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__label__wiki	0.707875	0.707875	Tag: Mineola Fair Helck Family Collection: Peter Helck Recalls the Greatest Vintage Car Event in Long Island’s History Among the treasures discovered in the Helck Family Collection is an unedited 128-page biographical document written by Peter Helck. In the first post from these memoirs, Peter Helck recalls the 50th anniversary celebration of the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race held on Long Island. Update #3: Mystery Foto #28 Solved: A 1931 Aerial of the Motor Parkway in Garden City and Mineola Author Richard Panchyk challenged you to identify this spectacular Long Island aerial. Helck Family Collection: “The Most Thrilling Race I Have Ever Seen” by Barrett H. Clark, Jr. In the November 1947 issue of Speed Age influential editor and literary manager Barrett H. Clark, Jr. described "the most thrilling race I have ever seen." Surprisingly, the race was last race of the 1946 VMCCA Jubilee Anniversary held at the Mineola Fair Grounds in Garden City. Mystery Foto #52 Solved: Old 16 at the 1946 VMCCA Jubilee Anniversary at the Mineola Fair Grounds The Heck Family Collection provided one more challenge in the final Mystery Foto of the year. Mystery Foto #4 Solved: A 1942 Composite Aerial of Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Field-Updated 1/26/16 As requested by popular demand, here was the first Mystery Aerial of 2016. Images & a Trophy From the Greatest Vintage Car Event Ever Held on Long Island In my opinion, the greatest vintage automobile event ever held on Long Island occurred on October 9, 1954 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Vanderbilt Cup Race. The event was organized by Long Island Old Car Club and the Mineola Fair and Industrial Exposition. The 1946 VMCCA Jubilee Anniversary at the Mineola Fair Grounds In June 1946, the Veteran Motor Car Club of America sponsored its 50th Anniversary Jubilee featuring a parade of 75 vintage cars and nine races at the Mineola Fair Grounds on Long Island. Film “The Last Race for Old 16 and Joe Tracy?” (1946) In June 1946, the Veteran Motor Car Club of America sponsored its 50th Anniversary Jubilee featuring a parade of 75 vintage cars and nine races at the Mineola Fair Grounds on Long Island. Courtesy of Walter McCarthy and the Long Island Old Car Club, the highlights of the Jubilee have been captured	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402389
__label__wiki	0.682749	0.682749	WIU Home > VPAS > Facilities Management Projected Opening: Cost: $71.8 million Factsheet - April 2014 (PDF) Photos and Renderings Center for Performing Arts The Western Illinois University Center for Performing Arts supports the academic mission and programs in the WIU College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as serves as a cultural and performing arts destination for the campus community, the city of Macomb and the entire region. The Center for Performing Arts is the first Macomb campus building constructed with public funds in nearly 40 years. The 130,000-square foot Center for Performing Arts includes a 1,400-seat proscenium theatre auditorium with two balconies, a 250-seat thrust theatre and a 150-seat studio theatre. The facility also houses theatre, dance and jazz rehearsal studios to fulfill the academic mission of the building. Proscenium Theatre (Great Hall) This theatre serves as the premier performing arts facility, on campus and in the region, for live theatre performances and major music performances. It replaces WIU’s Western Hall as the theatre and music venue for most touring acts. The theatre features a modern theatre fly-loft and backstage area, superior sound and lighting systems, an acoustic orchestra shell, climate-controlled piano storage and a large loading dock to allow the Center for Performing Arts to accommodate the often complex requirements of touring performances. Thrust and Studio Theatres The thrust theatre and the studio theatre provide smaller, more intimate venues. The thrust theatre features fixed floor seating and a small balcony with views of three sides of the stage. It replaces a similar facility in Horrabin Hall. The thrust theatre contains a backstage area and a technical control booth found in modern thrust theatres. The studio theatre provides an extremely versatile rehearsal and performance space with flexible seating options that may be easily configured to facilitate dynamic performance requirements. The studio threatre replaces a similar studio in Simpkins Hall. The Center for Performing Arts includes multiple-use spaces, such as the lobby/gallery and a VIP room, as well as two dance studios, a jazz rehearsal room and two theatre rehearsal rooms that serve those respective academic disciplines. The Center for Performing Arts box office serves the ticketing needs of the campus and community and features ticket sales for all campus events. Dressing rooms adjacent to the theatres, a scenery/ design workshop, a costume shop and Center for Performing Arts administrative offices are located in the new facility. The deans’ offices of the College of Fine Arts and Communication are relocating to the Center for Performing Arts, allowing the Department of Theatre and Dance to expand in Browne Hall. The Center for Performing Arts occupies a major footprint in the southwest portion of campus along Western Avenue, between Browne Hall and the Corbin/Olson complex. The Center for Performing Arts connects to Browne Hall and consolidates performance spaces close to instructional areas in Browne, Sallee and Simpkins Halls. Upon completion, the Center for Performing Arts will represent the focal point of a large and dynamic arts and communication campus quad—a unique and distinguishing feature for a regional university. The Center for Performing Arts includes several commemorative-naming opportunities for the three performance venues, rehearsal spaces, the gallery, scene shop, lounges, VIP room and green rooms. Naming opportunities range from $50,000 to $7.5 million. Patrons may also purchase commemorative naming rights to seats located in the proscenium and the thrust theatres. Seats in the proscenium theatre range in price from $500 to $1,000 per seat. Seats in the thrust theatre range in price from $250 to $500 per seat. Discounts are available for multiple seat purchases. A commemorative plaque will designate each named seat. This project has been temporarily suspended. In light of this fiscal uncertainty, the Capital Development Board has announced all work being performed under Capital Projects to stop. For more information, visit www.illinois.gov/cdb/announcements/2015/Pages/Capital-Development-Board-Announcement.aspx. Emergency Service Requests Handling of Service Requests Maintenance vs. Charge Back Policies, Procedures, and Guides Project Work Requests Training Room Request Service Request Form (PDF) Reporting Maintenance Problems Campus Projects Environmental Health, Safety & Sustainability Funding Capacity Facilities Management Directory Published Numbers Facilities Planning & Construction Facilities Maintenance & Operations Admin Bios Mary Howe Troy Rhoads Ted Renner Jonathan Myers Tara Heath Neal Thurman Building Representatives Master Plan Home Master Plan Implementation Team Text Telephone: (309) 298-4444 info@wiu.edu	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402396
__label__cc	0.535003	0.464997	MILPA: Mx-Svalbard Arctic From Mexico to Svalbard-Arctic Ocean Svalbard Global Seed Vault / Mine #3 AGRI-CULTURES / SEED.LINKS EXHIBITION The work is inspired by and pay homage to -La Milpa-, a traditional and historical agricultural system from Maya and Mesoamerica civilization that produces maize, beans, squash and chile. A series of artworks that appeal to Milpa´s symbolic and cultural significance, increasing the imaginary of its cycles, stages, interactions, biodiversity and cosmovision through poetic dialogues. The artwork explores diverse substrates and media, such as drawing, photography, literature, body, bio-sculpture and living sculpture. This deep cavern carved inside a frozen mountain on the Arctic island of Svalbard currently holds over one million samples of the world’s seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds a global collection of seeds from all around the world. It stores ‘back-up’ copies in case disaster (fire, flood, civil war) strikes the genebanks holding the original seeds. With over one million seed samples now stored on Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault is an incredible achievement of science and diplomacy. However, this incredible effort to preserve the biological diversity of seeds, omits the rich cultural diversity required to generate and maintain this agricultural biodiversity. In June, when the new deposit arrived to Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a collection of artworks has been also interred in the mountain alongside them. This exhibition serves as a reminder that seeds live within vast webs of interrelations – ecological, socio-technical and cultural – and that these connections are also worthy of celebration and preservation. Agri/Cultures.Seed-Links Exhibition aims to celebrate and honor the fertile bonds between biological and cultural diversity in agri-food systems through artistic approaches. In order to preserve the cultural heritage of the seeds, the Agri / Cultures Project initiative seeks to create a link with this significant place. -The Svalbard Global Seed Vault- through the deposit/plantation/burial of artistic works inside the mountain where the Vault is located. Art works that speak to the bio-cultural connections in agriculture and the links seeds have to society, ecology and culture through their presence within agri-food systems. SEED CULTURES On June 9, 2019, Seeds InService deposited a collection of art works inside a frozen mountain on the Arctic island of Svalbard. From the Agri/Cultures Project and Seed Cultures Initiative: In a deep cavern carved inside a frozen mountain on an island high up in the Arctic lies the most biodiverse room in the world. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds over one million samples of seeds from all around the world. However, the Seed Vault contains no information about the cultural significance of seeds; no stories about how they are cultivated, by whom, for what purposes, using what rituals, etc. The seeds are frozen in isolation from all the social practices, ecological relations, and cultural histories that give them life. The Seed Cultures Initiative seeks to create an archive of visual artworks to help conserve the cultural heritage of seeds. Its aim is to celebrate the way seeds live within vast webs of interrelations and to honor the fertile bonds between biological and cultural diversity in agri-food systems. MINE #3 Mine # 3 is located a few meters from the Global Seed Vault of Svalbard. The mine was the first model for the Vault, and currently functions as a bio-experimentation repository. EXHIBITION AND DEPOSIT The Agri/Cultures.Seed-Links Exhibition was held in the former cinema Huset in Longyearbyen. As a closing ceremonial activity, the invited artists, packed and sealed their works inside black boxes, so they could be deposited the next day inside the mountain as cultural memories. The next day, they entered the old mine – Mine # 3- x-studio : : Ivan Juarez curator: Dr. Fern Wickson drawing series: Lola Cervant photographs: x-studio : : Ivan Juarez photograph Ivan Juarez´s deposit: Anna Laurent	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402398
__label__wiki	0.817906	0.817906	WestenderMovie.com Westender 2003 This was the official website for the 2003 film, Westender. Content is from outside sources including reviews from RottenTomatoes, other film critics, and a synopsis from IMDb. Rating: PG-13 (for violence) Genre: Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy Directed By: Brock Morse Written By: Jefferson O.S.Brassfield, Jefferson Brassfield On DiscStreaming: Dec 14, 2004 Runtime: 105 minutes Studio: M.O.B Productions IMDb 2003 Set in a fictional medieval world, this is the story of Asbrey of Westender. Once a great heroic knight, he has mysteriously fallen from grace. One night he drunkenly bets and loses his ring, his last possession of worth. He then embarks on a mission to regain his ring and, in due course, confront the demons of his past. - Written by DarthBill Homegrown cinema: Corvallis grads strike it big with their first feature film, ‘Westender,' a period fantasy piece about redemption. By John Ginn Entertainer Jun 7, 2003 Steve Locey remembers them as "those characters" - Brock Morse, Jefferson Brassfield and their gang of video cohorts: "those characters." Locey, who is dean of students at Corvallis High School, uses the term in the fondest way. "Those characters were always running around videotaping everything. They were always up to something." Now, nearly 10 years after high school, they are working under the name M.O.B. productions and are up to their biggest "something" yet. On June 13, their first feature film, "Westender," will receive its world premiere at the prestigious Seattle Film Festival. It is one of only nine films to make it through the jury process to become an official selection. Shot entirely in Oregon, "Westender" makes fabulous use of the state's scenic beauty - from shots overlooking the ocean to forest glens to central and eastern Oregon vistas. Shot on a low budget, the film's look rivals that of many Hollywood movies costing millions more. "Westender" is a period fantasy film. Asbrey, (actor Blake Stadel from Vancouver, B.C., Canada) is a once-famed knight now fallen on hard times. In his glory days, his nickname, Westender, was a rallying cry for his troops. Now, following a terrible tragedy, he spends his days drinking and gambling. One morning, he wakes to discover that he has gambled away his only valuable possession, a ring of great personal significance. Realizing that he has hit the fabled "rock bottom," Asbrey embarks on a quest to regain his ring, and maybe, in doing so, regaining some of his honor. The epic tale is a long way from the early experimentations of a band of middle school kids turned loose with their dad's super 8 video camera. Morse and Brassfield first began making films in 1987. Later, in high school, they gradually accumulated like-minded individuals to their cause: Rob Simonsen, Hans Hlawaty and Rolf Nordhausen. Mostly self-taught, they learned their craft through sheer trial and error. Filmmaking has taken giant strides in the last few years with digital cameras and editing software available for home users, but back when they started, video editing was a hideously complex business of popping tapes in and out of machines, cueing them up and pushing buttons. "By the time we got to our final cut, our original tape was probably mixed down to a fourth generation," Morse said, shaking his head like he can't believe how primitive it all was. Each generation a tape goes through would entail a loss of video quality, but Brock and company remained undeterred by their technical limitations, always thinking big, always looking toward the future. A lot of their early productions were the usual kids' stuff: parodies, parodies and parodies. There were "Indiana Jones" spoofs, action film spoofs, and their magnum opus, "Bambo," an extended spoof of the "Rambo" movies. "I'm not really sure we'd even seen a "Rambo" movie, but we spoofed them anyway," Morse said. In high school, their subject matter became more purposeful, and a couple of their spoofs became regular classroom viewing. They did an instructional driving safety film, and their tape "Health 101" is still shown on the last day of class as a hilarious reward for students who stuck with all the dry, boring stuff the rest of the term. Following high school, the group went their separate ways. Morse went to Montana and then to Vancouver, B.C., to attend film schools there. Simonsen went to Southern Oregon University to study music. Brassfield went to Los Angeles to find what work he could. TOMATOMETER AUDIENCE 50% Oregonian For what it is -- a debut by independent filmmakers from the central Willamette Valley -- it is astoundingly ambitious and accomplished. December 13, 2004 \| Rating: 2/5 \| eFilmCritic.com A first time feature film director decides that he's going to make a middle ages period piece, full of action and sprawling vistas, olde age costumes and intense internal drama... on a low budget. What would your advice be to such an ambitious soul? Personally, I'd have said, "Fella, lay off the crack. A movie like this would cost you a million at least, if not ten." That Brock Morse received plenty of advice such as mine and still went out and made his film, is a testimony to the size of his balls, the steel in his spine and the stubborn streak evident in his character. No question, Mr Morse knows how to rally the troops and get things done on the cheap. Unfortunately, the result of all that rallying, Westender, is little more than a video business card for the man in question. And a long one at that. When I was visiting Seattle in 2003 for the Seattle International Film Festival, I managed to see two weeks worth of great movies, one after another, all of them managing to reach an almost hideously good standard of quality. so I called up my roommate and said, "Yo Debbers, you've got to come down here and catch a flick. It's been awesome." Impressionable to a fault, Debbers arrived for the last weekend of the fest and caught precisely one flick - Westender. Let's just say it took a few drinks for me to shut her up about having wasted her Saturday night. Which isn't to say that Westender is the worst film you'll see - far from it. It's sumptuously filmed, intensely performed, a veritable cornucopia of demonstrations of what a smart guy with no budget can do with a video camera, some renaissance fair enthusiasts and the outstanding natural scenery of the state of Oregon. Morse manages to capture imagery that makes you forget the script and think "ooooh." He pulls off an atmosphere of wartime in the middle ages with nothing more than trees, homemade costumes, plastic armor, the occasional horse-drawn cart, and a handful of clearly blunt swords. And he takes a whole lot of people who've never acted before and makes it only marginally obvious that... well, they've never acted before. These are all strong points, and make Westender worth a look if you're a student of filmmaking. Where it all goes to hell in a horse hair handbasket is the storyline. Morse may well know his way around a storyboard, but he clearly needs to remember that the story in that word is more important than the board... or bored, as the case may be. Lord Asbury of Westender (Blake Stadel, though he could be Bill Pullman's younger brother) is an old drunken former military hero who has just gambled away his ring - a trinket of extreme sentimental value. Awakened from a booze-soaked slumber, he goes apeshit when he learns the ring is gone, and heads out determined to track down the thief. Only, the man in question turns out to be no thief, but rather a jester, who has lost all of his worldly possessions escaping from a band of brigands. The missing items, which he has no intention of retrieving, include Westender's ring. Thus begins a trek to find the bad guys, with a tied-up jester in tow, through rocks and deserts and woods and all sorts of peril. While all that may sound like a great tale, the potential of the story is never lived up to, with the best character in the script - the Jester - getting written out early, while the terminally silent and internally troubled Westender sulks and broods and starves and stumbles and curses his way through nearly two hours of orchestral score. What's worse is that the film feels like it's half an hour longer than that. It should be said that I met Morse a few times during the Seattle festival and he struck me not only as a genuinely great guy, but a great guy that has no trouble surrounding himself with willing soldiers prepared to do whatever it takes to get a film made for next to no money. If he can take the positives from this film experience and parlay them into something that really needs to be made, rather than something that he wants to get made, he could well end up making his second film the kind of outing that opens wide and is well remembered by audiences. I hope he does. But Westender, for all it's achievements, is little more than an example of why it's important to make a film when the script is ready, not just because the director is. ½* Mark S awful film... just bad *** ½ :fresh: Wow, I finally got to sit through Westender, last night. Tried a couple nights ago, but the kids were asking 500 questions, and of course I had to have a "Knight Expert" watching it too, and the comentary drove me nuts. What can I say. Not your "A-Typical" Knight movie. Actually was pretty good. No movie is perfect, and there were a few slower parts, but I loved the last half of the movie. Really made me think about journeys, and decisions made at the end aren't always what you planned on Certainly a must see, if you like Medieval movie	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402406
__label__wiki	0.630607	0.630607	The Optimistic Leftist The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice How Much Did Trump Really Change the Electoral Map? Thinking about 2018 with this question in mind is an interesting exercise. First, consider Nate Cohn's extensive analysis of the House districts in play as we move toward November. That battleground is quite a bit different than earlier conventional wisdom indicated it would be. Cohn: "[The battleground is] not dominated by well-educated, suburban districts that voted for Hillary Clinton. Instead, the battleground is broad, and it includes a long list of working-class and rural districts that voted for Donald J. Trump in 2016.... The most vulnerable Republican-held districts are only somewhat better educated and somewhat more suburban than the country as a whole. They are broadly representative of non-urban America. They backed Mr. Trump for president. About 31 percent of residents have a college degree, slightly more than the national average (counting all those 18 and over). The sheer number of competitive districts is important in its own right. On paper it would be enough to make the Democrats fairly clear favorites, if one assumes Democrats would do as well in each category as the party out of power has done in recent wave elections. The Cook Political Report currently rates 60 Republican-held districts as either “lean Republican” or better for Democrats. That’s the sort of number that provides ample opportunities for Democrats to find the 23-seat gain they need." Huh. Maybe the white working class isn't as hopeless as many on the left seem to believe. And maybe the political geography we witnessed in 2016 is, in turn, not so immutable. Trump's re-making of the electoral map may have less staying power than Democrats fear (and Republicans fervently hope). If so, why would that be? Political scientist David Hopkins, writing in his blog Honest Graft, has some ideas: "If 2016 indeed represents the "new normal," than it would make sense for analysts to take a bearish view of Democratic chances in white, small-town congressional districts in the Midwest and elsewhere this year. But if 2016 was something of an aberration, and the Trump-Clinton vote does not fully reflect the relative fundamental strength of the two parties, then the map of electoral battlegrounds opens wider, and the fortunes of congressional Democrats improve accordingly. Midterm elections are always primarily a referendum on the president, and Trump has dominated the political scene so thoroughly since he took office that this rule of thumb is likely to be especially applicable to 2018. If the remarkable Republican strength in the rural Midwest in 2016 was primarily a reflection of Trump's personal popularity, we might expect it to carry over into 2018 unless a significant share of formerly-enthusiastic Trump supporters had become disillusioned in the interim. But if the abrupt partisan shift between 2012 and 2016 visible in the figure above was largely a reflection of Hillary Clinton's personal unpopularity with rural Midwesterners—as well as a Clinton campaign that eschewed economic issues to an unprecedented degree for a modern Democrat—we shouldn't be surprised by a significant Democratic rebound in the region this November, since Clinton will be neither on the ballot nor in the White House...... Many loyal Democrats will not easily accept the belief that the results in 2016 reflected a widespread popular antipathy to Hillary Clinton. And the surprising nature of Trump's victory has encouraged the view, even among his fiercest critics, that he maintains under-appreciated political strengths. But the more validity to the conclusion that Trump was a weak candidate who won a close and fluky election only because he was facing a seriously flawed opponent, the rosier the outlook becomes for Democrats this November." Hmm. He could be on to something. Definitely something to keep in mind when the election results come in this November. 99 Days to Go, and the Midterm Elections Battleground Is Not What Was Expected The most competitive districts are only somewhat better educated and somewhat more suburban than the country as a whole. Can Stacey Abrams Turn Georgia Blue? There's been quite a few stories about this of late. Today's New York Times has a lengthy piece about the Abrams-Kemp battle and Dan Balz' column in today's Washington Post assessed Abrams' chances against her Republican opponent. So: could she do it? Sure, it's possible; the state has been trending in a direction favorable to the Democrats and she's a strong candidate in many ways. But we should be clear about just how difficult this is going to be. To begin with the obvious, high black turnout will be essential to an Abrams victory. She may well get it. But that's highly likely to be enough to defeat Kemp. There is a very simple reason for this. While the minority vote is large in Georgia, the white vote is much larger. It's unlikely to be under 60 percent of the vote and will probably be a bit higher. Even in 2012, when Georgia black turnout was actually higher than white turnout (and way higher than white noncollege turnout), whites were still 62 percent of voters and blacks were just 32 percent. Clinton in 2016, as many recent stories have noted, actually did better than Obama in Georgia, losing the state by just 5 points, compared to Obama's 8 point deficit. This improvement is entirely attributable to Clinton's improved performance among whites, both college and noncollege. Granted, her absolute support levels were still low among these groups, but her relative improvement was enough to make the state significantly closer. But wasn't black turnout low in 2016 in Georgia? Yes, it did decline and slip below white turnout levels. But here's the thing. If Clinton had replicated Obama's 2012 black turnout levels in Georgia in 2016, she would have improved her margin by 2 points in the state. But, if she had replicated Obama's poorer 2012 white support in 2016, she would have done 6 points worse. So the behavior of the white vote is key. As one might expect, the white college vote was where Clinton received the biggest boost in 2016 (a 14 point margin shift over Obama in 2012) and it is among this group that Abrams will be hoping to post big gains. How big? In the Balz article, he quotes Democratic pollster John Anzalone as estimating that, if Abrams could get high black turnout, she could carry the state with only 30 percent of the white vote. That's the good news. The bad news is that getting to 30 percent of the white vote is likely to be very difficult indeed. In 2016, Clinton got just 24 percent of the white vote. Assuming that Abrams does no better against Kemp among white noncollege voters than Clinton did against Trump, my back-of-the-envelope estimate is that Abrams might have to come close to splitting the white college vote evenly with Kemp (the size of the white college vote in Georgia is about two-thirds the size of the white noncollege vote). For comparison, Clinton got only about 35 percent of the white college vote. So getting to 30 percent of the white vote ain't going to be that easy. But of course, it's not impossible and let's hope she's able to do it. A blue Georgia would be a beautiful thing. The David Byler article linked to below provides more data that suggest the height of the hill Abrams will have to climb. Yes, this is an article from the Weekly Standard but Byler (a former associate of Sean Trende at RCP) is a smart, data-driven analyst whose stuff is always worth checking out. WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM On Tuesday night, Brian Kemp—the Georgia secretary of state and self-proclaimed “politically incorrect conservative” who owns a truck, talks about standing for the national anthem and happily supports President Trump—beat Lieutenant Gov. Casey Cagle in the state’s gubernatorial runoff, off... France, Germany, Italy, the Eurozone and Everything You can't tell the players without a scorecard and Wolfgang Streeck has you covered. This very detailed article in American Affairs will tell you lots of things you didn't know about what's going on with these players and how their conflicts are likely to get resolved (or not). Streeck's conclusion: "As the years of Merkel IV pass, “populists” of all kinds, Left and Right, will feel confirmed in their view that the European institutions inherited from the neoliberal 1990s will never be converted into protections against the gales of “globalization”—in fact, that they are so firmly locked into their historical path that they cannot be converted or “reformed” at all. All that those running them, desperately seeking to maintain an appearance of control, can do is hope that somehow things will turn out fine, for unknown and unknowable reasons. Public displays of unshakable optimism, daily protestations of good, “value”-based intentions, and hectic “news”-generating activities will be used to keep alive citizen confidence while waiting for the return of some mysterious self-restoring equilibrium, or alternatively for citizens adjusting to the end of government, national and supranational, and the advent of governance, and indeed global governance. Meanwhile, Germany will even more than in recent years become the target of international resentment, including in France, as Franco-German Kerneuropa (“core Europe”) will remain mostly symbolic and ceremonial. By the end of Merkel IV, we may be looking not just at the impending end of Macron, but at what journalists will call Italexit, with or without Franco-German consent. As a result, the euro—the very cornerstone of German post-2008 prosperity—would change beyond recognition or cease to exist. Unable politically and economically to compensate the losers of the EMU, Germany cannot hope to remain a winner." Read the whole article and you will be the wiser for it. AMERICANAFFAIRSJOURNAL.ORG Europe under Merkel IV: Balance of Impotence - American Affairs Journal Europe, as organized—or disorganized—in the European Union (EU), is a strange political beast. It consists, first, of the domestic politics of its member states that have, over time, become deeply intertwined. Second, member states, which are still sovereign nation-states, pursue nationally defi... Democratic Wave Watch: Cook Political Report Checks In David Wasserman of Cook Political Report has released his latest summary of the House situation. I'd trust his view over Cillizza's since Wasserman produces analysis while Cillizza consumes analysis and produces conventional wisdom. Wasserman says: "With 102 days to go, Democrats remain substantial favorites for House control. A big reason: Republicans are defending 42 open or vacant seats, a record since at least 1930. The retirements of Speaker Paul Ryan (WI-01), as well as powerful committee chairs like Reps. Ed Royce (CA-39) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11) and popular moderates like Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27) and Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02), have given Democrats stellar pickup opportunities." "Substantial favorites"? Has a nice ring to it. COOKPOLITICAL.COM The Bottom Line in Republicans' 42 Open Seats With 102 days to go, Democrats remain substantial favorites for House control. A big reason: Republicans are defending 42 open or vacant seats, a record since at least 1930. The retirements of Speaker Paul Ryan (WI-01), as well as powerful committee chairs like Reps. Ed Royce (CA-39) and Rodney Frel... Generational Change and Expanding Democracy I don't often describe articles as "must-reads" but this Adam Bonica article (with great graphics) in the New York Times is a must-read. Bonica's core argument is that generational shifts are way more powerful politically than people think and that the power of theses shifts--already substantial--can be dramatically enhanced by reforms to expand democracy. Agree on both counts. I've been beating the drum for awhile on the profound significance of ongoing generational shifts (half of eligible voters will be Millennials or Post-Millennials [labelled Gen Z by Bonica] by 2020; two-thirds by 2032!) and hopefully Bonica's article will help swell the chorus and solidify a linkage to democracy reform. Some key points from Bonica's article: "While it is tempting to view elections as being decided in the moment, much of the groundwork is set in place decades earlier. Looking at survey data from the 1950s, political scientists observed that voters who came of age during the Great Depression identified as Democrats at much higher rates than prior and subsequent generations. The Great Depression and the remaking of American government during the New Deal left a lasting imprint on a generation of voters. A 2014 study by Andrew Gelman and Yair Ghitza demonstrates that the “political events of a voter’s teenage and early adult years, centered around the age of 18, are enormously important in the formation of these long-term partisan preferences.” We often underappreciate how generational turnover affects our politics. As a generation of New Deal Democrats grew older (and more likely to vote), they created a generational advantage that helped Democrats maintain majority control of the House of Representatives for nearly four decades. When Republicans finally retook Congress in the 1994 election, it too was a predictable consequence of a changing electorate: The New Deal Democrats had given way to a solidly Republican generation of voters who came of age during the early years of the Cold War. This made the return of Republican majorities during the 1990s or 2000s likely, if not inevitable. Once again, the nation is on the cusp of a generational revolution. As a group, millennials favor Democrats by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. Millennials are unlikely to trend Republican as they age so long as the current hyper-polarized political environment persists. However, they will become more likely to vote. (A general rule of thumb is that turnout increases by about one percentage point with each year of age.) This makes it possible to in essence fast-forward the electorate to forecast how the generational advantage will change over the next decade. The Republican Party, after years of ascendancy, is about to fall off an electoral cliff. By 2026, according to an analysis of data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, millennials are expected to account for 19 percent of votes cast, up from 12 percent in 2014, with Democratic-leaning Gen Xers and Gen Zers accounting for an additional 34 percent. As this happens, the Republican-leaning Silent Generation is projected to account for 8 percent of votes cast in 2026, down from 23 percent in 2014..... Carrying out practical and proven policies to increase voter turnout will swell Democratic majorities, strengthen the party’s mandate to govern and shore up support for progressive policies. Medicare for All would be a much easier sell if 18-year-olds turned out like 80-year-olds. So would policies intended to combat economic inequality. Among advanced democracies, turnout in national elections is a strong predictor of income inequality. The United States has both the lowest turnout and highest share of income going to the top 1 percent. This is unlikely to be a coincidence. There are good theoretical reasons to believe the two are related.... Fixing our democracy is perhaps our best shot at getting Congress back to work on solving the serious problems facing the nation. Generational change is coming and with it an opportunity to fundamentally transform American government and who it serves, so long as Democrats insist on making voters mirror the population and do everything in their power to make it happen." https://www.nytimes.com/…/democracy-democrats-voters-disenf… Democratic Wave Watch: The Wave Is Back! Or at least so says Chris Cillizza, an unfailingly accurate barometer of the political conventional wisdom. i suppose that should make us cautious. But....he does round up a lot of indicators that suggest the climate for the Democrats is settling in to a very good place for the party. These include: * generic Congressional polls * polls of swing districts * House ratings changes * fundraising reports * widened playing field * historical patterns Those swing districts include our old pal, Conor Lamb: "Take Pennsylvania's 17th District in the southwestern part of the state where Reps. Conor Lamb (D) and Keith Rothfus (R) are facing off. Even though President Donald Trump narrowly carried the seat in 2016, Lamb leads Rothfus 51% to 39% in a new Monmouth University poll." Yup, looking good. Every sign is pointing to a Democratic wave in November The 2018 election is in 105 days. And the playing field continues to tilt toward Democrats. Sure Democrats Are Ahead Nationally, But How Are Democrats Doing in Competitive House Districts? A good question; there is a veritable fire hose of national polls that test the generic Congressional ballot (where the Democrats are doing very well). But what about in the competitive districts that really count, where the race to control the House will actually be won or lost? Such polls are harder to find but Latino Decisions has just released a poll of the 61 most competitive House districts as defined by the Cook Political Report, CNN and Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball site. As a bonus they did oversamples of individual minority groups so they could report reliable findings for those groups. The overall +13 in these districts for the Democrats looks excellent, the minority Democratic margins are solid and the anemic +7 for the Republicans among whites (roughly two-thirds of registered voters across these districts) is quite poor by contemporary GOP standards. Trump Still Unpopular, GOP Still Losing Ground Does this look to you like a President who's getting more popular? Yes, yes I know, Republican identifiers still support him and it is hard to shake their faith. But it matters a great deal that his overall approval rating continues to be very bad--in fact, historically bad--that independents don't like him and that Democrats absolutely detest him. See Matt Yglesias' recent article in Vox for more detail or my previous post on the issue. Meanwhile, the stuff that really counts--Democratic prospects in November--continue to improve. The ongoing Trump circus is, to say the least, not helping Republican candidates. Latest relevant data: Saboto's Crystall Ball just moved 17 House races toward the Democrats. Maintain a healthy paranoia but things are actually looking pretty good. http://www.centerforpolitics.org/…/the-house-tilts-toward-…/ Why You Should Still Care about Swing Voters A common view these days, particularly on the left, is that swing voters have disappeared. This is comforting for those who see slogans like "Abolish ICE!" as having no real downside, since there are no persuadable swing voters out there to alienate. Just need to get those juices flowing among the Democratic base! That would make life easier, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, in the real world of politics, this is not remotely true. Matt Yglesias does a good job of demonstrating this in a lengthy article just published on Vox.. Some of his main points: "Swing voters have gotten rarer over time, but there are definitely swing voters, and their decision to swing one way or the other makes a difference in politics.....The 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study conducted a large sample poll and found that 6.7 million Trump voters said they voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and 2.7 million Clinton voters said they voted for Mitt Romney in 2016. In other words, about 11 percent of Trump voters say they were Obama voters four years earlier and about 4 percent of Clinton voters say they were Romney voters four years earlier.... The switchers are also important because they are not evenly distributed around the country. Obama lost whites with no college degree by a very large margin in 2012, but Clinton did even worse — especially losing the support of the kind of Northern, relatively secular noncollege whites who had not already defected from the GOP. This kind of vote is disproportionately common in the three crucial swing states that delivered Trump his Electoral College victory.... [S]wing voters themselves are very real, concern about alienating them with unpopular positions is valid, and nothing about Trump’s election win should be seen as debunking the basic conventional wisdom about all of this. Even more importantly, there’s relatively little reason to believe that chasing swing voters requires sharp trade-offs with other electoral strategies. Probably the biggest fallacy in the dialogue about swing voters is the widely stated — but rarely examined — notion that a political party could try to focus on “mobilizing the base” instead of persuading swing voters. This is, however, both a conceptual and empirical confusion. For starters, the actual base of a political party is almost by definition the people you don’t need to work on mobilizing — the party regulars who are habituated to voting and loyal to the party as an institution. The people you would want to mobilize are people you have reason to believe would vote for you if forced to vote, but who for one reason or other are disinclined to actually show up..... There’s nothing wrong with taking a stand on something you think is important, even if it’s unpopular — though a wise candidate might prefer to emphasize her popular views and reduce the salience of her less popular ones. But whatever it is that causes people to vote, the important point is that swing voters really do exist. A small but incredibly important group of Americans regularly switch their partisan allegiances, and many people are willing to vote differently down-ballot from how they vote in presidential races. Appealing to these swing voters isn’t the only way to win elections, but it’s a pretty good strategy, and there’s no reason to believe that using it involves a hard trade-off with trying to mobilize marginal voters or anything else." Yglesias, as is common, thinks about swing voters in his article as voters who toggled between one party and another. That's fine but let me suggest another way of thinking about it that touches base with the various partisan and demographic characteristics frequently associated with swing voters. The very term “swing voter” deserves a lot more scrutiny than it generally earns. The term is thrown around carelessly and rarely defined clearly. The general image seems to be that there are two opposing armies, each army 100 percent likely to vote for their party, and then some voters in the middle who are undecided. Maybe that's not the right way to look at it. Instead, think of it this way. For an individual voter to qualify as a swing voter, the relevant criterion that needs to be fulfilled is simply persuadability. And that’s not a quality that’s exclusive only to those who are completely undecided, or who are only weakly committed to a candidate. Even those who are moderately committed can be persuaded to deepen their commitment. And the deepening of an existing affiliation with a candidate can be just as significant, both statistically and electorally speaking, as attracting mild commitment from someone who had previously been mildly committed to another candidate. The important factor is not where voters’ inclinations started out, but the fact that their inclinations were changed at all. The act of persuading a swing voter has traditionally been thought of as moving a given voter from more likely to vote against a given candidate to more likely to vote for him—say from 55 percent likely to vote against to 55 percent likely to vote for. But it could also mean moving that voter from somewhat likely to vote for a candidate to very likely to support that candidate (say from 55 percent likelihood to 65 percent)—or, for that matter, from very likely to almost certain (65 percent to 75 percent). All three of these examples are mathematically equivalent—and it makes sense to think of them all as swing voters. A bit more math may help clarify the point. If there are 100 voters with a probability of just 45 percent of voting for your candidate, then you would expect your candidate to lose by 10 votes, assuming everyone voted (45 for vs. 55 against). If you persuaded these 100 voters to have slightly positive feelings towards your candidate—say, a 55 percent probability of voting for him—than he should receive a net gain of 10 votes (55 for vs. 45 against). Overall, then, as your candidate moves from 45 to 55 percent favorability, his campaign experiences a marginal shift of 20 votes—from losing by 10 votes to winning by 10 votes. Now let’s say your 100 voters start out with a 65 percent likelihood voting for your candidate—that’s a margin of +30 if they all vote (65 for vs. 35 against). If you bump up that probability to 75 percent, you now have a margin of +50 (75 for vs. 25 against). The net gain in margin from shifting probability of support from 65 to 75 percent? Twenty votes, just as in the previous example. Persuadability, then, is not logically restricted to voters in the center; it can potentially be far more broadly distributed. That is what political scientist William Mayer found in his analysis of swing voters based on National Election Study data. Swing voters are least likely to be found among strong partisans (12 percent of this group); more likely to be found among independent leaners (27 percent) and weak partisans (28 percent); and most likely to be found among pure independents (40 percent). But since pure independents are such a small group, they wind up being just 13 percent of all swing voters, actually less than the number of strong partisans among swingers (18 percent). Another 28 percent of swing voters are independent leaners, and the largest group, 42 percent, are weak partisans. Thus the overwhelming majority (70 percent) of swing voters are weak or independent leaning partisans—the kind of voters whose probability of support for “their” candidate is more usefully thought of as being movable from 70 to 80 percent than from 45 to 55 percent. If swing voters are not clustered in the center of the political distribution, are they at least clustered in particular demographic groups where campaigns can get at them? Here the research also suggests that the intuitive and popular conception is wrong. According to Mayer and others, demographic differences between swing and nonswing voters are generally modest. The idea that swingers are heavily concentrated in special groups like “soccer moms” or broader ones like the white working class or Hispanics is incorrect. In reality, swing voters are scattered throughout the social structure. So there you have it. Far from disappearing, swing voters are everywhere! Democrats should keep this in mind as we move toward a very promising November election. VOX.COM Swing voters are extremely real There aren’t that many of them, but they matter a lot. I've written about this before but a big front page article in the New York Times business section is a good excuse to right about it again. Portugal, my ancestral homeland, besides begin a great place in general, has taken the lead in showing the left how to properly deal with the European crisis. And the results have been excellent. Here's the story: "[W]hen Europe’s debt crisis struck, [t]he economy crumbled, wages were cut, and unemployment doubled. The government in Lisbon had to accept a humiliating international bailout. But as the misery deepened, Portugal took a daring stand: In 2015, it cast aside the harshest austerity measures its European creditors had imposed, igniting a virtuous cycle that put its economy back on a path to growth. The country reversed cuts to wages, pensions and social security, and offered incentives to businesses. The government’s U-turn, and willingness to spend, had a powerful effect. Creditors railed against the move, but the gloom that had gripped the nation through years of belt-tightening began to lift. Business confidence rebounded. Production and exports began to take off.... At a time of mounting uncertainty in Europe, Portugal has defied critics who have insisted on austerity as the answer to the Continent’s economic and financial crisis. While countries from Greece to Ireland — and for a stretch, Portugal itself — toed the line, Lisbon resisted, helping to stoke a revival that drove economic growth last year to its highest level in a decade. The renewal is visible just about everywhere. Hotels, restaurants and shops have opened in droves, fueled by a tourism surge that has helped cut unemployment in half. In the Beato district of Lisbon, a mega-campus for start-ups rises from the rubble of a derelict military factory. Bosch, Google and Mercedes-Benz recently opened offices and digital research centers here, collectively employing thousands.... “What happened in Portugal shows that too much austerity deepens a recession, and creates a vicious circle,” Prime Minister António Costa said in an interview. “We devised an alternative to austerity, focusing on higher growth, and more and better jobs.” Voters ushered Mr. Costa, a center-left leader, into power in late 2015 after he promised to reverse cuts to their income, which the previous government had approved to reduce Portugal’s high deficit under the terms of an international bailout of 78 billion euros, or $90 billion. Mr. Costa formed an unusual alliance with Communist and radical-left parties, which had been shut out of power since the end of Portugal’s dictatorship in 1974. They united with the goal of beating back some of the toughest aspects of austerity, while balancing the books to meet eurozone rules. The government raised public sector salaries, the minimum wage and pensions and even restored the amount of vacation days to prebailout levels over objections from creditors like Germany and the International Monetary Fund. Incentives to stimulate business included development subsidies, tax credits and funding for small and midsize companies." Got it? Left unity + anti-austerity + growth = success. Yes, I know things are not perfect there and yes, yes [insert special circumstance that, in your view, would make this approach work in Portugal but nowhere else]. But it is a bit of a mystery why the Portuguese Way hasn't been embraced by more on the European left. I guess they're not tired of losing yet! Read the whole article. Great pix, especially the first one of Porto--beautiful city! Portugal Dared to Cast Aside Austerity. It’s Having a Major Revival. At a time of mounting uncertainty in Europe, the country has defied critics who insisted on austerity as the answer to the Continent’s economic and financial crisis. The Two Americas and the 2018 Election Ron Brownstein has a new in-depth article out on the CNN site, looking at the 2018 election through the lens of two emerging Americas. He focuses particularly on Virginia and the diverging political and economic paths of two Congressional Districts at opposite ends of the state. Brownstein: "The biggest question for November, of course, is whether Democrats will gain the 24 seats they need to recapture the House majority. But whether or not they do, November could produce a realigning election that remakes the composition of the parties' coalitions in the House. Just as 2010 triggered an extended period of Republican advantage in small-town and rural districts, 2018 could do the same for Democrats in white-collar seats inside the largest metropolitan areas. The result would be a geographic separation in the House as stark as any in modern times. Democrats seem likely to emerge from this fall's election with a clear upper hand in highly urbanized House seats that are racially and religiously diverse, disproportionately white-collar and secular and connected to the globalized information economy. Republicans, in turn, could remain dominant in districts outside of urban centers that are preponderantly white, heavily blue-collar, more religiously traditional and reliant on manufacturing, agriculture and resource extraction. The ideological, demographic, economic and even physical distance between the coalitions -- the trench separating red and blue America -- could be even greater than it is today. "You look at the map -- and any (place) that has a disproportionately rural electorate -- and you can count it as Republican in any election, and the opposite is true in those suburban/urban" areas, says Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "We have had two countries for a while, but it is as if, appropriately enough under Trump, the walls are being raised. They are higher than ever. And I'm afraid that is going to be even more true in 2020 than in 2018." This accelerating separation leaves both parties in a precarious position. Many Republicans worry that under Trump they are losing support in the places that are adding population and jobs and increasingly relying on the places that are shrinking or stagnating on both fronts. "As opposed to a wave, this (election) looks like a realignment and that's scarier," says Tom Davis, a former Republican representative from Northern Virginia, who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee during his years in the House. "That is a bigger problem for Republicans long term, because we are winning the places that are not the growing tide (in population), they are the shrinking tide, and that's not where you want to be." Some Democrats, in turn, fear that even greater dominance of the largest metropolitan areas will still leave them operating with too narrow a geographic base of support to consistently control majorities not only in the House, but also in the Senate and the Electoral College. In 2016, after all, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by obliterating Trump in the largest places -- she won 87 of the 100 largest counties by more than 15 million votes combined -- yet Trump carried the Electoral College by routing her outside of the big urban areas in enough of the battleground states, from North Carolina and Florida to Michigan and Wisconsin. "If you can combine a ... respectable showing in some of these other areas of the country with obviously growing strength in urban and inner suburban areas and white-collar constituencies, then you have a winning formula," says long-term Democratic strategist Ruy Teixeira. "[But] the strength in these (metropolitan) areas can be canceled out by the structural problems in these other (small-town) areas." The divergent dynamics separating suburban and small-town America are neatly encapsulated in Virginia's 9th and 10th congressional districts. Though each is now represented by a Republican, the two places could hardly be more different. Whites represent almost 90% of the population in the 9th District, but only about 61% in the 10th. Immigrants (largely Hispanic and Asian) represent over 20% of the population in the 10th but less than 3% in the 9th. Just over half of the adults in the 10th District hold at least a four-year college degree, compared with only about 1-in-5 in the 9th. The median income in the 10th, at $120,384, is nearly triple its level in the 9th, less than $42,000. The fact that Democratic prospects are rising in the district that is more affluent, better-educated and more racially diverse and are sagging in the district that is the opposite on each count testifies to the larger shifts that have remade the two parties' electoral coalitions over the past several decades. Particularly since the 1980s, the parties have experienced what I've called a "class inversion," with Republicans growing stronger among the blue-collar whites who anchored the Democratic coalition for decades after World War II and Democrats adding growing competitiveness among white-collar whites (especially women) to their traditional advantages among nonwhite voters." To get a sense of just how strong this inversion has been, check out this graphic from Bob Davis' and Dante Chinni's article in the Wall Street Journal on the political migration of factory towns: https://www.cnn.com/…/2018-midterms-brownstein-t…/index.html The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think Optimistic Leftist articles and interviews Democrats Can and Should Expand the Map to Georgia and Arizona in 2020 The midterms gave Democrats clear marching orders for 2020 Could America’s Democrats be ‘Corbynised’? Automation Nation? 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There Is No Alternative: The Coming Triumph of the Left It's Time to Explode the Myth of "McJobs" Recent reports and papers Voters Repudiate President Trump and GOP Policy Agenda—2020 Re-Election Is Uncertain America’s Electoral Future: Demographic Shifts and the Future of the Trump Coalition Voter Trends in 2016: A Final Examination The White Working Class and the 2016 Election The Story of Trump's Appeal How Much Did Trump Really Change the Electoral Map... France, Germany, Italy, the Eurozone and Everythin... Democratic Wave Watch: Cook Political Report Check... Sure Democrats Are Ahead Nationally, But How Are D... The Entrepreneurial State, Technology and the Chin... Common Sense for the Left On the Disutility of Identity Politics Obama: Still an Optimistic Leftist in the Age of T... Blue Arizona? The Limits of Populism 100 Things to Know about Economics, Society and Po... Elites and the Rise of Anti-Immigrant Attitudes Abolishing ICE Is Pretty Damn Unpopular Blue Wave Do's and Don't Democrats Up by 9 in 538 Rolling Average Is Humanity Killing Off Biodiversity? Democrats Up by 12 in Battleground Districts Should Italy Leave the Eurozone? If So, How? Looking Toward 2020: What's the Correct Path for t... Was Humanity's Big Mistake Settling Down and Raisi... Election Check-In: The Polls Have Been Pretty Good... The House Playing Field Continues to Shift Toward ... Optimistic Leftist-approved blogs and columns Brad DeLong (Equitablog) Brad DeLong (personal site) Cross-Check (John Horgan) Economist's View (Mark Thoma) French Politics (Art Goldhammer) Global Inequality (Branko Milanovic) Mainly Macro (Simon Wren-Lewis) Markos Moulitsas Michael Tomasky Noah Smith (Bloomberg) Noah Smith (personal site) Ronald Brownstein Stumbling and Mumbling (Chris Dillow) Ruy Teixeira	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402410
__label__cc	0.536105	0.463895	Let’s talk about civilisation SHARE \| Sunday, 24 May 2015 \| By Sam Ditshego There are many white people or people of European extraction in South Africa at this time and age who believe that when Europeans arrived on the African continent Africans were not yet civilised, they were barbarians, savages and describe them in many derogatory names and adjectives. For instance on May 19 a nasty comment on the comment web page of the Business Day posted by a person who goes by the username Echoindia was removed after I had complained to The Editor. I complained to The Editor because my response to Echoindia was removed immediately after I had posted it. Immediately after posting my comment there was a message saying, “your comment awaits moderation” but the filth that Echoindia spewed on the Business Day web page was there for more than two days without being moderated or removed. It was not for the first time that my comments were removed immediately after I had posted it. Echoindia wrote, inter alia, that “Africa was a savage land where tribes attacked each other, burned down kraals, raped the women, murdered the men, stole the cattle and took children into slavery. Disease was rife life expectancy was extremely short. Colonialism brought peace and stability to most African countries. Large scale commercial farming was introduced which ended the years of farming”. He also wrote about a system of governance which was introduced by Europeans that made Africans bypass their “chiefs” and about the inefficiency of Africa’s governance system blah, blah, blah. Others like this jackass have posted comments in various media outlets including the Business Day that had it not been for the likes of Jan Van Riebeeck, Cecil John Rhodes, Paul Kruger and other settlers there wouldn’t have been civilization and Christianity. Others say we wouldn’t have seen a wheel if Europeans had not come to Africa. On the 17th April, Business Day published my article with the headline, “European heritage symbolises the oppression of Africans” which drew about fifty five negative responses except two by Africans. This means I hit them where it hurts. Were Africans uncivilised and is Africa a savage land? In his book Anacalypsis published in 1836, Godfrey Higgins wrote that nations and religions derive from a great black empire. This does not come from me but from Godfrey Higgins, a white man. This book can be googled in the internet. If nations and religions derived from a great black empire then Europeans could not have brought civilisation and Christianity on the African continent. Europeans did not even invent the wheel. There were chariots on the African continent many years ago. So Africans did not begin to see the wheel from white people. What about medicine? When Africans used herbs to cure diseases, Europeans were using faecal treatment, see “Early Modern Matter of Faecal Medicine”. It was reported in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, volume 20, April 1884, pages 922-930 that in 1879, a British traveller, R.W. Felkin, witnessed cesarean section performed by Ugandans. The healer used banana wine to semi-intoxicate the woman and to cleanse his hands and her abdomen prior to surgery. He used a midline incision and applied cautery to minimize hemorrhaging. He massaged the uterus to make it contract but did not suture it; the abdominal wound was pinned with iron needles and dressed with a paste prepared from roots. The patient recovered well, and Felkin concluded that this technique was well-developed and had clearly been employed for a long time. Similar reports come from Rwanda, where botanical preparations were also used to anesthetize the patient and promote wound healing. Some white people claim Africans “walked naked” when they arrived on the continent which is a fanciful idea. If Africans wore clothes that did not conform to the European way of dressing, because of the hot weather, that cannot be described as walking naked. In the 1980’s and 1990’s I lived in Canada and in summer women there bask in the sun clad only in their bikinis and bras. Are they naked and uncivilised or uncivilized and naked? Young men walk half naked with their tops removed. Those who are interested in Africa’s medical history should read about the ancient Egyptian genius Imhotep. The medical writings of Imhotep who is known as Egyptian God of Medicine are the oldest medical documents written. His books were stolen from Africa and are presently at Karl Marx University in Leipzig, Germany. The work of Imhotep is attributed to Hippocrates. The Hippocratic Oath itself was authored by Imhotep. On religion they should read Christianity Before Christ by John G Jackson and African Origin of the Major Western Religions by Yosef Ben-Jocannan. Another book is Stolen Legacy by George G James. I also recommend Dr Cheikh Anta Diop’s books like Civilisation or Barbarism, African Origin of Civilisation: Myth or Reality and Pre-Colonial Black Africa to mention just three. Were diseases rife in Africa? Syphilis and gonorrhea were brought by Europeans, the same way they took smallpox to North America which decimated the native America population. Life expectancy couldn’t have been short when Africans were eating natural food which was healthy compared to the junk Europeans are churning in Africa. Monsanto and DuPont are producing genetically modified foodstuffs that they poison the world with especially the developing world. Could African communities have been worse than the European tribes such as the Barbarians and the Spartans who engaged in the most savage wars to the extent that the Barbarians wiped out the Spartans? The words barbarian and tribe originated in Europe. The word tribe refers to uncivilised people. We had no tribes and barbarians on the African continent. The San and the Khoi were hunted like game and shot on side now they claim that “the Bantus took the land of the Khoisan”. In the US, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, the Pacific island, Greenland Europeans killed indigenous populations and they are the last to talk about wars on the African continent. In the Caribbean the Europeans wiped indigenous populations and the last person who belonged to the Betheoks died in 1800’s. What about their tribal wars of 1914 – 1918 and 1939 – 1945? These white guys write without realizing the extent and magnitude of their neurosis. How can colonialism bring peace and stability? Aime Cesaire said no one colonises innocently. I propose not to engage on this clumsy point any further. On raping of women we know what Europeans did in the Western Cape of which the Coloured population is palpable evidence. Rape in Africa was frowned upon and punishment was severe. Livestock theft was also punishable and the cases were heard at the King’s court. In the 1800’s, Europeans stole about 40,000 cattle belonging to the Barolong of King Montshiwa and in turn accused the Barolong people of stealing 40,000 of their cattle. They burned down kraals and acted as freebooters. All these crimes they accused Africans of having committed they themselves were guilty of committing. They sold Africans to European slave owners and now accuse us of taking children into slavery. How did Africans end up in the Americas? They were taken as slaves by the ruling classes of Europe with the connivance of the Vatican. African women started agriculture more than 17,000 years ago and the taming of animals began at about the same time. Europeans could not have originated civilisation when they lived in inhospitable climes for thousand of years when Africans enjoyed their sunny continent which was wrongly called the “Dark Continent” by those who knew no better. What a misnomer! Sam Ditshego	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402411
__label__cc	0.700255	0.299745	Those that live outside the south-east corner of Queensland probably don’t take much notice of the politics of the Brisbane City Council. Brisbane has an annual budget and population larger than Tasmania and, somewhat unusually for Australia, is a Council comprising mostly overtly party political el... Peeling the skin off the avocado Recall how you felt when you last fondled a plump avocado, deep green, beautifully formed, slightly soft to the touch, seemingly ripe for consumption, only to find that when your knife punctured its alluring skin and peeled it back you were greeted by grey spots, rotting inedible pulp, and precious ... Protest tactics matter Those that demonstrated around the world for ‘Extinction Rebellion’ recently have certainly been making headlines. Pity it is for the wrong reasons. On an intellectual level, their point is sound — unless there is meaningful and urgent efforts across the world to mitigate climate change, there is an... 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A quick search came up with no current law in Australia that makes a belief in any faith tradition illegal, and anti-discrimination legisl... Cancer sucks personalised medicine It seems that most Australians have been affected in some way by cancer. The chances are you know a cancer survivor, remember someone who didn’t survive, have sympathy with someone undergoing treatment or have a friend or relative that knows someone who has been affected in some way. One thing in c... Democracy via three-word slogans Kenneth Hayne Another title might have been Democracy according to Hayne, as it was The Honourable Justice Kenneth Madison Hayne AC, QC, Royal Commissioner in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, who in his address to The Melbourne Law School on 26 J... Uncovering the ruthless heart of the Liberal Party Savva Dedicated observers of the political scene in Australia owe much to Niki Savva. Although she has been a political correspondent for News Corp Australia since 2010, she really made her mark as a significant author when she penned two critical exposés in which she fearlessly uncovered the labyrinthine... The unwanted guests We’ve all seen the movie or read the book that has, as a part of the plot, a group of relatives who are reluctantly invited to the wedding only because they are family. Frankly, no one really likes them due to their boorish and overbearing attitudes. Stereotypically, while giving the (usually unwar... Be wary of the Trump – Morrison alliance Have you noticed the growing bond between President Trump and PM Morrison? Morrison has always been fulsome in his praise of Trump: “He says what he's going to do and then goes and does it; I can always rely on President Trump to follow through on what he says.”During his recent visit to US aircr... Better economic managers? If you have a memory that is better than the media and Coalition Government hope you do, you would probably remember when the Rudd ALP Government, challenged by what are arguably similar economic conditions to those today, primed the economy with a three pronged approach. The theory was that there w... Get used to the new world leadership It’s happened again! Just when thoughtful folk believed world leadership could not become more bizarre than it is, Boris Johnson gets the nod from Britain’s Tories. To confound those who imagined that Donald Trump’s election in the land of the brave and the free could hardly be replicated on the oth... How good is compassion and concern! You may have seen recently that Dick Smith was somewhat flummoxed when he noticed that the Australian Taxation legislation is configured in such a way that he received $0.5 million in franking credits in a financial year. While it would be easy to suggest to Smith and (probably) others with similar ... Remember the light on the hill? At the 1949 ALP Convention, then Prime Minister Ben Chifley delivered the ‘Light on the Hill’ speech. The speech is seen as a declaration of ‘traditional’ ALP values as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We... The Chain of Responsibility There are certain responsibilities when you are driving a vehicle. You are required to comply with rules such as not being affected by drugs or alcohol, not checking your social media accounts while driving, maintaining control over your vehicle, parking only where allowed and so on. Some who make a... Just answer the Question! This piece is short and snappy. I know that, like me, you fume when politicians steadfastly refuse to answer a question directly, preferring to prevaricate by evading an answer altogether, giving an answer to a question they would prefer to answer, or wandering off into a boring recital of the dot p... I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. The gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity. Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing. All newspaper and journalistic activity is an intellectual brothel from which there is no retreat. I think the Prime Minister has embarked on a journey and he has no idea where he's taking us.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402412
__label__wiki	0.96563	0.96563	Sept. 8, 2013: Tighter laws to go on stream; B.C. government reveals plan to update water legislation in 2014 Dan Fumano (The Province) The Province > news > B.C. John Challinor, Director of Coporate Affairs of Nestle Waters Canada, poses for a photo in Hope.Photo by Richard Lam This story originally ran in The Province on Sept. 8, 2013. The B.C. government is preparing to introduce new water legislation in the wake of a Province frontpage story. The story, about Nestlé taking hundreds of millions of litres of water for free from the province, was followed by the Ministry of Environment issuing a statement Friday indicating their commitment to addressing the issue. The statement from Environment Minster Mary Polak said the government plans to update the province's century-old Water Act. It highlights the lack of groundwater regulation in particular, calling it "one of the greatest weaknesses of the existing Water Act." "Premier Christy Clark has directed me to complete consultation with British Columbians on a proposed new Water Sustainability Act with the intention of passing new legislation in 2014," wrote Polak in Friday's statement. Since last month, The Province has been regularly reporting on water issues around B.C. This included a front-page story that revealed how B.C.'s lack of groundwater regulation allows Nestlé, the world's largest food company, to withdraw hundreds of millions of litres of water every year to sell in bottles, without being required to report on their withdrawals, obtain a permit, or pay anything to government for it. NDP environment critic Spencer Chandra Herbert said that this summer, water issues have been one of the top concerns he's heard in conversations with citizens around the province - and, he said, the pressure is mounting. "The dam is about to burst," he said Friday. Chandra Herbert said when he introduced himself last weekend to people at a campsite in the Similkameen Valley , "I had people start coming around saying, 'This is a problem. You need to fix this,' (referring to) the Water Act and different elements of it." Minister Polak was not available for comment Friday or Saturday. A Ministry of Environment spokesman confirmed Friday that later this fall, a discussion paper on legislative proposals will be circulated for public feedback. Chandra Herbert said he wants to see that discussion paper, or a white paper, sooner than later. "I'm glad the minister has said she's heard British Columbians' desire to get this thing fixed. But, prove it: put out the white paper, and let's get going," Chandra Herbert said. Representatives from Nestlé have said they agree with the need for B.C. to modernize its Water Act. "The reality is, in an unregulated environment, there's no control over how people use the resource or abuse the resource," Nestlé director of corporate affairs John Challinor said Wednesday in an interview with The Province at Nestlé's bottling facility in Hope. "Part of our interest in working with the government (is) to see the resource is properly managed across the province in the future. " Bruce Lauerman, Nestlé Waters natural resources manager based in Montana, agreed. "There is a need for better regulation of water," Lauerman said Wednesday in Hope. "I think B.C. needs to modernize. And that would provide better rules for permitting of water, for reporting of water withdrawals, and maybe a modest fee structure to pay for the program ." Sheila Muxlow, campaign director of the WaterWealth Project, was encouraged by Friday's statement and hopes the public will remain engaged in this topic. "I think it's a testament to the public outcry that was generated, particularly around Nestlé being able to access groundwater for free," said Muxlow, adding "but the issue is larger than Nestlé." Muxlow and Chandra Herbert both said they would have liked to see Friday's statement include a mention of water as a public trust. But still, Muxlow said, Friday's statement from the environment minister is "a good sign government is listening and willing to engage in the conversation." dfumano@theprovince.com twitter.com/fumano New B.C. water act replaces 105-year-old law Water-meter pressure mounting in B.C. cities Updating B.C.'s century-old Water Act is a 'big deal'	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402413
__label__cc	0.747856	0.252144	The Remedy: A Branding Agency Our Proprietary Method A brand can’t simply be forced on a company, product, or service. Branding must be an organic process that emanates from the soul. A properly-aligned brand evolves from the inside out, emerging from the company, product, or service’s natural essence. It can’t feel forced, and it must deftly espouse its message to its audience through a natural flow in order to deliver impact and value at its full potential. When explaining the concept of branding to our clients, The Remedy presents an organic, comprehensive view which relies on an integrated process to unleash the full potential of the brand. At its core, The Remedy offers clients solutions, strategies, and content that allow a brand to develop its culture and identity through a proven process designed to accentuate the brand’s vibe, personality, and spirit. If you ask 100 so-called marketing, advertising, and communications experts, you will get 100 different variations of what the term branding means. At The Remedy, we view branding the following way: Branding is the process that aims to establish top of mind awareness and increased levels of ownership by managing and promoting an identity to a target audience over a period of time. Successful branding approaches are generally thought to be driven by the laws of relevance, clarity, goal direction, market differentiation, consistency, energy, interaction, feedback, and so on. Too often, elements such as marketing, advertising, public relations, community relations, and social media are segmented and considered in a vacuum with no regard as to how each element affects the others. Branding eliminates those unnatural barriers and allows all of those elements to work in concert organically in order to fully develop every aspect of an identity. THE REMEDY PRODUCES COMPELLING BRAND EXPERIENCES FOR OUR CLIENTS PRINT + DIGITAL AD DESIGN WEB DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT MARKETING & COLLATERAL VIDEO + WEB CONTENT MEDIA BUYING + COORDINATION BRAND DEVELOPMENT • LOGO DESIGN • PRINT + DIGITAL AD DESIGN • WEB DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT • MARKETING & COLLATERAL • ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS • COPYWRITING VIDEO + WEB CONTENT • MOTION GRAPHICS • MERCHANDISE DESIGN • PUBLIC RELATIONS • CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS • SOCIAL MEDIA • MEDIA BUYING + COORDINATION 14282 Gillis Road info@theremedybranding.com jobs@theremedybranding.com The Remedy: A Branding Agency © 2020	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402414
__label__cc	0.599668	0.400332	Tones And I (Debut Headline Tour) Doors 8:30pm / SOLD OUT! Tones And I announces her debut headline shows after an overwhelming response to her single ‘Johnny Run Away.’ After uploading to triple j unearthed in February, ‘Johnny Run Away’ received raved reviews from triple j’s top presenters within hours and had its first spin on triple j the same day. Less than a week later the track was added to high rotation on triple j and now sits in the top 10 most played on the station and #1 on unearthed. Tones has also been crowned unearthed feature artist this week to top off a crazy month. Honing her powerful and unique vocal busking on the streets of Byron for the last year, Tones And I is excited to announce headline shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402415
__label__wiki	0.689245	0.689245	Home > Special Forum 제거하면 노출 안됨 $('div.entry-content p#t_img').html(' Wilson Chu ⓒREUTERS'); }); August 29,2016 Special Forum Chinese views of South Korean history Gilbert Rozman, The Asan Forum On August 3, Beijing ribao depicted THAAD as not aimed at defending against North Korea, but rather splitting China from South Korea.1 On August 7, Huanqiu shibao depicted the visit of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Washington as Singapore joining in the US containment of China.2 China is rapidly adopting a polarized view of Asia—a realist, balance of power approach on the surface, but actually an identity-led worldview consistent with the legacy of communism and rebirth of sinocentrism. In this dichotomy, history figures prominently, as witnessed by Chinese treatment of South Korea’s history. According to China, South Korea is ignoring its own economic and security interests due to unresolved historical issues. In fact, however, it is China that has set aside its own economic and security interests in favor of a “China Dream” rooted in its own history.3 Chinese writings about South Korean history clearly reveal this mindset. The framing of international relations in China is steeped in history. Leaders repeatedly play the “history card” against Japan, a legacy of Jiang Zemin, who, when visiting Pearl Harbor in 1997, conveyed the message that Japan was the common enemy of China and the United States. Japanese media charge that Xi Jinping has only doubled down on this approach, intensifying his warnings of the revival of Japanese militarism.4 Barack Obama’s late May visit to Hiroshima rekindled concern in Japan of China’s rejection of future-oriented relations, as Chinese officials insisted that Nanjing massacre be remembered and refused to consider Japan as a victim of the war.5 If Obama’s Hiroshima stop has imperiled China’s efforts to split the United States and Japan over history, the Japan-ROK “comfort women” agreement five months earlier was yet another failure to maintain the divisions between South Korea and Japan over history. China’s strategy to isolate Japan reached its peak under Park Geun-hye in 2013-15, distracting attention from China’s own attempts at historical revisionism against South Korea. South Koreans were preoccupied with China’s overtures to forge a united front against Japan, and paid little attention to Chinese distortions. In the South China Sea territorial disputes, Chinese insist that international law takes a back seat to “historical” rights. In the East China Sea dispute and other themes related to Japan, the shadow of history continues to resurface in Chinese arguments. The Korean Peninsula is no exception to the logic that permeates Chinese writings on “surrounding areas.” In 2004, Koreans awakened to how Chinese publications were treating Koguryo, raising disturbing questions about the perceived historical boundaries of China and its right to intervene in peninsular affairs. In 2010, prior to assuming China’s top post, Xi Jinping praised the “great” Korean War, making clear that the history of Sino-DPRK relations can be invoked in considering China’s role in current peninsular rivalries.6 Attention to Korean history was broadening and intensifying around that time. In 2012, I examined the way history was being used by Chinese in Sino-ROK relations.7 Here, I update the coverage, focusing again on the Chinese thinking, while linking it to Chinese policy toward the peninsula under Xi Jinping, particularly since early 2016. The idea that history does not matter was widely articulated in the 1990s and remained popular even through 2015. In normalizing its relations with South Korea, China was assumed to be acting pragmatically, not ideologically, seeking both economic benefits (which was beyond its wildest expectations) and stability. It also anticipated diplomatic benefits, which occurred under Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and even Park Geun-hye. China even pursued civilizational benefits, capitalizing on the demonization of Japan’s historical revisionism and simultaneously, Seoul’s hesitation about joining in US efforts to promote universal rights in a manner that would directly target China. In reviewing about two decades of Sino-ROK relations, Jae-ho Chung accentuates how both Seoul and Beijing were under the influence of realism and liberalism.8 The image of Chinese pragmatism, however, did not last beyond 2016. Chinese Narratives on South Korea Prior to the Xi-Park Era The 2009 book by Wang Xiaolin on how Chinese view South Korea warned of strong emotions rooted in cultural divides with historical overtones, raising concerns that appear quite removed from central themes of the Chinese narrative today. Emotions were so raw that Wang entitled a concluding section, “Do Chinese Hate Korea?” His answer was “no” in light of the “Korean wave” and economic ties, as well as some 50 percent of the respondents to a recent survey saying that relations are “good” and 67 percent saying that they have a better attitude toward South Korea than Japan. Yet, Wang paid close attention to an emotional undercurrent of cultural distrust to explain some deterioration in relations between the two peoples: Korea had stolen China’s cultural heritage; a South Korean TV station had prematurely broadcast the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics; and some Chinese netizens even called Korea the country they hate the most. The “detest Korea emotions” (xianhan ganqing), which spread from 2007, was not aided by the Chinese government.9 Missing from his analysis, however, is any mention of censorship and Chinese leadership’s determination to prevent any enthusiasm over the “Korean model.” This included any fascination with South Korea that could interfere with China’s support for North Korea, any human rights pressure on North Korea that could lead to a “color revolution,” and any appreciation of the “Korean wave” at odds with sinocentrism. Before security issues had risen to center stage, the Chinese people had found themselves in a cultural/historical battle with South Koreans. The Koguryo dispute had been but one early manifestation of it.10 In 2009-12, Chinese writings on South Korea and the history of the Korean nation had turned more negative. President Lee Myung-bak’s policies were regarded as a reversal of the improved China-ROK relations achieved under President Roh Moo-hyun. This was put in a historical context, reaching back to earlier periods in Korean history.11 In 2013, the advent of Park Geun-hye’s administration, marked by her wooing of Xi Jinping in what has been called a “honeymoon” of Sino-ROK relations, quieted concerns in some circles, as Chinese pressed to solidify a historical consensus against Japan. However, the so-called “China Dream” national identity narratives accelerated under Xi’s ideological leadership, intensifying pressure for “historical correctness.” At the same time, Park’s lack of deference to China’s foreign policy and worldview became obvious. As discontent grew, historical references appeared widely in Chinese writings about South Korea, the contents of which are presented below, followed by a discussion on how they are relevant to China’s current foreign policy. Views of Korean History to the End of the Cold War As the poster case for China’s tribute system, China expected Korea to express gratitude for its good fortune, to be situated next to a benevolent neighbor who, unlike those in the West, did not wish conquer or implant its religious and other values on Korea. This came to matter more to Chinese as they glorified their own history at the center of a “harmonious world,” and brought history to the forefront in “neighboring relations” not only with Japan, but with the entire Asian community. Ingratitude lay at the core of their criticisms. The Koguryo dispute rekindled a topic deemed uplifting for Sino-ROK ties: premodern history. Koreans in the 1990s were proud of their Confucian roots, even labeling their nation the most Confucian today and anticipating China to celebrate their shared cultural traditions and close historical bonds.12 In Chinese sources, reminders of historical closeness were, as such, common. All of this changed not only because of the Koguryo controversy, but also because Chinese insisted on reconstructing Confucianism as consistent with communism, unique to one nation rather than a regional inheritance that for decades bridged different social systems in Asia. According to their view on nearly 2000 years of history, Koreans should be grateful for receiving China’s superior culture and enjoying its harmonious order. Wang Mingxing, recalling the war of 1894-95 on its 120th anniversary, offered insights into Chinese thinking about Korean history.13 The Jiawu year arrives once every 60 years: in 1894, an apocalypse occurred leaving Korea in the clutches of Japan; in 1954, talks failed to resolve the disastrous division of the peninsula. Wang argued therefore that danger lurks in 2014, which must be avoided. Putting current developments in historical perspective, Wang sees Korea as a strategic point, where the Western powers target Northeast Asia for carving up the world, where continental and maritime arenas meet, and where the great power interests clash. In the 1890s, some Koreans made a tragic mistake in trying to pit the great powers against each other, naively counting on Japan. With China in retreat, Korea was left at the mercy of competing powers threatening its independence. In the 1950s, hopes for unification were dashed as the Koreas were embroiled in the Cold War. The United States was blamed for opposing Korean independence, as it did in 1910, and the peninsula became the frontline of the Cold War. While China withdrew is troops, US troops remained, helping Seoul block unification. As for 2014, blame is again placed on the United States, for using the pretext of North Korean nuclear weapons to contain China, and on Japan, for enabling its right wing to reemerge. In these circumstances, Seoul has to choose between repeating the mistakes of the past and siding with Japan over China or seizing the opportunity for unification and a new national voice. In short, rejecting China and its support, along with North Korea, for unification, is the source of tragedy on the peninsula, which Japan and the Western powers have caused. Jiang Xiuyu wrote a companion piece on the Jiawu war emphasizing change in the East Asian regional order.14 The war disrupted Chinese society and enabled Japan to enter the ranks of the imperialist, capitalist powers. It ended the sinocentric order and began a new triangular Sino-Korean-Japanese pattern. Jiang assumes a natural order centered on China versus an imperialist, rapacious order imposed by Japan. Korea appears as a venue for competition among great powers, and its relations with China suffered due to Japan and other great powers. Shi Jianguo on the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan wrote about Sino-ROK cooperation on historical memory. Shi described their joint efforts against Japan as having far-reaching significance even today. Arguing that the Japanese government is trying to deny history and return to the path of militarism, Shi insists that not forgetting history is important for the development of Sino-ROK relations and Northeast Asian peace. Their histories not only were parallel, but intertwined—the Korean independence forces gathered in Chinese cities, their nations’ destinies became intertwined, and longstanding friendship and cultural closeness drew their nations (minzu) ever closer. These forces led the Chinese people to assist the Korean independence struggle, and, after 1931, the Korean independence movement to help China’s fight against Japan.15 Ignoring the US defeat of Japan in liberating Korea and the distinctions between North and South Korea, Shi gives the impression that South Koreans should feel indebted to China for its role in what appears to be the most important event in their history—removal of Japanese occupation. While emphasis is placed on this formative era for postwar relations, the author leaves unsaid that this favors Pyongyang, not Seoul. Emphasizing the role of the Chinese Communist Party and the Korean independence movement, Shi feigns an embrace of the Korean people while actually postulating the case for closer relations with the North Koreans. Just as the history of the 1930s-40s has been accentuated at the expense of later history in Sino-Japanese relations, it serves as a touchstone for Sino-ROK ties. In communist tradition, the anti-fascist struggle (now transposed into an anti-hegemonic and anti-militarist struggle) takes precedence over other themes of bilateral relations. Koreans, it follows, should focus on this period too and be grateful to China’s assistance. Shi points to their common destiny, history of mutual support, need to oppose Japanese revisionism, as well as need to counter Korean distortions of history. Japanese colonial rule—when China and Korea were both victimized, struggling for liberation—is prioritized in historical narratives. China’s emphasis on the heroic rise of the Chinese communists and battle against the evil Japanese echoes in the coverage of Korean history, hinting at the superior pedigree of North Korea and the dark stain of Korean collaborators with Japan who morphed into the elite of South Korea. This narrative may have slipped from sight in the 1990s but it still informs writings. It can be invoked whenever bilateral relations seem troubled. Views of South Korean History During and After the Cold War During the Cold War, Seoul, imbued with anti-communist thinking, was blamed more than Pyongyang for its failure to improve relations. The Cold War context serves as a blanket explanation for trouble on the peninsula without any effort to take notice of North Korean belligerence.16 The Korean Peninsula is treated, then and later, as just a natural arena of competition between great powers; Korea has little capacity to affect its own destiny. In this deductive approach, China’s logic about a shift from bipolarity to multipolarity supplants attention to North Korean threats—indeed, the North appears as a malleable actor ready to become a pragmatic partner if South Korea and the United States could abandon their Cold War mentality. The burden today remains for Seoul to accept China’s position that the real problem is the US alliance system that denies the transition into multipolarity. For a time it appeared that normalization in 1992 would serve as a decisive dividing line, which now seems mistaken since the United States and Japan did not recognize North Korea, while South Korea’s actions toward the North remain in a Cold War mode. Chinese harsh treatment of South Korean policies began in 1992 and was most pronounced in 2009-11, according to a review of Chinese publications.17 They view South Korea as “delusional” about North Korea, “vulnerable” to China and North Korea, and under sway of the relics of “Cold War” in relations with East and West. Even if the tone had shifted somewhat during the Park-Xi “honeymoon,” this thinking still prevailed. Views of South Korea under Park In late 2013, Liu Qun reviewed 20 years of normalized relations, identifying obstacles to further improvement, while repeating the mantra that no fundamental differences or contradictions exist and that the next 20 years have bright prospects.18 Not only are they found in economics (the two economies are highly complementary and enjoy a huge space for further cooperation on a regional level), but also their common interest in promoting peace and stability on the peninsula. For both economics and security, stress is placed on excluding the interference of external factors. Such remarks are put in historical context. Readers learn that because of their 2000-year-old history, China understands Korea and the two nations have a strong, shared cultural foundation. However, they also learn that after 40-plus years of separation, they hold misunderstandings and nationalist sentiments that serve against sincere cooperation. Liu argues that despite a few thousand years of historical contact and acceptance of Confucianism in Korea, values and worldviews are different due to decades of separation. He cites how this impacts their views of “refugees” from North Korea, which the South treats as a human rights issue, and the “Northeast Project,” a political issue. Liu, of course, makes all of his demands “one-sided,” never indicating any shift in China that would be helpful. First and foremost, Seoul must remove the greatest barrier to their relations, the outside interference. It must accept China as a bridge between itself and the North, implying that relations will be judged on whether Seoul deals with Pyongyang by improving ties regardless of Pyongyang’s behavior. Warning that we cannot blind ourselves to deficiencies in relations, Liu calls on South Korea to look out for what is needed. Optimism in Seoul about Park-Xi relations was left in doubt in this article. “Trustpolitik” and the “honeymoon” with China were interpreted in Chinese writings as a mixture of a return to Roh Moo-hyun’s balancing toward China (in particular, concerning peninsular affairs), and a replacement of deterrence with unconditional “trust” in diplomacy with North Korea. If Japanese publications had a tendency in 2013-15 to present Park’s policies as no less than an historic turning point, so too did some Chinese publications from the very onset of her tenure in office.19 Yet, they keep putting pressure on Seoul to go much further. In 2015, Chinese writings depicted South Korea as at a crossroads, highlighting two key themes: 1) handling Sino-Japanese relations in the context of a dispute rooted in history but extending to security and territorial issues; and 2) balancing Sino-US relations in the context of South Korea’s reliance on the United States, which shifted slightly under Roh but remained unable to find equilibrium.. In historical terms, Seoul’s dependency on Washington is deemed a product of the Cold War era, which is not consistent with Seoul’s national interests today. Wang Xiaobo and Wang Yushan wrote that Seoul is facing unprecedented challenges in maintaining its dual-track approach, relying on Washington for security and Beijing for economyt. They imply that the time for a zero-sum choice has arrived.20 Tang Yanlin and Bi Dabo at the same time optimistically anticipated new breakthroughs in Sino-ROK relations, balancing the ROK’s ties with Beijing and Washington. They suggested that Park has already made the choice of abandoning heavy reliance on Washington, putting this in the context of the development of Sino-ROK ties since the time of bilateral normalization.21 As Japan-ROK relations improved, Zhan Debin warned of new challenges to China.22 The fact that Park had linked history questions to security cooperation is praised, but the impact on political ties was greater than on security ties, and the history linkage remained limited to “comfort women.” Zhan finds that Park could not be trusted on history; at first, she stood strong in 2013-14, but in the second part of 2015, she shifted to separate history and security, to emphasize cooperation and accept the US push for trilateral security. Zhan argues that Abe’s August 14 statement did not meet Korean demands, but Park turned to the future, contrary to the wishes of many Koreans. Clearly, Chinese disappointment on her handling of relations with Japan revealed the salience of historical issues in their relationship, indicating that security must not be considered in isolation. Comments on Park’s betrayal on the history issue with Japan indicated that Beijing and Seoul had very different objectives in mind when they found common ground in 2013-15. For Xi, it was a matter not so much of responding to Abe’s extremism, but making Japan a pariah and putting history at the center of thinking about foreign policy—an approach that also applies to Korean affairs. For Park, it was a response to Abe and, one can surmise, an effort to win Xi’s trust in order to increase cooperation on North Korea. After the December 28 Japan-ROK agreement, China could be sure that it had lost the battle over history. Washington, which had found Abe’s approach in 2015 satisfactory and put pressure on Park, defeated Beijing, which had rejected Abe’s approach. China stressed the overlapping effects of the war on September 2, on the independence of Korea on October 1, and in various NGO meetings on “comfort women.” By stirring a sense of shared historical memory, Chinese had hoped that they could weaken the US-ROK alliance, taking advantage of spillover from Japan-ROK divisions. By 2016, they realized that the historical divide is too wide. In Chinese writings, the United States is the aggressor, disrupting the status quo and using its satellites, the Philippines and South Korea, to contain China. Unless the THAAD decision is reversed through China’s counter-measures toward South Korea, China will suffer a great strategic loss.23 In Jiefang Junbao on August 5 claimed the THAAD decision as destroying the regional strategic equilibrium and stability in line with the continuous post-Cold War US attempts to sustain its hegemony. Seoul was the weak link in the US-Japan-ROK triangle. It had capitulated, as Washington used anxiety over the North Korean nuclear and missile tests as a pretext for strengthened trilateral security cooperation. Park Geun-hye, as Lee before her, took a hard line toward North Korea, leading Seoul to tilt toward Washington, which it had not done under presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. Giving no credit to Pyongyang or even Seoul, the article implied that it is Beijing and Washington who will decide the future of the peninsula. Seoul simply decided that over the next 10-20 years, the US position would be stronger. The article also asserted that Park’s October 2015 visit to the White House was the turning point, not the North’s January 2016 nuclear test. The July THAAD decision was timed after the court decision on the South China Sea and attention once again turned southward.24 Yet, Chinese sources hinted that this might backfire for Seoul: 1) Japan will be emboldened by THAAD and Seoul’s new direction to turn further to the right: 2) the conservative officials who have pushed for THAAD deployment may alienate Korean society; and 3) a heavy price may be paid in Sino-ROK relations. THAAD is one more provocation, worsening the standoff with North Korea, as it pushes Beijing and Moscow closer and deepens polarization. After being portrayed as the leader who forged the best ever relations with China, Park is now warned about being seen as an historical criminal (lishi zuiren).25 One can surmise that the problem is not THAAD itself but the refusal to side with Beijing at a time when Beijing is intent on polarization. Similarly, on August 4, Guangming ribao made the case that the THAAD decision would backfire. The Korean people would realize that Park has put them in the crosshairs of geopolitical rivalry, and they would pay a heavy price economically. They have lost the goodwill of the Chinese people, can no longer expect “middle power” relevance, NAPCI is gone, the Eurasia initiative is gone, and hopes over the past two decades for salience are shattered. Moreover, the goal of reunification has been set back. Responding much more negatively to South Korea’s decision to defend itself than to North Korea’s actions over the past 20-some years, Chinese sources insist that a red line has been crossed in the Sino-ROK relationship, posing danger to Seoul and all of its regional aspirations.26 What this suggests is that China’s policy has been to split Seoul and Washington all along, and now that this has failed, it has no more use for Seoul—unless the Korean people adjust its policy toward Pyongyang accordingly. In a review of Park’s late spring visit to African countries and France, a Chinese article saw it as part of a doomed strategy to mobilize international community’s pressure on North Korea, rather than pursuing “peaceful coexistence” (as preferred by Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.)27 Little doubt was left that China would oppose Park’s moves. More than THAAD destroying the “honeymoon,” Park’s response to the nuclear test in defiance of China and its strategy matters. After the THAAD decision, Park was accused of breaking the regional balance of power, but her real transgression was defying historical judgments central to Chinese thinking: sinocentrism and the Cold War salience of North Korea. They insist that Seoul should build trust with North Korea, ignoring its nuclear program, and change its thinking about the United States.28 It must accept North Korea’s “core interests,” not the other way around. Further, Seoul must recognize that it and Washington caused the North Korean nuclear crisis and are now making it worse. To solve it, they need to reassure North Korea and deal with great power relations in a new manner. They need a different assessment of the Cold War and the post-Cold War period. These are the clear implications of Chinese publications.29 Chinese analysts start from three assumptions: 1) the Korean Peninsula can only reduce tensions and achieve reunification if South Korea as well as the United States normalize relations with North Korea and accept a non-aligned status for the peninsula; 2) South Korea must reconsider its outlook on democracy, human rights, and the history of communism to stop rejecting Chinese ways of thinking; and 3) the entire history of the East and East versus West is at stake as South Koreans consider their place in the emerging world. Diplomatic means such as the “Six-Party Talks” are the only way to peacefully solve the nuclear dispute and instill “stability” in the region, and therefore must take precedence for Seoul to change its policy on Pyongyang and Beijing. Three overriding historical judgments shape Chinese writings on South Korea: 1) the Cold War has not ended due to US mentality, which targets China along with Russia and renders the Korean Peninsula on the front lines of great power competition; 2) the natural order in Asia is sinocentric, China has shown to Korea that it could be trusted, and nothing China has done suggests that it should not be trusted again; and 3) the history of national liberation and revolution proved that China was a victim itself as well as a support to other victims, and Koreans should still oppose Japan—intent on glorifying and reviving its role— in solidarity with China. Deflecting its responsibility for Seoul’s distrust, Chinese sources have little choice but to locate the cause in Korean history and psychology. Just as Soviet interpretations of China’s rejection of the Soviet order in the early 1970s found its explanation in distortions of Chinese history,30 Chinese writings have looked to aspects of Korean history for their answers and found much that deserves criticism. Chinese authors demand South Korea to have a correct view of history without clarifying the limits of what they may require. Mid-2010s saw a correct understanding of Japan’s history, not only its imperialist aggression (for which Chinese find little to fault South Koreans) but also its legacy for today’s resurgent militarism. Other themes include the South Korean view of China’s premodern history of sinocentrism and the tribute system; and the view of the Cold War, including the Korean War. Japan serves to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, as Beijing insists on linking visits to the Yasukuni Shrine to the passing of collective self-defense laws. The tribute system is associated with calls for exclusive Asian regionalism, forcing a choice between ties to Washington and Beijing. Finally, the Korean War cannot be divorced from Chinese thinking about how to manage North Korea, insisting on a regional framework that undermines the US-ROK alliance as if it is the principal barrier to final resolution of the nuclear crisis. Chinese have chosen the following labels for South Korean behavior: “unification through absorption,” “westernization,” and “containment.” Korean attitudes toward China are “ungrateful,” show “Cold War mentality,” and reflect “psychological” problems. Chinese writings have turned from cautiously embracing Park Geun-hye to harshly condemning her. This is in line with the “hate Korea” arousal of 2007-09 and the tendency to demonize South Korea in 2009-12. China’s dichotomized view of history leaves little room for a “middle power.” 1. Beijing Ribao, August 3, 2016 2. Huanqiu Ribao, August 7, 2016. 3. Gilbert Rozman, The Sino-Russian Challenge to the World Order: National Identities, Bilateral Relations, and East vs. West in the 2010s (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 2014). 4. Sankei Shimbun, May 28, 2016, 1. 5. Yomiuri Shimbun, May 27, 2016, 7. 6. “China Commemorates 60th Anniversary of Participation in the Korean War,” October 25, 2010, http://english.sina.com/china/p/2010/1025/345036.html 7. Gilbert Rozman, “History as an Arena of Sino-Korean Conflict and the Role of the United States,” Asian Perspective 36, no. 2 (Spring 2012): 287-308. 8. Jae-ho Chung, Between Ally and Partner: Korea-China Relations and the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). 9. Wang Xiaolin, Zhongguoren xinmuzhong de Hanguoren xingxiang (Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2009), 463. 10. Gilbert Rozman, ed., U.S. Leadership, History, and Bilateral Relations in Northeast Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). 11. Gilbert Rozman, ed., National Identities and Bilateral Relations: Widening Gaps in East Asia and Chinese Demonization of the United States (Washington DC and Stanford, CA: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 2013). 12. Gilbert Rozman, “Can Confucianism Survive in an Age of Universalism and Globalization?” Pacific Affairs 75, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 11-37 13. Wang Mingxing, “Jiawuqishilu: Chaoxian bandao pian,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 4, 2014, 1-12. 14. Jiang Xiuyu, “Zhongri Jiawu zhanzheng yu Dongbeiya guoji guanxi de bianhua,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 4, 2014, 13-21. 15. Shi Jianguo, “Zhonghan hezuo kangri de lishi huigu he xianshi yiyi: jinian kangri zhanzheng shengli 70 zhounian,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 2, 2015, 114-22 16. Wang Feiyi, “Guoji tixi bianqian yu zhanhou Hanguo zhengzhi fazhan,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 1, 2013, 66-74. 17. Gilbert Rozman, “History as an Arena of Sino-Korean Conflict.” 18. Liu Qun, “Zhonghan guanxi: ershi nian de huigu yu zhanwang,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 4, 2013, 9-17. 19. Wei Zhijiang, “Shilun Hanguo Park Geun-hye zhengfu de waijiao zhengce quxiang yu Chaoxian bandao jushi,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 1, 2013, 12-22. 20. Wang Xiaobo and Wang Yuxuan, “Zhonghan guanxi ‘yuejinshi” fazhan yu Hanguo waijiao mianlin de zhanlue jueze,” Dangdai Hanguo, no. 4, 2015, 35-45. 21. Tang Yanlin and Bi Dabo, “Zhonghan guanxi xin tedian fenxi,”Dangdai Hanguo, no. 4, 2015, 27-33. 22. Zhan Debin, “Hanguo duiri anquan hezuo: dongxiang, dongin, yu taozhan,” Riben Yanjiu, no. 1, 2016, 18 -31. 23. Beijing Ribao, August 3, 2016. 24. Jiefang Junbao, August 5, 2016. 25. Guangming Ribao, August 4, 2016. 27. “Park Geun-hye xixing: xiayiban daqi?” Shijie zhishi, no. 13, 2016, 32-33. 28. Bi Yingda, “Chaohe wexie ‘changtaihua’ xiade Chaohan guanxi kunjing yu chulu,” Dangdai Shijie yu Shehuizhuyi, no. 3, 2016, 161-67. 29. Fan Jishe, “Chaohe wenti chonggu: jiangju de genyuan yu yingxiang,” Waijiao Pinglun, no. 4, 2016, 35-58. 30. Gilbert Rozman, “Soviet Reinterpretations of Chinese Social History," Journal of Asian Studies (November 1974): 49-72. Republished without permission as "Criticisms of Soviet Revisionists’ Distortions of China’s Social History," Waiguo Yanjiu Zhongguo, no. 3, 1979, 75-117. China Dream Cold War communism Koguryo Korean War Multipolarity Northeast Project regional order Sinocentrism Trustpolitik Nov 04,2019 Special Forum Oct 28,2019 Alternative Scenarios Positive Scenario I Negative Scenario I Who is No. 1Authoritarian capitalismResolution 2375security threatsBerlin framework	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402424
__label__cc	0.532788	0.467212	Deprecated: Function mysql_numrows() is deprecated in /home/theastro/public_html/include/class.video.php on line 172 The AstronomersPlanetary Science: Exploring The Solar System Planetary Science: Exploring The Solar System Add to Favorites Feature This! Inappropriate Share Add to Playlist Science & Reason on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ScienceReason Science@ESA (Episode 7): Planetary science - Exploring our backyard, the Solar System (Part 2) In this seventh episode of the Science@ESA vodcast series Rebecca Barnes continues to journey through the wonders of modern astronomy bringing us closer to home as we begin to explore the Solar System. We'll discover the scale and structure of the Solar System, find out why we explore it and introduce the missions launched on a quest to further investigate our local celestial neighbourhood. --- Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience • http://www.youtube.com/ScienceMagazine • http://www.youtube.com/ScienceTV • http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker --- Planetary science is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, originally growing from astronomy and earth science, but which now incorporates many disciplines, including planetary astronomy, planetary geology (together with geochemistry and geophysics), physical geography (geomorphology and cartography as applied to planets), atmospheric science, theoretical planetary science, and the study of extrasolar planets. Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with the effects of the Sun on the bodies of the Solar System, and astrobiology. There are interrelated observational and theoretical branches of planetary science. Observational research can involve a combination of space exploration, predominantly with robotic spacecraft missions using remote sensing, and comparative, experimental work in Earth-based laboratories. The theoretical component involves considerable computer simulation and mathematical modelling. Planetary scientists are generally located in the astronomy and physics or earth sciences departments of universities or research centres, though there are several purely planetary science institutes worldwide. There are several major conferences each year, and a wide range of peer-reviewed journals. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_science --- The Solar System is made up of the Sun and all of the smaller objects that move around it. Apart from the Sun, the largest members of the Solar System are the eight major planets. Nearest the Sun are four fairly small, rocky planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Beyond Mars is the asteroid belt - a region populated by millions of rocky objects. These are left-overs from the formation of the planets, 4.5 billion years ago. On the far side of the asteroid belt are the four gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These planets are much bigger than Earth, but very lightweight for their size. They are mostly made of hydrogen and helium. Until recently, the furthest known planet was an icy world called Pluto. However, Pluto is dwarfed by Earth's Moon and many astronomers think it is too small to be called a true planet. An object named Eris, which is at least as big as Pluto, was discovered very far from the Sun in 2005. More than 1,000 icy worlds such as Eris have been discovered beyond Pluto in recent years. These are called Kuiper Belt Objects. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto and Eris must be classed as "dwarf planets". Even further out are the comets of the Oort Cloud. These are so far away that they are invisible in even the largest telescopes. Every so often one of these comets is disturbed and heads towards the Sun. It then becomes visible in the night sky. • http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=7 . Added on Apr 2, 2012 by deek Time: 08:56 \| Views: 1205 \| Comments: 0 Tags: planetary science exploring solar system esa missions planets earth moons meteoroids astronomy space exploration telescopes satellites spacecrafts sun mercury venus mars asteroids belt jupiter saturn uranus neptune pluto eris oort cloud Post Video Response Username: deek Videos: 678 \| Favorites: 0 \| Friends: 5 Video URL (Permalink): Comment on this video: PUT ADVT HERE More from: deek Fifty New Exoplanets Discovered by HARPS by deek <<<NOW PLAYING! Basic Planetary Science Introduction Beauty, Truth, and Planetary Science [IMPROVED AUDIO 10/05/09] ScienceCasts: An Alignment of Planets PREVIEW: Alien Planets & Eyeball Earths LIVING MORPHOLOGY - in planetary science education 2011 Snapshots From Space with Emily Lakdawalla--Seasons on Mars Comet Harpoon Being Developed by NASA Sagan lecture: Isotope Geochemistry and the Study of Habitability and Life on Other Planets Climate Science and Media Distortion - Stephen Schneider Three Minute Philosophy Galileo by adminn The Universe - Galileo Telescopes Galileo to SLOOH Stephen Hawking: Asking big questions about the universe Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed) Stephen Hawking - Campus Party speech (2006) MC Hawking - What We Need More Of Is Science Hope Is For Morons - Ordono Mundi Ancient Astronomy - Best Of Carl Sagan's Cosmos (17) Triumph Of Modern Science Over Medieval Superstition Naked Eye Observatory MTSU The Library Of Alexandria - Best Of Carl Sagan's Cosmos (7)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402425
__label__cc	0.543368	0.456632	Cover Reveal: Love at First Slight by J. Marie Croft You may recall a cover reveal for J. Marie Croft's Mr Darcy Takes the Plunge, earlier in Austen in August. That one was leading up to this one, which is coming out in October from Rhemalda - it's Love at First Slight! Click through to check out the cheeky cover and synopsis, and don't forget you can enter to win a copy of Mr Darcy Takes the Plunge right here! Love at First Slight by J. Marie Croft “It may not be universally acknowledged, but the unvarnished truth is that a young widow in possession of a good fortune is not necessarily in want of another husband.” In this humorous, topsy-turvy Pride & Prejudice variation, all the gender roles are reversed. It is Mr. Bennet’s greatest wish to see his five sons advantageously married. When the haughty Miss Elizabeth Darcy comes to Netherfield with the Widow Devonport nee Bingley, speculation—and prejudice—runs rampant. William Bennet, a reluctant and irreverent future reverend, catches Miss Darcy’s eye even though he is beneath her station. However, his opinion of her was fixed when she slighted him at the Meryton Assembly. As her ardour grows, so does his disdain, and when she fully expects to receive an offer of marriage, he gives her something else entirely …. J. Marie Croft, a Nova Scotia resident and avid reader all her life, discovered Jane Austen's works later than others but made up for lost time by devouring the six novels and as many adaptations and sequels as she could find. In the midst of reading prodigious amounts of Austen-based fan-fiction, she realized, "Hey, I can do that." In her spare time, when not working at a music school or on a wooded trail enjoying her geocaching hobby, she listens to the voices in her head and captures their thoughts and words in writing. Her stories are light-hearted; and her motto is Miss Austen's own quote, "Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery." J. Marie Croft is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (Canada) and admits to being "excessively attentive" to the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. She can be contacted at jmariecroft@gmail.com. Click the pic to be taken to the Austen in August Main Page! Thanks to faestock & inadesign for the images used to create this button. Labels: adaptation, Austen in August, cover, jane austen, Jane in June, retelling, reveal Meredith August 31, 2013 at 10:26 AM Wow! This sounds like a super-fun twist! Love the cover!! Sophia Rose August 31, 2013 at 3:14 PM This sounds fun. Thanks for sharing! Ceri September 1, 2013 at 9:22 AM I like the sound of a gender swap, but I think it might be hard to do successfully in a historical setting. It'd be interesting to see how it's done.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402426
__label__wiki	0.996471	0.996471	buddy on The FADER Buddy and 03 Greedo pay homage to Office Space in the “Cubicle” video Watch a new music video for "Cubicle" from Buddy and 03 Greedo. Buddy drops deluxe version of Harlan & Alondra Buddy has released a new deluxe version of his debut album Harlan & Alondra, with new contributions from 03 Greedo, J.I.D., Bas and more. Watch Buddy and A$AP Ferg perform “Black” on The Late Late Show Buddy appeared alongside A$AP Ferg on James Corden's show. Watch Buddy’s Tiny Desk Concert Buddy hit NPR's Tiny Desk to perform hits off of his debut full-length Harlan & Alondra on Thursday. Vince Staples announces tour with JPEGMAFIA and Buddy Check out dates for Vince Staples' upcoming tour with JPEGMAFIA and Buddy. Buddy shares “Shameless” music video Watch Buddy's new music video for his Harlon & Alondra track "Shameless." Watch Buddy perform “Trouble on Central” on The Tonight Show Buddy stopped by The Tonight Show on Thursday night to perform "Trouble on Central" off of his debut album Harlan & Alondra. 10 songs you need in your life this week Tracks we love right now, including Ciara's "Level Up," Chance the Rapper's "I Might Need Security," Popcaan's "Lef My Gun," and more. Buddy finds his L.A. Harlan & Alondra, out today, shows real growth for a 24-year-old who’s already been in rap for a decade. Read an interview with Buddy. Buddy shares his debut album Buddy's Harlan & Alondra is here. Listen to Buddy’s new song “Trippin” with Khalid Listen to "Trippin," a single from Buddy's upcoming debut studio album Harlan & Alondra. Tracks we love right now, including Drake and Lil Baby's "Pikachu," André 3000's "Me&My," Mitski's "Geyser" and more. Watch Buddy’s “Black” vertical video featuring A$AP Ferg Buddy shares the vertical video for his hit single "Black" featurig A$AP Ferg. Listen to Buddy’s new single with A$AP Ferg Buddy enlists A$AP Ferg for the first single off his new album.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402427
__label__wiki	0.784052	0.784052	The G20 is an international forum of 20 nations with the biggest economies in the world: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. The G20 emerged at the end of the 20th century because the G7 format—for a while the G8—did not fully reflect the reality of a rapidly-changing world. Since 2008, the G20 regularly get together for working sessions involving their finance, economy and foreign affairs ministers, their central bank governors or the equivalent, and others, to discuss the key issues of the day, from finance to environmental protection. Every year, there is also a G20 summit, an extraordinary event that brings together the top leaders in the world: monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and so on. This year’s meeting takes place November 30—December 1 in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The theme is human labor, infrastructure, food, and the question of gender. Why did we choose the G20 for our project? Because this event gathers the largest group of people in power—politicians, activists, experts, and journalists—, all of whom influence global political processes. A marvelous country located in eastern Europe and peopled by a freedom-loving nation called Ukrainians. For hundreds of years, Ukrainians have fought for independence from powerful neighbors that kept taking over their territory. The reborn Ukrainian state is now 27 years old, but the battle for independence, democracy and well-being continues in the confrontation with the latest aggressive neighbor: Putin’s Russia. Ukraine is open to the world, its people travel freely, study foreign languages and are constantly developing in terms of education, doing business, the arts, and everyday diplomacy. After all, knowledge and innovation are what drive the planet forward and make it possible for individuals to experience self-fulfillment. We invite all friends of Ukraine to visit our country for enjoyment and adventure. The free territory of Ukraine—and your peace of mind—is ensured by Ukraine’s Armed Forces and police, who are keeping Russia’s soldiers and their minions at bay. Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine began on February 20, 2014. During the course of a single month, the Russian Federation occupied the Crimean peninsula and immediately afterwards sent in its agents to stir up a “separatist rebellion” in eastern Ukraine that was backed by Russian saboteurs, weapons and military forces. That war continues to this day: one third of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts remains occupied, and prisoners of conscience, POWs, Ukrainian patriots, and ordinary people continue to be persecuted, tortured and even murdered. Russian-occupied Crimea is undergoing massive militarization, while Crimean Tatars are being repressed and persecuted on a large scale, as are ethnic Ukrainians, with the intention to force these peoples to either assimilate or leave their homeland. Instigated by Russia, this conflict has so far killed well over 10,000 people, including some 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers. In July 2014, 298 people on Flight MH-17 were killed by the Kremlin, downed by a Russian BUK missile. Millions of people have left their homes because they don’t want to live under Russian occupation or in a conflict zone. Despite large amounts of hard evidence, Moscow cynically and shamelessly denies all of its criminal acts, refusing to follow through on ceasefire agreements and ignoring international law. The only thing holding the frontline in eastern Europe is the bravery of Ukrainian soldiers and international sanctions against the Russian occupiers. Besides Ukraine, the bloody boots of Russian occupying forces are crushing the Transnistria region of Moldova, the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions of Georgia. Russian soldiers and mercenaries, together with the Assad regime, have been using bullets, shells, bombs, missiles, and chemicals to destroy the civilians of Syria. Russian saboteurs, spies and propagandists have meddled everywhere in the world. The world has changed and has become a dangerous place. Before the start of the latest G20 Summit, we had planned to set up a series of 3-D billboards not far from the Costa Salguero Center in Buenos Aires under the slogan, “The World has Changed. Why?” A gigantic live circular saw and axe are tearing Ukrainian territory to bloody pieces, trying to cut away the Crimean peninsula and part of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. These tools, which are implements of torture, symbolize Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Next to the billboards is a portrait of Natalia Lafazan, a young girl from the village of Sartana outside Mariupol who saw the horrors of this war with her own eyes. Russian invaders shelling her village killed her mother and cost Natalia one leg to the knee. We hope that every participant, journalist and guest of the G20 Summit will see with their own eyes the predatory shadow of the two-headed Russian eagle that has shed so much Ukrainian blood. However, the Ukrainian delegation was unable to set up the billboard because of opposition and a breach of our contract with the Argentinean side. Given the very short timeframe and the late refusal by the Argentinean side, it was impossible for us to re-do the billboard some other way. At the same time, we were able to present a small-scale copy of the billboard at the press conference to visualize the concept behind this campaign. 29/11/18 Ukraine’s One Billboard campaign comes to Buenos Aires One billboard campaign The Ukrainian campaign of a single billboard in Buenos Aires is scheduled for the G20 summit. The project is dedicated to Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression and committed to telling guests in the Argentinean capital the horrific truth about the bloody crimes of the Russian occupation. As part of the project, visitors will hear the voices of children who live in villages and towns along the frontline, have seen the horrors of war with their own eyes, and have personally suffered from them. We also turn to the world with 100 rhetorical questions that all start with the word, “Why.” 100 Why’s The planned billboard location Why did Russia invade Ukraine? Why did Russian military shoot down MH-17? Why is Russia interfering in the establishment of an independent, autocephalous church in Ukraine? Why is Russia engaged in a policy of repression in occupied Crimea? Why did Russia annex Crimea? Why is Russia holding 70 Ukrainians as political prisoners in its jails? Why are Russian soldiers fighting in the Donbas without insignia and using false documents? Why is Russia lying about the presence of its military forces in the Donbas? Why doesn’t the international community increase sanctions against Russia? Why has Russia established its own private armies who engage in conflict all over the world? Why did Russia steal Ukraine’s naval fleet? Why is Russia planning to place nuclear weapons in Crimea? Why does Russia engage in anti-Ukrainian propaganda on its television channels? Why did Russia make all Crimeans take out Russian citizenship, whether they wanted to or not? Why does Russia try to get in the way of countries that want to join NATO? Why does Russia want to bring about the collapse of the European Union? Why to the radical right and radical left politicians in Europe always support Russia’s aggressive actions? Why does Russia spend billions spreading propaganda around the world? Why does Russia bury those of its soldiers who have died in Ukraine and Syria in secret? Why did only 100 countries support the UNGA Resolution on Ukraine’s territorial integrity? Why are all the leaders of the militants and separatists in eastern Ukraine either retired Russian officers or thugs? Why have Russia and its minions not fulfilled a single provision of the Minsk Accords? Why has Russia destroyed education in the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian languages in Crimea? Why do Russia’s proxies continue to torture and murder their Ukrainian prisoners? Why is everything Ukrainian being repressed on Russian occupied territories: the language, the culture, the identity, and patriotism? Why do the Russian occupiers in the Donbas use the death penalty? Why is Russia cultivating militarism in kindergartens and elementary schools? Why is Russia blocking nearly all resolutions related to Syria in the UN Security Council? Why is Russia fighting in Syria? Why is Russia defending the Assad regime, which has used chemical weapons against its people? Why do world leaders shake hands and embrace Putin, a tyrant and war criminal? Why are international corporations violating anti-Russian sanctions? Why is Russia rapidly militarizing? Why does Putin threaten Ukraine with nuclear weapons? Why do Russian aircraft regularly violate the air space of NATO member countries? Why did Russia’s secret service try to kill Sergei Skripal in Salisbury with chemical weapons? Why are the children and the money belonging to Russia’s top officials and oligarchs being kept in Europe and the US? Why does the Russian orthodox church bless Russia’s wars against Ukraine and Syria? Why is there still a Russian occupying force in the Transnistria region of Moldova, or the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali provinces of Georgia? Why is Russia waging economic war against Ukraine? Why does pro-Kremlin propaganda disseminate fake news about NATO? Why did Russia’s army slaughter Ukrainian soldiers who were retreating through a “green corridor” under Ilovaisk on August 29, 2014? Why do Putin and his minions continue to threaten to destroy the US, NATO countries, and the whole world? Why does Russia organize “pro-Russian rebellions” in neighboring countries? Why does Russia keep calling its supplies of weapons “humanitarian aid”? Why is Russia spending billions on waging war when its economy is in a recession? Why have Europeans agreed to build new gas pipelines jointly with Russia? Why did no country in the world boycott the 2018 World Football Championship in Russia? Why did Russia steal or move Ukrainian assets like banks and munitions plants from Crimea and Donbas? Why are Russia’s occupying forces persecuting religious and sexual minorities? Why are ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars being persecuted in Crimea? Why is the cult of Stalin being revived in Russia today? Why are Russian hackers and propagandists interfering in electoral campaigns all over the world? Why is Russian citizen Alexei Milchakov, a known sadist, nazi and war criminal, still loose? Why is Russia’s General HQ sending military cadets to practice in Donbas? Why is there a slew of European politicians who keep demanding that anti-Russian sanctions be dropped? Why have Great Britain, the US and France not come through on their commitments under the Budapest Memorandum? Why did Russia violate dozens of international and inter-governmental agreements by starting a war against Ukraine? Why is Russia handing out awards and honors to propagandists, mercenaries and war criminals? Why is Russia not carrying out the rulings of the ECHR? Why is Russia dreaming of restoring the Soviet Union? Why does Russia think that it is fighting in Ukraine and Syria against the US? Why is Russia illegally extracting natural gas and sand on Ukraine’s Black Sea shelf? Why is Russia placing new military units near the border with Ukraine? Why do the most despicable dictatorships—Syria, Venezuela and North Korea—all support Russia? Why are Russia’s opposition politicians, independent journalists and creative class all leaving the country? Why did Russia illegally imprison Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov? Why did Russia ban the Crimean Tatars’ governing body, the Medjlis and continues to ignore the ECHR’s demand that it be restored? Why is Igor “Strelkov” Ghirkin, the GRU frontman and the face of Russia’s occupation in 2014 still on the loose? Why is Russia placing its newest weapons systems on its western border? Why is Russia fetishizing WWII and its propaganda bellowing, “We can do it again”? Why is Russia supplying weapons to both sides in the conflict in Nagorno-Karrabakh? Why is Russia silent about the environmental catastrophe unfolding in northern Crimea? Why was Russia excluded from the G8? Why did the Russian delegation lose its status in PACE? Why is Gazprom refusing to pay its debt to Ukraine, in line with the ruling of the Stockholm Arbitration Institute? Why does Russia buying up European politicians by inviting them to visit occupied Crimea? Why is Russia violating the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the US? Why is the Russian administration of Ukraine’s occupied territories jamming Ukrainian radio and television signals? Why are people being violently beaten at protest actions in Russia? Why does Putin keep denying that Ukrainians are a different people and Ukraine an independent country? Why does Russia force Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories to take out Russian passports? Why are monuments to the Russian invaders of eastern Ukraine being erected across Russia? Why is Russia using the occupied counties of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts as a testing ground for new weaponry and an ammunition dump? Why has Russia turned Crimea into one gigantic military base? Why does Russia continue to occupy the Kuril Islands, which belong to Japan? Why does Russia encourage mercenaries from around the world to fight for it in the Donbas? Why has Russia instituted sanctions against Ukraine? Why has Russia organized an army of internet bots that gum up the information environment in the entire world? Why does Russia keep organizing illegal elections in the territories it occupies? Why does the Putin personality cult dominate in Russia? Why did Europe and the US not place an embargo on the export of fuels from Russia as the aggressor country? Why has Russia not lost its veto power in the UN Security Council? Why does the Kremlin indulge the leader of Chechnya, who has established a totalitarian regime? Why are there Russian military units in Armenia and Tajikistan to this day? Why has Putin continued to govern Russia with unlimited powers for nearly 20 years? Why does Russia’s propaganda teach its own people to be afraid of and despise the EU and US? Why are Russian and other ships entering Crimean ports in contravention of Ukrainian law and international sanctions? Why does Russia manipulate with the lie that all it opponents are “fascists”? Why has the world changed? Since the start of the 21st century, Russia has been sharply militarizing under Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin’s aggressive geopolitical ambitions, reinforced by oil and gas super profits, have spilled into aggressive foreign policy. Having left rebellious Chechnya drowning in blood, Moscow moved on to expansionism. A Russian occupation force continues to control the Transnistria region of Moldova and the Georgian province of Abkhazia. In 2008, Russia launched a second war against Georgia, which ended in an open military occupation of a second Georgian province, Tskhinvali. After the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine ended in victory in February 2014, Russia turned around and occupied Crimea, later illegally incorporating the peninsula into the Russian Federation. By annexing part of Ukraine, Russia brutally violated a series of bilateral agreements, the trilateral 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which stated that Ukraine would give up its nuclear weapons in return for security assurances from the three big nuclear powers: the US, Russia and China, and foundational international laws, including the UN statutes. Russia’s annexation of Crimea was condemned by the UN and declared null and void by the entire civilized world. That spring, Russia has organized a “separatist rebellion” in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, which was soon supported by its regular army. In the 4.5 years since it invaded Crimea, over 10,000 Ukrainians have been killed, including around 3,000 Ukrainian military personnel. The whole world watched the aftermath of the shooting down of Flight MH-17 by a Russian BUK missile launcher—298 civilian deaths. Despite mounds evidence, Moscow cynically and boldfacedly continues to deny its criminal acts. Among Moscow’s allies is the Assad regime in Syria, which has been killing its own people for over five years, including with chemical weapons. Russian bombs and missiles, shells and bullets are also raining death on Syrian cities and villages. Despite a worldwide outcry, a multitude of anti-Russian economic sanctions and shrinking reserves, the Kremlin has no intention of curbing its aggression. On the contrary, it’s expanding its military presence in other conflict zones and supporting dictatorships in Asia, Africa and Latin America, rolling out its propaganda network, doing everything it can to undermine the EU and NATO in order to bring about a new realignment in the world under superpowers, the way it was in soviet times. We present the 100 questions that start with “Why?” on this site, but we don’t provide any answers. 100whys@gmail.com ~ facebook.com/100whys.org Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402434
__label__cc	0.749661	0.250339	Swati Jhaveri: Internal Morality of the Administrative State adminlawblogorg The recent post by Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule raises the intriguing question of whether there is and, if so, what is the internal moral content of the administrative law principles crafted by the courts. This post considers whether we can take this enquiry further: do the activities of the administrative state have an internal morality or value system outside of that ascribed to it by courts and/or legislatures? While recent discussions about deference in judicial review sophisticate the traditional focus on technocratic expertise and/or democratic credentials as reasons for deference, this post considers whether these conversations can be taken further still. What if there is some moral content or force to decisions by the executive that ought to also trigger respect and deference from the other branches? What if the reasons that typically trigger more intense review – for example, questions relating to fundamental rights – were in fact reasons to trigger deference because administrative decision-making in this realm is, in fact, credible and legitimate in some way? This post sketches the possible virtues or reasons for ascribing legitimacy to administrative decision-making. First, it is possible for administrative decision-making to enhance the outcome legitimacy of a system. This goes beyond just technocratic expertise – to consider the actual outcome of a ‘expert’ decision-making process. Administrative decision-makers may be better positioned to balance conflicting policy interests and constitutional or governance concerns with the least disruption to the various policy and public interest priorities within a system. They thus arguably have the capacity to produce decisions that are more granular and tailored in achieving a particular outcome. In balancing individual versus communitarian goals, they may also be less amenable to the majority and minority capture issues that apply to Parliament. The executive – with the size of its manpower, network and reach to the demos – may also have the opportunity for a greater and more widespread political and public engagement than is possible via Parliament. Administrative institutions are arguably more directly plugged into the public, operating closer to the coal face than the other branches: with greater interaction with stakeholders and other parties affected by administrative action, including social movement groups, business and industry associations, unions and political representatives at all levels. This micro-political engagement can allow for more reflective constitutional decision-making. This could improve the prospects for fulfilling Weberian-type imperatives of exercising political power on a proper empirical or scientific basis. Secondly, in the constitutional realm, the administrative state has the capacity to interpret constitutional values in a constitutionally progressive manner without micro-management by courts or the legislature. This may be because there are fewer ceilings imposed on their operationalisation of rights, relative to the other branches. The former is not bound by or tethered exclusively to a negative sense of rights’ protection i.e. where rights operate largely as constraints on the political actors. In addition to the possibility of positive and progressive decision-making on rights, the administrative state is not reactive but can be proactive. This can be contrasted to the ex post work of courts (largely focused on policing negative constraints on rights) and the reactive role of the legislature who may only bring up topics for discussion and deliberation in response to other actors. And when legislative bodies deliberate they are at risk of ‘neglect, inertia and blind-spots’. Finally, administrative actors can also have an impact on sociological assessments by citizens of the legitimacy of a particular system – there is cause to, therefore, pause and reflect on how the administrative state achieves this objective and, more importantly, what kind of behaviour causes this to be undermined and what kind of behaviour needs to be recognised and encouraged. This post does not seek to valorise the administrative state. Rather, it has proceeded on the basis that in considering questions of internal morality in this area, it may be useful to look at not just the internal morality of administrative law and the work of the judiciary, but also the activities of the administrative state outside of the courts. Swati Jhaveri is Assistant Professor at NUS Law School and Co-Editor of the Admin Law Blog. 2 thoughts on “Swati Jhaveri: Internal Morality of the Administrative State” P. Y. Lo says: 28 Sep 2018 at 2:11 pm Lord Diplock’s statement in CCSU v Minister for the Civil Service [1985] AC 374 on the ground of “irrationality” does suggest a judicially constructed internal morality for substantive review. Dr Sanjay Jain says: It is very interesting post and the idea that Administrative State can observe internal morality and therefore it should be respected by the other organs of the State is very provocative. however, in a westministerial form of govt. can we maintain compartmentalised distinction between administrative state and legislature. As a matter of fact the executive is the part of legislature in this model. However, vis-a-vis courts and Executive , the realtionship can definitly be governed by the internal morality of Administrative State and it is particularly useful in evolving the notion of ‘Judicial defernece’.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402444
__label__cc	0.542927	0.457073	Hawaiian IslandsMaui 10 Things You Should Know About the Grand Wailea Before Arriving By Maui HawaiiJune 11, 2019 4 Comments They don’t call it grand for nothing: The Grand Wailea—a Waldorf Astoria Resort on the south shore of Maui—has it all: beauty and romance, leisure and play, elegance and authenticity, glee and tranquility. So spectacular is this spot, in fact, that U.S. News & World Report named it one of the top ten luxury resorts on the Valley Isle, while it caters to more than half a million visitors annually. Planning to count yourself as one of them? Whether you’re on your way there or are dreaming up the vacation of a lifetime, here are 10 things you should know about the Grand Wailea before arriving: 1. This place has mad scale 40 acres of premier oceanfront real estate. 787 rooms. 5,500-square foot suites. Nine pools, comprising 770,000 gallons of water. A spa with 40 treatment rooms. Seven bars and restaurants. In other words, the Grand Wailea is a hotel of epic proportions, leading many visitors to profess that it is a destination in itself. How does this translate for guests? The expansiveness is hugely appealing to visitors traveling in large groups, while the diversity of activities—more on that below—can be a major treat. Those hoping to balance their Hawaiian holiday with a serene, cozy experience, however, may want to explore the idea of spending a few nights in smaller, homier accommodations—such as the Grand’s own (and adjacent) Ho’olei: two-story, gorgeously-appointed villas that, with garages and gourmet kitchens, may feel like a home away from home (albeit a luxe one). 2. Its luau is one of a kind Titled after the ahupua’a on which it rests, the Grand Wailea’s ‘Aha’aina Luau is outright exquisite (keep in mind this is the new name; previously it went by Honua’ula.) Presented on a grassy knoll in front of the water—while Maui’s largest volcano hovers above—this exceptional celebration ferries spectators into the island’s raw and reverent past, when two notable Polynesian seafarers, La’amaikahiki and Mo’ikeha, sailed into Wailea and learned to co-exist with its gods and goddesses. Chanting, hula, and beats are paired with an extravagant meal featuring luau staples like lomi lomi salmon, Kalua pork, and poi, island favorites (such as fried rice and chow fun), and a dessert spread as sweet as the sights (guava mousse, anyone?). Flamboyant for sure, but this performance and feast also sparkles with authentic touches, including a traditional imu ceremony and Hawaiian lawn games. (And did we mention the open bar?) 3. Its location is unsurpassed The Grand Wailea’s backyard is the lush slopes of Haleakala; its front an unforgettable shoreline. Wailea Beach’s shoreline, that is—a cove of sun-kissed, sugary sand that peers out at Maui’s beguiling outer islands. Ranked the #1 beach in America by Dr. Beach, beaches don’t get much more picture-perfect than this: The glossy water renders snorkeling and swimming superb, while the colorful umbrellas and buzzy crowds underscore the fact that you’re on vacation. Bordering the cove is the Wailea Coastal Walk—a lovely boardwalk that traverses five idyllic beaches and five high-end resorts (and gives shade-seekers the chance to stretch their legs under a mile and half of beautiful foliage). Through the hotel, you can also go on a guided paddle board or kayak tour to Turtle Town—an ocean enclave teeming with Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles. Additionally, the resort shares views of the Pacific with The Shops at Wailea next door, where 70 stores offer everything from Dr. Seuss paintings to gourmet gelato. 4. The Grand’s pools are to dive for First, the facts: The Grand’s Wailea Canyon Activity Pool includes nine pools spread over six enchanting levels. 2,000 feet long, a lazy river connects it all, while exhilarating features are presented around every corner—including waterfalls, hot tubs, rushing rapids, a rope swing, and a sandy-bottomed lagoon. Oh, and let’s not forget the waterslides: Its tallest starts six “floors” above and shoots you into pool mere feet away from a bar. With Wailea’s perennially sunny weather and a seductive, adults-only pool, it’s no wonder the Grand’s water wonderland is frequently ranked the #1 pool in Hawaii. Evenings are equally majestic, when a pu (or conch shell) is blown during the resort’s nightly torch-lighting ceremony. All that’s not to say that these pools, while part of your stay, don’t come cheap: Renting a cabana near the water will put you back $600-$2,500 per day, while casabella chairs go for $95 to $15o daily. Don’t distress, though: umbrellas and chairs are complimentary, and Wailea Beach—100% free—is right in front of you. 5 …and part of that magic includes the world’s first water elevator The Grand Wailea is nothing if not ambitious: As if its pools and grounds weren’t outstanding enough, the lavish resort also boasts the world’s first water elevator: an enclosed cylinder, open at the top, that takes roughly ten people to the peak of the terraced pools in five minutes. Set in a volcano and surrounded by lava rocks, this is some of the most fun you can legally have in Hawaii. 6. It has the largest collection of art in Hawaii Over thirty million dollars were spent outfitting the Grand’s lobby and grounds with art that swerves from dazzling to divine to downright peculiar. Many of the sculptures that gleam around the grounds were created by Fernando Botero—a Columbian figurative artist whose signature style is depicting humans in outsized, often supine designs. In addition, 81 works—including artifacts, murals, original paintings, and graphics—are sprinkled throughout the resort, giving the Grand as a whole an electrifying, urbane panache. Indeed, the Grand Wailea doesn’t take art lightly; it’s immersed it into its core curriculum, so to speak, which ultimately amplifies the resort’s overall uniqueness. Outdoor painting classes are offered every Thursday for $40 a pop, while Wednesdays welcomes internationally acclaimed photographer Michael Gilbert, who will teach you about light and composition in a three-and-a-half hour photography workshop. Art collection tours are also given Tuesdays through Fridays, while local ceramicists, jewelers, woodworkers, and more display their inimitable goods most mornings of the week. 7. You can learn to scuba dive right outside your room’s lanai Scuba diving is one of Maui’s most cherished sports. And for good reason: From manta rays to reef sharks, Hawaii’s waters are just as captivating as its land attractions. And while snorkeling is great fun—and readily accessible—this soul-stirring activity (invented in part by Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1943) will take you down to deeper treasures. Learn the art of it all with the Grand’s daily scuba lesson—from 9:30am-1pm, skilled instructors will provide you with the knowledge you need to go on a deep ocean voyage. 8. They’re at the forefront of Maui’s farm-to-fork movement Prior to the resort’s opening in 1991 (in its original iteration, the Grand Wailea was the Grand Hyatt Wailea), the area upon which it sits—an ahupua’a (or district) traditionally known as Honua’ula—was little more than scrub forest and miles and miles of kiawe, The Grand has, since then, continually given back to the ‘aina it altered: Ultra-low kama’aina deals were offered in the early 90s, the resort once hosted one of the most economical and delicious brunches on the island, and the hotel is often applauded for giving back to the community (in 2016, the resort honored 500 Maui senior citizens with meals, holiday decorations, gifts, and prizes). They’re also at the helm of Maui’s hyper-local food movement. In 2011, the Grand’s splendid restaurant, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a launched Localvore week—a pre fix menu based on Maui’s incredible bounty—while in 2015, it began the Ka Malama Dinner, a five-course fete, based on the Hawaiian Moon Calendar, that emphasizes the greatness of eating seasonally and sustainably. (Adding to the brilliance is a “talk story” throughout the meal that includes facts about ancient Hawaiian culture.) What’s more, many of the resort’s eats and drinks are cultivated on the island. Honey is sourced on the property itself, and every month, the Grand offers a dinner harvested or caught by the hotel’s staff. (Talk about slow food at its finest.) 9 …and it’s a utopia for kids If you have keiki in your crew, you’re in luck: The Grand Wailea has the most extensive kid’s program in Hawaii—20,000 square feet of stellar activities that will keep them enthralled for days. Dubbed The Rock, this resort within a resort includes a sports lounge with a 60” TV, a video arcade (including a PlayStation, well, station), a snack bar, a teens-only hideout, its own waterslide—even a movie theater. Adventures are offered daily, from crab hunting and scavenger hunts to hula classes and tide pool excursions—making this amusement park of sorts the envy of adults. 10. Its spa is world famous A number of superlatives are tossed about when describing the Grand’s Spa Grande, but opulent and enormous might be the most apt. Voted one of the ten top spas in the United States by both Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler, each of the spa’s 50,000 square feet are synonymous with posh—as in Roman tubs, gushing waterfalls, Swiss jet showers, a Japanese furo (read: a mega-deep bath fashioned out of hinoki wood), and five specialty baths. Their most popular treatment is the Pala’au Journey—a full-body lomi lomi Hawaiian massage followed by an all-encompassing cocoon and scalp treatment—but their Green Coffee and Vanilla Bean Body Scrub is just as delightful. Plus, it’ll leave you super smooth and lustrous—and there’s no better way to experience the resort’s marvels, is there? Top Maui Luaus Grand Wailea Luau Royal Lahaina Luau Marriott Luau Sheraton Luau Andaz Luau Pacific Whale Foundation Dinner Cruise Review Top 5 Maui Luaus 27 Things to Do on Maui I also hear that some of those rooms at Grand Wailea can set you back as much as 4 thousand dollars a night! Activity Authority says: I think some cost even more. It’s not cheap, but they do have garden rooms for much less. Marilyn P Borick says: Come fetch me please. I’ll leave the door unlocked. So excited to check these amenities out!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402457
__label__wiki	0.897446	0.897446	40% of Online Ads Are Found to Be Overweight and Slow Sites By Garett Sloane. Published on February 23, 2017. Credit: EricVega/iStock Ads need to go on a diet. More than 40% of online ads are larger than industry standards, which slows down websites and annoys users with crawling load times, according to a report from Ad Lightning, which works with publishers to monitor ad speed. The report won't be a shock to many publishers already grappling with the issue of "fat ads," which is what some in the industry are calling them. Oversized ads can impact viewability -- if it doesn't load, it can't be seen. Publishers like Business Insider have even begun telling advertisers that they can't guarantee ads will be seen unless advertisers stay within the limits of acceptable data. "If something is a 10-times-larger file size and takes 10 seconds to load, viewability is a very difficult thing to expect when something is so far out of spec," said Pete Spande, Business Insider's chief revenue officer. How big is too big? The Interactive Advertising Bureau sets a limit of 300 kilobytes for a display ad, and Ad Lightning found that 41% of ads it looked at across thousands of sites were larger than that. Almost 10% of the ads exceed 5 megabytes, which is about the size of Shakespeare's collected works. Business Insider is among a number of publishers that have begun pushing back on advertisers that try to create ads crammed with media and animation. "Lighter ads with less animation just perform better," Mr. Spande said. "It's not just about viewability." The websites perform better, as well. In fact, speed is a crucial factor online, and people click away from pages that load slowly. In many ways, Google and Facebook led the charge pushing for a faster web, because they had seen how people were quick to click away whenever a site was slow to load. Facebook built Instant Articles that encouraged publishers to post stories directly into the social newtork's system so people didn't even have to leave its site. Google developed a similar product, and recently it has been tweaking search results that prioritize websites that run faster. "Consumers experience these issues in ways that reflect on the publisher much more than the advertiser," Ad Lightning said in its report. "On average, advertising doubles the amount of time it takes to load a webpage. Offending ad quality issues often delay page loads significantly longer." The report also found that programmatic ad networks were slowing down ad delivery, because of too many requests being made. Every programmatic ad that goes into an open auction communicates with ad networks that place bids -- known as requests. Then pieces of code are introduced into the ad to track its performance and other reporting criteria. Interactive Advertising Bureau sets a guideline of 15 network calls for each ad in an auction, but the average is closer to 60, according to the report. Online Publishing Garett Sloane Garett Sloane is the tech reporter at Ad Age. Follow View all articles by this author Adobe’s AJ Shin on using machine learning models to maximize client revenue NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke set to leave his post in August Disney launches new Frozen and Star Wars toys on the same day Get Datacenter	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402460
__label__cc	0.620608	0.379392	Alexa Meade, a Story of Contrasts Check this work out: Looks a bit like a Norman Rockwell painting was superimposed on a photograph, right? Makes you think about the miracle of photoshop. Look again. And, again. That’s a real man. Alexa Meade is a “25-year-old artist whose work lies at the intersection of painting, photography, performance, and installation.” She paints models in the style of 2D paintings and then sets them free, running through our 3D world, re-compressed into the final product we see here. She straddles the split between reality and perception in her art, and makes us question our own knowledge in the process. Her work brings the art of trompe l’oeil into the modern age. Meade uses a brush. She paints skin on skin, lips on lips and eyebrows on eyebrows, and the insides of nostrils, using her own mixture of nontoxic paints and unspecified ingredients. Her subjects must sit still for multiple hours as she follows the natural contours of their faces, varying brushstroke and color to exhume their inner essence. When she’s done, they appear banished to two-dimensionality, yet they also seem fuller, more dynamic. She then sets her subjects in an installation, or photographs them. There are no touch-ups or special effects beyond acrylic on flesh and the initial complacency of the observer. Check out her other work here. The Snow by Tokujin Yoshioka The Snow by Tokujin Yushioka is currently installed at the Mori Art Museum in Japan. The piece is a part of a larger exhibit called “Sensing Nature.” Inside the 15-meter tank are millions of feathers that float within. It must be amazing to behold. One Month Until China China, Life, Travel Court Robe, late 19th Century, China. via non-westernhistoricalfashion.tumblr.com. I am so close I can almost taste it. I am enchanted with Mandarin Chinese, Chinese folk history and song, but I still feel as if I know nothing about the country’s pop culture–I still can’t help but think of the damning word foreign when I imagine China. In explanation: I am spending four months in Beijing, my first travel destination outside of the Americas and Europe… and my first destination where I will not be able to read the signs or barter with locals (not yet, anyway). I will participate in an intensive 3-week language training before I start my 3 class civilization sequence (in English), and I will live on the Renmin University campus with a Chinese roommate. Rice terraces, Guangxi To ensure that I get the most out of my experience, I have a list of personal goals to meet: 1. Engage myself with the art of Beijing and its residents. 2. Learn as much Chinese as possible–focus on your bartering tactics! 3. Take pictures every day. Even if it’s just one. 4. Update your blog daily (hi!). 5. Don’t waste time napping–get out there and live! 6. Be the 20-year-old female version of Andrew Zimmern. Eat a bug, a snake, whatever–as long as it’s edible and not poisonous, it’ll be a good story. and the slightly less sensational: 7. Remember to go to the gym. 3 months without running is physically painful. Public Lace Installations by NeSpoon These sculptures and stenciled graffiti were created by the artist NeSpoon, who describes her work as “jewelry of the public space.” In her works, she rejects the classic interpretation of lace and doilies as stuffy, grandmotherly items and attempts to redefine their forms by stenciling them in gritty and/or unexpected locations such as urban streets, Baltic beaches, and public parks. NeSpoon has succeeded in making once-outdated lace designs urban and contemporary, and in the process has brought new life to dilapidated and dull city streets. To some extent, she has also decreased the gendered associations with lace by engaging the general public with her art, opening lace up to future exploration within art and academia. Click here for more information (NeSpoon’s personal blog). Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf Tokyo Compression is a photoset by German-born, China-based photographer Michael Wolf. These pictures are tender portraits of hectic souls. Their emotions are carefully stowed away in favor their public persona, but glimpses of their feelings break through, especially in the photo above. The rain droplets don’t touch her but leave snaking shadows across the planes of her face. Her mouth open and her eyes downcast, she seems occupied and introspective, so much so that she has almost forgotten to guard her own expression. That preoccupation that she embodies is a human condition–I see myself and my own conflicts reflected in the unknowable depth of her eyes. Full set here. The Ring, a Parisian installation by Arnaud Lapierre Art, France, Life, Travel The Ring was recently installed in Place Vendôme in Paris–it was formed as a way to interact and distort the area around it, and as a result causes passerby to restructure their thinking about their surroundings. I only wish that I had known about this when I was in Paris a month ago–from the pictures, it seems like something out of a dream sequence. What I like about this statue is that the structural beauty of its surrounding architecture is what makes the statue come alive; it draws upon and interacts with history, reflecting the high art of Haussmanian buildings (literally) in a new era. The sculpture reminds me of the hall of mirrors at Versailles in both the way that it elongates the space around it as well as the sheer luxury that the flawless mirror seems to embody. The Ring is a manifested “illusion” of grandeur, its material pulling in the blue from the sky as if laying claim to everything that it reflects.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402465
__label__cc	0.62613	0.37387	Official 2.0 start date and race change info Thread starter Auric Alliance General Manager Alliance Logistics 2.0 official switchover date Starting May 31st, Alliance will officially switch to the 2.0 ruleset. Any events held on or after this date must run with the 2.0 ruleset. Work on the official rulebook is underway and we intend to have this completed before the May 31st launch date. We will make an announcement when the finalized book is available until then you can find the latest 2.0 changes by going to https://alliancelarp.com/forum/threads/alliance-2-0-prerelease.39024/ Under 2.0 ruleset players and logistics staff will be required to use the new Character Management Application (CMA). Over the past few months, many of you have been able to log in and interact with this in preparation for the official 2.0 launch. Starting on or around May 26th current character data in the CMA will be cleared out to make room for the latest data from your logistics staff. If you have created an account, your account and password will remain the same. Due to the effort involved in transferring the old databases to this new application, we will be requiring chapters to submit their databases for uploading starting May 26th. This means any blanket requests that come in on or after May 26th will have to be entered in the CMA. These blankets will then be awarded under the new 2.0 XP rate. Race change Due to the significant changes in 2.0, the owners have decided to award all characters with a free race change along with the spirit forge they will be receiving. There are no restrictions on this race change, you'll be able to switch to any available PC race in the 2.0 ruleset. Alliance Larp General Manager Reactions: Jaerc, JordarAd, BrunorDeyhammer and 8 others Why is there a hard date for change over before a hard date for a copy of the new rule book? I am sorry if this is not the place for this question. I would just feel more at ease with some time to familiarize myself with a solid set of rules in one place before I am expected follow them at an event that people paid hard earned money to be at. Ian Robertson Elven Templar "The Kilted Elf of Ashbury" Reactions: Sita South Michigan Staff The great thing about the 2.0 Rules is that they already exist, even in the absence of a formal rulebook release. If you check out this post you'll find a link to the rules and rules changes so that you can know them front to back before you play an Event. Also, even if your Chapter hasn't taken the opportunity to make use of the CMA and run Playtest Events you can play with Character Builds and get familiar with the CMA by using the Freeplay Option created for that purpose IG: Mathis OOG: Matt Ferrara, South MI Owner and General Manager (matt@alliancesouthmichigan.com) Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is knowing fear and understanding that something else is more important. Reactions: Vry_Young_Pup, Muir and Kitaruen Thank you for the link. I have been playing a few years now and can figure it out with this information. The bigger issue is how this type of thing might turn a new player away. My brother has shown interest in attending an event or two this season. With a 2.0 rule book I could drop it off to him and with a couple of sparing sessions he could be familiar enough to attend. Currently I have to drop off my old rule book and the a list of things that have changed for and event that may be only 2 months out. This could daunting to a new player and maybe damage what ever interest they had. Reactions: Sita and Samyania Our experience while running playtest Events for most of last year is that the 2.0 Rules are actually much more approachable for newer Players. I hope that your brother decides to come out. Also, we've got an Event this weekend with 9 new Players, who've only had access to this information and they all seem very excited. I hope that come Monday I'll be able to report that they all had a great time. Reactions: Feldor Oregon Staff It's unfortunate that the plan isn't to run play-tests with a full rule book, and worse that there's a start date before the official rule book is completed. Feels like the cart is going before the horse here. Especially since play tests to this point have been off an evolving packet that players have been asked to reconcile with existing rules and ARC rulings. It'd be a far better idea to release a full rule book and let your players and plot teams run full and proper play tests and edit checks instead of feeling the need to rush this out. We've waited this long, a few more stress tests with a full book wouldn't hurt and would potentially weed out a chunk of early edits. IG: Amory Thistleburr, Deadly Flower, Shepherd of the Valley, Eshtir Family to the Band of the Fabulous Pants, sometimes Fae negotiator, and Dryad Mom. OOG: Christine, BroS Plot Reactions: Avaran Sita said: It'd be a far better idea to release a full rule book and let your players and plot teams run full and proper play tests and edit checks instead of feeling the need to rush this out. Again, the link above takes you to all of the changed rules, the information that isn't contained in that document isn't changing. While it will be nice to have a new version of the rule book to have a single source for all this information, at this point that is more a matter of form over function. We know that it's possible to run great Events with these rules in their current state because Chapters will have been running full Event playtests of these rules for over a year by the launch date. Given that the process of creating the 2.0 rules has gone on for substantially longer, I am hard pressed to see how the 2.0 rules have been rushed. It is unfortunately that not every Chapter opted to take advantage of the opportunity to run full weekend events during the playtest period, but we as Owners unanimously agreed that the 2.0 Rules are ready for launch. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Reactions: Josh Voorheez, Durnic and Ruki "Given that the process of creating the 2.0 rules has gone on for substantially longer, I am hard pressed to see how the 2.0 rules have been rushed." I didn't say the rules had been rushed, however setting a date for switch over without a full rule book in place is. If the rule book isn't out when play-testing ends, you're asking players to continue to interact with a game that has rules in different locations and to cross-reference those. That's cumbersome for new pleyers, existing players, and plot teams. Mathis said: Again, the link above takes you to all of the changed rules, the information that isn't contained in that document isn't changing. I've read the change documents, and participated in full event play tests. Based on prior iterations of the rule book, it's interesting that there's an impression that the rules won't be changing, adjusting, and being interpreted by ARC as they're gone through and continued to be experienced by players and plot. With full rule book testing, that allows: 1. Players and Plot to interact with the full set of rules and rule flow as intended by the owners. 2. For outside eyes to check for consistency, flow, and give feedback. This has been a heck of a process. I find it unfortunate that the Owners have decided to go ahead with a release prior to complete testing and a proper release of the 2.0 rule-book. **edited due to first quote being cut off. Seattle Staff While I agree that it would feel more professional to have a complete and available rulebook prior to official release, the packets have been workable for playtest events. New players have been able to build characters in the CMA, have been able to participate in the game, and ultimately have an enjoyable time. It hasn’t been a simpler startup process, but it hasn’t been a complete obstruction, either. I don’t think we need playtest events with a full rulebook, as that would imply there’s something mechanically different between .12 and the full book. Outside of some wording changes, this isn’t true. However, from a marketability standpoint, it does hurt our appearance to be running an official ruleset without an official book. While existing players can make it work, people who are shopping around for a LARP to try are less likely to try a game, even an established one, that has messy resources. That being said, I don’t think it’s worth it to make a big deal about it. The course has been set, and we’ll eventually have a full book. Regarding feedback - Feedback is all well and good, but it’s not being gathered at this time. There won’t be any major changes prior to release. I expect that the soonest any changes will occur will be 2020 Symposium, and I doubt they’ll be particularly big ones, if any. So the opportunity for feedback is pretty much over. -Unless otherwise stated, all posts reflect my personal opinion, not the opinion of Seattle Alliance or its associated staff. IG: Zeth of the Arahkounem tribe Primal Shaman of the Ceriopolis OOG: Evan Rawson Alliance Seattle New Player Representative/Marshal/Questions Guy Reactions: Jaerc Some new players. I've a friend with a reading disability that's struggled hard with the resources as they've been presented. Is your stance that they should figure it out since others have? Heck, I've been playing the game for a few years now, and find it obnoxious to switch between the packet and old rule book just to continue to play. Now, with no full rule book, the Owners are asking players to deal with the mess and accept that there will be zero changes, ARC clarifications/rulings, and/or necessary flow edits? That's unfortunate, and disappointing. And I flat disagree that you can have a full -actual- play test without a full -actual- rule book. There's a lot to back and forth that's missed when such a large body of rules isn't compiled clearly and in one place. Am I going to table-flip and pass on Alliance? Not yet. I want to see how the actual rule book shakes out. But, from the last Oregon play test 2.0 still had some pretty solid issues. The remaining rule book still had core issues. If that was the last update, zero feedback on what play tests were still happening, I don't hold out a ton of hope for the full 2.0 set. My original post was to provide feedback and dismay that the Owners are pushing forward without a complete rule set. If the continued debate on if providing players and plot a rule book along with a few more play tests needs to be elsewhere, I'm happy to continue this conversation on a more appropriate board. Something that hasn't been talked about a ton yet, is how much of a living rulebook will this be? Meaning, before because we had a "print" rulebook you could buy, it was hard for us to make changes to the rules. Thus years and years of ARC clarifications from the forums. I was under the impression (and I don't remember where I got it from) that this rulebook would have changes applied to it more often, maybe on a semi-regular basis? If that is the case, I think Sita's point is less of an issue (though I still your point). If it's a static rulebook and changes aren't being planned for it, then it's a much bigger issue. I trust Bryan and Matt to deliver us a good rulebook, but even then things can be missed. Kendrick Eisenhal of Rivervale brother to a convicted traitor of Acarthia formerly of the Care of Valengaard, in the Kingdom of Valarion Inaryn I'm pretty sure ARC is actually doing the editing of the book this time around. I can't speak to section flow, or future clarifications (one would think they'd be minimal/limited to edge cases since ARC actually put the 2.0 version together,) but with a lot of the flavor stuff (like, how to be a thief) being moved to a players guide, I imagine the rulebook will be fairly easy to read/revise as needed. I do know that the final editing/polishing is being done for the 2.0 book, so I would expect to see a complete PDF at the very least prior to go live. IG: Dame Ny'ranï Sheehar also IG: Vivienne Cerise Marquet, Hobling crafter and merchant extraordinaire (not pictured) OOG: Sarah Some new players. I've a friend with a reading disability that's struggled hard with the resources as they've been presented. Is your stance that they should figure it out since others have? I think you know me better than that, Christine. The Oregon community has been solid at supporting new folks, and I doubt that the transition has been any different. I think that communities need to be more connected with new players than they have been previously, if only to help them with this process. It’s a band-aid to a problem that will eventually self-correct. I agree that the book should be available, but it’s not world-ending that it isn’t. Additionally, the actual play of 2.0 has been overwhelmingly supported by new players in Seattle. The flip side is that the character creation and conception stages are more complicated. But once that a player has gone through creation, actual play, and their first character updates? Most of the complication has been experienced and overcome at that stage. We have players that have been entirely existing within playtest/pre-release games. If players are differently abled, such as the one you brought up, or have other obstacles that make the transition extra-difficult? The community needs to help that player. Heck, I've been playing the game for a few years now, and find it obnoxious to switch between the packet and old rule book just to continue to play. I feel that the fatigue of the 2.0 transition has reached a point where the game does need to be launched. This journey has not been an easy one. This landing is going to be bumpy. Throughout the years that 1.3 has been out, there have been questions, clarifications, and modifications. 2.0 cannot be expected to be perfect, because we’ve never had a perfect system, and we never will. But we do need to be done with this transition. Reactions: CRW, Kensai and Tantarus You are correct - I do know you better. However, you made a blanket statement and I countered it. It's great we have a New Player support system. But right now what we have is a mess to hand those new players, and that's ridiculous. I'm not asking for perfect. I'm asking for it to be complete and released prior to a launch date. Anything else is a disservice to the community that makes up Alliance. I'm happy to hear that it's looking promising to have a complete book out prior to launch - I would have been a lot happier if it was included with the announcement. Reactions: Accleates and John meirya So, just as an FYI, as a former player who took a hiatus for a couple years and is coming back... I'm trying to read up on Oathsworn to see about converting my barbarian character into oathsworn. I keep hearing mentions of a prosthetic or makeup, but can't find the makeup requirements by searching either the forums or the document linked on this post. Lots of great flavor text, and certainly the abilities and discounts are listed, plus there's a picture which is great... but nothing explaining "here are the basal makeup requirements for an Oathsworn". I eventually found a summary on a newbie guide that a player created and posted. But shouldn't it be in the rulebook update somewhere? Oathsworn OOG: Dani (they/their or xe/xir), player of Orsolya (she/her), Denver tieran Gettysburg Staff These two paragraphs and the photo from the 2.0 packet seem to answer the question: “Oathsworn are particularly proud of the Oaths that they have taken, and will often display their Oathring for all to see on the outside of their clothing. Oathrings can be made of any material, but must be circular in design and at least 2” in diameter. The First Oath is a shared burden between all Oathsworn in Fortannis. The connection to Fortannis and the Oath manifests physically on them as rocky or bone-like protrusions on their head, forever reminding them of their duties.” OOG: Justin Head of Rules, Alliance Gettysburg IG: Tieran If you pretend he's one of the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? weasels nothing he says matters. Reactions: Kitaruen tieran said: I swear I read through it at least five times looking for something like that and didn’t see it. Ah well, minus points to me for reading comprehension I guess. Lemmonaid ah man... the 2.0 rulebook has the same b-day that I do.. nice Oog: Rose Avaran Draven said: I don’t think we need playtest events with a full rulebook, as that would imply there’s something mechanically different between .12 and the full book. The mechanical differences of concern here are between 1.3 and 2.0. I think the real concern here is the overall lack of participation and the likely Rules Shock that is going to be experienced by: Chapters that have opted not to participate in the Play Tests. Plot Teams that have opted to not run Events or keep up with the rules changes. Players whose chapters and plot teams fit the above two criteria. Plays who have decided to not keep up with or participate in the rules changes. People who don't visit this forum - which has been pointed out to me countless times over the years is "a substantial amount of the player-base". Heck, before the higher-ups forced Seattle to migrate their forums here, I never visited these boards. Who knows, maybe the participation level across the organization has increased since I last bothered to be involved, but if it hasn't, that has potential problems just waiting to blow up. And I know this may come as an utter shock to some people here, but there are players who have nothing to do with the game outside of coming to events and perhaps submitting downtimes. That used to be me until I joined a Plot team and I felt I needed to get more involved. And thankfully it's mostly become me again since I learned my input literally doesn't matter and isn't even wanted (which I'm totally fine with, BTW) and I just stopped participating here. Feels good. I'll STFU again now. "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire Reactions: John Avaran said: I’ve had a number of conversations with folks who I communicate with semi-regularity on this subject. The TL;DR of my opinion is this: 1) Yeah, it would be way cool and helpful to have the rulebook significantly ahead of time. 2) While you’re right there’s going to be shock, and yes, this would help...I don’t believe it’s critical. The resources are available. They’re not concisely put together, but they’re available. The game will still, however, go on. 3) The resources that this game survives on is provided by volunteers, who do not have the bandwidth to deliver this faster. While preferences exist, man, they’re human and I’m hella surprised ARC hasn’t up and quit at times. I sure as heck wouldn’t have blamed any of them. And I’m gonna leave it at that. If you want to vent at me, send me a PM. Reactions: ubiquitous42, Ruki, dontneednoname and 2 others	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402467
__label__wiki	0.788374	0.788374	Volume 52, Number 4 July/August 2001 The Arabs of Honduras Written by Larry Luxner One of the largest populations of immigrant Arabs in the Americas resides along the north coast of Honduras. From its hardscrabble beginnings more than a century ago, this community has in recent decades provided its adopted country with leaders in education, industry and politics—including Honduras's president, Carlos Flores Facusse. Prominent Latin-American Arabs Beyond the Monsoon Written by Douglas Bullis Photographed by Kevin Bubriski Melaka, now the capital of the Malaysian state of the same name, rose as a Muslim kingdom early in the 15th century. Thanks to its location and its rulers' policies, it became a center for traders from as far away as China, Arabia and Europe, and became as well a regional melting-pot of cultures. Its glory is recalled in Malay epic literature, architecture and Muslim influences on the crucial Malaysian social codes known as adapt. The Malay Literary Masterwork A Gift of Ghazals Written by Louis Werner Deeply rooted in Kashmir and the Urdu language, teaching and writing in English in the United States, Agha Shahid Ali lives an exile's twofold life. He has been recognized as a unique and passionate voice in modern poetry, and is also championing the grafting into English of the ghazal, a poetic form so beloved in Urdu that it inspired competitive, all-night poetry symposia in the Mughal courts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Living With the Animals Written and photographed by Joseph J. Hobbs Kept as pets, hunted for sport and food, offered in sacrifice, mummified by the millions, and believed to house the spirits of the gods—or, later, to be gods—animals played a central role in the life, beliefs and art of Egypt. Jackals escorted the dead through the underworld; hippos protected women in childbirth; a scarab beetle rolled the sun across the sky; deities were portrayed with animal heads; and detailed scenes of the Nile's abundant fish, fowl and wildlife were carved on tomb and temple walls and painted on papyrus. Perhaps no other culture has so intertwined itself with the animal kingdom. The Musical Pulse of Tunisia Written by Thorne Anderson Even its aficionados say that mauf music takes patience to appreciate—let alone play, write down, or compose. But it's deeply embedded in Tunisian culture and under the skin of every Tunisian, harking back to rhythms more than half a millennium old that have been preserved and continually reinvented as a living emblem of national identity. Maluf Glossary	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402468
__label__wiki	0.710199	0.710199	Marie Rambert collectionImagesMarie Rambert and the CompanyDancers in class at the Mercury Theatre, [1930s] Dancers in class at the Mercury Theatre, [1930s] Bookmark:https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb2228-mr/mr/03/03/042 Rambert Archive GB 2228 MR/03/03/042 [1930s] 2 folders Conditions Governing Use Copyright owned by creators including choreographer(s), designer(s) and composer(s). Performers rights apply. Can not be copied without rights owners' permission(s). Marie Rambert collectionMR Moving ImageMR/01 Costume and clothing worn and collected by Marie RambertMR/02 ImagesMR/03 Personal and family imagesMR/03/01 Marie Rambert the performerMR/03/02 Marie Rambert and the CompanyMR/03/03 Marie Rambert and Frederick Ashton "first attempts for Tragedy of Fashion'", 1926MR/03/03/001 Marie Rambert and Frederick Ashton in 'Les Petits Rien' or 'Gavotte Sentimentale', 1927MR/03/03/002 Marie Rambert, Frederick Ashton and Frances James in pose from 'Les Sylphides', c. 1928MR/03/03/003 Marie Rambert and Constantin Tcherkas in a charity performance, c. 1930MR/03/03/004 Images of Polka from 'Facade', c. 1933MR/03/03/005 Marie Rambert and Ballet Club dancers at lecture demonstration, 1930MR/03/03/006 Ballet Club rehearsals of 'Aurora's Wedding', 1931MR/03/03/007 "The original performing company at the Ballet Club', 1931MR/03/03/008 Frederick Ashton and the Company rehearsing 'A Florentine Picture', c. 1932MR/03/03/009 Seaside photos of [the Company] in Hampshire, c. 1932MR/03/03/010 Marie Rambert at rehearsal of 'Cinderella' with Frederick Ashton, 1935MR/03/03/011 Marie Rambert and David Paltenghi, [1941]MR/03/03/012 Marie Rambert speaking before curtain at outdoor performance [perhaps Brockwell Park], c. 1943MR/03/03/013 Marie Rambert giving lecture and film show in aid of the London Archives of the Dance, Livingstone Hall, July 1945MR/03/03/014 Marie Rambert at Finsbury Park, c. 1950sMR/03/03/015 Marie Rambert with Anton Dolin and Yvette Chauvire on set of Giselle Act I, c. 1950MR/03/03/016 Rambert dancers in Northampton, n.d. [1940s]MR/03/03/017 Marie Rambert curtain call, June 1966MR/03/03/018 Marie Rambert with John Chesworth and Norman Morrice at the Chiswick studios, [1970s]MR/03/03/019 Marie Rambert and Ingrid Bergman opening the Company premises in Chiswick, 1972MR/03/03/020 Marie Rambert with Norman Morrice, Joe Scoglio, John Chesworth at presentation of 'A Tragedy of Fashion' sculpture, 4 July 1976MR/03/03/021 Ballet Rambert at Jacob's Pillow, USA, 1959MR/03/03/022 Rambert 50th Anniversary celebration, 1976MR/03/03/023 Marie Rambert on stage in New Zealand, 1948MR/03/03/024 Rambert 50th Anniversary Gala, Exeter, September 1976MR/03/03/025 Princess Margaret's visit to Ballet Rambert at the Roundhouse, July 1977MR/03/03/026 Reception after premiere of 'Praeludium', 31 January 1978MR/03/03/027 Contact sheets for photographs of Royal Gala performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre, July 1988MR/03/03/028 Marie Rambert with the Duchess of Gloucester at Bath, n.d.MR/03/03/029 Marie Rambert watching the Company in class, n.d. [c. 1970s]MR/03/03/030 Photographs of Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales at the Marie Rambert Memorial Gala, 1983MR/03/03/031 Marie Rambert at an Edinburgh Festival dinner, 1951MR/03/03/032 Opening of studio at Chiswick, 1984MR/03/03/033 Lord Gowrie luncheon for Ballet Rambert, 15 July 1985MR/03/03/034 Company press conference, Lodz, Poland, 1985MR/03/03/035 Marie Rambert with Robert Joffrey and others, n.d. [c. 1960s]MR/03/03/036 Marie Rambert and Ashley Dukes at the entrance to the Mercury Theatre, n.d. [1950s]MR/03/03/037 Assorted images of Marie Rambert and the Company, n.d. [c.1930s - 1970s]MR/03/03/038 [Rambert] reception at Martini Terrace, 1973MR/03/03/039 Photographs of Her Royal Highness The Queen Mother meeting the Company at the 60th Anniversary Gala performance, 1986MR/03/03/040 Marie Rambert and members of Ballet Club on the unfinished stage of the Mercury Theatre, 1930MR/03/03/041 Dancers in class at the Mercury Theatre, [1930s]MR/03/03/042 Marie Rambert with company on stage, [c. 1930s]MR/03/03/043 Marie Rambert with company on stage, c. 1935MR/03/03/044 Marie Rambert demonstrating 'fish dive' with Rollo Gamble at the Mercury Theatre, 1930sMR/03/03/045 Dancers posing outdoors, 5 May 1940MR/03/03/046 Ballet Rambert in Berlin, 1946MR/03/03/047 Marie Rambert and Company curtain calls for 'Gala Performance', c. 1946MR/03/03/048 Marie Rambert and Company curtain calls for 'Facade', c. 1947MR/03/03/049 Marie Rambert and Company in Australia and New Zealand, 1947 - 1949MR/03/03/050 Marie Rambert with Andrée Howard and Maude Lloyd at Mercury Theatre 'Welcome Home Party', March 1949MR/03/03/051 Marie Rambert and Company curtain calls for 'Giselle', n.d. [c. 1940s]MR/03/03/052 Marie Rambert with dancer John Gilpin, n.d. [1945 - 1949]MR/03/03/053 Marie Rambert backstage at the Mercury Theatre, n.d. [c. 1949]MR/03/03/054 Marie Rambert at British Council reception, Liverpool, 4 April 1950MR/03/03/055 Marie Rambert and Company at party, June 1950MR/03/03/056 Ballet Rambert in Hamburg, Germany, March 1950MR/03/03/057 Dancer's Circle dinner at the Savoy hotel, 1951MR/03/03/058 Lord Mayor of York with Rambert dancers, January 1954MR/03/03/059 Marie Rambert and Company, 1955MR/03/03/060 Marie Rambert in Aix-les-Bains, France, July 1955MR/03/03/061 Company photo call at the Mercury Theatre, n.d. [1950s]MR/03/03/062 Company members off stage, [1950s]MR/03/03/063 Marie Rambert with Rambert dancers wearing 'Giselle' costumes, 1957MR/03/03/064 The Company on tour in China, 1957MR/03/03/065 Marie Rambert and Company at the Mercury Theatre, n.d. [c. 1950s]MR/03/03/066 Peking [Beijing] Opera visits the Company at the Mercury Theatre, n.d. [c. 1950s - 1960s]MR/03/03/067 Company rehearsal with David Ellis in Italy, [1961]MR/03/03/068 Company performing at re-opening of Manoel Theatre, Malta, December 1960MR/03/03/069 Company sightseeing at Newstead Abbey, Nottingham, n.d. [1960s]MR/03/03/070 Company at Lewisham Ballet Club, n.d. [1960s]MR/03/03/071 Marie Rambert rehearsing the Company at the Mercury Theatre, c. 1960MR/03/03/072 Marie Rambert with family and friends on the set of 'This is Your Life', February 1962MR/03/03/073 Company class with ballet master Geoffrey Davidson, [1960s]MR/03/03/074 Company rehearsals of 'Don Quixote' at the Mercury Theatre, [c. 1962]MR/03/03/075 Baroness Elsa Marianne von Rosen, Marie Rambert, Gillian Martlew and Lucette Aldous outside Sadler's Wells Theatre, 30 June 1960MR/03/03/076 Company members with David Ellis, [1960s]MR/03/03/077 Curtain call and rehearsal images of Company in Swindon, March 1945MR/03/03/078 Exhibition of Rambert photographs in Moscow, n.d. [1960s]MR/03/03/079 Natalia Dudinskaya of the Kirov Theatre taking a class of Rambert dancers, 17 July 1961MR/03/03/080 Marie Rambert and Company in Cyprus with Archbishop, [1963]MR/03/03/081 Marie Rambert with Andrée Howard, Elisabeth Schooling, Maude Lloyd, Frederick Ashton, Tamara Karsavina on her 80th Birthday, 20 February 1968MR/03/03/082 Rambert dancers taking part in a National Savings campaign 'Keep a good balance...', [1950s]MR/03/03/083 John Webley (Associate Administrator), Christopher Bruce (Associate Director), Pruedence Skene (Administrator), John Chesworth (Director), December 1975MR/03/03/084 Company rehearsing 'Frames, Pulse and Interruptions' with musicians at Chiswick studios, 1977MR/03/03/085 Company rehearsing 'Sleeping Birds' at Chiswick studios, 1977MR/03/03/086 Lucy Burge and Christopher Bruce rehearsing 'Praeludium' with choreographer Glen Tetley, 1978MR/03/03/087 Press conference after performance of 'Cruel Garden', Belgrade International Theatre Festival (BITEF), 1979MR/03/03/088 Company rehearsing 'Ghost Dances' with Christopher Bruce, 1981MR/03/03/089 Company rehearsing 'Rite of Spring', [c. 1981]MR/03/03/090 Company publicity photo call, 1987MR/03/03/091 Unveiling of memorial plaque at the Mercury Theatre, 6 October 1988MR/03/03/092 Choreographer Dan Wagoner rehearsing 'An Occasion For Some Revolutionary Gestures' at Chiswick studios, January 1985MR/03/03/093 Company off stage in Aix-en-Provence, 1991MR/03/03/094 Charles Darden rehearsing with the Mercury Ensemble, n.d.MR/03/03/095 Company [rehearsing] at the Paris Opera, January 1991MR/03/03/096 Company rehearsing with David Ellis at Sadler's Wells, n.d.MR/03/03/097 Unidentified studio rehearsal images, n.d.MR/03/03/098 Assorted group photographs of the Company, 1931 - 1986MR/03/03/099 Marie Rambert and Lucette Aldous, Liverpool, n.d. [1950s - 1960s]MR/03/03/100 John Chesworth and Christopher Bruce, n.d. [1970s]MR/03/03/101 Marie Rambert performing 'fish dive' with members of the Company, n.d.MR/03/03/102 Collected imagesMR/03/04 CorrespondenceMR/04 Diaries, calendars and address booksMR/05 Programmes and press cuttings collected by Marie RambertMR/06 Personal papers, awards and objectsMR/07 Writings, biographies and memorialsMR/08	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402470
__label__cc	0.586168	0.413832	Welcome to the Ars OpenForum. Contact Moderators Jump to: Select a forum ------------------ Hardware & Tweaking Audio/Visual Club Case and Cooling Fetish CPU & Motherboard Technologia Mobile Computing Outpost Networking Matrix Other Hardware Agora Classifieds Some Assembly Required Operating Systems & Software Battlefront Microsoft OS & Software Colloquium Linux Kung Fu Windows Technical Mojo Distributed Computing Arcana Macintoshian Achaia Programmer's Symposium The Server Room Ars Lykaion Gaming, Extra Strength Caplets The Lounge The Soap Box The Boardroom The Observatory Bizarro Lounge Ars Subscription Member Areas Image Galleries NASA does not deny the “over $2 billion” cost of a single SLS launch 274 posts • grimmm Smack-Fu Master, in training With all of this talk of how expensive the SLS is, the costs are dwarfed by military spending. DOD budget for 2018 was $693 Billion. The next highest was China at $250 Billion. Russia came in 12th at 61.4 Billion Given the total for the development of the Ford class aircraft carrier program is $37 Billion, the $18 Billion on SLS without having built the rockets seems like it's on the right track to overtake it in total cost of the program. SmokeTest Ars Scholae Palatinae hestermofet wrote: Ah, yes, Republicans. The party of fiscal responsibility. Fiscal responsibility only applies to money being spent on the poor. Azure_Sentry et Subscriptor Bobsleigh wrote: Genuine question to those in the know, putting aside all Musk fandom (or even better if from a Musk sceptic/critic) - even on fairly conservative timescales, is there really any doubt that SS/SH will be up and flying by the mid-2020s, with a higher capacity and cadence and a lower cost than SLS? What are the barriers that could prevent this from happening, apart from major bad luck events? Musk's timescales are obviously hugely aggressive and (I assume) likely to slip, but are there any serious unknowns that would realistically prevent the project being realised in that timescale? I think it is fair to say that the biggest risk is the starship itself. Anytime you design a vehicle that is design to reenter the atmo, there is risk. The bigger and more capable the vehicle, the more risk there is in the design. Add humans into the mix and this increases things even further. Additionally, SS is not being built with purely oldschool type designs. This is a good thing, IMO, as tech has evolved since the Apollo era, but it increases risk to an extent. Much of the risk reduction methods are based on comparisons to empirical data when there isn't a feasible way to model everything accurately (which there isn't for the complete reentry profile.) As such, when you vary too far outside the known, you can fall back on that data anymore to reduce risk. Good engineering and a slight tendency to overbuild in critical spots can help you pull through, but it's largely about testing and more testing. That's what they're doing now. I wish SpaceX the best, but I'll honestly be surprised if there isn't at least a few unexpected changes required to SS before they're running like a bus service. afidel Ars Legatus Legionis Tribus: Cleveland Aidolon wrote: Visigoth wrote: The tag on the article picture should be: "And this is how high the pile of money spent on this will be before we even attempt a launch" There's a fun idea. Let's crunch the numbers for simple stack... It looks like Sen. Nelson is pointing roughly halfway up the rocket. A quick search suggests the SLS rocket stands 384.3 feet high, which means he's pointing at a point around 192 feet high. A second search suggests a single US dollar bill is 0.0043 inches thick. Let's assume $100 bills are the same thickness. [ ( 384.3 ft / 2 ) * ( 12 in/ft) / (0.0043 in/bill) ] * (100 $/bill) = $53,623,256 We're going to need a much, much larger rocket to represent the stack of money spent on SLS. Someone in a recent thread calculated that if we used $20 bills the stack of money spent per launch would reach to 100km, basically SLS could reach space just by stacking up the cost of the project, absolutely insane. Last edited by afidel on Fri Nov 08, 2019 10:43 am trimeta Ars Praefectus Gigaflop wrote: Don't worry, they have a plan to charge luggage fees to the Astronauts, also fees for extra leg room. Actually, there was a report recently that Orion doesn't have any luggage area, which is to say it won't have a box which astronauts can use to store lunar samples for return to the Earth. So if NASA wants Boeing to add that capability, it'll definitely be an upcharge. greybeardengineer Ars Centurion Registered: Nov 14, 2018 Ooo got to love the Saturn V style paint job on early SLS promotional material. Then it turned (into a) pumpkin. hestermofet Tribus: Toront-oh-my-God-it's-so-expensive-to-live-here! Registered: May 10, 2006 NezumiRho wrote: You forgot the "air quotes". 😈 No air quotes needed. They have a responsibility to line the corporate pockets that they sit in. scooternva trimeta wrote: Which is maddeningly, insanely fucked up. Statistical wrote: Murum aries attigit wrote: Shanrak wrote: How much did the Apollo program cost in 2019 dollars? Around 25 billion, which is ~150 billion dollars when adjusted to 2018 values. The main difference between Apollo and the SLS is, there were no cheaper proven alternatives at that time, unlike now. Well if there were 14 launches of Apollo rockets (4-17) that's about $11 billion per launch. Pretty good by comparison for a first of its kind technology and mission. The Apollo program also included the Command Module, Service Module, and Lunar Module plus a whole host of new ground service, integration and test facilities. Taking the total cost of the ENTIRE Apollo program and dividing it by the number of Saturn launches is dubious. More importantly no one knew how to do any of that. Apollo also included basically clean sheet of paper R&D on large scale rocketry, large scale zero g propulsion, compact low power INS, digital computers, RTOS, virtual machine based software development, large scale training simulators, and so on. Imbrium Registered: Nov 7, 2018 I believe a poster on another thread about SLS pointed out that the Orion capsule will be unable to handle the aerodynamic forces generated by a SLS launch. If that is true, I see another pile of money going to either beef up Orion, which will add to the weight, or adjust the launch profile of SLS, hard to do with those solid boosters. SirBedwyr Ars Tribunus Militum theoilman wrote: Red Knight wrote: I find it easier to think of SLS as being a practical example of 'helicopter money', and not an actual spaceflight program. Helicopter money was Milton Friedman's famous idea that the government could, as a means of combatting downturns in the economic cycle exacerbated by a lack of liquidity, literally throw pallets of money out of cargo helicopters to stimulate the market. Pretend that SLS is not a rocket program but rather the way that the US Government decides to maintain valuable aerospace jobs and talent - jobs which then spend their money in their own local economies. The objective of the SLS program is not a moon or mars landing, but is rather an inefficient way of supporting the aerospace industry in the US. Supporting the aerospace industry has important national security implications - if we ever got into a shooting war again all these SLS contractors would be able to rapidly redeploy to important defense contracts. Put it another way - if Congress cancels SLS what happens to those billions? I don't think Elon is getting the money folks! Those dollars would go to other jobs programs in other departments because their objective is not space, and space does not matter. So I think its a false equivilency to think about what Elon or Bezos could do with that money - they're never going to see it. I only wish our politicians and journalists would be more honest about what SLS is and stop trying to lie to the common taxpayer about the objectives of the program! Throwing the money out of helicopters would probably be a more efficient boost to the economy honestly. This is more about political favors. I think less direct favors than people in Huntsville being grateful to their benefactor for helping build the city into the biggest in the state (it just took that title this year at somewhere over 200k). My state in the upper Midwest keeps people around by building early advantages and infrastructure around drones. It helps diversify the economy from agriculture and oil. TBH I wish that earmarks like this would go back to being an acceptable form of waste and corruption. I have a pet theory that removing earmarks and implementing term limits in certain states was lighter fluid to polarization. NezumiRho Ars Praetorian Registered: Oct 1, 2017 I was just having a comparison-to-the-Council (aka Mass Effect) moment. Diabolical grasping intelligences determined to wipe out all that is dear.... The other: mechanical cthuloids. Imbrium wrote: I think it was the SRB ignition over pressure wave. Ahh SRBs, the gift to HSF that just never stops giving. Snark218 Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius By their lights, the only irresponsible spending is money that goes to the poors. greybeardengineer wrote: So another design problem that will take time and money to overcome. find out stuff wrote: Obviously the disparity between SpaceX and SLS is huge... but why? Why is building a second rocket so expensive once you already have the infrastructure? You could write an entire book talking about why SLS is so expensive. Actually, that would be a great book! But for the sake of illustration, here are two examples of why SLS is terrifically expensive and the constrast with SpaceX: * The SLS first stage uses four RS-25 engines. These are repurposed space shuttle main engines (SSMEs) and in actuallity the first few flights of SLS will use literal space shuttle engines that flew in the space shuttle program. The SSMEs almost broke the STS development program back in the 70s due to their incredible complexity - the SSMEs were targeting both the highest performance of any liquid engine of the time AND they had to be resuable - it took incredible sums of money and all the engineering inguinity available to NASA at the time to figure out how to build them. The end result was a miracle of engineering but not something that was actually cheap to build. Flash forward today NASA needs to restart production of the RS-25s - there are only enough legacy engines for 3 or 4 launches of SLS. NASA signed a contract a few years ago to restart production of these engines at a total cost for $1.5 billion. That 1.5b contract included six engines so you're looking at $250million per engine if you include all the fixed costs. Its unclear what the true marginal cost would be but the number is at least in the double digit millions. Source: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/01 ... roduction/ Why is this so expensive? I'll give you two reasons - first, you're paying to restart an entire production line that has no economic value. (In other words, the contractor cannot plausibly sell these engines to other customers so the government has to bear the entire cost of the production infrastructure necessary to build these engines and maintain construction capability for more.) Second, the RS-25 is 30-40 years old at this point and it actually costs money to figure out how to build something that old with modern infrastructure and production techniques. Oh - a bonus reason - the contractor is on a cushy cost-plus contract and so has no incentive to save money for the taxpayer. SpaceX, on the other hand, is building its Raptor engine from scratch using what is available to industry today. They are building the engine with low cost as being a core focus of the entire project. The end result of this is that Elon thinks their marginal cost for a Raptor is about $2million and going down. (Source: https://www.inverse.com/article/56999-s ... -mars-fast ) The Raptors are going to be re-used between launches with, SpaceX tells us, minimial refurbishment costs - these $250million RS-25s are going to be THROWN AWAY after running for 90 seconds! * Launch tower - For reasons I won't go into here, NASA decided to contract to build a second mobile launch tower to transport SLS to the launch pad. Its going to cost $383million. For a single piece of fixed infrastructure down in the cape: Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/06/28/s ... nal-exams/ Meanwhile, SpaceX contracts with whatever local experts they can find and they pour concrete, bend steel, etc., etc. for market rates. I have no good numbers on SpaceX's costs for rebuilding the big launchpad at LC-39A or for their mobile transporters but I'm pretty confident its a lot less than 383mil! Taxpayers: damn that is going to mean even more money. Boeing: smiles while quietly making ka-ching ka-ching sounds. Last edited by Statistical on Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:04 am Billionaires can't be trusted with their net worth - they might use it to start rocket companies that sell discount launches to the government! They should give their money to the government.... who will literally light it on fire rather than allow cuts to be made in any senator's home state, apparently. thinkreal kessdawg wrote: When the weight of the money equals the weight of the rocket, then you can fly. Primary launch will be a big seesaw longbeast Let's assume for a moment that SpaceX makes no further technological advances at all. So in this hypothetical worst case world they're stuck with the current early test versions of Raptor, they abandon all plans for upper stage reuse, and they just build Starship as a giant steel Falcon 9 lookalike. Even this unambitious vision would still achieve the cost, capacity and cadence requirements that you're asking for. Steel hulls are pretty cheap to build. The majority of the engines would be in the first stage, which can be reused. SpaceX have already proved they can work quickly on building giant steel tanks. All the stuff about reusing upper stages is an optional extra if your goal is just to have a giant cheap rocket. It's only when your goal is colonising Mars that you really need the full reusability. It is possible that the push for full reusability will cause delays, because it is a complex and uncertain process, and it's going to take up a lot of the engines they're producing which is one of the major bottlenecks in Starship production. But no matter what happens, falling back to a less ambitious partially expendable architecture will always be an option, so it's pretty much guaranteed they'll get something to work. TheShark I thought the fact it's resting on a giant pile of green cash in the photo was enough of a clue. uhuznaa Depends what you mean with "flying". Just delivering a payload to orbit with it before 2025 or so should be doable nicely. Most problems that can arise will be connected to getting the second stage back in one piece and then reuse it. There will be a lot of things that can go wrong or take longer to solve than anticipated. Thermal control during reentry, aerodynamic control during descend and landing, landing engine ignition during a somewhat violent transition between falling horizontally and vertical landing... Then the heat shielding and its maintenance between flights, engine durability over several flights, tank/hull durability against repeated thermal and load cycling... I think the most probable outcome is that it will fly until then but be more expensive, have less payload, need more maintenance between flights and won't fly as often per build as hoped, with lots of iterations following and maybe even some major design changes in between. I'm nearly 100% sure that in 2025 they won't have a SH/SS with 150 t of payload to LEO that will fly for $2m per launch a hundred times. But I'm also fairly sure that until then they will have one go to orbit and maybe also got one back in one piece. uhuznaa wrote: It also helps that SLS is just so insanely bad in terms of cost that even if SpaceX said "screw upper stage reuse it is too hard" they could still undercut SLS by 90% if not 95% just using an expendable upper stage on top of super heavy. That would give them 150t to 200t to orbit for well under $200M a pop (being super conservative here). Now I don't seriously think SpaceX will abandon upper stage reuse but with Raptor running at full power and SpaceX already having perfected first stage reuse it is the only part which has big unknown and even without it BFR would be significantly cheaper than SLS while lifting at least 2x if not 3x the payload to orbit. JerryLove Here's the problem with the SLS as opposed to literally throwing money out helicoptors (or spending it on school lunch, or infrastructure, or universal healthcare, or housing for the homeless)... ...It puts a lot of money in relatively few hands. The SLS budget certainly pays an OK number of tradesmen (great), and a decent number of engineers (I have a soft-spot for engineers; but I'm not sure that's the economic class most in need of help), and a lot of stockholders and executives. I'm all for a jobs program. I'd just like two things. 1) No one should get rich from welfare. 2) the jobs themselves should be the most benificial to society we can manage. How about instead of spending 8 years not building a rocket we don't need, we spent it building bridges we do need. That too requires engineers and tradesmen and has practical and immediate benefit. Note: I am NOT opposing spending on actual space programs. I am all for rovers, probes, telescopes, and even the ISS. That's a valuable use of resources. What I'm opposing is spending on jobs programs with no value to either space or the ground. rabidhexley Seniorius Lurkius This really sucks. Not because all of the money should be going to Musk or whoever, but because the money saved by going with far more cost-effective contractor(s) would allow the budgetary allotment for NASA to go much further. In fact, it'd go even further because the competition in the market would be stimulated by NASA contracts. Potentially driving the costs down further. With the money saved they could spend more on all of the other costs associated with manned missions, more budget for additional unmanned missions and equipment. And just generally be able to do more science, you know, the reason we actually want a non-corporate space agency in the first place. Let companies make their money coming up with efficient solutions to problems, NASA can focus on all of the stuff you get to do with said solutions. Less money spent building toys, more money to actually play with them. karolus And, it's worthwhile to emphasize that Apollo was truly going "where no man has gone before," so a lot of resources were soaked up by R&D. As SpaceX et.al. have demonstrated, it's possible to build upon that knowledge now without racking up monumental costs. Chris_In_Iowa Registered: Aug 3, 2018 The Falcon 9 was not designed to be a good rocket. It was designed to be a good-enough rocket that was exceptionally easy to mass produce. It uses RP1 which is less efficient but much, much simpler to handle. Its engine was designed to minimize the number of parts and welds. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are push lawnmowers that are more mechanically complicated than the Merlin engine. SYNERDATA Wise, Aged Ars Veteran Tribus: CANADA SLS cost per launch (single use vehicle): $2 billion BFR/Starship launch cost (reusable vehicle): $2 Million Rocket science, right? Pretty complex stuff. Bot, US taxpayers are getting real value for their money. Space Launch System is becoming the Post Office of the 21st Century. Interesting comparison. Unlike the SLS, the US Post Office is usage fee funded, and receives no income from taxes. Even with the deliberate hobbling of it by vested interests, the old PO is still able to pay its way. Horizion12 Biggest barrier at the moment is funding for development itself. Even past technical issues like the reentry profile, landing system, etc, there’s no serious doubt that SS will be far, far cheaper, provided the funds exist to continue the project. BigDragon Tribus: Rockville, MD The cost of a single SLS launch is a lot of bridges and roads and schools and medical procedures and stuff. We could buy an entire fleet of Falcon Heavies, assemble two moon landers in orbit, and still save money over a single SLS launch. I'm now convinced that SLS is just a mechanism for the government to keep Boeing from folding while it struggles with the 737 MAX crisis. NASA could get so much more done if they weren't forced to burn money with legacy aerospace contractors. There's a lot of space to explore and missions to complete if we had some sane budgeting and took advantage of competition. ivan256 wrote: It's delightful to me that you imagine Elon Musk used his personal wealth to start SpaceX. How wonderfully childlike. dmoan Registered: May 6, 2016 Do you actually believe the figures for china and russia? China is known to hide tens of billions in def spendings and no one knows how much Russians spend because of corruption. shawnce Oh this again... Elon has put a lot of his personal wealth (ignoring sweat equity) into SpaceX (and other companies) but his personal wealth was in no way sufficient to fund these companies so yeah just like any other founder (co-founder, etc.) he found investors and took out loans... the horror! His current net worth is highly locked up in the companies he has helped to build / found, so if they fail he will take a major hit to personal wealth. Last edited by shawnce on Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:43 am If only congress just gave Nasa's budget to SpaceX we would be talking about all the cities in the United States of Mars in a decade. mhalpern the technical barrier is reusing the upper stage, however even a fully expendable SS/SH is likely to be cheaper than SLS, 150t is the high end of the goal full reuse is important as it makes it ideal for Starlink, until they have on orbit refueling SS will not be able to take its payload BEO however, though once solved it can take its LEO payload anywhere in Earth's SoI, As for money, its likey if thats an issue they will just slow down, but not stop development. Price will certainly be higher than 2m (they arent a charity) and dependant on market conditions But you'd expect to use the value of his SpaceX holdings when determining his billionaire status for tax purposes, I suppose... Or do you think that billionaires have a billion dollars in cash under their mattress? Last edited by ivan256 on Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:46 am shawnce wrote: Well, that, my friend, is a very different proposition than your original one. But glad you've moved the goalposts back to where they should be. TheMortallyWounded How many failures would it take to convince them? My biggest fear is that they will write off the first failure and try again. This thing is "too big too fail." Meaning if it does, and we EVER have a RUD, the whole program is sunk. It's already under water. Chris_In_Iowa wrote: The Falcon 9 was not designed to be a good rocket. It was designed to be a good-enough rocket that was exceptionally easy to mass produce. It is a good rocket that was also designed to be easy and inexpensive to produce. Over time and much iterative improvement it has became a great rocket with re-usable first stage and heavy variant. Making something easy to mass produce doesn't take much time or effort and next to no compromise on performance or quality. All it takes is knowledge, forethought, and the desire and intention from day one. It uses RP1 which is less efficient RP-1 is a near ideal for the first stage of an expendable launcher and is pretty good for a re-usable one. It is less ideal for a second stage but the cost effectiveness of commonality between stages for engines/GSE and high mass fraction means it is a good solution for most launch needs and tops the competition in lowering $/payload mass. Much of NASA's launch architecture stupidity after the Saturn V has been the direct result of trying to shoe-horn hydrolox into the first stage. but much, much simpler to handle. Its engine was designed to minimize the number of parts and welds. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are push lawnmowers that are more mechanically complicated than the Merlin engine. Modern CAD and additive manufacturing technologies have cost reduced Merlin and helped give it outstanding low cost and high TWR. 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__label__wiki	0.703963	0.703963	Trope, Pages with broken file links, Comedy Tropes, Just for Pun Alice and Bob Keep Abreast of This Index Thanks for the Mammary Example as a Thesis File:Thanks-for-the-mammary logan-blackcat2 7522.jpg Ishmael: But what do I say to her, Scobe? [...] Scobie: Thanks for the mammary? —Don't Call Me Ishmael! Alice is perfectly fine. She's walking along, enjoying herself. Out of nowhere, Bob bumps into her and, by sheer accident (we think), grabs her boob. Alice may forgive Bob, but at the same time she could resent him (even hate him) or use this as an opportunity for blackmail. More often than not, however, she will hit him. The Accidental Pervert is contractually obligated to have this happen at least once, if not Once Per Episode. Somewhat related to Funbag Airbag. See also Not What It Looks Like. Compare and contrast with Skinship Grope. Examples of Thanks for the Mammary include: Keitaro of Love Hina has been theorized to have breast magnets in his hands considering how often this happens to him. What usually follows is either a punch (Naru), an innocently/happily surprised "Oh my!" (Mutsumi), a scream (Shinobu), or a blush and an excited giggle (Kitsune). Suzumiya Haruhi gets the computer club president to grope Mikiru against his will (Mikuru does not approve either). Kyon is an accessory to the fact, since he photographs the whole thing so that Haruhi can use the photos for extortion. This was modified in the animation by having Haruhi take the pictures instead, which is terribly amusing since Kyon has absolutely no reason to be in the room when this is going on except to take pictures. As a result, he just stands there acting all disgusted at Haruhi's actions. This happens a few times in Elfen Lied. The first example is when Nyu starts fondling Yuka to sexual excitation. After Kohta accidentally gropes Nyu early on, she sees it as a action of endearment, like a hug. And then she apparently starts to innocently rub herself on his hand, since it apparently felt so good. Cue Kouta's cousin walking to the room. Nyu also gropes and nearly rapes Nozomi because she misunderstood something that Kouta said, making her believe that it was OK to do it to big-breasted people. Shinji and Rei, of course. Though the focus is mainly Rei's creepy non-reaction. Later, in End of Evangelion Gendo seems to purposefully grope naked Rei's chest, and then his hand goes through her like silly putty. Done in a surprisingly abrupt manner by Itoshiki-sensei in Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei (the episode with the roads signifying different excuses for avoiding responsibility). Occurs with absolutely no lead-up, and his "victim" Chiri tries to pressure him to marry her in order to "do things properly". Worth noting that she demanded marriage even earlier when both she and Itoshiki went to rest in nurse's office unaware of each other and she rolled on his bed in her sleep. She's... pathological (but aren't they all). Early in Full Metal Panic, Sôsuke performs a Diving Save to prevent Kaname from being hit by a truck... and ends up with his hand on her breast. She actually doesn't notice until Sōsuke gives her a reassuring squeeze... Made at least ten times funnier by the fact that her first reaction is apparently pure delight -- which thoroughly shows on her face -- for about three seconds. After which she realizes what's going on, resulting in one of the funniest expression changes ever... To Love Ru: Rito also seems to have the breast magnets, although he must have one in his head too, leading to a lot of accidental Marshmallow Hell. Also a rare variant where Rito accidentally grabs Mikan's butt (Thanks for the Glutes?). It proved very popular among the fanbase and lend to a second chapter with more of Mikan getting her ass grabbed by him. Then one of the times Rito was turned into "Riko", Nana accidentally groped his breasts (with a little Funbag Airbag along with it), leading to a fit of jealous rage. Keitaro may have breast magnets in his hands, but Densuke from Eiken is a breast magnet. And most of the girls are affected by the Newtonian "equal yet opposite reaction." In Yu Yu Hakusho, this is one of Yusuke's favorite ways to get on Keiko's nerves, to the point where, when he's possessing someone while temporarily dead, this is the way he convinces Keiko that it's really him. Her tolerance of it (and, at time, complete indifference to it) is one of the many things that signify their Belligerent Sexual Tension relationship. Erio and Caro's first meeting in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha had Erio's hands end up in two embarassing places when they crashed in a heap after he caught Caro when she tripped. In a subversion of the usual reactions, the two of them simply disengaged efficiently after a short moment of embarassment and the incident was quickly forgotten. It probably helped that they were both only ten. However, this lead to a Running Gag for the Fan Artists & Doujin Writers. Ranma ½. This may take some time... When Ranma first comes to the Tendô Dôjô, Nabiki proves Ranma's (apparent) gender by first poking her/him in the breast, then rubbing it. She later emphasizes her point by grabbing her/his breast again. And, when it seemed Ranma's bust size had increased in a late manga story, she proved it by... you guessed it! Groping hir again. During Tatewaki Kunô's introduction, he plunged into a pool alongside Ranma. His first hint that something was amiss was when he held onto the latter and accidentally grabbed her breast and squeezed. An anime-only scene in the first season has Sôun try and break up a fight between Ranma and Genma, both in cursed form, by pushing them apart with a hand on each chest. He then promptly realises he's cupping Ranma's breast, and his daughters have seen him doing so. He tries to claim that it's Not What It Looks Like, and promptly catches a fist in the face from Ranma due to not letting go. In another episode of the anime, male Ranma stands up, half-faints, and braces himself. On Akane's chest. As expected, a Megaton Punch follows. Sometime in the late manga (and an anime OAV), Ranma has to confront a ki draining teacher, Miss Hinako, whose technique can only be sealed away by hitting three shiatsu points on her chest and two on her back. Not much of a problem when Miss Hinako is in the body of a eleven-year-old girl... a very big problem when she inevitably absorbs his Battle Aura as he's hitting the points, causing her to grow up into a tall and buxom woman, and he gets a handful of breast for all the school to misinterpret. And, of course this is how Ranma discovers that Ukyô Is a Girl. In Nagasarete Airantou, this trope is employed as a fight-winning technique. In To Heart 2, Takaaki falls on Karin and has his hand on her breast. Karin uses this to blackmail Takaaki into joining the UFO Research Club. Mahou Sensei Negima has Negi do this to Asuna a lot. It helps that most of the time it genuinely is accidental. Lucky bastard gets away with it scot-free most of the time, due to his age. Humorously, the one time he gets socked for it is when he does it while magically aged-up. Subverted in Minami-ke when Natsuki, one of Touma's older brothers, gets pushed into Haruka resulting in a grab. Haruka knows perfectly well that it was accidental and does not hold it against Natsuki. However, the incident occurred in front of Haruka's class, so for the sake of appearances she still has to punch him out. In the first episode of Vandread, Dita crashes her dread through the hull of the Male fleet's flagship, and right into Hibiki, throwing her on top of him and knocking them both out. When Hibiki comes to, he's unaware that Dita is still laying on him unconscious and his face is covered by her chest. He grabs a breast and squeezes and exams it for a few seconds, curious as to what it is (Men have had no contact with women for generations in the series). Dita apparently woke up only after he was done, or just wasn't bothered by it. In Dita's case, the later is actually possible. Ed from the 2003 anime version of Fullmetal Alchemist does this to Psiren. Naruto does this in a filler episode. Same with Dragonball Z's Gohan. Happens to Futaba in Futaba Kun Change when he is mistaken for a Chikan on the train. Hilarity Ensues. In the manga, here: SQRSH Keiichi: (reaching for an off-panel bag of chips while studying) Huh? Doesn't feel like chips. Did I throw some buns in that bag? Urd: Oh, MY. ♥ Gently, honey... gently. In the OVA video, Urd grabs Keiichi's hand and forcefully presses it against her breast. Happens to Amakawa Yuuto, mostly with Himari. He seems to have mixed feelings on this... Yuuto: Himari's are big after all... (Gah, what am I saying!?) On at least one occasion, he wakes up with her in his bed, with his hand full of boob. Unlike the standard "OHCRAPIHAVETOSTOP!" reaction, he briefly considers massaging it. Then she wakes up[1]. How Sano found out Mizuki's secret at the beginning of Hana Kimi. Mizuki had been knocked out playing soccer with Nakatsu, and guess what Sano accidentally touched when he picked her up? When Mizuki found out at the end, she was understandably distressed. In another chapter, Sano tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but missed. In both the anime and manga version of Ladies versus Butlers!, Akiharu is confronted by Selnia who is convinced from his appearance that he is up to no good. When he decides to ignore her she takes a swing at him, both of them trip and he ends up with his hands on one of her breasts. It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't so stunned that he was still touching her when she recovered her wits. Happens a couple time by Gourry to Lina in The Slayers. Once when they are laying in a field -- Gourry falls asleep and rolls over, his hand landing on Lina -- and then in the second season where Xellos grabs Gourry's hand and makes him grab Lina to test a theory. Naturally, pain is involved both times. In Fairy Tail, during a fight with Juvia, Gray freezes her in ice and realizes a second too late that his hand was latched onto her breast when he froze her. Lluvia is embarrassed and delighted; Gray is equally embarrassed and utterly baffled by her reaction. In Gintama, Tsukuyo offers to let Gintoki grope her breasts, he declines, ends up doing it accidentally anyway, and gets a suplex for his efforts. In the first chapter of Tasogare Otome X Amnesia, Teiichi doesn't quite believe Yuuko is a ghost, so he reaches out to grasp her shoulder, reasoning that a ghost will be insubstantial. That's just when she turns to face him, though, so he gets a handful of quite substantial breast. Yuuko is totally unfazed by this. She is a ghost, however. In Bakemonogatari, during one of the times that Araragi is fighting with Mayoi, he gets an accidental handful. She doesn't notice at the time, but is pretty freaked out when he mentions it later ("You stole my first touch!"). Happens to Iria in Zeiram the Animation by a kid that fell on top of her. In Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, this happens when the mobile island the protagonists are atop start shaking violently, and Herton fall on top of Grandis. She naturally responds to this with a Megaton Punch. In A Certain Magical Index, Touma wakes up from his latest misadventure to find his hand grabbing the breast of Little Sister Misaka. At first he freaks about the fact that he's such a pervert that he'd do such a thing in his sleep, only for Little Sister Misaka to inform him he only grabbed her hand, she put his hand on her chest. Touma then realizes that, due to anesthetic, he can't actually feel anything. The main character in Maicchingu Machiko Sensei has this happen to her both accidently and purposefuly Once an Episode... among other things. Inagawa Goro, a recurring character in My Lovely Ghost Kana, frequently expresses a desire to encounter the supernatural. In one issue, he wishes that he could "reach out and touch it," and grabs at the air--while the titular Cute Ghost Girl is floating right in front of him. In Girl Got Game, Chiharu trips and his hand lands directly on Kyo's chest. Since Kyo is pulling a Sweet Polly Oliver, her reaction is not embarrassment, but panic about her secret being uncovered (she had just removed her chest wrappings because she thought she wouldn't need them that day). Thinking quickly, she claimed that her chest was bruised and swollen. In Mayo Chiki this is how Jiro finds out that the resident Chick Magnet is a Bifauxnen and later he does the same to Usami. It should be noted somehow their shirts came undone when he did it. In Freezing happens a few times in the OVA. Also Roxanne gropes Satellizer The Untouchable Queen in first appearance much to the participants of West Genetics shock/horror and accuses her of implants. A non-mammary example occurs in Video Girl Ai. Being played in Yota's broken VCR made Ai's breasts smaller. She tells him that the VCR also turned her into a boy and grabs his hand and puts it between her legs for him to check. After realizing it was just a joke, he laughs but leaves his hand there a just little too long. In One Piece, Luffy's introduction to giant mermaid Princess Shirahoshi. In Rave Master Elie is running towards the rooms whre Haru is fighting just as an explosion destroys the door and sends Haru flying towards her. He lands with a hand on her chest. She is not amused. Comics -- Books Fred Perry's Fan Service Ninja High School comic strip "Minor Adjustments", again. Mimi Masters awakens one morning to find herself blessed(?) with gigantic, gravity-defying Gag Boobs. As she goes with increasing irritation through her school day (she's not happy with them, although others are) the school rich-creep Lendo approaches her to find out if they are real, or due to surgical intervention. To find out, he promptly grabs and honks them both firmly (with an understandable huge grin on his face...). Mimi is not best pleased, and promptly zaps him with one of her magical bolts before storming off... After Scott and Ramona reconcile in Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, Scott notes the moment to be one he wants to last. Ramona then points out it's been spent with his hand right where the trope expects it to be. In Udon's Street Fighter comic, Rainbow Mika finally gets to face Zangief to a wrestling match. Zangief, who has been pestered by Mika for days, decides to end it quickly with a Banishing Flat. He ends up with a handful of Rainbow Rear End. The page image shows Wolverine doing to Black Cat in the Wolverine/Black Cat: Claws mini-series. Films -- Live-Action The Naked Gun Drebin escapes a burning room through the window, climbing along a row of anatomically-correct male and female statues. Between two statues is an open window, and a woman in her underwear just happens to be standing there. Drebin accidentally... well, guess. He then falls off the building, just saving himself by grabbing a statue's stone Gag Penis. In trying to save himself he manages to break the penis off the statue and fall into the woman's room through the window, brandishing it at her. In the sequel, Naked Gun 33 & 1/3, Drebin is at the store squeezing grapefruits to test for ripeness while looking the other way. A woman in a low cut dress walks by, and Drebin mistakes her breast for a grapefruit and squeezes it. He gets slapped. Superbad: Evan is having a conversation with Becca in a crowded school hallway. When someone bumps him from behind, his hand actually punches her in the boob. He's embarrassed, but she assures him it's no big deal. Fierce Creatures: Rollo reaches backwards for a piece of paperwork without looking. He... well, he misses the paper, let's say. Willa takes it in stride. Star Trek (2009). Pre-cadet Kirk during a barfight stumbles "onto" Uhura, much to her annoyance. Kirk puts on his trademark smirk, which Uhura promptly wipes off his face with a sock to the jaw. Simon Birch has the title character doing this. He is a twelve-year-old who (because of his unusual smallness) is playing baby Jesus in a Christmas play, and the person playing Mary (who just happens to be the prettiest girl in the class, who he has a crush on) is bending over him. He reaches up out of the manger and grabs her breast. The Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, during the crowded room scene (paraphrased): Mrs. Teevee: Someone's touching me! Grandpa Joe: (raises hands) Oh, sorry. Me Myself and Irene has Hank making a very transparent attempt at this. The Jackie Chan film Mr Nice Guy had a scene where Jackie was trying to avoid detection by henchmen, and accidentally copped a feel on Ms. Fanservice while trying to get her to stay close to the wall. In the first Rush Hour, Carter has angered a female cop and walks off. To stop her from attacking Carter, Lee (Jackie Chan) unknowningly presses his hands on her chest. This is subverted, as she was in protective bomb-squad-issued gear for a training exercize. When a character in Kangaroo Jack sees various mirages in the Australian desert, he sees a beautiful woman. Believing her to be another illussion, he gets handsy. In return, the very physically-present woman punches his lights out. Averted in Dude, Where's My Car? in the school camp scene, where a blind boy is questioned by one of the alien android women. He feels the breasts of one of them in order to identify who he's talking to, and she doesn't react at all. The trope naming novel, Don't Call Me Ishmael, contains a scene in which the eponymous Ishmael forms part of a school debating team and, collapsing due to nerves, inadvertently gropes his opposition and eventual Love Interest. In the first Xanth novel, a female centaur offers to give Bink a ride. While she was jumping across a chasm, Bink loses his balance and would have fallen off completely if not for a desperate attempt at grabbing onto whatever he could hold -- which, of course, turns out to be her (bare) breasts. She forgives him, saying that she felt him losing his balance and it obviously wasn't deliberate (adding that if it had been deliberate, she'd have dropped him in the chasm). In Hogfather, the newly-created Oh God of Hangovers joins Susan on the horse Binky, and innocently puts his hands around her at an inappropriate height. As he's only existed for a few hours, she doesn't smack him for his ignorance, just corrects his position very firmly. In Carpe Jugulum, the witch Agnes Nitt awakes after the fight with the vampyres in Escrow, to discover the villagers have taken the appropriate local precautions against her waking up as a vampire. (these are many and varied around the Discworld.) She screams that whoever put all those handfuls of poppy seeds down my bra had better have been a woman! In the Brother Cadfael mystery One Corpse Too Many, a wounded protagonist gives the "boy" nursing him a playful push in the chest and gets a shock. He also gets a clout on the ear. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy turns invisible. Xander reaches out to find Buffy. His hands are at chest level. He quickly ascertains that Buffy's clothes are invisible too as he hurriedly explains to Anya. In the House episode "Let Them Eat Cake", House begins to grope Cuddy in the middle of a serious conversation. House: Why are you dressed like that? Why are you trying so hard to get my attention? Are you screwing with me? Cuddy: Are you screwing with me? House: That depends on your answer. (Cuddy says everyone knows that this is going somewhere, and that they're supposed to kiss now) (House says that they already did that and grabs her breast instead) House: Seemed like the logical next step. Cuddy: Really? I'm an idiot for being surprised. Fawlty Towers: Basil Fawlty once mistook a guest's breast for a light switch as he was trying to turn on the light from the other side of the door. His hand just happened to have paint on it as well, leaving a handprint on the guest's top for Sibyl to see moments later and draw the obvious conclusion. A skit on an early '80s episode of Saturday Night Live had a character travel from the future just to squeeze one of the female player's breasts. In The Drew Carey Show, Drew accidentally does this to Mimi. His reaction is screaming in horror and dousing his hand with alcohol. In a cross-over between Live Action TV and Real Life, in the Lost episode "Live Together, Die Alone", When Jack, Kate, etc. are bound by the Others and searched for weapons, Alex accidentally gets some boob from Kate. It's in the bloopers section of Lostpedia. The Big Bang Theory: Through a convoluted series of events, Sheldon has to help Penny get dressed, and she insists he close his eyes so as not to peek. The following dialogue ensues. Penny: Okay, now you're gonna help me get my arm into the sleeve. Penny: Is that my arm? Sheldon: It doesn't feel like an arm. Penny: Then maybe you should let it go. Possibly a reference to the movie Summer of '42, in which Hermie and Oscy take two girls to the movies, and Hermie puts his arm around the girl, casually putting his hand on her boob, with a huge grin on his face. Afterwards, they have this conversation: Oscy: What did it feel like? Hermie: It felt like a boob. Oscy: Didn't it feel a little like an arm? Hermie: Why would it feel like an arm? Oscy: Because it was an arm. In a memorable episode, Elaine trips and grabs Jerry's girlfriend's breast, confirming for him that, yes, they're real, and they're spectacular. Don't forget when Kramer "stops short" with George's mom: Frank Costanza: He stopped short? That's my move! The Benny Hill Show. One of the most commonly used gags. Usually with a "honking horn" sound. Neil Patrick Harris does this to Cobie Smulders in the Hilarious Outtakes for the Season 5 DVD of How I Met Your Mother. Funnily enough, this happens just mere seconds after Barney accepts Robin's invitation to play video games naked. Which can be seen here. On Home Improvement, while driving his attractive female mechanic home, Tim makes a hard stop at a stoplight and reaches out to stop her from going forward, grabbing the wrong area in the process. When she asks why, he says that since he has three kids, it's basically a reflex. Unfortunately for him, the Detroit area just got cameras installed to take pictures whenever somebody goes through a red light. A well-known Star Trek blooper has DeForest Kelley and Majel Barrett rocking back and forth holding onto each other while the ship's under attack. At one point he's holding her in the wrong place. Along similar lines to the How I Met Your Mother example, Angie Harmon does this to Sasha Alexander in the Hilarious Outtakes for the Season 1 DVD of Rizzoli & Isles. The ladies were making fun of the show's blatant Les Yay subtext and when they finally broke down in laughter, more laughter followed when Angie accidentally grabbed Sasha's boob while reaching for a hug. Of course, this did nothing to cool the show's rampant Rizzles shippers. You can watch here. In Tales of the Abyss, this happened to Guy after Luke (under orders from Jade) kicked him into the girl's area of the spa (it should be noted that Guy is very gynophobic). The girls were angry at first, but then realize that he was the least likely guy to grope them and Anise asked him who was bigger: Natalia or Tear. After he said Tear, they got angry and called him a pervert again, netting him the new title "Naughty Devil". Done for only fanservice purposes in an ending to Dead or Alive 4, since the girls are only there for fanservice anyway. Notice, though, that instead of merely slapping him, Lei-Fang probably killed the guy who did it. And then the other passengers applaud her for that. He fell into water. By the genre expectations of both Dead or Alive, and of comedy (this was clearly a comedic scene), he's fine. Yes, I'm sure they were applauding her for the kick. This may be a bit of a stretch, but if you want to look into some Subtext, consider the first chapter of Fire Emblem: the Sacred Stones. Seth, a knight, grabs Eirika, the princess rather "brusquely" while they flee the castle. Not that much of a stretch -- he was grabbing her off the ground from behind while on horseback, so that's more than likely what he was apologizing for. Rai on Arina in Rai (or was it Arina's?) ending in Waku Waku 7. Ethan did this to Lilah a lot in the early Ctrl+Alt+Del comics. Francis does this to Jade in a PvP arc because he thinks he's in the future and that his actions have no consequences. Largo accidentally does this to Erika. Largo: (staring at the closed door) Something is there. I can feel it. Erika: There's nothing... Largo: (throws his hand back to shush her) SHHH!!! (Largo realizes "something", and looks back to see his hand right on Erika's chest) Largo: Wow. Those are a lot softer than I thought they'd be. Yanagisawa: My God, what was that?? Piro: It kinda sounded like a truck running into the building. And Piro also accidentally does it to Kimiko in the Full MegaTokyo Panic omake. While sharing a hoverbike in Sluggy Freelance, Zoe suggests Aylee hold on during their race. Being new to the female form, Aylee grabs what seem the most logical handholds. Reed does this to Sarah by accident when he runs to greet her in a dark room in chapter 12 of LG 15 The Resistance. Happens in College Humor's Awkward Rap. We're Alive: Burt tries to put a shoulder holster on Riley but accidental cops a feels Victor: Burt just got farther with Riley than Angel ever did! In one episode of Teen Titans when the team had crashed into a pile in a darkened pit, the following dialogue occurs: Starfire: Someone's claws are on my grebnaks! (suction cup noises) Beast Boy: My bad! Not exactly an example. Due to a quick look at the animation, you can see Beast Boy's octopus teeth on Starfire's butt (which is just as awkward). Also in Justice League: Hawkgirl: Whose hand is that? The Flash: Sorry! In Code Lyoko episode "Vertigo", a bug in an anti-virus program turns Aelita invisible, and she runs to Jérémie: Aelita: I... I'm invisible! Jérémie: (groping around for her in front of him) You're what...? Aelita: Hey! Jérémie: Oops... sorry. In the second season of The Venture Brothers, one of Monarch's henchmen accidentally does to Dr. Girlfriend while sneaking her into the lair. This being The Venture Brothers, he freaks out and makes a bigger deal out of it than she does. In one of the first episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series), Michealangelo apparently does this to April O' Neil when he's untying the ropes that hold her to a chair. April O'Neil's expression when he's doing this really cements the scene. It's apparently a major problem in Japan, due to overcrowding on public transportation. Numerous amateur porn vids feature men intentionally fondling, groping, and outright molesting innocent women, and then attempting to play it off as an "accident". A study concluded that at least half of all the women in Tokyo have been victim to this phenomenon. There were even references to that in a 1989 Charles Bronson film called Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects and is used as a culture dissonance moment when a Japanese man who's been transferred to his company's Los Angeles office is riding the bus. These days there are women-only cars on trains for rush hours, which have considerably alleviated the problem. Of course now men are complaining about being stuffed like sardins in a can when women can enjoy relatively open, airy cars, due to the fact that men still form the majority of the workforce in Japan. Also, the attitudes have changed: when in the past women were expected to suffer in silence, nowadays gropers are extremely likely to get caught and sued. Aside from this, the punishment for it can now be as high as $1,000(US). The accidents themselves are starting to be less likely--in large part because women have realized that it's quite possible to, even in the most crowded cars, avoid this happening by accident...which in turn makes it harder to do it on purpose and pretend otherwise. It's quite possibly not as much worry about perverts, though, as much as the simple fact that it's rather embarrassing to (nearly) accidentally inflict Marshmallow Hell on somebody. The game "Ninja", played co-ed, can sometimes result in this. For amusing results, get some teenage, Adorkable guys to play with cute girls. This trope will happen, it will be fully accidental, and if you really want to see a guy blush, this is about as good a setup as you can get. ↑ and doesn't care at all. Lucky bastard. Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/Thanks_for_the_Mammary?oldid=329511" Comedy Tropes	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402481
__label__wiki	0.552291	0.552291	All Women Love Shoes Playing With LIKE OMG!!! SHOES!!!. "You ask my why I need Thirty-two pairs of shoes You seem to ask me why I need an awful lot of things It's just a chick thing You oughta let it go" —No Secrets, "That's What Girls Do" In the world of fiction, almost all women absolutely love shoes. Not only that, they judge people by the shoes they wear, have whole closets full of them, know every single designer, and no matter how expensive or painful to wear, they simply must have the latest ones for the season. Don't question this; this is simply one of those "women things" that men will never understand and must never question. For some reason, whenever a woman's massive shoe collection is shown onscreen, they are always formal slip-on heels like in the picture, as if a woman would never own one or more pairs of sneakers, boots, flip-flops, or anything else without heels, even though they'd logically make her shoe collection even bigger. It's probably just that high heels drive home the femininity of this trope (compare, on this point, Mars and Venus Gender Contrast as well as Women's Mysteries). Alternately, it may be because formal shoes are more glamorous, leading to impulse purchases, and the matching rules[1] for formal occasions are more complex (the "match the leathers" rule is much more complicated when your belts aren't all black). See also Foot Focus for the Fetish Fuel opportunities this leads to. Compare Distracted by the Luxury, Unlimited Wardrobe, Girls Love Stuffed Animals. Contrast Does Not Like Shoes. It should be noted that Foot Focus, the fetishization of bare feet, is also usually female. Is, naturally, a Double Standard, but it has become so pervasive that few try to question it. Examples of All Women Love Shoes include: 1 Anime and Manga 2 Comic Books 3 Film 5 Live Action TV 7 New Media 8 Newspaper Comics 9 Stand Up Comedy 10 Tabletop Games 11 Theatre 12 Video Games 13 Web Comics 14 Web Original 15 Western Animation 16 Real Life An odd example in Blood Plus. Diva, while killing a bunch of people, takes interest in one guy's sneakers and steals them after killing him. Veronica from the Archie Comics buys a lot of shoes. In an early Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, Buffy's deadbeat dad rants about all the things he hates about living in a house full of women. I forget the whole list, but he mentions shoes twice. When Buffy points this out, he replies, "You have twice as many shoes as you need!" Cinderella from Fables. Used as a plot point in Legally Blonde: When the supposed lover of the defendant makes a remark about Elle's "last season Prada shoes" (which apparently weren't last season), she realizes that he couldn't be the woman's lover because "No straight man knows designer shoes!" Elle: Warner, what kind of shoes are these? Warner: Uh...black ones? Elle: See!? The film In Her Shoes has the two sides in The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry have as only point in common that they really love shoes, and each one have an impressive collection. Even after forcing a woman out of an elevator at gunpoint so she can make a quick escape, Baroness is still able to take the time to compliment the woman on her shoes. A rare male example in the movie Kinky Boots, which features a small, family-business shoe factory making female footwear styles in mens' sizes for the Transgender/DragQueen market. Also a Real Life example as it is inspired by a true story; much of the movie was shot in the actual shoe factory that inspired the movie. Word of warning—don't mistake burgundy for red. Betsy Taylor, the main character of MaryJanice Davidson's Betsy the Vampire Queen series is far more interested in shoes and sales than in the fact that she recently became Queen of the Vampires. In The Lollipop Shoes, the sequel to Chocolat, Zozie de l'Alba has a whole collection of fabulous shoes that enchant and seduce, including the eponymous Lollipop Shoes. Anouk is also shown to be susceptible to their charms. Discussed in Love in a Nutshell where Kate comments that despite being a guy, Matt somehow has more shoes than her. Sex and the City made Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik household names. Carrie was shown to be in deep debt because of her collection of hundreds of shoes costing several hundred bucks a pop, and in one episode Charlotte came across a shoe salesman with a foot fetish who loved her feet so much he gave her these fancy sandals for free. And many, many references to shoes being this kind of holy sacrament throughout the show's run. Jen of The IT Crowd loves shoes enough that she is willing to ruin her feet for them. In an episode of Leverage, Nate talks about what his team did with the "shattering amounts of money" they made bankrupting a corrupt corporation. Sophie, The Chick, "bought a frightening number of shoes." Lampshaded when Parker (the only other woman on the team) comments "What is it about women and shoes?" Brought up later when Parker has to play a part for a con, something Sophie usually does: Sophie: Go to Nate's storage cupboard. You're gonna find a sexy little minidress and my emergency Jimmy Choos. Parker: Jimmy who? You have a body in Nate's closet? Sophie: Shoes, Parker! Half of an entire scene in the Angel episode Billy (an episode about misogyny, domestic violence and women being victimized) is devoted to Cordelia and Lilah bantering about shoes. In a later episode, Cordelia threatens Eve thus: Get out of that chair and I will feed you those Manolo Blahniks. (pauses) Which are stunning, by the way. Cordelia in introduced in Buffy saying that she would kill to live in L.A. That close to that many shoes... Amanda Pierce and, to a lesser extent DJ, in The Latest Buzz. Even Naive Everygirl Rebbecca Harper falls under the spell of a fabulous pair of mood-changing red shoes in the Wizard of Oz homage episode "The Wonderful Wizard of Buzz Issue". In an episode of Hannah Montana, Miley's dad offers to buy her shoes if she will stop seeing Jake. In That's So Raven, Raven gets a bad grade on her art project because it's a collage about shoes. Her art teacher says that's all she ever makes. One Caroline in The City episode has Caroline out of commission due to a bad back, so Del and Richard step in to finish the strip for her. Unfortunately, Caroline can't come up with an idea to give them, so they create their own strip whose punch line is nothing more than "Women can never have enough shoes", which they think is hilarious. Caroline thanks them for helping her, although she secretly hates the strip. An episode of Coupling has Steve ranting, "Why do women have so many shoes? Do they have extra feet we don't know about?" Burn Notice: Fiona is obsessed with shoes. In particular, in "Entry Point" she is constantly distracted by the client of the week's large collection of shoes (he specializes in knock-offs). Lily from How I Met Your Mother is a subversion of this trope. She loves shoes but unlike the usual examples, she only likes boots, no high heels. Unintentional late 00s period piece? In the episode of Black Books where they go on vacation, Bernard and Manny force Fran to pick two pairs of shoes to bring, rather than the twenty or so she wanted to pack. Fran: Those are my slow dancing mules! What if we get invited to a boat party by drug dealers? In the 90's Sitcom Cybill Cybill's best friend Maryanne has a walk in closet filled with nothing but shoes. Sally on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Penny from The Big Bang Theory has a large collection of shoes, despite being in a poor financial situation. Emma from Hustle. After their first big score, her brother Sean comments that she can buy enough Jimmy Choo's to outfit an octopus. Scrubs: Shoe shopping... One of the earliest episodes from Pimp My Ride had a girl named Nile get her car pimped, and they installed an automated shoe rack in the trunk, with several pairs of brand new shoes for her. Upon showing the new car to her friends, they reacted with great enthusiasm, as expected, but seemed even more enthusiastic about the new shoes than the pimped out car. The Shania Twain song "Shoes" compares men to shoes. Let's get some shoes! That was so terrible I think you gave me cancer! In the fourth Asdfmovie the wife wants to know if her husband likes her new shoes. She's actually a chair but she can dream. Comes up quite frequently in Cathy. Sara from Zits has this trait sometimes—she once got deeply offended by Jeremy when he failed to notice her new boots (but subverting the "men never notice shoes" part of the trope, when Jeremy claims this he asks Hector what's new about Sara. "Besides the boots?") but they made up when she realized that he's more enraptured with the nuances of her face. Parodied in The Far Side: a woman is on a date with a man wearing ridiculous clown shoes, dumping him because "I judge a man by the shoes he wears." In a Pearls Before Swine strip, Pig opines that men and women are Not So Different. Rat immediately shoots the idea down: Rat:[to a random woman] Excuse me, miss. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Woman: 714. Rat: I rest my case. Woman: No wait. Those are just the brown ones... One of Tim Allen's routines has him asking his wife why she needs 19 pairs of black shoes. Her response? "You stupid f*** er! Those are strap-backs, spikes, cobbie-cuddlers, espadrilles, flats, pumps, patent leathers, spectators, argh, argh, argh!" In one routine, Ardal O'Hanlon notes the oft-contested hypothesis that women have a higher threshold for pain than men. He theorizes that this is because no matter what is happening to her, there's always part of a woman's brain that is thinking about shoes. Fridge Brilliance - the higher pain threshold is what makes them able to WEAR the shoes. Have you ever worn a pair of high heels? They're extremely painful and in the long term will permanently cripple your feet. If going by that logic, wouldn't men have the higher pain threshold, given what nearly 100% of a man's brain is always thinking about? In Star Munchkin, players may be faced with the Bionic Bimbo. She's a fairly formidable opponent, and will fight you... unless you give her shoes (i.e., a "footwear" item.) She will even pay you handsomely for the shoes, with 3 Treasures. At the end of Wicked, Glinda, with visible difficulty/pain, says to Elphaba "They're just shoes!" Said shoes are the infamous ruby slippers. Glinda also has shelves full of shoes in her and Elphaba's dorm during Popular. Subverted with Dorothy, who doesn't even want the ruby slippers anymore and would be happy to give them to Elphaba...except for the fact that they won't come off her feet, despite the fact that she's been trying to get them off for days... Leliana of Dragon Age: Origins is obsessed with shoes. Not only are shoes the perfect gift item for her, one of her dialogs is pretty much nothing but her rambling about her obsession with shoes. The player, regardless of gender, can either tell her to shut up or start gushing about shoes as well... making this a subversion should the player be male. Also subverted with Zevran, who gushes a fair bit about these fabulous boots, although maybe that's more to do with his leather fetish. Also somewhat subverted in that no other woman shares her obsession, as Morrigan wants nothing to do with any of Leliana's fashion advice. One can only guess what else Marjorlaine would be talking about if she weren't hunting Leliana, but her disparaging over Leliana's state when first came to Ferelden hints that she's just as into fashion as Leliana is. Perhaps it's an Orlesian thing. Shale shows some mild interest in shoes during a banter with Leliana. This starts to make sense once you complete Shale's personal quest and discover that the golem contains the soul of a female dwarf. Cinderella's rooms in the second Dark Parables game include a massive walk-in closet filled with nothing but shoes. Of course, seeing as it's Cinderella, this is par for the course. I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space had the heroine distraught when she couldn't break the laws of physics to fill their spaceship with all the shoes she's bought. Fiona averts this quite well by only owning one pair of shoes. Mercedes Nieves of Other People's Business exemplifies this trope - although she occasionally puts her knowledge of shoes to good use. Vicki Fox apparently owns several pairs of shoes, but... Perhaps because she's so short, The Nostalgia Chick has an obsession with wearing high heeled boots everywhere. Even when fighting in a frigging brawl. The Simpsons: While not typically a big concern of Marge and Lisa's, when the family went to New York City they were both utterly hypnotized by a revolving display of blue high heels. Also lampshades their Limited Wardrobe: "I know I already own a pair of shoes, but I want these so bad!" This was also lampshaded/spoofed in an episode where the Simpson family clears out the late Maude Flanders's closet: upon seeing Maude's three pairs of shoes, Marge exclaims, (sans irony) "Wow--someone had a fetish!" South Park had an episode about this: "The List". Clyde's name is pushed to the top of a list of the cutest boys in school, but it's actually a conspiracy by some of the girls to get free merchandise from his father's shoe story. Even Wendy is momentarily distracted by how cute one particular pair is. We're talking about nine-year-old girls here. Carver of The Weekenders is a rare male example and possibly an aversion as there is no hint to the trope otherwise and no character ever compares the closet full of shoes to a womanly tendency. The love actually comes from his love of sports and all of his shoes are actually athletic in nature. Still, the man loves his shoes. It probably also helps that he doesn't organize his shoe closet at all and just has them in a big, manly pile on the floor. Alice from Dilbert has a secret affection for shoes. She is arguably the most masculine character on the show, and is somewhat shamed by her shopping habit. There was this one strip where Alice's cubicle is filled with shoeboxes. Dilbert comments that the money she spent could have fed a family of four for several months. The kicker? It's revealed that shoes all look exactly the same. Phineas and Ferb: While Candace doesn't seem to care much about them, her friend Stacy seems to love shoes enough to make a gelatin mold of some pumps. Lo from Stoked! has an obsession with flip-flops. After Fin claims that Lo has 50 pairs of flip-flops, Lo tells her not to be ridiculous. She is not some spoiled brat. She only has 36 pairs. Pepper in Iron Man Armored Adventures invokes this trope when she goes giddy over all of the shoes in the stores. Even claiming it is an addiction. Tony suggests Whitney is the same way when he accuses Pepper of becoming her during her shoe run. In Johnny Test Susan has a large collection of shoes in the lab that Bling-Bling Boy steals from her. She even gives us this quote: Susan: "Johnny, there are many thing boy will never understand, and one of them is their love of shoes. I barely understand it." Imelda Marcos, wife of deposed Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, owned thousands of pairs of shoes when they were thrown out of the country. It gets even more disturbing when a few women on TV/radio/etc have commented what a horrible person Imelda Marcos was ... but ooh, look at all her shoes! In an interview for British television, Imelda Marcos defiantly asserted that of course there were shoes in her closet, she didn't have any skeletons to hide in there. In a similarly gruesome example, during the Romanian rebels' show trial against their former dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena, in 1989, which ended in their execution, Elena's very comprehensive collection of expensive shoes was used as an evidence of the pair's illegal gathering of wealth. This is quite an understandable sticking point: sometime in The Eighties Ceauşescu decided to pay off all of Romania's foreign debt and decided to do so by exporting everything that could be exported. Owning expensive shoes while ordinary citizens queued up for food and suffered severe shortages amidst one of the worst economic collapses in the Communist bloc can come across as a mite bit insensitive to say the least... Not the only time it's happened. When the European Union and later USA introduced sanctions and travel bans against Robert Mugabe's government after the fraud-laden violence of the 2002 elections, Mugabe's wife Grace was included in the list of people who weren't allowed to travel to Europe, with one MEP commenting that this will stop Grace Mugabe going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic poverty blighting the people of Zimbabwe. On a less depressing note, Ron Perlman was once asked why he does so many B and C-grade movies. His response? "What can I say? My wife likes shoes..." Kellie Pickler. The woman even wrote a song about it. And yet she sometimes performs without them. This Cracked Article statistically proves that, to some extent, this is Truth in Television Naoko Takeuchi has mentioned that she is obsessed with shoes, made evident by such a huge presence of Combat Stilettos in Sailor Moon. Hong Kong actress and singer Josie Ho Chu-Yi has over 300 pairs of shoes. ↑ Which could, in and of themselves, qualify as another of those pesky "women things" Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/w/index.php?title=All_Women_Love_Shoes&oldid=1420596" Always Female Costume Tropes These Tropes Are Made for Walking	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402482
__label__cc	0.644339	0.355661	Monthly Wrap-Up: August - September It's September tomorrow and I honestly feel like I was writing August's wrap-up just yesterday. It's crazy. August was a strange month. I read a lot, binged Netflix to no end (Arrow and Gossip Girl galore), and started writing my WIP (post about that coming sometime in September). The writing's going slowly-ish, and although I'm struggling not to edit as I go, I'm pretty happy with the progress I making and the practice I'm getting. Life's been okay I guess. I forced myself to do a few "out of my comfort zone" experiences, which caused me incredible stress beforehand but paid off in the end. I just hope to be more "social" in September and stop procrastinating when it comes to making some certain life decisions. I'm scared and worried about them, but I'm trying to trust God. He knows best and He'll be with me every step of the way. A Blog Squad Special Blog Tour for THE LAST MAGICIAN - by Lisa Maxwell 5 things Bookworms never want to hear The Blog Squad: Part 21 My One Year Blogiversary! Interview My One Year Blogiversary! Thank you The Zookeeper's Wife - 2017 I only watched 1 movie this month!!! But in my defense, I did binge watch TV shows on Netflix as well... The One Memory of Flora Banks - Emily Barr Windfall - Jennifer E. Smith Starr Fall - Kim Briggs A Thousand Pieces of You - Claudia Gray The People At Number 9 - Felicity Everett The Good Daughter - Alexandra Burt Seven Days Of You - Cecilia Vinesse One Of Us Is Lying - Karen M. McManus Silver Blood - Emma Hamm The Marble Collector - Cecelia Ahern You Don't Know My Name - Kristen Orlando I read a real mix of books this month: some bad, some good, some terrible, some amazing. My favourite was The Good Daughter, and my least favourite was either You Don't Know My Name or A Thousand Pieces of You. These are some of the books I'm hoping to read this month (emphasis on some...) (Roar, Cold Malice, Canary Club, and The Empty Grave are eBooks) My giveaway is still happening! Go enter! RT+Follow me & @SKVetterWrites for the chance to win ONE of the books pictured below! INTL okay,ends 9/28, no giveaway accounts #booksbindus pic.twitter.com/kAwpOvvM8W — AMagicalWorldOfWords (@AmyNikitaWords) August 27, 2017 Happy September (for tomorrow)! Hope you have an amazing month ahead <3 Was August a good month for you? What did you read or watch? Waiting on Wednesday #48: THERE'S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE - by Stephanie Perkins Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme originally hosted by Breaking the Spine and now taken over by Wishful Endings that highlights upcoming book releases we're excited to read. On my blog, I include movies as well. THERE'S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE - by Stephanie Perkins Publication Date: 26th September 2017. Scream meets YA in this hotly-anticipated new novel from the bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss. One-by-one, the students of Osborne High are dying in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets among them must finally be confronted. This cover is actual perfection. It was basically designed for me, actually, because it has my favourite shades of pink and gives off some deliciously eerie vibes. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. And the story also sounds PERFECT AND WONDERFULLY SCARY 3 Anyone else excited for There's Someone Inside Your House? YOU DON'T KNOW MY NAME (The Black Angel Chronicles #1) - by Kristen Orlando Published: 2017 - Swoon Reads. Genres: Young adult / romance / contemporary / thriller Triggers/Content Advisory: At the end there's violence and implication of torture. Format: eBook. Source: Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. Seventeen-year-old Reagan Elizabeth Hillis is used to changing identities overnight, lying to every friend she’s ever had, and pushing away anyone who gets too close. Trained in mortal combat and weaponry her entire life, Reagan is expected to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the ranks of the most powerful top-secret agency in the world, the Black Angels. Falling in love with the boy next door was never part of the plan. Now Reagan has to decide: Will she use her incredible talents and lead the dangerous life she was born into, or throw it all away to follow her heart and embrace the normal life she's always wanted? And does she even have a choice at all? Ever since this book came out in January I've been hyped to read it. YA thrillers can be hit-or-miss, but this book seemed to get a lot of positive reviews, and so I thought it would be amazing. I was extremely disappointed. I buddy-read You Don't Know My Name with my wonderful #squad: Uma @ Books.Bags.Burgers, and Di @ Book Reviews By Di. We all felt similarly about the book and were so disappointed with what we'd hoped it would be an exciting thriller. Please do check out Di's review HERE, and Uma's review HERE. Fighter, Faker, Student, Spy... The writing is childish, repetitive, lackluster, bland, and uninspired. There isn't a single impressive phrase or scene or any profound language and vocabulary, and there is a LOT of telling - in oppose to showing - especially when it comes to Reagan's emotions. The dialogue is atrocious. It's unoriginal, unrealistic, dry, boring, cheesy, and there's no wit, no subtext, no characterisation at all. It's possibly the worst aspect of the book. The story's tedious, slow, and predictable. Many incidents are extremely hard to believe (for example, would top-notch secret agents actually allow a teenage boy to participate in and help lead a hostage rescue? Even if the excuse is "he wants to be in the military"?!) and most of the book is completely devoid of physical action. Since it's supposed to be a thriller, that's annoying. The ending of the book is contrived and offensively manipulative - in terms of the violent content and style of the scene. It's disgusting, and made worse by terrible writing. "I don't like it when you pretend you're someone you're not. I just want you to be you. Good. Bad. Anxious. I'll still be here." The characters are flat. They're boring cardboard cut-outs with label-like "personalities". Despite Reagan coming across quite likeable and compelling at the beginning, she too soon succumbs to lazy writing that leaves her one-dimensional and stereotypical. It's a waste. Reagan's parents are even worse. They're flat, annoying, ridiculously uninspired, and their dialogue is the worst. I very strongly disliked them for the duration of the novel. There are a lot of relationships in this book that have great potential. Unfortunately, they all lack proper development, pacing, and realism, and thus come across ineffectual and bland. That also contributes to my inability to feel for or root for the characters. Following on from that, the emotional element just isn't present either. All the emotions in the story are forced and melodramatic, and I couldn't feel for any of the characters; even in situations where I knew I should. There's just no emotional investment whatsoever. The romance is terrible. Luke has no point in the story outside of being Reagan's love interest, and he's just as flat as everyone else's characters. Not to mention there's no realistic, solid development for his and Reagan's relationship, and the so-called "cute banter" between them is stupid, meaningless, extremely forced, and cringe-worthy. Luke's boring - and so's their romance. You Don't Know My Name is a contrived, poorly paced, badly written novel with a weak plot and flat characters. Towards the end it gets mildly exciting, but that's not enough to redeem the entire book. Weekly Round-Up: Watching and writing Another week gone and it's almost September. HELP. I can barely remember what happened this week; only that I watched one episode of Supergirl and then stopped it cos I was bored (truth: I needed to start season 2 of Gossip Girl because I was dying of anticipation) and I also started Arrow season 4. My WIP writing's going.......well. I'm hand-writing the first draft, so it's tiring, but I love my characters and my world and I'm really getting into it. So far, so good. Book Review: THE GOOD DAUGHTER Book Review: SEVEN DAYS OF YOU Book Review: ONE OF US IS LYING Book Review: SILVER BLOOD Nothing!!! And I won't be starting another book until September. But I did finish these two books this week: Genni reviews The Wrath and the Dawn Greg reviews Emma in the Night Amber Elise reviews Because You Love To Hate Me Lauren reviews Weave A Murderous Web Emily reviews When Dimple Met Rishi Michelle reviews Follow Me Back Erika reviews Crooked Kingdom Chuckles reviews The Shallows Excitement!! I'm running this book giveaway on Twitter with SKVetter, so head over and enter! It's international! Did you have a good week? What are you writing at the moment? What have you been watching or reading? Labels: life update, weekly round-up, what I've been watching, what I've been writing SILVER BLOOD (Series of Blood #1) - by Emma Hamm Published: 2016. Genres: Young adult / fantasy / fae / romance Triggers/Content Advisory: Some sensual scenes and fantasy violence. Source: Thank you so much to the author for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. A PROPHECY TO FULFILL Two hundred years ago, our world changed forever. Two realms combined in an explosion of magic. One morning everything was normal and the next? Every human body was host to another magical creature who had thoughts and a mind of its own. However, with power comes darkness. Someone wants to wipe this earth clean and will stop at nothing to consume it. SHE IS NOT A HERO Or so she thought. Wren had grown up with another voice in her head but had never considered herself magical. She doesn't have the talents other people have. She certainly doesn't have the abilities anyone else has. But she is charming and manages her business quite well. She deals in emotions and makes people happy. It's a simple life, but it's hers. HE THINKS SHE COULD BE Burke was a bodyguard first and always. He had been sent to collect her and deliver her in person to the most powerful creatures in their world. But the moment he steps through the broken door of her shop, his world changes forever. She's strange. She's uncomfortable. And she's so damned beautiful. He is convinced she is part of a prophecy that can save their world. But how to convince her? For a debut, this book is amazing. And if you love unique fantasy, you need to start reading it now. The best thing about this book is that it's incredibly unique and imaginative. And not in the silly, abstract way that makes you think "wut the heck is going on this is so weird I can't understand why it's been published"; no. Silver Blood is a riveting, refreshing debut that stands out in the sea of independently published YA novels. The atmosphere is electrifying and the imagery vivid. The world building is deftly spun, and Hamm gently whispers it to spellbinding life. The writing's strong, but occasionally the narration is clumsy and awkward. There's also a lot of telling - primarily at the start of the book - and the beginning also suffers from very tedious info-dumping. But that does fade as the story progresses. The story is constantly entertaining. It's fast-paced, unpredictable, intelligent, and tightly plotted. The descriptions are deeply evocative, and the dialogue is witty, characterising, and compelling. It's fantastic. “Come with me," he said fiercely. "I will keep you safe."--------------- "How can you?" The whisper sounded like a scream to his ears. Wren is a lovely heroine. She's vulnerable, spunky, capable, independent, and doesn't let anyone push her down. When Burke does an undoubtedly unacceptable thing by coming in while she's bathing, she doesn't excuse his behaviour and instead demands an explanation, all the while letting him know he's done an inappropriate thing. In a world where YA heroes constantly get away with inexcusable things because the heroines are too awed by their hotness and secretly turned on, it's awesome that Wren sticks by her guns and lays the blame where it belongs in situations like these: on the guy. And to Burke's credit, he respects her boundaries. But I don't like how Wren spent the last quarter of the book. I can't give spoilers, so I'll just say that she's reduced to an incapable damsel. As much as I felt sorry for her, it did mean Burke got to do the rescuing and basically save the day, and I don't like that Wren was so incapacitated and docile. I wanted her to have a big part in saving herself. The secondary characters are equally compelling. I love Jasper and Lyla and how original and three dimensional they are, and I also like the depth of Burke and Pitch's characters. But I do wish the villain had been as fleshed-out. The romance is very swoony and sweet and I especially enjoyed the dream sequences between Burke and Wren. But I don't like how Burke was frequently overprotective - he respects Wren, certainly, but his protectiveness frequently becomes too much. That leaves me undecided about the romance. Otherwise, however, Burke compliments Wren's character well. Silver Blood is a beautifully crafted and utterly unique fantasy, dazzling in its characters and world-building. While I didn't always like the romance and where the story found Wren towards the end, it's an entertaining, clever, and marvelous debut that I highly recommend. Labels: book reviews, series of blood We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions. A MAGICAL WORLD OF WORDS - AmyNikita BOOKS.BAGS.BURGERS - Uma K BOOK REVIEWS BY DI - Di Hewlett Do you binge-read series? Or read them as they're released? I will do both, it really just depends when I get to a book/series! If there are books being released by a favourite author I will read them as they are released because I won’t be able to hold myself back. Then there are the series that I just haven’t managed to get to that I’ll end up binge reading either all of the series or to whatever book has been released. There are numerous reasons that I might not have gotten to a series - either the hype was too strong and I avoided it for too long, or I just don’t have the time in my reading schedule (because let’s face it I will NEVER have enough time to read all the books I want to read!) or maybe an amazing series somehow just slipped under my radar. I’m not sure which type of reading I prefer - obviously I love binge reading a series because I happen to be able to get all the books without waiting forever to resolve a cliffhanger… But there’s something to be said about that delicious anticipation of the next instalment to a favourite series. That totally depends! Sometimes I find out about some awesome series only after the entire series has been released so depending upon how much I like book 1, I might binge read or get to each book leisurely. Sometimes with some really popular series, you can’t not know about; I end up picking up the book as soon as it releases or requesting for an ARC. I think both have pros and cons. Sometimes binge reading a series can put me in a reading slump and sometimes reading books right when they release is also a problem as I forget certain events in the previous book! But I just thought about it and I realize I don’t binge read that often! In what order do you read series with novellas? My favourite is to read all of the novels and then go back to fill in with the novellas, but if I am awaiting for new releases in a series then I might read the novellas as they are published. I don’t like reading out of publication order though, so if 1.5 was published after book 2 then I’ll wait to read 1, 2 and then 1.5 both to avoid spoilers but also more importantly to read the books in the order that the author intended them to be read. I mostly read the novellas after I’ve read the whole series. For some reasons, I’m scared of picking up novellas in the middle. I like not knowing certain things during the series and having them be revealed to me afterwards. Reading them while I’m reading the series feels like I’m giving myself spoilers! I think only once or twice have I read novellas while I was in the middle of the series. Do you do 'book by book' reviews or whole series reviews? I generally do book by book reviews. Both can be quite tricky though! I don’t like to include spoilers in my reviews and this can be tough on a long running series in which events and the plot in sequels hinge on circumstances set in the previous books! Whole series reviews I find tough as well because if I’ve read all of the books there are certain points that I want to make about a particular book and I find that difficult to fit into an entire series review. I’ve only done book by book reviews so far but I’ve been meaning to do a series review for some of my favorite series like Harry Potter, Vampire Academy and The Raven Cycle. I read Harry Potter and Vampire Academy way before I started blogging so I haven’t even written book by book reviews of them! And I believe writing a book by book series now would be difficult as I’ve read the entire series! So yeah, I plan start doing series reviews sometime in the near future. Come check out my answers over at their collab posts!: BOOKS.BAGS.BURGERS BOOK REVIEWS BY DI We hope you’ve enjoyed Part 22 in our series of discussion posts! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses? If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below. Stay tuned for next week’s questions! Labels: blog squad, collab ONE OF US IS LYING - by Karen M. McManus Published: 2017 - by Penguin. Genres: Young adult / thriller / contemporary / romance / drama Format: Paperback. Triggers/Content Advisory: Themes of sex, drug-use, and suicide. Source: Thank you so much to Penguin Random House SA for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule. Sports star Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond. Bad boy Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime. Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life. And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again. He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects. Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you'll go to protect them. Think Gossip Girl meets Thirteen Reasons Why. And driven by the hype, I couldn't wait to read this book. Although it didn't completely win me over, I still enjoyed it. The writing isn't anything amazing, but it is addictive. It's absolutely compulsive reading - I literally couldn't breathe sometimes because I was so riveted. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. It's overwhelmingly gripping, more-ish, and entertaining. The tension never stops climbing, and although the final climax didn't make me go "Wow!" the twists along the way certainly did. It's taut and unpredictable and kept me guessing. Add to that the dark, creepy factor: The book is also incredibly chilling. I had this haunting coldness crawling down my spine for most of the book, and I love how there's this very real darkness to the story. The whole high school setting is on point. So often I find that authors make it too stereotypical and forced, but I think McManus nails it in this book. It's utterly natural, and not cheesy or cliche at all. But I wanted the story to be more juicy. And I blame the lack of that on the writing, which never gives that gossipy, juicy sort of vibe. The story's good, but the writing compromises its potential. Another small negative regarding the story: I wanted more of a blow-out climax. It is cool and there's nice action, but I guess I wanted more physical fighting and with more of the characters involved. The way it is, it's slightly disappointing. “Unless one of us is lying. Which is always a possibility.” “I want to kiss her more than I want air.” I liked the characters. Addy and Nate are the only ones with real growth, but my favourites are still Bronwyn and Nate (Nate is so hot and swoony oh my gosh). I loved how McManus bent the stereotypes a bit and gave each teen a detailed back story, but I do think they could've been more vivid. Basically, no one leaps off the page. At the end of the book I wasn't left with a big impression of anyone; they needed more depth. But I did love watching their individual lives fall apart (as awful as it sounds to say that). I enjoyed watching the cracks begin to show, the secrets begin to emerge, and the relationships start to break - or build. The characters' stories are good, but their personalities could be deeper. The romance between Nate and Bronwyn is amazing, and easily my favourite aspect of the book (they're also one of my new favourite ships of all-time). They are so beautiful and hot together, and I ship them hard. I loved the slow-burn of their relationship, and their swoony scenes are so sexy. I also adored their chemistry - which no doubt comes from their contrasting personalities. BUT. I hated how their relationship, uh, resulted (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here...). It's rushed and random, and the event of Evan feels completely out of character for Bronwyn. It's unsatisfying and annoying. The romance is wonderful, but the way the book handles it towards the end of the story is weird. One of Us Is Lying is a thrilling, fun, and exciting story with plenty of knockout twists and a gorgeous romance. But the characters never truly come alive, and the writing isn't anything amazing. Waiting on Wednesday #47: BEFORE SHE IGNITES - by Jodi Meadows BEFORE SHE IGNITES - by Jodi Meadows Before Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland. But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station. After Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect. No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse. This book looks AMAZING. Incredibly unique synopsis, gorgeous cover, and I've heard that the anxiety gets excellent rep. Mira also seems to be a complicated, original heroine, and I love how it seems to be a story about self-discovery and as much about internal conflict as external. Anyone else excited for Before She Ignites? SEVEN DAYS OF YOU - by Cecilia Vinesse SEVEN DAYS OF YOU - Cecilia Vinesse. Published: 2017 - by Hachette Children's Group. Genres: Young adult / contemporary / romance / Triggers/Content Advisory: Themes and incidents involving sex, drugs, and alcohol. Severe bad language. Source: Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan SA for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. Sophia has seven days left in Tokyo before she moves back to the States. Seven days to say good-bye to the electric city, her wild best friend, and the boy she’s harbored a semi-secret crush on for years. Seven perfect days…until Jamie Foster-Collins moves back to Japan and ruins everything. Jamie and Sophia have a history of heartbreak, and the last thing Sophia wants is for him to steal her leaving thunder with his stupid arriving thunder. Yet as the week counts down, the relationships she thought were stable begin to explode around her. And Jamie is the one who helps her pick up the pieces. Sophia is forced to admit she may have misjudged Jamie, but can their seven short days of Tokyo adventures end in anything but good-bye? Prepare to meet one of the most fantastic chick-flicks of the year. I adored this book and you should too ;) The writing's excellent. It's fast-paced, entertaining, witty, and I loved Sophia's sassy narrative voice. I was constantly laughing out loud. The dialogue is brilliant, snappy, and flows and sparks like the wit of a teen TV show flick. It's delicious. Vinesse is also an incredibly perceptive writer, and her observations of the characters and circumstances are relatable and perfectly acute. The only disappointing thing about the writing is the bad language. There're frequent F words and blasphemy, and it's disgusting. But where this book really shines is in its impeccable vividness. Every scene is effortlessly easy to imagine, and it is exceptionally tangible: bursting with the rich culture and with every sight, smell, and taste leaping off the page. It's immersive in every form of the word. The descriptions were my favourite aspect of the book. I was utterly soaked in the stimulating atmosphere, scenes, and Japanese culture. “It might not be distance or time that takes you away from people. Maybe you decide when you let them go. But I can't let go yet.” “You’re terrifying the way a book is right before it ends. You know? When you have to put it down because it’s too much to take in at once. You are the most terrifying person I know.” The story's fast paced and very entertaining. The plot points are quite weak, but it's still a delightful story that's hopelessly romantic and well-told. I was never bored. But the plot isn't particularly substantial. Like the rest of the book, the characters are well imagined and vivid. I didn't love any of them (except Caroline) but they're all very human and three-dimensional and interesting. There're also some great, dynamic relationships, and they're complicated and realistically messy. I especially loved the growth of Sophia's relationship with her sister, Alison. But I did long for more closure in regards to some of the relationships; specifically between Jamie and his parents, and Sophia and her friends. I was unsatisfied about those at the end of the book. Another thing I didn't like was how immoral the characters were (not so much Sophia, but her friends). They sleep around, they're crude, they frequently get drunk...It's dirty and repulsive. The romance is sweet. I didn't love it because I never really liked Jamie (nothing personal, he just never won me over) but there's chemistry between him and Sophia, and I liked how he brought out the best in her. But I was never shipping them passionately. Seven Days of You is a delightful, engaging romantic flick with strong characters and stunning, evocative writing. You'll be utterly swept away. But the immorality and bad language are terrible. THE GOOD DAUGHTER - by Alexandra Burt Published: 2017 - by Avon. Genres: Adult / thriller / contemporary fiction Triggers/Content Advisory: There is an gang rape scene with occasional referrals and flashbacks. There's also one vague sex scene, and frequent, disturbing violence and gore. Source: Thank you so much to Jonathan Ball SA for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. What if you were the worst crime your mother ever committed? Dahlia Waller's childhood memories consist of stuffy cars, seedy motels, and a rootless existence traveling the country with her eccentric mother. Now grown, she desperately wants to distance herself from that life. Yet one thing is stopping her from moving forward: she has questions. In order to understand her past, Dahlia must go back. Back to her mother in the stifling town of Aurora, Texas. Back into the past of a woman on the brink of madness. But after she discovers three grave-like mounds on a neighboring farm, she'll learn that in her mother's world of secrets, not all questions are meant to be answered... WOW: I thought there would never be a thriller to rival The Girl on the Train. This book is a gut-load of despicable pain and tragedy, but it is so, so good. The language, the writing, is where the book truly comes alive. It is incredibly emotive, bursting with sensory details. The vocabulary is astounding, the writing raw and real, and the tone gorgeously atmospheric. It's so rich and literally tangible, and I was completely sucked into the breathless, horrifying world. It's exciting. Creepy, horrifying, dark and terrifying, but so gripping. It's clever but not remarkably so, and I did guess the twist a while before it was revealed, but I must admit I didn't actually mind. The story's strength is in its characters and writing, not its mystery. It's not so much about the destination, it's about the journey. And it works fine that way - even for a thriller. The suspense is thick and intense, but it's a bit of a love-hate thing for me. I felt like the author kept dangling the climatic answers to the many secrets right in front of me, and then snatching them away to prolong the revelations for yet another chapter. It's not a deal breaker, just a bit frustrating and worth mentioning. {She} was a strong woman; strong but damaged. Those are the dangerous ones. The story is heartbreaking. The horrors experienced by the characters are twisted, vile, agonising, and intense. It's dark and extremely sad, with deep internal and moral conflict festering beneath the surface. I think the author is talking as much about justice as she is about relationships. The characters are fascinating and realistic. They're elusive, complicated, and hurting. The changing points of view (I think there are at least three women who get the chance to tell it from their perspective) do get a bit confusing at times, but as the story processes and the perspectives get limited to Quinn and Dahlia, it's fine; just the getting there is a bit bumpy. I didn't love any of the characters, but I ached for them. I loved all the different, diverse relationships because of their depth and twisted dynamics, and I adored how the layers of each character's personality slowly get peeled back. Each person is unique and three dimensional, and Burt gets inside each individual mind brilliantly. The romance of the story can hardly be called a subplot, but I have to mention it because I loved it. I loved Dahlia and Bobby's relationship. I loved their relationship arc, their individual storylines that effect each other, and that their romance never once distracts from the main plot. It's a surprisingly mature and realistic romance, and I adored it. The Good Daughter is a standout of the genre. With its excellent, extremely evocative writing and vivid, dynamic, painfully flawed characters warped in darkness and brokenness, it's as much about human nature as it about secrets. It's a story that digs deep - literally and metaphorically - and has forever made an impression on me. Weekly Round-Up: Netflix and reading and writing PEOPLES! I've changed my blog post font - please tell me what you think? Is it easier to read than the previous one? I need feedback! And while you're at it, I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me what font you use for your blog... I'm looking for the perfect one, and I'd love to know what you find works for you. And I also changed my blogger header! I'd love to know your thoughts on that too? In other news, it's been an average week. I'm still going strong with my WIP, have been reading a fair amount, and been watching a lot of Gossip Girl (I'm officially addicted. It's my new darling). I finished series 1, but I'm going to take a break from it before starting series two and make a start on Supergirl instead. Which I've been dying to see. A small warning: there'll be blog posts from me every day for the rest of the month. I have a lot of reviews coming, and am hoping to get a "fun" post in there somewhere too. So stay tuned :) Film Review: THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE A Blog Squad Special: Infographic Book Review: The People At Number 9 Still going with these two books :) I finished one book this week (review to come): THIS ARRIVED AND I DIED OF EXCITEMENT Except I haven't read And I Darken yet, so I need to get hold of it soon. GUYS GUYS GUYS I WON A HARDCOVER AND FREAKIN' SIGNED COPY OF THIS GORGEOUS BABY I HAVE BEEN ANTICIPATING FOR LIKE A MILLION YEARS AND I LITERALLY COULD NOT BELIEVE I ACTUALLY WON THE COMPETITION I THINK I HAD A FEW MINI HEART ATTACKS WHEN I GOT THE EMAIL Melissa shares her Writing Journey Julie shares her Wonder Woman Art Kariny reviews Roar Brittany reviews Roar Brooklyn reviews Illuminae Alyssa reviews Wonder Woman: Warbringer Tanya reviews Wish You Were Here How was your week? What are you reading or watching? Have you read any of the books I got? What did you think of them? Labels: life update, weekly round-up, what I've been reading, what I've been watching, what I've been writing Waiting on Wednesday #48: THERE'S SOMEONE INSIDE Y... YOU DON'T KNOW MY NAME (The Black Angel Chronicles... Waiting on Wednesday #47: BEFORE SHE IGNITES - by ... THE PEOPLE AT NUMBER 9 - by Felicity Everett A Blog Squad Special: Requesting a Review Checklis... Waiting on Wednesday #46: EVEN THE DARKEST STARS -... THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE (film) is too pretty and clea... Weekly Round-Up: Writing and reading and watching A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU (Firebird #1) - by Claudi... STARR FALL (Starr Fall #1) - by Kim Briggs Waiting on Wednesday #45: THE HUMMINGBIRD HEART - ... WINDFALL - by Jennifer E. Smith THE ONE MEMORY OF FLORA BANKS - by Emily Barr Weekly Round-Up: I've been reading manically Blog Tour for THE LAST MAGICIAN: Giveaway and Inte... A Blog Squad Special: How To Find and Design Blog ... Waiting on Wednesday #44: THE GLASS CASTLE (film)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402484
__label__cc	0.707304	0.292696	Ponca City 580-762-1552Directions \| Stillwater 405-385-0029Directions \| Owasso 918-272-2882Directions On-Site Lab & Digital X-rays Owasso Urgent Care \| Restraining by redmond \| Mar 8, 2019 \| Uncategorized Owasso Urgent Care \| Healthy restraint This content was written for AMC Urgent Care Come and visit the Owasso urgent care that will definitely help you with the health issues that you’re looking for. This is some of the things that we can definitely help you through but most of all you have to understand that we’re really passionate but continue to provide you with experience that you deserve, and everything I said you’re looking for. That’s the way that we continue to have the Innovation mind also never turn back on the quality that were all about. This is how we continue to learn more about you but most of all I have a realistic strong sense of urgency in every situation that we need to do. Something else, is that we are the Owasso urgent care that will definitely help you get to the high standards that you’re looking for. From the last time you went to any urgent care and then you found yourself they’re just because you force yourself to go? Let me tell you that we actually care at the AMC urgent care with everything that we do the realistic approach and, everything else that you need to have. It’s about being thoughtful, and friendly through every step of the way and really Chandos out to do better everyday. We’re also glad to tell you that we’re committed to you as a patient. I think that really separates us as your Urgent Care, is that we are actually open every day of the week, yes that is seven days a week. This is really important, because we understand the inconvenience I think only time to open its after 5. We know your life doesn’t stop when you get off work, in fact that’s when you’re most likely needing there an urgent care. All of our staff has years of experience everything that they do, and they have training in emergency medicine. This is really important for many reasons obviously, but we’re also glad to tell you that we can help you through this process. Are you capable of really act himself to talk questions when you need to? This is something that they really do in allow yourself to think about before you takes too long to do this. We’re also glad to tell you specific something that we can do for you really have the potential of allowing you to remain determine through this process and access everything else that you need to do. It is to the sense of accomplishment that people really get things done and I’ll allow themselves are really about you that what you need. it’s maintained the realistic expectations that will really help you never expect too much or too little. That’s just the way you have to do everything especially when it comes to most urgent cares. However, we always look to exceed your expectations in every way, in fact we love to do this every day. When you can, feel free to give us a call soon and ask us about the way that we fearlessly continue to do what we do best. © 2020 AMC Urgent Care Plus \| Ponca City - Stillwater - Owasso. All rights reserved. \| Sitemap \| Site by RGConsulting	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402488
__label__wiki	0.68684	0.68684	Celebrating the image at RSNA 2011 By Cristen Bolan “Celebrate the Image”—the theme of RSNA 2011—appropriately emphasized the growing impact medical imaging is having in the clinical environment, across multiple disciplines, and in medical science throughout the world. “Medical imaging has helped change the face of clinical care,” noted 2011 RSNA President Burton P. Drayer, MD, in his RSNA presidential address. Yet he stressed that it is a critical time for radiologists to “remain clinically and academically essential,” encouraging radiologists to “form a united front in advancing the needs of clinical radiology and the imaging sciences.” To fulfill this mission, RSNA 2011 hosted one of its most comprehensive meetings to date, assembling a variety of interactive opportunities, including a new pediatric cluster; the “India Presents” session; a virtual symposium, where professionals from more than 100 countries networked; and virtual technical exhibits available to the 700 companies in the technical exhibit hall. Similarly, Applied Radiology is celebrating the image with coverage of RSNA 2011 in our print issue, in our interactive digital edition, and on MyARTV (www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV), where you can watch interviews with leading physicians and technology providers—filmed live at RSNA. Advanced Visualization BRIT Inc. (Dallas, TX) showcased its Vision 3.8, the latest version of the company’s high-performance DICOM diagnostic workstation, which features an advanced image-rendering engine (AIRE), a Web-based 3-dimensional imaging advanced post-processing application, and integrated urgent finding tools, including on-hold, voice controls and BRIT’s Voice Entry reporting tool, SpeechWorks. www.brit.com. See a video interview on www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV. Philips Healthcare (Andover, MA) featured MicroDose, its new full-field digital mammography (FFDM) solution, which reduces radiation dose by up to 50% compared with other FFDM systems. www.healthcare.philips.com Qi Imaging (Redwood, CA) (formerly Ziosoft) showed its QI solution, PhyZiodynamics inVivo technology, which enables true fidelity 4-dimensional (3-dimensional in motion) and the gateway to 5-dimensional imaging, also known as functional analytics of motion. The company demonstrated how to navigate interactively within a beating heart, contrast-perfused brain tumor, and other anatomy. www.ziosoft.com TeraRecon, Inc. (San Francisco, CA) showcased a suite of tools designed to allow physicians to approach imaging on an organ- or disease-based basis. The suite includes Lobular Decomposition, an analysis and segmentation tool that allows users to select the volume of interest and the trees related to it, and to partition the volume into lobes or territories. It also includes Volumetric Histogram, which supports analysis of a given volume of interest to research into disease processes; Motion Analytics, which provides a powerful 2-dimensional representation of a 4-dimensional process; and more tools. www.terarecon.com Vital Images (Minnetonka, MN) showed new features of Vitrea Enterprise Suite (VES), version 6.2, with enhancements to its MR Cardiac, CT Colon, CT Brain Perfusion and Body Perfusion applications. It also introduced new liver and myocardial analysis applications, which are both pending 510(k) clearance. Vitrea Enterprise Suite’s software utilizes an intuitive clinical workflow, fueled by intelligent automation to improve speed and simplicity. Versatile deployment options allow Vitrea Enterprise Suite to be customized for unique enterprise needs. The advanced visualization solutions provider also featured its recently introduced universal viewer VitreaView, version 6.2, with new report views as well as display of key radiology images. VitreaView is a universal viewer that addresses the needs of physicians who want universal access through a simple intuitive user interface for patient imaging. It offers secure integrated access to imaging through EMR, EHR, or HIE. VitreaView also enables access to images from disparate databases, providing one integrated universal viewer. www.vitalimages.com Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A. (Stamford, CT) highlighted its 3D Digital Mammography solution, a breast screening technology that presents the images to radiologists in an in-depth, 3-dimensional view. Pairs of stereo images of the breast are acquired and then viewed by combining a 3-dimensional review workstation and dedicated glasses specifically designed to present 3-dimensional breast images. www.fujimed.com Dilon Diagnostics (Newport News, VA)—In a new study presented at RSNA 2011, Jean Weigert, MD, of Bradley Memorial Hospital in New Britain, CT, concluded that breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) is a valuable adjunctive procedure when mammography and ultrasound fail to provide a confident breast cancer diagnosis. Researchers also concluded that BSGI is also a useful diagnostic modality to augment mammography in the management of patients with difficult to diagnose breast tissue, and in cases where unresolved clinical concern remains after a mammogram. www.dilon.com Hologic Inc. (Bedford, MA) highlighted the Hologic Selenia Dimensions 2D + 3D system, which provides radiologists measurable improvements in specificity and sensitivity over conventional digital mammography. The Selenia Dimensions breast tomosynthesis allows radiologists to offer their patients a conventional 2D digital mammogram and a 3D tomosynthesis exam in a single compression. The test takes just seconds and can be done at a dose below the U.S. mammography screening guidelines. As part of diagnostic arsenal, Hologic also showed Quantra technology, which estimates volumes in the breast and calculates the volumetric fraction of fibroglandular tissue. Hologic introduced several new breast biopsy features, including the Affirm guidance system designed for performing minimally invasive breast biopsy. Its pre-programmed settings for Hologic Eviva and ATEC biopsy devices are designed to offer radiologists quick and efficient set-up for reduced procedure times. Another advancement in breast biopsy procedures is Trident, Hologic’s mobile system with a direct digital detector technology to produce high-quality images for rapid verification of tissue specimens such as breast biopsy samples. www.hologic.com GE Healthcare (Chalfont, St Giles, UK) showcased SenoBright, GE’s newly FDA-cleared contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) technology that combines 2 high-quality images that, when looked at together, create one clear image of the breast. This fast imaging technique is an alternative to the long waits associated with other tests. www.gehealthcare.com Giotto USA (Wichita, KS) featured the Giotto Image 3D and 3DL Digital Mammography Systems, which offer 3-dimensional imaging with an 18 × 24 cm Bucky and the 3DL with an 24 × 30 cm Bucky. The Giotto provides 2 systems in one by adding the optional Biopsy Digit stereotactic biopsy device, enabling stereotactic biopsy procedures, prone or upright, combining mammography and prone stereotactic biopsy all in one unit. www.imsitaly.com Naviscan (San Diego, CA)—In a presentation at RSNA 2011, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed that using PEM to measure PEM values (PUV) from baseline might indicate whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy is effective. PEM is Naviscan’s high-resolution PET scanner showing the location as well as the metabolic phase of a lesion in breast tissue. The metabolic view is designed to assist physicians in making optimal care decisions by providing an ability to distinguish between benign and malignant lesions. www.naviscan.com Philips Healthcare featured MicroDose, its new full-field digital mammography (FFDM) solution, which reduces radiation dose by up to 50% compared with other FFDM systems. www.healthcare.philips.com Sectra (Linkoping, Sweden) launched Sectra OneScreen, an online solution to identify patients in the risk group for osteoporosis, which can be used in combination with mammography. With a single, standard X-ray image of the hand the women’s bone health (Bone Mineral Density, BMD) is estimated, using DXR technology. The image is taken at the same time as breast images, using the same radiology equipment. It is then sent to Sectra’s online lab for analysis. Sectra also showcased Sectra Breast Imaging PACS, with tools to streamline mammography workflow, and introduced the possibility of reading breast tomosynthesis images in Sectra Breast Imaging PACS. www.sectra.com Siemens Healthcare (Malvern, PA) showcased the MAMMOMAT Inspiration full-field digital mammography system with screening, diagnostic, and stereotactic biopsy capabilities. The unit offers 3 anode/filter combinations to match breast density and thickness. The Opdose feature automatically selects the appropriate anode/filter combination and the lowest radiation dose for individual breast characteristics. Inspiration’s Opcomp function applies compression only as long as the patient’s breast is soft and pliable, stopping at the point of optimal compression. www.siemens.com/healthcare GE Healthcare showed the recently 510(k)-cleared Optima CT660 64-slice system, providing a scalable, low-dose platform that enables fast, high-performance imaging in a variety of clinical settings. GE’s dose lowering included Veo, a model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) technology, and DoseWatch, a solution for tracking patient dose and optimizing imaging safety. The company also unveiled its new CT workstation, the Dexus workflow environment, designed to improve efficiency through PACS integration. In support of lowering CT dose, GE released a new dose-tracking and reporting solution, DoseWatch, engineered to help healthcare facilities analyze patient exposure levels over time. DoseWatch captures standardized dose information on CT, interventional, mammography and x-ray systems from a range of equipment vendors. www.gehealthcare.com Hitachi Medical Systems America (Twinsburg, OH) featured its CT system SCENARIA, which features a 64-slice gantry with a wider 75-cm aperture and automatic lateral shifting tabletop, to enhance access and ease anxiety. The system includes Hitachi’s full package of advanced dose reduction and dose awareness features, from Intelli EC–3D Automatic Exposure Control and Intelli IP—Iterative Processing—to Dose Check and DICOM Dose Structured Reporting, and more. Advanced applications modules can be added, including Cardiac Package, Neuro Time Density Analysis and TeraRecon’s full suite of iNtuition 3D visualization and analysis programs. www.hitachimed.com See a video interview on www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV. Philips Healthcare showcased the Philips MX16EVO CT system, which offers16-slice technology and a wide detector, designed for fast, high-resolution scanning, with shorter breath-hold time and high patient throughput. Included is metal artifact reduction technology, which enhances visualization of critical structures by reducing the interference of metal artifacts. The cost-effective MX16EVO slice CT system allows institutions to excel at routine CT scans, as well as expand into neurological and CT angiography (CTA) imaging with excellent image quality. www.healthcare.philips.com Siemens Healthcare unveiled SOMATOM Definition Edge Single-Source CT, equipped with the Stellar Detector, which has TrueSignal technology, engineered to reduce electronic noise and potentially improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the images. The scanner is designed to capture structures up to 0.3 mm, and to provide a rotation speed of 0.28 sec. According to the manufacturer, this may enable physicians to perform a customary thorax-abdomen examination in approximately 2 sec and potentially eliminate the need for patient breath holding during a scan. Also new to its CT portfolio is the SOMATOM Perspective, a CT scanner that offers the eMode software solution, designed to optimize the best correlation between dose, efficiency and image quality, automatically selecting scan parameters so that the CT operates with as low a load as possible. Potentially suited to cover a variety of clinical fields, the SOMATOM Perspective may potentially allow clinics and practices to extend their range of available examinations. Siemens also highlighted its computed tomography (CT) iterative reconstruction algorithm SAFIRE—Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction, image reconstruction software. SAFIRE is said to help users reduce dose by up to 60% compared to previous filtered back projection techniques. It also has a reconstruction speed of 20 images per sec. www.siemens.com/healthcare Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. (Tustin, CA) unveils next generation dose reduction technology, Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction 3D (AIDR 3D), which is a works-in-progress and pending 510(k) clearance. Available on Toshiba’s Aquilion ONE, Aquilion Premium and Aquilion PRIME systems, AIDR 3D enables scanning at lower radiation dose compared to conventional scanning, using an algorithm designed to work in both the raw data and image data space to reduce noise while maintaining image quality. AIDR 3D is integrated with SUREExposure 3D, software that calculates the minimum radiation exposure required for every exam, and adjusts dose for each patient based on a pre-set, targeted level of image quality. www.medical.toshiba.com Bracco Imaging S.p.A. (Milan, Italy) featured an evolution in the Empower CTA injector with new connectivity features that support data exchange with RIS and PACS. This connectivity aims to simplify workflow, allowing users to document and communicate injection information. The company also featured IRiS, Bracco’s contrast management software for an MR suite that can track patient identification, creatine values, contrast, and consumables such as syringes. The company also showcased its automated 3-channel syringe-less contrast media injector for CT examinations. The CT Exprés 3D, the primary product of Swiss Medical Care, which Bracco recently acquired, is a closed-injector system designed to deliver enhanced safety, faster workflow, and improved cost management. www.bracco.com Covidien (St. Louis, MO) highlighted its Optivantage Dual-Head CT contrast delivery system equipped with RFID-enabled intelligence to help safeguard against medical errors. RFID tags or transponders automatically captures, stores, and transmits data. The RFID enabled Optivantage contrast delivery system combined with the use of RFID enabled Ultraject prefilled syringes prevents accidental air embolism caused from using an empty, used syringe. The powerhead provides a color LCD screen that is fully programmable at the patient’s side. Also on display at the Covidien booth was the Angiomat Illumena contrast delivery system, which enables users to switch between angio, cardio and CT modes. http://imaging.covidien.com. See a video interview on www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV. Medrad, Inc., a business of Bayer Healthcare and Nuance Communications Inc., highlighted their new collaboration to bring radiology professionals an interoperability solution that automates documentation of CT contrast-injection data through connectivity between the MEDRAD Certegra informatics platform and Nuance PowerScribe \| 360 Reporting. The first installation of the reporting system debuted at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center (MSMC) in New York. Through the partnership, users can auto-populate contrast-injection records into radiology reporting systems—eliminating contrast-injection record look-ups and dictation, driving accuracy and consistency of documentation across physicians. www.bayerhealthcare.com, www.medrad.com, www.nuance.com Diagnostic Displays Barco (Kortrijk, Belgium) displayed its Mammo Tomosynthesis 5MP, the first FDA-cleared system for breast tomosynthesis. The display comes with some groundbreaking technologies specifically developed for multimodality mammography. The Mammo Tomosynthesis 5MP displays multimodality images using RapidFrame technology, which is engineered to speed pixel refresh when reviewing multi-frame image sequences such as tomosynthesis or breast MRI, eliminating blurring or ghosting. The display also uses per pixel uniformity technology to remove disturbing screen noise. Barco also launched its Coronis Fusion 4MP DL, a 30-inch diagnostic color display that can be used as one wide-screen desktop or 2 seamless 2 megapixel heads. Equipped with Diagnostic Luminance technology, the Coronis Fusion 4MP DL aims to address the dual needs of color and grayscale imaging, enabling radiologists to read all their studies without changing workstations. www.barco.com Dome NDSsi (Waltham, MA) featured the Dome S-series displays with a front-mounted sensor to take direct measurements from the front of the display. The S-series sensor covers are designed to minimize visual obstruction. DirectRead technology is mounted to the sensor close to the screen, using a plastic light pipe to a sensor in the back in order to capture more light and make more precise measurements. On the S10, a patented rear sensor mounted behind the front sensor compensates for the variation in the backlight near the edge of the display. This also protects against sensor drift as the backlights age. Dome also highlighted its premium 10MP diagnostic grayscale display, the Dome S10. This high-grade medical display is designed with the brightness required for mammography and speed needed for tomosynthesis. The S10 grayscale display is capable of showing 5 megapixel (MP) images on each panel for back-to-back chest wall reads. Its widescreen 10MP grayscale display has a sleek, lightweight, low-power design. www.ndssi.com/products/dome. See video interview on www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV. Agfa Healthcare (Mortsel, Belgium) showcased its new, high-productivity DX-D 600 platform, which comes in 3 different configurations. With the versatile manual system, you have the possibility of a mixed CR/DR configuration, with several options for 1 or 2 fixed or switchable detectors in the wall stand and table. The semi-automatic configuration includes vertical tracking on table and wall stand, and fixed or portable DR detectors in both the wall stand and the table. www.agfahealthcare.com Carestream Health (Rochester, NY) showed its work-in-progress CARESTREAM DRX-Revolution Mobile X-Ray System, a new mobile DR system featuring a unique, collapsible column that allows unobstructed views for enhanced visibility and safety while moving the system. It is a dual-drive system with 2 monitors that can make 360-degree turns in tight spaces to improve productivity in bedside imaging. www.carestream.com Canon (Tokyo, Japan) rolled out its first compact wireless DR detector, the CXDI-80C Wireless DR Detector, at RSNA 2011. The system features a lightweight body design with an imaging area of approximately 11 x 14-inches, compatible with standard-size Bucky trays, enabling radiology room upgrades from analog to cutting-edge digital imaging. Providing high-quality images with low X-ray exposure to the patient, the CXDI-80C Wireless DR Detector weighs 5.1 pounds and incorporates a 6.1-megapixel image sensor with a pixel pitch of 125 microns, a cesium iodide (CsI) scintillator, and can produce up to 140 images on a fully charged battery. www.usa.canon.com Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A. showed its latest extensions to its portable digital radiography (DR) arsenal with the FDR D-EVO Portable Upgrade System and the FDR Go flex. The FDR D-EVO system can be fitted with any of Fujifilm’s wireless FDR D-EVO models and includes the FDX Console workstation. The workstation includes a smartly designed swivel and tilting display to simplify image previewing for the technologist. The lightweight, compact FDR Go flex consists of a wireless FDR D-EVO flat panel detector, a full-featured laptop workstation and supporting mini components box. Fujifilm also presented its flagship DR system the FDR AcSelerate, which will include enhanced features necessary to perform dual energy subtraction with multi-stage registration and tomosynthesis exams. The recent tomosynthesis upgrade on FDR AcSelerate will capture up to 60 images in one fluid sweep, and then images are displayed on the PACS workstation. www.fujimed.com Konica Minolta Medical Imaging (Wayne, NJ) emphasized its digital radiography system’s flexibility and quality image acquisition. At RSNA 2011, Konica Minolta introduced Aero DR Portable Retrofit Solution, a new portable x-ray upgrade kit to turn portable x-ray systems into a digital, wireless solution. The solution is designed for a quick, easy and inexpensive transition from analog to digital. The portable and cable-free device has a 15.5 × 15.5 × 3-inch footprint, small enough to fit inside the storage bin, and is designed for use in surgery and emergency environments. www.medical.konicaminolta.us Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. (Tustin, CA) introduced the Kalare Wireless X-ray, a system designed to improve productivity and efficiency in x-ray imaging. The digital x-ray system includes a new wireless 14 x17-in panel with a rotating Bucky ray for increased movement. The rotating Bucky tray rotates from portrait to landscape, reducing the need to lift and rotate the detector to increase productivity. www.medical.toshiba.com Interventional X-ray Canon unveiled its first mobile C-Arm system, the Xephilio, equipped with Canon’s newly developed x-ray Flat Panel Detector, the CSX Dynamic Detector. The flat-panel detector is designed to capture high-quality clinical images at a low dose for both static x-ray images and mobile fluoroscopic live video. The wide C-arm depth is designed to provide broader coverage of the patient’s body parts for intervention and orthopedic surgery. www.usa.canon.com GE Healthcare unveiled the Discovery IGS 730, with both floor- and ceiling-mounted systems, providing laser-guided motion technology on a motorized mobile gantry for predictable and precise trajectories. The system can make wide bore 3-dimensional acquisitions. With more than 20 advanced applications available, the Discovery IGS 730 is positioned for a new era of interventional procedures. The C-arm, a motorized and fully mobile system, is based on laser guidance and can move freely from imaging position to parking or back-out positions, using predefined trajectories to provide total patient access. The Discovery IGS 730 features One-Touch-Back-Out, enabling fast and easy gantry movement away from the patient. GE also introduced the Innova IGS 630 biplane cardiovascular and interventional imaging system. The system features Innova CT HD, with 3-dimensional imaging, and a comprehensive set of advanced applications for interventional neuroradiology. It offers a dose management solutions and an enhanced end user experience for optimized workflow through customized display possibilities. These features are appropriate for interventional neuroradiology procedures, which uses minimally invasive image-based technologies to help physicians diagnose and treat diseases of the central nervous system, head, neck and spine. GE also introduced a new mobile x-ray system, a fully digital Optima XR220amx, designed to streamline transportation and help improve patient positioning. Optima is part of GE’s x-ray platform powered by FlashPad, a digital wireless x-ray detector designed to enable flexible positioning. www.gehealthcare.com Hologic Inc. presented the works-in-progress Hologic Fluoroscan InSight-FD mini C-arm, which features a high-resolution flat detector that rivals standard x-ray images in a mini fluoroscopy system. The system is designed to have a greater range of motion in a more ergonomic-friendly design for ease of positioning and greater surgical access, as well as new image processing for superb image quality. www.hologic.com. Philips Healthcare featured its next-generation Veradius Mobile C-arm with flat-detector balances, consistent image quality and clarity with a design that allows for sufficient space and convenience in challenging cardiac, vascular and orthopedic surgeries. The device is equipped with a large field of view that is not affected by geometrical or magnetic distortions. www.healthcare.philips.com Siemens Healthcare displayed the Luminos Agile, the first patient-side controlled system with dynamic flat-panel detector technology, height-adjustable table and dual-use capability for fluoroscopy and radiography. It has a 17 × 17 dynamic flat-panel detector provides a larger view without repositioning or changing the field of view, reducing overall fluoroscopy time and dose. The low table height is designed for a patient-side system, adjusting from 25 to 44 in, and has a 600 lb. table weight capacity. Fully synchronized fluoroscopy and radiography capability is available on the Agile by incorporating the Siemens Ysio digital radiography option. www.siemens.com/healthcare. Agfa Healthcare (Greenville, SC) debuted IMPAX Clinical Applications 2.1, a suite of advanced image processing and 3D rendering tools. The PACS is designed to address the clinical needs of radiologists and clinicians by integrating the advanced processing applications directly into the IMPAX PACS workflow. Because all reading and reporting tools are integrated directly within the IMPAX workflow and on one desktop, the solution is said to enable more efficient and rapid availability of results. Users can switch between applications without reloading study images, and access priors for comparative data sets quickly.www.agfahealthcare.com BRIT Inc. introduced Peer Review for Radiologists, a cloud-based solution for radiologists to perform peer reviews as per the ACR recommended scoring system. Exams are uploaded via DICOM TLS or an upload widget. Reports can be attached to the studies sent via HL7. A system administrator enters the percentage of exams to be reviewed by modality type and the system randomly selects these studies, eliminating any selection bias. BRIT also showed DoctorWorks Version 1.2, its upgraded iPad medical imaging viewer solution, which now provides simultaneous viewing of 2 studies and the addition of a timeline of studies on both the study information screen and the viewing screen. DoctorWorks allows radiologists to share images, reports, integrated EMRs, CCRs, critical results and ER discordance cross-enterprise by connecting to BRIT’s Roentgen Works PACS server. www.brit.com. See video interview on www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV. Candelis (Newport Beach, CA) and Microsoft (Redmond, WA) have teamed up, whereby Candelis’ ASTRA cloud-hosted suite of services will provide for the secure transferring of patient digital medical images and studies to patients’ Microsoft HealthVault accounts upon their request. Microsoft HealthVault is a personal health application that lets consumers gather, store and share health information online. Candelis’ Astra cloud-hosted suite of software services, which includes Astra Plus, Astra Lite, and Astra Mobile, is a downloadable app that allows users to send and receive imaging studies and reports across a WAN, and to route studies across a LAN via DICOM. Astra Lite is a thin client, browser-agnostic tool for delivering reports. Astra Mobile was developed specifically for Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch and allows users to view and print reports and images from their handheld device. www.candelis.com and www.microsoft.com Carestream Health showed its zero footprint Vue Motion viewer, which is available on its PACS platform and as part of its Vue PACS cloud-based service. Carestream’s SuperPACS technology exchanges information with disparate RIS/PACS systems to create a streamlined multi-site radiology workflow. CARESTREAM Vue for Cloud-Based Services delivers high-performance applications on a pay-per-use basis. Carestream’s cloud-based family of services includes Vue Cloud PACS, Vue Cloud Archive, and Vue Cloud Community, which offers image exchange and access portals. www.carestream.com Claron Technology (Toronto, Canada) introduced a web-based 2D and 3D image viewer accessible wherever a Web browser is available with no application download. Compatible with Windows, Apple, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry, the new Nil iPhone/iPad product will provide complete access to all the functionalities, including side-by-side viewing, arrangement and comparison of multiple series/multiple studies. The new Nil app also supports viewing protocols for PET/CT and PET/MR data fusion for optimized viewing of enhanced MR and CT studies. www.clarontech.com CoActiv Medical (Ridgefield, CT) demonstrated its EXAM-PACS web-based PACS solution’s ability to acquire, display and archive the new DICOM standard breast tomosynthesis exams, including the Hologic 2D and 3D Combo multiframe exams. The company also debuted EXAM-RIS v.2.0, a customizable RIS that offers a full range of features, such as specialized worklists and automated referring-physician communications to a seamless HL7 interface for billing and more, new EXAM-RIS. www.coactiv.com Dell Inc. (Round Rock, TX) highlighted its solutions for healthcare providers to store, manage, and share medical imaging data through a large cloud-based medical archive platform. The Dell Cloud Clinical Archive offers a single-source end-to-end solution designed to simplify data retention, facilitate disaster recovery, and allow medical professionals to access and share images across a variety of applications and platforms. www.dell.com/healthcare Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A. (Stamford, CT) rolled out Synapse® PACS 4.0, which includes improvements to image visualization with image processing for all of Fujifilm’s digital radiography and full-field digital mammography systems. This upgrade also enhances ease-of-use with customizable user interface functions, native 64-bit OS support, active overlays, resident reading, spine labeling, and a user dashboard. Fujifilm also debuted version 6.1, the latest addition to the company’s Synapse RIS and Synapse TeleRIS applications, which offers graphical dashboards that provide end users with the ability to better monitor and manage performance in real time; Synapse Financials for RIS, which provides a seamless option of incorporating practice management into the system; and advanced dose management features. www.fujimed.com GE Healthcare demonstrated the Centricity Radiology Mobile Access 2.0 platform, designed to enable radiologists to use their iPad and iPhone devices to remotely accesses images and reports from Centricity PACS, as the mobile product has clearance for primary diagnosis. The diagnostic clearance for the solution is limited to CT and MRI exams on an iPad or iPhone when not in proximity to a PACS workstation. www.gehealthcare.com iCAD Inc. (Nashua, NH)— iCAD highlighted a new work-in-progress, MRI-guided prostate biopsy prototype solution that features a combination probe and positioning software (PrecisionPoint for VividLook). The software uses in-plane scan specification and localizer scans to determine needle position, and a semi-rigid arm that allows for a broader range of motion. The company also debuted its Prostate MR-TRUS Fusion Integration, a work-in-progress integration of prostate MRI/TRUS-Fusion to enable radiologists and urologists to provide a more accurate assessment of the prostate gland. Additionally, iCAD featured its next-generation CAD solution for mammography, SecondLook Premier, as well as its SecondLook Digital Multi-Vendor solution. www.Icadmed.com LifeImage (Newton, MA) launched LINCS service, a network designed to help physicians improve patient care and reduce costs. The network allows physicians to share medical images and associated information with each other, with medical centers, with referring physicians and with their patients. LINCS has a directory function to find and contact an appropriate connection, once the contacted physician approves the connection, the physicians can share and view images throughout the patient-care process. www.lifeimage.com McKesson (San Francisco, CA) showcased its Horizon Medical Imaging™ and McKesson Radiology Manager™ solution, which are designed to improve the departments’ workflow, break down the communication barriers and improve access to patient information by the entire care team. The architecture is engineered to be scalable to facilities requiring a complete storage and information management solution. www.allaboutpacs.com Medweb (San Francisco, CA) announced that its Cloud PACS Service extends certified IHE-compliant Image Archiving to all sizes of medical practices, and is now available as an integrated storage service, giving clinicians a single resource that links to all image sources in their community. Medweb’s certification specifically addresses the workflows for intramural Radiology and PACS workflow, as well as Cross Enterprise Document and Image Sharing, and related encryption, logging, and collaboration profiles for sharing medical imaging and documents between hospitals, clinics, and doctor’s offices. www.medweb.com Philips Healthcare demonstrated its MDC PACS, designed to streamline a hospital’s workflow and information structure. The solution allows web-based viewing of images across multiple hospital and off-site locations. By streamlining access to radiological data, the MDC PACS aims to improve diagnostic confidence and patient care. www.healthcare.philips.com Rogan-Delft (Veenendaal,, The Netherlands) featured the Rogan-Delft PACS using the IBM database product DB2 and IBM storage solutions for storing medical image files. The company also highlighted Rogan-Delft Health IT products, such as RIS and XDS will also be able to use DB2 and other IBM products. www.rogan-delft.com Siemens Healthcare (Malvern, PA) launched several apps available for download from the App Store that are designed to operate on the iPad, iPhone and iPod. These include Touch.syngo.via WebViewer, syngo.via WebReport, syngo Workflow Mobile, which deliver radiology information system capabilities to mobile devices. syngo Dynamics Mobile, which allows cardiovascular imaging specialists to extend their access to image and report review beyond the workstation to Internet-enabled devices; and syngo.plaza virtualized, which brings the acclaimed functionality and user interface of syngo.plaza, are now available on mobile devices. www.siemens.com/healthcare GE Healthcare debuted MAVRIC SL, a 510(k)-pending magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technique for imaging the joints of patients with metallic implants and for assessing soft tissues in the vicinity of arthroplasty and metallic instrumentation. MAVRIC SL is intended for use on GE 1.5T and 3.0T MR systems. The MR750w with GEM suite coils, GE’s new wide-bore MR system, helps accommodate more patients through thoughtful design. www.gehealthcare.com Hitachi Medical Systems America Inc. rolled out its new 1.5-tesla MR system, ECHELON, an oval bore system, its flagship 1.5 tesla model. The oval bore is designed to create a feeling of openness and greater comfort for patients and has a thin-type wide table. Imaging hard to reach positions with conventional systems is feasible such as easy setting of off-center imaging for the shoulders and so on. Also on display was OASIS, an open type 1.2 tesla super conducting MRI system, which using an open bore to reduce patients stress, and enable patients with large frames and the elderly who cannot lie down straight, as well as children.www.hitachimed.com See video interview on www.appliedradiology.com/MyARTV. Philips Healthcare exhibited the Intera 1.5T MRI system, designed to simplify imaging exams using SmartExam technology. SmartExam is a scanning system that reduces scanning time and increases operator efficiency. In addition, Intera 1.5T comes with SENSE parallel imaging technology, making scanning faster and increasing image resolution. The company also highlighted the Achieva 1.5T SE, targeted at sites that want to introduce MRI services for the first time or add capacity to current MRI capabilities. The system includes PowerSave, a solution that can help reduce energy costs. www.healthcare.philips.com Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. introduced the Vantage Titan 1.5T MR Series, offering an 8-channel (works-in-progress) and 32-channel (WIP) systems in addition to its 16-channel MR system. Titan 8-channel MR includes a 71-cm bore, Pianissimo noise reduction technology, noncontrast imaging, integrated coils with Atlas SPEEDER technology and an M-Power user interface, at a price point unmatched in the industry. The 32-channel system is designed for enhanced cardiac imaging with high slew rate gradients, for high spatial and temporal resolution. Toshiba also unveiled a new pediatric coil suite for its Vantage Atlas and Titan MR systems. The new coils, a works-in-progress, are optimized for pediatric patients, producing better image quality for body, spine and neuro imaging. The Vantage Titan 3T MR system is equipped with Multi-phase Transmission technology, for more homogeneous abdominal and pelvic images. Toshiba’s Pianissimo sound-reduction technology helps reduce exam noise by up to 90%. www.toshiba.medical.com GE Healthcare debuted its PET/CT+MR solution as the next step in hybrid imaging. The combination of these technologies produces striking images of the brain, breast and prostate, helping doctors see fine vessel detail, visualize cardiac anatomy and function, as well as detect small lesions and monitor response therapy—a combination that may hold promise for managing patient care. The company also introduced the new Discovery PET/CT 710, with 128-slice imaging capabilities, and Q.Suite—a collection of capabilities that support consistency of quantitative measurements in daily quality control, scanner workflow, motion correction, reconstruction algorithms, and analysis and reporting applications. Q.Suite is designed to extend quantitative PET by generating more consistent standardized uptake value (SUV) readings—enabling clinicians to assess treatment response accurately. www.gehealthcare.com Philips Healthcare announced Ingenuity TF PET/MR, a hybrid modality that offers Astonish TF Time-of-Flight technology combined with the soft tissue imaging of Achieva 3.0T MRI in a whole-body footprint, received 510(k) clearance from the FDA and is now commercially available in both the US and Europe and Canada. Studies have shown that bringing the highest fidelity PET and MR imaging together improves the quality and accuracy of diagnostic images. Also, Philips PET/MR system can produce up to 70% less ionizing radiation than PET/CT while providing greater visualization of the cardiovascular disease process. Additionally, the Ingenuity TF PET/MR was able to effectively image the prostate for the first time and detect deadly cancers in organs such as the pancreas at a significantly earlier stage. Philips also showcased TruFlight Select PET/CT, the company’s first economical PET/CT system to incorporate the premium time-of-flight (TOF) technology, Astonish TF, helping to provide virtually all clinicians access to the advantages of premium TOF technology. TOF technology is designed to enhance image quality by reducing image artifacts and providing higher sensitivity. The resulting images help clinicians better detect and locate lesions to increase diagnostic confidence and preserve healthy tissue during treatment. According to a recent study, TOF scans can help to improve lung and liver lesion delectability. In the study, the improvement was more pronounced in heavy patients. This product is expected to become globally available in the fourth quarter. www.healthcare.philips.com Siemens Healthcare introduced Biograph mMR, which enables simultaneous whole-body acquisition of data from a 3.0 tesla MR and a PET scanner. The system enables users to generate the location, function, and metabolic activity of organs in a single image at the same time. \ Potential clinical applications for molecular MR include the early identification and staging of malignancies, therapy planning, and treatment. The Biograph mMR shows the greatest promise in oncologic and neurologic applications. In addition, the company featured the Biograph mCT a positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scanner, Siemens Healthcare provides a system that enables precise measurement of metabolic processes and data quantification, including the assessment of neurological disease and cancerous tissue, as well as cardiac blood flow (perfusion). The clinical indications for the new Biograph mCT support physicians in treating many oncological, cardiological and neurological diseases through earlier, more exact diagnosis, and in therapy planning and precise monitoring of disease progression. Designed to bring accuracy and reproducibility to quantification in PET, the system is said to better characterize cancer lesions, measure absolute myocardial blood flow allows for accurate assessment of multi-vessel disease, and improve diagnosis of neurological conditions and management of patients presenting signs of Alzheimer’s disease. www.siemens.com/healthcare GE Healthcare showcased the Discovery NM/CT 670, as single photon emission tomography (SPECT/CT) system designed to improve workflow, dose management, and overall image quality. The hybrid system combines a newly designed SPECT gantry with the BrightSpeed Elite 16-slice CT, engineered to shorten acquisition times. It has a wide bore and the table is capable of handling patients up to 500lbs. Also featured in the GE booth was the Brivo NM615, an advanced gamma camera developed through GE’s Evolution technology. This single-head system has the ability to achieve shortened scan times, rivaling a dual-head system. Brivo NM 615 SPECT allows doctors to lower injected patient dose by as much as 50 percent of those of standard nuclear medicine scanning protocols, or the potential for patients to spend significantly less time on the table during exams without compromising image quality. www.gehealthcare.com Siemens Healthcare put the spotlight on its Symbia family of SPECT and SPECT•CT scanners with the IQ•SPECT, a technology that supports routine scans using half dose and double speed to provide comprehensive cardio workup, while easing the burden of the global molybdenum shortage via a reduction in technetium dose. Diagnostic SPECT•CT, including calcium scoring, uses half of the typical technetium dose and cuts acquisition time from approximately 20 minutes to less than 5 minutes with the addition of IQ•SPECT. www.siemens.com/healthcare GE Healthcare updated its LOGIQ S8 ultrasound, a lightweight, portable ultrasound system, such as S-Agile Ultrasound, technology that uses flexible clinically-based models of the body to help deliver consistently clear images for virtually all body types, particularly for overweight and obese patients. It also now features Scan Assistant; software that allows for a streamlined workflow, enabling the operator to customize the system to perform commonly used functions automatically. The LOGIQ E9 now has improved color and 4-dimensional imaging; expanded elastography applications for prostate, thyroid, musculoskeletal, liver and gynecology; and transducers for transcranial Doppler, and the ability to load in multiple datasets, including PET images. www.gehealthcare.com Hitachi Aloka Medical (Tokyo, Japan), a new dedicated ultrasound company after Hitachi acquired Aloka Co., Ltd., showcased a 4-dimensional elastography. The company’s new Ascendus and the F75 ultrasound systems feature 4-dimensional elastography. www.hitachi-aloka.co.jp Philips Healthcare debuted the ClearVue 550 (pending 510(k) clearance), which is designed to be a user-friendly, lightweight and energy-efficient ultrasound system that produces high-quality imaging at an affordable price. The product uses proprietary Active Array technology, which results in enhanced image quality in both 2D and color images, lighter-weight cabling, increased system reliability, and easier serviceability. The versatile platform aims to meet a broad range of clinical application needs, including abdominal, OB/Gyn, small parts, vascular, musculoskeletal, cardiac, pediatrics, urology, and Transcranial Doppler (TCD). www.healthcare.philips.com Siemens Healthcare launched the ACUSON S3000, a 510(k) pending ultra-premium ultrasound platform. The new system has eSie Fusion imaging, a works-in-progress, which enables the automatic fusion of 3-dimensional CT volumes with real-time ultrasound via a single click. It includes advanced automated ultrasound fusion imaging, and multimodality review capabilities for additional clinical and spatial information in the analysis of complex pathology and/or when performing interventional procedures, such as biopsies. www.siemens.com/healthcare SuperSonic Imagine (Aix-en Provence, France) demonstrated its UltraFast Doppler, which unites color flow imaging with pulsed wave Doppler, and is said to have frame rates up to 10 times faster than conventional color Doppler. The system also acquires fully quantifiable Doppler data throughout the color box, enabling the generation of post-processed pulsed wave Doppler spectra from multiple locations in the same image. www.supersonicimagine.com Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. launched the Aplio 500 ultrasound system, which is 510(k) cleared. The system comes optional with Fly Thru and Smart Fusion features. Fly Thru using 3-dimensional volume rendering to “fly through” interiors of ducts and vessels for better exploration of lesions and masses, and to assist in planning interventional procedures. The other feature, Smart Fusion, shows both CT and ultrasound images side-by-side on a single screen. Smart Fusion syncs the 2 images, helping to locate hard-to-find lesions and aiding in ultrasound-guided biopsy without additional CT scans. Toshiba’s Smart Fusion is easy to use, with the most intuitive user set-up available. www.medical.toshiba.com Celebrating the image at RSNA 2011. Appl Radiol.