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Sultan Abu Bakar Museum, Pekan (till the end of March 2017)
Muzium Negeri Kedah, Alor Setar, Kedah (ended Feburary 2016)
Bastion House, Melaka (ended July 2015)
Terengganu Trade Centre, Kuala Terengganu (ended Jan 2015)
Pusat Sains Negara, Kuala Lumpur (ended June 2014)
For more information please visit www.1001inventions.com.my
Sultan Abu Bakar Museum, Pekan
www.1001inventions.com/pekan
Muzium Negeri Kedah, Alor Setar, Kedah
1001 Inventions at Alor Setar, Kedah
1001 Inventions at Bastion House, Melaka.
Melaka, February 17, 2015: Award-winning, blockbuster educational exhibition, 1001 Inventions: Kegemilangan Tamadun Muslim, has opened for four months, starting February 17, 2015 at Muzium Dunia Melayu Dunia Islam, Bastion House, Bandar Hilir, Melaka. The state-of-the-art exhibition was welcomed by hundreds of fans, guests and visitors during the opening. Get your tickets now. Visit our 1001inventions.com.my website, facebook or twitter for more information.
1001 Inventions at Pusat Dagangan Terengganu.
The Tour has begun! Come and meet us, the 1001 Inventions: Kegemilangan Tamadun Muslim, the award winning educational exhibition that has captivated the world, coming soon 23 August 2014 at Terengganu Trade Centre, Kuala Terengganu
Official Launch of 1001 Inventions by Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister launched the internationally renowned 1001 Inventions show at the National Science Centre. The award-winning exhibition, which was declared the world’s best by the European museums Industry in 2011, welcomed visitors at Kuala Lumpur’s Pusat Sains Negara until end of June 2014.
The exhibition was officially opened by the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin bin Mohd Yassin, who is also the patron of 1001 Inventions in Malaysia, at a lavish ceremony held at the host venue.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, was guest of honour and patron at the official launch event
1001 Inventions has already received more than three million visitors at blockbusters residencies in London,New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dhahran and recently began a new European tour in Sweden. The exhibition highlights a thousand year period of history when Muslim Civilisation led the world in scientific, technological and cultural achievement – known as the “Golden Age of Muslim Civilisation.”
~ Click here for Media/Press Coverage ~
Ahmed Salim, Producer and Managing Director of the brand, said: ”1001 Inventions features a diverse range of exhibits, hi-tech games, interactive displays and dramatisation that bring to life historic role models from Muslim Civilsation who will serve as an inspiration for modern Malaysia’s young people to pursue careers in science and technology.”
From the seventh century onwards, men and women of many different faiths and ethnic backgrounds worked together, building on knowledge from ancient civilisations, to make groundbreaking advances in the fields of medicine, engineering, astronomy, agriculture, geology, mathematics, music and architecture. Their achievements still have an impact of the way we live our lives today, and also paved the way for the European Renaissance a millennium later.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, taking a closer look at the Al-Jazari's Elephant Clock, which is the main attraction during the exhibition (source)
Mr David Oh Seong Keat, Operations Director of Science Discoveries Sdn Bhd, said: “Malaysia is chosen as the exhibition’s premiere in this region and this will surely help boost our nation’s tourism industry as it is a unique, world class exhibition.
“1001 Inventions will also introduce Malaysians to a world of science and technology that will inspire the younger generations to become the pioneering minds of tomorrow,” said Oh.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the “1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilisation” exhibition in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. With him are (from left) Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin, Axiata chief executive officer Datuk Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, National Science Centre director Associate Professor Dr Irmawati Ramli and Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah. Pic by Sairien Nafis (source)
The exhibition has been immensely popular in Europe, America and the Middle East, where a dual language Arabic-English version enjoyed blockbuster residencies across the Arabian peninsula. The Malaysian version of the exhibition features more than 60 exhibits targeting all age groups. This hands-on, interactive and state-of-the-art family-friendly show introduces visitors to the wonders of scientific advancement we have inherited from Muslim Civilisation.
1001 Inventions was voted the world’s best touring exhibition by the Museum and Heritage Excellence Awards in London in 2011, and currently has more than three million online fans on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, watching the students playing educational games in 1001 Inventions Exhibition (source)
Visitors have the opportunity to enjoy five interactive ‘Zones’ that reproduce some of the most astounding inventions of the Golden Ages and demonstrates the broad influence that Muslim Civilisation has had on the way we live our lives today.
Visitors will be introduced to the wonders of Muslim Civilisation through an internationally award-winning educational film The Library of Secrets that is projected onto a five-metre-high screen.
Told as a short story, the 10-minute movie follows the journey of young children exploring the era of the historically mislabeled ‘Dark Ages’ and this will give them a better understanding and appreciation when they start exploring the main exhibition.
Rapt attention: Students from SMK Bukit Bandaraya looking at an interactive exhibit at the 1001 Inventions exhibition at the National Science Centre (Source)
Oscar-winning actor, Sir Ben Kingsley, plays renowned 12th century engineer, Al-Jazari, who introduces the wealth of innovation and advancement that occurred throughout the Muslim World from 7th and 17th centuries.
Ahmed Salim, from 1001 Inventions, stated: “The exhibition is a powerful educational tool that brings the history of Muslim Civilisation to life in high-tech, exciting and engaging ways that will appeal to school children and adults alike.
“The positive messages of public support we have already received have been overwhelming, and we are confident that 1001 Inventions will be as popular in Malaysia as it has been in Europe, America and the Middle East. I’m also confident that the example of inter-racial, inter-religious harmony provided by Muslim Civilisation will also be a powerful message that resonates with the young people who visit our show.”
Deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at 1001 Inventions Exhibition in Malaysia National Science Centre (source)
Ahmed Salim, Producer and Director of 1001 Inventions
The launch event was also attended by Datuk Dr. Ewon Ebin, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, and Dr Irmawati Ramli, Director of National Science Centre. 1001 Inventions Malaysia is organised by Science Discoveries Sdn Bhd in partnership with the National Science Centre. Science Discoveries had previously brought several science exhibitions to Malaysia from the London Science Museum. The exhibition is open daily from 9am to 5pm.
1001 Inventions exhibition in Malaysia is sponsored by Axiata Group Berhad and supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Tourism Malaysia and supported by the Ministry of Education.
1001 Inventions is a leading and award-winning international science and cultural heritage brand reaching over 100 million people around the world.
1001 Inventions uncovers a thousand years of scientific and cultural achievements from Muslim Civilisation from the 7th century onwards, and how those contributions helped create the foundations of our modern world.
Through its award-winning educational programmes, books, blockbuster exhibitions, live shows, films and learning products, 1001 Inventions showcases the contributions of inspirational men and women of different faiths and cultures in a civilisation that spread from Spain to China.
1001 Inventions, in partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives, have produced a world-class range of exciting and engaging educational experiences, productions, products and resources that are all extensively researched by academics and experts from the UK-based Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation.
Brand reaches over 100 million people worldwide
Award-winning films seen by over 33 million viewers
Blockbuster exhibitions visited by over 3.3 million people
Over 200,000 worldwide book sales
Over 16.5 million website visitors.
Over 2,5 million registered member fan base
Media Coverage in 78 countries
27 International Awards
Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC)
The Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) is the global academic and knowledge partner for 1001 Inventions. FSTC is an international network of historians, scientists, engineers, educationalists and museum professionals working to popularise awareness of the historic roots of science. By highlighting role models from the past and how their achievements and inventions live on in the modern world, FSTC aims to inspire young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Further information is available on FSTC's popular website: FSTC.org.uk
Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives
Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (ALJCI) is the global strategic partner for the 1001 Inventions brand. ALJCI is the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the ALJ Group, which is a Toyota automobiles distributor in 13 different countries. ALJCI plans and operates numerous global programs, such as poverty-alleviation initiatives, artistic and educational projects and technology innovation grants, including a long history of scholarships for students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more information please visit ALJCI website: www.aljci.org
Pusat Sains Negara (National Science Centre)
Pusat Sains Negara Persiaran Bukit Kiara, 50662
Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Kiara, Malaysia
1001 Inventions Announces Three-Year Tour of Malaysia
1001 Inventions Asian Premiere in Kuala Lumpur
US media welcomes 1001 Inventions to NYC
Google presents Sci-Tech Award to 1001 Inventions
Muslim Heritage Initiative recognised at Prince’s Charity’s Talent Awards
1001 Inventions film wins at Cannes
Gold Award for Best Education Film
Visitors soar above Sultanahmet
Istanbul hands over 1001 Inventions exhibition to New York city
Seven more awards for 1001 Inventions Film
5 Golds and Best Education film in Los Angeles and Hamburg Film Festivals.
1001 Inventions wins Best Film in New York
1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets wins eight New York film awards.
1001 Inventions wins Best Education Film
1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets wins four major industry IVCA awards
Prince’s Charity and 1001 Inventions
Prince’s charity announces partnership with Muslim Heritage pioneer
Thousands flock to “Blockbuster” Muslim Heritage Exhibition
In its opening week, over 15,000 visit new 1001 Inventions exhibition
1001 Inventions Exhibition in Science Museum, London
The Science Museum today announced that it will host a new exhibition called 1001 Inventions
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Writing: exploring the world of creative professionals
Library > Articles > Writing > 008
Freelance Copywriting Clients - Are yours Peppermint, Bitter Lemon or Pure Humbug?
Contributor: Mike Beeson
Clients can get in the way of a perfectly good career; or at least that's the impression given by some freelance copywriters who work in the advertising and Internet marketing sector. Like it or not, learning to love clients - warts and all - is essential if you want to succeed in what is an incredibly competitive business. This article gives some useful tips for those on the threshold of what could be a truly great future.
Copywriters Need Clients
So you set yourself up as a freelance copywriter. You've always fancied yourself as an advertising copywriting sort of person. So what's stopping you scaling the heights of fame and fortune as a true copywriting professional?
The stark lesson is - and it's a lesson that comes as a shock to so many who are new to freelance copywriting: copywriters need clients. Convincing clients to use the services of an unknown copywriter is hard enough in itself. If you don't have a thick skin, an adaptable personality and a physical presence that confirms you can at least spin a sentence together, you're likely to have a hard time of it.
Like copywriters, clients come in all shapes and sizes. As they're paying the bill, they're likely to come in some surprising flavours too. There's 'bitter lemon', the type that that will always be hard to please. There's 'humbug' who will always downgrade your offering, the more to minimise your fee. And you may come across 'peppermint'-flavoured clients whose sharpness and critical faculties are so highly tuned, you'll wonder why they bothered to hire a freelance copywriter in the first place!
But - despair not! With a little more experience you can at least purport to be an expert - although, it has to be said, any copywriter who cannot back up his or her claims to be able to walk on water will soon be found out.
Depending on which copywriting sector you enter and what type of expertise you are offering, there's a wide spectrum of responses that could greet you. In the early days, you're probably best avoiding copywriting projects requiring an understanding of the marketing context of what you're expected to write about. This requires commercial insight and experience that doesn't come with a degree in English, useful though that is.
Clients who are used to hiring creative copywriting talent will find you out in seconds. Obviously, they won't expect you to know as much about their business as they do, but naivety is the kiss-of-death for freelance copywriters, especially in the world of owner-managers of small and medium-size companies.
Off-line or online copywriting?
Before 'the ubiquitous Internet' entered the marketing fray, an aspiring copywriter could sometimes get away with selling his or her 'creativity' - as opposed to good, solid commercial awareness. The good news is that off-line copywriting techniques still make up a big part of the total marketing mix. That isn't to say that online copywriting isn't creatively demanding. It is. But in a different way!
The BIG change is that Internet marketing is the message itself. It's an informational medium that sets out to inform. In this respect, it's more like PR. The type of copywriting this calls for is therefore more akin to a journalistic style that 'tells before it sells'.
There is a subtle difference here and one which demands even greater subtlety on the part of copywriters who need to develop an informal yet authoritative style. Many clients themselves will not be aware of the changes the web has brought to copywriting techniques. Unaware, that is, until their website, online articles or blogs simply bomb out.
Despite all this, for aspiring copywriters, the web has to be good news. It's not ALL about fiddling with on-page search engine optimisation (SEO). In many cases, a half-way decent freelance copywriter with a lively style could satisfy the needs of many companies.
The web is a massive consumer of words in the quest for developing keyword-rich content to generate website links. The need for informative press releases and newsletters (on and off-line), for example, has never been greater. Website content, articles, e-mails, blogs... the world of opportunity for aspiring freelance copywriters is exciting and full of potential if you're looking to make your mark - and a dollar or two!
Already, there are website copywriting 'gurus', especially in the USA, who could claim to match the legendary status of direct marketing copywriters of the past. And although nothing stays the same - even in the world of freelance copywriting - clients of the 'bitter lemon', humbug' or peppermint' persuasion will always be around to get under the skin of new and experienced copywriters alike.
Mike Beeson is a UK freelance copywriter, PR consultant and journalist specialising in advertising copywriting, media relations, website copywriting and direct marketing. Mike's company, Buzzwords Limited was established over 20 years ago and is located in Knutsford, Cheshire (south Manchester). For more information, visit:
Mike Beeson and Buzzwords Limited:
www.buzzwords.ltd.uk or e-mail Mike at open@buzzwords.ltd.uk.
If you observe inaccuracies in our articles or wish to contribute an article or review to be included at AbleStable® visit Feedback.
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Real and complex analysis
Special Functions and Orthogonal Polynomials
Part of Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics
Richard Beals, Yale University, Connecticut
Roderick Wong, City University of Hong Kong
Date Published: May 2016
The subject of special functions is often presented as a collection of disparate results, rarely organized in a coherent way. This book emphasizes general principles that unify and demarcate the subjects of study. The authors' main goals are to provide clear motivation, efficient proofs, and original references for all of the principal results. The book covers standard material, but also much more. It shows how much of the subject can be traced back to two equations - the hypergeometric equation and confluent hypergeometric equation - and it details the ways in which these equations are canonical and special. There is extended coverage of orthogonal polynomials, including connections to approximation theory, continued fractions, and the moment problem, as well as an introduction to new asymptotic methods. There are also chapters on Meijer G-functions and elliptic functions. The final chapter introduces Painlevé transcendents, which have been termed the 'special functions of the twenty-first century'.
Covers standard topics from a unified point of view to show how different topics are part of a general scheme
Comprehensive but self-contained, covering newer asymptotic methods to give an up-to-date view of an important research area
Includes topics such as Painlevé functions and Meijer G-functions, which are not usually treated at this level, to give an understandable and well-motivated introduction to some subjects of great current interest
'… an excellent graduate textbook, one of the two best available on this subject…' Warren Johnson, MAA Reviews (www.maa.org)
contains: 7 b/w illus. 430 exercises
2. Gamma, beta, zeta
3. Second-order differential equations
4. Orthogonal polynomials on an interval
5. The classical orthogonal polynomials
6. Semiclassical orthogonal polynomials
7. Asymptotics of orthogonal polynomials: two methods
8. Confluent hypergeometric functions
9. Cylinder functions
10. Hypergeometric functions
11. Spherical functions
12. Generalized hypergeometric functions
G-functions
13. Asymptotics
14. Elliptic functions
15. Painlevé transcendents
Appendix A. Complex analysis
Appendix B. Fourier analysis
Copyright Information Page (153 KB)
Richard Beals is a former Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago and Yale University. He is the author or co-author of books on mathematical analysis, linear operators and inverse scattering theory, and has authored more than 100 research papers in areas including partial differential equations, mathematical economics and mathematical psychology.
Roderick Wong is Chair Professor of Mathematics at the City University of Hong Kong. He is the author of books on asymptotic approximations of integrals and applied analysis. He has published over 140 research papers in areas such as asymptotic analysis, singular perturbation theory and special functions.
Asymptotics and Mellin-Barnes Integrals
A Graduate Text
Orthogonal Polynomials and Painlevé Equations
Maximum and Minimum Principles
A Unified Approach with Applications
Affine Hecke Algebras and Orthogonal Polynomials
Journal of the Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu
Journal of the Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu covers all domains in pure mathematics.
Compositio Mathematica
Compositio Mathematica is a prestigious, well-established journal publishing first-class research papers that traditionally…
Journal of K-Theory
It is with regret that Cambridge University Press announces that it will no longer publish the Journal of K-Theory…
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Mathematical Proceedings is one of the few high-quality journals publishing original research papers that cover the…
Forum of Mathematics, Sigma is the open access alternative to the leading specialist mathematics journals. Editorial…
Mathematika
Mathematika publishes both pure and applied mathematical articles and has done so continuously since its founding…
Abstract analysis
Differential and integral equations, dynamical systems and control
Discrete mathematics, information theory and coding
Fluid dynamics and solid mechanics
Historical mathematical texts
Logic, categories and sets
Mathematical modelling and methods
Mathematical tables and handbooks
Numerical recipes
Mathematics (general)
Optimization, OR and risk analysis
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The Vermont Governor’s Highway Safety Program partnered with numerous sports venues throughout the state.
Vermont Lake Monsters
Vermont Lake Monsters, the single-a minor league baseball affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. This partnership allowed the "Drive Sober" message to be displayed in the ballpark through an outfield wall billboard, as well as nightly public address announcements during each home game, as well as an advertisement for the souvenir program.
A useful opportunity to reiterate the "Drive Sober" message through college sports such as men and women's basketball and hockey was provided by the University of Vermont Catamounts.
Regional Motorsports Venues
In-venue signs and nightly public address announcements were performed at three motorsports venues, i.e. Thunder Road International Speed Bowl, Devil's Bowl Speedway and Bear Ridge Speedway.
Designated Drivers are Legendary
The "Designated Drivers are Legendary" program was also enacted throughout the whole season, and fans were given the chance to register for the opportunity to meet NASCAR legend Bobby Allison and NHL Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers by signing a pledge always to drive sober or have a sober driver.
Bobby Allison
NASCAR Legend and Hall of Famer Bobby Allison made appearances at Thunder Road Speedway. One fan who signed the pledge to always have a sober driver was selected to participate in a special opportunity to meet the legend prior to his appearance. Bobby signed autographs and participated in radio and television interviews discussing the importance of having a sober driver.
Gerry Cheevers
NHL Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers made an appearance at a University of Vermont hockey game as part of the Designated Drivers are Legendary promotion. One fan had an opportunity for a special meet & greet session with Gerry, before he signed autographs for fans at the game.
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Environmental Tackiness
On display this week at the ELCA Temple of Tackiness in my neighborhood:
CELEBRATE GOD'S GREEN EARTH: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, REJOICE
Let's unpack those instructions a bit. (1) REDUCE Christ's church to a mouthpiece for a socio-political agenda. (2) REUSE artifacts of pagan spirituality, with or without sticking Christian symbols on them. (3) RECYCLE slogans and programs everybody else has seen through and moved on from, as Lutherans always do. (4) REJOICE in the opportunity to become just another part of the "Go Green!" background noise that has surrounded us on all sides throughout this year's month-long celebration of Earth Day. Hallelujah!
Posted by RobbieFish at 3:44 PM 1 comment:
Labels: tackiness
Legs On Ya
Last night I made my own lasagna, or as my brother used to call it when he was a wee tot, legs on ya. And God saw that it was good.
I've probably blogged on the beauty of homemade lasagna before, and to be quite honest, I don't do much that the package of noodles doesn't tell me to do. I must say though, that no storebought or restaurant lasagna can ever hold a candle to the stuff that comes out of your own oven. Perhaps this is because it takes an hour to bake it, so in order to serve it in a restaurant you have to cook up a bunch of it ahead of time and serve it warmed-over (and often, as a result, dried-out).
At risk of repeating myself, however, I want to plug the Barilla brand lasagne noodles, which don't have to be boiled, cooled, and painstakingly peeled off a piece of aluminum foil before you bake it. This makes the process of building a handmade lasagna that much simpler. The flat, rectangular slips of pasta are crisp and ready-to-bake when they come out of the box. The box also helpfully tells you the order in which to layer your five essential building blocks of lasagna: the noodles, the shredded mozzarella, the browned meat, the red sauce, and the ricota cheese mixture.
I enjoy making this kind of recipe, which essentially boils down to adding separate groups of ingredients together in a certain order. It's one of the reasons apple-upsidedown-gingerbread cake appeals to me. Plus, there is room for a bit of experimentation and customization within the basic structure. For example, the only herb I add to the cheese mixture is mint. There's really no need for parsley, basil, oregano, pepper, etc. Besides, your pasta sauce (which probably comes out of a storebought jar because, hey, it saves time) probably has those spices in it anyway.
Also, my browned meat mixture consists of equal parts ground beef and pork sausage, plus one onion coarsely chopped and mass quantities of minced garlic. Given a dish in which garlic works, one can hardly ever use too much of it. I have found, however, that it is just plain flavor overkill to use "Italian sausage" or, worse, "spicy Italian sausage."
My most important browning pointers? Besides, obviously, making sure the meat is fully cooked: (1) You can brown the pork and beef separately, then combine what you need for the dish and save the rest. Using too much meat can result in the top layer of cheese welding itself permanently to the aluminum foil, a major fault in any lasagna operation. (2) Feel free to add garlic to both the pork and the beef as it browns, but for reasons of timing add all the onion to the beef. You can wait until the meat is halfway browned before adding the onion. Contrary to what you learned from making Hamburger Helper, there is no need to brown the onion until it turns to complete mush. Thus, after baking the main dish, you'll still have onion chunks with a little body to them, the kind that bursts in the mouth when you bite into it.
Another trick is spreading the ingredients around so that each layer covers the full area of the pan without using up more than its share. I find that it takes a bit more than one 24-ounce jar of tomato sauce. So I tend to throw in the leftovers from a previously opened, partly used jar, regardless of differences in the flavoring between the two jars. The mozzarella can be tricky to divvy up, too. I rely (again, for reasons of speed and laziness) on storebought, pre-shredded packages of the cheese, typically starting with two one-pound bags of it and using half of one bag in the ricota mixture, then dividing the remaining three halves among the layers of lasagna as directed by the label on the pasta package.
One last caveat: Really, really do let this sucker cool down before you eat it. Having to scrape a layer of burnt skin off the roof of your mouth is not a cool way to end a meal.
Posted by RobbieFish at 1:16 PM No comments:
To Coin a Word
I like the phrase "to coin a word." It suggests so many cool things. It suggests that language can be treasured like money. It suggests that the right word at the right time may be rare and valuable. It suggests that the ability to invent new words is like the engraver's art, and that the process of bringing such a word into common usage is like the minting of money.
In the spirit of "sniglets," a kind of "funny money" as it were, I would like to present the following coinage for you to collect and display.
So, a male cat is a tom, all right? What if we call a neutered male a tim?
Thank you. No, please, you're too kind. I'm here all week!
Posted by RobbieFish at 7:34 AM No comments:
Labels: cats, language, whimsy
Which Is Longer?
Yesterday, while driving from the Twin Cities to Saint Louis, I put a burning question to the test. Namely: Which is longer, the state of Iowa or Wagner's Götterdämmerung? I studied this vital issue by listening to the latter while driving across the former. The opera, which concludes Wagner's "Ring of the Niebelung" cycle of four interminable operas, came on the air as the last Metropolitan Opera broadcast of the season.
It started while I was still well within the borders of Minnesota. It played on one Iowa Public Radio station or another as I drove by Mason City, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and Keokuk. When I finally lost contact with the Met broadcast, 10 miles from the Missouri state line, there was still a good bit of Act 3 to go. Siegfried had just perished, and I know (thanks to Margaret Juntwait) that at least three principal characters had yet to die tragic deaths, interspersed with a great deal of Wagner's passionate and yet ponderously dignified orchestral music.
The opera wins. Although the results may be a bit skewed by the fact that I broke the speed limit most of the way, I think it's a fair result when you take into account my stops to refill fuel, empty my bladder, and refresh myself with food and drink. To be sure, Iowa from east to west might be another story. But then, I've never had an opportunity to compare that drive to a Wagner opera, and I'm unlikely to do so.
This drive home struck me as strangely unfamiliar. I have, after all, made several trips from St. Louis to the Twin Cities. But then I realized that, oddly enough, I had never driven straight back until yesterday. I had either made the trip by air, or (on at least two occasions) had gone home by way of my mother's home in Nebraska. So it was actually weird to see the southbound side of my regular route. And it's weird that it was weird.
Posted by RobbieFish at 11:32 AM No comments:
Labels: music, travel, whimsy
Heavy-Metal Books
The exterminator came today to lay down some bait for the ants, who (as they do every spring) had moved into the neighborhood on a truckload of mulch and set up housekeeping inside the walls. While he was here, we somehow got to talking about books. He doesn't read much nowadays, but he fondly remembers enjoying some rip-snorting sci-fi adventures by the likes of Arthur C. Clarke. I happily gave him my well-thumbed copy of L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, assuring him that the book is pure fun and way better than the movie. (He claimed to have liked the movie. It takes all kinds.)
When I told him that I review kids' books for a Harry Potter fan site, he started asking me what I would recommend for his kid. I asked him what his kid was into, and he said "skateboarding and heavy metal music." For a moment I was stumped. Then the ideas started flowing. Some of these are books I have reviewed, some I have only seen in bookstores and thought about reading. But I hazarded to suggest them as something a member of the tattoos-and-piercings crowd might enjoy reading. And now, for those of you whose kids also belong to that set, I share the same list of recommendations with you (plus a few titles I might have mentioned had I thought of them):
Tithe by Holly Black: The first book in a series of dark, gritty, urban, modern fairy tales.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr: Likewise an edgy, tough fairy tale, complete with a playlist of hard rock songs to read by.
The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld: The start of the spooky, hip, slightly goth teen series called "The Midnighters."
I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak: A moving story narrated by one of today's wild young people.
Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven.
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, also the first book in a series. I'm getting ready to read these last two.
This is just a place to start. I'm not about to judge anyone for liking heavy metal music. It's not a cultural stream in which I prefer to swim, but they have just as much right to enjoy a good book as anyone. If these books can lead them to develop a habit of reading, more power to them!
Overdrawn Tackiness
Featured this week on the neighborhood ELCA church sign:
ATM INSIDE: ATONEMENT, TRUTH AND MERCY
Make fast withdrawals from your savings account in the storehouse of heavenly treasures! Check your balance in God's books quickly, securely, and confidentially! A nominal transaction fee may be charged! Do you wish to continue?
Coming soon: INTEL INSIDE: I NEED TO EJECT LUNCH
Four Book Reviews
Arabel and Mortimer
by Joan Aiken
Recommended Ages: 8+
Fans of Roald Dahl and Astrid Lindgren will love this book, part of a series about little Arabel Jones of "Rumbury Town, London N.W. 3½" and her pet raven Mortimer. Illustrated by the same Quentin Blake who so memorably decorated such books as The BFG and Danny the Champion of the World, and written by the same author who gave us The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Cockatrice Boys, it combines laugh-aloud scenes of mischief and mayhem with touches of whimsical irony and rib-tickling silliness.
Arabel and the family raven get up to some far-flung adventures, considering that she is the daughter of an easy-going cab driver and a slightly daffy housewife. Mr. Jones likes his football (that's soccer to you) and Mrs. Jones has an endearing way of muddling up her words. They both seem heroically tolerant of Arabel's feathered friend, who will swallow anything not bolted down and whose antics would be mortifying to most real-life parents. Part of what makes this fantasy so adorable is the way the Jones family takes Mortimer in stride.
In the three short stories (novellas?) included in this book, Arabel and Mortimer rescue a lost gem, run amuck on a cruise ship, save a zooful of zebras and camels from animal thieves, and put their special stamp on the unearthing of King Arthur's round table and the sword Excalibur. Mortimer samples the flavor of a table-tennis set, a bowler hat, and a sewing machine. He tests whether a riding lawnmower can fly, whether a grand piano can float, and whether a giraffe can climb a spiral staircase. And in spite of all his mischief, he and Arabel make lots of friends. Won't you be one of them?
I haven't yet read Arabel's Raven, the first book in this series. Evidently it is a series you can join at any point. I'm not sure how many different stories are in it, since they seem to have been published separately and collected in various ways. But I do recommend this charming series of humorous child-and-animal adventures to anyone who senses the comic potential of doughnuts, nose organs, lavender paint, and a bird that often mutters, "Nevermore!"
The Tale of Despereaux
This Newbery-Medal-winning book by the author of Because of Winn-Dixie weaves together the story of a servant girl who wants to be a princess, a rat who wants to live in the light, and a mouse who wants to be a knight.
Those of you who, like me, read the book after seeing the delightful movie based on it may be surprised to discover how many memorable bits in the movie aren't in the book. The original story is much simpler and more direct. Yet for all its spareness, it packs a big message. It bears witness that, even in the world of "once upon a time," the route to "happily ever after" is fraught with pain, trouble, and disappointment. It shows the cost of not conforming, the harm that can result when a broken heart heals wrong, the rewards of courage and love, the importance of honor, and the power of forgiveness. Best of all, it has a character who says: "Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark."
Despereaux is an unusual mouse in many ways. Smaller than normal, born with his eyes open, interested in things other than scurrying and nibbling, he soon falls in love with a pretty princess and comes to fancy himself her champion. She needs a champion, too, when a vengeful rat and an envious serving wench target the Princess Pea in a plot involving the darkest dungeon in the kingdom. To save her, one very tiny mouse will have to accomplish some amazingly big things.
It's a gentle, lovely story in which each short chapter ends with the narrator turning toward the reader and looking him or her straight in the eye. DiCamillo has a way of explaining words and concepts that might remind one of Lemony Snicket, only without the latter's pedantic mannerisms. The book leaves more to the imagination than the film does, but it also rewards the imagination with a word-painting full of darkness and light, achieving the effect of great detail through an economy of means. It's the verbal equivalent of the painting technique after which one of the characters is named. It draws on all the senses. It speaks in the tones of a kindly adult telling a story out loud to a child. And it begs to be read over a bowl of savory soup.
Gods of Manhattan
by Scott Mebus
Thirteen-year-old Rory Hennessy is a level-headed boy. He has an eye for the plain, unvarnished truth. This is why he hates watching stage magic; he can always spot how a trick was done. Always, that is, until his sister Bridget's ninth birthday party, when a conjurer named Hex pulls off the impossible. Suddenly Rory's entire world is shaken. Soon he begins to spot other impossible things, like a cockroach rider waving hello from a rat's back. Within days, the familiar and mundane streets of New York are transformed into a wonderland in which ghostly pirate ships patrol the river, animals engage in kung fu fighting, and members of the extinct Munsee tribe stalk the paths of Central Park.
Rory soon discovers that he is a rare type of person known as a Light. He sees what really is, and he can enable other people to see it too. But this talent puts him in great danger. Someone has seen to it that most Lights disappear by age four. Only the fact that, somehow or other, Rory has managed to block out his talent has kept him alive until now. But the feral, childlike Strangers are after him now. And one of the immortal gods of Manhattan -- spirits from its past like Alexander Hamilton and Walt Whitman -- is after Rory's head, aided by an assassin wielding a unique knife that can even kill gods.
That doesn't even begin to describe the danger Rory is in. All he has to defend himself are a handful of the immortal children of the gods, known as the Rattle Watch; a clan of rat-riding warrior roaches; and a mysterious magician with questionable motives, served by a papier-mâché boy. I'm not sure whether to count one little girl who fancies herself "Malibu Death Barbie" as an asset in Rory's favor. For, all too soon, his adventure becomes all about saving Bridget.
Meanwhile, we readers are treated to a rapid, free course in the history of New York City. We meet many characters from its variegated history. We tag along on wild, and often scary, excursions into the past, where Rory and friends are threatened by gangsters, British troops, an albino alligator, and everything in between. A quest to right a 150-year-old wrong and restore the balance of Manhattan's spirit world veers to a supernatural bank heist, a spiritual journey, a surprise plot twist, the unveiling of a traitor, and a deadly trap. And the door remains open for more adventures in the world of Mannahatta, where gods like Peter Stuyvesant and Zelda Fitzgerald preside over such areas as nostalgia, guilt, trends, excess, wit, shoplifting, and street construction. The chronicles of Mannahatta continue in at least a second book, titled Spirits in the Park.
by Delia Sherman
This tale was written to disprove a theory, voiced by another fantasy author, that fairies never live in big cities. Delia Sherman grew up in New York City, and she knows as well as anyone who has ever visited the Big Apple that it is a magical place. If anything, it has more fairy folk per square mile than the average, in proportion to its higher population density. And since the mortals who dwell in the "New York Outside" (that's our world) come from all over the world, the fairy realm known as "New York Between" is similarly cosmopolitan. Beautiful or ugly, naughty or nice, there are so many varieties of Folk in the city that you'll really need the glossary at the end of the book.
Sherman developed this idea through several short stories before bringing it to bear on the novel. It's really a powerful idea, too: more convincing than the Mannahatta of Scott Mebus's Gods of Manhattan, more family-friendly (and less tongue-in-cheek) than Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc., it forms the basis of a unique, urban fairy tale that will please folklore fans of all ages. Although the idea of magic existing in New York City isn't unique in and of itself, I know of no other author who has transplanted such a melting pot of "old country" magic onto New World soil, keeping its original character while adapting it successfully to its new home.
In the New York Between, Manhattan has been divided up between "Geniuses": powerful fairies who control particular areas. For example, our heroine, a mortal changeling named Neef, has grown up under the protection of the Genius of Central Park, also known as the Green Lady. In her quest, she meets other Geniuses, including the Mermaid Queen of New York Harbor, the Producer of Broadway, and the Dragon of Wall Street. She also meets her double, a fairy changeling who was swapped with Neef as a small child and raised by Neef's mortal parents.
Together, Neef and Changeling undertake three seemingly impossible tasks in order to get back into the Green Lady's good books and restore everything to the way it should be. It starts when Neef breaks a magical rule she didn't know about. Faced with a choice between being banished from the Park and being eaten by the Wild Hunt, she chooses a third option and goes on a quest. She mingles with selkie harbor cops, vampire actors, stockbroker dwarves and kobolds, the odd fictional character, and a whole roomful of bogeymen. She crosses paths with spirits from Asian, European, and uniquely American folklore, surviving by sheer chutzpah and the surprising usefulness of her fairy double. And she provides an entertainment full of laughs, changes of scenery, and familiar fairy-tale beings and plot devices transformed in surprising ways. New York is transformed, too. You may never look at it the same way again.
For more information on this talented and award-winning author, visit her website. Several of her stories have been published in anthologies, including The Faery Reel, The Green Man, and The Coyote Road. Some of her other novels are Through a Brazen Mirror and The Porcelain Dove. And I have been assured that she is writing a sequel to Changeling. I'll be questing for it!
Berlioz Week
Saint Louis had an opportunity to experience a rare cultural treat this past weekend, when our own Symphony Orchestra & Chorus performed Hector Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust -- which only comes around once every fifteen years or so. We had the advantage of having just put on the same composer's earlier (and more rarely performed) work 8 Scenes from Faust two years ago. So we've been fully inoculated with one of the great masterpieces of the romantic era.
What is The Damnation of Faust? It's a bit of this and a bit of that. It's partly an opera: it has been successfully staged, most recently a few weeks ago by the Met, though Berlioz never lived to see a staged production and, indeed, never seemed to feel one was necessary. It's partly a cantata or oratorio, making huge demands on the chorus (especially the men) and only four principal soloists: it works well, as we performed it, without costumes or scenery or stage business, simply as a concert work. It's partly a symphony, the culmination of Berlioz's development as a symphonist toward larger-scaled works in which dramatic narrative meets pure music: for in Berlioz's mind the music seems to have existed prior to the text.
What, once again, is The Damnation of Faust? It's partly a setting of the verse portions Gérard de Nerval's translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's seminal masterpiece -- seminal, that is, not just for Goethe but for 19th-century Western culture as a whole -- Faust: The Tragedy. That's already a pretty hefty pedigree, considering that Goethe rivals Shakespeare as a literary figure of worldwide importance; while he himself claimed to prefer Nerval's French translation to his own German original. Partly, it is also an independent literary creation by Berlioz himself, whose gift for melody, harmony, and orchestral color is matched by his literary skill in a proportion comparable to the gifts of Wagner.
As international Berlioz experts Hugh MacDonald and Kern Holoman argued in their pre-concert chat (which I heard both nights), The Damnation of Faust may reveal Berlioz at his best. It certainly benefited from its 20-year gestation period. And in last week's performance, it sizzled and glowed and bubbled and burned, it plunged and soared and danced and laughed, it staggered drunkenly and sighed mournfully, under the baton of David Zinman. This maestro conducted with a huge energy that belied the serious pain he was in, as evidenced by his gingerly way of stepping off the podium.
It was an infectious energy, too -- and fortunately so, for it helped the performers overcome several setbacks as well. Mezzo-soprano Katherine Rohrer performed beautifully as Marguerite, in spite of coming in as a last-minute replacement for another singer who bowed out due to illness. Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen projected an enormous vocal and physical presence as Mephistopheles, in spite of also being ill at the time of the concerts. Matthew Polenzani delivered a nuanced and powerful interpretation of Faust, both as an actor and as a singer required to hit several "high C's." Eric Owens rounded out the cast in the brief role of a drunk named Brander. The orchestra played an interestingly textured and highly accurate rendition of a very difficult score, all under Zinman's firm leadership -- which also saved the chorus from a few near train-wrecks. And the St. Louis Children's Choirs' Concert Choir added an angelic touch to the final number in which Marguerite is translated into heaven.
A lot of people put a lot of talent and preparation into these excellent performances, but the lion's share of the credit goes to Zinman. It is even possible that his physical infirmity contributed to the phenomenal cleanness of his conducting gesture, the unheard-of efficiency with which he ran the rehearsals, and the sense of heroism that infused the high points of the musical sparkline. He spent less time getting more results, with hardly any unnecessary movement, compared to other conductors we have worked with. Facing him on the stage while he pulled the Turkish March (for example) to its triumphant close was so exciting that I almost laughed aloud. And yet the range and expressiveness of his gesture, in conducting a score packed with a variety of moods and textures, was such that one might dismiss rumors that the maestro was hurting.
We of the chorus did flub a bit here and there. On Friday night, we barely kept the choral recitative passages together, due to an unfortunate lack of eye contact with the baton; and in Mephisto's serenade (always a dangerous spot, also when we did the 8 Scenes in 2006-07) a missed cue might have brought the music to a halt but for Zinman's adroitness. Saturday, a slightly smaller audience witnessed a much better performance, when I for once did not feel at all oppressed by the size of the task, and rather enjoyed myself.
What was not to enjoy? The chorus played a huge cast of characters, including cavorting peasants, carousing drinkers, chanting worshipers, randy soldiers, rowdy students, nosy neighbors, sylphs, will-o'-the-wisps, dancing demons, worshiping angels, and (in the one passage for women's chorus without the men) a group of toothless old women praying to the saints at a wayside chapel. Their literal scream (as Faust and Mephisto ride down upon them en route to the abyss) elicited the first occasion in which I have ever heard a conductor tell a chorus, "That was truly bloodcurdling," and mean it as a compliment.
We sang a drunken "Amen" fugue that Berlioz intended as a wry joke on bad church music. We participated in a truly great operatic scene (the finale to Part III of four). We pulled off a number aptly titled "Pandemonium," complete with a made-up language interspersed with a list of demons. We sang one piece in which my section of the chorus sang thirteen lines of French verse to an unbroken string of sixteenth-note triplets. And we eavesdropped on a gorgeous love duet, a gripping evocation of nature, a thrilling setting of the Hungarian national anthem, and two pieces of fairy ballet music that would turn Mendelssohn green with envy.
My personal highlights were mainly small moments that revealed Berlioz's mastery of instrumentation. One piece of fairy music ends with a unique duet between harp and tympani, both playing very softly. Every appearance of Mephistopheles was heralded by startling trombone chords; his Air is also accompanied mainly by trombones, which often volunteered a wry note or so to underscore the sinister intentions behind that charming devil. Rich, unexpected harmonies and rhythms filled the evening, including a remarkable three-measure woodwind riff that filled a rest in the students' chorus, an ahead-of-its-time passage of tonal ambiguity during the Ride to the Abyss, a terrifying instrumental depiction of the tumultuous flames of hell, and a series of hunting calls played by a clutch of offstage horns.
Everyone notices the viola and cor anglais solos in Marguerite's ballad and romance, respectively; and that is understandable. But having sat quite close to the orchestra, I was privileged to notice other instances of Berlioz's genius. Who else has done what he did with three piccolos in the Ballet of Sylphs? Who else has achieved such an effect of tortured spareness as in Faust's solo in Part III? Who else could turn the entire string division into a giant guitar as in Mephisto's serenade? Berlioz used the orchestra to create audible images of a beating heart, a roaring kraken, galloping horses, flitting fairies, attacking birds of prey, and a distant artillery barrage. He creates a sonic depiction of hell that could rival a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, and a spun-sugar vision of heaven to shame Gustave Doré. He does it in music that is unmistakably Berlioz; no other composer would or could have written it. But it is also unmistakably the work of a powerful imagination married to wit, orchestral fluency, and a flair for balance and proportion. Put together, this adds up to a uniquely compelling musical tribute to one of the great texts in Western literature. How lucky am I to have been there when it happened, David Zinman style!
IMAGES: Zinman, Ketelsen (playing Mephisto in a different production), Owens, Polenzani, Rohrer, Bosch's hell, Doré's heaven.
Labels: art, music
Souped-Up Sub
I had lunch at Subway today. I often do, since there's a Subway restaurant in the building where I work. It can get a bit boring after a while. But today I tried a different combination of sandwich toppings, and came up with something rather special.
My order was a chicken breast sandwich on Italian bread. (I didn't realize until today that Subway actually had whole grilled chicken breasts, rather than the ones cut into strips and soaked in a sauce.) I had the sandwich toasted with mozzarella cheese, until it came out all crisp and melty. Then, choosing from the other toppings on offer, I added spinach, chopped onion, sliced cucumber and tomato, shredded carrot, a sprinkling of oregano, and a goodly squirt of olive oil. That was it!
This was an unusual combination for me. Most times, by reflex, I top "whatever" with shredded lettuce, tomato, black olive, and mayo and/or mustard. I tend to avoid onions and peppers because I know people are going to smell it on my breath later; and I pass on the pickles because the type served by fast-food restaurants tastes rancid to me.
No matter how virtuous I try to feel, however, I must admit to myself that my usual recipe does not really contain any good, veggie nutrients, except maybe a few vitamins from the tomato. And the taste is a boring same-old, same-old. It's actually gross when this standard combo is served at meetings, when the bread has had time to get tough/soggy and the vegetables have begun to wilt. Today my taste buds were surprised by exceptional flavor, while my body got vitamins it has probably been missing for a while.
Three Book Reviews
Faerie Lord
by Herbie Brennan
Book Four of the Faerie Wars Chronicles begins when a fairy princess named Blue asks a mortal boy named Henry to marry her. And it totally freaks him out.
Life is complicated enough for Henry Atherton. His childhood best friend has a crush on him. His weak but nice father has a new girlfriend and doesn't have much time for him. His will and ambition are continually squashed by his snotty sister, his bossy mother, and her lesbian girlfriend. Three girls against one guy: Henry doesn't have a chance. Trapped by guilt and self-doubt, he has a vague, unfulfilling future ahead of him. But he's afraid to let go of it. And on some level, perhaps, he realizes that he doesn't have what it takes to reign beside the queen of the Faerie Realm, who also happens to be the queen of Hael (hell). No matter how much he loves her, Henry just isn't ready.
Two years later, however, a lot has changed. Queen Blue has grown into the power and majesty of her office. The demons of Hael have been liberated from enslavement, as Blue continues to pull together a new order in which Light and Dark Faeries, as well as her new demon subjects, form an integrated society. Her nemesis, Lord Hairstreak, has fallen on hard times. Henry is about to go off to University, and isn't sure he can take care of Mr. Fogarty's house and cat while the old ex-bank robber serves as Gatekeeper to the Faerie Realm. And now a plague has struck.
The temporal fever is a weird plague. It doesn't spread like a normal disease. It strikes young and old alike, making them age faster, eating up their future as their bodies pass through time on fast-forward. Henry's best friend, Blue's brother Pyrgus, has it. Mr. Fogarty is dying of it. And a strange prophecy suggests that Henry may find the cure for it... but only after going through an ordeal that could claim his life.
Henry, his friends, and their enemies are all caught up in yet another complex web of plots, adventures, death traps, and struggles against mythical figures, ghastly monsters, and powers of heaven and hell. Henry journeys through strange countries, befriends weird and whimsical creatures, talks to a voice from beyond, and undertakes not one but two quests. His courage, strength, and love for Blue are all put to the test as they both rush toward the climax in which, by saving each other, they may save the world.
This is a fitting conclusion to a series full of dark horror, sparkling magic, thrills, romance, and surprises galore. Both Henry and Blue have grown up a lot since they first met in Faerie Wars. Their growth as characters, and the development of their relationship, finally fulfills its promise here. In fact, until partway through this book, one may find it hard to see what Blue sees in Henry. As the narrative jumps from one character's point of view to another, you will constantly be on the hook of suspense. And the ultimate riddle will keep you puzzling till the very end.
Herbie Brennan, also known as J. H. Brennan, is the author of dozens of books, including children's picture books, horror novels, the eight-book Grail Quest series, and many non-fiction volumes on the occult.
by Catherine Jinks
Recommended Age: 14+
Even at the age of seven, Cadel Piggott has the makings of an evil genius. His psychologist, Thaddeus Roth, spots it right away. Cadel's adoptive parents think he is getting counseling to cope with social adjustment problems; after all, the boy is hurtling through grade after grade, advancing ahead of students his age. But actually, Dr. Roth is encouraging Cadel to use his gifts to study systems, exploit their weaknesses, and bring them down.
Cadel's path of destruction begins with the Sydney rail system, then the roads. Soon he is sabotaging the social structure of his high school class. But it's all child's play until, at age 14, he has to choose a college. He chooses the Axis Institute, a program designed specially for Cadel by Dr. Roth and Cadel's biological father, the evil Phineas Darkkon, who has been pulling strings for the boy from a prison cell. The Axis Institute is so small that it offers only one degree program: World Domination.
Surrounded by people studying assassination, biological warfare, forgery, embezzlement, misinformation, and the philosophy of pure evil, Cadel focuses his studies on computer science (a.k.a. infiltration). Worming his way into the computer files of the faculty and staff, Cadel finds out a lot about the motives of the bizarre and creepy people around him. By the time he realizes that he's just not evil enough to belong there, there seems to be no way out. No way, that is, except to bring the whole place down.
Cadel is a fascinating subject. Misguided from an early age, trained to accept crime on a massive scale as normal behavior, even brainwashed to believe that the survival of mankind depends on people like him seizing power, he nevertheless remains human, vulnerable, and basically decent. The spark of conscience in him, the capacity to love and a desire to be loved in return, grow and grow until he sees no choice but to escape from the clutches of his father, Dr. Roth, and the sinister staff of the Institute.
But he doesn't know his own strength, or his potential to do great harm without meaning to. When Cadel decides to blow a hole in the Axis Institue big enough to escape through, he sets off a conflagration even he did not foresee. The resulting carnage is both shocking and, at the same time, obscenely funny. It's the kind of dark comedy that may appeal to fans of Edward Bloor's Story Time, served up with an ironic, upside-down view of right and wrong reminiscent of Artemis Fowl. The only magic in it, however, is the magic of technology, the power of love, the strength of desperation, and the explosive effect of long-kept secrets revealed at just the right time. For more of the same, you may be interested in the sequel, Genius Squad. Jinks is the author of many other novels, including most recently The Reformed Vampire Support Group.
Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague
by Brandon Mull
In Fablehaven, siblings Kendra and Seth found out that their grandparents' country estate is actually a secret preserve for magical creatures. Some of them are nice, some are nasty; in fact, Kendra barely saved her family, and the whole preserve, from being destroyed when some of the nasty creatures took control. In the sequel, Rise of the Evening Star, the kids averted a plot by the evil Society of the Evening Star to bring Fablehaven down. In so doing, Kendra found out that she has become "fairykind," with a special bond to the magical folk that gives her unique powers.
In this third book in the series, Kendra's status as fairykind gets her invited to join the Knights of the Dawn, whose mission is to combat the Society of the Evening Star. She is immediately sent to a secret preserve in Arizona to help recover a magical talisman that must not fall into the wrong hands.
Besides the danger involved in seeking an artifact surrounded by deadly traps and guarded by a fierce dragon, Kendra has other worries. For one, she suspects that the Captain of the Knights may be a traitor serving the Society. Giving him the artifact could bring the Society one step closer to their goal of opening the demon prison of Zzyzx. Meanwhile, back at Fablehaven, a plague of darkness has begun to spread, threatening to turn all the creatures of light to evil. When that happens, Fablehaven will fall.
With her fairykind powers, Kendra leads the battle of light against darkness. But she does not fight alone. She is aided by a visitor from the past, a friend she had thought lost forever, and her brother who has special powers of his own. An impressive army of satyrs, centaurs, nymphs, and fairies fight by her side; to say nothing of a huge golem and other strange and wonderful friends.
But even if she can overcome this greatest-ever threat to Fablehaven's survival, she will still have to face the ongoing puzzle of what the Sphinx is up to and how he can be stopped. And that, readers will be delighted to learn, is a matter for future books to take up. I would not want this to be the end of the exciting, magical, and fascinatingly original Fablehaven series. But I needn't worry. The fourth book, Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, released late last month, promises even more suspense and supernatural adventure, and perhaps a bit of romance for Kendra.
Posted by RobbieFish at 12:02 PM No comments:
A Night to Sniff
It's a gorgeous night in St. Louis. Not too warm, not too cool; just a bit of a breeze; and the air is filled with a beautiful scent. Some widespread tree or shrub must be in bloom, its floral perfume approaching peak production. It's a perfect moment. Do have a sniff while it lasts, and rejoice! Spring is here, God is good, and tax day is drawing to a close!
Tie-In Stupidity
Film tie-ins are stupid, but they're an unalterable fixture in our commercial world. At least since Star Wars, no blockbuster family movie has been complete without a collectible toy, soft drink container, breakfast cereal, line of clothes or jewelry, video game, etc., etc., etc.
Sometimes I pity the suckers who are taken in by this stuff, like the kids who just had to have all the crappy trinkets tied in with the Twilight movie. At other times, I have to check my own desire to grab a piece of the memorabilia. I'm proud to say I have (mostly) resisted the temptation, even refusing the free poster I was entitled to after waiting in line at Borders for my release-day copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
My greatest vulnerability, however, is the book tied in with a movie. If a movie is based on a book, and I know I'm going to watch it, I will often buy the book and read it first. Sometimes, if the book is based on the movie - a novelization of the screenplay - I'll read that too. Diane Duane's novelizations of the 1980s Star Trek films beguiled many of my teenaged hours, thrilling me with daring concepts that weren't even in the films. I was probably not even a teen when I read William Kotzwinkle's novelization of E.T., yet I still relish the memory of the alien's-point-of-view passages in that book and how they admiringly described Dee Wallace's character as having "a nose like a based-in Brussels sprout."
I have even bothered to review some film-tie-in novels, such as Millions (though whether it is a novelization of the film is debatable) and The Amazing Compendium of Edward Magorium (though it is only loosely connected to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium). I have also discovered some wonderful books after enjoying the movies based on them, though admittedly my reviews of those books may have been colored by memories of the films.
For example, a sharp-eyed reader had to correct me when I incorrectly gave "Luke" as the name of the main character in The Witches, a name revealed in the film but not in the book. Likewise, I had to step carefully in reviewing The Neverending Story because the movie had made a strong impression on my when I was a child, but I only discovered the book as an adult. Judging by how awfully some book-to-film adaptations turn out, it's probably a good policy that I read the book first. Otherwise, I might never have bothered after seeing the movie version of, say, Five Children and It; or, I might have felt let down by the spareness of the book compared to the souped-up glitz and glamor of the film, as in the ongoing Chronicles of Narnia movies.
But the full extent of the stupidity of movie/book tie-ins cannot be appreciated until you behold a book adapted from a movie that was, in turn, adapted from a book. The first time I noticed this phenomenon it had to do with Planet of the Apes. The original book by Pierre Boullé inspired a series of movies and TV programs a generation ago; Tim Burton filmed a 2001 remake; and a novelization of that screenplay was then published and sold alongside Boullé's original novel, to the confusion of would-be readers.
This is commercial stupidity at its most staggering. But the same kind of monkey-business is still going on. Recently I spotted a DVD of the movie based on Kate diCamillo's book The Tale of Despereaux, bundled with an audio-book recording of the "junior novelization" based on the screenplay. In other words, a children's book based on a movie based on an award-winning children's book. And the original book hasn't even been out that long; the first edition came out in 2003.
Now, I have yet to read the original book. I plan to do so soon. I'm torn as to whether I want to touch the "junior novelization." I can't think of a more effective way to screw up my personal visualization of the book. And I can't help but wonder why an author would consent to such a thing being done to her work. Perhaps she had no choice. Perhaps, in signing over the film rights, she also gave the studio the right to establish all kinds of movie tie-ins, all the way to replacing her novel with a film tie-in book that they own outright and can exploit as they see fit.
I suppose this is no more cynical than Disney ransacking the Grimm Fairy Tales and, after turning many of them into animated films, disseminating storybooks based on their own version. Now, thanks to Disney, if you recite the names of the Seven Dwarfs (Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, Bashful, and Doc), members of every generation now living can pick up on the cultural reference. They would probably be shocked and discomfited by the unfamiliarity of the tale as told by the Brothers Grimm. This bit of folklore has been irreversibly changed by passing through the filter of Walt Disney's 1936 film and his company's subsequent tie-ins.
Is this wrong? Perhaps not. Perhaps it only seems sinister when you see it happening to an author who is still trying to live off her work.
Posted by RobbieFish at 11:34 AM 2 comments:
Labels: books, movies, stupidity
Ordering the Middle Book
I hate it when I have the first and last book of a trilogy, but can't find the middle book. Sometimes I don't realize this until I am already in the middle of reading it. Sometimes it means I don't dare start reading the trilogy until I can remedy the matter. And sometimes it takes years to complete the set.
Today I placed a used book order online. Two out of five of the books I ordered are the second book in a trilogy of which I already own the first and third book.
First there's Olivia Kidney Stops for No One, originally titled Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy, by Ellen Potter. It goes between Olivia Kidney, which I have already read, and Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City, which I recently picked up for peanuts. I had tried to get both sequels, but unfortunately my order for the second one was canceled when the supplier realized it wasn't in their inventory. So I'll have to wait a bit longer to find out what happens next! [EDIT: There is apparently also a book titled Olivia Kidney Hot on the Trail, but I don't know where it fits into this series. As far as I know, it might be an alternate title for one of the other books. This series is so confusing!]
Then there's Johnny and the Dead, book 2 of the "Johnny Maxwell Trilogy" by Terry Pratchett. I have owned book 1, Only You Can Save Mankind, and book 3, Johnny and the Bomb, for ages; only I haven't wanted to read them without book 2 in hand. Now I can finally crack this series open!
But that's not all. I also bought Arabel's Raven by Joan Aiken. It's not part of a trilogy as such. It's simply the first book in a long series of stories about a little British girl and her pet bird. I found out about it while reading one of the later books in the series, Arabel and Mortimer. Though I may not hunt down every title in this series - some of which seem to recycle previously published material - I felt that catching the beginning of the series might be worthwhile.
Plus, I finally purchased the last book in Michael Lawrence's Withern Rise trilogy, titled The Underwood See. I had long since read the first two books, but while I waited for Book 3 to come out in paperback, all sign of it (hardcover included) disappeared from the local bookstores. It occurred to me that I could get it used or not at all. And really, I can still feel the "hook" at the end of book 2, Small Eternities.
The fifth book on my order was another Joan Aiken title, The Shoemaker's Boy. I just found out about it while going through Fantastic Fiction's list of titles by that author. There are plenty of other promising titles on that list, but one has to start somewhere, and this looked like a good starting place to me.
Labels: books, stupidity
Faust vs. Faust
A couple years ago, we of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus sang the marvelous 8 Scenes from Faust by Hector Berlioz. This year - this week, in fact - we are performing his "dramatic legend" The Damnation of Faust. Later on I'll post a general review of the latter. For now, I only want to write about the difference between these two closely related pieces.
The 8 Scenes is a youthful work, composed in the heat of inspiration when the 25-year-old Berlioz had just discovered a French translation of Goethe's masterpiece. It was published at the composer's own expense as his Opus 1, and eventually reworked into the larger, more mature work some 20 years later.
We are very fortunate that Berlioz's attempts to suppress his first opus did not succeed. Not only in comparison with The Damnation of Faust but also on its own terms, it is a piece worth knowing. 8 Scenes is a flawed masterpiece, marked to be sure by its composer's immaturity and impetuosity (perhaps even coarseness), but also stamped with genius. Indeed, in its brash energy and immediate inspiration, one may prefer certain points in the 8 Scenes to their counterparts in the more mature and dramatically integrated Damnation. Berlioz gave with one hand, but often took away with the other.
Some of the pieces from 8 Scenes were imported directly into Damnation with hardly any alteration. For example, No. 4, Brander's song about the rat, shows up in the Auerbachskeller scene where Mephisto introduces Faust to the pleasures of drunken revelry. Berlioz keeps the same quirky melody and the same refrain for the men's chorus. He only adds a mock-solemn "Requiescat in pace" as a final touch, and integrates it into the surrounding scene.
Likewise, he faithfully transmits No. 5, Faust's song about the flea, only changing Faust from a tenor to a baritone. This is actually a very significant change, and I'm not talking merely about the tone-color of the solo voice. Among the most striking touches in the 8 Scenes was the casting of Mephistopheles as a tenor rather than a bass/baritone. In Damnation he reverts to the conventional casting of this role. One might say this change was necessary to make the larger work hold together dramatically. But one might also see in it the touch of a maturer and thus also more conservative hand. Is this an instance of the older Berlioz correcting an error of his younger self? Perhaps. But in correcting many such "errors," he may also have bled the work of some of its originality and vibrancy. Plus, in my recording of The Damnation of Faust, baritone José van Dam opts to sing a lower melody on the fifth line of each stanza ("Cruelle politique!" in the last verse), rather than the more difficult but also more memorable high road. Making Mephisto a baritone came at a cost.
Another case in point: No. 2 of the 8 Scenes, the peasants' song and dance. Originally scored for a mezzo-soprano soloist, joined by the choir at the end of each verse for an explosion of mirth ("Ha! Ha! Ha! Landerira"), it reaches its final form in Scene 2 of The Damnation of Faust as a purely choral piece interspersed with comments by Faust. In working this number into his dramatic scheme, Berlioz really trashed it. First, he pulled the stanzas apart and stuffed the spaces between them with an unrelated, and in my opinion uninspired, peasant dance idea ("Tra, la, la! Ho, ho!"). Then he actually changed what had been an exquisite melody, lowering its effectiveness.
In the 8 Scenes version of this tune, the third line of each stanza is sung to a musical phrase that effortlessly combines asymmetry with a sense of careless rightness, and the melody of the fourth line highlights the rhythmic drive of the tune. In Damnation, the third line of the text is set, instead, to a longer and more balanced phrase that seems more mannered and less organically connected to the tune; while the fourth phrase exchanges its headlong directness and its punchy rhythm for a calmer phrase, repeated twice, in which the peasants seem to flourish their skirts. To my ear this is definitely a case of an older and more conservative composer rounding off the corners of a youthful piece, a piece that had been better left alone.
The Easter Hymn (No. 1 in 8 Scenes, Scene 4 in Damnation) also suffers, arguably, from the composer's second thoughts. In most details the two versions are identical. However, when the women's chorus joins the men for the second iteration of their hymn, the difference becomes clear. The mixed chorus writing in The Damnation of Faust is delicate and lovely, but tame when compared to the scrapped, earlier version. The women's voices merely form a part of the steadily moving choral texture in the later work, whereas in the 8 Scenes they contributed glowing cascades of notes, like strewn flower petals floating to the ground before the feet of an ecstatic religious procession. To know that sound is to love it, is to miss it when the elder Berlioz replaces it with a more modest (albeit exquisite) evocation of Gothic architecture.
Marguerite's two numbers from the 8 Scenes - No. 6's ballad of the King of Thule and No. 7's desperate romance - seem to have crossed over to Damnation without much change. It is hard to imagine how Berlioz could have improved pieces of which one of my friends in the Symphony Chorus said something like, "I'm often torn as to whether Berlioz was a genius or a charlatan, but after hearing these pieces I would forgive him anything."
No. 7, however, ends with the remarkable chorus of soldiers, accompanied by brass and drum signals and scored to sound like they marched up from the distance and faded out of earshot again. In the Damnation, this soldiers' chorus is split into two pieces. In the first instance, the soldiers sing their entire chorus without any hint of fading in or out, and without the brass-and-drum signals that made such an impressive accompaniment in the 8 Scenes. Then, in a tour-de-force of Berlioz's specialty of combining two melodies contrapuntally, the soldiers are joined by a crowd of university students singing a bawdy alma mater ("Iam nox stellata"). After introducing both songs separately, Berlioz combines them and brings them to a glorious finish.
Much later, both the soldiers' and the students' songs come in for a reprise at the end of Marguerite's romance. This time we do hear the brass and drums, and the marching singers do seem to fade away in the distance, while the heroine breathes a sigh of despair on realizing that Faust will not come to her. Here Berlioz achieves the fade-out effect more quickly and economically than in his first essay. But the price, for those of us who know and love the 8 Scenes, is the loss of the original setting of the soldiers' song with brass-and-drum accompaniment throughout.
No. 8 of 8 Scenes is perhaps an artifact of Berlioz's youthful vigor at its most awkward. Mephisto's serenade is a gorgeous melody showcasing the full range of the tenor's voice, and it really sounds nice when accompanied by nothing but a solo guitar. But as a conclusion to the 8 Scenes it is undeniably anticlimactic; so much so that, when the SLSO performed it under Pinchas Steinberg a few years ago, we moved it up ahead of No. 7. Though one hearing the guitar version might wish in one's heart to hear an orchestral setting of the serenade, the fulfillment of that wish in The Damnation of Faust comes, again, at a cost. Having changed Mephisto from a tenor to a baritone, Berlioz replaces the guitar with pizzicato strings and woodwind flourishes; he even adds parts for the men's chorus. All these touches are nice in their way, but in transposing the piece downward Berlioz also sacrifices some of the yearning intensity of the tenor version.
Finally, there is the sextet of sylphs, No. 3 in 8 Scenes from Faust and part of Scene 7 in The Damnation of Faust. Which version is better? This case is a split decision if there ever was one. The 8 Scenes version is scored for six soloists taken from the chorus; the chorus itself, or at least a semichorus, is to sing the final version. By using the full chorus, the elder Berlioz risked sacrificing some of the clarity of articulation demanded by this fiendishly tricky piece; but it was arguably a worthwhile risk, since the chorus is better able to invest the whispery iterations of "De sites ravissants," etc., with a soothing murmur and a suggestion of insect-like buzzing. Plus, in rewriting the sextet, the more mature composer brought greater economy to bear. The piece becomes more tightly constructed, clocking in a good 25% shorter than the first version.
On the other hand, some of the alterations are no improvement. Though recognizable as a version of the same piece, the later version needlessly alters and/or dispenses with perfectly serviceable passages from the original sextet. Listen to both pieces side-by-side, and you will very likely spot bits from each that you prefer over their counterparts in the other. I particularly liked the chromatically descending lines toward the end of the sextet in 8 Scenes, which suggested to my mind the dripping of a drugged nectar onto Faust's slumbering lips. I also find it fascinating to compare the different settings of the faster section ("Là, de chants d'allégresse," etc.), in a major key in the 1826 version and in a minor key in the 1846 version. Both pieces are wonderful to witness, and I grieve for some of the 8 Scenes touches that didn't make it into the Damnation version, but overall I think this is one piece that did benefit from the attentions of the hoary head.
Which is better: 8 Scenes from Faust or The Damnation of Faust? It's a complex question. Without the one, we would not have the other. In many ways, I feel the original pieces from 8 Scenes surpass their later incarnation in Damnation. But in revisiting his youthful pieces, Berlioz did tighten them up and intelligently integrated them into an larger dramatic structure. And all that goes without even mentioning the numerous additional numbers, many of them for the chorus, with which he rounded out the later work.
I have made it through few waking hours during the past weeks without thinking of the drinkers' chorus from the top of Scene 6. I can't help but snicker impiously at the wry "Amen" fugue improvised by the same drinkers after Brander's song. And near the end of the "dramatic legend," we visit hell and heaven in that order, experiencing Pandemonium (complete with incomprehensible lyrics sung to a devilish anthem and a demonic waltz) as well as the apotheosis of Marguerite (with the choir of angels ending the whole work by singing, "Come! Come!"). But I'm getting ahead of myself. You'll hear more about all that in a few days.
Stewardship: A Unified Theory
Last night I was gossiping with a couple of Lutheran friends, and I caught myself grousing about the way today's church sticks its fingers into people's pockets. It's as if everything the church does reduces down to an appeal for money. One can certainly come away from the average "stewardship message" with the idea that "stewardship" equates with "contributing money to the church."
Now, good Christian stewardship will most often involve contributing money to the church. But the equation "stewardship equals putting dollars in the collection plate" is false. The word "stewardship," in the biblical sense, covers a great deal more. It means that everything we have, we have received. Every ability we possess, every right we enjoy, every freedom we exercise, every relationship we partake in, all our possessions, powers, and privileges, are gifts from God and properly belong to Him. He gives them to us in trust; He can take them away from us at any time.
"Stewardship" means the freedom we have, as trusted servants, to use the Lord's things as if they belonged to us - knowing that we must one day give an account. "Stewardship" is a daily exercise of our faith in the One who provides us with all that we need: an exercise that both demonstrates our faith and strengthens it. God-pleasing, accountable, Christian stewardship is that use of our Lord's gifts which best glorifies Him and serves our neighbor. It is, in short, an act of faithful love.
Clearly, there's a lot more going on in Christian stewardship than "putting money in the collection plate." Maybe for many Christians that's a good place to start practicing the spiritual discipline of stewardship. We care so much about our money: how to earn it, how to stretch it to cover our present and future needs, how to enjoy its abundance, how to cope with its scarcity. We have bills; we have debts; we have taxes and, hopefully, tax returns. To turn over a significant proportion of our earnings to the church may seem a big enough challenge to our faith. But make no mistake: it is an act of faith. It is a confession that God has provided, and a gesture of trust that He will continue to provide.
But that is not where the dollars in the offering basket most nearly touch the heart of the matter. For those same dollars are also an investment in preserving the ministry of Word and Sacrament, in spreading the Gospel, and in instructing the young in faith (whether they be old or young in years). The same gift, returned in part to Him who first gave it, is an exercise in locating our most cherished treasure not in our bank account, or in our investment portfolio, or in any earthly property, but in the Kingdom of God.
The dollars, time, and energy we deliver to the church are acts of stewardship mainly because they tear our devotion away from earthly things, and develop in us an appetite for heavenly things. For the true, lasting treasures are not earthly but heavenly, not visible but spiritual, not perishable but eternal. The best gifts of God, and therefore also the best stewardship, are concerned with these heavenly, spiritual, eternal treasures: namely, the grace of God in Christ, His forgiveness, His presence, His dwelling in us here and our dwelling with Him forever.
God has poured all these treasures into His Word and Sacrament. Through this ministry we catch men and haul them into God's kingdom, making disciples by baptizing and teaching them according to His Word. From this ministry we continually receive the forgiveness we need to cover our sinful lapses and to give us courage in the hour of spiritual trial and, ultimately, death. To this ministry we therefore supply all that we can afford, not only in monetary gifts but also in our arts and industry, our prayer and submission, our time and energy, even in some cases devoting a lifelong career to it.
We make these sacrifices because, of all acts of worship we could render to Him, nothing pleases God more than our receiving His gifts. We make these offerings because we trust Him to supply us in every earthly need, and because we value our heavenly treasures more highly. We give these gifts because, as stewards, we recognize that He has already given us so much, and because in respect to His Kingdom we want Him to enrich us with all His fullness.
Having made a big noise about biblical hermeneutics in this blog, I had better be able to back all this up with Scripture, soundly interpreted. Fortunately, I can. First, let's study the word "stewardship" as the New Testament uses it. Then, let's look at the concept of "stewardship" as Jesus and the apostles described it.
New Testament forms of the word "steward" occur only 12 times in the old King James Version, 15 in the New KJV, 15 in the old RSV, 12 in the New RSV, 14 in the NASB translation, 8 times in the ESV, and never in the NIV.
Luke 8:3 describes Chuza, the husband of Joanna (a female disciple of Jesus) as Herod's steward: which is to say, a high-ranking servant with responsibility over his master's property and business affairs; a manager, an administrator. John 2:8-9, in some translations, uses the word "steward" to describe the servant in charge of the wine at a wedding feast. We can take these literal uses of the word as a reference point for understanding the figurative sense in which the New Testament speaks of "stewardship."
In Luke 12:42-48, Jesus uses the words "steward" and "slave" interchangeably in a parable about the administration of the church. The steward is that slave whom the master makes responsible for the other slaves. His proper task is to feed them their rations in due time, not to beat them or to live the high life on their food and drink. When the master returns, he will reward the steward who does the former, and will punish him who does the latter - all the more so if he has knowingly disobeyed.
This parable seems to speak of the holy ministry and its brief to "feed" the church until Christ returns. Blessed is the minister who uses his stewardship of God's gifts in Christ to nourish us spiritually. Woe to the minister who uses ditto to lord it over us or to enrich himself; woe to him especially if he knows better.
In 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, St. Paul speaks of himself and other ministers of the Gospel (see chapter 3 for context) as "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"; stewards who, moreover, must be found faithful. Again in 1 Corinthians 9:16 ff., Paul describes the preaching of the Gospel as a stewardship. He does not boast about it because it is laid on him as a necessity. If one serves the Word willingly, the work is its own reward; if unwillingly, it is as one "entrusted with a stewardship," neither enriching oneself nor abusing one's power.
In Ephesians 3:2, Paul speaks of "the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you." In Colossians 1:24-29, Paul says he became a minister of the church "according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God...striving according to His working which works in me mightily." Once more, in Titus 1:7 ff., Paul requires that a bishop (pastor) be, among other things, "a steward of God."
St. Peter urges Christians to minister to one another, each according to his gifts, as "stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10). In verse 11 he makes it clear that he is speaking in the context of a church service, as in preaching the Word ("speaking the oracles of God") and conducting the liturgy. This seems to be complementary to Paul's exhortation in 2 Timothy 2:24 that "the Lord's bondservant" be "able to teach."
A word translated as "steward" appears in Galatians 4:2 in the sense of a regent or guardian who holds an inheritance in trust until the rightful heir comes of age. Paul likens the Law to such a steward, before the coming of Christ. Except for this instance and the cases of Chuza (Luke 8) and the wedding butler (John 2), the word "steward" in the New Testament always seems to have some connection with the eternal, spiritual, heavenly gifts of God's Kingdom in Christ; it could even be argued that the New Testament uses "steward" as a title for the pastoral office. But the crucial case remains to be examined.
In Luke 16:1-13 we find another parable about a steward: the dishonest or unrighteous manager who, having been denounced for squandering his master's property, was about to have his stewardship taken away. What did this man do to protect his future? He went around to his master's debtors and forgave some of their debts, using his authority as steward to make binding deals on his master's behalf. His master then praised him for his shrewdness!
This parable of the "unrighteous steward" is often the text (or pretext) for a "stewardship message." But when interpreted as "Christ's principles on how Christians should manage their money," it is a very perplexing text. Verses 9-13 come off as a string of loosely related proverbs rather than an application of the parable, which is how they seem to have been intended; while, if they are application, they seem to make the parable signify monstrous and bizarre things.
For several years, I have held that this parable is not Jesus' treatise on the ethics of fiscal stewardship. In an essay that I really thought I had blogged (but I can't find it now), I wrote that in Luke 16, Jesus is talking about the ministry again. When the dishonest steward gave his master's word to those debtors, he bound the master with his own word. Likewise, when the minister of God's gifts forgives your sins in Jesus' name and on the authority of God's Word, you can be certain that God will not go back on it - even though that minister is imperfect and sinful himself.
Partly I was guided by the context of the surrounding verses. The parables of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), the lost coin (15:8-10), and the lost son (15:11-32) are all about God's readiness to forgive every sinner who repents. Indeed, Jesus claims that God is pleased with sinners who seek His grace rather than with righteous people who live by observing the Law. In the previous two chapters, Jesus had used a variety of examples to illustrate how the Jews of His time, due to their literalistic and legalistic application of God's Law, would miss out on His Kingdom while the heathens, who had no righteous works to their credit, would inherit instead. And in the verses following the parable of the dishonest steward, Luke 16:15 ff., Jesus warns against justifying oneself by works, urging all people rather to receive His gifts in humble faith. In 17:1-4 He instructs us to forgive each other tirelessly rather than causing one another to stumble (by withholding forgiveness) and thus incurring God's wrath on ourselves. In 17:6-10 He puts obedience to God's Law in its proper relationship to faith: a believer seeks no favor or reward for his obedience, but renders it freely as what is due to a just and loving God.
So the parable of the dishonest servant stands in the center of an extended discourse that contrasts faith (the receiving of Christ's holy gifts, which alone pleases God) with works (seeking to be justified by obedience to Law, which turns the best deeds into deadly sin). Why, then, would Jesus suddenly, and for this one parable only, choose to instruct us in the correct use of our finances? It isn't merely that the standard interpretation of this parable makes no sense. It actually militates against the clear sense of the surrounding passages. And it turns verses 16:9-13 into a litany of non sequitur epigrams, connected only by a general topic of stewardship and their position in the text.
An interpretation of this passage more in keeping with its context and the analogy of faith (i.e., all that Scripture teaches about stewardship) also happens to make verses 16:1-13 work as a unit. Jesus is not, in fact, teaching us about money. When has he ever said anything about money that wasn't, after all, an analogy to the Kingdom of God? When has Jesus ever put a value on money, except in contrast to the imperishable, spiritual, heavenly treasures? This case is no different. In the parable of the dishonest steward, Jesus is instructing us to forgive one another as we would be forgiven by God. See also Matthew 5:21-26; 6:14-15; 18:15-20.
In Luke 16:8, Jesus begins his application of the parable by explaining why the master praised his steward's shrewdness: "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light." This is a statement that causes endless difficulty in interpretation. I propose that all this difficulty can be cleared up by understanding the unspoken words that logically belong at the end of the sentence: "in their generation." It is a completely balanced thought: the children of this world are wiser in applying the things that pertain to this age than the children of God's kingdom are in regard to its gifts. The sons of this age make better use of their "unrighteous mammon" (16:9) than do the sons of light with regard to their eternal, spiritual, heavenly treasures in Christ.
If a crooked little weasel like the steward in Luke 16 knows how to apply his master's good name and authority to forgive debts to his own advantage, how much more could Christians achieve by means of the authority to forgive sins? If a dishonest manager can thus make a place for himself in the homes of his ex-master's debtors, why can't we believing sinners make peace with each other by handing around little morsels of the boundless forgiveness God has granted to us? To our everlasting shame, we "children of light" are not so clever in using our treasures as the "children of this world" are in using of theirs.
Jesus says in Luke 16:10, "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much." Our chief gift, our highest treasure, is God's forgiveness. Our debts toward each other are "the least" compared to our debt toward God ("much"). Can we expect to be forgiven in much if we do not forgive each other in the least? We are stewards of all God's gifts in Christ, the greatest gift being His forgiveness. Will this stewardship not be taken from us unless we share it with each other? Such lack of forgiveness would be unfaithful stewardship indeed. It would mean failing to properly use what God has given us, or to return even a small part of it to Him. It would mean failing to confess and exercise that faith which holds His forgiveness to be a good and abundant gift. It would be living not in accord with the Gospel, but in ruthless adherence to the spirit of the Law. It would be inviting the fate of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35 (another parable richly complementary to this one).
In Luke 16:9, Jesus issues the at first perplexing advice, "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations." One may be immediately tempted to interpret it thus: "If you throw enough money around, you might attract more people to your church, people who will be happy to see you when you arrive in heaven." But the context is crucial here. There is nothing in this parable to suggest that Jesus could be talking about "spreading money around." Rather, he has been talking about forgiving debts. Within the church, among the "sons of light," that translates to holding no debts against each other, considering everything you own to be the common possession of all, willingly parting with anything your Christian brother or sister needs so that you may be built up together as living stones in an eternal, spiritual house. See also Matthew 10:8; Acts 2:44-45; 20:35; 2 Peter 2:5. The fact that this has never worked out in practice bears witness that the sons of this world are indeed shrewder, etc.
In Luke 16:11-12, Jesus continues his application of the above parable with two parallel questions. "If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?" In both, notice what is being asked: not whether one has earned much, or given much, but whether one has been faithful. Notice, too, that the first question contrasts "unrighteous mammon" (filthy lucre) with "the true riches," i.e. the grace of God in Christ. And notice how the second question changes the contrast from terms of "earthly treasure vs. heavenly treasure" to "stewardship vs. ownership."
What Jesus is asking, then, is first: "How can you handle God's gift of forgiveness when you can't even use His material blessings as a faithful steward? What use can God's grace be to you, when your conduct regarding food, clothing, money, etc., shows neither awareness that He has provided them nor trust that he will continue to do so?" And secondly, Jesus is asking: "If you live this life without faith or trust toward God, how can you expect to receive an eternal inheritance?"
Here the concepts of faith as "receiving" and trust as "relying" get mixed up with the concepts of faith as "reliability" and trust as "holding on behalf of the rightful owner." In this life we can be but stewards, by faith, of the gifts and treasures of the Kingdom to Come. But when it comes, when the dead are raised and when heaven and earth are renewed, we will inherit that Kingdom and take full ownership. The latter cannot come without the former. By trusting in God's promises (forgiveness etc.), we now hold their present fulfillment in trust, like guardians of an heir who has yet to come of age; but we also confidently hope to own it outright when we ourselves inherit it in the rebirth of all things. With that faith which believes and receives God's gifts, comes the Spirit to deal "in good faith" with them; that is, to be good stewards of them.
We need the gift of faith from God. In good faith, we constantly use the gifts He faithfully pours out through Word and Sacrament, especially His forgiveness, so that we may be built up in faith. As disciples of Jesus, we are ready to devote every earthly blessing, every shred of "unrighteous mammon," of which we are stewards in this life, to preserving and spreading the eternal treasures in which we trust and which we now hold in trust. As Paul says in Philippians 3:7, we are ready to spend and/or lose all things (pertaining to this world) in order to gain Christ and the inheritance of the sons of light. (See also Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:12). That is why "stewardship" can so easily be confused with "giving money to the church." As true Christian stewards, we must realize that the church's ministry and witness is our most precious treasure; we can afford to lose anything but that, and will give up whatever is necessary to keep that one thing needful (Luke 10:42).
There are other passages that, without using the word "steward," provide additional insight to the concept of stewardship. Those familiar with "stewardship messages" may especially recall the parables of the Minas (Luke 19:12-17) and Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). In fact, I reckon that today's common understanding of the word "talent" to mean "a special ability" arises from the use of the coins in the latter parable as a metaphor for the work each of us can do for the Kingdom of God, according to his or her ability. The ability to forgive one's neighbors, however, is inherent in being a sinner who lives by God's forgiveness. I have already cited Matthew 5, where Jesus admonishes Christians not even to come to God for forgiveness unless we have already made peace with each other. To do so would come perilously close to tempting God (Matthew 4:7). And as the Minas & Talents show, to bury this gift from God and try to live without it is to invite a terrible judgment.
Jesus gives us Luke 16:13 as a final conclusion to his unjust-steward parable in order to remove any possibility that we might mistake his intentions in verses 9 and 11. "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Jesus does not want us to be disciples of money. Nor does he want us to go and make disciples of money. We should not even try to split our loyalty between Christ and money. So He is certainly not advising us to run the church like the Temple of Mammon it so frequently resembles these days.
The church's job is not to grow or succeed. The church's job is to be faithful and to make disciples. We, as members of the church, do this not by spending or making money, but by receiving God's perfect gifts through the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and by sacrificing all that we can afford (!) to preserve and spread that ministry. As we live in faithful stewardship of God's boundless gift of forgiveness, we forgive one another daily and hourly. And whatever we give to the church, we give to no one's glory but God's, expecting no reward, but offering only what is due to our Lord and Provider, and trusting Him to supply all that we lack.
Labels: hermeneutics, theology
Sekisui Pacific Rim
Praying to be Published
Rein in the Tackiness
Meeting of the Blogs
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Voters to decide fate of water bond this November
Issue Date: August 20, 2014
Finding agreement on the $7.5 billion water bond measure headed to the November ballot wasn't easy—it involved years of hard work by many stakeholders, including the California Farm Bureau Federation—but participants in the discussion said it's a key step in addressing the critical need to upgrade the state's broken water system.
"The severe water shortages we're currently experiencing result from 30 years of neglecting our water-storage system," CFBF President Paul Wenger said. "That neglect is magnified by the drought, and it's time to reverse that pattern of neglect. Placing this water bond on the November ballot gives Californians a chance to provide more water for our cities, for food production and for the environment."
CFBF Administrator Rich Matteis said passage of the water bond bill last week marked the end of more than five years of sustained effort.
"Farm Bureau has been involved in this issue since the beginning, working for a bond that would maximize the investment in new water storage for California," Matteis said. "But as much as the passage of the bond bill marked the end of that process, it also signaled the beginning of a campaign to show Californians the essential need to invest in our state's water system."
Matteis noted that the water bond will come before voters in less than 11 weeks, meaning that supporters of new water investment will need to move quickly to solidify support for the measure.
"Farm Bureau members are uniquely positioned to work at the grassroots level to educate and build public awareness for much-needed water improvements," Matteis said. "Every Californian has a stake in the voter outcome in November, but none more than farmers and ranchers who depend on adequate, reliable water supplies."
The revised bond measure includes $2.7 billion for water storage projects and that money will be continuously appropriated, Matteis noted, meaning that future Legislatures will not be able to redirect it to other uses.
"This bond represents the state's largest investment in water storage in more than 30 years," Wenger said, "and it couldn't come at a more critical time."
The current drought has shown that California has lived too long with an outdated water-storage system, he said.
"We need to update that system to match changing weather patterns, in which more precipitation will fall as rain rather than as snow," Wenger said. "Additional surface storage can capture those strong storm surges when they come, reduce flooding and bank that water for later dry times."
In addition to new surface and groundwater storage projects, proceeds from the sale of bonds—if approved by voters—would be used for regional water reliability, sustainable groundwater management and cleanup, water recycling, water conservation, watershed protection and safe drinking water, particularly for disadvantaged communities.
Association of California Water Agencies Executive Director Tim Quinn called the revised water bond the "right size at the right time for California."
Noting the bond includes $100 million that can be used by local agencies for groundwater plans and projects, the Kern County Water Agency commended those who negotiated the final version of the measure. The water bond also includes new funding for a variety of local water programs through integrated regional water management plans, or IRWMPs. Specifically, the bond measure would allocate $34 million to IRWMPs in the Tulare/Kern watershed.
The California Water Alliance, whose members include Central Valley farmers and agricultural businesses, applauded the bond's placement on the November ballot.
"Most importantly, it recognizes that Californians statewide, from all walks of life, cannot afford to carry the burden of a dysfunctional water system that has been exacerbated by the worst drought in California history," said Aubrey Bettencourt, executive director of the alliance.
The drought, she said, has resulted in dramatic levels of unemployment, higher food prices, increased utility costs, water rationing and severe losses for California farms, many of which have had to fallow thousands of acres.
"This bond provides the means to begin upgrading California's water system for the 21st century, including new storage facilities and clean water projects for underprivileged communities," Bettencourt said.
(Kate Campbell is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)
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Disgraced Fmr Hollywood Star Pleads For Trump's Help
By Eliza George Matter (Eliza George Matter) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Former Hollywood star Randy Quaid is pleading for Trump's help to get their passports re-issued. His excuse is that the system is rigged.
According to The Daily Caller:
Randy Quaid on Thursday posted a letter he sent to President Donald Trump pleading for his help against a “rigged system” that he claimed had denied his and his wife’s passports.
In the letter, Quaid refers to himself and his wife Evi as “avid, take-no-prisoners, supporters” of Trump’s candidacy and said they celebrated his victory on November 8. In light of his winning the presidency, the “National Lampoons” star said the pair applied for their passports in hopes that “change was on the way,” before claiming that “leftover bureaucrats” from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the Department of State once again denied the “re-issuance” of their passports.
@realDonaldTrump I couldn’t stop myself from stamping! Sorry . . . But on a serious note, I got no reply to my letter to you so I’m posting it here hoping it will catch your eye. pic.twitter.com/GUbY6yf06D
— Randy Quaid (@RandyRRQuaid) August 23, 2018
Quaid and his wife had their passports revoked over what he called “warrants for trespassing” on a property in Santa Barbara that he said at one time belonged to him but was “stolen” by a Hollywood studio executive using “forged documents.”
At one point, the “Independence Day” star said he needs the passport in order to get back to work, because “production companies and studios” required it. Quaid then said he supports President Trump because he recognizes that it’s “the people that are going to Make America Great Again.”
Quaid has had his share of issues from being charged with multiple property crimes to fleeing to Canada because he feared from his life from a group called the 'Star Whackers.' It is unclear if President Trump will help, but regardless, it seems like he needs it.
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Chief Surveyor & Head of Public Lands, Buildings
August 27, 2018 | 8 Comments
As Chief Surveyor and Head of Public Lands and Buildings, Chris Farrow has responsibility for managing the Government estate of over 2,000 acres and some 751 buildings, and this task incorporates a number of related genres including building surveying, facilities management, geomatics, project management, valuation, quantity surveying and more.
Mr Farrow’s occupations in one of the many in public service, which encompass a wide range of varied fields and some of these posts are deemed hard to fill, meaning there’s a known limited talent pool with expertise in the specific area available on-Island and in some cases there could exist a global shortage of trained resources.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office with responsibility for Government Reform, Lovitta Foggo, has stressed the importance of showcasing the Bermuda Government as an employer of choice for Bermudians.
Minister Foggo said, “One of the goals of this Government is to change the perception of careers in the Public Service. We want to attract, develop, motivate, and retain a quality talent pool that is committed to the highest standards of excellence.”
Keen to share his public service career journey in the hopes of inspiring our young people, is Mr. Chris Farrow, who is the Chief Surveyor and Director of Public Lands and Buildings for the Ministry of Public Works.
Mr. Farrow, entered Government through the Public Service Bursary Awards Scheme, a programme that has supported many young Bermudians’ educational pursuits with a view of preparing them to fill essential technical and professional posts within the public service.
“People often associate surveying with land surveying, but that’s only one of the many disciplines of surveying,” Mr. Farrow notes. “Surveying covers all aspects of real estate and individuals can specialize in a number of fields including building surveying, commercial property, facilities management, geomatics, project management, residential property, valuation, quantity surveying and construction to name a few.
“As Chief Surveyor and head of Public Lands and Buildings, I have responsibility for managing the Government estate of over 2,000 acres and some 751 buildings. I work with a team of 155 staff and an annual operational budget of $20 million. The Government real estate uses are diverse and range from arable lands to a zoo with all manner of land and building uses in between.
“We provide a critical support role to Ministries and Departments to ensure that their real estate needs are met in order for them to provide services to the public. Without the real estate there are no public services.”
Mr. Farrow casts his mind back more than three decades to chronicle his public service career, noting that he began his studies to become a Chartered Surveyor in Sheffield, England.
“It was over 35-years ago when I received my Bursary Award,” Mr. Farrow recalls. “The support went well beyond financial, it also provided the guarantee of employment over the holidays and upon graduation. In addition, I had an employer that was fully vested in my career development.
“I started as a student within the Ministry of Public Works, interning in the Estates Section, working under the then Chief Surveyor, Mr. Frank Lund. Over the course of my career, I was provided with mentorship and given very broad work experience including secondments to the Bermuda Housing Corporation and the Land Valuation Department.
“After graduation, the Public Service Commission supported my pursuit of employment with the UK Civil Service in London to gain professional experience. I was fortunate to be accepted into their graduate programme, and spent four years in London working for the Inland Revenue Service in their valuation office.
“I worked for a few years in the Greenwich office before receiving a promotion and being moved up to the City of London Office. It was a very rewarding experience and I achieved my professional designation of Chartered Surveyor whilst working there.”
Mr. Farrow returned to Bermuda in 1991 and joined the Land Valuation Department. By 1995 he had been promoted to Director, and in 2013 he was promoted to the Ministry of Public Works as Chief Surveyor.
During that time he’s had opportunities in other Government Departments, including serving as the Acting Director of Planning, the Acting Director of the Information Technology Office and a number of Acting Permanent Secretary posts.
Mr. Farrow said he believes in the importance of life-long learning and career development. He notes that job training opportunities and guidance should be a cornerstone of any organisation, saying, “The learning never stops. Not only does my professional qualification require continuing professional development, but the public service provides many opportunities for further study and development.
“Even at this stage of my career I am still learning. The Government of Bermuda has and continues to provide excellent training and career opportunities for Bermudians.”
Mr. Farrow considers it his responsibility to support those young people who are currently navigating their career path. And he’s encouraging individuals who are looking for a unique and rewarding career opportunity to consider the public service.
He concluded, “The Government has stated its intention to attract, develop, motivate, and retain a quality talent pool that is committed to the highest standards of excellence. Every year the public service advertises for bursary applications and within the Department of Public Lands and Buildings are particularly keen to bring on board students who are interested in Estate Management and Building Surveying.
“I look forward to offering my support to the next generation of public servants who I believe will be our future leaders in the Service. They are critical to our succession planning, because we’re not just providing an opportunity for employment, but one of professional development and a very challenging and rewarding career in the Public Service.”
Diane Elliott: Working To Help Value Bermuda
Montserrat Customs & Revenue Visit Bermuda
Realtors Brokers Licensing Act Now In Effect
Land Title Registration Office Closed From 12-3
100 New Homes To Be Built In West End
Govt Issue RFP For Co-Working Space Design
#BermudaBusiness #BermudaGovernment #BermudaRealEstate
Category: All, Business, News
shrew says:
the Minister should be telling young people to go into the PRIVATE sector as the employers of choice for Bermudians. WTH is wrong with her? adding more to the taxpayers’ expense is par for the course for the PLP. Bermuda, we are doomed. VOTE THEM OUT.
Obviously she means when a position is available. Not come a we will create a position. Her statement was to also highlight that there a many Bermudians employed by Government.
Irritates me when people purposely and/or maliciously misrepresent someone else’s statements.(for any political view)
Black Soil says:
So does govt own Devonshire Dock (on North Shore Road) or don’t it???
inna says:
Finally someone not in the friends and family circle!!!
Truth is killin’ me... says:
You got in at the right time then. A bit like the housing market.
Skeptical says:
Is this the department responsible for the Railway Trail bridge over Barker’s Hill? The planks of wood are steadily rotting and, as a frequent user, I would like someone to take a look to ensure it is still safe to use. I am not sure which Department to contact, if anyone will even answer the phone too.
IS this the Department responsible for the old Railway Trail bridge over Barker’s Hill? The planks of wood are steadily rotting and being worn away. As a frequent user as I am sure a lot of people are, I would like to know if it is still safe to use.
Candidate Interested says:
I was an individual who wanted to become a surveyor. I was accepted into the program by the college of Estate Management. I started to attend the land valuation department in hoping I could shadow to learn more about the role of a surveyor. I did shadow someone a few times. I was told that I was only allowed to shadow an estate surveyor (He was lovely by the way) but only for a short time. As a stipulation for me doing the course, I had to be guaranteed an internship position with an public administration before I could continue the course. I was told my a Woman ( I will not share her name because she has a lot loose if I do), that there won’t be any internship available for me.By the way, this same woman spoke about how she has had speeches about being a surveyor in Bermuda. She also express to me that the government needed Bermudians to filled this role because many foreigners are the ones who are running this department. I was glad to be offered this idea until it came down to actually honoring their word of offering to train me.
So with that being said, please save the bull for someone who doesn’t know how this system operates.
****And By the way, I was someone who was willing to volunteer my time to shadow and be and intern all before it was offered this summer to summer students.
« Column: Cayman Conference, Population, Budget
Photos: Coppertone Volleyball Tournament »
Team Involved Wins 2019 BFF Men’s League
Health Council Launch ‘Fresh Food Fridays’
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CACSS Meeting 6-24-2018
Meeting Location: DBG – Dorrance Hall
Meeting Time: 2:00 p.m.
The monthly meetings will include:
Announcements of upcoming meetings and events
a Silent Plant Auction
a monthly presentation
Members frequently bring in cuttings to share on the free plant table.
We meet at 2:00 pm the last Sunday of most months at the Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona. The general meeting begins at 2 pm but you can come early to socialize and peruse the Silent Auction plants. Here is a map of the Garden.
Our Board meets monthly to discuss CACSS business; all members are welcome to attend Board meetings.
Presenter: Greg Starr
Greg was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and has grown to love the desert and its flora and fauna. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture, and after working in the landscape industry he went back to the University to study Botany and further his education in horticulture. Greg worked for Warren Jones (co-author of Plants for Dry Climates and Landscape Plants for Dry Regions) and Dr. Charles Mason at the University of Arizona herbarium. Greg made his first foray into the world of collecting in 1979 when he traveled with Warren and Bill Kinneson to Texas where he saw firsthand, in habitat, the many plants he had only experienced in the nursery or landscapes. He emerged from the University in 1985 with a Master of Science in Horticulture with a special emphasis on botany.
He opened Starr Nursery in the summer of 1985, and has specialized in low water use plants for landscaping in southern Arizona. Greg has traveled extensively in Mexico and the southwestern United States to study the plants for their potential landscape use in desert regions of the world. He has also traveled to South Africa and recently to Madagascar in search of juicy succulents.
Greg has written several horticultural articles for the journal Desert Plants. Topics have covered various groups of plants as well as botanizing in South Africa. He has also described two new species and a subspecies of Agave, three new species of Hesperaloe, and revised the genus Hesperaloe in a monograph published in the journal Madroño. The first Agave species Greg described was Agave ovatifolia. He worked with Dr. Jose Angel Villarreal in describing this amazing plant which has been dubbed Whale’s Tongue Agave, a reflection of the incredibly wide leaves that sometimes double as water harvesting vessels. He and Dr. Tom Van Devender described Agave parviflora subsp. densiflora a new find from the Sierra Madre Occidental in eastern Sonora. Greg’s first book, Cool Plants for Hot Gardens, was released at the end of April 2009 and is currently out of print. His second book, titled Agaves: Living Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers, was released in early May of 2012. He was a co-author for the recently released Field Guide to the Cacti and Other Succulents of Arizona. He has taught Plant Biology and Plant Materials classes at The Art Center Design College in Tucson for their program of Landscape Architecture. Since 2010, Greg has focused intensively on the Agaves of Baja California and he and Bob Webb described Agave azurea, a new species from the Picachos de Santa Clara, and submitted a revision for the genus on the Baja California peninsula to the journal Haseltonia which came out in January 2015. He recently described Agave cremnophila from southern Oaxaca and is busy researching the rest of the agaves found down there.
Agaves 101 – Let’s Start from the Beginning
Greg has been asked to speak at Succulenticon 2018 in Perth, Australia and he has put together a brand-new program that he would like to preview before the September convention. This presentation provides the audience with the basics of agaves beginning with the history of names and finishing with a flourish of cultural notes. He promises that it is not as boring as it sounds. There will be a lot of pretty pictures; myths will be busted, and even good information about these amazing plants. If you have an interest in succulent plants, and Greg suspects that you do since you are a member of a cactus and succulent club, then come on out and learn just one thing about this fascinating genus of plants.
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Fundamentals of Immersion
Nick Alexander Independent Study 2019
Contextual AnalysisArchive
Theme Parks 2/2
Posted in Contextual Analysis No Comments »
I visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWHP) at Universal Studios Orlando in 2012, several years after opening but before the Hogsmeade expansion. I was familiar with the Harry Potter storyworld and accompanied by an avowed super-fan I found the place captivating. Since the two of us were familiar with the Harry Potter world we found no impediment to understanding or enjoyment of the park – it was designed for us.
There is no meaningful onboarding for non-fans, and unlike some of the other rides at Universal Studios that remediate the plot of the source material, there is no retreading of known plot lines. WWHP stands alone as a transmediality, existing as a distinct artefact separate from any of the films or books (although it is explicitly based on the films, as it uses actors from the films and is designed after the look of the films). Interestingly, it seems to exist at a specific point in the Harry Potter timeline, being set before the events of the last few books, as evidenced by the presence and age of the young stars of the films.
The sense, then, is of inhabiting the Harry Potter franchise at a pivotal time in the plot – before the climax and denouement of the final books but after most of the world is established by the first few books. This is a distinction that would not be noticed or appreciated by those who are not familiar with the story world.
Embodiment in the space translates to embodiment within the narrative. It is those for whom the cult geography resonates that are the core audience of WWHP. These people become embodied within the plot by their presence at the park, and their presence at the park generates the sense of communitas that brings the park to life.
Escape Games 2/2
Contextual Analysis
Where Dark Things Dwell at Black Creek Pioneer Village is a unique escape game experience at Toronto’s Black Creek Pioneer Village. It is intended a showcase of the historic buildings at Black Creek, using the escape game format as a means of bringing players who might not otherwise have come to the village on a tour of the site.
The game uses environmental storytelling to explore the true history of the site as well as the fictionalized story of a curse trapping the players in the village. Each building has a set of puzzles themed to the building, which can have Nicholson’s “Ask Why” paradigm applied to them to explore their placement in the village. The mill has a puzzle involving sacks of flour, for example, while the building containing drying racks of herbs contains puzzles involving potions.
It is interesting to note that the puzzles forms are often unrelated to their content – the flour sack puzzle, for example, could be easily replicated with paper or wooden tiles. The potion puzzle is simply a series of riddles. While thematically linked to their sites (or by content – for example, the potion riddle puzzles are themed after spells) there is rarely a physical necessity or affordance that causes a puzzle to be situated in a physical form or space.
Each space’s puzzles are contextualized by the space they occupy, bringing narrative synchronicity to what would otherwise be unrelated puzzles. By couching puzzles in the trappings of their space narrative coherence is strengthened, even when there is no deeper relationship.
Video Games + VR 2/2
Analyzing Destiny 2 with the Player Involvement Model
While reading Calleja’s In-Game I was struck by how successfully Bungie’s Destiny 2 incorporates the six methods of involvement. No matter the player’s taste or play style Destiny 2 has sharp, well-realized elements that are have the potential to fully involve a player.
Kinesthetic Involvement
Gameplay in Destiny 2 is primarily traversal and gunplay. Both elements are finely tuned and responsive. Traversal often involves massive leaps through otherworldly terrain; players are given unusual modes of movement such as mid-air hops, jetpack-like hovering, and a glide. Effective traversal involves mastering the movements, each of which have their own distinct feel and quirks.
