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crackaud.io
What Just Happened?
Issue 108 out now across Europe and New York
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How Björk and collaborator James Merry brought Vulnicura VR to life
Words by: Emily Mackay
“Healing from heartbreak or from [losing] a loved one, you literally feel like somebody tore your arm off, and the bone is sticking out – you have that amount of pain,” Björk says. “Then when you show it to your friends, nobody can see anything. So I was trying to use the VR to program what you can’t see, but it actually is physical reality for the person who goes through it.”
Vulnicura VR, released last week, makes the pain of Björk’s 2015 heartbreak album powerfully immediate. Watching fully immersive videos such as Notget in which she appears as a vengeful, fiery moth-goddess, singing out her frustrations as a dark and ominous squid-like creature circles over your head, fill you with a sense of her rage and despair. Jesse Kanda’s Mouth Mantra, in which the inside of Björk’s mouth becomes a claustrophobic, twisting hellscape, immerses you in her claustrophobic fear, and Quicksand, in which she appears as a celestial form guiding you up through stars and nebulae, brings you up with the rush of her recovery.
It’s the first true virtual reality album, in which each song experience is part of a bigger whole; a narrative arc uniting them all. Yet it’s not even Björk’s first attempt at creating one. Back in the 90s, when hype around the technology was hitting its first peak, she had tried to create a VR experience for her 1997 album Homogenic. At the time, many believed that VR was going to be humanity’s next big paradigm shift after the internet. The tech of the time, though, couldn’t fulfil the promise: too clunky and too expensive, it certainly wasn’t fit to form to the world that Björk wanted to build, and the project was shelved. For Björk, as for the rest of the world, VR went on the back burner.
Then, in 2013, the first Oculus Rift headsets were released. Björk and her creative director and right-hand man James Merry went to visit a few virtual reality specialists, including Max Weisel, who’d worked on her Biophilia app album, and CCP Games, producers of the massively multiplayer online game EVE Online (and a descendant of OZ Communications, a party in the shelved Homogenic project). In early 2014 they got their own Rift and set it up in Björk’s kitchen. Trying out the likes of Tomáš Mariančík’s Sightline, a game which plays with ideas of vision and perception, they could see that VR was ready for Björk’s ideas at last. “It felt like the technology had a momentum, that it was ready to be not just this kind of esoteric thing,” says Björk. “You could actually embody it and give it an emotional content and share it.”
The emotional content she had to share at that moment was, she felt, perfect for VR: Vulnicura, her very traditional heartbreak album, which documents her painful split from longtime partner Matthew Barney. In comparison to the big-picture abstraction of the science and nature-focused Biophilia, she found herself in “this kind of Maria Callas or Edith Piaf cliche role that the patriarchy has given women, which is: they are allowed to be powerful and strong if they self-destruct at the end of it, so they are not a threat”. Such a conventional narrative, she felt, with a relatively conservative musical form dominated by strings and voice, would hold its own in a rich medium like VR, which could become the vehicle for a journey of healing and empowerment. Although, she says self-deprecatingly, “it sounds self-helpy”, it’s based in firm science: virtual environments have long been used not just to train surgeons, but also in physical therapy and the treatment of trauma.
In 2015, MoMA commissioned Björk to create a new artwork for her retrospective exhibition, and with Andrew Thomas Huang, who’d directed the video for Biophilia’s Mutual Core, she set about trying to find a way to embody the song Black Lake, Vulnicura’s heart of darkness, in the gallery. Filming in a lava tube cave in Iceland, using HD cameras on drones, they worked to replicate the claustrophobia of both the ravine in Japan where Björk had written the song, and the descent into darkness and panic that it documents. The initial plan was to build a dome inside MoMA that would immerse visitors in 360-degree audiovisual experience. After many meetings and negotiations, it eventually became a dual-screen installation with bespoke surround sound and a near-replica of the cave where the video was filmed.
“People were actually crying in their headsets and very emotional. We could see what worked and what didn't work”
“It was just so complicated, a really simple idea changed like 20 times,” says Björk. “We really enjoyed that process… but me and Andy were just like, there’s got to be a way to do that spontaneously. We don’t need the museum world. VR, that’s the museum of the future. That’s a private museum for one.” While finishing Black Lake in Iceland, Huang borrowed a 360 camera, and he and Björk headed down to a beach on the small island of Grótta, the spot where Björk had written Stonemilker, to film her performing it. When the 360-degree video, in which multiple Björks sing to you and circle around you at intimately close quarters, was finished, Björk faced the problem of how best to get it to people: few actually own a VR headset, and galleries hadn’t proved the best fit for her.
“I was going like a pilgrim every week to Rough Trade Brooklyn, buying the last CDs in the universe, and we were like, how about we put headsets here? Maybe that’s the new home for VR,” she says. “I’ve been part of running a tiny record shop in Iceland since I was 14, so I am very interested in the community that’s around record shops, that you cannot replace with just downloading or streaming music. So we set up several VR headsets in Rough Trade, both in Brooklyn and Bethnal Green and that went really, really well. And then we were like, OK… one thing it’s really easy for musicians is to do a gig, sell tickets and then you pay for whatever you did with the ticket sales.”
A few months later, Björk announced the Björk Digital exhibitions, which added to Vulnicura VR, video by video, as they toured the world. “We were keeping one eye on VR technology and how it was progressing and one eye on what we wanted to make, seeing how they overlapped,” says Merry. That slow development – VR isn’t cheap to do independently – allowed them to road-test and tweak. “People were actually crying in their headsets and very emotional. We could see what worked and what didn’t work,” said Björk. “The first mixes I did of the music I was so excited about the 360, I was making everything fly around and that was just making people seasick.”
The sound proved to be one of the trickiest problems. “The first few trials we did, it was always like, OK, this looks great, but it sounds awful,” says Merry. Björk’s mastering engineers Mandy Parnell and Martin Korth set about nailing album-quality sound in a virtual reality environment. “VR audio is still uncharted territory in terms of standard approaches and best practices, so we basically had to invent our own methods to get to our goal, which was to realize Björk’s artistic vision,” says Korth. “The biggest difference is that there is no ‘mix’ in a traditional sense in VR, everything is dynamic and reacts to the head tracking and movement of the person wearing the headset. So the mix you are hearing is going to be different from the mix I am hearing and if you play it back twice, it is going to be different again.”
In Vulnicura VR, there are two types of sonic experience: 360 audio, with the listener at the centre and the sound and visuals arranged around them, and full VR experiences, where you move freely in a virtual space, such as Family and Notget, where Björk’s voice comes from her avatar in the virtual world. The challenge was to make this something that users could notice and experiment with by moving around, but still make it subtle enough so that the mix was always balanced. Each song has a unique spatial arrangement: in Stonemilker, the strings are arranged in a circle around you, while at the end of Quicksand, they rotate around you with the stars in the sky. “We did not necessarily try to reproduce reality with the spatial arrangements but rather use spatial audio in an artistic way,” says Korth.
Even with those problems solved, they faced the problem of sewing together the work of six different companies and six directors, on four different softwares, into one whole VR album. That Analog Studios managed to do just that is, says Merry, “a feat of magic”, but one that feels very natural as an experience. The home setting is the same spot in the Icelandic wilderness where Black Lake was filmed. As you enter, colourful threads fly, twining and snaking, over your head and spell out the album title; plants bloom under your cursor as you click on the ground. Similarly to Biophilia’s apps, each song is a point in the landscape that you move towards, each accompanied, as on Biophilia, by animated visual scores by composer and inventor Stephen Malinowski, and seven out of nine with VR videos.
The course through the songs charts a progression through heartbreak, from shock to rock-bottom to the stirrings of recovery, and also eases the viewer into VR’s potential. Most visitors to the Björk Digital exhibitions, says Merry, were trying VR for the first time, and beginning with the more naturalistic videos allowed them to adapt easily. “I tried to imagine if my grandmother or somebody would put the headset on and they hated VR,” says Björk. “And if I would first play them Stonemilker and then Lionsong, Black Lake, and go through all the songs … by the time they would get to Notget they would be like: ‘Yeah this feels organic. This is like drinking milk’.”
That arc also ensures the stress is on the cathartic emotion of the VR experience rather than the whizz-bang visual effects from the off. “I think the temptation is always to add fireworks in and birds flying through the air and everything moving and shifting,” says Merry. “But actually, with this album it was very clear that it had to be very empty and sparse. We actually wanted it to feel airless and claustrophobic… Björk was really insistent and rightly so, that that was all kind of done with the sound.”
For both Björk and Merry, the high point is Family, the newest video, directed once more by Huang. It very literally ties together all Vulnicura’s visual symbolism: you move with Björk through the underground tunnel of the lava tube, directing threads with your hands to sew up a vivid wound in her chest and finally – in a moment that feels both oppressive and exhilarating – through black sculptures of her wounded body, up towards the day and the light. Perhaps the most emotional moment is when the Björk avatar – who has been standing intimately close – moves through you like a ghost: it’s shocking and shivering, shattering a fourth wall that games and even VR experiences don’t usually break. “I wanted to tap into the metaphysical part of VR,” says Björk, “and what we were seeing in the audience of the VR exhibitions when they put the headsets on… people see the avatar from afar and identify, ‘OK, that’s over there,’ and then it would be walking towards you and you would see it from the point of view as if you are the avatar. And then we made it sew together its own wound and then it would stand up and heal, and the avatar would grow and go like twice the size… that seemed to be really effective to people when that happened.”
Those moments of powerful emotional release underline the great potential VR could have for the arts, one we’re likely to see more musicians tapping as the cost comes down and headsets become more commonplace. “I think in theory it should be much easier now to do it,” says Merry. “If we were making this now, it would be a piece of cake.”
“I think it’s going to be a lot easier to do VR in a few years and not cost that much money,” agrees Björk. “But I also don’t think everything should be in VR… I still love going to concerts with like a string quartet with no visuals – like oh my god, yes, I get breaks for my eyes, and I like hiking and listening to podcasts, and I can just use my eyes to take in the landscape, and then I want to go and watch like the new Star Wars movie in 5.1 sound and the biggest cinema in Iceland. I think we want variety.”
If nobody really thinks VR is going to be the future of everything anymore, Vulnicura VR still stands as an important milestone, a testament to the medium’s potential for art, and for emotional healing. Björk believes that it taps into deep-seated narratives from mythologies around the world: the hero who descends into the underworld and is reborn, and in Family, stories of giants and beings of light. “It’s in Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, and in millions of tales, where you do some sort of psychological work on yourself, and your reward is you rise above the daily struggles and pain.” She chuckles. “I mean, only for a moment.”
All imagery courtesy of Björk.
Vulnicura VR is out now on Steam and Vive Port. Head to our store to purchase a copy of Björk’s Crack Magazine cover.
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Tue 3rd Dec
FreeThe price you'll pay. No surprises later.
Bermondsey Social Club
Railway Arch, 19 Almond Rd, London SE16 3LR
DICE protects fans and artists from touts. We’re a mobile app for iOS and Android. Tickets will be securely stored on your phone.
London-based trio Benin City combine spoken word poetry with electronica and brass to catchy yet poignant effect. The group formed in 2008, when poet Joshua Idehen stumbled across Theo Buckingham playing drums at a squat party. Without introducing himself, Idehen approached Buckingham and began to recite poetry over the drums, serendipitously creating the core idea behind Benin City; the name itself comes from the Nigerian town from which Idehen's parents originally hailed.
At first the pair invited a host of musicians to take part in the project, leading to a seven-piece band that performed at parties around London; they specifically cut their teeth at the Dalston-centric venue Passing Clouds. As the idea to put out a record began to form, the group shrank to a three-piece that included the two originators and Tom Leaper on sax and strings.
This free ticket does not guarantee entry - please arrive in good time.
Presented by Benin City.
This is an 18+ event.
Check out more events in London
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Contemporary Church History Quarterly
News, reviews, & commentary on contemporary religious history with a focus on Germany & Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Browse: Home » Theologians Under Hitler
“Understanding Twenty-first Century Christian Nationalism and Its Antecedents: A Scholarly Conversation”
September 1, 2019 · by the Editors · in Articles, Volume 25 Number 3 (September 2019)
Contemporary Church History Quarterly Volume 25, Number 3 (September 2019) “Understanding Twenty-first Century Christian Nationalism and Its Antecedents: A Scholarly Conversation” By Victoria J. Barnett, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (retired) and Robert P. Ericksen, Pacific Lutheran University (retired) The…
May 1, 2008 · by John S. Conway · in ACCH Newsletters
Association of Contemporary Church Historians (Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler) John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia May 2008— Vol. XIV, no. 5 Dear Friends, Contents: 1) DVD review: Theologians under Hitler, Storm Troopers of Christ 2) Book reviews a) Dramm,…
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Volume 25, Number 3 (September 2019)
Letter from the Editors (September 2019)
Review of Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism
Review of Karl-Joseph Hummel and Michael Kißener, eds., Catholics and Third Reich: Controversies and Debates
Review of Anita Rasi May, Patriot Priests: French Catholic Clergy and National Identity in World War I
Review of James Enns. Saving Germany: North American Protestants and Christian Mission to West Germany, 1945-1974
“Victoria Barnett’s Retirement from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum”
Article Note: Jouni Tilli, “’Deus Vult!’ The Idea of Crusading in Finnish Clerical War Rhetoric, 1941-1944”
Article Note: Julio de la Cueva, “Violent Culture Wars: Religion and Revolution in Mexico, Russia and Spain in the Interwar Period”
Copyright © 2020 Contemporary Church History Quarterly
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Tag Archives: Cake
Filed under Desserts
It’s that time of year again.
Even though I live on the West Coast and the seasons don’t really ‘change’ here, late September is the time of year that I finally start to accept that autumn is upon us and that I can and should start baking those autumn flavored foods.
Oh yeah. Late September is also my birthday.
I turn thirty today y’all. 3-0.
It’s not that I think 30 is old, but it feels weird that I’ve reached it. I have literally no idea where the last decade went. It’s been a whole lot of change and transition. I can honestly say I never would foresaw any of it. But I am grateful. My 20s were…something lol. I’m looking forward to 30 hitting much differently.
My birthday usually passes by without very much fanfare. But for the past few years, I have given myself a tradition/present of baking myself a birthday cake. I had a little less time this year to go all out than I did last year, but I still wanted my cake, so I just went with something nice and easy–but still delicious.
If there’s one thing that autumn put me in the mind of and the mood to have, it’s apple cider. I’m a Midwestern girl, so cider mills, cider and apple cider donuts and the like are a huge part of my childhood. It feels weird if I go without them. This year for my 30th birthday on the West coast, I thought I would give myself a present that would remind me of the Midwest.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ve seen that I have a huge interest in making a bunch of variations on pound cake. It’s a Blank Canvas recipe; wonderful on its own, even better the more flavor variations you can give to it.
This pound cake is flavored with all of the autumn spices, as well as one full cup of apple cider. The smells alone while it baked reminded me of being back in the Midwest. After it finished baking, I rubbed it with a cinnamon sugar coating. It’s that cinnamon sugar coating that really made me feel as though I was biting into a denser, richer apple cider donut. It’s truly delicious.
Happy autumn to all, and Happy 30th to me.
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
For Cinnamon Sugar Coating
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10-16 cup Bundt pan.
In a medium size bowl combine the flour, spices, salt and baking powder and stir together with a fork. Set aside. Combine the apple cider with the vanilla extract in a small bowl, set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, or using a large bowl and a hand-held one, cream together the butter and flour until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula in between.
Add the flour and the apple cider mixtures alternately the the egg-butter mixture. Start and end with the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
Pour and spread the batter in the bundt pan. Lift and tap the pan against the countertop a couple of times in order to prevent air bubbles while baking. Place the bundt pan on a sheet pan.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven, for about 50-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Mine baked fast, so check it early, especially if you have a gas stove) Cakes are done at an inner temp of 195F-200F.
Transfer cake to cooling rack set inside baking sheet and cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert directly onto cooling rack.
For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating: Combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in small bowl. Sprinkle warm cake with cinnamon sugar, using fingers to rub it onto sides.
Cool cake completely for about one hour before serving with whipped cream or ice cream.
Linking to Fiesta Friday #295, co-hosted this week by the wonderful Mollie @ Frugal Hausfrau.
Rosemary Pound Cake
When it comes to the list of my favorite fresh herbs to use in the kitchen, rosemary is right at the top.
I love the clean, fresh smell. I love that the leaves are easier to pluck off the stems than some other herbs (looking at you thyme).
Up until today, pretty much all of my culinary uses for rosemary were for savory dishes. I can’t and don’t do without it at the holidays when I’m roasting my turkey. It lends itself so well to braises and stews of all kinds, but especially those with poultry.
For this past year’s 12 Days of Christmas, I baked with it for the first time in savory rosemary and thyme flavored crackers that I really enjoyed.
Today’s post marked the first time I ever baked something sweet using rosemary. I was really intrigued going into it, but also a little nervous. The general concern with using rosemary in whatever you’re cooking, is over seasoning with it. Like lavender, too much rosemary in a dish can make it up tasting like soap. Blegh.
I said in a post a couple months back that pound cake is a blank canvas recipe. That means, that It tastes wonderful all on its own, but the addition of extra ingredients can take those muted flavors and turn them into something even tastier. I’ve tried this concept multiple times with other pound cakes on the blog and I thought that it would interesting to try and see what rosemary could do as a flavor booster.
I was very pleased with how this turned out. The texture itself is just as pound cake should be, but the obvious star is the rosemary. It gives such a unique, but delicious flavor that manages to temper the sweetness of the cake, while also giving a freshness that can almost fool you into thinking it’s “lighter” than pound cake actually is. It almost makes it taste more….grown up, flavor-wise. If that makes any sense.
This is an easy and special dessert and I think you should try it. The End.
Recipe Courtesy of Martha Stewart
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup cake flour (make sure it’s not self-rising)
1 tablespoon baking power
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or preferably vanilla bean paste)
3 large eggs, plus 1 egg white
For Glaze
A few teaspoons of water or milk
Grease and flour a 16 cup tube pan (Or 2 9×5 inch loaf pans). Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a medium size bowl combine the flours, baking powder, salt. Stir together with a fork, then set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or using a handheld one) cream together the butter, sugar, chopped rosemary and vanilla on medium speed until pale and fluffy (it’ll take about 4-5 minutes).
Add the eggs and the egg white, 1 at a time, mixing just until combined after every addition.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the milk (starting and ending with flour) mixing just until combined after every addition.
Spread the batter into the prepared tube pan (or loaf pans). Tap pan a few times against the countertop to minimize air bubbles.
Place the pan on a sheet tray and bake on the middle rack of the oven, 50-65 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with only a few crumbs attached. (The baking time will be dependent upon which pan you used.) Inner temp of cake should be 195-200F.
Allow the cake to cool in pan on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes before turning out of the pan and allowing to completely cool.
If desired, stir together both ingredients for the glaze, until it reaches the consistency you want. Use the tines of a fork to drizzle it on top of the cooled cake. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes, until glaze has completely hardened before serving.
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #284, co-hosted this week by Diann @ Of Goats and Greens and Petra @ Food Eat Love.
Strawberry Pound Cake
In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel like I should give this post a theme. Let’s call it “When Things Don’t Turn Out The Way You Want Them To, But It’s Okay.”
This cake didn’t turn out the way that I wanted it to. But it’s okay. So, I’m sharing it anyway.
A Poke Cake is a dessert where a baked, still warm cake gets holes poked through it while it’s still in the pan, then a warm liquid (usually a custard or curd) gets poured into the holes. Once it’s given time to set up, the liquid in the poked holes forms a pretty streaky filling in the cake.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
But, as y’all can see: there is no streaky filling in my cake.
Those of you who are bakers know how this story goes. You try out a new recipe and hope for the best…and sometimes the best just doesn’t happen. It’s not the worst–but it’s not best either.
Had everything with this cake gone exactly according to my plan, then you guys would currently be able to see pretty strawberry streaks running up and down, all the way through it. Y’know, the way a Poke Cake is supposed to look. But unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. The cake itself baked up beautifully. The strawberry filling came together easily. But when it came time to poke the cake full of holes and pour the filling over the top so that it could seep inside, for some reason it just didn’t budge.
Some of you may be wondering, if the Strawberry Poke Cake didn’t work out, then why are you still posting the recipe, Jess?
Well first, it was still an absolutely delicious pound cake. Second, although it may not qualify as a Poke Cake, there was still a delicious strawberry filling on one side, and an equally delicious strawberry icing on the other. In light of that, I saw no reason why it couldn’t qualify as a Strawberry Pound Cake.
Third, I thought that maybe I’d go ahead and post the recipe anyway to see if one of you wanted to try it and might have better success than I did. Then maybe, you’ll come back here and post a comment to let me know how it turned out, and I can try to gauge where the heck I went wrong 😉
Regardless, this one of those”When Things Don’t Turn Out The Way You Want Them To, But It’s Okay.” recipes, and I hope that it’s enjoyed.
Recipe Adapted from MyRecipes.com
1 1/2 cups (12 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a Bundt pan or tube cake pan (at least 10 cup capacity).
Combine the flour and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt together in a medium size bowl and set aside.
Cream together the butter and 3 cups of the sugar together in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed (or use a handheld mixer and a large bowl).
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed just until combined. Add the extracts.
Add to butter mixture alternately with half-and-half, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat on low speed just until combined after each addition.
Pour batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Pound cake is done at an inner temp of 195 degrees Fahrenheit)
Meanwhile, during last 20 minutes of the cake’s baking, pulse strawberries and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor until smooth, about 45 seconds. Use a spatula to press the mixture through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a bowl; discard solids. Set aside 1/2 cup strawberry mixture.
Whisk together water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Combine cornstarch mixture and remaining strawberry mixture in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, whisking constantly, just until mixture begins to thicken, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Using a long wooden skewer, poke holes about 1/2 inch apart into bottom of cake, wiggling skewer slightly to make holes about 1/8 inch wide. (Do not poke skewer all the way through top of cake.) Pour warm strawberry syrup over cake. Let stand until syrup is absorbed and pan is still warm but cool enough to handle, about 45 minutes.
Lay a piece of aluminum foil on top of a wire rack and lightly spray with cooking spray. Invert cake onto rack, and cool completely, about 1 hour.
Whisk together powdered sugar and reserved 1/2 cup strawberry mixture in a medium bowl until smooth. Use a fork to drizzle evenly over cooled cake. Allow to sit for about 20 minutes to allow the icing to harden.
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #277, co-hosted this week by Diann @ Of Goats and Greens and Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook.
Cardamom Cream Bundt Cake
Did you know that you don’t necessarily need butter to bake a cake? It’s true. The function of the butter (the fat) in the recipe can be substituted with several other ingredients.
Carrot cakes are usually made without butter, using some kind of oil (vegetable, olive, canola) as the fat. Jewish Honey Cake of course goes without butter, using honey or a combination of honey with oil as the substitute. I’ve also seen paleo cake recipes that make up for it with a combination of eggs, almond flour and tapioca.
Today’s recipe was the first time I’d ever seen or heard of heavy whipping cream being the entire substitution for butter in a cake recipe. I was curious to see how it would turn out, both because of the ingredient swap and the changes it would make to the methodology of putting the cake together. Because there’s no butter, there obviously wasn’t going to be a creaming step (where the butter and sugar is beaten together until fluffy).
However, one major plus side of the no-creaming method is that the cake then becomes one of those rare gems that don’t necessarily require a handheld or standing mixer to make. If you’ve got two hands, you can put it together very easily. The dry ingredients are combined first, then five eggs (yes, five) are added into the dry ingredients. This seemed weird to me too, as the cake batter at that stage resembled clumpy breadcrumbs. But it’s fine: keep going.
An important note: if you’re using a 10 cup Bundt pan, I do not recommend pouring in all of the batter–it’s a bit too much batter for the pan. Plus, with five eggs in a batter there’s definitely going to be some rise to the finished cake. I filled my pan up about 3/4 of the way, then divided the rest of the batter into muffin cups and made them into cupcakes. If you have a 16 cup Bundt pan, then you should be able to bake it all into one cake, no problem. But if not–don’t risk it. The last thing you want is a mess of spilled cake in your oven. I know from past personal experience that it is the WORST to try and clean up.
I was very pleased with this cake. Cardamom is one of my favorite spices because it can go both ways; sweet and savory. In this case, it gives the cake a sweet yet zesty kick that pairs well with the vanilla. The cake’s texture was one that I wasn’t used to; the heavy cream gives it a ribbon-y appearance that may make you worry that’s it’s not ‘done’ in certain areas, but don’t worry. So long as you got it up the correct temperature, (195-200F) I promise you that it is. The heavy cream substitution creates a very dense, moist texture. It was different, but I still really liked it and I think that you will too.
Recipe Courtesy of NordicWare
2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or preferably vanilla bean paste
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
A few tablespoons of milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10 cup Bundt pan and set aside.
In a large bowl using a handheld mixer (or the bowl of a standing mixer with the flat beater head–OR, you can use a large wire whisk and stir with your hand) combine the first five ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cardamom and salt).
Add eggs one at a time and blend until they become incorporated with the dry ingredients (it’ll start to look like clumpy breadcrumbs.)
Pour in the heavy cream into the mixture with a steady stream. Add the vanilla.
Pour batter into the bundt pan, making sure it’s only 3/4 full to prevent overflow and spillage. (You’ll have leftover batter. I made the excess into cupcakes.) Lift and tap it down on the counter a few times (this will prevent air bubbles from forming).
Place the cake pan on a sheet pan, then bake on the middle rack of the oven. Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Cake is done once it reaches an inner temp of 195-200 degrees Fahrenheit).
Cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting on a cooling rack to cool completely.
For glaze, combine the powdered sugar and cardamom with enough milk to form a smooth, thickish glaze. Use a fork to drizzle it over the cake. Allow to set up until hardened, about 15 minutes before serving.
Linking this up to Fiesta Friday #273, co-hosted this week by Mollie @ The Frugal Hausfrau and Angie@Fiesta Friday.
Pecan Praline Cream Cheese King Cake
Laissez le bon temps rouler, everyone.
That’s French for “Let the Good Times Roll.” It’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot at this time of year, as it’s usually the time for Mardi Gras. I have never been to a Mardi Gras celebration. Unfortunately, I’ve never even been to Louisiana. I do really like Cajun food, though. For now I guess that’s as close as I’m going to get.
Gumbo, jambalya, beignets, and pecan pralines are just a few of the things that come to mind when it comes to Mardi Gras food, or Cajun food itself. There’s also a little dessert called King Cake that gets associated with both, and will be the focus of today’s post. It may be called a ‘Cake’, but I prefer to think of King Cake as a very enriched delicious sweet bread that’s filled with delicious sweet stuff.
The fillings can range from cinnamon sugar and pecans, cream cheese, marzipan, or fruit. The most common is cinnamon sugar with pecans. The top of the cake is drizzled with a thin glaze or icing, then showered in purple, green and yellow sprinkles–the common colors of Mardi Gras. Most King Cakes are filled with a small plastic baby to signify the Baby Jesus. The person who finds the ‘Baby King’ in their piece of cake is supposed to have a lucky year.
I made my first King Cake two years ago. I kept things simple, with a twist, and filled it with chocolate. I didn’t get around to making one last year, so I knew that going into this year I was going to be sure I didn’t make that mistake again. I did want to shake things up and make it a different way than I did before. I also wanted to do more than just a cinnamon sugar-pecan filling.
I have one complaint with a lot of the cinnamon sugar fillings in bread that both I’ve seen, and tried : the cinnamon sugar often ends up getting absorbed into the dough while baking, and by the time all is done, there’s not much of it left. I wanted this King Cake to be truly decadent and full of…filling by the time it was finished baking.
I found a recipe for a King Cake that does just that on LemonBaby.co. The filling in Amanda’s recipe is made from a mix of melted butter, cream cheese and brown sugar and toasted pecans. The dairy gets simmered together with the sugar until it forms a smooth sweet sticky spread, then the nuts get mixed in just before it all is slathered on the risen dough. Most King Cakes are shaped into rings, but for this one I choose to make a loose braid that I then wound into one big mass. Feel free to do whatever you like with this one in shaping.
Huge props to Amanda for this recipe. It was EXACTLY what I was looking for. The pecan praline filling doesn’t get absorbed by the dough at all during baking, and the cream cheese gives it a nice tang of flavor to counterbalance all the other sweetness that goes on in a King Cake. It would pair perfectly in the morning with a cup of coffee.
King Cake requires some time, but the effort is definitely more than worth it.
Recipe Courtesy of LemonBaby
For Dough
3/4 cup warm milk
1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled
1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark, doesn’t matter)
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans
Purple, green and yellow sanding sugar or sprinkles
Pour the warm milk into a glass measuring bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top, then sprinkle the one tablespoon of sugar on top of that. Allow to sit for 10 minutes until proofed and frothy.
Stir together the flour, cinnamon and salt in a medium size bowl and set aside.
Pour the yeast-water mixture into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the melted butter, egg yolks, and vanilla extract and mix on medium until combined.
Switch to the dough hook and add the flour mixture gradually, in about three increments, mixing on medium speed just until the dough begins to come together around the hook. Once it has, turn off the mixer and scrape the dough out onto a clean work surface that you’ve sprinkled with flour (like a pastry mat or a smooth countertop). Use your hands to firmly knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 10-12 minutes. You can use additional flour (about 1/4 cup at a time) if it’s still too sticky; I also prefer to rub my hands with canola, olive or vegetable oil before kneading and that helps a lot without having to add more flour.
. (The dough is ready when you can stretch one piece of it out very thin, and it’s translucent enough to see through.)
Grease the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl and place the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and a damp kitchen towel and allow it to rest until doubled in size, 1 1/2 hours–2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the filling: in a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the cream cheese over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar with a wire whisk. When the mixture starts to bubble, immediately remove from the heat and stir in the pecans. Set aside to cool completely.
When dough is finished rising, turn out onto a clean work surface and punch down to deflate air bubbles.
Roll the risen dough into a 10 x 20 inch rectangle on top of a piece of parchment paper. Spread the filling on half of the long side of the dough. Fold the dough in half covering the filling. Pat dough down firmly so the dough will stick together. Cut dough into three long strips. Press the tops of the strips together and braid the strips. Press the ends together at the bottom. (This will probably get messy; it’s ok, just tuck in what you can of anything that falls out.)
Gently stretch the braid so that it measures 20 inches again. Shape it into a circle/oval and press the edges together. Use the edges of the parchment paper to lift and transfer the cake to a large sheet pan (preferably one without sides). Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and a damp kitchen towel and allow to rise until puffy, about 45-50 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk the one egg together with the tablespoon of water in a small bowl and brush egg wash all over the top of the cake with a pastry brush.
Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown. (You may have to cover it with foil if it starts to brown too quickly.) Inner temp of the bread should be 200-205 Degrees Fahrenheit. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
To make icing, stir powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of milk at a time together in a bowl with a fork. Add enough of the milk until it reaches the consistency that you like. Use a fork to drizzle over the top of the King Cake. Sprinkle the purple, green and yellow sanding sugar on top in a pattern. Allow to sit for about one hour until the icing has dried.
Sharing at this week’s Fiesta Friday #264, co-hosted this week by Angie and Mollie @ Frugal Hausfrau.
Ginger Pound Cake
I hope you all had a great holiday season that was filled with great food, relaxation and time spent with loved ones. It’s crazy that we’ve already left 2018 behind. I have a lot of optimism that 2019 will be a good year with lots of much needed change. After I finished the 12 Days of Christmas, I needed a wee break to recoup from all that baking. I’ve got my rest and I’m ready to get back into the swing of things. So, let’s start this year’s recipes off the right way, shall we?
I’ve spoken before on here about my love for ginger. You can search the Recipe Index for the various recipes I’ve used it in in; it’s a great ingredient. There are a lot of uses to be found for it and lately, I’ve always seemed to have a stalk or 2 of it in my fridge. Ground ginger often finds its way into desserts like gingerbread, but my favorite way to use and eat it is when it’s been candied/crystallized.
The only downside to candied and crystallized ginger is that most of the time, it doesn’t run cheap in the stores. In my opinion at least, it’s often overpriced. Not to worry though. There’s an easy way around that. You can always just make your own.
It’s easy. It’s MUCH more inexpensive. It’s worth it. (Check out my instagram now for the step by step instructions) And when you’ve finished looking that over (and after you’ve made some crystallized ginger for yourself), come back here and check out today’s recipe. Trust me, we’re going to put it to good use.
A pound cake is the perfect dessert/blank canvas to test out a wide variety of flavors. It’s already plenty delicious on its own–any added flavor you give to the batter will serve to just amplify the finished cake. I’ve done quite a bit of it here on the blog already, and now I’m pleased to share this new addition to the Pound Cake Pantheon of Awesomeness (I totally came up with that on the spot, can’t you tell?)
The recipe uses ginger in two ways: ground ginger that gets sifted in with the other dry ingredients, and crystallized ginger that gets steeped in milk for a few minutes. Both the ginger and the ginger flavored milk are then mixed into the batter.With six eggs in it, this is going to be one very tall cake. If you’re not sure if your bundt pan can fit up to 16 cups, then I’d recommend splitting it between two loaf pans, just to be on the safe side.
The texture of this cake is sublime. It’s rich, buttery and moist enough to where you could eat it plain and still be totally satisified–or go the extra mile and throw on the ginger flavored icing. Combined with the richness of the cake itself, the ginger here adds a spicy sweet flavor that’s got great bite, but still isn’t overpowering. I really enjoyed this cake and I think you will too.
Recipe Courtesy of The Southern Cake Book
3 ounces of crystallized ginger, finely minced
2 cups butter, softened
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 16 cup (10 inch) Bundt or tube pan.
Simmer milk and ginger together in a small saucepan over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until thoroughly heated. (Don’t let it boil.) Remove from the heat and let it stand for 10-15 minutes. Add the vanilla extract to the milk.
Stir together the flour with the ground ginger in a bowl with a fork, and set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or using a handheld one) beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, about 1 cup at a time, beating 5-7 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears. (Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as you’re doing this to ensure even mixing.)
Add the flour to the butter mixer alternatively with the milk (begin and end with the flour). Beat at a low speed, just until combined after each addition.
Pour the batter into the cake pan. Lift and tap it down on the counter a few times (this will prevent air bubbles from forming). Place the cake pan on a sheet pan, then bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean and cake reaches an inner temp of 205-210 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stir together the ingredients for the icing together in a bowl. It shouldn’t be too runny, just loose enough to drizzle. Use the tines of a fork to drizzle the icing over the cake in a decorative design. Allow to to sit for about 30 minutes, just until icing has set. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #257, co-hosted this week by Suzanne @apuginthekitchen and Kat @ Kat’s 9 Lives.
Banana Cream Cake
So, guess what?
In last week’s post I said that rather than wait for the autumn weather to kick in before I started posting ‘autumn recipes’ and comfort food, I would just start baking & posting autumn recipes and let the weather catch up to me later.
This week, the temperature dropped around 10-15 degrees in our area.
Iiiiiiiii would like to think I had a thing or two to do with it.
(Probably not, it’s likely due to some natural–or rather unnatural, because, global warming–causes but I’m claiming the credit for it anyway.)
The weather is cooling down because it’s trying to align with my autumn baking. What can I say except, you’re welcome?
This week’s recipe happened because of a tale as old as time.
Girl goes to store. Girl buys green bananas, thinking she has plenty of time to eat them. One days passes. Bananas are still green. Two days pass. Bananas are just barely starting to yellow. Three days pass.
Bananas are ripe. Too ripe to eat. Girl is now stuck with four overripe bananas.
I guess ‘stuck’ is a little harsh. Bakers know that overripe bananas are really a blessing in disguise–they give you an excuse to put a healthy fruit into a not-as-healthy baked treat. Oftentimes, that treat is banana bread. Banana bread is great and easy, as are banana muffins. This time around though, I decided to try to go with something a bit different than what I was used to. It’s not too much more difficult than the bread or muffins, but I’ll tell you what: it IS a good deal greater.
One of the reasons that I love using bananas in cake is that they lend themselves really really well to cake batter. Why? Because the fat and moisture content in them helps keep the finished cake INCREDIBLY moist. So long as you’re using overly ripe bananas, it’s going to be quite difficult to overbake/dry that sucka out. This is a perfectly delicious banana cake all on its own. It’s then made even more delicious by a ribbon of vanilla cream cheese filling that gets poured on top of half the batter, then the other half of the batter is poured on top of that. The smells alone as it bakes are glorious. As for the taste…you can probably guess.
What can I say except…you’re welcome?
Recipe Adapted from NordicWare
For Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups mashed ripened banana
For Cream Filling
Milk, to thin
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt or tube pan and set aside. In a measuring cup or small bowl, pour the milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice together and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda and salt. Stir together with a fork and set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or using a handheld one) use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing just until the yellow disappears. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go to ensure even mixing.
Add the mashed bananas, stirring just until combined. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat dry ingredients and milk mixture alternately into batter. (Start and end with the flour mixture) Beat for 1 minute. Remove batter to a bowl.
Beat the cream cheese in the standing mixer bowl until it’s smooth. Add the egg and vanilla, stirring just until combined.
Pour half the batter into the tube pan. Use a teaspoon to spoon the cream cheese filling evenly around the center of the cake batter. Carefully spoon remaining cake batter over filling, covering completely.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until top is brown and springs back lightly when touched. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto cake plate.
For the icing, combine the powdered sugar with enough milk until it forms a smooth but still somewhat thick icing. Use a fork to drizzle over the cake. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes, until hardened.
Linking up to Fiesta Friday #247, co-hosted this week by Antonia @ Zoale.com and Laurena @ Life Diet Health.
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Review: Synth-pop shines on with Chvrches at the O2 Academy
February 10, 2019 February 12, 2019 Declan Bowring CHVRCHES, lets eat grandma, O2 Academy, O2 Academy Birmingham
After four years of intensive touring and diligently crafting away at third album Love Is Dead, Chvrches made a glorious return to Birmingham’s O2 Academy for two nights.
[amazon bestseller=”chvrches vinyl”]
Norwich natives Let’s Eat Grandma opened up the show on February 9th (the second of two evenings in Birmingham) with a gloriously gothic amalgamation of punk, synths and outright dirty pop in the best possible way. Tracks such as ‘Ava’, ‘Hot Pink’ and ‘It’s Not Just Me’ earned the duo a support slot, but it’s their avant-garde performance that will earn them a following. Letting rip on an electric guitar whilst lying flat on the stage, running the length of the front row delivering high-fives, and a mash-up of trumpets, recorders and synths were all part of a setlist worthy of bigger audiences. The O2 Academy seemed to love them by the end.
Let’s Eat Grandma
The construction of Chvrches‘ songs allows for an abundance of synced hand-claps, lofty singalongs and pointed index fingers bouncing in the air. Whilst nostalgia (‘The Mother We Share’, ‘Gun’, ‘We Sink’) and cult hits from their follow-up (‘Bury It’, ‘Leave A Trace’, ‘Clearest Blue’) deservedly got a rapturous reception time and time again, the Scottish band’s newer tracks (‘Get Out’, ‘Miracle’, ‘Never Say Die’) were not lost on the adoring crowd, nor were the more niche ebbs of the setlist’s flow.
Part way through Martin Doherty allowed front-person Lauren Mayberry a short role reversal. Her, on synth keyboards, and him, fronting his verses on gritty ‘God’s Plan’ and shimmery ‘Under The Tide’ – coupled with indefatigable dancing that saw him lean a little too close to expensive kit. A brave move in front of a sold-out crowd which he executed brilliantly.
Chvrches straddle a unique line between the remnants of post-emo and electro-synth, and are still as popular now as at when their debut album released in 2013. The band undoubtedly deserve every accolade awarded to their music, but it’s really at their live show that the gravitas hits.
Flanked by a back wall of powerful strobes of all shapes and sizes, they delivered a visually stunning and powerful spectacle, doused in superbly-timed visuals akin to the best rave you have ever been to. Their fans, a visual mix of genre lovers, demonstrate the perfect blend Chrvrches still manage to maintain.
Photographs by Radek Kubiszyn
Venue guide: O2 Academy, Birmingham
Review: CHVRCHES outdo themselves at Birmingham’s O2 Academy
Review: Let’s Eat Grandma turn The Castle & Falcon into their playground
Review: Boudica Festival empowers and excites on return to Coventry
Review: The triumphant return of The Wombats to Birmingham
Declan Bowring
Gig and album reviewer + culture writer, celebrating the best of music and events happening throughout our city.
← Review: Two-tone heroes The Specials return with important new album Encore
Newton Faulkner to bring new ‘Best Of’ collection to Birmingham →
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Broncos Host Basketball Coaches At Training CampSometimes during the dog days of August, NFL training camp talk turns to hoops and hardwood.
Five Things: FGCU First 15 Seed In Sweet 16 And Pac 12 Exceeds Its SeedsTo measure the unpredictability of this year’s NCAA Tournament, consider two items that didn’t make this column: Gonzaga, a 32-win team on a 15-game win streak, didn’t survive the first weekend, and Harvard, a 14 seed, won its first ever Tournament game.
Wichita St.'s 3-Pointers Boot No. 1 Gonzaga 76-70Gonzaga is out of the NCAA tournament thanks to Wichita State, a No. 9 seed that made five straight shots from behind the arc Saturday for a 76-70 victory that sent the West Region's top seed back home.
Prediction Machine: Pitt One Of The Favorites To Make Final FourPaul Bessire, better known by the name of his simulation program, "The Prediction Machine," joined The Fan Morning Show on Wednesday to offer the machine's advice for filling out brackets this year.
Five Things: Goodbye Big East, Buckeyes Win Big Ten, And West Coast BluesYesterday was a relatively drama-free Selection Sunday. Joe Lunardi was a perfect 68 for 68, as Middle Tennessee State, St. Mary’s, Boise State, and La Salle claimed the final spots in the field. Louisville, Gonzaga, Kansas, and Indiana earned the top seeds.
Louisville Top Overall; Kansas, Indiana, Gonzaga Also No. 1 SeedsLouisville earned the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament Sunday, while Kansas, Indiana and Gonzaga also received No. 1s after a topsy-turvy regular season and another round of weekend upsets.
Gonzaga Is No. 1 In AP Top 25 For 1st TimeGonzaga, the small Northwest school that consistently delivers big NCAA tournament wins, is on top of The Associated Press' Top 25 for the first time.
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I'm Colyn
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Dr. Haas is the program director of the Minimally Invasive Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship Program at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The program accepts two clinical laparoscopic fellows and two research fellows per year.
This fellowship program is part of the Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas (MIST) Fellowship Consortium. This is a designated group of surgeons who promote the advancement of minimally invasive, laparoscopic, and endoscopic surgical techniques. The consortium promotes the enhancement of patient care and outcomes through the development of clinical and research practices among its expert members.
The Fellowship program at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston is accredited by the Minimally Invasive Surgery Council.
Clinical Fellows
Click here to read more information and to apply for a clinical fellowship position.
For more information, please send letter of intent and curriculum vitae to Natasha Kriston
For additional information, please visit:
Fellowship Council home page
Brief Overview of Program
This program is designed for prospective minimally invasive surgery (MIS) candidates with a strong interest in the field of colon and rectal surgery. MIS colorectal fellows will be trained to perform laparoscopic and other minimally invasive colon and rectal procedures and manage peri-operative care. Laparoscopic skills will be achieved in conventional, single incision and hand-assisted techniques for colorectal procedures. The fellow will also have the opportunity to undergo a formal robotic-assisted surgery training program and will gain experience in robotic-assisted colorectal procedures involving the pelvis. The MIS fellow will also have the opportunity to achieve a high level of competency in diagnostic and therapeutic lower endoscopy and anorectal procedures.
The fellow will work with four faculty on the minimally invasive colon and rectal surgery service: Eric Haas, MD, FACS, Bartley Pickron, MD, Anne Le, MD and Ali Mahmood, MD. All faculty members are colon and rectal surgeons who have completed an accredited colon and rectal surgery fellowship, specialize in minimally invasive techniques and are partners in a private group – Colorectal Surgical Associates, Ltd LLP in Houston, Texas (http://www.houstoncolon.com).
The following is a representation case volume of the practice over a 12-month period:
Laparoscopic colon and rectal procedures: 300 – 425 cases
Anorectal procedures (hemorrhoidectomy, fistula, fissure…): 300 – 350 cases
Specialty colorectal procedures (sphincteroplasty, RV fistula repair, STARR procedure, etc): 40 – 50 cases
Diagnostic and therapeutic lower endoscopy: 850 – 1000 cases The fellowship program is a member of the Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas (MIST) Fellowship Consortium which is comprised of four MIS programs (one colorectal and three bariatric fellowships) affiliated with the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The goal of the MIST fellowship consortium is to provide the best training opportunity for fellows in the country. All members have academic appointments in the University of Texas Medical School at Houston Department of Surgery specializing in minimally invasive surgery and advanced gastrointestinal surgery. MIS fellows from the four programs are granted elective rotations for up to two months in which they can rotate on another MIS service to gain exposure into different techniques and anatomy. In addition, the MIST consortium holds a combined Journal club, M&M and interesting case on a monthly basis, which affords all fellows the opportunity to interact with multiple expert faculty. We have an updated prospective minimally invasive database and statistician to assist and enable clinical research projects. We highly encourage and support clinical research and provide complete funding for fellows to attend conferences in which they have successfully submitted a presentation for acceptance.
Program Location: Houston, Texas
Participating Sites: Memorial Hermann Hospital, The Methodist Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital
University Affiliation: University of Texas Medical School @ Houston
Year Fellowship Began: 2008
Number of MIS Clinical Fellows: 2
Number of MIS Research Fellows: 2
This program only accepts applications from outside the U.S. and Canada for research fellowship position. (Excerpted from “The University of Texas Minimally Invasive Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship Program” available at The Fellowship Council.)
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Timeshare Directive (94/47) - Belgium
Act of 11 April 1999 on the injunction for infringements of the Act on the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a time-share basis (FR) 11/04/1999 01/07/1999
Act of 11 April 1999 on the injunction for infringements of the Act on the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a time-share basis (NL) 11/04/1999 01/01/9999
Act of 11 April 1999 on the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a time-share basis (FR) 11/04/1999 01/07/1999
Act of 11 April 1999 on the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a time-share basis (NL) 11/04/1999 01/01/9999
Act of 14 July 1991 on trade practices and consumer information and protection (FR) 14/07/1991 29/02/1992
Act of 14 July 1991 on trade practices and consumer information and protection (NL) 14/07/1991 29/08/1991
Act of 16 February 1994 regulating the package travel contracts and the travel intermediation contracts (FR) 16/02/1994 04/10/1994
Act of 16 February 1994 regulating the package travel contracts and the travel intermediation contracts (NL) 16/02/1994 01/01/9999
Act of 1 September 2004 on the protection of consumers in respect of the sale of consumer goods (FR) 01/09/2004 01/01/9999
Act of 1 September 2004 on the protection of consumers in respect of the sale of consumer goods (NL) 01/09/2004 01/01/9999
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Travel & Life
Go-go going as Chinese women fuel Thai tourism boom
By Reuters/Patpicha Tanakasempipat  October 20, 2017 | 03:24 pm GMT+7
Women tourists to Thailand outnumber men for first time last year.
For decades since the Vietnam war, the scantily clad dancers in the go-go bars of Bangkok's Patpong red-light district have been the face of Thailand's tourism industry.
But last year for the first time, the country drew more women tourists than men as a surge in Chinese female visitors outweighed a longstanding distortion spurred by men drawn to the world's "sex capital".
The shift is welcome news for Thai authorities, who have tried to promote the country's shopping, beaches and temples and to minimize the importance of sex tourism, which thrived after Thailand became an R&R hotspot for U.S. troops in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tourism ministry figures reviewed by Reuters showed 52 percent of more than 32 million visitors last year were women.
That compared to 48 percent in 2015 and only 42 percent in 2012. No earlier official data were available, but research from as far back as the 1980s shows a ratio of about 60 percent male to 40 percent female visitors.
"Not as many women visited Thailand because they thought we were a cheap destination with too much vice, but now more are coming, which means our image accommodates them," Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul told Reuters.
Tourism accounts for around 12 percent of Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy and is easily the fastest growing sector, particularly since a coup in 2014.
Hoping to attract more female tourists, the state's Tourism Authority of Thailand started a "Women's Journey" campaign last year, with a website and mobile application offering discounts for hotels, spas, malls, and restaurants.
But the biggest factor has been tourism from China, which has reshaped the industry around the world.
The number of Chinese visitors rose from nearly 12 percent of Thailand's visitors in 2012 to 27 percent last year. The number of Chinese women visiting Thailand nearly quadrupled over the same period to more than 5.3 million.
"When Chinese men make a lot of money, they tend to take their wife, daughter, and mother to travel, making the ratio heavier on the female side," said Virat Chatturaputpitak, vice president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
Major Chinese travel website Tuniu reported that 62 percent of its customers last year were women, Chinese media reported.
Cheap, easy and close to home
"I chose to come to Thailand because it's close by, there are many flights, it's cheap to travel and easy to get a visa," said Man Na Zhang, 24, at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine, a favorite spot for Chinese tourists despite a deadly bombing in 2015.
Chinese female visitors, who get a tourist visa on arrival, also cited a simple tax rebate procedure on duty free goods as another drawcard as they snap up items such as cosmetics, bottled bird's nest soup, vitamins and supplements.
Many stores in Bangkok's shopping malls now accept Alipay, China's giant online payment service. A Big C supermarket near the Erawan shrine buzzes with Chinese tourists who fill their trolleys with bulk packets Tom Yum Goong flavoured instant noodles, crispy seaweed and dried squid snacks.
Businesses in tourist towns have started printing menus in Chinese and getting workers to learn the language to cater to Chinese tourists, who last year made up more than those from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa combined.
China's recent "Golden Week" holiday brought 70 percent more Chinese visitors than last year, the tourism ministry said.
For nationalities that traditionally patronized Thailand's sex industry, tourist numbers are still dominated by men - 68 percent of Japanese visitors, 58 percent of British and nearly 56 percent of American, Australian and German tourists.
But even for those countries, the balance has shifted more towards female tourists.
Although the sex industry is far from dead, local businesses complain fewer tourists were visiting areas such as Patpong and nearby Silom neighborhood.
"There are evidently fewer tourists, especially in the low season, when sales can go from tens of thousands of baht a day to nothing," said Somkid Sangwong, a manager of a restaurant in a Silom alley next to Patpong, surrounded by neon-lit signs for bars blasting loud music and offering raunchy live shows.
Phadet Mesild, a board member of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui, another popular spot for sex tourism, told Reuters the decline in demand had forced many venues in the island to close down.
Since 2014, Thailand's military government has occasionally raided brothels, bars, and massage parlours in an effort to clean up the country's image, but they have usually bounced back quickly.
Chinese visitors flock to Vietnam to celebrate their National Day break
Tags: Thailand Chinese tourist
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Reading: Go-go going as Chinese women fuel Thai tourism boom
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Link Archive
Brexit: Historical Betrayals
July 2, 2016 EbolaInfoBrexit, David Cameron, EU, European Union, John Major, John Prescott, John Reid, Margaret Thatcher, Peter Mandelson, Queen Elizabeth II, Ted Heath, Tony Blair, UKebolainfo
Posted pending further checking: Anonymous Youtube link
Exposed. Who are the traitors and how did they betrayed us.
The abolition of Britain is illegal under the British Constitution, and the criminal acts of the Queen and her Ministers have included the worst acts of treason in history. They secretly repealed the treason laws in 1998 (hidden in s36.3 of the Crime and Disorder Act) to save their own necks. The criminality of our ministers and parliament won’t save us – the EU’s Constitution will automatically abolish the British one, and they will have got away with the greatest crime in a thousand years.List of Traitors to Scotland the United KingdomSince 1972 five European Union treaties have been signed abolishing our nation. As this is illegal under the British Constitution, our nation needed to be undermined with the methods listed below. The EU is succeeding exclusively through subversion by British traitors from inside the UK.The EU has the laws of a police state, and a constitution that hands absolute power to unelected dictators; it specifically hands all military power (and that includes the nuclear weapons of Britain and France,) to these dictators. It is the Soviet system, and creates a sham EU parliament with no power; it will abolish the nations of Great Britain and England.The list of traitors according to the severity of their crime:
Traitor number 1. HM the Queen. Has committed five acts of treason signing EU treaties that abolish our nation. She is the only monarch to have broken her Coronation oath. Failed as the ultimate check and balance, failed to insist on a national ballot for the abolition of our nation.
Traitor number 2. Edward Heath. Committed an act of treason by passing the 1972 EU Communities Act, which is the enabling act to abolish our nation. He then lied in his White Paper and in his speeches this Act would not abolish our sovereignty. He started the entire illegal EU process. The fact he was a lifelong member of the Deutsche VersicherungsDienst intelligence department was not discovered until his death.
Its very important to understand the legal basis for treason. Firstly it has always been the most serious crime on the statute book, worse than murder. Treason has long been the only crime punished by “hanging by the neck until dead.” Murderers only get life. The definition of treason is “a crime that undermines one’s government” or “the offence of acting to overthrow one’s government.” Philby, Maclean, Blunt, Burgess committed treason, by selling secrets to the Russians, and would have got perhaps 15 years if they had returned. What Heath did was the ultimate act of treason, not just undermining our nation, but abolishing it. If a court case had been brought, he would have got the ultimate penalty.
3. Tony Blair Committed three acts of treason, with three EU treaties. He is also an enthusiastic implementer of EU laws disguised as British laws, the latest being ID cards; he’s an enforcer of crippling EU regulations. Blair is the chief manufacturer of the EU police state in Britain (Scottish rite 33rd degree mason of Studholme lodge 1591 ).
4. John Major committed Treason with the Maastricht treaty; he also sold our main military and nuclear port, Devonport Dockyard, to Dick Cheney’s Haliburton Corporation for peanuts, his bribe was to be European MD of the Bush family’s Carlyle Weapons group, and $1 million pa for life, so he is definitely on the other side.
5. Margaret Thatcher committed Treason with the Single European Act. She is the only Prime minister who now regrets signing it. She’s still guilty – a murderer who apologises only has a mitigating circumstance. She’ll remain a traitor until her death. Like many top people on our side, she’s developed heart problems and is too ill to help.The above four people have all committed treason, and prosecutions were pending. Tony Blair’s risk was the full force of the law for signing the Amsterdam Treaty amongst others. But in a stunning abuse of power, Tony Blair secretly repealed the treason laws, hidden in the Crime and Disorder Act, and the Queen signed it in 1998, saving both their necks.There can be no worse criminal abuse of the law than this. …….To get off your own execution as a Prime Minister by repealing the law you are charged under……..The newspapers and media missed it entirely.
6. John Prescott, John Reid, Peter Mandleson, Alan Johnson, about a dozen, now cabinet ministers. Communists who’s allegiance in the 1960’s was to the Soviet Union, switched their loyalty to the European Union in the 1970’s; they’ve implemented the EU’s Frankfurt school subversion, and the 111,000 EU regulations that are criminalising us all. Took control of the Labour party away from patriotic traditionalists…
Additional link: List of Traitors to the United Kingdom
← Brexit: Will the Queen betray her Trust? The Crown is owned and operated by the Vatican, and has been since 1213 →
2 thoughts on “Brexit: Historical Betrayals”
tubularsock says:
Wow, for Tubularsock it seems easier to count the patriots!
ebolainfo says:
Indeed, they are fewer!
It clearly exposes ANY remainers as willful traitors as even if informed of the nature of the EU they will still vote to remain within the statist EU fraud. Case in point Mr David Lamy MP for Tottenham, London.
Once they acknowledge the supremacy of EU “laws” over UK “laws” they must concede the UK has lost its sovereignty and is now a taxed/contributory vassal to the EU.
Conventional/Corporate
Blood/Plasma
ZMAPP/Novel GMO
Alternative/Supplements
Vitamin C (Intravenous/High Dosage)
Colloidal/Nano Silver
Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation
Oregano/Hemp Oils/Natural Antivirals
Genocidal Profiteering solution for Ebola = New GMO/Toxic Vaccines
Non-vaccine solution = non-GMO, natural immune supporting/boosting solutions
The Preponderance of evidence against the West (US/Europe) concerning biological warfare/experimentation is strong, plentiful and abundantly documented online and publicly available books
1986 National Childhood vaccine injury act
AFRICOM
Anti-fertility
BioWarfare
CDC Fraud
David Rockefeller
Experimentatiom
Globalist
Global Tyranny
GM Mosquitoes
Oxitec
Pharma Corruption
Situation Report
Vaccine Fraud
Ebola - Aids the Sequel...
The Ebola Effect – Hyping the Next Bioweapon For Fear and Profit
The True Origin of Aids and Ebola
The truth behind the secret TTIP trade deal
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donnademaio.com.au
life and stuff
entertainment, Featured, Uncategorized
Dream Lover World Premiere
written by donnademaio
The talented and charismatic David Campbell is a huge fan of legendary 1960’s singer/song-writer Bobby Darin. And it was with passion and gusto that Campbell took to the Lyric Theatre stage in Sydney for the world premiere of Dream Lover: The Bobby Darin Musical.
The show, written by John-Michael Howson and his cousin Frank Howson, traces the highs and lows of the entertainer’s life, cut short by ill-health at age 37. The musical is a window into his rise to fame, his family secrets, his personal struggles and his frought marriage to Hollywood sweetheart Sandra Dee.There are more than 30 songs and an 18 piece big band on stage, playing such tender tunes as Mack the Knife, Under the Sea and of course, Dream Lover.
Campbell told me, minutes after stepping off stage, “After 20 years of being a fan of someone who has such an emotional connection to my life and is an idol to me. And to have his son come out to give his blessing. It means everything to me.” His dad Jimmy Barnes was in the audience, proud as punch.
The show is competing with two other productions that are classics, for vastly different reasons. My Fair Lady (directed by Julie Andrews) has just broken box office records at the Sydney Opera House and stars Anna O’Byrne as Eliza Doolittle. She’s marvellous, with a powerful voice and incredible presence as her confidence and character grows over the three hour show. Reg Livermore is delightful and bursting with energy as an exceptional Alfred P Doolittle. British performer Alex Jennings is an excellent Professor Higgins but is to be replaced by Downton Abbey’s Charles Edwards in the Melbourne season. The costumes and choreography are gorgeous.
Meanwhile Disney classic Aladdin has audiences spellbound as they watch the Genie appear on stage at the Capital Theatre. The magic carpet is mesmerising and the ensemble a dancing, thieving, fantastical frenzy. The show, based on the hugely successful 1992 film (grossing more than half a billion dollars at the time) is fun, romantic and just the right amount of frivolous.
The writer travelled courtesy of Destination NSW
This entry was posted in: entertainment, Featured, Uncategorized
by donnademaio
Travel Food Fashion Art Entertainment - It's what I do
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Top End Wedding: The Northern Territory is more than mosquitoes, heat and cyclones May 7, 2019
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Sleeping Buddha at NGV November 27, 2017
“I’m not plastic” Real Housewives of Melbourne Season 4 June 26, 2017
The Bold and the Beautiful Down Under February 6, 2017
POW Kitchen, St Kilda January 4, 2017
Dream Lover World Premiere October 11, 2016
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English sentences with covering all stages in context,
partial matches
I think violent drops in all stages of Dragon.
I'm pretty sure the chance of getting the event cat at the last stage is 40% for all event stages.
I wasn't sure if those threads were meant to be mutually exclusive or not but now I see the High Roller award is meant as an umbrella award covering all of the above.
Nightwish, best band ever, loves all 3 stages of their career.
push your circle pad/joystick towards the wall, then flick in the opposite direction, not all characters can do it, and it cant be done on all stages.
I'll try to make them all good stages
According to my microbiology course, you're contagious in all stages.
I assumed Sonique didn't really know the words which is why she started doing flip flops all over the stage.
Did you complete finding all of the stars, stamps, and tops of the flag poles on all of those stages as well?
She is strong at all stages of the game, her ult can be both defensive/offensive, and at my bracket (3.8k) people don't respect the ult enough to buy gem/sentries.
It was casual as hell, as in, only explosives on, and all stages banned except for Temple and Corneria.
However not all Smash stages get this balance right and you end up with bs like Rumble Falls.
Amazing graphics, you can beat the game and unlock all the stages without purchasing a single thing, or you can pay money to get new armor or unlock stages quicker.
Jeff also made sure to take precautions of covering up all of his clothes and skin with scrubs.
As at least 3 others have mentioned, once around the face, once around the forehead, covering all exposed skin as much as possible.
A really strong ADC at pretty much all stages of the game and I find him annoying to deal with
This plan is indeed quite unlikely to fail, but because of bureaucracy (all the stages of government it has to pass through) it's not legally changed yet.
Brokers sell and fiduciaries build broadly diversified, low cost portfolios covering all the major asset classes for the long term with a stock/bond split appropriate for the client's goals.
Biscuit base with a thin covering of toffee, all covered in chocolate coating.
Persona stat boosts would make it an incentive to engage in more activities, one that pervades from almost all stages of the game.
It's a good example from that user, and more integration would be nice for all stages of the game, from when I just want to soak in the world and the atmosphere, to when I'm in end game and trying to grind my characters and personas.
So I have the season pass, is that covering all this?
It's where I stage all my operations.
Covering up all of your plumbing, hvac, and electrical with drywall can be a huge pain in the ass.
And considering this place is meant to be supportive of people who are at all stages of their weight loss journey, it seems like it would be in everyone's best interest if we kept others' feelings in mind when we contribute here.
I played the hell out of it, unlocking everyone and all the stages, collecting all the trophies, beating Subspace (which is no fun for me anymore, but loved it at the time).
If whoever did that is the least bit smart about covering their ass all they have to do is say "I wasn't driving" and "No further comments without my lawyer".
This attribute is what makes freya relevant at all stages of the game along with her free slow and outplay potential with ult.
One of my best friends opened up an indy theatre production company in Toronto and gives struggling artists of all sorts a stage and an audience in the heart of the city....but because he drives an expensive car he would rub you the wrong way?
About 5 years ago, Snoop Dogg played here and fans tossed huge buds onto the stage all night, creating a green carpet by the end of the night.
All about making sure people in all stages of the game stay with the game.
I think the internet has changed that, and almost everybody that is interested in looking at Cannabis has seen it in all of its stages of growth from seed to full on flower.
I'd like to add that in addition to covering all your bases, if your client does not intend to pay you, you will likely need to hire a lawyer to take them to court.
I am covering all that.
You know, just so you're covering all the bases.
They all sounded fantastic and have perfected that dance thanks to all the extra stage time.
razor owns him in all stages of the game
I've just realized, if you picked PL instead of Doom, you could've had a much better shot: he's a natural Diffusal carrier, counters Omnislash, and he can fight at all stages of the game.
It would be way cooler if it included all stages with actual branching paths so you could clear the cathedral and sheol on the same run!
Even a Saturn V rocket, with all it's stages and fuel already in orbit somehow, would only have half of the power needed to do that.
A naïve interpreter may merge all three stages, either for hypothesized speed reasons, or just an uninformed idea of how processors work.
I can understand the logic behind lumping all Omega stages together, but people do realize that they're not all exactly the same as Final Destination, right?
It's good throughout all stages of the game, any game mode, against any team comp.
But if it's all stages with platforms that move vertically we would have to ban the animal crossing stages.
His ult never falls off either and is good throughout all stages of the game which is what makes a good ult.
I gotta say the kid is a trooper for having survived the crash and then covering all the distance she did to reach the residence.
What it will do is show you the delta V (and Thrust to Weight ratio) of all your stages, that way you can minimise the size of your rocket.
Things like checking your corners, avoiding ridges to not show your silhouette, covering and moving, all of those tactics work in games like this.
Tiny is an excellent carry in pretty much all stages of the game and he can destroy towers ridiculously fast, he isn't very hard to learn either.
I love ALL moving stages.
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Home » Crime, Featured » Police say full investigations into murder of Lebanese businessmen
Police say full investigations into murder of Lebanese businessmen
Elodio Aragon Jr.
The ruthless executions of businessmen Abdul Aziz Mohammed Dib and Alfred Schakron in Belize City on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning have rocked the Lebanese community across the country. Both men were victims of what appear to be carefully orchestrated hits. Forty year old Abdul Dib was shot multiple times inside King Kabab Restaurant whilst seated with three other men having coffee. A lone gunman entered the premises and unloaded a barrage of bullets into the auto dealer, killing him instantly. Less than twenty-four hours later, as popular businessman Alfred Schakron was leaving Body 2000 Gym, he was accosted by a group of men inside a sports utility vehicle. During a brief scuffle in front of the building several shots were fired, mortally injuring Schakron. To date there have been no arrests in either cases. While the Police Department is exploring a possible connection between the two murders, additional officers will be deployed in the Old Capital this weekend in an attempt to thwart further reprisals. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Elodio Aragon Jr., a full investigation, involving all major task forces within the Belize Police Department has been launched.
Elodio Aragon Jr., Assistant Commissioner of Police
“We have people from our Crime Investigation Branch, people from CIU and other personnel are involved in this investigation and as time proceeds, we are hoping that we will receive the kind of leads and the investigation will bring about the kind of information and intelligence that we need to begin to deal with this case professionally.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“Sir, are you concerned about further retaliations? Not to speak ill of the dead, but we know that Mister Schakron had relatives who are Belizeans and they certainly have their own network of affiliates in Belize. Are you concerned that there may be further retaliation or retaliation I should say?”
“At this time it is hard for us to tell you definitely that if that will be a case or not because the investigation is still ongoing—we still need to get to the bottom of these things; to look at motives, etc. All I could tell you at this point in time, the police department will be mounting special operations over the weekend to ensure that we keep the level of crime as best as we could down. I could tell you that these two incidents, with the Lebanese, these are not incidents that occur every day. We do not see it as incidents that will be predominantly seen every week on the news. As far as we know these are not normal and therefore the investigation continues to see what it is all about.”
Patrick Jones, Love News
“Are you getting information; is information forthcoming in your investigation?”
“We are working as information comes to us and we are able to gather it.”
Jules Vasquez
“Is there some type of a limitation so far as the Lebanese culture may be somewhat insular, secretive, and if you are an outsider, it is hard to understand and penetrate the inner happenings of that fraternity? Is that a difficulty that will hamper an unimpeded investigation?”
“There are always challenges in an investigation whether we are dealing with a child, whether we are dealing with groups of people, etc. The job of the Police Department is to carry out the investigation as best as they could working along with the community, etc, to try to solve these crimes. And that is what the Belize Police Department Eastern Division will be doing in regards to these two murders.”
“These two murders are without a doubt frightening in addition to the crime wave that we know exists in Belize City. What can you say to the Belizean people to allay their fears about their own safety?”
“Well the way you put it; we have to really listen to what you are saying—that there is a serious crime wave. If you look at our statistics when it comes to murders, Belize City is down when it comes to murders compared to last year. Secondly these murders that we have seen are not our everyday murders; the gang rivalry that we see in our streets. So these are special cases that the police department is looking into. And all I can tell the community out there is that the police department is working hard to solve these crimes and we will continue to do so.”
Schakron was a prominent businessman who owned various businesses, among them is Megabingo which airs on this station.
11 Responses for “Police say full investigations into murder of Lebanese businessmen”
It would be interesting to use our new $2-million bullet comparison equipment from Canada to see if the bullets that killed Dib and Schakron came from the same weapon. Does anybody here know how to use it?
CIB should ask the US for some help before the trail gets cold. It’s well-known that the US has the means to listen in on international calls, so maybe they have some idea of who was here and to whom they were communicating around the times of the murders. That could be helpful to know.
AEM says:
“No arrests in this case” and “dead on arrival”. Belize should start printing that on t-shirts, because that’s all you hear.
RedBwai says:
Full investigations??? why full investigations now??? why? because its a high profile murder?? because one of the guys is a multimillionaire???…so what? what does this mean?? have they been boing half a$$ed investigations all along??..where were the “special operations” wen the people were crying and begging for some sort of action to be done against the high crime rate??? incompentent police department and broken justice system….sad sad very sad…
This man is talking crap useless inompetent impotent. Pm and gov. People we need to march this pm nd gov. Need to go you Betta march before you are next or your children re next to get shot the corruption is now total in this gov. What is he going to find out when the gov. Has all these gang members in their pockets they have these hit men to do their bidding whenever someone opposes barrow they have their hit men go out and do their job wake up people wake up.
islandbwai says:
So a rich man died and Police are scrambling from all over to try to find the killer, Man these people are big drug dealers, they are the same as the one out here in San Pedro. However, when young girl and boys go missing you don’t hear the bwai aragon dispatch CIB, CIU to find there killers… That is to show you the country of Belize These police are so mean to us the Belizean People. Try to find the killer for the young girls that are dead in Cayo. I wouldn’t be surprise its a Lebanese…
Uncle Benji says:
Elodio Aragon is a cool cat. I like his style. Of course, his masters are in Belmopan, so Elodio’s shuffle is simply whatever Belmopan wants.
You know and I know that we all know…… nothing is going to come out of this investigation.
Bottom line : These immigrant crooks have taken over Belize. Sit back, and wait for the arrival of the Mexican drug cartels…………
Please says:
get investigative help from outside, real CSI professionals from the US. Dib was US citizen. don’t be arrogant like Saldivar, ask for help. the last thing we want to hear are excuses and that crime is down. crime is the number 0ne problem in Belize, the economic toll it is having on our country is incalculable. this one man for example, has made money but has reinvested everything right back in Belize. he did not live a lavish lifestyle, he created employment for many people, he obviosly paid taxes on his businesses, so even government looses. the belizean americans and belizeans all over the world that want to come home and retire, or start a business will definitely think it over now. is it worth it, can this be the main reason why foreign direct investments are down 90% from 5 years ago. this is the cost of crime .
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt told satellite channel Al-Arabiya: “[Bashar al-Assad] is telling us that even though he turned Syria into rubble, ‘I am ready to kill in any place.’”
Nadim Gemayel, an MP from the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, also pointed to Syria, where the 18-month old uprising against Mr Assad has turned increasingly violent.
“This regime, which is crumbling, is trying to export its conflict to Lebanon,” he said.
Mr Hariri’s 14 March bloc issued a statement accusing the Beirut government of protecting “criminals” and calling on it to stand down.
BBC Report
“Wissam al-Hassan was among eight people who died in the attack
Profile: Wissam al-Hassan
Lebanese fear for future Watch
In pictures: Beirut blast
The Lebanese cabinet has been holding emergency talks a day after a powerful car bomb killed the head of internal intelligence and seven others.
Friday’s blast occurred in the mainly Christian district of Ashrafiya, in a busy street close to the headquarters of Mr Hariri’s 14 March coalition.
The dead included internal intelligence head Wissam al-Hassan, who was close to Mr Hariri, a leading critic of the government in neighbouring Syria.
Mr Hassan led an investigation that implicated Damascus in the 2005 bombing that killed Mr Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
He also recently organised the arrest of a former minister accused of planning a Syrian-sponsored bombing campaign in Lebanon”.
Lebanese supporters worldwide support their backers, families, and whatever group they belong to, back home, with drug money, mega bingo money, whatever hustleling they do. Sometimes their differences follow them to places like Belize.
Lebanese abroad are not presently permitted the right to vote in Lebanese elections. A law passed in late 2008 gives expatriates the right to vote in elections in 2013.[12]
[edit]Economic Impacts
According to an investigation, Lebanese abroad are considered “rich, educated and influential. Over the course of time, emigration has yielded Lebanese “commercial networks” throughout the world.[13] As a result, remittances from Lebanese abroad to family members within the country total $8.4 billion[14] and account for one fifth of the country’s economy.[15] Nassib Ghobril, the head of research and analysis for Byblos Bank, calculates that Lebanese abroad supply Lebanon with about $1,400 per capita every year.[16]
I’ll get to the bottom of this. Joseph Marinan
3 Indian nationals disappear and leave hefty bill at hotel. Human trafficking?
Anthony Scott shot near City Hotspot
Guatemalan Gallup Pollsters detained for posing as tourists
Minors beat and kill 63 year old in Placencia
A.G. Ministry gets mas tiempo to respond to Dunkeld’s binders of arguments
2 applications withdrawn by both sides in Telemedia case
Nonlethal weapons and additional troops for the border
Teens busted and charged for stealing wood from a house
Guatemalan National steals identity of Belizean living in Chicago
This is Belize! St. Joseph students beat 30,000 in art battle
Healthy Living coughs up details about strep throat
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Items where contributor is "Grize, Leticia"
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Puplampu, Peter and Ganu, Vincent and Kenu, Ernest and Kudzi, William and Adjei, Patrick and Grize, Leticia and Käser, Michael. (2019) Peripheral neuropathy in patients with human immunodeficiency viral infection at a tertiary hospital in Ghana. Journal of neurovirology, 25 (4). pp. 464-474.
Stolz, Daiana and Papakonstantinou, Eleni and Grize, Leticia and Schilter, Daniel and Strobel, Werner and Louis, Renaud and Schindler, Christian and Hirsch, Hans H. and Tamm, Michael. (2019) Time-course of upper respiratory tract viral infection and COPD exacerbation. The European respiratory journal, 54 (4). p. 1900407.
Crivelli, Marita and Wyss, Kaspar and Grize, Leticia and Matthys, Barbara and Aebi, Thomas and Zemp, Elisabeth. (2018) Are overweight and obesity in children risk factors for anemia in early childhood? Results from a national nutrition survey in Tajikistan. International journal of public health, 63 (4). pp. 491-499.
Steinemann, Nina and Grize, Leticia and Pons, Marco and Rothe, Thomas and Stolz, Daiana and Turk, Alexander and Schindler, Christian and Brombach, Christine and Probst-Hensch, Nicole. (2018) Associations between dietary patterns and post-bronchodilation lung function in the SAPALDIA cohort. Respiration, 95 (6). pp. 454-463.
Stolz, D. and Hirsch, H. H. and Schilter, D. and Louis, R. and Rakic, J. and Boeck, L. and Papakonstantinou, E. and Schindler, C. and Grize, L. and Tamm, M.. (2018) Reply to Palmer et al.: does dose matter? American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 198 (8). pp. 1103-1105.
Furrer, Stefan and Scherer Hofmeier, Kathrin and Grize, Leticia and Bircher, Andreas J.. (2018) Metal hypersensitivity in patients with orthopaedic implant complications-A retrospective clinical study. Contact dermatitis, 79 (2). pp. 91-98.
Stolz, Daiana and Hirsch, Hans H. and Schilter, Daniel and Louis, Renaud and Rakic, Janko and Boeck, Lucas and Papakonstantinou, Eleni and Schindler, Christian and Grize, Leticia and Tamm, Michael. (2018) Intensified therapy with inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β2-agonists at the onset of upper respiratory tract Infection to prevent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations. A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 197 (9). pp. 1136-1146.
Vicedo-Cabrera, Ana M. and Röösli, Martin and Radovanovic, Dragana and Grize, Leticia and Witassek, Fabienne and Schindler, Christian and Perez, Laura. (2017) Cardiorespiratory hospitalisation and mortality reductions after smoking bans in Switzerland. Swiss medical weekly, 146. w14381.
Sundaram, Neisha and Schaetti, Christian and Grize, Leticia and Purohit, Vidula and Joseph, Saju and Schindler, Christian and Kudale, Abhay and Weiss, Mitchell G.. (2017) Sociocultural determinants of anticipated acceptance of pandemic influenza vaccine in Pune, India : a community survey using mixed-methods. International journal of public health, 62 (1). pp. 103-115.
Gotthardt, Frank and Huber, Christine and Thierfelder, Clara and Grize, Leticia and Kraenzlin, Marius and Scheidegger, Claude and Meier, Christian. (2017) Bone mineral density and its determinants in men with opioid dependence. Journal of bone and mineral metabolism, 35 (1). pp. 99-107.
Steinemann, Nina and Grize, Leticia and Ziesemer, Katrin and Kauf, Peter and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Brombach, Christine. (2017) Relative validation of a food frequency questionnaire to estimate food intake in an adult population. Food & nutrition research, 61 (1). p. 1305193.
Haaf, Philip and Ritter, Myriam and Grize, Leticia and Pfisterer, Matthias E. and Zellweger, Michael J. and Bardot Study Group, . (2017) Quality of life as predictor for the development of cardiac ischemia in high-risk asymptomatic diabetic patients. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, 24 (3). pp. 772-782.
Hausherr, Yann and Quinto, Carlos and Grize, Leticia and Schindler, Christian and Probst-Hensch, Nicole. (2017) Smoking cessation in workplace setting: quit rates and determinants in a group behaviour therapy programme. Swiss medical weekly, 147. w14500.
Stulz, Niklaus and Hepp, Urs and Gosoniu, Dominic G. and Grize, Leticia and Muheim, Flavio and Weiss, Mitchell G. and Riecher-Rössler, Anita. (2017) Patient-identified priorities leading to attempted suicide. Crisis, 39 (1). pp. 37-46.
Hausherr, Yann and Quinto, Carlos and Grize, Leticia and Schindler, Christian and Probst-Hensch, Nicole. (2017) Smoking cessation in workplace settings : quit rates and determinants in a group behaviour therapy programme. Swiss medical weekly, 147. w14500.
Schlaeger, Regina and Hardmeier, Martin and D'Souza, Marcus and Grize, Leticia and Schindler, Christian and Kappos, Ludwig and Fuhr, Peter. (2016) Monitoring multiple sclerosis by multimodal evoked potentials : numerically versus ordinally scaled scoring systems. Clinical neurophysiology, 127 (3). pp. 1864-1871.
Liñares, Antonio and Grize, Leticia and Muñoz, Fernando and Pippenger, Benjamin Evans and Dard, Michel and Domken, Olivier and Blanco-Carrión, Juan. (2016) Histological assessment of hard and soft tissues surrounding a novel ceramic implant : a pilot study in the minipig. Journal of clinical periodontology, 43 (6). pp. 538-546.
Vicedo-Cabrera, Ana M. and Schindler, Christian and Radovanovic, Dragana and Grize, Leticia and Witassek, Fabienne and Dratva, Julia and Röösli, Martin and Perez, Laura. (2016) Benefits of smoking bans on preterm and early-term births : a natural experimental design in Switzerland. Tobacco control, 25 (e2). e135-e141.
Perez, Laura and Grize, Leticia and Infanger, Denis and Künzli, Nino and Sommer, Hansjörg and Alt, Gian-Marco and Schindler, Christian. (2015) Associations of daily levels of PM10 and NO2 with emergency hospital admissions and mortality in Switzerland : trends and missed prevention potential over the last decade. Environmental research, Vol. 140. pp. 554-561.
Meier, C. and Kraenzlin, C. and Friederich, N. F. and Wischer, T. and Grize, L. and Meier, C. R. and Kraenzlin, M. E.. (2014) Effect of ibandronate on spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee : a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Osteoporosis international, Vol. 25, no. 1. pp. 359-366.
Friedmann, Anton and Friedmann, Asisa and Grize, Leticia and Obrecht, Marcel and Dard, Michel. (2014) Convergent methods assessing bone growth in an experimental model at dental implants in the minipig. Annals of anatomy : official organ of the Anatomische Gesellschaft, Vol. 196, no. 2-3. pp. 100-107.
Schlaeger, Regina and D'Souza, Marcus and Schindler, Christian and Grize, Leticia and Kappos, Ludwig and Fuhr, Peter. (2014) Electrophysiological markers and predictors of the disease course in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 20 (1). pp. 51-56.
Schlaeger, Regina and Schindler, Christian and Grize, Leticia and Dellas, Sophie and Radue, Ernst W. and Kappos, Ludwig and Fuhr, Peter. (2014) Combined visual and motor evoked potentials predict multiple sclerosis disability after 20 years. Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 20 (10). pp. 1348-1354.
Schlaeger, R. and D'Souza, M. and Schindler, C. and Grize, L. and Kappos, L. and Fuhr, P.. (2014) Prediction of MS disability by multimodal evoked potentials : investigation during relapse or in the relapse-free interval? Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, Vol. 125, H. 9. pp. 1889-1892.
Sutter, Raoul and Grize, Leticia and Fuhr, Peter and Rüegg, Stephan and Marsch, Stephan. (2013) Acute-phase proteins and mortality in status epilepticus: a 5-year observational cohort study. Critical care medicine, Vol. 41, H. 6. pp. 1526-1533.
Gross, Karin and Schindler, Christian and Grize, Leticia and Späth, Anna and Schwind, Bettina and Zemp, Elisabeth. (2013) Patient-physician concordance and discordance in gynecology : do physicians identify patients' reasons for visit and do patients understand physicians' actions? Patient education and counseling, Vol. 92, iss. 1. pp. 45-52.
Herzig, M. and Dössegger, A. and Mäder, U. and Kriemler, S. and Wunderlin, T. and Grize, L. and Brug, J. and Manios, Y. and Braun-Fahrländer, C. and Bringolf-Isler, B.. (2012) Differences in weight status and energy-balance related behaviors among schoolchildren in German-speaking Switzerland compared to seven countries in Europe. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 9 (139).
Bringolf-Isler, B. and Mäder, U. and Ruch, N. and Kriemler, S. and Grize, L. and Braun-Fahrländer, C.. (2012) Measuring and validating physical activity and sedentary behavior comparing a parental questionnaire to accelerometer data and diaries. Pediatric exercise science, Vol. 24, H. 2. pp. 229-245.
Hoek, G. and Pattenden, S. and Willers, S. and Antova, T. and Fabianova, E. and Braun-Fahrländer, C. and Forastiere, F. and Gehring, U. and Luttmann-Gibson, H. and Grize, L. and Heinrich, J. and Houthuijs, D. and Janssen, N. and Katsnelson, B. and Kosheleva, A. and Moshammer, H. and Neuberger, M. and Privalova, L. and Rudnai, P. and Speizer, F. and Slachtova, H. and Tomaskova, H. and Zlotkowska, R. and Fletcher, T.. (2012) PM10 and children's respiratory symptoms and lung function in the PATY study. The European respiratory journal, 40 (3). pp. 538-547.
Broz, P. and Harr, T. and Hecking, C. and Grize, L. and Scherer, K. and Jaeger, K. A. and Bircher, A. J.. (2012) Nonirritant intradermal skin test concentrations of ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, and rifampicin. Allergy : european journal of allergy and clinical immunology : official journal of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Vol. 67, H. 5. pp. 647-652.
Sutter, Raoul and Tschudin-Sutter, Sarah and Grize, Leticia and Fuhr, Peter and Bonten, Marc J. M. and Widmer, Andreas F. and Marsch, Stephan and Rüegg, Stephan. (2012) Associations between infections and clinical outcome parameters in status epilepticus : a retrospective 5-year cohort study. Epilepsia : journal of the International League against Epilepsy, Vol. 53, H. 9. pp. 1489-1497.
Schlaeger, R. and D'Souza, M. and Schindler, C. and Grize, L. and Kappos, L. and Fuhr, P.. (2012) Combined evoked potentials as markers and predictors of disability in early multiple sclerosis. Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, Vol. 123, H. 2. pp. 406-410.
Schlaeger, R. and D'Souza, M. and Schindler, C. and Grize, L. and Dellas, S. and Radue, E. and Kappos, L. and Fuhr, P.. (2012) Prediction of long-term disability in multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 18 (1). pp. 31-38.
Rohner, Andreas and Brinkert, Miriam and Kawel, Nadine and Buechel, Ronny R. and Leibundgut, Gregor and Grize, Leticia and Kühne, Michael and Bremerich, Jens and Kaufmann, Beat A. and Zellweger, Michael J. and Buser, Peter and Osswald, Stefan and Handke, Michael. (2011) Functional assessment of the left atrium by real-time three-dimensional echocardiography using a novel dedicated analysis tool : initial validation studies in comparison with computed tomography. European journal of echocardiography : the journal of the European Association of Echocardiography of the European Society of Cardiology, Vol. 12, H. 7. pp. 497-505.
Rudin, D. and Grize, L. and Schindler, C. and Marsch, S. and Rüegg, S. and Sutter, R.. (2011) High prevalence of nonconvulsive and subtle status epilepticus in an ICU of a tertiary care center : a three-year observational cohort study. Epilepsy research : international multidisciplinary journal devoted to experimental and clinical epileptology, Vol. 96, H. 1. pp. 140-150.
Sutter, Raoul and Fuhr, Peter and Grize, Leticia and Marsch, Stephan and Rüegg, Stephan. (2011) Continuous video-EEG monitoring increases detection rate of nonconvulsive status epilepticus in the ICU. Epilepsia : journal of the International League against Epilepsy, Vol. 52, H. 3. pp. 453-457.
Sutter, R. and Tschudin-Sutter S., and Grize, L. and Widmer, A. F. and Marsch, S. and Ruegg, S.. (2011) Acute phase proteins and white blood cell levels for prediction of infectious complications in status epilepticus. Critical care, Vol. 15, H. 6 , R274.
Thoma, D. S. and Jones, A. A. and Dard, M. and Grize, L. and Obrecht, M. and Cochran, D. L.. (2011) Tissue integration of a new titanium-zirconium dental implant : a comparative histologic and radiographic study in the canine. Journal of periodontology, 82 (10). pp. 1453-1461.
Leibundgut, G. and Rohner, A. and Grize, L. and Bernheim, A. and Kessel-Schaefer A., and Bremerich, J. and Zellweger, M. and Buser, P. and Handke, M.. (2010) Dynamic assessment of right ventricular volumes and function by real-time three-dimensional echocardiography : a comparison study with magnetic resonance imaging in 100 adult patients. Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, Vol. 23, H. 2. pp. 116-126.
Grize, L. and Bringolf-Isler B., and Martin, E. and Braun-Fahrländer C., . (2010) Trend in active transportation to school among Swiss school children and its associated factors : three cross-sectional surveys 1994, 2000 and 2005. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, Vol. 7 , 28.
Bringolf-Isler B., and Grize, L. and Mader, U. and Ruch, N. and Sennhauser, F. H. and Braun-Fahrländer C., . (2010) Built environment, parents' perception, and children's vigorous outdoor play. Preventive medicine, Vol. 50, H. 5. pp. 251-256.
Sabti, Z. and Handschin, M. and Joss, M. K. and Allenspach, E. C. and Nuscheler, M. and Grize, L. and Braun-Fahrländer, C.. (2010) Evaluation of a physical activity promotion program in primary care. Family practice, Vol. 27, H. 3. pp. 279-284.
Hug, K. and Grize, L. and Seidler, A. and Kaatsch, P. and Schuz, J.. (2010) Parental occupational exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields and childhood cancer: a German case-control study. American journal of epidemiology, Vol. 171, No. 1. pp. 27-35.
Cochran, D. L. and Bosshardt, D. D. and Grize, L. and Higginbottom, F. L. and Jones, A. A. and Jung, R. E. and Wieland, M. and Dard, M.. (2009) Bone response to loaded implants with non-matching implant-abutment diameters in the canine mandible. Journal of Periodontology, Vol. 80, H. 4. pp. 609-617.
Bollag, U. and Grize, L. and Braun-Fahrländer C., . (2009) Is the ebb of asthma due to the decline of allergic asthma? : a prospective consultation-based study by the Swiss Sentinel Surveillance Network, 1999-2005. Family practice : an international journal, Vol. 26, H. 2. pp. 96-101.
Bringolf-Isler B., and Grize, L. and Mader, U. and Ruch, N. and Sennhauser, F. H. and Braun-Fahrländer C., . (2009) Assessment of intensity, prevalence and duration of everyday activities in Swiss school children : a cross-sectional analysis of accelerometer and diary data. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, Vol. 6 , 50.
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Proper 27, Year B (rcl)
A story like Ruth and Naomiâs could probably only be made into a movie if it carried an X rating. We miss a lot of the innuendo in translation, but basically, Naomi is out to procure a husband for her widowed daughter-in-law. Thatâs the only way either one of them is going to survive economically. She says to Ruth, âlook, thereâs Boaz, time to jump the broom with him â and heâs OK, heâs not a complete foreigner. âGo get gussied up, then get yourself over to the barnyard, and hang around â be visible, show yourself off. Donât talk to him until after dinner, but find out where he sleeps.â Actually, Naomi says, âdonât make yourself known to him until after dinner.â The word to know has the same meaning as âand Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore a child.â
Naomi goes on, âwell, when you know where heâs going to sleep, get yourself over there, uncover his feetâ (feet are a euphemism here), and theyâre not feet for making a descent, but feet for making descendants! âLie down, and heâll tell you what to do.â Iâm sorry, but this is way too racy for children.
Naomi is a very canny widow. She knows that the two of them arenât going to survive if they donât have a male family member â a wage earner or a farmer â and they arenât going to get one without Ruthâs cooperation. Julia Dinsmore would call this an example of âthe survival skills of the poor.â Dinsmore wrote a powerful book titled, My Name is Child of God, Not âThose People.â Itâs about the gifts of the poor, particularly their creativity.
We tend to judge this story from a very different economic location â one that has the luxury of at least some choice about what kind of work weâll take or who weâll marry or not marry. And if we read further in this story of creative survival, we discover that God is at work in the midst of it, for Ruth becomes great-grandmother to David, the hoped-for savior of Israel. When David doesnât pan out so well, God keeps on working. Ruth shows up in Jesusâ list of ancestors, along with three other women: the prostitute Rahab; Tamar, a widow who gets sons by seducing her father-in-law; and another foreigner, Bathsheba, with whom David commits adultery, and then makes a widow. God is at work in all of this âinappropriate sexual behavior,â which eventually, according to Matthewâs gospel, leads to Jesus, born of Mary, husband of Joseph of the house of David.
This story continues, through all the centuries since, with more Naomis and Ruths, desperately looking for hope.
Iâve just finished reading Edward Ballâs, Slaves in the Family, about black and white descendants of the Ball family who started the big slave plantations outside Charleston. There are a whole lot of arranged marriages in the Ball family. On the white side, most of the marriages are with cousins, designed to keep the âpropertyâ in the family. Many of the marriages in the black community are arranged by slave masters who decide which slaves will marry whom. There are a lot of uncouplings and widows made as well, when one or another is sold off the plantation. And then there are the relationships between sons of the masters or the masters themselves and the women in slavery. Edward Ball learns about a lot of this by reading the slave records and connecting them with the family stories he hears from his black relatives. The surprising reality is that there wasnât a whole lot of choice about who married whom on either side of the family, and women were usually on the short end of the decision-making.
Thatâs really what Jesus is getting at in his jabs at the scribes and his commentary about giving at the temple. Those scribes who âdevour widowsâ housesâ are exploiting the lack of freedom widows have to make economic decisions. The widows of Jesusâ day had just as wretched a social position as Ruth and Naomi. They werenât going to make it economically without a wage earner in the family. In Jesusâ day, there were basically no jobs or economic possibilities for poor women without male relatives â except âthe oldest profession.â
The scribes of Jesusâ day were interpreters of the law or the Torah. They were more like what rabbis became in the years after Jesus â interpreters of scripture for daily life. Jesus is criticizing these scribes for their self-interest, because theyâre getting rich off those poor widows. Their legal deals and interpretations just keep squeezing those widows.
Thatâs probably also what lies behind Jesusâ comments about the widow and her two coins. He notes the difference between the rich folk who put in lots of money and the widow who gives her last two pennies. In order to be a good Jew in Jesusâ day, you had to make an offering at the Temple. In order to keep the Romans off your back, you also had to pay Roman taxes. This widow is giving the very last of what she has. We donât know if it is from gratitude, or to keep her place in the community. Jesus doesnât praise her, he simply notes that sheâs giving the last of what she has. This often turns into a stewardship story about how generous she was. We rarely hear the critique of a religious system that keeps widows poor by depriving them of economic possibilities and any real hope.
On Friday, I visited Emmaus House and met with the urban interns. These three young women have just graduated from college. One is African-American, one Asian-American, and one Anglo. Theyâre spending a year working with some of todayâs equivalents of Ruth and Naomi and poor widows. They are working with other young women without much hope or economic freedom of choice, young women who are being trafficked or groomed for exploitation. The urban interns are supported and encouraged by older women and men who are trying to change a system that seduces poor young women into relationships for profit â not their own profit, but the profit of others, who are todayâs equivalent of slave holders and devourers of widowsâ houses.
All of the sin in these stories is really about removing creative possibility from others, denying them their God-given ability to make choices, to exercise their free will. That is what is most essential about being created in the image of God â sharing in Godâs own creativity. Ruth and Naomi didnât have much ability to choose another way because their society limited them to specific roles. Jesusâ female ancestors were similarly limited. The widow of the gospel is kept poor by a religious and political system of exploitation. The same was true of the Ball family â and the white side was nearly as constrained by the system of slavery as the black side. Fear of loss and poverty motivated the slave-owners, and fear of death and destruction and further degradation kept most of the slaves in the system. Many young people today are being raised in a system that says that they have value only for the ways in which they can be used â by tricks on the corner or athletic teams or the military.
The freedom we have in Christ is about hope. Jesusâ way insists that all Godâs people are created for dignity, and each one has meaning and value from being made in the image of God. No one is a commodity to be bought and sold.
You and I share Jesusâ work of confronting the scribes who diminish dignity and steal hope. Opportunities for redemption are all around us, in the young and the old. God is at work even in the worst of despair nothingness. Our job is to help give birth to hope, and help it keep growing into full and abundant life.
Let there be no more days when hope unborn has died. Lift every voice. Sing hope. Bring hope. Birth hope. Be hope.
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Meghan McCain Walks Off ‘The View’ Set After Blowing Up At Ana Navarro
By Corey Atad. 21 Sep 2019 9:30 PM
Meghan McCain has apparently reached her limit.
On Friday’s “The View”, the panellists got into a very heated conversation over a recent whistleblower scandal involving U.S. President Donald Trump, which led McCain to change the subject by expressing her problem with people on the left.
RELATED: Meghan McCain Calls Out Fox News Anchor Laura Ingraham For Fat Shaming Her
“This is what I know. We had Pamela Anderson on a week or two weeks ago, and I took her to task about Julian Assange,” she said. “There are a lot of liberals okay with him, those same people are screaming bloody murder right now about this whistleblower.”
McCain continued, “I think all interference from a foreign country in our election, all of it is bad and should be condemned, and you can’t play party politics with this, and there’s a lot of people on the left who are doing that with Julian Assange.”
Joy Behar interrupted, “Who are you mad at? Are you mad at the whistleblower?”
“Excuse me, I’m still speaking,” McCain shot back. “I’m mad that there are people on the left that think that Julian Assange is okay, that he’s some kind of patriot whistleblower when he did interfere in our election.”
She later added, “There are a lot of people on the left who defend Julian Assange,” to which Behar responded, “Alright fine, but the left is happy that there’s a whistleblower blowing the whistle on Trump.”
After another back-and-forth between the panellists, they began to talk over each other, with Ana Navarro chiming in to add her two cents.
RELATED: Kourtney Kardashian Fires Back At Meghan McCain Over Criticism Of Her Teary Response To Turning 40
At that point, Meghan McCain exploded, shouting, “Excuse me!” and continuing on her point.
Navarro responded to the outburst, but McCain didn’t hear her, saying, “I don’t know what you just said.”
“I said, don’t scream at me, I’m two feet away,” Navarro repeated.
McCain quickly became flustered, saying simply, “You know what…” as the audience gasped.
Behar quickly threw to a commercial break, but as the announcer previewed what was up next on the show, McCain could be seen getting out of her chair and walking off the set.
After the break, McCain returned for the next segment and a more cordial discussion.
A rep for “The View” declined to comment on the incident.
Ana Navarro Joy Behar Meghan McCain The View TV
Sam Elliott Brings A Dramatic Touch To ‘Old Town Road’ In Doritos Super Bowl Commercial
Paris Hilton Says She Was ‘Playing A Character’ In Past Shows
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Emily Every Day
Indeed, why blog?
Tag Archives: William Blake
Easter Morning
Good morning. Today is Easter Sunday. Lance and I ran into Nancy and Renny on our walk along the bayou. She wore large pink and white fuzzy rabbit ears . . . and sunglasses. “He is risen,” Nancy said, by way of greeting. And then: “He did die for our sins, after all.” That considered, we agreed the least we could do was wear funny bunny ears in tribute to our savior.
The pealing bells of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary fill the sky. Trilling birdsong drifts down from my neighbor’s rain gutter where some loudmouth has built a nest. I have a vague atavistic notion that I should be in church today. There is a distinct sense of uplift in the air. Everywhere I went on my walk this morning, people called out, “Happy Easter!” Does this happen so consistently elsewhere?
I also saw Diane walking her Jack Russell Terrorist, who happens to be named Grace—of all things. I mentioned Easter Mass in passing. Diane shook her head, no. “I’m in church, right here,” she said, as she passed beneath the arms of a giant oak. That’s the spirit. I’m not going to church. I’m staying on the porch with my coffee and Lance and Emily.
Random Chance tossed out the perfect Easter poem.
#712, c. 1863
Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The Carriage held but just Ourselves —
And Immortality.
We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility —
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess — in the Ring —
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain —
We passed the Setting Sun —
Or rather — He passed Us —
The Dews drew quivering and chill —
For only Gossamer, my Gown —
My Tippet — only Tulle —
We paused before a House that seemed
A swelling of the Ground —
The Roof was scarcely visible —
The Cornice — in the Ground —
Since then — ’tis Centuries — and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity —
I’ve been trying to avoid the poems on Emily’s Hit Parade, but this one wanted to jump out today. I’ll try to treat it as though I have never read it before.
Her sense of Death here is a radical restructuring, unheard of before or since. Death is not the enemy or the terrifying, scythe-wielding skeleton. He is a gentleman. The soul of kindness, and nothing if not civil. Here, Emily finally meets her perfect consort. Her courtier. Death pauses in his carriage to bring Emily to their wedding feast. This is not their first date. They have been long acquainted and proceed toward the consummation of a mutually agreed-upon contract.
She goes to him gently, discreetly, as to her lover whom she would have as her husband. He escorts her with the unhurried courtesy of a mature, thoughtful man about to take a wife, not the passionate, rock-and-roll boyfriend. The two of them move carefully toward their sacred union, crossing the threshold by slowly attending to all the relevant details. She soaks in the gradual pace of this journey, as she leaves her father’s house, so that her new husband may bring her to the house he has made for the two of them.
This is the courtship of Emily. No other man would do for her. Any earthly marriage would just be a preamble, and she doesn’t have the patience for that. She was born to wed Death. That means radical honesty, accepting that her life is a trajectory toward that union with death. For her the honesty is the lure, the attraction to Death. All the love affairs in the world are just a shadow play before the main event. All the lovers are merely straw men, stand-ins for the one true mate she knows is waiting for her.
I can see Emily freeze and choke at the prospect of an ordinary, human love. She has to save herself for the real thing, if for no other reason than she just doesn’t have the stomach for pretending. Perhaps Emily is not entirely human herself. Or too human?
Last night Geoff and I read The Marriage of Heaven and Hell aloud, alternating each section in the manner of our “slow reading” of The Symposium. Among Blake’s many trippy insights, the one I held most dear was an observation his speaker made in one of the sections titled: “The Voice of the Devil”. The speaker offers an essential truth that contradicts the incorrect belief promulgated by scripture, chiefly that we must expunge the false notion that Body and Soul are separate. Body is simply an aspect of Soul that can be perceived with the five senses. How New Age, really. This physical life is not fundamentally divided from the life of the spirit, rather it is the concretized portion of it. Whatever we touch we receive through our hands some aspect of an immortal force. Continuing from there, when we depart our bodies, this so-called death is not an end, but a re-working of a thing that remains fundamentally whole. Neither created nor destroyed, but simply changed in form. And a happy Easter to you!
Then we read the best part of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell which are the Proverbs of Hell. My favorite: “Shame is Prides cloke.” Also: “The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.” Geoff’s favorite: “The nakedness of woman is the work of God.” Or maybe it was: “Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.” So many to choose from. In any case, you can see where this was going.
Next Week: Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. Do stop in.
Filed under Emily Every Day
Tagged as Death, Easter, Emily Dickinson, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, spiritual life, William Blake
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Amherst Writers & Artists
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Writing Workshops – Ellen Reich
Emily Every Day · a daily meditation on a poem by emily dickinson
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The Wind That Shakes the Barley (song)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836-1883), a Limerick-born poet and professor of English literature. Its title was borrowed for the Ken Loach film which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.
The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes", mass unmarked graves which slain rebels were thrown into, symbolising the regenerative nature of Irish resistance to British rule.
:I sat within a valley green:I sat me with my true love:My sad heart strove to choose between:The old love and the new love:The old for her, the new that made:Me think on Ireland dearly:While soft the wind blew down the glen:And shook the golden barley
:Twas hard the woeful words to frame:To break the ties that bound us:But harder still to bear the shame:Of foreign chains around us:And so I said, "The mountain glen:I'll seek at morning early:And join the bold United Men":While soft winds shake the barley
:While sad I kissed away her tears:My fond arms 'round her flinging:A full man shot burst on our ears:From out the wildwood ringing:A bullet pierced my true love's side:In life's young spring so early:And on my breast in blood she died:While soft winds shook the barley
:I bore her to some mountain stream:And many's the summer blossom:I placed with branches soft and green:About her gore-stained bosom:I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse:Then rushed o'er vale and valley:My vengeance on the foe to wreak:While soft winds shook the barley
:But blood for blood without remorse:I've taken at Oulart Hollow:And laid my true love's clay-cold corpse:Where I full soon may follow:As 'round her grave I wander drear:Noon, night and morning early:With breaking heart when e'er I hear:The wind that shakes the barley
* [http://www.martindardis.com/id443.html Lyrics and guitar chords]
Cover versions
The song has been covered by many artists including The Chieftains, The Dubliners, The Celtic Rogues, Dolores Keane, Dead Can Dance (sung by Lisa Gerrard), Solas, The Clancy Brothers, Dick Gaughan, Orthodox Celts, Amanda Palmer, Fire + Ice, The Irish Rovers, Glow, Gallery, McKeever's Crossing, Sarah Jezebel Deva and Martin Carthy.
A poem by the same name was published by Katharine Tynan.
It was featured in the 2006 Irish award winning film The Wind That Shakes the Barley during the scene of a wake. An arragement for SATB choir by Laurie A. Betts was published by Walton Music Publications in 2008.
2009 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament
Nuclear-Free Future Award
The Wind That Shakes the Barley — may refer to:* The Wind That Shakes the Barley (song), a 19th century Irish song written by Robert Dwyer Joyce * The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film), a 2006 Irish film directed by Ken Loach that takes its name from the song … Wikipedia
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film) — Infobox Film name = The Wind That Shakes The Barley caption = director = Ken Loach producer = Rebecca O Brien cinematography = Barry Ackroyd writer = Paul Laverty starring = Cillian Murphy Padraic Delaney Orla Fitzgerald Liam Cunningham music =… … Wikipedia
The Wind That Shakes the Barley — Filmdaten Deutscher Titel The Wind That Shakes the Barley Produktionsland Frankreich Irland … Deutsch Wikipedia
The Voice of the People — is an anthology of folk songs sung by Traditional singers of England Scotland Wales and Ireland.There are 511 recordings on 20 CDs, compiled by Dr Reg Hall, a historian at Sussex University. The singers were celebrities within their own community … Wikipedia
The Mummers' Dance — Single by Loreena McKennitt from the album The Book of Secrets … Wikipedia
The Hurt Locker — Hurt Locker redirects here. For the song by American Rapper Xzibit, see Hurt Locker (song). The Hurt Locker … Wikipedia
Roud Folk Song Index — The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is a combination of the Broadside Index (printed sources before… … Wikipedia
Into the Labyrinth (album) — Infobox Album | Name = Into the Labyrinth Type = Studio Artist = Dead Can Dance Released = 13 September 1993 (UK) 14 September 1993 (US) Recorded = early 1993 Genre = Ethnic fusion, Medieval rock Length = 55:26 (CD) 65:25 (LP) Label = 4AD (UK)… … Wikipedia
Toward the within — Album par Dead Can Dance Sortie 24 octobre 1994 Enregistrement novembre 1993 à Mayfair Theatre, Santa Monica Durée 67 min 56s. Genre(s) … Wikipédia en Français
Toward the Within — Album par Dead Can Dance Sortie 24 octobre 1994 Enregistrement novembre 1993 à Mayfair Theatre, Santa Monica Durée 67 min 56s. Genre … Wikipédia en Français
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Poland To Help Antonov Develop UAVs
The Antonov state aircraft manufacturing enterprise has reached agreement on cooperation with the WB Electronics company (Poland), which will help the Ukrainian enterprise to develop tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Flights from/to Ukraine and transit flights will continue to operate.
The sanctions that President Petro Poroshenko introduced against Russian airlines after a meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council apply only to operation of flights through the territory of Ukraine.
UIA Estimates Potential Losses From Possible Russian Counter-Sanctions On Ukrainian Airlines
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) estimates losses from Ukraine’s sanctions against Russian airlines and possible Russian retaliatory sanctions at more than USD 35 million per year.
Competition Commission Rejects Both Applications For Ukraine's First Concession Road
An interagency commission has rejected the applications of the two companies that expressed the desire to participate in Ukraine’s first highway concession project, which involves construction and operation of a new Lvov-Krakovets highway.
Giant Ships in Ukrainian Ports: How to Load Cargoes Faster
A new national record for the volume of cargo loaded onto a vessel was recently set at the Yuzhny seaport, when 203,590 tons of iron-ore concentrate was loaded onto a Newcastlemax-class bulk carrier.
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Arrest made over murder of UK gemstone expert in Kenya
This is the stable version, checked on 29 April 2014. Template/file changes await review.
14 October 2019: Kenya's Brigid Kosgei sets new world record at Chicago Marathon
13 October 2019: Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya runs marathon under two hours
21 March 2018: Kenyan conservancy euthanises last male northern white rhino; only two females remain
2 May 2016: 60 people still missing after Kenyan house collapse
1 May 2016: 100 tons of ivory burned in Africa; estimated at $250 million on black market
Location of Kenya
Police in Kenya have arrested a man thought to be the organiser of an attack by up to 30 men armed with clubs and spears that killed internationally renowned Scottish gemstone expert Campbell Bridges.
Voi, Kenya
Image: Acntx.
The 71-year-old was ambushed last week near Voi where he owns several mines. The attack left two security guards badly injured. Bridges' family had received death threats for years over a dispute over access to his gemstone mines.
"The police are still pursuing other suspects who were armed with crude weapons during the attack."
—Regional police chief Herbert Khaemba
Regional police chief Herbert Khaemba anounced today: "The suspect believed to be the main organiser of the brutal murder was arrested by the police at the Kenyan border town of Taveta in hiding. The police are still pursuing other suspects who were armed with crude weapons during the attack."
The arrested man is reported to be the chairman of a group of local small-scale miners. He is thought to have been intending to flee to neighbouring Tanzania. The area's minerals have been disputed ever since Bridges discovered the locally unique stone Tsavorite in the 1960s.
"Arrest over gem expert's murder" — BBC News Online, August 19, 2009
"Kenya police arrest man over UK geologist murder" — Reuters, August 19, 2009
Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Arrest_made_over_murder_of_UK_gemstone_expert_in_Kenya&oldid=2585021"
Crime and law
Pages with pull-quotes
Iain Macdonald (Wikinewsie)
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Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology
Phuong Le, Shweta Chitoor, Chunlai Tu, Sung Jun Lim, Andrew M Smith
Technology Entrepreneur Center
In this chapter, we describe the preparation of fluorescent quantum dots for imaging and measuring protein expression in cells. Quantum dots are nanocrystals that have numerous advantages for biomolecular detection compared with organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, but their large size has been a limiting factor. We describe the synthesis of nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm (smaller than an antibody), their attachment to monoclonal antibodies through click chemistry, characterization of the conjugates, and use for labeling of cellular antigens. We further discuss the unique advantages and challenges associated with this approach compared with conventional immunofluorescence techniques.
