to know it goes on in an organised way. Yes, Land reform is required and is indeed on its way, against severe opposition. Those who own the land are as rich as Scotland is or even richer than our meagre budget, so progress is slow. The downside is that the whole industry, for it is that, employs many in Scotland, not least of which are those who attend to accommodating rich adventurers who want to kill things. Distasteful maybe, but lives are sustained by this industry, not counting those who make vast profits from estates for leaving land fallow. That, I suppose will stop with Brexit, if it ever gets there but the cruelty will still go on until we press our politicians to put a stop to it. The worst of recent killings is how anyone would think that sheep or goats are a good hunting choice or in any way a heroic deed or challenge to bring one down. Largely domestic animals, who recognise humans as friendly to them. It is as hard as visiting your supermarket and picking parts of meat from the shelf.
Willie Wallace says:
We photographed a lovely ram on Islay, today. It happily stood and watched us watching it, from 5 metres away, over a fence. I could have thrown a book at it and hit it, so no need fora high powered rifle! We saw Heelan coos and deer and a huge pod of dolphins in Saligo Bay, countless sheep eating grass and 20,000 barnacle geese and a LOT of Hooper swans. No goats and no American hunters, though.
MBC says:
Isn’t it funny she seems to want to be known as a ‘huntress’ when actresses want to be ‘actors’.
Richard Easson says:
No mention seems to have been given on whose estate this took place or who runs the travel/hunting company that was involved. Funny that.
Mike – I wonder how the damage done to the natural world by hunters compares to the damage done by the 1,000,000 new humans born every 4-5 days?
Hang on it’s even worse than that. The above number is rate of growth – so births minus deaths over a period. A million every 4 or 5 days or 83 million annually. Clearly it’s preposterous to imagine that this does not fuck the biosphere.
Do we act or just bury our heads in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening?
Sorry that figure above is rate of population growth- so it’s even worse. Do we act on this or stick our heads in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening.
My first reply to myself above didn’t appear so I added another.
Today 30/10/18 in the Guardian a major report by WWF says there has been a 60% fall in numbers of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970.
‘it finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life’
@Mathew, indeed, where are the self-limits of our species?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-limiting_(biology)
L Hendry says:
Fine to complain if you are veggie or vegan but meat eaters have no case to make. The answer is to reintroduce large carnivores not to bleat about class division. Will Scotland ban people from saving up for a cruise next as that’s divisive coz many people can’t go on one?
Some ordinary people like to hunt and/or fish. Its a hobby like golf. People spend loads of money on their hobby be it politics or golf. Better than having an alcohol or gambling habit. Best if hunters keep the photos off Social Media though from now on.
Will the meat in the supermarket all be covered up next? Take some photos inside an abattoir if you need a reason for outrage.
When all the Scottish landowners’ lands are sold to the local communities some community will probably decide to allow trophy hunting as the easiest way to offset their Council Tax.
Graham Ennis says:
The key thing is the pathetic and cowardly behavior of the Scottish Government. The SNP has been captured by the big landowners and oligarchs. Its that simple. The top leadership of the SNP have essentially been absorbed into the Scottish establishment, and have become, in fact, the establishment. Too many compromises have been made. They now allow racial killings by Police Scotland, and do nothing. Plus many other things. But land and eco are the core of where their reall attitude can be seen. They are easily scared off by clever lawyers, and will do nothing if they can. The Lockerbie scandal is a prime example. They know the truth about that, and certain Americans should have been accused. but you will never see that kind of justice from the SNP. They are now an upper middle class political machine, whose ordinary membership are used. It has been infected with thee disease that Michael Moore has exposed in his latest film about the democratic party. The SNP will not do anything radical, now, about the Oligarchs. I think it is time for grass roots direcct action against the hunting and eco-destruction of Scotland. But that will not happen either, of course. Sigh. It could have been so different.
Graeme Purves says:
Are the high-powered rifles used by American trophy hunters brought into Scotland on ordinary passenger flights? If so, what safety and security measures are taken by the airlines and at our airports?
Yah boo to most of you. The only thing wrong with hunting is that it is the stolen prerogative of the rich. Along with fishing it needs to be democratised so that we can all participate if we so desire.
Land reform has been mentioned. At the present time that is a slow and expensive process and I doubt if much will have been achieved by the end of the century. The big attraction of Highland Estates is the exclusive sporting rights. Bringing sporting rights into public ownership would act as a disincentive to ownership of the estate and along with a few other measures, such as an end to all subsidies for such estates, would encourage a sell off and reduce the price to the use value of the bare land.
The Scottish government is supposedly committed to re-foresting Scotland and that is something Scotland certainly needs. But planting forests, and especially deciduous forests, is incompatible with overstocking of deer so the excess need to be killed (I hate that phoney word “culled”) A friend who goes fishing in Perthshire several times a year told be that he had noticed the absence of deer. Usually there are lots to be seen, both red and roe but now nothing. He asked a local why. The answer was that trees were being planted and SNH had shot all the deer, even using a helicopter to do so. The local was asked what had been done with the carcases of the deer. Apparently a bulldozer had dug a large pit and the carcases had been buried. The powers that be would pay people to destroy good meat rather than let the hoi polloi get their hands on it.
Such is the overpopulation of deer in Scotland that they cause accidents. According to SNH motor vehicle accidents involving deer cause around nine thousand accidents a year with 65 injuries. The fact is that the deer population needs to be reduced and so the choice appears to be hunting by individuals, mass slaughter by SNH or perhaps poison them as the did in NZ at one point.
@Frank, maybe it’s the vehicles who are primarily causing the accidents? Even helicopters, y’know.
LVT and a regular review of classification and rates will sort this without specific legislation being necessary.
I guess all of Scotland is vegan. Also, she is from Canada not the US. It’s kind of like saying Scotland is England.
Bella Caledonia Editor says:
Not sure how her being Canadian makes a difference to any of the substance of the article but very happy always to correct any inaccuracies.
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Imagining an inner Powell that would actually solve the street’s problems
Posted by Michael Andersen (Contributor) on July 26th, 2016 at 2:46 pm
When more people use cars on a street, it becomes less and less efficient. When more people use mass transit, it becomes more and more efficient.
(Image: Nick Falbo)
The City of Portland and the State of Oregon both say they want to free more of their constituents from traffic congestion and to reduce planet-killing pollution.
There’s no mystery at all about what this would look like on inner Powell Boulevard. Everyone with some measure of power who has considered the issue knows the answer. But for some reason, the millions of public dollars spent talking about that possible answer have never resulted in a street-level picture of it.
That changed Monday when a Portland-based street designer, Nick Falbo, threw up a rough image of a Powell that would get more and more efficient as more people use it rather than less and less efficient.
Here’s the full before-and-after rendering Falbo shared on his Twitter feed:
Notice how both images feature the same number of cars.
Falbo’s day job is with Alta Planning + Design, but his Twitter feed is his own.
In March, project managers pulled the plug on short-term plans for a “rapid” bus line on inner Powell because they realized it wouldn’t actually be rapid. There was one basic reason: the Oregon Department of Transportation had silently vetoed the possibility of fully prioritizing bus traffic over car traffic with a dedicated lane, and no politicians in the state, city or regional government had tried to force them to do otherwise.
Would removing cars from two lanes of Powell in favor of buses (plus ambulances and, maybe, trucks) get a lot of people angry? Of course it would. Is it far easier and less stressful for an independent contractor like Falbo to throw up a nice-looking image and enjoy the cheers from like-minded folks on the Internet? Definitely.
But there’s a reason that people cheer for images like this one. Unlike any other traffic plan for inner Powell, including the status quo, it offers a way to actually solve the problems before us, rather than closing our eyes and hoping our grandchildren never ask us why we never got around to making those problems go away.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org
metro, nick falbo, oregon department of transportation, se powell blvd
The Street Trust puts street safety issues on radar of Police Chief Danielle Outlaw May 10, 2018
Lawmakers weigh in on bus-only lanes, Powell Blvd, and more at east Portland forum August 4, 2017
Commish Eudaly's office works with police to solve "deliberate act" of nails in Interstate… January 8, 2019
Consultants to ODOT in 2014: Widen the bike lanes on SE 26th at Powell April 17, 2018
Spiffy July 26, 2016 at 2:55 pm
I was just over at the Powell-Division Transit Development Project web site (http://www.oregonmetro.gov/public-projects/powell-division-transit-and-development-project) yesterday to see what was going on and I took the survey this morning…
it focused exclusively on Division…
I filled out the forms and felt like they were completely avoiding the issue of non-transit commute traffic on Division…
they stated less stops, better signal timing, and larger buses as reasons it will speed up the street…
what they forgot to account for was the currently congestion level that will never let them realize any greater speeds due to the bus sitting in traffic…
I wasn’t happy…
in the comments section at the end I stated that they needed to move this idea over to Powell and dedicate an entire lane for the bus so it wouldn’t get stuck in traffic…
Josh Gold July 26, 2016 at 3:16 pm
I left the same comments you did about dedicated bus line for Powell. Also recommended to look at moving #10 off Clinton between 21st and 26th, and asked for more frequent service during peak times for #4 to alleviate crowding.
Betsy Reese July 26, 2016 at 5:29 pm
Thanks for recommending that the #10 be moved off Clinton, Josh.
I and other advocates have been told for years that the #10 bus cannot be moved off Clinton over to Division Street because it cannot make the turn at SE. 26th Ave. and Division.
Here is proof that it can and does every time it is detoured from Clinton. I watched this detour operate smoothly again yesterday while Clinton was closed between 25th and 26th for movie filming.
See my Youtube video of the #10 – easily, smoothly, and without leaving its lane – making the turn from Division to 26th southbound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y4Pd6tPHgU&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share
Let’s get this big bus off our Greenway for these five blocks.
Spiffy July 27, 2016 at 8:11 am
speaking of getting buses off the greenways, I’d like to get the 71 off of Lincoln from 52nd to 60th and have it also take Division instead…
Adam H. July 27, 2016 at 9:14 am
I agree! The bus seems to have trouble getting around the traffic islands on Lincoln. TriMet did this a few times, so I know it’s possible.
nuovorecord July 27, 2016 at 9:27 am
“…seems to have trouble getting around the traffic islands on Lincoln.”
I ride the 71 a lot. This is certainly not the case.
I also ride the 71 a lot. The “trouble” is that the bus driver has to greatly slow down to get around them. Which means the islands are working, I suppose, but why even have the bus driver deal with that when the bus could be routed over Division instead?
Daniel Costantino July 27, 2016 at 10:11 am
Yes please! It would be great to have that bus turn onto Division between 52nd and 60th.
Dick Pilz July 28, 2016 at 2:21 pm
The claim I heard, at a neighborhood meeting about the 50s bikeway, was a southbound bus could not negotiate the right turn from 60th onto Division
paikiala July 27, 2016 at 2:47 pm
Betsy,
The video needs to be more clear as to the constraint/lack thereof. A view from 26th south of Division looking NW that shows the bus number, where it started it’s turn, and the distance from the corner, would better illustrate the feasibility of the movement.
eawrist July 26, 2016 at 3:21 pm
DOTs in cities around the country (such as PBOT) in many cases have a clear precedent of successful design, have the relevant research, know what design lends itself to safer and cleaner neighborhoods and what is ultimately better for our future. Their hands are equally tied by political positioning and constraints that render projects ultimately ineffective. This is what happened to the Powell-Division project.
We know what to make, we just don’t have the politicians who will do it.
Adam H. July 26, 2016 at 3:25 pm
The Powell-Divison BRT project is dead as initially envisioned. The project is now effectively an express Division bus, running entirely in mixed traffic. Which itself is a good improvement, but it is not BRT. Why do Metro and TriMet need until 2021 if all that’s being done is the removal of a few stops and nicer bus shelters?
Hello, Kitty July 26, 2016 at 3:02 pm
I agree that something like this has to be the future of Powell, however, the “same number of cars” caption sort of glosses over the fact that the photo shows a very low-volume time of day. There is no way a redone street could carry anywhere near the volume of vehicular traffic Powell does when it is full (which it is much of the time).
Many people (here and elsewhere) complain about the changes to Division (which were much less dramatic than this proposal). How would a redone street actually function in practice?
Images are powerful, and I hope that these help move the conversation beyond where it has been stuck for approximately forever.
PS A minor quibble: my understanding is that ODOT didn’t veto the idea of a dedicated lane on Powell because no one asked.
Totally agree. One of my frustrations with this project was that “retention of car lanes” was a metric of success from the very beginning. The project was set up to fail.
Is this true? Was that ever a stated goal or criteria of the project?
When using the interactive plan map, every single segment on Powell said something along the lines of whether it could be done without interfering with motor traffic. Why even state that if it wasn’t a goal of the project?
Probably because they didn’t want to scare off the 95% of Portlanders who don’t want to disrupt auto traffic on Powell? (Because where would it go? Probably more would filter through the adjacent neighborhoods.)
I don’t know what this was ever an official goal of the project in the way you presented it; it was probably seen as a constraint on what was politically feasible.
I want to be clear that I do want to take a closer look at lane removal on Powell, but I recognize that most people would oppose it, making it a very tough political sell.
I don’t buy scaring people away as a valid reason. We elected our leaders to lead, and it’s their job to convince us why it’s needed. Come up with a compelling argument why we need this project, rather than throwing up their arms and dejecting “well, this will make people upset”. Someone is always going to get upset, but we need our elected leaders to make tough (even unpopular) choices that will benefit everyone in the long run.
Of course they should lead. But they also need to reflect the will of the people who elected them, otherwise they won’t get elected again. I agree that Powell needs a reboot, but I am really unsure how accomplish it.
I would argue that the job of elected officials is not solely to represent the will of the people, but to work towards a future that benefits all their constituents as well. I’m willing to bet that highway widening would poll well in the region, but most of us here would agree that is bad for our future. Let the government represent the will of the people, but also let them make the decision on implementation. If the will of the people is to “solve our transportation issues” let Metro come to the conclusion that bus lanes on Powell would solve that and help more people that it would inconvenience.
Keviniano July 26, 2016 at 4:45 pm
I think that the TriMet version of BRT will rarely have 24/7 dedicated lanes. If they thought a project deserved that, they would want to put in a MAX line.
Not saying I agree with that approach, but it seems like that’s how they think about it at a high level.
Tri-Met on an ODOT road = ODOT vision = more cars. ODOT staff has actually told PBOT staff that projects like Clinton are messing up their roads.
What we really need is for PBOT to get control of Powell and other not-highway highways.
was carless July 27, 2016 at 10:53 pm
That will never happen. It’s a state Highway and a nuclear evacuation route. They won’t even allow signals or crosswalks on Powell or Barbur because it could interfere with troop movements.
eawrist July 28, 2016 at 5:25 am
Wow. We really need ODOT out of Pland ASAP.
Michael Andersen (News Editor) July 26, 2016 at 8:52 pm
Yeah, it’s entirely possible that no staffer for TriMet, Metro, PBOT, etc, ever actually transmitted the words to any ODOT staffer “seeing as it’s the only actual solution to rush-hour congestion on inner Powell, why don’t we have a dedicated bus lane there?” ODOT’s cultural conservatism creates a pretty convenient villain for people at other, less conservative agencies who would rather not force the question. Same goes for politicians.
Ultimately, it’s on our politicians — Gov. Brown, state legislators, the city councils, the Metro council — to force difficult questions. Not ODOT staff, though IMO the top ODOT staff could be forcing them if they wanted to and they could also be doing a better job of making it feel safer for the questions to be asked.
Hello, Kitty July 26, 2016 at 10:09 pm
Ultimately, it’s on its to make sure our politicians are asking the hard questions, and won’t be out of a job if they do.
Chris Anderson July 27, 2016 at 12:03 pm
ODOT is insulated from political pressure. So wouldn’t it be nice if they would use that situation for good instead of evil?
Blake July 30, 2016 at 2:22 pm
I don’t think ODOT is insulated from political pressure, it is just getting a good deal of cover from Governor Kate Brown who has the power to appoint the 5 member commission who is the parent agency for ODOT. If the governor decided that the approach ODOT took was inappropriate, she could push change.
It might meet bureaucratic resistance but I doubt the pressure is being pushed from the Governor’s office for a change of priorities to something more progressive like PBOT: http://bikeportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/green-hierarchy.jpg
For example, the governor would not be talking about freeway expansion as a tool to reduce congestion in a positive light like this: https://twitter.com/OregonGovBrown/status/758739322627436546
As Oregon moves to becoming a more reliably blue state, it would seem possible to change the person who is at the top to someone with more progressive transportation priorities (at least relative to other states where getting a Democrat elected is more difficult).
m July 26, 2016 at 3:07 pm
It’s disingenuous to take a picture during a non-rush hour period and say the “after” shows the same number of cars. Powell is packed with cars during rush hour. We all know that. That said, it makes no sense to install a BRT without a dedicated lane. Car capacity will be cut by 50% but it is worth it to encourage the use of BRT – It has the speed of trains with the lower expense of Buses.
My view is that the “powers that be” never really want BRT all along but would much prefer to wait so they can install MAX down the road. BRT is practical but not sexy. Tri-Met likes sexy.
Light rail was never on the table despite 50% of the survey results contained comments who were interested or in support. If Metro wanted LRT, they did not want it to happen soon.
Exactly. Their focus now is on Southwest to Bridgeport Village.
Yeah, Powell never looks like that except maybe at 3 am. That being said, we shouldn’t even care about how many cars we can fit on Powell at all. We should care about the effect the road has on our built-up neighborhoods and how we can use public right-of-way to improve livability. Don’t like how slow Powell is now? Well, then why not take this fancy new bus or MAX line we just built?
Right now, Powell functions as a car sewer and nothing else. Crossing on foot at rush hour takes forever because the signals are timed for maximum car throughput. Everyone seems to complain about traffic reducing their quality of life, but what about the quality of life for the people who live nearby? Powell is hugely detrimental for those who live along the corridor, and it’s high time we fix that. We can even improve things for drivers if we get them to take the bus instead, so there’s no drawback to this.
Charley July 26, 2016 at 4:20 pm
WORD. I live off of Powell. It’s a transportation barrier to me, not a transportation corridor. I route my whole commute around how to avoid Powell. My wife and I love our neighborhood, but Powell is like a giant festering wound in the middle of it. There’s little beauty or fun commerce on Powell- mostly strip clubs and weird old greasy restaurants. It will always be like that as long as Powell is a highway.
I also live a block from Powell. I frequently take the 9 bus to get downtown so it does function as a transportation corridor for me, though it often gets stuck in car traffic. Walking along or crossing Powell on foot, however, is not a pleasant experience. There is so much lost potential and it’s all because of how dangerous Powell is for anyone not in a vehicle.
Craig Giffen July 27, 2016 at 11:45 am
Powell is actually fun to bike on at 3am, if you see a car though, get the hell off the road because the driver is either drunk, driving 20mph over, or both!
Eric Leifsdad July 26, 2016 at 3:10 pm
ODOT out of Portland!
B. Carfree July 26, 2016 at 3:15 pm
Step Two: ODOT out of Oregon.
Nice drawing. However, it would fail California’s standards for bike lanes since he left the street light pole in what should be the clear zone for the bike lane. The lack of any clear zone on our bike facilities is a constant irritant and safety hazard. It’s long past time for us to raise our game in this regard.
if you want to move the light pole because it’s a foot away from the bike lane then you’ll need to move all the trees as well…
meh July 26, 2016 at 3:23 pm
What’s the definition of efficient here? Is taking twice as long to travel to and from a location an efficient use of my time? Waiting for mass transit is not an efficient use of time.
Waiting in a car in traffic is a much worse waste of time for everyone else.
also waiting behind a bus in the bike lane.
I hear you. DC just decided to designate a shared bus/bike lane on a major street. Remember dodging buses on Williams? Yeah.
SaferStreetsPlease July 26, 2016 at 3:33 pm
BRT would run often and be much more efficient than driving during peak hours if Powell were redesigned as such. I’m not going to hold my breath since ODOT is involved.
dan July 26, 2016 at 3:40 pm
So many people agree with you that we have 1+ hour commute times to the outer suburbs. In those circumstances, personally I would much rather take transit (and do, when I visit my parents in Vancouver on weekday evenings) – at least I can read rather than creep along at 10 mph. It is, of course, your prerogative to prefer holding the wheel and creeping along at 10 mph. 🙂
JeffS July 26, 2016 at 6:59 pm
No, that’s absolutely not the measurement.
Perhaps if you want to factor in the extra time you have to work to pay your insurance, tax, registration and gas, then maybe.
Cheaper, faster, and more convenient isn’t the benchmark for mass transit.
I gladly choose 60 minutes of care-free playing on my phone/internet and chatting with society over 30-45 minutes of stress being on high-alert for idiots breaking the law with only a radio as my escape…
meh,
People moved per hour, not cars moved per hour.
Yes. I would also add the oft overlooked variable of whether during this movement people report they are happy or not.
GlowBoy July 29, 2016 at 10:18 am
As someone who uses both bikes and mass transit regularly for transportation, I disagree about transit being an inefficient use of time.
In fact, I often make the decision to use transit instead of a bike precisely because I’m short on time that day. On a bus or train, I get work done (or maybe just some reading I haven’t gotten to, if it fits my mood). Can’t do that in a car or on a bike.
Yes, transit can take longer to get somewhere, but that’s just a simplistic view of how we use our time as it is to eschew biking because it often takes longer than driving.
– Time spent in a car is completely unproductive other than getting you to your destination.
– Time on a bike is less wasteful because you’re getting where you’re going and getting exercise at the same time. Yes, the transportation aspect often takes longer than by car, but it’s time efficient because the amount of time spent is still less than if I’d driven to my destination, then driven to the gym and worked out separately to get that half hour of exercise.
– Likewise, time spent in transit vehicles is efficiently spent because I’m getting where I’m going and working at the same time. Again, this generally takes longer than by car, (and usually longer than bike, if transfers are involved), but the total amount of time spent is still less than if I’d driven to my destination and done the same amount of work at a desk somewhere,
Huey Lewis July 26, 2016 at 3:29 pm
Because I’m clueless; what is the clear zone? What the f does California have to do with this?
Huey Lewis July 27, 2016 at 9:21 am
Fantastic. All the mega commenters on this site and no one can answer a question.
Did you not get the Googles installed on your computer?
Huey Lewis July 27, 2016 at 10:10 am
With all the people who seemingly never leave BP ever I figured someone could answer. I check BP a couple times a day. And sometimes not at all! Blue collar work doesn’t allow me non stop internet access through out the day.
The “clear zone” is used for highways and is empty space along the roadway so that a driver who leaves the roadway doesn’t crash into something. It’s been shown to actually reduce safety because its existence encourages speeding.
Hello, Kitty July 27, 2016 at 9:46 am
This is exactly why I like on-street parking!
Thanks, Adam.
Bjorn July 26, 2016 at 4:26 pm
It is going to need enforcement cameras too or people will just drive down the red lane.
much like how people drive in the Belmont bus-only lanes… never seen a cop in that area during commute…
rick July 26, 2016 at 5:09 pm
I’ve taken the Tour d’ODOT and Powell is a mess. It needs to be safe.
David Lewis July 26, 2016 at 5:17 pm
Maybe we should ask why we have these problems to begin with!
A big reason is that Powell (US 26) is part of the National Highway System. And, thanks to extremely short-sighted performance measures being pushed by FHWA, the priority for our streets is to move cars as rapidly as possible. This being, of course, at the expense of mobility for people. 🙁
http://t4america.org/2016/07/27/a-large-congressional-delegation-asks-usdot-to-improve-the-proposed-congestion-rule/
Nick Falbo July 26, 2016 at 6:54 pm
Thanks for the share Michael!
Implementing this would require a dramatic departure from our standard practices with regards to accommodating motor vehicle traffic. Portland is learning where their limit is when it comes to road diets, and this drawing goes so far beyond their limits that it is unlikely to be taken seriously. I do hope however that it can become a discussion point for asking some questions about my future option vs. today:
Which street can move the most people?
Which street produces the highest speed for transit?
Which streets produces the highest serious injury crash rate?
Which street can be more economically prosperous?
Which street can support the future population growth of our town centers on Powell and in Lents?
Which street gets more people to their work on time, reliably?
My take is that the answer to all of these questions is the multimodal version of the street.
Ms.Haole July 27, 2016 at 10:58 am
I want to get involved and do everything I can to make dedicated BRT or light rail on Powell a reality. Is there anything I can do aside from just attending the Powell-Division Transit meetings, and writing to politicians? Can we somehow band together to pressure Trimet/ODOT/politicians?
Eric Leifsdad July 27, 2016 at 10:43 pm
If we look at how much we’re willing to spend on road maintenance, our “limit” for road diets looks like: most streets are closed to through auto traffic and arterials are as you’ve shown above.
I know — suggesting we stick to a budget isn’t taken seriously. Hey, no problem: we’ll just add some toll lanes to the freeway.
I think it’s important to note the corridor itself negated the potential effects that LRT would have in connecting the East parts of the metro area. The narrow corridor as it was defined prior to the project precluded any consideration of anything other than Powell-Division. This was both nonsensical and predictive of one impossible solution. A line from the Tillicum down Powell connecting at 205 would not be one line (i.e. it would allow lines on existing track to Clackamas, to the PDX and to Gresham). The effects multiply with connectivity. The narrow corridor mindset made the project essentially worthless from the get go.
Tom July 26, 2016 at 9:01 pm
Straddle bus. Should be able to buy them in a few years from China.
John Liu July 27, 2016 at 1:34 am
I don’t understand how the rendering fits with the actual dimensions of Powell.
Powell is five lanes wide, currently four travel lanes (two in each direction) and a center turn lane.
The rendering shows four travel lanes (a car and a bus lane in each section), two bike lanes (look like each is 5′ wide), and a center bus stop island that looks about as wide as a lane.
Seems to me the rendering assumes you can squeeze one more 10 foot wide lane into Powell. Maybe you can, but if there is actually room for bike lanes, they are probably not going to be roomy and buffered enough to satisfy many here on BP.
Also, are there a lot of BRT-suitable buses with passenger doors on the left side?
It’s not at all clear to me how the intersections will work, or how vehicles will make left turns. What, for example, would the plan for 39th & Powell be?
Typically with center-running bus lanes, left turns are banned at most intersections. At major streets like Chávez, there would be separate signal phases for buses and drivers. It works the same way left turns across MAX tracks do.
That would put all non-through traffic onto Division, right?
Some of those people will take the bus.
And many won’t. How will Division handle the increase in volumes?
It will slow to a crawl to the point that no one will want to drive on it, so they make other transportation choices.
Hello, Kitty July 27, 2016 at 10:06 am
That’s already happened! The mantra when we redid Division was “let them use Powell!”. If Division becomes the main access to the neighbourhood, in not sure that will work well.
Adam H. July 27, 2016 at 10:06 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_traffic
Is this a serious answer?
Alex Reedin July 27, 2016 at 9:20 pm
Yep, this is a serious answer. With population growth strong in Portland and no one making any more land, we physically cannot have as high a percentage of people get around by car, the most space-consuming form of transportation, anymore without extreme congestion. Any affordable attempts to improve other modes require taking space away from cars. Therefore our choices are extreme car congestion or even more extreme car congestion – and even more extreme car congestion by making space for other ways to get around makes more efficient use of our space, allows more people to get their daily needs met in a reasonable amount of travel time, and is better for our health and the world. Seems like a slam dunk to me.
Nick Falbo July 28, 2016 at 8:48 am
My assumptions about widths are slightly different than yours, but yes, at station areas there will be some road-widening necessary. Along segments without stations, the median would be reduced to a minimum width and it can fit curb to curb.
http://streetmix.net/nickfalbo/32/powell-remix
Adam July 27, 2016 at 6:31 am
But you’re going to have to put one HELL of a lot more diversion on Clinton for THAT to ever happen.
Chris I July 27, 2016 at 6:53 am
A lane reduction on Powell is going to be a non-starter. This project needs to be LRT, as it would nicely tie into the Orange line on the west end, and the green line on the east end (with potential extension east on Division). It would be expensive, but would add significant new service options and system flexibility, all on a dedicated ROW. Powell has extra ROW east of 52nd that was set aside for the Mt. Hood Freeway, and we should take advantage of that. Between 17th and 52nd, a few elevated sections would be required (near Cleveland HS and at 39th due to ROW width and traffic impact). A MUP could be built adjacent to the MAX ROW for the length of the project, flying over many busy intersections, safely separated for the entire length.
ethan July 27, 2016 at 7:01 am
A partially elevated MAX line would be very cool.
Agreed. If we can’t take away a lane on Powell, then why not elevate a line above it?
Bald One July 27, 2016 at 10:36 am
new Orange MAX line is elevated at numerous locations (I guess this is partially elevated) between Milwaukee and Portland.
i wear many hats July 27, 2016 at 8:20 am
I have a monorail for sale Portland.
Simpsons aside, why not?
Chris I July 27, 2016 at 11:03 am
The Orange line already has several long, elevated sections. Seattle’s Link system has even more. They do add cost, but don’t require any new vehicle technology and can be designed in a way that doesn’t greatly degrade the street below:
http://www.alexblock.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VTA-San-Jose-1-1024×450.png
Benefits include faster, more reliable service and increased safety for all users (vehicle, pedestrian, transit user). If elevated stations can be avoided, the costs are not that much higher.
m July 27, 2016 at 9:29 am
Like I said above, Tri-Met likes sexy (and expensive).
eawrist July 27, 2016 at 12:50 pm
Expensive compared to current highway spending? Current cost of vehicle ownership where other options are not viable? Current cost of health deficits due to SOV use? Cost of infrastructure related to fuel? Looks a lot cheaper in the long run to me.
Max is sexy the way your creepy uncle is sexy.
Lance W. July 28, 2016 at 10:55 am
I live on SE Gladstone between Chavez and 26th. We’re supposed to be a neighborhood street, but we carry more and more traffic in the form of short cutting commuters. 20 years ago I saw counts that put the volume at 9,000 vehicles/day, typically neighborhood streets are below 1,000. I know these numbers have escalated. Commuters are looking for alternatives to Powell. As traffic slows ever more on Division, has been largely eliminated from Clinton and Holgate is already congested, I’m expecting even more cars on our street! Especially with the upcoming narrowing of Foster! People continue to move out, thereby requiring longer commutes. They move to cheaper housing, they move to escape what they perceive as negative living conditions. They do not recognize the burden this puts on those of us who live ‘in’ the City. The regional town centers have not as of yet grown enough to be significant job centers…will they ever? The pattern of development in outer areas is auto oriented. These people won’t/can’t give up their cars…at least nowhere in the near future. Downtown will remain a major ‘draw’ pulling people in. I fear that our inner city neighborhoods will continue to degrade, not because of some inherent urban malady, but because of the burden all of this traffic creates. Outer city areas demand better vehicular access. We demand a high quality of urban life. The two are in direct opposition to one another. Compromise satisfies neither and perpetuates the problem. A note, the same pattern of suburban sprawl, makes leaving the City for outings outside the City more tedious. This all reminds me of of the Sellwood Bridge finance fiasco in which the bulk of commuters come from Clackamah county who voted to stiff the rest of us with the costs that their choices have put on us.
I don’t think planners have caught-on to the new era of waze and ubiquitous maps/gps navigation. If there’s a path for traffic to cut-through, it will keep doing that until you plug the holes or make that path slower. Stop catering to auto use and people will make different choices.
Our first response to any problem with traffic should be to close or restrict access or connectivity. (People will say that’s not possible or make some excuse, but they’re either in denial or can’t do math.) Once waze tells drivers it’s fastest to stay on the main road, they will do that.
The other thing is eliminating free parking. Suburban commuters don’t get to vote on that either.
Tom Hardy July 28, 2016 at 5:09 pm
It would be nice if ODOT would actually do something like is drawn up here but what is more likely for inner SE is like was done in San Antonio to some of the state highways that were through streets in neighborhoods.
What was done is at the first part of the arterial id to make ramps up to a second level for through traffic. This would start at about 12th to 17th. a second level would go to approximately 92nd. then return to street level for interchange to 205. The lower level would continue. Through buses would take the upper level to Gresham and the lower level would Accommadate local buses and traffic.
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home » productivity » Satya Nadella was the right choice for Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella was the right choice for Microsoft CEO
It’s one year since Microsoft appointed Satya Nadella as its third CEO. He was clearly the right person for the job.
Things are not perfect at Microsoft, but Nadella has done a great job of reinventing the company and making it relevant again.
Some of his achievements:
Made Microsoft a player in the booming iOS app market with first class versions of key Office apps.
The Office apps were in the pipeline, but stalled, when Nadella took over. However, it was under his leadership Microsoft acquired Accompli then raced to get a terrific version of Outlook for iOS out to market.
For a long time Microsoft was openly hostile to Apple. Former CEO Steve Ballmer spoke contemptuously of iPhones and iPads. Nadella stopped the cold war, even choosing to use Apple kit to display Microsoft products to audiences. He has a clear understanding of symbolism.
Likewise Microsoft has built bridges to the Android world. There are Android apps and new Microsoft tools for building apps on Windows, Apple or Android devices.
Microsoft is investing in Cyanogen to build a new, non-Google, fork of Android.
There have been a swag of new products including Sway and Delve. Also the Skype translator.
Revitalised Windows which badly lost direction and momentum under Ballmer with Windows 8. Windows 10 looks to change that. Apart from anything else, it’s one OS, one code base, that will run on any device from tiny to huge.
Made Windows free for devices with screens smaller than nine inches. That’s going to change the dynamics of the market for low-end tablets and small computers.
Underlying this is a new confidence in Microsoft from investors. The company is worth 20 percent more today than when Steve Ballmer announced his departure.
It’s not all rosy. Microsoft has a problem with smartphones, the otherwise excellent Windows Phone OS has failed to get much traction in the market. At the moment, the Nokia acquisition looks more like a millstone around the company’s neck than an asset. Nadella will need to conjure something magical to cure that problem.
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> History & Transport
> Humamities
> Military history
Double Cross : The True Story of The D-Day Spies EPUB
by Macintyre Ben Macintyre
D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force.
The deception involved every branch of Allied wartime intelligence - the Bletchley Park code-breakers, MI5, MI6, SOE, Scientific Intelligence, the FBI and the French Resistance. But at its heart was the 'Double Cross System', a team of double agents controlled by the secret Twenty Committee, so named because twenty in Roman numerals forms a double cross.
The key D-Day spies were just five in number, and one of the oddest military units ever assembled: a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a Serbian seducer, a wildly imaginative Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming, and a hysterical Frenchwoman whose obsessive love for her pet dog very nearly wrecked the entire deception. Their enterprise was saved from catastrophe by a shadowy sixth spy whose heroic sacrifice is here revealed for the first time. Under the direction of an eccentric but brilliant intelligence officer in tartan trousers, working from a smoky lair in St James's, these spies would weave a web of deception so intricate that it ensnared Hitler's army and helped to carry thousands of troops across the Channel in safety.
These double agents were, variously, brave, treacherous, fickle, greedy and inspired. They were not conventional warriors, but their masterpiece of deceit saved countless lives. Their codenames were Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo. This is their story.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Category: Military history
Also by Macintyre Ben Macintyre | View all
A Spy Among Friends
Agent Zigzag
Forgotten Fatherland
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The Single Best Way to Get Rid of Telemarketers
Say goodbye to those unwanted calls for good.
By Owen Duff October 13, 2019
By Owen Duff
We've all been there: You see a somewhat familiar number pop up on your caller ID, usually with the same area code as your own. You pick up the phone thinking it's someone you know, only to find that it's a stranger or a robot trying to sell you something or get you to give them your private information. This has become so common in fact, that according to a September 2019 survey from Robocall Index, about 1,700 robocalls are received nationwide every second. Raymond Huahong Tu, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland, explained to The Washington Post, that today's telemarketers commonly use automatic dialing systems that allow them to place numerous calls at once and to substitute prerecorded or computer-generated messages for live ones. So how do you stop the madness and prevent your phone number from getting consistent calls from telemarketers? Well, that depends on whether or not you have a landline or mobile phone (and which kind). Below, we've gathered the top solutions for getting rid of telemarketers at home and on your cell.
The first step, no matter what kind of phone or phone line you're using, is to get yourself on the National Do Not Call Registry. This is maintained and enforced by the federal government and applies to all U.S. telemarketers (excluding non-profits). While this is a necessary first step for reporting telemarketers, you'll likely continue to receive calls from those violating the registry. So, here's how to further protect yourself from telemarketers.
How to block telemarketers and robocalls on your landline
Anonymous Call Rejection is a service available to landline users that blocks all those numbers that appear as "Anonymous" on caller ID from reaching you. As long as your caller ID is activated, pick up your line, and enter the magic number: *77. After that, you should hear a confirmation message that your Anonymous Call Rejection service has been turned on. And voila, from thereon out, any telemarketer hiding their number will be rejected. (It should be noted that some carriers charge extra for this service and that this should not be used on mobile lines, where dialing *77 will instead connect you with law enforcement.)
How to block telemarketers and robocalls on your cell phone
If you have a major cellular carrier—like AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile—your phone likely comes preloaded with free call-filtering and blocking services. That's why you'll see a numbered identified as "Spam?" on your caller ID. But these services can be less than reliable. If you want to keep all unfamiliar numbers from reaching you in full, turn on your phone's built-in Do Not Disturb Mode, which is available on both iPhones and Androids. While this will block all of those unwanted calls—including telemarketing calls and robocalls—you will likely also miss some legitimate calls when this mode is on, like from your doctor's office or hair salon if they're not saved in your Contacts list.
Another, albeit more tedious, option, is to block each individual number once you receive a call from a telemarketer or robot.
On your iPhone, open your Phone app, go to your Recents tab, then tap the "i" (AKA the Information icon) to the right of the number you want to block. On the next page, tap "Block this Caller" at the bottom of the screen to put the number on your Blocked Numbers list.
If you have an Android, similarly open your Recents section in your Phone app, then hold your finger on the suspicious number until the option to"Block/report spam" pops up.
Of course, if you understandably want a faster solution, there are many apps you can download to your smartphone. These major three—Hiya, Nomorobo, and Robokiller—all utilize some version of an extensive call blacklist, which is usually crowdsourced. If low cost and privacy are your priorities, Hiya is the one for you: It's free, and claims to not make use of client voicemail and call information. If you are willing to shell out a couple bucks per month, Nomorobo and Robokiller are both excellent options, and the latter has a killer perk: The service includes access to so-called "spambots," which will answer telemarketing calls for you and engage whoever's on the other end (even other bots!) in pointless bot-conversation. Soon, the telemarketers will catch on and stop calling you. Simple as that! And for more ways to make the most of the supercomputer in your pocket, Here's the Single Best Way to Make Your Phone Battery Last All Day.
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How-To • Tech and Gadgets
This Is the Best Way to Keep Your Smartphone Clean
Bad news: You've been carrying around a petri dish in your pocket.
20 Genius Ways to Kill Time without a Smartphone
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Here's Why Your Phone Is Making You a Terrible Parent
Ignoring your kids creates a vicious cycle that is worse than you think.
20 Things You Didn't Know Your Smartphone Could Do
Yes, there's an app for that.
20 Signs You're Addicted to Your Smartphone
If your phone feels more like a limb than a tool, you might just be addicted.
All the Ways You're Using Your Smartphone Wrong
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11 Easy Ways to Conquer Your Smartphone Addiction
Chin up, fellas. Here’s how to liberate yourself from the oppressor in your pocket.
The 100 Hottest Sexting Lines
Want to heat up your relationship in a hurry? Try #10.
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Author: Finley
Blindsided: Closing Time, 2018 Edition
No Comments on Blindsided: Closing Time, 2018 Edition
In a season of blindsides, it seems only appropriate that the victims of so many blindsides saved their revenge for the finale.
Continue reading “Blindsided: Closing Time, 2018 Edition”
Tags BB20, Brett, JC, Kaycee, Rockstar, Tyler
Knocking Them Down
No Comments on Knocking Them Down
This season of Big Brother has been defined by one major attribute – a systematic elimination of those working against the efforts of the Level 6 alliance. Rarely has a single alliance controlled a game so clearly as Level 6 – but every alliance must get a setback.
In Level 6’s case, it was a setback created from their own actions.
Continue reading “Knocking Them Down”
Tags Angela, BB20, Brett, Haleigh, JC, Kaycee, Sam, Scottie, Tyler
Faysal’s Fizzle
No Comments on Faysal’s Fizzle
From the beginning, Faysal was never quite playing the same game as the rest of the House. After being blindsided in most of the weeks he played, Faysal found a strategy that finally allowed him to know what was going to happen – evict his own teammate. It was a move made primarily for questionable reasons, and one that didn’t make sense for game reasons – indeed, the only reasons it made sense were based around Faysal’s affection for Haleigh and his viewing of Scottie as a rival.
It was that misunderstanding of the importance of game allies that put Faysal in danger, and it was this reason he sits in the Jury House now.
Continue reading “Faysal’s Fizzle”
Tags Angela, Faysal, Haleigh, Kaycee
Thinning The Ranks
In Big Brother, it is not unusual to see someone target a member of their own alliance for eviction. Typically, this is done when that member of the alliance is deemed to be a risk or disloyal. This past week has been no exception, with Faysal targeting Scottie for declared disloyalty, both real and exaggerated. At times, this move has led to later success for the streamlined alliance.
This time, however, it likely signalled the death Knell of the Hive alliance – and the blame for this is entirely Faysal’s to accept.
Continue reading “Thinning The Ranks”
Tags BB20, Brett, Faysal, Kaycee, Scottie
Continue reading “Curtain Closed, No Encore”
In all truth, she should have seen it coming.
Bayleigh’s eviction on Thursday night capped off a week that saw house meetings, an explosive fight, rage and feelings of being persecuted – when in fact, much of the blame for Bayleigh’s eviction could only be placed at her own feet. While the ramifications of the week that was have yet to play out, we have seen a definite end to a major story of the season. However, the end of Bayleigh’s season also comes with a subtle shift in perception about this cast, and the Level 6 Alliance members find themselves in a position to lose dearly if they fail to take heed of the lessons of the past week.
Continue reading “Reaping The Whirlwind”
Tags Angela, Bayleigh, BB20, Haleigh, Rockstar, Scottie, Tyler
Bad Decisions And Worse Aim
Some of the great Heads of Household have commonalities to their HoH reign – listening to their allies, making strategic moves, anticipating how their actions would have consequences later on in the game. The poorest of HoH performances tend to have the same thing in common – hubris and overinflated ego. This season has seen fair-to-good HoH reigns, but the most recent reign of Bayleigh managed to set a low mark for performance in the HoH room – a remarkable feat, given the reign of Kaitlyn before her.
When contrasted to the play of her unknown enemy Tyler, it puts a stark contrast in game play and skill – and sets the tone for the major divide defining this season’s house.
Continue reading “Bad Decisions And Worse Aim”
Tags Bayleigh, BB20, Brett, Rachel, Tyler
The Revival Of A Certain Fondness
This season has, to date, entertained heavily. With a quarter of the cast gone, Big Brother 20 has become a quick fan favorite while avoiding the pitfalls that have hurt recent seasons of play. There have been lessons that Production seems to have taken to heart, lessons that – in a lesser season – have not always been considered.
With this has come a new fondness of the show and feeds, one that can be lost quite easily if Production falls upon mistakes made in the past.
Continue reading “The Revival Of A Certain Fondness”
Tags BB20, Brett, Faysal, Kaitlyn, Rockstar, Sam, Scottie, Winston
Blindsided and Backdoored
The Backdoor eviction is a tradition that dates back to Big Brother 5, when Jennifer “Nakomis” Dedmon came up with what was then terms the “Five Finger Plan” to eliminate Scott, an ally of her nemesis Jase. It has become rarer since due to changes in Veto Competitor picking, but when performed legitimately it is one of the more exciting moves in Big Brother. Often times, the evicted person had some idea of their particular weakness in the game but felt they were safe, only to fall due to betrayal of some sort.
In the case of Chris AKA Swaggy C, the blindside came from his own misreading of a game he had shown love towards but for which he had ignored or misread every basic tenet of successful game play.
Continue reading “Blindsided and Backdoored”
Tags Bayleigh, BB20, Haleigh, Kaitlin, Swaggy, Tyler
Out Of The Gates
Big Brother’s first weeks can be a bit of a crap shoot when it comes to repercussions that reverberate through the game. Some seasons (Big Brother 5, as an example) have minimal repercussions that can be seen as game-changing. The eviction of Mike “The Don” did little to make major changes to the rest of the season. Other seasons have had major events occur in Week 1 that define the rest of the game – witness Paul’s return in Big Brother 19 as an example.
Big Brother 20, for its status as a rare modern “all newbie” cast, has had no less than three major events that should lead to lasting effects through the game.
Continue reading “Out Of The Gates”
Tags BB20, Faysal, Kaitlyn, Sam, Steve, Tyler
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Straightening out scoliosis
By: Tanya Leach
Cincinnati Children’s offers early treatment for scoliosis — even for babies. Click on the video to learn more.
Did you know treatment for early onset scoliosis can begin when patients are babies? Experts at Cincinnati Children’s often correct curves in a child’s spine with a series of casts. June is National Scoliosis Awareness Month, and we invite you to learn more about early onset scoliosis.
A bump on her back
A mother’s instinct told Courtney Strotman something was wrong with her baby.
Addyson Strotman was 4 weeks old when Courtney noticed the bump on her back. Courtney’s husband, Brandon, tried to ease her fears, telling her it was just a muscle. But Courtney insisted it was something more.
Five months later, doctors at Cincinnati Children’s diagnosed Addyson with infantile scoliosis. An X-ray measured the curve in Addyson’s spine at 26 degrees. Two months later, it had worsened to 42 degrees. The Strotmans’ options were to do nothing and face the complications of spinal deformity, to put growing rods in Addyson’s spine, or to try to correct the problem with a series of casts that their baby would wear for about a year.
Dr. Peter Sturm, director of Crawford Spine Center at Cincinnati Children’s, specializes in early onset scoliosis. Click on the video to learn more about treatment.
Controlling curves with casting
They decided on casting, a method that is quickly becoming the preferred treatment for early onset scoliosis. Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Peter Sturm brought the Mehta casting technique to Cincinnati. “We can actually control curves and frequently get them better just with casting,” Sturm says. “It’s less invasive, and it works.”
You want my child to wear WHAT?
Body Cast Helps One-Year-Old Overcome Scoliosis
My Journey with an “S” Curve and Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Dancing Through Life With Idiopathic Scoliosis
What’s Next For Meggie Zahneis
When Idiopathic Scoliosis Threw Me For A Curve, I Swung Back
Mission trip to India helps children with severe scoliosis
mehta casting
About the Author: Tanya Leach
Tanya Bricking Leach is a writer and video producer at Cincinnati Children's and a former newspaper reporter who has covered crime for The Cincinnati Enquirer, sports for USA Today, island life for The Honolulu Advertiser, food for The Associated Press and stories about storms and surfers for the New York Times. Tanya is the author of the military-themed travel guide "Hawaii for Heroes." She is married to a military veteran and is the mother of two young boys. When she's not wired in at work, she enjoys unplugging with her family on their sailboat.
» Straightening out scoliosis June 22, 16:12
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Lead III vs V4R
By Jen Greene | October 9, 2019 | 0
Hi Current EGC readers, This is older but interesting. When ST elevation in lead III is greater than in lead II, this is a more sensitive finding than elevation in V4R in diagnosing right ventricular MI (RVMI). We can use this as a quick screening tool for RVMI. Furthermore, III>II is a significant predictor of…
Evaluate a Chemical-First Cardioversion Strategy for Patients with Uncomplicated Acute Atrial Fibrillation
By Jen Greene | September 18, 2019 | 0
HOT OFF THE PRESS! In a randomized controlled trial of uncomplicated and anticoagulated ED patients experiencing A-fib for less than 48 hours; both electrical and chemical (Procainamide) cardioversion were successful BUT the electricity first group had significantly shorter LOS (median difference of 1.2 hours (95% confidence interval = 0.4 to 2.0 hours, p < 0.001). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=31423687 For full access…
ST elevation: differentiation between ST elevation myocardial infarction and nonischemic ST elevation
By Dave Klein | August 21, 2019 | 0
Henry D. Huang, MD,a Yochai Birnbaum, MD from sciencedirect.com. Please note the downloadable pdf of the full article below. Abstract: It is well accepted that early reperfusion is beneficial in patients with acute myocardial infarction presenting with ST elevation (STE). Earlier studies suggested lack of beneficial effects in patients presenting without STE and even with…
Effectiveness of a Prehospital Wireless 12-Lead Electrocardiogram and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Activation for ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction
Alain Tanguay, MD, Eric Brassard, MD, Johann Lebon, PhD, François Bégin, MD, Denise Hébert, BcSc-Infa, and Jean-Michel Paradis, MD The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of false-positive and inappropriate cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) activation in patients suspected with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) diverted to a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) facility after…
ST-elevation and non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes: Should the guidelines be changed?
By Dave Klein | August 7, 2019 | 0
An article by Anton P.M. Gorgels, MD, PhD, FESC, from sciencedirect.com. Please note the downloadable pdf of the full article below. Abstract: The 12 lead surface electrocardiogram (ECG) is an indispensable tool to identify acute coronary syndromes and the patient at high risk. Acute coronary syndromes are classified according to the presence or absence of…
ST-Segment Deviation Analysis of the Admission 12-Lead Electrocardiogram as an Aid to Early Diagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction With a Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Gold Standard
By Dave Klein | July 31, 2019 | 0
Excerpt of article from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol. 50, No. 11, 2007. Thomas N. Martin, MD, Bjoern A. Groenning, MD, Heather M. Murray, MSC, Tracey Steedman, BSC, John E. Foster, PHD, Alex T. Elliot, PHD, Henry J. Dargie, MD, Ronald H. Selvester, MD, Olle Pahlm, MD, PHD, Galen S. Wagner,…
Electrical Silence – Promo Video
Hey everyone, Current ECG here. Did you know that it’s possible to have an ECG where it doesn’t show any changes, but you know that the history of presenting illness fits, the patient presentation sure fits, and you’re thinking this is acute coronary syndrome, but you’re not sure why you’re not seeing a lot on…
Cutting Edge ECG Interpretation: ‘The Current Reality’
By Dave Klein BA, ACP, Clinical Development Paramedic This article appears in the June-July 2019 edition of Canadian Paramedic Association: https://canadianparamedicine.ca/featured-edition, pp.38-40 Paramedic ECG Interpretation Paramedics practice medicine in unpredictable environments thus necessitating the need to utilize a number of different skills and technologies to improve patient assessment and treatment. One particular skill that has…
OMI Manifesto!! is here
Hey everyone, Current ECG here. This is a quick video for an article about the OMI Manifesto posted here earlier today. There’s a really new piece of information done by Dr Pendell Meyers, Dr Stephen Smith, Dr Steven Weingard, and it’s called the Occlusion Myocardial Infarction Manifesto. And why I’m so pumped about it is…
The OMI Manifesto
From http://hqmeded-ecg.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-omi-manifesto.html, Sunday April 1 2018: A Collaboration by Dr Smith’s ECG Blog and EMCrit Pendell Meyers, MD Scott Weingart, MD, FCCM Stephen Smith, MD The current guideline-recommended paradigm of acute MI management (“STEMI vs. NSTEMI”) is irreversibly flawed, and has prevented meaningful progress in the science of emergent reperfusion therapy over the past 25…
OMI Manifesto!! is here » Current ECG - Ask The Expert on The OMI Manifesto
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Justin W. Flory's Blog
Justin W. Flory's blog. Featuring free software, music, travel, and life reflections
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TeleIRC v1.3.1 released with quality-of-life improvements - Justin W. Flory's Blog on Roadmap for TeleIRC v1.4
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Throwback draft: Reflections on Sarajevo and Croatia - Justin W. Flory's Blog on 2017 – My Year in Review
Tribute to the Halo 3: ODST soundtrack
May 2, 2016 / Justin W. Flory / 0 Comments
The time is nearing 2:00am on a Wednesday morning. Outside is dark, a swirling mist of rain and blurred lights. As I stare out the window, the white light from my laptop illuminates my face. Around me, a room that is as quiet as the deserted roads and parking lots I see from my window. This is the scene that surrounds me as I listen to the 2009 Halo 3: ODST Original Soundtrack. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the Halo series, especially the music that surrounds it.
Halo has a special place in my heart for its storytelling dynamics and the music that builds and drives the plot further. The composer, Marty O’Donnell, is one of my music idols. His work is inspiring and the sounds he creates across the games gives the story its character. It gives the characters purpose. All of the games reflect this in their soundtrack. But one game had a soundtrack different from the others.
Halo 3: ODST and its soundtrack
The Halo 3: ODST soundtrack places you in the feet of the rookie ODST soldier from the Halo series. Through the soundtrack, you join the rookie as you travel through an ominous, abandoned skyline. You are voyaging through the city, searching for clues. Answers for what has happened. Answers for where to go next.
The soundtrack takes on a film noir approach, unlike other Halo soundtracks. It is fitting for this game as it essentially plays itself as a mystery. Halo 3: ODST sometimes gets hate for its campaign, but it is a complex story that requires deep thinking and a craving for a solution. The soundtrack aides in this and helps drive the story forward.
Even when you listen to the soundtrack outside of the context of the game, it fits many situations. Whether you’re catching up on a backlog of tasks (and procrastination) at 2:00am, or you’re on a lonely drive to somewhere, the soundtrack has an uncanny ability to transport you to a new world. You are lifted out of reality and into the fictional storyline of whatever the music creates. It’s not always the same experience every time. Often the story the soundtrack creates for you is different each listen.
One rule
Regardless of what your story is, there is one rule. You must listen to the entire soundtrack in order. The soundtrack plays itself in a serial way. Each song has a relevance into the next. While it may be possible to alter the order to a custom mix, the original story is best embedded in the original order of the soundtrack. One track may lead into a comforting calm for the next, or it may give rise to a dire situation that requires fast action.
Get the soundtrack
You can find the soundtrack for sale in many places. I urge you to support Marty O’Donnell with a well-deserved purchase of the album. If game soundtracks, instrumental music, and/or stories in music are your thing, this album is worth the listen.
iTunes (ewwww)
Tags: cinematics, Halo, Halo 3: ODST, music review
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SMU Dark Matter Day celebration culminates in a dark matter rock hunt on Halloween
“In the spirit of science being a pursuit open to all, we are excited to welcome all members of the SMU family to become dark matter hunters for a day.” — SMU physicist Jodi Cooley
This Halloween, people around the world will be celebrating the mysterious cosmic substance that permeates our universe: dark matter.
At SMU, the Department of Physics in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences is hosting a Dark Matter Day celebration, and students, faculty, staff and DFW residents are invited to join in the educational fun with events open to the public.
To kick off the festivities, two speaking events by scientists in the field of dark matter will familiarize participants with the elusive particles that scientists refer to as dark matter. The first talk is oriented toward the general public, while the second is more technical and will appeal to people familiar with one of the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering or mathematics, particularly physics and astrophysics.
Then throughout Halloween day, everyone is invited to test their skills at finding dark matter — in this case, a series of rocks bearing educational messages related to dark matter, which the Society of Physics Students has painted and then hidden around the campus.
Anyone lucky enough to find one of the 26 rocks can present it at the Physics Department office to receive a prize, says SMU physics professor Jodi Cooley, whose research is focused on the scientific challenge of detecting dark matter.
“In the spirit of science being a pursuit open to all, we are excited to welcome all members of the SMU family to become dark matter hunters for a day,” Cooley said. “Explore your campus in the search for dark matter rocks, just as physicists are exploring the cosmos in the hunt for the nature of dark matter itself.”
Anyone who discovers a dark matter rock on the SMU campus is encouraged to grab their phone and snap a selfie with their rock. Tweet and tag your selfie #SMUDarkMatter so that @SMU, @SMUResearch and @SMUPhysics can retweet photos of the lucky finders.
As SMU’s resident dark matter scientist, Cooley is part of the 100-person international SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, which uses ultra pure materials and highly sensitive custom-built detectors to listen for the passage of dark matter.
SuperCDMS, an acronym for Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, resides at SNOLAB, an existing underground science laboratory in Ontario, Canada. Located deep underground, SNOLAB allows scientists to use the earth as a shield to block out particles that resemble dark matter, making it easier to see the real thing.
The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, expected to be operational in 2020, has been designed to go deeper below the surface of the earth than earlier generations of the research.
“Dark matter experiments have been a smashing success — they’ve progressed farther than anyone anticipated. The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment is quite unique,” Cooley said. “It will allow us to probe models that predict dark matter with the tiniest masses.”
For more on Cooley’s research, go to “Hunt for dark matter takes physicists deep below earth’s surface, where WIMPS can’t hide.“ — Margaret Allen, SMU
Dark Matter Day events at SMU:
Sunday, Oct. 29, 4 p.m., McCord Auditorium — Maruša Bradač, Associate Professor at the University of California at Davis, will give a public lecture on dark matter. A reception will follow the lecture from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Dallas Hall Rotunda with beverages and light snacks. This event is free and open to the public, and is designed to be open to the widest possible audience.
Monday, Oct. 30, 4 p.m., Fondren Science Building, Room 158 — SMU Associate Professor Jodi Cooley will present a seminar on the SuperCDMS direct-detection dark matter search experiment. This event is part of the Physics Department Speaker Series. While this event is open to the public, it will be a more technical talk and may appeal more to an audience interested in the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, especially physics and astrophysics.
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., SMU Main Campus, Dark Matter Rock Hunt — The SMU Department of Physics has hidden “dark matter rocks” all across the SMU main campus. If you discover one of the dark matter rocks, bring it to the main office of the Physics Department, Fondren Science Building, Room 102, and get a special prize. All SMU students, faculty, staff and community members are welcome to join in the search.
The hunt for dark matter rocks
So what is dark matter?
Twitter: follow SMU Dark Matter Day — and post a selfie!
SMU physics student Matt Stein at SNOLAB.
Book a live interview
To book a live or taped interview with Dr. Jodi Cooley in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.
SMU Dark Matter Day Events
Jodi Cooley
Video: Jodi Cooley at SLAC
Amplitude: Jodi Cooley’s Professional Website
SMU CDMS home page
Symmetry Magazine: Dark Matter Experiment Results Announced
SMU Department of Physics
Margaret Allen 2017-12-20T16:04:16-06:00 October 23, 2017|Categories: Earth & Climate, Energy & Matter, Events, Learning & Education, Researcher news, Student researchers, Videos|Tags: Dedman College, Jodi Cooley, SMU Department of Physics|
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Beware the Hype Machine: Sports Ratings Vs. Esports Viewers
Esports Digital Fan Engagement & Media Consumption
twitch analytics
Headlines are exploding with esports viewership numbers. Major news outlets such as USA Today and ESPN continue to report that more people watch League of Legends on the live streaming service Twitch.tv than watch professional sports on television. A deeper dive into the numbers reveals that this excitement belies the truth behind esports viewership: esports viewership numbers are inflated and their comparison to Nielsen ratings is flawed.
As we noted previously, there are no established standards for reporting streaming viewership numbers. Concurrent viewers throughout a Twitch stream are currently being reported by the press as the best metric to measure a stream’s success. This is not a helpful approach. Here’s why:
The methods of collection differ. Nielsen ratings are calculated using statistical models derived from data sets gathered through a variety of means, including set-top boxes. Twitch utilizes web analytics which are collected from each individual that connects to a given stream.
The data is not equivalent. Nielsen ratings measure how many individuals watched the entirety of a program. Twitch’s concurrent viewers (CCU) statistic shows how many individuals are watching a stream at a given moment, whether they watched for a minute or for an hour.
Comparisons lead to inflated perceptions of esports audience size. On the surface, these statistics lead journalists to conclude that Twitch’s viewership vastly outstrips that of major sporting events. One example is the 2016 League of Legends World Championship where several news outlets reported that more people had watched the event on Twitch than had watched the World Series or NBA Finals that year. This is simply not true. Reporting like this creates a false image of the success of esports’ content relative to that of traditional sports.
Nielsen became recognized as a reliable source of audience data because it was used evenly throughout the TV industry. Comparing Nielsen ratings from two different networks produces a fair assessment because the data is derived in the same way and shares the same biases. Twitch does not publish viewership data on a regular basis, and does not claim that their analytics are in any way comparable to Nielsen ratings, but this hasn’t stopped some individuals from trying. Consensus is forming around average concurrent viewers as the most reliable statistic for how many viewers watched a stream in its entirety. Average CCU polls the number of individuals watching a stream at frequent intervals and averages them over time. Like Nielsen ratings, measuring average CCU will not reveal precisely how long viewers watched a stream, but it can be used to help understand how many viewers may have watched the entire stream. This approach, while flawed, is more helpful than the methods frequently reported in the press.
Using a more balanced analysis based on average CCU, and adjusting for a predominantly international audience, The Next Level estimates that the 2016 League of Legends World Championships viewership was closer to 7M, placing it well below the World Series and NBA Finals that year. This analysis, though helpful, is an educated guess, and illustrates why caution should be exercised when seeking to understand esports’ reach for a given stream.
When dissecting the analytics produced from streaming data, a more scientific approach could be taken. A correlative data set that incorporates not only total viewership, but also the duration it was watched, and how the stream was consumed, could produce a more accurate understanding of stream audiences. Balancing this data to include the same biases as Nielsen ratings would go a long way to making them comparable. Until this framework for comparing Twitch analytics to Nielsen ratings has been established, any claims about massive esports audiences, particularly when compared to traditional sports, should be met with a healthy dose of skepticism.
© Sports Innovation Lab. All Rights Reserved.
https://blog.sportsilab.com/2017/08/18/beware-the-hype-machine-sports-ratings-vs-esports-viewers/
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Election news: This is a day for poetry
Euan Kerr November 3, 2010, 2:00 PM Nov 3, 2010
“Poetry is a way of telling huge stories in very small spaces,” Patricia Smith says.
She’s a four time National Poetry Slam Champion, in Minneapolis to speak this evening as part of the Nommo African American Writers series.
Like many people though she’s thinking about the election.
“For me, any time I am excited about something, or saddened by something, or angered by something, my first instinct is to run for paper and pen, ” she says.
She uses these tools to write her way out of confusion she is feeling, or to better understand her emotions at some news.
She thinks there’s a lot of people doing that today around the USA.
“And that is on both sides of the spectrum,” she says. “It could be if you are happy about the election or if you are sad. You need to figure out what does this mean to my root in the world? Does it weaken my root in the world? Does it strengthen it?”
Smith, a former Boston Globe columnist who resigned in a cloud of controversy in the late 1990’s entered into the poetry open-mike world in Chicago and built a second career.
“I am sure there’s a lot of people scribbling furiously right now so they can get up on stage tonight, and tell how they feel about everything,” she says. “I was just looking on Facebook and some people have posted poems that they wrote yesterday.”
Smith says poetry is at it’s best a creative conversation, and sometimes, like now, it can be a raw and imperfect.
“If we can get over the fact that every time you go to the page it’s got to be this perfectly well-crafted thing, and realize that sometimes poetry is a rant, or it is you bellowing in the face of your adversary. And I think, yeah, it’s a day for poetry because it’s a day of extreme emotion in both directions.”
Patricia Smith will speak this evening at the Cowles Auditorium at the Hubert H Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.
You can listen to her performing her work here.
You can hear our conversation on the election here:
Listen Featured Audio
This is our conversation on the place of poetry in her life now:
And here we talk about the difference between being a poet and a columnist:
‹ Older SPCO gets grant to preserve recordings
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ekerr@mpr.org • @EuanKerr • 651-290-1491
Long time radio guy from Scotland, now covering arts for the MPR Culture Unit, and blathering about film on Cube Critics every Friday.
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“MPR is there when I wake up, throughout the day, and every evening.” —Ray from Rochester, MN
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Day 2 of 10 Days of 10 Cent Deals in the Windows Store
By The Windows Team
Get ready for Day 2 of 10 Days of 10 Cent Deals in the Windows Store on Windows 10! In case you missed the news from yesterday, we’re offering more than 1,000 pieces of content in the Windows Store for just 10 cents each over a period of 10 days*. There’s cool content like top movies and music, along with popular apps and games. Below are today’s top 10 deals of the day.
Mad Max Fury Road
It’s a world without hope, without law, without mercy – but with enough action for three movies. Legendary Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is racing across the wasteland with elite Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), fleeing a Citadel overtaken by a tyrannical Immortan. As the Warlord marshals his gangs in pursuit, a high-octane Road War engulfs them all. Rent Mad Max Fury Road for 10 cents today.
Age of Adaline
Following a near-death experience, 29-year-old Adaline (Blake Lively) ceases aging, a fact she’s able to keep secret for eight decades until a charming philanthropist (Michiel Huisman) and his parents (Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker) help her confront her destiny in a captivating tale about the power of love. Rent Age of Adeline for 10 cents today.
Eight years ago, Batman vanished into the night, assuming the blame for the death of a D.A. and in that instant turning from hero to fugitive. But now, a frightening, masked terrorist named Bane has arrived with ruthless plans for Gotham. It’s enough to bring Batman (Christian Bale) back from his self-imposed exile…but does he have what it takes to defeat this new evil? With Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine. Rent The Dark Knight Rises for 10 cents today.
Rolling Stones Brown Sugar
This first track and lead single from the band’s 1971 album Sticky Fingers is ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Buy the song Brown Sugar for 10 cents today.