Gunplay is one of Destiny 2‘s selling points. Guns, the primary means of interaction and reward, all feel and sound distinct. Guns possess statistics – while no gun is better or worse than others, their statistics dictate how quickly they can be aimed, reloaded, track enemies etc. Gathering guns and experimenting to find a gun that feels good to the player is a large component of the gameplay. In short, kinesthetic involvement is central to the Destiny 2 experience.
Spatial Involvement
Destiny 2 rewards exploration of game spaces. Like the multiplayer games Calleja discusses (like Counter-Strike) Destiny 2 has a competitive multiplayer mode in which knowledge of map layouts and details grants a competitive edge. Furthermore, exploration of the various planets uncovers secrets, unique areas. Each area is designed to feel lived-in with a strong history.
Shared Involvement
Destiny 2 takes place in shared space with other players and non-player agents. Enemies have patterns, and return to the map periodically on drop-ships (standing out from other games where defeated enemies simply return after a period of time). Enemies have distinct tactics and utilize game spaces in attempts to outflank the player. Seperate from NPC shared involvement, Destiny 2 is largely a social game. Other players are always visible in game spaces pursuing their own objectives (which sometimes align with yours; some of the most thrilling moments come when strangers gather for impromptu battles with powerful enemies). No matter how the game is played Destiny 2 feels lived-in and dynamic.
Narrative Involvement
While the dialogue in the Destiny franchise is famously bad, the narrative is deep and well-seeded. Much of the storytelling in Destiny 2 is done through implication, with sharp-eyed players able to discovery secret locations and hidden details in the levels that hint at the larger narrative. Furthermore Destiny and Destiny 2 feature “the Grimoire”, short prose segments that can be found through gameplay or attached to rare gear, that are in-universe story elements. Each Grimoire entry is part of a short story that reveals plot elements which provide context for the action of the game. The lore of Destiny is deep and comprehensive, and the main plot of each game barely scratches the surface. Involvement in the Destiny lore is a large component of macro-involvement, as the community is constantly analyzing and discussing the content of the Grimoire.
Affective Involvement
Every element of Destiny 2 is designed to elicit emotional engagement. Every interaction is a positive feedback loop, keeping players involved regardless of the activity they are taking part in. The most basic loop, the engagement and defeat of enemies, is made rewarding by the satisfying sound of the gun, informing the player of the damage they are inflicting, and the beautiful animation and sound design of the animations when an enemy is defeated (personally, the tremendously satisfying pop of enemy heads is one of the things that sold me on the game initially). Enemies occasionally drop loot, which is a microcosm of the thrill of gambling – wondering what goodies you’ll unlock when you pick up the glowing loot orb. Even destroying junk loot is made pleasurable by the sound effects and climbing currency numbers. At a wider view, the reward loop of missions is clear, with structured adventures granting powerful rewards. Even the player’s gameplay schedule is structured as a reward loop, with “weekly” rewards of powerful goods available for completing extended tasks over long periods of time.
Ludic Involvement
While character ability customization is minimal, gear loadouts are potentially endless. Finding the most effective and efficient weapon and ability combinations is a constant task in Destiny. And, of course, the physical mastery of the gameplay mechanics is a core part of the game.
Destiny 2, intentionally or not, engages with every element of Calleja’s involvement theory and provides multiple angles for players to become immersed. As they get comfortable with the game and need not mindfully engage with any one involvement, they move to the centre of the proposed Player Involvement Model where Calleja’s incorporation can take place.
Role Playing Games 2/2
Role Playing Games: Contextual Analysis
Curse of Strahd is a self-contained adventure for Dungeons & Dragons. It contains all the information required for players (including a referee or Dungeon Master (DM)) to play out the scenario inside, covering approximately 100-200 hours of gameplay time. It describes the country of Barovia, its ecology, the terrible curse it exists under, and the characters who live within it.
While it contains detailed game statistics for many monsters, characters, and dungeons, it is light on details beyond those features of the game that it expects players to encounter. Instead, it focuses on establishing mood and setting, detailing the plots at work in the world, and giving examples of the kind of strange magic encounters players are likely to have. Unlike some fantasy gaming modules, whose features are all painstakingly rendered by the in-game mechanics, Curse of Strahd provides only a light framework and trusts players to fill in any gaps.
Thus Curse of Strahd is a Wunderkammer itself – a book full of possibilities, laid out not as a straight narrative, but a mixed bag of interrelated occurrences that can be arranged by player choice into a narrative that is recontextualized every time it is played.
Sub-Creation
Curse of Strahd lays out the details of its world, Barovia, early. It is a relatively small plot of land in which dark forces are at work. The book lays out the facts of the world, such as its choking fogs and constantly overcast skies, that remain constant. The Sub-Creation of the fictional world informs the narrative, performance, and the ludus, of Curse of Strahd.
Curse of Strahd has a series of loose narrative thread running through it, with one – the liberation of Barovia from the titular Strahd – serving as arguably the main plot. None of these plots need be followed, however, to have meaningful narrative play. Indeed some of the plots may resolve without player input, lending Curse of Strahd a lived-in verisimilitude, as many RPG narratives expect players to serve as lead characters. Curse of Strahd presents many opportunities for dynamic narrative while never constraining players by forcing them to follow one “true” narrative.
Performance is the aspect least contained within Curse of Strahd. The non-player characters (NPCs) are often colourful with clear desires, and the book does well in suggesting tics and voices to play the characters with without outright telling a reader what to do. Mostly the performance aspect is assumed to be covered by non-DM players who, reacting to the horrible situations within Barovia, give role-playing performances that challenge their characters in unexpected ways. Curse of Strahd is explicitly a horror module (a rare genre in D&D) and players are unlikely to have encountered similar situations – indeed, CoS intentionally misleads players who assume that it will keep to popular D&D tropes – and their performances are likely to reflect that experience.
As discussed above, Curse of Strahd contains enough game mechanic materials to establish a mechanical Wunderkammer. It has enough new and unusual content so players will always be discovering and incorporating new materials into their play, but it is not bogged down in game mechanics. It walks the line between providing new game material and trusting that player ingenuity will serve to merge any situations that do not have associated game mechanics into the experience.
Immersive Theatre 2/2
Contextual Analysis – DR. SILVER: A Celebration of Life
DR. SILVER: A Celebration of Life
DR SILVER: A Celebration of Life is a joint production of Outside the March and The Musical Stage Co. Billed as an “immersive musical”, it is the brainchild of librettist siblings Anika and Britta Johnson who, partnered with director Mitchell Cushman, developed an ambitious musical presented in a unique way, with many feints toward total immersion. However, due perhaps to the creators’ comfort with traditional musical theatre conventions, the production falls short of achieving the kind of immersion striven for by Machon and her contributing artists.
Held at Heliconian Hall in Toronto, a small gothic building that looks and feels uncannily like the kind of hall in a small town that a small cult might rent for a gathering, DR SILVER is a musical about a family who is at the centre of a cult whose messianic patriarch figure, the titular Dr Silver, has recently passed away. It explores the grief of each of the family members and their desires for the future. Much of the drama comes from each of the family’s feelings about the absent Gordon, who forsake the cult some time ago and may or may not be dead in the present. Aside from the family, who represent the entirety of the speaking cast, a chorus of young cult members fill out the space and serve as ushers, dancers, and singers.
The space is decorated and lit in a clever fashion, allowing the production to pivot from the feel of a mundane meeting hall to the rapturous wonder of a church congregation. A projection of the late Dr Silver rendered as stained class changes subtly as the production goes on. Audience-participants, who are treated as welcomed visitors and (it is presumed) are cultists as well, are seated on pews along four walls of the space and invited to paw through a gorgeously printed chapbook that serves as the holy book of the cult.
The chapbook, like a bible, also contains hymns, and early in the production audience-participants are invited to sing along with a number.
The first fifteen minutes or so of the production are deeply immersive. From the moment the audience-participant arrives on the site (which, as mentioned, is an imposing but out-of-the-way building) are are greeted by signs advertising the funeral of the late Doctor, they are treated as guests of the cult. Ushers/chorus members are dressed in identical unsettling blue scrubs and welcome participants with euphoric words and wide smiles while led to places on the pews. The performance takes place in full light, so every audience-participant is equally present as the performers. After they are invited to sing, the audience-participants are offered a drink of what looks like blue Kool-Aid that, it is suggested, contains a hallucinogen. This is perhaps meant as an explanation for why the remainder of the play is staged as it is, but sadly it is the last feint toward immersion that the play makes.
Shortly after the Kool-Aid sequence the show pivots from immersivity into traditional musical theatre-in-the-round. The remainder of the show is rendered as a series of flashbacks featuring the family, catching us up to how and why they find themselves relating to one another as they do in the present. These flashbacks are staged under spotlights, removing them from the present/presence of the immersive space, and the audience-participants are darkened, endistancing/alienating (as Brecht would say) them from the moment being staged. All pretenses of immersivity are gone – from this point on, the audience-participants are participants no more.
It is particularly disappointing because DR SILVER had, until this point, been an exemplar of Machon’s total immersion. The greeting and setting, as well as the opportunity to chat with other audience-participants, establish a firm external form through which to experience immersion as absorption, and the book of hymns, performers, and especially the drink of Kool-Aid engage all five senses, succeeding at immersion as transportation. Not totally realized is the social communitas discussed by Machon, though it is arguably attempted through the invitation to sing with the rest of the group.
The first act of DR SILVER delivers an embodied praesence (defined by Machon as being “at hand”) for audience-participants. The remainder is a familiar piece of musical theatre. Immersive elements remain as the chorus of cult members stalk the pews and the projections on the walls metamorphize as the plot continues, but there are no further invitations to engage – in other words, to realize one’s own praesence – and no further sense that the event possesses live(d)ness – that is, a uniqueness, and the knowledge that it will never be repeated as experienced.
Pre-Cinema Immersion 2/2
Pre-Cinema Immersion Contextual Analysis: The Pseudoscope
As a contextual analysis for a series of artefacts that are no longer being produced and experienced at scale, I thought it would be interesting to build one from scratch. I have encountered most of the artefacts discussed at some point in some form or another, but never a pseudoscope. I thought it would be interesting to build and experiment with one.
A pseudoscope is a device that uses a series of mirrors to swap the inputs of each eye.
Image from pseudoscope.blogspot.com
Looking through the pseudoscope makes the viewer confront and consider the minute differences between what is glimpsed through each eye. It is said to cause fascinating optical illusions. For example, looking through a pseudoscope at a spinning sphere with a stick in it is said to appear as if if the stick and sphere are spinning in opposite direction.
I found several sources online for building a pseudoscope quickly and for cheap. After gathering materials and overcoming some logistical problems with the maker lab, I was able to assemble a working pseudoscope in about half an hour.
The experience of looking through a pseudoscope without an illusion ready is lackluster. It takes some time to adjust it for the spacing of your eyes, and it takes time for your eyes to adjust. The minute imperfections of my pseudoscope are pronounced – the base is not perfectly flat so it must be held a certain way, or else the images do not line up and result in double vision. It also does not “auto-focus” for distance in the way our eyes do, requiring manual adjustment of the reflectors if you move from viewing something close up to something far away.
Once these issues are settled, though, the pseudoscope proves fascinating. It feels like it requires focus and alertness to view images through it, and although the images are familiar it feels like it is more work, physically, to view them.
The next steps would be to research and create a series of illusions for the pseudoscope, as well as tweak the current design for user-friendliness.
Works Consulted:
Make: “Weekend Project: $10 Pseudoscope.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 May 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=107&v=_Y9rmizlrg8.
Make a Pseudoscope, pseudoscope.blogspot.com/.
Speculative and Design Fiction 2/2
Speculative Design in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
The 2018 TV show She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (created by Noelle Stevenson and produced by DreamWorks Animation, a re-imagining of and not to be confused with 1985’s She-Ra: Princess of Power) demonstrates strong understanding of the speculative design tradition. Originating from a series of tight constraints – that is, being required to keep the same core characters, setting, naming conventions and basic plot from a quarter-century old show that famously was not very concerned with logic or narrative consistency – She-Ra and the Princesses of Power proves itself a work of speculative futurism masquerading as space fantasy.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is about Adora, a soldier from the army of the fascist Horde that has invaded and has been terrorizing the planet Etherea, who defects when she is chosen by the Sword of Protection. Using the sword she can transform into She-Ra, a powerful being dedicated to protecting Etherea. She makes friends with Glimmer, one of several Princesses of Power who are granted supernatural powers by ancient Runestones, and Bow, a talented archer. Together they travel Etherera with the goal of to reuniting the Princesses and defeating the Horde.
While the show has the trappings of a fantasy (and indeed the various powers of the Princesses are referred to as “magic”) the show contains details that suggest the show may be a science fiction instead.
Presumably the show’s creators were mandated to keep details from the original show – for example, the lead character and her iconic transformation into the titular She-Ra. These details would serve as entry points into the world.
The Sword of Protection, arguably the defining artifact carried over from the 1985 show, is described at one point in the 2018 version as a “portable Runestone”. The Runestone, then, is the source of She-Ra’s power. When Adora is removed from the sword she is unable to transform and access the various powers of the sword. Another clear requirement is the presence of the various Princesses of Power, who are holdovers in name and power from the original show. It is explained that each of the Princesses gain their powers from a Runestone as well, and that if their Runestones are destroyed or tampered with their powers can suffer.
So now we have the Runestones as artefacts of the world, and requisites for the existence of the princesses. This is further extrapolated by the existence of the First Ones, a highly advanced but mysteriously vanished progenitor species that left their technology (usually referred to in short hand as “First Ones’ Tech”) scattered around the planet. It is eventually revealed that the First Ones created the Runestones and that they are all connected through First Ones Tech that runs throughout the planet. The Runestones are technology, not magic, and dictate the nature of the communities that they belong to (the Runestone that affects nature is surrounded by a great forest and is tended by a community of survivalists, while the Runestone that affects cold is suspended inside a mountain of ice and is tended by Inuk-inspired arctic-dwelling people). They can even be hacked by computer, which happens several times in the show, at one point causing She-Ra’s behavior to change (suggesting that She-Ra’s transformation is technological in nature).
This further lends context to the question of why only Princesses can access the power of the Runestones (perhaps they are descended from First Ones?) and the question of why the world of Eternia is in such a bizarre state — why it seems to be divided by ecological biomes (the elemental influence of the Runestones, which aside from Adora’s are immobile) and lacks stars in its sky. None of these questions are the focus of the show, which tends to focus its plots on brief adventures and the interpersonal relationships of the protagonists and antagonists.
They serve as worldmaking details that belie the absurdity of the show’s presentation. Stevenson and the team behind She-Ra and the Princesses of Power used details from a defunct and little-cared for story world as entry points (or “core samples” if considering McDowell’s Mandala framework) to extrapolate an internally consistent story world that holds up against scrutiny – that is, stand up to suspension of disbelief – and ask the question “how would the world be if an ancient progenitor race distributed supernatural runestones on the planet?” with a straight face.
Immersion as Non-Product 1/2
Process Journal 8
Process Journal
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Whither P2?
USAC has released the Demand Estimate for 2014-2015, which gives me another opportunity to speculate on the denial threshold for Priority Two funding. The important demand figures, in billions:
Denial rate
Demand 10% 20%
P1 total $2.60 $2.34 $2.08
P1 plus 90% P2 $4.30 $3.87 $3.44
P1 plus 80-90% P2 $4.75 $4.28 $3.80
The funding cap is set at $2.41 billion. So P1 is covered. However, even if USAC denies 20% of applications, which would be an unusually high percentage of denials, we'd need over $1 billion to cover P2 for 90% applicants, and $1.4 billion to reach 80%.
Chairman Wheeler promised an extra $2 billion in funding over the next two years, probably by trimming reserves to give a bigger rollover. So there's our billion. Except I have to think that the Chairman wants to save most of that $2 billion for 2015-2016, when the new rules will mean none of that money gets spent on old voice systems.
On the other hand, I have speculated that the FCC may stretch the ADA exemption to allow them to oversubscribe the fund. Because approvals are always significantly higher than disbursements, the FCC could direct USAC to approve more funding than it expects to have, knowing that actual disbursements will be lower. That would probably let the FCC cover all P2 requests (once you've paid for 80% it takes almost no funding to run the table). But doing so would be pulling money from future years to pay for P2 in 2014-2015, and I just don't see the FCC doing that.
So in my analysis, it basically comes down to what kind of mood the FCC is in. Since they denied all P2 funding in 2013-2014, I'm betting they'll do the same in 2014-2015. But I'm not putting much money on it.
Posted by On-Tech at 6:28 PM No comments:
2-in-5 is 0-10
Another year, another failure of the 2-in-5 Rule. Or should I call it the Two-in-Fail Rule? This year, I'm going to have to go a little further into the data to show it's failure, so strap in. I've been on an anti-2-in-5-Rule campaign since 2007.
The main purpose of the 2-in-5 Rule is to reign in Internal Connections funding requests among applicants with a 90% discount. Anyone below 80% is subject to the 0-in-5 Rule, and those between 80-89% get the ?-in-? Rule, since they can't tell when they'll get funded. (Well, they can be pretty assured they won't ever be funded again unless the rules change, but that's a recent development.)
According to USAC's Demand Estimate for FY 2014-2015, Internal Connections funding requests are down 2%. But Basic Maintenance requests from 90%ers plummeted by 24%, which is only the second time since 2008 that the number's been negative. So the part of Priority Two demand not covered by 2-in-5 plummets, while the part affected by 2-in-5 basically holds steady.
A drop in the P2 demand from 90%ers is not surprising. Going into the 2014-2015 filing season, the conventional wisdom was that Priority Two was not likely to be funded even for 90% applicants, so some applicants decided it wasn't worth applying, since the Form 470 process increases costs. The 0-in-5 Rule is now suppressing P2 demand from 90% applicants.
I had high hopes when the big NPRM came out last July: the FCC sought "comment on whether we should revise or rescind the two-in-five rule...." (paragraph 144) (Of course, then they went on to suggest the 2-in-5 Rule might be replaced by the Dinner Table Rule, so it wasn't all rosy.) And the latest Request for Comment acknowledges that "Commenters generally agree that the rule that the Commission adopted limiting any school or library to two years of priority two support in every five year period (the two-in-five rule) does not appear to have achieved its intended goal of substantially spreading the available funds."(paragraph 9). But a mere 5 paragraphs later, the Commission suggests doubling down and instituting a 1-in-5 Rule. All the reasons I gave for not liking the 2-in-5 rule apply to 1-in-5, only more so. But the 1-in-5 Rule is better than the Dinner Table Rule, which is the next idea in the RFQ.
Practical considerations aside, why is Internal Connections in the E-Rate program? The idea is to provide an incentive for schools and libraries to purchase the equipment necessary to use the Priority One services they purchased, right? The thinking is that left to their own devices, applicants would underfund their network, leading to insufficient and aging equipment. So by subsidizing the equipment, the E-Rate provides an incentive to keep the network well-equipped and up-to-date. That's good. However, the Commission seems to feel that some 90% schools were taking it too far, constantly replacing perfectly serviceable equipment with the latest and greatest. So think about it: if you provide an incentive to encourage a certain behavior, and you find that you have been too effective, what do you do? Reduce your incentive, right? In this case, cut the top discount level. It makes no sense to give applicants such a huge discount that equipment is essentially free, then dream up all kinds of rules (2-in-5, Cost Effectiveness Review, equipment transfers, etc.) to keep applicants from over-buying. The problem is the 90% discount, so the solution should be to change the 90% discount.
And really, I don't think the excessive spending by 90% applicants was mostly the result of them buying equipment too frequently. Replacing equipment is a major disruption for the applicants and a lot of extra work for district staff, so I doubt there are many cases of applicants replacing equipment more quickly than every 3 years. The problem is that when those applicants do upgrade, they overpurchase. The 2-in-5 Rule does nothing to prevent overpurchasing. In fact, it contributes to that overpurchasing by forcing applicants to buy everything they might need for the next 3 years. The 1-in-5 Rule will increase overpurchasing even more.
90% is too close to free. Cut the discount. The 2-in-5 Rule will be unnecessary.
Posted by On-Tech at 2:40 PM 1 comment:
Big Wheeler keeps on turnin'
Chairman Wheeler spoke yesterday at the Institute for Museum and Library Studies "Broadband in Libraries" public hearing. Most of it was a restatement of ideas he has given before, but here is something new: I heard him suggest "establishing a system of reference pricing, so people know what is a fair price." It sounds like a baby-step towards Lowest Corresponding Price, or towards freeing up the information currently buried in the Item 21 Attachments. Good news for the program.
Libraries-to-libraries not apples-to-apples
What's the participation rate among libraries? I estimated 40% of libraries get funding. Now comes the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) and says: More than 90% of U.S. Public Libraries Have Used E-rate.
OK, you know what my first complaint is going to be: the small "r" in "E-Rate." I have found librarians to be generally very precise, especially when it comes to words, so it's especially disheartening to have them in the opposing camp in my campaign for the Big R.
How did we arrive at such different numbers? At least part of it can be explained by semantics.
First, we used different definitions of "library." When I calculated 40% of libraries, I used the ALA's number of administrative units, while the IMLS used the number of library buildings. It's analogous to the mess we're in because "entity" has more than one meaning. In Form 471 terms, I based my calculations on Block 1 data, while the IMLS used Block 4 data. So I based my calculations on 9,000 library administrative units, while the IMLS based their calculations on 16,000 library buildings.
Second, I looked at how many libraries are using the E-Rate, while the IMLS looked at how many have used the E-Rate. The IMLS is saying that 90% of buildings appeared in Block 4 on at least one application from Funding Year 2002 to FY 2012. I said 40% of library organizations appeared in Block 1 in FY 2009.
Fortunately, we can remove the effect of the second semantic difference, because the precise folks at IMLS supplied a graph showing participation each year. So looking at just FY2009, I said that 3,672 of 9,225 library administrative units were in Block 1 of a Form 471, while the IMLS says 11,181 of 16,392 library buildings were in Block 4 of a Form 471.
If we assume that all the libraries that didn't apply were libraries with only one location, we're almost in agreement: I say 5,553 "libraries" (meaning administrative units) weren't on an application, while the IMLS says 5,211 "libraries" (meaning buildings) weren't on an application. Of course, that assumption is overstated. While I would think that libraries with multiple branches are much more likely to apply than one-building libraries (because multi-site libraries probably have higher phone and Internet costs, so it's worth the hassle of filling out the forms or the expense of hiring a consultant), I am certain that there are multi-location libraries that do not apply for E-Rate.
Our numbers also differ because of likely miscounting:
I didn't count libraries in consortium applications, so I probably missed some libraries. Those applications would have only the consortium lead in Block 1, but could theoretically have hundreds of libraries in Block 4. There were 439 consortium applications, but a consortium made up of only libraries files as a library, so I missed only libraries which were in a consortium with non-libraries.
IMLS is probably counting locations that are not libraries. I used one definition of "library," the IMLS used a different one, but USAC has a slightly different definition. In Block 4, a bookmobile is a "library." So is a location that is strictly administrative. The IMLS blog was just an "initial investigation," I doubt they dug into the 11,181 locations on those forms to ensure they were included in their list of 16,392 libraries. So they might be overcounting a little.
So while our numbers seem wildly disparate at first glance, we really aren't that far apart. So choose whichever number suits your purposes. If you want to show that libraries are underserved by the E-Rate, use my 40% number. If you are more interested in showing how great a benefit the E-Rate has been to libraries, use the IMLS 90% number.
Advice from Committee to Commission
The FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee has issued some recommendations on E-Rate reform. I'd never heard of them, so I looked them up: "The purpose of the Committee is to make recommendations to the Commission regarding consumer issues within the jurisdiction of the Commission and to facilitate the participation of all consumers in proceedings before the Commission." Who's on the committee? I count 27 consumer (or at least consumerish) groups, 3 carriers and 2 carrier lobby groups.
The recommendations are not earth-shattering, and in many cases, it's hard to figure out what they're really saying. I guess that's what you get when you try to get 32 people to agree on the wording.
Item 2 in the first list states: "E-rate funding should be distributed in a way that promotes fair and equitable service and adequate speeds to schools and libraries of various sizes and in various locations." Well, I haven't heard anyone support unfair or inequitable service, or inadequate speeds, but I have no idea what the committee actually thinks the FCC should do.
My favorite juxtaposition:
3. The E-rate program must ensure that schools and libraries are not only connected to the internet, but also assist in the purchase of essential equipment to spread that connectivity throughout the schools and libraries and beyond.
4. The FCC should consider whether Priority 2 funding adequately addresses the unique needs of rural communities and smaller schools, as well as the changing educational environment, where learning does not stop at the end of the school day or when the student leaves the campus.
#3 seems to be saying that the Commission should be providing Internal Connections funding to all applicants, but #4 calls into question whether Priority Two funding addresses the learning needs of students after they leave campus at the end of the school day. Do they want more funding for P2 or no P2 funding?
Do they support increasing the size of the fund? "...the FCC should closely monitor and determine the appropriate level of funding to the E-rate program necessary to bring schools and libraries into the 21st century...." It sounds like they want to increase the size of the fund, but didn't want to appear to take sides.
Their process suggestions were much more concrete, and I agree with all of them.
A keyhole view of Item 21
EducationSuperHighway released an analysis based on the data from Item 21 Attachments. I thought it was a quick turnaround of data from their Item 21 Portal, but no, it's from 2013-2014 Item 21 Attachments. Apparently, they got Item 21 Attachments from 1,044 school districts, representing over $350 million in funding requests. That's about 3% of applicants, and about 7% of funding requested.
That's more Item 21 data than anyone else has. (Well, the New York City Board of Ed requested $605 million in funding, so technically they have access to a higher dollar amount of Item 21 attachments.) But it's a pretty small sample, and I have no idea how representative it is, so I can't say whether the data is any good.
The data is being used to support a point of view. Let's take a look at the "insights" and supporting data in the executive summary:
We face an urgent challenge to ensure that our students do not fall further behind.
The wealthiest districts are more likely to have met ConnectED goals, the poorest less likely.
Rural districts are less likely to have high-speed fiber.
It will take 7 years to reach today's goals.
In 7 years, our schools will need 10 times the bandwidth.
Schools are not meeting the ConnectED goals because high-speed broadband is not affordable.
Schools that are meeting the goals pay on average 1/3 the price for broadband vs. those that are not meeting the goals.
Schools that are meeting the current ConnectED goals also have Internet access budgets that are on average 450% larger than those that do not.
Schools that are able to afford high-speed broadband provide an actionable roadmap to enable every school to meet the ConnectED goals.
Districts with fiber connections have approximately nine times more bandwidth and 75% lower cost per Mbps compared to districts without fiber.
At higher speeds, which might be accomplished by aggregating purchases across multiple schools and districts, schools can reduce their costs to as little as $2/Mbps.
Schools with access to competitive options pay 2 - 3 times less for their WAN connections compared to schools that are only served by incumbent telephone and cable companies.
schools that have the option to take the initiative to lease fiber, self-provision a fiber network, or access an existing city network, pay the lowest prices for high-speed broadband.
96% of schools could meet today’s Internet access and WAN standards , if the FCC focused the E-rate program on broadband, but meeting the five-year ConnectED goals will likely require a combination of lower prices and more resources.
Re-investing the $1.1 billion per year of E-rate funds that are spent on non-broadband services (telephony, mobile, web hosting, and email) would provide enough funding to enable 96% of schools to have a gigabit WAN connection and 100 kbps/student of Internet access.
without improving the affordability of broadband, the $1.1 billion per year increase in support for broadband will still leave 80% of schools with too little bandwidth in five years
My thoughts on their insights:
So vague, it's indisputable. "Further behind" whom? Behind in what? The evidence presented indicates a disparity in access based on location and income level, and that we won't reach artificial goals quickly. There is no evidence on how the disparity or failure to meet targets will cause our students to fall further behind. Also, that "7 years to reach today's goal" figure is extrapolated from the fact that 28% of schools had 100 Kbps/student in the spring of 2013, and 37% did by the fall of 2013. That increase of 9% (over six months) was assumed to be the annual increase for the next 7 years.
Probably true in a lot of cases, but I know schools with 90% discounts, for whom money is no object, that don't meet the ConnectED goals because the network admin is competent enough to know that the schools don't need that much bandwidth. The factoids don't support the hypothesis very well. The first factoid results from the fact that cost/Mbps always drops drastically as the Mbps increase. (If a 100 Mbps link cost a school $1,000/month, a Gbps link is probably going to cost less than $3,000/month.) And the second factoid just says that schools that spend more on Internet have higher speeds.
Of course schools that have fiber have more bandwidth and cheaper prices. Factoids 1, 3 and 4 basically just say, "Applicants that have more options generally pay less." Factoid 2 claims that aggregating purchases can reduce costs. I agree that if 10 districts share a 1 Gbps Internet port, that will be cheaper than each of them having a 100 Mbps port. But only the Internet port costs would go down; circuit costs would probably go up, as all the districts would have to connect to a single hub site, rather than connecting to the nearest POP. The full report has a very interesting graph showing that applicants with over 100 WAN nodes have a per-Mbps cost that's a third of what other applicants pay. But there are only 2 applicants in that category, which is such a small sample that it seems irresponsible to make that a category. Hmm, interesting, the graph shows only 180 applicants with WANs. Only 17% of applicants in their sample have WANs?
I think their small sample skewed these results. Here is what those services cost for FY2011, according to USAC: Telephony=$428 million ($452 million if you include VoIP). Mobile=$176 million. Web hosting=$27 million. Email=$10 million. The total saved would be $669 million. ESH's estimate, based on their sample of 3% of 2013 FRNs, is 65% higher. The biggest discrepancy: their web hosting cost is 4 times greater than USAC's. The fact that only 17% of their applicants had WANs would also drive down the proportion of spending on broadband.
The report is certainly worth a read, and there is some good information in there, and they do make an effort to provide clear and objective information, but some of the information is spun pretty hard. The Executive Summary in particular is almost misleading.
E-Economics 101
I'm a bit behind on E-Rate news, so here's a little catch-up on supply and demand. The FCC set the cap on the fund at $2,413,817,693, an increase of 1.4%. USAC released a preliminary demand estimate: $2.643 billion in Priority One requests, $2.225 billion for Priority Two. The demand estimate will go up a little once paper 471s, and forms filed-late-but-not-too-late are added in, but then actual commitments will be lower as PIA pares some of the requests.
On the supply side, a 1.4% increase is just a rounding error. Chairman Wheeler has promised an extra billion, so let's assume it's not just accounting sleight of hand and tack that on. So we're up to $3.4 billion. I'll bet the Chairman included potential rollover funds in his $1 billion, so I won't add that in.
On the demand side, it looks like it might not be higher this year. Last year P1 demand was $2.7 billion, and P2 was $2.3 billion, so unless NYC filed on paper, I don't expect to see the double-digit increases of recent years. Let's assume that, like last year, about 45% of P2 demand is from 90% applicants. That means that P1 demand for all applicants plus P2 demand for 90% applicants will be $3.7 billion.
Supply = $3.4 billion. Demand = $3.7 billion. So we're close to P2 for 90% applicants. But will the FCC want to scrape together an extra $300 million to cover requests that will include services the Chairman doesn't want to fund, or just let P2 go down again to ensure a nice fat rollover to grease the transition to E-Rate 2.0 next year? The wheel is spinning, no more bets.
Posted by On-Tech at 12:49 PM No comments:
On-Tech
Involved with the E-Rate program since 1997, On-Tech's president, Dan Riordan, has continuously assisted schools and libraries in obtaining E-Rate funding, first as a trainer, then as a district employee, and now as an E-Rate consultant.
On-Tech E-Rate Consulting
Contact On-Tech
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Easy Money Monday in St. Louis?
When the line opened up for tonight's MNF game with the visiting 49ers laying 3.5, you'd figure everyone would be all over the Niners, swinging the line closer to a touchdown by kickoff. Well, as of this morning, the 49ers are favored by just 3 points. Does Vegas know something we don't? The Niners have allayed fears that they're on the decline with recent victories over the Eagles and Chiefs. The Rams, at 1-3, have provided stiff resistance to Dallas and Philly in their last two games, but are still running out their backup QB. Although we've fallen into the “road favorites on Monday night” trap already this season, the Niners look good at -3.
We'll likely see a raucous crowd in St. Louis at the Edward Jones Dome. Unfortunately, that's where the advantages end for the Rams. If you'll recall, in a Week 8 Monday night home game against the Seahawks last season, St. Louis gave the eventual champs all they could handle in 14-9 defeat. Handicappers may look to that as evidence the Rams can hang with the 49ers in their own building. Yet, just three weeks earlier in the 2013 season, the Rams were embarrassed by this San Francisco team in a Thursday primetime game. So, that theory can be tossed out.
Digging deeper, look no further than the impeccable record Jim Harbaugh and his Niners have in their last six Monday night outings. They've won all six by a combined score of 164-49, holding five of those opponents to fewer than 8 points. Staying on that side of the ball, the 49er defense is starting to look reminiscent of the group that has been near the top of the league for the past three seasons. Without two of the league's top linebackers for the first half of the season, NaVorro Bowman and Aldon Smith, the defense was expected to struggle, which they did to start the season. But, in their recent wins over the Eagles and Chiefs, the defense has allowed just 17 points. The pass rush, which was non-existent to start the season, has started to find its teeth. If they slow Zac Stacy and the St. Louis ground game early on, it may be another field day for the defense.
Moving to the other side of the ball, Colin Kaepernick has been erratic this season as a passer, but Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman have returned to the power running attack, behind the ageless wonder, Frank Gore. After receiving 35 total carries over the first three games, the Niners greased their squeaky wheel, handing the ball to Gore 42 times in their two recent wins. He went over 100 yards in each of those matchups, and he's facing the 31st run defense in the league tonight. Another 100-yard game should be in the offing for the 31-year-old back.
The only thing preventing the Niners from running away with this victory is their red zone execution. Penalties, poor clock management, and ill-advised plays from Kaepernick have hampered the 49ers after they've found their way into the red zone. This gives hope to the Rams that they may be able to hang around by forcing some stops at the right time. However, the 49er defense and running game will prove overwhelming for Jeff Fisher and the Rams.
It's the last football game for a whole three days, so download SnapCall and jump in the prediction seat for this crucial NFC West battle tonight. Kickoff is at 8:25pm.
Posted by SnapCall at 2:40 PM
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Afghan President Declares Temporary Cease-Fire With Taliban
Updated 06.07.18 8:36AM ET / Published 06.07.18 8:15AM ET
Omar Sobhani / Reuters
The president of Afghanistan has announced a weeklong cease-fire with the Taliban, and the U.S. has confirmed it will honor the arrangement. Speaking in a televised address, Ashraf Ghani said local forces would halt operations against the insurgent group beginning June 12—it is the first time an Afghan leader has declared a cease-fire with the Taliban since the war began in 2001. “This cease-fire is an opportunity for Taliban to reflect on the fact that their violent campaign is not winning them hearts and minds but further alienating the Afghan people from their cause,” said Ghani. Gen. John Nicholson, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Resolute Support commander, said: “We will adhere to the wishes of Afghanistan for the country to enjoy a peaceful end to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and support the search for an end to the conflict.” The cease-fire will not include U.S. counterterrorism efforts against ISIS, al Qaeda, and other regional and international terrorist groups.
Read it at Washington Post
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Did CIA Director Allen Dulles Order the Hit on JFK?
In a blistering but painstaking profile of the Cold War CIA chief, David Talbot’s damning accusations include the allegation that Dulles was behind the Kennedy assassination.
James A. Warren
An affable scion of the Northeastern establishment, a committed interventionist in foreign affairs, and fervent disciple of American exceptionalism, Allen Welsh Dulles served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1961. International affairs were the Dulles family business. Allen’s maternal grandfather, John W. Foster, was secretary of state under Benjamin Harrison. His uncle, Robert Lansing, held the same office under Woodrow Wilson. John Foster Dulles, his elder brother, served as secretary of state in the Eisenhower administration, and Allen reputedly wanted the job for himself. Yet, when Allen ran the CIA and his brother was ensconced as head of State, there was little of the usual friction between the two agencies of government. The brothers worked together like a well-oiled team. Critics have argued ever since that the country and the world would have been better off had this not been the case.
After graduating from Princeton Phi Beta Kappa, Dulles joined the Foreign Service, where he served with distinction from 1916 to 1926, and developed a taste for intelligence work that lasted all his life. He then went on to join his brother’s Wall Street law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, with a view to making real money. The firm represented some of the most powerful corporations in the world, and Dulles succeeded in his objective, but he sorely missed the excitement of cloak-and-dagger work.
Then came World War II. Recruited by Wild Bill Donovan to run the OSS office in Bern, Switzerland, he developed invaluable connections with the German resistance movement against Hitler, and established a reputation as a superb spy with a flair for running networks of agents and planning covert operations. By the time of his ascent to the directorship of the CIA, the Cold War had blossomed from a conflict centered on Europe into a truly global contest waged by proxy armies and secret agents in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It was above all else a complex, multifaceted conflict with diplomatic, military, and propaganda components. The West had already suffered a number of serious reverses—the compromise of most of its agents behind the Iron Curtain as a result of Kim Philby’s defection, the “loss” of China, and the shocking invasion of South Korea by Communist North Korea, widely (and incorrectly) believed to have been ordered by Stalin, to name but a few.
Like his more dour and grumpy older brother, Allen Dulles had a deep aversion to Communism, and viewed the Cold War as struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, between liberty and “enslavement.” Dulles threw himself into his work, writes intelligence historian Thomas Powers, “with a patriot’s devotion, an appetite for combat, and an elastic sense of the permissible … The fears and alarms of the Cold War seem melodramatic and overdrawn now, but the Dulles who ran the CIA during the Eisenhower years was fired by a steely resolve to carry the fight to the enemy, and prevail.”
Together, the Dulles brothers impressed upon Ike the need to check the expansion of Soviet influence wherever it appeared—and in some cases, it must be said, where the faint shadows of a Communist presence on the margins of political life in a foreign locale could provide cover for paramilitary intervention on behalf of American corporate interests that the Dulles brothers conflated with the national interest. Allen Dulles was a staunch advocate and leading orchestrator of the successful CIA-led coups in Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954, where the agency proclaimed local Communist provocateurs were laying the foundations for direct Soviet intervention, thereby threatening Western oil supplies, the Suez and Panama canals … and, of course, the financial interests of a host of British and American oil companies (in Iran) and the United Fruit Company (in Guatemala), an important Sullivan & Cromwell client.
Many other interventions and anti-communist campaigns of varying levels of success and subtlety were carried out by Dulles and his recruits from the “old boy” network of Ivy League-OSS-Wall Street establishment types, including the agency’s almost single-handed creation of the Republic of South Vietnam to challenge the ascendancy of the visionary Communist-Nationalist Ho Chi Minh.
Neutrality was a dirty word in the Dulles lexicon. When President Sukarno declared Indonesia neutral in the East-West conflict, Eisenhower authorized “all feasible covert means” to force the Indonesian strong man in a Westerly direction. The CIA went to considerable expense to spark a coup, but it had poor intelligence on the ground and the operation was badly botched.
You couldn’t win them all, but the Dulles brothers could be counted on to keep trying.
On Dulles’s watch, the CIA did a very good job of keeping track of what the Soviets did to forward their agenda around the globe. It formed a reasonably accurate picture of Soviet military and nuclear capababilities and its fundamental foreign policy objectives. This painstaking, laborious work was hardly the stuff of James Bond novels, but it laid the foundation for American defense and foreign policy during the height of the Cold War, and thus must be given a fair amount of credit for the prevention of nuclear holocaust. We do not and cannot know the full extent of either Allen Dulles’s or the CIA’s contribution to the West’s victory in the Cold War, but an educated guess is that it was considerable on both counts.
The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, David Talbot’s sprawling and ambitious new book, is at one and the same time a damning biography of the CIA’s longest standing director, and an exposé of American politics, foreign and domestic, from the earliest rumblings of the Cold War up through the assassination of JFK. The overarching argument put forward in this disturbing, compulsively readable book is that an ominous “counterreformation” in American politics took place during this time, and that our civil liberties, our politics, and our moral standing in the world has suffered grievously as a result to this very day.
As Talbot sees it, New Deal liberalism, which stands as the apotheosis of 20th century American democracy, was gradually eclipsed by men highly placed in government who saw democracy “as an impediment to the smooth functioning of the corporate state”:
Washington was gradually taken over by business executives, Wall Street Lawyers, and investment bankers … During the Eisenhower administration, the Dulles brothers would finally be given full license to exercise their power in the global arena. In the name of defending the free world from Communist tyranny, they would impose an American reign on the world enforced by nuclear terror and cloak-and-dagger brutality … The Dulles brothers would prove masters at exploiting the anxious state of permanent vigilance that accompanied the Cold War.
The rise of Dulles’s CIA, “the most potent agency of the Eisenhower era,” further undermined an American democracy “already seriously compromised by growing corporate power.”
This is by no means a new thesis. In fact, it has been around since the mid-’60s and recapitulated, with varying degrees of subtlety and sophistication, by many journalists and historians. In The Devil’s Chessboard, Talbot, the founder and first editor-in-chief of the online magazine Salon, builds on the work of others, deepening and complicating the basic storyline with the help of newly released classified documents, fresh interviews with participants, and recent additions to the secondary literature.
Talbot brings an encyclopedic knowledge of the sources, passionate curiosity, and the literary tool kit of a superb espionage novelist to his retelling of the tale. And what a tale it is! No doubt about it, The Devil’s Chessboard contains a bucketful of sensational allegations. What follows is a small, but representative sampling:
• Allen Dulles “undermined or betrayed every president he served.” In the waning days of World War II, the future CIA director tried to strike “a realpolitik deal … between Germany and the United States that would take Hitler out of the equation but leave the Reich largely intact.”
• Claims of Soviet/Communist subversion that served to justify the CIA-led coups d’état in Iran and Guatemala were for all intents and purposes fabricated. Threats to U.S. corporate interests were what really spurred these “successful” covert operations by the CIA.
• Allen Dulles oversaw a CIA program that conducted extremely dangerous experiments on the human brain. He was interested in finding out whether “LSD could be used to program zombielike saboteurs or assassins.”
• “Extraordinary rendition,” the CIA’s notorious War on Terror practice of kidnapping suspected enemies and turning them over to “the merciless security machinery” of U.S. allies in undisclosed locations, actually began in 1956, when a Columbia University academic hostile to Dominican strongman Raphael Trujillo was flown to the Dominican Republic, tortured, boiled to death, and fed to the sharks.
• “Over the final months of the JFK presidency, a clear consensus” emerged within Dulles’s sinister network of financial, intelligence, and military associates: “Kennedy was a national security threat. For the good of the country, he must be removed. And Dulles was the only man with the stature, connections and decisive will to make something of this enormity happen.” And so he did. (Gulp!)
Does Talbot make a convincing case for such allegations, and for the argument that unites them?
That Allen Dulles exercised enormous power and abused that power in myriad ways; that he ordered assassinations of undesirables abroad; that his CIA destabilized foreign governments in the Third World based on grossly exaggerated assessments of Soviet subversion; that he integrated high-level Nazi intelligence agents into CIA and West German intelligence networks—all these allegations are clearly borne out by the facts presented here, and confirmed by the work of many other investigators.
The evidence that Dulles was the ringleader of a network of hardline, Cold War national security types that constituted a secret government, and that that “government” assassinated a president, is brilliantly and alluringly presented—so well presented, in fact, that one could almost believe it. But not quite.
For one thing, Talbot’s defense of these allegations rests far too heavily on hypothetical scenarios and intricately stitched together reconstructions of clandestine schemes, most of which are too heavily larded with innuendo, gossip, and hearsay to be credible. Too often, we are asked to accept that person X was engaged in some nefarious undertaking because person Y said they were, and person Z weighs in with some vague confirmation, along the lines of, “Oh, yes, that probably happened. It would have been just like X to do that …”
Then, too, one has the distinct sense time and again in the narrative that we are simply not being told the whole story, that evidence that conflicts with Talbot’s reconstruction of a given series of events has been left out, which engenders a certain skepticism about the author’s version of history. Much of the real political context in which Dulles and the CIA operated has been left out of the story. It’s troubling in a book so tightly focused on American Cold War strategy and initiatives that Soviet machinations are either buried deep in the background or absent altogether.
Indeed, in the cloak-and-dagger world of intrigue so deftly conjured up in The Devil’s Chessboard, the Soviet threat to both American interests and democratic values around the world seems to be a chimera, not the very real and formidable challenge it appeared to be to American policymakers at the time. Without a reasonably detailed picture of what the Soviets were up to, it’s rather difficult to place the shenanigans of Dulles and his merry band of Wall Street and national security acolytes in proper perspective.
In reflecting back on this long and discursive account, it strikes me that a great deal of what passes for “secret government” in Talbot’s imagination would probably be described by a judicious national security historian as the day-to-day practice of the politics of espionage by an aggressive, but deeply flawed, master of the game.
Talbot’s reconstruction of the plot engineered by Dulles to assassinate JFK contains so many key and bit players, and is so packed with qualifications concerning their actions, whereabouts, and intentions, that it’s close to impossible to keep one’s bearings. Tantalizing coincidences, clues, and statements from investigators and participants accumulate, casting doubt on the lone gunman theory accepted by the Warren Commission, but no truly credible alternative explanation seems to emerge.
In the end, and with all due respect for Talbot’s dogged detective work, the case he makes for Dulles’s masterminding the assassination strikes me as far-fetched and highly speculative. Even if one grants the existence of a Dulles-led, malign, and anti-democratic network of “deep power” conspirators—a tall order in and of itself—it’s hard to see why they would see the need to liquidate Kennedy. Contrary to Talbot’s claims, JFK’s policies, foreign or domestic, simply did not pose a dire threat to “deep power” interests. As Columbia historian Alan Brinkley points out, the consensus among historians today is that JFK’s “differences with the hardliners … were mostly tactical not strategic.”
Finally, from a practical standpoint, is it at all plausible that John McCone, the Kennedy-appointed CIA director at the time of the assassination, stood by passively as the retired Dulles waltzed back into CIA headquarters two years after having been fired to spearhead the greatest conspiracy in U.S. history? And if Dulles was behind it all, one wonders why Robert Kennedy pleaded with President Johnson to ask the gentleman spy to serve on the commission to investigate the murder of his beloved brother. Was Bobby in on it, too?
Still, one would be hard pressed to find a book that is better at evoking the strange and apocalyptic atmospherics of the early Cold War years in America, and the cast of characters that made the era what it was. One of the singular pleasures of reading The Devil’s Chessboard are the wry, closely observed character sketches that punctuate the narrative. John Foster Dulles “brought the gloom of a doomsday obsessed vicar to his job, with frequent sermons on Communist perfidy and his constant threats of nuclear annihilation.” Richard Nixon “may have suffered from a tortured psyche, but it made him acutely sensitive to the nuances of power. He had a Machiavellian brilliance for reading the chessboard and calculating the next series of moves to his advantage.”
Neither le Carre nor Graham Greene could do any better at conjuring up Dulles’s counterintelligence chief, the chain-smoking aesthete James Jesus Angleton:
He was known as the “Gray Ghost” in intelligence circles—a tall, stooped, ashen faced figure, with a bony, clothes-rack frame, draped in elegant, European-tailored suits, and wreathed in rings of smoke … Angleton’s activities ranged from purloining documents at foreign embassies to opening the mail of American citizens (he once jocularly referred to himself as “the postmaster”) to wiretapping the bedrooms of CIA officials. It was his job to be suspicious of everybody, and he was, keeping a treasure trove of sensitive files and photos in the locked vault in his office. Each morning … Angleton would report to Dulles on the results of his “fishing expeditions,” as they called his electronic eavesdropping missions, which picked up everything from gossip on the Georgetown party circuit to Washington pillow talk … As Dulles was well aware, Angleton even tucked away explosive secrets about the CIA director himself. That is why Dulles had rewarded him with the most sensitive job in the agency, Angleton confided [to a journalist] near the end of his life. “You know how I got to be chief of counterintelligence? I agreed not to polygraph or require detailed background checks on Allen Dulles and 60 of his closest friends. They were afraid their own business dealings with Hitler’s pals would come out.”
Talbot’s main contribution with The Devil’s Chessboard has been to pull together a welter of sensational and controversial story lines in the history of American politics and espionage into one gripping but speculative narrative of betrayal, arrogance, and duplicity. As such, the book is bound to become an instant classic of political conspiracy literature, and to spur further debate about a number of important questions we are unlikely to answer definitively any time soon.
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Egypt Sends 3 Al Jazeera Journos to Jail
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty
An Egyptian court has convicted three Al Jazeera journalists of terrorism-related charges and sentenced each to seven years in prison. The purported democracy arrested the three journalists in December, accusing them of helping the Muslim Brotherhood by reporting the news from Cairo. Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy, and Egyptian Baher Mohammed were seized in a raid on the Cairo hotel room they were using as an office. Fahmy shouted “I swear they will pay for this” from the defendant’s cage. His brother, Adel, said they would appeal the verdict. “Everything is corrupt,” he said. Ten-year sentences were also given to British and Dutch journalists, who were tried in absentia. The previous day, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He said “There are issues of concern... but we know how to work at these.” Show us what you got, Kerry.
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Renée Zellweger in ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’: Here’s What We Should Really Be Talking About
A sexist, valueless conversation about Renée Zellweger’s appearance has distracted from the real Bridget Jones’s Baby reveal: Not only is the movie good, it’s also important.
It’s always nice to catch up with a beloved wanton sex goddess from your past.
And the first time you see Renée Zellweger back on screen as the titular character in Bridget Jones’s Baby, yes, it elicits an instant, visceral reaction from the audience. That’s because, it turns out, it’s a pleasure to see her, too.
An incorrigible amount of press has redirected an actually interesting conversation—Is a sequel to a franchise made 12 years later a good idea?—to a sexist and valueless one about one of our most respected and talented actresses of the last 20 years’ looks. It’s missing the point, in more ways than one.
Bridget Jones’s Baby not only marks Zellweger’s return to a role that she hasn’t played in more than a decade, but her return to acting after a six-year break (and return to the practice of starring in films we actually want to see for the first time since, honestly, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004). Watching her, you’re instantly reminded of the star’s on-screen appeal.
That carefully studied British accent is back—Zellweger famously underwent Olympian training to master the dialect, and never broke it throughout the four-month Bridget Jones’s Baby shoot. When we re-meet our heroine, the raspy English lilt is narrating her diary as, in a callback to the original 2001 film, Bridget is blowing out a birthday candle alone in her apartment as Celine Dion’s “All By Myself” blares in the background.
The role, somehow, still fits Zellweger like a glove, allowing her to blend her natural gawkiness with a little bit of fearless bawdiness. But the remarkable thing here is that, as we get up to speed on Bridget’s life, we see that she has become rather poised.
In the world of franchises and the commercial mandate to “give the people what they want,” it seems almost daring to bring back the character believably evolved—Bridget is now a successful TV news producer, a svelte, healthy weight, and unconcerned with romantic foibles—rather than lazily restart her again at zero.
More, for all the sexist distraction surrounding Zellweger’s appearance, missing was the championing of this film and this franchise as a major win in the conversation of gender equality, representation, and opportunity in the industry.
It’s still an egregious rarity for a film featuring female protagonists to be considered commercial enough to merit a franchise—The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Pitch Perfect stick out as rare examples—let alone for it to be a film intended for and skewed towards an almost exclusively female audience.
The Bridget Jones trilogy isn’t an action series. It’s a franchise of romantic comedies, spotlighting a flawed and complicated and—though heightened—real woman. And it is a franchise in which all three films were directed by women. Oh, also: The lead actress happens to be 47 years old.
While we wait (still) for there to be a superhero franchise starring and empowering women, here we have Bridget Jones on posters and in TV commercials, spanning 15 years of relevance. She’s not exactly saving the world, sure. But she is a rare visible icon in an industry commercially concerned with female invisibility. Yet let’s keep talking about Zellweger’s eyebrows.
In some ways—though certainly not in any of the ways it’s been rudely gossiped about and thrust confrontationally in Zellweger’s (perfectly pretty) face—it’s natural to talk about appearance in respect to a new Bridget Jones film. This is a franchise that invites us to be critical about body image in a self-aware, good-humored way, because Bridget Jones is just that about herself.
But her anxiety about her weight or aging or not wearing the right thing to the right occasion isn’t self-harming or mean-spirited, the way we inflict harm on an actress and a culture that feels the negative effects of our shaming. Bridget is insecure and trying her best and that’s why we love her. Not why we judge her.
Watching Bridget grapple with self-confidence and self-acceptance, and admirably set out to better herself though she still fumbles with the tools and conviction required to do so, is comforting because it reminds us that we’re not alone in that journey. That’s a gift that Zellweger, in playing this part, has given to us.
We’re so lucky that she’s back doing it.
That’s not to say that Bridget Jones’s Baby arrives with a painless birth. Its laborious journey to arrival spans years and multiple directors, writers, and rewriters, with Emma Thompson finally being brought on to rewrite the script (and co-star) and original Bridget Jones’s Diary helmer Sharon Maguire to direct. It takes a village, right?
What is settled on here is a story in which Bridget, having broken up with Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) after their seeming happily ever after in Edge of Reason, is too concentrated on work to be concerned with men, transforming our wanton sex goddess into more of a reasonable homebody.
Concerned over Bridget’s sexual dry spell, her coworker Miranda (Sarah Solemani) insists she find herself a shag to get back in the swing of things, kidnapping her to a music festival where she falls into bed with a handsome stranger played by McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey. A week later, she reconnects with Mr. Darcy during a vulnerable moment at a christening for a mutual friend’s child, and they, too, have some nostalgic sex.
When Bridget realizes she’s pregnant, she also realizes that she isn’t sure which of the two men is the father, and the three must figure out a co-parenting dynamic that could possibly work as Bridget weathers what is hilariously referred to repeatedly as a “geriatric pregnancy” (Bridget is 43) and attempts to determine which, if either, of the two men she loves.
That so many players had a part in consummating this script is most evident during the film’s sort of meandering final act, which can’t seem to decide how to settle the paternity question in a satisfying manner, all the while lingering too long on a birthing sequence that doesn’t manage to be any fresher than the hundreds of film birthing sequences before it.
In a way, too, it’s interesting to embark on this storyline in which there is no real truly satisfying conclusion.
Bridget’s other longtime paramour Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) is both eschewed from the plot and left open for a return in future sequels through a plot device we won’t spoil here, meaning that Mr. Darcy is the lone legacy love of Bridget’s life vying for her heart here, boasting a history you root for in a Ross-and-Rachel kind of way as far as paternity goes.
But Patrick Dempsey’s Jack isn’t a cad who abuses Bridget’s infatuation the way that Cleaver did. Rather than simply replace Hugh Grant with a Hugh Grant-ish actor and character, the film quite cleverly introduces Jack as the perfect guy: kind, charming, successful, and truly in love with Bridget. History be damned, you don’t want to root against him either.
It’s all very high concept, in the way that romantic comedies should be, but there’s a fresh element of realism here that invigorates the genre. This is a romantic comedy for adults, starring adults as characters with adult concerns and problems.
These aren’t twentysomethings harping about their anxieties over settling down as they fall in love over a series of meet-cutes and pratfalls. These are characters who are already settled down, and wondering how love and parenthood will upend their lives as they approach middle age…over a series of meet-cutes and pratfalls.
We’re not reinventing the wheel here. But the wheel is altered a bit, making for a different kind of ride. As added bonuses, we have Emma Thompson in the car—delighting the way you expect Emma Thompson to in a supporting role as Bridget’s doctor—as well as a comically insightful indictment about the future of journalism as a bit of a side plot.
In all, I expect the run of Bridget Jones’s Baby to be rather unremarkable: likely to receive polite reviews, likely to earn a moderately successful box-office haul. But its existence actually is remarkable in ways that have been buried underneath a trash pile of cultural debate that exposes our worst tendencies as entertainment consumers and armchair critics.
Bridget Jones has grown up. We owe it to ourselves to grow up along with her.
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Tareq Salahi’s $50M Suit Against Michaele, Schon, Journey Thrown Out
Salahi has been handed a major setback in his multimillion-dollar legal battle, Diane Dimond reports.
Updated 07.13.17 2:13PM ET / Published 04.10.12 11:53PM ET
Peter Kramer / NBC / Getty Images
It may be time for Tareq Salahi to come up with a new life plan.
A circuit-court judge in Warren County, Va., has dealt what could be a death blow to Salahi’s alienation of affection lawsuit against his estranged wife, Michaele, her lover guitarist, Neal Schon, and his rock band, Journey. Judge Dennis Hupp ruled the $50 million claim was “not legally sufficient” to go forward and tossed it, though he gave Salahi and his attorney 21 days to amend the complaint and return to court.
The Salahis rose to fame when they were accused of crashing a party at the White House in November 2009, and they appeared on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of DC. But the show was canceled in April 2011 after one season, and just months later Michaele left Tareq for the rock star.
Over the last seven months, Tareq’s legal maneuvers have seemed odd. He first filed for divorce three days after Michaele’s sudden departure on Sept. 13, 2011, but dropped that action and two months later threatened to replace it with a $17 million lawsuit naming Michaele and Neal as co-conspirators in a plot to “humiliate and embarrass” him and deprive him of career success.
Somewhere along the line that suit blossomed into the $50 million alienation of affection suit—filed on Valentine’s Day 2012—that the judge scuttled Tuesday. It is not clear at this writing whether attorney Georgia Rossiter will rework the suit or drop out of representing Tareq altogether. She and Tareq declined repeated requests for comment.
Interestingly, Judge Hupp left Michaele’s countersuit for defamation of character in place, and The Daily Beast has confirmed she does plan to pursue it vigorously. The 46-year-old blonde filed the $850,000 suit in early March, after Tareq repeatedly referred to her in the press as a “groupie slut” and other derogatory names. And although he was once a champion of Michaele’s nearly two-decade-long fight with multiple sclerosis, Tareq suddenly cast doubt on her claims of poor health. This despite the fact that he went along with his wife as she underwent a barrage of neurological tests last year—filmed and broadcast by the television show Inside Edition—which definitively revealed Michaele suffers from multiple M.S. brain lesions.
Tareq has maintained that Journey profited from an uptick in ticket sales after all the publicity surrounding the sensational Salahi split, and he believes he is entitled to part of that money—plus some more for his humiliation.
Also spurring Michaele to continue pressing the defamation suit is Tareq’s repeated complaint that Neal Schon sent him a picture of his penis on the night Michaele left and called him to brag, “Hey, I’m f--king your wife!” Schon firmly denies that he ever sent such a picture and told The Daily Beast, “I was on stage performing in Nashville that night—all night. I never called Tareq. I didn’t have time to call Tareq.”
The 43-year-old Tareq recently revealed in an interview with Washingtonian magazine that he is already thinking about the next chapter of his life. He claims he has finally found peace in his long-simmering grudge against his mother and is making plans to reopen the family’s Oasis winery in some fashion. A Virginia winery source who asked not to be identified, citing fears about being pulled into the Salahi feud, confirms Tareq has recently approached former employees with offers of jobs at his new Oasis venture. This person also cast doubt on whether the grapevines at Oasis would have survived a long period of neglect.
“I went to the winery when I was in Virginia for Thanksgiving,” said Tina Pray, a former girlfriend of Tareq’s. “The casks were empty and forlorn, the vines were dead and dying ... not tended at all. It was very sad to see.”
Tareq told the Washingtonian that most of his outstanding debts have been discharged since he and his mother filed for bankruptcy. But troubles loom. The home he shared with Michaele in Hume, Va., is now in foreclosure, and the fate of her belongings, which she left behind in September, remain in doubt. And while he told the magazine he has returned to “sponsoring polo events”—the genesis of much of his past bad credit problems—he seems most excited talking about his new plan to launch an Oasis-based cooking and wine TV show.
“We’re only in the beginning stage with agents, production, and formatting,” he told Washingtonian. “We’re going to announce it in the fall or early winter. I’ll be involved in one way or another on camera, but the focus is the food, the wine, and the people.”
Just who might be involved or which TV network might buy such a program remains a mystery. Bravo has said it is “absolutely not interested” in doing business with Tareq Salahi again.
The Salahis still need to get a divorce, and Judge Hupp has it on his court calendar to set a trial date for sometime later this year. That is, unless, the two parties can come to an out-of-court agreement. In the past, Tareq threatened to the Washingtonian that if Michaele didn’t settle her “few million dollars in debt” from the marriage, he would go full steam ahead to push for a public trial. “And we’ll call everyone to testify—Journey, the whole band, their wives, their girlfriends,” he said, apparently relishing the thought of getting back at Schon and the band.
Now that the $50 million suit seems less probable, Tareq may see the wisdom in cutting his losses.
While Tareq remains in Virginia deciding his next move, Michaele and Schon live in his multimillion-dollar home on a hill outside San Francisco and appear deliriously happy. Neal is working on his next solo album and basking in the popularity of his latest music video, “Resonate,” which, not surprisingly, features him and Michaele in romantic beachside poses. The Journey star is embroiled in his own legal tussle—a palimony suit filed by a former girlfriend.
When both of them are free of their pasts, will they then get married? As the Magic 8-Ball might predict: chances are good. Very good, indeed.
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Transport to and from Gatwick Airport
April 12, 2016 August 17, 2017 Catherine Richard
Gatwick airport immediately follows London Heathrow in terms of annual passenger movements. It is Europe’s leading destination for point to point flights. Owned and managed by global infrastructure partners (GIP), the airport has two terminals North and South, both of which are with facilities for passengers’ convenience. With services to nearly 200 destinations in 90 countries, Gatwick is regarded as the most efficient single runway airport in the world. The airport operates inter terminal shuttles that facilitate easy passenger movement.
Gatwick to London:
Located at a distance of 28 miles to the south of London, the airport is directly connected to M23 motorway at Junction 9 as well as to the A23 that connects through Horley and Redhill to the north and through Brighton to the south.
Coach and Bus services
Lower South Terminal forecourt serves as a starting point for services bound to major locations including Heathrow, Central London, Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Norwich. Services also commence from lower level outside international arrivals at the North terminal.
Heathrow and Stansted airports, along with cities and towns all through the region and country are well connected by the National Express coaches. Direct services to Oxford are offered by the Oxford Bus company, while both terminals are connected to Earls Court and West Brompton with services by EasyBus.
The Railway station for Gatwick airport lies next to the South terminal. Central London can be reached by the Gatwick express that operates nonstop services with a frequency of one in every fifteen minutes for a journey time of 30 minutes.
Private Taxis and Minicabs:
Taxis and Minicabs offer a comfortable and safe mode of transfer to and from the Gatwick airport in spaciously designed vehicles that can also carry your luggage with ease. Booking a service is simplified by means of easy online portal or through dedicated helpdesk support team. Some of the other facilities available include free vehicle upgrades based on availability and child/infant seats at a marginal cost upon pre booking.
Furthermore, the helpdesk team of Gatwick Taxis also carries out flight monitoring for timely driver dispatch. Drivers usually meet and greet passengers inside the airport terminals, assist in luggage handling for a comfortable transfer to and from other major London airports.
Where to Stay When You Visit London for the First Time
Safe and Speedy Transfers Between Luton and Heathrow Airports
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Director: Federico Fellini
Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi
Based on a Story by: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
Starring: Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu
Country: Italy, France
Running Time: 137 min
BBFC Certificate: 15
Federico Fellini injected himself into a lot of his films, exploring his memories and dreams, psychoanalysing himself through the medium of cinema. Juliet of the Spirits, which came after possibly his most autobiographical film, 8 1/2, is an interesting spin on this idea though. Rather than delve into his own psyche, the film explores Fellini’s interpretation of that of his wife Giulietta Masina. Juliet of the Spirits was written for and stars her, seemingly playing this version of herself. It’s a strange kind of love letter to his wife perhaps, although Masina supposedly wasn’t totally enamoured with how she was written and portrayed. She went through with it though and it did no harm to their marriage (which had its share of ups and downs), as they stayed together right to the end. In fact they died only a few months apart.
I must admit I haven’t seen many of Fellini’s films, but I have seen 8 1/2, which is a nice partner-piece to this, and liked it a lot, although it was a little too long and rambling to fall totally in love with. I’ve also seen La Dolce Vita, where the length was more of a problem and I struggled to stay engaged with its story and message, which I found quite slight. Both films, length aside, are filled with incredible imagery and wonderfully directed sequences though, so I was enthusiastic about delving further into Fellini’s career when a screener for Juliet of the Spirits was offered up. Looking at the two and a quarter hour running time, I was worried about the film being a bit of a slog again though, so I came in with some hesitancy.
Juliet of the Spirits sees the titular character Juliet (Masina) as an unhappy wife to a husband (Mario Pisu) who doesn’t give her the care and attention he used to or should. He forgets their anniversary at the start of the film and all the spark has gone from their love life (he sleeps with earplugs and a facemask whilst she reads). Juliet, who is in her 40s, is starting to worry about the affects of ageing too, fearing she is getting old and past it. Her troubles then reach a new low when she discovers more than a few hints that her husband is cheating on her. After a seance with friends one night, where Juliet is singled out by the spirits, she is haunted by visions and memories that explore her issues and meets (possibly imaginary) characters who help tackle them.
Visiting a mystical guru, a psychoanalyst and a sexually liberated nymphet among other oddballs, Juliet and the film itself explores different ways of picking apart the subconscious as well as examining femininity in general. It’s a film that could possibly be classed as a feminist work in this way, although coming from a male writer and director, this is questionable, as his view may be skewed and possibly idealised in places. Nevertheless, this is a very female-centric film and men play only a small part (on screen at least – Juliet’s relationship with her husband is of course pivotal), so it’s still an admirable work with regards to women on screen.
It’s interesting to see how men are portrayed here too, particularly as this can be seen as an autobiographical work. If Fellini himself is supposed to be Juliet’s husband in the film, he doesn’t come across very well. So perhaps Juliet of the Spirits is his way of apologising to Masini for his infidelities (which he openly admitted to) and poor treatment. Fellini may possibly see himself instead as the ideal man, Jose (José Luis de Vilallonga) though, who enters the film later on and Juliet becomes enamoured with. Or perhaps more likely both characters come from his view of himself.
So, particularly if you are aware of its background, there’s a lot of food for thought in this fascinating film that, on the surface at least, seems fairly slight. Indeed the story itself is very simple – a woman is worried about growing old and is fed up of her unfaithful husband so thinks about whether to leave him or have an affair herself. It’s pretty bog standard when you put it like that, but Fellini’s approach is anything but.
For one, he creates a wild, circus like atmosphere that can be seen in some of his other films. There is so much activity on screen and movement that you get swept away by it and, like Juliet, get overwhelmed at times, which leads to a liberating yet refreshingly open-ended finale.
Masina helps ground the film with a wonderful lead performance. Her beautifully expressive face describes her true emotions as she politely hides her feelings on the surface to the characters surrounding her. With all the outlandish madness going on around her, Juliet’s issues feel very real and relatable, keeping the film from going off the rails, and Masina helps achieve this.
Also marking the film out is its visual style. This was Fellini’s first feature shot entirely in colour and he truly goes to town with the format. It’s a positive explosion of bold colours, gloriously lavish production design and elaborate costumes. The film is utterly joyous to behold in terms of style. You could say it looks a little dated perhaps and certainly over the top, but it’s hard not to admire the way it brims with life and colour.
On the downside, it still feels overlong so gets a little patience-testing at times, but it’s endlessly lively, strikingly stylised and colourful, yet has a relatable core holding it all together. With a captivating central performance among the madness, it’s masterfully controlled chaos from Fellini that’s a pleasure to get caught up in.
Juliet of the Spirits is out on 24th September on dual format Blu Ray and DVD in the UK, released by Cult Films. I saw the Blu-Ray version and the film looks and sounds great. The colours are strong and the print is detailed and free of damage.
There are a couple of extra features included too:
– Audio Commentary by Kat Ellinger (Diabolique)
- Video essay from Author, Critic and Oxford Professor Guido Bonsaver: “DAZZLING SPIRIT”
These two features are superb, particularly the commentary which is crammed with thoughtful insights into the film.
Reader Rating: (1 Vote)
classicFederico FelliniGiulietta MasinaItalianItaly
Editor of films and videos as well as of this site. On top of his passion for film, he also has a great love for music and his family.
Four Film Noir Classics
The Old Dark House
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Tense, thought provoking
Thriller on modern warfare.
This film is superb.
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Planned Parenthood Stands to Lose Millions in Funding Under New Trump Administration Rule
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The proposed change, which has yet to be officially published in the Federal Register, will hit patients of Planned Parenthood particularly hard. The organization, which provides health care services to 41 percent of the 4 million patients who receive care through Title X, could effectively be pushed out of the program by the new rule. Advocates fear that the repercussions could be disastrous, with the remaining health care clinics struggling to absorb patients, and low-income women in areas that are currently only served by Planned Parenthood clinics losing access to care altogether.
Doctors and advocates were stricken speaking about the possibilities during a hastily arranged phone call with reporters on Friday afternoon.
“This rule makes it illegal for doctors and nurses to provide information to our patients about how and where they can access abortion care, even if our patients ask for it or if it’s medically necessary,” said Dr. Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood. “That means that if you are a woman who goes to a health center that receives public funding, you cannot be referred to abortion care even if your life depends on it. This gag rule is unethical and unconscionable. It’s also unprecedented: our country has never had rule like this that can tell politicians and doctors what we can and cannot say to our patients.
“This is direct interference with the practice of medicine and with our ethical obligation to our patients,” Wen added. She emphasized the fact that the consequences would be disproportionately borne by the most vulnerable: women of color, women in rural communities and low-income families more broadly.
Dr. Niva Lubin-Johnson, president of National Medical Association, expressed concerns specifically about how the policy would impact African-Americans, who make up 22 percent of patients who use Title X-funded facilities nationwide. The rule, she worried, “will undo the progress that the National Medical Association has made reconciling the mistrust that many African-Americans have for the medical system.”
“Demanding that health care providers withhold information from our patients is a radical departure from the way health care has operated in this country until now and a clear violation of medical ethics,” Lubin-Johnson said. “Like other policies being advanced by this administration, this rule will have dire and disproportionate consequences for African-American patients.”
Dr. Judith Flores, chair of the Board of Directors, National Hispanic Medical Association, was similarly troubled by the potential impact the change would have on Hispanic patients, who account for roughly one third of Title X recipients. “As an organization, we are outraged by the Trump administration’s gag rule,” Flores said on the same phone call. “The rule violates medical ethics, severely limits access to medical services and will have negative impact on the health of the communities we serve. This ruling would undo the progress we have made at increasing the access to care in particular to Hispanics through the Affordable Care Act… [and] it will undermine relationships we have established, ideally, over several decades trying to engage populations that are on the margins of health care.”
Wen, for her part, pledged on Friday that Planned Parenthood would fight the rule, and the organization could have help in that fight from the ACLU. A representative for the organization said Friday it is reviewing the rule and considering the options it might have to challenge it in court.
In a separate statement, Ruth Harlow, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said, “Nobody should be denied access to reproductive health care or receive inadequate care because of their lack of income. We won’t sit back while Trump upends the family planning safety net as part of his anti-woman, anti-poor, and anti-health care agenda.”
Source: www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-planned-parenthood-funding-797433/
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Bombs Don’t Kill People, Terrorists Do
The Left’s obsession with focusing on dangerous things, rather than dangerous people, shows up in different ways. Bombs are designed to be safe. My father served at Fort Sill Army Base during part of his time in military service. That base is home to the United States Army Field Artillery School. In addition, every Marine trained in field artillery trains at Fort Sill, as do friendly military forces from other nations. The sheer amount of potential destructive power in the hands of these young men dwarfs everything that each terrorist group in the Middle East could ever muster. Yet Fort Sill is a very safe place to be. Extreme caution is taken to make sure that the vast munitions at this base are no threat to anyone. Why? The people with artillery are the good guys. Artillery shells don’t kill people: bad guys do.
The whole dreary debate over gun control has the same tone deaf Leftist foolishness. Americans grew up with guns, often guns much less safe than the guns made today. Young boys went out and hunted game. Many families grew up with rifles or shotguns on racks in the living room. When people owned guns and knew how to use the guns safely, then the danger of violent crime was much lower than today. The violent crime rate in America has increased by 170% since 1960, despite the increased number of federal and state gun control laws. Guns did not cause these crimes; criminals did. Treating all Americans like criminals did not make us safer, at all.
The Leftist lunacy when it comes to potentially dangerous things and genuinely dangerous people was rampant during the Cold War. Nuclear weapons, silly people across the Free World told us, were a grave danger to the survival of mankind. Yet what sane person lost a wink of sleep because France had 482 nuclear warheads or because Britain had 200 nuclear warheads? It was inconceivable that either nation, which had the power to kill perhaps 100 million people in an hour, would ever do so. Israel has significant numbers of nuclear weapons and so does India. Those nations would only use their weapons as a last resort.
The danger during the Cold War was the result of a totalitarian power possessing large numbers of nuclear weapons. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the danger of nuclear war diminished astronomically. As North Korea increases its largely puny arsenal and delivery systems, the world faces real and great danger – not because of the things, the nuclear weapons, but rather because of the people involved, tormented slaves of an erratic Eastern potentate garbed in the risible “science” of Karl Marx. The danger of fission weapons (Atomic bombs), fusion weapons (Hydrogen bombs), biological weapons, and chemical weapons is the malice of those who possess it. Weapons of mass destruction do not kill people; mad tyrants do.
This is precisely the disconnect which the Left faces with airport security and passenger examinations. The danger is not that someone will bring a handgun, a knife, or even an explosive on an airliner. Properly stored and maintained, none of these will do the slightest harm to anyone. In fact, if every passenger on September 11, 2001 had been armed, the terrorists would almost certainly have been stopped. Disarming the innocent never stops violence.
Moreover, the “things” which can be used to cause injury are as endless as human imagination and, in the hands of terrorists, almost anything can be used to murder large numbers of people. The variety of methods and tools of destruction are as broad as the bored minds of evil men. Anyone who has toured a prison can hear from guards about the remarkable ingenuity which inmates can use to make realistic looking “guns” or very real knives and other weapons.
The only way remove enough of the “things” which threaten air travel would be to strip search every passenger, issue official garb (like inmates in prison or in a mental institution), and haul these passengers in an environment as sterile and as stark as the suicide watch cell of a county jail. We know, of course, the sane, humane, and easy way to make us safe: profile and research passengers. Before that happens, however, the Left must realize that life is full of “things” and that these are almost never the real problem. Neither the Holocaust nor the Gulag was a product of railroads and cattle cars. Those horrors were, like the terrorists who would murder young children flying to grandmother for Thanksgiving, the product of monsters. The way to end their evil is to defeat them.
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Japan’s relationship with arts and crafts is linked to an awareness and deep appreciation of the environment, with the island nation boasting some of the most stunning scenery from subtropical paradises to winter wonderlands, all bordered by the sea. As a result, the arts and crafts of Japan have reflected this natural beauty for centuries in woodblock prints, paintings, ceramics, and textiles.
At the heart of much Japanese arts and crafts is the aesthetic of wabi-sabi, the idea that beauty sits within imperfections. As in nature, imperfections add to the character of wabi-sabi arts and crafts, making the objects both beautiful and one-of-a-kind.
Ukiyo-e are iconic woodblock prints featuring scenes from nature and traditional Japanese life and culture. Their extreme popularity is easily understood given their graphic beauty, which started out as disposable items of pop culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. Ukiyo-e were sold on the street by vendors, more street poster than Picasso.
Over time, ukiyo-e came to be revered as works of art in their own right, with none more famous than Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The artwork has come to symbolise Japan itself, and versions are held in the biggest museums and galleries around the world.
Today, you can get up close to many examples of famous ukiyo-e in galleries across Japan, or grab a copy of your own to take home – just like they did in the 1600s!
It’s no surprise that a nation famous for its tea ceremony would devote centuries to perfecting the art of ceramics. Ceramic arts began developing rapidly in the 16th century with the rise in popularity of tea ceremony, quickly establishing a unique style of subtlety and refinement that brought a sense of naturalism to the man-made.
The art form is alive and well in Japan today, with many kilns across Japan that open to visitors. Lovers of the art form might consider visiting the six oldest kilns: Shigaraki, Bizen, Tanba, Echizen, Seto, and Tokoname. All six can be found on Honshu, stretching between Tokyo and Okayama.
Other arts and crafts
Japan is known for its attention to detail and creativity, so it’s no surprise that even Japanese plants and paper become works of art. The tiny bonsai tree is a well-known symbol of Japanese ingenuity and precision, and can be found in special bonsai villages around the country.
Visitors with a green thumb may also enjoy displays of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging which preaches minimalism and meditation as part of its process. You can even take English-language ikebana classes in Tokyo to experience it for yourself!
Finally, the Japanese art of folding paper, or origami, creates pieces that are beautiful to behold and a marvel to see take shape. The basic aspects of origami can be taught to the entire family, which is exactly how more than 10 million origami cranes, a symbol of peace, are sent each year to the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima.
Adventures in Japan
With rich emotive landscapes and vistas that have inspired explorers, artists, warriors, travellers and even Emperors for centuries, Japan is the perfect canvas on which to launch an adventure of endless discovery.
Japan ‘The Luxe Guide’
Where breathtaking landscapes meet fascinating traditions and modern culture. More Vogue Australia’s round up of the best of luxury Japan.
Seeking Samurai in Kakunodate
I have always been fascinated with the Japanese warriors called Samurai since I saw the 2003 movie The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise.
Taste of Japan: 6 Places Beyond Tokyo
Japan is renowned for its diverse and delicious cuisine. From street-food to Michelin star restaurants, discover the best ‘off the beaten track’ culinary hotspots.
Japan is a spectacular destination to visit in any season, and offers many different…
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The martyrs of Ripa
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This 1980 ‘Spectrum’ radio documentary examines the treatment of a group of conscientious objectors who refused to take part in national military training. The 13 young men were held on Ripapa (also known as Ripa) Island, in Lyttelton Harbour near Christchurch, for some months during 1913. Their treatment was sometimes harsh, and when their case was made public they were dubbed by the press ‘The martyrs of Ripa’.
Year:1913 (Recorded 1980)
Location:Ripapa Island, Lyttelton, New Zealand
The First Anzac at Gallipoli
I’m Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
The Diggers’ March in Sydney
The wounded return home to Australia
Year: 1913 (Recorded 1980)
Production Company: Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand
Credits: Presented by: Jack Perkins
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: 206758 Spectrum. 352, The Martyrs of Ripa.
Location: Ripapa Island, Lyttelton, New Zealand
Tags: Pacifism, Conscientious objectors, Military service, Conscription, Religious objectors, Socialism, Incarceration
Subject: Conscientious objectors – New Zealand ; Pacifism ; Pacifists – New Zealand ; Socialism ; Ripapa Island (N.Z.)
Image Title: Fort Jervois on Ripapa Island, 2015.
Image Source: With permission from Urbex Central.
Listen to the full documentary here.
The Defence Act was passed in 1909, replacing New Zealand’s volunteer defence force with a territorial defence force and making it obligatory for boys and men to undergo Compulsory Military Training. This began with cadet training for teenagers, and then compulsory service in the Territorials between the ages of 18 to 21.
There was opposition to the Act on both religious and moral grounds. Some religions – for example, the Quakers – were specifically exempt due to their nonviolent beliefs. However, they were still required to undertake non-military service. Others objected on religious grounds but did not belong to any exempted religion.
Moral opposition came mainly from two distinct groups – upper- and middle-class liberals, and working-class socialists, with strongholds respectively in Christchurch and on the West Coast. The Anti-Militarist League and the Socialist and Labour Parties organised public meetings and published newspaper editorials decrying the Defence Act. They were vocal in their support for boys who defied the Act by refusing to take part in military training.
The government policy for conscientious objectors and non-exempted religious objectors was that they would be called up regardless of their protestations. The protests against the Act were not large, but they were far-reaching and took place all over the country. Absenteeism at drills was fairly common. The government was forced to defend its position by enforcing the Act, which stipulated punishments for those who refused to attend. Usually, this meant the offenders were fined or given short prison terms.
The young men who were eventually dubbed the ‘Martyrs of Ripa’ were a mix of conscientious and religious objectors. Some objected on religious grounds but were not part of an exempted religion. Some were pacifists from Christchurch. Others were anti-militarist, socialist miners from the West Coast. Although they were not the first objectors to be subject to military detention, their sentences received perhaps the most public attention.
When this took place, during peacetime in 1913, public opinion was divided. Within certain groups and communities (miners, for example, who were traditionally socialist and unionised) there was little support for what they saw as capitalist oppression. However, as the First World War progressed from 1914 onwards, those on the home front became more patriotic and concerned with supporting their boys at the front. By the time conscription was introduced in 1916, public opinion had swung firmly against those opposed to the war. Conscientious objectors were branded cowards and shirkers.
R. L. Weitzel, "Pacifists and Anti-militarists in New Zealand, 1909-1914", NZ Journal of History, 1973: Vol 7, No. 2. pp.128-147.
'First World War census and conscription' at nzhistory.net
'Turning boys into soldiers', at nzhistory.net
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Home News Police identify 24 major drug traffickers, assets to be seized
Police identify 24 major drug traffickers, assets to be seized
The Police have identified 24 major drug traffickers and steps are now being taken to confiscate their assets.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the 24 drug traffickers have fled the country.
He said that steps will be taken to confiscate their assets, including property.
Singapore is getting involved to deal with the ruthless drug dealers. Clearly, due to the inside information the drug dealers have left the country. Surely, most of the drug dealers’ assets will end up in police officers’ hands as gifts and bribes. Singapore government has no idea how corrupt the system is under the Indian big brothers in South Asia. Trust me, Singapore officers will flee Sri Lanka within a short period due to the corruption. Nobody can implement a system because of the corruption from top to bottom. Only a military government that has the power to clean from top to bottom will eliminate the corruption in South Asia. However, the West won’t allow that to happen in the near future, because the West hates to see the largest population of Asia coming up. Eventually, the dragon will clean South Asia once it has enough power. The West’s strategy is using unstable, foolish and corrupt South Asia against the dragon. I don’t think the dragon is fooling enough to go on a head-on collision with South Asia as the West expects. The unbelievably intelligent Asians have multiple strategies to deal with the corrupt South Asians and their Western masters who use democracy to undermine developing countries.
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Students create online platform for art collaboration
Amyn Kassam, philosophy and anthropology junior, is the co-founder of the art curation blog, RedThroatHouse.com. Red Throat House is a digital platform for local artists to collaborate.
Photo Credit: Joshua Guerra | Daily Texan Staff
Amyn Kassam
Ben Clancy
Published on September 21, 2014 at 11:52 pm Last update on September 22, 2014 at 12:23 am
According to Red Throat House, you are dying. The good news is they can help.
Red Throat House is a weekly online publication that launched in April and serves as a platform for artists to collaborate and mix mediums.
“The nature of this project is to be very social,” co-founder Ben Clancy said. “We’re really just interested in seeing what happens when we put artists together and give them as much freedom as we possibly can.”
Clancy, a communications graduate student at Texas State University, wrote the website’s slogan, “You are dying. We can help.” He said it is meant to provoke a feeling of ambiguity, and could be interpreted as both saving artists from death or helping artists along with the process of dying. That slightly morbid outlook has become a theme on the website.
“I thought that symbolized the way that I conceptualize a lot of artistic practice,” Clancy said. “Something that helps us either feel as if we are alive in certain moments or as something that helps us contextualize or understand death.”
Clancy and philosophy senior Amyn Kassam were first inspired to create Red Throat House after collaborating on an e-book that combined Clancy’s poems with Kassam’s photography. With the e-book, Clancy said he felt his work would become more accessible to potential readers who are more likely to be drawn in by pictures than by writing.
“We’re really interested in whether [collaboration] creates tension between the two media or whether they compliment each other nicely,” Clancy said. “We’re really interested in the idea that by having people mix genres of media, it presses the boundaries of both of those things.”
Kassam said when they finished the book, Clancy had the idea of creating an online place for other people to collaborate the way they had.
“We don’t like the idea that artists are solitary creatures, who write in their bedrooms and drink coffee and are lonely,” Clancy said. “When Amyn and I were initially working together on that poem book, we felt a certain energy that neither of us had ever felt when we were working alone before, and we wanted to bring that to other people.”
Kassam and Clancy often ask their artist friends to contribute to the website, but they also receive submissions from people who have discovered Red Throat House on their own.
“People will submit individual poems to us or individual stories or just ideas, and we will pair them with other artists with the intention of having them produce something more integrative,” Clancy said.
Kassam’s friend Daniel Regueira, a photojournalism senior, was given a poem and asked to take a picture to go along with it for Red Throat House. Regueira said that after working to figure out the perfect photo to pair with the poem, his appreciation for poetry deepened.
“Obviously, when you’re exposed to something, you have a little bit more of an appreciation for it,” Regueira said. “I was not only exposed to it, but I had to digest it and come up with something based on it. When you do that, it totally helps you understand the medium.”
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Monday's "NASCAR Now" Ready For Primetime
Ever since ESPN2 made the commitment to completely change Monday's one hour NASCAR Now program this season, the comments from the TV viewers have been mostly positive.
On this Monday, Allen Bestwick was hosting a "roundtable" discussion that featured Ray Evernham, Rusty Wallace and Mike Massaro. This combination proved to be completely effective in terms of bringing a level of credibility to NASCAR Now that could not be questioned.
After a solid discussion of the Bristol Cup race, the panel welcomed Richard Childress by satellite for an interview. RC is getting as much out of this one, two, three finish as possible. One of NASCAR's best interviews, RC did not disappoint with his frank comments on everything from Tony Stewart's problems to the future of Childress Racing.
In following the Childress interview, the panel launched into exactly the type of open and flowing conversation that has attracted NASCAR fans to this program. Bestwick floated all kinds of topics, and let each panelist contribute without interruption. Wallace and Evernham seemed to be working well together, and this chemistry between the two big fish on the panel really set the tone for good content.
This week, it seemed that NASCAR Now had carved out as much time as possible for discussion. Using video highlights and driver soundbites to enhance the conversations, Bestwick really showed his ability to weave these TV elements together in a very effective manner.
In turning this program around from last season, ESPN has made one of the most painful decisions possible for them. Gone is the high-tech studio set, along with all the bells and whistles that used to dominate this program. In learning what NASCAR fans wanted to watch on Mondays, the network realized that "less was more."
Bestwick raised the Top 35 issue with the panel, and used reactions from several drivers to address this topic. The panel was clear in the differences involving practice for the two groups of Cup drivers, and how the world was about to change for Cup regular Jamie McMurray. The panel spared McMurray a review of his brisk response to this issue on a NASCAR Now episode from last week.
In addressing the Dale Jarrett retirement issue, the program presented a behind-the-scenes all-access feature. Rather than just another re-hash of Sunday, this feature turned out to be very thorough and balanced in tone. Beginning with Friday practice, the words of Jarrett and his true feelings about stepping aside as an active driver hit home for many fans. Wrapping-up with his heartfelt words from the actual drivers meeting, the feature ended with the NASCAR reality of finishing outside the top ten.
The best way to put the cap on this subject was to use the roundtable panel to tell some stories. Wallace and Evernham came through with comments re-enforcing Jarrett's dignity, but Massaro got the best reaction when he referred to the years where ESPN reporters were banned from the NASCAR tracks. Massaro said he had seen a lot of Jarrett at the helicopter pads over the years, and he always had time for ESPN.
This program is maturing before our eyes. Now, it may be time for ESPN to address the fact that this outstanding program is on-the-air at 5:30PM Eastern and 2:30PM Pacific Time on Mondays. It does repeat at Midnight Eastern Time, but that still cheats East Coast fans who are not able to watch this program live or record it.
As the season continues, ESPN execs are not going to be able to ignore the fact that they have a hit on their hands. It should be very interesting to keep an eye on the Monday version of NASCAR Now, as primetime seems to be in this program's future.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. This is a TV-related NASCAR blog, and the rules for posting are listed on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to add your opinion to this on-going Internet conversation.
SPEED Still Working Out The TWIN Details
Host Steve Byrnes welcomed Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle to the Monday This Week In NASCAR on SPEED.
Looking to combine the key aspects of the old Inside NEXTEL Cup with some additional high-tech uses of footage and features, this new program is very different. The production staff has decided to begin this program with a preview of the next Sprint Cup race. To many viewers, this simply does not make a lot of sense.
A good case in point is this week where the next race is Martinsville. SPEED opened the show and spent more than twenty minutes talking about a race that does not take place for two more weeks. With all the current issues in the news, beginning the show with a preview rather than a review is certainly an interesting choice.
This week, the studio set was brighter and some tinkering continued with the background. A large table continues to be front-and-center in the studio, and it seems to be wrapped like a birthday package. As with any new show, the changes inside the studio will no doubt continue as the show develops.
Biffle and Waltrip cooperated to offer some good thoughts on Martinsville. The problem was that they had to do it for over twenty minutes. TV viewers who were looking for a follow-up on the stories of the weekend had to sit and wait until the extensive Martinsville preview was over. That was a bit tough.
Once allowed to look back at the Bristol Cup race, both Waltrip and Biffle proved to be on their respective games. Their review of the Bristol highlights was outstanding, and Waltrip was energetic and focused. His cooperation with Biffle made this segment a pleasure to watch. It was a shame that it did not lead the show.
Waltrip and Biffle both paid compliments to Ken Schrader, who had a great run going at Bristol until being caught-up in a wreck. This topic begs the question on the minds of many NASCAR fans. Where is Schrader? A staple on this show for years, Schrader has been a no-show for many weeks now without explanation from SPEED. As The Daly Planet mentioned in several columns, this new program needs Schrader to provide his veteran perspective and sense of humor.
One big change in this new re-vamped and re-titled show is the dependence on lots more video of all types throughout the program. In addition to review and preview functions, SPEED also presents a look at the network's favorite moments of the race weekend. It was a shame they did not use a bit more of Juan Montoya on Trackside. Some of those moments are destined to become classics.
The NASCAR Media Group dug deep into the archives to bring out a classic interview with Dale Jarrett from decades ago. This was a unique twist among all the DJ send-offs and provided a nice lift for the show. Mixed with modern era footage of Jarrett's accomplishments, the result was a strong and effective feature.
Byrnes has been working hard to find his footing as the host of this show, and his toned-down but enthusiastic approach this week worked much better. Byrnes has the same ability to poke fun at himself that other good NASCAR TV announcers posses, and purposefully showing a much younger version of himself interviewing Jarrett in shorts was a fun touch.
There is no doubt that SPEED and The NASCAR Media Group will continue to tinker with this program series. Monday's program contained several positive changes, and the surprising performances by both Waltrip and Biffle added to the good vibe.
Hopefully, SPEED will consider adding a third panelist in the future and continue to evaluate the show elements that are not working. It should be interesting to see what SPEED unveils in two weeks.
The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.
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Full Text of this Amendment
SA 3817. Mr. DURBIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 3500 proposed by Mr. Harkin (for himself, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Baucus, and Mr. Grassley) to the bill H.R. 2419, to provide for the continuation of agricultural programs through fiscal year 2012, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Beginning on page 108, strike line 3 and all that follows through page 123, line 8 and insert the following:
(A) the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 crop years;
(B) the 2010, 2011, and 2012 crop years;
(C) the 2011 and 2012 crop years; or
(D) the 2012 crop year.
(2) ELECTION; TIME FOR ELECTION.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--The Secretary shall provide notice to producers regarding the opportunity to make the election described in paragraph (1).
(B) NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.--The notice shall include--
(i) notice of the opportunity of the producers on a farm to make the election; and
(ii) information regarding the manner in which the election must be made and the time periods and manner in which notice of the election must be submitted to the Secretary.
(3) ELECTION DEADLINE.--Within the time period and in the manner prescribed pursuant to paragraph (2), the producers on a farm shall submit to the Secretary notice of the election made under paragraph (1).
(4) EFFECT OF FAILURE TO MAKE ELECTION.--If the producers on a farm fail to make the election under paragraph (1) or fail to timely notify the Secretary of the election made, as required by paragraph (3), the producers shall be deemed to have made the election to receive payments and loans under subtitle A for all covered commodities and peanuts on the farm for the applicable crop year.
(b) Payments Required.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--In the case of producers on a farm who make the election under subsection (a) to receive average crop revenue payments, for any of the 2009 through 2012 crop years for all covered commodities and peanuts, the Secretary shall make average crop revenue payments available to the producers on a farm in accordance with this subsection.
(2) FIXED PAYMENT COMPONENT.--Subject to paragraph (3), in the case of producers on a farm described in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall make average crop revenue payments available to the producers on a farm for each crop year in an amount equal to not less than the product obtained by multiplying--
(A) $15 per acre; and
(B) 100 percent of the lower of--
(i) the quantity of base acres on the farm for all covered commodities and peanuts (as adjusted in accordance with the terms and conditions of section 1101 or 1302, as determined by the Secretary); or
(ii) the average of the acreage planted or considered planted to the covered commodity or peanuts for harvest on the farm during the 2002 through 2007 crop years.
(3) REVENUE COMPONENT.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--Subject to subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall increase the amount of the average crop revenue payments available to the producers on a farm in a State for a crop year if--
(i) the actual State revenue for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State determined under subsection (c); is less than
(ii) the average crop revenue program guarantee for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State determined under subsection (d).
(B) INDIVIDUAL LOSS.--The Secretary shall increase the amount of the average crop revenue payments available to the producers on a farm in a State for a crop year only if (as determined by the Secretary)--
(i) the sum obtained by adding--
(I) the amount determined by multiplying--
(aa) the actual yield for the covered commodity or peanuts of the producers on the farm; and
(bb) the average crop revenue program harvest price for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts determined under subsection (c)(3); and
(II) the amount of the crop insurance premium for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts of the producers on the farm; is less than
(ii) the amount determined by multiplying--
(I) the yield used to calculate crop insurance coverage for the covered commodity or peanuts on the farm under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.) (commonly referred to as ``actual production history''); and
(II) the pre-planting price for the applicable crop year for the covered or peanuts in a State determined under subsection (d)(3).
(4) TIME FOR PAYMENTS.--In the case of each of the 2009 through 2012 crop years, the Secretary shall make--
(A) [__ percent] of the total quantity of payments under the fixed payment component described in paragraph (2) not earlier than October 1 of the calendar year in which the crop of the covered commodity or peanuts is harvested;
(B) the remainder of payments under the fixed payment component described in paragraph (2) on October 1, or as soon as practicable thereafter, after the end of the applicable marketing year for the covered commodity or peanuts; and
(C) payments under the revenue component described in paragraph (3) beginning October 1, or as soon as practicable thereafter, after the end of the applicable marketing year for the covered commodity or peanuts.
(c) Actual State Revenue.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--For purposes of subsection (b)(3)(A), the amount of the actual State revenue for a crop year of a covered commodity shall equal the product obtained by multiplying--
(A) the actual State yield for each planted acre for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts determined under paragraph (2); and
(B) the average crop revenue program harvest price for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts determined under paragraph (3).
(2) ACTUAL STATE YIELD.--For purposes of paragraph (1)(A) and subsection (d)(1)(A), the actual State yield for each planted acre for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State shall equal (as determined by the Secretary)--
(A) the quantity of the covered commodity or peanuts that is produced in the State during the crop year; divided by
(B) the number of acres that are planted to the covered commodity or peanuts in the State during the crop year.
(3) AVERAGE CROP REVENUE PROGRAM HARVEST PRICE.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--For purposes of paragraph (1)(B), subject to subparagraph (B), the average crop revenue program harvest price for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State shall equal the harvest price that is used to calculate revenue under revenue coverage plans that are offered for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.).
(B) ASSIGNED PRICE.--If the Secretary cannot establish the harvest price for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State in accordance with subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall assign a price for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State on the basis of comparable price data.
(d) Average Crop Revenue Program Guarantee.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--Except as provided in paragraph (4), the average crop revenue program guarantee for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State shall equal 90 percent of the product obtained by multiplying--
(A) the expected State yield for each planted acre for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in a State determined under paragraph (2); and
(B) the average crop revenue program pre-planting price for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts determined under paragraph (3).
(2) EXPECTED STATE YIELD.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--For purposes of paragraph (1)(A), subject to subparagraph (B), the expected State yield for each planted acre for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State shall equal the projected yield for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State, based on a linear regression trend of the yield per acre planted to the covered commodity or peanuts in the State during the 1980 through 2006 period using National Agricultural Statistics Service data.
(B) ASSIGNED YIELD.--If the Secretary cannot establish the expected State yield for each planted acre for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State in accordance with subparagraph (A) or if the linear regression trend of the yield per acre planted to the covered commodity or peanuts in the State (as determined under subparagraph (A)) is negative, the Secretary shall assign an expected State yield for each planted acre for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts
in the State on the basis of expected State yields for planted acres for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in similar States.
(3) AVERAGE CROP REVENUE PROGRAM PRE-PLANTING PRICE.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--For purposes of paragraph (1)(B), subject to subparagraphs (B) and (C), the average crop revenue program pre-planting price for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State shall equal the average price that is used to calculate revenue under revenue coverage plans that are offered for the covered commodity in the State under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.) for the crop year and the preceding 2 crop years.
(B) ASSIGNED PRICE.--If the Secretary cannot establish the pre-planting price for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts in a State in accordance with subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall assign a price for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State on the basis of comparable price data.
(C) MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM PRICE.--In the case of each of the 2010 through 2012 crop years, the average crop revenue program pre-planting price for a crop year for a covered commodity or peanuts under subparagraph (A) shall not decrease or increase more than 15 percent from the pre-planting price for the preceding year.
(4) STATES WITH IRRIGATED AND NONIRRIGATED LAND.--In the case of a State in which at least 25 percent of the planted acreage in the State is under irrigation and at least 25 percent of the planted acreage in the State is not under irrigation, the Secretary shall calculate a separate average crop revenue program guarantee for the irrigated and nonirrigated areas of the State.
(e) Payment Amount.--Subject to subsection (f), if average crop revenue payments are required to be paid for any of the 2009 through 2012 crop years of a covered commodity or peanuts under subsection (b)(3), in addition to the amount payable under subsection (b)(2), the amount of the average crop revenue payment to be paid to the producers on the farm for the crop year under this section shall be increased by an amount equal to the product obtained by multiplying--
(1) the difference between--
(A) the average crop revenue program guarantee for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State determined under subsection (d); and
(B) the actual State revenue from the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in the State determined under subsection (c);
(2) 100 percent of the acreage planted or considered planted to the covered commodity or peanuts for harvest on the farm in the crop year;
(3) the quotient obtained by dividing--
(A) the expected county yield for the crop year, determined for the county in the same manner as the expected State yield is determined for a State under subsection (d)(2); by
(B) the expected State yield for the crop year, as determined under subsection (d)(2); and
(4) 90 percent.