Fluorescent Dyes
Le, P., Chitoor, S., Tu, C., Lim, S. J., & Smith, A. M. (2020). Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology. In Methods in Molecular Biology (pp. 147-158). (Methods in Molecular Biology; Vol. 2064). Humana Press Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9831-9_12
Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology. / Le, Phuong; Chitoor, Shweta; Tu, Chunlai; Lim, Sung Jun; Smith, Andrew M.
Le, P, Chitoor, S, Tu, C, Lim, SJ & Smith, AM 2020, Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology. in Methods in Molecular Biology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2064, Humana Press Inc., pp. 147-158. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9831-9_12
Le P, Chitoor S, Tu C, Lim SJ, Smith AM. Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology. In Methods in Molecular Biology. Humana Press Inc. 2020. p. 147-158. (Methods in Molecular Biology). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9831-9_12
Le, Phuong ; Chitoor, Shweta ; Tu, Chunlai ; Lim, Sung Jun ; Smith, Andrew M. / Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology. Methods in Molecular Biology. Humana Press Inc., 2020. pp. 147-158 (Methods in Molecular Biology).
@inbook{7620154394a84c9298ab480dbf1560fd,
title = "Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology",
abstract = "In this chapter, we describe the preparation of fluorescent quantum dots for imaging and measuring protein expression in cells. Quantum dots are nanocrystals that have numerous advantages for biomolecular detection compared with organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, but their large size has been a limiting factor. We describe the synthesis of nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm (smaller than an antibody), their attachment to monoclonal antibodies through click chemistry, characterization of the conjugates, and use for labeling of cellular antigens. We further discuss the unique advantages and challenges associated with this approach compared with conventional immunofluorescence techniques.",
keywords = "Antibody, Cancer, Cytology, EGFR, Fluorescence, Imaging, Immunofluorescence, Microscopy, Nanocrystal, Nanotechnology, Protein, Single cell",
author = "Phuong Le and Shweta Chitoor and Chunlai Tu and Lim, {Sung Jun} and Smith, {Andrew M}",
T1 - Compact quantum dots for quantitative cytology
AU - Le, Phuong
AU - Chitoor, Shweta
AU - Tu, Chunlai
AU - Lim, Sung Jun
AU - Smith, Andrew M
N2 - In this chapter, we describe the preparation of fluorescent quantum dots for imaging and measuring protein expression in cells. Quantum dots are nanocrystals that have numerous advantages for biomolecular detection compared with organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, but their large size has been a limiting factor. We describe the synthesis of nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm (smaller than an antibody), their attachment to monoclonal antibodies through click chemistry, characterization of the conjugates, and use for labeling of cellular antigens. We further discuss the unique advantages and challenges associated with this approach compared with conventional immunofluorescence techniques.
AB - In this chapter, we describe the preparation of fluorescent quantum dots for imaging and measuring protein expression in cells. Quantum dots are nanocrystals that have numerous advantages for biomolecular detection compared with organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, but their large size has been a limiting factor. We describe the synthesis of nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm (smaller than an antibody), their attachment to monoclonal antibodies through click chemistry, characterization of the conjugates, and use for labeling of cellular antigens. We further discuss the unique advantages and challenges associated with this approach compared with conventional immunofluorescence techniques.
KW - Cytology
KW - EGFR
KW - Fluorescence
KW - Immunofluorescence
KW - Microscopy
KW - Nanocrystal
KW - Nanotechnology
KW - Protein
KW - Single cell
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Directory - madagascar
Madagascar Mining Companies / Mining Projects
Rio Tinto - QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) - QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), a partnership between the Government of Madagascar and Rio Tinto, has developed an ilmenite mine near Fort-Dauphin at the south east tip of Madagascar. QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), which is 80% owned by Rio Tinto and 20% owned by the Government of Madagascar, has built a mineral sands mining operation near Fort-Dauphin at the south-east tip of Madagascar.
Varun Group Madagascar - Varun Industries Limited, India’s leading steel ware manufacturer and exporter has evolved into a global conglomerate with diverse business interests. The Varun Group has entered into a business alliance with the Government of Madagascar and has acquired mining reserves of uranium and thorium, oil and gas blocks besides other interests.
Pan African Mining Corp. - PAM Madagascar Sarl - Pan African Mining Corp. and its subsidiaries acquire, explore and develop mineral properties in areas of Africa deemed to have relatively high potential for mining success and relatively low political risk. Its operations in Madagascar are carried out through its operating subsidiary, PAM Madagascar Sarl. The Company is exploring these properties for uranium, gold, coal, precious stones, base metals and industrial commodities.
Ambatovy - Ambatovy is a large-tonnage, long-life nickel and cobalt mining enterprise located in Madagascar. Ambatovy is a partnership of four companies – Sherritt International Corporation and SNC-Lavalin Incorporated from Canada, Sumitomo Corporation from Japan, and Korea Resources Corporation from Korea. Ambatovy is positioned to become the world’s biggest lateritic nickel mine by 2013-2014.
Cline Mining Corporation - Bekisopa Properties - Cline Mining is a mine development company based in Toronto, Canada, focused on the exploration and development of mine mineral resource properties. The Company owns the Bekisopa iron-ore-deposit properties (Beki-East and Beki-West) in Madagascar.
Madagascar Mining Resources
Projet de Gouvernance des Ressources Minérales (PRGM) - L’objectif global du Projet de Gouvernance des Ressources Minérales est d’assister le Gouvernement sur la mise en œuvre de la stratégie pour accélérer le développement soutenable et la réduction de la pauvreté à Madagascar à travers le renforcement.
OMNIS (Office des Mines Nationales et des Industries Stratégiques) - OMNIS, a state-owned agency created in 1976, has been commissioned to manage, to develop and to promote the national petroleum and mineral resources in Madagascar.
Madagascar Investment Promotion Board - Opportunities in Madagascar for Oil, Minerals & Mining.
Madagascar Mining News - Madagascar Mining News is an EIN News Service for mining professionals. Constantly updated news and information about Madagascar Mining.
Madagascar mining resources, mining companies, mine exploration industry covering all aspects of the mining industry in Madagascar . Find a Mining Job provides Madagascar mining industry links and information for miners, suppliers, industry investors, mining companies, mining job seekers, employers and more. Looking for work in the Mining industry in Madagascar ? Find mine resources on FindaMiningJob.com for people who work or are seeking employment in the Madagascar mine industry.
Mining employment and mining job vacancies are available in Madagascar. With the mining industry experiencing unrivalled growth the list of career opportunities is endless. Qualified mining professionals with various skill sets are in high demand. Explore Madagascar mining jobs and career resources on Find a Mining Job.
Madagascar Mining Companies and Recruiters - Find a Mining Job is a valuable resource to post your latest job availabilities. Job candidates can browse the latest mining job listings on the site and sign up for email alerts with the most current mining job positions in Madagascar.
Madagascar Mining Job Seekers - Browse the most up-to-date mining job listings available! Sign up to receive email alerts with all the latest mining jobs in Madagascar. Available mining positions can be found in exploration & geosciences, drilling, engineering, mine operations, construction, mine management, trades, mineral processing, support staff, finance, health & safety, environmental and maintenance.
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Tackling risky alcohol consumption in sport: cluster randomised controlled trial of an alcohol management intervention with community football clubs
https://findings.org.uk/PHP/dl.php?file=Kingsland_M_2.txt&s=dy&sf=sfnos
Tackling risky alcohol consumption in sport: cluster randomised controlled trial of an alcohol management intervention with community football clubs.
Kingsland M., Wolfenden L., Tindall J. et al.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health: 2015, early online publication
Unable to obtain a copy by clicking title? Try asking the author for a reprint by adapting this prepared e-mail or by writing to Dr Kingsland at melanie.kingsland@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au.
Playing team sports is associated with heavy drinking, but through an alcohol management code voluntarily entered in to and policed by sports clubs themselves, this unique randomised trial from Australia claims to have found a way to turn the tide without having to strengthen formal enforcement.
Summary Attracting many young people, sporting clubs offer an opportunity to reduce alcohol-related harm, yet clubs and venues have not implemented evidence-based measures comprehensively and consistently, and there is little rigorous scientific evidence on the effectiveness of their efforts.
In Australia football clubs which supplied alcohol were randomly allocated to implement the Good Sports alcohol management regimen or carry on as usual
Over the three years of the study, generally risky drinking levels had fallen more among members of Good Sports clubs than of comparison clubs, suggesting the programme had the desired impacts.
The results suggest the kind of non-enforcement based strategies favoured by the alcohol industry and some governments can work.
However, study and results are not enough to overturn evidence that voluntary community-based alcohol control is most likely to succeed when backed by mandatory enforcement measures.
This Australian study conducted in New South Wales aimed to provide evidence by evaluating the impacts in non-elite, community football clubs of a multi-strand alcohol management intervention. Unlike previous studies, clubs were randomly allocated to the intervention package or to carry on as normal, helping eliminate other influences in order to reveal the true impact of the intervention. This account of the study draws also on a description of its methodology and an evaluation of the implementation of the intervention.
The intervention package was based on the Good Sports programme widely implemented in Australia. Described as a non-enforcement policy option, the programme is voluntarily entered in to by clubs and does not feature external enforcement pressures or regulatory measures. As part of the programme clubs which serve alcohol agree to measures including: limiting availability of high-strength drinks; providing free water, food and relatively inexpensive low-alcohol and alcohol-free beverages; not selling alcohol to drunk patrons; prohibiting drinking games and promotions including cheap or discounted drinks or alcohol-only awards or prizes; not allowing bar staff to drink on duty; and ensuring the licensee is present when alcohol is sold. Measures to alter the environment include signage on liquor laws and what constitutes a standard drink, and routine patrolling of grounds to monitor drinking and inform spectators of expectations regarding drinking at the venue. Clubs can gain level-one accreditation for their programmes by implementing basic measures and higher levels two and three by taking further steps, the last stage including trying to source non-alcohol related sponsorship and providing a written alcohol-management policy to members and staff/volunteers.
All community-level football clubs in the area of the study which sold alcohol and had over 40 members, and which did not currently run an alcohol management improvement programme, were invited to join the study. A determined recruitment drive led to 88 of 244 such clubs joining. Supported and monitored by the research project, they were allocated at random to implement the study’s programme over two and a half sporting seasons between 2010 and 2012, or to act as control clubs left to carry on with their normal procedures.
To assess the impacts of the programme on drinking, each club was to ask 30 quasi-randomly selected adult members to participate in the study and provide the researchers contact details for those who agreed. To establish a pre-intervention drinking baseline, in 2009 researchers interviewed 1411 of these members from 71 of the 88 clubs, typically men in their 30s who played football at clubs in major cities; another 200 members refused or could not be contacted. About three years later a similarly selected set of members were surveyed after the programme had been implemented, when 1144 members from 80 of the 88 clubs provided data; another 834 refused or could not be contacted. At both times members were asked about how much they drank at the club, and (using the brief AUDIT questionnaire) about their overall drinking and related problems. At issue was whether between baseline and follow-up, drinking and related problems fell or at least increased less steeply among members of clubs allocated to the Good Sports programme versus the remainder. If they did, it would be evidence that the programme had restrained drinking at the clubs and reducing overall risk of alcohol-related harm.
Consistent with the programme having had the desired impacts, generally risky drinking levels had fallen more steeply in Good Sports clubs than in control clubs.
Between baseline and follow-up, at control clubs the proportion of members who said they drank five or more standard drinks at least once a month at the club (the study’s cut-off for risky drinking) remained virtually static at 25% and 24%. In contrast, at Good Sports clubs the proportion fell from 27% to 19%, creating a statistically significant difference in trends favouring the Good Sports programme chart. Though still evident, this difference (at follow-up, 22% at control clubs versus 18% at Good Sports clubs) no longer met the criterion for a statistically significant difference when it was assumed that members at the eight clubs missing from the follow-up had continued to drink at the clubs’ pre-intervention levels.
By the follow-up 25 of the 43 Good Sports clubs had reached the highest level (level three) of accreditation, implementing all programme components. At these clubs the proportion of members regularly drinking at risky levels at the club had fallen from 31% to 20% chart. Most clubs were in major cities, and among these there was no statistically significant effect of being allocated to the Good Sports programme. In contrast, among the 15 more rural clubs which participated in the follow-up, the proportion of risky drinkers rose in control clubs from 19% to 32%, but fell in Good Sports clubs from 37% to 20%, a statistically significant difference in trends.
Measures of overall drinking and related problems whether at the club or not also favoured the Good Sports clubs. Like risky drinking at the club, at 46% and 45% the proportion of control club members whose AUDIT questionnaire scores indicated risky drinking remained virtually static, but fell from 54% to 38% at Good Sports clubs, a statistically significant difference in trends. Similar trends were seen with typical AUDIT scores at the two sets of clubs and AUDIT subscales indicative of amount drunk, risk of dependence and risk of alcohol-related problems.
Findings suggest the intervention can help reduce risk of alcohol-related harm among the large numbers of sports’ players, fans and officials. Seemingly the first randomised trial to demonstrate the effectiveness an alcohol management intervention without enforcement, the findings are also more generally relevant to management of drinking in public venues, offering a non-enforcement option for governments seeking to reduce alcohol-related harm. Possibly the accreditation-based nature of the intervention motivated a change in alcohol management practices without need for formal enforcement.
Risk-reduction was seen not just in respect of drinking at the club but in overall drinking, suggesting that the club was for these members where risky drinking tended to occur, or that the intervention’s impacts ‘spilled over’ to drinking in general.
However, in respect of the primary outcome – risky drinking at the club – results became statistically insignificant under the worst-case-scenario assumption that members at clubs missing from the follow-up had continued to drink at the pre-intervention levels typical of their clubs, indicating that further studies are required to confirm the programme’s effectiveness.
commentary The featured study is seen by the Good Sports organisation as having made its sports programme the “first ... in the world proven to prevent alcohol-related harm” illustration from web site.
If that was the case, it would importantly counter the association between heavy drinking and participation in male-dominated team sports like football. Good Sports has gained considerable traction in Australia, and is being seen as showing that stronger enforcement of licensing and other relevant laws is not necessarily (as it seemed from previous studies: 1 2) an essential or key component of effective alcohol control strategies. But despite its great strength – random allocation – there are reasons to doubt both the robustness of the key finding on risky drinking at the clubs and the generalisability of the findings to clubs in general; more below.
Were the findings due to chance variations between baseline and follow-up?
Light-touch voluntary measures may be welcome to the alcohol industry, governments trying to avoid a kill-joy reputation, and to those responsible for licensed premises, but have so far had a poor record unless backed by the realistic possibility of enforcement. Despite its great strength – random allocation of clubs – the featured study’s results are for several reasons not enough to overturn evidence (and nor do the authors claim it is) that voluntary community-based alcohol control is most likely to succeed when backed by mandatory enforcement measures. Its findings may have been due not to the programme but to chance variations in the clubs and members surveyed at baseline and follow-up, and even if valid, cannot be assumed to apply to most clubs and members. As the authors acknowledge, more studies are needed before the findings can be relied on to guide practice.
In their published report the study’s authors were more circumspect than the Good Sports organisation, pointing out that when they included all the clubs in the analysis by assuming pre-intervention drinking levels at missing clubs, the difference in trends on the primary outcome of risky drinking at the club failed to reach statistical significance, meaning chance variations could not be ruled out. Often this kind of analysis which makes reasonable (though in this case, worst-case) assumptions in order to include all the participants is the preferred way to evaluate an intervention. Had this been the case in the featured study, the analysts would had to have declared the programme unproven.
One way chance variations could have accounted for the results is what happened in the relatively few clubs outside major cities. These were too few for the study to make a definitive finding about impacts in these areas, but still findings from these clubs affected overall results. For some reason, in rural control clubs the proportion of members who reported risky drinking at their clubs increased from 19% to 32% over the course of the study, proportionately a 68% increase. Adding to the puzzle is that it seems (but from data collected 8 to 13 months earlier) that at these clubs there had been no relaxation in alcohol management practices which might account for the increase in risky drinking. Possibly this apparent increase was due to a chance difference between which clubs participated in the follow-up and which at baseline, and/or in which of their members supplied data at these times. Whatever the cause, it helped create a statistically significant difference between trends at these clubs and those allocated to the Good Sports programme, and seems to have been a major contributor to the overall findings. Without these more rural clubs, again the analysts would had to have declared the programme unproven.
What the Good Sports programme was up against:
drinking �games� in a rugby club
The surprising good news from the study was that not only was risky drinking at the club affected, but there was an even greater impact on risky drinking in general. However, it could be argued this strengthens suspicions that chance variation or some factor other than the Good Sports programme accounts for the findings. Members who participated in the study typically attended their clubs only once a fortnight for a ‘home’ game. It seems improbable that this fortnightly encounter with somewhat stricter alcohol management practices so strongly affected the members’ drinking outside the clubs, especially since differences between the alcohol management practices at control and Good Sports clubs seemed minor compared to their commonalities.
One explanation would be that outside the clubs members drank little, so overall drinking largely reflected in-club drinking, but this seems belied by average AUDIT alcohol consumption scores. It seems at least as believable that rather than the Good Sports programme, differences in which clubs participated in the follow-up and which at baseline, and/or in which of their members supplied data at these times, accounted both for trends in drinking at the clubs and drinking more generally. Also, it is unclear whether the statistically significant differences in general drinking and related risk would have survived an analysis which included all the clubs, including those which did not participate in the follow-up.
Findings were from self-selected clubs and members
Scope for differences in clubs and members being the reasons for the findings is apparent in the fact that at both baseline and follow-up many members invited to join the study were not surveyed. At baseline from 88 clubs which agreed to join the study the intention was to invite 2640 members to participate. In the end 1726 ended up being screened by researchers to see if they met the study’s criteria and 1411 from 71 clubs completed the baseline survey. At follow-up just 58% of the members eligible for the study from 80 of the 88 clubs participated. Clubs selected members to pass on to the researchers. Sensitised to drinking problems at their clubs, those in the Good Sports programme had the chance to select out members who would make their efforts to control drinking look ineffective.
These figures also cast doubt on the extent to which the findings can be generalised to all the members of all 88 clubs. More seriously, these clubs were themselves only just over a third of the clubs eligible for the study. Many more – 103 – refused, and another 97 could not be contacted. Endemic to prevention research, this selection process means that even if valid, the results can be assumed to apply only to the minority of clubs prepared to join such a study and consider implementing a Good Sports programme, and the barely more than half of their members prepared to supply data to such a study. That leaves impacts on the great majority of clubs and members unclear.
In some respects the intervention tested in the study went beyond normal implementation of the Good Sports programme. Clubs were given 1000 Australian dollars to spend on the programme and how well they implemented it was monitored by the researchers. Because the study excluded clubs which already had an alcohol management improvement programme, its findings are relevant to whether having such a programme reduces risky drinking, not whether the tested programme is preferable to alternatives.
Thanks for their comments on this entry in draft to research author Melanie Kingsland of the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Population Health in Australia. Commentators bear no responsibility for the text including the interpretations and any remaining errors.
Last revised 04 September 2015. First uploaded 25 August 2015
REVIEW 2015 Prevention of addictive behaviours
STUDY 2015 Are the Public Health Responsibility Deal alcohol pledges likely to improve public health? An evidence synthesis
STUDY 2015 The Public Health Responsibility deal: has a public-private partnership brought about action on alcohol reduction?
REVIEW 2011 Alcohol and drug prevention in nightlife settings: a review of experimental studies
REVIEW 2014 Alcohol interventions, alcohol policy and intimate partner violence: a systematic review
REVIEW 2011 Interventions for disorder and severe intoxication in and around licensed premises, 1989–2009
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About LAN-slide
Games @ LAN-slide
LAN-slide v27.0 (July 2019)
LAN-slide v26.0 (April 2019)
LAN-slide v25.0 (January 2019)
LAN-slide v24.0 (September 2018)
All Previous Events
LAN-slide v28.0
Prepaid Giveaway
Prepaid Tickets
Seat Bookings
[10:00] Minecraft Creative
[11:30] Pass the Parcel
[12:00] CS:GO 5v5
[12:00] Flatout 2
[12:30] Fortnite (Duos)
[1:00] League of Legends 5v5
[1:00] osu!
[1:30] AOE II: Definitive Edition
[2:00] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
[2:00] Quake III Arena
[2:30] Rocket League 3v3
[3:00] Beat Saber
[3:00] Babo Violent 2
[3:30] Fortnite (Solos)
[4:00] Apex Legends
[4:00] Soldat
[5:00] CS:GO Armsrace
[6:00] Eating Contest
[6:30] Raffle Draw
[7:00] Move or Die
[7:30] Rainbow Six Siege 5v5
[8:00] Team Fight Tactics
[8:00] Duck Game
[9:00] Gang Beasts
[10:00] PUBG Warmode
Other LANs
events.lanslide.com.au > LAN-slide v23.0 > Schedule > [2:00] - Team Fortress 2
Aspendale Gardens Community Centre
103-105 Kearney Drive, Aspendale Gardens
Event Duration:
Saturday, 07 July 2018 @ 10:00 AM to Sunday, 08 July 2018 @ 10:00 AM
Registration Count
[302 (+23) / 315 Registrations]
Event has concluded.
Looking for Teams?
Demos and Downloads
6 v 6 Double Elimination (Bracketed)
Maximum Team Size: 8 (6 players and 2 subs)
Poster and Prizes
Team(s) Registered: 6 (0 Checked In)
Login to manage your teams
This tournament is now in progress. Only teams that are competing are listed below.
Posters and Prizes
NB: This tournament will be run by the team at Capping TV.
Join their discord at https://discord.gg/XGmCqDS
Rules for this tournament will be based on the ESEA: 6v6 Whitelist Ruleset.
Game type: First Person Shooter
Team size: 2
Last updated: 25th November 2015.
About Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 mod Team Fortress for Quake and its 1999 remake.
Team Fortress 2 is focused around two opposing teams competing for a combat-based principal objective. In the game's fiction, the teams are composed of mercenaries hired by two feuding brothers to protect the company assets belonging to one brother while trying to destroy those of the other; the teams are thus represented by the names of these companies: Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU). Players can choose to play as one of nine character classes in these teams, each with his own unique strengths, weaknesses, and weapons. Although the abilities of a number of classes have changed from earlier Team Fortress incarnations, the basic elements of each class have remained, that being one primary weapon, one secondary weapon, and one melee weapon. The game was released with six official maps, although 44 extra maps, 9 arena maps, 8 king of the hill maps, and various other map types have been included in subsequent updates. In addition, a number of community assembled maps have been released. When players join a level for the first time, an introductory video shows how to complete its objectives. During matches, "The Administrator", a woman voiced by Ellen McLain, announces various game events over loudspeakers. The player limit is 16 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. On the PC, in 2008 Valve updated Team Fortress 2 to include a server variable that allows up to 32 players.
Game information and rulesets on this page may differ to the actual rules that were used during the event.
LAN-slide is run as a community event by a dedicated group of unpaid Event Coordinators.
Entry fees are charged to cover costs of venue hire, electricity and other necessary equipment.
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By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Sarah Michelle Gellar, spunky star of The WB’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has been reduced to bland cutie in Simply Irresistible, which seems like an awful waste of a high Q-rating. Here she plays Amanda Shelton, owner/chef of a failing, if atmospheric, restaurant, who, having been touched by an angel (playwright Christopher Durang, looking singularly uncomfortable as genie/cabbie, and who wouldn’t be?), is blessed with the ability to move diners to tears of joy. And chief among the gastronomically smitten is Tom Bartlett (Powder‘s Sean Patrick Flanery), a sleek executive at the swanky Manhattan boutique Henri Bendel, who is unnerved to find that one bite of an Amanda concoction has the power to change him from a type A personality to a drooling love puppy.
Simply Irresistible is a tuneless variation on the working girl-captivates-Mr. Big formula that has propelled fairy tales as old as Cinderella; for good measure, novice director Mark Tarlov, working from a script by novice writer Judith Roberts, emphasizes the ”magic” with gooey scenes in which the couple literally floats — a maneuver unmatched by the earthbound performances from these well-groomed stars. The real magic is that the project managed to attract Dylan Baker and Patricia Clarkson — standouts in Happiness and High Art, respectively — as Tom’s boss and the boss’ fashionista assistant who uses Amanda’s pastries as an aphrodisiac.
Gellar will, I’m sure, survive this collapsed soufflé with little damage to her Buffyed-up reputation. But one reputation that needs rehabilitation is that of the aggressive working woman who must be dumped by the aggressive working man so he can canoodle with the softer, less threatening heroine. Parker Posey had fun with this thankless role in You’ve Got Mail, and here Amanda Peet assumes the stereotype, barking into a cell phone and fetishizing her electronic calendar. It’s okay for a man to be a reformable yuppie, apparently, but women who run with the wolves are punished by being thrown to them, too, and what’s that about? D
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OMB, DHS working on privacy
By Diane Frank
"TSA awards passenger screening contract"
The Office of Management and Budget is working with closely with the Homeland Security Department (DHS) to that ensure privacy concerns are adequately addressed as new information systems and sharing mechanisms are developed.
OMB met with officials in January to help develop a blanket privacy policy, said Eva Kleederman, privacy policy analyst with OMB. She was speaking March 12 at a meeting of the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board in Bethesda, Md.
OMB also is starting discussions on what DHS and its partner agencies must do to comply with the Privacy Act of 1974 during and after the department's formation, she said.
Many privacy concerns are centered on such new systems as the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening II program at the Transportation Security Administration and the entry/exit system at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
OMB also is working with agencies that are connected with DHS but not part of it. "That is still very much an ongoing process," Kleederman said.
Many agencies that are no longer part of the same department must still share information, she said. For example, when TSA was part of the Transportation Department, it was not difficult to share information with the Federal Aviation Administration. However, now that TSA is part of DHS, sharing information with the FAA is problematic.
Board members expressed concern that while OMB and the agencies know what privacy work is being done, little communication exists to explain to the public what protections are in place.
The Bush administration should take steps to clarify this and counter the perception that DHS does not fall under the Privacy Act, said John Sabo, business manager of security, privacy and trust initiatives at Computer Associates International Inc.
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Forsaken Stars - Sci-Fi Horror Fantasy Comic & Blog by Rob Lopez Rated Web 14 for Adult Themes, Partial Nudity and Scenes of Intense Violence
Forsaken Stars
The end of the future is here.
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Review of Sergio J. A. Ragno III’s Thirteenth Child
by Rob on June 16, 2011 at 11:45 pm
So Rob O’Brien, creator of Sh!t Happens R decided to start a webcomic review thread at the Comic Genesis forums, and I decided it was about time I get off my butt and review something again, and so I jumped at the chance to review a comic by an artist I admire, someone who’s been doing this far longer than I have, and in reviewing his work, I might learn a thing or two as well. All art and excerpts used by permission of the creator.
Sergio’s Summary of Thirteenth Child-Welcome to Autaxia Heights posted on The Webcomics List: A private investigator steps foot into a city crawling with the supernatural, enigmatic psychology, and twisted creatures… exactly what he was hoping for.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead! I’m not sure how I could otherwise summarize the premise without giving a few things away.
Since I dove into the webcomic without reading the premise posted on TWCL first, this is how I summarized it after my first read, with a little help from the Cast Page: Near as I can tell, Thirteenth Child concerns a nomadic Private Investigations Agency run by Darius Freedman and his partner Jaques, and the residents of a city known as Autaxia Heights.
An ambitious but inexperienced new police detective, Lisa Irving, has shown up to question Darius, particularly because he has legally changed his name 27 times and lived in [as] many different places. There have also been a few classified files. I have to agree with Detective Irving here, that it’s not a great business model.
After Detective Irving has thoroughly made it known that she will be watching Darius, she leaves his agency and comes across a little girl named Lenneth who has lost her father. We are then introduced to a group who hang out in the apartment of comic artist Serge Scenaut and [street?] artist Travis Walker. It’s a little unclear whether Serge has been writing and drawing the story that’s been unfolding so far about Darius, Det. Irving and Lenneth, or if he’s working on something altogether different; or later, it seems to hint, that he is receiving premonitions of actual events and putting them down on bristol board? Serge invites himself along to dinner with his roommate Travis and Travis’ [girl]friend Samantha Forester, who doesn’t consider Serge’s comic work real art. (Bitch!)
Travis spies Lenneth through the window of the diner walking with Irving and runs out to her. It turns out Lenneth’s missing father, Humphrey, is/was a mentor to Travis. Detective Irving spies a no-gooder and leaves Lenneth in Travis’ and Samantha’s care (!) to follow the shady character. Irving comes upon some kind of super drug exchange. She is rescued by a vigilante wearing a wooden mask and cape that she apparently has run into before, because she calls him Ghost. After putting the drug dealers down easy, one of them–in a serious case of sour grapes—tries to shank Detective Irving, so Ghost becomes her human shield and takes a knife to the upper chest. Ghost sheds blood but isn’t killed, instead going on a killing spree that for Lisa strikes her against his character. His response to her? That she doesn’t know him very well after all.
Lenneth’s first night staying at Samantha’s place is spent dreaming a strange dream which has been dreampt by those who stay in that apartment building, giving us a clue as to how Serge may be coming upon his ideas. I’m not sure if I’m speculating here, or if I’m meant to come to that assumption.
Humphrey had instructed his daughter Lenneth to seek out Darius’ agency by a card that carries the agency logo and a code that she cracked using Darius’ name and a phone message. Begging the question, why would Humphrey expect such a scenario?
And that brings us up to speed. Fifty-six pages in, and I still don’t know who the Thirteenth Child is! Darius? Lenneth? The as-yet undisclosed force that Darius has hinted he is there to fight? Much of Sergio’s Webcomic List summary has been hinted at, yet we are still very much at the beginning (or middle, as the case may be) of a much larger and complex story.
I was fortunate to have been on the receiving end of Serge’s art early on in my time at Comic Genesis. He was my Secret Santa for the CG Webcomic Exchange Christmas 2009, and blew me away with his carefree, effortless art style. He is an auteur, one of the few out there with an immediately distinctive look that I can’t readily identify as belonging to a particular school or derivative of another artist. The coloring and bold line work remind me of the fun cartoon illustrations seen in Steve Jackson Games like Munchkin and Chez Geek, but there is a clear difference between cartoon illustration and comic illustration. And though there is plenty of fun and comedy to be had in Thirteenth Child, there is a plot being developed here that has a seriousness to it, a gravity. People are missing, there is violence and death, there is mystery and layering happening here that you don’t see in cartoons, and the art reflects that. While some might argue it could be a little more realistic to better match the tone, we all know our limitations, we all make decisions based on how fast we are or how comfortable we are with our subject matter, or it could be a purposeful choice to draw, ink and color at a particular level of complexity. (I recently picked up Ralph Bakshi’s and Frank Frazetta’s fantasy epic Fire and Ice and for all it’s violence and heavy themes it was executed with a simplicity akin to an original episode of Scooby-Doo, though the character designs were more in line with a He-Man or 70s Marvel Comics conceptual aesthetic. If you get a chance, check it out and take note of the 1,000 painted backgrounds and their varying levels of detail, or how Frazetta’s highly detailed art was simplified so that his characters could be drawn over and over and animated.)
So being familiar with Serge’s art and having seen some of his previous webcomic Gaming Nerds 2000, I had a pretty good idea that I would enjoy the look of Thirteenth Child, and I do, and I feel like it fits the range of tones in the story. The storyboarding is good, there is a nice flow. Again, there were a couple places where the transitions were confusing—perhaps intentional—but for the most part it has good pacing, variation and movement. Weaknesses? Sometimes actions are unclear. Take the last panel of this page for example: http://thirteenthchild.net/?p=45 It may have been to obscure the violent nature of the action, and the context of the next page informs what likely happened, but I’m just not sure how this guy went down. Or the middle of this page: http://thirteenthchild.net/?p=44 I think I know what’s going on, after a few reads—the baddie is faster now ’cause of a drug—but the art doesn’t quite illustrate that point.
Serge has been webcomicking for a solid decade, and likely drawing for several years more than that and it shows. He has improved light years from where he started and shows continued signs of getting better and better. I love the varying weight of his line art, popping colors and hand-lettered word balloons. It may seem a little loose and careless, even messy to some, but for me it’s also part of its charm. And since he has been crafting his art for the internets, it appears perfectly suited to LED-based viewing.
As for the writing, I’m astounded that Serge has a Masters in Library Science, yet it’s clear to me he needs an editor, an outside pair of eyes to clean up simple errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling (mostly the Cast Page, but there are a few moments in the comic as well), as well as reign in some of the plot threads and thematic elements. I don’t know how much of the story is laid out, but so far it’s pretty intent about holding back some details that I would think should be fairly innocuous: what kind of artist is Travis exactly? If he is Humphrey’s apprentice, then that makes Humphrey an artist as well, right? So what kind of artist is Humphrey? I understand in reading Sergio’s blog that Red City/Thirteenth Child developed out of several distinct stories and a desire to bring them into a unified universe, but does it then lack a central theme? Shouldn’t a unified universe have an overriding or underriding point of view? What is Thirteenth Child trying to say? Who is the main character? What is the primary plot? I have a feeling we’re just scratching the surface here.
Darius narrates on page one of TC that he has a trepidation of the soul, “A fear akin to ruining a pristine field of snow with my footsteps, and at the same time depriving myself of its transient beauty. My existence haunts me. Redemption is the elusive panacea we seek. No matter how hidden. No matter how doubtful we become of it even existing.” This should be the guiding mission statement of the story and there should be echoes of it in each of the other/smaller plot threads.
Sergio has a character in the comic that is basically himself, Serge, who on the Cast Page we are told “This guy isn’t very interesting,” and I think in fact Sergio is using Darius to work out some of his inner demons. Why the self-deprecation? At the bottom of the Cast Page Sergio writes on himself: “This is the guy who makes these comics. Sergio has been making comics for over a decade now, but only now has created anything worth reading. (Not this comic [that you’re about to or already have invested your precious time in, but], The Adventures of Action Hat).”
What? Why? It makes me think am I wasting my time reading this!
There are plenty of characters I am beginning to care about: Lisa, Lenneth, Ghost; or dislike: Samantha, Darius, little fucker in red with the knife, he dies so that’s okay; but there are too many characters I am confused about: Serge, Travis, Charon the boat girl, Humphrey, and their relevancy to the story. I know my personal greatest flaw is creating too many characters to tell my stories, and I have to wonder if there are a few extraneous parts here as well, vestigial limbs from previous incarnations of the story being told now.
The next few pages to come will be critical to informing my decision to keep reading with a sustained level of interest. I know the art is sweet enough to keep me coming back no matter what, but I also want to see the writing provide enough payoffs to make reading every page as satisfying or moreso. I like how a lot of threads have already come together, now I’d like to see a little more about each of the major characters. And if there is a villain or head no-gooder, we should probably see him or her or it pretty soon.
Note: I got a 403 Forbidden Error (and 404 accompanying error) whenever I moved through twenty or so comics and/or bounced around the archives for awhile. I would have to close down the comic and wait several minutes, then come back. Coding errors or just my own bad timing?
I feel like this review is not quite finished, so I’d like to reserve the right to add to it sooner or later. Thanks!
If you would like to learn more about Thirteenth Child-Welcome to Autaxia Heights, be sure to click the link below!
adorabledesolation
June 17, 2011, 12:28 pm | #
I’d like to read The Adventures of Action Hat 🙂
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Conceptual Bible
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DoD report shows big savings from ‘should cost’ policy
By Scott Maucione | @smaucioneWFED
The Defense Department claims it’s seeing major benefits from one of the flagship tenets of its Better Buying Power acquisition reforms.
A recent report to Congress ties lower contract costs, reduced cost overruns and arrested cost growth on major programs with Better Buying Power’s “should cost” initiative.
DoD added should cost to its arsenal of reforms more than five years ago when the department rolled out Better Buying Power.
The policy asks managers to set program cost targets below independent cost estimates. It then asks the heads of programs to manage with the intent to achieve those cost goals.
Should cost “effects are necessarily idiosyncratic to individual program, commodity classes and services,” the Nov. 3, 2016 report from Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall states. Should cost “management tasks each acquisition program manager to analyze, question and justify each element of program cost, showing how it might improve year-by-year through specific tangible cost reduction approaches.”
Those approaches include engineering, manufacturing processes and business practices.
Now entering its fifth year of implementation, DoD stated 87 percent of its major acquisition programs developed should cost initiatives.
The report pointed to an increase in major programs projecting funding reductions as one way the policy is saving the Pentagon money.
Almost half of major programs project reductions in development prices in 2015, that’s compared to 27 percent in 2009.
Programs with procurement reductions also increased. Only 39 percent of programs projected reductions in 2009; that number rose to 77 percent in 2015.
“These results are tied to successful implementation of the Better Buying Power initiatives in which should cost management has played a major role,” the report stated.
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The Pentagon saw benefits in its average incremental cost growth on major programs. Median biennial cost growth since 2011 on major programs ran below 1 percent and development and production compared to highs near 6 percent in the early 2000s.
Median total production cost growth on the programs ran under 10 percent since 2010 and below 5 percent in 2015. Those numbers reached as high as 30 percent in the early 2000s.
The report stated contract cost growth is at a new 30-year low of 3.5 percent.
Should cost “techniques are driving significant efficiencies into the acquisition system from the bottom up by enabling individuals to creative identify new ways to save money,” the report stated.
Should cost has come a long way since its early days.
Shay Assad, the DoD’s director of defense pricing, said in 2012 that instilling the idea of should-cost was the Pentagon’s biggest struggle.
“We’re still stuck on ‘does cost,’ and that’s a problem,” he told a Coalition for Government Procurement conference Friday. “It’s not just within the contracting officer community, it’s the program management community, the auditors’ community and the (Defense Contract Management Agency) price analyst community. We’ve got to get people’s mindsets into what things should cost. Now, once we’ve established what they should cost, the next question is whether or not industry can get there. Is there a reasonable path from what things presently do cost to what they should cost?”
The Air Force saw some of the biggest benefits from should cost. In 2015, the service said it used should cost to cut programs’ actual cost by an estimated $2 billion.
The service’s program executive officer for weapons cut $567 million in projected spending for contracts scheduled to deliver between 2013 and 2020. Of that money cut, $350 million went back into the Air Force’s broader acquisition budget, but the Air Force allowed the PEO to use the rest to buy larger quantities of systems it already had on contract, including thousands of missiles, bombs and targets that hadn’t previously fit in the budget.
“They did a series of best practices across various programs, including increasing competition, data driven decisions — which means using actuals — and bundling contracts into larger buys,” said Bill LaPlante, then-assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. “This is real money that was turned back to the Air Force and to the warfighter in terms of capabilities. It’s a lot of hard work going on that’s really not being noticed, and it’s mitigating the really tough budget situation we’re in.”
Scott Maucione
Scott Maucione is a defense reporter for Federal News Network and reports on human capital, workforce and the Defense Department at-large. Follow @smaucioneWFED
Air Force claims $2 billion in acquisition savings from ‘should-cost’ management Defense
DoD faces struggles on path toward ‘better buying power’ Federal Drive
Acquisition Acquisition Policy Air Force All News Better Buying Power Bill LaPlante Congress Contracts/Awards Defense Frank Kendall Industry/Associations
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Fergus Purdie Architects
Perthshire award winning Architect. Urban design. Bespoke houses.
teaching & research
exhibitions & publications
Author: Fergus Purdie Architect
Successful Open Doors Weekend
October 1, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
We opened our studio for Open Doors Days this weekend. It was a busy couple of days with many visitors. We had lots of interest in the building and everyone enjoyed seeing Arthur Watson’s studio and seeing him at work screen-printing. He and William (from the practice) collaborated on a special print which was printed on the day.
Thanks to all who came and hope to see you again next year!
Dunning Community Event
September 25, 2018 October 1, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
We are hosting a community event in Dunning on Thursday 27th September 2018 to discuss an exciting new project – Thorny Hill Community Proposal – self-build/custom design houses in Dunning which also include a community led initiative.
The event is being held in Dunning Village hall from 10.30am – 7.30pm.
Come along to the event where there will be an opportunity to learn more about the project and make a contribution to the future of Dunning.
Click here for more information on the project.
TO VENICE AND BACK AGAIN
July 4, 2018 July 4, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
Our recent participation at Scotland’s collateral event THE HAPPENSTANCE was a welcomed opportunity to continue our Biennale Architettura theme of NOTATIONS – Marking Time and Space (link to video will follow soon); a Perth based collaborative project with artist Brian Hartley and St Ninians, a local primary school. A great thank you to the teachers and pupils of St Ninians for the enthusiastic and fun approach to our Perth Vennels Project.
Some of my own Venice highlights –
Taking the film ‘PLAY ME SOMETHING’ to Venice for its screening in Palazzo Zenobio’s outdoor cinema. Made over 19 years ago, the project was a collaboration between Timothy Neat and John Berger. Filmed on the islands of Barra and Giudecca it had never been shown in Venice and made the occasion of its first showing a very special evening for The Happenstance. During the film show a lady viewer announced she had seen her cousin in one of the Venice sense!
Discovering a ‘secret garden’, not too far from The Happenstance that was looked after by a group of student activists. Used for producing food, hosting music events and supporting charity book sales and much more. This direct action for making space useful space is a great example of a community of purpose in the city where Freespace can be found. In response to their hospitality we decided to gift our Mr McGregor’s Garden seed packets for sharing with visitors to their garden.
From the Biennale itself the French Pavilion was exceptional with a good strong measure of meaningful ideas and applied practice. A real breath of fresh air amongst the many over thought, over worked and underwhelming installations. However, there were moments of interest and enlightenment amongst a broad display of drawings and sketches in the main pavilion. Perhaps the time to reflect and rethink on the direction and values of the Biennale, whilst The Happenstance continues its onward path towards growth and change in Venice and Scotland.
Thorny Hill Community Proposal
May 23, 2018 October 1, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
Thorny Hill Community Proposal is an exciting new pilot scheme for custom design self-build houses in Dunning which will include a community led initiative.
The proposal has support from the Scottish Government and Perth & Kinross Council. The Council’s Housing and Communities Convener, Councillor Peter Barrett, said: “Right across Scotland there is a lack of suitable housing for people, especially in rural areas, and as a Council we are committed to improving that situation in Perth and Kinross.”
Alongside the self-build housing, we also have an opportunity to create a community asset at Thorny Hill. This land will be made available by the landowner, and we are intending to hold a series of community workshops to determine what the nature of this should be to make a positive impact on the Dunning community.
To make this project a success and develop to it’s full potential we hope to engage a wide range of participants to define a future Vision, Development Framework and Action Plan.
There will be a series of community engagements over the summer and an opportunity for you to make a contribution to the outcome of the project.
Click here for regular updates as the project develops.
Funding secured to support people to build their own homes in Perth and Kinross
May 1, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
Perth & Kinross Council has supported an application from our practice for funding from the Scottish Government to look at providing plots where people can build their own houses from scratch.
Many people are looking to build a bespoke home which is tailored to their family needs, but they can find it tough getting the right advice and securing funding. The Scottish Government’s Self and Custom Build Challenge Fund was launched last year to support self-build.
The practice, supported by the Council, will look to develop a strategy to deliver self/custom build plots with a focus on providing affordable homes in Perthshire.
For more information go to the PKC website or contact the practice for more details and updates.
ReCAP – Perth’s vennels brought to life!
April 30, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
The practice has been involved in organising an exciting event in Perth – ReCAP – with Fergus Purdie co-curating the day alongside artist Susie Johnston and Poppy Jarratt, producer of ReCAP at Culture Perth and Kinross.
ReCAP is an arts event taking place on the 5th May 2018, where arts, food, drink and entertainment will be brought to 4 of Perth’s city centre vennels.
Eight local artists will transform the vennels for one day only with video art, installations and street art. This is a chance for the public to imagine Perth and its public spaces differently and give an opportunity to give an opinion on how to better use public spaces.
The day runs from 10am to 10pm.
ReCAP has been getting great publicity from the local press and will hopefully be a well attended day.
Come along, join in and have your say!
Find out more about the event by following on Instagram or Twitter.
Practice to feature in International Exhibition – The Happenstance
The practice is part of a team of Scottish artists and architects being led by WAVEparticle who are representing Scotland at the international exhibition: The Biennale Architecttura 2018.
To celebrate Scotland’s year of Young People, we have been working with the pupils at St Ninian’s to explore the vennels of Perth. The exhibited work will be a film made in collaboration with artist Brian Hartley, which documents the children exploring and learning about the city centre vennels through workshops and creating artwork in response to their experiences of these Freespaces.
In addition to the film we have created special seed packets which will handed out to local participants at the event in exchange for a word, story or song!
The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s leading architecture and arts festivals. With an audience of more than half a million people each year. The exhibition for 2018 will be titled The Happenstance and focuses of the theme of Freespace.
The proposal is supported and promoted by the Scotland + Venice partnership: Scottish Government, Architecture and Design Scotland, Creative Scotland, British Council and the Year of Young People/Young Scot.
The exhibition in Venice will run from May to November 2018.
Architecture + Design Scotland
Biennale Architecttura
WAVEparticle
Doors Open Days 2017
September 13, 2017 May 30, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
Get into buildings this September! The studios and residence at Melville Street are taking part in Doors Open Days in Perth City on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th September 2017 between 10am and 4pm.
We are showcasing our new window display which presents an exhibition ‘The Artist & The City’ and a selection of art works by Arthur Watson. ‘The Artist & The City’ panels show a selection of our practice research in developing design propositions located within the city of Perth.
Doors Open Days is Scotland’s largest free festival that celebrates heritage and the built environment. It offers free access to over a thousand venues across the country throughout September, every year.
For more information and to download a full programme visit the Doors Open Days website – www.doorsopendays.org.uk.
Architecture School Summer Workshop
August 16, 2017 August 16, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
From the 8th – 10th of August, the practice worked alongside arts group WAVEparticle and Culture Perth and Kinross to deliver an Architecture School Summer workshop. The event was fully booked by local children aged 10-16.
Over the course of the 3 days we encouraged the group to think how they might ‘curate the city’ using Perth Museum’s collections and the idea of creating new spaces that you could place the collection objects within the city. Through the mediums of sketching, model making and digital media the group created lots of exciting and interesting ideas – and the visual results were fantastic!
On the final day there was an exhibition presented by the group to the public. Many thanks to all involved for what has been a great experience for the practice.
Positive feedback from St John’s Public Consultation
July 25, 2017 August 16, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
The public consultation for the Perth Creative Exchange at the site of St John’s Primary School took place on Tuesday the 18th July. The project was very positively received by local residents and artists, as well as former pupils of the school.
The practice has continued to support both WASPS and Perth & Kinross Council with this ambitious project and was pleased to present our entrance and landscape proposals at the event.
To see the Courier’s coverage of the event and our panels on display click here.
St John’s Creative Exchange, Perth
A public consultation with local residents and artists will take place on the 18th July.
There will be an opportunity for the public to view and make comments on the plans for the Creative Exchange being developed in the former St John’s Primary School.
Council officers and representatives of WASPS, who will be managing the Creative Exchange on behalf of the Council, will be at the event to answer any questions.
The consultation will take place from 2pm-7pm in the Riverview Room at Bell’s Sports Centre.
The practice has continued to support both WASPS and Perth & Kinross Council in this ambitious project and hope for a well attended day.
Land Works – Practice receives Sir William Gillies bequest award by the RSA
June 13, 2017 August 16, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
Land Works; the practice has recently received a Sir William Gillies bequest award by the RSA. The award supports the continuation of our practice research looking at the working relationship between creative practitioners and the City of Perth; a process of study that will demonstrate the significant role and contribution that residual spaces, unseen and often overlooked, can make to the evolving city. Our approach will include a mapping process to identify potential site locations together with a series of design exercises to investigate site specific interventions.
Design Concepts for Perth City Hall go on Public Display
Five architectural firms were shortlisted in Perth & Kinross Council’s competition to redesign Perth’s City Hall. The Council officially launched the competition in February, challenging the architectural practices to come up with a grand vision for redeveloping the building.
We are proud to be collaborating with MVRDV and Austin-Smith: Lord on this exciting project to create initial design concepts that breathe new life into this historic B-Listed building.
The initial design concepts go on public display today with a presentation at Civic Hall, 2 High Street, Perth. The public have the opportunity to comment on the concepts and a final decision on which architect is selected will rest with the council and is due by the end of 2017.
Young Architects Summer School
May 24, 2017 August 16, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
Curating the City, Young Architects Summer School 2017. The practice has preparations underway for the Young Architects Summer School which takes place over the course of 3 days in August. Youngsters will be encouraged to think about how they might ‘curate the City’ using Perth Museum’s collections and the idea of creating new spaces as the starting point. We will be showing sketches of projects as examples of how ideas develop into reality.
Main activities for workshops will include: • Drawing
• Visual and conceptual thinking
• Physical making- eg models (small scale and large scale)
• Digital creation – 3D modelling
• Fieldwork
We are looking forward to meeting and working with young architects for some exciting and creative ideas.
Social Media Update
May 23, 2017 May 30, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
We have been working hard to update our social media platforms. You can keep up to date with our latest news by following us on twitter, facebook and our new instagram page.
House in Hawick featured in Homes & Interiors Scotland
April 4, 2017 May 8, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
House in Hawick featured in Homes & Interiors Scotland – the completed project, included in the March & April edition of the publication, shows the as built design in its landscape setting. The influence of Peter Womersley (1923 – 93) and his modernist houses in the Borders are also acknowledged in the article.
Successful Launch of the RSA Annual Exhibition
April 3, 2017 May 30, 2018 Fergus Purdie Architect
On Friday evening there was a private view of the the 191st Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition where an impressive range of work from RSA Academicians and invited guest artists was shown. It was a great night and our submission was well received with many positive comments.
The exhibition runs until the 7 May 2017 and is well worth a visit. It is housed in the RSA Upper & Lower Galleries, The Mound, EH2 2EL and opening times are Monday to Saturday 10-5pm, Sundays 12-5pm.
RSA Annual Exhibition
March 27, 2017 May 8, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
The Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition is a focal point of the RSA programme and showcases work from RSA Academicians the length and breadth of Scotland. Now in it’s 191st year, it continues to provide a platform for contemporary painting, sculpture, film, printmaking, photography and installation alongside work by some of the country’s leading architects.
We are participating by showcasing an abridged version of the exhibition a botanist looks at the world. Curated by the practice, the exhibition celebrated the life and work of Patrick Geddes (1854 – 1932) and was researched and developed with reference to the Geddesian triptych PLACE · WORK · FOLK. Images, illustrations and supporting text were organised as a series of wall hung square panels presenting Geddes’s ideas and values.
1 April 2017 – 7 May 2017
Urban Realm Top 100 Architects
January 9, 2017 May 8, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
A great start to 2017.
We are delighted to announce that the practice has again been selected in Urban Realm’s Top 100 Practices.
The list, which is based on nominations from clients and other consultants, considers all architectural practices registered with the RIAS and ranks 100 practices which have done most to reshape the physical make-up of Scotland.
House at Hawick Featured in ‘Profile’
November 3, 2016 May 8, 2017 Fergus Purdie Architect
House at Hawick, previously exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, is currently being showcased by Russwood in its latest issue of Profile. The newsletter article ‘A SIMPLE MODERNIST HOME’ includes images of the completed house designed by our practice. The high standard of the finished project, by the client and contractor, looks first class and is a great example of a self-build project.
To view or download Profile click here
5A Melville Street
Perth, PH1 5PY
mail@ferguspurdiearchitect.co.uk
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Advances in Microbiology
Vol.4 No.9(2014), Article ID:48192,11 pages DOI:10.4236/aim.2014.49061
Use of LPS Extracts to Validate Phage Oligopeptide That Binds All Salmonella enterica Serovars
I-Hsuan Chen1, Kiril Vaglenov1, Yating Chai2, Bryan A. Chin2, James M. Barbaree1*
1Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, USA
2Materials Engineering Program, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, USA
Email: *barbajm@auburn.edu
Received 14 May 2014; revised 16 June 2014; accepted 12 July 2014
Phage Display technology provides a mechanism for us to make bio-recognition elements on biosensors for detection of Salmonella enterica serovars. In the procedure, the filamentous M13 bacteriophage is used for acquiring peptides that have a high affinity for the target recognition. Our approach in this study was to develop peptide structures in the pIII region of this thread-shaped virus. A phage pIII library was used to perform biopanning for the phage clones to bind the target Salmonella serovars. The clones were bound, washed, eluted and amplified four times. Then, the phage peptides were sequenced tested for specificity using ELISA procedures. In this project to make a biosensor for all relevant Salmonella enterica serovars, we used common LPS salmonellae antigens as targets in the biopanning procedure. This enabled us to have a phage probe specific for all serovars of Salmonella enterica excluding the typhoid organisms. The final phage was then immobilized onto an electromagnetic platform to complete the biosensor, which gives us the realtime ability to measure resonance changes that indicate mass loading. The mass loading is an indication of binding to the target cells. Our current data with an ELISA procedure show the phage probe’s high affinity for salmonellae, very low cross-reactivity with Escherichia coli, Shigella, and no cross-reactivity to Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. The biosensor with the phage showed that the capture ability for Salmonella serovars is thirty times higher than the control sensor. This biosensor is a candidate for detection of Salmonella in food and other settings.
Keywords: LPS Extractions, Phage Display, Salmonella, Biosensors
Salmonella enterica is commonly associated with food poisoning in countries all over the world. This species has approximately 2500 serovars [1] that are divided into four different O-antigen groups. A rapid test for detecting all relevant ones is desirable to improve food safety procedures. Phage-based magnetoelastic (ME) biosensors have been recently developed as a novel and real-time method for Salmonella typhimurum detection in foods [2] -[5] . The performance of this ME biosensor relies on the adhesion characteristics of the phage coating on the sensor surface through Au deposition and also the phage binding affinity to bacterial targets [4] [6] . The goal of this study was to develop a specific oligopeptide phage probe as a bio-recognition element on ME biosensor platforms for detecting all Salmonella enterica serovars in O-antigen groups B, C, and D that cause food borne illness.
In order to produce highly specific phage probes, use of simple and common Salmonella cell surface targets, like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antigens, is a logical approach. LPS is the major component of outer membrane protein in Gram-negative bacteria, including all Salmonellae. The structure of LPS consists of a polysaccharide chain (O-antigen repeats and a core oligosaccharide) and lipid A; the latter is responsible for the partial toxicity of the bacteria. Here, we modified a phenol-chloroform-petroleum ether (PCP) extraction method [7] [8] to purify the extraction of LPS from the cell surface of nineteen representative foodborne Salmonella enterica serovars in O-antigen B, C, and D groups. Group A was not included since it contains the typhoid serotypes.
We used the above purification techniques in concert with Phage Display to improve upon the traditional combinatorial oligopeptide chemistry of testing random peptides on the coat proteins pIII of a bacteriophage [9] [10] . The major advantages of expressing oligopeptides as phage coat proteins include enhanced stability of the oligopeptides, ease of handling, and simplified purification of the oligopeptides. To isolate desired phages with oligopeptides that interact with the ligand of interest, an affinity selection designated as “biopanning” was conducted. The affinity-selected phages can first be validated by immuno-based methods, like ELISA [9] -[12] . Here, we demonstrated two types of ELISA methods that tested the selected phage-borne peptides against O-antigen LPS directly, and through Salmonella’s whole cells in ELISA. The final phage, which showed the highest specificity and selectivity through both assays, was on a ME biosensor and checked for binding to Salmonella.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Bacteria Strains and Preparations
All nineteen Salmonella enterica serovars used in this study are listed in Table1 Other bacteria in this study were Shigella sonnei (ATCC25931), Shigella flexneri (ATCC12022), and E. coli O157:H7, and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213) and Listeria monocytogenes (ATCC 7644). The steps of preparing nineteen Salmonella enterica serovars for LPS extraction will be described separately in 2.2. Bacterial preparations for whole cell ELISA are described here. Each bacteria strain was grown in Lennox Broth (LB broth) overnight in a shaking incubator at 37˚C. Overnight bacterial cultures were centrifuged at 5500 rpm in for 10 min at 4˚C and re-suspended in PBS twice. Bacteria concentrations were then adjusted as required in PBS by spectrum measurements (OD 1.0 at 600 nm ≈ 5 × 108 cfu/ml).
2.2. LPS Extraction by Modified Phenol-Chloroform-Petroleum Ether (PCP) Method
A PCP extraction method was modified to maximize the extraction of LPS from nineteen representative foodborne Salmonella enterica serovars in O-antigen B, C, and D groups [7] [8] . All nineteen Salmonella enterica serovars in three O-antigen groups were listed in Table2
A shaker incubator set at 200 rpm was used to incubate overnight 10 ml aliquots of LB broth inoculated with cultures of Salmonella enteritica serovars. Each culture was then centrifuged twice at 5500 rpm in for 10 min at 4˚C. After each centrifugation, the resulting pellets were re-suspended in 10 ml and 4 ml PBS, respectively. The bacterial solution was then sonicated at 20 second intervals for 4 times on ice, and followed by centrifugation at 5500 rpm for 10 min at 4˚C. Equal amount of phenol-chloroform (1:1, vol/vol) were added and mixed vigorously with the supernatant. After centrifugation at 8500 × g for 10 min at 4˚C, the LPS containing fluid in the upper layer was captured without contamination from the white precipitation, which contained protein contaminates.
Sodium acetate was added to make a final concentration of 0.5 M with the addition of 2 volumes of 95%
Table 1 . List of nineteen foodborne Salmonella enterica serovars in O-antigen B, C, and D groups used in this research.
Table 2. Summary of phage peptide sequences identified by biopanning against Salmonella LPS.
ethanol in a 15 ml conical tube. After thorough mixing, the tubes were stored at −20˚C overnight, and then centrifuged twice at 10,000 × g for 10 min at 4˚C. The resulting pellet from the first centrifugation was carefully washed with 1 ml of 70% ethanol. After the second centrifugation, the pellet was then air dried and weighed. The LPS pellet was later dissolved by adding 100 ul 1 M Tri-HCl (pH 8.0) and treated with Proteinase K (100 ug/ml) at 65˚C for 1 hr. The final LPS samples were stored at −20˚C.
The extracted LPS suspensions were confirmed by gel electrophoresis (4% - 12% SDS-PAGE) followed by a silver stain [7] . LPS content from each O-antigen group was calibrated and adjusted to 100 ug/ml through the LAL endotoxin test (Pierce LAL Chromogenic Endotoxin Quantitation Kit, Rockford, IL) for later use.
2.3. Phage Display Method
A Ph.D. 12 Phage Display Library from New England Biolabs (Ipswich, MA) was used for biopannings. In order to enhance the isolation of probes with higher specificity, we first panned the library with plastic and BSA (5 mg/ml) on 35 mm Petri Dishes. Four rounds of biopanning, which used the LPS (100 ug/ml) from each O-antigem group as targets, were performed to isolate LPS specific phages. Biopanning procedures were those described in New England Biolab’s Ph.D. 12 Phage Display Library manual.
2.4. Phage Characterizations and ELISA Screening
Randomized phage clones were selected from LPS O-antigen B, C, and D groups’ biopannings, and then characterized using phage PCR and sequencing. Selected phages with confirmed sequences were amplified and titered.
The LPS ELISA procedure was used to first screen phages with LPS binding affinity and specificity. LPS of 100 ug/ml was immobilized on a 96 well ELISA plate. BSA (5 mg/ml) was used for blocking the non-LPS binding surfaces on plate. Phages (1011 virons/ml) binding to LPS were then detected with rabbit anti-M13 IgG antibody (Abcame#ab6188, Cambridge, MA) and anti-rabbit conjugated with alkaline phosphatase (Sigma #A3687, St. Louis, MO) by achromogenic substratepara-Nitrophenylphosphate (Sigma#N9389, St. Louis, MO). Each ELISA reaction layer was incubated for 1 hour at room temperature with gently shaking and then washed three times with TBS/0.05% Tween. ELISA signals representing the relative activity of AP were read with a BioRad microtiter plate reader (Hercules, CA) in the kinetic mode for one hour at an optical density of 415 nm. M13KE control phage (vector phage without peptide insertion—New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA) was used as the control phage in all ELISA tests. Phages with constantly high affinity to all three LPS O-antigens were chosen as candidate phages.
A whole cell ELISA procedure (WC ELISA) was also used later to confirm the binding specificity of candidate phages to bacterial cell mixtures of Salmonella and other related Enterobacteriaceae members such as Shigella sonnei, Shigella flexneri, and E. coli O157:H7, plus two Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. Procedures for the WC ELISA were the same as described in LPS ELISA, except the target layer was immobilized bacterial cells (5 × 108 cfu/ml). Bacterial preparations were described at 2.1.
2.5. Biosensor Study
Magnetoelastic (ME) biosensors were made and obtained from Dr. Bryan A. Chin’s lab in the Materials Engineering Program, Auburn University, AL. Each ME sensor was materially fabricated from METGLAS_2826 MB alloy ribbon (Honeywell Inc., Melville, NY, USA) and diced into a strip shape with the size of 4 mm × 0.8 mm × 0.028 mm. Before depositions of Cr and Au (gold) layer, the ME resonator platforms were ultrasonically cleaned in acetone and ethanol, and then annealed at 220˚C for 2 h in a vacuum (10−3 Torr) to remove any remaining residual [5] . The phages bound to the gold coated layer due to hydrophobic binding, weak hydrogen bonding, van der Waals forces, and covalent binding between the gold surface and cysteine residues in the minor coat protein of phage [12] [13] .
Each ME biosensor was coated with phage C4-22 (1010 virons in 100 µl) for an hour at room temperature and then washed three times with TBS/0.05% Tween. BSA (5 mg/ml) was used for blocking the non-phage binding surfaces on sensors before washing with TBS/0.05% Tween three times. Sensors coated only with BSA served as controls. Phage sensors and BSA sensors were used to capture Salmonella typhimurium solutions of different concentrations (5 × 104 to 5 × 108 cfu/ml) for an hour at room temperature. Cells of Salmonella typhimurium detected on the sensor were washed with TBS/0.5% Tween three times and eluted with 0.2 M Glycine (pH 2.2) to break phage-Salmonella binding. The eluted Salmonella solution was then neutralized with 1 M Tris-HCl (pH 9.1) and transferred onto TSA plates for bacterial counts using a standard aerobic plate count method (APC).
. Ac is the average Salmonella cell counts (triplicates) eluted from one Sensor. Ci is the input Salmonella concentration on the sensors. Each Salmonella concentration (loading concentration) had three sensors experiments to calculate the means ± standard deviations among each test group.
3.1. SDS-PAGE Analysis and Silver Staining of LPS
There are two main methods for LPS extractions: hot phenol procedure by Westphal et al., 1965 [14] and PCP method by Kido et al., 1990 [8] . The phenol-based method has been widely used for the LPS because of its high yield [15] [16] . PCP method is well known for its ability to reach high purity level of LPS, but it is usually laborious and sometimes leads to a low yield [8] [17] . However, difficulties were encountered in the use of above methods when extracting all nineteen LPS fragments from nineteen S. enterica serovars in the three O-antigen groups (data not shown). In this part of study, efforts were made to combine and modify the above methods to have a standard way of extracting all LPS needed.
With the adjusted step in the PCP method coupled with sonication to break bacteria cells (described in Materials and Methods), LPS from all nineteen Salmonella enterica serovars were successfully extracted. The silver stained SDS-PAGE gel analysis was used to detect and visualize the purified LPS. In Figure 1, all nineteen LPS expressed a typical ladder-like pattern of bands within a Dual Protein Marker molecular weight range of 100 to 15 KDa. This is consistent with findings in numerous studies [18] -[20] . The LPS profile of Salmonella is normally shown in molecular weight between 94 - 14.4 KDa [7] [21] . It was also noticed that four LPS concentrations (intensity of bands) of Salmonella enterica enteriditis showed relatively lighter colors in compared to other Salmonellae (Figure 1). This indicated a lower yield of LPS with the S. enteritidis serovars. We observed that the LPS content from different isolates, strains, and species can vary even under the same conditions of culturing volume and time, and the use of the same procedure.
There are advantages of using the modified PCP method in this study. First, the LPS-chloroform-phenol layer prevents the direct touching of the contaminated protein during transferring the LPS in the upper layer. Chloroform gave enough distance beneath the phenol layer for easiness of transferring LPS layer into other tubes. Second, instead of using cell lysis buffer or heat to break the cells, sonication was used directly to burst the bacteria cells and release more LPS from the cells. This resulted in a higher yield of LPS in one preparation. These steps may be the key to successful extraction of all LPS in nineteen Salmonella enterica serovars. The more definitive use of LPS extracts from target cells promises to be important to the biopanning process.
3.2. Biopanning and Phage Characterizations
Screening of LPS-binding peptides using a phage display method has been reported in several studies [11] [22] -[24] . The major concern in those studies was to have insufficient enrichment during rounds of biopanning (affinity selection) where leads to having final phage clones with no consensus sequences [11] [24] and/or low affinity clones. In this study, some factors were carefully considered when conducting the experiment. Those factors were: using 35 mm Petri-dish plates to substitute microtiter plates for LPS immobilization, prewashing out the phages which bind to Petri-dish surface and BSA, increased biopanning to four rounds, ensuring the application of sterile techniques, and including the use of aerosol-resistant tips. Moreover, three biopanning experiments against different LPS targets (LPS-B, LPS-C, and LPS-D) were carried out at the same time to minimized the use of reagents and handling variations.
Figure 1. LPS of O-antigen B, C, and D group using modified PCP extraction.
After four rounds of biopanning procedures, a total of 56 phage peptides binding the three LPS targets were randomly selected and identified by their DNA sequences. Table 2 gives a summary of all consensus peptides found in three experiments, and their frequency in the selected phage pools. In LPS-B biopanning, two peptides out of 15 total phage clones sequenced were each encoded by multiple clones. Similar results were obtained from LPS-C and LPS-D experiments. Out of 22 clones sequenced in LPS-C biopanning, phage C4-8 and C4-9 both have consensus sequences clones and their frequencies were 68.2% and 13.6% respectively. Among all three biopanning experiments, phage D4-2 and D4-5 in LPS-D biopanning (Table 2) showed the lowest consensus sequence frequencies of 42.1% and 10.5%. Interestingly, in Table 2, phages B4-1, C4-8, and D4-2 contained the same set of peptide sequences, but they were biopanned from different LPS targets. Phage B4-16 and C4-9 also contained identical peptides and were biopanned from different LPS extractions. This information shows that there might be common regions on three LPS structures to promote binding of these identical peptides. It also shows that the four rounds of biopanning were sufficient to select high frequency peptide binders not only within each LPS affinity selection, but also among three LPS targets. However, having high frequencies of consensus peptide sequences only exhibited successful biopanning procedures. The actual binding capacities of the phage peptides to the LPS and whole cells were investigated in more detail.
3.3. LPS and Whole Cell ELISA Screening for Phage Probes
The LPS ELISA was used to further characterize the binding specificity of identified phages. Specificity here was defined as the ability of a phage peptide to interact with a target. To determine specificity, the binding of the selected phage clones was compared to the control phage M13KE [9] . Six phages repeatedly demonstrated high affinity to isolated LPS antigens (5 - 25 folds higher) in LPS ELISA tests (Table 3). Interestingly, two sets of consensus phage peptides previously mentioned are also present in this high affinity group (note a and b in Table 3). Thus, these two peptides demonstrated a real binding capacity to the immobilized LPS-B and LPS-D. In Table 3, it is also notably shown that phage C4-22 had the highest binding (more than 25 folds higher binding) to LPS-C when compared to the control phage M13KE. Phage C4-22 was not a high frequency selected peptide. Instead, it is represented as one out of 22 clones sequenced in the LPS-C biopanning. However, this phage demonstrated the highest binding affinity in LPS ELISA tests among all other phage peptides. This finding provided evidence that the high frequency clones only indicated good affinity selection in the biopanning procedures, but the clones themselves were not guaranteed to be the best phage peptides for binding. As in the report of Tanaka et al., 2008 [23] , the candidate phage peptides showed high affinity to its target without being a high frequency phage.
Whole cell ELISA tests were conducted to see the selective binding of phages to Salmonella cells (Figure 2) and other bacteria (Figure 3). In Brigati et al., 2004 [9] , selectivity was defined as the ability of the identified phage to preferentially interact with a select target. In our study, three phages (Phages B4-01, C4-22, and D4-12)
Table 3. Binding specificity of candidate phages in LPS ELISA.
Nine phages with the consistently higher ELISA signals than M13 phage control were selected from LPS ELISA. The results were expressed as the means ± SD of three independent measurements for each experiment. aPhage B4-1 has identical sequences as phage D4-2. The frequency of isolated this clone is 11 out of 15 in LPS-OagB biopanning. bPhage B4-16 has identical sequences as phage D4-12. The frequency of isolated this clone is 3 out of 15 in LPS-OagB biopanning. cM13 phage was M13KE control phage purchased from New England BiolLab (Ipswich, MA).
Figure 2. Three phages binding specificity by Salmonella whole cell ELISA. Final three phages were selected for affinity test to whole cells of Salmonella enterica serovars in O-antigen B, C, and D in ELISA. The baseline signals of M13KE phage to each Salmonella test group was deducted. Error bar = standard deviation of three independent measurements for each experiment.
Figure 3. Three phages binding selectivity by whole cell ELISA. Three final phages were selected to test for affinity in ELISA to whole cells of Shigella sonneii, Shigella flexneri, and E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes, and S. sureus. The baseline signals of M13 KE phage to each tested bacteria was deducted. The ELISA signal of three phages to S. aureus and L. monocytogenes showed zero after deduction. Error bar = standard deviation of three independent measurements for each experiment.
that demonstrated high specificity in studies were used. Binding of the phage probes were first compared within a different O-antigen group of Salmonella cells (Figure 2). Phage C4-22 had relatively equal binding signals to all three O-antigen groups of Salmonella cells when compared to the signals of phages B4-01 and D4-12. Next, the phage binding abilities to other Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria were studied (Figure 3). Gramnegative bacteria, such as Shigella sonnei, Shigella flexneri, and Escherichia coli O157:H7, were chosen because of their phylogenic relationship to Salmonella enterica in the Enterobacteriacae family. Possibly due to the same reason, three phages showed cross-reactive binding to these Gram-negative bacteria (Figure 3). When the ELISA signals in Figure 2 and Figure 3 were compared, the binding of phage C4-22 to Salmonella cells was still much higher and more comparable than to other three Gram-negative bacteria (Figure 2 and Figure 3). These results showed that phage C4-22 has better selectivity to Salmonella in O-antigen group B, C, and D than to Shigella sonneii, Shigella flexneri, and Escherichia coli O157:H7. The finding is similar to the phage VTPPTQHQ probe, which binds specifically to S. typhimurium [10] . In Figure 3, the three test phages had relatively no binding signal to the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes in this whole cell ELISA study. Because Gram-positive bacteria have virtually no LPS content on the cell membrane, we expected to find that these three phage probes, which went through affinity selections toward LPS targets, really didn’t bind to non-LPS cells. Some may question that the whole cell ELISA signals are always so low. According to Brigati et al., 2004 [9] , Sorokulova et al., 2005 [10] , and our ELISA results, the phage ELISA signals to bacterial whole cells usually fall between 50 - 200 m OD/min when using the same filamentous phage concentration, the same amount of anti-M13 antibody and AP-PNPP system.
Phage C4-22 showed that it is the best candidate for use on the biosensor because it was consistently specific with a high level of affinity to Salmonella LPS and Salmonella whole cells. This phage also showed low specificity to other related Enterobacteriacae members such as Shigella and Escherichia coli O157:H7, and relatively no binding to Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes (Figure 3).
The phage-based ME biosensors have been successfully shown to detect various pathogens in food, such as Salmonella, and Bacillus spores with high sensitivity and specificity [2] [4] . Recently, a new detection of phagebased ME biosensor using surface-scanning coil has been demonstrated on tomato surfaces [5] .
In most of the phage biosensor investigations, a water rinse sample from food surface was normally collected and used for detection. Therefore, our ME biosensor model was set to test the Salmonella capture capacity in solutions when the solutions were loaded on phage C4-22 coated ME biosensors. Salmonella typhimurium AMES, a virulent strain in PBS buffer, was used here to mimic the micro-contaminates from a water-rinsed or liquid samples from foods. Instead of measuring resonant frequency changes of the biosensor, which has a mass change during Salmonella cells bind to phage C4-22, true Salmonella cell counts on the surface of the phage coated sensor were studied directly. This approach gave a closer view of Salmonella captured on this phage biosensor.
Test samples with different Salmonella concentrations represent foods or liquid in various micro-contamination levels. As in Figure 4, the Salmonella captured index of the control sensor showed a steady baseline of 1.92% to 2.36% in various Salmonella concentrations. This base line serves as a control due to the fact that it was only the non-specific Salmonella captured by sensors. The data of this non-specific binding of Salmonella was independent from the concentration differences of Salmonella input. It is clearly shown that on the phage coated sensors, the Salmonella capturing abilities increased while the Salmonella concentration in the test sample increased. When the Salmonella loading was at a concentration up to 5 × 108 cfu/ml, phage biosensors demonstrated maximum Salmonella binding capacity (30 times higher) when compared to the control sensors (Figure 4). In this model study, phage C4-22 coated sensor specifically captured the Salmonella cells in test samples. The data also shows that the phage sensor capture abilities dramatically decreased at the loading of a Salmonella concentration of 2 × 104 cfu/ml. According to Li et al. in 2010 [4] , the lowest sensitivity of this type of phage biosensor should be at the S. typhimurium concentration of 5 × 102 cfu/ml when detecting on tomato surfaces and measuring by resonant frequency changes. Therefore, even when the loaded Salmonella concentrations fall in the phage sensor’s low Salmonella capture range according to our cell count data, the phage sensor can detect the bacteria by resonant frequency changes to a concentration of 5 × 102 cfu/ml.
Because glycine (solution at pH 2.2) was used to break the phage-Salmonella bounds and retrieve Salmonella cells on TSA plate, our model was only able to monitor Salmonella counts down to the sample concentration of 2 × 104 cfu/ml. This is not the detection limit of this phage senor, but it is the limit of our cell counts model. The low pH solution of Glycine is harmful to some bacteria cells and sometimes has a killing effect to Salmonella cells even before the neutralization step. Therefore, the true detection limit of this phage sensor can be much lower if measuring the frequency changes on the phage sensor, which is a real time detection method demonstrated in food [4] [25] . This model helped us to study the specificity of phage C4-22 probe used on ME biosensor, and also provided data of true Salmonella counts captured by this phage biosensor.
Figure 4. Percent Salmonella binding index on phage coated sensors vs. control sensors when loaded different concentration of Salmonella. Error bars = standard deviations from three independent sensor experiments and each experiment was performed in triplicates.
In this research, we used phage display technology combined with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antigens extracted from bacterial cell surfaces of different groups of serovars to develop phage probes that bind with Salmonella enterica serovars, and demonstrated the use of the phage on rapid magnetoelastic biosensor systems as a front-line detection ligand. The modified PCP LPS extraction method enabled the use of these antigens to produce peptides that bind with the cell surface of all representative Salmonella enterica (O-antigen groups B, C, and D) tested to date. The phage clone C4-22 appears to be an ideal probe to use with rapid bio-sensor systems for real-time, in-situ detection of all relevant serovars of Salmonella in foods, due to the probe’s high specificity and sensitivity in ELISA tests and the biosensor model study. This report indicates that the LPS extraction can substitute for the use of many different whole-cell serovars and shows a phage clone that reacts with Salmonella enterica serovars in O-antigen groups B, C, and D. These findings are being applied to the construction of a biosensor that binds all Salmonella.
The authors would like to acknowledge Whiteny Corgill and Maghan Bowser for their assistant in this project. This work was supported by the Auburn University Detection and Food Safety Center (AUDFS) and a USDA grant (USDA-2011-51181-30642A).
CDC (2014) Salmonella Data Now at Your Fingertips.
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0326-salmonella-data.html
Huang, S., Yang, H., Lakshmanan, R.S., Johnson, M.L., Wan, J., Chen, I.H., Wikle, H.C., Petrenko, V.A., Barbaree, J.M. and Chin, B.A. (2009) Sequential Detection of Salmonella typhimurium and Bacillus anthracis Spores Using Magnetoelastic Biosensors. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 24, 1730-1736. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2008.09.006
Shen, W., Lakshmanan, R.S., Mathison, L.C., Petrenko, V.A. and Chin, B.A. (2009) Phage Coated Magnetoelastic Micro-Biosensors for Real-Time Detection of Bacillus anthracis Spores. Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical, 137, 501-506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2009.01.027
Li, S., Li, Y., Chen, H., Horikawa, S., Shen, W., Simonian, A. and Chin, B.A. (2010) Direct Detection of Salmonella typhimurium on Fresh Produce Using Phage-Based Magnetoelastic Biosensors. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 26, 1313-1319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2010.07.029
Chai, Y., Wikle, H.C., Wang, Z., Horikawa, S., Best, S., Cheng, Z., Dyer, D.F. and Chin, B.A. (2013) Design of a Surface-Scanning Coil Detector for Direct Bacteria Detection on Food Surfaces Using a Magnetoelastic Biosensor. Journal of Applied Physics, 114, 104504.
Huang, S., Li, S., Yang, Q., Johnson, H., Wan, J., Chen, I., Petrenko, V.A., Barbaree, J.M. and Chin, B.A. (2008) Optimization of Phage-Based Magnetoelastic Biosensor Performance. Special Issue of Sensors & Transducers Journal, 3, 87-96.
Hitchcock, P.J. and Brown, T.M. (1983) Morphological Heterogeneity among Salmonella Lipopolysacch
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Brigati, J., Williams, D.D., Sorokulova, I.B., Nanduri, V., Chen, I., Turnbough Jr., C.L. and Petrenko, V.A. (2004) Diagnostic Probes for Bacillus anthracis Spores Selected from a Landscape Phage Library. Clinical Chemistry, 50, 1899-1906. http://dx.doi.org/10.1373/clinchem.2004.038018
Sorokulova, I.B., Olsen, E.V., Chen, I-H., Fiebor, B., Barbaree, J.M., Vodyanoy, V.J., Chin, B.A. and Petrenko, V.A. (2005) Landscape Phage Probes for Salmonella typhimurium. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 63, 55-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2005.02.019
Guo, X. and Chen, R.R. (2006) An Improved Phage Display Procedure for Identification of Lipopolysaccharide-Binding Peptides. Biotechnology Progress, 22, 601-604.
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Nanduri, V., Sorokulova, I.B., Samoylov, A.M., Simonian, A.L., Petrenko, V.A. and Vodyanoy, V. J. (2007) Phage as Molecular Recognition Elements in Biosensors Immobilized by Physical Adsorption. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 22, 986-992. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2006.03.025
Olsen, E.V., Sorokulova, I.B., Chen, I.H., Barbaree, J.M. and Vodyanoy, V.J. (2006) Affinity-Selected Filamentous Bacteriophage as a Probe for Acoustic Wave Biodetectors of Salmonella typhimurium. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 21, 1434-1442. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2005.06.004
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Rezania, S., Amirmozaffari, N., Tabarraei, B., Jeddi-Tehrani, M., Zarei, O., Alizadeh, R., Masjedian, F. and Zarnani, A.H. (2011) Extraction, Purification and Characterization of Lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi. Avicenna Journal of Medical Biotechnology, 3, 3-9.
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Maripandi, A. and Al-Salamah A.A. (2010) Analysis of Salmonella enteritidis Outer Membrane Proteins and Lipopolysaccharide Profiles with the Detection of Immune Dominant Proteins. American Journal of Immunology, 6, 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.3844/ajisp.2010.1.6
Kim, Y., Lee, C., Chung, W., Kim, E., Shin, D., Rhim, J., Lee, Y., Kim, B. and Chung, J. (2005) Screening of LPS-Specific Peptide from a Phage Display Library Using Expoxy Beads. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 329, 312-317. http://dx.doi.org/10.3844/ajisp.2010.1.6
Tanaka, T., Kokuryu, Y. and Matsunaga, T. (2008) Novel Method for Selection of Antimicrobial Peptides from a Phage Display Library by Use of Bacterial Magnetic Particles. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 74, 7600-7606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00162-08
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Chai, Y., Horikawa, S., Wikle, H.C. and Chin, B.A. (2013) A Surface-Scanning Coil Detector for Real-Time, in-Situ Detection of Bacteria on Fresh Food Surfaces. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 50, 311-317. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2013.06.056
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CJ Wilson Racing Might Find Their Next Driver Through A Cayman GT4 Racing Series They’re Hosting on Forza
4/25/2016 9:03 est Filed to: Video GamesBy: Pepper GirlComment
Late last week CJ Wilson Racing announced they were launching a Cayman Cup for Forza Motorsort 6. Sponsored by Logitech and produced in conjunction with The Online Racing Association (TORA) the CJ Wilson Cayman Cup will run from the 27th of April, 2016 to the 31st of August, 2016.
Complete with a Driver Championship and Team Championship, the CJ Wilson Cayman cup will race across 10 tracks over the next four months: Dayton, Sebring, Mazda Raceway, Wakins Glen, Long Beach, Lime Rock, Road America, VIR, COTA and Road Atlanta.
The virtual Caymans are said to be as close as possible to the real thing. In fact, CJ Wilson racing and its drivers worked closely with TORA to create a care that matches the team's Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Driver Danny Burkett (pilot of the #33 ONE Capital/Motor Oil Matters Cayman) put in many virtual laps to match the performance and handling of the Forza Cayman to the real thing.
“Without a doubt seeing my #33 ONE Capital Cayman in a video game was one of the coolest moments of my life”, explained the 20 year old from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Burkett went to on describe the development process. “It was awesome but a little bittersweet as the 2015 Cayman GTS in-game didn’t really feel like the GT4 race car did in reality. So when we started planning the Cayman Cup race series, Matt Hunter, from TORA, sent me the base setup for the car they were planning to use and it was surprisingly good but it still need to be fine tuned. Once we got those adjustments figured out, like getting the brakes a little better and improving the overall grip levels it felt almost identical to what it was like to race the Cayman GT4 Clubsport on the track at Sebring.”
Team Owner, CJ Wilson sees a number of practical benefits to online racing.
“Because Danny has been helping to develop the car for the series and he believes that it feels very much like our real race car, the Cayman Cup is going to give the competitors all of the experience with none of the costs of running a real race team and I’m kind of jealous of that!”
Perhaps, more importantly, the quality of the competition isn't lost on Wilson, either.
“Not everybody has the access to develop their abilities in karts and that other stuff. They can, however, develop a lot of the same skills over a long period in Forza such as race craft, consistency, and damage control at the pointy end of the virtual field. Who is to say that in the future that there won’t be a CJ Wilson driver that we have scouted through our partnership with TORA? It would be great to develop somebody like that from the ground up.”
If you want to join in, make sure you have a copy of Forza Motorsport 6 and then check out the official rules and regulations over at the TORA forum pages.
Tagged With: CJ Wilson, EA, Forza, Forza Cayman Cup, microsoft, Porsche, porsche video games, Video Games, Xbox One
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Tag Archives: gooners
Should He Stay Or Should He Go? (Part Three – Attack)
Sorry for the delay Gooners – attempting to watch every single match of Euro 2012 certainly has taken it’s toll! Here is my final part of who I think should stay and who should get their coat.
9. Park Chu-Young: I’m sure I’m not the only one that was baffled by this one. However I’m probably the only one that’s actually seen him score a goal for Arsenal, in the Carling Cup v Bolton. I hoped this was the beginning, that he could potentially become a valuable player for the end-of-season run-in. Instead there were sporadic pointless ‘appearances’ on the bench and a classic example was the 7-1 against Blackburn. We’re 6-1 up with 30 minutes left, you’d have thought this would have been a perfect opportunity to bring him on, boost the confidence against a side praying for the end but instead on comes Benayoun and Henry. There are lots of cynical theories regarding him going around, but for me the bottom line is if he isn’t good enough ship him out to get on with his National Service. Go
10. Robin van Persie: What can be said about RvP that hasn’t already been said? An outstanding season, capped off with 30 goals and a glut of awards its frightening to imagine how our season would have gone without him, he was rightly the first name on the teamsheet. The last 18 months have shown just how good van Persie can be when his fitness is uninterrupted by injury, treating us to some of the most sublime goals we’ve been deprived of since Messers Bergkamp and Henry left. Even when he tired towards the very end of the season he still pulled out that cheeky penalty against Wolves. A world-class talent, it remains to be seen whether he’ll sign a new contract (and lets hope he does), but if we can get at least 2 of the other players to play with the same clinical intensity as him just imagine what we could be capable of? Stay
14. Theo Walcott: Another frustrating season punctuated with criticisms, some warranted and some not. Can show so much at times and deliver so little that he is another player who divides Gooners. In terms of combined goals and assists this was one of Walcott’s more productive seasons, and when you compare him to a player like Stewart Downing (and our own Andrei Arshavin – more on him later), he is actually a very valuable player. Of all the quick players I’ve seen down the years though he seems to be the only one where his pace looks like a curse rather than an asset at times. Confidence is everything, and it is disheartening to hear the crowd getting on his case. So it certainly was a highlight when he transformed from shrinking violet to clinical finisher in the 5-2. More of the same please Theo, you’re getting better. Stay
15. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: Was quietly frustrated at being held back earlier in the season, but what a decision that was by Arsene as like Benayoun he was fresh for the run-in. I remember seeing him against Shrewsbury and he was strong and had an eye for a long shot, very exciting to watch. Capped that performance with a great goal and has rarely disappointed in his gradually increasing appearances since then. His big moment came in the United game at the Emirates, when the crowd were incensed at his removal for Arshavin. He’s become someone that fans look to change the game – I admit regularly found myself watching the touchline nearest the Arsenal bench in the second half to see if Pat Rice was about to call him back to strip down and come on. The worry is that this is a lot of pressure on young shoulders, but the signs are that he is coping well with it. Another upshot of his good form is that it seems to coincide with Theo’s fine end of season end – perhaps The Ox’s direct nature is pushing Theo? An explosive start to his Arsenal career. Stay
23. Andrei Arshavin: Another underwhelming season. The 4-goal spree at Anfield is now a very distant memory. It’s a real shame, as many fans hark after those sort of performances, and for the longest time I always hoped they were just around the corner. At least with the 2010-11 season his goals/assists stats were actually quite good even with his ‘relaxed’ demeanour. Fans can almost forgive a lazy disposition if a player is coming up with the goods – but 1 league goal between August and February is just not good enough for a man of his talent. A low-point for me was 60-odd minutes into a match (I forget which one) the subs board went up and he appeared to run to the touchline, perhaps believing the number 23 was up when actually it was 29. All too often it would seem like he would run out of steam after the hour mark. Against United at home, I suspect the crowd weren’t just angry at The Ox’s removal – Arshavin replacing him also had something to do with it probably. A crying shame, as like many others I loved him when he first arrived – I’ve felt for a while that he needs a change of scenery, a theory backed-up by his more fruitful form at Zenit. Thanks for those times when you couldn’t stop scoring at Anfield, the screamer at Old Trafford, the winning goal against Barça Andrei, all the best. Go
27. Gervinho: For me a decent first season. After a Premier League baptism of fire (I’m pretty sure he’d never faced a player like Joey Barton before) he was playing well, there was a period where he couldn’t stop finding RvP in the box. Went off the boil a little bit but the killer was the African Nations Cup – that missed penalty shot down his confidence and he never equaled his early season form after that. The only attacking player at the club who almost appeared to travelling backwards when he was bringing the ball forward, he seemed afraid to shoot at crucial moments. Some of our greatest players have had worse first-seasons and a great start is no guarantee of a fruitful Arsenal career (see below) but if he can recapture his early form and eradicate his bashfulness in front of goal he will be an asset. Stay
29. Marouane Chamakh: The 2011-12 season not being a terribly good one for Chamakh would be an understatement. In fairness opportunities to start have not been plentiful such was the extraordinary form of Robin van Persie. However, he was on the bench a lot and when Arsene did send him on, there was always something lacking. Towards the end of the season it certainly wasn’t effort, preferring to help out in midfield when he could see he wasn’t being effective up front. Some people forget that when RvP was injured early in 2010-11 Chamakh lead the line very well, and I had hoped this was on it’s way back after the consolation goal in 4-3 defeat at Blackburn. Sadly I feel that, like Arshavin, he needs a change of scenery. Go
12. Thierry Henry: Even though it was a very brief loan period I’ve added him in to end on a high note, such was his impact. Despite the apprehension in some quarters as to whether or not it was a good idea to come back he proved to be the decisive element in two matches and topped off the 7-1 against Blackburn (although that has since been awarded to Scott Dann – bet he’s pleased about that). His winning goals produced fantastic moments of euphoria, the returning king’s goals-to-games ratio put the then-misfiring Fernando Torres to shame. His excellent start to the MLS season was the product of a great ‘pre-season’ at the Emirates. In fact, he was so good my Henry DVD is now missing some great goals!
That’s it for my look at the squad, probably lots to agree/disagree with there. From an attacking point of view it looks like some of my suggestions can come to fruition with the arrivals of Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud. Generally speaking though, I don’t think an awful lot needs to change. A few new players, clearing of the deadwood and a continuation of that winning mentality from the 5-2 onwards and I feel we can certainly push on next season.
CDrive77
Posted on June 21, 2012 by cdrive77. Posted in Arsenal | Tagged 2011-12, afc, arsenal, arshavin, attack, english premier league, gervinho, gooners, oxlade-chamberlain, park, robin van persie, soccer, theo walcott, thierry henry | 3 Comments
Should He Stay Or Should He Go? (Part One – The Back)
We’re well into the close season, with the Euros imminent West Brom is but a distant memory. But who should we keep and who should be we saying “thanks for everything” whilst pointing to the door? Here are my thoughts on the 2011/12 squad, with a view to who should stay/go.
1. Manuel Almunia: Not a single appearance for the Arsenal this season, only one spot on the bench. Had some decent games, quite liked him for the reason that he was someone everyone could relate to. A man who ousted the better player through sheer hard work and a positive attitude. However, his errors were high profile and well-documented – he just wasn’t good enough to be a No. 1, none of the top sides would have had him. He goes with good wishes, but not before time. Go (already released.)
13. Wojciech Szczęsny: A solid second season, he has grown in terms of the authority and stature he possesses. And we’ve needed it, given the problems we’ve had in defence this season. I would say though that in the last few games his focus has been a bit lacking, his kicking a little suspect and he’s nearly come unstuck, booting the ball at onrushing attackers. That said, his shot-stopping has been immense and always good for a quote (see his post-match interview regarding his save against Lee Cattermole against Sunderland (H) for my personal favourite). We’ve still got the real deal between the sticks, and I fully expect him to right-fully assume the no.1 shirt. Stay
21. Łukasz Fabianski: Pretty much whatever has been said about Almunia can also be said for Fabianski. Has made the odd decent save but unfortunately he was far too inconsistent and as a result, he never inspired confidence in his defence. It is said that Fabianski feels that his international chances are being hindered by not playing enough club football. Given that the very same player stands in front of him at both club and international level I think its fair to suggest that he move on, if anything not to see his tormentor on a daily basis. Go
3. Bacary Sagna: One of the most consistent full-backs in the Premier League, I feel he’s back to his best after not the greatest season by his lofty standards. A player who loves the club and always puts in a shift, I never want to see him leave! Stay
4. Per Mertesacker: May have been quite surprised by the pace of the Premier League and it showed as he was exposed a few times. On the flip-side, I’m a big fan of Mertesacker’s no-nonsense tackling and there were certainly instances where he saved our bacon. His untimely injury against Sunderland was unfortunate as I felt he was just getting into his stride. Ok, so he isn’t the fastest but neither was Tony Adams – a good Euros and a better reading of the game to make up that extra yard and I think he’ll turn out to be a great player for us. Stay
5. Thomas Vermaelen: Whilst I must admit defensively he hasn’t covered himself in glory towards the end of the season, it must not be forgotten what a difference he made on his return to the side from injury in 2012. Winning every header, last ditch tackling and just generally settling and organising the defence, it was a pleasure to watch this classy centre-back at work. And that’s before we mention his goals…Stay
6. Laurent Koscielny: What an incredible transformation in the space of 2 seasons. In 2010/11 aside from a couple of games generally he was not strong in the tackle, looked out of his depth and had a lack of confidence. These words do not describe the 2011/12 version. Some of Koscielny’s tackling has been simply outstanding this season, and he just looks fearless. It is a testament to him that he is not just in the side to partner Vermaelen, he is there on equal merit. His metamorphosis has had me gobsmacked at times…it really has been a while since we’ve had a decent no. 6! Stay
11. Andre Santos: When he first arrived, he was one of those classic Eboué-like full-backs – decent at going forward, just not all that interested in defending. But the 5-3 seemed to be a watershed moment – not a very good defensive performance in the first half, an excellent goal later and it seemed to sort his defensive head out. I quite like his style of defending – text-book it ain’t, but you would not want to run into him. Always seems to have a smile on his face, just reckon he needs to be a bit leaner in his second season. A good start. Stay
18. Sebastien Squillaci: Another player who might as well not have been there. The writing was always on the wall – once Per Mertesacker was brought in, and with Johan Djourou already there, his slip down the pecking order was complete. Even with the injuries to Vermaelen and Mertesacker, Arsène preferred other options. And when his moment came away to Fulham, whilst he could have done more with the Fulham’s first, he gift-wrapped their winner with an inexplicable across-the-box assist to Bobby Zamora. Admittedly he had not had a lot of game time and criticism here is probably a little harsh, but I do think it’s fair to say for his own sake, probably best to move on. Go
20. Johan Djourou: Has actually been a valuable back-up in recent seasons, but unfortunately for him he wasn’t as good at it in 2011/12. In fairness to him he has been played woefully out of position, and it showed, culminating in his removal at half-time due to ‘injury’ filling in at right-back against Man United at the Emirates. To his credit I suspect he never complained about playing there, and you wish for players that just do what they’re told rather than challenge the manager. My gripe with him is even at centre-back I’ve always felt he was what I call ‘big-for-nothing’, easily beaten in the air for a man of his size. A nice enough bloke by all accounts, but if Ottmar Hitzfeld really thinks Djourou should leave and he happens to agree, (provided we have another centre-back) I wouldn’t stand in his way. Go
25. Carl Jenkinson: So you’ve mainly played non-league football, the highest level you’ve ever played at is League One, and now you’re playing at Old Trafford. And we’re not having a great day. Tough situation for any young player. Whilst eyebrows had been raised with his acquisition and immediate placing into the first-team squad, Gooners love a trier and he does give his all. And the positive soundbites and “My whole family are Gooners” stories aside, he is quite the crosser of the ball. He’ll not be replacing Sagna anytime soon, so I’m happy with him as back-up and who knows, could he be next season’s Koscielny? Stay
28. Kieran Gibbs: Continuing the fine tradition of young left-backs we’ve had at the club, always liked him. Yes, his injury record is not great but it’s worth remembering than he is still only 22 and will get stronger. My only concern is like the previous incumbent, when going forward Gibbs does at times leave a lot of space behind him. However, I think he is greatly benefiting from increasing Premier League game-time and will build on a good season. Stay
As for the other younger players, I feel that Ignasi Miquel is quietly building well on previous seasons’ appearances, and I’m certainly keen to see more of Nico Yennaris, whose lively 2nd half substitute performance against United at home certainly caught the eye.
That’s it for the back, stay tuned for my thoughts on our attack.
Posted on June 1, 2012 by cdrive77. Posted in Arsenal | Tagged 2011-12, afc, arsenal, defence, emirates, english premier league, epl, goalkeeper, gooners, north bank
CDrive’s Season 2011/12 Highlights (yes really): Part Two
Morning Gooners, here is the second part of my season highlights.
4. Arsenal 3-0 AC Milan (Champions League 2nd round 2nd leg, 6th March 2012)
After a derisory, meek 1st leg surrender in the San Siro, the second leg was pretty much a formality. No-one really believed we could make the tie competitive, but it was an opportunity to restore some sort of pride, and perhaps give Milan a little fright along the way. And Arsenal certainly did, going 2-0 up inside the half hour. Once Robin van Persie had converted that penalty before the break the stadium was delirious. I was so out of breath I nearly passed out, and it was only half-time! We dared to dream of a historic reverse in the tie, and though it was not to be, at least Arsenal could leave the pitch with their heads held high.
3. Robin van Persie v Everton (Arsenal 1-0 Everton, Premier League, 10th December 2011)
What a goal this was. One of the early examples of that brilliant Song-van Persie connection. I was lucky enough that my seat offered me a great view of RvP’s volley, right on line with its direction. The long floated pass, the sweet connection with that wand of a left foot, even the way it cannoned in off the post, I was completely dumbfounded. Quite simply, world class brilliance.
2. Thierry Henry v Leeds (Arsenal 1-0 Leeds, FA Cup 3rd round, 09th January 2012)
It’s approaching the 70th minute mark and it’s not looking good. Arsenal cannot find a way through and Leeds are already thinking about a potential replay, always a game we can do without. Thierry Henry, the returning hero, comes on. Was this a good idea to come back? Would he be way off the pace in English football? Would he ruin his legacy? If there was a doubt about Henry’s prowess someone forgot to tell Leeds, who looked immediately intimidated by his presence. Then on 78 minutes Alex Song hits another one of those hot-knife-through-butter passes, Thierry reacts the quickest and rolls back the years with a classic trademark side-foot shot to send the Emirates Stadium absolutely crazy. When it was announced that he was on the bench everyone wanted him and only him to score. Henry did not disappoint and provided me with one of the greatest moments I’ve ever witnessed in the stadium. TH14 may have long left his throne, but with his subsequent performances, TH12 had come back to reclaim it.
1. Arsenal 5-2 Spurs (Premier League, 26th February 2012)
For me probably just goes ahead of Henry’s winner, simply because of the desolation I was feeling after half an hour. 2-nil down to a rampantly confident Spurs, typified by Adebayor’s ultimately premature post-penalty jig in front of us at the North Bank. At that point it was looking like this could be worse than the 4-4, and even surpass the 3-2 defeat last season when we’d thrown away a 2 goal half-time lead. Just before half-time Bacary Sagna and Robin van Persie drag Arsenal back into the game with a force-of-nature header and a sublime curled shot respectively. The North Bank had gone hysterical at this point, as instead of Tottenham running away with it, we were now in the box-seat. What followed was a complete destruction. Tomas Rosicky completes his rejuvenation with a deserved goal and Theo Walcott punishes them to hit the 4th. Typically, everyone around me wants a 5th to quash any memories of the 4-4 and Theo responds with another fantastic finish. We then had 20 minutes to bask in the glory and eyeball the Spurs fans in the away end (those that actually remained). This is the match where Arsenal woke up – had Spurs have gone on to win comfortably I’m convinced we would not have finished 3rd. This was The Turning Point, and a highlight not just of this season, but of the entire time I’ve supported the Arsenal.
So those are my highlights. Admittedly I may have missed out a couple that might have been on your lists (Mikel Arteta‘s strike against Manchester City, RvP’s late winner vs Liverpool to name two), but it just goes to prove that despite a having frustrating season we can still have the pick of some truly exhilarating moments. Thank God we aren’t Wolves, thank God even more that we’re not Tottenham.
Ooh to be a Gooner indeed.
Posted on May 22, 2012 by cdrive77. Posted in Arsenal | Tagged 5-2, afc, arsenal, champions league, emirates, english premier league, gooners, north bank, robin van persie, thierry henry
CDrive’s Season 2011/12 Highlights (Yes Really): Part One
Yes we lost to United 8-2, got beaten 4-3 by Blackburn, got taught a lesson by Swansea, didn’t turn up at the San Siro etc. Apart from that we actually had some extraordinary highlights, ones that on occasion left me almost completely breathless. Here’s a list of 10 of my personal favourites in some kind of order.
10. Arsène Wenger hugging Pat Rice (WBA 2-3 Arsenal, Premier League, 13th May 2012)
The Boss had been apoplectic with rage for most of the second half, but what we saw towards the end was something altogether different. With Arsenal hanging on by the fingernails Arsène mimics the nervousness every fan was feeling and clambers onto Pat Rice. This is great for two reasons: Arsène, despite being the manager shows he feels what we feel; and secondly that he is hugging Pat on his last day at work demonstrated an unusual poignancy rarely ever seen in the dug-out.
9. Robin van Persie v Tim Krul, (Arsenal 2-1 Newcastle, Premier League, 12th March 2012)
It’s 1-1 at the Emirates, and Newcastle are time-wasting. Tim Krul is particularly enjoying himself, doing that thing I hate, unnecessarily moving goal-kicks to the opposite corner of the goal area. However, all that time-wasting was in vain, as Thomas Vermaelen scores a 95th minute winner. Robin van Persie helpfully suggests to his international team-mate that he might now relent from wasting any more time. Krul, incensed with what was massively astute statement decides to produce his handbag. In fairness, it was handbags on both sides but seeing RvP not back down and giving Krul a bit of verbal roused an already-electrified crowd. It was also the first time I agreed with Gary Neville, to my absolute horror, when I watched it back at home.
8. Bacary Sagna on “The Enemy” (26th February 2012)
Not the band, but on Spurs in his post-5-2 interview: “…In our own stadium, against the enemy we could not lose”. And if anyone thinks these are just words, you only need to see the sheer voracity of his opening goal against Spurs. He had clearly had enough of being 2-nil down, and he was certainly not going to be on the losing side that day.
7. The Poznan, (Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City, Premier League, 8th April 2012)
I hate the Poznan. I can never understand why, upon your team scoring, you would turn your back on them. Don’t you want to see the team celebrating, the scorer showing you what it means to do what the humble fan has always wanted to? I must admit I did put my hatred for this moronic celebration to one side after Mikel Arteta put Manchester City to the sword at the Emirates. Whilst the players celebrated, the Poznan reverberated around that North Bank and yes, I did join in to stick it to the City fans. Even The Grumpy Sh*thead was enjoying himself. And the funnies continued, as at the end Mario Balotelli finally completed his match-long mission to get sent off.
6. Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal (Premier League, 29th October 2011)
This was a match that was much more important than it usually is. Having been a team that was becoming accustomed to losing the big matches (Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs up to this point), we’d clawed our way back a little bit by recording a series of almost under-the-radar victories. So this was a game we had to win, as I felt the somewhat fragile confidence that was finding it’s way back to the side would have been completely shattered again. And despite going behind twice, Arsenal produced a resilient performance, a Santos strike, Theo Walcott battling with gravity to stay upright and score, and an RvP hatrick.
And it was my birthday.
5. John Terry on his backside (Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal, Premier League, 29th October 2011)
Although it’s technically about a Chelsea player I feel this deserves a separate mention as it was Arsenal-inspired. Aside from the odious off-field stuff he gets involved in (don’t get me started on that), for the longest time I’ve felt that from a purely footballing perspective Terry’s best days were long behind him. Saw him play for England v Ukraine at Wembley 4/5 years ago and I was in shock as to how slow an international defender is allowed to be. So after all his lack of humility and badge-kissing it warmed my cockles immensely to see him flat on his a*se as Robin sped away to score his second. It is even funnier looking back when you realise that a) even if Terry had stayed on his feet he would have been too slow to catch RvP anyway, and b) this is becoming something of a trademark of his.
To be continued Gooners…
Posted on May 18, 2012 by cdrive77. Posted in Arsenal | Tagged 2011-12, afc, arsenal, emirates, english premier league, gooners, highlights, north bank
Sleeping is for wimps, Arsenal are playing – AFC
The big day is here, our cup final in a way. So much hinges on one game. The guarantee of champion’s league football if we get third, the future of Robin Van Persie as an Arsenal player, the pulling power of higher calibre players, the pressure back on Arsene.
We as football fans are a very fickle bunch, we go through so many highs and lows throughout a season. Silverware or a strong finish at the end of the season and we dismiss all the lows. Failure at the end and all highlights are quickly forgotten. Taking into account how badly we started the season even the most diehard fans would never have envisaged us ending up in third place. We went on such an amazing run during the final third of the season to put us in this position but lately have somewhat stumbled to some less than satisfactory results.
If we had a crystal ball back during the darks days of the early part of the season we would take the position we are in ‘3rd place with a win at west brom to secure it’ we would literally bite your hand off for that.
Being in this position now and with so much to lose as well as gain; the sense is if we do not pull off the result today there will be a massive feeling of disappointment amongst all gooners. The Wenger out backlash may resurface, well actually not may it will most definitely resurface. Every aspect of what happened this season will be examined with a microscope and the overall assessment of this season will be a massive failure. Pat Rice is gone so I wonder if his last days will be viewed with celebration of his commitment to the Arsenal or will the cyber rotten tomatoes be thrown his way.
I mean every season without a trophy can be deemed as failure but on this occasion to see the turnaround from where we were at the early part of the season 3rd place would be a pretty acceptable outcome in my books.
There is such a fine line between absolute doom and absolute joy today that all gooners are very nervous today. We believe but we also have doubt.
I mean, I didn’t even expect to blog today due to the fact that I took part in the London Moonwalk across London in the name of breast cancer. I donned a bra and walked the streets with 15,000 women (not quite the men’s fantasy you would think) from midnight. I arrived home at 4.30am and went to sleep. I woke up 8.30 and although a little sore I could not get back to sleep. I am up wide awake and blogging.
Like back in the day when you had a big exam and the night before it was one of the most uncomfortable and sleepless nights
I have Arsenal on my mind. I love my club and cannot stop thinking about today’s game. Let’s hope Arsenal pass their test today.
Come on you Gunners!!
Sleeping is for wimpszzzz…..
Posted on May 13, 2012 by GambeanoSnitch. Posted in Arsenal | Tagged afc, arsenal, epl, football, gooners, moonwalk, premiership, third place, west brom | 1 Comment
AFC Next game:
v Crystal PalaceJanuary 1st, 2017
Armchair Gooner
Arsenal Daily News
Arsenal Live
Football Boots Guide
Sport Bullet
ThePlayersNet
Gambeanosnitch AFC Posting
Victory From The Jaws Of Failure: The Arsenal Way
Gunners recover to reach next round of FA Cup
Big blow to Arsenal momentum despite 3 goal comeback
Giroud magic ensures Gunners keep on going
Valentine’s celebrations all round for the Gunners.
2011-12 aaron ramsey afc andre santos anfield arsenal arsene wenger arshavin aston villa bacary sagna bendtner capital one cup carl jenkinson cazorla chamakh champions league chelsea demba ba denilson DIABY djourou ecl emirates england english premier league epl euro 2012 everton fabregas fa cup football france frimpong fulham germany gervinho giroud gooners henri lansbury jack wilshere koscielny liverpool liverpool fc manchester city manchester united mannone mertesacker mesut ozil nasri newcastle north bank norwich norwich city olivier Giroud oxlade-chamberlain podolski premier league premiership robin van persie rosicky roy hodgson sagna soccer spurs Szczesny theo walcott thierry henry third place tottenham vermaelen walcott wenger west brom wilshere world cup
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You are here: Home / Office 365 / SharePoint / AUS Recruit embraces Office 365 and SharePoint Online with an award winning...