Eminem Monster
From Eminem’s eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, this hip-hop international chart-topper features vocals from Rihanna and production by Frequency. Buy Eminem’s song Monster for 10 cents today.
Amy Winehouse Rehab
This was the song of 2006, the first single from Amy Winehouse’s second studio album and the one that made her a household name. Rehab won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Buy Amy Winehouse’s song Rehab for 10 cents today.
Reading Trainer
Learn how how to significantly increase your reading speed and retention through this app’s eye exercises and tips for improving comprehension. Buy Reading Trainer for 10 cents today.
This handy, simple-to-use app is all you need for compressing and uncompressing Zip files. It uncompresses other formats as well, including Rar, 7z, Gz, Bz and Tar. Buy 8 Zip for 10 cents today.
Media Player Gold
Media Player Gold was created specifically for true connoisseurs of media content. With it you can play more than 200 different video formats and over 100 audio formats. Buy Media Player Gold for 10 cents today.
Consider terrain, materials, time and budget in this game that puts you in charge of a massive infrastructure project. Play in 40 different levels as you decide location, materials and more – all in your quest to become a master builder. Buy Bridge Constructor for 10 cents today.
To check out every awesome 10 cent deal in Movies, Music, Apps and Games, visit the Windows Store. And check back tomorrow morning for another blog post with a brand-new round of deals!
*Available from November 20 through November 29, 2015 on Windows 10 devices only. Valid in the 50 US states & DC only. Limited availability; offers may change at any time.
Tags 10 days of 10 cent deals on Windows 10 Windows 10 Windows Store
10 Days of 10 Cent Deals in the Windows Store Starts Today
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Case Study: VIVE Solves VR for Theme Parks with Busch Gardens Project
1st August 2019-
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a stunning 135-acre action-adventure park based on authentic European themes. It has been voted the World’s Most Beautiful Theme Park by the National Amusement Park Historical Association every year since 1990. Fully aware that guests are always looking for the next and best thing in entertainment, Busch Gardens wanted to reinvent an existing motion simulator attraction to bring an entirely new experience to the Ireland section of their park. “We wanted to uniquely blend the immersive experience of high-tech virtual reality with the visceral experience from a state-of-the-art ride system to create a believable, ‘you are really there,’ feeling within the attraction,” says Larry Giles, VP of Design & Engineering at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the parent company of Busch Gardens. To accomplish this, Busch Gardens enlisted Falcon’s Creative Group, a theme park experience design company and long-time creative collaborator, to develop and produce a fantastical virtual reality adventure inspired by Celtic folklore and mythology: Battle For Eire.
SOLVING VR FOR THEME PARKS
When developing Battle For Eire, Falcon’s wanted to address three fundamental challenges that have long plagued virtual reality theme park attractions and limited their potential:
• Long wait times for equipping/unequipping of VR headsets
• Hygiene and unreliable/inefficient cleaning processes for VR headsets between uses
• Poor performance monitoring and tracking of multiple VR headsets
“We understood the need to keep people moving through the experience to enhance their time spent there—we call that ride capacity,” Giles explains. “We also knew other [theme park] VR experiences had much lower ride capacity, which was the most common complaint among riders.” With some clever adaptations to the VIVE VR systems, Busch Gardens was able to improve ride capacity by simplifying and streamlining the fitting process and decreasing time spent loading and unloading guests. This helped maximize the time spent in the experience and even contributed to a more sanitary environment.
ADAPTING VIVE VR SYSTEMS WITH DREAMSET™
Solving these fundamental problems was made possible through Falcon’s partnership with DreamCraft Attractions, creator of the DreamSet™—the world’s first head-mounted display system for use on VR attractions. Referred to in the Battle For Eire universe as an “Emerald Mask,” this novel two-piece display uses powerful magnets to safely secure and detach separated VIVE VR lenses (“Enchanted Lens” in Eire). This solution enabled them to accommodate high ride volumes in the most hygienic and efficient way possible. “The flexibility of the VIVE headset allowed for the creation of a whole-new, easy-to-use adapter that could physically separate the head mount from the display,” says Jason Ambler, Executive Producer and Director of Production at Falcon’s Creative Group. “Once guests are seated on the ride, they can quickly and easily attach the display, which is held in place with a magnet system. At the end of the experience, the VIVE display remains on the ride while the head mounts are collected and industrially washed before being redistributed.”
THE FINAL EXPERIENCE
While waiting in the Battle For Eire queue line, each guest receives an Emerald Mask. Next, a pre-show room introduces the story, characters, what to expect, and how the ride works before boarding the motion simulator.
Once guests are safely seated, they are free to attach the Enchanted Lens to their Emerald Mask. The ride itself consists of two identical 59-passenger motion simulator platforms. This allows operators to quickly alternate groups of guests through Battle For Eire. Even with VR applied to the attraction, it can accommodate nearly one thousand people per hour.
To deliver and process high-fidelity VR content in Eire, each rider’s seat is equipped with an Intel® NUC Mini PC containing DreamCraft’s custom-developed realtime playback engine software. This platform optimizes Battle For Eire media and ensures all headsets can be synchronized and monitored for quality of service by operations.
The engine software also enables each rider to individually engage with interactive elements throughout their experience. This innovative solution provides the unique ability to blend the highest possible quality prerendered content by using Redshift on NVIDIA GPUs to play back at a high-fidelity frame rate within the real-time engine. Thanks to these capabilities, the media for Battle For Eire could be produced with the same techniques and cinematic processes as big-budget animated feature films while still allowing for interactivity.
The end result: A technical triumph for theme park VR entertainment with real-time interactive elements, wind-on-guest effects, original score orchestration, and a theatrical 7.1 surround sound mix—all of which are synchronized to the dynamic movements of a sixdegrees-of-freedom (6DoF) motion simulator platform.
VIVE MEETS TECHNICAL DEMAND
Aside from solving design and functionality, there were also high technological ambitions. The development teams wanted to achieve the highest frame rate, resolution, and field-of-view possible while providing accurate head-tracking in a large volume of people on a moving platform. After looking at many different virtual reality headset providers, Busch Gardens and partners all agreed that VIVE VR systems were both flexible and powerful enough to meet the visual and immersive demands for Battle For Eire.
“VIVE proved to be a great product and provided the support to help us with our unique setup,” says Giles. “Guests really enjoy the experience. It’s fun to watch riders look all around the cabin with their headsets and hear their reactions during the ride and exuberant comments afterwards. It makes the hard work worthwhile.”
Article first appeared on VIVE.
Sarah Brack2019-08-13T19:10:58+00:00
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All markets and investing news all the time
Music for babies ... that doesn't suck
By Paul R. La Monica November 15, 2014: 8:00 AM ET
I can tell that we are gonna be friends. Rockabye Baby has cute album covers, such as this for The White Stripes.
The rift between Taylor Swift and Spotify shows just how tough the music business is right now.
Streaming songs for a small cut just isn't as lucrative as selling an entire album.
But there's one small record label that is still thriving in the digital world. And it's doing so by satisfying a pretty important need for anyone with kids ... making baby music that's actually worth listening to.
Rockabye Baby takes songs from popular artists -- ranging from classic rock gods Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones to hip hop stars Eminem and Jay Z -- and turns them into soothing instrumental tracks for infants.
Related: YouTube to launch premium music streaming service
According to Lisa Roth, creative director for the brand's parent company CMH Label Group, Rockabye Baby has actually sold more albums (1.6 million) than individual tracks (1.3 million downloaded) since it was founded in 2006.
She added that there is about a 50-50 mix between digital sales of albums -- mostly via Apple's (AAPL) iTunes -- and CDs sold in stores. Yes, CDs. They still exist.
"The packaging is a big part of the fun," she said. "CDs still sell well because it's fun to hand people a package as a gift."
Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of this label. The Metallica and Pink Floyd albums helped me get through sleepless nights with Buzz, Jr. in late 2009/early 2010 while Rush and The Foo Fighters were frequent 3 a.m. musical companions last summer after Baby Buzz 2.0 was born.
Check out the Rockabye rendition of Radiohead's "Creep" to get a sense of how the songs sound. Very relaxing.
So when a PR person pitched a meeting with Roth, I jumped at the chance to meet her even though I don't tend to write too often about private companies.
But I won't lie. The fact that she also happens to be the sister of on-again/off-again Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth (he's currently back with the band) sealed the deal.
Lisa Roth helped create Rockabye Baby -- lullabies of hit songs ... including some by brother David Lee Roth of Van Halen.
Lisa Roth said the idea for the series came to her and her former CMH colleague Valerie Aiello when trying to find baby shower gifts for friends.
She found that most of the music was stuff like Barney the annoying purple dinosaur and Raffi, who was parodied in an episode of "The Simpsons" as Roofi.
"I was underwhelmed by the baby music out there," said Roth, who does not have kids. "There was nothing adult friendly."
And the cradle will rock. It took about a year to get the first three albums -- ones for Metallica, Radiohead and Coldplay -- ready. Roth said she and Aiello were looking for the "perfect balance of clunk, tinkle and attitude." There are now more than 50 albums in the series.
Roth said the artists all get paid standard royalty rates for their work and that none have complained about xylophones replacing electric guitars for the the lullaby treatment. Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler even wrote the liner notes for his band's Rockabye Baby album.
She added that growing up as the sister of a famous rock star made her appreciate all the hard work that musicians put into their craft. She choked up and had to fight back tears when talking about her brother.
"I watched what it took for him to get to where he is today. It was a lot harder in the world before YouTube and 'The Voice.' I have enormous respect for artists. We try and approach every album seriously," she said.
As you can probably guess, there is a Van Halen Rockabye album.
And out of respect for Roth, CMH decided to only use songs from David Lee Roth's tenure with the band. No Sammy Hagar. (Even though "Dreams" or "Right Now" could be a decent lullaby song.) And definitely nothing from the brief and disastrous Gary Cherone era.
But it took a while to get it into development. Six years, in fact.
"Mixing business with family is dicey," she said.
Might as well jump? So where will the label go next? Roth said CMH had been approached by two larger music companies interested in doing distribution deals for the Rockabye Baby series. But the company decided to remain independent.
She added that there have been talks about doing original music as well instead of just covers. But they don't want to stray too far from their roots. What's worked has been taking songs that are instantly recognizable and transforming them into something else.
As a parent, I hope the label continues to do well.
It may just be the aging Gen X-er in me worried about being forgotten in the sea of millennials and boomers. But my wife and I want our kids to at least know about (if not necessarily like) the music we grew up with.
Based on the sales of these albums, other parents of our generation must obviously agree.
But "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses is not the smartest thing to be playing to a hungry, crying baby in the middle of the night. The Rockabye version though? That's a different story. Take me down ...
Posted in: albums, CDs, David Lee Roth, downloads, Lisa Roth, music, Rockabye Baby, spotify, streaming, Taylor Swift, Van Halen
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3 March 2014 / dkardo
On Ibrahim Mahlab’s Appointment as Prime Minister
Former CEO of construction giant Arab Contractors and official in deposed President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP), Ibrahim Mahlab, has been appointed Egypt’s new Prime Minister by Adly Mansour – the army-appointed president who has been in office since Morsi’s removal in July. This came after interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi resigned last Monday February 24th.
via Daily News Egypt
Mahlab is Egypt’s outgoing housing minister, and given his retrograde stance as housing minister, his record in this role is explored below as an indication of the potential direction he might hope to take the country. According to the Guardian’s announcement of the news, under Mahlab’s watch as housing minister, 1,200 families were forcibly evicted from their Cairo homes, and their houses demolished (Amnesty International cited).
In January, Mahlab “in an attempt to prevent the spread of slum areas and facilitate construction procedures” issued Ministerial Decree 67/2014 to amend Egypt’s Construction Law regarding land divisions. The decree requires only 25% of land area to be set aside for roads and gardens, down from the previous share of 33%. The intentions behind his amendment are meant to ease burdens for real estate developers, and not citizens, falling in line with the status quo under previous administrations.
Further, at the annual CityScape real estate forum in early February, Mahlab announced that disputes between real estate developers and the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) have been settled, with developers being offered a new incentive bundle to facilitate investment in the market.
Mahlab’s actions as Housing Minister appear to echo Mubarak era policies in the housing sector, placing the desire to attract foreign direct investment ahead of much needed substantive reform of the systems that govern real estate development.
Mahlab’s new role as Egypt’s interim Prime Minister may prove to follow suit. It has been reported that while Mahlab would return most ministers to their former posts in the next couple of days, he is expected to stack his Cabinet largely with remnants of the old regime. On Thursday February 27th, it was reported that Mahlab appointed former finance ministry official Hany Dimian as finance minister in the new government and former technical director of the General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP) – architects of Cairo 2050 – Mostafa Madbouly as the new housing minister.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Please share your comments and reactions with Cairo from Below in the comments, on Facebook or twitter.
NOTE: for more on Madbouly’s record as housing minister: http://www1.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=1530165#.UxTNYzbkt8H (Arabic).
Filed under Cairo, Egyptian Law, Governance, Informal Areas, Land, Land Scandal, Political Parties, Politics, Public Spaces
← Cairo: The Myth of a City on the Verge of Explosion
Water Security and Rural Sanitation in Egypt, A Revolution Awaits its Hero: Current Status Part 2 →
Media roundup on the cit: march 2014 | Egypte en Révolution(s)
Revue de presse sur la ville : mars 2014 | Egypte en Révolution(s)
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CHCHD4 regulates tumour proliferation and EMT-related phenotypes, through respiratory chain-mediated metabolism
Luke W. Thomas1,
Cinzia Esposito1,4,
Jenna M. Stephen1,
Ana S. H. Costa2,
Christian Frezza2,
Thomas S. Blacker3,
Gyorgy Szabadkai3 &
Margaret Ashcroft ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0066-37071
Cancer & Metabolism volume 7, Article number: 7 (2019) Cite this article
Mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) via the respiratory chain is required for the maintenance of tumour cell proliferation and regulation of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related phenotypes through mechanisms that are not fully understood. The essential mitochondrial import protein coiled-coil helix coiled-coil helix domain-containing protein 4 (CHCHD4) controls respiratory chain complex activity and oxygen consumption, and regulates the growth of tumours in vivo. In this study, we interrogate the importance of CHCHD4-regulated mitochondrial metabolism for tumour cell proliferation and EMT-related phenotypes, and elucidate key pathways involved.
Using in silico analyses of 967 tumour cell lines, and tumours from different cancer patient cohorts, we show that CHCHD4 expression positively correlates with OXPHOS and proliferative pathways including the mTORC1 signalling pathway. We show that CHCHD4 expression significantly correlates with the doubling time of a range of tumour cell lines, and that CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth and mTORC1 signalling is coupled to respiratory chain complex I (CI) activity. Using global metabolomics analysis, we show that CHCHD4 regulates amino acid metabolism, and that CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth is dependent on glutamine. We show that CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth is linked to CI-regulated mTORC1 signalling and amino acid metabolism. Finally, we show that CHCHD4 expression in tumours is inversely correlated with EMT-related gene expression, and that increased CHCHD4 expression in tumour cells modulates EMT-related phenotypes.
CHCHD4 drives tumour cell growth and activates mTORC1 signalling through its control of respiratory chain mediated metabolism and complex I biology, and also regulates EMT-related phenotypes of tumour cells.
Rapidly dividing tumour cells require specific metabolites to support proliferation, and the metabolic rewiring of malignant cells contributes both to transformation and tumour progression [1]. One of the earliest observations of metabolic adaptation in tumour cells came from the work of Otto Warburg, who identified that even in the presence of sufficient oxygen, many cancer cells consumed high concentrations of glucose and secreted high levels of lactate [2]. In addition to oncogene-driven increases in glucose consumption, tumour cells also increase their consumption of glutamine [3], as glutamine provides carbon and nitrogen moieties for amino acid and nucleotide synthesis. Despite the prevalence of oxidative fermentation in transformed cells, tumour cells retain their oxidative mitochondrial machinery to support the catabolism of glucose and glutamine for the production of macromolecules to permit cell division [4, 5]. Indeed, a variety of recent studies have demonstrated that while the availability of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is unlikely to be a limiting factor for the proliferation of tumour cells [6,7,8], the availability of amino acids and nucleotides can be important depending on the cellular context [8,9,10,11,12]. However, our understanding of the mechanisms by which transformed cells maintain biosynthesis of macromolecules for cell division remains incomplete. Delineating the pathways which support tumour cell proliferation are of great interest for the development of new therapeutic strategies, and anti-tumour agents which inhibit nucleotide synthesis (e.g. fluorouracil) have been used clinically for decades [13]. Therapies which target amino acid synthesis are emerging in clinical development, and are showing promise [14,15,16].
Mitochondria support cellular proliferation by supplying ATP for the bioenergetic demands of the cell through OXPHOS, and are also the site of reactions which supply the cell with precursors for the synthesis of macromolecules such as DNA, proteins and lipids [17]. In addition, complex I (CI) of the respiratory chain regulates the intracellular NADH/NAD ratio, which is itself an essential cofactor for biosynthetic reactions which support proliferation [18]. Depletion of mitochondrial DNA in tumour cells (ρ0 cells) inhibits tumour cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo, demonstrating the importance of mitochondria in a cancer setting [19,20,21]. Furthermore, CI-inhibiting biguanidines (e.g. metformin) are effective in slowing the growth of tumour cells in vitro [22, 23], and are under investigation in clinical trials as adjuvant therapies for cancer patients.
All but 13 subunits of the respiratory chain complexes are encoded by nuclear genes, and must be imported across the mitochondrial membrane(s) for complex assembly to take place. Several import and sorting pathways exist in the mitochondria which are essential for respiratory chain activity [24]. One such pathway, the disulfide relay system (DRS), is responsible for the import and oxidative folding of small intermembrane space (IMS) proteins, which include subunits of CI and CIV, as well as assembly factors for CIII and CIV [25,26,27]. The substrate-binding oxidoreductase of the DRS is the redox-sensitive protein CHCHD4, which we have shown to regulate cellular oxygen consumption rate, and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) signalling [28,29,30]. We have shown that increased CHCHD4 expression in tumours correlates with increased tumour progression, and is associated with decreased patient survival and disease recurrence [28]. In this study, we investigate the molecular mechanisms by which CHCHD4 controls tumour cell proliferation through its effects on mitochondrial metabolism. Using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) to identify key tumour-related pathways associated with CHCHD4 expression that are linked to OXPHOS and tumour proliferation, we investigate the role of CHCHD4 in regulating tumour cell growth, mTORC1 signalling, amino acid metabolism and EMT-related phenotypes.
CHCHD4 expression positively correlates with OXPHOS and proliferative pathways in tumours
Recently, we have shown that elevated CHCHD4 expression in tumour cells increases tumour cell proliferation irrespective of oxygen levels [30]. To better understand the relationship between CHCHD4 and tumour cell proliferation, we carried out GSEA on genes that were significantly correlated with CHCHD4 expression in transcriptomic data from a panel of 967 tumour cell lines (Novartis/Broad Institute Tumour Cell Line Encyclopaedia). As anticipated, CHCHD4 was significantly co-expressed with genes from an OXPHOS gene set (HALLMARK_OXIDATIVE_PHOSPHORYLATION, Broad Institute) (Fig. 1a), including subunits of CI (NDUFS3) and CIV (COX7C) (Additional file 1: Figure S1a). Interestingly, many of the most significantly enriched gene sets correlated with CHCHD4 expression were those from proliferative signalling pathways regulated by known oncogenes, such as MYC and mTORC1 (Fig. 1a). Genes regulated by mTORC1 signalling that were most significantly correlated with CHCHD4 expression include cell-cycle regulators (CDC25A, CCNF) and subunits of DNA polymerases (POLR3G) (Additional file 1: Figure S1b). We next carried out GSEA on genes that were significantly co-expressed with CHCHD4 in tumours from different cancer patient cohorts using transcriptomic data available from The Cancer Genome Atlas (http://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/). Again, we found that CHCHD4 expression was significantly associated with genes involved in OXPHOS in colon adenocarcinoma (Fig. 1b), breast cancer (Fig. 1c) and glioblastoma (Additional file 1: Figure S1c) patient samples. In colon adenocarcinoma (Fig. 1d) and breast cancer patient samples (Fig. 1e), the most highly correlated genes involved in OXPHOS constituted components of respiratory chain complexes (e.g. UQCRH, NDUFAB1), as well as enzymes of the TCA cycle (DLAT, FH), and a variety of other genes that encode proteins involved in general maintenance of mitochondrial function (e.g. TOMM70, HSPA9). As we observed for our GSEA of tumour cell lines (Fig. 1a), CHCHD4 expression was also most highly correlated with the expression of genes regulated by proliferative signalling pathways including MYC and mTORC1, in tumours from each of the cancer patient cohorts analysed (Fig. 1b, c, Additional file 1: Figure S1c). Genes regulated by mTORC1 signalling that were associated with CHCHD4 expression in colon adenocarcinoma patient samples included cell cycle regulators (CCNA2, CDC25A), and genes that encode proteins involved in nucleotide synthesis (MTHFD2L). Together, these data indicate that across a broad range of tumour cell lines and diverse tumour types, CHCHD4 expression is positively associated with OXPHOS, and key proliferative pathways such as the mTORC1 signalling pathway.
CHCHD4 expression positively correlates with OXPHOS and proliferative pathways in tumours. a Chart shows GSEA of genes positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in Novartis/Broad Institute Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia RNASeq data. n = 967 cell lines. b, c Charts show GSEA of genes positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in colon adenocarcinoma (b) and breast cancer (c) patient tumours. d Heatmap of selected genes from the HALLMARK_OXIDATIVE_PHOSPHORYLATION gene-set (Broad Institute) that are positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in colon adenocarcinoma patient tumours. e, f Heatmap of selected genes from the HALLMARK_MTORC1_SIGNALLING gene-set (Broad Institute) that are positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in colon adenocarcinoma (e) and breast cancer (f) patient tumours
CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth and mTORC1 signalling is coupled to CI activity
Our in silico analyses demonstrated a positive association between CHCHD4 expression, OXPHOS and proliferative pathways in tumour cell lines and patient tumour samples (Fig. 1). Thus, we next investigated the relationship between CHCHD4-mediated regulation of OXPHOS and tumour cell growth. To do this, we used U2OS cells stably expressing wild-type CHCHD4 [CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells, clones WT.cl1, WT.cl3], or stably expressing a mutant form of CHCHD4 in which the substrate-binding cysteines of the CPC motif have been mutated to alanines (C66A/C68A) described by us previously [28,29,30]. Consistent with our previous study [30], we found that elevated CHCHD4 expression led to increased expression of individual subunits of CI (NDUFS3), CII (SDHA), CIII (UQCRC2) and CIV (COXIV) (Fig. 2a). Importantly, expression of the C66A/C68A mutant form of CHCHD4, which we and others have shown is defective in import function and mitochondrial localisation [28, 31], did not lead to increased mitochondrial expression of these respiratory chain subunits (Fig. 2a). Notably, we and others have shown that loss of CHCHD4 leads to reduced levels of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) [30, 32, 33], a CHCHD4-interacting protein [33]. However, we found no obvious effect on the expression of AIF in CHCHD4 overexpressing cells (Additional file 2: Figure S2a).
CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth and mTORC1 signalling is coupled to CI activity. a Western blots show levels of CHCHD4, NDUFS3 (CI), SDHA (CII) UQCRC2 (CIII), COXIV (CIV) in whole cell lysates of control (Ctrl) U2OS cells, CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) or CHCHD4-(C66A/C68A)-expressing cells (C66A/C68A). α-Tubulin was used as a load control. b In-gel NTB assay of CI activity in mitochondrial fractions isolated from control U2OS cells, CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1, WT.cl3) and CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells (C66A/C68A). c Basal NADH fluorescence (as % of total NADH/NAD pool) in control U2OS cells or CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1). ± SD. n = 3. d Chart shows GSEA of proteins upregulated in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) relative to control U2OS cells, as assessed by SILAC [30]. n = 3. e Chart shows relative growth rates of cells described in (b) at 72 h relative to 0 h. ± SD. n = 3. f Western blots show levels of phosphorylated (P-) and total (T-) p70S6K, and puromycin labelled polypeptides in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) either untreated (NT), or treated with rotenone (500 nM), BAY 87-2243 (50 nM) or sodium azide (100 μM) for 24 h. β-Actin was used as a load control. g Chart shows relative growth of control U2OS cells, and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) stably expressing an empty vector (pWPI) or yeast NDI1, treated with BAY 87-2243 using a 10-fold dilution curve (starting dose 100 nM) for 72 h. ± SD. n = 3
We and others have shown that CHCHD4 is a critical regulator of CI expression [30, 33]. Further examination of CI activity using an in-gel nitrotetrazolium blue assay demonstrated increased CI activity in mitochondrial extracts from CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1, WT.cl3), while whole CI activity was reduced in CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells, compared to control U2OS cells (Fig. 2b). CI catalyses the first step of NADH oxidation, providing the cell with NAD+ which acts as an essential cofactor for TCA cycle enzymes, and enzymes involved in amino acid and nucleotide biosynthesis. Using live cell imaging of NADH fluorescence [34] (Additional file 2: Figure S2b), we found that CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells exhibited lower basal NADH fluorescence compared with control U2OS cells (Fig. 2c, Additional file 2: Figure S2b), indicating higher CI activity in live cells with elevated CHCHD4 expression, consistent with our in-gel assay for CI activity (Fig. 2b).
Using stable isotope labelling with amino acid in cell culture (SILAC) and proteomic analysis of CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells, we have recently shown that CHCHD4 expression in tumour cells is a critical determinant of the expression of a broad range of respiratory chain subunits including numerous subunits of CI [30]. Analysis of our SILAC data showed the most significantly enriched proteins in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control cells were those regulated by the mTORC1 signalling pathway (e.g. GPI, E2F1) (Fig. 2d), consistent with our GSEA of tumour cell lines and patient tumour samples (Fig. 1a–c). As mTORC1 is a potent regulator of proliferation [35], we next assessed the effects of exogenous expression of CHCHD4 on the proliferation rates of U2OS cells. Consistent with our recently published study [30], we found that elevated expression of CHCHD4 in the CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells led to a small but significant increase in growth rates over 72 h compare to control U2OS cells (Fig. 2e). However, exogenous expression of mutant (C66A/C68A) CHCHD4 did not affect growth rate (Fig. 2e).
We hypothesised that CHCHD4 may regulate a CI-mTORC1-proliferation axis, and so we next investigated the influence of CHCHD4 expression on mTORC1 signalling in the absence or presence of respiratory chain inhibitors. The mTORC1 signalling pathway regulates cell growth and protein synthesis in part by directly phosphorylating p70S6 kinase 1 (p70S6K) [35]. Both basal p70S6K and protein translation rates (as assessed by puromycin incorporation) were consistently elevated in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control cells (Fig. 2f) indicating higher basal mTORC1 activity. mTORC1 signalling was blocked by the GI50 dose of the CI inhibitors, rotenone (500 nM) and BAY 87-2243 (50 nM), while only puromycin incorporation was sensitive to inhibition of CIV (Fig. 2f, Additional file 2: Figure S2c), suggesting that CI and CIV influence protein translation through distinct mechanism(s). Consistently, we have shown that CHCHD4 expression confers increased sensitivity to growth inhibition by inhibitors of CI, such as rotenone and BAY 87-2243 (Fig. 2g) [30, 36], but not inhibitors of CIV [30]. To investigate whether the increased sensitivity conferred by CHCHD4 overexpression was due specifically to the loss of the NADH dehydrogenase activity of CI, we generated pools of control U2OS and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells stably expressing a rotenone-insensitive NADH dehydrogenase from yeast (NDI1), or the empty expression vector (pWPI) (Additional file 2: Figure S2d). NDI1 expression was capable of significantly reducing the sensitivity of both control U2OS cells (p = 0.005) and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (p = 0.001) to growth inhibition in the presence of BAY 87-2243 (Fig. 2g). Importantly, NDI1 expression rendered CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells resistant to BAY 87-2243 to the same degree as control U2OS (pWPI expressing) cells (p = 0.09) (Fig. 2g). This indicates that the increased sensitivity of CHCHD4 expressing cells to CI inhibitors is dependent on the loss of NADH dehydrogenase activity in these cells. Collectively, our data suggest CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth and mTORC1 signalling is coupled to CI activity.
CHCHD4 expression links growth rate to CI activity and mTORC1 signalling in tumour cells
To further investigate the positive association between CHCHD4 expression, CI and mTORC1 signalling (Figs. 1 and 2), we next examined a panel of tumour cell lines to determine whether cells exhibited differing dependencies on CI activity for growth. To do this, we selected six well-known tumour cell lines derived from different tissues (colon, cervix, bone, breast, brain and prostate), each with a different genetic background, and each exhibiting a different relative growth rate (Fig. 3a). To characterise the dependency of these cell lines on OXPHOS for growth, we assessed their relative sensitivity to respiratory chain inhibition using titrations of the CI inhibitors, rotenone (Fig. 3b) and BAY 87-2243 (Additional file 3: Figure S3a), and the CIII inhibitor antimycin A (Additional file 3: Figure S3b). Sensitivity to these agents was inversely correlated with the relative growth rates of these cell lines (Fig. 3c), demonstrating the common importance of respiratory chain activity for tumour cell growth. We next assessed CHCHD4 expression levels in two cell lines from our panel, one with a high growth rate and increased sensitivity to rotenone (HCT116 colon carcinoma, GR50 = 42.4 ± 6.3 nM), and one with a lower growth rate and reduced sensitivity to respiratory chain inhibition (U2OS osteosarcoma, GR50 = 341 ± 101 nM). Interestingly, CHCHD4 expression levels were higher in HCT116 cells compared to U2OS cells both at the transcript level (Fig. 3d) and protein level (Fig. 3e). Furthermore, expression of subunits from each of the respiratory chain complexes (CI-IV) was higher in HCT116 cells compared to U2OS cells (Fig. 3e), as was basal oxygen consumption rate (Fig. 3f), demonstrating increased respiratory chain activity. These data indicate a link between CHCHD4 expression levels, OXPHOS and tumour cell growth across a range of tumour cell types with different aetiologies and oncogenic drivers. In fact, we also found that CHCHD4 expression was weakly but significantly inversely correlated with the doubling times of 368 different tumour cell lines from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE, Broad Institute) (Additional file 3: Figure S3c).
CHCHD4 expression links growth rate to CI activity and mTORC1 signalling in tumour cells. a Chart shows the growth rates of a panel of tumour cell lines over 72 h. ± SD. n = 3. b Chart shows growth of tumour cell lines described in (a) treated with 100 nM rotenone for 72 h, relative to untreated (0 nM) cells. ± SD. n = 3. c Chart shows xy scatter of the fold change in growth of indicated tumour cell lines at 72 h vs 0h, compared to their relative growth rate when treated with 100 nM rotenone. Trend line (dashed blue) and R2 value (Spearman’s correlation) shown. d Chart shows relative abundance of CHCHD4 transcripts measured by QPCR in HCT116 and U2OS cells. CHCHD4 expression is relative to ACTB and normalised to CHCHD4 transcript levels in HCT116 cells. ± SD. n = 3. e Western blots show levels of CHCHD4, NDUFB10 (CI), SDHA (CII) UQCRC2 (CIII), COXIV (CIV) in whole cell lysates of HCT116 and U2OS cells. β-Actin was used as a load control. f Chart shows basal OCR of HCT116 and U2OS cells, measured by Seahorse respirometry. ± SD. n = 3. g Western blots show levels of phosphorylated (P-) and total (T-) p70S6K, puromycin labelled polypeptides in HCT116 and U2OS cells treated as indicated for 24 h. β-Actin was used as a load control. Relative band intensities of P-p70S6K indicated
As our GSEA of tumour cell lines identified the mTORC1 signalling pathway as positively associated with CHCHD4 expression (Fig. 1a), next we compared the effects of respiratory chain inhibition on mTORC1 signalling in HCT116 and U2OS cells. Basal mTORC1 signalling was not apparently different between HCT116 and U2OS cells as assessed by p70S6K phosphorylation, and puromycin incorporation (Fig. 3g). Consistently there was a larger reduction in both p70S6K phosphorylation and puromycin incorporation in HCT116 cells with rotenone treatment compared to U2OS cells (Fig. 3g). These data indicate that mTORC1 signalling in HCT116 cells is more sensitive to CI inhibition (Fig. 3g), similar to U2OS cells overexpressing CHCHD4 (Fig. 2f), further supporting a link between CHCHD4 expression, CI and mTORC1 signalling. It is known that CI, through the production of NAD+ from the oxidation of NADH, can promote the synthesis of asparagine which directly activates mTORC1 signalling [35], and that aspartate, which is required for the de novo synthesis of nucleotides, can also directly activate mTORC1 signalling [37, 38]. Indeed, we found that supplementation of aspartate (D) to the media of both HCT116 and U2OS cells partially rescued the reduced mTORC1 signalling observed in the presence of rotenone (Fig. 3g). Collectively, our data suggest that CHCHD4 expression links growth rate to CI activity, mTORC1 signalling and amino acid metabolism in tumour cells.
CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth is linked to CI-regulated mTORC1 signalling and amino acid metabolism
Based on our data thus far (Figs. 1, 2 and 3), we hypothesised that CHCHD4-mediated regulation of respiratory chain activity stimulates tumour cell growth through the promotion of biosynthetic pathways. In the case of CI, increased activity promotes favourable NAD/NADH ratios for the biosynthesis of amino acids such as aspartate via the TCA cycle (Fig. 4a). Our NADH measurements showed decreased basal intracellular NADH levels (relative to the total NADH/NAD pool) (Fig. 2c, Additional file 2: Figure S2b) alongside increased CI activity in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control U2OS cells (Fig. 2b). We therefore next carried out metabolomics analysis to assess the effects of CHCHD4 expression on the cellular metabolome, with particular focus on TCA cycle intermediates and amino acids. CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells and control U2OS cells were cultured with uniformly labelled 13C5-glutamine, followed by analysis of both the isotopologue composition and total pool sizes of key glutamine-derived metabolites. We found that intracellular levels of glutamine and other glutamine-derived metabolites were lower in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control U2OS cells (Fig. 4b). Conversely, the extracellular levels of glutamine were not significantly different (Additional file 4: Figure S4), suggesting that rates of intracellular glutamine consumption were higher in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control U2OS cells. There were only very minor differences in the isotopologue composition of a selection of these metabolites (Fig. 4c), indicating that there was no significant change in the routes of glutamine (and other amino acid) consumption in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control U2OS cells. We hypothesised that by increasing CI expression and activity, elevated CHCHD4 expression was stimulating amino acid biosynthesis, leading to increased mTORC1 activity, protein synthesis rates and thus increased consumption of glutamine-derived amino acids (such as aspartate and asparagine). We therefore next tested whether glutamine was required for the increased mTORC1 signalling and protein synthesis in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells. Glutamine withdrawal led to a larger reduction in both p70S6K phosphorylation and puromycin incorporation in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (Fig. 4d), indicating that glutamine metabolism was required to support the increased mTORC1 activity in these cells. Indeed, supplementation with aspartate was capable of partially rescuing mTORC1 activity on withdrawal of glutamine (Fig. 4d). Furthermore, CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells were lost more rapidly from culture on withdrawal of glutamine than control U2OS cells, indicating a higher dependency on glutamine for their proliferation and survival (Fig. 4e). As we hypothesised that the CI-mediated stimulation of amino acid metabolism may in part underpin the increased mTORC1 activity and proliferation of CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (Fig. 4a), we next assessed whether aspartate or NAD supplementation could rescue mTORC1 activity and the proliferation of cells treated cells with the CI inhibitor BAY 87-2243. Both aspartate and NAD supplementation were capable of partially rescuing p70S6K phosphorylation and puromycin incorporation in the presence of BAY 87-2243 (Fig. 4f). Furthermore, both aspartate and NAD (Fig. 4g) were capable of partially rescuing the growth of both CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells and control U2OS cells treated with BAY 87-2243. Interestingly, while CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells were more sensitive to BAY 87-2243 treatment, both aspartate and NAD supplementation were able to more significantly rescue the growth of CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control U2OS cells treated with BAY 87-2243 (Fig. 4g). Together, these data demonstrate that CHCHD4 expression regulates amino acid metabolism, which in part underpins CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth and CI-regulated mTORC1 signalling.
CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth is linked to CI-regulated mTORC1 signalling and amino acid metabolism. a Schematic of proposed model of CHCHD4-regulated CI-dependent amino acid (AA) metabolism and influence on tumour cell growth. b Chart shows relative intracellular abundance of selected metabolites from metabolomics analysis in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) relative to control U2OS cells. Representative of 2 experiments. ± SD. n = 5. c Chart shows relative proportions of isotopically labelled metabolites in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1). Representative of 2 experiments. n = 5. d Western blots show levels of phosphorylated (P-), total (T-) p70S6K and puromycin labelled polypeptides in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)- expressing cells (WT.cl1) treated as indicated for 8 h. β-Actin was used as a load control. Relative band intensities of P-p70S6K indicated. e Images of control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1, WT.cl3) cultured to confluency in the presence of glutamine (6 mM), and 3 days later following removal of glutamine (0 mM). f Western blots show levels of phosphorylated (P-) and total (T-) p70S6K, and puromycin labelled polypeptides in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) treated either in the absence (−) or presence (+) of 50 nM BAY 87-2243 for 24 h, supplemented with 10 mM aspartate (D) or 1 mM NAD. β-Actin was used as a load control. g Charts show relative growth of control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) treated with 10 nM BAY 87-2243 in the absence or presence of 10 mM aspartate (D) or 1 mM NAD for 72 h. ± SD. n = 3
CHCHD4 regulates the EMT phenotype of tumour cells
Along with identifying significantly upregulated gene profiles associated with increased CHCHD4 expression (Fig. 1), interestingly, our GSEA also showed that (EMT)-related genes were amongst the most significantly downregulated genes associated with increased CHCHD4 expression. This was also the case in our SILAC dataset from CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (Fig. 5a, b), as well as our analysis of transcriptomic data from patient samples (Additional file 5: Figure S5a, b) and tumour cell lines (Additional file 5: Figure S5c). Downregulated EMT-related genes included those encoding the essential cytoskeletal protein vimentin, and the extracellular matrix (ECM) binding protein N-cadherin (CDH2), both of which are well-characterised markers of EMT (Fig. 5b) [39]. Furthermore, the intermediate cytoskeleton filament and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) marker keratin-18 (KRT18, [40]) was the second most upregulated protein identified in our SILAC analysis (Fig. 5b). We confirmed some of these EMT protein expression changes in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells, while these proteins were unchanged in CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells compared to controls (Fig. 5c and Additional file 5: Figure S5d). We found similar results in HCT116 cells (which do not express detectable levels of vimentin [41]), where overexpression or silencing of CHCHD4 increased or decreased the expression of the MET marker E-cadherin respectively (Additional file 5: Figure S5e, f). Furthermore, we found that the transcript levels of VIM and KRT18 were downregulated and upregulated respectively in cells overexpressing CHCHD4 (Fig. 5d), suggesting that the changes in EMT gene expression are at the level of transcription and that elevated CHCHD4 expression in tumour cells leads to a transcriptional suppression of EMT-related genes. Importantly, CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells had a lower migratory capacity in a 2D scratch-wound assay compared to both control and CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells (Fig. 5e, f).
CHCHD4 regulates the EMT phenotype of tumour cells. a Chart shows GSEA of downregulated proteins detected in SILAC analysis of CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1), compared to control U2OS cells. n = 3. b Volcano plot shows relative expression of all proteins detected in SILAC analysis of CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) compared to control (Ctrl) U2OS cells [30]. Selected genes highlighted. n = 3. c Western blots show levels of vimentin and N-cadherin in control (Ctrl) U2OS cells, CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1, WT.cl3) and CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells (C66A/C68A). β-Actin was used as a load control. d Chart shows relative transcript levels of VIM, KRT18 and CHCHD4 detected by Q-PCR in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1). ± SD. n = 3. e Images show a scratch-wound assay of control (Ctrl) U2OS cells, CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) and CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells (C66A/C68A) at 0 h and 24 h. White lines denote width of scratch-wound. f Chart shows % wound closure at 24 h relative to 0 h in images shown in (e). ± SD. n = 3. g Immunofluorescence images of vimentin distribution in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1, WT.cl3). h Immunofluorescence images of vimentin distribution in control U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells (WT.cl1) either untreated (NT) or treated with 50 nM rotenone for 72 h
Recent studies have connected mitochondrial metabolism and health to the EMT phenotype of cultured cells, through changes in cytoskeletal organisation, adhesion and motility [42]. Indeed, it has long been appreciated that cell proliferation and motility are inversely related, both in physiology and disease [43,44,45]. Vimentin is an intermediate filament protein which regulates cell motility through association with other cytoskeletal proteins to promote pseudopodia formation at the cell periphery [46]. Immunofluorescent staining of vimentin and imaging of control U2OS, and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells demonstrated that the cytoplasmic localisation of vimentin was affected by CHCHD4 expression, as it appeared to exhibit a more perinuclear distribution in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells compared to control U2OS cells (Fig. 5g, Additional file 5: Figure S5 g). This redistribution of vimentin has previously been identified as a consequence of MET [47, 48]. To investigate whether the CHCHD4-mediated effects on changes in vimentin intracellular distribution were related to increased CI activity, we treated both control U2OS and CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing U2OS cells with rotenone, and assessed vimentin localisation by immunofluorescence. Rotenone treatment led to the redistribution of vimentin from the perinuclear region to the cytoplasm in CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells, phenocopying the vimentin distribution in control U2OS cells (Fig. 5h, Additional file 5: Figure S5g). Together, these data show that elevated CHCHD4 expression in tumour cells negatively correlates with EMT-related gene expression in normoxia, and reduces 2D cell migration. In addition, CHCHD4-mediated regulation of vimentin localisation is dependent on CI activity.
Dysregulated metabolism is a common feature of tumour cells, and numerous oncogenes are potent regulators of metabolic pathways that contribute to tumour cell proliferation. The mechanisms by which tumour cells maintain biosynthesis of macromolecules for division are incompletely understood and are currently the focus of intensive investigation. Here, we have identified CHCHD4 as a new regulator of the metabolic drive which supports tumour cell proliferation, in part through its effects on respiratory chain-mediated metabolism. We have also shown through in vitro and in silico analysis that CHCHD4 expression is positively associated with the activity of proliferative signalling pathways, such as the mTORC1 pathway in many different tumour cell lines and patient tumour samples. Additionally, our GSEA identified other proliferative pathways that were associated with CHCHD4 expression, such as MYC and E2F. MYC is a well-characterised and commonly deregulated oncogene [49], is a potent regulator of mitochondrial metabolism and biogenesis [50], and like CHCHD4 collaborates with HIF signalling under certain contexts [51]. However, GSEA can be confounded by the promiscuity of common genes between different gene sets [52], and the mTORC1, MYC and E2F pathways are known to regulate the expression of common genes. Nevertheless, these analyses suggest that the influence of CHCHD4 on proliferation may impinge on multiple pathways with clinical relevance, which warrants further investigation.
Mitochondria promote proliferation in part through ATP synthesis, but tumour cells can adapt their metabolism to decrease their dependence on OXPHOS for ATP homeostasis, and upregulate non-mitochondrial pathways of ATP synthesis, such as glycolysis and anaerobic fermentation of pyruvate [53, 54]. Besides ATP synthesis, mitochondria are also important metabolic hubs for pathways that support biomass accumulation, and these pathways appear to be more acutely sensitive to perturbations in respiratory chain function than ATP synthesis. Indeed, here, we found that doses of the CI inhibitor BAY 87-2243 that are insufficient to block OCR [30] were capable of significantly influencing protein translation and tumour cell proliferation. In support of the essential role of mitochondrial metabolism for biomass accumulation, previous studies have demonstrated that the synthesis of aspartate is an essential function of mitochondrial respiration for proliferating cells [8, 10]. In agreement with these studies, we show here that aspartate supplementation is capable of partially reversing the anti-proliferative effects of both CI inhibition and glutamine withdrawal, and stimulates mTORC1-mediated activation of translation. Since this rescue by aspartate supplementation was only partial, we conclude that other biosynthetic pathways that depend on respiratory chain activity must also contribute to tumour cell proliferation. For example, both (CI-derived) NAD and glutamine are directly involved in nucleotide synthesis [18, 55, 56], and nucleotide supplementation in addition to aspartate supplementation may be necessary to fully recapitulate the proliferation of cells treated with CI inhibitors or glutamine withdrawal. Moreover, pyrimidine synthesis through the uridine salvage pathway relies directly on respiratory chain activity, through the action of the mitochondrial enzyme dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) [57]. In cells depleted of mitochondrial DNA (ρ0 cells), supplementation with uridine is necessary to rescue the loss of proliferative capacity [58], demonstrating that supporting nucleotide synthesis is an essential role of the mitochondria for proliferating cells. Indeed, transcriptome analysis of patient samples has identified that upregulation of nucleotide biosynthetic genes is one of the most common metabolic alterations across cancer types [52, 59].
Cancer can be considered a disease of two major phenotypes: dysregulated proliferation, and metastatic dissemination of transformed cells to distant sites. Metastasis is usually (but not always) accompanied by the acquisition by tumour cells of traits which decrease cell-cell interactions, and increase motility and resistance to killing by commonly used therapeutics [60]. In recent years, it has become appreciated that mitochondria-mediated proliferation and EMT phenotypes are inversely related, though regulated by common pathways [42, 44, 45, 61, 62]. For example, analysis of transcriptome data from patient tumour samples has identified that gene sets involved in OXPHOS are commonly changed in tumour tissues compared to normal tissue [52]. However, the direction of change was found to be heterogeneous, with upregulation of OXPHOS in 35% of cancer types, and downregulated in 25% of cancer types [52]. Interestingly, in those cancers with downregulation of OXPHOS, EMT-related genes were the most significantly upregulated cohort, and these changes were correlated with worse outcomes for patients [52]. In agreement with this, we found that CHCHD4 expression is also positively correlated with OXPHOS and proliferative signalling pathways (e.g. mTORC1, MYC, E2F), while it is negatively correlated with an EMT gene signature in tumour cells, and in patient tumour samples. While our study adds to the body of evidence supporting this (negative) correlation, little is known about the mechanistic relationship between these two phenotypes, and further work will be required to understand whether CHCHD4 influences proliferation and EMT phenotypes through similar or distinct mechanisms, e.g. via mitochondrial metabolism.
Our results suggest a paradox with respect to the importance of CHCHD4 in cancer. While we show here that increased CHCHD4 expression correlates with decreased EMT gene expression, we have already demonstrated that above median CHCHD4 expression is correlated with increased tumour grade and decreased survival [28]. Since metastatic disease is a common feature of disease progression [60], how then can elevated CHCHD4 be associated with worse outcomes for patients in certain cancers? The answer may come from our previous work which identified CHCHD4 as a critical regulator of HIF-mediated transcriptional responses to hypoxia [28, 29]. The tumour microenvironment appears to be the primary driver of EMT, since no recurrent mutations in EMT-regulating genes have been identified from genomic sequencing of tumour cells, unlike the myriad mutations in oncogenes and tumour suppressors which regulate proliferation [60]. One significant environmental stimulus of EMT is hypoxia, which is a common feature of tumour tissues which outgrow their vascular supply [63, 64]. Activation of HIF-signalling under hypoxia leads to transcriptional activation of EMT-related genes such as vimentin and N-cadherin, along with the suppression of MET-related genes such as E-cadherin [65]. Furthermore, HIF-signalling decreases mitochondrial OXPHOS by diverting carbon fuels away from metabolism by the mitochondria [53, 66], and in some cases decreases mitochondrial mass by suppressing mitochondrial biogenesis [67]. Thus, in tumours with elevated CHCHD4 expression, the increased proliferation it affords may increase the size of the hypoxic niche, while simultaneously enhancing HIF activation, and consequently metastatic dissemination of tumour cells. Indeed, we have shown that silencing of CHCHD4 significantly decreases the hapto-migration and invasion of HCT116 cells in hypoxia [28], demonstrating the relationship between CHCHD4 and EMT phenotypes in hypoxia. It will be important to make more detailed investigations into the influence of CHCHD4 on hypoxia responses and metastatic phenotypes in 3D culture models and patient tumours, to fully understand the mechanisms by which CHCHD4 influence metastasis.
From a therapeutic perspective, mitochondrial metabolism is an attractive target for treatment regimes, but is not without significant risk of toxicity. Agents which target the mitochondria are potently anti-proliferative, and several small molecules are in clinical trials which inhibit mitochondrial metabolic pathways [14, 15, 23]. The present study points to a potential complication with this kind of therapeutic strategy however; in that targeting mitochondrial metabolism (e.g. at CI) may stimulate tumour cells to develop EMT characteristics which promote metastatic dissemination. Primary tumour cells which evade killing by chemotherapies may therefore contribute to the metastatic population of transformed cells, and anti-proliferative agents may in fact contribute to disease progression and/or relapse. It will be important to thoroughly understand the molecular mechanisms which underpin this apparent inverse relationship between proliferation and EMT in order to be able to devise treatment regimens which effectively and systemically remove transformed cells from patients.
Mitochondrial metabolism plays a central role in tumour cell proliferation. Our current study demonstrates that the mitochondrial import protein CHCHD4 regulates tumour cell proliferation through its effects on CI expression and activity. Increased CI activity increases metabolism of glutamine, and drives mTORC1-mediated signalling. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that CHCHD4 expression regulates the EMT phenotype of tumour cells, and is negatively correlated with the expression of EMT genes in normoxia. Future studies will further investigate the influence of CHCHD4 on the metabolic landscape of cultured tumour cell lines (e.g. nucleotide synthesis), and the proliferation and metastatic behaviour of tumour cells in vitro and in vivo.
Human U2OS, HeLa, MCF7, HCT116, U87-MG and PC3 cell lines were all obtained from American Tissue Culture Collection (ATCC). Human osteosarcoma U2OS control and independent clonal cell lines (WT.cl1 and WT.cl3) expressing CHCHD4.1 cDNA (CHCHD4 (WT)-expressing cells) or CHCHD4-C66A/C68A cDNA (CHCHD4 (C66A/C68A)-expressing cells) have been described by us previously [29]. Human U2OS cells and CHCHD4 (WT.cl1)-expressing cells were transfected with either pWPI (IRES-EGFP) empty vector control or pWPI:Ndi1(IRES-EGFP) which have been described previously [68]. Both pWPI vectors were co-transfected with an empty puromycin-resistance cassette containing vector (pCMV6-A-Puro) for initial mammalian cell selection. Following puromycin selection and expansion of cell pools, pWPI-expressing cells were selected by flow cytometric sorting of GFP-positive cells. Ndi1 (NDI1) expression was confirmed by PCR amplification, followed by agarose gel electrophoresis (Fig. S2d). All cell lines were maintained in Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium (DMEM) containing glucose (4.5 g/L) (Life Technologies), and supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS, SeraLabs), penicillin (100 IU/mL), streptomycin (100 μg/mL) and glutamine (6 mM), all purchased from Life Technologies. Cell lines used were authenticated and routinely confirmed to be negative for any mycoplasma contamination.
Antibodies and reagents
The rabbit polyclonal P-p70S6K (#9205), T-p70S6K (##2708), LC3B (#3868), SDHA (#11998), COXIV (#4850), MYC-tag (2272), Vimentin (#3932) and N-cadherin (#13116) antibodies were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology. The rabbit polyclonal CHCHD4 (HPA034688) antibody was purchased from Cambridge Biosciences. The rabbit polyclonal NDUFB10 (ab196019), NDUFS3 (ab110246), UQCRC2 (ab14745) and mouse monoclonal α-Tubulin (ab7291) and β-actin (ab6276) antibodies were purchased from Abcam. The goat anti-mouse IgG Alexa Fluor 568 (A11031, 1:1000) and goat anti-rabbit IgG Alexa Fluor 488 (A11034, 1:1000) were purchased from ThermoFisher Scientific. The rabbit anti-puromycin antibody was a gift from Stefan Marciniak (CIMR, Cambridge). Uniformly labelled 13C5-glutamine (CLM-1822-H-MPT-PK) was purchased from CK Isotopes. Rotenone, antimycin A, DAPI nitrotetrazolium blue, NADH, aspartate, l-lysine, l-arginine, l-lysine-13C6, 15N2 and l-arginine-13C6, 15N4 (Arg-10) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. BAY 87-2243 was purchased from MedChemExpress.
Total RNA samples were isolated using the GeneElute kit, following the manufacturer’s protocol (Sigma-Aldrich). cDNA synthesis was carried out using the qScript synthesis kit, following the manufacturer’s protocol (Quantabio). mRNA expression was measured by quantitative (Q)-PCR using SYBR Green Mastermix (Eurogentec Ltd.) and the DNA Engine Opticon 2 system (BioRad). Q-PCR primer sequences were as follows: CHCHD4_F 5′-GAGCTGAGGAAGGGAAGGAT-3′; CHCHD4_R 5′-AATCCATGCTCCTCGTATGG-3′; KRT18_F 5′-TAGATGCCCCCAAATCTCAG-3′; KRT18_R 5′-CACTGTGGTGCTCTCCTCAA-3′; CDH2_F 5′-AGGATCAACCCCATACACCA-3′; CDH2_R 5′-TGGTTTGACCACGGTGACTA-3′; VIM_F 5′-GAGAACTTTGCCGTTGAAGC-3′; VIM_R 5′-TCCAGCAGCTTCCTGTAGGT-3′; NDI1_F 5'-AGTCAGATTCGCTTCCACCA-3'; NDI1_R 5'-CCCAGTATCAGCACGTTTGG-3'; ACTB_F 5′-CCCAGAGCAAGAGAGG-3′; ACTB_R 5′-GTCCAGACGCAGGATG-3′
Mitochondrial fractionation
Crude mitochondrial fractions were prepared from cultured cells as follows. All tubes and reagents were pre-chilled, and all steps were carried out at 4 °C or on ice. Cells were collected and washed twice with homogenisation buffer (HB) (250 mM Mannitol, 5 mM HEPES (pH 7.4), 0.5 mM EGTA, in water). Pellets were resuspended in 1 mL of HB and transferred to a chilled glass potter. Cells were lysed with 150 strokes of potter on ice, and 50 μL of homogenate removed for whole cell lysate (WCL) sample. The remaining lysate was spun at 1000×g for 5 min at 4 °C. Supernatants were transferred to fresh tubes and spun at 2000×g for 5 min at 4 °C. Supernatants were again transferred to fresh tubes and spun at 10,000×g for 10 min at 4 °C. Fifty microlitres of supernatants were retained as the cytoplasm sample. Mitochondrial pellets were washed with 2–3 mL HB and spun at 10,000×g for 10 min at 4 °C. Supernatants were carefully removed, and mitochondrial pellets were resuspended in 200 μL HB for functional assays or 200 μL 1× Laemmli sample buffer for immunoblotting.
Sulforhodamine B viability assay
As previously described [30]. Briefly, cells were plated in appropriate tissue culture vessels, and allowed to adhere overnight prior to treatment. At the end of incubation, media was removed and cells were fixed with 10% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) for 30 min. TCA was washed with water, wells were allowed to air dry and then an excess of 0.4% (w/v) sulforhodamine B (SRB) in 1% acetic acid was used to stain fixed cells for > 10 min. Excess SRB was washed off with 1% acetic acid solution. Bound SRB was resuspended in a suitable volume of 10 mM Tris, and absorbance of solution measured at 570 nm. For proliferation assays, cells were plated on ‘day − 1’ in triplicate in 12-well plates, and cultured in maintenance DMEM overnight, after which ‘day 0’ plates fixed with TCA. For drug sensitivity assays, cells were plated in triplicate columns in 96-well plates, and cultured in maintenance DMEM overnight. Appropriate wells were dosed with serial dilutions of compounds, including vehicle control wells. Cells were incubated for desired time points followed by SRB assay. To account for any changes in growth rate between cell lines, we also calculated the concentration for growth rate inhibition (GR) at 50% (GR50) of the concentration at which maximum growth is inhibited (GRmax) in the presence of drug relative to the untreated control.
BN-PAGE for CI activity
Samples were prepared for BN-PAGE using the Native-PAGE Sample Preparation Kit and Protocol (Life Technologies) using a 10% dodecylmaltoside (DDM) permeabilization solution. Samples were run on 3–12% gradient non-reducing acrylamide gels (Life Technologies). For complex I activity assay, samples were run without Coomassie blue, and gels incubated in a complex I assay buffer (100 μM NADH and 0.5 mg/mL nitrotetrazolium blue in 20 mM Tris) as previously described [69]. Bovine respiratory chain complex standards were a gift from Judy Hirst (MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge, UK).
For immunofluorescence microscopy, cells were seeded onto 13-mm-diameter coverslips, and after treatment, were fixed in ice-cold methanol overnight at − 20 °C. Coverslips were then washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Immunostaining was carried out by serial incubation using primary antibodies directed to vimentin (rabbit polyclonal) and α-Tubulin (mouse monoclonal), followed by an anti-rabbit Alexa 488 and anti-mouse Alexa 568 secondary antibodies, as well as DAPI (1 μg/mL). All cell imaging was carried out using a DMI4000 B inverted microscope (Leica). Vimentin distribution analysis was carried out using Cell Profiler Image analysis software as we have previously described for analysis of other proteins [29]. Live cell imaging of NADH autofluorescence was carried out according to published protocols [70]. In brief, cells were plated on coverslips and incubated overnight in maintenance DMEM. Coverslips were transferred to custom imaging rings, placed on a heated stage, then 500 μL basal assay media (DMEM supplemented with 25 mM glucose, 1 mM pyruvate, 2 mM glutamax (Thermo Fisher Scientific cat. no. 35050061), 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.4) added above. Intracellular NADH fluorescence intensity time-series were imaged using a Zeiss LSM 510 laser scanning confocal microscope, with sample illumination at 351 nm. Five images were taken, at 1-min intervals under each of the following conditions: (i) basal (untreated), (ii) 1 mM cyanide, (iii) post-wash with fresh medium and (iv) 1 μM FCCP. Image analysis carried out using ImageJ (NIH). Ratio of basal (untreated) NADH pool to total intracellular NAD/NADH pool calculated for each field of view by setting maximal NADH fluorescence (+cyanide) to 100, and minimal NADH fluorescence (+FCCP) to 0. 3 fields of view imaged per cell line. For the scratch wound assay; cells were cultured to 100% confluency, then a single lateral scratch wound was made in each cell monolayer using the point of a disposable pipette tip. Wells were washed twice with PBS to remove cell debris, and then replaced with DMEM containing 10 μg/mL mitomycin C (Sigma Aldrich) for the duration of the assay. Scratch wounds were imaged in three random fields of view using transmitted light and a 10x objective, at both 0 h and after 24 h culture (at 5% CO2, 37°C). Scratch wound widths were measured using Leica Application Suite - Advanced Fluorscence software.
Gene set analysis
Transcriptomic data generated by TCGA was accessed from the CBioPortal data portal (http://www.cbioportal.org/). Samples for gene expression heatmaps were filtered by excluding samples with a z-score value for CHCHD4 expression > 1.5. Genes for correlation analyses were filtered by excluding samples with a p value > 0.05. All correlations were calculated using Spearman’s method. GSEA were carried out via the Broad Institute analysis portal (http://software.broadinstitute.org/gsea/msigdb/index.jsp).
Western blot densitometry
Western blot signal intensity was measured per lane using ImageJ (NIH) analysis software. Phosphorylated (P)-p70S6K band intensities were normalised to total (T)-p70S6K band intensities, then relative band intensities were calculated compared to untreated control samples for each cell line.
Metabolomics analysis
For steady-state metabolomics or metabolite tracing experiments, 1 × 105 cells were seeded in 6 wells of a 6-well plate for each cell line. After 24 h, cells were washed twice with PBS and medium was changed with DMEM medium containing metabolite tracers. For glutamine tracing experiments, 6 mM 13C5-glutamine was added to glutamine-free DMEM, together with 10% v/v FBS. After incubation for 24 h with medium containing metabolite tracers, one well was used to estimate cell number. To extract intracellular metabolites, cell plates were placed on ice, washed twice with ice-cold PBS and 1 mL of metabolite extraction buffer (MEB, 50% methanol, 30% acetonitrile, 20% ultrapure water, 100 ng/mL HEPES) per 106 cells was added to each well and cells were scraped. One cycle of freeze-thawing at − 80 °C was performed to further lyse the cells. Intracellular fractions were then incubated in a thermomixer (Eppendorf) at max speed for 15 min at 4 °C. Proteins were then pelleted by centrifuging samples at 16,000×g for 10 min at 4 °C and supernatants were transferred into glass vials and stored at − 80 °C until further analysis. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis was performed on a QExactive Orbitrap mass spectrometer coupled to a Dionex UltiMate 3000 Rapid Separation LC system (Thermo). The LC system was fitted with a SeQuant ZIC-pHILIC (150 mm × 2.1 mm, 5 mm) with the corresponding guard column (20 mm × 2.1 mm, 5 mm) both from Merck. The mobile phase was composed of 20 mM ammonium carbonate and 0.1% ammonium hydroxide in water (solvent A), and acetonitrile (solvent B). The flow rate was set at 200 mL/min with a previously described gradient [71]. The mass spectrometer was operated in full MS and polarity switching mode scanning a range of 50–750 m/z. Samples were randomised, in order to avoid machine drift, and were blinded to the operator. The acquired spectra were analysed using XCalibur Qual Browser and XCalibur Quan Browser software (Thermo Scientific) by referencing to an internal library of compounds. Calibration curves were generated using synthetic standards of the indicated metabolites. Intensity of intracellular metabolites were normalised on total ion sum (normalised intensity values). For interpretation of labelling patterns, normalised intensities of isotopologues were further normalised on total isotopologue sum for each metabolite species (proportion of total pool values).
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Tirino V, et al. TGF-beta1 exposure induces epithelial to mesenchymal transition both in CSCs and non-CSCs of the A549 cell line, leading to an increase of migration ability in the CD133+ A549 cell fraction. Cell Death Dis. 2013;4:e620.
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Gaude E, Frezza C. Tissue-specific and convergent metabolic transformation of cancer correlates with metastatic potential and patient survival. Nat Commun. 2016;7:13041.
Semenza GL, et al. Hypoxia response elements in the aldolase A, enolase 1, and lactate dehydrogenase A gene promoters contain essential binding sites for hypoxia-inducible factor 1. J Biol Chem. 1996;271(51):32529–37.
Papandreou I, et al. HIF-1 mediates adaptation to hypoxia by actively downregulating mitochondrial oxygen consumption. Cell Metab. 2006;3(3):187–97.
Raivio KO, Seegmiller JE. Role of glutamine in purine synthesis and in guanine nucleotide formation in normal fibroblasts and in fibroblasts deficient in hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase activity. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1973;299(2):283–92.
Boza JJ, et al. Role of glutamine on the de novo purine nucleotide synthesis in Caco-2 cells. Eur J Nutr. 2000;39(1):38–46.
Loffler M, et al. Dihydroorotat-ubiquinone oxidoreductase links mitochondria in the biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides. Mol Cell Biochem. 1997;174(1–2):125–9.
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Hu J, et al. Heterogeneity of tumor-induced gene expression changes in the human metabolic network. Nat Biotechnol. 2013;31(6):522–9.
Dongre A, Weinberg RA. New insights into the mechanisms of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and implications for cancer. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2018;20(2):69–84.
Guerra F, et al. Mitochondrial dysfunction: a novel potential driver of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in Cancer. Front Oncol. 2017;7:295.
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Pettersen EO, et al. Targeting tumour hypoxia to prevent cancer metastasis. From biology, biosensing and technology to drug development: the METOXIA consortium. J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem. 2015;30(5):689–721.
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LaGory EL, et al. Suppression of PGC-1alpha is critical for reprogramming oxidative metabolism in renal cell carcinoma. Cell Rep. 2015;12(1):116–27.
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Thanks to all members of the Ashcroft laboratory, especially Rachel Morgan for technical support. We thank Eric Dufour (University of Tampere, Finland) for gifting the pWPI (IRES-EGFP) and pWPI:Ndi1(IRES-EGFP) constructs.
LWT was funded by MRC grants (MR/K002201/1 and MR/K002201/2), JS by MRC Doctoral Training award (RG70550) and CE by Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) award (C7358/A19442) all to MA. ASHC and CF were supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC_MC_UU_12022/6).
Requests can be made to the corresponding author relating to materials generated in this study.
Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AH, UK
Luke W. Thomas
, Cinzia Esposito
, Jenna M. Stephen
& Margaret Ashcroft
Medical Research Council Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Box 197, Cambridge, CB2 0XZ, UK
Ana S. H. Costa
& Christian Frezza
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biosciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Thomas S. Blacker
& Gyorgy Szabadkai
Present Address: Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland
Cinzia Esposito
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LWT designed and performed experiments, analysed data and co-wrote the manuscript. JS and CE designed and performed experiments, analysed data. ASHC and CF performed metabolomics experiments. TSB and GS assisted with NAD/NADH imaging analysis. MA provided the concept for the study, designed experiments, analysed data, co-wrote the manuscript and acquired funding. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Margaret Ashcroft.
This study did not involve human participation, personal data or use of human tissue.