(f) Limitation on Payment Amount.--The amount of the average crop revenue payment to be paid to the producers on a farm for a crop year of a covered commodity or peanuts under subsection (e) shall not exceed 30 percent of the average crop revenue program guarantee for the crop year for the covered commodity or peanuts in a State determined under subsection (d)(1).
(g) Recourse Loans.--For each of the 2009 through 2012 crops of a covered commodity or peanuts, the Secretary shall make available to producers on a farm who elect to receive payments under this section recourse loans, as determined by the Secretary, on any production of the covered commodity.
SEC. 1402. PRODUCER AGREEMENT AS CONDITION OF AVERAGE CROP REVENUE PAYMENTS.
(a) Compliance With Certain Requirements.--
(1) REQUIREMENTS.--Before the producers on a farm may receive average crop revenue payments with respect to the farm, the producers shall agree, and in the case of subparagraph (C), the Farm Service Agency shall certify, during the crop year for which the payments are made and in exchange for the payments--
(A) to comply with applicable conservation requirements under subtitle B of title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3811 et seq.);
(B) to comply with applicable wetland protection requirements under subtitle C of title XII of that Act (16 U.S.C. 3821 et seq.); and
(C) that the individuals or entities receiving payments are producers;
(D) to use the land on the farm, in a quantity equal to the attributable base acres for the farm and any base acres for peanuts for the farm under part III of subtitle A, for an agricultural or conserving use, and not for a nonagricultural commercial, industrial, or residential use (including land subdivided and developed into residential units or other nonfarming uses, or that is otherwise no longer intended to be used in conjunction with a farming operation), as determined by the Secretary;
(E) to effectively control noxious weeds and otherwise maintain the land in accordance with sound agricultural practices, as determined by the Secretary, if the agricultural or conserving use involves the noncultivation of any portion of the land referred to in subparagraph (D).
(2) COMPLIANCE.--The Secretary may issue such rules as the Secretary considers necessary to ensure producer compliance with the requirements of paragraph (1).
(3) MODIFICATION.--At the request of the transferee or owner, the Secretary may modify the requirements of this subsection if the modifications are consistent with the objectives of this subsection, as determined by the Secretary.
(b) Transfer or Change of Interest in Farm.--
(1) TERMINATION.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), a transfer of (or change in) the interest of the producers on a farm for which average crop revenue payments are made shall result in the termination of the payments, unless the transferee or owner of the farm agrees to assume all obligations under subsection (a).
(B) EFFECTIVE DATE.--The termination shall take effect on the date determined by the Secretary.
(2) EXCEPTION.--If a producer entitled to an average crop revenue payment dies, becomes incompetent, or is otherwise unable to receive the payment, the Secretary shall make the payment, in accordance with rules issued by the Secretary.
(c) Acreage Reports.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--As a condition on the receipt of any benefits under this subtitle, the Secretary shall require producers on a farm to submit to the Secretary annual acreage reports with respect to all cropland on the farm.
(2) PENALTIES.--No penalty with respect to benefits under subtitle shall be assessed against the producers on a farm for an inaccurate acreage report unless the producers on the farm knowingly and willfully falsified the acreage report.
(d) Tenants and Sharecroppers.--In carrying out this subtitle, the Secretary shall provide adequate safeguards to protect the interests of tenants and sharecroppers.
(e) Sharing of Payments.--The Secretary shall provide for the sharing of average crop revenue payments among the producers on a farm on a fair and equitable basis.
(f) Audit and Report.--Each year, to ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that payments are received only by producers, the Secretary shall--
(1) conduct an audit of average crop revenue payments; and
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes the results of that audit.
SEC. 1403. PLANTING FLEXIBILITY.
(a) Permitted Crops.--Subject to subsection (b), any commodity or crop may be planted on base acres on a farm for which the producers on a farm elect to receive average crop revenue payments (referred to in this section as ``base acres'').
(b) Limitations Regarding Certain Commodities.--
(1) GENERAL LIMITATION.--The planting of an agricultural commodity specified in paragraph (3) shall be prohibited on base acres unless the commodity, if planted, is destroyed before harvest.
(2) TREATMENT OF TREES AND OTHER PERENNIALS.--The planting of an agricultural commodity specified in paragraph (3) that is produced on a tree or other perennial plant shall be prohibited on base acres.
(3) COVERED AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES.--Paragraphs (1) and (2) apply to the following agricultural commodities:
(A) Fruits.
(B) Vegetables (other than mung beans and pulse crops).
(C) Wild rice.
(c) Exceptions.--Paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (b) shall not limit the planting of an agricultural commodity specified in paragraph (3) of that subsection--
(1) in any region in which there is a history of double-cropping of covered commodities with agricultural commodities specified in subsection (b)(3), as determined by the Secretary, in which case the double-cropping shall be permitted;
(2) on a farm that the Secretary determines has a history of planting agricultural commodities specified in subsection (b)(3) on base acres, except that average crop revenue payments shall be reduced by an acre for each acre planted to such an agricultural commodity; or
(3) by the producers on a farm that the Secretary determines has an established planting history of a specific agricultural commodity specified in subsection (b)(3), except that--
(A) the quantity planted may not exceed the average annual planting history of such agricultural commodity by the producers on the farm in the 1991 through 1995 or 1998 through 2001 crop years (excluding any crop year in which no plantings were made), as determined by the Secretary; and
(B) average crop revenue payments shall be reduced by an acre for each acre planted to such agricultural commodity.
(d) Planting Transferability Pilot Project.--Producers on a farm that elect to receive average crop revenue payments shall be eligible to participate in the pilot program established under section 1106(d) under the same terms and conditions as producers that receive direct payments and counter-cyclical payments.
(e) Production of Fruits or Vegetables for Processing.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--Subject to paragraphs (2) through (4), effective beginning with the 2009 crop
On page 1374, between lines 14 and 15, insert the following:
``(iii) 100 percent of the amount of the revenue component of any average crop revenue payments made to the producer under section 1401(b)(3) of the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007;''.
(As printed in the Congressional Record for the Senate on Dec 6, 2007.)
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Home > China News > Economy/Finance > Guiyang ranked top emerging city in China
Guiyang ranked top emerging city in China
Tags: emerging economies, Guiyang, Guizhou
GUIYANG, THE CAPITAL city of Guizhou province, has been identified as China’s top emerging city, according to a special report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The EIU’s emerging city rankings are determined by growth indicators, notably population, income, infrastructure and GDP. These fast-growing cities offer excellent investment opportunities in a wide variety of industries.
Guiyang won the top spot by virtue of its expanded transport links including the construction in 2014 of a high-speed rail service to Guangzhou and plans to create express rail links with Chengdu and Chongqing. By building links with such major cities, Guiyang is rapidly increasing its potential for exports and industrialisation.
Pony Ma of Tencent Holdings addresses Big Data Expo summit in Guiyang in May 2015
Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma addresses Guiyang's Big Data Expo summit in May 2015
Guiyang has also differentiated itself from other second-tier cities by establishing itself as the ‘big data capital’. Both state-owned and private telecoms companies are looking to invest in the city, partly due to the competitively low power costs.
Second in the rankings is Xiangyang in Hubei province. Much of Xiangyang’s appeal lies in its location, situated as it is between Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi and Sichuan. Similarly to Guiyang, plans are in place to improve Xiangyang’s rail connections by including the city in a high-speed train link between Wuhan and Xi’an. Xiangyang has a plentiful supply of labour and infrastructure, and is well supported by the government. Automotive, manufacturing, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals and chemicals are the most prevalent industries in Xiangyang.
After Guiyang and Xiangyang, the highest ranking cities are Hengyang, Chongqing, Suqian, Huainan, Huaibei, Zhuzhou and Zhengzhou. The potential impact of these cities in coming years should not be underestimated. The top 20 cities are estimated to reach a combined population of around 50m by 2019, rendering them as markets large enough to have a significant national and global influence.
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Should the AF Retire the A-10? - A Seminar on a Seminal Question
Chuck Spinney
This essay responds to a short opinion piece (which I urge readers to read before continuing) in the Guardian co-authored by scientist/political activist James Hansen and three colleagues (hereafter referred to as Hansen et al). They propose to decarbonize electrical power production by replacing all fossil fueled power plants with nuclear power plants by 2050. All four are famous climatologists and very prominent advocates of the CO2 driven catastrophic global warming hypothesis. All have advanced degrees in physics or meteorology. None appear to have a background in nuclear engineering, nuclear safety, nuclear waste management, nuclear power plant design, nuclear powerplant maintenance, quality assurance, industrial cost estimating, industrial engineering, or industrial-scale construction/project management.
If executed, their conversion proposal would be the most massive industrial/economic project in human history. It would also be unprecedented in terms of required international cooperation. Why is this necessary?
The authors state categorically that this crash program is necessary, because it is the “only way” to prevent catastrophic climate change (aka global warming). Bear in mind, catastrophic climate change is at best a theoretical future possibility premised on the long range predictions of computer models that cannot be validated with reliable empirical data.[1]
Hansen et al claim without proof or expertise that new reactor designs are so safe and will have so little waste that the risks are small and costs are economical (at least when compared to the catastrophic risks and costs of the climate threat).
Their proposal embodies unstated management assumptions: They assume that an unprecedented crash program can be managed efficiently and safely, and that the pressures of time and the incentives of profits won’t tempt profit-maximizing contractors to cut corners. They say nothing about the management burden, nothing about the investment and operating costs, and nothing about how those costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of electricity prices and tax subsidies. They do not address the obvious less costly alternatives: For example, the question of whether or not retrofitting/fielding conventional coal plants with modern CO2 scrubbing technologies might produce a sufficient reduction in CO2 to offset the disastrous effects of the warming hypothesis. Nor do they address the alternative of converting from coal to much cleaner natural gas. Both alternatives would dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, drastically reduce truly dangerous pollutants like CO and black carbon and cost less than the nuc option.[2]
Together, their assertions make the Pentagon’s reckless predictions of the costs, production schedules, and effectiveness of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a far simpler prediction and management problem, look carefully thought out and conservative — and we all know how those turned out. As we used to tell senior management in the Pentagon: ‘Mr. Secretary, if you want it bad, you’ll get it bad.’
The extreme nature of their proposal does bring one of the lingering mysteries of the climate debate into sharp relief, however: namely the murky relationships among global warming, nuclear power, and antipathy to coal fueled power plants. This mystery has been lingering in the ether since Margaret Thatcher, a fan of nuclear power and a vitriolic enemy of unions — particularly the coal miners union — became the first world class politician to flack the dangers of manmade global warming caused of fossil fuel emissions. She later savagely recanted her position on global warming in a memoir written in retirement.
Let’s examine the immense scale and cost of their nuclear proposal.
According to the IAEA PRIS data base, there are 441 nuclear power reactors in the world actively generating electricity; 2 reactors are in long term shut down; and there are 65 new power reactors are under construction in 15 countries (almost 2/3 or which are concentrated in 4 countries: China 24, Russia 9, India 6, US 5). Worldwide, there are also 156 reactors in permanent shutdown. These numbers suggest that a world wide total of almost 600 commercial electrical power reactors have been produced since the first commercial reactor was opened for operation in England in 1956, almost 60 years ago.
Against this level of reactor production and inventory, Hansen and his colleagues want readers to believe the “only” way to prevent the future climate catastrophe is to build 115 new reactors per year for the next 35 years. That implies a total of 4025 new commercial reactors by 2050, a number that they did not deign to mention. Nor did they say how much this program might cost or how this production would be organized.
Let’s build a notional construction scenario to construct 4025 reactors in 35 years to get a feel for what Hansen et al are calling for. We can then compare the build rates in that notional program to historical construction rates.
We begin by making some highly optimistic simplifying assumptions that are biased in such a way as to understate the size and cost the of the task.
Construction schedule = 4 years. According to the IAEA, the average time for the 59 reactors under construction in 2012 is predicted to be 7.4 years, with at least 18 reactors having encountered “costly and multiyear” construction delays. Two projects have been in construction for 40 years. (see Figure 12 and its discussion). In the best of circumstances, assuming no schedule slippages, and using the newest designs and modular construction techniques, nuclear power advocates now claim it should take 40-48 months to build a power plant.[3] So, for the sake of argument, lets assume optimistically that they are right and that it will take only 4 years (instead of 7+ years) to build each future reactor and there will be no construction delays during the next 35 years.
Reactor cost = $7 billion per reactor. Our notional reactor will be the the Westinghouse AP1000. This is one of the most advanced reactors currently in the US and Chinese power plants that are now under construction, with possibilities elsewhere: Let’s use the cost estimate of $7 billion per reactor that were used in the original estimates for the AP1000 for reactors #3 and #4 in the Plant Vogtle project in Georgia. This unit cost is likely to be low, because we are ignoring the additional $900 million adjustment in the Vogtle estimate that was in the works as of 2012 as well as any cost increases associated with the AP1000’s ongoing construction problems in China. The $7 billion per reactor implies and optimistic estimate for a total construction cost of $28 trillion for 4024 reactors over the next 35 years.
Reactor Life = 40 years. Most of today's nuclear plants which were originally designed for 30 or 40-year operating lives. We will assume the upper end. This will not effect the production program between 2016 and 2050, but reactors wear out, so we want to set up a construction profile that maintains some capacity for eventual replacement (about 100 reactors per year).
Production Rates: Bear in mind our goal is simply to get a feel for what Hansen et al are proposing. What follows is illustrative construction schedule and is in no way realistic, in that it optimistically assumes no waste, fraud, or abuse in what would be a gigantic surge of construction activity. We will assume construction starts in 2016 by initiating the construction of 70 new reactors (in effect immediately doubling the worldwide total of 65 are in various stages of construction). Production then builds up rapidly to a maximum of 148 new starts per year, holds steady for 4 years, then declines to a steady state of 100 starts per year until 2050. Given the preceding assumption, this schedule would bring 4025 reactors on line by 2054 and maintain capacity to begin replacing reactors scheduled for retirement. The first tranche would come on line in 2020 and the last tranche would come on line in 2054 (four years after the deadline set by Hansen et al).
Figure 1 compares the rate of reactor start ups under this notional program to the worldwide rate of startups between 1956 to 2015. It speaks for itself. Remember, this program is not realistic — but it matches the numbers in Hansen et al; and that brings me to the point: Any notional scenario that matches their numbers will create the same pie in the sky impression.
Figure 1: Hansen et al’s Fantasy Scenario
http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/The-World-Nuclear-Industry-Status.html#esco (Figure 2 — note this report differs slightly from IAEA totals by 18 reactor startups)
https://www.iaea.org/pris/
Calculations from Hansen et al. notional production
Hansen et al justify this immense buildup of nuc power stations by claiming the risks posed by these nucs are small relative to the catastrophic risk of climate change.
So, let’s consider the balance of risks posed by the uncertainties implicit in this portrayal. When one begins to relax the planning assumptions in the name of realism, unit costs will increase, as will total program cost, schedules will stretch out, the reactor buildup (the red bars) will shift to the right, and the age of the existing inventory of reactors will increase. The theoretical date of decarbonization would be pushed ever further into the future, bringing into question the whole rationale for the crash program.
While Hansen et al claim this kind of crash program is needed to prevent a hypothesized climate catastrophe, there is obviously a lot of risk for real human and material screw ups in building and operating so many nuclear power reactors so quickly. They ignored these risks in their oped, but it behooves one to think about them.
Commercial nuclear power has an impressive safety record, with only two major catastrophes in 50 years out of the 600 reactors built to date: one light water graphite modulated reactor (considered by many experts to be a dangerous design) exploded at Chernobyl, and several more modern light water reactors at the Fukushima plant were seriously damaged by the effects of a major earthquake. Both accidents resulted in terrifying radiation leakages. While the causes of these catastrophes were very different, each had horrifying environmental and human consequences. The full extent of these consequences will not be known for generations, given the nature of radiation damage to organic tissue and DNA. The worst incident is US history was the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, fortunately contained. Note how Figure 1 shows that actual world wide nuclear power plant construction slowed to a crawl. That slow down was caused in part because of the quite reasonable fears raised by these incidents.
But there is more to the slow down. Construction of new reactors has also been slowed by recurring safety issues in existing reactors, including (1) the intractable technical and political problems of radioactive waste disposal; (2) reactor management and operational issues related to poor quality control, deficient inspection and safety procedures, and questionable compliance reporting; and (3) the effects of aging of existing reactors and supporting equipment.
Yet the primary reasons construction of additional new Reactors in the United States stopped between 1978 and 2009 were related to the huge cost-increases and substantial schedule slippages in construction — i.e. due to management fiascos including poor planning and financing. Because of these fiascos, the taxpayers were made to foot bill on many of these projects.
Given this management history, coupled with the current neo-liberal business culture’s obsessive focus on short-term goals and profits, the high up-front costs for a new reactor exceeds the loan borrowing capacity of most utilities. Therefore, in the US, investors demand that the government subsidize loans with federal guarantees. How such guarantees will be arranged around the world is yet another subject Hansen et al deigned not to address. But if past is prologue, the real cost of the world wide program in Figure 1 would be well in excess of $28 trillion and investors will demand guarantees that will ultimately be paid for by consumers.
There is yet another obvious if subtle risk factor that was totally ignored by Hansen et al: It must be assumed that the dramatic slow down in recent construction has been accompanied by a decrease in skilled nuclear operator labor, as well as engineering and hands-on nuclear program management expertise. That consideration raises a question how safe and feasible it would be to rapidly expand to a crash program that multiplies total reactor production by a factor of 6.7 in only 70 percent of the time it took to produce all reactors in the world to date.
Perhaps the biggest weakness in Hansen et al, however, is logical. The case for decarbonization of power production has always rested on what environmentalists call the precautionary principle. This is not a scientific principle but rather an argumentative proposition designed to justify a course of action. It does so by purporting to account for uncertain future risks associated with problems posed by damage to a “commons.” Garett Hardin brilliantly analyzed the difficulties of coping with this kind of problem in a seminal 1968 paper entitled The Tragedy of the Commons (ironically, his subject was the risk of nuclear war and morality).
The precautionary “principle” in its current incarnation argues that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of being dangerous to the public or to the environment, and there is no scientific consensus that the action or policy is not dangerous, then the burden of proof that it is not dangerous falls on those taking an action. The conjugation of “suspected” and “not” in this construction means that the person charged with the burden of proof must prove a negative — which is impossible. The precautionary principle makes for a powerful emotional argument, particularly combined with an exaggerated sense of fear, because it turns the scientific principles of falsifiability and conditional truth on their heads.[4] Moreover, invoking the Precautionary Principle places no logical limits on the upper bound for the cost of an ‘ounce of prevention.’ Anyone who doubts the power of this argument should examine how successfully the Pentagon uses the precautionary principle (in the form of inflating future threats) to jack up its budget.[5]
But even if one accepts the precautionary principle in this case, one must admit that it must also apply to nuclear power. Hansen and his colleagues are claiming that the theoretical and unprovable danger posed by CO2 [see endnote 1] is more dangerous than the dangers implicit in an unprecedented expansion of nuclear power. The proof that nuclear power is both costly and very dangerous is far more obvious and far more empirical than any theoretical future dangers posed by global warming: Chernobyl and Fukushima, not to mention the lesser dangers in Rocky Flats, Hanford, etc. are proof of nuclear power’s clear and present danger. Yet against the social and economic costs of this known danger, Hansen et al would have the reader believe that the cost of a hypothesized catastrophic danger in the future is greater than the known danger.
So while Hansen et al's CO2 argument is based on the precautionary principle, the clear and present danger inherent in their proposal to unleash an unprecedented crash program in nuclear power plant construction makes a mockery of the very principle they rest their case on. And that, dear reader, is a logical absurdity.
[1] See Professor John Christie’s statement and Professor Judith Curry’s statement to Congress for succinct statements of the some of the problems of these computer models. The short video of Professor Freeman Dyson’s fascinating critique is also useful for people trying to understand the modeling problem (about 9 minutes into the video) as well as larger issues surrounding the alleged dangers posed by carbon dioxide. All of these critics agree with the physics of CO2 being a greenhouse gas.
[2] Currently, the cost of nuclear power — particularly the capital cost — would be prohibitive without substantial government subsidies (in the form of long term government loan guarantees). Even if one believes the very unreliable and typically optimistic cost life cycle cost estimates for nuclear power, on average, life cycle costs would as much a 2.6 times coal (w/o co2 scrubbing), 1.05 times coal (with scrubbing that removes up to 90% of the CO2), and 1.6 times natural gas, in $/MW-hr.
[3] Each plant usually has between 1 and 3 reactors. The US, for example has 61 plants with 99 reactors. Japan is home to the world’s largest nuclear power plant with 7 reactors.
[4] This video clip from one physicist Richard Feyman’s famed Messenger Lectures is a brilliantly simple and humorous explanation of the scientific principles of falsifiability and conditional truth.
[5] The inmates of Pentagon routinely invoke the precautionary principle plus the politics fear to jack up defense budgets — but it goes by a more straightforward term: Threat Inflation (e.g., the Bomber Gap, the Missile Gap, and the Window of Vulnerability during the Cold War.
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On living Latin
A correspondent writes to ask if Latin is a dead language or not. She goes on: 'Obviously there are no native Latin speakers born any more, but on the other hand there are a number of people who can speak it, or at least understand it...'
The distinction between life and death can be a bit fuzzy, when applied to language. The essential difference is that living languages change, dead ones don't. Just because I study a dead language and get to understand it, or even speak it aloud, does not make it come alive, in that sense. It would come alive only when speakers use it in interaction and adapt it to meet their current needs. Several dead languages (in the sense that their last native speaker died some time ago) have been resurrected in that way, as with Kaurna in Australia. Sometimes there is a tradition linking the present with the past, as with Cornish. But the crucial thing, to say that a language is alive, is to find it changing and growing - new vocabulary, in particular, to express present-day notions, and new variant forms (accents, dialects), to express different identities. Latin is alive in that sense. The 'most alive' languages have native speakers and transmit from parent to child between generations. Latin is plainly not alive in that sense.
Latin is an interesting case, therefore. Many people study it as a dead language, as a way in to an ancient literature and history. On the other hand, it still has live status as a language of real interaction in the Roman Catholic church. The Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis came out a few years ago - over 700 pages of modern vocabulary. I have ingenious translations of Winnie the Pooh, Peanuts, and other texts, so plainly many people are actively concerned with revitalization. How much use is actually being made of the language is unclear, but it certainly suggests there's life in the old language yet.
Anyone interested in the history of Latin as a language should read Nicholas Ostler excellent Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin.
vp said...
There's also the Latin Wikipedia -- or Vicipaedia:
http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagina_prima
Bill Chapman said...
It's interesting (for me at least) to compare the situations of Latin and Esperanto.
You write, "The 'most alive' languages have native speakers and transmit from parent to child between generations." Esperanto has a small number of native speakers (I know one in Cardiff!), but most people who speak the language have opted in to the speech community voluntarily. The same, I think, is true of Cornish and Manx.
I would certainly count Esperanto as 'alive' in that it produces "new vocabulary, in particular, to express present-day notions, and new variant forms...".
Danny Vincent said...
There is site encouraging users to create their own social groups of Latin speakers, some that meet regularly: http://foeduslatinum0006.ning.com/ This is the initiative of Evan Millner, one of the creators of the Latinum podcast course (http://latinum.mypodcast.com/) who is hoping to see an increase in Latin speakers - he suggested that there are about 100 fluent Latin speakers in the world today.
M. said...
For most of European History educated people were diglott in their vernacular, and Latin. The education system, set up across the Roman Empire, remained in Latin until the mid 1700's. University lectures across Europe were in Latin, facilitating academic exchange. In some areas with minority languages, Latin held sway until the mid 1800's. In areas such as mathematics and biology, texts and monographs were still being published in Latin, until the early 1900's in some cases.
Although people were not learning Latin literally at their mother's knee, there has been an unbroken chain of Latin speakers, from Roman times, to the present, who have transmitted the language. There still remain speakers, and as Danny points out, there are now resources available to help people become speakers, such as the Latinum course, or the Schola Latina Universalis. Latin has been coining new words all the way along - it did so in Mediaeval times, and during the Renaissance. The bulk of european literature was written in Latin - this is largely invisible to us now, as these works remain untranslated. For example, one of the greatest English poets who ever lived, Buchanan, wrote his corpus in Latin. Modern users of the language are also involved in generating new vocabulary. You can find an online community of users of Latin at http://schola.ning.com where there is an active chatroom.
It is only in comparatively recent times that Latin has experienced a dramatic drop in speaker numbers. The rise of the Nation State, and the focus on National languages, spelled the death of Latin as a stateless international language. However, Latin did not die - it was a conceit of the French, trying to displace Latin, that lead to that conceit.
and there is the YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company) Nuntii Latini broadcast weekly.
http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii/
Interesting to hear Latin in a Finnish accent.
On many
On the world in which we live in
On hedging
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Faith communities in high relief
Models of the church and social media
X-Reality and the Incarnation
New media: A savior for the digital age
Practicing virtue with social media
How media changes American culture and religion
Why think about using social media
How to use social media well
When to be cautious and concerned
How to know if what you are doing is working
Community of Hope AME Church
Countryside Community Church UCC
House for All Sinners and Saints
Quest Church
The Young Clergy Women Project
Blog series for education
Clergy networks
Associated Church Press Survey
Social media use among young clergy persons
Social media use research
Digital Church conference video
The Discipleship ProjectAcademy of Preaching and CelebrationLilly Endowment Clergy Renewal ProgramsPastoral Excellence Network
ACU Connected:
Groundbreaking initiative reshapes education at Abilene Christian University
By Lerone A. Martin
This article was written as part of a case study on Abilene Christian University for the New Media Project at Union Theological Seminary. The full report of this case study and more information about all the case study research are available on our website.
Abilene Christian University (ACU) is emblematic of the intersection of religion and new media. Like countless Protestant churches across the country, this Churches of Christ-affiliated institution maintains a vibrant religious commitment “to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world” (ACU website). The university boasts a faculty of 249 full-time members, all confessing Christians who are mostly from the Churches of Christ family.
This religious educational institution innovatively employs new media to practice and facilitate their mission. In the fall of 2008, the school launched ACU Connected, a mobile learning initiative. The program has as its foundation the belief that “humans learn best when they are in community—collaborating with others in a learning environment without boundaries” (ACU website). To this end, the school has equipped faculty and all entering freshmen students with the choice of an iPhone or iPod Touch mobile device. This provision was aimed at creating “a profoundly connected learning experience” across the boundaries of time and space (ACU website).
The infrastructure (especially the myACU mobile app) and training conducted by the savvy staff of the Adams Center for Teaching Excellence supports the initiative and enables faculty and students to use their mobile devices to engage in cutting edge pedagogy and learning for the twenty-first century.
Faculty and students use their mobile devices to access various educational and programmatic materials such as course records, assignments, deadlines, readings, university social and sporting events, as well as financial information and obligations. For example, faculty members use their devices to take attendance. The myACU app displays pictures of students enrolled in a course and allows professors to mark them present, absence, or even tardy. Later an automated message is sent to students informing them of their status for the day. These daily records are compiled, making it easier for faculty to tally attendance records as well as match student faces with names. All from the ease and convenience of the instructor’s mobile device.
Mobile devices also serve as “clickers” to allow students to use their mobile devices during class to respond to quiz questions, posit questions during and after classroom lectures, as well as respond to discussion prompts and even polls during class time. This option, according to several students, proves particularly useful when addressing controversial subjects such as evolution, abortion, and homosexuality.
In addition to classroom interactions, mobile devices offer faculty and students multiple venues of engagement outside of the classroom. Faculty and students often use their mobile devices to interact via online discussions, podcasts, Skype, class blogs, classroom chat portals, email, and social networking sites. The school’s million dollar learning studio with its recording studio quality rooms and Hollywood caliber Chroma key compositing studio, or “green screen,” assist in producing top-notch sound and audio production.
Furthermore, several members of the faculty use their mobile devices to assess student work. The feared criticism of the professor’s red pen is disappearing. The recording feature of the iPhone allows faculty members to record verbal messages offering critique, guidance, and correction on student assignments. The ease of accessing student profiles and contact information via the myACU app provides teachers with a quick and seamless way to send these evaluative messages electronically directly to students. Some even embed the audio files as hyperlinks in the content of the paper. In all, the mobile learning initiative is re-shaping how faculty and students engage in the educational process at ACU.
Some may be surprised that an evangelical Christian institution would be on the cutting edge of communication technology. However, contrary to popular depiction, evangelical Christianity has never really been an epicenter of resistance or disdain for modern American culture. Rather, evangelical Christianity has continually been an integral part of modernity in America. This is particularly evident in their trendsetting use of new communication technologies (print, oratory, phonograph, radio, television, Internet, and now mobile technologies) for religious ends.
Evangelical faith communities do not possess exclusive rights to employing emerging communication technologies in the service of religion. However, many of the best-known religious media pioneers in American religious history embraced this faith tradition. Twentieth-century religious media entrepreneurs such as Aimee Semple McPherson, Paul Rader, Kathryn Kuhlman, Charles Fuller, and Marilyn Hickey, to name a few, utilized the emerging new media of their days to facilitate Christian instruction and formation.1
The application of popular culture in the service of religion has also been a hallmark of American evangelicals. Evangelical groups often modeled their use of new media after popular forms of entertainment. Evangelical preachers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries employed the oratorical skills of the theatre in their delivery. Radio broadcasts mimicked popular serial radio shows. Likewise, religious television bears a resemblance to leading talks shows and late night entertainment. Employment of popular culture typifies evangelical approaches to American mores. Evangelicals refused to retreat from culture like fundamentalists did. Such groups also refused to assimilate and adapt their religious commitments according to popular culture as in the case of many liberal Protestants. Instead, evangelical faith traditions used emerging communication technologies and popular culture to “in-culturate” their religious proclamations and commitments. This move enabled evangelicals to saturate the marketplace and popular mediums with their messages and mission.2
ACU, in many ways, is part of this evangelical religious heritage. The university uses new media and popular culture to communicate and carry out their religious mission. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, mobile phones are the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens. To this end, ACU Connected uses new communication trends to transmit religious messages and ethos. Dr. Scott Hamm, Director of Mobile Learning Research, aptly states that the mobile learning initiative has made the institution’s educational ethos “part of the ambient noise of everyday life.” In short, ACU Connected enables this religious institution to permeate students’ lives with the educational and religious mission of the institution in an increasingly mobile society. This saturation has become so entrenched in the community that it appears, in many ways, that mobile devices have become a part of the normative educational ethos—chalk and blackboards for the twenty-first century.
The mobile learning initiative has as its goals “to extend or enhance faculty teaching and research, to lead to more engaged and active student learning, to improve campus community and interactions, and, finally, to establish conversations and relationships between ACU and other campuses” (ACU website). Integrating the use of mobile mediums into the fabric and infrastructure of the university enables leaders to advance these goals in three primary and inter-related ways: pedagogy, educational expectations, and community formation and interaction.
ACU Connected is revising pedagogy. Hamm believes that the rapid changes in communication technologies as well as the increased access to knowledge and information has shifted the role of educators from “prognosticators to interpreters.” He suggests that this reality calls for “technology guides, not sages.” Mobile learning, he continues, has “revisioned the classroom…. The walls of the classroom are coming down and the world is coming in. I think we are moving from an 'anytime, anywhere' environment to an 'all-the-time, everywhere' environment for learning.” It is clear; the use of mobile devices in the classroom constitutes new avenues of information and authority across the divides of time and space.
Subsequently, classroom pedagogy is experiencing significant changes. Faculty still lecture, however, as one student focus group noted, “lectures have been modified” because the learning environment is complemented by the universal mobile access to information. This heightened level of access to knowledge, students say, endows them with a stronger feeling of autonomy in their learning experience. New media allow individuals to shape their own experiences of entertainment and commerce via iTunes, Facebook, MySpace, personalized YouTube channels, and even Amazon shopping preferences. ACU believes that education should also be open to being shaped by individual users. As one staffer from the Adams Center told me, “’One size education fits all’ does not fit well with my idea of the imago dei. God has created us in God’s image as individuals. One size does not fit all!”
This approach to education is altering the role of the professor in the classroom. Faculty are increasingly being viewed not as people who encompass the totality of knowledge and expertise but rather as guides who help students discover, interpret, and synthesize multiple streams of knowledge. Students and the world around them, therefore, increasingly participate with the teacher in the production of knowledge and research in the educational experience. For the academic year of 2010-2011, 84 percent of faculty reported using their devices frequently in class to facilitate enhanced classroom collaboration. Fifty percent reported that they employed their mobile devices during every class period (ACU website). As faculty use of media devices increases, they will still possess a form of authoritative power for direction, vision, and assessment, however it will be significantly different. The professor will increasingly morph into more of a guide and/or mentor in the pedagogical experience.
In addition to pedagogy, the mobile learning initiative is also altering the expectations held by students and faculty. They expect more from one another. For Hamm, the ability to access an infinite amount of data raises the expectations of students. Vic McCracken, professor of Bible and theology, holds similar sentiments. He says that he expects “more creativity” in his students’ assignments and presentations.
Students also expect more from themselves. One student thinks the normative use of mobile technology at ACU has removed “all excuses” for not completing assignments. The infrastructure of ACU Connected offers students multiple ways to access assignments, due dates, and course materials. Students also expect more from each another. The social reliance on the iPhone means that access to group expectations and obligations are nearly omnipresent.
Such heightened expectations apply to faculty as well. McCracken says that students expect more from teachers in the presentation of classroom materials. One student says plainly, “I expect a lot more from my professors!” For many students, to not engage some form of multi-media presentation communicates that a faculty member is not as relevant in their respective field of expertise and technology. Simply put, as access to information has risen, so too have expectations of the educational experience.
Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, mobile learning is influencing the formation of communal interaction at ACU. Public commentary and study of new media report a deep concern for the loss of community. Writers and observers wonder if virtual communities such as online religious congregations and distance learning programs will become proxies for physical interactions. The use of new media at ACU, however, actually seems to be promoting physical gathering. Students who matriculated during the advent of the mobile learning initiative reported an increase in group study sessions and gatherings. From 2010 to 2011, 86 percent of students reported improved student-to-student and student-to-teacher collaborations and interactions after employing their mobile devices in the educational process. Mobile technology and the bevy of social portals allow students to connect with those whom they might not ever physically engage in conversation. These virtual connections often blossom into face-to-face connections. Using the organizational tools of social networking and the myACU app, these relationships often develop into gatherings for meals, study sessions, and group discussions. Even the ubiquity of new media is not a complete proxy for actual physical gathering and contact.
There are several areas of concern that emerged during my study. The educators voiced several moral trepidations. The equity of the program is of major concern. Some students cannot afford the monthly data service charge for the iPhone. The iPod Touch solves this problem but only in part. The device, unlike the iPhone, only has Wi-Fi capability, severely limiting mobile access. The digital world is spiked, not flat.
Several faculty members also voiced concern regarding spiritual formation. Hamm worries that even if the mobile learning initiative is an educational success, it might not be a good tool for spiritual growth and formation. He wonders whether students are only cultivating a practice of consumption and not one of giving and sacrifice. Professors in the religion department wonder if mobile devices are too ubiquitous and perhaps detrimental to students in the long run because mobile devices make it “too easy to check out.” McCracken acknowledges the benefits of the initiative, however he also admits that he is “increasingly ambivalent” toward mobile learning.
Some faculty members also worry about time management. Students say that mobile learning has helped them organize their time and become more efficient. However, the device also presents a multitude of distractions to learning. Sizeable amounts of study time can be drained by one-touch instant access to Facebook, YouTube, and the Internet. Nevertheless, as one student says, “Whether you have an iPhone or not, if you want to be distracted, you will find a way to do it. If it isn’t Facebook, it will be doodling!” The use of new media has not eliminated the same old classroom dilemmas.
Many expressed social and ethical concerns as well. The universal access to mobile technology easily facilitates porous boundaries between faculty and students, which can create opportunities for inappropriate contact and interactions. The Adams Center offers faculty training on appropriate ethical and moral practices for new media users. However, faculty and student apprehension remains. In addition to appropriate interactions, concerns for community abound as well. Most agree that students still gather for educational and social reasons. However, the ability of new media to channel group interactions remains a concern. The Adams Center recognizes that one risk ACU Connected poses for community formation is the possibility that the expanding mobile community will increasingly self-segregate into like-minded communities. Social media have not stifled nor replaced physical gathering, however they may be contributing to the diminishment of social and religious diversity in said gatherings.
The mobile learning initiative at Abilene Christian University is groundbreaking. The school is on the cutting edge of the intersection between new media, pedagogy, and community life. Their experiments, research, and thoughtful reflection will help many more religious communities and institutions to become technically savvy and theologically savvy about technology today.
1 See Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989); and George M. Marsden, “Evangelicalism as a Democratic Movement,” in Evangelicalism and Modern America (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1984).
2 Noll makes this argument in several texts. See especially, Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1994); American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001); The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys, History of Evangelicalism (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003); Mark A. Noll et al., Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and Beyond 1700-1900, Religion in America Series (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Mark A. Noll and Luke E. Harlow, Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the Present, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007); see also, Leonard I. Sweet, Communication and Change in American Religious History (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), 19-25.
Lerone A. Martin, a research fellow for the New Media Project, is Assistant Professor of American Religious History and Culture at Eden Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, MO.
The New Media Project is a research project helping religious leaders become theologically savvy about technology. To request permission to repost this content, please contact newmediaproject@cts.edu.
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Home » Research » Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Our researchers work on core computational biology-related problems, including genomics, proteomics, metagenomics, and phylogenomics. We develop novel techniques that combine ideas from mathematics, computer science, probability, statistics, and physics, and we help identify and formalize computational challenges in the biological domain, while experimentally validating novel hypotheses generated by our analyses.
We are developing algorithms with improved accuracy for large-scale and complex estimation problems in phylogenomics (genome-scale phylogeny estimation), multiple sequence alignment, and metagenomics. We are exploring gene regulation—developing advanced techniques to predict the diverse function of noncoding parts of DNA and to relate interspecies and interpersonal differences in DNA to differences in the organism’s form and function. We work broadly in the development of machine learning techniques for computational biology, with research spanning the areas of molecular and structural biology; networks and systems biology; and molecular mechanisms of human disease.
CS Faculty and Their Research Interests
Mohammed El-Kebir phylogenetics
Jiawei Han data mining for genomics and medical informatics
Jian Peng bioinformatics, protein function & structure, systems biology, machine learning and optimization
Saurabh Sinha bioinformatics, gene regulation, comparative genomics, sequence analysis
Tandy Warnow bioinformatics, multiple sequence alignment, phylogenomics, metagenomics, and historical linguistics
ChengXiang Zhai information retrieval, natural language processing for medical informatics
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Research Efforts and Groups
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB)
Comp-Gen Initiative in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
KnowEnG, an NIH Center for Excellence for Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Midwest Big Data Hub
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Research News
Linguistics Paper Co-authored By Warnow Settled Key Questions, Honored for Its Influence
June 11, 2019 Tandy Warnow and collaborator Donald Ringe developed mathematical models that assumed language evolution followed a treelike pattern.
Illinois CS Alum Named Chair of Duke Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Department
The (Duke) Chronicle -- Illinois CS graduate C. David Page (PhD '93), who is now a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will take over in June as chair of Duke University's Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics.
Professor Jiawei Han Named Aiken Endowed Chair
February 7, 2019 Han is the second-ever Aiken Chair, a position he plans to use to maintain Illinois' leadership in data-mining research.
Chicago Inno’s 2018 50 On Fire
Chicago Inno -- Incoming Department Head Nancy Amato and Farmers Fridge -- whose CTO is Rajesh Karmani (PhD CS '13) -- were both part of Chicago Inno's annual 50 on Fire list of people and companies influencing the direction of the Chicago-area tech scene.
New Informatics Tool Makes the Most of Genomic Data
July 16, 2018 A collaboration between the University of Illinois and Mayo Clinic has yielded a tool that makes stronger predictions about what genomic features are associated with specific drug responses.
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In support of The Lance
Incoming President Erin Hudson and I have been doing some transition work today and have both written letters of support for The Lance on their situation. They are posted below:
Dear directors of the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance:
Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a regional conference for students in media and journalism hosted by The Lance at University of Windsor. I was impressed to see a campus publication that is flourishing and had cemented itself as a pillar of not only the University of Windsor community, but also the greater community of Windsor, Ontario. Of all our members, The Lance is one publication that has shown some of the most significant growth and development over the past year and to cease print publication would be a massive blow to the positive momentum that your newspaper has.
While there have been several consecutive years of declining advertising revenue, it is still the best possible income source for any publication. By not allowing The Lance to solicit print advertising, you effectively remove any opportunity for future growth and development of the publication. Additionally, the printed newspaper has far greater exposure both on campus and in the community. By being physically present in the lives of readers, they are more aware of the important issues facing your community that The Lance reports on as well as the hard work that the journalists at The Lance put in to the paper does not go unnoticed. Put simply, The Lance is both a resource for their readership and the staff and removing the print publication threatens the value of this service. Furthermore, switching The Lance to an online-only medium is misleading to the students whose fees are used for this publication as they are under the belief that the service they pay for is a newspaper. Finally, the fact that this action to cease print publication of The Lance was done without any consultation with the editorial staff of the paper or the students who pay for it is inappropriate, heavy handed, and is not working towards the best interests of the students at the University of Windsor.
On behalf of all of Canadian University Press, I urge you to reconsider this decision to stop print publication of The Lance, a newspaper that is entrenched in the culture of University of Windsor and has faithfully served its students for the past 85 years.
Sam Brooks
President, Canadian University Press
To the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance,
I’m writing to you to denounce your decision to shut down The Lance’s print publication and implore you to re-evaluate the decision. Why? Well, let’s look at the facts surrounding this decision.
You did not consult or meaningfully engage The Lance staff before deciding to slash their budget.
You have evidently not conducted industry research regarding online advertising revenue in comparison that of print, nor taken the initiative to discuss the fiscal implications your decision would have with Lance staff. If you had, you would know (as perhaps you do now, considering how many letters are pouring in) that by forcing the paper to online-only, you have effectively slashed two thirds of The Lance’s operating budge. Considering the concern the UWSA has voiced about The Lance’s finances (namely that $24,000 deficit) this is hypocritical to put it nicely. Stupid, to put it bluntly. You are criticizing a paper for getting in over its head and then, in the same breadth, pushing it even deeper.
Now onto that $24,000 deficit. You probably thought you were iron clad with a number like that to point to. Wrong. A $24,000 deficit in February does not indicate that the paper will finish its year with a deficit. If you had consulted The Lance or in fact done any sort of research, you would know that advertising monies have a typical payment delay of three months. Which means that, in as little as two weeks time, that deficit you are claiming as your defense could very well evaporate – and, if so, what exactly is your excuse? Well, having dealt with student politicians for the past three years, I think I can make an educated guess.
I read with great interest and disgusted fascination Jon Liedtke’s article, Electile Dysfunction published in The Lance on April 2. What a funny coincidence that an article so critical and revealing of the internal practices and problems of your organization goes to print three days before your decision to push the paper to online only. Having read that article, I can’t say I’m surprised by this near-sighted and reactionary decision.
Finally, you made the decision to be effective immediately putting editorial staff and ultimately students at a loss. Staff for the work they’ve already done on for a paper that has already been paid for by students’ fees. You pulled the trigger as a kneejerk reaction.
As Quebec bureau chief and incoming-president for Canadian University Press, I implore you to tune into some national news and Twitter – student journalists and professional journalists are publicly calling you on this bullshit and you will have to account for it.
Make the right decision, re-open talks with The Lance and reverse your decision.
Erin Hudson
By Sam Brooks| 2013-04-08T16:15:20+00:00 April 8th, 2013|Member News|Comments Off on In support of The Lance
About the Author: Sam Brooks
What happened at NASH79 plenary!
Post-Summer Board Report
The BeLaboured Project: Summer 2016 Call for Applicants
CUP Board of Directors seeking new Atlantic Region Representative
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Return to Games I Beat In 2014
Below is the eighth group of Games I Beat In 2014. As always, the title and first few words of each entry are below.
Juvenilia interests me. No, that’s not perverted–“juvenilia” is what a famous entity produces in their field before they got good at it (Or, if you’re cynical, before they got famous). Most of the time, juvenilia never sees the light of day. Sometimes, though, the process of “growing up” takes place in public. The first Rush …
There was a time when release dates for video games weren’t commonly known or anticipated. From reading various video game magazines, you could get an idea of when a game would be coming out to within a month or two, but it was a rare game (Not to be confused with Rare games) for which …
I have previously covered half of Icom’s MacVenture series. The console ports of these were handled by Kemco-Seika. Apparently, they wanted some of that MacVenture action all to themselves, so they went to the Game Boy–I guess that would make the result a GameBoyVenture–and created something very similar. Released in 1991, The Sword of Hope …
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is often credited with coining the term “Metroidvania”. Ignoring my own distaste for the term–“Being in the Castlevania series” is about the only thing the Castlevania side contributed to the portmanteau; in all other ways, the genre is just Metroid-like–I think SotN is wrongly credited for this innovation. It’s not …
Some games are rarer than others. And sometimes, there’s no correlation between a game’s secondhand price and its quality. Games like the SNES version of Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Final Fantasy VI (First called “Final Fantasy III” in the US) command a high price for a reason–they’re classic RPGs that sold very few copies on …
The very first game in this series was Metroid. On this last day of 2014, I’d love to say that this final entry in the series brings it full circle somehow. Alas, outside of playing as a female protagonist in outer space, this game has just about nothing in common with Metroid. Released by Anna …
Games I Beat In 2014 Games I Beat In 2014 #1-10: January-February Games I Beat In 2014 #11-20: February-March Games I Beat In 2014 #21-30: March-May Games I Beat In 2014 #31-40: May-July Games I Beat In 2014 #41-50: July-August Games I Beat In 2014 #51-60: August-October Games I Beat In 2014 #61-70: October-November Games I Beat In 2014 #71-76: November-December
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Energy Innovation
Petropolitics
Oil and the Economy
< Back to Oil and the Economy
Oil Market Set to Tighten, Then Fall Back
by Nick Cunningham | February 27, 2019
A confluence of factors is tightening up the oil market. OPEC+ is holding back supply, Venezuela is likely suffering from major disruptions, demand is growing at a steady pace, and the U.S. and China just delayed their trade war. In a few months, U.S. sanctions on Iran may tighten the screws further.
A growing number of analysts see more price gains ahead for crude oil in the near future. However, the bullish trend may only prove to be fleeting, with the possibility of another downturn later in the year.
Brent to $75
President Trump may want OPEC to “relax and take it easy,” but the group seems determined to keep the 1.2 million barrels per day (Mb/d) in supply cuts agreed to in Vienna in place. Saudi oil minister said that oil inventories in the U.S. are “brimming,” likely requiring OPEC to maintain market management throughout the year. “All of the outlooks that I have seen tell us that we will continue, we’ll need to continue, to moderate production in the second half of this year,” Al-Falih told reporters in Riyadh. In direct response to Trump’s tweet, al-Falih said: “We are taking it easy; 25 countries are taking a very slow and measured approach.”
However, despite that line of argument, OPEC+ is taking a more aggressive approach than in the past, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs. OPEC’s “shock and awe” strategy, as Goldman frames it, is intended to drain the oil supply surplus quickly. This stands in contrast to the group’s actions in 2017, with cuts phased in over time. That allowed for only a gradual elimination of the surplus, and it wasn’t until the third and fourth quarter of that year that the market started tightening up and oil prices began to budge.
This time around, Saudi Arabia is cutting deeper than it is required to do as part of the December OPEC+ agreement in Vienna. “Cut real deep, real sharply, rebalance the market quickly, and get back to a market share strategy before the shale guys take away their market share,” Jeffrey Curie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said on Bloomberg TV, referring to OPEC’s strategy at the start of 2019. “Because that was the mistake they made back in ’16 and ’17. It was the long, drawn cut that extended over a year or so. And in that time period you ended up with 700,000 barrels per day of extra shale output.”
Saudi Arabia plans to lower its output further in March, indicating it will aim for 9.8 Mbd, or roughly 0.5 Mbd lower than it committed to in Vienna. Even as the Saudi oil minister says the group is taking a measured approach, Goldman Sachs analysts argue that OPEC’s strategy is likely aimed at quickly draining the surplus and then exiting the supply curbs as soon as June, with the aim of trying to avoid creating too much runway for U.S. shale growth.
Against this already bullish backdrop, other outages are hitting the market. Goldman estimates that absent a political resolution, Venezuela could lose another 200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) in the coming months. The waivers for U.S. sanctions on Iran expire in May, which could result in more supply disruptions, although the tightening market could restrain the Trump administration’s more aggressive impulses.
On the current trajectory, Brent could “easily” continue to rise to a $70-$75 per barrel range, Goldman argues.
Oil rally could be “fleeting”
While prices are on the upswing, the bullishness could be “fleeting,” Goldman Sachs says. U.S. shale continues to surprise, with the major energy forecasters such as the EIA having recently been forced to revise up its estimate for supply growth this year. The agency said in its February Short-Term Energy Outlook that the U.S. could average 12.4 Mbd this year, up 300,000 b/d from its prior estimate. A series of pipelines in the Permian are scheduled to come online in late 2019, which could pave the way for another round of drilling. Supply growth is also set to come from Brazil this year, with the inauguration of a major project helping the country to add more than 350,000 b/d.
Meanwhile, OPEC+ may exit its supply curbs and fight for market share once again. Due to the “unconstrained shale output, rising low cost OPEC+ output,” Goldman says that Brent prices could fall from the $70-$75-per-barrel range in the second quarter to just $60 per barrel by the end of the year.
Moreover, even that downbeat price forecast is subject to bearish risks. Most notably, the potential for a global economic downturn could spoil demand forecasts. At this point, Goldman Sachs and many other forecasters, including the EIA and the IEA, see demand growing at rather robust 1.4 Mbd. That figure could fall dramatically if the economy takes a turn for the worse.
There is no shortage of geopolitical and economic risks. The U.S.-China trade war has been delayed but not ended. The ongoing uncertainty over Brexit also appears far from a resolution. The U.S. is also mulling auto tariffs on the European Union. “The key point is that while some of the bad tail risks have been reduced or even eliminated, the lack of clear outcomes maintains overall economic uncertainty that ultimately acts as a drag on capital investment,” Goldman warned.
In short, Brent could be set for a rise above $70 per barrel in the next two or three months, but the investment bank expects prices to fall back to $60 in the latter half of the year.
OPEC: What’s There to Fight Over?
IEA: Low Oil Prices Make Fuel Economy Regulations More Important than Ever
Trucks, Tunnels & Drones: Automation in Freight Transportation to Bring Significant Rewards, Risks
#Secureenergy
@EnergyFuse
A trade war with #China darkens the #oil market outlook, @nickcunningham1 says #OOTT https://t.co/uya3OYw5kR
Blocked Chinese Ministry Website Foreshadows Wider Sino-U.S. Tech Competition https://t.co/OX3c6fpBLW https://t.co/Qy8g3nTJcR
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Press Releases and Media
The Fuse is an energy news and analysis site supported by Securing America’s Future Energy. The views expressed here are those of individual contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the organization.
Issues in Focus
Safety Standards for Crude-By-Rail Shipments
A series of accidents in North America in recent years have raised concerns regarding rail shipments of crude oil. Fatal accidents in Lynchburg, Virginia, Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Fayette County, West Virginia, and (most recently) Culbertson, Montana have prompted public outcry and regulatory scrutiny.
2014 saw an all-time record of 144 oil train incidents in the U.S.—up from just one in 2009—causing a total of more than $7 million in damage.
The spate of crude-by-rail accidents has emerged from the confluence of three factors. First is the massive increase in oil movements by rail, which has increased more than three-fold since 2010. Second is the inadequate safety features of DOT-111 cars, particularly those constructed prior to 2011, which account for roughly 70 percent of tank cars on U.S. railroads. Third is the high volatility of oil produced from the Bakken and other shale formations, which makes this crude more prone towards combustion.
Of these three, rail car safety standards is the factor over which regulators can exert the most control. After months of regulatory review, on May 1, 2015, the White House and the Department of Transportation unveiled the new safety standards. The announcement also coincided with new tank car standards in Canada—a critical move, since many crude by rail shipments cross the U.S.-Canadian border. In the words DOT, the new rule:
Unveils a new, enhanced tank car standard and an aggressive, risk-based retrofitting schedule for older tank cars carrying crude oil and ethanol;
Requires a new braking standard for certain trains that will offer a superior level of safety by potentially reducing the severity of an accident, and the “pile-up effect”;
Designates new operational protocols for trains transporting large volumes of flammable liquids, such as routing requirements, speed restrictions, and information for local government agencies; and
Provides new sampling and testing requirements to improve classification of energy products placed into transport.
The newly prescribed tank car, the DOT-117, has 9/16 inch tank shell, 11 gauge jacket, 1/2 inch full-height head shield, thermal protection, and improved pressure relief valves and bottom outlet valves. Additionally, thousands of older tank cars will require retrofitting by as early as 2018.
Since the rule was announced, Republicans in Congress sought to roll back the provision calling for an advanced breaking system, following concerns from the rail industry that such an upgrade would be unnecessary and could cost billions of dollars. The advanced braking systems are required to be in place by 2021.
Democrats in Congress have argued that the new rules are insufficient to mitigate the danger. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) both issued statements arguing that the rules were insufficient and the timelines for safety improvements were too long.
The current industry standard car, the CPC-1232, came into usage in October 2011. These cars have half inch thick shells (marginally thicker than the DOT-111 7/16 inch shells) and advanced valves that are more resilient in the event of an accident. However, these newer cars were involved in the derailments and explosions in Virginia and West Virginia within the past year, raising questions about the validity of replacing only the DOT-111s manufactured before 2011.
Before the rule was finalized, early reports indicated that the rule submitted to the White House by the Department of Transportation has proposed a two-stage phase-out of the current fleet of railcars, focusing first on the pre-2011 cars, then the current standard CPC-1232 cars. In the final rule, DOT mandated a more aggressive timeline for retrofitting the CPC-1232 cars, imposing a deadline of April 1, 2020 for non-jacketed cars.
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DataSpotlight
The recent oil production boom in the United States, while astounding, has created a misleading narrative that the United States is no longer dependent on oil imports. Reports of surging domestic production, calls for relaxation of the crude oil export ban, labels of “Saudi America,” and the recent collapse in oil prices have created a perception that the United States has more oil than it knows what to do with.
This view is misguided. While some forecasts project that the United States could become a self-sufficient oil producer within the next decade, this remains a distant prospect. According to the April 2015 Short Term Energy Outlook, total U.S. crude oil production averaged an estimated 9.3 million barrels per day in March, while total oil demand in the country is over 19 million barrels per day.
This graphic helps illustrate the regional variations in crude oil supply and demand. North America, Europe, and Asia all run significant production deficits, with the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Former Soviet Union are global engines of crude oil supply.
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Anderson Bridge
Anderson Bridge straddles the mouth of the Singapore River and connects Empress Place with Collyer Quay. It was named ...
Teutonia Club
The Teutonia Club was formally founded by seven German traders on 28 June 1856. It started with 21 members in a house ...
The former Sun Yat Sen Villa at 12 Tai Gin Road, off Balestier Road, was once the Southeast Asian headquarters for Sun ...
Dalhousie Obelisk
The Dalhousie Obelisk commemorates the visit of then governor-general of India (1848–1856), the Marquis of Dalhousie, ...
Orchard Road Presbyterian Church
The Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, also known as Greja Kechil and the Scots Church, is the earliest Presbyterian ...
Dalhousie Pier
Dalhousie Pier, also known as Dalhousie Ghaut, was a 19th-century jetty located near the mouth of the Singapore River, ...
Whiteaway Laidlaw
Founded in Calcutta, India by Robert Laidlaw in 1882, Whiteaway Laidlaw was a department store that opened a premier ...
Jinrikisha Station
Located at the junction of Neil Road and Tanjong Pagar Road, the Jinrikisha (also spelt as “Jinricksha”) Station was ...
Orchard Road Market
Built in 1891, the Orchard Road Market used to occupy the site where Orchard Point is located today. A fair selling ...
Tanglin Club
One of Singapore’s most prominent social clubs, Tanglin Club was founded in 1865 to cater to the social and recreational ...
Old Admiralty House
Old Admiralty House, located at Old Nelson Road, was built in 1939 and served as the residence for the Commodore Superintendent ...
Johnston's Pier
Johnston’s Pier was a jetty that once stood along Collyer Quay, opposite Fullerton Square and the Hong Kong Bank Building ...
Read Bridge
Read Bridge is a beam structured bridge that straddles the central part of the Singapore River. The bridge was officially ...
Masonic Hall
The Masonic Hall at 23A Coleman Street is located near the Central Fire Station at the foot of Fort Canning Hill. Designed ...
The Cenotaph, located at Esplanade Park along Connaught Drive, is a war memorial which commemorates the sacrifice of ...
MacDonald House
Located not far from the Istana and the Cathay Building, MacDonald House has a relatively plain and nondescript facade. ...
Stamford House
Stamford House, located at the junction of Stamford Road and Hill Street, is an ornate building designed in the Venetian ...
Alkaff Lake Gardens
The Alkaff Lake Gardens was located off MacPherson Road, at what is now the Sennett Estate and Cedar Girls’ Secondary ...
Elgin Bridge
Elgin Bridge spans the Singapore River and joins North Bridge Road to South Bridge Road. Built in 1862, the bridge was ...
Clifford Pier
Situated on Collyer Quay at the mouth of the Singapore River, Clifford Pier was built between 1927 and 1933, and officially ...
Cavenagh Bridge
Cavenagh Bridge is located across the Singapore River in the Central Region. It is named after William Orfeur Cavenagh, ...
Adelphi Hotel
Some of the earliest mentions of Adelphi Hotel can be found in newspaper advertisements published in 1850. The proprietor ...
Khoo Teck Puat
Khoo Teck Puat (b. 13 January 1917, Singapore–d. 21 February 2004, Singapore) was a prominent businessman and investor ...
Swan & Maclaren
The famous colonial architectural firm Swan & Maclaren had its beginnings in 1887 as Swan & Lermit. It is considered ...
~ Location Map ~
Goodwood Park Hotel is a luxury heritage hotel located at 22 Scotts Road, off Orchard Road. Built in 1900, the building was originally the Teutonia Club for the expatriate German community in Singapore. The tower block of the building was gazetted as a national monument in 1989.1
The German expatriate community in Singapore established the original Teutonia Club in 1856. The club was located on North Bridge Road behind the building that later became Raffles Hotel. The club moved six months later to the Blanche house premises on Mount Elizabeth.2 The growth of the German community resulted in the purchase in 1861 of a piece of land at what was then 7 Scotts Road. The new clubhouse, which occupied the site of a former nutmeg plantation, would later become the Goodwood Park Hotel.3
Built in 1900, the new Teutonia Club was designed by architect R. A. J. Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren in the Queen Anne style, a mix of Dutch, French and English influences that was popular in England in the 19th century. Featuring a striking tower, the building included electric lighting installations that were considered advanced for its time.4
The building was officially opened with a grand ball on 21 September 1900 by Acting Governor of the Straits Settlements Alexander Swettenham.5 The Teutonia Club became the centre of German social life in Singapore, hosting stage performances, gatherings and visiting dignitaries such as Prince Adalbert, third son of the German Kaiser, in 1903.6
World War I and transformation into a hotel
With the onset of World War I and the issuance of the Trading with the Enemy Proclamation in 1914,7 about 300 German nationals in Singapore and Penang came to be regarded as alien enemies. In 1915, they were shipped to Australia and their possessions, including the clubhouse, were confiscated and liquidated as enemy property.8 Over the next four years, the clubhouse remained largely unused except when it briefly became a depot for troops during the 1915 Sepoy Mutiny. In 1918, the building was sold at public auction to the Manasseh brothers – Morris, Ezekiel and Ellis – for $61,000.9
By 1919, the building had been converted into a reception hall known as Goodwood Hall, a reference to the Goodwood Racecourse in England.10 Goodwood Hall, with a bar installed, became popular as social venue for events such as weddings, dances, concerts and balls.11 A restaurant and cafe were later added to the premises.12 Equipped with what was considered the best concert room in Singapore at the time, Goodwood Hall was also the site of numerous stage performances, including that of the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in December 1922.13 In 1929, the Manasseh brothers converted the establishment into a full-fledged hotel and renamed it Goodwood Park Hotel.14
Following the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1942, the hotel was converted into a residence for high-ranking Japanese soldiers.15 After the end of the Japanese Occupation in 1945, the hotel was requisitioned by the Army War Crimes Office. The British held war crimes trials at the grounds of the hotel, under pitched canvas tents.16
Postwar decades and renovation
After the British military’s failed proposal to purchase the hotel to be used as an officers’ club, the British military released the building on 31 August 1947 and returned it to Vivian C. Bath, Ezekiel Manasseh’s stepson. Bath incorporated Goodwood Park Hotel as a publicly listed company that same year, and reopened the hotel on 18 November 1947.17 In anticipation of a rise in tourism, the hotel underwent an reconstruction and renovation between 1959 and 1960, which saw an expansion of room capacity and the installation of the first hotel swimming pool in Singapore, among other changes.18
During this period, the most distinctive feature of the building, the tower block, was also restored to its original position, though not its shape.19 Standing at nearly 30 ft high, the original central tower with its distinctive pinnacle had been removed in 1950 after falling into disrepair.20 Until 1985, the general manager’s room was housed in the tower.21 The tower block was gazetted as a national monument on 23 March 1989.22
In July 1963, an new extension costing $2.5 million was officially opened. Among the additions were a three-storey building housing 94 rooms, a second swimming pool, a new entrance as well as bar and grill rooms.23 A 45-foot-long bar, one of the longest in Singapore at the time, was also unveiled.24
Just two months later, the hotel was bought over by the Malayan Banking Group.25
Ownership by Khoo family
Billionaire banker Khoo Teck Puat purchased Goodwood Park Hotel in 1968.26 From as early as 1979, Khoo had proposed plans to demolish the hotel so that the land on which it stood could be redeveloped into a hotel, shopping mall, office blocks and high-rise apartments, in order to maximise the land’s economic potential.27 However, the plans did not materialise.28
With Khoo’s death in 2004, his daughter, Mavis Oei, succeeded as chairman of the hotel. Now regarded as a luxury heritage hotel, Goodwood Park Hotel remains in the hands of the Khoo family.29
Joanna HS Tan
1. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, pp. 223–229. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Wan, M. H., & Lau, J. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, pp. 119–120. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN-[HIS]); Goodwood Park Hotel. (n.d.). History of Goodwood Park Hotel, an iconic heritage hotel in Singapore. Retrieved 2016, September 9 from Goodwood Park Hotel website: http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/ourheritage-en.html; Urban Redevelopment Authority. (1992). The Goodwood Park Hotel tower block preservation guidelines. Singapore: Preservation of Monuments Board, p. 4. (Call no.: RSING 363.69095957 GOO)
2. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 223. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Tyers, R. (1993). Ray Tyers’ Singapore: Then & now. Singapore: Landmark Books, pp. 174–175. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 TYE-[HIS]); Teutonia Club with Crux Australis. (1938, April 3). The Straits Times, p. 13. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
3. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 223. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Tyers, R. (1993). Ray Tyers’ Singapore: Then & now. Singapore: Landmark Books, pp. 174–175. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 TYE-[HIS]); Former German Club is now for sale. (1939, October 6). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1932), p. 4; Singapore’s German Club is silent and empty. (1939, September 4). The Straits Times, p. 10; Teutonia Club with Crux Australis. (1938, April 3). The Straits Times, p. 13. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. Teutonia Club with Crux Australis. (1938, April 3). The Straits Times, p. 13; The Teutonia Club. (1899, March 21). The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 223. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Wan, M. H., & Lau, J. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, pp. 119–120. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN-[HIS])
5. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 224. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Urban Redevelopment Authority. (1992). The Goodwood Park Hotel tower block preservation guidelines. Singapore: Preservation of Monuments Board, p. 4. (Call no.: RSING 363.69095957 GOO); Samuel, D. S. (2010). Singapore’s heritage: Through places of historical perspective. Singapore: Dhoraisingam S. Samuel, pp. 116–117. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 SIN-[HIS])
6. The Kaiser’s birthday. (1902, January 22). The Straits Times, p. 4; Prince Adalbert in Singapore. (1903, November 20). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Wan, M. H., & Lau, J. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, pp. 119–120. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN-[HIS])
7. Trading with the enemy. (1914, September 16). The Straits Times, p. 10. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
8. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 224. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU)
9. Wan, M. H., & Lau, J. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, pp. 119. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN-HIS]); Tyers, R. K. (1976). Singapore, then & now. Singapore: University Education Press, pp. 174–175. (Call no.: RCLOS 959.57 TYE); Goodwood Park Hotel (2000). Goodwood Park Hotel (1900–2000): 100 years of hospitality. Singapore: Goodwood Park Hotel, pp. 6–10. (Call no.: RSING 647.955957 GOO); Teutonia club sold. (1918, September 26). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 18. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
10. Goodwood Park Hotel. (n.d.). History of Goodwood Park Hotel, an iconic heritage hotel in Singapore. Retrieved 2016, September 9 from Goodwood Park Hotel website: http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/ourheritage-en.html; Page 2 Advertisements Column 3: Goodwood Hall. (1919, October 18). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 2; Page 7 Advertisements Column 4: A dance. (1919, July 11). The Straits Times, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
11. Wan, M. H., & Lau, J. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, pp. 119–120. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN-[HIS]); Page 2 Advertisements Column 2: Goodwood Hall. (1920, April 9). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 2; Russian Light Opera Co. (1921, July 25). Malaya Tribune, p. 4; Local wedding. (1922, June 6). The Malaya Tribune, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
12. Untitled. (1922, January 20). The Straits Times, p. 8. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
13. Page 6 Advertisements Column 3: Goodwood Hall. (1922, December 9). The Straits Times, p. 6; Chandy, G. (1979, February 26). Germans started the ball rolling. New Nation, p. 9. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
14. Goodwood Park Hotel. (n.d.). History of Goodwood Park Hotel, an iconic heritage hotel in Singapore. Retrieved 2016, September 9 from Goodwood Park Hotel website: http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/ourheritage-en.html
15. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 228. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU)
16. Court sits ‘in canvas’. (1946, May 16). The Singapore Free Press, p. 5; Three more Japs to hang. (1946, May 25). The Malaya Tribune, p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Wan, M. H., & Lau, J. (2009). Heritage places of Singapore. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, pp. 119–120. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 WAN-[HIS])
17. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 224. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Goodwood Park’s return. (1947, July 17). The Straits Times, p. 7; Goodwood Park Hotel reopening. (1947, November 18). The Straits Times, p. 5. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
18. An old Singapore landmark to be restored. (1959, December 9). The Straits Times, p. 7; Poteik, C. (1960, August 3). More hotel space for the jet age. The Straits Times, p. 11. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
19. Samuel, D. S. (2010). Singapore’s heritage: Through places of historical perspective. Singapore: Dhoraisingam S. Samuel, pp. 116–117. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 SAM-[HIS])
20. Old landmark. (1963, July 30). The Straits Times, p. 11; An old Singapore landmark to be restored. (1959, December 9). The Straits Times, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
21. Koh, F. (2016, October 27). Goodwood Park Hotel: playing host to history. The Straits Times. Retrieved from Factiva via NLB’s eResources website: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/
22. Hotel’s tower block now a national monument. (1989, March 25). The Straits Times, p. 17. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
23. A new hotel milestone. (1963, July 30). The Straits Times, p. 9. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
24. The long, long bar. (1963, July 30). The Straits Times, p. 15. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
25. Banking group to pay $7 mil. for Goodwood Park Hotel. (1963, September 11). The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
27. Goodwood studies plan to redevelop Scotts site. (1983, March 16). The Straits Times, p. 17; Hint of big expansion plan by Goodwood. (1980, March 18). The Straits Times, p. 19; Ang, L. (1994, May 11). Goodwood gets approval to redevelop part of hotel site. The Business Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
28. Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore. Singapore: Landmark Books, p. 224. (Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU); Tyers, R. (1993). Ray Tyers’ Singapore: Then & now. Singapore: Landmark Books, pp. 174–175. (Call no.: RSING 959.57 TYE-[HIS])
29. Goodwood Park Hotel. (n.d.). History of Goodwood Park Hotel, an iconic heritage hotel in Singapore. Retrieved 2016, September 9 from Goodwood Park Hotel website: http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/ourheritage-en.html; Goodwood Park names new head. (2004, March 2). The Straits Times, p. 13. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Goodwood Park exit offer. (2016, October 15) The Straits Times. Retrieved from Factiva via NLB’s eResources website: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/
A $22mil. tower to replace that tourist landmark at Goodwood Hotel. (1969, July 9). The Straits Times, p. 6. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Goodwood: Unique in service and efficiency. (1965, January 4). The Straits Times, p. 9. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Hotel’s unusual wartime past. (2006, March 4). The Straits Times, p. H6. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Licensing justices meet. (1919, June 19). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 6. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The Goodwood heritage 1900–1990. (1990). Singapore: Goodwood Park Hotel.
(Call no.: RSING 647.94595701 GOO)
The new Teutonia Club. (1900, August 21). The Straits Times, p. 10. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The Teutonia Club. (1900, September 14). The Straits Times, p. 2. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The Teutonia Club. (1900, September 22). The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
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Time to ‘Switch On Europe’ – EE-HUB Round Table
Brussels, European Parliament, 04 May 2017
On 4 May, a special EE-HUB round table took place at the European Parliament to officially launch the ‘Switch On Europe’ campaign, dedicated to raising awareness of the need for further developing entrepreneurship education to boost jobs and growth in Europe.
EE-HUB experts and partners, together with EU officials were invited to discover the latest developments in the field, as well as the EE-HUB’s achievements since its establishment in 2015. The event was also the occasion to present the EE-HUB policy recommendations, clustered in target groups: EU institutions/bodies, educational institutions, national governments and businesses. These were identified by the EE-Hub network as the prerequisite to achieving 25% penetration of entrepreneurship education in classrooms by 2030.
Business and European institutions are referenced in the document as key players. Representatives from both were therefore invited to present their initiatives in the field to underscore why entrepreneurship education matters. Silvia Boschetti, EE-HUB Expert and Head of Communications and Public Affairs at Citi Italy, shared Citi’s strong commitment to entrepreneurship education, giving examples of the activities that drive impact on the ground, highlighting that the business community cannot move forward alone. She insisted that the successful implementation of entrepreneurship education programs requires strong commitment and support from governments and educational institutions alike. In response, Claudia Fusco, Head of Environmental knowledge, Eco-innovation & SMEs unit at DG-Environment (European Commission), explained how entrepreneurship education is supported at EU level, as a horizontal priority - related to several key policy areas - stressing the importance of making this mindset evolution in order to boost jobs and growth in Europe.
Finally, this round table was the opportunity to launch the ‘Switch On Europe’ campaign. ‘Switch On Europe' is designed to raise awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship education for young people and to make the EE-HUB stand out as the leader and go-to place for European entrepreneurship education. After the action taken on 25 April, policy-makers and business representatives discovered the virtual map showcasing those decision-makers and companies who are committed to developing entrepreneurship education in Europe. MEPs Michaela Sojdrova and Vladimir Urutchev, both prominent supporters of entrepreneurship education, took the floor and presented how coordination at both EU and national levels is crucial to increaseg youth employment and entrepreneurship in their countries.
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Photo: Office of Rep. Haaland Congresswoman Deb Haaland (NM-01) introduced a historic bill to increase focus on addressing the silent crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
‘Women Are Disappearing and Dying in Indian Country’
Posted By: The Weekly Issue/ El Semanarioon: May 11, 2019
by Andrea Germanos
Newly-proposed federal legislation tackles a silent crisis—the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) introduced H.R. 2438—the Not Invisible Act of 2019—on Wednesday, just ahead of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Last month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced similar legislation in the upper chamber.
“Women are disappearing and dying in Indian country. We must act,” Haaland said Sunday.
The Not Invisible Act would create an advisory committee composed of law enforcement, tribal leaders, federal partners, service providers, and survivors tasked with making recommendations to the Department of Interior and Department of Justice; establish best practices for law enforcement on the epidemic; and establish a position within the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be filled by an expert in charge of improving coordination of violent crime prevention efforts across federal agencies.
“When your community is at risk—when it could be your daughter, your sister or your mom—the issue demands urgency. The attention this issue has received wouldn’t have been possible without the women in Indian country saying, ‘enough is enough, we deserve to feel safe too.”
Rep. Den Haaland
To mark the day of awareness, Cherokee writer Rebecca Nagle provided statistics to outline the shocking scope of the problem. Her Twitter thread Sunday noted, in part: “ONE in THREE Native women are raped or abused EVERY year. Of the 5,712 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in 2016, only 116 were logged in the Department of Justice’s database.Lack of response from local law enforcement and from Congress has created this crisis.The loopholes in our current legal system has made Native women and girls targets. When we are attacked more often than not, nothing happens.”
Haaland also noted the bleak situation and issued a call-to-action in an op-ed at The Guardian on Thursday.
“The epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women has been overlooked for far too long, but we’re finally giving a voice to this silent crisis,” Haaland wrote.
“When your community is at risk—when it could be your daughter, your sister or your mom—the issue demands urgency,” she added, and praised indigenous women for sounding alarm about the crisis.
“The attention this issue has received wouldn’t have been possible without the women in Indian country saying, ‘enough is enough, we deserve to feel safe too,'” wrote Haaland. “It was a call for Congress to direct real resources to the problem.”
The bill’s bipartisan backers include Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). As such, says a statement from Haaland’s office, H.R. 2438 is the first bill ever to be introduced by four enrolled members of federally recognized tribes.
The bill has support from groups including the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Urban Indian Health Institute, and Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, who called the bill an important step.
Stamping out the epidemic, however, will require more far-reaching efforts, said Leanne Guy, executive director of the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition.
“If we are to truly address violence against indigenous women and girls,” she said at a rally in Phoenix Sunday, “we must also acknowledge and address and eradicate the racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and misogyny that is deeply rooted in the founding of this country and that currently permeates the very systems that are built to protect this country’s citizens.”
“As long as we’re seen as relics, mascots, and exotic objects of sexual conquest,” Guy added, “we will continue to be rapeable, beatable, takeable, and killable.”
Andrea Germanos is a Staff Writer with CommonDreams.org.
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ROWAN WILLIAM'S HOMILY IN ROME ON MONASTIC VIRTUE AND ECUMENICAL HOPE
Vatican Radio / 11 March 2012
http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=570542
Rowan Williams in Rome: 'Monastic virtues and Ecumenical hopes'
“Monastic virtues and ecumenical hopes” was the title of an address by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams on Sunday at the Rome church of San Gregorio al Celio. The Anglican leader is currently on a 3 day visit to Italy with a packed programme that included a papal audience and the celebration of Vespers with Pope Benedict on Saturday. On Monday Dr Williams travels down to the monastery of Montecassino, south of Rome, where St Benedict lived and wrote his rule for monastic life. Philippa Hitchen has been following the Archbishop’s ecumenical pilgrimage and reports on this Sunday’s events…..
“One of the hardest yet most important lessons the different Christian communities today must learn is that they cannot live without each other: no single one of them in isolation possesses the entirety of the Gospel” of Christ. That was how the Anglican leader Dr Rowan Williams introduced his reflection on how the witness of monastic life can offer a key to overcoming the divisions between Christians today.
Life in the monastery, he said, seeks to hold together two apparent opposites: a vocation to solitude and a community life of service to others. In a similar way, he went on, the divided churches can learn much from the monastic reforms of the past centuries as they try to reconcile the insights of their own tradition with the gifts and experiences of their separated brothers and sisters.
Speaking in particular of the gifts of the Camaldoli Benedictine community, based at St Gregory’s on the Caelian hill, archbishop Williams said the history of monasticism is a history of rediscovery and continuous self-questioning as to whether the simplicity of the Word of God has been overlaid and obscured by our self-centred structures and strategies.
Echoing the words of his sermon at the Episcopal Church of St Paul’s within the Walls on Sunday morning, Dr Williams said just as Jesus drove the traders "selling religion" out of the temple in Jerusalem, so the whole Church today must be challenged by the monastic model to clear away the trappings of our self serving lives and rediscover the reconciling Word of God in our Churches and in our wider societies.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s address at San Gregorio al Celio
11 March 2012: Lent 3
Monastic Virtues and Ecumenical Hopes
Solitude and Communion
The monastic reform movements of the eleventh century have in common the strong commitment to a return to the gospel. Stephen of Muret’s simple declaration that, for his community of ascetics, ‘our regula is the Gospel’ is typical of the widespread sense in that era that the Church in general and the monastic institution in particular needed to be refreshed from its primitive springs. In monastic terms that meant a movement away from the intensely organized corporate life of the great Benedictine houses, above all the family of Cluny, away from the close association of monasteries with the needs or demands of the ruling elites, and towards simplicity and solitude. It is significant that two of the most durable reforms that have their origins in this period – Camaldoli and the Carthusians – have always sought in their different ways to hold together the community life and the vocation to solitude.
This search to hold together what seem like opposites is of course grounded in a deeply traditional Christian anthropology. Christian solitude is the way in which we allow God to challenge and overcome our individualism; in solitude, we are led to recognize the strength and resilience of our selfishness, and the need to let God dissolve the fantasies with which we protect ourselves. In the desert there is no-one to impress or persuade; there it is necessary to confront your own emptiness or be consumed by it. But such solitude is framed by the common life in which we have begun to learn the basic habits of selflessness through mutual service, and in which we are enabled to serve more radically and completely, to be more profoundly in the heart of common life in Christ’s Body, because we have had our private myths and defensive strategies stripped away by God in silence.
Monastic practice is, therefore, at its root, a living out of the fundamental Christian doctrine of human nature as restored in Christ. And in the committed mutual service and mutual listening that the Rule of St Benedict enjoins, we can see fleshed out the belief that, in Tertullian’s words, ‘no Christian is a Christian alone’ (unus christianus nullus christianus); that we are never healed without the healing of the neighbour also. ‘Our life and our death is with our neighbour’ is one of the best known sayings of St Antony, after all. And in this we begin to see something of how the monastic life, especially as it includes solitude as a dimension of community, speaks to the entire world of Christian diversity. One of the hardest yet most important lessons the different Christian communities today have to learn is that they cannot live without each other and that no single one of them in isolation possesses the entirety of the Gospel. God has used the often tragic divisions of Christian history in such a way that each community has been permitted to discover new depths in this or that particular emphasis in doctrine or devotion. And the challenge of the Lord of the Church is that we should recognize this diversity of providential discovery in one another. The enforced ‘solitude’ of a Christian community, cut off from others by doctrinal dispute, is from one point of view a disaster, in that it takes all Christians that little bit further away from the fullness of truth. But God’s providence has also ordered things so that diverse and separated communities are able to go deeper into diverse aspects of discipleship and orthodoxy. Who could deny, for example, that the historic ‘peace churches’ of the Anabaptist tradition have been for the older ecclesial communions a sign of judgement, a way in which God has called all the churches to recover their abhorrence of violence in his name?
A new creation: the Community of the Word
The life of solitude and communion together, then, is itself a matter of ecumenical significance. Thinking about our divisions in the light of this allows us both to repent for whatever has divided the churches as a result of sheer human pride or perversity, and also to thank God that in our enforced ‘solitude’ we have been shown treasures that we now have to share with one another. But there is another lesson that monastic practice has to show to the ecumenical world by its attempt to return to the Gospel. It was once customary to speak of the religious life as a response to the ‘evangelical counsels’; then, in the light of the twentieth century renewal of the sense of the radical calling of the whole people of God, such language became something of an embarrassment. Yet it still has some real significance. The call that Jesus utters in the pages of the Gospels is undoubtedly a call into a community in which other kinds of human belonging together are cast into shadow. It is a call into a community that finds its deepest unity in God, and not in the simple natural affinities of the world around. It stands alongside all these forms of belonging – ethnic, political, linguistic, familial – and says that the Body of Christ is a new nation, a new polis or city, a new language taught by the spirit, a new family.
What would a church life look like that saw itself as shaped primarily by the Word in such a way that the relation to God’s call was the single determining factor in holding a community together? It is possible to read the history of monasticism as a continuing wrestling with this question. The monastic community did not depend on race, family, natural affinity; it is striking how ‘international’ the monastic world of the fourth and fifth centuries is, in the sense of the number of people who find their vocation in settings alien to their class and upbringing. Think of the presence together in Scetis of the Ethiopian peasant Moses and the cosmopolitan Arsenius or Evagrius. The language of this new community is not simply one of the dialects of local society but the language of the Word. It coheres around the divine Word, both in listening and in speaking. The community listens to the Scriptures, but it also speaks Scripture. When monastic communities recited the Psalter, they were not repeating texts form a human hymnbook, but – on the prevailing understanding of the psalms – joining in the words that Christ himself was speaking on behalf of his Body. It is a theme that finds its strongest and most beautiful articulation in Augustine, but it is not unique to him: the psalms are the place where Christ makes our speech his own; and so when we recite the psalms, we are deliberately putting ourselves in the context of this speech that is both divine and human, the dialect of the incarnation. In the psalms, our passion and questionings are touched and lifted and transfigured by Christ.
To be a community of the Word, then, is to be assembled by the authority of Christ’s call and, in response, to speak Christ’s own language. This is what is utterly new and distinct about the Church, and in this sense monasticism is a reminder of the Church’s newness, its perpetual recovery of what makes it different from any other human gathering. Of course the Church in history is frequently a body that slips towards identification with kin and nation and class. St Teresa had to struggle in sixteenth century Avila to prevent convents being flooded with indigent relatives of the sisters in search of a comfortable life. Some monasteries have an ambiguous record, not least in the twentieth century, of passionate identification with nationalist causes, because of a long and often generous and positive sense of being at the heart of local communities. Many houses have imperceptibly restricted themselves to a certain class of postulant (Teresa has much to say about this too). Every serious monastic reform has to tackle at least one of these issues.
And the willingness to undertake such self-critical reform is one of the reasons for the wider Church to celebrate the monastic life and to learn from it. Christian communions can become wedded to nation, class and family (either literally, or in the shape of a comfortable middle-class attitude to ‘family values’); they need to be recalled to the truth that it is the Word—the free outpouring of God the Father in the eternal reality of God the Son—that creates the Church: creatura verbi, in the old terminology. We are sisters and brothers in the Church not because we naturally and instinctively belong together, agree, or speak the same language; but because we are summoned to be together in our strangeness to each other, and to be faithful to each other in that strangeness – not because we naturally like one another and would be loyal to one another anyway!
The monastic ideal is thus something that stands in opposition to anything that looks like a ‘tribal’ Church. It tells us that the hope of a truly universal reconciliation is only to be found in a Church that is able to look beyond natural affinity and to sustain bonds that are in their way as strong as those of kinship or marriage – a bold aspiration indeed. How many or how few are the monastic communities which really embody this, the important truth is that it is possible and that the Church at large needs monastic community life as almost a sacrament of its dependence on the Word. If we want to speak about the ecumenical significance of monasticism, this, I believe, is the heart of the matter: the monastery shows a Church that is unified simply in the divine Word, spoken and heard.
But this ecumenical significance is not, therefore, a question of monasticism somehow being able to resolve conflicts by sheer human charity or fraternity; it is in its plain appeal to the roots of distinctively Christian identity in the summons that Jesus addresses to every human identity – city, nation or family. Natural affinities are not by any means evil or to be destroyed; they may well be used positively in their diversity, as are the diversities of Christian belonging. But they do not themselves embody the newness of the Gospel, which is seen in the holding together, in one language of prayer and praise, of different identities, Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. Whenever we are tempted to take refuge in confessionalism, in an over-seriousness about our particular historic identity over against other Christian communities, we are going to need communities, whether conventional monastic communities or the less conventional communities that have arisen in recent decades as well (Iona, Sant’ Egidio and so on). to hold us to the radicality of the Gospel’s promise to make a holy nation, a new city and a universal kindred out of strangers.
Prayer, hospitality and simplicity
Enzo Bianchi, in a seminal meditation on ‘Monastic Life and the Ecumenical Dialogue’ (Monasterio di Bose, 2000, p.15), speaks of monastic life as ‘truly an epiclesis in action’, an invoking of the Holy Spirit who creates unity in plurality at Pentecost. One of the aspects of the way the New Testament talks about the Holy Spirit is that this Spirit is both the power that creates the explosion of diversity at Pentecost and the power that creates in us the one devastatingly simple utterance in which we express our identity in Christ – ‘Abba, Father’. That prayer, as it is understood by St Paul in Romans and Galatians, is about both maturity and absolute dependence; it speaks of our growing out of fear and out of the state of mindless servitude, and equally of our sense of a new identity that is simply given by grace. Praying such a prayer, we are at one and the same time as totally dependent as a newborn child and as authoritatively free as an adult. The prayer tells us that a kinship is now established with the eternal Word, who enables us to say what he says to the Father; and that this kinship is open to all, capable of being shared with all. This is the heart of our belonging together – the Spirit’s gift of saying what the eternal Word says.
And so a community living out this ‘epiclesis in action’ is bound to be a hospitable community. Faced with the stranger, its first instinct is to listen for the Word spoken in them, because there is no ready-made assumption that we know what kind of person, what kind of visitor, will be more or less likely to speak God’s Word. The historic indiscriminateness of monastic hospitality reflects this listening expectancy. It is put with memorable and typical directness by Madleleine Delbrel in one of the aphorisms in her Alcide (translated as The Little Monk, New York, Crossroads, 2005, p.11); ‘When the phone rings, expect a call from God. (The little monk, upon receiving a phone call at 11.30 p.m.)’. And when it happens that a community or family of communities deliberately dedicates itself to engagement with the imaginative and intellectual life of a society, this is an extension of hospitality; the history of Camaldoli up to the present day shows many examples of what this might mean. We have seen many instances also of what may happen when this hospitality is extended to those of other faiths; it would need another full-length discussion to explore the importance of monastic families in interfaith encounter, but it is perhaps enough to recall that Thomas Merton’s last address was given in just such a context. Once again, this is about the readiness to listen for the Word in the stranger, even if they have no familiar vocabulary for articulating that Word. Always, the stripping and simplicity of authentic monastic life makes the monastic alert to the simplicity of the Word’s utterance – those plain words of intimacy, dependence and confidence, ‘Abba, Father.’
The whole People of God
Perhaps this is indeed what monastic asceticism is ultimately all about – a simplification of life and language, so that this one utterance can be spoken and heard as clearly as possible, the taking away of both chatter and rhetoric, both in life and in liturgy, so that no-one should be prevented from recognizing the Word either by any indulgent elaboration, or any borrowing of the ways in which the world at large (or for that matter the Church at large) declares the presence of power or advantage. This is not to say that something like early Cistercian Puritanism is the only aesthetic for a true monastic environment, only that there needs to be a basic simplicity of structure in building, art and liturgy so that the plain centrality of the Word spoken and heard can be seen to shape the whole community enterprise. This connects with the ancient insistence that monasticism is first and foremost a lay movement, and that those whom Benedict calls ‘the priests of the community’ are simply the servants of the brothers or sisters, not automatically a group with privileges or powers within the community. And the importance of the lay character of monasticism is another significant contribution to the ecumenical encounter. So much of the detail of ecumenical debate seems to focus compulsively on issues that affect the understanding of ordained ministry. These are not trivial, by any means, and we are not absolved from thinking them through. But the Church is the whole People of God, the assembly convened by the Word; the clergy are there to repeat—in some sense to embody—that call, but the common experience of the laity in every Christian community is to be called. To the extent that the monastic community steps aside from simply replicating clerical modes of power or privilege it is at once recognizable as a place where the Word is heard, as it is by laypeople of every confession.
The importance of monastic life to the ecumenical conversation is thus not simply in the undoubted fact that monks and nuns of different confession are able to relate to one another freely and appreciatively, significant and creative as that undoubtedly is. I have been suggesting that there are aspects of monasticism as such that enable us to understand more fully some things about ecumenism, and that make monastic communities crucial partners in all ecumenical encounter.
The first point is to do with the general understanding of Christian personhood: there is no solitary self-definition for the Christian person, and so there cannot be for the Christian confessional group. If we are divided, if we live in a sort of imposed ‘solitude’ and separation from each other, we must ask what gifts God has allowed us to develop in that ‘solitude’ so that we may learn to give them afresh to each other. In this respect, the experience especially of those communities that seek to balance solitude and community life is of special interest.
The second point is about how the monastic community models the Christian life as one in which the ultimate determining agency is the Word of God. Decisively, what makes the Church the Church is not any kind of contingent affinity or planned strategy of alliance but the single fact of the Word, heard in worship and echoed in worship (in a very particular sense in the psalms understood as the prayer of Christ, our language being taken up into his). Since the Church always needs signs and reminders of its nature when it is tempted to slip into the tribalism of race or class or ‘agenda’, the dependence of the monastic community simply on the Word is a gift to the Church’s self-critical energy.
And third, the understanding of the monastic life as epiclesis means that it prays for the Spirit not only to create diversity in plurality but to focus life and prayer on the one ‘word’ in which we express our growing-up into Christ and our dependence on his indwelling. Monastic simplicity is one of the ways in which we are recalled to this central reality. And when we begin again from there, we are liberated for hospitality at a profound level. Standing ‘at an angle’ to the Christian conventions of hierarchy, the monastic community represents straightforwardly the people of God, the laos, in a way that allows a real commonalty of experience to create unexpected relationships of understanding and sympathy.
Of course monastic communities will embody all this in very uneven ways. The rich dialectic of solitude and community can break down into a polarity of conformist and regimented common life and the longing to escape from it. Read Thomas Merton’s journals, and you can see how hard it is (how hard it was for him) to discern what was a matter of an authentic vocation to solitude and what was conditioned by reaction to just such a regimented common life. Again, as we noted earlier, monastic reform happens because even monastic families are liable to ‘tribalize’ community life in one way or another and to obscure the basic singleness of the call of God’s Word. Monastic communities like all other Christian families may become defensive and anxious, surrounding the essence of their life with various more or less elaborate ‘subcultures’, or reproducing power relations that belong elsewhere. But the history of monasticism is a history of rediscovery and reconstruction, of continuous self-questioning as to whether the simplicity of the Word’s calling has been overlaid. From Romuald, Bruno and Bernard to Teresa to Roger Schutz the same impetus has been at work. And in that constant return to poverty, the refusal of anything that suggests we depend on anything but the Word, there is a word of profound challenge to the whole Church.
In its struggle for fidelity to this vision, the monastic community always calls the church to reformation; and one thing we have discovered in the last century is how deeply that re-formation demands of us a re-discovery of one another in our confessional diversity and a search for how we may become able to serve one another more freely in Christ’s Body – in the profound hope that we shall be together once more at Christ’s table, where he ‘speaks himself’ into our lives in the speaking of his words over us, and his gifts of bread and wine, and where we become, by his Spirit, a new creation.
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If Darius the Mede (Daniel 6) is a real person, why does The Cambridge History of Judaism not mention him, as it lists all the rulers of Bablyon after the Persian conquest?
/If Darius the Mede (Daniel 6) is a real person, why does The Cambridge History of Judaism not mention him, as it lists all the rulers of Bablyon after the Persian conquest?
Posted on August 25, 2008 by John Oakes
Editor’s note: Since this article was written, a new paper which appears to identify Darius the Mede as Cyaxares II the Mede has been published. This appears to more or less settle the question. We recommend you read this paper. It is at http://www.academia.edu/9787699/Darius_the_Mede_A_Reappraisal
Why is it that “The Cambridge History Of Judaism” knows nothing of Darius the Mede, King of Babylon, although it has no problem in listing all the rulers of Babylon after the Persian conquest ?
There is an infinite number of things which happened in the past which are not known to historians. In the case of Darius the Mede, there is one very good historical source. In fact there is a record of his rule of the province of Babylon in the time immediately after the conquest by Cyrus in what is certainly the most reliable historical source we have from the ancient Near East: The Old Testament. By the way, we cannot list all the rulers of the province of Babylon after the conquest of Cyrus with the exact years they ruled. We do know about Gubaru. Some have proposed that Gubaru is actually another name for Darius, as he was a Mede, but this is a bit speculative. Absence of evidence (outside the book of Daniel) is not evidence of absence, unless we have a complete and uninterrupted list of the rulers of the province of Babylon from the time of Cyrus.
It is very instrucive to remember that skeptics of Daniel were unanimous in declaring the existence of king Belshazzar in Daniel 5 a mistake until they found reference to him ruling as regent under Nabonidus in an inscription at the Ziggurat in Ur. This explains why Belshazzar offered Daniel the third (not the second) place in his kingdom if he could interpret the writing on the wall. This example should make us cautious about labeling a character in Daniel as fictitious simply because we do not have an extant source on that character. Before this inscription we had all the rulers of Babylon, leaving no room for Belshazzar. Clearly, Belshazzar was a far more significant player in the world scene that Darius the Mede, yet we knew nothing of him (except in the most reliable historical source we have: the Bible!) until quite recently. I will admit that my analogy in the case of Belshazzar does not prove that Darius ruled Babylon. Analogy is not proof, but it certainly illustrates why lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.
Why the Cambridge History of Judaism does not list Darius the Mede is something they will have to answer for themselves. I am going to guess that this comes from liberal theologians who do not accept that the Bible is inspired by God. It is fashionable to ignore our most reliable historical source from the period out of a religiously-inspired bias against the Old Testament. No one doubts Herodotus, and even Josephus is accepted over the Old Testament, even though he wrote hundreds of years after the OT writers. Such bias and prejudice explains a lot.
John Oakes, PhD
Did you know that Darius the Mede from Daniel 6 has now been identified as Cyaxares II the Mede?
Explain how Daniel says Darius asked people to pray to him when we know from other sources that the rulers of Persian and Media were Zoroastrians and would never have allowed themselves to be worshipped
Please explain the historical error in Daniel which has a Persian emperor accepting worship when we know the Persian emperors were devout Zoroastrians.
Were there more than one authors of Daniel? Why does an archaeological find only mention Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, not Daniel
Are the sayings of Jesus in the gospels an exact transcript of what he said? Did someone take notes while he spoke? Why is it that Finkelstein and Silberman, in "The Bible Unearthed" flatly declare that the exodus and the conquest of Canaan never happened?
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Tag Archives: Ethan Mills
Pixel Scroll 7/23/16 I Tasted The Pixels In The Scroll Of The Universe, And I Was Not Offended
Posted on July 23, 2016 by Mike Glyer
(1) TRAFFIC. How do you get more pageviews for your blog? Talk about politics. But, of course, these things must be done delicately. Notice the daft, er, deft touch in Camestros Felapton’s post “Well, He Kept That Quiet”.
The local newspaper reports:
In a surprising move, presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton, has chosen local vermin catcher Timothy the Talking Cat as her Vice Presidential pick….
(2) SPACE, THE FASHION FRONTIER. Mayim Bialik of Big Bang Theory did a Star Trek-themed photo shoot. There are six pictures in the gallery, with Bialik costumed as a series of characters from classic Trek.
Mayim Bialik and fans everywhere geek out over Star Trek at 50. To celebrate, we boldy go where no man—or woman—has gone before, with a little help from this Trekkie pinup girl and The Big Bang Theory star. “I watched a lot of Star Trek when I was a kid, and being able to not only dress up like some of the most iconic characters from that universe,” Mayim Bialik said, “but be made up by some of the original innovators who created these looks, was personally so meaningful.”
She also appears in a two-minute “making of” video.
(3) LEGO SPACEWOMEN. LEGO has been asked to do a Women of NASA project about five female scientists and astronauts:
Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the U.S. space program, a.k.a. NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated — especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
This proposed set celebrates five notable NASA pioneers and provides an educational building experience to help young ones and adults alike learn about the history of women in STEM. The five Women of NASA are:
Margaret Hamilton, computer scientist: While working at MIT under contract with NASA in the 1960s, Hamilton developed the on-board flight software for the Apollo missions to the moon. She is known for popularizing the modern concept of software.
Katherine Johnson, mathematician and space scientist: A longtime NASA researcher, Johnson is best known for calculating and verifying trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo programs — including the Apollo 11 mission that first landed humans on the moon.
Sally Ride, astronaut, physicist, and educator: A physicist by training, Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. After retiring as a NASA astronaut, she founded an educational company focusing on encouraging children — especially girls — to pursue the sciences.
Nancy Grace Roman, astronomer: One of the first female executives at NASA, Roman is known to many as the “Mother of Hubble” for her role in planning the Hubble Space Telescope. She also developed NASA’s astronomy research program.
Mae Jemison, astronaut, physician, and entrepreneur: Trained as a medical doctor, Jemison became the first African-American woman in space in 1992. After retiring from NASA, Jemison established a company that develops new technologies and encourages students in the sciences.In addition to a desktop frame that displays these five minifigures and their names, the set includes vignettes depicting: a famous photo of the reams of code that landed astronauts on the moon in 1969; instruments used to calculate and verify trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo missions; a microscale Hubble Space Telescope and display; and a mini space shuttle, complete with external tank and solid rocket boosters.
The idea has gathered 2,513 supporters as of this writing – with 541 days left (that’s what it says). It needs 10,000 supporters to qualify for an official LEGO review.
(4) GHOSTBUSTER TOYS. Meanwhile, some toy shelves have become ghost towns due to strong sales – “Mattel Reports ‘Ghostbusters’ Toy Sales Have ‘Exceeded Expectations’”.
Mattel is reporting strong early sales for its line of toys based on the female-led “Ghostbusters” — from both boys and girls.
In keeping with the tagline “Everybody wants to be a Ghostbuster,” Mattel’s retail strategy was to sell the female-led Ghostbusters action figures in the boys’ toy aisle. The sales figures at the top retailers in the country have exceeded expectations, the toymaker reported Friday.
(5) PULP STUDIES. James Madison University will host the 1st Annual Pulp Studies Symposium on October 7-8. One of the speakers is today’s Munsey Award winner, Laurie Powers.
Nestled in the Shenandoah Valley, James Madison University’s Special Collections hosts one of the finest publicly accessible collections of pulp magazines in the United States, including a recent acquisition of over eighty issues of Street and Smith’s romance pulp Love Story.
David M. Earle
Associate Professor of Transatlantic Modernism and Print Culture at the University of West Florida
David M. Earle is Associate Professor of Transatlantic Modernism and Print Culture at the University of West Florida. He is author of Re-Covering Modernism: Pulps, Paperbacks, and the Prejudice of Form (2009) and All Man!: Hemingway, 1950s Men’s Magazines, and the Masculine Persona(2009). More recently, he has published on pulp magazines and modernism for The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Volume 2; the influence of pulps on William Faulkner for Fifty Years after Faulkner; and pulps and the modernist genre novel for The Cambridge History of the Modernist Novel (2016). His online projects include the Digital Newsstand, an online re-creation of a newsstand from 1925.