AUS Recruit embraces Office 365 and SharePoint Online with an award winning solution by GCITS
AUS Recruit, an Australian athlete promotion company, were growing fast. They knew they needed a better way to manage their athletes through every stage of their promotion process.
After an Office 365 Exchange Online email roll-out, GCITS and AUS Recruit turned to SharePoint Online to build a scalable, cloud based athlete management platform. The project was featured on Kochie’s Business Builders, won an Australia-wide award, and gave AUS Recruit the peace of mind to scale their operations on a proven system.
This project was completed by the GCITS team as part of the Ozbizweb Group and won the Microsoft Australia Partner Award for Excellence in Small and Mid-Market Cloud Solutions. In 2016, Ozbizweb Group will be replaced by GCITS as the Microsoft Partner.
Who are AUS Recruit?
Founded in 2011, AUS Recruit are a Gold Coast based Athlete Promotion company that connects athletes in Australia and New Zealand with the US college system on sporting and academic scholarships. Ben Thiel and four core management staff coordinate a team of 13 recruit advisors located around Australia.
“We’ve grown strongly in the last three years, we currently have an office in Queensland, an Office in NZ and one in Los Angeles.” Ben reports.
Recruit advisors identify and refer talented athletes to AUS Recruit, where they are assessed for eligibility, registered in the AUS Recruit system and promoted to the appropriate college coaches.
The requirements for qualifying and placing athletes in the US are strict and varied, and require the input and expertise of multiple staff members.
AUS Recruit’s IT Challenges
In 2014, as word was spreading about the AUS Recruit program, Ben and his team were taking on more athletes than they could manage. Opportunities were being missed, information was lost and some athletes were being let down.
“Communication with my staff has been one of the biggest challenges, and the miscommunication and misinformation that gets sent around” (Ben Thiel)
AUS Recruit was using a POP3 email server for all staff. Ben recognised the value of keeping track of communication, and had configured a collection mailbox where all email was forwarded into a single inbox. Unfortunately, this did not work well.
“It was hard to keep track of where we were. We had different email on different computers, nothing synced, I didn’t know if people had been responded to or not.”
Ben and the team were using a spreadsheet synced on Google Drive to track the progress and info relating to all past and current athletes. The problem with the spreadsheet was that it was just a spreadsheet, it didn’t alert anyone when things when wrong or deadlines were being missed. Ben found that a lot of his time was spent putting out fires due to administrative oversights. And then the syncing issues began.
“Because we’ve got staff all around Australia, we found it to be quite slow and we weren’t always sure that the information uploaded would represent what someone else was looking at around the country.”
With unsupportable growth due to an unsuitable management system and a dated email server, it wasn’t hard for Ben to say yes when we demonstrated the features of Exchange Online.
“When Ozbizweb suggested that we change over, and look at Office 365, we jumped at the opportunity. “, Ben says.
Elliot Munro from GCITS discusses the rollout, “AUS Recruit were experiencing missing emails, inconsistent inboxes and no syncing of items between devices. We switched the email to Office 365’s Exchange Online to resolve this and the email migration took place without issue. Soon after, we booked a time with AUS Recruit to demonstrate the other features of the platform.”
Ben Thiel saw the potential of SharePoint Online’s workflows and custom lists as a way to replace their problematic spreadsheet.
Operating in an industry with little competition was both a blessing and a curse for AUS Recruit. There was no line of business application that serviced their needs, anything they needed, they would have to build themselves or get developed. And for a young business, traditional software development was prohibitively expensive.
As it was the first time GCITS’s Elliot Munro had engaged in this sort of work, an agreement was reached to build the platform at a reduced cost.
The Technical Details
Elliot Munro discusses how the project was implemented:
SharePoint workflows are used to automate repeatable business processes. We used workflows for assigning custom permissions to items for Recruit Advisors, and generating custom documents using Word Templates. We designed these workflows in close consultation with the customer. This had the twofold effect of getting Ben comfortable with the platform, and giving him an understanding of the capabilities for future feature requests.
We used an Access Web App to track the results of the Athlete Promotions phase of the AUS Recruit process. The Access Web App connects to the Athlete Database SharePoint List and filters it by athletes currently ready for promotion. The Access Web App is set up to support AUS Recruits existing promotions process. This allows the AUS Recruit team to stay up to date with the current communications between AUS Recruit Staff, US Coaches and Australian Athletes.
We set up an enquiry management system in SharePoint that collects all web enquiries received and collects the enquiries into a SharePoint list. Once an enquiry is received, a workflow runs which assesses the entered enquiry values to calculate an Enquiry Score. The Enquiry Score helps to ascertain the likelihood of the Athlete being successfully promoted, and is used by AUS Recruit management to assist in assigning the enquiry to the appropriate recruit advisor.
The end result is an easy to use cloud-based management portal, accessible securely from anywhere, with any device.
AUS Recruit’s value stems from its proven promotions process, and SharePoint Online ensures that each athlete is taken through the same process from start to finish.
From the moment that an athlete makes an enquiry, to their trip overseas to pursue their dream of competing in the US College System, everything is tracked, automated, and the right people are involved at the right time.
The solution was featured on Kochie’s Business Builders, and won us the Microsoft Australian Partner award for Excellence in Small and Mid-Market Cloud Solutions. See the videos below.
The featured solution on Kochies Business Builders
Our AUS Recruit solution wins a 2015 MAPA Award
Want to use the cloud to be more effective? Get in touch with us!
Copyright Gold Coast IT Support
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Hans van Leunen: on 4/8/17 at 22:17pm UTC, wrote Vladimir, Hilbert spaces can only cope with number systems that are...
Vladimir Tamari: on 4/8/17 at 3:54am UTC, wrote Dear Hans I enjoyed reading your paper, although I approach physics...
Peter Jackson: on 4/6/17 at 19:27pm UTC, wrote Hans, I'd hoped you'd have read my essay and commented by now. Did you...
Vladimir Fedorov: on 3/29/17 at 5:30am UTC, wrote Dear Hans, With great interest I read your essay, which of course is...
Satyavarapu Gupta: on 3/18/17 at 8:45am UTC, wrote Thank you for the Nice explanation Hans van Leunen, Is there any Physical...
Dizhechko Semyonovich: on 3/17/17 at 23:35pm UTC, wrote Dear Hans van Leunen I inform all the participants that use the...
Hans van Leunen: on 3/14/17 at 11:56am UTC, wrote Willy, The elementary modules are pointlike objects. The only properties a...
Willy K: on 3/14/17 at 6:40am UTC, wrote Dear van Leunen I was really enthused to read your account of modular...
TOPIC: Intelligent species from first principles by Hans van Leunen [refresh]
Author Hans van Leunen wrote on Jan. 10, 2017 @ 21:50 GMT
Look around and you become easily convinced from the fact that all discrete objects are either modules or modular systems. With other words, the creator of this universe must be a modular designer. His motto is “Construct in a modular way”. However, also non-discrete items exist. Universe contains continuums and these continuums appear to relate to the discrete objects. Further, we as intelligent observers of these facts, want to place everything into an appropriate model, such that we can comprehend our environment. This model appears to be capable to generate intelligent species.
Hans van Leunen. Born in 1941 in Helmond in the Netherlands. Applied physics at TUE (Eindhoven), Chemistry, Software expert. Career in high-tech industry. Now retired. Started a personal research project "The Hilbert Book Model" in 2009 that investigates the foundation and the lower levels of the structure of physical reality. docs.com/hans-van-leunen
I agree completely that the universe is composed of modular pieces and that these pieces can be combined into larger structures of increasing complexity.
I also agree that quaternions provide a method of analyzing these structures. The difficulty that I have at this point is that to my knowledge, there does not yet exist an operator such as a LaGrangian for quaternion functionss that can be used to determine an optimal path. It seems to me that the needed Mathematics has not been fully developed.
You might be interested in my essay submission for this contest and for the previous contest.
Author Hans van Leunen replied on Jan. 12, 2017 @ 18:23 GMT
Elementary modules are point-like objects and would not have many properties if the location of that point-like object would be quite stationary. Instead, at every progression instant, the elementary module gets a new location that is provided by a private stochastic mechanism. Consequently, the elementary module hops around in a stochastic hopping path and the hop landings form a location swarm. The swarm is characterized by a location density distribution. The Fourier transform of this distribution equals the characteristic function of the stochastic process that is applied by the mechanism that generates the hop locations. Therefore, the swarm owns a displacement generator and consequently at first approximation the swarm moves as one unit. The location density distribution of the swarm equals the squared modulus of the wavefunction of the elementary module.
The swarm contains a huge number of elements. Compared to the vigorous hopping of the elementary module, its representing location swarm moves quite steadily.
The Hilbert Book Model contains a section about a multi-mix algorithm that starts from the hopping path and the fact that the location swarm owns a Fourier transform. The algorithm results in an equivalent of the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian. In fact, the multi-mix algorithm takes the reverse of Feynman's path integral, which starts from the Lagrangian. The HBM does not take all possible paths. Instead, it takes the stochastic hopping path.
Look at Report of the Hilbert Book Model Project
Sorry, I appear not to understand the FQXi link system well. The above link is contained in docs.com/hans-van-leunen or you can search docs.com for "the Hilbert Book Model"
Dear Hans,
As I have thoughtfully pointed out in my brilliant essay, SCORE ONE FOR SIMPLICITY, the real Universe consists only of one unified visible infinite surface occurring in one infinite dimension, that am always illuminated by infinite non-surface light. All visible modules have surfaces Hans.
show all replies (10 not shown)
Joe, everybody has a right to have his own pet theory.
Of course, you have the right to your own unrealistic “pet theory.” Naturally provided reality am not theoretical, and that is why I have thoughtfully pointed out in my brilliant essay, SCORE ONE FOR SIMPLICITY, the real Universe consists only of one unified visible infinite surface occurring in one infinite dimension, that am always illuminated by infinite non-surface light. Reality am not a complicated.
Hello Mr Van Leunen,Gary,Joe,
Mr Van leunen, I liked your papper and your generality about quaternions and hilbert works.Congratulations.
Have you thought about the insertions of operators de Dirac ? and the works of Noether about groups,laws of conservation...Emmy Nother and her theorem was so relevant like mathematician.I discussed also in private with Mr Duplij about padics numbers and groups.It could be also relevant to see the convergences.I like so much her works ,Noether was an incredible thinker.Einstein and Hilbert liked a lot her works.Congratulations for your work about the evolution and quantization of matter and increasing complexification.Best Regards
The mathematical model that tries to describe physical reality is subject of the Hilbert Book Model project. The paper https://doc.co/WmxXCB describes this project. It contains sections that treat all differential operators including equivalents of the Dirac equation for the electron and the positron. The model applies the fact that quaternionic number systems exist in many versions that differ in the way that they are ordered to define symmetry related charges that are in agreement with the electric and color charges of the standard model. Noether's findings also hold in the mathematical model. The electric charges and color charges represent extreme cases. The fact that multiple versions of quaternionic number systems is not well known and as far as I know it is not applied to explain the origin of symmetry related charges. At docs.com/hans-van-leunen you can find many papers that introduce new and unexpected facts that the HBM reveals.
The discovery of the modular construction of all discrete object in the universe was never highlighted before. The contest is a nice opportunity to take that chance.
Thanks for these détails Mr Van Leunen,
I didn't know well the works of Hilbert,I study a little his works and the works of Banach also.In all case Hilbert was a very incredible mathelmatician.The geometrical algebras also are relevant ,I try to invent the spherical geometrical algebras with the good operators, vectors, tensors, spinors,the associativity, the commutativity or not.....we could find the correct universal logic.It is a big puzzle in fact, we search after all answers to this universe and its laws.Your work is relevant Mr Van Leunen.Congratulations, I have learnt in the same time new things,thanks.Regards
The part of quaternionic differential calculus that applies the quaternionic nabla is very compact and comprehensible. This is due to the fact that the quaternionic nabla behaves as a quaternionic multiplying differential operator. The quaternionic product rule separates the product in five terms. This means that also the first order partial differential equation is separated into five terms. The terms define the separation of change into 'directions' along which change takes place. This divides the differential of a field into subfields. That is what Maxwell did in his Maxwell equations. But Maxwell did not do this correctly. He ignored a set of the terms. With other words, quaternionic differential calculus that is based on the quaternionic nabla is more complete than Maxwell equations. This becomes obvious when the second order partial differentials are considered.
Like the three-dimensional spatial nabla operator, the quaternionic nabla has a specification in other coordinate systems, such as in a spherical coordinate system
One real visible Universe must only be occurring in one infinite dimension.
Dear Mr Van Leunen,
Thanks for these explainations.It is relevant in all case,that permits to complete the détails of maxwell équations apparently.I didin't know these nablas,they are relevant when we utilise these operators(nabla operators).So if I understand well ,that permits to irmpove the differential calculs with different operators like for the laplacians?.Have you already thought to insert the spherical volumes and the 3 motions of 3D sphères, orbital,linear,spina?
My interest goes to the 'structure' of elementary particles and how these particles implement the deformation of their embedding field.
See: A simple model by Hans van Leunen https://doc.co/yvg1Bv
Thanks for sharing.I am going to read it.
Eigenvalues and eigenvectors are used here ... this modular concepts are really complex, we are not designing the universe, trying understand it
How they lead to intelligence ?
Mathematical concepts using imaginary numbers give rise to solutions which are non comprehensible and are not real…..
Author Hans van Leunen replied on Feb. 8, 2017 @ 21:27 GMT
The fact that numbers are called imaginary does not make them unrealistic. It only means that in such number systems the square root of -1 exists as a member of the number system.
In Hilbert spaces, operators map Hilbert vectors onto Hilbert vectors. If the map of a normed vector lands on the same vector, then the inner product of the source vector and the map results in a value that is called the eigenvalue, which belongs to the source vector and that source vector will be called eigenvector. The eigenvectors of a normal operator are mutually orthogonal. They form an orthonormal basis of the Hilbert space. The set of rays that are spanned by individual base vectors represents a set of atoms of an orthomodular lattice. This lattice is thought to be the foundation of physical reality.
Eckard Blumschein replied on Feb. 17, 2017 @ 12:37 GMT
Didn't Hilbert's program prove untenable?
Incidentally, do you share Pauli's opinion concerning avoidability of i? I gave the reference in my essay.
Thank you for explaining eigen values and vector nicely....Can you give some physical examples for these....
Author Hans van Leunen replied on Feb. 17, 2017 @ 14:12 GMT
Hilbert's program did not concern Hilbert spaces. He designed an axiomatic form of physics that treated geometry in a similar way as Einstein did with his general relativity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hilbert#Axiomatization_o
f_geometry Further, he indicated a list of problems that were not yet solved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hilbert#The_23_pr
oblems
Hilbert spaces were the result of his work of functional analysis, which was very successful.
In quaternionic algebra, the square root of -1 has many solutions that are all normalized three-dimensional (imaginary) vectors. Quaternions can be split into two complex numbers. The bi-quaternions are four-dimensional objects that have complex coefficients. The corresponding number system is not a division ring. In a division ring, all non-zero members own a unique inverse. Real numbers, complex numbers, and quaternions form division rings.
The timestamp and the location of an elementary particle are combined in a quaternion and then stored as an eigenvalue of a private operator. The corresponding eigenvalue spans a ray (a one-dimensional subspace). At every progression instant, a private mechanism provides this operator with a new location. The mechanism applies a stochastic process. Therefore, the elementary particle hops around in a stochastic hopping path. The hop landing locations form a coherent location swarm. The hopping path and the location swarm characterize the elementary particle. The swarm owns a location density distribution and that distribution equals the squared modulus of the wavefunction of the elementary particle.
Thank you for the Nice explanation Hans van Leunen,
Is there any Physical examples for the usage are possible....?
Vladimir Rogozhin wrote on Feb. 10, 2017 @ 14:00 GMT
I read with great interest your essay deep with important conclusions:
My high score. I invite you to see and appreciate my version of the simplest dialecticо- ontological model of the Universum as the eternal hierarchical process of the structures generation.
Vladimir Rogozhin
"The nice thing about this situation is that the deepest foundation of reality must be rather simple and therefore it can be described in a simple way and without any formulas. For example, if the observed signature characterizes physical reality, then the most fundamental and most influential law of physical reality can be formulated in the form of a commandment: “THOU SHALT CONSTRUCT IN A MODULAR WAY” This law is the direct or nearly direct consequence of the structure of the deepest foundation. That foundation restricts the types of relations that may play a role in physical reality. That structure does not yet contain numbers. Therefore, it does not yet contain notions such as location and time.
This law is intentionally expressed in the form of a commandment. It is not possible to express this law in the form of a formula… The impact of the commandment is far more influential, than the impact of these famous formulas."
I was pleased for the chance to penetrate your Hilbert Book model again and did so. Being more familiar with your language and terminologies now makes it easier. I rather warm to your 'swarm' characterization.
It seems your scores have fallen foul of the direction in the guidelines to 'not use the essay as an opportunity to write about your pet theory' but clearly most here must and do write from their own worldview. We agree we also need to progress understanding from the smallest scale upwards to tackle the topic effectively, which I think we're both doing well, so I don't think your scores so far value your essay highly enough. I think mine will do so.
We also agree the solution should be far simpler than the present theoretical confusion suggests. On that vein I hope you'll read mine which I think takes some small quantum leaps in that direction. I'm interested in to what extend you can understand, connect and agree its parts.
Very best wishes for the contest.
High scores only help to win the contest. Instead, the critics onto the document interest much more.
The Hilbert Book Model considers all discrete objects in the universe as modules or as modular systems. The model also considers all discrete objects as observers. This consideration means that all modules have some degree of consciousness. Sophisticated modules and modular systems show a higher degree of consciousness. Intelligent species exist that own a very high degree of awareness.
Observers only get access to information that the continuum, which embeds them transfers to them. This information reaches the observers from the past. Thus, observers perceive only a very tiny part of the information that the creator stored into the model.
That now sounds like having far more similarities with discrete field dynamics and classical QM than the very tiny part of the information I've previously perceived. Indeed if a 'module' bounded by free fermions can be a galaxy, train, human or detector then we seem in close agreement!
Now the last bit of logic; Q; Does the velocity of each hop relate to the rest state (frame) of each point hopped from or to the rest state of some others in relative motion elsewhere?
I'm interested in your claim that "Intelligent species exist that own a very high degree of awareness." exist. I know the evidence of alien visitations is becoming quite overwhelming but it still seems considered by most as verging on crackpottery to say intelligent species exist out loud (though less so than claiming it's us!).
I see you also now seem to firmly come down on the side of 'God'. I found nothing wrong with that. Do you suggest he may perhaps be the highly intelligent being you invoke?
I hope you'll get to read mine and discuss the hops. i.e.Do you included cascades? Best
I consider humans as intelligent species. I do not consider the creator as God. God is supposed to care about his creatures. The creator only created them.
I was once involved in modular software generation and saw the power of modular design and construction in the competition with monolithic construction. In hardware industry, the modular method works. Software industry still does not apply modular design and construction.
See http://vixra.org/abs/1101.0061 http://vixra.org/abs/1101.0062
I'd hoped you'd have read my essay and commented by now. Did you intend to? I hope you engage. (scoring ends Friday). With more discussion you get more score and thus more reads.
The importance of the Classic QM derivation the essay builds to now seems to be being being picked up, and I've just been told I've used quaternionic vector rotations without knowing it! (see Gary Simpsons comments).
We wish you could have defined physical reality (many different definitions are going round, but none satisfactory) and the scope of mathematics as a language. Language is the transposition of some information/command on the mind/CPU of another person/operating system. Mathematics tells us how much a system changes in the right hand side, when the parameters of the left hand side...
We wish you could have defined physical reality (many different definitions are going round, but none satisfactory) and the scope of mathematics as a language. Language is the transposition of some information/command on the mind/CPU of another person/operating system. Mathematics tells us how much a system changes in the right hand side, when the parameters of the left hand side change. This information is universal and invariant in cognition. To that extent, mathematics is a language of physics. But it does not describe what, why, when, where, or how about the parameters or the system. It gives partial information. Generalizing such partial information misleads. Thus, it cannot be the only language of Nature.
Mathematics, explains the accumulation and reduction of numbers linearly or non-linearly of confined or discrete objects. Even analog fields are quantized. Accumulation or reduction is possible only in specific quantized ways and not in an arbitrary manner (even fractions or decimals are quantized). Proof is the concept, whose effect remain invariant under laboratory conditions. Logic is the special proof necessary for knowing the unknown aspects of something generally known. Thus, the validity of a mathematical statement rests with its logical consistency.
The validity of a physical statement rests with its correspondence to reality. What is the precise and scientific definition of space? Does the Hilbert and other spaces or sub-spaces have any physical significance and conform to the precise definition of space as a class?
Synchronization is the operation or activity of two or more things at the same time or rate. There is nothing strange about it. A vane is a broad blade attached to a rotating axis or wheel which pushes or is pushed by wind or water and forms part of a machine or device such as a windmill, propeller, or turbine. Your description: “In the vane, the normalized vector that represents the elementary module is eigenvector of a private operator that attaches a spatial location as the imaginary part of the eigenvalue to the elementary module” is presenting the same fact in a rather incomprehensible language for laymen. How can “Modules act as observers and all observers travel with the vane”. Modules can be inert. Can there be inert observers?
You begin with: “Construct in a modular way”. However, also non-discrete items exist. Universe contains continuums and these continuums appear to relate to the discrete objects. Modular design is a design approach that subdivides a system into smaller parts called modules or skids that can be independently created and then used in different systems. Continuum is a continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, but the extremes are quite distinct. You cannot deny at least quarks and leptons that constitute every object in the universe. They are perceptible different from each other. What you appear to say by: continuum which “relate to the discrete objects”, is, all objects are modular in the space-time continuum. But how do you justify your statement: “Further, we as intelligent observers of these facts, want to place everything into an appropriate model, such that we can comprehend our environment. This model appears to be capable to generate intelligent species”? Do we regulate creation? Or is the creation like this because we comprehend it like this? Kindly educate us on these issues.
Author Hans van Leunen wrote on Feb. 20, 2017 @ 21:32 GMT
Physical reality is what the creator created and stored in a repository. Observers can perceive the stored information that the continuum which embeds them transfers. This information not only arrives from the past, the information transfer also affects the format of the information.
All discrete objects in the creation are modules or modular systems and all modules are observers. All modules are embedded in a continuum.
The role of the Hilbert space is to act as a repository. Operators that map the Hilbert space onto itself can impersonate the action of functions and their eigenspaces can play the role of storage places for discrete data as well as for continuums. In this way, the Hilbert space represents a powerful machinery that implements the play garden for the dynamics of the universe. See docs.com/hans-van-leunen for a complete picture of this environment.
Jonathan J. Dickau wrote on Mar. 4, 2017 @ 00:50 GMT
Greetings Hans,
I like your premise that nature is modular in its design principles. And I am somewhat familiar with the Hilbert Book Model, from your earlier papers on viXra. But I am rather disappointed that you were not able to make a more compelling case for your essay thesis. It would have been a better essay, if some of the technical details were placed later, and the material on page 3 presented sooner.
It is better, I think, to present what you are talking about first, and then the details of the context. The way you wrote it; it looks like your argument hinges on the rising and falling of the HBM, but I see this is only partly true. The work of Steven Adler in Quaternionic Quantum Mechanics sets the standard, but substantially validates your premise in this essay.
As it turns out; Adler validates the premise of my essay as well. I also mention the quaternions prominently, but I try to place them in a larger context - and I would appreciate your feedback. My view is that we need to consider the whole of Math, because nature is already putting it to use. For what it's worth, I think the quaternions have more than a passing appeal, and like the other division algebras they are fundamental.
Author Hans van Leunen replied on Mar. 4, 2017 @ 21:31 GMT
The quaternionic model offered by Adler differs considerably from the Hilbert Book Model and not only the quaternions make that difference. Adlers model is merely a quaternionic copy of current physics. The HBM offers a fundamentally different approach.
In the HBM the creator stores his results into a separable quaternionic Hilbert space that acts of a repository of dynamic...
In the HBM the creator stores his results into a separable quaternionic Hilbert space that acts of a repository of dynamic geometric data. He also constructed the possibility to embed this separable Hilbert space into its non-separable companion Hilbert space. The embedding occurs as an ongoing process in a subspace that scans as a function of the timestamps of the quaternionic storage containers over the whole repository. In this subspace, the elementary modules are represented by rays that are spanned by the eigenvector, whose eigenvector consists of the timestamp and the current location of the elementary particle.
Thank you for explaining!
I hope other participants will find your work, and will mine some of your comments for explanations where the text was insufficient to permit full understanding. I wish you the best of luck in the contest as well.
Edward Kneller wrote on Mar. 7, 2017 @ 19:01 GMT
Mr. van Leunen,
Thank you for the well written essay that takes us from a Base Model to Modular Construction.
There were a couple statements that really caught my attention in the Modular Construction section:
‘The ability to configure modular systems relies heavily on the ability to couple modules and on the capability to let these modules operate in concordance.’
‘The modular design method becomes very powerful when modules can be constructed from lower level modules.’
‘Modular systems and modular subsystems are conglomerates of connected modules. The constituting modules are bonded.’
These statements fit very well with my definition for Precise Formations of Matter (PFMs) given in my essay, ‘The Cosmic Odyssey of Matter’. Precision Formations are defined by their components (modules) that are connected in precise configurations. The definition allows us to identify a distinct progression of ‘modular’ assembly, leading to life and social organizations.
If you have a few minutes, I would very much appreciate your comments on my essay.
Regards, Ed Kneller
Dear van Leunen
I was really enthused to read your account of modular construction since that seems to describe the basic approach that is present in my modeling of intelligence. Without getting my hopes too high, I think the Constitutional nation state I have modeled could be representative of the modular system archetype you have referred to in the essay.
Needless to say, I am in total agreement with all three of your commandments. But I can’t pretend to have understood the explanation with regard to quaternions that you gave at the start of the essay. This is undoubtedly because I have discovered the complex number system of quaternions only very recently, via the essays of Yanofsky and Dickau published on this forum.
Given that scanty background, if it is presumptuous of me to comment on the mathematics of the quaternions and octonions, please do forgive me! But I found it really interesting.
Author Hans van Leunen replied on Mar. 14, 2017 @ 11:56 GMT
The elementary modules are pointlike objects. The only properties a dynamic pointlike object can have are their spatial location and the corresponding timestamp. This data construct fits nicely in a quaternion. The other advantage of this data container is that it is a member of a number system that for every nonzero member comprises a unique inverse. This feature is an important precondition for the existence of a mathematical repository that can hold huge amounts of these data containers in a structured fashion. The repository in question is an infinite dimensional separable quaternionic Hilbert space. Another important fact is that this repository possesses a unique companion repository in the form of a quaternionic non-separable Hilbert space that can embed the separable Hilbert space. An ongoing stochastic process that embeds the elementary modules as a function of their timestamp and their location in an embedding continuum realizes the embedding. Therefore the elementary module hops around in a stochastic hopping path that results in a coherent hop landing location swarm. Both the hopping path and the location swarm characterize the elementary module. Thus, the dynamic behavior, which the stochastic process controls, characterizes the type of the elementary module. Physical theories ignore this stochastic process.
Dear Hans van Leunen
With great interest I read your essay, which of course is worthy of the highest praise.
I am glad that you are
«investigates the foundation and the lower levels of the structure of physical reality.»
Your assumptions are very close to me
«niverse contains continuums and these continuums appear to relate to the discrete objects.»
«The foundation of physical reality must necessarily be very simple and therefore its structure must be easily comprehensible by skilled scientists.»
You might also like reading my essay , where the fractal principle of the device of matter is substantiate.
Dear Hans
I enjoyed reading your paper, although I approach physics geometrically and mechanistically rather than algebraically. One faqxi member explained to me that octonians represent a perspective transformation in geometrical terms. Is there such a geometrical equivalent for quaternions? So while I did not understand the algebra I could read your intention and view your vision of a neat causal world not too different than my own vision.
In Fig. 31 of my Beautiful Universe Model I interpret the Miller indices of the 3D crystal-like arrangement of nodes in my model as planar Fourier components explaining Heisenburg uncertainty. Is there an equivalent Hilbert interpretation of such a model?
With all best wishes,
Author Hans van Leunen wrote on Apr. 8, 2017 @ 22:17 GMT
Hilbert spaces can only cope with number systems that are division rings. Only three suitable division rings exist. They are the real numbers, the complex numbers, and the quaternions. These numbers are used to specify inner products and eigenvalues of operators. Octonions and bi-quaternions are not division rings. Quantum physicists apply Hilbert spaces to model their theories.
Elementary particles are elementary modules and pointlike objects. At every instant, they take a precise spatial location. Thus they hop around in a stochastic hopping path. The hop landing locations form a coherent swarm. That swarm owns a location density distribution. The hop landing locations are generated by a stochastic process that owns a characteristic function, which is the Fourier transform of the location density distribution and acts like a displacement generator. The characteristic function and the location density distribution lead to Heisenberg's uncertainty relation. Elementary modules configure higher level modules. There, similar relations between swarms and characteristic functions exist.
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Home > University > History > 'The "world contact" introduced by Europeans has created new liberties for Non-Europeans.' Discuss critically, giving evidence for your position.
'The "world contact" introduced by Europeans has created new liberties for Non-Europeans.' Discuss critically, giving evidence for your position.
Modern World History - The British Empire
Created by: mfitzpatrick_
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'The "world contact" introduced by Europeans has created new liberties for many Non-Europeans.' Discuss critically, giving evidence for your position.
The Discovery of the Americas
The first European animals were brought to the Americas by Colombus in 1493 - there were previously only Alpacas, but he introduced Horses, Cattle, Goats and Chickens.
Horses were used as a means of communication, as there was no infrastructure.
The Natives used the Horses to rear Buffalo, important aspect of their culture.
They were the first animals to turn grass into wool and milk - previously it had only been meat.
Maize, Manioc,sweet potato, chilli etc all introduced to world foods.
Maize was cultivated in West Africa and China before the end of the 16th C, helped China to become the fastest growing population by the end of the 18th C.
Europeans benefitted too: Ireland + the potato. Food of the poor, helped the population frow from 3.2 million in 1754 to 8.2 million in 1844.
Discovery not possible without the tech of the Non-Europeans: Islamic world - Lanteen Sail, Chinese - Compass and Stern Post Rudder.
"New Liberties" not "created": Europe was less wealthy than the rest of Eurasia, its only advantage was "a geographical accident" (Ponting)
Smallpox arrived shortly after Combus's voyages - aided in the capture of the Aztec capital city TENOCHTTITLAN by Hernando Cortes - invaders had a semi-divine status due to their immunity.
Measles and Typhus followed, (and Yellow Fever and Malaria on the Slave ships)
Native population of the Caribbean in 1500 was 6 million, and they were nearly all exterminated
Total population of the Americas in 1500 was 70 million, by 1600 it was 8 million - population decrease of 90%.
European dominance of the Atlantic world gave them access to Gold and Silver, which in turn meant they could buy their way into the Asian Trading System.
China experienced a huge increase in wealth, they had previously relied on Japan for Silver but they were running out.
Importance of a recognised monetary unit of transaction - Globalisation.
Limited European impact until 1750s, as China and Japan were strong enough to dictate trade on their own terms - as they already had well developed economies European trade was small scale.
The Slave Trade
Sugar was an important commodity for the West
British didn't understand the importance of slavery on the population, relative depopulation of the African continent - ripe for colonisation.
African slaves were shipped over as part of the Colombian Exchange to replace European workers on the plantations.
Europeans created a myth that Africans were uniquely suited to harsh work in tropial climates.
Average life expectancy of a Caribbean slave was 7 years.
17th C 1.8 million slaves imported, 18th C 6 million slaves.
Anglo-Zulu Wars, 1879
British depicted Zulus as barbaric, uncivilised and in need of the white man's help: "White Man's Burden" (Kipling)
Zulu's seen as a threat to common British rule, HINDSIGHT: forced into war, British aggression by Lord Chelmsford.
British initially defeated at Isandlwana, massacred. But, success later at Rorke's Drift, paved the way for the Second Invasion being a success.
Resulted in the Annexation of Zulu lands in South Africa, which catalysed the Boer Wars.
Kenya's White Terror, 1950s
Kenya became a British protectorate in 1895, and then a colony in 1920.
Land expropriation by the British (White Settler Expansion) resulted in the economic marginalisation of the Kikuyu people (inc. Mau Mau)
7 million acres of land taken, mainly in the fertile mountainous regions.
Forced Kenyan's to work on British land through 'Hut Tax', resulted in total near neglect of native subsistence farming.
Screening Camps set up by British for Kikuyu - 'detention and rehabilitation' - war crimes??
RAF dropped 6 million bomb. Also dropped propaganda leaflets, and leaflets depicting a woman being hacked to death.
State of Emergency declared in 1952 after 2 British killed by Kikuyu.
Flogging administered by settlers - "rough justice". ****, torture, murder.
By 1902 there was 26,000 miles of rail track laid in India, more than anywhere else in Asia.
Irrigation: land used for cultivation increased from 400,000 acres to 3.2 million acres.
The Hindu practise of 'Sati' was outlawed - widow burning.
1750s - capture of EIC's main trading port Calcutta by the Nawab for £££ - led to 1757 Battle of Plassey. EIC won, resulted in collection of wealth on a scale never seen before, collected state revenues from Orissa, Bihar and Bengal.
1790 India contributed £500,000 per year to the British Treasury, by 1820 it was 7x that of 1770.
Indian goods were used for the benefit of the British - British bought Indian goods to be sold in Europe, avoiding the drain of silver to China.
India enabled Britain to sell more than it bought - Lancashire Textile Industry and Industrial Revolution - made up for trade deficit with the rest of the world.
Opium brought in to pay for the tea Britain imported, as Raw cotton exports from India were not enough.
Overrode 1729 Anti-Opium edict, Opium addiction became an epidemic by 18th C.
First Opium War: China lost and had to accept the terms of the Treaty of Nanjing - limit tariffs and accept "extraterritoriality"; British merchants non longer answerable to Chinese laws but to home laws.
Loss of soverignity, China's "century of humiliation"
The Empire and War
WW1 - "TOTAL WAR"
'High Noon' of British Imperialism 1914-1918 BUT began to unravel afterwards.
India paid £146 million towards the cost of war
Almost 1.5 million of the 2.5 million British Empire troops were Indian.
Colonies as a source of human capital
Division of the war spoils by Britain and France - carved up former Gerrman colonies in South West Africa.
Approx. 100,000 Africans and 90,000 Chinese died on the Western Front.
East African campaigns fought on the backs of African labour - porters, carriers, etc.
"THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE."
WW2 -Colonial strength after WW1 was ILLUSIONARY
After 1945, Britain and France faced an irreversal defeat of legitimacy, asked subjects once again to bear the burdens of fighting a 'total war' in defence of a colonial system that offered them few rewards.
Shown by readiness to resort to violence - shows limits of the legitimacy of colonial rule.
By 1917 Canada supplied 1/2 of all shrapnel.
Access mindmap features
See similar resources
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Should British museums return objects to their countries of origin? »
The British Empire was a force for good, stop blaming the problems of today on it! »
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Irish Celtic Metal pioneers Cruachan sign with Despotz Records
With their roots in Dublin, Ireland, the folk metal band Cruachan have staggered their heavy Celtic inspired metal across world since 1992. The band are pioneers in the folk metal genre and are recognized as one of the founders of the music genre, the band has arguably gone the furthest of all in their attempts to expand this still largely unexplored subgenre. With a brutal but yet delicate mix of traditional Celtic music, pure metal and the use of Celtic mythology in their lyrics, the band has built a huge and dedicated fan-base all over the world.
"We are delighted to have signed with Despotz Records and look forward to starting the next chapter of Cruachan's journey with them. We chose Despotz based on their proven track record and their professionalism. Here's to 2020! Sláinte!" // Cruachan
"We're happy and proud to finally announce that we'll be working with Cruachan and their upcoming material that will be released in 2020. The band are true pioneers in the folk metal genre and we're looking forward to collaborate with joined forces of experience, impact and our genuine passion of metal music to take part in Cruachan's journey." // Ömer Akay, Despotz Records
Back in 1992, three young Irishmen, Keith Fay, John Fay and John Clohessy, took their love of Celtic history and mythology, blended it with traditional Irish music and pure metal and created a whole new genre of music. The band has become known the world over as Cruachan and the genre has become Folk Metal.
Since the beginning of Cruachan, the band has released eight successful albums and with their unique sound from their Irish roots with traditional Celtic music, extreme metal and a pinch of raw energy, the band has become a cult band for the folk metal community. Such as the cult classic debut album 'Tuatha na Gael', 'Folklore' that was produced by, and featuring guest vocals from the legendary Shane Macgrowan of The Pouges, and the album 'Pagan' where the artwork was created by the well-known artist John Howe who is best known from his illustrations of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit".
Cruachan is known for their strikingly great live performances and stage presence and has been touring and headlined festivals all over the world, such as Europe, South America and Russia to name a few. In 2020, the band celebrate their 25 year anniversary and will release a brand new album via Despotz Records.
Keith Fay - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Banjo, Tin-whistle, Bodhran
Kieran Ball - Guitar
Rustam Shakirzianov - Bass
John Ryan - Violin, Mandocello, Bouzouki
Mauro Frison - Drums, Percussion
CRUACHAN ON THE WEB:
Swiss Celtic / Melodic Death crew Eluveitie release 'Live At Masters Of Rock'
Eluveitie are a phenomenon that has been spreading over the world for more than 15 years. Starting with their legendary debut album 'Spirit' (2006), across the outstanding 'Slania' (2008) to their latest masterpiece 'Ategnatos' (2019), the Swiss have developed a groundbreaking recipe.
And now the time has come to capture the magical live energy of the Swiss Folk Metal institution in the form of a new release. 'Live At Masters Of Rock' is out now and contains many songs off of the band’s new album as well as plenty of legendary Eluveitie classics. Get ready for tracks like 'Ategnatos' or earlier hits like 'Helvetios' or 'King' as well as the evergreens 'The Call Of The Mountains' or 'Inis Mona' that lead through the epochal band history like a raging storm.
Order 'Live At Masters Of Rock' here: https://nblast.de/Eluveitie-LiveatMOR
Eluveitie also released a new YouTube trailer today. Check it and find out what the band has to say about the new live album: https://youtu.be/IVLkfctG8TY
The tracklist of 'Live at Masters of Rock':
01. Ategnatos
02. King
03. The Call Of The Mountains
04. Deathwalker
05. Worship
06. Artio
07. Epona
08. A Rose For Epona
09. Thousandfold
10. Ambiramus
11. Drumsolo
12. Havoc
13. Breathe
14. Helvetios
15. Rebirth
16. Inis Mona
ELUVEITIE are:
Jonas Wolf | guitars
Matteo Sisti | whistles, bagpipes, mandola, bodhran
Nicole Ansperger | fiddle
Alain Ackermann | drums
Chrigel Glanzmann | vocals, whistles, mandola, bagpipes
Fabienne Erni | vocals, celtic harp
Kay Brem | bass
Michalina Malisz | hurdy gurdy
Rafael Salzmann | guitars
www.eluveitie.ch
www.facebook.de/eluveitie
www.nuclearblast.de/eluveitie
Swiss Celtic Melodic Death outfit Eluveitie unveil first album trailer for 'Ategnatos'
We all wade through archetypes. We all are archetypes. Distant echoes of a life both primeval and noble. To embrace these archetypes, to accept them not only as a part of life but as life itself is what some may call enlightenment, some peace of mind. Eluveitie call it 'Ategnatos'. And by using their longest ever gap between albums to gather momentum, they just forged their strongest album around it. 'Ategnatos' will be released on April 5th 2019 via Nuclear Blast.
Today, the band presents the first album trailer on YouTube. Check it and find out more about the concept and the lyrics of the upcoming album: https://youtu.be/JcoOZjwss0c
Recently, the band has released the title track as the debut single. The song can be heard and watched in the form of a music video over on YouTube. The music video was produced by the Polish company Grupa13 in January 2019 and can be seen here: https://youtu.be/BG6en2WyAsw
Stream or download the new single here: http://nblast.de/EluAtegnatosSingle
Pre-order 'Ategnatos' here: http://nblast.de/EluveitieAtegnatos
Recordings of 'Ategnatos' took place in their beloved New Sound Studio with their engineer of choice Tommy Vetterli. “Yet it was radically different as we only had four weeks to record this time around – as compared to the eight weeks we had for ‘Origins’.” By taking mixing duties to the skilled hand of renowned studio wizard Jens Bogren in his Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden, Eluveitie returned to the very spot where they mixed their now legendary 'Slania' album more than ten years ago.
With 'Ategnatos', the dedicated nine-piece not only worked with a real string quartet (a premiere!) and granted Fabienne Erni’s sublime mastery of the harp the room it deserved; they also undertook a holistic upgrade resulting in some of the most catchy, most aggressive or most epic tunes the Swiss Metal nobility has ever offered.
www.eluveitie.ch | www.facebook.com/eluveitie | www.nuclearblast.de/eluveitie
Swiss Celtic Melodic Death Metallers Eluveitie are working on a new album
Swiss folk metal stars Eluveitie are currently working on the follow up to their highly acclaimed 2017 album, Evocation II - Pantheon. The band have already ensconced themselves at Tommy Vetterli's Newsound Studio in Switzerland to kick off the recording process.
A year ago, the band released the first single 'Rebirth', which gave fans an exclusive taster of what to expect from the forthcoming album. Now the band is back in the studio to record the whole album.
The band have released an official video statement from the studio: https://youtu.be/W46wFWRZjg4
The official video for 'Rebirth' was produced by Wolfgang Wolman and Oliver Sommer (AVA Studios) and can be seen here: https://youtu.be/d-pSq4MJmy8
Eluveitie released their second studio album Slania over a decade ago and to celebrate, the band have announced a very special anniversary edition of this masterpiece. Slania - 10 Years includes a raft of bonus tracks, including demos and acoustic versions, and will be released on November 16th via Nuclear Blast Records.
Pre-order Slania - 10 Years here: http://nblast.de/EluveitieSlania10Years
The track listing of the 10th anniversary edition reads:
01. Samon
02. Primordial Breath
04. Grey Sublime Archon
05. Anagantios
06. Bloodstained Ground
07. The Somber Lay
08. Slania’s Song
09. Giamonios
10. Tarvos
11. Calling The Rain
12. Elembivos
13. Samon (Acoustic Version)
14. Interview With Slania
15. Samon (demo)
16. Primordial Breath (demo)
17. Inis Mona (demo)
18. Bloodstained Ground (demo)
19. Tarvos (demo)
Matteo Sisti | whistles, bagpipes, mandola
Chrigel Glanzmann | vocals, whistles, mandola, bagpipes, bodhran
Fabienne Erni | vocals, celtic harp, mandola
Italy's Shadygrove (ft. members from Elvenking, Sound Storm, Evenoire) signs with Rockshots Records
Rockshots Records are proud to announce their latest signing of Shadygrove for the release of their debut album "In The Heart Of Scarlet Wood".
Featuring members from Elvenking, Evenoire, and Sound Storm, Italy’s Shadygrove journey into our primordial and mythological past for inspiration. Like musical time travellers or aural archaeologists, they have trawled eras beyond most bands’ inspiration to create music from the soul…for the soul!
Theirs is an acoustic heaviness that is truly original and special. It’s as though, like the myths and legends that inspire them, Shadygrove have always been with us, in the Celtic Otherworld, just waiting for us to look with our hearts rather than our eyes. Shadygrove make music as fresh as tomorrow’s dawn.
Fans of Blackmore’s Night and Loreena McKennitt will find much to love on their debut album “In The Heart of Scarlet Wood”.
Violinist Fabio ‘Lethien’ Polo describes Shadygrove’s sound as:
“Folk, ethnic, acoustic Celtic pop. We are trying to bring the popular music of our regions, mixed with Celtic and Medieval music, to a more modern view without altering its soul. We write very evocative songs to guide the listener on a journey to where nature still rules.”
Singer Lisy Stefanoni explains Shadygrove’s inspirations:
“We love the different styles of folk music and the various approaches of the main musicians. We also love the Celtic music. In the metal genre, folk metal inspires us the most. We listen to bands like Eluiveitie, In Extremo, also symphonic projects like Ayreon and The Gentle Storm. Those who love folk-metal will certainly appreciate our songs because we all come from that musical background. We take our fans on a journey to a place where myths are real and there is evidence of the magic forces of our planet. In this world the listener can meet legendary creatures walking into enchanted landscapes or see ancient rituals happening.”
“In The Heart of Scarlet Wood” is set for release via Rockshots Records on April 6th, 2018 and available for pre-order here.
1. Scarlet Wood (4:37)
2. My Silver Seal (5;56)
3. The Port Of Lisbon (3:42)
4. Eve Of Love (5:30)
5. This Is The Night (5:18)
6. Cydonia (4:39)
7. Northern Lights (5:56)
8. Let The Candle Burn (5:27)
9. Queen Of Amber (6:02)
Shadygrove is
Lisy Stefanoni - Vocals, Flute
Fabio “Lethien” Polo - Violin
Matteo Comar - Guitar
Elena Crolle - Keyboards
Davide Papa - Bass
Simone Morettin - Drums, Ethnic Percussions
http://www.rockshots.eu
http://www.shadygrovefolk.com
http://www.facebook.com/shadygrove.italy
http://www.instagram.com/shadygrovefolk
GMA Awards 2017 'Release Of The Year' Part 5/6
The 'Releases Of The Year' series are albums chosen by myself as the best release from each country / dependency known to have an official release in the year 2017. These are alphabetized in country order so are easy to navigate. Each award has national flag featured alongside the band name, Release Of The Year' and Facebook link (where provided)
"Release Of The Year" from Pakistan
Burzukh - "Drive"
http://burzukh.webs.com/
"Release Of The Year" from Panama
Serpent Of Eden - "The False Existence"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SERPENT-OF-EDEN/159006544175602
"Release Of The Year" from Paraguay
Atomic Curse - "Speed Merchants Live Curse"
https://www.facebook.com/Atomic-Curse-707749719366525/
"Release Of The Year" from Peru
Witchery - "State of Decay"
https://www.facebook.com/WitcheryBand
"Release Of The Year" from The Philippines
Pathogen - "Ashes of Eternity"
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pathogen-PH/177645992334222
"Release Of The Year" from Poland
Across The Shade - "Winter Is Coming"
https://www.facebook.com/AcrossTheShadepl/
"Release Of The Year" from Portugal
Wrath Sins - "The Awakening"
https://www.facebook.com/Wrathsins/
"Release Of The Year" from Puerto Rico
Falgar - "Las hijas del crepúsculo"
https://www.facebook.com/falgarmusic
"Release Of The Year" from Romania
Diamonds Are Forever - "Melanism"
https://www.facebook.com/diamondsareforeverband/
"Release Of The Year" from Russia
Переплут - "В стародавние года..."
https://www.facebook.com/pereplutband/timeline
"Release Of The Year" from Saudi Arabia
Al-Namrood - "Enkar"
https://www.facebook.com/alnamroodofficial
"Release Of The Year" from Scotland
Cnoc An Tursa - "The Forty Five"
https://www.facebook.com/Cnoc-An-Tursa
"Release Of The Year" from Serbia
Jenner - "To Live Is to Suffer"
https://www.facebook.com/jennerserbia/
"Release Of The Year" from Singapore
Assault - "The Fallen Reich"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Assault/137049346343986
"Release Of The Year" from Slovakia
Modern Age Dying - "The Age of Regression"
https://www.facebook.com/modernagedying/
"Release Of The Year" from Slovenia
Dethrone The Corrupted - "Sephirot"
https://www.facebook.com/DethroneTheCorrupted
"Release Of The Year" from South Africa
Displeased Disfigurement -
"Origin of Abhorrence"
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Displeased-Disfigurement/228173567199258
"Release Of The Year" from Spain
Yggdrassil - "All Shall Burn"
https://www.facebook.com/YggdrassilDeathViking/
"Release Of The Year" from Sri Lanka
A Village in Despair - "A Village in Despair"
https://www.facebook.com/avillageindespair/
"Release Of The Year" from Svalbard
Rive - "Trist"
https://www.facebook.com/riveblackmetal
"Release Of The Year" from Guyana
Feed The Flames - "Kyk-over-Al"
https://www.facebook.com/FeedTheFlames.F.T.F/
"Release Of The Year" from Honduras
Vendetta - "Un Nuevo Orden"
https://www.facebook.com/vendettahn
"Release Of The Year" from Hong Kong
Shepherds The Weak - "Biformity"
https://www.facebook.com/shepherdstheweak
"Release Of The Year" from Hungary
Nadir - "The Sixth Extinction"
http://www.facebook.com/Nadirhungary
"Release Of The Year" from Iceland
Auðn - "Farvegir Fyrndar"
https://www.facebook.com/audnofficial
"Release Of The Year" from India
Demonic Resurrection - "Dashavatar"
http://www.facebook.com/DemonicResurrection
"Release Of The Year" from Indonesia
Death Horizontal - "Death In A Dream"
https://www.facebook.com/DeathHorizontal/
"Release Of The Year" from Iran
Tarantist - "Not A Crime"
http://www.facebook.com/TarantisT
"Release Of The Year" from Iraq
Cyaxares - "House of the Cosmic Waters"
https://www.facebook.com/CyaxaresOfficial?fref=ts
"Release Of The Year" from Ireland
Na Cruithne - "Gairm an Fhiantais"
https://www.facebook.com/nacruithne/
"Release Of The Year" from Israel
Soul Enema - "Of Clans & Clones & Clowns"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SOUL-ENEMA/115452471818030
"Release Of The Year" from Italy
Aevum - "Dischronia"
https://www.facebook.com/AevumOpera/
"Release Of The Year" from Japan
Crossfaith - "Freedom"
https://www.facebook.com/crossfaithofficial
"Release Of The Year" from Jordan
Eternal Insomnia - "The Endless River"
https://www.facebook.com/Eternal.Insomnia/
"Release Of The Year" from Kazakhstan
Inside The Flames - "Your Life Worth Nothing"
http://insidetheflames.bandcamp.com/
"Release Of The Year" from Kenya
In Oath - "The Bread of Disposition"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IN-OATH/335937972959
"Release Of The Year" from South Korea
Formal Apathy - "The Upper Hand"
https://www.facebook.com/formalapathy
"Release Of The Year" from Kyrgyzstan
Shahid - "Откровение"
http://vk.com/shahid_hc
"Release Of The Year" from Laos
Rotkin - "Promo 2017"
https://www.facebook.com/Rotkin-442294702617692/?ref=page_internal
"Release Of The Year" from Latvia
Frailty - "Ways of the Dead"
http://www.facebook.com/FrailtyMetalOfficial
Delain unveils new details about upcoming live release; announces tour dates
Over the last year Delain have been celebrating their ten year anniversary – from the release of their fifth full-length Moonbathers and an anniversary edition of their debut album Lucidity to extensive headline tours across Europe and North America to gracing some of the world’s biggest festival stages – the band is set to cap it off with the release of their first ever live DVD / Blu-Ray package coming out on October 27, 2017 on Napalm Records!
'A Decade of Delain: Live at Paradiso' was filmed at a sold out gig at Amsterdam’s legendary Paradiso on December 10, 2016. Delain was joined on stage throughout the evening by Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Liv Kristine, Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory), and many other special guests and collaborators.
Coming as a 2-CD / DVD / Blu-Ray as well as LP Gatefold editions, 'A Decade of Delain – Live At Paradiso' is now available for pre-order HERE!
The set list for the evening showcased songs spanning Delain's entire decade-long existence, including everything from the sing-along singles to cuts from the band’s vault that are rarely played live. On top of the full live concert, the package includes an exclusive documentary about the band entitled We Are The Others – A Decade of Delain, a bonus live performance of “We Are the Others” from Masters of Rock 2015, and the “Suckerpunch” music video.
Says the band: After months of planning, performing and putting together our first ever live DVD / CD / Blu-Ray "A Decade of Delain - Live at Paradiso", we are very excited to be so close it's release now! What to expect? Have a look at this trailer for a sneak peek! We hope you enjoy it, and we hope it makes you extra eager to experience the complete 115 minute show and all cool extras, including the documentary "We Are The Others - A Decade of Delain" very soon!
Check out Delain's teaser for their upcoming live release right HERE!
The tracklist of 'A Decade of Delain – Live At Paradiso' reads as follows:
CD/DVD/Blu-Ray:
1. Intro (The Monarch)
2. Hands of Gold (featuring Alissa White-Gluz)
3. Suckerpunch
4. The Glory and the Scum
5. Get the Devil Out of Me
6. Army of Dolls
7. The Hurricane
8. April Rain
9. Where Is The Blood (featuring Burton C. Bell)
10. Here Come the Vultures
11. Fire With Fire
12. The Tragedy of the Commons (featuring Alissa White-Gluz)
13. Danse Macabre
14. Sleepwalkers Dream (featuring Rob van der Loo, Sander Zoer, and Guus Eikens)
15. Your Body is a Battleground (featuring Marco Hietala – video)
16. Stay Forever
17. See Me In Shadow (featuring Liv Kristine and Elianne Anemaat)
18. The Gathering
19. Pristine (featuring George Oosthoek)
20. Mother Machine
21. Sing to Me (featuring Marco Hietala – video)
22. Don’t Let Go
23. We Are the Others
DVD/Blu-Ray Bonus Content:
1. We Are the Others – A Decade of Delain documentary
2. “We Are the Others” – live at Masters of Rock 2015
3. “Suckerpunch” official music video
In support of Delain's upcoming live release, the band will hit the road for the Danse Macabre Tour this Fall, featuring special guest and frequent collaborator Marco Hietala from Nightwish on all dates, along with a very special set list of rarely-played Delain songs! Support will be coming from Serenity and Cellar Darling.
Catch this very special and exciting live package on the following dates:
Oct. 26 – Paris, France – Alhambra
Oct. 27 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z7
Oct. 28 – Bochum, Germany – Zeche (SOLD OUT)
Oct. 29 – Munich, Germany – Backstage
Oct. 31 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli (SOLD OUT)
Nov. 1 – London, UK – Koko (SOLD OUT)
Delain will follow the Danse Macabre Tour with a string of dates in South America in late 2017 and a full North American tour with Kamelot and Battlebeast in Spring 2018:
Nov. 18 – Sao Paolo, Brazil – Manifesto
Nov. 19 – Granfinos, Brazil – Granfinos
Nov. 21 – Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Theatro Odissea
Nov. 23 – Santiago, Chile – Club Subterraneo
Nov. 24 – Rosario, Argentina – Teatro Vorterix Rosario (w/ Amaranthe)
Nov. 25 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio Luna Park (w/ Tarja and Amaranthe)
Apr. 16 – Louisville, KY – Mercury Ballroom
Apr. 17 – Charlotte, NC – Filmore Underground
Apr. 18 – Silver Springs, MD – The Filmore
Apr. 20 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza
Apr. 22 – Montreal, QC – Metropolis
Apr. 23 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
Apr. 25 – Albany, NY – Upstate Concert Hall
Apr. 26 – Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Music Hall
Apr. 27 – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall
Apr. 28 – Minneapolis, MN – The Cabooze
Apr. 29 – Des Moines, IA – Wooly's
May 01 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
May 02 – Salt Lake City, UT – Complex
May 04 – San Jose, CA – City National Civic
May 05 – Anaheim, CA – Grove Anaheim
May 06 – Phoenix, AZ – Marquee Theater
May 08 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
May 09 - Houston, TX @ House of Blues
May 11 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
May 12 - Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
May 13 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
www.delain.nl
www.facebook.com/delainmusic
www.instagram.com/delainofficial
www.twitter.com/delainmusic
Switzerland's Eluveitie releases digital single and music Video "Lvgvs"
Eight years after melodic death / folk metal masters Eluveitie released their acoustic album 'Evocation I', the Swiss musicians have stored their electronic instruments again in the rehearsal room. 'Evocation II - Pantheon' will be released August 18th via Nuclear Blast Records.
Today, the band has released a video clip and second digital single "Lvgvs". The clip can be seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jMKykGYsmFY
Chrigel Glanzmann states:
"We're excited to present to you the second single and video clip of our upcoming acoustic album: Lvgvs! Lvgvs is one of the most enigmatic, fascinating and mystical deities in the Celtic pantheon and occupies an important place in 'Evocation II'! And so is our brand new single: 'Lvgvs' it comes with playful lightness, but is still very deep at the same time, full of mysticism, eclectic details, deepness and emotion. And furthermore we're also happy to have our good, old buddy Netta Skog from Ensiferum and her Accordion on board in this song!“
Get your physical copy of the album, here: http://nblast.de/EluveitiePantheonNB
If you can't wait to listen to some new Eluveitie stuff, purchase 'Lvgvs' instantly or pre-order the digital version of the new album, here: http://nblast.de/EluveitieDigital
Shortly after the tour-dates being announced lots of requests kept coming in from Eluveitie fans if it would be possible to have "Meet & Greets" with the band members on this tour like on previous ones before. Eluveitie is happy to offer the following VIP Package for every show on the Maximum Evocation Tour!
The package for € 50,- includes:
- Meet & Greet (including a performance of two brand new acoustic songs)
- Tour shirt
- Early entry into venue (15 minutes)
- Keychains + Tour Laminate
- Picture with all VIP guests and the whole band (will be sent to you by mail)
Exclusive VIP experience: http://merch.booyamusic.net/eluveitie/tickets-and-vip.html
ELUVEITIE & AMARANTHE Tour 2017 w/ The Charm The Fury
25.10.2017 IT – Parma, Campus Industry
26.10.2017 HU – Budapest, Barba Negra
27.10.2017 PL – Warsaw, Progresja
28.10.2017 CZ – Zlin, Masters of Rock Cafe
29.10.2017 AT – Vienna, Simm City
30.10.2017 DE – Stuttgart, LKA Longhorn
31.10.2017 SI – Ljubljana, Kino Siska
02.11.2017 FR – Paris, Cabaret Sauvage
03.11.2017 UK – London, Assembly Rooms
04.11.2017 NL – Eindhoven, Effenaar
05.11.2017 BE – Antwerp, Trix
06.11.2017 DE – Frankfurt, Batschkapp
08.11.2017 DE – Berlin, Kesselhaus
09.11.2017 DE – München, Backstage
10.11.2017 DE – Leipzig, Hellraiser
11.11.2017 DE – Weissenhäusser Strand, Metal Hammer Paradise
12.11.2017 DE – Bochum, Zeche
Presented by: Metal Hammer, EMP, Orkus, Legacy, Musix, Metal.de, Nuclear Blast, RTN-Touring
Eluveitie is:
www.facebook.com/eluveitie
Eluveitie reveals album cover; starts pre-order; releases digital single 'Epona'
Eight years after melodic death/folk metal masters Eluveitie released their acoustic album Evocation I, the Swiss musicians have decided to put aside their electronic instruments once again in favour of a new acoustic offering. Evocation II - Pantheon will be released August 18th via Nuclear Blast Records.
Band mastermind Chrigel commented on the artwork and new single 'Epona':
"Evocation II is a journey back to the source of it all: Antumnos, the other world. Join us on this wayfare through the Celtic pantheon, the world of the gods of our ancestors! The album cover expresses nothing less but exactly this! It's full of symbolism and meaning and depicts things of deepest meaning and importance in Celtic mythology. The symbol contains the 'great wheel', symbolizing the wheel of the year with the four seasons and the equinoxes – forming the foundations of Celtic mythology. The great wheel is framed by a tripartite Enneagram; while three is an important number in Celtic mythology in general, we also face trinity in the Celtic pantheon!
While the inner circle contains the initials of the names of the deities revered on this album – arranged tripartitedly according to their relations within the pantheon and place in the mythology – the outer circle utters an invitation as well as a blessing, a magical benediction for the one to dare to enter and set forth on this journey. The core of the symbol implies triune symbolism. The depiction shows the god Lugus, who was sometimes also addressed in the plural – Lugoves – since he's a triune god, as well as a tricephalos. The 'one with the skillful hand' and 'artisan of all skills' is depicted and a combination of two important symbols: On the one hand he's shown as 'high king' (and druid of druids), a typical gallic symbolism of an essential meaning and significance. On the other hand he's framed by the gallic 'lord of the animals/lord of life' symbolism: The character surrounded with diverse animals, but being strongly connected with all of them at the same time. So after all, the album cover vibrantly and mystically expresses the content of Evocation II! Join & let the journey begin!"
Today sees the reveal of the new cover artwork, as well as the launch of the album pre-orders:
The first single off the new record, 'Epona', is now available to purchase digitally: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/evocation-ii-pantheon/id1245639622
Pre-order the album on Limited Edition Double Gatefold Clear Vinyl from the Nuclear Blast UK store: http://www.nuclearblaststore.co.uk/shop/nuclearblast/products.php?cat=5096
“The time feels right to go on with Evocation II! It’s time for the album”, continues Chrigel, who revived the initial concept after three successful albums in the usual Eluveitie style.Evocation II conjures up images and emotions from another time, to eras long gone. As the title already reveals, the concept of the first opus continues and is entirely dedicated to the Celtic mythology. Evocation II takes you into the Gallic pantheon and bows down to the gods after which the song titles are named.
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Skyrim: Elders, Skyrim: Males, Skyrim: Characters,
Skyrim: Blades
Skyrim: Essential Characters
Skyrim: Quest Givers
Esbern (Skyrim)
PC×0.75 (10–30)
Ref ID
00019DFD
For other uses, see Esbern.
"Don't you understand the danger? Don't you understand what the return of the dragons means? Alduin has returned! The World-Eater! Even now, he devours the souls of your fallen comrades! He grows more powerful with every soldier slain in your pointless war! Can you not put aside your hatred for even one moment in the face of this mortal danger?"
―Esbern[src]
Esbern is an Elder Nord and one of the last remaining Blades, the powerful order of knights and warriors who served as bodyguards to the Septim Emperors, who were also known throughout Tamriel as the eyes and ears of the Emperors and Empresses.
Early life Edit
As one of the two last Blades, Esbern has been monitoring the ancient prophecies of Tamriel and had predicted the return of the dragons under Alduin, the Nordic God of Destruction whose return would lead to the destruction of Nirn. He also has the title of Blades Archivist and knows a great deal about the nature of the Dragon Crisis in Skyrim. He is closely associated with Delphine, another Blade operative. He is being persecuted and, therefore, is very cautious.
Present Edit
Esbern is the guide, advisor, and mentor of the Dragonborn, the chosen one ordained to fight Alduin and his servants after the release of Alduin and the dragons back into Tamriel nearly two hundred years after the Oblivion Crisis.
The option to recruit followers into the Blades is available through dialogue from Delphine after completion of "Alduin's Wall." After recruiting three followers, Esbern will offer an option to hunt dragons. After completing the first Dragon hunt, Esbern will exchange Esbern's Potion for one Dragon Bone and Dragon Scales. He will also provide the Dragonslayer's Blessing.
If Esbern's door in The Ratway Warrens is knocked on before the first quest involving him, he will say, "Go away! I'm very dangerous!"
A Cornered Rat Edit
By reading the Thalmor Dossier, Delphine discovers the location of Esbern. She sends the Dragonborn to Riften, to uncover his location. The Dragonborn eventually discovers his whereabouts, explains to him that they are Dragonborn, and takes him to Delphine.
Alduin's Wall Edit
Delphine, Esbern, and the Dragonborn travel to the Sky Haven Temple, in which they find an Akaviri carving depicting the Prophecy of the Dragonborn and how to defeat Alduin.
Dragon Hunting Edit
After recruiting three new Blades members, Esbern will send the Dragonborn to kill a certain dragon, and the Dragonborn must take at least one of the Blades recruits with him. Once the dragon is dead, the Dragonborn can trade a Dragon Bone and a Dragon Scale for Esbern's Potion.
Paarthurnax Edit
Esbern tells the Dragonborn that Paarthurnax must die for his past deeds in the Dragon War and his relationship with Alduin. Neither Esbern or Delphine will offer any further quests until this quest is done.
Multiple followers Edit
Main article: Multiple Followers
Esbern is one of the quest characters that can be exploited to be a follower throughout Skyrim along with another follower of choice. Esbern can wear "planted" apparel equipment during the quest "A Cornered Rat," but will unequip it if taken to Delphine at Riverwood and completing the quest. If Esbern is exploited as a follower during the quest, "Alduin's Wall," and the Dragonborn becomes a Werewolf, he will attack the Dragonborn on sight.
Show: A Cornered Rat
In The Ratway Warrens:
"Go away!"
Esbern? Open the door. I'm a friend. "What?! No, that's not me. I'm not Esbern. I don't know what you're talking about."
It's okay. Delphine sent me. "Delphine? How do you... so you've finally found her, and she led you to me. And here I am, caught like a rat in a trap."
The Thalmor have found you. You need to get out of here. "Oh, how reassuring! Most likely you're with the Thalmor and this is just a trick to get me to open the door!"
Delphine needs your help to stop the dragons. (Persuade) "So Delphine keeps up the fight, after all these years. You'd better come in and tell me how you found me and what you want."
I'm the one the Blades have been searching for. I'm Dragonborn. "What's that you said? Dragonborn? Then... there really is hope after all? You'd better come inside. Quickly now, Thalmor agents have been seen in the Ratway."
There are Thalmor agents in the Ratway. Looking for you. "And no doubt you're one of them. Leave me alone!"
Delphine said to "remember the 30th of Frostfall." "Ah. Indeed, indeed. I do remember. Delphine really is alive, then? You'd better come in then and tell me how you found me and what you want."
While opening the door:
"This'll just take a moment..."
"This one always sticks... there we go."
"Only a couple more."
"There we are!"
"Come in, come in! Make yourself at home."
"That's better. Now we can talk."
After entering Esbern's home:
"So Delphine keeps up the fight, after all these years. I thought she'd have realised it's hopeless by now. I tried to tell her, years ago..."
The Thalmor have found you. We have to get out of here. "Yes, yes, so you said. But so what? The end is upon us. I may as well die here as anywhere else. I'm tired of running."
What do you mean, "the end is upon us"? "Haven't you figured it out yet? What more needs to happen before you all wake up and see what's going on? Alduin has returned, just like the prophecy said! The Dragon from the dawn of time, who devours the souls of the dead! No one can escape his hunger, here or in the afterlife! Alduin will devour all things and the world will end. Nothing can stop him. I tried to tell them. They wouldn't listen. Fools. It's all come true... all I could do was watch our doom approach..."
Alduin... the dragon who's raising the others? "Yes, yes! You see, you know but you refuse to understand! Oh, yes. It's all been foretold. The end has begun. Alduin has returned. Only a Dragonborn can stop him. But no Dragonborn has been known for centuries. It seems the gods have grown tired of us. They've left us to our fate, as the plaything of Alduin the World-Eater."
It's not hopeless, Esbern. I'm Dragonborn. "What? You're... can it really be true? Dragonborn? Then... then there is hope! The gods have not abandoned us! We must... we must... We must go, quickly now. Take me to Delphine. We have much to discuss."
You're talking about the literal end of the world? "Oh, yes. It's all been foretold. The end has begun. Alduin has returned. Only a Dragonborn can stop him. But no Dragonborn has been known for centuries. It seems the gods have grown tired of us. They've left us to our fate, as the plaything of Alduin the World-Eater."
What do you mean, "it's hopeless"? "Haven't you figured it out yet? What more needs to happen before you all wake up and see what's going on? Alduin has returned, just like the prophecy said! The Dragon from the dawn of time, who devours the souls of the dead! No one can escape his hunger, here or in the afterlife! Alduin will devour all things and the world will end. Nothing can stop him. I tried to tell them. They wouldn't listen. Fools. It's all come true... all I could do was watch our doom approach..."
While packing his items:
"But, give me... just a moment... I must gather a few things..."
"I'll need this... No, no, useless trash... where'd I put my annotated Anuad?"
"One moment, I know time is of the essence, but mustn't leave secrets for the Thalmor... there's one more thing I must bring..."
"Well, I guess that's good enough... let's be off..."
If approached again:
"You'll have to speak up. I'm a little deaf in my right ear."
Wait here. "All right. Don't be long."
Follow me. "Good. We should keep moving."
Do you know the way out of here? "Yes, yes. We should proceed cautiously."
What's so important about me being Dragonborn? "Not yet, not yet. When we get to Riverwood... with Delphine... I'll tell you both then, when I've collected my thoughts. I never expected... well, suddenly here you are and now I'm too muddled to explain myself. I still need some time to get used to the idea that there might be hope after all."
Who are you? How do you know Delphine? "Hasn't she told you? We were both Blades, back when that still meant something. Now we're just fugitives from the Thalmor. I didn't know she was alive, but I'm not surprised. She was a survivor."
Why are the Thalmor so interested in finding you? "Well. They've been hunting down Blades since the Great War, on general principle. But if you mean me, now, in particular... maybe they've started to get an inkling of what the return of the dragons means. I don't suppose they want the world to end any more than we do. Or at least, they'd prefer it to end on their terms."
What happened on the 30th of Frostfall? "It was a cold day. The end of Frostfall is nearly winter in the Jerall Mountains. We heard the news at Cloud Ruler by courier, riding hard from the Imperial City. 30th of Frostfall, 171. Thirty years ago. The Great War started that day. The Thalmor ambassador his ultimatum to the Emperor Titus Mede: the heads of every Blades agent within the Aldmeri Dominion. I knew, that day, that it was truly the beginning of the end."
"We should keep moving."
Show: Alduin's Wall
In the Sleeping Giant Inn:
"I've told you where Sky Haven Temple is. I'll trust you to get us there in one piece."
I'll meet you at Karthspire. "Very good. I'll trust you to get there in one piece. Don't be long."
Tell me about Alduin's Wall. "Alduin's Wall was created by the ancient Akaviri Dragonguard, the forerunners of the Blades. One of the lost secrets of the Blades. Where they recorded all they knew of Alduin and his return. Part history, part prophecy. Its location was lost for centuries, but I know where it is: Sky Haven Temple, an ancient Blades sanctuary, hidden within the crags of the Reach."
How do we get to Sky Haven Temple? "Ah, yes. The entrance seems to be near to what's now known as the Karthspire. We'll have to see what we find when we arrive."
What's so important about me being Dragonborn? "It's the prophecy, don't you see? Only a Dragonborn can stop Alduin and avert the end of the world! But... I don't yet know how you can stop him. The prophecy doesn't say. But Alduin's Wall does. I hope."
"Very good."
At the Karthspire:
"Are you sure this is the right way?"
How do we find the entrance to Sky Haven Temple? "We should be careful. There's no telling what traps and wards the ancient Blades may have set."
"We'd best be careful in here."
At the bridge in the Karthspire:
"Yes, that's it. The symbol on the middle (Or "left" if the Dragonborn symbol appears on the left pillar first.) pillar."
At the Blood Seal:
"Wonderful! Remarkably well preserved, too. Ah... here's the "blood seal." Another of the lost Akaviri arts. No doubt triggered by... well, blood. Your blood, Dragonborn. Look here! You see how the ancient Blades revered Reman Cyrodiil. This whole place appears to be a shrine to Reman. He ended the Akaviri invasion under mysterious circumstances, you recall. After the so-called "battle" of Pale Pass, the Akaviri went into his service. This was the foundation stone of the Second Empire."
After unsealing the blood seal:
"There's no telling what we might find inside!"
Inside Sky Haven Temple:
"Isn't it amazing?"
I just want to know how to defeat Alduin. "Ah. Of course. Not everyone has an appreciation for the artistic wonders of the world. Let me see if I can find the right panel..."
It is. Carry on. "Ah. Thank you! Excellent. Now... where were we?"
If approached after reading Alduin's Wall:
"Did you need something?"
What's so important about me being Dragonborn? "Haven't you been paying attention to anything I've said? Only you can finally defeat Alduin and avert the end of the world! If we can just find out what Shout the ancient Nords used, you may have a chance. Or not. There's no gaurantee with prophecy. Merely hope."
Any advice for fighting Dragons? "You're in luck. There is a blessing the Blades used on the eve of battle. It's supposed to prepare the mind for slaying dragons. I doubt the blessing's effects last for very long, so ask whenever you're heading out, and I'll perform the proper rites."
I need that dragon slaying blessing. ""May the scales of the dragonkind splinter at the touch of your arrows, and crack under the weight of your sword." That's all there is to it, Dragonborn. Good luck."
"Goodbye then"
Show: Elder Knowledge
In Sky Haven Temple:
Any idea where to find the Elder Scroll? "Do you know the College of Winterhold? They have a deep interest in such arcana."
Show: The Fallen
"Did you find the Elder Scroll? What happened when you took it back to the Throat of the World?"
I defeated Alduin, but he escaped. I need to find him. "He must have returned to Sovngarde to feed on the souls of the dead. If you don't find him soon, he'll return, stronger than ever!"
I know. That's why I need to find him. "Yes, yes. We must think. He must have some means of travelling to and from Sovngarde. But no tale tells where that might be."
His dragon allies must know where this portal is... "Very true! Hmm. I wonder... do you know the Jarl's palace in Whiterun?"
You mean Dragonsreach? "Yes, exactly! Most people don't know that it was originally built to hold a captive dragon - hence its name."
What's the Jarl's palace have to do with this? "Well, you see, the palace - Dragonsreach - was originally built to hold a captive dragon. Hence its name."
I thought there weren't any dragons until Alduin came back. "Oh, this was thousands of years ago, before the Akaviri crusaders cleansed Skyrim of dragons. Skyrim's mountains were still infested with dragons. One of the early Nord Kings caught a dragon and kept it in Dragonsreach."
So if I could lure a dragon into Dragonsreach... "You could trap him there, exactly. Although... it might be difficult to persuade the Jarl to allow you to use his palace as a dragon trap... I'm sure you'll manage it, though. If you can defeat the World-Eater, surely sweet-talking the Jarl of Whiterun isn't beyond you.."
(After this point the quest "Paarthurnax" starts, and Esbern will discuss the matter with the Dragonborn.)
Where has Alduin gone? "Haven't you been listening to me? All the old tales agree that he has some means to travel to Sovngarde itself. There he devours the souls of the heroic dead to feed his power. You must find this portal to Sovngarde before he returns, stronger than ever."
Show: Rebuilding the Blades
Delphine mentioned you're studying dragon lairs. "I am. The Blades of the 2nd Era hunted down many dragons in their day, and they have records of where the beasts lived. Only you can truly defeat these monsters, Dragonborn, but you do not have to do so alone. The Blades can help you. Just ask whenever you're ready to take on a dragon. We will send the Blades to help you fulfill your destiny."
Show: Dragon Research
Find any dragons to hunt? "I have. One of the old Akaviri records names a dragon living nearby. Shall we send the Blades to help you?"
I'm not ready yet. "Let me know when you are, then."
Tell them to meet me there. "Good luck, Dragonborn."
The dragon of <dragon lair> is dead. "It's good to see the Blades fighting alongside the Dragonborn once again. To think we're treading in the footsteps of thousands of years past. While you're out hunting, keep a sharp eye open for any dragon scales and bones you might find. I'd be interested in looking at them."
Here's a dragon scale and a bone. "Have you ever heard of the expression, "the scale of the Argonian that bit you?" No, I guess not. Well, the principle applies here. It's a potion, made from those dragon parts. Give it a try."
Show: Dragon Hunting
Find any dragons to hunt? "It's quiet for now, Dragonborn. Perhaps later we'll find where one of those serpents is hiding."
"I have. One of the old Akaviri records names a dragon living nearby. Shall we send the Blades to help you?"
The dragon of <dragon lair> is dead. "Good. The dragon's soul should be making you stronger. Come back another time, and we'll track down another one for you."
Show: Paarthurnax
"I'm afraid there's a further problem. A serious one. I've discovered who the Greybeards' leader really is."
You know... what? "He's a dragon. Not just any dragon, but the right hand of Alduin, responsible for many atrocities during the ancient Dragon War."
Turns out he's a dragon. But he helped me. "All well and good. But did you know that he was Alduin's chief lieutenant in ancient times? Responsible for terrible atrocities? It's true that his crimes are long in the past, but justice does not count the passage of years."
"The Blades have been hunting him for centuries, but he was protected by the Greybeards and then the Emperors. Justice demands that he die for his crimes. Until he is dead, I'm afraid my oath as a Blade prevents me from offering you aid and comfort."
Why does he need to die? "Paarthurnax was the author of many atrocities during the Dragon War - crimes great enough to be remembered for thousands of years. True, he turned traitor to Alduin and helped overthrow the Dragon Cult, but that does not excuse or expiate his previous deeds. Whether or not he has truly repented, or merely acted to save himself, justice demands that he pay with his life."
About Paarthurnax. "Justice can be harsh. But it is still justice. Paarthurnax deserves to die."
(If Dragonslayer is completed):
Esbern: "You've done it... Just as the prophecy said... I knew you could do it... I believed in you, and yet... I still didn't think I'd live to see this day. Thank you. Thank you, Dragonborn. You've done a great service for us all."
Delphine: "There's still the matter of Paarthurnax. I'm not ungrateful for what you've done. Esbern speaks for both of us. But our oath as Blades binds us. Paarthurnax must die. There's no excuse now that Alduin is dead."
Esbern: "I'm afraid she's right. I'm deeply sorry this has to come between us. But just as Paarthurnax's later deeds does not expiate his crimes, your deeds do not allow us to ignore our duty. I hope you will return to us soon with the news that justice has finally been done. With both Alduin and Paarthurnax dead, a dark chapter in history will finally be closed."
If the quest is not complete:
"I wish there were another way, Dragonborn, but it falls to you to serve justice upon Paarthurnax."
If the quest is completed:
It's done. Paarthurnax is dead. "At long last. An ancient evil is avenged. The shades of many Blades salute you this day."
Conversations Edit
Esbern's return
Esbern: "Delphine! I... it's good to see you. It's been... a long time."
Delphine: "It's good to see you, too, Esbern. It's been too long, old friend. Too long. Well, then. You made it, safe and sound. Good. Come on, I have a place we can talk."
Delphine: "Orgnar, hold down the bar for a minute, will you?"
Orgnar: "Yeah, sure."
Annals of the Dragonguard
Delphine: "Now then. I assume you know about..."
Esbern: "Oh yes! Dragonborn! Indeed, yes. This changes everything, of course. There's no time to lose. We must locate... let me show you. I know I had it here, somewhere..."
Delphine: "Esbern, what..."
Esbern: "Give me... just a moment... Ah! Here it is. Come, let me show you. You see, right here. Sky Haven Temple, constructed around one of the main Akaviri military camps in the Reach, during their conquest of Skyrim."
Delphine: "Do you (To the Dragonborn) know what he's talking about?"
Esbern: "Shh! This is where they built Alduin's Wall, to set down in stone all their accumulated dragonlore. A hedge against the forgetfulness of centuries. A wise and foresighted policy, in the event. Despite the far-reaching fame of Alduin's Wall at the time - one of the wonders of the ancient world - its location was lost."
Delphine: "Esbern. What are you getting at?"
Esbern: "You mean... you don't mean to say you haven't heard of Alduin's Wall? Either of you?"
Delphine: "Let's pretend we haven't. What's Alduin's Wall and what does it have to do with stopping the dragons?"
Esbern: "Alduin's Wall was where the ancient Blades recorded all they knew of Alduin and his return. Part history, part prophecy. Its location has been lost for centuries, but I've found it again. Not lost, you see, just forgotten. The Blades archives held so many secrets... I was only able to save a few scraps..."
Delphine: "So you think that Alduin's Wall will tell us how to defeat Alduin?"
Esbern: "Well, yes, but... there's no guarantee, of course."
Delphine: "Sky Haven Temple it is, then. I knew you'd have something for us, Esbern."
The Karthspire
Delphine: "This looks promising."
Esbern: "Yes. Definitely early Akaviri stonework here."
Delphine: "We've got to get this bridge down. These pillars must have something to do with it."
Esbern: "Yes. These are Akaviri symbols. Let's see... you have the symbol for "King"... and "Warrior"... And of course the symbol for "Dragonborn." That's the one that appears to have a sort of arrow shape pointing downward at the bottom."
Esbern: "Wait."
Delphine: "Why are you stopping?"
Esbern: "We should be careful here. See these symbols on the floor?"
Delphine: (To the Dragonborn)"Hmm, Esbern's right. Looks like pressure plates."
Esbern: "Be careful."
(After securing the area)
Delphine: "Looks safe now. Let's move."
Esbern: "Yes, yes! I think we must be close to the entrance."
Esbern: "Fascinating! Original Akaviri bas reliefs... almost entirely intact! Amazing... you can see how the Akaviri craftsmen were beginning to embrace the more flowing Nordic style..."
Delphine: "We're here for Alduin's Wall, right, Esbern?"
Esbern: "Yes, of course. We'll have more time to look around later, I suppose. Let's see what's up ahead."
Alduin's Wall
Esbern: "Shor's bones! Here it is! Alduin's Wall... so well preserved... I've never seen a finer example of early second era Akaviri sculptural relief..."
Delphine: "Esbern. We need information, not a lecture on art history."
Esbern: "Yes, yes. Let's see what we have... Look, here is Alduin! This panel goes back to the beginning of time, when Alduin and the Dragon Cult ruled over Skyrim. Here the humans rebel against their dragon overlords -- the legendary Dragon War. Alduin's defeat is the centerpiece of the Wall. You see, here he is falling from the Sky. The Nord Tongues -- masters of the Voice -- are arrayed against him."
Delphine: "So, does it show how they defeated him? Isn't that why we're here?"
Esbern: "Patience, my dear. The Akaviri were not a straightforward people. Everything is couched in allegory and mythic symbolism. Yes, yes. This here, coming from the mouths of the Nord heroes -- this is the Akaviri symbol for "Shout." But... there's no way to know what Shout is meant."
Delphine: "You mean they used a shout to defeat Alduin? You're sure?"
Esbern: "Hmm? Oh, yes. Presumably something rather specific to dragons, or even Alduin himself. Remember, this is where they recorded all they knew of Alduin and his return."
Delphine: "So we're looking for a Shout, then. Damn it."
Esbern: "Look, here. In the third panel. The prophecy which brought the Akaviri to Tamriel in the first place, in search of the Dragonborn. Here are the Akaviri - the Blades - you see their distinctive longswords. Now they kneel, their ancient mission fulfilled, as the Last Dragonborn contends with Alduin at the end of time. Are you paying attention, Delphine? You might learn something of our own history. I know the prophecy by heart. Once all Blades knew it.
'When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world'
'When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped'
'When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles'
'When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls'
'When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding'
'The World-Eater wakes, and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn.'
Delphine: "Well, I'm going to look around some more. See what the Blades left for us."
Esbern: "Yes... yes, that's an excellent idea. Who knows what lost treasures we might discover?"
Quotes Edit
"I'm very dangerous, don't make me come out there!" —Before starting "A Cornered Rat," in The Ratway Warrens
"I told you to go away. I'm not opening this door for anybody!"
"Seems I still remember my old training."
"Thalmor dog! Death is too good for you!"
"Patience. Give me a moment and I'll explain everything"
"I used to dream of it. In the dream, I was standing… someplace high up… a tower, or a mountain. It was always just before dawn. The whole world was in darkness. Then came the flash of light – just on the horizon, within the clouds that mark the border between worlds. It could have been lightning, but there was no thunder. In the dream, the sense of foreboding grew, but I could never wake up. Then it came again, this time more distinct. Closer. Definitely not lightning now. It was orange – brilliant orange, the color of hearth and dawn. And a sound, too. Distinct and indistinct. Not thunder… something else. Something I should recognize, but in the dream I cannot place it. I want to leave my high place, to seek shelter. From what, I don’t yet know. In the manner of dreams, I cannot escape. I’m forced to wait and watch. Then, finally, realization and horror arrive together. The orange is flame, heat. The sound a roar, a challenge in their ancient tongue. But now it’s too late for escape. The dragon is upon me – fire and darkness descending like a thunderbolt. And not just any dragon, but the Dragon – Alduin, the World-Eater, the dragon who devours both the living and the dead. And then I would wake up. And hope that it was just a dream… but know that it was not."
If the Dragonborn manages to actually kill Esbern, his coffin will appear in the Solitude Catacombs, potentially hinting that he may have been a former citizen of Solitude.
During the quest "Alduin's Wall", if the Dragonborn agrees to have Esbern and Delphine go with them to Sky Haven Temple, and heads to Rorikstead to see Alduin resurrect Nahagliiv and then slay him, Esbern will offer his own thoughts on it and mention how Alduin should be afraid now with the Dragonborn able to take out the dragons as soon as they have been resurrected. This can also happen once the dragon attacking the Forsworn at Karthspire Camp is slain as well.
This section contains bugs related to Esbern (Skyrim). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:
Note: Many Esbern-related bugs can be fixed by quick saving then quick loading.
During the quest "A Cornered Rat," Esbern may appear to be in Sky Haven Temple when the Dragonborn looks at their map to fast travel. If the Dragonborn goes to Sky Haven Temple to investigate this, Esbern may look as though he is behind the hidden door in the chamber.
This can be fixed by reloading a save from before getting the quest "A Cornered Rat."
For many, Esbern will be severely glitched. His sound files may not play, which leads to him standing in silence. As a consequence, it is impossible to proceed in the quest "A Cornered Rat."
PC Two ways to try to fix this include (both do not need to be done):
Unpack the Skyrim - Voice Extra.bsa files into the data folder, or download it already unpacked here. Unzip the contents and place them in the data folder.
Navigate toC:\Users\Name\Documents\My Games\Skyrim and open the file SkyrimEditor.ini with notepad. At the very end of the file, add the following text and save the file.
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa
PC Even when he is talking properly, his door will sometimes not open.
This can be fixed by opening the console and typing setstage MQ202 160 and hit enter or renter the room once more to open the door as well. This will open his door and allow action to proceed.
The door can also be disabled with the console by clicking it, then typing the command disable. It may be necessary to attack Esbern before being able to speak with him.
Sometimes Esbern may disappear.
PC He can be found by typing the console command player.moveto 00019DFD, which will teleport the Dragonborn to him. If he continues to walk again in a different direction, waiting for an hour and typing the command again should meet him in Riverwood. Talking to Delphine allows the quest to be continued.
PS3 If accessing his underground home in the Ratway Warrens, the hole through his door allows one attack that will successfully land, which is the Unrelenting Force shout. Upon doing this, a 40 bounty will be acquired, but if the hole closes, the message "Last Witness Killed. 40 bounty removed" is displayed.
PC Esbern may not speak after he opens the door, or the conversation just does not start.
This can be resolved by stepping into Esbern's room and standing so that the door is on the other side of him, then speaking to him again.
When dragon hunting after recruiting three followers into the Blades, he may only say, "do you need something?" No other conversation options will be available.
PC Esbern will sometimes randomly go missing.
Esbern may attack for no reason.
After combat, when all enemies are killed, sometimes a conjured Atronach will start attacking Esbern. Less frequently, Esbern and a regular follower may also start fighting each other.
He may stay still in the battle pose.
This can be fixed by talking to Esbern and choosing the "wait here" option. Upon entering the next "cell," he will follow again.
PC 360 PS3 The miscellaneous quest where parts of a dragon can be exchanged for him to make a potion may not work. While the game guide says that the "dragon infusion" perk will be received, it is not received and the quest to bring him the parts is left in the journal without being able to give him any parts to make another potion.
On PC the perk can be obtained manually through the console command player.addperk 000E6DF0. The quest will still appear in the journal.
Esbern may randomly appear in some towns after the main quest is finished, such as Karthwasten.
At some point after completing "Alduin's Wall," fast traveling may cause Esbern to appear. He appears in the doorway at the arrival point, asks "Yes, what is it?" or says, "You'll have to speak up, I'm a little deaf in my right ear." then walks away.
PC This can be resolved by killing him, then respawning him using console commands. A command that allows the killing of essential characters will be required.
Alternatively, completing a dungeon or a mission without fast traveling for long enough for him to return to Sky Haven Temple will cause him to stay there.
Sometimes the quest to bring a dragon bone and a dragon scale to Esbern may stay in journal after complete.
This bug can be fixed with the console command: SetObjectiveCompleted FreeFormSkyHavenTempleD 10 1
PC 360 After bringing three recruits to Delphine and then talking to Esbern about the dragon lairs as she requested, he sometimes just stands there and only has generic dialogue (e.g. "What is it?," "Do you need something?").
Even in Sky Haven Temple, attacking him may add a bounty in the Rift.
Esbern will sometimes just stand there as if he has been commanded to stay.
This can be fixed by asking him to wait and then immediately asking him to follow.
360 Esbern has also been seen to be walking around Solstheim in Dragonborn.
360 Sometimes if a quest is completed for him he does not notice. Upon returning to him, he acts like he did not give a quest.
Occasionally, if a dragon is killed at a dragon lair, the miscellaneous quest "Return to Esbern" may appear, even if he has not been spoken to about any dragon lair locations, or if the Paarthurnax quest has not been completed. Speaking to him will only yield his generic dialogue ("Yes?," "What is it?," "Do you need something").
Start a Discussion Discussions about Esbern (Skyrim)
The Esbern Bug...
The command worked, but Esbern is still silence, and he is doing crazy things, like going in a circle or putting the same book on a table for... 2019-10-01T20:39:07Z
I found this 3 minutes video that helped me out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp6oG6bYhkQ Hope it helps. 2020-01-15T13:58:31Z
Alduin's wall bug
Anthony Fiume
This worked for me. Leave the temple and go back to river wood. Go to the hideout at the inn and enchant a few items. Then fast travel back to ... 2019-09-10T23:37:24Z
Did the option in game to wait for a few hours ..worked for me. 2019-12-31T20:01:45Z
Retrieved from "https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Esbern_(Skyrim)?oldid=2959083"
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UN official resigns after pressure to withdraw Israel apartheid report
Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 17 March 2017
Rima Khalaf (via Facebook)
A senior United Nations official has resigned, following pressure from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw the landmark report published earlier this week finding Israel guilty of apartheid.
Rima Khalaf, the head of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) which published the report, announced her resignation at a press conference in Beirut on Friday.
Reuters reports that Khalaf took the step “after what she described as pressure from the secretary-general to withdraw a report accusing Israel of imposing an ‘apartheid regime’ on Palestinians.”
“I resigned because it is my duty not to conceal a clear crime, and I stand by all the conclusions of the report,” Khalaf stated.
As of Friday, a press release announcing the report remained visible on the ESCWA website, but the link to the report itself from the press release no longer works.
A full copy of the report is available below.
It concludes that “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.”
It finds “beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crimes of apartheid” as defined in international law.
It urges national governments to “support boycott, divestment and sanctions activities and respond positively to calls for such initiatives.”
Palestinians warmly welcomed the report, but Israel angrily denounced it as akin to Nazi propaganda. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, demanded that the report be withdrawn.
That demand came just as the Trump administration announced a budget plan that includes sweeping cuts in US contributions to the UN.
Khalaf’s resignation indicates that Guterres acted obediently and swiftly to carry out the orders from the United States. In a tweet, the Anti-Defamation League, a powerful Israel lobby group in the United States, thanked Guterres for urging ESCWA to withdraw the report.
The Israeli government has long targeted Khalaf for retaliation for doing her job. In 2014, its UN ambassador demanded she be removed from her post for criticizing Israel’s policies of occupation and Jewish colonization of Palestinian territory at the expense of Muslim and Christian communities.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the civil society coalition that leads the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, condemned Guterres’ intervention.
“The fact that a UN secretary-general has bowed to threats and intimidation from the Trump administration to protect Israel from accountability, yet again, is hardly news,” the BNC said. “The real news is that this time round, Israel, with all its influence in Washington, cannot put the genie back into the bottle.”
“Palestinians are deeply grateful to ESCWA’s director, Dr. Rima Khalaf, who preferred to resign in dignity than to surrender her principles to US-Israeli bullying,” the BNC added.
Khalaf’s resignation, under pressure to suppress factual and legal findings unfavorable to Israel, will send a chilling message to other UN officials that they are better off serving those in power than in upholding any mandate to advance human rights and respect for international law.
https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/2017-03/un_apartheid_report_15_march_english_final__0.pdf
ESCWA
israeli apartheid
Rima Khalaf
Ali Abunimah's blog
I salute the bravery of the
Permalink Ahmed Jeewajee replied on Fri, 03/17/2017 - 23:16
I salute the bravery of the Dr Rima Khalaf. I wish there would be many more who could deliver a serious blow to the terrorist State of Israel
Re:I salute the bravery of Rima Khalaf
Permalink Tanya Kasim replied on Mon, 03/20/2017 - 04:23
Rima Khalaf, I salute you for your bravery and your compassion. Don't give up.
Permalink Razi Ashraf replied on Fri, 03/17/2017 - 23:57
Rima khalaf spoke the truth with stark evidence. Israel being pampered by the US is well known. Also the control and influence of the Israeli lobby on US government foreign policy is no secret. Anyone who criticizes Israel's unfair treatment of the Palestinians or questions Israel's legitimacy is punished. A couple of years ago Helen Thomas three times secretary to the white House under three US presidents was forced to resign despite 50 years of loyal service just because she questioned the legitimacy of Israel's occupation if Palestine. Answering press reporters who wanted her opinion on the Israeli Palestine issue she spontaneously replied : "The Israelis should go back to their respective lands of origin . When asked where they should go back to Helena said: ""go back to Poland,Russia,Germany,France, Ukraine and so on". This was taken back as an offence immediately as expected and in three weeks she was forced to resign from her post she had gallantly held for 50 years. Such is the influence of Israel. So Rima Khalaf's case is not surprising. As Helen Thomas ,God bless her soul, sadly remarked before her death :" Nobody can ever criticise Israel and hope to get away with it".
Ms. Rima Khalaf's resignation
Permalink Abayomi Manrique replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 03:21
Thanks for sharing this information. I saw the news report about the apartheid system in the israeli occupied Palestinian lands but I did not read the report itself. I will now. I believe we should let the u n know how we feel about this as well. Thanks again.
UN official resigns after pressure to withdraw Israel apartheid
Permalink Khalid replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 03:25
In my opinion, it is not wise that people who support the Palestinians resigns from such important position. We shall keep standing for our word and beliefs.
Maybe you're right?
Permalink John Costello replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 06:14
I tend to agree with you Khalid and am tempted to view Ms. Khalaf's resignation as more a "principled" overture, than a principled "stand", which would, by definition, have entailed remaining in her position to fight for what is right for the UN.
However, I am ignorant of what her obstacles would have been; what strategy UN leadership may be forming to counter this attack on its mission and credibility (if any) and of whether she would have found herself a pariah or some committed allies.
In principle though, I do agree with you. The poor can't afford costly gestures.
UN is an independent body?
Permalink Uzma Mazhar replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 08:39
If the US and Israel are going to bully UN to withdraw it's report just because they don't want to face reality, then what is the point of having UN? Bullying bigots.
Israeli Apartheid Report
Permalink Frank McMahon replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 10:09
Utterly appalled at UN refusal to publish this. The UN is surely a failed project, as useless and ineffective as the League of Nations
Hold on now!
Perhaps a SG caves in to political pressure and the UNSC is surely an ethical Achilles Heel but it's not the UN that's failed the nations of the world, it's they who have failed it. A technical point I suppose but I'm not going to witness the ignorance of petty nationalism wreck a noble institution, then remain silent while the resulting bitter resentment is misdirected at it, killing its idea as well.
The world's citizens must decide whether remaining alienated from their common interests, by the machinations of narrow nationalist ones, can sustain or not. And maybe Palestine's future has very much to do with that.
The word is out!
Permalink tom hall replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 10:49
Thanks, Ali, for linking to the report. Clearly, you anticipated its deletion from ESCWA's website.
And sincere thanks to Dr. Khalaf for her principled stand. The Secretariat's claim that this dispute centers on procedural rather than substantive issues is particularly flimsy. Neither the United States nor Israel have cited any evasion of the U.N. chain of command as reason for their hostile response to the document. They have been very direct and clear in that regard. They have denounced the report because they abhor what it says and what it demonstrates.
Guterres recently expressed regret that he was blocked from appointing former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad to head the U.N. mission in Libya. The Trump administration is thought to have rejected Fayyad's candidacy. Guterres now has a new cause for regret, though he is unlikely ever to acknowledge such sentiments publicly.
It's worth noting that the mainstream media are devoting virtually no coverage to the actual content of the report, preferring to convey the shocked outrage of Israel and the U.S. and to focus on dramatic internal events at the senior U.N. level. They have once again chosen not to contaminate their readers and viewers with sufficient knowledge to make up their own minds.
Permalink tom hall replied on Sun, 03/26/2017 - 13:03
Richard Falk has seen his speaking schedule in Britain curtailed in recent days.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/n...
As in the United States, U.K. campuses have become targets of pro-Israel activists. I found the reason given by the University of East London for cancelling Falk's appearance to be inadvertently revealing, inasmuch as it echoes the official cause for Guterres' rejection of the report- that proper procedures were not followed. And in the case of Middlesex University London, the cancellation is explained in terms of "safety concerns". It seems no one is prepared to simply come out and say, "We disapprove of the ESCWA report co-authored by Richard Falk, and we don't want him addressing our students."
As for the University of East London's action, which their spokesperson attributes to a procedural failure on the part of those who booked the talk, the Zionist group Campaign Against Antisemitism (currently a registered charity) has another, more candid explanation: their own direct intervention demanding that the event be cancelled. Of course, they may be exaggerating their role, but it's quite likely that they promised to heap disgrace on the university if the talk went ahead. They've even been known to threaten legal action in such circumstances. Here's their odious website, with their claim:
https://antisemitism.uk/antise...
Frankly, I find it hard to believe that a scholar who had agreed to put forward the case for Zionism would have been disinvited in such a manner. The university in question would have been denounced in Parliament and reviled in the popular press, to say nothing of the back channel wrath emanating from Israel's embassy. But when it comes to the rights of Palestinians, no underhanded tactic to silence discussion is too low.
Thaks
Permalink Alex replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 11:25
Thanks for the truth
Resignation of U.N. official
Permalink Merrill Piera replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 13:19
I am horrified and deeply discouraged in the face of the actions of U.S.Ambassador to the U.N.Haley with regard to the report on Israeli apartheid. Obstinate U.S. collusion with Israel in this matter has all along been a source of profound dismay. It gets worse and worse. It is contagious in fact.
The price of telling the truth is never 2 high!
Permalink tony greenstein replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 13:41
Quite right. I have no sympathy for this woman. Doesn't she know that telling the truth is anti-Semitic? And then she refuses to retract when the USA orders her to (via the puppet who is UN General Secretary?)
A shocking example of the worst form of anti-Semitism. I find it strange that there has been no reference to the International Criminal Court at the Hague for this.
Thank you Rima Khalaf
Permalink Hussein Hammami replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 14:29
A few words of thanks to Dr. Rima Khalaf, former ESCWA Secretary General.
The demand that Israel, the US, and the UN Secretary General made on you to withdraw the report that ESCWA published on the apartheid policies of Israel is a stark example of raw power brutally exercised against an international body in total disregard to the basic tenets of civilized human discourse. One would have expected that a democracy like the United States would have wanted to debate the reasoning behind the conclusions reached in the report and judge it on the merits of its legal and moral arguments or the lack thereof instead of wielding its political weight to suppress it.
The report is not the brainchild of some anti-Israeli politician or someone consumed by hatred toward the Jews , but is authored by two American academicians. They are Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Virginia Tilley, Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University. As academics their methodology was scientific and they arrived at the conclusion that Israel applies an apartheid regime on the Palestinians by measuring Israel's treatment of the Palestinians against the yardstick of universally recognized principles set out in international law.
Dr. Rima Khalaf, you stood your ground and tendered your resignation rather than submit to the unwarranted dictates of the United States and the neophyte UN Secretary General Guterres. And by doing so you stand head and shoulders above your critics and earn worldwide respect and admiration.
Rima, Rima, Rima.
Permalink Naseem replied on Mon, 03/20/2017 - 07:22
Her resignation exposed the ugly faces of UN, USA and Israel, 3 in 1 to suppress the voice of Ppeople who are miserably suffering since long time ironacally on their own land. Thanks
UN REPORT ON ISRAEL'S APARTHEID
Permalink JOHN CHUCKMAN replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 15:04
No end to American dominance and abuse of the UN.
The earth's other 95% of humanity has been deprived of its voice in international affairs through American manipulation and threats and blackmail of the UN.
American diplomats of the lowlife character of Madeline Albright and Samantha Power have seen to that.
The effort was helped considerably by America's previous unilateral refusal to pay its treaty-determined dues until it got its way, threatening the UN's very existence.
Recent Secretaries-General have no independence or character at all. Ban Ki-Moon was almost a joke, a kind of Monty Pythonesque American creature loyally serving America's interests.
Of course, one of the main beneficiaries of all America's international dirty work is America's Middle East colony, otherwise known as Israel.
The never-ending dirty game of telling people what to say or getting rid of them when they don't comply tells us all we need to know of Americo-Israeli principles.
We know that both Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu described what they saw in Israel as apartheid, and their view was seconded by the most honest American President of the century, Jimmy Carter. Of course, Carter’s honesty was rewarded by being widely labelled as anti-Semitic in McCarthy-like attacks.
Permalink Ahmed El borno replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 16:11
I support madam rim a khalf in her stand against the aggression of the secretary of the UN.
No power will force us to give up our right for peace and Justes.
Permalink Eric replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 16:42
Has someone started a sign-on letter (formally a petition, I suppose) to thank Rima Khalaf?
UN report brands Israel Apartheid state
Permalink Kay Osatenko replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 03:58
I feel so frustrated by this overt, disgusting, bigotted pressure on Truth Tellers and I think your idea of a petition is a good one. Perhaps it should be addressed to that cowardly Secretary-General or the cowardly governments around the world that have silenced their MSM minions. All I have heard are Israel's and the US's reactions--no mention of any other reactions. Sickening Orwellian nightmare.
That is one brave woman. Whatever Israel and its minion do they can't stop BDS and even though they have wiped Palestine off the map (what they accuse Palestinians of wanting to do--oh, the irony), Palestine lives. I hope Ali will keep us informed.
Iagree with doctor rima kalaf
Permalink Ali replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 17:52
U.N. rapport on Israel policy
Permalink antoinette dhoohe replied on Sat, 03/18/2017 - 21:23
I think we should salute the probity of Rima Khalaf at first.
Many people dont know that there is not such situation as an Israelian nationality, there is a Jewish nationality for the persons considered as being Jewish, and a called citizenship for the others. They dont have the same rights. In discussions, representatives of Israel avoid the subject by speaking about the Israeli als being the subjects of Israel, who in fact do not exist. It is kind of absurd.
As it actually exists, Israel is not a state : it has no defined territory on which the autority of its governement applies, recognized by the citizens living in this territory, all of these citizens having equal rights towards this autority, these three conditions needing to be fullfilled to have a state in international constitutional law. For that reason, one could only recognize Israel when it would really be a state, and it can not be put as a precondition by Israel in the discussions with the Palestinians, - these preconditionby Israel is in fact a deadlock-, it can be the result of an agreement, for instance if the result of that agreement is the creation of two states.
As a matter a fact, for my opinion, one has to consider Israel, as it actually exists, in its reality a religious state. The consequence of it, is that a solution of the so-called Palestinian question, is per definitio not possible. So the the so-called peaceproces can go on for an other amount of years, as a cynical game, until the moment comes that it explodes. One may not think of it.
In the meantime these situation has a great direct negative influence in whole of the Middle-East and by reflection in the West, on the one hand because of the angriness the position taken by Israel provokes, on the other hand because of the policy Israel is developping toward the nabours. We can state these directly at the moment concerning the war in Syria.
It is all so much sad.
Excuse me for the mistakes in my English.
UN official resigns
Permalink William Chappel replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 03:18
The US has given more aid to Israel than all other countries. The US has asked them to stop building on Palestinian land. They have returned the favor by thumbing their nose at us for decades. With great courage Obama finally stood up and said enough. Israel is the tail that wags the dog because our politicians are afraid of AIPAC. It is no wonder that many in the Middle East see us as hypocrites their-by are willing to see us on the battle field resulting in many American casualties.
I despair
Permalink tony greenstein replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 15:50
The US hasn't 'given more aid' to Israel than anyone else, as if this is some kind of generous benefaction that has gone on too long. The US gives aid to Israel, all of it military aid, because Israel is a vital component, the most vital component, of US domination of the Middle East. It is not of course the only component. Saudi Arabia, the second most important ally, has no need of US aid, quite the contrary, it aids the USA. Egypt, another ally, receives the second highest aid after Israel.
Obama had no courage. He abstained on a UN resolution at the fag end of his Presidency having given Israel everything before that. Obama it was who rushed military replenishments to Israel when they were in danger of running out of rockets and missiles with which to fire during Operation Protective Edge. Obama it was who signed a new £43 billion aid programme to Israel over 10 years, a third higher than the previous aid bill.
This nonsense is based on the idea that Israel controls the US foreign policy and that the latter would be benign but for Israel's mysterious control Apart from lending itself towards anti-Semitic tropes (why should the US allow itself to pursue a foreign policy towards Israel against its own interests?) it is simply wrong. It fails to understand that US imperialism has and is devastating the whole planet, militarily and politically. Its 300 bases surrounding China, its interventions in a range of states as John Pilger has so eloquently demonstrated.
The main enemy to peace in the world is the United States. Israel is its vicious and nasty guard dog, willing to bite whoever snaps at its master. what is happening in Yemen is 10 times worse than the attacks on Gaza. Israel has little to do with that (I'm sure it is giving the Saudis some aid). The US and also the UK are the prime movers in this. Imperialist interests are the enemy and that means opposing your own ruling class in the USA - be it Obama or Trump
Permalink C. T. Weber replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 05:15
My mother told me that when an oppressed people come into power they become the oppressor. It rang true then, and it rings true today. A little over two-hundred years what is now known as the United States was part of England's world colonies and today is a world power. The Jewish people, oppressed for centuries is now exploiting the Palestinian people. Even the United Nations has become a tool of the United States. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the two state solution is slowly dying and the hope may lie in a one state solution. But it must be democratic. Israel is not a democratic state. It is a religious state, a Jewish state. While I believe that Israel has the right to exist, I think it needs to be a democratic secular state where all races and religions are accepted and treated equally. Rima Khalaf has laid out the problem. Unfortunately, raw power is trying to make it impossible for people to know what is happening. Maybe the Noble Peace Prize would shine a beacon of hope on this issue.
Don't Believe Everything Your Mother Tells You!
This is why you shouldn't believe everything your mother tells you. The Algerian or South African people haven't become oppressors nor have the Irish. What turns people who were oppressed into oppressors is when they become colonisers and see the route to their salvation as lying in the colonisation of someone else's lands.
Both the United States and Israel fulfilled this. Incidentally the 'Jewish people' (in so far as there is such an identity which I doubt) did not become oppressors. Israel's Jews did - a quite different category.
No the 2 state solution is not 'slowly dying'. That assumes it was ever alive except in the eyes of fools, charlatans and the gullible. Zionism was not founded in order to claim sovereignty over part of the 'holy land'. It claimed the lot but unfortunately Yassir Arafat and the corrupt Fateh clique discarded any analysis of Zionism in favour of becoming just another set of Arab dictators. However the Zionist rulers were not intending to grant them that privilege.
Israel isn't a religious state. It is a state of racial supremacy, a colonial settler state, that uses religion as the identifier for the herren volk, the master race. Religion legitimises race in Israel but it isn't the reason for Israel being what it is.