Figure S1. CHCHD4 expression positively correlates with OXPHOS and proliferative pathways in tumours. a Heatmap of selected genes from HALLMARK_OXIDATIVE_PHOSPHORYLATION gene set (Broad Institute) that are positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in Novartis/Broad Institute Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia RNASeq data. n = 967 cell lines. b Heatmap of selected genes from HALLMARK_MTORC1 _SIGNALLING gene set (Broad Institute) that are positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in Novartis/Broad Institute Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia RNASeq data. n = 967 cell lines. c Chart shows GSEA of genes positively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in glioblastoma patient tumours. (PDF 153 kb)
Figure S2. CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth and mTORC1 signalling is coupled to CI activity. a Western blots show levels of AIF, and myc-tagged CHCHD4 in control U2OS cells, and cells overexpressing wild-type (WT.cl1, WT.cl3) or mutant (C66A/C68A) CHCHD4. β-Actin was used as a load control. b Chart shows mean fluorescence intensity of NADH in control U2OS cells, and U2OS cells expressing exogenous CHCHD4 (WT.cl1). Cells treated at indicated time points with 1 mM cyanide (CN) and 1 µM FCCP. 1 image per minute, 5 images per treatment, 3 fields of view per cell line. ±SD. n = 3. Representative images of control U2OS cells at each condition also shown. c Western blots show levels of phosphorylated (P-) and total (T-) p70S6K, and puromycin labelled polypeptides in control U2OS cells treated with 0, 50 or 100 nM rotenone for 24 h, in the absence (NT) or presence of 10 mM aspartate (+D). β-Actin was used as a load control. d Agarose gel shows expression of NDI1 transcript in control U2OS cells and cells expressing CHCHD4 (WT.cl1), stably transfected with empty vector (pWPI) or NDI1-containing vector (NDI1). ACTB transcript expression was used as a control. (PDF 273 kb)
Figure S3. CHCHD4 expression links growth rate to CI activity, and correlates with tumour cell doubling time. a Chart shows growth of tumour cell line panel treated with 500 nM BAY 87-2243 for 72 h, relative to untreated (0 nM) cells. ±SD. n = 3. b Chart shows growth of tumour cell line panel treated with 3 µM antimycin A for 72 h, relative to untreated (0 nM) cells. ±SD. n = 3. c Chart shows xy scatter of CHCHD4 transcript levels (RPKM - Reads Per Kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads), and doubling times for 368 tumour cell lines. Trend line (dashed black), R2 value (Spearman’s correlation) and p-value of correlation shown. (PDF 110 kb)
Figure S4. CHCHD4-mediated tumour cell growth is linked to CI-regulated mTORC1 signalling and amino acid metabolism. Chart shows extracellular levels of glutamine measured in culture medium from control U2OS cells, and cells expressing wild-type CHCHD4 (WT.cl1). Representative of 2 experiments. ±SD. n = 5. (PDF 61 kb)
Figure S5. CHCHD4 regulates the EMT phenotype of tumour cells. a-b Charts show GSEA of genes negatively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in (a) breast cancer and (b) colon adenocarcinoma patient tumours. c Chart shows GSEA of genes negatively correlated with CHCHD4 expression in Novartis/Broad Institute Cell Line Encyclopedia. n = 967 cell lines. d Chart shows densitometry analysis of vimentin band intensity from 3 independent western blots as described in Fig. 5c. ±SD. n = 3. e Western blots show levels of E-cadherin and myc-tagged CHCHD4 in control (Ctrl) HCT116 cells, and cells overexpressing wild-type CHCHD4 (WT.cl8). β-Actin was used as a load control. f Western blots show levels of E-cadherin and CHCHD4 in HCT116 cells stably expressing control (Ctrl) shRNA or shRNA targeting CHCHD4 (CHCHD4 shRNA). β-Actin was used as a load control. g Chart shows relative proportion of fluorescently labelled vimentin in the perinuclear and peripheral sections of control U2OS cells and cells overexpressing wild-type CHCHD4 (WT.cl1) untreated (NT) or treated with 50 nM rotenone for 72 h. ±SD. n = 2 experiments, 5 fields of view per condition. (PDF 175 kb)
Thomas, L.W., Esposito, C., Stephen, J.M. et al. CHCHD4 regulates tumour proliferation and EMT-related phenotypes, through respiratory chain-mediated metabolism. Cancer Metab 7, 7 (2019) doi:10.1186/s40170-019-0200-4
Coiled-coil helix coiled-coil helix domain-containing protein 4 (CHCHD4)
HIF-1α
respiratory chain
disulfide relay system
tumour growth
tumour metabolism
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Job Seekers, Welcome to AMA Dallas/Fort Worth Career Center
Director of Communication and Marketing
University of Minnesota, Rochester
62360.28 - 124728.37
Director of Communication and Marketing University of Minnesota Rochester
As this innovative campus enters its second decade, the University of Minnesota Rochester is seeking a visionary marketing and communications leader for an exceptional opportunity to drive our next decade of accelerated growth in enrollment and influence. Reporting directly to the chancellor and working closely with other UMN Rochester leaders and University of Minnesota System colleagues, the Director will be responsible for recruitment and reputational marketing as well as communication with multiple constituent groups to include prospective and current students; prospective and current parents and families; alumni; faculty and staff; benefactors, including individuals and industry partners; diverse community leaders and supporters; local and national media; higher education innovators; and elected officials. Such work will require intentional collaboration with highly varied internal and external stakeholders.
The Director’s goal is to enhance the reputation and distinctive brand identity of UMN Rochester in the national and regional marketplace, work collaboratively with others to increase the opportunities for recruitment and philanthropic support, and promote UMN Rochester’s unique evidence-based educational model as a demonstration case for higher education. Additionally, the Director shall continue to support programming towards accessibility and inclusivity in the community (https://accessibility.umn.edu/).
The campus seeks a leader who is highly collaborative, providing strategic consultation to the chancellor and working closely with System colleagues including the Alumni Association, the Foundation, and University Relations. Internally, this leader and their team will work closely with the director of admissions; the director of development and alumni relations; and the senior advisor for strategic partnerships. Other important internal collaborative work with the assistant vice chancellor for student success, engagement and equity; the vice chancellor for academic affairs and innovation; the vice chancellor for finance and campus resources; and faculty leadership will also be vital. And, in the community, this leader is expected to serve as a visible representation of the campus vision and values, in concert with the chancellor and aligned with the long-range strategic vision and mission of the University of Minnesota.
Given the growth and momentum of this young campus, the portfolio of this leader is broad and will be well served by the following: technological savvy focused on recruitment marketing to a diverse youth culture into the next decade, creativity and “out-of-the-box” thinking, initiative, emotional intelligence, optimism, interpersonal communication competence, and a demonstrated commitment to inclusion and innovation.
Purpose of the position
To creatively drive the success of the campus growth plan, including identified increases in enrollment and philanthropy as well as amplification of reputation; to provide strategic, operational leadership to the communication and marketing team; and to advance UMN Rochester’s national, state, and regional visibility using data and a broad spectrum of media, including new media technologies. This is a working leader position reporting to the chancellor, managing 3-5 direct reports, and collaborating on a daily basis with other key leaders and units.
Job duties
Lead and implement integrated, comprehensive communication and marketing strategies for student recruitment, reputation, and philanthropy. —70%
Champion the UMN Rochester brand, serving as primary brand ambassador.
Manage the activities of diverse communication functions, which include planning, coordinating, administering, and evaluating programs, projects, processes, policies, systems, and standards; determining strategic and ongoing work priorities; and allocating financial and human resources.
In collaboration with others in the department, with the director of admissions, and with other campus leaders including faculty, assess and refresh marketing materials to drive success with established enrollment growth goals. Bring expertise to inform recruitment marketing materials relevant to a diverse youth culture. Evaluate effectiveness with regular reports to the chancellor and other campus leaders.
Create and strategically execute a plan to increase UMN Rochester’s public profile, visibility, and brand–recognition at the regional and national level using media relations, marketing and creative services, web and social media communication, targeted print and electronic communication, leadership communication, and other activities.
Stimulate and coordinate media interest in the University through press releases, media request responses, and targeted media contacts.
Provide editorial direction and supervise the design, production, and distribution of all UMN Rochester’s marketing and communication publications and printed material working in close collaboration with relevant colleagues. Oversee and ensure editing for the highest level of professionalism in all written communication that represents the campus.
Serve as the campus media relations contact generally and in emergency and crisis situations. Be on call 24/7 to communicate necessary information to the Rochester campus. Collaborate during emergency situations with UMN System officials as needed.
Oversee UMN Rochester’s digital marketing efforts including website design, brand alignment, maintenance, and efficacy.
Drive work with the communication and marketing team, student activities staff, and all relevant others to establish and maintain an up-to-date campus events calendar, using the website homepage and social media to promote UMN Rochester’s vibrant campus life integrated in the downtown Rochester community.
Ensure stories featuring students, alumni, faculty, and staff are routinely shared internally and externally.
Facilitate and oversee market research—working with outside vendors as needed.
Oversee the creative development process, including video production—working with outside vendors as needed.
Provide expertise and advice to campus leadership regarding internal and external public relations matters.
Ensure communication industry best practices are followed and monitor campus communication for internal/external response and/or legal concerns.
Provide leadership to the Communication and Marketing team—20%
Create annual budget priorities in collaboration with the chancellor and other key leaders including the director of admissions. Plan and monitor expenditures, providing quarterly budget reports in conjunction with effectiveness reports.
Set priorities and goals for the Communication and Marketing team.
Ensure efficient and clear project management and workflow processes for the Communication and Marketing team, creating broadly shared expectations for customer service to internal campus constituents.
Make hiring, evaluation, and other management decisions for the unit within a diverse and inclusive campus.
Lead team to actively participate in campus life, to ensure deep awareness of the UMN Rochester story as it continues to evolve.
Make evidence-based decisions regarding financial and human resources; identify and utilize performance metrics and ROI criteria aligned with the strategic aims.
System-wide Collaboration—10%
Work with colleagues across the University of Minnesota System to advance the system-wide communication and enrollment management strategies.
Represent UMN Rochester through participation in regular meetings of system-wide communicators (remotely or in person).
Collaborate with system-wide colleagues on special projects and/or high-level media relations activities and issues of a sensitive nature.
Utilize System expertise as appropriate, including but not limited to colleagues in University Relations, the Alumni Association, the Office of institutional Technology, Disability Resource Center, and the UMN Foundation.
MA/MS/MBA degree with an emphasis in communication, marketing, journalism or a related field and four years of professional communication, marketing, journalism or related experience, or
BA/BS degree with an emphasis in communication, marketing, journalism or a related field and at least six years of professional communication, marketing, journalism or related experience, or
BA/BS degree in any field of study and at least eight years of professional communication, marketing, journalism or related experience.
In addition, the campus prefers a candidate that demonstrates the following characteristics:
Authentic enthusiasm for UMN Rochester’s distinctive vision.
Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Advanced experience in public relations, marketing, or communications capacity.
Proven experience working with social media, Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), web accessibility best practices, web content management, and web application testing.
Demonstrated appetite for innovation and eagerness to continue to learn as new media options emerge.
Professionalism appropriate to represent the campus with internal and external audiences, including major industry partners.
Experience working in highly collaborative environments requiring interpersonal communication competence, initiative, listening, and emotional intelligence.
Demonstrated value for the persuasive power of story.
Demonstrated understanding of the higher education environment, and UMN Rochester’s uniqueness from traditional campuses.
Demonstrated commitment to UMN Rochester’s grounding values of diversity and inclusion, respect, community, human potential, and evidence-based decision making.
Key Competencies for UMN Rochester Leaders:
Find joy and purpose in serving a campus focused on student success.
Model respect for all.
Have a visible and positive presence.
Excel at collaborative project management.
Generate and implement evidence-based solutions.
Think strategically and work collaboratively.
Listen well and build trusting relationships.
Operate with integrity.
About University of Minnesota, Rochester
The University of Minnesota Rochester is located in University Square, one block away from the Mayo Clinic, seven miles south of IBM, and just 75 miles south of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. As a student on the UMR campus in downtown Rochester, you will be at the heart of one of the world?s top medical centers and at the center of an internationally known research community.
Director of Community Relations & Marketing Irving, Texas
Las Colinas Association 2 Days Ago
Assistant Director of Marketing Bethesda, MD
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 4 Days Ago
Assistant Director for Communications and Marketing Oxford, Ohio
Miami University 5 Days Ago
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Physical Medicine and Rehab
Northridge, California
Dignity Health Medical Group - Northridge is seeking a part-time PM&R provider to join a group of physicians committed to provide quality hospital care and teaching.
Opportunity and Benefits Highlights:
Inpatient opportunity, to start
Work with the medical group to develop the Outpatient practice
Experience with spinal cord injuries preferred
Northridge Hospital acute rehab is CARF Accredited
Employed position, with salary guaranteed to start
Healthcare benefits + 401(k) matching + CME allowance
Community Highlights:
Enjoy Southern CA weather
Access to CA beaches, hiking trails, and parks
Short drive to the city of Los Angeles or San Diego
Easy access to the airport
This position would be employed through Dignity Health Medical Group-Northridge Family Medicine, a service of Dignity Health Medical Foundation. Our Medical Foundation is aligned with one of the largest health systems in the nation and the largest hospital system in California.
The way in which we approach our patients and each other is engrained in our culture, and can be summed up in two powerful words: Hello Humankindness.
Join Dignity Health Medical Group and be a part of our amazing journey!
Name: Juren Llarena
Email: Providers@DignityHealth.org
Enjoy an active Southern California lifestyle year-round. Socioeconomic, ethnically, and religiously diverse urban community located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley 30 minutes from the beach and downtown Los Angeles. Close to all amenities, including restaurants, shopping malls, amusement parks, Universal Studios and Citywalk, Dodger Stadium, J. Paul Getty Museum, Museum of America West, L.A. Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Griffith Park Observatory, and numerous community parks and recreation centers. California State University Northridge, UCLA and USC are all nearby.
Founded in 1976, Dignity Health Medical Group - Northridge, formerly known as Northridge Family Practice, is a multi-specialty group affiliated with Dignity Health, one of the largest health systems in the nation and the largest hospital system in California.
DHMG - Northridge: http://www.dignityhealth.org/medical-groups/california/northridge
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800-979-NAGC | CONTACT | HOME
News About Benefits Training Careers Join
Job Seekers, Welcome to NAGC Career Center
Clinica Sierra Vista is one of the oldest and largest Federally Qualified Health Centers in California and the nation, having earned the trust of its patients, partners and the communities it serves over a 46-year history distinguished by rapid growth and innovation, exceptional primary-care physicians, and a reputation for treating the most vulnerable residents with respect and compassion.
If you have a servant's heart, consider a career with Clinica Sierra Vista, which opened out of a trailer in a field in 1971 but has grown to care for a diverse population of 150,000 patients.
Clinica Sierra Vista, accredited by the rigorous Joint Commission, serves patients at 31 health centers in Kern, Fresno and Inyo counties. Our services include Pediatric Care, Adult Care, Dental Care, Behavioral Health, Case Management, Prenatal & Women's Health, Substance Abuse Treatment, HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, Health Education, Outreach and WIC services. We partner with local governments, social services departments, businesses and nonprofit leaders to address the full range of needs for our patients. Our dedicated providers and staff make Clinica Sierra Vista an ideal place to call your medical home.
Responsibilities / qualifications:
Provides primary-care services like exams, diagnoses and treatment, to individuals and families in the community.
Prepares appropriate treatment plans and provide follow-up as needed while adhering to clinic policy and procedures. Duties include outpatient responsibilities.
BC/BE for certification in family medicine.
Licensed or eligible for licensure as an MD or DO in the State of California; have prescriptive authority and current DEA certification.
Maintains appropriate medical records documentation in the EMR on all patients in accordance with organizational policy. Consistently up to date on charting.
Prepares appropriate treatment plans and provides follow-up and treatment as needed while adhering to clinic policy and procedures.
Refers patients for specialty care as appropriate.
Provides appropriate information and education to patient and family members regarding diagnoses, treatment, prevention, safety, etc.
Base salary (Commensurate with experience)
Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance for physician and family (begins on first day of employment)
Sign-on bonus of up to $150,000
Paid CME
Relocation reimbursement
Loan repayment through the NHSC
Malpractice coverage through the FTCA/Federal Tort Claims Act
J1/H-1B visa candidates are welcome, CSV is cap exempt for H1-B Visa
About the Central Valley
Located in the heart of California, the Central Valley feeds America as the leading agricultural region of the nation. In the southern part of the valley, oil production also powers the economy, though aerospace, the healthcare industry and alternative energy are emerging as key drivers as well.
We specialize in sunshine in California, with a mild climate year-round. Beaches are less than two hours away, and several mountain ranges and the high desert are even closer. We're two hours north of Los Angeles, and a tank of gas will get you to San Francisco, San Diego or Las Vegas.
But our greatest natural resource is not the bounty of our fields or our oil; it's the people. Bakersfield and Fresno take great pride in our reputation as generous, giving cities who offer metropolitan amenities but a small-town sense of community.
We also offer the most affordable cost of living in the entire state, plus great schools and universities, a thriving arts scene, and family-friendly communities.
Team Player: Works well as a member of a group
Leader: Inspires teammates to follow them
Thought Provoking: Capable of making others think deeply on a subject
Loyal: Shows firm and constant support to a cause
Detail Oriented: Capable of carrying out a given task with all details necessary to get the task done well
Innovative: Consistently introduces new ideas and demonstrates original thinking
Functional Expert: Considered a thought leader on a subject
Enthusiastic: Shows intense and eager enjoyment and interest
Dedicated: Devoted to a task or purpose with loyalty or integrity
Self-Starter: Inspired to perform without outside help
Work-Life Balance: Inspired to perform well by having ample time to pursue work and interests outside of work
Job Security: Inspired to perform well by the knowledge that your job is safe
Flexibility: Inspired to perform well when granted the ability to set your own schedule and goals
Ability to Make an Impact: Inspired to perform well by the ability to contribute to the success of a project or the organization
MD or better.
Physician - DO
Physician - MD
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information.
Name: RaShon Cardwell
Email: rashon.cardwell@clinicasierravista.org
Telephone Number: 661-635-3050 ext 2143
In the early 1950's, the people of Bakersfield and Kern County found themselves in desperate need of a new hospital. A fundraising campaign was formed by civic leaders and healthcare professionals to raise money to build a true community hospital -- one owned and governed by the people. This drive led to the opening of the original 112-bed Greater Bakersfield Memorial Hospital in 1956.
Thanks to the continuing support of many donors, volunteers and local leaders, Memorial Hospital has continued to grow and meet the needs of this community. Numerous construction projects completed throughout the years have made Memorial the largest regional medical center in the Southern Valley. The facility now includes 426 general acute beds, 48 licensed critical care beds, 13 state-of-the-art surgical suites, and a full-service Emergency Department with an Accredited Chest Pain Center and Nationally Certified Stroke Center. In addition, we offer a beautiful Family Care and Birthing Center, the Lauren Small Children's Center including the area's only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Family Care Center, a Level II NICU, the Sarvanand Heart and Brain Center with Kern County's first Bi-Plane Interventional Suite, the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbarics, and many more services.
PAMG provides exclusive services to Bakersfield Memorial, Mercy Truxton, and Mercy SW Hospitals, 2 top rated surgery centers, and the largest free standing cancer center in the U.S. From day 1, there is an extremely fair distribution of cases as well as call shifts. The average case volume per provider within the group is about 1,400 cases a year. If BC, the position is eligible for partnership in only ONE YEAR with no buy in! First year members have earned an average of $400,000 (net) in their first year. Our top earning partners are at the highest income level for anesthesiologists in all of California.
Located equidistant between Los Angeles and Fresno (110 miles south and north, respectively), Bakersfield is the ninth largest city in California and one of the fastest growing regions in the nation. From a rich history of musical performance to award-winning museum exhibits and a variety of regional attractions, Bakersfield offers something for everyone.
Bakersfield offers a desert climate, with hot, dry summers and brief but cool and wet winters. On average, Bakersfield has 191 clear days annually - one of the most of any city in the US. Bakersfield's long, mild autumn offers outdoor enthusiasts plenty of opportunities for hiking, biking and mountain sports in the nearby southern Sierra Nevada range.
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Fairmate’s Products For Road Projects
Fairmate Chemicals Private Limited, an MNC of construction chemicals, has a full range of products related to road projects. It has earned its place as one of the most innovative company, owing to the deployment of world-class technology in construction chemicals to seize market opportunities and solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.
India’s 5.4 million kms road network, which transports more than 60 per cent of all goods in the country and 85 per cent of India’s total passenger traffic, is the second largest in the world. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to build 50,000 km of roads worth US$ 250 billion by 2022 as a part of the long-term goal of doubling the length of the national highway network to 200,000 km. To meet this end, Fairmate’s products are significant as the company holds a strong position in different road projects throughout India.
The main products involved in several projects are admixtures, curing compound, polysulphide sealant, anti carbonation coating, and segmental bridge adhesive. A brief description about Fairmate’s products is mentioned below:
Two admixtures for PQC- SNF based and PCE based.
FAIRFLO PQC- 4 is SNF based admixture and conforms to IS9103-99. It is type G as per ASTM C 494, which is for PQC.
BROCRETE PQC is a PCE based admixture and also conforms to IS 9103-99. It is also type G as per ASTM C 494.
Also, PCE based admixture named FAIRFLO HSP(MM) for structural concrete, is available.
The unique eco-friendly resin aluminium-based curing compound is FAIRCURE RA, which conforms to ASTM C 309 type 1 Class B.
Two component-based pourable grade polysulphide sealants, named FAIRSEAL P. It conforms to BS 5212, and IS 12118.
Anti carbonation coating named FAIRCOAT to protect the carbonation attack on bridges and flyovers. Carbon dioxide diffusion resistance of this material is tested through the TAYWOOD Laboratory Method.
Segmental bridge adhesive named FAIRBOND CS, which is matching both FIP and ASTM. Two versions are available, which can work in two different temperatures. The versions are as follows:
FAIRBOND CS (W): It functions between 10°C and 35°C
FAIRBOND CS (S): It functions between 25°C and 45°C
visit: www.fairmate.com
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Guido J. Fecondo of Landenberg
Posted by ChaddsFordLive on October 31st, 2016
Guido J. Fecondo, 92, of Landenberg, died Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Jennersville Regional Hospital in West Grove. He was the husband of Mary Jane Segner Fecondo, with whom he shared 65 years of marriage.
Guido J. Fecondo
Born in West Grove, he was the son of the late Joseph F. and the late Maria (DiGorgio) Fecondo.
Guido was a graduate of Avon Grove High School. His career was long and varied. Guido owned and operated Fecondo Food Market in Avondale from 1947-1955. He worked for Westinghouse and was a manager at Starr Roses, Penn Eastern and Kelton Supply. In the later part of his career he was a realtor for Hannum Realty. He retired as owner of Hockessin Fine Foods.
Survivors include in addition to his wife, one son, Joseph V. Fecondo of Middletown; one daughter, Patricia Y. Kieras and her husband Arthur of Landenberg; one sister, Mary Fecondo of Lima; two grandchildren, Alison and Adam and one great-grandson Chase.
You are invited to visit with Guido’s family and friends from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at Assumption BVM Catholic Church 300 State Rd. West Grove, PA 19390. His Mass of Christian Murial will follow at noon. Interment will be in St. Patrick Cemetery in Kennett Square. Contributions in his memory may be made to Mother of Mercy House, 709 E. Allegheny Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19134. Arrangements are by Foulk & Grieco Funeral Home Inc. (610-869-2685) of West Grove. To view his online tribute and to share a memory with his family, please visit www.griecocares.com
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WHAT IS IT’S ALL COBBLERS TO ME?
It’s All Cobblers To Me is the podcast for the fans of Northampton Town Football Club. Northampton Town, known as The Cobblers, is at the heart of every episode. Released every week, the podcast features opinions on the latest games, interviews with fans of upcoming opponents and your thoughts on all things Northampton Town.
Bonus episodes include interviews with former and current players, managers and football club staff such as the Chairman. Previous episodes have featured Lee Harper, Chris Hargreaves, Andy Woodman, Chris Freestone, Kelvin Thomas, Nicky Adams, Alan Knill and Chris Wilder.
The podcast is hosted by Charles Commins and his friends Neil Egerton-Scott, Danny Brothers and Chessie Coleman. All have been Cobblers supporters since a young age and have now come together to talk about their favourite football team.
CHARLES COMMINS – HOST & PRODUCER
Charles was first taken to see the Cobblers by his Dad at the tender age of 6. Italia 90 had sparked something in him and so he begged to be taken to a football match. He can’t remember much about his time watching the Town at the County Ground but his Dad informs him that he enjoyed his time eating Tony Ansell burgers on the front row of the Cricketside. Eventually, Dad caught the bug too and after two Wembley appearances, their first season tickets were purchased for the 98/99 season. Even now, living outside of Northamptonshire, Charles goes to as many home and away games as he can while his Dad remains a season ticket holder. His favourite Cobblers player of all time is Carl Heggs.
Follow @charlescommins
DANNY BROTHERS – CO-HOST
Danny also went to is first game as a young boy, taken by his Dad to the County Ground. In July 2006, Danny started a blog all about the Cobblers. At the time he had just finished his degree at Solent University and spent the next ten years or so living everywhere but Northampton. In 2016, Danny made his return to his hometown and bought himself a season ticket, attending matches with his son Isaac, brother Chris and nephew Harry. Danny thinks that his favourite player, Sam Hoskins can reach double figures this season…
Follow @dannybrothers
NEIL EGERTON-SCOTT – CO-HOST
Neil’s first experience of NTFC was through school. Bobby Barnes had taken his class for a training session and then provided free tickets for the next home game, a dull 0-0 draw against Gillingham. Somehow it didn’t put the young man off and now, Neil can be found at Sixfields, with his children in tow, at most home games.
Neil’s favourite ever Cobblers player is Matthew Rush.
Follow @Nelza82
CHESSIE COLEMAN – CO-HOST
Follow @CobblersChes
Enter your email address to receive notifications of new episodes by email.
It’s All Cobblers To Me on Facebook
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XXO announced
Last year (2017) Hennessy has started to use the XXO grade in China for cognacs that have been aged for at least fourteen years. Other companies did protest, but now it is evident that the BNIC and the French Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) will approve the use of this grade. It will probably be made official before the end of the year. Other companies will also be allowed the use of this grade.
XXO announced — 1 Comment
Murphy de la Sucre on 9 January, 2020 at 03:49 said:
I protest but respect the official admittance as of Novembre 14, 2018 （was that true by BNIC?）
Fourteen years? I didn’t expect forty but at least twenty years would be persuasive.
OK, I accept XXO as for 14 years, period, but please do not make an another new official grade for 16 or 18 years!
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Peso falls to 2,100 to dollar
by Michael Kay September 17, 2008
The Colombian peso Wednesday weakened Wednesday at the opening of the
session amid uncertainty in global financial markets in spite of an
emergency rescue plan for heavyweight American International Group Inc.
(AIG).
The peso was trading at COP2,125 at 9:40 a.m. EDT in active trading, down from Tuesday’s closing mark of COP2,104.
Laura Cabrera, researcher at local brokerage Acciones de Colombia, said
the country’s largest bank, Banco de Bogota (BOGOTA.BO), and the local
unit of Spanish bank Santander (STD) bought greenbacks amid risk
aversion in emerging markets.
Even though the U.S. government announced an emergency rescue plan for
AIG, which may involve a bridge loan of up to $85 billion, “markets
believe the insurance company will need more capital to come afloat,”
Cabrera said.
In the local bond market, the yield on the benchmark domestic paper
maturing in 2020 was trading at 11.855% at 9:37 a.m. EDT, from 11.839%
on Tuesday.
(Dow Jones)
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Category: Securities Regulation
What is Securities Regulation?
I wanted a general post on basic Securities Law so I went to Kermit Hall’s Oxford Guide to American Law (I get nothing if you buy these books from the links provided, but I’m giving you a taste of them and I trust you will all buy them anyways). I was reading the entry on…
CategoryCrowdfunding, Securities Regulation
Official SEC Release Regarding Crowdfunding
SEC Adopts Rules to Permit Crowdfunding Proposes Amendments to Existing Rules to Facilitate Intrastate and Regional Securities Offerings FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2015-249 Washington D.C., Oct. 30, 2015 —The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted final rules to permit companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. The Commission also voted to propose amendments to existing…
CategoryCapital Markets, Crowdfunding, Private Offerings, Securities Regulation
A Simple Explanation of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD)
REGULATION FAIR DISCLOSURE The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has issued many laws that aim to protect investors in the securities market. Most of these laws deal with forced disclosure, a compelled transparency by publicly traded companies of mostly financial information that will create a well-informed, and therefore, safer market place. Some examples of…
CategoryCapital Markets, Corporate Law, Initial public offerings, Securities Regulation
CategoryReg FD
SEC Implements Regulation Crowdfunding Rules
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”) was passed by Congress in April 2012 has been implemented in stages through a contentious standoff between the SEC and Congress. This sweeping reform was passed by Congress and the SEC was not given sufficient resources to implement the JOBS Act. Timeline for JOBS Act Implementation Title…
CategoryCapital Markets, Crowdfunding, Current Affairs, Jobs Act, Private Offerings, Securities Regulation
Going Dark: Board of Directors’ Fiduciary Duties When Public Companies Voluntarily Go Dark Without Going Private
This is the draft of a paper I hope to continue developing. I hope to eventually publish it. Therefore, this is the first of several posts about delisting and deregistering your public company. Introduction The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) permits certain issuers to voluntarily “opt-out” of the public company reporting system when its…
CategoryCapital Markets, Corporate Governance, Corporate Law, Going Dark, Period Reporting, Securities Regulation, Shareholder Activism
How Does a Public Company Disclose a Change in Auditor?
First of all, an auditor’s dismissal, declination, or resignation triggers Item 4.01 of Form 8-K, meaning the Company will need to file an 8-K within four days of dismissal or resignation. You can do it one or two 8-Ks, meaning you can announce the auditor’s resignation in an 8-K and then file another 8-K when…
CategoryCapital Markets, Corporate Governance, Securities Regulation
The 8-K Trading Gap Study
Let’s say you are a small to medium sized mining company and you receive big news from the lab that has just confirmed your very favorable assay results. Or, in the alternative, your company hit a huge vein and is pulling out truckloads of high grade metals. By the time this favorable news hits the…
CategoryCapital Markets, Securities Regulation, Wall Street Reform
Reverse Mergers: A Basic Primer
Why Reverse Mergers? Most people think “IPO” when they hear that a company is going public.[1] A cheaper and faster alternative to the traditional IPO, however, is through a reverse merger. In a reverse merger, “the shareholders of the private company exchange their shares for a large majority of the shares of the public shell…
CategoryCapital Markets, Corporate Law, Initial public offerings, Mergers & Acquisitions, Period Reporting, PIPE Offerings, Private Offerings, Securities Regulation
IPO Revelations: Interesting Things You Can Learn About Your Favorite Companies From Their IPOs
An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is an exciting time for a company and its prospective investors. What many don’t know, though, is that several interesting, behind-the-scene details are often revealed during an IPO — the sort of telling details that provide fascinating insights into a company. Here are just a few intriguing details about some…
CategoryCorporate Law, Initial public offerings, Securities Regulation
Four Essential Definitions of Corporate Securities Law
Corporate securities laws aren’t the easiest things to understand, even for businesses that have been involved in finance and investing in the corporate world for a long time. But since the best way to ensure a better understanding of complex corporate securities laws is to start at the bottom, here are a few of the…
CategorySecurities Regulation
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Tag: seasonal anime
Bla bla bla this is experimental you won’t know what’s going on it can mean anything therefore it’s brilliant and not stupid like school harem fanservice bla bla
Now let’s get to the actual review
This anime is, first and foremost, about the atomic bomb. It’s also about a bunch of other stuff, mostly actual psychology. By that, I mean the anime is deeply concerned with humans, their emotions and how they view the world. It doesn’t stick philosophical jargon in the dialogue or has trippy imagery in order to insist how important it is. The situations demonstrate ideas, and psychology rears its head in character actions and thoughts.
We need to talk about the bomb first. The general stort you hear in the West is that America is Big Bad mostly because it’s powerful and has a lot of money (As much as I love Star Wars, people watch it too much). Therefore, if they dropped an atom bomb on the Japanese then the Japanese are automatically innocent. They haven’t done a single bad thing in the war but were hapless victims of humanity’s worst weapon.
Of course, that’s not the actual story. Read about the Rape of Nanking, about Unit 731 and the Kamikaze. Japan was one of the main reasons why that era is humanity’s darkest hour. Thanks to the atom bomb, though, Japan could feel like a victim for a while. Victims don’t bear responsbility. They’re passive. Things are being done to them. The atom bomb saved Japan from the position of villain they might’ve been placed in once Unit 731 and Rape of Nanking were exposed to the world. Sure, you can buy books about these subjects but what do you hear about more – the Holocaust or these incidents? Germany was the loser, but Japan was the victim.
Shonen Bat and his victims mirror this. Notice how American-looking Shonen Bat is. The baseball bat is a distinctively American symbol, belonging to the country’s most beloved sport. The manner of his dress – the hat, the hoodie is also more common in American than Japan. Furthermore, he has a peace sign on his hat (which was originally the anti-nuclear symbol). How he acts is by targeting people who are cornered, some innocent and some are not. By beating them up, they become victims. He releases them from that stressful position, whether it is being a bully, juggling identities or a big debt. Oh, and his name is very similar to ‘Little Boy’.
Maromi symbolizes Japan’s obsession with cuteness. Many took it as a criticism of that. Supposedely after the war the Japanese escaped to these cute cartoons and figures. They rely on them for solace and escapsim. Its type of cuteness is called ‘yurui’, which tends to mean bumbling and mild. Japan was turned into ‘yurui’ after being devastated by the war. All the people who got beat up become like this. They become passive, smiling, mild and without much content. They vanish after Shonen Bat releases them from their victimhood.
Maromi isn’t a total rejection of that aesthetic. In the last episode Maromi fights Shonen Bat. Maromi represents hope. It may be false one, but it’s some kind of hope. He came from a pet dog. Shonen Bat, on the other hand, is a weapon whose purpose is total erasure. These are two different things.
Cuteness isn’t just an escape. It’s a total rejection of war and its stomping aggression. The problem isn’t in cuteness itself but how it becomes a slave to the technological aggression. By that, I don’t mean that Paranoia Agent is luddite and that it takes an anti-technological, nature-only stance.
It does take a look at how a deeply technological society, how humans’ attempts to build their own worlds cause isolation. The show opens with dozens of people rejecting others using their phone. The origins of Maromi are in the death of a dog by a car – a device integral for big city life. The work and school complexes put big pressure on their subjects. A failure at work doesn’t get help in improving himself, but his superiors constantly bully him instead of letting him go. A kid who’s used to being number one can’t imagine being anything else. The atom bomb wouldn’t be possible without a huge military complex.
It’s not impossible to use technology and cuteness for connection. The only people Shonen Bat rejects are a group of suicidals who meet thanks to the internet. It’s their connection that keeps them from being cornered. The possibility of suicide sets them free, and it gives them a better escape than anything Shonen Bat does. They work for their death and find human connections through it. Everyone else is trapped in systems they can’t exit.
Maromi isn’t free of the work system. It has appropriated him, turned him into another device. Now the people behind Maromi puts tons of pressure on Tsukiko to design another character and for the producers to get the show on time. The people behind the symbol don’t follow its idea. Neither the consumers – they storm the stores, instead of relaxing with the little plushie they have.
Such ideas about the nature of work and how it leads to pressure may promote laziness. The anime doesn’t. Work is necessary, and we do see the police officer who works two jobs so he’ll wife will be okay. Here’s why Shonen Bat doesn’t go after him. Like the suicidal three, the police officer has a way out. He forms connections with both his co-worker and has a wife to come home to.
They say Japan has a high suicide rate and puts a lot of pressure on their students and workers. That doesn’t sound like a culture that follows the ideas in cuteness. If the above statement is true, Japan isn’t one big child. Rather, it’s a man whose had so much pressure put on him that only a state of victimhood can give him escape. It’s not just a mirror to the atom bomb, but how the Japanese culture is too harsh on its subjects and encourages them to be victims.
The world in Paranoia Agent isn’t full of privileges, with problems existing only in the characters’ heads. It paints the modern world as claustrophobic. Social circles trap you in their gossip. Workplaces beat you when you fail but don’t let you go. Even the glory of being the best is trapping. In a society that has few options, victimhood is a way out. That’s very similar to war. If you can’t win, at least be a victim. It’s better than to lose.
You’ll hear often how weird the anime is, but that’s beside the point. Yes, the anime isn’t exactly linear. It blurs the lines between fantasy and reality in the last episodes. It’s never from a conscious desire to be weird. The anime locks on its themes. By the time episodes with unrelated characters arrive, it doesn’t feel out of place. Since the episodes are connected themetically and progress the ideas, they feel like necessary part. Paranoia Agent doesn’t rip the traditional structure for the sake of it. It has a structure of its own because that’s how it expands on its themes.
is the sort of brilliant narrative that doesn’t just define why anime is a worthy medium. It’s a brilliant piece of hard that’s worth your time regardless of what you like. It may be deeply concerned with the Japanese experience, but the atom bomb is a subject that should touch all of us. We’re talking about the worst weapon in the history of humanity. It also connects this to the universal human experience. Don’t let the tags of ‘experimental’ scare you. It’s accessible as it is brilliant.
5 plushies out of 5
Author The Brain in the JarPosted on October 5, 2016 October 5, 2016 Categories anime, philosophy, reviewTags akame ga kill, angel beats!, anime, anime review, another, ao no exorcist, atom, atom bomb, attack on titan, bakemonogatari, big city life, bleach, bomb, city, clannad, code geass, darker than black, deadman wonderland, death note, durarara, elfen lied, ergo proxy, fairy tail, fallout, fate/zero, full metal jacket, fullmetal alchemist, future diary, guilty crown, high school dxd, high school of the dead, highschool of the dead, hiroshima, isolation, japan, japanese, kaiba, kill la kill, kiseiju, kuroshitsuji, loneliness, madoka magica, mirai nikki, nagasaki, naruto, neon genesis evangelion, no game no life, noragami, one piece, one punch man, ouran high school host club, paranoia, paranoia agent, parasyte, philosophical, philosophy, pressure, psychiatry, psycho-pass, psychoanalysis, psychological, psychology, psychotic, radiation, seasonal anime, serial experiments lain, shingeki no kyojin, shinsekai yori, social network, soul eater, spirited away, steins gate, stress, sword art online, tatami galaxy, tengen toppa gurren lagann, texhnolyze, tokyo ghoul, toradora, victim, victimhood, victimized, war, work, working, working class, working life, world war, world war 2, world war iiLeave a comment on Paranoia Agent
Sakae has a bizarre, messy mind. For all the flaws in Future Diary, it’s a masterpiece. The low points – and there are many – are there because there’s few anime like it. Future Diary had no main tradition to draw from, no main road to follow. A lot of great anime follow clear traditions, building on obvious flaws and emphasizing strengths. Even the abstract Serial Experiments Lain belongs warmly in pre-millenium tension art.
It’s hard to decide whether Future Diary falls more on its good side. Expecting Big Order to fulfill that series’ promise is silly, since there can never be another one like it. If the premise sounds familiar to you, you’ll be disappointed. The structures aren’t similar at all. Still, the little you can expect is that the anime will fail in a spectacular fashion.
The crucial flaw in Big Order isn’t the lacking characters or the plot. The bad traits of Future Diary are amplified, but at least they have the same energy that one had. The problem is that the core of the anime is generic. Remove the layers, the odd designs, the violence and the messy plot and you’re left with some kind of a battle shounen about saving the world for this one person we love so much because we’re related to them by blood.
I never wanted to say this about a work by Sakae. Big Order is normal. Everything good about is just a cover on a generic story.
The beginning is good enough. The power of Orders is close to be symbolic rather than battle skills. There’s a little exploration about the nature of wills, how our wills are limited and they could even do something the concept of losing loved ones. Two characters get completely different wishes despite losing their family. The conflicting nature of wishes is addressed and by the time the antagonist is revealed, he’s given some time to express himself.
The character design isn’t as expressive, but Sakae still goes wild with it. There’s a nun with bunny ears, a twintailed girl with a flower in hair, two long-haired dudes and a square guy. Everyone wears weird outfits and the design plays with body structure and size. Characters who appear for barely 10 minutes in the whole show get a memorable design.
The highlight of the show is DAISY, a bizarre creation that deserved a better anime or at least a cameo appearance in the revamp of Future Diay, whenever someone gets around to make it. That little touch of having her hang upside down adds a lot. It emphasizes the distance she views humanity from. Although she’s meant to be a fairy who grants wishes, she’s always distant and slightly cynical towards the whole thing. It gets nowhere, but every time she appears she injects some life.
Oddly enough, the most normal creations in the anime are the main characters. People who wanted a Future Diary copy were disappointed. In fact, it often feels like the anime tries too hard to distance itself from its big sister. Why is that? Future Diary is unique enough to be worth revisiting. If Sakae wants to do something new so much, why is he falling back on cliches?
Yukki/Yuno were deeply flawed human beings. People disliked them for their nature, but they missed the point. They were supposed to be imperfect. Everyone in that series was imperfect, was full of desires and selfishness. This gave them humanity and made it believable at its most surreal. Eiji is a likable guy who only wants to live happy with his sister, but he has no desires, no motivations whatsoever.
He’s responsible for humanity’s worst horror, and that concept of guilt is explored for a while but abandoned. Scenes showing how much everyone hates Eiji are that type of deep moments Sakae can conjure. How everyone gathers around televisions, how they wallow in their hatred for this one person is frightening. Even if he is that horrible, what about this hatred? It’s the cult of anti-personality, and even if you think it doesn’t exist just look at how everyone reacts to Trump or Hitler.
Since Eiji is, at his heart, a generic moral hero who only wants to defend his loved ones this means nothing. His only drive in the series is protecting his sister and the guilt kind of drives him, but was it necessary? He’d want to keep his sister safe even if he didn’t cause a great destruction. We never see the psychological effect of guilt, of knowing everyone hates you. Occasionally there are hints Eiji is actually working alone, but that’s never expanded upon. The whole ‘one man and his sister against the world’ could work even just as a fun show, but it never goes there. The guilt is just another element in the many tired speeches about protecting Sena.
As for her, she’s an object. Everyone cares deeply about her happiness, but why? Her connection to Eiji is only by blood. It’s not that we don’t know how their relationship is. It simply doesn’t exist. Whenever they interact, she’s simply being cute and he’s being nice. If her cuteness was integral, if that charm was emphasized, exaggerated and played with then fine. She’s never portrayed as a character that captures people’s heart. Rather, it’s the lifeless trope of hapless girl who’s convenient to rescue.
It doesn’t help that the few times we get insight into other characters, it always has to do with protecting loved ones. The Future Diary had the ‘dark past’ cliche, but at least each character had a slightly different past and reacted to it different. Characters may have different Orders, but they all wish they could’ve rescued their friends or family and they don’t gain different conclusions out of the loss.
Loss is one of the worst experiences you can go through. If we all experienced in the same way though, it wouldn’t be so harrowing. Misery loves company, and by listening to how others felt when their parents or friends or spouses died would’ve helped us through. Loss is such a harrowing thing, and how you lose someone affects how you react to it. Big Order only plays with the emotional weight it has. It gives the characters a convenient excuse to do what they do. That’s better than making them plain evil, but it’s not enough to make them wholly human. They’re not given motivations, but batteries in different colors.
The only thing the show has going for it is Sakae’s wild imagination. The little he had left was for wacky set-pieces. There are odd situations and turns all over the anime. Gates open to mental spaces, characters become pregnant by touching their ears, an obstacle course – somewhere here an incredibly fun anime is hiding. But Big Order doesn’t have the conviction Future Diary had.
That one jumped from genre to genre, but it approached each with so much conviction you could create 10 seperate anime out of it. Big Order is more scared of becoming a clone, so it does away with anything resembling Thriller, chucks away most of the romance and piles on the action. There aren’t many tonal shifts and doing away with the death game scenario looks silly with what you have left. If it concludes with people sacrificing themselves to make a non-character happy, what’s the point?
There’s energy and verve here, but Big Order is a mess without directions. Notice the use of plural form. If it was an amalgam of genres that didn’t gel, it would be brave enough to be interesting. Instead, it’s too scared of its big sister. So it pushes forward, one wacky set-piece after another. Without a core, or multiple ones to rely on all it has is cliches. This is a perfect examples of when tropes are a bad thing. The anime uses them only because it has nothing to say, because it’s too afraid to explore its themes and too afraid to pile on the ideas. So yes, there’s a Rock God and a pentagram of some sorts and gates and an upside down fairy, but it’s just another story about protecting the little sister. Try BioShock instead.
2.5 floating girls out of 5
Author The Brain in the JarPosted on August 4, 2016 August 4, 2016 Categories anime, reviewTags action, angel beats!, animal, animation, anime, anime review, attack on titan, battle shounen, big order, bleach, cartoon, code geass, death note, digimon, elfen lied, fiction, fiction review, future diary, hero, japan, japanese, little sister, mirai nikki, monomyth, mushishi, naruto, new anime, one piece, order, paranoia agent, pokemon, protection, review, romance, save the world, saving the world, seasonal, seasonal anime, serial experiments lain, shinsekai yori, shounen, story, superhero, supernatural, sword art online, television, texhnolyze, thriller, tv, tv series, tv show, violence, want, wanting, will, wish, wish-fulfillment, wish-makingLeave a comment on Big Order
Many bad shows are a case of good ideas poorly executed. It’s rare for a show to miss its target in the premise, but One Punch Man does. For a while, the series assumes that powerful characters are a problem in fiction.
They’re not. Anyone who’s concerned with how intelligent or strong or agile a character is should stop talking about fiction. These aren’t role-playing characters. They don’t have charcter stats and skill trees. If a character has a trait, it’s supposed to be meaningful to his personality.
A character isn’t defined by how strong he is but by simply being strong. It’s not hard to write intelligent characters. Just have someone solve mathematical problems and put the answer in the character’s brain. It doesn’t matter that Max Cohen is a walking calculator. What’s interesting is how his genius affects his worldview and isolate him.
In the first episodes, the series piledrives into the ground the idea that overpowered characters are silly. I don’t think anyone thought otherwise, so we get something like Kill La Kill only with less charisma. Everyone looks like Arnold Schwarznegger. Everyone screams and every conflict is solved with one punch. Mr. Krabs also makes a cameo appearance in the first episode, but he’s transformed into another bodybuilding loudmouth.
There’s only so much you can do with a character who solves everything with one punch. Thankfully, Saitama is not as bland as his skill. He’s a great protagonist with a personality that’s connected to his super-strength. It’s almost psychological how bored he is of all the macho bullshit, but he’s also vain and wants the attention. The anime remains satirical and exaggerated but the protagonist has a realistic psychology.
It’s Saitama’s desire for stardom and everyone’s megalomania that shapes the main arc. At this point the anime abandons making fun of obvious targets and starts creating actual absurd situations. The villains are rarely interesting. Their purpose is to always get knocked out by one punch. Rather, it’s stardom that’s being satirized.
How ironic it is to discuss the Bandwagon Fallacy in a review of a popular anime? Popularity doesn’t prove quality. Just because you don’t have a diploma from an Intelligence Institution doesn’t mean you’re stupid. Yet we take these things very seriously. People are often more curious about whether my writing is popular instead of how good it is.
Diplomas or popularity don’t prove you’re talented. They only prove someone thinks are you are. Popularity is even worse than diplomas, though. Diplomas are given by people of authority who take their topics seriously. People can be easily swayed.
The most popular people on earth aren’t the hard workers or the life savers. The most popular people are those with the highest social value. They are the charismatic, the beautiful, the entertaining. Taylor Swift is more well-known than a person who saves a baby from a fire. That’s because Taylor is charismatic, beautiful and writes catchy songs. Just because you save a person from a fire doesn’t mean you’re a desirable social presence. It gets even worse with peolpe who Famous Because They’re Famous.
The series is wise enough not to pull that strawmen. There are these silly celebrities, but here the popularity of most heroes are justified. They’re both charismatic and talented, but they’re never as talented as Saitama.
That’s because, unlike them, he never worked on being popular. He became the strongest hero because he only put effort into being strong rather than being popular. That’s the cost of talent. Sometimes you focus so much on it that you forget to make people notice you.
There’s a major rise in quality once the series finds its satirical target. While it presents it well, pointing absurdities without resorting to strawmen it can never attain a sense of madness it aims for.
In the first episodes, it thinks it will get by having everyone scream and some stupid ideas like a muscular crab and a kabuto macho dude. I used different words but this is the same idea. It tones down later but the series never gives up on this.
There are some interesting visual ideas, but almost everything is given the macho look. It fits with themes, but after the 10th dude who looks like sirloin steak it becomes boring. When Tornado appears and we get a cute girl it’s a shock.
Just as they are all macho dudes, their personalities are all macho. Besides Saitama’s everyman personality and Genos, who acts like he walked into the wrong anime, characters blur into each other. It makes for a consistent world. At least the anime tried to find variety in macho bullshit rather than pretend their kaleidoscopic. Still, it makes for a world that’s always less exciting than how the characters perceive it.
One Punch Man isn’t amazing and quickly stops acting like the Most Hyped Show of the Season. That’s a good thing. It’s when it realizes its limitations (the world is monochrome and tame, overpowered characters aren’t worth satirizing) and its strengths (satirizing celebrity culture, finding variety in macho bullshit) it becomes a worthwhile show that has enough personality to appeal to those outside the genre.
3.5 one punches out of 5
Author The Brain in the JarPosted on December 22, 2015 Categories anime, reviewTags action, alien, animation, anime, anime review, antagonist, argumentation, avengers, bad guy, bandwagon fallacy, batman, black widow, bleach, bodybuilding, cartoon, celebrity, comedy, evil, fame, famous, fiction, fight, fighting, genos, hero, heroes, hulk, humor, iron man, japan, japanese, logic, logical fallacy, marvel, marvel cinematic universe, muscles, naruto, one piece, one punch man, philosophy, protagonist, punch, review, saitama, satire, save the world, saving the world, seasonal anime, spiderman, strength, superhero, superhro, superman, tornado, violence, working out2 Comments on One Punch Man
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Toronto FC Practiced at New Inter Atlanta FC Fields
Happy to host @TorontoFC at Arizona Ave this morning as they prepare for the MLS Eastern Conference Finals. Thank you to USMNT Captain and Team Captain Michael Bradley for stopping by! #InterAtlantaFC #OneTeamOneClubOneMindset #WeAreInterAtlanta #TorontoFC pic.twitter.com/aJoz4ORQQK
— Inter Atlanta FC (@iafc_blues) October 29, 2019
In preparation for their MLS playoff game last week against Atlanta United, Toronto practiced on Inter Atlanta FC’s new synthetic turf fields. Breedlove Land Planning (BLP) designed the fields, which involved converting over 220,000 SF of existing natural turf fields into 3 full regulation synthetic turf soccer fields.
New Inter Atlanta FC Synthetic Turf Fields
The Inter Atlanta FC Blues, a non-profit youth soccer organization, engaged Breedlove Land Planning (BLP) to convert over 220,000 SF of existing natural turf fields into 3 full regulation synthetic turf soccer fields. BLP led the client through the entire process including product selection, site design, permitting and construction administration. The project began with a thorough exploration of the various synthetic turf product offerings including a field tour to see actual products in action. BLP helped Inter Atlanta FC understand the pros and cons of various products as it relates to playability, aesthetics, costs, safety, durability and ongoing maintenance considerations. InterAtlanta FC ultimately landed on a premium turf combination which includes Shaw Legion Pro Dual Fiber Turf on a Brock Powerbase YSR shock pad with a geo-fill (coconut husk organic) infill. From there, BLP assisted with field layout options which allowed the club to expand beyond its existing pitch to maximize field configurations and tournament potential. In order to maximize the client’s desired field dimensions, BLP managed both earthwork and drainage needs with a low retaining wall which runs the length of the field on one side. BLP expeditiously designed and permitted all upgrades through the City of Atlanta. Once under construction, BLP worked closely with the contractor, Advanced Sports Group, and the product’s manufacturers, Shaw and Brock, to ensure that any necessary field adjustments continued to advance the final product. We are excited to celebrate that the result is one of the top synthetic turf fields around Metro Atlanta.
Ribbon Cutting for New Barrow County Synthetic Turf Fields
Matt Tanner and Bobby Molleur recently attended Barrow County School’s ribbon cutting for their new synthetic turf football fields at Apalachee High School and Winder Barrow High School. BLP designed the synthetic turf field conversions, which included removal of the existing natural turf fields and replacement with synthetic turf systems. These Barrow County high school fields are equipped with AstroTurf 3D3 turf system with Rootzone and a 17 mm Brock shock pad with organic BrockFill. BrockFill is the latest organic infill product that consists of engineered wood fiber from sustainably harvested trees. Both Brockfill and the AstroTurf system are also manufactured in Georgia.
This project is a great example of collaborative partnership between the community and the local school system. The Barrow County Parks and Recreation department shared in the costs of these fields, which will be an asset to the citizens of Barrow County and the school system.
Click here to see more photos from the event.
Artificial Turf Growing in Popularity at Georgia High Schools
As football season gets underway, according to the AJC, this is the first year that more Georgia high schools will be playing on artificial turf fields than natural grass. Twenty-two high schools installed artificial turf on their home fields during the offseason, bringing the total to 212 high schools of the 422 in the Georgia High School Association.
Why the switch? High schools are seeing the benefits of artificial turf in less maintenance and year-round field use for various sports and events. So many schools are limited in their physical space and ability to maintain practice fields that can stand up to the use experienced in high school sports. With the growing popularity of soccer and lacrosse at the JV and varsity levels combined with football, school systems have found it difficult and expensive to maintain natural turf playing fields that can stand up to the year-round wear and tear. One of the biggest benefits of synthetic turf fields is the ability to play on them during or immediately after rain, no matter how large or small the storm. From a maintenance standpoint, artificial turf eliminates the need for irrigation, fertilizing, mowing, top dressing, aerating, and painting field markings.
BLP has designed over 30 artificial turf fields, including four of the high school field conversions installed this year: Apalachee and Winder-Barrow in Barrow County; and Duluth and South Gwinnett in Gwinnett County. BLP also designed new fields this year for Inter Atlanta FC Soccer and Eastside Elementary School in Cobb County.
Click here to read the full article in the AJC.
Village Park at North Henry Now Open
Breedlove Land Planning recently attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for Village Park at North Henry, a 32 acre park in the Fairview community of Henry County. The park, with it’s village green feature, will serve as the community hub for special events and holiday celebrations. In addition, the park offers a splash pad water feature, a community facility, multiple picnic pavilions, (2) two multi-purpose sports fields and miles of multi-use trails. Breedlove Land Planning enjoyed working with Henry County SPLOST in programming, master planning and construction documentation for this great community amenity. Follow this link for more images of the ribbon cutting ceremony:
http://www.henryherald.com/multimedia/village-park-at-north-henry-ribbon-cutting-ceremony/collection_d8ff626a-1629-11e7-a3e2-07d6815cc4f0.html#1
Georgia Tech Roe Stamps Field Construction Drawings are in for Permitting
Over the Fall of 2012, Breedlove Land Planning worked with Georgia Tech Facilities, Capital Planning and Space Management and Recreation departments to fast track the design and approval of the Roe Stamps Field renovation master plan. This 53 page documents provides guidance for the redevelopment of what is arguably the most heavily used multi-purpose athletic field in the Southeast United States. Since the completion of this master plan, BLP was approved to produce and permit construction documents. With little time to waste, this multimillion dollar site renovation project was been designed, engineered and submitted for permitting. By the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, we hope to see this project completed. More updates will follow as progress continues!
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Author: Darryl Chamberlain
January 14, 2020 January 14, 2020 Darryl Chamberlain
Watch All The President’s Men with us on 30 January (Photo: Warner Bros)
Fancy a night in one of SE London’s best local pubs, watching a classic film? The Charlton Champion and our sister site 853 are delighted to be teaming up with the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival to bring you a special night at The White Swan on Thursday 30 January.
We’ll be screening All The President’s Men, the acclaimed film about the exposure of the Watergate scandal that brought down US president Richard Nixon in 1974. Starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, it’s a tale that resonates 44 years after the film’s initial release – particularly with recent events in Washington.
With politicians’ growing intolerance of media scrutiny – globally, nationally and locally – and as a website that tries to keep you up to date with what our elected representatives are up to, it seems like a good time to show the story of how Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward exposed wrongdoing at the White House. It’s also good to meet our readers!
Admission is free – although as we have to cover some costs, we will be passing around a bucket for donations to help cover them. Any excess will be used to help the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival put on its fifth event this September.
The Charlton Champion, was originally going to screen the film as part of last year’s festival, but venue changes meant we couldn’t do it. So we decided to do it now instead, to get us all out on a bleak January night.
We start at 7.45pm on Thursday 30 January, upstairs at The White Swan, 22 The Village SE7 8UD. Door open at 7pm. We hope to see you then.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION
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The Mirror Shop’s displays have been a local landmark for decades (photo: Greenwich Council)
Over 100 social media users criticised Greenwich Council last night after it announced it had fined The Mirror Shop on Woolwich Road for “obstructing the highway” with its merchandise.
The shop has become a local landmark over the past three decades for its colourful displays outside the store on the east Greenwich/Charlton border, brightening up the bleak and dangerous Angerstein roundabout, where two cyclists have been killed in the past 11 years.
While little has been done to improve safety at the roundabout, council officers targeted the shop’s owner, Clive Berry, for displaying the items, which include mirrors, superhero figurines and animal sculptures.
A press release issued by the council on Monday stated that Berry had been ordered to pay a total of £872 in fines and legal costs. It did not name the court or say when the conviction took place. It quoted Jackie Smith, the cabinet member for community safety, as saying: “The council has a legal duty to maintain the safety and usability of highways in the borough. By obstructing the pavement and chaining his merchandise to the railings, Mr Clive Berry was endangering pedestrians and moving traffic.
“Though we tried to engage with Mr Berry to get him to stop blocking the highway with his goods, he refused. I hope this prosecution serves as a reminder that no one is above the law in Royal Greenwich [sic] and the council will not hesitate to prosecute those who break the rules.”
A photo supplied by the council shows model dogs on the central reservation, with figures attached to wheelie bins that are tied to railings.
But the press release appears to have backfired on the council, with users of Twitter and Facebook responding to question why it pursued The Mirror Shop when the public realm around the roundabout remains dangerous and dilapidated.
One Twitter user, Stacey Ayeh, wrote: “This is a unnecessary waste of time. That Shop should be promoted by the council for bringing joy to the otherwise nondescript road. Also rather misleading to claim they ‘obstruct the highway’.”
Mark Johnson-Brown, the manager of the nearby Mycenae House community centre, wrote: “This leaves me feeling rather deflated. Always liked its quirkiness and one of the things I valued about living locally. think Ill go and buy a mirror from them.”
Another commenter said: “The irony of the [council] prosecuting this shop when how many have been killed at the roundabout is maddening. Goodness me. Fuck all has been done about a deathtrap, but the mirror man is fair game. Joke.”
And Annie Keys, a former Greenwich Labour councillor, said the council’s actions were “probably not something to gloat about”.
The backlash was no less vicious on Facebook, where nearly 100 people had responded by the small hours of this morning. Jennifer McCullough wrote: “My goodness. What complete rot. Nothing has ever been blocked. I’m so pleased that Greenwich Council feels so proud of itself that it resorts to puffing its chest so publicly. I’m sure there’s a homeless person or two you can pick on next. Another easy victim. Grow up and start looking for people who commit genuine crimes.”
Sam Stedman commented: “Absolute joke! This shop has been there forever! The road it’s on is vile and dirty and this shop brightens it up. We always smile going past. I remember pointing the different ornaments out to my parents on the way past now my children do too. Spend your time doing jobs that actually NEED doing! Ridiculous! Think hundreds of us need to start writing in complaining about every fault we see on the roads and health and serious safety issues you ignore from now on. This is not health and safety they never block anything. It’s a small business in our community that a lot of us treasure.”
Others said that Berry had apparently been able to trade unhindered for many years – and said that the council should be concentrating on people who park on pavements and in cycle lanes.
Greenwich Council has been asked for a response. The Charlton Champion will update this story when one arrives.
Thursday update: The council has declined to comment directly on the response to its press release.
January 6, 2020 Darryl Chamberlain
Charlton’s notorious “junction of death” would see new crossings
Transport for London has revealed the first phase of its plans to create a segregated cycleway along the Woolwich Road – but only on the dual carriageway between Charlton and Woolwich.
Greenwich, Charlton and Woolwich were due to be linked by Cycleway 4 when proposals were first unveiled under the mayoralty of Boris Johnson. However, those plans were later dropped and the route shortened to run only as far a Deptford Creek Bridge. A very short section of Cycleway 4 has already opened at Tooley Street, Bermondsey, with more opening later this year.
The dangerous conditions for cyclists along the A206 meant TfL and local politicians came under huge pressure after the deaths of two riders in the space of two weeks in May 2018, including one man under the Woolwich Road flyover, where another cyclist was also killed in 2009.
Now TfL is asking the public for views on the first phase of its plans to revamp the road to create a segregated cycle lane – but this first phase only covers the section from Anchor & Hope Lane in Charlton to the Woolwich Ferry roundabout, where a wide dual carriageway means there should be plenty of room for a cycle route. Initial plans to remove the roundabout underneath the Woolwich Road flyover have also been released.
TfL says it is waiting for Greenwich Council’s plans for Greenwich town centre before coming up with plans for the rest of the route.
With no firm plans yet for the area west of Anchor and Hope Lane, the segregated route from Woolwich may struggle to attract cyclists if they know they will simply be dumped into normal traffic heading west through Charlton and into east Greenwich.
No plans for Trafalgar Road as yet
What’s in the proposals?
The main proposal is to put in place a two-way cycleway on the south side of Woolwich Road and Woolwich Church Street, keeping riders out of normal traffic and enabling them to easily get around the three roundabouts on the route.
One lane of general traffic in each direction would also be removed and turned into a bus lane – however, and rather oddly considering the huge weekend retail park traffic, the bus lane would only run from 7am to 7pm on Mondays to Saturdays.
Six new pedestrian crossings would be put in place, including outside the Stone Lake retail park and at the Warspite Road roundabout. A series of “raised tables” would be fitted at road junctions to slow traffic down and make it easier for pedestrians to cross.
The huge road junction at Anchor and Hope Lane – built when the eastern end of Woolwich Road was converted into a dual carriageway in the early 1990s – would gain a pedestrian crossing on its eastern side. The poor facilities for pedestrians at this junction, an important spot for bus users heading to North Greenwich, have led to it being locally nicknamed the “junction of death”.
Just as in the original Cycleway 4 proposals, this route ends at Woolwich Ferry roundabout. However, this does leave a gap through Woolwich town centre before short stretches of segregated cycle lane – installed by Greenwich Council in the past three years – resume again to Plumstead station.
TfL’s plans for the junction with Frances Street
What about the rest of it?
Proposals for the Woolwich Road/ Angerstein roundabout may be the eagerly-anticipated part of the consultation – but TfL has only released a set of early ideas. It is considering removing the roundabout, and cutting traffic access between the A102 and the Woolwich Road to reduce the number of vehicles. More on those proposals here.
Creating a segregated route along the rest of Woolwich Road and Trafalgar Road will be significantly more challenging – the road is narrower and is frequently congested, seven days a week, with the growth in retail barns in the area adding to traffic levels.
Greenwich Council consulted last year on early plans to pedestrianise part of Greenwich town centre, with the next stage of consultation due in the spring. Plans for the rest of the route through Charlton and Greenwich will wait until these are finalised.
This consultation was delayed by the general election, and it is possible that the next stage of the Greenwich town centre consultation will also have to wait for another election to be over – this time the mayoral election on May 7.
A TfL spokesperson told The Charlton Champion: “We are not consulting yet on the section of Cycleway between Greenwich Town Centre and Charlton because Greenwich Council’s Liveable Neighbourhood scheme, which we are funding for Greenwich Town Centre will impact traffic in the area and we need to understand that before modelling any cycleway designs as traffic modelling needs to be included in any consultation.
“Greenwich are due to consult on their Liveable Neighbourhood scheme in the spring and we’re committed to working with them on reducing road danger in the area in the interim.”
To take part in the consultation, visit: consultations.tfl.gov.uk/cycling/greenwich-to-woolwich/
See also: Notorious Angerstein roundabout could be ripped out, TfL says
Charltoncycling
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Ontario Street
Spate Of Paintball Attacks, Largely In Downtown Area, Leaves Victims PetrifiedWhat started as a paintball attack ended in a wild chase through the city this week.
7 Hurt When Car Crashes Into Building In Humboldt ParkA vehicle was involved in an accident with a CTA bus in the 3900 block of West Ontario around 12:15 a.m., police said, citing preliminary information. One of the vehicles hit a building, which caught fire after the crash, police said.
Chicago Police Witness Shooting On Kennedy ExpresswayOfficers observed a white car traveling on the Kennedy Expressway near the outbound Ontario ramp shoot at a white truck about 3:45 a.m.