Laurie Powers
Laurie Powers, an Ada Comstock Scholar graduate of Smith College, developed her interest in pulp fiction in 1999 when she discovered that her paternal grandfather, Paul S. Powers, (1905–1971) had been a successful writer of stories that appeared in magazines such as Weird Tales, Wild West Weekly, Western Story Magazine, Real Detective Tales, Thrilling Western, and many more. Since then, Laurie has been very active in the community of pulp fiction historians, writers, and collectors. She wrote the prologue and epilogue that appear in her grandfather’s memoir, Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street (University of Nebraska Press, 2007), has published several collections of her grandfather’s stories, and has spoken to a variety of audiences on the history of pulp fiction. Laurie is now writing a biography of Daisy Bacon, editor of Love Story Magazine, and has written articles and book introductions about Bacon and the romance pulps
(6) ONE WRITER’S PROCESS.
When revising:
Day 1: Getting better! Might get represented w/ it.
Day 2: WTH? This is dog vomit!
Day 3: CALL UP THE HUGO AWARDS.#amwriting
— Rachel A. Chaney (@VoloCaballus) July 22, 2016
(7) KISS ANOTHER HISTORIC HOUSE GOODBYE. According to Los Angeles Magazine, “The Home Where Walt Disney Founded His First Studio Is Set to be Demolished”.
New owners have requested a demolition permit for Walt Disney’s first home in California. The well-preserved 1914 Craftsman bungalow at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz belonged to Walt’s aunt Charlotte and uncle Robert Disney, who in July of 1923 invited their young nephew to board in their home (at a rate of $5 per week) as he pursued his dream of becoming a film director. The 2-bedroom, 1458 square-foot home would stay in the Disney family for 30 years. Charlotte moved next door in 1955, spending five decades on Kingswell. When it was sold again in 1977 the owners described it as having “lots of wood trim, fireplace & cheery breakfast room.” The home exhibits tremendous architectural integrity, with the same porch, gables, shingles, windows, and beveled glass door that greeted 22-year-old Walt Disney.
According to the Los Angeles County Assessor the property was sold two months ago to Sang Ho and Krystal Yoo of Studio City, who submitted plans on Friday for a new 2-story, 1 or 2-family home they plan to build on the site. In November, the City of Los Angeles Survey L.A. program declared the property eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for its role as Walt Disney’s first studio in California. The same city planning department is now considering issuing a permit for its destruction.
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY
July 23, 1982 — Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed when a helicopter crashed on the movie set of The Twilight Zone.
July 23, 1999 — Disney’s Tarzan became the first all-digital film.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
Born July 23, 1989 – Daniel Radcliffe
(10) WISE CRACKS. Ethan Mills at Examined Worlds reviews “Tectonic Fantasy: Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin”.
N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is a difficult, complex, and engrossing tale. Let me focus on the plot structure, the worldbuilding, and the major theme of living within unjust social structures….
Building a Volatile World The worldbuilding is amazing. The Stillness (the sarcastically-named continent where it all takes place) is on a world of intense geological activity, which every few hundred years creates a “Fifth Season” that wipes out a lot of the life on the planet. Worldbuilding aficionados will love the historical appendix that tells the history of each Fifth Season going back several thousand years. There’s also a glossary for more general terms, which is helpful for forgetful readers like me (although most of the terms can be understood in context as you read the novel). It’s obvious as you’re reading that this is the first book of a trilogy, so while I look forward to learning more about the characters, I’m most interested to learn more about the world.
(11) HUGO CHANGES. Steve Davidson gives “A 3SV Endorsement” at Amazing Stories.
3SV would insert an additional vote between nominations and final voting. (Nominations > 3SV > Final Vote.) Up to the top 15 nominees in each category are presented to the voters, who in effect have an opportunity to preemptively vote No Award for each of the 15 nominees. Based on the criteria of the proposal (here), nominees that receive above a certain threshold of “reject” votes during this round are removed from the list of 15 and the remaining top 5 nominees – based on the original nomination counts – are then placed on the final ballot.
Nominees of questionable origin, undeserving nominees and nominees gamed onto the ballot can be removed at this second stage, which will prevent bad actors from acquiring a “Hugo Award Finalist” designation; voters will not have to choose to vote for something reprehensible or No Award the entire category; the effectiveness of slate voting will be seriously reduced, if not eliminated.
The bar for rejection is high – 60% – so it is unlikely that anything but those works generally perceived as having arrived on the ballot through unfair means will be eliminated during the process.
(12) FANTASTIC BEASTS. There’s been an inundation of trailers tailored for showing at the San Diego Comic-Con. I’m including several in today’s Scroll.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Comic-Con Trailer
(13) JUSTICE LEAGUE. Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment showed footage of Zack Snyder’s Justice League in Hall H.
The first look at the #JusticeLeague, straight from #SDCC2016 in Hall H. pic.twitter.com/jyjHZXFdtf
— Justice League Movie (@justiceleaguewb) July 23, 2016
#FlewAllNight #NeverMissHallH #JusticeLeaguehttps://t.co/PH2loOdHOY
— ZackSnyder (@ZackSnyder) July 23, 2016
(14) KONG. SciFiNow has a good intro: “Kong Skull Island trailer crash-lands in modern day”.
The first trailer for Kong: Skull Island has come rampaging in…
Letting us know that this is brought to us by same folks who created Godzilla, this should have given us a hint of what to expect from Kong: Skull Island. We’ll be honest though: we weren’t prepared for this.
Leads Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson don’t get a single line of dialogue. Instead, co-stars Samuel L Jackson and John Goodman get their time to shine in this modern-day reimagining of the King Kong mythos.
(15) MARVEL AND NETFLIX AT SDCC.
San Diego Comic Con Sizzle presented by Marvel and Netflix
A look back at Daredevil and Jessica Jones as we get ready for Luke Cage. All episode of Daredevil and Jessica Jones now streaming on Netflix. Luke Cage premieres on September 30.
Marvel’s Iron Fist – SDCC – First Look – Netflix [HD]
Marvel’s The Defenders – SDCC Teaser – Netflix [HD]
Marvel’s Luke Cage – SDCC – Teaser – Netflix [HD]
(16) MARCHING DOWN THE AISLE. Elaborate cosplay at SDCC.
Xena Warrior Disney Princess. #SDCC pic.twitter.com/996ZJEC1sc
— Liz Smith (@Dammit_Liz) July 21, 2016
(17) SOME DARE CALL IT ACTING. Hello Giggles really likes Margot Robbie.
This brand new “Suicide Squad” trailer ONLY features Harley Quinn and thus, it is awesome
Is it too early to start an Oscar campaign for Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad? This is a very serious question. She shouldn’t just with an Oscar for her role in the upcoming DC movie, but maybe like, four. And also probably an Emmy, and a Tony, and let’s just give her a Pulitzer and a Nobel Peace Price, why not. All the awards for Robbie, who is about to make WAVES as Harley Quinn.
(18) EVERYBODY NEEDS A CRISIS. Time Magazine explains “Why Aliens Are So Important to Star Trek” – but are they right?
“Gene was very big on not wanting to create conflict among the characters on the show,” says Rick Berman, who led the Star Trek franchise after Roddenberry died in 1991 until 2005 and produced several series and feature films. “He felt that humans, especially Starfleet humans, had evolved to a point where he didn’t want to see conflict between them.”
Yet conflict is at the core of all great storytelling. So if the Enterprise crew couldn’t squabble with one another, Star Trek writers had to find friction elsewhere. Aliens came to the rescue. “Often we were telling stories of how humans had progressed, or not, in the far reaches of space,” says longtime Star Trek writer D.C. Fontana. “But sometimes the theme of the tale was better told by demonstrating how aliens approached or solved problems, or how they failed.”
(19) ROGUE ONE. JJ says, “They’ve done a great bit of spot-on casting for this character, whose original actress is now 83.” Movie Pilot has the story: “Mon Mothma Sure Has Changed Since We Last Saw Her”
While the original Mon Mothma, Caroline Blakiston, is now 83, and thus a little too old to play the Rebel leader in a prequel, it seems that Star Wars: Rogue One has still managed to find a way to go old school with its Mon Mothma-related casting.
Our new Mon Mothma is the same Mon Mothma we (kind of) saw in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Genevieve O’Reilly.
[Thanks to Carl Slaughter, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rob Thornton.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Camestros Felapton, Disney, Dr. Mae Jemison, Ethan Mills, Ghostbusters, J. K. Rowling, JJ, Justice League, King Kong, Lego, Marvel, Mayim Bialik, N. K. Jemisin, NASA, Netflix, pulps, Rogue One, Sally Ride, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steve Davidson, Suicide Squad, Timothy the Talking Cat, Walt Disney
Pixel Scroll 6/29/16 Owner Of A Lonely Pixel
Posted on June 29, 2016 by Mike Glyer
(1) CASUALTY OF INTOLERANCE. Al Davison’s writeup about being harassed on the street in his hometown of Coventry comes recommended by James Bacon with the note: “New Britain — bigots empowered — comic artist and martial arts expert Al Davison racially abused. His view and experience must be read. A decent man doesn’t want to live here anymore and fears for those who are kind to him. It’s not good.”
WHY I DON’T WANT TO LIVE HERE: Sunday night I’m almost home, it’s started raining, I’m rushing because my immune system sucks, I only have to smell rain and I get ill. Two men on the other side of the road shout ‘Fu**in’ islamist cripple! One adds, ‘takin our fu**in’ benefits’, while the other shouts, ‘What happened, didn’t your fu**in’ suicide vest do the job properly?’
They get a bit ahead walking backwards so they can keep looking at me, the older of the two, puts his hand two his mouth and laughs ‘Sorry mate, thought you were a P*ki, Sorry, ‘And what if I was’, I shout’, still looking ahead, and not at them. The other responds with, ‘why you sayin’ sorry, he’s still a fu**in’ scroungin’ cripple.” They start chanting ‘scrounger’, and and literally dance off down the road, like a couple of teenagers, the youngest was in his thirties, the other around fifty. Morons. I have a beard and wear a hat, that makes me an islamist! I know I am more than capable of defending myself, I’ve survived numerous physical attacks, but many aren’t equiped to defend themselves the way I am. ‘WE SHOULDN’T FU**KING HAVE TOO! …
(2) PRIME TIME. The CBC has the story: “Justin Trudeau joins Canadian superheroes for Marvel Comics cover”.
Make way, Liberal cabinet: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have another all-Canadian crew in his corner as he suits up for his latest feature role — comic book character.
Trudeau will grace the variant cover of issue No. 5 of Marvel’s “Civil War II: Choosing Sides,” due out Aug. 31.
Trudeau is depicted smiling, sitting relaxed in the boxing ring sporting a Maple Leaf-emblazoned tank, black shorts and red boxing gloves. Standing behind him are Puck, Sasquatch and Aurora, who are members of Canadian superhero squad Alpha Flight. In the left corner, Iron Man is seen with his arms crossed.
“I didn’t want to do a stuffy cover — just like a suit and tie — put his likeness on the cover and call it a day,” said award-winning Toronto-based cartoonist Ramon Perez.
“I wanted to kind of evoke a little bit of what’s different about him than other people in power right now. You don’t see (U.S. President Barack) Obama strutting around in boxing gear, doing push-ups in commercials or whatnot. Just throwing him in his gear and making him almost like an everyday person was kind of fun.”
The variant cover featuring Trudeau will be an alternative to the main cover in circulation showcasing Aurora, Puck, Sasquatch and Nick Fury.
Trudeau follows in the prime ministerial footsteps of his late father, Pierre, who graced the pages of “Uncanny X-Men” in 1979. [Volume 120]
(3) VICE VERSA SQUAD. Camestros Felapton reviews “Batman versus Superman: Or Is it Vice Versa”.
I finally watched Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice. This was the Extended Cut and at least one review I’ve read suggest that the extra 30 minutes makes the film substantially better. Ah. Hmm. I didn’t see the theatrical version but either that was a huge mess of a film or the extra 30 minutes made the central problem far worse. This was a film that needed editing or some sort of substantial re-jigging. Perhaps what hit the theatres was a failed attempt at that?
Beyond this point there are spoilers aplenty – so don’t read on if you don’t want to discover who the alter-ego of Superman is or what house Batman lives in [HINT: its an anagram of Mayne Wanor].
(4) GAIMAN’S NEXT. “Neil Gaiman Delves Deep Into Norse Myths for New Book” announced the New York Times.
Mr. Gaiman’s forthcoming book “Norse Mythology,” which Norton will publish next February, is an almost novelistic retelling of famous myths about the gods of Asgard. The book will explore the nine Norse worlds, which are populated by elves, fire demons, the Vanir gods, humans, dwarves, giants and the dead. There are ice giants and elves, familiar deities like Thor, Odin (the wise and occasionally vengeful highest god) and Loki (the giant trickster), and a frightening doomsday scenario, Ragnarok, where the gods fight a fire giant with a flaming sword in an apocalyptic, world-ending battle.
Gaiman joked about his posed photo accompanying the article.
I look at the photo & see a really brilliant tree, with a decorative author, so noone knows the tree wrote the book: https://t.co/IuqOKcNyh0
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 29, 2016
@neilhimself The tree's prose is usually so wooden, though. Hopefully you got it it to branch out, and it will flower under your tutelage.
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) June 29, 2016
(5) THE FIRST. Petréa Mitchell noted in comments that The Atlantic has an article on the adoption of word processors by writers which includes anecdotes about Jerry Pournelle and Isaac Asimov, and some general comments on the effect of word processors on sf writing.
Robinson Meyer: “Who was the first author to write a novel on a word processor?” You cast that question as what drove you to write this book. Is there something close to a definitive answer for it?
Matthew Kirschenbaum: We can’t know with absolute certainty, I don’t think, but there are a couple of different answers.
If we think of a word processor or a computer as something close to what we understand today—essentially a typewriter connected to a TV set—there are a couple of contenders from the mid- to late-1970s. Notably Jerry Pournelle, who was a science fiction author. He is probably the first person to sit and compose at a “typewriter” connected to a “TV screen”—to compose there, to edit, and revise there, and then to send copy to his publisher. That was probably a novella called Spirals.
If we move back a little bit further, there’s an interesting story about a writer named John Hersey, the novelist and journalist. He did the famous book Hiroshima. He was at Yale in the early 1970s, so maybe about five years before Pournelle, and he worked on one of the mainframe systems there. He didn’t compose the draft of the novel he was working on at the keyboard, but he did edit it, and use the computer to typeset camera-ready copy.
So those are two candidates.
And yet neither of them is Kirschenbaum’s choice…
(6) MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Tobias Buckell has a post on “How to collaborate on fiction in 2016 using pair programming, Skype, and Google Docs”.
I just finished a new collaboration. It’s a short story of nearly 10,000 words that will be in Bridging Infinity (you can pre-order here), edited by Johnathan Strahan “The latest volume in the Hugo award-winning Infinity Project series, showcasing all-original hard science fiction stories from the leading voices in genre fiction.”
The writer I collaborated with was Karen Lord, who currently lives in Barbados (author of Galaxy Games, Redemption in Indigo, you’re reading her, right?).
(7) NO POWER. Kim Lao argues “Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year” at Lithub.
I asked her what her secret was, and she said something that would change my professional life as a writer: “Collect rejections. Set rejection goals. I know someone who shoots for one hundred rejections in a year, because if you work that hard to get so many rejections, you’re sure to get a few acceptances, too.”
This small piece of advice struck a deep chord in my fragile creative ego. My vulnerable ego only wants to be loved and accepted, to have my words ring out from a loudspeaker in Times Square while a neon ticker scrolls the text across a skyscraper, but it’s a big old coward….
(8) LOST SERIES AND VANISHED VISUALIZATIONS. Suvudu will make you nostalgic for a TV show you likely have never heard of before: “’Out of the Unknown’: The BBC Sci-Fi Series Americans Should Have Seen”.
The Guardian’s Phelim O’Neill just published a rather nice review of the long gone BBC science-fiction and horror anthology program “Out of the Unknown”. While I’ve never seen it myself, from what O’Neill wrote, it sounds like it was a real doozy. Consisting of four seasons aired on BBC 2 from 1965 to 1971, “Out of the Unknown” adapted literary works by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and J.G. Ballard.
Out of the 49 episodes filmed, only around 20 or so remain. As “Doctor Who” fans are already aware, it was standard procedure for the BBC to delete old episodes of what was at one time deemed disposable entertainment. Coincidentally, one of the lost episodes of “Out of the Uknown” actually featured Doctor Who’s arch nemeses: The Daleks.
(9) ISHER IN AMERICA. Jeb Kinnison, who thinks File 770 readers will be intrigued by the sf aspects of this post, is honestly not optimistic very many will agree with his political comments — “The Justice is Too Damn High! – Gawker, The High Cost of Litigation, and The Weapons Shops of Isher”.
Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to avoid paying the bond which would otherwise be necessary to appeal the $140 million judgment against them in the Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit. (It’s a good thing I don’t have to explain that sentence to a time traveler from the last century — would take a long time.) There have been plenty of stories and hot takes on it, so I’ll reach back to discuss what the real problem is — the cost of justice is too damn high. ….
Today’s United States resembles the Empire of Isher more than a little — a relatively prosperous population, but with layer upon layer of accreted law, regulation, and bureaucracy, with ideals of justice corrupted in practice so that only the wealthiest can afford government-sanctioned courts…. The impunity with which Gawker operated for years while stepping on the privacy rights of people for profit is just one symptom of the inability to get justice at a reasonable price. The simmering resentments of citizens made unknowing scofflaws while going about their lives and the increasing regulatory overhead to start and run a small business are slowing growth and damaging the careers of young people who have been trained to ask permission before trying anything new….
(10) KELLY OBIT. Peter David took note of the passing of a behind-the-scenes figure: Lorna Kelley, RIP.
The chances are spectacular that you have not heard of Lorna Kelly. For the vast majority of you, there is no reason that you would have. Lorna was an auctioneer who worked for Sotheby’s for a time–one of the first female fine arts auctioneers in the world–and she recently died of a stroke at the age of 70.
The reason that the David family knew her was because every year for over a decade, she was the auctioneer at the Broadway Bears charity auction sponsored by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Every year she would coax and cajole individuals into bidding ridiculous amounts of money for bears that had been lovingly costumed in exact replicas of Broadway character outfits. But that was hardly the extent of her life. She treated AIDS patients in Calcutta working with Mother Teresa. According to the NY Times, “She also traveled to Senegal, where she vaccinated thousands of children. In Cairo, she ministered to impoverished residents of a vast garbage dump; she likewise served the poor in Jordan, Gaza and the Bronx.” To say she led a well-rounded life is to understate it, and we were privileged to have met her and spent time with her.
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
Born June 29, 1911 – Bernard Hermann
Born June 29, 1920 – Ray Harryhausen
And did they ever work together? I’m glad you asked – Internet Movie Database shows Hermann did the music for Mysterious Island and Jason and the Argonauts, two films for which Harryhausen created the special visual effects.
(12) GUILLERMO DEL TORO. Another film available to fans and collectors.
Criterion's Pan's Labyrinth 10th anniversary edition! And more news to come soon! pic.twitter.com/GWpToRoiqN
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) June 27, 2016
Slashfilm covers the news: “Pan’s Labyrinth Criterion Collection Release Announced”.
The 2006 film is often looked at as the filmmaker’s best work, and understandably so. Most of del Toro’s films have plenty of heart, horror, and beauty, but Pan’s Labyrinth, narratively and dramatically speaking, it is his most satisfying work. Good luck trying not to tear up during Ofelia’s (Ivana Baquero) heartbreaking journey.
(13) STRUGATSKY ADAPTATION. In the film of Roadside Picnic, Matthew Goode takes top billing.
The Good Wife and Downton Abbey alum Matthew Goode is set as the lead in WGN America’s alien saga pilot Roadside Picnic, based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
Written by Transcendence scribe Jack Paglen, with Terminator Genisys and Game Of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing, Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to explore the wondrous and dangerous mysteries left behind. The story also explores the social ramifications of their visit, as seen through the eyes of Red (Goode), a veteran “stalker” who has made it his mission to illegally venture into the once inhabited zone and scavenge the abandoned remains of the alien culture.
(14) MST3K. Ceridwen Christensen may leave you green with envy: “I Attended the MST3K Reunion Show, and It Was Everything I Wanted It to Be” (B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog.)
Last night at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, I had the absolute pleasure to experience the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reunion show, hosted by Rifftrax, purveyors of downloadable movie-mocking commentary tracks, a company founded by several alums of the show. It also featured members of Cinematic Titanic, likewise the brainchild of ex-MST3K cast members. Last night, they got the band back together, uniting writers and actors from several eras of the show, both past and future. It was a celebration of the fact that Joel Hodgson, the original creator, recently wrapped the most successful film and video Kickstarter of all time: a successful bid to revive the show after more than 16 years off the air; squee. Hodgson riffed on a short with the new lead, Jonah Ray. I think I actually hurt my throat laughing….
(15) DAVID D. LEVINE COMING TO LA. Shades & Shadows 17 will be at Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum in Burbank, CA on July 16. Doors at 7:30 p.m. Readings begin at 8:00 p.m. $10.
It’s summer. Everything is on fire, melting, or exploding. Everybody is one power outage away from convincing themselves we’ve entered the world of Mad Max.
Which, hey, isn’t far off from what we’re offering. Leave reality behind for a while. Come see what we have on tap as we bring in our mix of award winning authors and emerging voices in the literary scene! It’s a genre experience like no other!
Featuring: PAUL TREMBLAY, STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES, VESTA VAINGLORIA, DAVID D. LEVINE, GLEN HIRSHBERG, +1 TBA!
(16) HELP FRAN EVANS. Karen Willson alerted me that contributions are requested to the Fran Evans Assistance Fund (on GoFundMe) to help a longtime LASFSian.
This fundraiser is for a friend of mine, Fran Evans. Fran just had brain surgery and can’t work.
She says that “the money would be used to “pay my bills/rent for the next couple of months while I recovery from having holes drilled in my head. Whatever moneys I normally get go to my rent, this would help pay the difference and other bills. Not many, I’m pretty frugal. I have no credit cards. If I can’t pay by check or debit – it doesn’t happen. Water, for the moment, is free.
“I don’t smoke or drink or go shopping. My idea of a big splurge is a used paperback on Amazon. I just want couple of months to heal without any worries about money. The doctors said about two months before my balance begins to come back online. I seem to spend a lot of time resting or sleeping. Gee, wonder why.
“I’d like to get $2,000. to $2,500. But whatever I can get would be nice.”
Fran has worked many years in the film industry and the Bob Burns Halloween show. Folks at conventions will remember her for her backstage help at many events.
Your assistance will mean a lot to Fran. Thank you for thinking about it!
(17) PROFESSIONAL PREFERENCES. Sarah A. Hoyt advocates for writing in “First Person, Singular”.
1- The main reason I like first person singular is that for a moment it tricks you into that space behind the eyes of another person, relieving the loneliness of that narrative voice that can only ever describe your own life.
This is a universal and enduring quality. I’ve had teachers tell me — and to an extent they’re right — that first person is “less believable” because you KNOW you haven’t done those things.
To which I counter that WELL done, with the right balance of external activity and internal dialogue, with just enough of a “touch of nature makes the whole world kin” i.e. of physical sensation that the readers, too, have experienced, it can make you feel it is happening/happened to you.
(18) TIME IN A BOTTLE. At Examined Worlds, Ethan Mills discusses the philosophical questions within the classic sf novel: “At War with Time: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman”.
In addition to the emotional scars of returning soldiers, the time dilation speaks to the feeling of aging while the world moves on around you. This is something I feel acutely as an aging college professor constantly encountering fresh crops of young whipper-snappers with their new fangled cultural references and ways of being! The time dilation reminds us that we are all at war with time, which is of course relative to the observer’s position. It’s also by far the most interesting aspect of the book and allows Haldeman to write the history of the next 1,000 years.
Suffice to say there are some ruminations on this war and war in general. Why are they fighting? Why can’t they learn more about the alien Taurans? How is the war the cornerstone of the economy? Does the war make it possible for the government to control most aspects of society?
The philosophical questions are more implied than pedantically presented. You don’t get anything quite like the classroom scenes of Starship Troopers. I honestly would have liked a little more explicit philosophy to chew on.
(19) YOUTH REACT. James Davis Nicoll tells me his second post on Young People Read Old SF goes live 9:00 a.m. Thursday.
(20) HUGO CONTENDER. Lisa Goldstein reviews “Short Story: ‘Space Raptor Butt Invasion’” for inferior4+1. The last line is the most surprising part of her post:
I have no idea why this story was on the Rabid Puppies’ slate.
I believe a lot of readers here could explain it.
(21) SUCCESSFUL COUP IN BRITAIN. The Evening Harold has scooped the mainstream media with its report “Lord Vetinari takes control of the UK” (via Ansible Links.):
The UK is under new leadership this morning following a coup by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Havelock Vetinari…..
[Thanks to Karen Willson, Petréa Mitchell, John King Tarpinian, Taral Wayne, and David K.M. Klaus for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bruce Baugh.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged A. E. Van Vogt, Arkady Strugatsky, Batman, Boris Strugatsky, Camestros Felapton, Chuck Tingle, David Levine, Ethan Mills, Fran Evans, Guillermo del Toro, James Davis Nicoll, Jeb Kinnison, Jerry Pournelle, John Scalzi, Justin Trudeau, Karen Willson, Lisa Goldstein, Mystery Theatre 3000, Neil Gaiman, Peter David, Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, Sarah A. Hoyt, Superman, Terry Pratchett, Tobias Buckell, X-Men
Pixel Scroll 4/5/16 If You Pixel Us, Do We Not Recommend? If You Scroll Us, Do We Not Read?
(1) NO MCKELLEN AUTOBIO AFTER ALL. In The Hollywood Reporter, “Ian McKellen Explains Why he Returned $1.4M Memoir Advance”.
“It was a bit painful — I didn’t want to go back into my life and imagine things that I hadn’t understood so far.”
The world isn’t going to get to read Sir Ian McKellen’s autobiography.
Last year it emerged that the celebrated and Oscar-nominated thespian would be penning his own memoir in a deal with publishers Hodder & Stoughton reported to be worth £1 million ($1.4 million). But earlier this month the 76-year-old stage and screen icon revealed that he’d pulled the plug on the contract.
(2) OVERFLOWING WITH VERSE. Poems that Make Grown Women Cry edited by Anthony and Ben Holden gets a plug at Book View Café . One of the contributors, Ursula K. Le Guin, explains her choice of a poem in the collection:
I chose Robinson Jeffers’ “Hurt Hawks” because it always makes me cry. I’ve never yet got through the last lines without choking up. Jeffers is an uneven poet, and this is an uneven pair of poems, intemperate and unreasonable. Jeffers casts off humanity too easily. But he was himself a kind of maimed, hurt hawk, and his identification with the birds is true compassion. He builds pain unendurably so that we can know release.
(3) KUZNIA MOVES UP. ”Job Moves” at Publishers Weekly reports “Yanni Kuznia, previously director of production, is being promoted to managing editor and COO at Subterranean Press.” SF Signal did an interview with Kuznia last year when she was still Director of Production.
AJ: Subterranean Press has a pretty small staff, so everyone wears multiple hats. Can you tell us a little about what you do at Subterranean? What is a typical work week like for you?
YK: As Director of Production, it’s my job to keep titles moving through the production machine. I need to make sure every book is proofed, art is commissioned, signature sheets are designed and signed, ARCs are ordered and sent out, authors receive and return page proofs, and that everything is reviewed one last time before we go to press. Of course, I have help doing all of this. I have two wonderful people, Geralyn Lance and Kyle Brandon, who work under me in Production, overseeing the day-to-day of several titles each. We talk continuously throughout the process to make sure every milestone is hit on time.
(4) FAITH. Deborah J. Ross at Book View Café finds three ways out for writers forced to deal with their “Original Vision vs. Compromising With the Market”. Number two is – go indie.
If you believe in your work, how can you be sure but this is not infatuation with your own words but that your work truly is of high quality? Every writer I know goes through spasms of self-doubt. Writing requires a bizarre combination of megalomania and crushing self-doubt. We need the confidence to follow our flights of fancy, and at the same time, we need to regard our creations with a critical eye. Trusted readers, including workshops like Clarion and Clarion West, critique groups, fearless peers, and freelance editors can give us invaluable feedback on whether our work really is as good as we think it might be. Of course, they can be wrong. It may be that what we are trying to do falls so far outside conventional parameters that only we can judge its value. It may also be that we see on the page not what is actually there but what we imagined and hoped.
Assuming that we are writing from our hearts and that the product of our creative labors is indeed extraordinary, what are we to do when faced with closed doors and regretful rejection letters? As discouraging as this situation seems, we do have choices. We writers are no longer solely dependent upon traditional publishers. We live in an era where writers can become publishers, and can produce excellent quality books, both in digital form and Print On Demand.
However, not all of us are cut out to format, publish, and market our work. All of these activities require time in which to acquire skills and time to actually perform them. That’s time we have lost for writing. While becoming your own publisher is a valid choice, it is not right for everyone. Some of us would much rather write in the next book.
(5) YURI’S NIGHT WORLD SPACE PARTY IN SAN DIEGO. Down in San Diego on April 9, Yuri’s Night celebrations will include a movie will include an sf movie showing. They’ll show Contact free at 7:00 p.m. in Studio 106 (San Diego Reader Building, 2323 Broadway, 92102).
Astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway has long been interested in contact to faraway lands, a love fostered in her childhood by her father, Ted Arroway, who passed away when she was nine years old leaving her then orphaned. Her current work in monitoring for extraterrestrial life is based on that love and is in part an homage to her father. Ever since funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was pulled on her work, which is referred to some, including her NSF superior David Drumlin, as more science fiction than science, Ellie, with a few of her rogue scientist colleagues, have looked for funding from where ever they could get it to continue their work. When Ellie and her colleagues hear chatter originating from the vicinity of the star Vega, Ellie feels vindicated. But that vindication is short lived when others, including politicians, the military, religious leaders and other scientists such as Drumlin, try to take over her work.
Although it is free, please RSVP as seating is limited.
(6) GUESS WHO? The website for Innominate (“The Con with no name!”) is up.
Innominate is the 2017 Eastercon, the British National Science Fiction Convention. Eastercon’s have been held over the Easter weekend every year since 1955 and is a regular gathering place for science fiction fans from around the UK and elsewhere to celebrate the genre in all of its formats.
Eastercons stand in a long tradition which we intend to celebrate, while aiming to bring in new elements too. The convention will cover books, film, television, art and costume and the programme will include talks, discussions, exhibits, workshops and other entertainment.
(7) FIREFLY LESSONS. Tom Knighton points out what businesses can learn from his favorite TV series in “Loyalty, Firefly, and Captain Mal”.
From a management perspective, Mal may be an ideal leader to emulate. Oh sure, there are others out there. Real life examples exist. I’ve been blessed to work with someone like that myself, but not everyone is exposed to that. However, anyone can pop in a DVD and watch Mal and learn.
So why is Mal so ideal?
First, he is a hands-on leader. In the pilot episode, Mal and Jayne are moving crates of their ill-gotten gains, stashing them where prying eyes won’t see. He doesn’t relegate the task to anyone else, but instead works just as hard as his crew does. When they don’t eat, he doesn’t eat. When they work, he works.
This firmly establishes his belief that he’s not better than anyone, despite being captain. Yes, he issues orders, but because he’s shown that he’ll do anything he asks others to do, his orders are followed.
Second, his top-down loyalty. Mal doesn’t have to like a member of his crew to be loyal. He doesn’t care for Simon, not in the least. It’s obvious to everyone, especially Simon. However, he refused to leave a member of his crew behind, regardless of his personal feelings about the man.
(8) OTTO BINDER BIO. Bill Schelly’s Otto Binder, The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary is coming back into print June 7 from North Atlantic Books (paperback, 320 pages, $19.95.) It has 28 new images, of which 14 are new photographs.
Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary chronicles the career of Otto Binder, from pulp magazine author to writer of Supergirl, Captain Marvel, and Superman comics. As the originator of the first sentient robot in literature (“I, Robot,” published in Amazing Stories in 1939 and predating Isaac Asimov’s collection of the same name), Binder’s effect on science fiction was profound. Within the world of comic books, he created or co-created much of the Superman universe, including Smallville; Krypto, Superboy’s dog; Supergirl; and the villain Braniac. Binder is also credited with writing many of the first “Bizarro” storylines for DC Comics, as well as for being the main writer for the Captain Marvel comics. In later years, Binder expanded from comic books into pure science writing, publishing dozens of books and articles on the subject of satellites and space travel as well as UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Comic book historian Bill Schelly tells the tale of Otto Binder through comic panels, personal letters, and interviews with Binder’s own family and friends. Schelly weaves together Binder’s professional successes and personal tragedies, including the death of Binder’s only daughter and his wife’s struggle with mental illness. A touching and human story, Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary is a biography that is both meticulously researched and beautifully told, keeping alive Binder’s spirit of scientific curiosity and whimsy.
(9) PENNED BY C. S. LEWIS. There are a couple dozen entries on Brenton Dickieson’s list of “Photographic Plates of C.S. Lewis’ Manuscripts and Letters”, and several illustrate the post.
A reader suggested I add to my collection of previously unpublished C.S. Lewis manuscripts (“The Lost-But-Found Works of C.S. Lewis“) by providing a list of manuscripts that show up in photographic plates in books and journals. I know that most of these are published by now, but this list is valuable for people who want to get to know C.S. Lewis’ handwriting.
(10) RACHEL SWIRSKY INTERVIEWS FRAN WILDE. Rachel Swirsky conducts a “Silly Interview with Fran Wilde, expert on man-made wings”.
3. Have you ever done skydiving or hang gliding or anything similar?
I haven’t! I’m a sailor. I have relatives who hang-glide, and I spent a lot of my childhood watching storms roll in on the cliffs of the Chesapeake Bay (it gets really windy), but in order to do the research for UPDRAFT, I wanted to feel the physics of being in a wind tunnel, and I wanted to make sure I was writing a flying book, not a sailing book turned sideways. So I went indoor skydiving, which was a hoot. And very spinny.
The wings in the book aren’t hang-gliding wings, they’re more like a cross between furlable wings and wing-suit wings, so I also watched a lot of wingsuit fliers on long-flights and also doing particularly dangerous things like flying through canyons. I researched about 2,000 years of man-made wings in history, and talked a lot with engineers who understand the physics of foils – aka: wings.
(11) YA REVIEWS YA. My favorite YA reader, Sierra Glyer, added a review of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas to her blog.
…It is about a 18 year old assassin named Celaena Sardothien. She is the most feared assassin on the continent but one day she gets caught. After she gets caught she is sent to a slave camp and this is where the book starts….
(12) WEIST ESTATE AUCTION. The catalog for this year’s Jerry Weist estate auction (to be held at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention April 22-24, 2016) is now available. Over 4,000 pulps, dime novels, men’s adventure magazines and other magazines. Here’s a link to the catalog (19 pages).
(13) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
Born April 5, 1908 – Bette Davis
Born April 5, 1916 — Gregory Peck. Among his many roles: Ahab in John Huston’s Moby Dick, scripted by Ray Bradbury.
Born April 5, 1933 — Frank Gorshin, who played The Riddler on Batman and the bigoted half-whiteface, half-blackface alien Bele on an episode of Star Trek.
(15) THREE-BODY. Ethan Mills tackles the “Wobbly Relations of Past, Present, and Future: The Three-Body problem by Liu Cixin (Translated by Ken Liu) at Examined Worlds.
The Philosophy Report: Is Nature Uniform? What to Expect from ETs?
Philosophy is mentioned several times, including the Chinese philosopher, Mozi, and the German philosopher, Leibniz, who are both characters in the game. Aside from such small connections, two major issues are the uniformity of nature and the reaction to extraterrestrial intelligence.
In philosophy of science (and regular life for that matter) we all rely on what some philosophers have called the principle of the uniformity of nature. This is usually discussed in (constant) conjunction with David Hume’s problem of induction. Could we live as successfully in the world as we do, could we do science, if the laws of nature were not in some sense uniform across time and space? If the laws of nature varied over time or between countries or planets, could we really get around? Could we do science? Or — closer to Hume’s point — whether this principle is really true or not, should we believe it? Could we stop believing it even if it turned out to be unjustified?
But what if we had lived on a planet where as far as we could tell the laws of nature do sometimes change, where things are never the same over time, could we have evolved as we did and could we have developed science? Those are some of the intriguing questions raised in The Three-Body Problem.
(16) HEARING MCCARTHY. TC McCarthy is not alone in his opinion:
There are so many writers who agree with me re #hugoawards and are too scared to "come out"- I stopped fearing a long time ago.
— Based SciFi (@tcmccarthy_) April 4, 2016
(17) GETTING THE CAMEL’S NOSE UNDER THE TENT. A list of “11 sci-fi and fantasy books for people who don’t like sci-fi and fantasy” at Minnesota Public Radio News.
Sci-fi picks for people who don’t like sci-fi
So, you think you don’t like sci-fi. What turned you off?
Long descriptions of space ships and their alternative fuels? Too many alien names to keep straight? Just not into “nerd” stuff? Send your stereotypes packing to Planet Zurlong for a minute, and try one of these books that may offer you a new perspective on the genre.
For the record, most of these fall into the category of “soft” science fiction. “Hard” science fiction revels in technical details, whereas soft is not as focused on the specificity of its futuristic elements. Consider this a “soft landing” on your genre dive.
(But yes, sometimes descriptions of space ships can be fascinating.)
1) “The Wool Omnibus” by Hugh Howey
When Howey’s work first caught critics’ eyes in 2012, it was dubbed the “sci-fi version of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.'” That comparison is purely about how the book was published, not about the quantity of whips or handcuffs in it. Like “Shades,” it took off as a self-published Internet phenomenon.
Howey posted the first 60 pages of “The Wool Omnibus” online as a standalone short story in 2011, but within a year, that turned into a 500-plus page project that topped bestseller lists. The books take place in the Silo, a post-apocalyptic city built more than a hundred stories underground.
(18) DANIEL RADCLIFFE RETURNS. Swiss Army Man will be in theaters June 17.
There are 7 billion people on the planet. You might be lucky enough to bump into the one person you want to spend the rest of your life with. CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano and Mary Elizabeth Winstead
(19) BFG OFFICIAL UK TRAILER 2.
From Director Steven Spielberg, “The BFG” is the exciting tale of a young London girl and the mysterious Giant who introduces her to the wonders and perils of Giant Country. Based on the beloved novel by Roald Dahl, “The BFG” (Big Friendly Giant) was published in 1982 and has been enchanting readers of all ages ever since.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Will R., and Michael J. Walsh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor ULTRAGOTHA.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Batman, Bill Schelly, Book View Cafe, Brenton Dickieson, C.S. Lewis, Deborah J. Ross, Eastercon, Ethan Mills, Firefly, Fran Wilde, Ian McKellen, Innominate, Moby Dick, Otto Binder, Rachel Swirsky, Ray Bradbury, Sarah J. Maas, Sierra Glyer, Spielberg, Star Trek, Subterranean Press, T. C. McCarthy, T.L. Knighton, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yuri's Night
Pixel Scroll 3/13/16 We’re Off To See The Pixel, The Wonderful Pixel Of Scroll
(1) DAYLIGHT STEALING TIME. Disney’s Alice Through The Looking Glass trailer investigates a time crime.
(2) TAKING INVENTORY. Bill Roper had some insights about being a convention dealer while doing “That Taxes Thing”.
One of the distressing things about doing the taxes for Dodeka is seeing:
– How many different titles we carry.
– And how many of them appear to have sold one or fewer copies in 2015.
Some of these are the result of having bought out Juanita’s inventory when she retired and having acquired various CDs that had been sitting in her inventory for too long. A few of them are the result of my own ordering errors.
The problem is that the boxes are large and heavy and the table is very full. But if you don’t take the CDs out to the cons with you, you can’t sell them…
Filk is an extremely regional business. And given that we’re in the eighth-or-so year of a sucky economy, I certainly understand people’s reluctance to take a flyer on something that they aren’t familiar with.
(3) BATMOBILE REPLICA MAKER LOSES. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Ninth Circuit decision in favor of DC Comics, which had sued Mark Towle over his unlicensed replicas of the 1966 and 1989 Batmobiles, sold for about $90,000 each. So DC wins.
According to Robot 6:
Towle argued that the U.S. Copyright Act doesn’t protect “useful articles,” defined as objects that have “an intrinsic utilitarian function” (for example, clothing, household appliances or, in this case, automobile functions); in short, that the Batmobile’s design is merely functional.
However, a federal judge didn’t buy that argument… Towle appealed that decision, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals wasn’t any more sympathetic, finding in September that, “the Batmobile is almost always bat-like in appearance, with a bat-themed front end, bat wings extending from the top or back of the car, exaggerated fenders, a curved windshield, and bat emblems on the vehicle. This bat-like appearance has been a consistent theme throughout the comic books, television series, and motion picture, even though the precise nature of the bat-like characteristics have changed from time to time.”
In his petition to the high court, Towle insisted that the U.S. Copyright Office states outright that automobiles aren’t copyrightable, and that the Ninth Circuit simply created an arbitrary exception. He also argued that there have been “dozens” of Batmobiles in DC comic books over the decades that “vary dramatically in appearance and style” — so much so that the vehicle doesn’t have the “consistent, widely-identifiable, physical attributes” required to be considered a “character.”
(4) SFL SURVIVOR. Andrew Liptak retells “The Adventures of the LA Science Fantasy Society” at Kirkus Reviews.
When he [Forry Ackerman] set off on his own, he founded the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. While every other Science Fiction League chapter closed—as well as many of the other fan groups—the LASFS survives to the present day, the longest running science fiction club in the world.
In the coming decades, the club became an important focal point for the growing science-fiction community. It counted some of the genre’s biggest writers as its members: when Ray Bradbury’s family moved from Arizona to Los Angles, the young storyteller quickly found the group. “A turning point in his life came in early September 1937,” Sam Moskowitz recounted in his early history Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Modern Science Fiction, “when poring through the books and magazines in Shep’s Shop, a Los Angeles book store that catered to science-fiction readers, he received an invitation from a member to visit the Los Angeles Chapter of the Science Fiction League.” Through the league, Bradbury quickly got his start as a writer, publishing “Hollerbochen’s Dilemma” in the club’s fanzine, Imagination!
LASFS is not quite the lone survivor of the Science Fiction League – there is also the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. Fancyclopedia 3 has more SFL history.
(5) ON WINGS OF STONE. You must keep an eye on these winged predators. BBC tells “How to survive a Weeping Angels attack!”
The Weeping Angels are scary. Really scary. They possess a natural and unique defence mechanism: they’re quantum locked. This means that they can only move when no other living creature is looking at them. These lonely assassins also have the ability to send other beings into the past, feeding on the potential time energy of what would have been the rest of their victims’ lives.
But how do you survive a Weeping Angel attack? Well, here’s our guaranteed, foolproof 4-step guide…
(6) TOP DRAWER. Peter Capaldi proves to have a flair for sketching his predecessors as Doctor Who.
#BehindTheScenes of yesterday's @DWTheFanShow!
Watch the video here » https://t.co/BISSjq1qgH#DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/VXcizMYQV9
— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) March 12, 2016
(7) COINAGE. A horrible, fannish pun in March 12’s Brevity cartoon.
(8) MARIE WILLIAMS OBIT. New Zealand fan Marie Williams died of cancer February 27. She was a member of the board of Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ), and their announcement said, “She was a valued member and we will miss her thoughtful insights and interesting comments.”
(9) TOMLINSON OBIT. E-mail pioneer Ray Tomlinson died March 5 at the age of 74. The New York Times report gave a brief history of his development.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mr. Tomlinson was working at the research and development company Bolt, Beranek & Newman on projects for ARPANET, a forerunner of the Internet created for the Defense Department. At the time, the company had developed a messaging program, called SNDMSG, that allowed multiple users of a time-share computer to send messages to one another.
But it was a closed messaging system, limited to users of a single computer.
Mr. Tomlinson, filching codes from a file-transfer program he had created called CYPNET, modified SNDMSG so that messages could be sent from one host computer to another throughout the ARPANET system.
To do this, he needed a symbol to separate a user name from a destination address. And so the plump little @ sign came into use, chosen because it did not appear in user names and did not have any meaning in the TENEX paging program used on time-sharing computers.
The BBC’s Dave Lee wrote “Ray Tomlinson’s e-mail is flawed, but never bettered”.
He is widely regarded as the inventor of email, and is credited with putting the now iconic “@” sign in the addresses of the revolutionary system.
He could never have imagined the multitude of ways email would come to be used, abused and confused.
Just think – right now, someone, somewhere is writing an email she should probably reconsider. Count to 10, my friend. Sleep on it.
Another is sending an email containing brutal, heartbreaking words that, really, should be said in person… if only he had the nerve.
And of course, a Nigerian prince is considering how best to ask for my help in spending his fortune.
Chip Hitchcock says, “AFAICT, nobody saw person-to-person email coming; computers were for talking to central data, as in ‘A Logic Named Joe’ or even The Shockwave Rider. The closest I can think of to discussing the effects of mass cheap point-to-point communication is the side comment on cell-phone etiquette in the opening scene of Tunnel in the Sky. Can anyone provide another example?”
(10) TODAY IN HISTORY
March 13, 1981 – Joe Dante’s The Howling premieres in North America.
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
Born March 13, 1911 – L. Ron Hubbard
(12) HUGO NOMINATORS: NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER. Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens reappears after a five-month hiatus, because it’s “Hugo Season!”
The annual SFF self-loathing theme weeks are here again — I feel (as I feel every year) like a total loser for not having read enough new science fiction and fantasy to make informed nominations for the Hugo award. I haven’t read Seveneves, haven’t seen Ant-Man, haven’t had the time for Jessica Jones, haven’t waded through a lot of short fiction.
Damn damn damn.
Then again, you’re always going to feel that way, no matter what. And it’s not football (which means “soccer”, in case you’re American), so whining doesn’t help.
And did I also forget Alan Moore's Crossed +100? Damn. #hugoawards #nominations https://t.co/8AKa1x2Zz8
— Spacefaring Kitten (@SpacefaringK) March 13, 2016
(13) BINARY BEAUTY. “Google’s AI Is Now Reigning Go Champion of the World”. Motherboard has the story.
On Saturday afternoon in Seoul, AlphaGo, the Go-playing artificial intelligence created by Google’s DeepMind, beat 18-time Go world champion Lee Sedol for its third straight win in a five game series.
The win was a historic one for artificial intelligence research, a field where AI’s mastery of this 2,500 year old game was long considered a holy grail of sorts for AI researchers. This win was particularly notable because the match included situations called ko fights which hadn’t arisen in the previous two games. Prior to AlphaGo’s win, other Go experts had speculated that ko situations could prove to be stumbling blocks for the DeepMind program as they had been in the past for other Go computer programs.
“When you watch really great Go players play, it is like a thing of beauty,” said Google co-founder Sergey Brin, himself a self-proclaimed adamant Go player in grad school, after the match. “So I’m very excited that we’ve been able to instill that level of beauty inside a computer. I’m really honored to be here in the company of Lee Sedol, such an incredible player, as well as the DeepMind team who’ve been working so hard on the beauty of a computer.”
(14) PC OR BS? Ethan Mills of Examined Worlds asks “Has Political Correctness Run Amok? Does It Even Exist?”
… I’m tempted to call this “A Prolegomena to Any Future Discourse about Political Correctness.”….
Is political correctness a cut-and-dried free speech issue? Why is it that many examples of the “political correctness has run amok” narrative involve cases where one group exercises its freedom to speak against ideas or to decide what speech they want to support in their space? Is this really a threat to free speech in general if it’s limited to a particular space? Is there a right to tell people what speech to support in their space? Does political correctness threaten free speech in a more fundamental way by making people feel uncomfortable to say certain things at all? How do we decide what counts as a threat to free speech in general? Are there some things that just shouldn’t be said in certain contexts? Should all speech be allowed in all contexts? If not, how do we decide when it’s permissible to limit speech? Is there a difference between limiting speech and simply asking people not to say certain things?
What is the difference between political correctness and politeness or basic respect? Is there a difference? What happens if what one person calls political correctness another person calls being polite, civil, or respecting the humanity of others? How do we settle these disputes? Is it possible that this whole issue is really just based on the feeling that people don’t like being told what to say? Is it possible or desirable to change that feeling and thus shift the whole narrative on this issue?
(15) PI TIME. Are you getting into MIT? Then expect notification from BB-8. “MIT parodies ‘Star Wars’ for ‘decision day’ announcement”.
The video ultimately reveals that “decision day” for the class of 2020 will take place on March 14, which is also known as “Pi Day”, as 3.14 represents the first 3 digits of pi.
Hopeful applicants will be able to learn whether or not they’ve been accepted to MIT by logging onto the admissions website starting at 6:28 p.m. on Pi Day. This time represents another reference to pi as 6.28 is known as “Tau” or two times pi.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Hampus Eckerman.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Andrew Liptak, Batman, BB-8, Bill Roper, Chip Hitchcock, Doctor Who, Ethan Mills, filk, Forrest J Ackerman, Joe Dante, L. Ron Hubbard, LASFS, Peter Capaldi, PSFS, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction League, SFFANZ, Spacefaring Kitten
Pixel Scroll 2/3/16 Superscrollapixelistbutextrabraggadocious
Posted on February 3, 2016 by Mike Glyer
(1) THANKS FACEBOOK. Pat Cadigan joined the legions who have committed this social media gaffe — “Happy Birthday, Sorry You’re Dead”.
Well, it happened again…I wished someone a Happy Birthday on Facebook and then discovered they had passed away last year. This is what happens when you have an impossible number of Facebook friends, most of whom you don’t know personally….
Anyway, thinking or not, I have committed a birthday faux pas. And as usual, I feel awful about it. When the person’s loved ones saw that, they probably wanted to go upside my head. Because that’s how it is when you’re on the sharp end of a disaster, whether it’s something of epic proportions or the personal loss of a beloved friend or relative. Your life has changed forever, and yet the world goes on like nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Like, WTF? The stock exchange opens and closes. The sun rises and sets and rises again. People go to work, go home, go grocery shopping, go online, tweet, check Facebook––and they can’t even take a few extra minutes to find out if someone’s alive or dead? Seriously, WTF?
(2) THANKS TSA. James Artimus Owen shared a memo with his Facebook readers.
Dear TSA – I’m breaking up with you. It’s you, not me. Or anyone else you and American Airlines conned into this big threeway. We were awesome dates, going along with everything you asked for, giving you sweet, sweet lovin’, and lots of money, and always on time, and you didn’t care. You still just wanted me to get half undressed, and to feel me up, and poke me in my special place, and go through all my stuff – and then your drunk buddy American Airlines overbooked the flight…, and complained about carryons, and then broke their own damn plane while we were sitting here. And now someone is trying to “fix” things, but the air is off, and we have to sit here for another half an hour, and the paperwork is going to take longer than the repair. So, I just wanted you to know – I’m getting a private plane. With my own crew. And you can date my “people” but I’m not taking my belt and shoes off for you again just so you can lecture me about the difference between 3.5 ounces and 11 ounces.
(3) HOW DID SOME GOOD NEWS SLIP IN HERE? Hobart and William Smith Colleges (in New York’s Finger Lakes region) have announced that Jeff VanderMeer will join the Trias Residency for Writers for the 2016-17 academic year.
Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the Nebula Award, and three-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, VanderMeer is the author of more than 20 books, including the NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (“Annihilation,” “Authority,” and “Acceptance”), released in 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The trilogy explores, among other issues, environmental degradation in extremis, creating, as the New York Times puts it, “an immersive and wonderfully realized world” with language that is “precise, metaphorical but rigorous, and as fertile as good loam.”
During the residency, VanderMeer will teach one class in the fall of 2016 and work with a number of select students the following spring. Additionally, he will offer a public reading and lecture, participate in a service event for the greater Geneva community and curate a reading series featuring Dexter Palmer (who writes sf), Ottessa Moshfegh and a third writer to-be-announced.
Beyond his work on campus, VanderMeer adds that he is looking forward to “a creative writing visit to the super max prison [in Auburn, N.Y.] and a possible partnership with the Colleges’ environmental center.” He has also invited artist John Jennings, a professor at University of Buffalo, to visit in the fall of 2016 “for some cross-media conversation about narrative and creativity.”
…The Peter Trias Residency at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is designed to give distinguished poets and fiction writers time to write. Academic expectations allow for sustained interaction with our best students while providing the freedom necessary to produce new work. Residents are active, working artists whose presence contributes to intellectual environment of the Colleges and the town of Geneva.
(4) MORE THAN MONEY. “Stephen King On What Hollywood Owes Authors When Their Books Become Films: Q&A” at Deadline.
DEADLINE: So rather than making the old deal, with big upfront money, you figure you’ll make your money on the other side?
KING: The other side of this, too, is that if you do that, you can say to these people, what I want is a share in whatever comes in, as a result, from dollar one. So it isn’t just a creative thing, it’s also the side where I say, if you want to do this, let me make it easy for you up front and if the thing is a success, the way that 1408 was a success for the Weinstein brothers, then we all share in it together. You know, of all the people that I’ve dealt with, Harvey and Bob Weinstein were the ones who were most understanding about that. They were perfectly willing to go along with that. A lot of people feel like you want to get in their business. I don’t want to do that at all. I want to be part of the solution. There were things about the 1408 screenplay that I thought were a little bit wonky actually, you know. There’s a part where you brought in the main character’s sad relationship about how his wife had died, she’d drowned, and he was kind of looking for an afterlife a la Houdini. I thought, well this seems a little off the subject. But it was great in the movie.
DEADLINE: So you’re not an author who feels that what’s in your book is sacrosanct, even when it’s translated to the screen?
KING: No. And the other thing is, you start from the belief that these people know their business. There are a lot of writers who are very, very sensitive to the idea, or they have somehow gotten the idea that movie people are full of sh*t. That’s not the truth. I’ve worked with an awful lot of movie people over the years that I think are very, very smart, very persistent and find ways to get things done. And I like that.
(5) TIL DADDY TAKES THE T-BIRD AWAY. From The Guardian: “Elon Musk personally cancels blogger’s Tesla order after ‘rude’ post”.
Unimaginable wealth has brought Elon Musk a lot of benefits, from being able to build a private spaceflight company to planning a magnet-powered vacuum tube supersonic transport system between LA and San Francisco – and be taken seriously. But perhaps the best perk of being Elon Musk is the ability to be unbelievably petty.
The Californian venture capitalist Stewart Alsop learned that to his cost, he says, after he wrote an open letter to Musk about the badly run launch event for the Tesla Motors Model X (the newest car from Musk’s electric vehicle startup).
Headlined “Dear @ElonMusk: you should be ashamed of yourself”, the letter listed Alsop’s issues with the event: it started late, it focused too much on safety, and it was so packed that even people like Alsop, who had placed a $5,000 deposit on the car (which was originally supposed to ship in 2013, but had only delivered 208 cars by the end of 2015), didn’t get the chance to test drive it.
Alsop concluded that “it would still be nice if you showed some class and apologised to the people who believe in this product”.
Instead, Alsop says, Musk cancelled his pre-order.
(6) HARTWELL OBIT IN NYT. Here is the link to David G. Hartwell’s obituary in the New York Times.
Mr. Hartwell worked at several publishing houses before starting as a consulting editor at Tor/Forge Books in the early 1980s. At his death, he was a senior editor there. He was nominated more than 40 times for Hugo Awards, among the most prominent prizes in science fiction, and won three times for editing.
Patrick Nielsen Hayden, a senior editor at Tor, said in an email that Mr. Hartwell had edited and published hundreds of books, including Mr. Dick’s novels “The Divine Invasion,” “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer” and “Radio Free Albemuth,” as well as novels in Mr. Herbert’s “Dune” saga and Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun” series.
He also compiled dozens of anthologies, many with Ms. Cramer, including “The Space Opera Renaissance” (2006) and “Spirits of Christmas: Twenty Other-Worldly Tales” (1989), and he wrote “Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction” (1984).
Mr. Hartwell championed genre fiction long before crossover hits like the “Lord of the Rings” films, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series and AMC’s “The Walking Dead” broadened its audience.
(7) BERKELEY AUTHOR APPEARANCE. Carter Scholz, author of Gypsy, Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Lucky Strike, and Terry Bisson, author of Fire on the Mountain, at Books Inc. in Berkeley, CA on February 18th.
Carter Scholz, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Terry Bisson.
(8) DOLLENS ART REMEMBERED. Ron Miller’s post at io9 has a gallery of “Scenes from the 1950s Space Movie That No One Saw”.
Morris Scott Dollens is best known to aging SF fans as one of the most prolific space artists who ever lived.…
These three interests—-astronomy, photography and model-making—-led to an endeavor that that was especially close to his heart: The creation of a movie that would take audiences on a journey through the solar system.
It was to be called “Dream of the Stars,” and Dollens created dozens of meticulous models of space ships and alien landscapes. He assembled these into tabletop dioramas which were then photographed in the same way Hollywood special effects artists would create miniature effects scene. Dollens sent these photos to magazine and book publishers, who ran them with captions that declared that “Dream of the Stars . . .is said to be best space film yet.” I remember seeing these photos in books about space when I was a kid and desperately trying to track down this movie. It wasn’t until decades later, when I contacted Dollens while researching my book, “The Dream Machines,” that I finally learned the truth: that “Dream of the Stars” was just that: a dream.
(9) HAT TIP. The New York Post noticed a fan favorite is back — “’X-Files’ tips a (straw) hat to iconic ’70s TV character”.
The latest episode finds FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) interrogating a person of interest, Guy Mann (Rhys Darby), as they hunt for a reptilian “were-monster.” Mann’s quirky attire — straw hat, seersucker jacket and cheap knit tie — bears a striking resemblance to clothing worn by Carl Kolchak, the rumpled creature tracker played by the late Darren McGavin in the 1970s ABC series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.”
The homage to McGavin’s vampire- and werewolf-hunter is intentional.
(10) HINES ON REPRESENTATION. Suvudu interviewed “Jim C. Hines on Representation and the Seeds of Possibility”, and Jim made his case in a lucid and fair manner, as he always does. It’s not his fault that his examples play so well against the next item in today’s Scroll….
I don’t understand why this is such a heated topic, but people get quite distraught when you suggest our genre should be more inclusive. Just look at the attempted boycott of Star Wars for daring to cast a woman and a black man in lead roles, or the oceans of man-tears surrounding Mad Max: Fury Road and its competent and kick-ass protagonist Furiosa.
Imagine the backlash to a science fiction show in which the main starship crew—the captain, first officer, navigator, engineer, and doctor—are all women. The only male character is basically a switchboard operator.
(11) TIMING IS THE SECRET. Who knew Ghostbusters will be putting Jim’s example to the test? “Receptionist Chris Hemsworth is Here For You” at Tor.com.
Last night Paul Feig announced that the official Ghostbusters site is up and running, with the first trailer set to drop later this month. If you poke around on Ghostbusters.com (which also has pages for the original movies), you’ll find a new batch of images, featuring the ladies in civilian garb… and their adorable receptionist, played by Chris Hemsworth.
You know how there’s that silly TV/movies trope of putting glasses on a girl to make her less attractive? Yeah, that definitely doesn’t work here.
(12) CHATTACON REPORT. Ethan Mills of Examined Worlds writes about “The Importance of Community”.
Do we need Cons like ChattaCon today? Aren’t SF fans all shut-in introverts who make snarky anonymous comments on blogs and YouTube videos? Even if we do need communities, couldn’t we move the Con experience to the internet, where we’ve moved so much of our communal interactions in the 21st century? A ChattaCon Report While the internet is great (you’re reading it!), I think physical meetings are still an essential part of community. To make my case, consider some of the things I did last weekend:
…One of the guests was Larry Correia (of the Sad Puppies). I went to one of his panels with a few friends. Given my opposition to the whole Sad Puppy fiasco, I was wondering what he’d be like in person. Answer: not all that different than most author guests, although nobody asked him about the Puppies.
(13) SHOCKING. Max Florschutz at Unusual Things calls it “The Indie Scam”.
There are a lot of blogs, posts, and news articles out there decrying the pricing of the big publisher’s books. They make regular appearances on smaller author’s sites, reddit’s r/books, and very frequently in the circles of indie authors. “Publishers are making their books too expensive!” they cry. Look at the price of these books!
…Then came the bit I didn’t agree with. That everyone should flock (and was flocking) to ebooks and indie because the prices were so much better.
The problem is, this isn’t always true….
Let me tell you a story. About a year ago, I was attending a con and talking with a bunch of authors about ebook sales and indie publication. One man in the “group” we’d sort of formed in the hallway was a known trailblazer in the ebook world, one of the first authors to jump ship from his publisher and go straight indie, a decision that had been great for him. Naturally, he being the one with the most experience in success, everyone was letting a lot of questions and comments gravitate his way.
At some point, ebook pricing came up, and I mentioned I was trying to figure out a price for the draft I was about to finish. He shrugged and said it was simple, and asked me how long it was. 300,000-odd words, I said. Eyes wide, he shook his head, and then told me the best way to sell a book of such length:
Cut it up into 8 or 10 sections and sell them for $2-3 a pop.
This, readers, is what I’ve started to see as “The Indie Scam.”
You see, as already mentioned, a lot of indie authors will decry the cost of “big pubs” and their ilk. Like the classic meme, they repeat the line that the prices are “just too d**n high” while showing that their books are so much cheaper at their low, low prices.
But are they really? Well, in a lot of cases … no. And that’s the problem. It’s a misdirect. Because a lot of these indie books? They’re a lot smaller than what they’d have you believe.
(14) RABID PUPPIES TODAY. Vox Day’s picks for the Rabid Puppies slate in the Best Fan Writer category are Jeffro Johnson, Dave Freer, Morgan, Shamus Young, and Zenopus.
(15) KEEPING THE WARDROBE BUDGET DOWN. Den of Geek asks: “Saturn 3: the 1980s’ weirdest sci-fi movie?”
Saturn 3 wasn’t exactly the sci-fi blockbuster its makers might have hoped. Neither broad and upbeat like Star Wars nor as claustrophobic and disturbing as Alien, it instead became one of the great oddities of 80s science fiction. This is, after all, a movie which features such bizarre lines as “No taction contact!” and “That was an improper thought leakage.”
Then there’s the bizarre scene in which Kirk Douglas (nude, of course) chokes out Harvey Keitel after he utters the line, “You’re inadequate, Major. In EVERY department.”
Saturn 3’s by no means a classic, then, but it is undoubtedly one of the most weirdly fascinating sci-fi misfires of the 1980s.
(16) DON’T ORDER THE SOUP. Gizmodo touts a photo series created by Benjamin Wong, a.k.a. Von Wong.
A lovely shepherdess in a flowing white dress tends to her flock in these gorgeous photographs reminiscent of a fairy tale. The twist: the shepherdess is underwater, and her charges are white-tipped reef sharks.
The image is part of the latest series from conservation photographer Benjamin Wong, a.k.a. Von Wong, who has a bit of an adventurous streak, taking his models into the field for a bit of storm-chasing and to underwater shipwrecks—all in the name of capturing that perfect shot. This time, he took model Amber Bourke to Fiji, a hot spot for ecotourism specializing in shark dives.
But his focus isn’t on thrill-seeking or purely aesthetic pursuits; in this case, he wanted to draw attention to the plight of sharks worldwide. “Sharks are almost always depicted as menacing and terrifying, yet it is humans that are responsible for killing them in the millions just to make soup,” he wrote on his blog. “I wanted to create a series of images that would help break those stereotypes.”
[Thanks to James H. Burns, David K.M. Klaus, John King Tarpinian, Jeff VanderMeer, Susan Toker, Moshe Feder, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day John Stick.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Carter Scholz, Chattacon, David G. Hartwell, Elon Musk, Ethan Mills, James Artimus Owen, Jeff VanderMeer, Jim C. Hines, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kolchak, Larry Correia, Morris Scott Dollens, Pat Cadigan, Ron Miller, Sad Puppies, Stephen King, Terry Bisson, X-Files
Pixel Scroll 12/31 At the Scroll of Midnight
(1) THE PERFECT MATCH. Fathom Events is bringing Starship Troopers back to theaters – but only so the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 can give the movie everything it deserves.
The stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000® are bringing The Best of RiffTrax Live back to select cinemas nationwide. On Thursday, January 14, join Mike, Kevin, and Bill for a re-broadcast of their hilarious take on Starship Troopers.
Originally riffed in August 2013, this fan favorite features the guys hurling their wisecracking humor at what has become the king of modern campy sci-fi epics.
(2) THREE BODY. President Barack Obama spent his holiday vacation in Hawaii reading these four books reports Newsweek.
His reading list includes: The Whites by Richard Price, Purity by Jonathan Franzen, The Wright Brothers by David Mccullough, and The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
(3) DEMENTO AND CRAZY-EX. Joe Blevins at Splitsider fills you in on everything from Dr. Demento to YouTube in “2015: The Year Comedy Music Broke”.
And then there are the vloggers and other YouTube stars, the ones who make their livelihoods from the site. It’s an under-reported phenomenon, but original comedic music has played a huge role in the success of many of them. Popular channels like Epic Rap Battles of History, Axis of Awesome, and Schmoyoho, all of which regularly rack up millions of views per video, are essentially delivery systems for new comedy music, even if few would think to lump them in with the acts getting airtime on The Dr. Demento Show. They’re all playing the same basic sport, though, just in different arenas. The comedy duo Smosh, long one of YouTube’s most-subscribed channels, mostly concern themselves with sketches, but they do enough songs to warrant inclusion here. Even vlogger Jenna Marbles occasionally does a musical number (usually about her doted-upon dogs) as part of her weekly video series. If there is a way to make money doing funny music in 2015, it is to partner with YouTube, nurture a subscriber base, and never really define yourself as a comedy or worse yet “novelty” music artist. Meanwhile, none of these people are getting much validation from traditional media, including pop radio. Whether that constitutes a problem is debatable.
(4) CHAOTIC NEUTRAL. Brandon Kempner has declared Chaos Horizon ineligible for the 2016 Hugos.
After careful thought, I’m declaring that Chaos Horizon (and myself) will not accept a Hugo nomination in 2016. Because Chaos Horizon reports so extensively on the numbers related to the Hugo process, I feel it would be a conflict of interest to be part of that process in any way.
Since I do reporting and analytical work here at Chaos Horizon, it’s important from me to maintain some journalistic distance from the awards. I couldn’t do that if I were nominated. This is consistent with my past practice; I haven’t voted in the Hugos since I began Chaos Horizon. Simply put, the scorekeeper can’t play the game.
(5) TANGENTIAL HISTORY. The “Tangent Online 2015 Recommended Reading List” says it contains 417 works: 355 short stories, 46 novelettes, and 16 novellas.
Its long, error-filled endorsement of Sad Puppies 4 begins with this generous rewriting of history —
Sad Puppies was the name given to a small group of fans four years ago who had become disgruntled after seeing many of the same names on the final Hugo ballot, year after year. It was spearheaded that first year by SF author Larry Correia, who decided to put forth a list of authors and works he believed were being overlooked. He recused himself from being recommended or being nominated.
The Sad Puppies name was given these campaigns by their creator, Larry Correia, who started them to stir support for his own Hugo prospects. He was successful enough to be nominated three times; it was only the third he declined. Nor did he recuse himself from Sad Puppies 3, but supported the SP3 slate with his novel on it, only at the end suprising his fans by taking himself off the ballot.
(6) SOMETIMES THEY DO GET WEARY. The respected Lois Tilton begins “2015 Reviews in Review” at Locus Online with a sigh:
Lovers of SFF can only deplore the late year’s outbreak of divisiveness and animosity, with the hostile parties displaying a willingness to destroy the genre in order to deny it to the other. Calls for unity go unheard while the partisans make plans to continue the hostilities in the upcoming year. The only bright spot is that ordinary readers appear to have largely ignored the entire thing.
(6) FLICK ANALYSIS. Ethan Mills shares his picks “2015 Movies: The Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre” at Examined Worlds.
I’ve been trying to decide between Fury Road and The Force Awakens as my favorite movie of the year. Both movies have ultra-competent female protagonists, although Fury Road could certainly have done better on the racial diversity front. While Fury Road gives us pulse-quickening action and a fully realized post-apocalyptic world, Star Wars gives us all the fun of a real Star Wars movie.
Click to see who wins.
(7) READY-TO-WEAR TBR PILE. And if you have a week free, Fantasy Faction will tell you about the Top 50 fantasy novels of 2015.
It’s getting harder and harder to be a well-read and up-to-date reviewer in Fantasy these days. It’s also getting incredibly difficult to order the best of the year lists. I know that complaining that too many good books are being released probably isn’t an argument I will get much support for, but wow oh wow were there too many damned good books published in 2015, right? RIGHT!?
It’s not just the quality of the books, but the diversity of the Fantasy genre worth applauding too. Take Empire Ascendant, The Grace of Kings, The Vagrant and Uprooted – these aren’t books being based on proven and familiar formulas
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
Born December 31, 1945 – Connie Willis
https://twitter.com/EdMcKayinFay/status/682559367087013888
(9) MURDER BY DEATH. “The Medieval Revenant: Restless, Dead, and Out for Revenge” by Matt Staggs at Suvudu. Interesting paragraph – perhaps the literati around here can tell whether it’s accurate.
Unlike us, medieval men and women didn’t make much of a distinction between various kinds of the living dead. There were revenants who fed on blood, and vampires who fed on anything but blood. Sometimes the restless dead took physical form, and other times they were immaterial spirits, like ghosts. (The zombies stayed down in Haiti, and those poor souls didn’t eat anyone.) Because of these reasons, classifying a story as one about a revenant rather than a ghost, vampire, or other restless dead thing can be difficult. That said, we can draw upon these tales for some ideas of what revenants did and why they rose from the dead in the first place.
(10) MISSING YOU. Journey Planet #27 takes as its theme “Fan History – To Absent Friends.” Download it here.
We look at the impact of those who have come before us, and what they meant to the evolution of Fandom, and of fans. Wonderful stories of legends like Bruce Pelz, Peggy Rae Sapienza, Jerry Jacks, Mikey Jelenski, Fred Duarte, Gary Louie, Robert Sacks, Poul Andersen, Mick O’Connor, Dave Stewart, James White, Ted Johnstone, Joe Mayhew, LeeH, Jay Haldeman, George Flynn, and many many more, help us understand the legacies that led us to where fandom is today.
It was lovely to learn more about so many people that we had heard of but sadly never met, and to learn about people new to us that, unfortunately, we will never have an opportunity to meet. Our experience as fans is enriched by knowledge, and we hope that you will all have a similar experience reading the issue. Produced by guest editors Helen Montgomery & Warren Buff, plus editors Chris Garcia & James Bacon.
(11) BOOKLESS. Is making these announcements a new trend? Greg Van Eekhout is another author explaining why he won’t have a new book out in 2016.
First of all, I won’t have a new novel out. That’s mostly because I didn’t complete one in time to have a novel out in 2016. From the time a novel is sold, a publisher usually needs at least nine months and often more than a year to get it ready for release. And by “ready” I mean not just editing and printing, but also positioning it with a marketing campaign and finding an advantageous slot for it in the release schedule. So, for me to have a book out in 2016, I would have had to finish writing it sometime in late 2014 or early 2015, so an editor could edit it, so I could revise it, so an art director and book designer and cover artist could make it pretty, and so on. Unfortunately, taking care of two elderly parents was more than a full-time job that didn’t leave much physical or emotional energy for new writing.
(12) EXPANSE RETURNING. Lizard Brain shares Syfy’s press release announcing that The Expanse has been renewed for a second season.
Currently airing on Syfy Tuesdays at 10PM ET/PT, THE EXPANSE has garnered strong multiplatform viewership since its December 14 debut, with 4.5 million viewers sampling the first episode on Syfy.com, On Demand and digital outlets prior to the series’ linear premiere, and an average of 1.6 million P2+ linear viewers (L3) in its first three episodes.
(13) MISTER LISTER. Black Gate’s John ONeill amusingly comments —
Fortunately, the tireless John DeNardo works much harder than me. He doesn’t go to Christmas parties, or watch movies. Ever. Or sleep, apparently. No, he read every single one of those Best SF & Fantasy of the Year lists. The ones that matter anyway…
— before guiding us to John DeNardo’s compilation of “The Best of the Best of 2015’s Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books” at Kirkus Reviews. There, De Nardo explains:
o I used 8 different sources to arrive at the aggregate, all of them specifically geared toward science-fiction and fantasy books: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and course Kirkus Reviews.
o I only included books that garnered three or more mentions. That yielded a list of seven books, which seems like a good size. That said, I also include below a list of “Honorable Mentions” that appeared on two lists.
(14) SNOPES CLEARS HARLAN. Snopes says a famous Harlan Ellison story never happened/
Claim: Writer Harlan Ellison was rebuffed after making a crude remark to a tall blonde woman at a party.
Status: False.
In Snopes’ example, Isaac Asimov spins out an entire anecdote, but the gist is —
…Harlan approached one of these giraffelike women, fixed her with his glittering eye, and said, “What would you say to a little fuck?” And she looked down at him and said, “I would say, ‘Hello, little fuck.'”
Snopes says this is nothing more than a riff off one of the jokes in Gershon Legman’s Rationale of the Dirty Joke first published by Grove Press in 1968.
I remember hearing the joke whispered between fans in the early 1970s. It must have been freshly purloined from Legman at the time.
(15) HALLOWEEN STAMPS. Naturally, horror news blog Dread Central is more interested in the 2016 Jack O’Lantern stamps that will be issued for Halloween. I skipped over those to avoid spoiling the symmetry of the space and Star Trek theme in yesterday’s post. But they are lovely!
(16) TREK ACTORS CASH IN. “Star Trek Actor Salaries Just Beamed Up With Big Raises” at Celebrity Net Worth says Paramount will pay big to hang onto the cast of its franchise films.
…In order for the latest Star Trek film series to “live long and prosper,” Paramount needed to keep Pine and Quinto on board as Spock and Kirk…
Pine only made $600 thousand for 2009’s Star Trek, which grossed over $385 million. For 2013’s Star Trek: Into Darkness, Captain Kirk made $1.5 million of the $467 million gross. Before a new deal was struck, he was scheduled to make $3 million for the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. Thanks to a lucrative new deal, Pine will now make $6 million for the third Star Trek film, which is double what he was supposed to make, and will be 10 times what he made for the first film in the series!
The new deal features big raises and much better performance bonuses for the cast. Paramount only wanted to give the ship mates nominal raises, but ended up giving in for the better of the franchise. Thanks to last minute negotiations, the production house ended up adding somewhere between $10 and $15 million to the movie’s budget to pay the stars of the show. As part of the new deal, Pine and Quinto have been granted an option and will now be a part of the 4th film in the J.J. Abrams directed series.
(17) SKY TRASH. Almost 20,000 pieces of space debris are currently orbiting the Earth. This visualisation, created by Dr Stuart Grey, lecturer at University College London and part of the Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory, shows how the amount of space debris increased from 1957 to 2015, using data on the precise location of each piece of junk. (Via Chaos Manor.)
(18) KEEP THE FAITH. James H. Burns writes:
For the end of the year, or really the start of the new, and in the spirit of the season, one of the greatest minutes ever in the history of filmed science fiction… Courtesy of J. Michael Straczynski, and the good folks at, and on, Babylon 5….
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, James H. Burns, Brian Z., and Sean Wallace for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Babylon 5, Barack Obama, Brandon Kempner, Connie Willis, Dave Truesdale, Dr. Demento, Ethan Mills, Fantasy Faction, Greg Van Eekhout, Harlan Ellison, John DeNardo, John O'Neill, Journey Planet, Larry Correia, Liu Cixin, Lois Tilton, Matt Staggs, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Rachel Bloom, Sad Puppies, Snopes.com, Star Trek, SyFy
Pixel Scroll 12/17 We Also Walk T. Rexes
(1) TALES OF LONG LONG AGO. Ethan Mills knows it’s “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Getting Ready for Star Wars!”
In watching The Empire Strikes Back, I was reminded of this post from several months back: “The Dress: Episode V – Han Solo’s Jacket.” It turns out the science fiction fans have their own version of that dress that destroyed the internet in February of 2015. In the Hoth scenes, there is some dispute about whether Han’s jacket is brown or navy blue. On my TV last night it looked brown to me, but now in this picture it looks navy blue. Go figure.
(2) THE LIST’S AFOOT. Miriam Burstein has posted a list of the interesting things she read this year, “My Year in Books” at The Little Professor. Sf is among the many genres she covers. Holmes pastiches are another.
Most self-sabotaging novel: Dan Simmons’ Sherlock Holmes pastiche The Fifth Heart, whose characters are awfully insistent that the Holmes stories aren’t very good.
Really, you can stop now: The Sherlock Holmes pastiche industry, which is not improving in quality as it goes along.
…Well, perhaps except for you: Robert Ryan’s Watson series is quite enjoyable.
(3) VINTAGE LINES. “Here’s What the 1977 Star Wars Line Looked Like In Los Angeles” from LAist.
Lines were forming to see Star Wars films right in the very beginning, when the first installment of what would become a massive franchise hit screens in 1977.
They also have a compilation video of news reports about Star Wars lines as the series progressed.
(4) SLOW-PACED COURTSHIP. And how long did people wait in line for the opening of The Force Awakens in Hollywood? Here’s a clue: local fan Obishawn (Shawn Crosby) officiated at a Star Wars wedding today by the entrance of the Chinese theater in Hollywood…
(5) PUNCHBOWL FLOATER. Guess who will cheer Stephen L. Miller’s “Star Wars: Revenge of the Social Justice Warriors” at National Review Online? It’s about PC types who are prepared to bash the new Star Wars film and finding little to bash.
With the long-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening tomorrow, news outlets and social media have been abuzz with the expectations of a new generation of fans. But with The Force Awakens as the first of the films to be released in the age of social justice, the question must be asked: At a time when the slightest violation of PC orthodoxy can set off a deluge of listicles, cable-news segments, and general media outrage, can Star Wars survive such an onslaught launched from the Social Justice Media’s veritable Sarlacc Pit — more commonly referred to as Twitter?
(6) CONCESSIONS LAST STAND. Washington Post writer Drew Harwell, in “The business of ‘Star Wars’ comes with a huge catch”, tells how movie theaters are responding to Disney’s giant slice of the revenue pie by offering Star Wars-related swag and snacks (Marcus Theaters in the Midwest offers the “Wookiee Smash Burger” for only $12.59).
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” may become the highest-grossing premiere in history, but it comes with a huge catch. Disney is demanding movie theaters hand over a much bigger cut of box-office revenue than usual, carving into cineplexes’ profits at a time when they need all the help they can get.
So theaters have gotten creative about the moneymakers they control. One small theater chain, Studio Movie Grill, is offering a daily “Star Wars”-themed brunch, including cinnamon-and-sugar Princess Leia Buns, a Tuscan Raider Quesadilla and cocktails such as a $9 tequila Yoda-Rita, with lime wedges hooked on the rim to mimic the Jedi master’s ears.
(7) ESCAPED PATIENT. The Onion found (invented?) the one fan who brings a fair and balanced approach to the movie — “Fan Just Going To Keep Open Mind About Whether New ‘Star Wars’ Best Or Worst Movie Ever”.
(8) ODYSSEY WORKSHOP. “Odyssey Writers Workshop Application Period Opens” – see details at the SFWA Blog or the Odyssey website.
Odyssey is for writers whose work is approaching publication quality and for published writers who want to improve their work. The six-week program combines an advanced curriculum with extensive writing and in-depth feedback on student manuscripts. The director and primary instructor, Jeanne Cavelos, was nominated for the World Fantasy Award this year for her work teaching and running Odyssey. Top authors, editors, and agents have served as guest lecturers, including George R. R. Martin, Jane Yolen, Robert J. Sawyer, Nancy Kress, Ben Bova, Holly Black, Catherynne M. Valente, and Dan Simmons.
This summer’s workshop runs from JUNE 6 to JULY 15, 2016. Class meets for over four hours each morning, five days a week. That time is split between workshopping and lectures. While feedback reveals the weaknesses in students’ manuscripts, lectures teach the techniques necessary to strengthen them. In-depth lectures provide advanced insights into the elements of fiction writing. Students spend about eight hours more per day writing and critiquing each other’s work.
The program is held on the beautiful campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH….
The workshop’s Writer-in-Residence will be Mary Robinette Kowal. Lecturers include Meagan Spooner, Patricia Bray, N. K. Jemisin, Deborah DeNicola, and Scott H. Andrews.
(9) DANIEL CHAPTER THREE. The third installment of Daniel’s Castalia House blog series “Safe Space as Rape Room: Science Fiction Culture and Childhood’s End” is a series of nonsequitur sophistries constructed for the purpose of smearing John Scalzi.
(10) ENTIRELY COINCIDENTAL. Today John Scalzi was not only using his Twitter trolls for cannon fodder but for artistic inspiration. At least I think that’s art….
Now some more of these dude's friends are trying to pile on, MANLY STYLE. It's adorable! I just want to pinch their manly cheeks!
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) December 17, 2015
@scalzi This is the best I could do on short notice. Next time give me a heads up when you need a new author photo. pic.twitter.com/qNWeSPFalo
— Tom Lommel (@tomlommel) December 17, 2015
(11) THE SATANIC VERSUS. “’Star Wars’-themed church service to highlight ‘parallels’” at MSNBC.
Members of the congregation at Berlin’s Zions Church will be greeted with the theme music from the blockbuster series and can expect to hear about “the juxtaposition of good and bad, light and dark” during the one-hour event, church minister Eva-Maria Menard told NBC News.
Short excerpts from trailers and the George Lucas movies will be shown on a screen below the pulpit.
Vicar Ulrike Garve said that the service will expose “the theological motives and parallels in the Star Wars episodes.”
Garve and colleague Lucas Ludewig plan to highlight Romans 12:21 from the Bible, which states: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
(12) DICKINSON OBIT. The SF Site News obituary for British author Peter Dickinson (1927-2015) who died December 16 notes that his novel The Ropemaker won the Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Literature in 2002, and he was twice nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Dickinson was married to author Robin McKinley. More at the post.
(13) CHECKING IN. In the first 10 days, the “We Are ALL SF Con 2016 Startup” Indiegogo appeal has raised $230 to help launch a fan convention inspired by the motto coined by Lou J. Berger and Quincy J. Allen. They need $9,000.
The operational leadership is Spence Smith, convention chair, and Suzy Thommarson, assistant convention chair. Advisors are Pat and Doug Booze of Norwescon, Shawn Marier of Norwescon and Anglicon, and Chris Nilsson, of Anglicon and Rustycon. “Plus we occasionally pick the brains of some of the old time Worldcon con runners,” adds Karen Junker.
They plan to hold the event November 4-6 in Ocean Shores, WA.
(14) JOVIAN AWARDS. SF Site News lists several pros who announced on Facebook that they received Jovian Awards — each of whom posted a photo of the award and wrote that they didn’t know who it came from.
Neither The Jovian Award website nor The Jovian Award Facebook page sheds any light on the presenters. What the winners who revealed themselves have in common is that they were Hugo nominees who finished second to No Award.
Hell of a nice looking award, though.
(15) LUKE I AM YOUR FENDER. Jay Leno’s Garage had a visit from Hot Wheels’ real-life Darth Vader car, “which is what you get when you morph Vader’s helmet and other components into a car.”
(16) POSTERS. New Batman v. Superman posters.
#BatmanvSuperman pic.twitter.com/seVdBBMh7x
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) December 16, 2015
I welcome you into my dream. Here's an exclusive new Wonder Woman banner for @BatmanvSuperman. pic.twitter.com/3wYP2KfWI4
— Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) December 16, 2015
(17) ANNOYING COMMERCIAL. James H. Burns asks —
Am I the only one who hates the Geico Peter Pan ad? I generally really like the company’s spots, and I realize that in some interpretations, Peter can be a real wiseguy… I wondered why this bugged me so much, and I think it’s two reasons: One, I just don’t like seeing Pan being such a twerp… But more importantly, the second worse thing about being Peter would have to be watching your mortal friends pass on… (There is, however, a pretty neat Tink here!)
[Thanks to Steven H Silver, John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, and Alan Baumler for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Update 12/19/2015: Corrected name of city to Ocean Shore, after having the typo carefully explained to me (the subtler attempts having gone over my head.)
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Batman, Castalia House, Ethan Mills, James H. Burns, John Scalzi, Karen Junker, Miriam Burstein, Peter Dickinson, SF Site News, Shawn Crosby, Star Wars, Steven H. Silver, Tom Lommel, Wonder Woman
Pixel Scroll 12/10 Plan Whine from Outer Space
(1) SPOILERS SPOIL. You know this. “Spoiler alert: Story spoilers can hurt entertainment” at EurekAlert.
While many rabid fans may have scratched their heads when a 2011 study showed that spoilers could improve story enjoyment, a recent experiment, conducted by researchers Benjamin Johnson (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Judith Rosenbaum (Albany State University), shows that narrative spoilers can ruin a story. Their findings show that spoilers reduce people’s entertainment experiences.
“Our study is the first to show that people’s widespread beliefs about spoilers being harmful are actually well-founded and not a myth,” says Johnson. Furthermore, in a follow-up study, Johnson and Rosenbaum found that the effects of spoilers are actually linked to people’s personality traits. Johnson: “While the worry and anger expressed by many media users about ‘spoilers’ in online discussions or reviews is not completely unfounded, fans should examine themselves before they get worked up about an unexpected spoiler.”
(2) DOCTOR VISITS HOSPITAL. Radio Times has a heartwarming video — “Peter Capaldi surprises young Doctor Who fan in hospital, stays in character the whole time”.
“There’s a new Doctor on the ward and it’s me…”
https://twitter.com/BadWilf/status/674283494982492160
(3) SATURDAY SIGNING IN GLENDALE. Mystery and Imagination Bookshop‘s Christine Bell says “Call it a mini HORROR SLAM.” This Saturday at 2 p.m. in the store’s upstairs room, Peter Atkins and Dennis Etchison will read a couple of stories, talk about writing, take questions, and sign books.
Oh, the wonderfulness of being famous literary smart guys. Could this be the start of a new Saturday afternoon tradition? It’s all free and it won’t hurt a bit. After that it’ll still be daylight, so…Porto’s is just across the street! I mean, really, what more could you ask for? See you there?
The address is Mystery and Imagination & Bookfellows Bookshops at 238 N. Brand Blvd.
(4) RETRO REVIEWS. Steve Davidson has the latest installment of “Scide Splitters: 1941 Retro Hugo Eligible Novelettes” posted at Amazing Stories, which focuses on humorous stories such as “Butyl and the Breather” by Theodore Sturgeon (Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940).
Although this story can be read as a stand-alone, it is a sequel to Sturgeon’s 1939 short, “Ether Breather,” and I do think it is more enjoyable if you read that one first.
Ted Hamilton, a writer and central character in the original story, still feels guilty that about telling the Ether Breather to stop messing up color television. It has been a year since the incident and the Breather has refused to respond to any attempts to contact it. Mr. Berbelot, perfume tycoon and television hobbyist, is still mad at Hamilton for exactly that incident and refuses to speak to him. But Hamilton has come up with an idea to get the Breather to respond and Berbelot reluctantly agrees to hear him out.
(5) BROOKS OBIT. Actor Martin E. Brooks died December 7 at the age of 90. Brooks played scientist Dr. Rudy Wells in two 1970s TV series, Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff, The Bionic Woman.
His other genre work included episodes of The Wild Wild West (1967), Night Gallery (1971), Planet of the Apes (1974 – I’d managed to forget this was also a TV series), and Airwolf (1985).
He also was in the movies Colossus: The Forbin Project, T-Force, and TV’s Bionic Ever After?
While Brooks probably didn’t think he was ending his career at the time, IMDB shows his last role was symbolically the “Man thrown off the roof” in Street Gun (1996).
(6) A NOT-STUPID. Ethan Mills at Examined Worlds poses the philosophical question “Is Violence the Answer” in “Like Avatar, but Not Stupid: The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin”.
Okay, Ursula Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest is actually not that much like Avatar, but there are similarities. Some militaristic Terrans come to steal resources from a forest planet inhabited by small, furry humanoids called Athsheans. The Athsheans end up fighting the technologically superior but numerically inferior Terrans. There’s a Terran anthropologist who comes to almost understand the Athsheans (but he doesn’t quite go full Avatar). One of the villages of the furry guerrillas fighting an imperial power is called Endtor. Maybe George Lucas owes Le Guin some royalties, not just James Cameron. But as an American book published in 1972, the real background seems to be the war in Vietnam.
(7) BLOOM NOMINATED. Rachel Bloom is a Golden Globes nominee for her work on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Ray Bradbury would be thrilled.
Thank you Hollywood Foreign Press and @goldenglobes for this magnificent morning. pic.twitter.com/0rIMGuZwNB
— Rachel Bloom (@Racheldoesstuff) December 10, 2015
(8) THE XANATOS QUESTION. Larry Correia put his spin on last night’s game show reference to Puppygate: “Sad Puppies: The Hugos Lost On Jeopardy”.
Some Puppy supporters didn’t like how it was phrased, with “scandal” having negative implications. Personally, I like it. Especially the part where they used “Rocked”. Damn right. Rocked you like a hurricane. The scandal was the part where the CHORFs ran a lying media smear campaign, and handed out wooden butt holes, while block voting No Award to keep out barbarian Wrongfans having Wrongfun.
(9) PUPPY TIME. And coincidentally, at Mad Genius Club Kate Paulk has declared “It’s Time”.
Because yes, it is time to start Sad Puppies 4 in Earnest. And Houston. And Philadelphia. And Back-o-Beyond. You get the idea.
Nominations will open in January 2016, and probably close in March (the closing date hasn’t been officially announced). I’m planning to have The List posted mid to late February (depending, as always, on just how feral my work schedule happens to be). Recommendations have been trickling in, but we need more. MOAR!
(10) WRIGHT IN. John C. Wright, commenting on Vox Day’s post about Jeopardy!, told the Dread Ilk he is prepared to make the sacrifice of being a multiple Hugo-nominee again in 2016.
“Does anybody know if Wright is willing to be a lightening rod again? “
Lightning rod for the sputtering sparks of CHORF energy? I get a bigger shock from petting the cat on a dry day after rubbing my stocking feet on the carpet. I was pleased in a dark and evil way to see the Morlocks burn their own cities rather than allow me be elected mayor. I would have been MORE pleased had he Hugo Awards kept even a modicum of decency and honesty, and actually received the awards I earned, but I cannot expect powerdrunk patheticos to give up on power. I did not expect schoolboy wooden anus jokes, however. That was pathetic. Numbers wise, I am not sure if we can sweep the nominations again, but I would like to see the Hugos either returned to the old worth, or destroyed utterly. Leaving them in the clammy webbed hands of Christ-hating America-hating, Science-hating, Literature-hating Morlocks is unimaginable to me.
(11) HAN TALKS CHEWIE DOWN. Must have missed this in November — Harrison Ford settled his feud with Chewbacca on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
(12) IN MEMORY YET GREEN. Chris Taylor analyzes “How Star Wars Conquered the Galaxy: The economic power of the greatest movie franchise ever” at Reason.com.
…Even before the December release of The Force Awakens, the Star Wars franchise pulled in an estimated $42 billion total in box office, DVD sales and rentals, video games, books, and related merchandise. And that’s just the amount flowing into officially sanctioned channels; the unofficial, unlicensed Star Wars economy has generated untold billions more.
Some $32 billion of that staggering revenue was derived from physical stuff rather than an audio-visual experience. Like Davy Crockett, the Star Wars universe made its biggest economic impact in the realm of merchandise—clothing, accessories, food and drink, housewares (Darth Vader toaster, anyone?), and especially toys. But unlike Walt Disney, George Lucas devised a way to pocket much of that money himself. That helped buy editorial freedom, which helped this obsessive creative make the rest of his movies how he saw fit, for good and ill, until Disney bought the rights to the franchise in 2012 for $4.06 billion. Lucas and Star Wars created a category of economic activity that previously did not exist, and in so doing forever changed the face of entertainment….
(13) FOUNTAIN OF LOOT. Here’s some of that Star Wars merchandise – a series of fountain pens that sell for $575 apiece. Jon Bemis tells why he’s a happy customer in his review “Why I Bought the Cross Townsend Star Wars Limited Edition Fountain Pens” at The Pen Addict.
…While it looks like a standard brass pen body from a distance, close up the C-3PO is fluent in over six million forms of beautiful. It is gold (of course) and covered with accent lines recalling the curves and circles etched on Threepio himself. The clip is centered in a ring of concentric circles like those in the center of the protocol droids chest, and the caps finial looks like his eye….
C3PO style Cross pen.
(14) JUST PLAIN BILL. The Captain of the Enterprise is still out there hustling every day, too. Vulture has a new interview with William Shatner, who is hard at work marketing Priceline. He talks about his new book project and tells a Nimoy story he says he’s never told before.
What’s a piece of science you’ve come across lately that was particularly interesting to you?
I’m writing a novel with a writer named Jeff Rovin that will be out next year called Zero-G, and I suggested we use something in it that I had read about. I read that microbial life dries up and seems to be dead and then, with the addition of water thousands of years later, can come back to life. That’s astonishing. Thousands of years! These are scientific concepts so mysterious that they beggar our imagination. I saw a photograph yesterday of a black hole absorbing a star, and it burped energy back out! A black hole cosmic-burped dust out the other way! What is more intriguing than that? Perhaps a good pasta.
(15) SMACK BACK. For those who are fed up with Kirk there’s an alarming site — Slapkirk.com – that lets users control an animation of Kirk slapping himself, and with a kind of slap-o-meter that tracks how many slaps have been delivered, at what rate per second. Those who get it going fast enough are rewarded with the “Red Alert” sound effect…
(16) MUTANT TRAILER. A trailer is out for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, coming to theaters June 3, 2016.
(17) LET KYRA EXPLAIN. Kyra’s comment makes the taxonomy of fantasy fiction as clear as is the summer sun...
Look, it’s very simple —
Urban Fantasy: Fantasy set in a city
High Fantasy: Fantasy set in the mountains
Low Fantasy: Fantasy set in the Netherlands
Fantasy of Manners: Fantasy set in manors
Epic Fantasy: Fantasy in the form of a lengthy narrative poem
Fairy Tale Fantasy: Fantasy about fairies with tails
Science Fantasy: Science fiction but there’s an annoying pedant in the seat behind you saying that it’s fantasy because FTL travel isn’t real plus the Force, what about that
Sword and Sorcery: The party must include a magic user, a cleric, a fighter, and a thief
Weird Fiction: Like, the characters know they’re in a book and some of the text is upside down and stuff like that
Steampunk: Everyone has cybernetic enhancements but get this, they’re CLOCKWORK
Dieselpunk: Like Steampunk, but the cybernetic enhancements require diesel fuel
Mythpunk: Like Steampunk, but the cybernetic enhancements have tiny gods in them
Grimdark: When the superheroes change their costumes so that now they’re in dark colors, weird
Magic Realism: Like when your aunt actually believes that if you put the knife under the crystal pyramid, it will totally get sharper
Paranormal Romance: Fantasy with naughty bits
Young Adult Fantasy: One of the above genres marketed to a group that will actually buy it
See? Easy.
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, and Will R. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Amazing Stories, Chewbacca, Chris Taylor, Dennis Etchison, Doctor Who, Ethan Mills, Harrison Ford, John C. Wright, Kate Paulk, Kyra, Larry Correia, Mystery & Imagination Bookshop, Peter Atkins, Peter Capaldi, Rachel Bloom, Ray Bradbury, Retro-Hugos, Sad Puppies, Star Trek, Steve Davidson, Theodore Sturgeon, Ursula K. Le Guin, Vox Day, William Shatner
Pixel Scroll 11/7 The Manliness of MEH
Posted on November 7, 2015 by Mike Glyer
(1) “The Empire Strikes Thomas Kinkade” points to Jeff Bennett’s satirical improvements on “The Artist of Light.”
(2) American wizards have a completely different word for “Muggle” reveals Entertainment Weekly.
Next year’s Harry Potter prequel film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1926 New York, where the wizarding community uses another term entirely for people without magical powers.
In shifting the franchise away from the U.K., author J.K. Rowling — who also wrote the movie’s screenplay — is poised to introduce several new words into the Potterverse lexicon, and the most significant might be what Stateside wizards say instead of Muggle: “No-Maj” (pronounced “no madge,” as in “no magic”).
(3) And here’s a gallery of images from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
In Entertainment Weekly’s new issue, we go on the set and deep inside the chamber of secrets of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Here’s your first look at Katherine Waterston as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein, Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Alison Sudol and Queenie Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski.
(4) More alleged secrets are spilled by the host of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert:
J.K. Rowling can’t stop revealing “Harry Potter” secrets, even though the last book came out over 8 years ago. It’s time for Stephen to take spoilers into his own hands.
(5) Adam Whitehead, in “A History of Epic Fantasy – Part 25“, courts controversy by asking about the Harry Potter series:
But is it really an epic fantasy?
That question has been asked many times before and has proven slightly controversial. The more obvious answer may be no: the books are set in the “real” world, with some of the action taking place in real locations such as London. Much of the story is set in and around a single location, Hogwarts, whilst epic fantasy is often based around a long journey or series of journeys across a fantastical landscape. Epic fantasy also usually features a large and diverse number of nonhuman races, whilst Harry Potter only has a small number of them, and all of the primary protagonists are human. Epic fantasy also relies on characters with diverse skillsets, whilst in Potter pretty much everyone of note is a wizard.
But there are strong arguments to the counter. The books may touch on the real world but most of the action takes place in original, fantastical locations such as Hogwarts. Also, the books make much of the idea of the world being similar to ours, but one where magic is real (if mostly secret) and the impact that has on government and society, making it arguably an alt-history.
(6) At World Fantasy Con 2015:
When Gene Wolfe interviewed Tom Doherty & we all interviewed them both. @WmReeve @Prittithings @alatalan #WFC2015 pic.twitter.com/JUHgPtJNQr
— Christine Cohen (@rileymarie42) November 8, 2015
(7) Also allegedly sighted at WFC by Adam Christopher. No context!
Well I don't know about you, but I love a good SFF street fight… pic.twitter.com/73V0IzGndI
— Adam Christopher (@ghostfinder) November 7, 2015
(8) Ethan Mills continues his celebration of Stoic Week at Examined Worlds.