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402489
__label__cc	0.601445	0.398555	Fontys Nexus EGM architects architecten\|en\|en Fontys Hogescholen R1, Rachelsmolen 1, 5612 Eindhoven, Netherlands BASE Photography Fontys Nexus - University of Applied Sciences EGM architects as Architects BASE Photography View Gallery Ready for the future Fontys Nexus: a complement to Brainport. The former TNO research building felt like an exploration into the world of CSI: long corridors with labs and offices full of secrecy and mystery. The design challenge for The architects ofarchitecten\|en\|en, EGM architectenand the interior architects of Studio Groen+Schild, was to transform a building built for 500 researchers into an inspiring, inviting and future-proof learning environment for 2,500 students. Through five targeted interventions, the austere and functional research building has been transformed into a sustainable and high-quality education building with a distinctive and entirely original identity. Basement as hub Initially, the 30,000m2 building was deemed too small to accommodate the three institutes: Engineering, Applied Sciences and Business Management, Education & Technology. But careful analysis of the spatial potential led to a solution: the dark basement was to be afforded habitable qualities. A large mezzanine has been carved out of the ground floor, and a gap in the roof lets ample natural light into the workshop, which now represents the hub of the Automotive school, part of Engineering. The students here find themselves - quite literally - surrounded by cars and technology. Sustainable layout A wide range of academic concepts is facilitated by the distribution of the courses over the different floors. Automotive is located in the basement, Engineering on the ground floor, labs are on the 2nd floor and Business Management on the top floor. The 1st floor is the communal floor, where future changes between courses will be accommodated. The layout of the various floors is given structure by intersecting long corridors with open learning areas in strategic places, which serve as landmarks with light, air and sight. These so called Maker Spaces are connected by a “ribbon”, a black steel frame that can be found throughout the entire building, which creates meeting spaces for students. Connected technical education The main entrance forms part of the communal floor. Moving this from the ground floor to the first floor means that visitors enter at a central point, among the various technical schools. On an urban planning level, this visibly connects the Fontys Nexus educational programme to the groeneloper and academic buildings of the TU/e. Hogwarts staircase The heart of the education building is formed by the atrium. Originally an empty space, it has been transformed into a dynamic heart with a number of Hogwarts-inspired staircases. The various courses are showcased along this interesting trail as an advertisement for Fontys Nexus. An inspirational place where visitors, students and lecturers meet and interaction is stimulated. View of Brainport The final element to the transformation is the machinery floor, which has been used as décor to create a unique learning environment. Housing exclusive teaching rooms, including the lecture hall, and offering views of Brainport Eindhoven, this is the perfect place in which to dream of creation and innovation. This story is available in multiple languages Share or Add Fontys Nexus to your Collections Studio Groen+Schild Build2Learn E&B MTD Landschapsarchitecten Aspire Tower Individual Buildings	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402492
__label__wiki	0.659184	0.659184	home : titles : 1946 All titles produced in 1946 ALP Cinema Advertisement: In the Wake of the Storm advertisement – 1946 This cinema ad for the 1946 federal election encourages Australians to stay with the Labor Party, which has successfully led the country through the end of the Second World War. ALP: Frank Forde, Election 1946 newsreel – 1946 Labor Deputy Prime Minister Frank Forde appeals to his Capricornia electorate to vote for him and Prime Minister Chifley in the September 1946 federal election. City in the Sun documentary – 1946 Post-war austerity is nowhere to be seen in this romanticised look at the streets of Sydney in the summer of 1946. The Constant Threat sponsored film – 1946 This short film promotes the importance of having a free chest x-ray, provided by the NSW Department of Public Health, to test for tuberculosis. Liberal Party Cinema Advertisement: The Golden Age advertisement – 1946 This Liberal Party cinema advertisement for the 1946 federal election proposes that life for ordinary people under the incumbent Labor government is by no means as good as it should be. The Overlanders feature film – 1946 As the Japanese threaten northern Australia in 1942, a drover takes a mob of prime beef cattle across 2,600 kms of hazardous country to Queensland. Persil Washing Powder: Their Day advertisement – 1946 This washing powder’s particular magic is its ‘oxygen dazzle’ which allows the powder to lather easily without the need for rubbing and scrubbing. Rinso Washing Powder: Easy Does It advertisement – 1946 This Rinso advertisement from 1946 features Bill Kerr with Joy Nichols, Dan Agar – all actors and radio stars of the era. Smithy feature film – 1946 Smithy was Charles 'Bud’ Tingwell’s first film. With characteristic modesty, he later said he won the part as a control tower officer because he supplied his own uniform. Sprod, John: Pioneer Tours Bus Trip to Flinder’s Ranges, Building Brick Houses home movie – c1946 John Sprod was influenced by his father, an amateur photographer who taught him how to develop film. Sydney Harbour and Anzac Day home movie – c1946 This colour home movie shows the official Anzac Day parade through central Sydney in 1946, one year after the end of the Second World War. Travelling Library documentary – c1946 This remarkable colour footage captures the excitement that the mobile library brought to school children in the 1940s.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402499
__label__cc	0.576019	0.423981	Search in box below by one word: Surname, County, State, Country etc. 19th c PHOTOGRAPHERS •NEWLY UP• 1¢ BOOKS Home › Ancestors: Newly Up › 1870's Frederick Townsend CDV Photo, son of photographer C.H. Townsend 1870's Frederick Townsend CDV Photo, son of photographer C.H. Townsend #865: On reverse: "Freddie Townsend" handwritten in old fancy period dip pen ink. Photo type: Original Antique Victorian CDV or Carte de Visite Photograph. Photographer: C.H. Townsend, Southbridge, Worcester County. (known to be his father, photographer Charles Henry Townsend 1847-1911) Found in Public Genealogy Records: Frederick Charles Townsend 1873-1963 His father: Charles Henry Townsend 1847-1911 was born in Athens, Athens County, Ohio. A veteran of the 129th Ohio, 141st Ohio volunteer infantry and the 65th Ohio volunteer infantry. His photographer uncle, Albert C. Townsend born in 1827, was based in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. Known as A.C. Townsend, he taught his nephew Charles the trade. His mother: Rhoda Taft Townsend was born in Chaplin, Windham County, Connecticut. His parents were married in 1871. His wife: Florence Ellis Snow Townsend 1882–1981, they married in 1907, born to parents Rensebery Clark Rencelier Snow 1844–1928 and Maria Binford Snow 1850–1909. She died in 1981 at age 99. Their 3 children: Frederick Snow Townsend 1912–2014 Margery Rhoda Townsend born 1910 Dorothy Townsend, born 1914 Source: A Modern History Of New Haven And Eastern New Haven County, Illustrated, Volume Ii, New York & Chicago, By The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918: "Charles Frederick Townsend, a New Haven architect enjoying high professional rank, was born at Southbridge, Massachusetts, February 11, 1873. His father, Charles H. Townsend, is a native of Ohio and a representative of an old New York family tracing its ancestry back to Martin I. Townsend, who came to the new world at an early period in its colonization. Charles H. Townsend took up the study of photography and for many years followed that profession but is now living retired in Florida. He is a Civil war veteran who ran away from home to join the army when but a boy in his teens and for five years he remained with an Ohio regiment covering the entire period of hostilities with the south. He married Rhoda Sophronia Taft, who was born at Ashford, Connecticut, and was a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Taft and Anne Parker Taft. Mrs. Townsend passed away in 1911 at the age of fifty six years. His son, Charles Frederick Townsend, who was an only child, was educated in the public schools of Willimantic, Connecticut, and prepared for college under the direction of F.H. Beede, superintendent of schools of New Haven. In 1892 he entered Lehigh University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1895 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He had there specialized in a four years course in the study of architecture and engineering and immediately after his graduation he entered into professional relations with William H. Allen, architect. He was afterward associated with the firm of Brown & Von Beren and in 1906 he entered into partnership with E.W. Foote, under the firm style of Foote & Townsend. That association was maintained until 1911, since which time Mr. Townsend has practiced independently. His skill as an architect finds visible evidence in utility of the fine structures of this city. He devotes his undivided time and attention to his profession and is among the leaders in this line. On the 1st of June, 1907, Mr. Townsend was married in Manistee, Michigan, to Miss Florence Ellis Snow, a native of Ware, Massachusetts, and a daughter of Renceler C. Snow and Maria Binford Snow. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend are now the parents of three children: Margery Rhoda Townsend, born July 3, 1910; Frederick Snow Townsend, born April 27, 1912; and Dorothy Townsend, born August 8. 1914. Mr. Townsend is a republican but while well informed on the questions and issues of the day has never been an office seeker. He is a member of the Phi Delta Theta, a Greek letter college fraternity, and he has attained the Knights Templar degree in the York Rite of Masonry and the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite and his interest in the moral progress of the community is manifested in his membership in St. John's Episcopal church, where he is the secretary or clerk of the parish. Mr. Townsend deserves much credit for what he has accomplished, for he worked his way through college, and perseverance and determination have constituted the foundation upon which he has built his prosperity." This is a beautiful close up portrait of young Freddie, who wears a short brim riding hat, cross, and sash, has a slight smile, which is unusual for 19th c. photography. This photo is very light in tone, but still a beautiful image and family treasure. Scans are enhanced and sharpened to clarity. A wonderful Townsend family piece from a well known and industrious family. Size: 2.5 by 4 inches Note: Hello from ~debra. I have spent years collecting over 10,000 ID’d lost family photos & paper from US flea markets & antique shops. I do the best gen research I can, but am always open to corrections. This is an original antique item, not a reprint. A new high quality rigid sleeve is included for extra protection, especially during shipping. You may buy a piece alone, or large intimate 300 dpi scans of the front and back sent immediately via email, or both. Please search carefully, as they are often found together and many may be related. I also invite you to join me at Ancestorville Genealogy on facebook. Thank you, enjoy! ~Debra Clifford (contact info on top bar) 1870's Frederick Townsend CDV Photo, son of photographer C.H. Townsend - ORIGINAL VINTAGE PHOTO - 865 $22.00 1870's Frederick Townsend CDV Photo, son of photographer C.H. Townsend - Scans-300 dpi Large Crisp Scans of Front/Back-Sent via email - Scans $4.99 ORIGINAL VINTAGE PHOTO - $22.00 USD Scans-300 dpi Large Crisp Scans of Front/Back-Sent via email - $4.99 USD Liquid error: Could not find asset snippets/disqus.liquid We Also Recommend.... 1800's Gray Carroll signed CDV Photo, Richmond, Virginia VA 1800's H.F. Sawtell (Henry Francis Sawtell) Saint Louis Missouri 1800's Sarah Wyatt CDV Photo, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, UK 1820's M.A. Lunn Family inscribed Tankard, Lincolnshire, England 1823-1942 Newton Walker, Amanda Vose Family Register, Woodhull NY Ancestorville Debra Clifford Shelburne Falls MA 01370 debra@ancestorville.com phone 845 704 7506. © 2020 Ancestorville Genealogy	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402502
__label__wiki	0.800592	0.800592	Category Archives: Islam and Terrorism By Team Crowder \| 12 Mar 2017 We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: college is filled with walking butt gaskets. It’s low on the list of great investments right now (read Dear High School Students: Don’t Go to College. No Seriously…). After all, no need to pay to be surrounded by SJW craziness when you can join us as we laugh at them for free. Let the giggle fits commence… Welcome to UW-Madison. Or, welcome back. Crowderheads have been here before (see Univ. of Wisconsin Offers Class on ‘Problem of Whiteness’ and University of Wisconsin Creates Absurd New List of ‘Racist Microaggressions’). When it comes to act of moronic political correctness, ’tis a frequent offender. Today we bring you the latest in, “As Religious Freedom Turns.” UW-Madison students seem to think some religious deserve rights, while others not so much. Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Politics, Religion, Videos, Videos: Islam and Terrorism Anti-American, Anti-Christian, Attack on Religious Freedom, Attacks on Christians, Downfall of America, Homosexuality, Islam, Islamization of America, Islamization of the West, Liberal Stupidity, Liberals, Libtards, Muslim Hypocrisy, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Violence, Muslims, Obamamerika, Political Correctness, Politics, Religion, Religious Freedom, SJWs, Terrorism, UW-Madison, Video, WTF Obama Plans Return to Politics – Wants to ‘Change the World’ ‘Change’? Doesn’t he really mean ‘destroy’? By Rusty \| 15 Sep 2017 Former President Barack Obama will remain on the sidelines no longer. Obama will host a global summit this fall in Chicago aimed at inspiring and empowering people to “change the world.” Wait a minute … Didn’t his slogan involve the word ‘change’ and didn’t he have eight full years to accomplish said change? During his farewell address, Obama even said ‘mission accomplished.’ Crime, Economy, Guns, Health, Hillary Clinton, Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Koran/Qur'an, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Obama, ObamaCare, Politics, Religion Anti-American, Anti-Christian, Anti-Law Enforcement, Anti-Military, Anti-Semitism, Black on Black Violence, Black on White Crime, Crime, Demoncrats, Downfall of America, Evil, Health Insurance Premiums, Illegal Immigration, Islam, Islamization of America, Libtards, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Violence, Muslims, Obama, Obama is Evil, ObamaCare, Obamamerica, Politics, Poverty, Racism, Religion, Terrorism, Welfare, WTF In Interview, Top Indonesian Muslim Scholar Says Stop Pretending That Orthodox Islam and Violence Aren’t Linked By Marco Stahlhut \| 8 Sep 2017 Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, has a constitution that recognizes other major religions, and practices a syncretic form of Islam that draws on not just the faith’s tenets but local spiritual and cultural traditions. As a result, the nation has long been a voice of, and for, moderation in the Islamic world. Yet Indonesia is not without its radical elements. Though most are on the fringe, they can add up to a significant number given Indonesia’s 260-million population. In the early 2000s, the country was terrorized by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a homegrown extremist organization allied with al-Qaeda. JI’s deadliest attack was the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people. While JI has been neutralized, ISIS has claimed responsibility for recent, smaller terrorist incidents in the country and has inspired some Indonesians to fight in Syria — Indonesians who could pose a threat when they return home. The country has also seen the rise of hate groups that preach intolerance and violence against local religious and ethnic minorities, which include Shia and Ahmadiya Muslims. Among Indonesia’s most influential Islamic leaders is Yahya Cholil Staquf, 51,advocates a modern, moderate Islam. He is general secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama, which, with about 50 million members, is the country’s biggest Muslim organization. Yahya. This interview, notable for Yahya’s candor, was first published on Aug. 19 in German in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Here are excerpts translated from the original Bahasa Indonesia into English. Many Western politicians and intellectuals say that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. What is your view? Western politicians should stop pretending that extremism and terrorism have nothing to do with Islam. There is a clear relationship between fundamentalism, terrorism, and the basic assumptions of Islamic orthodoxy. So long as we lack consensus regarding this matter, we cannot gain victory over fundamentalist violence within Islam. Radical Islamic movements are nothing new. They’ve appeared again and again throughout our own history in Indonesia. The West must stop ascribing any and all discussion of these issues to “Islamophobia.” Or do people want to accuse me — an Islamic scholar — of being an Islamophobe too? https://time.com/4930742/islam-terrorism-islamophobia-violence/ Crime, Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Koran/Qur'an, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Politics, Religion, Videos: Islam and Terrorism Indonesia, ISIS, Islam, Islamophobia, Muslim Hatred of Non-Muslims, Muslim Hypocrisy, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Violence, Muslims, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, Yahya Cholil Staquf If you want to welcome Muslim refugees you should be required to register with your local city government so your name and address can be placed on a list and then those Muslim ‘refugees’ you’re welcoming with open arms can come stay with you in your home and eat your food and rape your daughters and young sons. Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Politics, Religion Anti-Christian, Anti-Democracy, Crime, Islam, Islamization of Europe, Islamization of the West, Muslim Hatred of Non-Muslims, Muslim Immigrants, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Scum, Muslim Violence, Politics, Rape, Religion, Terrorism Hungarian mayor seeks to ban Muslims and gay people from his village By May Bulman \| 7 Feb 2017 The mayor of a village in Hungary has said Muslims and gay people are not welcome, despite a need to fill houses in the area. László Toroczkai, mayor of Asotthalom, a remote village of around 4,000 on Hungary’s southern border with Serbia, said that while he would like to attract more inhabitants to the village, he did not want to attract Muslim or gay people — citing his desire to “preserve traditions”. Mr Toroczkai, who was elected in 2013 and is also vice-president of Hungary’s far-right party Jobbik, told the BBC’s Victory Derbyshire show the village authorities wanted to welcome new Western European residents, claiming that the flow of refugees could lead to the “disappearance of Europe”. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/muslims-gay-people-not-welcome-hungary-mayor-asotthalom-laszlo-toroczkai-lgbt-rights-islamophobia-a7566916.html Burqas, mosques, ‘gay propaganda’ all banned in Hungarian village Mayor in Europe Takes a Much Tougher Approach Than Trump on Islamic Migrants Hungary swears in its first batch of ‘border hunters’ who will patrol the country’s razor-wire fence alongside soldiers to keep migrants out EUROPE: Mugged By Multiculturalism ! THE MUSLIM INVASION OF EUROPE – GOOD BYE SWEDEN, GOOD BYE EUROPE Polish PM Warns Europe About Accepting More Muslim Migrants Crime, Economy, Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Politics, Religion Asotthalom, Crime, Hungary, Illegal Immigration, Islam, Islamization of the West, László Toroczkai, Muslim Double Standards, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Migrants, Muslim Scum, Muslim Violence, Muslims, Politics, Religion, Riots, Serbia, Terrorism EU Court Now Forcing Hungary, Slovakia to Accept Migrants By John Porter \| 7 Sep 2017 Dear European Union, do you want more Brexit? Because this is how you get more Brexit. If you need more of an idea why Hungary and Slovakia might want to refuse migrants, let’s open up the LwC archives and see how the influx of migrants to European Union countries has affected nations who’ve welcomed them: https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/court-forces-eu-countries-accept-migrants-quotas/ Crime, Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Politics, Religion Anti-Christian, Anti-Democracy, Assault, Brexit, Crime, European Union, Germany, Hungary, Immigrants, Immigration, Islam, Migrants, Muslim Hatred of Non-Muslims, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Violence, Muslims, Rape, Slovakia, Sweden, Terrorism Finally! Justice Dept. Sides With Colorado Baker Sued by Gay Couple By Kacie Burnett \| 7 Sep 2017 Gays have a burning obsession with baked goods. Their cake fetish has led to many tales of bakers targeted by LGBTers who demand a cake to celebrate their gayness (see Gaystapo Logic: You Will Bake Our Cakes… Or We’ll Call You “Gay”!). You may recall this man-loving couple who got their tighty whities in a twist over a baker who refused to make them a wedding cake. He was ordered to “bake gay wedding cakes or none at all.” Since then, it’s been a flurry of legal nonsense. Apparently the case is going to the Supreme Court now. All because of the fateful pastry that never was. Well, one good thing did happen. Courtesy of the Justice Dept.: In a major upcoming Supreme Court case that weights equal rights with religious liberty, the Trump administration on Thursday sided with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/justice-dept-colorado-baker/ Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Muslim Persecution of Non-Muslims, Politics, Religion, Videos #GayWeddingCakes, ACLU, Anti-Christian, Bakery, Charlie Craig, David Mullins, Demoncrats, Discrimination Against Christians, Downfall of America, Gay Marriage, Homosexuals, Justice Department, LGBT, Liberals, Muslim Bakeries, Muslim Intolerance, Muslims, Persecution of Christians, Politics, Religion, Supreme Court, Video ‘You’re a vile disgrace to women and all mankind’: Courtney Love attacks Palestinian women’s rights activist in Twitter tirade calling her ‘anti-American’, an ‘anti-Semite’, and a ‘fraud’ Well said, Courtney! Courtney Love has slammed a pro-Palestinian activist and accused her of being an ‘anti-American fraud’ in a Twitter tirade. Love fired off a series of messages at Linda Sarsour – who helped organize the anti-Trump Women’s March earlier this year – on Wednesday morning. The 52-year-old’s outburst was in response to Sarsour’s campaign raising money for a Somalian mother who claims she was attacked by a white man in a hate crime and was racially abused. But police have said it is not a hate crime, while her alleged attackers say they stepped in because they saw another Somali woman hitting a young child in the face with a shoe. Islam, Islam and Terrorism, Islamization of the West, Politics, Religion Anti-American, Child Abuse, Courtney Love, Fake Hate Crimes, Islam, Linda Sarsour, Muslim Double Standards, Muslim Hatred of Non-Muslims, Muslim Hypocrisy, Muslim Intolerance, Muslim Lies, Muslims, Ohio, Politics, Rahma Warsame, Religion, Scam, Sharia Law, Terrorism, Twitter Chechen Terrorism	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402504
__label__wiki	0.752099	0.752099	Facts About Desert Tortoises for Kids By Betty Lewis The desert tortoise is an admirable reptile, living in extreme conditions that other species of his kind can't handle. He's also unique because he can dig underground to seek refuge from high heat and freezing temperatures. The desert tortoise population has declined 90 percent during the past three decades. Built for Work, Not Beauty The desert tortoise is a thick skinned fellow, with a scaly head. His flat, heavy front legs and very long nails help him dig his burrows. He's not a showy tortoise; his high shell ranges from dull yellow to dull brown and can be as short as 5 inches or as long as 15 inches. His weight varies widely, ranging from 24 pounds to more than 50 pounds. Males are generally larger than females. An herbivore, the desert tortoise will eat what's available in his home range. As a rule, he'll dine on freshly fallen leaves and low-growing plants, including tree fruit and flowers, succulents, grasses, bark, stems, shrubs and woody vines. He takes advantage of the rainy season by drinking large amounts of water when it's available. This guy has learned to dig pits in the soil to catch rainwater and will wait near a pit if he thinks rain is on the way. An adult desert tortoise can live a year without access to water. Hot Living The southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico comprise the desert tortoise's home range, specifically, the Sonoran and Mojave deserts. His preferred habitat is rocky hillsides, desert washes, semi-arid grasslands and sandy canyon bottoms at elevations below 3,500 feet. He's able to live where ground temperatures reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit -- or even higher -- because he can burrow underground to escape the heat or to protect himself against freezing in his dormant stage. In fact, he spends at least 95 percent of his time in his burrows, which are 3 to 6 feet deep. Filling Their Time The desert tortoise is active spring through fall, spending November through February in his underground burrow. When the weather's cool enough, he'll spend his daylight hours foraging for food; when it's hot, he'll take care of dinner business during twilight. His burrow system can be quite extensive, sometimes extending 30 feet. Located under rocks or shrubs or in washes, he may use the same burrow over and over and often will share it with other tortoises. He's not particularly social and prefers the company of the opposite gender when spending time with another tortoise. More, Please Mating time is any time the desert tortoise is above ground, but he's more active in late summer and early fall. Females lay eggs May through July, with the clutch size averaging three to five eggs and hatching after three or four months. A female may lay a second clutch of eggs later in the summer, which will hatch the next spring. It takes a long time for a female to reach sexual maturity. She can't breed until she's about 15 years old -- or even older. As well, the survival rate for hatchlings is very low; only about 2 to 3 percent of hatchlings make it to adulthood. Once a tortoise makes it to age 20, he's got a great chance of living at least another 30 years or more. The life expectancy of a desert tortoise that celebrates his 20th birthday jumps to 50 to 80 years. Threats to the Tortoise Despite his tough shell, the desert tortoise has predators. The mountain lion can crush his shell and other animals, such as coyote, badgers, bobcats, gray foxes, ravens and golden eagles, prey on eggs, hatchlings and juveniles. Humans haven't been helpful either, contributing to his habitat loss, as well as collecting the desert tortoise for the pet and food industry. California has strict laws against collecting or harming its state reptile. Defenders of Wildlife: Basic Facts About Desert Tortoises DesertUSA.com: Desert Tortoise Center for Biological Diversity: Desert Tortoise A-Z Animals: Desert Tortoise Animal Diversity Web: Gopherus agassizii (Californian) Desert Tortoise Endangered Species International: Threats to the Desert Tortoise The Lifespan of the Inchworm Reptiles That Live in the African Grassland What Do House Geckos Look Like? Relationship Between Purple Sea Urchins & Lined Chiton Desert Tortoise Adaptations Facts About Land Turtles Adaptations of the Swift Fox The Best All-Weather Dog Breeds What Kind of Climate Do Alligators Live In? Desert Tortoise Food List Why Do Tortoises Burrow Underground? Speed & Agility of a Mountain Goat Tortoise Mating Habits What Do Marbled Geckos Eat? What Turtles Have Orange & Black Bodies? What Happens to a Reptile's Body Temperature When the Outdoor Temperature Increases? What Is the Average Land Speed of a Kodiak Bear? Animals That Live Longer Than Humans Physical Characteristics of the Giant Tortoise	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402505
__label__wiki	0.546063	0.546063	Muhammad on the Divine Throne Bassam Zawadi’s other Lord and God We resume our response to Zawadi’s “reply.” Zawadi tried to brush aside the narrations I provided which show that Muhammad sits on Allah’s throne by arguing that the reports in question are all weak. However, not only did Zawadi completely ignore my citation from al-Tabari who defends the veracity of this tradition: “Even though the traditions we have mentioned on the authority of the Prophet and his Companions and the Followers indicate the correct interpretation of maqaman mahmudan in Qur. 17:79 (as referring to Muhammad’s role as intercessor on the Day of Resurrection), Mujahid’s statement that God will seat Muhammad on His Throne remains one whose soundness CANNOT BE REJECTED either on the basis of traditions (khabar) or on the basis of speculation (nazar). This is so because there is no tradition from the Messenger of God or anyone of his Companions or the Followers THAT DECLARES IT TO BE IMPOSSIBLE… From what we have said, it has become clear that, it is not impossible for an adherent of Islam to say what Mujahid had said, namely, that God will seat Muhammad on His Throne. If someone says: We do not disapprove of God’s seating Muhammad on His Throne (in view of the following tradition transmitted by) ‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-‘Azim – Yahya b. Kathir – al-Jurayri – Sayf al-Sadusi – ‘Abdallah b. Salam: ‘On the Day of Resurrection, Muhammad will be on the Lord’s footstool (kursi),’ but we disapprove of God’s seating him together with Him, it should be said: Is it then permissible in your opinion that He seat him on it but not together with him? If he permits this, he is led to affirming that either he is together with Him, or God seats him (on the Throne) while being Himself either separate from it or neither contiguous with nor separate from it. Whatever alternative he chooses, he thereby enters into something that he disapproves. If he says that it is not permissible, HE DEVIATES FROM THE STATEMENTS OF ALL THE GROUPS WE HAVE REPORTED. This means diverging from the views of all adherents of Islam, since there is no other possible statement than those three, according to each of which Mujahid’s statement in this sense IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE.” (The History of Al-Tabari – General Introduction and From Creation to the Flood, translated by Franz Rosenthal [State University of New York Press (SUNY), Albany 1989], Volume I, Appendix A. A Partial Translation of Tafsir on Qur. 17:79 (Above, pp. 75 f.), pp. 149, 151; capital and underline emphasis ours) He didn’t even bother to carefully read an article that I linked to, which he himself mentions, since if he had done so this is what he would have found: 10. Al-Qurtubi’s Commentary Imam al-Qurtubi commented thus on the verse of the Exalted Station in his Tafsir: The third explanation of this verse is what al-Tabari reported from a party of scholars – among them Mujahid – whereby “the Exalted Station is the seating by Allah of the Prophet with Him on His Throne (kursiyyih).” They narrated a hadith to that effect, and al-Tabari backed up the possibility (jawâz) of such a thing with some extravagant statements (shatatin min al-qawl). However, what he said cannot be inferred [from the verse] except with over-subtlety as to meaning (al-talattuf bi al-ma‘nâ), and it is far-fetched (fîhi bu‘d). This is not to say that there is no such narration; only that [one endowed with] knowledge interprets it figuratively (al-‘ilmu yata’awwaluhu). Abu Sa‘id al-Naqqash[68] mentioned from Abu Dawud al-Sijistani:[69] “Whoever denies this hadith, WE STRONGLY CONDEMN HIM. The scholars of knowledge never stopped narrating this hadith. Who among them ever denied its possibility, even as he interpreted it?” (G. F. Haddad, The Prophet’s Seating on the Throne (Iq‘âd al-Nabî ‘alâ al-‘Arsh); capital and underline emphasis ours) [67] Here al-Qurtubi proceeds to interpret as he had alluded that it should be done when he said: “This is not to say that there is no such narration; only that knowledge demands that it be interpreted figuratively.” (underline emphasis ours) 13. Al-Barbahari’s Idée Fixe Ibn Abi Ya‘la relates in his Tabaqat that the Hanbali shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Barbahari never sat to teach except he mentioned that the Prophet sits next to Allah on the Throne.[114] [114] Ibn Abi Ya‘la, Tabaqat al-Hanabila (2:43). 14. Al-Najjad’s Attack on “Anyone That Contradicts Us” Ibn Abi Ya‘la wrote the following in his chapter on Abu Bakr al-Najjad in Tabaqat al-Hanabila: ‘Ali[115] narrated to me from Ibn Batta: Abu Bakr al-Najjad told us: (1) Harun ibn al-‘Abbas[116] told us: Muhammad ibn Bishr[117] told us: ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Sharik[118] told us: My father[119] told me: Abu Yahya al-Qattat[120] told us, From Mujahid: (2) Mu‘adh ibn al-Muthanna[121] told us: Khallad ibn Aslam[122] said: Muhammad ibn Fadl[123] told us, From Layth, From Mujahid: Concerning the verse: “It may be that thy Lord will raise you to an Exalted Station”: “He will seat him with Him on the Throne” (yujlisuhu ma‘ahu ‘alâ al-‘arsh).[124] Al-Najjad said: “I also asked [about it] Abu Yahya al-Naqid,[125] Ya‘qub al-Mutawwa‘i,[126] ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and a group of our shaykhs, and they narrated to me the hadith of Muhammad ibn Fudayl from Layth from Mujahid. “I also asked Abu al-Hasan al-‘Attar[127] about it, and he narrated to me the hadith of Mujahid. Then he said: ‘I heard Muhammad ibn Mus‘ab al-‘Abid say: “[The Prophet’s seating on the Throne will take place] in order for all creation to see his station before his Lord, and his Lord’s generosity towards him. Then the Prophet (s) shall retire to his apartments and gardens and wives, and alone shall remain Allah in His Lordship (yanfaridu ‘azza wa jalla bi rubûbiyyatihi).”’ “I also looked into the book of Ahmad ibn al-Hajjaj al-Marwazi, who is our imam and guide and proof in this. In that book I found what he mentioned concerning the rejection of the hadiths of ‘Abd Allah ibn Salam[128] and Mujahid, and he listed the names of the shaykhs WHO CRITICIZED THOSE WHO REJECTED THESE HADITHS OR OBJECTED TO THEM. “Therefore, what we declare and believe before Allah Almighty is what we have just described and made clear concerning the meanings of the hadiths quoted from the Prophet WITH AN UNINTERRUPTED CHAIN (al-ahadith al-musnada ‘an rasul Allah),—[129] and what was said by ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas—[130] and the scholars after him, which was handed down from elder to elder and from age to age until our shaykhs’ time concerning the saying of Allah: [It may be that your Lord will raise you to an Exalted Station]: the Exalted Station consists IN THE SEATING OF THE PROPHET WITH HIS LORD ON THE THRONE. WHOEVER DENIES THIS OR CONTRADICTS IT IS ONLY ATTEMPTING TO PROMOTE THE SAYINGS OF THE JAHMIS. HE SHOULD BE AVOIDED, EXPOSED, AND WARNED AGAINST.[131] “Similarly, I was told by Abu Bakr the writer,[132] from Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, that the latter said: ‘Whoever rejects the hadith of Mujahid is a Jahmi.’[133] “Furthermore, Muhammad ibn Suhayb[134] and a group of our shaykhs narrated to us from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Malik al-Daqiqi[135] that he said: ‘I first heard this hadith fifty years ago, AND I NEVER HEARD ANYONE DENY IT. ONLY THE JAHMII HERETICS REJECT IT.’ “Abu Isma‘il al-Sulami[136] mentioned to us the case of al-Tirmidhi who rejected the pre-eminence of the Prophet (s) and belittled him.[137] Of such a man he said: ‘He does not believe in the Day of Judgment.’ I have seen our shaykhs among the friends of Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal give the same verdict. They condemned whoever rejected such pre-eminence. Allah has made this condemnation clear in the words of the scholars as far back as one can see. The people have all met this with approval, and no-one denies this nor disputes it. “Such is also my position. And should one swear a triple divorce by the seating by Allah of the Prophet on the Throne with Him, then consult me on the validity of his oath, I would say: Your words are true, your oath binding, and the divorce stands. “That is our doctrine, our religion, our belief upon which we were raised and upon which we shall die if Allah wills. We categorically condemn whoever rejects this pre-eminence to which the scholars referred and which they met with acceptance. Whoever rejects it is from the sects that are bound for destruction.”[138] [131] Here al-Najjad moves from an apologetic and descriptive stance concerned primarily with the evidence at hand to an aggressive stance aiming at the persons of those who question it. Towards the end of the passage he once more modifies his attack so as to represent any disputation of Mujahid’s narration as an attack on the Prophet himself. [138] Abu Bakr al-Najjad in Ibn Abi Ya‘la’s Tabaqat al-Hanabila (2:9-12). 15. Ibn Batta’s Doctrine Ibn Batta stated in his book al-Sharh wa al-Ibana ‘ala Usul al-Sunna wa al-Diyana (“Elaboration of the Principles of Sunni Doctrine”): The Prophet shall be seated on the Throne with his Lord (yujlas ma‘a rabbihi ‘alâ al-‘arsh), and this privilege belongs to no-one else. Thus did Nafi‘ narrate it from Ibn ‘Umar from the Prophet concerning the verse: “It may be that thy Lord will raise you to an Exalted Station” – he said that He shall seat him with Him on the Throne. Thus also did Mujahid explain it, as narrated by Muhammad ibn Fudayl, from al-Layth, from Mujahid. Thus, according to Zawadi’s own Muslim scholars he is a Jahmi heretic who should be avoided, exposed and warned against! Zawadi also failed to mention that even his very own idol Ibn Taymiyyah and his pupil Ibn Qayyim believed and embraced the veracity of this tradition! 12. Ibn al-Qayyim’s List of Supporters Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya[78] said in his Bada’i‘ al-Fawa’id: Al-Qadi [Ibn Abi Ya‘la][79] said: “Al-Marwazi[80] compiled a book on the superlative merits of the Prophet in which he mentioned his seating (iq‘âduhu) on the Throne (al-‘arsh).” Al-Qadi further said: “This is the position of Abu Dawud, Ahmad ibn Asram,[81] Yahya ibn Abi Talib,[82] Abu Bakr ibn Hammad,[83] Abu Ja‘far al-Dimashqi,[84] ‘Abbas al-Duri,[85] Ishaq ibn Rahuyah (or Rahawayh),[86] ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Warraq,[87] Ibrahim al-Asbahani,[88] Ibrahim al-Harbi,[89] Harun ibn Ma‘ruf,[90] Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Sulami,[91] Muhammad ibn Mus‘ab al-‘Abid,[92] Abu Bakr ibn Sadaqa,[93] Muhammad ibn Bishr ibn Sharik,[94] Abu Qilaba,[95] ‘Ali ibn Sahl,[96] Abu ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Nur,[97] Abu ‘Ubayd,[98] al-Husayn ibn Fadl,[99] Harun ibn al-‘Abbas al-Hashimi,[100] Isma‘il ibn Ibrahim al-Hashimi,[101] Muhammad ibn ‘Imran al-Farisi al-Zahid,[102] Muhammad ibn Yunus al-Basri,[103] ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal,[104] al-Marwazi, and Bishr al-Hafi.”[105] I say: It is also the position of Ibn Jarir al-Tabari,[106] and the leader of all the above in this is Mujahid, the imam of Qur’anic commentary. It is also Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni’s[107] who said: The hadith of Intercession narrated by Ahmad Is traced back to the Elect, Ahmad. Also known to us is the hadith of his seating On the Throne, THEREFORE DO NOT DENY IT. Let the hadith pass exactly as narrated, And do not enter into false notions. Neither deny that the Prophet sits on the Throne, Nor deny that Allah makes him sit there![108] [108] Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Bada’i‘ al-Fawa'id (1900 ed. 4:39-40, 1994 ed. 2:328-329). 16. Ibn Taymiyya’s Inheritance Ibn Taymiyya wrote: The scholars recognized by Allah and His accepted Friends have narrated that Muhammad the Messenger of Allah will be seated by His Lord on the Throne next to Him. Muhammad ibn Fudayl narrated this from Layth from Mujahid in the commentary of the verse: “It may be that your Lord will raise you to an Exalted Station.” This was also mentioned through other chains, some traced back to the Prophet and some not. Ibn Jarir [al-Tabari] said: “This does not contradict the nearly-mass-narrated narrations (ma istafâdat bihi al-ahâdith) whereby the Exalted Station is the Intercession as agreed upon by the Imams of all Muslims.” He does not say that the Prophet’s seating on the Throne is denounced as false; ONLY SOME JAHMIS HELD IT SO. Nor is it objectionable to mention it in the context of a commentary on the verse.[141] [141] Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu‘ al-Fatawa (Mufassal al-I‘tiqad - “Specifics of Belief” - 4:374). Yet since Zawadi doesn’t like “weak” narrations here is one which is deemed to be reliable or sound: 8. Another Narration From ‘Abd Allah ibn Salam From ‘Abd Allah ibn Salam, in a long hadith on the Day of Judgment: “A seat (kursî) will be placed for the Prophet on the right of Allah.”[38] [38] Al-Hakim narrated it in his Mustadrak (4:568-569) and declared its chain sound (sahîh), as confirmed by al-Dhahabi. (Bold and underline emphasis ours) Hence, Muhammad will be given a seat right next to Allah! This means that Muhammad shares in Allah’s exclusive rule over all creation and is therefore Allah’s partner who is another sovereign lord besides Allah! To make matters worse, certain allegedly sound narrations assert that both the names of Allah and Muhammad are written on the pillars of Allah’s throne! Al-Bayhaqi cited the following hadith in his book "Dala'il an-Nubuwwah" (Signs of Prophethood): Narrated 'Umar Ibn al-Khattab: the Prophet said: "When Adam committed the sin, he said to Allah, 'O My Lord, I ask You with reference to Muhammad to forgive me'. Allah said: 'O Adam! How did you know about Muhammad, for I have not yet created him?' Adam replied, 'O My Lord, when You created me, I looked up and saw inscribed on the legs of the Throne the words: There is no God worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger. I knew that you do not attach to Your name but the name of the dearest of Your Creation.' Allah said to Adam, 'You have spoken rightly, Adam. Muhammad is the dearest of My Creation. I have forgiven you because you asked by Muhammad. AND HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR HIM, I WOULD NOT HAVE CREATED YOU.'" This hadith was narrated by al-Hakim who also classified it AS SAHIH (AUTHENTIC). Among the transmitters of this hadith is 'Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Zayd Ibn Aslam. Al-Haythami said: "This hadith was reported by at-Dabarani and in its chain of transmitters are people I do not know. Al-Hakim was therefore mistaken in classifying this hadith as sahih because he himself criticised 'Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Zayd Ibn Aslam in his book ad-Du'afa, so how can he state the authenticity of the hadith after he had criticised him?!!" (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Part 1, Surah Al-Fatiah Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 1 to 141, Abridged by Sheikh Nasib Ar-Rafa'i [Al-Firdous Ltd., London: Second Edition 1998], p. 107, fn 10; capital and underline emphasis ours) Abu Muhammad al-Makki, Abu'l-Layth as-Samarqandi and others related that when Adam rebelled, he said, “O Allah, forgive me my error BY THE RIGHT OF MUHAMMAD!” Allah said to him, “How do you know Muhammad?” He said, “I saw written in every place in the Garden, ‘There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.’ So I knew that he was the most honoured creation in Your eyes.” SO ALLAH TURNED TO HIM AND FORGAVE HIM. It is said that this is the interpretation of the words of Allah, “Adam learned some words from his Lord.” (2:27) Another variant has that Adam said, “When you created me, I lifted my gaze to Your Throne AND WRITTEN ON IT WAS: ‘There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,’ so I knew there would be no one held in greater esteem by You THAN THE ONE WHOSE NAME YOU PLACED ALONGSIDE YOUR OWN NAME.” Allah then revealed to him, “By My might and majesty, he is the last of the prophets among your descendants. IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR HIM, I WOULD HAVE NOT CREATED YOU.” It is said that Adam was given the kunya, Abu Muhammad. Some people say that it was Abu'l-Bashar (the father of mankind). (Qadi 'Iyad Musa al-Yahsubi, Muhammad Messenger of Allah (Ash-Shifa of Qadi 'Iyad), translated by Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley [Madinah Press, Inverness, Scotland, U.K. 1991; third reprint, paperback], Chapter Three: On the Sound And Well-Known Traditions Related About the Immense Value Placed On Him By His Lord, His Exalted Position And His Nobility In This World And The Next, Section 1: His place, p. 89; capital emphasis ours) The Sufi Muslim scholar Gibril Fouad Haddad mentions similar reports: - The hadith of Adam’s tawassul through the Prophet is related by the Companions – Maysara, Ibn ‘Abbas, and Ibn ‘Umar – with chains varying in strength from strong to very weak: I. Ibn al-Jawzi narrated in al-Wafa with his chain through al-Bayhaqi’s and al-Khatib’s shaykh, the trustworthy hafiz Abu al-Husayn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah, known as Ibn Bishran al-‘Adl al-Umawi al-Baghdadi al-Mu‘addal (d. 411 or 415) in his Fawa’id, from the trustworthy hafiz and Musnid of Baghdad Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn ‘Amr ibn al-Bakhtari al-Razzaz, from Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn Salih al-Wazzan al-Jurjani (d. 281 “la ba’sa bihi” according to al-Daraqutni), from Muhammad ibn Sinan al-‘Awqi (d. 223, al-Bukhari’s shaykh in the Sahih), from Ibrahim ibn Tahmn (one of the narrators of the Sahihayn), from Budayl ibn Maysara (one of the narrators in Sahih Muslim), from ‘Abd Allah ibn Shaqiq (one of the narrators in Sahih Muslim), from the Companion Maysarat al-Fajr: I said: “Messenger of Allah, when were you made a Prophet?” He replied: “When Allah created the earth and turned to the heavens, arranging them into seven heavens, and He created the Throne, He wrote on the leg of the Throne: MUHAMMAD IS THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH AND THE SEAL OF PROPHETS. And Allah created Paradise in which He made Adam and Hawwa’ dwell, then He wrote my name [there] on the gates, the tree-leaves, the houses and tents, while Adam was still between the spirit and the body. When Allah Most High brought him to life, he looked at the Throne and saw my name, whereupon Allah Most High informed him: ‘He is the liege-lord of your offspring.’ When shaytan deceived them, they repented and sought intercession with my name from Him.” The hadith master al-Salihi cited it in Subul al-Huda wal-Rashad (Beirut ed. 1:86=Cairo ed. 1:104) and said “Its chain is good and there is no harm in it.”1 Al-Halabi also cited it in his Sira (1:355)… II. Al-Khallal narrated in al-Sunna (1:261): Al Fadl ibn Muslim al-Muharibi narrated to us: Muhammad ibn ‘Isma narrated to us: Jundul [ibn Waliq, thiqa per al-Haythami] narrated to us: ‘Amr ibn Aws al-Ansari [mastur per al-Dhahabi] narrated to us: from Sa‘id ibn Abi ‘Aruba: from Qatada: from Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyab: from Ibn ‘Abbas: Allah Most High revealed to ‘Isa: ‘O ‘Isa, Believe in Muhammad and command whosoever reaches his time among your Community that they believe in him. Were it not for Muhammad, I would not have created Adam, and were it not for Muhammad, I would not have created Paradise or Hellfire. Indeed, I created the Throne on top of the water and it shook, so I inscribed upon it LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH MUHAMMADAN RASULULLAH, where upon it stood still.’” Al-Khallal said: “I read it to Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Bishr ibn Sharik and he concurred with it,” i.e. with its being authentic. Al-Hakim similarly narrated in the Mustadrak (2:614-615=2:271): ‘Ali ibn Hamshadh al-‘Adl (258-338) [Abu al-Hasan al-Naysaburi, a major trustworthy hafiz] narrated to us by dictation: Harun ibn al-‘Abbas al-Hashimi (208-275) [thiqa per al-Khatib] narrated to us: Jundul ibn Waliq narrated to us, to the end of the above chain and text. Al-Hakim said: “This is a sound-chained hadith but Al-Bukhari and Muslim did not narrate it.”2 Al-Dhahabi in his Talkhis al-Mustadrak and Mizan al-I‘tidal (s.v. ‘Amr ibn Aws) conjectures that Ibn ‘Abbas’s narration is forged (“azunnuhu mawdu‘an”) but brings no proof, as its chain contains neither a liar nor a forger and is a fair chain by the Salafs criteria for fada’il hadiths. 1A grading confirmed by ‘Abd Allah al-Ghumari in Murshid al-Ha’ir (p. 37) and al-Radd al-Muhkam (p. 138-139) as well as his student Mahmud Mamduh in Raf‘ al-Minara (p. 247-249). 2Also Abu al-Shaykh in Tabaqat al-Asfahaniyyin according to al-Lacknawi in al-Athar al-Marfu‘a (p. 44), and Abu Sa‘d al-Naysaburi in (1:163-165 §15). (Hadith of Adam's tawassul through the Prophet (Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1427–April 2006), p. 1; bold and underline emphasis ours) Thus, Muhammad is not only seated on a throne alongside Allah his name is also an essential, foundational pillar of the very throne of Allah thereby keeping it secure! As if this weren’t astonishing enough we are even told that everything exists for Muhammad!(1) However, Zawadi does have a backup plan just in case his first argument fails: Secondly, even if we do assume that the Prophet Muhammad sits with Allah on the Throne, this is only proof of Allah greatly honoring the Prophet Muhammad [sic]. Where does it say in Islamic sources that only the divine could sit on the Throne? No where does it say that. It is only Shamoun's personal subjective opinion that tells him that if someone sits on the Throne with God then that makes the person God. This is completely unfounded and baseless. Zawadi must be suffering from amnesia since he forgot the following citation which he borrowed from “Servetus the Evangelical”: Richard Bauckham said: In Second Temple Judaism, then, the throne of God in the highest heaven became a key symbol of monotheism. (Richard Bauckham, The Throne of God and the Worship of Jesus, page 53) Here, once again, is the context of this particular quotation: In Second Temple Judaism, then, the throne of God in the highest heaven became a key symbol of monotheism, representative of one of the essential characteristics definitive of the divine identity. While a few traces of other enthroned figures associated with God’s rule can be found, the subordination of such figure to God’s rule is almost always stressed, while the overwhelming trend of the literature is towards emptying heaven of all thrones except God’s. There is no indication that this was controverted issue, as it was later in rabbinic discussions of Daniel 7:9 and of Metatron. The uniqueness of the heavenly throne of God belongs to the logic of the monotheism that dominated common Judaism in the Second Temple period. (Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel – God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity [William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI/ Cambridge, U.K. 2008], 5. The Throne of God and the Worship of Jesus, 3. The Heavenly Throne of God, p. 164; underline emphasis ours) According to Bauckham, God’s heavenly throne symbolized God’s unique divine identity as the sovereign Ruler of all creation. It was one of the key elements differentiating God from creation. Another scholar we quoted wrote that, “… The divine throne belonged to God ALONE. Therefore, divine status is usually accorded to the sole occupant sitting on the divine throne, the one who sits on the divine throne with God, or the one who sits on a similar throne that is alongside the divine throne.” (Charles A. Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology: Antecedents and Early Evidence [Brill Publishers, 1998], Part 1. Introduction, Chapter Two. Nomenclature and Methodology, C. Divinity Nomenclature, p. 31; capital, italic, and underline emphasis ours) Zawadi must have also paid no attention to what “Servetus” himself stated: So, the book of Revelation reveals that Jesus Christ does not have his own throne in heaven, that is, one that is separate from the Father’s throne. There is only one throne that God the Father and Jesus Christ sit on in heaven, and they share it together … That blessed act of exaltation–in which God the Father invited Jesus Christ to sit with him on his throne–does not [sic] suggest that Jesus is essentially equal with the Father and thus possesses deity. Rather, this exaltation magnifies Jesus’ dependence upon God and manifests his subordination to God. Otherwise, if Jesus Is God, co-equal with the Father in essence, we would expect Jesus to have his own separate throne in heaven, perhaps alongside of the Father’s throne and at the same height. The Father’s throne is the highest of all other thrones in heaven. This is why he is often described in the Bible as “the Most High” (e.g., Daniel 7.9, 25; Luke 1.32, 35). The Father’s throne belonging to him, and it being high and lifted up (Isaiah 6.1; cf. 52.13), symbolizes his exalted rank, thus his superior dignity, over all, including Jesus Christ [sic]. (Why Doesn't the Trinity Have Three Thrones in Heaven?; underline emphasis ours) More importantly, the Quran itself connects Allah’s throne with his sovereign rule over creation and further attests that none share in Allah’s rule: Verily your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is firmly established on the throne (of authority), regulating and governing all things. No intercessor (can plead with Him) except after His leave (hath been obtained). This is Allah your Lord; Him therefore serve ye: will ye not receive admonition? S. 10:3 Say: “Allah knows best how long they stayed. With Him is (the knowledge of) the unseen of the heavens and the earth. How clearly He sees, and hears (everything)! They have no Wali (Helper, Disposer of affairs, Protector, etc.) other than Him, and He makes NONE to share in His Decision and His Rule.” S. 18:26 Hilali-Khan Blessed be He who has sent down the Salvation upon His servant, that he may be a warner to all beings; to whom belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and He has not taken to Him a son, and He has no associate in the Kingdom; and He created every thing, then He ordained it very exactly. S. 25:2 Hence, according to both the Quran and the sources that Zawadi derived his arguments from Muhammad is Islam’s other god! We will break this down step by step in order to help Zawadi understand the reasoning behind all of this since he has demonstrated from his articles that he has a very hard time comprehending basic logic. God’s heavenly throne symbolizes monotheism and God’s unique divine identity as the Ruler of all created things. Allah’s throne is connected to his sovereignty over all creation. Allah does not share his rule with anyone and has no partner in his kingdom. According to various reports Muhammad sits on the throne of Allah. Therefore, Muhammad shares in and is part of the unique divine identity which separates God from all created reality, being a co-ruler with Allah. To have a separate throne alongside God in heaven implies that the occupant of that throne is God and co-equal with God. According to a so-called authentic narration Muhammad will have a throne next to the right side of Allah. Muhammad’s name is written on one of the pillars of Allah’s throne, thereby showing that he is an essential and crucial component of the throne itself. Therefore, Muhammad is god and co-equal with Allah! So much for Zawadi’s rebuttal. Zawadi would have done his fellow Muslims a great service by remaining in hibernation instead of coming out of retirement to write “responses” which only do more harm than good. Lord Jesus willing, more replies to Zawadi’s lies and distortions to follow shortly. (1) We again see how Muslims have “borrowed” the teachings of Christianity concerning the Lord Jesus and applied it to their false prophet Muhammad! For instance, the Holy Scriptures teach that Jesus is the Heir of all creation and that God actually created everything through and for his beloved Son: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and FOR him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:113-17 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:1-3 Despite the existence of such narrations Muslim dawagandists like Zawadi would still have us actually believe that Muslims haven’t turned Muhammad into another god whom they worship alongside Allah and that Islam is in fact a strict monotheistic religion! Zawadi has produced a brief appendix where he tries to interact with my arguments concerning Muhammad’s deification via his enthronement. Zawadi claims that al-Tabari was simply stressing the fact that one shouldn’t reject the narration out of fear of its implications. Let us quote al-Tabari one more time: “Even though the traditions we have mentioned on the authority of the Prophet and his Companions and the Followers indicate the correct interpretation of maqaman mahmudan in Qur. 17:79 (as referring to Muhammad’s role as intercessor on the Day of Resurrection), Mujahid’s statement that God will seat Muhammad on His Throne remains one WHOSE SOUNDNESS CANNOT BE REJECTED either on the basis of traditions (khabar) or on the basis of speculation (nazar). This is so because there is no tradition from the Messenger of God or anyone of his Companions or the Followers that declares it to be impossible… From what we have said, it has become clear that, it is not impossible for an adherent of Islam to say what Mujahid had said, namely, that God will seat Muhammad on His Throne. If someone says: We do not disapprove of God’s seating Muhammad on His Throne (in view of the following tradition transmitted by) ‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-‘Azim – Yahya b. Kathir – al-Jurayri – Sayf al-Sadusi – ‘Abdallah b. Salam: ‘On the Day of Resurrection, Muhammad will be on the Lord’s footstool (kursi),’ but we disapprove of God’s seating him together with Him, it should be said: Is it then permissible in your opinion that He seat him on it but not together with him? If he permits this, he is led to affirming that either he is together with Him, or God seats him (on the Throne) while being Himself either separate from it or neither contiguous with nor separate from it. Whatever alternative he chooses, he thereby enters into something that he disapproves. If he says that it is not permissible, he deviates from the statements of all the groups we have reported. This means diverging from the views of all adherents of Islam, since there is no other possible statement than those three, according to each of which Mujahid’s statement in this sense is not impossible.” (The History of Al-Tabari – General Introduction and From Creation to the Flood, translated by Franz Rosenthal [State University of New York Press (SUNY), Albany 1989], Volume I, Appendix A. A Partial Translation of Tafsir on Qur. 17:79 (Above, pp. 75 f.), pp. 149. 151; bold and capital emphasis ours) It is obvious that al-Tabari is doing more than dissuading people from being afraid. He is arguing for the authenticity and veracity of this report, as well as for its theological soundness. Zawadi then says that he has no problem with Muhammad sitting on Allah’s throne which is all the more proof that Muslims are actually Muhammadans who have turned their prophet into a god besides Allah! More on this later. Zawadi asserts that I wasted his time by quoting all of the scholars who condemned anyone that would reject this narration. Zawadi has the audacity to make it sound as if these scholars were merely condemning a group of so-called heretical Muslims called Jahmis who rejected Muhammad’s enthronement with Allah on logical and philosophical grounds. This shows that either Zawadi is being dishonest or again fails to understand what he reads. The scholars that I cited clearly stated that any person who denies the soundness of this narration is to be condemned, which proves that these scholars believed that this report was reliably transmitted and that it was based on authentic chains of transmission. This is the main reason why these same scholars condemned the Jahmis, not because of their appeal to logic and reason, but because of their rejection of a report that was based on a sound chain. This also refutes Zawadi’s assertion that there is no authentic chain confirming the veracity of this report since the sources I quoted claimed there was. Moreover, the Jahmis were right in having a problem with this narration since not only does this ascribe a material, corporeal shape or form to Allah it also undermines the assertion that Islam holds to a strict and uncompromising monotheism which it certainly does not. Zawadi then asserts that he couldn’t find any explicit statements that his idols Ibn Taymiyyah or Ibn al-Qayyim claimed that they themselves believed this report. He argues that they merely stated that this is a valid opinion! Let me quote them once again: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya said in his Bada’i‘ al-Fawa’id: Al-Qadi [Ibn Abi Ya‘la] said: “Al-Marwazi compiled a book on the superlative merits of the Prophet in which he mentioned his seating (iq‘âduhu) on the Throne (al-‘arsh).” Al-Qadi further said: “This is the position of Abu Dawud, Ahmad ibn Asram, Yahya ibn Abi Talib, Abu Bakr ibn Hammad, Abu Ja‘far al-Dimashqi, ‘Abbas al-Duri, Ishaq ibn Rahuyah (or Rahawayh), ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Warraq, Ibrahim al-Asbahani, Ibrahim al-Harbi, Harun ibn Ma‘ruf, Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Sulami, Muhammad ibn Mus‘ab al-‘Abid, Abu Bakr ibn Sadaqa, Muhammad ibn Bishr ibn Sharik, Abu Qilaba, ‘Ali ibn Sahl, Abu ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Nur, Abu ‘Ubayd, al-Husayn ibn Fadl, Harun ibn al-‘Abbas al-Hashimi, Isma‘il ibn Ibrahim al-Hashimi, Muhammad ibn ‘Imran al-Farisi al-Zahid, Muhammad ibn Yunus al-Basri, ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Marwazi, and Bishr al-Hafi.” I say: It is also the position of Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, and the leader of all the above in this is Mujahid, the imam of Qur’anic commentary. It is also Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni’s who said: Nor deny that Allah makes him sit there! (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Bada’i‘ al-Fawa'id (1900 ed. 4:39-40, 1994 ed. 2:328-329). Notice the list of all the scholars that Ibn al-Qayyim mentions who believed in the authenticity of this report. Further notice the quote from al-Daraqutni who warns Muslims not to deny this report. Does Ibn al-Qayyim bring a similarly impressive list people who reject this report? There are two ways of stating an opinion. Explicitly: He could say: "I am convinced (Or I declare) that this narration is sound." Implicitly: By listing various authorities which have ruled this narration to be sound. As long as there is no statement that he rejects this opinion, listing all these authorities means that he agrees with them. Maybe Zawadi means that there is no explicit approval of the narration by Ibn al-Qayyim, but that is insubstantial as long as the context makes it clear that he agrees with all the scholars he referenced. The matter would be different if after listing these scholars and their approval there then followed a discussion of the matter and Ibn al-Qayyim's personal conclusion with an explicit rejection of the narration. But as long as he only brings a list of many scholars who support it, this implies his own support of it, even if only stated implicitly and not explicitly. According to Ibn Taymiyya, both the scholars and the friends of Allah have narrated that Muhammad will be enthroned with his Lord. Despite the fact that both of these men knew of all the Muslim scholars who believed and affirmed this narration, and even quoted one authority as expressly telling Muslims not to deny it, Zawadi wants us to actually believe that they themselves did not personally affirm its veracity! Talk about being desperate! Zawadi now seeks to undermine the implication of the allegedly sound reports which say that Muhammad will have a seat placed for him on the right side of Allah. Where in this narration does it say that the Prophet sitting on the same Throne as Allah? Rather it is speaking about a different throne… No one said anything about these reports confirming that Allah will seat Muhammad on his throne. Rather, the point in citing these allegedly sound narratives was to confirm that Muhammad will be sitting on a throne next to Allah, which is even just as damaging if not more so to the assertion that Islam promotes a rather strict, uncompromising monotheism and that Muslims do not worship or deify their prophet. Here, once again, is the report in question: 8. Another Narration From 'Abd Allah ibn Salam From 'Abd Allah ibn Salam, in a long hadith on the Day of Judgment: "A SEAT (KURSI) will be placed for the Prophet on the right of Allah."[38] [38] Al-Hakim narrated it in his Mustadrak (4:568-569) and declared its chain sound (sahih), as confirmed by al-Dhahabi. (Bold and underline emphasis ours) According to these reports there will actually be two seats or thrones in heaven, not just one, one for Allah and the other for Muhammad. According to the Quran, the throne symbolizes Allah’s sovereignty over the entire creation as the one lord. Allah! La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), the Ever Living, the One Who sustains and protects all that exists. Neither slumber, nor sleep overtake Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. Who is he that can intercede with Him except with His Permission? He knows what happens to them (His creatures) in this world, and what will happen to them in the Hereafter . And they will never compass anything of His Knowledge except that which He wills. His Kursi [throne] extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. And He is the Most High, the Most Great. [This Verse 2:255 is called Ayat-ul-Kursi.] S. 2:255 Hilali-Khan Surely, your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days and then Istawa (rose over) the Throne (really in a manner that suits His Majesty), disposing the affair of all things. No intercessor (can plead with Him) except after His Leave. That is Allah, your Lord; so worship Him (Alone). Then, will you not remember? S. 10:3 Allah is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that you can see. Then, He Istawa (rose above) the Throne (really in a manner that suits His Majesty). He has subjected the sun and the moon (to continue going round)! Each running (its course) for a term appointed. He regulates all affairs, explaining the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) in detail, that you may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord. S. 13:2 Hilali-Khan The Most Beneficent (Allah) Istawa (rose over) the (Mighty) Throne (in a manner that suits His Majesty). To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth, and all that is between them, and all that is under the soil. S. 20:5-6 Hilali-Khan By sitting on another kursi or throne alongside Allah’s Muhammad inevitably ends up sharing in Allah’s unique rule over creation as sovereign lord. Muhammad therefore becomes a partner with Allah in his sovereignty, which means that Muslims actually have two lords, not just one! The Muslim scripture further claims that Allah does not allow anyone to share in his rule or decisions: And say: Praise be to Allah, Who hath not taken unto Himself a son, and Who hath no partner in the Sovereignty, nor hath He any protecting friend through dependence. And magnify Him with all magnificence. S. 17:111 Pickthall Say: "Allah knows best how long they stayed. With Him is (the knowledge of) the unseen of the heavens and the earth. How clearly He sees, and hears (everything)! They have no Wali (Helper, Disposer of affairs, Protector, etc.) other than Him, and He makes NONE to share in His Decision and His Rule." S. 18:26 Hilali-Khan This means that we either have a contradiction or that Muhammad shares in the unique identity of Allah himself! This also violates one of the main pillars of Islamic monotheism, specifically Tauhid al-Rububiya which teaches that, 1. Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah: Belief in the Lordship of Allah Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah means to believe that Allah alone is the Rabb (the Creator, Provider, Sustainer, etc.) He has no partner IN HIS DOMINION and Actions. Allah alone has the power to benefit or harm, the power to change destiny, and He alone is truly Self-Sufficient (As-Samad) upon whom all the creation depends, as He says: “Allah created all things and He is the Wakeel (Trustee, Disposer of affairs, Guardian) of all things.” “To Him belong the keys of the Heavens and the earth. He (Allah) enlarges and restricts provisions to whomever He Wills. Surely, He has Knowledge of everything.” Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah also includes the belief that Allah is Unique (One, single) and Incomparable. He has no wife nor offspring, no mother nor father. “Say, He is Allah, the One and Only. Allah, the Eternal - the Absolute: He begets not, nor is He begotten.” Allah does not merge in any living or dead creature, nor anything is part of Allah. Neither living nor dead merges in the Being of Allah, nor is any creature part of Him. All creatures are created by His Order and are subservient to His Will. (Sajid Abdul Kayum, The Jamaa'at Tableegh and the Deobandis, Chapter 2: The Islamic Concept of Tawheed (Monotheism); capital and underline emphasis ours) In order to make sure that Zawadi doesn’t miss it again here are the facts which we derived from the Islamic sources themselves: According to the Quran Allah’s throne symbolizes his sovereignty over all creation. The Quran further attests that Allah does not allow anyone to share in his unique rule over his creation. Certain reports claim that Muhammad will be seated on Allah’s own throne, whereas other narratives state that he will actually be seated on his very own throne next to Allah’s. In either case, this means that Muhammad shares in Allah's exclusive sovereign rule over the entire creation. As such, this makes Muhammad into another lord and deity besides Allah. This in turn violates one of the essential components of Islamic monotheism, namely Tauhid al-Rububiya. There is simply no way around this and Zawadi must come to grips with the fact that his very own Islamic sources have turned Muhammad into a god alongside Allah. Zawadi claims that I am deriving this conclusion on the basis of my Trinitarian beliefs which I use to exegete these narrations. In reality this simply demonstrates that Zawadi didn’t bother to read my article carefully since anyone can see that I primarily used the Quran to derive my position that Muhammad’s enthronement implies his deification which in turn makes him another god besides Allah. Besides, this again only further documents the gross inconsistency of Zawadi and his fellow dawagandists who constantly read the Holy Bible in light of their Islamic presuppositions. When will Zawadi learn to practice what he preaches? Zawadi then tries to go into damage control by brushing aside a quotation from renowned NT scholar Richard Bauckham, the one which Zawadi himself used, who claimed that according to Second Temple Judaism God’s throne in the highest heaven was a key symbol of monotheism. Shamoun has got to be kidding me. He thinks that just because I cite Christian scholars against him then that would mean that I agree with their beliefs! I only cited Bauckham because he is theologically authoritative to the Christian. Not the Muslim. EVEN if it were true that according to the Bible to sit on the Throne with God proves one's divinity, in no way does that mean the same thing according to Islam. Zawadi fails to see how this position severely undermines his own Islamic beliefs. Remember that the Quran argues that Muhammad came to confirm the religion of the Biblical prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus etc., and that he didn’t come to bring anything new from what the prophets before him had taught: O Children of Israel! Remember My Favour which I bestowed upon you, and fulfill (your obligations to) My Covenant (with you) so that I fulfill (My Obligations to) your covenant (with Me), and fear none but Me. And believe in what I have sent down (this Qur'an), CONFIRMING THAT WHICH IS WITH YOU, [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)], and be not the first to disbelieve therein, and buy not with My Verses [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)] a small price (i.e. getting a small gain by selling My Verses), and fear Me and Me Alone. (Tafsir At-Tabari, Vol. I, Page 253). S. 2:40-41 Hilali-Khan And when it is said to them (the Jews), "Believe in what Allah has sent down," they say, "We believe in what was sent down to us." And they disbelieve in that which came after it, while it is the truth confirming WHAT IS WITH THEM. Say (O Muhammad Peace be upon him to them): "Why then have you killed the Prophets of Allah aforetime, if you indeed have been believers?" S. 2:91 Hilali-Khan We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it to Noah and the Apostles after him: we sent inspiration to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms. Of some apostles We have already told thee the story; of others We have not; - and to Moses God spoke direct; - S. 4:163-164 Y. Ali Say: "I am no bringer of new-fangled doctrine among the apostles, nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I follow but that which is revealed to me by inspiration; I am but a Warner open and clear." S. 46:9 Y. Ali Nothing is said to you (O Muhammad) except what was said to the Messengers before you. Verily, your Lord is the Possessor of forgiveness, and (also) the Possessor of painful punishment. S. 41:43 Hilali-Khan Muhammad is also told to follow the guidance of the true prophets and messengers of God that came before him: That is Our argument. We gave it unto Abraham against his folk. We raise unto degrees of wisdom whom We will. Lo! thy Lord is Wise, Aware. And We bestowed upon him Isaac and Jacob; each of them We guided; and Noah did We guide aforetime; and of his seed (We guided) David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aaron. Thus do We reward the good. And Zachariah and John and Jesus and Elias. Each one (of them) was of the righteous. And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot. Each one (of them) did We prefer above (Our) creatures, With some of their forefathers and their offspring and their brethren; and We chose them and guided them unto a straight path. Such is the guidance of Allah wherewith He guideth whom He will of His bondmen. But if they had set up (for worship) aught beside Him, (all) that they did would have been vain. Those are they unto whom We gave the Scripture and command and prophethood. But if these disbelieve therein, then indeed We shall entrust it to a people who will not be disbelievers therein. Those are they whom Allah guideth, so follow their guidance. Say (O Muhammad, unto mankind): I ask of you no fee for it. Lo! it is naught but a Reminder to (His) creatures. S. 6:83-90 Pickthall In light of these assertions we would expect to find Muhammad agreeing with the Biblical teaching that God’s heavenly throne symbolizes monotheism since it is one of the key defining aspects of his unique Divine identity. In fact, that is precisely what we find as the verses which we quoted from the Quran confirm, i.e. the throne of Allah symbolizes his sovereignty over all creation as the one Lord God of all. Therefore, by placing Muhammad on the throne alongside Allah Islam has turned him into another god besides Allah. There is simply no way around this fact. So much for Zawadi’s reply! Lord Jesus willing, there will be more responses to Zawadi’s feeble attempts of rebutting our articles which should appear shortly on our site. http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_plurality.htm http://answering-islam.org//Quran/Incoherence/many_gods.htm http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/allah_throne.html http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/shahadah_problems.html http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/kabah_idol1.html http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/satan_on_the_throne.html http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/muhammad_shirk.html http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/allah_wombs.html http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allahs_oaths.htm http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/allah_ruler.html http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_as_heir.htm http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Incoherence/allahs_intercession.html http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/allah_inheriting.html http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/eternal_quran.htm http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/allah_high_god.html http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/idolatry.htm http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/gabriel_spirit.html http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/gabriel.htm http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/only_judge.html http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/jesus_creator.htm http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/sura3_7.htm http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/death_angels.html Zawadi linked to “rebuttals” to some of my articles which have either been responded to already or indirectly addressed in the following replies: http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zaatari_serve_mhd.htm http://answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/rebuttals/abualrub/jafar1.html http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Abualrub/spirit.