High-Rise Fire Extinguished In StreetervilleThe fire was on the 7th floor of a 27-story high rise at 230 E. Ontario St., according to the Fire Department.
Man Charged In Hit-And-Run Outside River North NightclubA west suburban Melrose Park man is facing attempted murder charges for allegedly running down two men on purpose Sunday after a fight erupted in a River North nightclub.
5 Dead, 29 Wounded In Weekend ViolenceAt least five people were killed, and 23 others were wounded, by gunfire and other violence in Chicago this past weekend.
Man, 20, Stabbed To Death In River North AreaA man who had recently moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico was stabbed to death in a fight with a group of people in the River North area early Saturday.
Man Shot, Critically Wounded Right Off Magnificent MileA man was in critical condition after being shot and wounded in a gang-related road rage incident right off the tony Magnificent Mile.
A Dozen Protesters Arrested During March On Michigan AvenueA dozen protesters were arrested Wednesday evening, during a protest march through downtown Chicago, as part of a show of solidarity with a student strike in Quebec.
Zagat Ranks Les Nomades As Chicago's Top RestaurantIt seems that more people like Italian cuisine, but more French restaurants – including one in Chicago – got the nod as the best in the USA in the latest survey by Zagat.
Ontario Street To Be Reduced To 2 Lanes In River NorthMotorists trying to get to the Kennedy Expressway from the Magnificent Mile will face some frustration this month, as a resurfacing project narrows Ontario Street to two lanes.
Pedestrian Hit By Bus In StreetervilleIt was a bumpy ride for those onboard a Chicago Transit Authority bus overnight, as it hit a pedestrian in the Streeterville neighborhood.
Northwestern Staffer Robbed In StreetervillePolice are looking for a man who robbed and punched a Northwestern University staff member early Tuesday in the Streeterville neighborhood.
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Fiji Airway
Monteith’s
Placemakers
2020 Draw
UC Championship & UC Cup
Crusaders Limited Partnership
Rugby Park H&S
Crusaders International Academy
Rugby Partnerships
Crusaders and Ashburton District Council partner to support mental health
The Ashburton District Council in partnership with the Crusaders have today launched an exciting initiative to raise money for local mental health services, by pledging to donate $1 each for every ticket sold to the upcoming Crusaders versus Hurricanes pre-season game in Ashburton next week.
Rugby fans who buy a ticket to Saturday's (18 January) Crusaders vs. Hurricanes game will not only get to experience the 2019 Super Rugby champions in action at their first pre-season match of the year, but will also play a part in supporting the Ashburton District's mental health services.
The Council and Crusaders have a goal to raise $10,000 to promote and support mental health awareness and suicide prevention, with money raised to go to Safer Mid Canterbury - Life's Worth Living project activities.
Pictured: Crusaders 'Rookies Class of 2020' at the Clubs squad announcement in November. Local Mid Canterbury player, Dallas McLeod (3rd from left), will likely feature in the match.
Ashburton District Mayor Neil Brown says the fundraiser will help to increase awareness of a cause that's close to many residents' hearts.
"Like many rural communities, mental health is an issue for our district. This initiative will put much-needed funds into the front-line prevention activities working to combat this issue and help to support our people."
Council Chief Executive Hamish Riach agrees, saying the initiative is a wonderful opportunity to support local people and the services they rely on in times of need.
"We're very proud to work with the Crusaders to make this fundraiser a reality. Mental health is such an important factor in community wellbeing, and we want to do what we can to promote its awareness and make a real difference to people's lives.
"Don't miss this chance to lend a hand to our local support services. Help us reach our $10,000 target by purchasing your tickets for the game."
"When the Council reached out to us, we jumped at the opportunity to take part. Positive mental health is so crucial, but when the scales begin to tip in the other direction, it's important to know that there are people and services who care and can help. We're honoured to be able to dig deep for these services and help them to implement such vital programmes and activities."
The Crusaders are tipping 2020 to be an exciting season, with a number of new players joining the team for their 25th year. The pre-season match in Ashburton will be the first chance for fans to see these players up close before the first round robin game gets underway.
"The Crusaders are very excited about playing in Ashburton in front of our Mid Canterbury fans, and this match is set to be a real showdown against the Hurricanes," Mr Mansbridge adds.
The Crusaders vs. Hurricanes pre-season game will kick off at the Ashburton A&P Showgrounds at 4pm on Saturday 18 January.
Tickets are available online at ticketrocket.co.nz.
Further ticketing information:
Four ticket options for this match are available:
General Admission (GA)- This ticket is on the grass bank on the North side and also two areas on the South side.
BIG TOP Hospitality- Limited to 250 tickets in our large marquee. The ticket price includes a spit roast dinner and four beverages.
Main Stand General Admission (GA)- These seats are located in the Main Stand at the Ashburton Showgrounds.
Cusaders Mini Marquees (30 people) - These are available by contacting the Crusaders directly on crusadersclub@crusaders.co.nz
View our list of sponsors and supporters.
Play rugby with the best in the world - train with the Crusaders
Secure the best seats and enjoy a range of premium hospitality.
For enquiries, messages to the team and to sign up for the Inside Word, contact us here
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CultureVulture
House Porn
Arthur Lazere Jun 6, 2004
Also in Film
The Lincoln Lawyer Renata Polt
Finding Forrester Arthur Lazere
Toni Erdmann (2016) George Wu
The Wind, in the Evening (Il Vento, di Sera)
The Wind, in the Evening is the feature film debut of writer/director Andrea Adriatico, but its dramatic impact reflects on Adriatico’s prior experience in the legitimate theater. The film is carefully focused, dealing primarily with the experience of grief due to the loss of a spouse. Adding immediacy and topicality to an essentially timeless subject, the victim, Luca (Luca Levi), is an innocent bystander who happens to witness the assassination of a high ranking government official by a terrorist who then shoots Luca because of what he has seen.
Luca’s lover, Paolo (Corso Salani) has been waiting for him at home, preparing the dinner they were to have shared. Hearing the shots, he runs out to the street as does their neighbor and friend, Francesca (Francesca Mazza). Luca is rushed off to the hospital, followed in short order by Paolo and Francesca. There, the surgeon refuses to give Paolo even a hint of Luca’s condition because Luca is not legally "family" to Paolo. He learns of Luca’s death only by the chance overhearing of a newspaper reporter talking on his cell phone.
The phone comes into play once again. Paolo has Luca’s cell phone with him; Luca’s parents call, concerned because of news reports of the assasination. When Paolo tells them that Luca is dead, Luca’s mother icily tells him to get out the flat–it doesn’t belong to him.
Adriatico (along with co-screenwriter Stefano Casi) effectively makes these very real and legitimate points about the ways that gay couples are not equal before the law, but he doesn’t dwell on them. Paolo’s vulnerability to such unfair treatment serves only to rub salt in the wound of his profound loss. He is bereft, the structure of his life, the long-term loving relationship at its center is now broken and blown away like so many leaves in a windstorm.
In a not uncommon reaction to the sudden death of a partner, Paolo blames himself for Luca’s death. What if he had not rushed Luca to come home from work? Had he been five minutes later, the gunman would have been gone and this horror never would have happened. Luca flagellates himself and he runs his fist along an uneven brick wall until his knuckles bleed, expressions of both the guilt he (irrationally) feels and some need to make his excruciating emotional pain physical as well, as if somehow to make it more understandable.
The film follows Paolo through his grief-governed wanderings through the streets of Bologna, each encounter (with Francesca, with a kindly bartender, with a handsome young student who picks him up) illuminating the depth of his despair. Corso Salani inhabits the role of Paolo fully and he effectively conveys the emotional turmoil inherent in the situation. Frequent use of a hand-held camera adds a further sense of agitation and the darkness of the nighttime streets intensifies the existential loneliness at the heart of the film.
That Luca’s death occurs from an act of terrorism invests the film with timeliness. Who in the world is not aware of living at a higher level of risk now than just a few years ago? The randomness, the arbitrariness of who chances to be in the wrong place at the wrong time has been etched into world consciousness. And the survivors are left to cope as best they can.
– Arthur Lazere
Arthur Lazere San Francisco ,
Mr. Lazere founded culturevulture.net in 1998 and worked tirelessly to promote its potential as a means for communicating a distinctly personal yet wide-ranging selection of arts reviews. Under his leadership, the site grew in esteem as well as in “circulation", and is well-regarded nationally and internationally as a source for up-to-date, well-written criticism. Arthur passed away on September 30, 2006.
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United 93 Pamela Troy
The Club Dumas – Arturo Perez-Reverte David Koblick
A Letter to Momo (2011) Emily S. Mendel
Ralph Lemon, How Can You Stay…, SF Joanna G. Harris
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Comfort Food Really Does Make You Feel Less Alone
Studies suggest that people crave comfort foods more when they're feeling lonely because meaningful dishes trigger feelings of belonging.
You couldn't travel home for the holidays, so you find yourself making Mom's famous spaghetti and meatballs. As you sit down to watch It's A Wonderful Life with a bowl of carby goodness and a pine-scented candle, it's amazing how comforted you feel. That's not a coincidence. We're sure your mom's spaghetti is a culinary masterpiece, but it's actually those nostalgic scents that are giving you the warm fuzzies and making you feel less alone. Two recent studies tie scent and memories to the good feelings and yummy tastes that we've come to associate with comfort foods.
Smart Graphic
Why It's Relevant To You
Jordan Troisi, an assistant professor of psychology at Sewanee, The University of The South, conducted a study in 2011 that found that for people who think of their relationships in a positive light, eating comfort food can actually make them feel less lonely. Troisi built on his findings in a 2015 study that looked at the question in reverse: what effect does feeling lonely have on the taste of comfort food? Sure enough, the researchers found that comfort foods taste even better when we're experiencing feelings of isolation.
How do you explain these results? People tend to associate the tastes and smells of comfort foods with certain loved ones, as well as social gatherings in general. When you dine on food that triggers those associations, you enjoy those memories all over again. By comfort foods, by the way, we don't just mean sweets or even high-calorie dishes. For example, culturally important foods like kimchi soup can be just as comforting for certain people.
As Reid told TIME, "Humans have a fundamental need to belong. Because nostalgia often centers around personal events involving people they care about, the evocation of nostalgia is one way people can obtain a sense of belonging even when the people they are close to are not close by." The next time you're inhaling homemade meatballs, call a loved one. They might be eating an ice cream sundae and missing you!
Editors' Picks: Our Favorite Videos About Food Psychology
Does Comfort Food Really Make You Feel Better?
Is it the comfort food that's making you feel better...or is it just time?
– DNews
Explore How Smells Trigger Memories
How many odor-evoked memories have you had today?
How Smells Trigger Memories
– SciShow
Memories linked to smells are often stronger and more vivid than those linked to sights or sounds. 00:43
Other senses are routed through the thalamus, which sends them to the necessary processing centers. Smells go directly to an area linked to the memory centers of your brain. 01:19
A 2013 study found that smells are more strongly connected to emotional processing centers than verbal cues are. 01:54
Does Stress Make Us Crave Bad Food?
The choices you make under stress may have more to do with your eating habits than the stress itself.
Written by Curiosity Staff December 12, 2016
The Seeds Aren't The Spicy Part Of Peppers
Some People Fear Public Speaking More Than Death Itself
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‘Serving in the Royal Marines was easy compared with being a crystal meth addict’
Posted on May 10, 2012 by Chris Thrall
Chris Thrall advises people on how to quit drugs
By AMY JONES The Sun
WHEN handsome young Marine Chris Thrall left the Forces to move to Hong Kong, he expected to make his fortune.
But within months he was homeless, alone and fighting an enemy more dangerous than anything he faced serving his country — crystal meth.
Chris almost lost his sanity and his life after becoming addicted to crystal meth, also known as ice. Now he supports others how to quit drugs and has written a bestselling book, Eating Smoke, about his experience.
Click HERE to read about how Chris’s life was before he quit drugs and showed others how to quit drugs.
He says: “I loved my time in the Marines and the challenges that came with each day. But looking back, it was nothing compared to what I faced at the height of my addiction to crystal meth.”
Sadly, Chris is one of a growing number of the drug’s victims.
Meth is twice as addictive as heroin and more damaging to health than crack cocaine.
After ravaging communities across Asia, Australia and the US, it is now on Britain’s streets, sold for as little as £10 a gram — which is enough to keep a user on a permanent high for nine days.
Chris, from Plymouth, never dabbled in drugs during his time in the Royal Marine Commandos. He joined up at 18 and served seven years, including stints in Northern Ireland, before quitting to launch a marketing firm in Asia.
He said: “I loved being a Marine. I was doing something for my country and earning better money than friends who’d gone to university. But I got involved in an exciting business venture and went to Hong Kong to make my millions.”
Unfortunately, the venture failed and his company went bust.
Chris, now 42, says: “It was hard. I had racked up a lot of debt and suddenly I was jobless.”
He found a job at a Hong Kong firm marketing computer chips after answering an ad.
A few months after joining, Chris walked in on a colleague in the toilets smoking meth, which can also be snorted or injected.
He recalls: “He offered me some and I thought, ‘Why not? How harmful can it be if he’s smoking it in the middle of the day?’ I took two puffs.
“Back at my computer, I suddenly felt this rush. It was like nothing I’d ever felt. I knew I was addicted straight away. The next day I wanted more.”
At first crystal meth — scientific name methamphetamine — made Chris feel fantastic and there was no shortage of dealers.
He says: “I could pick it up on the way home from work. It was as easy as buying milk.”
But things soon got out of control.
Chris said: “I was getting nowhere in the office so I got a job as a nightclub doorman in Wan Chai — the red light district. I thought if I worked at night, I wouldn’t be able to take drugs.
“But that soon went out the window. My addiction was life consuming. I was on it constantly. It overloaded my brain and I began to lose the plot. You’re incredibly tired so you hallucinate. On top of that, psychosis starts to develop. I found myself wondering how to quit drugs.”
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE SUN, CLICK HERE
Chris Thrall is the author of Eating Smoke: One Man’s Descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong’s Triad Heartland– a bestselling true story. He now gives his advice on how to quit drugs.
Chris will shortly be writing a post on how to quit drugs
Posted in Eating Smoke | Tagged addiction, biography, breaking bad, Chris Thrall, chung king mansion, Click to Read Excerpts, commando, crystal meth, drug abuse, drugs, expat, Hong Kong, how to quit drugs, mental illness, newspaper, psychosis, recovery memoir, Royal Marines, the sun, Triads, True Crime, wan chai, wanchai
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https://christhrall.com/blog/2012/05/
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EMAC hosts CHS’ own film festival
Coppell Middle School West eighth grade media students Gracie Webb and Lindsay Hopkins do Isy Martinez’s makeup for her role as “The Screech” in their short film. Photo courtesy of Monica Champagne.
Seventh grade Coppell Middle School West multimedia student Sam Castranova dresses as a nerd for his short film titled “Confidence”. Photo courtesy of Monica Champagne.
Nikki Dabney
For the last couple of months, many students across Coppell have spent their weekends and free time filming all over town, writing script and producing and editing their own short film for the upcoming CHS Film Festival.
The Emerging Media and Communications Academy (EMAC) at Coppell High School gives students a taste of the field of media and prepares them for potential careers in film or journalism.
Every year EMAC prepares a showcase of the students’ work, where they can create an in-depth piece that sets them apart as college applicants.
This year, EMAC will have a film festival where groups are formed and given a topic a week in advance to brainstorm and preplan. The day of the event, April 29, the students will produce and edit their film as well as publicize it through social media within about five hours.
The festival will provide EMAC students with the real-world challenge of working under a deadline. EMAC is also hosting a district-wide film festival open to all CISD students grades six through 12. All films were submitted by March 18 and the winners, as well as the best films produced by EMAC students that day, will be viewed in the CHS auditorium.
“[Coppell ISD Superintendent Dr. Jeff Turner] has always wanted to see a film festival happen for about seven years now and after EMAC was created, it laid a perfect path for a film festival to happen,” EMAC president, junior Megan Menegay, said. “Everything just fell into place this year. We decided to open it up to the six through 12 graders because we know that everyone has talent, whether they’ve discovered it or not.”
EMAC received a positive response with over 50 short film submissions that they had to extend the deadline. Some classes are collaborating to create a film together; even media students from middle schools are participating as well.
The Multimedia/Video Production students at Coppell Middle School West (CMSW) were required to produce a short film and were given the option to submit it to the CHS Film Festival. Students chose their own topics and were required to complete a plot chart, script and storyboard before filming and were provided feedback on those planning pieces. They were also given a rubric to show them the story writing, filming, and video editing skills they were expected to incorporate.
“I felt it would be a great motivational tool for the students,” CMSW Multimedia/Video Production teacher Monica Champagne said. “Broadening their audience and introducing competition encourages students to produce their best work.”
KCBY’s short film crew consisting of seniors Josh Brunelli, Mason Adams, Joe Han, Adam Borel and Eric Park will debut “The Mammoth Affray”, a student produced short film entered into numerous film festivals nationwide.
“It’s quite an interesting feeling to have our film premiere after working on it so long,” Adams said. “It will be good to see others react to our film rather than just seeing our friends’ reactions.”
While there are many film festivals in the Dallas area, the CHS Film Festival is unique because it is more of an entry level competition for students who may not have much experience in film and editing.
“Middle school students aren’t exposed to people who do this all the time like in KCBY, so they can see what it’s like so if they enjoy it it’s something they can work toward,” EMAC sophomore representative Jamie Francis said.
Films will be judged by local filmmakers and owners of Chazown Films Michael and DeAnza Spangler.
There are two divisions, middle school and high school, and the winner of each will receive a $100 cash prize. Several local businesses have chosen to sponsor the event. Sponsorships come in three packages. Silver is $50, gold is $100 to $200 and platinum is more than $200.
One local company, YOUR Community Credit Union (YCCU), has pledged the platinum donation. YCCU regularly supports EMAC and the media program at CHS.
“Anytime we are able to sponsor events that promote youth in our communities, the school benefits, our business benefits and the community benefits,” YCCU Vice President of Marketing Rick Stokes said. “It’s simply a win-win for everyone.”
YCCU has also chosen the EMAC Academy to create a series of commercials for the company. The marketing team is working on reaching a different demographic- young, Generation Y, educated consumers.
“We are utilizing the services of EMAC because they represent a large part of the demographic we are targeting,” Stokes said. “Who better to create the commercials than people who are most able to relate to the message we want to send?”
Film Patterson, owned by CHS special education teacher Andrew Patterson, is donating the use of a high definition projector for the festival.
“I chose to donate because I feel that it’s very important to encourage and promote interest in the visual arts for the up and coming generation,” Film Patterson Technical Director Tony Couzelis said. “Film offers a creative complexity level seldom seen in other mediums.”
EMAC students look forward to this year’s film festival becoming the first of many more to come.
“It is interesting to see how many students walk the halls every day and have so much talent that they don’t have an outlet for,” Francis said. “We want them to see that if they work hard toward something there will be an amazing outcome. As years progress, we hope to discover new talent through the festival.”
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Published on January 2nd, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Top CleanTechnica Stories of 2019, & Top Stories of the Decade!
January 2nd, 2020 by Zachary Shahan
Being the start of a new year, it’s time for a review of the most popular stories on CleanTechnica last year, and since it’s actually 2020 now, I’m also going to scroll through a list of the most popular stories of the past decade here on CleanTechnica.
Starting with 2019, the biggest stories were a total cost of ownership comparison between the Tesla Model 3 and the Toyota Corolla, a long exploration of the issue of “Tesla demand,” and some simple expression of shock that so many people are still buying Toyota Camrys (Camries?) and Honda Accords. Why??? Here’s the rest of the top 20 (just note that #10 is a … short article):
Toyota Corolla vs. Tesla Model 3 — Cost Comparisons Over 5 Years
The Mystery Of Tesla Model 3 Demand
Honda Accord & Toyota Camry Buyers — What The Heck Are You Doing?
Tesla’s Cybertruck Makes A Garage Obsolete — Here’s Why
Tesla Disrupts — BMW Boss Throws In The Towel
Tesla Model 3 Cheaper Than Honda Accord — 15 Cost Comparisons [Updated]
Total Cost Of Ownership: Tesla Model 3 vs. Toyota Camry & Audi A5
Polestar Reveals Pricing Details For Its Battery Electric Sedan. Are You Sitting Down?
Skyrocketing Tesla Sales Force Mercedes Dealer In Norway To Face A Kodak Moment
All The Problems With Our New Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus
Sorry, Elon — I Overestimated The Costs Of The Tesla Model 3
Tesla Drops 1st Real Image Of The Model Y As Event Invites Go Out
How Much Range Is Lost On A Parked Tesla Model 3 In 63 Days?
US Auto Sales Down For Audi, Honda, Infiniti, Mercedes, Nissan, & Toyota In 2019
Tesla Model 3 Performance Crushes Fossil BMW M3 Around Race Track
Tesla Model 3 Used Car Stats As Depressing For BMW & Audi As New Car Sales
DIY Solar LEAF Project Shows The Untapped Potential Of Solar EVs
Tesla’s Master Plan Is Working
Tesla’s Autopilot Snaps A Selfie As It Dances Away From Incoming Car
Tesla’s Service May Not Be Perfect, But It Is Still Far Better Than The “Competition”
For those of you who subscribe to CleanTechnica for at least $3 a month, or decide to do so in the next couple of days, I’ll send out a full top 100 list for the year.
For now, though, on to the top 30 stories of January 1, 2010, to January 1, 2020.
Yes, Tesla still dominates the list, but we’ve got some oldies on this one that were just continuously popular for years, as well as some hot non-Tesla stories from recent years.
Advantages & Disadvantages Of Solar Power
Tesla Model 3 Total Cost of Ownership Estimate — Crushing It
What Is The Current Cost Of Solar Panels?
Which Solar Panels Are Most Efficient?
Big Auto, We Have A Problem — US Electric Car Sales Report
20 Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles On The Market In 2018 (USA)
Electric Cars For Sale In 2017
Tesla Model 3 = #1 Best Selling Car In The US (In Revenue)
Low Costs of Solar Power & Wind Power Crush Coal, Crush Nuclear, & Beat Natural Gas
US Auto Sales Down For Nissan, Jeep, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Chevrolet, Honda, Mercedes, Infiniti, Audi, Mini, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Buick, & Cadillac In 2019
13 Electric Vehicles Coming To Market In 2014
Tesla vs Chevy Bolt: Lessons Learned From 1 Week Driving Electric Cars In UAE
10 Reasons To Not Buy A Tesla — Seriously
Here’s What $7,000 Of Damage Looks Like On A Tesla Model 3
Tesla Model 3 vs 22 Competitors (The Straight Specs)
43 Battery Storage Companies To Watch
Lithium Mining vs Oil Sands Meme: A Thorough Response
All-Electric Vehicles For Sale In USA (2017 & 2018 Model Years)
That’s it from 2019 and also 2010 to the end of 2019. Let us know if anything else stood out to you.
Tags: audi, auto sales, BMW, Chevy Bolt, Elon Musk, EV batteries, EV sales, GM, Honda, Honda Accord, Mercedes, Nissan, Nissan Leaf, Tesla, Tesla autopilot, Tesla batteries, Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model S, Tesla sales, Toyota, toyota camry
Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort on Tesla or any other company.
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Hello, Friend: ‘Mr. Robot’ Is Getting A Comic Prequel Series
July 17, 2018 July 17, 2018 Comic Book Club0
One of the most exciting and innovative shows on television, USA Network’s MR. ROBOT is making its way to comics for the first time with this upcoming series that show creator Sam Esmail developed with show writer Jeff McKibben. The comic book series will debut this Fall from Black Mask Studios, ahead of the fourth season of the Universal Cable Productions produced show.
Designed as a prequel to Season 1 of the show, this comic book series will document the formation of the mysterious group known as fsociety.
Esmail is writing the story, issues are being scripted by McKibben with support from Black Mask’s Matteo Pizzolo (Calexit), art by illustrator Antonio Fuso (Survival Fetish) and colorist Tyler Boss (4 Kids Walk Into A Bank).
Mr. Robot marks the first time creator-owned comics publisher Black Mask has stepped into the world of adapting characters from other media for comics. With both the show and the publisher’s subversive points of view and creator-driven approaches, Mr. Robot is a uniquely perfect fit for creative partnership.
San Diego Comic-Con will host the MR. ROBOT: Hacking Comics panel on Thursday July 19th from 1pm-2pm in Room 28DE, where McKibben and Pizzolo will be joined by other special guests for a conversation about expanding the singular world of Mr. Robot into comics.
Be sure to subscribe to our Comic Book podcast which is live every Tuesday night and posts reviews first thing Wednesday morning!
Tagged Black Mask Studios Mr. Robot san diego comic-con
Marvel And IDW Are Teaming Up For New Kids Comics
Preview: Archie Comics “Archie Meets Batman ’66 #1”
Riverdale Is The Official San Diego Comic-Con Hotel Keycards — And You Can Win A Trip To Set
Want To Win An Avengers Gift Pack?
December 27, 2018 December 27, 2018 Comic Book Club
Greg Pak Gets Shaken, Not Stirred For “James Bond 007” Ongoing Series
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Home » Our Work » Campaigns » Saving Pangolins by Reducing Demand in China and Vietnam
Saving Pangolins by Reducing Demand in China and Vietnam
DSWF is supporting WildAid’s campaign to reduce the demand for pangolins and pangolin products in China and Vietnam.
In 2016, WildAid formally launched its campaign to save pangolins by reducing consumption and eliminating demand for their meat and scales in China and Vietnam – the two largest consuming nations. The campaign uses activities designed to educate and build awareness of the poaching crisis, debunk the false medicinal value of pangolin scales, strengthen enforcement efforts and build broader support for the conservation of the species.
In 2017, with the backing of an international ban on trade and Vietnam changing its penal code, WildAid is expanding its efforts to educate the public about the poaching crisis and dispel myths about any curative properties of pangolin scales, while helping officials in China and Vietnam successfully implement the new international trade regulations. In May WildAid launched its pangolin campaign in Beijing with a press conference attended by campaign ambassador and popular Chinese model and actress, Angelababy. They have also secured the participation of Jackie Chan to be a leading figure in the campaign.
DSWF funding will help support the ongoing thrust of the campaign including Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and accompanying billboard advertising, while detailing the plight of pangolins for the press. A press conference in May was attended by representatives from media outlets and resulted in over 120 articles and over 2.9 million views of campaign content (blog and video) on China’s Youku, Tencent, Meipai and Weibo sites and apps (in addition to over 1 million “likes”). WildAid launched the campaign in Vietnam in July at a news conference in Hanoi with the debut of three PSAs starring actress Maggie Q, Miss Universe Vietnam 2015 Pham Huong and comedian Tran Thanh.
You can support this work by clicking the donate button on this page.
Began 2017
Forest and grassland
Pangolins in Uganda
Pangolins in Zambia
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Get a proposal
Native, Web, Hybrid or Cross-Platform App: What’s the difference?
Home / Native, Web, Hybrid or Cross-Platform App: What’s the difference?
You may know that there is a difference between an app developed for iPhone or Android, but not exactly what. Well, in this article we are going to give you an overview of the different possible type of apps available and what the main differences are, to help you choose what best suits your needs, budget, and many other factors.
What are Native, web and hybrid apps?
Before digging into the details of each, let’s start with the basics.
Most people’s mobile devices run on iOS or Android. Apple has developed iOS, and it runs exclusively on Apple’s devices. Android is developed and supported by Google, often considered as a more open platform compared to Apple. Many mobile manufacturers run Android on their devices such as Samsung, Huawei, LG and, of course, Google that also produce its phones.
When we talk about mobile apps in this article, we’re talking about apps you download from an app store.
What distinguishes a mobile app from a web app, is the presence of the company in a store. The visibility for a company is higher on an app store than a web app. Plus, since a mobile app installed on the phone has an icon, it is ideal for remembering it and the company. Mobile apps also allow you to send push notifications to re-engage users, the sharing features are more optimized, and users spend more time on apps than on the web. And finally, one advantage is ads revenue in apps.
Finally, a mobile app can either be native or hybrid.
Native Apps:
The majority of the apps on your smartphone are native applications, and they are built in a specific programming language, for their particular device platform, either iOS or Android.
How are they built?
The language to write Native apps will depend on the platform they are made for. Swift or Objective-C are used to write native iOS apps, and Java is used to write native Android apps. Native apps are also developed using the specific Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the given operating systems.
Native apps offer the fastest, most reliable and most responsive experience to users.
Native apps ease access to the phone’s camera, microphone, compass, accelerometer, and swipe.
It can receive push notifications.
It offers an overall better user experience since the flow is more natural as there are specific UI standards for each platform.
You need one code base for iOS, and one for Android app.
Native apps are generally more expensive to develop than hybrid apps and take longer to build.
Building Cross-Platform Native Apps
In the past years, several alternatives have become available to reap the benefits of cross-platform development without sacrificing the user experience or access to native APIs. Cross-platform development merely means that a code base for an app can be the same and shared for an iOS and Android app, with a smaller part of adjustments for each system.
Two of such platforms that allow for cross-platform development are Xamarin and React Native.
Xamarin:
Developed by Microsoft, Xamarin is a tool used for cross-platform mobile app development that allows engineers to share about 90 percent of code across major platforms, including Windows apps. Xamarin uses a different language to code apps: C#. It also provides free tools to build, test, distribute, and learn from your apps. Xamarin allows you to create platform-specific UI code layers to look like a native app.
React Native:
Launched in 2015 by Facebook, React Native lets developers build real, native iOS and Android apps with one code base as if you were using Objective-C or Java. But the code base is written in JavaScript and React.
Hybrid App
You install it like a native app, but it’s actually a web app on the inside.
Hybrid apps, like web apps, are built with Javascript, HTML, and CSS and run in something called webview, a simplified browser within your app.
Hybrid apps can be the right solution when creating a Minimum viable product (MVP) to test your idea on the market. With a hybrid app, you can put something in your potential users’ hands rapidly, with a simple version of your product. A hybrid app will give you more data to analyze about downloads and utilization on your users’ device than a web app.
Hybrid apps have only one code base to manage, and you save time and money in the development.
It is easier to scale to another platform.
It lets you access devices features like native apps.
The performance is much lower than native apps because hybrid apps load in a webview.
The user experience is often less optimal with a hybrid app as you cannot customize the app based on the platform.
PhoneGap is probably the best-known among hybrid app platforms and probably the easiest to begin with for a web developer. It offers native plugins that allow you to use all of the device’s functionality including the accelerometer, camera, compass, file system, microphone, media, networks, notifications, geolocation, and storage.
So how is a Web App different than a Website?
The difference may not be noticeable: a website will generally just be informational, and a web app provides additional functionality and interactivity. For example, Wikipedia is a website; it provides information. Facebook is a web app that is more interactive.
Web apps do not need any downloading from app stores like mobile apps. Web apps load in browsers like Chrome, Safari, or Firefox and they are not stored on the user’s device. The vast majority of Web Apps are built in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5, and developing a web app can be quick and straightforward, but more restrictive.
But there is also something in between: Progressive web app.
It offers more features like offline use, push notifications and some device touch gestures (like the phone vibration). It’s not downloaded from a traditional app store but bookmarked on the user screen with an icon directly from a web browser. Progressive Web Apps are mobile websites with modern JavaScript frameworks. However, they are much slower than native apps and are less interactive and intuitive.
What to choose?
Now, we hope that you have a better vision and understanding of the different type of app existing. Then, to select the right one will depend on your business objectives. The principal factors that you should consider and will help you make a decision are:
How fast you need the app
The quality of the user experience you want your app to have
The complexity of the features you need for your app to work
And do not forget to check the “22 Questions to Answer Before Building a Mobile Application” article. These questions will help us both go in the right direction, understand your idea well, and help you build a successful and efficient mobile app!
Finally, when you are ready to develop an app, we would be super excited to work with you! But don’t worry, if you are a bit lost in the app development world, we will be glad to help you and follow you in your development process. So do not hesitate to contact us here if you have an app project!
Digital Marketing Terms - A Guide to Learn the Basics
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Digital Marketing Terms – A Guide to Learn the Basics
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This article is published in the April 2015 issue.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Students are More Likely to Have a Mentor at Specialty Institutions Versus Conventional Institutions
By: Jane Stout, CERP DirectorIn: April 2015, Vol. 27/No.4 /
Note: Thirty-five deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and 20 hearing undergraduate computing majors reported who they went to most often for career advice and assistance. Seventeen DHH students were enrolled at institutions that specialize in providing support services for DHH students; 18 DHH and 20 hearing students were enrolled at conventional institutions. DHH students at specialized institutions were just as likely to have a mentor within their institution as hearing students. However, DHH students at conventional institutions were significantly less likely to have a mentor at their institution compared to (a) their DHH student counterparts who were at specialized institutions, p < .05, and (b) hearing students, p < .05. These data suggest that institutions with accessibility built into their institutional identity tend to also foster access to mentors for DHH students. Importantly, mentors provide information and guidance for successful career development.
This infographic is brought to you by the CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP). CERP provides social science research and comparative evaluation for the computing community. To learn more about CERP, visit our website at https://cra.org/cerp/.
Tags: CERP Infographics, CERP
That Was Then, This Is Now: 25 Years Ago in CRN Solving the Equation: The Variables for Women’s Success in Engineering and...
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How Labour used the law to keep criticism of Israel secret
The full extent of government anxiety about the state of British-Israel relations can be exposed for the first time today in a secret document seen by the Guardian.
The document reveals how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) successfully fought to keep secret any mention of Israel contained on the first draft of the controversial, now discredited Iraq weapons dossier. At the heart of it was nervousness at the top of government about any mention of Israel’s nuclear arsenal in an official paper accusing Iraq of flouting the UN’s authority on weapons of mass destruction.
The dossier was made public this week, but the FCO succeeded before a tribunal in having the handwritten mention of Israel kept secret.
The FCO never argued that the information would damage national security. The Guardian has seen the full text and a witness statement from a senior FCO official, who argued behind closed doors that any public mention of the candid reference would seriously damage UK/Israeli relations. In the statement, he reveals that in the past five years there have been 10 substantial incidents and 20 more minor ones relating to Israeli concerns about attitudes to their government within Whitehall.
Categories: Israel, Repression . Tags:Criticism . Author: Travellerev
War pimp alert: U.S. military contradicts State on Iran: Hundreds of weapons caches found in Iraq Don’t sack Musharraf, US and UK warn election victors
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Posted in Global Themes, Interviews & Stories, Creative Inspiration
Meet Our Community Illustrator: James Olstein
It has been a tradition at CreativeMornings to work with an artist in our community to create an illustration for the monthly theme.
A monthly theme inspires new conversations and ideas that we otherwise wouldn’t think about. At our events, speakers are invited to share a story around the theme and what it means to them. After a month, we are excited to see the kinds of talks and inspiration that are born out of the theme.
The global theme for August is Community.
Given that these monthly illustrations are at events all of the world, it’s only right that we get to know the illustrator.
Meet James Olstein
James Olstein is an editorial illustrator and artist. He lives in Philadelphia and enjoys drinking coffee, listening to records, and getting messy from screen printing.He has worked with clients that include the BBC, Monocle Magazine, Mental Floss, Scientific America, Outside Magazine, economia, the Boston Globe, and the National Constitution Centre. James’ first book of science facts for kids, entitled Odd Science: Amazing Inventions, comes out in September!
How did you get into illustration work?
I’ve always loved to draw and began drawing pictures of myself on the walls of my parents house at a very young age. When I got a little older I started copying characters from comics like Spider-man, X-Men and Indiana Jones. As a teenager I was very into music and album art. I didn’t do very well in my drawing classes in college. I never got higher than a C, but now I do it for a living. So never give up?!
At what point in your life did you realize that illustration was your calling?
For years I worked as an art director at an advertising agency in Philly. The work was a bit of a bummer. They started doing more campaigns that were illustration heavy and they hired some awesome freelance illustrators. Eventually there became a need for people internally to do some illustration work as well. I volunteered and really enjoyed it. Because of those projects I actually got to see how professional illustrators worked with their clients. Illustration became all I wanted to do and I started to think up a plan to do it full time. I did more illustration work on the side apart from my ad agency work. I started a personal project of editorial science illustrations, which I love working on because I’m also learning as I make them. Eventually I found my style and started to really pursue illustration as a career. About 2 years ago I said “bye” to my advertising job and I’ve had my own illustration studio ever since. I have one employee, my cat Nacho.
How has your work evolved over time and what were some influences that caused it?
My illustrations started out very Photoshop heavy and overall looked kind of clunky. Lot’s of layers and really overdone textures. I wasn’t doing a lot of sketching, but making an illustration would take FOREVER. Eventually I wanted to make some screen prints, so I scaled my palette back a little bit to 2-3 colors. I’ve always loved two color art, like flyers for punk shows. As I started making more prints I began approaching my work as if it was all going to be screen printed. So even now when I take on a job I approach it like it’s going to be a print. I try to use the textures as more of an accent now and a way to break up the space in my illustrations. I also try to be more expressive with the shapes I draw and keep the hard edges to a minimum. I really love Saul Steinberg and strive to have work as fun as his.
How do you define ‘community’? and what role has this played in your creative life?
I always think of community as the people you surround yourself with that have a similar outlook or even the same goal. We have a community art school in Philly called Fleisher that offers classes. It’s great for people that like to learn different mediums. I do my screen printing there and it’s been a great way to meet other people in my neighborhood. It’s open to everyone which is great.
What advice would you give to fellow illustrators?
There are no big wins, only the small victories. To be successful as an illustrator you have to keep building upon your work. There are really no quick shortcuts or one time big breaks. You’re going to have times where you feel like what your doing something big, but then it’s a disappointment for you. It’s happened to me, you just have to roll with it, keep going and celebrate with Oreos when it goes well.
What’s something in your industry that deserves more attention?
I think illustration is a great place to get perspective from many diverse sources. Illustration can be a global community in itself. For example you don’t necessarily have to speak english to do an illustration for an American newspaper.
Tell us something about yourself that we can’t find on Google.
For some reason I can’t snap my fingers, maybe my hands are too soft? However I can wiggle my ears. Both individually and at the same time.
Photo credit: Rebecca Collins
Discover James’s work on his website, Instagram, and Dribble. Be sure to check out his newest book, Odd Science: Amazing Inventions.
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← Baby Drama, Guns, and Tattletales: Walking Dead S2 Ep 6
My Day As A Crackhead, In Photos →
Well, At Least They Found Sophia: Walking Dead S2 Ep 7
OK. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised by the turn of events from the mid-season finale (and when the hell did this trend start? I don’t remember shows doing this before. Is it just me, or did this crap just start happening a couple years ago? Or am I just dumb?). I fully expected more talky-talky and then Shane doing something reprehensible and getting his macho mug blown off. What we got instead was definitely more interesting.
It’s funny, because the last half of the show made me forget about the first half. I’m trying to remember what went on then. Much of it was pointless, of course, but that’s to be expected by now. Let’s see. Dale makes Glenn tell the group about the barn, because that’s how Dale operates. Instead of helping the kid out so that he can try to keep Maggie from melting down, Dale keeps his role as Group Cockblocker by not claiming he found out about the barn. Maggie, using her Female Telepathy that all women have, knows exactly what is going on from 150 yards away and gets pissed. Everyone in Glenn’s group gets all pissed off at the idea of zombies in the barn. In general, this episode is about being pissed off.
Glenn tries to talk to Maggie, who is furious at constantly having her trust betrayed. Glenn wants her to talk to him, so Maggie decides that now is the time to punish him for betraying her by stabbing a hunting knife into his scrotum and deep into his gut. Oh, wait, scratch that, she puts an egg in his hat and breaks it over his head. Later on, during recess, she’ll punch him and he’ll call her names and then they’ll pass more notes before it’s cookie and naptime. For a pair of twenty-somethings, they are about as immature as it gets. Although, now that I think about it, living in a college town has taught me that 20-22 year olds tend to be that immature as well, so nevermind.
Everyone goes to the barn, because when you learn there is a building filled with zombies, standard survivor protocol calls for a group of people to get close to it, press their faces against the cracks, and have a loud shouting match to help rile the deaders up. Zombies get hungry and try to batter the door down, people yell, and we get to see Shane’s weird shoulder-dip sideways lope again. He cracks me up. Shane is essentially pissed off through the entire episode. He and Rick yell at each other about leaving and one of them being a giant gash, when Rick tells Shane that Lori’s pregnant. This is going to end well.
Shane talks to Lori, thinks it’s his baby, blah blah. She says that even if it is Shane’s, it’s Rick’s, and that’s that. I’m sure a mentally unbalanced and possibly roided up dude with a serious Survivor’s Mentality is going to handle that well. Shane makes the perfectly rational argument that Rick’s actions have gotten people killed. Lori gets mad, Shane leaves and runs into Carl. I expected him to act all weird to the kid or punch him in the face, but instead he talks to Carl like a parent, telling him to watch his language and mind his Momma. Seriously, the only one in the group that has demonstrated any level of parenting skill has been Shane. Lori sees Shane with her kid and gets freaky, calling him over. Again, Shane acts like a parent and not weird at all. Damnit, Shane, I just can’t quit you.
Rick confronts Herschel. Herschel says Go, Rick says No, my wife is pregnant, Herschel doesn’t give a fuck, Rick leaves, Herschel and Maggie talk, nothing much happens.
Dale decides that Shane being upset about a dozen or more zombies are near the camp they sleep every night is grounds for him to take the groups guns and go hide in the woods. OK. Not sure how long he planned to be out there. He didn’t bring food or anything. He’s just standing in the woods with a bag of guns. Dale is pretty fucking weird. Shane finds him, because Fuckin’ Daryl is rubbing off on him. Dale makes a crack about Shane never using those tracking skills to try to find Sophie. Of course, that old fuck hasn’t once taken his skinny Hawaiian-shirt-wearing-ass out in the woods one goddamn time to try to find the kid, but he’s going to make cracks about Shane not being able to find the kid. God I hate Dale. Plus, for some reason Dale is able to figure out exactly what happened to Otis simply because Shane doesn’t want to talk about it, which is really fucking stupid. Anyway, Dale says he’ll shoot Shane to keep him away from his own guns, Shane just walks up until the barrel is resting against his chest, and essentially says, “Go ahead, you useless fuck.” I kept waiting for him to grab the barrel or something, but he doesn’t. He makes Dale wuss out, which was pretty badass. Dale even hands Shane the bag of guns. Nice stand, asshole. Way to hold your ground.
Meanwhile, Daryl and Stubblepate begin their awkward courtship. She says something nice, he calls her a bitch, then they go looking for Sophie. Everyone else is supposed to as well, but Rick gets asked by Herschel to go Do Something. So only Daryl and Sophie’s mom go looking, which pisses Fuckin’ Daryl off to no end. Wait until he gets a load of exactly why Rick blew it off.
So Rick goes with Herschel with a couple of Herdin’ Poles and the 17-year-old Nameless Kid to the ole’ Mud Pond where a couple of zombies are stuck in the mud. Herschel tries to impart some life lesson about zombies being people too and who the zombies used to be and something or other, Hey, Let’s Take ‘Em Back to the Barn. Rick spends the scene basically looking out of his depth, which is now the Standard Rick Face. They herd the zombies along and back to the farm.
In a perfect coincidence, they arrive back just as Shane comes back with the guns and Fuckin’ Daryl gets back from his search. Everyone’s arguing when they see Rick coming along with his Zombie On a Rope. Everyone freaks the fuck out. There’s yelling, there’s accusations, there’s people trying to say calm down, when Shane decides he’s fucking had it. He tries to demonstrate to Herschel that these aren’t people by shooting the shit out of the zombie and indicating that people would fall down by now. Then BAM headshot. Herschel looks grief-stricken, Rick is all upset but since he’s playing shepherd there isn’t much he can do. Shane starts breaking open the barn door and passing out guns. I fully expected someone to try to stop him. Instead, Fuckin’ Daryl is like Hell Yeah, Andrea wants some revenge for her sister, Glenn looks unsure but takes the gun, T-Dog is there but isn’t allowed to speak, and the zombies start to exit the barn. The shootin’ gallery ensues. Shane, Daryl, Andrea, and T-Dog blaze away, Glenn waits for permission from Maggie in a move that I actually thought was kinda cool, and when she gives it he gets to play too.
The Zombie Massacre ensues. Good times. Dale comes back, looking all upset and sad that a bunch of cannibalistic corpses have been put out of their misery, because he’s a fuckwad of the first order. Herschel is on his knees upset, Shane and Rick are yelling, when they hear another zombie coming out. Everyone turns, and there’s Sophia. I didn’t expect it, but her ass is a zombie. Everyone just watches her shuffle out of the barn. Her mom freaks out, Fuckin’ Daryl holds on to her, and Rick finally steps up and puts the girl down. End of show.
OK. Now, if I’m the survivor group, I am going to be pissed as fuck. The old guy had to know the girl they were looking for was in the barn. So did Nameless Boy, since he obviously helps herd the things up and was part of the search party, so he had to know what the girl looked like and was wearing and that they had an unknown zombie in the barn for a day or so before a group looking for a girl about that age showed up. So at the very least, Herschel has known that girl was in the barn and let them go out every day looking for her, getting Fuckin’ Daryl stabbed and nearly eaten and putting everyone else at risk for the same treatment. At this point, if I was there, I’m taking over this fucking farm and kicking Herschel the fuck out, if not shooting his ass down right there. I’d be PISSED. It’ll be interesting to see where the battle lines get drawn. I think Rick, Lori, Glenn (The Power of the V), and Dale side with the lying fuck who keeps zombies as pets, while Shane and Daryl lead the coalition of What the Fuck Is Wrong With You People. And somehow will be the bad guys for it. Maybe not, though. Maybe they’ll keep the situation grey, since no one has proven themselves to be the hero, in all honesty. We’ll see. All I know is, Herschel creeps me the fuck out. I’d want him dead quick, because he looks like he’s capable of any damn thing.
I have to admit, I’m intrigued to see where they go. I know enough of the comics to know that by this point, Shane is dead and Sophia doesn’t become a zombie, so I’m actually pleasantly surprised that they’ve changed that. I imagine if I was a fan of the books, I’d be pissed, but I’m not so I’m not. So well done on that one, AMC.
Posted on December 1, 2011, in Rantin' and Bitchin', Reviews, Zombies and tagged Reviews, TV, Walking Dead, Zombies. Bookmark the permalink. 17 Comments.
Mirwyn | December 1, 2011 at 10:59 am
I must admit I was really interested by the end. I’m looking forward to it being back after the break.
I’m even starting to like Stubbleplate since she seems to be the only one that sees Fuckin’ Daryl’s true value. You go girl, GET SOME! I’m sure he’ll handle that business too. Don’t let the necklace of ears freak you out, we can work on his fashion sense!
In an odd twist of events I dreamed of sugar plum fairies and gifts under the tree since AMC had the balls to kill off a kid. Thank you AMC, one less child is a plus for me — so thank you for improving the show.
Alan Edwards | December 1, 2011 at 11:06 am
HAHAHAHA! I love the fact that you make me kid-hatred seem tame by comparison. =)
I think they make a great couple. They’re practically made for each other.
Christopher Simmons | December 1, 2011 at 11:52 am
Yeah, I feel like we have three trends going on in entertainment.
1) Stupid mid-season breaks, which I think only exist to limit financial exposure to 11 episodes at a time, instead of 22.
2) Movie having to stick to the book plots as close to possible, lest they suffer fan-wrath.
3) Television shows being really, really up front that they’re going to change the book plots. It must’ve been 1/3 into Vampire Diaries when they realized the book series they had bought was crap, but had all the components to actually be really interesting.
Alan Edwards | December 1, 2011 at 12:21 pm
All excellent points. I wonder if the mid-season breaks allow them to just show reruns for two months before going back to the show, which saves them from having to have something else to run during that time slot.
Steph | December 1, 2011 at 12:29 pm
The Sophia clip was actually the first I have seen of this show, I do Tivo it, just haven’t checked it out yet. I thought it was decent. That shooting scene at the zombie barn seemed to go on forever, but maybe that is how the show is. Why does that old man have black beady eyes? He looks evil. So do I have to start at Season One or is this one you can jump right in and enjoy?
Wow, that’s a great question. Hmmm. I don’t think it’s necessary to watch the first season. You won’t know how everyone got together, but it’s not very important, honestly. I think you’d be able to watch this one and not really miss anything. Some details like which character’s sister got eaten last season or whose husband got offed might not be clear at first when they referenced, but I think you can get by without it.
As to enjoying it…well, it was an up-and-down season for me. Actually, mostly down, with an uptick at the end.
The old man is evil. I believe that wholeheartedly, even if it ain’t true. The shooting scene was long, I agree, but those scenes are rare. They do try to milk the zombie-killin’ scenes for all they’re worth, though.
Candice Bundy | December 1, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I think Shane and Fuckin’ Daryl need to take Hershel out, and assume ownership of the farm wholesale. It’s a defensable space, and they’re the only two with enough sense to make the necessary calls to run things.
Oh, and can someone shoot Dale or feed him to zombies? For someone so high and mighty, he just threatened to kill off Shane and remove their weapons ‘for the good of the group’. He’s totally insane, and totally annoying.
I’m not sad or surprised Sophia’s turned. 1) she was gone too long on her own, 2) she should have been taught better/known not to run off on her own. Bad survial instincts. The next generation, in this new walker world, needs different stuff. Shane and Fuckin’ Daryl stuff.
Alan Edwards | December 1, 2011 at 1:22 pm
I think you’re totally right, and in a realistic real-world scenario, that’s exactly what happens. Shane and Fuckin’ Daryl run the ship, and people live.
I seriously don’t get Dale either. Taking the group’s guns into the woods on his own – what if he gets eaten? Hasn’t he just fucked everyone over completely? I have no idea what we’re supposed to think about him. From his fake breakdowns to taking people’s stuff to prying into people’s relationships – he probably causes more stress than anyone I’ve seen. I hope they tie him in a sack.
You’re right – while I was surprised when she came out of the barn, she did earn it. I guess I was more surprised that the old man had her in there and didn’t tell anyone. But yeah, there’s a big ole’ life lesson for Carl there. Run off and act a fool, and your Daddy will have to shoot you in the face. Well, Shane will. Because he knows what has to be done.
Anonymous | December 1, 2011 at 1:56 pm
OK, Herschel (the actor anyway) was the ‘father’ of a band of cannibals in the Judge Dredd movie. even creepier in that one.
Hmmm. I have to admit that it would make Herschel a lot more compelling if they went in that direction.
Amanda | January 3, 2012 at 2:53 am
I have to agree with everything you said, ‘cept the part where Herschel knew that Sophia was in the barn. Herschel tells Rick “Otis used to do this”, and Otis died before he ever knew the group was looking for Sophia. So it’s entirely possible that Herschel never knew she was in there. And 17 Year Old Blank Boy seems to be pretty useless, so he might not have put the facts together.
Anyhow, that one sentence made the whole thing plausible.
The biggest thing that bothered me about the otherwise awesome episode was Dale knowing that Shane killed Otis. That was too big of a stretch for me.
You should keep reading the comic. I don’t really like it, but I can’t stop reading it, so I guess that counts for something.
Alan Edwards | January 3, 2012 at 8:50 am
You do make a good point about Otis. I just felt like Herschel was the kind of guy that kept tabs on what was happening and who they found, and therefore assumed he would know. But you are right, it is entirely possible that he didn’t know. The Dale thing about Shane was by far the biggest stretch, I have to agree.
I will have to make an effort on the comic, I think. Of course, “I don’t really like it, but I can’t stop reading it” is a pretty accurate description of how I feel about the show, heh.
r | May 20, 2012 at 5:18 am
Your review was absolutely terrible. And you should kill yourself. Good job.
Alan Edwards | May 21, 2012 at 9:19 am
Thanks, random douchebag!
John | July 24, 2015 at 6:16 am
I agree your review bites the dust. If we were on the show I would have taken you out asap. Plus you like the 2 most vile characters in the first seasons. Your the type of guy who would stab everyone in the back to live. No wonder you like shane.
Anonymous | August 20, 2017 at 10:30 pm
When glenn went to the barn with a flash light why didnt he see sophia. Im pretty sure it was ottis who rounded up sophia and brought her walker body back to the barn before he shot carl and then died on the medical supply trip both him and shane went on.
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Руководства Справочники Примеры Поддержка
Add-on types
Use add-ons
Install add-ons
Authorize add-ons
Access add-ons
Develop Gmail add-ons
Build cards
Build interactive cards
Navigate between cards
Use universal actions
Add autocomplete to text inputs
Read user locale and timezone
Extend Gmail
Extend the message UI
Extend the compose UI
Compose draft messages
Gmail actions
Connect to non-Google services
Test your add-on
Publish your add-on
Publish Gmail add-ons
Add-on review
Update your published add-on
Develop editor add-ons
Authorization lifecycle
Build HTML interfaces
Add-on menus
Add-on dialogs and sidebars
CSS package
Extend Google Sheets
Extend Google Docs
Extend Google Slides
Extend Google Forms
Publish editor add-ons
Migrate from the Chrome Web Store
Android add-ons
Create Android Add-ons
Your app in context menus
Publish Android Add-ons
Manifests for Gmail add-ons
An Apps Script project uses a manifest file to configure certain details about the script and its operation. A manifest is a special JSON-formatted file that is hidden in your script project by default; in most cases, Apps Script automatically adjusts the manifest in response to actions you take in the Apps Script editor. For example, if you add a library to a script project, the relevant details of that library are added to the manifest behind the scenes for you. See Manifest structure for a list of properties an Apps Script project can define in its manifest.
Sometimes it is helpful or necessary to edit a manifest directly. For example, if you intend to publish an add-on you must configure your add-on's manifest to always use the narrowest scopes possible. See Setting explicit scopes for more details.
This documentation covers the details of configuring a manifest for a Gmail add-on.
Editing a manifest
The Apps Script editor hides manifest files by default in order to protect your Apps Script project settings. Follow these steps to make a hidden project manifest visible in the Apps Script editor:
Open the script project in the Apps Script editor.
Select View > Show project manifest.
The manifest file appears as a project file named appsscript.json. You can edit this file directly in the editor and save any changes you make. To hide the manifest file after you are finished, select View > Show project manifest again.
Note: Hide the manifest when you are done editing. Your manifest may already contain a number of key:value pairs; these represent the current configuration of your Apps Script project. Exercise care when editing the manifest, as you may inadvertently alter how your script project operates.
Warning: Make sure you define your manifest file correctly. A poorly defined manifest can prevent you from saving a versioned deployment. A script project that you want to publish can't pass publication review if it lacks required fields or uses OAuth scopes that are too broad.
Manifest structure for Gmail add-ons
Gmail add-ons use the Apps Script project manifest file to define several aspects of the add-on's appearence and behavior. Gmail add-on manifest properties are organized under the gmail section of manifest object structure.
The following manifest file example snippet shows the section of a manifest file that defines a Gmail add-on. The gmail section of the manifest defines the name, logo URL, colors, and other settings for a Gmail add-on. The links in the example direct to the descriptions of that field in the Apps Script manifest reference documentation.
Note: Manifests include other components that relate to Apps Script properties. The fields under the gmail field relate directly to Gmail add-ons. This example is just a portion of a full manifest file and is not a fully functional manifest.
"oauthScopes": [
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.addons.current.message.metadata",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.locale"
"urlFetchWhitelist": [
"https://www.example.com/myendpoint/"
"gmail": {
"name": "My Gmail Add-on",
"logoUrl": "https://www.example.com/hosted/images/2x/my-icon.png",
"primaryColor": "#4285F4",
"secondaryColor": "#00BCD4",
"authorizationCheckFunction": "get3PAuthorizationUrls",
"contextualTriggers": [{
"unconditional": {},
"onTriggerFunction": "buildAddOn"
"composeTrigger": {
"selectActions": [
"text": "Add images to email",
"runFunction": "getInsertImageComposeCards"
"draftAccess": "METADATA"
"openLinkUrlPrefixes": [
"https://mail.google.com/",
"https://script.google.com/a/google.com/d/",
"https://drive.google.com/a/google.com/file/d/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/",
"https://www.example.com/"
"universalActions": [{
"text": "Open settings",
"runFunction": "getSettingsCard"
"text": "Open help page",
"openLink": "https://www.example.com/help"
"useLocaleFromApp": true
Whitelisting URLs
Sometimes you may want your Gmail add-on to open a URL in response to a user action. Other times you may want your add-on to retrieve information from an external location using the Apps Script UrlFetch service. In both cases you must whitelist the URLs you open or fetch from in the project manifest. Whitelisting is the process where you designate specific URLs that are pre-approved for access by your add-on. This requirement helps protect user data; add-ons can't access URLs that have not been whitelisted.
You can whitelist a URL for opening by adding it or a matching prefix to the manifest gmail.openLinkUrlPrefixes field. Similarly, you can whitelist a URL for fetching by adding it or a matching prefix to the manifest urlFetchWhitelist field.
The prefixes you add to the manifest must satisfy the following requirements:
Each prefix must be a valid URL.
Each prefix must use https://, not http://.
Each prefix must have a full domain.
Each prefix must have a non-empty path. For example, https://www.google.com/ is valid but https://www.google.com is not.
You can use wildcards to match URL subdomain prefixes.
A single * wildcard can be used in the gmail.openLinkUrlPrefixes field to match all links, but this is not recommended as it can expose a user's data to risk and can prolong the add-on review process. Only use a wildcard if your add-on functionality requires it.
When determining if a URL matches a whitelisted prefix, the following rules apply:
Path matching is case-sensitive.
If the prefix is identical to the URL, it is a match.
If the URL is the same or a child of the prefix, it is a match.
For example, the prefix https://example.com/foo matches the following URLs:
https://example.com/foo
https://example.com/foo/
https://example.com/foo/bar
https://example.com/foo?bar
https://example.com/foo#bar
Using wildcards
You can use a single wildcard character (*) to match a subdomain for both the urlFetchWhitelist and gmail.openLinkUrlPrefixes fields. You can't use more than one wildcard to match multiple subdomains, and the wildcard must represent the leading prefix of the URL.
For example, the prefix https://*.example.com/foo matches the following URLs:
https://subdomain.example.com/foo
https://any.number.of.subdomains.example.com/foo
The prefix https://*.example.com/foo doesn't match the following URLs:
https://subdomain.example.com/bar (suffix mismatch)
https://example.com/foo (at least one subdomain must be present)
Some of the prefix rules are enforced when you try to save your manifest. For example, the following prefixes cause an error if they are present in your manifest when you attempt to save:
https://*.*.example.com/foo (multiple wildcards are forbidden)
https://subdomain.*.example.com/foo (wildcards must be used as a leading prefix)
Apps Script Editor
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Transsexuals excluded from debate about discrimination
Transsexuals demonstrated outside a TV studio in Gori Saturday, after being excluded from a debate about a new anti-discrimination law. (Trialeti.)
TBILISI, DFWatch–Transsexuals demonstrated outside a TV studio in Georgia on Saturday because they were not allowed to take part in a debate about a new anti-discrimination law.
Locals in Gori, a town close to the capital, came to the studio building of Trialeti TV to demonstrate against the transsexuals, calling them ‘Judas’ and accusing them of betraying Christianity.
This led to a verbal confrontation between the two groups, but the police came and managed to separate them.
The groups of transsexuals came to show support for the law, which parliament passed Friday, introducing a ban on any form of discrimination, also based on sexual orientation or identity.
The European Union had made passing the law a mandatory step of Visa Liberalization Action Plan that will grant short-term visa-free regime for Georgian citizens. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfpGrO79IiI
Trialeti TV invited supporters and opponents of the law for a debate. Anchor Gvantsa Doluashvili said the transsexuals asked her to invite them on the show, but she said she explained to them that she had already invited people representing their position, but promised to invite them another time the issue of transgender is a topic on her show.
After the confrontation outside the studios, representatives of Trialeti offered the transsexuals to participate in the third segment of the show, but the transsexuals refused, saying that they had already expressed their opinion by holding the rally but would be happy to answer questions in future shows.
The transsexuals also wanted to express their protest against the non-governmental organization Identoba, which works to protect the rights of sexual minorities, but in their opinion is only collecting grants from foreign donors without actually helping those they should be helping.
Identoba is the organization which planned a small rally to mark the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17 last year, which was attacked by thousands of people, mostly followers of a handful of Orthodox priests.
Some accused Identoba of having staged a provocation in order to receive funding and use the May 17 incident for its own benefit. But the organization this year declared that it is not planning to hold any rally on May 17, to avoid what happened last year.
By DFWatch staff| 2014-10-28T16:36:10+00:00 May 5th, 2014|Categories: Minorities, News|Tags: anti-discrimination law, discrimination of sexual minorities, Trialeti TV|0 Comments
Khajimba resigns, refuses to meet key Kremlin fixer
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Forestry Programs
Statewide Forestry Information
Home » Landowner Assistance Programs
There are many landowner assistance programs available in Hawaiʻi for landowners willing to protect their forest, wildlife & watershed resources. Below is a summary of a few key programs offered through the Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
Click to view: Hawaii Forestry Assistance Programs
Forest Stewardship: provides technical and financial assistance to owners of nonindustrial private forest land. The purpose of this program is to assist non-industrial private forest landowners to more actively manage their forest and related resources, and to increase the economic and environmental benefits of these lands. (Cost-Share is 50/50; assistance averages >$10,000/year for 10 yrs). Contact Malia Nanbara (808) 587-4176
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program: Restores degraded agricultural lands to native forest communities. The program will improve wildlife habitat, improve water quality and quantity, reduce and control invasive species, enhance coral reef habitat, and reduce sedimentation and nutrient runoff. (Various payments, contract for 15 yrs). Contact Malia Nanbara (808) 587-4176
Forest Legacy: Protects private forestlands from being converted to non-forest uses. This program provides willing private landowners the opportunity to sell fee simple property, or conservation easement use-rights on their land to the State of Hawaiʻi for the purpose of preserving or restoring uniquely forested areas. (Cost-Share 75/25) Contact Irene Sprecher (808) 587-4167
Community Forest Program: Offers matching funds to local governments and nonprofit conservation organizations for fee title acquisition of forests. Forests purchased through this program are owned by local governments and/or non-profit land conservation groups and are managed to provide public benefits including access and recreation, watershed protection, wildlife habitat, as well as economic benefits from timber and non-timber products. (Cost-Share 50/50) Contact Tanya Rubenstein (808) 587-0027
Kaulunani: Focuses on improving the health and viability of trees in Hawai‘i communities through educational programs; financial support in the form of cost-share grants; technical training; Arbor Day promotions and public/private partnerships. Funding comes from the State and Private Forestry Branch of the USDA Forest Service. Contact Jolie Wanger (808) 395-7765 or (808) 721-7604
LAP Overview
Conservation Resource Enhancement Program
Kaulunani: Urban Forestry Program
Safe Harbor Agreements
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JavaSketchpad
Home > JavaSketchpad > Gallery > The Witch of Agnesi
Considering Sketchpad
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About JavaSketchpad
The Witch of Agnesi
JSP Workarounds
Developer's Grammar
This page, and the Sketchpad document on which it is based, are from the Visual Dictionary of Special Plane Curves, copyright ©1995, 1996 by Xah Lee. This information can be freely distributed provided it remains intact.
Sorry, this page requires a Java-compatible web browser.
Sketchpad Notes
The Witch of Agnesi is defined as the curve traced by X as Drag Me moves around the circle. You can drag Drag Me with the mouse, or press Animate to move it around the circle. Press Show Trace to begin tracing point X as it moves; press Hide Trace to stop. You can also drag any other red point or, while the JavaSketch is animating, press the > or < keys to speed up and slow down the animation. Click the X in the lower-right corner to clear any visible traces.
Step-by-Step Description
Let there be a circle of radius a with the center at (0, a).
Let there be a horizontal line l passing through (0, 2a).
From any point M on the circle, draw a secant passing through the origin and M. Let the intersection of this secant and line l be N.
The Witch of Agnesi is the locus of intersections of a horizontal line passing through M and a vertical line passing through N.
Parametric: (2a tan(t), 2a cos)t)2}, -π/2 < t < π/2.
Cartesian: y (x2 + 4 a2) == 8 a3
(a is the scaling factor. Geometrically, it's the radius of the circle on which the Witch is constructed.)
This was studied by Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799) in 1748 and also studied by Fermat (1666) and Guido Grandi (1703). The name of this curve has a colorful history. "Versaria" is the name given by Grandi, meaning "turning in every direction." In the course of time, the word versaria took on another meaning. The Latin words adversaria and, by aphaeresis, versaria signify a female that is contrary to God. Thus, gradually the curve versaria came to be known in English as "the witch."
Privacy Policy | Legal Notices
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EconAcademics.org is a blog aggregator for Economics research hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Disclaimer: Views expressed do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System.
News from St. Louis Fed
The Future of Housing
Latest research from St. Louis Fed
The Geography of Housing Market Liquidity During the Great Recession
The latest from RePEc
EconAcademics.org home
Monitored blogs
Recommend a blog
To bloggers (get the widgets)
Data (FRED®)
More services from the StL Fed
EconAcademics blog aggregator
Help RePEc and get material listed
Other good blog aggregators
The latest posts by language: All en cn de dk ee eo es fi fr gr hr hu id ir it jp nl no pl pt ro rs ru se si sk tr vn
Use the EconAcademics widget on your webpage or blog. See here for details.