Friday: Relationships with Other People and Society Stoics, Vulcans, Buddhists, and artificial intelligences alike are often accused of being emotionless and not caring about other people. In all four cases, this is a mistake (although in the case of AIs, it may depend on which AI you’re talking about). See my philosophical tribute to Leonard Nimoy for more on this point. As any sufficiently nerdy Star Trek fan knows, Vulcans actually have emotions, but, in many of the same ways as Stoics, they train themselves to move beyond being controlled by negative emotions and they cultivate positive emotions like compassion. Vulcans like Spock do care about their friends. The deep friendship that Spock feels for his crew mates, especially Kirk and McCoy, is unmistakable, as illustrated most poignantly near the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (whether Spock is a utilitarian or virtue ethicist is hard to say.)
Marcus Aurelius realized that cultivating compassion for everyone is often hard, especially when other people are obnoxious (as they so often are, even more so now that we have internet trolls).
(9) In “Guillermo del Toro’s Guide to Gothic Romance” at Rookie the director lists the Gothic romances that influenced him.
Do you ever wonder what goes on in the wondrous mind of director, producer, and screenwriter Guillermo del Toro? Yes? Same. Well, to chime with the recent release of his creepy, goth thriller Crimson Peak, Guillermo has curated a syllabus of the Gothic and Gothic romance novels, short stories, and engravings that influenced the making of the film. He sent us these recommendations with the following words: “I hope you enjoy some of these as fall or winter reads by the fireplace.” Before you post up beside an actual fire, here’s what Guillermo del Toro has to say about these Gothic essentials.
First on the list –
Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu This book defines the link between fairy tales and gothic romance. Uncle Silas is a convoluted, highly perverse mystery-thriller about innocence in danger, written by the master of ghost stories, J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It’s a dense but rewarding read, and it was crucial to Crimson Peak.
(10) Superman will make a (blurry) appearance on the next episode of Supergirl.
Consequently, Josh Wilding at We Got This Covered is a little bit crabby.
While it makes some sense that Superman would come and save the inexperienced Supergirl, the series really needs to find a way to take him off the board so he’s not continuously used as a plot device in future. If that’s not going to happen, then he should make an actual appearance instead of all these endless teases.
(11) Cedar Sanderson, “The Slow, Dark Eclipse of the Soul”, at Mad Genius Club.
It’s been a discouraging week, overall. First there was the article about SF writers coming into the genre without reading the classics of the genre. Then, when I started working on a list of classics available free (or very cheap) online to suggest to potential readers, I got a comment to the effect of ‘classics suck, they should die in a fire, and why should anyone read them?’
In the aftermath of that, which left me wondering why I was trying to make this list… I don’t make the lists to force anyone to read anything. I can’t – who am I? I’m not the teacher, or the… anything. I’m just someone who likes to create these lists of recommendations with input from others, and then they generate even more suggestions in the comments. I make lists to be beginnings, not endings. The hope is that someone will see a title they had never read, or had forgotten, and that strikes mental sparks in folks who have favorites they want to share, and so on. It’s about building up the genre, not tearing it down. I’d never say ‘you must read these books, and only these books, all others are anathema.’
As I was saying, I was still mentally mulling the whole ‘classics suck!’ thing over in my head, when a minor controversy erupted over writing book reviews. When, if ever, is it ok to be critical in a review? Should we put ourselves in a position where we say ‘well, that author is on my side, ergo I must never say a bad word about his work?’ Well, no, I don’t think so. Nor do I think that the occasional critical review is a bad thing – as long as the review is analyzing the work, not the author, and leavened with the good along with the bad. That’s how I do it. But it’s discouraging to be told that we can’t present a critical view of a work, simply because of who the author is.
(12) Fans are so smitten by the idea of an illuminated toy lightsaber that’s sturdy enough to bash around that they have fully funded Calimacil’s Kickstarter and then some – raising $46,889, well beyond the $38,259 goal.
The challenge was to build a lightsaber made of foam for safe play. To integrate light, we had to enhance the foam formula we normally use to build our products. Moreover, we had to develop a new technology into the handle to enable both light and sound. Thus our journey began, and we successfully achieved the creation of a fully immersive foam LEDsaber!….
The LEDsaber can communicate with a smartphone through Bluetooth. With that communication enabled, you will be able to customize the light effects of the blade. Multiple choices of colors are available: red, blue, green, orange and more. Even more, you can create various visual plasma effects on the blade….
Calimacil has no intention to commercialize the product using any kind of trademark associated to Disney. For the purpose of the kickstarter campaign we use the term LEDsaber.
(13) A lot of people post about their pets passing away, and I empathize with their sadness and loss.
It’s rare that someone can communicate what it was like to be in relationship with that animal, as John Scalzi has in “Lopsided Cat, 2000-2015”.
(14) And I therefore place next a BBC video in which an “Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station” –
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on the pipes after recording a message about research scientist Victor Hurst, who was involved in astronaut training.
It is thought to be the first time that bagpipes have been played in space.
(15) Internet English – the language in which “honest” means “brutal”!
The Force is awakening soon – and we have an honest look at the trailer for the movie that everyone’s already going to see anyway.
[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Hampus Eckerman.]
Posted in Pixel Scroll | Tagged Adam Christopher, Adam Whitehead, Cedar Sanderson, Ethan Mills, Gene Wolfe, Guillermo del Toro, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, Jeff Bennett, John Scalzi, Kjell Lindgren, Star Wars, Stephen Colbert, Supergirl, Superman, Tom Doherty
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A slingshot, shanghai, flip, bean shooter, or catapult (primarily British English) is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The term Wrist-Rocket, sometimes used generically to describe any slingshot, is a registered trademark of Saunders Archery. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the off hand, with two rubber strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket which holds the projectile.
Wikipedia-Link: Slingshot
A jungle is land covered with dense vegetation. Application of the term has varied greatly during the last several centuries, both because of this ambiguity in the application of the term and its use it popular culture. Jungles in European and Western literature, often represent a less civilised or unruly space outside the control of civilisation because of it´s association in colonial discourse with places that were colonised by Europeans.
Wikipedia-Link: Jungle
A resource is a source or supply from which benefit is produced. Typically resources are materials, money, services, staff, or other assets that are transformed to produce benefit and in the process may be consumed or made unavailable. Benefits of resource utilization may include increased wealth, meeting needs or wants, proper functioning of a system, or enhanced well being. From a human perspective a natural resource is anything obtained from the environment to satisfy human needs and wants.
Wikipedia-Link: Resource
A dinosaur park usually refers to a park in which several life-size sculptures or models of prehistoric animals, especially dinosaurs are displayed. The first dinosaur park worldwide was Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in London which opened in 1854. From 1977-1991 the largest dinosaur park in Europe was the Traumlandpark in Bottrop-Kirchhellen. The two biggest dinosaur theme parks in Germany today are the Dinosaur Park at Münchehagen (Dinopark) and the Dinosaur Park at Kleinwelka with its neighbouring dinosaur garden of Großwelka. In addition there are also individual models in the open air as well as various dinosaur museums.
Wikipedia-Link: List of dinosaur parks
An infant (from the Latin word infans, meaning "unable to speak" or "speechless") is the very young offspring of a human. When applied to humans, the term is usually considered synonymous with baby, but the latter is commonly applied to the young of any animal. When a human child learns to walk, the term toddler may be used instead.
Wikipedia-Link: Infant
Drinking water or potable water is water safe enough to be consumed by humans or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry meets drinking water standards, even though only a very small proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation. Typical uses (for other than potable purposes) include toilet flushing, washing and landscape irrigation.
Wikipedia-Link: Drinking water
Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Traditionally, two species are recognised, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), although some evidence suggests that African bush elephants and African forest elephants are separate species (L. africana and L. cyclotis respectively). Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.
Wikipedia-Link: Elephant
The domestic cat (Felis catus or Felis silvestris catus) is a small, usually furry, domesticated, and carnivorous mammal. It is often called the housecat when kept as an indoor pet, or simply the cat when there is no need to distinguish it from other felids and felines. Cats are valued by humans for companionship and their ability to hunt vermin and household pests.
Wikipedia-Link: Cat
A kiss is the act of pressing one´s lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, peace and good luck, among many others. In some situations a kiss is a ritual, formal or symbolic gesture indicating devotion, respect, or sacrament. The word came from Old English cyssan (“to kiss”), in turn from coss (“a kiss”).
Wikipedia-Link: Kiss
Bicycle motocross or BMX is the sport of racing bicycles in motocross style on tracks which use an inline start and have obstacles, and also refers to the bicycle itself, which is designed for dirt and motocross cycling. BMX began in the early 1970s when children began racing their bicycles on dirt tracks in southern California, inspired by the motocross stars of the time...
Wikipedia-Link: Bicycle motocross
High-heeled footwear (often abbreviated as high heels or simply heels) is footwear that raises the heel of the wearer´s foot significantly higher than the toes. When both the heel and the toes are raised equal amounts, as in a platform shoe, it is technically not considered to be a high heel; however, there are also high-heeled platform shoes. High heels tend to give the aesthetic illusion of longer, more slender legs. High heels come in a wide variety of styles, and the heels are found in many different shapes, including stiletto, pump (court shoe), block, tapered, blade, and wedge.
Wikipedia-Link: High-heeled footwear
A gravity racer is a motorless vehicle capable of holding a driver (usually a child) built for the purpose of racing or recreation. They are propelled by gravity and can achieve speeds upwards of 112 km/h (70 miles per hour). Originally, Gravity racer cars were built from wooden soap (or orange) crates and rollerskate wheels, but have grown more sophisticated over time, with materials like aluminum, fiberglass and even CFRP being utilized.
Wikipedia-Link: Gravity racer
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International Youth Journalism Contest for teens and teen educators
Great contest for teens and teen educators! Pass this on to your kids, your students, your cousins, friends, neighbors. Details below.
Worldwide Teen Journalism Contest
Featuring New 2011 Award for Journalistic Courage
Youth Journalism International, a Connecticut-based nonprofit, is seeking nominations by young reporters or others in the field of youth journalism. There are a number of categories for entries, including Student Journalist of the Year, Journalism Educator of the Year, The Jacinta Marie Bunnell Award for Commentary and The Frank Keegan “Take No Prisoners” Award for News.
A new Courage in Journalism award will be one of many handed out to the world’s most talented young reporters, photographers and cartoonists in the largest journalism contest for young people. The Courage in Journalism award aims to honor an individual youth journalist, journalism educator or a student newspaper that showed particular courage in pursuing a story despite danger, official roadblocks or other unusual obstacles.
Winners in major categories receive crystal trophies and other prize winners receive custom-made certificates.
Entries, which must be in English and published between Jan. 1, 2010 and Feb. 1, 2011, are due no later than March 8. Awards will be handed out in May.
Details on how to enter the contest are available under the Contests link at the top of Youth Journalism International’s website at www.YouthJournalism.org.
A complete list of last year’s winners, who hailed from eight countries on four continents, is also available on the website.
Youth Journalism International is a recognized 501(c)(3) public educational charity by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. A non-governmental organization, YJI depends on donations from supporters to continue its important work training the next generation of journalists.
Its students’ work has been featured by The Huffington Post, National Geographic, PBS NewsHour, The Tattoo teen newspaper, Radio Pacifica, Connecticut Public Radio and other news organizations.
For more information, contact Jackie Majerus, YJI’s executive director, or Steve Collins, YJI’s president, at (860) 523-9632 or yjicontest@gmail.com.
Previous PostSPJ panel discussion, “Journalism in the Age of Wiki-Leaks,” Feb 24, 6pm, SFNext PostNEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater Fellowship
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Home Press Releases Of Mice & Men Offer Update On New Music + Announce Tour...
Of Mice & Men Offer Update On New Music + Announce Tour With Nothing More in Winter 2019
OF MICE & MEN WORKING ON NEW MUSIC WITH PRODUCER JOSH WILBUR
BAND ANNOUNCES WINTER 2019 TOUR WITH NOTHING MORE
Of Mice & Men released their critically acclaimed album Defy in January 2018 via Rise Records. The band is already hard at work on new material and have entered the studio with producer Josh Wilbur (Trivium, Lamb of God, Gojira).
“We’re super pumped to be in the studio with Josh, as we’re all big fans of his production and mix discography,” said singer and guitarist Aaron Pauley. “When we decided to go heavier with this album, Josh’s was one of the first names to pop up — and I can tell you, we’re a little over halfway done and it’s sounding huge and heavy, heavenly and absolutely demonic — all rolled into one.”
The band will spend Fall 2018 on tour in Europe with Bullet for My Valentine. OM&M will hit the road for a U.S. tour with Nothing More in Winter 2019.
“We’re excited to have also announced that we’re touring the U.S. next year with Nothing More. Come to a show, and bang your head,” Pauley said.
The tour kicks off on February 21 in Phoenix and runs through March 23 in San Antonio. Those dates are below.
Stay tuned for further updates about new OM&M music — it’s coming!
OF MICE & MEN ON TOUR:
WITH NOTHING MORE:
2/21 — Phoenix, AZ
2/22 — Los Angeles, CA
2/23 — Sacramento, CA
2/25 — Salt Lake City, UT
2/26 — Denver, CO
2/28 — Oklahoma City, OK
3/1 — Kansas City, MO
3/2 — Minneapolis, MN
3/3 — Chicago, IL
3/6 — Grand Rapids, MI
3/7 — Pittsburgh, PA
3/8 — Philadelphia, PA
3/10 — New York, NY
3/11 — New Haven, CT
3/12 — Boston, MA
3/13 — Silver Spring, MD
3/15 — Charlotte, NC
3/16 — Atlanta, GA
3/17 — Tampa, FL
3/19 — New Orleans, LA
3/20 — Houston, TX
3/22 — Dallas, TX
3/23 — San Antonio, TX
Of Mice And Men 2018
Of Mice And Men Nothing More
Of Mice And Men Rocked
Of Mice And Men Tour Dates
Previous articleGWAR Announce December Headline Shows
Next articleBlessthefall Drop “Wishful Sinking” Video
Of Mice & Men Release “How to Survive” Video & Announce New Headline Tour Dates
Of Mice & Men Release New Song “How to Survive”; Extensive Tour In 2019
Album Review: Of Mice & Men – Cold World
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Haxtun Hospital District History
"The Haxtun Community Hospital opened March 1938 on the second floor of the Drake Mercantile building built in 1913. It was operated by two registered nurses, one from Knoxville, Tenn. and on the other from Ord, Neb." The building, located on the corner of Colorado Ave and Fletcher Street remains a landmark for the town of Haxtun still today but is currently unoccupied with the exception of apartments on second floor. On the 22nd day of April, 1960 petitions containing a total of 575 signatures were filed with the Phillips County Clerk and Recorder supporting the formation of the Haxtun Hospital District. The Clerk certified that within the boundaries of the proposed district there were 858 registered voters. This provided evidence that the petition had been signed by not less than 50% of the registered voters therefore meeting this requirement. On the 25th day of July, 1960 the formation of the proposed Haxtun Hospital District was presented to Phillips County District Court. After confirmation that all requirements had been met by petitioners, the Haxtun Hospital District was organized as a corporate body pursuant to Colorado Session Laws of 1959, Chapter 179. Haxtun Hospital District operated in the Drake Mercantile building until "voters overwhelmingly passed a $400,000 bond question for the construction of a new hospital. The District came back to the voters in 1986, 1990, 1992, 2004, and 2008, seeking help to expand the facility or support to keep it open. The voters said yes each time." In 1965 the Hospital moved into the new building at 235 West Fletcher where it is currently located. In 1990 a two story addition was built on the west side of the Hospital, designed to physically connect the two buildings. This provided additional nursing home rooms on the main floor, independent senior living on the second floor, laundry, purchasing, facilities and a classroom in the basement. By 2012the second floor had been converted to business offices and temporary housing for Locum Tenens physicians, visiting consultants, etc. Haxtun Hospital purchased a building that originally housed the kindergarten classes for Haxtun Schools in 1964 and it was the original home for the Haxtun Family Medicine Center. The building is now the Haxtun Hospital Rehabilitation Department. The Haxtun Family Medicine Center moved to a new building on the northeast corner of the campus at 233 West Strohm in 1972 where is it currently located. The Fleming Family Health Center building in Fleming, Co. is the most recent addition to Haxtun Hospital District. The building had been a rental property for some time but was actually purchased Sept. 2014. Currently, Haxtun Hospital District is a 25 bed Critical Access Hospital with 20 beds designated for Long Term Care and five for Hospital/Acute Care.
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Our mission is to apply Data Science to support clinical decision making and enable data-driven healthcare. Improved interoperability of data is necessary for this exciting goal.
We perform methodological research in clinical prediction modelling and support the development of open-source analytical tools to support this exciting research domain.
More education for young health data scientists, medical students, and healthcare professional, is needed to train them in the opportunities and limitations of big data in healthcare.
Welcome to the Health Data Science group
The Health Data Science (HDS) group aims to develop analytical methods and tools to enable data-driven healthcare. We apply advanced machine learning and statistical methods to develop clinical prediction models at scale in distributed data networks.
Clinical decision making is a complicated task in which the clinician has to infer a diagnosis or treatment pathway based on the available medical history of the patient and the current clinical guidelines. Clinical prediction models have been developed to support this decision-making process and are used in clinical practice in a wide spectrum of specialties. These models predict a diagnostic or prognostic outcome based on a combination of patient characteristics, e.g. demographic information, disease history, treatment history. The number of publications describing clinical prediction models has increased strongly over the last 10 years as shown in the figures below.
Surprisingly, most currently used models are estimated using small datasets and contain a limited set of patient characteristics. This low sample size, and thus low statistical power, forces the data analyst to make stronger modeling assumptions. The selection of the often limited set of patient characteristics is strongly guided by the expert knowledge at hand. This contrasts sharply with the reality of modern medicine wherein patients generate a rich digital trail, which is well beyond the power of any medical practitioner to fully assimilate.
Presently, health care is generating a huge amount of patient-specific information contained in the Electronic Health Records (EHR). This includes structured data in the form of diagnoses, medications, laboratory test results, and unstructured data contained in clinical narratives. This opens unprecedented possibilities for research and ultimately patient care. Effective exploitation of these massive dataset demands novel methodology and an interdisciplinary approach. This is where our group wants to play an important role. We aim to asses how much predictive performance can be gained by leveraging the large amount of data originating from the complete EHR of a patient.
However, actual use of these databases in a multi-center study is severely hampered by a variety of challenges, e.g., each database has a different database structure and uses different terminology systems. In an ideal world, a harmonized approach would be available by which data and results from different databases could be combined to answer a specific research question. Standardized data models and common analytical tools should become a de facto standard. Our group, therefore, collaborates closely with the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) initiative (www.ohdsi.org) that is responsible for the development of the OMOP-CDM, and leads its European Chapter (www.ohdsi-europe.org) to support its adoption in Europe.
Meet us in Bethesda
The Health Data Science group will be present at the OHDSI symposium in Bethesda. We will be giving a tutorial on patient-level prediction and present our research.
We thank DataCamp for their support in our data science curriculum.
Prediction Model Literature
Figure 1. The total number of prediction papers in PubMed. This demonstrates the very strong increase in publications in this research domain
Figure 2. Wordle presenting the disease areas in prediction literature. We created this by parsing the diseases in the abstract titles using natural language processing.
We are always looking for talented people.
See Careers
Copyright © 2018 - 2019 Health Data Science Group
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Home ECONOMY Emma Dabiri: The Diaspora Diva on trolls, modelling and growing up black...
Emma Dabiri: The Diaspora Diva on trolls, modelling and growing up black in Dublin
With her BBC series about to air, academic and broadcaster Emma Dabiri spoke to Donal Lynch
Emma Dabiri, author, TV presenter, model is very much at home in London but she’s an Irish girl at heart. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg
Emma Dabiri attends the Voice Of A Woman Awards
It’s a sweltering afternoon and on a quiet London side street, outside an impossibly chic bakery (it’s where Meghan and Harry had their wedding cake made), academic, author and former-model Emma Dabiri is taking a well-earned break from working on the final manuscript for her forthcoming book: Don’t Touch My Hair.
Before we meet I half considered this a slightly redundant admonition for polite society – why would anyone, bar someone with latent Harvey Weinstein tendencies, touch a woman’s hair unbidden? – but, in person, you can see where the temptation might arise. In this most genteel of settings, Emma’s hair is an event, a happening, a lustrously-beautiful nimbus that frames her fine features. Curiosity and generations of cultural racism seem to spur the urge to pet it, stroke it. I heroically resist, but others are not so strong.
“A few weeks ago a woman reached out to touch my hair on the tube and as she put out her hand she said ‘wait… you don’t like that, do you?’ It was as though some dim memory of editorials she’d read somewhere, came bursting through; she remembered and held herself back a bit.”
Growing up in Dublin, it happened all the time. It was constant. Often kids would just say “oh my God, look at her hair, it’s mad” and come right over and have a feel and a chat”, she recalls. “It felt strange and objectifying. I found it strange because I wouldn’t even touch someone’s dog without asking them. I never questioned all of the treatments (that are used to ‘relax’ black hair) but they weren’t always available to me because it’s difficult to get those products in Ireland. My mum would work in Liverpool or Manchester, and there you could get a curly perm, which is sort of like defined curls, rather than afro hair.
“When I was about 14, I was at Wesley disco and across the dance floor I saw what seemed like a mirage – another black girl. So I ran across the floor and introduced myself and asked her about her hair, and after that her mum started braiding my hair and that sort of saw me through.” Emma was born in America, but moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Ireland with her Nigerian father and Irish mother when she was a small child. In a Dublin in which Phil Lynott and Kevin Sharkey seemed like the only two black people, her difference was conspicuous.
“It was a huge shock to the system coming from sunny Atlanta suburbs, in the early 1980s. It was like going from colour to black-and-white – I lived in Rialto. In no uncertain terms I was made aware of my difference. Ireland was a very socially conservative country at the time. There was such homogeneity, generally, that people just didn’t have a frame of reference. There was an inherited racism from America and England that didn’t have to go into action very often.”
So acutely was she aware of her difference that, with her mother’s blessing, she skipped out on her Holy Communion to write a treatise on slavery. The stereotyping she experienced here came in various forms, but the one that irritated her the most was the presumption that in particular ways, she benefited from her difference.
“There was definitely an element of being a little celebrity in the playground, but that annoyed me as well, because if I ever mentioned any negative experiences, my friends would all be like ‘what are you talking about, you’re a superstar, everyone knows who you are.’
“I tried to say I had done nothing to set me apart as an object for scrutiny.
“People often presumed I was a singer, or that I wanted to be one, and I love singing, but for years that turned me off. The presumptions were never that you were more intelligent, or could write; always that you wanted to do something in show business or to be an athlete.”
Irish boys had their own way of objectifying her. “They would say to me ‘oh my God I’ve never been with a black girl’ and it came with disturbing undertones about the presumed sexual licentiousness of black women.”
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She was intensely interested in English and history, but not particularly academic otherwise, and bullying and other issues caused her to move schools several times. She names a string of private girls’ schools she attended and says that the classism she experienced as a student from a working-class area sometimes blended with the low-key racism of the more well-heeled suburbs.
“I was going to these posh girls’ schools but then living in Rialto, with a single mum and this ‘unknown’ black dad – my dad went back to Nigeria when I was about 10. I remember one friend telling me that another friend’s mother had given the group of girls a little pep talk as to why I was an inappropriate friend. I was hearing this when I was 14.”
Her parents split up when she was 10, but she says she didn’t feel damaged by it. It would be five years, however, before she would see her father again. “I didn’t see my dad again until I was around 15. He got back in contact then. My relationship with my dad was distant, but while a lot of people say that the break-up of parents was a defining feature in their life, I wouldn’t say that was the case with me. There were other events that were much more formative.”
One of these was a stint she spent in Atlanta, where her father had gone to college and where she became enchanted with the culture. She wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps but the prohibitive tuition fees stood in her way.
“Moving to Atlanta to spend time with his family was a huge thing for me. I love it there. I got into university but couldn’t afford to go because the tuition fees were so high so I ended up coming here, to London, which seemed like second best. It was a cool time to be here but I was disappointed about America. London was more diverse, but I really liked southern black American culture and it was such a vibrant time for the music coming out of there – crunk was huge. When I was in the States I was too young to go out and drink but I still had fun. My life has probably panned out very differently.”
About 10 years ago, her arresting good looks got her spotted on the street by a modelling agent. It led to a steady stream of work. “Name any brand drink and I’ve probably been in their ads. Kitchens, toothpaste,” she recalls, almost ruefully. “I didn’t really enjoy it but it was easy money. It seemed arbitrary to be able to make money from it. I joined an agency called the Eye. It all seemed so easy but also such a random, arbitrary way to be able to earn money.”
She wrote, constantly, in those years, but for herself, rather than for publication. She went to SOAS University of East London and did a degree in African studies and imperial studies, followed by a master’s in violent conflict and development.
After university she did stints in Japan and Ghana, where she worked for an aid organisation.
“I was doing research on the Ghanian economy and how aid affects it,” she recalls. “I became disillusioned with it: development as it was understood then, seemed like a sham to me, a continuation of colonialism. It seemed to me that the entities creating the poverty were western institutions.” She moved back to London and got a teaching position at SOAS, where she also undertook a PhD. “When I started, my PhD coincided with the rise of social media, and so I started blogging bits and pieces that didn’t make it into the PhD, and that became the Diaspora Diva (her Twitter handle). The second year of the Phd, I realised I was pregnant and I started blogging more then.”
Her partner, and the father of her son, is a music journalist but she tells me that she is wary of naming him because of the surprisingly large contingent of trolls who follow her online – Google her name and one of the first things that pops up is a man on a long, sinister video rant about her. She thinks that part of this is due to her steadily rising-profile – she has written columns for The Guardian and has a new episode of the BBC series Britain’s Lost Masterpieces airing later this week – but that part of it is specific to England. “When I talk about race, I’m not even saying anything all that original – a lot of it is pretty conventional wisdom, but the reality is that a hell of a lot of people do not want to hear a black person talking about race. Here, there is a far bigger pool of people who’ll say ‘if you don’t like it you can just F-off back to Africa’. I think my Irishness confuses and enrages them even further. I think being a woman is a big part of it. Men who talk about race would say that to me too.
“The responses in Irish media are quite different, the broad reaction is ‘I’m really sorry you experienced that and I hope things have changed’,” she says. The retreating empire is a huge part of people’s identities here, whereas Ireland, with its history of being colonised itself, there is a history of more empathy. That’s part of the reason why, however long I’ve been away, I still feel so Irish.”
As for whether she feels ‘more’ Irish or Nigerian, “people often ask me that. To me, it’s not a relevant question. First of all, I was born and raised in Ireland, but really I don’t feel I have to choose. I identify as both black and Irish, it may be unusual – although happily increasingly less so – but the two are not mutually exclusive!
“In fact, I feel very lucky to be from two such rich cultures. I am very proud of both. I certainly have had a complicated relationship with it and I definitely had to leave, in order to get a better sense of myself, to be somewhere else where I was just ordinary, where my race wasn’t a constant point of note, but at the same time, in those environments, my Irishness made me different.
“So it’s been complicated, but I love Ireland. Dublin is integral to who I am. There exists something unquantifiably special about being Irish.”
‘Britain’s Lost Masterpieces’ airs on August 15 at 9pm on BBC4
Irish women who are changing the way we think
Sinead Burke
Sinead’s TED Talk Why Design Should Include Everyone racked up 1.2 million views online and Vogue recently named the Irish woman as one of the 25 most influential and aspirational female figures working in Britain.
The author and campaigner became the well-recognised face of a movement to educate designers on how to be fully inclusive, in fashion and beyond.
Olwen Dawe
Dawe is an advocate for gender equality and the role of arts in society. She has carried out research on ‘Waking the Feminists’ and is now working with the Abbey to develop a diversity and equality strategy for the National Theatre. As such she is one of the most interesting new feminist voices in Irish media.
Catriona Crowe
It was Catriona Crowe, former head of special projects at the National Archives, who first revealed the extent of the illegal trade in babies during the mid-20th Century, taken from Irish mother-and-baby homes and given to Catholic couples in the UK and US.
That was in 1996 and since then Crowe has become a formidable activist and campaigner.
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DEADLINE INFORMATION
Randall Blackdeer II sworn in as Post 129 American Legion commander
By Ken Luchterhand
Randall Blackdeer II was handed the reigns of the next commander of the Andrew Blackhawk American Legion Post 129 in Black River Falls.
On Wednesday, March 13, Blackdeer was sworn-in by County Commander David Hale at the Jackson County American Legion monthly meeting. Post 129 hosted the meeting.
Blackdeer is the son of Betty and the late Randall Blackdeer. He and his wife, Rosa, have a son, Randall III, and a daughter, Isabel.
Previous Commander Jessika Greendeer asked Blackdeer if he would take over the duties as commander and his nomination to the position was approved at the January meeting.
Blackdeer served in the U.S. Air Force from 2002 to 2010. He was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and then at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Blackdeer was deployed to Iraq once for four months, and twice for six months each.
By profession, Blackdeer is a Ho-Chunk language instructor, teaching high school freshmen and also instructs online community classes. He was an apprentice for three years and has advanced to an instructor, developing materials and refining teaching skills.
In his duties as American Legion commander, he will preside over meetings and will be the main point of contact, getting people together for various appearances and functions. His duties are to create and oversee a budget and to organize the annual Memorial Day Powwow in Black River Falls.
In addition, he manages the upkeep of the Post 129 building and is the contact for renting it out for various events and functions.
He knows that he’s one of the younger veterans, issuing in another generation of legionnaires. The job ahead is to recruit the younger people, which is a lot of work, he said. He plans to conduct a recruiting drive to gain more members.
However, a recent report shows that the county American Legion is successful, having met its goal of 80 percent membership of veterans in the county.
“We’re sitting in a good spot,” Blackdeer said.
“I’m proud to keep the traditions of Legion going,” Blackdeer said.
His father was a veteran and a member of the American Legion. His grandfather was a veteran in World War II and was a Code Talker.
“We have a lot of military in the family,” he said. “I’m proud to be a member but to be the commander is overwhelming pride.”
Earth Partnership initiative recognized with UW-Madison’s Community-University Partnership Award
Ardith Van Riper
Ho-Chunk Nation Oath of Office Ceremony
Ho-Chunk RV Resort and Campground hosts annual Youth Culture Camp
Gary Garvin
Annual Flag Day ceremony honors veterans and provides connection to families
Ken Luchterhand
Zunker heads effort in changing October day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Chief John Winneshiek recognized for his military service with ceremony
Ho-Chunk Nation Digital Library project celebrates its third year of work
First Listeners Project Offers Ho-Chunk Language Classes
Copyright 2016 Ho-Chunk Nation: Hocak Worak
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British singer says she was deported from Iran
Aljazeera: British soul singer Joss Stone says she was deported from Iran after arriving in the Islamic Republic while on a worldwide concert tour, even though she says she didn't plan to perform there.
Posting on Instagram, Stone appears in a video wearing a white headscarf saying: "Well, we got to Iran, we got detained and then we got deported." She said she knew solo performances by women were illegal, but she still wanted to see Iran.
She wrote that Iranian authorities placed her on a "black list" because they believed she might try to perform a public show. She described the authorities that met her on arrival at Iran's Kish Island as professional throughout their interaction.
"These people are genuinely nice, kind people that felt bad that they couldn't override the system," the 33-year-old wrote in a caption.
Under Iranian law, women cannot perform solo concerts, though women do play in ensemble bands and orchestras.
Last January, Ali Ghamsari, a popular Iranian musician, was banned from performing after a woman sang during one of his concerts.
A month later, Iranian authorities banned the music of singer Hamid Askari and his band after his female guitarist Negin Parsa sang a solo at the end of a song at Tehran's Milad Tower Musi.
And in May, Iranian singer Negar Moazzam was summoned to court for singing to tourists in the village of Abyaneh.
'Bringing good feeling'
It is unclear what Stone planned to otherwise do in Iran, though her Instagram post described her desire to show "the positives of our globe".
"I told them my story and explained my mission, to bring good feeling with what I have to give and show those who want to look the positives of our globe, all with the understanding that public performance wasn't an option in this scenario," she said.
"There is music everywhere, even here. We just have to play by their rules and they have to believe we will. It's a trust thing."
Iranian newspapers reported Stone's Instagram comments on Thursday, though there was no immediate government comment on her claims.
Stone earlier posted images of herself boarding a flight to Iran's Kish Island in the Gulf, which is an economic free zone that allows travel by all nationalities.
Stone came to fame in 2003 as a small-town teenager with a big, soulful voice, showcased on her best-selling debut album, The Soul Sessions, and hit singles including Fell In Love With A Boy.
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Who Stole my Revolution?
The popular revolution in Egypt that began on the 25th of January, succeeded after three weeks of demonstrations, fatalities and casualties to get rid of President Mubarak before he could pass the country on to his son, and proved to all that the country is not family property but belongs to all the Egyptians. Since Mubarak was removed from power, the citizens of Egypt are asking: "Where is the revolution heading?" And the answers usually swing between two poles: the religious pole, which is represented by the "Muslim Brotherhood" movement and the "Freedom and Justice" party, and on the other hand the secular pole, which is represented by a large number of political organizations and bodies, most of them new.
In February, with Mubarak's departure, the military took control and suspended the constitution for six months, during which time it was supposed to organize parliamentary elections and pass the control to a civilian government. The great majority of Egyptians believed then that the military, which is headed by General Tantawi, would be satisfied with six months of ruling and then would indeed pass the rule to the citizens in an orderly way. Six months were over in August, and another three months have passed, and it is still not certain that elections will be held on November 28.
As stated above, two main trends characterize the members of the next Parliament: The religious-Islamist orientation and the secular-liberal orientation. Each of the sides sees the revolution as belonging to its own side only, and is not interested in elections that in any way might bring to power the representatives of the opposite side. However, the two sides, who oppose each other as far as which trend is desirable for Egypt, both share the opinion that the military must pass power into civilian hands as soon as possible, and that it should be subject to the decisions made at the civilian level. Both sides are apprehensive that the military - despite the declarations of its leaders - intends to continue to hold the reins of power forever, and they are both determined not to allow the group of "young officers" to inherit the power of the "old officers", i.e. Mubarak and the generals who served him.
Both sides of the social equation - secular and religious - are apprehensive concerning outside intervention: The seculars fear a Taliban-style theocracy in which the hands of thieves will be amputated, suspected adulterers will be stoned and that Iran is stirring the political pot by means of the money that it streams to Islamists; and Islamic fanatics are warning against intervention from Western countries that support the seculars, even at the price of military control of the country, in order to secure their obedience.
Many Egyptians fear that General Tantawi is secretly plotting to bring Mubarak's "National Democratic Party" back to power and perhaps even to cause his sons to be exonerated in court so that they can be returned to positions of power in the country; this will enable the control of the military to continue as it has been since the revolution of the Free Officers in 1952. These misgivings are strengthened by the fact that the trial of Mubarak and his sons continues without arriving at a final decision, and because of the constitution that was suggested by the military in which it awards to itself a status above the state. The cruelty and the violence that characterize the army's methods since it took control in February are worse than those used in Mubarak's day. And this also does not contribute to the public's trust in the military or its intentions.
In the huge demonstrations that took place in Tahrir Square at the beginning of last week, signs were waved that called for Tantawi's removal in the same spirit that they had called for the removal of Mubarak. Tantawi appealed to the throngs again and tried to calm them by saying that the military has no intentions to take control of the government, but he has lost much of his credibility in recent months, and the public does not believe the promises of the supreme military council. The economic situation, which continues to deteriorate, adds fat to the fire of public frustration, and the crowds are impatient to see results of the revolution and the realization of the hopes that they hung upon it.
Many in the Arab world are following the events in Egypt with much concern, especially since in Tunisia the Islamic party won forty percent of the Parliament, more than double the largest secular party. The religious in Egypt are encouraged by the success of Islam in Tunisia, while the seculars fear that the religious will control their lives. Both sides speak of "stealing the revolution": The religious are convinced that the revolution must progress in an Islamic direction with the aim of imposing Shari'a upon the country, and if not, then the revolution will have been "stolen" by the secularists. The secularists, on their side, object to the "stealing of the revolution" by the religious, and aspire to see a modern, open and liberal country. And neither side is willing to have the military steal the revolution from them, to continue "Mubarak's Government" under a different name.
Thus, the misgivings engulfing all the Egyptians today were the main factor in the outbreak of demonstrations in recent days, which were met with a violent and harsh response by the military and the police. The number of fatalities in this round is close to fifty, the number of wounded reaches as high as one thousand five hundred, and the government of Egypt resigned or rather was forced to resign, in order to calm the masses, to send them back to their houses and to continue in the preparations for the elections on the 28th of the month with the hope that indeed it will pass uneventfully. However there is an atmosphere of severe disquiet, and no one is ready to gamble on the elections being held on time.
Egyptian and Arab newspapers reflect the misgivings deep in the hearts of the Egyptians and members of the Arab world today, and we will bring here some reports of these misgivings.
The Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brotherhood is calling for elections to be held at their appointed time, since they are organized and ready. They have been organizing for years by means of organizations of civil society that have helped the poor residents to overcome the difficulties of everyday life, and so they succeeded within a short time to set up a system of well-oiled and organized groups, to prepare election propaganda, to set up popular candidates, and they are well prepared to bring people to the polls and supervise the conduct of elections. In the aftermath of the elections in Tunisia, the removal of the dictator in Libya and the expected departure of the Americans from Iraq, "The Brotherhood" are very much encouraged. They call for fair and transparent elections, in order to prevent manipulation by those who oppose them - the military and the secularists - as it was during Mubarak's time. They also call for all of the other bodies to honor the results of the elections, whatever they may be, and this call apparently stems from their confidence that they will win the highest number of the seats in the Peoples' Council, and perhaps even a clear majority, that will enable them to rule without the participation of other groups. Fair and transparent elections will also ensure that the secularists will not appeal the results of the elections.
In accordance with a modern approach, the "Brotherhood" call for the public to vote "according to the qualifications and not the connections"; to ignore family connections and to vote for the one who is most suitable. In their eyes, fair elections are a direct continuation of the revolution, because that's what the people want. The "Brotherhood" strongly object to the intention of the high military council to enable the people who are identified with the Mubarak regime to run in the elections. It cannot be - say the "Brothers" in their official document - that people from Mubarak's party, which the court disbanded and who are sunk deep into economic, ethical and political corruption, will try to again pounce on the parliamentary seats.
The results of the elections in Tunisia, in which the Islamic party won the lion's share of the seats in Parliament, mirrors the Islamic political approach in Egypt as formulated by the Brotherhood (in parenthesis, my clarifications. M.K.): "The Tunisian people, who suffered from attacks of Western attempts to erase the Islamic identity and intentions to impose secularism upon it by oppression and terror, remains true to its Islamic identity which is faith, civilization and culture; and signs of secularization that have been imposed upon it are nothing but fetters on its hands and his brain, which he removes at the first opportunity that is given him to express his opinion freely. The Tunisian Islamic movement, whose members were sent to prison and exiled for the 22 past years, returned to life after the revolution, and its leaders were surprised to discover that the Muslim Tunisian people still support them. And their young party, which was founded a few months before the elections, won the largest portion of the votes despite the short period of time until elections. It didn't demand to postpone elections claiming that it still wasn't organized, which is not what is happening with us in Egypt, where (secular) parties demand a postponement because they are not yet ready. The results of the elections in Tunisia prove that the Arab and Islamic people never give up Islam, which is their faith, their life, and is imprinted in their genes. Everyone - both in Egypt and outside of it - must internalize this fact, honor the desire of these peoples and let them live according to their Shari'a, according to their values and (Islamic) heritage. They can, with the help of Allah, show the world an example of a complete, balanced and humane civilization, that connects spirit and intelligence and brings man happiness in this world and the next. People of the West must stop spreading their aggressive slogans that stem from a battle between cultures, and adopt the slogan of cooperation between cultures.
We were gladdened by the declaration of our brothers in Libya about the complete liberation of their land, after the elimination of the criminal and dictatorial regime and the resignation of the heads of the regime and its "tails" While we congratulate them on this achievement, we must remind them that the future is difficult, great and important, and is expressed in patriotic unity, peacemaking between the tribes, cities and groups, with the establishment of institutions of the country, in the writing of a modern constitution, removal of the remnants of the destruction, and building the future on all levels while keeping the interest general, not individual, love between people, honoring the Islamic and democratic principles, focusing on independence (from NATO), guarding the national treasures, and using them for the good of all the members of Libyan society. Also, we call on our brothers in Libya to learn from the experience and not to allow a despotic dictator, whoever he is, to take control of their lives and to repress their will, even at a high price. They must take good care of their wounded brothers (from the war against Qadhaffi) and the families of the fallen for whom we pray that Allah will accept them in his mercy and will settle them into Paradise with the righteous and the prophets.
On the International Level: The American President, Barack Obama, announced the end of the war in Iraq and the withdrawal of American forces from this country at the end of the current year. This decision followed a long debate and tedious negotiations whose purpose was to leave an American presence in Iraq forever, in light of the profound changes occurring in the Arab countries. The "Muslim Brotherhood" believe that the decision to withdraw, even if it was too late, reflects two truths: one - wars don't solve problems between countries (hint to Iran) or between cultures, and the decision to withdraw expresses the failure of the idea of a battle of cultures and waging war as a way of settling disputes and conflicts. The second - since the disputes exist as an existential feature that Allah has implanted within man, the countries and governments must establish a just system (not the UN, which is controlled by the West) that will manage the relationships between them without bias towards one side (the West) at the expense of the other (Iran and the Arab and Islamic countries). The future must be based on mutual respect and understanding in those issues and interests that relate to peace, security and economic matters.
The material above is in the document that the "Muslim Brotherhood" published a few days ago. The absence of any reference to Israel and to the peace treaty with Israel is obvious, for several possible reasons: a. the results of the elections in Egypt are still not known and perhaps the Brotherhood will not have a majority in Parliament that will enable them to revoke recognition of Israel and the peace with her. b. the "Brotherhood" know that the revocation of the peace treaty with Israel will arouse severe misgivings in the world regarding the stability of Egypt, and these misgivings may deter investors from investing in the Egyptian economy. Following the revolution, foreign investments have almost totally disappeared in Egypt, and if the "Brotherhood" want to restore the paralyzed Egyptian economy back to action, they must prevent upsetting the stability with Israel. The unemployment in Egypt as of now stands at almost fifty (!) percent, and the "Brotherhood" know that if they will be in the driver's seat, the Egyptian people will see them very quickly as responsible for the terrible economic situation, or at least as responsible for its continuation, even if not for its creation. So they are aware that they must get the economy going right after the election, and revocation of the peace treaty doesn't contribute to the success of this objective.
The Secular Approach
On the other hand, secular parties are concerned that Islamic radicals, even the "soft" ones among them, like "The Muslim Brotherhood" will take over Egypt and will impose upon her the rule of religious law. Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the most prominent spokesman for political Islamism is accused by Egyptian secularists of pulling the country towards application of Shari'a, in which ten million Copts will lose their rights, and women will be obligated to stay in the home because "The best hijab for a woman is her house" (a saying of the Prophet Mohammed), and in the next phase they will cut off the hands of thieves and stone adulterers. The examples of Islamic rule for the secularists are the Taliban in Afganistan and the Ayatollahs in Iran. They don't want to live in any version of political Islam, and their feeling is "now or never": If they fail at this time to put into place a democratic and secular government, "civilian", as they call it, they will be forced to emigrate from Egypt as millions of Copts have done until now, because of the Islamism that has been taking over the Egyptian street for the past few decades.
One of the prominent spokesmen for the Arab secular approach is Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi, past president of the Association of the Neo - liberal Arabs. He is originally a Palestinian from Jordan, but he is widely known throughout the Arab media. Relating to the recent events in Egypt, he writes under the title: "Indeed, do not vote for the secular Egyptians! This is the call by "our lord" Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to Egypt, and before then there were words both more and less clear of the leaders of the "Muslim Brotherhood" and their new party, the Freedom and Justice Party, not to vote for secular candidates in the elections for the Peoples' Council. (In order to buy the votes of the electors) the "Muslim Brotherhood" movement acquired tens of thousands of sheep in order to distribute them for free to the voters who would not be able even to dream about meat. The Islamist newspaper Al-Shuruk" ("The Sunrise") which spreads the religious and political legacy of the "Brothers", wrote that there are posters on the walls of the mosques in the colleges of Cairo which are spreading the ideas hostile to a civil state (not religious) and describe secularism as a call to apostasy and permissiveness. The posters call for the establishment of an Islamic country, not a civil one, because a civil country would be anti-religious and heretical. Another poster describes secularism as denying the monotheistic religions, as a call to take interest in this world at the expense of the next world and elimination of religion from every sphere of life. One poster demanded to turn Egypt into an Islamic country and to reject decisively the possibility that it can be a civil country, according to one of the Salafi (fundamentalist) spokesmen in Alexandria, Sheikh Yassir Barhami.
So there is nothing new in the call of "our lord" Sheikh Qaradawi's, which is an old demand of the Salafi groups in religious, lower class Egypt. This class of Egyptians strongly resents modernity, secularism and democracy, and so it is poor, illiterate, living in cemeteries, under bridges and in many unplanned neighborhoods (without water, sewage, electricity, education and civilian infrastructure). We have heard, read and seen, how the new Salafi parties in Egypt see any secular candidate who might be elected as an apostate who will go straight to Hell, and so we have returned to the Middle Ages. Before us today stands the choice between the perpetuation of the present dictatorial system and the clouded future which is engulfing the Arab countries in revolution, crowned with Islamist promises decorated with flowers and birds (of Paradise). At this point the parties of the secular opposition are weak, ridiculous and poor, while their Islamist competitors are strong, thanks to the societal mechanisms that they have established in order to serve the poor voters. They distributed free food to the poor, sheep to sacrifice for the Holiday of the Sacrifice (about one month ago), and supplied services to the populace which the country has failed to provide, so that they would be able to tell the voters: "We will establish a good welfare state." Lately, the Islamist parties have found themselves at the front of the revolution, because of their intention to take control of the regime, since in the past they had been excluded from it and were not recognized as legal. They suffered isolation, imprisonment and torture at the hands of the dictators, and despite everything they remain faithful to a certain extent to the existing political order within which framework they acted, usually in the opposition, in order to gain popularity at the expense of that political order. Today they are seeking the votes of the poor and ignorant voters who are clamoring to enter Paradise in heaven, when the time comes, since they did not have Paradise on Earth during their lives.
The Islamists fear the sort of undreamed-of and crushing political victory that happened in Tunisia because they don't know what to do with the government and administration because of their ignorance in practical politics. If they indeed will win a majority in Egypt as well, this will be very helpful to the secularists, and then the failure of the extremist Islamist message will become clear. The leader of the Tunisian Islamic movement, Rashed al-Ghanoshi, distances himself very much from the extremist message, and assigned the leader of the secular parties, Muntsaf al-Marzooki, the job of president of the country so that he would burn in the fire of the internal mess and chaos of Tunisia. The "Muslim Brotherhood" in Egypt are more aware and cautious, so they announced at the beginning of the revolution in Egypt that they will not take over the government, since they know well what it would mean to take responsibility for a country like Egypt... Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi's call not to vote for secular candidates and to give the vote to Islamist candidates will surely cause the Islamists to burn. Therefore not voting for secularists is the best way to serve modernity and secularism in Egypt and in the Arab world, and we will yet see Qaradawi crowned as a prophet of innovation and modern Arab secularism".
These are the sarcastic words of Shaker al-Nabulsi.
Egypt is entering a very dangerous crossroads these days: Will she choose the road to the kind of modern, forward-looking country which is required in the twenty first century, or perhaps she will turn to face backwards, to the tradition that was established a thousand and four hundred years ago in the arid desert of the Hijaz.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar is an Israeli scholar of Arabic literature and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University. He served for twenty-five years in IDF Military Intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.
Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. It was also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper. Translated by Sally.
The Real War in Iran
Globalization is Killing the Syrians
Non-Muslim Muslims and the Jihad Against the West
Behind the Islamist Wave Elections in the Arab Wor...
Secular Syria's Opportunistic Use of Islam
Muslim Brotherhood: Extremist Islamic Group
Iran May Target American Bases in Germany
An Overview of Shi'a-Sunni Conflicts
US Senate OK's Sanctions on Iran Central Bank
Muslim Brotherhood Rising
Conspiracies, Terrorist Defense Videoed at Anti NY...
Lebanon: Hezbollah Digs In
Britain: Islam In, Christianity Out
Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids Promotes Global Isl...
The Islamic Republic’s Warning to the West
Obama Administration Bans Knowledge of Islam
The Political Persecution of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-...
Iran Behind Katyushas in Galilee?
The Dangers of Democracy
U.S. Suspects NATO was Lured into Raid
Avoiding the Islamist Stigma
Is the Occupy Wall Street Movement Occupied?
Hamas is No Peace Partner for Israel
Syrian Human Rights Violations in Black and White
Egypt’s Defining Period Begins
The UN’s International Day of Solidarity Against t...
Libya: New Threat in the Middle East
UN Resolution 181 - The Partition Plan
Romney vs. Gingrich on Jihad and Sharia
Moroccan Crime in the Netherlands & the Myths of M...
Egyptians Go to the Polls
Is Morocco Immune to Upheaval?
MK: Prepare for War If Egypt Deploys in Sinai
Controversy Down Under: Australian Jews Shocked by...
Mainstream Media Turn Blind Eye to Dark Side of Ta...
No Road Leads to Peace between Israel and the Pale...
Wapo Quota System: A Major Israel-Bashing Spread O...
Jordan is Boiling
The Threats in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
The Coming Oil-Shale Revolution?
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fuerst, michael a. (333)
oakley, thomas e. (305)
barrow, william c. (46)
huhnke, christopher (46)
nehez, bill (35)
cawood, louise taft (32)
thomas, james (32)
seid, herman (27)
bottomer, fred (26)
jpeg (3438)
5x7 in. (701)
9 x 7 in. (133)
10 x 8 in. (60)
1024 pixels by 768 pixels (39)
3.5 x 5.5 in. (22)
2048 pixels by 1536 pixels (21)
bridges (2115)
cleveland union terminal (734)
arch bridges (463)
beam bridges (427)
veterans memorial bridge (cleveland, ohio) (412)
truss bridges (408)
cuyahoga river (351)
veterans memorial bridge (331)
east end (323)
Title: Bridge
High Level Bridge and Main Avenue Bridge Looking West From the Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio
Aerial views; Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Main Avenue Bridge; Cuyahoga River; Flats; Main Avenue Viaduct (Cleveland, Ohio); Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
Looking west from the Terminal Tower shows the High Level Bridge and Main Avenue Bridge which spans the Cuyahoga River which empties into Lake Erie at this point. These two bridges span the Cuyahoga Valley, one of the world's greatest industrial...
High Level Bridge and Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio
Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Terminal Tower (Cleveland, Ohio); Bridges; Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
The High Level Bridge is the largest reinforced concrete bridge in the world. The center span, made of nickel steel, is 591 ft. long. The bridge is 2,880 ft. long, 8 1/2 ft. wide, and was built at a total cost of $5,407,000
Main Avenue Bridge
"New Main Avenue Bridge. The new Main Avenue bridge is a six-lane steel and concrete structure providing one of the fine modern entrances to industrial Cleveland. Leading in from the western end of the city, the Main Avenue bridge spans the...
The Pleasant Valley Road Bridge, in Willoughby Hills, Ohio
Bridges; Truss bridges; Chagrin River (Willoughby Hills, Ohio)
A through-truss bridge over the Chagrin River in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. The plaque beside it reads: "Ohio Historical Marker. The Pleasant Valley Road Bridge. This single lane Pleasant Valley Road Bridge was constructed in 1881 by the Wrought Iron...
High Level Bridge Looking East, Cleveland, Ohio
Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Center St. Swing Bridge; Terminal Tower (Cleveland, Ohio); Cuyahoga River; Flats; Bridges; Rivers; Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
The High Level Bridge connecting Superior and Detroit Avenue, is the main artery between the East and West sides of Cleveland. This bridge is the largest double decked re-reinforced bridge in the world.
High Level Bridge Looking West, Cleveland, Ohio
Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Main Avenue Bridge; B & O Railroad Bridge; Flats; Cuyahoga River; Bridges; Rivers; Main Avenue Viaduct (Cleveland, Ohio); Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
High level Bridge is the largest double-deck bridge in the world. The lower deck has a span for six street car tracks and the upper deck is for pedestrians. In the background can be seen lake, breakwaters, piers, lighthouses of the shipping in...
Detroit-Superior High Level Bridge, Cleveland, O.
Bridges; Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Terminal Tower (Cleveland, Ohio); Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
"High Level Bridge showing Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio. The High Level Bridge connects Superior Avenue and Detroit Avenue and is the main connecting bridge between East and West Sides of Cleveland. In the distance is the 52 story Terminal...
High Level Bridge Looking East Showing Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio
Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Center St. Swing Bridge; Terminal Tower (Cleveland, Ohio); Cuyahoga River; Bridges; Rivers; Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
The High Level Bridge Connects Superior Ave. and Detroit Ave. and is the main connecting bridge between the East and West sides of Cleveland. In the distance is the 52-story Terminal Tower.
Handdrawn map of Detroit - Superior Bridge and others bridges that cross the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, 1967
Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio); Maps; Hope Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio); Main Ave. Bridge; Center Street Swing Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio); Innerbelt-Freeway Bridge
Topical map drawn out with ink of the Detroit-Superior Bridge and other streets and bridges surrounding it. Other bridges included are Main Ave. Bridge, Columbus Rd. Bridge, Center St. Bridge, Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, and the Innerbelt Bridge.
High Level Bridge looking east
High Level Bridge; Bridges; Terminal Tower (Cleveland, Ohio)
"High Level Bridge looking east showing Terminal Tower, Cleveland, Ohio." --card front. "The High Level Bridge connects Superior Ave. and Detroit Ave. and is the main connecting bridge between the east and west sides of Cleveland. In the distance...
High Level Bridge
Bridges; High Level Bridge
"High Level Bridge. The largest double deck reinforced concrete bridge in the world connects Superior and Detroit Avenues. Its center span, 95 feet above the lake level, is of nickel steel. Length of bridge, 2,880 ft.; width, 81 1/2 ft.;and cost...
Lorain Carnegie Bridge and the Terminal Tower
Lorain-Carnegie Bridge; Bridges; Terminal Tower (Cleveland, Ohio); Cuyahoga River
"Lorain Carnegie Bridge, the newest bridge to connect Cleveland's east and west sides. One of its arches frames a view of the new Union Terminal group reflected in the Cuyahoga River. The bridge is 4,430 feet in length and provides for six lanes of...
New Main Avenue Bridge and High Level Bridge, Cleveland, Ohio
Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Main Avenue Bridge; B & O Railroad Bridge; Cuyahoga River; Flats; Bridges; Rivers; Main Avenue Viaduct (Cleveland, Ohio); Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
Two magnificent bridges span the Cuyahoga River and an important industrial section of Cleveland. The Main Avenue Bridge, completed in October, 1939 includes the most-up-to-date features of traffic separation and lighting.
New Main Avenue Bridge, Cleveland, Ohio
Main Avenue Bridge; Cuyahoga River; Bridges; Rivers; Main Avenue Viaduct (Cleveland, Ohio)
The new Main Avenue Bridge is a six lane steel and concrete structure providing one of the fine modern entrances to industrial Cleveland. Leading in from the Western end of the city, the Main Avenue bridge spans the Cuyahoga River and Valley, and...
Hart Crane in Akron and Cleveland 1919-1923: Ohio roads and bridges to The Bridge
Crane, Hart; Criticism; Bridges; Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
"The essays focus on three pre-Bridge texts featuring the Road and Bridge symbols. The first essay suggests that [Hart] Crane's brief period in Akron following his return to Cleveland from New York in 1919 symbol texts, configuring the Road symbol...
Holton Ave. bridge
Bridges; Holton Ave.; Holton Avenue Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio); Cleveland Union Terminal; Cleveland and Youngstown Railroad Co.; Referendums
"The Holton Avenue bridge of the C. & Y. Typical of the bridges to be built for the terminal - a concrete bridge performance." -- card front.
Part of folded postcard set.
Main Avenue Bridge and Lakeview Terrace, Cleveland, Ohio
Aerial views; Main Avenue Bridge; Lakeview Terrace; Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); High Level Bridge; Main Avenue Viaduct (Cleveland, Ohio)
The Main Avenue Bridge was recently completed at an approximate cost of 7,500,000. The total length of the bridge, including approaches, is 1 1/2 miles; width is 72 feet with provisions for six lanes of traffic. Lakeview Terrace, the Government...
The newest bridge constructed to facilitate movement of traffic in Cleveland. It connects the new Shore Drive with Bulkley Boulevard making possible an uninterrupted flow of east and west bound traffic. The bridge Crosses the Cuyahoga River at a...
Detroit - Superior Bridge
Bridge construction; Bridges; Detroit-Superior Bridge (Cleveland); Veterans Memorial Bridge (Cleveland, Ohio)
Construction of the Detroit - Superior Bridge. Sign reads in part "King Bridge Co." -- card front.
B & O Lift Bridge
Bridges; Vertical lift bridges; Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
"B & O lift bridge. Longest in the United States, Cleveland, O." --card front. The bridge, built in 1907, was at the time the longest bridge of its type in the United States.
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Government extends term of the ACCC Chair
The Coalition Government has extended Mr Rod Sims' term as Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) until 1 August 2022.
Mr Sims has done an outstanding job as Chairman of the ACCC since he was first appointed in 2011, and since that time the ACCC has been a strong and proactive competition regulator and protector of consumer rights.
Under Mr Sims' stewardship the ACCC has:
Secured nearly $170 million in penalties for breaches of competition and consumer law in 2017-18, including the highest ever fine for a breach of competition law of $46 million;
Successfully prosecuted its first criminal cartel case in 2017;
Reviewed the East Coast Gas Market leading to some of the most substantial gas market reforms in two decades;
Vigorously enforced the Australian Consumer Law, with courts awarding penalties in recent years against businesses in the automotive, telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries amongst others; and
Conducted the Retail Electricity Pricing Review, which has informed the Government's plan to lower power prices, increase competition and support investment in new generation.
Mr Sims' reappointment will ensure continued stability and strong leadership of the Commission, particularly with important inquiries currently underway including the impact of digital platforms such as Facebook and Google on Australian media and advertising markets, the supply and demand for wholesale gas in Australia and residential mortgage products.
The ACCC plays an important role in keeping power prices down and enforcing the major competition law reforms enacted in 2017 following the Harper Review, particularly the strengthening of the prohibition on the misuse of market power.
The Government congratulates Mr Sims on his reappointment and looks forward to his continued leadership of the Commission.
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Jazz Concert Pianist, Composer, Performer & Recording Artist
James Tatum is one of the jazz world's most distinguished Stars. He has a B.A. from Prairie View A&M University and M. Mus. Ed Degree from the University of Michigan. Tatum has been involved with music education and jazz education in the Wayne County Community College District, Oakland University and in the Detroit Public School System for the past 32 years. He is a member of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) and member of the National Committee of the Black Jazz Caucus. In addition, James Tatum is a member of (MENC). Tatum has performed with Coleman Hawkins (minor Key of Detroit), Mercer Ellington, and Dr. Billy Taylor. He has recently performed on programs with Wynton Marsalis at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall and at the Charles Wright Museum with special guest, Milt Jackson (vibraphonist of MJQ). Tatum has composed major jazz works; the Contemporary Jazz Mass, Return of Joshua, and many others. His most recent CD recording, Back to the Roots, has received rave reviews. Recently, Tatum performed for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 23rd Annual Emmy Awards, Detroit Chapter, and was honored by Ameritech as a recipient of the "Living the Dream" Award. Additionally, Tatum was named "Musician of the Year" by the Michigan State Senate in February 2001 and received a resolution from the U.S. House of Representatives praising him for his lifelong commitment to promote and establish jazz as a national treasure in the eyes of all Americans. His most recent composition, The Great Detroit Renaissance, dedicated to the City of Detroit, was premiered at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall in March 2001. Currently, Tatum is President and Founder of the James Tatum Foundation for the Art, Inc. In 2003 he was selected by the Gale Group worldwide Publisher Co. to become a distinguished member of Who's Who Among African Americans 2003 in regards to his dedication in jazz education.
Educator, Lecturer, Friend of the Arts:
James Tatum is a professional musician, pianist and composer with a lifelong involvement in educating the public about Jazz. Thus, in his role as lecturer and educator he is pleased to present a variety of musical themes in lecture format including The History of Jazz, African Influences in Jazz, How to Listen to Jazz and How to Improvise Jazz. These musical demonstrations, which include education about various instruments and the human voice in jazz, encourage audience participation and appeal to all age groups, from pre-school to adult concert attendees and students of music. As another indication of James Tatum's commitment and interest in the Arts, he has founded the James Tatum Foundation for the Arts, Inc., a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization whose primary purpose is to receive and administer funds for providing educational opportunities and scholarship awards to deserving youth. Established in 1987, the Foundation has awarded numerous scholarships to youths in all areas of the Arts, including music, dance, sculpture, painting, and media artform.
On behalf of the Foundation, Tatum was honored as one of the benefactors of the 1994 Melvin Van Peoples Benefit Dinner held in Detroit, Michigan. He also received "keys" to several cities, and recently received the "Dr. Martin Luther King Peace Dove Award" from the Westside Unity Church in Detroit, Michigan. The James Tatum Trio plus is a dynamic group of jazz, musicians cited for its unique jazz, sound. Members have performed original compositions as well as unique interpretations of jazz, classics throughout the United States and Canada. The Trio Plus has performed every year since 1981 in the Detroit/Montreux Jazz Festival in the company of international jazz performers. Led by noted jazz pianist James Tatum, the Trio Plus brings a unique blend of progressive and "bona fide" jazz to listeners, incorporating blues, spirituals, and gospel techniques into many of its melodies. This exciting jazz ensemble, whose modern jazz repertoire and style have been touched by the group's African heritage, is available for jazz concerts and workshop presentations.
On Saturday, April 27, 2002 James Tatum faculty member of Wayne County Community College District and founder of the James Tatum Foundation for the Arts, was presented the "Frederick Douglass "Award" for Education by the National Association of Business and Professional Women's Club. The award was presented in recognition of his outstanding contributions toward supporting the education of high school youth in the performing arts throughout the Metropolitan Detroit area.
James Tatum Trio Plus, Inc
P. O. Box 32240. Detroit, Michigan 48232
Phone: (313) 255-9015 - Fax: (313) 255-9014
E-mail:clejam@sbcglobal.net
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INK- MIT Media Labs
January 25 - January 28, 2013 in PESIT Bangalore | Park Institutions Coimbatore
Alok Shetty
Alok Shetty is Principal of Bhumiputra Architecture, an internationally acclaimed architecture and design firm based in Bangalore City. Operating across many scales, Shetty's firm consistently works towards new built environments that improve the quality of life in emerging economies.
Priyanka Sharma
Nano-biotechnologist
Priyanka is a Ph.D. in environmental nano-biotechnology with a great aptitude towards biotransformation and biomonitoring of environmental pollutants . Her research focuses on the development of low cost immunosensors for pesticides detection. She has published many research papers in prestigious international journals cheering high impact factors. Recently, she has been selected as a sole women MIT TR35 young innovator award. She was also among the top innovators under the DST - Lockheed Martin India Innovation Programme 2012. Her innovation has been covered worldwide in many prestigious magazines and newspapers (CSIR News, Technology review, India today, Tehelka, Elektor, Femina, Chemical industry Digest, Good News Tab, BBC etc.). She has also been invited by Northwestern University, IL (USA) as a visiting research fellow .
Sourabh Kaushal
Engineer, Space Explorer & Entrepreneur
Sourabh Kaushal is researching space debris mitigation and the development of a space elevator system(The transportation system from Earth into Deep Space). He also proposed new methods to mitigate space debris and became India's first person to proposed new technologies to mitigate space debris and featured into Limca Book of Records. His research was selected in many international conferences organised by NASA, ISRO, JAXA, ESA, IEEE, ISEC, Microsoft etc. He received "Dr. Kalpana Chawla Young Scientist Award", "Jerome Pearson Award 2010" by ISEC, USA ," "Young Innovator Award 2013" , Karmaveer Chakra Instituted with United Nations, RCFE Fellow, USA. He has also spoken at various TEDx Conferences, SAM Youth Conference, Indian Institute of Technology and many other institutes. His research work has been appreciated and recognized by The Vice President of INDIA, Sh. M.H.Ansari, Dr. V.Adhimurthy (ISRO), Donald Kessler (EX-NASA Scientist), Dr.K. Rao (ISRO), Dr. Peter Swan (ISEC,USA), Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam and Ratan Tata. He is also a founder of Education Company Smartcircuits Innovation Pvt. Ltd..Website: www.sourabhkaushal.com
Media/Merchandise Maverick
By the age of 25, Varun Agarwal was already a filmmaker, entrepreneur and the bestselling author of 'How I braved Anu Aunty & Co-founded A Million Dollar Company'. He is the co-founder of Alma Mater, India's biggest college apparel/memorabilia company, and also the co-founder of Reticular, a social media marketing firm. The pursuit of his interests brought about collaborations with A.R. Rahman, Preity Zinta, and many others.
Vicky Roy
Vicky Roy ran away from home as child and became a ragpicker to earn pocket money. He found refuge at a NGO for street children where he met a photographer that changed his life. Despite his turbulent past, Vicky pursed his passion for photography in which he was selected to photo document the reconstruction of the World Trade Center in NYC. Today, Vicky focuses on helping the disadvantaged by giving them a voice through his photography.
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Johan Theorin, The Quarry
Johan Theorin's third novel to be translated into English (by Marlaine Delargy, for Doubleday U.K.--it's not available in the U.S. yet) is the third novel in a trilogy organized around the seasons and set on the Swedish island of Öland. It's spring on the island and Theorin's running character, Gerlof, is moving out of the assisted living home that he moved into in earlier novels. He's moving back to his cottage near the island's quarry, to live alone but in proximity to an interesting group of the island's part-time, warm(er) weather residents.
Theorin continues here to pull off an unusual structure (for a crime novel at least). Among the Scandinavian crime novels to have appeared in ever larger numbers in English, Theorin's are perhaps the most focused on ordinary people's ordinary lives. There is what I have elsewhere called a "dailiness" about the books, with no hint of criminal conspiracies, international incidents, or big-time mobsters. Yet, on the other hand, there is a supernatural element, also told in the most ordinary way, as if the elves and trolls who are a very palpable presence in this novel are among the ordinary residents of modern Öland.
The other constant in the series (apart from Gerlof, who is in any case not a central character in the novels' mysteries) is the overlay of the past and the present. In The Quarry, it's the past of Gerlof's marriage, the youth of a spring/summer resident of the island, Vendela Larsson, and another part-time resident, Per Mörner. Vendela was raised on the island, but in peculiar circumstances and with frequent interaction (in her imagination at least) with elves who seem to be granting her wishes when she places offerings on a stone with a mysterious presence.
Per's past on the other hand, invokes a subject that was the international profile of Sweden in the 1970s and '80s but as far as I know not the subject of any of the other Scandinavian crime novels to have appeared (at least in translation): the porn industry. It's the decline (for various reasons) of the porn business that provides the tensions that finally shift this novel of ordinary live into high gear thriller territory (at least, almost).
There are many other elements going on in this novel stuffed with ordinary (rather than high pressure) incidents and emotions. Per's daughter is mysteriously ill. Gerlof has found his wife's diaries, which speak of an odd "changeling" who had visited her only when she was alone. Vendela is descending into a dangerous psychological state and is stuck in a marriage with a manipulative egotist. Ordinary lives, but with extraordinary twists.
Theorin is one of the least conventional of all the translated crime writers, and although his books are certainly not everyone's cup of tea (being probably as far from that Tattoo series as it's possible for two series in the same genre to be), his distinctive writing deserves close attention. Some reviewers have expressed some disappointment in The Quarry, given the high expectations that Theorin's first two novels created. I found it to be a valid continuation of the series, with a bit less tense a tone overall, and with a less intense presence of both nature and the supernatural. It's a further development of his style, though, and unfailingly interesting.
Jo Nesbø, Headhunters
Headhunters, published recently by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard in Don Bartlett's translation, isn't a Harry Hole book and is in fact quite different from that famous series. First, it's fairly short (and the Hole books are real doorstops). Second, the main character is a somewhat unreliable narrator named Roger Brown (he's Norwegian, but his father was English). Roger is a corporate headhunter (though other kinds of headhunters do crop up) and he's very impressed with himself and his record of getting businesses to hire his candidates (in fact, his only shortcoming, in his eyes, is that he is indeed short, by Norwegian standards).
Roger has the perfect job and the perfect wife (the only fly in the ointment being that he has refused her request that they have a child). His reason is that he doesn't want to share her with anyone, not even his own child (and the flaw in that reasoning comes back to bite him). She runs an art gallery, and during a private viewing for a new show she introduces Roger to the perfect candidate for a job he (and several other headhunter agencies) is trying to fill.
So far so good--but warning: spoilers ahead. I hate the blurbs on the backs of paperbacks, because they frequently (and in this case) give away what would have been, for an un-forewarned reader, a pleasant discovery in the story. So my recommendation is: Don't read the back of the paperback, don't read the blurb on Amazon or elsewhere. Come to the book as unprejudiced as possible, to best enjoy the twists and turns (of which there are many). Before going on, I should only warn prospective readers that there is some disgusting stuff in the book, not so much violence (of which there is some, but less than in the Hole books), and more scatology of various sorts (disgusting aspects of human bodies).
So: on to the story. Roger has a hobby. He gets his clients to tell him, during interviews, what sort of art they own, and if he finds what he hears desirable, he steals it. His partner in crime works for an alarm agency frequently used by Roger's clients, and he arranges for his partner to turn off the alarms and cameras at convenient times. But Harry's day job, his night job, and his marriage all come clashing together and create a mess that it doesn't seem like he can crawl out of (a bit of the mess is telegraphed in the prologue to the book, in which Roger and several others are trapped in a wrecked car, upside down in the woods).
Setting aside the disgusting parts, Headhunters is very cleverly plotted and a fun read. Roger is not a nice person, but as a narrator he's good company, and he withhholds just enough information to allow the reader some surprises (only a very alert reader will catch some of them in advance). So for Harry Hole fans and others who haven't discovered Harry or don't fancy him, Headhunters is highly recommended. There's supposed to be a movie coming out, but so much of the book is in Roger's head, it's hard to imagine what might be preserved of the pleasures of the story (leaving only the action, including the nasty bits).
Different kind of crime novel from Ireland
An Irish Solution, a crime novel by Cormac Millar (pseudonym of Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, a translator and a professor at Trinity College Dublin) was published by Penguin in 2005, and is little acknowledged among the current generation of Irish crime novels and novelists. Millar, who is the son of the late Irish author Eilís Dillon, frustrates all expectations with An Irish Solution: it's impossible to talk about the book without giving something away. Even the pitch made by the publisher, that it's about Seamus Joyce, newly appointed head of a new Irish Drug Enforcement Agency (iDEA) is misleading. And it seems to be the beginning of a crime fiction series, but that isn't quite true either.
Millar manages to constantly twist the plot away from cliche and into surprise, right up to the ending. At the beginning, a reader may think he/she is reading one sort of book, only to discover after a few chapters that it's really another sort of book, centered upon different characters than at first seemed central to the story. I kept trying to find comparisons with other recent Irish crime writing, but the closest I could come would be a mash-up of Alan Glynn's Winterland and M.S. Power's Children of the North trilogy (though Millar's book is more complicated and more cynical than the former and less mystical than the latter, and also without the latter's focus on Ulster and the Troubles).
Seamus Joyce is indeed newly appointed as head of the iDEA, but he's a bureaucrat, not a policeman. The police under his nominal command are into a great many things that he doesn't know about. Also featured are a pair of schoolgirls moonlighting in a pub, a hapless former schoolteacher, a few drug dealers, a senior nun, an international Institute of vague principles, and Seamus's hospitalized wife (and we can't be confident even in the stability of this last-mentioned character with relation to Seamus and others).
The book is often quite funny, in both turns of phrase and twists of plot. It's also quite enjoyable, once you leave your expectations at the door. Allow yourself some time to get into the book and you'll see whatI mean. There's a sort of sequel that I'm trying to get hold of now, and if it's half as good it will be well worth the trouble
Another Swedish noir discovery?
Has anyone run across The Girl With The Sturgeon Tattoo, by Lars Arffson? Published by St. Martin's Griffin in the U.S., it features hacker Lizzy Salamander and blogger Mikael Blomberg. I suppose it was inevitable (and purportedly it's pretty funny). Anyone seen it yet? It includes references to a new novel called The Vices, by American author Lawrence Douglas, whose image bears a striking resemblance to the photo of Lars Arffsen on the Sturgeon Tattoo...
A Vine in the Blood, Leighton Gage
The fifth Mario Silva novel by Leighton Gage is a cracker. Each of his books takes on a different segment of Brazilian society, and in this case it's a middle class enclave inhabited by sports stars and lesser humans as well.
I'm not a fan of football/futbol/soccer, and the fact that A Vine in the Blood is based on the kidnapping of a football hero's mother (apparently to put him off his game just before a World Cup prelim match against arch-rival Argentina) gave me a little pause--but I needn't have worried. The book is in part about the social phenomenon of football, but not really about the game (in the same way that Vazquez-Montalban's olympic book isn't really about the Olympics).
Silva's crew is pressured on all sides to find the mother before the kidnappers kill her. The kidnappers aren't revealed until the end, but when the plot is finally detailed, it's a heist-story in itself (I can't reveal any details). There's only a brief glimpse of the kidnapped mother in captivity, and the rest of the story is with the cops, chasing one false lead after another.
When the final break comes, it's a perfectly believable insight rather than the strained coincidence that we sometimes see in crime fiction. All in all, the Silva series just gets better and better.
Budapest Noir
Budapest Noir, by Vilmos Kondor, is a Hungarian novel that is scheduled to be published in English translation next year (I received a digital copy via NetGalley). The central character is Zsigmond Gordon, a crime reporter in Budapest in the 1930s. At the same time as the prime minister is being eulogized (having died while out of the country), a young woman is found dead on the street in a rough area of town. But the girl seems to be from a high class background and is carrying a Hebrew prayer book, and Gordon glimpses a nude portrait of the girl in a powerful policeman's desk drawer (while snooping). All in all, Gordon suspects that there is more to the story than a casual murder of a prostitute.
But no one else seems to care, not the police and not her family (when he finds them, he discovers that they've disowned her--and the motives for that act are at the center of the story). But as Gordon digs further, he stirs a hornet's nest in the underworld, and brings violence and threats upon himself, his artist girlfriend, and his grandfather (a retired cop who retired to Budapest and took up the making of fruit preserves).
The time frame, the underworld dealings, and the East European setting suggest a comparison with Marek Krajewski's excellent series set in pre-war Breslau, but Kondor avoids the downright strange storytelling and structure of Krajewski's series (though that's no slam on Krajewski, whose weirdness is extremely compelling). Unlike Krajewski's detective, Kondor's reporter has positive relationships with both his girlfriend and his grandparent, and though there's plenty of kink in the tale (among the brothels and in the city) it's more a straightforward thriller and crime novel (while Krajewski's books are more like nightmares).
There's a lot of classic noir in Budapest noir, in fact. Kondor gets it right without striving for exact equivalence to the American noir ambience. His Budapest is striking and his story is compelling, dealing with ordinary human venality as well as heightened versions of it that will become more virulent in the years just after this book's timeframe (though distinctly forshadowed in the story of the young Jewish girl, whose murder, though, takes the reader less in the direction of Nazi horrors than into the noir territory of Ross MacDonald and (more recently) Declan Hughes. The distinct strains of noir continue to intertwine in the hands of talented writers like Kondor (or Krajewski, for that matter) who are finding new vitality in the genre.
I'm pasting in the U.S. cover as well as a small image of the Italian translation and the Hungarian original. All in all, I think I like the Hungarian one best: more atmospheric.
Death and the Olive Grove, by Marco Vichi
I haven't read the first of Marco Vichi's Inspector Bordelli novels, Death in August, and beginning with the second book in a series is frequently not a good idea, I realize. There have been frequent references to Agatha Christie in the p.r. and reviews of the Bordelli books, but at least in the second book, Death and the Olive Grove, any reference to Christie could only be useful to mark Vichi's novel as "cozy" rather than "noir", though perhaps neither sobriquet actually applies. The novels are set in Florence, not quite a big city but certainly larger than a country village, and most of the crime novels set in Florence do have a lighter tone than other Italian and Italian-set mystery fiction, and the setting is mid-20th-century rather than more contemporary times.
Death and the Olive Grove doesn't feature much mystery-solving, and much of the narrative is about Bordelli's personal life and in particular his World War II experiences (according to the review, there's a lot of World War II in Death in August as well). Bordelli is an interesting character, and lively enough to be around—though I personally got a bit tired of the constant reference to the War, rather like being stuck at a dinner table next to someone who can't talk about anything other than his war experiences.
Death and the Olive Grove is really not a police procedural either: Bordelli doesn't really figure out what's going on, he stumbles on facts or is presented them on a silver platter by one or another of the numerous (and somehow quaint) underworld figures that he has cultivated, and whose crimes Bordelli is inclined to overlook.
The case begins with a corpse (reported to the Inspector by a dwarf who is one of those informants) that has vanished by the time Bordellii gets to the scene (the olive grove of the title). That's an interesting beginning, along with the hazards that Bordelli and his temporary sidekick encounter in the grove, but the book is really about a series of child murders. Bordelli and his partner, a Sardinian (whose father Bordelli knew in, wait for it, the War) pursue leads and lock onto a prime suspect, but that suspect is under surveillance during the later murders, thus provided with an ironclad alibi.
So there's plenty of mystery, as well as mayhem, but the pace is very leisurely, frequently interrupted by Bordelli's reminiscences, depictions of his own and his partner's love lives, and the cooking of various of Bordelli's acquaintances among the restaurateurs and criminals of Florence. There's a curious parallel in Bordelli's private life with the plot of Temporary Perfections, the most recent Guido Guerrieri novel by Gianrico Carofiglio: Both Bordelli and Guerrieri have a friendship with a former prostitute of their own age, and a sexual relationship with a much younger woman (in Bordelli's case, 30 years younger, a woman involved in Nazi hunting, which becomes a substantial element of the plot). Some reviewers found Guerrieri's behavior to be problematic, to the point of putting them off Carofiglio's books, and I'd be curious to know how readers react to Bordelli's behavior.
I'd be interested to read more of Vichi's books, but his depiction of the criminal class as a misunderstood economic minority is a bit quaint, given what Italian crime already was at the time the novels are set. To be fair, though, some of Magdalen Nabb's excellent crime fiction set in Florence has a similar pattern. And Bordelli's war experiences neatly sidestep the Fascist era of Italy's participation in the war, casting Bordelli as an irregular fighting the Nazis, rather than a soldier fighing for Mussolini. The Florence of Bordelli's day is evocatively described, and I'd prefer to hear more about that setting and less about Bordelli's War.
Posted by Glenn Harper at 12:47 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
The latest (and first) K.O. Dahl crime novel from Norway
Lethal Investments, recently published in a translation from the original Norwegian by Don Bartlett, is the 4th of the novels featuring detectives Frølich and Gunnarstranda to be published in English but is in fact the first novel in the series. A young woman is murdered in her apartment, just after a man (a one-night stand) has left her. The detectives pursue the one-night stand (identified by a peeping tom across the street from the murdered woman's apartment) as well as her workplace, a decidedly odd software company full of suspicious characters.
What keeps the Gunnarstranda and Frølich novels lively is the conversation and inner monologues of the two detectives (one a short man toward the end of his career and the other a large man at the beginning). Neither detective is a typical crime-fiction policeman, though they share some characteristics with the standards of the genre (Gunnarstranda's wife has died, leaving him alone and lonely, and Frølich's relationship with his lover has its ups and downs), and the book is solidly within the tradition of the police procedural. But the two cops are not cliche partners, their relationship is decidedly spiky, and their dialogue is often realistically indirect and allusive, surely a challenge for a translator, but brought off very well by Bartlett.
What's going on in the software company will be more obvious to a reader now than it might have been some years ago when the book was published, but the story isn't otherwise dated or stodgy (it's just that there have been so many frauds exposed in real life in the past few years). Corpses begin to pile up, and there are some coincidental sightings of suspects as the cops drive around Oslo (on duty and off), but everything is brought off with naturalistic and believable style. The detectives remind me just a bit of the odd couple featured in Roslund and Hellström's Swedish crime novels, but without some of the extremes of those characters and Dahl's plots are more varied and more focused on ordinary crimes and everyday lives of contemporary Scandinavians than is the case with Roslund & Hellstrom's books (which frequently deal with international crimes and prison situations).
K.O. Dahl's novels are among the very best of Scandinavian crime fiction, and the author has a voice that is distinct from the rest.
The Fatal Touch, by Conor Fitzgerald
The Fatal Touch is the second crime novel set in Rome, by Irish writer Conor Fitzgerald, featuring an American detective in the Italian police. International enough? Someone is mugging tourists, and in the midst of that investigation, the body of an old man is discovered on the street, perhaps murdered. He turns out to be an Irishman known for art forgery and a partner in a dodgy art gallery. Alec Blume, the lead character in the series, is mentoring a woman recently transfered into his department, and her relationship with the other members of the team isn't going very well. On the other hand, Blume is inept in his dealings with everyone, from witnesses to cops to friends.
In fact, Blume is the most difficult personality in Italian-set crime fiction since Timothy Williams's irascible Commissario Trotti, and as in Williams's novels, Blume's character sets the tone. The story is complicated, with frequent digressions into the forger's story as revealed in his journal. Those digressions are in a way a separate story, going back to the old man's youth in Ireland: some readers find the alternate narrative engrossing—to me they were interesting but distracting from the main story, making the book seem longer than it needed to be.
But the plot intricately intertwines this backstory with several threads in the here-and-now, without resorting to cliche in bringing the story toward a coherent conclusion. Fitzgerald is not afraid to deal harshly with some of the series's more interesting characters, a trait he also shares with Williams (whose characters frequently move away from the unnamed setting of the series or get killed). There's also a vivid villain in the novel, in the person of a corrupt and ruthless Carabinieri Colonel who takes over the investigation from Blume and lurks behind everything that happens in the story from that point on.
The spiky central character, eccentric plotting, and the capacity to let bad things happen to good people give the Blume books an authenticity and immediacy that a more reticent writer might not achieve. And the Roman milieu is vividly evoked here, perhaps even more so than in The Dogs of Rome, the first in the series. Plus the reader learns in the new book a lot of fascinating information about the trade of art forgery.
The Good Thief's Guide to Venice, plus Fatale
Chris Ewan has produced "Good Thief's Guides" to several cities already but the book set in Venice is the first one I've picked up. The books are not, of course, tour guides or thievery guides, but clever crime novels. The two covers illustrated here, from the U.K. and the U.S., illustrate the two halves of this book: the genuine appreciation of the city of Venice and the comic approach to the crime novel (the U.K. cover seems to be designed to capitalize on the cover's blurb from Colin Bateman, in fact).
But Ewan's novel is not as funny as Bateman's books, at their best. It's not so much a comedy as a light-hearted crime novel. Charlie Howard is a professional housebreaker who has sworn off his life of crime to pursue his other profession, writing crime novels featuring a housebreaker. There are a few times when the book becomes "self-conscious" or a "metafiction" in a comic way, but for the most part, the story is told straight, in Charlie's own voice.
Charlie's voice is self-centered but also self-critical, and he's good company. He's wakened in the middle of the night by a female burglar who steals only his prize possession and the magic talisman that keeps his writing on track, a framed, signed first edition of The Maltese Falcon. She leaves clues that lead finally to her challenge: she'll give the book back if he returns a briefcase to the home of a wealthy Venetian count; and he's forbidden from opening the case.
There are surprises and twists in the plot, but the point is not really the danger to Charlie, his agent Victoria (who's staying with him in Venice), the count, the book, or the burglaress, any more than the various threats are the point of, say, The Pink Panther (and Ewan's Guide is in a way a throwback to that sort of comic crime).
Charlie's a bit obtuse about some things, and in some ways hardly seems to rise to the level of "master thief" that is ascribed to him (maybe that's more well established in the earlier books). Charlie's meanderings around Venice are interesting glimpses of the city, and the story is entertaining, while not being either laugh-out-loud funny or serious about the genre. Given the light tone, I found the book to be a little long.
Fatale, on the other hand, is very short. Jean-Patrick Manchette is a revered French crime novelist, two of whose books have already been translated, Prone Gunman and Three to Kill, both of which I liked. Fatale, though, seems artificial or contrived, a thesis novel more than a fully realized fiction. It's about a female hitman with a very complicated way of doing business that's only gradually revealed.
She's the center of the story, but isn't much fun to be around. Her skills are employed ruthlessly until things start to get complicated in her last job, which is mostly the subject of Fatale. But I found it hard to care much about her, the job, or her victims. I have a sense that Manchette didn't intend for us to get too involved: he's not so much telling a story as a fable or parable. I don't know whether this is more obvious here, with a female heroine, than it was in the other two novels, both of which centered on men: I may go back and re-read the others to see if that's the case.
However, it's an intense book in the mode of classic noir, a descent into hell without any redemption. For that alone, the book is well worth reading, and the shortness of the text makes that easier to do. But prone gunman is, as I remember, a more fully rendered hitman story.
Gianrico Carofiglio's Temporary Perfections
The new Guido Guerrieri novel by Gianrico Carofiglio (translated by Antony Shugaar) is a lot of fun, in spite of the dark-toned plot. I've been mulling over the differences between character-driven and plot-driven crime fiction lately, and Temporary Perfections is decidedly character-driven. Guido is a first-person narrator, and he's clever, introspective, full of interesting digressions, and generally fun to be around. The plot moves slowly forward, frequently interrupted by those digressions, up to a point near the end when suddenly things start to happen, after Guido achieves a particular insight.
The Guerrieri novels are mostly set in Bari on Italy's east coast, but Guido goes to Rome a couple of times in the new book, for a couple of different reasons. So we get a flavor not only for the provincial city but also the capital, both from a legal and a non-legal perspective.
Guido is asked by a friend to help a couple whose college-age daughter has disappeared. The Carabinieri, in charge of the case, have stopped looking and are about to shelve the case, because there aren't any leads and because the daughter is of age and may well have simply decided to disappear.
Guido goes about his usual legal business while also interviewing the detective in charge of the original investigation and several of the daughter's friends, without really breaking any new ground. Along the way, he develops relationships with two women, one close to his own age (the owner of his favorite bar) and the other much younger, one of the daughter's friends. The bar owner's dog will also play an indirect role, but the younger woman begins to take up more and more of Guido's time and interest, along with his deep misgivings about consorting with a woman almost half his age.
Though the mystery is interesting and its solution is complex and moving, the novel stands or falls on Guido's voice, and fortunately he's a delightful character, someone that we'd love to be sitting across a dinner table from. Though there are running characters in the series, it's basically a one-man show. There is a stark difference between Carofiglio's stand-alone novel, The Past is Another Country (made into an interesting film) and the Guerrieri stories, though in fact the stand-alone deals with a lot of the same people and issues as Temporary Perfections. The difference is Guido, who is our window on the dealings of young people veering into crime and vile behavior, while in Another Country, all we have are those same young people. By means of Guido's voice, we have both a clearer view and in the end more sympathy with these people whose behavior eases from self-interest into sociopathy.
There are different publishers and different covers for Temporary Perfections in the U.K. and the U.S. The U.K. cover (the one posted at the top of this review) is both clearer and more specifically atmospheric than the U.S. one (which suggests Rome, an important but after all secondary setting) more than Bari, though I confess some bias toward the U.K. edition's publisher, Bitter Lemon, who brought the Guerrieri series to the world originally.
Outrage from Iceland
Outrage, Arnaldur Indridason's newly translated Icelandic crime novel, is a departure from the series featuring the dour detective Erlendur, while still being part of the series. Erlendur has gone walkabout, in the fjords where his brother was lost, his body never found, in a storm many years before (the event that has marked the rest of Erlendur's life).
In his absence, Elínborg, Erlendur's female colleague, steps to the foreground of the series (Sigurdur Óli, their other colleague, also features in the book, but in a smaller role than Elínborg). Crime writers have often shifted focus from one running character to another, but rarely has it made such a dramatic difference in the mood of a book: Elínborg is not exactly cheerful, but she lacks Erlendur's gloomy outlook, and her family (all of them alive, not so common among fictional detectives) is constantly in her mind.
The case at hand involves rape and roofies (the date rape drug). In a preface we see a young man on the prowl in a club. But when the police arrive at a crime scene (spoiler alert) in the first chapter, it's a man's body that's found, not a woman's, and he's wearing the T-shirt that the predatory male's potential victim was wearing in the preface. In addition to a difficult case, Elínborg is dealing with (in her own family) a hostile teenage son who's a bad influence on a younger son, an exceptionally intelligent daughter, and a foster son who has abandoned the family that took him in.
Elínborg's passion for cooking (noted in earlier books in the series) is also a strong thread in the story, not only in her own home (where she seldom has time to exercise her talent) but also in the case (where subtle odors play a major role). As in the books featuring Erlendur, the shift away from traditional Icelandic culture to a more homogenized modern one is an important theme, but the shift from Erlendur's point of view to Elínborg's provides a less gloomy and reactionary perspective on the phenomenon.
The subject of rape is investigated in some depth, with special emphasis in the damage that the crime does to the victim's life and mental state. Elínborg claims no special insight because she's a woman, but perhaps the author chose to bring her to the forefront in this case because of her more possibly more sympathetic attitude toward the victims. Yet she does not hesitate to pursue the possibility that the victim of the rape at the center of the story may (when she finally finds her) be the perpetrator of the murder. Other actual and potential victims of rape and murder are offered, giving shades of emphasis about the crime, the victims, and the attacker.
It's always puzzled me that Arnaldur (Icelanders actually go by their first names rather than patronymics, a fact that gives the stories an interestingly informal quality) emphasizes Erlendur to the detriment of his other, quite interesting, police colleagues: perhaps he was thinking the same thing, since Elînborg, when given free rein to dominate the book, is indeed quite interesting, fully the equal of other female detectives in Scandinavian fiction (by male as well as female authors). While I'm curious to know what is happening with Erlendur (there a very few clues, none of them very positive, in Outrage), I'd also be glad to read more about Elínborg in the future (Sigurdur Óli seems not quite so interesting: a more impulsive than intelligent detective).
Outrage follows the pattern of the subgenre of police procedurals, though perhpaps less completely than in Dregs, reviewed here recently. There is a mystery at the heart of Outrage for which some clues are supplied to the reader and the detectives, and we may guess at some aspects of the facts of the case (some of which will be upturned by the development of the tale), but still Elînborg's skill is supplemented by her unique insight perhaps more than is the case with William Wisting of Dregs, whose talent is in organizing the investigation and remaining open to new facts rather than in any special insight. Just goes to show that two excellent books in the same sub-set of crime fiction can demonstrate quite different approaches. I hope that it won't be too long before we get another installment in this series, no matter which detective takes the main role.
Dregs: Norwegian police procedural
Dregs, by Norwegian crime writer Jørn Lier Horst, is a first-class police procedural. Horst has had some time to perfect his craft: this is apparently the 6th in the series featuring Detective William Wisting, and his 8th novel, but the first to be translated into English. Though it's always preferable to start a series with the first book (to my mind), Horst does a good job of keeping the reader informed about the characters' past, so we English-speakers won't get lost.
The book is set in Stavern, in southeast Norway (near the city of Larvik, where Horst is himself a policeman). Wisting is called to the shore where a left-foot running shoe has washed ashore, with the foot still inside. This is the second recent Scandinavian crime novel to feature a foot-washing-ashore (Swedish writer Kjell Eriksson's The Hand That Trembles arrived a bit earlier), but apart from that and the fact that both are police procedurals, the books don't have a lot in common. Horst's book is a bit more straightforward, while Eriksson's ranges quite far in time and geography. Plus in Horst's book, the reader sees only a few brief scenes that either Wisting or his daughter Line (a journalist) don't see (there aren't scenes from the viewpoint of the killer or victims).
In Dregs, too, more shoes come washing ashore, all for the left foot (which is also present). Wisting and his team quickly align the case with the disappearances of a group of old men and two women, but no one can figure out what's going on, or why the missing people's feet (rather than whole bodies) keep showing up. Simultaneously, Line is in town (she normally works in Oslo), working on a feature article about released prisoners. One in particular has captured her interest, and eventually his story becomes intertwined in the investigation—but not in an obvious way (nothing about the story is obvious).
Wisting is a very interesting character (and the novel is more character-driven than plot-driven, unlike a couple of other Scandinavian crime novels I've read recently). Wisting is feeling his age and waiting for results from a doctor's visit. Like many other fictional detectives, there's a tragedy in his past (the death of his wife and Line's mother), but unlike many others, he has partly moved on and is now in a positive relationship with a woman in the town. Line, as well, is in a relationship, but one that her father is not entirely happy with.
All in all, it's a very realistic story, focused on the characters and the slow progress through the investigation (leading through spirals of information, going through the facts again and again from various newly discovered angles—as in any good police procedural). It's not a puzzle mystery, since neither the reader nor the police are in possession of the information necessary to solve the case until well into the story. The police procedural format is more satisfying to me than the puzzle mystery, for reasons I don't fully understand. But the pleasures of the procedural are very much in evidence in Dregs.
The title works very well, too—various shades of meaning of "dregs" surface at various points. Horst is one of the best writers of the current crop (a new Scandinavian crime wave in English translation): nothing like the books of Stieg Larsson, and actually not much like those of Henning Mankell either (though they share the procedural format). Horst's style is low-key, but very involving, vivid, and persuasive.
Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog
I'm not sure if it has already run in the U.K., but the TV series based on Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels is about to be shown on public television in the U.S. And I also don't know if there are plans to film Atkinson's latest (and so I've heard, last, for a while at least) Brodie novel, Started Early, Took My Dog. It's hard for me to imagine a film or TV show based on the book, but then it's hard for me to imagine any film adequately dealing with Atkinson's fictional universe.
Started Early, Took My Dog is full of parellelisms and coincidences, in a story based in Yorkshire and mostly in Leeds. There are parallels everywhere, within the "present-day" plot and between that and the flashback plot (set in the mid-'70s, with many references to the Yorkshire ripper, whose spree was just starting. But this is no thriller, and no Red Riding either, to cite that other Yorkshire crime novel/series that is bound to come up in any discussion of Started Early, Took My Dog. Atkinson's novel is instead a book of dazzling surfaces and profound depths, which constantly (through those parallels and the brilliant writing, calling attention to its fictional nature.
There are several kidnappings, beginning with a retired policewoman abruptly deciding to "buy" a child from a prostitute/junkie who is abusing the kid. Jackson, for his part, takes a small dog away from a man who is abusing it, establishing comic (and not so comic) parallels from the beginning. There's also kidnapping the the '70s plot, in an incident that provide much of the plot and links most of the characters. A third main character is an aging actress, succumbing to dementia, whose links to the kidnappings are tenuous until the very end.
Atkinson has a talent for combining lively writing with careful characterizations. A reader not only knows these characters very well, but ultimately cares about them. And Atkinson doesn't abuse the reader's concern (I won't explain for fear of revealing too much plot). The various characters and the intertwining plots (through the two eras of the story) hold the reader's interest all along, and in the last half of the book the pace picks up with new twists on various kinds of chases, retiring gangsters, police corruption, speeding trains (a parallel to an earlier Brodie book), TV cop shows, and damsels in distress. She also provides a child character who is affecting without being cloying, true but also comic: both a literary device necessary for the story and a lively element of the story (though she doesn't say much). Child characters are difficult (not to mention that dogs are a crime fiction cliche), but Atkinson pulls off these elements of the story as effectively as the "bigger" aspects of the novel.
One element tying the whole Brodie series together is Jackson's monologues with Julia, a character in the series from the beginning, who now serves as a kind of chorus as well as an idiosyncratic character in her own right. Atkinson wisely anchors Brodie's melancholy with Julia's flightiness: we need them both, even when Julia isn't really part of the story. Started Early, Took My Dog isn't perhaps for every crime reader, but it does reinforce a reader's convicion that genre isn't everything. Atkinson gives us the elements of the crime genre, sometimes turned inside out, but without ever condescending to the genre itself. It's a structure, much like all those parallels, that enables a good story and in this case a very good book.
Stefan Tegenfalk, Anger Mode
Stefan Tegenfalk's Anger Mode (recently published under the new Nordic Noir imprint in translation by David Evans) is sort of like a combination of Jussi Adler-Olsen's Danish crime novel The Keeper of Lost Causes (aka Mercy) and the novels of Swedish crime/thriller writer Leif GW Persson. Like The Keeper of Lost Causes, Anger Mode starts with a horrific car crash and proceeds according to the revenge motive of a survivor. Like Persson's novels, Anger Mode shifts from one set of characters to another and plays off the regular police against Sápo, the security police (and as in Persson's work and for that matter Stieg Larsson's, Sápo is both stupid--or at least so narrowly focused that they can't see the truth--and ruthless).
Anger Mode also has, like Adler-Olsson's novel, a detective who relies on unorthodox methods and a character from Syria whose name is a running joke (the Danish novel features a mysterious police contractor named Hafez el-Assad and the Swedish one has a criminal informant named Omar Khayyam). But like the most recently translated of Persson's novels, the detective has a young female partner who both struggles against and disproves the sexism of the police force.
The strength of Anger Mode is the plotting, which is devious and avoids the obvious (right to the end, which points to a pair of sequels). The writing (or the translation, and perhaps some Swedish speakers can help us here) is sometimes a bit wooden, especially in the dialogue (sometimes stiff and over-explaining rather than natural). The diverse characters have a bit more life and considerably more backstory than Adler-Olsson's, their individuality indicated by the narrator's comments but only revealed fully more slowly, by their actions. There's one character, a villain, whose total package of personality traits seems a bit strained to me: one moment he's an ideologue, the next a scheming embodiment of greed: it's not impossible that those elements could be combined in one character, but the shift from one to the other is a bit abrupt (and perhaps the two strains will join together later in the trilogy).
Anger Mode is long-ish (about 470 pages) but reads quickly (except for some of those turgid dialogue passages, and skimming over those speeds things up, after all). It's a worthwhile addition to the translations of the Nordic crime wave, though not among my top-ranked novels (and perhaps those who rejected my previous negative comments about Adler-Olsson will find even more to like in Tegenfalk's writing than I did). I'm simultaneously reading (or rather listinening to) Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog, which is very well written and contains totally natural, believable dialogue--but in which things happen glacially rather than rapidly. I don't fault either Tegenfalk or Atkinson for their different aims and approaches, but perhaps there are some writers out there who combine their virtues?