Nor does Israel have any 'right to exist' anymore than any state does. Only human beings have such a right and a racist state certainly has no such right.
Illegal Israeli settlments
Permalink Dominic replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 22:23
The fact is that the Israeli regime seems to be dominated by ultra right wing groups who have the balance of power ther in their hands
The pathetic trope that concerns over illegal settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank are 'anti semitic' are the last refuge of a scoundral
As the previous poster alluded to the abused so often end up playing out the same sad riff of abusing
Permalink Nestor Makhno replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 10:42
I downloaded the report and will send it to politicians in the Netherlands whoe emailaddresses are available becuase of the elections 5 days ago.
I will send it to some newspapers aswell. Unfortunately I know their answer on beforehand. No answer. They just will ingnore it and pretend that the Nethelrand sis a democratic state with "values ". which means allowing Wilders to spread his hatespeech even intervention on behalf of Wilders of the dutch government when the Australian government and the UK refuse to let this racist in and blocj free speech when a Turkish minister wants to speek
Respects to Rima Khalaf
Permalink Samia Shannan replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 11:19
We all know by now that the UN is a fake.......... it is only there to serve the interests of the sionists and the usa........
There is no point to look at and deal with it as an "international organization"........
It is shameless organization without principles and should be dismantled
She deserves a medal for
Permalink Jane Christenson replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 11:32
She deserves a medal for standing for the Palestinian people. I also support them.
كيان الفصل العنصري الصهيوني
Permalink Azzam replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 12:56
الحقيقة ناصعه الكيان الصهيوني نظام فصل عنصري ونظام مجرم ومغتصب والامم المتحدة دائما كانت دينه رغم الفيتو الامريكي ورغم دفاع امثاله عنه ،السيدة ريما الخلف تطقت بالحقيقة ولا تطمس الحقيقة بالضغوط الامريكية وكل التحية لريما الخلف التي حافظت على كرامتها واستقالت وبقي الكيان عنصري كما يعرفه كل العالم وحتى المدافعين عنه وهو الى زوال باذن الله ككل انظمة الفصل العنصري التي ظهرت
Israeli Apartheid Report "...akin to Nazi propaganda."
Permalink Stefano R. Baldari replied on Sun, 03/19/2017 - 23:54
I most greatly applaud the courageousness of Rima Khalaf to release the report on Israel's apartheid racist regime, despite the UN's attempt to suppress it. Yet, Israel condemns the report as "...akin to Nazi propaganda." Ironically, whenever I think of Illegitimate Israel I associate it with fascism.
A very brief and truncated history of Illegitimate Israel: It was founded, i.e. Palestinian land was stolen, on a lie, "A people without land and a land without people; during the Nakba of 1948, 700,00 to 800,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed (ethnically cleansed) from, then, Palestine by Zionist terrorist organizations Lehi, Irgun, and Haganah, the latter became the IDF; since 1948 about 600 Arab villages have been bulldozed to the ground; and, since 1948, Zionists have killed approximately 50,000 Palestinians; the Gaza Strip is the most densely populated region on earth that Illegitimate Israel always claims that Palestinians control--Illegitimate Israel controls its air space, it roads, its sea ports and its borders; in 2010 Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira encouraged the IDF (Haganah) to use Palestinians as human shields, and in his book, "The King's Torah", states when it is permissible to kill non-Jews; in Tel Aviv in 2012 or 2014 Zionists and their children were parading in the streets shouting "N****rs go home", "Sudan for the Sudanese"; Justice (can you believe it) Minister, Ayelet Shaked, has advocated for the murdering of Palestinian mothers so that they cannot give birth to more children; in 2014, Zionist thugs forced a Palestinian boy, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, to swallow gasoline and then set him afire to blow up; more recently Elor Azaria shoots a prostrate and immobile Palestinian in the head, which was videotaped--and gets ONLY an 18 month sentence; Palestinians are referred to as beasts and other non-Jews such as the Sudanese and Ethiopians are called a cancer, infiltrators, et al.
All of the above is NOT Nazi propaganda, but "...akin to Nazism..."
Permalink Camille hanna replied on Mon, 03/20/2017 - 14:01
With my deepest respects to Mrs khalf, I wish to know why she did not resign two months ago when the u. n Secretary General asked her to withdraw her two articles , also she said in her press briefing in Beirut that she still have two weeks of employment before her term ends, is it because of this she had the courage to publish her report?
I am sure her report was accurate and very well researched and only the blind could negate that Israel is an apartahide state.
The report should be published all over the world and in many newspapers , local ( if the authorities would allow????)and foreign ones.
Camille Hanna
U.N. official resigns
Permalink jim kelly replied on Mon, 03/20/2017 - 15:57
No surprise there. The U.N. has been irredeemably polluted by U.S. Who could take seriously, an organisation that places a Saud at the head of a Human Rights commision? Doublespeak indeed. Time for a new organisation but keep out the source of the toxins; U.S. and Israel
Permalink Roberto replied on Sat, 04/01/2017 - 06:07
Israel still occupying Syrian ; Lebanese and Palestinian land since 1967
Enough is enough for occupantion ;no need for stupid reasons on why to keep other people lands
Why Israel is not accepting international security council resolutions?
It is not fair to treat Israel as above the law
No sanctions !
They don't have any right to control millions of Palestinian daily life
West Bank is a jail
GAZI is surrounded 360degrees
What a mezarble life
REPLYING TO RIMA KHALAF'S RESIGNATION
Permalink kouider lahcen replied on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 00:05
i was greatly happy to know that there are still honest and upstanding people who could do without any social or political position just for the sake of telling the truth to any criminal who believes that he is out of reach because a bunch of other criminals are always ready to intervene so as to get him out of trouble.i am also deeply shocked to notice that mr guterres is shamefully biased and partial.are the american leaders so blind to see the atrocities committed by zionists on unarmed palestinians hoping for better futur days.what abject cowards are these zionists who are greatly thrilled by the bold courage of so many youngsters,boys and girls,ready to fight with archaic means:stones.it does not honnor any american to befriend horrendous criminals who are committing genocide for more than fifty years.to rima khalaf i want to say this:you have shown courage and deep peace of mind that many filthy arabes or even moslims are lacking;you are great and your act will stay a bitter lesson for those who believe that all arabes are nothing but a bunch of psychotic wealthy creatures thoroughlly overwhelmed by their lust and their great ability to have hards-on.you are geat and and you will remain a symbol of integrity and truthfulness.may allah bless you for your courage to defy rascals who have sold themselves to the devil.WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOUR COURAGEOUS ACT.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.
Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.
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Chevrolet Signs Multi-Year Extension With IndyCar Series
by Sam McEachern
— Mar 13, 2017
Chevrolet has signed a multi-year contract extension with the Verizon IndyCar Series, committing to providing the series with engines and aerodynamic kits for the foreseeable future.
The announcement, which also saw competing IndyCar manufacturer Honda sign a multi-year deal with the open-wheel race series, was made during the season opening IndyCar event in St. Petersburg this past weekend. Chassis supplier Dallara and tire supplier Firestone also signed multi-year extensions with IndyCar over the weekend.
“This is a unique moment in the recent history of the Verizon IndyCar Series,” IndyCar president of operations Jay Frye said in a statement. “To have all of our major manufacturers locked in with us for the foreseeable future points to the fact that they all have bought into the vision for the series.”
“It’s another sign of the positive momentum we continue to build as we grow this sport into the next decade.”
IndyCar will make revisions to its rulebook for 2017 that will see an all-new chassis introduced, replacing the aging Dallara DW12 currently employed by the series. IndyCar officials are hoping to do away with the bulky, ugly bodywork of the current cars and employe a more attractive look that is reminiscent of the wedge-like Dallara IR03/5 chassis used from 2003 to 2012. The new cars will also rely on underbody downforce more, cleaning up the air that flows off the back and allowing drivers to more easily follow each other in traffic, which will in turn create closer racing.
Despite Chevy and Honda’s contract extension, director of motorsport at General Motors, Mark Kent, said he’d like to see more manufacturers join IndyCar. Honda’s president of performance development, Art St. Cyr, also shares this sentiment.
“As we worked this multi-year plan, a lot of it has been about trying to get other manufacturers to join the series. It’s great competing against Honda, but it would be great to also compete against other competitors in the marketplace,” Kent said.
“Same thing. Even when we were sole suppliers to IndyCar for six years, we were actively looking to get more competition, because we want to compete with other OEMs on the racetrack,” added St. Cyr.
Via Motorsport
— Sam McEachern
Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.
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Architecture Timeline
147 Custodians of the Game
Best Of Golf
Ballybunion Golf Club (Old Course)
Tenth hole, 355 yards; The tenth heads the golfer back to the coastline in grand fashion. Just as the Old Trooper might hope, the visuals off the tee create uncertainty. Wonderfully broken ground separates the tee and fairway and then the fairway crests a ridge and – disappears! Trust in one’s swing is paramount in moments like this where the architect(s) doesn’t pander to the golfer with comforting features and aiming marks. Just the opposite, the land is the star, which sets the stage for a classic man vs nature confrontation. This is the second largest green on the course, so be sure to note the day’s hole location when on the nearby eighth tee. In particular, back right offers one of the course’s trickier hole locations to access.
No need to doll up the view from the 10th tee with manmade features.
One unique feature at Ballybunion is that the golfer hits five shots with the Atlantic serving as the backdrop, namely the approach here, the 6th, 11th, 15th and the tee ball at the 17th. Most links feature holes that run parallel to the coastline as that’s what the dunelines dictate. Not here.
Eleventh hole, 470 yards; In the first eleven holes, the golfer faces four brute two shotters: the second, seventh, ninth, and here. Let’s think about the four holes and the diversity they represent: the second with its steeply uphill approach to a domed green, the flattish seventh along the cliff, the ninth to a vexing green in a field, and here, whose fairway cascades downhill … then downhill … then downhill some more (!) with the ocean as the backdrop. For sheer diversity, the author struggles to think of any course with such variety in its long two shot holes. The eleventh is the most famous of the bunch and if you have ever seen a picture of golf in Ireland, it likely was of this hole. Given the scale of the dunes, there is nothing quite like it in either Scotland or England. The phrase ‘all-world’ is grotesquely overused but what a thrill to come across a situation where it is apt. Does any hole represent a country better by inspiring visitors to come?
The back marker that turns 11 into a 470 yard beast is on this side of the 10th green, just beyond the marram grass. The right center of the fairway affords the best view of the putting surface for one’s approach. Too far left off the tee and the approach becomes blind.
Along with 8 at Pebble Beach and 17 at St. Andrews, the approach to 11 at Ballybunion is as satisfying to execute as any in the sport.
Forget the sunshine bathing the far dunes in the photograph one above; a round at Ballybunion is even more dramatic with an approaching storm.
Looking back up toward whence the journey started, would any modern architect have the guts/wisdom to build this unconventional hole today?
Twelfth hole, 210 yards; Apparently, this ledge green was put into use in the mid-1920s. For those that play with hickory clubs, it is indeed a daunting task to think about tackling this hole with such implements back in the day. Even with a state-of-the-art hybrid, the golfer feels outmatched as he looks up the hill at the long narrow green. With no run-up option available on a hole of this length, it’s certainly an atypical links hole. Be that as it may, the onus remains squarely on the player to sort something out, including using the bank left of the green to help brake the tee ball. The twelfth is a reminder that a player’s game needs to fit the course as opposed to the other way around.
As seen from the tee, the shelf twelfth green is to the right of the white stake in the distance. On this cold winter’s day with no flag in, the golfer’s eyes are free to roam and appreciate the unique landscape.
Thirteenth hole, 500 yards; At this point, the golfer might be a bit battered and bruised, especially after the last four holes. Don’t despair – a string of very interesting 1/2 par holes ensue including a pair of reachable par fives starting with this one. The downhill drive tantalizes and is arguably one of the most important shots of the day as a good one brings the green in reach with a mid-iron. The hole’s defense lies in its captivating green complex, which sure enough, Simpson had a hand in. He suggested that the 1926 green be repositioned away from the burn and moved 80 yards back and to the left atop a small dune. The tiger can quickly go from a mid iron second to an extremely delicate recovery shot for his fourth!
The original green was right of today’s bridge that crosses the burn. The club carried out Simpson’s recommendation to perfection with today’s knob green featuring a sharp, thirteen foot fall-off left and over.
Similar to the 11th, the golfer can’t help but look back up the fairway afterwards and appreciate the unique landforms. Well struck tee balls gain an extra 30 to 60 yards of roll at both holes.
Fourteenth hole, 130 yards; The second nine at Ballybunion ranks with the best sides in world golf courtesy of its plethora of standout holes. This short one shotter understandably gets lost in the shuffle from time to time but don’t be fooled by its modest length. Akin to the playing strategy at 17 at TPC-Sawgrass, don’t even look at the flag; just play for the middle and be content with what will be a short-ish birdie putt.
Hoisting a short iron shot into the air on any windy links contains its own set of challenges, especially here …
… where the tiny, 3,300 square foot green does nothing but shed balls blown slightly off line.
Fifteenth hole, 210 yards; If the eleventh isn’t the poster for Irish golf, then this one-shotter surely is. Fourteen and fifteen might not quite be the match for fifteen-sixteen at Cypress Point but they are close. Though a two tiered green is generally considered a modern feature, this one has been in play for close to a century. At 5,040 square feet, the putting green is actually smaller than the course’s average green size. Yet, that’s a theme played out several times at Ballybunion Old: the longer the approach, the smaller the target. Add in the monster tier in the middle, and the effective target seems tiny indeed.
In a neat twist, several of the longest approach shots at Ballybunion are also among the course’s most inspiring. Above is the incomparable one shot fifteenth, as seen very early in the morning before the flag was put in.
Ballybunion’s lunar landscape is evident even at sunset.
Sixteenth hole, 515 yards; Doglegs are a fabulous attribute in a windy site and Ballybunion finishes with three of them! They all bend from right to left but that’s their only similarity. The one here heads off in a southerly direction, seventeen to the west and eighteen to the east. As at thirteen, the tiger knows that a good drive here might be worth a full stroke. And here’s the thing at Ballybunion: the golfer is induced to give it a go because the angled fairway could be argued to be ~ 80 yards in width. Spectacular dunescapes at other courses like nearby Lahinch, Royal Country Down, or Royal St. George’s typically hem in the golfer as he tries to find the fairways between the dunes. Both here and the next hole, the diagonal nature of the fairway to the tee inspire the golfer to be cavalier and attacking. None other than Alister MacKenzie prized bold golf and it is a great pity that the legend himself never saw the final iteration of this design because there is no doubt that he would have cheered rapturously. With their lay-of-the-land architecture that includes back-to-back par fives on the front and back-to-back par threes on the back, Ballybunion and Cypress Point share more than a passing similarity. Neither course is long by today’s standard (both measure under 6,750 yards) but no player worth his salt has walked off either and said, ‘Gee, I wish the course was harder.’
The angled 16th fairway extends right to left across the entire photograph.
The second must be slotted between two dunes with the flag fluttering on the horizon.
The view back down the 16th.
Seventeenth hole, 400 yards; The course offers several indelible moments, the last occurring here on the penultimate tee that Simpson recommended whereby the golfer aims at the Atlantic Ocean. To quote Simpson from his report, ‘Whatever you may decide touching green 11 [today’s 16th] , we strongly advise a new tee [for today’s #17] well away to the left of existing green 11 on the site we pointed out to you. You simply cannot pass by this great and glorious chasm, which is calling out for a tee shot to be played across it. No alteration to the green which is ideal from every point of view.’ The conspicuous sight of the water – often times, awe-inspiring – is another differentiator to most other world class links. The distant churning waves lift a man’s spirit from his mundane, daily concerns but he needs to gather himself quickly to play the proper shape shot off the tee.
Fairway bunkers aid an architect in lending good golf qualities to holes where the land doesn’t do so. Case in point, they were liberally applied at the par 5 4th and 5th holes. Meanwhile, only one (!) fairway bunker was required on holes 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, and 17. The sole one is actually here, though out-of-sight on the inside of the dogleg.
County Kerry is known for its spectacular beaches. This view to the north from the outside of the dogleg 17th also captures the seawall that the club carefully erected to preserve the hole.
Turning to the south, the green is attractively nestled in its own amphitheatre.
Ballybunion is the rarest of rare instances whereby the dunes are equally good on a macro and micro level. Off the tee on a macro level, the scale of the dunes is breathtaking. Close to the green on a micro level, a slight rise in the fairway 15 yards shy of the green creates an unseen gulley/channel that makes depth perception problematic and recovery shots fascinating.
In 1971, land was purchased directly south of the Old Course for the Cashen course. As part of doing so, the clubhouse was moved south some 1,500 yards so that play could commence at both courses from a central location. That’s when today’s sequence of holes was established for Ballybunion Old. Not that it should matter what sequence you play the holes – after all, the holes are the holes – but at Ballybunion Old it does. The inland holes are gobbled up early in the round and the golfer goes on a thrill ride from six in that leaves him panting for more. As an aside, the author admirers the back-to-back par 5s at four and five from a design perspective as the pair of long holes eat up the less interesting land plus both are capped off by really fine (and underrated) green complexes.
Parts of the round feel like a grand adventure but there are enough quiet moments mixed in with the holes across heaving land to where the golfer is never overwhelmed. The land is the star with the refined green complexes adding in sophistication as required. Man-made features (a.k.a. bunkers) play less of a role than they do at comparable excellent designs like Oakmont and Riviera. With land this good, man needed to show restraint and mercifully that is what happened. Such is rarely the case when a course is built over decades by committee but in many moments of wisdom down through the years, it happened here. Throw in the wind – and now true links conditions – and you have a playing experience that exudes the best virtues that the sport offers. No golfer’s education is complete without playing here. As Herbert Warren Wind said those many years ago, Ballybunion is ‘profoundly exciting.’
This look back down the Home hole prompts one thought: When can I play here again?!
© GCA. 1999 - 2020
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Rock Pi 4 B Review: A Swiss Army Knife Of Single Board Computers
By root
The Rock Pi 4 B, while having no official affiliation with the Raspberry Pi, is a single board computer whose intention it is to provide all the features Raspberry Pi fans would like in the now dated Rasberry Pi 3 B+ model, and are hoping to see in the 4 B+ model. The Rock Pi 4 B has a lot to offer, but does it really check all the boxes?
The Rock Pi 4 B is a powerhouse in terms of SBCs, especially when compared to the Raspberry Pi. The board comes in three variants, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM running at 3,200 MB/s, all other specifications are the same across the variants. These will run you $49, $59, and $75 and should not be confused with the model A parts that do not contain the 802.11ac wireless or the Bluetooth 5.0 (but do contain wireless and Bluetooth).
The Rock Pi 4 B is much like the other SBCs sporting the RockChip RK3399 SoC, but it’s calling card, and half of its namesake, is that it shares the Raspberry Pi form-factor, including the Raspberry Pi GPIO header. So, many cases and mounts should just work.
The Rock Pi 4 B bridges the gap between power and convenience with this decision in a way that provides engineers and hobbyists the flexibility between using existing enclosures and mount solutions or developing their own to take advantage of the incredible throughput of the Rock Pi 4 B’s peripheral connectivity, more on that in a bit.
The RK3399 is a six-core chip that flaunts a big.LITTLE setup in the form of a Cortex-A72 dual-core running at 1.8GHz and a Cortex-A53 quad-core running at 1.4GHz. The Mali T860MP4 GPU supports OpenGL ES, OpenCL, Vulkan, and even DX11, so this unit should be able to pull its weight in graphics, too.
Of course, power is nothing without complimentary I/O, and the Rock Pi 4 doesn’t let down. Like other RK3399 SBCs, there is a heavy focus on general I/O that’s been missing in the ARM SBC world. The Rock Pi 4 B has 2x USB 3.0 (and 2x 2.0), something Raspberry Pi fans have been raving about for a while, now.
In addition to the USB 3.0 and Raspberry Pi GPIO header, there is a micro SD card slot, gigabit ethernet, 2.4/5.0 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, removable/upgradable eMMC (not included), 2x MIPI CSI camera connectors, HDMI, audio, USB type C (power in), PoE, finally, PCIe x4 in the form of an M.2 connector. It features some other more subtle connectors as well, details of which can be found here with some nice graphics.
The Rock Pi 4 B is a Swiss Army Knife of SBCs. Not everyone needs all of this I/O, most people might only enjoy one, but the flexibility of this device is incredible… at the hardware level.
As with any CPU, heat dissipation is always a concern. Even with a 2cm-square heatsink on the CPU, the unit still reached 85C under load before the temperature stabilized. Blowing on the heatsink immediately dropped the temperature significantly, and semi-constant air passing through it resulted in a temperature that was over 20C lower.
It’s very clear that a proper heatsink and air circulation is necessary for optimal performance on this high power ARM CPU. The downward facing heatsink will not help given that there is no clear path for heat to rise. Given the rather high temperature when a heatsink is present, I wouldn’t recommend running this board without one or running it in a closed enclosure.
The performance of this unit is actually quite impressive in certain tasks. When paired with eMMC storage, the device often boots in less than fifteen seconds in Armbian and Android, and performs updates under Armbian very quickly.
However, when attempting to watch 1080p videos under Armbian, even with the venerable VLC, the unit can’t seem to keep up but appears to do just fine, even with in-browser videos, under Android. What this shows is a lack of Linux driver support, at least not a level of support that parallels that of the Android image available. This is not unique to the Rock Pi 4 B, it seems to be rather common in the ARM SBC world. ARM SoC vendors will often release a single kernel or very infrequently updated kernels for Linux, a problem that doesn’t affect Android as much given the slower release cycle.
This seems a bit odd, though, given that the RK3399 was designed for Chromebooks, a Linux based product, albeit under the OP1 name. But, maybe better support will spill over into the Linux side over time and make the Rock Pi 4 B that much more flexible.
Currently, there are a number of different images for the Rock Pi 4 B, including Android, Android TV, Ubuntu Server, Debian Desktop, Armbian, a beta release of RecalBox, and LibreELEC coming soon, the latter three being third-party images.
So, it seems that if you don’t require video decoding under some arbitrary Linux kernel, the Rock Pi 4 B is actually a pretty well-rounded SBC. But, on the other hand, if you need seamless video playback, you’ll have to stick to a media-focused image for the time being.
The Rock Pi 4 B is all around an interesting board that has a lot of potential, should the software mature. If you require an SBC that has that extra network throughput or enhanced I/O, then it could be the ideal board given its familiar form-factor. One thing is for sure — there aren’t many SBCs that offer the same power and flexibility as the Rock Pi 4 B, and even less when you factor in the price of many competing devices with 4GB RAM.
Related Items:Review, Rock Pi, Rock Pi 4, Rock Pi 4 B, Rock Pi 4 B review
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How to Use Handful Pads as Prosthetics
Watch Cary Kim, our Director of Survivor Relations, demonstrate how to use our Handful Lights Out Pads as prosthetics for breast cancer survivors who have had a lumpectomy, single mastectomy, or double mastectomy. Click here to enroll in our survivor support programs.
Transcription of the video above:
Hi, I’m Cary and I’m coming to you from Handful headquarters to talk to you about what I wear in my Handful bra.
So, as you know, the hidden pocket of the bra can be used for a credit card, a key fob, your lipgloss, or whatever you want to stash and go to be hands free.
But for me, as a double flat woman with no reconstruction, I wear three pads on each side as my everyday prosthetic. It’s lightweight, it washes and dries overnight, and most importantly it passes the hug test. No one can tell what's in my Handful cause it’s nobody's business. And even our Handful CEO, who is not a survivor, sometimes wears two pads and calls it "high-heels in Vegas" - but no one needs to know about that either.
So, here’s my look and I’m going to show you how I get it with our "No Headlights White" Handful Adjustable Bra. So, this is a fully stuffed Handful Adjustable Bra, and as you can see, you pull out three pads. They’re in a stack, and they’re all oriented left and right. In this case you put the points so they are all facing the same direction. When you put them into the bra, you want to make sure that you don’t put them in like that…because then they stick out of the pocket. You want to rotate them so that the points match the top of the bra. Roll them into a taco, and put them in the pocket, and then you’re ready to go, whether it’s to work or the gym. Sometimes, if I wear this to workout in, and the inner one gets sweaty, I’ll just pop that one out and throw that one in the wash, and then I can still wear the pads, but that’s up to you.
So, this bra is 30% off for any Survivor. Head-to-toe Handful, whether it's activewear or bras, we offer any Survivor 30% off, as just one small perk for having had cancer. If you’ve lost a breast to cancer, we give you the extra pads free of charge.
Stay tuned to the end of the video to find out more about how to get in touch with me and get these discounts -- because you deserve them.
Cary Kim (shown above) is our Director of Survivor Relations. She was featured in the Scar Project. Cary supports every survivor's path to wholeness, no matter which surgical path is chosen, but she wants every survivor to know that remaining flat after mastectomy is a kick ass option too that provides the fastest recovery time, maximum return on range of motion, fewer follow up scans to check for recurrence, and no repeat surgeries for implant swaps every 8-10 years...in short, less down time, more moments to GRAB LIFE!
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Lita Ford / Stiletto JAPAN BVCP-7 PROMO NEW!!!!! *L
Promo THE RUNAWAYS-LITA FORD Stiletto JAPAN CD BVCP-7 w/OBI+20-p PS BOOKLET
LITA FORD - STILETTO CD NEW+
Ex! THE RUNAWAYS-LITA FORD Stiletto JAPAN CD w/OBI+20-p PS BOKLET BVCP-7
Lita Ford Homepage
Category: Hard Rock
Label: BMG
Catalog Number: 2090-4-R
Lita Ford guitar, lead vocals
Myron Grombacher drums
Donnie Nossov bass
David Ezrin keyboards
1. Your Wake Up Call
2. Hungry
4. Stiletto
5. Lisa
6. The Ripper
7. Big Gun
8. Only Women Bleed
9. Bad Boy
10. Aces and Eights
11. Cherry Red
The music discographies on this site are works in progress. If you notice that a particular Lita Ford CD release or compilation is missing from the list above, please submit that CD using the CD submission page. The ultimate goal is to make the discographies here at Heavy Harmonies as complete as possible. Even if it is an obscure greatest-hits or live compilation CD, we want to add it to the site. Please only submit official CD releases; no bootlegs or cassette-only or LP-only releases.
EPs and CD-singles from Lita Ford are also welcome to be added, as long as they are at least 4 songs in length.
Search all current eBay listings for LITA FORD STILETTO
Lita Ford Stiletto 1990 CD $4.00 2d 14h 17m
Stiletto by Lita Ford (CD, May-1990, RCA)* VERY GOOD * $4.72 25d 4h 51m
Stiletto by Lita Ford Excellent! Rock CD $4.95 20d 16h
Stiletto by Lita Ford (CD, May-1990, RCA) $4.95 9d 4h 40m
Lita Ford Stiletto CDs $6.00 20d 6h 24m
Stiletto by Lita Ford (CD, May-1990, RCA) $7.99 1h 29m
From: Drag-in-Bones Date: July 7, 2002 at 23:58
A snap, crackle and pop slice of a hook-laden rock record that contains the necessary commercial concessions but not enough true grit. Still a healthy fallow-up to her previous CD and top 10 duet with "Ozzy Osbourne", "Close your eyes" though an interesting mixture that includes "Aces And Eights" and a "Alice Cooper" cover "Only Women Bleed". Proping big meaty metal guitar riffs and catchy choruses "Stiletto" still rocks hard in my book!!!
From: 9 CHAMPIONS A 1 Date: July 26, 2002 at 11:10
Aunque tiene algun tema guapo,da la sensación de haber sacado el disco con prisas,sin concentración,abundan los temas sin chispa y la producción no me convence.POBRE.
From: jason (FA - Q) Date: August 12, 2002 at 22:04
This was the album where she debuted her new boobs. Have you ever seen the video for "Hungy?" I wanted to meet the doctor who did the boob job so I could thank him.
From: EDWARD Date: September 22, 2003 at 10:20
SHE'S HOT!!
From: keebler Date: October 8, 2003 at 2:23
this is another one i liked but it was the last i bought from her besides her greatest hits.
From: Big Mike Date: November 12, 2003 at 11:15
Chocas full of filler, intros, outros, cover tunes, boy theres some crap here. But surprisingly theres so great stuff here also which makes this a creditable album over all. Aces and eights, ripper, big gun and a couple of good ballads too. Lita can play guitar and as a bonus she's super hot aswell. Skip the crap and it makes a pretty good listen.
From: Scandinavia Date: December 27, 2003 at 20:27
Hehe...jason, you're actually funny there...Amazing!!! But so is the whole album...Might not be that accessible at first but give it time...It grows on you! My fave Lita album...
By the way..."Aces & Eights" is worth the album alone...Top class melodic hardrock!
From: Big Papa K Date: June 13, 2004 at 1:05
Once again, Ms. Ford put metal music made by women back ten years with this album. For a woman that acted metal, she sure did not practice what she preached. "Hungry" is a pretty decent tune, horns and all, and I agree with Jason about the good video for that song. 1/10
From: jack Date: September 16, 2004 at 23:43
tHIS ALBUM KICK ASS. tHE BEST ALBUM I'VE HEARD IN YEARS. SONGS LIKE HUNGRY ARE KICK ASS SONGS RATINGS:10/10
From: Geoff Date: February 26, 2005 at 8:18
I'd have to say that Lita was getting better with every release. Musically great, and 'Stiletto' is a great hard rock track, 'Lisa' is just a beautiful ballad - man I like that song a lot, and 'Aces and eights' is just excellent commercial hard rock - easily the highlight for me. Good hard rock disc. Definately a few fillers though.
From: hair metal again Date: June 29, 2009 at 12:41
this is very good i think.great songs ,professional production by mike chapman,everything seems perfect.listen to "lisa","stiletto" and "big gun" terrific hair metal by lita.the only thing is that i would prefer a more strong guitar sound in the production.overall a nice hair metal album of the hundreds that were released in the greatest era of hard rock music
From: rick kerch vzla Date: April 22, 2011 at 22:33
A good release by Lita Ford...not a killer or her best but still manage to drag some attention..."Hungry"(highlight),"Stiletto"( ),"The Ripper"( ),"Only Women Bleed"(nice cover done of Alice Cooper's classic),"Bad Boy","Aces & Eights"( ) & the instrumental ending track "Outro" are the good shots of this album IMHO...88/100
Not a huge fan of Lovely Lita, honestly, and once she began relying more on the whole sex-kitten image, the music really suffered. Lots of keyboards, lots of filler tracks. "Hungry," "Stiletto," "Big Gun," "Bad Boy" and "Cherry Red" are all good, if not outstanding, and "Lisa" is a nice ballad. It's too bad "Wake Up Call" and "Outro" couldn't have been worked into a proper song, because they both sport the same great, heavy riff.
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Home / Catalog / #17 Socks
#17 Socks
NASCAR, because most other sports require only one ball.
Although deeply rooted in American culture and well known around the globe, stock car racing started as something much less mainstream. Today we know racing legends like Richard Petty, Darrel Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt or Jimmy Johnson, but go back just a few generations and you'll find a very different crowd of outlaw bootleggers that souped up their cars in order to escape the police and deliver their moonshine alcohol cargo during the Prohibition era.
With the end of Prohibition, the bootleggers had more time to race each other and the weekend racing became increasingly popular with its main heroes competing for pride and glory - and probably a fair bit of cash from the gambling action as well.
Despite the initial disdain from the motor sport community for its humble and criminal origins, slowly but surely these popular races evolved to the huge sport that we today know as NASCAR, a competition that would become America's most-watched and biggest sporting event, known for its incredible fan loyalty, while somehow retaining an outlaw moonshine flavor from its origins, a crystallized attitude of illicit rebellion of the average Joe against the powers that be.
Here are the first four - of hopefully many more - of what we think are some of the coolest and best looking paint jobs of the sport's history.
Gentlemen, start your engines!
Wash inside out (40ºC/100ºF max). Do not tumble dry, iron, bleach or dry clean.
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Ants behavior mimicked by robots to change transportation networks (Video)
By gricelda7 on March 29, 2013 3 Comments
Seeing is believing, as robot swarms mimic how ant colonies navigate complex mazes relatively mindlessly. Researchers have found ― knowledge that could help to improve designs for manmade transportation networks in the future.
Scientists are fascinated by ant colonies because they can form collectives called “superorganisms” that function as single organisms do. Investigation into how ants behave has revealed more about how such group behavior arises, and some researchers are using that knowledge to help build smarter robot swarms, said Simon Garnier, a scientist who studies animal behavior at the New Jersey Institute of Technology .
Scientists are making ants wander through mazes, just as they do with rats. These labyrinths mimic the twists and turn in ants’ journeys between their nests and places rich in food.
Insect colonies, although composed of many critters, function in a manner similar to individual organisms, according to a new study. The results suggest that these colonies act like “superorganisms,” at least in terms of their basic physiology.
The ant Messor barbarusis a major seed predator on annual grasslands of the Mediterranean area. This paper is an attempt to relate the foraging ecology of this species to resource availability and to address several predictions of optimal foraging theory under natural conditions of seed harvesting. Spatial patterns of foraging trails tended to maximize acquisition of food resources, as trails led the ants to areas where seeds were more abundant locally. Moreover, harvesting activity concentrated on highly frequented trails, on which seeds were brought into the nest in larger numbers and more efficiently, at a higher mean rate per worker.
The predictions of optimal foraging theory that ants should be more selective in both more resource-rich and more distant patches were tested in the native seed background. We confirm that selectivity of ants is positively related to trail length and thus to distance from the nest of foraged seeds. Conversely, we fail to find a consistent relationship between selectivity and density or species diversity of seed patches. We discuss how selectivity assessed at the colony level may depend on factors other than hitherto reported behavioral changes in seed choice by individual foragers.
Among the everyday challenges an ant colony faces, the exploration and the exploitation of its environment is one of the most critical. In some species food collection is achieved by thousands of workers travelling along well-defined foraging trails. These trails emerge from a succession of pheromone deposits and can result in a complex network of interconnected routes. The CouzinLab is investigating how ants manage to build such networks whose structure facilitates the navigation of workers in the foraging area of the colony. These trail networks assemble the individuals into a spatial structure that favors encounters and exchanges. As a consequence their topology as well as their geometry influence the efficiency of the food harvesting and the dynamics of information transfer within the colony. Understanding the processes that account for the emergence of such networks allow us to better grasp the way an insect colony as a whole deals with information from its environment and how it adapts to uncertain worlds.
The pheromone-laden foraging trails they leave behind are like lifelines: they direct the workers toward food hubs discovered earlier and help guide them home back to their nest.
To learn more, researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the Research Centre on Animal Cognition in France used miniature robots to replicate the behavior of a colony of Argentine ants on the move, reported today in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. This ant species has extremely poor eyesight and darts around at high speeds, yet it can maneuver through corridor after corridor, from home to food and vice versa.
When no obstacles are around, ants prefer to walk in a straight line without deviating from their course. People are like that too: if we were walking down a street to a restaurant that’s on the same side of the road as we are, we wouldn’t cross to the opposite sidewalk unless something was blocking our way. To imbue this sense of obstacle avoidance into the robots, researchers programmed them to avoid obstacles and follow light trails, which the researchers used as a substitute for pheromone-coated paths.
The 10 tiny robots in this study, called Alices, were then tasked to navigate a maze-like environment roughly 60 to 70 times their size, from a starting point representing a nest entrance to an end point signifying a food source. Two photoreceptors, mimicking ant antennae, detected beams of light. As the robots traveled through the maze, researchers introduced a wrench in the little machines’ plans—at random points in their journey, the robots were triggered to turn, a mechanism meant to further mimic ants’ meandering gaits as they creep along their paths. These random turns rotated at angles no greater than 30 degrees, as real ants are not very efficient at physically making U-turns.
Many insect species, including ants and bees, work together in colonies, and their cooperative behavior determines the survival of the entire group. This type of interaction has been likened to that of a single organism, with each individual in colony acting like a cell in the body, giving rise to the term “superorganism.”
However, although this phrase has been around for at least a century, it has generally been used as a metaphor, and very few, if any, studies have quantitatively compared whole colonies to individual organisms, said study researcher James Gillooly of the University of Florida.
Robot ants mimic insect behavior
Ants behavior mimicked by robots to change transportation networks (Video) added by gricelda7 on March 29, 2013
3 Responses to "Ants behavior mimicked by robots to change transportation networks (Video)"
Lucas Rossignol March 11, 2019 at 2:35 pm
I dugg some of you post as I cogitated they were very beneficial extremely helpful
Paul Berry March 29, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Human evolution: We stood upright, ate the Neanderthals, discovered agriculture, invented automobiles, got in and started living inside. Now we are ants. Maybe you couldn’t see this coming, I could. The only good news, it will work on Mars, so, for what it’s worth, we are making progress.
Romanovski March 29, 2013 at 8:51 pm
Efficiency is the least of this discovery. Think of outside the box. This type of programming can be applied to AI to be used in robots or computers in learning skills and over time become extremely precise in decision making on any scale. Example: imagine AI cars that have collected data from this type of lab were the car learns every possible way to navigate the roads via the information collected through its sensors and using something to “Simplex Method” to determine best solution on the amount of variables collected. Then apply this data to actual cars on the road with a built in computer with sensors. Not only that but think of GPS data added to the equations. Think of a bigger picture of airplanes being able to make decisions on the fly like we do in different situations. These systems are able to learn from their mistakes and will just become better the more we use them over time. Think of a robot trying to learn how to walk. At first it will fall a lot, but as trial and error creates enough data to correlate the robot will be walking in no time, just like a baby learns how to walk while reaching the stage of toddler. This is awesome!!
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Difference between revisions of "Cathode ray tube"
From Computer History Wiki
Jnc (talk | contribs)
m (Jnc moved page CRT to Cathode Ray Tube: Full name)
m (+cat)
A '''Cathode Ray Tube''' (usually '''CRT''' for short) is a now-obsolescent display technology that was the mainstay of visual output devices for a century, until displays consisting of [[array]]s of [[Light Emitting Diode|LEDs]], etc, became available economically.
A '''cathode ray tube''' (usually '''CRT''' for short) is a now-obsolete [[display]] technology that was the mainstay of visual output devices for a century, until displays consisting of [[array]]s of [[Light Emitting Diode|LEDs]], etc, became available economically.
It consists of a large [[vacuum tube]], with a large face covered with a ''phospor'', a phosphorescent powder. An electrode at the base of the neck (back) of the tube produces a beam of [[electron]]s, which are shot into the phosphor; where the beam hits, the phosphor produces a spot of light.
It consisted of a large [[vacuum tube]], with a large face covered with a ''phospor'', a phosphorescent powder. An electrode at the base of the neck (back) of the tube produced a beam of [[electron]]s, which are shot into the phosphor; where the beam hits, the electrons hitting the phosphor produce a spot of light.
The beam can be scanned across the face by means of [[electrostatic]] or [[magnetic]] control grids through which the electron beam is sent.
The intensity of the beam could be modulated by a control signal, from fully off to full brightness. The beam could be scanned across the face by means of [[capacitor|capacitative]] or [[magnetic field|magnetic]] control grids, through which the electron beam was sent.
CRTs were used as displays in a large number of types of devices: oscilloscopes, televisions, [[video terminal]]s, and [[video display]]s.
[[Category: Device Basics]]
A cathode ray tube (usually CRT for short) is a now-obsolete display technology that was the mainstay of visual output devices for a century, until displays consisting of arrays of LEDs, etc, became available economically.
It consisted of a large vacuum tube, with a large face covered with a phospor, a phosphorescent powder. An electrode at the base of the neck (back) of the tube produced a beam of electrons, which are shot into the phosphor; where the beam hits, the electrons hitting the phosphor produce a spot of light.
The intensity of the beam could be modulated by a control signal, from fully off to full brightness. The beam could be scanned across the face by means of capacitative or magnetic control grids, through which the electron beam was sent.
CRTs were used as displays in a large number of types of devices: oscilloscopes, televisions, video terminals, and video displays.
Retrieved from "https://gunkies.org/w/index.php?title=Cathode_ray_tube&oldid=19261"
Device Basics
About Computer History Wiki
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The Young And The Restless Poll: Is Chance Chancellor Part Of Adam Newman’s Scheme? Vote Now!
SpoilersThe Young and The Restless
By Sean O'Brien Last updated Sep 10, 2019
Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) openly threatened his family on The Young and the Restless. He went to Newman Enterprises with a peace offering for Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) in one hand and a dagger, basically aimed at Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) in the other.
Now, after Devon Hamilton (Bryton James) received a notice in the mail regarding discrepancies in Katherine Chancellor’s (Jeanne Cooper) will, it’s fair to speculate about Chance Chancellor’s (as most recently played by John Driscoll) connection level of involvement with Adam.
If Chance is able to successfully obtain a large amount of the nearly two billion dollars in assets and money that Katherine left exclusively for Devon, then this seemingly returning character’s link to Adam is ominous.
Young & The Restless Spoilers – Paging Dr. Adam Newman
Just weeks after declaring that a deeply held grudge would also mean impending doom on the Newman’s, Adam turned tail and asked his dad for another chance. Victor naturally was suspicious of his wayward son’s request.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Victor, Adam had obtained a double-dose of the blood disease combating medicine that Dr. Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic) prescribed. Working with a rogue pharmacist, or whoever that lady in Chancellor Park was, Adam was given potent pills in containers that were identical to his father’s.
It wasn’t possible for Adam to slip the mickey’s into Victor’s jacket pocket in the living room at the Ranch when Victor and Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) were present. Conveniently, a Ranch staffer suddenly entered the room, distracting ‘Niktor’, allowing Dr. Adam to complete the switch.
Young And The Restless Spoilers: Nikki Forced To Keep Victor’s Secret – Health Deteriorating?
Y&R Spoilers – Red Herring Thrown At Newman’s
Victor’s resulting side effects are fierce, with him fainting in the atrium at Crimson Lights, with Nikki attempting to assist her husband. Adam isn’t intending to knock off the ‘Moustache’, but just to neutralize him.
Assuming Victor will remain out of it during an intermediary period, Adam will be able to put the next parts of his plan into action. The red herring he’s throwing at the Newman’s is Victor’s provoked health crisis.
With the family being naturally distracted, Adam will work on taking all they have, which was his stated goal. He also previously advised wanting to expose them the Newman’s as hypocrites to the outside world. So, shaming must be coming as well.
The Young and The Restless: Big Trouble Coming – Chance Chancellor The Disputer of Katherine Chancellor's Will? @SoapOperaSpy #yr #YoungandRestless https://t.co/RLnOnyRF5r
— SOS/CTS/HH (@SoapOperaSpy) September 8, 2019
Young & The Restless Spoilers – Chancellor Industries Takeover And Merger?
Not that he realizes every twisted dream, but Adam always thinks big.
If he is in cahoots with Chance, it’s possible that the goal is to take control of Chancellor Industries and then orchestrate some type of merger with Newman Enterprises. Of course, Adam would likely position himself as Chief Executive Officer of the combined company. He’d probably let the Newman’s stay, maybe even offering Victor a position as his errand boy.
Fans of The Young and the Restless rightfully express their opinions on a regular basis. So, is Chance Chancellor part of Adam Newman’s scheme? Please vote in our poll below!
This site is a leading source of engaging information about ‘The Young and the Restless’.
Is Chance Chancellor part of Adam Newman’s scheme?
Sean O'Brien
After earning a BA in Communications, Sean began his professional career in the Scranton-Wilkes/Barre Red Barons’ front office (the Philadelphia Phillies former Triple-A affiliate). He later worked as a print sports writer. During this millennium – Sean became a state licensed school teacher, the author of the children’s book Maddie: Teaching Tolerance with a Smile, and a credentialed sports columnist. He’s also been a longtime soap opera loyalist.
The Young and the Restless Spoilers: Monday, January 20 – Kyle Punches Theo,…
The Young and the Restless Spoilers: Will Kyle And Summer’s Business Trip Lead To An…
The Young and the Restless Spoilers: Friday, January 17 – Victoria & Billy…
Young And The Restless Spoilers: Kirby Bliss Blanton Joins Cast Of The Y&R
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KPMG Personalisation
Get the latest KPMG thought leadership directly to your individual personalised dashboard
› Managing the family business generation shift
Managing the generational shift in family business
Managing the family business generation shift
Handing over a family business from one generation to the next can be a point of pride. Unfortunately, it can also be a source of conflict. How can family businesses maintain a smooth transition of power and responsibility?
The challenge of the first generation
The first shift in power
Expanding the family circle
What are the solutions?
Dominic Pelligana
Partner in Charge, Melbourne, Enterprise
KPMG Australia
Also on home.kpmg
Running a family business is no mean feat. Turning it over from one generation to the next is another challenge altogether. Unfortunately, it’s one that can result in conflict.
Each generation of a family business carries different priorities when it comes to ownership, governance, management and future strategy. When priorities aren’t aligned, or come into direct opposition, it can threaten the stability of the business – and the family.
According to Dominic Pelligana, Partner, KPMG Enterprise, who is actively involved with Family Business Australia, managing the different expectations of each generation is ‘crucial’ to ensure a smooth transition and a prosperous outlook.
“Successful family businesses may feel that their challenges are unique to them and their family dynamic,” Pelligana says. “In fact, most are normal and predictable and are solved by considering independent and experienced perspectives.”
The founding member of a family business may not think of their venture as a ‘family’ enterprise. They simply start a business and support the family.
“From a family perspective, the first generation puts an emphasis on the business, and the family is there to help serve the business. The priority is to keep them close to the business, and they often live on premises or nearby.”
The founding generation has a strong vision for what they want for the business. Subsequent generations often look back to the founder to determine what strategies they should pursue based on their values.
The most difficult and important transition is the first to second generation, and there are a number of reasons for this. These include:
Businesses started by entrepreneurs are successful because they can exploit gaps in the market by being very nimble. They can make quick decisions and take risks unburdened by internal bureaucracy.
Generation two usually wants to implement more formal structures and management to grow and scale up. This can be at odds with the first generation’s natural leadership and management style.
In this scenario, tension between the entrepreneur and management can be exacerbated when it is parent and child – not to mention if it transfers to a partnership of siblings.
“The focus in the second generation is more about what keeps the family together as a team,” Pelligana says.
Adding a third generation brings the need for even more improvements. This will be time for a sophisticated analysis of resources, the establishment of leadership succession plans, and a detailed shareholder relations plan.
However, Pelligana says the third generation also have challenges – particularly in that some family members may want to join the business, but lack experience. Other family members may feel pressured to join, worried if they are not personally involved day-to-day, they will not be recognised and could lose their financial share.
“By the third generation, you might have a consortium of cousins who are involved in the business. How do you give the family members the freedom to pursue what they want to do?”
It is clear there are two main problem areas: the handing over of responsibilities from the first to the second generation, and then again from the second to the third.
Pelligana says to counter this, family businesses need to build common and shared values – informed by the first generation – and have a Family Constitution to embed them.
“Sometimes, family members think the business is there to serve them, as opposed to them serving the business,” he says. “Creating a set of values and a Family Constitution can stop that from happening.”
When it comes to the second generation passing to the third, building a board of directors and a Family Council is recommended.
Additionally, setting clear expectations for involvement is vital. Some members may not want to be involved in management, but want a seat on the board. This is common in large businesses such as BMW or Samsung, which still have some form of family control.
“Part of these pre-agreed rules could involve the next generation gaining outside work experience at other successful businesses before joining the family business,” Pelligana says.
Managing generational shifts in family business is an important and delicate process. Successful family businesses recognise this – and start planning early.
Family Business Survey 2018
We look at how family businesses are faring in areas from communication to conflict, finances to the future, in our report and video interviews.
Running a family business
From the boardroom to the kitchen table, KPMG Family Business advisers share practical advice and experienced guidance to help you succeed.
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Category: founder
Andrew Ng’s AI companies expand to Medellin, Colombia – gpgmail
August 21, 2019 administrator AI fund, andrew ng, artificial intelligence, Asia, Baidu, ceo, Chile, China, Colombia, Coursera, Egypt, Europe, founder, Google, healthcare, latin america, Medellin, poland, Startups, TC
After his tenure as Chief Scientist at Baidu, Andrew Ng, the founder of the Google Brain project and former CEO of Coursera, set up a number of different proejcts that all focus on making AI more approachable. These include the education startup Deeplearning.ai, the AI Fund startup studio for building AI companies and Landing.ai, which helps enterprises (and especially manufacturing companies) use AI. Today, Ng announced that he has opened a second office for these projects in Medellin, Colombia.
At first, Medellin may seem like an odd choice. But today’s Medellin is very different from the one you may have seen on Narcos (and a lot safer). It’s home to a number of universities and over the course of the last few years, it’s a hub for Colombia’s startup scene thanks to incubators like Ruta N and others.
Ng told me that he chose Medellin after looking at a wide range of cities in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Medellin, he believes, offers a strong talent pool, educational system and business ecosystem. it also helps that the Colombia government has made tech a focus in recent years.
“I see early signs of momentum for Colombia being a talent magnet both regionally and globally,” he told me. Indeed, the company was able to hire team members from Poland, Bangladesh, Egypt and Chile for its offices in Medellin, which now has just under 50 people. Over the course of the next two years, Ng plans to expand this team to between 150 and 200 employees.
It’s important, Ng argues, that we set up AI hubs outside of Silicon Valley and China, in part, because they’ll provide a different perspective. “We are able to share our AI ecosystem and Silicon Valley know-how with Medellín,” he writes in today’s announcement. “We’re equally thrilled for our Silicon Valley team to be learning from the Medellín community. Local knowledge and innovation shared with a global community is what will catapult the technology forward.”
The teams in Medellin will work on all of Ng’s projects, including four unannounced stealth portfolio companies that are looking into using AI in sectors like healthcare, education and customer support. In total, the teams in Medellin are working on about a dozen projects right now. And that’s very much Ng’s approach to AI — and for Landing.ai in particular: build lots of specialized components for various verticals that can then be generalized. “AI isn’t some piece of SaaS software that everybody can just swipe their credit card and use,” he said.
Andrew Ng will also join us for our first gpgmail Sessions: Enterprise event in San Francisco on September 5 to talk about Landing.ai and the future of AI in general. You can find more information about the event (and buy tickets) here.
Leave a comment Andrew, Colombia, companies, expand, gpgmail, Medellin, Ngs
Torch CEO and Well Clinic founder Cameron Yarbrough on mental health & coaching – gpgmail
August 19, 2019 administrator articles, ceo, coach, coaching, Column, Education, executive, executive coach, founder, Google, Health, Hiring, initialized capital, learning, mentorship, Personnel, software analytics, Software Engineer, software platform, soundcloud, Spotify, Startup company, Startups, Talent, therapist, Y Combinator
Chad M. Crabtree
There has long been a stigma associated with therapy and mental health coaching, a stigma that is even more pronounced in the business world, despite considerable evidence of the efficacy of these services. One of the organizations that has set out to change this negative association is Torch, a startup that combines the therapeutic benefits of executive coaching with data-driven analytics to track outcomes.
Yet, as Torch co-founder and CEO Cameron Yarbrough explains in this Breaking Into Startups episode, the startup wasn’t initially a tech-oriented enterprise. At first, Yarbrough drew on his years of experience as a marriage and family counselor as he made the transition into executive coaching, even referring to the early iterations of Torch as little more than “a matchmaking service between coaches and professionals.”
In time, Yarbrough identified a virtually untapped market for executive coaching — one that, by his estimate, could amount to a $15 billion industry. To demonstrate to investors the great potential of this growing market, he first built up a clientele that provided Torch with sufficient recurring revenue and low churn rate.
Only then was Yarbrough able to raise a $2.4 million seed round from Initialized Capital, Y Combinator, and other investors, convincing them that data analytics software could enhance the coaching process — as well as coach recruitment — enough to effectively “productize feedback,” as he puts it.
For Yarbrough and Torch, “productizing feedback” involves certain well-known business strategies that complement traditional coaching methods. For instance, Torch’s coaching procedure includes a “360 review,” a performance review system that incorporates feedback from all angles, including an employee’s manager, peers, and other people within an organization who have knowledge of the employee’s work.
The 360 review is coupled with an OKR platform, which provides HR departments and other interested parties with the metrics and analytics to track employee progress through the program. This combination is designed to promote the development of soft skills, which in turn drive leadership.
Torch has achieved considerable success, landing several influential clients in the tech sector through its B2B approach. But Yarbrough is clear that his goal with the company is to “democratize” access to professional coaching, in hopes of providing the same kind of mental health counseling and support to employees in all levels of an organization.
In this episode, Yarbrough discusses the history and trajectory of Torch, his experience scaling a company many considered unscalable, and the methods he uses to manage his own emotional and mental health as the CEO of an expanding startup. Yarbrough offers insights into the feelings of anxiety and dread common among entrepreneurs and provides a close look at how he has found business and personal success with Torch.
Breaking Into Startups: There’s a difference between a mentor and a coach. Today, I want to talk about that difference and in addition to the intersection between business and psychology, What Cameron Yarbrough, CEO of Torch and Founder of Well Clinic.
If you’re someone that is looking for a mentor or a coach as you break into tech, or if you just want to be surrounded by peers, make sure you download the Career Karma app by going to www.breakingintostartups.com/download.
On today’s episode, you’re going to understand the importance of therapy, mental health and coaches, as well as how historically, it has been inaccessible to people and how Cameron is using his background to democratize this for the world.
If this is your first time listening to the Breaking Startups Podcast, make sure you leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends. Listen to it on Soundcloud and talk about it on Spotify. If you have any feedback for us, positive or negative, please let us know. Without further ado, let’s break-in.
Cameron Yarbrough is the CEO of Torch. He’s one of the best executive coaches in the world. Not only are we going to be talking about coaching and mentoring for executives, but we’ll also be talking about coaching in general for everyone. We’re going to go into how he created his company.
Leave a comment Cameron, CEO, Clinic, coaching, founder, gpgmail, Health, mental, Torch, Yarbrough
Amazon customers say they received emails for other people’s orders – gpgmail
August 16, 2019 administrator Amazon, computing, eCommerce, email, founder, Privacy, Publishing, Security, spokesperson, world wide web
Users have said they are receiving emails from Amazon containing invoices and order updates on other customers, gpgmail has learned.
Jake Williams, founder of cybersecurity firm Rendition Infosec, raised the alarm after he received an email from Amazon addressed to another customer with their name, postal address, and their order details.
Williams said he ordered something months ago which recently became available for shipping. He checked the email headers to make sure it was a genuine message.
“I think they legitimately intended to email me a notification that my item was shipping early,” he said. “I just think they screwed something up in the system and sent the updates to the wrong people.”
He said the apparent security lapse was worrying because emails about orders sent to the wrong place is a “serious breach of trust” that can reveal private information about a customer’s life, such as sexual orientation, proclivities, or other personal information
Several other Amazon customers also said they received emails seemingly meant for other people.
“I made an order yesterday afternoon and received her email last night,” another customer who tweeted about the mishap told gpgmail. “Luckily I’m not a malicious person but that’s a huge security issue,” she said.
Another customer tweeted out about receiving an email meant for someone else. He said he spoke to Amazon customer service who said they will investigate additional security issues.
“Hope you didn’t send my sensitive account info to someone else,” he added.
And, one other customer posted a tweet thread about the issue, saying they spoke to a supervisor about the issue who gave a “nonchalant” response, she wrote. She said the supervisor said the issue happens frequently.
A spokesperson for Amazon did not return a request for comment when we asked how many customers were affected and if the company plans on informing customers of the breach. If we hear back, we’ll update.
It’s the second security lapse in a year. In November the company emailed customers saying a “technical error” had exposed an unknown number of their email addresses. When asked about specifics, the notoriously secretive company declined to comment further.
Leave a comment Amazon, customers, Emails, gpgmail, orders, peoples, received
Group dating app 3fun exposed sensitive data on 1.5 million users – gpgmail
August 8, 2019 administrator apps, Central Intelligence Agency, computing, dating apps, Def Con 2019, founder, online dating, pen test partners, Privacy, Security, Software
More than 1.5 million users of a group dating service had their personal data exposed — including their real-time location — because of a vulnerability in the app.
The app, 3fun, bills itself as a “private space” where you can meet “local kinky, open-minded people.” But the data wasn’t private at all. Ken Munro, founder of Pen Test Partners, which published the research Thursday and shared its findings with gpgmail, said it was “probably the worst security for any dating app we’ve ever seen.”
Pen Test Partners researchers found the app was leaking the precise location, photos and other personal details of any nearby user.
Worse, because the app wasn’t properly secured, the researchers found they could plug in any coordinates they wanted to spoof their location, revealing sensitive information on anyone within any location of their choosing, including government buildings, military bases, and even intelligence agencies.
gpgmail ran the same tests as Pen Test Partners and confirmed its findings. We were able to modify our current geolocation to any set of coordinates we wanted — including the White House and the CIA.
Using a man-in-the-middle tool like Burp Suite, we could capture our real location, manipulate it in transit on the way to the server, and receive a batch of data for that location.
One of the exposed user records (left) and an approximate representation of several users (right).
We found profiles of users at both locations, including their sexual preferences — including sexual orientation and their preferred matches; their age; username and their partner’s username; their bio — many of which included expansive, specific and personal information on the user; and their full-resolution profile picture. In some cases, dates of birth were also exposed.
None of the data was encrypted. The researchers called the app a “privacy train wreck.”
The researchers contacted 3fun on July 1 to report the bugs. Munro said the app maker took weeks to fix the issues.
We emailed 3fun with several questions, but spokesperson Jennifer White did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s the latest app to fall foul of proper security standards in recent months. Jewish dating app JCrush left 200,000 user records exposed in June following a security lapse. Last year on its launch day, conservative dating app Donald Daters exposed its entire user base — at the time some 1,600 users — after leaving a set of hardcoded keys in its app, which was quickly found after a security researcher decompiled the app.
Another dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel, was breached on Valentine’s Day, no less.
Well, that’s one way to a person’s heart — hacking their dating profile.
Leave a comment 3fun, app, data, dating, exposed, gpgmail, group, million, sensitive, users
PodcastOne is launching LaunchpadDM, a free hosting platform for independent podcasters – gpgmail
August 7, 2019 administrator Apple, digital audio, digital media, founder, Los Angeles, podcast, Podcasting, Spotify, TC, world wide web
PodcastOne, the celebrity podcasting network from the founder of radio powerhouse WestwoodOne, is launching a free hosting platform for podcasters.
The Los Angeles-based syndicated podcasting platform, which counts athletes, politicians, talk radio, and reality television stars like Adam Carolla, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Austin, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Dan Patrick, Spencer and Heidi Pratt, Jim Harbaugh, Ladygang, Dr. Drew, Chael Sonnen, Rich Eisen, Barbara Boxer, is angling to get insight into potential new talent through the venture.
“We will see which podcasts are performing well and offer them the opportunity to partner and grow with PodcastOne, and provide them with all the resources the network offers, including production, talent booking, promotion, a dedicated sales team and more,” said PodcastOne chief executive, Peter Morris, in a statement. “As the leading ad-supported podcast network, we are embracing the over 700,000 podcasts out there, and are here to support the long-term growth of independent podcasters.”
Called Launchpad Digital Media, the new hosting service is pitching podcasters a free platform including unlimited hosting; access to analytics including listenership, geography, and device data; total ownership of direct monetization channels for a podcast’s subscriber base, and complete control over how podcasts are distributed via Apple, Spotify or other services.
The company is also billing itself as a discovery platform, offering free promotion for the services various podcasts across its own network of popular podcasting talent.
“Over the years, people have shared with us how hard it can be out there in the desert of independent podcasting: you have to pay to host and get your podcast heard; you get no help in discoverability; you’re scared to leave and stop paying your hosting platform because you might lose your subscribers; and it’s virtually impossible to get noticed by a major podcast network who can help you take your hard work to the next level,” said Morris, in a statement. “Launchpad was built with the independent podcaster in mind. We wanted to help solve these problems… for free.”
Since nothing is actually free, and since PodcastOne wants to get paid, the catch is the company’s own ability to insert pre- and mid-roll advertising into podcasts that are hosted on the new service.
So podcasters can manage their direct advertising, but they give PodcastOne the ability to slot in ads that the company chooses across any of the podcasts that agree to be hosted on the service. It gives the company access to both marquee talent for high value, big spending advertisers, and a way to flood other podcasts with whatever ads the company wants.
Ads that LaunchpadDM inserts won’t be longer than two total minutes per episode and podcasters can determine the location of the midroll spot when uploading the episode.
Leave a comment Free, gpgmail, hosting, independent, launching, LaunchpadDM, platform, podcasters, PodcastOne
StockX admits ‘suspicious activity’ led to resetting passwords without warning – gpgmail
August 1, 2019 administrator computer security, founder, Password, phishing, Security, Startups, stockx
StockX, a popular site for buying and selling sneakers and other apparel, has admitted it reset customer passwords after it was “alerted to suspicious activity” on its site, despite telling users it was a result of “system updates.”
“We recently completed system updates on the StockX platform,” said the email to customers sent to gpgmail on Thursday. The email provided a link to a password reset page but said nothing more.
The company was only last month valued at over $1 billion after a $110 million fundraise.
Companies reset passwords all the time for various reasons. Some security teams obtain lists of previously breached passwords that make their way online, scramble them in the same format that the company stores passwords, and find matches. By triggering the reset, it prevents passwords stolen from other sites from being used against one of a company’s own customers. In less than desirable circumstances, passwords are reset following a data breach.
But the company admitted it was not “system updates” as it had told its customers.
“StockX was recently alerted to suspicious activity potentially involving our platform,” said StockX spokesperson Katy Cockrel. “Out of an abundance of caution, we implemented a security update and proactively asked our community to update their account passwords.”
“We are continuing to investigate,” said the spokesperson.
The password reset email sent by StockX on Thursday. (Image: supplied)
We asked several follow-up questions — including who alerted StockX to the suspicious activity, if any customer data was compromised, and why it misrepresented the reason for the password reset. We’ll have more when we know it.
Throughout the day customers were tweeting screenshots of the email, worried that their accounts had been compromised. Others questioned whether the email was genuine or if it was part of a phishing attack.
“Did they get hacked, find out somehow, and then to cover it up send out that email and ask for a password change?” one of the affected customers told gpgmail.
Customers were given no prior warning of the password reset.
StockX founder Josh Luber kept with the company’s line, telling a customer in a tweet that the password reset was “legit” but did not respond to users asking why.
StockX tweeted back to several customers with a boilerplate response: “The password reset email you received is legitimate and came from our team,” and to contact the support email with any questions. We did just that — from our gpgmail email address — and heard nothing back hours later.
Security experts expressed doubt that a company would reset passwords over a “systems update” as StockX had claimed.
Security researcher John Wethington said it is “rare” to see security overhauls that require password resets. “You wouldn’t just send out a random email about it,” he said. Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, said it was “bad communication” in any case.
Several took to Twitter to criticize StockX for its handling of the password reset.
One customer called the email “fishy,” another called it “suspicious,” and another called on the company to explain why they had to reset passwords in this unorthodox way. Another said in a tweet that he asked StockX twice but “refused to provide an answer.”
“Guess I’m closing my account,” he said.
Slack resets user passwords after 2015 data breach
Capital One breach also hit other major companies, say researchers
An exposed password let a hacker access internal Comodo files
Security lapse exposed weak points on Honda’s internal network
Cryptocurrency loan site YouHodler exposed unencrypted user credit cards and transactions
Leave a comment activity, admits, gpgmail, led, passwords, resetting, StockX, suspicious, warning
Mobile messaging financial advisory service, Stackin, adds banking features and raises cash – gpgmail
July 29, 2019 administrator Banking, computing, credit scoring, Experian, Finance, founder, Information technology, Los Angeles, market research, personal finance, radius bank, social leverage, TC, TechStars, Twilio, uproxx, wavemaker partners
When Stackin initially pitched itself as part of Techstars Los Angeles accelerator program two years ago, the company was a video platform for financial advice targeting a millennial audience too savvy for traditional advisory services.
Now, nearly two years later, the company has pivoted from video to text-based financial advice for its millennial audience and is offering a new spin on lead generation for digital banks.
The company has launched a new, no-fee, checking and savings account feature in partnership with Radius Bank, which offers users a 1% annual percentage yield on deposits.
And Stackin has raised $4 million in new cash from Experian Ventures, Dig Ventures and Cherry Tree Investments, along with supplemental commitments from new and previous investors including Social Leverage, Wavemaker Partners, and Mucker Capital.
“Stackin’ has a unique and highly effective approach to connect and communicate with an entire generation of younger consumers around finance,” said Ty Taylor, Group President of Global Consumer Services at Experian, in a statement.
Founded two years ago by Scott Grimes, the former founder of Uproxx Media, and Kyle Arbaugh, who served as a senior vice president at Uproxx, Stackin initially billed itself as the Uproxx of personal finance.
It turns out that consumers didn’t want another video platform.
“Stackin’ is fundamentally changing the shape and context of what a financial relationship means by creating a fun, inclusive and judgement free environment that empowers our users to learn and take action through messaging,” said Scott Grimes, CEO and co-founder of Stackin’, in a statement. “This funding allows us to build out new features around banking and investing that will enhance the relationship with our customers.”
Later this fall the company said it would launch a new investment feature that will encourage Stackin users to participate in the stock market. It’s likely that this feature will look something like the Acorns model, which encourages users to invest in diversified financial vehicles to get them acquainted with the stock market before enabling individual trades on stocks.
According to Grimes, the company made the switch from video to text in March 2018 and built a custom messaging platform on Twilio to service the company’s 500,000 users.
“In a short time, we have built a large customer base with a demographic that is typically hard to reach. Having financial institutions like Experian come on board as an investor is a testament that this model is working,” Grimes wrote in an email.
Leave a comment adds, advisory, banking, cash, Features, financial, gpgmail, Messaging, Mobile, raises, service, Stackin
Lenovo is developing a new VR headset – Blog – 10 minute
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Home » News » Press Releases » Honduras: US Outrage Sparked at Risk of Election Theft: Rights groups issue a joint statement; rally to pressure US, Honduras governments for transparency
Honduras: US Outrage Sparked at Risk of Election Theft: Rights groups issue a joint statement; rally to pressure US, Honduras governments for transparency
By: Grassroots International | December 1, 2017
A color photo of many Honduran police, military and police walk outside the Electoral Supreme Court where Alianza Party protesters gather. On the gate it says, "We All Vote for Honduras" - Photo Credit: I AM BERTA FILM, Sam Vinal
Media contacts: Jonathan Leaning w: 617-524-1400, cell: 857-719-9789, jleaning@grassrootsonline.org
Elise Roberts: cell: 920.421.2269, elise@witnessforpeace.org
(Boston, MA) Outraged at the possibility of the theft of Honduras’ election by the discredited current administration, US rights groups are rallying to urge the US to press Honduras for electoral transparency.
Elise Roberts, National Coordinator of Witness for Peace, stated: “As we return from two weeks observing and documenting in Honduras, our concerns about the Honduran electoral process and broader state violence and corruption continue to deepen. We’ve heard testimony of ongoing intimidation through use of US-funded security forces, incidents of fraud and violence at polling places, use of US-made munitions against anti-fraud protesters, and a total lack of transparency about the electoral process. Our partners in Honduras describe this process as the final phase of the coup, endorsed by US support and funding. Now more than ever, Honduras needs the people and government of the US to stand with them, to support independent, credible investigations into the electoral fraud and state violence, and to immediately cut all US funding to Honduran security forces.”
“The US government’s collusion in the Honduras coup of 2009 has resulted in eight years of massive violence, spiraling poverty, and the brutal suppression of dissent. We, as US-based groups, cannot allow the US and Honduran governments to repeat this horrific tragedy of undermining democracy,” stated Chung-Wha Hong, Executive Director of Grassroots International. “Too many lives are at stake. Democracy is at stake.”
US rights groups joining the call for transparency include Witness for Peace/Acción Permanente por la Paz, Grassroots International, Code Pink, Friendship Office of the Americas, School of the Americas Watch, and the number continues to grow.
Worldwide media reports are multiplying of suspicious electoral tampering of Honduras’ election results by the ruling party which hand-picked the nation’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). Nonetheless, the Chief Magistrate of the TSE, Mario Lobo, appeared to be bucking the trend when he announced late Wednesday that the official results are suspect, casting doubt on official claims of a win by incumbent candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez, of the incumbent National Party.
Up until Tuesday at 5pm, the head of the TSE, Mr. Lobo, had stated that “the winning tendency of the opposition is irreversible.” This announcement was followed by 24 hours of silence from the TSE, at the end of which the TSE unexpectedly claimed that the vote was now favoring the incumbent Mr. Hernandez. Suspicions of fraud have sparked massive outcry and protests across the country, accompanied by heavy-handed deployment of the military across the nation.
“Campesin@s and Indigenous Peoples showed up at the polls, in spite of voter intimidation, outright violence and attacks from the Honduran military, because they are defending their land and their human rights and they want change,” stated Cindy Wiesner, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. “The world is watching again, just as we witnessed the illegal coup from 2009. We cannot allow the undermining of the democratic will of the Honduran people.”
To view the sign-on letter in its entirety and the latest list of endorsing organizations, click here.
Berta Cáceres
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Marseille ‘Runseeing’ Tour
This is a ‘runseeing tour’ of Marseille. It’s possible to see many of the city’s important sites in a 4-5 mile run. There are multiple options, each starting from the grand City Hall (Hôtel de Ville), which also has a metro stop. These streets are all runnable, with good sidewalks, but some are narrow so best to go early on a busy day. We’ve replicated elements of this recommended Marseille Walking Tour.
Short Run: 6.3 km/3.9 miles. Start at Hôtel de Ville, and enjoy a jaunt along the north side of the Old Port (Qaui de Port). Then do a loop around the Mémorial des Camps de la Mort, the Église Saint-Laurent, and the landmark Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, which opened in 2013. Run for about a 1.5 km (1 mile) along the port, past the Cathédrale La Major. Turn around at Place Henri Verneil and run by the baroque Vieille Charite and the Maison de la Boule. The last bit is along the streets of historic Marseille: make your way to Rue du Poirier, and Grande Rue.
Long Run: 10 km/6.2 miles: Add on from the Hôtel de Ville, a run to Notre-Dame de la Garde. This adds a bit less than 4 km roundtrip and is quite hilly, but rewarding. Run briefly along the south side of the Vieux-Port, then left on the Rue Fort Notre Dame, and then up the hilly Montee de l-Oratoire, to the summit, at the grand basilica at the city’s highest point, crowned by golden statue of the Virgin Mary by Lequesne. Great views! For the return, take the Montée Commandant René Valentin (stairs), and then the Boulevard Tellene, passing the medieval Abbaye Saint-Victor, ending the route with a final jaunt along the Quai de Rive Neuve.
Add-On: For more Marseille sightseeing, we’ve developed a ~3 mile route of the Canebière, the main commercial center of the city, and several nearby pedestrian-only roads.
Short option: 6.3 km (3.9 miles); Long option: 10 km (6.2 miles)
550 feet for longer version
Hôtel de Ville, or other convenient spot along route
Metro: Hôtel de Ville
Route Map: Short and Long Options Walking Tour Map
Kennedy Corniche Coastal Run
The signature run in Marseille, from Pharo Cove near the Old Fort to Prado Beach. Great views... more...
All Marseille, France Routes
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I'm looking forward to reading a new Powerline-recommended book by John Tamny, "They're Both Wrong," which promises to poke holes in conventional wisdom on both sides of the political aisle. I had to stop while still in the Foreword to quote from John Tierney, who argues that what distinguishes capitalists from bureaucrats is that they're punished for failure and therefore learn from it:
As Tamny explains, the populist revolts in the United States and other countries are not driven by a disdain for science or learning. The populists don't object to expertise in itself, but rather to the mistakes that conceited experts keep foisting on the public.... Tamny keenly appreciates the original definition of "conventional wisdom," John Kenneth Galbraith's term for beliefs that are popular not because they're correct, but because they're comfortable--and comfortable for the right people in power.
By Texan99 on Saturday, November 09, 2019 4 comments
"Cuba without the sun"
Conrad Black is confident that British voters don't really want to make their political and economic life even drearier.
Unless the British voters plumb a new depth in perversity, Mr. Johnson should win a sizable majority, little of the London financial industry will depart, and there will be a thunderous in-rush of capital investment to celebrate Britain’s increasing proximity to the United States and reconfirmation as a low-tax country, especially the rejection of the Labor Party’s outright advocacy of widespread nationalization of industry, sharply higher taxes in upper personal income brackets, increased powers to organized labour, and wild fiscal incontinence.
Welcome Back, Cassandra
I was amused to see her getting away with just slipping back into the comments here, but it's a sufficiently momentous event that it deserves recognition. Our old friend has decided to spend some time with us, much to my great happiness. Give her an appropriate welcome.
By Grim on Saturday, November 09, 2019 6 comments
The hits keep on coming
Ace of Spades HQ notes that Christopher Steele has a new hoax out.
By Texan99 on Friday, November 08, 2019 0 comments
Pssh... Okay, Boomer.
Just read what this hateful, racist, transphobic jerk dared to say about woke culture!
By MikeD on Friday, November 08, 2019 6 comments
Honoring Rick Rescorla
I was pleased to see this.
You Owe Us Eight Bucks. We'll Take Your Home Instead.
The state government of Michigan commits a tremendous moral wrong, but not a crime.
The Worst Mistake
If the American Revolution devastated the globe, as per the book reviewed a few days ago, it wasn't the first time: civilization itself was the first, and worst, mistake.
All this cave painting, migrating, and repainting of newly found caves came to an end roughly twelve thousand years ago, with what has been applauded as the “Neolithic Revolution.” Lacking pack animals and perhaps tired of walking, humans began to settle down in villages and eventually walled cities; they invented agriculture and domesticated many of the wild animals whose ancestors had figured so prominently in cave art. They learned to weave, brew beer, smelt ore, and craft ever-sharper blades.
But whatever comforts sedentism brought came at a terrible price: property, in the form of stored grain and edible herds, segmented societies into classes—a process anthropologists prudently term “social stratification”—and seduced humans into warfare. War led to the institution of slavery, especially for the women of the defeated side (defeated males were usually slaughtered) and stamped the entire female gender with the stigma attached to concubines and domestic servants. Men did better, at least a few of them, with the most outstanding commanders rising to the status of kings and eventually emperors. Wherever sedentism and agriculture took hold, from China to South and Central America, coercion by the powerful replaced cooperation among equals. In Jared Diamond’s blunt assessment, the Neolithic Revolution was “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.”
Her thesis about the cave paintings, by the way, is that they were admirations of beings much more powerful than humans were at that time. Humans posed no threats to bison and lions, so they adored them from afar, effacing themselves but drawing the megafauna with loving attention. It was the attitude of 'meat that knows it is meat,' a kind of humility to which she would like humanity to return.
Ranger Up: "If Not Us, Who?"
By Grim on Wednesday, November 06, 2019 5 comments
The Sonoran murders were unspeakable, but this story deserves our attention.
The Life Of An Agent (Az ügynök élete)
Grim's post with a link to a piece about a KGB training manual reminded me to share with you all something I came across in Budapest this past Summer at Memento Park, where many of the Soviet era statues and monuments were moved for display. They also have a recreated barrack from an internment camp (which was in August, appropriately unbearably hot), within which they have exhibited a brief history of the Communist era in Hungary, along with the history of the park itself, and a small theater room running the movie "The Life of an Agent" on a loop. It's an interesting film. It seems to be a compilation of training film clips from various periods in the communist era, for the AVH (Pre 1956) and the Interior Ministry (After the '56 revolution). It's kind of a fun, yet sobering reminder of how a totalitarian society operates. Of course, today there's no need for such an apparatus. We have social media and digital traces for governments to surveil us, if they like. Enjoy.
By douglas on Wednesday, November 06, 2019 5 comments
Feasting Abroad
Our friend and Chicago Boyz blogger David Foster joined me today at Hill Country Barbecue, D.C. This is my favorite restaurant in the city. Bands traveling from the Austin area up to New York City to perform often stop in and play on the way up or the way back, so there are great live music performances in the evenings on a regular basis. The meat is fantastic, and when there isn't live music there's still pretty good music on the sound system.
Plus, it's one of the few places in D.C. that has made a point of refusing to unseat people for their political views, so it's an authentically American joint.
We had a good meal and conversation. I don't think he'll contradict me in recommending the place to any of you who pass through town.
Bee Stung ...
I think I've heard it said in a movie that every con has a mark, and if you don't know who the mark is, it's you. Or maybe it was the sucker in a poker game. Either way.
I read the article "Libs Triggered After Ben Shapiro LITERALLY STEAMROLLS A Bunch Of SNOWFLAKE College Students" at the nation's paper of record and, though I laughed, couldn't figure out who the target of their parody was. Remembering those sage words of advice from a movie I think I saw once, I've decided it has to be me.
Graphs like this:
"Often, [Shapiro] philosophically steamrolls them, crushing them with facts and logic. But this time, he literally steamrolled them with a 15,000-pound road roller. That's right: Shapiro rented a giant steamroller and went to town!
"Go Shappy! Go Shappy!"
could have been stolen right from my mind! I would absolutely cheer like that if Shapiro went after a triggered snowflake with a steamroller. There are more examples, but it would be too creepy to quote them all.
The only question now is -- Is the Babylon Bee reading my mind or planting the thoughts there?
The USSR Leads the World in Steel Production
... and other ways Lies Don't Work, otherwise known as "it's really not a good idea to silence the feedback signal," from Sarah Hoyt:
Well, now I think about it, most feedback is annoying.
Economics is full of it — as are other economic systems — and humans find it so annoying they have devised various means of shutting it down, and then become puzzled and do crazy stuff when the system goes out of control.
People Learned About Her Record as a Prosecutor?
Politico ponders a question: How did Kamala Harris go from 'the female Obama' to fifth place?
I mean, for me it was her record as a prosecutor. You want to take a former prosecutor who held back exculpatory information even in death row cases, and put her in charge of the secret police? Thanks but no thanks.
Harris undermined her national introduction with costly flubs on health care, feeding a critique that she lacks a strong ideological core and plays to opinion polls and the desires of rich donors. She was vague or noncommittal on question after question from voters at campaign stops. She leaned on verbal crutches instead of hammering her main points in high-profile TV moments. The deliberate, evidence-intensive way she arrives at decisions—one of her potential strengths in a matchup with Trump—often made her look wobbly and unprepared.
Harris today has another explanation for her inability to get voters to see her as the next president: what she’s calling the “donkey in the room.” Before a few hundred people on a chilly October night in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny, surrounded by hay bales and framed by the Iowa flag, she wondered aloud: “Is America ready for that? Are they ready for a woman of color to be president?
So nothing about "she proved to be a tyrant who couldn't be trusted with power"? I'm pretty sure she got explicitly dinged for that in the debates by Tulsi Gabbard. Not even a mention? (When the piece gets to her prosecutorial record, it describes her as "cautious," and accuses Tulsi of 'lacking context' or being 'misleading.')
"Go East! Go East!"
I'm still ruminating about the level of panic I detected in an old friend when we caught up with each other at a reunion of four former colleagues a couple of weeks ago. She was genuinely distressed to hear I could possibly be a Trump supporter, and obviously also quite seriously alarmed by talk of the end of the world from climate change. This is an intelligent, well-educated, strong-minded woman. My own distress stems from how easy it seems to be for our own friends, neighbors, and relatives to go so far off the deep end.
For a tale of irrational panic, it's hard to beat James Thurber's account in "My Life and Hard Times" of the Great Easter Flood of 1913, in which the residents of Columbus, Ohio, somehow got the idea an upstream dam had failed, releasing floodwaters that were about to engulf them. Thousands of people hit the streets and stampeded. We're only superficially rational in a pinch.
I ran across this reference in the comments section to an Althouse piece about anti-Trumpers who find the prospect of his second term "literally unthinkable." "Who are these people," some of them wondered, "who support Trump?" One commenter mused, "Oh, I don't know, a bunch of deplorables, about 60M, give or take." He thought it was odd so many anti-Trumpers never seemed to have met one, there being, you know, quite a few around. Another commenter suggested that the right response on the morning after Election Day 2020 would be to run outside shouting "Go East! Go East!" in the manner of the terrified residents of 1913 Columbus.
While we're waiting for the collapse of civilization, here are two enchanting images. First, Kurt Suzuki in a MAGA hat at the prow of the Titanic shouting "I'm King of the World!" with the Racist-Homophobe-in-Chief embracing him fondly.
I assume Mr. Suzuki is looking to be traded to a team in flyover country. Speaking of which, here is a gem from Twitter: a small storm of derision triggered by some poor schmuck who posted a snapshot aerial view of farmland, with the puzzled comment that it was pretty, but he had no idea why it looked all patchworky and rectangular like that--thus demonstrating once and for all why we have the Electoral College. One commenter suggested the strange look was because flyover country doesn't get broadband reception and is permanently pixilated. Another mourned the necessity to chop up the ground like that just to grow food, instead of producing it in grocery stores the way they did in her blue-model city.
A Field Guide to Prospective Traitors
Via Wretchard, a KGB manual for identifying those likely to turn. Disaffected officials are the big target: "losers who think they are winners because they hang on to important positions."
"The Evil Repercussions of the American Revolution"
The NYT reviews a book subtitled How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe. Although the reviewer calls the piece "enthralling," he does admit that there is a reliance on a kind of 'butterfly effect' that readers might find unconvincing. By the conclusion there is simply not a conviction in the case. The reviewer writes:
This is a pity. Having proposed such an audacious thesis, and collected a lot of interesting but not self-evidently cohesive or decisive information, the book needs to draw its ideas together and make its case that the American Revolution devastated the globe. As it is, though much of the material here is lively, enjoyable and compelling, the thesis is not persuasive.
Well, maybe the next time. We'll keep trying the case until we get the right result. That's how things are done, right?
If property is theft, theft is woke
The Atlantic takes a story about neighbors collaborating with surveillance devices, a "Nextdoor" neighborhood website, and cooperation with the police to stop a string of petty doorstep thefts, and turns it into an exposé of plutocratic racism in San Franscisco. The "porch pirate" is amazed that society got it together to stop her, as frankly am I. The writer clearly thinks we should concentrate on large financial frauds and let the minor stuff go, because the offender doesn't have a nice life, what with the drug addiction and all, so what's she supposed to do but steal? Society has left her few options. "Who is she supposed to steal from, if not from us?"
We used to own the Mammoth Megaphone!
Robert Reich is in anguish over how somebody ejected his beloved media from its gatekeeper seat. While you weren't paying attention, Facebook and Twitter became uncontested conduits for Trump's lies to 65 million people. Stop laughing. It's serious business! Even the evil Fox News reaches only a few million daily. I blame myself. I had no idea Facebook and Twitter were in the bag for conservatives.
Antitrust should be used against Facebook and Twitter. They should be broken up.
So instead of two mammoth megaphones trumpeting Trump’s lies, or those of any similarly truth-challenged successor, the public will have more diverse sources of information, some of which will expose the lies.
Now, this isn't a bad idea in itself. It's just a couple of decades late, and backwards. No doubt some self-knowledge will creep into Reich's psyche soon. Any day now he could remember both the text and the rationale of the First Amendment.
By Texan99 on Sunday, November 03, 2019 10 comments
Who does he think he is?
Vindman is a little concerned. WaPo reports somberly that
he was deeply troubled by what he interpreted as an attempt by the president to subvert U.S. foreign policy....
What's next? An attempt by the guy in the Oval Office to exercise the veto power? When will the Resistance wake up to this cancer on the Republic?
Nacho candidate
From the Bee:
U.S.—Presidential candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke has announced he is dropping out of the presidential race so that he can spend more time taking guns away from his family. “I’ve been so focused on grabbing the guns of strangers,” O’Rourke told the press, “that I’ve neglected taking away the guns of those closest to me.”
You Owe Us Eight Bucks. We'll Take Your Home Inste...
"The Evil Repercussions of the American Revolution...
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Sponsored: Cataract management: advanced technology IOLs
Clinical experiences in iliac branch endoprothesis
Do extra gloves prevent needle stick injuries?
Joint hypermobility and lumbar disc herniation
Spinal implant rigidity and time: a conundrum
Diagnostic systems to warn of AKI
Tarek Abdelaziz
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a key challenge for healthcare systems in developed countries with ageing populations and current systems for its earlier detection are discussed
Tarek Abdelaziz MRCP
Jyoti Bahrani FRCP
Mark Thomas FRCP
Department of Renal Medicine,
Heart of England Foundation Trust,
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is the Cinderella of modern healthcare. Its ‘Cinderella’ nature is demonstrated by the number of excess deaths due to AKI in England alone – more than 40,000 per annum.1 This compares, for example, to about 35,000 deaths yearly in the entire UK from lung cancer, yet many health policy makers or members of the public have not even heard of AKI. Patients die due to AKI and not just from their comorbid conditions.2
The condition is known to cause increased mortality, length of stay and inpatient costs. Between 15% and 20% of all hospitalised patients develop AKI.3 Across all three stages, about 25% of patients with AKI will die.2 AKI-related inpatient care alone (ignoring outpatient costs) is estimated at 1% of the total NHS budget.1 AKI occurs in different medical and surgical settings, being caused by common factors such as hypovolaemia, dehydration, sepsis and drugs.4 The term AKI was introduced to replace the old term acute renal failure (ARF), emphasising that moderate derangement of kidney function often occurs without frank renal failure and the need for dialysis.
Until very recently, care of patients with AKI has often been very poor.5 In particular, in the UK the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD)5 in 2009 showed poor care for AKI, leading to a sea change in attitudes to AKI. This report also led to the development of NICE guidelines on AKI4 and a national programme aimed at improving AKI care in the UK.
The definition of AKI
There is a clear need to have a single pragmatic definition of AKI to enable clinicians and researchers to unify the management across different healthcare systems. In 2011, the International Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) group merged the previous sister definitions RIFLE and AKIN, to produce the current definition, as shown in Table 1.6 Creatinine is a by-product of muscle metabolism, filtered from the blood by the kidneys and excreted in the urine. Its blood concentration is used to estimate the level of kidney filtration (and therefore function).
This is called the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). At the onset of AKI, assuming a simple single insult to the kidneys such as a period of ischaemia, the GFR will drop rapidly to a very low level. Serum creatinine then rises over hours to days. Some AKI patients sustain multiple renal insults over a prolonged period, complicating the assessment of renal function. The creatinine rise used to detect AKI is measured as a percentage or an absolute rise. The complexities of using changes in creatinine levels to diagnose AKI are discussed in detail elsewhere.2 Therefore, looking at the KDIGO definition of AKI (Table 1), it can be seen that a sudden rise in creatinine, either in absolute terms (≥26µmol/l within 48 hours) or in percentage terms (≥50% within seven days) is used to detect AKI.2 Note that AKI can be ‘detected’ as soon as the creatinine rise reaches the specified level. The maximum extent of AKI or stage can only be identified retrospectively when the creatinine value peaks.
Systems to detect the sick patient with or at risk of AKI
Early warning scores (EWS)
There has been considerable work in critical care to develop and implement physiological track and trigger systems for hospital inpatients, using patient observations or vital signs.7 In the care of the deteriorating patient with abnormal signs these trigger the ‘afferent limb’ or warning mechanism. The need to have an effective response or ‘efferent limb’ led to the development of medical emergency teams or critical care outreach teams. Systematic reviews have shown that such rapid response teams reduce cardiac arrests. Although they have been widely adopted, there is in fact no clear evidence that they reduce hospital mortality in adults.7–9
EWS and AKI
EWS might have two roles in the field – as part of a system to detect patients at risk of AKI, or to prevent deterioration in patients with AKI. A combination of age, certain vital signs (respiratory rate and disturbed consciousness) and the presence of certain clinical conditions (chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, congestive cardiac failure and liver disease) can identify patients at high risk of AKI.10 Electronic vital signs monitoring may in future combine with the electronic patient record and lab testing to reduce the occurrence and severity of AKI. However, at present there is little or no evidence of the cost-effectiveness of either electronic vital signs monitoring or rapid response systems.7
Oliguria in AKI
In AKI there is a fall in urine output (oliguria). Oliguria is not easy to detect in a patient on a busy hospital ward, particularly if they do not have a urinary catheter. Oliguria was traditionally defined as a urine output of less than 400ml/day, equivalent to 0.24ml/kg/hr in a 70kg patient. The recent KDIGO definition of oliguria is a urine output of <0.5ml/kg/hr for more than six hours.6 It is important to monitor urine output in certain AKI patients, as reversal of any hypovolaemia guided by the urine output monitoring will prevent further worsening of AKI. Various electronic urine output-monitoring systems are available for critical care use. They have advantages over the manual measurement. A crucial issue is the time such systems take to detect a drop in urine output. Obviously hourly ‘manual’ measurement in critical care will take at least one hour to detect a change. Electronic measurement in critical care may allow detection in less than 15 minutes.11 This may improve the timeliness of response to hypovolaemia.
Electronic alerts in AKI
The concept of electronic alerts utilises information technology to automatically detect the rises in creatinine, based on the KDIGO criteria.6 Alert systems rapidly detect AKI, unlike doctors who often may be slow to register changes in creatinine.12 An alert system will automatically compare the present result to the archived results of the patient, as far back as the previous year.13 Alert use has been successful in changing clinician behaviour and outcome, with reductions in nephrotoxic medication use in AKI.14,15 Moreover, the use of alerts in critical care has successfully increased interventions in AKI.16 Options for warnings include:
(a) A passive alert, such as a warning statement with AKI stage as an addendum to the creatinine result, which might contain a hyperlink to the local AKI clinical guideline (Figure 1).
(b) An interruptive alert requiring the clinician to acknowledge the alert.
(c) An active alert where a direct response is triggered, such as an outreach team visit.
Some alert studies have failed to change clinician behaviour,17 and furthermore, clinicians may defer a response to alerts.18 In a study of nephrotoxic medication use in AKI patients, interruptive alert warnings were deferred a median of four times prior to a definitive response. Alert fatigue remains a concern for clinicians assailed by a barrage of alerts for various conditions within IT systems. A standardised algorithm for automated KDIGO-like staging is currently undergoing mandatory implementation in the UK. Modern pathology laboratories in the developed world should also be implementing this change.
New ways of organising care of AKI
The use of alerts reduces the diagnostic time lag in AKI. As with early warning scores that trigger a warning (above), the key issue is what happens in response to an alert. Do members of the healthcare team act on such alerts? Research is underway to determine the best way to optimise the response. Strategies include education, promotion of guidelines or early specialist input (outreach). We19 as well as others20 have piloted the use of outreach teams in AKI. Further research into their use is ongoing. An example of successful treatment of AKI is shown in Figure 2.
Novel biomarkers of AKI
There is much expectation that biomarkers will be incorporated into definitions of AKI as well as routine clinical practice. However, some degree of caution is warranted.21 It has been suggested that AKI should be designated a ‘kidney attack’, analogous to heart attack,22 and that biomarkers may be used to detect AKI earlier in its course, similar to the use of cardiac troponin in the detection of myocardial infarction.
Unfortunately, the analogy between the conditions disappears when interventions are considered. Myocardial infarction has specific treatments. Even if a biomarker reliably shows early AKI, there are currently no specific therapies for ischaemic or septic tubular injury. Demonstrating the cost effectiveness of biomarker use in addition to creatinine and urine output monitoring presents a further challenge. New biomarkers will need to demonstrate ‘added value’, over and above optimal patient care and use of traditional AKI markers (creatinine and oliguria).
AKI has a major impact in healthcare: it has the dual features of being common and causing an increase in mortality. It clearly increases healthcare costs. Early detection and intervention has the potential to reduce the damage caused by AKI. The early detection may be mediated by electronic alert systems using creatinine measurements, other information in the electronic patient record, electronic urine output monitoring or biomarkers. The warning from any of these systems needs to trigger an appropriate response. Developments in the coming years should refine both the AKI warning and the subsequent response systems, so as to improve outcomes from this important condition.
Kerr M et al. The economic impact of acute kidney injury in England. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2014;29(7):1362–8.
Thomas ME et al. The definition of acute kidney injury and its use in clinical practice. Kidney Int 2015;87:62–73; doi:10.1038/ki.2014.328; published online 15 October 2014.
Bedford M et al. What is the real impact of acute kidney injury? BMC Nephrol 2014;15:95.
Acute kidney injury Prevention, detection and management of acute kidney injury up to the point of renal replacement therapy. Nice guidelines (CG169). Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG169 (accessed 9 November 2014).
Adding insult to the injury, a review of the care of the patients who died in hospital with a primary diagnosis of acute kidney Injury (acute renal failure), a national confidential enquiry into patient outcome and death (NCEPOD) report, 2009. Available at: http://www.ncepod.org.uk/2009aki.htm (accessed 10 November 2014).
Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Acute Kidney Injury Work Group. KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline for Acute Kideny Injury. Kidney Int Suppl 2012;2:1–138.
NICE CG 50. Acutely ill patients in hospital: Recognition of and response to acute illness in adults in hospital. Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg50 (accessed 5 November 2014).
Chan PS et al. Rapid response teams: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Internal Medicine 2010;170(1):18–26.
Winters BD et al. Rapid-Response Systems as a Patient Safety Strategy. A Systematic Review. Annals of Internal Medicine 2013;158(5 Part 2):417–25.
Forni LG et al. Identifying the Patient at Risk of Acute Kidney Injury: A Predictive Scoring System for the Development of Acute Kidney Injury in Acute Medical Patients. Nephron Clin Pract 2013;123(3-4):143–50.
Shamir MY et al. Urine flow is a novel hemodynamic monitoring tool for the detection of hypovolemia. Anesth Analg 2011;112(3):593–6.
Thomas M, Sitch A, Dowswell G. The initial development and assessment of an automatic alert warning of acute kidney injury. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2011;26(7):2161–8.
NHS England patient safety alert: Algorithm for detecting Acute Kidney Injury(AKI) based on changes in serum creatinine with time. Available at: http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/patientsafety/akiprogramme/aki-algorithm/ (accessed 8 November, 2014).
McCoy AB et al. A computerized provider order entry intervention for medication safety during acute kidney injury: a quality improvement report. Am J Kidney Dis 2010;56(5):832–41.
Rind DM et al. Effect of computer-based alerts on the treatment and outcomes of hospitalized patients. Arch Intern Med 1994;154(13):1511–7.
Colpaert K et al. Impact of real-time electronic alerting of acute kidney injury on therapeutic intervention and progression of RIFLE class. Crit Care Med 2012;40(4):1164–70.
Hooper MH et al. Randomized trial of automated, electronic monitoring to facilitate early detection of sepsis in the intensive care unit. Crit Care Med 2012;40(7):2096–101.
van der Sijs H et al. Overriding of drug safety alerts in computerized physician order entry. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2006;13(2):138–47.
Thomas ME et al. Earlier intervention for acute kidney injury: evaluation of an outreach service and a long-term follow-up. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2015;30(2):239–44.
Balasubramanian G et al. Early nephrologist involvement in hospital-acquired acute kidney injury: a pilot study. Am J Kidney Dis 2011;57(2):228–34.
Bagshaw SM, Zappitelli M, Chawla LS. Novel biomarkers of AKI: the challenges of progress ‘Amid the noise and the haste’. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2013;28(2):235–8.
Ronco C, McCullough PA, Chawla LS. Kidney attack versus heart attack: evolution of classification and diagnostic criteria. Lancet 2013;382(9896):939–40.
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Inside – Mark Zuckerberg shows his Jarvis. Hacking AI systems. Korean mech and a human flying drone. Holographic AI servant from Japan and more!
More Than A Human
Hyundai wants to make exoskeletons cheaper
Hyundai is joining the exoskeletons club with two models – one designed for medical uses and a second one designed for industrial lifting. They claim that they can make the exoskeletons cheaper than other, mostly smaller, companies because they have the experience and assets from the automotive industry. We will see if they are right in a couple of years.
The Great AI Awakening
A quite long article from The New York Times Magazine on how Google used artificial intelligence to transform Google Translate, one of its more popular services — and how machine learning is poised to reinvent computing itself.
Watch Mark Zuckerberg’s Morgan Freeman-voiced Jarvis AI in action
A year ago, Mark Zuckerberg said he is building a Jarvis like system to automate his home. Year later, Mark posted the results.
How Long Before AI Systems Are Hacked in Creative New Ways?
Some researchers have proven that hacking AI systems are easy and argue it is just a matter of time when someone will exploit them. By sending false or misleading data, the attackers can trick the system to do what they want or to train it to pass through the thing they want to go inside the system. Researchers are developing countermeasures, but defending against these attack is hard.
What DeepMind brings to Alphabet
According to this article from The Economist, DeepMind brings talents, prestige and a unique approach to AI.
Types of AI: From Reactive to Self-Aware
Four types of AIs – from purely reactive to self-aware machines – explained with an infographic.
Watch Arago’s HIRO Beat Out Human Gamers in Freeciv
Another game where machine beats humans? Arago’s HIRO artificial intelligence (AI) has proven to be able to beat 80 percent of human players in the game of Freeciv.
“METHOD-1” manned robot project by “Korea Future Technology”
METHOD-1 is a big bipedal manned robot from Korea. It looks like it was taken from anime and brought into our world. It can move its arms and walk, and it’s quite impressive.
Human Flying Drone
No one in the world is selling big enough drones to lift a human, so some guys decided to build one. And it’s huge.
Delivery robots are showing up on city sidewalks
Some time ago, the flying delivery drones were seen as the future of delivery. There was a big hope and hype around them. Time has passed and instead of flying drones dropping the packages from the air we might get delivery robots looking like beer coolers on wheels scooting along the sidewalks. There a couple of companies experimenting with the idea and already rolling the robots out in selected cities around the world.
Taking a leap in bioinspired robotics
In the not so distant future, first responders to a disaster zone may include four-legged, dog-like robots that can bound through a fire or pick their way through a minefield, rising up on their hind legs to turn a hot door handle or punch through a wall. Sangbae Kim, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, hopes this vision will become a reality in the next 10 years. He and his team in the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory are working toward that goal, borrowing principles from biomechanics, human decision- making, and mechanical design to build a service robot that Kim says will eventually do “real, physical work,” such as opening doors, breaking through walls, or closing valves.
This Is the Holographic AI Servant of Your Dreams…or Maybe Your Nightmares
Oh, Japan, only you could come up with this. Azuma Hikari is a 58-cm hologram and virtual assistant created by Japanese tech company Gatebox that comes with a $2,600 price tag. According to the promo video, Azuma can learn her master’s voice and his sleeping patterns, send cute text messages and wait impatiently for him to come back home. Oh, and Azuma manifests itself as a cute anime girl.
DNA Biohackers Are Giving The FDA A Headache With Glow-In-The-Dark Booze
The story of Josiah Zayner, a founder of a startup called Odin who is selling a DIY DNA kits with which you can make a genetically modified yeast able to produce a beer glowing in the dark. He thought we would not have any legal problems with the kit, but FDA thought differently. The result of their dispute might define the emerging biohacking community.
New CRISPR Technique Lets Us Probe the Darkest Corners of Biology
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed a new technique to help them understand the body’s complex and often chaotic processes, and it actually combines two technologies that are cutting-edge on their own: CRISPR and single-cell RNA sequencing. Combining these tools gives researchers the ability to alter multiple target genes at once and identify the resulting changes within the cell. According to the researchers, a single experiment using this method can yield results that would require thousands of experiments using previous techniques, and these are results that neither method could’ve yielded on its own.
The Bioethics Dilemma
Here’s an interesting article discussing the role of bioethicists in research. It explains why bioethics supposed to be and what is have become. Their role is going to be more and more important as we start to boldly modify humans.
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English (US) French (France) German Italian Japanese Korean Polish Portuguese (Brazil) Portuguese (Portugal) Russian Simplified Chinese (China) Spanish (Mexico) Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) Turkish Vietnamese
Questions about example sentences with, and the definition and usage of "Quie"
Translations of "Quie"
How do you say this in English (US)? quie tal
Check the question to view the answer
How do you say this in English (US)? quie me enseña mas inglés que quiero aprender po ( viber)
@agustincastaneda38: translation (i want to learn/ i want someone) to teach me more english but i want to learn through viber
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Quie
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Der Name der Frau
Other | Luxembourg
English title: The Woman’s Name
Keyword(s): naming regulations | married women | autonomy | elections | law | birth name
Languages(s): French – German
This petition consists of 3 documents from 2 years: a cover letter (1993), a background text about the naming regulations (1993) and an open letter to the parliament (1994). Cover letter: several women’s groups petition to change the electoral law. They demand that, in the case of married women, their birth names are used on the electoral register instead of their husbands’ surnames. Background text: Over the centuries women were deprived of many rights and made “non”-persons” by being referred to by the names of their husbands. In Luxembourg, under the Napoleonic Code, every person receives a name at birth that does not change after marriage. However, the practice of how names are used does not correlate with these regulations. Several administrative bodies insist that women use a double name. In an open letter to the parliament prior to the 1994 national elections the petition organisers remind the politically responsible of their duty to protect women’s autonomy and their rights.
štatistiky Koordinačného
The text of the Declaration was written as the response to the effort of Slovak Republic to ratify the Treaty with Holy Seat.
Glossa lanthanousa
One of the first articles in Greece which comments on how language reflects and reproduces gender roles and stereotypes, as well as sexual violence against women.
Management genderových vztahů : postavení žen a mužů v organizaci
The book represents the first attempt in the Czech Republic to describe gender relations in organizations.
Problem utemeljenja historije žena u Jugoslaviji
The author develops theoretical foundation of women’s history, starting from the critique of traditional historiography and its false universalism.
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Home › Blog › What’s next for alt fi after its Annus horribilis
What’s next for alt fi after its Annus horribilis
Alternative Finance, Alternative Investments, Blog, P2P
After over a decade of strong growth, the alternative finance industry ran into some real difficulties in 2019. Although the majority of investors would have continued to see inflation beating returns, there were some high-profile market failures. These were followed by specific regulations for both P2P and unlisted bonds (aka debt-based securities), which in turn were followed by even more players leaving the market.
2019 started with mini-bond provider London Capital & Finance entering administration after it was caught falsely advertising its bonds as IF ISA compatible. Four months later, this was followed by P2P platform Lendy collapsing. In this case, the platform was struggling with late payments – at the time of going into administration, 35 of its 54 live loans were either insolvent or in administration,
The two collapses left savers millions of pounds out of pocket, and led to enquiries into both industries, as well as criticism of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its perceived inactivity in the build up to the failures.
In October another P2P platform – FundingSecure went into administration – with £80m from 3,500 invested in 486 loans.
In the second half of the year, a number of high-profile bond issuers failed or were called into question. These included bonds issued by a firm run by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud and the so called ‘burrito’ Bonds from Mexican food restaurant Chilangos. Although these bonds were not IF ISA eligible, their high-profile nature still tarnished the reputation of unlisted bonds in general.
The response from the regulator was somewhat predictable. In June, it published new regulations for the P2P sector. These rules included the creation of the ‘restricted investor’ class (those not considered high-net worth, sophisticated or taking financial advice, whose investment amount is restricted to 10% of their investable assets), as well as an appropriateness test that investors need to take before being allowed to invest in P2P.
These rules came into force at the start of December. In some respects, they were similar to those already existing in the securities market, and in many ways the regulations brought P2P rules in line with debt based securities.
This was not for long, as in November the FCA announced a temporary ban on the promotion of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers. This came into force at the start of 2020, and means bond issuers and financial advisers can not market these bonds to a consumer until they were satisfied the potential client was high net worth or sophisticated.
Despite these regulatory moves, alternative finance providers have reasons to be optimistic for 2020.
Despite the 2019 election out of the way and the Brexit Bill passed, there is still huge uncertainty in the market (not least caused by the legal deadline the Johnson government has passed for a trade deal with the EU and Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy). In the face of such uncertainty, the fixed rate returns offered by Alt Fi could prove a tempting option.
Similarly, as Britain leaves the EU, alternative finance could help pick up the slack caused by any reduction in traditional EU funding, in the same way it did for SMEs when traditional banking began to lend less following the credit crunch.
It’s role in replacing banks as a source of credit for SMEs could even be enhanced thanks to the government’s support for the new round of Basel standards, which is likely to cause even more restrictions on SME traditional funding routes.
The regulations themselves should also result in a healthier industry. The P2P regulations, for example, provide some minimum standards around underwriting, more disclosure requirements and a published plan of what happens if the platform fails. Even if the regulation leads to some consolidation (so far two platforms have closed their offering to retail investors), it should result in a more transparent, investor friendly industry.
The mini-bond regulation has the potential to be more damaging, however even here, there are still legitimate routes for unlisted bond issuers to access the retail investor market.
Advisers, with their databases of pre-classified of high net worth and sophisticated clients, could provide one option for platforms and issuers.
Beyond this, bond issuers could legitimately side step the temporary ban and find routes to retail investors potentially through discretionary fund managers in combination with IFAs or overseas listing in an appropriate territory. Either way, the involvement of additional authorised entities or reporting and disclosure obligations are likely to be required. This is an unlikely path for those unscrupulous issuers the FCA is seeking to target, but could be a useful option for those operators with genuine products, regard for the law and the interests of their investors.
Adviser Platform
John Schaffer
high net worth individual
SITR
tax-efficient investments
Patient Capital Review
POAT
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Home / Stock Picks / Stocks to Buy / 3 Golden Reasons to Buy Kinross Gold Stock
3 Golden Reasons to Buy Kinross Gold Stock
With the Federal Reserve all but gifting you a bull run in KGC stock, you’d be crazy to not consider it
By Josh Enomoto, InvestorPlace Contributor Aug 29, 2019, 12:43 pm EST August 29, 2019
I really don’t like the idea of the proverbial table pounding because of its potential to make one look stupid. But since I already do a good job of that as it is, I’m going to bat for Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) and KGC stock.
Kinross Gold stock has huge upside potential. I believe this is the case even with its already massive move. Since the opening price of this year, KGC has skyrocketed over 58%. That might dissuade investors worried about holding the bag.
And to be perfectly honest, it’s a legitimate worry. Back during the last precious metals rally in 2011, the spot gold price hit an intra-day record above $1,900. In addition, silver closed in toward $50 before both metals spectacularly crashed. As you might guess, KGC stock took a beating. Earlier this decade, shares were trading in double-digit territory.
But as understandable as those fears are — and despite my own gold-bug fascinations — this time is different. I mean it. With an underlying bull market for precious metals, multiple miners will go up just because. However, a reputable name like Kinross Gold stock will have both strong gains and staying power.
Here are three reasons why I’m uber-bullish on gold and KGC stock.
The Federal Reserve Is Gifting You a Bull Run in KGC Stock
Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot of news about the inversion of the yield curve. Under the textbook definition, this is a situation where the yield for the longer-maturing 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds dips below the quicker-maturing 2-year Treasurys.
Why does this matter? Basically, it doesn’t make economic sense. If I buy a 10-year note as opposed to one maturing in two years, I’m tacking on greater risk. Obviously, if I hold an investment for 10 years, there are many things that could go wrong. Therefore, I’m rewarded with a higher payout for my risks.
But when the yield curve inverts, those that take less risk with two-year notes have greater reward. Thus, it disincentivizes buying the 10-year Treasurys. But what does this have to do with Kinross Gold stock? Nothing directly.
However, the key here is the Federal Reserve’s response. Naturally, it’s in their best interest to flatten the yield curve to fix this economic anomaly. But to do so requires cutting rates to push the two-year yield down below the 10-year yield. Monetarily, this creates an inflationary impact, which suits both gold and KGC stock.