EconAcademics.org
Devecondata
This page list the blog posts that were indexed on EconAcademics.Org, along with the mentioned research items or authors linked to IDEAS. In all, these are 15 blog posts referring to 21 distinct items or authors.
The complete blog can be found here: Devecondata
Real GDP per capita by Masa, 2018-11-06 06:15:00
Nuxoll, Daniel A, 1994. "Differences in Relative Prices and International Differences in Growth Rates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1423-1436, December.
Ethiopian Rural Household Surveys by Masa, 2016-05-16 17:14:00
Yonas Alem & Jonathan Colmer, 2015. "Consumption Smoothing and the Welfare Cost of Uncertainty," CEP Discussion Papers dp1369, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
Ethnographic Atlas by Masa, 2016-05-04 19:12:00
Mayshar, Joram & Moav, Omer & Neeman, Zvika & Pascali, Luigi, 2015. "Cereals, Appropriability and Hierarchy," CEPR Discussion Papers 10742, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Joram Mayshar & Omer Moav & Zvika Neeman & Luigi Pascali, 2015. "Cereals, Appropriability and Hierarchy," Working Papers 842, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
Mayshary, Joram & Moav, Omer & Neeman, Zvika & Pascali, Luigi, 2015. "Cereals Appropriability and Hierarchy," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 238, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
Mayshar, Joram & Moav, Omer & Neeman, Zvika & Luigi Pascali, 2016. "Cereals, Appropriability and Hierarchy," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1130, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
Ethnic Diversity by Masa, 2016-04-22 15:49:00
Alesina, Alberto & Devleeschauwer, Arnaud & Easterly, William & Kurlat, Sergio & Wacziarg, Romain, 2003. "Fractionalization," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 155-194, June.
Wacziarg, Romain & Alesina, Alberto & Devleeschauwer, Arnaud & Easterly, William & Kurlat, Sergio, 2002. "Fractionalization," Research Papers 1744, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
Alberto Alesina & Arnaud Devleeschauwer & William Easterly & Sergio Kurlat & Romain Wacziarg, 2003. "Fractionalization," NBER Working Papers 9411, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Alesina, Alberto & Devleeschauwer, Arnaud & Wacziarg, Romain & Kurlat, Sergio & Easterly, William, 2003. "Fractionalization," Scholarly Articles 4553003, Harvard University Department of Economics.
Alberto Alesina & Arnaud Devleeschauwer & William Easterly & Sergio Kurlat & Romain Wacziarg, 2003. "Fractionalization," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/229724, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
Alberto Alesina & Arnaud Devleeschauwer & William Easterly & Sergio Kurlat & Romain Wacziarg, 2002. "Fractionalization," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1959, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1994. "On the Measurement of Polarization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 819-851, July.
Esteban, J. & Ray, D., 1993. "On the Measurement of Polarization," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 221.93, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
Joan-Maria Esteban & Debraj Ray, 1991. "On the Measurement of Polarization," Boston University - Institute for Economic Development 18, Boston University, Institute for Economic Development.
Esteban, J.M. & Ray, D., 1992. "On the Measurement of Polarization," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 171.92, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
Fearon, James D, 2003. "Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 195-222, June.
repec:tpr:qjecon:v:110:y:1995:i:3:p:681-712 is not listed on IDEAS
Armed Conflict Database by kdmtz, 2016-01-24 03:59:00
Filipe R. Campante & Quoc-Anh Do & Bernardo Guimaraes, 2014. "Capital Cities, Conflict, and Misgovernance: Theory and Evidence," Sciences Po Economics Discussion Papers 2014-13, Sciences Po Departement of Economics.
Filipe R. Campante & Quoc-Anh Do & Bernardo Guimaraes, 2014. "Capital Cities, Conflict, and Misgovernance: Theory and Evidence," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/gac8g25hn9g, Sciences Po.
Filipe R. Campante & Quoc-Anh Do & Bernardo Guimaraes, 2014. "Capital Cities, Conflict, and Misgovernance: Theory and Evidence," Sciences Po publications 2014-13, Sciences Po.
Trade Openness / Tariff rates by kdmtz, 2015-12-14 19:15:00
Christopher Blattman & Michael A. Clemens & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2003. "Who Protected and Why? Tariffs the World Around 1870-1938," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2010, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
Pritchett, Lant, 1996. "Measuring outward orientation in LDCs: Can it be done?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 307-335, May.
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) by Masa, 2015-10-20 19:02:00
Tomas J. Philipson & William H. Dow & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1999. "Longevity Complementarities under Competing Risks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1358-1371, December.
Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
Philip M. Parker's Economic Growth Databases by Masa, 2011-01-10 19:33:00
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2000. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," NBER Working Papers 7771, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
NCAER surveys of rural households in India by Masa, 2010-12-16 01:58:00
Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1995. "Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1176-1209, December.
Mark Rosenzweig & Andrew D. Foster, "undated". "Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture," Home Pages _068, University of Pennsylvania.
Rate of return to education across countries by kdmtz, 2010-09-09 20:14:00
Psacharopoulos, George & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2002. "Returns to investment in education : a further update," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2881, The World Bank.
George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2004. "Returns to investment in education: a further update," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 111-134.
World Development Indicators (WDI) by Masa, 2010-07-26 12:58:00
P. Wilner Jeanty, 2008. "WDIRESHAPE: Stata module to reshape World Development Indicators database," Statistical Software Components S456955, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 29 Dec 2009.
Labor regulations by Masa, 2009-11-27 22:39:00
Juan C. Botero & Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "The Regulation of Labor," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 119(4), pages 1339-1382.
Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer & Juan Botero, 2003. "The Regulation of Labor," NBER Working Papers 9756, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Juan Botero & Simeon Djankov & Rafael LaPorta & Florencio López-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, "undated". "The Regulation of Labor," Working Paper 19483, Harvard University OpenScholar.
Botero, J. C. & Djankov, S. & Porta, R. L. & Lopez-de-Silanes, F. & Shleifer, Andrei, 2004. "The Regulation of Labor," Scholarly Articles 27867241, Harvard University Department of Economics.
ENAMIN by Masa, 2008-09-17 15:03:00
McKenzie, David J & Woodruff, Christopher, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 3-42, October.
David J. McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55, pages 3-42.
Data on Listed Firms in Developing Countries by Masa, 2007-06-25 14:35:00
Raymond Fisman, 2001. "Estimating the Value of Political Connections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1095-1102, September.
Historical Population Estimates by Masa, 2007-05-20 20:28:00
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James Robinson, 2005. "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 546-579, June.
Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A, 2003. "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 3712, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James Robinson, 2002. "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 9378, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon H. & Robinson, James A., 2003. "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutioanl Change and Economic Growth," Working papers 4269-02, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2002. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1231-1294.
Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," NBER Working Papers 8460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
This information is provided to you by EconAcademics at the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.
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Tesla is seriously working on service with auto issue detection, towing call/loaner, and stock parts
- Feb. 2nd 2019 10:25 pm ET
With all the news that came out of Tesla’s earnings this week, the automaker renewed effort to improve service might have gone under the radar.
Tesla is now seriously investing in service through several different efforts including, stocking parts, detecting issues and automatically calling a tow truck and service loaner, and more.
During the fourth quarter conference call, CEO Elon Musk said that “service is his number one priority” this quarter:
“I want to note that one of our major priorities this quarter is improving service operations. Really, from my standpoint, when I think about what my priorities are this quarter, it’s improving service in North America.”
North America is especially important since Tesla grew its fleet extremely fast in the region last year due to the introduction of the Model 3.
The automaker had issues with service in the past in markets where it grew fast and its service capacity couldn’t keep up.
Norway, which is Tesla’s biggest market per capita, has arguably experienced the worst of it and we have speculated that it could be a look at the future in other growing markets for Tesla.
It’s not the first time that Musk announced plans to improve service.
A few months ago, the CEO admitted ‘foolish oversight’ of Tesla’s service coverage and he announced a major expansion of service centers.
Tesla added 27 new store and service locations during the last quarter – bringing the total locations worldwide to 378.
Musk also noted that Tesla increased its Mobile Service fleet to 411 vehicles.
As part of their renewed effort to improve service, Musk listed a series of new service initiatives.
Here’s a summary of those new efforts:
Increased focus on mobile service fleet: “we don’t need bricks and mortar, we can get more vehicles, hire people and deploy rapidly,” says Musk.
They are also increasing the service functionalities through the Tesla App: schedule service appointment through the app, including pickup and delivery requests to avoid losing time to arrange service.
Live issue detection to automatically call a tow truck and loaner vehicle before the vehicle even come to a stop. Musk says that owners would be able to cancel it right away if they think it’s not necessary, but Tesla wants to automate emergency service.
Improved part distribution: they are going to stock a lot more parts at service centers in order to significantly reduce repair time.
Tesla will also continue to bring more bodywork in-house.
Tesla had already talked about most of those things, but I still think that there were some important comments made by Elon.
I think that’s especially true when it comes to parts.
We have often highlighted how it appears to be a major bottleneck in reducing service time and Elon now seems to admit that they made some mistakes on that front:
“I think we made a strategic error in the past about not having service parts located at our service centers. We had them in part distribution warehouses, which basically meant it was impossible to have a fast turnaround on servicing a car because the car would come in, then the parts will be requested, they come to the service center, this would basically make simple repairs take days.”
With Tesla being the only automaker that also operate their own service centers, you would think that they could facilitate synergy when it comes to access to parts for service centers, but it doesn’t look like it was the case.
Now they are going to use the data from their service centers to know which parts are most requested and stock them at the service centers.
Hopefully, we start seeing some new record repair times as this new initiative start being implemented.
tesla service
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2015 Women's World Cup
China flips script, beats Dutch 1-0 in stoppage time
Things were tight between China and Netherlands who were scoreless until China found a stoppage time winner. (Getty Images)
China flipped the script from their opening match by nabbing a stoppage time goal to beat the Netherlands 1-0 and put themselves in excellent position to go through. Wang Lisi tapped in the goal that erased 180 minutes of frustration for the Chinese who had played Canada scoreless into stoppage time before conceding a penalty to drop the opener. China and the Netherlands are both on three points and may well have already done enough to move to the knockout round. A win in the final group match will assure it.
Touted as one of the top defensive sides in the tournament, China was also the aggressor in this one, often taking the match to the Netherlands while at the same time containing the bevvy of attacking options put out by the Netherlands. The Dutch also had to make a goalkeeper change after Loes Geurts was injured against New Zealand. In her place stepped 25-year old Sari Van Veenendaal.
The goal came out of nothing for China who were knocking the ball in their defensive third when suddenly Tan Ruyin launched a cross-field long ball. The service caught New Zealand off guard. Lisi had no problem scooting by defender Merel Van Dongen while she and Veenendaal appeared to have a communication breakdown. Lisi had only to put a gentle foot on it to roll the ball into the far corner.
China finish against New Zealand while the Netherlands have to deal with host Canada in the final group match.
Related TopicsChinaFeaturedNetherlandsWang Lisi
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Stakes high for much-hyped USA-Sweden
Thailand wins 3-2 Group B thriller over Ivory Coast
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South American Championship 1916
Infobox International Football Competition
tourney_name = South American Championship of Nations
other_titles = Copa América (since1975)
size =
country = Argentina
dates = July 2 - July 17
num_teams = 4
confederations = 1
venues = 2
cities = 2
champion = URU
second = ARG
third = BRA
fourth = CHI
matches = 6
goals = 18
attendance =
top_scorer = flagicon|URU Isabelino Gradín (3 goals)
player =
updated =
The first edition of the South American Championship of Nations (known as Copa América since 1975) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from July 2 to July 17, 1916. It was held during Argentina's independence centenary commemorations. The final champion was Uruguay, who drew with Argentina in the last match of the tournament.
There was no qualifying for the tournament. The participating countries were Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
All teams competed between each other in a single group. The one at the best position after the matches was the champion. Two points were awarded for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a defeat.
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tables/16safull.html RSSSF > South American Championship > 1916]
Sed (disambiguation)
Uranium glass
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1916 in association football — yearbox in?=in football (soccer) cp=19th Century c=20th Century cf=21st Century yp1=1913 yp2=1914 yp3=1915 year=1916 ya1=1917 ya2=1918 ya3=1919 dp3=1880s dp2=1890s dp1=1900s d=1910s dn1=1920s dn2=1930s dn3=1940sThe following are the football… … Wikipedia
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Dick King (American football) — Dick King Date of birth February 9, 1895(1895 02 09) Place of birth Boston, Massachusetts Date of death October 16, 1930(1930 10 16) (aged 35) Place of death Bogota, Colombia Height 5 ft 8 … Wikipedia
Sport in South America — There are a wide range of sports played in the continent of South America, the most popular being Football.Other popular sports include Basketball, Tennis, Golf Volleyball, Hockey Beach Volleyball and Motor sports.FootballSouth American nations… … Wikipedia
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Grand Chess Tour - Paris: Magnus Carlsen dominates
by Alex Yermolinsky
6/23/2017 – For chess fans, Day Two in the Paris tournament in the Grand Chess Tour was a wonderful day to follow the games. The players produced inspired attacks with sacrificed pieces, creative strategy, and all-round fighting spirit. Once more, the big name was Magnus Carlsen, who displayed the brilliant form that had been lacking since his world title defense last November. Close behind is Hikaru Nakamura, trailing by just half a point. Report and many analyzed games by GM Alex Yermolinsky.
The Paris tournament of the Grand Chess Tour is running from June 21-25. It is a combination of Rapid and Blitz games. The ten participants are Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot. They will play nine rapid games, three a day, from June 21–23. The games start at 14:00h, 15:30h and 17:00h European Standard Summer Time. The Blitz tournament is on June 24 and 25, with nine rounds on each day, starting at 14:00h. The total prize fund is $150,000!
Note that the event is using the Bronstein mode: the players have 25 minutes for all the moves of a rapid game, and a ten second delay per move. This means that the clock does not run for ten seconds – the point is that you cannot accumulate time by playing very quickly in the Bronstein Mode.
All photos by Lennart Ootes
Yesterday Magnus Carlsen was the beneficiary of a couple of blunders. In Day Two he hardly needed any. First, he faced his co-leader, Wesley So, and finally produced a really good game.
In the very first round of day two, Magnus Carlsen showed just how good he was feeling, and played a majestic game against Wesley So
Wesley So vs Magnus Carlsen
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "4.3"] [White "So, Wesley"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "2812"] [BlackElo "2832"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "86"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 O-O 6. c3 d6 7. Re1 a6 8. Bb3 Re8 9. h3 h6 10. Nbd2 Be6 11. Nf1 Bxb3 12. Qxb3 d5 {[#]I'm no expert on this structure, but it seems to me Black has fully equalized here.} 13. Be3 { Not sure about this one either} (13. Ng3 Qd7 14. Bd2 Bb6 15. Rad1 Rad8 16. Bc1 $11) 13... Bf8 $1 14. Rad1 Na5 $1 (14... d4 $6 15. cxd4 exd4 16. Bd2 {is quite fine for White.}) 15. Qc2 c5 16. exd5 {Understandable.} ({Wesley wasn't keen on giving Magnus tons of space after} 16. Ng3 Nc6 17. Bc1 d4 {as White's play on the K-side is going nowhere:} 18. Nf5 Kh7 19. g4 g6 20. Ng3 b5 21. g5 Nd7 22. gxh6 Bxh6 23. h4 Nf8 {etc.}) 16... Qxd5 17. Bd2 Nc6 18. Ne3 Qd7 $15 { The Classic Maroczy Bind of a Bogo-Indian variety. White is very short of ideas here.} 19. Nc4 Qc7 20. a4 b5 21. axb5 axb5 22. Na3 Qb7 23. c4 b4 24. Nb5 Rad8 {[#]} 25. Ra1 $6 (25. Bc1 Re6 26. b3 g6 27. Bb2 Qe7 28. Re3 Bg7 29. Rde1 Nh5 30. g3 $15 {I realize this is no great shakes, but I see nothing better for White but stay put.}) 25... Qd7 26. Ra6 Re6 27. Qa4 {Fishing for chances.} ({Instead,} 27. Rea1 {was tactically sound:} Qxd3 28. Qxd3 Rxd3 29. Nc7 Red6 30. Nb5) 27... Qxd3 $1 {[#] No hesitation from Magnus. The King is back.} 28. Bxh6 $5 {This is a clever try, the best Wesley could come up with.} ({On} 28. Nc7 {Magnus would flex his muscles with} Nd4 $1 29. Nxe6 (29. Nxd4 Rxa6 30. Qxa6 cxd4 {is just plain hopeless.}) 29... Nxf3+ 30. gxf3 Qxd2 $1 31. Nxd8 Qxe1+ 32. Kg2 Nh5 {[#] The finish is very instructive:} 33. Qa1 Nf4+ 34. Kg3 Qd2 35. Nc6 Nd3 36. Qf1 Ne1 37. Nxe5 g5 $1 38. Rf6 Bd6 {Look at the pathetic role played by the white queen.}) 28... gxh6 {Carlsen goes materialistic.} ( 28... e4 $5 29. Ng5 Re5 30. Rxc6 gxh6 31. Rxf6 Rxg5 {would not yet gain Black any extra pawns or pieces, but with the white forces scattered all over, the spoils of war wouldn't be long in coming.}) 29. Nc7 Nd4 {In Rapid (and even more in Blitz!) it's essentual to trust your calculations and go all the way.} ({Magnus refused to get distracted by} 29... Red6 30. Rxc6 e4 31. Nh2 Qd2 $19) 30. Nxd4 Rxa6 31. Qxa6 Rd6 $1 32. Nc6 Qf5 $1 33. Nd5 (33. Qa8 Qd7 {hits both knights.}) 33... Qe6 {This is how far Carlsen had to calculate, and no one can find a fault in his work. Impressive.} 34. Qa8 Rxc6 35. Re3 Ne8 36. Rg3+ Kh7 37. Rf3 e4 38. Rf4 Ra6 39. Rxf7+ Qxf7 40. Qxa6 Bg7 41. Qc6 Bd4 42. Kh2 Ng7 43. Ne3 Qf4+ 0-1
Actually, Round Four featured some of the best games of the tournament so far. Hikaru Nakamura delighted his fans with the following performance.
Hikaru Nakamura has managed to keep pace with the world champion, and trails by only half a point
Hikaru Nakamura vs Etienne Bacrot
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Bacrot, Etienne"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2785"] [BlackElo "2708"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. d3 b6 6. Nbd2 Bb7 7. e4 dxe4 $5 8. dxe4 Nc6 9. a3 a5 10. e5 Nd7 11. Re1 Nc5 12. Qe2 O-O {[#] Black is playing dangerous games by leaving his king short of defenders, but things are far from simple.} 13. h4 (13. Ne4 Qd5 14. Nc3 Nd4 15. Nxd5 Nxe2+ 16. Rxe2 Bxd5 17. Nd4 $14 {is nice for White, but from Black's perspective it's much superior to getting mated.}) 13... h6 ({Here, and on the next two moves, Bacrot should have been looking at} 13... Qd5 $1 {Centralization is the key. The obvious tactical point is} 14. Nf1 $4 Nd4 $19) 14. Nf1 a4 {Inconsequential.} (14... Qd5 15. N1h2 (15. Rd1 Qe4 {Black always welcomes a queen trade in this structure.}) 15... Nd4 16. Qd2 Nf5 {That knight will help Black to shore up his K-side defenses.}) 15. N1h2 Qc8 $2 (15... Qd5 16. Bf4 Rfd8 17. Qe3 Qc4 18. Rac1 Nd4 $11) 16. Ng4 Rd8 {[#] Bacrot shows his contempt for White's imposing build-up.} (16... h5 17. Ngh2 Ba6 18. Qe3 {and White will go on with g3-g4}) 17. Nxh6+ $1 {Punishment comes his way.} gxh6 18. Bxh6 f5 ({Better chances of defending are offered by} 18... Kh7 {particularly if White follows a direct line,} 19. Bg5 ({ I like} 19. Be3 Kg7 20. Qc4 Rh8 21. Rad1 {more.}) 19... Nd4 20. Nxd4 Bxg5 21. Qh5+ Bh6 22. Qxf7+ Kh8 23. Bxb7 Qxb7 24. Nxe6 Nxe6 25. Qxe6 Bg7 26. Qg4 { The four pawns are nice, but White no longer has the firepower to checkmate the black king.}) 19. exf6 Bxf6 20. Ng5 Qd7 21. Qg4 Bg7 22. Rad1 Qe7 23. Rxd8+ Rxd8 24. Nxe6 Rd4 25. Qxg7+ Qxg7 26. Nxg7 {A business-like demolition job by Nakamura.} 1-0
In the next game Nakamura made an important step forward by winning with black against Grischuk. For a long time Hikaru was on the defensive, but his magic held, and eventually Alexander drifted into his customary time trouble. Nakamura seized his chance in the notorious rook and bishop against lone rook endgame. Alarmingly so, this isn't the first time the Russian fails to defend such endings. I recall his loss to Gata Kamsky in the Istanbul Olympiad in 2012. Perhaps, a remedial session at ‘What Every Russian Schoolboy Knows’ is in order.
Another contender who emerged from the pack today is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. His forceful, yet elegant play is well-suited for faster time controls.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "4.1"] [White "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Black "Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E60"] [WhiteElo "2800"] [BlackElo "2796"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 c6 4. Bg2 d5 5. Qa4 Nfd7 $1 6. cxd5 Nb6 {A standard spot for the king's knight in the Grunfeld.} 7. Qd1 cxd5 8. Nc3 Nc6 {[#]} 9. a4 $5 {Shak always seeks new ideas.} (9. Nf3 Bg7 10. O-O O-O {is known to be comfortable for Black.}) (9. e3 $5 Bg7 10. Nge2 O-O 11. O-O Re8 12. b3 e5 13. dxe5 Nxe5 {Topalov-Giri, London 2015.}) 9... e6 $2 {This is exactly what White was hoping for. The fate of Bc8 is sealed.} ({Compare to} 9... a5 10. Bf4 Bf5 $1 11. Nb5 Rc8) 10. Nf3 Bg7 11. h4 h6 12. O-O O-O 13. b3 Re8 14. Bf4 $1 { Not allowing Black to break out with e6-e5.} a6 15. Qd2 Kh7 16. Rad1 Bd7 17. e4 $1 {Shak gets down to business.} dxe4 18. Nxe4 Nd5 19. Rfe1 Qb6 20. h5 $1 g5 21. Bd6 {[#]} Rad8 {Now the black rooks get tangled up.} ({Problem is,} 21... Red8 {invites} 22. Nexg5+ hxg5 23. Nxg5+ Kg8 24. Bxd5 $1 exd5 25. Qd3 f5 26. Qf3 Qa5 27. h6 {with mate just around the corner.}) 22. Bc5 $1 ({In this setting} 22. Nfxg5+ hxg5 23. Nxg5+ Kg8 24. Qd3 f5 25. Bxd5 exd5 26. Qf3 { meets with} Nxd4 27. Qxd5+ Be6 $1 {That's where Re8 comes in handy.}) 22... Qc7 23. Nd6 Nxd4 $6 {Desperation, Nevada.} (23... Rf8 24. Nc4 {wins the exchange, as the other threat is Bb6.}) 24. Bxd4 (24. Nxd4 Qxc5 25. Nxf7 Rc8 26. Nxe6 Bxe6 27. Qd3+ Kg8 28. Rxe6 Rxe6 29. Bxd5 Rce8 30. Nd8 {wouldn't be too shabby either.}) 24... Qxd6 25. Nxg5+ $1 Kg8 (25... hxg5 26. Bxg7 Kxg7 27. Qxg5+ Kf8 28. h6 e5 29. h7 {and White QUEENS.}) 26. Ne4 Qb8 (26... Qf8 27. Bc5 Ne7 28. Qb4 {looks very depressing.}) 27. Bxg7 Kxg7 28. Qb2+ 1-0
I was looking for Fabiano Caruana to bounce back today from his dreadful 0/6 (remember, the points count twice in the rapid) performance yesterday. After all, in spite of three losses, he had built inspired winning positions in two of the games, so the potential for a big score was certainly there. However, it just wasn't meant to be.
An indecisiveness in Fabiano Caruana's decision making is getting him into constant time trouble, and he ended the day on a terrible 0.5/6, or 1.0/12 since each rapid game is worth two points
Sergey Karjakin vs Fabiano Caruana
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "4.4"] [White "Karjakin, Sergey"] [Black "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C07"] [WhiteElo "2781"] [BlackElo "2808"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "91"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Ngf3 cxd4 6. Bc4 Qd7 7. O-O Nf6 8. Nb3 Nc6 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 a6 11. Bg5 Qc7 12. Bd3 Bd6 13. h3 Be5 14. c3 h6 15. Bh4 Bd7 16. Re1 O-O-O 17. Qf3 Bxd4 18. cxd4 Bc6 19. Qe2 Rxd4 20. Bg3 Qa5 21. Rac1 $6 (21. Qe3 Qd5 22. Bf1 $44) 21... Qd5 22. Rxc6+ bxc6 23. Bxa6+ Kd7 24. Rc1 Ke7 25. Bb7 Ne4 26. Bxc6 Nxg3 27. fxg3 Qxa2 28. Qe5 Rhd8 29. Kh2 Kf8 30. Bf3 Qxb2 31. Rc7 {[#] Karjakin had been reduced to playing for tricks ever since he lost his d4-pawn..} Qb8 $2 (31... Qb4 {would put the end to it.}) 32. Qc5+ Kg8 33. Qe7 Rf8 34. Bh5 {Suddenly, White's got something going.} Qd8 $2 { Still, there was no reason to panic.} (34... Rd2 $1 35. Bxf7+ Kh8 36. Bg6 (36. Bxe6 $2 Rxg2+ {and Black mates.}) 36... Rg8 37. Be4 Re2 $17) 35. Bxf7+ Kh8 36. Qxd8 Rdxd8 37. Bxe6 $11 {Just like that, all his winning chances are gone.} Rf2 38. g4 g6 39. Rc5 Re2 40. Bf7 Kg7 41. Bd5 Rd7 42. Bf3 Rb2 43. Rc6 Rbd2 44. Kg3 R2d6 45. Rc8 g5 46. Ra8 1/2-1/2
Once again, Fabiano is getting the positions, but he is leaving himself with too little time to convert. I'm afraid this is no accident, because it happens all the time. It's beyond the pale for a player of Fabiano's caliber to sink to a 2703 Rapid rating. Is he really over 200 Elo weaker than Magnus Carlsen? Of course not, and there is no way Magnus, or anyone else who walks this planet, should be expected to score 77% against Fabiano in any kind of chess. So you say, it's just rapid, wait till they meet in classical time control tournaments? The problem is, losing is contagious. First you start by losing from good positions, then you graduate to losing all-around bad games.
Here is a case in point:
Fabiano Caruana vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "5.4"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C81"] [WhiteElo "2808"] [BlackElo "2800"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "64"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Qe2 Nc5 10. Nc3 Nxb3 11. cxb3 Be7 12. Be3 $5 (12. Rd1 {would transpose to known theory. Fabiano himself had a first-hand experience with this position } O-O 13. Be3 Qd7 14. h3 Rad8 15. Rd2 {was Caruana-Giri, Sinquefield Cup 2016}) 12... O-O 13. h3 Qd7 14. Rad1 {An attempt to improve on his own play.} f6 $1 15. exf6 Rxf6 16. Ng5 Rd8 17. Rfe1 {This is the idea. The other rook comes in handy on the e-file.} Rf5 {[#]} ({Better was} 17... Rg6 18. Nxe6 Qxe6 19. Kh1 Qf5 20. f4 h5 $1) 18. Nce4 $2 {It's amazing what a bad form can do even to a great player. Barely a couple of moves out of book, in a position he had played and studied before, Caruana goes astray.} ({The logical} 18. g4 { would practically force Black to sac the exchange:} Re5 (18... Rff8 19. Bc1 { will cost Black his d5-pawn.}) 19. f4 Bxg5 20. fxe5 Be7 {Granted Black isn't dead yet, but how can White reject this position?}) 18... h6 19. Nxe6 Qxe6 20. Ng3 Re5 {[#] Already White is the one under pressure.} 21. Qd3 (21. f4 Rxe3 22. Qxe3 Qxe3+ 23. Rxe3 Bc5 {is unneerving, but} 24. Nf5 $1 Rf8 25. Rc1 {seem to hold.}) 21... Bc5 22. Rc1 Bb6 23. Re2 $2 {When it rains, it pours....} (23. a3 Re8 24. b4 $15) 23... Nb4 24. Qd2 d4 25. Bf4 Rxe2 26. Nxe2 Nxa2 27. Re1 Re8 28. Kf1 Qxb3 29. Nxd4 Rxe1+ 30. Kxe1 Qa4 31. Nc2 Ba5 32. b4 Nxb4 0-1
The next game shows how unwise it is on the part of Magnus Carlsen’s opposition to cut him any breaks when he's struggling. Sooner rather than later Magnus' confidence comes back, and he begins to steamroll through his competition.
Veselin Topalov has been unable to get into gear so far
Magnus Carlsen vs Veselin Topalov
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "5.5"] [White "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Black "Topalov, Veselin"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D76"] [WhiteElo "2832"] [BlackElo "2749"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. O-O Nb6 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. d5 Na5 10. e4 c6 11. Bf4 Nac4 12. Qe2 Bg4 13. h3 Bxf3 14. Bxf3 cxd5 15. exd5 {[#] A fairly common Grunfeld structure.} Re8 (15... Nd6 {Carlsen-Wei Yi, 2016}) 16. Rac1 e5 $2 {An unfortunate idea. Helping White's Bf3 into the game is not recommended.} 17. dxe6 Rxe6 18. Qc2 g5 19. Rfd1 Qe7 20. Bd2 Rd8 ({ The only way to justify g6-g5 seemed} 20... Nxd2 21. Qxd2 {but in a few moves,} Re5 22. Kg2 Rf8 23. b3 f5 24. a4 a5 {the game would turn into a typical Carlsen endgame. I wouldn't rate Black's chances of survival too optimistically.} 25. Qd6 $16) 21. Nd5 $1 Nxd5 22. Qxc4 Red6 23. Re1 Qf6 24. Qg4 h6 25. Rc8 $1 Bf8 26. Bxd5 ({Magnus didn't seem to trust} 26. Re8 Rxc8 27. Qxc8 Qxf3 28. Rxf8+ Kg7 29. Rh8 Rg6 {although White stands better after} 30. Rg8+ Kh7 31. Re8 Qd1+ 32. Be1 {as Black's problems with his king seem permanent.}) 26... Rxd5 27. Bc3 Qg6 (27... Qd6 $142) 28. Re8 $2 {[#]} (28. Qf3 Rxc8 29. Qxd5 {is still much better for White.}) 28... Rxe8 $2 {Veselin was really low on time.} ({He missed his only chance:} 28... Rd1+ 29. Kh2 Rxe8 30. Rxe8 Qd3 $1 { as} 31. Qb4 Rh1+ $1 {draws by perpetual.}) 29. Rxe8 Qb1+ 30. Kh2 Qf1 31. Be1 Kg7 32. Qf3 1-0
Magnus and Hikaru concluded a productive day at the office by playing a long, but largely uneventful draw in their head-to-head game. It's interesting how similar Carlsen's strategy was to his game from Round One against Grischuk. In both games Magnus accepted a small structural weakness early, only to frustrate his opponents with a measured and calm defense.
It was a long but uneventful game between the two leaders, Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen
If things continue this way tomorrow I expect Carlsen to wrap up the rapid chess part of the tournament rather easily.
Next to the championship-level chess, demonstrated today by Carlsen, Nakamura and Mamedyarov, the following example looks like a pick-up blitz game from the Sokolniki Park in Moscow.
Sergey Karjakin vs Alexander Grischuk
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "6.2"] [White "Karjakin, Sergey"] [Black "Grischuk, Alexander"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C07"] [WhiteElo "2781"] [BlackElo "2761"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "116"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Ngf3 cxd4 6. Bc4 Qd6 7. O-O Nf6 8. Nb3 Nc6 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 a6 11. Re1 Qc7 12. Bf1 Be7 13. Qf3 O-O 14. Bf4 Bd6 15. Bxd6 Qxd6 16. Rad1 Qb6 17. Qb3 Qc7 18. c4 Bd7 19. Nf3 Rfd8 20. Ne5 Be8 21. Qe3 a5 22. b3 b6 23. g3 Rac8 24. Bg2 h6 25. Bf3 Rxd1 26. Rxd1 Qc5 27. Rd4 a4 28. Kg2 axb3 29. axb3 b5 30. h4 bxc4 31. bxc4 h5 32. Qf4 Qa5 33. Nd3 Qc7 34. Ne5 Qa5 35. Qe3 Qc5 36. Kg1 Rb8 37. Qf4 Rc8 38. Rd2 Qa5 39. Qd4 Rc5 40. Re2 Qc7 41. Kh2 Kh8 42. Qf4 Kg8 43. Qd4 Kh8 44. Qe3 Kg8 45. Re1 Ra5 46. Kg2 Rc5 47. Qd4 Kh8 48. Qa1 Kg8 49. Re3 Ra5 50. Qe1 Rc5 51. Kh2 Kh8 52. Qe2 Kg8 {[#] There's nothing wrong with Black's position, but Grischuk was down to seconds on his clock. I'd mention that this tournament is played with the Bronstein Clock, which is known in the United States as "delay". Unlike the increment time controls, time is not added to the clock if a move is played under the allocated ten seconds of "free" time.} 53. Bxh5 {In this situation Karjakin felt obliged to do something, but in the process he also let his clock run dangerously low.} Nd7 54. Nxd7 Bxd7 55. Rc3 (55. Re4 g6 56. Bf3 Bc6 57. Re3 Bxf3 58. Qxf3 Rxc4 $11) 55... Bb5 $1 56. Ra3 $2 Rxc4 57. Ra8+ Kh7 {and here came the blunder} 58. Bf3 $4 (58. Bg4 Qc5 59. Ra5 $1 {and White holds.}) 58... Rxh4+ 0-1
This is how Alexander Grischuk rose to +1, and Sergey Karjakin sank to -2. Alexander can still do well in the tournament, although we shouldn't forget that he's a wild card in this year's Tour, and this might be his only appearance in top level events for the foreseeable future. Unless he qualifies for the Candidates, that is.
With one loss, and two draws, day two was not the best for world no. 2 Wesley So
Karjakin's struggles in Rapid chess are well-documented. He looked totally out-matched in the tie-breaks of the World Championship match in 2016, but then again, he was facing Carlsen, of course. On the other hand, even though Sergey played poorly in the World Rapid in Doha at the end of 2016, he came back to win the World Championship Blitz title just a few days later. Is this his game plan for this event as well? Botch the rapids and clean up in the blitz?
What else to talk about? How about more Caruana misery:
Fabiano Caruana vs Etienne Bacrot
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "6.4"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Bacrot, Etienne"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A21"] [WhiteElo "2808"] [BlackElo "2708"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "90"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Nd5 Bc5 4. e3 Nf6 5. b4 Be7 6. Nxe7 Qxe7 7. Bb2 O-O 8. Nf3 d6 9. d3 b6 10. Be2 Bb7 11. O-O Nbd7 12. Nd2 h6 13. d4 Nh7 14. d5 f5 15. a4 c6 16. dxc6 Bxc6 17. a5 Ndf6 18. b5 Bb7 19. a6 Bc8 20. f4 Re8 21. fxe5 dxe5 22. Qb3 Ng5 23. Nf3 Nf7 24. Nh4 Ne4 25. Nxf5 Qg5 26. Ng3 Nd2 27. Qc3 Nxf1 28. Rxf1 Bg4 29. Ne4 Qh4 30. Bd3 Be6 31. c5 bxc5 32. Qxc5 Rec8 33. Qb4 Rc4 34. Qb3 Rac8 35. Bxc4 Bxc4 36. Qc2 Be6 37. Qb1 Rb8 {[#]} 38. Nc3 $6 {Once again, a good game gets spoiled by time trouble.} ({Instead, the inventive} 38. Ba3 $1 { would set up} Bc4 39. Nf6+ $1 gxf6 40. Qg6+ Kh8 41. Be7 {and White wins.}) 38... Bc4 39. Rf2 Ng5 40. Qf5 Rd8 41. Qxe5 $4 {This is a full point turnaround. } ({White had to throw in} 41. b6 $1 {The idea becomes visible after} axb6 ( 41... Be6 42. Qxe5 Qg4 43. Qg3 Qxg3 44. hxg3 axb6 45. Rf1 Ra8 46. Ra1 $16) 42. a7 Be6 43. Qxe5 Qg4 44. Qb8 $1) 41... Qg4 $1 {The twin threats cannot be stopped.} 42. h4 (42. Kh1 Rd1+) 42... Nh3+ 43. Kh2 Nxf2 44. Qe7 Rf8 45. b6 Bf1 0-1
Etienne Bacrot was one of the wild-card invitees, and was certainly happy to put an end to his equally miserable losing streak, by beating Fabiano Caruana
With two thirds of the way through the rapid I can see a line separating the field in two distinct halves. The players with a plus score will, in most likeliness, finish in the top half; while the bottom half seem destined to languish there.
One undefined variable is top French player, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who so far has played better than his 50% score indicates. As a parting gift, I'd like to present his nice win over Veselin Topalov, the game I didn't have the time to properly annotate.
At 50%, top French player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has been a bit of a question mark. He is certainly capable of fantastic results in rapid and blitz, but so far he has not been able to do better than break even with two wins and two losses.
Veselin Topalov vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
[Event "GCT Rapid Paris 2017"] [Site "Paris FRA"] [Date "2017.06.22"] [Round "6.5"] [White "Topalov, Veselin"] [Black "Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B90"] [WhiteElo "2749"] [BlackElo "2796"] [Annotator "Alex Yermolinsky"] [PlyCount "92"] [EventDate "2017.06.21"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 h5 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. Nd5 Bxd5 11. exd5 g6 12. Be2 Bg7 13. O-O b6 14. c4 O-O 15. Rac1 a5 16. Qd1 a4 17. Nd2 Nc5 18. Nb1 Re8 19. Nc3 e4 20. f4 Nd3 21. Bxd3 Ng4 22. Bf2 exd3 23. Qxd3 Ra7 24. Bd4 (24. Nb5 $1 Nxf2 (24... Rae7 25. Bh4) 25. Rxf2 Rae7 26. Rcf1 Re3 27. Qd2 Bf6 28. Nd4 $14) 24... Rae7 25. Bxg7 Re3 26. Qd2 Kxg7 27. f5 Qh4 28. g3 (28. h3 Rxh3 29. gxh3 Re3 30. hxg4 Rg3+ 31. Qg2 Rxg2+ 32. Kxg2 Qxg4+ 33. Kf2 Qf4+ 34. Ke2 Qxc4+ 35. Kd2 g5 $13) 28... Qg5 29. Qd4+ f6 30. Qf4 $1 (30. fxg6 Nxh2 $1) 30... Qxf4 31. gxf4 h4 $5 (31... a3 $5) 32. Nxa4 h3 33. Rc3 gxf5 34. Rxe3 Rxe3 35. Nc3 Kh6 36. a4 Kh5 37. a5 $6 (37. c5 bxc5 ( 37... dxc5 38. d6) 38. a5 Re8 39. a6 Rg8 40. Rf3 Nh6+ 41. Rg3 Ra8 42. Rxh3+ Kg6 $11) 37... bxa5 38. c5 dxc5 39. d6 Re8 40. Rd1 Rg8 $1 41. Re1 $2 (41. Rd3 $8 Ne5+ 42. Rg3 Rxg3+ 43. hxg3 Nd7 44. Kh2 Kg6 45. Kxh3 Kf7 46. g4 fxg4+ 47. Kxg4 Ke6 48. Nb5 $11) 41... Ne5+ 42. Kf1 Nf3 43. Re2 Rd8 44. Nb5 Kg4 $19 45. Re7 Nxh2+ 46. Kf2 Kxf4 0-1
No, this is not a picture of the NASA flight control center, this is the inside of the Canal+ studios where the competition is being held. Every night at 11pm, a one-hour show summarizing the day's action is broadcast on the famous cable channel. Canal+ was the first cable channel in France.
Standings after six rounds
All Rapid games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)
<< World Teams R5: Invincible Turkey
The struggle of a village boy who became a World Champion! >>
Topics: Grand Chess Tour 2017, Paris
Alex Yermolinsky Yermo is enjoying his fifties. Lives in South Dakota, 600 miles way from the nearest grandmaster. Between his chess work online he plays snooker and spends time outdoors - happy as a clam.
Grand Chess Tour Paris LIVE
6/24/2018 – Wesley So won the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2018, the combined rapid chess and blitz tournament in Leuven. The tour continues with an equivalent tournament in Paris, where the French conglomerate Vivendi and its "Canal plus" TV channel is a leading partner of the tournament. Indeed, the games will take place in a television studio. <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/post/grand-chess-tour-2018-paris-blitz-1">Read our report on day four</a>.
KevinC 6/24/2017 02:23
@dumkof, the word "dominate" has the connotation of how you are doing compared to others. He is leading, and playing great, but not dominating by the definition of the word. Sorry.
Mark S 6/23/2017 07:11
@Materex with accurate play, the position would be equal with equal pawns and 2 pieces per side. 36.Nf6+ is not necessarily winning but with that move,white would recover his lost minor piece.
I like almost all analysis of Alex Yermonlinsky here at Chessbase, but on the first featured game above So-Carlsen I can't believe Alex missed the drawing line of white at the end of the game after all those complications with 36.Nf6+!! which could continue like: 36. Nf6+ Kg7 37. Nxe8+ Kh8 38. Nf6 Rc8 39. Qf3 Bg7 40. Nh5 Re8 41. b3 e4 42. Nxg7 Kxg7 43. Qg3+ Kh7 44. Qc7 Qe7 45. Qf4 Qe6 46. g4 Kh8 47. Kg2 = That line equalizes everything, I think So didn't realize that after 37.Qxf6 Qxe8 the c6 rook is under attack and Qf6 overloaded and cannot defend the Bf8 which would fall too after white plays the unstoppable Rg3+ and the black K is forced to leave his Bf8. Just a minor thing, but it simply means these Top 1 and Top 2 can also miss simple tactics if low on clock, considering So has 3 minutes before move 36 and Carlsen has exactly 2 minutes plus of course there is 10 second clock delay per move. If So didn't miss this 36.Nf6+ tactic then the score could have been halved 1/2-1/2 for these chess elites.
Materex 6/23/2017 07:07
Yermolinsky missed 36. Nf6 in the So vs Carlsen match, with white advantage.
DaTribe 6/23/2017 06:59
I would say Kevin is correct. We could be positive and blow smoke out of the rear or be realistic and say Magnus is playing very well, but we surely cannot say "dominate".
dumkof 6/23/2017 04:30
Kevin, he scored 5/6, with a 3063 rating performance! What more do you want? :)
Let's be a bit more positive and constructive.
I guess a 1/2 point lead is now what passes for "dominates"? I expected a two-point lead.
The Beasty Botvinnik Variation in the Semi-Slav!
On this DVD you will be taken on a journey through what is arguably the sharpest opening line known to men.
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TECH ›
SND35 Awards 4: Page, Portfolio and Redesign Winners from American City Business Journals
Posted on the 24 February 2014 by Themarioblog @garciainteract
TAKEAWAY: The Society of News Design (SND) has just announced 35th Edition contest winners. We take pride in the success of our client newspapers and have been devoting TheMarioBlog posts to chat with art directors from some of the winning newspapers. Today: What’s the secret for the success of these American City Business Journal titles, winning awards barely a few months after launching Project Pinstripe?
Of all the Garcia Media client newspapers recognized at the recent SND35 competition, the American City Business Journal titles represent one of our last projects completed in 2013. We are extremely proud of the recognition the ACBJ titles have had from our peers in the design community. Well deserved accolades.
It seems only yesterday that our Garcia Media art director, Reed Reibstein, and I began working with the team at ACBJ to take the 40 business journals. Our goal was to redesign them with one common look and to rethink them for a digital-first philosophy.
The Business Journals are recognized for their incisive, thorough and authoritative business coverage of their communities. As I found out from focus groups, these journals are revered by business leaders in their communities. We stepped into this so called Project Pinstripe gingerly, with a desire to enhance the products, but without ignoring the qualities that made them so strong.
The first of the 40 titles to go through the changes was Silicon Valley Business Journal in San Jose. It was here that we first applied strategies that would make readers navigate through the content easier, starting on Page One. While this was a major visual rethinking of the newspaper, including new typography, page architecture and color palette, the real changes are in the ways storytelling is approached, especially in the use of graphics that will facilitate understanding of major stories.
From the start, the changes were well received. Today, 29 of the 40 ACBJ titles have relaunched. “Our goal is to have every market converted into the Pinstripe design before summer begins,” says Jon Wile, ACBJ Creative Director.
Jon also reminds me that prior to this year, ACBJ had won only two SND awards in the past five years combined.
Jon adds:
“These awards are fruits of the company’s new strategy, illustrating how ACBJ’s expanded emphasis on photography and design is paying dividends. I’m very proud of the work we’ve accomplished this past year and am excited to finish our redesign project in the first half of this year.”
The winners at SND 35
Here are the winners and categories from the ACBJ group:
BUSINESS COVERS/INSIDE PAGES
Albany Business Review, “What We Earn”, designed by Melissa Mangini
Washington Business Journal, “100 Publicly Traded Companies”, designed by Jamey Fry
Washington Business Journal, “50 Largest Nonprofits”, designed by Jamey Fry
Washington Business Journal, six front pages (including “The Puppeter” and “Why Hollywood Hates Washington”), designed by Jamey Fry
Albany Business Review for overall newspaper
Albany Business Review for The List
Silicon Valley Business Journal for overall newspaper
A chat with the designers: Albany Business Review
The new (top) and the old List, a major feature of all ACBJ newspapers
After the challenges, now the rewards
Emory Thomas is chief content officer for ACBJ titles. He and I worked closely together on this project from the first day. In fact, it all started when Emory called me one day to ask me to join them as a consultant. During the course of a year, we spent hours discussing strategy, and maneuvering around the challenges of bringing a unified content philosophy and look for 40 different titles in cities across the US.
I chatted with Emory this week, to congratulate him on this SND35 recognition.
Emory feels that the most difficult challenge of the project was planning.
“As we move toward a more visually rich presentation in print, it’s critical for our newsrooms to gather the ingredients across a longer time frame than they have historically. That’s a process change, a mindset change, and even a culture change. In today’s digital newsrooms, there are now multiple rhythms beating simultaneously — the staccato of the daily production, the steady beat of the weekly product creation, and also the longer term gestation of many of our ambitious centerpiece cover stories.”
And what was the most rewarding?
Seeing the talent in our company flourish in new ways. Designers, photographers, editors and reporters have fewer limits, and more possibilities, than they’ve ever had before. There’s a renaissance of creativity afoot at ACBJ, and it’s compelling, and rewarding, to watch.
Emory says that the challenges continue, and raising the bar for continued improvement and success is one of those.
Raising the bar. As much as we’ve accomplished to date, satisfaction is not an option. We have to raise the bar of content quality to a much higher level. And when we reach it, we have to raise it yet again. Staying relevant in the media world today demands nothing less.
A chat with the award winning art directors
As I have done through the past three days, I wanted to chat with the designers involved in these award winning titles, and find out how they conduct their daily business of visual storytelling, which has resulted in the SND35 recognition.
Here is my chat with Melissa Mangini, Lead Designer of the Albany Business Review:
Mario:
What was the hardest part of the design transformation your newsroom has gone though?
The hardest part of the design transformation has been assembling a staff with not only the willingness to totally rethink how we do what we do, but also the buy-in and commitment to follow through.
What’s been most rewarding for you?
It has been the most rewarding to see our entire staff come together and embrace the transformation of our product. Communication has become even more essential, and when done early and often, that has really helped propel the overall design and execution to the next level. The redesign has highlighted our content in such a new and exciting way.
What are the challenges that lie ahead?
The challenges are consistency, high quality execution week after week and maintaining the excitement that the redesign brought to our newsroom. We are constantly raising the bar for ourselves and striving to improve each week.
A chat with the designers: Ryan Lambert, Sillicon Valley Business Journal
There’s a learning curve for designers and reporters. The temptation, on both sides, is to think visual impact first. But more than once we’ve designed solid packages before the reporting was finished. Our digital-first push has actually helped in that regard. The reporting has to be there before the presentation conversation begins.
We’re into our second year of Pinstripe. We learned a lot about the process the first time around, and many of us were very new to ACBJ. This time around, we’re anticipating better. For me, that’s a great comfort.
The vast majority of our story planning is digitally focused. For someone who’s concerned almost exclusively on the print product, that can be unsettling. I think the task of keeping the print product fresh and relevant falls squarely on the designer’s shoulders.
Washington Business Journal winning pages
A chat with Jamey Fry, art director for the Washington Business Journal.
The most challenging part of the redesign was probably helping the newsroom to consider more visually compelling methods of storytelling and repurposing online content in fresh ways. However, they were quick to catch on and have been quite successful since the launch.
Mario: What’s been most rewarding for you?
I loved that at a time when many newspapers are doing anything they can to cut cost (often then suffering in quality), we have instead reinvested in our product to improve the overall quality now and have prepared it to sustain into the future.
Mario: What are the challenges that lie ahead?
I think our biggest challenge is to avoid complacency. After a successful redesign launch, it’s important to continue to push ourselves and not fall into a templated mentality.
Of related interest about ACBJ launches:
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pits_a_new_washington_business_journal_p
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/the_new_silicon_valley_business_journal_is_here
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/ppinstripe_project_albany_st._louis_launch_new_look_digital_first_approach_
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/the_design_of_the_silicon_valley_business_journal_from_prototype_to_reality
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/our_first_two_launches_of_2013_silicon_valley_business_journal_and_malaysia
Previous blog posts about the SND35 competition:
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/snd35_awards_1_what_makes_a_winner
TheMarioBlog post # 1439
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The Quickly Disappearing Art of Copy Editing
Some of My Favorite E-mail Newsletters
Digital Design Challenge: Those Article Pages Move up Front
Brutalism in Web Design: Hoping It is Not a Forever Trend
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Talk:Margaret Atwood
1 Transwiki of "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"
2 Unsourced
3 Slept in the Gymnasium?
4 "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."
Transwiki of "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"[edit]
This article, originally titled Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, was transwikied from en.wikipedia.org. List of contributors:
[2005-01-21T20:55:12Z] 209.82.42.132 (started entry)
[2005-01-21T21:01:40Z] Plop (speedy deletion)
[2005-01-22T10:53:58Z] SWAdair (rm Speedy tag, add {{Move to Wikiquote}})
216.177.2.140 02:11, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Unsourced[edit]
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote on this list please move it to Margaret Atwood. --Antiquary 18:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
. . . time is compressed like the fist I close on my knee. . . . I hold inside it the clues and solutions and the power for what I must do now.
A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.
A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
A word after a word after a word is power (from "Spelling").
An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.
Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.
Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked; as I never was when I was not one.
Canada was built on dead beavers.
For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.
Gardening is not a rational act.
I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' — the human race — and that we are all members of it.
I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because they have forgotten their own.
If a stranger taps you on the ass and says, "How's the little lady today!" you will probably cringe. But if he's an American, he's only being friendly.
If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least has female saints and the Virgin Mary.
If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might overwhelm or damage them. For instance, men often faint at the sight of their own blood, to which they are not accustomed. For this reason you should never stand behind one in the line at the Red Cross donor clinic.
Never pray for justice, because you might get some.
No one knows what causes an outer landscape to become an inner one.
Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself.
Put yourself in a different room, that's what the mind is for.
She even had a kind of special position among men: she was an exception, she fitted none of the categories they commonly used when talking about girls; she wasn't a cock-teaser, a cold fish, an easy lay or a sneaky bitch; she was an honorary person. She had grown to share their contempt for most women.
Sons branch out, but one woman leads to another.
The answers you get from literature depend upon the questions you pose.
Variant: The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.
The basic Female body comes with the following accessories: garter belt, panti-girdle, crinoline, camisole, bustle, brassiere, stomacher, chemise, virgin zone, spike heels, nose ring, veil, kid gloves, fishnet stockings, fichu, bandeau, Merry Widow, weepers, chokers, barrettes, bangles, beads, lorgnette, feather boa, basic black, compact, Lycra stretch one-piece with modesty panel, designer peignoir, flannel nightie, lace teddy, bed, head.
The beginning of Canadian cultural nationalism was not "Am I really that oppressed?" but "Am I really that boring?".
The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love.
Variant: The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love. ~Margaret Atwood, Surfacing p. 107 978-0385491051
The truly fearless think of themselves as normal.
Their mothers had finally caught up to them and been proven right. There were consequences after all but they were the consequences to things you didn't even know you'd done.
We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.
We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups.
You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.
Slept in the Gymnasium?[edit]
The significance of the following Atwood quote utterly eludes me: "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball net were still in place, though the nets were gone." What possible significance does this quotation have? Expansion of Wikiquote's coverage of gymnasiums? Providing a pithy remark on basketball hoops? Ross Fraser 04:00, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
I swapped the remarkably tepid quote above for a more quotable quote from The Edible Woman (Atwood's first major novel and not otherwise referenced) as well as correcting the date on the quote from Surfacing (this was 1972, not the 1990's date reported which was the release of a certain paperback edition). Ross Fraser 01:53, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."[edit]
I haven't been able to fully track down the source for this quote, but I have been able to dig up various references to it, so I wanted to share them here.
The most common way the quote is phrased is above: "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.". However, various other phrasings are also found:
Novelist Margaret Atwood writes that when she asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women, he answered, "They are afraid women will laugh at them." When she asked a group of women why they feel threatened by men, they said, "We're afraid of being killed."
A Woman's Worst Nightmare by Mary Dickson © 1996 (published on PBS.org)
And from wikipedia:Margaret Joe, a member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly:
a brief quote by Margaret Atwood.
“’Why do men feel threatened by women?’ I asked a male friend of mine.
“’They are afraid women will laugh at them’, he said, ‘undercut their world view.’
“Then I asked some women students, ‘Why do women feel threatened by men?’ ”’They are afraid of being killed,’ they said."
Hansard transcript from the 2nd session of the 27th Legislature (December 5, 1990).
Note the addition of the "undercut their world view", which I haven't see in most of the other examples.
Also, as cited (#2253) in Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005, a letter to the editor:
Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood once asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women. He replied, "They are afraid women will laugh at them." She then asked a group of women why they feel threatened by men. They answered, "We're afraid of being killed." - Meghan Casey, Richfield.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) Letters from readers (March 27, 1998)
I'll continue to try and dig up references, but if anyone else has suggestions, that would be very appreciated! 63.251.123.2 21:44, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
I found a reference that seemed to provide a source: Second Words (1983). And I found it in there, on page 413!
"Why do men feel threatened by women?" I asked a male friend of mine. So this male friend of mine, who does by the way exist, conveniently entered into the following dialogue. "I mean," I said, "men are bigger, most of the time, they can run faster, strangle better, and they have on the average a lot more money and power." "They're afraid women will laugh at them," he said. "Undercut their world view." Then I asked some women students in a quickie poetry seminar I was giving, "Why do women feel threatened by men?" "They're afraid of being killed," they said.
Atwood, Margaret, Writing the Male Character (1982) (reprinted in Second Words: Selected Critical Prose from a Hagey Lecture on February 9, 1982, at the University of Waterloo)
I'll add it to the page now. 63.251.123.2 22:18, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
This exact phrasing appears to be from Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker with a few words missing. If you search the phrase in the book, it appears on p. 67 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0440226198#reader_0440226198). The exact quote appears to be "At core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them." EvergreenFir (talk) 06:29, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
As indicated above The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence (1997) by Gavin De Becker contains a similar statement, but it also indicates some prior use of such expressions: "It is understandable that the perspectives of men and women on safety are so different—men and women live in different worlds. I don’t remember where I first heard this simple description of one dramatic contrast between the genders, but it is strikingly accurate: At core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them." ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 07:42, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Margaret_Atwood&oldid=2279973"
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Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
infobox television
show_name = Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
caption = Syndication "Dynomutt, Dog Wonder" title card.
format = Animation
runtime = approx. 22 minutes
(per episode)
rating = TV-G
creator = Joe Ruby
Ken Spears
starring = Frank Welker as Dynomutt
Gary Owens as Blue Falcon
country = United States
network = ABC
first_aired = September 11, 1976
last_aired = October 22, 1977
num_episodes = 20 (16 half-hour episodes and eight 11-minute two-part episodes)
tv_com_id = 18723
"Dynomutt, Dog Wonder" is an American animated television series produced for Saturday mornings by Hanna-Barbera about a Batman-esque super hero, the Blue Falcon and his assistant, a bumbling yet generally effective robot dog Dynomutt, who could produce a seemingly infinite number of mechanical devices from his body. As with many other animated super-heroes of the era, no origin for the characters was ever provided.
Recently, between January 2 and March 9, 2008, repeats of "Dynomutt, Dog Wonder" were shown on Boomerang.
The show was created for ABC in 1976 as a companion show for "Scooby-Doo", resulting in "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour".
In his secret identity, Blue Falcon—in many ways a parody of Batman, right down to his nearly endless gadgets, his millionaire secret identity, his stylized "Falconcar," and (reminiscent of the 1960s "Batman" TV series) his utterly serious demeanor —is millionaire Radley Crown, proprietor of Crown Art Gallery, and Dynomutt is his loyal pet, smartly dressed in a sweater and ascot (although his "civilian" name, if any, is never revealed). But when called to action in their base of operations, Big City, the duo quickly change into their superhero guises. Unlike "Scooby-Doo", "Dynomutt" featured spies and super-villains in place of assumedly supernatural villains, although the "Scooby" gang made three guest appearances on the show. Astute watchers will note that in almost every case, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt and the episode's villain imply at least one previous clash. However, like the heroes themselves, the villains' origins are rarely included in these discussions, unless the main conflict of the episode is based on the villain's on-screen debut.
In 1977, "Dynomutt, Dog Wonder" became part of the package show "Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics". Four new episodes, presented as two-part cliffhangers, were produced for the 1977-78 season under the title "The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt". Reruns from the first season of "Dynomutt" were also broadcast during the "Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics" block. The "Dynomutt" segments from both package shows were later rerun on their own during the summer of 1978. Between 1984 and 1992 it reappeared on cable on USA Cartoon Express (some of the original bridging sequences from "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour" had been restored for this purpose and were sometimes seen; other times, the syndicated titles were shown). Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang has repeated the syndicated "Dynomutt Dog Wonder" since then (without its omnipresent laugh track).
Episode guide ("The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour")
eason one (1976 – 1977)
"The episode titles given reflect Hanna-Barbera studio records. No on-screen titles were given for this series.
*1 These episodes guest-star Scooby-Doo and the Mystery, Inc. gang.
*2 Episode 1.12, "There's a Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark/The Awful Ordeal With the Head of Steel", was originally broadcast not on a Saturday morning, but on Thanksgiving Day 1976 (November 25), during ABC's "Thanksgiving Funshine Festival."
*3 These episodes, and all first-season repeats, were broadcast as part of "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Show", which included an additional half-hour featuring a "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" rerun.
Episode guide ("Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics")
eason two (1977 – 1978)
These 4 new episodes were aired under the new title "The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt".
*EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
*DIRECTOR: Charles A. Nichols
*CREATIVE PRODUCER: Iwao Takamoto
*CREATED BY: Joe Ruby and Ken Spears
*ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Alex Lovy
*STORYBOARD DIRECTION: David Hannan, Tom Knowles, Michael O'Connor, Paul Sommer, Wendell Washer, Kay Wright
*RECORDING DIRECTOR: Wally Burr
*STORY EDITOR: Norman Maurer
*STORY: Earl Doud, Jeff Maurer, Lee Orgel, Haskell Barkin, Donald Glut, Orville Hampton, Michael Maurer, Dalton Sandifer, Deidre Starlight
*VOICES: Regis Cordic, Joan Gerber, Bob Holt, Ralph James, Gary Owens, Henry Corden, Ron Feinberg, Casey Kasem, Larry McCormick, Julie McWhirter, Don Messick, Heather North, John Stephenson, Pat Stevens, Lennie Weinrib, Frank Welker, Allan Melvin
*PRODUCTION DESIGN: Bob Singer
*CHARACTER DESIGN: Alex Toth, Steve Nakagawa
*PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR: Victor O. Schipek
*GRAPHICS: Iraj Paran
*MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Hoyt Curtin
*MUSICAL SUPERVISOR: Paul DeKorte
*UNIT DIRECTOR: Bill Keil
*LAYOUT: Mike Arens, Jack Huber, Larry Huber, Dale Barnhart, Owen Fitzgerald, Alex Ignatiev, Ziggy Jablecki, Bill Lignante, Warren Marshall, Dan Noonan, Linda Rowley, Terry Slade, Adam Szwejkowski, George Wheeler
*ANIMATION: Ed Barge, Steve Clark, Maria Dail, Jim Davis, Bob Goe, Bill Hutten, Tony Love, Rod Parkes, Veve Risto, Jay Sarbry, Bob Bemiller, Robert Bransford, O.E. Callahan, Lars Calonius, Rudy Cataldi, Marcia Fertig, Mark Glamack, Terry Harrison, Margaret Nichols, Ed Soloman, Dave Tendlar
*BACKGROUNDS: Bob Gentle, Al Gmuer, Richard Khim, Marilyn Shimokochi
*TECHNICAL SUPERVISOR: Frank Paiker
*CHECKING AND SCENE PLANNING: Evelyn Sherwood
*INK AND PAINT SUPERVISOR: Billie Kerns
*XEROGRAPHY: Star Wirth
*SOUND DIRECTION: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
*SUPERVISING FILM EDITOR: Chip Yaras
*MUSIC EDITORS: Larry Cowan, Pat Foley, Joe Sandusky
*NEGATIVE CONSULTANT: William E. DeBoer
*POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR: Joed Eaton
*CAMERA: George Epperson, Curt Hall, Ron Jackson, Norman Stainback, Roy Wade
*PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jayne Barbera
* Frank Welker - Dynomutt
* Gary Owens - Radley Crowne/Blue Falcon
* Larry McCormick - Mayor Gaunt
* Ron Feinberg - Narrator, F.O.C.U.S. One
Gary Owens and Frank Welker reprise their roles of Blue Falcon and Dynomutt in guest appearances in the "Dexter's Laboratory" episode "Dyno-Might."
Blue Falcon also appeared, without Dynomutt, on an episode of "Johnny Bravo", in which he, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and Don Knotts redesign Johnny's show in a parody of overdone cartoon makeovers that are often despised by audiences. Gary Owens also reprises his role here.
Blue Falcon appears as a recurring character in the "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" TV series as a Spanish lawyer named Azul Falcone (voiced by Maurice LaMarche). Dynomutt has also appeared in the two-part episode "Deadomutt" voiced by André Sogliuzzo with a Spanish accent.
Dynomutt and Blue Falcon appeared in the "Robot Chicken" episode "Ban on the Fun" with Dynomutt voiced by Victor Yerrid and Blue Falcon voiced by Kevin Shinick.
*imdb title|id=0177438|title=Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
* [http://www.angelfire.com/la/aaronh3d/ THE FALCON'S LAIR: The Unofficial Guide To Dynomutt Dog Wonder]
* [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/d/dynomutt.htm InternationalHero: Dynomutt]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20000302005949/www.cartoonnetwork.com/doc/dynomutt/ Cartoon Network: Dept. of Cartoons: Dynomutt] - cached copy from Internet Archives
Albert de Dion
Nereus Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize
The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour — infobox television show name = The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour caption = Scooby Doo (middle) hitches a ride with The Daring Duo in The Falconcar. format = Animation runtime = 60 minutes (two half hour segments); later 90 minutes (three half hour… … Wikipedia
The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour — Scooby Doo Pour l’article homophone, voir Scoubidou. Séries télévisées par période / genre / origine Liste complète Scooby Doo (parfois traduit par Scoubidou en français) est un personnag … Wikipédia en Français
Список американских телепрограмм по дате начала показа — Содержание 1 2010 е 1.1 2011 1.1.1 Январь 1.1.2 Февраль … Википедия
List of fictional dogs — This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries. This is a list of fictional dogs from literature, films etc. (It also includes some… … Wikipedia
The Scooby-Doo Show — Infobox Television show name = The Scooby Doo Show caption = The title card for The Scooby Doo Show , under which name the 1976 ndash; 1978 episodes of Scooby Doo have been syndicated under since 1980. format = Animated Series Mystery Comedy… … Wikipedia
Scooby-Doo — This article is about the series. For the title character, see Scooby Doo (character). For other uses, see Scooby Doo (disambiguation). Scooby Doo A scene from What a Night for a Knight , the first episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! Clockwise… … Wikipedia
Scooby-Doo (1976-1979) — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Scooby Doo El show de Scooby Doo Género Animación / Misterio Creador Hanna Barbera País Estados Unidos … Wikipedia Español
The Scooby-Doo Show — Scooby Doo The Scooby Doo Show Título Scooby Doo El show de Scooby Doo Género Animación / Misterio Creado por Hanna Barbera Reparto Don Messick (Scooby Doo) Casey Kasem (Shaggy) Frank Welker (Fred) Pat Stevens (Vilma) Heather North (Daphne) … Wikipedia Español
Frank Welker — Infobox actor name = Frank Welker birthname = Franklin W. Welker birthdate = birth date and age|1946|03|12 location = Denver, Colorado spouse = occupation = Voice actor website = http://mkbmemorial.com/FWHp/Franklin W. Welker (born March 12,… … Wikipedia
Frank Welker — Données clés Nom de naissance Franklin Wendell Welker Naissance 12 mars 1946 (1946 03 12) (65 ans) Denver, Colorado Nationalité … Wikipédia en Français
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FROM BROOKES NEWS
How Mexican immigrants are driving down US wage rates. The verdict is in. Unrestricted immigrations reduces real wages rates and lowers general living standards, according to a study by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Not that there is anything new here.