Alan Glynn, Bloodland
The sequel (sort of) to Alan Glynn's Winterland is set for release by Picador in the U.S. in January (I think it's already out in the U.K.). It's more of a thriller than a straight crime novel, but the thriller aspect is quite different from the usual novel of that genre. There's a lot of tension and plenty of threat, but most of the story takes place in the ordinary streets, apartments, hotels, and boardrooms of today's society.
The link to Winterland is Larry Bolger, now the former prime minister (Taoiseach) of Ireland, and not comfortable being out of the loop of power brokers who had put him into power in the first place. There also some shadowy American plutocrats that played a role in the previous novel and loom even larger here.
The young, unemployed journalist who is the closest thing to a central character in Bloodland summarizes the story at various points as being about a helicopter crash, a UN inspector (dead), an actress (dead), a village massacre, and a presidential candidate. There's also scandal, despair, PTSD, burnout, debts incurred and called in, and several unhappy families. Other than the journalist, Jimmy Gilroy, and Larry Bolger, we get the story from the point of view of a couple of those American plutocrats (one of them the brother of that presidential candidate), some of Bolger's former associates, an Irish developer ruined by the collapse of the Celtic tiger.
Jimmy, who has managed to get an assignment to write the actress's biography, is steered away from the project and toward a bio of Bolger, but in the process he snags onto a thread that links the massacre, the crash, the plutocrats (American and Irish), and some very ruthless people who work for a private security company. Jimmy is a likable innocent caught up in forces way beyond his control, and ends up in New York with everyone on his tail. It takes a while to sort out the cast of characters, but Glynn gradually gives each of them a full portrait through their inner and outer dialogues.
The tone is fast and lively, but not frenetic. It's quite enjoyable to see the plotlines converge, and the characters are fully alive (even the ones moving swiftly toward their deaths). The major difference between Winterland and Bloodland is that, beyond the developers, politicians, power brokers, and moneymen that the two stories share, Winterland also involved gangsters and a woman determined to find the truth about her murdered brother. Jimmy doesn't quite have the personal motivation that she did, at least not until his own life is at stake, and the gangsters anchored Winterland in a gritty urban milieu, in contrast to the boardrooms. Bloodland is anchored instead in a fast-sinking middle class watching jobs and investments and businesses disappear before their eyes (again in contrast to the denizens of the boardrooms).
It's interesting to see Glynn make such a substantial shift between two novels that are in other ways closely related. He's showing the common ground between crime fiction and thrillers, and twisting both genres into his own particular style. The cover of the U.S. edition makes it look like this is a New York story, and it partly is. But at its heart is an Irish story, but anchored in new global economic, political, and social realities. Among the very talented crop of Irish crime writers on the scene today, Glynn has the most global outlook. He's also the author of a semi-scifi thriller made recently into the movie Limitless, but if you're not into quasi-Blade Runner/Phillip K. Dick tales, don't let that association put you off Winterland and Bloodland. They're very vivid stories of today's low and high crimes, and very much tied to a base in contemporary Ireland (while also believably portraying American, Italian, and African milieux).
Jussi Adler-Olsen's Danish crime fiction
An Engish translation of Jussi Adler-Olsen's Danish crime novel arrived in the U.K. last spring under the title Mercy and is about to arrive in the U.S. with the title The Keeper of Lost Causes. The U.K. title (and cover) suggest a major plot line concerning the kidnapping and imprisonment of a woman who is a politician and the caretaker of a disabled brother. The U.S cover mimics the U.S. covers of the Tattoo trilogy, and otherwise suggests the plot obliquely. Neither, however, does much to suggest the major characteristics of this book and the series which it inaugurates, which deal with a "cold case" squad in Copenhagen called Department Q.
Department Q is started partly as a means of getting a troublesome detective, Carl Mørck, out of the way, and partly to leech some extra cash out of the government (a substantial part of which will not actually to to Department Q, an ongoing element of the story). Mørck has been wounded in an assault that killed another detective and crippled a third, and Mørck might be expected to have some "PTSD" and guilt feelings: but except for a brief moment in an encounter with a therapist (whom the detective visits mostly because she's attractive), Mørck is mostly a straightforward egotist, loudmouth, obnoxious, and effective policeman.
That "straightforward" in the previous sentence indicates a certain lack of enthusiasm on my part. Neither Mørck nor his erstwhile assistant (whose very name, Haffez el-Assad, is a running joke) are really fleshed out. Merete, the kidnapped woman, is a little more substantial, but her story is mostly given in the extreme situation of her imprisonment, so that what we see of her is mostly alternating determination and despair. Her determination, in particular, is very interesting (given the usual use of the kidnapped woman in crime fiction), and we have her life story in some detail, but for me she remained, like the detective, a character more on paper than in the flesh.
The story is moved forward mostly in narration (partly from inside Mørck's head) rather than dialogue. And up to the end, it's mostly Merete's misery and Carl's gradual progress in the investigation (aided very substantially by his mysterious assistant), as well as in his occasional work on the homicide squad's other cases (and the other cops are mostly foils for Mørck (he's the only one who seems capable of actually detecting anything). And the villains, as they are gradually revealed in the second half of the book, seem inadequately motivated, veering from mad science to petty vindictiveness without revealing much else.
I don't mean to say that this is a bad book. It's just not as three-dimensional as another recent Danish crime novel, The Boy in the Suitcase, or as the best of the Scandinavian crime wave (Theorin, as just one example). I don't know what Mørck's name means in Danish, but the "murk" of the English homonym suggests something of the character: he seems to be mostly lazy, though more capable than his colleagues; even his relationship to his estranged wife seems perfunctory, as if he can't be bothered to be much more than mildly annoyed with her. And Assad, as he's mostly called, is almost cartoon-like, revealing hidden talents at every turn but always falling back into a jokey "immigrant" style of speech and character.
The Keeper of Lost Causes reminded me a bit of another book (which I haven't reviewed yet) that disappointed me, the much shorter Fatale, by Jean-Patrick Manchette. All of Manchette's translated novels are a bit flat in tone, taking a philosophical, noir approach rather than a fleshy, full-bodied approach to crime fiction. But I liked Three to Kill and Prone Gunman, whereas I found Fatale a bit tedious, the characters flat and not rounded. It's a "thesis" book rather than a full story, to me. I have been listening to an audio book of Ian Rankin's The Complaints while reading Fatale on paper and The Keeper of Lost Causes as a pdf (from Netgalley), and though the Complaints may not be Rankin's best book, the characters are certainly fully fleshed out, and the story natural and not forced. Perhaps the other two novels suffered from comparison to the vivid quality of Rankin's prose.
I'm happy to be contradicted, if others got more from the book: Adler-Olsen is well respected in Denmark and has been well reviewed around the world. Perhaps the Department Q series will grow on me. In the meantime, I've started Alan Glynn's Bloodland, which is certainly lively and engaging so far.
Leif GW Persson and Swedish noir '78–'84
Bo Widerberg's 1984 film The Man from Mallorca is taken from Leif GW Persson's 1978 novel Grisfesten (Pig Party or Pig Roast), which seems to be the first appearance of the central characters from several later novels, Detectives Jarnebring and Johansson (who were at that point in their careers working in Vice). Several other characters who are at least referred to in later books also put in an appearance (and you may recognize Sven Wollter as Jarnebring in the photo pasted in here, from more recent crime fiction TV series, if not Tomas von Brömssen as Johansson).
As a movie, The Man from Mallorca is very close in style to Widerberg's The Man on the Roof, taken from a Sjöwall/Wahlöö novel (The Abominable Man). The story is presented without commentary, in short scenes that are sometimes confusing until the story starts to come together about halfway through (and the style is in the end very effective).
The story concerns a post office robbery by a clever and capable thief: Jarnebring and Johansson ar ethe first on the scene and, having let the thief get away, they become involved in the investigation. The thief proves to be not only ruthless but well-connected. A persistent theme in Persson's later books is already in evidence: the conflicting interests of the police and the security police (whose methods and aims are a constant source of tension, criticism, and even comedy for Persson). The thief's costume is also quite funny (I'm not going to explain--not exactly a plot spoiler, but...), and the fact that the robbery takes place during a Lucia celebration gives a very Swedish slant to the scenes (not quite the Swedish Christmas of Bergman's Fanny & Alexander, but close).
Viewers may find the ending of the movie rather cynical, though it is absolutely consistent with Widerberg's style and Persson's story (don't know if the book's ending is the same, since it hasn't been translated—though if I could find a copy my Swedish is probably just about adequate to tell if the ending is substantially different--anyone who's read it is invited to step in with a comment).
It's interesting that a movie from an earlier Persson novel has been available with English subtitles for years, while Persson's writing is only now appearing in English--possibly Widerberg's post-Elvira Madigan international rep is the reason... In any case, it's quite a good movie, and an interesting insight into the characters' early careers (with interesting ironies for those who've read about their later careers).
P.S., did you recognize Sven Wollter from his recent TV-detective role?
Posted by Glenn Harper at 12:46 PM No comments: Links to this post
Leif GW Persson: Another Time, Another Life
Another Time, Another Life, by Leif GW Persson, is scheduled to be published in the U.S. in March, 2012 (by Pantheon, in translation by Paul Norlen). The novel is a sequel to last year’s Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End, and both have the subtitle, “The Story of a Crime,” which inevitably suggests the great Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (especially in the Swedish context). But Persson is doing something different from S&W, at least in these first two volumes of what is said to be a trilogy: he is dissecting a particular crime with national and international consequences, brought into the perspective of the daily routines of the investigating police (who are portrayed warts and all). S&W were focused more closely on the lives of ordinary citizens stressed by the tensions of the welfare state of the 1970s in Sweden. But Persson's writing shifts back and forth between an almost documentary style and a fictional form, drawing the reader along seamlessly through story and history.
The earlier book led up to the assassination of Olaf Palme, and this newly translated one begins with the bombing of the German embassy in Stockholm in 1975 by factions of the German radical movement that’s generally lumped under the heading “Baader Meinhof Gang.” There are several jumps forward from the year of the bombing to the late ‘80s (and the fall of the Soviet bloc) to the late ‘90s, when a murder in the ‘80s comes into focus with the embassy bombing. Along the way, Persson depicts the security establishment of Sweden is less-than-flattering terms, while also repeating to the point of comedy the policemen’s assessment of one another as a “real policeman” and their work as “real police work.” The same pattern is to be found in the earlier book, as well.
One of the interesting things about reading these two books is the way they interlace the history of modern Sweden and the lives of the characters who appear in both.
But in the second book there is a new twist. Many readers have remarked on the sexism of Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End, with some wondering whether Persson was portraying accurately the macho attitudes of the police of the time or was perhaps himself betraying his own attitudes. The new book doesn’t answer that latter question, but here he’s playing with the sexism/machoism in a blatant way. Jarnebring, the lead detective of the first sections of the book keeps referring to his new female partner but both he and the narrator refuse to give her a name. She turns out to hold her own, though, forcing them to recognize her as an individual. And soon after, a contrast is drawn with an old-line male pathologist and a new female one who is far more knowledgeable and professional than the male (though one running character in Persson’s books, Detective Bäckström, refuses her conclusions and goes to the old man for confirmation of his own prejudices about the victim.
Those prejudices (and Bäckström’s other sins) come back again in an amusing way in the last pages of the book, while the story has shifted to a squad made up of Jarnebring’s friend and now superior officer (Johannson) and three hyper-competent female detectives. But neither the narrator nor the police environment has suddenly become enlightened on the topic of gender: the police and others continue to utter disparaging remarks about women in particular and specific female characters as well. If the sexism hasn’t disappeared, it’s at least interesting (and often funny) when thrown into the stark contrast that Persson accomplishes in Another Time, Another Life.
And Another Time is indeed an accomplished work of crime fiction, holding my interest easily through it’s 400-plus pages and offering a subtle and complex payoff at the end. Persson is, we’re told, a leading expert on crime in Sweden and a criminal profiler much in demand. He has experience and authority in his portrait of the police (in a way that begs comparison with the past master of the police story in the U.S., fictional and documentary, Joseph Wambaugh--also known for the comic elements of his books). In addition to the trilogy, it looks like all of his books recycle the characters in the two translated books, leading me wish for more translations beyond those apparently planned at the moment (at least one film based on his books, The Man from Mallorca, had international distribution some years ago).
As a point of disclosure but also an explanation of the cover pasted into this review, I received an advance galley of Another Time, Another Life from Pantheon, its U.S. publisher: the galley was bound in a plain yellow wrapper, but inside was a possible cover that more or less matches the style of the U.S. cover of Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End, but I haven’t been able to find an image of it anywhere--hence the Swedish one that shows up above--which I actually prefer to the U.S. covers anyway because it ties the story to the historical event (without being quite as explicit about the violence of the event as another cover published for the book in Sweden).
The Rage, by Gene Kerrigan
Irish crime writing was already booming before the economic bust in that country, but the collapse seems to be supplying even richer material for the writers there. The gritty realism of Gene Kerrigan seems to have anticipated bad times, as if his style of noir has only now found its proper environment.
His new novel, The Rage, is a very good book that very effectively evokes the decline in the Irish economy and sense of national identity. Bob Tidey is a detective who is determined to the right thing for the victims and their families, and his efforts lead him into a professional and personal quagmire. Vincent Naylor, recently released from prison, is a hard man who's trying to control his impulses, not to go straight but to make the risks of his actions match his possible gains, especially in the complex and daring robbery he has in mind.
The strength of Kerrigan's writing is that the cop and the thug, not to mention Tidey's obstructive bosses and Naylor's criminal associates, are fully human. Tidey struggles with his duty and his conscience and his relationship with his former wife. Naylor struggles with his anger, his impulsive older brother, and his sense of justice (which is fueled by the rage of the book's title). Naylor seems on sounder footing in his relationship to the new woman in his life, a better match than he deserves. One minor character who is essential to the plot, a nun, gets more and more complex as the story goes along, drawing in the traditional virtues (some of them no longer seeming so virtuous) and recent failings of the Irish church. She in particular could have been less interesting and more of a bit player in the hands of a lesser writer, and sh adds a lot to the depth of the story.
The plot is subtle and thoroughly believable, with a lot of killing but without using death as a casual plot device. I've been a fan of Kerrigan's since he started writing fiction (I haven't read his nonfiction crime writing, but I understand it to be highly regarded), and like Maxine over at Petrona-land, I found his third book, Dark Times in the City, to be very good but not quite as darkly effective (emotionally and dramatically) as his first two novels. But The Rage is very good indeed, and I found in it some of the grim poetry of the first two books (which Maxine found less evident in this book), as well as a very original approach to crime writing, responsive to both the demands of storytelling and the truth of a realistic portrayal of a very specific social milieu.
I'm pasting in two covers, the one that seems to be the official Harvill Secker cover and one that seems to be an alternate (it shows up only on a couple of Australian sites—perhaps an official Aussie cover?). The Aussie or alternate one is closer to the actual story, but the official one is more tensely ambiguous. But neither really evokes the power of the story that they purportedly depict.
All Yours, by Claudia Piñeiro
All Yours, Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro's second novel to be translated into English (in this case by Miranda France), is really more a satire than a crime novel, and it's sometimes quite funny, in a dark way. While that's also true of her first book, Thursday Night Widows, that novel is a bit more complex and realistic. All Yours is more like a novella, with a plot that takes a couple of twists and is narrated in several voices but is much more straightforward that the earlier book.
Ines overhears a phone conversation between her husband, Ernesto, and a woman, and suspects betrayal. She follows him and witnesses a confrontation between Ernesto and his secretary: he shoves her and she falls against a tree stump, breaking her neck. Ines sneaks away without confronting Ernesto, and what follows (mostly in her voice but also briefly in his and occasionally in what seem to be police documents) is a tale of self-deception and revenge and a final twist.
Interspersed with the main story is the story, mostly in dialogue, of Ines and Ernesto's teenage daughter, who suffers from typical teenage angst and a few more serious problems. But her story veers off from the main plot without really reconnecting to her parents' tragedy. I don't know if the book would have been better if her story were more developed or simply left out, but it seems underdeveloped and not that relevant as it is.
But All Yours is a quite interesting social satire, making fun of middle-class suburban life in a more straightforward way that Thursday Night Widows. It's a quick read and remains light and entertaining. In a way, it's the flip side of the social portrait given in Ernesto Mallo's dark novels of the military dictatorship and its aftermath. Piñeiro's world is the shallow bourgeois social miasma that has followed a more overtly dangerous political past. The cover, by the way, is very effective as an image, and suggests the sexuality inherent in the story but isn't otherwise very much related to the plot.
China, thrillers, and a "forgotten friday" entry
Rock Paper Tiger, by Lisa Brackmann, is more of a thriller than a crime novel. There are probably or likely murders, but no corpses; lots of violence and many threats, but not much effort to solve a mystery. What it reminded me of in an odd way is a wonderful book from the 1960s, Lionel Davidson's The Rose of Tibet. The Rose of Tibet was much praised when first published and has been revived from time to time, but it's still worth reminding people about a book that is in part a throwback to the great adventure novels of previous centuries, updated to the 20th century's global politics.
First, Rock Paper Tiger: the story revolves around Ellie Cooper, an Iraq-war veteran and former medic who saw a few too many things during the war that now threaten her psychological balance, her marriage (to another Iraq vet), and even personal safety. She finds herself adrift in Beijing, having left her husband, sent there by a security company (sort of a small-scale Blackwater). He found a Chinese girlfriend and she left him, having already left the Christianity that was (besides the war) about all they had in common.
Ellie has fallen in with some fringe groups she drifted into while studying Chinese: some Internet role-game-players and some artists, in particular. On a visit to an artists' compound (a vivid glimpse into the overheated world of Chinese contemporary art and its conflicts with a suspicious and paranoid government) she briefly meets a Uighur who may be a freedom fighter or a terrorist (depending on your point of view) who is apparently on the run. Then her artist friend disappears. Then she's invited into the different but possibly overlapping worlds of art collectors and game players, while simultaneously being pursued by various threatening groups (sometimes hard to tell apart) from various governments and interest groups, all of whom want something from her (it's not too clear exactly what) and all of whom are willing to exert violent force to get it.
What ensues is a wild ride back and forth across the new China, with glimpses of the old China. It's in these sections that the resemblance to The Rose of Tibet occurred to me: in that book, an Englishman who had come to Tibet to look for a missing brother is thrust into the role of protector for a young boy and a beautiful woman, with whom he travels in haste across the mountains, with the Chinese army in hot pursuit (it's during the Red Army's invasion of Tibet). Davidson's story is marvelous, a wild, sometimes funny, sometimes erotic, sometimes even spirtual quest or flight that never lets up. Don't listen to me, go read it. Graham Greene meets H. Rider Haggard, as reviewers have remarked. Or Eric Ambler (another writer unjustly gathering dust) meets Edgar Rice Burroughs. There's nothing quite like it (even among Davidson's other, in different ways also excellent, books. It would have made a great movie, if anyone managed to do it right, though it's probably impossible to do it now (special effects would kill the story).
Brackman's novel is almost as intense, a good trick given how vague the threats to her and the goal she is supposedly seeking are. the book has a bit of a cyber-punk edge (in the gaming and its devotees) as well as some serious consideration of the extent to which both repressive and supposedly democratic governments will go in the era of globalized terror and global paranoia. I enjoyed the story and its propulsive motion, and also felt a not-unpleasurable sense of having been conned, when the threats against Ellie more or less evaporate. The real point of the story, I suppose, is Ellie's growth, her shift from a passivity that even predates her PTSD war experience. Her voice is paramount, and Brackman's chief achievement is that the reader never doubts her and remains interested in her and in her voice.
Norwegian noir: The Shadow in the River, part 2
The Shadow in the River, a 2005 Norwegian crime novel by Frode Grytten, is classic noir with a wry edge. It could almost be Chinatown, with the incest changed to adultery and the water rights manipulation motivated by development changed to industrial theft motivated by globalization (there's even a sly reference to the movie). It's a Jim Thompson novel with a political theme (the same racism and xenophobia recently used as an excuse by a deranged Norwegian nazi) and a bit of Samuel Beckett's absurd comedy.
Grytten vividly evokes a grim post-industrial landscape and its citizens (some winners but most losers as their town dies). The narrator and central character, Robert Bell (I wonder if the anglo name is itself a noir reference) is the pessimistic wise-cracking anti-hero of noir, this time a reporter on the verge of losing his job rather than a down-and-out detective.
The plot is not complicated. A young man has drowned in the river, his car forced off the road. He had been fighting with some Serbian immigrants, and everyone is happy to assume that the foreigners are guilty of the crime. In the first half of the novel, Robert lethargically investigates the crime, which has attracted national attention, while occasionally seeing his brother, a police detective, around town and in press conferences.
The brother finally appears directly in the second half, first to ask Robert to accept a TV station's invitation to appear on a news show to discuss the investigation from their different points of view and then to confront Robert about the fact that has become the central tragedy of Robert's life: he is in love with, and having an on-again off-again affair with, his brother's wife.
There's murder, racial hatred, adultery among brothers, plus blackmail, manipulation of the town industry's bankruptcy…plus the worldy and wry voice of the narrator—all the elements necessary for first-class noir. Plus an element of the absurd in both the plot and Robert's attitude, as well as globalism, to bring the story up to date.
Grytten has written a series of short stories based on Edward Hopper paintings, certainly a noir topic, but no other crime fiction that I'm aware of. I had been putting off reading The Shadow in the River because I'd read reviews that made it sound grim and self-consciously “literary,” but the book is winning in its style and its development of the noir form. If you're in the mood for something dark but funny, downbeat but vivid, I'd highly recommend it.
Frode Grytten's The Shadow in the River, part 1
Split my review of a short book into two parts might seem odd, but this is an odd book in some ways. The reviews I'd read of The Shadow in the River (translated from Frode Grytten's Norwegian by Robert Ferguson) mostly emphasized the dark and grim qualities of the book; to be honest, it didn't seem very inviting, and it was pretty expensive every time I looked for it, so I forgot about it. Recently I noticed an ex-library copy on-line that was cheap enough to give it a try.
The beginning is indeed a bit dark and grim, concerned with a reporter, the discovery of a body in the river, and small town pettiness, and the style is clipped and indirect, not pursuing the crime so much as portraying the reporter in his own voice. But once it gets going, the book has a lot of bitter humor. Especially toward the middle, where I am now in my rapid progress through the book, with the swarm of national newspapers descending upon the small, decaying, formerly industrial town of Odda, the comedy is quite broad, though still dark (almost Evelyn Waugh-like in tone, and Waugh, too, took on the press).
The humor reminded me of a line repeated a few times in Jan Costin Wagner's The Winter of the Lions, not a book (or a series) much noted for its humor (though th odd sense of humor of somoe of the characters is referred to occasionally). In a book whose characters are called Kimmo Joentaa, Ari Pekka Sorajärva, Tuomas Heinonen, Kai-Petteri Hämäläinen, etc., every time the name of an emergency-room doctor is mentioned, Valtteri Muksanen, some one says "Funny sort of name" or something like that. Does anyone recognize if that's a joke (to a German or Finnish reader)?
More about the plot of The Shadow in the River soon.
The Winter of the Lions, by Jan Costin Wagner
Structurally, the third Kimmo Joentaa novel to be translated into English (by Anthea Bell (from the German original of author Jan Costin Wagner), is a straightforward police procedural. Joentaa, still finding it quite difficult to cope with the death of his wife (a major theme in the first of the novels, Ice Moon) is called out to a crime scene where one of his team's own crime techs has been murdered savagely. The attack came while the man was cross-country skiing, early on a winter morning (just before Christmas, a season where a number of recent Scandinavian crime novels have been set). Christmas in Finland is evoked quite vividly by Wagner.
Another attack suggests a direction for the investigation, confirmed by a third, but there are no clues to work with. It's a bit unusual for police procedurals to concentrate on a mere detective, not the head of his unit or team. Joentaa is very much the eccentric outlier, doing what he's told but then moving off on his own tangent (which he frequently finds it difficult to explain to his colleagues). H latches onto an idea and slowly works through it until he finds some kind of thread to unravel.
The slowness of the investigation's progress and Joentaa's constant memory of his wife (particurly her last moments) give the book a melancholy, even poetic quality. The narrative sticks with Joentaa for the most part, but shifts into the head of a troubled woman who seems to have something to do with the crime, but her relation to reality is vague, and we get little sense of who she is until Joentaa begins to clarify for himself what has happened. The reader is pulled in by impressions rather than events: the interest is more in how te crimes happened rather than who is the killer. The charaterizations are somewhat quirky: some characters are fully fleshed out and others are sketched simply with a few elements of personality or their relationship to someone else.
The selection of covers (from the U.K., Germany, and France) is telling: The U.K. cover suggests a frozen forest, when most of the story actually takes place in the cities of Tuku and Helsinki, and a good deal of it happens in the context of a TV talk show rather than a forest (though admittedly the first crime scene is adjacent to a forest), and the film industry in Finland plays an important role in the story. The window looking out on an icy scene (the German version) is more closely evocative of the book, but the French version, of a woman peering in a window, suggests in its use of contrasting haze and clarity more of the psychological realities that the novel turns upon.
Posted by Glenn Harper at 11:51 AM 2 comments: Links to this post
Manuel Vazquez Montalban at the movies
Last weekend, I watched the only film version of one of Manuel Vazquez Montalban's Pepe Carvalho novels that I've been able to find with English subtitles, Rafael Alcazar's 1993 film El Labirinto Griego (The Greek Labyrinth, taken from the novel published by Serpent's Tail in English translation as An Olympic Death). There are several other movies and at least two TV series based on private detective Pepe Carvalho and on Vazquez Montalban's novels, but all made for a Spanish audience and not available with subtitles.
But oddly, for El Labirinto Griego, even though Vazquez Montalban was involved in the screenplay, the character's name was changed from Pepe Carvalho to Juan Bardón, and certain other facts about the novel and the life of the detective are changed (plus several of the more colorful running characters are left out). Does anyone know why the name was changed? Copyright problems, given the other film and TV companies that have bought the rights to the Carvalho books? There's also not much about food in the movie, a big departure from the books.
In any case, An Olympic Death/Greek Labyrinth is a somewhat odd book turned into an even odder movie. The plot twists and turns without much logic, leading the detective on a merry chase through a Barcelona that is being transformed by the upcoming Olympic Games (and not for the better, to listen to the detective and other Barcelona natives in the story): In particular, Pueblo Nuevo/Poble Nou (correct me if I have the name or spelling wrong, please), a working class and industrial neighborhood being razed to build the dormitories for the teams. Along the way, the detective and his clients are threatened and the detective is in trouble with the police.
The plot is loosely wound around a man and woman from Paris who hire the detective to find her husband, a Greek painter and artist's model who has run off with a new lover. She keeps justifying her search by saying he is the "man of my life," the title of another book in the series (a much later one). Bardón/Carvalho leads this pair through a tour of Barcelona at night at this specific time in history, visiting a decadent artist's party, a few bars, a warehouse where a couple of theatrical events for the Olympics is being rehearsed, and an abandoned warehouse where the painter has been living. There are a few surprises when the painter is finally found (a bit predictable, though, and tied to the time of the writing and filming), but mostly the story hinges on the emotional experiences of the characters, the detective included. His daughter (I don't remember a daughter from the book, but someone can perhaps let us know if that's a character invented for the movie) is played by a very young Penelope Cruz (her first film, at least that's what's reported in the film's reviews), and the style of filmmaking is visual rather than narrative (sometimes to the point of annoyance, in my opinion, sapping some of the narrative motion). I thought the actors were well chosen, though (even the Galician/Catalan detective is actually played by an Italian).
But this is the one we have if we don't speak Spanish. I'd love to see the TV series (one from the '80s, I think, and one from the '90s, and there are perhaps others), if anyone has a source for subtitled version or can encourage the distributors to subtitle and release them. Some basis for comparing the Laberinto film to the other versions of Pepe Carvalho would be very interesting.
Kjell Eriksson's The Hand That Trembles
I've been a fan of Kjell Eriksson's crime fiction since his first book featuring Uppsala detective Ann Lindell and her colleagues (The Princess of Burundi) appeared in English translation a few years ago. He has a distinctive voice that separates him from most of the Scandinavian crime wave authors and might make his books less likely to be made into TV or theatrical films.
The distinctive quality of his books, very much in evidence in The Hand That Trembles (published recently by Minotaur in Ebba Segerberg's translation), is a what I think of as a "dailiness." These books are not thrillers, they focus on the everyday lives of people (some of them cops) who happen to be involved in crime, in one way or another.
This new novel features several overlapping plots, beginning with the early and recent history of a man who grew up in rural Sweden, near Uppsala, and ultimately shifted from a career as a plumber to one on politics, as a socialist county commissioner. Most recently, he has vanished from Uppsala and reappeared under an assumed name in Bangalore, living a humble life as a gardener and sometime English instructor in a local school. Why he undertook this journey and why he vanished is a major aspect of the story.
Back in Sweden, in a winter that is a radical contrast to Bangalore, Ann Lindell reluctantly takes on the case of a foot discovered along the shore: reluctantly because the site of the discovery is near the home of her former lover, the father of her young son and, and her longing and loneliness are major factors in this book and the series.
During the investigation, she discovers an almost "locked room" situation, a group of houses apart from the mainland, where a few older people and some middle-aged bachelors live, as well as a younger woman who is a painter (and whose hands are among the trembling ones of the title).
Ann is also involved tangentially in the cold case that her former mentor is investigating, as he recovers from brain surgery, the unsolved murder of an old man in Uppsala who turns out to have been a Nazi sympathizer. While the case of the severed foot moves forward slowly but relentlessly (as Ann and a local colleague speak to the "locked room" houses over and over again), the other threads of the book move along in sudden twists and turns, as threads from Spain, India, and Sweden intertwine. Though there's little likelihood of a reader discovering who severed that foot much before Ann does, there are considerable surprises elsewhere in the story.
So The Hand That Trembles is a police procedural, but also a close-up portrait of a group of people as they live through ordinary and extraordinary circumstances, navigating lost opportunities, regrets, longings, and everyday responsibilities. None of them are stock characters, and it's that "dailiness" that is the prime experience in reading the book, transported though we are to a small city in Sweden and a garden in India.
Eriksson's books relate much more closely to the everyday realism of Swedish crime writing that goes back to Sjöwall and Wahlöö, and that is sometimes evident in Henning Mankell's writing, rather than to the thriller writing of Swedish authors from Stieg Larsson to Liza Marklund. Though I enjoy the thrillers, I am myself more drawn to the quieter, more reflective, and more character-driven works by writers like Eriksson.
Ernesto Mallo, Sweet Money
The sequel to Ernesto Mallo's remarkable Needle in a Haystack, Sweet Money, is scheduled to be published in the U.S. in October, in a translation by Katherine Silver (published by Bitter Lemon Press). Every reviewer of Needle in a Haystack remarks on the surprising fact that there could be a sequel, since "Perro" Lascano, the central character in what we are told is a trilogy, lies dying in the gutter at the end of the first novel.
But Mallo is not engaged in the kind of magic or comic realism that characterizes the life-after-death of the central character of the detective novels of Paco Ignacio Taibo II of Mexico. Mallo's detective is nursed back to health under the protection of a dishonest but wily policeman who is arranging to become the chief of police in Buenos Aires after the end of the military government--and who needs an honest cop like Lascano. But just as Lascano is achieving his recovery, his mentor is shuffled off the stage by a cabal of corrupt police who not only don't need Lascano, they target him for murder.
At the same time, a smart bank robber is released from a prison and follows a plan for his future that quickly falls apart, leaving him in need of cash. His solution is a robbery that has several unfortunate aspects, including a killing, an arrest, and the hidden source of the money stolen. Lascano, hiding from the police, is offered a lot of money to find the surviving robbers and the money before the police do. Lascano needs the money to escape from the police who want to kill him but also to find the woman who got away, his lover from the first novel.
The style of the writing in the series is direct and straightforward, with dialogue presented in blocks of italicized text, with no indication of who is speaking. A reader quickly gets used to the odd presentation of dialogue, and immersed in the multiple pursuits that make up the plot. The charactrers and the story are quickly but vividly drawn, but what Mallo is after isn't so much plot and character as a wider portrait of a society so poisoned by the violence of the military dictatorship (portrayed in Needle in a Haystack) that the new democracy is characterized less by freedom than by greed and corruption. A pervading theme is the kidnapping of dissidents' children, "adopted" by members of the ruling military.
Sweet Money is a grim but not heavy story. Mallo makes us care about the characters and about their shattered social milieu. And the blow that Lascano receives at the end is a final twist that, again, makes a sequel seem unlikely and at the same time inviting.
The latest (and first) K.O. Dahl crime novel from ...
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Harvey Weinstein: “Jennifer deserves a rest!”
JLaw February 24th, 2014 Interviews: Others
Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence is to take a year-long break from the movie business, according to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Weinstein said the exhausted star of dystopian sci fi saga The Hunger Games and comedy Silver Linings Playbook would be taking a well-deserved rest after an incredibly busy period of filming.
“Jennifer is too nice and will do people favours and agrees to do a movie like American Hustle when she could have had a rest,” said Weinstein. “She signed on to do Hunger Games when she was young and wouldn’t have realised how much it would dominate her life. But she’s a professional and always will be.”
The producer said Lawrence, who took the best actress Oscar last year for her turn in David O Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, had every right to give last week’s Baftas a miss. The 23-year-old was unable to attend despite taking the best supporting actress prize for Russell’s followup American Hustle. “It’s been non-stop for her and she deserves a rest,” said Weinstein.
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• Readers Choice
• Local Flavor
• Beyond Biz
• Signature Style
• Occasions Lady
• Dining Guide
• Calendar
Jonesboro restaurants are divided by food category and listed in alphabetical order. Every effort is made to keep the listing current, but readers are urged to call ahead to confirm hours of operation, as schedules and menu items may change. Nationally recognized restaurant chains show only addresses and phone numbers. Symbols used in the listing include:
B Breakfast served, L Lunch served, D Dinner served, $ Average meal less than $7/person, $$ Average meal between $7-$15/person, $$$ Average meal more than $15/person, CC Credit Cards accepted, MR Membership Required, WF Wi-Fi Available, OD Outdoor Dining Available
Barnhill’s Country Buffet 1111 S. Caraway Rd., 931-7322.
Bistro on the Ridge 914 Southwest Dr., 268-6780. Salads, wraps, paninis, sandwiches, steaks, shrimp and fish, Sunday brunch. L-D Mon.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. $-$$
Brickhouse Grill 218 South Main, 336-BHG1. New Orleans brought to Jonesboro featuring steaks, fresh seafood, pasta, burgers, chicken. L-D Sun.-Fri., 4 p.m.-close, Sat., noon-close., Sun., 4-10 p.m. MR OD WF $$-$$$ CC
Cheddar’s Casual Café 2123 Red Wolf Blvd., 934-0223. MR
Chick-fil-A 1800 Red Wolf Blvd., 910-6611.
Chili’s Grill 1900 Red Wolf Blvd., 268-6805. MR
Chef’s In Downtown Café 105 Burke Ave., 934-8962. Buffet featuring
home-style entrees, vegetables, salad and dessert. With seating up to 200. B-L Sun.-Thurs., B 7 a.m.-10:30 a.m., L 10:30-2 p.m. $ CC
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 2621 Phillips Dr., 932-9732.
Dixie Cafe 2406 S. Caraway Rd., 932-9400.
Fat City Grill 3721 E Johnson, 931-9613. Full breakfast, Fat City nachos, salads, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, steaks, chicken, desserts. BLD Sun.-Thurs., 6:30 a.m.- 10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 6 a.m.-11 p.m. $-$$ CC
Five Guys Burgers and Fries 2100 Red Wolf Blvd., 336-3370
Front Page Café 2117 E. Parker Rd., 932-6343. Salads, sandwiches, chicken, steaks, shrimp with pass-around vegetables and “throwed” rolls. BLD Mon.-Thurs., 6 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 6 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun., 7 a.m.-3 p.m. $-$$ CC WF
Gina’s Place 2005 E. Highland Dr., 910-3900. Traditional breakfast items; good choice of salads, home-cooked vegetables, entrees, desserts. A well-kept secret among locals. Mon.-Fri., B 6:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m., L 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. $-$$ CC
Godsey’s Grill 226 South Main, 336-1988, godseysgrill.com. Godsey’s signature dips, sandwiches, two-fisted burgers, wood-burning pizza oven, steaks, daily features, full service catering, party planning and corporate events. Mon-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $$-$$$ CC MR WF
Gourmet Diva Deliveries 2301 S. Culberhouse, 934-1744. Burgers, wings, homemade fries, daily plate lunch specials, delivery inside Joneboro, family meals to go, catering available. L-D Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. $-$$ CC
IHOP 2411 S. Caraway Rd., 268-8134
J Town’s Grill 2612 E. Johnson, 275-6514. Appetizers, dips, nachos, salads, sammiches, wraps, burgers, flatbread pizza, steaks. L-D Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$ CC OD WF MR
Kountry Kupboard 2703 Paula Dr., 931-3663. Sandwiches, paninis and soup. L Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. $ CC.
Longhorn Steakhouse 2626 Red Wolf Blvd., 932-2572. MR
O’Charley’s 2312 E. Parker Rd., 933-7102. MR
501 Steakhouse 2628 Phillips Dr., 972-6501. Fine dining with exceptional salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, steak, chicken, seafood, desserts. D Mon.-Thurs., 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (food service). $ - $$$ MR CC WF
Omars Uptown 301 South Main, 336-3001. Wide array of appetizers, salads, steaks and sauces, seafood, desserts. D Mon.-Sat., 4-10 p.m. $$-$$$ MR WF CC
Outback Steakhouse 906 Southwest Dr., 910-5600. MR
Red Lobster 2642 Red Wolf Blvd., 932-1829. MR
Ruby Tuesday 2915 Kazi St., 934-8394. MR
Ryan’s Family Steakhouse 2809 E. Highland Dr., 932-3200.
Skinny J’s 205 Main St., 275-6264. Steaks, seafood, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, pasta, salads. Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.- 12 a.m.
$-$$$ CC MR WF
Slim Chickens 1312 Red Wolf Blvd., 935-7546.
Sue’s Kitchen 524 S. Church St., 972-6000. Sandwiches, salads, soups, daily specials, home cooked favorites, bakery, gourmet to go and catering available. Mon.-Fri. L 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m., B-L Sat. 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Gourmet shop open Mon.-Fri. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. CC WF
Sully’s 303 S. Main, 203-6190. Chicago style with pizza, hot dogs, sandwiches, steaks, chicken, fajitas, burgers and salads. Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. $-$$$ CC MR
The Office Sports Grill 1509 Marketplace Drive., 931-6500. Burgers, hot wings, brick oven pizzas. Free limo rides home. D Mon.-Sun., 4 p.m.-2 a.m. $-$$ CC MR
Therapy 241 S. Main St., Suite A., 933-8200. Appetizers, steak, seafood, pasta. D Tues.-Thurs., 5-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5 p.m.-12 a.m. $-$$ CC MR
Wings To Go 2935 Parkwood Dr., 934-9464. 2536 Alexander Dr., 336-9464.
Western Sizzlin Steak House 2405 E. Highland Dr., 935-1300.
Demo’s Smokehouse
1851 S. Church St., 935-6633. L-D Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; 4115 E. Johnson Ave., 203-9944, L-D Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.. Barbecue plates, sandwiches, chicken, great baked beans, award-winning ribs. $-$$ CC
Wild Hog 1700 S. Caraway Rd., 933-9464. Ribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked chicken, nachos. L-D Mon.- Thurs., 11 a.m. -8 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., L Sun. 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. $-$$ WF CC
Catfish Café 1820 South Main, 932-7755. Fried or grilled catfish, seafood, frog legs, steaks. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. $-$$ CC
Murdock’s Catfish 2612 Red Wolf Blvd., 206-7822. Catfish, Po’ Boys, crawfish, shrimp and funnel cakes. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. CC OD
Ron’s Catfish Buffet 3213 Dan Ave., 930-9639. Menu and all-you-can-eat buffet with catfish, chicken, shrimp, entrees, vegetables, salads and desserts. L-D Tues.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. $-$$ CC
The Fish Boat 3905 E. Nettleton Ave., 910-4900. Buffet or menu featuring catfish, crab legs and hot plate lunch, seafood buffet on Thurs., Fri. and Sat. night, party rooms and catering available. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. $-$$ CC
The Coffee Gallery & Dessert Bar 309 Southwest Dr., 972-4785. Selection of coffee flavors and drinks, espresso, hot teas, hot chocolate, and steamers. The dessert bar has freshly baked pastries, desserts and muffins. Mon.-Thurs.,
7 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri. 7 a.m.- 7 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.- 6 p.m., Sun., noon-6 p.m. $ CC WF
The Edge 1900 Aggie Rd., 932-3114. Specialty drinks including coffees, teas, cappuccinos, espressos, hot chocolate, flavored steamers, Italian sodas, fruit blends. Pesto chicken sandwich, Mediterranean wrap, curry tuna, soups, salads, quiche. B-L Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat. 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. $-$$ CC WF
One Love People 223 South Main, 819-8906. Organic and fair-trade coffees, teas and other drinks, breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal and waffles all day. Mon.-Sat., 7 a.m.-3 p.m. $ CC WF
Shadrachs Coffee & Roasting Co. 3326 E. Nettleton Ave., 932-6448, 5401 Southwest Dr., 203-9837, shadrachsroasting.com. Dark and medium roast blends, espressos, cappuccinos and steamers made from their own beans roasted on site. Drive-thru only. Mon.-Fri., 6 a.m.- 6 p.m.,
Sat. 7 a.m.-5 p.m. $-$$ CC
Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches 1319 Red Wolf Blvd., 932-7827
Firehouse Subs 401 Southwest Dr., 932-6339. 3709 E. Johnson Ave., 520-6030.
Honeybaked Ham 2001 E. Nettleton Ave., 931-3737.
Local Culture Café 1319 Red Wolf Blvd., 935-6225. 900 Southwest Dr., Ste. A. Self-serve frozen yogurt with rotating toppings, juice and smoothie bar, large salad and wrap selection at Red Wolf Blvd. location, Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Southwest Drive: Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $ CC
McAlister’s Deli 2400 S. Caraway Rd., 802-2400.
Munchy’s Specialty Sandwiches 1320 Caraway Rd., 932-5360. Sub sandwiches, wraps and cheese sticks. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 10 a.m.- 10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-11 p.m. $-$$ CC
Newk’s Eatery 3410 E. Johnson Ave., 336-0663.
Panera Bread Co. 2113 Red Wolf Blvd., 972-1664.
San Francisco Bread Co. 701 Windover, Ste. 100, 336-7322. Mon.- Fri. 6:30 a.m.- 9:30 p.m., Sat. 7 a.m.- 9 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.- 9 p.m. WF OD
Schlotzsky’s 1605 Red Wolf Blvd., 336-0660.
Steak Escape 1853 E. Highland Dr., 932-0088, 3000 E. Highland Drive, 336.2700.
Tropical Smoothie Café and Deli 2007 E. Nettleton Ste A, 935-2233. 7 a.m.- 9p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.- 9 p.m. WF 3410 E. Johnson, 932-TROP (8767) drive-through Mon.- Fri. 7 a.m.- 9 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.- 9 p.m., Lobby Mon.- Sat. 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. WF
China Buffet 1137 S. Caraway Rd., 932-3888. All-you-can-eat Japanese and Chinese buffet, variety of chicken, pork, seafood, beef entrees on menu, sugar-free dessert bar. L-D Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.- 9:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat.,
11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. $-$$ CC
China Restaurant 1509 Marketplace Dr., 931-7301. Pork, chicken, seafood entrees available on buffet, menu. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. $-$$ CC
Dragon City Chinese Restaurant 300 S. Main Street, 933-8889. House specialties include seafood delight, happy family, four seasons, dragon phoenix, triple hunan. 132-item menu. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$ CC
Fuji 2810 E. Highland Dr., 972-5585. A broad menu ranging from sushi, sashimi and hibachi grill items including filet mignon, lobster and calamari to various soups, salads and more than 10 appetizers. Lunch specials offered Mon.-Sat. include hibachi grill items,teriyaki entrees, sushi and boxed lunches to go.
L Mon-Thurs. 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., D 4:30-9:30 p.m., L-D Fri-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.-9 p.m. $$-$$$ MR CC
Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet 1699 Red Wolf Blvd., 935-8168. Largest buffet in town, make your own stir fry, sushi, desserts. L-D Sun.-Thurs., 10:45 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10:45 a.m.-10:30 p.m. $-$$ CC
Hiro 3006B E. Highland Dr., 268-6622. Sushi, nigiri and sashimi, tempura, hibachi grilled chicken, shrimp, steak, vegetables, calamari, salmon and lobster.
L Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. D Mon.-Thurs., 5-9:30 p.m., Fri-Sat., 5-10 p.m., Sun., noon-9 p.m. $$-$$$ CC
Hong Kong Restaurant 1420 S. Caraway #G, 933-8827, 3228 S. Caraway, 931-5566. A large menu ranging from appetizers, soup, lo mein, fried rice, seafood and other dishes. Lunch specials offered daily including 34 menu items. Free delivery available. L-D Mon.-Wed., 10:30 a.m.- 10 p.m., Thurs., 10:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. -10 p.m. $-$$ CC
Kimono Japanese Steakhouse 300 South Main, 931-3388. Tempura, teriyaki, many maki and hibachi combinations, sushi, sashimi, sushi rolls, lunch specials. L-D Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4:30-9:30 p.m., Sat., 12-10 p.m.,
Sun., 12-10:30 p.m. $-$$$ CC
Oriental Express 1516 Browns Lane, 931-6688. Sushi, sashimi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean dishes, beef, chicken, seafood, moo shu and vegetarian dishes. L-D Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. $$ CC
Sai Thai Cuisine 906 S. Caraway Rd., 931-0700. Traditional Thai food, fried rice, noodles, steak, chicken, spring rolls, soup. L Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. D 5 p.m.-9 p.m. $$-$$$ CC MR
Sumo 2801 Red Wolf Blvd., 972-8355.
Tandoori Indian Cuisine 1712 S. Caraway, 935-NAAN, gototandoori.com. Rice and biryani dishes, tandoori chicken, seekh Kabab, madras shrimp curry, beef and lamb korma and vindaloo are a few favorites. Vegetarian menu available. L Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. D Mon.-Sat., 5-9 p.m. $$ CC
Teriyaki Madness 2110 Fair Park Blvd, 206-7832.
Thai Taste 1906 E. Johnson Ave., 932-3333. Pad Thai, soups, noodles, fried rice, curries, seafood, duck, lamb and vegetarian dishes. L Tues.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., D Tues.-Sun. 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. $$ CC
Truly Asian Restaurant 2704 Alexander Dr., Suite C, 275-6000. Traditional Asian favorites like stir fry, fried rice and noodles, General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, specials each day, gluten-free items, hot pot specials. L Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2 p.m., D Mon.-Sat., 4-8 p.m. $ CC
Fazoli’s 1730 E. Highland Drive, 275-2642.
Lazzari Italian Oven 2230 S. Caraway Rd., 931-4700. Features pizza and bread baked in a wood-burning brick oven, salads, seafood sautés, steaks, chicken, wide selection of pasta dishes, coffee bar. L-D Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$ CC
Olive Garden 1918 Red Wolf Blvd., 972-0282. MR
MEXICAN / SOUTHWEST
BA Burrito 405D Southwest Dr., 336-7325. Custom built burritos, hot fajita bar, salads, quesadillas and nachos. L-D Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.- 9 p.m., Sun.,
11 a.m.-3 p.m. OD WF $-$$ CC
Blue Coast Burrito 1320 Red Wolf Blvd., 336-2444. burritos, tacos, salads, chips and salsa bar. B Omelet Express: 6:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m., L-D 10:30 a.m.- 9 p.m. $-$$ CC
Casa Maya 2718 S. Caraway, 268-9000. An extensive menu featuring authentic Mexican cuisine such as fajitas, nachos and enchiladas, including seafood menu items. L-D Sun.-Thurs. 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat.
10:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. $-$$ CC
Don Jose 2200 Wilkins St., 933-1211. Enchiladas, chalupas, fajitas, burritos, tacos, daily lunch specials. L-D, Wilkins: 11 am.-9 p.m. $-$$ CC; Main St.: Sun.-Tues., Thurs., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Wed., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$ CC MR
El Acapulco Mexican Restaurant 1421 S. Caraway Rd., 935-6692.
1701 E. Highland Dr., 935-3582. Salads, fajitas, chicken, burritos, tacos, enchiladas. L-D Sun.-Mon., 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$ CC
Kandela Mexican Grill 2315 E. Parker Rd., 934-0434. Fresh tortillas made daily, fajitas, nachos, enchiladas, burritos, tacos. L-D Sun.-Thurs., 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. $-$$$ CC MR
Qdoba Mexican Grill 2935 Parkwood Rd., 336-2172.
Rodeo Mexican Grill 1207 W. Parker Rd., 931-1010. Traditional Mexican food, enchiladas burritos and tacos. L-D Mon.-Sun., 9 a.m.-9 p.m. $-$$ CC
Salsa’s Grill 2240 S. Caraway Rd., 268-0208. Traditional Mexican food with good atmosphere, vegetarian menu items, broad a la carte selection, 11 Mexican/seafood meal choices. L-D 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$$ CC
TaMolly’s 2506 E Highland Dr., 935-2600.
Chuck E. Cheese 3400 E. Highland Dr., 268-8371.
CiCi’s Pizza 2116 S. Caraway Rd., 932-8300.
Mazzio’s Pizza 1508 Browns Ln., 935-8787.
Papa Cella’s Pizza Chef 2324 E. Matthews, 931-0109. Choose from 15 specialty pizzas, subs, calzones, salads. Delivery available. L-D Mon.-Thurs., 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. $-$$ CC
Pizza Hut 900 S. Caraway Rd., 972-6200, 1907 W. Parker Rd., 934-0905
Pizza Inn 1208 S. Caraway Rd., 932-1010, 358 Southwest Drive, 932-1011
Upper Crust Pizza Co. 1810 E. Highland Dr., 933-1990. 3120 Shelby Drive, 336-7500. Specialty Items: Freshly made salads, pizzas, calzones. Delivery available. Highland Location: L-D Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.- 9 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $-$$ CC Shelby Location: Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. $-$$ CC MR
Andy’s Frozen Custard 1327 Red Wolf Blvd., 933-8266 232 E. Highland Dr.
Baskin Robbins 1853 E. Highland Dr., 932-0088.
Local Culture Cafe 1319 Red Wolf Blvd., 935-6225. 900 Southwest Dr., Ste. A, Self-serve frozen yogurt, freshly made custom salads and juices. Red Wolf Blvd: Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Southwest Drive: Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. $ CC
Shake’s Frozen Custard 2401 E Parker Rd., 802-1950.
Bliss Cupcakes 312B Red Wolf Blvd., 336-2504
Cupcakes at Turtle Creek 3500 E. Highland Dr., 275-7748 Daily cupcakes, cake dippers, mini and jumbo cupcakes, custom cupcakes and mini cakes. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. $ CC
Cookies ‘n More 1825 E. Nettleton Ave., 340-5121 Cookies, cakes, cookie cakes, cupcakes and brownies. Mon-Sat., 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. $ CC
Fancy Flour Bakery 2615 E. Nettleton, 336-9869 Cupcakes, gourmet cakes, pies, cobblers, cookies, cake balls, caramel apples, fudge, muffins, pastries, chocolate covered strawberries, cinnamon rolls. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m. $ CC
Gigi’s Cupcakes 2203 Red Wolf Blvd #3., 336-4660
Goad A La Mode Cakes 2216 Wilkins Ave., 897-6186 Specialty cakes and cookies. By appointment only. $ CC
Great American Cookie 3000 E. Highland Dr., 336-2888
J&M Cakes 2810 E. Matthews Ave., 268-8611 Specialty cakes. Mon.-Fri., 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sat., 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. $ CC
Jeny’s Cakery 3704 S Caraway Rd., 932-7777
Specialty cakes, cupcakes. Tues.-Thurs., 10 a.m.-5 p.m., $ CC
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Home » Opinion » Yu Yongding » Releasing the renminbi
Releasing the renminbi
Mar 14,2019 - Last updated at Mar 14,2019
BEIJING — The United States is reportedly pushing China to agree to keep the value of the renminbi stable, as part of a deal to end the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. It is a demand that China must think twice about before accepting.
The renminbi was undoubtedly undervalued for many years, including through a peg to the US dollar that was established in 1998. An undervalued renminbi is an important contributing factor to the trade surplus that China has run consistently since 1993, when its per capita income stood at just $400. In other words, even when China was a very poor country, it was exporting capital to the rest of the world, especially the US.
Though running a trade surplus benefits some sectors of the economy for some period of time, it is unclear that it benefits the economy as a whole in the long run. Still, two decades of maintaining a current account surplus, which includes trade, together with a capital-account surplus, fuelled by large inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), enabled China to accumulate huge foreign-exchange reserves and a large stock of FDI. As a result, though China is one of the world’s largest creditors, it has run an investment-income deficit for more than a decade.
But, over the last 15 years or so, China has been working to correct its trade imbalances. Since 2005, when the renminbi’s dollar peg was eliminated, it has appreciated steadily. By the end of 2013, its exchange against the dollar had strengthened by 35 per cent. In the same year, China’s current-account surplus fell to just 2 per cent of GDP, from its 2007 peak of 10.1 per cent.
Moreover, since 2014, when looser capital controls left China’s capital account more responsive to broader changes in the global economy, the country has started to run significant capital account deficits from time to time. Sometimes, those deficits are large enough to put the entire balance of payments in deficit, despite the trade surplus.
On August 11, 2015, China took a major step to boost exchange-rate flexibility: Instead of setting a daily midpoint for the renminbi independently, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) began basing the midpoint on the previous day’s closing prices. Initially, there was only slight downward pressure on the renminbi in the foreign exchange market. But the poorly timed move ended up fuelling expectations of currency devaluation, spurring a surge in capital outflows that drove down the renminbi’s value further.
Some, including former US Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen, in a recent interview, have suggested that China devalued its currency that summer in order to offset the effects of an appreciating dollar on the economy’s international competitiveness. The truth is that China — precisely because it feared that depreciation would trigger even stronger expectations of further devaluation, ultimately endangering China’s financial stability — abruptly cancelled the reform just days after it was initiated and began to intervene heavily in the foreign exchange market to arrest the currency’s decline.
When those interventions slowed in 2016, the renminbi began to depreciate again, spurring the PBOC to resume intervention. The PBOC spent some $1 trillion of China’s foreign exchange reserves in less than two years to stem downward pressure on the exchange rate. In 2017, thanks to the tightening of capital controls and a fall in the dollar index, the renminbi exchange rate finally stabilised.
There is no evidence that China has intervened to weaken the renminbi since, not even to offset the impact of higher US tariffs on Chinese exports, even as the exchange rate has fluctuated in response to fears about the trade war. The Chinese government knows that it is not in its best interests to manipulate its exchange rate. And, given China’s financial vulnerabilities, devaluation is particularly unappealing.
So, while the Trump administration’s fear that China is manipulating its exchange rate to gain a trade advantage is not irrational, it is unfounded. Still, China cannot commit to keeping the renminbi stable against the US dollar.
China’s economic cycles are not synchronised with those of the US. The Fed may raise the federal funds rate at a time when the PBOC needs to cut its interest rate, which would spur capital outflows and drive down the renminbi’s value. It is a country’s sovereign right to decide its exchange rate policy, and the US cannot expect to dictate China’s. So, even as it listens humbly to the US’ complaints, China must retain full authority over its approach to the renminbi and be able to loosen monetary policy when economic conditions dictate, regardless of whether that causes the renminbi to depreciate.
The US would disapprove, but what other choice would China have? It cannot forfeit its monetary independence, and it is not in China’s interest to block capital outflows to offset depreciation pressure. Nor can it continue to use its hard-earned, and limited, foreign exchange reserves to prop up the renminbi’s value. How can China be sure the balance is enough to maintain exchange rate stability indefinitely?
Complicating matters further, the relationship between the renminbi’s value and the US dollar is not just bilateral. China has already committed to cut its trade surplus with the US, which comprises the majority of China’s overall trade surplus. If the US dollar rises in this context, China’s current account is likely to swing into deficit. Again, is China supposed to cut its imports from the rest of the world by whatever means necessary, or sacrifice its foreign exchange reserves? This is not a purely bilateral issue — exchange rate misalignments often require international coordination to resolve.
China’s authorities are committed to advancing the shift toward a market-driven economy, with a fully flexible exchange rate regime. So, in the current trade negotiations with the US, it can credibly commit not to keep the value of the renminbi artificially low. But under no circumstances should it promise to keep the exchange rate stable against the dollar.
Yu Yongding, a former president of the China Society of World Economics and director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, served on the Monetary Policy Committee of the PBOC from 2004 to 2006. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019. www.project-syndicate.org
Yu Yongding
The next phase of Trump’s trade war with China
Balancing growth and structural adjustment in China
A makeover for Chinese macroeconomic policy
How Trump is helping China
Trump’s weak case against China
Misguided exchange-rate machinations
China’s incomplete growth strategy
Can China beat deflation?
China’s slow-growth opportunity
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Headlines for Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Wednesday, June 26th, 2019, by Associated Press
Kansas Man Sentenced to Nearly 49 Years in Toddler's Death
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been ordered to spend nearly 49 years in prison in the fatal beating of his girlfriend's toddler who died several months after state welfare officials received reports that he was being abused. KSNW-TV reports that 26-year-old Lucas Diel of Wichita was sentenced Tuesday for second-degree murder in the May 2018 death of 2-year-old Anthony Bunn. He died two days after he was found unresponsive in his Wichita home. Anthony's grandfather, Zak Woolheater, described Diel as a "monster" and recalled the horror of sitting next to the dying toddler's hospital bed. Woolheater's attorney said in a court document filed last year that the state was aware of a previous abuse report involving Anthony and didn't follow procedures. The boy's mother, Elizabeth Woolheater, also has been charged with murder.
Man Convicted in Shooting that Killed 3 in Downtown Lawrence
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man has been convicted in a shooting that killed three people in a popular downtown area of a Kansas college town. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that jurors found 22-year-old Anthony Roberts Jr., of Topeka, guilty on Tuesday of two counts of first-degree felony murder and second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. Prosecutors said Roberts opened fire in October 2017 as people were leaving bars, concerts and other events on the main downtown Lawrence street. Roberts' attorneys argued that he acted in self-defense after a confrontation. The shooting killed 22-year-old Leah Brown, of Shawnee; 20-year-old Colwin Lynn Henderson, of Topeka; and 24-year-old Tre'Mel Dupree Dean-Rayton, of Topeka. Two others were wounded but survived. A second defendant was convicted previously of attempted voluntary manslaughter, and a third of misdemeanor battery.
Kansas Abortion Ruling Prompts New Attack on Death Penalty
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring that the state constitution protects access to abortion opened the door to a new legal attack on the death penalty. Attorneys for five of the 10 men on death row in Kansas argue that the abortion decision means the state's courts can enforce the broad guarantees of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the Bill of Rights in the Kansas Constitution. The lawyers contend the convicted killers cannot be executed because capital punishment violates their "inalienable" right to life. They include Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a white supremacist convicted of killing three people at two Jewish sites in the Kansas City area in 2014, and Jonathan and Reginald Carr, two brothers who, authorities said, forced five people to remove money from ATMs and have sex with one another before killing four of them in Wichita in 2000. Defense attorneys launched the new legal attack on capital punishment in filings with the state Supreme Court in May, less than two weeks after the abortion decision. The justices took the claims seriously enough to order defense attorneys and prosecutors to file additional written arguments, with the last ones due in mid-November. (Read more about this story.)
Kansas City Police Investigate Death of Transgender Woman
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police are investigating the death of a transgender woman whose body was found at an abandoned home as a homicide. Police said in an email that the body was found Tuesday morning on the porch of the home. Police say the victim showed obvious signs of foul play but the cause of death was not immediately clear. Police added that homicide detectives are conducting their investigation to determine the identity of the victim and how that person was identified in the community. No other details were immediately available. FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton says the agency is aware of the death but that it is being investigated by police at this time. She says she can't comment further.
Boys' Mock Government Proposed Eliminating Women's Vote
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — An organization that sponsors an all-male Kansas student mock government apologized after this year's teenage governor proposed eliminating the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote. The teenager from Leavenworth made the proposal in the final moments of his term during the annual Boys State gathering at Kansas State University on June 2-7, The Kansas City Star reported. The American Legion sponsors Boys State programs in most states, and the American Legion Auxiliary sponsors a separate Girls State program. The programs are aimed at teaching teenagers about government. This year's Kansas student governor ignored Boys State staff who advised him not to suggest the executive order to repeal the 19th Amendment, said spokesman Brad Biles. When brought to the mock state Senate and House, both chambers voted it down. The American Legion Boys State of Kansas Leadership Academy said in a statement that the student governor's "actions were highly advised against by our staff and do not reflect the Boys State of Kansas values of respect and inclusion of all people." The American Legion Boys State of Kansas Leadership Academy apologizes for any insensitivity expressed by this unenforceable order," the statement said. "It is a teachable moment for everyone."
Massage Parlor Owner Sentenced to Probation for Conspiracy
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 54-year-old woman who operated massages parlors in Lawrence and Topeka has been sentenced to three years of federal probation. U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release that Weiling Nielsen was sentenced Wednesday for conspiracy. She pleaded guilty in February. She was ordered to pay a $650,000 judgment. She owned Naima Asian Massage and Serenity Health Spa in Lawrence, along with Jasmine Massage in Topeka. In her plea, Nielsen admitted that customers at the massage parlors could pay cash for sex. The services were advertised on the Internet. Nielsen and her husband deposited cash into various bank accounts and deposited money orders in bank accounts in California.
Man Charged in Underground Shooting Threat in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ A man accused of threatening to shoot people in an underground business complex in Kansas City is charged with making a terrorist threat. Clay County prosecutors charged 45-year-old Kevin Becknal on Wednesday. Becknal, of Orrick, Missouri, had been fired days earlier from one of the businesses at the Hunt Midwest SubTropolis, which is a massive subterranean network of businesses in old limestone mines. The Kansas City Star reports that court records say Becknal returned to the complex Tuesday and told a former co-worker to call a supervisor. He said he had 45 bullets to "shoot people around here.'' Becknal drove off about 10 minutes later but police were unaware of that, so they closed the caves and told workers to remain in their offices. Becknal was arrested later in Prairie Village, Kansas.
Pharmacist Sentenced to Probation in Medicaid Billing Scheme
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City pharmacist has been sentenced to three years of probation after he was caught in a $9.5 million Medicaid billing scheme. The Kansas City Star reports that 67-year-old Steven Baraban also agreed Tuesday to pay about $125,000 in restitution. That's in addition to the $2.2 million that he paid to resolve his role in a whistleblower suit brought by a Lenexa, Kansas, pharmacist who worked under Baraban while he was in charge of a Stark Pharmacy that rented space from Research Medical Center. Prosecutors said they agreed to a plea deal that gives Baraban no prison time because of the amount of money he has paid and because he agreed to surrender his Missouri pharmacist license. His Kansas license expires on Sunday.
Teen Pleads No Contest to Bringing Gun to Lawrence School
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A teenager has been convicted of bringing a handgun to Lawrence High School in his backpack. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that a judge convicted the teen after he pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor, juvenile charge of criminal use of a weapon. As part of the plea, a property damage charge was dismissed. Prosecutor Bryant Barton says the gun was found in the teen's backpack in February after he was sent to the office when he tossed his school-issued laptop computer at a door. The impact broke a window in the door. Records show the teen was born in 2004, making him either 14 or 15. School officials said previously that no students or staff members were threatened with the gun. The teen's sentencing is set for July 29.
Hallmark's New President and CEO Not Member of Hall Family
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Hallmark has named a 30-year veteran of the company who is not a member of the founding Hall family as its new president and CEO. The Kansas City Star reports Mike Perry's appointment is only the second time the company's board has selected a chief executive outside the Hall family since Hallmark was founded in 1910. The company's announcement said Perry's appointment would preserve the company's private ownership. Perry started at Hallmark in 1989 and was most recently president of Hallmark Greetings. Under management changes announced Wednesday, Don and Dave Hall will step aside from their current respective roles as CEO and president of Hallmark Cards Inc. Don Hall will become Hallmark's executive chairman and Dave Hall will be executive vice chairman.
Airplane Maintenance Company to Bring 450 Jobs to Salina
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — An Iowa airplane maintenance company is planning to open a facility in Salina, bringing 50 new jobs this year and up to 450 employees within three years. Officials with 1 Vision Aviation, a Sioux City, Iowa-based company, said the company does maintenance and repairs on commercial, corporate, private planes and performs other general aviation maintenance work. The Salina Journal reports the Salina Airport Authority board on June 20 approved financing for $2.6 million in repairs and improvements to an airport hangar to house 1 Vision Aviation. Another company, LifeSave Transport of Wichita, has rented a hangar at the airport to provide emergency medical transportation services to Salina and north-central Kansas. LifeSave will base 16 pilots, paramedics and flight nurses in Salina, and operations may begin as early as July 15.
Officer Charged with Helping Woman with Outstanding Warrant
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita police officer has been charged with helping a woman with an outstanding warrant avoid being located. Officer Charley Davidson, a police spokesman, said in a news release that Officer Matthew Powell was placed on unpaid administrative leave Wednesday after he was charged in Sedgwick County District Court. Powell faces one misdemeanor count of obstructing apprehension or prosecution and two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct. The release says Powell helped the woman in May, but it offered no details about what type of assistance he provided or the type of warrant the woman faced. Powell had been with the department for seven years. The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office investigated the allegations at the request of police.
4-Seat Plane Lands on Its Belly at Wichita Airport
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say no one was hurt when a pilot landed a four-seat plane on its belly at a Wichita airport. The Wichita Eagle reports that emergency crews were called around 10:15 am Tuesday after the 1966 Mooney M20C landed wheels up at Jabara Airport. The Kansas Highway Patrol said the pilot had been doing "touch and go" landings — a maneuver in which pilots land on a runway and take off again without coming to a full stop. The patrol says that after the first landing, the pilot forgot to retract his landing gear. When the pilot attempted a second landing, he thought he was extending the landing gear but was actually retracting it. The rough landing closed the runway, which will have to undergo an inspection.
Sheriff: Mom Abused Children, Tortured and Killed Pets and Made them Watch
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico woman is facing charges she beat and tortured her children and forced them to watch her kill their pets. Martha and her husband Timothy Crouch of Aztec, New Mexico, were arrested Monday. Court records show they have not been assigned public defenders yet. Documents also say they had prior complaints in Missouri, Kansas, Alaska and Montana. The investigation began after a San Juan County sheriff's deputy arrested an adult child of the Crouches on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Court documents say one daughter told authorities stories of physical and emotional abuse. She said her mother boiled puppies and poisoned a kitten as punishment. Martha Crouch was charged with child abuse and extreme cruelty to animals. Timothy Crouch is facing an obstruction charge.
Haskell University Extends Search for Next School President
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Federal officials are reopening the search for Haskell Indian Nations University president after an initial round of interviews failed to produce a strong candidate. Officials with the Bureau of Indian Education said Tuesday in Lawrence the position was reopened through Sept. 30. Agency director Tony Dearman said if the right candidate applied, he or she could be hired before September 30. The Lawrence Journal-World reports nearly 80 people applied in the first round of the search but many of them didn't have the necessary post-secondary experience. The president's job is open after several leadership changes at Haskell beginning in November 2018, when then-President Venida Chenault left for a special assignment with the BIE. The federal agency will appoint someone soon to be acting president for up to one year.
Leader of Wichita Drug Ring Gets 15 Years in Prison
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 54-year-old Wichita man who admitted he led a drug ring has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Federal prosecutors announced that Daniel Nicholson was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Nicholson admitted in his plea that he bought methamphetamine outside of Kansas and used a network of subordinates to store and distribute the drugs in Wichita. Investigators found 27 pounds of methamphetamine when they searched Nicholson's home. They also found $31,952 in cash.
More Tips Sought on 3rd Anniversary of Woman's Killing
ASSARIA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are asking for more information about the killing of a Kansas dog breeder on the third anniversary of her death. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that it's followed up on hundreds of leads in the slaying of 57-year-old Lori Heimer. She was found dead on June 25, 2016, in her home in Assaria in rural Saline County. She operated a dog breeding business there called Lori's Poodle Patch. Authorities continue to seek information from anyone who had contact with Heimer through the business in June 2016. KBI says that callers may remain anonymous.
Kansas State to Focus on Recruitment in Face of Budget Cuts
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State officials say the university is planning to increase its recruiting efforts in response to a 4% budget reduction for the upcoming year. Linda Cook is chief of staff and director of community relations at the university. She told community and Riley County representatives Monday that the university plans to invest in recruiting more students, particularly those from out of state. The Manhattan Mercury reports the university has cut its operating budget by $37 million in the last five years. Kansas State has asked for a 3.1% tuition increase for next year but the Board of Regents last week decided all state universities should keep tuition flat. Cook said the university needs to spend money on some programs that will help recruitment, which means cutbacks in other areas.
Hutchinson Zoo Gets Fundraising Support After Flooding
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — When a nonprofit group asked for donations to help the Hutchinson Zoo recover from flood damage, it hoped to raise $10,000 in a month or two. Supporters passed the goal in five days. A Facebook fundraiser organized by Friends of the Hutchinson Zoo started June 18 and passed the $10,000 goal Saturday. The Hutchinson News reports the zoo has been closed since May 21 because of flooding. The animals are safe in temporary housing but playgrounds and five buildings were damaged. Zoo director Ryan VanZant says staff hasn't been able to estimate the cost of repairs because the water that forced the zoo to close is still standing in the buildings. The Facebook fundraiser continues to accept donations and a new goal might be set when damages are calculated.
Headlines for Monday, July 15, 2019
Headlines for Sunday, July 14, 2019
Headlines for Saturday, July 13, 2019
Kansas Wheat Harvest Forecast at 330 Million Bushels
Headlines for Friday, July 12, 2019
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You are here: Home » Sermons » Guiding Light » Sunday Sermons » In A Death
In A Death
text : 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
theme verse : “Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” (1 Corinthians 15:36)
27,339. That’s the number of Starbucks in the world... for now. The world is enamored with a pricey cup of coffee, free wifi and a chance to people watch from a sidewalk patio. A new movement, albeit otherwise focused, is forming in the world of sidewalk cafes. They’recalled Death Cafés. It sounds macabre. It’s not part of the Goth culture. It’s not a fringe gaming movement for those fixated on darkness and the netherworld. A Death Café is agathering point for discussions about death. In a death-defying culture, it’s important to understand death so that we can begin to appreciate the reality of life to which death is but a portal.Isthere a guiding light to be found even in the darkness of death?
opening : 'Take My Life' (C.Tomlin arr) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader
reader : Sally Kelley
anthem : 'Joy in the Morning' (Sleeth) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director
I’m guessing all of you woke up this morning excited to get to worship today. I hope so, anyway. And I’m guessing as that smile spanned your face when you woke up and realized it’s Sunday and you get to come to church that your first thought was, “I sure hope the sermon’s about death today!” Anyone? No? That surprises me. Not really, I guess. Death’s not anyone’s favorite subject unless you’re talking zombies or sci-fi stuff or getting ready to watch Law & Order – people seem drawn to death then. But otherwise, you probably envision a number of other more uplifting topics you’d prefer to discuss this morning… like five simple tips to achieve your New Year’s Resolutions. Someone shared with me the easiest way to do that this week by sharing this
Maybe that’s how to get us to actually talk about death – discovering how to avoid it altogether. Would you believe, however, that the trend is actually moving the other direction? It’s true. They’re called Death Cafes and the movement is growing.
If you’re like me, your first thought is, “What?!!? Death Cafes? That sounds terrible.” Maybe the café part is the draw. Sidewalk cafes are all the rage any more. In 1971, a little place called Starbucks opened in Seattle. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Last I checked, there are 27,339 Starbucks in the world. They tend to open so quickly, a satirical cartoon announced that a new Starbucks was set to open in the bathroom of an existing Starbucks. We seem enamored with a pricey cup of coffee, free Wi-Fi and a chance to be around other people working, conversing, meeting, or simply walking down the sidewalk. Howard Schultz, who created Starbucks as we know it, had this vision to create a Third Place for people to gather. His thought was that most people have a home, a place of work, and then had need and room in their life for a Third Place. He was determined to create such a place. It was his version of Cheers because sometimes you wanna go?… (Where everybody knows your name). There have been plenty of church growth books that have centered around Schultz’s creation of a third place. But that’s for another day, another conversation. We get it… Starbucks has succeeded. But what is this Death Café nonsense? It sounds so morbid or at least, very dark and sad. The Death Café[1] began in England only nine years ago. It may sound like a place for the dying, but the opposite is actually the intent. It’s designed to help people make the most out of their lives through a greater awareness of death.
There are now more than 900 regular Death Café events taking place in 19 countries across the world where people simply come together and talk about heavy topics over light refreshments. I’ve learned that there’s a monthly Death Café gathering held here in our own city.[2] Every meeting begins with cake and a question: “Why are you here?” the unscripted discussion flows from that single question. The cafes are not designed to be grief support groups though it is sometimes grief of such loss that brings people to the cafes initially.
It was certainly the case for Linda Potter. In the span of four years, she lost a close aunt to brain cancer, her father to colon cancer and her nephew to drowning as the result of a seizure. She started to channel her grief through her work as a retreat coach. Her driving question? “How do you want to live, knowing you are going to die?” Linda heard about the Death Café movement on National Public Radio and she decided to lead one at her Presbyterian church in New York. She recruited participants from nearby colleges, one that offers a mortuary science major. She has cultivated quite a strong following in the past four years of starting this movement in her area. She’s been particularly amazed by the interest of Millennials. She told about one occasion where a couple college students showed up for a Café. They intended to leave at intermission but decided to stay after hearing the story of a Veteran with stage III cancer. They recognized they had much they could glean from listening to others, and sharing themselves, thoughts about death. Potter said
This sounds a lot like the Apostle Paul to me, who said in our focal passage for today, “Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” The translation of this verse by one scholar and theologian reads, “I pity the fool who thinks death is the end game.” That scholar of course none other than… Mr. T. Of course. Paul was guiding a people in a faith-filled conversation. We would do well to remember that. He’s talking about things with these folks that no one really knows anything about. He’s not teaching a science class. He’s talking faith. He’s using the best of his human limitations with words and descriptions to describe something otherworldly. It’s every preacher’s hindrance. We’re so limited. You want to know about heaven and all I can tell you is a story about playing ping pong with my brother on New Year’s Day. I actually love this humbling quote by Barbara Brown Taylor that says
I think this extends to our sense of insufficiency as witnesses of our Christian faith. We think, “I don’t know what to say about my faith. I don’t know how to influence others for Christ.” But we are… every day, all the time. How do we rise and fall? How do we handle defeat? How do we respond to suffering? Our own as well as the suffering of others? This all matters.
So… here’s Paul writing this letter of course, but let’s imagine it as though he is giving his best shot at hosting a Death Café where people are saying, “Okay… so there’s a resurrection of the body. Great. But what kind of body will it be?” It’s like people are putting in requests… “If I could, I’d prefer my resurrected body look like one of the Hemsworth Brothers or Idris Elba or whoever your body ideal is these days.” Pauly Shore. Everyone’s different. The Apostle Paul says, “No, no, no. It’s not like that. How can I say this?” He says, “I can’t draw you a diagram or show you a picture. Hmmm. There.” (and he points to a tree in the background). “Where did that tree come from?” “Lowes!” some smart aleck yells from the crowd. There’s always at least one. Undeterred, Paul says, “It started as a simple seed; something so innocent and seemingly insignificant. In fact, it serves little purpose if any until it’s planted. And when it’s planted, it dies. But it rises again, and it does so with a very different kind of body from that of which it was sown.” Despite its dissolution and difference, it is the same seed. Paul is saying the same is true of us. Though dissolved by death and changed by resurrection, the essence of our soul is the same… only now we are prepared for the new life for which we were resurrected – to bask in the presence of Christ forever. This is an other-worldly conversation about the afterlife in some ways but it no less applies to our daily living.
My homiletics professor, Rev. Dr. Dan Moseley, came to an understanding that for any spiritual growth to occur, something has to die… that death may be some level of comfort, some embedded belief from our childhood, some sacrifice of material wealth or some significant loss. Your resolution to get in better physical shape doesn’t come without a loss of calories, a shift in your day to prioritize exercise, etc. Remember, discipline is just deciding between what you want now and what you want most. Your spiritual health is the same. It’s not simply an add on. It only improves with loss and sacrifice and shift in priorities. Something has to die in order to be resurrected. Author Jonathan Martin says
“But,” we protest, “I don’t want to go through those losses to experience the gains.” I get that. Nobody sets out intentionally to “learn from their mistakes.” But it’s the falling and rising again cycle that ultimately creates a tree when we can only see the seed.
David Bayles and Ted Orland in their book Art and Fear tell the story of a ceramics teacher who divided the class into two groups – one group would be graded on how much they created in the designated time, while the other group would be graded on the quality of the one work they made. In the end, it was the “quantity” group that ended up producing the works of most quality. That surprised me at first. But here’s why they concluded such was the case. “While the ‘quantity’ group was busy churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the ‘quality’ group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” Rob Bell noted this story and said, “This isn’t true just for ceramics students.” He said, “When I’m meeting with my counselor and I use words like “mistake” or “failure” or “waste,” he stops me. He then reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a sign and holds it up so I can read it – again. “The God who wastes nothing.” Bell adds, “Now it’s absolutely necessary for us to own and name and claim and make amends for our failures and mistakes and sins and wrongs where others are concerned. But to stop there is tragic. It isn’t just a failure, a mistake, a sin, a wrong… it’s also an opportunity… to grow, expand, evolve, learn.”[3] Paul seems to be saying the same thing about death and seeds. Do you see the seeds in your pocket as simply idle seeds or do you think to yourself, “I’ve got a pocket full of trees.” If we don’t plant the seeds, we’ll never know.
Paul of course is focused on this resurrection body. He suggests that in life there is an ongoing progression or development. In the earthly life, we are one with Adam – which literally translates “human.” We have the aches and pains and death associated with these flawed and limited shells of ours. But in Christ, we become one with him… a spiritual body that shares in his eternal life… in his very being. Paul says simply of this death and resurrection, “It will be stunning.” There is a hope in this narrative that our decaying and disjointed and broken-down vessels will be renewed in such a freeing way. But we’re created to have life and life abundantly now. And it’s a new year and you’re dreaming big about all 2019 can be. How can death be a guiding light? A healthy approach to death always prompts a greater sense of what our lives can be.
Art and Chip Sansom have a comic strip that I’m not really all that familiar with called “The Born Loser.” I did see this one, however, that shows a mother leaning over the back of her husband’s chair, where he rests with his young son sitting on his lap. “Have you ever had a near-death experience, Pop?” asks the son. “Can’t say I have, my boy,” replied the father. Whereupon the mother intrudes: “The question is, has he ever had a near-life experience?” This is what we’re after, yes? We want to live now. We want to be “in Christ” now… alive… active in the kingdom work of God now, not just in heaven. To do so will take courage and great intention. It will help us to get a grip on death… not fear it but keep it all in healthy perspective. Given that research suggests the death rate of humans is still hovering right at 100%, we’re all going to face it. The Death Café movement is saying, “In the face of that reality, how will you live?” Sometimes, it helps to notice the people around you who have gone through significant changes in their lives who seem to have an energy and vitality for living. Call them. Set up a time to get together. Ask them to tell you about their losses. They are generally gracious to speak about them… and often can bring care and healing to them even as they help the rest of us keep loss and change, transition and even death in its most helpful place of perspective.
When musician Warren Zevon appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman shortly after finding out he had cancer, Letterman asked him, “From your perspective, do you know something about life… that maybe I don’t know?” Zevon answered, “I know how much you’re supposed to enjoy every sandwich.” There is something in your life right now… something you’re struggling with, wrestling with, concerned about, maybe down right fearful of. How can getting some perspective on that very matter, grant you a new opportunity to see it as a seed… one day producing something bigger and greater than you can possibly see from this vantage point? How can talking about those matters… even the fear of death itself… bring about a new possibility for life? Jon Underwood, the British Web Designer and self-named “Death Entrepreneur” who started the Death Café phenomenon along with his mother, a psychotherapist who helped facilitate says, “When people sit down to talk about death, the pretense kind of falls away, and people talk very openly and authentically. And… they say things in front of strangers which are really profound and beautiful.”
How will you commit to doing that this year? It may come with our willingness to talk about our hopes and fears; to get a perspective of death that doesn’t keep us from living our lives in Christ that puts out hope and joy and potential into the world. Paul closes this Death Café he’s hosting by saying, “It all boils down to this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Our physical bodies are only intended to carry us so far as they kindly, or not so kindly, remind us of on a regular basis. Our spirits, however, are getting prepared for an other-worldly reality. Our intentionality around that preparation may make a world of difference in the perspective and joy we can appreciate and experience in the here and now so that even, in a death, we can claim the guiding light of Christ as our next move forward. Sow the seeds. There are beautiful trees just waiting to be planted.
So… if someone asks you later today about what the sermon was about, what will you say? Was it about death or was it about life? Well… it’s a matter of perspective and, as always, I guess that’s up to you.
[1] The primary source of Death Café information shared throughout this message came from the following work: Newquist, Gusti Linnea. “The Death Café phenomenon: Millennials are dying to talk about dying.” Presbyterians Today, April/May 2018, 22-23. A second source can be found here: https://www.npr.org/2013/03/08/173808940/death-cafes-breathe-life-into-conversations-about-dying
[2] https://www.thegriefcenter.org/services/death-cafe/
[3] The story about Bayles and Orland’s experiment with ceramic students and Bell’s follow up come from “Drops Like Stars.” Rob Bell. Pg. 112-113. HarperOne Publishing. New York. 2009.[4] From Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly.
in Guiding Light, Sunday Sermons /by Courtney Richards
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SciFi Weekend: Legion Premier; The Magicians; First Look At Klingons On Star Trek Discovery; Stranger Things; Travelers Renewed & Other Renewals; Supergirl/Flash Cross Over; Missy Returning To Doctor Who
February 12, 2017 — Ron Chusid
The major genre event of the week was the much anticipated premier of Legion. After watching the pilot, I would say it is worthy of the hype. If it can maintain this quality, it would rank with Jessica Jones, and possibly surpass it as the best superhero show ever. Created by Noah Hawley of Fargo, the show will also hopefully receive a cross over base of fans from those who watch quality television, even if they have not watched superhero shows in the past.
Syfy Wire interviewed Noah Hawley. Here is a portion of the interview:
In a recent conference call interview, Hawley says FX’s John Landgraf was all-in with approaching the show from left field. “The only reason to take on the genre on FX is if we felt we could make a FX show out of it,” Hawley details. “They are hardwired to look for a different way to tell a story. I think the love story [between David and Syd (Rachel Keller)] is also very grounding. When you have a character who doesn’t know what is real or not real, and the audience is on the journey with him, if you give them something positive to root for, they will make you a trade. As long as the girl is real and the love is real, we’ll go where you want to go.”
At the Television Critic’s Association Winter tour, we talked more with Hawley about how closely he hewed to the Marvel X-Men universe when crafting the series, the aesthetic of the series and how he narratively framed the eight-hour first season.
Legion has a very distinct, retro, out-of-place vibe to it. Why go with a vague visual setting for the series?
These latest X-Men movies take place in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, so there is a period-ness to the movies. By hiding the period [in the series], the question is more open-ended and it allows us to prove ourselves and stand on our own two feet. With the first year of Fargo, for the first three hours there was no connection to the movie at all so the audience felt it was working on its own. Then in the fourth hour, we introduced the money from the movie and suddenly it was connected. But by that point we had earned the right to be judged on our own merits.
Was there any burden to look to Marvel comic or even recent X-Men film mythology to construct this series around?
I suppose I have. There’s nothing on a white board with a lot of squiggly lines. For me, the show isn’t an information delivery device, right? It’s an experience delivery device. There is information in there that can often be separated from its meaning. You’re seeing things that are important because [David] is seeing them, but you don’t necessarily understand what they mean yet. It creates something that is a little surreal, which isn’t something that TV normally does, since Twin Peaks or Hannibal. There’s information that you will understand down the line, but right now what’s important is the experience of being in his mind…
Do you apply any of the ‘rules’ of the universe?
We obviously had a conversation based on the movies, where in the second-to-last movie mutants became public knowledge. Our idea is that they are not public knowledge. So it was a lot about where are we and how do we play with those rules. The other thing X-Men has is a lot of alternate universes. I’m not saying [the show is] one of those. I’m saying the rules are flexible enough that I can place the show and say, “Just watch it. Experience it and then we’ll talk.”
What’s been freeing about writing a genre show?
What I always got from the genre is a sense of wonder, and the inventiveness. If you look at the remake of Battlestar Galactica, there was the idea that the robots were religious, which was a such a fascinating idea. To say on an existential level, what is it really like to be these people [in Legion]? This idea that David, in the comics, has a multiple personality disorder, which is not something we are literally doing this year, but you are seeing facets of things that make you wonder, as in The Wizard of Oz, like a little bit of you were there, and you were there, and you were there, and they are all parts of him in some level…
How did you construct the series, as in will there be a cliffhanger to end the season like the comics or films might do, or is this self-contained storytelling?
It ends a chapter. Even though it’s a recurring series, and not a limited series, there is a beginning, middle and end to the first season, and there would be to the second season as well. I think it’s important to think of them in that way.
The Magicians also had some major events last week, with the third episode of the season feeling more like a season finale than an early season episode. (Spoilers ahead). Among the major changes, it does appear that Alice is at least a niffon, and probably dead. Fortunately in a genre show such as this, death may not be permanent, and characters might be seen even after death. Screener tried to find out what will happen with Alice from the cast:
Everyone give a warm welcome to Niffin Alice. Knowing that his girlfriend is essentially gone (niffins don’t have those pesky consciences, or even souls really) Quentin makes the impossible choice to set his keiko demon on her to make sure she isn’t set loose on Fillory.
Naturally, we asked the cast whether we should really accept that Alice is dead and gone. Jason Ralph’s answer was at least a little encouraging, since apparently Alice & Quentin might not be totally done with each other yet.
“The evolution of that relationship continues throughout the season,” Ralph teases. “So in some way, she’s around.”
It sounds like even though Alice is dead, we might be seeing a little more of her through flashbacks, visions, or even as a ghost. At least we can take heart knowing that we’ll see some version of her from here on out.
E! News interviewed Olivia Taylor Dudley:
E! News: At what point did you know we were saying goodbye to Alice this season?
Dudley: I knew eventually Alice was going to die, because I mean I read the books, and it happens in the books. I didn’t know going into the series when it would happen, and neither did John [McNamara] and Sera [Gamble], our showrunners. We talked about it and knew it wasn’t going to happen in the first season, so I assumed it was going to happen in the second season, but didn’t know until we got up to Vancouver and started shooting that we had the conversation that it was going to be in the third episode. And I think it’s so important to the story, and it’s a huge part of Quentin’s journey from here on out, and the heartbreak of that, so I knew that it was important. As much as I didn’t want it to happen, I was excited to get a chance to have that moment, because it was my favorite part in the books when Alice battles the beast and dies.
It was such a cool moment at the end of last season when Quentin realized Alice was really the “chosen one” who needed to kill the Beast. Did that have a big impact on you, especially knowing it was leading to this heroic death?
That’s very exciting to get to play that. In that scene, when Quentin says you’re the hero, you’re the one, I think it’s really hard for Alice to digest. For me, it was so exciting to get to play the hero at the end, and you know, Alice has so many issues and it takes a really long time for any of them to have any kind of growth on the show, but under the surface, I think that it’s hard for her to swallow that she’s the one, she’s the chosen one. I love that in books and movies, like Lord of the Rings. I loved that character that gets to be the chosen one whether or not they wanted to. She wasn’t seeking this in her life, and to get it thrust upon her and force her to be great is, I think, really beautiful.
She also confirms that Alice will be back, in some form:
“That version of Alice that we’ve been with for the last season and a bit is gone forever. You can’t bring her back, and there’s no cheap tricks on bringing her back,” Dudley says. “So I get to disappear for a while, and there is a version of Alice that fans will get to see in one shape or another. I got to go on a separate journey with her and with this character later on in the season. I’m excited for people to see that. But it is heartbreaking, because I fell so in love with Alice and had such a wonderful time playing her, so getting to not play that person anymore is really sad.”
The Verge took a look at the entire series in an article entitled, The Magicians builds a better fantasy show by bringing realism to magic.
With Star Trek: Discovery taking place before The Original Show, there has been speculation as to whether the Klingons will return to their original look or have the ridges as on later series. We got the first answer in the picture above.
The cast of Stranger Things is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, with some hints as to what happens next season.
Showcase has renewed Travelers for a second season, with it to also be available in the United States on Netflix. Netflix has also renewed The OA and Love.
Set photos suggest that the Supergirl/Flash musical cross over episode will take place in the 1940’s.
The BBC has confirmed that Missy will be returning on series 10 of Doctor Who.
The fifth and final season of Orphan Black will premiere on June 10.
Sarah Shahi of Person of Interest will be appearing in another genre show, Reverie. The NBC thriller deals with virtual reality.
We might need a show as absurd as Veep to make any sense out of the Trump White House. Fortunately the show will be returning on April 16.
Richard Hatch, who stared in the original Battlestar Galactica and also had a role in the remake, died last week of pancreatic cancer.
Al Jarreau died earlier today:
Al Jarreau, a Grammy Award-winning singer whose versatile tenor voice and vibrant stage style blurred the lines between jazz, soul and pop music, died Feb. 12 at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 76.
His publicist, Joe Gordon, announced the death, saying the singer had been treated for exhaustion, after announcing his retirement from touring last week. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Mr. Jarreau was loosely classified as a jazz singer, but his eclectic style was entirely his own, polished through years of obscure apprenticeship in lonely nightclubs. He did not release his first album until 1975, when he was 35, but within two years, he had won the first of his seven Grammy Awards and had begun to attract a wide following.
Posted in Science Fiction, Television. Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Donald Trump, Fargo, Hannibal, Jessica Jones, Legion, Love, Noah Hawley, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Orphan Black, Person of Interest, Reverie, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Trek Discovery, Stranger Things, Supergirl, The Flash, The Magicians, The OA, Twin Peaks, Veep, X-Men. No Comments »
SciFi Weekend: Top Twenty New Shows Of 2016; Mary Tyler Moore and John Hurt Die; Genre Novels In The Age Of Trump; Riverdale Premieres
January 29, 2017 — Ron Chusid
With over four hundred scripted shows (expected to surpass 500 in 2017) it is probably impossible for any one person to fairly rank the best of any season. Even many professional television critics, who don’t have another day job interfering, have said how difficult it is to watch all the shows to do their end of year rankings. To make it more manageable, and to get around problems of listing the same top shows every year, I have limited this to the best new shows every season. Last year’s list is here and the top new shows of 2014 were listed here.
It got even harder this year with so many new streaming shows, some not dropping until December. In order to include more shows, I waited until the end of January to post the list. As usual, there are shows which I have heard very good things about which I have not watched at all. I put in a couple of shows towards the end of the list which I only watched parts of the season, and might rank them higher if I were to watch more. Also, as usual, it is very difficult to compare shows from different genre’s, or shows watched months apart. If you disagree with some of the rankings, it is very likely I also might agree and rank them differently if I were to do this on a different day. The real point of lists such as this is to point out shows which were worth watching.
Top 20 New Shows Of 2016
20. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (CW Network)
If based upon the premiere of the show in early 2016, this show would not have made the list, however it was much better when it returned for a second season in the fall. If you gave up on it last year, as I almost did, it is worth another look.
19. Class (BBC)
A Doctor Who spinoff aimed at an older audience than TheMary Jane Adventures. Torchwood (in its early years) remains the only spinoff I consider must see, but fans should find this enjoyable. It aired in the UK last fall, and will be shown in the U.S. this spring after Doctor Who. While I understand the decision in the U.S., I personally found it to be of more value as a fall show to fill the gap when, besides the Christmas episode, there was no true Doctor Who.
18. Fleabag (Amazon Prime)
I wasn’t as in love with this show as the critics, but if you have Amazon Prime, it is well worth checking it out and deciding for yourself. The entire season is only about three hours, making it essentially a long movie. There is a definite payoff to some of the events of the season in the finale.
17. Atlanta (FX)
Another show which many would probably rank higher. I started watching when it premiered, but then it got forgotten in September because of a combination of being busy with personal matters and the premiers of all the fall shows. It very could rank higher after I see more.
16. Dirk Gentry’s Holistic Detective Agency (BBC America)
A fun and very quirky genre show which, by the end, definitely qualifies as science fiction.
15. Billions (Showtime)
An entertaining cable series. It’s most important benefit was to give Damian Lewis somewhere else to go to make sure they didn’t get desperate and try to bring him back to life on Homeland.
14. Speechless (ABC)
A few years ago it looked like network sitcoms were on the verge of death, beyond The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family. ABC has managed to continue to make worthwhile sitcoms with the Modern Family formula, including Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat, and now Speechless.
13. Goliath (Amazon Prime)
Billy Bob Thorton makes what could have been a run of the mill lawyer show well worth watching
12. The Crown (Netflix)
A young queen ascends to the thrown in a high budget presentation. She receives advice from the prime minister and is married to a foreigner played by Matt Smith, who adds a bit of whimsy to the show.
11. Victoria (ITV and PBS)
A young queen ascends to the thrown in a not-so-high budget presentation. She receives advice from the prime minister and is married to a foreigner. This also has strong connections to the Doctor Who world including Victoria being played by Jenna Coleman, with supporting cast including Eve Myles from Torchwood. It doesn’t have the budget of The Crown, but in deciding upon the ranking I deferred to my wife’s opinion. This aired in the UK last fall and recently started airing in the United States on PBS.
10. Luke Cage (Netflix)
The latest introduction of a Marvel character on Netflix. It could not meet the extremely high bar set last year by Jessica Jones, but was better than the second season of Daredevil.
9. The Magicians (Syfy)
Much more than an adult Harry Potter, but that would make a starting point to explain what this series is about. Yes, it did technically have an advanced showing of the pilot in 2015, but I’ll still consider this to essentially be a 2016 series. I watched the uncut episodes later in the year, and the editing for television on the premier episode of the second season last week was noticeable.
8. The Good Place (NBC)
A sitcom which has a continuing story, a genre element, discusses philosophy, plus has Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. Extra points for having one of the best plot twists on television in recent years.
7. This Is Us (NBC)
I thought that quality drama was dead on NBC with the ending of Parenthood, but this fills the gap. It had a fairly good twist of its own in the pilot but, unlike in The Good Place, I saw this one coming. The bigger surprise was that Mandy Moore could do such a good job acting. Sure it is full of old television cliches and spends most episodes tugging at the heart strings, but it does a good job of it.
6. 11.22.63 (Hulu)
Received mixed views but I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of the Stephen King time travel novel. (No comparison between this and the messed up adaptation of Under the Dome). More on the show here.
5. Travelers (Showcase and Netflix)
Another low budget Canadian science fiction series filmed in Vancouver. This one is well-written and highly recommended, plus now easily available in the US on Netflix. The premise is that travelers from the future send their consciousness back to our present to prevent an apocalyptic future, taking over the bodies of people at the time of their recorded death. (I was hoping that something like this would happen on January 20.) Besides having to attend to their mission, the travelers have to cope with the lives they took over–and sometimes their information was a bit off.
4. The Night Of (HBO)
A great self-contained story which shows both problems in the criminal justice system and xenophobia.
3. The Night Manager (BBC and AMC)
An excellent adaptation of the John le Carré novel. It was such a success that BBC and AMC are planning a second adaptation.
2. Stranger Things (Netflix)
The surprise hit from last summer. The series, with explanations of the finale, was discussed here.
1. West World (HBO)
The most discussed new show of the season, with mainstream critics also falling for this science fiction series. I looked at the show at various times, with a discussion of the season finale here.
There are also shows which might make the list which I did not see. I didn’t see any point in rehashing the O.J. Simpson story, but note that The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX) has received considerable critical acclaim. Many other shows, including genre dramas such as The OA (Netflix) and comedies such as One Mississippi (Amazon Prime) are also recommended by many people.
In past years I have found shows which I did not see when new, but saw them in subsequent years and thought they deserved to be in my rankings. This year I caught up on season one and two of Dark Matter (Syfy) and loved the show. I then tried Killjoys (Syfy) and didn’t get into it. I only watched the first episode, which might not be enough to judge it. I also thought that perhaps I was expecting Dark Matter and it might be better to watch some other shows before trying it again so I could judge it on its own merit.
It is notable that, once again, cable (both basic and premium), British imports, and especially streaming, dominate the list, with very little from the major American networks.
2016 ended with the loss of one beloved actress, Carrie Fisher, and began with the loss of another, Mary Tyler Moore. Later in the week, John Hurt died. While he is more famous for other roles, among science fiction fans he might be best remembered as the War Doctor for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary.
The past two weekends also were dominated by protests against Donald Trump. Earlier this week I looked at one good thing to come from Trump’s election–people are talking about books. This includes the classic 1984, as well as two other novels in which populist authoritarians became president. Even Doctor Who has been cited in discussion of the alternative facts coming from the Trump administration.
This week included the return of several genre shows, as well as the premiere of The CW’s reimagination of Archie comics, Riverdale. After watching Riverdale, I have three questions:
1) Who killed Jason Blossom?
2) What real teen talks about Truman Capote and about Mad Men by season?
3) And the old classic question, Betty or Veronica?
Posted in Civil Liberties, Donald Trump, Science Fiction, Television. Tags: 11/22/63, Atlanta, Billions, Black-ish, Clara Oswald, Class, Daredevil, Dark Matter, Day of the Doctor, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Donald Trump, Eve Myles, Fleabag, Fresh Off The Boat, George Orwell, Goliath, Harry Potter, Homeland, Jessica Jones, John Hurt, Killjoys, Kristen Bell, Legends of Tomorrow, Luke Cage, Matt Smith, Modern Family, Parenthood, Riverdale, Science Fiction, Speechless, Stephen King, Stranger Things, The Big Bang Theory, The Crown, The Good Place, The Magicians, The Night Manager, The Night Of, The OA, This Is Us, Torchwood, Travelers, Under The Dome, Victoria, Westworld. No Comments »
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M » Encyclopedia » Index » Integral_momentum_equation
Integral momentum equation
Newton’s second law states that, in an inertial reference frame, the time rate of momentum change of a fixed mass system is equal to the net force acting on the system, and it takes place in the direction of the net force. Mathematically, Newton’s second law of motion for fixed-mass in a reference frame that moves at a constant velocity Vref is written as
where the left-hand side is the net force vector acting on the fixed-mass system, and the right-hand side is the rate of momentum change.