And let me reiterate this point: the Fed has to do something. The central bank can’t let this circumstance just slide. Moreover, President Donald Trump has been all over the Fed like stink on poop. Either way, it’s all inflationary for Kinross Gold stock.
Mining Sector is Leaner and Meaner
During the initial aftermath of the Great Recession, both the smart and panicked money moved steadily into precious metals. Logically, this lifted the mining sector, including KGC stock. After all, the company’s products were growing increasingly more valuable.
But as I mentioned earlier, the insane bubble burst, sending the entire industry tumbling. For Kinross Gold stock, it meant transitioning from attacking the $20 level to dropping below $2.
Heck, from that perspective, KGC stock at just above $5 seems like a bargain.
But the more important point here is that Kinross Gold stock survived the massive onslaught. Several other companies, especially the speculative junior miners, did not. Therefore, what you have remaining from the bust are companies that have learned the lessons from 2011. Additionally, the broader selloff has weeded out most of the weak actors.
When you combine this dynamic with the rising bull market in gold, you have a catalyst for significant upside. And if you look at the longer-term chart for KGC stock, I think you’ll agree with me: Under this present environment, you probably won’t end up holding the bag at these prices.
Kinross Gold Stock Is Geopolitically Insulated
The U.S.-China trade war has a direct impact on companies exposed to the global economy. In many of these cases, it doesn’t matter how great an individual company is: Geopolitical headwinds have wreaked havoc on stable, robust names.
However, KGC stock is one of those rare investments that is largely geopolitically insulated. I say this because most of its projects — which account for over half of its metals production — are located on this hemisphere. In fact, excepting its Paracatu, Brazil project, most of its projects are here in the U.S.
Especially in this environment, this levering to U.S. territory is critical. Other mining companies may offer better production rates. However, if their projects become nationalized by an arbitrary government action, your investment is cooked. With Kinross Gold stock, this risk is substantially mitigated.
As of this writing, Josh Enomoto is long gold and silver bullion.
Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2019/08/3-golden-reasons-to-buy-kinross-gold-stock/.
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Prionics AG
www.prionics.ch
Latest From Prionics AG
Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd.
By Ellen Licking
Amorfix is an emerging life science company based in Toronto, Canada that is developing diagnostics and therapeutics for neurological disorders in which aggregated mis-folded proteins may be involved.
How Big Can Bio-Rad Get?
Bio-Rad's having a great year, thanks to its presence in the fast-growing life sciences business of protein analysis, and its surprise success with a test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Founder and CEO David Schwartz built the business based on a mix of eclectic product lines into an $800 million force in life sciences and clinical diagnostics. But as he nears 80, the company is grappling with succession issues, as well as a sense that it needs to better integrate its disparate businesses.
The Boom in Prion Testing
With concern growing about the spread of prion-based neurodegenerative diseases, the opportunity for new diagnostics tests seems clear. A number of start-ups and research labs are working on ways to diagnose these always fatal diseases, which occur in animals and, rarely, in humans. Three large in vitro diagnostics companies are teaming up with prion start-ups--indicating not only their faith in the market but also their ability to offer global distribution to small companies struggling to meet a demand that erupted abruptly.
Medical Device Business Strategies
By Wendy Diller
Mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are members of a class of rare degenerative disease of the brain known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. TSE-infected animals have pathologically altered proteins called prions in their brains. Now, three sicentists from the University of Zurich have formed Prionics AG, to develop a sensitive test for prions using the abnormal protein as a marker for the disease.
Bruno Odermatt, Head, Fin. & Admin.
Bruno Oesch, Head, R&D
Phone: (41) 44 2002000
Wagistrasse 27A
Schlieren, CH 8952
Subject: Prionics AG
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“Overseas Friends of BJP-USA celebrate Modi’s Overwhelming Victory in the Lok Sabha Election”
News May 24, 2019May 24, 2019 mgr
Ritu Jha-
Sitting 10,000 miles away in the US, the members of the Overseas Friends of BJP-USA (OFBJP) are rejoicing over the landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. They say the country needed a man with discipline and a leader who could resolve the Kashmir issue.
According to Election Commission figures, the BJP won 303 seats and the Indian National Congress won 52.
The report shows that the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance), a coalition of right-wing political parties in India, won 352 of the 542 Lok Sabha seats where polling took place in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May. The Congress-led alliance won 87.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to a historic victory in the Lok Sabha elections with the party securing more seats than it won in 2014.
Chandru Bhambhra, who heads the OFBJP Northern California chapter, told indica that Modi is the leader India needs.
“Look at him, he has worked so hard,” said Bhambhra, whose team in the US started a local campaign in California nine months ago to support BJP overseas.
“We have been working for the past nine months, but the main work started five months ago, and every day we’ve worked three hours to keep the momentum going through WhatsApp and phone banking,” he said, adding, “However, two months ago we increased the phone banking, and the last call was made to Gurdaspur for Sunny Doel and Indore for Shankar Lalwani.” “Lalwani is Sindhi,” he said with a smile, “The only Sindhi candidate the BJP hosted.”
When indica asked what he expected from PM Modi, and the building of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Bhambhra said Modi had more than 300 schemes in the first term, and he wasn’t able to finish them all. So, he might work on those. But the biggest issue is Kashmir, which is bigger than the Ram Mandir, and to resolve Article 370.
He said that Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament’s power to make laws concerning the state.
“I think only Modi can resolve the Kashmir issue,” said Bhambhra with confidence. “And it became clear after the Pulwama attack. This [Kashmir] issue cannot be resolved just by talks.”
Bhambhra said he is planning big victory celebrations next weekend along with BJP-USA (OFBJP) in 20 US cities, including New York, Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco .
OFBJP-USA President Krishna Reddy Anugula told IANS on Thursday that more than 1,000 volunteers with his organization participated in phone bank call-a-thons that made more than 1 million calls to people in India asking them to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
During the four months before the elections, the OFBJP also held yagnas, “Chowkidar Marches” and other programs to encourage Indian citizens here to support Modi and to boost the party’s image in India.
In California, party supporters hosted a car rally, said Bhambhra.
OFBJP in a statement said: “Overseas Friends of BJP-USA congratulates Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party President Amit Shah, BJP leaders, and the millions of volunteers for OFBJP and NRIs4Modi across the globe who toiled hard for this stupendous victory.”
Meanwhile, looking ahead to BJP’s second term, US President Donald Trump along with several elected officials congratulated Prime Minister Modi.
President Trump in a tweet said: “Congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party on their big election victory! Great things are in store for the US-India partnership with the return of PM Modi at the helm. I look forward to continuing our important work together!”
Congratulating Modi on his historic victory, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat representing Illinois 8th Congressional District, tweeted: “Congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his re-election— it was truly an inspiration to see so many Indians exercise their democratic rights, and I look forward to working with PM Modi and the Indian government to strengthen the US-India partnership.”
Congressman Ami Bera, a Democrat representing California’s 7th district, also tweeted congratulations: “Great job to the people of #India on their historic election. Never before have so many voted in a single democratic election. Congratulations to PM Modi for his win and I look forward to working with his government to strengthen the ties between our two great nations.”
The US representative of California’s 17th district, Congressman Ro Khanna, said: “One lesson from Modi’s win is that dynastic, establishment candidates are weak. Democrats need to make sure that our candidate against Trump can connect with people’s frustration and offer a positive vision for change.”
BJP, BJP-USA (OFBJP)
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What foreign media said about Modi’s victory
Modi’s victory is a triumph of anti-intellectualism and aspiration of the masses
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“The world will see Narendra Modi’s India”
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Sponsored By: Infinity Foundation
History Review
Ancient Ship-Building & Maritime Trade
by D. P. Agrawal & Lalit Tiwari
The beginnings of boat building technology in India go back to the Third Millennium BC, to the Harappan times. The Harappans (or Indus Civilization) constructed the first tide dock of the world for berthing and servicing ships at the port town of Lothal (Rao, 1987). The discovery of the Lothal port and dock in 1955 highlighted the maritime aspects of the Indus Civilization. At Lothal a trapezoid reservoir measuring on an average 214 x 36 meters has been excavated, and has been identified as a dockyard. It is riveted on all four sides with continuous dry masonry burnt-brick walls, 4- courses wide, which at its greatest extant depth reaches to 3m (but might have been originally much higher). The structure was stratigraphically connected to the old riverbed of Sabarmati. Towards the southern end there is a broad and relatively shallow gap. This has been supposed to be the inlet channel of the dock. Leading from the southern wall is a narrow brick water passage, said to have functioned as a spill channel, when fitted with a sluice-gate. According to S.R.Rao, the dock has been used in two stages, at the first stage it was designed to allow ships 18-20 meters long and 4-6 meters wide. At least two ships could simultaneously pass and enter easily. In the second stage, the inlet channel was narrowed to accommodate large ships but only single ships with flat bottoms could enter. The terracotta models of a boat from Lothal and engravings on Indus seals give some idea of ships going to the sea. Lothal is situated near Saragwala village, about fifty miles southwest of Ahmedabad. It lies in a level plain between the Bhogava and Sabarmati rivers and at present is some twelve miles from the Gulf of Cambay coast. The siltation rate of the Sabarmati delta is known to be rapid, so that in former times the site may actually have been nearer the sea. Lothal, with its large market and a busy dock, was a great emporium where goods from neighboring towns and villages, such as Rangpur, Kath etc. were sold in exchange for imported and locally manufactured ones. Lothal had developed overseas trade with the West Coast of India on the one hand and the Mesopotamian cities through the Bahrain islands on the other. Among the manufacturing industries of Lothal bead making, ivory and shell working and bronze-smithy were very important. For the land transport they used bullock carts and pack animals for long distance trade. For inland waterways, flat-bottomed boats of the type suggested by the terracotta models were used. In this connection it may be noted that even today flat-bottomed boats made of reeds are used for carrying men and light goods. Perhaps the Harappans used similar boats in the lakes and rivers also. Trade on the high seas and along the coast was possible because the ships were fitted with sails.
Harappans not only built a unique dock but also provided facilities for handling cargo. There were other smaller ports such as Bhagatrav, Sutkagendor and Sutkakah, and perhaps a large one at Dholavira, all in Gujarat. An engraving on a seal from Mohenjodaro represents a sailing ship with a high prow; the stern was made of reeds. In the center, it had a square cabin. Out of five miniature clay models of boats one is complete and represents a ship with sail. The latter has a sharp keel, a pointed prow and a high flat stern. Two blind holes are also visible. One of them seen near the stern was meant for the mast, and the other on the edge of the ship may be for steering. In the second model, which is rather damaged, the stern and the prow were both curved high up as in the Egyptian boats of the Garzean period. The keel is pointed and the margins are raised. A hole made a little away from the center was meant for the mast. In this case, the prow was broken. Three other damaged models found at Lothal have a flat base and a pointed prow, but the keel is not pointed nor is there any hole for fixing the mast. Apparently these flat-based craft were used on rivers and creeks without sail, while the other two types with sail and sharp keels plied on the high seas and were berthed in the deep waters of the Gulf. Probably the canoe types of flat-based boats were the only ones, which could be sluiced at high tide. Another type of boat can be reconstructed from the paintings on two potsherds. It represents a boat with multiple oars. The Harappan ship must have been as big as the modern country crafts, which bring timber from Malabar to Gogha. On this analogy it can be assumed that a load up to 60 tons could be carried by these ships. The sizes of the anchor stones found in the Lothal dock also support this view (Rao, 1979, 1985).
It is a recorded fact that Pushyadeva, the ruler of Sindh (now in Pakistan) pushed back the formidable Arab navy attacks in 756 AD, which only indicates his marine prowess. The historical text Yuktikalpataru (11th Century AD) deals with shipbuilding and gives details of various types of ships. Boats used for different purposes were called by different names such as Samanya, Madhyama and Visesha for passenger service, cargo, fishing and ferrying over the river. The earliest reference to maritime activities in India occurs in Rigveda, “Do thou whose countenance is turned to all side send off our adversaries, as if in a ship to the opposite shore: do thou convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare” (Rigveda, 1, 97, 7 and 8).
The technology of boat building was a hereditary profession passing from father to son and was a monopoly of a particular caste of people. The local builders used the hand, fingers and feet as the units of measurements. In different places different kinds of boats were built for specific purposes. These boats may bear some similarity in material, techniques or in shape and size. For the construction of ship, the teak (Tectona grandis) wood is generally employed in India, though the selection of wood depends upon the nature and type of craft.
The traditional construction of a boat starts with the laying of a keel (keel is foundation beam for the boat and ship), a massive piece of wood supported on a branching stern about a foot above the ground at both ends. This is stepped to take the stern-post (rearmost part of a ship or boat) and also the stem post (the pointed front part of a ship or boat), all made of massive pieces of timber. The keel is laid first and later the planks or ribs are attached. Usually for the keel and stern one single piece of wood is always preferred. The planks are then fastened horizontally on either side of the keel. The planks join is edge to edge. Rudder is a flat broad piece of wood, which is mainly used for getting a forwards lead to the expected direction and is not seen in all traditional crafts. In some crafts the rudder is replaced by a paddle or oars, which function as a rudder. Paddle is a short oar with a broad blade at one or both ends and oar is a pole with a flat blade used in rowing. These are necessary for a straight and swift movement of the vessels. Generally all the ships use the wind power. In the ship the mast is fixed on ribs above the keel. The mast is made out of a timber tree but the builders prefer a bamboo piece, because of its suitability to make a mast long, and strong. Sail is a sheet of canvas spread to catch the wind and move a boat or ship forwards. It is used in traditional vessels; the shape of sail is triangular to make it easy to catch the wind. Sails are fixed to the mast with ropes. The sails are used mainly when the vessels are going to the mid sea, so that they can make use of the maximum wind energy.
Traditional Boat-building in various states of India
In India, there are various places that have the traditional boats and boat building technology. The Andhara coast is known for 4 types of traditional boats constructed for cargo transport, fishing and ferrying purposes, which are catamarans (teppa), dugout canoe, stitched-planks-built boats and
Nailed-planks-built boats. Generally the types of wood used for boat building in Andhra Pradesh are grannari karra (Egesa: Acquicia canilotica), arcini karra (Melia dubia), cinntha karra (Albizzia sp.), rai karra, teak, circini karra (Anogeissus sp.), mamidi karra (Mango: Magnifera indica), sal (Shorea robusta), Indian laural (Terminalia tormentosa) and maddi (Alianthus malabarica). Teppas are simple floating devices, but are the predominant traditional sea craft along the Andhra Pradesh. Some keeled planked boats locally called padavas are also common vessels along the Andhra coastline. In Andhra these traditional boats are constructed at Nellare, Prakaram, Godavari and Guntur districts.
Boats in Karnataka region are called by different names depending on their use. The smallest craft of this region is known as canoe (hudi), which is scooped out of a singletree trunk. The middle-sized craft is known as boat (doni) and the biggest craft is known as ship (machchwa). Most ships use wind power. The art of shipbuilding is a monopoly of a class of people known as mestas or acharis (carpenter). The type of wood used for shipbuilding is known as kshatriya, which is mentioned in Yuktikalpataru. The common wood used for shipbuilding is matthi, sagouy, teak, honne, undi and hebbals. Teakwood is used rarely because of its high coast.
Raft, dugout and plank built boats are the main traditional types in the Kerala coast. Raft is made of a number of roughly shaped logs fastened together in order to float down a river or to serve as a boat. Dugout is single log craft, which is scooped out in the middle. It is employed all over Kerala for catching fish. Planked built boats are further classified into 2 categories: one is stitched and the second is built with nailed planks. Stitched-planked built craft is manufactured by using coir and synthetic ropes. Generally, the types of wood used for shipbuilding in Kerala are alpassi, mullumurukku or panniclavu (Ceiba pentandra), perumaram/alanta (Alianthus excelsa), pilivaka (Albizzia falcatria), malamurukku (Samanea saman), pilavu (Artocarpus integrifolias), mavu (Magnifera indica), ayini/annili (Artocarpus hirsuta), punna (Callophyllum inophyllum) and cadacci (Grewia tiliaefolia). The bending process is purely based on traditional method by applying a kind of fish oil or cow dung on the planks.
The traditional boat builders of Chilika region in Orisa are called Bindhani, Barhais and Biswakaramas (carpenters). They build small flat-bottomed boats known as nauka or danga. Sal is used for construction of nauka. The knowledge of boat building has come down as a family tradition. Bamboos are used as mast, locally called gudda.
The boat builders and ships have been depicted in the brick temple in the district of Midnapore, Birbhum and Bankura in Bengal. The vessels are classified as raft, dugouts and cargo carriers and are used for commercial purpose. Dinghy is a one-man passenger boat in Bengal. It is unique for its features and movement in the river. The boatman squats at paddling on the low sharp stem to maneuver in the zigzag path of the river. A neat cabin with semicircular roof occupies the space available in the middle of the boats. A tall bamboo mast is generally used for long distance travel. In Bengal, small boat is never used except as cargo carriers. The steering paddle is the most remarkable feature of the cargo carriers (Malbahi nauka).
Now a days, in Bombay there are no boat building yards to be found in or around, except may be at Varai and Versova. Available wild woods are commonly used for construction of boats and ships. They are not very expensive. The main types of wood that are utilized today are sal, babul, ain, bibla, jambul and punnai, but the teak wood is always the best for ship and boat building and is preferred in Bombay too. Ain wood is some times used for building a major portion of the boat. It is a hard wood and very similar to teak in its properties.
In Lakeshadweep, coconut tree is locally available in abundance, thus coconut wood is still used in local boats, but it is difficult to say with authority, what made early boat builders to use coconut wood. Coconut wood is now used for bulwarks, masts, cross stays, sides ribs, etc. and for cabin removable thatched roofs etc. Mango or breadfruit tree wood is also used. Boats of Lakeshdweep can broadly be divided into two categories based on their use: trading vessels and fishing vessels. Bareues, odies, bandodies, dweep odam or valiya odam are some trading vessels and tharappan, odam, mas odi, odi jahadhoni, mahadha dhoni, kelukkam dhoni, allam dhoni or dhoni, ara dhoni are some fishing crafts and jhaha dhoni is a race boat in Lakeshdweep. Stand odam is the most widely used typical boat of Lakeshdweep. Boats in Lakeshdweep are not built for sale, but only for the use of islanders.
Indian boat technology and navigational knowledge goes back to the III Millennium BC. Traditional boat builders could make ships, which were fully sea-worthy and could sale to West Asia. But now all over India the traditional boat building technology is in a declining condition due to changes of technology and advancement in mechanized systems. This is best exemplified in Andhra Pradesh by the use of catamarans, which are being manufactured from synthetic materials in small-scale industries. These synthetic catamarans are now a day preferred by traditional fisher folk because of their longevity, payload, cost, range and easy manoeurability. Several manufacturing industries have come up in the Srikalulam and Ganjam districts of Orissa. There are hardly a few places in India such as Kakinada, Cuddalore, Beypore and Veraval engaged in construction of sea going vessels at present. Now a days traditional boats are only used for crossng rivers, coastal transport and fishing. It is however satisfying to note that traditional boat building technology is being harmoniously combined with modern technology to produce more efficient vessels.
Bawan, R.L. 1960. Egypt’s earliest sailing ships. Antiquity 34(134): 117.
Behera, K.S. (Ed.). 1999. Maritime Heritage of India. Delhi: Aryan Books International.
Gaur, Aniruddh Singh. 1993. Belekeri as traditional boat building center in North Kanara Dist. Karnataka, India. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 69.
Gill, J. S. 1993. Our heritage of traditional boat building. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 74.
Gill, J. S. 1993. Material for modern boat building industry. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 76.
Greeshmalatha, A. P. and G. Victor Rajamanickam. 1993. An analysis of different types of traditional coastal vessels along the Kerala Coast. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 36.
Hornell, J. 1920. The origin and ethnological significance of Indian boat designs. Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 7(3): 139-287.
Jain, Kirti. 1993. Boat building and the Son Kolis of the Raigad Dist. Maharashtra. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 89.
Kunhali, V. 1993. Ship building in Beypore- a study in materials, workers and technology. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 56.
Leshnik, S.Lawrence. 1979. The Harappan “Ports” at Lothal : another view. In Ancient Cities of the Indus (Ed.) Gregory L Possehl. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
Rama Sankar and Sila Tripathi. 1993. Boat building technology of Bengal: an overview of literary evidence. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 84.
Raman, K.V. 1997. Roads and river transportation. In History of Technology in India (Ed.) A.K.Bag. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy. Pp.592-93.
Rao, S.R. 1979, 1985. Lothal – A Harappan Port Town. 2 vols. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. Pp.225- 26, 505.
Rao, S.R. 1987. Progress and Prospects of Marine Archaeology. Goa: NIO.
Rao, S.R. (Ed.). 1991. Recent Advances in Marine Archaeology. Goa: NIO.
Rao, S. R. 1993. Missing links in the history of boat-building technology of India. In Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 60.
Raut, L. N. and Sila Tripathi. 1993. Traditional boat-building centers around Chilika Lake of Orissa. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 51.
Sundaresh. 1993. Traditional boat-building centers of Karnataka coast- a special reference of Honavar, Bhatkal, and Gangolly. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 29.
Thivakaran, G. A. and G. Victor Rajamanickam. 1993. Traditional boat-building in Andhra Pradesh. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 12.
Tripathi, Alok. 1993. Traditional boats of Lakshadweep. Journal of Marine Archaeology 4: 92.
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Home https://server7.kproxy.com/servlet/redirect.srv/sruj/smyrwpoii/p2/ World https://server7.kproxy.com/servlet/redirect.srv/sruj/smyrwpoii/p2/ How big was Sunday protest in Hong Kong? These aerial photos show you
How big was Sunday protest in Hong Kong? These aerial photos show you
World 0 Views
Hundreds of thousands of people poured into Hong Kong streets on Sunday and marched nearly two miles (three kilometers), protested at a proposed extradition bill, and urged the city's leader to step down.
It was the largest of three protests against the bill that was held over eight days. A new protest was scheduled for Friday morning. The composite images below show the huge scale of Sunday's demonstrations.
The organizers estimated that nearly two million people had participated in Sunday's March – in a city of 7 million.
People came out to the march all day. It started at 2:30 pm and continued for more than eight hours. Some protesters were still around the legislative council complex after midnight.
Government officials did not give their own estimate of overall participation, but said that at the protest's summit, 338,000 people were on the streets.
Suzanne Eaton: Body of American scientist found inside a former Nazi bunker
Fierce storms hit Greece killing six foreign nationals
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BERGEN COMMUNITY DIRECTORY
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Main Li Chow Launches in Passaic
By Leah Gottheim | March 28, 2019
A new kosher Chinese food restaurant opened in Passaic, on March 4, the first one in the area since the previous one closed over a year ago, meeting the demand for Chinese fare from the local Jewish community.
“People were coming in like they hadn’t had Chinese food in a year!” said Ely Goldberg, the owner of the new kosher Chinese restaurant, Main Li Chow, located on Main Avenue in Passaic.
His kids were the ones who insisted on the name, which is very similar to the old Chinese restaurant long-time locals still remember on Main Avenue more than 20 years ago (just spelled a little differently).
Goldberg has many years of restaurant experience, as he was the manager of Kosher Delight in Brooklyn for 12 years and previously worked in a Teaneck restaurant as well. Although this is his first gig in a Passaic restaurant, he’s lived in the community for 21 years.
Along with the arrival of new ownership, the place has been updated with a new look: a more spacious layout, freshly painted black and white walls and dark blue chairs. “We are going for a sleek, fresh look, with clean lines and open space,” said Goldberg, “and my daughter and son-in-law, who helped choose the decor, did a great job making it look trendy and new.”
Main Li Chow takes a different approach to the menu than many other Chinese places. Instead of five to six pages of tiny print and tons of options and variations, it’s far shorter and clearer than you’d expect and takes up just a single page.
“Honestly, most people look over those long menus and then say, ‘I want the sesame chicken, or the pepper steak,’” said Goldberg.
“They just order their favorites and 99 percent of the time they are ordering the same, most popular items. Why make the menu unnecessarily long and hard to read for the one percent of people who want something different? Of course, if someone wants a variation they can ask and we can try to make everyone happy.”
Pricing is consistent in each category (beef dishes, chicken dishes, small and large plates) instead of every dish having a slightly different price, making it easier for customers to choose what they want. There is also a selection of steamed and gluten-free dishes, and lunch and dinner specials.
News of the opening generated multiple posts and over 100 comments in Passaic’s Jewish social media groups.
The first week after opening on March 4, the place was packed with locals eager to check out the new place and get a taste of Chinese food locally without having to travel out of town.
The staff did their best to serve the overflow of customers until things calmed down, and business has been steady ever since.
Does the restaurant do catering and delivery yet? For now, they’re focusing on the in-store customers, although they did start catering, providing many people with 9x13 pans of food to take out for Purim. They hope to roll out delivery as soon as the in-store service is settled in well.
Main Li Chow is located at 227 Main Avenue in Passaic, with hours Sunday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (the only restaurant in the area to be open until 10) and Friday 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. The hashgacha is under PCK.
By Leah Gottheim
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Home News Choosing The Best Turkey Is As Simple As Black And White
Choosing The Best Turkey Is As Simple As Black And White
According to the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88% of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving. Last year that amounted to 46 million birds, average weight 16 pounds. That’s about 736 million pounds of turkey being consumed, and probably 99.9% came from one breed – the Broad Breasted White.
The Broad Breasted White, which was only developed in the 1960s, has become, far and away, the #1 turkey for consumption in the U.S. Why? Because it’s the best tasting? Not at all. Because it’s the healthiest? Not even close. It’s because the Broad Breasted White grows the biggest, fastest. In fact, they're usually ready to be processed at just 12 weeks old.
Broad Breasted White Turkeys are bred to have such large breasts that they have trouble standing and walking. In fact, they can’t even mate – they have to be artificially inseminated to reproduce. They’re hatched in incubators, raised on factory farms in barns full of hundreds of other turkeys, and they spend their whole life eating fortified corn and being given antibiotics to prevent the diseases their selective breeding makes them prone to get. What’s that look like? Like this:
So about only good thing you can say about the Broad Breasted White is that they're cheap, because they grow big and fast. But at what cost to our health, the animals, and the environment (not to mention flavor)?
There are alternatives to the Broad Breasted White, and one of them is Joyce Farms' Heritage Black Turkey. The American Poultry Association lists less than a dozen heritage turkey breeds that meet its Standard of Perfection, and our Heritage Black Turkey is one of them.
What are those standards? Let’s review them.
In order to be considered a heritage variety, a turkey has to mate naturally, and its genetic legacy must be bred naturally. Our Heritage Black Turkey is an old breed, one of the first to be developed from Native American stocks. It may well be the same breed of turkey that the Pilgrims feasted on during their first Thanksgiving. So it hasn’t been selectively bred to be anything other than a turkey.
A heritage turkey has to be free range, living a long and productive life outdoors. Our birds are raised on a small family farm in North Carolina using our “never EVER” standards of purity, which means absolutely no antibiotics. What does that look like? Like this:
And finally, a heritage turkey should grow slowly. Our Heritage Black Turkeys are allowed to grow and mature at their own pace, and we don’t process any turkey until we know it’s ready to be put on your table and enjoyed.
And you will enjoy it. As one food writer said, “the modern [Broad Breasted White] turkey has less flavor than its forbearers” so consumers have to add flavor with spice rubs, gravy and cranberry sauce.
Heritage turkeys taste better – they regularly win in taste tests against industrially raised turkeys and are the choice of top chefs across the country.
Chefs also love our Heritage Black Turkeys for another reason: because they aren’t bred to have a grotesquely oversized breast, they have more of a balance between white and dark meat so they’re easier to roast and get evenly cooked.
Holiday meals are a time of celebration, when people go all out to create the best possible experience, a once-a- year feast that should be something everyone looks forward to and will remember. You could eat the turkey that 99.9% of America eats, or you could join the .1% and make your holiday meal unique and much more memorable. All it takes is a Heritage Black Turkey from Joyce Farms.
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Allen Williams
Poulet Rouge
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Art, Artist books, Travel
Last Sunday there was a break in the weather so Oola and I headed out in Mom’s Memorial Prius to a show we had wanted to see in the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham WA — a very important and, as it turns out, memorable show of Artist Books. We also wanted to hear a talk by Sandra Kroupa, Book Arts & Rare Book Curator at the University of Washington (UW).
You can click on any image to see it enlarged.
I say there was finally a break in the weather. But both Oola and I were ecstatic about the snow in the Olympics — which we claim as our back yard.
Oola reveling in snow
Warm in the car, we drove to beautiful Port Townsend where we caught the 9:30 ferry.
the Kennewick
Oola had never ridden on a ferry before and was fascinated that this one has a helm in the front AND in the rear. It never has to back up.
Here we are, packed in and watching the Cascade mountains in the rear view mirror.
Port Townsend to Whidbey Island
Farther up Hwy 20 is a bridge that connects Whidbey Island with Fidalgo Island. Beautiful and scary, built with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps in a time when cars were both smaller and fewer.
Deception Pass and Canoe Pass Bridge from the west
Deception Pass Bridge and Oola
Deception Pass Bridge detail
The water is deep; the current can be very strong and very dangerous here. And the whole area swirls with stories.
For example: why the curious name? Oola is so glad you asked because she looked it up. In 1792 George Vancouver, British captain of the Expedition to map the northwest coast, thought that the water swirling out of the pass was a river. Understandable, as this is how it was described by earlier Spanish explorers. After a couple of tries, sailing master Joseph Whidbey discovered that the pass led not to a dead end but to Skagit Bay and the Saratoga Passage. (see map above) This was BIG. And Vancouver was so delighted he named the island, which they had thought to be a peninsula of the mainland, after Whidbey. Vancouver named the deceptive passage Deception Pass. Of course, he could do that because he had just claimed the whole Northwest for the British Crown.
Another legend tells of Scotsman Ben Ure who smuggled drugs and illegal Chinese laborers. The story goes that he and his partner, Pirate Kelly, would tie the men into burlap sacks to make it easier to toss them overboard should they be seen by U. S. Customs. He eventually got caught and admitted to his evil deeds. His island, just inside Deception Pass, still bears his name as does Deadman’s Beach where many of the bodies landed.
In the 1920s, before the bridge was built, if you wanted to get from Whidbey to Fadalgo Island you would hit an old saw with a mallet. All five feet of Berte Olsen would show up, then she would either collect your 50cents and ferry you across, or not, depending on the turbulence of the water.
But I am getting off the track here. For more about this fascinating place see www.thecoachmaninn.com/whidbey-island-deception-pass-book-chapter-1.html
Oola advises that this post is getting too long. She is sometimes very practical. I will work on the Bellingham part tomorrow.
November 21, 2015 November 29, 2015 Bellingham, Ben Ure, Berte Olsen, Civilian Conservation Corps, Deadman's Beach, Deception Pass, Ferry, George Vancouver, Joseph Whidbey, Kennewick, Olympic mountains, Sandra Kroupa, Skagit Bay
Published by jandove
artist View all posts by jandove
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Next Next post: Trip to Bellingham and the Whatcom Museum, Part two
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Photo: PAKUTASO
Japan sees huge growth in jobs in 'cleaning up homes of old people who die alone' field
May 18, 2018 05:32 am JST May 18, 2018 | 03:09 pm JST
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24
As time passes, technology advances, and economies evolve, certain industries will shrink. For example, electronics manufacturing used to be a huge part of the Japanese economy, but it’s been in contraction for many years, with Casio’s exit from the digital camera game the most recent example.
But on the other hand, some industries can see huge growth due to socioeconomic trends. So if you’re hunting for a job in Japan, and you want to be part of a rapidly expanding field, you might want to consider a position in tokushu soji, or “special cleaning” industry.
What makes the cleaning special? Well, tokushu soji companies come in and clean the homes of senior citizens who have died alone. Back in the old days, this is something that was almost always handled by surviving relatives, often the deceased’s children, and in fact it used to be far more common than it is today for elderly parents to live with their offspring in multi-generational homes.
Things have changed, though. As families become smaller and more people move farther away from home to seek out academic or professional opportunities, the number of seniors in Japan who live alone has been steadily increasing, from roughly 4.1 million in 2010 to 6.55 million in 2016 (according to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare). In response, there are now over 5,000 companies offering special cleaning services in Japan, which is 15 times as many as there were just five years ago.
Aside from recycling or otherwise disposing of the deceased’s possessions, special cleaning companies have to clean and disinfect the home. Sometimes a significant amount of time will have passed before someone discovered that the resident had passed away, and in addition to using professional-grade cleaners and pesticides, special cleaning staff often wear protective clothing to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
While cleaning and waste disposal are the primary services offered, some special cleaning companies have expanded their role to coordinating funeral services. Many also believe that respectful treatment of surviving relatives is part of their duties, and the Special Cleaning Center, and industry group formed in 2013, offers training and certification programs to ensure high-quality service in both the technical and human aspects of the job.
With Japan’s birth rate steadily falling, demand for special cleaning services is likely to continue to grow, as families get smaller and the population gets older. It’s no doubt a difficult job, but it serves a valuable purpose for society.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun via Jin
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japan’s secret garbage problem–and what you can do to help
-- New Japanese augmented-reality service lets you meet with deceased loved ones at their graves
-- Yoro shisetsu: Japan’s progressive joint care centers where kids and seniors interact
https://soranews24.com/2018/05/17/japan-sees-huge-growth-in-jobs-in-the-cleaning-up-the-homes-of-old-people-who-die-alone-field/
© SoraNews24
BigYen
Now that's a sad 'growth industry'. There's a lot of misery, loneliness and suffering lurking behind this very matter-of-fact piece of reportage.
Ricky Kaminski
Out of site , out of mind. Expect more to come . It can be a cold country to those that struggle. They become almost invisible.The mantra is head down, suck it up, buy your one cup sake , and try not bother anyone on your way to a sad, solitary death. The lucky ones are out climbing mountains and playing gateball.
Alexandre T. Ishii
In this capitalism and convenient way of life, it shows a clear contrast between light and shade. Some industries end and some others begin. You need it or not, that's the reality we can't avoid.
Who pays for the clean-up? Do bill collectors harass surviving relatives?
If it is a chintai contract, the building owners will try to contact family members on the contract.
If the person is an owner and no relatives are found, the building will be auctioned off and the cleaning company will get a good cut of the profits.
If the owners can't find the relatives, then the legal process is initiated to collect fees.
Indeed, it is a sad indictment for a society where ancestor worship is important,that there are those who slip away unnoticed and uncared for.
For old people, painless oblivion unfortunately becomes the reward of those struggling in their final years.
(lately, even more alarming is that it is not just old people)....
Less than one in four surveyed Japanese men has a girlfriend; over one in three women has a beau
Ikigai: The Japanese concept of finding purpose in life
Japanese salaryman creates model of Shinjuku from paper
Seijin No Hi: Celebrating Japanese Youth’s Rite of Passage
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Shibuya Fukuras: 5 Things Not To Miss At Tokyo’s Newest Shopping Complex
Otome Games: The Most Entertaining Way To Rethink Your Love Life?
Best Christmas Markets In And Around Tokyo
Savvy’s Pick of the Best Personal Planners For 2020
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Home>Chautauqua County Courts>Pomfret Town Court
Pomfret Town Courtsmearchy2017-02-03T21:31:37+00:00
Pomfret Town Court
9-11 Church Street
Fredonia, NY 140634723
Ask An Attorney!
We’re here to help answer your questions. Traffic offenses can be complicated, our team is on hand to help inform you of every aspect regarding your issue.
The Pomfret Town Court is located on Church Street in the village of Fredonia, New York. The town of Pomfret is located in Chautauqua County, New York.
The town of Pomfret was initially settled in the early 1800s. The town of Pomfret was officially established in 1808 from a section of the town of Chautauqua, being the first property of Chautauqua after the county was established. Pomfret later lost substantial parts of its property during the formation of five new towns of the county.
Pomfret has a total area of over 40 square miles, of which most of it, is made up of land. The northwestern edge of Pomfret borders Lake Erie.
The New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) and US Route 20 runs through Pomfret. NY Route 60 is a main north-south highway, and NY Route 5 travels beside the beautiful shores of Lake Erie.
Pomfret Town Court personnel are prohibited by law from providing you with any legal advice. They will attempt to guide you through the process; but if you have legal concerns, you should seek the advice of counsel.
About the John C. Nelson Law Firm
We help people fight traffic violations throughout New York state and have offices in Ellicottville, NY and in Cheektowaga, NY. We serve Cattaraugus County, Erie County, Allegany County and all other cities, towns and counties in New York State. If you need experienced representation, we are available 7 days a week to help you through your case.
When playing a sport, typically the more points you get, the better. However, the New York Department of Motor Vehicles issues points on your license for certain types of traffic violation convictions. And like golf, when it comes to points on your license, the less points you have, the better.
New York Vehicle and Traffic Law section 1180 deals with speed limits and sets out the consequences imposed by a court upon a conviction. The fine that a court may assess is based on the specific traffic violation stated on the ticket, the ticketed speed, and the number of previous convictions.
Some of the most common violations under the DMV point system:
Speeding (1 – 10 MPH over posted limit): 3 points
Speeding (11 – 20 MPH over posted limit): 4 points
Speeding (more than 40 MPH over posted limit): 11 points
Reckless driving: 5 points
Failing to stop for a school bus: 5 points
Following too closely (tailgating): 4 points
Inadequate brakes: 4 points
Inadequate brakes while driving an employer’s vehicle: 2 points
Failing to yield right-of-way: 3 points
Violation involving a traffic signal, stop sign, or yield sign 3 points
Railroad-crossing violation: 3 points
Improper passing, unsafe lane change, driving left of center, or driving in wrong direction: 3 points
Leaving the scene of an incident involving property damage or injury to a domestic animal: 3 points
Safety restraint violation involving a person under 16 years old: 3 points
Texting while driving: 5 points
Any other moving violation: 2 points
Did you receive a ticket in Pomfret Town Court?
It is not uncommon for an individual to attempt to defend a traffic violation by themselves without knowing the procedure and customs of the local court system. However, oftentimes a person who represents themselves risks missing important deadlines, notices, and court proceedings because they are not familiar with the court rules and legal documents involved in any given case. Without an understanding of local courtroom rules and customs, people that choose to represent themselves, due to their lack of knowledge of these rules and customs, often, unintentionally offend a judge or district attorney.
QUESTIONS ABOUT A TRAFFIC OFFENSE?
Contact us for a free case evaluation.
Email: john@jcnlawfirm.com
We help people throughout New York state and have offices in Ellicottville, NY (Cattaraugus County) and Cheektowaga, NY (Erie County). We serve Cattaraugus County, Erie County, Allegany County and Chautauqua County and all other cities and counties in the state of New York. If you need to fight your charges with experienced representation, contact the John C. Nelson law firm today.
MONDAY – THURSDAY 8am ~ 11pm
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12 Monroe Street, Ellicottville, NY 14731 – Cattaraugus County
2560 Walden Ave, Suite 110, Cheektowaga, NY 14225 – Erie County
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Rains lash Kashmir parts, day temperature falls across Valley
Parts of south and north Kashmir received rains on Monday even as weatherman forecast possibility of snow amid fall in day temperature across the Kashmir Valley including this summer capital of the state.
The capital city registered the maximum temperature of 13.1 degree Celsius, down from 14.3 degree Celsius yesterday, a meteorological department official told GNS.
The famous skiing resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir registered a maximum of 3.3 degrees Celsius against 9.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday last. He said the resort was the coldest place in the Valley had had traces of rains and snow.
Pahalgam in south Kashmir, which serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra, recorded a maximum of 6.3 against yesterday’s 12.5 degrees Celsius. It received rainfall of 5.2mm from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Kupwara, in north Kashmir, also received 5.2 mm of rain during the day and was third coldest place in the Valley, recording maximum of 7.2 against Sunday’s 14.2 degree Celsius.
Kokernag town in south Kashmir registered a maximum of 12.6 degree Celsius against 13.7 degrees Celsius on November 11, the official said.
He said Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley, recorded day temperature of 16.2 degree Celsius, same as on Sunday.
He said there was the possibility of light to moderate rain/snow at most places in Kashmir and scattered places in Ladakh and Jammu region in next 24-hours.
Regarding the outlook for the subsequent two days, he said there is the possibility of “fairly widespread to widespread rain/snow” in Kashmir Valley.
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Tag Archives: ‘Sir’ Sayyid’s kufr of rejecting beliefs in Angels Existence
The Deviant Beliefs of ‘Sir’ Sayyid Ahmad Khan
February 18, 2017 islamreigns 3 Comments
'Sir' Sayyid Ahmad Khan
[By Maulana Mufti Muhammad Na‛im Sahib and translated by Maulana Mahomedy]
Naturalism: the belief that all religious truth is based not on revelation but rather on the study of natural causes and processes.
(Collins English Dictionary)
After the end of Muslim rule in India and the arrival of the British there, the naturalist sect was the first deviated sect to come into existence. [Aqa’id Islam, vol.1, p. 179].
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan was a Ghayr Muqallid in the beginning. He then became a mujtahid. When he went to England, he became a mulhid. Subsequently, he openly commenced propagating his naturalist sect. [Imdad al-Fatawa, vol. 6, p.167]
The British formed this sect with the sole purpose of dividing the Muslims so that they [British] could rule over India without interference or hindrance. They put Sir Sayyid to proper use for this purpose. The following is noted by an insightful Englishman:
Every person belonging to our government in India – whether he is involved in foreign affairs, the courts or the administration of the army – must always bear in mind the principle of divide and rule.
In order to realize their objective, the British first utilized Sir Sayyid. The above statement of the Englishman is more or less conveyed by Sir Sayyid in the following way:
The disruption and disorder which we experienced is solely as a consequence of the ingratitude of the Indians. You did not show gratitude to God and have always been ungrateful. God imposed this situation on you Indians because of your ingratitude, and allowed you to experience again a sample of the government of former times, after he suspended English rule for a short time.
Sir Sayyid was the one who referred to the 1857 war for independence as a rebellion and a mutiny [Sarkashi Dila‛ Bijnaur, p. 47]. On the other hand, Muslims considered it to be a battle for independence.
Sir Sayyid himself writes that there is none from among the Muslim Nawabs and Hindu noblemen in Bijnaur district who has the ability to rule so that the masses could live in an atmosphere of justice and peace.
[Ibid. pp.75-76].
This is why Sir Sayyid constantly received titles from the British government. Queen Victoria referred to him as CSI.
Furthermore, in order to please the British government, Sir Sayyid audaciously changed Islamic teachings in a manner which is not possible for a Muslim. [Angrez Ke Baghi Musalman, p. 408]
It was Sir Sayyid’s view that Muslims should adopt British culture and ways so that they can acquire honour in the eyes of the British. This is why he opened ‛Ali Garh College. He and his ilk made the intellect the basis for everything and rejected anything which could not be fathomed through the intellect.
This sect came into existence around the year 1855. A group of people accepted his beliefs. The more well-known among them were the following: Nawab Muhsin al-Mulk, Deputy Nadhir Ahmad Khan Dehlawi, Shams al-‛Ulama’ Maulwi Dhaka’ullah Dehlawi, Altaf Husayn Hali, Maulwi Mushtaq Husayn, Nawab Intisar Jang, Maulwi Chiragh ‛Ali Khan, Mahdi ‛Ali Khan, Nawab A‛zam Mahir Jang, Shibli Nu‛mani A‛zamgarhi and others.
A Short Biography of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan
He was born on 17 October 1817 in Delhi. His early studies were undertaken at home. His father passed away when he was quite young. This is why he had to find employment. He commenced by working as a permanent government employee.
He was then employed by the East India Company and then made into an associate in the court. He continued progressing in this way. During the war for independence, he was a sub-judge in Bijnaur. He progressed further and became the District Magistrate. He was then transferred to Muradabad. While in Muradabad, he wrote Asbab Baghawat-e-Hind and other books.
He was transferred to Ghazipur in 1862 where he established the Scientific Society whose aim was to translate English scientific literature into Urdu. He also opened a school here.
When he was transferred to ‛Ali Garh in 1864, he moved the offices of the Scientific Society from Ghazipur to ‛Ali Garh. From here he published a periodical under the auspices of ‛Ali Garh Institute. Its publication continued until his death.
His beliefs: Sir Sayyid was initially a Ghayr Muqallid. He then started making his own ijtihad. He proceeded to England in 1869 with his sons. The path to atheism opened from there and he began propagating his beliefs.
He wrote several books, some of which are:
(1) A’in Akbari.
(2) Tarikh Firoz Shahi (with corrections and footnotes).
(3) Athar as-Sanadid.
(4) Tahdhib al-Akhlaq.
(5) Asbab Baghawat-e-Hind. He passed away on 27 March 1898 in ‛Ali Garh and was buried near the College.
Beliefs And Doctrines
1. There is no such a thing as angels. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 31; Tafsir al-Qur’an, vol. 1, p. 46].
2. There is no such a thing as Shaytan. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 31]
3. Hadrat Adam ‛alayhis salam did not eat of the forbidden tree. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 31]
4. There is no punishment in the grave. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 65]
5. He rejects Paradise and Hell. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 110; Tafsir al-Qur’an, vol. 1, p. 39]
6. There will be no bodily resurrection. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 110; Tafsir al-Qur’an, vol. 1, p. 39]
7. There is no such a thing as doe-eyed damsels of Paradise. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 110; Tafsir al-Qur’an, vol. 1, p. 39]
8. He rejects pre-destination. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 9]
9. He rejects miracles. [Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, vol. 3, p. 31]
10. The heavens do not exist. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 2, p. 52]
11. Ijma‛ is not a valid proof. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 2, p. 52]
12. No abrogation took place in the Qur’an. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 4, p. 16]
13. Pictures of animate things are permissible. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 14, p. 115]
14. Most Ahadith are not authentic. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 14, p. 187]
15. There is no such a thing as jinn. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 5, p. 7]
16. He rejects the miracles of Hadrat Musa ‛alayhis salam. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 5, p. 54]
17. Hadrat ‛Isa ‛alayhis salam passed away and he was not raised to the heavens. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 22, p. 6]
18. Hadrat ‛Isa ‛alayhis salam had a father. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 1, p. 3]
19. He rejects the miracle of the splitting of the moon. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 9, p. 1]
20. He rejects the opening of the chest of Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam. Anyone who rejects this is not a kafir according to him. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 1, p. 1]
21. He rejects the Mi‛raj. [Ibid]
22. He rejects Imam Mahdi. He will not come before the day of Resurrection. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 3, p. 96]
23. An ordinary person can be equal to a Prophet. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 3, p. 57]
24. No Prophet perfected the teaching of tauhid. (Allah forbid) all their teachings on tauhid were defective. [Nur al-Afaq, vol. 3, p. 63]
25. There is no such a thing as conveying rewards to the deceased (Isal-e-thawab). [Nur al-Afaq, (Jumada al-Ula/Ramadan 96)]
Answers From The Qur’an And Hadith to Naturalist Beliefs And Doctrines
1st Belief: Angels Do Not Exist.
This belief is against the Qur’an and Hadith. There are countless verses in the Qur’an which make reference to angels. For example:
Thereupon the angels prostrated all of them together. Except for Iblis. [Surah al-Hijr, 15: 30-31]
Angels are mentioned in several places in the Qur’an. Some of them are:
Surah al-Baqarah – 10 verses Surah Al ‛Imran – 8 verses
Surah an-Nisa’ – 4 verses
Surah al-A‛raf – 5 verses
Surah al-Anfal – 3 verses
Surah Hud – 2 verses
Surah Yusuf – 1 verse
Surah ar-Ra‛d – 2 verses
Surah al-Hijr – 4 verses
Surah an-Nahl – 5 verses
Surah al-Isra’ – 4 verses
Surah al-Kahf – 1 verse
Surah Ta Ha – 1 verse
Surah al-Ambiya’ – 1 verse
Surah al-Hajj – 1 verse
Surah al-Mu’minun – 1 verse
Surah al-Furqan – 4 verses
Surah as-Sajdah – 1 verse
Surah al-Ahzab – 2 verses
Surah as-Saba’ – 1 verse
Surah Fatir – 1 verse
Surah as-Saffat – 1 verse
Surah Sad – 2 verses
Surah az-Zumar – 1 verse
Surah al-Muddath-thir – 1 verse Surah an-Naba’ – 1 verse
When your Sustainer said to the angels: I am going to make a vicegerent in the earth. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 30]
When We ordered the angels: “Prostrate to Adam”, they all fell into prostration except Iblis. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 34]
The Ahadith mention the angels in many places. For example:
Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: When it is Laylatul Qadr, Jibril descends with a troop of angels. [Mishkat, vol.1, p.183]
The person who reads Surah ad-Dukhan at night shall wake up the next morning with 70,000 angels seeking forgiveness for him. [Mishkat, vol. 1, p.187]
Allah ta‛ala read Surahs Ta Ha and Ya Sin 1,000 years before He created the heavens and the earth. When the angels heard the Qur’an being recited, they said: Glad tidings to the nation on which this will be revealed. Glad tidings to the hearts which will memorize this. Glad tidings to the tongues which will read this. [Mishkat, vol.1, p.187]
The books of aqa’id state that belief in the angels is from among the essentials of Din and that rejecting the angels is undoubtedly kufr. [Aqaa’id Islam]
2nd Belief: Rejection of Shaytan
Rejecting the existence of Shaytan entails rejecting the Qur’an and Hadith because he is mentioned in countless places. For example:
Except Iblis. He did not obey and displayed arrogance. And he was from the unbelievers. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 34]
Then Satan caused them to slip from that place and removed them from that honour and comfort in which they were. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:36]
Those who devour usury (interest) will not rise on the day of Resurrection except as the rising of a person whose senses Satan has squandered by clinging (to him). [Surah al-Baqarah, 2: 275]
Shaytan is mentioned profusely in the Ahadith as well. For example:
Hadrat Abu Hurayrah radiyallahu ‛anhu said: Shaytan comes to one of you and asks: Who created this, who created that? [Mishkat, vol.1, p.18]
Shaytan flows in man just as blood flows in him. [Bukhari and Muslim]
Every infant that is born is most certainly touched by Shaytan at the time of his birth. [Bukhari and Muslim]
3rd Belief: Hadrat Adam Did Not Eat The Forbidden Fruit
This is also against the Qur’an and Hadith. For example:
Do not approach this tree or else you will become of the transgressors. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:35]
Your Sustainer did not forbid you from this tree except for the reason that you might become angels or that you live forever. [Surah al-A‛raf, 7:20]
Did I not prohibit you from that tree and did I not tell you that Satan is your open enemy? [Surah al-A‛raf, 7: 22]
4th Belief: Rejection of Punishment of The Grave
This belief is also against the Qur’an and Hadith. For example:
It is the fire which is displayed before them in the morning and evening. [Surah al-Mu’min, 40:46]
Behind them is a veil till a day when they shall be raised. [Surah al-Mu’minun, 23:100]
Now today you will be recompensed with a humiliating punishment. [Surah al-Ahqaf, 46: 20]
The ‛ulama’ state that there are countless Ahadith which affirm the punishment of the grave. The Muhaddithun classify them as mutawatir Ahadith which cannot be rejected. For example:
Hadrat ‛A’ishah radiyallahu ‛anha narrates that a Jewish woman came to her and was talking about punishment of the grave. The woman said to her: “May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave.” ‛A’ishah radiyallahu ‛anha then asked Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam about punishment of the grave and he said: “Yes, the punishment of the grave is certain.” ‛A’ishah radiyallahu ‛anha relates: Subsequently whenever Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam performed a salah, he sought refuge in Allah ta‛ala from the punishment of the grave.” [Bukhari and Muslim]
Hadrat Abu Sa‛id Khudri radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam said: Ninety nine serpents are let loose on an unbeliever in his grave. They continue biting and stinging him until the day of Resurrection. If just one of those serpents were to spit on earth, it will not produce any greenery. [Darimi and Tirmidhi]
Hadrat Asma’ bint Abi Bakr radiyallahu ‛anha narrates: Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam stood up to deliver a sermon and he spoke about the tribulation of the grave which would put a person to test. When he related this, the Muslims began screaming and crying. [Bukhari]
5th Belief: Rejection of Paradise And Hell
The Qur’an and Hadith mention Paradise and Hell profusely. For example:
Those who continued fearing their Sustainer will be driven towards Paradise in groups. Till when they reach it and its gates are opened, its keepers will say to them: “Peace be upon you. You are pure people. So enter it, abiding therein forever. [Surah az-Zumar, 39:73]
Enter it with peace. This is the day of eternity. [Surah Qaf, 50: 34]
As for those who are fortunate, they shall be in Paradise. Abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure. [Surah Hud, 11:108]
Those who were unbelievers shall be driven towards Hell in groups. [Surah az-Zumar, 39: 71]
Similarly, Paradise and Hell are mentioned profusely in the Ahadith. For example:
I will be the first to knock on the door of Paradise. [Muslim]
I will go to the door of Paradise on the day of Resurrection and ask for it to be opened. The guard will ask: “Who are you?” I will reply: “Muhammad.” He will say: “I was ordered not to open it for anyone before you.” [Muslim]
Hell is mentioned abundantly in the Qur’an and Hadith. For example:
For them is a bed of Hell [from below]. [Surah al-A‛raf, 7:41]
However, those who are sinners, they shall remain in the punishment of Hell forever. [Surah az-Zukhruf, 43: 74]
The following is stated in the books of aqa’id:
Paradise and Hell have already been created. [Sharh Aqa’id Nasafi]
They will remain forever; they will never perish. There is unanimity of the ummat in this regard.
‛Allamah Shihab ad-Din Khifaji rahimahullah writes:
We classify as a kafir the one who rejects Paradise and Hell themselves or the places in them. [Naseem ul Riyadh]
6th Belief: Rejection of Physical Resurrection
This belief is against the Qur’an, Hadith and consensus of the ummat. We learn from several Qur’anic verses that after dying, people will be raised with their physical bodies on the day of Resurrection. For example:
The trumpet will be blown. They will then rush forth from their graves towards their Sustainer. [Surah Ya Sin, 36:51]
He puts forth for Us a simile and forgets his [own] creation. He says: “Who will give life to the bones when they have crumbled to dust?” Say: “He will give life to them who had created them the first time. And He knows every creation.” [Surah Ya Sin, 36:78-79]
Similarly, it is learnt from countless Ahadith that people will be assembled on the field of Resurrection. For example:
People will be assembled on a single plain on the day of Resurrection. [Mishkat, 487]
People will be assembled on the day of Resurrection on a white field which will be level like a flat loaf of bread with no sign on it. [Mishkat, 482]
‛A’ishah radiyallahu ‛anha narrates: I asked Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam about the verse: “The day when the earth and heavens will be replaced by another earth”, where will people be on that day? He replied: They will be on the Sirat (the bridge over Hell). [Mishkat, vol. 1, p. 482]
The books of aqa’id state that the concept of life after death is as clear as the day. This is unanimously accepted by the ummat and there is no room whatsoever for any rationalization. [Aqa’id al-Islam, vol. 1, p. 83]
People who reject this are out of the fold of Islam. The ‛ulama’ of every era classified such people as kafirs. [Ibid. vol. 2, p. 92]
7th Belief: Rejection of Doe-Eyed Damsels of Paradise
This belief is against the Qur’an and Hadith. The Qur’an makes several references to the doe-eyed damsels of Paradise. For example:
There are maidens confined to tents. [Surah ar-Rahman, 55:72]
Therein are women of modest gaze, whom neither man nor jinn will have touched before. [Surah ar-Rahman, 55:56]
We created those maidens in a wonderful way. We then made them virgins. Loving companions of the same age. [Surah al-Waqi‛ah, 56: 35-37]
The Ahadith also mention the doe-eyed damsels profusely. For example:ََََّْْ
When a person stands up for salah, Paradise is opened for him, the veils between himself and His Allah are removed, and he faces the doe-eyed damsel as long as he does not spit nor blows his nose. [Tabarani]
The number of doe-eyed damsels is much more than you. They pray for their partners thus: O Allah! Assist him on Your Din, turn his heart to Your obedience, O the most Merciful of those who show mercy! Convey him to us with Your special proximity. [Al-Targheeb Wa’l Tarheeb]
If a person suppresses his anger while having the ability to give vent to it, Allah ta‛ala shall call him before the entire creation on the day of Resurrection and give him the choice to choose whichever doe-eyed damsel he likes.
8th Belief: Rejection of Predestination
The Ahl as-Sunnah’s belief is that Allah ta‛ala has knowledge of everything before the occurrence of incidents and events. Allah ta‛ala recorded all this in the Preserved Tablet. The issue of predestination is proven from countless Qur’anic verses and Ahadīth. For example:
That if Allah wills, He could have brought all the people to the path. [Surah ar-Ra‛d, 13: 31]
But you cannot will it unless Allah, the master of all the worlds, wills. [Surah at-Takwir, 71: 29]
Allah leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. [Surah al-Muddath-thir, 74:31]
Belief in predestination is also explained profusely in the Ahadith. For example:
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Amr radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: Allah ta‛ala recorded the destinies of the creations 50,000 years before He created the heavens and earth. His Throne was on water at that time. [Muslim]
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Umar radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: Everything is predetermined – even incapability and intelligence. [Muslim]
Hadrat Sahl ibn Sa‛d radiyallāhu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: A person continues doing the actions of the people of the Hell-fire but he becomes of the people of Paradise. A person continues doing the actions of the people of Paradise but he becomes of the people of the Hell-fire. [Bukhari]
9th Belief: Rejection of Miracles
A definition of a miracle:
The majority of theologians define a miracle as a matter which is different from the norm accompanied with tahaddi, i.e. a claim to messenger-ship, while it cannot be opposed.
Miracles are given to Prophets by Allah ta‛ala so that they can serve as proofs of their messenger-ship and prophet-hood. This is clarified in many places in the Qur’an. For example:
So these are two evidences from your Sustainer. [Surah al-Qasas, 28:32]
This is because there used to come to them their Messengers with clear signs. But they rejected [them]. So Allah seized them. Surely He is powerful, severe in punishment. [Surah al-Mu’min, 40:22]
We gave to Musa nine clear signs [Surah Bani Isra’il,17:101]
We have come to you with a sign from your Sustainer. [Surah Ta Ha, 20:47]
The Ahadith also describe the miracles of the Prophets ‛alayhimus salam. For example:
Hadrat Jabir radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates: The people got thirsty at Hudaybiyah. Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam had a pitcher of water from which he performed wudu’. The people went towards him. He asked them: “What is it?” They replied: “We do not have any water for wudu’ or to drink except the water which you have in front of you.” Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam placed his hand in the pitcher and water began gushing forth like fountains. We drank and performed wudu’. The narrator asked Jabir: “How many people were you?” He replied: “If we were 100,000 it would have sufficed us. We were 1,500.” [Bukhari & Muslim]
Hadrat Barra’ ibn ‛Azib radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates: We were about 1,400 with Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam at Hudaybiyah. There was a well whose water we used up, not leaving a single drop. When Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam came to know of this, he came to the well, sat on its edge, and asked for a utensil of water. He performed wudu’, then gargled his mouth and threw that water into the well. He said: “Leave the well for a little while.” Thereafter, all who were present satiated their thirst from it, and gave to their animals also. They continued utilizing water from the well until they departed. [Bukhari]
Hadrat ‛Ali ibn Abi Talib radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates: I was with Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam in Makkah when we went to one of its outlying areas. As we were walking, every rock and tree which came before him [on the path] greeted him by saying: “Peace be to you, O Rasulullah!” [Tirmidhi, Daarimi]
10th Belief: Rejection of Ijma‛
Ijma‛ refers to the unanimity of the jurists and mujtahids on an injunction of the Shari‛ah in any era after the era of Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam.
It becomes necessary to practise on it as it is to practise on the Qur’an and Hadith. Ijma‛ is proven from the Qur’an and Hadith.
Hold fast to the rope of Allah altogether and do not sow dissension [Surah Al ‛Imran, 3:103]
O believers! Continually fear Allah and remain with the truthful. [Surah at-Taubah, 9: 119]
Whoever opposes the Messenger after the straight path has become manifest to him and treads the path against all the Muslims, We shall hand him over to that which he himself has chosen and We shall cast him into Hell. He has reached a very evil place. [Surah an-Nisa’, 4:115 ]
There are many Ahadith on the subject of ijma‛ which are classified as mutawatir. A mutawatir Hadith refers to a Hadith which has been related by such a large number of people in every era that it is impossible for so many of them to concur on fabricating a lie or committing a mistake.
My ummah or the ummah of Muhammad (sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam) will never concur on deviation. Allah’s hand is on the group. The one who separates himself [from the main body] shall be separated in the Hell-fire. [Tirmidhi]
The condition of this ummah will remain straight and upright until the Final Hour. [Bukhari]
Anas ibn Malik radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates: I heard Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam saying: My ummah will never concur on deviation. If you see any disunity, hold on firmly to the main body of Muslims. [Ibn Majah]
Whose Ijma‛ will be a proof
There are several opinions in this regard:
1. Imam Malik rahimahullah is of the view that the ijma‛ of the people of Madinah will be considered. (Al-Taqrir Sharh al-Tahrir)
2. Some are of the view that only the ijma‛ of the Sahabah radiyallahu ‛anhum will be considered. (Tahseel al-Wusool)
3. The most balanced view is that it is sufficient for the jurists and mujtahids of any era to concur on a ruling of the Shari‛ah. Thereafter, the opposition of the Ahl-e-Bid‛at, flagrant sinners and masses will not be considered.
The third view is the most preferred by the majority of scholars. (Al-Taqrir Sharh al-Tahrir)
11th Belief: No Abrogation Took Place in The Qur’an
Abrogation means cancelling a certain ruling. In other words, to replace one ruling by another. The exegists are of the view that abrogation is of three types:
Words are abrogated but the ruling remains. For example, the verse related to stoning to death. Its words have been abrogated but the ruling is still valid.
2. The words are present but the ruling is abrogated. For example, bequests for relatives: “A bequest for parents and relatives with equity.” [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:180]
3. The words and ruling are both abrogated. For example, a Hadith states that Surah al-Ahzab was equal to Surah al-Baqarah, but its recitation and ruling are both abrogated.
Based on the importance of abrogation, the exegists hold it in very high regard. Abrogation is from among the essential sciences required by exegists.
The ummat is unanimous about abrogation in the Qur’an. No one from the past – except a few Mu‛tazilah – rejected it. The exegists severely refute the Mu‛tazilah on this subject. [Tafsir Ibn Kathir]
Imam Qurtubi rahimahullah writes:
Knowledge of this science [abrogation] is essential and its benefit is immense. The scholars cannot do without knowledge of this science and none but the foolish ignoramuses can deny it. [Tafsir Qurtubi]
The following is stated in Ruh al-Ma‛ani:
Only Abu Muslim Asfahani rejected abrogation. He says that abrogation of divine injunctions is possible but it did not occur. [Ruh al-Ma‛ani]
To sum up, none of the past and latter day scholars rejected abrogation outright. Yes, there are differences as to the number of abrogated verses, but not outright rejection of the occurrence of abrogation. [Ma‛arif al-Qur’an, vol. 1, p. 286]
It should be clear that abrogation did not take place in the Qur’an because Allah ta‛ala did not have pre-knowledge, later He realized, and therefore He abrogated the previous ruling. Rather, Allāh ta‛ala had knowledge before issuing a ruling, He also knew that conditions will change, and that a different ruling will have to be issued. This is similar to a specialist physician who knows that a certain medication has to be given to a patient bearing in mind his current condition. He also knows that the patient’s condition will change after a few days and that he will have to give him another type of medication. This is why he prescribes one medicine in the beginning and changes it after a few days.
The specialist physician could have also prescribed all the medicines on the first day and instructed his patient by saying: Take this medicine for two days, and then you must take this other medicine. However, this would have been weighty on the patient and also the danger of his taking the wrong medicine and causing damage to his health. [Ma‛arif al-Qur’an, vol. 1, p. 283]
It is also incorrect to hold the belief that pictures of animate objects are permissible. It is the belief of the Ahl as-Sunnah that every picture of an animate object – whether of humans or animals – is haraam. This is proven from many Ahadith. For example:
A man came to Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu and said: “I make these images, I would like you to give me a verdict in this regard.” He said: “Come near me.” The man came close. He said: “Come closer.” The man came closer. ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu then placed his hand on the man’s head and said: I will tell you something which I heard from Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam. He said: “Every image-maker shall be in the Hell-fire. A physical body will be created for every image which he produced which will then punish him in the Hell-fire.” If you really have to produce any images, make of those which have no soul, like a tree.
A man came to Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu and said: “I make these images, I would like you to give me a verdict in this regard.” He said: “Come near me.” The man came close. He said: “Come closer.” The man came closer. ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu then placed his hand on the man’s head and said: I will tell you something which I heard from Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam. He said: “Every image-maker shall be in the Hell-fire. A physical body will be created for every image which he produced which will then punish him in the Hell-fire.” If you really have to produce any images, make of those which have no soul, like a tree. [Muslim]
Hadrat Qatadah radiyallahu ‛anhu relates: I was sitting with Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu…he replied to a question which he was asked: I heard Muhammad sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam saying: Whoever produces an image In this world will be compelled to blow life into it on the day of Resurrection and he will not be able to do it. [Bukhari]
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Umar radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam said: Those who produce these images will be punished on the day of Resurrection. They will be ordered: “Give life to your creations.” [Bukhari]
It is the ijma‛ of the entire ummat and the fatwa of all four Imams that it is forbidden to make images of animate objects.
Allamah Nawawi rahimahullah writes:
Our elders and other ‛ulama’ said that producing images of animate objects is severely prohibited. It is from among the major sins because very severe warnings against it have been issued in the Ahadith. This is irrespective of whether the image is of something which is disrespected or not. Producing such an image is forbidden under all conditions because it entails imitating Allah’s attribute of creating…
12th Belief: Most Ahadith Are Not Authentic
Whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it. Whatever he forbids you, abstain from it. [Surah al-Hashr, 59: 7]
It is not for a believing man nor a believing woman, that when Allâh and His Messenger have decided a matter, to have a choice in their matter. [Surah al-Ahzab, 33:36]
It is He who raised among the unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom. And before this they were lying in manifest error. [Surah al-Jumu‛ah, 62:2]
The scholars and exegists concur that the word “wisdom” in the above verse refers to the blessed Ahadith of Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam. It is clearly known that many verses of the Qur’an cannot be understood without resorting to the blessed Ahadith. For example:
Establish salah and pay zakah. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:43]
The questions which arise are: When must the salah be performed? How many salahs? At what time must they be performed? What must be read in the salah? How must it be performed? What is the sequence as regards the bowing, prostrating, sitting, standing postures? Many other points about salah have to be learnt but they are not to be found in the Qur’an. All these are found in the Ahadith. The Qur’an itself states that in addition to the Qur’an, Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam receives revelation (which is known as Ahadith). There are several verses of the Qur’an which make reference to this. For example:
Whatever date-palms you chopped off or left standing on their roots, it is by the order of Allah. [Surah al-Hashr, 59:5]
A brief background to this verse is that during the expedition to Khaybar, the Jews locked themselves in their forts. Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam instructed the Sahabah radiyallahu ‛anhum to chop down their orchards so that they come out of their forts. Some of the trees were to be left untouched so that when the Muslims gain victory, they could be of benefit to them. The Jews spread the story that Muslims cause destruction. A reply to the allegations of the Jews was given in the above verse. That is, whatever happens does so by the order of Allah ta‛ala. However, this order is not found in the Qur’an. It was Jibra’il ‛alayhis salam who came and conveyed it to Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam. This is known as Hadith. The exegists refer to it as wahy ghayr matluw (un-recited revelation).
This is why Imam Abu Hanifah rahimahullah said:
Had it not been for the Sunnah, none of us would have understood the Qur’an. The following are few Ahadith on this subject.
Hadrat Miqdad ibn Ma‛dikariba radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: Listen! I have been given the Qur’an and the like of it with it. Listen! A person with a full stomach resting on his couch may well say: “This Qur’an is enough for you. Consider to be lawful whatever it makes lawful, and consider to be unlawful what it makes unlawful.” Whereas the things which Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam says to be unlawful are as if Allah ta‛ala made them unlawful. [Abu Dawud]
Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: I have left you two things, you will never be misguided as long as you hold on to them. They are the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger.
13th Belief: Rejection of Jinn
Jinn is a creation which Allah ta‛ala created from fire. They have the ability to take whatever form they like. The Qur’an and Ahadith are filled with discussions on jinn. There is no room for their rejection. A quick overview of jinn in the Qur’an:
Surah al-An‛am – 4 verses
Surah Hud – 1 verse
Surah al-Isra’ – 1 verse
Surah an-Naml – 2 verses
Surah as-Saba’ – 3 verses
Surah adh-Dhariyat – 2 verses Surah ar-Rahman – 5 verses
Surah al-Jinn – 6 verses
Surah an-Nas – 6 verses
Surah Fussilat – 1 verse
Surah ash-Shura – 1 verse
Syrah az-Zukhruf – 3 verses
Surah Muhammad – 3 verses Surah an-Najm – 2 verses
Surah at-Tahrim – 1 verse
Surah at-Tariq – 1 verse
Surah al-Ma‛arij – 1 verse
Surah al-Fajr – 1 verse
Surah al-Qadr – 1 verse
A few Qur’anic verses
[Remember] the time when We sent a group of jinn to you, listening to the Qur’ān. Then when they attended [its recitation], they said: “Remain silent.” [Surah al-Ahqaf, 46:29]
Say: It has been revealed to me that a group of jinn listened [to the Qur’an] and they then said: “We have heard a wonderful recitation. [Surah al-Jinn, 72:1]
Of jinn, there were many who laboured before him by the command of his Sustainer. [Surah Saba’, 34:12]
Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam was asked about fortune tellers. He said: They cannot be relied upon.” The Sahabah said: “O Rasūlullāh! Sometimes they relates things which are true.” He said: “The jinn sometimes hear things from the angels and convey them into the ears of their friends [fortune tellers] who then mix it with more than a hundred lies. Allah ta‛ala then prevented the devils from overhearing the conversations of the angels by striking them [with shooting stars]… [Bukhari, 857]
It is not right to reject jinn solely because we cannot see them. There are countless things which humans cannot see but they believe in them and accept them. For example, the soul, man’s intellect, angels and so on. This is why the scholars say that rejection of jinn entails rejection of the Qur’an and Hadith, and is therefore kufr. [Aqa’id Islam, vol. 2, p.62]
14th Belief: Rejection of The Miracles of Hadrat Musa
This is also kufr because it entails rejection of the Qur’an and Hadith. The affirmation of miracles in favour of the Prophets ‛alayhimus salam is proven through Qur’anic verses and mutawatir Ahadith. Miracles are essentially given to the Prophets ‛alayhimus salam in support of their claim to prophet-hood so that these miracles could become proofs of the authenticity of their claim to prophet-hood. The miracles of Hadrat Musa ‛alayhis salam are mentioned in the Qur’an. For example:
We gave to Musa nine clear signs. [Surah Bani Isra’il,17:101]
When Musa asked for water for his people, We said: “Strike your staff on the rock.” Then there gushed forth from it twelve springs. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:60]
Press your hand to your side, it will come forth white without any blemish – another sign. [Surah Ta Ha, 20:22]
Hadrat Maulana Idris Kandhlawi rahimahullah writes with reference to miracles:
Miracles are signs of the truthfulness of the Prophets ‛alayhimus salam. It is similar to when the kings of this world select certain people as their close associates. The latter are given certain signs to demonstrate their honour and distinction. These are beyond the wishes of ordinary people. In the same way, when Allah ta‛ala confers prophet-hood to a person, He gives him special signs which distinguish him from the rest of the world. [Aqa’id Islam, vol. 2, p. 68]
15th Belief: Hadrat ‛Isa is Dead
This belief is also in conflict with the texts of the Qur’an and Hadith.
And for their saying: “We killed the Messiah, ‛Isa, the son of Maryam, who was a Messenger of Allah.” They neither killed him nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear like that before them. Those who hold conflicting views about it are in doubt thereof. They have no knowledge whatsoever thereof. They are merely following conjecture. They certainly did not kill him. Rather, Allah raised him towards Himself. And Allah is powerful, wise. [Surah an-Nisa’, 4:157-158]
Ruh al-Ma‛ani states: “He is alive in the heavens.” All the exegists concur on this.
All the groups of the people of the Book will have conviction in ‛Isa prior to their death. And on the day of Resurrection he shall be a witness against them. [Surah an-Nisa’, 4:159.]
He is a sign of the Resurrection. Therefore do not be in doubt thereof, and obey Me. This is a straight path. [Surah az-Zukhruf, 43:61]
It is learnt from many Ahadith which could be classified as mutawatir that Hadrat ‛Isa ‛alayhis salam was taken up to the heavens and will descend before the day of Resurrection. There was no difference of opinion in this regard in the era of the Sahabah radiyallahu ‛anhum and the succeeding generations.
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam said: My brother, ‛Isa ibn Maryam, will descend from the heavens. [Bukhari]
Hadrat Abu Hurayrah radiyallāhu ‛anhu narrates that Rasūlullāh sallallāhu ‛alayhi wa sallam said: One of the astonishing things to take place is when [‛Isa] ibn Maryam will descend from the heavens to you and he will rule by the Qur’an [and not by the Injil]. [Wafa’ al Wafa’]
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn ‛Umar radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam said: ‛Isa ibn Maryam will come down to earth, he will marry, children will be born to him, he will remain on earth for 45 years and die. He will be buried with me in my grave. ‛Isa ibn Maryam and I will then get up from one grave, and Abu Bakr and ‛Umar will be between us.
Muslims unanimously concur that Hadrat ‛Isa ‛alayhis salam was raised to the heavens and will return close to the day of Resurrection. This is also stated by the four Imams.
Shaykh ‛Abd al-Wahhab Sha‛rani rahimahullah writes:
The descent of Hadrat ‛Isa ‛alayhis salam is established from the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Christians claim that Nasutah was crucified and Lahutah was raised. The fact of the matter is that Hadrat ‛Isa ‛alayhis salam was raised physically to the heavens. Belief in this is mandatory. Allah ta‛ala says: Rather Allah raised him towards Himself.
16th Belief: Rejecting The Splitting of The Moon
The incident concerning the splitting of the moon is established from the Qur’an and authentic Ahadith. The gist of this incident is that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam was in Mina when the idolaters of Makkah asked him for a sign of his prophet-hood. Allah ta‛ala displayed the miracle of splitting the moon in two. After the people saw this happening, Allah ta‛ala rejoined the moon.
People who arrived from other regions also acknowledged witnessing this incident. ‛Allamah Tahawi rahimahullah and others are of the view that the narration which makes reference to the splitting of the moon is mutawatir. Under no situation is it permissible to reject it. The following are some of the narrations in this regard:
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn Mas‛ud radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that the moon split into two in the time of Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam. When the people saw it clearly, he said: “Testify.” [Bukhari wa Muslim]
Hadrat Anas ibn Malik radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that the people of Makkah asked Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam to show them a sign. So Allah ta‛ala showed them the moon in two pieces to the extent that they could see Mt. Hira’ between them.
[Bukhari Wa Muslim]
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn Mas‛ud radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that the moon split in two while they were in Makkah. The Quraysh unbelievers – the people of Makkah – said: “This is magic with which Ibn Abi Kabshah [Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam] bewitched you. Wait for travellers to come from outside. If they also saw the moon in two pieces, he [Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam] is speaking the truth. But if the outside travellers did not see it, he has certainly performed magic with which he bewitched you.” When the travellers from all regions arrived and they inquired from them, they all attested to seeing the moon in two pieces. [Abu Dawud]
It is stated in Aqa’id Islam that it is obligatory to believe in the miracle of the splitting of the moon, and that its rejection is kufr. Trying to rationalize it is misguidance and there is a fear of kufr because this miracle is established from explicit texts in which there is no room for rationalization. [Aqa’id Islam, vol. 2, p.72]
17th Belief: Rejection of The Opening of The Chest of Rasulullah
Erudite ‛ulama’ are of the opinion that the opening of his chest was experienced by Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam on four occasions:
1. When he was four years old.
2. When he was ten years old.
3. When he was 40 years old just before receiving prophet-hood.
4. Just before going on Mi‛raj.
The opening of the chest of Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam used to take place as follows: Jibril ‛alayhis salam and Mika’il ‛alayhis salam would come to him, open his chest, remove his heart, wash it with Zam Zam, and return it to its place as it had been. These four instances are established from authentic narrations and reliable Ahādīth. The ‛ulama’ explain many underlying reasons and wisdoms behind the opening of Rasulullah’s chest (but this is not the place to mention them). It is incorrect to reject this merely by claiming that it is difficult and impossible. ‛Allamah Qastalani rahimahullah and ‛Allamah Zurqani rahimahullah state:
Whatever is narrated with regard to opening of the chest, removal of the heart and other extraordinary incidents have to be accepted as they have been reported without trying to change it from its reality. [Sharh Muwahib]
Imam Qurtubi, Tibi, Taurbishti, Hafiz Ibn Hajar ‛Asqalani, Suyuti and other erudite scholars state that the opening of the chest is accepted in its reality. It is also supported by authentic Hadith that the Sahabah radiyallahu ‛anhum used to see traces of stitches on Rasulullah’s blessed chest. ‛Allamah Suyuti rahimahullah says some ignoramuses of our times reject the opening of the chest and consider it to be a metaphysical event. This is clear ignorance and a vile error which stems from Allah’s forsaking such people, and because of their occupation with philosophical sciences, and their distance from the sciences of the Sunnah. May Allah ta‛ala safeguard us against sin.
18th Belief: Rejection of Mi‛raj
Mi‛raj refers to Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam being taken at night from earth to the heavens where he was shown Paradise and Hell. It is a well-known incident during which the five salahs were made compulsory on the ummat of Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam. The ‛ulama’ refer to the journey from al-Musjid al-Haram to al-Musjid al-Aqsa as Isra’, and the journey from al-Musjid al-Aqsa to the seven heavens as Mi‛raj. Sometimes, the entire incident is referred to as the Mi‛raj. This incident is established from the Qur’an and Hadīth. It is therefore not possible for a believer to reject it. The Qur’an states:
Exalted is He who took His servant by night from the Sacred Musjid to the Aqsa Musjid – the precincts of which We have blessed – so that We may show him some signs of Our power. He alone is the hearer, the seer. [Surah Bani Isra’il, 17:1]
There are many Ahadith which make reference to this even. For example:
Hadrat Ibn ‛Abbas radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that whatever Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam saw on the night of mi‛raj were seen with his eyes. [Bukhari]
Hadrat Abu Bakr radiyallahu ‛anhu said to Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam on the night he experienced the mi‛raj: “O Rasulullah! I searched for you in your house last night but did not find you.” Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said that Jibril had taken him to al-Musjid al-Aqsa. [Al-Shifa]
Mulla ‛Ali Qari rahimahullah writes in Sharh Fiqh Akbar with reference to those who reject the Mi‛raj:
Whoever rejects the Mi‛raj we will have to check: If he rejects the night journey from Makkah to Bayt al-Maqdis, he is a kafir. If he rejects the journey from Bayt al-Maqdis (to the heavens) he will not be classified a kafir. This is because the night journey from Makkah to Bayt al-Maqdis is established from a Qur’anic verse which is an explicit proof. As for the Mi‛raj from Bayt al-Maqdis to the heavens it is proven from the Sunnah which is a tacit proof. [Sharh Fiqhul Akbar]
It is stated in Aqa’id Islam that it is compulsory to believe in the miracle of the Mi‛raj, rejecting it is kufr and rationalizing it is misguidance. [Aqa’id Islam, vol. 2, p. 72]
Note: A full investigation of the Mi‛raj can be seen in Kitab Dau’ as-Siraj fi Tahqiq al-Mi‛raj of Maulana Muhammad Sarfaraz Khan Safdar.
19th Belief: Rejection of Hadrat Mahdi
According to the Ahl as-Sunnah, the coming of Hadrat Mahdi close to the day of Resurrection is established from mutawatir Ahadith. For example:
Hadrat Umm Salamah radiyallahu ‛anha narrates: I heard Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam saying: Mahdi will be from my progeny, from the progeny of Fatimah. [Abu Dawud]
Hadrat ‛Ali radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam said: There will come a person from the progeny of [my son Hasan] a person who will have the name of your Prophet, his character will be similar to him, and he will the earth with justice. [Abu Dawud]
Hadrat ‛Abdullah ibn Mas‛ud radiyallahu ‛anhu narrates that Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam said: A person from my family will rule over the Arabs. His name will be the same as mine, and his father’s name will be the same as my father’s name. [Tirmidhi]
The ‛ulama’ state that under no condition is it permissible to reject Hadrat Mahdi. There is unanimity of the ummat as regards his arrival.
20th Belief: An Ordinary Person Can be Equal to a Prophet
According to this belief, an ordinary person can be equal to a Prophet and he can acquire this rank by striving for it.
This belief is against the Qur’an and Hadith. The ummat of Muhammad sallallahu ‛alayhi wa sallam unanimously states that prophet-hood is an Allah-conferred rank which Allah ta‛ala confers to whomever He wills. It has nothing to do with spiritual exercises and striving or any meditation. Allah ta‛ala says:
He alone is of high ranks, master of the throne. He sends down the secret [spirit] by His command upon whomever He wills of His servants so that He may warn of the day of meeting. [Surah al-Mu’min, 40:14]
He sends the angels after giving them the secret by His command to whomever He wills of His servants: “Warn that there is no worship for anyone but Me, so fear Me.” [Surah an-Nahl, 16:2]
Those who are unbelievers from among the people of the Book and the polytheists do not wish that any good be sent down to you from your Sustainer. But Allah singles out through His mercy whom He wills. Allah is possessor of great bounty. [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:105]
Imam Ghazzali rahimahullah says that just as the humaneness of the human race and becoming an angel cannot be earned through striving and exercises, in the same way the prophet-hood and messenger-ship of the Prophets and Messengers cannot be earned. [Ma‛arij al-Quddus]
The entire ummat is unanimous in this regard. Furthermore, it is against the Qur’an, Hadith and Ijma‛ to claim that (Allah forbid) none of the Prophet’s teaching of tauhid was perfect and that all were defective. A person who holds such a belief is unanimously classified as a kafir.
21st Belief: A Deceased Person Does Not Receive Rewards
This belief is against that of the Ahl as-Sunnah. It is established from the Qur’an and Hadith that a person can convey the rewards of his good deeds to the deceased. The Ahl as-Sunnah is unanimous in this regard. Several narrations contain the incident of a Sahabi who dug a well for the sake of conveying rewards to his mother after consulting Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam in this regard. [Mishkat]
Similarly, Rasulullah sallallahu ‛alayhi wasallam permitted a woman to perform hajj for her father. [Mishkat]
The Qur’an states:
O Sustainer! Show mercy to them as they reared me when I was little. [Surah Bani Isra’il,17:24]
Those who are carrying the throne and those who are around it – they glorify the praises of their Sustainer, they believe in Him, and they seek forgiveness for the believers. [Surah al-Mu’min, 40:7]
‛Allamah Ibn Humam rahimahullah writes in this regard:
These narrations and those which were quoted before them, and other similar narrations in the Sunnah which have been related by many persons which we left out for the sake of brevity – the common point which is concluded from them all is that through the conveying of rewards for the deceased, Allah ta‛ala confers benefits on the deceased. This point has reached the level of tawatur. In the same way, the Qur’an which instructs us to pray for parents: “O Sustainer! Show mercy to them as they reared me when I was little”, and where the Qur’an makes reference to angels praying for the forgiveness of believers: “Those who are carrying the throne and those who are around it – they glorify the praises of their Sustainer, they believe in Him, and they seek forgiveness for the believers” provide absolute proof that the deeds of one benefit others. [Fathul Qadeer]
Fatawa With Reference to The Naturalist Sect
When the naturalist sect was on the ascendancy, Maulana ‘Ali Bakhsh Khan went to Makkah Mukarramah and obtained fatawa from the muftis of the four juridical schools against the religious beliefs of Sir Sayyid. The muftis of all four schools concurred that:
This person is deviated and is leading others astray. In fact, he is the deputy of the accursed Shaytan. He aims to deceive Muslims. His tribulation is worse than that of the Christians and Jews. It is obligatory on those of authority to take him to task, and to discipline him by beating him and imprisoning him.
Maulana ‛Ali Bakhsh Khan then obtained a fatwa from the chief mufti of Madinah Munawwarah who wrote:
The essence of whatever is learnt from the marginal notes of ad-Durr al-Mukhtar is that this person is either a mulhid, has inclined towards kufr from the very beginning, or is a zindiq without any religion. It is gauged from the explanations of Hanafi scholars that the repentance of such people after they are apprehended is not accepted. If this person repents before he is apprehended, retracts from his blasphemous beliefs, and the signs of repentance are apparent on him, he will not be killed. If not, it is obligatory to kill him. [Layl wa Nahar, 19 April 1970]
It is stated in Tajanub Ahl as-Sunnah that anyone who comes to know of any one of the absolute and certain kufr beliefs of Sir Sayyid and still doubts the latter being a kafir and murtad, or abstains from labelling him a kafir and murtad, then he too is – according to the pure Shari‛ah – most certainly a kafir and murtad. If such a person passes away without repenting, he will be eligible for eternal punishment. [Tajanub Ahl as-Sunnah, p. 86]
The famous scholar of the Barelwi sect, Hashmat ‛Ali, also issued a fatwa of kufr against Sir Sayyid. [Layl wa Nahar, 19 April 1970]
Hadrat Maulana ‛Ashraf ‛Ali Thanwi rahimahullah also issued fatawa of kufr with reference to some of his beliefs and classified some of his other beliefs as deviated. [Imdad al-Fatawa contains a detailed discussion about this sect. Volume 6, pp. 166-185].
Shared from the Book Deviated Sects.
Also Read: “Sir” Syed Ahmed Khan – The “Reformer” of Western Dajjalic History Textbooks was In reality a Modernist-British Agent
'Sir' Sayyid rejects Mahdi'Sir' Sayyid rejects the miracle of the splitting of the moon'Sir' Sayyid's kufr of rejecting beliefs in Angels ExistenceBeliefs of 'Sir' Sayyid Ahmad KhanSayyid Ahmad Khan on belief of MiraclesSir Sayyid Ahmad Khan rejects Aakhirah
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Pagina principale Lessons in Corporate Finance: A Case Studies Approach to Financial Tools, Financial Policies, and Valuation
Lessons in Corporate Finance: A Case Studies Approach to Financial Tools, Financial Policies, and Valuation
Paul Asquith, Lawrence A. Weiss
A discussion-based learning approach to corporate finance fundamentals
Lessons in Corporate Finance explains the fundamentals of the field in an intuitive way, using a unique Socratic question and answer approach. Written by award-winning professors at M.I.T. and Tufts, this book draws on years of research and teaching to deliver a truly interactive learning experience. Each case study is designed to facilitate class discussion, based on a series of increasingly detailed questions and answers that reinforce conceptual insights with numerical examples. Complete coverage of all areas of corporate finance includes capital structure and financing needs along with project and company valuation, with specific guidance on vital topics such as ratios and pro formas, dividends, debt maturity, asymmetric information, and more.
Corporate finance is a complex field composed of a broad variety of sub-disciplines, each involving a specific skill set and nuanced body of knowledge. This text is designed to give you an intuitive understanding of the fundamentals to provide a solid foundation for more advanced study.
Identify sources of funding and corporate capital structure
Learn how managers increase the firm's value to shareholders
Understand the tools and analysis methods used for allocation
Explore the five methods of valuation with free cash flow to firm and equity
Navigating the intricate operations of corporate finance requires a deep and instinctual understanding of the broad concepts and practical methods used every day. Interactive, discussion-based learning forces you to go beyond memorization and actually apply what you know, simultaneously developing your knowledge, skills, and instincts. Lessons in Corporate Finance provides a unique opportunity to go beyond traditional textbook study and gain skills that are useful in the field.
Categories: Economy
Edizione: 1
Editore: Wiley
Series: Wiley Finance
Matrices, géométrie, algèbre linéaire
Gabriel, Pierre
Lingua: french
Программированные задания по физике для 6—7 классов средней школы
Пеннер Д.И., Худайбердиев А.
Lingua: russian
Lessons in
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A Case Studies Approach to Financial
Tools, Financial Policies, and Valuation
Paul Asquith
Lawrence A. Weiss
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ISBN 978-1-119-20741-2 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-119-20743-6 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-119-20742-9 (ePub)
Printed in the United States of America.
To those who taught me.
For Marilyn, my wife and best friend; Joshua; and Daniel; all of whom
I will love forever.
Two Markets: Product and Capital
The Basics: Tools and Techniques
A Diagram of Corporate Finance
A Brief History of Modern Finance
Reading This Book
Determining a Firm’s Financial Health (PIPES-A)
The Conversation with the Banker Is Like a Job Interview
Starting with the Product Market Strategy
Is PIPES Profitable?
Sources and Uses of Funds
Ratio Analysis
The Cash Cycle
Pro Forma Forecasts (PIPES-B)
First, Let’s Take a Closer Look at Ratio Analysis
Pro Forma Forecasts
Circular Relationships
Back to (Forecasting) the Future
Projecting Out to 2014 and 2015
Evaluating the Loan
Appendix 3A: Accounting Is Not Economic Reality
The Impact of Seasonality on a Firm’s Funding (PIPES-C)
Monthly Pro Forma Income Statements
Monthly Pro Forma Balance Sheets
A Different Picture of the Firm
Appendix 4A: PIPES Monthly Pro Forma Income Statements and
Balance Sheets 2014
Appendix 4B: PIPES Monthly Pro Forma Income Statements and
Why Financing Matters (Massey Ferguson)
Product Market Position and Strategy
Political Risk and Economies of Scale in Production
Massey Ferguson 1971–1976
The Period after 1976
Conrad Runs Away
The Competitors
Back to Massey
Massey’s Restructuring
Postscript: What Happened to Massey
Appendix 5A: Massey Ferguson Financial Statements
An Introduction to Capital Structure Theory
Optimal Capital Structure
M&M and Corporate Finance
Costs of Financial Distress
The Textbook View of Capital Structure
The Cost of Capital
Capital Structure Decisions (Marriott Corporation and Gary Wilson)
How Firms Set Capital Structure in Practice
Corporate Financial Policies
Sustainable Growth and Excess Cash Flow
What to Do with Excess Cash?
Appendix 7A: Marriott Corporation Income Statements and
Appendix 7B: Marriott Corporation Selected Ratios
Investment Decisions (Marriott Corporation and Gary Wilson)
What Is the Correct Price?
How Should Marriott Buy Its Shares?
The Loan Covenants
The Impact of the Product Market on Financial Policies
The Capital Market Impact and the Future
Financial Policy Decisions (AT&T: Before and after the 1984 Divestiture)
Background on AT&T
M&M and the Practice of Corporate Finance
Old (Pre-1984) AT&T
New (Post-1984) AT&T
Appendix 9A: Development of AT&T Pro Formas 1984–1988
(Expected-Case)
The Impact of Operating Strategy on Corporate Finance Policy (MCI)
A Brief Summary
A Brief History of MCI
Convertible Preferred Stock and Convertible Bonds
Interest Rates and Debt Ratios
Financing Needs of the New MCI
MCI’s Financing Choice
MCI Postscript
Appendix 10A: Development of MCI’s Pro Formas 1984–1988
Dividend Policy (Apple Inc.)
The Theory of Dividend Policy
Apple Inc. and the Decision on Whether to Pay Dividends
What Did Apple Do?
A Continuation of Capital Structure Theory
The Tax Shield of Debt
The Costs of Financial Distress
Transaction Costs, Asymmetric Information, and Agency Costs
Asymmetric Information and Firm Financing
Agency Costs: Manager Behavior and Capital Structure
Leverage and Agency Conflicts between Equity
and Debt Holders
The Amount of Financing Required
Summary: An Integrated Approach
The Time Value of Money: Discounting and Net Present Values
The Time Value of Money
Projects with Unequal Lives
Perpetuities
Valuation and Cash Flows (Sungreen A)
Investment Decisions
How to Value a Project
The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
Terminal Values
Valuation (Sungreen B)
Sungreen’s Projected Cash Flows
Twin Firms
The Cost of Equity
The Cost of Debt
The Final Valuation
Valuation Nuances
Cash Flow Nuances
Cost of Capital Nuances
Nuances on Calculating the Cost of Equity: Levering and
Unlevering Beta
Separating Cash Flows and Terminal Values
Nuances of Terminal Value Methods
Other Valuation Techniques: DCF Variations
Real Options (aka Strategic Choices)
Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Financing (Congoleum)
Congoleum: A Short History
Leading Up to the LBO: What Makes a Firm a Good LBO Target?
Details of the Deal
Postscript: What Happened to LBOs?
Appendix 17A: Congoleum’s Pro Formas with and without the LBO
Appendix 17B: Highlights of the Lazard Fairness Opinion
Mergers and Acquisitions: Strategic Issues (The Dollar Stores)
The Three Main Competitors
Shopping a Firm/Finding a Buyer
Valuing an Acquisition: Free Cash Flows to the Firm (The Dollar Stores)
The Bid for Family Dollar
Free Cash Flows to the Firm
Estimating the Cost of Capital
Discounted Cash Flows
The Three Pieces
Appendix 19A: Family Dollar Pro Forma Financial Statements
with Authors’ Constant Debt Ratio
Understanding Free Cash Flows (The Dollar Stores)
Comparing the Free-Cash-Flows Formulas
Back to Discount Rates
On to Free Cash Flows to Equity
Discounting the Free Cash Flows to Equity
Appendix 20A: Family Dollar Pro Forma Free Cash Flows to
Equity with Constant Debt Ratio
Mergers and Acquisitions: Execution (The Dollar Stores)
The Time Line
Managerial Discretion
Activist Shareholders
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Shareholder Lawsuits
Appendix 21.A: Key Events in the Bidding for Family Dollar
during 2014 and 2015
Chapters 2–4: Cash Flow Management—Financial Tools
Chapters 5–12: Financing Decisions and Financial Policies
Chapters 13–21: Valuation
Tools and Concepts Discussed in This Book
Finance as Art, Not Science
An Intelligent Approach to Finance
Larry’s Last (Really a True) Story
Paul’s Theory of Pies
Rules to Live By
n Tuesday, March 24, 2015, the share price of Google rose 2%, a roughly $8 billion increase in the value of the firm’s equity. Was the large increase in Google’s
equity value because the firm’s profits were up? No. Was the positive stock price
reaction due to some good news about a new Google product? No. The reaction
was due to Google’s announcement that it was hiring Ruth Porat as its new chief
financial officer (CFO). Why would the hiring of a new CFO cause Google’s stock
price to jump? According to the Wall Street Journal, Wall Street hoped the new CFO
would bring “fiscal control at a company long known for its free spending ways.”1
Lessons in Corporate Finance is about the principal decisions in corporate
finance (in other words, the decisions of CFOs like Google’s Ruth Porat). These decisions focus on: how to decide in which projects the firm should invest, how to finance
those investments, and how to manage the firm’s cash flows. This is an applied book
that will use real‐world examples to introduce the financial tools needed to make
value‐enhancing business decisions.
The book is designed to explain the how and why of corporate finance. While it
is primarily aimed at finance professionals, it is also ideal for nonfinancial managers
who have to deal with financial professionals. The book provides a detailed view of
the inner functioning of corporate finance for anyone with an interest in understanding finance and what financial professionals do. The book would fit well in a second
course in finance, as supplemental readings to an executive education course, or as a
self‐study book on corporate finance (e.g., those studying for the CFA or similar certifications). The authors believe that any business professional, even someone with a
degree in finance, will find the book to be a valuable review.
While the book can be read without extensive knowledge of accounting or
finance, the book is written for those with at least a basic knowledge of accounting
and finance terminology.
See Rolfe Winkler, Justin Baer, and Vipal Monga, “Google Turns to Wall Street for New
Finance Chief,” Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2015, www.wsj.com/articles/google‐turns‐to‐
wall‐street‐for‐new‐finance‐chief‐1427217571 10/21/2015.
We both owe considerable debts to our instructors, in particular:
Paul wants to thank those who taught him finance and how to teach, especially:
Gene Fama, Milton Friedman, Al Mandelstamm, David W. Mullins Jr., Henry B.
Reiling, and George Stigler.
Larry wants to thank those who taught him, especially:
Paul Asquith, Carliss Y. Baldwin, Roger C. Bennett, David Fewings, Michael
Jensen, Robert Kaplan, Norman Keesal, Vivienne Livick, C. Harvey Rorke,
and Howard H. Stevenson.
Paul and Larry also wish to thank Amar Bhide (Tufts University) and Laurent
Jacque (Tufts University) for reading the book and for their many comments and
suggestions. We are also grateful to Jacqueline Donnelly, Bridgette Hayes, and Stephanie Landers, who corrected many of our editorial mistakes and helped make our
prose easier to read, and Michael Duh and Heidi Pickett, who helped ensure our
numbers are consistent. A special thanks is also owed to the John Wiley & Sons
editorial team—most notably Tula Batanchiev (associate editor) and Steven Kyritz
(senior production editor) for their guidance and enthusiasm.
Paul Asquith is the Gordon Y. Billard Professor of Finance at MIT’s Sloan School
where he has been on the faculty for 27 years and is also a Research Associate of the
National Bureau of Economic Research.
At the Sloan School, he served as Senior Associate Dean and as Chairman of
Sloan’s Building Committee. He teaches in the finance area, most recently Introduction to Corporate Finance. Professor Asquith has also developed and taught three
other courses at MIT: Advanced Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, and
Security Design. He previously taught at Harvard University for 10 years, at the
University of Chicago, and at Duke University. He is the recipient of 14 Teaching
Excellence Awards from MIT, Harvard, and Duke. He is also the inaugural recipient
of MIT’s Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Professor Asquith received his BS from Michigan State University and his AM
and PhD from the University of Chicago. A member of the American Accounting
Association, the American Finance Association, and the Financial Management
Association, Professor Asquith was regularly a discussant at financial conferences. In
1985, he spent one semester at Salomon Brothers while on sabbatical from Harvard
University. Professor Asquith was formerly a Director of Aurora National Life Assurance Company. He has advised many corporations including Citicorp, IBM, Merck,
Morgan Guaranty, Price Waterhouse, Royal Bank of Canada, Salomon Brothers,
Toronto Dominion Bank, and Xerox, and has also served as an expert witness in
both Federal Court and the Delaware Chancery Court.
Current research interests include regulated transparency in capital markets.
His published articles include “Original Issue High Yield Bonds: Aging Analyses of
Defaults, Exchanges, and Calls,” which won the 1989 Journal of Finance’s Smith‐
Breeden award, and “Information Content of Equity Analyst Reports” in the Journal
of Financial Economics, several articles on corporate mergers, corporate dividend
policy, the timing of corporate equity issues, stock splits, corporate call policy for
convertible debt and short sales in debt and equity markets. Professor Asquith was
previously Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of
Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Financial Management. He was also Director of the Financial Services Research Center at MIT.
Lawrence A. Weiss is Professor of International Accounting at The Fletcher School
of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Professor Weiss has taught introductory courses to advanced financial accounting as well as managerial accounting and
finance courses. He previously taught at Georgetown University, IMD, HEC Lausanne, MIT’s Sloan School, INSEAD, Tulane, Babson, and McGill University. He
received the teacher of the year award while on the faculty of MIT and was repeatedly nominated for Best Professor at Fletcher, INSEAD, and Tulane University.
Professor Weiss received his BCom, Diploma in Public Accounting, and MBA
from McGill University and his doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard
University. He began his career as a Canadian Chartered Accountant (equivalent to a
CPA in the United States) working for KPMG. A member of the American Accounting
Association, he has been a discussant and has presented numerous papers. Professor
Weiss is a recognized expert on U.S. corporate bankruptcy, and has testified before
the U.S. Congress on bankruptcy reform. He has also advised corporations on their
costing systems, and served as an expert witness in both civil and criminal cases.
Current research has three themes: The reorganization of financially distressed
firms; operations management; and the transition from country‐specific accounting standards (Local GAAP) to one set of global standards (IFRS). His published
work includes: “Bankruptcy Resolution: Direct Costs and Violation of Priority of
Claims,” which won a Journal of Financial Economics All‐Star Paper award; “Value
Destruction in the New Era of Chapter 11” in the Journal of Law Economics and
Organizations; and “On the Relationship between Inventory and Financial Performance in Manufacturing Companies,” in the International Journal of Operations
Management. His book Corporate Bankruptcy: Economic and Legal Perspectives is
published by Cambridge University Press. His book Accounting for Fun and Profit:
How to Read and Understand Financial Statements is being published by Business
Expert Press (2016). Professor Weiss has also published op-eds in the New York
Times, the (Toronto) Globe and Mail, and at HBR.org.
his book is a basic corporate finance text but unique in the way the subject is
presented. The book’s format involves asking a series of increasingly detailed
questions about corporate finance decisions and then answering them with conceptual insights and specific numerical examples.
The book is structured around real-world decisions that a chief financial officer (CFO) must make: how firms obtain and use capital. The primary functions of
corporate finance can be categorized into three main tasks:
1. How to make good investment decisions
2. How to make good financing decisions
3. How to manage the firm’s cash flows while doing the first two
Taking the last point first, cash is essential to a firm’s survival. In fact, cash flow
is much more important than earnings. A firm can survive bad products, ineffective
marketing, and weak or even negative earnings and stay in business as long as it
has cash flow. Not running out of cash is an essential part of corporate finance. It
requires understanding and forecasting the nature and timing of a firm’s cash flows.
For example, at the turn of the century, dot-coms were almost all losing large sums
of money. However, financial analysts covering these firms focused primarily not
on earnings but on what is called “burn rates” (i.e., the rate at which a firm uses
up or “burns” cash). There is an old saying in finance: “You buy champagne with
your earnings, and you buy beer with your cash.” Cash is the day-to-day lifeblood
of a firm. Another way to say this is that cash is like air, and earnings are like food.
Although an organization needs both to survive, it can exist for a while without
earnings but will die quickly without cash.
Turning to the first point, making good investment decisions means deciding
where the firm should put (invest) its cash, that is, in what projects or products it
should invest or produce. Investment decisions must answer the question: What are
the future cash flows that result from current investment decisions?
Finally, making good financing decisions means deciding where the firm should
obtain the cash for its investments. Financing decisions take the firm’s investment
decisions as a given and examine questions like: How should those investments be
financed? Can value be created from the right-hand side of the Balance Sheet?
Thus, the CFO essentially does two things all day long with one constraint:
Make good investment decisions, make good financing decisions, and ensure the firm
does not run out of cash in between.
Lessons in Corporate Finance
Every firm operates in two primary markets: the product market and the capital
market. Firms can make money in either market. Most people understand a firm’s
role in the product market: to produce and sell goods or services at a price above
cost. In contrast, the role of a firm in the capital markets is less well understood: to
raise and invest funds to directly facilitate its activities in the product market.
When people think about capital markets, they typically focus on securities
exchanges such as those for stocks, bonds, and options. However, this is only the
supply side of capital markets. The other side is comprised of the users of capital:
the firms themselves.
A crucial lesson when doing corporate finance is that financial strategy and product
market strategy need to be consistent with one another. In addition, corporate finance
spans both the product market through its investment decisions and the capital market
through its financing decisions. When thinking about corporate finance, a firm must
first determine its product market goals. Only then, once the product market goals are
set, can management set its financial strategy and determine its financial policies.
Financial policies include the capital structure decision (i.e., the level of debt financing), the term structure of debt, the amount of secured and unsecured debt, whether the
debt will have fixed or floating rates, the covenants attached to the debt, the amount (if
any) of dividends it will pay, the amount and timing of equity issues and stock repurchases, and so on. Likewise, the firm’s investment policies (e.g., to build or acquire, to
do a leveraged buyout, a restructuring, a tender, a merger, etc.) are set in concert with
the firm’s product market strategy.
While it is critical for a firm to have a good product market strategy, its financial
operations can also clearly add or destroy value. Value is created through the exploitation of a market imperfection in one of three markets:
1. Product market imperfections include entry barriers, costs advantages, patents, etc.
2. Capital market imperfections involve financing at below-market rates, using innovative securities, reaching new investing clienteles, etc.
3. Managerial market imperfections include agency costs (costs from the separation of ownership and control) and managers who are not doing a good job or
self-dealing, etc.
Without market imperfections, there really is no corporate finance (a point we
will explain in Chapter 6).
This book teaches the basic tools and techniques of corporate finance, what they are,
and how to apply them. It is, in football parlance, all about blocking and tackling.
For example, ratios and working capital management are used as diagnostics as well
as in the development of pro forma Income Statements and Balance Sheets, which
are the backbone of valuation. It is not possible to do valuations without being able
to do pro formas. This book will show readers first how to generate estimated cash
flows and then how to estimate the appropriate discount rate to convert the cash
flows into a net present value.
Chapters 2 through 4 discuss cash flow management, which is essentially how
to ensure the firm does not run out of cash. Cash flow management is necessary to
evaluate the financial health of a firm, forecast financing needs, and value assets. The
tools used in cash flow management include ratio analysis, pro forma statements,
and the sources and uses of funds. This is the nitty-gritty of finance: managing and
forecasting cash flows.
Chapters 5 through 12 examine how firms make good financing decisions. That
is, how a firm should choose its capital structure and the trade-offs of the various
financing alternatives. We will also cover financial policies and their impact on the
cost of capital. These chapters will answer questions including: Can firms create value
with their choice of financing? Is one type of financing superior to another? Should
the firm use debt or equity? If the firm uses debt, should it be obtained from a bank
or from the capital markets? Should it be short-term or long-term debt, convertible,
callable? If the firm issues equity, should it be common stock or preferred stock?
Chapters 13 through 16 illustrate how firms make good investment decisions.
The tools and techniques to value investment projects will be covered in depth,
including the determination of the relevant cash flows and the appropriate discount
rate. These tools and techniques will then be used to value projects and firms.
There are only five main techniques to value anything, four of which will be
covered in this book (real options, the fifth method, will be covered only superficially as this technique is infrequently used and requires knowledge of options
and mathematics beyond the scope of this book). This book will cover many different ways to value a firm or project within four main families or techniques. For
example, discounted cash flow techniques include using a weighted average cost
of capital (WACC) with free cash flows to the firm, economic value added (EVA),
using a free cash flow to equity discounted at the cost of equity as well as calculating an adjusted present value (APV). Likewise, valuation multiples include using the
price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), all of which are in
the same family. The focus of the book is not only to teach the techniques but also
to provide an understanding of the logic behind each method and to give readers the
ability to translate from one valuation method to another.
Chapters 17 through 21 cover leveraged buyouts (LBOs), private equity, and
mergers and acquisitions, all of which combine investment and financing decisions.
These five chapters will use two comprehensive examples to cover the issues in depth.
Chapter 22 provides a review along with some of the authors’ thoughts on both
finance and life.
Figure 1.1 provides a schematic diagram of how your authors view corporate finance.
Corporate finance begins with corporate strategy, which dictates both investment
strategy and financial strategy. These strategies lead to investment and financial policies that ultimately have to be executed. We will emphasize many times in this book
that there must be consistency between every level of this diagram. In addition, the
investment and financial strategies and policies can create or destroy value for the
firm. This book will cover the top three levels of Figure 1.1, illustrating the firm’s
financial strategies and policies.