Is Beijing successfully sabotaging the US economy? Representatives of American industry claim that China is undercutting US manufacturing by manipulating the exchange rate. Is it true?
Are ideas dead? It has been said that ideas have consequences. But it is also the lack of ideas that is having consequences. Until the ideas of the anti-capitalists are challenged with rebuttals grounded in ideas and not empty insults, and are complemented with positive arguments for the free market, the left will always have the advantage.
Australian journalist maligns Reagan's record. The malice of the left is boundless. In her vicious attack on Prime Minister Howard (“The sad times do suit him; he made them”, Sydney Morning Herald 18/8/03) Anne Summers took a vindictive swipe at the Reagan presidency.
Hillary Clinton's crime record. Hillary Clinton's viciously dishonest attack on Bush regarding the recent power failure is another demonstration of her brutal contempt for the truth. Whichever way one looks at her record, no honest person cannot help but be appalled.
China's little emperors: another tragedy in the making? China is still paying a heavy price because of the old men who imposed on a magnificent culture the tyrannical ideas of a disgruntled Western intellectual who couldn't cut it in his own society, even when left a healthy inheritance.
Senate Dems exposed the rotten heart of the Party. Watching hardcore Democrats trying to tear down Bush by whatever means possible, even at the expense of encouraging our enemies to attack US troops makes one realize how morally depraved their party has become.
There is an article here that outlines vividly the depravity of Arab terrorism against Israel. It should also make clear for once and for all that Reuters is a pro-terrorist organization.
The Independent Review is a good site for anybody with an interest in practical economics. Their article on Ireland is an interesting one but it is in that accursed PDF format so I have posted some extracts here. The economic progress of Ireland has been amazing over the last 20 years. The main driver has been a continuing program of tax cuts that make the Reagan tax cuts look trifling but the article points out other important free-market reforms as well.
Who said this? "America? I love America. I am on whatever side America is on, even before I know what it is." The Prime Minister of Italy! Very refreshing in this miserable jealousy-filled world.
I must try Danish pizza one day: "A court in Denmark has upheld a sentence against a Danish pizzeria owner who had refused to serve French and German tourists because their governments opposed the US-led war in Iraq. Denmark's Western High Court upheld a lower court ruling issued two months ago that ordered Aage Bjerre to pay a £500 fine or serve an eight-day prison sentence. 'I will not pay the fine, but I'll do the time instead,' Bjerre said. 'It's a matter of principle.'"
Under the title “The Ecological Gospel”, this article spells out in detail how strong are the parallels between Environmentalism and fundamentalist Christianity
"Paul Krugman began his Tuesday column for the New York Times -- inevitably, about the blackout -- with one of the few truthful statements I can ever recall him uttering: 'We still don't know what started the chain reaction on Thursday.' But after that admission, he proceeded to spend the next 649 words of his column telling us exactly what caused the blackout. Can you guess? ... I knew the Department of Homeland Potholes was facing a funding crisis, but I never realized that 'tax breaks for the rich' caused the blackout!"
Planning the electricity supply: "Central economic planning was discredited in the old Soviet Union and every other country that attempted it. What the great economist Ludwig von Mises showed in theory in the 1920s was then demonstrated in practice in subsequent decades: central economic planning is impossible."
An expert on trends among American youth says that more and more of them are becoming conservative.
Philosopher Mary Midgley warns against trusting big ideas -- a classic conservative view: “Beware big ideas. They may beguile by seeming to explain a whole bunch of stuff from a single, simple standpoint. But they will mislead you in the end, and make it harder, not easier, to understand what is really important.”
"What is the answer to this crisis in education? One of the answers is tougher standards, such as those imposed by NCLBA, with credible consequences to back those standards up. But this is merely a first step. A more important and far-reaching response would be to initiate comprehensive parental choice in education."
The Wicked one thinks that Christian moralists need more Christian humility.
I have a post on PC Watch about the latest bout of insanity in the Australian courts.
My latest academic upload here (or here) looks at the common Leftist claim that patriotism is allied to racism. In a British general population sample I found that there was no connection. I also found no correlation between basic conservative attitudes and attitude to blacks -- though Conservative voters were slightly more likely than others to be anti-black.
DO CHRISTIANS “JUST KNOW”?
I expected that my new formula at the head of this page (“Leftists just KNOW... “) would soon attract a “What about the Christians?” response and Randian blogger Chip Gibbons has obliged.
I do of course have great respect for Ayn Rand and her followers so I will be a little bit kinder than I would have been if a Leftist had challenged my formula. Even so, I have to say that it shows very little knowledge of Christians to think that they “just know” the truth of their beliefs. I am an atheist myself (in good Randian fashion) but I have yet to meet a Christian who had not thought long and hard about his/her beliefs. Christians normally think that there is COMPELLING evidence for the existence of a God and all the other reasoning that flows from that. I personally think that they are mistaken but to say that they do not weigh the evidence either way with great care is just plain wrong.
Leftists on the other hand just ignore any evidence that does not suit them. They just know that the rest of the world is stupid and that they have the answers. It is what the ancient Greeks called “hubris”
IMMIGRATION CONTROL
Immigration control is often portrayed by the extreme end of the Australian Left as supported only by ignorant xenophobes -- though the major Leftist (Labor) party in Australia heartily supports such controls. A reader comments:
“Modern folklore has it that the advocates and administrators of the 'White Australia Policy' were all narrow minded xenophobes. The usual 'example' repeated over and over in the literature and on the web is the former post-war Labor Party immigration minister Arthur Calwell who is quoted as opposing Asian immigration in 1952 with the quip "two Wongs don't make a white." Calwell did say that, but he was also a Mandarin speaker, closely associated with Melbourne's Chinese community and pioneered the postwar immigration policy lauded by the multiculturalists. His policy was picked up and followed by the succeeding Menzies government. And when a motion to drop the White Australia policy was actually put to the vote at Labor's policy conference, it was seconded by Calwell . Few of today's politically correct multiculturalists can speak any non-English language.”
This article states the libertarian position on immigration in a fairly reasonable way. Libertarians are generally the only people in politics who oppose all immigration controls. There is however a lot of disagreement among libertarians on many issues and in this case I like the householder analogy: Shouldn’t a home-owner be free to decide whom he will have in his own house? Every libertarian and conservative would say “Yes” in answer to that. So why should not nations be free to decide whom they will allow into their country? As it happens, I am a fairly hospitable soul and I both have Asians living in my house and am glad that we have so many Asians living in Australia generally. But I am also glad that I have the right to say “No” when I wish and I am glad that the government of my country has also said a very effective “No” to a lot of middle-Eastern Muslim “refugees” who tried to force their way in here.
Although Australia’s conservative government has taken a strong and very effective line against illegal immigration, that does not mean that it is xenophobic. In fact overall immigration to Australia has grown greatly under the present government.
Even though he does not go along with the Christian morals campaigners, it looks like big Arnie might be a good conservative after all. He has just called for a constitutional cap on state spending and made clear his distaste for new taxes. I think he may simply be a modern conservative. Being a Christian moralist in California these days would not be so much conservative as backwoodsy. As a libertarian I don’t support Christian attempts to impose Christian values on non-Christians either -- any more than I support Muslim attempts to impose Muslim values on non-Muslims.
One of my U.S. readers informs me that: “The term "wowser" is old American slang for busybodies from the early and mid 20th century, featured heavily in such writers as H.L. Mencken and Walter Lippman.” In Australia it is said to have originated as the acronym of a prohibition campaign that called itself: “We Only Want Social Evils Removed”
Father Mike Walsh of the Maryknoll Catholic missionary organization is an old China hand and he is therefore well aware of how Hong Kong Chinese tend to look down on mainland Chinese. Hong Kongers have also been much interested in the Pauline Hanson case in Australia, where Hanson -- Australia’s most outspoken opponent of Asian immigration -- was recently jailed. Australia has heaps of ex-Hong Kongers living here so Hanson is a bit of a devil to them. Father Walsh has advised me with some amusement therefore that the following two headlines recently appeared one after the other in the (Hong Kong) South China Morning Post: “Pauline Hanson jailed for three years by Australian court” and “Survey: people concerned about influx of mainland tourists”. As Father Walsh commented: It depends on whose ox is gored.
There is a good attempt here by a Leftist (the head of the British charity Oxfam) to sell the World Trade Organization to fellow Leftists: A worthy effort to put free-trade rationality into Leftist language. He manages to portray the USA as a villain in the matter but he has to do that to get his fellow Leftists to listen -- sadly.
I have just blogrolled this “funny but serious” site. If you read it you will see why it would be nice if lots of other people permanently linked to it as well -- to push it up the Google rankings and thus help prevent people being misled.
Rocket Man has a good post about the inadequacy of describing politics as a simple Right/Left divide and looks at the alternative two-dimensional description of politics that is popular among libertarians. He points out that the placement of Hitler on the Right is alone enough to make the two-dimensional description problematical. I have pointed out long ago that, pesky though it may be, the survey data do reveal only a single Left/Right dimension in most people’s political attitudes.
The Wicked one has some rather pointed comments about the role of hip-hop music in black culture.
“WOWSERS”
“Wowser” is another piece of untranslatable Australian slang. Its nearest translation into standard English is probably “killjoy” but that does not fully convey the air of self-righteousness that the wowser always has. Australian columnist Miranda Devine has some good comments on the wowsers in Australia today. Wowsers used to be religious people who wanted to stop people drinking, dancing and watching sport on Sundays but no more. Excerpt:
Now that the churches are empty and their moral restraints cast aside, today's wowsers have had to find fresh fun to eradicate, like alcohol, cigarettes, Big Macs, vanilla Coke, cars and air-conditioning.
The neo-wowsers are obsessed with health and eco-concerns in just as mean and censorious a way as their forebears were fixated on sex and nudity. They are on a sacred mission to save the decadent self-indulgent masses from destroying themselves with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and global warming. They seize every opportunity to wag a finger and tut a tongue at people's remaining pleasures.
THE REAL MARRIAGE ISSUES
A reader has been inspired to deeper thoughts by the current controversy over homosexual “marriage”. He writes:
“I have been thinking about this contract marriage argument. My guess is that any move towards it would be opposed mainly by Christian churches and the feminists. Both groups would be keen to impose their viewpoint on everyone. The Christians I can have some sympathy with, but I think that C.S. Lewis's argument is the answer to their objections. Also I'd wager that privately negotiated marriage contracts may indeed be tougher than our current system of legal roulette.
The feminists probably would be happy to weaken the traditional institution, based on their misguided view that marriage is inherently anti-woman. My guess is that they would then seek to interfere in privately negotiated marriage contracts too, just as they have with state sanctioned marriage, perhaps under the banner of 'consumer protection'.
Wendy McElroy argues that liberal and feminist intervention has undermined traditional marriage, leading to a "marriage strike" by men. The unintended consequences of these apparently well meaning changes have landed heavily on women and, even more so on children. In fact the growing trend to single parent families is probably the major cause of poverty in western capitalist societies. William F Buckley says: "..We know that the composite impact of single-parent homes on children is huge. The poverty rate in single-parent homes is 400 percent of that for two-parent homes. Among long-term prison inmates, 70 percent grew up without a father in residence. There are comparable figures for illiteracy and drug use." Buckley, writes from the perspective of a conservative defender of traditional marriage.
Another concern: Martin Daly and Margot Wilson, are evolutionary psychologists. Their work has highlighted the risks to children of being raised by people other than their biological parents. This 'socio-biological' issue lies at the heart of many media grabbing stories of institutional child abuse, the "stolen generation" etc. In their "THE EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY OF HOMICIDE" (PDF), they report: "...studies in Canada, Britain and the United States indicate that (for step children) their risk of being fatally abused is on the order of 50 to 100 times higher than risk at the hands of a genetic parent. Having a stepparent has turned out to be the single most powerful predictor of severe child maltreatment yet discovered."
There are certainly more important issues at stake here than whether or not homosexuals can get State-recognized weddings.”
Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'. -- Michael McClary
The multicultural extremists of the Australian Left have just had a big victory. Australia’s most prominent critic of multicultual fantasies has just been jailed for 3 years over a technicality in the way she organized the funding for her political party. There was a technical breach but if her views had not made her so many powerful enemies it would never even have been prosecuted.
This is just amazing. “Farm insurance”. What other business can get the government to insure it against failure? As economists often say: All the world loves a farmer and hates a landlord. Both are of course irrational.
Home-grown terrorism: "A top San Francisco chef has become the target of radical animal rights activists in a series of attacks that police are calling domestic terrorism. Aqua chef Laurent Manrique has been the victim of vandals who spray-painted his home and splashed his car with acid, and he has received threatening letters and videotapes. It's part of what police say may be a national campaign aimed at those who produce a signature ingredient of French haute cuisine -- foie gras -- and the chefs who use it."
The Carnival of the Vanities is up again. 76 posts!
Arlene Peck asks why GWB keeps putting extra demands on Israel while the Arabs do nothing.
The Wicked one has a good lawyer joke and knows why GWB supports a lot of socialist policies.
My latest academic upload here (or here) looks at the causes of heart disease and who is most prone to it. It is the first of several articles that debunk the theory that “A-type” personalities are prone to heart disease.
CONSPIRACY MANIA
A reader writes:
“This report from Germany shows that the use of 9-11 conspiracy theories (similar to Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men") by the legal defence teams of captured terrorists is not confined to Indonesia. But then again, in Germany polls show as many as 1/3rd of Germans actually believe the US government was secretly behind the attack. Germany has of course seen waves of public paranoia before and the results weren't very pretty. This time the paranoia is not confined to Germany. One American Leftist has called on his fellow leftists to cool it for the sake of reason -- and for the sake of winning elections.
Keith Windschuttle detailed the 9-11 reactions of numerous Leftist factions back in 2001 but even he underestimated the extent of sheer paranoia and the industry that feeds it. What is new today , of course, is what looks like a symbiotic relationship emerging between the conspiracy mongers and the terrorist killers themselves.”
I am sorry to say that my first reaction on hearing that the United Nations headquarters in Iraq has just been blown up was: “Good riddance”. But the people who died were just as innocent as the people who died in 9/11. We must not blame the employees for the corruption of their political masters.
Australia’s strict gun control laws at work: “Amal Youssef sits in her garage with her two little girls playing on their bikes, her priest by her side, grappling with the news that a 13-year-old boy has been charged with murdering her husband. "He's 13. I cannot understand. How could he have a gun?””
Way to go! “A New Zealander who sent millions of junk emails out every day has shut his business under a barrage of email abuse after his personal details were posted on the web.”
"As many as six historically black colleges (HBCUs) have recently been given warnings or been placed on probation by accreditation agencies. Many others are struggling with budget shortfalls, ill-prepared students and inadequate facilities. Financial mismanagement notwithstanding, what other significant factor has contributed to the bleak future of HBCUs? The answer lies at the feet of an initiative whose intent was to redress past racial and sexual discrimination: affirmative action."
The mystery of the world wide extinction of frogs, variously blamed by Greenies on global warming, pesticides, etc has now been narrowed down to a fungus. See here and here. The next question is how did the fungus impact so many frog species in so many countries? The answer that the ecology establishment does not want to hear is that amateur conservationists (and perhaps some professional scientists too) are “croaking” the frogs. The findings suggests that researchers have inadvertently been spreading the deadly fungus.
An Iranian philosopher of science claims here that in the “golden age” of Islam there was greater freedom of thought than in Iran today because the leaders in the “golden age” (more of a brass age in my view) were despotic but not totalitarian -- unlike today.
Genetically-modified crops: “Literally thousands of laboratory, greenhouse, and field studies show the risks of GM plants and foods to be minimal, while their benefits — in terms of increased yields and reduced pesticide use — are legion” So any rational person would jump for joy, one would think. But the EU is not rational. It is bureaucratic. They want ZERO risk before they do anything. It’s a wonder that they do not ban boats, aircraft, cars and trains. They REGULARLY kill more people than GM crops ever will. But bureaucracy does have its own rationality and there is no doubt what their REAL reason for banning GM is: They already have huge agricultural surpluses created by their manic subsidization of their farmers. If their farmers got hold of GM seed and ended up producing twice as much as they do now, that would REALLY break the bank.
Excessive and badly designed regulations tend to reinforce the market position of the largest established players at the expense of smaller innovators. So the activists' nightmare of massive biotech monopolies dominating the globe is to an extent a Frankenstein’s monster of their own creation. But Big Business has always been comfortable with a regulated world.
"Even technologically challenged music fans who could no more download an illegal MP3 file than pilot a space shuttle owe a debt of gratitude to the Napster generation. For years record buyers have complained that CDs are overpriced and the music industry has responded by saying, as politely as possible, put up or shut up. Now, panicked by the pirates, they've finally been compelled to slash prices to a reasonable level and sales have reached an all-time high." I don’t often agree with the Guardian but I agree with that. I buy only classical Cds and a lot of them cost me $10 or less. That record-company monopolies of various kinds have made the poor old pop music fans pay three times that for their fix has always seemed one big rip-off to me. But monopolies almost always come unstuck eventually and it is good to see that one going. No free-trader likes monopolies and conservatives have been attacking monopolies since Elizabeth I.
THE ORIGINS OF ENVIRONMENTALISM
Many people see environmentalism as a recent phenomenon. It is not. Read the typically Greenie quote following and guess the one word that I have deleted from it:
"We recognize that separating humanity from nature, from the whole of life, leads to humankind’s own destruction and to the death of nations. Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole . . . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of Socialist thought."
How many people would have picked that I missed out the word “National” before “Socialist”? Yes. It was a leading Nazi who wrote that. Environmentalism was a part of Nazism just as it is a part of modern-day Leftism. Like the Greenies of today, the Nazis wanted to take us all back to some imaginary and romanticised rural past. And of course the Communist Pol Pot in Cambodia actually tried it! -- with the appalling results we all know. For more on ecofascism see here. Hitler and Pol Pot reveal how dangerous the Greens could be if ever they got real power. History can be most inconvenient! Though you don’t need history to tell you that Greenies are people-haters.
Australia’s Andrew Bolt gives an excellent summary of why so many of the world’s “intellectuals” hate the USA with a passion that transcends all reason: “Intellectuals resent a superpower that ignores them and their ideas. And the capitalist US has insulted them even more by making poor people richer and freer than the Marxism of the intellectuals ever could or will.” I guess it must be awful for them to see that conservative pragmatism beats their simplistic theories hands-down, time and time again.
Jeff Jacoby has a good article on whether or not men are “naturally” more promiscuous than women. As he points out, there is nothing in evolutionary theory that clearly leads to that conclusion. And once again the “evidence” psychologists have produced for the natural-promiscuity theory was obtained by asking college students their views! If it is like most such evidence it is highly misleading as an account of what actually happens out there in the real world. The various DNA studies showing that up to a third of the children of a marriage are not in fact the children of the alleged father suggests to me that women are highly promiscuous too -- though they may well be slower to acknowledge it -- even to themselves. I trust the DNA evidence a lot more than I trust what college students say.
An Australian reader noted my brief comments on the recent definition of neoconservatism by Irving Kristol and wrote to suggest that the dominant faction of Australia’s major Leftist party are neoconservatives too! I have posted the email here.
Further to my recent note about the “Communist Manifesto”, Gerry Jackson of Brookes News writes: “The piece on Marx and socialism was interesting. However, the author is apparently unaware of the fact that the Marx's labour theory of value came from David Ricardo who in turn got it from Adam Smith. Until the Wealth of Nations appeared on the scene it was generally accepted among philosophers that utility and not labour was the sole source of value. The Abbe Ferdinando Galiani (1728-1787), for instance, eloquently explained why there can be no value without utility. He then went on to explain how scarcity and utility combine to produce prices. I'm afraid Smith sent economics into a blind alley”
According to the NYT: “The Bush administration, while preparing for talks soon with North Korea, is also stepping up military pressure with plans for a joint naval exercise” And where will the exercise be held? Off Eastern Australia about half the globe away from Korea! That’s “pressure”??
Good news that the Tasmanian tiger may not be extinct after all.
No wonder Israel is getting huge pressure over its security fence. It is the only thing that actually has much chance of protecting Israelis.
An inspiring story about how well the Indians have done who were expelled from Uganda to Britain by the butcher Idi Amin. Non-Muslims from the Indian subcontinent who live in England shame the English by their work habits.
China Hand has drawn our attention to the announcement that China is deregulating its media to make it more market-oriented. Lots of former government outlets are even expected to go broke. It’s not exactly a free press but it’s a start.
Patriotism and nationalism generally have a bad name among Leftists -- though Leftists always have to compromise with it and do sometimes make good use of it -- as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il Sung did. Given the horrors that have been inflicted on the world by nationalism in conjunction with Leftism, one might be inclined to suspect that nationalism is indeed a bad thing. Such a conclusion would be however to blame the accomplice rather than the perpetrator -- as the 1977 survey that I have just uploaded (here or here) shows: I studied supporters of the Scottish National Party -- who basically want independence from England for Scotland. I found that they were centrists in practically every respect -- a far cry from any form of political extremism. And, as we now all know, they have attained a large part of their aims -- their own Scottish parliament -- through purely democratic means and with no violence at all. It is only in conjunction with Leftism that nationalism is pernicious.
THE BERKELEY VALUE JUDGMENTS
There is an interesting post at Power Line (Via King of Fools) about the Berkeley study of conservatism that does what the Leftists themselves long ago did -- take a phenomenon and simply reverse the value judgements. Like many other conservative commentators, the blogger concerned sees some truth in the Berkeley study’s characterization of the Left/Right divide but just cannot see that it shows conservatives in a bad light.
He may not be aware that the Leftist “authoritarianism” theory underlying the Berkeley claims was itself originally borrowed from Nazi psychology (I kid you not) by the Marxist Adorno and his group (another example of Nazis and Communists being simply rival Leftist sects). Adorno agreed with the Nazi psychologist Jaensch about how people differed but what Jaensch said was a good thing, Adorno said was a bad thing. So reversing the value judgements is a very old trick in this field. Both camps are wrong however. They are mistaken in ascribing Left/Right orientation to childhood experience. The geneticists (Martin and others) have long ago shown that Left/Right orientation is MOSTLY hereditary. Leftists are born arrogant know-alls. Reality sometimes gets to them however and they turn conservative in later life (see e.g. here). See also here on the biological origins of human values generally.
Adorno,T.W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D.J. & Sanford, R.N.
(1950) The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.
Martin, N. & Jardine, R. (1986) Eysenck's contribution to behaviour genetics. In: S & C. Modgil (Eds.) Hans Eysenck: Consensus and controversy. Lewes, E. Sussex: Falmer
Eaves, L.J., Martin, N.G., Meyer, J.M. & Corey, L.A. (1999) Biological and cultural inheritance of stature and attitudes. In: Cloninger, C.R., Personality and psychopathology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press.
Jaensch, E.R. (1938) Der Gegentypus. Leipzig: Barth.
Because it has already been so heavily covered elsewhere, I was not going to mention the N.E. American blackout but one of my readers has come up with an interesting observation. In this record of recent solar activity he notes that the graphs for 14 August, especially the one for proton volume, show a very interesting AC spike. He suggests that this spike could have caused a power surge in an extensive grid already carrying high levels of energy and thus burnt something out. It seems feasible in my very non-expert view. The other causes so far put forward seem pretty vague. A solar flare burned out a large part of Canada's electricity grid in 1989.
Irving Kristol has just defined what he sees neoconservatism as consisting of today. He should know. My definition of a couple of days ago -- “Neocons are reformed Leftists who still have an interventionist streak in them” -- stands up pretty well in the light of what he says. They are too interventionist for my libertarian tastes.
An interesting article here on what the Communist Manifesto actually says.
A good comment by Piers Akerman here on the Leftist rubbish that Australians get from their public broadcaster.
Writing in Australia’s mass-circulation Sunday Telegraph, well known economics commentator Terry McCrann yesterday gave global warming a big raspberry. He summarized a recent article by Alan Oxley, who specializes in these matters. An earlier Oxley article is online here but neither McCrann’s summary nor the the latest Oxley article seem to be online anywhere so I have put McCrann’s summary up here.
A reader writes: “Dissecting Leftism readers should go out and have a look at Mars over the next couple of weeks. It is now closer to the Earth than at anytime in the last 58,000 years. Last time it was this close there were probably no humans in either Australia or the Americas”.
A new Australian blog has just started up with some charming quotes from a group of Australian “musicians” apparently favoured by our Leftist public broadcaster. He also points out how our wonderful close-to-nature native people were responsible for enormous extinctions of animal species in Australia.
The Wicked one celebrates the death of Idi Amin and concludes: “On all the evidence so far there is no hope for anything like a civil society in Africa”.
Writing on his other blog, China Hand is mystified to note that superannuation funds run by the labor unions in Australia have done better than commercially-run retirement funds. I myself am no fan of the big funds. Allowing a pimply 20 year old to make your investment decisions for you is hilarious in my view and I put my money where my mouth is by getting far better growth than the big funds do by managing my share portfolio myself. Nonetheless, the main reason why the union-run funds do better is clear. They are less obsessed with safety and so can afford to make some higher-yielding investments. And why are they so unworried? Because they know that with their “industrial muscle” and big membership of voters they will always be able to get the taxpayer to bail them out if they go bad! Nice one!
MORE ON THINK-TANKS
“These outfits were established as a reaction to leftist domination of public sector academia. Conservative and market oriented thinkers found the leftist monopoly of state subsidied tertiary education corrupt, narrow and intellectually oppressive. Behind the facade of a progressive, social reformist academia and intelligentsia is the reality of careerism, vested interest and power politics played at public expense.
The social science arms of our universities these days are in many ways not much more than the marketing department of big government. I think it is appropriate to examine closely whether recommendations from private think tanks represent the special interests of their largest corporate donors. However the same skeptical eye also needs to be cast at the output of government financed universities and agencies. Just because someone works in the public sector, there is no reason to assume that they magically become an economic eunuch.
The left is always warning us about the cynical vested interests of the military industrial complex allegedly maniupulating public policy for their sectional gain. But is this risk mysteriously confined to those in uniform? what about the academic-big government complex? Few government-paid academics are prepared to bite the hand that feeds them. In fact this common sense observation underlies much of the work of the think tanks and is still resisted in State academia.
The brutal tragedy of Beijing's one-child policy. The number of self-professed Western liberals who support and publicly rationalise Beijing's brutal population control polices depresses rather than amazes me.
Compulsory Statism. It is really not that surprising that the likes of the Greens, the Australian Democrats and Labor support compulsory voting. What excuse a so-called conservative party like the Liberals have for also supporting it beats me.
How Clinton's Beijing deal endangered America. Seeing as so many democrats and their allies in the media have been screaming about intelligence failures and the President Bush's foreign policy, I think it's time to once again turn to the Clinton administration and its dangerous dealings with Beijing.
HEATWAVE: IS GLOBAL WARMING TO BLAME? A professor of biogeography pours cold water on myths about the hot Northern summer. I must say that the very word “heatwave” amuses me. What the English call a heatwave is a normal summer where I come from.
Libya has formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland. When Ronald Reagan had him bombed that really caused Gaddafi to pull up short but now that he has seen what has happened to other terrorist-supporting regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq he is backpedalling furiously. Does anybody believe that U.N. resolutions would have made him do that?
Greenie opposition to budget airlines is elitist: “All this cheap-and-easy flying is supposed to be Another Bad Thing. As the budget airlines' profits soar, the cries of NIMBY campaigners grow ever more shrill. Cheap flights are blamed for global warming, noise pollution, the need for more airports and their ability to give working-class oiks the ability to use Europe as their playground on a regular basis”.
What a slipup for the NYT. They described a female company head thus: “She is simultaneously warm and controlled, a gracefully aggressive entrepreneur who favors scarves and pearls.” The feminists will castrate them for that -- if they can find anything to castrate.
I must say I agree with the $20,000 fine some trigger-happy moron got for killing a condor -- though I would have sent the big hero to jail as well.
“The essence of Mr. Bush's big government conservatism is a trade-off. To gain free-market reforms and expand individual choice, he's willing to broaden programs and increase spending.” I think that’s wishful thinking. Bush has a slight conservative lean -- no more. A U.S. President has to be a centrist to win and retain office and even Ronald Reagan failed to cut back overall government spending. But GWB’s conservative leanings do make him a lot more realistic than Left-leaning centrists like Clinton.
V.D. Hanson is at his inimitable best here. He calls for some long overdue realism about America’s so-called “allies”
Real men don’t do quilting and feminist refusal to recognize that is cruel to boys in the educational system.
China Hand has given us a little of the story of his earlier years in China. When I met him around 1970 he was a conservative but he later went to university and veered to the far Left. Various people then told him that if he thought Mao was so great he should go to China. Leftists were of course regularly told to “go to Russia” in the old days but China Hand is the only one I know of who really did put his money where his mouth was.
The Wicked one thinks that the death penalty kills too many innocent people,
My latest academic upload here (or here) addresses an old chestnut (Can you address a chestnut?): How different are the Scots and the English?
FROM BROOKES NEWS How Mexican immigrants are dr...
ELSEWHERE There is an article here that outline...
DO CHRISTIANS “JUST KNOW”? I expected that my n...
IMMIGRATION CONTROL Immigration control is ofte...
ELSEWHERE Even though he does not go along with...
“WOWSERS” “Wowser” is another piece of untransl...
THE REAL MARRIAGE ISSUES A reader has been insp...
ELSEWHERE Irrigation of the land with seawater ...
CONSPIRACY MANIA A reader writes: “This rep...
ELSEWHERE I am sorry to say that my first react...
THE ORIGINS OF ENVIRONMENTALISM Many people see...
ELSEWHERE Australia’s Andrew Bolt gives an exce...
THE BERKELEY VALUE JUDGMENTS There is an intere...
ELSEWHERE Because it has already been so heavil...
MORE ON THINK-TANKS A reader writes: “These ...
ELSEWHERE HEATWAVE: IS GLOBAL WARMING TO BLAME?...
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Steve Messenger
Guitarist in 20653
Steve Messenger - Guitar
"Wasn't Born to Follow"
I'm 68 ... I started playing guitar when I was about 13 ... after failing miserably at the clarinet and the piano ... I play and sing music that I enjoy ... not everyone else might ... okay
Peter, Paul, and Mary at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL in 1963 ... I loved those wonderful folksingers ... they were the ones who got me started
My wife thinks, erroneously, that I have too many guitars ... 1967 Guild F-212, 1970 DelVecchio Dinamico, 1961 Guild Starfire III, 1915 Gibson A-1, 2009 Bourgeois OMSC Ltd., 1975 StewMac 'Eagle' banjo, 1930s Stahl Style 6, 1936 Rickenbacher 'Electro' mandolin, 1999 Guild Custom Shop M-70, 1994 Guild B4CE, 2013 Trinity College octave mando, 1979 Ibanez M-340, 1980 Ibanez M-342, p.o.s. Ibby mandolin, Turkish baglama saz
for as many people as possible to hear my music
The Chad Mitchell Trio ... great harmonies, great songs, always made me laugh or think
Not currently ... but I've played bass/sung in a couple of rock bands, played 12-string/sung in a Country band, played bass/sung in a Blues band ... and performed as a solo folkie/bluesy guy many, many times
David Lindley ... he plays the same wonderful, rootsy music that I love ... and his eclectic instrumentation is right up my alley
Steve Messenger hasn't uploaded any pics yet.
"Jailbreak"
"Goin' to My Hometown"
Steve Messenger - Mandolin
"You Always Come Back (To hurting Me)"
"I Won't Sing Here Anymore"
"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
"Tecumseh Valley"
"Waitin' Around to Die"
"Baltimore"
"If I Needed You"
"Redemption Song"
"Lungs"
Steve Messenger - Banjo
"Wrote a Song for Everyone"
"In the Early Morning Rain"
"Jerusalem"
"Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)"
"Me and My Uncle"
"Homeward Bound"
"The Kentucky Hills of Tennessee"
"You Better Think Twice"
"Country Girl"
"(There'll Be) Days Like This/ Mama Said"
"Baby, Baby"
"I Couldn't Get High"
"Why Don't You Try Me"
"You're Right, I'm Left, She's Gone"
"Pressure Drop"
"Come a Little Bit Closer"
"Bus Stop"
"Ju-Ju Man"
"Massachusetts"
"New York Mining Disaster 1941"
"Lodi"
"You're the One"
"Two Sisters"
"Sloppy Drunk"
"Pallet on Your Floor"
"Same Old Blues"
"Dupree Blues"
"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
"Sun Arise"
"On Your Way Down"
"Some Velvet Morning"
"Meet on the Ledge"
"Nasty Man"
"Rude Boy"
"Dead, Drunk, and Naked"
"634-5789"
"Dark as a Dungeon"
"The Book of Rules"
"Hickory Wind"
"Flower Power"
"China White"
"Superstar"
"The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage"
"Nine-Volt Heart"
"The Circle Game"
"Rock 'n' Roll"
"Johnny Too Bad"
"Itchycoo Park"
"Jesus On the Mainline"
"The Golden Vanity"
"The Fourth of July"
"Dead Flowers"
"I'm a Believer"
"Burnin' Hell"
"Polly-Wolly Doodle"
"Goin' Back to Texas"
"Set 'em Up Joe"
"Deep Ellum Blues"
"Hobo's Lullabye"
"Ohio"
"She Said, She Said"
"One More Cup of Coffee"
"Give It To Me"
"Let There Be Rock"
"Pancho and Lefty"
"Georgia Rag"
"Stop, Stop, Stop"
"Eight Miles High"
"Tortilla Chips, Big Red, and Everclear"
"Old Town Road"
"Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy"
"Cops of the World"
"The Image of Me"
"Jim Dandy (to the Rescue)"
"I Just Dropped In"
"You Really Got Me"
"Sunshine of Your Love"
"St. James Infirmary"
"Omie Wise"
Instruments Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin
Genres Blues, Country, Folk, R&B, Reggae, Rock
Influences Jimi Hendrix, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Pete Seeger, The Band, David Lindley, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Cream, Ry Cooder, Neil Young
Private message to Steve Messenger
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What is Japanese Idol Pop? From A.B.C-Z to…?
All I really wanted to do was read something thoughtful on Weird Al’s latest releases (“Tacky” completely captures the modern American ethos) but I should have known better than to venture over to prime American Media Nerd territory, the Onion AV Club. Before I could even begin to search for Weird Al, I was distracted by a link claiming to contain a beginners guide to Japanese idol pop, a link I wish I had never clicked on… for it did not link me to a beginners guide to Japanese idol pop. No, it linked to a woefully ill informed, hackily written piece that appeared to be more of a guide to what a online media outlet writer--in this case, one Abigail Covington--under a deadline could Google about Japanese idol music in 45 minutes or less and then regurgitate in heavy handed manner. I was so offended by the callous treatment of a topic I have been lovingly researching for a few years now that I was almost shaking in anger as I read through it.
Posted by Filmi Girl at 1:05 PM 5 comments
Labels: hollywood is stupid, japan, music
GSploitation: THE TIGERS in SEKAI WA BOKURA WO MATTEIRU!
The Group Sounds era began when the Beatles touched down in Japan in 1966* and ended with the breakup of the Tigers in January, 1971. More than just a style of music, Group Sounds captured the spirit of a young, post-war generation who wanted to wear crazy clothes, grow out their hair, and dance, man! A wide range of bands are captured under the GS label but musically most of them can be filed in comfortably with their British and American contemporaries like the Turtles and the Kinks.
But unlike the Turtles and the Kinks, the GS bands entered into an entertainment system designed to handle pop idols, not rock bands. Although they could play their instruments and rock extremely hard, they also had to learn how to play the "cute" songs their management gave them, how to be funny on television, and sell trinkets with their face on them like the Monkees. (Although one could argue that the Turtles could have rocked a crazy Monkees style movie of their own.)
[The Tigers in an advertisement for Meiji Chocolates.]
As the Tigers’ Toppo (Kahashi Katsumi) said in a recent interview with Rock Jet magazine, “There was a lot of resistance to the cutesy songs. It was like, ‘This is fucking stupid’ and ‘What the fuck is this?’”**
Along with cutesy songs and chocolates with their faces on them, the top bands also got the chance to make more money for their management companies by making movies! None of these films ended up being classic cinema like A Hard Day’s Night but they are all delightful and strange in their own ways. The basic template appears to be taken from the school of wacky band antics as popularized by the Monkees, who were quite popular themselves in Japan, but filtered through Japanese cultural ideals. And like the best of American pop of the 1960s, the main goal was to push product. As long as it sold, the bosses didn’t particularly care about artistic content, a creative freedom that was absolutely taken advantage of.
I wanted to write this small series on the GS films--a genre I’m calling GSploitation--because I couldn’t really find anything substantial written about them (or, indeed, the bands themselves) in English. I managed to track down all three Tigers films plus four films from the next most popular band, the Spiders, and one from a band that could be English-ized as either the Jaguars or the Jaggers. Unfortunately none of the films has been subtitled into English or officially released outside of Japan, so I hope my little series will be helpful to anybody looking for information.
『世界はぼくらを待っている』(Sekai wa Bokura wo Matteiru, 1968)
Posted by Filmi Girl at 12:01 AM 1 comments
Labels: gsploitation, japan, japanese movie review, rock music, sawada kenji, the tigers
GSploitation: THE TIGERS in SEKAI WA BOKURA WO MAT...
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Qatar Airways happy with Melbourne for now
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al-Baker says the airline is perfectly happy for now to have Melbourne as its only Australian destination.
Mr Al-Baker cited strong yields and fewer restrictions at Tullamarine compared with Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport.
The Doha-headquartered carrier began flights to Melbourne 18 months ago, using a Boeing 777-200LR with business and economy class.
At the time of the launch in December, 2009, the airline spoke of Melbourne as one of two planned routes to Australia.
Mr Al-Baker said expansion was still on the agenda - Qatar has traffic rights for up to 21 weekly flights to Australia - but he cited difficulties with beginning a service to Sydney.
He noted the Sydney Airport's 2300 to 0600 curfew, when takeoffs and landings are prohibited (although there were some exemptions).
"The curfew is a very big factor (of) not operating to Sydney and the operating cost out of Sydney is very high," Mr Al-Baker said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association's annual meeting in Singapore earlier this month.
"Melbourne is a more efficient use of airplanes because it is a 24-hour airport and Sydney is not, so we operate there."
Mr Al-Baker said Qatar had among the highest rates of airplane utilisation in the industry and could not afford to "park our airplanes for 12-13 hours in an airport".
Utilisation measures the average number of hours an aircraft spends in flight in a 24-hour period.
Similar to other Gulf carriers, Qatar hoped to feed passengers from Australia to cities in the region and Europe via its Doha hub.
Mr Al-Baker said 90 per cent of passengers on its Melbourne-Doha service were travelling beyond the Qatar capital.
"The performance has been very good," Mr Al-Baker said of the airline's Melbourne-Doha flights.
Sydney Airport spokesman Michael Samaras said Qatar Airways would be very welcome at the airport.
He said the addition of another Gulf-based carrier - Etihad Airways and Emirates already serve Kingsford-Smith - would be an important boost for Sydney's tourism industry.
"Sydney Airport looks forward to working with Qatar Airways to resolve any issues that may arise as a result of the operation of the curfew," Mr Samaras said in an email.
Meanwhile, Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) data showed domestic passenger traffic grew at a faster rate than capacity increases in April.
As a result, load factors - a measure of how full flights are - increased to 79 per cent in April compared with 78 per cent in the prior corresponding period.
* The reporter travelled to Singapore courtesy of IATA.
Atomic power still important: OECD boss
Market awaits minutes of RBA board meeting
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The Decisive Battle For Libya’s Oil Has Begun
Irina Slav
General Khalifa Haftar has announced “the decisive battle and the advance on the heart of Tripoli,” after eight months of trying to take over the seat of the UN-recognized Government of National Accord with his eastern-affiliated militia the Libyan National Army.
The LNA’s offensive against Tripoli began this spring and it came as a shock to many after Haftar had been working with the GNA-affiliated National Oil Corporation for a couple of years after the LNA freed Libya’s oil exporting terminals from the Petroleum Facilities Guard that was stopping any exports of the commodity, which is vital for Libya.
According to Haftar, the GNA is supported by “terrorist groups”, the AFP reports.
Over the last eight months, the fighting has continued without yielding a clear winner, but it has affected the oil industry as fields are the natural target for various groups supporting one or another side. Just last month, for example, forces loyal to the Government of National Accord seized control of the El Feel field, which produces about 73,000 bpd, from Haftar’s army.
A few days later, the National Oil Corporation declared a force majeure on El Feel after an illegal turn of a valve on the pipeline that carries crude from the field to the Mellitah terminal. There was no information about the party responsible for the force majeure.
At the time, NOC’s chairman, Mustafa Sanalla, once again reminded the warring factions that everyone in Libya needed the oil.
“I remind all parties that Libya’s oil and gas fields are vital sources of revenues for the benefit of all Libyans. They must not be treated as military targets. Any fighting in the vicinity of any of our facilities forces us to cease production, in order to ensure the safety of our employees. When production ceases, all Libyans lose out,” Sanalla said.
Meanwhile, as Haftar prepares for the final push, the Government of National Accord says it is prepared to push back.
“We are ready to push back any more mad attempt by the Haftar putsch leader,” the Interior Minister of the GNA said following Haftar’s announcement.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
Permian Drillers Are Struggling To Keep Output Flat
Oil Jumps On ‘’Saudi Surprise’’
Tullow Oil CEO Resigns After Company Loses Half Its Value
Erdogan says hopes for 'important step' in Libya talks
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CHONDRICHTHYES
ALOPIIDAE
Alopias
pelagicus
Pelagic Thresher, Alopias pelagicus Nakamura 1935
Other Names: Small Tooth Thresher Shark
A Pelagic Thresher Shark, Alopias pelagicus, at A Pelagic Thresher Shark, Alopias pelagicus, at Monad Shoal, Malapascua, Philippines, September 2014. Source: Klaus Stiefel / Flickr. License: CC By Attribution-NonCommercial
A strong-swimming active shark with an enormous tail and large eyes.
Identifying features:
Upper caudal-fin lobe enormous, longer than rest of body;
Eyes large, positioned on side of head;
Middle of first dorsal-fin base closer to free tips of pectoral fins than to pelvic fins;
Pectoral fins almost straight with broadly-rounded tips;
Pale greyish above, underside whitish.
Thresher sharks use their enormous tails to feed on pelagic schooling fishes ans squids, by whipping the school to stun their prey.
Video of a Pelagic Thresher at Malapascua Island in the Philippines
Bray, D.J. 2019, Alopias pelagicus in Fishes of Australia, accessed 20 Jan 2020, http://136.154.202.208/home/species/3257
Off the North West Shelf and off North West Cape, Western Australa. Elsewhere the species occurs in the tropical, Indo-Pacific.
The smallest of the three recognised species of thresher shark, reaching 3.65 m TL.
Pelagic Threshers are late to mature and have low fecundity.
EPBC Act 1999 : Not listed
IUCN Red List : Vulnerable
Alopias pelagicus Nakamura 1935, Memoirs of the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Taihoku Imperial University 14(1): 2, pl. 1(2). Type locality: off Taiwan (as Formosa).
Cardeñosa, D., Hyde, J. & Caballero, S. 2014. Genetic diversity and population structure of the Pelagic Thresher Shark (Alopias pelagicus) in the Pacific Ocean: evidence for two evolutionarily significant units. PLoS ONE 9(10): e110193. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110193, open access
Compagno, L.J.V. 1984. FAO Species Catalogue. Sharks of the World. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Hexanchiformes to Lamniformes. FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125. Rome : FAO Vol. 4(1) pp. 1-249.
Compagno, L.J.V. 2001. Sharks of the World. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Bullhead, mackerel and carpet sharks (Heterodontiformes, Lamniformes and Orectolobiformes). Rome : FAO, FAO Species Catalogue for Fisheries Purposes No. 1 Vol. 2 269 pp.
Compagno, L.J.V., Dando, M. & Fowler, S. 2005. A Field Guide to the Sharks of the World. London : Collins 368 pp.
Gilmore, R.G. 1993. Reproductive biology of lamnoid sharks. Environmental Biology of Fishes 38: 95-114.
IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group. Specialist Group website. Available at: http://www.iucnssg.org/.
Last, P.R. & Stevens, J.D. 2009. Sharks and Rays of Australia. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Australia 2, 550 pp.
Liu, K.-M., Changa, Y.-T., Ni, I.-H. & Jin, C.-B. 2006. Spawning per recruit analysis of the pelagic thresher shark, Alopias pelagicus, in the eastern Taiwan waters. Fisheries Research 82: 52-64.
Liu, K.M., Chen, C.-T., Liao, T.-H. and Joung, S.-J. 1999. Age, growth, and reproduction of the pelagic thresher shark, Alopias pelagicus in the Northwestern Pacific. Copeia 1999(1): 68-74. PDF Abstract
Macbeth, W.G., Vandenberg, M. & Graham, K.J. 2008. Identifying Sharks and Rays; a Guide for Commercial Fishers. Sydney : New South Wales Department of Primary Industry 71 pp.
Nakamura, H. 1935. On the two species of the thresher shark from Formosan waters. Memoirs of the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Taihoku Imperial University 14(1): 1-6 figs 1-3.
Oliver, S.P., Turner, J.R., Gann, K, Silvosa, M, D'Urban Jackson T (2013) Thresher Sharks Use Tail-Slaps as a Hunting Strategy. PLoS ONE 8(7): e67380. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067380 PDF
Otake, T. & Mizue, K. 1981. Direct evidence for oophagy in thresher shark, Alopias pelagicus. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 28(2): 171-172.
Patterson, J.C., Sepulveda, C.A. & Bernal, D. 2011. The vascular morphology and in vivo muscle temperatures of thresher sharks (Alopiidae). Journal of Morphology 272(11): 1353-1364.
Pepperell, J. 2010. Fishes of the Open Ocean a Natural History & Illustrated Guide. Sydney : University of New South Wales Press Ltd 266 pp.
Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & Steene, R. 1990. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Bathurst : Crawford House Press 507 pp. figs
Reardon, M., Márquez, F., Trejo, T. & Clarke, S.C. 2009. Alopias pelagicus. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 27 June 2012.
Sepulveda, C.A., Wegner, N.C., Bernal, D. & Graham, J.B. 2005. The red muscle morphology of the thresher sharks (family Alopiidae). Journal of Experimental Biology 208: 4255-4261, doi: 10.1242/jeb.01898 open access
Smith, S.E., Rasmussen, R.C., Ramon, D.A. & Cailliet, G.M. 2008. The biology and ecology of thresher sharks (Alopiidae). In: Camhi, M.D., Pikitch, E.K. & Babcock, E.A. (eds). Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation. Blackwell Publishing. Oxford, UK.
Trejo, T. 2005. Global population structure of thresher sharks (Alopias spp.) based upon mitochondrial DNA control region sequences : a thesis ... M.Sc. Thesis, California State University, Monterey Bay, Capstone Projects and Master's Theses. 90: 80 pp. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes/90 Available online
CHONDRICHTHYES Sharks, rays ...
LAMNIFORMES Mackeral Sharks
ALOPIIDAE Thresher sharks
Conservation:IUCN Vulnerable
Danger:Thrashing tail, sharp teeth
Depth:0-350 m
Habitat:Oceanic, pelagic
Max Size:3.65 m
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Thursday Briefing: A Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy’s Memorial, School Strategy, 33,000 Gun Deaths, Phone Pacing
August 25, 2016 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment
A new name is added to the sheriff’s memorial to fallen officers today. See below. (© FlaglerLive)
Today: Mostly cloudy with chance of showers in the morning… Then partly cloudy with slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30 percent. Tonight: Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Lows in the upper 70s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 463.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the wayzgoose, n..
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: rim ram ruff, phr. and n..
Local Media Recap
Flagler Jail Bookings and Sheriff’s Crime Reports
The Day’s Best Reads
“Between then and now, though, something had gone terribly stale. The down-to-earth metaphors that had once been exact and fresh had turned to routine exercises in folksy cracker-barrel about paychecks, TAP Airlines and drugstore prescriptions. God had once been seen to smile on the reasonable ambitions of the settler. I want that mountain! It belongs to me! might have sounded like an admirable claim if it had come from the mouth of a young sodbuster in an open territory. Now it sounded merely petulant. I want that stereo system. I want that camper. I want that ranch-style bungalow. I want that government off my goddammed back. Saddest of all, the necessary pride in the new community, the sense of mutual solidarity in the face of a rough surrounding nature had been converted into crude small-town xenophobia. Phrases which had been coined to give meaning to a new and radical life were now voiced as irritable conservatism.”
–Jonathan Raban, from “Old Glory: A Voyage Down the Mississippi” (1981).
Kaiti Lenhart
Kimble Medley
Abra Seay
Jim Manfre (D)
Don Fleming (R)
Larry Jones (D)
John Lamb (R)
Jerry O'Gara(R)
Rick Staly (R)
Mark Whisenant (R)
Chris Yates (R)
Thomas Dougherty (I)
Robert Cuff (Dist. 1)
Troy DuBose (Dist. 1)
Sims Jones (Dist. 1)
Art McGovern Jr. (Dist. 1)
Nick Klufas (Dist. 3)
Anita Moeder (Dist. 3)
Pam Richardson (Dist. 3)
John Brady (Mayor)
Milissa Holland (Mayor)
Dennis McDonald (Mayor)
Ron Radford (Mayor)
Flagler School Board
Colleen Conklin (Dist. 3)
Jason Sands (Dist. 3)
Paul Anderson (Dist. 5)
Maria Barbosa (Dist. 5)
Sharon Demers (Dist. 5)
Myra Middleton-Valentine (Dist. 5)
Charlie Ericksen (Dist. 1)
Ken Mazzie (Dist. 1)
Daniel Potter (Dist. 1)
Jason France (Dist. 3)
Dave Sullivan (Dist. 3)
Denise Calderwood (Dis. 5)
Donald O'Brien (Dist. 5)
Ongoing Early Voting in Flagler County for a slew of local, state and federal offices leading up to the Aug. 30 primary. Early voting is mandated from Aug. 20 through Aug. 27, but county supervisors of election have the discretion to begin sooner. Flagler’s is among 24 counties choosing to do so. Though it is a primary, numerous races appear on the ballot in which all registered voters are eligible to cast a ballot, regardless of party affiliation, including for Palm Coast City Council (if you’re a Palm Coast resident), for judges, for school board and for Supervisor of Elections. Early voting hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day through Saturday, August 27, at the following locations:
1. Flagler County Public Library
At the corner of Belle Terre and Palm Coast Parkway.
2500 Palm Coast Parkway N.W. Palm Coast
View this location on a map
2. Palm Coast Community Center
At the corner of Clubhouse Drive and Palm Coast Parkway.
305 Palm Coast Parkway NE Palm Coast
3. Supervisor of Elections Office
Located in the Government Services Building.
1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Suite 101 Bunnell
All the information you need is at the Supervisor of Elections’ website.
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets for its second budget workshop starting at 9 a.m. at City Hall in Flagler Beach. See the background story here.
The Flagler Youth Orchestra’s quartet is in the first of two days of performances and recruiting for the full orchestra in Flagler County schools. Today’s itinerary includes Old Kings Elementary at 9:15 a.m., Rymfire Elementary around noon and Bunnell Elementary at 2 p.m. The orchestra enrolls up to 400 students and is a free after-school program sponsored by the school district.
Flagler County Sheriff Homer Brooks Memorial dedication: The sheriff’s office will add Homer’s name to the memorial to fallen officers in a ceremony at 11 a.m. at the sheriff’s office at 901 East Moody Blvd. in Bunnell. Brooks died in 1965 of a heart attack when he was on duty. Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter Tony Holt–a Flagler County resident–came across Brooks’s history while researching a story, and inquired at the sheriff’s office about Brooks’s absence from the memorial.
Meeting of the Flagler school district’s Strategic Plan Steering Committee, 5:30 to 7 p.m., Third Floor main conference or training room 3, Government Services Building, Bunnell. Open to the public. The public may also take the ongoing survey to help the steering committee.
Palm Coast’s Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee meets at City Hall in Town Center at 5:30 p.m.
Local Media Recap:
Updated jail bookings and day and night shift incident summary reports are available here.
“A Very Good Save”: Firefighters Beat Back Wildfire Within Inches of a House in Seminole Woods
Flap over fliers shakes up race for Flagler County sheriff
Flagler Beach Commission Considers Biggest Tax Hike Since Recession, and New Fire Costs
From Charlie Brown to Signs of Intelligent Life, City Rep Launches Next to Normal 6th Season
Florida Continues to Suppress Lethal-Injection Records in Face of Challenge by Death Row Inmates
State Ethics Commission Will Hear Flagler’s Claim to Recoup Fees From Serial Complainers
Zaire Roberts, 17, Gets 7 Years in Prison in Shooting of Phillip Haire in Palm Coast Last Summer
Note: Some proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel.
Central Florida health care: The Central Florida Partnership will host a regional health-care summit. Among the expected participants are House Health & Human Services Chairman Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, state Rep. Mike Miller, R-Winter Park, and state Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs. (8 a.m., Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport, 9300 Jeff Fuqua Blvd., Orlando.)
The Florida Supreme Court is expected to release opinions at 11 a.m.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam speaks at a Polk County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner. (6 p.m., The Club at Eaglebrooke, 1300 Eagle Ridge Blvd., Lakeland.)
–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive
♦ Aug. 28: Families Faith Fun Festival at St.Thomas Episcopal Church from 1 to 5 p.m. with free food, family-oriented games, lots of prizes, and raffle drawings. All invited, whether members of the church or not. See the website at stthomaspalmcoast.com.
♦ Sept. 3: Plein air artist William Lurcott, a Flagler Beach resident, is featured at Ocean Art Gallery in Flagler Beach from 6 to 8 pm during the opening reception of his month-long show “A Landscape Perspective.” The public is invited to this free event. During the reception, the artist will meet with guests and explain his artistic techniques. Light refreshments and live music will be available. The gallery is at 206 Moody Blvd., Flagler Beach.
♦ Sept. 7: The Flagler Youth Orchestra holds its open house for all new or prospective students who’d like to join the county’s largest (and free) music program. The open house is at the Indian Trails Middle School cafeteria at 5:30 p.m. Any Flagler student, including homes chooled students, in grades 3-12, are eligible to enroll (must be 8 years old by Sept. 1, 2016.) Students may elect to play violin, viola, cello or doublebass. One-hour classes are held at Indian Trails Middle School Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3 to 6 p.m., with students enrolled in the hour block appropriate to their skill level and schedule. The first class for first-time students is Sept. 19. (Auditions for returning students start on Aug. 22, the first class for returning students is Aug. 31.)
♦ Sept. 8: Meeting of the Flagler school district’s Strategic Plan Steering Committee, 5:30 to 7 p.m., Third Floor main conference or training room 3, Government Services Building, Bunnell. Open to the public. The public may also take the ongoing survey to help the steering committee.
♦ Sept. 10: African Art: Ancient Egypt to the Contemporary World, a pair of presentations by Bertrand Green, former chairman of African American studies at Lehman College, City University of New York. The first session is from 10 a.m. to noon, the second session from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Hilton Garden Inn, Palm Coast. $20 for PCAF members, $25 for general admission. Call 386/225-4394 or email [email protected] to reserve your seat.
♦ Sept. 17-18: Staged Reading of Neil Simon’s “Chapter Two,” at the Flagler Auditorium’s Black Box Theatre, directed by Bruce Heighley, a volunteer production to benefit the auditorium’s the Arts in Education Scholarship Fund and Temple Beth Shalom. Performance times are 7 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2 p.m. on Sept. 18. Tickets: $29 for adults, $18 for students. Call the Flagler Auditorium, 437-7547, for tickets, or go to flaglerauditorium.org.
♦ Sept. 26: The Flagler County Stamp and Coin Club meets at 6 p.m. at the VFW Post 8696, 47 N. Old Kings Road, Palm Coast. The public is welcome.
♦ Feb. 6: The great violinist Itzhak Perlman opens the 2017 season of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival with a 7:30 p.m. performance at First Baptist Church, 1600 South 8th Street in Fernandina Beach. Tickets here.
The Day’s Best Reads:
33,000 people are killed with guns annually. What would it take to bring that number down? https://t.co/QU8bp5rPL5
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) August 24, 2016
UT Austin students are protesting Texas' campus carry law. Here are the businesses helping them: https://t.co/3ZJAtAlp9C
— The Chronicle of Higher Education (@chronicle) August 24, 2016
Turkey Is Finally Bombing Syria, But It’s Not Hitting Who the U.S. Wants by https://t.co/1zsj5RzTfN
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) August 24, 2016
$1.56 billion has been spent on political television advertisements this cycle — and it's only August https://t.co/4jCUQHopkA
— POLITICO (@politico) August 24, 2016
Students in these states are the best prepared for college https://t.co/30mGGqTPxF pic.twitter.com/r1difrHf8i
— The Hill (@thehill) August 24, 2016
You know those people who pace while on the phone? Science says they have it right, after all https://t.co/lXngqJciN5
— Fast Company (@FastCompany) August 24, 2016
To get the BRENT <a href=”http://www.oil-price.net/dashboard.php?lang=en#brent_crude_price_large”>oil price</a>, please enable Javascript.<br />
Fact-Checking the Knaves:
The following is an update of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through August 11 (the city administration’s full week in review is here):
Cultural Coda:
Bach Partita BWV 831 in B minor, Céline Frisch, Harpsichord
Mozart: Piano concerto no. 27 in B flat major, K 595, Trevor Pinnock and Maria João Pires
Eight Writers on Facing the Blank Page
Artistic Statement
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (Complete), Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Sunflowers: Wynton Marsalis Septet at Jazz in Marciac 2010
John Williams: Olympic Fanfare and Theme (1984)
Dvořák’s American Quartet, Performed by Prazak Quartet
Werner Herzog Narrates Pokémon Go
Arthur Rubenstein Performs Brahms’s Piano Concerto in D Minor with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam
The Last Bookstore
Agustin Barrios: La Catedral, III
Mabuhay Singers-Planting Rice-Magtanim Hindi Biro
Ray Bradbury on Violence, Laughter and Sadness
Bill Evans Live, ’64, ’75
Leonard Bernstein Conducts the Boston Symphony in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor
The Minnesota Orchestra in Cuba
Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV 830, Edward Neeman, Piano
Festival Next Generation 2015: Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante
James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)
Philadelphia Orchestra Performs La Marseillaise
J.S.Bach’s Concerto for Three Violins, BWV 1064, Julia Fischer Leading
Cremaine Booker Performs Barber’s Adagio for Strings, By Himself in a Four-Cello Arrangement
Juan Diego Florez: Besame Mucho
Aaron Copland Conducts His Own Fanfare For The Common Man, After Leonard Bernstein Lecture
President Warren G. Harding’s Erotica
Anaïs Nin Reads from her Diary
Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54, Murray Perahia, Piano
Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, op. 74. Anna Paulová at the Clarinet
Charles Dickens in 10 Minutes
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater, for Soprano and Alto, With Les Talens Lyriques
Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson, Together, Live, in 1972
J.S.Bach’s Fantasia and Fuge in G Minor BWV 542, John Scott at the Organ
Schubert’s Piano Sonata No 20 D 959 in A major Performed by Alfred Brendel
Gabriel Faure’s Requiem, Orchestre de Paris, Chen Reiss, Matthias Coerne
Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, Moscow Virtuosi
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major, K 450, Robert Levin, cond.
How Disney Cartoons Were Made
Chopin’s Piano Concerto Nr. 2, Rosalía Gómez Lasheras at the Piano
Edward MacDowell: To a Wild Rose
Hilary Hahn plays Ernst’ s Grand Caprice on Schubert’s Der Erlkönig, Op. 26
Telemann’s Fantasia for Solo Violin in B-Flat Major, Cynthia Freivogel on the Baroque Violin
John Field: Nocturne No. 10 in E Minor
Respighi’s Pines of Rome
Schostakovich’s Best Waltz, for Guitars
Happy Birthday Ray Charles: Georgia On My Mind
Eugen d’Albert: Klavierstücke op. 5, Performed by Koji Attwood
Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light, a Movie on his 93rd Birthday (He Died in 2004)
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AIR EXPEDITIONARY WINGS, GROUPS & SQUADRONS
AIR REFUELING
AIR RESCUE
AIRBORNE AIR CONTROL & AIRBORNE COMMAND AND CONTROL
MAJOR COMMANDS
MISCELLANEOUS - AIR
MISCELLANEOUS - GROUND
MORALE & NOVELTY
SPACE & MISSILE
AIRCRAFT & WEAPONS SYSTEMS
WINGS, GROUPS & OSS
12th SPECIAL OPERATIONS SQUADRON
SKU: SOS-12-1001 Categories: USAF INSIGNIA, SPECIAL OPERATIONS, SQUADRONS
Computer made/mounted on velcro 4.0 inch-100mm
Lineage. Constituted 12 Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) on 20 Nov 1940. Activated on 15 Jan 1941. Redesignated: 12 Fighter Squadron on 15 May 1942; 12 Fighter Squadron, Two Engine, on 26 Jan 1944; 12 Fighter Squadron, Single Engine, on 6 May 1946; 12 Fighter Squadron, Jet, on 23 Dec 1949; 12 Fighter-Bomber Squadron on 20 Jan 1950; 12 Tactical Fighter Squadron on 1 Jul 1958; 12 Fighter Squadron on 1 Oct 1991. Inactivated 30 Sep 2007. Redesignated 12 Special Operations Squadron on 1 Jun 2015-.
Assignments. 50 Pursuit (later, 50 Fighter) Group, 15 Jan 1941 (attached to 7 Interceptor [later, VII Fighter] Command, 10 Feb-17 Aug 1942); 15 Fighter Group, 18 Aug 1942; US Army Forces in South Pacific, 1 Dec 1942; XIII Fighter Command, 13 Jan 1943; 18 Fighter (later, 18 Fighter-Bomber) Group, 30 Mar 1943 (attached to Air Task Group 5, Provisional, 27 Jan-19 Feb 1955; Air Task Force 13, Provisional, c. 3 Sep-30 Nov 1955; 49 Fighter-Bomber Group, 7 Aug 1956-14 Mar 1957; 18 Fighter-Bomber Wing, 15 Mar-15 Aug 1957; Thirteenth Air Force, 16 Aug-1 Sep 1957); Thirteenth Air Force, 2 Sep 1957; 18 Fighter-Bomber (later, 18 Tactical Fighter) Wing, 25 Mar 1958 (attached to 2 Air Division, 1 Feb-15 Mar 1965 and 15 Jun-25 Aug 1965; 314 Air Division, 23-29 Jan 1968); 18 Tactical Fighter Group, 1 May 1978; 18 Tactical Fighter Wing, 11 Feb 1981; 18 Operations Group, 1 Oct 1991; 3 Operations Group, 28 Apr 2000-30 Sep 2007. 27 Operations Group, 1 Jun 2015-.
Stations. Selfridge Field, MI, 15 Jan 1941; Key Field, MS, 3 Oct 1941-c. 19 Jan 1942; Cassidy Field, Christmas Island, 10 Feb 1942, Palmyra Island, 22 Oct 1942; Efate Island, New Hebrides, 19 Nov 1942 (operated from Fighter Strip No. 2, Guadalcanal, 19 Dec 1942-6 Feb 1943); Fighter Strip No. 2 (later, Kukum Field), Guadalcanal, 7 Feb 1943 (operated from Treasury Island, Solomon Islands, 19 Feb-Aug 1944); Mar Drome, Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea, 23 Aug 1944 (air echelon operated from Guadalcanal, Aug 1944; a portion of the squadron operated from Morotai, 8 Nov 1944-10 Jan 1945); Lingayen, Luzon, 13 Jan 1945; Hill Strip, San Jose, Mindoro, 27 Feb 1945 (rear echelon operated from Lingayen, 28 Feb-4 Apr 1945 and became the advance echelon at Moret Field, Zamboanga, Mindanao, on 24 Apr 1945; an air echelon operated from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, 26 Apr-11 May 1945); Moret Field, Zamboanga, Mindanao, 4 May 1945 (a detachment operated from Sanga Sanga, Sulu Archipelago, 11 Jun-Aug 1945, and another detachment operated from Tacloban, Leyte, 25-c. 30 Jul 1945); Tacloban, Leyte, 5 Nov 1945; Puerto Princesa, Palawan, 15 Feb 1946 (a detachment operated from Florida Blanca AAB, Luzon, 24 Jun-16 Jul 1946); Florida Blanca AAB, Luzon, 17 Jul 1946; Clark Field (later, AFB), Luzon, 16 Sep 1947 (operated from Johnson Field, Japan, 28 Jun-c. 11 Jul 1949); Taegu AB, South Korea, 28 Jul 1950; Ashiya AB, Japan, 8 Aug 1950; Pusan-East AB, South Korea, 8 Sep 1950 (a detachment operated from Pyongyang-East, North Korea, c. 5-19 Nov 1950); Pyongyang-East, North Korea, 20 Nov 1950; Suwon AB, South Korea, 3 Dec 1950; Chinhae, South Korea, 22 Dec 1950 (a detachment operated from Suwon AB, 22 Dec 1950-4 Jan 1951; part of the squadron operated from Suwon AB, 24 Mar-8 May 1951, and another part from Pusan-West AB, South Korea, 24 Mar-23 Apr 1951; operated from Seoul AB, South Korea, 8 May-9 Aug 1951 and 19 Aug-30 Sep 1951; operated from Hoengsong, South Korea, 1 Oct 1951-1 Jun 1952); Hoengsong, South Korea, 2 Jun 1952; Osan-ni AB, South Korea, 11 Jan 1953; Kadena AB, Okinawa, 30 Oct 1954 (operated from Yonton Auxiliary AB, Okinawa, 10 Nov-11 Dec 1954; deployed at Tainan AB, Formosa, 27 Jan-19 Feb 1955 and c. 3 Sep-30 Nov 1955; detachment operated at Clark AB, Philippines, 1-14 Aug 1957); Clark AB, Philippines, 15 Aug 1957; Kadena AB, Okinawa (later, Japan), 25 Mar 1958 (deployed at Da Nang AB, South Vietnam, 1-19 Feb 1965; Korat RTAFB, Thailand, 8 Feb-15 Mar 1965 and 15 Jun-25 Aug 1965; Osan AB, South Korea, 23 Jan-13 Jun 1968); Elmendorf AFB, AK, 28 Apr 2000-30 Sep 2007. Cannon AFB, NM, 1 Jun 2015-.