For control volumes that contain only one phase, the integral form of Newton’s second law can be obtained by using eq.
from Transformation formula.
With the applicable value of Φ and φ defined as and , one obtains
which is in the vector form and is valid in all three directions.
Forces acting on the control volume include body forces and contact forces that act on its surface. For example, for a multicomponent system that contains N components, if the body force per unit volume acting on the ith species is Xi, the total body force acting on the control volume is , where ρi is the mass concentration (kg/m3) of the ith species. If the body force per unit mass is the same for different species (as is the case with gravity), the body force term is reduced to where ρ is the density of the mixture. The stress tensor acts on the surface of a fluid control volume, and includes both normal and shear stresses. The net force may be written as
where is the total stress tensor and n is the local normal unit vector on surface A. The dot product of a tensor of rank two, , and a vector, n, is a vector that represents the force acting on the surface of the control volume per unit area. Combining eqs. (2) and (3), we obtain the momentum equation for the control volume of a single-phase system:
where the two terms on the left-hand side represent, respectively, the body force and stress on the control volume, and the two terms on the right-hand side represent, respectively, the rate of momentum change in the control volume and the rate of the momentum flow into or out of the control volume. Vrel is the bulk velocity of the mixture that contains N components.
When the control volume includes multiple phases, integrations must be performed for each subvolume. In that case, the momentum equation becomes (Faghri and Zhang, 2006)
Equations (4) and (5) are momentum equations in a coordinate system that is attached to and moves with an inertial reference frame. For a fixed coordinate system that does not move with the reference frame (while the control volume still moves with the reference frame at velocity Vref), one can substitute the general variables and to obtain the momentum equation.
Faghri, A., and Zhang, Y., 2006, Transport Phenomena in Multiphase Systems, Burlington, MA.
Faghri, A., Zhang, Y., and Howell, J. R., 2010, Advanced Heat and Mass Transfer, Global Digital Press, Columbia, MO.
Retrieved from "http://m.thermalfluidscentral.org/encyclopedia/index.php/Integral_momentum_equation"
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Jacob Lawrence, Street Orator's Audience (1936)
July 29, 2003:
Ordinarily, the President would have addressed a Joint Session of Congress, televised in Prime Time. Congress however hadn't been included on the passenger list, which was not normally a regret of the President's. In this case the assembled people would have to do, minus, of course, Gilligan and Mary Ann, who remained incarcerated in New Camp X-Ray.
Fellow Americans.
In the normal course of events, Presidents report to you on the state of the Nation. Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been delivered by yourselves, the American people.
We have seen it in the courage of passers-by, who rushed terrorists to protect our way of life. We have seen it in the endurance of our citizens, inconvenienced but not defeated by terrorist blackmail. My fellow citizens, in the days since the onset of this terrible terrorist assault we have seen for ourselves the state of our Nation — and it is strong. (Applause.)
Tonight we are a country awakened to danger, and called to defend freedom. Our shock has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. (Applause.)
In launching this strike, enemies of economic freedom committed an act of war against our way of life. At the end of that day night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.
Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking, who are these people, who attacked our livelihoods? Who attacked our enterprise, our goods, our property, our futures? The evidence we have gathered all points to a pair of individuals, loosely affiliated with each other, loyal to a heinous and backward-looking ideology.
Associations of special interests — I will not utter the despicable "U" word (applause) — are to economic terrorism what the mafia is to crime. But the goal of this movement is not making money; its goal is remaking the world — and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.
These economic terrorists practice a fringe of labor extremism that has been rejected by responsible labor leaders for generations. We have one of the most responsible of those leaders with us here tonight. You all know my Butler, Tony. (Applause. Tony stands in the audience, waiving.) I hope you'll all have the chance to be serviced by Tony as expertly as I have been. (Applause.)
These economic terrorists practice a fringe of labor extremism that perverts the peaceful ideals of bread-and-butter economism. The special interests' directive commands them to blackmail all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.
Before the end of the world, the group and its leader — a person named Karl Marx — were linked to many organizations in different countries, including many of the so-called "labor parties" in Europe and elsewhere. There were thousands of these economic terrorists in countries around the globe. They were recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like this island, where they were trained in the tactics of terror. They were sent back to their homes or sent to hide in obscure corners, to plot evil and destruction.
We have experienced the results. America's people have been brutalized. Many are hungry, for there are none to prepare meals for them. Many are dirty, for there are none to clean their homes, and their clothes, and their streets. Many are tired, for they are unused to the rigors of demanding physical labor. All are threatened in their livelihoods, their property, and their freedom.
Tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the terrorists. Return to work. Pledge never to organize again in this radical and heinous way. Agree never to use the evil "U" word again. (Applause.)
These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. (Applause.) The blackmailers must act, and act immediately. They must end their illegal and immoral association, or face the most prejudicial consequences. (Applause.)
Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this village. They hate our freedoms — our freedom to own property, to accumulate wealth, to make decisions without bureaucracy and red tape and government interference. (Applause.) They hate our steadfast championship of the little guy, of Joe Main Street. They hate our opposition to inheritance taxes and dividend taxes and all the other manifestations of immoral, socialistic redistribution of wealth. They hate us because they are selfish. They value their petty special interests over the common weal and collective welfare. They hate us because they are evil, and they hate us because we are good. (Applause.)
Our nation has been put on notice: we are not immune from blackmail. We will take defensive measures against economic terrorism to protect enterprise-loving Americans. Tonight I announce the full suspension of habeas corpus, already implicit in our pre-end-of-the-world policies. (Applause.) Tonight Americans can rest assured that this administration will arrest anyone it deems threatening, and hold them forever, without counsel, without end, without identifying them, telling no-one we have them, for as long as we choose. (Applause.)
Tonight, the future of civilization hangs in the balance. We choose freedom. (Applause.)
Tonight, we are not content to defend our liberties. We take the war home to the terrorists. (Applause.) Tonight I have asked our four distinguished Supreme Court Justices for an injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act prohibiting further association or action or meeting or discussion by the terrorists of anything at all. (Applause.) And I assure you, we'll keep them under lock and key, night and day, for as long as it takes them to learn the error of selfishness. (Applause.)
Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom — the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time — now depends on us. Our nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. (Applause.)
In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America.
(Prolonged applause.)
Turd Blossom was pleased with the speech. Potty Mouth's softening poll numbers would hold for a few more days. But Turd Blossom was worried, for he understood clearly the one fact this rhetorical smoke-and-mirrors was designed to obscure. The terrorists were winning.
Go back to the July TOC
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Home / Sports / MC football pummels Poway
MC football pummels Poway
Danielle Ledgerwood October 23, 2014 Sports Leave a comment 731 Views
Marianna Mcmurdock | Photographer
After coming off of a four game winning streak, the boys football team suffered a tough loss to the Ramona Bulldogs on Oct. 10th. The Sundevils scored a solid 13 points, while Ramona overtook them with an overwhelming 49.
“Once they started scoring a lot, we kind of gave up on ourselves,” senior Jaylen Jones said. “We started to quit because we didn’t think we could come back.”
However, there may have been outside obstacles that interfered with the focus of the squad.
“We had a few distractions off the field,” junior Daniel Gonzalez said. “We didn’t have a correct mindset. They were ready to play, and we didn’t really play hard. They took advantage of that and beat us. Badly.”
After losing the first game in five weeks, the varsity squad turned it around on the practice field in order to prepare to face the Titans on Oct. 17 at home.
“We worked harder in practice, and worked harder in the weight room,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like we were a little more motivated to beat Poway, because they’re closer, and there’s a bigger rivalry.”
The effort in practice seemed to pay off in the game, as the Sundevils defeated the Titans 24-14, a margin of 10 points.
“We played really good in the first half,” Jones said. “We started to get a little cocky in the third quarter, but we came back and finished strong.”
They held a 21-0 lead at halftime, a rare occurrence, considering they seemed to be a second half team in the previous weeks. However, they started to slip up in the beginning of the second half, and by the end of the third quarter, it was 21-14, and Poway trailed by a mere touchdown. Even though it seemed too close for comfort, the defense held them in the fourth quarter, and a field goal toward the end of the game gave the Sundevils a 24-14 victory.
“We changed around some of our defensive schemes after they started scoring,” Gonzalez said. “We stepped up our game, because we kinda let our foot off the gas a little bit, but we stuck it back to them and it worked. Both teams fought it out, and we came out on top.”
The intense practice will continue this week, as the Sundevils physically and mentally prepare to face Rancho Bernardo in our home stadium this week.
“I think it’s gonna be a tough game,” Gonzalez said. “They have good coaches and good players, but so do we. Both teams have to play hard all game, and it’s going to come down to who works harder in the fourth quarter.”
In addition to RB’s tough offense, the upperclassmen are also going to have to get through the emotional obstacle lingering off the field.
“It’s gonna be a big game for the seniors especially,” Gonzalez said, “because it could possibly be their last game in Sundevil stadium.”
Danielle Ledgerwood
About Danielle Ledgerwood
Danielle has been a staff writer for the MC Sun since her sophomore year. She plays volleyball, goes hiking, watches movies, and enjoys long walks on the beach.
Previous Volleyball’s big jump
Next Review: DigiPill A-
From the page to the screen: Jessica Jones
MC Welcomes New Exchange Student
Girls golf uses teamwork as success in their season
Play hard, play smart, play together
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Bass v. Berryhill
United States District Court, D. Minnesota
Dianna Bass, Plaintiff,
Nancy Berryhill, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant.
Edward Olson and Karl Osterhout, for Plaintiff.
Ann Bildtsen, Assistant United States Attorney, for Defendant.
FRANKLIN L. NOEL UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Plaintiff Dianna Bass seeks judicial review of the final decision of the Acting Commissioner (“Commissioner”) of the Social Security Administration (“SSA”), who denied her application for disability insurance benefits (“DIB”) and supplemental security income (“SSI”) under Title II and Title XIV of the Social Security Act. This Court has jurisdiction over Plaintiff's claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 405(g) and 1383(c)(3), 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), and Rule 73 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The parties have submitted cross motions for summary judgement. See ECF Nos. 12 and 15. For the reasons set forth below, the Commissioner's decision is AFFIRMED and the case is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.
I. INTRODUCTION [1]
A. Background
On October 28, 2000, Bass fell from a ladder while cleaning gutters. Administrative Record [hereinafter “AR”] 851, ECF No. 11. This case stems from the multiple head injuries Bass sustained attendant to that accident, and her subsequent challenges in securing and maintaining competitive employment in light of those injuries. See generally ECF No. 1.
On November 22, 2013, Bass applied for DIB and SSI. AR 10. Bass alleges that her disability began on January 1, 2010. Id. Bass was fifty-two years-old when she applied for DIB and SSI. AR 24. Bass' applications for DIB and SSI were denied initially on March 17, 2014, and on reconsideration on October 29, 2014. Id.; AR 77-90; 142-143.
On November 13, 2015, an administrative hearing was held before Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) Peter Kimball. AR 32-76. At the hearing, Bass testified and was represented by a claimant advocate, Bart Painter. AR 34. Steve Bosch, a vocational expert (“VE”), and Dr. Mary Stevens, a neutral medical expert, also testified at the hearing. Id. On December 11, 2015, the ALJ denied Bass' applications for DIB and SSI, and found that Bass was not disabled. AR 10- 26.
On October 19, 2016, the SSA Appeals Council denied Bass' request for review, rendering the ALJ's decision final for purposes of judicial review. AR 1-3; see 20 C.F.R. § 404.981. On December 15, 2016, Bass commenced this civil action, seeking an award of benefits, or alternatively, reversal and remand for further proceedings. ECF No. 1 at 2.
B. The ALJ's Decision
In determining that Bass was not disabled, the ALJ followed the five-step sequential process established by the SSA. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1520(a)(4).
The first step in the sequential evaluation is to evaluate the claimant's work history to determine if they are engaged in substantial gainful activity. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.15071 and 416.971. If the claimant has performed substantial work activity then they are not disabled. Id. At step one, the ALJ found that although Bass had worked part-time, she had not engaged in substantial work activity since her alleged disability onset date. AR 15.
The second step in the sequential evaluation is to determine whether the claimant has a severe, medically-determinable impairment, or combination of impairments, that significantly limits an individual's ability to perform basic work activities. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1520(c) and 416.920(c). At step two, the ALJ found that Bass had the following severe impairments: history of a traumatic brain injury secondary ...
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Sara Mika was born in Johnson City, NY. She was raised in and around the nearby city of Binghamton, NY where she encountered her earliest artistic influence, her grandfather Armondo Dellasanta, dubbed Binghamton's Van Gogh. A dedicated artist and the son of Italian immigrants, Dellasanta demonstrated not only a love of fine art, but the act of making it relentlessly and Mika's formative years were witness to this devotion.
Mika earned a Valedictorian Scholarship and studied the liberal arts with concentrations in fine art and art education at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. She graduated summa cum laude in 2001, receiving the Faculty Award for Achievement in Fine Art. During her years at Lycoming, Mika worked as a student gallery assistant for the art department. It was here, while installing an exhibit entitled "The Lucky Tomato Pincushion Project", that she first experienced work by renowned art quilters such as Susan Shie, Wendy Huhn, and Jane Burch Cochran. Mika attended a lecture and slide presentation by Burch Cochran and was amazed to discover that art quilts are not traditional craft pieces, but works of contemporary fine art implementing the principles and elements of design to amazing effect. She was hooked.
Upon graduation, Mika settled near Bloomsburg, PA where she has since worked as an independent fiber artist under the moniker Mock Pie Studio. Her techniques involving textile paint, needle, and thread are entirely self-taught, although she draws heavily on her formal education in terms of composition and design.
Mika has found acceptance of her bold artistic vision difficult in her small rural town, yet she persists, remaining true to her raw inner voice. Her themes involve human sexuality, reproduction, body image, and love. Wit, sarcasm, and humor are often utilized to express her unique perception of her surroundings. She believes there is contemplative worth in the seemingly commonplace and uses her work to spark conversation. With an illustrative quality reminiscent of children's books, Mika employs bright colors to create typically small format art quilts that she coins "art with heart".
Mika's work has been included in several publications including Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth Paper Scissors Studios and her work as been seen in both local and national exhibits. Large scale installations of her work can be viewed at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA and Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA. She currently resides in Catawissa, PA with her husband, Ryan, and twins Ellen Faye and Ethan Finn.
Sara Mika can be reached at:
Mock Pie Studio
Catawissa, PA 17820
Email: mockpiestudio@hotmail.com
Web: www.mockpiestudio.com
Etsy: www.mockpiestudio.etsy.com
Blog: www.mockpiestudio.blogspot.com
Sara Mika
Catawissa, Pennsylvania, United States
"Mock Pie" is my interpretation of the art quilt as an artistic medium and, much like the tasty confection, my work is comprised of three different layers. Two outer "crusts" form a shell which holds a melding of my heart, soul, and creativity at its core. Oh, the sweet possibilities! My quilts are the "Mock Pie" in Mock Pie Studio. Love me. Love my pie.
Home Sweet Home...
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Art Kandy
David & Deb Stabley
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Standard Solar Updates Its Commitment To Innovation In Solar Photovoltaics
- 5th August 2015
- in Energy Grid, Grid Optimization, PV Modules
Standard Solar, a leading solar energy company specializing in the development and financing of solar electric systems nationwide, today announced significant progress on its second Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitment. In 2013, the company committed to partnering with innovative companies to develop and demonstrate new products and technologies that enhance markets, reduce costs, and/or promote new revenue streams for solar photovoltaics (PV). Over the past two years, Standard Solar has pushed progress through solar microgrid development, cost reductions in residential PV systems and utilizing a smart grid to improve grid reliability. ClicktoTweet
CGI is an initiative of the Clinton Foundation that calls on global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
As its initial project under this second commitment, Standard Solar worked with SolarGrid Storage (recently acquired by SunEdison, Inc.), to create one of the nation’s first commercial solar microgrids at Konterra Realty, located in Maryland. In addition to providing an environmentally friendly, indigenous source of power, this system has unique features that benefit the electricity grid and provide a continuous power source even when sunlight is unavailable.
“The Konterra project brought together a diverse set of stakeholders in support of a true game changer for the solar industry,” said Tony Clifford, Standard Solar CEO. “Although projects of this type aren’t yet commonplace, their commercial potential continues to grow.”
Since the completion of the Konterra microgrid system, Standard Solar has established partnerships with other innovative companies. In 2014, the company worked with ConnectDer (formerly Infinite Invention) to support the development and demonstration of a new product that reduces grid connection costs for residential PV systems. Standard Solar also worked with Pepco, a utility company, to develop a solar microgrid demonstration project as well as a Smart Grid Inverter Pilot Program that allows customers to maximize their use of distributed solar power while simultaneously improving grid reliability. Finally, Standard Solar has committed funds to the University of Delaware as part of a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposal to develop electric storage paired with PV.
“Through collaboration, we’re able to demonstrate new technologies at a far greater scale than would be possible through independent efforts,” said Clifford. “We’re proud of our ground-breaking solar microgrid partnerships, and look forward to pushing boundaries to bring new technologies into the mainstream.”
Standard Solar has allocated or secured several million dollars towards these innovative partnerships. The company will contribute additional funds and resources over the coming years as part of their ongoing effort to fully integrate PV with the grid.
In 2006, Standard Solar made its first commitment to CGI (one of 256 domestic CGI commitments), to install 15,000 kW of solar PV within five years. In 2011, Standard Solar was recognized by (CGI) as a featured example of a new domestic business venture that had succeeded at becoming a fast-growth solar service company. The company was one of six organizations highlighted by CGI for achieving their commitments.
TagsClinton Global InitiativeMicro GridPhotovoltaicStandard Solar
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Acts 9 (An Unlikely Messenger)
Acts 9:3-7 (Part of the Acts Of The Holy Spirit series).
Preached by Brother Nathan Bryant on December 26, 2012 (Midweek Meeting).
An Unscientific Christmas
Luke 1:34-38 (Part of the Sunday Morning Services series).
Acts 8 (Are You Apostolic?) Pt2
Acts 8:30-31 (Part of the Acts Of The Holy Spirit series).
Acts 8 (Are You Apostolic?)
Acts 8:4 (Part of the Acts Of The Holy Spirit series).
Preached by Brother Nathan Bryant on December 5, 2012 (Midweek Meeting).
The Finished Product
1 John 3:2 (Part of the Sunday Morning Services series).
Preacher: Brother Nathan Bryant (52), Brother Trevor Emond (4), Brother Morris Bryant (1).
Book: Genesis (2), Exodus (2), 2 Kings (1), Job (1), Psalm (1), Proverbs (1), Ecclesiastes (1), Isaiah (1), Jeremiah (1), Daniel (1), Zechariah (1), Matthew (6), Mark (1), Luke (4), John (7), Acts (8), Romans (3), 1 Corinthians (5), Galatians (1), Ephesians (2), Colossians (1), 1 Timothy (1), Hebrews (2), 1 John (1). … (15 more)
Series: Wednesday Night Bible Studies (2), Special Services (5), Acts Of The Holy Spirit (16), No Other Foundation (24), Sunday Morning Services (8), Evangelistic (2).
Service: Sunday Morning (29), Midweek Meeting (21), Special (6), Sunday Evening (1).
Date: January (5), February (3), March (7), April (9), May (4), June (5), July (8), August (1), September (3), November (5), December (7)
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Reading Now:“Like tailor-made for pre-salt”
“Like tailor-made for pre-salt”
There was an abundance of innovations displayed and newcomers to meet at the Brasil Offshore 2013. A new generation drill ship from Fincantieri and Norwegian multinational Aker Solutions was getting a lot of attention from visitors at this year’s expo.
Brasil Offshore is the third biggest event of this kind in the world, and in 2013, the event attracted more than 51,000 visitors and 720 exhibitors. Several Norwegian companies were among the exhibitors at the seventh edition of the exposition, that took place in Macaé from June 11-14.
Aker Solutions, a leading provider of subsea equipment and services in Brazil’s offshore market, was present with one of the biggest stands among the Norwegian companies, and one of the models displayed at the stand was receiving a lot of attention during this year´s expo: A brand new drill ship design developed by Fincantieri Offshore and Aker Solutions.
Students were taking pictures, and colleagues in the subsea and drilling industry asking questions to satisfy their curiosity.
Currently, offshore exploration and operation is moving into ultra-deep waters. Large discoveries have been made along the Brazilian coast, in the seabed beneath a layer of salt that is up to 2 kilometers thick. Ultra-deepwater exploration demands innovative solutions, and this particular vessel design, of the overdrill class, is being called the next generation of drill ships.
“It is actually quite a revolution, and brand new to the Brazilian market”, says Andrea Piantini from Fincantieri Offshore, one of the largest shipbuilding groups in the world. Earlier this year, Fincantieri acquired Vard, former STX OSV, and the Italian company also has ship designer Ulstein Sea of Solutions among its business partners.
“This particular drill ship was developed together with Aker Solutions, which is the supplier of the drilling equipment on board, and you will find nothing like this on the market today. It is a prototype, the first of its kind and you can say it is tailor-made for operation on the Brazilian pre-salt blocks”, says Marco Cardinali of the offshore business unit at Fincantieri Offshore, and one of two Fincantieri representatives present on the stand to explain the distinctive features of the vessel design.
50.000 feet
According to Mr. Cardinali, the design will enable drilling contractors to operate in water depth up to 12,000 ft, with a total drilling depth up to 50,000 ft.
The vessel was designed around the drilling system, maximizing its integration with the hull, and the design also features an increased variable deck load capacity.
The design was first presented to the market at OTC in Houston in May.
“The vessel is getting a lot of attention here at the expo, and the interest from the market has been great”, says Cardinali.
John-Steinar Pedersen represents a different kind of «innovation» at the expo. His company Multi-Industrier is working hard to establish in the Brazilian market, and Mr. Pedersen and his colleagues were working the expo to make the right contacts. The company offers services within surface protection and treatment, flooring and interior work, cleaning, isolation, access and inspection.
“We have opened an office in Macaé recently, and have two employees working sales and promoting our services”, says Pedersen, who is the vice-president of company.
“We concentrate our services on rig upgrades and maintenance in general, but have only been offering our services on the Norwegian continental shelf, where we have contracts with Transocean, Seadrill, Songa, Stena and Westcon Yards”, he says.
The company was founded in 2002, and the ambition is to offer a complete solution to the customer.
“Brasil Offshore is an important venue for meeting customers, suppliers, and competitors offering the same services we do. Our force is that we can offer a variety of services, and the customer doesn’t need to hire or deal with several different maintenance companies”, Mr. Pedersen says.
Read more: Busy days in Macaé
By Runa Hestmann Tierno, NBCC journalist
(runa.tierno@nbcc.com.br)
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Snappy tag line goes here.
World Electricity Needs
Electric Energy Today
Renewable Sources
The Neothermal Energy Company was founded at Atlanta, Georgia, to explore and develop methods of converting thermal energy directly to electricity through solid state pathways that had not been utilized previously. The Company (and its predecessor, Neothermal Energy Solutions, LLC) developed a theoretical foundation for such a conversion methodology based on fundamental physics principles. Using that theoretical framework, the Company undertook a regimen of experiments at its Atlanta laboratory. That work confirmed the theoretical expectations of how Neothermal's technology can provide an economical source of electrical energy on a commercial scale.
The Company is now conducting further R&D to refine its technology, to develop manufacturing techniques that will support large scale production, and to develop systems that will enable the technology to be used in a wide variety of applications. For example, heat exchanger configurations vary among applications depending upon the characteristics of the available thermal energy, thus requiring differing engineering solutions for different applications. The Company has also done materials research to develop new compositions of matter that perform especially robustly in Neothermal's heat-to-electricity conversion process.
In addition to its core R&D work, the Company has been very active in developing its IP portfolio both in the United States and elsewhere.
The founders of the Company are Dr. Ahmet Erbil and David F. Walbert. Dr. Erbil is the Company's Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President. He received his PhD in physics from MIT and has been on the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Physics, since 1985. Dr. Erbil worked in industry and has served as a consultant to industry since joining the faculty at Georgia Tech.* Dr. Erbil is particularly recognized for his work in materials science and material fabrication, condensed matter physics, and the electronic behavior of materials.
Mr. Walbert received his undergraduate and M.S. degrees in physics from Stanford University and the University of Michigan, respectively. Subsequently, he received a law degree and is an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, who has represented clients in many complex matters, including before the United States Supreme Court. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Walbert has been an active investor and served on the boards of new technology companies.
*Dr. Erbil's participation in Neothermal has been independent of Georgia Tech. He is currently on leave from Georgia Tech to devote his time entirely to the Company.
Copyright © The 2010 Neothermal Energy Company. All rights reserved.
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San Diego Comics Fest
From the San Diego Comic Fest website:
“The San Diego Comic Fest is the friendly comic convention with a casual atmosphere and an intimate scale that allows fans to mingle directly with professionals and exhibitors. It’s the place where you can indulge your love of comics, science fiction, and films, and meet an outstanding array of professional creators without high-priced tickets, crowding, or long lines.“
The theme for 2018 is the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with special guest Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff!
We will be featuring authors David Brin, Nancy Kress, Greg Bear, and Les Klinger.
Event address:
Town and Country Resort & Convention Center
500 Hotel Circle N.
If Tomorrow Comes: Book 2 of the Yesterday's Kin Trilogy (Hardcover)
By Nancy Kress
Published: Tor Books - March 6th, 2018
Ten years after the Aliens left Earth, humanity succeeds in building a ship, Friendship, to follow them home to Kindred. Aboard are a crew of scientists, diplomats, and a squad of Rangers to protect them. But when the Friendship arrives, they find nothing they expected. No interplanetary culture, no industrial base--and no cure for the spore disease.
A timeslip in the apparently instantaneous travel between worlds has occurred and far more than ten years have passed.
Once again scientists find themselves in a race against time to save humanity and their kind from a deadly virus while a clock of a different sort runs down on a military solution no less deadly to all. Amid devastation and plague come stories of heroism and sacrifice and of genetic destiny and free choice, with its implicit promise of conscious change.
The War Dogs Trilogy (Paperback)
By Greg Bear
Published: Orbit - September 12th, 2017
The Gurus made their presence on Earth known thirteen years ago. Providing technology and scientific insights far beyond what mankind was capable of, they became indispensable advisors and promised even more gifts that we just couldn't pass up.
But they were followed by mortal enemies -- the Antagonists -- from sun to sun, planet to planet, and now the Gurus are stretched thin -- and they need humanity's help.
Our first bill has come due.
Skyrines like Michael Venn have been volunteered to pay the price. They face insidious enemies who were already inside the solar system, establishing a beachhead on Mars.
Venn and his comrades will be lucky to make it out alive -- let alone preserve the future of all of mankind.
Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World (Paperback)
By David Brin (Editor), Stephen W. Potts (Editor)
Published: Tor Books - March 13th, 2018
David Brin, Hugo award-winning author of The Uplift War, presents Chasing Shadows, a collection of short stories and essays by other science fiction luminaries. As we debate Internet privacy, revenge porn, the NSA, and Edward Snowden, cameras get smaller, faster, and more numerous. Has Orwell's Big Brother finally come to pass? Or have we become a global society of thousands of Little Brothers--watching, judging, and reporting on one another?
Partnering with the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, and inspired by Brin's nonfiction book The Transparent Society, noted author and futurist David Brin and scholar Stephen Potts have compiled essays and short stories from writers such as Robert J. Sawyer, James Morrow, William Gibson, Damon Knight, Jack McDevitt, and many others to examine the benefits and pitfalls of technologic transparency in all its permutations.
Watchmen: The Annotated Edition (Hardcover)
By Leslie S. Klinger, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons (Illustrator)
Published: DC Comics - December 12th, 2017
DC Comics is proud to present an all-new retrospective edition of one of the greatest graphic novels ever in WATCHMEN: THE ANNOTATED EDITION. This book examines each of the series' twelve issues in unprecedented detail, moving page by page and panel by panel to reveal the hidden foundations of this milestone in modern storytelling.
Edited with notes by Leslie S. Klinger, this new edition draws upon critical and scholastic commentary, in-depth interviews with Dave Gibbons, and previously unseen original source material, all printed in black and white. Klinger provides the reader with a unique and comprehensive view of WATCHMEN as both a singular artistic achievement and a transformative event in the history of comics as a medium.
Set in a world in which history has been forever altered by the existence of superheroes, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' monumental graphic novel WATCHMEN is one of the most influential comic book series of all time. Following two generations of masked crime-fighters from the end of World War II to the height of the Cold War, this compelling tale unfolds from a simple murder mystery into an epic saga of power, corruption and the ultimate meaning of humanity.
More than 30 years after it was first published, Moore and Gibbons' masterpiece continues to inspire and entertain readers around the world. Named one of Time magazine's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, WATCHMEN has won countless critical accolades and honors, including the Eisner Award and the Hugo Award.
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A Wonderful Cruise to the Baltics!
We no longer seem to have time to blog these days, but our good friends Peter and Margaret did post this for us.
https://www.nb-kelly-louise.com/2018/08/an-unexpected-summer-baltic-cruise.html
Posted by nb Chance at Monday, August 27, 2018 1 comment: Links to this post
Dubai, Muscat, Petra, Herculaneum and Vesuvius
After flying out to Dubai we had four nights there before embarking on the P&O “Arcadia” for a cruise back to Southampton. Having been before we knew the way around so one of our first ports of call was the lovely souks in Old Dubai.
Old Dubai is split in two by the Creek and the journey from one side to other is done in a very heavy (and noisy!) wooden boat.
Another “must”(which we’d done before but this was another chance to repeat the pleasure) was to go up the Burj Khalifa.
Friends Geoff and Pam, who’d flown in from India and who were to join the ship with us, came with us for the journey up the world’s tallest building.
We were to have a few challenges with getting Geoff, who is not as mobile as he used to be, to the places on his bucket list but the Burj was an easy job. We were given priority access everywhere during our visit!
Going to the 124th floor of a 147 floor building leaves a whole lot of building above us! It’s an awesome sight to look upwards to the top!
However, the 124th floor was enough for us to see for many miles and to look down on the skyscrapers below us.
Directly below us was the lake and fountains in front of the Burj Khalifa which we’d enjoy at a later date.
One sight, way off in the distance, was the iconic “Queen Elizabeth 2”, now beautifully painted and restored and at rest in her permanent position as a hotel ship.
A Burj Khalifa selfie – James, Geoff, Pam and Doug.
We went back and enjoyed the fountains and music in front of the Burj ….
……… and also after dark, when the crowds get really big!
After our four days in Dubai we were taken to the port to board “Arcadia” and we had an even better view of QE2 as she lay waiting for her grand opening.
Sailing from Dubai, our first stop was Muscat. Amman is a very wealthy place and it’s Sultan makes sure that it looks the part on the World’s stage. We toured for the day with friends Anita and Alan, who’d also flown from England to join in the happy band (in all there were 10 of us!) and we took a taxi for four hours to show us around. The driver, very kindly, got us to the Grand Mosque before it closed for the day’s cleaning.
Like everything we were to see that day, it was simply stunning. It has the world’s largest chandelier weighing over 40 tons! It even has a staircase inside to allow for maintenance and cleaning. While were there it was being cleaned on the outside – the man cleaning it is in the ‘cherry picker’ at the top!
Here’s Anita and Doug standing outside the stunningly decorated apse which faces Mecca. The carpet which covers the entire floor of the mosque is the second largest in the world.
Here we all are suitably dressed to enter the mosque. James was fine, Doug wore his Dish-Dash which he bought last time we were in Muscat. Anita and Alan borrowed their clothing from our very well prepared taxi driver! (Anita looked stunning!)
The storage areas for the Koran speak for themselves!
After our visit we were taken for hot spicy coffee and dates …….
……… and we had a lovely conversation with the staff about the building of the mosque.
We’ve never seen so much polished marble ……..
….. and such beautiful contemporary architecture.
Across the road from the Grand Mosque is the prison! Never has there been such a fabulous looking prison!
A quick trip to the shores of the Arabian Gulf ……..
…. where Doug raised the hem of his Dish-Dash for a little paddle.
Next on the itinerary was the Opera House. Now, having visited the mosque we thought we were prepared for Amman’s “money no object” approach to building …….
……. there were seemingly acres of polished marble before we got inside.
Photo’s do not do this building justice – words are not enough either!
The auditorium is immense and sumptuous beyond anything we’ve experienced. The ceiling is in sections which can be raised or lowered to change the acoustics ………….
…….. and the organ is one of the world’s largest with some 4500 pipes.
In the centre at the rear is the Sultan’s private box.
Our driver briefly took us into the mountains surrounding Muscat which was a real treat as it gave us an appreciation of just how barren Amman is.
Back in Muscat we viewed the front of the Sultan’s Palace …….
…. and then our driver took us around to the other side which faces the sea. The painted building is just one part – all the white painted buildings are part of the palace and they extend on both sides of the main coloured building.
The palace is protected by four very large and prominent fortresses …..
…. and the Sultan’s two enormous yachts sit together in the harbour.
Life on our own “yacht” isn’t unpleasant either. We have quite a few formal evenings on the cruise when we can dress in our finery.
Here’s a selfie of us prior to the ship’s Tropical evening …….
……. and with Alan and Anita one evening during dinner.
It’s a very small world and cruising makes it even smaller. Doug thought he recognised someone when playing deck quoits one day and it transpired that his father’s school friend Duncan, and his wife Eileen, were on board for the whole world cruise which “Arcadia” has almost completed and which we’d joined for the last leg. Doug hadn’t seen Duncan and Eileen for twenty years so a catch up drink before dinner had to be arranged.
Oh, here’s Doug in his Indian “Modi” suit on one of our formal nights. Our Indian staff were so thrilled he’d made such a gesture.
The on-board entertainment in the Palladium Theatre has, as one of it’s highlight for us, the Headliners Theatre Company. We’re so lucky as friends James and Ben are on board and part of the company as singer / dancers.
One of our favourite shows (and luckily it was scheduled for this last leg of the cruise) is Killer Queen. It’s a superb 45 minutes of the music of Queen and the Headliner’s talent is amazing. Ben – second from left and James – second from right.
Here’s James doing a solo …….
….. and the finale is really special with the entire company, lighting and sound at full tilt!
After the show the exhausted cast briefly say goodnight to the passengers and that’s our opportunity to have a quick catch up and to say thank you. On this occasion we found Ben but James had already gone to change (don’t blame him!)
Our next port of call, after leaving Muscat and travelling through pirate infested waters into the Red Sea and up the Gulf to Aquaba in Jordan.
Our two day stay in Aqaba was our opportunity to visit the ancient city of Petra – one of the world’s wonders! The two hour journey through Jordan’s mountains and deserts gave us amazing views.
Our ‘happy band of pilgrims’ included Pam and Geoff and, this time it was a little more difficult to get Geoff about but, with wheel chair, horse and buggy and his faithful stick we all achieved our goal. Here’s Pam and Geoff on the smoothest bit of the buggy ride! Doug and James walked the two kilometres.
The start of The Siq was awesome enough. A half mile long narrow chasm, eroded through the giant sandstone escarpment by wind and water, …….
……. finally brought us to one of the most magical and stunning views. The Treasury of Petra.
We were again lucky that it was a Sunday and working day. The week end in this part of the world is Friday and Saturday and the two days just gone were also Easter and Petra had been overwhelmed with tourists. But, on this day, things were much quieter and we were able to enjoy the place much more.
Petra is a huge site and you have to walk miles to see everything. This is the Street of Facades (20BC – 50 AD)
Everywhere there was evidence of habitation dug into the soft sandstone cliffs, whether it was a temple of just peoples homes
This is the Theatre (25 – 125 AD) – a massive semicircle carved out of the rock.
More homes ……
….. and travellers on camels, horses and donkeys making these ancient ruins almost come back to life.
This was the site of the Royal Tombs ……
……. and this, a Colonnaded Street with the original flag stones.
Here’s Doug standing in the middle of Petra’s Great Temple ……..
……. the catacombs and vaults are still being excavated.
The Temenos Gate – 125 – 225 AD
The Qasr al-Bint Temple Complex (25 BC – 25 AD)
And on we trekked – up, what seemed a thousand steps (900 actually, but we were not to complete them!) through some very desolate terrain towards Petra’s “Monastery”.
It was a long way to say the least but the advice from people who had made it was that it was another 30 minutes of hard climb and we were running out of time! Here’s Doug making a valiant attempt at a steep set of steps but that was as far as we got. You really need four hours and a good state of fitness to achieve the final goal of the Monastery – Petra is a very big site!
However, the views on the way down were stunning and very atmospheric and, after we’d got most of the steep climb out of the way, Doug found a nice man with two donkeys and we started back on a momentous donkey ride. Doug’s donkey decided to go head first towards another visitor and knocked her flying! Then both donkeys got frightened and, while the donkey owner was picking the lady up and apologising, they both charged off towards a very rocky Wadi. The owner chased after us but didn’t arrive until we were well into the Wadi and negociating some very big rocks!
James took this pic when things had calmed down and we’d dusted ourselves off and the donkeys were back on the path they knew!
Our two rather naughty donkeys didn’t think twice about heading into a group of camels and other donkeys and causing more mayhem! BUT, we survived and didn’t fall off so we count the experience as a success!
Well, after the glory of Petra we were off again for another tick on the bucket list – this time the Suez Canal. Unlike our first attempt on “Queen Mary 2” a couple of years ago which took us through at night, it was a success. It was more interesting than we’d been lead to believe but you do have to like sand!
We had an escort of two tugs which kept with us for the entire journey of about10 hours duration.
Part of the canal is ‘duelled’ so the south bound ships can be seen as if they are sailing through sand!
Many passengers were happy to enjoy the last few days of hot weather sunning themselves around the pool but many were keen to see as much sand as they could ……..
……… including one passengers who should be nameless!
Punctuating the sandy bits there was much to interest the observers – including this rather clever floating road bridge which swings across the canal to the other side when its not busy.
All along the canal we had tooting of vehicles and whistling of onlookers who wanted to wish us a good journey.
On sections which ran parallel to the road, and where there was the added possibility of an attack, we had a police escort car which slowly made it’s way with us ………
………. and every few hundred yards along the security walls were sentry boxes with armed personnel.
At the end of our ten hour, safe and enjoyable passage we disembarked the pilot and, together with a number of other smaller boats were sent on our way into the Mediterranean Sea amid a cacophony of hooters and horns.
This is a great pic looking back as we left the Suez Canal, Port Said is on the right hand side. We were now in the Med and heading towards our next port of call – Naples in southern Italy.
Naples gave us the chance to tick off another two items from our bucket list – the first Herculaneum. It’s much smaller than Pompeii but suffered the same fate during the massive eruption off Vesuvius. The approach to the site is from high up and the first impressions, with the Bay of Naples behind, are wonderful.
The general preservation and detail is terrific – the streets are almost as they were all those years ago.
The interiors of the dwellings still have much of the original wall art and mosaic flooring.
The richer Romans did not eat or cook much at home but preferred to eat out at fast food joints. This is just such a “kitchen” where they could order and have the food served to them.
Preservation is still going on and has been for the last ninety or so years.
Someone’s found a quiet corner in which to sit and read the guide book.
The interiors of the Male Bathhouse were really well preserved ……..
…….. and the mosaic floors are still intact, even if part of it has slumped into the hypocausts underneath.
Some of the streets are so well preserved it needs little imagination as to the day to day activity in Roman times.
Part of the impressive decoration in the College of the Augustales.
Augustales were a group of freedmen. Their college was built in Herculaneum during the time of the Emperor Augustus. The charred wooden beams are still evident on each side of the central area.
More charred wood.
Well preserved Amphorae.
Some of the wall mosaics have suffered very little damage.
Intricate carved wooden column tops still exist intact.
A charred wooden bed.
This is a Taverna with drinking rooms at the rear.
It was an amazing visit to Herculaneum – a very compact site but the preservation is wonderful. As we left the ruined city we got this great view of Vesuvius, the reason for the disaster and the site of next adventure.
A posterity pic to say were there!
Within an hour we’d got the bus and 45 minutes later we were deposited at the car park near to top of Vesuvius to walk the rest of the way on foot.
It was still quite a climb to get right up to the rim and to look down into the crater but well worth the effort (and we needed the exercise!)
The views from the top over the Bay of Naples was exhilarating …..
…….. with Isle of Capri in the distance.
A close up view into the crater shows steam rising from the vents in the rocks and a remainder that, even though there’s not been an eruption for over 40 years, the volcano is only dormant and not extinct.
The recent couple of weeks has seen us tick off some really wonderful items from our bucket list. The cruise itinerary includes quite a lot of sea days but the ports of call have really delivered the goods this time.
Posted by nb Chance at Monday, April 16, 2018 1 comment: Links to this post
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Terror in Mumbai: two faces of globalisation
By Sadanand Dhume - posted Wednesday, 3 December 2008 Sign Up for free e-mail updates!
Even for India, which typically loses many more lives to terrorism in a year than most countries do in a decade, the November 26-28 attacks on Mumbai marked a watershed.
For the first time, foreigners - Americans, Japanese, Israelis and Germans, among others - were among the nearly 200 dead and 295 wounded. The scale of the attacks, carried out in 10 places by 10 heavily armed jihadists, made the 2001 terrorist assault on India’s parliament appear almost trivial by comparison. In its audacity and ruthlessness, as well as in the wall-to-wall international coverage it attracted, the assault on Mumbai brought to mind 9-11 in New York and Washington, the bloody Chechen takeover of a school in Beslan in 2004 and the 2005 London suicide bombings.
In many ways, the victims of the carnage in Mumbai represent the integration of markets, peoples and ideas captured by that catchall word - globalisation. Both the hotels attacked, the Taj and the Oberoi, are mainstays of high-end business travel. If a global icon - say Bono or Bill Gates or Bill Clinton - has spent a night in India’s financial capital, odds are that he stayed in one or the other.
The nearby Nariman House, home to the local branch of the Chabad-Lubavitch orthodox Jewish movement, served as an informal way station for young Israelis, familiar figures on the tourist trails of Asia.
Leopold Cafe, where jihadists lobbed a hand grenade and sprayed diners with automatic weapon fire, has long been a backpacker favourite.
All in all, the odds of the victims having multiple entry stamps in their passports, friends from more than one country on Facebook and a credit card welcome across borders in their wallets were incomparably higher than in any previous terrorist attack in India.
If the city of Mumbai symbolises the hopeful face of globalisation in South Asia - standing for pluralism, enterprise and openness to ideas and investment - then the Pakistan-trained jihadists responsible for the carnage represent its darker twin. Carved out of British India in 1947 as a homeland for South Asian Muslims, Pakistan has long been a magnet for pan-Islamic radicals from around the world, among them Abdullah Azzam (1941-89), the ideological father of the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad, al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, and their comrade in arms Mullah Omar of the Taliban.
A plethora of local groups, among them Lashkar-e-Taiba, suspected to be behind the Mumbai attacks, one of whose alleged operatives, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was captured by Indian authorities, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, though organisationally distinct from al-Qaida, share the same toxic ideology. The L-e-T was among the jihadist groups that banded together in 1998 under the umbrella of bin Laden’s Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders.
Along with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan is the world’s pre-eminent exporter of radical Sunni fervour. The country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), part of the army, in a sense pioneered the yoking together of modern-weapons training with pan-Islamic religious brainwashing, albeit initially with help from the Central Intelligence Agency.
Many Pakistanis are moderate; nonetheless sympathy for radical Islam runs deep. A 2007 poll showed bin Laden with an approval rating of 46 per cent, higher than that of many of Pakistani politicians. The radical Islamic outlook - obsessed with the glories of Islamic civilisation, hostile toward non-Muslims and non-conformist women, and convinced that Jews and Americans are perpetually plotting against their faith - is shared by many who may formally disapprove of al-Qaida’s tactics.
Until the most recent incidents in Mumbai, the consensus view in both New Delhi and Washington was that India - with its robust democracy, large middle class and world-beating companies - could sprint toward development despite its dysfunctional neighbour. But the capacity of a handful of terrorists to paralyse life in Mumbai and inflict several billion dollars worth of damage raise profound questions about the basic premise underlying India’s reach for great power status. It should give pause to even the hardiest optimist.
Put simply, the world can no longer be certain that a failing Pakistan won’t take India down with it or, at the very least, hobble its efforts to catch up with East Asia.
Reprinted with permission from YaleGlobal Online - www.yaleglobal.yale.edu - (c) 2008 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.
Sadanand Dhume is the author of My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with an Indonesian Islamist, a book about the rise of radicalism in the world’s most populous Muslim country. Click here to read an excerpt. Click here to view his website.
» Manhattan project: the great mosque divide - September 9, 2010
» Anti-immigration backlash roils ties between Australia and India - part II - March 19, 2010
» The French burqa ban: culture clash unveiled - February 11, 2010
» Bickering by champions of globalisation in Asia worries the region - January 4, 2010
» India’s election shows equitable globalisation can succeed - June 2, 2009
All articles by Sadanand Dhume
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Binman4OSU
Legendary Cowboy
Stupid about AGW!!
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1060572956320038912
MadMau
The Whitaker appointment is intended of course to be temporary, so those saying he "can't" serve until whatever time is allowed or a new appointee is confirmed will likely fall on deaf ears. It's just like the Special Counsel appointed by Rosenstein....... many legal scholars claim it an illegal appointment, but it's never been legally challenged and stands to this day.
Point is, things in Washington D.C. the last Decade or so have come down to the axiom that my ole Granddaddy ascribed to.......... "You can do anything you're big enough to get away with."
We'll see what happens, but one thing is for sure........ the Dems throwing up their hands and claiming he should recuse or is illegitimate will be ignored.
MadMau said:
Only until January.
It's not dying I'm talking about, it's living.
CocoCincinnati said:
No, they don't. Do you even understand how the justice system works in this country?
"Indictments equal guilt...
He'll be in office until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate. So the longer his replacment is held up in Congress the longer Whitaker will be the interim.
Short list...
Trey Gowdy
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, said Wednesday he's retiring from Congress because he misses the justice system and prefers working in an environment "where facts matter."
"I like jobs where facts matter. I like jobs where fairness matters. I like jobs where, frankly, where the process matters. It's not just about winning and it's not just about reaching a result," Gowdy told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day."
Matt Whitaker
Cimarron said:
Gee, and none of them are hugely partisan hacks!
They always are.
The Senate wait ( studying next year) just got a little shorter since the midterms. Looks like Trump will get who he wants since there are no Flakes to get in the way and they have a buffer with the new Senators to get around Collins and Murkowski.
And did anyone see the article about people offering ribs and other body parts to keep Ginsburg going. LOL
If there is another scotus nominee in the next 2 years it will be fun to see the Dems lose their mind trying to figure out how to stop this one.
CowboyOrangeFan
Mmmm, yeah.
Did you actually pay attention to who the new Republican Senators are? I wouldn't be so sure about it being easier.
CNN reports Mueller has begun writing his final Russia report
CowboyOrangeFan said:
Oh I'm paying attention. Blackburn, Scott, Braun, Cramer and possibly McSally....... With Hyde-Smith coming down the pike in a few weeks combined with no Flake and no Corker...... I'll take my chances!
Oh I'm paying attention. Blackburn, Scott, Braun, Cramer and possibly Sally....... With Hyde-Smith coming down the pike in a few weeks combined with no Flake and no Corker...... I'll take my chances!
Flake and Corker would run their mouths, but pretty much went along with everything Trump wanted. Romney won't give a rat's ass about appeasing Trump and Scott isn't a Trump Republican. He is more of an establishment type Republican.
Anyway, when you pick up seats it obviously gives you more room for error, but I can only think of one time it would have made a difference (a bill, not an appointment). For which they are lucky. That would have been a disaster for the Republicans.
Scott owes his seat to Trump. He'll be on board for SCOTUS and just about any other appointment Trump makes, at least in the foreseeable future.
Couch it anyway you like, but it got easier.
Scott does not owe his seat to Trump. Scott had won every election before Trump even came along. If anything Trump almost cost him the election. What everyone thought would be a cake walk a year or two ago turned into a slug-fest.
Trump brought Scott over the finish line. But believe whatever you like........
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/matthew-whittaker-jeff-sessions-replacement-excellent-choice/
Sessions Out, Whitaker In — For Now, and Maybe for Good
Matthew Whitaker is well credentialed and an excellent choice to assume the duties of attorney general.
Is Matthew Whitaker a placeholder who can manage Special Counsel Robert Mueller until President Trump decides on a permanent successor for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions? It’s possible, but it’s also conceivable that Mr. Whitaker’s temporary gig as acting attorney general is an audition for the job. Feeling like he’s been burned once, and then saddled for the better part of two years with an AG he could no longer abide, the president may want a trial run before he settles on a “permanent” replacement. (I use scare-quotes because what, these days, is permanent?)
To repeat what I had occasion to say about a week ago, I am a Sessions fan, and I think he got a raw deal. That said, it was time for Trump and Sessions to part ways. The former AG should be proud that he performed admirably and was a very effective proponent of the president’s agenda. I continue to believe his recusal from the so-called Russia investigation was premature and overbroad, but there is no doubt that a recusal of some extent would have been necessary. The president is kidding himself if he thinks otherwise. And it was not Sessions but Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — a Trump appointee — who decided to name a special counsel.
That is all water under the bridge at this point.
Matthew Whitaker joined the Trump Justice Department as Sessions’s chief of staff in October 2017. The date is relevant. The president has named him as acting attorney general under the Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (the relevant provisions are codified at Sections 3345 and 3346 of Title 5, U.S. Code). There has been some commentary suggesting that because Whitaker was in a job (chief of staff) that did not require Senate confirmation, he could not become the “acting officer” in a position (AG) that calls for Senate confirmation. Not so. The Vacancies Act enables the president to name an acting officer, who may serve as such for 210 days, as long as the person named has been working at the agency or department for at least 90 days in a fairly high-ranking position. Whitaker qualifies.
Whitaker has excellent credentials and influential backers. He served as Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief of staff until 2004, when President Bush appointed him United States attorney for the southern district of Iowa. To get the latter post, Whitaker certainly had to have the approval of Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), who even then was a senior member of the Judiciary Committee (which he now chairs). According to a New York Times profile of Whitaker, he was recommended to President Trump by the estimable Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society chief who has been critical to the president’s judicial appointments — perhaps the administration’s signal achievement. Whitaker is said to have very good chemistry with the president, and to have been an effective liaison between the Justice Department and the White House.
I must say I am amused by the media pearl-clutching over the fact that Whitaker will presumably be assuming supervisory responsibility over the Mueller investigation.
Since Mueller came into the picture, that responsibility has been exercised, quite passively, by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein. He appointed Mueller on May 17, 2017, to take the reins of the Russia investigation that had been ongoing for several months. As I have detailed, Rosenstein has been laboring under blatant conflicts of interest.
To summarize, the special counsel has been scrutinizing the president’s firing of former FBI director James Comey in the obstruction aspect of his investigation. Rosenstein was a prominent participant in the firing and is thus an important witness. Rosenstein, moreover, signed off on the last FISA warrant application for surveillance against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page, which is under investigation by Congress and DOJ’s inspector general. Rosenstein, using the Mueller investigation as part of his rationale, has stonewalled Congress’s demands for relevant information. The surveillance of Page is plainly germane to Mueller’s Russia investigation. Since Rosenstein’s actions are under scrutiny — and given that this is in addition to the just-described, patent conflict posed by his involvement in Comey’s firing — one would think Rosenstein would want to step aside rather than have his ethical sensibility questioned.
While the press remains remarkably indifferent to Rosenstein’s conflicts, it is all over what are said to be Whitaker’s — stemming from an opinion essay he wrote for CNN a couple of months before joining the Trump administration. It is being alleged that Whitaker contended that any probe of the president’s finances would be beyond the scope of Mueller’s jurisdiction; he is further accused of using President Trump’s derogatory phrase — “witch hunt” — to belittle Mueller’s investigation. That is an overwrought distortion of what Whitaker wrote.
The New York Times had asked President Trump if Mueller would be acting outside his mandate if he began investigating the Trump family finances. The president responded, “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia.” The burden of Whitaker’s op-ed was to defend Trump’s statement, which — while curt and ambiguous — did not claim that Mueller would be in the wrong if his inquiry into Trump’s finances had some good-faith connection to Russia.
Whatever Trump may have meant, Whitaker was emphatic about what he found objectionable: the notion of an investigation unconnected to Russia — i.e., a fishing expedition into Trump’s finances without any articulable nexus to what Mueller was appointed to investigate, namely, Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
In part, Whitaker was countering the contentions posited by, well, your humble correspondent. I’ve maintained that Rosenstein’s order appointing Mueller set no real limits on the investigation. Having now reviewed Whitaker’s interpretation, I still respectfully disagree; but he nevertheless presented a forceful legal argument, based on a close reading of Rosenstein’s order, for the proposition that there are limits on the special counsel.
Whitaker, furthermore, did not say Mueller could not properly review Trump’s finances under any circumstances. He said that, to do so, Mueller would have to “return to Rod Rosenstein for additional authority.” That would, indeed, be the proper procedure (if we assume, as Whitaker does, that the order defines the parameters of Mueller’s jurisdiction).
Finally, Whitaker never said that Mueller’s investigation was a “witch hunt.” He said the investigation could become a witch hunt if Mueller were to investigate Trump’s finances in the absence of any connection to Russia and any formal broadening of the scope of his appointment by Rosenstein. That is manifestly true, a truth underscored by Rosenstein’s public insistence that Mueller is not, to borrow the deputy AG’s phrase, an “unguided missile.”
Concededly, I have raised concerns in the past about mixing punditry with prosecution; I’ve observed, for example, that I would be a poor choice to suggest as a putatively independent counsel in an investigation on which I had commented extensively, and about which I had expressed opinions, as a journalist. It is not that I doubt my capacity to be fair; it is that the investigation would lack the appearance of fairness and objectivity, no matter how fair I was. In the criminal-justice system, the appearance of propriety is nearly as important as the reality.
All that said, Whitaker has not commented extensively on the Russia investigation and the comments made in his op-ed should be uncontroversial. They do not question the worthiness of investigating Russia’s interference in the election, and they do not denigrate the Mueller investigation — they merely maintain that the investigation should stay within the bounds that Rosenstein has sought to assure the public it has respected.
Matthew Whitaker is well credentialed and appears to be an excellent choice to assume the duties of attorney general, at least temporarily (and perhaps permanently, though under the Vacancy Act, he could not be nominated to be AG while serving as acting AG). The removal of Rod Rosenstein as Mueller’s overseer is inevitable and overdue — which is not a condemnation of him, but a recognition that he should not be supervising an investigation in which his own actions are implicated. Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation appears to be at a ripe stage, and if Acting Attorney General Whitaker helps steer it to a prompt conclusion, that is all to the good.
Whitaker is being prejudged in some quarters as a Trump “loyalist.” That pejorative label is more a function of what the president has reportedly said that he’d like to have in an attorney general (and in other executive offices serving the president). It is not a function of anything Whitaker has actually done. Let’s see how he performs over the next few months. I’m betting he’ll do a fine job.
Watch it and weep. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article220729320.html
Probably never see the light of day anytime soon.
He might actually be good at this.
cowboyinexile said:
He needs to kill it before January. If not, well with the house now providing cover there may be some articles coming up that fuhrer Trump wont want to read.
I've really tried but it's truly apparent that you're a hopelessly ignorant little twat.
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Such a weird story
Thread starter teachum
teachum said:
Don't know, but a crazy chick was able to walk right out armed and dangerous. I guess since it worked out this time, all is well.
We need to give the precogs a kick because they aren't working right... gotta stop that precrime...
kaboy42
I’m sorry... at what point in the timeline of this incident was this “crazy chick” deemed insane or mentally unstable by a board certified psychologist?
Can you provide a link please.
pokes16
StillwaterTownie said:
LOL, no, pokes16, I'm not insane. But you sure did prove to us all you're insane by writing, "No guns to Dims!". They are people, too, whether you are sane enough to accept that or not. Seriously, pokes16, just because you quite strongly believe in highly conservative ideals doesn't mean you have to be insane about it.
Oh Townie. A couple of thoughts. First, I think you have a point. Gun hating libs hate it when us Deplorable/Bitter Clingers have guns. BUT they love having their own armed security force around them. Ever noticed that the people screaming the most about gun laws have armed guards? Hmmmmmmm.....
Second thought for you specifically...
Get one. Learn to use it!
In my opinion, crazy people in the media incite more violence than anything this woman could've done. And yet, I'm not suggesting that their first amendment rights be eliminated.
andylicious
Her family did not get her the mental help she needed. That's obvious from the dad's statement. If there's no diagnosis there's no reason to deny her the gun or ammunition in the background check.
wrenhal
RxCowboy said:
Great, so I'll put you in the category of defending this lunatic chic's rights to guy a gun without condition or review. Excellent choice.
I'll put you in the category of wanting to take away rights from someone who hasn't yet committed a crime. Excellent choice.
I guess he's advocating for the prosecution of pre crimes. I think that's what they called it in that movie where they had those people that could see the future and determine who was going to commit a crime before it happened.
Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
CaliforniaCowboy
andylicious said:
he's just being the devil's advocate... there is no way to tell when a person may "go crazy". I could be perfectly sane and have lots of guns, then something traumatic happens, like a socialist getting elected, and all the sudden half the population goes "crazy" (according to the other half of the population).
it is not really even a problem when compared to the actual problems that we're facing in the US.
How come we never discuss that pesky 4th amendment? Think of how many crimes could be prevented, how many children could be saved if we repealed that one. If it saves the life of just one child, isn't it worth it?
Obviously the answer is no and if you can understand why then maybe don't use that rhetoric when discussing gun control. Both amendments along with the rest of the bill of rights are there to protect us. Yes, freedom can be dangerous, the rights that protect us from the government, also give a lot of breathing room to criminals. A police state may have less crime, but it is not worth trading that for less freedom. So no, democrats, you cannot have my guns any more than you can enter my house without a warrant.
An element of this story that got discussed alot the other day here in Denver is what do the schools do about it? What if she hadn't been found for days? How long do you keep 500k out of school?
If they open schools back up & something happens, they'll never hear the end of it. On the other hand, though, where's the line for deciding to close entire school districts?
There have now been 4 more Denver metro schools shut down this week because of threats, weapons, etc..., including 2 today.
I don't pretend to know what the answer or solution to this is, but this is really a no-win situation for the schools. Simply no easy answers here.
My suggestion has always been let teachers who want to, and who have been through training to get a CCL, carry on campus. This would have the immediate effect of deterrence, since these nuts want body counts and would most likely look for an easier target. BUT, more importantly, the kids and teachers would not be completely defenseless if some nut does walk in with a gun.
why isn’t the left arguing for practical solutions that have been shown to curb gun violence in our learning institutions? After all, if these methods have successfully protected our inner-city students, they should work for those in the suburbs, right?
...the debate over gun control arises. However, politicians, the media, and most Americans have failed to ask an important question: if a lack of gun control legislation is the issue, then why don’t these incidents occur in inner-city schools?
When was the last time you heard of a mass shooting occurring at schools in cities like Los Angeles, Detroit, or Chicago? Sure, these cities have high rates of gun violence despite having some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, but their schools do not experience the level of deadly violence that we see elsewhere in the country. The answer is simple: inner city schools are doing something that others are not. They are implementing the types of security measures that deter and prevent would-be mass shooters.
Robust Security Measures
Schools in urban areas have used a variety of security measures to curb gun violence on their campuses. These methods were first introduced in the mid-‘80s when Detroit became one of the first cities to install metal detectors in middle schools and high schools. Schools in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles followed suit shortly after.
These policies have drastically decreased violent gun crime in the learning institutions in which they are implemented. Philip Smith, the president of the National African American Gun Association, believes that enhanced security should also be used in other schools. “I think urban schools are eons ahead,” he told The Denver Post. “They’ve been dealing with violence a lot longer than suburban schools.”
All American Schools Should Follow The Example Of Inner City Schools
It appears that some state governments are learning that our schools need more security. After the shooting at Parkland, Florida Governor Rick Scott stated that he wants to spend $500 million to install metal detectors, increase the number of law enforcement officers on campus, and provide more mental health counselors at schools.
OUR DETROIT SCHOOL IS A FORTRESS. EVERY DOOR IS LOCKED FROM THE OUTSIDE AND EQUIPPED WITH SENSORS. LEAVE IT OPEN TOO LONG AND THE ALARM SCREECHES THROUGH THE HALLWAY LIKE A CAT IN HEAT.
When school shootings occur, as a school counselor, I spring into action. I prepare myself to have students come to my office for courageous conversations about gun violence. My job is to attempt to restore their confidence and normalcy; get their head back in the academic game.
In Detroit, where I work, no one ever comes to me after a shooting — not even a parent phone call to ask, “what is your plan if someone shoots up the school?” Nothing. After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida I decided to go to them. In the lunch room, I sat with my students and asked:
“Did you hear about what happened in Florida.”
They had.
“Are you concerned about something like that happening here?”
Their answer is a confident unanimous, “No.”
https://wearyourvoicemag.com/news-politics/why-inner-city-schools-dont-have-shootings
teachum
And that's where the debate always devolves to. No one, and I mean NO ONE is advocating for elimination of anyone's second amendment rights. I believe however, that it should be harder to buy a firearm than a six pack of beer. Is that really such a radical idea?
actually, noo... the "debate" devolves when you claim authority to federal regulation over State's issues.
YOU drive the discussion into the dirt. I've explained to you over and over and over and over that it is a LOCAL issue, not something requiring the people of one State to force regulations on the people of another State.
I'm happy to talk with you about the oppressive laws in California and how ineffective that they are, but YOU do not want to have a legitimate discussion about laws and effects - you only seem to want to claim the authority for people of one state to dictate how the people of another state should govern themselves.
We already have those laws in CA - the work okay, in most instances, but are waaay too much.
Frankly, in CA there is nowhere else to go sans banning guns entirely, so what exactly is it that you think you'd be proposing?
It is vastly harder to buy a gun in CA than it is a six pack, so no, it's not a radical idea, and it's already been done. What else do you got?
This lady bought her gun from a licensed gun dealer. In order to do so, she did WAAAAYYY more than show her driver's license and hand the dealer $1000. She had to fill out a form, sign it, and wait for it to go through a background check. Only after that did she get to pay for the gun and walk out of the store. "Journalists" don't do any of this before they publish lies that sometimes results in deaths of people.
But it was still easier for her to buy a shotgun than a six pack. Look, I want to have my guns. I want you to have yours. I just don't want her to have them. I don't know the answer, but to me it seems logical that you and I should be more than willing to jump through a few hoops for our 2nd amendment rights because we take it seriously.
You have a waiting period to buy a six pack? I don't think waiting in line is a true waiting period.
Did she have to fill out paperwork to buy a six-pack? If so I missed that. I always thought it was just show your driver's license and pay the money. Having to fill out the paperwork and have a background check ran is by default harder than buying beer. You are bad at analogies.
Seriously? I just told you what it took for her to buy a gun and you say that it was still easier to buy a gun than a six pack? Good gosh man.
wrenhal said:
Dude, she could not have legally bought a six pack. YOu know this, and you know what I"m trying to say. You are being very disingenuous.
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Tem alguma questão?
The Rediscovery of Archaeopteryx (Vol. I): Non-rigid eggs in the bird lineage
ALERT LIFE SCIENCES COMPUTING
€ / $
Ground breaking findings went unnoticed for over 140 years on the Mona Lisa of fossils despite its display before millions of visitors and scrutiny by generations of researchers.
The Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx became the icon of the theory of evolution for featuring an animal thought to represent a transitional stage that preceded the appearance of today’s birds.
An investigation into the disruptive hypothesis that its fossilized pose corresponds to a nesting posture, rather than being the carcass of an animal that sunk into the bottom of a Jurassic lagoon, is described here and results in the sensational rediscovery of the most famous fossil in the world.
In this opening volume of The Rediscovery of Archaeopteryx, non-rigid eggs from bird-related animals are exposed to us all.
Edition: ALERT LIFE SCIENCES COMPUTING
Língua: English
Dimensões: 27 x 21,5 x 2,5 cm
The author was the recipient of the Bial Grand Prize in Medicine for developing a new molecular approach to the study of the development of blood cell formation in early embryonic life and having cloned novel genes associated with this process.
He also received the Medal of Honor from the Portuguese Business Association for his role as inventor of the ALERT® Electronic Medical Record and founder of ALERT Life Sciences Computing.
Jorge Guimarães graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Porto, where he was an instructor of Physiology; he was also a visiting scientist at the DNAX Research Institute, in Palo Alto, California, where he developed his award-winning work on cloning of differentially expressed genes in embryoid bodies, embryos and cell lines, and a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University where he worked on gene therapy.
His life is now dedicated to investigating the relationship between evolution, reproduction, development and cancer.
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Rediff.com » News » Why Indian air space is a dangerous place
Why Indian air space is a dangerous place
May 23, 2010 16:06 IST
The Mangalore air-crash has proved, if proof were needed, that Indian air space remains a dangerous place for air travelers. The first reports have indicated that the accident may have been caused by pilot error.
This is because pilot behaviour has been under investigation in a number of cases -- which could have led to accidents but fortunately didn't -- in recent months. The Directorate of Civil Aviation revealed in April that it was investigating 15 near misses -- incidents in which planes flew dangerously close to each other -- and several cases in which pilots reported drunk for duty.
The number of near misses in 2009 was disclosed in response to an RTI reply to Abhishek Shukla, but the DGCA did not reveal the dates on which the incidents took place, the airlines involved or action, if any, taken against the airlines and the pilots involved.
A near miss may be caused by many factors, one being lack of coordination between the Air Traffic Controller and the pilot, one or both of whom could be working under conditions of extreme stress. Another factor is the burgeoning number of flights flying in and out of the major airports, caused by the induction of numerous low cost airlines.
For example, on an average day, the Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi handles over 700 flights, which carry more than 62,000 passengers. In 2002-03, the same airport was handling only 77 flights a day.
Has the ten-fold increase in passenger traffic been accompanied by a concomitant upgradation of facilitates related to air safety, experts ask. Similarly, the Mumbai airport handles 600 flights per day now compared to only 96 flights per day in 2002-03. A major accident was averted at the Mumbai airport recently when a Kingfisher Airways flight, carrying 30 passengers and crew, was asked to abort take-off minutes before a GoAir plane was cleared to land.
Even the VVIP flights have been endangered by pilot error as demonstrated by a near miss last year when an Air Force helicopter carrying President Pratibha Patil landed on the same runway from which a Delhi-bound Air India aircraft with 150 passengers was about to take off. The pilot of the Air India plane had applied emergency brakes and aborted take off.
"The DGCA needs to carry out serious investigations and punish the guilty in such a way that the incidents are minimised," a former civil aviation regulator said. "But most often the pilots are only taken off flying duties for a brief period and then they are back" he said.
Similarly, with regard to pilots reporting drunk for duty, the DGCA also revealed in April that "during the last one year, a total number of 42 alcohol-positive cases were detected".
Once again, the DGCA did not give details of the pilots or the names of the airlines involved, except to say that action "is taken against the crew members as per regulatory provisions".
The DGCA is the regulatory body for civil aviation in India and is responsible for monitoring pilots and ensuring safety of operations. Drunkenness among pilots directly impacts flight safety and aviation authorities around the world, including the International Civil Aviation Organisation, mandate a zero tolerance to alcohol where pilots and cabin crew are concerned, experts say.
"The rules prescribe that there shall be no trace of alcohol in the blood of the pilot and the cabin crew. Alcohol in the blood numbs the senses and dulls the reflexes and increases response time. The effect of alcohol is much more at high altitudes," former director general of civil aviation Kanu Gohain told PTI.
In response to an RTI question, the DGCA did not specify whether the pilots were detected before they boarded the aircraft and whether they were prevented from operating a flight after alcohol was detected in their blood sample. The nature of the action taken against the pilots was also not revealed.
Related News: DGCA, RTI, Air India, VVIP, Indira Gandhi International Airport
Can't blame pilot when safety norms not in place'
Bodies of all M'lore crash victims recovered: AI
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Rediff.com » News » 'Fat Man' claimed 75000 lives on detonation
'Fat Man' claimed 75000 lives on detonation
Last updated on: August 9, 2010 15:04 IST
Three days after Little Boy' nearly wiped out an entire city from the face of the earth on August 6, 1945, the United States made up its mind to hit the final nail in Japan's war ambitions.
Striking a decisive blow to the Japan's ambitions riding with World War II, President Harry S Truman gave the order to his boys to drop a second atomic bomb.
'Fat Man' claimed 40,000 to 75,000 lives on detonation in Nagasaki. The radius of total destruction was about a mile (1 2 km), followed by fires across the northern portion of the city to two miles (3 km) south of the bomb.
Sixty-five years on, rediff.com reflects on the day 'Fat Man' unleashed havoc on Nagasaki.
Click on NEXT to read further...
Image: Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945
Nagasaki was never the primary target
Interestingly, Nagasaki was never the primary target of the American bombers. At 3:47 a.m. on August 9, 1945, a B-29 namedBock's Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura.
However, aircraft commander Major Charles W Sweeney couldn't drop his payload owing to bad weather and a malfunction on his aircraft that would not let him access his reserve fuel.
Kokura no longer appeared to be an option, and there was only enough fuel on board to return to the secondary airfield on Okinawa, making one hurried pass as they went over their secondary target, the city of Nagasaki.
Jacob Beser, an aircraft crew member, later stated: "There was no sense dragging the bomb home or dropping it in the ocean."
Image: The Bockscar and its crew, who dropped the 'Fat Man' atomic bomb on Nagasaki
40 per cent bigger than Hiroshima bomb
At 11:02 am, at an altitude of 1,650 feet, Fat Man exploded over Nagasaki. The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 21 kilotons, 40 percent greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb.
Nagasaki was an industrial centre and major port on the western coast of Kyushu. As had happened at Hiroshima, the "all-clear" from an early morning air raid alert had long been given by the time the B-29 had begun its bombing run.
A small conventional raid on Nagasaki on August 1 had resulted in a partial evacuation of the city, especially of school children. There were still almost 200,000 people in the city below the bomb when it exploded.
The hurriedly-targeted weapon ended up detonating almost exactly between two of the principal targets in the city, the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works to the south, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Torpedo Works to the north. Had the bomb exploded farther south the residential and commercial heart of the city would have suffered much greater damage.
Image: File photo shows the 'Fat Man' prior to being loaded onto the bomber
Hills saved Nagasaki
Though Fat Man exploded with greater force than Little Boy, the damage at Nagasaki was not as great as it had been at Hiroshima.
The hills of Nagasaki, its geographic layout, and the bomb's detonation over an industrial area all helped shield portions of the city from the weapon's blast, heat, and radiation effects.
The explosion affected a total area of approximately 43 square miles.
About 8.5 of those square miles were water, and 33 more square miles were only partially settled.
Many roads and rail lines escaped major damage. In some areas electricity was not knocked out, and fire breaks created over the last several months helped to prevent the spread of fires to the south.
Image: A Japanese report on the bombing characterised Nagasaki as 'like a graveyard with not a tombstone standing'.
Nagasaki has received less worldwide attention
Although the destruction at Nagasaki has generally received less worldwide attention than that at Hiroshima, it was extensive nonetheless.
Almost everything up to half a mile from ground zero was completely destroyed, including even the earthquake-hardened concrete structures that had sometimes survived at comparable distances at Hiroshima.
Almost all homes within a mile and a half were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly burst into flames as far away as 10,000 feet from ground zero.
Of the 52,000 homes in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and 5,400 more seriously damaged. Only 12 per cent of the homes escaped unscathed.
Image: Nagasaki before and after (Below) the bombing
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Cameroon trains new generation of clean energy entrepreneurs
by Elias Ntungwe Ngalame
Thursday, 25 June 2015 07:30 GMT
University of Yaounde 1 students learn to become solar energy engineers in Yaounde, Cameroon. TRF/Elias Ntungwe Ngalame
About our Climate coverage
We focus on the human and development impacts of climate change
Universities are training solar technicians and others to start new businesses that will provide power and jobs
YAOUNDE, June 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Cameroon’s higher education institutions are training students to develop entrepreneurial businesses using solar power and other renewable energy technologies, aimed at tackling electricity shortages and creating jobs.
As climate stresses, including drought and floods, worsen entrenched poverty, the government is working with universities to find new ways of resolving those twin problems.
According to Maurice Aurelien Sosso, rector of the University of Yaounde 1, one popular programme offered by a number of universities is training for solar energy technicians.
The renewables sector in the West-Central African nation lacks human resources to plan, design, install, monitor and maintain energy systems – but demand is growing, Sosso noted.
“The constant rise in energy costs, the problem of persistent (power) blackouts and most importantly increasing awareness of climate change have pushed the business of renewable and alternative energy use in Cameroon to grow tremendously in the past few years,” he said.
The ministry of higher education introduced a training programme - dubbed “Solar Technicians Made in Cameroon” - in 2013, and several universities have since started running related courses.
“We think harnessing these specialised training opportunities is needed as a sustainable solution to the economic development deficit in the country, especially in the area of energy supply,” said Minister of Water and Energy Basile Atangana Kouna, while visiting a certified training programme at the University of Yaounde 1 in April.
Cameroon faces urgent problems of energy shortages, rural poverty and climate change, which require investment in people and infrastructure development, he added.
The training at higher education institutions, including the University of Buea, the Catholic University Institute of Buea and the University of Yaounde 1, will not only help the country meet its energy needs but could also lift the national development bar higher, the minister said.
“Cameroon’s engineers and entrepreneurs hitherto lacked the skills needed to develop clean energy projects like solar power and biogas production,” he noted.
Before graduates could only get that kind of training at foreign universities – which few could afford. “Now this training opportunity is on their doorstep, they should…grab it,” he added.
JOBS FOR YOUTH
Environmental experts say the initiative will make Cameroon better able to combat the effects of global warming and poverty.
“The training will soon reach a magnitude that can significantly enhance Cameroon’s fight against climate change and promote job creation especially for the youths,” said Samuel Nguiffo, director of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) in Cameroon.
Clean energy initiatives are part of Cameroon’s efforts towards becoming an emerging economy by 2035.
More than 80 percent of the country’s electricity comes from hydropower, but the government is also exploiting other renewable sources, with solar energy gaining ground, said Nelson Asanji, a renewable energy engineer with the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water Resources.
Rising oil prices and global energy consumption, together with concern for the environment, have sparked fresh interest in renewables in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, he noted.
In 2012, for example, the Cameroon government passed a law exempting solar equipment imports from value added tax.
“This decision has greatly improved investments in the sector, and there are over 25 major firms dealing in the distribution of renewable energy in Cameroon. The training of young…engineers will further help boost business,” Asanji said.
COUNCILS TO BENEFIT
At the University of Yaounde1, students are trained in the basics of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology so they can set up their own businesses after graduation, explained lecturer Irene Tiako.
Experts say skills in solar power production offer good opportunities for self employment. Solar energy can be used for refrigeration, air-conditioning, water heating, drying cocoa and coffee, irrigating crops, water pumping, and supplying electricity to homes, offices and hospitals, among other things.
Benedine Ako, a student engineer at the University of Yaounde 1, said he and his classmates planned to start up renewable tech companies, and would look for seed money to do so, as well as training others.
“All this will create jobs, and put us at the forefront of advancing trends in these new technologies,” he said.
Some of the students, sponsored by their local councils, said their new skills would enable them to build and manage solar energy projects in their communities.
“We think these … strategies will prepare our future civil servant leaders with professional values and knowhow to contribute to the sustainable development of their communities,” said Asong Zisuh, dean of the School of Engineering at the Catholic University Institute of Buea.
The training programme at the University of Yaounde 1 is sponsored by the Cameroon government assisted by France-based Bolloré Group. At the Cameroon Opportunities Industrialization Center in Buea, the solar training is backed by two German companies - AGI Technologies and Solar Energie Projekt.
Other university projects include the construction of wind turbines to produce electricity and a solar drier to conserve local farm products.
Students are also drawing up plans for energy-efficient housing and sustainable waste management by local councils, small-scale biogas production and the production of briquettes from bio-residues such as sawmill waste and palm shells.
(Reporting by Elias Ntungwe Ngalame; editing by Megan Rowling)
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Marco Frisina: The Power & Glory of Music
Marco Frisina: The Power & Glory of Music - This is a trailer/teaser for a feature documentary on this gifted priest and composer from the Vatican. He is a renowned Italian composer of Sacred and Liturgical Music as well an accomplished and award-winning composer of music for film and television. As founder and director of the Choir of the Diocese of Rome, he conducts concerts throughout Italy and in many other countries. He has only recently come to perform concerts of his work here in America where he is just beginning to become recognized.
Teaching Success
TEACHING SUCCESS - This is an 8-minute trailer for a documentary film produced by the non-profit organization Schools That Can. It is about the groundbreaking educational techniques and strategies now being implemented at many intercity schools across the country. The film will feature leading psychologists, school leaders, teachers and students who are making a difference and inspiring others.
The Skin You're In - This is a trailer/teaser for a feature documentary about the astonishing African-American health disparity - why it exists and what can be done about it. The film will have leading experts that will explain why blacks are dying so much younger than every other ethnic group in America and what can be done about it. But mostly the film will seek to see the problem first hand in the everyday lives of African American families telling their stories, and introduce the audience to people who are making a difference.
In Money We Trust
In Money We Trust - This is a fundraising teaser for a documentary we are doing with Maryland Public TV, chronicling how money is changing and how it has helped define modern society.
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Home / Azerbaijan / Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games journey starts from the Caspian President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the ceremony
Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games journey starts from the Caspian President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the ceremony
Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games has today launched the Journey from the Caspian, which started with a ceremony at the Stone Chronical Museum.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, chairperson of the Organizing Committee of Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games Mehriban Aliyeva and Prince of Saudi Arabia, President of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) and President of Saudi Arabia`s National Olympic Committee Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz al Saud attended the event.
The ceremony kicked off with a beautiful Azerbaijani dance.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev addressed the event.
Then President of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) and President of Saudi Arabia`s National Olympic Committee Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz al Saud made a speech.
Water, the source of life, and a symbol of purity and unity within Islam, will be the main theme of the Journey from the Caspian. During the launch ceremony, 16 children from across Azerbaijan were presented with a copper Baku 2017 Water Vessel, containing water from the Caspian Sea, which they will take back to their home towns and cities. In doing so, they will bring the spirit of the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games to the people of Azerbaijan.
Over the course of its journey, which will exceed 3,000 kms in 37 days, the Journey from the Caspian will visit 15 spectacular water locations across Azerbaijan. At each location, water will be collected, which will later be used as part of the Opening Ceremony on 12 May.
On each occasion this Water Ceremony will be followed by an evening Water Festival at which the Baku 2017 Water Vessel, containing the waters from the Caspian Sea will be presented. This free celebration, which is open to everyone, will include performances by Azerbaijani music and dance acts, spectacular water effects and brilliant fireworks.
The Baku 2017 Water Vessels, beautifully crafted from smooth and hammered copper, were inspired by Azerbaijani metalworking techniques, and traditional vessel designs from across the Islamic world. They will be used to carry the waters of the Caspian Sea across the country, to bring the crystal waters of Azerbaijan to Baku to welcome more than 50 nations to the Games, and to symbolically unite the Islamic world at the Opening Ceremony of the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games on May12.
Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev 2017-04-06
Bilal Nuriyev
Tags Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
About Bilal Nuriyev
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“Azersilah” Open Joint Stock Company abolished
President Ilham Aliyev received OSCE Parliamentary Assembly president
President Ilham Aliyev received OPEC Secretary General
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Lewis W. Brown - 93
Lewis W. Brown age 93 of Clinton, passed away Thursday Jan. 19, 2017 at his home. Funeral services will be held 11:00 AM Monday at the Pape Funeral Home. Visitation will be held Sunday 2 – 4 PM at the funeral home. Burial will be at St. Irenaeus Calvary Cemetery. Casket bearers will be members of the Clinton AMVETS. Military honors conducted by the Clinton AMVETS. Memorials may be given to the Habitat of Humanity in Clinton. Online condolences may be left at www.papefh.com Lewis was born April 12, 1923 in Emmett, KS, the son of Lewis and Martha (Clark) Brown. He served in the US Army Air Corp during WWII from 1943-1946. He married Elizabeth Byrnes on Jan. 19, 1947 in Camanche, she died in 1990. Lewis worked at E.I. DuPont as a First Class Mechanic for 33 years, retiring in 1980. He also owned and operated the Brown Button Company in Clinton for 30 years. Lewis was a member of the Prince of Peace Parish, Eagles Club, and Clinton Moose Lodge and a lifetime member of the Clinton AMVETS and VFW. He was active with the Democratic Party, Avon bottle collector, and doing craft shows. He enjoyed reading and was a lifelong Chicago Cubs and Iowa Hawkeye fan. Lewis is survived by his two sons, Louis “Bill” Brown III of Bloomington, IL and Joseph (Robin) Brown, Sr. of Austin, MN; an adopted daughter, Martha Harris; 11 grandchildren, Guy, Gwen, Jeb, Bristen, Madison, Nathaniel, Earnest, Crystal, Heidi, and Michael; and 10 great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, a son, Thomas, two brothers Donald and Duane, two sisters, Wilma and Juanita.
Visitation:
Visitation will be held Sunday 2 – 4 PM at the funeral home.
Funeral services will be held 11:00 AM Monday at the Pape Funeral Home. Burial will be at St. Irenaeus Calvary Cemetery. Casket bearers will be members of the Clinton AMVETS. Military honors conducted by the Clinton AMVETS.
View Lewis W. Brown's Guestbook
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High Fives 2018 08 – Dean Owens
Our good friend Dean Owens recently returned from a short tour and working holiday around Tennessee and South and North Carolina. He’s just completed his final show of 2018, a reunion with his old band, The Felsons and found some time to tell us about five of his favourite things from his travels in the Southern states. And, just a little teaser for you, Dean’s latest project Buffalo Blood, a collaboration with legendary producer Neilson Hubbard and Joshua Britt will be the first release on Eel Pie Records in February 2019.
The Louisville Lip
I got to visit my hero Muhammad Ali’s grave in Louisville Kentucky. A special moment for me. I wrote a song for Ali that’s on my new record – Southern Wind. I wrote it the night Ali passed away and it’s called Louisville Lip, which was one of Ali’s nicknames when he was first starting out and still called Cassius Clay. I drove up to Louisville with an old friend of mine and we just made it to Cave Hill Cemetery before it closed for the day. I left a copy of Southern Wind by the grave and sang him a verse of Louisville Lip. I’ll never forget it.
The Levitt Shell
Getting to play the historic Levitt Shell in Memphis was fantastic. Levitt Shell was where a young Elvis Presley played his first show all those years back. I’m the first Scottish artist to play there so it was a real thrill to be able to play on that stage on a hot Memphis evening and to get to sing my latest single – Elvis Was My Brother. Amazing really.
W ild Ponies
Meeting and becoming good friends with Nashville duo – Wild Ponies. Doug and Telisha Williams are brilliant in their own right and to have them back me as my band was just fantastic. Great people with big hearts. We’re going to be hooking up again in the US in the Spring. Bring it on
Albino Skunkfest
Playing the Albino Skunkfest in South Carolina and getting a standing ovation……at NOON!!! It was here I was given my new nickname – Merle Haggis. Ha ha. Wonderful people at a wonderful festival. I’ll be back.
B uffalo Blood
Meeting up with my www.buffaloblood.com friends Neilson Hubbard and Joshua Britt and finalizing our plans for our debut album and world premiere at Celtic Connections in Glasgow on the 25th January. Can’t wait.
Posted by mckaya on Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 2:17 pm
Filed under Featured, Features · Tagged with Cassius Clay, Dean Owens, Doug Williams, Elvis Presley, Louisville Lip, Muhammad Ali, Telisha Williams, The Felsons, The Levitt Shell, Wild Ponies
“Southern Wind” – Dean Owens
It’s about time we had a new album from Dean Owens, isn’t it? It’s been two and a half years since “Into the Sea”, not that he’s been resting on his considerable laurels, that’s not his style. He’s been involved in production, collaboration and loads of touring and somehow managed to fit the “Southern Wind” sessions in to the mix. Although the album’s released under Dean’s name, it’s fair to say that it’s more of a collaboration with his guitar-slinger of choice (and mine), Will Kimbrough. The musicians and production team are Dean’s regular Nashville crew and they all do the usual superb job, but the creative thread running through the centre is “Southern Wind” is the Owens/Kimbrough partnership.
They bonded over, among other things, a mutual love of Ronnie Lane and that’s the starting point for the album. “Last Song”, the album’s opener, wouldn’t feel out of place on any of the Faces albums with its loose rock feel and characteristic melodic basslines. It’s an homage and a tribute and it’s loads of fun; proof that Dean and Will can write an upbeat song (and it’s not the only one on the album).
Although the title track and “No Way Around It” have a slightly menacing Delta feel, “Southern Wind” still has very strong sense of time and place in twenty-first century Scotland and the stories of its inhabitants in difficult social and personal circumstances. “Elvis Was my Brother”, “When the Whisky’s not Enough” and “Bad News” all fit into this category, while “Famous Last Words” is a typical Dean Owens slant on the longest day of the year; that things can only get worse from here on in. Nights are fair drawin’ in, eh? “Anything Helps”, another Will Kimbrough co-write, fits neatly in to this little group with its Ronnie Lane solo era stylings and one of the album’s greatest lines ‘Took a swing at life and missed’.
There’s a place here for the intensely personal as well; the gorgeous “Madeira Street” looks back to more innocent times through a prism of grief and celebration, while “Louisville Lip” celebrates the life of Dean’s hero Muhammad Ali. “Mother” is a light-hearted sixties pastiche (just imagine it on the soundtrack to “Inspector George Gently” or “Call the Midwife”) with clipped guitar and a hint of Phil and Don, while “Love Prevails”, closing the album, channels The Chordettes’ “Born to be With You”, particularly in Will Kimbrough’s laid-back solo.
Dean Owens has that rare poetic ability to fashion perfect songs from life’s everyday stories and the ability to deliver powerful, plaintive performances of those songs. On this album, the partnership with Will Kimbrough and producer Neilson Hubbard has created perfect settings for both the melancholy and the upbeat songs. ”Southern Wind” is a fine piece of work from one of Scotland’s finest songwriters.
“Southern Wind” is released on Friday February 16 on At the Helm Records.
And here’s a special little treat for you:
Posted by mckaya on Sunday, January 28, 2018 at 2:35 pm
Filed under Album, Featured · Tagged with Allan McKay, At The Helm Records, Dean Owens, Muhammad Ali, neilson hubbard, Ronnie Lane, Southern Wind, The Chordettes, will kimbrough
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Persian music in Iran has thousands of years of history that has been recorded through the archeological documents of Elam, one of the earliest cultures. Elam is located in southwestern Iran. In ancient Iran, musicians held socially respectable positions. The history of musical performance in Sassanid Iran, however, is better documented than earlier periods, with musicians like Barbad holding an almost legendary status.
Classical music is not the only culturally unique musical style though. Iran developed its own pop music in the 1950s when Vigen introduced the guitar. Later on, Persians expanded on this pop music by using indigenous instruments. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, pop music’s future seemed ominous because of the new Islamic laws and restrictions. Many Iranians artists migrated to foreign countries and continued their work in exile.
Two examples of notable living Iranian classical vocalists are Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri. The Golha program (www.golha.co.uc) covered the history of classical as well as contemporary Persian poetry, giving marvelous expression to the whole gamut of traditional Persian music and poetry.
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Eight companies commit to reducing methane emissions
By ExxonMobil | November 27, 2017
BP, Eni, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, Total and Wintershall last week committed to further reduce methane emissions from the natural gas assets they operate around the world. The energy companies also agreed to encourage others across the natural gas value chain–from production to the final consumer–to do the same.
The commitment was made as part of wider efforts by the global energy industry to ensure that natural gas continues to play a critical role in helping meet future energy demand while addressing climate change. Since natural gas consists mainly of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, its role in the transition to a low-carbon future will be influenced by the extent to which methane emissions are reduced.
The eight energy companies today signed a guiding principles document, which focuses on: continually reducing methane emissions; advancing strong performance across gas value chains; improving accuracy of methane emissions data; advocating sound policies and regulations on methane emissions; and increasing transparency.
“Numerous studies have shown the importance of quickly reducing methane emissions if we’re to meet growing energy demand and multiple environmental goals,” said Mark Radka, head of UN Environment’s Energy and Climate Branch. “The guiding principles provide an excellent framework for doing so across the entire natural gas value chain, particularly if they’re linked to reporting on the emissions reductions achieved.”
The guiding principles were developed in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Gas Union, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative Climate Investments, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Sustainable Gas Institute, The Energy and Resources Institute, and United Nations Environment.
“Our analysis at IEA shows that credible action to minimise methane emissions is essential to the achievement of global climate goals, and to the outlook for natural gas,” said Tim Gould, Head of Supply Division, World Energy Outlook, IEA. “The commitment by companies to the guiding principles is a very important step; we look forward to seeing the results of their implementation and wider application. The opportunity is considerable–implementing all of the cost-effective methane abatement measures worldwide would have the same effect on long-term climate change as closing all existing coal-fired power plants in China.”
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BOOK REVIEW– The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
Readers interested in the early history of Christianity will enjoy historian Bart Ehrman’s latest book and bestseller, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World. The book focuses mainly on what happened, and why things happened the way the did, during the 4th century. In 301 CE, Christians were a small but visible minority within the Roman Empire, subject to persecution by decree of emperor Diocletian. By 399 Christianity was the official religion of the empire, and probably half the population practiced it. How did so dramatic a change unfold? What factors made the rise of Christianity improbable? What factors contributed to its success?
Unlike some historians, Ehrman fully accepts the conversion of Constantine the Great, Rome’s first Christian Emperor, as entirely authentic. Constantine’s edict (312 CE) tolerating all religions, and the prestige of having an emperor who was Christian, spurred on the growth of the religion. But Ehrman gives less importance to these facts than some historians do. He describes a number of factors restraining the growth of Christianity. It’s insistence on worshipping only one god, excluding all others, was quite alien to the world view of pagan Rome, which encompassed a nearly infinite pageant of gods, spirits, and heroes. The idea of blending ethical philosophy with religion would also have seemed strange, maybe even a little bit crazy, to most Greeks and Romans, whose gods and priests had little say to about how humans should behave toward other humans. Moreover, Christianity’s emphasis on an afterlife might have seemed rather superstitious to people who mostly had only very vague and fuzzy notions about such things. Ehrman points out that many Roman graves of the era had an inscription that was as familiar to them as R.I.P. would be on our tombstones. It often read simply N.F.F.N.S.N.C., standing for Non Fui, Fui, Non Sum, Non Curo, meaning I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. Many modern secularists may share a similar notion today, expecting no more cares after death than before birth.
But some of Christianity’s oddities might also have made the religion attractive. An afterlife that included rewards in heaven could have appealed to a large portion of the population, whose lives were often hard. The possibility of punishments in hell, coupled with the claim that a final judgment was near at hand, added a sense of urgency. More than most of the religions of the empire, Christianity claimed to offer a plan, a method for getting that heavenly life ever after. Ehrman emphasizes, too, the importance of miracles in persuading many of the validity of the new religion. Miracles then, Ehrman suspects, were much the same as miracles today, meaning that most of the people who believed in miracles never experienced one personally nor witnessed one directly. People hear about miracles that happen to other people, and some come to believe those miracles are facts, and are persuaded by them. Miracles, or at least stories about miracles, were a major selling point of early Christianity.
One common understanding that Ehrman tries to dispense with is the notion that the Christianization of the Roman Empire required repeated conversions on a massive scale. Of course no solid numbers are available. But reasonable estimates of the population of the empire and the numbers of Christians at different points in time tell a story that is distinctly non-dramatic. The shift from tiny minority to clear majority took several centuries, and could have been achieved at an average growth rate in the range of 3% to 4% per year. That is, each group of 100 Christians had to increase their number by 3 or 4 persons every year, something that could easily result from converting a single family. That doesn’t sound like much, but like compounded interest the growth curve is exponential over time. Ehrman makes a strong case that a modest growth rate, sustained mostly by one-on-one, face-to-face communication, continued over several centuries, converted a vast empire.
The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, by Bart D. Ehrman (Simon and Schuster, 2018), is currently available in hardcover, ebook, and audible editions.
Jim Dugan
NOSHA Board Member and Secretary
If the Humanist Manifesto Were a Book It Might Look Like This
The Hard Truths of Scientism
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You are here: Home / Archives for Congress
Daylin’s Campaign Announcement Party
July 6, 2017 by PJV Contributor Leave a Comment
Join Daylin Leach as he announces his decision on a run for US Congress. Bring your friends who are interested in joining our movement to bring a progressive, inclusive agenda to America.
Click here to RSVP!
Filed Under: Tagged With: Congress, Daylin Leach
American Democracy Challenged: Political Gridlock and What We Can Do About It
November 8, 2015 by Rabbi George Stern Leave a Comment
The Jewish Social Policy Action Network (JSPAN) is pleased to host two renowned former Congressmen, Tom Davis (R -Virginia) and Martin Frost (D- Texas) for an in-depth examination of how partisanship has led to Congressional gridlock and what can be done to reverse the trend.
The program will take place on Sunday, November 8, at 2 p.m., at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, 615 N. Broad St., Philadelphia.
Davis and Frost are the co-authors of the 2014 book, The Partisan Divided: Congress in Crisis which outlines a bipartisan approach to making Congress more responsive to the needs of the American people. Davis is the former chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Frost served as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Joining forces in an effort “to save Congress from itself,” Frost and Davis argue that the legislative branch is incapable of reforming itself without “a good kick in the seat from the American public.” Together, the two retired lawmakers have developed a common sense, bipartisan plan for making our Congress function again.
The program comes at a time when the leadership of the House remains in doubt and the agenda for the remainder of the 114th Congress’ term is uncertain.
Two weeks later, on November 22, also at 2 p.m. at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, JSPAN will sponsor panel discussions on campaign finance and redistricting/gerrymandering, two of the issues Davis and Frost cite as contributing to the gridlock and hyper partisanship. The panelists will explore how gerrymandering affects the value of each vote cast and therefore voter turnout, and the role money plays in politics, with special attention to local elections. Journalist and professor Dick Polman and State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-King of Prussia) are among the panelists scheduled.
Founded in 2003, JSPAN strives to advance progressive social policies on the critical issues of our time. JSPAN focuses a range of domestic policy issues such as: voting rights and election law, economic justice, race relations, church/state separation, gun violence, reproductive rights, public education, and more—all of which are affected by access to the political process.
We invite coverage of the event as well pre-publicity. Please contact George Stern to arrange interviews with the congressmen.
Event registration is free and can be accessed on the JSPAN website, www.jspan.org.
Filed Under: Tagged With: Congress, Daylin Leach, democracy, Dick Polman, JSPAN, Martin Frost, Redistricting, Tom Davis
Bipartisan Group Tackles Redistricting Reform in Harrisburg
June 2, 2015 by PJV Contributor Leave a Comment
— Charles M. Tocci
Calling it an “imperative” first step to any government reform initiative, a bipartisan, bicameral group of Pennsylvania lawmakers today announced the formation of a legislative workgroup aimed at hammering out redistricting reform legislation.
“Modern day government has deteriorated into a politically tainted, polarized and gridlocked force that is more about self-preservation than representative government,” said Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton). “This bipartisan effort is not about whether we need to change redistricting, but how we should change it.”
The number of interactions between cross-party pairs has decreased drastically from 1949 to 2011. (Image: Clio Andris)
The lawmakers claim that Pennsylvania’s many oddly shaped, gerrymandered districts have created politically impenetrable fiefdoms that pressure lawmakers to toe the party line at the expense of bipartisanship and compromise. A recent Penn State study concluded that members of Congress are now nearly seven times less likely to cross-vote on issues than they were a few decades ago. In the 112th Congress (2011-2013), just 7 of the 444 members accounted for 98.3% of all cross-votes.
Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland) noted, “We’ve heard our constituents’ ask for a more accountable government and a more open and transparent redistricting process in Pennsylvania. I hope the formation of this bipartisan redistricting reform group shows that we are listening to those concerns, and we’re ready and willing to work together to overcome current challenges. This is a significant first step toward a bipartisan solution that works for all of Pennsylvania.
Rep. Mike Carroll (D-Luzerne) said, “There are some good proposals on the table. This workgroup’s job is to find common ground, draw the best from various ideas, and emerge with a strong bipartisan solution that we can all rally around.”
Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair) added, “I believe that the difficulties and delays that plagued Pennsylvania’s last attempt to put together a timely map of legislative districts emphasizes the need to explore new methods of reapportionment in the Commonwealth. For that reason, I am happy to participate in the efforts of this workgroup.”
The lawmakers said it is important that the redistricting reform process take shape this legislative session to have a new system in place when district maps are redrawn again for the 2020 census. To change the redistricting process, the state legislature must pass legislation changing the state’s constitution in two consecutive sessions. Voters must then approve the reform proposal via referendum.
“Our democratic system requires that voters choose their legislators, but our politically motivated redistricting process allows legislators to choose voters instead,” said state Sen. Rob Teplitz (D-Dauphin/Perry). “That must change.”
Sen. Lisa Boscola speaks at redistricting press conference. (Photo: Christian Alexandersen, Pennlive)
Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. (Photo: Christian Alexandersen, Pennlive)
The 12th Congressional District carefully avoids Democratic strongholds in the Pittsburgh area.
Lawmakers claim that the last Legislative Reapportionment Commission largely ignored sound redistricting tenants such as contiguity, compactness and community of interest. New legislative maps, which were supposed to be in place for the 2012 elections, were overturned by the state Supreme Court as being “contrary to law.” The decision sent the commission’s lawmakers, lawyers and staffers back to the drawing board and kept old legislative boundaries in place for the 2012 election.
Members of the group pointed out that the method we use for congressional redistricting in Pennsylvania isn’t any better. The 11th Congressional district runs from Adams County to the northern tier, while the 15th Congressional district goes from Easton to Harrisburg, and the 12th Congressional District traverses from Cambria County to the Ohio line.
The legislators said that drawing Congressional districts is more politically charged than drawing the state House and Senate districts because Congressional districts are presented in bill form and goes through the legislative process. A bipartisan reapportionment commission comprised of caucus leaders meets and deliberates on state House and Senate districts before presenting its state legislative redistricting proposal.
Non-partisan map would give Pennsylvania less biased representation in Congress.
(Editor: Stephen Wolf has computed non-partisan maps “that give voters a real choice and allow the majority to have its voice heard.” Here are his maps for Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and other states.
Even more representative maps can be drawn by actively seeking proportional representation and competitive districts instead of ignoring partisanship as Stephen Wolf does.)
Other lawmakers at the news conference included Senator John Blake (D-Lackawanna), along with Representatives Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks), Dave Parker (R-Monroe) and Steve Also on hand to express their organization’s support for redistricting reform were: Barry Kauffman, Common Cause; Susan Carty, League of Women Voters and Desiree Hung, AARP.