Setting Corporate Goals
(Product Market)
(CAPITAL MARKET)
Aggressive Conservative
Build or Acquire
(Merger)
Fixed vs. Floating
Maturity Ladder
Pre-funding
Secured or Unsecured
INVESTMENT EXECUTION
Leveraged Recap/LBO
Restructure
Merger:
Two-tier
Figure 1.1
FINANCING EXECUTION
Minimized Cost: Security
Issue and Transform
Schematic of Corporate Finance
Finance has changed a lot over the past 60 years, probably more than any other
part of business schools’ curricula. Modern finance really begins with Irving Fisher,1
who developed the use of present values in 1907, though the concept did not gain
widespread dissemination in finance textbooks until the early 1950s. Another major
advance in finance occurred in 1952 when Harry Markowitz2 developed portfolio theory, for which he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in
1990. Portfolio theory shows that diversification can reduce risk without reducing
expected return. It is the theoretical basis for the mutual fund industry, which grew
dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s.
Irving Fisher was one of America’s greatest economists. Among his many contributions is “The
Rate of Interest” published in 1907 in which he dealt with the concept of net present values.
H.M. Markowitz, “Portfolio Selection,” Journal of Finance 7, no. 1 (March 1952): 77–91.
Finance began to move away from payback as the principal technique to
e valuate investments in the 1950s. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present
Value (NPV) took over as the primary ways to value investment decisions. The profession also moved away from believing earnings were of utmost importance. Today
we know it is cash flows, not earnings, that matter most.
Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller (M&M) with their papers in 1958, 1961,
and 1963 gave birth to modern corporate finance, which is the focus of this book.
(Modigliani was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985 for this and other work, while Miller
was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1990 for this work.) M&M showed that under certain
key assumptions, neither capital structure (1958) nor dividends (1961) mattered. In
1963, M&M relaxed their no-tax assumption and then capital structure mattered.
Other notable work we will call on in this book is that of Eugene Fama,3 who developed the concept of efficient markets in the 1960s (and won the Nobel Prize in 2013).
His idea was that markets rapidly incorporate and price information. This concept was
the demise of technical analysis, which still exists but has only a fringe following today.
Another major development in the 1960s was the capital asset pricing model
(CAPM) created by William Sharpe and John Lintner. (Sharpe won the Nobel Prize
in 1990 for this work. Lintner would have almost certainly shared the prize if he had
been alive, but the Nobel is not awarded posthumously.4) The CAPM dramatically
changed how we measure the performance of the stock market and other investments.
The next notable advance was the work done by Fischer Black, Myron Scholes,
and Robert Merton on option pricing in the early 1970s. (Scholes and Merton received
the Nobel Prize in 1997. Black died in 1995.) The extensive amount of options trading
today is based on this work.
Focusing specifically now on corporate finance, the M&M papers from 1958
to 1963 began to be modified and extended in the 1980s. Corporate finance theory
moved beyond M&M by including elements such as asymmetric information, agency
costs, and signaling. Theories developed in which capital structure and dividends did
indeed matter. The interaction and dynamics between financing and investment decisions also became the subject of study.
More recently, finance has started looking at the impact of human behavior in financial decisions. This is called behavioral finance and returns to the question of whether
markets are truly efficient and how individual behavior affects financial decisions.
On the institutional side, there were dramatic changes in the laws and institutions affecting corporate finance. In particular, regulations regarding new financing
and commission rates on buying and selling equities dramatically changed corporate
financing. For example, shelf registrations made the use of selling syndicates less
common and underwriting far more competitive, so the number of investment banks
dropped by more than half. At the same time, the size of the remaining major investment banks grew substantially.
Starting in 1988 and extending through the 1990s, saw the rise of the junk bond
market. Prior to 1988 it was virtually impossible to issue debt that was not investment
grade (BBB or better). Lower-rated debt existed, but this was debt that had been
investment grade when issued and had become riskier as the firm’s financial situation
See, for example, E. Fama, “The Behavior of Stock-Market Prices,” Journal of Business 38,
no. 1 (January 1965): 34–105.
Unless you die between when the committee selects the winner in June and when it is announced in October.
deteriorated (this risky debt was called “fallen angels”). Michael Milken at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert created a market where lower-rated (high-yield or
“junk”) debt could be issued. This type of debt was used primarily to finance takeovers
and start-ups. This dramatically changed the nature of corporate control as well.
The 1990s also saw the rise of hedge funds, the rapid increase of short sales, and
a “stock market bubble” based on the overvaluation of dot-coms. More recently, the
passage and adoption of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 has had and will continue to
have a major impact on financial structures and practices.
What is the next best big thing in finance? We wish we knew. New knowledge
is rarely predictable.
While someone with no business background can read this book, it will be much
easier to read and is designed for those with some prior knowledge of basic finance
and accounting.
This book is written in a conversational format and uses a case-teaching, inductive approach. That is, examples are used to illustrate theory. While simply stating
the theory as in a lecture format may be more efficient, examples provide the reader
with a better understanding of the problem.
The footnotes don’t have to be read the first time through a chapter, but they
are meant to be read. They add important caveats, details, occasional humor, and
examples of alternative ways to do the calculations in this book.
Repetition is an important part of learning any material and is an important
part of this book. To this end, the tools and concepts in this book will be presented
repeatedly, albeit in new and different situations. For example, ratio analysis, presented in the next chapter, will be used throughout the book. Every important topic
will be mentioned several times in different contexts.
The material may seem difficult and even frustrating at first, but as readers proceed through the text, it will appear to slow down and come together. By the end of the
book, readers should be able to understand how firms set financial policies and how
valuation and investing is done in finance (e.g., read an investment bank valuation and
understand the assumptions that were made, what is hidden, and what is not).
Like much in life, the best way to learn something is by doing it. Reading about how
finance should and should not be done can teach up to a point. However, to really be able
to do something yourself requires actually doing it. To that end, the reader is strongly
encouraged to work through all the detailed examples and cases given in the book.
One brief comment on computer spreadsheets. The use of computer spreadsheets is very common today due to their facilitation in processing large quantities of
data and their flexibility in allowing the user to change one item and see the impact
elsewhere. Unfortunately, the use of computer spreadsheets often causes the user to
lose any sense of the underlying assumptions. For this reason, it is often useful to fall
back on paper and pencil when doing an analysis for the first time.
Finally, in most situations there are definite wrong answers, but there is more
than one right answer.
After reading the book, we hope you will have enjoyed yourself and learned a
lot of finance.
Determining a Firm’s Financial
Health (PIPES-A)
ow do you evaluate the current and future financial health of a firm? This is an
important first question (in this book we will initiate much of our discussion
with questions which will be in italics). If you are considering lending money to a
firm, acquiring a firm, or entering into competition with one, you want to assess its
financial health before making your decision. Answering the question above involves
three of the most basic tools of corporate finance: ratio analysis, sources and uses,
and pro formas. We will discuss the first two, ratio analysis and sources and uses, in
this chapter, and pro formas in the next.
We begin the process of answering this question by using a fictional medium-sized
firm in the plumbing supply business. The firm is located in Pinellas County, Florida
(near St. Petersburg). We call it Pinellas Plumbing Equipment and Supply (PIPES).
PIPES has been in business for 15 years, and its founder and current owner, Ken
Steele, is preparing to meet a local banker, John Morgan, to discuss a possible loan.
PIPES currently has a line of credit with another local bank for $350,000.
What kind of questions should Mr. Steele expect from the banker? John Morgan,
the banker, might begin by asking Mr. Steele to describe the company to him. Why
would Mr. Morgan ask Mr. Steele for a description of a business he already knows
about, seeing that he is from the same small town? Because Mr. Morgan first wants to
see if Mr. Steele understands his own business. Steele describes his company as a plumbing supply business, serving both homeowners and contractors, with a solid customer
base. The firm has a product line ranging from pipes and fittings to bathroom and
kitchen fixtures (including tubs, toilets, sinks, and faucets). It maintains a 6,000-squarefoot showroom plus an additional 24,000 square feet of warehousing and offices.
The banker’s next question is likely to be: How long have you been running PIPES?
This is a key question. It makes a big difference to Morgan and his bank whether Steele
is starting a brand-new business or has already run the business for 15 years. A 15-year
track record means the business has a customer base, regular suppliers, and so on. Furthermore, it means there is a record for Morgan to evaluate when considering the loan.
Ultimately, the banker wants to determine the competence of the management team
and the health of the firm before deciding whether or not to issue a loan. Mr. Steele is
trying to present himself and PIPES in the best possible light. He should have prepared
at least three years of financial statements for Morgan. In fact, Steele hands Morgan
Table 2.1—the firm’s Income Statements and Balance Sheets—for the past four years.
From the Income Statements, PIPES appears to be doing well. Sales have grown from
$1.1 million in 2009 to $2.2 million in 2012. This is an average growth rate of 25% a
year. Is this good? It certainly beats the economy as a whole (by a wide margin) and for a
plumbing store in a medium-sized town, it seems exceptional. However, PIPES’s Balance
Sheets are not as clear: Total assets and debt (bank and long-term) have grown by less
than 25% a year, but accounts payable have almost tripled over the four-year period.
First impressions, however, are just that. A more detailed analysis is required.
Table 2.1a
PIPES—Income Statements 2009–2012
($000’s)
Opening inventory
Closing inventory
Earnings before interest and tax
Net earnings
Table 2.1b PIPES—Balance Sheets 2009–2012
Property, plant, and equipment
Prepaid expenses
Current portion long-term debt
Determining a Firm’s Financial Health (PIPES-A)
Table 2.1b Continued
Contributed capital
Total debt and equity
In this chapter we will analyze PIPES starting with its position in the product
market. We will then analyze its financial health and in so doing perform ratio
analysis. Next we will ask: what are the sources and uses of its funding? In the following chapter, we will show how to forecast the firm’s future viability.
How does PIPES make money? This is another way of asking: what is the firm’s product
market strategy? As we will repeat several times in this book, every firm operates in two
markets—the product market and the financial market. Your authors firmly believe that
you cannot do corporate finance unless you understand both markets. Even further, in
determining a firm’s financial health, you always begin by analyzing its product market
because that’s where the profits are made. Good financing can help, and bad financing
can hurt or even ruin a firm, but the key to a firm’s success is in the product market.
To understand PIPES, we begin with its product market. A plumbing supply
store is largely a commodity business: the firm is selling many products that are
similar (if not identical) to those found at other plumbing supply stores. This means
customers buy primarily based on price and secondarily on service. If the firm prices
its products too high, then customers are likely to use another supplier. Pricing too
high may also encourage a new competitor to enter the market. Thus, being in a
commodity business means that PIPES is unable to increase prices beyond the rest of
the market, so it needs to control its costs to ensure adequate profit margins.
What about service? What does service mean for a plumbing supply store? Basically,
if someone walks into the store looking for a product, the firm must have it in stock. If a
potential customer is looking for a particular type of standard pipe, and Mr. Steele says
he doesn’t have it but will order it and have it in three weeks, the customer is likely to
either go to another store or order it himself online. Remember, PIPES is in a commodity
business, so customers can get similar or identical products from other suppliers.
Additionally, while some of the firm’s customers are homeowners, many of its customers are local contractors. Service to contractors generally means they expect PIPES
to extend them credit. Contractors often don’t get paid until they complete their work,
which could be in several months. As such, they don’t want to or may be unable to pay
PIPES until after they themselves get paid. Together with stocking the items customers
need, this means that PIPES is both a warehouse and a bank for this customer segment.
Therefore, PIPES’ success in the product market starts with competitive pricing.
In addition, it is important for PIPES to have adequate inventory. Finally, PIPES must
be able to extend credit to their best customers. Both carrying inventory and extending credit require PIPES to have sufficient financing, either from the owner’s investment (including prior earnings retained in the business) or from funds borrowed
from others (in this case, primarily bank loans).
Is PIPES profitable? As seen in Table 2.1A, the firm’s net income last year was
$83,000. Is that a lot? The firm’s net income is not large in absolute terms compared
to a Home Depot or a Lowe’s, whose profits are in the billions. However, profitability is more than absolute dollar amounts. For instance, it is important to consider
how much profit a firm makes on the amount sold or the amount invested. A firm’s
net sales margin (profit/sales) tells us how much profit the firm makes per dollar of
sales. For PIPES, the net sales margin was 3.8% in 2012. This means that for every
$100 of sales, PIPES made a profit of $3.80. A comparable number for Home Depot
in 2012 is $6.06 (based on Home Depot’s 2012 annual report).
We are also very interested in how much profit a firm earns given the amount
invested. That is, we consider profit versus the capital the firm has invested. We can
do this by looking at Return on Assets (ROA) or, if we are interested in the equity
investment of the owners, by looking at the Return on Equity (ROE). These two
ratios give us a sense of the return a firm obtains versus the amount of capital at risk.
It also allows us to compare this return with other investments.
Net Sales Margin = Net Income/Sales
ROA = Net Income/Total Assets
ROE = Net Income/Owner’s Equity
To repeat, PIPES’s 2012 net income was $83,000, total assets at year-end were
$1,052,000, and equity (contributed capital and retained earnings) at year-end was
$354,000. Using these numbers yields an ROA of 7.89% ($83,000/$1,052,000) and
an ROE of 23.45% ($83,000/$354,000). The comparable return numbers for Home
Depot in 2012 are 11.06% and 25.5%, respectively.
There are many different ways to calculate ratios, and numerous ratios are used in
finance. The most important rule in using ratio analysis is to make sure that you are
consistent across the firm and across the industry.1 This point may seem obvious, but
it is surprising how often ratios are not calculated in the same way when comparing
different firms or the business activities of a single firm over time.
Ratios are used throughout finance to measure various aspects of a firm’s operations. Importantly, there are numerous different ratios that measure the same thing but that differ slightly
in how they are defined. For example, we define ROA above as NI/TA. What the ratio is trying
to capture is the return on the invested assets. Sometimes ROA is defined as net income plus
after-tax interest divided by total assets. This latter measures the return to both debt and
equity on invested assets. Both are correct, and both are used. In this book, to simplify the
reading, we will often choose the single definition we find most intuitive. If it is not a common
usage we will discuss it. We will discuss the use of ratio analysis in more detail later.
Consistency means not only using the same ratios or formulas; it also means
using the correct time period. Let’s use a simple example: Think about depositing
$10,000 in a bank on January 1. At the end of the year, you receive your statement and see your interest for the year was $1,000, bringing your year-end balance
to $11,000. What is the return on your investment for the year? It is 10% (the
year’s earnings of $1,000 divided by the initial investment, or opening balance, of
$10,000). However, when we calculated ROA (ROE) above, we divided the income
for the year by the assets (equity) at year-end. This calculation is comparable to
dividing the $1,000 of interest by the $11,000 year-end balance, giving a return of
9.1%, which is not correct. To accurately measure the yearly return on the assets
invested, we need to divide the total yearly income by the initial investment, which
is the beginning-of-the-year amount of total assets or equity.
Initial Investment on January 1st = $10,000
Ending Investment on December 31st = $11,000
Earnings = $11,000 – $10,000 = $1,000
Return on investment = ?
The correct return calculation is: Earnings/Initial Investment = $1,000/$10,000 = 10%
The incorrect calculation is: Earnings/Ending Investment = $1,000/$11,000 = 9.1%
Analysts often mistakenly divide income by end-of-year assets or equity to determine ROA or ROE.2 They do this because the numbers are readily available on each
year’s Income Statement and Balance Sheet. In contrast, many textbooks, when dividing
an Income Statement number by a Balance Sheet number, average the Balance Sheet
number over the year. The average is usually computed as the average of the begin-ofyear (which is the same as the end of the previous year) and end-of-year balances. This
alternative may make sense if a firm is growing rapidly and additional investments are
being made during the year. However, in general, the opening numbers provide a more
realistic ratio. In this case, using the opening numbers increases PIPES’s ROA to 9.22%
($83,000/$900,000) and ROE to 30.63% ($83,000/($75,000 + $196,000)). By comparison, Home Depot’s ROA and ROE done this way are 11.19% and 25.34%.
Thus, to restate the paragraph above, PIPES earns less profit than Home Depot
in both total dollar amount and as a percentage of sales. However, PIPES’s return
on amount invested is, as recalculated, now lower than Home Depot’s on ROA but
higher on ROE. Table 2.2 provides a number of profitability ratios calculated in a
number of ways.
Table 2.2 does not even begin to cover all the possibilities of profitability ratios.
For instance, we can also use Earnings before Interest and Taxes (or Operating
Profit) instead of Net Income as both a stand-alone value and as a numerator for
ROA or ROE. As another example, we can calculate Return on Net Assets (RONA)
instead of ROA. Net Assets are the firm’s fixed assets plus net working capital (cash
plus accounts receivable plus inventory less accounts payable). Our point is simply that there are many ways to compute ratios. Today, with the ease of computer
spreadsheets, the number of ratios is not going to decrease. As stated above, the most
important rule with ratio analysis is consistency.
If the base amounts of assets or equity are large enough, it does not make a big difference in
the calculated number, but it is technically inaccurate.
PIPES—Profitability Ratios 2009–2012
Return on sales (net profit margin)
Return on assets (ending balance)
Return on assets (average balance)
5.64%*
Return on assets (opening balance)
Return on equity (ending balance)
Return on equity (average balance)
25.11%*
Return on equity (opening balance)
*For 2009 the opening balance is assumed to be 85% of the closing balance.
Returning to our banker’s investigation: Is PIPES profitable? Does it have a
good ROE? Yes, an ROE of 30.63% is actually quite good. A net income of $83,000
may look small next to the $4.5 billion earned by Home Depot in 2012, but PIPES’
ROE is right up there, exceeding Home Depot’s 2012 ROE of 25.34%. PIPES is,
therefore, doing well in terms of its return on its owners’ investment.
This brings us to our next question: If PIPES is profitable, why does it need to
borrow money? PIPES needs to borrow money because it is not generating enough
profits to finance its growth. Is this a bad thing? It is neither good nor bad. At some
point, most successful firms grow faster than they are able to finance through internally generated funds. That’s why capital markets exist. Debt and equity markets
would not be required if all firms could finance themselves out of retained earnings
(remember, retained earnings are internally generated funds—they are accumulated
profits remaining after all expenses and dividends are covered). PIPES needs to borrow funds because it is growing faster than it can internally sustain.
What does PIPES need the funds for? To understand the flow of funds in and
out of a firm (i.e., what the funds are used for and where a firm obtains its financing),
we introduce another financial tool: the Sources and Uses of Funds.
Let’s begin with Sources: What are the sources of funds for a firm? A firm
has more funds if it reduces its assets or increases its liabilities and net worth. For
example, if a firm sells an asset, it is a source of funds. If a firm issues debt or sells
equity, it is also a source of funds.
Turning now to Uses: What are the uses of funds for a firm? They are the reverse
of the sources of funds. If a firm increases its assets, it is a use of funds. Likewise, if a
firm pays down debt, repurchases equity, or pays a dividend, it is also a use of funds.
Profits that become retained earnings are a source of funds, while losses that reduce
retained earnings are a use of funds.
Sources are: Assets ↓ or Liabilities ↑ or Net Worth ↑
Uses are: Assets ↑ or Liabilities ↓ or Net Worth ↓
We can now create a Sources and Uses of Funds Statement by looking at the
changes in PIPES’s Balance Sheet at two points in time. Looking at the Balance Sheet
in Table 2.1B, we can create Table 2.3A the Sources and Uses Statement for 2012 by
comparing the ending balances in 2011 (which are the opening balances for 2012)
with the ending balances in 2012:
Going line by line in the asset half of the Balance Sheet:
Cash increases from $40,000 to $45,000. Since an asset went up, this $5,000 is
a use of funds.3
Accounts receivable increases from $165,000 to $211,000. This is also a use of
funds. Remember, accounts receivable is an asset (customers owe the firm
money and have not yet paid; PIPES is effectively extending credit to its
customers). Importantly, all else equal, the firm has to somehow fund this
$46,000 increase in accounts receivable. This is similar to its funding any
other asset, such as a new forklift.
Next, we see inventory increases from $340,000 to $418,000, which is a $78,000
use of funds. By the same logic as for accounts receivable, PIPES has to fund
this $78,000.
PIPES—Sources and Uses of Funds Worksheet 2012
Sources and Uses of Funds are not the only way to determine where a firm’s cash flows come from
and go to. This can also be done using an accounting cash flow statement, which is covered in all
basic accounting textbooks. Your authors feel the Sources and Uses are a more intuitive approach
and so is the one we use first. We will use modified Cash Flow Statements later in the book.
Prepaid expenses decreases from $30,000 to $28,000. In this case, an asset has
gone down, which is a $2,000 source of funds.
Property, plant, and equipment increases from $325,000 to $350,000, which is
a $25,000 use of funds.
Now, we turn to the other half of the Balance Sheet, liabilities and equity:
There is no change in the current portion of long-term debt, so this is neither a
source nor a use.
Next, we see that the bank loan stayed constant at $350,000. Again, this is neither a source nor a use.
Accounts payable (or trade credit—the amount that PIPES owes to its suppliers
of goods and services) increased from $144,000 to $223,000. An increase in
liabilities is a source of funds, and so this is a $79,000 source of funds. This
$79,000 reduces the firm’s need for external financing.
There is no change in accruals, so this is neither a source nor a use.
Long-term debt falls from $100,000 to $90,000. Since the liability decreases,
this is a $10,000 use of funds.
There is no change in contributed capital, so this is neither a source nor a use.
Retained earnings increases from $196,000 to $279,000, which is an $83,000
source of funds. This is 100% of the firm’s net income for the year, which
means PIPES did not pay any dividends to its owners. Net income is a source
of funds, while dividends paid are a use.
Note that in Table 2.3A, the Total Sources of Funds and Total Uses of Funds are
both $164,000. It is considered aesthetically pleasing (as well as financially necessary) that sources equal uses. If sources don’t equal uses, it means you have a mistake
someplace, for instance, you classified something incorrectly, and you need to go
back over your numbers to find the mistake.
Table 2.3B summarizes PIPES’s Sources and Uses from Table 2.3A. The largest
sources and uses are highlighted in bold.
Why are we computing the Sources and Uses of Funds? To help us determine what
areas of the Balance Sheet to focus on. Where are the main uses of funds for PIPES?
That is, what have its funds been primarily used for? Examining the Sources and Uses
Statement shows that the largest use items are accounts receivables of $46,000 and
inventory of $78,000. PIPES’s increase in cash is minor and not worthy of a first-pass
examination, and its increase in PP&E of $25,000 seems reasonable for a growing
business.4 Do these uses of funds make sense? Yes, they do. PIPES has increased sales by
25% a year, and to do so, it has had to extend more credit and carry more inventory.
Examining Table 2.3B, what are PIPES’s primary sources of funds? Accounts
payable of $79,000 and retained profits of $83,000. Mr. Steele has been in a
What is large or small, reasonable or unreasonable, is partly a matter of judgment. An individual new to financial analysis may want to examine every line item, but that takes more
time. A more experienced analyst will be comfortable focusing only on the receivables, inventory, and accounts payable in this case.
Table 2.3b PIPES—Sources and Uses of Funds 2012
Sources of funds:
Increase in prepaid expenses
Increase in accounts payable
Profits retained
Total sources of funds
Uses of funds:
Increase in cash
Increase in accounts receivable
Increase in inventory
Increase in property, plant, and equipment
Decrease in long-term debt
Total uses of funds
competitive business for 15 years, increasing sales significantly while showing a
profit. The Sources and Uses Statement shows that PIPES put most of its funds last
year toward receivables and inventory, and that PIPES is getting most of its funds
from trade creditors and retained profits.
So what do these increases in accounts receivables and inventories mean? Can
receivables ever be too high? Yes. Mr. Steele could be giving credit to customers who
are not paying or are taking too long to pay. Remember, his receivables are being
partially funded by bank borrowings, on which he has to pay interest. Can receivables be too low? All else being equal, Mr. Steele would certainly prefer them to be
lower. However, to get receivables lower, he would have to restrict credit to customers, which may cause them to shop somewhere else that provides more lenient credit.
As noted above, extending credit is a service provided by PIPES and is part of what
makes the firm competitive in the product market.
Can inventories ever be too high? Absolutely. What does it mean if inventory is
too high? It means Mr. Steele has ordered too much product, which is sitting on his
shelves, incurring unnecessary storage, insurance, and financing costs. It could mean
he has been ordering the wrong inventory—products that people don’t want and
are not buying, which he may eventually have to scrap at a loss. Can inventory be
too low? Without a doubt. If the product customers are looking for is not in stock,
they go elsewhere. PIPES must balance having sufficient quantity of inventory that
customers want with the cost of having too much inventory.
PIPES, as noted earlier, is both a warehouse and a bank for its customers. The
firm must have the right level and kind of inventory and be willing to extend credit
to its customers.
So, in essence, the banker interviews Steele and examines PIPES’s Income Statement and Balance Sheet to determine the following: Is this firm financially healthy
and well run? Mr. Morgan can see that sales are growing and the firm has been
reasonably profitable. In the personal interview, Mr. Morgan is also trying to determine if Mr. Steele has the ability to run the business (ordering, stocking, dealing with
customers, accounting, etc.) or if someone else ran the operations (perhaps his wife).
Moreover, he wants to know: Is there anyone else who can run the firm if something
happens to Mr. Steele?
How can the banker determine if the firm is well run? For this we use another of our
other financial tools: ratio analysis, which we introduced earlier when we discussed
profitability. Ratio analysis helps us to determine whether a firm is well run or not.
Ratio analysis measures the firm’s performance and financial health. Ratios can be
used to compare the firm with itself over time and to compare the firm with other
firms in its industry either at a point in time or over time.
There are four main categories of ratios:
1. Profitability ratios, some of which we have mentioned earlier (e.g., Return on
Sales, Return on Assets, Return on Equity, etc.)
2. Activity ratios (also called operating ratios or turnover ratios), which include
Days Receivable, Days Inventory, Days Payable, and so on and which focus on
the firm’s operations
Days Receivable = Accounts Receivable/(Sales/365)
Days Inventory = Inventory/(Cost of Goods Sold/365)
Days Payable = Accounts Payable/(Purchases/365)
3. Liquidity ratios, which indicate how liquid a firm is—whether the firm has the
ability to pay its current debts as they come due—and includes the Current
Ratio and the Quick Ratio
Current Ratio = Current Assets/Current Liabilities
Quick Ratio = (Cash + Marketable Securities)/Current Liabilities
4. Debt ratios, which indicate how much of a firm’s funding is financed with debt
instead of equity and include Debt/Equity, Debt/Total Assets, Leverage Ratio,
Times Interest Earned, and so on
Debt/Equity = Interest-Bearing Debt/Owner’s Equity
Debt/Total Assets = Interest-Bearing Debt/Total Assets
Total Assets/Equity Ratio = Total Assets/Owner’s Equity
Times Interest Earned = Earnings before Interest and Taxes/Interest Expense
We often calculate all of our ratios as a percentage of sales. These are called
common size ratios, and all components of the Income Statement and Balance Sheet
are presented as a percentage of sales. This allows for comparisons over time (both
to itself as well as to other firms), eliminating the impact of differences in size, and
provides a starting point for pro forma forecasts. As can be seen in Tables 2.4A and
2.4B, the components of PIPES’s Income Statement and Balance Sheet have been very
consistent over time as a percentage of sales.
Common size Balance Sheets can also be stated as a percentage of total assets. Your
authors prefer percentage of sales, although properly done both give the same answer.5
As we will see shortly when we do pro forma (forecasts), we strongly recommend using
ercentage of sales ratios. This is because the sales forecast is one of the first assumptions
made in pro forma analysis.
PIPES—Common Size Income Statements (% Sales) 2009–2012
Income tax (as a % of PBT)
Net earnings (as a % of sales)
Table 2.4b PIPES—Common Size Balance Sheets (% Sales) 2009–2012
Ratios are calculated in many different ways. As noted above, when we talked
about profitability ratios, the numbers used from the Balance Sheet can come from
the start of the year, the end of the year, or the average over the year. The ratios can
be stated as a percentage of sales or as a percentage of cost of goods sold. Activity
formulas can be stated in number of days or in number of turns (defined below).
Why so much variation, and what is the difference? The variation chosen is often a
personal preference of the analyst. Most importantly, all of the ratios can be translated into one another. For example (as seen in Table 2.5), inventory can be stated as
a percentage of sales or as a percentage of cost of goods sold, as days of inventory or
number of inventory turns in a year. However, each of these ratios can be translated
into the other.
Table 2.5 presents selected activity, leverage and liquidity ratios for PIPES several different ways. (Note: Table 2.2 already presented selected profitability ratios so
these are not repeated here. Normally all the ratios would be presented together on
one sheet of paper or spreadsheet.)
Let’s briefly discuss the translation of the ratios from percentage of sales to turns
to days using a simple example.
Receivables as a percentage of sales (i.e., % receivables) is calculated (in 2012) as:
Accounts receivable/sales = $211,000/$2,200,000 = 9.59%
Receivable turnover is calculated as:
Sales/accounts receivable = $2,200,000/$211,000 = 10.43
PIPES—Selected Ratios 2009–2012
Operating:
Receivables as a % of sales
Receivable turnover
Days receivable
Inventory as a % of COGS
Days inventory
Inventory as a % of sales
Fixed asset turnover
Total asset turnover
Days payable (purchases)
Days payable (COGS)
Days payable (sales)
Liquidity:
Total assets/equity
Times interest earned
These two are simply inverses of each other (1/9.59% = 10.43 and 1/10.43 =
9.59%).
Days receivable is calculated as:
Accounts receivable divided by the average daily sales = $211,000/
($2,200,000/365) = 35.01
Days receivable is also 365 times the % receivables (365 * 0.0959 = 35.01)
or 365 divided by the receivable turnover (365/10.43 = 35.01). All three ratios are
merely transformations of one another.
The same relationships hold true for items such as inventory as a percentage of
cost of goods sold (COGS), inventory turnover, and days inventory, where:
Inventory as a % of COGS = Inventory/COGS
Inventory turnover = COGS/Inventory
Days Inventory = Inventory/(COGS/365) or 365 * Inventory as a % COGS
While many analysts will use sales when evaluating receivables, and COGS
when evaluating inventory, sales can be used for both. When, as in the case of
PIPES, the relationship between sales and COGS is fairly constant over time,
the translation is straightforward. To illustrate this point, assume (as in the case
of PIPES) a firm’s inventory is 19% of sales and COGS is 77% of sales. We can
then see that:
Inventory/sales = 19%
COGS/sales = 77%, which implies
Sales/COGS = 1/0.77 = 1.30
Inventory/COGS = Inventory/sales * Sales/COGS = 0.19 * 1.3 = 24.7%
Days inventory computed on COGS = 365 * 0.247 = 90 days
Days inventory computed on sales = 90 days * 0.77 = 69 days
Inventory/sales = 19%, which implies
Sales/inventory (inventory turns) = 1/0.19 = 5.26
Days inventory computed on sales = 365 * 0.19 = 365/5.26 = 69 days
Thus, all of these ratios are equivalent and represent the same underlying
economics. Which ratio to use is usually a matter of personal preference.
A suggestion: Until (or unless) the reader is comfortable with or develops a
preference for specific ratios, your authors suggest you primarily use percentage of
sales. This is the easiest of the many ways to compute pro forma (forecasted future)
Income Statements. We recommend it highly. As shown above, it can be translated
into any of the other ratios (i.e., days, turnover, etc.). In that vein, much of the
following analysis for PIPES will be done as a percentage of sales.
How do we interpret the ratios? Ratios differ by industry. For example, retail
grocers will have low profit margins on sales with high turnover ratios. The grocer
doesn’t make much on each individual sale, but the grocer will turn its inventory
over many times a year (and do so with very low receivables or fixed assets). Imagine
a particular grocer has an inventory turnover of less than 52 times (which translates
to once a week). Assuming this is an old-fashioned grocer selling only meat and produce (no bakeries, canneries, refineries, wholesale divisions, etc.), this means the produce and meat are sitting on the grocer’s shelves for more than a week on average. As
consumers, let alone investors, you should probably avoid this grocer. On the other
hand, a firm with larger margins than a classical grocer may have a lower turnover.
For example, Ford Motor Company has a 4.4% net profit margin (net profit/sales)
while turnover (on sales) is 17.2 for inventory, 5.1 on fixed assets, and 0.67 on total
assets. Likewise, PIPES should have higher margins but lower turnover than a grocer.
Because ratios depend on the business the firm is in, ratios must be used in comparison to other ratios. As mentioned above, the two common ways to do this are
to compare the firm to itself over time and to compare the firm to other firms in the
same industry in the same time period. A ROE of 30% means much more to us if we
see that this is the highest it has been in the past five years or if this is higher than
competing firms.
Table 2.4A above gives the percentage sales ratios for each item on PIPES’s Income
Statement for the past four years. For example, COGS was 77.1%, 77.2%, 77.1%,
and 77.0% for 2009 through 2012. This stability suggests that nothing dramatic
changed in the markup between the costs of PIPES’s inventory and selling price. The
gross profit, which is sales minus COGS, remained very close to 23% throughout
the period (actual numbers are 22.9%, 22.8%, 22.9%, and 23.0%, as shown on the
next line in Table 2.4A).
More About Ratios
Days receivable, days inventory, and days payable (discussed more fully below)
reflect how well a firm is collecting its receivables, managing its inventory, and using
its suppliers to fund its growth. Changes in these numbers are often tied to increases
or decreases in the level of sales.
By contrast, fixed assets usually increase in a step function, or sporadically
as needed, rather than being directly linked to sales. Similarly, albeit to a lesser
extent, total assets rarely follow sales proportionately. This can be clearly seen
from the increase in both fixed asset turnover (sales/fixed assets) from 3.73 in
2009 to 6.29 in 2012 and total asset turnover (sales/total assets) from 1.62 in
2009 to 2.09 in 2012. Thus, PIPES can increase sales without a proportional
increase in long-term assets. This indicates that PIPES was becoming more efficient over time. In effect, PIPES’s fixed and total asset turnover reflect its ability
to realize economies of scale.
The ratios above, and the ones we focus on most in this chapter, are operating
(or activity) ratios. There are four main families of ratios: Profitability, operating,
liquidity, and leverage. Operating ratios are discussed immediately above and profitability ratios were discussed earlier in this chapter.
There are only two liquidity ratios commonly used: the current ratio and the
quick/acid test ratio. The current ratio is simply current assets over current liabilities.
The quick ratio is current assets minus inventory minus other current assets divided
by current liabilities. They both measure a firm’s liquidity or ability to pay its obligations as they come due in the short-term. The quick ratio gives a more restrictive
definition of liquidity. Today, most analysts typically focus more on a firm’s net cash
flows rather than its liquidity ratios to determine the likelihood a firm will be able to
meet its short-term obligations.
Leverage ratios remain important, particularly when analyzing how a firm
finances itself. These ratios reflect whether a firm chooses to finance through debt or
equity. This is a major topic in this book (indeed, it is the focus of Chapters 5–12).
There are numerous formulations of the leverage ratios, all of which reflect the same
underlying purpose: to determine the proportion of assets financed with debt versus equity. As will be discussed in further detail later in this book, the greater the
percentage of funding from debt, the greater the risk that a firm will be unable to
repay its debt as it comes due. Equity, unlike debt, is a less risky form of financing
for the firm since there is no contractual obligation to repay equity. Table 2.5 above
shows that PIPES’s leverage ratios all appear to be declining over time. However, as
discussed below, this is partially because a greater proportion of financing is being
done through the use of accounts payables. A more detailed discussion of leverage
follows in Chapters 7 and 8.
Let’s back up for a moment and talk about the cash cycle. Consider a point in
time—we’ll call it time zero—when PIPES purchases some inventory. What happens
to the inventory? Other than, perhaps, perishables in a supermarket, most firms do
not sell their inventory the day it is purchased. The inventory goes into a stock room
and then is hopefully sold. How long does it take before PIPES sells its inventory on
average? This is the days inventory ratio, which in 2012 is 90 days for PIPES. However, selling the inventory is not the same as getting paid for the sale. In general PIPES
does not get paid at the time of sale, since it extends accounts receivable. How long
does it take before PIPES gets paid? The accounts receivable are paid over time. If a
customer pays cash, the accounts receivable is zero days. Furthermore, if a customer
uses a credit card, there is a period of time before the credit card company deposits
the cash into PIPES’s bank account. In 2012, PIPES’s accounts receivable averaged
35 days. This means it took 125 days on average from the time PIPES purchased
its inventory until it was sold and paid for (90 days of inventory and 35 days of
accounts receivable).
If PIPES paid for its inventory on the day it purchased it, then the 125 days
represents the time period over which PIPES must finance its inventory and
receivables. Table 2.1B shows that in 2012, inventory and accounts receivable
totaled $629,000 at year-end ($211,000 + $418,000). PIPES must finance this
amount either from retained earnings or by borrowing. However, inventory and
accounts receivable are only part of the cash cycle. PIPES does not pay for its
inventory on the day they purchase it. They pay later and this is represented by
accounts payable (PIPES’s accounts payable are accounts receivable to the firms
it purchases from).
What about PIPES’s accounts payable? How long does it take PIPES to pay off
its accounts payable? On average 46 days. Is this long? It depends. PIPES’s suppliers
would certainly like their funds sooner; however, PIPES would like to wait to pay for
the goods until it receives payment from its customers. In this sense, PIPES is using its
accounts payable to help fund its receivables and inventory. If accounts payable are
greater than accounts receivable plus inventory, then the firm is using the accounts
payable to fund other assets as well. In our case, PIPES uses accounts payable to
finance 46 days of inventory and receivables.
So accounts payable are also part of the cash cycle. It may help to look at the
summary that follows, which represents the entire cash cycle. PIPES takes 125
days to sell and collect payment for purchases. However, PIPES takes 46 days to
pay its suppliers, which leaves 79 days of inventory and receivables that must be
financed in other ways.
Purchase and collection:
Held in inventory
Held in receivables
Days from the receipt of inventory until cash collection =
Payment and financing:
Days in payables
Days of other financing required
Days to pay suppliers and amount of other financing required =
The cash cycle represents two sides of a firm’s cash flows. The first half represents
the time that the firm holds the product as inventory plus the time until customers
pay their accounts receivable. The second half represents the time until the firm pays
its accounts payable to its suppliers plus the additional time the firm must finance:
the net difference in the inventory, receivables, and payables collection periods.
We described the PIPES cash cycle above, but cash cycles vary across industries
and firms. For instance, a grocer’s cash cycle may be much shorter since a grocer will
sell most of its inventory very quickly, doesn’t extend credit, and buys from suppliers
who demand prompt payment.
The cash cycle represents one need or source of financing for a firm. Conceptually, it is important to realize that inventory and receivables must be financed (they
are a use of funds) and that accounts payable can help mitigate this financing need
(which is a source of funds).
So is an increase in accounts payable good or bad? Increasing accounts payable is
great as long as it does not cost the firm anything. However, at some point, if they are
not paid soon enough, suppliers will include a fee for late payment, raise prices, or simply stop selling to a firm. Often suppliers offer terms to entice customers to pay sooner.
A common discount is 2/10 net 30, which means if the firm pays in 10 days it can take
2% off of the price, otherwise the full amount (net) is due by day 30. Suppose this holds
true for PIPES. In 2012 PIPES’s purchases (as shown in Table 2.1) were $1,773,000. If
PIPES was able to take a 2% discount on the purchases the savings would be $35,460.
This means PIPES would have an extra $35,460 in profit before interest and taxes. Is
this a lot? YES! Since PIPES’s profit after taxes was $83,000, an extra $35,460 is huge.
However, that $35,460 is not free money. If PIPES reduces accounts payable from 46 to
10 days to take the discount, it will have to finance the extra 36 days, which is a cost.
At this point we are going to introduce a topic that is dealt with in detail later in
the book. That is, we won’t explain the topic fully, but instead will “shell the beaches.”6
We are going to introduce the idea of the cost of payables versus the cost of financing.
We won’t do it formally here but will later in the book when we look at investments.
If PIPES pays all its suppliers on day 11 instead of day 10, and loses the 2%
discount by paying one day late, this is the equivalent to an annual interest rate of
over 700% (annualize the daily rate of 2% by: 2% * 365 days). Of course, PIPES is
not paying on day 11. Right now, the suppliers are allowing PIPES to take 46 days to
pay (based on purchases) and effectively are partially funding PIPES’s sales growth.
This means the discount lost is 2% for 36 days (46 days – 10 days) or an annualized
rate of about 20% a year (2% * 365/36). (There is an old finance phrase, “collect
early, pay late,” which captures this idea.)
Going forward, we will assume for our analysis that PIPES’s suppliers have informed
the firm that starting in 2013, PIPES can pay on day 10 and obtain a 2% discount or
pay by day 30 with no discount. If PIPES pays any later, it is assumed the suppliers will
start charging PIPES higher prices or stop selling to it altogether. Thus, PIPES is no longer
able to wait 46 days before paying its suppliers; it must pay within 30 days. This change
means that future projections for accounts payable must be set at less than 30 days of
purchases. Let’s further assume that PIPES decides to pay its accounts payable in 10
days. (We next address whether that is the right time period. Hint: It is.)
Annual purchases, as we see from Table 2.1A, are $1,773,000. A 2% discount
on this amount is $35,460. To obtain this discount, PIPES must pay on day 10
instead of day 30. To pay on day 10, PIPES will have to finance an extra 20 days
of payables (the difference between paying on day 30 and day 10). The amount
of extra financing required is computed by multiplying the average daily purchase by 20 days. The average daily purchase is $4,857 ($1,773,000/365). The
extra financing is the average daily purchase times 20 days = $97,151. Financing
a $97,151 increase in payables at an assumed 7% interest rate will cost PIPES
$6,801 ($97,151 * .07). Clearly PIPES should pay on day 10, as it results in an
increase of profit before tax of $28,659 ($35,460 – $6,801) or an increase in net
profit of $18,628 ($28,659 * 65%).
Another way to understand this is that PIPES is now looking at a 2% discount
on a 20-day time period (the difference between paying on day 10 and day 30). If
PIPES decides to pay on day 30, it will pay an approximate annual interest rate of
36% (PIPES is paying 2% for each 20 days period; since there are approximately
eighteen 20-day periods in a year, this is approximately a 36% (18 * 2%) annual
interest rate). Borrowing from the bank at 7% is better than paying suppliers an
implicit interest rate of 36%.
“Shell the beaches” is a phrase meaning to prepare the area for future assault.
So why didn’t PIPES do this? PIPES simply did not have the funds to pay receivables on day 10 with a $350,000 bank line of credit.
Another comment on Accounts Payable: firms can often push a little bit past each
of the deadlines. If PIPES paid on day 14 and still took the 2% discount (or paid on day
35 without the discount), the suppliers might roll their eyes and accept it since they don’t
want to lose a customer. We don’t know the exact limits here, and the assumptions can
be altered to fit any specific situation. The longer a firm takes to pay a supplier, all else
being equal, the lower the cost. However, as noted above, at some point the suppliers will
charge for financing (directly or indirectly) or will simply stop selling to the firm.
1. We have introduced PIPES, a medium-sized plumbing supply store, which we are
using to demonstrate how to evaluate the financial health of a firm. What is the
active question PIPES is trying to figure out? It is trying to determine how much
money it needs to fund future operations. The inverse question, which the bank
is trying to figure out, is how much money to lend to PIPES.
2. To examine the financial health of a firm, we must start by understanding the
firm’s product market. Finance may help a firm survive and prosper, but ultimately the firm’s success depends on its product market business, so that is what
we must focus on first. What are the crucial factors for a medium-sized firm in
the plumbing supply industry? We determined they were price and service. Price
came first because plumbing supplies is an industry with low barriers to entry
and involves a commodity product. This means price is a very important part of
doing business. Service came second, and in this industry service includes both
having the necessary inventory in stock as well as providing credit (acting as a
bank) to some of the firm’s customers.
3. We then asked: Is the firm profitable? We found that PIPES did not make a large
profit in an absolute sense, but its ROE of 30.6% indicates Mr. Steele is probably
doing a good job.
4. Next, we demonstrated that even though a firm is profitable, it may have to borrow funds. This occurs when a firm is growing faster than its retained earnings
(we will discuss the concept of sustainable growth in detail in Chapters 5 and
9). We note that PIPES’s profits are insufficient to fund the growth in receivables
and inventory. To date, PIPES has funded itself primarily with some bank debt
and an increasing amount of trade credit (credit from its suppliers, or accounts
payable).
5. We then examined PIPES’s Sources and Uses of Funds. Why did we look at this?
To understand what the firm’s money is being used for and where the firm is
obtaining it. This is an important tool, which allows managers and analysts to
recognize potential problems.
6. Next we used ratios, another financial tool, to examine the firm and see how
PIPES was doing. Your authors wish to stress the importance of always starting
the analysis of a firm with ratios. You can read any analyst report, and you will
see they always start with ratios, comparing the firm to others in the industry
as well as to the firm’s own past. CFO presentations almost always begin with
ratios. Bankers will almost always start their loan reviews with the firm’s ratios.
The reader should remember how his or her views of PIPES changed after going
through the ratios.
Ratios are the diagnostic that finance begins with. When someone goes to a
doctor’s office, regardless of the reason for the visit (e.g., a sore throat, an ear
ache, or an annual exam), the doctor or physician’s assistant begins by taking
the person’s blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. These are diagnostics. If the
person’s temperature is normal, the doctor does not look for an infection. If the
person’s temperature is high (either for themselves or for the general population), it doesn’t mean there is an infection, but it will cause the doctor to consider the possibility. All of these vitals along with the person’s weight, height,
and any significant physical changes are diagnostics. These are all things doctors
check off. In finance, a firm’s ratios are its vital signs, and we use them as diagnostics for a firm.
7. In addition to using ratios as a diagnostic to check for problems within the firm’s
operations, ratios are also used to predict the firm’s future performance. If, for
example, COGS is repeatedly at 77% of sales, we assume it will remain at that
percentage when we forecast the firm’s future performance.
8. Finally, we discussed the cash cycle. As noted above, the cash cycle represents
one need/source of financing for a firm. Firms not only finance fixed assets, they
must also finance net working capital (receivables plus inventory less accounts
While we have covered a lot of material, in retrospect, we hope the progression
of the questions we have asked and the tools we have used to answer them make
sense. It is important, very important, to understand that financial analysis is as
much of an art as a science. As with any art, the more you practice the more skilled
you become. Returning to our doctor analogy, there are many reasons for a fever,
and usually the more clinical experience a doctor has, the better she is at determining
the reasons for your particular fever.
We are not finished yet. We have a good feel for PIPES’s current financial health, but
Mr. Morgan, the banker, still doesn’t know whether to lend them money or how
much. To determine that, we have to forecast the future operations and the future
Income Statements and Balance Sheets for PIPES. To do that, we use yet another
financial tool: pro forma analysis. Analysts and investors would also use pro formas
to determine the value of PIPES to help them determine whether to buy or sell its
stock. We will introduce this tool, pro forma analysis, and use it in the next two
chapters.
n the last chapter, we used PIPES, a mid-sized plumbing firm, to show how Sources
and Uses of Funds and ratio analysis can be used to help evaluate the financial
health of a firm. We found that PIPES appeared to be a profitable, well-managed
firm that was growing quickly, but was unable to finance its working capital needs
with its current $350,000 bank line of credit. We also introduced Mr. Morgan, a new
banker, who was considering lending to PIPES.
This chapter will answer the question: Should Mr. Morgan lend to PIPES,
and if so, how much? Mr. Steele, PIPES’s owner and manager, should be able to
answer the second part of this question. When you walk into a bank you should
expect the banker to ask how much money you want to borrow (and if you
don’t know, you should expect the banker to send you away empty-handed). You
should also expect the banker to ask you how (and when) you are going to pay
back the loan.
Finance and Accounting are both inexact and both require us to work with
assumptions as well as facts.1 However, the major difference is that Financial
Accounting looks backward (trying to tell it like it was), while Finance looks forward (trying to tell it like it will be), and it is easier to figure out what happened
in the past than to predict the future correctly. For example, a current stock price
doesn’t reflect what happened in the past, but rather reflects the market’s expectation of the future.
In that context, let’s back up a bit and talk more about ratio analysis. Ratio
analysis is an inexact tool. When we first discussed ratios, we noted there are numerous ways to compute them:
Percentage of sales (e.g., receivables/sales)
Percentage of cost of goods sold (e.g., inventory/COGS)
Days (e.g., receivables/(sales/365))
Turns (e.g., sales/receivables)
Appendix 3A provides a brief review of how Accounting, like Finance, is an inexact science.
Furthermore, ratios can be computed using different time periods:
Beginning of the year (e.g., net income/total assetsopen)
End of the year (e.g., net income/total assetsend), or
Average (e.g., net income (total assetsopen/2 + total assetsend/2).
Different ratios can also reflect the same underlying economics. They just do the
calculations differently (e.g., debt/equity or debt/total assets).
Moreover, within each category of ratios (profitability, activity, leverage, and
liquidity) we have multiple definitions (e.g., profitability can be percentage of sales,
return on assets, return on equity, etc.).
When two ratios are transformations of each other, it does not matter which
one is used (e.g., days receivables is just 365 divided by receivable turns). However,
we select a ratio that highlights a particular focus of the analysis (i.e., we may use
return on assets if we want to understand a firm’s overall profitability, while we may
use return on equity if we want to highlight profitability across different financing
structures). The most important thing, however, is to be consistent. That is, to use the
same ratios throughout our analysis.
Ratios are used in two primary ways: First, they are used to compare a firm
with others in the same industry. This requires only one year of ratios and is called
a cross-sectional analysis. The ratios for PIPES can be compared to Home Depot,
Lowe’s, and other similar firms. Of course, it is always easiest to compare firms of
similar size in similar geographic locations. But even if you are not comparing similarly sized firms in similar geographies and similar industries, ratio analysis allows
you to understand which firm is more or less profitable, which is best at controlling
their costs, and so on. Second, ratios can be used to compare the firm’s performance
with itself over time. Examining ratios for a single firm over a five-year period allows
you to not only look for consistency in performance, but also trends in the firm’s
Ratios are always the best place to start an examination of a firm, as they
are the diagnostics for a firm. They are used in many ways. Ratios are used both
by the firm to self-evaluate as well as by the capital market to evaluate the firm.
Ratios are also used in contracts to set covenants (restrictions a lender puts on
the firm to reduce the risk of not being repaid). For example, there may be covenants limiting both the amount and type of debt, limiting the amount or percentage of working capital, and/or limiting certain expenses in absolute terms or
as a percentage of sales. Lending covenants are used both to evaluate the health
of a firm and to set a trigger for action if they are violated (usually debt becomes
fully payable on demand if a covenant is violated). There are also performance
pricing contracts (or performance pricing debt) where the interest rate varies
with changes in the ratios. The stronger a firm’s ratios, the lower the interest rate
charged and vice versa. These ratio-dependent covenants contractually allow the
interest rate to fluctuate with the ratios rather than having the firm and lender
renegotiate rates whenever the firm’s financial health changes materially. Finally,
ratios are essential in forecasting the future performance of the firm and thus are
an integral part of our pro forma tools.
Pro Forma Forecasts (PIPES-B)
Suppose that PIPES continues to grow as it has but decides to change its payable
policy and reduces accounts payable to no more than 10 days. How does that change
the amount the firm needs to borrow? How do we figure it out? We prepare a pro
forma forecast.
Hint: When you do pro formas, you have to forecast Income Statement and Balance Sheet items. Your authors strongly recommend that, as a first pass, you use the
same line items that the company uses in its Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
Financial statements can be stated several ways with different degrees of detail. It is
far easier to project only the items listed on the current financial statements rather
than change the categories or accounts listed. For example, if the firm separates
inventory into raw materials, work in process, and finished goods inventory, we recommend your pro formas do that as well. It is both easier to do and more accurate.
This may seem obvious, but occasionally we find students using different categories
in the pro formas than the firm used in their own financial statements.
Note that once we have set up our pro formas, we can change our assumptions
and examine “what if” scenarios. We can, for instance, assume that PIPES will extend
less credit to customers so that receivables decline, and then we can examine the impact
on financing needs and profits. Thus, pro formas are an extremely powerful tool for
a firm to not only forecast the future, but also to understand the impact of changes.
Your authors are both old enough to have done pro formas on paper prior to
the advent of computerized, now Excel, spreadsheets. Because of this, we warn that a
danger with using computerized spreadsheets is the temptation to generate multiple
iterations without proper justification. This can be problematic because computerized spreadsheets can sometimes make it too easy to generate new pro formas without properly understanding and questioning the underlying assumptions.
PIPES Pro Forma Income Statement for 2013
It is generally best to begin with a pro forma Income Statement. Why? Because, not
only will this year’s earnings affect the amount of financing necessary on the Balance
Sheet, but the sales forecast is usually one of the most important forecasts and drives
not only most of the Income Statement items but many of the Balance Sheet items as
well. Our first pro forma Income Statement is given in Table 3.1A. It is constructed
If we had to project the Income Statement for PIPES for 2013 without any other
additional information, a first pass would have a sales increase at a rate of 25%.
Why? Because this is the average rate that sales increased during each of the past
three years, and each year has been close to the average.
Projected increase
Pro Forma Sales in 2013
Once our sales forecast is set, most of the remainder of the Income Statement
items can be forecast using a percentage-of-sales approach. That is, we can use the
ratios we calculated in the past for PIPES to predict the future. Occasionally, if something changes, as it did for accounts payable (now restricted to 10 days to get the 2%
discount), we will have to modify the past ratios to incorporate new assumptions.
After sales, the next Income Statement item is COGS, which has been very stable
at around 77% of sales (77.1%, 77.2%, 77.1%, and 77% in 2009 through 2012).
This indicates management’s ability, or at least consistency, in purchasing and pricing.
Pro Forma COGS in 2013
However, we cannot simply use the 77% from the past. Why not? Because we
are now holding payables to 10 days to obtain a 2% discount on purchases. We
must adjust the original estimate based on past experience for any expected future
changes. In this case, we expect to receive a 2% discount for prompt payment. This
means the rate of 77% is no longer correct.
At 77% of sales COGS is forecast to be $2,177,500 (as above sales of $2,750,000
* 77%). However, we now expect to pay 2% less than this. This means we expect a
discount for prompt payment of $42,350 (2% * COGS = 2% * $2,117,500).
Original estimate for 2013 COGS
Adjustment for prompt payment discount
Revised estimate for 2013 COGS
Projected 2013 sales
Revised formula (COGS/sales)
Original formula (COGS/sales)
Adjustment (100% – discount of 2%)
Revised formula
* 98%
Note that we list COGS at 75.46% of sales. The discount (of $42,350 from above)
does not appear on the Income Statement as a separate line, although it will increase
both the gross profit and the profit before taxes by the amount of the discount.2
This change in COGS will also change the amount of inventory on our Balance
Sheet, which we will discuss below.3
Accountants may view this discount as a reduction in COGS or as financing revenue.
ltimately, however, this shows up as an increase in profit before taxes. This footnote is necesU
sary because one of your co-authors is an accountant. For simplicity, we will treat this as a
reduction in COGS.
For 2013, COGS should, in fact, be slightly higher than 75.46%. Why? Because the discount
only applies to purchases in 2013 and after. There was no discount on the opening inventory
(purchased the prior year). For those of you who really want to be accounting rather than
finance professionals, this means: since the opening inventory is $418,000, COGS for 2013
increases by $8,360 ($418,000 * 2%). No self-respecting finance person doing pro formas
would worry about this adjustment. Pro formas are, by definition, not exact but rather estimates of the future, so when building them, we worry about the big changes.
Continuing down our pro forma Income Statement, operating expenses over the
past few years have remained in a narrow band around 15.5%, and so, we project
them to be 15.5%.
Interest expense is more difficult to forecast because it can vary due to either
changes in interest rates or changes in the amount of debt borrowed. In the case of
PIPES, we set the interest rate at a constant 7% for bank debt and 9% for long-term
debt for all years.
The debt level (or amount of debt borrowed) is a Balance Sheet item and normally a plug figure in pro formas. A plug figure means that
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Pagina principale Aviation Security Management
Aviation Security Management
Because of 9/11, there is universal recognition that aviation security is a deadly serious business. Still, around the world today, the practice of aviation security is rooted in a hodgepodge of governmental rules, industry traditions, and local idiosyncrasies. In fact, nearly seven years after the largest single attack involving the air transport industry, there remains no viable framework in place to lift aviation security practice out of the mishmash that currently exists. It is the ambitious intent of Aviation Security Management to change that. The goals of this set are nothing less than to make flying safer, to make transporting goods by air safer, and to lay the foundation for the professionalization of this most important field.
This dynamic set showcases the most current trends, issues, ideas, and practices in aviation security management, especially as the field evolves in the context of globalization and advances in technology. Written by leading academic thinkers, practitioners, and former and current regulators in the field, the three volumes highlight emerging and innovative practices, illustrated with examples from around the world. Volume 1 takes a penetrating look at the overall framework in which aviation security management has taken place in the past and will likely do so in the foreseeable future. It covers the major areas of focus for anyone in the aviation security business, and it provides a basis for educational programs. Volume 2 delves into the emerging issues affecting aviation security managers right now. Volume 3: Perspectives on Aviation Security Management covers the full spectrum of international aviation security-related issues. It will serve as part of the foundation for the next generation of research in the area in both a business and cultural context. Collectively, these volumes represent the state of the art in the field today and constitute an essential resource for anyone practicing, studying, teaching, or researching aviation security management.
Categories: Business\\Management
Editore: Praeger Security International
Series: Praeger Security International
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screening782
aircraft740
passengers691
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baggage349
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faa215
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dhs187
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gao170
airport security161
chronology154
air carriers146
bomb143
prohibited140
explosive137
cargo security136
baggage screening131
enforcement129
explosives128
airlines flight126
homeland security121
international airport120
technologies115
passenger screening114
flight attendants113
hijackings112
searches108
international civil aviation108
airways107
convention106
The British Army 1914-18
Donald Fosten
Bahasa: english
A Field Guide to the Culture Wars: The Battle over Values from the Campaign Trail to the Classroom. Under the auspices of the Leonard E. Greenb
Praeger
Michael McGough
Praeger Security International Advisory Board
Board Cochairs
Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs, School of Public and
International Affairs, University of Georgia (U.S.A.)
Paul Wilkinson, Professor of International Relations and Chairman of the Advisory Board,
Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews (U.K.)
Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic and
International Studies (U.S.A.)
Thérèse Delpech, Director of Strategic Affairs, Atomic Energy Commission, and Senior
Research Fellow, CERI (Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques), Paris (France)
Sir Michael Howard, former Chichele Professor of the History of War and Regis Professor of
Modern History, Oxford University, and Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval
History, Yale University (U.K.)
Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy, USA (Ret.), former Deputy Chief of Staff for
Intelligence, Department of the Army (U.S.A.)
Paul M. Kennedy, J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and Director, International
Security Studies, Yale University (U.S.A.)
Robert J. O’Neill, former Chichele Professor of the History of War, All Souls College, Oxford
University (Australia)
Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, Department of
Government and Politics, University of Maryland (U.S.A.)
Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International (U.S.A.)
V OLUME 1
T HE C ONTEXT
M ANAGEMENT
A VIATION S ECURITY
Andrew R. Thomas
PRAEGER SECURITY INTERNATIONAL
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aviation security management / edited by Andrew R. Thomas.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978–0–313–34652–1 ((set) : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978–0–313–34654–5 ((vol. 1) : alk. paper)
1. Airlines—Security measures. I. Thomas, Andrew R.
HE9776.A95 2008
363.28'76068—dc22
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2008 by Andrew R. Thomas
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008018728
ISBN-13: 978–0–313–34652–1 (set)
978–0–313–34654–5 (vol. 1)
First published in 2008
Praeger Security International, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
Chapter 1 The Early History of Aviation Security Practice
Gary Elphinstone
Chapter 2 Aviation Security Practice and Education:
1968 Onward
Chapter 3 Air Transportation in Evolving Supply Chain Strategies
R. Ray Gehani and G. Tom Gehani
Chapter 4 Tangible and Intangible Benefits of Transportation
Barry E. Prentice
Chapter 5 The Human Element in Aviation Security
Mohammad Karimbocus
Chapter 6 The International Civil Aviation Security Program
Established by ICAO
Moses A. Alemán
Chapter 7 How the Hijackers on September 11 Approached
American Aviation Security and Evaded It
Stephen E. Atkins
Chapter 8 Modern Terrorist Threats to Aviation Security
James J. F. Forest
Aviation Security and the Legal Environment
Mary F. Schiavo
A Chronology of Attacks against Civil Aviation
Financial Condition and Industry Responses Affect Competition
About the Editor and Contributors
Because of September 11, 2001, there is an almost universal recognition that
aviation security is a deadly serious business. Yet, still, today around the world,
the practice of aviation security is rooted in a hodgepodge of governmental
rules, industry traditions, and local idiosyncrasies. In fact, seven years after
the largest single attack involving the air transport industry, there remains
no viable framework in place to lift aviation security practice out of the mishmash that currently exists. The purpose of this three-volume set is to begin to
change that. It is my sincere hope that this work, written from a truly global
point of view, will be the first of many on this most important topic.
The fact that over half of the contributors to this set come from outside of
the United States is no coincidence. Although roughly 40 percent of all air
transport today takes place within the United States, the long-term trend is for
dramatic increases in global system usage, driven by high-growth emerging
markets like China, India, Russia, and Brazil. It is widely estimated that the
total volume of passengers and cargo moved via the international air transport
system will nearly triple in the next 25 years. Although America will remain
the single largest player, the surge will come from emerging markets.
This evolving reality mandates that aviation security management be
viewed not merely on a country-by-country basis but as a global endeavor,
where best practices—regardless of where they originate—are integrated into
a new paradigm that is truly global in scope and scale. With that in mind, Aviation Security Management is intended to serve as a foundation for researchers,
practitioners, and educators around the world who are looking to develop
new knowledge and pass it along to the next generation of aviation security
managers.
Dishearteningly, however, there is only a handful of academic programs—
currently less than a dozen—where someone can actually study transportation security management. The number of schools where an aviation security
management curriculum is available is even smaller. Such a lack of educational opportunities means that unless something is done quickly, the tens of
thousands of new aviation security mangers who will join the profession in the
coming years will not have had the opportunity to learn the best in transportation security management research and practice.
To professionalize the field of transportation security management in general, and aviation security management in particular, several requirements
need to be met. First and foremost, there must be a body of knowledge and
a repertoire of behaviors and skills needed in the practice of the profession,
knowledge, behavior, and skills that are not normally possessed by the nonprofessional. To date, very little of that body of knowledge and repertoire
exists in a clear and cogent format. While many researchers and practitioners
across multiple disciplines have been engaged in their own worthwhile pursuits, there remains a deficiency in the availability of clearinghouses for that
knowledge. Bluntly asked, where does one go to learn about the emerging
ideas, thoughts, technologies, and best practices in transportation and aviation security management?
Clearly there is neither the need nor the desire to provide those who seek
to harm transportation networks with information they can use against us. As
researchers, practitioners, and educators, we must be ever vigilant, striving to
balance the need for open knowledge with the necessary parameters of sensitive information. I am certain we can do both—that is, provide cutting-edge
knowledge to a growing body of well-intentioned researchers and practitioners while maintaining the integrity needed to ultimately make transportation more secure.
Which brings us back to those clearinghouses. This set of volumes and the
recently founded Journal of Transportation Security are intended to be some
of the first building blocks of a much more extensive foundation, which will
ultimately serve to prepare for the arrival of a true profession: transportation
security management.
This first volume takes a penetrating look at the context in which global
aviation security management has been carried out in the past and will likely
be carried out in the coming decades.
In chapter 1, long-time aviation security practitioner Gary Elphinstone
briefly traces aviation security practice from its inception up to the late 1960s.
John Harrison then takes the reader through the evolution of aviation security management and education from 1968 to the present.
R. Ray Gehani and G. Tom Gehani provide readers with a broader understanding of the role air transport plays in the global supply chain. Barry E.
Prentice then takes this to the next level when he explores both the tangible
and the intangible benefits of aviation security measures.
Although technology often seems to dominate many conversations about
the effectiveness of aviation security, Mohammed Karimbocus from Mauritius reminds us that it is the human element that has always dominated the
responses to threats and attacks.
The role of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in global
aviation security management and practice seemingly gets less attention than
it deserves. Moses A. Alemán—who worked with ICAO for many years—
details the international aviation security program established by ICAO.
Historian Stephen E. Atkins revisits the tragic events of September 11,
2001, and answers the critical question as to how the hijackers on September 11 approached American aviation security and were able to evade it. Then,
James J. F. Forest of the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military
Academy fully explores the modern terrorist threats to aviation security in the
post–September 11 era.
Next, Mary F. Schiavo, one of the foremost aviation attorneys in the world
and former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation,
investigates how aviation security and the legal environment interface with
each other. Schiavo then presents the most comprehensive chronology of
attacks against civil aviation around the world yet published.
The appendix contains a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
report that explores the how the September 11 attacks impacted the financial
condition of the air transport industry and how industry responses affected
competition.
Andrew R. Thomas, University of Akron
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The Early History of
Aviation Security Practice
Violence or the threat of violence against aviation traces itself back almost to
the origins of commercial flight. The first known major case of commercial
aviation violence occurred in the skies over Chesterton, Indiana, on October 10,
1933. A United Airlines transcontinental flight bound for Oakland left Newark at 4:30 p.m. and stopped in Cleveland to change pilots. At 6:57 p.m., the
Boeing 247, with four passengers and three flight crew members aboard, left
Cleveland for Chicago and passed over Toledo some 43 minutes later. At 8:45
p.m., the pilot, Richard Tarrant of Oak Park, Illinois, radioed from over North
Liberty, Indiana, that all was well and he was flying at an altitude of 1,500
A little after 9:00 p.m., several residents of this small northwest Indiana town
reported hearing and seeing an explosion in the sky. John Tillotson, who lived
near to where the plane went down, said he was sitting by a window when the
plane exploded and he saw it clearly. He believed that he heard screams and
a woman’s voice shouting, “Help! Help! Oh my God.”1 According to other
witnesses who also observed the first explosion, the plane blew up a second
time upon hitting the ground. All on board perished, including the first flight
attendant to be killed while on duty, Alice Scribner, 26, of Chicago.
It was believed the plane was flying west on scheduled time and in apparently fine condition. Given the nature of the wreckage, the size of the
crash’s debris field, and the testimony of dozens of witnesses, judgments on
the reasons of the crash immediately focused on a bomb. Eventually the U.S.
Department of Commerce aeronautics branch concluded the aircraft was destroyed by an explosive device placed in the cargo hold, a possibly a container
of nitroglycerin attached to a timing device. Although no suspects were ever
charged in the bombing, it was most likely a criminal attack rather than a
politically motivated one.2
Aviation provides a tremendous number of opportunities to individuals or
groups seeking to achieve their violent ends. First criminals and later terrorists realized that aviation gave them access to a wide variety of options when it
came to getting what they wanted. Criminals have traditionally looked upon
aviation as an environment ripe with offerings. Billions of tons of cargo, hundreds of millions of passengers, and the ability to move easily and, more recently, affordably for long distances has lured criminals to use aviation as one
of the most viable means to enrich themselves. For terrorists, aviation has
long served as a target-rich environment offering a place on the world stage
to trumpet their political, social, or religious beliefs. Moreover, we have seen
that air travel provides disruptive passengers with a venue to exhibit a wide
variety of aberrant, abnormal, or abusive behaviors.
The results of the actions of those who commit criminal activities against
aviation range from the petty (as in the case of the theft of a pocketbook or
wallet from a passenger inside an airport terminal) to the marginal (as when
a drunken passenger threatens a gate agent) to the catastrophic (as on September 11, 2001). Consequently, it is the highest goal of aviation security to
lessen the amount of violence perpetrated against the aviation system. Hence,
aviation security can be defined as a combination of measures and human and
material resources intended to safeguard civil aviation against acts of unlawful
interference.
UNDERSTANDING TODAY BY LOOKING BACK
To best understand the current state of aviation security, it is necessary to
look back and see where we have come from. Table 1.1 provides an overview
of how aviation security has evolved:
Evolution of Aviation Security Practice
Defining event
First recorded bombing of
International/national action
Paris Convention 1910
Chicago Convention
IATA founded
ICAO founded
Spate of hijackings by persons
fleeing communism
Evolution of Aviation Security Practice (continued )
First terrorist hijack of
commercial airline—El Al, July
22 to September 1 Spate of
hijackings to Cuba (19)
Continuation of hijackings to
Hijacking of TWA, Swissair, Pan
Am, and BOAC aircraft and
destruction at Dawson Field,
JRA assault at Lod Airport, Israel,
23 killed, 70 wounded Cathay
Pacific aircraft destroyed in
flight, 81 killed
Start of terrorist bombings of
airline offices TWA aircraft
destroyed in flight, 88 killed
Annex 17 to Convention first issued
Lufthansa aircraft hijacked,
incident terminated by
armed assault by German
Committee on Unlawful
Interference established
Formation of IATA Security
Advisory Committee Hague
Montreal Convention Issue of
first edition of ICAO Security
Introduction of passenger
screening, sky marshals, and
other security measures for
international flights
Tokyo Convention
IFALPA action on hostages
Bonn Declaration
AACC (ACI) and IATA establish
the Joint Aviation Security and
Facilitation Working Group
High point in terrorist attacks
against civil aviation.
(105 attacks in three years)
Gulf Air aircraft destroyed in
flight, 112 killed
(continued )
Air India Flight 182 aircraft
destroyed in flight, 329 killed
TWA Flight 847 hijacked,
Lebanon Simultaneous
terrorist attacks at Rome and
Vienna airports
Ad hoc group of experts on
aviation security met in August to
rewrite Annex 17. (Issued in May
1986) Baggage reconciliation
introduced on international
flights.
FAC was established and
assumed responsibility for
implementation of airport
100% screening of domestic
flights introduced in Australia.
First meeting of ICAO Aviation
Security Panel (replaced
Interference)
Korean Airlines Flight 858
Kuwait Airways Flight 422
hijacked—16 days duration
Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed
over Lockerbie, Scotland—269
people killed
UTA Flight 772 destroyed in
flight—171 people killed
Avianca Airlines aircraft
destroyed in flight over
Singapore Airlines 737 hijacked
Truck bombing of World Trade
Center Complex in NYC
Increased R&D effort to detect
explosives and harden aircraft
and containers
Presidents Commission on Aviation
Security & Terrorism.
Baggage reconciliation introduced
Convention on the Marking of
Plastic Explosives
Fifth edition of Annex 17 effective
(43 standards)
IRA Mortar attack on
Heathrow Airport, UK
Air France hijacked by
Algerian extremists—French
commandos terminated
incident in Marseille
The Early History of Aviation Security Practice
Operation Bojinka foiled—Al
Qaeda plot to attack multiple
U.S. aircraft and fly one into
CIA headquarters
Ethiopian Airlines B767 hijacked
and crashed into sea when
aircraft ran out of fuel—123
people killed Explosion aboard
TWA Flight 800—All passengers and crew killed
Fifth edition of ICAO Security
Manual issued Gore Commission
established by U.S. president
Sixth edition of Annex 17 effective
Checked baggage screening to be
introduced at international airports
As illustrated, the evolution of aviation security has been marked by two
streams that are intertwined one with another: defining events and international and national action. The chapters and appendices in this set of volumes
will detail many of the defining events and the actions taken by international
and national actors. I’d like to highlight just some of the roots of aviation
security leading up to the critical year of 1970.
Paris 1910: The First International Aviation
With the advent of a machine that could cross national borders, sovereign
interests were aroused and decisions were taken by governments in these
early days in order to establish a legal framework. The genesis of this awakening to the significance of the airplane occurred in France in 1908, which
is where the legal structure of civil aviation begins. The French government
was increasingly concerned by the number of flights penetrating French
sovereign airspace. They called for a conference of representatives of 21
European nations to discuss the future regulation of air transport. Eighteen
nations accepted the invitation and the conference was held during May and
June of 1910.
The conference focused on the legal status of airspace and the authority
of nations to regulate the movement of aircraft over land and water. The
outcome was that of the 45 articles placed before the committee, 43 articles
and 2 annexes (supplements) were accepted. The Paris Convention also authorized the creation of the Paris-based International Commission for Air
Navigation (ICAN). ICAN played an essential role as a focal point for international aviation and soon extended its sphere of influence beyond the boundaries of Europe. ICAN operated until World War II and was to become the
forerunner of ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization).
The Chicago Convention of 1944
During and after World War II, aircraft design and capabilities were changing rapidly, and at the same time a vast network of passenger and freight
movement was being established. However, there were many problems, both
political and technical, to which solutions had to be found in order to benefit
and support the postwar environment.
This development of the airplane into a major form of transport brought
with it huge problems. For instance, there was the question of commercial
rights: what arrangements would be made for airlines of one country to fly
into the territories of another? The need for safety and regularity required the
building of airports. How would they be constituted? What language would
be the common one for the industry? How about the establishment of weather
reporting systems and operational standards? These and countless other questions were far beyond the capabilities of individual governments to solve.
As they planned for peace after World War II, many countries came to
believe that additional measures of control needed to be installed in the interests of safety. Confidential discussions were held in the United States on the
future role of civil aviation.
The positions of the three major powers at a conference in 1943 were difficult to reconcile; The United States stood alone as the global aviation leader,
while Russia and Great Britain were far behind. The United States was undamaged by the war, had extensive experience in logistical air transport operations, and possessed a massive aircraft fleet. It was manufacturing nearly all
the world’s aircraft and had a huge fleet of DC-3s at its disposal. There was
considerable potential to dominate postwar civil aviation.
In September of 1944, Vice President Henry Wallace, on behalf of President Roosevelt, invited 55 nations to a conference in Chicago to discuss the
future of postwar civil aviation. For more than five weeks, the delegates considered the many challenges of international civil aviation, and ultimately
accepted what is known as the Chicago Convention on International Civil
Aviation. The Chicago Convention provided the beginning of standardization
in aviation throughout the world in such areas as communications for long air
routes, airport infrastructures, air navigation, and air traffic control. In addition, another charter was adopted: it was to become the idea of aviation
security and was titled “The Prevention of Unlawful Interference to Civil
Aviation.”
The Birth of Aviation Security
In the early 1960s, due to a spate of hijackings of aircrafts by citizens seeking to flee Communist oppression, the ICAO Council’s legal committee was
directed to develop international conventions to deal with unlawful interference with civil aviation, which resulted in the birth of aviation security at
the Tokyo Convention. The outcome was agreement on theapplication of
the charter adopted at the Chicago Convention to offenses committed by a
person who is on board an aircraft. Clearly, this was only one step toward the
broader goal of establishing aviation security practices. Still, it was a start.
In September 1970, two related events triggered the call for an international,
coordinated aviation security program. After hijacking two flights—involving
a British Airways and a TWA aircraft—members of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine ordered the planes flown to an abandoned World War II
airport. The hijackers released the passengers and then blew up both planes.
The same group had carried out a similar attack on a Pan Am 747 in Cairo a
few days earlier. International aviation would never be the same again.
Aviation is one of the world’s most important businesses. The growth of the
industry over the past decades has made it one of the engines for the expansion of the global economy. The aviation industry has driven a substantial
part of the economic and social integration that has brought much of the
world closer. By moving billions of passengers and billions of tons of cargo
each year, the industry has changed the way of life of most human beings
on this planet. Distance is now often measured in hours rather than weeks
or months. New York to Hong Kong takes 13 hours by air—35 days by sea.
Manufactured goods produced in Chicago can be transported to distributors
in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, within 48 hours. The United Parcel Service
(UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) can send an envelope from Cleveland
to Tashkent in 72 hours. The aviation industry has changed forever the way
many human beings look at the world around them.
An emphasis on airline security continues to be fundamental to a healthy
global civil aviation system. The growth in air travel of passengers and freight
is dependent upon
• an adequate and efficient infrastructure with which to support airport operations
without a harmful impact on the environment;
• speedy and efficient handling of passengers’ baggage and freight at departure,
transit/transfer, and arrival points; and
• a safe and secure environment.
It is the responsibility of anyone associated with the aviation industry to
contribute to the safety and security of its operations, not just dedicated aviation security professionals.
1. Andrew R. Thomas, Aviation Insecurity: The New Challenges of Air Travel
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2003), 167.
Aviation Security Practice and
Education: 1968 Onward
Terrorism involving aviation has been going on for many years. The most
dramatic terrorist attacks in history were those conducted by al Qaeda on
September 11, 2001. Civil aviation is intimately involved in the metamorphosis of groups with specific and identifiable objectives—demands for liberation
from occupation or a separate homeland—to transnational groups with almost
no known objectives. One can trace the development of terrorism as a phenomenon as well as its tactical development by studying its interaction with
international civil aviation. Even as terrorism moves through an organizational
evolution, from highly structured organizations to self-generated and operationalized cells, such as those that planned an attack against Fort Dix in New
Jersey, plotted against John F. Kennedy Airport ( JFK), and attempted to bring
liquid explosives aboard a plane in the United Kingdom, the focus of terrorists
remains on aviation.
The aviation sector has, for years, been involved in cross-border criminality, which also includes terrorism. Transnational criminal organizations
use the aviation system to transport contraband and, increasingly, people
across the globe. Cocaine smugglers have used the FedEx air delivery system
to transport their products across the United States, and narcotics smugglers
from Guyana have used U.S. Mail pouches to smuggle millions of dollars
worth of cocaine into the United States through JFK. Organized gangs of
human smugglers routinely attempt to use the aviation system to move people
into North America and Europe. Kenyans desperate to flee their country have
been found stowed away in the wheel wells of British Airways flights, arriving
frozen to death at Heathrow.
This chapter will attempt to provide an evaluation of the operational environment that the civil aviation industry faces due to crime and terrorism.
The chapter will examine the traditional responses to crime and terrorism
and will attempt to raise a significant and often overlooked area in security,
that is, education. The argument is that security education is reactive and
lacks a comprehensive approach that is targeted at addressing the current
and evolving threat and risk environment. Done well, however, it is capable of creating a professional cadre of motivated line staff and management
THREAT VERSUS RISK
One of the ironies facing the aviation sector is that while the industry is
advanced in evaluating economic risks in its decision making and in taking the
necessary steps to manage those risks, it is still focused on responding to security threats and appears to have great difficulty in developing and articulating
its response. In most of the world, the service providers, particularly the carriers, are no longer responsible for security. Nevertheless, the industry bears
the direct and indirect costs both of the implementation of security measures
and of the failures that occur if, despite such measures, criminals and terrorists still manage to carry out their activities.
The suggestion here is that there needs to be a better system of evaluating
and responding to risk. The first element in this approach is to understand
what threat means. Threat is an exploitable vulnerability. When one examines the range of potential targets that modern aviation offers to a perspective terrorist, the threat appears enormous and unmanageable. The theft and
counterfeiting of travel documents, the attacks on land and air targets, and
the theft of equipment, just to name a few of the problems, indicate that
there are weaknesses and potential gaps that terrorists can exploit. And as
the Irish Republican Army (IRA) famously stated to British authorities, “We
have to be lucky once; you have to be lucky all the time.” So how does a
society protect everything it values? What is needed here is to shift from
simply responding to the threat and move to examining the situation from a
risk perspective.
There are many ways of examining risk, but the two critical elements are
the probability of a given vulnerability being exploited and the consequences
of that exploitation. The simple process of evaluating these two elements helps
to order the environment and allows limited resources to be deployed optimally. One can further refine the evaluation model by applying the threat
structure to terrorist groups. Evaluating the threat posed by any given group
rests on knowledge in three areas: the intentions of a given group, its ability
to act on these intentions, and the operational environment involved. This additional step is critical to assessing the threat and risk environment; without it,
the security community will remain focused on the potential threat and never
grasp the actual threat and its accompanying risk. While the primary focus of
security-related information has been on the users of the aviation system, more
attention needs to be given to those working within the system. The terrorist
Aviation Security Practice and Education
plot against JFK International Airport and the April 2004 arrest at JFK of
25 cargo and baggage handlers working for a Guyana-based cocaine smuggling ring1 show that the threat comes from within as well as outside. One
critical element of security is the ability to conduct rapid and ongoing security
checks on staff working in all areas of aviation. This is a necessary first step in
protecting carriers’ national interests, but it has historically been blocked by
labor interests. It would seem that a reasonable compromise can be reached
that protects both the employees and the users of the aviation system.
Critically, this is one area where the aviation industry is leading the government. Aviation has long understood the aforementioned model, and most
of the security courses offered to the industry both before and after September 11, 2001, include threat and risk evaluation components.
THREATS TO VARIOUS SEGMENTS OF
THE AVIATION INDUSTRY
The above discussion raises a question: what are the threats to aviation? Given
the size and complexity of the system, there is no simple answer. The two broad
categories of aviation are the landside and airside categories, both of which will
be addressed in this section. From the terrorist perspective, the landside segment offers a large and relatively untapped operational environment. Only four
notable attacks have taken place against landside aviation: the Japanese Red
Army attack on Lod Airport in 1972, the Abu Nidal attack on the Rome and
Vienna airports in 1985, the Tamil Tigers’ attack on Colombo Airport in 2001,
and the Glasgow attack in July 2007. One can argue that the more traditional
terrorist organizations, such as those mentioned above, have wanted to limit
casualties and retain a moral legitimacy, and harming large numbers of innocent passengers would undermine both objectives. New terrorist groups have
none of these limitations, so it remains unclear as to why more landside attacks
have not yet occurred. Criminal activity is more common on the landside. This
includes smuggling, theft, and other activities directly related to aviation, but
also ancillary activities such as identity theft from travel documents or crime in
airport-based hotels. This issue becomes more pressing as the industry moves
to wireless travel, as envisioned by some Japanese airports.
Access control is a critical issue for security. This includes access not only
to secure areas but to the perimeter fencing as well. There are many countries where basic security is lacking or in poor repair, allowing unauthorized
persons to gain easy access to aircraft as stowaways. While there is currently
no evidence to suggest that terrorists are exploiting this weakness, the possibility of such exploitation exists. The current high-tech solutions offered by
biometrics and other forms of technology are encouraging.
But the best way to protect aviation also involves the weakest and least
developed area, that is, people. The need for trained and motivated staff
members who are encouraged and supported in their efforts to protect
civil aviation is the most vital component. All of the profiling and scanning
equipment will not stop a determined attacker if the security personnel are
inattentive or corrupt. This is exactly what occurred in the suicide bombings
targeting Russian aviation in August 2004. While the threat is potentially
high, the risk posed by terrorist attacks on the landside remains, with minor
exceptions, quite low. The criminal threat is higher, but the risk is low because criminal interference with landside aviation is marginal.
The aviation industry, landside and airside, encompasses four components.
The first is commercial civil passenger aviation, including international civil
aviation, which is the primary focus of this chapter. The threat in this category
remains high, as its impact on the entire civil aviation industry is high. The
second component is military and other government-related aviation. Aircraft
within this component are also targets of terrorists. For example, al Qaeda
tried to shoot down a U.S. military cargo aircraft in Saudi Arabia in 1995.2
But actions against such official aircraft do not usually generate the publicity
that assaults on passenger aviation do, so while the threat in combat zones is
high, it remains low outside of these zones. The third component is cargo
aircraft. The threat to cargo aviation is economically important but this area
has never been explicitly targeted. The 2003 attempt to shoot down a DHL
aircraft in Baghdad was the choice of a target of opportunity, as few passenger
aircraft serve Iraq.3 Although al Qaeda has allegedly been interested in hijacking a cargo aircraft, to date there has been no publicly disclosed evidence of
such an attempt. As such, threats involving cargo security present a low level
of threat and a low risk.
The fourth component is general aviation, which includes private, corporate, charter, and agricultural aviation, and all other types of aviation not
mentioned above. This is a component that terrorists have largely ignored.
Al Qaeda has been interested in crop dusters as a means of dispersing chemical or biological weapons and it may have plotted to attack the U.S. Embassy
in Paris4 by using a suicide helicopter attack and to attack North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) shipping in the Straits of Gibraltar, but these
are exceptions to the rule. Additionally, given the limited damage caused by
these aircraft, such as the private aircraft that crashed accidentally into an
apartment building in New York City, the threat and risk remain low.
The criminal exploitation of aviation is common across all four categories. The threat posed to the system is twofold: first, the use of aviation to
transport contraband and humans illegally from one country to another, and
second, the theft of goods, as well as parts, in transit. Both are a growing issue
of concern for the industry, but as the commercial threat to the industry is
much less severe than the political threats posed by terrorists, the focus of this
chapter will be on the latter.
It is critical to note that any security measure must balance not just individual rights and convenience but also criminal and terrorist activity. Attempts to
respond to the terrorist threat alone, to the exclusion of counter-criminal efforts, are often self-defeating. Any facility that is well maintained and policed
will help to dissuade terrorists from using it as a point of attack. Terrorists and
criminals share much of their methodology; thus, having a well-trained, alert,
and active staff and police presence is the best deterrent.
Just as there are two broad categories in the operational environment (that
is, landside and airside), there are two general categories of training: these are
compliance and general management. The first category is designed to meet
ICAO or other national requirements for security staff. It most commonly
involves the line staff responsible for security, such as screeners, but ongoing
educational requirements are common for both line and management staff.
General management training is defined as involving courses that while useful
are not specific to the security or aviation industry. These are courses that are
delivered across industries, including courses involving motivational skill or
goal development. There is no argument that these skills are critical to managers, but they are not sufficient to provide increased security skills.
Most current training on countermeasures is inadequate in its efforts to
assist security staff in detecting suspicious behavior irrespective of the motivation for such behavior. The critical weakness in the current configuration
is that the focus remains on security staff and cabin crews. Carriers such as
Singapore Air attempt to broaden the exposure through programs such as its
annual Safety and Security Week. This program brings together aircrews, airport staff, security personnel, and nonsecurity headquarters staff to be briefed
on all aspects of safety and security.5 This model is a good starting point for
assisting staff in their training, but a wider, sustained effort is needed.
THE THREE PHASES OF THE POLITICAL THREAT
The terrorist threat to international civil aviation has gone through three
phases during the past 80 years. The first, 1948 to 1968, was characterized by
flight from persecution or prosecution. The second, 1968 to 1994, was political. The third began in 1994 and is ongoing—it involves the use of aircraft
as weapons or battlegrounds. Each has been marked by a singular, defining
event but has involved aspects of the other stages. Each stage has also elicited
a response that in many cases has profoundly changed civil aviation.
The first phase, the flight from persecution or prosecution (1948 to early
1968), involved people attempting to leave their home countries who hijacked
aircraft for fast and convenient escapes. The first such hijacking occurred on
April 6, 1948, when the three crew members (including the pilot) and 21 of
the 26 passengers hijacked a Ceskoslovenske Aerolinie (CSA) internal flight
from Prague to Bratislava and landed in the U.S. Occupation Zone in Munich.
All of the hijackers were seeking political asylum.6 This type of escape was
appealing to the hijackers because many of them were former military pilots.
Also, the defectors were greeted as heroes who had made a dramatic dash for
freedom. Even when a Soviet pilot was killed resisting the taking over of a
flight, few in the West viewed this as a criminal act. From 1948 through the
late 1950s, asylum was a fairly common goal (20 out of 37 hijackings).7 The
persecution or prosecution phase waned from the late 1950s as jet aircraft use
became more widespread and the focus shifted from Eastern Europe to the
United States. In the industry’s view, there was no need for enhanced security
as jets were far too difficult to control without experience. Thus, there was a
general perception that hijackings would gradually decline.
The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro, ousted the pro-U.S. dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in January 1959, and Castro began to consolidate his
hold on power. A hijacker “highway” between the United States and the island
of Cuba soon appeared. Cubans who had been associated with the Batista
regime or disliked the drift toward Communism devised ways to get to the
United States, just 90 miles away. From 1960 to 1969, 49 out of a worldwide
total of 91 hijackings or attempted hijackings involved escapes from Cuba to
the United States.8 Beginning in 1961, some of the traffic went in the opposite direction—people wishing to make a quick exit from U.S. jurisdiction
(criminals, the mentally unbalanced, and some self-described revolutionaries)
escaped to Cuba. Almost all ended up serving time in Cuban jails, although a
few “revolutionaries” managed to escape that fate.
There may have been political motives for escaping from Eastern Europe or
Cuba, but aircraft were not viewed as the means of delivering a political message. There were no efforts to use the aircraft as anything other than getaway
vehicles; individuals fleeing Communist countries were showing their desire
to flee from a repressive system, but they were not seizing aircraft to call
attention to the broader political questions. Those fleeing to Cuba were attempting to escape justice, or in the case of homesick Cubans, to return home;
they had no broader political agenda. People still use aircraft as a means of
escape: several hijackings attempted in China during early 2003 were initiated
by people trying to reach Taiwan.
Nevertheless, due to hijackings, security became a concern for civil aviation
for the first time. The now common passenger screening machines, passenger
profiling, and armed police at airports were all introduced as a result of this
phase. Industry training followed later. The international community began
rapidly passing conventions requiring specific security procedures. States, and
the industry, began training for compliance rather than risk, an understandable approach given the rapidly developing situation.
Phase two, beginning in 1968, wedded politics and interference with international civil aviation.9 The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) hijacked Israeli state airline El Al Flight 426, bound for Tel Aviv from
Rome, on July 23. The three hijackers diverted the Boeing 707 and its 38 passengers and 10 crew members to Algiers. For some of the victims, the ordeal
lasted five weeks, the longest hijacking on record. Many terrorism experts date
the age of modern terrorism from this incident. The PFLP also introduced
mass hijackings as a tactic when, from September 6 to 12, 1970, the PFLP and
its allies hijacked four aircraft, a total of 577 passengers, and 39 crew members.
Only two of the four aircraft arrived at the PFLP-occupied Dawson Field in
Jordan (a former British military field, which gave its name to the hijacking
incident). The hijackers demanded that the Swiss, German, United Kingdom,
and Israeli governments release the Arabs they were holding. The hijacking
ended with the destruction of three aircraft (two in Jordan and one that landed
in Egypt), but no passengers were lost. During this incident, the PFLP had attempted to hijack an El Al plane departing from Amsterdam but was foiled by
an in-flight security officer. The flight landed safely in London.10
Hijackings were the most popular tactic for many individuals. Between
1967 amd 2004 there were nearly 1,000 airline hijackings. It is estimated that
approximately 85 percent were carried out for political purposes. The remainder were conducted by terrorists.11 The international civil aviation regime
began to respond to the menace, deploying the so-called X-ray machines, for
example. That measure was only partially effective, as it foiled an average of
only about 19 percent of the terrorist hijackings at the time.12 But it did cause
the terrorists to switch to other tactics.
Terrorists switched from hijackings to sabotage bombing, partially as a result of increased security. Terrorists during this phase were looking for the
drama of armed propaganda, while limiting the risk of casualties. But sabotage bombings presented a greater risk for the terrorists because of the large
numbers of casualties created by such attacks.13 Nevertheless, such tactics are
still frequently used to convey a message, usually retaliatory. The bombing
of Pan Am Flight 103 was one such example; it was targeted in response to
U.S. raids on the Libyan military and terrorist infrastructure. It was not intended to “instruct” the public; no official claim of responsibility was made.
The United States did not require a claim of responsibility to know where
responsibility lay. This attack also illustrates the risks inherent in such operations. Because the aircraft exploded over land, rather than over the ocean as
planned, it provided gruesome images that enraged the public. Any intended
message was drowned out by the grief and cries for retaliation. The image
of the nose section of the Boeing 747 resting in a Scottish field became the
symbol of international terrorism until September 11, 2001.
It is critical to remember that casualty figures are not vital to the terrorists; in fact, the fewer the better. The propaganda value of an attack is more
important than the lives lost.
The evolving threat caused the security industry to evolve as well. The
security tactics deployed for the first phase threat were adapted, and thus passenger profiling, screening, and eventually baggage reconciliation became
standard practice rather than being targeted to specific flights. The provision
of security became a permanent fixture, requiring a more formal training and
career path for staff. Compliance training continued to be the norm, but the
security industry began to adopt the approach of the bourgeoning management training industry. Management training was imported directly into security training. Some of the lessons learned from this type of training are no
doubt valuable, but as most of the instruction was conducted by people who
were not security specialists, it was of questionable security value.
The third phase, which began in 1994 and is ongoing, is characterized by
the use of aircraft not as means of delivering a message but as instruments with
which to inflict massive casualities. Terrorism experts had begun to detect a
trend in the late 1980s toward an extremist interpretation of religion by terrorist groups. Islamist groups’ interpretations are most widely studied and viewed
as dangerous, but extremist violence also emerged in the Sikh, Christian,
Jewish, and Hindu religions, as well as in so-called new religions known as
cults. While much of the cult violence was directed inward,14 with the notable
exception of Aum Shinrikyo,15 traditional religions directed violence outward.
This externally focused violence sought to justify extreme violence against
non-coreligionists through the demonization of “the other” and to rationalize
wanton destruction by identifying violence as a sacred duty.
International civil aviation concerns about religiously motivated terrorism
have characterized phase three. On December 24, 1994, Air France Flight 8969
bound for Paris from Algiers was hijacked by the Algerian terrorist organization, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Four hijackers boarded the aircraft disguised as Air Algerie security staff.16 Authorities delayed the departure but were
intimidated into giving the go-ahead when two of the 227 persons on board met
their deaths at the hands of the hijackers. The French government decided not
to allow the aircraft to approach Paris because its consulate in Oran, Algeria,
had received an intelligence warning that the hijackers intended to blow up the
aircraft over the French capital.17 The flight crew convinced the hijackers that
refueling in Marseille was a must. After the aircraft touched down, hours of
fruitless negotiations ensued, whereupon the terrorists demanded fuel or they
would destroy the aircraft. French Special Forces (GIGN) stormed the aircraft
and, after a 25-minute fire fight, rescued the 161 remaining passengers (some
had been released during the negotiations) and three members of the flight
crew.18 The melee ended with the death of the hijackers; nine GIGN commandos were injured, some seriously. The terrorists had not revealed their exact
target, but it was Paris, and the aircraft was their weapon. This change in tactics
ushered in a new era for international civil aviation. No longer was civil aviation
a political stage for terrorists; it was their weapon and battleground.
The GIA, a radical Islamic terrorist organization, had been attempting to
establish an Islamic state in Algeria. Its brutal tactics contributed to more than
100,000 deaths during the civil war fought there throughout the 1990s. France
was a particular target because of its support for the military government that
denied the radicals an election victory in 1991. The suicide hijacking was the
GIA’s revenge. Using civil aviation as an instrument of revenge is not new;
using it to target an entire city is.
Al Qaeda is in a class by itself in conceiving, and in some cases executing, terrorist spectaculars. The first was Ramzi Yousef’s attack on New York’s
World Trade Center in February 1993. Yousef and his coconspirators had
planned to topple one tower into the other, potentially causing 250,000 casualties. The 1993 incident killed six and wounded thousands. The failure of the
ground-based attack led the cell to consider an aviation attack.
The most audacious plan, Operation Bojinka, was designed by Khalid Sheik
Mohamed, Yousef’s uncle, who was to be the mastermind of the September 11,
2001, operations. Yousef and five coconspirators planned to place bombs on
11 or 12 U.S. transpacific carriers during a 48-hour period, in a series of
events that would have killed as many as 5,000 people.19 The explosive was
to have been liquid nitrogen concealed in contact solution bottles that, in
the opinion of most experts, not even the most highly skilled and motivated
security screener would have been able to detect. It was to have been part of
a larger operation that included an aviation suicide attack against the Central
Intelligence Agency headquarters. It remains unclear whether the operation
was to have involved a general aviation aircraft, such as the one that was flown
into the White House in February 1993 by a man (not a terrorist) committing
suicide, or an attack similar to those that were to occur on September 11.20
The plot was never brought to fruition due to a fire mishap in the apartment
where Yousef was staying in Manila, and he was subsequently captured.
Al Qaeda demonstrated its creativity on September 11 when its operatives
turned four jumbo jets into a quartet of poor-man’s cruise missiles. These
events, and the case of Richard Reid and the missile attack in Mombasa,
Kenya, were designed to inflict enormous casualties, any political message
aside. The perpetrators’ willingness—even eagerness—to die makes phase
three of the threat the most dangerous and certainly the most difficult to
defend against.
While terrorists transitioned from phase two to phase three, the security
industry did not. The intelligence and security services missed the significance of the emergence of religious terrorism and its impact on international
civil aviation. Aviation was no longer simply a stage for violent political theater; aircraft were now being used as weapons. This would appear to require
a total reexamination of existing security assumptions and their related training and implementation. Sadly, no one was aware of the requirement. The
existing training infrastructure had grown stale. This is in part due to the
reliance either on retired security professionals who had aging anecdotes
but little teaching ability or on academics who may have been able to teach
but were unable to translate the material into useful information for security
professionals at any management level. At the time when management and
academia needed to be working together, they failed to develop the most basic
working relationship.
One consequence was the aviation industry’s continuing reliance on the government or for-profit security consultants for both critical information and
training. While most of the commercial providers were disseminating valid
information, some provided exaggerated or misleading information to provide
a basis for either their own product or that of a strategic partner. Many of
the providers reveled in the cult of knowledge, telling the industry that only
professionals with access to classified information could provide the necessary
current intelligence and training materials. What the aviation industry needed
to know was that 90 to 95 percent of all information on terrorism is available
through open sources. The industry does not need to invest in its own research
and analysis; it can utilize the existing academic infrastructure. An additional
benefit is that in many cases academics can provide training materials and in
some cases trainers for at least some aspects of the course. There has been
some positive movement in this direction, but memories are long, and the past
relationship in training has not been forgotten by any party.
THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The civil aviation system was one of the earliest international systems. The
rapid spread of this industry in the last few decades is a tribute to the growth
in both business and leisure spending. This growth has stretched the international civil aviation system to its limits in many areas, security training being
one. The proliferation of training providers has stretched the quality, without
decreasing the price of the services available. Even in the developed world,
where money and resources are plentiful, training costs are an issue. This
situation is even more acute in the emerging aviation markets of Asia and
Africa. Resource limitations and inadequate technical capacity present an easy
opportunity for terrorists to enter the system to pursue their nefarious ends.
Many nations have attempted to address this concern by working with the
developing markets to address the frontline security weaknesses. Funding is
available for fencing, X-ray machines, and staff to reduce these weaknesses.
The critical weakness remains the lack of qualified middle and senior managers able to provide managerial, let alone critical, leadership and strategic
One effort to address this is an innovative training course provided by the
Singapore Air Transport Services (SATS). A joint effort between the Singapore government and SATS, the program brings promotable middle and
senior managers to Singapore for two weeks of intensive security training.
The program is premised on the fact that “many nations helped Singapore
to develop. Singapore remembers this and wants to return the assistance.”21
The critical component of this program is the recognition that there must be
a balance between technical and human solutions to security and that the balance requires a different approach to management. Much of the developing
world cannot afford or support the widespread use of technology. With the
availability of plentiful low-cost labor there is a viable alternative. This does,
however, place an additional burden on management.
Technology has many well-understood advantages and limitations. In a
management context, it is supposed to improve efficiency while reducing
staff numbers. This, among other issues, reduces the need to recruit, train,
motivate, and retain large staffs. The equipment needs to be maintained, a
difficult issue no doubt, but the challenge of managing a staff with limited
management experience is reduced. The SATS program is important for its
capacity-building efforts, as well as for instilling the need for a flexible, layered approach to security.
Despite the laudable efforts mentioned above, there is still a severe gap in
training for security staff at all levels. In the past, the threat and risk environment
developed at a slower rate, permitting training to evolve. This meant that practical work experience counted more heavily than formal training. The industry
did not take advantage of this slower evolution, but it had the potential to blend
experience with proactive training in order to remain ahead of the threats. The
far more rapid developments and evolution in the current phase of terrorism
have negated this potential advantage and placed a premium on strategic thinking rather than tactical implementation—exactly what the current training will
not achieve.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The problems described above need to be addressed at three levels: strategic, operational, and tactical. Each has a corresponding training component
that will be addressed below. For the training level, the critical component
is to develop a comprehensive program that provides the skills necessary for
compliance training, management training, and more comprehensive professional training.
The strategic level involves a battle of ideas. In general terms, we are not
even engaged in this issue in any serious or sustained manner. While the international aviation system cannot, or should not, be involved in this directly,
it can and must understand what the change in terrorism has meant and how
it will impact its operations.
• A sustained research effort by the industry to understand the trends in transnational
threats and how they will impact its operations
• Industry investment in nontechnical research in order to support technical security
The social science research mentioned above is essential to assist both an
understanding of terrorism and also the operational approach needed to
counter the threat and mitigate the risk posed by terrorists. The enormous
lead time and expenditure required to develop and deploy technology often
means that it becomes redundant due to a shift in terrorist tactics. By engaging with the existing threat research infrastructure, we can avoid this continuing problem.
This is most appropriate for senior managers. They need to be able to think
about the trends across their industry, a skill they have developed quite well in
the business sense. However, they need to apply this skill in wider areas of society that will impact the industry, and this is something they currently do not
do as well, if at all. They need to understand the strengths and limitations of
the policy community and the strengths and weaknesses of their industry, and
how they can cooperate to achieve similar goals. Training courses have to be
designed to get senior management to think strategically, manage knowledge,
and gain an understanding of where to go for analysis.
The second level of analysis of terrorism is the operational level. This refers not only to the operations of the organized groups, such as al Qaeda,
Hamas, Islamic Jihad (IJ), and others, but also to the response to these groups.
The response community is doing exceptionally well in this area. Organized
groups are finding their operational environment heavily restricted. There
has been similar success with regard to the aviation environment. The commitment to a multilayered approach to such steps as an increase in access
control, the introduction of air marshals, and the provision of locked cockpit
doors is positive. But the international community needs to take a more active
role in the critical area of standards and information sharing.
• ICAO needs to establish basic standards for such items as cargo screening, document security, and other in-flight issues.
• ICAO needs to have enforcement power, which can and should include economic
incentives for meeting required standards and recommended practices.
• ICAO and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) should establish a
joint intelligence and security center ( JISC).
The international community is attempting to address the first issue, but
there are powerful domestic forces that hinder these efforts. There are, for
example, technology requirements for screening systems that are designed
not to enhance security but to protect domestic manufacturers from competition. This is understandable but not acceptable. ICAO member states can
currently opt out of security requirements by simply informing the ICAO
that they are doing so, but they are not required to disclose which or how
many requirements they are not following, how long they intend to be out of
compliance, and if they have any intention to regain their former status. This
ability is understandable, as states do not want to publicly disclose their vulnerabilities. Even restricting the information to member states is of limited
value, given some of the connections member states have to terrorist groups.
The difficulty is that carriers and passengers are not aware of the risk they face
and are thus not able to make informed business and travel decisions.
One way to provide enforcement is to work with the insurance industry to
provide adjustable rates for carriers and airports that are at various levels of
compliance. Those in full compliance could get a reduction in insurance premiums, as long as they spend the savings on security. One can look at funding
security through mechanisms such as infrastructure bonds as well.
The best way to defeat an asymmetric opponent is through information
sharing. The international aviation community can provide an example
through merging the efforts of ICAO and IATA in creating a joint security
and intelligence center. This can leverage the laudable security efforts of both
organizations with a central repository for the collection of information relating to terrorist and criminal interference with civil aviation. This will offer
the industry the opportunity to have both a tactical and strategic analysis capability addressing industry-specific needs. The individuals involved at this
level are in middle management, and they need to have the skills to be not
only security managers but potential leaders. Thus, they need to know not
only the elements of their job but also the elements of broader security issues. Courses should include analysis, introduction to intelligence, threat and
risk calculation, terrorist operations, and perhaps a “red teaming” module.
These are all skills designed to help them to see various aspects of their job,
understand the strengths and limitations of intelligence, and understand how
to think about the field, but even more importantly, understand how the opposition is thinking.
The final level of analysis is the tactical level. This means dealing with
the increasing threat presented by self-organized, self-radicalized, and selfoperationalized cells, illustrated by the recent plots against Fort Dix and
JFK. The general record against this threat is mixed. There are far more of
these cells than of the larger groups, so the threat is greater, but the risk they
pose is substantially less, as they are more limited in their access to funding
and training and so their skills are reduced. They are more likely to conduct
London– or Madrid–style operations rather than September 11–style operations. They still pose a potential threat to aviation, as it is relatively simple to
hijack an aircraft, though rather more complicated to introduce an explosive
device. As this trend is still emerging, the industry can use the breathing space
to address existing weaknesses and develop a coherent, proactive strategy to
deal with current and emerging threats.
• Develop and implement a more coherent tactical response.
• Provide regular and realistic training.
• Assist stakeholders in developing economically viable responses across the system.
The two critical elements in the first recommendation are staff and training.
The industry must be involved again in its own security. This may require the
recruitment and training of the proper staff. It also requires that all staff members in the industry recognize their role in security and understand that they
are empowered to act on their concerns. Staff must understand the operational
environment and what can easily be turned into a defensive tool in the event
of an incident. For example, if there is an attempt to hijack an aircraft, the
cabin crew must recognize that they have a nonlethal weapon readily available
to disrupt an attacker—coffee, ideally hot. Martial arts and other self-defense
courses are useful, but unless the staff members attend regular sessions in the
gym, the odds that a martial arts approach would work are limited. Using coffee or a food cart is much more effective in the disruption of an operation.
The examples above show why training is important. The understanding
of how an event will take place and how to respond is not intuitive, but it can
be learned. It is believed that the first five to seven seconds in a hostage or
other type of attack are the most critical. How an individual responds within
that time frame may determine the outcome for both the individual and all
involved.
Any security program must be economically viable. This seems to be
common sense, but frequently it is not seen as such. As can be illustrated
by the debate over protection against Man Portable Air Defense Systems
(MANPADS), the economic cost can seem prohibitive when looked at from a
threat and risk assessment perspective at least on the surface.
Just as important as the economic viability is the fact that any security policy
must include input from the individuals who are going to have to implement
it. They are the ones who will have to be able to understand the operational
environment and the best and most efficient way to implement a new policy,
as well as deal with the daily consequences of each new initiative.
This involves the line-supervisor or junior manager level. Training for
them is very compliance oriented. They need to learn how to perform spot
surveillance and to learn basic compliance and other rudimentary management skills. Much of this is already being accomplished in training, but unless
it serves as a basic building block for a continuing career path, the training is
divorced from the essential objective—creating a professional security staff.
Critically, the training industry needs to move away from its reliance on
government. Undoubtedly, the above recommendations all rest on the ability
of the stakeholders to gain access to high-quality information and intelligence.
While cooperation between the government and industry is improving, there
is still room for progress. One way to work around chokepoints within the system is to access information directly. About 95 to 99 percent of all information
in the counterterrorism field is available through open sources. This includes
both analysis and raw information, which can help create realistic training as
well as the framework that the industry needs to evaluate its risk. The aviation
industry does not need to invest in its own analytical capabilities; private sector
firms and academic centers can provide information and analysis.
The threat and risk facing international civil aviation are constantly evolving. It is now common for groups to have an evolutionary life cycle of around
six months, making response very difficult. The most effective security strategy is to develop a comprehensive, layered security structure. The critical
components in maintaining a robust and flexible response are staff, training,
intelligence, and, most critically, the will.