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/umar_spirit.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/umar_spirit2.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/hubal_abusufian.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/rahman_deity.htm Rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402506
__label__cc	0.726932	0.273068	A01024 Сборная модель De Havilland DH.82a Tiger Moth - Airfix 1/72 Главное Описание Характеристики Отзывы This newly tooled kit is also available in a military decal scheme, The de Havilland Tiger Moth first flew in late October 1931 and, after being accepted into RAF service as a trainer the following year, has enjoyed widespread use and universal popularity ever since. Surviving into the jet age, the diminutive biplane was finally retired from RAF service in 1959. Over 7,000 were produced, with an estimated number of over 250 still flying today. Производитель Airfix Количество деталей 42 Модели самолётов 1:72 Модели 1:72	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402513
__label__wiki	0.678877	0.678877	Submission, Review, & Publication Processes Organization and Format Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions Illustrations and Tables Abbreviations and Conventions Ethics Resources and Policies Resistance to the Antimicrobial Agent Fosmidomycin and an FR900098 Prodrug through Mutations in the Deoxyxylulose Phosphate Reductoisomerase Gene (dxr) Christopher M. Armstrong, David J. Meyers, Leah S. Imlay, Caren Freel Meyers, Audrey R. Odom Christopher M. Armstrong Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA David J. Meyers Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Leah S. Imlay Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA ORCID record for Leah S. Imlay Caren Freel Meyers Audrey R. Odom Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USADepartment of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA DOI: 10.1128/AAC.00602-15 There is a pressing need for new antimicrobial therapies to combat globally important drug-resistant human pathogens, including Plasmodium falciparum malarial parasites, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli. These organisms all possess the essential methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis, which is not found in humans. The first dedicated enzyme of the MEP pathway, 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase (Dxr), is inhibited by the phosphonic acid antibiotic fosmidomycin and its analogs, including the N-acetyl analog FR900098 and the phosphoryl analog fosfoxacin. In order to identify mutations in dxr that confer resistance to these drugs, a library of E. coli dxr mutants was screened at lethal fosmidomycin doses. The most resistant allele (with the S222T mutation) alters the fosmidomycin-binding site of Dxr. The expression of this resistant allele increases bacterial resistance to fosmidomycin and other fosmidomycin analogs by 10-fold. These observations confirm that the primary cellular target of fosmidomycin is Dxr. Furthermore, cell lines expressing Dxr-S222T will be a powerful tool to confirm the mechanisms of action of future fosmidomycin analogs. Isoprenoids represent the most diverse class of natural products and are essential to all living cells (1, 2). Notable isoprenoids include such critical molecules as chlorophyll, ubiquinone, and cholesterol. All isoprenoids are derived from a common set of precursors, the 5-carbon molecules isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) and its isomer dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP) (3). Both IPP and DMAPP are synthesized de novo by all free-living organisms, and a failure to produce these compounds is incompatible with life. Most eukaryotes, including humans, utilize the six-step mevalonate (MVA) pathway, which produces IPP and DMAPP from acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) (4). In contrast, an alternative independently evolved route, the 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, is utilized by Gram-negative bacteria, a subset of Gram-positive bacteria, plastid-containing eukaryotes, including parasitic protozoa in the Apicomplexa phylum, and plants (which additionally use the MVA pathway in the cytoplasm) (4, 5). Unlike the MVA pathway, the MEP pathway utilizes pyruvate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate in a seven-step enzymatic cascade to produce IPP and DMAPP (6, 7) (Fig. 1A). The MEP pathway is essential in key human pathogens, including Plasmodium falciparum malarial parasites and the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and in many Gram-negative bacterial pathogens (8–11). Because this pathway is absent in humans, MEP pathway enzymes represent an attractive target for antimicrobial development (12, 13). Mutations in MEP pathway genes confer resistance to fosmidomycin (FSM). (A) FSM inhibits catalysis by Dxr of the conversion of DOXP to MEP, with concomitant oxidation of NADPH. (B) Structures of inhibitors used in this study. (C) Schematic of selection strategy for ispD or dxr variants that confer resistance to FSM. To date, the most successful antimicrobial agents targeting the MEP pathway are the phosphonic acid fosmidomycin (FSM) and its N-acetyl and phosphoryl analogs, FR900098 and fosfoxacin (Fig. 1B). FSM and its analogs inhibit the growth of a wide range of organisms that utilize the MEP pathway, including P. falciparum, bacteria, and plants (8, 14–17). Of these, FSM has been investigated most extensively. Enzymatic analysis has shown that FSM potently inhibits the first dedicated step of the MEP pathway, the reduction/isomerization of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate (DOXP) to MEP by the enzyme DOXP reductoisomerase (Dxr) (EC 1.1.1.267) (18). FSM appears to act as a slow tight-binding inhibitor that binds within the active site in competition with the DOXP substrate (19). However, in vivo analysis has shown that the subsequent step in the pathway, the cytidylation of MEP by the enzyme MEP cytidyltransferase (IspD), may be a secondary target of FSM (20). Initial clinical studies have demonstrated that fosmidomycin is safe and moderately effective in the treatment of clinical malaria (21, 22); the drug is currently in phase IIb studies in combination with piperaquine (23). FSM has several limitations as a clinical therapeutic. Its highly charged nature results in poor pharmacokinetics and a plasma half-life of 3.5 h (24, 25). In addition, there is an unacceptably high rate of recrudescent malaria in children treated with the FSM combinations tested so far, likely related to this rapid plasma clearance (25, 26). Finally, FSM is excluded from most cells, with the exception of organisms, such as P. falciparum and Escherichia coli, which actively transport this compound (27, 28). Because of this impermeability, FSM is ineffective against many potential pathogens, such as Toxoplasma gondii (29) and M. tuberculosis (10). Thus, substantial efforts have been made to develop more cell-permeable analogs of FSM or its highly related analog, FR900098 (30–35). A wealth of enzymatic, crystallographic, and clinical data have been collected in the study of FSM and its Dxr target (19, 24, 36–38), yet no mutation in dxr has been reported to confer resistance to FSM. Targeted mutagenesis studies have identified residues in Dxr that affect enzymatic activity (39, 40), yet some of these variant Dxr enzymes bind FSM even when enzymatic activity has been abolished. In the current study, we took a targeted mutagenic approach to identify FSM-interacting residues. We used error-prone PCR to screen for possible sequence changes in dxr and ispD that confer resistance in E. coli to FSM. Using this approach, we demonstrated that mutations in dxr can confer resistance to FSM in vivo and in vitro, and we characterized the enzymologic effects of FSM-resistant dxr mutant proteins. Finally, we established the utility of a FSM-resistant E. coli strain for validating the mechanism of antimicrobial activity of a novel FR900098 prodrug. Our results demonstrate that FSM-resistant E. coli will be a valuable tool in screening efforts to identify novel inhibitors targeting the Dxr active site and for confirming the mechanisms of action of rationally designed fosmidomycin and FR900098 analogs. Generation of mutant libraries of E. coli dxr and ispD.A library containing a collection of either dxr mutants or ispD mutants was created using a modified protocol for error-prone PCR (41). The reaction buffer included 10 mM Tris (pH 8.3), 50 mM KCl, 4 mM MgCl2, 0.2 mM dATP, 0.2 mM dGTP, 2 mM dCTP, 2 mM dTTP, 400 μM forward primer, 400 μM reverse primer, 20 pg/μl template DNA, and 0.05 U/μl Taq DNA polymerase (Sigma-Aldrich) in a final reaction volume of 50 μl. The forward primer used for dxr amplification was 5′-GGGGACAAGTTTGTACAAAAAAGCAGGCTGCATGAAGCAACTCACCATTCTGGG-3′, and the primer for ispD amplification was 5′-GGGGACAAGTTTGTACAAAAAAGCAGGCTGCATGGCAACCACTCATTTGGATG-3′. The reverse primer used for dxr amplification was 5′-GGGGACCACTTTGTACAAGAAAGCTGGGTTCAGCTTGCGAGACGCATCACCTCT-3′, and the primer for ispD amplification was 5′-GGGGACCACTTTGTACAAGAAAGCTGGGTTTATGTATTCTCCTGATGGATGGTTCG-3′. PCR products were then cloned into the vector pDONR221 using the Gateway BP reaction (Invitrogen), which was used to transform chemically competent E. coli strain TOP10 cells (Invitrogen), and colonies containing library DNA were selected for on LB agar plates containing 50 μg/ml kanamycin (Sigma-Aldrich). Each transformation yielded approximately 10,000 individual colonies, which were scraped off the plates and pooled in LB liquid medium just prior to DNA purification. The plasmid libraries were then used to insert either the ispD or dxr gene into the bacterial expression vector pDX-ccdB using the Gateway LR reaction (Invitrogen) to yield many pDX-ispD and pDX-dxr variants. Construction of the pDX-ccdB vector proceeded as follows: the genomic dxr sequence from E. coli strain K-12 substrain MG1655, along with flanking regions assumed to comprise the transcription promoter and terminator, were previously TOPO cloned into the proprietary vector pCR2.1 (Life Technologies). In order to create a Gateway destination plasmid, with expression under the control of the dxr promoter, a 1,531-bp sequence flanked by the BamHI and EagI sites, and including the entire E. coli-derived sequence (1,455 bp), was cut out of the pCR2.1-derived vector and inserted into pBR322 (New England BioLabs) between the BamHI and EagI restriction sites. Ninety-eight percent of the dxr coding sequence, located between the BanII and BbvCi restriction sites, was removed by restriction enzyme digestion and replaced, via blunt-end ligation cloning, with sequence amplified from the proprietary Gateway destination vector pDEST17 (Life Technologies). This sequence had been amplified using the forward primer 5′-CAGGATATCACAAGTTTGTACAAAAAAGCTGAAC-3′ and the reverse primer 5′-GCAGCCTCAGCGGTACCACTTTGTACAAGAAAGCTGAAC-3′. TOP10 chemically competent cells were transformed with the new expression library and plated on LB agar plates containing 100 μg/ml ampicillin (Sigma-Aldrich) (LB/amp plates), yielding approximately 11,000 colonies in the dxr library and 8,000 colonies in the ispD library. Colonies were scraped off the plates, pooled in medium, and either frozen in 15% glycerol at −80°C or used immediately to screen for FSM resistance. Screening of the dxr and ispD libraries.For each library, a total of 6 × 105 CFU of TOP10 cells (transformed with library pDX-ispD or pDX-dxr) were plated across six LB/amp plates, three containing 100 μM FSM (Invitrogen) and three containing 50 μM FSM, and grown at 37°C for 18 h. The resulting colonies were restreaked on plates with LB/amp plus 50 μM FSM. The plates were left at ambient temperature, and additional colonies that formed after another 48 h were also restreaked. After final growth at 37°C for 24 h, a single colony from each plate was grown in liquid LB/amp medium, and the plasmid was isolated using the QIAprep spin miniprep kit (Qiagen). Calcium chloride competent MG1655 E. coli cells (a kind gift of David Hunstad, Washington University) were transformed with the isolated plasmid, and transformants were streaked onto plates with LB/amp plus 50 μM FSM. Strains that continued to grow after retransformation were further analyzed. Measurement of growth inhibition of E. coli.Growth inhibition of E. coli was evaluated as previously described (20). In brief, overnight cultures of E. coli were diluted 1:100 into fresh LB medium supplemented with either the appropriate antibiotic or no antibiotic if no plasmid was maintained and grown to an optical density at 600 nm (OD600) of 0.5. Cultures were diluted to 105 CFU/ml in 200 μl/well of a 96-well plate, with the indicated amounts of the inhibitory compound. Bacteria were grown in a FLUOstar Omega microplate reader (BMG Labtech) at 37°C and 700 rpm, with serial OD600 measurements. The GraphPad Prism software was used to calculate inhibitory constants (50% effective concentrations [EC50s]) during logarithmic growth (8 to 10 h). All EC50s in the text reflect the means from three or more independently performed experiments. Site-directed mutagenesis of dxr.The vector pCR2.1-dxr was created by using PCR to amplify the 2,817-bp sequence between nucleotides 192528 and 195344 on the E. coli chromosome, which was then cloned into the vector pCR2.1 using the TOPO-TA cloning kit (Invitrogen). The vector pACYC-dxr was created by cloning the 2,911-bp insert between the HindIII and NotI sites in pCR2.1-dxr and ligating it into the vector pACYC184 with the 910-bp HindIII/EagI fragment removed. The vector pACYC-dxr-S222T was created using the QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene) and primers with the sequences 5′-CCAGACCTTTGTTCATCATGGTAGCCGTGTCGACAGAAATTTTACGCCCCATCG-3′ and 5′-CGATGGGGCGTAAAATTTCTGTCGACACGGCTACCATGATGAACAAAGGTCTGG-3′, which alter nucleotides at positions 663 and 664 in the open reading frame (ORF) from TT to CA. This mutation changes the codon for serine 222 to a threonine and creates a novel AccI restriction cleavage site at positions 658 to 663. Site-directed mutagenesis was confirmed by successful digestion with AccI and Sanger sequencing. Purification of recombinant Dxr.Either wild-type dxr or dxr-S222T was cloned into the vector BG1861 using ligation-independent cloning (42), and recombinant protein was purified as previously described, with some minor modifications (20). Cells were lysed in lysis buffer (25 mM Tris [pH 7.5], 250 mM NaCl, 1 mM MgCl2, 0.1% Triton X-100, 5 mM dithiothreitol [DTT], 20 mM imidazole, 1 mg/ml lysozyme, 200 μM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride [PMSF], EDTA-free cOmplete Protease Inhibitor Tablets [Roche]) and then sonicated to complete lysis and shear DNA. Protein was purified over nickel agarose beads (Gold Biotechnology) and then further purified over a HiLoad 16/60 Superdex 200 (GE Life Sciences) size exclusion column, and fractions were collected using an ÄKTAexplorer 100 air fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) (GE Life Sciences). Fractions containing the recombinant protein were subsequently combined and concentrated using Amicon Ultra-15 10,000-nominal molecular weight limit (NMWL) centrifugal filters (Millipore). Final protein concentrations were obtained using a bicinchoninic acid (BCA) protein assay kit (Thermo Scientific Pierce). Dxr enzyme activity.Recombinant Dxr enzyme activity was measured by monitoring the oxidation of NADPH to NADP+ by tracking the absorbance at 340 nm in a POLARstar Omega microplate reader (BMG). Standard reactions were performed in a 50-μl volume in reaction buffer (25 mM Tris [pH 7.5], 100 mM NaCl, 7.5 mM MgCl2, 0.1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin [BSA]) with 200 μM DOXP (Echelon), 400 μM NADPH (Sigma-Aldrich), 50 ng of Dxr, and the appropriate concentration of inhibitory compound. The Km[DOXP] was determined at fixed NADPH concentrations and DOXP concentrations from 0 to 5 mM. The reaction mixtures were incubated for 15 min at 37°C in the presence of all components except for DOXP. The reactions were initiated by adding DOXP, and NADPH conversion was continuously measured for up to 30 min. Kinetic parameters were determined by nonlinear regression (GraphPad Prism). All 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50), Km, Ki, and Vmax values in the text reflect the means of the results from three or more independently performed experiments. Allelic replacement of the genomic dxr locus.Allelic replacement was performed with a modified version of the pKO vector system (43). The vector pKOV-dxrS222T was created by cutting a 2,875-bp BamHI/PstI fragment from the vector pACYC-dxrS222T and ligating it into pKOV, after removal of the 2,036-bp BamHI/PstI fragment. The pKOV-dxrS222T vector was used to transform either E. coli MG1655 or E. coli BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC (a kind gift of Gerard Wright, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada) (44). Colonies were grown on LB with either 30 μg/ml (for MG1655) or 6 μg/ml (for BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC) of chloramphenicol at 30°C for 48 to 72 h. Colonies were picked and grown overnight at 42°C in LB at the appropriate concentration of chloramphenicol. Cells were diluted and grown to an OD600 of approximately 0.5, at which point they were diluted 200- and 2,000-fold. Two hundred microliters of each diluted culture was plated on LB medium supplemented with 5% sucrose and grown at 37°C overnight. A total of eight colonies were isolated and screened for allelic replacement. This evaluation involved PCR amplification of the dxr locus from genomic DNA (gDNA), followed by digestion of the PCR product with the restriction enzyme AccI. An AccI cut site is present in dxr-S222T but absent from the wild-type allele. Allelic replacement was validated by Sanger sequencing. Identification of FSM resistance alleles of dxr but not ispD.In vitro, FSM inhibits the first dedicated enzyme of the MEP pathway, deoxyxylulose phosphate reductoisomerase (Dxr), also known as IspC. Surprisingly, previous metabolic profiling of FSM-treated cells indicated that the downstream MEP pathway enzyme IspD (methylerythritol phosphate cytidyltransferase, EC 2.7.7.60) was an unexpected second intracellular target of FSM (20). Since FSM was not found to inhibit recombinant IspD in vitro at physiologically relevant concentrations, our previous studies suggested that the inhibition of IspD was likely indirect. We evaluated whether amino acid changes in Dxr and/or IspD might confer FSM resistance in order to confirm which enzyme is the primary intracellular target and to establish a system for validating the antimicrobial mechanisms of action of future FSM analogs (Fig. 1C). To investigate mutations in dxr and ispD that might confer FSM resistance, we used error-prone PCR to generate expression libraries of dxr and ispD mutants in the model Gram-negative bacterium E. coli (see Fig. 1B for experimental scheme). Transformed cells were selected on plates containing lethal concentrations of FSM (50 or 100 μM). Based on similar error-prone PCR protocols (41), the estimated complexity of the dxr library was ∼104 individual clones. For every 105 CFU plated, an average of 350 colonies were observed, suggesting that 35 separate FSM-resistant dxr mutants were present (0.35% of the library). A total of 48 resistant colonies were restreaked onto FSM-containing medium (100 μM), and the seven colonies with the most robust growth were analyzed further. A comparable number of cells were transformed with the ispD library. ispD transfectants were not observed on FSM-containing medium until 2 days of growth, at which time eight total colonies from the ispD library were evident; all eight were restreaked onto LB/amp plates containing 100 μM FSM. This suggests a much lower rate of resistant clones (0.0013%) for the ispD library than that with the dxr library. To confirm that FSM resistance was plasmid dependent, plasmids were isolated from seven dxr library (pDX-dxr) clones and all eight ispD library (pDX-ispD) clones. Restriction digest evaluation demonstrated that two of the eight ispD plasmids did not contain an ispD insert. All plasmids with the proper inserts, along with both dxr and ispD wild-type controls, were used to transform the wild-type fosmidomycin-sensitive K-12 derivative E. coli strain MG1655. These transformants were evaluated for FSM resistance by determination of the half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) at 8 h of growth (mid-logarithmic growth phase), compared to that of the controls. None of the ispD library transformants demonstrated FSM resistance (see Fig. S1 in the supplemental material). In contrast, strains expressing pDX-dxr plasmid-borne FSM-resistant dxr alleles demonstrated a 2- to 10-fold decrease in sensitivity to FSM compared to that with strains expressing plasmid-borne wild-type dxr (Table 1; see also Fig. S2 in the supplemental material). EC50s in E. coli upon episomal (pDX-dxr) expression of wild-type (dxr-wt) or FSM-resistant dxr alleles (dxr1 to -7)a Two mutants in particular, dxr1 and dxr3, showed significantly increased EC50s of 53 μM (95% confidence interval [CI], 40 to 71 μM; P < 0.0001) and 45 μM (95% CI, 37 to 55 μM; P < 0.0001), respectively, compared to a control EC50 of 4.4 μM (95% CI, 3.7 to 5.3 μM), and were therefore chosen for additional analysis. The sequencing of dxr from each vector revealed that dxr1 and dxr3 contained the exact same set of mutations. Five amino acid changes were encoded by dxr1 and dxr3: N38Y, M68L, T202A, S222T, and I256F. Of these mutations, site-directed mutagenesis of an evolutionarily conserved serine-to-threonine (S222T) mutation (Fig. 2A) produced a dxr allele that conferred FSM resistance, similar to that of both the dxr1 and dxr3 variants (Fig. 2B; see also Fig. S2 in the supplemental material). Dxr-S222T confers FSM resistance in bacteria. (A) Sequence comparison of Dxr/IspC homologs from multiple organisms, including a Gram-negative bacterium (E. coli), Gram-positive bacterium (Bacillus subtilis), mycobacterium (M. tuberculosis), green plant (Arabidopsis thaliana), and malarial parasites (Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum), demonstrates the conservation of Ser222 (highlighted in yellow). Alignments were produced in Lasergene/MegAlign (DNAStar) using the Clustal W algorithm. The NCBI accession numbers are E. coli, AAC73284.1; B. subtilis, AGG61028.1; M. tuberculosis, CCE38326.1; A. thaliana, AED97658.1; P. falciparum, AAD03739.1; and P. vivax, EDL45988.1. (B) FSM sensitivity of E. coli expressing plasmid-borne (pACYC-dxr) wild-type dxr, compared to E. coli expressing dxr-S222T (pACYC-dxr-S222T). Data points and error bars represent means ± standard errors of the mean (SEM). (C) Structure of FSM-bound E. coli Dxr (PBD ID 1Q0L [37]), demonstrating coordination of the phosphonate moiety of FSM through hydrogen bonding to Ser222. Enzymatic analysis of Dxr-S222T protein.The structure of the E. coli Dxr-FSM complex has been solved and demonstrates that Ser222 coordinates the phosphonate moiety of the inhibitor (36–38) (Fig. 2C). Structural modeling suggested that dxr-S222T confers resistance to FSM by directly reducing the susceptibility of the target enzyme, Dxr, to inhibition by FSM. We therefore compared the FSM susceptibility of purified recombinant wild-type Dxr enzyme to that of the Dxr-S222T variant. As expected, the S222T variant was 30-fold more resistant to FSM than the wild-type enzyme (IC50, 1,100 nM [95% CI, 598 to 1,840 nM] compared to 34 nM [95% CI, 27 to 41 nM] [t test, P < 0.0001] [Table 2 and Fig. 3A]). During these assays, we observed that in the absence of FSM treatment, mutant enzyme activity was substantially reduced compared to that of wild-type Dxr. Since FSM is expected to bind in a manner similar to that of the natural Dxr substrate DOXP, we therefore evaluated the effect of the S222T variant on Dxr enzyme kinetics (Fig. 3B). In our hands, the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) Km[DOXP] of wild-type Dxr was 150 ± 22 μM, similar to previously reported values (19). In contrast, the Km[DOXP] of Dxr-S222T was increased 7-fold (mean ± SEM, 1,000 ± 140 μM; t test, P < 0.001; Table 2). The maximum reaction velocity (Vmax) of Dxr-S222T was not significantly different from that of the wild-type variant (mean ± SEM, 12 ± 0.3 versus 11 ± 0.5 μmol/min/mg; t test, P = 0.31; see Table 2). While Km as an enzymatic constant is not an exact measurement of substrate binding, it is typically correlated with substrate-enzyme affinity. Our data therefore suggest that the S222T mutation causes a decreased affinity for DOXP without a change in the reaction rate. IC50s and kinetic constants for recombinant wild-type dxr and dxr-S222Ta Purified recombinant Dxr-S222T is resistant to FSM in vitro. (A) FSM sensitivity of purified recombinant wild-type (●) and S222T (○) Dxr enzymes. (B) Activity of purified recombinant Dxr enzymes (wild-type [●] and S222T [○]) with increasing concentrations of DOXP substrate, as indicated, used for determination of kinetic parameters (Table 2). The data shown are representative of the results of at least three independent experiments. Activity is measured in micromoles per minute per milligram of enzyme. The data points and error bars represent mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). wt, wild type. FSM is a slow tightly binding inhibitor that is competitive with the structurally similar DOXP substrate (19). Since Dxr-S222T is less sensitive to FSM and appears to have a reduced affinity for DOXP, it is likely that FSM resistance in Dxr-S222T reflects a reduced affinity for FSM. The Ki parameter is an approximation of the binding affinity between an enzyme and its inhibitor. A comparison of the Ki values of wild-type Dxr (Fig. 4A) and Dxr-S222T (Fig. 4B) suggests a 70-fold decrease in affinity for FSM compared to that of the wild-type Dxr (mean ± SEM, 11 ± 0.6 nM versus 730 ± 14 nM, P < 0.0001; Table 3). The S222T mutation therefore appears to exert a profound effect on the ability of FSM to interact with Dxr, and under FSM selection, the benefit conferred by FSM resistance appears to outweigh any potential defects caused by a decrease in DOXP affinity. Inhibitory kinetics of wild-type and FSM-resistant Dxr. Activity of purified recombinant wild-type Dxr (A) and Dxr-S222T (B) enzymes with increasing DOXP and FSM concentrations, as indicated, used to determine inhibitory parameters (Table 3). Activity is measured in micromoles per minute per milligram of enzyme. The data shown are representative of the results of at least three independent experiments. The data points and error bars represent mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Inhibitory kinetics of recombinant wild-type and S222T Dxra Allelic exchange of S222T in E. coli strains.The MEP pathway is essential for growth in bacteria, and Dxr catalyzes a rate-limiting step in this pathway (45–47). During initial screening and identification of the FSM-resistant DXR-S222T allele, mutant dxr variants were expressed episomally, and the native dxr locus was still present in the genome. We therefore evaluated whether dxr-S222T alone was sufficient to support the growth of E. coli when the native dxr gene was disrupted. The pKOV plasmid system (43) was used to exchange the wild-type allele of dxr with the dxr-S222T allele (see Fig. S3 in the supplemental material). Compared to the expression of wild-type dxr, expression of dxr-S222T did not cause a significant change in growth rate in E. coli (Fig. 5A) (doubling time under these conditions, 56 ± 2 min for the wild-type strain versus 58 ± 3 min for the FSM-resistant strain [t test, P = 0.74]). These results demonstrate that strains expressing the dxr-S222T allele grow at a rate comparable to that of the wild-type strains, despite the 7-fold increase in Km for the Dxr substrate DOXP. As expected, the dxr-S222T-expressing strain was resistant to FSM, with an EC50 >4-fold higher (4.1 μM; 95% CI, 1.6 to 10 μM) than that of the strain expressing the wild-type allele (0.93 μM; 95% CI, 0.70 to 1.2 μM; P < 0.001; Fig. 5B and Table 4). Dxr-S222T supports bacterial growth and confers FSM resistance as the sole cellular Dxr allele. The growth (A) and FSM sensitivity (B) of E. coli strain MG1655, in which the native dxr locus has been replaced with either a wild-type (●) or S222T (○) allele, are shown. The FSM sensitivity data are normalized to growth in the absence of treatment. The data shown are representative of the results of at least three independent experiments. The data points and error bars represent mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). EC50s for E. coli expressing either wild-type dxr or dxr-S222T from the native locusa Effects of S222T allele on FR900098 prodrug.While FSM has shown some promise as a potential antimalarial therapeutic, its hydrophilicity contributes to poor cellular permeability and short plasma half-life (35). One strategy to improve the efficacy and pharmacokinetics of FSM and its analogs is to generate neutral prodrugs in which the negatively charged phosphonyl group is masked. However, because intracellular activation is required, these prodrugs cannot be tested directly in vitro for inhibition of Dxr activity. Since the FSM-resistant strain carrying the dxr-S222T allele differs from wild-type E. coli by a single amino acid, we hypothesized that strains with the dxr-S222T allele could be used in a simple definitive cellular assay to verify the mechanisms of action of novel FSM analogs, including prodrugs requiring intracellular activation to release a Dxr inhibitor. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, we evaluated the MG1655-dxr-S222T strain for resistance to a phosphonamidate prodrug designed to undergo intracellular activation to release FR900098, a close structural analog of fosmidomycin (D. J. Meyers, E. Nenortas, J. M. Smith, C. M. Armstrong, A. R. Odom, T. A. Shapiro, and C. L. Freel Meyers, unpublished data) (Fig. 1B). FR900098 released from the prodrug is predicted to bind to Dxr in a manner similar to that of FSM. We find that the S222T mutation confers approximately 35-fold enzymatic resistance to FR900098, which closely mimics the effect of this mutation on FSM inhibition (IC50s, 24 nM [95% CI, 21 to 29 nM] and 890 nM [95% CI, 560 to 1,400 nM] against wild-type and S222T mutant enzymes, respectively) (Table 4; see also Fig. S4 in the supplemental material). Initial experiments indicated that the prodrug exerts minimal antibacterial activity against E. coli, making it difficult to interpret its effect on the mutant strain (Table 4; see also Fig. S5 in the supplemental material). Because many compounds lack efficacy against E. coli as a result of active cellular export, E. coli strains with selective disruption of efflux pumps have been developed that demonstrate enhanced susceptibility to many compounds (48, 49). Therefore, we replaced the native dxr locus with dxr-S222T in the efflux-defective E. coli strain BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC (44). In this strain, as in MG1655, expression of the dxr-S222T allele confers substantial resistance to FSM (EC50s, 0.37 μM [95% CI, 0.22 to 0.64 μM] versus 5.0 μM [95% CI, 2.4 to 11 μM] for BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC and BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC-dxr-S222T, respectively; t test, P < 0.0005) (Fig. 6A). Resistance to FR900098 was also observed (EC50s, 100 μM [95% CI, 66 to 150 μM] versus 570 μM [95% CI, 270 to 1,200 μM] for BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC and BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC-dxr-S222T, respectively; P < 0.001) (Fig. 6B and Table 4). For the FR900098 prodrug, the strain with the dxr-S222T allele was 7-fold more resistant than the isogenic parent (EC50s, 67 nM [95% CI, 25 to 178 nM] and 460 nM [95% CI, 220 to 970 nM] for BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC and BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC-dxr-S222T, respectively; t test, P < 0.005) (Fig. 6C and Table 4). These data strongly indicate that FR900098, released from the prodrug, binds to and inhibits Dxr in a manner similar to that of FSM. These data confirm the utility of our system to establish the mechanisms of action of FSM analogs, such as FR900098, and prodrugs requiring intracellular activation to release inhibitors of Dxr. dxr-S222T confers resistance to an FR900098 prodrug. The growth-inhibiting effects of FSM (A), FR900098 (B), and FR900098 prodrug (C) on efflux pump-deficient E. coli BW25113 ΔbamBΔtolC strains, in which the native dxr locus has been replaced by either a wild-type (●) or S222T (○) allele (Table 4), are shown. The data are representative of the results from at least three independent biological replicates and normalized to growth in the absence of treatment. The data points and error bars represent mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). The non-mevalonate MEP pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis is a promising antimicrobial target, since this pathway is well validated and essential in a number of human pathogens but absent in humans. In this work, we identified and characterized a novel mutation (S222T) in the E. coli deoxyxylulose phosphate reductoisomerase (Dxr), which confers resistance to the antimalarial and antibacterial agent fosmidomycin (FSM). FSM, a phosphonic acid antimicrobial, is the canonical MEP pathway inhibitor and highlights the promise of new agents that target the MEP pathway. While FSM is safe and well tolerated, it is also rapidly cleared (24, 25), and its biological spectrum of activity is limited due to cellular exclusion in many organisms, including M. tuberculosis and T. gondii (10, 29). Many attempts to modify FSM in the hopes of improving efficacy against the enzyme or the organism have been disappointing (32, 33, 35, 50, 51). Our studies provide definitive evidence that the primary intracellular target of FSM is Dxr. In addition, these studies establish and validate a novel system for confirming the mechanisms of action of Dxr active-site inhibitors and their prodrugs. Dxr catalyzes the isomerization and NADPH-mediated reduction of DOXP to MEP, and this reaction is potently inhibited by FSM in vitro. Unexpectedly, metabolic profiling has demonstrated that MEP levels are relatively unchanged in FSM-treated E. coli and P. falciparum malarial parasites, which suggests that the downstream MEP-utilizing enzyme IspD represents a second intracellular target (20). For this reason, we sought to identify point mutations in either dxr or ispD that would confer FSM resistance. We screened a library with >8,000 ispD mutants, which represented comprehensive mutagenesis of the small ispD locus (711 bp). Our efforts failed to identify any ispD alleles that conferred resistance. In contrast, we were readily able to identify FSM-resistant variants of dxr, with as much as 0.35% of our library conferring resistance. This observation strongly suggests that Dxr directly interacts with FSM within the cell. The effects of fosmidomycin on steady-state MEP levels, on the other hand, are likely to be the result of indirect inhibition of IspD, although we cannot rule out the possibility that mutations in ispD that confer FSM resistance may also be incompatible with IspD activity and E. coli survival. The structural basis of FSM binding to Dxr has been well described in multiple studies (36–38). The phosphonate moiety of FSM, and presumably the phosphate moiety of the DOXP substrate, are anchored by hydrogen bonding to four amino acids in the Dxr active site: Ser186, Ser222, Asn227, and Lys228 (Fig. 2C). Threonine, in place of serine, at position 222 is expected to protrude into the substrate/FSM binding pocket and disrupt at least one, if not multiple, hydrogen-bonding interactions. Consistent with this prediction, the Dxr-S222T variant confers FSM resistance in vitro and in vivo, and, in a similar manner, also requires higher DOXP concentrations for effective catalysis. Surprisingly, E. coli strains that solely express the Dxr-S222T variant are viable and do not exhibit a substantial growth defect under laboratory growth conditions, even though Dxr is essential for bacterial growth and catalyzes a rate-limiting step in the MEP pathway. Since a single point mutation confers resistance, and resistance does not come with an apparent fitness disadvantage, the genetic barrier to FSM resistance may be quite low. The development of FSM resistance will require careful monitoring during clinical treatment with FSM or related agents. The S222T variant therefore represents a potential genetic biomarker of resistance to active-site inhibitors of Dxr. FSM is small and not easily modified without reducing potency. These limitations have led to substantial efforts to develop more cell-permeable analogs of FSM or its highly related analog FR900098 (30–35). Because many FSM derivatives are prodrugs that require intracellular activation, it is often impossible to test the efficacy of these compounds directly on the Dxr target enzyme in vitro. As a tool to confirm this intracellular target, we have validated the S222T mutant strain using a cell-permeable prodrug of the FSM analog FR900098 (D. J. Meyers et al., unpublished data). As seen with fosmidomycin, the S222T mutation confers 35-fold resistance to FR900098 in vitro and 5.5-fold resistance in vivo (Tables 2 and 4; see also Fig. S4 and S6 in the supplemental material). We observed a very similar increase in the EC50 of a novel FR900098 prodrug. Our results confirm that Dxr is the intracellular target for this compound following FR900098 release from the prodrug. In addition, these studies support the use of this prodrug approach in antibacterial strategies to address (i) the poor pharmacokinetics of FSM and analogs and/or (ii) the development of resistance to this compound class through mutation of active uptake via GlpT. Finally, our results underscore the value of the S222T mutant strain for use in future drug discovery efforts as we seek to improve prodrug scaffolds for optimal cellular uptake and retention in bacteria or in intracellular pathogens, which demonstrate natural resistance to FSM as a consequence of poor uptake. New antimalarial agents are in great demand due to widespread resistance to former first-line agents and emerging resistance to the newer artemisinin-based therapies. Within countries that are endemic for malaria, the disease affects very high-risk patient groups, specifically young infants and pregnant women. In addition, many individuals require multiple courses of treatment per year. For these reasons, new antimalarial therapies must be exceptionally safe. Development efforts targeting the MEP pathway aim to generate nontoxic compounds through the inhibition of a target that is not present in humans. Since prodrugs are not expected to exert inhibitory activity directly against the target and are therefore not easily tested biochemically, compound development may veer off target during development, thus eliminating the parasite selectivity and safety advantages. Our FSM-resistant E. coli strains are isogenic with wild-type bacteria, with the exception of a single amino acid change in a single protein, and bacterial growth inhibition is straightforward to assay. We expect that these strains will be of great utility in confirming the mechanism of action in future efforts to develop inhibitors targeting the substrate-binding pocket of Dxr for antibacterial, antitubercular, and antimalarial therapies. This work was supported by the Children's Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children's Hospital (grant MD-LI-2011-171 to A.R.O.), NIH (NIAID R01AI103280 to A.R.O. and NIGMS R01GM 084998 to C.F.M.), a March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award (to A.R.O.), and a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development award (to A.R.O.). This project was supported in part by the SPIRiT consortium of the CTSA, the Sharing Partnership for Innovative Research in Translation, grants UL1RR025005 (The Johns Hopkins University) and UL1RR024992 (Washington University), from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences or the National Institutes of Health. Received 23 March 2015. Returned for modification 20 April 2015. Accepted 20 June 2015. 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J Med Chem 49:2656–2660. doi:10.1021/jm051177c. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Aug 2015, 59 (9) 5511-5519; DOI: 10.1128/AAC.00602-15 Thank you for sharing this Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy article. You are going to email the following Resistance to the Antimicrobial Agent Fosmidomycin and an FR900098 Prodrug through Mutations in the Deoxyxylulose Phosphate Reductoisomerase Gene (dxr) Message Subject (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Message Body (Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. ASM Author Center Follow #AACJournal @ASMicrobiology	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402514
__label__wiki	0.599407	0.599407	Turning You Inside Out Since 2008 Category: Awards Flagpole Music Awards: Metal (Graphic/Ziona Kocher)You can't handle this nasty mess of awesome that is the Metal category of the Flagpole Awards. From the drone to the noise to the hardcore and beyond, Athens… Flagpole Music Awards: Experimental (Graphic/Ziona Kocher)They're creepy, incredibly kooky, mysterious and somewhat spooky. The experimental crowd aren't exactly the type that can be defined by labels. We use "experimental" as code for "I dunno… Flagpole Music Awards: Pop Pop in Athens isn't that straight forward. It tends to have a twist of some kind attached. These nominees can certainly all fit into the Pop category but most could… Flagpole Music Awards: Rock There's definitely a certain sound to all the rock noms for the Flagpole Music awards this year. The worlds psychedelic, grunge, and shoegaze rule the roost. But each of the… Flagpole Music Awards: Jam Jam bands from Athens. It may have all started with the rise of Widespread Panic but it sure isn't slowing down. If anything, Athens has enough jam bands to throw… Flagpole Music Awards: Cover Band As the nerds in the above picture can surely attest, paying tribute to the bands that inspire and amuse you is one of the most fun things you can do… Flagpole Music Awards: Electronic I sat on the award selection panel last year and can tell you that half the battle is not figuring out who to nominate, it's what categories there are. This… Flagpole Music Awards: World Ya know, Athens is home to more than just your typical rock/pop/folk acts. It also has a vibrant collection of artists specializing in beats, rhythms, and song stylings that are… Flagpole Music Awards: DJ So you're the type that hangs out at Go Bar from dusk til dawn or used to hit up every dance club in town until you boogie oogie oogied your… Flagpole Music Awards: Jazz (Graphic/Ziona Kocher)Ok, let's kick this joker off with the smoothest of the smooth and the best of the best in Jazz. This year's nominees for the 2010 Flagpole Local Music… View AthensMusicJunkie’s profile on Facebook View AthMusicJunkie’s profile on Twitter Archives Select Month January 2020 (2) November 2019 (1) August 2018 (1) July 2018 (1) March 2018 (7) October 2016 (4) September 2016 (1) January 2016 (8) November 2014 (1) April 2014 (12) March 2014 (9) January 2014 (1) October 2013 (2) September 2013 (6) August 2013 (27) May 2013 (2) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (6) December 2012 (6) November 2012 (10) October 2012 (7) September 2012 (24) August 2012 (21) July 2012 (11) June 2012 (31) May 2012 (26) April 2012 (21) March 2012 (17) February 2012 (19) January 2012 (21) December 2011 (15) November 2011 (18) October 2011 (21) September 2011 (21) August 2011 (20) July 2011 (20) June 2011 (24) May 2011 (19) April 2011 (21) March 2011 (22) February 2011 (20) January 2011 (21) December 2010 (23) November 2010 (21) October 2010 (21) September 2010 (22) August 2010 (18) July 2010 (14) June 2010 (23) May 2010 (32) April 2010 (23) March 2010 (25) February 2010 (23) January 2010 (23) December 2009 (27) November 2009 (25) October 2009 (24) September 2009 (25) August 2009 (20) July 2009 (16) June 2009 (20) May 2009 (27) April 2009 (12) March 2009 (16) February 2009 (17) January 2009 (15) December 2008 (7) November 2008 (5) October 2008 (7) September 2008 (8) August 2008 (10) July 2008 (4) June 2008 (7) May 2008 (2) Athens GA Weather Avid Bookshop Nuci's Space Scene History Load In/Load Out Southern Shelter The R.E.M. Video Archive WUOG 90.5 FM Caledonia Lounge Flicker Theatre and Bar Georgia Theatre Go Bar Hendershots Nowhere Bar The World Famous athensmusicjunkie@gmail.com	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402515
__label__cc	0.627878	0.372122	Archer Mayor: Trace Thursday, Sep 28 2017 Archer Mayor’s long-running series with Vermont Bureau of Investigator Joe Gunther continues with the 28th installment in Trace. This one has Gunther off scene for much of the action. He’s invovled in taking his mother to a special Missouri clinic for a scary case of Lyme Disease. So it’s left to the members of his team to sort out the latest cases. Willy Kunkel’s case starts when a child finds three teeth–just those bloodstained teeth–on a railroad track. The team member most likely to work outside the box finds Homeland Security involved in that one, after a device destined for a military installation is discovered. This is where his rule-bending will prove necessary. Lester Spinney, the by-the-book investigator is asked to take on a cold case of a hero state trooper, a supposed traffic stop gone bad, which may not be all it seems when new evidence skews the original investigation. He will need all of his patience and determination to figure this one out. And Sammie Martens, the reasonable one, will need all of her usual resourcefulness to solve the case of a dead woman, by all acounts an lovely young woman, who happens to be the roommate of the daughter of the medical examiner, said ME being Gunther’s girlfriend. What was she running from? Gunther’s absence, while being felt, allows readers to get closer to the team while the suspense rises for each detective. This Vermont countryside comes alive under Mayor’s talented pen, as do his team and even the moments of Gunther in his mother’s rehab. The whole book glistens with reality: of the setting, of the characters and their private lives, and of the way they interact together. There are forensic details, too, of interest, but the details that hold the story together involve Gunther’s team and how they are changed by the end of the book. A great addition to a fine series.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402519
__label__wiki	0.532311	0.532311	Jane's Portrait © Cassandra Chouinard. Used by permission. Jane Austen’s First Law of Blogging "I could not sit seriously down to write a serious Blog under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or at other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first post." Contact AustenBlog Categories Select Category A Closer Look Ask The Expert Audio Austen in Academia Austen Societies and Events Editorials Electronic Texts and Ebooks Exhibitions F.O.J. (Friends of Jane) For Children Friday Bookblogging Games Graphic Novels and Comics Guest Reviews Housekeeping Images Jane Jane in the News Jane's Novels Jane’s Novels Janeite Crafts Janeites Run Amok Libraries Links Merchandise and Memorabilia Monday Ebooks Monday Multimedia Nonfiction Online Open Threads Page Paraliterature Periodicals Places Poetry Quotable Reader Reviews Reviews Screen Staff Reviews Stage Swag The Janeite Times Uncategorized Archives Select Month January 2020 December 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 December 2018 July 2018 June 2018 March 2018 December 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 December 2016 July 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 July 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 April 2013 December 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 Monday Multimedia: Anniversaries Edition Welcome to Monday Multimedia! What’s that, you ask? This wasn’t in the roadmap that the Editrix announced last week, we hear you muttering to yourselves. However, since we know that Monday Ebooks is a personal indulgence, we wanted to add something else for a regular Monday feature; and also it occurred to us that there are so many interesting audio and video things going on these days that we could probably have a weekly post without too much difficulty. So: Monday Multimedia! This will be the first post of our new DIY approach (that means Do It Yourself for those who do not know), so do please add your own links to videos and audio of note in comments! We have one audio to share ourself: the BBC Woman’s Hour has an interview with Rebecca Vaughan, the star of “Austen’s Women,” at Leicester Square Theatre through May 9 (with a funny bit from the play), and Charlotte Barnaville, marketing director of Winchester Cathedral, which has a Jane Austen exhibit through September, and Elizabeth Proudman, Vice Chair of the Jane Austen Society. The Austen stuff doesn’t come in until about halfway through, however. Author Margaret C. Sullivan Monday Ebooks: Updates Edition Tuesday Open Thread: A Rose By Any Other Name Edition One thought on “Monday Multimedia: Anniversaries Edition” Kathleen Glancy I spit on the Leicester Square Theatre (figuratively speaking) since I saw Austen’s Women last year when it appeared on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It’s not really a play, more a series of readings, but it is funny and Ms Vaughan is a talented actor.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402521
__label__wiki	0.749896	0.749896	Lewiston-Auburn Lewiston-Auburn Latest News \| Sick Eagles \| Bangor Metro \| Stephen King \| Today's Paper Lawyer for Auburn man accused in Alaska cold case killing asks judge to toss charges Mark Thiessen \| AP Steven Downs, third from left, sits during an arraignment hearing, on Aug. 6, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. The Associated Press • November 28, 2019 7:43 am If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741. The lawyer for an Auburn man charged in a rape and killing more than 25 years ago at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks wants a judge to dismiss the case, citing alleged flaws in the investigation and raising questions about the DNA evidence. Attorney James Howaniec wrote in a series of motions filed Monday that the crime scene was “badly botched,” the investigation was flawed and that the only physical evidence consists of “few spermatozoa molecules,” the Sun Journal reported. Steven Downs has been charged with first-degree murder and felony sexual assault in the 1993 death of 20-year-old Sophie Sergie. Downs was a freshman living in the same dorm where her body was found. She was visiting a friend on campus. The case went unsolved for years before DNA evidence led to Downs’ arrest earlier this year. But the defense contends the evidence may have been mishandled and that there’s no other physical evidence to link Downs to the crime scene. The defense is also challenging the government’s search of genealogical sites, saying it amounts to an unconstitutional search. The defense said the crime scene was a mess because more than a dozen people had entered the bathroom where Sergie’s body was found before police investigators arrived. None of the physical evidence found at the crime scene, including body and pubic hair, fingerprints, blood, and a boot print, was a match to Downs, the defense said. The defense also contends another man allegedly confessed to his sister that he killed Sergie. The other man, who was later arrested in connection with a different homicide, has a history of violence against women, according to the court documents. Defense attorneys characterized Downs as having been “a healthy, good looking, popular, happy, intelligent, dean’s list student from a solid family in Maine.” Snow will be followed by ‘dangerously’ cold temperatures Friday 2020 Democratic race is wide open in Iowa as caucuses near Man charged after can thrown onto court during Celtics game Maine gets $5 million opioid grant to help new mothers There’s only one way Bernie can win Chiefs snap Patriots’ 21-game home win streak, clinch AFC West Divers search Presumpscot River for missing Richmond woman	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402523
__label__wiki	0.619263	0.619263	(Redirected from Aggro) This article contains a list with the most common terms used in the turn-based combat system of The Banner Saga. Most of the terms apply for The Banner Saga 2, while some might not appear in the previous games (e.g. Factions does not have Critical hit mechanic). Ability[edit \| edit source] Abilities are 'special' actions that happen during combat, that transcend the regular Move/Attack/Rest actions. There are active and passive abilities. Active: Each unit belonging to a promoted class has one or multiple active abilities whose potency is measured by their rank (ability rank scales with unit rank). Active abilities of rank-1, -2,- 3 require 1, 2 or 3 Willpower points to be activated. Active abilities are typically beneficial for the unit and/or his team, and can be offensive, defensive or supportive. However, there are active abilities that can harm ally units as well as enemies (e.g. Tempest or Slag and Burn). Passive: Units belonging to almost all classes (with a few notable exceptions) have a passive ability that alters some battle-related aspect (e.g. Stats) and is "always on", i.e. it does not require an action to be activated. Most passive abilities are beneficial, but there are also negative ones. A list of all Abilities currently in the game, can he found here. Absorb[edit \| edit source] Certain abilities can help units negate incoming Strength damage, sometimes by transferring it to another stat. For example, Folka's passive ability (Shield Mastery), absorbs STR damage onto her ARM, until depleted. Acting Unit[edit \| edit source] Is the unit whose Turn to act is up, as measured in the main Queue. Adjacent[edit \| edit source] Tile or Unit being at a Distance (Range) of 1 tile, as measured from any of the tiles occupied by the reference Entity (unit). Aggro[edit \| edit source] Stands for "Aggression" and is a measure of how likely is a human-player controlled unit to be attacked by a computer-controlled (Artificial Intelligence, AI) unit. Positive/Negative Aggro means that the unit is more/less likely to be attacked. Ally[edit \| edit source] Ally (or Friendly) refers to a unit belonging to the same Team as the reference unit. Opposite team units are called Enemies. Attack[edit \| edit source] Attack is one of the three fundamental actions that can be performed by the Acting Unit during its Turn. Attacks can be targeted at an Enemy unit's Strength or Armor, damaging them. Valid Targets for attack are enemies (you cannot attack Allies!) that are within the attack-Range of the Acting Unit. Board[edit \| edit source] The Board (also referred to as Map or Grid) is where the turn-based Battles are fought. Boards in The Banner Saga are made up of square Tiles, approximately 16x16 of them, and can also contain Blockers (tiles that are 'unwalkable'). Movement between Adjacent tiles is allowed if no unit (or Blocker) occupies that tile. Units that occupy 2x2 tiles (like Varl), need both adjacent-tiles to be vacant in order to take one step in the direction of movement. Finally, note that there is no "line-of-sight" (LOS) mechanic for ranged attacks. Blocker[edit \| edit source] A Blocker (or Obstacle) is any tile, or set of tiles, that cannot be traversed during a Unit's Movement phase. However, certain active abilities can move Units through Blockers, for example Battering Ram. In the second part of The Banner Saga, Destructible Blockers were also introduced. Buff/Debuff[edit \| edit source] A buff/debuff is a positive/negative effect that is applied to a unit or a tile and usually lasts for one Round. These effects are typically "created" by active Abilities; an icon is displayed atop the portrait of the unit that "created" the effect or the unit that is "affected" from it. Buff/Debuffs have white/red colored icons, respectively. Usually, when the unit that created the buff/debuff is killed (knocked out), the effect is removed from the battle (units or tiles). Class[edit \| edit source] Is a group whose members (called units) share a common set of attributes, like: size, movement/attack range, active/passive abilities. There are base- and promoted-classes; a unit can belong in only one of each, "inheriting" their class-specific attributes. See also the main Class article. Critical[edit \| edit source] Often abbreviated to Crit or CRIT. Certain Items, Abilities and Talents give a unit the chance to cause a 'Critical' hit, that causes double (2X) the Strength damage it normally would; any Willpower added by Exertion or ability bonuses are also doubled. This property triggers 'per-attack', so for example a Rank-1 Tempest might cause a Crit on one target, but not the other. All attacks, including those from passive abilities (like Heavy Impact) are valid for Crit. Finally, all Crit modifiers from different sources 'stack', thus leading a higher chance for double damage. Damage[edit \| edit source] Reduction of a Stat of a unit, especially its Strength or Armor; in the latter case it is referred to as 'Break' damage. Certain abilities can also damage Willpower, e.g. those of the Warped Dredge. See also: Absorb, Resist, Deflect (Miss), Divert, Dodge, Hit-Chance Deflect[edit \| edit source] Deflection (or Miss) is when an attack on an enemy's Strength fails to do Damage, usually due to the target's Armor being higher that the attacker's Strength. Attacks on enemy's Armor (Break attacks) never miss, but can be Diverted by certain Items or Talents. This property is RNG-governed. Not to be confused with Absorb, Divert or Dodge. Deployment[edit \| edit source] A phase of the Battle, where the human player positions his/her units on any of the designated deployment zones of the Board, marked by blue tiles. Difficulty[edit \| edit source] A setting of the single-player game affecting the challenge offered by the enemy/AI-controlled team, during Battles. There are three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal and Hard. Higher difficulties usually result in battles against more numerous and/or stronger (higher Stats) enemies. Distance[edit \| edit source] See also: Range, Movement. Distances in the square-tile boards used in the game are measured by the number of Tiles that need be traversed (i.e. steps) for two units to coincide. So, Adjacent tiles are at a distance of 1; in the same spirit, melee attack range is when the attacker and target are in adjacent tiles. Regular ranged attacks can be made up to a distance of 5 tiles, i.e. there would be four tiles/steps between the attacker and the target. When any of the tiles occupied by a 2x2 unit (e.g. Varl) is "in-range", then the unit is "in-range". Divert[edit \| edit source] When an incoming Armor Break attack is evaded, i.e. it does not cause any damage. This property is granted by magical Items and Talents, and is RNG-governed. Not to be confused with Absorb, Deflect (Miss) or Dodge. Dodge[edit \| edit source] When an incoming Strength attack is evaded, i.e. it does not cause any damage. This property is granted by magical Items and Talents, and is RNG-governed. Not to be confused with Absorb, Deflect (Miss) or Divert. Enemy[edit \| edit source] Enemy (or Foe) refers to a unit belonging to the opposite Team (or player) from the reference unit. Units of the same team are called Allies. Entity[edit \| edit source] Anything that is attached on Tiles of the Board during a Battle, e.g. Units, Blockers, Traps, Burning Coals etc. Some Entities (e.g. Traps) can leave the Tiles they occupy 'unoccupied/walkable' while others (e.g. Units) make them Blockers, 'occupied/unwalkable'. Hero[edit \| edit source] The Units controlled by the human player Team in combat. Lists of available heroes can be found here. Hit-Chance[edit \| edit source] See also: Deflect. When attempting a Strength attack, and the attacker's Strength is lower than the targets Armor, there is a chance that the attack might be Deflected, i.e. it does not cause any damage. Hit-chance is 100% (Miss-chance is 0%) when STR ≥ ARM and decreases by 10% for each point of difference, down to the lowest value of 20%. Various Active Abilities have a 100% to-hit chance and this attribute can also be granted by some Items, e.g. the Eyeless Rift. Finally, note that attacks on enemy's Armor (Break attacks) never miss, unless the enemy has a Divert attribute. Horn[edit \| edit source] A greater magical item, displayed in the top of the screen/HUD. Each time an enemy unit is knocked out the Horn is fueled with one point of Willpower, up to a maximum of 5. Any number of this stored Willpowered can be drawn by an ally unit during its acting turn. Injury[edit \| edit source] When a Hero is knocked out during a Battle, an injury is suffered. Injured units need to spend time (days) resting to recover their health. Otherwise, they suffer a Strength penalty right from the beginning of the fight they are selected for. The Strength penalty is equal to the number of days required to recover, and is increased for higher difficulty settings. Item[edit \| edit source] Units (usually Heroes) can be equipped with up to one Item that grants them special attributes during combat, e.g. bonus to Stats or Critical hit chance. Lists of Items can be found here. Kill[edit \| edit source] Also known as Knock-out (KO). When a unit's Strength falls to zero (or lower), the unit falls down unconscious, is removed from the battle's Turn-Queue and cannot participate in the battle. The tile occupied by its body counts as unoccupied for movement/placement purposes. Heroes are not permanently killed when knocked out during combat, instead becoming injured until the caravan stops allows them time to rest (except in the Banner Saga 2's Survival Mode, where heroes may die in combat). Killing enemy units grants Renown, fuels the Horn and is the prime prerequisite for Promoting your units. Knockback[edit \| edit source] A special type of movement, by 1-5 tiles (0-4 spaces) in a straight line, against a unit's will. This is either the result of an active Ability (e.g. Battering Ram, Guts, Kindle, Impale etc) or an effect granted by a magical item. Some examples: Battering Ram ability can push the target unit, friend or foe, through other units (or obstacles) causing 1 Break to the target's Armor per unit (or obstacle). Mule Kick ability can push the target through other units but they take Strength damage from that impact. Knockback caused by Items, or Kindle, pushes units back up to 4 tiles (3 spaces), but not through other units. Knockout[edit \| edit source] See Kill. Melee[edit \| edit source] Refers to the Range (Distance) of 1 tile, i.e. when units occupy a pair of Adjacent tiles. Miss[edit \| edit source] See Deflect. Movement[edit \| edit source] One of the three fundamental actions performed by the Acting Unit. A unit's movement phase in The Banner Saga games always happens before it attacks or uses an active ability. In order to move a unit to specified Tile or the Board, that tile must be 'in-Range', also accounting for any blocked/occupied tiles. On Rest[edit \| edit source] Regain extra points of lost Willpower and/or Armor, provided that a unit Rests for this Round, i.e. ends its current Turn without moving, attacking or using abilities. This power is granted by Items. See also Regeneration, Per Turn. Party[edit \| edit source] The group of units (Heroes) the player can bring to a battle. It can contain 1-6 units. See also: Roster. Per Kill[edit \| edit source] Certain Items grant the power to regain extra points of lost Willpower for each enemy unit Killed. The WIL gained goes to the Unit, in addition to that added to the Horn Per Turn[edit \| edit source] Modifiers applied (or actions performed) at the start or ending of a unit's Turn. For example, see Regeneration. 'Per Turn' bonuses granted by Items are applied at the end of the unit's Turn. Pillage[edit \| edit source] A special Turn-Queue mode entered when the second-last unit of one team is knocked out. In Pillage mode, the lone unit acts once and then all the enemy units act successively (in a row), before the turn is given back to the lone unit. Example: Team A has one unit: [A2] Team B has three units: [B3,B1,B2] >> Assuming that Team B just killed the second last unit of Team A, the battle's Pillage Queue will be: [A2,B3,B1,B2,A2,B3,B1,B2,...] Some abilities, like Forge Ahead, Tremble or Enraged, can slightly disrupt Pillage turn-queuing, while Call to Arms can bring the battle to Pillage when more than one enemy units are alive. If a Team starts a fight with only one unit, then Pillage mode is not available. Battles in the Survival Mode are 'Pillage-locked'. Protected[edit \| edit source] Also known as Kill Stop or Defy (Death). Some units (e.g. Bellower) can not be knocked out by regular Strength attacks. When a unit is "Protected", its Strength will not drop to zero unless a special ability is used. A lesser power of the same type can be granted by certain Items and Talents: A unit equipped with the Ring of the Wolf can avoid a killing blow unless its Strength is equal to 1; in this case, the unit's Strength is reduced to 1 which means means that the next blow will be fatal. A unit with the Defy Talent has a chance to avoid any killing blow. Queue[edit \| edit source] Also referred to as Initiative (Order). A list containing all units still alive, defining the order in which they will get a Turn during the battle. The unit in the front (left end) of the Queue, as displayed in the HUD, is the Acting Unit; after it completes its turn, it is moved to the back (right end) of the Queue. In regular battles, each of the two Teams keeps its own sub-Queue, while the two teams Alternate in the battle's main Queue. For example: Team A has two units in its sub-Queue: [A1,A2] Team B has three units in its sub-Queue: [B2,B3,B1] >> Assuming it is Team A turn, the battle's main Queue will be: [A1,B2,A2,B3,A1,B1,...] See also: Pillage. Range[edit \| edit source] Might refer to Ability (Cast), Attack or Movement range. Range has min and max limits. See also: Distance. Ability (Cast) range: Is the Distance (in tiles), measured from the caster, that contains the valid Target units or tiles for an Ability. For example, Bird of Prey has a min range of 2 tiles and a max range of 7 tiles (at Rank 1). Attack range: Is the Distance (in tiles), measured from the reference unit, that contains the valid Target enemy units. For example, Melee attack range is 1 tile (Adjacent), while Archers have a min/max range of 2-5 tiles. Movement range: How far a unit can move, with or without Exertion. Typical unit movement ranges are 3-4 tiles. In contrast to how the previous two ranges are measured, movement between Adjacent Tiles is only allowed if no unit (or Blocker) occupies that tile. This means that Movement range can be reduced (even zeroed) by blockers, while Attack and Ability ranges are not affected. Rank[edit \| edit source] Rank (or Level) measures the 'power' of several different things: Units (Heroes and Enemies), Items, active Abilities and Talents. The higher the Rank the stronger the 'power'. See also: Leveling (Promotion) Regeneration[edit \| edit source] Regain stat-points of lost Armor, Strength and/or Willpower, happening at the beginning or ending of a unit's Turn. This power is granted by certain special active Abilities, Items and Talents. Regeneration by Items happens at the end of a unit's Turn. Resist[edit \| edit source] Certain Abilities, Items and Talents help units 'negate' a portion of incoming damage to Strength and/or Armor. For example, the Raidmaster's Rank-1 Stonewall ability Resists up to 3 STR or 3 ARM damage, per attack. Rest[edit \| edit source] One of the fundamental actions performed by the acting unit. A unit may only Rest in the beginning of its Turn to Regenerate 1 Willpower point. Resting after moving does not Regenerate WIL and is referred to as End Turn. RNG[edit \| edit source] Stands for "Random Number Generator" and is used to decide if a random event will take place (proc) or not. RNG governs several secondary features of turn-based combat in The Banner Saga, granted by Items or Abilities, for example: Critical, Dodge, Divert and Deflect chance. Round[edit \| edit source] The time interval between two Turns of the same unit, measured in slots of the main Queue. Most persistent ability effects (buffs or debuffs) last for one Round, meaning that they are initiated at the end of a unit's Turn and expire on the beginning of its next Turn. Roster[edit \| edit source] The group of all units and Heroes available to the player for Battles. Also referred to as Barracks. See also: Party, Team. Size[edit \| edit source] A fundamental attribute of Entities (e.g. Units or Blockers) of the Board, referring to the number and arrangement of Tiles occupied. For instance, Units can have a size of 1x1, 2x2 or 1x2/2x1 tiles. Skip[edit \| edit source] A situation where the Acting Unit is forced to perform a set of actions during its Turn and, specifically, when it is unable to attack or use an ability. This is usually a result of some special attack or passive ability. For example, if a Maliced enemy unit cannot reach the Provoker, it might move but it will not attack. AI controlled Dredge Gloomwardens display the same behavior when a Stonesinger is attacked. See also: Stun. Integer values referring to a unit's: Exertion Stats have base (starting, min) and max value-ranges. Sometimes Rank is also included in the Stats. Stun[edit \| edit source] A special, and particularly nasty, debuff where a Unit forfeits its next Turn, unable to act (move, attack or use ability). Note that the Stunned Unit does not regenerate Willpower, as in Rest action. Abilities with the Stun effect include Quake and Despair and Mule Kick. See also: Skip Turn. Talents[edit \| edit source] Special attributes only accessed by high-Rank Heroes. See main article for details. Target[edit \| edit source] Refers to a Unit or Tile that is the 'subject' of an Attack or an Ability. Certain abilities have multiple target Units or Tiles. Valid Targets are those that are "in-Range" (see also: Distance). Team[edit \| edit source] Battles in The Banner Saga are against two teams, marked with blue ([[Ally\|allies) and red (enemies). The units of the "blue" team are controlled by the human-player (you) and the units of the "red" team are controlled by the game's AI (Artificial Intelligence). See also Party, Roster. Tile[edit \| edit source] The fundamental 'pieces' that make up the battle Boards. One tile can contain one 1x1-sized Entity, e.g. a unit or a blocker. Tiles are used to measure units' Sizes, Distances between two units or tiles and Attack/Ability Ranges. Turn[edit \| edit source] The fundamental unit of abstracted time in turn-based games. All units in the Queue get Turns in the battle, during which they can perform some (or all) of them following "actions", in due order: Rest (ends Turn) Blow the Horn Blow the Horn (again) Attack or Use Active Ability (ends Turn) Move again (only available to specific units) Unit[edit \| edit source] The fundamental board Entity that can act during the battle, i.e. that gets a place in Turn-Queue and thus access to "actions". A unit needs to have the following attributes: {Size, Attack-range, Movement-range, Stats, Attack and Rest "actions"}, while it can also have any number of passive and/or active Abilities. Tiles occupied by Units are considered as Blockers ('unwalkable') by other units, allies and enemies. Exceptions hold for some active abilities, e.g. Light Step. See also: Class. Waypoint[edit \| edit source] An intermediate tile traversed by a human-player controlled unit during its movement phase, before reaching its final destination. Waypoints are typically used to avoid board hazards, like traps or burning coals. The game's pathfinder prioritizes the SW-NE axis over the SE-NW one. This can be used to predict the AI movements when placing traps. Retrieved from "https://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Terminology&oldid=15378#Aggro"	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402524
__label__cc	0.745306	0.254694	Bechdel Theatre Bechdel Theatre Podcast Autumn 2019 Shows To See #EdFringe2019: More shows on our radar Shows to see at #EdFringe2019 On DNA and i will still be whole (when you rip me in half). Bechdel-friendly theatre to see in 2019 A piece of embedded criticism. Just before I sit to write this I see that at 8:04am this morning I received an email from My Heritage DNA – Congratulations Pippa your DNA results are now ready. I pause. Fuck. Instead of opening the email, I open this word document. I’ve been thinking a lot about what this role of embedded critic means and how I feel incredibly biased because I’ve been excited about i will still be whole (when you rip me in half) since I saw it was announced on twitter. And I know why I felt so invested so early on: Representation. It’s a word that I find myself repeating so much (at Bechdel Theatre it’s one of the words we use to describe the aims of our podcast, we chat about gender and representation). However, it’s a word that has become so ingrained in my vernacular, repeated so many times that much like “diversity”, I worry that I find it becoming more hollow, losing grip of what it so importantly signifies. It becomes another buzzword, a tick-box, meaningless. How convenient for the white-cis-hetero-capitalist structures that benefit from it’s minimisation. I remind myself of Riz Ahmed’s speech at the House of Commons where he explains that diversity is regarded like a sprinkle of salt but representation should never be considered an added extra. When I discuss the specific representation of Asian people, I often excitedly adopt the portmanteau, ‘representasian’ and hashtag the fuck out of it. Trying to find community. Trying to make us visible. I know how important meaningful representasian is to the writer of this show, Ava Wong Davies. I passionately apply for this role. I’ve been excited by I will still be whole… because I feel like it’s the first time I can see characters so deeply similar to myself in ways that feel so important and ground-breaking even within in my own representation bubble. East Asian and White. Mixed. Queer. I find this funny because I haven’t even described personality traits or characteristics. It’s identity. It’s culture. Do I have nothing but these macro ideologies to describe myself? I always desire to see issues around sexuality, race etc. to be secondary to a characters’ lives on stage (to move past being labelled a GAY PLAY, A CHINESE PLAY etc.). Although there’s probably some form of wording on my Bumble profile that basically says I AM A PROUD MIXED-RACE LESBIAN (#femmestruggles amiright?). I think I might even use my other favourite portmanteau, “gaysian”. As a millennial whose life and work is embedded in identity politics and the importance of seeing yourself reflected I worry I forget about actually having any substance. Forget my cultural “identity”. Who am I really? Am I an extrovert or introvert? Kind or selfish? A listener or a talker? A creative or a critic? I know that my personality is deeply fused with my identity, intertwined with one another. The way I navigate life is dictated by hierarchical structures and invisible oppressions (as well as a whoole load of privileges). This influences my interests, my passions…or am I just scared there’s nothing else really there? The first day in rehearsal I find myself on the edge both physically and mentally; sitting at the side and anxious. I feel like an imposter, infiltrating a space already carved out with group guidelines, collective snacks and a journey already started days before my arrival. I’m an intruder. But like, a welcome one. I feel like I want a visitor’s badge I can return at the end of the day. Yet, I’m invited into the routine “check-in” with everyone else. I’m present. I’m ready. I sit. I watch. Photo Courtesy of Lilith Wozniak The play begins with a series of monologues between two women: a mother and daughter. Separated. Different. Curious. Ava’s writing is rich and poetic, at once urgent and demanding yet soft and lingering. When I watch EJ (Rosa Escoda) and Joy (Kailing Fu) deliver these words I have to wait a second to let their meaning settle. As I watch the actors at work under Helen Morley’s patient and guided direction, I’m grateful for their pauses, for these silences are filled to the brim with intrigue, longing and heartache. EJ searches for meaning in everything and everyone around her: from a midnight fox to the black mould in her bathroom. Joy isolates herself and struggles with her inner conflict. I take in the magic of Ava’s words and the spaces between them. I feel healed. My favourite exercise in the rehearsal room was to note down every time a body part or body function was mentioned. In one scene I list 21 parts and 15 functions. In the rehearsal everyone agrees that the play is undeniably about bodies, searching for bodies, covering bodies, nourishing bodies. I think about my own body and the war-torn path we share together. The clashes we’ve had, the disappointments, the attempts at forgiveness. EJ experiences something similar as she traces her face, recognising her White fathers’ features and torments herself trying to find her Chinese-Malaysian mothers’. To see the battleground of a young East-Asian/White woman’s body represented feels almost overwhelming. This is the nuance, the detail, and the truth I celebrate when women of colour write from experience. When it comes to watching the play I am again aware of bodies, but this time of being situated within the audience. I realise that the only people I can see scribbling in notebooks are myself and the beloved critic, Lyn Gardner, beside me. I had introduced myself to her and chatted before the show started because #teamlyn, but then I think about how inferior I feel calling myself a “critic” of any kind. I feel a panic rising at the thought of writing and publishing this response. I notice a young woman with her chin in her hand as she leans forward with a smile plastered to her face throughout. I smile to myself. It’s fascinating to watch the show and see familiar scenes and choices and actions yet to see it all heightened to the nth degree. The mystic lighting (Ben Kulvichit) and sound (Amanda Fleming) emphasises the beauty and the density of the dialogue. The actors are fuelled with spirit and focus. I feel surprisingly relaxed. The reunion scene comes all too soon and I realise that almost the whole play is over. It’s been an intense 45 minutes. In rehearsals I wanted this scene (where they meet for the first time) to be volcanic, to erupt with the fury and anger from the pain and the soreness that overwhelmed both EJ and Joy. I gripped my pen each time I watched it. However, that’s not the world this play sits within and it took me until the final performance to realise that. Sure, there are outbursts as EJ calls Joy a “cunt”, but everything simmers beneath, and the reality is actually much more bizarre and hilarious as both party realises they will never fulfil the expectation of the other. It reminds me of The Meg-John and Justin Podcast in which two relationship and sex educators talk about the “scripts” we’re given on relationships, and our panic when confronted with a situation we don’t know the script for. When someone says I love you, you say it back. When a mother gives birth to a daughter, she must raise her. I see EJ and Joy struggling to know what script they are supposed to use. Writing it as they go. Desperate to start again. The archness of Kai’s responses and the disappointment in Rosa’s expression communicates this perfectly. I think back to my DNA results. My nervousness over opening them, not because of what it could say, but because of how I might react. How my mind might forge links between some highly problematic ethnic excavating exercise and my own sense of self. I consider EJ in i will still be whole, what did she hope to find when she made contact with the woman who gave birth to her? Really, my situation and hers are highly incomparable. The play doesn’t end wrapped up neatly and as an audience member I am unsatisfied yet comforted. I think about how much it meant to EJ to find out if her mother accepted her sexuality. How, as a queer audience member, those last lines lingered for me. I hope perhaps, for EJ, it was on some level the sense of closure she craved. I wasn’t sure what exactly an embedded critic was supposed to be when I started this process and having finished it i’m still not entirely sure I’ve done it. However, I feel invigorated by the depiction of people like myself in this play. I feel grateful to have had this opportunity to observe and reflect and respond. I am excited for the future because I know more people who are like me are on stage, writing, directing, producing, designing, reviewing. I hope this play continues its life beyond this festival. I hope we continue to embrace representasian. I hope one day we don’t need that fucking word. I open the email. If you want to catch myself, Beth, Lyn and Ava discussing criticism, gender and representation, we’re hosting a LIVE podcast event at Vault on Sunday 10th March. Come join us and book your tickets here. Posted on March 4, 2019 March 5, 2019 by bechdeltheatre This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← Bechdel-friendly theatre to see in 2019 Shows to see at #EdFringe2019 → One thought on “On DNA and i will still be whole (when you rip me in half).” Lucy Sheen aka 4gottenadoptee says: Reblogged this on Lucy Sheen actor writer filmmaker adoptee.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402529
__label__cc	0.615044	0.384956	Sep 11, 2019 @ 10:57 PH ‘interested’ if China offers something for POGO ban: But Locsin admits rich POGO owners won’t like it Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin said the Duterte administration could find it intriguing if China offers something in return for banning Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) which is corrupting its citizens’ social fabric. “It hasn’t gotten to that but it would be interesting if it comes to that,” said Locsin in reply to ANC’s Karen Davila who asked what the government would do if China offered it something in return for shutting down what President Xi Jinping considered as illegal in his country. “What do we do? We give up construction, we give up ancillary services for which Filipinos are paid like catering, we give up shopping, we give up all that. So what are they going to give us? Maybe we can do that,” he added. But Locsin believed owners of POGOs would oppose the government giving in to China’s plea for a ban. “If you do that then let me say the Filipinos who own POGOs, and they are rich, I hope they don’t advertise in any media that campaigns against POGO. And media will understand the consequences,” Locsin said. Locsin, however, stressed that as things stand, the government would not grant China’s appeal for a ban. “I’m not going to talk about that (the billions in government revenues coming from POGOs) because the point is it favors us…I won’t do it. Are we really going to close POGO? The other countries like Cambodia, which is heavily dependent on China, they can threaten, but (Philippines) they can’t. One thing about us we came into the Chinese game really late,” said Locsin. “Before I was in government, I told a Chinese ambassador, ‘Are you gonna throw money at us like you threw money in Africa?’ ‘No, we didn’t get our money back in Africa. Now you’re going to have to prove that every Chinese-Filipino project makes money for both sides’,” he added. Tags: Africa, Cambodia, China, Chinese ambassador, Duterte administration, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin, Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations, Philippines, President Xi Jinping Lack of transparency in China’s Belt and Road projects: EU firms A lack of information and transparency are top barriers for European companies seeking involvement in Duterte aware of Chinese-POGO crimes, corruption: But I won’t stop it, I can only limit it President Rodrigo Duterte has acknowledged for the first time the rising criminality and corruption brought Duterte turning blind eye on POGO sins – Teresita Ang-See Social activist Teresita Ang-See is alarmed by the rising tide of kidnappings and other crimes China pledges more open economy, prudent monetary policy China's Communist Party wrapped up a key annual economic meeting on Thursday with pledges to Silver Links Copyright © 2020 Bilyonaryo - Latest news on the richest Filipinos and Family Business.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402543
__label__wiki	0.61877	0.61877	Home / Band Insider / Let’s Go Play Rockers’ Block With Nick Feldman of Wang Chung Let’s Go Play Rockers’ Block With Nick Feldman of Wang Chung Watch the singer/bassist for the '80s New Wave act kill it in this game of "Name That Tune," but with his own songs By blastecho on August 18, 2018 Some music artists have released literally hundreds of songs over the years, to say nothing of the ones deemed too garbage-y to release. BlastEcho wondered if those involved in recording so many songs could remember them all. Enter Rockers’ Block. For each Rockers’ Block contestant, we play five random songs from their catalog each song from the beginning to see how long it takes for them to guess (well, maybe guess isn’t the right word) the correct song. Then once they do (hopefully), they talk a bit about the song. And If You Like This, You'll Love... Rockers’ Block Is as Easy as ABC for Martin Fry Can The Police’s Andy Summers Stand Losing on Rockers’ Block? Buy Everybody Wang Chung Tonight... Wang Chung's Greatest Hits Wang Chung enjoyed a helluva run in the ’80s, what with their impossible-to-avoid pop hits, chiefly “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” and “Dance Hall Days.” Though they haven’t been able to recreate that fledgling success (few have) since, they’re still doing it on the touring circuit and, albeit quietly, still making records. BlastEcho caught up with one-half of Wang Chung, bassist/singer Nick Feldman, at Ravinia in Highland Park, IL, when the band was touring alongside other ’80s acts like A Flock of Seagulls, Animotion and Trans-X, among them, on the Lost ’80s Live tour. Feldman was nice enough to indulge in a game of Rockers’ Block and he was mean enough to kick its ass! See for yourself: P.S. The full songs are below, if you think you can do better than Feldman did… Song #1: For more on Wang Chung, check out: http://www.wangchung.com/ Related Items1st wavenew wavenick feldmanpromised landrockers blockwang chung ← Previous Story Trans-X’s Pascal Languirand Is Living on Video for Rockers’ Block Next Story → Dizzying Up a Goo in This Edition of Rockers’ Block Trans-X’s Pascal Languirand Is Living on Video for Rockers’ Block Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey Is King for a Day in Rockers’ Block	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402547
__label__wiki	0.595393	0.595393	Eric Clapton and Andy Fairweather Low Unplugged Again — Deluxe Version by David Boles.In David Boles Blues.8 Comments on Eric Clapton and Andy Fairweather Low Unplugged Again — Deluxe Version Starting today, you can buy a brand-new “Deluxe Edition” of Eric Clapton‘s bright and pleasing, March 1992, Unplugged concert on MTV. Yes, you get a remastered CD, with six new songs and a DVD that curates the entirety of the MTV performance. Every and all guitar players must purchase both the album and the video performance if you want to understand just how a light hand — a slowhand — survives in performance when blended with voice and rhythm. Clapton is at his very best in this acoustic guitar showcase, and you really come to understand the genius of his playing. He is an old-pro master and I don’t think he’s been more interesting in anything he’s done since that historic, six-Grammy-award-winning, performance. In addition to remastered versions of the 14 original songs, you get six extra performances: My Father’s Eyes (Take 1) Running on Faith (Take 1) Walkin’ Blues (Take 1) Worried Life Blues In listening to the extra cuts, you understand why they didn’t make the original version. The timing is off. The sound isn’t as rich and clear. Eric seems a little agitated — but it’s a delight to have these abandoned cuts included because they show the process of creation in performance — that that includes the not-so-perfect with the almost there. What makes one version of a song better than another? You can find the evidence herein. At times, Clapton seems rushed or uncertain, and that trepidation shines through a little too clearly, and that creates a grand record beyond illusion. Being able to watch Eric Clapton sitting and playing a variety of guitars is a real joy. The fact that his three “Open G” slide songs — “Running On Faith” and “Walkin’ Blues” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” sound even clearer and better in this remastered deluxe version is only outshone by the addition of additional takes of those songs in the bonus disc: “Running On Faith (Take 1)” — — and “Walkin’ Blues (Take 1)” Having those additional examples of the songs teaches us just how differently a song can sound from intention to intention — and we need not sweat being imperfect in our imitation. Yes, they’re the same songs, but the performance quality and emotion are entirely different! For the True Clapton fan, you must have the “Authentic Guitar Transcription” book in hand. All of the 14 original songs are written in TAB form, so you can recreate the exact notes and style Clapton used in performance. The inclusion of the second guitarist Andy Fairweather Low‘s performance next to Clapton’s on the page also helps demonstrate the depth of sound created. Yes, Clapton is singing and playing and Andy is only playing, but this book proves how it is really Andy’s riffs, and not Clapton’s, that make these songs so immeasurably memorable. For the even Truer Clapton Fanatic, you cannot do without Wolf Marshall‘s excellent book and CD of “Signature Licks” dissecting that Unplugged performance. Wolf walks you through some of the harder guitar sequences in slower versions of the songs to help you hear, and better know, just precisely what Clapton was up to — and why! Yes, Andy Fairweather Low is right there, too, on the page. His second guitar parts are much more challenging to perform than Eric’s — so player beware! Eric Clapton is one of the greatest musical talents of our time. His career currently stretches over 51 years, and his influence is still magnificent and magnitudinal — what else could a person ever wish from the promise of a life? acoustic guitarandy fairweather lowauthentic guitar tabbluesdeluxe recordingeric claptonmtvnew cutsopen g tuningunpluggedwolf marshall Gordon Davidescu says: Great review! I’ll have to see if it will also be on vinyl — what I’ve heard sounds fantastic! David W. Boles says: Here’s the official Clapton page for the re-release: http://store.ericclapton.com/unplugged-expanded-and-remastered-2-cd-dvd.html I don’t see a vinyl option. I can live with digital only for the sake of hearing the amazing Clapton 🙂 It’s interesting how many hidden firsts were in the 1992 Unplugged performance. “My Father’s Eyes” made it’s debut, but was cut from the show, and not officially released until 1996’s “Pilgrim” album. “Layla” was first acoustically performed and “slowed down” — no wonder nobody in the audience recognized the famous first few notes! “Tears in Heaven” made its debut on the show. Pingback: JJ Cale Melodiously Rises from the Grave « Boles Blogs Another for the list. David Boles says: Pingback: How Alcoholism Saved Eric Clapton from Suicide « Boles Blogs Previous Previous post: Advertising Explicit Bodily Functions in People Magazine Next Next post: End of the Copper Line	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402555
__label__wiki	0.699292	0.699292	SUMMER SALE!!! All Sales Are Final Sale Brigitte & Stone Activewear & Lounge Brigitte & Stone Jewelry Hunter Bell Levinia Konyalian Always February Holy Caftan Sam & Lavi Home » About Gabriela Rigamonti About Gabriela Rigamonti Gabriela Rigamonti jewels is the new luxury, authentic and unconventional. A style that expresses new forms of elegance, presenting itself as a modern classicism, based on superior handcrafting techniques and creativity. TIMELESS CRAFTSMANSHIP The Gabriela Rigamonti brand was born in the city of Vicenza in 2000. Like a woman’s beauty magnified by jewels, this magical place is also called the City of Gold, a source of infinite design inspirations and ancestral know-how. Its founder, with whom it shares its name, driven by the innate love for the world of art, travel,read and fashion, decides to leave her successful career as a export manager to follow a dream and face a new and passionate adventure. The world of fashion recognizes Gabriela Rigamonti as the author of many of the most interesting trends in the jewellery world over the last years. Her tireless instinct to always bring something inedited to life pushes her to create over 500 new models a year, which satisfy the needs of the most diverse international markets. Gabriela Rigamonti’s collections can be found today in over 24 countries worldwide.Many creations are chosen each year by fashion celebrities,tv presenters,famous writes and singers to accompany them on the most popular and prestigious red carpets and tv programs. Subscribe to us for update on new arrivals, special offers, & more! Copyright © 2020 Brigitte & Stone	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402562
__label__wiki	0.880012	0.880012	View source for United States--1981 ← United States--1981 {{US nav}} '''TIME-LIFE TELEVISION''' At the '''14-18 March 1981''', '''[[wikipedia:NATPE\|NATPE]]''' exhibit in New York, Time-Life Television promotes its latest syndication package, which includes 74 brand new episodes of '''Doctor Who''' (seasons 16-18, the latter of which had not yet concluded on British television): ---- ='''[[Tom Baker stories\|TOM BAKER]] (continued)'''= [[File:NATPE.JPG\|350px\|thumb\|right\|Part of Time-Life's sales brochure from the March 1981 NATPE exhibit]] 18 stories, 74 episodes {\| {{small-table}} \|- \|5A\|\|[[The Ribos Operation]]\|\|4 \|- \|5B\|\|[[The Pirate Planet]]\|\|4 \|- \|5C\|\|[[The Stones of Blood]]\|\|4 \|- \|5D\|\|[[The Androids of Tara]]\|\|4 \|- \|5E\|\|[[The Power of Kroll]]\|\|4 \|- \|5F\|\|[[The Armageddon Factor]]\|\|6 \|- \|5J\|\|[[Destiny of the Daleks]]\|\|4 \|- \|5H\|\|[[City of Death]]\|\|4 \|- \|5G\|\|[[The Creature from the Pit]]\|\|4 \|- \|5K\|\|[[Nightmare of Eden]]\|\|4 \|- \|5L\|\|[[The Horns of Nimon]]\|\|4 \|- \|5N\|\|[[The Leisure Hive]]\|\|4 \|- \|5Q\|\|[[Meglos]]\|\|4 \|- \|5R\|\|[[Full Circle]]\|\|4 \|- \|5P\|\|[[State of Decay]]\|\|4 \|- \|5S\|\|[[Warriors' Gate]]\|\|4 \|- \|5T\|\|[[The Keeper of Traken]]\|\|4 \|- \|5V\|\|[[Logopolis]]\|\|4 \|- \|} Two of the first stations to buy this new package are [[KRMA]] in Denver, [[Colorado]], and [[OETA]], in [[Oklahoma]]; they start screening them in '''May 1981'''. (See list of other stations below.) However, this promotion is short-lived: Time-Life's '''ten year''' contract with the BBC expires on '''30 April 1981''', and not renewed because their Film and Television division was in the process of withdrawing from active film and television distribution. . ---- '''LIONHEART TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL INC''' [[File:LionheartMay81.JPG\|thumb\|400px\|Lionheart print ad, May 1981 - Doctor Who top row, fifth box]] By ''' 6 May 1981''', '''Lionheart Television International Inc''' had been formed by several ex-senior-executives from Time-Life Television. The company is co-owned by Western-World Television Inc (49%), Public Media Inc (49%), and the BBC (2%). Lionheart formally takes over from Time-Life Television as US distributor of BBC programmes. (Western-World assumes the distribution to Latin America, effective from 1 April 1981.) By '''27 May 1981''': Lionheart has on offer all 41 Tom Baker stories, including new edits of the 23 earlier [[Tom Baker stories]], now without the Howard da Silva narrations. They also offer the stories as 41 re-edited "Movie Version" omnibuses. (Some PBS stations had made their own in-house 'movie' versions of the earlier serials; Lionheart now offered stations a choice of format.) <table> <tr> <td>[[File:Lionheart BBC.JPG\|200px\|Lionheart BBC Logo]] [[File:Lionheart Inc.JPG\|200px\|Lionheart Inc Logo]]</td> </tr> </table> [http://www.closinglogos.com/page/Lionheart+Television LIONHEART LOGOS and IDENTS] <table> <tr> <td>[[File:Lionheart 1982 a.JPG\|thumb\|right\|400px\|1981/82 Lionheart sales brochure cover]]</td> <td>[[File:Lionheart 82 c.JPG\|thumb\|right\|370px\|1981/82 Lionheart sales brochure back cover]]</td> </tr> </table> <table> <tr> <td>[[File:Lionheart 1982 b.JPG\|thumb\|760px\|1981/82 Lionheart sales brochure internal spread]]</td> </tr> </table> [[File:FantasyEmpires.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|Fantasy Empire magazine, selection of covers]][[File:NACTAug1981.jpg\|thumb\|right\|350px\|Sales by Lionheart as at August 1981; North American Celestial Toyroom, August 1981]] '''June 1981''': The fourth and final issue of '''Marvel Premiere Doctor Who''' comic is published. (The reprint comic series resumes in [[United States--1984\|1984]].) ---- '''July 1981''': The first issue of ''Fantasy Empire'' magazine is published by New Media Publishing Inc. The magazine contains news and features on all manner of British television; '''Doctor Who''' gets extensive coverage. (NMP publishes 19 regular issues, plus various specials and compilation editions, between 1981 and 1985.) ---- * '''July 1981''': Pinnacle ceases publishing its '''Doctor Who''' novelisation reprint range. The North American edition of the fanzine ''Celestial Toyroom'' reports in its '''August 1981''' issue that: * Lionheart has sold the first 98 episodes to a number of PBS stations, including: [[WOR]], [[WGBH]], [[WETA]], [[WVIZ]], [[WPTT]], [[KPRC]], [[KSTP]], [[KDNL]], [[KCPT]], [[WTBS]], [[WNED]], [[WYES]], [[WTEV]], [[WOSU]], [[WVEC]], [[WFMY]], [[KPTS]], [[KMPH]], [[WXXI]], [[WMAA]], [[WPTV]], [[WLRE]], [[WTVQ]], [[WCSC]], [[WQLN]] and [[WENH]]. while the full package of 172 episodes has been sold to [[WTTW]], [[KQED]], [[WPBT]], [[KRMA]], [[WVIA]], [[KETA]], [[KOED]], [[WUNC]], [[WAST]], [[WMHT]], [[WMUL]], [[WCNY]], [[WNPE]], and [[KTEH]]. and the magazine also announces that [[WHYY]] is one of the first stations to air the "full-length movie format" editions. * '''14-16 August 1981''': Before he has appeared on screen as the Doctor in the UK, Peter Davison makes his first US convention appearance, in Tulsa [[Oklahoma]]. This is also John Nathan-Turner's first US convention. Interviews with both are published in ''Fantastic Films'' issue #28 (cover dated April 1982). * '''September 1981''': Even though the first season of [[Peter Davison stories]] has yet to screen in the UK, those seven serials are offered in advance to the US Cable station, [[The Entertainment Channel]]. However, for reasons that are not clear, it appears that the Entertainment Channel deal never went ahead. *'''Late 1981''': '''"The Doctor Who Fan Club of America"''' is formed in late 1981; it is based in Denver, [[Colorado]]. {{US nav}} Template:Small-table (view source) Template:US nav (view source) Return to United States--1981. Retrieved from "https://broadwcast.org/index.php/United_States--1981"	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402565
__label__wiki	0.811609	0.811609	What does the future hold for the Twins Who Share a Brain? by Bruce Grierson from VANCOUVER MAGAZINE, Sept. 1, 2011 The moment they were born, on October 25, 2006, in Vancouver, this much was known about Krista and Tatiana Hogan. The girls were conjoined—what used to be called “Siamese”—twins. Their skulls were fused such that their tiny bodies together made the shape of an open hinge, the girls facing the same direction but essentially away from each other. Each had her own organs and limbs, but they shared plenty of blood vessels in the netlike sheath beneath their scalp. And they shared something else, too, something believed to be unprecedented among living twins: a “bridge” of tissue connected their otherwise-separate brains amidships, at a crucial relay station called the thalamus. Eight hours after the twins’ birth, a remarkable thing happened, and it immediately transformed the story of two little girls from Vernon, B.C., into something almost mythic. Tatiana got a shot and Krista flinched. Clearly, the girls were not just attached but connected. Sensory information passed between them. “This is not telepathy. This is not ‘sixth sense,” says Douglas Cochrane, a veteran pediatric neurosurgeon at BC Children’s Hospital who has been the twins’ wingman—their doctor, advocate, and, in a sense, protector—since they were in utero. “The girls send chemical messengers in the bloodstream between each other. They send electrical impulses and information between each other along this bridge”—on the CT-scan image he’s pointing to, it looks like a long kidney bean—“and I’m sure along the coverings that they share.” The bridge has been likened to a FireWire connection between their brains, and its bandwidth appears broad. Months after their birth, tests confirmed that images falling on the retina of Tatiana were processed in the visual cortex of Krista. What one girl looks at, the other girl sees. This development, bordering on miraculous, had a flipside: separating them would be a bear. The risks were extraordinary. At best it would likely mean, at the end of many complicated operations teasing apart bone, skin, and vessels, some vision and speech impairment for both girls. Plus: “Given the way the brains are packed together—they’re physically separate but they sort of interdigitate like the teeth of a zipper—it was clear to me that we’d end up with weakness on one side for one twin and on the opposite side for the other,” Cochrane explains. “What else would happen no one knows.” A semi-crazy-sounding philosophical question presented itself: Is it better to be healthy and fused to someone at the head, or to be impaired and partially paralyzed but on your own? To answer means having to assign a value to independence. Do we perhaps overvalue it? And undervalue—because no singleton can appreciate it—the presence of someone who gets you because they are in you, of you? Cochrane viewed his job, in those early days, as articulating what splitting the girls up would mean (in terms of gains and losses), and then stepping back and letting mother Felicia Simms—then just 21—and the rest of the family make the call. The family chose not to separate. The twins would move into the future as one. Brain surgeons have a reputation for an appalling bedside manner—almost as if they’re unwilling to devote even a bit of RAM to niceties that could go instead to saving lives. But David Douglas Cochrane has somehow found space inside himself for both. He is a big man with softly recessed eyes and a cultivated patience. On the consumer website RateMDs.com, where patients can describe their experiences with physicians, a father weighed in. Cochrane had successfully excised a bone cyst from his son’s skull. “Dr. Cochrane is the most professional, talented, kind, humble man I have ever met,” he wrote. Other comments strike a similarly devotional tone. (Alerted to the praise, Cochrane laughingly dismissed it because the sample size isn’t statistically significant.) Cochrane became a doctor for some of the usual reasons: he wanted to help people, a family friend whom he idolized practised family medicine in hometown Cambridge, Ontario, and he (Douglas) had the brains and the stamina to get through med school. His ambitions drew him into the wider world. At the University of Toronto, he won the Faculty of Medicine’s Cody gold medal, then struck out for Angola and worked under the medical missionary Robert Foster at the tail end of a brutal civil war. Foster’s resourcefulness under fire (literally) provided a new benchmark. Cochrane decided there to specialize in neurosurgery. Neurosurgeons are medicine’s bomb squad—brain disorders are among the most threatening to patients, and treatments carry the most risk. Family medicine it isn’t, but for Cochrane that combination of complexity and high stakes was exactly the appeal. “I found I enjoyed trying to solve tough problems,” he says. Pediatric neurosurgery is the no-limit table: the highest stakes of all. If your itch is to help, life offers few more useful places to scratch. He has been at Childrens’, where he specializes in fetuses with congenital neurological malformations, for 25 years. But nothing in his background, he says, prepared him for a case like the Hogan twins. Cochrane is watching and listening like everyone else to see what the girls reveal about who they are. The twins, chestnut-haired and blue-eyed, are nearly five years old. Developmentally they’re closer to four, Cochrane says, but that may just be the Ginger Rogers syndrome: they do what other kids do, but backwards and in heels, so to speak. “They have had to learn motor movements differently,” Cochrane says. “They had to work on how to sit and stand and cruise and walk.” (Even bum-scooting required heroic teamwork.) Their language has come slowly. Cochrane admits he doesn’t quite know why but reckons the answer might be social rather than physiological. The twins are the not-so-still centre of an extended family of 14 people, all mustered under the roof of a 10-room rented house, all more or less devoted to the insatiable needs of the world’s rarest craniopagus twins. “You could say that there’s a household there that’s so full of adults and kids communicating that they’re kind of communicating for them,” Cochrane says. “It’s like the third child: he’s not going to talk until he’s three because the other two are doing all the talking for him.” Exactly what the girls’ internal landscape is like we can’t yet know. The best tool for getting a real-time snapshot of what’s happening in the brain is an fMRI scan, which measures changes in blood flow (which correlate to changes in neural activity). For those pictures the girls will need to go into the scanner without anesthetic, which means getting their cooperation. It’ll likely be at least a year before Cochrane lets that happen. For now everybody is guessing. Some things are established. It seems clear that Tatiana will “see” the sickle moon that Krista is looking at (and vice-versa). Very likely, in some fashion, she will hear the Bruno Mars song piping into Krista’s ear bud, and taste the Tin Roof ice cream Krista just licked, and feel the give of the soft-shelled crab Krista just picked up. (One exception: she may not smell the chrysanthemum Krista has leaned down to sniff; olfaction appears to be the one sense that routes around the thalamus.) The fear Krista experiences in her nightmare will agitate sleeping Tatiana, too. And when Krista jars awake, so will Tatiana. (The thalamus governs wakefulness.) So they will save money on alarm clocks. It’s not clear how their brains will sort out the interference from the two-way traffic on the bridge. If they are both reading a book, will each see both sets of words? (Some neurologists wonder if the twins will have an increased chance of synesthesia—a blending of senses disproportionately common in visual artists.) The communication between them will likely prove to be a uniquely intimate call-and-response. But can we say what they are sharing are actual thoughts? The thalamus relays not only sensory information but also some memory information to a part of the midbrain called the cingulate cortex, which is involved in, among other things, processing emotion. So the exchange is bound to have at least a dimension of what we think of as “thoughts.” Felicia Simms is convinced her girls are playing a sort of private game of tennis, mentally. Kelowna filmmaker Alison Love, who spent a year with the twins while helping create the documentary Twins Who Share a Brain, believes it, too. “In the beginning we weren’t sure ourselves,” she says. “Is it just Mom hoping that the kids are really more special than they are?” But then both she and filmmaking partner David McIlvride began to see the same thing: a tight, coded link between the girls’ behaviour without a sound passing between them. Cochrane, for his part, is somewhat a kindred spirit to Atul Gawande, a Boston-based endocrine surgeon and popular writer. Both men crusade for patient safety, ensured by systems of checklists and protocols for doctors to work more efficiently and limit catastrophic errors. Gawande wrote a book called Better, which promotes these issues; Cochrane co-directs the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and was recently appointed to chair the inquiry into thousands of medical scans performed and interpreted by a couple of B.C. doctors unlicensed to do so. But Cochrane is like Gawande in another way, too. Gawande has an oft-quoted line that could easily be Cochrane’s mantra: “The social dimension turns out to be as essential as the scientific.” Cochrane is a listener above all else. Patients know better than doctors do whether their treatment has been “successful,” but that’s not the way the equation works now. Correcting that thinking, Cochrane says, “becomes more important to me the older I get.” A powerful social lens may prove one of Cochrane’s best assets as far as the girls are concerned. (For theirs is going to be as much a social story as a medical one, a story of standing out and fitting in.) Cochrane is a curator of the twins’ uniqueness who emphasizes their ordinariness. “My sort of mental model of these kids is that they’re two kids who come to visit me,” he says. “I’m involved in the care of many kids with deformities and malformations, kids who don’t look normal and their arms and legs don’t work normally.” In this sense, the twins are like any other of his patients. “I see them as children.” If this case were special, the other ones wouldn’t be. Cochrane doesn’t burn much daylight thinking about the philosophical and poetic implications of the girls who share a brain. Even the twists and turns of the neuroscience don’t preoccupy him. “I am interested,” he says, “and when the time is right we’ll try and put some sense to this. But I’m not prepared to put the girls out as medical curiosities. I mean, where historically did these people end up? In circuses.” This is Cochrane as protector—trying to create normalcy around a family circumstance that would quicken the pulse of a reality-show producer. That 14-member extended family—including mom Felicia and father Brendan, five kids (the twins have an older brother and a sister, plus a baby sister called Shaggy), grandmother Louise, and various aunts and uncles and cousins—are stretched impossibly thin. The monthly budget doesn’t cover the frequent car trips to Vancouver for medical tests, which are only partly subsidized by the provincial health ministry. Some of the adults, at least three of whom have health issues of their own, report that they sometimes go hungry so that the twins can eat. To manage the twins’ exposure and drum up income (through things like speaking gigs for Felicia), the family has retained Los Angeles agent Chuck Harris. The self-described “Wizard of Odd,” Harris counts among his other clients “Lizard Boy,” “Wolf Boy,” and a guy who balances a car on his head. (Not to mention 49-year-old Lori and George Schappell of Reading, Pennsylvania, the world’s oldest set of craniopagus twins.) The frenzy of academic interest in the twins is its own kind of P.T. Barnum scrum, in Cochrane’s view. “It’s ‘Who’s published about it? Show me the article!’” he says. And here the face of this perfectly controlled man clouds with frustration. (Cochrane has published no papers on the girls himself.) “The kids need to develop in order for us to understand some of the things that they’re asking. And the case study of these two twins will in fact be important when we can do it.” The Hogan twins—the fact of them—is a little like the fact of life on Earth: a series of odds-defying events compounded to a level of staggering improbability. They weren’t supposed to make it this far. Early fears were that Tatiana’s heart, which was doing almost the work of two hearts, might fail. But now that the twins have grown, and grown stronger, that fear has faded and they are thriving beyond all expectation. Cochrane heaps credit on the family. “The support I remain in awe of,” he says. “That family has remained absolutely committed and absolutely strong. Without them the girls probably would have ended up in foster care.” Out in public the girls still generate strong reactions. That’s not likely to change. “People’s immediate response is, ‘The twins should be separated—let’s make them like us,’ ” Cochrane says. Whatever the motives for that reflex—to spare the girls an impossibly complicated life or just to spare ourselves the uncomfortable feelings they might arouse in us—it’s not likely to happen now. “The only two other twins I know of who had this form of joining, though not the bridge, were two Iranian sisters,” Cochrane says. “They chose to do it in adulthood. And they did not survive.” So, barring some game-changing microsurgical advance 30 years down the road, these two British Columbian sisters, bred in the bone, will move through life together, communicating in ways they’ll probably never be able fully to articulate. No one else will understand. But one man will understand better than most. www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/The_Worlds_Rarest_Twins?page=0%2C0 Featured Kids Psychology Science September 1, 2011 June 30, 2017 Tagged: Vancouver Magazine ← A bomb is ticking in your genome. Do you want to know about it? Congrats, you’re a Dad. Time to dial back the risk-taking? → nine × =	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402567
__label__wiki	0.552721	0.552721	Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 4 By Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India) if so, it will fix the date to the latter half of the third century. At any rate, it is fair to suppose that the system was copied from the Roman coins, to which many other circumstances of imitation may be traced ; among these, the soldier trampling on his vanquished foe in fig. 14 ; and the radiated head offig. 26, the coin without a name, which is connected with the rest of the series by the equestrian reverse, seems an imitation of the radiated crown of the Roman emperors of the same period. Plate XXII. figs. 1, 2, 3.—Three coins of Azos, having on the obverse, a Brahmany bull, and on tLe reverse, a panther or lion. The monograms on all three ditfer : legends in Greek and Pehlevi as above described. Figs. 4, 5.—-On these the bull is pladed with the Pehlevi on the reverse, while a well-formed elephant occupies the place of honor on the obverse. Figs. 6, 7, S.——In these the place of the elephant is taken by aBactrian camel of two humps. No name is visible on any, but the Pehlevi word ‘P‘['1_u is plain on No. 8, and their general appearance allows us to class them with the foregoing coins of Azos. Fig. 9.—Here a horseman, with couched spear, in a square or frame, occupies the obverse, and the bull again the reverse: the word Azou is distinct on both sides. The device and attitude of the horseman will be seen to link this series with the coins of Nonos, Azilisoe, and others, that are as yet nameless. Figs. 10, ll.—A figure seated on a chair, holding a cornucopia, marks the obverse of this variety; while on the reverse, we perceive a Hercules or Mercury. It was from fig. 11, (a coin presented by Moumv LA’L to Dr. GB.ANT,) that I first discovered the name AZOT, afterwards traceable on so many others. I Figs. 12, l3.—The obverse of this variety afiords important information, in the attitude of the seated prince. It plainly proves him to be oriental. The scarf on the erect figure of the reverse is also peculiar. This coin accords with one depicted in the Manikyala plate, vol. iii. pl. xxvi. fig. 2. Plate XXIII. fig. 14.——Is one of six coins in the Ventura cabinet of the same type. The soldier trampling on a prostrate foe hetokens some victory. The female figure on the reverse, _enveloped in flowers, seems to point to some mythological metamorphosis. The name and titles are distinct. Figs. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 2l.—Ara all closely allied, while they serve to explain figs. 11, 12, and 15, in the plate of Lieut. Buimss’ coins, (J. A. S. vol. ii. p. 314,) and figs. 30, 31, 32, 33, 45, of Masson-’s fourth series, vol. iii. pl. x. They are for the most part of copper-plated, or billion, and in consequence well preserved; the single Pehlevi letters 9, “L He, and ‘P may be observed as monograms, besides the usual compounds. On 21 and 22, are the first indications of a fire altar. Fig. 22.—This copper coin is the last on which the name Azos occurs, and although quite distinct in the Pehlevi, it is corrupt and illegible in the Greek. The device is similar to the preceding, with exception of a curious circular monogram, which will be found also on the coins of Kadaphes hereafter. MAssoi~z's fig. 47, is the same coin. Fig. 23.—-A very deeply cut coin, commences a new series, in which, the form of the Greek letters is materially changed. The legend is now "BACIIEVC BACIAEUJN CLIJTHP MEFAC» without the insertion of any name; and the monogram is the one frequently described as the key symbol, or the trident with a ring below it. In Pehlevi the first portion corresponds with the Greek, ‘P‘1'Lu ‘P‘1“.1"t "P‘l'\.u; the conclusion is unfortunately not visible. The letter ‘1 appears on the field of the reverse, which bears a portrait of a priest, extending his hand over a small fire-altar. I Figs. 24 and 25—May be safely called varieties of the above, still retaining the Pehlevi on the reverse. A counterpart of fig. 24 will be found in fig. 15 of Buimns’ collection. Fig. 26.—This is by far the most common coin discovered in the Panjzib and Afghanistan. Bags full have been sent down in excellent preservation, and yet nothing can be elicited from them. The present specimen is engraved from a coin in Colonel S'rAcY’s cabinet, found in Malwa; but the same coin has been engraved in the As. Res. vol. xvii. ; in Buimns’ collection, fig. 13; also, 10 of pl. xiv., in the same volume : and in M/issoN's series, 26, 27, 28. It was the first coin found in India on which Greek characters were discovered, or noticed. The trident monogram connects it with the foregoing series ; but it is impossible to say to whom they both belong. I have placed them next to Azos, from the similarity of the horseman. They are all copper coins, of high relief, and generally in good preservation. AZILIS-US. Figs. 27, 28.—Were it not that the name in these two coins is distinctly AZIAIZQT in the Greek, and ‘P‘T‘H A‘) in the Pehlevi, they might both have been classed in the preceding group, especially with fig. 9. The bull of fig. 28, is surmounted by two monograms, like those of the Lysius coins. It is so far singular, that while the name of the prince AZILISUS seems compounded of the two names Azos and Lysius, the obverse and reverse of his coins should be counterparts of theirs. The name itself is quite new, and we can only venture to assign his position in proximity to his prototype, Azos. Plate XXIV. Hnnmnus. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4. One silver and three copper coins of Hnmvmws, selected from a considerable number in order to develop the whole circle of marginal inscription, seldom complete on a single specimen. The description of one will serve for all, since, contrary to usage, the impression on the silver and copper is precisely alike. Fig. 1.—-A silver coin in the Gerard collection. Olwerse. The king’s head with simple diadem; legend in corrupted Greek BAZIAEQZ ZQTHFUZ EFMAIUV. * Mr. Mnssox attributed this series to a prince, whom he named Sotereagas. ‘Reverse. Jupiter seated; his right hand extended. Monogram Q; Pehlevi legend ‘P/\\_)s/V)’ ‘P'\|‘\|‘\ ‘P1‘-1’1_U, malakdo ralcako Erma;/0. Mr. Mnssozv supposes HERMEUS I. to have reigned at Nysa (hod. JelaZabad,) because one of the topes opened in that neighbourhood contained several of his coins; they have, however, been found in equal abundance in the Panjab, and it will be safer in the present paucity of our knowledge to adhere‘ to the general term " Bactrian," without attempting to subdivide the Greek dominion into the separate states, of which it probably consisted throughout the whole period of their rule. Uzunmmnnns. Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8.-'--Four coins of the prince made known to us by Mr. MASSON under the name of Unnnrrnmavs. They are numerous, of rude fabric, and more clear on the Pehlevi than the Greek side. The device on all is the same, namely : Obverse. A bearded head with diadem: inscription as made out from the combined specimens BAGIAEOC CLUTHFDC VNADEPEFFDV :—in some the titles are in the nominative case. Reverse. A winged figure of Victory holding out a chaplet or how : Pehlevi inscription ‘Pjgg ‘pfqlvalp ‘PW-1‘1_\_)_ This may be rendered malakrio fareto nanado ,- or the last word may be ‘P‘1‘1"l for 0'°"1;17P°$'- If h be p and v1 /4, we might convert the word letter for letter into phero; making f an r. The first half of the name VNAU or VNAA seems to be omitted in the Pehlevi, unless nanado be intended for it; but then the title ‘ Saviour’ will be wanting. The only recorded name that at all approaches to this barbarous appellation is Phraotes or Phralzates, whom Pnrnosrasrvs asserts to have reigned at Taxiles, south of the Indus, about the commencement of the Christian era. He was visited by APOLLONIUS TYANEUS in his travels, who conversed with him in the Greek language. The execution of the coins before us, does not well agree with the magnificence and elegance of Pmmorns’ court, as described by PHILOSTRA'rUs, “ the residence of dignified virtue and sublime philosophy;” but much allowance may be made for exaggeration. The Bactrian sway was already broken, and the country in a disturbed state. " Whether Parthian or Indian, P1-xnnorns was tributary to the Southern Scythians, whom he gladly subsidized to defend him against the more savage Huns, who finally drove before them the Scythians, who had seized upon the Bactrian kingdomt.” Aronnonws describes a magnificent temple of the sun at Taxiles. The fact, frequently mentioned in history, of the native princes of India conversing and writing in Greek, is satisfactorily confirmed by the discovery of the present coins bearing Greek legends with names evidently native. Figs. 9, 10, ll, 12, l3.——This very numerous group of copper coins is attributed by Massorv to Eluwatus the Second, the first three letters of whose name certainly appear on some few specimens (as jig. 10) ; but his name is not to be found on the reverse in the Pehlevi, which is totally distinct from the preceding coins, and yet it is the same on all the specimens I have compared; although great variety Maurice’s Modern Hindostan, I. 152. 1- Ditto, 1., 142. exists in the Greek legends, as if they had been copied at random from other coins. The device of all is the same. _ Obrerse. A head with curly hair, no beard, in general miserably engraved. nation of a great many specimens, Fpr9~1,\;\rq TI Pr-13}; 111&-;_)_ This text differs so entirely from all we have hitherto seen, that I cannot attempt to decypher it, nor even to distinguish the titles from the name. I have merely placed u at the head, from a faint trace of the initial word "P.‘.l“l'l.u, between the letters of which other characters appear to be introduced. The decided trace of Kanrnrsns’ name on several coins of the type, incline me to place it at the lowest station in the present series, as a link with the series already fully described of that Indo-Scythic sovereign: and it will be remarked that the letter or symbol 4-? is visible on the bull and raja coins of this prince also ; indeed their whole Pehlevi inscription much resembles, if it does not coincide entirely with, the present example. Kanarnns. Figs. 14, 15, 16.—If any thing were wanting, however, to connect the two lines, these coins would supply the gap. One of them was presented by Lieut. Burmss to the Society, and was mistaken for the horseman coin described in page 343. The name was more fully made out from six coins of VEN"rURA’s and three of KERAMAT AL1’s collections. The monogram agrees with one of the Azos series, fig. 22, as before remarked. Obverse. A neatly engraved head with diadem and legend. . . . . . . . KAAAM-22 XOPANOT. Reverse. Jupiter seated, left hand extended; the wheel monogram, and legend in nearly the same characters as that of the preceding coins. This coin will form an appropriate conclusion to my present notice, which, I believe, has embraced all the specimens properly attributable to the Bactrian group. The fire-altar on the next or Indo-Scythic coinage, forms a convenient mark of distinction, as well as the x x 2 ' disuse of the Pehlevi character, which extends no further than to the first coinage of the series, namely, that of KADPHISES, with the bull reverse ; and is quite illegible there, while the Greek is comparatively distinct. This group has, however, been sufiiciently described in my former papers. ' Before closing my present notice, I must use my privilege of amending the theory I advanced upon one of the coins from the Manikyéla tope, (Vol. III, Pl. XXV,fig. 6, p. 441,) a Sassanian coin bearing the distinct Sanscrit name of Sri Vdsu Deva. This being the patronymic of KRISHNA, I supposed the figure to represent that god as the Indian substitute for Mithra or “A102. The face, however, was that of an aged human being, and I think it may be more rationally accounted for as such, on the following grounds. Ferishta asserts that Bnsnao had assumed the throne of Canouj in the year 330, A. D. ; that BAHRAM the Persian king, was at his court in disguise, and was recognized by the nobleman who had taken tribute to Persia from the Indian king. Bnsnno reigned 80 years, and one of his daughters was married to BAHRAM. Now under these circumstances, it is natural to suppose, that the Sassanian monarch, out of compliment, may have aflixed his father-in-law's portrait and name on some of his own coin: and the strongest evidence is thus afforded both of the historical fact, and of the date of this individual coin of the Manikyéla set. Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. Wednesday Evening, July I, 1835. The Honorable Sir Enwnnn RYAN, President, in the chair. The Proceedings of the last Meeting were read. The following gentlemen, Messrs. J. P. Gnnrr, Wm. ADAM, I/V. H. Baxsoiv, Gr-zones Evans, Lieut. A. S. Pnavnr-1, Mr. J. H. S-roonaman, Capt. J. G. Tavnon, Mad. Cav. and Lieut. MONTRIOU, I. N. proposed at the last meeting, were balloted for, and duly elected members of the Society. The Secretary read the following reply from Government to the memorial presented, in conformity with the resolution of the last meeting. To the Honorable Sir ED\VARD RYAN, Knt. Genl. Dept. President qf the Asiatic Society. Hononannn Sm, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an address, dated 3rd instant, transmitted by you to the Governor General in Council, on behalf of the Asiatic Society. 2. 1 am directed in reply to forward to you a copy of orders issued by the Supreme Government, on the 7th March, to the Committee of Public Instruction, which will make the Society acquainted with the views and "‘ Maurice, 1., I50.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402571
__label__wiki	0.919616	0.919616	A Lady's Cruise in a French Man-of-war, Volume 2 By Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming When, in the spring of 1875, Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon was appointed first Governor of Fiji, I had the good fortune to be invited to form one of the party who accompanied Lady Gordon to that far country. Two years slipped away, brimful of interest, and each month made me feel more 'At Home in Fiji,' more fascinated with its lovely scenery, more content to linger among its isles. Then a counter-charm was brought to bear upon the spell which held me thus entranced. The chief magician appeared in the guise of a high ecclesiastic of the Eoman Church, clothed in purple, and wearing the mystic ring and cross of amethyst; while his coadjutor, a French gentleman of the noble old school, was the commander of a large French manof-war, which had been placed at the service of the Bishop of Samoa, to enable him to visit all the most remote portions of his diocese. Already this warlike mission-ship had peacefully touched at many points of exceeding beauty and interest, and our visitors had no sooner recognised my keen appreciation of scenery, and inveterate love of sketching, than they formally and most cordially invited me to complete le tour de la mission, and so fill fresh portfolios with reminders of the beautiful scenes which the vessel was about to visit. Being duly imbued with a British conviction that such an invitation could not possibly be a hond fide one, I at first treated it merely as a polite form; but when it was again and again renewed, in such terms as to leave no possible doubt of its sincerity, and when, moreover, we learnt that the most comfortable cabin in the ship had actually been prepared for the invited guest, and that its owner was thoroughly in earnest in his share of the invitation, then indeed we agreed that the chance was too unique to be lost; and so it came to pass that on the 5th September 1877 1 started on the cruise in a French man-of-war, which proved one of the most delightful episodes in many years of travel. NOTE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE KEY TO THE PANAMA CANAL. While these pages were passing through the press, I have received details from various sources, which prove that the policy referred to at p. 241 is being actively carried out. Not content with holding the Marquesas, the Paumotus, Tahiti, and the Gambier Isles, France seems resolved to annex every desirable island lying to the east of Samoa, thus securing possession of every good harbour and coaling-station lying between New Zealand and the coast of South America; and also, diverting all the trade of these isles, from Britain's Australian colonies, to a French centre, which shall command the great commercial highway of the future, when the Panama Canal shall be completed. Eaiatea in the Society Isles has recently been formally annexed, and the independence of Huahine and Bora-Bora threatened . Now a further step is contemplated. The Austral and Hurvey groups still remain free. They are self-governed, and Christianity is firmly established among their people. According to the latest information, a French man-of-war visited their principal isles last August, to command the inhabitants to divert their present trade from New Zealand to Tahiti, assuring them that Great Britain had undertaken not to interfere with French action anywhere to the east of Samoa. The islanders, who had at first received the French vessel with all honour, no sooner got an inkling of the true object of its visit than they became alarmed, and returned all presents which had been made to them by the captain; who thereupon assured them that the French admiral was on his way thither, and would soon bring them to their bearings, and that they would have to accept a French protectorate. Remembering the history of French protection in Tahiti, the Australs and Hervey Islanders are now justly alarmed for their own independence. Letter to England announcing start from Fiji—Vague plans, 1 Life in a French man-of-war—Convent-life in Tonga—Early martyrs— Wesleyan mission-vRoman Catholic mission—Cyclopean tombs at Mua—Gigantic trilithon—Fines and taxes—King George Tupou, . 3 Sail from Tonga to Vavau—Volcano of Tofua—Wesleyan mission—Two thonsand miles from a doctor—Orange-groves—A lovely sea-lake— Coral caves, ........ 24 Life on board ship—The Wallis Isles—Fotuna—Sunday Isle—Cyclo- pean remains on Easter Isle—Stone adzes—Samoa—Pango-Pango harbour, ........ 33 Boat transit to Leone—Spouting caves — Council of war—Sketch of Samoan history—Night dances, ..... 48 A shore without a reef—Samoan plants—Houses—Animals—Laying foundation-stone of a church — School festival — the Navigator's Isles, ........ 61	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402572
__label__cc	0.632585	0.367415	G. Dearborn., 1897 - Almanacs, American ... of issuing interest—bearing bonds for the purchase of gold shall recognize silver as money of redemption and exercise the right to redeem greenbacks, treasury notes and all *her coin obligations in silver when silwer is more convenient. ... terms of exact equality as they existed prior to 1873, the silver coin to be a full legal tender equally with gold for all debts and dues, private and public. “We therefore confidently appeal to the people of the United States to leave in abeyance ... Under existing circumstances to pay public debts in silver coin is repudiation; to pay private debts in the same coin is to rob the wage-earner, and to provide for the free coinage of silver means the destruction of legitimate business and great The credit of the United States must be kept unquestioned at home and abroad, the reserves of the Treasury must be scrupulously maintained, and every coin obligation must be paid in gold, or in whatever coin the creditor chooses to demand. Section 3 favors the use of silver as currency and the coinage and circulation of such quantities thereof as can be kent at parity with gold coin, but opposes “the free and unlimited coinage of silver by the Jnited States Government as a measure ... Page 74 - ... fog, mist, falling snow, or heavy rainstorms, whether by day or night, the signals described in this article shall be used as follows, namely: (a) A steam vessel having way upon her shall sound, at Intervals of not more than two minutes, a prolonged blast... Page 203 - For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence, while employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this State, or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any alms-house or other asylum, or institution wholly or partly supported at public expense or by charity; nor while confined in any public prison. Page 207 - Neither the State nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught. Page 203 - No member of this State shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land, or the judgment of his peers. Page 205 - But no law shall authorize the construction or operation of a street railroad except upon the condition that the consent of the owners of onehalf in value of the property bounded on, and the consent also of the local authorities having control of that portion of a street or highway upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such railroad be first obtained... Page 205 - The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch of the Legislature shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys or property for local or private purposes. Page 97 - ... that he will support the Constitution of the United States, and that he absolutely and entirely renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and particularly, by name, to the prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of which he was before, a citizen or subject," which proceedings must be recorded by the clerk of the court. Page 205 - No moneys shall ever be paid out of the Treasury of this State, or any of its funds, or any of the funds under its management, except in pursuance of an appropriation by law; nor unless such payment be made within two years next after the passage of such appropriation act; and every such law. Page 74 - ... (c ) A sailing vessel under way shall sound at intervals of not more than one minute, when on the starboard tack one blast, when on the port tack two blasts in succession, and when with the wind abaft the beam three blasts in succession. Page 110 - Act, thirty per centum ad valorem. 318. Stockings, hose and half-hose, selvedged, fashioned, narrowed, or shaped wholly or in part by knitting machines or frames, or knit by hand... Title The Tribune Almanac and Political Register Publisher G. Dearborn., 1897	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402573
__label__cc	0.559907	0.440093	Barnes&Noble.com - $17.99 Sarah Drummond Fremantle Press, Jun 27, 2016 - Fiction - 228 pages The Sound is set in the 1820s, in the violent and lawless world just before the English established colonial law in Western Australia. It is a historical fiction about the men of many nations who made their way across the southern waters of Australia from Tasmania to WA, plundering seal colonies, and stealing women and children from indigenous communities as they went. It follows the journey of Wiremu Heke of Aramoana, who begins his journey on the quest to avenge the destruction of his village, but ends it older, wiser, and looking at the world in an entirely different way. User Review - Fliss88 - LibraryThing This is part of Australia's history that isn't taught in schools, well it wasn't while I was at school. The story is shockingly violent at times. These violent passages are described in rather a blunt ... Read full review User Review - Thorpe-Bowker and Contributors - Books+Publishing From the first pages of Sarah Drummond's debut novel-with its descriptively realistic prose-you can tell the author has spent time at sea. In fact, Drummond, who has a PhD in history, has previously ... Read full review Sarah Drummond has completed a PhD in history from Murdoch University. She has had essays and short fiction published in Women of a Certain Age, Purple Prose,Shadow Plays- an anthology of speculative fiction, Short Stories Australia, indigo journal, The Best Australian Essays 2010, LINQ Journal, Kurungabaa Journal and Overland. She lives on the south coast of Western Australia. Title The Sound Author Sarah Drummond Publisher Fremantle Press, 2016 Fiction / African American / Historical Fiction / Sea Stories	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402574
__label__wiki	0.843297	0.843297	Osta sähköinen kirja – 9,99 $ Women of power: Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide Skard, Torild Policy Press, 30.7.2014 - 576 sivua CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE 2015 Do women national leaders represent a breakthrough for the women’s movement, or is women’s leadership weaker than the numbers imply? This unique book, written by an experienced politician and academic, is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of how and why women in 53 countries rose to the top in the years since World War II. Packed with fascinating case studies detailing the rise to power of all 73 female presidents and prime ministers from around the world, from 1960 (when the first was elected) to 2010, the motives, achievements and life stories of the female top leaders, including findings from interviews carried out by the author, provide a nuanced picture of women in power. The book will have wide international appeal to students, academics, government officials, women’s rights activists and political activists, as well as anyone interested in international affairs, politics, social issues, gender and equality. List of figures and tables One Breakthrough on several continents background approaches research women are able in various Four Roaring SheTigers in South Asia Five Equilibrists in East Asia Six Machismo marianismo and modernism in Latin America Eight Big Chiefs in subSaharan Africa from communism to capitalism womanpower and defeat summary of the regional chapters overview variation trends Biblioraphy Seven Lopsided democracies in the Caribbean Women of Power: Half a Century of Female Presidents and Prime Ministers ... Torild Skard active Africa Angela Merkel appointed authoritarian Bachelet Bandaranaike Bangladesh became prime minister Benazir Bhutto Brundtland cabinet candidate Caribbean CEDAW cent women Chamorro Çiller coalition Communist corruption countries country’s criticised democracy democratic democratisation Domitien economic Elisabeth Domitien Eugenia Charles father female feminist gender equality Golda Golda Meir Gro Harlem Brundtland groups Hasina head husband independent Indira Gandhi Isabel Perón Janet Jagan Labour Latin America leadership majority male Margaret Thatcher Megawati Meir Merkel military mother number of women parliamentary participated party leader People’s Perón policies political parties politicians population position presidential prime minister quotas re-elected regime representation of women role Senate Sheikh Hasina Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirleaf social Tansu Çiller Thatcher took Tymoshenko vice president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Violeta Chamorro vote woman women in parliament women leaders women ministers women top leaders women’s issues women’s movement women’s organisations women’s rights Torild Skard is a senior researcher in women’s studies at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo, specialising in women in politics. A pioneer in the women’s movement nationally and internationally, she was formerly an MP and the first woman president of the Norwegian Upper House. She has also been director for the Status of Women in UNESCO Paris, regional director in UNICEF West and Central Africa and director general in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has written numerous books and articles on women’s issues, particularly women in politics, and travels widely, studying and promoting the status of women. Otsikko Women of power: Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide Kirjoittaja Skard, Torild Kustantaja Policy Press, 2014	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402575
__label__wiki	0.71921	0.71921	Scarica ePub Immagini della pagina Trova questo libro nella versione stampata 0 RecensioniScrivi recensione Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic Di Benedetto Croce Informazioni su questo libro especially in Chapters X. and XI. of Part I., suggested by further reflexion and self-criticism. But I have refrained from introducing corrections or additions of such a kind as to alter the original plan of the book, which was, or was meant to be, a complete but brief aesthetic theory set in the framework of a general sketch of a Philosophy of the Spirit. The reader who desires a complete statement of the general or collateral doctrines or a more particular exposition of the other parts of philosophy (e.g. the lyrical nature of art) is now referred to the volumes on Logic and the Philosophy of Practice, which together with the present work compose the Philosophy of the Spirit which in the author's opinion exhausts the entire field of Philosophy. The three volumes were not conceived and written simultaneously; if they had been, some details would have been differently arranged. When I wrote the first I had no idea of giving it, as I have now done, two such companions; and I therefore designed it to be, as I say, complete in itself. In the second place, the present state of the study of ^Esthetic made it desirable to append to the theoretical exposition a somewhat full history of the science, whereas for the other parts of Philosophy I was able to restrict myself to brief historical notes merely designed to show how, from my point of view, such a history would best be composed. Lastly, there are many things which now, after a systematic exposition of the various philosophical sciences, I see in closer connexions and in a clearer, or at least a different, light; a certain hesitation and even some doctrinal errors visible here and there in the ^Esthetic, especially where subjects foreign to ^Esthetic itself are being treated, would now no longer be justified. For all these reasons the three volumes, in spite of their substantial unity of spirit and of aim, have each its own physiognomy, and show marks of the different periods of life at which they were written, so as to group themselves, and to demand interpretation, as a progressive series according to their dates of publication. With what may be called the minor problems of ^Esthetic, and the objections which have been or might be brought against my theory, I have dealt and am continuing to deal in special essays, of which I shall shortly publish a first collection which will form a kind of explanatory and polemical appendix to the present volume. In revising this book once more for a fourth edition, I take the opportunity of announcing that the supplementary volume of essays promised above was published in 1910 under the title Problems of JEsthetic and Contributions to the History of Esthetic in Italy. THEORY OF AESTHETIC INTUITION AND EXPRESSION Knowledge has two forms: it is either intuitive _kn,ow- 1ntuitive ledge or logical knowledge; knowTedge VbtaineoVthrPugh knott>ledze obtained through the intellect; knowledge of the individual or knowledge of the universal; of individual things or of the relations between them: it is, in fact, productive either of images or of concepts. { In ordinary life, constant appeal is made to intuitive knowledge") It is said that we cannot give definitions of certain truths; that they are not demonstrable by syllogisms ; (^that they must be learnt intuitively.^ The politician finds fault with the abstract reasoner, who possesses no lively intuition of actual conditions; the educational theorist insists upon the necessity of developing the intuitive faculty in the pupil before everything else; the critic in judging a work of art makes it a point of honour to set aside theory and abstractions, and to judge it by direct intuition; the practical man professes to live rather by intuition than by reason. But this ample acknowledgment granted to intuitive knowledge in ordinary life, does not correspond to an equal and adequate acknowledgment in the field of theory and of philosophy. There exists a very ancient' science of intellectual knowledge, admitted by all without 1 discussion, namely, Logic; but a science of intuitive y, knowledge is timidly and with difficulty asserted by but 1 a few. Logical knowledge has appropriated the lion's share; and if she does not slay and devour her « IndietroContinua »	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402576
__label__cc	0.654224	0.345776	Border, KS About the Border Friends of the Border Isn't Kansas a little northern for Southern Gothic? (Updates Tuesday and Thursday) 10.4 Border General Redux by Matt P. “Glad to see the hospital hasn’t changed in a couple of hours,” Walter grunted to himself as he pushed in through the door. The call had come in over the radio while they were driving, that the Marshal had been taken to Border General and that he was in critical condition. They had promptly done a U-turn over a median, scared the living hell out of a bunch of random citizens, and reconfirmed their commitment to not letting Ryan Aquino drive city vehicles ever again. “I’d like to stop coming here,” Antigone agreed as she ran up to meet them. She and Antigone had been driven to the hospital, after insisting they were not leaving their father alone again, in a car driven only somewhat more sedately by Morgan. At least she can teleport them out in an emergency, Walter thought grimly. Morgan charged ahead in to the Emergency Room and grabbed a doctor she recognized. Within a few moments of cajoling and almost yelling she had something in her hands that she was reading off of. “He’s in surgery for multiple shrapnel wounds. They’ve stopped him from bleeding out, but it’s still going to be touch and go while they’re trying to get the pieces out.” Walter nodded, resisting the urge to reach out and read the document because it would literally do nothing helpful and would probably only annoy Morgan. “Is there something you can do to help?” He asked quietly. She was a doctor, so it wasn’t an unreasonable request; but they also both knew he wasn’t asking about if she could help with the sutures. “Oh good fuck yes,” Morgan answered, baring her teeth in a fierce look that in no way resembled a smile. “They shot the Marshal of the Border, that signs me up to do whatever I want. I will go slap the shit out of Death if he steps in to the room.” Walter blinked a bit, and caught the chart as she tossed it at him. “I thought you were death?” He asked, not even mostly kidding. “Fine…” Morgan huffed as she stalked off in the direction of the operating room. “Any other deaths.” She gave a little wave as she all but ran off, moving through the crowd toward the room with such ease that Walter assumed magic had to be involved. That left Walter, Siobhan, Antigone, Ryan Aquino, Ryan Richards, Andre, and Leah with nowhere to go but the waiting room. Which they found currently occupied with Ashland and Taito. The broad Master Sergeant was sitting in one of the chairs in his shirtsleeves, while Ashland was standing and pulling on a new white dress shirt. The old one was on the chair next to Taito, ripped and blood stained, and Walter could see fresh bandages on the woman as she started buttoning up her shirt. “So much for never letting them see you bleed,” Ashland commented wryly. She glanced down at her jacket and tie and apparently decided they were lost causes, so she reached up to spread her collar a little bit in order to make it look purposeful. “I’ve seen you bleed before,” Walter answered as he went to drop down in to a chair, looking at the two of them. “How bad up were you?” He asked, his eyes glancing back to the bloody shirt again. The others found seats as well, with Ryan Aquino particularly making himself comfortable while the other Ryan went to huddle with his sisters to speak quietly. Ashland looked at the shirt as well and shrugged. “Not too bad. A couple of stitches. The kid is out right now because he took a little bit more when the building exploded, so I’ll be looking to balance that out in my ledger.” She rolled her shoulders a bit before she grabbed her bloody shirt and tossed it in to the wastebasket in the corner. “We need to talk about what happened tonight. You have someone dealing with the press?” Walter looked over to Leah, who nodded. “Chief Deputy Alvarez is second in command, and I assume she’s taken charge of the situation along with the PAO. Not really our monkeys or our circus,” Leah answered. Ashland nodded. “Good. I can throw the weight of the FBI behind whatever the cover up is, which brings me immediately to the next point: What in the entire fuck happened tonight?” She leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “I got to watch a man get speared through the chest by a piece of rebar and pull himself up it to try to stab us. I think he died in a fire but I can’t be sure.” She shook her head, grimacing. “That’s a new nightmare for me, Walter, and I’m completely opposed to new nightmares.” Walter leaned back, looking down at his shoes and tapping them for a moment. “If I tell you, you aren’t going to believe me,” he offered with a shrug. “I’ll tell you, I’m tired of people not knowing about it. But you won’t believe me.” Ashland laughed, and it was both a little bit better and slightly fragile—like she was doing more work keeping it together than she was letting on. Walter blinked slightly at the sign of weakness, torn between distrusting and belief. “Walter, I guarantee you I’ve never been more receptive to whatever it is you want to tell me. Do we need the room?” She asked meaningfully, looking around the room. Walter shook his head. “No, everyone here knows. Alright,” Walter sighed. “The honest to God, I am not bullshitting you and I have not gone crazy answer is that they’re vampires,” he answered plainly, in a tone that said he clearly expected they would laugh him out of the room. Taito blinked, and Ashland clearly looked like her first instinct would have been to disbelieve—but when no one else in the room even looked askance at it, and considering the weirdness she had apparently seen, she didn’t. Instead she let out a little laugh. “OK. Vampires. Tell me about vampires, Walter.” She looked like she was surprised to have said the words, despite earlier protestations to the contrary. Walter opened his mouth to say something, when Leah’s phone started buzzing and she answered it. Everyone looked over to her curiously, and she blushed slightly—before she went pale. “What is it?” Walter asked. Leah held up a hand to cover the receiver on her phone, before remembering it was a smart phone and she could just mute it. “Walter…there are reporters down at the station who want a statement from you,” Leah explained. Walter blinked. “I guess someone saw me jumping around town?” He asked. Leah shook her head. “Why then?” “Because apparently you’re the Acting Marshal, Walter,” Leah answered. Filed Under: Book 2 Chapter 10 Name: Required Email: Required, not published Homepage: © Border, KS. Powered by WordPress and Manifest	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402577
__label__wiki	0.717129	0.717129	Bozeman Magazine Bozeman’s Choice All Regional Events Music Arts Current Deals, Contests, and Giveaways News+Media Browse all content by date. News, Articles, Blogs, Photos, Videos Wind In The Willows: Bozeman Band on the Rise Reilly McNaught \| Sunday Dec. 1st, 2019 Twenty-eight miles west of Denver, in a small community named for the trees that keep their green color all year long, childhood friends Ryen Dalvit and Maren Stubenvoll grew up writing music together in Evergreen, CO. They started making music following a project for English class, and quickly developed a shared passion for folk music and started playing small local shows. One venue required the duo have a name; following brainstorming and inspiration from the children’s novel Frog and Toad, Wind and the Willows was born. After a year at differing universities, they both landed in Bozeman, Montana, where the band began to bloom. Wind and the Willows has since expanded, adding members through mutual friends at Montana State University (MSU) as well meeting others at local events. They met one future band member, Tommy, through a mutual friend at a Left on Tenth show at the Story Mill Mansion. From jamming in their backyard with eight guitarists and many other instruments, Wind and the Willows has now condensed to a solid eight-piece who all share the same passions for their music. Each player adds their unique sound through their instruments and vocals, including Tommy Diestel on banjo, Sarah Budeski on Djembe (African drum), Berette McNaught on ukulele, Silas Rea on fiddle, Ryan Totman on standup bass, and Nick Popiel on trumpet. Maren plays the acoustic guitar with Ryen on mandolin, and with Berette, the three make up the vocal team. In the past year, they have continued to grow from playing at friends’ houses and coffee shops to playing at taprooms including Bridger Brewing, hot springs including Bozeman Hot Springs in the freezing January temperatures, and locally at small music festivals. This past summer they toured in Colorado, playing multiple locations in both Denver and Evergreen, and had the opportunity to open for heavy metal bands. They even played on top of a 14,000 foot mountain. They have grown a local following, and at a recent event at the Filling Station, the entire dance floor was full. Their energy on stage translates to the crowd, creating a lively atmosphere of dancing and merriment. And If they weren’t busy enough, they still had time in early 2019 to release a feature length album – Bloom and Fade (available on both Spotify and Apple Music). Bloom and Fade adds a unique flair to a classic folk sound with their large combination of brass, strings, and three-part harmonies. Each track was thoughtfully written and inspired by the blooming and fading of relationships, described through a motif of wildflowers including acacias, white clovers, lilies, and bluebells. It opens with “Coeur D’alene,” an upbeat song describing the thoughts towards the start of an adventure, asking “Will you forget me when I’m gone?” Its upbeat sound combined with serious lyrics set the tone for the remainder of the album. A band favorite song, “Flood,” discusses the raw feelings that come with a short, one-night relationship. It describes being with someone, one of the most intimate experiences, how you “pretend like last night we were in love but […] how strange it must feel […] to have you disappear.” They reflect on the impact of short-term relationships and how they can “numb the nightmares of being alone.” The song “Desert Soul” shifts the album, feeling more upbeat and empowered. It has a fierce sound and repeats how “the road will set me free,” alluding to a time in a relationship when space is needed to allow for the freeing of the soul. The song “Cocaine Train” uses a fast beat with serious lyrics. It describes a point of self-realization, almost a cry for help as they offer to “take these tickets to the cocaine train. I don’t want them, for they’ve brought me here again.” Bloom and Fade ends with “White Clovers,” the flower depicted on the album cover. It describes feelings had towards the end of relationships. “I’ll see you this last time […] please don’t ever change for the next one to ride” – a beautiful way to describe feelings when a relationship fades away. “Remember my name and wait for the clovers to bloom and fade” poetically finishes the album, highlighting the main themes throughout. Overall, the album reveals genuine emotions on navigating life, including relationships and heartbreaks. Its raw lyrics and folk sound embody the passions of the Wind and the Willows. The band’s other passions include benefitting the community. When not studying nor spending time outdoors, the members have donated their time to raise funds for the Bridger Ski Foundation as well as performing benefits for both Eagle Mount and the Land and Water Conservation Fund. They continue to support their school by playing at MSU-run events. This fall season they have been working hard in the Jerico Studios, recording new singles with the ultimate goal to release an album in 2020. They continue to play gigs around town and look forward to the upcoming festival season this summer. Wind and the Willows love being a part of the local Bozeman music scene and look forward to growing and evolving in the coming year. Keep Wind and the Willows on your radar with new shows and music coming soon. Reilly McNaught Reilly McNaught is a recent transplant to Bozeman from Minneapolis, MN. She enjoys writing, skiing, and spending time in the local community. View more of Reilly McNaught's work » Bridging Genres and Generations: An Evening with Reckless Abandon Fri. Nov. 1st, 2019 Topics This Is In Your Guide to the Bozeman Area and SW Montana. 