Filed Under: Featured Articles Tagged With: Boscola, Carroll, Common Cause, Congress, Daylin Leach, Delozier, Eichelberger, Gerrymandering, Harrisburg, Legislative Reapportionment Commission, LRC, LWV, Pennsylvania, Redistricting
Can We Trust Obama on Iran?
March 14, 2015 by PJV Contributor Leave a Comment
(NJDC) In his latest op-ed in The Hill, political commentator Steve Sheffey described why Israel and the American Jewish community can trust President Obama as diplomatic negotiations with Iran continue.
“After a frosty reception for Iron Dome from the George W. Bush administration, Obama fully backed Iron Dome and asked for funding above what Congress appropriated.”
Looking at the President’s record after six years in the Oval Office, Sheffey wrote, “No Republican president has been a better friend of Israel than Obama.”
It is a measure of the strength of Obama’s commitment to Israel that he has not let personal tensions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu get in the way of a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship.
Under Obama, U.S. aid to Israel has reached record levels. After a frosty reception for Iron Dome from the George W. Bush administration, Obama fully backed Iron Dome and asked for funding above what Congress appropriated, which saved thousands of Israeli lives during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Obama also gave Israel access to the munitions it needed to replenish its supplies during that conflict.
Obama’s record clearly demonstrates that he has earned the trust of the global community in working to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Sheffey criticized Congress’ recent actions against the administration’s diplomatic efforts:
Diplomacy remains our last best hope of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. We still don’t know if Iran will agree to our conditions. If they do, we’ll all have a chance to see if the deal meets the expectations the administration has set. Until then, Congress should not jeopardize the success of negotiations by legislation or back-channel communications.
The Obama administration has earned our trust and deserves a chance to succeed.
Filed Under: News & Opinion Tagged With: Congress, Iran, Obama
Netanyahu Warns Congress About “Very Bad” Iran Deal
March 3, 2015 by PJV Contributor Leave a Comment
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the upcoming agreement on Iran’s nuclear program between it and the P5+1 countries is “a very bad deal” in his speech to Congress. (Video and transcript below.)
Netanyahu said that the deal would not ensure that Iran will not be able to produce nuclear weapons:
According to the deal, not a single nuclear facility would be demolished. Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium would be left spinning. Thousands more would be temporarily disconnected, but not destroyed.
Because Iran’s nuclear program would be left largely intact, Iran’s breakout time would be very short – about a year by U.S. assessment, even shorter by Israel’s.
And if Iran’s work on advanced centrifuges, faster and faster centrifuges, is not stopped, that breakout time could still be shorter, a lot shorter.
True, certain restrictions would be imposed on Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s adherence to those restrictions would be supervised by international inspectors. But here’s the problem. You see, inspectors document violations; they don’t stop them.
Israel’s prime minister said that an even greater danger is that “virtually all the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will automatically expire in about a decade.”
Now, a decade may seem like a long time in political life, but it’s the blink of an eye in the life of a nation. It’s a blink of an eye in the life of our children. We all have a responsibility to consider what will happen when Iran’s nuclear capabilities are virtually unrestricted and all the sanctions will have been lifted. Iran would then be free to build a huge nuclear capacity that could produce many, many nuclear bombs.
Iran’s Supreme Leader says that openly. He says Iran plans to have 190,000 centrifuges, not 6,000 or even the 19,000 that Iran has today, but 10 times that amount – 190,000 centrifuges enriching uranium. With this massive capacity, Iran could make the fuel for an entire nuclear arsenal and this in a matter of weeks, once it makes that decision.
Netanyahu: My friends, I’m deeply humbled by the opportunity to speak for a third time before the most important legislative body in the world, the U.S. Congress. I want to thank you all for being here today. I know that my speech has been the subject of much controversy. I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention.
I want to thank you, Democrats and Republicans, for your common support for Israel, year after year, decade after decade. I know that no matter on which side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel. The remarkable alliance between Israel and the United States has always been above politics. It must always remain above politics. Because America and Israel, we share a common destiny, the destiny of promised lands that cherish freedom and offer hope. Israel is grateful for the support of America’s people and of America’s presidents, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.
We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel. Now, some of that is widely known. Some of that is widely known, like strengthening security cooperation and intelligence sharing, opposing anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N.
Some of what the president has done for Israel is less well-known. I called him in 2010 when we had the Carmel forest fire, and he immediately agreed to respond to my request for urgent aid. In 2011, we had our embassy in Cairo under siege, and again, he provided vital assistance at the crucial moment. Or his support for more missile interceptors during our operation last summer when we took on Hamas terrorists. In each of those moments, I called the president, and he was there.
And some of what the president has done for Israel might never be known, because it touches on some of the most sensitive and strategic issues that arise between an American president and an Israeli prime minister. But I know it, and I will always be grateful to President Obama for that support.
And Israel is grateful to you, the American Congress, for your support, for supporting us in so many ways, especially in generous military assistance and missile defense, including Iron Dome. Last summer, millions of Israelis were protected from thousands of Hamas rockets because this capital dome helped build our Iron Dome.
Thank you, America. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Israel.
My friends, I’ve come here today because, as Prime Minister of Israel, I feel a profound obligation to speak to you about an issue that could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people: Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons.
We’re an ancient people. In our nearly 4,000 years of history, many have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people. Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we’ll read the Book of Esther. We’ll read of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gave for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies. The plot was foiled. Our people were saved.
Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy us. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred, the oldest hatred of antisemitism with the newest technology. He tweets that Israel must be annihilated – he tweets. You know, in Iran, there isn’t exactly free Internet. But he tweets in English that Israel must be destroyed.
For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran’s chief terrorist proxy. He said: If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.
But Iran’s regime is not merely a Jewish problem, any more than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. The 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were but a fraction of the 60 million people killed in World War II. So, too, Iran’s regime poses a grave threat, not only to Israel, but also the peace of the entire world. To understand just how dangerous Iran would be with nuclear weapons, we must fully understand the nature of the regime. The people of Iran are very talented people. They’re heirs to one of the world’s great civilizations. But in 1979, they were hijacked by religious zealots – religious zealots who imposed on them immediately a dark and brutal dictatorship.
That year, the zealots drafted a constitution, a new one for Iran. It directed the revolutionary guards not only to protect Iran’s borders, but also to fulfill the ideological mission of jihad. The regime’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, exhorted his followers to ‘export the revolution throughout the world.’
I’m standing here in Washington, D.C. and the difference is so stark. America’s founding document promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Iran’s founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the pursuit of jihad. And as states are collapsing across the Middle East, Iran is charging into the void to do just that.
Iran’s goons in Gaza, its lackeys in Lebanon, its revolutionary guards on the Golan Heights are clutching Israel with three tentacles of terror. Backed by Iran, Assad is slaughtering Syrians. Backed by Iran, Shiite militias are rampaging through Iraq. Backed by Iran, Houthis are seizing control of Yemen, threatening the strategic straits at the mouth of the Red Sea. Along with the Straits of Hormuz, that would give Iran a second choke-point on the world’s oil supply. Just last week, near Hormuz, Iran carried out a military exercise blowing up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier. That’s just last week, while they’re having nuclear talks with the United States. But unfortunately, for the last 36 years, Iran’s attacks against the United States have been anything but mock. And the targets have been all too real.
Iran took dozens of Americans hostage in Tehran, murdered hundreds of American soldiers, Marines, in Beirut, and was responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Beyond the Middle East, Iran attacks America and its allies through its global terror network. It blew up the Jewish community center and the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. It helped al-Qaeda bomb U.S. embassies in Africa. It even attempted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, right here in Washington, D.C.
In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. And if Iran’s aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow.
So, at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations. We must all stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror.
Now, two years ago, we were told to give President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif a chance to bring change and moderation to Iran. Some change! Some moderation! Rouhani’s government hangs gays, persecutes Christians, jails journalists and executes even more prisoners than before.
Last year, the same Zarif who charms Western diplomats laid a wreath at the grave of Imad Mughniyeh. Imad Mughniyeh is the terrorist mastermind who spilled more American blood than any other terrorist besides Osama bin Laden. I’d like to see someone ask him a question about that.
Iran’s regime is as radical as ever, its cries of “Death to America,” that same America that it calls the “Great Satan,” as loud as ever. Now, this shouldn’t be surprising, because the ideology of Iran’s revolutionary regime is deeply rooted in militant Islam, and that’s why this regime will always be an enemy of America.
Don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire.
In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no peace for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone. So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.
The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured weapons and YouTube, whereas Iran could soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs. We must always remember – I’ll say it one more time – the greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen.
But that, my friends, is exactly what could happen, if the deal now being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them.
Let me explain why. While the final deal has not yet been signed, certain elements of any potential deal are now a matter of public record. You don’t need intelligence agencies and secret information to know this. You can Google it. Absent a dramatic change, we know for sure that any deal with Iran will include two major concessions to Iran.
The first major concession would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure, providing it with a short breakout time to the bomb. Breakout time is the time it takes to amass enough weapons-grade uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb.
Inspectors knew when North Korea broke to the bomb, but that didn’t stop anything. North Korea turned off the cameras, kicked out the inspectors. Within a few years, it got the bomb.
Now, we’re warned that within five years North Korea could have an arsenal of 100 nuclear bombs.
Like North Korea, Iran, too, has defied international inspectors. It’s done that on at least three separate occasions – 2005, 2006, 2010. Like North Korea, Iran broke the locks, shut off the cameras. Now, I know this is not going to come as a shock to any of you, but Iran not only defies inspectors, it also plays a pretty good game of hide-and-cheat with them.
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, said again yesterday that Iran still refuses to come clean about its military nuclear program. Iran was also caught – caught twice, not once, twice – operating secret nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom, facilities that inspectors didn’t even know existed.
Right now, Iran could be hiding nuclear facilities that we don’t know about, the U.S. and Israel. As the former head of inspections for the IAEA said in 2013, he said, ‘If there’s no undeclared installation today in Iran, it will be the first time in 20 years that it doesn’t have one.’ Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted. And that’s why the first major concession is a source of great concern. It leaves Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure and relies on inspectors to prevent a breakout. That concession creates a real danger that Iran could get to the bomb by violating the deal.
But the second major concession creates an even greater danger that Iran could get to the bomb by keeping the deal. Because virtually all the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will automatically expire in about a decade. Now, a decade may seem like a long time in political life, but it’s the blink of an eye in the life of a nation. It’s a blink of an eye in the life of our children. We all have a responsibility to consider what will happen when Iran’s nuclear capabilities are virtually unrestricted and all the sanctions will have been lifted. Iran would then be free to build a huge nuclear capacity that could produce many, many nuclear bombs.
My long-time friend, John Kerry, Secretary of State, confirmed last week that Iran could legitimately possess that massive centrifuge capacity when the deal expires.
Now I want you to think about that. The foremost sponsor of global terrorism could be weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons and this with full international legitimacy.
And by the way, if Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile program is not part of the deal, and so far, Iran refuses to even put it on the negotiating table. Well, Iran could have the means to deliver that nuclear arsenal to the far-reaching corners of the Earth, including to every part of the United States. So you see, my friends, this deal has two major concessions: one, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program and two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade. That’s why this deal is so bad. It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.
So why would anyone make this deal? Because they hope that Iran will change for the better in the coming years, or they believe that the alternative to this deal is worse?
Well, I disagree. I don’t believe that Iran’s radical regime will change for the better after this deal. This regime has been in power for 36 years, and its voracious appetite for aggression grows with each passing year. This deal would only whet Iran’s appetite for more.
Would Iran be less aggressive when sanctions are removed and its economy is stronger? If Iran is gobbling up four countries right now while it’s under sanctions, how many more countries will Iran devour when sanctions are lifted? Would Iran fund less terrorism when it has mountains of cash with which to fund more terrorism?
Why should Iran’s radical regime change for the better when it can enjoy the best of both worlds: aggression abroad, prosperity at home?
This is a question that everyone asks in our region. Israel’s neighbors, Iran’s neighbors, know that Iran will become even more aggressive and sponsor even more terrorism when its economy is unshackled and it’s been given a clear path to the bomb. And many of these neighbors say they’ll respond by racing to get nuclear weapons of their own. So this deal won’t change Iran for the better; it will only change the Middle East for the worse. A deal that’s supposed to prevent nuclear proliferation would instead spark a nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the planet.
This deal won’t be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms control. And the Middle East would soon be crisscrossed by nuclear tripwires. A region where small skirmishes can trigger big wars would turn into a nuclear tinderbox.
If anyone thinks this deal kicks the can down the road, think again. When we get down that road, we’ll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve come here today to tell you we don’t have to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for the better. We don’t have to gamble with our future and with our children’s future.
We can insist that restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program not be lifted for as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and in the world. Before lifting those restrictions, the world should demand that Iran do three things. First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East. Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world. And third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state.
If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal is signed, at the very least they should insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal expires. If Iran changes its behavior, the restrictions would be lifted. If Iran doesn’t change its behavior, the restrictions should not be lifted. If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country.
My friends,
What about the argument that there’s no alternative to this deal, that Iran’s nuclear know-how cannot be erased, that its nuclear program is so advanced that the best we can do is delay the inevitable, which is essentially what the proposed deal seeks to do?
Well, nuclear know-how without nuclear infrastructure doesn’t get you very much. A racecar driver without a car can’t drive. A pilot without a plane can’t fly. Without thousands of centrifuges, tons of enriched uranium or heavy water facilities, Iran can’t make nuclear weapons.
Iran’s nuclear program can be rolled back well-beyond the current proposal by insisting on a better deal and keeping up the pressure on a very vulnerable regime, especially given the recent collapse in the price of oil.
Now, if Iran threatens to walk away from the table – and this often happens in a Persian bazaar – call their bluff. They’ll be back, because they need the deal a lot more than you do.
And by maintaining the pressure on Iran and on those who do business with Iran, you have the power to make them need it even more. My friends, for over a year, we’ve been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. We’re better off without it.
Now we’re being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That’s just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal: a better deal that doesn’t leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure and such a short breakout time; a better deal that keeps the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in place until Iran’s aggression ends; a better deal that won’t give Iran an easy path to the bomb; a better deal that Israel and its neighbors may not like, but with which we could live, literally. And no country has a greater stake – no country has a greater stake than Israel in a good deal that peacefully removes this threat.
History has placed us at a fateful crossroads. We must now choose between two paths. One path leads to a bad deal that will at best curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions for a while, but it will inexorably lead to a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war. The second path, however difficult, could lead to a much better deal, that would prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclearized Middle East and the horrific consequences of both to all of humanity.
You don’t have to read Robert Frost to know. You have to live life to know that the difficult path is usually the one less traveled, but it will make all the difference for the future of my country, the security of the Middle East and the peace of the world, the peace we all desire.
My friends, standing up to Iran is not easy. Standing up to dark and murderous regimes never is. With us today is Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Elie, your life and work inspires to give meaning to the words, ‘Never Again.’ And I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned. I can only urge the leaders of the world not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Not to sacrifice the future for the present; not to ignore aggression in the hopes of gaining an illusory peace.
But I can guarantee you this, the days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves.
This is why as Prime Minister of Israel, I can promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But I know that Israel does not stand alone. I know that America stands with Israel. I know that you stand with Israel. You stand with Israel because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors.
Facing me right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land. And before the people of Israel entered the Land of Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. I leave you with his message today, ‘Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them.’
My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we face the future with confidence, strength and hope.
May God bless the State of Israel and may God bless the United States of America.
Filed Under: Featured Articles, Israel Tagged With: Congress, Iran, Netanyahu
Netanyahu Declines to Meet Democratic Senators Before Congressional Speech
February 25, 2015 by Daniel Loeb Leave a Comment
Biden (left) and Boehner (right) look on as Netanyahu speaks before Congress.
DEBKA reported that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declined an invitation for a closed-door meeting with Democratic Senators next week in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein:
Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation, I believe that accepting it at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit.
DEBKA added that National Security Adviser Susan Rice, the latest U.S. administration official to attack Netanyahu, sharply called his forthcoming speech on Iran to Congress “destructive to the relationship between the two countries” in an interview with Charlie Rose Tuesday night:
What has happened over the last several weeks by virtue of the invitation that was issued by the speaker and the acceptance of it by Prime Minister Netanyahu two weeks before his elections is that on both sides there have been injected some degree of partisanship.
It is not only unfortunate but it is also destructive of the fabric of the relationship. It has always been bipartisan and we want to keep it that way. When it becomes injected with politics, that’s a problem.
Earlier, Secretary of State John Kerry said in reference to the prime minister that “anybody running around right now jumping in to say, ‘Well we don’t like the deal,’ or this, or that, doesn’t know what the deal is.”
Previously, Netanyahu remarked on his upcoming speech:
This agreement, if signed, will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state – meaning that, with the powers’ consent, Iran will get a license to develop atom bombs – and this is a country which openly declares its intention to destroy the state of Israel. That is why I will go to Washington to speak before the US Congress, because the U.S. Congress may be the last defense before it is signed.
Filed Under: Israel, Uncategorized Tagged With: Congress, Iran, Kerry, Netanyahu
Netanyahu Demands U.S. Congress Pass Carbon Tax (Parody)
February 25, 2015 by Rabbi Arthur Waskow Leave a Comment
Parody courtesy of Disassociated Press
(Disassociated Press — Washington DC, March 3, 2015) Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel today startled the U.S. Congress by demanding that it pass a strong carbon tax to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions that lead to global scorching.
The State of Israel faces an extreme threat to its existence much more dangerous to us than Iran or the Palestinians. And only the United States can prevent this disaster.
Our best scientists have told me that if the world continues with business as usual in pouring CO2 into our air, the added heat will expand the size of the Negev Desert so that it will swallow up most of Israel. And sea levels of the Mediterranean will rise to put much of Tel Aviv under water.
I am sad to say that much of the present CO2 comes from unchecked fossil-fuel burning by American companies. Only a strong US carbon tax can end this. On behalf of the people of Israel and of the entire Jewish people, I implore you — I urge you — even I would say I demand of you — that you take this step as soon as possible.
Senators and Members of the House of Representatives were thrown into a buzzing uproar by Mr. Netanyahu’s speech. Speaker Boehner was seen to hit his hand against his head three times in what looked like frustration.
Until Mr. Netanyahu began to speak, it was widely expected he would call for Congress to impose even more draconian sanctions against Iran than now exist.
There were sharp divisions in American politics over having the speech at all.
On the one hand, the House Republican leadership had arranged it without informing the President or the Democratic Congressional leadership — an unheard-of procedure for inviting a foreign leader. The Republican leadership also invited several major supporters and donors to sit in seats of honor in the gallery.
One of these was Sheldon Adelson, multibillionaire head of a casino empire who has been one of Mr. Netanyahu’s strongest political supporters and donors in Israeli politics, and who has also been a major contributor to Republican candidates for President.
From his seat, as the speech took its unexpected turn, he began shouting, “No, No, No.” When forced to leave by the Capitol police, he came down outside the Capitol, roaring, “For this I paid the whole cost of the newspaper I invented to support him? What will I say to my friends Charles and David Koch? Did some Greenpeacer poison his coffee this morning?”
On the other hand, the White House had sharply criticized the invitation, and many critics had gathered outside the Capitol to protest what they had expected Mr. Netanyahu to say. They had argued that his policy would undermine President Obama’s diplomatic work to pull Iran away from nuclear weapons, would instead push Iran toward making them, and thus would likely lead to a disastrous war.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow (front right) and other protesters.
One of the protesters, Rabbi Arthur Waskow of The Shalom Center, is also a leader in urging the American Jewish community to work against the fossil-fuel burning that brings on climate chaos. Our reporter asked Rabbi Waskow what he thought of the speech.
I am astounded. A reminder that even bellicose, short-sighted politicians can still open themselves to the deepest truth, and amaze everyone — maybe even themselves.In Jewish spiritual life we call it tshuvah — literally, turning in a new direction, toward the God Who breathes all life. We pray, “You Who are the Breath of Life, May Your sacred winds of change turn us in a new direction – and then we will turn!”
All I can say this afternoon is, Amen to that!
Filed Under: News & Opinion Tagged With: Congress, Iran, Netanyahu
House Rule Change to Deny Disability Insurance Funding
January 8, 2015 by PJV Contributor Leave a Comment
— by Mark D. Olshan and Rachel Goldberg
Among the first acts of the 114th U.S. Congress was the adoption of a new rule that will undercut Social Security as a whole, and risks steep cuts in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits (DI) by late 2016.
During the summer, the 2014 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report stated the DI trust fund is at risk of being depleted by 2016. The latest forecast is consistent with past reports, including expectations in the early 1980s, when funding allocations between retirement and disability benefits were last adjusted. [Read more…]
Filed Under: News & Opinion Tagged With: BBI, Bender, Congress, disability, Goldberg, OASI, Olshan, Social Security
Should Obama Start Compromising on His Agenda?
November 23, 2014 by Daniel Loeb Leave a Comment
Will the Senate prevent Obama from nominating another justice like Sonya Sotomayor?
Obama will have to deal with a Republican Senate for the first time in his presidency and some, like think tank “Third Way,” argue Obama should respond by compromising on his progressive agenda. But is that really necessary?
In important matters such as Supreme Court appointments, Obama might be more effective by standing up for his convictions.
Bill Clinton watches as Ruth Bader Ginsberg is sworn in as Supreme Court Justice in 1993.
This question is all the more important as 81 year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg underwent heart surgery after experiencing discomfort on Tuesday. Otherwise, she is in fine shape: She works out regularly, and even put in an “all-nighter” to write her dissenting opinion last month on the Texas Voter ID law, as she told Ella Magazine in September, before her heart problem started:
Jessica Weisberg: I’m not sure how to ask this, but a lot of people who admire and respect you wonder if you’ll resign while President Obama is in office.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg: Who do you think President Obama could appoint at this very day, given the boundaries that we have? If I resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court. [The Senate Democrats] took off the filibuster for lower federal court appointments, but it remains for this court. So anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided. As long as I can do the job full steam… I think I’ll recognize when the time comes that I can’t any longer. But now I can.
Control of the Senate makes little difference on legislation as long as Obama is willing to to dust off his veto pen. Over the last six years Obama has only vetoed two bills, fewer than any President since James Garfield who served for only half a year. However, that should change as his veto authority will be needed to keep Republican legislation in check.
However, Obama’s veto pen is of little use to stymie the Senate’s abuse of its power to confirm or deny Presidential appointments. Even with a Democratic majority, the Republican threat of a filibuster has created a record backlog.
According to AP, “Some 150 of President Barack Obama’s nominees are still waiting their turn. They include 25 more potential ambassadors and other senior State Department appointments.” For example, we do not have a Surgeon General to spearhead our response to the Ebola crisis. Fully a quarter of the world, does not have an American ambassador. We don’t have one in Russia to clarify our position in the war with Ukraine and we do not have one in Guatemala to stave off the droves of unaccompanied minors seeking refuge in our country. The situation was even worse until Harry Reid recently limited the ability to filibuster certain judicial appointments.
Defining a Legacy
Of all these nominations the most significative are the judicial appointments, since they are lifetime appointments. A justice appointed to the Supreme Court may end up serving decades after the President who made the appointment is long gone. In this way, judicial appointments especially to the Supreme Court define a president’s legacy far beyond his own term of office.
This is not a moot point. Given the ages of the current Justices on the Supreme Court, there is a 49.1% chance that at least one of the nine will not live to see the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. Together with the possibility that a Justice retires for health or personal reasons short of shuffling off this mortal coil, it is more likely that not that Obama will yet face one or more vacancies on the Supreme Court.
Harry Enten studies Obama’s options for a potential Supreme Court vacancy and concludes that “The Supreme Court won’t be getting another Sotomayor anytime soon” and suggests Obama placate Republicans by seeking candidates more to their liking.
The 2014 Senate elections have made it more difficult for Obama to appoint a Supreme Court Justice. If any future nominee looks like those the Pr4esident has already appointed, he’d likely have a fight on his hands. His best chance would be to go with a nominee who is a true moderate, or an impeccably qualified, mainstream Democrat.
That might work if Republicans were opposing Obama’s nominees on their merits. However, Republican opposition has often taken shape to gain leverage as a protest against extraneous issues like the Affordable Care Act or immigration. Sometimes Obama’s support for a previously conservative idea is the kiss of death as Republicans flip positions in order to not be perceived as supporting anything that Obama favors.
Making the Case Directly to the People
Instead of searching in vain for a hypothetical consensus candidate, Obama should choose the candidate who best exemplifies his vision for the Supreme Court and make his case directly to the public.
Adam Green suggests that Obama stop catering to “what the center of Washington D.C. is instead of what the center of the country is…. If Mitch McConnell wants to stand up and say ‘no’ to millions of hispanics; if Mitch McConnell wants to say ‘no’ to millions of women, then let him.”
Perhaps the Republicans will refuse to approve a progressive justice, and either deny the candidate a hearing or vote the candidate down. However, if they do, Democrats can make that the issue they bring to the American people in the 2016 election. If voters are unhappy with actions of the Senate, many Republican Senators will lose the seats they won in the Republican wave of 2010.
If the Democrats win the White House and regain control of the Senate, the next President would be able to appoint a true progressive. If necessary, it would be better to wait a little while for a nominee with vision than to settle for a flawed compromise justice of the Supreme Court.
Filed Under: Featured Articles, News & Opinion Tagged With: Congress, Obama, Senate, Sotomayor, Supreme Court
Gerrymandering Dooms Dems’ Hopes in House
Democrats’ grief over this year’s election has focused on their losses in the Senate, but their losses in the House of Representatives are much worse. While the Senate could be regained by the Democrats in a couple of years, retaking the House may take a decade or more.
Democrats May Win Senate in 2016
In off-year elections, about 12% of voters are 18-29 years old, 23% are 30-44, and 64% are older. However, in Presidential elections about 18% are 18-29, 28% are 30-44, and 54% are older.
Most of the senators in the third of Senate that was up for election this year were elected in the Democratic wave led by Barack Obama in 2008 as he inspired young voters to come to the polls and defeat John McCain.
However, young voters are not consistent voters. They tend to turn out in much larger number for presidential elections. In this year’s off-year election, the youth failed to come out in great numbers, so most of these swing seats slipped out of Democratic hands giving control of the Senate to the Republicans. Democrats are disappointed by this outcome, but at least for the Senate their setback might only be temporary.
The batch of Senators up for election in 2016 is dominated by the Republicans who benefited from the Republican wave of 2010, so if the Democrats can get their base to turn out to the polls again in a presidential election year they might be able to take back four or five seats and regain control of the Senate.
Gerrymandering Renders House Elections Nearly Irrelevant
All of the attention on the Senate has diverted many people’s attention from the House of Representatives. After the 2010 census, Republicans used their control of numerous state legislatures and governorships, and sophisticated redistricting technology to craft congressional districts to their liking for the 2012 presidential election.
As a result, even though Obama was reelected and more people voted for Democratic congressional candidates than for Republican candidates (59.6 million to 58.2 million), the Republicans actually won more seats than the Democrats (242 to 193), and Republican John Boehner (OH-8) replaced Democrat Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) as Speaker of the House.
Indeed, The Philadelphia Jewish Voice’s analysis of the 2012 election showed that the redistricting gave the Republicans a 7.5% head-start in the House elections. In other words, without a Democratic landslide the Republicans would be able to seize control of the House. If the Democrats need to beat the Republicans by 7.5% just to break even, then we have lost sight of the idea of majority rule.
This year we conducted a similar analysis of election results. If we magically sprinkled Democratic voters across the country, this year Democrats would have needed a 10% margin in order to have regained control.
In fact, the Democrats lost the popular vote by an 8% margin, but the game was rigged so efficiently by gerrymandering that even if the shoe had been on the other foot and the Democrats had won the popular vote by 8% that would not have been sufficient for them to win back control of the House.
While the Democrats have high hopes of electing Hillary Clinton or another Democrat as president and perhaps regaining a majority in the Senate, they have virtually no chance of getting control of the House of Representatives until 2022, and even that will require significant gains by the Democrats in local state politics, and popular support for reform in the arcane world of redistricting.
Cartoon courtesy of Mike Stanfill.
Filed Under: Featured Articles, News & Opinion Tagged With: Congress, Election, House of Representatives, Senate
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What Kind of Spirit Are We Really Of? A Pentecostal Approach to Interfaith Forgiveness and Interreligious Reconciliation
| June 5, 2009 | no comments
Becoming agents of reconciliation that glorify Jesus, not compromise His Gospel.
Tony Richie at the 2011 convention of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
An especially fruitful interfaith dialogue I was recently privileged to participate in released a cooperative statement containing several descriptive suggestions about the nature of religion and the religions. Among other things, it admitted that “religion has often been used, rather misused, to shed blood, spread bigotry and defend divisive and discriminatory socio-political practices”. That is sad but all-too-true. It also insisted, however, on the “necessity and usefulness” of interreligious dialogue “for promoting peace, harmony and conflict-transformation” in our world today.1 And that, I think, is true too. I am therefore both challenged and encouraged at the present opportunity to wrestle through these issues together with religious others by focusing on themes of forgiveness and reconciliation among the religions from my perspective as a Pentecostal Christian. And I am convinced global Pentecostalism may have some unique contributions to make to this conversation.
Extinguishing the Forbidden Fire of Sectarian Strife
In the context of sectarian strife, really full-blown religious and racial prejudice and tension between Jews and Samaritans, two of Jesus’ disciples desired to call fire down from Heaven to consume their competitors. Jesus firmly forbade them. Some ancient manuscripts add an explanatory comment from Jesus that “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Lu 9:56 NIV margin). Biblical exegete Craig Evans opines that the explanation “certainly captures the essential point of the passage.” According to Evans, the episode “portrays a loving and gracious Lord who does not seek vengeance”.2 In other words, Jesus wills forgiveness and reconciliation among rival religions and the Spirit he has given his disciples wills us in the same way. With its appreciation for pneumatological nuances, Pentecostalism’s theology and spirituality ought unquestionably to guide us in the same direction.
Completely convinced of the uniqueness of Christ and Christianity, global Pentecostalism has a unique contribution to make.
Pentecostals, as Harvey Cox has aptly described us, are concerned with “fire from heaven”.3 Following Scripture, Pentecostals themselves speak of baptism with the Spirit and with fire, and also frequently use fire as a metaphor for intense spiritual experience and fervor (cf. Matt 3:11-12). Yet the destructive fire of sectarian strife is forbidden. Unfortunately, as Pentecostal ecumenist and historian Mel Robeck sadly shows, after the religiously ecumenical and racially open age of the first few years of the modern Pentecostal movement, that understanding has been apparently deliberately discarded in a grave act of disobedience to the Spirit’s leading.4 Accordingly, members of the modern Pentecostal movement desiring to return to its authentic and original biblical and historical ethos must address relations among the religions with more openness and understanding than has all-too-often been the case since.
Tags: approach, forgiveness, interfaith, interreligious, kind, pentecostal, reconciliation, spirit
Category: Ministry, Spring 2009
About the Author: Tony Richie, D.Min, Ph.D., is missionary teacher at SEMISUD (Quito, Ecuador) and adjunct professor at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary (Cleveland, TN). Dr. Richie is an Ordained Bishop in the Church of God, and Senior Pastor at New Harvest in Knoxville, TN. He has served the Society for Pentecostal Studies as Ecumenical Studies Interest Group Leader and is currently Liaison to the Interfaith Relations Commission of the National Council of Churches (USA), and represents Pentecostals with Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation of the World Council of Churches and the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. He is the author of Speaking by the Spirit: A Pentecostal Model for Interreligious Dialogue (Emeth Press, 2011) and Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Religions: Encountering Cornelius Today (CPT Press, 2013) as well as several journal articles and books chapters on Pentecostal theology and experience.
Jerusalem 2015 Empowered 21 Global Congress: Renewing the Revelation of a Worldwide Pentecostal Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Highlights from European Pentecostal Theological Association 2002
Anglican Pentecostal Perspective on Charismatic Leaders Fellowship 2015
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Tag Archives: Mirrors
EMMANUELLE VAUGIER JOINS THE CAST ON THE THIRD SEASON OF MISTRESSES TO PREMIERE ON THURSDAY, JUNE 18TH 9/8C AND WILL BE AIRING ON ABC IN THE US AND CTV IN CANADA
Emmanuelle Vaugier continues to reprise her role as The Morrigan in the popular television series Lost Girl now airing on the Syfy Network in the USA
Now in production, stunning actor Emmanuelle Vaugier is shooting a six-episode guest role on the upcoming third season of ABC’s summer series Mistresses. She will play Niko, who’s tough, sexy, rocks a very distinctive style and doesn’t care what you think about it. She becomes the new mixologist at Wunderbar and a thorn in Joss’ (Jes Macallan) side. The third season of Mistresses premieres on June 18th at 9pm on ABC in the US and CTV in Canada.
Emmanuelle continues to reprise her role on the innovative series Lost Girl, a supernatural highly rated drama series. Playing the role of The Morrigan, Emmanuelle breathes life into her vain and dangerously sociopathic character. The fifth season of ‘Lost Girl’ promises to be the most electrifying season yet. Lost Girl premiered on Showcase in Canada and is now airing on Syfy in the USA.
Photo Credit: Brie Childers
Emmanuelle is best known for her popular role as Charlie Sheen’s ex-fiancée Mia on the award-winning CBS comedy Two and a Half Men in which her character returned for the series finale earlier this year. For three seasons she played Detective Jessica Angell on CSI: NY, and in the USA Network crime series Covert Affairs.
One of the roles that Emmanuelle connected most with was playing a woman who rescues animals in Susie’s Hope, a role for which she won best actress at the Greensville International Film Festival. It’s Christmas, Carol! another starring role for Emmanuelle, won her a Leo Award. Emmanuelle also stars in Absolute Deception alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.
Her numerous television appearances include the female superhero for the SYFY television pilot of the comic Painkiller Jane, and had a starring role in the Master of Horror series directed by John Carpenter. She also portrayed Dr. Helen Bryce; Lex Luthor‘s wife on the WB‘s hit drama Smallville. Emmanuelle spent two seasons in a recurring role on One Tree Hill.
Emmanuelle’s feature film endeavors are just as impressive include Saw II, Saw IV, Secondhand Lions (Michael Caine, Robert Duvall), 40 Days and 40 Nights (Josh Hartnett) and House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim to name a few.
Off-screen, Emmanuelle is an avid animal lover. A project that is very close to her heart is her own 501c3 charitable foundation ‘The Fluffball’, which raises money for various animal charities through her annual cocktail event. This year ‘The Fluffball’ will be held in Los Angeles on October 3rd. A dedicated equestrian Emmanuelle competes on a horse rescued from a situation of neglect. Emmanuelle paints to express her creativity and contributes a major portion of her sales to the many charitable animal rescue organizations she supports.
Emmanuelle’s inner and outer beauty shines through as she is among the select group of women to be on ‘Maxim‘s Top 100’ list twice. She was also named fifth on Femme Fatal magazine’s 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet’, and was named ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ for the sixth time by Smartasses Magazine. Emmanuelle has graced the covers of Maxim, Femme Fatal, Dolce Vita, Flare, UMM, Status, Modern Dog, LA Health, Vancouver View, Vancouver Lifestyles, Western Living Condo, Donato, Steppin’ Out and Infamous.
Website: emmanuellevaugier.com, syfy.com/lostgirl
Twitter: @evaugier
Facebook: The Real Emmanuelle Vaugier
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In demand actor Emmanuelle Vaugier returns to Showcase Series ‘Lost Girl’
Watch for upcoming starring roles in features ‘Saul: the Journey to Damascus’ and ‘Stepdaughter’
Stunning actor Emmanuelle Vaugier continues to reprise her role on the innovative series ‘Lost Girl’, a Canadian supernatural drama highly rated Showcase series. Playing the role of The Morrigan, Emmanuelle breathes life into her vain and dangerously sociopathic character. The fifth season of ‘Lost Girl’ promises to be the most electrifying season yet. ‘Lost Girl’ premieres on December 7th on Showcase and in the new year on SYFY.
Just wrapped, Emmanuelle stars in the feature film ‘Stepdaughter’ recently filmed in Los Angeles. Directed by John Murlowski. The film co-stars Niki Koss and Matt Socia.
Recently premiering at TIFF 2014 Emmanuelle co-stars in ‘Teen Lust’, a feature film about an awkward high school student who must lose his virginity before being sacrificed by a local religious cult. The film stars Cary Elwes (Saw, The Princess Bride), Kristin Bauer van Straten (“True Blood”), Jesse Carere (“Skins”), Daryl Sabara (The Philosopher, Machete, Spy Kids) and Annie Clark (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”). Blaine Thurier (A Gun to the Head) directed the film that he co-wrote with Jason Stone (This Is The End).
Emmanuelle Vaugier booked the coveted leading role as Mary Magdalene in the feature film ‘Saul: The Journey to Damascus’ filmed in Malta. The feature film is based on the Acts of the Apostles known as Saul the Butcher. The stoning of Stephen was said to have shattered Saul’s faith in the Temple and its denial of Christ as the Messiah. His conversion to Christianity and baptism as Paul changed the history of the world. Emmanuelle stars along side John Rhys Davis (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings), Kyle Schmidt (Being Human, Copper) Callum Blue (The Tudors), and Kris Holden Reid (The Tudors, Lost Girl). The script and direction was in the hands of Maltese writer/director Mario Philip Azzopardi, “Saul” is an official Malta-Canada co-production produced by Cittadella Films with Canadian film-maker Ken Gord and eONE acting as worldwide distributors.
One of the roles that Emmanuelle connected most with was playing a woman who rescues animals in ‘Susie’s Hope’, a role for which she won best actress at the Greensville International Film Festival. ‘It’s Christmas, Carol!’ another starring role for Emmanuelle, won her a Leo Award. Emmanuelle also stars in ‘The Wedding Chapel’ and ‘Clara’s Deadly Secret’, ‘Hidden Away’ and ‘Absolute Deception’ alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.
Vaugier is best known for her popular role as Charlie Sheen’s ex-fiancée Mia on the award-winning CBS comedy ‘Two and a Half Men.’ For three seasons she played Detective Jessica Angell on ‘CSI: NY,’ and in the USA Network crime series ‘Covert Affairs.’
Her other television appearances include a recurring role on ‘Human Target’ as well as guest roles on ‘The Mentalist’, ‘Big Shots’ and ‘Supernatural’. She was also the female superhero for the television pilot of the comic ‘Painkiller Jane’, and had a starring role in the ‘Master of Horror’ series directed by John Carpenter. Her other television credits include: ‘One Tree Hill‘, ‘Monk’, ‘North Shore’, ‘Veronica Mars’, as well as ‘Call Me, The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss’, and ‘My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star‘. She also portrayed Dr. Helen Bryce; Lex Luthor‘s wife on the WB‘s hit drama ‘Smallville’.
Emmanuelle’s feature film endeavors are just as impressive. She starred in the thriller ‘Mirrors 2’, and ‘Dolan’s Cadillac’, starring Christian Slater. Her other credits include ‘Saw II’, ‘Saw IV’, ‘Hysteria’, ‘Far Cry’, ‘Bachelor Party 2’, ‘Unearthed’, ‘Secondhand Lions’ (Michael Caine, Robert Duvall), ‘40 Days and 40 Nights’ (Josh Hartnett), ‘House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim’ and a lead role in the comedy ‘Blonde and Blonder’.
Off-screen, Emmanuelle is an avid animal lover. A project that is very close to her heart is her own 501c3 charitable foundation ‘The Fluffball’, which raises money for various animal charities through her annual cocktail event. A dedicated equestrian Emmanuelle competes on a horse rescued from a situation of neglect. Emmanuelle paints to express her creativity and contributes a major portion of her sales to the many charitable animal rescue organizations she supports.
Emmanuelle’s inner and outer beauty shines through as she is among the select group of women to be on ‘Maxim‘s Top 100’ list twice. She was also named fifth on Femme Fatal magazine’s 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet’, and was named ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ for the sixth time by Smartasses Magazine. Emmanuelle has graced the covers of Maxim, Femme Fatal, Dolce Vita, Flare, UMM, Status, Modern Dog, LA Health, Vancouver View, Vancouver Lifestyles, Western Living Condo, Donato and Infamous.
Photo credit: Rod Roberts
Website: emmanuellevaugier.com
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Actress Emmanuelle Vaugier Featured in Steppin’ Out Mag
View Emmanuelle’s article in Steppin’ Out Mag here: http://www.so-mag.com/3dissue/012214/index.html
This entry was posted in Emmanuelle Vaugier and tagged 40 Days and 40 Nights, 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet, A Gun to the Head, Absolute Deception, action, actor, Annie Clark, beauty, Best Friends Animal Society, Blaine Thurier, blogger, Canadian, Cary Elwes, CBC, charity, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Sheen, CSI, Daryl Sabara, Degrassi, Dolce Vita, Donato, drama, DVD, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Facebook, feature film, Femme Fatal, Flare, FOX, Hallmark Channel, Hidden Away, horror, House of the Dead, Infamous, Inglorious Basterds, interview, Jesse Carere, Josh Hartnett, journalist, Kristin Bauer van Straten, LA, LA Health, Leo Award, Lesley Diana, Lifetime, Lifetime Network, Machete, magazine, Maxim, Mirrors, Modern Dog, MOW, New York, NY, One Tree Hill, popular, PR, PR firm, press, Public Relations, publicity, Republic of Doyle, Rick Fox, Saw, SciFi And TV Talk, Sexiest Woman Alive, Showcase, Skins, Smallville, Spyglass, Status, Steppin' Out Mag, Steve Eramo, Supernatural, Susie's Hope, SyFy, Teen Lust, The Mentalist, The Next Generation, The Philosopher, The Princess Bride, The Promotion People, thriller, Top 100, True Blood, Twitter, UMM, UPN, USA, Vancouver, Vancouver Lifestyles, Vancouver View, Western Living Condo on January 22, 2014 by press.
It’s Good To Be Bad – Interview with Lost Girl’s Emmanuelle Vaugier
Emmanuelle Vaugier as The Morrigan in the season four Lost Girl episode “Let The Dark Times Roll.” Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
In the real world there is a constant battle between good and evil, and the same holds true in the fictional TV world. On the popular Canadian-made supernatural drama series Lost Girl, the two forces locked in this centuries-old conflict are known as the Light and Dark Fae. Leading the local Dark Fae community is Evony Fleurette Marquise a.k.a. The Morrigan. This sexy brunette beauty has the ability to melt and dissolve flesh with a single touch and delights in ruling with a proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove. When theLost Girl producers were looking for an actress to slip into The Morrigan’s stilettoes, they turned to the charming Emmanuelle Vaugier.
“It was a fortunate situation and one where I felt quite flattered,” says Vaugier. “They came to me with the role. So I took a look at the script to see what it was that I had to do as well as if it was something I wanted to do and if I enjoyed the character, and it was all three. It sounded like a really fun role, so I said, ‘Yes,’ and that was the beginning of it all. Originally I was only supposed to be in a few episodes, but it’s turned into many more over four seasons – maybe a fifth, who knows – and it’s really been quite an amazing journey.”
The Morrigan makes her Lost Girl debut in the show’s opening episode It’s a Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae World. When the Fae become aware of a succubus named Bo (Anna Silk), the two factions want the extraordinarily powerful Fae to pledge her allegiance to one side or the other. The Morrigan reluctantly agrees to work with The Ash (Cle Bennett), leader of the Light Fae, and force Bo to align herself. They put her to the test in a fight to the death at an abandoned glass factory, but the outcome is far from what they are expecting. Vaugier chuckles when looking back at shooting her first episode.
The Morrigan (Emmanuelle Vaugier) – up to no good! Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
“I’ll never forget the glass factory in Hamilton [Ontario, Canada],” she says. “We were filming there at night in February. There’s no heating and it was colder inside that structure than it was outside, which is saying a lot. I was in a dress and there’s only so much layering you can do under a dress without it looking like you’re the Michelin man,” jokes the actress. “So that was an interesting first episode that had me rethinking the whole choice of whether or not I really wanted to do this, especially if it was going to be freezing like this all the time, but it was all worth it in the end.
“As far as the character itself, there wasn’t a whole lot of backstory on The Morrigan in the beginning. The show’s producers and writers had no idea where the character was going and no one had any idea that it was going to turn into what it is now. At the start, I think the toughest challenge for me was not playing her as a caricature and some evil mustache-twirling type of villain. She has to be likeable and there has to be something somewhat human about her that makes you love her even though you hate her.
“Initially, The Morrigan was much more of a figurehead for the Dark Fae, but over time, she’s formed alliances and love/hate-type relationships. You’ve witnessed her in weaker moments as well as her stronger moments and you’ve definitely had the opportunity to see more of her vulnerability. The Morrigan has become a very dynamic character and this [fourth] season we’re going to find out more about her past. The storylines on Lost Girl have sort of broadened and deepened and in the process you’re learning a great deal more about how far The Morrigan’s reach is into everyone’s world.”
The Morrigan (Emmanuelle Vaugier) conducts a little business (before pleasure). Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
Both the Light and Dark Fae were deeply disappointed to say the least when Bo chose to remain neutral and not join either side. Throughout the first three seasons of Lost Girl, she risked her life to help others and fight the darker supernatural forces of the world she comes from. She continues to do so in the show’s fourth year with the help of humans Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) and Dr. Lauren Lewis (Zoie Palmer) as well as Fae allies including Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried), Hale (K.C. Collins) and, much to her surprise, Vex (Paul Amos), a sadomasochist Dark Fae who has the power to control the actions of others. He and Bo, in particular, have become thorns in The Morrigan’s side while providing Vaugier with some wonderful onscreen sparring partners.
“Vex and The Morrigan have a very interesting relationship and it’s that love/hate thing where she needs him to a certain degree,” explains the actress. “She can’t get rid of him and I don’t think anyone who watches the show would want us to because he’s so fabulous. When it comes to my character’s relationship with Bo, they start to get closer and form a kind of alliance, which you see in season three. Then, however, Bo double-crosses her and they’re back to where they started. She trusted Bo and let her guard down, and now The Morrigan has to build herself back up. No one messes with her and she has to go back to The Morrigan as we saw her prior to her moment of weakness with Bo.
While there may be some ill will between Vex and The Morrigan as well as Bo and The Morrigan, there is no such animosity behind the cameras.
“Paul Amos and I just laugh out butts off most of the time when we’re together,” admits Vaugier. “He happened to be in London last October at the same time as the MCM Expo [Comic Con], so he came by to see me, Ksenia, Rachel Skarsten [Tamsin] and [Lost Girlexecutive producer] Jay Firestone and we were like a group of five-year-olds. Paul is such a hoot to hang out with on-set as well as off-set, and then Anna Silk is such a sweetheart and a lot of fun to work with, too. All the Lost Girl castmembers have a terrific rapport with each other and we really get along as people, so whenever we do get to work together we have a great time,” she enthuses.
(L-R): Bo (Anna Silk), Vex (Paul Amos) and The Morrigan (Emmanuelle Vaugier). Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
In addition to being a Dark Fae, The Morrigan is also a leaman sidhe, which means she has the ability to absorb the talents of others. She operates in the human world under the guise of a talent agent and uses the monetary gains from any acquired talents to finance her own dark agenda. The Morrigan continues to exploit humans along with Fae in season four of Lost Girl, beginning in the episode Lovers, Apart. Not wanting to spoil things for those fans that have yet to watch the episode, she hints at what viewers can expect.
“There were just as many shockers for me when I read the script, so I think that the audience will hopefully be very pleased,” says the actress. “I was really excited about the path that they had taken The Morrigan and, again, her new interactions and relationships with different characters. There are so many possibilities with her and they really opened up my character’s world this season. You get to see more of who she is as a person as opposed to just the leader of the Dark Fae. My only complaint is that I wanted to see even more, just because I like working on the show so much. I was absolutely pleased with The Morrigan’s storyline and if we go for a fifth season I’m extremely curious to see how it further develops.”
Vaugier can be seen as Mary Magdalene opposite Lost Girl’s Kris Holden-Ried (as Jordan) and Copper’s Kyle Schmid (as Saul) in the upcoming film Saul: The Journey to Damascus. From comedy to drama, the actress has had the opportunity to stretch her acting muscles in a variety of projects throughout her career, and Lost Girl gives her with yet another outlet in which to showcase her talents.
The Morrigan (Emmanuelle Vaugier) surrounded by her entourage in the season four episode “Let The Dark Times Roll.” Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.
“One of the things I like the most about the fantasy genre is that you get away with a lot more,” she says. “You can be bigger and bolder; you can really do no wrong as long as you stay within the parameters of the world that you’re in, but it’s a made-up world, which means there are no rules, or very few, and therefore so much more room in which to play.”
Steve Eramo
Season four of Lost Girl airs in Canada on the Showcase Network on Sundays @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST and in the States on Syfy, Mondays (beginning January 13th) @ 8:00 p.m. EST/PST. As noted above, all photos copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
scifiandtvtalk.typepad.com/scifiandtvtalk/2014/01/its-good-to-be-bad-interview-with-lost-girls-emmanuelle-vaugier.html
This entry was posted in Emmanuelle Vaugier and tagged 40 Days and 40 Nights, 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet, A Gun to the Head, Absolute Deception, action, actor, Annie Clark, beauty, Best Friends Animal Society, Blaine Thurier, blogger, Canadian, Cary Elwes, CBC, charity, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Sheen, CSI, Daryl Sabara, Degrassi, Dolce Vita, Donato, drama, DVD, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Facebook, feature film, Femme Fatal, Flare, FOX, Hallmark Channel, Hidden Away, horror, House of the Dead, Infamous, Inglorious Basterds, interview, Jesse Carere, Josh Hartnett, journalist, Kristin Bauer van Straten, LA, LA Health, Leo Award, Lesley Diana, Lifetime, Lifetime Network, Machete, magazine, Maxim, Mirrors, Modern Dog, MOW, New York, NY, One Tree Hill, popular, PR, PR firm, press, Public Relations, publicity, Republic of Doyle, Rick Fox, Saw, SciFi And TV Talk, Sexiest Woman Alive, Showcase, Skins, Smallville, Spyglass, Status, Steve Eramo, Supernatural, Susie's Hope, SyFy, Teen Lust, The Mentalist, The Next Generation, The Philosopher, The Princess Bride, The Promotion People, thriller, Top 100, True Blood, Twitter, UMM, UPN, USA, Vancouver, Vancouver Lifestyles, Vancouver View, Western Living Condo on January 14, 2014 by press.
Emmanuelle Vaugier books the coveted leading role as Mary Magdalene in the feature ‘Saul’ now filming in Malta
Stunning and in demand actor Emmanuelle Vaugier has booked the coveted leading role as Mary Magdalene in the feature film ‘Saul’ now filming in Malta until mid December. ‘Saul’ is based on the Acts of the Apostles. Emmanuelle is starring along side John Rhys Davis (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings), Kyle Schmidt (Being Human, Copper) Callum Blue (The Tudors), and Kris Holden Reid (The Tudors, Lost Girl).
This movie is a fictionalized retelling of the origins of the Christian Church, based on the Acts of the Apostles with Paul of Tarsus (St Paul) and Mary Magdalene as the main protagonists. As Saul the Butcher, the stoning of Stephen shattered Saul’s faith in the Temple and its denial of Christ as the Messiah. His conversion to Christianity and baptism as Paul changed the history of the world. The script and direction is in the hands of Maltese writer/director Mario Philip Azzopardi, “Saul” is an official Malta-Canada co-production produced by Cittadella Films with Canadian film-maker Ken Gord and eONE acting as worldwide distributors.
Photo by: Brie Childers
2013 is turning out to be one of Emmanuelle’s busiest years that includes her role for a fourth season on the innovative series ‘Lost Girl’, a Canadian supernatural drama. Since 2010 Emmanuelle has had a recurring role on this highly rated original show. Playing the role of The Morrigan, Emmanuelle breathes life into her vain and dangerously sociopathic character. The fourth season of ‘Lost Girl’ promises to be the most electrifying season yet. ‘Lost Girl’ is currently airing on Showcase and will air in January 2014 on SYFY. Emmanuelle was also a guest star in the premiere episode of Season 5’s on CBC’s popular series ‘Republic of Doyle’.
Emmanuelle recently completed filming a co-starring role in ‘Teen Lust’, a feature film about an awkward high school student who must lose his virginity before being sacrificed by a local religious cult. The film stars Cary Elwes (Saw, The Princess Bride), Kristin Bauer van Straten (“True Blood”), Jesse Carere (“Skins”), Daryl Sabara (The Philosopher, Machete) and Annie Clark (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”). Blaine Thurier (A Gun to the Head) is the director of the film that he co-wrote with Jason Stone (This Is The End).
Emmanuelle also co-stars as Rebecca Scott, in ‘Absolute Deception’ alongside Academy Award winner actor Cuba Gooding Jr., released to DVD in June 2013. Extremely busy with MOW’s, Emmanuelle’s projects include starring in ‘Hidden Away’ as Stephanie, a young mother who fakes her own death (and her daughter’s) in order to escape her abusive husband, which aired on Lifetime in July 2013.
One of the roles that Emmanuelle connected most with was playing a woman who rescues animals in ‘Susie’s Hope’, a role for which she won best actress at the Greensville International Film Festival in 2013. ‘It’s Christmas, Carol!’, another starring role for Emmanuelle which won her a Leo Award for portrayal of a woman journeying through her past, present and future, with the help of her “ghost boss”. Emmanuelle also stars in two upcoming independent films; ‘The Wedding Chapel’ and ‘Clara’s Deadly Secret’.
Vaugier is best known for her popular role as Charlie Sheen’s ex-fiancée Mia on the award-winning CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men.” For three seasons she also played Detective Jessica Angell on “CSI: NY,” leaving fans devastated when her role came to an end. In 2010, Vaugier was cast alongside Piper Perabo in the USA Network crime series “Covert Affairs,” where she played the recurring role of Liza Hearn, a journalist and blogger not afraid to push boundaries.
Her other television appearances include a recurring role on FOX’s action/drama series ‘Human Target’ as well as guest roles on ‘The Mentalist’, ‘Big Shots’ and ‘Supernatural’. She was also the new female superhero for the television pilot of the comic ‘Painkiller Jane’ for the Sci Fi Channel, and had a starring role in the ‘Master of Horror’ series directed by John Carpenter. Her other television credits include: ‘One Tree Hill‘, ‘Monk’, the Fox Television series ‘North Shore’, UPN‘s hit series ‘Veronica Mars’, as well as ‘Call Me, The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss’, and the WB comedy ‘My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star‘. She also portrayed Dr. Helen Bryce; Lex Luthor‘s wife on the WB‘s hit drama ‘Smallville’.
Her feature film endeavours are just as impressive: Emmanuelle starred in the thriller ‘Mirrors 2’, a sequel to the hit 2008 horror ‘Mirrors’, starring Keifer Sutherland. Her appearance in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s acclaimed short story ‘Dolan’s Cadillac’, starring Christian Slater, can be seen on DVD. She also appeared in the feature ‘Hollywood Untitled’, directed by acclaimed director and producer Mun Chee Yong. Her other credits include ‘Saw II’, ‘Saw IV’, ‘Hysteria’, produced by former L.A. Laker Rick Fox, ‘Far Cry’ (Til Schewiger, Inglorious Basterds), ‘Bachelor Party 2’, ‘Unearthed’ (Charlie Murphy), ‘Secondhand Lions’ (Michael Caine, Robert Duvall), ‘40 Days and 40 Nights’ (Josh Hartnett), ‘House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim’ and a lead role in the comedy ‘Blonde and Blonder’, which premiered in Cannes.
Off-screen, Emmanuelle is an avid animal lover. She actively supports animal rescue organizations through her charitable foundation The Fluffball. The Fluffball raises money for various organizations through a high end, invite only cocktail event in Los Angeles. Emmanuelle founded the Fluffball in 2010.”
This Vancouver native‘s inner and outer beauty shines through as Emmanuelle is among the select group of women to be on ‘Maxim‘s Top 100’ list twice. The stunning actress first made the list in 2006 and then again in 2011. She was also named fifth on Femme Fatal magazine’s 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet’, and was named ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ for the sixth time by Smartasses Magazine. Emmanuelle has graced the covers of Maxim, Femme Fatal, Dolce Vita, Flare, UMM, Status, Modern Dog, LA Health, Vancouver View, Vancouver Lifestyles, Western Living Condo, Donato and Infamous.
Website: emmanuellevaugier.com, thefluffball.com, emmanuellevaugier.com/charity.htm
This entry was posted in Emmanuelle Vaugier and tagged 40 Days and 40 Nights, 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet, A Gun to the Head, Absolute Deception, action, actor, Annie Clark, beauty, Best Friends Animal Society, Blaine Thurier, blogger, Canadian, Cary Elwes, CBC, charity, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Sheen, CSI, Daryl Sabara, Degrassi, Dolce Vita, Donato, drama, DVD, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Facebook, feature film, Femme Fatal, Flare, FOX, Hallmark Channel, Hidden Away, horror, House of the Dead, Infamous, Inglorious Basterds, Jesse Carere, Josh Hartnett, journalist, Kristin Bauer van Straten, LA, LA Health, Leo Award, Lesley Diana, Lifetime, Lifetime Network, Machete, magazine, Maxim, Mirrors, Modern Dog, MOW, New York, NY, One Tree Hill, popular, PR, PR firm, press, Public Relations, publicity, Republic of Doyle, Rick Fox, Saw, Sexiest Woman Alive, Showcase, Skins, Smallville, Spyglass, Status, Supernatural, Susie's Hope, SyFy, Teen Lust, The Mentalist, The Next Generation, The Philosopher, The Princess Bride, The Promotion People, thriller, Top 100, True Blood, Twitter, UMM, UPN, USA, Vancouver, Vancouver Lifestyles, Vancouver View, Western Living Condo on December 4, 2013 by press.
ACTRESS EMMANUELLE VAUGIER RETURNS TO SEASON 4 OF ‘LOST GIRL’ TO PREMIERE ON SHOWCASE ON NOVEMBER 10TH
Actress Emmanuelle Vaugier is featured on the cover of Turner magazine and recently traveled to London for the MCM EXPO with the cast of ‘Lost Girl’
Emmanuelle Vaugier on the double digital cover of Turner Magazine’s November 2013 issue
Since 2010, Emmanuelle has had a recurring role on the highly rated Showcase original show ‘Lost Girl’. While in London, Emmanuelle greeted her UK fans and attended multiple signings at MCM Comic Con. Playing the role of The Morrigan, Emmanuelle breathes life into her vain and dangerously sociopathic character, guaranteeing the fourth season to be the most electrifying season yet. Season 4 of the Canadian supernatural drama is set to premiere on ShowcaseNovember 10th 2013, and on SYFY in the new year.
Emmanuelle also recently starred in the premiere of Lifetime Movie Network’s original movie ‘Clara’s Deadly Secret’ on October 25th, 2013, and guest starred in the premiere episode of Season 5’s ‘Republic of Doyle’ on October 2nd, 2013.
Aside from acting, multi-talented Emmanuelle has been auctioning off her original paintings, proceeds going towards charity. The framed paintings are signed and come with an additional autographed photo of Emmanuelle.
Recently Emmanuelle was in Winnipeg, Emmanuelle to co-stars in ‘Teen Lust’, a feature film about an awkward high school student who must lose his virginity before being sacrificed by a local religious cult. The film stars Cary Elwes (Saw, The Princess Bride), Kristin Bauer van Straten (“True Blood”), Jesse Carere (“Skins”), Daryl Sabara (The Philosopher, Machete) and Annie Clark (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”). Blaine Thurier (A Gun to the Head) is directing the film that he co-wrote with Jason Stone (This Is The End).
Extremely busy with MOW’s, Emmanuelle’s projects include starring in the lifetime movie ‘Hidden Away’ as Stephanie, a young mother who fakes her own death (and her daughter’s) in order to escape her abusive husband, which aired on Lifetime in July 2013. Vaugier also co-stars as Rebecca Scott, in ‘Absolute Deception’ alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., as an investigative reporter for Spyglass magazine, in New York City. Believing her husband had been killed in an auto accident, she is forced to deal with the repercussions upon discovering his death had been faked. ‘Absolute Deception’ was released to DVD in June 2013.
One of the roles that Emmanuelle connected most with was playing a woman who rescues animals in ‘Susie’s Hope’, a role for which she won best actress at the Greensville International Film Festival in 2013. ‘It’s Christmas, Carol!’, another starring role for Emmanuelle aired on the Hallmark Channel in December 2012, which won her a Leo Award for portrayal of a woman journeying through her past, present and future, with the help of her “ghost boss”. Emmanuelle will also star in two upcoming independent films; ‘The Wedding Chapel’, shot in July 2012, and ‘Clara’s Deadly Secret’ shot in May 2013.
Off-screen, Emmanuelle, an avid animal lover, is strongly involved in a project that is very close to her heart. She actively supports the charitable animal rescue organization Best Friends Animal Society. Best Friends is an organization aimed at animal rescue and rehabilitation, ensuring the best life possible for injured or unwanted animals. For more information on the Best Friends Animal Society, please visithttp://emmanuellevaugier.com/charity.htm or www.bestfriends.org.
Photography credit:
Brie Childers
www.briechilders.com
This entry was posted in Emmanuelle Vaugier and tagged 40 Days and 40 Nights, 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet, A Gun to the Head, Absolute Deception, action, actor, Annie Clark, beauty, Best Friends Animal Society, Blaine Thurier, blogger, Canadian, Cary Elwes, CBC, charity, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Sheen, CSI, Daryl Sabara, Degrassi, Dolce Vita, Donato, drama, DVD, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Facebook, feature film, Femme Fatal, Flare, FOX, Hallmark Channel, Hidden Away, horror, House of the Dead, Infamous, Inglorious Basterds, Jesse Carere, Josh Hartnett, journalist, Kristin Bauer van Straten, LA, LA Health, Leo Award, Lesley Diana, Lifetime, Lifetime Network, Machete, magazine, Maxim, Mirrors, Modern Dog, MOW, New York, NY, One Tree Hill, popular, PR, PR firm, press, Public Relations, publicity, Republic of Doyle, Rick Fox, Saw, Sexiest Woman Alive, Showcase, Skins, Smallville, Spyglass, Status, Supernatural, Susie's Hope, SyFy, Teen Lust, The Mentalist, The Next Generation, The Philosopher, The Princess Bride, The Promotion People, thriller, Top 100, True Blood, Twitter, UMM, UPN, USA, Vancouver, Vancouver Lifestyles, Vancouver View, Western Living Condo on November 4, 2013 by press.
In demand actor Emmanuelle Vaugier returns to popular Showcase Series ‘Lost Girl’
Emmanuelle also guest stars on the popular CBC series Republic of Doyle
Stunning actor Emmanuelle Vaugier reprises her role for a fourth season on the innovative series ‘Lost Girl’, a Canadian supernatural drama. Since 2010 Emmanuelle has had a recurring role on this highly rated Showcase original show. Playing the role of The Morrigan, Emmanuelle breathes life into her vain and dangerously sociopathic character. The fourth season of ‘Lost Girl’ promises to be the most electrifying season yet. ‘Lost Girl’ premieres November 2013 on Showcase and January 2014 on SYFY.
Emmanuelle will also guest star in the premiere episode of Season 5’s ‘Republic of Doyle’ slated to air October 2, 2013. This popular CBC series, on air since 2010 focuses on Jake Doyle, and his father, as they run a private investigations agency in St John’s, Newfoundland.
Currently in production in Winnipeg, Emmanuelle co-stars in ‘Teen Lust’, a feature film about an awkward high school student who must lose his virginity before being sacrificed by a local religious cult. The film stars Cary Elwes (Saw, The Princess Bride), Kristin Bauer van Straten (“True Blood”), Jesse Carere (“Skins”), Daryl Sabara (The Philosopher, Machete) and Annie Clark (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”). Blaine Thurier (A Gun to the Head) is directing the film that he co-wrote with Jason Stone (This Is The End).
Her other recent television appearances include a recurring role on FOX’s action/drama series ‘Human Target’ as well as guest roles on ‘The Mentalist’, ‘Big Shots’ and ‘Supernatural’. She was also the new female superhero for the television pilot of the comic ‘Painkiller Jane’ for the Sci Fi Channel, and had a starring role in the ‘Master of Horror’ series directed by John Carpenter. Her other television credits include: ‘One Tree Hill‘, ‘Monk’, the Fox Television series ‘North Shore’, UPN‘s hit series ‘Veronica Mars’, as well as ‘Call Me, The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss’, and the WB comedy ‘My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star‘. She also portrayed Dr. Helen Bryce; Lex Luthor‘s wife on the WB‘s hit drama ‘Smallville’.
Off-screen, Emmanuelle, an avid animal lover, is strongly involved in a project that is very close to her heart. She actively supports the charitable animal rescue organization Best Friends Animal Society. Best Friends is an organization aimed at animal rescue and rehabilitation, ensuring the best life possible for injured or unwanted animals. For more information on the Best Friends Animal Society, please visit http://emmanuellevaugier.com/charity.htm or www.bestfriends.org.
This entry was posted in Emmanuelle Vaugier and tagged 40 Days and 40 Nights, 50 Sexiest Women on the Planet, A Gun to the Head, Absolute Deception, action, actor, Annie Clark, beauty, Best Friends Animal Society, Blaine Thurier, blogger, Canadian, Cary Elwes, CBC, charity, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Sheen, CSI, Daryl Sabara, Degrassi, Dolce Vita, Donato, drama, DVD, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Facebook, feature film, Femme Fatal, Flare, FOX, Hallmark Channel, Hidden Away, horror, House of the Dead, Infamous, Inglorious Basterds, Jesse Carere, Josh Hartnett, journalist, Kristin Bauer van Straten, LA, LA Health, Leo Award, Lesley Diana, Lifetime, Lifetime Network, Machete, magazine, Maxim, Mirrors, Modern Dog, MOW, New York, NY, One Tree Hill, popular, PR, PR firm, press, Public Relations, publicity, Republic of Doyle, Rick Fox, Saw, Sexiest Woman Alive, Showcase, Skins, Smallville, Spyglass, Status, Supernatural, Susie's Hope, SyFy, Teen Lust, The Mentalist, The Next Generation, The Philosopher, The Princess Bride, The Promotion People, thriller, Top 100, True Blood, Twitter, UMM, UPN, USA, Vancouver, Vancouver Lifestyles, Vancouver View, Western Living Condo on September 7, 2013 by press.
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Home > Books > View
Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler
Winner of The Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 1998
Winner of the 1997 Giller Prize
Barney Panofsky smokes too many cigars, drinks too much whiskey, and is obsessed with two things: the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and his ex-wife Miriam. An acquaintance from his youthful years in Paris, Terry McIver, is about to publish his autobiography. In its pages he accuses Barney of an assortment of sins, including murder. It’s time, Barney decides, to present the world with his own version of events. Barney’s Version is his memoir, a rambling, digressive rant, full of revisions and factual errors (corrected in footnotes written by his son) and enough insults for everyone, particularly vegetarians and Quebec separatists.
But Barney does get around to telling his life story, a desperately funny but sad series of bungled relationships. His first wife, an artist and poet, commits suicide and becomes – à la Sylvia Plath – a feminist icon, and Barney is widely reviled for goading her toward death, if not actually murdering her. He marries the second Mrs. Panofsky, whom he calls a “Jewish-Canadian Princess,” as an antidote to the first; it turns out to be a horrible mistake. The third, “Miriam, my heart’s desire,” is quite possibly his soul mate, but Barney botches this one, too. It’s painful to watch him ruin everything, and even more painful to bear witness to his deteriorating memory. The mystery at the heart of Barney’s story – did he or did he not kill his friend Boogie? – provides enough forward momentum to propel the reader through endless digressions, all three wives, and every one of Barney’s nearly heartbreaking episodes of forgetfulness. Barney’s Version, winner of Canada’s 1997 Giller Prize, is Richler’s 10th novel, and a dense, energetic, and ultimately poignant read. —R. Ellis
Click here to search for this book at the Atwater Library.
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Home World Asia Jack Ma defends the ‘blessing’ of a 12-hour working day
Jack Ma defends the ‘blessing’ of a 12-hour working day
Jack Ma is stepping down as Alibaba’s executive chairman
The Chinese billionaire and co-founder of the online shopping giant Alibaba has continued to argue for a 9am to 9pm working day, and a six-day week.
Jack Ma’s backing for the so-called “996 system” is being hotly debated in the Chinese media.
Last week, Mr Ma wrote that without the system, China’s economy was “very likely to lose vitality and impetus”.
His stance was backed by fellow tech entrepreneur Richard Liu, the boss of ecommerce giant JD.com.
On Friday, Mr Ma called the opportunity to work 996 hours a “blessing”.
Jack Ma to step down
Five things about Jack Ma
Mr Liu said years of rapid economic growth in China had boosted the number of “slackers”.
The country has enjoyed economic growth averaging 10% for more than 25 years – from the late 1970s to the mid 2000s – but in subsequent years that has slowed to nearer 6%.
The entrepreneurs’ comments come amid reports this week that JD.com is cutting jobs.
Mr Liu, who started the company that would become JD.com in 1998, recently wrote about his attitude to work, saying he used to set his alarm to wake him up every two hours to make sure he could offer his customers a full, 24-hour, service.
He wrote: “JD in the last four, five years has not made any eliminations, so the number of staff has expanded rapidly, the number of people giving orders has grown and grown, while the those who are working have fallen.
“Instead, the number of slackers has rapidly grown! If this carries on, JD will have no hope! And the company will only be heartlessly kicked out of the market! Slackers are not my brothers!”
Mr Ma co-founded Alibaba, sometimes called China’s eBay, in 1999 and has seen it become one of the world’s biggest internet companies.
The company’s market value is now approximately $490bn (£374bn), and Mr Ma’s personal wealth is estimated at around $40bn.
Last year, he announced that he would step down as executive chairman in the near future.
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Australian guilty of plane bomb plot involving meat grinder
Japanese Emperor Naruhito: The man taking Japan into a new era
The moment Japan’s new emperor inherits the Imperial Treasures
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Former federal minister of Pakistan says can’t accept Maryam as political leader
11, September 2017 12:53 AM
ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader Ch Nisar Ali Khan has said that he cannot accept Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as her leader; instead, he only considers her as his friend’s daughter.
“I can surely continue coexisting with Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif without any issue,” he said while talking to a private TV show on Sunday. Nisar said that despite repeatedly being offered the position of the prime minister, he did not take it as he did not have temperament or tendency to make compromises needed for the job.
“I am the senior-most member of the PML-N after Nawaz Sharif and was many times given the option to become the prime minister but I don’t have any interest in designations.” When asked about his friendship with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, he said that he never blew things out of proportion when it came to opposing the PTI.
“I was never a part of consultations regarding PTI’s entry in the Red Zone. It was a party decision which eventually escalated my difference with the party,” he said.
On the restoration of the sanctity of the vote, he said that he firmly stands with Nawaz Sharif on this stance. However, he opposes the method used by the PML-N and the ousted prime minister in this regard.
Nawaz alluded to Turkey’s president Tayyab Erdogan’s struggle for gaining public support and said the former prime minister can follow his example as governance only, and not confrontation with the institutions, can restore the sanctity of the vote. Nisar vehemently disapproved of Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif’s statement in response to the BRICS declaration that Pakistan has made some mistakes in the past.
He reiterated that the country was in dire need of a united front to tackle the international challenges. Earlier, he said that government’s confrontation with the judiciary is contrary to the interests of the country and political environment. When asked about his support for the army, Nisar mentioned various incidents of him speaking up against the army when it went against the state’s policies.
However, the former minister opined that unnecessary confrontation with the army can weaken the country’s position. Commenting on his relations with Nawaz Sharif, he said that “I have only tried to resolve issues in the four years of our government.” Moreover, he denies the claims that he was the one who landed Nawaz in trouble.
“I believe in stating the truth,” he said. “Nawaz Sharif never even frowned when I criticised policies and spoke the truth till 2013, but the past few years were different and resulted in the differences with him,” he said. “The Dawn Leaks’ initial investigation report was given by the army and IB,” he said, adding that he was the only person who spoke in the government’s favour during that inquiry.
“I always directly contacted Nawaz over policy matters but being stopped from doing so, I resorted to speaking in the cabinet eventually,” he concluded.
Tens of thousands join anti-corruption protest on streets of Tel Aviv
PAKISTAN:Nine dead as gunmen storm hostel of Peshawar’s Agricultural Training Institute
United States is deeply troubled by the ongoing crisis in northern Rakhine State in Burma
Digital platforms launched to give window to view Hajj
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QUEENSRŸCHE's GEOFF TATE: We Are Feeling Rejuvenated
QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff Tate says that the band is feeling "rejuvenated" following an extended break that allowed him to release and tour to promote his self-titled solo debut last year. "It's good to step back and look at what you do in a more objective way so you can appreciate what it is you have," he told Anchorage Daily News last week.
21 years since the band's inception, 20 million records sold (allegedly) and four of five original members still with the group, QUEENSRŸCHE are planning a rebirth by performing their first show in more than a year on New Year's Eve at the Egan Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
"This is a meaningful show for us," Tate said. "It's a launch into what we expect to be a good year for us.
"And it's a symbolic get-together. New Year's shows are always very special. New Year's is something to celebrate."
QUEENSRŸCHE's forthcoming studio CD, tentatively titled "Tribe", is currently being recorded for a February 2003 release through Sanctuary Records. A world tour will follow, with several European festival appearances having already been announced for June.
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Photo: Shamima Shaikh
Shamima Shaikh 1960-1998
11th July 2019 |
by sister-hood staff |
@sister_hood_mag
They claim that Islam gave women the right to equal education and civil and economic rights, but at the end of their analysis they come to the conclusion that a woman’s place is in her husband’s home and that she should be obedient to him and the male elite. How on earth can she enjoy any liberty if she lacks knowledge, is confined to her home and has minimal control over her life? – Shamima Shaikh
Shamima Shaikh was South Africa’s most well-known Muslim women’s rights activist. She was a newspaper editor, a radio producer, and an activist against apartheid who ultimately identified herself as an Islamic feminist. Her legacy lies in promoting egalitarianism within Islam in South Africa.
Shamima was born in Louis Trachardt, in what was to become the Limpopo province. She spent most of her life in Polokwane (then called Pietersberg). Her father was a teacher and a committed Muslim, who had travelled to Saudi Arabia in order to study Arabic. Shamima supported her mother and took care of her younger siblings. Her sister Fatemah described her as ‘like sparkling, shimmering shards of light that danced around all of us – optimistic, energetic, and always smiling.’
Shamima attended Taxila primary and secondary schools, before attending the University of Durban-Westville, an establishment created under the apartheid system to cater to the Indian population. Here, she developed the beginnings of a political consciousness, joining a movement committed to Black liberation following the ideals of Steve Biko, subsequently promoting consumer boycotts of companies that abused their workforce. It was during this campaigning work she met her future husband Na’eem Jeenah. Their relationship began when were arrested together whilst distributing pamphlets. They were held in the CR Swart Square police station in Durban and interrogated. Shamima boldly refused to answer any questions.
Their first child, Minhaj, was born in 1988. Shamima ended her career as a teacher in order to become a full time mother and social activist. With Shamima’s support, Na’eem became the general secretary of the Muslim Youth Movement and the editor of the progressive Muslim monthly magazine Al-Qalam. Later in life she would go on to take on the role of chief editor herself.
She was also a member of the National Executive Committee of the Muslim Youth Movement, and chair of the Muslim Community Broadcasting Trust. She also spent time visiting Muslim women in impoverished townships, talking with them about Islam, women’s lives, and women’s rights.
She campaigned for Muslim women’s right to access to their own places of worship, calling for equivalent access to mosques as men – an irony in a country deep in debate about the prejudice and separatism. In 1994, she led a rebellion of Muslim women at the 23rd Street Mosque in Fietas. She and other women had been offering Ramadan prayers upstairs in the mosque, but on the 27th day of Ramadan – the holy night of Laylat al-Qadr – they found that their space had been commandeered by men, and that they had been relegated to a tent outside the mosque. The women reclaimed their space and Shamima recited the taraweeh prayer herself.
Her main mission was campaigning for Muslim women’s rights within their own community. The new South African constitution granted legitimacy to Muslim marriages, which while welcome to the Muslim community, raised the issue of patriarchal interpretations of shari’a which would disadvantage women. She refused to accept any reliance on male interpretations of Islam, or men speaking on women’s behalf. She focussed upon finding support for feminist ideals in Islamic texts and history instead.
In a radio interview in 1995, Shamima criticised the proposed Muslim Personal Law Bill which was being proposed, expressing concerns about men’s ability to unilaterally divorce their wives. For this, she received a stern caution from the United Ulama Council of South Africa, informing her that she was ‘in gross violation of Islamic principles’. She responded by outlining her vision of an Islam adapted to the needs of the modern world, stating: ‘We were never meant to impose those laws on our context, rather, we are meant to apply the eternal, universal and Divine Qur’an to our context.’
She was rudely rebuffed by the Ulama, which accused her of ‘gross ignorance and an arrogant refusal to accept the truth.’ Unabashed, she continued to agitate for a more egalitarian vision of Islam.
In 1997, she started a radio station on behalf of the Muslim Youth Movement, which broadcast her message across Johannesburg. In the same year, she performed hajj with her husband, co-writing a book about their experiences of the pilgrimage.
Shameema had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994. Despite an arduous regime of chemotherapy, it spread to her bones. Her final public engagement was delivering a speech on women and Islam at the 21st Islamic Tarbiyyah Programme, organised by the Muslim Youth Movement just a few weeks before her death. At her request, in a final defiance of patriarchal traditions, her funeral prayers were read by a woman, Farhana Ismail, and her funeral procession involved both women and men.
Shamima Shaikh was a pioneer and an inspiration to Islamic feminists, through her project of interpreting Islam through feminist hermeneutics. She embodied a passion for justice which was expressed through her strong Muslim identity, said to be based in her belief that she was only accountable to God himself.
If This be Madness…: An anthology to honor the life and courage of Shamima Shaikh, Vanessa Rivera and Na’eem Jeenah.
Journey of Discovery: A South African Hajj, Na’een Jeenah and Shamima Shaikh
Shamima Salahuddin Shaikh Commemorative site
sister-hood staff
sister-hood is a digital magazine, providing Muslim women with a platform to speak for themselves, rather than being spoken to, spoken for, or spoken about.
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Alcohol Advertising
Edited by: John Vile, David L. Hudson & David Schultz
In: Encyclopedia of the First Amendment
Subject: American Political Thought, Law & Courts, American Political History
Vile, J., Hudson, D. L. & Schultz, D. (2009). Alcohol advertising. In Encyclopedia of the First Amendment (pp. 73-73). Washington, DC: CQ Press doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n29
Vile, John, David L. Hudson and David Schultz. "Alcohol Advertising." In Encyclopedia of the First Amendment, edited by John VileDavid L. Hudson and David Schultz, 73. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009. doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n29.
Vile, J, Hudson, D L & Schultz, D 2009, 'Alcohol advertising', in Vile, J, Hudson, DL & Schultz, D (eds), Encyclopedia of the first amendment, CQ Press, Washington, DC, pp. 73, viewed 16 July 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n29.
Vile, John, et al. "Alcohol Advertising." Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. Eds. Washington: CQ Press, 2009. 73. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 16 Jul. 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n29.
Alcohol advertising involves the marketing of alcoholic beverages through numerous media markets, including print, radio, television, billboards, and the Internet. The Twenty-first Amendment—which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment’s national prohibition ...
Entries by Letter: [0-9] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U W Y Z
commercial speech,
First Amendment,
regulation of advertising,
Rhode Island,
Twentieth Amendment
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Company allegedly used a phony engineer to defame its competitor
22 Nov, 2013Uncategorized
AVEPOINT, INC. v. AXCELER UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WD VA Civil Action No. 7:13CV00035 AvePoint alleges that Axceler and its agents, including Burns, have engaged in a campaign of making false, defamatory, and deceptive claims and statements...
First FDA Authorization for Next-Generation Sequencer NEJM
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., and Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. November 19, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1314561 “… today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted marketing authorization for the first high-throughput (next-generation) genomic sequencer, Illumina’s...
Making Medical Decisions for Patients without Surrogates NEJM
21 Nov, 2013Links
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1308197?query=TOC Thaddeus Mason Pope, J.D., Ph.D. N Engl J Med 2013; 369:1976-1978November 21, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1308197 “People who are decisionally incapacitated but haven’t provided advance directives for their health care and have no health care...
Baptist Health Systems Settles Federal False Claims Act Civil Lawsuit
Baptist Health Systems, one of the largest health care providers in San Antonio, has paid $3,675,000 to the United States Department of Justice to settle allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act...
OIG report on biobank risks
Biobanks are repositories of biospecimens—and, in some cases, associated personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information—to be used for research purposes. Such research must comply with Federal regulations governing human subjects research. An...
Publication of Trials Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
David Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., Wendy Taddei-Peters, Ph.D., Alice Mascette, M.D., Melissa Antman, Ph.D., Peter G. Kaufmann, Ph.D., and Michael S. Lauer, M.D. N Engl J Med 2013; 369:1926-1934November 14, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1300237 “Rapid publication of...
Expediting Drug Development — The FDA’s New “Breakthrough Therapy” Designation
Rachel E. Sherman, M.D., M.P.H., Jun Li, J.D., Ph.D., Stephanie Shapley, M.B.A., Melissa Robb, R.N., and Janet Woodcock, M.D. N Engl J Med 2013; 369:1877-1880November 14, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1311439 “Many people with serious or life-threatening...
COURT REVOKES 501(C)(3) STATUS OVER “SCRIP” PROGRAM THAT PROVIDED REDUCED DUES TO PARTICIPATING MEMBERS: EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD REVIEW FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES AND MEMBER DISCOUNTS
http://www.reinhartlaw.com/Pages/default.aspx Something for all booster clubs to watch. non profit revocation
Law Firm Non-compete case
“A Virginia law firm is trading charges in court with two former associates after the pair jumped ship and started their own competing law firm. A prominent feature of the lawyers’ employment contracts is...
Medical research and students in Latin America
The Lancet, Volume 382, Issue 9904, Page 1553, 9 November 2013 <Previous Article|Next Article> doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62324-7Cite or Link Using DOI Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. “Patricio Alfaro-Toloza a, Romina Olmos-de-Aguilera a Undergraduate medical students are encouraged to do...
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ELECTION AND OTHER RELATED LAWS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2003
THE ELECTION AND OTHER RELATED LAWS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2003
[Act, No. 46 of 2003]
[11th September, 2003]
An Act further to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Companies Act, 1956 and the Income-tax Act, 1961.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-fourth Year of the Republic of India as follows:--
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be called the Election and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2003.
Section 2. Insertion of new sections 29B and 29C
After section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951(43 of 1951) (hereafter in this Chapter referred to as the principal Act), the following sections shall be inserted, namely:--
'29B. Political parties entitled to accept contribution .--
Subject to the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956(1 of 1956), every political party may accept any amount of contribution voluntarily offered to it by any person or company other than a Government company:
Provided that no political party shall be eligible to accept any contribution from any foreign source defined under clause (e) of section 2 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976(49 of 1976).
Explanation.--For the purposes of this section and section 29C,--
(a) "company" means a company as defined in section 3;
(b) "Government company" means a company within the meaning of section 617; and
(c) "contribution" has the meaning assigned to it under section 293A, of the Companies Act, 1956(1 of 1956) and includes any donation or subscription offered by any person to a political party; and
(d) "person" has the meaning assigned to it under clause (31) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act, 1961(43 of 1961), but does not include Government company, local authority and every artificial juridical person wholly or partially funded by the Government.
29C. Declaration of donation received by the political parties.--
(1) The treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf shall, in each financial year, prepare a report in respect of the following, namely:--
(a) the contribution in excess of twenty thousand rupees received by such political party from any person in that financial year;
(b) the contribution in excess of twenty thousand rupees received by such political party from companies other than Government companies in that financial year.
(2) The report under sub-section (1) shall be in such form as may be prescribed.
(3) The report for a financial year under sub-section (1) shall be submitted by the treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf before the due date for furnishing a return of its income of that financial year under section 139 of the Income-tax Act, 1961(43 of 1961) to the Election Commission.
(4) Where the treasurer of any political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf fails to submit a report under sub-section (3), then, notwithstanding anything contained in the Income-tax Act, 1961(43 of 1961), such political party shall not be entitled to any tax relief under that Act.
Section 3. Insertion new section 39A
'39A. Allocation of equitable sharing of time.--
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the Election Commission shall, on the basis of the past performance of a recognised political party, during elections, allocate equitable sharing of time on the cable television network and other electronic media in such manner as may be prescribed to display or propagate any election matter or to address public in connection with an election.
(2) The allocation of equitable sharing of time under sub-section (1), in respect of an election, shall be made after the publication of list of contesting candidates under section 38 for the election and shall be valid till forty-eight hours before the hour fixed for poll for such election.
(3) The allocation of equitable sharing of time under sub-section (1) shall be binding on all political parties concerned.
(4) The Election Commission may, for the purposes of this section, make code of conduct for cable operators and electronic media and the cable operators and every person managing or responsible for the management of the electronic media shall abide by such code of conduct.
Explanation.--For the purposes of this section,--
(a) "electronic media" includes radio and any other broadcasting media notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette;
(b) "cable television network" and "cable operator" have the meanings respectively assigned to them under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995(7 of 1995).'.
In section 77 of the principal Act, in sub-section (1), for Explanations 1 and 3, the following Explanations shall be substituted, namely:--
'Explanation 1.--For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that--
(a) the expenditure incurred by leaders of a political party on account of travel by air or by any other means of transport for propagating programme of the political party shall not be deemed to be the expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorised by a candidate of that political party or his election agent for the purposes of this sub-section;
(b) any expenditure incurred in respect of any arrangements made, facilities provided or any other act or thing done by any person in the service of the Government and belonging to any of the classes mentioned in clause (7) of section 123 in the discharge or purported discharge of his official duty as mentioned in the proviso to that clause shall not be deemed to be expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorised by a candidate or by his election agent for the purposes of this sub-section.
Explanation 2.--For the purposes of clause (a) of Explanation I, the expression "leaders of a political party", in respect of any election, means,--
(i) where such political party is a recognised political party, such persons not exceeding forty in number, and
(ii) where such political party is other than a recognised political party, such persons not exceeding twenty in number,
whose names have been communicated to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officers of the States by the political party to be leaders for the purposes of such election, within a period of seven days from the date of the notification for such election published in the Gazette of India or Official Gazette of the State, as the case may be, under this Act:
Provided that a political party may, in the case where any of the persons referred to in clause (i) or, as the case may be, in clause (ii) dies or ceases to be a member of such political party, by further communication to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officers of the States, substitute new name, during the period ending immediately before forty-eight hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of the last poll for such election, for the name of such person died or ceased to be a member, for the purposes of designating the new leader in his place.'.
Section 5. Insertion of new Part VA
After Part V of the principal Act, the following Part shall be inserted, namely:--
'Part VA
Free Supply of Certain Material to Candidates of Recognised Political Parties
78A. Free supply of copies of electoral rolls.--
(1) The Government shall, at any election to be held for the purposes of constituting the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State, supply, free of cost, to the candidates of recognsied political parties such number of copies of the electoral roll, as finally published under the Representation of the People Act, 1950(43 of 1950) and such other material as may be prescribed.
(2) The material referred to in sub-section (1) shall be supplied,--
(i) subject to such conditions as may be imposed by the Central Government in consultation with the Election Commission with respect to the reduction of the maximum expenditure which may be incurred by the candidate under section 77; and
(ii) through such officers as may be specified by the Election Commission who shall act in accordance with such general or special directions as may be given by the Election Commission.
78B. Supply of certain items to candidates, etc.--
(1) The Election Commission shall, at any time between the date of publication of the notification calling the election for the purposes of constituting the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State and the date on which the poll is to be taken, supply or cause to be supplied, such items as the Central Government may, by order, determine in consultation with the Election Commission, to the electors in the constituencies concerned or to the candidates set up by the recognised political parties.
(2) Where the Election Commission supplies the items to the candidates under sub-section (7), the Central Government may, in consultation with the Election Commission, impose conditions with respect to the reduction of the maximum expenditure which may be incurred by the candidate under section 77.
Explanation.--For the purposes of section 39A, this Chapter and clause (hh) of sub-section (2) of section 169, the expression "recognised political party", has the meaning assigned to it in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.'.
Section 6. Amendment of section 169
In section 169 of the principal Act, in sub-section (2),--
(i) after clause (aa), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:--
"(aaa) the form of contribution report;";
(ii) after clause (b), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:--
"(bb) the manner of allocation of equitable sharing of time on the cable television network and other electronic media;":
(iii) after clause (h), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:--
"(hh) the material to be supplied by the Government to the candidates of recognised political parties at any election to be held for the purposes of constituting the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State;".
Section 7. Amendment of section 293A of Act 1 of 1956
AMENDMENT OF THE COMPANIES ACT, 1956
7. Amendment of section 293A of Act 1 of 1956.--
In section 293A of the Companies Act, 1956, after sub-section (5), the following Explanation shall be inserted, namely:--
'Explanation.--For the purposes of this section, "political party" means a political party registered under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951(43 of 1951).'.
Section 8. Amendment of section 13A
In section 13A of the Income-tax Act, 1961(43 of 1961) (hereafter in this Chapter referred to as the Income-tax Act),--
(i) in the proviso, in clause (b), for the words "ten thousand rupees", the words "twenty thousand rupees" shall be substituted;
(ii) after the proviso and before the Explanation, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:--
"Provided further that if the treasurer of such political party or any other person authorised by that political party in this behalf fails to submit a report under sub-section (3) of section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951(43 of 1951) for a financial year, no exemption under this section shall be available for that political party for such financial year.";
(iii) for the Explanation, the following Explanation shall be substituted, namely:--
In section 80A of the Income-tax Act, in sub-section (3), for the word, figures and letters "section 80GGA", the words, figures and letters "section 80GGA or section 80GGC" shall be substituted.
Section 10. Insertion of new sections 80GGB and 80GGC
After section 80GGA of the Income-tax Act, the following sections shall be inserted, namely:--
'80GGB. Deduction in respect of contributions given by companies to political parties.--
In computing the total income of an assessee, being an Indian company, there shall be deducted any sum contributed by it, in the previous year to any political party.
Explanation.--For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that for the purposes of this section, the word "contribute", with its grammatical, variation, has the meaning assigned to it under section 293 A of the Companies Act, 1956(1 of 1956).
80GGC. Deduction in respect of contributions given by any person to political parties.--
In computing the total income of an assessee, being any person, except local authority and every artificial juridical person wholly or partly funded by the Government, there shall be deducted any amount of contribution made by him, in the previous year, to a political party.
Explanation.--For the purposes of sections 80GGB and 80GGC, "political party" means a political party registered under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951(43 of 1951).'.
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A Few Days in Mexico City
I arrived in Mexico City just before the Day of the Dead. For many people it’s a Hallowe’en sort of celebration, but typically with far more original and elaborate costumes than you’d find in the US, at least anywhere outside New Orleans. For others the day is a time to remember the martyrs among the dead, especially the dozens killed in the past few months in Oaxaca. I had been planning the visit to Mexico City for weeks, not knowing that my friend Brad Will would become one of those martyrs two days before I got there.
My visit began at the home a wealthy Mexican businessman, a sort of distant relative, I’ll call him Senor P. I visited him in one of his several homes. One of his security guards let me in past the 10’ gate with electrified fence on top. His chauffeur was standing by the black SUV in front of the house. In the kitchen, his maid/chef was making lunch. Stunning paintings, photographs and sculptures were featured in every room, tastefully.
I found Senor P upstairs watching CNN on a very large TV screen. Hanging on a wall nearby was a captivating, surrealistic underwater landscape. We were attempting to have a civil discourse on safe subjects like somebody’s new baby or do I smell mole sauce coming from kitchen, when I made the mistake of mentioning that the journalist from New York City who was just killed in Oaxaca City was a friend of mine.
Senor P became visibly agitated, and in a tone of voice somewhere between a blurt and a growl, he said “You knew him? He deserved to die! It’s good that he was killed. He was meddling in Mexican affairs. He should have stayed in New York.” He went on to describe the spokesperson for APPO (the umbrella group for the popular movement in Oaxaca) as an Orangetang. He said that some rich woman in the PRI was “inciting” the indigenous people there. The subtext: poor people couldn’t possibly be organizing the social movement that was running Oaxaca City on their own. He said they didn’t know what they were doing, had no idea what they wanted or what they were talking about.
I left there and took a cab to the San Jacinto neighborhood, infamous home of the Saint Patrick Battalion. I was staying there with my friend Fiachra, from Ireland, who is living there, getting his Master’s in Latin American literature. Things are mixed together in Mexico City, and around the corner from Fiachra’s humble apartment is a long, cobblestone street lined with mansions. Just beyond that is a beautiful old stone church with a large, peaceful courtyard in back, full of trees and little stone walking trails. In the front, facing the square in the center of the neighborhood, was a plaque erected in 1959 in memory of the San Patricios, the Irish men who deserted from the US Army and joined the Mexican Army during the 1846 invasion of Mexico. Fiachra pointed out that one of the names on the list was Polish. Neither of us had ever heard of the Polish contingent of the battalion.
Fiachra took me on a lovely walk through colorful neighborhoods, parks full of purple flowers, past museums and into the bowels of Mexico City’s bustling subway system. November 1st is the Day of the Dead for children, November 2nd is for the adults, so there were little kids and their parents dressed up brilliantly, hitting everybody up for money all over the city. We got out in the center of town. Amidst the impressive, ornate government buildings, churches and vast public spaces were thousands of people who had set up camp and were there to stay a while. Many of them had walked there from Oaxaca earlier in the month.
The electric atmosphere was reminiscent of many of the protests against the IMF, World Bank and such around the world. People were busy. Everybody was doing something. Cooking with big pots, making coffee, staffing the media centers set up with computers, printers, fax machines, getting power from somewhere, having meetings, giving lectures from behind booths with audiences intently listening. The difference was that these were mostly poor people from rural Oaxaca, not middle-class college students like at the protests up north.
A cultural event was going on nearby, which happens every evening starting at 5. It was going on right across the street from the foreign ministry building, on a large, very public street. Having such events was clearly both an effort to keep up morale among those in the struggle, and to reach out to the wider population passing by. A quartet of men and women were harmonizing on the stage, energetically playing instruments clearly in the guitar family but smaller. Even as a non-Spanish speaker I could see that there was immediate political content in many of the lyrics -- there is a distinctive kind of collective yell that comes from audiences reacting to lyrics with immediate political content, whether it’s New York or Prague or Mexico City.
Fiachra and I struck up a conversation with a man from the APPO. Like so many of the people there, he was a Zapotec Indian speaking Spanish as a second language. Assuming we didn’t know what everybody was doing there, he patiently explained what APPO was all about. He said the government is corrupt, and the teacher’s union has to strike every year in order for the teachers to get paid anything. He said the people of Oaxaca don’t want corrupt, authoritarian governments, free trade agreements and new highways -- they want an egalitarian allocation of resources, egalitarian distribution of the land and wealth, and socialism. Sounded to me like he was pretty clear on the way forward.
A Mexican woman who has lived in California for the past 30 years sang next. She had a big voice with a wide range. She sang about the struggle of the people being like the struggle of a migrating bird to reach the shore. Very optimistic imagery, I thought, since the birds usually make it. I was talking with her before she went on stage. Like several others there, she had met Brad recently in Oaxaca. He interviewed her just days before he was shot to death by the paramilitaries, camera in his hand.
I sang my song about the San Patricios, receiving the sort of polite but unenthusiastic response I’ve come to expect from audiences who don’t speak the language I’m singing in. I was trying to gracefully exit the stage and let somebody else sing in a more familiar language, but the organizers kept on getting me to sing more songs. Eventually I rejoined the crowd. Now a man was singing and playing the sorts of complex, eloquent guitar riffs of someone who, I guessed, has probably listened to more than a few Silvio Rodriguez albums.
Two other people introduced themselves to Fiachra and I. They were also Zapotec. The man was a striking school teacher, and his wife was a doctor. Talking with this couple, I thought of Senor P, and something Fiachra had said about people like him, how their motto could be “Don’t let the tide in, I like my sand castle.” It occurred to me that Senor P might do well to meet some of these people sometime before the oceans rise. But, sadly, I have no doubt he’ll keep on hiding in his mansion as long as he possibly can.
Posted by David Rovics at 6:18 AM
it is such a shame that my country has become so radicalised, instead of working together to make things better, the rich are richer, ghettoising themselves in large mansions, the middle classes live scared of the 'tide', of the other, of the taxes and of corruption and violence; the poor are angry and with reason... but should they all be fighting each other? should politicians and the media keep on contributing to this radicalisation? can't we try to work on our new democracy as adults? if Mexico carries on fighting like this, it won't go anywhere but backwards
November 30, 2006 at 2:30:00 PM PST
They Kept On Walking
SOA Protests 2006
The Plowshares 5 and the Raytheon 9
Syrian Influence
"Eulogy" for Brad Will
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Self-driving cars without steering wheels to be allowed on US roads
Following updated guidelines
By Rob Thubron on October 8, 2018, 5:27 11 comments
Forward-looking: The move toward self-driving cars without human controls being allowed on US roads has taken another step closer. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that it planned to change the rules that bar autonomous vehicles that lack equipment such as steering wheel, pedals, and mirrors.
Within the guidelines of the 80-page report, called “Automated vehicles 3.0,” the NHTSA writes that it "intends to reconsider the necessity and appropriateness of its current safety standards" when it comes to self-driving vehicles.
The NHTSA said the safety requirements currently in place for self-driving cars could "constitute an unintended regulatory barrier to innovation." The agency will seek comment on the proposed changes and consider "the possibility of setting exceptions to certain standards."
Automakers have to meet over 70 automotive safety standards in the US, most of which assume the presence of a human driver. But regulator will no longer make this assumption, especially when it comes to trucks and buses.
The news will no doubt be welcomed by General Motors, which, according to Reuters, filed a petition earlier in the year to allow vehicles without steering wheels or pedals to become part of its ride-sharing service launching in 2019. Waymo plans a similar autonomous service in Arizona this year, though its vehicles will have human controls—even though nobody will be behind the wheels.
The self-driving car industry fell under the spotlight after one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles was involved in a crash that killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. The aftermath of the accident saw several autonomous car projects temporarily halt testing on public roads. But the NHTSA's report does acknowledge that self-driving cars have the potential to reduce accidents and road-related deaths.
The Bentley EXP 100 GT is an EV concept of luxury with blood-pressure monitoring AI
VW electric car smashes 20-year-old Goodwood Festival of Speed record
New electric cars must be fitted with noise-making device in Europe
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