Terrorism and crime are human activities and thus can be reduced and perhaps prevented by human activity. Thus the move toward greater reliance on
technology in all aspects of aviation and security may have a negative impact
on security. Humans, with all of their limitations, are some of the best early
warning detectors currently available. While the focus is on identifying the
best personality type to work in security, it is essential to make sure that all
staff members understand that they are empowered and expected to act in a
potential security-related situation. This is not confined to security and other
ground staff. Ticket agents, sky caps, and everyone else in the industry need
to be invested in the notion that security is an all points effort. The only
way to protect civil aviation is to calibrate the response to the threat and risk
posed by a given threat and allow humans to remain engaged in attempting
to reduce the threat.
1. Deborah Feyerick and Phil Hirschkorn, Baggage, Cargo Handlers Arrested
in Drug Probe: Smuggling Ring Accused of Importing 400 Kilos of Cocaine,” CNN
New York Bureau, November 26, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/law/11/25/bag
gage.handlers/index.
2. Information from Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, during a question and answer session after the author’s presentation at the Changing Face of Terrorism Conference,
Singapore, 2003.
3. Robert Wall and David Hughes, “Missile Attack on DHL Jet Keeps SelfDefence Issue Bubbling,” Aviation Week and Space Technology, November 30, 2003.
4. Malcolm Brabant, “French Police Probe Helicopter Attack,” BBC Online,
September 26, 2001, http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1565588.stm.
5. The author has had the opportunity to address this program on several occasions.
6. David Gero, Flights of Terror: Aerial Hijack and Sabotage since 1930 (London:
Haynes Publishing, 1997), 10.
7. Ibid., 10–17, for motivations, and see Jin-Tai Choi, Aviation Terrorism: Historical Survey, Perspectives and Responses (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 6, for the
total numbers for the period.
8. Gero, Flights of Terror, 17–31, and Choi, Aviation Terrorism, 6. A total of 80 of
the 91 hijackings or attempted hijackings had Cuba as a destination.
9. There were politically motivated instances before 1968. The hijacking of a Pan
Am flight during the 1931 coup in Peru is the first example, although others argue that
the hijacking of a Cuban internal flight by Raul Castro in 1959 was the first political
hijacking.
10. See Choi, Aviation Terrorism, chapter 3, 14.
11. Ariel Merari, “Attacks on Civil Aviation: Trends and Lessons,” in Aviation Terrorism and Security, ed. Paul Wilkinson and Brian Jenkins (London: Routledge, 1999),
13. The statistics from 1997–2004 are augmented by adding those from the FAA and
Aviation Safety Network. The numbers are estimates, as neither definitions of hijackings nor reporting of them are standard.
12. Ibid., 20 and note 11, above.
13. For an excellent debate on the subject of when and why to claim credit for
attacks, see “Terrorism and Claiming Credit: The Debate,” Terrorism and Political Violence 9, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 1–19.
14. See Choi, Aviation Terrorism, chapter 1, 31, note 76.
15. The 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult seemed to confirm all the trends identified by terrorism experts. A religious
group used a weapon of mass destruction (WMD), in this case a gas, against a civilian
target in order to inflict massive casualties. While most commentators point to this
attack as the first example of the trend, I think the GIA attack covered in this section
is actually the first.
16. Peter Harclerode and Mike Dewar, Secret Soldiers: Special Forces in the War
Against Terror (London: Cassell, 2002), 507.
17. Ibid., 510.
18. Ibid., 509–15.
19. Simon Reeve, The New Jackals (Boston: University Press of New England,
1999), 90–91. Bojinka is Croatian for explosion, an apt name for this plan. Not only
did the plotters intend to attack 11–12 American airliners, but they also planned attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II and President Clinton on each man’s visit to the
Philippines. They planned to use aircraft to attack the site of the Pope’s open-air mass,
and to drop bombs on President Clinton’s motorcade. There was also a preliminary
plan for the September 11 attacks.
20. Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al-Qaeda (New York: Columbia University Press,
2002), 6.
21. Introductory video for SATS training course.
Air Transportation in Evolving
Supply Chain Strategies
In the past 10 years, transportation by air has seen the fastest growth of all
modes of transportation in the United States. Transportation costs account
for a significant share of the cost of the goods sold in most enterprises and
have a large impact on customer service and competitiveness of enterprises.
During the age of regulated transportation in the United States (until the
early 1980s), low-cost leadership logistics was the dominant driver for supply
chain strategy. With deregulation reforms, the logistics service providers were
forced to integrate multiple modes of transportation and migrate to more
value-added bundling in their differentiated supply chain strategy. In this
chapter, we review the significant role that air transportation plays in global
supply chains and examine how air transportation emerged with the fastest
growth of all modes of transportation, by volume and by revenue.
The role of air transportation in the supply chain has evolved significantly
in the past three decades. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, brought
about additional strategic shifts in supply chain management and logistics
practices. Prior to the deregulation of the U.S. transportation sector in the
early 1980s, transportation service was a commodity. Competition in this service sector was driven by low-cost leadership strategies. There was little differentiation in price or performance across different transportation service
providers. Transport deregulation gave birth to new differentiation strategies
based on service functionality, modal diversity, flexibility, speed, capacity, scalability, and other factors.
A major new form of differentiated supply chain strategy has been that the
air transportation service providers not only provide product movement but
also facilitate product and parts storage. Goods in different forms, such as raw
materials, parts and components, work-in-progress subassemblies, and finished goods, need to be transported and stored at different stages in a supply
chain, value-adding chain, and demand chain.
The efficiency and effectiveness of alternate transportation, logistics, and
supply chain strategies have a significant impact on the overall productivity
and the competitive performance of a global enterprise. In-transit inventory
captive in the transportation system is usually inaccessible and must be minimized. The application of recent innovations in information technology, such
as radio frequency identification devices (RFID) and the geographic positioning system (GPS), enhances the supply chain managers’ access to in-transit
inventory. The global supply chain managers must make decisions regarding
temporarily storing certain inventory in a warehouse versus hiring a transportation service provider to move it. In global supply networks, managers may
have to divert a shipment in midstream from its intended destination to a new,
more pressing destination.
TRANSPORTATION AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY
In this chapter, we discuss why the transportation logistics strategy for airfreight service providers must evolve and differentiate as a result of the U.S.
deregulation reforms. With lower barriers to entry for new transport service
providers and increasing threats of substitute modes of transportation, air
service transportation providers must migrate to differentiate their service
strategies rather than continue to rely heavily on their traditional low-cost
leadership strategies, which were more effective under highly regulated and
predictable markets.
Purchased supplies must be transported safely and swiftly from the places
where they are generated (manufactured or mined) to the marketplaces where
they are in demand. To ensure excellent customer service, adequate production in conjunction with optimum levels of inventories must be planned and
provided. A global business demands that fluctuating and varying supplies
match with uncertain demand. Transportation by different channels plays a
key facilitating role in an effective deployment of inventories and sourcing of
parts, components, and finished goods from worldwide suppliers.1
Supply chain logistics involves the management of inventory at rest and in
motion. Either goods are flowing or they are in storage. The Council of Logistics Management defines logistics as that part of the supply chain that “plans,
implements, and controls the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods,
services, and related information, from the point of origin to the point of consumption, for the purpose of conforming to customers’ requirements.”2
Transportation service adds value by moving raw materials, intermediate
goods, and finished products at the time and place these are needed. Transportation service providers offer a bundle of services for a price that depends
on the quantity of goods moved, the distance moved, and the urgency with
which these goods are moved over the desired distances.
Air Transportation in Evolving Supply Chain Strategies
Transportation and Logistics Costs
Logistics costs are usually divided into transportation costs, inventory carrying costs, and administrative costs. Transportation accounts for the majority of the logistics costs.
In the current deregulated transportation markets, managing a supply
chain logistics strategy involves balancing (a) the costs of appropriate levels
of inventories, (b) the costs of manufacturing, and (c) the costs of transportation. Economies of volume scale and economies of transportation distances
must be taken into consideration. Often, transporting 10,000 pounds costs
just as much as transporting 2,000 pounds. Consolidation saves the cost of
making several shipment orders, but it may increase the inventory holding
cost. To avoid maintaining cost-incurring high levels of holding inventories,
the cycle fill times must be reduced in conjunction with competitive logistics
and transportation services. All these trade-offs favor the air transportation
mode over other transportation modes for large volumes transported over
long distances.
ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE
The cost of supply chain logistics plays a significant role in the U.S. economy. The State of Logistics Report, presented annually by the Council of Supply
Chain Management Professionals, monitors the transportation costs, total
inventory-carrying costs, and total logistics costs. The logistics costs in the
United States increased from $898 billion in 1998 to $910 billion in 2002,
and to $1,180 billion in 2005.3 This represents about 6 to 10 percent of the
U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP; see Table 3.1). This share used to be
much higher, at 16.2 percent, in 1981. This fall in the relative share of the cost
of supply chain logistics in the U.S. GDP is due to (1) the deregulation of the
transportation sector, (2) advances in technology, (3) the use of e-commerce,
and (4) the streamlining of supply chains. In 2005 compared to 2004, however, there was an annual 15 percent increase of US$156 billion. This was
due to (1) higher fuel costs, (2) supply chain off-shoring and outsourcing,
(3) higher costs of security, and (4) shortages of rail capacity and truck drivers.
Of these, the transportation costs, including road, rail, sea, and air transportation costs, account for approximately 55–60 percent of the total logistics
costs. The inventory cost is about half of that, or about 30–35 percent, and the
rest is administrative cost.4
Transportation Costs and Product Prices
Depending on the type of product, the transportation costs may account
for as high as 40 percent of the price of a product. Bulky and low value products tend to have a higher ratio of transportation costs to their prices. In very
high-value and low-weight items (such as bulk electronic parts and components), the transportation costs may be as low as 1 percent.
The U.S. Freight Bill by Transportation Mode (in billion US$)
Transp.
Cost $B
Total/
Source: Adapted from Robert Delaney, “Twelfth Annual State of Logistics Report,” presented to
the National Press Club, Washington, DC, June 4, 2001.
Often, a small effort in optimizing the transportation logistics strategy
can result in significant cost savings and performance improvements. Cost
minimization, however, is not the only criterion for choosing transportation
channels and services. For example, supplies are procured and transported to
meet certain production schedules and market demands. Transporting with
low cost and long lead times may exhaust inventories, resulting in expensive
plant shutdowns and finished goods stock-outs.
Similarly, reliability may vary significantly from one transport mode or
company to another. A cheaper transporter may have a higher damage level,
a higher level of lost shipments, and lower service reliability. Selecting such a
transporter may add significant costs and other headaches.
The just-in-time lean supply chain management and global outsourcing
demand that transporters should not only be reliable but that they should
be faster with lower cycle times and more flexible. With smaller lot sizes and
frequent set up changes, deliveries must be damage free in transit and without
any delay. Deeper supply chains, with global sourcing, add pressure and complexity to timely transportation management.
All these disruptive external environmental and internal organizational factors favor a migration from a low-cost leadership strategy to the use of a
service differentiation strategy for logistics transportation. In the next section
we will discuss how deregulation reforms have motivated this shift in transportation strategy.
DEREGULATION OF TRANSPORTATION LOGISTICS
Transportation played key strategic roles in the rise and fall of the great
ancient civilizations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome. The River Ganges
in India, like the River Nile in Egypt, provided the transportation needed to
move agricultural produce along the plains of northern India and transformed
the nomadic Aryan hunters into domestic agricultural farmers. The restricted
land transportation across high mountains of the Hindu Kush insulated the
prosperous Indian subcontinent from westerners until the sea routes to India
were opened by sea explorers like Vasco de Gama in the fifteenth century.
Due to the significance of the transportation sector to the economy of the
United States, for over a century, the U.S. transportation sector was strictly
regulated by government with closely controlled rates and delineation of allowable routes or geographical areas. These regulations were imposed at the
federal, state, and local levels. In the 1970s, the U.S. government started gradually deregulating the transportation sector.5 Whereas the economic regulations have been relaxed, the transportation sector must adhere to increasing
safety and environmental regulations. These relate to working conditions, the
transportation of hazardous and dangerous goods, and vehicle emissions.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon in 2001, the governments have imposed higher security standards
at airports and seaports. The transportation regulatory policies are being continually assessed, on a day-to-day basis, as new assaults unfold. These have
a significant impact on supply chain logistics and transportation operations
The U.S. government is deeply vested in the smooth functioning of the
transportation network running its economic, food, and defense supplies—
both nationally and internationally. Historically, national and state governments closely regulated the transportation carriers in terms of their geographic
and business scope, by specifying the prices they could charge for their services. In the case of the U.S. Postal Service, the government directly provides
the transportation service to its citizens instead of relying on private service
providers driven by short-term profit.
For more than a century, the U.S. government regulators, guided by a policy of making transportation stable, economical, and accessible to all, invested
heavily in building the transportation infrastructure, such as the Baltimore
and Long Beach seaports, the Erie and Ohio canals, the interstate highway
system, and airports.
Early transportation in the United States was dominated by the canal and
railroad system. Individual states monopolized the legal rights within their
borders, and there were no consistent interstate controls by the federal government. The U.S. Congress passed the 1870 Act to Regulate Commerce
and created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). At the dawn of the
twentieth century, transportation carriers exploited their freedom by resorting to excessive profiteering, collusive price fixing, and anticompetitive practices. In 1903, the Elkins Act was passed, followed by the 1906 Hepburn Act,
to establish federal regulatory control over pricing, particularly the maximum
rate. The Hepburn Act had implicit jurisdiction over oil pipeline carriers.
From early on, the Standard Oil Company developed pipeline transportation
as a key mode competing with rail transportation. The 1910 Mann-Elkins
Act enabled ICC to (a) examine and veto the proposed rates, and (b) remove
discriminatory rates by service providers.
The 1920 Transportation Act expanded the power of ICC to include a
reasonable minimum rate as well as the maximum rates. The 1887 Act was
renamed the Interstate Commerce Act.
The post–World War I experience gave birth to the 1935 Emergency
Transportation Act, which set standards for reasonable rates. In addition, as
road transportation acquired a significant share of the total transportation
market, the 1935 Motor-Carrier Act also expanded ICC regulation of the
increasing numbers of for-hire motor carriers.
Water transport in the United States was loosely regulated by the 1940
Transportation Act under ICC for domestic water. Water transport in foreign
trade and commerce with the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii was
regulated by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC).
The 1948 Reed-Bulwinkle Act allowed the transportation service providers to collaborate and jointly set prices, exempting them from the antitrust
restrictions of the Clayton, Sherman, and Robinson-Patman acts.
To regulate the emerging airlines and air transportation sector, the 1938
Civil Aeronautics Act established a separate Civil Aeronautics Authority
(CAA) to promote the sector’s growth and ensure its safety. In 1940, the CAA
was reorganized first as the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and later as the
Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA). In addition, for the emerging
aerospace sector, in 1951 the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics
was renamed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Between 1970 and 1973, the U.S. rail industry started deteriorating. The
National Railroad Passenger Cooperation (AMTRAK) was established by
the 1970 Rail Passenger Service Act. To provide economic aid to seven major
northeastern railroads facing bankruptcy, the Regional Rail Reorganization
Act was passed in 1973. Under this act, on April 1, 1976, the Consolidated
Rail Corporation (CONRAIL) started operating parts of these seven rail services. In 1976, the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act (4-R)
and the Rail Transportation Improvement Act provided additional resources
to AMTRAK and CONRAIL, and started deregulating the transportation
sector.
Deregulatory Reforms
In 1966, the Department of Transportation (DOT) was established to oversee the deregulation reforms in the U.S. transportation sector. The deregulation reforms were first introduced in air transportation: air carriers were
encouraged to compete over prices, and the restrictions on setting up new air
carriers were relaxed under CAB. The entry of and pricing by domestic cargo
airlines, shippers’ associations, and freight forwarders were deregulated by
1977. New rivals were allowed to enter the transportation sector provided they
were willing, able, and fit to provide the promised services, rather than because
of necessity or public convenience. The 1978 Airline Deregulation Act was
passed on October 24, and CAB was shut down on November 30, 1984.
The road and rail transportation sectors were deregulated under the 1980
Motor Carrier Act (MCA) and the Staggers Rail Act (SRA).
The 1980 Motor Carrier Act (MCA) abolished the restrictions on the types
of road carriers and the range of transportation services provided, in order to
improve productivity and stimulate competition among road transportation
service providers. ICC continued to oversee predatory pricing. This dramatically transformed the road transportation sector.
The 1980 Staggers Rail Act (SRA) deregulated the U.S. rail transportation
sector, allowing vital freedom to the carriers to price competitively in their
different market segments. The rail service providers were also free to merge
or discontinue poor-performing rail segments. The 1994 Negotiated Rate
Act helped further expand the rate freedom.
The 1994 Trucking Industry Reform Act (TIRA) deleted the mandate for
the road carriers to file their rates with ICC. The 1995 ICC Termination
Act abolished ICC, effective January 1, 1996, and appointed a small Surface
Transportation Board (STB) to continue deregulation across all transportation modes and carriers.
Interstate Inconsistency
Whereas there is a need for state-by-state consistency, often there was a
conflict of jurisdiction in the United States between the federal and state agencies over transportation issues. In 1993, ICC ruled that if goods were shipped
from out of state then the in-state shipments from warehouse to markets were
also deemed interstate shipments. To avoid the additional cost burden of state
regulation, the 1996 Federal Aviation Administration Authorization and Reauthorization Act was passed to facilitate a smoother flow of goods. The 1998
Ocean Shipping Reform Act deregulated the need to file tariffs with FMC.
ADOPTING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
The innovations in digital technology and widespread use of the Internet
gave birth to the 2000 Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, which was designed to give digital signatures in electronic documents the same legal authority as signatures in legal paper documents. In
2004, the U.S. Department of Defense mandated that its 45,000 suppliers use
RFID tags for all its supplies to the military.
The September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 forced the United States to
revamp its supply chain system and make it terrorism proof. Andrew Thomas
in his 2003 book, Aviation Insecurity, has described how susceptible the U.S.
aviation sector is to further acts of terrorism.6 The 2001 USA Patriot Act was
passed on October 26, to make sweeping increases in inspections and screenings at airports, seaports, and border crossings by road. This gave birth to
the Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT), a collaborative
preventive program between government agencies and businesses.
Rampant globalization gave birth to new protective laws. The 2000 Byrd
Amendment, also called the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Act, imposed
fines on foreign firms suspected of underpricing and dumping their goods in
the U.S. market and redistributed these fines to the complaining U.S. firms.
This has resulted in a number of international lawsuits alleging U.S. violations of the guidelines set by the World Trade Organization, and has resulted
in retaliatory duties on many U.S. goods by importing foreign countries.
Global competitiveness has also demanded a revision of the Jones Act,
under Section 27 of the Maritime Act of 1920, mandating that goods shipped
from one U.S. port to another U.S. port must be shipped by U.S.-built ships
operated by U.S. crews and operating under a U.S. flag.
The aforementioned deregulatory reforms have had a significant impact on
the U.S. transportation markets. Many transportation service providers are
forced to differentiate their transportation logistics strategies to accommodate
their new, dynamic, and fast-changing markets. To survive and to grow in these
new markets, transportation service providers can no longer supply commoditylike services with a low-cost leadership strategy. They must increasingly examine
and adopt innovative ways to differentiate their transportation logistics strategy.
The U.S. deregulation reforms have lowered the barriers for potential new
entrants into the transportation services market and increased the intensity
of the rivalry between existing transportation service providers. With higher
threats of alternate substitute modes of transportation, the buyers of transportation services have gained greater bargaining power. With increasing
pressure on overall potential profitability due to deregulation, U.S. transportation service providers are forced to differentiate their transportation logistics strategy by using multiple modes of transportation. In addition to using
multiple transportation modes, they adopt innovations such as GPS, RFID,
and other technologies ato improve visibility, reliability, and transparency
throughout the multimodal transportation markets.
FIVE COMPETING MODES OF TRANSPORTATION
There are five basic modes of transportation. These are water, rail, pipeline,
road, and air—in the order in which these modes were introduced. Supply
chain managers must carefully understand the key attributes of these different transportation modes, so that they can effectively mix and match the cost
advantages and disadvantages of these modes to meet their customers’ demands most appropriately. Given below is a more detailed description of the
air mode of transportation. Then other modes of transportation are discussed
in relation to air transportation.
Air transportation is the newest and the fastest-growing mode of transporting goods over long distances. Airfreight has the primary advantage of
10-year Growth in Gomestic Freight Shipments by Mode, Volume, and Revenue
Rail intermodal
Freight vol. mil.
Mode vol. share %
Freight revenue
$billion 13.3
Mode revenue
share %
346.0 29.6
Freight vol.
Source: Adapted from information in the ATA Foundation Third Annual United States Freight
Forecast to 2006. Trucking Activity Report, American Trucking Association, Economics and
Statistics Department, Alexandria, Virginia, 2007.
providing faster speed than other modes. Goods can be transported coast-tocoast by air in hours when it takes days by other modes.
Table 3.2 illustrates the 10-year growth, from 1996 to 2006, in U.S.
freight transportation by different modes.7 During this period, airfreight
volume increased by 118.2 percent, and freight revenue increased by 121.1
percent. The corresponding increases for road transportation were only
25.9 percent and 29.0 percent respectively. The growth for rail was only
around 18 percent in this 10-year period.
Airfreight is usually costlier than other modes of transportation, and it must
be coordinated with trucks to provide the needed door-to-door service. The
speedier and costlier air transportation is differentiated by integrating with
field warehousing. Air transportation is limited by aircraft and airport availability, load size, and weight lift capacity.
For many years, air freight was transported aboard passenger aircrafts.
Dedicated airfreight service was introduced by the launching of airfreight
service providers such as Federal Express, DHL, Airborne Express, and the
United Parcel Service. They initially transported high-priority documents.
Whereas there are approximately 400,000 miles of air routes, airfreight in
the United States accounts for much less than 1 percent of intercity ton-miles.
The airports and airways are developed and maintained by government and
state authorities. The fixed costs include purchasing aircraft, cargo containers,
and specialized handling equipment. These costs are relatively low compared
to the fixed costs for the rail, water, and pipeline modes of transportation.
Variable costs for air transportation are usually high due to rising fuel costs,
user fees, and in-flight as well as ground-handling labor.
The products most suited to the air mode are usually of high priority,
high value, time sensitive, and perishable. Examples include high-fashion
apparel, cut flowers, fresh fish, and repair parts. Scheduled and chartered
airfreight services are often used for some of these. Beyond certain distances, the air mode is particularly best suited for emergency deliveries.
Medical supplies requiring narrowly monitored temperatures and other
health care services may evolve as a lucrative segment of the market for air
The use of road transportation by automobiles has risen rapidly since
World War II. Auto carriers, such as trucks, account for almost 80 percent of
the transportation costs of U.S. enterprises today.
This mode provides door-to-door service, from short to long distances,
and for products varying in size and weight. Trucks can transport large volumes at lower rates. Due to its flexibility in terms of door-to-door delivery
and its ability to use a variety of roads, this mode is extensively used by justin-time producers and suppliers. The United States has close to a million
road miles.
In comparison to rail, road terminals require small fixed-cost investments.
The facilities are often built and maintained by state governments. User and
toll fees vary by usage. The variable costs for this mode, including the cost of
drivers, fuel, and material handling labor, are high. High maintenance costs,
the shortage of certified and reliable drivers, and safety in material handling
are some of the challenges for this transportation mode.
Auto carriers prefer transporting high-value products over 500 miles, and
usually prefer transporting products weighing less than 15,000 pounds for
intercity shipments.8
Auto carriers are classified into (1) small-parcel ground carriers, (2) lessthan-truck-load (LTL) carriers with less than 15,000 pounds, and (3) truckload (TL) carriers with loads of over 15,000 pounds without intermediate
stops. LTL carriers require consolidation. Some leading LTL carriers are
TNT Freightways, Yellow Freight, Roadway, and Consolidated Freightways.
LTL loads are usually carried over shorter distances than LT loads, and LTL
loads cost more per unit weight. There are some specialty carriers such as
Prior to World War II, transportation by rail dominated supply chain logistics in the United States. Today, compared to auto carriers, rail transportation
is slower, more inflexible, and results in higher shares of losses and damage.
The rail mode, however, has an advantage in transporting large tonnage over
Some intermodal transport service providers use a piggyback system, using
truck trailers on flatcars (TOFC) and containers on flatcars (COFC). This
helps them take advantage of long-distance transportation by rail and the
door-to-door service of the auto mode. It also reduces damage and handling
delays at terminals.
Water is the oldest mode of transportation. In the ancient times, manually
powered sailing ships were used for international trade. In the early 1800s,
sails were replaced by steam power, which itself was replaced by diesel motors
in the 1920s. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, the United States had
approximately 26,000 miles of inland waterways, not counting coastal and
Great Lakes shipping.9
Most internationa
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Pagina principale On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy
On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy
Tom Rockmore
That Martin Heidegger supported National Socialism has long been common knowledge. Yet the relation between his philosophy and political commitments remains highly contentious. Boldly refuting arguments that the philosopher's political stance was accidental or adopted under coercion, Rockmore argues that Heidegger's thought and his Nazism are inseparably intertwined. Combining extensive documentation of the Heidegger controversy with philosophical and historical analysis, this book raises profound questions about the social and political responsibility of philosophy.
Categories: Other Social Sciences\\Philosophy
Editore: University of California Press
heidegger4594
ibid2217
see ibid1554
nazism1038
nietzsche683
national socialism335
nazism and philosophy274
xtf263
doc263
docid263
pm on heidegger262
see heidegger246
see chap224
rectoral address210
ontology179
writings170
authentic162
martin heidegger158
volk151
kant149
nihilism138
dasein136
lectures135
jaspers118
conception116
hegel110
rectorate105
thinker103
trans98
fundamental ontology93
hitler92
philosopher91
metaphysical90
authenticity88
philosophers87
rector84
zur83
cited81
philosophie79
derrida79
farias77
sein77
critique73
marx70
heideggerian66
maintains66
plato63
labarthe62
lacoue62
insists62
weimar62
rejection62
disclosure62
heidegger et62
Fiat Tipo ('88 to '91) Hb Haynes Service & Repair Manual
Steve Rendle
Drawing Louisiana's New Map: Addressing Land Loss in Coastal Louisiana
Committee on the Restoration and Protection of Coastal Louisiana, National Research Council
http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft6q2nb3wh&chunk.id=0&doc....
Preferred Citation: Rockmore, Tom. On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy. Berkeley: University
of California Press, c1992 1992. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6q2nb3wh/
Berkeley · Los Angeles · Oxford
―v―
I owe an important debt to the increasing number of scholars, some of them with a considerable
investment in Heidegger scholarship, who continue to seek the truth, even when it contradicts
Heideggerian strategies for dealing with Heidegger's Nazism. To this general debt I would add more
specific ones incurred to two anonymous readers of the manuscript, to Michael Zimmerman for helpful
comments on the initial draft, to Debra Bergoffen, who read a draft of the chapter on Nietzsche, and to
Theodore Kisiel, who commented on the entire final draft. None of them is responsible for the views
expressed here. But I gratefully acknowledge that their attention to detail has saved me from
numerous slips and in general helped me to strengthen the argument.
I gratefully acknowledge as well that discussion with Joseph Margolis has provided insight useful in
writing this book. His willingness to collaborate in bringing Farias's study of Heidegger and Nazism into
English started me on the road that led to this book. Nicolas Tertulian initially called this problem to
my attention. Edward Dimendberg, Philosophy Editor at the University of California Press, whose faith
in this project made it possible, has been a constant pleasure to work with. His own insightful
suggestions have improved the manuscript. I am grateful as well for the excellent copyediting by
Nicholas Goodhue, which generally improved the manuscript and detected several errors. As always, I
am deeply indebted to my family in ways that I cannot simply or even adequately express.
―1―
Introduction: On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy
This book considers the nature and philosophical significance of the controversial relation between
Heidegger's philosophy and his Nazism. The significance of this relation is clear in virtue of the
importance of Heidegger's philosophical thought and its widespread influence not only in the
philosophical discussion but throughout the cultural life of this century. Heidegger's supporters and
even his most ardent critics agree that Heidegger's thought is important and cannot merely be
dismissed. Heidegger is often held to be one of the most important contemporary philosophers, even
the most important philosopher of this century, maybe even one of the small handful of truly great
philosophers in the history of the philosophical tradition.
Heidegger is certainly the most influential philosopher of our time. Heidegger's influence is widely
felt in contemporary philosophy: in negative fashion in Husserl's final phase; in the positions[1] of
Gadamer and Derrida, his two closest students; in the thought of Herbert Marcuse, the first
Heideggerian Marxist; in the phenomenological theories of Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty,
Emmanuel Levinas, and Paul Ricoeur; and more distantly in the writings of Foucault, Apel, Habermas,
and Rorty, as well as in those of a host of other figures such as Hans Jonas, Hannah Arendt, and
Leszek Kolakowski. The Heidegger literature has by now taken on such proportions that no one, not
even the most industrious student, can possibly read it all. Heidegger is now
widely present in the discussions in Germany, even more so in the United States, but above all in
France, where for several decades he has functioned as the main "French" philosopher, the
unacknowledged but omnipresent master thinker whose thought continues to form the horizon of
French philosophical thinking.
Heidegger's influence, which is by no means limited to philosophy, is widely apparent throughout
the recent discussion: in theology in the work of Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann, and Karl Rahner; in
psychoanalysis in the work of Jacques Lacan, Ludwig Binswanger, and Medard Boss; in literary theory
through Paul de Man; in feminism through Gayatri Spivak; in ecology through Albert Borgmann and
Wolfgang Schirmacher; in political theory through Fred Dallmayr; and so on. The list of those
influenced by Heidegger, which is impressive, rivals in scope that of such other conceptual giants of
this century as Freud and Weber.
Obviously, the impressive nature of Heidegger's thought and its extraordinary influence do not
diminish but rather only raise the stakes of the present discussion. In view of the growing knowledge
of the historical record and the ongoing publication of Heidegger's writings, one can overlook, or
choose to ignore, but can no longer deny, the relation between his Nazism and his philosophy. To
"bracket" this issue, simply to turn away from the problem, to refuse to confront it, is silently to accept
what a number have seen as the totalitarian dimension in one of the most important theories of this
century, itself largely marked by totalitarianisms of the right and the left, a theory apparently lacking
in the resources necessary to come to grips with totalitarianism. In confronting Heidegger's Nazism,
one inevitably questions as well the philosophical and wider intellectual discussion of our time and its
ability to think the connection between philosophy and politics.
The link between Heidegger's thought and politics has been known for many years. Its discussion
began in the 1940s in the pages of the French intellectual journal, Les Temps Modernes , in a
controversy initiated by Karl Löwith, Heidegger's former student and later colleague.[2] The initial
phase of the debate ended quickly, but the theme has continued to resurface at intervals. It has
recently received a fresh impetus in publications by Ott[3] and Farias.[4] The merit of Farias's book, in
part based on Ott's research, is that for the first time it has brought the Heidegger affair to the
attention of the wider intellectual readership.
Since a relation between Heidegger's thought and his Nazism has been known for more than half a
century, one must ask why it has not been studied earlier in greater depth. The reasons include the
relative success at what can charitably be described as damage control on the part of his most fervent
admirers—those for whom he can apparently do
no wrong, or at least none of lasting consequence for his thought—as well as a lack of insight into its
philosophical significance. But the recent discussion has provided sustained attention to the series of
issues surrounding Heidegger's thought and politics. It is now too late to put the genie back in the
bottle, to deflect attention away from this relation, since the publications by Farias and Ott raise this
issue in a way that in good faith cannot simply be ignored.
Everything about this relation is subject to dispute. It has been asserted that it is philosophically
insignificant, since the struggle concerning Heidegger is merely symptomatic of a weakness of
contemporary thought. It has been claimed that Heidegger was not a Nazi, or at least not in any
ordinary sense. It has been suggested that we must differentiate between Heidegger the thinker and
Heidegger the man, for the former cannot be judged in relation to the latter. It has been argued that
information recently made available is not new and was already known to any serious student. It has
been held that everything that Heidegger ever did or wrote was Nazi to the core. It has been
maintained that Heidegger's only problem was that he never said he was sorry, that he never excused
himself or asked for forgiveness. Finally, it has been maintained with all the seriousness of the
professional scholar, in a way recalling many a theological dispute, that Heidegger's thought is so
difficult that only one wholly immersed in it, at the extreme only a true believer committed to his
vision, could possibly understand it. Yet if it can only be comprehended by a "true" believer, then
Heidegger's Nazism is beyond criticism or evaluation of any kind, since no "true" believer will criticize
The view of the present study is that all of the above claims about the relation of Heidegger's
thought and his Nazism are false. Attention focused on Heidegger's Nazi inclinations by Farias, Ott,
and others (e.g., Pöggeler, Marten, Sheehan, Vietta, Lacoue-Labarthe, Derrida, Bourdieu, Schwan,
Janicaud, Zimmerman, Wolin, Thomä, etc.) has created a momentum of its own. It has been realized
that Heidegger's Nazism raises important moral and political issues that cannot simply be evaded and
that must be faced as part of the continuing process of determining what is live and what is dead in
Heidegger's thought. It is not inaccurate to say that as a result of recent discussion, at least two
things have become clear: First, the problem cannot simply be denied since one can no longer even
pretend to understand Heidegger's philosophy, certainly beginning in 1933, if one fails to take into
account his Nazism. In a word, serious study of Heidegger's thought can no longer evade the theme of
Heidegger's Nazism. Second, the issues posed by Heidegger's unprecedented turn to Nazism on
philosophical grounds,
and the way the theme has been received in the discussion of his thought, point beyond his position to
raise queries about the nature of philosophy and even the responsibility of intellectuals.
The complex topic of Heidegger's thought and politics concerns what we know about his actions
and philosophy as they bear on his Nazism, including Heidegger's own explanation of his turn toward
National Socialism, as well as the roots of that turn in his position and the later development of his
thought. It includes as well the way in which this theme has been received in the Heidegger discussion
over many years, in an often bitter dispute between his partisans and detractors, between those who
invoke special rules for a German genius (e.g., Gadamer), and those who maintain the same rules for
all. It further includes the significance of this affair for the philosophical discipline itself. We must
inquire whether Heidegger's turn to Nazism is sui generis, an aberration uncharacteristic of the
discipline, which hence casts no light at all on it, or whether, on the contrary, it in some sense
illuminates philosophy.
This question is actually a series of questions, one of which can be stated as follows: Did
Heidegger's effort to lead the German nation fail in 1933-1934 because he misjudged the
appropriateness of National Socialism, or rather because philosophy is inapt to play a political role, or
rather finally because, as Heidegger later came to believe, it is simply not useful? It is also relevant to
inquire how and why he turned to Nazism. The obvious fact that—as Rorty, Habermas, and others
have pointed out—Heidegger was an important thinker but a Nazi requires scrutiny. We cannot merely
dismiss it, since it is as close to true as any claim about a philosopher can be; but we cannot act as if
it were unimportant, since our view of Heidegger's position cannot ignore his own statement that he
turned to National Socialism on the basis of his philosophical thought. This admission leads to a
provocative question: can a theory be great which leads to the political abomination of National
Socialism? Since Heidegger is not just any thinker but by all standards an exceptional one, his Nazism
is exceptionally troublesome. In Heidegger we have an example of a supposedly great philosopher,
according to Levinas, the author of the most important treatise since Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
.[5] Then there is the light that Heidegger's turn to Nazism and its reception in the literature throw on
the philosophical discipline: what is the social relevance of philosophy if it can and in fact does lead to
such ends? In other words, how can great thought lead to great evil? Or is it that in the claim of
conceptual greatness, we are greatly mistaken?
The interpretation of the link between Heidegger's philosophy and Nazism points toward the
relation between thought and time. It has been usual in the philosophical tradition to maintain that
philosophy is
in but not of time, since it is independent of its context. On the contrary, Marxism argues that
philosophy can be reduced to its context. The present work denies these two antithetical claims in
favor of a third, more difficult approach according to which philosophy is in part dependent on, and in
part independent of, the context in which it arises. This view accords with Heidegger's understanding
of Dasein as existence and as transcendent. It will be applied here in order to comprehend Heidegger's
Nazism in terms of his philosophical thought, and his thought as dependent on and reflective of its
social, historical, political, and philosophical background. A main theme of this book is that Heidegger's
philosophical thought and his Nazism are interdependent and cannot be separated, more precisely,
that he turned to National Socialism on the basis of his philosophy and that his later evolution is
largely determined by his continuing concern with Nazism.
Not unnaturally, some of Heidegger's closest students, following Heidegger's lead, have long
sought to conceal the Nazism lodged in his thought. The present effort to reveal and to consider the
nature and philosophical significance of Heidegger's Nazism will need to break sharply with all the
various ways in which Heidegger and his students have sought to conceal this aspect of his thought. It
will rely on three general principles. To begin with, it will part company with the view that in order to
discuss Heidegger at all one must be an expert in his thought, a master of his position able to quote
chapter and verse at the drop of a manuscript, even capable on demand of adducing unpublished
material in support of an argument.
Unquestionably, it is necessary to be informed about Heidegger's thought in order to comprehend
the nature and philosophical significance of his Nazism. But the work to follow will not seek to imitate
the massively detailed commentaries on the main thinkers in the tradition, or the equivalent analyses
of Heidegger's thought. If the requirement of detailed expert commentary does not always function as
a strategy to preclude significant criticism, in the main it only helps to foreclose the possibility of
raising the significant philosophical issues. I am convinced that the relevant issues of Heidegger's
Nazism, and probably any basic aspect of his thought, can be addressed in the intersubjective
conceptual space common to the majority of philosophers and many intellectuals of all kinds. In this
specific sense, whatever the peculiarities of Heidegger's position, which should not be denied, it is
"available" to discussion in roughly the same way as others.
Second, we must refuse the distinction, cherished equally by Heideggerians and philosophers of all
kinds, between Heidegger the thinker and Heidegger the man, Heidegger the great philosopher and
Heidegger the intellectual's peasant solidly rooted in the soil of his beloved
Schwarzwald. The supposed distinction between Heidegger and his thought obviously reflects a
separation of theory from practice, well rooted in traditional philosophical theory and practice. In virtue
of their concern to separate what they think from what they do, philosophers resemble those in other
lines of work, who are frequently unwilling to act on their views. The result is a peculiar form of
inaction, or insistence on theory, which philosophers from Aristotle over Hegel to Heidegger have often
identified with action, even with its highest form. Philosophers, who speak eloquently of the truth, are
only rarely willing to break a lance for truth. The example of Socrates, who died for an idea which he
regarded as more important than life itself, is overshadowed by the more typical case of Spinoza, who
prudently refused to descend into the arena lest he compromise his freedom of thought.
In the discussion of Heidegger's Nazism, the distinction between Heidegger the man and
Heidegger the philosopher is frequently invoked by his students in order to save, if not the man, at
least his thought. This distinction underlies the frequent admission that Heidegger was a rather
dreadful person, a concession that functions strategically to protect his thought against the defects of
his character. Yet if Heidegger's philosophical thought and his turn to Nazism are continuous in any
ordinary sense, if one admits that his identification with National Socialism was motivated by his
philosophical theory, as Heidegger himself suggests, then a critique of his actions immediately reflects
on his view.
It is relatively easy to criticize Heidegger's identification with Nazism since on the practical plane
there is nothing to distinguish it from that of anyone else, with the exception of its possible
relation—still contested by many, on occasion still even denied—to the position of an important
thinker. If one thinks that there is something reprehensible about a close association with Nazism, or
denouncing one's colleagues as politically unreliable, or trying to devise a Nazi theory of higher
education, or maintaining a theoretical commitment to Nazism as an ideal after National Socialism had
failed in practice, then it is important to return from the actions themselves to the view behind them.
On the contrary, if we are willing to admit that theory is divorced from practice, as Heidegger's
students insist, then the defense of his thought is simplified. For one can simply admit that Heidegger
was not a very nice man, that he did a number of reprehensible things in connection with Nazism,
while denying that any of his actions reflect on his position. And we can further express our dismay
that Heidegger never simply excused his Nazi connection or expressed shame for his own past, since
his stoic refusal to admit any involvement at all would, then, be the only problem.
I will resist the effort to drive a conceptual wedge between Heidegger the man and Heidegger the
thinker for two reasons. On the one hand,
theory and practice are never wholly separate and hence cannot be disjoined. At least implicitly,
practice of any kind always reflects a theoretical perspective. In all cases, action follows from, and is
on occasion justified by, an attitude, a reason, an intention, an aim, or even a passion. Even such
extreme views as the conviction of the Italian Fascists that one should act first and create a
justification for the actions after the fact, or the German Führerprinzip according to which the will of
the Führer is a sufficient justification for any action at all, make action depend on a prior theory.
On the other hand, the defense of Heidegger's position in terms of an alleged split between the
man and his thought is inconsistent with Heidegger's own view of the matter. Obviously, it contradicts
his clear claim that his theory must be judged by his actions. It further runs counter to the
understanding, basic to his fundamental ontology, of Dasein as existence. In Being and Time , he
repeatedly affirms the priority of existence, or the practical dimension in the wider sense of the term,
over theory of any kind on the grounds that the precognitive dimension is prior to, and provides the
basis for, the cognitive level. Heidegger's insistence that theory is meaningful only within the practical
framework precisely denies the kind of separation of theory from practice which some of his followers
introduce in order to defend his position in spite of his Nazism. In short, this defense must be resisted
since if it succeeds it fails, because the condition of its success is precisely to deny a fundamental
aspect of the position it is invoked to defend.
Further, we will consider Heidegger the thinker as in part a man of his times, whose times offer
insight into his theory. Now Heidegger can be construed as deflecting attention from the relation of his
thought to time, in particular to his own time, in his repeated insistence that his own thought is limited
to the problem of Being, the Seinsfrage . Certainly, many writers on Heidegger have understood his
position in this way, including the vast majority of commentators who discuss Heidegger's thought
merely in terms of his texts without reference to the wider context that forms their background. In this
sense, those who discuss Heidegger are repeating the view, itself a staple of the philosophical tradition
at least since Plato, that thought is in time but not of time, as if a philosopher were somehow able to
escape from time itself.
I believe this deflection should be resisted. To begin with, there is the general point, mentioned
above, that all thought, including Heidegger's, is related to time. Thought cannot easily, in fact
perhaps never wholly, be isolated from time. Perhaps even such familiar assertions as 7 + 5 = 12 are
not devoid of reference to time and place. Certainly, Heidegger's own view is specifically related to the
period in which it arose, and cannot adequately be understood merely through attention to factors
supposedly independent of the historical context, such as the problem of the meaning of Being. I am
convinced that Heidegger's theory reflects a variety of contemporary influences, some of which he may
not have been fully aware of, such as the role of a conservative, nationalistic form of Roman
Catholicism in southwestern Germany in his youth, stressed by Ott, Farias, and most recently
Thomä;[6] the widespread concern, which he seems to have shared, for Germany, the defeated party
in the First World War, to recover as a nation and to assume what many thought was the manifest
German destiny; the reintroduction of destiny as an explanatory factor of historical change by
Spengler; the interest in the concept of the Volk as it was developed in nineteenth-century Germany;
and Heidegger's own desire to assume an ever-greater role in the German university system as the
central thinker of his day, even to reform the university system according to his own view of higher
education. These and other factors are ingredient in Heidegger's theory, and knowledge of them offers
insight into Heidegger's position. Conversely, to follow the traditional philosophical view that thought is
independent of time, in this case to fail to take these and other factors into account, is to close off
important roads of access to Heidegger's position.
Heidegger's own insistence on the contextuality of thought within existence, in which it arises, and
by which it is limited, suggests that his own philosophical theory can fairly be understood in this way
and cannot be understood otherwise. There is an obvious analogy between Heidegger's understanding
of the contextuality of thought and Hegel's view of philosophy as its own time captured in thought.
Hegel sees philosophy as both immanent and transcendent, as an analysis of what occurs on a higher
conceptual plane. This duality of immanence and transcendence is reproduced in Heidegger's position
in his understanding of Dasein, or human being, as existence and in his insistence on the dimension of
transcendence. As early as his dissertation and in later writings, Heidegger continued to insist that
human being was not only present in but also able to transcend its situation. But Heidegger goes
further than Hegel in an important respect, since he follows Husserl's concept of the horizon, for
instance in his insistence in Being and Time on the world as in effect the horizon for all interpretation.
The point is not to perform a reduction on Heidegger's position by reducing it to its situation, since no
philosophical theory is merely a reflection of the circumstances in which it arises. But since theories
are also not independent of such circumstances, one can—in fact, in my view, one must—utilize an
awareness of the role of that situation in the constitution of the theory as a clue to its interpretation.
As concerns Heidegger, an awareness of such factors is helpful to understand his position in ways that
might not be as evident if we restrict ourselves merely to the Seinsfrage .
Although it is my intention here to study Heidegger's Nazism, I do not intend to provide a study of
Nazism as such. For present purposes it is unnecessary to consider the nature of Nazism in detail,
which, as an amorphous collection of doctrines that never assumed canonical shape, is in any case
notoriously difficult to define.[7] It will be sufficient to center this discussion on a doctrine which
Heidegger shared with National Socialism as well as preceding forms of Volk ideology: the historical
realization of the German Volk . I am less interested in Heidegger's acceptance of the Führer principle,
an important element in the legal framework of the Nazi state, such as it was, than in the constant
presence of a metaphysical commitment to the German Volk as a central historical goal in his thought,
a commitment which, like the theme of a fugue, is consistently renewed at regular intervals beginning
in 1933. It is, I believe, this concern—in conjunction with Heidegger's underlying interest in
Being—which drew him to National Socialism. This concern remains constant throughout his career
and determines the later development of his position, the evolution of which cannot otherwise be
grasped.
The present inquiry into Heidegger's Nazism conflicts in two ways with the reigning temper of
philosophy. On the one hand, it associates philosophy with history, whereas a major current in the
modern tradition is to drive a wedge not only between philosophy and the history of philosophy but
also between thought and history. Although there are exceptions, such as Hegel, most philosophers
adopt a nonhistorical perspective on the grounds that truth is not historical. Yet if philosophy is to tell
us about the world as given in experience, if it is to make good on its claim to grasp the nature of
experience as a historical process, it must in some sense emerge within it and actually be historical.
Philosophy cannot, then, sever the link to history and pretend to know it. Hence, in a deep sense a
discussion of Heidegger's Nazism cannot be successful in isolation from a study of the link between his
thought and his times.
On the other hand, the skepticism about truth as historical has given rise to skepticism about
historical truth. The rise of deconstructionism, clearly influenced by Heidegger's position, is a form of
skepticism with obvious historical implications. The very idea of historical truth has recently been
placed in doubt by one of Heidegger's admirers, Paul de Man, who was notoriously concerned to
conceal his own political past:
[I]t is always possible to face up to any experience (to excuse any guilt), because the experience always exists
simultaneously as fictional discourse and as empirical event and it is never possible to decide which one of the two
possibilities is the right one. The indecision makes it possible to excuse the bleakest of crimes because, as a fiction, it
escapes from the constraints of guilt and innocence.[8]
― 10 ―
The implication of de Man's view—which is by no means unprecedented, since it is common also, say,
to Stalinism—is that we can treat the past as a fiction that can be rewritten at will in order to correct
or even to erase what has taken place, to expunge inconvenient events from the historical record. But
Heidegger's very idea that revealing is accompanied by concealing implies the obverse doctrine, that
concealing is linked to revealing, or at least to its possibility. Despite Leopold von Ranke, it may not be
possible to recover the past as it really happened, whatever that means. Yet in my view, there is
indeed a kind of historical truth, a possibility of determining the historical record which justifies a
refusal of historical skepticism and undercuts the efforts of many to conceal the past. A premise that
underlies the present discussion is that despite Heidegger's lengthy effort to hide, to distort, and to
misrepresent the nature of his commitment to Nazism, his very deception reveals itself as a deception
as well as the truth about it if we will only examine his thought with sufficient care.
The discussion of the nature and philosophical consequences of Heidegger's Nazism unfolds in
eight chapters. The first chapter, which is procedural, considers the proper approach to reveal the
Nazism concealed in his thought. It is argued that his Nazism is concealed in his philosophy; it is
further argued that through an "official view" of the matter Heidegger and a number of his followers
have contrived to conceal his Nazism in a manner similar to that in which, in his belief, the original
Greek insight into Being was later covered up. Chapter 2 studies in detail the famous rectoral address,
in which Heidegger turns publicly to Nazism and seeks to ground politics in philosophy, in order, as
Jaspers and, following him, Pöggeler have said, to lead the leaders. The speech, which is more often
mentioned than analyzed, is studied in continuity with such background factors as the romantic
reaction against the Aufklärung , the völkisch intellectual movement, the decline of the Weimar
Republic, and Heidegger's view of inauthentic boredom as the predominant mood at the end of the
Weimar period. The intrinsic link between Heidegger's philosophical thought and his turn to politics is
analyzed in terms of concepts of authenticity, resoluteness, Being-with, destiny, fate, and so on. There
is detailed attention to the quasi-Platonic aspect of Heidegger's understanding of the relation between
politics and philosophy, his reliance on von Papen, his crucial misrendering of a Platonic text, and other
relevant factors.
The third chapter discusses the effort, ultimately rooted in Heidegger's own fabrication of an
"official" view of his relation to Nazism, to contain the damage to his reputation. The "official" view
provides the basis for Heidegger's largely successful effort to minimize his Nazi turn
as transitory whereas it was permanent, as unrelated to his thought from which it in fact followed
closely, as unimportant for the later turning in his thought which it basically influenced, and so on.
This phase of the discussion is mainly devoted to careful scrutiny of Heidegger's detailed account of his
relation to Nazism as rector of the University of Freiburg in a posthumously published article, "The
Rectorate 1933/34: Facts and Thoughts." Heidegger's discussion of his political turn is more often
invoked than discussed. Analysis of this text, crucial for an understanding of Heidegger's political turn,
shows that it reveals what it is meant to conceal: an enduring commitment to Nazism on the basis of
his thought. Attention is given to the nature of Heidegger's philosophical attachment to Nazism, and its
grounding in his concept of the destiny of the German people. Heidegger's sophistical effort to
reinterpret the idea of Kampf , which he related to Clausewitz in the Rektoratsrede , and by implication
to Mein Kampf , as a disguised allusion to Heraclitus is studied carefully.
Chapters 4 and 5 provide detailed discussion of Heidegger's first Hölderlin lecture series; of his
recently published, unfinished work, for some his masterpiece, Contributions to Philosophy (Beiträge
zur Philosophie ), composed in 1936-1938 during his Nietzsche lecture courses; and of the Nietzsche
lectures themselves. Following Heidegger's own suggestions, some of his followers (e.g., Aubenque,
Vietta) maintain that in these places Heidegger decisively criticizes National Socialism. Yet close
analysis of these texts reveals that Heidegger criticizes Nazism not as a political practice but for its
alleged insufficiency as an ontological theory, that is, as a grasp of Being as such. It further reveals his
continued insistence on the realization of the historical destiny of the German Volk , a point that
originally led him to Nazism and which he never abandoned. Here, we find the emergence of a new
conception of silence as no longer an authentic aspect of speech but the ground of authentic speech, a
change tending to justify his own silence about Nazism and the Holocaust. Detailed discussion of the
famous turning in his thought shows that it is composed of a series of elements, including, as part of
his later "post-metaphysical" antihumanism, a turning away from personal responsibility—earlier
stressed in the notion of resoluteness—in the later emphasis on Being as the ultimate historical agent.
The sixth chapter takes up the genesis and nature of Heidegger's theory of technology, which
some writers (e.g., Caputo) see as his permanent legacy. Attention is focused on Heidegger's
conception of technology as an effort to carry further a supposedly incomplete attempt by National
Socialism to confront technology and modernity. The discussion, which criticizes Heidegger's
nonanthropological understanding of modern technology as inadequate, shows that Heidegger does
not break
with, but carries further, his view of Nazism in his writing on technology. It further demonstrates the
inadequacy of Heidegger's grasp, even after the Second World War, of National Socialism as a
response to technology.
It is perhaps understandable on human grounds that Heidegger concealed his relation to Nazism.
But since relevant material has long been available, no credit can be accorded to his followers for their
continued obstruction of efforts to understand this relation. The seventh chapter reviews the reception
of Heidegger's Nazism, with special attention to the obscurantist tendencies of the French discussion.
In the discussion of Heidegger's politics, the French debate stands out as an ongoing effort, over many
years, to examine, but mainly to defend, Heidegger's position. It is argued that Heidegger's thought
has come to form the horizon of French philosophical thought, which has in turn obstructed the
concern to understand the philosophical component of his Nazism.
The conclusion affirms an "organic" relation between Heidegger's philosophical thought and his
commitment to real and ideal forms of Nazism. It compares the "organic" interpretation to other
interpretations of the link between Heidegger's thought and politics. It considers the problem which
the reception of Heidegger's political engagement poses for the reception of his thought, for
philosophy in general, and for the responsibility of intellectuals. It is stressed that Heidegger's
philosophy ought not to be rejected merely in terms of his political engagement but that his thought
also cannot be understood apart from that engagement, which must figure prominently in the
reception of his theory of Being. It is further stressed that Heidegger shares with Nazism an interest in
authenticity, interpreted as the destiny of the German people, which he did not and literally could not
renounce without renouncing an aspect of his thought unchanged in its later evolution, or turning.
Heidegger's insensitivity to human being, which he apparently found meaningful only as a means to
the authentic thought of Being, appears as a philosophical component of his insensitivity to Nazism.
The book ends with a reflection on the paradox of Heidegger, an important thinker, perhaps a great
philosopher, but unable to discern the character of National Socialism, a leading example of absolute
evil. It is suggested that Heidegger's example calls in question the widely held view of the socially
indispensable character of philosophic reason. If the ethical component is not present in the beginning,
it will not be present at the end; and it was not present in—in fact, it was specifically excluded from—
Heidegger's "antihumanist" meditation on Being. The concern to respect nature but the insensitivity to
human being, the turn to Nazism, the continued adherence to the destiny of the German Volk ,
Heidegger's antihumanism and inability to understand Nazism even after the Second
World War, all follow from his nearly obsessive care about the authentic thought of Being.
It is appropriate to anticipate two related objections. On the one hand, there is the obvious
criticism, long a staple of the Heideggerian defense of Heidegger's thought, that whoever criticizes the
master is insufficiently versed in the position. Let me immediately concede the strategic strength of
this defense, to which, in my opinion, there is no fully satisfactory response. It is appropriate to
acknowledge the permanent possibility of skepticism about the analysis of a philosophical position. Any
effort to allay doubts about the grasp of a theory can always be met by raising further doubts. But at a
certain point, criticism cannot merely be evaded by suggestions that the critic is insufficiently versed in
the topic and must be met directly. Readers will need to decide whether on balance this essay
demonstrates a grasp of Heidegger's position sufficient to permit the analysis developed below.
On the other hand, there is the objection based not on lack of knowledge but possible prejudice,
such as prejudice with regard to Heidegger's thought, even the imputation of prejudice for raising the
question of the philosophical significance of Heidegger's Nazism.[9] The possibility of prejudice is
certainly enhanced in a discussion of Nazism. I have no illusions that my rereading of these texts will
convince all observers, some of whom will certainly find—indeed, how could it be otherwise?— that my
discussion reflects my own prejudices. The issue of how to react to possible prejudice is an important
hermeneutical theme. In reaction to the Enlightenment concern with pure reason, Gadamer,
Heidegger's closest student, has tried to rehabilitate the concept of prejudice (Vorurteil ) through the
Hegelian move that we should be prejudiced against prejudice. In this case, I hold that nothing is to
be gained by being open to prejudice, mine or that of anyone else. There can be no guarantee that all
prejudice has been overcome. But if one must be prejudiced, which I do not concede, let us at least,
with Aristotle, be prejudiced in favor of the truth.
The link between Heidegger's Nazism and his philosophical thought is the topic of an expanding
literature in a variety of languages. It is necessary to present a reasonably broad account of the
debate about Heidegger's politics, especially the discussion in languages other than English, for the
reader to have a sense of the complex, controversial issues at stake and the relevant texts. It is useful
to pull together the wider debate that has now become so broad as to be difficult to survey quickly if
at all. The importance of an awareness of the prior discussion of the topic is brought home by a
strategy to defend Heidegger now emerging in the American discussion, as well as elsewhere, which
consists in
bracketing the entire literature on the relation between Heidegger's philosophy and his Nazism in order
to discuss his position in total isolation from his politics,[10] and his political turning in independence of
what is now known about it.[11] In the same way as Heidegger later urged the idea of a Verwindung of
metaphysics, the idea clearly is to confront the problem posed by the discussion of Heidegger's
Nazism, not by responding to the available discussion and textual analyses, but by simply turning
one's back on it.[12] Now only a philosopher could possibly hold that knowledge is irrelevant to
judgment[13] or even prevents one from arriving at a proper understanding. Yet others, deeply
committed to Heidegger's thought, have properly seen that Heidegger's receptivity to Nazism requires
careful study since at this late date we cannot continue business as usual if we desire to understand
Heidegger's thought.[14]
In the present case, the relevant material includes not only Heidegger's exoteric writings, in which
he set out his official view of the matter, but his esoteric texts, including pertinent portions of his
published writings and of his lectures and correspondence, certain background materials, and the full
range of writings by Heidegger's defenders and critics. Hence, one criterion on which to judge this
essay is its relative success in presenting a representative sample of the relevant materials, including
materials that contradict my own reading of the issues as well as the main features of the previous
debate. Another criterion is an appropriate treatment, not of Heidegger's thought in general, surely an
enormous task, but of those portions of Heidegger's corpus which bear on the problem at issue here.
Finally, one must consider the degree of insight offered by the overall conceptual framework proposed
here into the wider theme of Heidegger's Nazism and philosophy. It is one thing to collect themes in
the secondary discussion and in Heidegger's writings relevant to a grasp of the link between his
Nazism and philosophy, and something else to weave the various strands together in an appropriate
fabric, a comprehensive theory. A measure of the usefulness of this essay is its capacity to embrace
and explain, but not to explain away, all that is now known, and to provide a place for what as yet
remains unknown about Heidegger's turning toward National Socialism and the permanent place
thereafter of Nazism in the further evolution of his philosophical thought. If it is not too much to ask, it
is my hope that in this way it will be possible to focus the debate, not on a careless word or a phrase,
as a means of evading the issues, but on a careful discussion, as serious as the serious nature of the
theme permits, of the many issues raised by the deeply rooted, permanent commitment to National
Socialism in the philosophical position of one of the most important thinkers of our time.
Revealing Concealed Nazism
The concern of this book is not with Heidegger's position as a whole, but with the link between his
Nazism and that position. Now the theme of his Nazism is only in part visible, because it is mainly
hidden, or concealed, in Heidegger's philosophy. An important part of our task will be to reveal
Heidegger's Nazism in a way that also preserves the capacity for critical judgment. Much of the
Heidegger literature is limited to exegesis in which his disciples, who routinely forgo criticism, expound
the "revealed truth."[1] On the contrary, the aim of this essay is to describe, to interpret, and, when
necessary, to criticize this aspect of his thought.
We can begin with the description of some of the main obstacles impeding access to Heidegger's
philosophical thought—in particular, access to his Nazism. Heidegger was concerned to conceal what
he was not obliged to reveal about his Nazism, to provide what can charitably be described as an
indulgent, even a distorted view of the historical record and of his thought. Some of Heidegger's
closest students, above all Karl Löwith, Otto Pöggeler, and more recently Thomas Sheehan, Theodore
Kisiel, and Dominique Janicaud, have scrupulously attempted to disclose the nature and significance of
his Nazism. Others, convinced of the importance of Heidegger's thought, have on occasion confused,
even clearly identified, allegiance to Heidegger's thought and person with the discovery of the truth. In
consequence, a certain number of obstacles, conceptual and otherwise, have arisen which impede an
objective discussion of Heidegger's Nazism. In order to discuss this topic, it will be useful to identify
the main obstacles. Accordingly, this chapter,
whose intent is prolegomenal, will be devoted to clearing away some of the conceptual underbrush
that has in the meantime grown up around the link between Heidegger's Nazism and his philosophy in
order to expose this theme for more detailed study.
Concealing and Revealing
In the modern tradition, two of the best-known views of concealment are found in Marx and Freud. On
the one hand, there is the Marxian concept of ideology, not to be identified with its Leninist cousin, or
any of the myriad variant forms, according to which what Marxists call "bourgeois thought" tends to
conceal the true state of society in order to prevent social change. [2] On the other, there is Freud's
view of repression based on the complex libidinal economy of psychoanalysis. Now these two forms of
concealment may or may not be relevant to Heidegger's thought. The dual insistence by both Ott and
Farias on the significance of Heidegger's background depends on a form of the Freudian claim, not
obviously inconsistent with Heidegger's own concept of Dasein, that thought is the conscious tip of an
unconscious iceberg. Heidegger never tires of repeating that, as existence, Dasein is prior to a rational
approach, which emerges only within existence.
To these two forms of concealment Heidegger opposes his own phenomenological view of the
problem in the context of his focus on the problem of the meaning of Being, or Seinsfrage . In Being
and Time , Heidegger maintains that there is nothing "behind" phenomena, although in the main,
phenomena are not given and hence must be elicited by phenomenology. [3] He regards what he calls
covered-up-ness, literally concealment, as the counterpart of the phenomenon. [4] Phenomenology in
his view is then nothing more than the rendering visible of that which is not visible because covered up
or hidden, which in turn leads to his characterization of phenomenological description as
interpretation, that is, the hermeneutic that elucidates the authentic structures of Being.
For Heidegger, phenomenological hiddenness, perhaps even hiddenness as such, is either
accidental or necessary. A necessary form of hiddenness is grounded in the very being of what is to be
elucidated. According to Heidegger, a phenomenon is what shows itself and phenomena can in his
words be "brought to light," or shown. [5] In Being and Time , Heidegger develops a view of truth as
disclosure (Erschlossenheit ) based on the idea that the phenomenon shows itself. [6] He maintains
that an assertion of truth presupposes the uncovering of the entity as it is in itself. [7] According to
Heidegger, what he calls Being-uncovering (Entdeckend-sein ) must be literally wrested from the
objects.[8] He sums
up his view in two points: First, truth belongs to Dasein. Second, Dasein is fundamentally in truth and
in untruth.
The theme of concealment remains important in Heidegger's later writing.[9] He further develops
his doctrine of concealment in an important essay "On the Essence of Truth" first published in 1943.
Here, in the context of the exposition of his view of truth as disclosure, he maintains that concealment
is undisclosedness, hence the untruth intrinsic to the essence of truth. [10] Unlike Hegel, Heidegger
does not regard untruth as essentially privative. Heidegger maintains that untruth or concealment is
inherent in the nature of truth itself, so that disclosure, which reveals, also conceals. He insists that
Dasein is marked by a preservation of untruth as mystery, as well as the flight from mystery toward
what is readily available, which he designates as errancy. It is only in his late essay, "The End of
Philosophy and the Task of Thinking," which appeared in 1964, that the doctrine of truth is denied, or
at least basically revised. Here, as part of the effort to leave metaphysics and philosophy behind, he
argues that uncovering is not truth but makes truth possible:
Insofar as truth is understood in the traditional "natural" sense as the correspondence of knowledge with beings
demonstrated in beings. but also insofar as truth is interpreted as the certainty of the knowledge of Being, aletheia ,
unconcealment in the sense of the opening may not be equated with truth. Rather, aletheia , unconcealment as opening.
first grants the possibility of truth.[11]
Concealing in Heidegger's Thought
The present effort to elucidate the hidden dimension and philosophical significance of Heidegger's
Nazism need not be, but in fact is, consistent with Heidegger's own view of concealment. Now
Heidegger's thought is not distinguished by the very need as such to reveal it, since the study of other
positions, particularly original theories, often encounters obstacles, linguistic, conceptual, or other,
that impede their comprehension. What distinguishes Heidegger's thought is its link to Nazism, which
is unprecedented among thinkers of the first rank and even among important philosophers in this
In virtue of its novelty, Heidegger's thought in general, not just the link between his thought and
his Nazism, is concealed in a variety of ways. In an obvious sense, a thinker who has something
importantly new to say, a novel doctrine to propose, a theory that differs in some significant way from
other views, cannot be understood quickly. The reason is simply that ideas are always comprehended
against a conceptual hori― 18 ―
zon, a background that acts as its frame of reference. As soon as a position breaks with the familiar
conceptual frameworks, either through the introduction of a new form of thought, the denial of an
essential element of what we thought we knew, or the reordering of accepted conceptions, then the
usual background that serves to promote comprehension is lacking. If a novel view is quickly
"understood," then invariably it is misunderstood. Certainly, one should not confuse the claim that a
new idea has been grasped with the grasp itself.[12] It is likely that anyone who can be understood
immediately is not a novel thinker, although the converse claim does not hold. It is even more likely
that a thinker who makes an original contribution is misunderstood in the short run and only
understood, if at all, at a later date, at a temporal remove, when the work necessary to revise the
established categories, to open the discussion to new ways of thinking, has had the time to occur.
Since Heidegger is a genuinely novel thinker who breaks with established patterns of thought, he is
difficult to understand. It is possible that Heidegger's particular philosophical contribution has not yet
been understood, or rather has so far been largely misunderstood. [13] Indeed, one of the aims of this
discussion is to suggest that despite the immense literature concerning Heidegger's position, the
intrinsic political dimension of his theory of Being has not so far been clearly seen.
The novelty of Heidegger's position is only one of the obstacles to its comprehension. The difficulty
of Heidegger's language is legendary. Other philosophers, such as Whitehead, have devised novel
terms to describe their basic insights, but Heidegger carries this practice to unusual, perhaps
unprecedented, lengths. He frequently coins new words to express his ideas, or imparts technical
meanings to available vocabulary—which he often uses in odd ways in accordance with the allegedly
original meanings supposedly covered up by the later evolution of the language—or even employs a
dash or other devices to highlight a part of the word. The result is a vocabulary that often has no usual
equivalent in German and even more frequently has no easy rendition into English. An example among
many is the term "Ent-fernung " for the ordinary German "Entfernung, " which Macquarrie and
Robinson translate by the neologism "deseverance."[14] The fact that many of Heidegger's
formulations are at best unclear only heightens the difficulty of understanding.
Heidegger's thought is also difficult to comprehend in part because of the unfinished nature of
Being and Time , his main treatise. It is well known that the published fragment is part of a much
larger work, which never appeared. The extant fragment is difficult to interpret since Heidegger
published his study before he had had a chance to give it a final form. A close reading of the text
reveals ways in which he changed his
mind on fundamental points during the writing of the book. For instance, he insists on a concept of
truth as veritas transcendentalis ,[15] similar to the Husserlian version of the traditional philosophical
view of truth, before introducing an obviously incompatible hermeneutical notion of truth. [16] The
incompatibility lies in the inability to make out a claim for the traditional philosophical notion of truth
as absolute on the basis of the relativistic terrain of hermeneutics.[17] After the book was published,
and in particular after Heidegger resigned his post as rector of the University of Freiburg in 1934, he
increasingly devoted himself— perhaps under the influence of the intervening political events—to
re-interpreting his main text in a long series of later writings. The result is that an already difficult
book, bristling with strange neologisms and novel ideas, is rendered even more difficult by Heidegger's
repeated efforts to construe his thought from an increasingly greater remove.
Heideggerian Concealment and the History of Philosophy
Heidegger's analysis of Being further conceals its relation to the history of philosophy. Now in part the
relation of philosophy to its history has long been concealed through the normative view of philosophy
current in the modern tradition. A main impulse at least since Descartes has been the preference for
systematic over historical forms of thought. The result is the effort to begin again, finally to make a
beginning, finally to make an acceptable beginning in virtue of the preference for a priori over a
posteriori types of knowledge, succinctly formulated in Kant's insistence, following Leibniz, on cognitio
ex principiis over cognitio ex datis .[18]
As the title of a well-known book about Heidegger suggests,[19] his entire philosophical career is
focused to an unusual degree on a single project, initially identified as the question of the meaning of
Being. The term "Being" refers to "Being in general," or the "Being of beings," as distinguished from
beings, or entities, such as shoes or ships or sealing wax. Heidegger's conviction that since the early
Greeks this question has been forgotten, or covered over, so that he needs to destroy later
metaphysics in order to return to the original, and solely valid, form of the question, points both
toward and away from the importance of the history of philosophy for Heidegger's position. His
assertion that the Seinsfrage , or at least the Seinsfrage in its authentic form, has been forgotten since
early in the philosophical tradition strongly suggests that his own thought cannot depend on other
views in the history of philosophy which he seeks to "destroy" as the condition of freeing up the proper
approach to Being.[20] Heidegger is unquestionably equipped with
a deep, in fact unusual, command of the historical tradition; yet his own argument implies that his
theory is independent of the history of philosophy, more precisely of anything that happened in the
tradition after the pre-Socratics, or at the latest Aristotle.
The implication that Heidegger's own thought is independent of the history of philosophy since the
Greeks—which derives from a strategic move on his part to open the path leading to Being—tends to
insulate his position from critical scrutiny. In effect, as a result of this move Heidegger contends that
his thought is not only original but sui generis. If it differs not only in degree but in kind from any
others, that is, all the other views in earlier and contemporary philosophical discussion, then obviously
it cannot be understood or evaluated through comparison with them.
Heidegger's references to later thinkers, particularly in Being and Time , are mainly negative.
Partly for this reason, Heidegger has been accused of distorting, in fact deliberately concealing, his
dependence on previous writers, for instance Kierkegaard.[21] Others have suggested a wider
philosophical debt including Nietzsche,[22] Jünger,[23] and others. My own view is that there is a
strongly Kantian component in his thought. I think that his study of Being as present under the mode
of absence can be regarded as a variant of the Kantian dualistic analysis of noumenon and
phenomenon, mediated by such neo-Kantian thinkers as Rickert and Lask. This claim implies that
Heidegger's view of Being is circumscribed by the dualistic Kantian framework that structures most
later discussion in the German tradition.
Heidegger's strategy to free his position from dependence on the preceding philosophical
discussion, a strategy that is neither convincing nor original, impedes the comprehension of his
position. An example, among many, of the effort to break with the prior philosophical tradition is
Kant's claim, in the famous passage on the Copernican Revolution, that his own position represents a
clean break with prior thought.[24] The grounds for Kant's introduction of the Copernican Revolution is
that all previous efforts at knowledge have failed and that we need to invoke a new approach,
represented by him as systematic. If "critical" means, as it does in Kant's thought, "not dogmatic" but
"demonstrable," then we can inquire about the nature of the proof. Now a proof of the critical
philosophy is not forthcoming on the a priori, systematic plane it favors, since its claim rests in part on
the alleged failure of prior views, that is, on a reading of the history of philosophy. Even Kant's effort
to establish the transcendental conditions of the possibility of any knowledge whatsoever is historically
tinged, dependent on its relation to other theories in the philosophical tradition.
Heidegger's position is highly dependent on a wide variety of modern
philosophers and even some nonphilosophers, such as Hölderlin, Jünger, and others. The dependence
of Heidegger's thought on the preceding philosophical tradition is apparent in at least three ways.
First, and most generally, we have already noted that all positions depend on prior thought for their
evaluation, for their claim to advance the discussion. Second, Heidegger's argument depends on the
history of philosophy since he needs to carry out his "destruction" of metaphysics in order to
demonstrate the assertion that forms of ontology later than those of the Greeks have taken an
incorrect turning in the road to Being. If he cannot show that later views of ontology are incorrect,
then his claim to recover the only correct approach to Being, which has meanwhile lain hidden, is
undercut. Third, his desire to return to origins, in this case the proposed return to the hidden
beginnings of the philosophical discussion of Being, is merely another form of the widespread modern
philosophical interest in bringing about an end to the discipline. In that precise sense, Heidegger's
view is largely traditional.
Heidegger's Nazism and the Expert Commentator
An account of obstacles to an appreciation of Heidegger's Nazism needs to address the role of the
Heidegger discussion in an enormous and still rapidly growing literature. Obviously, the justification for
the debate concerning any thinker, including Heidegger, can only be to illuminate and ultimately to
evaluate the position in question, which it must seek to reveal rather than to conceal. Unfortunately,
the fact that this principle is often honored in the breach because of the evolution of the philosophical
discipline itself has contributed in a powerful way to impeding access to Heidegger's thought,
particularly to his Nazism.
Philosophy feeds on itself as the condition of its further progress. Despite the recent insistence on
the independence of system from history, it is rather obvious that philosophy relies, indeed has always
relied, on its preceding tradition for insight and impetus. Now the great philosophers are rarely if ever
specialists in the interpretation of one or another body of thought, although their positions often
depend on their understanding of a preceding position, as Aristotle depends on Plato, Spinoza depends
on Descartes, Kant depends on Leibniz and Hume, and Fichte depends on Kant. But the recent
development of philosophy has seen the emergence of the expert commentator, the person whose
career is closely linked to the knowledge and interpretation of a single position, whose works he or she
tends to know intimately and whose details loom large in the interpretation. This phenomenon is now
almost pandemic in
the academy, where whole careers are built upon superior knowledge of Dickens, or Proust, or
Mozart's music.
The phenomenon of the expert commentator figures largely in the role of Heideggerians in the
interpretation of the master's thought. Heideggerians have always claimed, rightly in my view, that
Heidegger's thought presents unusual difficulties. Heideggerians have tended to seize on the
difficulties of Heidegger's thought in order to make of its interpretation an almost mystical, hieratic
process. The result, in imitation of Heidegger's own strategy, is to shield Heidegger's thought from any
attempt at criticism.
If the only person who is acknowledged as sufficiently versed in a position, say Heidegger's, is
someone whose entire professional career centers on the position in question, then philosophy is no
longer the affair of philosophers in general. In modern times, certainly until relatively recently, through
the time of the British empiricists, at least until Kant, virtually anyone, such as gifted amateurs like
Descartes or Locke, could participate in the discussion on an equal footing. But this changes if the
discussion is restricted to experts only, that is, to specialized students of a particular thinker, a
particular question, a particular period. The result is to exclude not only the gifted amateur but even
the professional philosopher whose lack of the most intimate knowledge of the position is taken to
mean that it is in principle beyond his or her grasp.
It is obvious that the rise of the expert commentator tends to reduce or even to eliminate
criticism. Here we need to distinguish between the way into philosophy through the study of a position
and the professional expert commentator. It is often the case that one will write a dissertation, or
even a first book on a given thinker, say on Wittgenstein, about whom one is enthusiastic, and then
later change one's mind and reject that view as part of the maturation process of developing one's
own point of view. This is very different from the approach of the expert commentator, who is much
less likely to reject that about which he or she is expert. Someone whose career is built on detailed
knowledge of a given position, for instance a Platohist who really "knows" Plato and the Plato literature
in a thorough way, is exceedingly unlikely to offer fundamental criticism that places the entire theory,
or even a part of it, in jeopardy. The obvious fact that Heidegger experts inevitably have a heavy
professional investment in the importance, even the correctness, of his position explains their
widespread reluctance to call it in question in any but the most timid manner.
The reduction of criticism due to the rise of the expert commentator is now widespread in the
philosophical discipline at the present time. There is now increasing stress on the creation of
specialized societies, with specialized publications, accompanied by specialized professional meetings,
as philosophy, in imitation of nearly all forms of academic research, continues to fragment itself. The
result is to inhibit philosophical change, even to impede philosophical progress. Obviously, philosophy
advances through the scrutiny of previous views, which later thinkers find wanting in one respect or
another and which they eventually seek to improve or replace. If the scrutiny of previous views is
reduced to minute textual observations, then philosophical progress, such as it is, tends to diminish,
even to come to an end. It is not privileged information that at present it is easier to advance in the
profession by hanging around well-known colleagues and massaging their egos than by an effort at
articulating a fundamental disagreement. Marxists talk about Marxists, Quine scholars dialogue with
Quine scholars, Husserlians meet among themselves. But although the contact of experts, a frequent
form of the manifestation of the rise of the expert commentator, often produces useful discussion, it
inevitably tends as well to reduce the type of basic criticism that enables the discussion to progress
beyond the particular view, even the particular form of the particular, under consideration.
There is a pronounced tendency among Heideggerian scholars to limit the Heidegger discussion to
themselves. As a consequence the discussion becomes less adventurous, but perhaps more
surefooted. This possible advantage is, however, dissipated by the transformation of what at best is a
strategy for access to Heidegger's position through expert analysis into a strategy intended to prevent
those outside of the Heideggerian fold from criticizing his thought. This tactic, which is much in
evidence in the debate on Heidegger's Nazism, takes a number of different forms, including stress on
the difficulty of rendering Heidegger's terminology, admittedly difficult by the standards of ordinary
academic German, into other languages. I well remember a lecture of one and a half hours I attended
devoted merely to the translation of the term "Gestell " into French. More recently, the undoubted
linguistic unease in the translation of key terms has been transformed into a watershed question, in
which defenders of the faith protect the master thinker through the claim that others are incapable of
comprehending the central terms of his position. A particularly uncompromising form of this tactic
consists in the denial that an outsider either does or possibly could understand the Heideggerian
position. Examples include De Waehlens's assertion that Löwith, Heidegger's former student and later
colleague, was not sufficiently versed in the thought of the master to criticize it, and Derrida's claim
that Farias, who spent a dozen years writing a book about Heidegger's Nazism, could not possibly have
spent more than an hour studying Heidegger's thought. A more general form of this tactic is to
characterize whatever one says about the master thinker as metaphysics on the theory that Heidegger
has somehow gone beyond it. This is
tantamount to claiming that, as Ryle used to say, there is a category mistake since a metaphysical
statement cannot possibly apply to Heidegger's view.[25]
The tendency to limit the Heideggerian discussion to Heidegger scholars works to preserve the
Heideggerian view from prying eyes by rendering it invisible to any but the orthodox believer. To
accept this requirement is to place a nearly insuperable obstacle in the path of any effort to come to
grips with Heidegger's Nazism. With rare exceptions, the orthodox Heidegger scholar is highly unlikely
to offer such criticism, since to do so is to admit that a professional career is focused on a thinker
whose relentless pursuit of Being was centrally related to Nazism; and anyone who seriously objects
can simply be dismissed as not knowledgeable enough to pass judgment. In effect, Heidegger's
thought, like Plato's reality, then becomes a secret visible to men of gold only, something which only
they can know and about which others can at best have no more than opinions. In this way,
Heidegger's position can be worshiped but not evaluated as philosophy transforms itself into theology.
Heidegger's Nazism
In practice, the discussion of Heidegger in the literature has often constituted a major hindrance to an
appreciation of the extent and significance of his Nazism. The obstacles that specifically impede a
comprehension of Heidegger's Nazism are of three kinds: those due to Heidegger's largely successful
effort to manipulate the discussion of his writings through the presentation of an "official" view of his
Nazism and its relation to his thought; those due to the affirmation and development of what I am
calling the official view as a specialized aspect of the enormous Heidegger secondary literature; and
finally those which are not strictly philosophical at all. Heidegger's own understanding of his Nazism is
displayed in an article written in 1945, in the famous Spiegel interview, and in hints scattered
throughout his later texts. Heidegger's closest followers have developed Heidegger's own view of the
matter in the course of the lengthy, often intense debate that continues to oppose Heidegger's critics
and, defenders on the theme of Heidegger's political views. The concern by some to defend
Heidegger's person and thought at all costs has in practice led to further impediments to a grasp of his
Nazism that are not always of a strictly philosophical nature, including simple problems of securing
appropriate access to the texts.
What we can call "the facts" about Heidegger's Nazism have been known at least in part since the
end of the Second World War. They are still not fully known since despite strenuous efforts by a small
group of writers, most prominently Schneeberger, Ott, and Farias, efforts are
under way to protect Heidegger, or his reputation, by hindering the release of factual material known
to exist, above all in Marbach, where the Heidegger Archives are still closed to scholars.[26]
We can begin with that part of the factual material which is not in dispute and which is accepted
by all observers. From a factual perspective, we know at least the following: Heidegger initially took up
a position at Marburg, and when Husserl retired, Heidegger assumed his chair at the University of
Freiburg. In 1933, Heidegger was elected to the post of rector of the University of Freiburg by his
colleagues and became a member of the Nazi party. In the spring of that year, on the occasion of
taking his position as rector, he gave the rectoral address (Rektoratsrede ). In 1934 he resigned his
position as rector and returned to teaching. After the Second World War, he was interrogated by the
Allies and, mainly on the recommendation of Karl Jaspers, prevented from resuming his position in the
university, although he was not formally charged with any war crimes. He was later permitted to
resume teaching. He continued to write and occasionally to teach until the end of his life. Although he
was often asked about the rectoral period, he avoided explicit comment except for two occasions: a
posthumously published article, written in 1945; and an interview in 1966 with a popular weekly
magazine, Der Spiegel which, on his explicit request, was published only ten years later when he died.
If this were all there were to say, Heidegger's Nazism would not be interesting, certainly not more
than faintly so, above all not philosophically interesting. There were many, including a distressing
number of philosophers, those strange masters of blindness and insight, who had a brief relation to
Nazism for a variety of reasons. Heidegger's relation was, however, different from other such
encounters, in fact in some ways unprecedented. Let us now provide a partial enumeration of some of
these differences. An obvious factor is the fact that Heidegger stands absolutely alone among the
major thinkers of this century as a voluntary adherent of Nazism. [27] If there were no other reason,
then the fact that Heidegger was the only important philosopher to become a Nazi is worthy of
But this is not the only factor, since although Heidegger refused to comment publicly on his
Nazism, his writings contain a series of cryptic hints concerning this episode. In his usual ambiguous
style, Heidegger indicates that he confronted National Socialism in his writings and left it behind him,
something Heideggerians like to stress.[28] Heidegger implies that he has come to grips with Nazism
in several texts, including the account of the turning (Kehre ) in his thought in the "Letter on
Humanism"[29] and the remark in the Spiegel interview that his initial course on Hölderlin and his
courses on Nietzsche were a confrontation (Ausei― 26 ―
I believe that Heidegger's version of his Nazism is overly
nandersetzung ) with National Socialism.
indulgent, tendentious, and misleading. In my view, Heidegger's presentation of his Nazism as
essentially meaningless occludes, or conceals, its deep significance for the understanding and
evaluation of his view of Being. I hold that the study of the texts themselves presents a rather
different view of the matter less favorable to Heidegger and in fact damaging to his thought.
One impediment to a comprehension of Heidegger's Nazism is the misleading series of hints about
it in Heidegger's texts, hints that taken together constitute his own "official" view of the situation. In
Heidegger's wake, a certain number of his followers have presented a version of events which at most
denies, at least minimizes, and in any case further distorts Heidegger's Nazism as well as its relation to
his thought. The result has been an effort, extending now over several decades, to construe
Heidegger's turn to National Socialism in a way that is not harmful, or at least no more than minimally
harmful, to the philosopher. Writers engaged in this task include some of his most important French
students, but a number of others, all of whom follow Heidegger's own lead in an effort at what—in
language more familiar from the political realm, but appropriate here, since the aim is clearly
political—can charitably be called damage control.[31]
A strong statement tending to call in question the life and thought of a major thinker requires
strong evidence. One factor is Heidegger's scandalous refusal to comment on his Nazism during his
lifetime over a period of more than forty years. Then there is Heidegger's infamous stress on the
supposedly misunderstood essence of National Socialism in a work republished in 1953.[32] Further,
there is the exchange of letters with Herbert Marcuse, in which Heidegger seemed to justify Nazism, as
well as the comparison, in an unpublished lecture on technology, between the Nazi extermination of
the Jews and agricultural technology.[33]
Attention to these and other passages in his writings suggests that Heidegger did not engage in a
confrontation with National Socialism; on the contrary, he sought to conceal the nature of his original
and continued interest in Nazism. His writings, then, call in question his own publicly stated view of the
matter and suggest that the "official" view, due to Heidegger and propagated by his disciples, is
incomplete, inaccurate, or both. This suggestion is further supported by the role of the Heidegger
family in controlling access to his Nachlass . Germany, until recently West Germany, has long
maintained exceedingly strict restrictions on unauthorized publication. It is, then, relevant to note that
the Heidegger family has consistently refused publication of a number of important documents
concerning Heidegger's Nazism and restricted access to Heidegger's unpublished work. [34] This
restriction even extends to the publica― 27 ―
tion of Heidegger's collected works, now under way. The collected works of a major thinker usually,
perhaps even always, contain the extant correspondence. In Heidegger's case, his correspondence
would almost certainly provide important evidence for an evaluation of his Nazism, especially through
the publication of his correspondence as rector of the University of Freiburg. It is, hence, significant
that the edition of his collected works now in preparation, in a clear departure from the practice for the
writings of a major thinker, will omit his letters.
The aim of this chapter has been to identify some of the obstacles impeding responsible study of
Heidegger's Nazism. It is not meant as, and cannot take the place of, a detailed discussion of the texts
themselves. This chapter has shown that the scrutiny of Heidegger's Nazism presents formidable
obstacles due to the peculiar nature of his thought, as well as the efforts consistently deployed by
himself, certain students, and even his family, to prevent an accurate understanding of his Nazism
from emerging and to propagate an interpretation that is more charitable to Heidegger than to the
truth. We can add to this complex situation the fact that more than forty-five years after the end of
the Second World War many, including a number of Heidegger's disciples, are less than eager to
engage in a dispassionate analysis of a difficult period, in which they were personally involved, and to
which their relationship remains ambiguous. There is, hence, reason to believe that after some four
decades of discussion beginning in the 1940s we still do not fully comprehend the nature of
Heidegger's Nazism nor understand its relation to his philosophical thought. The remainder of this
essay will be devoted to an elucidation and interpretation of Heidegger's Nazism and an evaluation of
its significance for his philosophy, even for philosophy in a wider sense.
The Nazi Turning and the Rectoral Address
The preceding chapter, which was prolegomenal, identified obstacles tending to impede a
comprehension of Heidegger's Nazism, above all the smoke screens propagated by Heidegger and his
closest followers. This chapter will provide the difficult transition to study of the relevant textual
material. It is relatively easy to identify impediments to an understanding of Heidegger's Nazism. It is
much more difficult to analyze Heidegger's Nazism and its relation to his philosophical thought. It is an
indisputable fact that in the period after the publication of Being and Time , the magisterial statement
of his fundamental ontology, Heidegger turned to Nazism. The problem that arises can be stated in
question form: How are we to understand Heidegger's turn to Nazism? In asking this question, my aim
is not to determine the role that Heidegger could conceivably have played in the difficult situation in
the later 1920s in Germany in Hitler's rise to power.[1] On the contrary, I am interested in the
opposite question: how is Heidegger's Nazi turning related to his philosophical position? It is not
sufficient merely to aim at a total explanation of human behavior, at a total grasp of human being.[2]
If we are to understand the nature and significance of Heidegger's political turning for his philosophy,
then we must study the importance of his philosophy of Being for his Nazism, for his political practice.
The difficulty, which is real, is that we do not understand in general how thought relates to practice. In
order, then, to understand the link between Heidegger's philosophy and politics, between his
fundamental ontology and his Nazism, it will be necessary to devise an explanatory framework.
What I am calling Heidegger's Nazi turning is a complex process that
is not reducible to any single event nor even to the endorsement of a single doctrine. Heidegger's
private embrace of National Socialism apparently occurred as early as 1931, well before the electoral
victory of the NSDAP. His public turn toward Nazism obviously occurred when he joined the Nazi party
on 1 May 1933. On a philosophical plane, his Nazi turning took place in the rectoral speech delivered
on the occasion of Heidegger's formal assumption of the rectorate of the University of Freiburg. It is
important to distinguish between the turn to Nazism and the basis for its occurrence. I believe that
Heidegger's Nazi turning can be understood as the result of factors external and internal to his
thought, that is, factors that impinged upon him and others in the period toward the end of the
Weimar Republic, as well as his philosophical position that arose in this political, social, and historical
setting. This chapter will study factors within and outside of Heidegger's fundamental ontology leading
to Heidegger's turn toward National Socialism; it will further examine a crucial exoteric document: the
rectoral address.
Extraphilosophic Factors in Heidegger's Nazi Turning
Heidegger's turning to Nazism is not explicable through any single factor or type of factor. It has been
held that his Nazi turn is due merely to his philosophy or merely to nonphilosophical reasons. [3] In
fact, it is the result of both philosophical and extraphilosophical—or, for want of a better term,
"existential"—factors. Among the many factors that are cited as influencing the rise of Nazism, beyond
Adolf Hitler, are "German philosophy, romantic mysticism, anti-Semitism, the 'stab in the back'
argument aimed at the Weimar Republic, German big business, the German economy in the wake of
the Versailles treaty, the Prussian tradition, insidious occultism associated with 'ariosophy,' and the
threat of Stalinist communism."[4] Factors that led to National Socialism were part of the social,
political, and historical background when Heidegger turned to Nazism. Among the many factors
ingredient in the wider background in which Heidegger's philosophical position emerged and in which
he turned to Nazism, three are particularly important for his own political evolution: the decline of the
Weimar Republic, the prevailing conservative political thought, and the Volk ideology it expressed.
Historical Background: the Weimar Republic
Since a political engagement does not occur in a social, political, and conceptual vacuum, it is useful to
indicate, at least in outline, some of
the main features of the social context when Heidegger became rector. [5] The Nazi accession to power
occurred against the background of German history. Under Bismarck, the minister of war for Wilhelm
I, Germany was unified, Schleswig-Holstein was wrested from Denmark, and Prussia took the place
previously occupied by Austria. Germany successfully waged war against France, increased its imperial
power, and acquired foreign colonies. The expansion and consolidation of German power came to an
abrupt halt with the end of the First World War, culminating in the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919,
which was widely perceived as a humiliation by the defeated German population.
The Weimar Republic arose and can be understood against the background of more than a half
century of imperialist expansion through war.[6] It was proclaimed on 9 November 1918 in
Weimar—the site of the intellectual circle centered around Goethe, one of the greatest humanists in
the history of European culture—by the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann. The Weimar Republic
prospered during the golden twenties, which culminated in the world economic crisis in 1929. [7] The
history of the Weimar Republic describes a short period of hope symbolized by the introduction of a
republican form of government, in an obvious reaction against the consequences of German
imperialism, which then quickly degenerated into one of the worst tyrannies the world has ever known.
Whether the hope was ever justified, whether the period of the Weimar Republic was more than a
failed effort at the introduction of a liberal democratic form of goverment in the interregnum between
two world wars, is a topic of scholarly debate.
Even before the outbreak of economic depression, the Weimar Republic suffered from a series of
deep ideological, social, political, and economic problems. The world economic crisis that arose in 1929
led to enormous inflation and staggering unemployment, among other social problems. It was
accompanied by an almost palpable sense of decay in the university and many other areas of German
life.[8] In Heidegger's philosophy, the influence of this particular problem is visible in Heidegger's
analysis, in a lecture course, of the prevailing mood as one of boredom and in the rectoral talk in his
concern to defend what he refers to as the essence of the German university. There was further a
clear sense of instability, a belief that things could not just continue on the same course, a conviction
that something needed to be done, a longing for a solution, even a radical measure to transform the
situation in steady deterioration. The final part of the Weimar period has been aptly described,
immediately before Hitler took office, as follows: "This, then, was the Weimar Republic in 1932: clear
vision and political impotence, fear, suspicion, and moments of irrational hope, among the politi― 31 ―
cians of the middle, politics as usual, but with everyone else, a sense of emergency."[9]
The reasons for the demise of the Weimar Republic are still not clear. One possibility is the failure
to comprehend the growing threat of the imperialism of German monopoly capital. [10] Another is the
concern with political freedom as the means to an end rather than an end in itself. [11] Yet another is
the perpetration of a conservative revolution from the right. [12] Still others include the polarization
between various right- and left-wing extremes, the idea of a democracy not itself democratic—both of
which suggest that "the people" in a collective sense was in some sense responsible for the Republic's
end—the fascist seizure of power, the interplay of certain forces, and so on. [13] What is known is that
the outbreak of a world economic crisis destabilized a weak government, exacerbating social and
political tensions, which in turn contributed to an unexpected Nazi electoral victory in July 1932. The
end of the Republic less than a decade and a half after it began was hastened when von Papen
persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor. It finally ended with the resignation of Kurt von
Schleicher on 28 January 1933 and the assumption of power by Adolf Hitler on 30 January of that
year, which led straight into Nazi tyranny.[14]
The complex series of events that led to the Nazi assumption of power is different from its
significance.[15] The German revolution that began in 1933 and led to a second defeat of Germany
was only the continuation of the historical process begun under Bismarck, which came to a temporary
halt, during the Weimar period, at the end of the First World War. If this is true, then the rise of
National Socialism can be regarded as an effort to win a war that had already been lost, to renew with
a political approach the momentum temporarily suspended during the Weimar Republic, which
unsuccessfully sought to lead Germany in another direction, to restore German self-esteem and
confidence—in short, to bring about the historical realization of the German people. [16]
Conservative Political Thought
Heidegger's concern with the contemporary situation can be understood in the context of the interest
of German intellectuals in general with modern life. He was one of a large group of German
intellectuals who found change unsettling and who in various ways longed for a return to an earlier,
more stable social structure.[17] He shared the widespread conservative worldview that emerged after
the loss of the First World War, including conservative revolutionary tendencies, visible in his Nazi
turning, and the rejection of the liberal democratic conception
embodied by the Weimar Republic. He further shared the anticapitalist romanticism that emerged
toward the end of the nineteenth century and that can be symbolized by the opposition between Kultur
and Zivilisation , according to which culture in the deep sense required a rejection of modernity. [18]
This view is evident in Heidegger's writings in his cult of Greek thought as the true form of philosophy.
Yet it is important not to confuse the widespread conservativism of this period with support for
National Socialism, which at the peak of its electoral success in the elections of April and July 1932
garnered no more than 37 percent of the popular vote. [19]
Heidegger shared the growing sense of unease widely felt by German intellectuals in the waning
days of the Weimar Republic.[20] This intellectual sense of dismay found expression among German
intellectuals in a concern to "locate" human being with respect to the present. Two extremes can be
represented by Max Scheler, the phenomenologist and Jewish convert to Catholicism, whose thought
influenced Heidegger's, and Karl Mannheim, a prominent sociologist who studied with the Marxist
Lukács and with Heidegger. In 1928 in the "Author's Preface" to his last uncompleted book,
significantly entitled Man's Place in Nature , Scheler writes in reference to contemporary work in
philosophical anthropology: "In spite of this, however, man is more of a problem to himself at the
present time than ever before in all recorded history."[21] Only one year later, from a radically
different angle of vision, Mannheim observes that it is "imperative in the present transitional epoch to
make use of the intellectual twilight which dominates our epoch and in which all values and points of
view appear in their genuine relativity. We must realize once and for all that the meanings which make
up our world are simply an historically determined and continuously developing structure in which man
develops, and are in no sense absolute."[22]
Heidegger further shared the rejection, following from the concern to seek a third way between
liberal democracy and Bolshevism, of modernity as such. Heidegger is already opposed to
Cartesianism, a central form of modern philosophy, as early as 1919. Yet modernity is not a problem
in Heidegger's fundamental ontology, either in Being and Time or in his other early writings. So far as I
know, the word "modernity" does not even occur in the book. The question, however, of what
Blumenberg has felicitously called the "legitimacy of the modern age" is in retrospect an obvious issue
for Heidegger's philosophy.[23] As became clear in the later evolution of his thought—in his rejection
of both metaphysics or modern theory and technology or modern practice—his conception of ontology
brought him into conflict with anything modern as such. A typical instance is his later comment in a
lecture course that
the danger we face lies not in the decline of the West but in the acceptance and development of the
idea of modernity.[24]
Heidegger's embrace of National Socialism is exceptional only for the importance of his thought
and the depth of his commitment. But his failure to oppose Nazism is typical of the behavior of
German philosophers in general. It is not well known, in part because German philosophy during the
Nazi period has not often been studied, that German philosophy played an equivocal role at this
time.[25] It has been said that German philosophy failed in three different ways: in removing or even
weakening the barriers against National Socialism, in creating an intellectual atmosphere propitious to
it, and in apologizing for it.[26] Certainly, German philosophers both collectively and individually did
little to prevent the rise of Nazism.
When one reads the texts from this period, the widespread insensitivity among philosophers to the
specific currents, such as anti-Semitism, that shortly led to National Socialism is striking. An example
among many is Heidegger's remark in a letter of 1926 to Jaspers, who was married to a Jewish
woman, about the concern in the University of Marburg to appoint a non-Jew and if at all possible a
German nationalist, a remark that typically evoked no protest from Jaspers.[27] It has been pointed
out that many Germans unsympathetic to Hitler's anti-Semitism were willing to cooperate with him to
revise the Versailles treaty and in general to strengthen Germany's position in Europe. [28] Indeed, it is
a mistake to consider anti-Semitism as the single crucial problem, or maybe even as crucial at all,
since it was not one of the central themes in Hitler's rise to power. [29]
Once Nazism had taken power, German philosophers typically either rushed to ingratiate
themselves with the National Socialist movement, or at least failed to reject it. When they did reject it,
they mainly did so in an ineffectual manner, for instance in Husserl's noble but pathetic call to defend
the ancient Greek distinction between knowledge and opinion in order to resist the rise of Nazi
barbarism.[30] In retrospect, however, Husserl's rejection of National Socialism, weak as it
unfortunately was, shines like a beacon in comparison with the more typical philosophical effort to
embrace, or at least to cooperate with, Hitler's movement, above all by Martin Heidegger. It is a
matter of record that there is no important protest against Nazism by the German philosophical
community.[31] Although this has been explained through the unpolitical nature of German
philosophers, in fact many German philosophers who represented themselves as unpolitical were
intensely political beings, including Heidegger. In 1933, when Heidegger issued his claim as the rector
of the University of Freiburg to be the philosophical Führer of National
Socialism, he was only one of numerous philosophers each of whom claimed to provide the only
correct idea of the new Nazi state through his own philosophy, including Krieck, Bauemler, Rothacker,
Gehlen, and others.[32]
Although Hitler only came to power in 1933, as early as the presidential elections in early 1932 a
manifesto of personal support for Hitler was issued by six professors, including a philosopher, Carl
August Enge, professor of law (Rechtsphilosophie ) in Jena and scientific director of the Nietzsche
Archives in Jena.[33] Between this initial manifesto and the election of the Reichstag in November
1933, there were no fewer than four other manifestos in which a progressively greater number of
philosophers participated.[34] On the occasion of the vote for the Reichstag in November 1933, no
fewer than a thousand professors, after an address by Heidegger, publicly acknowledged their support
for Hitler and the National Socialist state, including Heidegger, N. Ach, O. F. Bollnow, O. Dittrich, K.
Graf Dürckheim, H. Freyer, H.-G. Gadamer, A. Gehlen, J. E. Heyde, E. Jaensch, G. Krüger, F. Krueger,
K. Leese, P. Lersch, H. Lipps, F. Lipsius, T. Litt, D. Mahnke, H. Noack, K. J. Obenauer, J. Ritter, H.
Sauer, W. Schingnitz, H. Schneider, H. Schwarz, and W. Wirth.[35]
In fact, philosophical support for Hitler began even earlier. For instance, Ernst Krieck, professor of
pedagogy, with whom Heidegger later collaborated on the National Socialist reform of German higher
education, was disciplined for a pro-Nazi speech in 1931; and when he joined the NSDAP on 1 January
1932, he was suspended. Until the end of 1932, slightly more than 1 percent of the German academic
establishment had publicly taken a position for Hitler, including eight philosophers: Enge, Schwarz,
Krueger, Krieck, Baeumler, Rothacker, Bornhausen, and Jaensch.[36] Apparently the numbers would
have been even larger had other philosophical colleagues, like German academics in general, not held
back for tactical considerations.[37] The awareness of political consequences was not misplaced, since
a number of academics, including more than thirty philosophers, quickly lost their positions in
1933.[38] Among the philosophers, in April, Max Horkheimer, Karl Mannheim, Paul Tillich, and
Siegfried Marck; then in July Ernst von Aster was fired and August Messer and Hans Driesch were
forcibly retired; and Bernhard Groethuysen was chased out of the university. [39] Other philosophers
who were let go in 1933 include Richard Hönigswald, Ernst Cassirer, Jonas Cohn, Arthur Liebert,
Dietrich yon Hildebrandt, Helmuth Plessner, Martin Buber, and Theodor Adorno. [40]
From a political perspective, Heidegger largely shared the conservative tendencies prevalent after
the First World War, including the basic acceptance, or at least tolerance, of National Socialism with
of its biological anti-Semitism, which was declined by most academics, and his participation, surprising
for Heidegger, who seems to have had few or no personal heroes, in the Hitler cult. Heidegger followed
other conservative intellectuals in rejecting both Bolshevism and liberalism of all kinds. But he carried
his cooperation with Nazism further than most other academics, certainly further than any philosopher
with the exception of Ernst Krieck. The main difference between Heidegger and all other philosophers,
including Krieck, was his impressive ability to express his conservative worldview, itself typical of the
conservative mood of the times among intellectuals, in a series of philosophical doctrines. These
doctrines, all of which are deeply rooted in his philosophy of Being, include: the rejection of a
democratic form of government as antithetical to modern life, particularly evident in the Spiegel
interview; the philosophical reworking of Schmitt's conception of decisionism, the basis of the Führer
principle, in his own conception of resoluteness;[41] the rejection of modernity itself in his espousal of
Nietzsche's diagnosis of nihilism and European nihilism; and his own later rejection of technology.
The Volk and German Romanticism
The concern of conservative German intellectuals, including a large proportion of German academics,
to seek a third way between the failed liberalism incarnated by the Weimar Republic and the
Bolshevism which they unanimously feared was motivated by both historical and conceptual factors.
On the one hand, it was motivated by such historical circumstances as the concern to redeem the
German defeat in the First World War, to restore German honor and pride. But it was also spurred on
by the reactionary tradition of German Volk -thought, with its stress on the historical realization and
exaltation of the Germans as German, which impelled both the imperialist movement stemming from
Bismarck and the National Socialist conception of the German nation. In Mein Kampf , Hitler clearly
stressed the fact of belonging to the German Volk , namely the conception of nationality (Volkstum ,
from Volk ), as more important than the state, which was merely a means to the achievement and
preservation of the higher form of human being. [42]
The Volk perspective, which is older than Nazism, was already an important current in
nineteenth-century German thought. It emerged as a romantic response to the general problem of
human being in modern society, the so-called condition humaine , with important ties to German
romanticism and conservative thinking. The völkisch perspective, like romanticism with which it is
allied, represents an approach to the problems of modern life which eschews rational solutions of any
kind, includ― 36 ―
ing economic analysis, social reform, and so on, in favor of an emphasis on human being in an often
mystical sense. It differs from romanticism, which places primary emphasis on the individual, in the
appeal to supraindividual, mystical forces and the stress on the people writ large. The importance of
the individual is limited to the belonging to the group, typically the nation or the race, or both. Unlike
romanticism, which is often apolitical, völkisch thought is typically related to extr
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Check out our programme dates for 2020.
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Why our work matters
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Home Resources *UPDATED* How can your museum support children and young people to understand and respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency?
*UPDATED* How can your museum support children and young people to understand and respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency?
We believe museums can play a role in supporting children and young people’s activism in response to the climate emergency.
Members of the National Museum Cardiff Youth Forum with plastic found on Welsh beaches, which they used to create a new exhibition.
This guide, created in partnership with Climate Museum UK, Happy Museum Project and Julie’s Bicycle, sets out ways your museum could support young people and take a stand on environmental issues.
On 29 November 2019, we updated the resource to show solidarity with #FridaysForFuture and #MuseumsForFuture, and to include more examples in this growing area of practice.
How can your museum support children and young people to understand and respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency?
According to the 2018 Special Report published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have until 2030 (about ten years at time of writing) to act to limit global temperature rises to 1.5˚c. Temperature rises above this level are likely to have a severe impact for hundreds of millions of people, causing floods, droughts, extreme heat and poverty.
The Climate and Ecological Emergency affects everyone, but its impact will be felt most by children and young people and they are becoming increasing concerned by the issue. In the 2017 Global Shapers Survey of around 30,000 young people under 30, climate change and the destruction of nature was identified as the most serious global issue. Since Greta Thunberg walked out of school to protest about her government’s response to the climate emergency, there have been youth climate strikes in more than 200 countries involving 9.6 million strikers according to Fridays for Future.
Museums can play an important role in supporting young people to learn more about the Climate and Ecological Emergency, to discuss and debate the issues surrounding it and to get involved with social action to achieve long-term change. Young people’s activism on these issues has the potential to be very effective in helping them to feel empowered in the face of a global problem, to increase their sense of wellbeing, and to deliver messages about the need for action to adults – as shown in a recent American study.
Museums are trusted as sources of reliable information and education, but they are also increasingly seen as places for discussion about contemporary issues and as sites for social action. This is particularly valued by younger visitors. In a 2017 survey by Museum Next USA, young people said they were more likely to visit a museum with displays about issues that were relevant to them, such as climate change.
Museums are ideally placed to help children and young people act in response to the Climate and Ecological Emergency. This could mean anything from encouraging families to use less plastic at home, to supporting a climate strike, and many things in between.
There are a range of considerations when planning a project with children and young people in response to the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
Think about your organisation’s current position on climate change and involvement with social action
If your organisation is engaging with children and young people on climate and environment, are you also leading by example? What plans and policies does your organisation already have in place? What positive environmental action are you taking? Julie’s Bicycle have a range of practical resources and a Museums’ Environmental Framework to help develop environmental action. You might want to consider the environmental credentials of particular parts of your organisation such as the café. The Horniman Museum and Gardens Café introduced a ‘no single use plastics’ policy last year.
In May 2019, the UK parliament declared a Climate Emergency. This declaration has been mirrored in a number of sectors including culture and museums. Would your organisation consider publicly declaring their commitment to taking action to respond to the emergency by becoming part of Culture Declares Emergency? You might also want to look at the global Museums for Future movement. Supporting these initiatives could be important in communicating your values to the children and young people you want to work with.
How far is your organisation prepared to be challenged by children and young people’s ideas and views on climate change, and to support the positions they take? The Royal Shakespeare Company ended its relationship with BP as a sponsor partly as a result of the views of young people. How far would you be comfortable responding to young people’s questions and challenges about different areas of your organisation’s activities.
Supporting children and young people to get involved in climate activism doesn’t have to mean getting behind school strikes. There have been contrasting views about involvement in school strikes amongst teachers, and not all organisations will feel able to support children and young people taking time out of school. There is a helpful blog by a young activist who took part in a day of creative disobedience at the People’s History Museum that highlights why taking part in the climate strike is important to her.
Whatever position your organisation takes, think about how you can get support from across your organisation.
Collaborate with children and young people at all stages of your project or action
Fridays for Future has been a youth-led movement from the start, so think about how you can mirror this in your museum. Start by looking at how children and young people are already involved in decision making and governance in your organisation. If you already have a youth panel or Young Trustees, ask them for their views about how they think your museum should involve them at all stages of your plans. If you don’t, Kids in Museums has a guide to setting up a youth panel, and The Roundhouse has a guide to involving young people in your governance. Ask these young people about what they would like to do to respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
More than 200 councils have declared a climate emergency and many are establishing Climate Board or partnerships. Find out what your local council is doing and whether young people are involved. You could also find a nearby branch of the UK Student Climate Network and talk about how you can collaborate with them.