Aircraft. P-35, 1941; P-36, 1941; BT-13, 1941; P-40, 1941-1942; P-39, 1942-1943, 1943, 1944; P-400, 1943; P-38, 1943-1946; P(later, F)-47, 1944, 1946, 1947-1948; P(later, F)-51, 1946-1947, 1948-1950, 1950-1953; P(later, F)-80, 1946, 1949-1950; F-86, 1953-1956; F-84, 1956-1957; F-100, 1957-1958, 1958-1963; F-105, 1962-1972; F-4, 1975-1980; F-15, 1980-2007.
Operations. Patrols over the Pacific from Christmas Island, Feb-Oct 1942. Combat in South and Southwest Pacific, 19 Nov 1942-14 Aug 1945. Combat in Korea, 1 Aug 1950-8 Jan 1953 and 25 Feb-27 Jul 1953. Combat in Vietnam, 1 Feb-15 Mar 1965 and 15 Jun-25 Aug 1965. Stood alert in South Korea, 23 Jan-13 Jun 1968, after seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea. Supported air defense alert capability in Southeast Asia, 1968-1972. May 1972-Nov 1975, remained at Kadena AB without personnel or equipment. Remanned and reequipped with F-4 aircraft in late Nov1975; through 1980, flew offensive and defensive exercises in support of its wing, 313 Air Division, and PACAF. Converted to F-15 aircraft in 1980. In 1981, earned the Hughes Trophy in recognition as the outstanding fighter squadron in the USAF. On 5 Nov 1999, stood down at Kadena AB, Japan; moved without personnel or equipment to Elmendorf AFB, AK and joined 3 Wing on 28 Apr 2000. Since 2000, performed offensive and defensive counter-air missions with current air-to-air weaponry, including night vision goggles (NVG), to achieve air superiority in support of taskings from 3 Wing. Provide remotely piloted aircraft launch and recovery operations.
Campaign Streamers. World War II: Guadalcanal; Northern Solomons; Bismarck Archipelago; New Guinea; Leyte; Luzon; Southern Philippines; Western Pacific; China Defensive; Air Combat, Asiatic-Pacific Theater. Korea: UN Defensive; UN Offensive: CCF Intervention; First UN Counteroffensive; CCF Spring Offensive; UN Summer-Fall Offensive; Second Korean Winter; Korea Summer-Fall, 1952; Third Korean Winter; Korea, Summer 1953. Vietnam: Vietnam Advisory; Vietnam Defensive.
Decorations. Distinguished Unit Citations: Philippine Islands, 10-11 Nov 1944; Korea, 3 Nov 1950-24 Jan 1951; Korea, 22 Apr-8 Jul 1951. Presidential Unit Citation: Southeast Asia, 25 Jun-25 Aug 1965. Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat “V” Device: 1 Aug 1964-5 Jun 1965. Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards: 1 Dec 1959-30 Nov 1960; 1 Sep 1962-31 Aug 1963; 6 Jun 1965-31 Dec 1966; 1 Sep 1978-30 Sep 1979; 1 Oct 1979-31 May 1980; 1 Jun 1981-31 May 1983; 1 Jun 1983-31 May 1984; 1 Jun 1984-31 May 1986; 1 Jun 1987-31 May 1989; 1 Jun 1989-31 May 1991;1 Jun 1991-31 May 1993; 1 Jun 1993-31 Aug 1994; 1 Sep 1994-31 Aug 1995; 1 Sep 1995-31 Aug 1997; 1 Jan 2000-31 Dec 2001; 1 Jan 2002-30 Sep 2003; 1 Oct 2003-30 Sep 2005. Philippine Presidential Unit Citation (WWII). Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citations: [28] Jul 1950-31 Jan 1951; 1 Feb 1951-31 Mar 1953. Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm: 1 Apr 1966-30 Jun 1970.
Emblem. Approved 15 Apr 1957.
Cost of Patch
eSnacko
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Tag: taxon: central pbc
Valentine’s Day: See our favorite celebrity kiss photos
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we went back in our photo archives and found some of our favorite “kiss” photos. Whether it’s actors or athletes or musicians, we love that look on the faces of the kissers and kiss-ees. It’s the look of love.
RELATED: SEE MORE CELEBRITY KISS PHOTOS AT 23 SUPER SMOOCHES
]Here’s Pitbull:
And First Lady Melania Trump:
And hometown hero Burt Reynolds:
And Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill:
Author laydlettePosted on February 13, 2017 February 13, 2017 Categories beauty, celebrity, community, Donald Trump, Entertainment, featured, holiday, movies, music, newsfeed, pbpmobile, photography, pulsefeedTags allpbc, barron trump, burt reynolds, celebrities kissing, centralpbc, Community, Donald Trump, kiss, kisses, melania trump, Miami Dolphins, pbpmobile, pitbull, President Trump, Ryan Tannehill, smooches, taxon: allpbc, taxon: central pbc, taxon: centralpbc, things to do, Valentine's DayLeave a comment on Valentine’s Day: See our favorite celebrity kiss photos
56 years ago today, JFK made first post-election trip to Palm Beach
Supporters reach for President-elect John F. Kennedy, at the Palm Beach International Airport on Nov. 11, 1960. (Bert Morgan/Florida Memory)
In the early dark of Veterans Day, 1960, John F. Kennedy made his first trip to Palm Beach as President-elect, inaugurating the town as his Winter White House.
At the Palm Beach International Airport, adoring crowds reached toward the youthful president.
President-elect Kennedy wades through airport crowds while arriving in Palm Beach to work with his transition team. (Bert Morgan/Florida Memory)
During several weeks in Palm Beach that fall, Kennedy summoned his vice-president, Lyndon Johnson and other government officials to meet with him at his father’s house on the island’s north end, followed closely by the biggest crowd of reporters the resort had ever seen.
Palm Beach had become a presidential dateline, as it may become now that Mar-A-Lago owner Donald Trump is the President-elect.
Kennedy, center, is engulfed by supporters at Palm Beach International Airport. (Bert Morgan/Florida Memory)
In Palm Beach, he announced a legislative agenda that included medical care for the elderly, a new fair housing program, a higher minimum wage and help for the country’s depressed areas.
He spent his weeks in the sun deliberating over his Cabinet choices and working on his inaugural address.
Author Barbara MarshallPosted on November 11, 2016 November 11, 2016 Categories bnblogs, community, featured, history, Lifestyles, newsfeed, palm beach, pbpmobile, politics, pulsefeedTags allpbc, bnblogs, central pbc, featured, history, john f. kennedy, lyndon johnson, newsfeed, palm beach, politics, pulsefeed, taxon: allpbc, taxon: central pbc, things to doLeave a comment on 56 years ago today, JFK made first post-election trip to Palm Beach
Flashback: Robert Redford talks Election Day in West Palm Beach
As Election Day rolls around, let’s flashback to June 1972. To promote his movie, “The Candidate,” Robert Redford came to West Palm Beach, speaking from the back of a campaign-style train.
His audience of 600 young men and women — described by The Post as “teenyboppers” — outdrew a recent crowd for a presidential candidate at the time, Sen. Edward Muskie.
The liberal movie star said that bothered him: “What matters on Election Day is image,” Redford told the crowd at the city’s train station. “What does it mean when more people turn out for me than a presidential candidate?”
Redford, who played California senatorial candidate Bill McKay in the movie, also discussed what he called the negative aspects of political campaigns, saying theatrics obscured meaningful discussion of policy and platforms. The promotion also was used as a voter registration drive, and 200 signed up.
Redford, flashing a grin and a Nixon-like peace sign, told the crowd during a two-minute speech: “Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’m not a candidate … Under no circumstances will I run, unless it is for cover.”
The “teenyboppers” groaned in disappointment.
Author laydlettePosted on November 7, 2016 November 7, 2016 Categories bnblogs, celebrity, downtown west palm beach, featured, movies, newsfeed, pbpmobile, politics, pulsefeedTags 2016election, centralpbc, Community, election day, election2016, electionpbp, robert redford, taxon: central pbc, taxon:centralpbc, the candidate, things to doLeave a comment on Flashback: Robert Redford talks Election Day in West Palm Beach
Moonfest 2016: Top 10 tips on dressing up for this crazy event
Thousands of people will be at Moonfest on Clematis street, in downtown West Palm Beach, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday night. Maybe as many as 30,000 if we’re talking the number of bodies the organizers expect the event to attract.
Even though this is a grown folks night out (21+), every year there are costume fails—no matter the age. Here are the dos and don’ts of dressing up for Palm Beach County’s biggest Halloween extravaganza.
Are you in the PostNOW app? Click here for much funnier, GIF edition.
DON’T wear one of these. This is what will happen.
DO wear comfortable shoes.
Did we mention that this event will stretch from the 100 block to the 500 block of Clematis Street?
DO avoid nip slips.
There’s a such thing as fashion tape. Worth it.
DO leave your sharp prop at home.
Security may not let you in.
DO think about where you will put all of your dough.
DON’T do drugs.
Overheating happens. Dehydration is real.
DON’T waste your time putting together a religiously or politically offensive costume.
People will be drunk. They will try to beat you up.
DO use this as an opportunity to wear what you wear around your house when no ones around.
DO have fun with your costumes. Get creative!
What: Moonfest2016
Where: 500-100 blocks, Clematis St. West Palm Beach
When: October 29th from 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
How Much?: Pay $15 for a general admission ticket or $100 for VIP status here.
Not into Moonfest? Check out our list of best Halloween events in PBC here.
Author Corvaya JeffriesPosted on October 27, 2016 November 4, 2016 Categories festivals, pbpmobile, pulsefeed, Uncategorized, west palm beachTags clematis, Community, costumes, festivals, halloween, moonfest, offtheclock, offtheclockpbc, pbpmobile, pulsefeed, taxon: central pbc, things to do, West Palm Beach, wpbLeave a comment on Moonfest 2016: Top 10 tips on dressing up for this crazy event
Make-a-Wish helps 7-year-old Jedi defeat Darth Vader
The force was definitely with this one. A couple hundred people gathered at CityPlace in West Palm Beach Saturday night to witness 7-year-old Brady defeat Darth Vader.
To become a Jedi Knight — to save everyone from evil — that’s been Brady’s wish for years. And who can blame him? He’s spent much of his life fighting tumors that have attacked his body.
Brady Treu, 7, receives an honorary police badge from Sergeant William DeVito at CityPlace, October 15, 2016 in West Palm Beach. The event was organized by Make-A-Wish Southern Florida to grant the wish of Brady to be a Jedi Knight. Brady suffers with the development of tumors. (Yuting Jiang / The Palm Beach Post)
The battle was intense, but the crowd had Brady’s back as he pushed his hand out toward Vader, using The Force to weaken the dark master who fell from the amphitheater stairs and fled the scene with his storm troopers.
Brady’s advice to all the other kids in the city who want Darth Vader to go down? “I would tell them to be brave,” he said.
Brady Treu stands with characters from Star Wars at CityPlace after defeating Darth Vader in an epic battle of good vs. evil. at CityPlace on October 15, 2016. The event was organized by Make-A-Wish Southern Florida to grant the wish of Brady to be a Jedi Knight. Brady suffers with the development of tumors. (Yuting Jiang / The Palm Beach Post)
The Star Wars fan’s dream became a reality thanks to the Make-A-Wish foundation of Southern Florida, who put together an electrifying spectacle featuring light sabers, Jedi Knights, themed-music, a show of laser lights and even an appearance from Chewbacca and R2-D2. It was definitely a night everyone will remember, especially Brady and his family. You can see it on The Post’s Facebook Live.
Armed with his own light saber, Brady, a resident of West Palm, arrived in a SWAT vehicle ready to kick some butt. And he did. After a few minutes of jumping, swinging and kicking, the boy who’s no stranger to fighting, saved West Palm Beach (and possibly all of South Florida) from the dark forces.
Brady Treu, 7, receives the key to the city from Jeri Muoio, Mayor of the City of West Palm Beach at CityPlace, October 15, 2016 in West Palm Beach. The event was organized by Make-A-Wish Southern Florida to grant the wish of Brady to be a Jedi Knight. Brady suffers with the development of tumors. (Yuting Jiang / The Palm Beach Post)
The Jedi master received advanced Jedi training by the local SWAT team in order to face Darth Vader and his troops. Brady was later honored with a key to the city by West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio and Police Chief Bryan Kummerlen.
To learn more about Make-A-Wish Southern Florida, which grants a wish every 16 hours, at an average cost of $5,000 each, for children in 13 Florida counties and the U.S. Virgin Islands, click here.
Author Julio PolettiPosted on October 15, 2016 October 16, 2016 Categories downtown west palm beach, Entertainment, Events, kids, Local, movies, newsfeed, pbpmobile, pulsefeedTags centralpbc, cityplace, Darth Vader, dreams, Jedi Knight, Make-A-Wish Foundation, offtheclockpbc, Star Wars, taxon: central pbc, things to do, West Palm Beach, wishLeave a comment on Make-a-Wish helps 7-year-old Jedi defeat Darth Vader
Weirdest place Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan played in Palm Beach County
Bob Dylan on his never-ending tour, which once stopped at the South Florida Fair. (Cox News Service)
When big rock stars tour, you usually see them in amphitheatres or football stadiums or hockey arenas or racetracks (everybody from the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton have played the western International Raceway, for example).
But sometimes they play unusual places — smaller venues or downright strange ones.
Even Nobel Prize winners.
Bob Dylan, who just won the Nobel Prize in Literature, once played at the South Florida Fairgrounds. It was on Nov. 15, 1992, at the fair’s Expo Center. Dylan’s played some offbeat venues, from ballparks to an audience with the Pope, but this ranks right up there. And you thought the fairgrounds just hosted tribute bands and racing pigs.
Now, it can claim a Nobel Prize winner.
Here are some other places you could see legends and soon-to-be musical legends throughout Palm Beach County — at a waterfront hotel, an Okeechobee Boulevard record shop, a Boca Raton bar or a West Palm Beach baseball field.
In compiling this list, we skipped some obvious smaller places, such as the Bamboo Room and the old Carefree.
Here are 11 other shows we would have killed to see up close:
U2 at Sun Life Stadium, a far cry from their early days at the Leaky Teepee. (Bruce R. Bennett/Palm Beach Post)
U2, March 4, 1982, West Palm Beach Auditorium. U2 as an opening act? At the old Leaky Teepee? Yep, it happened, and the crowd was probably still filing in and getting beer when Bono and Co. took the stage. The soon-to-be Irish supergroup opened for the J. Geils Band. After the show, Adam Clayton and the Edge had nothing else to do so they were guest DJs on West Palm radio station WCEZ, according to the book “U2: A Diary,” by Matt McGee.
Rivers Cuomo of Weezer (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Weezer, Dec. 8, 1996, Spec’s Record store, West Palm Beach. We’re assuming this was the Spec’s on Okeechobee Boulevard, in the plaza where Old Navy and other box stores are now. According to setlist.fm, Rivers Cuomo and his band performed a six-song set, including the hits “Buddy Holly” and “The Sweater Song.”
The Crickets, Feb. 23, 1958, Connie Mack Field, West Palm Beach. Speaking of Buddy Holly, one year before the infamous plane crash and “the day the music died,” Holly’s band played a ball field in downtown West Palm, where the Kravis Center now stands. According to Everyday, a Buddy Holly website, the show was part of the “Big Gold Record Stars” tour and also featured Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and the Comets and the Everly Brothers.
Ike and Tina Turner, the Sunset Cocktail Lounge, West Palm Beach, date unknown, but probably the ”60s or early ’70s. The Sunset, at Eighth Street and Henrietta Avenue, has been described as the Cotton Club of Palm Beach County. It was the only place black acts could play during segregation. The Ink Spots, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, and Cab Calloway also played there.
Marilyn Manson, years after he got his start in Boca Raton nightspots. (Austin American-Statesman)
Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, June 1, 1990, The Weekends, Boca Raton and June 14, 1990, Sinbad’s, Boca Raton. Long before he played stadiums, he was just Brian Warner, who lived with his parents in a west Boca townhouse. And his shock-rock band Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids played originals such as “Cake and Sodomy” at forgotten all-ages venues and clubs like The Weekends and Sinbad’s.
B.B. King in his prime, with Lucille. (KCLU/Austin American-Statesman)
B.B. King, Feb. 17, 1980, the Helen Wilkes Resident Hotel, West Palm Beach. The legendary bluesman used to play the larger Carefree all the time, but who knew this longtime downtown hotel owned by the city’s first female mayor was a concert venue, too? The thrill is gone, though: The hotel was torn down in 2005.
Genesis, Jan. 10, 1975, West Palm Beach Auditorium. Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins came to town — and nobody cared. When the band presented its rock opera “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,” the show drew less than 2,000 people, according to a Post review.
Elvis Presley, Feb. 20, 1956, Palms Theater, West Palm Beach. The King, at the height of his pelvis-swiveling glory, soon after recording “Heartbreak Hotel,” did four shows in one day at a former movie theater at the corner of Clematis and Narcissus. What was it like at the theater? Carol Kolefas told the Post’s Historic Palm Beach Facebook page: “I could hardly hear him sing because of the screaming.”
Chris Carraba back when he worked at J.C. Mitchell Elementary School in Boca Raton. (Jennifer Podis/The Palm Beach Post)
Dashboard Confessional, Jan. 14, 2001, Ray’s Downtown Blues, West Palm Beach. This former Clematis Street club brought in some national blues acts and one local up-and-comer: Chris Carrabba, the emo artist who recorded as Dashboard Confessional. It wasn’t a far drive for him: At the time, he was associate director of afterschool care at a Boca Raton elementary school.
Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Red Hot Chili Peppers, March 19, 1989, Respectable Street, West Palm Beach. The Peppers had just released “Mother’s Milk” and were getting big national exposure for their music, as well as those stunts with socks. Anthony Kiedis and Flea tearing it up on Clematis Street in a tight, sweaty club? What were we thinking? Why weren’t we there?
Soundgarden, long after its days playing in FAU’s student beer hall (Austin American-Statesman)
Soundgarden, Feb. 2, 1990, Ratskellar, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. The grunge scene was getting ready to explode nationally, but Chris Cornell’s band was still four years away from its monster album “Supernatural” and big hits like “Black Hole Sun” when it played FAU’s student beer hall and gathering spot.
Author laydlettePosted on October 13, 2016 October 13, 2016 Categories celebrity, downtown west palm beach, Entertainment, featured, music, newsfeed, pbpmobile, photography, pulsefeed, west palm beachTags allpbc, bob dylan, buddy holly, centralpbc, Community, dashboard confessional, elvis presley, ike and tina turner, marilyn manson, nobel prize, pbpmobile, peter gabriel, Phil Collins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, rock bands, rock concerts, southpbc, taxon: allpbc, taxon: central pbc, taxon: southpbc, taxon:westpbc, things to do, u2, Weezer, westpbcLeave a comment on Weirdest place Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan played in Palm Beach County
Which Palm Beacher just got knighted in England by Prince William?
Rod and family after getting knighted Tuesday at Buckingham Palace. (Getty Images)
That would be rocker Rod Stewart, or as you may call him now, Sir Rod.
The part-time Palm Beacher was knighted Tuesday by Prince William for his “services to music and charity,” according to news reports.
The 71-year-old singer of “Hot Legs,” “Maggie May” and “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” was clothed in Scotsman attire: tartan trousers and a “scarlet-trimmed military-style tunic,” according to the Associated Press. His wife, Penny Lancaster and sons Alastair and Aiden were in attendance.
What did Stewart think of the honor?
Here are some more photos we’ve snapped of Sir Roderick over the years in town, from lunching at Cucina, meeting a fan on Worth Avenue, rocking in concert and partying at Mar-A-Lago.
Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster at Cucina.
Rod and Penny at Mar-A-Lago
Rod meets a lucky fan on Worth Avenue.
Rod rides around the island.
Rod rocks Coral Sky.
Author laydlettePosted on October 11, 2016 October 11, 2016 Categories celebrity, Entertainment, featured, music, newsfeed, pbpmobile, Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre, pulsefeedTags bnblogs, buckingham palace, centralpbc, Community, palm beach, rod stewart, sir rod stewart, taxon: central pbc, taxon: centralpbc, things to doLeave a comment on Which Palm Beacher just got knighted in England by Prince William?
Get your life with this 90’s kickback in West Palm
Hurricane Matthew won’t cancel your chance to revisit the 90’s, apparently. Because Juice, a 90’s themed party is happening this Saturday, October 8th in West Palm Beach at Paul Fishery Gallery — come rain or wind, said party host Koolie.
If the terms ‘Juice’ and ’90’s’ aren’t making you nostalgic already with thoughts of the legendary Tupac and Omar Epps as two kids from Harlem in 1992 film, Juice, then maybe stalking the Instagram accounts of some of the souls involved in putting the event together will.
Start with Yazmine Rosario, the Latina goddess with retro flavor who’ll be DJ’ing at the party.
Or Stylepump, a start-up media group that puts on pop-up parties and mixers that appeal to crowds of artists, writers, musicians and simply people who love a good beat. They helped organized Juice along with Damagedgxxds.
Then check out the host of the event, Koolie. He’s the young creative behind Sushi-Films, a grassroots video production company that captures the emotion and the uniqueness of cool stuff happening around town through his camera lens.
Trick We Out Here!!! @Osolon @Miccheckz #A3C#Atl#Network#Grindtime
A post shared by KoolieFlii Yerp (@koolieflii) on Oct 3, 2013 at 2:42pm PDT
And Mikey Goodman, an artist and beat-maker who will make it all beautiful with his back-to-back graffiti that will be painted on-site.
This weekends fun with @nicosuavalicious #ripes #nico #ripesmsg #nicosuave #lakeworth #graffiti #art #wall #colors #miamigraffiti #palmbeachcounty #561 #msgcrew #lmagraffiti #jabrjaw #driftin #mural #production #prodo #rustoleum #montana #portrait #letters
A post shared by LMA MSG GaleraCollective (@ripe143) on Sep 26, 2016 at 5:35am PDT
With each of these creatives having a hand in Juice, look forward to good vibes, good sounds and a good night.
What else to expect at Juice?
An opportunity to go back in time to an era that was fly, full of color and flooded with music that never gets old. Oh, and there will be drinks and tacos on deck, too.
What: Juice, a 90’s themed party with vibes from the 2000’s
When: Saturday, October 8th from 7 to 11 p.m.
Where: Paul Fisher Gallery, 433 Flamingo Drive, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Cost: FREE to enter but expect to pay $10 bucks for a drink and two tacos. RSVP here.
Author Corvaya JeffriesPosted on October 4, 2016 October 7, 2016 Categories art, dance, Events, fashion, featured, music, newsfeed, pbpmobile, pulsefeed, style, Uncategorized, west palm beachTags 90s, 90s party, Community, damagedgxxds, djyazmine, juice, newsfeed, offtheclockpbc, pbpmobile, pulsefeed, ripe msg, stylepump, sushi films, taxon: central pbc, things to do, West Palm BeachLeave a comment on Get your life with this 90’s kickback in West Palm
Donald Trump or John F. Kennedy: Who is more important to Palm Beach?
John F. Kennedy brought a new style of glamour to Palm Beach when he made it the Winter White House during his ’60s presidency. Donald Trump has brought his own style of monied glamour to Palm Beach, though it’s too early to know if he will make Mar-A-Lago his Winter White House if elected president.
We asked Laurence Leamer, a JFK historian and author of a new thinly-veiled novel on Donald Trump, about which man will leave the most lasting legacy on this plush resort town.
HIS ANSWER HERE MAY SURPRISE YOU.
Meanwhile, let’s compare and contrast Trump and Kennedy’s Palm Beach.
Trump’s Mar-A-Lago.
Trump: Mar-a-Lago, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s opulent ocean-to-lake estate reportedly used up the entire American supply of gold leaf during its construction in 1927. Trump paid $10 million for the 17-acre property in 1985, then added a beach club and ornate, gold-and white ballroom.
The Kennedy compound.
JFK: Vacationed in his father’s rambling, ramshackle 1923 Mizner estate on the island’s north end, with six bedrooms, about 200 feet of beachfront and a pool. In 1995, the family sold the former Winter White House for $4.9 million to John and Marianne Castle, who renovated it, while keeping much of the Kennedy’s original Mizner furnishings. The Castles sold the house, now containing 11 bedrooms, earlier this year for $31.5 million and auctioned most of the Kennedy’s furniture.
JFK: The lunch counter at Green’s Pharmacy for burgers and shakes; the former Hamburger Heaven on South County Road and Taboo on Worth Avenue.
Trump: Rarely seen in Palm Beach except at Mar-a-Lago. Attends weekend charity parties and concerts there, or visits clubhouse of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach.
Melania Trump leaving church after Palm Beach wedding.
Trump: Married his wife, Melania, at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church.
Plaque at St. Edward’s.
JFK: The family attended St. Edward Catholic Church in Palm Beach, where a brass marker points out where Kennedy knelt for Mass.
Trump: Poses for pictures with wife Melania and numerous celebs at Mar-A-Lago. Attends charity balls and concerts there.
JFK: Posed for pictures with wife Jackie and numerous politicians and family members at Kennedy compound. Rarely attended the island’s charity balls or other functions. Sometimes seen at theaters or boating on ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
OFF THE ISLAND
JFK: A nuclear bunker built secretly on Peanut Island in 1961 is a unique Cold War relic.
Trump: Lots of bunkers on his 27-acre golf course in West Palm Beach.
The Kennedys in Palm Beach. (Photo: Courtesy Kathy Fay)
JFK: white Lincoln convertible, often driven by JFK himself.
Trump: black limo, driven by chauffeur.
JFK: Suntanned Ivy League sailor: a tight polo shirt, shorts, swimsuit or khakis, boat shoes and ever-present Wayfarer-style sunglasses or slim-fitting Brooks Brothers suits.
Trump: Swaggering 1980’s bombast in baggy Master of the Universe Brioni suits, accented with baseball caps on the campaign trail. Even his casual golf course wear manages to look oddly formal.2
Trump: Famously orange, in a comb-over do that resembles one of those swooping Tour de France bike helmets.
JFK: a no-nonsense businessman’s haircut, equally suited to the White House or a sailboat (By the way, both men part their hair on the left side.)
Trump: Trump Force One, a 1991 Boeing 757 jet purchased from a Mexican airline and outfitted with 24-carat gold fixtures, a smaller 19-year-old Cessna 750 Citation X jet and three helicopters.
JFK: Purchased in 1959, “The Caroline,” was a 1948 twin-engine prop Convair CV-240, named after JFK’s then two-year-old daughter. It became the first private airplane used during a presidential campaign and is now at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.
ERA TITLE
JFK: Camelot
Trump: Make-A-Lot?
Author Barbara MarshallPosted on September 19, 2016 September 19, 2016 Categories celebrity, Donald Trump, featured, Lifestyles, newsfeed, palm beach, pbpmobile, politics, pulsefeedTags centralpbc, Community, john f. kennedy, Mar-a-Lago, taxon: central pbc, things to do, winter white houseLeave a comment on Donald Trump or John F. Kennedy: Who is more important to Palm Beach?
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What is Feminism?
Home › Abuse of Power › I Believe Anita! by Marie Cartier
I Believe Anita! by Marie Cartier
By Marie Cartier on April 7, 2014 • ( 78 )
During the past week I attended a Los Angeles premiere of a new documentary Anita: Speaking Truth to Power (Dir: Freida Lee Mock USA, 2013). The screening was sold out and I had great seats saved for me– sitting with a friend who works at Samuel Goldwyn, the distributor of this fine film.
In 1991, Anita Hill provided testimony she hoped would serve to dissemble the nomination of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice. Although the vote would end up being close (52-48) Hill’s testimony did not serve to dissuade the decision — Clarence Thomas’ nomination was confirmed and he was appointed to a life term on the Supreme Court four days after Hill’s testimony concluded. Here is an outline of the debate.
I remember watching the hearings in 1991 at a friend’s house in Sacramento, CA where I was couch-surfing with another friend while we were in Sacramento from Los Angeles to protest for gay rights—to speak our truth to power. I remember being amazed that she was doing this—and that it was being televised. We were glued to the set before we went off to the protest we were attending.
In order to speak her truth to power, Hill had to use words in the grand theatrical rotunda of Washington’s power brokers that had heretofore not been heard there, much less televised. Phrases like “pubic hair on my Coke can,” and “Long Dong Silver” that Thomas had spoken in her presence and which constituted a large part of her sexual harassment charge went as “viral” as things could go in 1991—and a media frenzy ensued. What ultimately became clear is that a panel of fifteen white senators listening to two African Americans—one female and one male—engage in what they saw as a “he said, she said” battle left them with their hands tied. They could not hear either side correctly—they could not hear “pubic hair on my Coke” – it was un-thinkable—that is they did not think it—and so, they could relate to almost nothing Hill said.
What they could relate to apparently was the fear that Thomas put in their minds when he accused them of performing a “high tech lynching of uppity blacks” –with this expert turn of phrase, Thomas wiped the slate clean in terms of the minds of the Senators. While some of them may have thought Hill might have been telling the truth—it was less anxiety producing to remove her from the debate that in would be to derail the nomination of an African American male and be accused of egregious racism. Joe Biden shut down the hearing.
What is horrible historically, in watching this documentary and something most of the viewing public glued to the television did not know is that there were other women (among them Angela Wright and Rose Jourdain) who were willing to testify against the nomination of Clarence Thomas—who would have provided similar testimony to that of Anita Hill. They were not allowed to speak after the white panel of Senators was accused of racism by Clarence Thomas. These women were not allowed to “speak truth to power”– at least not in televised testimony–so Anita Hill was left to stand alone. And Thomas was confirmed.
However–history/herstory has shown that Hill’s brave act of “speaking truth to power” was not in vain in 1991. In 1992, a record number of women ran for public office and won. In the U.S. Senate, eleven women ran and five won seats–including one incumbent candidate. In the House of Representatives, twenty-four women won new seats. 1992 was the “Year of the Woman.”
Sexual harassment cases more than doubled, from 6,127 in 1991 to 15,342 in 1996 and… awards to victims under federal laws almost quadrupled–from $7.7 million to $27.8 million.
Was this a reaction to the Thomas nomination? Many feel that yes—since Anita Hill’s allegations were not taken seriously by a Senate that was 98% male—in order for such allegations to be taken seriously women had to hold public office.
What are the costs of speaking out? Hill states that she had to speak out—she had a truth which she felt had to be heard. The effects on her own life were immense—she received death threats. In the documentary we see the files and files (of cabinets, plural) that hold all of the letters—good and bad– she received. The life she might have led—in fact the life that was referred to by one of her supporters who testified that she had spoken of the harassment previously to the Washington hearings said he felt Dr. Hill may have shown up in the grand rotunda for a very different purpose if she had chosen not to testify—that she herself may have been nominated as a Supreme Court justice.
This, of course, would not be the case after the public testimony. In the film, during the run of the credits, we see Hill unzip the dry cleaner bag of the iconic blue dress she wore during the hearings. A dress the color which was seen as “bold and remarkable” for the occasion– is also, we see at the end of the movie, a dress she would never wear again. Although she would by anyone’s account continue to live a “bold and remarkable” life—it would be one marked forever and deeply with her 1991 decision to ‘speak truth to power’.”
“Polls show that during the time of testimony 70% of people believed Professor Anita Hill to be committing perjury. Hill spoke of how everyday she was aware that 7 out of 10 people believed her to be a liar and how this affected her ability to complete such simple tasks as grocery shopping in the public eye. Much emphasis was made by Hill that her support system is the reason she has accomplished so much and moved on to become who she is now.”
Susan Hoerchner, & director, Freida Lee Mock
Because of the seats saved for me, I ended up sitting right behind the row of seats where three of Anita Hill’s sisters sat—and where one of the four people who testified on Hill’s behalf also sat: Susan Hoerchner.
Hoerchner’s testimony speaks to what we, who dialogue religiously and morally, often grapple with: complicity and silence as opposed to “speaking truth to power.” If we don’t speak up—who will speak up? Hill felt that—and rightfully so– it was vital that others supported her. It is important to remember that several women were actually ready to speak to also corroborate her testimony—but they were not allowed to speak. The four who did speak provided testimony that Hill had spoken of these sexual harassment allegations earlier. Hoerchner’s testimony was crucial—not just to the testimony at large—but to Hill’s well-being. It is documented that Hill needed her support system to survive the barrage of hate and media scrutiny that her life would become. She needed those who would say “I believe Anita.”
Matthew 25:40 says: “Whatever you do to the least of me, you do unto me.” This verse speaks to our need to recognize the importance of standing next to one another. “The least of” is less “the least of” if there are more of them. How can we stand in support of one another?
Anita Hill does not regret her choice to “speak truth to power.” She does regret the pain it caused her family, her friends, and those that stood with her. However– she is very clear that she did what she had to do—and those that stood with her—did what they had to do. I was able to speak to Susan Hoerchner and have my picture taken with her. I thanked her and became very choked up suddenly meeting her—this woman who had the courage to stand shoulder to shoulder with Anita Hill and her 1991 testimony. If not for those who stand with us, we stand alone.
Marie Cartier with Susan Hoerchner
We must do what we have to do—we must “speak truth to power.” And we must stand with the least of these—as one of the least of these or in solidarity.
In the words of the poet, Marge Piercy, in her poem, “For strong women”:
A strong woman is a woman bleeding
inside. A strong woman is a woman making
herself strong every morning while her teeth
loosen and her back throbs. Every baby,
a tooth, midwives used to say, and now
every battle a scar. A strong woman
is a mass of scar tissue that aches
when it rains and wounds that bleed
when you bump them and memories that get up
in the night and pace in boots to and fro.
A strong woman is a woman who craves love
like oxygen or she turns blue choking.
A strong woman is a woman who loves
strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly
terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf
sucking her young. Strength is not in her, but she
enacts it as the wind fills a sail.
What comforts her is other’s loving
her equally for the strength and for the weakness
from which it issues, lightning from a cloud.
Lightning stuns. In rain, the clouds disperse.
Only water of connection remains,
flowing through us. Strong is what we make together,
a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.
Marie Cartier is a teacher, poet, writer, healer, artist, and scholar. She holds a BA in Communications from the University of New Hampshire; an MA in English/Poetry from Colorado State University; an MFA in Theatre Arts (Playwriting) from UCLA; an MFA in Film and TV (Screenwriting) from UCLA; and an MFA in Visual Art (Painting/Sculpture) from Claremont Graduate University. She is also a first degree black belt in karate, Shorin-Ryu Shi-Do-Kan Kobayashi style. Ms. Cartier has a Ph.D. in Religion with an emphasis on Women and Religion from Claremont Graduate University.
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Categories: Abuse of Power, Activism, American History, Ethics, Feminism, Gender and Power, General, Herstory, Justice, Media, Patriarchy, Politics, Racism
Tags: Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, Marie Cartier, sexual harassment, speaking truth to power
Katharine Bressler
Thank you for sharing this. I plan to watch this documentary and share it with others. Your words are true and brought tears to my eyes. Women must stand together.
Marie Cartier
yes– women *must* stand together. thank you for posting this.
Barbara Ardinger
I remember those hearings. I also remember the sitcom Murphy Brown that satirized the Thomas hearings. Unfortunately, the right-wing branch of the Supreme Court seems to have totally lost touch with the reality that people like us live. It’s remarkable that Thomas almost never speaks during hearings before the court. Was he really the best jurist Bush 1 could have selected? Obviously not. I wish we could rewind history and make those rich, powerful, old white men that voted for Thomas pay attention to what Anita Hill said. Sigh.
very well said, Barbara. i’ll have to go back and look at that *murphy brown* episode! I could use a feminist satirization of those hearings right about now!!
Elizabeth Cunningham
Thank you! I saw the film last night and recommend it to everyone.
thank you for promoting the film– i’ll let my friend at Samuel Goldwyn know that folks are recommending it!
I’m looking forward to seeing this movie, since i well remember the hearings, and being shocked that Thomas was confirmed and that other women were silenced. Let’s not forget the Joe Biden who did that, who led that committee. A democrat. Women need to have even more seats on the Supreme Court, and I am firmly convinced that women need to stand up to the sexual harassers, to blame the men, to call them out on every criminal act they do to women. It is a war on women in the work place, a war on black women, an out and out war. What would put a stop to men doing this all the time everywhere? Women will have to tear down the old boys club, they should all go to prison for this stuff.
..I know…so sad (and true)– let’s not forget it was joe biden who shut down the hearing– and not just that– silenced women.
Carol P. Christ
I remember watching Anita Hill and believing her too, I did not remember Joe Biden, who was not a figure on my radar at the time. Sighhhh.
Great poem from Piercy, what a voice for women she is too.
I have always loved marge piercy and that collection *the moon is always female* (from which this poem is from) is my favorite volume
Anita is a very amazing and bold woman that did in fact “speak truth to power.” Even though the Supreme Court board was mostly made up of men, she did what she had to do by speaking up to them about the sexual harassment that she had been dealing with from her boss. Everyone has the right to come forward about harassment, whether they be a male or a female. No one’s voice should be overheard about something that is that important! I love that you were able to meet Susan Hoerchner, another woman who stood up for what she believed in. The poem that you posted is very relevant to this situation! My favorite line is when it says, “A strong woman is strong in words, in action, in connection, in feeling..” Those are exactly the traits that Anita Hill had!
yes! you make a good point– male or female– everyone has a right to come forward if they are being harassed…the poem is from an incredible book by marge piercy *the moon is always female*– if you want to read more by her!
Juan Curiel
One important point that stood out to me was the fact that the panel of fifteen white senators thought it was unthinkable that Clarence Thomas would ever say “pubic hair on my Coke.” This ties into Personal Testimony is valid,where a woman’s word doesn’t hold the same weight as a man’s. They gave Clarence Thomas the benefit of the doubt because he was a man. I also think it is important to speak out and challenge what you believe in, because if you won’t, who will?
great point, juan! yes- personal testimony is valid– and this was considered more important in thomas’ case (when he actually made no personal testimony– just discounted the validity of the testimony) rather than anita’s…and agree– you have to speak out. and if you do, you provide the window often for others to speak– as anita did
Bianca Albarran
I definitely enjoyed reading this blog! I am simply amazed by how brave Anita was for standing up and speaking truth to power. Just knowing that she stood strong, even after she received death threats and was labeled a “liar” by most of the public, is simply heroic. She did it because she knew she had to do it, and she was willing to suffer for it. I believe that shows true bravery, because it is not easy to stand up for something when you know you could be humiliated for it. I truly admire her bravery. I also truly appreciate anyone and everyone that stood by her side through all of the chaos.
Exactly. I like that you highlight how it is not easy to stand up when you believe you might be humiliated. It is hard. Your post was very passionate. Thank you for writing it!
sarahkelly24
I enjoyed reading this blog and found it to be inspiring. “Speaking truth to power” is such a powerful statement we all need to strive more to live by. I think Anita Hill’s life is a testimony to the idea that one person really can make a difference. We tend to fall victim to the idea that one person can’t make a difference and as a result we silence ourselves against power. Anita’s actions influenced other people to try and make a difference.This reminds me of the coalition building idea we discussed in class. It is amazing how many sexual harassment cases doubled after she spoke out, and how many women ran for and won office. If Anita hadn’t sacrificed her own safety and life, like so many other key figures through out history, I can’t help but wonder what this country would be like today. Even though we still have so much progress to make, I think it is important to always appreciate how far we have come.
yes. excellent post! yes…this is exactly how coalition building can work…very good noticing!
Chantal Thompson
I enjoyed reading this post; it was quite interesting! I definitely agree that Anita Hill’s journey made a powerful statement in United States history. It was inspiring to know that even though she had all odds against her, she was still determined to have her story heard. We often become discouraged from speaking on what we believe in, and standing for what’s right; however, Hill proved otherwise, and I found that to be very courageous. Her story sets a significant example for society. It proves that despite the negativity a person may encounter, it is still possible make a statement and create a unification that will help others.
Great post. Yes it certainly true that when we believe we might encounter negativity sometimes that stops s… And often we have to really believe it is important enough to speak out in order to speak out. And that’s what Anita did. You are correct. She believed her story would make a difference and it did. Nice noticing in your post.
L. Vallarta
I am saddened and ashamed that this is the first time I’m learning about Anita Hill. I faintly remember her name being referenced in rap songs (specifically Kanye West). Yet, I never made much of an effort to research her. It’s disheartening to see how Clarence Thomas used his race to oppress Anita Hill. By rebranding the situation as a “high-tech lynching of uppity blacks” he moved the focus from Anita to himself. He was able to turn the tables and make himself the victim. It was no longer an issue about sexual harassment, it was an issue of historical and institutional racism. I can’t help but think of how this is a perfect example of our matrices of domination. Even though Thomas was oppressed by his matrix of domination, he was successful in oppressing others.
Excellent understanding of the matrix of domination… Very well done. I’m glad that you were able to find out about Anita Hill through my blog. I think you would enjoy seeing the documentary as well. I felt your understanding of the issues in your post was astute and your comments very insightful.
Divya Pithiya
Wow I can’t believe that Anita was speaking her truth and was ridiculed for it, but I admire her for her strength to continue on. Her daily resistance from people trying to bring her down is her activism. I enjoyed reading your blog and the poem at the very end was a great way to tie everything together in your post!
Very good noticing in your post… Yes daily resistances is activism and that’s what she was practicing. I’m glad you like the poem. That is from Marge Piercy’s book *the moon is always female* if you’d like to read more.
Shyan Hamidi-Sabet
This story reminds me of something I learned in a Deaf culture class I took. Our identities are made up of different intersectionalities. We are a combination of all the identities that we identity with. For this case, the White Senate members feared that they would be labeled as racist if they didn’t elect Clarence Thomas. That fear overrode their opportunity to truly search for the truth in regards to Anita Hill’s testimony of sexual harassment. It goes to show the hierarchy of importance within the minds of these senate members. A woman’s testimony and possible sexual harassment is easier to ignore and cast aside than the possibility of having racism allegations made against the senate.
Yes. Good noticing. An excellent example of how a woman’s testimony was not heard. You bring a lot of the points together here. Nice post.
Reginald Hawkins
This post was a excellent one and it taught me more about someone who ive heard so little about. Its odd that Ive only heard so little of her even though t she made a huge impact on the U.S. Anita Hill was a very fearless women who was determined to be heard no matter what. It is also sad how Clarence Thomas try and make himself seem innocent, while he was not. If not for Anita Hill speaking out, the workplace sexual harassment issue wouldn’t be that important.
you are absolutely right… You make good points in your post… And it’s true –sexual harassment is a huge issue today and it was a huge issue before …people just weren’t talking about it and Anita’s testimony alllowed the issue to come out into the open. Very nice post.
Shahtaj Khan
I truly commend women like Anita Hill and Susan Hoerchner, for there courage. This was my first time hearing of Anita’s story and it was defiantly a powerful one. Though she did not win, her testimony gave other women courage to fight for women’s rights. Anita’s personal testimony started a movement of brave women standing up for what’s right. It allowed women to connect with one another, which is an amazing accomplishment.
it is an amazing accomplishment to get women to stand together– you are right!! anita was not trying to win per se– but you are right in suggesting that it felt like she was on trial as she did not “win” the opinion of the senators in retracting thomas’ confirmation to the supreme court.
Hernandez, Yanira
I feel like Anita Hill’s story can be applied to what we’ve learned in class. For example, Anita’s voice about the harransment she endured from Clarence Thomas is personal testimony is valid. Anita’s daily resisitance is activism is her sticking to her story and testimony even though 7 out of 10 people did not believe her. Hill felt that it was very important for her to have her voice and heard, whether that meant getting death threats or support. I feel that one first has to fail in order to open up the door to everyone else. People start to lose their fear and start to fight for what is right.
yes- the statistic thata 7 out of 10 people did not believe her really stuck with me, too. i wonder if it is true that someone has to fail first– you may be right– i never thought about it that way– but it is true that anita’s ‘failure” to dissuade the senators in confirming thomas’ appointment did make everyone sit up and take notice of sexual harassment– because she did not unseat the confirmation–but her actions went on to start a movement and change police re: sexual harassment
pole4ka
This is a great story/history. Years later people look at this situation and don’t understand why not everyone believed Anita Hill and why it wasn’t taken seriously. But we live in different world now, things change, people’s view also change. Now days Anita’s testimony would catch everyone’s attention and I believe Clarence Thomas wouldn’t have a chance to become a Supreme Court justice. It’s very upsetting that there were women who could support Anita, but they didn’t get a chance to express themselves. I absolutely agree that women then and now should stay together and support each other. If in 1991 there were less than 98% male in Senate, things could be different. I’m glad that it’s a part of history and people now it, because there is a saying that states “we need to know history in order for it not to happen again”. I loved the poem about strong women, it’s strong. I would love to see the documentary and find out more about Anita Hill, she sounds like a strong woman who was able to speak truth to power.
I would hope that would be true– that if this situation happened today Clarence Thomas would not have a chance and Anita Hill would be believed. I’m not entirely sure– but I’m heartened that you believe this! I hope you do get to see the documentary– it’s powerful.
Sutton Bartole
It’s really upsetting that Anita Hill’s life was threatened for speaking the truth. A lot of times you hear about African Americans sticking together because they’ve been very discriminated against in the past. But Clarence Thomas, a black man, was getting the upper hand in the case because he was a man. I also can’t believe that 7 out of 10 people did not believe her, but many other people did. We can definitely see that Anita speaking truth to power changed the world because women won seats in the U.S Senate and the House of Representatives. Millions started coming forward with sexual harassment cases and awards given to victims nearly quadrupled. Anita Hill speaking up and making her testimony valid gave others the courage to speak up as well. She is such a strong woman for speaking up and doing what was right, even if her life would be threatened for doing so. I also thought it was so great that you got to meet Susan Hoerchner! What an experience that must have been. I hope I get a chance to see Anita Hill’s documentary!
I hope you get to see the documentary as well. And, yes, it was extremely moving and important for me to get to meet Susan Hoerchner.
This is the first time I have heard of Anita Hill, and in my African American History class I studied Clarence Thomas. None of the allegations were brought up in this history book, which was about the details of African Americans within the United States. It’s interesting to me that the nomination of a Black man to the Supreme Court is more important then the truth of his character. It is important to acknowledge the history of African Americans, especially those figures in the government, but shouldn’t we also know the truth about the charges he was faced with that were dropped. In my class, I read of the importance and honor of Clarence Thomas, and if it weren’t for Marie Cartier’s post, and GWS 350 course, I would have to continue to recognize this man as an important, honorable person in our history. Too bad Joe Biden shut this down. It really shows me the gender inequality women face in government.
natalie– your reply is in the next post…:)
Oh wow…I’m amazed that you studied Clarence Thomas and did not hear of Anita Hill!! That sure says a lot! Thank you for sharing that… Agreed. It is horrible that Joe Biden shut down the testimony and silenced the other witnesses….!!!
Nancy Vedder-Shults
Hi Marie —
I’ve been out of town, so this is the first chance I’ve had to read your excellent post. I remember those hearings very well and hope I’ll get a chance to see the movie. Like most feminists in 1991(?), I wasn’t shocked that Thomas was confirmed, but I was deeply saddened. I thought we had come further than that in our r/evolution. I knew Anita Hill’s life would be difficult from the moment she opened her mouth, but I didn’t remember that 70% of Americans believed she had lied?!? That statistic shocks me even today. Quoting Marge Piercy’s poem was a wonderful way to end your piece. _The Moon is Always Female_ is also my favorite volume of her poetry.
agreed. I found it shocking and sad that she knew and statistics supported it that 70% of people felt she had lied…yes marge piercy’s poem about how hard it is to be “a strong woman” really made sense
I find it unbelievable that Anita Hill’s testimony against Clarence Thomas was not regarded as the truth. Also
that there were other women willing to testify along sides Anita Hill and were not given the opportunity to do so. I was relieved to read that this unjust event was not in vain, for it contributed to record number of women running for public office. Also, the statistic of sexual harassment cases doubling was very interesting, since it shows that women were more willing to speak their truth. Anita Hill’s contribution will not go unrecognized, especially with the release of the documentary. Thank you for sharing, I was born in 1991 and if it wasn’t for you I don’t know if I ever would of known about Anita Hill’s powerful truth to power. Also, this is my first time commenting on a blog.
congratulations on making you first post to a blog! I’m so glad this one made you aware of the great contribution of Anita Hiil..
Adrienne Holden
This was a very eye opening and empowering post. I think sometimes when people have a vision or a problem we often see it as ” I ” can’t make a diiference I am just one person. Well in reality every change starts with one person and one idea. I think Anita Hill really proves this to be absolutely true if we do not speak up we will not be heard. This issue of sexual harrasment is really important it happens to many people whether it is verbally be made or actually physically, I think it’s very important that we speak up for what is not right. The fact that you incorporated the statistics in sexual harrasment casses really puts this into play for me and goes the show how much change can be and will be made over the years.The poem you incorporated was really powerful, what stood out to me was “What comforts her is other’s loving
her equally for the strength and for the weakness… Strong is what we make together”. This is definitely true being strong is something that must be made in coming together to make somthing happen, to make a change, to speak up for one another. You had a really amazing opportunity in being able to attend this event Proffessor.
i agree…it was amazing…esp. to see her family and meet one of her key supporters…i love the poem by marge piercy…u can read more by her in the book *the moon is always female*
I was born in 1991 so I did not have the privaledge to watch Anita’s case. I have heard of it though and your post has actually educated me more on the case. I can not wait to personally see the documentary myself. To learn and see what life had become for Anita Hill after speaking out for the greater good. I do believe Anita was right in speaking out. It may have affected the life of her loved ones as well as her own. But in the end it caused women to react inorder to make a change. Perhaps Anita was the spark that led all those women to gain their chairs in both the Senate and House of Representatives. I also think it must have been exciting to sit so close to Anita’s family for the showing of the documentary. What a great opportunity.
i definitely believe anita’s testimony was a spark for social change…someone has to take the fiest step –and she did that
There are too many cases similar to those of Anita that have occured where the victim is the one that is attacked and the abuser left free to continue his day to day activies (or hers). However, Anita is far from a victim, she is a warrior, she is strong, and incredibly influential in what she did and how she took the oppresion set upon by those who set out to bring her down. The fact that she did not quit speaks volumes to her strength to move forward and fight. I am incredibly happy that she does not regret what she did because if it wasnt for this one powerful woman then these ideas might have not been put up for disscussion and this topic needs much more things to work at. And thank you for placing her story here while also celebrating what her actions have done.
you are welcome. agreed- if not for this on woman’s actions… it really is true- and her story proves it– one person can truly make a difference.
Ms. Alia
This read was very empowering. I remembered hearing about this case in Middle school and high school, I mostly remembered something about the jargon used with the coke can and pubic hair, but because of an age/maturity difference I didn’t really understand what was being said about Anita Hill except her testifying about a man who sexually harrassed her and that many people hated her because of it, which I couldn’t understand why. Now as an adult I see the importance behind her voice.
I guess people were angry because it appeared that a “black woman was trying to keep a black man down” (just thinking of it from a Afro-Amer stereotypical stand-point). From the person who hated her for speaking out, I believe persons were so busy protecting him and that “once in a lifetime” opportunity/advancement for a Black man, that they failed to protect her, a victim of sexual harassment. That’s disheartening. So I’m happy that Anita Hill spoke TRUTH TO POWER. I’m also happy that she was happy with her own decision. It was needed. Everyday, women and men, and women especially are victims of sexual harassment. To this day, men feel like they can say what they chose to women because they are in power. Men feel it’s just words, I guess. My sister has been a victim, and in my work place, a bank, a teller and underage (16yrs old), I was too sexually harassed by a male through words. It’s amazing how men on a daily basis feel they can say whatever they want and laugh it off as a joke. It’s not okay though, and no one takes its serious because it’s just words, but words are powerful. Words strike emotion. So it was important Anita Hill spoke out, and it saddens me that she wasn’t even heard because of the “race card” Thomas tried to pull on the justice system. It amazes me they were more worried about being viewed as racist than protecting her and women like her or even men in the same situation.
It’s just raises a question about right and wrong and it’s validity. If you continue making good/ right decisions morally, Than you defy what’s wrong, so there would be no need to be worried about the wrong that may come. Abide by what is right, and I you shouldn’t have any fear. I’m confused to why they feared they would be viewed as racist. Again, though I am happy Dr. Hill didn’t fear And did what she felt was right, because it caused other great doors to open for other women, and other women to speak out and heard. It is true we all need to stand together. It’s power in numbers
alia- see your reply below…
agreed- it is power in numbers…and that is why as she spoke out she gave courage to others as they would no longer be the only one… i’m sorry this happened to you and your sister..i know so many women this has happened to. thank you for sharing a bit of your story on the blog.
I only wish that I would have learned about Anita Hill sooner! The outcome of her story is disappointing, but her journey is so impassioned and inspiring! I am sad to know that not more people were able to support her in 1991, or at least not enough people with power to make sure her case went through and she was able to be victorious. However, I am glad to see that she was the trailblazer that led so many women to fight for themselves, whether it be in their personal lives, or in the political eye. I am now certainly looking forward to seeing her movie, and encouraging everyone I know to see it as well! She is a true inspiration to not only women, but to everyone who is struggling to find their voice in society, or even in their own social circle. Hopefully this movie will makes it way across the nation and will lift the spirits of those who feel they are losing the battle with their own abuser.
thank you for your strong comment! please let me know if you see the film and what you think…i especially was moved by the segment at the end with the blue dress…
Melissa McCann
Even today women still face discrimination in the media and the court system when it comes to rape and sexual harassment cases. Women are often victim blamed and are at fault for being taken advantage of, (for what they are wearing, being intoxicated, or not being taken serious by the pursuer when they say “no”, etc) while the aggressor is often talked about how his future was so bright and how his life will forever be ruined by these accusations. I feel that more people (young women especially) need to be more aware of the Anita Hill case because it can lead to more social change where the aggressor is seen as the person in the wrong and the victim’s motives are not questioned but believed.
melissa- i couldn’t agree with you more. you synthesized the arguments surrounding this issue very well –and with passion.
Jessica Holloway
Because I was born after the Anita Hill case, I never heard about it until reading this blog that Joe Biden had shut down the case. It surprises me that when he was running with Barack Obama, his past mistakes of shutting down such an important social case was never mentioned in the news. Rather, it was ignored and excused for all these years. This unjust behavior and secrets has happened too often in the past and is continuing to happen today. There needs to be a change in how sexual harassment cases are handled and need to be treated as serious as murder cases. We still live in a patriarchal society where the man’s word is commonly taken over a woman’s, giving women no voice and little reason to think that they will get the justice they deserve.
see reply following..
jessica- agreed. the fact that joe biden did this was unknown to me even though i was very much aware of the anita hill case when it was happening. it is shocking to realize that this was not brought up when biden was being considered for such a high profile position– the assumption being that the fact that he shut down the hearings was not considered “a big enough deal” to de-rail his nomination is frankly shocking.
I think this is a great! I never knew about this until now. I remember you talking about this and it intrigued me into wanting to know more. Its humiliating and crazy to know that Anita Hill had to go through this. A case like this should should have never been put off and forgotten. Cases such as these are essential to make a difference and speaking the truth of power. This comes to show that till this day men over rule woman. We have a voice that is heard through the voice of a man, and in that case can be overturned or misguiding. I feel that even though the results may not have been in her favor, her legacy continues. Hopefully in the future, cases like these won’t be dismissed and only answered.
Color was an issue back then and thats what caused her to fail. In the end it doesn’t matter what color we are. Who are we to judge what is acceptable? Why let the color of our bodies dictate our individual thoughts, emotions, and most of all power. Color expresses the truth that our ancestors traveled the life before us. We are mere clones of our own with their spirit.
Anita Hill lives forever in the truth and power of women who aspire for justice.
agreed. I love your last sentence. I am so grateful that her story is being heard by an entirely new generation of women through this important documentary.
//However–history/herstory has shown that Hill’s brave act of “speaking truth to power” was not in vain in 1991. In 1992, a record number of women ran for public office and won. In the U.S. Senate, eleven women ran and five won seats–including one incumbent candidate. In the House of Representatives, twenty-four women won new seats. 1992 was the “Year of the Woman.”//
I think it’s super interesting and kind of amazing that one woman speaking out can spark such a change. Anita Hill’s speaking out about what happened to her made such a difference in so many people’s lives. It definitely speaks to the power of personal testimony. Hearing this woman’s story inspired many others to better their own lives and that’s a truly powerful thing. Representation is so important. When people started to see that a woman’s words were considered, they started to believe their own might be worth consideration.
I love your last sentence. Yes– one person’s truth can spark many people to speak the truth and also many people to hear the truth!
Molly Ahola
I really wasn’t fully aware of this case, given that I Was young when it happened, but I really feel that it is completely unfair that she was not taken seriously just because that the Senate is 98% male.
But I do have to say that for her to not regret standing up despite being up there alone, because sometimes things do need to be said, and not saying them, despite how hard it can be to stand up there alone and say them and feel like it hasn’t really done any good – you have started the process to make people think and that is the first step. I agree your last sentence “If not for those who stand with us, we stand alone.” That is so true!
agreed! great comment. the last sentence is from a poem by margr piercy.
Alisa Arslanova
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I believe it is extremely important for women of all ages to see and be aware of our progress as women. It is so important that we keep promoting and having conversations about gender equity. Anita Hill stood up for all women of all ages. I am sure that there were many men that sexually harassed women and felt there was nothing wrong with it, but Anita Hill fought and gave women a voice in the workplace! She is an incredible woman that till this day carries herself with dignity and an incredible belief that she did what was right and good.
yes. she has immense dignity and a real place in our herstory/history.
Angela Gattoni
Reading your blog about Anita Hill was very eye opening. I did not really know much about the details of this case, but it is very empowering to see how she made the statements that she did and stood up for herself. Sexual harassment in the work place is not ever okay and everyone, man or woman, should be able to work in an environment where sexual harassment is not a problem. It was very important that Anita chose to take a stand even though she knew that it was her statement against a mans statement because she showed other women that they do have a voice and they can use it.
yes!! women hav e a voice and it is empowering when they use it… As anita hill did and continues to do!
I think Anita Hill was so brave to stand up and voice what she felt was her truth, and as a woman speaking in front of 98% political men, and especially as a Black woman, that takes courage. She knew her story could not go unheard, and proves that personal testimony is valid and she proved it when victims of these cases awards were doubled as time went on.
see reply following
yes- the statistics of change following her testimony are so important to lift up
Lupe T.
Although this is before my time, reading this post gave me a better sense of how important this was when it was happening. I would watch a T.V show titles I Love The 90s and remembered the comedians commenting on the event. It was lightly talked about and very brief. It didnt go into detail.
I can’t believe how unjust and bias it is for this nation to allow such behavior coming from a man in Government. This nation really needs to see look at whats important like human rights, enviormental protection, equality, and a thriving market place. Instead of war, nuclear weaponds, and geneticly modified food. Glad I’m a college student and that i’m working on getting a professional title so I can stick it to the man!
great comment:-)
Before reading this blog, I never heard about Anita Hill. This makes me sad, because i have learned a lot this year that I feel that i should have known about a long time ago. The word i would use to describe Anita is courageous. She stood up for what she thought was right, even if she had to suffer for it. I like that she leaned on her friends. Many of the strong, don’t like to lean on others for help, but I think it shows a great sign of strength if you do. Im looking forward to seeing this film. I think Anita is a great example to anyone who feels that they need to act, but who are fearful to do so. Whoever you are, you have the ability to act, you just have to first get past yourself.
great comment:-) thx for posting!
June 29, 2014 • 4:51 am
Good info. Lucky me I ran across your website by chance
(stumbleupon). I have saved it for later!
welcome to feminism and religion!!
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Star Control Lives!
Stardock Highest Bidder on Star Control Trademark
The Atari auctions are now over. Bankruptcy information for Atari's Chapter 11 filing is available through public documents:
1. Go to http://www.bmcgroup.com/restructuring/Docket.aspx?ClientID=316
2. Click on any docket#. There are over 300 documents available.
Some of Atari's assets have been listed, including Star Control:
Docket #305 (Notice of Successful and back-up bidders with respect to the auctions of certain of the debtors' assets)
And check this out:
Docket #296 (Notice of attempt to assume and assign certain executory contracts)
While this does not mean that a new Star Control game is coming, at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that the rights are now in the hands of people who are fans of the first two games and that Paul is involved somehow.
Stardock CEO, Brad Wardell, wrote about the auctions without mentioning the titles: http://forums.littletinyfrogs.com/446878#replies
What are your thoughts about this?
Star Controller (blog)
Duke Nukem <3 Star Control
Shortly put: This is very interesting.
Author of Star Control novelizations Groombridge Log and Eternal Doctrine. http://www.tommisalminenbooks.com
meep-eep
I'm afraid the Paul connection is old. Note the Atari party: "Accolade"
My bet is that this refers to Accolade licensing the Star Control IP to make Star Control 3, with the $0.00 meaning that no more payments are due.
I do hope that Stardock realise what they got (and what they didn't). They may now own the Star Control trademark and the SC3-specific IP, but Atari did not own the SC2 IP.
If Stardock wants to make a game including any of the SC2 races or plot points, they will still need to make a deal with Paul and Fred (unless they already did).
And considering that Paul and Fred have on numerous occasions stated that they still want to make a sequel to SC2 and that they still talk about SC3 game ideas among themselves, it's not likely that they will let another party make a true sequel.
And with the Stardock people being Star Control fans, they will not want to make a sequel based on the Star Control 3 IP.
So these are the scenario's which I came up with:
Stardock thought they got the SC2 IP, but didn't. Ouch. I hope they didn't pay too much.
Stardock were only interested in the Star Control trademark. This is probably not it, as Brad Wardell claims to be excited by the purchase.
Stardock are actually working with TFB. Maybe they were even enlisted by TFB to make the purchase. Still, all that excitement about just the trademark?
My money is on the first scenario.
Also, I don't know what it would mean if Atari's Star Control trademark claim would be judged invalid, considering that the extension to the registration was based on token use.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2013, 07:44:21 pm by meep-eep » Logged
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oldlaptop
I honestly find it hard to believe that Stardock wouldn't have known that all Atari has/had to sell was the trademark, but then again Atari seemed to think they still had copyright, or at least publishing rights, when they started selling SC1/SC2 again (when they didn't).
Play Supermelee online in #uqm-arena!
Netmelee Improvement Mod
Quote from: oldlaptop on July 21, 2013, 07:52:53 pm
I'm pretty sure they knew; here's their CEO, from the link in the OP:
Quote from: Stardock_CEO
It won't be a continuation but more akin to a revisit (ala XCOM using Star Control 2 as the inspiration and start back before the earthlings were in any kind of slave shield). We'll be talking more about our plans as we go forward.
We won't be making any changes to the existing Star Control games. And Atari doesn't actually own the copyright on Star Control 1/2 so it's not like one could make a Star Control 2 HD or what have you without a license from Paul Reiche. And even if we did have rights to SC 1/2 I wouldn't touch them without his blessing.
I think what most Star Control fans are looking for is a new Star Control game where the inspiration comes from Star Control 2. They want a game with fun, adventure and top down ship battles like in Star Control 2 that all play within a fun sci fi universe. Preferably one with Ur-Quan and Spathi and lots of insults.
I think it's pretty unlikely that they'd make a bid without having at least had a conversation with PR/FF.
Regarding the trademark, it's possible that putting the game on GoG 'cured' the potential abandonment. That's a question for an IP lawyer. Anybody know one?
Quote from: meep-eep on July 21, 2013, 07:39:55 pm
That's possible. If I recall, Infogrames took ownership of Accolade which in turn, would become owned by Atari. Though there was another document where "Accolade, Inc" was listed as a possible upcoming purchase of Accolade.com for $50,000 (Docket# 306). It is also listed as "only offer received". Either Accolade is making a comeback, or another company bought the domain which also happens to be named Accolade.