Get hands-on and creative. This can be the best way to help children and young people engage with complex issues. Climate Museum UK has ideas for a range of activities to start people thinking on their website.
Use the right language
Think about how you talk or write about the Climate and Ecological Emergency with children and young people and to your audience more widely. Climate Outreach has several resources about talking and writing about climate change and its impacts.
This could be a good topic to include in any consultation you do thinking about what different terms mean to young people and which works better for them.
Be aware of the wellbeing of children and young people involved in your projects
Learning more about and discussing the Climate and Ecological Emergency may cause increased stress and anxiety for some children and young people. Some of the language and news stories can be frightening. There may also be children and young people who have connections to places worse affected than the UK by the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
There is a project studying Climate Anxiety designed by academics from King’s College London which is being prototyped in the current On Edge exhibition at the Science Gallery London. This is looking at the link between climate anxiety and activism.
Getting involved in a project and taking action that empowers them may help alleviate this stress, but you may want to signpost them to organisations such as Childline or The Mix if they are feeling overwhelmed, experiencing anxiety or wanting to talk at greater length. Both organisations offer emotional support for children and young people over the phone and online. Childline has also created some online advice about climate anxiety aimed at young people.
Ideas for enabling children and young people to take action
If you’re stuck or want some guidance when trying to plan with your group of children and young people, here are our ideas to help them to take action.
Work with children, young people and families to plan a day of activities to support an existing campaign or event
There are many existing environmental events and campaigns that your museum could support. Talk to children and young people about what interests them.
The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education has a comprehensive calendar of dates to help you plan.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens ran a family day to mark World Oceans Day in June 2019. This included a range of different family activities and encouraged participants to make pledges.
Think about how you could link your collections or exhibitions to support an environmental campaign – for example, could you work with children and young people to write some alternative labels that highlight environmental issues or plan craft activities using waste materials? Bristol Museum worked with local children and scientists to veil some of their natural history collection to highlight species extinction.
Support climate strikes and youth activism
This might not be for all organisations, but could you consider supporting the climate strikes? You can find out what’s going on in your area through the UK Student Climate Network.
This might include giving space to the young people involved, enabling them to take over a space in the museum or your social media to amplify their message. Why not take part in our Digital Takeover Day?
The National Justice Museum and Kettle’s Yard have hosted a banner making workshop for climate strikers in Cambridge.
You might find inspiration from Climate Museum UK’s digital collection for activism, or any of the other ideas listed on their website.
Host a debate or discussion or support young people to speak up about the Climate and Ecological Emergency
Can you work with children and young people to organise a debate, discussion or assembly based on the Citizen’s Assembly model about the Climate and Ecological Emergency?
Oxford University Museum of Natural History worked with university climate scientists on Let’s Talk About Climate. This enabled young people to learn about climate change and how to talk about it to influence change on a local and national level. If your local university has a climate science department you might be able to build a partnership with them.
You might want to look at some of the ‘Possible Culture’ resources from Climate Museum UK to frame some of the thinking.
Collaborate on new events or exhibitions
Can you work with a group of young people to create a display or event that highlights the impacts of the Climate and Ecological Emergency, or encourages your audience to take action to reduce their environmental impacts?
The Youth Forum at National Museum Cardiff created an installation using plastic found on Welsh beaches to highlight the impact of plastic pollution in our oceans. They also created information to help the public reduce their plastic consumption.
The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge ran a co-creation project with young people to produce a temporary exhibition about climate change. There are blogs that discuss the project’s progress on their website
Manchester Museum hosted a wide range of events and discussions created with young people as part of their Climate Control exhibition.
Involve children and young people at all stages of the planning process.
Find out what’s already happening in your local area and see how you can complement and support what children and young people are already doing.
Start small. Your ideas may not be perfect initially, but taking some action will have positive benefits for the children and young people involved.
Link up with other projects via social media to amplify your message.
Organisations that can provide information advice and resources
Climate Museum UK
Climate Outreach
Culture Declares Emergency
Curating the Future: museums, communities and climate change
Greta Thunberg TED talk with further reading list
Julie’s Bicycle
Museum for Future
A note about this resource
This resource has been produced in response to the growth of the youth climate strikes in the UK. The organisations that came together to produce this (Climate Museum UK, Happy Museum Project, Julie’s Bicycle and Kids in Museums) felt that museums could play a role in supporting children and young people’s activism in response to the climate emergency.
As this is a fast-moving area, we would like your ideas and feedback as well as to hear about the climate activism already going on in your museum. Please email getintouch@kidsinmuseums.org.uk to share projects related to the Climate and Ecological Emergency and let us know what further support you would like.
Tags: Climate Emergency, Environment, Guide, Museums
Categories: Youth Consultation
Audience: Young people
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King County Broadcast
Fresh Juice from the Northwest
“AVA GOES” ~ MOTHER/DAUGHTER WRITING TEAM RELEASES AUTISM-AWARENESS BOOK SERIES
September 23, 2015 October 2, 2015 | King County News - Fresh Juice for the Northwest
September 22, 2015 – Autism is a brain disorder that is characterized by difficulties in some social interaction, difficulties in motor coordination, and sometimes repetitive behaviors. But children with autism often excel in other areas; such as creative arts, visual skills, and mathematics.
Ava J. Clark, who was diagnosed with autism at age 2 1/2 is one of those gifted children, and along with her mother Alicia Coleman-Clark have decided to release a line of children’s books to encourage families who are also dealing with autism.
The “Ava Goes” series follows Ava on various adventures such as a trip to the dentist and to the beach. These wonderful beginner books are fun to read aloud and makes a great bedtime story. We believe this series will soon to be a favorite among parents, beginning readers, teachers, and librarians.
Alicia says that it’s her hope that Ava will continue to write these books and keep the series alive long after Alicia is gone. Hopefully with Ava’s own children one day.
Ava and her mother are currently on a local book tour which most recently included the West Seattle Barnes & Noble.
Alicia is also working with families, teachers, and education systems as an advocate with hopes of developing lasting partnerships that involve bringing the Ava Goes series to elementary schools.
Recently, Ava also made an appearance in the “LOVE YOURSELF” anti-bullying song by KHARI (video link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21LHPg57nxg&feature=share)
Alicia Coleman-Clark (and Miss Ava) can be reached at ARCC22@Aol.com
“Ava Goes” books can be ordered from http://www.avagoes.com/ and at bookstores everywhere.
Unique Youth Arts Program Celebrates 10 Years in West Seattle!
Celebrating Paul Anton & Alice Toledo
WEST SEATTLE ARTS PROGRAM GETS ANIMATED AT EMERALD CITY COMIC CON
LOCAL RAPPERS C-DOGG and RAZ SIMONE TEAM UP “AROUND the WAY”
When We Were (Almost) Kings: How the Seattle Seahawks Got Their Name
FAT LACES ~ The secret origins of Seattle’s Hip Hop community revealed!
Local High School Wins State Hip-Hop Championship Despite Obstacles and Loss
YOUNG WOMEN FIND EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ARTS IN WEST SEATTLE
Race Relations From A New Perspective with Seattle Icon James D. Croone, Sr.
YOU CAN BE A CARTOON CONTEST! WIN A WALK-ON ROLE!
Unique Youth Arts Pr… on Celebrating Paul Anton & A…
Unique Youth Arts Pr… on WEST SEATTLE ARTS PROGRAM GETS…
Unique Youth Arts Pr… on 4 Generations of B-Boy’s come…
Unique Youth Arts Pr… on YOUNG WOMEN FIND EMPOWERMENT T…
Anthony on Deepest Roots: 30 years of Hip…
Seattle Hip Hop
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Home/Sports/KCHA Sports Report (6/13)
KCHA Sports Report (6/13)
The Nashua-Plainfield Husky softball team was at home last night for a non-conference match-up with New Hampton. The Nashua offense could not get anything going as they were shut out by the Chickasaws 8-0. The Husky softball team falls to 4-8 overall this season and they will be back in action tonight as they will be in a Top of Iowa Conference game at home against Forest City.
The North Butler Bearcat softball team hosted Clarksville last night in a non-conference game. The game was just 2-1 heading into the top of the fifth, but the Indians scored three runs in that frame and then four more runs in the sixth to put the game and the Bearcats away 9-2. The North Butler softball team is now 9-6 overall this season and they will return to Top of Iowa conference play tonight at North Iowa.
The Charles City Comet baseball team will be in action tonight for a Northeast Iowa Conference double-header against Waverly-Shell Rock. The Comet baseball team is 5-5 overall this season and their NEIC record is 2-3 while Waverly comes in at 14-3 and 6-1. These two games were originally scheduled to be in Charles City, but due to the field conditions, they will now be played on the Wartburg College baseball diamond in Waverly. You can tune into both games right here on KCHA tonight beginning with a pre-game at 4:45 and first pitch of the first game will be at 5pm.
The Charles City Comet softball team will be in Cresco tonight for their Northeast Iowa Conference game against the Crestwood Cadets. The Comet softball team is 18-1 overall this season and they come in perfect in the NEIC at 9-0 while Crestwood is 9-7 overall and are currently in second place in the conference standings with a record of 6-3. First pitch for this game will be at about 7pm.
Nashua-Plainfield Boys and Girls Split with Riceville
Mason City requests to join NEIC; Oelwein may jump-ship
NFL Hall of Fame unveils finalist for class of 2020
NFL Post-Season Action Starts This Weekend
Osage Esports students are being recruited
Donald “Don” L. Ludwig, 84, Elma
Iowa Select Farms Set To 'Haul Out Hunger'
Tale of Two Different Halves-Final Score Packers Vikings
Vikings 10 Packer 9 at half
Packers vs. Viking on Monday Night
Osage gym ready for action – superintendent invites alumni to come see on December 17
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David Elmo Chrismon
Obituary of David Elmo Chrismon
David Elmo Chrismon, 98, of Browns Summit, died Saturday, January 4, 2020 at Annie Penn Hospital.
Funeral Services celebrating his life will be held 11:00am Tuesday January 7, 2020 at Friendship United Methodist Church in Browns Summit with Rev. Kevin Cochran and Rev. Debra Swing officiating. Burial will follow in Lakeview Memorial Park. The family will visit with friends from 4:00PM until 7:00PM Monday evening at the church.
Elmo was born December 21, 1921 to the late Vallie Lambeth Chrismon and David Scott Chrismon. He served his country with the United States Army Air Corp, during WWII where he was a Crew Chief on a P-47. He was a member of Friendship United Methodist Church where he sang with the Church Choir for seventy-five years, as well as numerous duties within the church system.
In addition to his parents Elmo also was preceded in death by his wife of sixty-three years, Blanche Moore Chrismon; sisters, Frances C. Chrismon and Cora Eleanor Fleming; and brother, Thomas Ireland Chrismon.
Survivors include his daughter, Maxine Chrismon Daniel of Reidsville; sons, David Eugene "Butch" Chrismon and Sybil, and Bruce Chrismon and Margie all of Browns Summit; grandchildren, Phyllis Jones and Billy, Tracey Woodson and Woody, Dawn Critzer and Ronald, and Laura Rose and Todd; great-grandchildren, Taylor, Trent, Andy, Lucas, Vinny, Skylar, Jeremy, and Cameron; great-great-grandson, Levi; sister, Pauline Chrismon Holt; brother, Dwight Chrismon; and a host of nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.
Memorials are asked to be made to Friendship United Methodist Church, 5222 Hwy 150, Browns Summit, NC 27214
Friends and family may sign, and view the guestbook at www.LambethTroxlerFuneralHome.com
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How to Add Music in Instagram Stories with the New Music Sticker
Nikki Canning @nikkitravelled
Did you know that you can play music in Instagram Stories?
Announced last summer, Instagram’s “music sticker” works for both videos and photos and lets you select from thousands of music tracks that fit the mood of your story — everything from Stevie Wonder to Billie Eilish!
Plus, in more recent news, Instagram just announced that you’ll soon be able to add lyrics to the music in your stories!
With over 500 million people using Instagram Stories every day, we’re so excited to see and hear all the creative ways that brands and businesses use this new feature.
Ready to get started? Here’s everything we know about music in Instagram Stories:
How to Add Music in Instagram Stories
Ready to start adding soundtracks to your next Instagram Story? It couldn’t be easier! Just follow the steps below and you’ll soon be posting photos and videos to your favorite beat.
First, download the latest version of the Instagram app on iOS or Android. Once you’ve updated your app, go to Instagram Stories by tapping the camera icon on the top right of your homepage.
Once you’ve taken a photo or video, tap the stickers button at the top of the screen and then tap the music sticker.
This will open the Instagram music library where you’ll find thousands of songs to choose from. You can search for a specific song, or you can browse by mood, genre, or what’s popular.
You can tap the play button to hear a preview before adding it to your story too.
When you’re happy with your song choice, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story.
You can also choose how long you want the music clip to play for (the maximum is 15 seconds).
If lyrics are available for the song you select, they should pop up automatically on your screen.
You can then choose different fonts and designs for them, and you can edit which part of the song you want to play.
When someone watches your story, they can tap the lyrics to learn more about the artist or listen to more of the song.
Finally, you can customize what the sticker looks by tapping it before publishing.
Now you’re ready to post to Instagram Stories as usual — add GIFs, polls, hashtags or anything else you might like to add, tap the “Your Story” button at the bottom of your screen, and you’re all set!
If you’re using iOS, you can also choose a song before capturing your video or photo. Just swipe to the new “Music” caption under the record mode when you’re in the Instagram Stories camera.
From here, it’s the same as before. Just search for a song, choose the exact part you want for your photo or video, and capture your story while the song plays in the background. Easy, right?
Here are a few more things to know about the new music in Instagram Stories feature:
Which Countries Have Access to the Music Sticker?
In Instagram’s press announcement, they state that the new music sticker feature is only available in “select countries.” And according to writers at TechCrunch, these lucky countries include Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the US.
It’s unknown when other countries will have access to the music sticker, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted when things change!
What Kind of Music is There to Choose From?
Instagram’s music library is filled with thousands of songs and artists like Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris and Guns N’ Roses — all thanks to Facebook’s recent partnership with record labels.
From the Later office, we’ve spotted Ed Sheeran, Childish Gambino, Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar, to name just a few. So we’re sure you’ll find something you’ll like, and suits the mood of your Instagram Stories too!
Instagram’s Music Sticker Gets an Update with the New Lyrics Feature
Other than adding new songs to their music library, Instagram hasn’t really done much with the music sticker since it first launched in summer 2018 — until today, that is!
Check out Instagram’s announcement featuring Billie Eilish:
While some have welcomed the new lyrics feature as simply an “expansion of [Instagram’s] music tools across its online platforms,” others see it as an attempt by Instagram to compete with Tik-Tok, a massively popular video-sharing app among teens.
It remains to be seen how the new feature will catch on among Instagram’s younger audiences, but one thing’s for sure: people are excited about it!
With all of Instagram’s big launches — IGTV, Video Chat, and now music in Instagram Stories — there have been some great steps towards bringing online communities closer together, in a way that’s more engaging, inclusive, and fun!
Ready to start curating and sharing UGC to Instagram? Join Later to easily find, schedule and post user-generated content to your social feeds!
Nikki Canning
Nikki is Later’s Blog Editor, where she’s always on the lookout for rogue apostrophes. She’s worked in digital media in Dublin, London, and Sydney and loves nothing more than hitting "publish". On a weekend, you’ll find her outdoors, patting a stranger’s dog or scrolling Instagram to plan her next adventure — follow along on @nikkitravelled.
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The Complete Pure Sin Series From Kyra Davis, New York Times bestselling author of Just One Night, comes Book Two in the Pure Sin Series that Sinfully Sexy is calling “angsty, intriguing and off the charts sexy.”
The Pure Sin Series
Deceptive Innocence (Pure Sin 1)
Dangerous Alliance (Pure Sin 2)
Kyra Davis, the New York Times bestselling author of Just One Night, returns with book one in the thrillingly sensual Pure Sin series featuring a beautiful young woman out for revenge—until she falls in love with the one man whose secrets are as dangerous as her own. (Note: this volume collects Parts 1 – 3 of the previously serialized Deceptive Innocence ebook series.)Ever since Bell’s mother died while serving time for a murder she didn’t commit, Bell’s been focused on one thing: revenge. She knows her mother was set up by Jonathon Gable, the head of both the powerful Gable family and an international banking corporation. Now she’s determined to take him down—from the inside.Bell needs access to the Gable home and offices, so she poses as a bartender to seduce her way into the bed—and life—of Jonathon’s rebellious youngest son, Lander. He’s not a typical Gable, spending more time in the dive bars of Harlem than the posh cocktail lounges of the Upper East Side. He has an attraction to danger, a vulnerability Bell isn’t shy about exploiting. It should be easy to uncover the secrets she needs to destroy his family and clear her mother’s name.But it turns out Lander is much more complicated than she ever imagined. He’s enticing, intelligent, mysterious—plus their sexual chemistry is off the charts. Even though Bell knows he’s the enemy, she can’t help but be moved, both physically and emotionally, by the man she swore was just a target. When he finds out the truth she’s sure both their hearts and her plan will be crushed…until she begins to realize that Lander might be hiding his own secrets, darker than she ever imagined.
From Kyra Davis, New York Times bestselling author of Just One Night, comes Book Two in the Pure Sin series that Sinfully Sexy is calling “angsty, intriguing, and off the charts sexy.”
The beautiful, angry Bell has revenge in her heart and Lander Gable in her sights. She’s seduced her way into his arms with the intent to destroy his wealthy family. But now that she’s there, lust and passion have begun squeezing out that desire for vengeance. It’s a dangerous game Bell is playing, and sex, mystery, and lies are the most intriguing game pieces of all.
Deceptive Innocence:
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September 4, 2019 September 4, 2019 S.R. Kheas deep space nine, Next Generation, Retro Review Series, Retro TV Review, Reviews, TV Series Reviews
Retro TV Review: Star Trek DS9 SSN Four Episode Twelve: Crossfire
Unrequited love, a deep friendship and regret all come into play in the episode that originally aired on January 29, 1996. This is Crossfire.
The Episode:
Station Log Stardate undetermined Crossfire
First Minister Shakaar returns to the station and Kira finds herself falling in love with the former resistance leader. Meanwhile, Odo finds himself dealing with his emotions for the smitten Kira.
Kira visits Odo to go over the recent criminal activity on the station as they prepare for the arrival of First Minister Shakaar. Upon Shakaar’s arrival for his speech, Odo reports that he believes someone is planning to assassinate the First Minister.
Odo informs Shakaar’s adjutant and the stations senior staff that he believes the new Cardassian terrorist The True Way to be planning an assassination attempt of the First Minister. Knowing that they need help due to Eddington’s absence, Sisko assigns Worf to fill in as head of Starfleet Security and work with Odo to protect Shakaar.
As Worf and Odo begin preparations, they become frustrated when Shakaar alters his plans and decides to visit the stations Temple, compromising his safety. As Shakaar heads through the Promenade, Odo finds himself concerned by every movement of the crowd forming around the First Minister but manages to get him to the Temple safely. Later, at a reception for Shakaar, Odo finds himself jealous of Shakaar’s attention toward Kira and her response in kind.
The next morning Shakaar and Odo discuss the negotiations that the First Minister is there to run. It is clear that Shakaar is having issues convincing the Federation to expedite Bajor’s admittance into the Federation and Shakaar finds comfort in Odo’s advice. Soon Shakaar asks Odo about Kira’s feelings toward the First Minister, hoping that Odo would have some insight. Uncomfortable, Odo tries to dissuade Shakaar from telling Kira about his feelings knowing that, if Shakaar tell her, Odo could lose his chance with Kira forever.
The Next morning Odo is upset when Kira is late for their Tuesday morning Criminal Activity report. He is further upset when she cuts their meeting short to escort Shakaar through the station. It soon becomes clear to Odo that the two are falling in love and, when they head back only to find themselves in danger when the turbolift is attacked. Odo, using his abilities saves the group but realizes that it is his fault for not paying attention to the situation at hand.
Odo is embarrassed that he did not verify Worf’s security code, inadvertently risking the lives of Kira, Shakaar and Odo. Sisko orders the Constable to find whoever is responsible for the attack. Odo and Worf begin investigating the attack and the Klingon begins to get upset at the shapeshifters obvious distraction. Odo decides to visit Kira and is dissapointed to find that Shakaar is in her quarters and remains there for the night. When Kira and Shakaar finally emerge, Odo is saddened to learn that the two have become romantically involved. Although he is happy for his friend, Odo finds himself heartbroken over the losing the chance to tell her how he feels.
Soon Odo returns to his office only to find that Worf has found the assassin and apprehended him. Worf commends the Constable at how well trained his deputies were in the apprehension. Odo returns to his room upset and begins destroying his room. Quark, who happens to share the room below Odo, visits the shapeshifter and is shocked to find Odo’s quarters in disarray. Quark tells Odo that he needs the constable to get back to normal as it is disrupting not only Odo’s job but also Quark’s profits.
The next morning, Odo visits Kira where he informs the Major that he will no longer be having their Tuesday Morning meetings. Although he claims that it is only a matter of using his time more efficiently, she can tell that there has been something lost between the two of them but what that something is is left unsaid.
In the end, Odo visits Quark where he finds himself back to business as usual, minus the hope for love.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
There are not many episodes in this series that do not follow the A/B story formula. Most of the time we are presented with multiple story-lines that, many times, converge to complete the story being told. Every so often a story is presented solely focusing on one or more of the characters allowing for some key development in those that are the primary subject. That is the case in this one with Odo and, to a lesser degree, Kira.
Since the beginning of the series, it has been pretty clear that Odo has had a deeper feeling for Kira than he wanted to admit. Not understanding the emotional spectrum of a Solid, Odo tended to push those feelings away until he was forced to confront those feelings when another changeling cause Odo to believe that Kira’s life was in danger. Since that moment, Odo had become brutally aware of his desire for the Bajoran Major but was afraid that he would be rejected due to his nature as a changeling.
Unfortunately, it is only when his feelings are threatened by another that the Changeling decides to act, but, unlike his quick thinking in his day-job, he reacts to slowly, leaving him alone in the end. While it seems that Odo has resigned himself to a fate of solitude at the end, returning to the more Stoic Odo we have come to know, this episode reveals that the shapeshifter has far more depth than we have ever suspected and his feelings for Kira are far from resolved,
Additionally, this episode continues the story that began with the death of Vedek Bareil and Kira’s morning for this loss. It is only when she finds herself with an old friend that she discovers that she is able to move past her loss. While she is thrilled with the prospect of having Shakaar in her life, there is a hint at the end that she is saddened Odo has not told her his true feelings. You get the hint that maybe, she was waiting for him as well.
Finally, this episode really solidifies the unlikely friendship between Odo and Quark. Although their relationship is based on a mutual dislike for one another, it quickly becomes clear that they really only want what is best for each other. Quark knows that, should anything happen to Odo, he would have to deal with an all new security chief and that is the last thing he wants. Odo, on the other hand, recognizes that, even though the Ferengi Bartender is a criminal, he is one of the few he can depend on to never really cross the line and one that will always come through if there is truly something insidious going on. Theirs is a friendship of mutual respect and is one that is fascinating to watch develop.
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
We finally get to see Worf and Odo work together, even though it is clear that Worf is not overly impressed with Odo’s methods.
We find out that Worf does not like visitors and is becoming quite annoyed at the frequent visits from his old Enterprise crew-mate Chief O’Brien.
This is the last we here about the Cardassian group The True Way, apparently this failed assassination attempt was enough to have them call it quits.
Shakaar and Kira’s story is far from over and we will see the Bajoran Minister again.
Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Next Review: Return To Grace
If you would like to read more reviews I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here.
As always, please feel free to comment below and share your experiences with these episodes as well. If you just happened by, tell me what you think! Don’t Forget To Follow me if you like the blog!
Late To The Game 9/4/2019
You can almost feel That unbridled passion emanating off of them, get a room already!
Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available. Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.
“Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made production intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”
Tagged Benjamin Sisko, deep space nine, DS9, Jadzia Dax, Julian Bashir, Kira, Major Kira Nerys, Miles O'Brien, Odo, Quark, retro review, Retro Reviews, Retro TV Review, review, Reviews, Sc-Fi, Sci fi, science, science fiction, scifi, Season 1, Season 4, Star Trek, STNG, Worf, Wormhole
Stand Out Albums: Beta Radio ‘Colony of Bees’ (2014)
Key Movies Of My Life: Groundhog Day (1993)
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Table of Contents » Title 18. Professional and Occupational Licensing » Agency 60. Board of Dentistry » Chapter 21. Regulations Governing the Practice of Dentistry » 18VAC60-21-330. Reporting of Malpractice Paid Claims and Disciplinary Notices and Orders.
Title 18. Professional and Occupational Licensing
Agency 60. Board of Dentistry
Chapter 21. Regulations Governing the Practice of Dentistry
18VAC60-21-330. Reporting of Malpractice Paid Claims and Disciplinary Notices and Orders.
A. In compliance with requirements of § 54.1-2709.4 of the Code, a dentist registered with the board as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon shall report in writing to the executive director of the board all malpractice paid claims in the most recent 10-year period. Each report of a settlement or judgment shall indicate:
1. The year the claim was paid;
2. The total amount of the paid claim in United States dollars; and
3. The city, state, and country in which the paid claim occurred.
B. The board shall use the information provided to determine the relative frequency of paid claims described in terms of the percentage who have made malpractice payments within the most recent 10-year period. The statistical methodology used will be calculated on more than 10 paid claims for all dentists reporting, with the top 16% of the paid claims to be displayed as above-average payments, the next 68% of the paid claims to be displayed as average payments, and the last 16% of the paid claims to be displayed as below-average payments.
C. Adjudicated notices and final orders or decision documents, subject to § 54.1-2400.2 H of the Code, shall be made available on the profile. Information shall also be posted indicating the availability of unadjudicated notices and orders that have been vacated.
§ 54.1-2400 of the Code of Virginia.
Derived from Volume 32, Issue 05, eff. December 2, 2015; Errata, 35:17 VA.R. 2098 April 15, 2019.
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5 Ridiculous Things The Travel Industry Experienced During The Government Shutdown
By Sharelle Burt
We can’t keep up with all the new government shutdown updates. With the partial shutdown going on for 23 days, new reports are coming in every single day on how workers are struggling with not being paid and TSA workers that continue to call out from work. While some of these stories are super concerning, others may put a smile on your face or give you the laugh you needed during this hectic time.
Here are the top 5 craziest things we have seen so far:
Passenger Packs A Gun And Actually Gets It Past Security
On January 3, one passenger claims he mistakenly packed a gun in his luggage. If that’s not shocking enough, they managed to fly all the way from Atlanta to Tokyo, sneaking it right past security. To the outside world, it looks like the passenger was testing TSA’s ability during the shutdown, but the traveler insists that it was a simple mistake.
Unpaid TSA Workers Jam To Their Favorite Tunes While On The Job
Some TSA agents are slacking off on the job since their paychecks are nonexistent. You would too, right? Travelers have been tweeting what they’re experiencing in different airports during the shutdown, like the lucky travelers at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. TSA agents were blasting music from some of their favorite artists through portable speakers just to get them through their shifts. ‘Sicko Mode,’ ‘Lift Yourself,’ Ludacris and even rock band Paramore were heard over the loudspeakers.
RELATED: Black Travelers Share Weird Airport Experiences Since Government Shutdown
JFK is playing sicko mode we’re living in a simulation
— cesar millan (the dog whisperer) (@postmetaboi) January 7, 2019
the extremely weird feeling when the airport PA is blasting Paramore’s “Misery Business” like it’s a super hot 2007 Friday night at old JFK
— Molly Templeton (@mollytempleton) January 5, 2019
JFK Airport blasting Ludacris at 5:45 am is a vibe
— Caroline Kenny (@carolinerkenny) December 28, 2018
Concourses In Major Airports Close Early
Have you ever heard of airports closing terminals early? Probably not since airports don’t seem to close, but since TSA workers aren’t coming to work, terminals at Miami International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston were forced to close concourses earlier than usual. Miami shut down Concourse G early over the weekend, and Houston continued to keep Terminal B closed since no one was showing up to work. The Twitter pages for both airports have warned travelers to get to the airport earlier than normal due to expected delays.
Longest Airport Security Line Ever Recorded In Atlanta
Standing in line to get checked by airport security can be a hassle. Subtract trained TSA agents from the equation, and you’re going to get a headache. A reporter for CNN was at one of the busiest airports in the country, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and recorded a video of what is probably one of the longest airport security lines ever. Passengers were in line for hours on end waiting to get to their gates.
So I’m at @ATLairport and this may be the longest security line I have ever seen. Even growing up here, and even for a Monday morning. One passenger told me he’d been waiting over an hour and still had about 30 minutes to go. pic.twitter.com/UL7EghujQI
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenezCNN) January 14, 2019
Airport In Pittsburgh Cheers Unpaid Workers Up With Free Lunch
Allegheny County Airport Authority wanted to turn some frowns upside down, so they teamed up with Bruegger’s Bagels to provide free lunches for TSA agents and FAA air traffic controllers during all shifts at Pittsburgh International Airport. The bagged lunches include a sandwich, chips, cookie, and drink. Tables were set up on the landside ticketing level for airport staff to distribute some of the lunches. Lunches for air traffic controllers and other tower workers were delivered. It looks like not all hope is lost.
Sharelle Burt
This Young Entrepreneur Opened A Coffee Shop At Age 9 To Employ Others With Disabilities
We love to see it. Young entrepreneurs paving the way for others who may get overlooked otherwise. North Carolina native Camden Myers recently opened the first location of his coffee business, Cam’s Coffee Creations. While a 9-year old owning a business is impressive in itself, Cam actually opened the business so that other people with […]
JetBlue Has Increased Checked Baggage Fees, Are Other Airlines To Follow?
If you think paying for checked bags is a pain, it’s going to get worse — at least for those flying with JetBlue Airways. The airline has recently increased their checked baggage fees for the second time in the last two years. Passengers flying the airline will have to pay $35 (previously $30) for their […]
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PPP Reference Guide
Establishing the PPP Framework
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PPP Basics
PPP Framework
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PPP Processes and Institutional Responsibilities
PPP Process
Institutional Responsibilities: Implementation
Institutional Responsibilities: Review and Approval
Dedicated PPP Units
Public Financial Management Frameworks for PPPs
Broader PPP Program Governance
Municipal and other subnational PPPs
PPP Cycle
Implementing a PPP project successfully requires commitment and a range of skills and expertise. Government agencies and individuals responsible for implementing projects need a sound understanding of the needs of the particular sector, skill in economic and financial appraisal of projects and PPPs, expertise in structuring privately-financed infrastructure project contracts, expertise in procurement and contract management, and experience in dealing with the private sector. The main challenge in designing the institutional arrangements for PPPs is to ensure that all these skills are available to implement PPP projects successfully.
By default, responsibility for implementing a PPP typically falls to the ministry, department, or agency responsible for ensuring the relevant asset or service is provided. However, particularly at the early stages of a PPP program, such entities usually to have the full range of skills and experienced needed: hence, other government entities are sometimes involved, namely the central PPP unit. Both in developed (UK, Canada, Australia) and developing countries (Philippines, Colombia, South Africa) a strong central unit has been shown to be critical to a successful program. This section briefly describes the range of institutional arrangements for identifying PPP projects; developing and implementing those projects; and managing the PPP contracts.
Identifying PPP projects
As described in PPP Process above, PPP projects usually emerge from the public investment planning and project identification process. Responsibility for identifying potential PPPs from among priority public investment projects therefore often rests with the relevant sector agency or entity under the oversight of entities responsible for public financial management and planning. For more on PPP review and approval responsibilities see Institutional Responsibilities: Review and Approval.
Sometimes a specialized PPP team may be involved in the PPP identification process, as described in Dedicated PPP Units. For example, a PPP Unit may provide support to sector agencies in screening projects for PPP potential—particularly at the early stage of a PPP program when sector agencies may have limited understanding of how PPPs work. Sometimes PPP Units are mandated to promote the use of PPPs. This can help overcome initial anti-PPP bias at the early stage of new PPP programs. However, it can also risk distorting the public investment planning process—pushing forward projects because they appear to be doable as PPPs, rather than because they are public investment priorities. Instituting a clear PPP process with appropriate approvals, as described in PPP Process and Institutional Responsibilities: Review and Approval, helps overcome this risk.
Level playing field vs. perverse incentives
The need for a level playing field, when assessing PPP versus non-PPP options, is critical for success in the procurement of infrastructure and services—even more at the subnational level, where technical capacity and the ability to reach the financial markets may be limited, and free-riding on upper levels of government is often an attractive alternative. The traditional procurement practices sometimes induce governments to avoid using the PPP route, even when it provides greater value to users and taxpayers. Conversely, fiscally stressed governments may look for PPPs even for projects where the PPP option is not the most efficient solution.
Some governments have created PPP incentives in an attempt to modify the behavior of civil servants. These approaches have not always yielded positive outcomes. While public procurement practices favored the procurement modes traditionally used, PPP incentives created bias in decision-making in the other direction. "PFI credits" in the United Kingdom are now recognized as having induced significant bias. Other governments have resorted to lines of funding available only for PPP projects, or for non-PPP projects. These types of discrimination may distort decision-making in favor of non-optimal solutions—and, even when not distorting the decision process, they create reasonable suspicions of bias, affecting public perceptions.
Developing and implementing PPP projects
Responsibility for developing and implementing the PPP project—that is, for structuring the PPP, designing the PPP contract, bidding out the transaction, and managing the contract—typically falls to the government entity responsible for the delivery of the relevant asset or service. This entity is often termed, for PPP purposes, the contracting authority or contracting agency, since it will usually be the public party to the PPP contract. The PPP law or policy may define the types of government entity that can be contracting authorities, and specify that these authorities are responsible for PPP implementation. For example:
In the Philippines, the BOT Law (PH 2006, Implementation Rules and Regulations) delegates responsibility for developing and implementing PPPs to eligible government agencies, units, or authorities. These include Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations (GOCCs), Government Financial Institutions (GFIs), State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and Local Government Units. These agencies are required to create a Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) that will oversee the PPP process for each PPP project.
Under Tanzania's PPP Law (TZ 2010), the contracting authority is responsible for facilitating project development, including project identification, a feasibility study, environmental impact assessment, and design and implementation of the PPP contract.
In Colombia, the Manual for PPP procedures (CO 2014, Chapter 4.2, 34) allows contracting authorities to be ministries or other sector-specific institutions, and local and regional institutions. The contracting authorities are in charge of conducting eligibility and value for money analyses, and submitting the results to the PPP Unit, which develops and implements PPP-related policies and steers procurement processes in coordination with contracting authorities.
However, sector agencies may lack some of the skills needed to identify and develop PPP projects successfully. Particularly at the early stages of a PPP program, sector agencies may have little or no experience with engaging with the private sector on privately-financed projects. For this reason, other government entities are often also involved, to provide additional skills or perspectives. This can be achieved in different ways, including:
Involving dedicated PPP units, as described in Dedicated PPP Units. These units are a repository of skill and experience in developing PPPs. They often support contracting authorities in implementing PPP projects. In a few cases the PPP unit may take over primary responsibility as implementing agency. For example, the PPP Law in Chile authorizes the Ministry of Public Works as the implementing agency for PPPs, through its dedicated concessions unit (CL 2010b, Article 1–3, 6–9, 15–21, 25, 27–30, 35–36, 39–41). Dedicated PPP Units provides several more examples of PPP units and the extent of their roles in implementing PPPs.
Forming interdepartmental committees to oversee each PPP transaction—often including representatives from the sector ministry as well as ministries of finance and planning, and legal representatives.
Involving specialist entities in different implementing roles. This is the case in Peru, for example, where the procurement agency is responsible for implementing the PPP transaction, and sector regulatory agencies are responsible for monitoring the private parties' compliance with the PPP contract.
Even governments with extensive PPP experience may not have all the expertise and skills in-house needed to develop PPP projects. PPIAF’s guide for hiring and managing advisors (PPIAF 2001) describes how they will benefit from using external advisors who will provide support in the appraisal, preparation and transaction phases of a proposed PPP. These external advisors may engage in detailed, technical tasks such as conducting feasibility studies and drafting PPP contracts. Developing countries governments are too often unaware of the significant disadvantage of not having competent external advisors by their side when negotiating with private parties. While they may be expensive, experienced advisors equip governments to take informed decisions and safeguard the public interest. Private parties seldom make the mistake of not hiring them. The best advisors in the market usually advise them. With this asymmetry in negotiating ability, PPP contracts will often be biased in favor of the private parties.
The EPEC report on the role and use of external advisors (EPEC 2014d) outlines how governments may best utilize the support of external advisors. The extent and nature of external advisory support needed may change as the government and the country gains PPP experience. Initially, governments may rely heavily on advisors, and contract full-service transaction advisors providing the full range of technical skills needed as well as strategic support. Over time, responsible government teams may be better able to play an integrating role, and use advisors to provide specific technical or legal inputs. Even when working with experienced advisors, however, it is important for the contracting authority to develop the internal capacity to manage the process effectively—to oversee the work of the advisors, and retain ownership of the structuring decisions. Over-relying on external consultants to drive the procurement process can put the contracting authority in a weak position for managing the contract over its lifetime.
Governments can use the advisory services provided by commercial firms or multilateral organizations. The IFC paper on independent advisors outlines several key characteristics that external advisors should possess:
The ability to balance private and public sector interests by designing projects that guarantee long-lasting benefits for the population
Reputation as an honest broker to demonstrate transparency and inspire investor confidence
Multi-skilled team with extensive, direct experience in infrastructure project structuring and financing
Direct experience in the relevant sector and market
Ties with the global investment community
Source: (Jagun and Marques de Sá 2006)
Managing PPP Contracts
Monitoring the project performance and managing the contract usually falls to the contracting authority. From roads and bridges to water provision and hospital services, line ministries and agencies typically have the required technical knowledge and the policy focus for monitoring delivery. Some countries reduce conflict in contract management by outsourcing to credible external entities, such as engineering firms, or research institutions, certain specialized monitoring activities. For example, in Brazil, the state government of Minas Gerais hires Independent Verifiers for monitoring PPP performance; in France, engineering firms are hired for monitoring PPP hospital infrastructure performance.
However, managing PPP contracts can be complex—particularly when it comes to dealing with change that inevitably occurs over the lifetime of the contract (as described in Dealing with Change). Some countries therefore involve other, specialized entities in the contract management function; for example, by:
Creating a centralized contract management support function. For example, in 2006, the British Treasury invited the then-PPP Unit, Partnerships UK, to create a PFI Operational Taskforce, operating on behalf of the Treasury (UK 2006a, 3). This taskforce provided support to hundreds of contract managers and published guidance. The central PPP unit for British local governments, 4Ps (now called Local Partnerships—a company jointly owned by HM Treasury and the Local Government Association) also has a role in supporting local governments in carrying out their contract management role. In 2007, it published a Guide to Contract Management for PFI and PPP Projects (4ps 2007).
Including responsibility for some aspects of contract management among the responsibilities of a dedicated PPP Unit. For instance, the Concessions Unit of the Ministry of Public Works in Chile monitors performance and manages PPP contracts on behalf of several ministries. Often this involvement may be limited to non-routine events, or particularly challenging contract management tasks. In Korea, the PPP Unit PIMAC manages PPP contracts during the sensitive construction phase.
Allocating contract management responsibility to an independent regulator—a solution when relevant variables, such as the mechanism determining the fees to collect over time, are not clearly prescribed in the contract. However, the functions of regulator and contract manager may collide—the contract manager is supposed to protect the public interest and the public purse, while the regulator may have a distinct and legally-mandated set of interests to preserve.
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Office of the Commissioner
of Lobbying of Canada
Registration - In-house Organization
Universities Canada / Universités Canada / Paul Davidson, President
In-house Organization name: Universities Canada / Universités Canada
Previous in-house organization names
Responsible Officer Name: Paul Davidson, President ?
Responsible Officer Change History
Initial registration start date: 2005-06-07
Registration status: Active
Registration Number: 738814-423
Associated Communications
Total Number of Communication Reports: 1239
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Universities Canada has represented Canada's universities since 1911. We are the voice of Canada's universities. Our advocacy ensures that higher education is recognized as vital to Canada's prosperity and quality of life as a knowledge-based society and economy. We are a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization, funded through membership fees and revenues from contract management services and publications. Our mandate is to facilitate the development of public policy on higher education and to encourage cooperation among universities and governments, industry, communities, and institutions in other countries. We provide services to member universities in three main areas: public policy and advocacy; communication, research and information-sharing; and scholarships and international programs.
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Universities Canada has one class of voting members. Members are Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university degree-level colleges. At present, the Association has 96 voting members. Associate members are non-voting national groupings of academic and administrative components of member institutions that have objects which are consonant with those of the Association. At present, there are 15 associate members. Members of the Association are listed on the website www.univcan.ca.
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Canadian Heritage (PCH) $26,100.00 Yes
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Sandra Boisvert, Government Relations Officer | No public offices held
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Hanna Jevne, Research Analyst | Public offices held
Pari Johnston, Vice-President of Policy and Public Affairs | No public offices held
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Philip Landon, Vice-President, Governance & Programs | No public offices held
Scott Lofquist-Morgan, Senior Analyst, Member Relations | No public offices held
Michael McDonald, Government Relations Specialist | Public offices held
Cindy McIntyre, Assistant Director, International Relations | Public offices held
Claire Millington, Senior Policy Analyst | Public offices held
Gwendolyn Moncrieff-Gould, Government Relations Officer | No public offices held
Aisha Paquette-Dioury, Social Impact Lead | Public offices held
Brian Pépin, Senior Government Relations officer | Public offices held
Anna Seifried, Analyst, International Relations | Public offices held
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Category Archives: Preparedness
Citizenship, Compleat Idler, Homeschooling, Preparedness, Technology, Tool user
11/07/2014 loboviejoapplied chemistry, buzz words, cannabalizing parts, carburetor/piston, computer simulation, Frederick W Taylor, golf ball cannon, Graham Bell, Henry Ford, home workshops, industrial arts education, industrial revolution, Ludwig von Drake, Max Weber, mercantile economy, middle class, minimum wage, nerd culture, non-skilled v. skilled workers, repair and salvage, Robert Goddard, rocketry, scientific management, service economy, shade tree mechanic, Sputnik, Thomas Edison, throw away society, tinkering, tool acquisition, tool user v lotus eater, Werner von Braun, Yankee/Puritan culture Leave a comment
© 2014 Earl L. Haehl: Permission is given to use this article in whole or in part as long as credit is given. Book rights are reserved.
Using tools is not a “retreat to a semi-frontier past.” The past is important because it shows what could have happened and why our retreat from the way forward will eventually create a present worse than the past. By not using the tools of the past, how can we build the tools of the future. This is not the first time I have discussed this, but it is the beginning of a concerted effort to talk about something in non-ideological terms and build an argument for the future.
My friends and I had been discussing rocketry and space flight and drawing rockets for about three years before 04OCT1957. On that date, the Sovs launched Sputnik. Sphincters tightened in governmental and educational circles. In our juvenile world we were already discussing propellants and experimenting. At Christmas of 1956 I took out a rocket powered by the compression and release of water which was guaranteed to go 300 feet in the air. Without accurate means of measurement we figured they were right because it went a long way.
We continued to do experiments—it was the “nerd” culture. I often have remarked that we have a government agency devoted to our culture—the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Anyway, hobby stores still sell rocket kits and engines and you can still get CO2 canisters which were sold at the time by an outfit called Johnson Smith Co to power rockets, model boats and model cars.
The way rocket fuel, liquid, solid or compressed gas, propels the rocket is the same way steam or petrol gas moves a piston or gun powder propels a Minié ball. The same principle drives air brakes and nail guns with compressed air. Anyone working with basic tools understands this. We all worked with tools—we all had blown up a balloon and let it go. Many of us had detonated cherry bombs in rural mail boxes to observe the speed with which they opened—the fact that this was considered destruction of federal property made it even more daring. And we were all ready to get out to the desert on any given weekend with our small rockets.
In the meantime we had school and homework to attend to, German and Latin to learn, algebra, geometry, trig, calculus. This was in addition to the applied chemistry experiments that some unknown students attempted involving a combination of chemicals dropped into the trash cans in the lunch courts causing immediate and violent oxidation much to the consternation of the lunch court monitors.
This enthusiasm for space and science went beyond the nerd community. Television brought on a lot of new heroes—Robert Goddard, Werner von Braun, and Ludwig von Drake. There was competition for the advanced science and math courses. Even those outside the advanced courses preferred electronics, auto tech and metalworking to woodworking and graphic arts. For those who made it into the advanced track, competition turned to comraderie and we often passed off slide rules to those headed for tests in chemistry, physics and military science. We would meet for study and discussion in the Public Library after school.
The human population, according to Johnny Keufel, was divided into tool users and lotus eaters. I met few of the latter, one had a view that the world was divided into the workers and the elites and he resented shop because it might damage his manicure. I got plenty of grease, oil and printers’ ink under my nails in those days even though I considered myself elite. He took military science to avoid gym and then was upset that he was expected to take orders from his “inferiors” and to clean his issued weapon. He finally transferred to a private school that would value his status.
The other one I was aware of was an exchange student from Argentina who told his girlfriend she needed to shave her arms—he did not like gym class or the suggestion that he demean himself to take shop. Again the idea that getting dirty was for peasants.
I will say that the aversion to tools was not real common, even in the upscale neighborhood, probably because of the times. Parents were of the World War II generation. Men who served in the war became acquainted with what was necessary for the effort and a lot were on the farm before that. Many mothers had worked in the defense plants. There was in my case also a strong influence from the New England puritan culture and the necessity of the Depression era.
Another thing about the generation previous to mine. They grew up making, repairing and salvaging. It was not uncommon for a group of young men to rescue a vehicle from the landfill and do a rebuild, which is why they would cannibalize shot up jeeps along European roads to keep others running, while the Germans let theirs sit and oxidize. These were stories heard when we gathered in multi-generational settings such as family dinners or neighborhood picnics.
When a bicycle became necessary, the best way to get it was to buy a used bike for five to ten bucks and repair it—new bikes with all the bells and whistles went for $50 and up. $50 was a week’s pay for a lot of parents and odd jobs were hard to find in the urban setting—I had made about seventy five cents a day topping sugar beets (a tool using task) in the midwest, but other than throwing papers there were few tasks for a 13 or 14 year old in urban California. I did cut my dad’s lawn, sometimes for a quarter, but the only offer I got from a neighbor involved a payment that could get me severely beaten if I were caught. Nobody was buying squirrel pelts so trapping was out.
The United States is in financial trouble and politicians feel we should accept that we are a service economy and that we need to “work smarter” because industry is dirty and by extension tools are dirty. There is a proposal for a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour. For a business to be able to pay $10.10 an hour, an employee has to provide greater value than $10.10 an hour. This is a gimmick to create the illusion of doing something to create prosperity.
Minimum wage is supposed to be for the unskilled at entry level. If a company has a pool of $100,000 a year for wages, can it absorb a 37 percent wage increase with the same number of employees in the absence of a greater than 37 percent increase in revenues. And if the minimum is increased by 37 percent, then skilled rates go up by a similar percentage—this is built into labor contracts. Also, the folks getting $10 an hour currently would expect, in the name of equity, to be compensated at $13.70 an hour. Then prices rise and income may or may not increase because the unemployed struggle with purchasing at current prices which means less purchasing and less hiring.
The beginning workers see a dead end because they are not skilled enough to adapt quickly to automation, in addition to the fact that 27 percent will no longer be employed. There is likely to be a greater percentage of the non-skilled out of work because the skilled employees are necessary to handle the automation.
In other words, the State cannot mandate individual prosperity. Nor can policy makers understand that labor and skilled labor are separate entities. Only by rebuilding a society that makes things can a highly populated nation like the United States prosper—we are too large to do subsistence agriculture, plantation crops require a different social structure and the rest of the world has its own service sector.
Whatever one says about the causality of slavery and the plantation crop system relating to the War or 1861-65, it most assuredly contributed greatly to the defeat of the Confederacy. Aside from fervor of Northern troops imagining themselves on a “holy crusade,” the institution of slavery made the southern states a mercantile colony dependent on plantation agriculture and not able to develop an industrial culture despite resources. The textile mills were in New England. Further the plantation system produced exports, not food. The North, with its agriculture geared to the food chain and its heavy industrial capacity as well as greater population, rolled over the South—it could have done so more quickly had the military officer corps (a product of Jefferson Davis’s reorganization and Robert E. Lee’s superintendency of the Academy) not split into the two sides.
The Yankee culture was built around tinkering. In the War for Independence, there had been small time German gunsmiths and surreptitious shops throughout the northern colonies. The prohibition on manufactures rankled New England more than the southern colonies which were geared to the production of cotton, tobacco and sugar for export. Farming on the rocky ground in New England was small scale, but in the northwest and the plains grain and fruit were important.
On every farm was a shop. And “tinkering” was a Puritan value. 30 to 40 percent of immigration to Michigan during the period 1830-1850 was from New England. NOTE: Our denigration of Puritan culture ignores the rise of Puritanism with the Enlightenment rather than the Reformation. And Puritanism arose among the new middle class that later formed the Industrial Revolution.
The problem we now face is that industry has left the building forced out by the idea that it is irrelevant to a modern, safe and environmental society. We could not, even if the capital was as available as the raw materials, immediately reconstitute an industrial economy given the regulatory structure and the convenience culture of the society.
This brings us back to Johnny’s reference in passing to the chasm between “tool users” and “lotus eaters.” He and I both came out of a youth culture where at least one weekend a month was devoted to tuning someone’s carburetor. For my younger readers a carburetor was a device which regulated the flow of petrol and oxygen into the cylinders where it was fired by spark in order to drive a piston. Piston driving was (is) essential to the function of an internal combustion engine. If I still had my 1984 Suburban I could, theoretically, continue to rebuild the engine and transmission and carburetor.
This would be contrary to the need for jobs because union dogma contends that only UAW workers should build cars. And repairs should only be done by factory authorized mechanics. A few independent mechanics still exist. Maintenance functions—such as oil and filter changes—are largely performed by minimum wage employees at WalMart. (Keufel’s definition of minimum wage work was anything less than twice minimum wage.) As a result of the infirmities of age, I have resorted to taking my truck to an independent shop but I remember getting an 84 Ford Escort in the early nineties and immediately changing out the plugs and tuning the carburetor.
The whole culture has changed. By the time my brothers were in high school most of the car culture was gone. By the time my children were in high school it was a nostalgia series on television. Some changes are good—I like my electronic fuel injection better than my weekends being shot tuning somebody’s carb wearing an oil soaked t-shirt and smelling like grease. I like being able to afford the electric motors from Shanghai which make my work easier. I like the duty free Noconas from Mexico.
On the other hand I dislike the throw away attitude of our society—I dislike the fact that the DSLR camera I bought in 2008 was introduced six months earlier and made obsolete a month or so later. I still use it and will until it fails because I cannot really afford to replace it for convenience and cannot, as a practical matter repair it—I use film cameras going back to 1959 that are still functional and can be repaired and yet they are considered as wasteful and harmful to the environment.
So I remember the shade tree mechanic culture of the fifties and sixties. A lot of people do—mostly they are retired. There was also a custom car culture at the same time that pushed Detroit’s designers beyond their comfort zone. It was an age when people were comfortable with tools and with building. It was a time when a full year of shop was available to any high school student in my district—I took electronics and we wound coils and joined wires and tubes to build a super heterodyne radio. Some in the class ran the school’s 20-year-old AV equipment that baffled the faculty and often required adjustment or repair on the spot. (When I was teaching on my own, this ability meant I could leave a projectionist in class.) And we used tools, read schematics and tested equipment. Other options included woodworking, metalworking, graphic arts and automotive.
Flash forward to the mid eighties. My son took a course in “world of construction” where the project was a model of a “dream house” made from styrofoam board. My daughter’s review of the course was that it bordered on insipid—she took two years of mechanical drawing. At that time metalworking, automotive technology and other trades classes were available to those not in the college prep program. So the “dummies” learned measurement and tolerances in a real world environment while the college bound did not.
I did not observe the after school study groups while my children were in high school. They were often preempted by fantasy and role playing games. The closest thing to a rocket they had was a golf ball cannon that one of the gang built in metal shop—they stored it in my garage because I was the parent who tolerated it.
Flash forward to 1999. In addition to telling customers we did not have generators and selling splitting axes and kerosene, I recall talking to architecture and engineering students complaining about having to get tools to make models to match drawings—they even offered me money to build the models for them. They talked about computer simulation that creates the model and the necessary calculations—no math, the computer has it programmed. I also arrived at the conclusion that anyone studying architecture needs work experience in the building or mechanical trades.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Industrial Revolution began in small shops by men who were thinking of ways to improve their production and make money doing so. They did not write grant proposals. They were craftsmen and engineers, not policy experts or elected officials and they were not afraid of making money. They worked with tools and built things—they were not “project managers” or “brainstormers.”
So the answer begins in every home workshop. There is nothing in our culture that requires people to have only one skill. For most of our history have been fixing, building and inventing in addition to “regular” work. The joke about technology from people’s garages is not something from the computer age—it is a logical carryover of the way innovation has occurred in history. Thomas Edison did not begin in some company’s R&D section. Graham Bell worked in his house, not an unattached shop. Henry Ford did not have a TARP grant.
In Germany, licensing mandates require that roofing be done by those licensed to roof: the same with painting, glazing, replacing circuit breakers, etc ad infinitum. This concept comes from “scientific management” writings of Frederick Winslow Taylor and the sociological/political writings of Max Weber. Taylor believed in the factory as an organism where the individual would perform a specific task only and the result would be the product of the factory as a whole under the direction of a manager. This led to the assembly line which made the machines of World War II. To an extent, however, modifications were made in the field by soldiers with mechanical backgrounds. The top down environment led to stagnation of American industry and the ultimate collapse of GM.
As I homeowner, I replaced an entire box of breakers. As a photographer, I designed the plumbing and lighting for nine photographic laboratories, occasionally doing a significant portion of the execution. As a photographer, I built lighting controls some of my own design. Okay, I could have passed the electricians license at some point in my life, but my formal education is in liberal arts and prison administration paid the bills. I also would have had to pay a fee to take the test. I have done roofing, I have done glazing, built shelves and even a drawing table. Until I hit fifty I did ninety percent of my auto maintenance. And I am still a damn good bench electrician—slower but still good.
I believe the more home workshops the better. And I believe everyone should learn to use tools and make things. My friend Johnny built a workshop into a walk-in closet in his apartment—he did not let me take pictures because he was going to do the article himself. He had a drill press, bench grinder and industrial grade vise and he used a propane soldering tool—I would have used a electric soldering gun in that space. But the thing is that he did it and built things.
Expense was a real barrier to building a shop in earlier times. But there is competition. Read the real men’s magazines—Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, numerous hobby magazines, car magazines—and even gardening and home magazines. There are ads for cut rate tools and tool companies. Back in the seventies and eighties, I used to haunt the “truckload tool sales” at hardware, discount and grocery stores. Harbor Freight, Cummins and Grizzly have stores in many major cities as well as catalog sales. There are tool shows in various venues and at one, I calculated that a decent machine shop could be outfitted for less than a thou. The trick is having a thou to spend and sneaking the tools past your spouse. In another article I will cover a systematic way of putting it together.
Back in 1970, my wife and I came back from our studio apartment in Washington with an ammo box half-full of tools. By borrowing from friends and relatives we were able to build furniture we needed. In 72 we started doing house repairs and grinding—adding a 3/8 inch drill and grinding wheel which took up a second ammo box. And sometime in 74, I snagged a real tool box out of a dumpster—the lock was screwed up, but that’s what a hasp and padlock are for. And after moving into our house in 76, the projects and tools seemed to multiply. [To be fair, in Washington our three books multiplied to where they filled a three shelf bookcase and took up the shelf in the closet.]
The moral here is that either tools or more expensive help are necessary for maintenance of home and vehicles. And knowing how to use tools is going to be necessary as the craftsmen retire and die off. Further, we need to be able to build generation equipment as the power lines become more flaky. Electric current that travels through the grid becomes less efficient the farther it travels. Also there are places in the west where miles of transmission line gets stolen for underground cash. Sun spots also impact the long lines.
Home power, whether solar or wind, is insurance. Problem is that a commercial install may cost as much as a house did thirty years ago. It helps to build with friends—especially if they have tools.
The point is to start somewhere and build something. And then build something else. It will either turn you off completely or you will become addicted. And when you need the skills you will have them.
I have written much in the past about politics and I illustrated the policy approach. Building something is much more positive. Feeling the power of the angle grinder in my hands as the voltage shot through it gave me a more positive feeling than arguing with a populist trying to get my vote with buzz words. And in a skilled society, minimum wage becomes irrelevant.
I am seventy years old. I do not know how much longer I can use the skills I have developed over my lifetime or whether I will be able to use the MIG welder when I can afford it. But I am pursuing the dream because the way of the future is in skilled work.
Compleat Idler, Preparedness, Technology, Tool user
03/07/2014 loboviejo420 Stainless, 440 stainless, Buck, folding knfe, lock back knife, Mora, oxidation machine oil, Sabre, stainless steel 1 Comment
© 2014 Earl L. Haehl: Permission is given to use this article in whole as long as credit is given. Book rights are reserved.
Due to a really annoying operation and slow recovery, I was barred from doing stairs for about six months beginning in October and my daughter decided to rearrange the basement. My wife continued in this and there are items I cannot find. So in the laundry basket that came up one Saturday was a tan knife pouch I picked up on a clearance table some years ago. I needed it to replace a pouch I had ordered from Buck™ and had fallen apart from rough use—that left me to carry my Buck 110 Folding Hunter™ in a pocket, increasing wear to the trews and getting lint in the blade. Fortunately, the knife was in it which was good (or bad—I had been eyeing a Mora™ on line). At any rate, I asked where my wife had found the knife and she said it was in her with summer clothes—everything’s gotta be someplace.
My first concern was whether the knife was all right—I opened the blade and it snapped solidly into the locked open position and I felt the heft of the tool. It is not a light knife when compared to the new “backpacking” knives with skeleton frames or plastic scales. The rosewood and brass scales are the real thing, showing signs of age and the wood almost black from the oils in my hands over a quarter century of hard use—on its third pouch that I have kept oiled but done little else to protect. Holding the blade up to the light, I noted that there was a little speck on the blade so I took it into the kitchen and gave it a touch up on the buffer of my electric sharpener. When checking a knife for sharpness, hold the blade out in line with light in the background—flecks of light along the edge show anomalies that need to be buffed or stropped away.
The Buck 110™ was introduced in 1964 (I have also heard 1962 and 1963 from reliable sources, as reliability goes in the business). It is still in manufacture although I have been told the new steel (420) is not as good as the “old steel (440).” This new steel/old steel story may or may not be true but even 420 is a high carbon stainless with which I would have no problem. At any rate the fiftieth anniversary is offically 2014.
I have never seen any reason to replace a Buck™ with a new knife—a pouch or sheath occasionally but never a knife. I have lost a couple over the years including my first—a small stock man format knife that was confiscated by the vice principal in a random search when I was in junior high in California. Hint: in an urban area vice principals had zero tolerance even in the fifties.
A sharp knife is safer than a dull or even semi-sharp knife—the cut is cleaner and tends to have enough blood to wash out the infection. My mother’s youngest brother counseled me when I was sharpening up a Sabre™ “hunting knife” that semi-sharp was adequate for purposes of a Scout outing. If it were sharper I might get cut. My grandfather corrected the error and I got my own sharpening stone and basically did not consult Uncle Bill on such matters again. He would probably be shocked to see what I carry these days.
There are things I would not do with the Buck 110™. The 9.5 cm blade is not suitable for butchering—a little too short and stiff. No place for a lanyard makes it less than ideal for climbing unless you like throwing knives away—at 70 I feel my climbing days were over some time ago. I have opened steel cans with it—my son reconfigured the blade architecture and told me to stop doing that—but I would not stick it through the hood of a truck (I have a any number of military knives for that). And it is not a bread knife. NOTE that slicing five pounds of potatoes does sharpen the blade, but cleaning it off is a pain.
Maintenance is simple. Keep the blade clean and wipe or even wash blood off immediately. Blood contains a high concentration of salt which breaks down metals and subjects them to oxidation—the term “stainless steel” indicates that oxidation is slower, not non-existent. Keep it sharp, not semi-sharp, and give it an occasional drop of light machine oil.
Like the knives I got when my grandfather passed—one went to each of my uncles and the rest to me—the Buck™, like all of my Bucks™, will outlive me. But is it the be all and end all of knives. No. I carry it because I have it and it is reliable and sharp not because it is somehow magic.
Compleat Idler, Economy, Preparedness, Tool user
03/07/2014 loboviejoConsumer Reports, Leatherman, locking blades, multii-tools, replaceable wire cutters, Swiss Army Knife, tool use Leave a comment
I first wrote this a couple months back, like within a couple weeks of purchase—I am a skilled tool user and I did a quick overview. This was probably a bad idea. It is a mistake that a lot of the internet folks make when they are dazzled by a new toy. The other mistake they make is devising a test without thinking about what they are likely to do. Daily use for a couple months is the best field test I have seen.
Realize that I do not have a “testing regimen” for my tools. I use them the way I tend to use them and evaluate the results—I am a writer, not Consumer Reports®. If paid, I would develop a regimen and test gear, but I am not.
It is almost 30 years since I got the first Leatherman™. It was 14 months since my Super Tool 300™ had gone missing, the result of carrying it in an unsecured vest pocket rather than a pouch fastened to my belt. I do not know which is the longer term because being without the tool that has been an extension of one’s being amplifies the need for it. I was carrying, for the last six months my old Victorinox™ Hunter—it is not the same. The Swiss knife says you are the kind of person who drives a BMW and listens to NPR. People view you as civilized and your opinions are expected to be erudite and progressive.
I generally listen to AM radio and drive a pickup that was built in the last century—I am civilized and can speak with some erudition but I have more use in my daily comings and goings for needle-nosed pliers and Phillips head screwdrivers than a corkscrew and my Leatherman CS™ tool has better scissors and lifts beer caps. Even with the complete tool box on the truck bed the multi-tool is so much more convenient. I was at odd ends and awake about midnight when I ordered a black stainless Leatherman™ Rebar™. It arrived by either UPS or Fedex early in the afternoon a couple days later. (Note: Staples has good delivery.) NOTE: While midnight to 0230 may be good for writing, it may not be good for the Visa bill.
Now to the tool in question. It is slightly lighter than the old Super Tool 300™ which was new thing when I bought it a couple years back. I do not see this as a disadvantage because I can still use it to tap in tacks. It reminds me of the original Leatherman™ Tool that Tom built after a trip to Europe and marketed through Cabelas. In 84 or 85 I got one as a present and have had one on my hip since.
There are two features that are improvements on the Rebar over the original. The blades lock. And the wire cutters can be replaced. I feel my reputation for breaking wire cutters may have gotten back to the manufacturers as this feature is found on the newer Leatherman™ and Gerber™ multi-tools—my son said he could tell which were his by looking at the unbroken wire cutter.
It might be helpful if it would carry the trash, but that is not part of its job description. It does its job and has a good price point and is built rugged—like my old truck. After a couple months I feel I have worked out the stiffness and bugs—the tool is what it is, not some ideal of perfection that everyone is looking for. When I was daily using the knife blades to cut boxes and wood I appreciated the Wave™ which let me access the blades without opening the pliers. Now, I have more time so that option is not as important.
It did take awhile for the tool to loosen up to the point where I could easily work the functions. I do not recall the break in time as being that long on previous tools, but I am older and slower now and still only six months or so out from a fusion. It seems to be working better. If you are looking for bells and whistles, get the Wave™ or the Surge™.
Citizenship, Preparedness
21 August 1863 – The cost of non-resistance
21/08/2013 loboviejodemocracy, gun control, militia, politics, preparedness, stupidity, war Leave a comment
© 2013 Earl L. Haehl Permission is given to use this article in whole as long as credit is given. Book rights are reserved.
Today is August 21, 2013. 150 years ago, Major William “Bloody Bill” Anderson led his raiders into Lawrence, Kansas, and committed murder and mayhem on the civilian population although the killing was limited, for the most part, to males of military age—remembering that in 1863, young en as young as twelve were found in the military service of both the United States of America and the Confederate States of America.
About 10 am, William Clark Quantrill, Anderson’s “commander,” arrived in town, ate breakfast, gave orders to spare a hotel where he had once resided, and left. This was an irregular band or conglomeration of bands of raiders and command structure was sometimes confusing, but Bill Anderson had loose command.
What had happened in Lawrence that I find disturbing is that armed resistance was rare and sporadic. A Colonel Bullene and two of his sons were on leave. When raiders rode up to the Bullene residence, they were greeted with gunfire and decided to go elsewhere. There was a farmer named Levi Gates who grabbed his muzzle loader and went hunting and got two or three raiders before being cut down.
Three weeks before the raid the New England contingent among the city fathers had decided that the militia weapons would be “safer” in a central armory than in homes—anyone who thinks this bit of information did not get back to Quantrill and company needs a reality check.
It is not that the city did not know about the possibility of a raid. On 21 May 1856, the Sheriff of Douglas County, Samuel Jones, sacked the city to destroy free state and abolitionist newspapers and the Free State Hotel. However, the lessons of vigilance fade in time.
A personal note: My family were of the New England Puritan culture. When I went to a candlelight vigil some years back, there was a reading of names which included a number of Palmers and Griswolds—not ancestors but probably related.
In September of 1863, the Confederate Congress amended the Partisan Ranger Act to apply only to those partisan units operating also as regular cavalry. Neither Quantrill nor Anderson survived the war but a remnant of Anderson’s men in Western Missouri reconstituted themselves as the James-Younger gang.
On February 13, 1866, a group of about a dozen former members of Anderson’s outfit—including Frank James and Coleman Younger—robbed the Clay County Savings Association. This was the first daytime bank robbery during peacetime and netted $60,000 according to the robberies page of angelfire.com. For the next ten years, the James-Younger gang was unstoppable in Missouri.
On September 7, 1876, the gang ventured into “Yankee” territory again. This time it was Northfield, Minnesota. This time, however, there was armed resistance. Townspeople grabbed weapons and the gunstore handed out new Winchesters. Frank and Jesse James managed to escape through the Dakota territory and got back to Missouri—the armed response and ensuing manhunt resulted in death or incarceration of most of their confederates. The total take was $26.70 because they took the word of the acting cashier that there was a time lock on the safe.
Compleat Idler, Preparedness, Tool user
Idler’s tools – parachute cord
11/09/2012 loboviejoimprovisation, parachute cord, preparedness, surplus, Swiss Army Knife, tool use Leave a comment
My Swiss Army Knife Zermatt pouch arrived Saturday, September 8—it was scheduled fotr Monday, September 10. So far, so good. I had been thinking of getting a Huntsman with pouch after seeing one in the store for less than forty bucks. My Leatherman tool is too heavy for waist carry and I could use something more than a blade. Plus, the corkscrew says I am sophisticated.
When I went back the one with the pouch was gone so I went home and searched through a drawer because I remembered seeing a basketweave Zermatt pouch for the old Explorer that I cracked the spine on. My memory still tricks me and, as I said in a post on cutlery, when I go through my old stuff, surprises await. I did not find the pouch—it probably went in a lapse in the Scout Leader accumulation instinct. No, there was my Victorinox Huntsman, waiting to be picked up and used. The scales were darker than the new ones, probably due to handling and the oils from my hands—lanolin, neetsfoot, gun oil, machine oil etc.
So I went on line to find a pouch. The general run of stuff appears to be either cordura or a black clip-on case. An outfit called Swiss Knives Express had real Zermatt pouches. I ordered one with a sharpening steel for twenty bucks. And it arrived. The knife slid in tightly. It pulls out with effort. A thong on the lanyard ring would help.
My first choice would be leather, but what I had was parachute cord which is the subject of this post. At this house we buy 550 cord occasionally, but when we do we buy spools. A 1000′ spool will provide 10 100′ hanks which is the smallest amount I carry. And if there is 25′ still intact at the end of the weekend I roll it and stick it in a drawer or the bottom of a pack. So there is always some around when I need it. About six inches was all it took to give me a small loop that leverages the knife out of the pouch.
Shelter: Using the 550 is much more convenient than carrying 3/8 inch Manila—and about as strong. Combined with a tarp or sheet of Visqueen, this provides sturdy support between poles or trees. While all nylon has more of a tendency to stretch than hemp, the parachute cord is not as loose as the polypropylene rope used for marine purposes. And it has the advantage of tying almost like natural fiber. In erecting shelter use of the taut-line hitch is critical as this allows you to loosen or tighten the lines. (The aluminum or plastic line adjusters that come with commercial grade tents get lost.
Lashings: I began scouting in January of 1955. I spent that month learning knots, hitches and lashings because that is what the troop leadership was into and I had already learned woods tools from my grandfather, having taken out a three-inch sapling with a ¾ axe at age 10. This is not the way we do things now because there are fewer necessary knots: sheet-bend, bowline, taut-line hitch, clove hitch, timber hitch, square lashing, diagonal lashing, shear lashing and tripod lashing. There are other lashings, knots and hitches but these are the essentials and are learned over a year period. In the Pioneering merit badge program the standard is ¼ or 3/8 inch hemp or sisal rope because that is the way it was done back when. (Note: were the Mountain Men still around they would use the 90 mph tape.) In training we used sisal twine that comes in 100′ bales. But I like the 1/8 inch diameter parachute cord because it lays down nicely and I generally have some.
Securing gear: Because you can tie secure knots and use the taut-line hitch, 550 is preferable to bungee cord which gives and uses hooks that break at the least opportune time. (Is there any gear failure that does not occur at the least opportune time?) My grandmother had me use cotton clothes line for this project which wears quickly and she could cut into the right length with kitchen shears. It is nearly impossible to untie when wet and starts to smell.
Bootlaces: Cut to the right length, these are the laces that say, “I can improvise.” They started as a quick fix on a weeklong outing and ended up on the boots in the closet—when you have them in, it does not pay to buy commercial laces.
Limitations: This is not rescue rope. And, unless you get the military stuff with threads inside you are just getting an outer shell—it might fasten gear but it has little utility in the field. As with all polymers it will melt quickly.
However: I consider parachute cord to be an essential part of any preparedness supply.
07/09/2012 loboviejoblowgun, curare, free time, hunting, preparedness, safety, tool use Leave a comment
When you are using curare on your blowgun darts to hunt game, be careful to avoid inhaling at the wrong time.
Idler’s tools – going cordless
03/09/2012 loboviejobattery tools, portability, solar power, tool use, yard cleanup Leave a comment
The time for a battery operated tool system arose in my son’s life when he decided to built a dwelling on the farm from storage containers. His decision was based on the need for power about 250 feet away from a source. The old bench electrician looked at him and explained that if he were going to live in the place he should probably drop 220 from the main box to an onsite box which would eventually be attached to said dwelling. His response was that this would not need the same level of security and implied that while I could wire a breaker box for him, I probably did not have a current reg book.
Then he showed me the sale catalog he acquired. Okay, once I see a tool catalog I get distracted. And he was down to two outfits—Ryobi and DeWalt. I have experience with both because I ended up with a DeWalt reciprocating saw when they were closing the PayLess which had finally decided that it could not compete with the Lowe’s in Topeka which was 27 miles away. And I am not sure the rumblings about Home Depot wanting to locate in the area did not help the situation. I liked PayLess when I was selling hardware because I could send them customers who wanted a tool, but were questioning my price—they were back in a half hour to 45 minutes. I also picked up a rebuilt half inch Ryobi drill at a Cummins special sale. When Dave asked about the 8” chainsaw that came with the Ryobi, I pointed out that with a 10” pruning blade, the DeWalt could probably do as much if not more than the 18 volt chain saw.
He got the tools and one fine spring morning about two years later I tripped on the cord I was dragging behind me to do the clean up. I wrapped up the cord and put the saw back in the box and headed my Blazer to Home Depot. And the set I got was just a drill and reciprocating saw. But it works. I figured we could share batteries and are once again compatible.
Once I get a solar charger we can take it for trips of more than a couple days. I have decided to do something other than whine about a solar charger, A 12-volt array and an inverter can probably do the trick with my current charger.
The advantage to the battery operated tools is that they are really portable and less cranky than gas operated power tools. I can take out a batch of volunteer saplings in a few minutes with the pruning blade. Fitted with a Robertson (square head) bit I can drive deck screws all afternoon on a couple batteries. And it is faster than with hand tools and less likely to aggravate my carpal tunnel.
The disadvantage is the cost of batteries and tool weight. My 18v drill ways more than the half inch corded drill in the box. Motors wear out–but they do that even with corded tools.
There are several brands on the market. I went with DeWalt because I like the corded DeWalt tools I had and my son went with them.
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Romelda Aiken in control during a recent practice match. Peter Burton
Firebirds champ Romelda Aiken ready to resurface
by Terry Mallinder
ROMELDA Aiken is one of the super women of Super Netball, who hasn't been without her own form of Kryptonite - water.
"Black people don't swim, man," the Jamaican international tells News Regional Media with a laugh. "Don't need to."
But, word of warning to the defenders playing in this year's new-look domestic netball competition - it appears there is now no stopping the Queensland Firebirds' already imposing 196cm goal shooter.
Not even the dreaded h2o.
The two-time ANZ Championship MVP (2008, 2009) was forced to confront one of her biggest fears on the Firebirds' now infamous pre-season stay at Canungra's Kokoda Barracks in the Gold Coast hinterland.
Most of the weekend's activities involved either going through, over or into some form of water.
As well as the fact Aiken didn't learn to swim while growing up in the Caribbean, she says "I hate getting my hair wet", so the 'boot camp' was doubly torturous for the 28-year-old.
But, spurred on by her competitive nature and determination to foster the high standards set each year by the Firebirds, she wasn't about to let any obstacle defeat her.
Aiken doing it tough at the pre-season boot camp at the Kokoda Barracks. Nigel Hallett
"As a leader in the group, I think most of the girls look up to me ... You know 'if she's not doing it, I don't want to do it'," Aiken says.
"And I didn't want to set that standard for anyone. It was about getting everyone on board really quickly... keeping ourselves accountable."
Even if it meant holding her head under water in order to both crawl through a tunnel and swim beneath barbed wire fencing ... or dropping 30 metres into Coomera River.
"Let's not get into too many details, but it was hard," Aiken says.
"I couldn't touch the ground to start with and I was worried about everyone else not touching the ground. But everyone else could swim.
"Thanks to (teammate) Binnian (Hunt), she was a good swimmer and she was really helping me across the water. I'm like 'thanks girl'.
"It took a massive team effort from everyone. We made the best out of all the situations. We found fun in everything we did.
"Personally, I just accomplished so many things ... and I actually enjoyed the abseiling. I think that was my favourite part, just quietly."
Aiken doing it tough at the pre-season boot camp at the Kokoda Barracks.
As Aiken and her fellow Firebirds are about to embark on a new campaign, it is an ongoing period of conquering her own personal demons.
While the Firebirds clinched their second successive - and the last - trans-Tasman ANZ Championship with a grand final win over the NSW Swifts in 2016, Aiken is the first to admit she had a game to forget.
The normally straight shooter suffered from a case of the 'yips'- as coach Roselee Jencke described them. She shot at just 65% in the first half while opposed to Sharni Layton, who's crossed to new franchise Collingwood.
As the first player in the competition to reach 5000 goals, Aiken has nothing to prove to anyone, but she is keen to put that performance well and truly behind her and be at her best in the first round of Super Netball action this Saturday night when the champs host Sunshine Coast Lightning at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
"That was a shocking game," she recalls. "They say you're only as good as your last, but it was just one out of however many I've played.
"Despite my wobbly hands - and while I might have a few more of those (bad games) because I'm getting on in age - I will definitely back myself out there on court.
"I just look at it as a learning experience ... laugh at myself and go 'it happens'. We're not machines. Of course we're going to have faults."
Romelda Aiken and Laura Geitz celebrate their 2016 ANZ Championship grand final win. Glenn Hunt
It's not dissimilar to the attitude she has towards a far more sinister game she was once dragged in to away from the court - when the victim of an online stalker.
Three years on from the unfortunate episode, Aiken is asked if she would eventually use the experience to warn others to be careful in the online world - particularly teammates as exposure of 'Super Netballers' increases with added coverage in media, including social media.
"That's a very good question," she says.
"I think I sort of went the other direction and into hiding. I haven't really spoken about it to anyone.
"(But) I think with us going out to schools, that's the sort of message I want to bring to school kids. We're all going to make mistakes. We're all not perfect."
That said, the Firebirds are embracing the hype that is accompanying the new-look competition, albeit treading carefully and trying to ensure it's business as usual. It's a dedication to "read the fine print. Making sure we're very much attention to detail," Aiken says,
"We've had this culture for a very long time. we never get excited until there's like seconds to go.
"The build-up around it, (new broadcaster) Channel 9 just pumping it wherever and however ... it's amazing.
"Everywhere you go people are talking about it.
Romelda Aiken in full flight for the Firebirds. DAN PELED
"We are getting slightly more recognised when we go out. It's not just the netball mums, you get the dads as well talking about the game.
"So, yes, it's going to be exciting but what we need to focus on is what we need to do to win games.
"For us, and I know Rose (Jencke) will keep drumming it into us, it's about trusting the processes and then we'll see the outcome."
With champion defenders Laura Geitz and Clare McMeniman gone, and Gabi Simpson taking over the captaincy, it is a changing of the guard at the Firebirds, but it is testament to their depth and those 'processes' Jencke has in place that makes them the early season favourite.
"I wouldn't say we're the team to beat. But it's good to know a lot of people still have confidence in us, thinking we can win another championship," Aiken says..
"For our defenders we've got now, they're just improving week in, week out. They ask a lot of questions, which is great.
"Having the best attacking line-up (with Aiken joined by goal attack Gretel Tippett) to compete against gives them so much more experienced.
"It's going to be a massive step up, but we've said 'don't be afraid to make your own mark. You don't have to be like anyone else'."
Gretel Tippett and Romelda Aiken and formed a lethal combination. Hannah Peters
The Firebirds take on the new girls, the Lightning, in a blockbuster opening-round derby at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre while the Swifts play the Giants in an all-Sydney battle and the Vixens take on Collingwood in Melbourne.
"I feel for the fans," Aiken says with a laugh. "Some of them don't really know who to go for yet.
"When we played on the Sunny Coast this one girl was wearing a Firebirds hat, Lightning t-shirt and had both Lightning and Firebirds posters."
There is no doubt though with superstars like Aiken gracing the stage, netball is the real winner.
Go to Ticketek.com.au to book your tickets for this Saturday night's clash at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
Star Firebird ruled out for season
Shimmin glad to be on Aiken's team
Dream becomes reality as Mi Mi flies with Firebirds
Star shooter to return for Queensland derby
jamaica queensland firebirds romelda aiken sportfeature super netball
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Nigerian Military Official Claims To Know Where The…
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Generation Showdown Wi-Fi tournament announced
2 bytes added, 18:45, 16 January 2015
The Generation Showdown Wi-Fi tournament has been announced. It will be a Double Battles tournament, using the {{bp|Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire}} games. All participants will be able to receive 1,000 Poké Miles. Players may register between 2 p.m. JST on Feb. 5 and 8:59 p.m. JST on Feb. 13. The tournament will run from 9 a.m. JST on Feb. 13 until 8:59 a.m. JST on Feb. 16.
Players born in 2000 or later will be in the Junior Division. Players born in 1999 or earlier will be in the Master Division. There will be a maximum of 50,000 participants on a first-come first-serve basis. Every Pokémon in the National Pokédex may be used, with the exception of {{p|Mew}}, {{p|Celebi}}, {{p|Jirachi}}, {{p|Deoxys}}, {{p|Phione}}, {{p|Manaphy}}, {{p|Darkrai}}, {{p|Shaymin}}, {{p|Arceus}}, {{p|Victini}}, {{p|Keldeo}}, {{p|Meloetta}}, {{p|Genesect}}, and {{p|Diancie}}.
Players may only have a maximum of two of these Pokémon on their team: {{p|Mewtwo}}, {{p|Lugia}}, {{p|Ho-Oh}}, {{p|Kyogre}}, {{p|Groudon}}, {{p|Rayquaza}}, {{p|Dialga}}, {{p|Palkia}}, {{p|Giratina}}, {{p|Reshiram}}, {{p|Zekrom}}, {{p|Kyurem}}, {{p|Xerneas}}, {{p|Yveltal}}, {{p|Zygarde}}. Players are allowed to use Pokémon that were {{bp|Poké Transport}}ed from the Generation V games. Pokémon must be registered in the Battle Box on the PC. Pokémon will be set to level 50.
SnorlaxMonster
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Northlanders #2
After being left for dead by his corrupt uncle Gorm, Sven retreats to the farmhouse he was raised in and plots his next move. Now, with a small army out for his head, a strange and deadly half-wild girl living in the cliffs might be the lifesaver Sven needs--if she doesn't kill him herself! "Sven The Returned" part 2.
Davide Gianfelice
Massimo Carnevale
Andy Kubert
Mature Military
Vol. 1: Sven the Returned
Northlanders: Sven the Returned
Religious conflict. Technological revolution. Fear of the end of the world. Sound familiar? It should. But it's not the world of today, it's the world of Europe, circa 1000 AD. The world of the Viking-based series NORTHLANDERS by creator Brian Woods!
Meet Magnus the Black, neither clean nor sober, neither Christian nor Pagan, but a man true to his word. When a ranking official under his care is brutally murdered, he's prepared to hunt the killers to the frozen tip of Norway, religious war be damned. Northlanders creator BRIAN WOOD returns to the Viking genre along with artist GARRY BROWN (The Massive, Catwoman) and DAVE McCAIG (Batman, Amer
Aspiring photojournalist Matty Roth gets trapped in battle-weary Manhattan during America's second civil war. He takes a once in a lifetime opportunity to follow a veteran war journalist into the middle of the DMZ. But taking it leads to more than just a scoop...it leads to a whole new life.
Fifteen years ago, Dash Bad Horse ran away from a life of poverty and hopelessness on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation. Now, he's come back home to find nothing much has changed on "The Rez" in this gritty, gripping organized-crime drama.
Rebels: These Free and Independent States
In 1775, Seth Abbott fought to win his fellow Americans their independence. In 1794, his savant son, John, comes of age as their new nation faces multiple threats: high seas terrorism, fresh aggression from Britain, and intense political division at home. When Congress authorizes building America’s first navy, the famous “six frigates,” John Abbott signs up. * From best-selling writer Bri
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Adam O'Brien takes over at the Knights this week. Picture: Newcastle Knights
New Knights coach puts players on notice
by Michael Carayannis
4th Nov 2019 7:40 AM
Incoming Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien will deliver a simple but blunt message to his players when he leads his first training session on Wednesday.
"If you want to feel good you don't play rugby league because you're not going to feel good for the whole 80 minutes," O'Brien will tell his players.
"We need to get comfortable staying in the game in those moments."
O'Brien is far from a rookie, having been a top-line coach for more than a decade, learning his trade under Storm coach Craig Bellamy before spending the past two years at the Roosters alongside Trent Robinson.
He played under Brad Arthur at the Batemans Bay Tigers in the early 2000s before following the future Parramatta coach to Cairns Brothers.
This week, O'Brien will stand up in front of his players for the first time in total control.
New recruit Jayden Brailey, skipper Mitchell Pearce and fullback Kalyn Ponga will be there on Wednesday with Kangaroos prop David Klemmer the only star missing.
"We need to have some honest conversations about where we are at," O'Brien will explain to his Knights.
"If we don't change some behaviour then we will get the same results.
"They need to be a strong defensive player. If I have to pick between two players I'll go with the better defensive player. Your mental character comes out in your defence. We're building a lot of resilience around our defence."
O'Brien arrived in Newcastle with little fanfare. He caught the train from Central rather than having a club official drive to pick him up as he relocated from Sydney. While his arrival may have been low-key, O'Brien has been working furiously since his commitments with the Roosters ended after their grand final win.
Kalyn Ponga and the Knights are looking to bounce back under their new coach. Picture: AAP
KNIGHTS OF OLD
The Knights were hammered for their limp end to the season which led to Nathan Brown's premature exit. Since setting up base in Newcastle, O'Brien has been pleasantly surprised to see player-led training sessions during the squad's off-season, with 22 players taking part last week.
"That shows me straight away they care," O'Brien said.
"They didn't enjoy what happened at the end of the year.
"It's easy to look at the negatives of last year but Nathan (Brown) and the coaching staff did a really good job. They made a lot of improvements."
O'Brien has already added a contact room inside Newcastle's training base.
COACHING STYLE
O'Brien is cut straight from the Bellamy mould. While he has been in charge of the team's attack, much of the pre-season will focus on defence and building the club's mental resilience. But he knows he has some of the game's best attacking players.
"The big change they will notice is we will be putting them into uncomfortable moments and seeing them add that resilience and pushing through," O'Brien said.
Adam O’Brien learned from the best in Craig Bellamy.
"We'll be mixing up what they do and when they do it. We don't play too many games at 8.30am so we need to make sure we're competing and training in the afternoon sessions when you've already done weights, speed and contact.
"There are obviously a number of players who play eyes-up footy - guys like Kalyn, Mitchell, Brailey, Connor (Watson) and Kurt Mann. I don't want to tie them down with a whole heap of structure.
"We need to make sure we're bringing them into the game. You need a certain level of structure otherwise there will be no accountability. I'll back them in the moments where they drift off the plan and play with their eyes as long as they have the skills to do it.
"In the first six weeks the biggest focus will be having a physically and mentally fit team, but I want a highly skilled team too."
Can Adam O’Brien deliver for the success-starved Knights? Picture: AAP
COACHING CAMP
O'Brien and his coaching staff including David Furner, Willie Peters, Rory Kostjasyn and Eric Smith, underwent their own coaching-style boot camp at the end of last month.
The group spent three days together in Port Stephens where they went through all their plans for the season.
They were joined by other key staff members at times including Alex McKinnon, Brian Canavan and performance manager Balin Cupples.
"One thing I am big on is planning," O'Brien said.
"Making sure everything is planned from kicking, skill, social events. You can always re-evaluate.
"All the staff ran over their plans during the day and then it was about getting together at night, sharing stories, having a few laughs and getting to know each other."
ALEX'S BIG ROLE
Ex-Knights and Dragons player McKinnon, 27, will head up Newcastle's recruitment after Troy Pezet left the position. O'Brien said there was instant chemistry with McKinnon.
"I couldn't be happier for him," O'Brien said.
Alex McKinnon will head up Newcastle’s recruitment. Picture: Peter Lorimer
"I've really connected with Alex. I remember speaking to Craig (Bellamy) before I came up and he is close to Alex. He said 'you'll like this kid, he is like us'.
"He seems so much older than he is. He has a good footy brain and eye for talent. He has a good eye for a Knights player and he knows what type of player we need here.
"He is going to be very successful."
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adam o'brien knights newcastle knights nrl
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Tawharanui house named best of the baches
Posted at 10:52am Monday 15 Jul, 2019
A house that looks something like a bright red shed, located on the Tawharanui Peninsula, was among 11 designs to win a regional award from the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) in May.
Dubbed Takatu House, by designers RTA Studio, it is located among a small settlement of baches near the beach at the end of a private road.
Perhaps the most unique feature for a newly designed house is that in order to go between the bedrooms, lounge and bathroom, you have to go outside.
“The spaces are divided by function, with living and sleeping pavilions housed under separate gable forms in a subtle reference to rural farm building vernacular,” says lead architect Richard Naish.
“It's very red, and that's no perversity,” the NZIA judges said in their statement.
The Resene ‘pioneer red' colour had been chosen as a nostalgic nod to the site's original shed and to provide a striking contrast to the green hillside.
This colour is echoed in the kitchen, with red tiling, which is sourced locally from the Middle Earth factory in Warkworth.
The bathroom features similar tiling in green that sits alongside exposed metal plumbing. Pine plywood used for the walls and the cabinetry provides warmth while evoking the feel of a backcountry hut.
Mahurangi health: A charity case
IT support on our doorstep
Call for ocean problem solvers
Cheeky Rotarians fix Hill Street for a pittance
Campaign to support bushfire victims
New school art competition
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World’s purest alcohol made in Puhoi
Posted at 3:49pm Tuesday 03 Sep, 2019
Puhoi master distiller Alex Kirichuk not only believes alcohol doesn't have to be a toxin, he says it is the most efficient medium to deliver botanical based medicine to the body.
Alex says his wife is the only medical doctor in New Zealand with a knowledge of adaptogenotherapy – a field of medicine discovered in the USSR at a time when medical drugs were scarce.
“It was kept top secret and used only for cosmonauts and Olympic athletes, but my wife learned of adaptogens as a doctor for the USSR Olympic sailing team,” he says.
In his home country of Ukraine, Alex was a nuclear power plant inspector. When the Chernobyl disaster happened in 1986 he was sent to investigate and was consequently exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.
Alex says while his colleagues became ill, his wife cured his radiation sickness with a highly concentrated tonic made from grapes.
To be used as medicine, alcohol must be extremely pure and so Alex puts great effort into distilling toxin-free product.
He imports Scottish Highland whiskey, which he says is “not bad” as a base to start his batch from.
After a few distillations, it turns pure white and only half of the volume remains.
It is then put into a small barrel, holding five to 20 litres, where it ages much faster than in traditional larger barrels
“It produces a 10-year product in a six-month timescale,” Alex says.
The theory is that when the alcohol is absent of impurities, the liver can process it more easily. This means there is no hangover and the drinker becomes sober much faster.
Sure enough, our Local Matters reporter sat with Alex and his breathalyser and watched his blood-alcohol readings steadily reduce in just 15 minutes to the legal limit after drinking a 49 percent proof concoction.
“If you go to the pub and drink beer or wine there are a lot of impurities which the liver has to work on first. Alcohol then accumulates in the bloodstream and makes the body sick,” Alex says.
The purity of his product has earned Alex a number of notable friends and awards.
He has a signed book from Simon Gault, Lonely Planet wrote a chapter on him, and he was visited by New York times mixology columnist Sother Teague last month.
One time, Alex purchased coconuts from a plantation owned by the family of then president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, to produce a rum which he then sent to the family as a gift.
President Aquino loved the brew so much he visited Alex in Puhoi, picked him up and took him with the Filipino delegation to Wellington to dine with John Key.
Alex also gave a bottle of Manuka Whiskey to Jacinda Ardern just before the election and soon after she became pregnant.
Alex's products are only available at Smith & Caughey's in Auckland but locals can contact the Organic Puhoi Distillery Facebook page for a discounted drop.
Library provides spot for groups
New Year honours
Horse damage at cemetery upsets grieving widow
Bridge offers mental workout
Traffic snarl-ups hinder water supplies
Ocean predators become prey
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Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models
Thomas John Philip Nalloor, Nitesh Kumar, Kasinathan Narayanan, Vasanth Raj Palanimuthu
Department of Pharmacology, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal
Butter is one of the widely used fats present in the diet. However, there is no satisfactory study available that evaluates the effect of a high-fat diet containing butter as the principal fat on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In the present study, butter was used for the development of steatosis in Chang liver cells in an in vitro study and Swiss albino mice in an in vivo study. In vitro steatosis was established, and butter was compared with oleic acid in Chang liver cells using an oil red O (ORO)-based colorimetric assay. In the in vivo study, a butter-rich special diet was fed for 15 weeks to mice, who showed no significant change in body weight. The expression pattern of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and miR-21 was compared by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Special diet-fed animals showed downregulated PTEN compared to normal diet-fed animals, while levels of miR-21 remained the same. Elevations in biochemical parameters, viz., triglycerides and liver function tests showed symptoms of onset of NAFLD. Histophathological study of livers of test animals confirmed mild-to-moderate degree of NAFLD.
Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases
Body Weight Changes
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Nalloor, T. J. P., Kumar, N., Narayanan, K., & Palanimuthu, V. R. (2017). Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models. Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology, 28(3), 257-265. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
Nalloor, Thomas John Philip ; Kumar, Nitesh ; Narayanan, Kasinathan ; Palanimuthu, Vasanth Raj. / Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models. In: Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology. 2017 ; Vol. 28, No. 3. pp. 257-265.
@article{8c2aebcbe3fc4f5194ec3b7714be8cab,
title = "Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models",
abstract = "Butter is one of the widely used fats present in the diet. However, there is no satisfactory study available that evaluates the effect of a high-fat diet containing butter as the principal fat on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In the present study, butter was used for the development of steatosis in Chang liver cells in an in vitro study and Swiss albino mice in an in vivo study. In vitro steatosis was established, and butter was compared with oleic acid in Chang liver cells using an oil red O (ORO)-based colorimetric assay. In the in vivo study, a butter-rich special diet was fed for 15 weeks to mice, who showed no significant change in body weight. The expression pattern of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and miR-21 was compared by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Special diet-fed animals showed downregulated PTEN compared to normal diet-fed animals, while levels of miR-21 remained the same. Elevations in biochemical parameters, viz., triglycerides and liver function tests showed symptoms of onset of NAFLD. Histophathological study of livers of test animals confirmed mild-to-moderate degree of NAFLD.",
author = "Nalloor, {Thomas John Philip} and Nitesh Kumar and Kasinathan Narayanan and Palanimuthu, {Vasanth Raj}",
doi = "10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058",
journal = "Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology",
publisher = "Freund Publishing House Ltd",
Nalloor, TJP, Kumar, N, Narayanan, K & Palanimuthu, VR 2017, 'Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models', Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 257-265. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models. / Nalloor, Thomas John Philip; Kumar, Nitesh; Narayanan, Kasinathan; Palanimuthu, Vasanth Raj.
In: Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology, Vol. 28, No. 3, 01.05.2017, p. 257-265.
T1 - Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models
AU - Nalloor, Thomas John Philip
AU - Kumar, Nitesh
AU - Narayanan, Kasinathan
AU - Palanimuthu, Vasanth Raj
N2 - Butter is one of the widely used fats present in the diet. However, there is no satisfactory study available that evaluates the effect of a high-fat diet containing butter as the principal fat on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In the present study, butter was used for the development of steatosis in Chang liver cells in an in vitro study and Swiss albino mice in an in vivo study. In vitro steatosis was established, and butter was compared with oleic acid in Chang liver cells using an oil red O (ORO)-based colorimetric assay. In the in vivo study, a butter-rich special diet was fed for 15 weeks to mice, who showed no significant change in body weight. The expression pattern of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and miR-21 was compared by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Special diet-fed animals showed downregulated PTEN compared to normal diet-fed animals, while levels of miR-21 remained the same. Elevations in biochemical parameters, viz., triglycerides and liver function tests showed symptoms of onset of NAFLD. Histophathological study of livers of test animals confirmed mild-to-moderate degree of NAFLD.
AB - Butter is one of the widely used fats present in the diet. However, there is no satisfactory study available that evaluates the effect of a high-fat diet containing butter as the principal fat on the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In the present study, butter was used for the development of steatosis in Chang liver cells in an in vitro study and Swiss albino mice in an in vivo study. In vitro steatosis was established, and butter was compared with oleic acid in Chang liver cells using an oil red O (ORO)-based colorimetric assay. In the in vivo study, a butter-rich special diet was fed for 15 weeks to mice, who showed no significant change in body weight. The expression pattern of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and miR-21 was compared by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Special diet-fed animals showed downregulated PTEN compared to normal diet-fed animals, while levels of miR-21 remained the same. Elevations in biochemical parameters, viz., triglycerides and liver function tests showed symptoms of onset of NAFLD. Histophathological study of livers of test animals confirmed mild-to-moderate degree of NAFLD.
U2 - 10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
DO - 10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
JO - Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology
JF - Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology
Nalloor TJP, Kumar N, Narayanan K, Palanimuthu VR. Long-term exposure to a butter-rich diet induces mild-to-moderate steatosis in Chang liver cells and Swiss albino mice models. Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology. 2017 May 1;28(3):257-265. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
10.1515/jbcpp-2016-0058
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"[Bloggers] like you have greatly improved my outlook." – Roger Ebert
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REVIEW: Sully
Clint Eastwood’s ideas about America tend to get a lot of airtime, be it his decidedly anti-politically correct personal statements or the perceived xenophobia or myopia of his films like “Gran Torino” and “American Sniper.” In some regard, Eastwood’s much-ballyhooed empty chair speech at the 2012 RNC set the stage for a political lens to become the most commonly applied approach to his work. With “Sully,” the director offers up a vision to make America great again – though not in the controversial manner in which you might think.
His film is an ode to the American spirit of communal support and teamwork. It’s a tribute to those brave souls who think like caring, sentient human beings rather than machines. And this tale is not without a dark side; our nation’s faith in the extraordinary capabilities of an ordinary individual can thrust unwitting individuals into the limelight as heroes.
This message gets a perfect vessel through Tom Hanks’ Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, an experienced pilot who successfully executed a water landing in a passenger jet that lost both engines in a bird strike. Less than eight years ago, the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson” captured the public’s imagination amidst financial scandals and economic woes. The event took place just days President Obama’s inauguration, but it might as well be lumped in with the optimism his early days in office. (Most of the major news networks opted to show footage from the “Miracle” over George W. Bush’s final address to the nation.)
At one point during the ensuing scrutiny from federal investigators, Sully looks into his wallet and finds the message from a fortune cookie: “Better a delay than a disaster.” The film itself possesses about the same level of wisdom and insight. That might sound a bit like damning with faint praise, but Eastwood – and Hanks, too, for that matter – knows there is something to be learned from the simple philosophy of the common protector. Thoughts and words are just fine, yet they mean little unless backed up with action. In “Sully,” the staff aboard U.S. Airways Flight 1549 and countless New York City first responders show their commitment to human life by dropping everything to save 155 passengers on a moment’s notice.
“It wasn’t me, it was us,” says Sully after hearing the audio recording from the cockpit. The lone hero might be a staple of Eastwood’s western iconography, but he’s all about civic unity in “Sully.” Tragedies do not define our nation. Our responses to them do. Some uneven storytelling tactics might prevent the film from rousing a groundswell of collectivist feelings, although it certainly stirs the yearning for a moment that once again rallies us together in hopefulness. B /
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Tags: Aaron Eckhart, Anna Gunn, Chesley Sullenberger, Clint Eastwood, Laura Linney, Mike O'Malley, Sully, Tom Hanks
Categories : Movie Reviews
Jay (23:26:36) :
Well my mom recommended it!
Bill Bennett (08:05:12) :
Sounds pretty cynical. And why always pick on Clint Eastwood
Marshall Shaffer (08:29:02) :
Cynical – me, or the film?
Helen M. Robinson (12:27:36) :
Bought CD “Sully”. 4 days ago. Watched video every day since sometimes three times a day. Beyond words. Being a former New Yorker felt at home and nostalgic seeing NEw York harbor, ferry boats NYPD and firefighters and fire boats and New Yorkers in rescue mode. I’m so proud to be a born in New Yorker.
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This $3.5 million yacht is the Bugatti of boats
Image: Bugatti
By Nick Jaynes 2015-12-04 22:45:07 UTC
Luxury yachts are nice, sure — but we haven't seen one like this before.
Bugatti signed an lifestyle license with the world's largest producer of luxury yachts, Palmer Johnson, to create a decidedly Bugatti boat called the Niniette.
See also: Porsche plans to take on Tesla with a powerful electric sports sedan
The Niniette is available in three models, spanning from 42 feet to 88 feet. Each features a carbon-fiber hull and two-tone color scheme created by a blend of ultra-strong ultra-lightweight titanium and dark blue exposed carbon fiber.
Body lines from historic Bugattis have been massaged into the lines of Niniette, including the falling shoulder line of the Bugatti Type 57 C Atalante and the perfectly balanced proportions of the Type 41 Royale.
With such high-end materials and storied lineage, you might expect a hefty asking price — and you'd be right. Prices for the Niniette start at $2.1 million and the mid-range costs $3.5 million. Palmer Johnson does not give a price point for the high-end 88-footer.
And if you're one of the 100 people who has already placed an order for the Bugatti Chiron, the Niniette can be a way to fill the void while you wait for your new luxury hypercar.
Topics: bugatti, Cars, Tech, Transportation
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The Matchblog
Keeping you up to date with all things Matchbox
← A murder is announced!
The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)- Part 1 →
Tales from Future Past
Posted by matchboxtheatre
As said previously, I am working my way back through a few of the old photo collections and, now I’ve worked out this gallery lark will be publishing a selection of shots from various plays, old and new. And so, to get things rolling, a few images from the smash hit productionof last Christmas, ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The second part will follow within the next couple of days. While we’re at it though, seeing as I’m moving wholesale onto here, here’s a copy of the review that was also published around that period:
I have to admit when I knew that an evening with the Matchbox Theatre group meant an evening of ‘community’ theatre in a church hall in West Wickham it wasn’t sounding the hottest ticket in town. My experience of this kind of drama has been lukewarm to say the least, all drawing room windows and awkward but earnest overplaying. A generalisation I know, occasionally there has been a diamond in the rough but very rare, and though I had affiliations with some of those involved I was not expecting much. Thus, as I took my seat for Jess Borgeson, Adam Long and Daniel Singer’s ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) in a hall that was three quarters full with a simple but impressive set establishing a Tudor theatre ambience I did not really know what to expect.
It seems I needn’t have worried, the tone was set within the first few moments as James Mercer, the first member of The Matchbox Sized Shakespeare Company appeared, and turned the typical Front of House manager’s speech into a cross between an airline attendant and a slightly moralistic teacher preparing us for what was to come. The tone was firmly set with each of the key players doing a turn, be it Kay Isom’s sensible lynchpin, Tim Pierce’s evangelical frenzy about the merits of Shakespeare (complete with collection plates) or Gill Challenger’s hilarious summary of the Bard’s life, culminating in his invasion into Poland and precipitation of World War II.
The appearance of the director, Mike Savill, amidst these proceedings seemed something of a curio, his singing and byplay with the audience a little out of place although I understand there were practical reasons behind this manifestation, largely the cast getting ready for the exhausting feat to come. And what a feat it was. I have seen this play done before by, let’s be honest, younger actors but the more mature years collected on stage, with no offence intended, I think really added to the experience. When youngsters have to pretend to be exhausted by the frenetic pace of this work these four stagers, and yes there was a gap of years between them I will admit, were genuinely and hilariously worn out come the end of the show. And that is true testament to the effort and gusto that they put in to an evening that went at breakneck speed. Lines were delivered with verve, improvised moments added a blissful freshness and it is clear that these four enjoyed working together, as it should be with an ensemble play like this.
Highlights included a delirious Romeo & Juliet with James, Gill and Kay each having their moment in the spotlight whilst proceedings were all held together by Mr Pierce; the old crowd pleaser of an Othello rap which had an even more humorous twang to it in this pocket of middle class suburbia; a lively and energetic rugby game and the appearance of a performing dog during a reworking of Troilus and Cressida! Now that was unexpected and altogether too brief, certainly not in the original script. But I guess it was in keeping with the director’s vision of throwing everything except the kitchen sink into the production; there was always something new, always something to take proceedings into a different direction be it slightly quirky or gloriously bizarre. This play has often been likened to the works of Monty Python and that spirit of the madcap and slightly surreal was certainly on show here. I am not sure what The Matchbox’s performances are usually like, it seems from the impressive list of plays at the back of my programme that they have presented an eclectic bunch of plays from Restoration comedy to revenge tragedy to romantic farce, but I doubt that their audience has witnessed much like this over the theatre group’s thirty one years. Nonetheless, they appeared to love it. The added bonus that the cast knew a number of those watching added to the merriment and byplay, as various folk were described as (unlikely) virgins, offered a rather gruesome human head pie by cooking host Titus Andronicus or invited to dinner by an amorous Juliet. All of this added to the recurrent, at times near continuous, laughter and sense of joie de vivre. Indeed, the first half, consisting of thirty six of the Bard’s plays and running at about an hour, seemed over in a trice.
The buzz over the interval wine (or in this case tea in the church) is always an interesting litmus test of a play, and the excitement and enthusiasm for what had gone on before was genuinely palpable; I had to admit I myself was very much looking forward to return for part two as soon as possible,
The second half commenced with a wholly unexpected turn from Tim which diverged considerably from the play as written, but was very much in keeping with the spirit of the evening: an audience participation piece which involved select members of the viewing public contributing to the construction of a sonnet. I understand this was the actor’s own creation and was masterminded with aplomb and great directorship. This was very much a characteristic of this actor’s turn, he clearly dominated the stage in all that he did bringing vibrancy and life even though I understand he really is a waiting list for a hip replacement; a fact he shared with the audience with grim stoicism. Performances were strong all round though, not only the energy that was brought by each of these actors but also the characterisation: Gill’s surly simpleton was performed with enthusiasm, great comic timing and, it must be said, a mastery of the gurn which manifested in many of her asides; Kay offered wonderful versatility and playfulness and delicious sense of the comic in a multi-noted performance – I was truly surprised when I heard later that she did not think of herself as a comic performer, her work tonight must have dispelled any doubts.; and James the youngest member of the group brought bravura and swagger and a great knowingness in his performance and inter actions with the audience. His interpretations of Romeo and Hamlet were both engaging and delivered with control and confidence. But as I have said earlier, this was an ensemble piece without any shadow of doubt and it is the sum of all these parts that made for such a splendid whole.
Credit must also go to the stage team, who even had their moment in the spotlight with an impromptu working of Gangnam Style during the play’s one set change, once again showing that this performance stopped for nothing and no one. Solid technical support with simple but effective use of lighting, sound effect and music added to the ambience in a space that I imagine would be extraordinarily difficult to light in some circumstances, but was used well by the director Mike Savill who clearly had a vision that was fulfilled come the night. Special mention must also go to Annie Norris, the Producer and coordinator of the dozens of props that drive the play on, no mean task for a production like this.
This second half is dedicated, then, to a reworking of Shakespeare’s classic play, Hamlet, delivered with near Stoppardean brevity but suffused with the manic Pythonesque nonsense we had become accustomed to. Ghosts as socks on strings, hand puppets, pantomime villainy, Psycho themed stabbings, all contributed to developing the madcap that had characterised the first half. Of particular note, though, was the audience participation section focussed on Ophelia’s ‘Get thee to a nunnery’ response. Here was another opportunity for the actors to come into their own with sparkling improvisation and bonhomie that kept the audience effervescing throughout. Ms Challenger was particularly instrumental in keeping this ebullience at the right pitch, leading us effectively to the climactic scream delivered by an unsuspecting member of the public and she certainly gave it her all; and that was after giving a belting great scream beforehand that the players rather cruelly pooh pooh’d!
Topping off the evening once ‘the rest was silence’, was a high speed version of what we had just seen, Hamlet in just over a minute, followed by an even shorter version(!) and then the challenging Hamlet in reverse. By the time the play was drawing to a close it’d be fair to say that the actors didn’t know if they were coming or going but that didn’t matter; by this stage they needed only to walk on stage to elicit peals of laughter. They had truly won over an audience who, I had no doubt, enjoyed the two hours in the company of The Matchbox Sized Shakespeare Company. All should look on this as a triumph, I certainly think so and from the many effusive comments of the audience I know that many of them shared my opinion. I only hope it isn’t too long before these the MSSC returns to the stage again, though where they go from here I can only offer a feverish guess.
More updates in the very near future. Catch ya then.
matchboxtheatre
Matchbox is an amateur theatre group based in West Wickham who have been serving the community at St Francis Church Hall since 1981.
Pat Williams
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