I definitely agree that GOG helped raise interest for Star Control, and DRM-free too.
I asked PR3 whether he was aware of this. This was his response (posted with permission):
Hi Serge,
Stardock hasn't contacted us, so we don't yet know their plans. Looking at
the court schedules (and this is consistent with my recollections), they
acquired the trademark 'Star Control' and copyright to the original
materials in Star Control 3 -- that is to say, not any of the copyrightable
materials from Star Control I & II, which Fred and I still hold.
In terms of our interest in the trademark and why we didn't buy it -- we
weren't sure that we could make use of the trademark soon enough to make
sense, but we sure are interested in what Star Dock wants to do next!
- Paul
We are all *happy campers*
I came across this in The Escapist a few minutes ago and wanted to spread the word. Looks like the word beat me back here. Regardless, here's what I read over there.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126206-Star-Control-Reboot-Emerges-From-the-Wreckage-of-Atari
"Reboot" ( ._.)
That's when you want to do a remake, but don't want to be faithful (and maybe they can't, since TfB has everything of actual worth).
vok3
I just posted essentially this on PNF, but it can go here too:
This means nothing.
1) The only thing Stardock could have bought here is the rights to the "Star Control" name itself. The rights to EVERYTHING ELSE - Ur-Quan, Precursors, Spathi, Chenjesu, all of it - reside with Toys For Bob. That is why and how the sourceforge UQM release was possible, and why the title had to be changed. If Stardock tries to make a Star Control game without involving TFB, there will be no Ur-Quan, no Syreen, no Shofixti, no Yehat, no nothing. In short, it will not be Star Control.
2) Toys For Bob is wholly owned by Activision. Activision has no reason to cooperate with a rival publisher. At the very least, Stardock would have to pay Activision exorbitant amounts to be able to use Activision employees for a project intended to compete with Activision's core business - electronic entertainment. It is extremely unlikely that Toys For Bob has avoided signing non-compete agreements. Therefore it is highly unlikely that Toys For Bob - meaning Paul Reiche and Fred Ford, the people who count - will be involved in any Stardock Starcon project.
3) If Paul Reiche and Fred Ford are not involved, I don't care what name is slapped on it, it's not Star Control.
4) Stardock is the company that announced they were doing a Master of Magic remake and then came out with one of the worst releases in gaming history, Elemental: War of Magic. They then put a huge amount of effort into undoing the PR damage they took from that, resulting in Fallen Enchantress, which is a passable fantasy strategy game, but nothing legendary.
5) Stardock's track record even with its successful games is that they make dry, workmanlike games. There is not that much personality or quirkiness in them. The whole point of Star Control is the quirkiness and the personality infused in every detail. This is purely a matter of who actually works on the game, and their creativity and what sort of ideas they have. Ford and Reiche have it. Stardock has not yet demonstrated that they do, and based on the Elemental / Fallen Enchantress history, there's better than even odds that it'll turn out they just can't.
6) Star Control is about spaceships, dammit. Not X-com like tactics. I love X-com, but if I want to play X-com, I'll play X-com, not X-com-renamed-as-Star-Control.
Brad from Stardock here.
We have connected with Paul and Fred. Fingers crossed but things look hopeful. The copyright to Star Control 1/2 is owned by Paul Rieche directly, not Toys for Bob so I think there is reason to think that they might be able to participate in the creation of a new Star Control game.
None of this changes the status of the Ur-Quan Masters or Star Control on GOG.
Our core team involved at Stardock (myself included) have been huge fans of Paul's work since the Archon / Star Flight days.
By an XCOM like reboot we don't mean XCOM game mechanics but rather creating a new Star Control game that brings in the fun and game play we all know and love. The *campground* is looking *flavorful*.
All right, that's more hopeful than I thought. It would invalidate my points 1 and 2.
Quote from: Frogboy on July 24, 2013, 02:32:51 am
Just for those who don't know, Brad is Stardock's CEO. Thanks for dropping by!
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we're really looking forward to a new Star Control, particularly if FF+PR can be brought on-board.
Of additional interest here (since these boards are dedicated to the open-source version of SC2), is the potential resolution of a couple of lingering IP issues relating to the CGI movies used in the 3DO version of SC2. Our understanding had been that PR+FF were not able to secure the rights to those cutscenes, so they are not included in the open-source version. It would be really great if those movies could be released under a Creative Commons license, so that the Ur-Quan Masters project could be truly whole.
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing more from Stardock as the game starts to take shape.
Jeff Graw
Good to hear!
As much as I love SC2, I think there are a few things the Starflight series did better. The RPG mechanics, and planetary exploration come to mind. On the other hand, Star Control had better combat, and the way the universe unfolded in a preset way unless the player altered events in a specific time window really solved the dilemma of openness vs. authenticity faced by many sandbox games today. Ideally, a new Star Control would take the best parts of each franchise along with some new ideas.
Brad, do you lean more towards a vast and lonely universe (SF1), a more populated and colorful one (SC2), or something in-between?
For me, the comparison to Firaxis' XCOM remake is scary. Many feel it took too many steps back from the original. While production values and accessibility were quite a bit improved, the core mechanics and gameplay left something to be desired. I'm guessing you don't mean that you intend to make the new Star Control more accessible via cutting out large swaths of the original mechanics though, as SC2 is already fairly accessible.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2013, 05:04:28 am by Hurleybird » Logged
Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow! ...Is what I literally vocalized when I read the news on Slashdot.
Thanks for dropping by Brad, and at the very least thanks for hopefully keeping the name from sitting around in the dusty basement of one publisher after the other.
Please don't half-ass this. I'm glad to hear you're a fan of TFB's games, and I hope your favorite is Star Control II. I really hope you can work with Paul in some fashion. If you can blend open exploration with good RPG elements* and fun spaceship action successfully, you'll have a valuable winner on your hands.
*Two games, SC2 and KOTOR come to mind when I think of great RPG storytelling. The conversations are branched, real decisions can be made in dialogue, and consequences manifest from those decisions. You don't feel like you're on a track, even if ultimately you are. Not to mention they don't take themselves too seriously.
Also if you can pretend Star Control 3 didn't happen that would be great
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Preston Barta // Editor
Every year, dozens of best-selling novels and works of literature are brought to the screen by filmmakers and production companies who want to capture the magic of a story and share it with a broader audience.
Adapting a book into a screenplay can be challenging in and of itself, and it can be further trying when it’s from an author as celebrated and studied as Jane Austen.
Austen has influenced writers all over the world, sparking many great books, film adaptations and remixed narratives— like 1995’s CLUELESS, which is loosely based on Austen’s EMMA.
Whit Stillman on the set of LOVE & FRIENDSHIP. Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
The latest Austen adaptation – coming from filmmaker Whit Stillman, titled LOVE & FRIENDSHIP – takes a new approach to cinema translation. Stillman chose to adapt LADY SUSAN, a little-known novella that was published nearly a century after Austen’s death, and re-titled it to make the story his own (and fit in with Austen’s collection).
Set in the 18th century, LOVE & FRIENDSHIP tells a deliciously mannered story about a manipulative woman named Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) who uses an unethical strategy to capture the attention of a suitor of her daughter— and herself, too, naturally.
“[LADY SUSAN] by its nature lent itself to adaptation. The comedy was there, but something had to be done to make it into a film,” said Stillman when he stopped in Dallas last month for the film’s regional premiere at the USA Film Festival.
Stillman first encountered Austen’s work when he was a sophomore in college. He was in a “total funk”— had been dumped by his girlfriend at the time and was considering dropping out when he came across Austen’s NORTHANGER ABBEY.
“I read that book and hated it,” said Stillman. “After which, I told all my friends that Austen was a bad writer. I couldn’t understand why anybody liked her. But then I realized it was the danger of starting with the wrong book at the wrong time.”
Perhaps you’ve experienced something similar, especially in the world of film.
“You can see a film or read a book in the wrong cast of mind, hate it and later decide to like it,” Stillman added.
After five years, Stillman’s sister pushed him toward good literature. Thanks to her, Stillman rediscovered Austen and read SENSE & SENSIBILITY and PRIDE & PREJUDICE. He even went back to NORTHANGER ABBEY, which had LADY SUSAN in it as part of the edition.
“I don’t like description, and Austen almost never describes. She’s so quick and unpretentious. You become very into her characters, story and worldview,” said Stillman. “There’s a moral perspective in her works that is admirable.”
LADY SUSAN was a “gold mine” opportunity for Stillman, who is primarily known for his original films (METROPOLITAN, BARCELONA, and LAST DAYS OF DISCO) that hinge on the unique personalities and behaviors of people. He described LADY SUSAN as “unfinished.” However, because of that, it allowed Stillman to shape the material to be a seamless fit for his sensibilities.
“I had no issue incorporating her material into my work. I found so much of what she wrote so funny and cleverly phrased that the problem was not using more of her material,” Stillman quipped.
LOVE & FRIENDSHIP, which opens today, is an exceptional film to see heading into summer. It’s one of those rare films that serves as a reading experience and excites you to pick up a book again and turn off the idiot box.
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Hello, there! My name is Preston Barta, and I am the features editor of Fresh Fiction and senior film critic at the Denton Record-Chronicle. My cinematic love story began where I was born: off planet on the isolated desert world of the Jakku system. It's there I passed the time scavenging for loose parts with my good friend Rey. One day I found an old film projector and a dusty reel of the 1975 film JAWS. It rocked my world so much that I left my kinfolk in the rearview (I so miss their morning cups of green milk) to pursue my dreams of writing about film. It wasn't long until I met two gents who said they would give me a lift. I can't recall their names, but one was an older man who liked to point a lot and the other was a tall, hairy fella. They got me as far as one of Jupiter's moons where we crossed paths with the U.S.S. Enterprise. Some pointy-eared bastard said I was clear to come aboard. He saw that I was clutching my beloved shark movie and invited me to the "moving pictures room" where he was screening the 1993 film JURASSIC PARK to his crew. He said my life would be much more prosperous if I were familiar with more work by the god named Steven Spielberg. From there, my love for cinema blossomed. Once we reached planet Earth, everything changed. I found the small town of Denton, TX, and was welcomed into the Barta family. They showed me the writings of local film critic Boo Allen. He became my hero and caused me to chase a degree in film and journalism. After my studies at graduate of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I met some film critics who showed me the ropes and got me into my first press screening: 2011's THE GREEN LANTERN. Don't worry; I recovered just fine. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was only four years away.
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JayH
Everything posted by JayH
White Line Around Edge of Zoomed Image
JayH posted a topic in (Pre 1.7) Bugs on Windows
Hi, This has been a bug for a good while in Affinity Photo, I was hoping it might be fixed by now, but it's still hanging around. On two different Windows 10 PC, each with different Nvidia graphics card, when you zoom into an image you see what appears to be a transparent edge around the top/side or both. This quite often makes you think that there is in fact a pixel line that hasn't been cropped, when in fact as you zoom in further, you'll see that there isn't anything wrong - the artifact disappears. It's more noticeable on darker images with a dark UI. Thanks, Jay.
Constrain the Crop tool to an Axis
JayH posted a topic in Older Feedback & Suggestion Posts
Hi, There doesn't appear to be a way to constrain the axis of the Crop tool to move it horizontally or vertically. This is very important if you wish the Crop Tool to align to the edges of the image, it is not possible to line it up by eye, especially a large image. Can we have SHIFT or the CTRL key to snap the crop too to an axis as we move, or perhaps an auto-snap to edges toggle please? Thanks, Jay.
constrain
crop tool
Crop to Marquee Selection
Hi, In Affinity Photo there is no way to crop using a Marquee selection. The only way to crop is by using the Cropping tool. Can we have a similar option that is available in most other photo/image editors where you can "Crop to Selection". Quite often it is quicker just to use a marquee selection that to mess around with the handles of the Crop Tool. Thanks, Jay.
Default Save As to Any Format
JayH posted a topic in Feedback for the Affinity Suite of Products
Hi, When you choose to "Save As" for a new document, Affinity Photo defaults to ".afphoto", its native file format. If I wish to "Save As" to a different format, I have to "Export" instead. There may be numerous reasons why this is the default way Affinity Photo works, but it is really annoying. Why can't we choose which method to "Save As" when we, select "Save As", without having to resort to exporting instead? Users complained about this in Gimp for many years. As an artist I save the largest majority of my images, like many do I expect as .jpg, or .png. perhaps even .PSD to be compatible with other people. Occasionally I will use .aphoto, but I have to consider future archival options too. Other software doesn't open .afphoto files either, at least, not yet. Instinctively you head over to "Save As", intending to save your work, then think, "Damn!" and then have to cancel, then select the "Export" option from the menu instead. You might say that I'll get used to it eventually, but I've been using Affinity Photo since it came out and I still fall into the trap. I know that Affinity Photo's native file format is best for Affinity Photo, so it includes all your Adjustments etc, but can't we have the choice? Just a drop down menu like other software like Photoshop where Affinity chooses by default it's propitiatory format, but allows you to select an alternative if necessary? The "Export" option is so unnecessary, not just for me, but everyone I've talked to who uses Affinity Photo. Can we have the option please? Even if it's a option to tick in the Preferences? Thanks, Jay.
JayH replied to JayH's topic in Feedback for the Affinity Suite of Products
haakoo, No one has taken over the post, it was in fact myself that went off on a tangent to prove a point about Serif. 'verysame' is spot on with what he's said too. It's you that is at fault. Where do you get off telling what other users should or shouldn't do? Damn, you're such a control freak. Not to mention so misinformed. You don't even read what others write before commenting. Love the sound of your own voice no doubt too? Anyway I've had enough of this post, which is what I expect Serif hoped would happen. Licking Serif's boots won't do you or other users any favours. Damn I hate fanboys. I'll check back in a year or so and I don't have to guess, I know, nothing will have changed, with the fandboys or Serif's business model. Bye!
haako, yes I still have time to drop in and chat in a forum and work at the same time - please see the included image made in other "professional tools" today. If someone says something about me, am I not allowed to reply? I've plenty to discuss, but it's people like yourself who just want to put me down without conversation. Not very smart. ...and getting onto smart, Cedge/Steve, "Yo!" yourself, I've already tried to explain I'm not "trolling", I've had relevant points to make, but again no one wishes to discuss these points without being rude. You already said I was on your "Ignore List", and yet you're still talking to me, albeit with lame insults and dated acronyms. Why I'm referred to as a "Cupcake", I've no idea, it sounds sweet - maybe you're getting sweet with me?
"Troll"? "Professionally Served", "At the Highest Level of The Company"? "Rolling on Floor, Laughing"? really?? darn it, you must find some of the least things funny - you're belly must be aching - shall we send a doctor? Cedge/Steve said - "For the record, a real professional doesn't go out of his way to troll a product he obviously doesn't know how to use" - if the product in question does not have the features, then how does one proceed? We are invited to request and discuss the features we are missing according to the forum - there is a section for "Bugs" and one for "Feature Requests". Just to correct you 'Cedge/Steve', this topic may have been started by raising the question of the "Save AS" vs "Export" issue, but has since moved on to a discussion about Serif in general and the other things that have not been addressed over numerous years. Especially in regard to the "Professional" advertised product we were offered and purchased. It doesn't take much looking around the forum to see how many users feel let down, some get fed up and move on, some come back in hope the software has improved and others make suggestions feeling that they'll be heard - but time moves on and one, release after release and the same things don't change. There is of course a type of user that are oblivious too all that other users are frustrated by, that forget they don't own the company and don't realise that the company doesn't give a stuff about them - you're not part of a team just because you bought the software and handed in a bug report. Some users, such as you Steve don't have a clue of which end of a sweeping brush to hold and then accuse people of being trolls.
Serif have always stated in their forums that they're all involved and read what people write. If that is the case, then why are the same features missing, simple ones at that still not added? We're mot talking about months, but years. As I stated in a previous post, there was one bug I pointed out which I was told was known about, but nobody was able to fix it. That doesn't fill me with much confidence at all. Serif indeed could be reading everything we write, but if they don't do anything with that info, they may as well not bother.
Why hang around here? 1) to try and get a response from Serif, who are always silent apart from mods. 2) To let other users know that they're not the only one's dissatisfied. 3) To help other's know how things are and to help them decide whether they should believe the hype thrown around to save them wasting money on products that have stagnated and don't do what is advertised. I purchase the products for both mac and PC and want and and am entitled to express my oppinions. These opinions many share, but have probably given up a long time ago with Serif. I don't care the software is cheap, if the Affinity products came anywhere near Adobe, I'd happily of paid a lot more money Serif won't change if you keep patting them on the back. They don't owe you anything and will drop you at the first chance if there is money to be made elsewhere. This Feature Request stuff is just baloney for marketing. See that coffee over there? Now inhale it's aroma.
The point that keeps being made, Affinity prodicts don't do the basics, bugs are rarely fixed, features, basics ones at that aren't added. No one said they wanted the world, or to make that term clear "bloatware" as you put it. Try reading all the posts before commenting and putting others down, you do your argument no favours.
For me, I know that Serif aren't interested in our musings, but I really hope it's a fair warning to others about the situation. Maybe it will prevent others from buying the software with high expectations that you'll soon find is limited and buggy. There's not enough coders or official testers with Serif either. My heart goes out too to those that graft into the early hours eating pizza on tight schedules with poor pay, sore eyes, to not be listened to by bosses - many of us artist, developers and designers have been there and bought the sweatshirt, hat and maybe even the underwear. Don't waste your money, do youself a favour until Serif change their attitude, become more transparent and listen to users. Spend your £50/£100 on a sub for Adobe CC, or treat yourself to a meal out and use the infamous .dll. Good luck everyone.
+1 for 'verysame's' comment.
One other thing users here might wish to be made aware of, is that the previous Serif PhotoPlus & Draw software, (the predecessors to Affinity Photo & Designer), had proprietary file formats and Serif didn't see fit to allow users to be able to import these files into the Affinity products. Would you wish to archive years of work in an editable format with Affinity Photo or Designer only to find out that when Serif sees fit to drop these products, or make something new - which may easily happen, what are you going to do with those .afphoto files then? I doubt Adobe is going to disappear in the same way. Archiving for the future, please consider what format you choose. Presently Adobe say they have 12 Million subscribers to the Creative Cloud. Then there are those that own previous versions, which must be very large. Additionally, a huge amount of users have hacked versions. Adobe products are the standard and used by nearly all creatives across the world and have done since design was possible on PCs and Macs. Who would you place your money on for the future? Especially in light that Serif can't even add basic features that have been requested for years. These things aren't even on the Road Map. I know this post began with several other posts regarding basic feature suggestions from myself, such as this, "Save AS" vs "Export" feature, which by the way I've found out since I'm not the only one requesting this basic feature and the others too, there are other posts and topics on them. This post has rambled onto Affinity products and Serif in general too in my frustration. Unless you're a halfwit, you'll know that it's unlikely any software company will take a users point of view on board, unless there is enough moans and complaints that effects profits/reputation, even then though, companies already have their own agendas and what they think users need more than you. When have "Suggestion Boxes" ever changed anything in life? They're there just to imply a company appears to care - it's just marketing hype - if you don't know that, then your a bit of a nitwit. We're led to believe that Serif reads our posts, but is that just forum moderators, or people that actually can influence what happens? It would be nice if someone with the power to change things was transparent enough to inform us all realistically what Serif is attempting to do with the Affinity range. Are they actually trying to compete with Adobe, or are they just cashing in on a part of the market when many users don't like the idea of Subscription Services with Adobe? But in doing so, they're never going to make one particular piece of great software, instead are they just going to use the same business model as they did previously and release one piece of unfinished software after another and not have the resources to manage them all? How many updates have you got excited about, thinking that finally that feature you and other's requested months, if not years ago have finally made it to this version. To be immediately disappointed that the update has things you've never cared about and would probably never use? As a bonus you get some freebies of brushes, graphic templates or similar, stuff you'll again download, but still probably never use either. We've spent our money on your products Serif, some have bought both Mac and Windows versions too like myself expecting so much more due to the advertising and hype. But several years on, users are curious and feeling let down, is anyone out there willing to comment?
And don't forget the very underused software, that some may not be aware of "Microsoft Word". How does "Save As" work here, remind me? By the way I do have a softspot for the actual monkey devs that get paid peanuts to work long, long ours and probably have good ideas that get ignored too just like the users. It's more typically the management and bosses that are the issue i.e. Serif the company. I've attempted to retry the Affinity products on numerous occasions, but as I've stated, the basic features are missing that would make the software spot on. I was even told recently that a bug wasn't fixable as they didn't know how to fix it. I last week gave things a go again with AP, but it totally reminded me how nothing predominantly has changed since its first release. This 'Cupcake' is back with Adobe as there's no other choice to get jobs done well and finished on time. I loathe subsciption software, but I hate more incomplete software. Even Photoshop/Illustrator CS2 still with much of their outdated features still have the barebones of perfect pieces of software, I only wish they still worked properly with Windows 10.
"Suck it up cupcake"? Now really sir. Keep the insults coming please! Yawn. Users are allowed oppinions, aren't they? Or do they all have to share the same ones as yours? What is the point of a "Feature Requests" section otherwise? Why do people in these forums get so defensive with a piece of software? I've not critasising anyones loved ones. Software is just a tool to get a job done, hopefully as painlessly as possible. This reminds me of the Linux forums. Forums are pointless. There's plenty of people out there who are disappointed with how the Affinity products have pretty much stalled and missed basic features - features that people requested over 2 years ago and just badic ones as that. But sensibly many people take it on the chin, forget the wasted money they spent on the brand and go back to Adobe. Additionally they avoid this forum. Things are just the same as they were when the other older Serif products were around - fanboys worshiping software whether good or bad. But be careful, don't critasise, no, never complain. You might as well of poked someone in the eye with a rather large pointy stick.
I realy had high hopes with the Affinity products, I really thought Serif would challege the establishment anf have learnt from previous incarnations, i.e. But its not far from the issues dealing with Serif and their old software. Serif don't listen to their customers enough, if at all. I know I'll be picked up on that comment by either fanboys or mods. The amount of bugs I listed for Serif Photo and other software was crazy, software that had been around for years and either users hadn't noticed, or just excepted the querks and said that Serif never listen. They release software and expect the users to bug test for them for free. Whilst still of course you pay for the incomplete said software in the first place. Serif spread themselves too thin, not enough devs for numerous products constantly growing. Recently Ipad, now a DTP Program. Then there's the issue with getting the basics working right, before addong all the bells and whistles that most users don't care about. How about getting the crop too to work well first for example? or croppong with a Marquee. Floating Selections.. too many to list. I'm sure we've all submitted simple stuff here. Most compitent amateurs and pros want Photoshop without the subscription, being able to buy a piece of software and feel they own it in they're hand, Instead of using CS6 or CC with amtlib. Not everyone wants to rip off software companies, even if it is Adobe. I know Serif aren't listening, least no one with any influence. I just wish they did thats all. There are basic features that users have been asking for since day one and it's just a waste of time here thinking you have a voice, it's all just marketing bull. Designer is no different, how long have users wanted a "Convert to Curve" option that actually works, without loads of unnecessary nodes? It's a massive requirement. Even Inkscape can do it well. If a company wants to be comptetive with the competition, they need to work with what is already there. Not try to reinvent the wheel. It's a shame, a real shame and a wasted opportunity, one that could have made Serif a fortune. Now fanboys etc, take your best shot, I'm sure you're itching with antic...i... pation.
Affinity Photo - Save As...
JayH replied to Icefront's topic in Feedback for Affinity Photo on Desktop
There's always going to be those that disagree, but one thing that must be considered is the millions of people across the globe that use Photoshop. I've never heard anyone complain about how Photoshop do "Save As". It doesn't confuse anyone. Gimp on the other hand that uses the same concept as Affinity Photo has mountains of post for many many many years regarding having to use "Export" instead of "Save As". Plus if you wish to atract long time Photoshop users, then sticking to common methods of workflow is important. I've used Photoshop for 25 years and it erks me no end that something that is so standardised in other software, for some reason Serif has to break all the rules, for what? What does it achieve?
Hi, I wrote a similar topic last week, it's illogical and slows down your work process. How many time has anyone here gone to "Save As", located a path to save, then pressed the pointless dropdown menu at the botom of the file dialogue to find only one option, Affinity's native format. Then you have to go back and start all over again and choose "Export" instead. The Affinity brand is popular to those that can't afford an Adobe subscription, but no other software can read its file proprietary format. Archiving work in Affinity Photo's native format is disastrous for future purposes currently. It just feels like Serif is forcing its own branded file format onto the user when it's users are being treated as dumb that they don't know the difference between a destruction format and a re-editable one. Affinity Photo is aimed at professional/semi users who do know what they are doing. It's these small and simple things that Serif are so fixed on, that prevents Affinity competing with Photoshop - which is the point, isn't it?
Psenda, Sorry I think there may be something lost in translation. Anyway, it seems you are happy with how AP works. Just some of us disagree with the set up as it is in AP - Photoshop's method is more straightforward
JayH replied to JayH's topic in (Pre 1.7) Bugs on Windows
Chris, I hope that doesn't translate that there isn't anyone qualified to fix it? or perhaps they're indisposed doing something else? All that's gone into the Affinity software and something that seems small in significance can't be fixed? You've got to ask, my mind boggles!
Image Tearing, Lag on Roation
Hi, I've noticed some lag and image tearing (if that is the term) when an image is rotated. Blocks of the image are rendered on screen in sections, usually more than one. This happens with small, or large resolution images - larger one's are more obvious. Sizes from 1000 pixels upward. My PC is no slouch, Windows 10, Core i5, 8GB, Nvidia Geforce 750ti 2GB. I don't get this issue with Photoshop, or any other image editing software. I've included a screen grab to demonstrate. Usually there are more blocks making up the image as it is rotated. To reproduce. Open an image, deselect the base layers lock and rotate the image manually. Images are totally smooth in Photoshop, ArtRage, Clip Paint Studio, Rebelle when rotated etc. Thanks, Jay.
Chris, I don't expect one humble user is going to be able to change the way things work in AP, especially the core of a rendering engine. I know it's not a democracy, users can only suggest things or point out things they consider bugs if they find it odd, especially when compared to other software. Considering most users compare AP as an aspiring Photoshop type pro image editor - you have to use that as a benchmark. But I'm also including other software too here when it comes to refresh rate when moving things around. I've heard the usual vibe, Photoshop has been around forever and should be better. But I've also heard the view that AP is new code and is optimised from the ground up. So I don't know which way think. I have Photoshop CS6 opened and can move an entire 10MB 5000+ pixel 72dpi file around in a circular motion. There is no tearing, the image stays intact and for all intent purposes there is no obvious lag. I don't have any issues with placing the image, or accuracy - perfect. I do the same with AP and the image falls apart as I move it around into blocks messily. I don't see any difference in speed. Only that it looks a lot worse quality wise. I think if the speed is the same, then most users would prefer to not see the item tear and break up. If you had this happen in a game, gamers would go nuts! I've been working with Photoshop since 1996 I think - so I'm reasonably clued up on technical issues with software I think. I also don't mean any offense and am merely trying to point out that AP seems slow with it's screen refresh for whatever reason sadly. Opening Times for Affinity Photo vs Adobe Photoshop CS6: (Newly installed SSD Drive with Windows 10) Affinity Photo opens in 23 seconds from a fresh re-boot with no image loaded. Photoshop CS6 opens in 7 seconds from a fresh re-boot with no image loaded. This was a lot worse with a mechanical hard drive, times for AP were in the region of 30 seconds, whilst PS CS6 was around 15 seconds. With opening images there is a noticeable difference between the two programs, but no enough to care about, at least for me. AP is always half as slow as Photoshop. For me it's the loading times that are the most significant. I don't shoot RAW at the moment, so I can't comment on that. Some of the issues I have must be more prominent for users with slower PCs/laptops. But I've seen posts here with other users with much better setups than me and still have similar issues.
Crop to Opache in Photo Persona after Straightening Image
Hi, I keep seeing this feature being discussed as a missing part of Affinity Photo. It is available in the Panoramic Options, but not in the Photo Persona. This feature is a real time saver, especially if you have numerous images to edit. Cropping the unused part of an image automatically after straightening. With an option to toggle it on or off and also, very importantly, to "Keep Aspect Ratio". Having to crop an image then manually move the the two corners, or the four Corners/Sides is a totally unnecessary step that the user shouldn't have to do. Photoshop has had this option for many years. In fact there's probably not a single time I haven't cropped an image and not wanted it to automatically remove the white space. Please Developers, can you add this feature? Thanks, Jay.
Images Unnecessarily Scaled to Fit-to-Screen After operation
Hi, After at least too operations I've noticed that Affinity Photo enlarges the edited image to 'Fit to Screen'. This effects "Cropping" and also the "Resize the Document" option. Resize Image - to Recreate: Open a large image such as 1920x1080, use the option "Resize the Document", change the dimensions to 800x450. Instead of the image being left at it's 100% zoom ratio, the image is enlarged to 'Fit-to-Screen'. Cropping - to Recreate: Open a large image and crop it down to a manageable size, smaller than your working canvas screen area, e.g 1920x1080 image, resize to 800x450. Instead of the image being left at it's 100% ratio, the image is enlarged to 'Fit-to-Screen'. This is not the expected behavior, the enlarging of the image on the screen/canvas after an operation is unnecessary and pixelates the image. 100% zoom ratio looks perfect. This is how other software behaves, such as Photoshop. There isn't any use I can think of that the user would need the image to be re-sized to fit the display after cropping or resizing unless the image was larger than the display area - scaled down yes, but not enlarged. Thanks, Jay.
fit to screen
Psenda, I think you misunderstand, maybe you don't know Photoshop or other Photo editing software as much as AP? You should just be able to choose the desired format you want when selecting "Save As", if of course there are layers or adjustments the user could be warned with a message that .jpeg, png., tiff etc is destructive, perhaps be asked "...Would you like to flatten all layers?". There's no need for an export option, it could all be done from the same place, saving the user having to remember whether it's "Export" or "Save As" they require. The current method isn't very intuitive or clever - at least in my opinion and that is why I mentioned Open Source software Gimp, this was something users requested for many years to be changed, but it never was. If Photoshop can handle this freedom and users are familiar with this method, then why not Affinity Photo?
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Apps Features
India Funding Roundup: The 25 Highest Funded Tech Startups of 2015
By Sriram Sharma | Updated: 21 December 2015 14:08 IST
Looking back, 2015 has been a landmark year for India's tech startup landscape, with a total of 114 startups that filed series A rounds by December in the calendar year, with total funding amounting to $542 million (roughly Rs. 3,595 crores). If you do the math, the average funding round in a Series A comes to $4.75 million (roughly Rs. 31.5 crores).
Series A is usually the first stage of funding a company receives from VC firms, following seed funding rounds from angel investors. This happens when a company has just started to earn some revenues or otherwise proves its business model, but is typically not making a profit and will require the infusion of funds to scale up. Most series A investors are venture capital funds, or angel investors, who are willing to accept the high risk involved.
Most startups try to build an maintain a defensible position in their sector harnessing the best talent, technology, and design to harness network effects. If the product or service continues to show a promising growth rate, and the sector shows headroom for growth, they raise subsequent funding rounds - some on this list are up to Series H already.
The data on the top 25 funded startups, courtesy Tracxn, reveals plenty of insights on the startup ecosystem. The largest funded player on this list is Ola, which came in with $900 million (roughly Rs. 6008 crores) in funding, while the smallest is Cardekho, which secured $50 million (roughly Rs. 333 crores) in funding. The average age of a 'startup' on this list is five years -- the youngest is Jaipur-based Netmeds, which was founded in 2015, while the oldest is 11-year old Bengaluru-based Manthan Systems.
The data indicates a two way fight among taxi aggregators sector - with no other player other than Ola featuring in the top 25 list as it takes on US-based decacorn (a startup valued at $10 billion or more) Uber. E-commerce and mobile commerce players such as Paytm, Flipkart, and Snapdeal dominate the VC funding landscape, followed by plays in the e-commerce logistics space (Delhivery, Ecom Express), and home decor and furniture platforms (Pepperfry, Urban Ladder, Homelane). The last 12 months saw plenty of funding activity in the online healthcare sector as well - Practo and Netmeds feature on this list.
From a funding perspective, Sequoia Capital leads the pack, with investments in nine of the top 25 players, followed by Tiger Global with six, Steadview with five. SoftBank has four, while Accel and Helion have three each. As per news reports, the three startups became unicorns (crossed a $1 billion valuation) this year -- Quikr, Zomato and Paytm. Notable omissions in this list are Housing.com and Tinyowl, two startups that garnered a lot of attention and growth, but then saw significant layoffs this year.
Here's a quick look at the 25 highest funded Indian tech startups this year.
1) Ola
India's largest taxi aggregator secured $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,299 crores) in funding in November, catapulting it to the pole position in this roundup. In the funding announcement, Ola quoted a growth rate of 30 times in the last one year, and now fields over one million booking requests a day.
Founder(s): Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.olacabs.com
Type of Business: Taxi aggregator
Funding in 2015 ($ Million): 900
Investors: Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, SoftBank, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, Didi-Kuaidi, Accel Partners, ABG Capital, GIC
2) Paytm
Valued between $3-4 billion, Paytm is arguably India's most used mobile wallet, with a claimed user base of over 100 million. Paytm provides apps for shopping on almost every mobile platform, and got a license from RBI to set up a payments bank, enabling it to offer current and savings account deposits.
Founder(s): Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Headquarters: Noida
Website: www.paytm.com
Type of Business: Mobile wallet and e-commerce
Investors: Alibaba Group, SAIF Partners, Intel Capital, Reliance Capital
(Also read: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Plans for the Payment Bank)
(Disclosure: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.)
3) Flipkart
Arguably India's most popular e-commerce marketplace, Flipkart is certainly the most capitalised, valued at over $15 billion, according to news reports. The company pivoted to a mobile first model, threatening to go app-only, and then bowled a googly with Flipkart Lite, providing an app-like experience on Chromium-based mobile browsers.
Notable launches this year include a messaging layer called Ping, and the company moved to its homegrown data centre in Chennai this year. It also sold approximately 8 million items, and had a GMV of over $300 million (approximately Rs. 1,945 crore) during the Big Billion Days Sale. Major acquisitions this year include FX Mart, Appiterate, and AdIQuity.
Founder(s): Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal
Website: www.flipkart.com
Type of Business: Online retail
Investors: Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Iconiq Capital, Naspers, DST Global, GIC, Morgan Stanley, Sofina, Steadview Capital, Vulcan Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, T. Rowe Price
4) Snapdeal
Valued at $6.5 billion according to news reports, Snapdeal acquired Freecharge, MartMobi, Exclusively, Letsgomo Labs, RupeePower,and Reduce Data this year. Snapdeal relaunched Shopo, an app-only zero commission marketplace in July, and is in a constant game of one-upmanship with its competitor Flipkart - launching one-hour refunds and Snap Lite in quick succession.
Founder(s):Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal
Headquarters:Delhi
Website: www.snapdeal.com
Funding in 2015($ Million): $500 million
Investors: Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad Group, SoftBank, Nexus Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, eBay, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Saama Capital, Foxconn, Alibaba, InnoVen Capital
5) Grofers
Hyperlocal delivery platform Grofers was in the news late November for reportedly raising $120 million (roughly Rs. 800 crores) in its series D round. The two-year-old startup acquired MyGreenBox, Spoonjoy, and Townrush, all this year.
Founder(s): Albinder Dhindsa, Saurabh Kumar
Website: www.grofers.com
Type of Business: Grocery delivery
Funding in 2015($ Million): 165
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank
6) Quikr
Online classifieds website Quikr launched a chat messaging feature earlier this year, and secured a $150 million (roughly Rs. 1,000 crores) funding round in April in its Series H from AB Kinnevik and Tiger Global. The company also launched QuikrJobs, a recruitment platform for blue collar, grey collar and entry-level jobs in in September.
Founder(s):Pranay Chulet, Jiby Thomas
Headquarters: Mumbai
Website: www.quikr.com
Type of Business: Online classifieds
Investors: AB Kinnevik, Nokia Growth Partners, Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network, Norwest Venture Partners, Warburg Pincus, eBay, Tiger Global, Steadview Capital
7) E-com Express
Founded by former Blue Dart employees, E-com Express received a $133 million (roughly Rs. 887 crores) investment from private equity firm Warburg Pincus in June this year. The firm, which handles deliveries for e-commerce companies, reportedly employs over 8,000 people and has presence in 210 cities and with 320 delivery centres.
Founder(s): TA Krishnan, K Satyanarayana
Headquarters: Delhi
Website: www.ecomexpress.in
Type of Business: E-commerce logistics provider
Investors: Peepul Capital, Warburg Pincus
8) Oyo Rooms
The two-year old startup, founded by 21 year-old Ritesh Agarwal became a household name after it received $100 million in funding from SoftBank in August this year. The startup operates in an asset-light model, tying up with existing hotels to offer a 'standardised experience', with rooms starting at Rs. 999 a night, offering amenities such as AC and Wi-Fi. Oyo Rooms offers apps on Google Play and App Store, and recently tied up with Airtel to offer Wi-Fi and DTH services.
Founder(s): Ritesh Agarwal
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Website: www.oyorooms.com
Type of Business: Budget hotel accommodation
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, DSG Consumer Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, VentureNursery
9) Practo
Online healthcare platform Practo raised $90 million in its Series C funding in August, and went on to acquire Insta Health, a provider of cloud-based hospital information management solutions, Qikwell, and hospital appointment scheduling platform a month later. Currently present in four other countries apart from India - Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia - it has global aspirations in the healthcare space.
(Also Read: Going Global, Indian Startups Learn the Importance of Thinking Local)
Founder(s): Shashank ND, Abhinav Lal
Website: www.practo.com
Type of Business: Finding and booking doctors appointments/ Practice management for doctors
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners India, Tencent, Sofina, Google Capital, Altimeter Capital
10) Zomato
Another Indian tech startup that is thinking global is restaurant search and discovery platform Zomato, which lists 1.4 million restaurants across 23 countries. Zomato shut down its Cashless business due to a lack of product-market fit, and laid off 300 employees in October. The startup is known to have a demanding work culture, its CEO's mail was widely circulated and dissected earlier this month. The seven year-old company has raised $223.8 million (roughly Rs. 1,450 crores) in eight funding rounds so far, having raised $60 million (roughly Rs. 400 crores) in its latest funding round in September.
Founder(s): Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah
Website: www.zomato.com
Type of Business: Restaurant discovery/ Food delivery
Investors: Info Edge India Ltd, Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Temasek
11) Inmobi
Ad-tech player InMobi featured in MIT Technology Review's Top 50 Disruptive Companies in 2013. The company launched its mobile discovery platform Miip in August, bundling it over 40,000 mobile apps at launch, as a complement to walled-garden experiences like Facebook or Twitter. Its tie up with China's Apus in September, could potentially help it to reach 500 million new users. In October, the went live with its partnership with content recommendation engine Taboola.
Founder(s): Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta
Headquarters:Bengaluru
Website: www.inmobi.com
Type of Business: Digital ads
Investors: Mumbai Angels, Sherpalo Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, SoftBank, Tennenbaum Capital Partners
12) Pepperfry
Furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry secured $100 million (roughly Rs. 667 crores) in its Series D funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group and Zodius Technology Fund in July this year, which it plans to use to enhance its logistics and invest in its technology team, apart from adding new experience centres.
Founder(s):Ambareesh Murty, Ashish Shah
Website: www.pepperfry.com
Type of Business: Furniture marketplace
Investors: Bertelsmann, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Zodius Capital
13) Saavn
Music streaming service Saavn closed a $100 million (roughly Rs. 635 crores) funding round led by Tiger Global Management in July this year. Saavn claimed a ten-fold increase in daily active users in India in September, and has recorded over 250 million streams a month.
(Also Read: Apple Music, Wynk, Gaana, Saavn, Rdio, Guvera, or Hungama: Which Is the Best Music Streaming Service in India?)
Founder(s): Rishi Malhotra, Vinodh V. Bhat, Paramdeep Singh
Headquarters: New York City
Website: www.saavn.com
Type of Business: Music streaming
Investors: Steadview Capital, India Internet Group, Tiger Global, Bertelsmann
14) Shopclues
Four year-old e-commerce marketplace Shopclues saw a $100 million funding round in January in its Series D in January. The company claims 50 million monthly visitors on its website, and targets tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Founder(s): Sanjay Sethi, Radhika Aggarwal
Website: www.shopclues.com
Investors: Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Tiger Global
15) Yepme
Yepme is an online private label fashion brand that targets customers in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, selling on other marketplaces, and also on its own site. The company offers apps on Android, iOS and Windows, apart for a mobile version of its website optimised for slow internet speeds.
Founder(s): Vivek Gaur, Anand Jadhav, Sandeep Sharma
Website: www.yepme.com
Type of Business: Online fashion retail
Funding in 2015($ Million): 97
Investors: Helion Venture Partners, Capricorn Investment Group, Khazanah Nasional Berhad
16) Delhivery
Gurgaon-based Delhivery is a logistics solutions provider for e-commerce companies owns and operates its own fulfillment centers, and is capable of fulfilling orders in a time-span of less than three hours. Its pan-India express delivery network is backed by in-house fulfillment and transportation management systems, customer analytics, geo-coding and route optimisation, and can enable delivery to customers within 12-48 hours.
Founder(s): Sahil Barua, Suraj Saharan, Mohit Tandon Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati
Website: www.delhivery.com
Investors: Times Internet, Nexus Venture Partners, Multiples Alternate Asset Management
17) Freecharge
Sequoia-backed FreeCharge offered recharge for prepaid mobile, postpaid bills, data cards, and DTH, when it was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015. FreeCharge launched its own digital wallet for making transaction across FreeCharge and Snapdeal platforms in September 2015, and claims a user base of 10 million wallet users.
Founder(s): Kunal Shah, Alok Goel
Website: www.freecharge.in
Type of Business: Mobile wallet
Investors:Sequoia Capital, InnoVen Capital, Sofina, ru-Net Holdings, Tybourne Capital
18) Bankbazaar
BankBazaar is a consumer-focused online marketplace for financial products, offering comparison tools and instant quotes for choosing loans, credit cards, and insurance. The company claims to have served over 50,000 customers, and works with over 35 partners.
Founder(s): Adhil Shetty
Headquarters: Chennai
Website: www.bankbazaar.com
Type of Business: Online marketplace for loans and insurance
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Walden International, Fidelity Growth Partners India, Amazon India
19) Manthan Systems
Manthan offers businesses big data analytics platforms and applications to enable them to take guided decisions in real-time. The company serves 170 customers across 21 countries.
Founder(s): Atul Jalan
Website: www.manthan.com
Type of Business: Retail analytics
Investors:Fidelity Investments, Norwest Venture Partners, ePlanet Capital, IDG Ventures India, Fidelity Growth Partners India, InnoVen Capital
20) Netmeds
Online pharma aggregator Netmeds.com raised $50 million (roughly Rs. 324 crores) in funding led by OrbiMed, a healthcare-dedicated investment firm in October. You can use Netmeds to get medicines delivered from your local pharmacies. Netmeds has apps on the App Store and Google Play, and delivers across India on a cash on delivery basis.
Founder(s): Pradeep Dadha
Website: www.netmeds.com
Type of Business: Online Pharmacy
Investors:MAPE Advisory Group, OrbiMed Advisors
21) Antuit
Big data startup Antuit generates business insights out of all forms of relevant business data using advanced analytics and visualisation techniques. Headquartered in Singapore, a majority of the team is based out of Bengaluru, with offices in Seattle, Auckland, and New York.
Founder(s):Arijit Sengupta
Headquarters: Singapore
Website: www.antuit.com
Type of Business: Business Analytics
Investors: Zodius Capital, Goldman Sachs
22) HomeLane
Homelane offers interior design solutions for homes, with a tech based portal that offers 3D visualisation features. The website boasts of over 500 interior designers in six cities, and promises delivery of the designs you choose in six weeks, with a five year warranty on purchases.
Founder(s): Srikanth Iyer, Rama Harinath, Prabhu Venkatesh, Srini Battula
Website: www.homelane.com
Type of Business: Online Furniture Design
Funding in 2015($ Million): 54.5*(unconfirmed)
. Founded In: 2014
Investors:Sequoia Capital, Aarin Capital
23) Urban Ladder
Urban Ladder claims to be India's leading online furniture and home décor company, and aims to be a one stop shop for everything a user needs to make their home beautiful. The three-year-old startup has raised $77 million (roughly Rs. 513 crores) in funding from top tier venture capital firms and investors.
Founder(s):Ashish Goel, Rajiv Srivatsa
Website: www.urbanladder.com
Investors: Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, Kalaari Capital, Sequoia Capital
24) BigBasket
Online grocery shopping startup Bigbasket claims to offer over 15,000 products for shopping on same-day delivery basis in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Mysore, Madurai, and Coimbatore. The site accepts cash payments, debit and credit cards and sodexo on delivery.
Founder(s): Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari
Website: www.bigbasket.com
Type of Business: Online grocery retail
Investors: Helion Venture Partners, Zodius Capital, LionRock Capital (Hong Kong), Bessemer Venture Partners
25) CarDekho
CarDekho.com provides users car research, details on finance and insurance, and has tie-ups with car manufacturers, finance and insurance companies. The site facilitates the purchase of both new and old cars, searchable by budget and brand.
Founder(s): Amit Jain, Anurag Jain
Headquarters: Jaipur
Website: www.cardekho.com
Type of Business: Online automotive marketplace
Investors: Sequoia Capital, HDFC Bank, Tybourne Capital Management (HK) Limited, Hillhouse Capital
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Further reading: 2015, Funding, India, Startups, Tracxn, Year In Review, Flipkart, Grofers, Ola, Paytm, Snapdeal
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Is Need for Speed Arena the Name of the Next Need for Speed Game?
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Articles tagged “space tourist”
Space junk is out of control, scientists say
by Sean McLachlan on Sep 2, 2011
It’s a dilemma faced by every adventure traveler: to find the perfect remote spot untouched by modernity, free from cell phones, television, and trash. Of course there is no such place, not even in space. In fact, the orbital detritus of modern life can be downright dangerous, scientists warn.
A new report from the National Research Council says there are so many bits of trash in orbit, ranging from defunct satellites to fragments like nuts and bolts, that they’re bumping into each other, breaking apart, and making more trash. Around 22,000 large pieces of space junk are tracked from the ground, occasionally prompting the International Space Station to maneuver out of the way, and there are hundreds of thousands of more pieces too small to be detected. It amounts to a cloud of trash surrounding the earth, as this NASA image shows.
This puts current astronauts and future space tourists in peril. With the high velocities objects achieve in orbit, it’s like having hundreds of thousands of bullets flying around the Earth.
And it’s getting worse. The BBC reports two satellites crashed in 2009 and broke apart. Also, the Chinese tested a satellite killer in 2007 that successfully smashed up its target into more than 150,000 pieces larger than a centimeter. The U.S. and Soviet Union tested similar weapons back in the 1960s and 1970s, creating their own clouds of debris.
Several manned spacecraft have been hit by space debris. Two Shuttle missions have had radiator panels in the cargo bay punctured by debris. The International Space Station and Mir have both suffered numerous impacts. Sometimes the damage is caused by natural micrometeorites.
One certain impact by space debris was in 1983 when a fleck of paint smacked into the space shuttle Challenger’s front window and left a crater, as you can see in this NASA image.
If a fleck of paint can do this to the Space Shuttle, imagine what an old rocket booster could do.
Space tourism celebrates tenth anniversary
by Sean McLachlan on Apr 30, 2011
Space tourism is ten years old this week. On 28 April 2001 millionaire Dennis Tito became the first person to go into space as a tourist and not an astronaut or scientist.
In an interview with BBC today he talked about how thrilled he was and called his eight days being in orbit “paradise.”
While space tourism is the ultimate in high-cost adventure travel–only seven people have done it so far and Tito is said to have paid $20 million for the privilege–private companies are hoping to make it more widely available. They also want to make it more comfortable. Tito was crammed “elbow to elbow” in a Russian capsule after NASA refused to put him on one of the Space Shuttles. Not that he cared at the time. Check out this video of Dennis Tito’s arrival at the International Space Station. The guy’s euphoric!
A number of private companies are looking into commercial space travel. The most serious contender is Virgin Galactic, which has already built a spaceport and put their spaceship Enterprise through a test flight. The company hopes to push an orbital trip down to $200,000, just one percent of what Tito paid. Who knows? Maybe good old free-market competition will push the price even lower than that.
Even more ambitious is Excalibur Almaz, a company based in the Isle of Man that has bought some Russian space capsules that they’re refurbishing. They boast that they’ll offer trips around the Moon by 2015.
Best of luck folks, but I won’t be looking for a Lonely Planet Outer Space in the bookstores anytime soon.
[Photo courtesy NASA]
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Virgin Galactic’s spaceship Enterprise flies first solo run
by Sean McLachlan on Oct 11, 2010
The world is one step closer to the era of space tourism after an historic flight in the Mojave desert yesterday.
Virgin Galactic’s spaceship Enterprise took its first solo flight, detaching from the mothership Eve and landing on its own power.
Enterprise can carry six passengers and two crew. The mothership Eve carries Enterprise up into the sky before the Enterprise detaches and ignites its rocket, shooting it above the atmosphere and into space, but not high enough to achieve orbit. The rocket was not fired on this test flight and no passengers were on board. The crew consisted of pilots Pete Siebold and Mike Alsbury, who flew for 25 minutes before landing.
More than three hundred people have already signed up to take a suborbital ride on the Enterprise once it becomes operational. Rides cost $200,000 each and are scheduled to start in about eighteen months.
The British owner of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson, watched the test. The success of the operation came as good news after Virgin Galactic’s financial difficulties.
Would you fly into space if you had the money? Tell us what you think in the comments section!
Virgin Galactic launcher delayed
by Sean McLachlan on Oct 2, 2010
We’ve covered space tourism company Virgin Galactic a lot here on Gadling. What hasn’t gotten so much discussion is LauncherOne, a rocket that would take off from the WhiteKnightTwo mother ship, the same ship that carries SpaceshipTwo. While SpaceShipTwo is a space plane that would detach from the mother ship and fly into the high atmosphere, LauncherOne is a more conventional rocket that would carry a satellite weighing up to 440 lbs into low orbit.
Originally it was supposed to start sending satellites into space a year after the space tourism business started, but now LauncherOne is in trouble. The manager of the project has left and there’s no timetable for getting the system operational. One UK satellite company has backed out of discussions about using LauncherOne.
Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson said the tourism business is still on track and will start sending tourists into the highest reaches of the atmosphere within 18 months at the price of $200,000 a pop. More than three hundred people have already signed up.
What does LauncherOne’s troubles mean for space tourism? That’s not so clear. While the LauncherOne isn’t part of Virgin Galactic’s tourism service, it makes the whole program more financially viable. Without the fees charged to satellite owners to use LauncherOne, Virgin Galactic may have to raise its prices or shove in more passengers. Will coach class come to space? Stay tuned.
[Photo courtesy Mark Greenberg and Virgin Galactic]
Boeing enters the space tourism market
Aerospace giant Boeing announced on Wednesday that it is entering the space tourism market by selling extra seats on future flights to the International Space Station. The company has developed a “space taxi” that will shuttle astronauts to the ISS once NASA officially retires the Space Shuttle sometime next year, and is partnering with Space Adventures, a company that has a history in organizing space flights for wealthy private citizens.
Boeing is currently bidding for the NASA contract to ferry astronauts into orbit, and has designed a new spacecraft known as the CST-100 or Crew Space Transportation-100. That small ship is expected to have seven seats, with several remaining empty on most flights. Those seats would be sold off to help fund the program, with tickets being sold at a price tag that is expected to appeal to very wealthy, and adventurous, travelers. No specific price points have been announced yet, but officials say that the flights will be competitive with trips aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which Space Adventures also brokers deals for. The last such flight cost Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte a cool $35 million and included a 10-day stay aboard the ISS.
For now, Boeing’s entry into the space tourism field is just a plan that may not come to fruition until 2015. But investors are taking notice because this is the first time that such a large company, with a background in aerospace, has actually placed any kind of focus on opening the market for civilian travelers to go into orbit. Their entry into the field lends legitimacy to space tourism, which many had seen as a pipe dream until now.
[Photo credit: Boeing]
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Bournemouth Borough Council
Bournemouth Parks,
Queens Park Pavilion,
Queens Park West Drive,
BH8 9BY
Website: www.bournemouth.gov.uk
Email: parks@bournemouth.gov.uk
Bournemouth Borough Council allow geocaching on their land but you need to apply for permission before placing a cache. Not all land is included. Caches cannot be placed in the following specific locations:
Horseshoe Common, the Lower Gardens, cemeteries or memorial gardens and any areas that are fenced off.
You may view the full agreement on the Bournemouth Borough Council website - click here. There is a link on that page to email the Parks team with your request to place a geocache.
N.B. The council currently only allow a maximum of 100 'caches' in Bournemouth at any time.
A council map showing the area covered is here
A map overlay (.kml) showing the area covered can be downloaded here.
The map overlays can be downloaded and opened in Google Earth which is a free download for a PC and also as apps for Apple and Android. (N.B. These maps do not form part of any legal representation of land ownership and are created simply as a guide to areas for the purposes of placing a geocache container or marking an area where these are not permitted).The council have been asked to supply an updated and accurate map however they are not replying to any emails. The Google map overlay has been hand drawn from one that appears on the Council website. It is as accurate as possible. If there is a disagreement over exactly whether an area is or isn't council land then it is up to the cache placer to check the location/coordinates with the council directly.
Refer to the council's webpage (details above).
England/Dorset.
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BOOKS ON NAVAJO POETRY by ANTHONY K. WEBSTER and CHARLES OLSON edited by JOSHUA HOEYNCK
T.C. MARSHALL Reviews
Explorations in Navajo Poetry and Poetics by Anthony K. Webster
(University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, 2009)
The Principle of Measure in Composition by Field: Projective Verse II by Charles Olson, Ed. Joshua Hoeynck
(Chax Press, Tucson, AZ, 2010)
FEELINGFUL ICONICITY
The dully academic wording of their titles is not the only thing these
two books have in common; they are both exciting books of poetics based in feeling. Not feelings, simple emotionality or sentiment, what Olson theorized here and practiced elsewhere and what Webster here minutely details about Navajo poetics includes both brain science and social science. Olson’s source, what he works his ideas off of, is Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality; Webster is working in the dissertation mode of including a multitude of references to show his thorough familiarity with the field, but his most central and exciting concept is “feelingful iconicity.” This “turn of phrase,” as he calls it, goes all the way back to one of Olson’s other sources, Edward Sapir’s Language. It is also cited as developed by Webster from three other scholars who write about “the felt attachments that accrue to expressive forms” (9).
That’s the kind of academic language we’re subject to in Webster’s book, but it’s worth the weight. If you carry the heavy load of figuring out or even halfway sussing out what is being said in this lingo, a poet can make good use of this book. It is not just about the Diné world; it is about all poetry or at least as much as allows itself to see how feeling is a basic function of mind. He also “attends to language as action and not language as abstraction” (9). Though Webster uses both of these concepts mostly in relation to performances of poetry, he is also theorizing about a performativity in language itself—the place where audience meets something in language and makes something of it. One chapter deals with “ideophones,” bits of language that “create a sense of ‘sound symbolic involvement’,” borrowing that idea from Janis Nuckolls et al. These “affective-imagistic uses of language” are sometimes onomatopoetic and sometimes otherwise iconic sounds of the poet’s linguistic world like the naming of places in a local way that does not translate for others(52-53). “The ideophony found in contemporary Navajo poetry can certainly be considered both poetic and political,” Webster concludes after looking at how Navajo poets “actively select” this trope. “Since it can be linked back to a variety of verbal genres it gains feelingful iconicity as a sign of continuity” of Navajo-ness, and it is “also aesthetically pleasing and thus delights as well” (79). Ut moveat, ut doceat, ut delectet, was the way the Roman rhetorical theorist Rodolphus Agricola, and Ezra Pound borrowing from him, put it: poetry moves and teaches and delights.
Webster himself does all three things as he details the ways in which contemporary Navajo poets like Laura Tohe, Lucy Tapahonso, Rex Lee Jim, and others make their audiences think about language-ing in poetry. “Jim is quoted as saying, “most of my poems are written to stimulate thoughts and that involves thinking about semantics and etymology.” Webster tells us that “some of the Navajos that I have spoken to about Jim’s poetry have pointed to the semantic ambiguity that he evokes through his poetry as a positive aesthetic achievement” and he asserts that this “resonates with a general Navajo ethos that I have heard, t’áá bee bóholnííh or, in English, “it’s up to him/her to decide” (70). This kind of observation, based in statements by the people involved, is the concrete basis for Webster’s achievement in this book. We get to see that Navajo/Diné poetics is fully complex, not just some re-iteration of a simply recognizable identity. Webster’s study is a serious appreciation in gorgeous detail of that poetics at work in and from those who create it anew in each context they enter. There is an aesthetic of “felt connections that linger” (127) here but not as nostalgia or other sentimentalization. Webster establishes a scholarly but not intellectualized framework for a whole ideology of language that is “not about language alone” but about how language-acts “enact ties to identity, to aesthetics, to morality, and to epistemology.” He goes on quoting from fellow scholar Kathryn Woolard to point out how such linguistic ideologies “underpin” the poets’ “linguistic form and use” (82).
That’s where Mr. Olson and his master Whitehead come in. We have a new opportunity with Joshua Hoeynck’s edition of the follow-up work by Olson in the later Fifties on his idea of “projective verse.” Hoeynck’s introduction is a valuable guide to the thoughts here, their origins, and their relation what came before them in the famous letter to Elaine Feinstein and the first essay on this approach to a poetics. With this framework, the book is valuable to poets, literary scholars, Olson readers, and maybe even philosophers because of its generous work with Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality and several of its central ideas like “impetus” and “strain.” Olson picked up those terms from Whitehead’s book and transferred use of them into his poetics. It appears to me that Olson had discovered for himself, the way a writer does, his own impetus for writing as it came out of the masters of his age, like Pound and Williams, and found in Whitehead thinking that confirmed this poetic push. Hoeynck’s intro begins in a balanced discussion of Olson’s placement of his masters at the hinge point of entry into this new thought and practice of his. He then positions Whitehead where Olson found him and focuses through Olson’s use of a couple of key chapters in Process and Reality. “By drafting his essays from these two chapters, Olson transforms the vocabulary of Whitehead’s philosophy of science into a language for metrics and quantitative verse.” This can be seen, as I see it, as an act of finding a vocabulary to fit a practice rather than finding a concept first. Nevertheless, it seems to confirm Olson’s poetics as “engaging with things, environments, and the heterogeneity of the actual world, what Olson names ‘the variety of order in creation’ in the opening proposition of ‘Projective Verse II’” (10).
This engagement and the emphasis in it on feeling are what seems to me to connect with the Navajo poetics discussed in Webster’s book. If we read all of Hoeynck’s edition with its useful endnotes, bringing in the passages Olson used from Process and Reality and the notes he made in his copy of that book along with some of the thoughts on those notes that Hoeynck points out from Robin Blaser’s essay “The Violets,” we can get a deep look into both Olson’s practice of adopting and adapting scientific thought and his practice of writing poems. His voiced line as its own unit of measure makes a lot of sense when you see how he gets help from Whitehead at denying the validity of the kind of counted bits usually used in measuring the world that the philosopher calls “infinitesimals” (11 & 16 & 41-42). Hoeynck characterizes Olson rightly as “a poet who sensitively registers the relations between the evolving properties of the cosmos and the mind” and who evolves his own theory of projective verse “upon discovering Whitehead’s suggestion that ‘There is nothing in the real world which is merely an inert fact. Every reality is there for feeling; and it is felt’” (11-12 & 21). The trick then, with the help of scientific philosophy, is to make a poetics of feeling that is not a poesy of feelings. The Navajo/Diné do this with a great long tradition behind and around them of perception and concepts that go beyond the personal without leaving it out.
Olson’s way of building such a possibility for himself and others stretches a taut line across a kind of boundary of the personal, with Whitehead’s help. This is where he went beyond Pound and Williams’ efforts in this direction too. The poem itself is a kind of “line” in a larger field by which it is measured. “Projective Verse II” begins with a set of propositions numbered in the form of formal logic. After these, three “magnitudes” are proposed for the poem:
the ‘line’ of the poem (which would previously have been called its ‘ form’—what it is, from beginning to end);
its material of ‘field’, here called ‘impetus’; and
its condition as intrinsic to itself, that by which this poem differs from all other poems which have been or might be written, what can be called its own ‘obstructiveness’
This set-up is commented upon in Blaser’s essay now collected in his U.C. Press book The Fire (222). Hoeynck uses Blaser to help show how Olson took a thought from Whitehead and transformed it into one about “the poem”:
The inside of a poem, its volume, has a complete boundedness denied to the extensive potentiality external to it. The boundedness applies both to the spatial and temporal aspects of extension. Wherever there is ambiguity as to the contrast of boundedness between inside and outside, there is no proper poem.
What Olson did here was merely to rewrite in his marginal notes a passage from page 301 of his Process and Reality and replace the word “region” with the word “poem.” Hoeynck and Blaser show us clearly that this demonstrates the kind of awareness that Olson brought to his reading of Process and Reality. He was looking for concepts that applied to a sense of the poem as an extension of some perception that would impetuously pause to show itself. All us O-heads know it: “FORM IS NEVER MORE THAN AN EXTENSION OF CONTENT,” from Creeley in the original “Projective Verse” essay of 1951. But here we have more.
The “Letter to Elaine Feinstein” that we have had at least since Auerhahn and then Grove published Human Universe and other Essays in the mid-Sixties was written in 1959, just after these things that Charles Alexander at his Chax Press in Tucson has now published for Hoeynck and us all. We see there that Olson is shooting for “the replacement of the Classical-representational by the primitive-abstract” and he wishes to “mean of course not at all primitive in that stupid use of it as opposed to civilized.” He asserts that he “means it now as ‘primary,’ as how one finds anything, pick it up as one does new—fresh/first.” We have all learned from the original “P.V.” essay that this means “kinetics” and that is “energy transferred from where the poet got it, by way of the poem itself to, all the way over to, the reader.” And that Olson’s masterly friend Edward Dahlberg taught him that “ONE PERCEPTION MUST IMMEDIATELY AND DIRECTLY LEAD TO A FURTHER PERCEPTION” (H.U. Grove 52). But there is more. In the 1959 letter, it is a discussion on the Image and its placement in a “basic trio: of “topos/typos/tropos” that centers the “obstructiveness” of the Whitehead notes of ’58 in a process of Image that Olson names with another Whitehead term as a “vector.” In his final succinct wording of it for Feinstein, we have: “Place…plus one’s own bent plus what one can know.” This is what carries Image beyond “the dead-spot of description” where “Nothing was happening as of the poem itself” because it was too simply “referential to reality” (H.U. Grove 96-98). By supplying the working thoughts of Charles Olson from the winter of 1957-58, Hoeynck and Alexander have provided the means to see the further push of a poetics that sought to have a physical basis, that is—one in physics and in the body. In the next couple of years, Olson would start to call it “proprioception.”
Here in this new old book, we can see the interplay of this science and poetics in passages like the following:
Why metric has had to change to do with quantity, the restoration of attention to the implicated character of the physical in everything--All things are vectors, among them systematic order thrives. This is private truth as well. Feelings are vector, the vector character of them is fundamental.
Olson then quotes the bit from Whitehead on feelings that I put in earlier, and he goes on to quote “All origination is private. But what has been thus originated publicly pervades the world” (21). Hoeynck’s notes show us that he might also have used another passage in which he did some underlining:
Thus the primitive experience is emotional feeling, felt in its relevance to a world beyond. … Also feeling, and reference to an exterior world, pass into appetition, which is the feeling of determinate relevance to a world about to be. In the phraseology of physics, this primitive experience is ‘vector feeling,’ that is to say, feeling from a beyond which is determinate and pointing to a beyond which is to be determined” (43).
This proprioceptive basis is now confirmed by brain science like that of Antonio Damasio. Olson put it directly in what Hoeynck presents as the “Notes on Poetics (toward Projective Verse II)”: Physical memory and causation spring from the same root: they are both physical perception.” And the next sentence, beginning the next paragraph asserts that a “poem has so many things to which it must do equal justice if it is to establish its own bounds (be inclusive)” (34).
I will leave the subsequent list of those elements, where the “intent here is to say it all,” for your reading of this slim but widely useful volume. It is provocative, instructive, deepening, and dang near if not wholly essential for us as we struggle our way between a here & now where we have something to say and we have to say something, and a beyond where the unbounded is both what informs this world and what serves it with potential content as it takes form coming into our time. That’s what this book does too, with “feelingful iconicity.”
T.C. Marshall is busy occupying his life, seriously supporting movement actions on the Cabrillo College campus where he teaches and in the S.F. and Monterey Bay areas where he lives. He has been writing and publishing poetry since first grade, literary criticism since his college days in the U.S. and Canada, and nature writing here and there. His latest publications include online essays and reviews as well as poems online and on paper in magazines. His next project is a set of poems incorporating photos to be published on a blog, all of which were originally posted on FaceBook. They are called Post Language.
Posted by EILEEN at 10:00 PM
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