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__label__cc	0.657113	0.342887	« Coffee with Colleagues: Caffeine is a “Social” Enhancer Should Abortion be a Matter of Referendum? » Addiction, Desire, and The Polluted Environment – Richard Holton’s 2nd Uehiro Lecture Published May 24, 2018 \| By Jonathan Pugh By Jonathan Pugh In the second of his three Uehiro lectures on the theme of ‘illness and the social self’, Richard Holton turned to the moral questions raised by addiction. In the first half of the lecture, he outlined an account of addictive behaviour according to which addictive substances disrupt the link between wanting and liking. In the second half of the lecture, he discusses the implications of this account for the moral significance of preferences, and for how we might structure environments to avoid triggering addictive desires. You can find a recording of the lecture here Two Competing Views On Addiction, and The Significance of Wanting/Liking Holton begins his analysis by outlining two competing views on addiction. On the first view, there is nothing particularly special about addictive behaviour; such behaviour is freely chosen, and addicts should be understood as fully responsible with respect to it. This is the sort of view that Bennett Foddy and Julian Savulescu have previously defended; following their terminology, I shall refer to this as the liberal view of addiction (N.B. Holton does not use this terminology in the lecture). In contrast, the second view (a version of which is defended by Steve Hyman) claims that addictive behaviour is the result of a pathology; on this approach, addictive substances ‘hijack the brain’, and the freedom of choice in addicted individuals is thus severely compromised, perhaps to the extent that they should not be held responsible (although Hymen himself suggests that the loss of control in addiction is neither complete nor simple). Call this view the disease model (N.B. Holton does not use this terminology in the lecture). As Holton suggests, both what I have termed the liberal account and the disease model have some empirical support. Advocates of the liberal approach can point to evidence suggesting that (i) people typically tend to give up on their addictions as they get older, and that (ii) various dis/incentives can have significant effects on whether addicts will consume (or abstain) from a particular substance. This is hard to reconcile with the view that addicts have no say in whether or not they engage in an addictive behaviour, as a strong version of the disease model might hold. Nonetheless, there is also empirical support for the disease model; for instance, the fact that addicts frequently relapse very soon after successfully going through the pain of withdrawal is difficult to reconcile with rational choice theory. So too is the high degree of sensitivity of the addict’s craving (and relapse) to environmental cues A good theory of addiction should be able to accommodate all of these empirical features. Holton suggests that increased understanding about the role of dopamine in addictive behaviours has been an important breakthrough in developing such a theory. Contrary to earlier views, it is not the case that addictive substances interfere with the dopamine system in way that simply gives addicts pleasure (which they then form an instrumental desire to pursue). Rather, the picture that Holton outlines is that addictive substances can radically disrupt the ways in which dopamine regulates ‘wanting’. To see the significance of this, we have to distinguish ‘wanting’ from ‘liking’. Roughly, to like something is to take pleasure in it; I might like the taste of ice-cream for example (NB – this is my example, not Holton’s). Typically, when we like something, we are also motivated to pursue it; for me, ice-cream has motivational salience, and we may say that I want ice-cream. The wanting system here does two things: First it gives rise to an immediate appetitive urge (for ice-cream) now. Second it gives rise to a long term diachronic disposition to pursue ice-cream when it becomes available in my environment. In this case, my liking ice-cream has led to my wanting ice-cream. Liking and wanting usually run together phenomenologically. Moreover, as Holton suggests in his discussion, there may also be good evolutionary reasons for a close interplay between liking and wanting, given our history as opportunistic feeders. Wanting is after all a kind of learning; we learn new wants as a result of being exposed to some substance. However, Holton stresses that these new wants are not instrumental wants for the pleasure the substance gives us. Rather, this system allows us to develop new intrinsic wants for the substance itself; I want the ice-cream, not the pleasure it leads to. Crucially though, liking and wanting are neurobiologically distinct, and they can come apart. Whilst Holton suggests that natural opiates and cannabanoids seem to be responsible for ‘liking’, dopamine has a significant role to play in regulating wants; for evidence of this, Holton refers to Kent Berridge’s work showing that dopamine depleted hungry rats are not motivated to eat available food, even though they seem to experience pleasure when the food is placed in their mouth. Moreover, when the dopaminergic system is stimulated with amphetamines in these rats, they engage in eating behaviours. Holton’s View of Addiction Holton’s thesis about the nature of addiction is that in addiction, wanting may become dissociated from liking because of hyper-stimulation of the dopaminergic system. That is to say that the addictive substance retains motivation salience for the addict, even though they may no longer take pleasure in it. On this understanding, addicts may not like what they feel motivated to do. How does this model accommodate the empirical features I mentioned above? Like the liberal account, Holton’s model can deny that addictive behaviour is compelled in the sense that addicts cannot but pursue an addicted behaviour. The reason for this is that quite generally wanting does not entail action: I may maintain a (non-addictive) want for ice-cream, but (as my GP and my dentist often remind me), I have a number of competing reasons not to continually act on the basis of that want. Of course, addictive wants seem stronger than others; indeed, the fact that an addict may know that fulfilling their want will not bring them pleasure (remember, wanting can be divorced from liking in addiction on this model) typically does not prevent addicts from acting on the basis of these wants. However, this is quite compatible with the account; the way in which addiction disrupts the dopaminergic system means that resisting these particular wants will be very hard work (even post rehabilitation). But the point is that they can be resisted on Holton’s model, if the addict exerts enough self-control. Moreover, we can increase the likelihood of success by introducing other competing motivations; for example, we might financially incentivize abstinence. Yet, if overcoming these hedonically dissociated wants is such hard-work, how do we explain the empirical evidence (speaking in favour of the liberal model) suggesting a long-term decrease in addictive behaviours as addicts age? Holton propose three (non-mutually exclusive) hypotheses: (1) As we age, our dopamine levels generally decrease naturally, so perhaps our wants diminish; (2) as we age, the number of competing motivations to not engage in addictive behaviours increases; and (3) as our frontal brain structures mature, our self-control may get stronger. Moral Consequences One general point that Holton’s model raises is that we should not be thinking of the responsibility of addicts in a strictly binary sense; the relevant question here is not so much whether or not addicts are free in toto, but rather how difficult it is for them to resist their urges. Outside of this general concern about responsibility, Holton raises two further moral implications of his model of addiction. The Significance of Preferences First, Holton claims that the story about how we come to form intrinsic wants seems to raise problems for the authority that we afford to desires in desire-fulfilment accounts of well-being (as well as indirectly in various forms of state policy): why should we be prudentially concerned with fulfilling desires if their fulfilment is dissociated from liking and therefore pleasure? Moreover, such desires can become dissociated from cognitively driven judgments about what is valuable; the desires are simply there because of previous exposure to that which we now desire. Of course, desire-fulfilment theorists might stipulate that there are certain sorts of conditions for the kinds of desires whose fulfilment contributes to well-being. Perhaps we should only take fully informed desires into account? However, as Holton points out, addictive desires can be fully-informed and still persist. Are such desires perhaps instead problematic because they are not desires that one would hold if one was fully rational? But, Holton responds, consumption here need not be a result of irrationality; rather consumption simply indicates that one is responding to a desire that is isolated from rationality. Fully rational selves, suggest Holton would be equally vulnerable to addiction. Finally, Holton argues that Frankfurtian second-order desires are unable to justify the authority of preferences; on the Frankfurtian approach the relevant question becomes which of one’s relevant second order desires are strongest; is it one which takes as its object the first order desire to consume, or is it one which takes as its object the first order desire not to consume? There is little reason to assume that the strongest second order desire of addicts is the one that takes as its object the first-order desire not to consume. In fact, Holton suggests that the best candidate for a neurobiologically supported second-order desire is simply the long-term dispositions that our wanting systems can give rise to – yet, in addicts, this is often just the disposition to occurrently want the substance in the future; and these can be strengthened by further consumption. One alternative to the desire-fulfilment approach is to adopt a hedonistic approach to well-being; in this context, this means that we should focus on liking rather than wanting when we think about well-being. However, Holton claims that attributing such normative significance to pleasure lacks neurophysiological support; for Holton the best explanation of the existence of liking is to link motivational salience with our more cognitively driven planning responses. Pleasure is the root by which our wanting system can gets a ‘surrogate goal’ into our global, diachronic planning systems. The upshot of this is that pleasure only has limited significance; it is a proxy that enables us to get what we diachronically plan to achieve, plans that are grounded in a more cognitively driven system based in beliefs about what is valuable. The Polluted Environment In the last section of the talk, Holton defends the claim that agents who create environments that trigger cravings have a prima facie responsibility for those wants, and an obligation to refrain from providing the kind of stimuli that will reliably trigger such cravings. To motivate this consideration, Holton asks us to consider whether sugar is addictive. On the one hand, sugar does not contain many of the ingredients that directly stimulate the dopaminergic system in the same way as other addictive drugs. However, because sugar is widely liked, it ends us being used by the dopamine system in the way that the system evolved to accommodate; but the result is that people develop strong cravings for sugar that look a lot like addictive cravings/desires. The answer to whether we should view sugar as addictive then becomes one about the significance of the aetiology of such strong cravings; does it matter whether you have these cravings because the dopaminergic system was hi-jacked by a substance that is working through that system in a manner that the system had not evolved to accommodate (as in typical addictive drugs, but not in sugar), or is the mere existence of motivationally salient intrinsic desire sufficient for addiction? Holton suggests that different sides to the debate on the addictiveness of sugar are arguably equivocating on the notion of addiction they employ. However, both sides agree that motivational salience is necessary. Consider now someone who is subject to such addictive cravings. Holton observes that it is clearly morally wrong to intentionally trigger such cravings in such people; indeed, he argues that third parties have an obligation to refrain from providing the kind of stimuli that will reliably trigger such cravings. In support, Holton suggests that this is much like our thinking about pollution; we believe that those who pollute the environment should also be responsible for clearing up their mess, and that they have an obligation not to pollute in the first place. Indeed, as Holton observes, we employ a strict liability approach with regards to the offence of polluting the water supply. His proposal about the moral implications of his model of addiction is that we should extend this way of thinking to sugar – on his view, industries that create environments that are forcing people to encounter stimuli that will trigger a craving for sugar are broadly analogous to industries polluting an environment with smoke that causes others to choke. Of course there are some disanalogies here – First, we like and want sugary foods, but we don’t want or like pollution. Second, we cannot avoid breathing but it seems that we can avoid eating chocolate. Holton concedes that there is some truth to these disanalogies but argues that they do not undermine his argument. The reason for this is that the wants in question in sugar are often dissociated from cognitive control, and they may be very hard to resist for the reasons outlined above. Accordingly, the mere fact that we want sugary foods but not pollution lacks normative force. Furthermore, there is a sense in which we can avoid pollution; we can move to a less polluted area! Rather, what this putative disanalogy suggests is that we need to think in terms of what can reasonably be expected of others. In the case of addictive wants, Holton has already outlined why such desires may be very difficult to resist; perhaps then we can only reasonably expect them to refrain from the addictive substance if it becomes rather easier for them to avoid the stimuli that may reliably trigger their cravings. Holton’s second lecture raised fundamental questions about the nature of well-being, responsibility and third party obligations. Due to constraints of time, Holton understandably did not flesh out his sketch of a cognitively grounded approach to thinking about well-being. However, whilst his criticisms of (non-cognitivist) desire-fulfilment theories were powerful, advocates of such theories may be left with the suspicion that Holton’s own approach to well-being may be sailing a little too close to the objectivist wind for comfort. A key question then is how we should think about the source of the values that might undergird Holton’s cognitively driven understanding of well-being. More specifically, can subjectivism of any stripe play a meaningful role in well-being, given Holton’s concerns about both the formation of our wants, and the significance of pleasure? In the Q & A, questions also addressed the implications of Holton’s account of addiction for valid consent. We may agree that the voluntariness of an addict’s behaviour is somewhat compromised by the difficulty of resisting their addictive wants; but the important question then becomes whether their voluntariness has been sufficiently impaired to render their decisions (to take drugs or to refuse rehabilitation) as invalid. Finally, Holton’s discussion about whether sugar is addictive seemed to suggest that the debate between the liberal and disease accounts may be raising its head under another guise. In his model, Holton acknowledges that there are nuggets of neurobiological truth in both theories; indeed, the aim of his theory is to capture what is correct in both. However, it is not clear that it can provide us with an answer about whether the aetiology of the dopaminergic disruption in cravings matters. This is not necessarily a failure of the theory; however, it is perhaps suggests that it may not settle the debate between the disease model and the liberal model, at least in their spirit if not in letter. The reason for this is that it is hard to see how aetiology could matter on the liberal account; on the other hand, some advocates of the disease model might claim that ‘unnatural’ methods of influencing the dopaminergic system are more problematic than intentionally influencing the system to the same end, but doing so in a manner that the system has evolved to accommodate. Whether or not there is a plausible story to be told here remains to be seen; however, it is a salient question when we consider the prospect of sugar addiction, and the various other forms of behavioural addiction that are more frequently under consideration today. This is particular important given Holton’s views about the scope of our obligations to refrain from exposing addicts to triggering stimuli. The Lectures series concludes tonight (Thursday 24th May) at 17:00 at the Magdalen College, Grove Auditorium, with “Illness and Attitude” Posted in Addiction, Audio Files, Bioethics, Ethics, Jonny Pugh's Posts, Uehiro Lectures \| Tagged addiction, Autonomy, neuroethics, responsibility	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402582
__label__cc	0.735513	0.264487	Attract More Convert More Sell More Why RPG We’re not the disruptors…It’s already happened! by Bryan Gray How the 3 Deadly C's Have Changed Sales Forever After explaining what we do to an interested connector last week, one of our partners got the old “Wow, you guys are real disruptors!” Without really thinking, Paul quickly snapped back, “We are NOT disruptors! The disruption has already happened, we’re really just helping people get through it.” This is spot on and positioning is important. If you’re creating disruption, that’s one thing but when it’s already happened, doing nothing is the riskiest thing you could ever do. Today’s age of acceleration has unleashed what we call the 3 Deadly C’s - Commoditization, Consensus Decision Making, and Compressed Selling Time. The real impact is beginning to rear its ugly head and sales will forever and always be different. What follows serves as more than your warning signal. I think it’s helpful to understand the 3 Deadly C’s a bit more in-depth and more importantly, what you must start doing to stay relevant and vital. While the world has been focused on the impact of the internet in the B2C space, particularly in retail where it makes headlines daily, the internet’s impact on B2B has been equally aggressive. When combined with today’s age of acceleration, where not just the rate of change is accelerating but the speed of the rate is accelerating at the same time, the disruption is here. You’re already feeling the disruption in the following ways: You’re not closing the deals you feel you deserve It’s taking longer than ever to get a decision You keep getting squeezed on pricing Today’s buyer buys differently and selling organizations are not adjusting to these changes fast enough. Sales teams are confronted with the 3 Deadly Cs - Commoditization, Consensus Decision Making and Compressed Selling Time; everyone looks and sounds the same, decision-making teams keep getting bigger (now averaging 6.8 people) and they’re ignoring your salespeople until the very end of the buying journey. What does this mean to you? The 3 Deadly C’s Commoditization - to your buyer everyone looks the same, sounds the same and acts the same. Once that happens it’s just a race to the bottom. Consensus decision making - Buying teams keep getting bigger (now averaging 6.8 people) and when everyone shows up with their own agenda, you lose priority. The easiest thing for them to do is nothing... Compressed selling time - 70% of your buyer’s journey is complete before you’re invited in; leaving you with less time than ever to influence a decision. You swing and miss at your moment of truth. Today, decisions are made in large teams. Your competition has the exact same level of access that you do and just because you have good habits (showing up on time, always being responsive, etc) doesn’t matter because your buyer isn’t letting you in until they’re nearly done with their decision process. On top of it all, everyone they do invite in all seems the same! This is why deals are coming down to price, or making no decision at all. We know that freezing up and doing nothing is not the answer. And while this is a daunting journey, one that will end up driving change within and around your team, let’s start with the most important thing you and your team must do. The first step to overcoming the 3 Deadly C’s is to clearly and consistency drive preference and priority. What are the compelling reasons why someone should choose you? I mean REAL reasons, not the “Our people make the difference” or “We’ve been in business for 100 years” reasons. Not only does everyone say those same things, further driving commoditization, but the part of your buyer’s brain that makes decisions doesn’t know what to do with that information. So, it ignores it. Creating priority is a new requirement. With bigger decision-making teams, everyone is bringing their own priorities to the table. So now, you not only have to defeat your direct competitors with your real value, to win the priority game and you have to clearly address why they should do something now. If you can’t win that one, you’ll get the “good news/bad news response… "We liked your proposal the best, buuuuuuut...we’re not going to do anything at all right now.” Not a win. You can’t rely on sales training tactics that were developed before the internet, they were created for a world that no longer exists. And convention sales presentations that focus on facts, figures, features and benefits do not trigger your buyer to act. You need to reframe your approach to sell the way today’s buyer buys: Align consensus decision-making team around a single, mutual pain point to create priority that pushes your deal forward. Implement prescriptive messaging at the right time along each step of your buyer's journey that drives preference and priority, and puts you back in control of the sale. Leverage decision-making science to win the prospect’s brain in the first 30-seconds of your pitch. The forces of the Deadly C’s are constantly working against your vitality. If market share, revenue, or margin are flat or decreasing, its an indicator that your organization is becoming irrelevant. Irrelevancy results in commoditization, where price becomes the only differentiator between you and your competition. By leveraging Decision Science to create brain-friendly messaging that drives preference and priority you will see immediate impact on revenue, margin, and market share. Ready to win more now? Unlock the tools that will help your sales team close more deals faster in today’s buying climate. What's Sabotaging Your Sales Success? Are You The Reason Why You Can't Hire Top Sales People? STOP Wasting Money on Sales How Buyers Judge Your Demo And What You Can Do About It Top 50 Sales Champion of 2019 Awarded to RPG’s CRO Daren Tomey Three Problems With Relationship-Based Business Development Top 50 Sales Champion of 2019 Awarded to RPG’s CRO Daren Tomey How Buyers Judge Your Demo And What You Can Do About It © Revenue Path Group 2019	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402583
__label__wiki	0.718589	0.718589	The old tin shed by Sarah Matthews in Buildings & streets, Such was life In 1906, a little corrugated iron building was erected on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Little Bourke Street. The shed was intended to be a temporary home for the telegraph office until a more suitable location could be found. Melbourne general post office; H7926 The arrival of the building went largely unnoticed. Melburnians had more important things to worry about – the advent of electric trams; Carlton’s ascendancy in the VFL grand final. In 1907, the GPO was renovated and the telegraph officers were relocated to the main building. But the little corrugated iron building remained. In 1920, the building was leased out to a motor accessories firm. The old tin shed. Photograph by Wilfred Howard Hall. This work is in copyright; H2011.161/35 The years passed. The city around the building grew and changed. Bird’s eye view of the city of Melbourne; H86.98/98 Grand new buildings began to appear on the city landscape. Manchester Unity building, corner Swanston and Collins Streets, Melbourne. Photograph by Lyle Fowler, Harold Paynting Collection; H92.20/122 Melbourne was a city in a hurry. Rapid construction was de rigueur, with an emphasis on ‘massivity and permanence’ [1] Regent theatre under construction; H92.374/27 People in the city began to talk. When are they going to get rid of that old tin shed? It’s old and it’s ugly. We don’t want it anymore.[2] Rumours about the land began to swirl. It was said the site was blank on the original city plan and that nobody knew who owned the title. ‘Legend’ had it that the site was sold separately at an early land sale, before being resold to a ‘drunken sailor’. No written evidence of the transaction existed. (Age, 6 September 1933, p 11) The Age, 8 January 1926, p.10 People began petitioning the Lands Office with false claims. Claims poured in from far and wide, from the vague, to the reminiscent, to the outright fanciful. The Age, 21 January 1926, p. 11 While some were preoccupied with finding their fortune, others campaigned for the shed’s removal. Suggestions were proffered for its replacement. ‘Shade trees, lawns, and seats of good design would be a positive godsend in such a position,’ garden designer Edna Walling wrote in a letter to the Argus in 1934. ‘A cool place in which to rest, and the beauty of green foliage are so vital to a city’s amenities and so conspicuously absent in Melbourne’. In 1935, it was announced that the shed would be demolished to make way for Post Office extensions. The city celebrated, but the plan came to nothing. [3] By 1936 the controversy around the old tin shed was full blown. Historian A.S.Kenyon was so incensed by all the rumour and innuendo that he wrote to the Age to set the record straight. As a matter of fact that allotment and the adjoining allotment, No 1, on which the post office itself is built, were reserved for the public at the beginning at the instance of Mr Robert Hoddle, surveyor in charge. At no time was either allotment offered to the public for sale or leasehold. (Age, 10 Jul 1937, p. 19) Melbourne, plan showing city allotments sold prior to separation, 1851 Despite Kenyon’s efforts, the controversy continued. Debate reached the halls of federal parliament. In 1936, Labor MP E.J. Holloway called the building an ‘eyesore’ and urged the government to remove it. ‘The first place tourists go is the post office,’ he said, ‘and when they do so in Melbourne they are confronted by the old tin shed – a building which is a disgrace to the city.’ (Age, 13 May 1936, p 11) Despite Melburnians’ best efforts, the Commonwealth government was unmoved. Headline from the Sun news-pictorial, 20 August 1955, p 17 The shed survived for another 28 years before it was finally demolished in 1964. Melbourne Elizabeth Street Port Office. Demolition of the old tin shed. National Archives of Australia; B6295, 1043A Melbourne Elizabeth Street Port Office. Demolition of the old tin shed National Archives of Australia; B6295, 1043C [1] Hamann, Conrad, 2017, ‘Architecture’, eMelbourne, viewed 8 November 2017, <http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00083b.htm> [2] ‘City “blot” is criticised. Tin shed should go council says’, Herald, 18 December 1933, p. 10 [3] ‘Old Tin Shed’ subject file, La Trobe Collection, State Library Victoria Tags: melbourne; historical buildings — old tin shed Sarah is a librarian in the Victorian & Australian Published Collections Team, Collection Discovery & Development Division. All posts by Sarah Matthews Lynne Johnson My father worked at The Old Tin Shed, and made a model of it, probably in the 1970’s. The business moved to Little Bourke Street in the early 1960’s. The model was included in an exhibition by the Museum of Victoria in 1986. Great research Sarah, if it was still standing one would presume Melbourne’s trendiest cafe/restaurant would be operating. What was old is now new !! Sally Matthews Another really interesting read! Lyndal Osborne I remember the ‘old tin shed’. Didn’t know the history – terrific research Sarah. Thanks Lyndal! Jeanette Brentnall My grandfather used to say that he owned it at one stage: no evidence to prove it though, unfortunately. Annette (Manning) Phillips My grandfather claimed he held the deed to the Old Tin Shed. But the family were never sure. Lesley Hughes I am sure there was a little park on there for awhile in the 70’s and 80’s. Where i used to go at lunchtime. Suzanne Wood Quite right! My favourite lunch spot in those days. peter moylan My aunt told me that a Moylan owned it. Is this so? Hi Peter. No, to the best of my knowledge, historian A.S.Kenyon was right – the land always belonged to the Crown. The Assistant Registrar of the Title office agreed. Sarah Peter Spark My Great Great Grandfather claimed he owned it as well – – even up to the 1920’s his grandson was claiming ownership from the city of Melb. (NASH family). Interestingly the Moylan family were also connected into the NASH and CARMICHAEL Families…. Judy Leech Lovely – as usual, Sarah – but with the tinted bird’s eye view of Melbourne, can you tell me which street that is, cutting diagonally across from the right hand corner? Hard to identify so many of the (long gone) buildings…. Hi Judy. Yes, Gordon is right I think. The street you are referring to is Lt. Bourke St. The building in the foreground ‘Thos. Power Wholesale Saddlers Ironmongers & Manufacturers’ is listed in the Sands & McDougall directory as being located at 398-400 Little Bourke Street during this time period. Sarah J.v.d.A. Great little snippet of history, nice photographs. Anyone else recall that long bank of telephone booths that used to be on that site in the 80’s? They fronted on to Little Bourke. Oh, wow, yes I remember those phones! I worked at McGills opposite for 20 years and used to have my lunch in the little park on that site. Julianne Wiffen Yes, I’d forgotten about those phone boxes ! Betty O’BRIEN I remember the old tin shed. Thank you for all your research which is fascinating. Gordon Halford @ Judy, if you look at the online version of the bird’s eye view print, it looks as though the street you are querying is Lt. Bourke St, looking eastwards towards the front of the Post Office building. Ray O'Halloran The Philatelic Branch of the PMG was on the site as part of the GPO stamp sales branch – probably about 1970 – 75 Denis McCormack Geday Ray O’H, Long time no speak – we worked together at PMG HQ, Lines,225 Bourke St in early 1970’s and latter briefly met once when you were a staff adviser for Brian Howe MP (Batman) in late 1980s?. I worked for, with, under, and around Graeme Campbell MP (Kalgooorlie) from 1991 to ’98…but I still use my PMG sturdy, black, standard issue umbrella I was given when I first started as an inter-office messenger based at the then PMG nat. HQ nerve centre at 199 William St in Jan 1970 and so became very familiar with all PMG occupied CBD and elsewhere establishments. I too remember the small park/lunch oasis where ‘The Old Tin Shed’ used to be, opposite the old Post Office Hotel watering hole, nudgenudgewinkwink!,I’m still in North Fitzroy – get in touch you old Ginger Meggs…and thanks Sarah W.A.D Great snippet on early Melb.No don’t remember the Tin Shed but recall the bank of telephone booths in a concrete public square. I made Wedding day arrangements from one of the phones in 1974. Thanks. Roger Wyatt My father Peter Wyatt finished his working life as proprietor of Allan W Taylor Pty Ltd, long time tenant of The Old Tin Shed. The business sold motor accessories and tools. Peter joined the business as a teenager in approximately 1931 and retired as owner of the business, aged approximately 70 years, in the mid 1980s. Allan W Taylor Pty Ltd was his sole employer throughout his life. When the Old Tin Shed was demolished, the business relocated to 248 Elizabeth Street, and subsequently to 369 Lt Bourke Street. In addition, the business also held premises in Lonsdale Street for a short period. Rita Martin As a teenager I worked as a typist in the typing pool of the Postal Services Branch of the PMG’s Department on the first floor of the GPO building – from our office window we had a good view of the action in Elizabeth Street and our ears became attuned to the donging of the GPO clock especially as mid-day rang out! In years to come our typing pool became transformed into a glamorous coffee shop! Don’t know what’s there now!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402593
__label__wiki	0.526536	0.526536	Carol Kittie Reviews Tag Archives: @tawnyweber Release Blitz & Giveaway! Tawny Weber’s Call to Engage – SEAL Brotherhood Book 2 June 28, 2017 carolkittie Leave a comment The Poseidon team are hard-bodied, fiercely competitive Navy SEALs. But when a sensitive mission goes disastrously wrong, three of the team’s finest will have to trust their hearts and instincts to uncover the truth… CALL TO ENGAGE will delight fans of UNDER PRESSURE by Lori Foster and A SEAL’S PLEDGE by Cora Seton! Call To Engage Poseidon Team Tawny Weber Lieutenant Elijah Prescott should be spending his precious leave somewhere with sun, surf and scantily clad women. Instead, he’s heading home with two goals in mind. Figure out exactly how his last assignment went to hell and almost killed him—and reconnect with the woman who might offer salvation. Ava Monroe has streamlined her life, eliminating every source of pain—including a marriage touched by tragedy. One glimpse of her ex and those good intentions turn to bad-girl desires. Her strategy: get over Elijah by getting under him again, sating herself until she can finally let go. But as betrayal within the rank of the SEALs turns deadly, there’s no denying that her heart and her life are on the line. Elijah is the only man who can protect both… That was the only word in his head as the aftershocks trembled through their bodies. And then he came down. Not in a nice, slow, gentle descent, either. Nope, he crashed like a plane plummeting from the sky to ram into a mountainside. He’d just had sex. With Ava. His ex-wife. The only woman he’d ever loved. The only one he’d ever wanted to love. The one who’d broken his heart into tiny little pieces and tossed them aside. His body still slick with sweat, the scent of Ava wrapped around him like a second skin, Elijah wondered if she realized that while extracting her promise of no regrets, he hadn’t offered the same. After all, Elijah knew just how pointless promises could be. Especially the ones between him and Ava. His body spent, his mind worn, he couldn’t find anything left to offer up on the altar of past regrets, though. He wrapped his arm tighter around her shoulders. Ava responded by snuggling closer, her thigh nestled between his as she shifted her chin into the indention where his shoulder met his chest. Her breath fluttered over his throat, soft and easy in sleep. Regret? Oh yeah, he knew he’d regret this in the morning. Hell—he glanced out the window, gauging the time from the angle of the moon—it was nearing dawn and the regret was already winding through him. Shoving aside pleasure, easing out satisfaction. Closing his eyes against it, he drifted into sleep with her hand entwined with his, the twisted band of her ring rubbing gently between his fingers. And he knew it for the talisman it was, the hope that lifted him from his nightmares. If only for tonight. Because nobody knew better than Elijah that tonight was all they had. Copyright © 2017 by Tawny Weber Click the Cover For Buy Links and More The New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 40 books, Tawny Weber writes sassy, emotional romances with a dash of humor, featuring hot alpha heroes. The recipient of numerous awards, she has also hit number one on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists. Readers can visit Tawny’s website http://www.tawnyweber.com for free reads, first chapters, insider story info and much more. @Barclay_PR@tawnyweber Release Blitz for Tawny Weber’s Call To Honor – Seal Brotherhood Book 1 January 31, 2017 carolkittie Leave a comment Known for her distinctive ability to blend emotion, humor and suspense in tight gripping stories featuring irresistible alpha SEAL heroes, New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Tawny Weber returns with her brand-new novel, CALL TO HONOR, the first book of three in her SEAL Brotherhood series. Call To Honor Seal Brotherhood Book 1 “No man left behind” is inscribed in the DNA of every SEAL and Lieutenant Diego Torres is no exception. But with a team member killed—and the body missing—Diego’s honor is sorely tested. Now his career and reputation are on the line, and a traitor is hiding among them. Diego wants answers…and only one woman has them. Single mom Harper Maclean has two priorities—raising her son Nathan and starting a new life. Her mysterious new neighbor may be impossibly charming, but Diego asks too many questions about her past—and about the father of her child. Questions she fears will reveal her burning attraction for Diego, and ultimately put them all in danger’s path. When a Poseidon mission goes FUBAR and they lose a team member and can’t recover the body. The team is suddenly under suspicion and to keep his team lead out of the investigation focus Captain Nick Savino sets him on a mission to help clear not only the team but himself. As the team leader Diego is the one who had the most to lose, everything he had worked so hard for could be taken away. His assignment is to get information on the family of the deceased team member. It is proving difficult since the woman in question works from home and is extremely protective of her son. His opportunity came in the form of her son, Nathan, with a broken bicycle chain he didn’t want his Mom to know about. Diego was able to fix it and get some chatter about his Mom and the frequent deliveries she gets. Part of that scene is in the excerpt below and is one of my favorite scenes. Harper has raised Nathan alone, his father wanted nothing to do with her pregnancy and had in fact ordered her to get an abortion. She took the money for it but took off and had her son, working hard to provide for him. When Diego had moved in next door it hadn’t raised any questions since the owner frequently rented it out to business people in need of a residence for a few months or weeks. On the other hand, it didn’t take much for Harper to notice how attractive her new neighbor was or recognize her own libido awakening in his presence. The last thing Diego expected was to fall for the woman he was investigating for clues. Clearing his name and his team’s reputation was his first priority anything personal had to take second place. Lots of frustration at dead ends and more questions without answers as these two fall hard for each other. Suspense, drama and plenty of sizzling scenes, combined with the love for a little boy who deserves only the best, make this a must read. 5 Contented Purrs for Tawny! “You’re the best, mister.” The kid had to get his smile from his mother, Diego decided. Because not once could Diego remember Ramsey’s smile making him want to offer one in return. “Diego,” he said after a second, figuring talking was better than standing here on the sidewalk, grinning like an idiot. “You can call me Diego.” “Cool. I’m Nathan. I’m seven. I’m gonna be a stunt¬man when I grow up. Or a veterinarian. I’d rather be a Jedi warrior, but Mom says we’ll see about that one. She says that about a lot of stuff. We’ll see. What are you?” Huh? Was that a question? The kid’s expression said it was, so Diego did a mental replay. “I’m in security,” he said, using the cover Savino had decided on. “Bet you’re good at it.” Grabbing the bike by the han¬dles, the kid gave it a good shake, then grinned when the chain stayed in place. “You’re good at fixing things, too. Maybe you could teach me to fix some things?” Diego didn’t have much experience with kids—hell, he didn’t have any experience. Despite that, he had to figure this one was something special. Before he could answer him, a delivery truck rumbled its way to a stop in front of the kid’s house. Some thing he’d noticed was a regular occurrence. At least once, sometimes twice a day. “You sure get a lot of deliveries,” he observed, watching a guy in shorts carry a stack of boxes toward the door. “Yeah. Mom gets tons of stuff. She decorates for people’s houses. She orders pillows and bowls and things like that. Sometimes she gets material and things to help her decide colors.” Convenient. Or it would be if Ramsey were running drugs or stolen goods—that’d be a solid cover. But unless he’d shipped himself home in an ash can, it probably wasn’t pertinent. Lansky would claim otherwise, though, so Diego made a note to mention it in his next report. He caught a flash of something out of the corner of his eye. All it took was a casual glance toward the house to send him rocking back on his heels. Not even signing for a slew of packages and fending off the flirtations of the delivery guy were enough to keep Harper Maclean from sending her son a protective frown. So far his glimpses of her had been at a longer distance than the twenty feet currently separating them. Her photos didn’t do her justice. He’d known she was a looker, but no way he’d have thought fully dressed in person could trump that bikini shot, even if that bikini shot had been kind of blurry. He’d have been wrong. Releasing Tomorrow! Jax – Mavericks Book 3 By Dale Mayer Releasing Tuesday! Griffin – Mavericks Book 2 By Dale Mayer Coming Tuesday January 21 – Kerrick – The Mavericks Book 1 By Dale Mayer Quinn Valley Ranch: 2 Book Set – Carter’s Cowgirl and Summer Serenade by Melissa McClone Snowy Montana Nights: McCool Family/Montana Cowboy Romance – Dallas Debutantes Book 3 By Cynthia D’Alba Johnnie Walker – It’… on Johnnie Walker – It… Heath – Hathaway Hou… on Heath – Hathaway House B… Anonymous on A Moment Never Forgotten… Susan Y Tanner on Fire Across Texas – The… Secret Obsession By… on Release Day Tour and Giveaway… A place to read and relax Carol Kittie Reviews on Facebook	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402606
__label__wiki	0.562804	0.562804	Mike R. Tallim Home » Our Team » Mike R. Tallim Associate \| Mike Tallim is an associate in the Banking & Specialty Finance Group at Cassels. In his practice, Mike assists lenders and borrowers with domestic and cross-border commercial, mid-market and syndicated lending transactions, including real estate, project financing and energy sector financings. Mike’s representative experience includes acting for: Corus Entertainment Inc. on the financing arrangements for its $2.65 billion acquisition of Shaw Media Inc. and the redemption of its existing senior unsecured notes, including a $2.3 billion syndicated term loan and a $300 million revolving credit facility National Bank of Canada, as administrative agent, and lenders in the $75 million project financing for the development, construction, ownership and operation of the 29.2 MW Bull Creek Wind Project in Alberta Toronto-Dominion Bank, as administrator agent, in Morgan Stanley Energy Partners’ Investment in Specialized Desanders Inc. Prior to joining Cassels, Mike articled and was an associate with a leading international firm. In addition, during law school, Mike served as an intern for two leading law firms in, respectively, Thailand and Myanmar. Here, his work focused primarily on project financings, intergovernmental lending, and incorporating foreign held entities within Myanmar, including one financial institution. Mike also served as an intern for the British Columbia Securities Commission in their Capital Markets Regulation Division. A Warning Regarding Negative Interest Rates Supreme Court of Canada Decision in Facebook May be the Harbinger of a General Law of Unconscionability in Consumer Contracts Representative Work Great Hill Partners Makes All Cash Offer to Acquire VersaPay Corporation Origin House Completes Acquisition of 180 Smoke Flex Equipos de Descanso, SA Completes Acquisition of Marshall Ventilated Mattress Company Cassels Represents the Lenders in Morgan Stanley Energy Partners’ Investment in Specialized Desanders Inc. Cassels Represents the Underwriters in Hudbay Minerals Inc.’s $242 Million Bought Deal Financing J.D., University of Victoria, 2014 M.A., Carleton University, 2009 B.Hum., Carleton University, 2006 Alberta, 2015 Calgary Bar Association Law Society of Alberta Law Society of Ontario Banking & Specialty FinanceCannabisEnergy	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402608
__label__wiki	0.6803	0.6803	Finally, Eric got up to stir the fire and add wood. As he turned back to Sookie, he saw a tear streaking its way down her eye. She was looking at him with intense love. He was before her on his knees in less than a second, wiping the tear with his thumb. “I hate when you cry, min kván.” “I know,” Sookie said smiling lightly. “And that’s why I’m crying.” Eric seemed confused. “What?” Sookie sat up in front of him as Eric sat down facing her. “Eric, you knew just now from the bond that I was sad and grieving for Gran, that I was crying on the inside―right?” “Yes,” Eric said in a low voice. “It is difficult to feel you that way.” “I know how hard it is for you to feel like you can’t do anything to help me. Remember―I can feel you in the bond too, and that is what I felt from you. Yet you just lay with me for a long time; you didn’t try to take my mind off of what I needed to feel. You respected my need to feel it. That’s where my tear came from.” Eric still looked a bit confused. “I was crying because of the love you show me, the respect. Bill . . .” at the sound of his name Eric stiffened a bit, and Sookie paused. “Eric, can I tell you about what happened between Bill and me the night I lost my virginity to him. Uh―not the sex stuff, but other things? Can I talk to you about that without hurtin’ you?” Eric brought his hand up to Sookie’s cheek, feeling both her uncertainty and her sadness through their bond. “You may tell me of anything. I will not lie; I hate to think of you ever being with Bill―or anyone other than myself for that matter. But you need never keep anything from me.” Sookie looked at Eric thankfully. “It is difficult for me, too, to think of being with anyone else but you.” She brought her hand up to his, which was still stroking her cheek. “And it’s gonna be difficult to talk about that night and what I’ve come to realize about it.” “I’m not going anywhere, min kära.” She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it lightly, another tear finding its way down her cheek. “I know.” After a minute or two, Sookie took a deep breath. “The night I found Gran dead on the kitchen floor, I think I went into shock. There was just so much blood,” Sookie’s voice caught, and Eric readjusted his position so that he could pull Sookie onto his lap and cradle her to his body. It was another few minutes before she was able to continue. “I was supposed to be at home that night too, but I’d gone out with Sam on kind of a test date. When I got home, I felt something ‘off’ in the house. I always tried to block out Gran’s thoughts and the thoughts of the people I care about, but I can always feel their minds there anyway, like lookin’ at a television that’s been muted or something. That night, she wasn’t there at all. And then I found her in the kitchen. And then Bill was suddenly there. Maybe he felt my emotions through the tie, or maybe he was spyin’ on me even then; I don’t know. And then Sam came to check on me since the door was open. And then the police were there, and before I knew it, they were takin’ away my Gran.” Eric listened quietly, stroking her hair and shoulders in comforting gestures. “So I think I was in shock right after I found her, and I felt―just so empty inside. She was the only person that never had a bad thought about me that I picked up on―not even a stray one. She never once thought about me being a burden to her or wondered why I couldn’t just be normal.” Sookie paused and then picked up her train of thought, “I didn’t really sleep the night she died, and by the morning, all that shock had worn off, and I was heart-broken. People kept comin’ by the house―pretending to offer sympathy. But I knew from their minds that only a few really cared about Gran or me or Jason. Some even thought that I deserved to have died too because I’d been seeing a vampire. Most were there for the gossip or to see if there was still,” she paused, her voice choking up, “blood on the floor.” Eric interrupted her story for the first time. “Who cleaned the blood, min kära?” he asked in almost a whisper. Sookie’s eyes filled with tears. “I did.” “Bill did not see to this before dawn?” Sookie shook her head as Eric tried to squelch his anger so it wouldn’t seep into the bond. “I am sorry you had to do this task alone,” Eric said sincerely. “I am sorry I was not yet with you.” Sookie nodded before continuing. “Jason finally heard about Gran and came over the afternoon after she’d died. By then, Lafayette had given me something to help me sleep. Jason was real angry at me. He hit me.” Eric stiffened. Sookie looked at Eric and took in a deep breath. “I’m not excusing what he did, and I’ve told him that I won’t stand for that kind of thing if he wants to be in my life, but he was,” she paused, taking another deep breath, “taking V at the time. He’s not anymore,” she added quickly. “But he was then.” Not seeing surprise on Eric’s face, Sookie paused her story to ask, “You knew, didn’t you? You already knew about Jason?” Eric spoke in a low voice, “I did not know he had struck you, my love.” Sookie could feel his anger rising and brought her hand up to caress his cheek. “He will not do it again, and if he does, he knows that he is no longer allowed in my life. He’s changed a lot since then too.” Eric leaned down to kiss Sookie’s forehead and then cheeks before his lips met hers in a light touch. Then he rested his forehead against hers, a gesture that calmed him. After a few minutes, his anger left the bond. He pulled back from her a bit and spoke, “I did know about Jason’s V-habit.” “How?” Sookie asked. “I apprehended some V-users at Fangtasia. The blood they had was from a relatively young and not well-adapted vampire named Eddie Gauthier. I went to confront Eddie, but he had disappeared. At his home, I picked up the scents of three humans, two of whom you know very well. “Lafayette and Jason?” “Yes―I had found out from the V-users that Lafayette had sold them the blood, and using glamour, I was able to get his address from them. Once I had confirmed that Lafayette’s was one of the scents I had picked up at Eddie’s home, I simply waited for a good opportunity to apprehend him. After questioning him, I did not think that he’d harmed or taken Eddie. Apparently they had an arrangement that was mutually beneficial for both of them, but since Lafayette was a known V-dealer and Eddie was still missing, I had to,” Eric paused. “Hold him,” Sookie completed. Eric nodded. “The next night, I followed up on the other two scents from Eddie’s home. I recognized both from a few days before at Fangtasia. I knew one of them to be your brother; Pam had informed me of his name―Stackhouse―the night that he’d come into Fangtasia. He had been trying to locate V that night and left with a woman, who was the third scent from Eddie’s home. I allowed him to go unharmed that night because I had guessed his connection to you. I intended to find him later and glamour him to no longer take V, but Eddie’s disappearance came before I was able to see to this task.” “You were gonna make him stop?” Eric nodded, “This seemed the easiest way. I couldn’t allow him to continue using, and I didn’t want to do him physical harm.” Sookie nodded and placed her hand lightly on Eric’s chest. “After Eddie disappeared, I found out where he lived and picked up on Eddie’s scent there; he had met the true death. I also picked up on the scents of your brother and Amy Burley, who had also been slain there. By this time, your brother was in jail for allegedly killing Miss Burley. Then he disappeared and didn’t resurface until Dallas. Sookie looked at Eric in shock. “A vampire was killed at my brother’s house?” Eric nodded, “Since Jason was your brother, I dug into Miss Burley’s past and discovered that she’d been suspected of involvement in several vampire drainings in New Jersey.” Eric looked a bit guilty, “I threatened your brother in Dallas. I told him that I knew of his past drug habit and his connection to Eddie. I told him he’d be killed if he used V again.” Why didn’t you punish him like Lafayette? Question him about Eddie?” “You know why, min kära, “Eric said, stroking Sookie’s hair. “You could get into trouble for covering up his involvement, couldn’t you?” Eric shook his head. “The true death of Eddie Gauthier was probably dealt out by Miss Burley. Despite his shortcomings, I do not believe your brother would have killed him, though after hearing of his behavior toward you while being high on V, I am not as certain of this as I once was. Regardless, Miss Burley has been officially identified as the killer, and as she is already deceased, there will be no further inquiry.” “You did all this for me, didn’t you?” “Your brother proved himself to be brave and loyal to you in Dallas, but yes―if he had not been your brother, my actions would have been different from the first night he entered my club.” Sookie raised up to kiss Eric on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said in a whisper. Eric got up to add another log to the fire as Sookie went to take care of her human needs and grab a drink from the kitchen. As they settled back onto the floor, Eric sat with his back against the coffee table and pulled Sookie so that she was cradled into his body once more. He could feel that she was anxious to continue her story. After a few moments, she did. “So Jason came and blamed me for my Gran’s death. I felt alone and so sad. I mean―Lafayette and Tara were there, but . . .” she stopped. “ . . . You felt like a part of yourself was gone, like you’d never be the same, “Eric supplied softly. “Yes,” Sookie said as she leaned further into Eric. “This is how it was for me after Godric.” They sat silently in shared grief for a few moments before Sookie continued. “Then the next day was the funeral, and Uncle Bartlett came.” Eric felt Sookie’s fear at this name and tensed. “This man hurt you in some way?” “Yes,” Sookie said quietly. “He did things to me when I was a child―touched me inappropriately―but the nastiness in his head showed me that he intended things that were a lot worse. When I told Gran, she banished him from our home and told him she never wanted to see or hear from him again. Jason never knew about it, so he contacted Uncle Bartlett and told him about the funeral.” “Does this man still live?” Eric asked, his rage boiling just under the surface. Sookie felt his anger through the bond. “No,” Sookie said quietly. “I told Bill about him, and Bill killed him.” “At least in this―we can agree,” Eric said. “I don’t want killin’ done for me. I never did!” Sookie said forcefully as she pulled away a bit. “Bill went behind my back to kill him, and that’s not somethin’ I needed on my conscience. Uncle Bartlett was too old to hurt me anymore, and it’s God’s job to punish him, not mine.” Eric buried his face into her hair and pulled her closer to him, “We will sometimes disagree about things such as this, min kära. My very first instinct has become to protect you. Given your uncle’s actions, I would have wanted to do the same thing Bill did. I will be honest and tell you that part of me wishes he were still alive so that I could be the one to exact justice for you. But I would not have acted without first speaking to you. I would have, however, tried to get you to see and accept my way of thinking.” After a few moments, Sookie responded, “I can live with that. But I would have also tried to convince you as well.” “And we would have come up with a course of action together.” Sookie nodded in agreement. After a moment, Eric said, “So your Gran had been killed, your brother was on drugs and violent with you, and your pedophile uncle was at the funeral.” Eric’s sorrow for his beloved was flowing through the bond even as he tried to send her comfort as well. “And I had to give a eulogy, but when I heard everyone’s thoughts, I―well, I kind of went a little crazy. And then I went home and ate every last bite of Gran’s pecan pie. It was the last thing she made before she . . .” Sookie’s voice trailed off due to the tears that were now streaming down her cheeks and the sobs that wracked her body. Eric turned her and cradled her to his body again. “I have you,” he said simply as he held her close. After a few minutes, Sookie continued, “That night, I went to Bill, and we had sex for the first time.” Sookie’s voice grew almost inaudible. “I’m certain he snuck more of his blood into me that night, and he took some of mine. It was right after that, that I felt compelled to tell him about my uncle. But I’ve realized something even worse about what happened that night.” “What’s that?” Eric prompted quietly after Sookie had been silent for several moments. “Because of the tie and his manipulations, my grief for Gran became numbed. And my emotions turned to only love for Bill―to the point that I was practically blind to everything else.” She paused and looked up at Eric. “So a while ago, when you just held me, and when you let me feel my pain and sorrow over Gran without trying to do anything to distract me or sidetrack my emotions, I was so grateful for you―for the kind of man you are.” Eric spoke, “Bill acted with dishonor, taking advantage of you in your time of crisis. And he continued to act with dishonor as he muted your feelings and replaced them with those he desired for you to have.” Eric was silent for a moment. “However, I cannot profess to be a saint. I have committed many dishonorable acts over time, including taking advantage of people’s vulnerabilities. I am learning a different way now―from you.” Eric was relieved when Sookie didn’t pull away from him again. He continued, “Perhaps, Bill was operating under the misperception that such a thing would be best for you, that forgetting your grief would be a gift to you. However, this would not have been my way.” “I know,” Sookie said, nestling into Eric. “That is why your respecting my feelings is so important to me. You are the first man to do this, as it turns out.” “I will always do it, min kära.” Sookie relaxed into Eric’s arms, and it wasn’t long before she was dozing, her light snore making Eric smile. He retrieved his phone off the coffee table and made some final plans for the next night via emails to Pam. He also made some final arrangements for his “wedding gift” to Sookie with Miranda. It would be waiting for them at their Bon Temps home. After his work was completed, he simply held Sookie to him, enjoying the rhythms of her sleep through the bond. 2 thoughts on “Chapter 73: Understanding” he is being so awesome with her, letting her have her time and being there for her to talk about it…. love this man… KY It’s so good that she can confide in him at her own pace and yet he still does not bad mouth Bill’s actions no matter how annoyed he is .	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402616
__label__wiki	0.557499	0.557499	Unable to control her excitement, Sookie tensed when Miranda’s phone buzzed. She’d been ready for more than an hour and had traded off periods of talking nervously to Jason and the boys without really listening to them, pacing the living room floor, and sitting uncomfortably in a comfortable leather chair, her legs shaking up and down. Earlier, Lafayette and Sookie had argued about how to fix her hair, but she’d finally decided on a neat bun, gathered at the nape of her neck. Lafayette had somehow managed to make the up-do look both elegant and effortless, weaving some braided pieces in and out of the bun in a way that Sookie was certain she’d never be able to imitate. The effect was stunning and her neck and left shoulder would be fully open to Eric. Lafayette had painted her fingernails and toenails to match her dress, and after another argument, Sookie had convinced her friend that she needed only minimal make-up. She had wanted just mascara, a little eyeliner and lipstick. When Lafayette had thrown a fit, she’d agreed to a compromise and had added a touch of eye shadow and a hint of blush. When she’d put on the dress again, there’d been a minor emergency as the strapless bra kept showing due to the dip in the back of the dress. However, Lafayette had come prepared and had performed some kind of fashion magic with double-sided tape. Lafayette had assured her that the sapphire drop earrings made a nice contrast to the red of the dress, and Sookie had completed the outfit by asking Lafayette to retie the leather strap that held her carved pendant so that it was more like a choker. He’d braided the excess leather to flow neatly down the back of her neck. The mix of jewelry was a bit unorthodox, with the rustic pendant and the elegant earrings, but Sookie could not imagine being without her pendant, especially on that day. Her final look had been elegant―with just the right amount of sexiness and uniqueness thrown in―and both Lafayette and she had almost fallen into tears as she’d stood in front of the mirror fully ready. Lafayette had waved his hands in front of her eyes to dry her tears and had threatened her with witch juju if she let even one tear drop. Sookie had zipped the silver shard into a pocket in the red purse that Pam had gotten to match the dress. Somehow it felt right to carry it for luck. She also put the dagger into the purse. Now that the signal had come for them to leave, Sookie was thrumming with butterflies. Bubba, who had been outside monitoring the area, walked back into the house at Miranda’s signal. When he saw Sookie, a huge grin spread across his face, “Miss Sookie, you sure do look pretty. Mister Eric is gonna be mighty happy when he sees ya.” “Thanks, Bubba,” Sookie said, trying to hold back her tears yet again. Bubba continued, “Mister Eric told me to make sure that you get to Fangtasia safe and sound tonight, so don’t you worry none.” “Thank you, Bubba,” Sookie responded, giving the vampire a kiss on the cheek. Miranda spoke up, “Sookie, Jarod and I will drop off Lafayette and Jesus, and then we’ll be taking up a perimeter position.” She handed Sookie a little device that looked like a car alarm button. “This is a panic button. If anything happens, push it, and we’ll come right in.” “Thanks,” Sookie said nervously, putting the object into her purse. “Don’t worry none, Miss Sookie,” Bubba said. “I will be with you the whole time.” “So will we,” Jason said motioning to himself, Jesus and Lafayette. Sookie smiled and took in a deep breath. Miranda smiled warmly as well, an unusual look for the Werelioness. “There’s just one more thing.” She crossed into a small utility room next to the kitchen and returned with a modest-sized bouquet of blue hydrangeas. “He wanted you to have these right before you left.” As Sookie took the beautiful bouquet, she had to try even harder to hold back her tears. The soft blue of the flowers looked amazing against her dress. She followed behind as Miranda and Jarod led the way out, and then she got into a car with Bubba and Jason. She wondered briefly if Bubba was “all there” enough to drive, but quickly dismissed that thought. Bubba, though sweet and humble, was obviously no idiot. She smiled at the vampire sitting next to her; she knew for certain that Bubba would risk his life for her and protect her with a fierce devotion. That was all that mattered to her. However, in addition to that, Bubba had his own brand of intelligence and charm. Sookie pitied anyone who failed to take him seriously. It took five minutes to drive to Fangtasia, and Sookie spent that time actively trying to be calm. She went over the plan in her head one last time. Pam was going to meet them at the door and lead them in, and Eric would be standing near the bar. If things were going according to plan, the others―including Bill―would be further toward the rear of the club and might be feeding from donors. She steeled herself to that thought. Bubba had assured her that as soon as she was safe in Eric’s hands, he would take care of Jason, Jesus and Lafayette to make sure they weren’t mistaken for donors themselves. Sookie was supposed to walk in and go directly to Eric. Her presence would not go unnoticed given her scent, so by the time she reached Eric, she could expect everyone to be watching. Isabel was the only one who had been told about the pledging, and she would block Bill if he recognized what was happening and tried to intercept Sookie. Meanwhile, Pam would make sure that Lillith couldn’t get in the way. And Bubba would be there to make sure that Sookie got to Eric. They knew that they could count on Chow, Thalia, and Rasul to step in if things got ugly. Eric anticipated no problems, but Sookie could definitely appreciate the fact that her vampire was covering all his bases. She knew that he always planned for any outcome, and she felt much safer knowing that he had plans A through Z thought-out and ready. “Heck,” Sookie thought, “my vampire probably has plans for every alphabet he’s ever learned going through that beautiful brain of his.” She smiled at that thought. Their car pulled up to Fangtasia right after Miranda’s, and by the time she was ready to step out, Jarod was at the car door and helping her. “Good luck, Sookie,” he said with a wink and a grin. As expected, Pam was outside the door waiting for them. She took in Sookie’s appearance with a huge smirk on her face. “I somehow knew you’d wear that one. He’s going to love it, you know.” “Red’s his favorite,” Sookie said. “Oh yes,” Pam confirmed, “and even if it wasn’t, you in this dress would convert him.” Sookie smiled at the unexpected compliment from Pam. “Thanks, Pam. I know that you haven’t always been my greatest fan, but . . .” Pam interrupted, “Past is just that, Sookie―past. My maker is happy with you; that’s what matters.” Sookie smiled appreciatively. “Ready?” Pam asked, putting her hand on the door. Sookie spoke up, “Just a sec.” She unzipped her purse and pulled out the velvet satchel. “Here, I’ll take that from you,” Pam said, motioning toward Sookie’s purse. “Thanks,” Sookie said, handing Pam the purse and then tucking the velvet clad dagger in under her flowers. “Okay,” Pam said. “I’ll be walking in front of you and to the left. Bubba, you will follow. You three,” she said gesturing toward Jason, Lafayette and Jesus, “will follow Bubba and remain silent until Eric has accepted the dagger. Then,” she winked at Jason, “the party will really get started.” Sookie nodded again as Pam opened the door. For a vampire, time is an odd thing―in many ways―irrelevant. But Eric had found that he enjoyed the passage of time very much and had always been drawn towards moments of immense change. He’d watched the fall of great cities and the rise of others. He’d traveled to Asia with Godric to learn about the mysteries of the East. He’d emigrated with the Renaissance itself―following it from Florence, to Paris, to the Netherlands, to Germany, and finally to London. As soon as ships could be secured enough for long voyages for his kind, he’d traveled to the New World―though he enjoyed reminding Pam that Vikings had discovered North America well before any other Europeans. He’d explored Central and South America for decades before he settled in North America. He’d traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the first night space shuttle launch in 1983. As he had watched the human machine jet into space, he had been humbled by the potential number of beings in the universe. He wondered when his kind would achieve travel in the stars. Every culture he had come across in his long life had a different perception of time, and all of them saw themselves differently in relationship to the history of the world at large. Eric was more than twice the age of the country he resided in. It had been 123 years since he had painted with Van Gogh. It had been 403 years since he had talked about the theatre with William Shakespeare in a London tavern. It had been 699 years since he’d screwed Dante’s supposedly virginal muse Beatrice up against a wall in Florence. It had been more than 800 years since Eric’s own people and culture had sunk into the background of history. And it had been 932 years, 3 months, and 17 days since Godric had made him vampire. In many ways, time was arbitrary to a vampire, yet it was also the most important thing. A vampire’s body intuited the sun’s progress through the sky. It always knew the day from the night―right down to the second. But the lifespans of mortal men had meant little to Eric until he had begun to consider Sookie Stackhouse and the fact that―if she did not become vampire―he would eventually be without her. He had also been forced to consider the finiteness of time when he felt the bond he had with Godric break after almost a thousand years of its being his constant companion. These things made him feel more vulnerable―more mortal―than he’d ever felt before; even when he was human, his father had taught him to buck against the possibility of death. He knew now that his own lifespan was unequivocally tied to Sookie’s. The only secret that he’d determined to keep from his bonded was that the day of her final death would be the day of his as well. It was impossible for him to imagine an existence without her anymore. He was certain also that if he should die first, Sookie would carry on living, and he was proud of this knowledge of her tenacity. A thousand years of moving through time like a boat on a wave had stopped for Eric when he fell in love with Sookie; she had literally anchored him to time itself. That―more than any other gift she could give him―was the most precious. All of these thoughts poured through Eric’s head almost simultaneously, even as another new experience flooded his senses: the feeling that time had completely stopped around him. That was the phenomenon he faced when he saw Sookie walk into the door of Fangtasia. The world around them meant nothing, and the physical space between them meant even less. The blood and magic that connected them was everything. He felt an immediate pull to be next to her, one that was echoed in her. And as she began walking to him, he could not help but to start moving to her, despite the fact that this was not part of the plan. It had been three hours and fifty four minutes since he’d seen her, according to the eternal clock within him that always kept track of his relationship to the sun. She’d been gone to fairy for 381 days, 6 hours, and 21 minutes. He’d seen her for the first time at 11:57 p.m. on a Tuesday night. It was early that Wednesday morning―12:18 a.m.―that he’d summoned her and Bill to him. And it was 12:19 when he heard her voice speaking to him for the first time. But if someone had asked him the time at that moment or had needed to know when the sun was going to rise, he would not have been able to answer. He wouldn’t have known the answer. What he did know was that Sookie was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She seemed to have dressed with only him in mind, her one-shoulder red dress making her look like a goddess. Her blond hair was gathered into a bun, and her shoulder and neck seemed to be aching for his touch. She wore the ring he had picked out for her on the finger reserved for human engagement and wedding rings. She wore the earrings he had designed himself to match the ring, and on her neck was the pendant he had carved in order to symbolically show the connection he felt with her even while she was in another realm. He’d made it with a prayer to his long-forgotten gods from his long-dead heart, and the answer to that plea was standing in front of him, her eyes shining with love―love only for him. Time had stopped for both of them, and suddenly they were less than three feet apart in the middle of the dance floor. Their eyes were locked into each other’s. Nothing else existed. Meanwhile, in the world around them, time did not stop―at least not right away. As soon as Sookie walked in, the other vampires in the room caught the aroma of Eric and her shared blood, and Bill had tensed and stopped drinking from his donor, the poor imitation of Sookie who was sitting on his lap. Within moments, all the vampires in the room that had been seated were standing, and Isabel, Pam, and Bubba were poised for a possible fight. Lafayette and Jesus each felt their bodies humming with the magic that seemed to emanate from Eric and Sookie. But there was no fight, and after a tense thirty seconds during which everyone else in the room seemed to be ready to act or react, there was no movement from them either. Everyone, including Bill, seemed to freeze. Even Jason felt the overwhelming desire to be silent and still as if he knew he were witnessing something profound. In fact, another full thirty seconds passed when no one moved a muscle as Eric and Sookie drank each other in with their eyes. The first major movement in the room came from Sookie. With a soft smile meant for Eric―and Eric only―she pulled the velvet case from under the flowers and held it up for her vampire. Returning the secret smile, Eric took the bundle, opened it, and pulled out the dagger. As a very audible gasp emanated from Bill from across the room, Eric raised the dagger to his lips and kissed it, effectively sealing the pledge between them. He said in a voice that was both loud enough for all present to hear yet somehow intimate and for Sookie only, “Beloved, by this dagger and the blood we share, we are now one, pledged before these witnesses.” Sookie’s smile grew wider. She whispered, “Min bóndi, I love you.” “Min kván,” Eric responded in an equally low voice, “as I love you.” Reverently, Eric put the dagger back into the velvet satchel and then into the inside pocket of his jacket. As soon as it was put away, their hands found one another’s, and they both sighed in relief. Eric moved forward and bent down. He kissed Sookie lightly on the lips and then trailed his nose slowly from her ear, to her exposed neck, to her bare shoulder. “You are the most beautiful thing I have seen in all my long life, min kván. I will be yours always.” Sookie brought her arms around Eric’s neck and spoke in a clear, feverous voice that could easily be heard by the other vampires in the room, “I am yours―your bonded, your pledged, your mate, your wife―and I will remain so for the rest of my life.” As Eric brought a hand to Sookie’s cheek to brush away a tear that had emerged in her fervor, he felt that time had once again started. The magic that had seemed to hold everyone in place dissipated. And in the next second, Eric felt in his blood―as much as he noticed with his senses―that a movement was being made toward his pledged, his wife. He had turned his body around to block Sookie from any kind of danger well before Bill was in front of them. In between the newly pledged couple and the king stood Bubba and Thalia; both vampires looked ready to kill. Thalia was growling at a low pitch, and though her frame was petite, no one in the room missed the power that flowed from her. Bubba stood almost as fiercely as the ancient vampiress by his side and was leveling Bill with a blistering glare. Across the room, Lillith had tensed, and Pam was keeping close watch on her. The human guards seemed clueless about what had or what was taking place. Surprising Eric immensely, it was Thalia who spoke up, “I am certain―certain―that your aggression toward this pledged couple is an error on your part. The pledge is to be protected by all vampires present; it is sacred among our kind. That is the way that things have always been. There are none who can interfere.” Her voice grew even more dangerous and low. “Any who threaten this pledge in my presence will meet the true death―king or no king!” Bill responded with a low growl. Bubba was next to speak, “I don’t appreciate you makin’ that kinda noise toward this here fine lady or around Miss Sookie. Miss Sookie is Mister Eric’s girl, and you’re gonna need to keep your distance.” Bill took a minute to calm himself as he studied the vampires in front of him. If he tried to hurt Bubba, the kings and queens of at least fifteen states would stand in line to exact punishment from him. If he moved against Thalia, he knew that he’d be dead in seconds, another notch on the she-devil’s sword. Bill looked beyond the pair in front of him to the pair behind. Eric stood slightly in front of Sookie, and his posture and cold-steel eyes indicated that even if Bill could somehow survive long enough to get past Bubba and Thalia, he’d be dead in the next moment. Sookie was right behind Eric, staring at him with eyes just as fierce. He’d seen those same eyes when she’d used her fairy powers on Maryann. Bill steeled himself and calmed down. “I wish only to speak to Eric and Sookie,” he said to the two vampires forming the blockade that was preventing him from doing just that. “Eric?” Thalia asked, even as she still faced Bill. “It’s fine,” Eric said, the confidence clear in his voice. With that, Thalia reached out and took Bubba’s hand in hers, pulling him off to the side. However, it was clear that she was still on high alert, as was her unlikely partner. As soon as they were out of the way, Bill stepped forward. “What is the meaning of this, Eric?” he demanded. “What have you done?” “Is that not clear, my liege,” Eric answered carefully; the last thing he wanted for Sookie on this night was to have to deal with the emotions that would inevitably come to the surface if he had to kill Bill. “My bonded and I have pledged.” “Bonded?” Bill asked in a low, shocked voice. “Surely you did not . . .” his words trailed off. “We did,” Sookie said firmly but politely, just like Gran spoke when she wanted to make a point but not cause trouble. Sookie slowly moved forward until she was at Eric’s side rather than slightly behind him. She entwined her arm with his and leaned into his body. She was ready, however, to give Bill a very unhealthy dose of fairy power if he made one move at her husband. Eric added in confirmation, “We have exchanged blood three times. Sookie is my bonded and now my mate by the knife.” Bill was obviously fuming internally, but was still speechless. Sookie spoke up, “Bill, I am sorry if you are unhappy, but Eric is my husband now. We both hope to remain assets to your kingdom.” She bowed a bit and Eric followed suit, surprised and pleased by his wife’s clear grasp of the tenuousness of Bill’s state as well as the need to give the king a chance to save face. “Well,” Bill said, outwardly recovering a bit. “What is done is done. This kingship recognizes the pledging we have seen today. It seems there is another reason to celebrate now, Northman.” Bill’s look at Eric as he spoke was even and cool, except for a less-than-one-second slip, which most would have missed completely. But Eric was not most, and his one thousand years of life had taught him the need to see the almost-unseeable. Into Bill’s eyes had slipped the same thirst that Eric knew must have stolen into his own when he first learned that Russell had been the one who killed his family: the overpowering desire for revenge. Luckily for him, it was Talbot who had been with him at that moment and not the cunning king of Mississippi. Eric now knew that he’d eventually have to kill Compton, but as he grasped Sookie’s hand tighter, he hoped that he could wait long enough for one of the other sheriffs to become established enough to be king or queen of the state. For now, he would have to be vigilant and hope that Bill stuck to his timeline. But Eric was certain―absolutely fucking certain―that Bill would continue seeking his death. Eric was also determined to make sure that Sookie did not get hurt in the crossfire, as she’d been when his own obsession for vengeance with Russell had endangered them all. Sookie felt Eric’s recognition and resolution through the bond but had not seen the flicker in Bill’s eyes with her human ones. However, she conveyed her support to her bonded by tightening her grip on his hand and sending it through their bond. Eric bowed more fully to his king, “You honor us, your majesty.” Without another word, Bill turned and walked back to his former position at human speed. As he sat, he derisively waved off the donor who approached him. After Bill had moved away, Jason came forward and nodded to Eric, who―surprising pretty much everyone in the room―dropped Sookie’s hand and reached out for her brother’s. Jason smiled, nodded. and took Eric’s proffered hand firmly in his. As soon as they were done with their male gesture of bonding, Jason said, “You’re getting better, man, but it’s still a little firm.” He grimaced a bit as he flexed his hand. Sookie laughed, launched herself into her brother’s arms, and gave him a big hug. “I love you, big brother,” she said. “I’m happy for ya, sis,” Jason responded. After hugs for Sookie and congratulations for Eric from Lafayette and Jesus, Eric and Sookie re-found each other’s hands and once again leaned into each other. Eric chuckled a bit at the unconscious way their bodies were drawn to each other. “Magnets,” he said under his breath. Sookie tightened her grip on his, “Yes, magnets.” Eric moved Sookie to the bar. Her favorite drink, a gin and tonic, was waiting for her. Sookie took an appreciative sip of it in order to calm her nerves after the confrontation with Bill. Eric, however, waved off the bottle of blood Chow offered him. He gave Sookie a devilish grin and gently caressed her bare shoulder and collarbone. Sookie smiled up at him just as devilishly and whispered, “You’re gonna have to wait a while for your drink, Viking.” A few minutes later, Bill rose and took his leave after a series of rushed goodbyes to all of the sheriffs present except for Eric. About five minutes after that, Lillith received a text message and made her excuses as well, after promising to begin work on Tuesday night. With them both gone, Sookie sighed with relief, and Eric looked at her with a grin. Eric sent a text to Miranda and moments later he received a reply, confirming that the king and his spy had left the area. Since Isabel and he both had vampires outside, he invited Miranda and Jarod to join the party, an act that made Sookie smile up at him. Quickly thereafter, Eric signaled for Pam to shoo out the human donors, leaving just his and Sookie’s close circle behind. A few minutes later, Bubba came up to the couple. “I’m real happy for you two,” he said with a little bow. He looked shyly at Sookie. “I’d like to sing y’all a song if that’s okay, Miss Sookie. I don’t feel like singin’ too much, but I was wonderin’ if you might like for me to sing tonight.” Sookie beamed. “Oh Bubba, that’d be so nice. Eric and I would both love that so much!” she gushed. Bubba smiled widely as Eric called Pam over. “Pam, Bubba is going to gift us with a song this evening. Will you get him set up with what he needs?” Pam smiled. It was the first genuine smile that Sookie had ever seen grace her lips, and Sookie chuckled a bit, which earned her a glare from Pam as the vampiress led Bubba to the stage. “May I have this dance?” Eric bowed, his eyes sparkling. “I’m sorry,” Sookie teased. “I have reserved this dance for my husband.” “What a pity,” Eric paused, “for me.” Sookie laughed as Eric took her in his arms. By this time, Pam had found Bubba a guitar, and he was standing shyly on stage. A hush fell over the dozen or so vampires and humans left in the club as the familiar timbres of “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” began. Both Eric and Sookie chuckled lightly as they began to sway to the music. “Perfect choice,” Eric whispered to Sookie as he pulled her even closer to him. “And he’s right, you know. I can’t help it; I never could.” She smiled as she sank into his chest, enjoying to gentle rhythm of the song, the privilege of having it sung for her by the King himself, and the joy pulsating through her bond with Eric. In that moment, she was able to forget about every threat and ever problem that she and Eric might face. She closed her eyes and matched her beloved’s graceful movements, their bodies moving together in complete sync. The rest of the people in the room had their eyes on Bubba, who was still clearly able to hypnotically pull people into his songs with him. As soon as the song had ended, the room broke out into applause. As Sookie looked at Bubba, she couldn’t help her wide smile. She was certain that Bubba would have been blushing if he could. As he said, “Thank you, thank you very much,” in his familiar cadence, she saw Lafayette swoon, and she got a bit weak in the knees herself, truth be told. Bubba began strumming again, and soon the sounds of “Love Me Tender” were filling the club. This time several couples joined in with Sookie and Eric. As Eric began to move them again, Sookie looked around the room. There were only friends and family left in the club. Pam and her brother were dancing, a fact that disconcerted Sookie to some extent. Jesus and Lafayette were also dancing, slow and close; Sookie smiled when she saw Jesus lean in to kiss his beloved tenderly. Miranda and Jarod were swaying closely together, looking at each other with love-filled eyes. Isabel and Rasul were dancing cordially. Even Chow looked content as he swayed behind the bar. “Look at that,” Eric whispered, gesturing to the area to the left of the stage. Sookie followed his gaze and saw Thalia, staring at Bubba, seemingly enthralled. Sookie gasped again as she noticed that Bubba now seemed to be singing only to the ancient vampiress. She looked up at Eric, “Do you see what I see?” Eric chuckled. “Yep.” He pulled Sookie in close again as they continued to dance to Bubba’s impromptu concert. 4 thoughts on “Chapter 81: Time” as it should be, they are one and forever… but i am sure Bill will be angrier than a disturbed hornets nest…. KY I know I’ve read this before but damn I was on tender hooks all through this and a serenade from the king …perfect . cela says: iv’e read this before also and I believe the blood bill just got from the donor is curdling in his stomach at this moment!! geenakmom says: Loved, loved this chapter!!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402617
__label__cc	0.725447	0.274553	By the time the second quarter of the game was half over, the group was no longer watching. The Browns were playing very badly, and the game was doing little to catch their interest. Coby and Jason were both listening with rapture to stories of Eric’s Viking days. And Sookie was talking to Arlene and Luna about her plans for beginning college. The boys had gone to play pool, along with Miranda and Jarod, and Lisa was trailing Miranda like a fan-girl, much to the Werelioness’s displeasure and Jarod’s amusement. Jarod had begun sending texts to Pam as well as pictures clearly showing Miranda’s discomfort. Tray was in a conversation with Terry about the mechanics of motorcycles. Every once in a while, Arlene would give Terry a dirty look, and a few times, she even said out loud to no one in particular that, “Daddies shouldn’t ride motorcycles.” Through all of this, and despite the fact that their bodies had separated, Eric kept hold of Sookie’s hand and she his―as if those invisible magnets that seemed to draw them together wouldn’t let them pull apart. Suddenly, Eric squeezed Sookie’s hand lightly, and she could feel tension enter the bond. About twenty seconds later, Tray tensed as well, and Miranda and Jarod left the pool table to retake their seats. Sensing potential trouble, Jesus led Lafayette back to the table as well. Feeling the change in mood around her, Luna looked at Sam with curiosity. Sookie didn’t really need to ask what was happening. Still, she looked up at Eric, “Bill?” He subtly nodded once as he received a text from Pam. He smiled and then quickly showed his phone to Sookie. Pam’s text read simply, “His new strategy: make Sookie jealous―LMFAO!” Sookie snorted softly and gripped Eric’s hand tighter. He brought hers up to his lips and brushed a gentle kiss along her wrist. A few seconds later, the king of Louisiana walked in the door; on his arm was a pretty brunette woman—no, a gorgeous woman. Sookie noticed immediately that the woman was taller than she was, more conventionally beautiful than she was, and definitely more expensively dressed than she was—given the fact that she was still in her Merlotte’s uniform with only a green cardigan thrown over her T-shirt. Sookie looked up at Eric. She couldn’t help her smile; from her bond with her husband, she felt annoyance at Bill rather than any kind of attraction for the modelesque beauty on the king’s arm. Once again, she was floored by her husband’s love for her, and she sent some back to him. He looked down at her with a sly smile. “Tom Brady has nothing on you, min bóndi,” she said quietly. He chuckled. Meanwhile, Bill was sauntering across the room like a rooster with the prize hen. Jason whistled a bit, and Sookie couldn’t help but to chuckle at her brother. The woman was striking; Sookie had to admit that. Bill zeroed in on the group and walked over. “Well hello, Sookie,” he said politely. “It is pleasant to see you again so soon. Sheriff,” he nodded gruffly to Eric. He spared a quick glance for the others at the table before looking back at Sookie and continuing, “Sookie, have you met Selah Pumphrey? She is the most successful real-estate saleswoman in the parish.” “Actually, the third most successful in the state,” Selah added with a false laugh. Sookie quickly read Selah’s thoughts and noticed a striking similarity between them and Portia Bellefleur’s. Both women thought they were better than the people around them. And both women knew that Bill and Sookie used to be an item. Selah was assessing Sookie like a rival might, and in a moment, she had judged Sookie as inferior in all the ways that she thought really mattered. Despite this, Sookie extended her hand to the beautiful brunette. “Miss Pumphrey―hello. I don’t think we have met. I’m Sookie Stackhouse, and this here,” she gestured toward Eric, “is my husband, Eric Northman.” The brunette took in the man sitting next to Sookie fully for the first time, and she couldn’t help but to catch her breath, causing Bill to shift a bit awkwardly next her. Sookie chuckled slightly, thinking that Selah’s reaction to Eric served Bill right. She wondered if Bill would ever learn that he ought not to bring his dates around Eric. She squeezed Eric’s hand and stifled another giggle. “I’m Jason Stackhouse,” Jason piped up, extending his hand to Selah and holding hers a tad too long as he tried to give her his bedroom eyes. “I’m a deputy sheriff here in Bon Temps,” he added proudly, puffing himself up. Sookie smiled at Jason’s manner and then stiffened when she heard Selah’s less than charitable thoughts about her brother. She sat up straighter―as did Eric. He felt the fire rise in his beloved, and―as always―he was just happy to be in the front row when it did. “Well Selah,” Sookie started, her voice saccharin sweet, “it was so nice to meet you. Now―don’t you and Bill just make a perfect pair.” She smiled her fake smile at Bill as well. “And it looks like you are on a date too, so please don’t let us keep you.” She spared one last Merlotte’s smile for Selah and then turned to pick back up her previous conversation with Arlene. “Bill,” Eric said with a curt nod. The tone of finality was clear in his voice. “Enjoy your evening,” and with that he kissed Sookie on the cheek and winked at Selah, causing a deep blush to break out on the brunette’s face. Out of the corner of her eye, Sookie saw Selah’s blush and felt Eric’s mirth through the bond. She returned that playfulness and quickly turned around to give her husband a peck on the lips. Eric didn’t let her get away so quickly, however, and planted a toe-curling kiss on her mouth before he casually turned back to Coby and resumed their conversation about Viking ships. “Da-yum,” Arlene said under her breath as Sookie reddened and turned back to the women she’d been talking to. “Don’t even get me started on that one,” Sookie giggled to Arlene and Luna as she gestured back toward Eric. That kiss had pretty much made her forget that Bill was even standing there. Bill reminded her by clearing his throat, “Well—we will take our leave then, Sookie.” She looked up at him. “Have a great night,” she said politely. As Bill turned to escort Selah to a table, Eric squeezed Sookie’s hand, his mirth still clear in the bond. She giggled and then started talking to Arlene about planning a girls’ night. Terry and Tray had turned their discussion to fishing, and Jason had joined them in it, arguing with them about the best kind of bait to use at that time of year. Terry looked at Eric, “Do you ever go fishin’?” Eric chuckled, “I haven’t fished for many, many years—probably because I haven’t eaten human food for many, many years.” “Well you don’t go fishin’ just for food,” Terry said passionately. The Iraqi vet nodded as if reaching a decision. “We should all go sometime. After all, you have a woman you can feed now.” Sookie looked at Eric with interest, waiting for his response just as much as the men he was speaking to were waiting for it. “Ah,” Eric voiced, “a men’s night out. Yes―I think that I would like to go fishing again sometime. In my human days, I had quite a talent for it. We constructed our hooking devices out of carved wood and small pieces of iron. I imagine that you can buy such devices today?” “Hell yeah,” Terry said. “Or you can borrow some of my gear.” “Yes―we should make a plan to do this.” Eric grinned and brought Sookie’s hand to his lips again. “In this way, I can provide food for my woman. This was one of the jobs of the husbands during my human time as well.” Sookie rolled her eyes but smiled widely. “Cool,” Coby said. “Can I go too?” His question should have been directed toward Terry, but he was looking at Eric as he asked it. “I have no problem including you, little human. After all, manhood began in my time at roughly your age; however, ultimately, the decision is up to your parents. It would have to be night fishing, after all,” Eric said. “Sure, Coby,” Terry said. “We’ll fish, and the ladies can shop.” “I will fish too,” Miranda said sternly, joining the conversation after sending another text to Pam. “I do not enjoy shopping.” Lafayette added, “And I don’t fish.” “All right,” Terry said, not missing a beat. “Some of us will fish, and others will shop.” Eric liked the veteran sitting across the table from him even more in that moment; he certainly knew how to go with the flow. Ten minutes later, tentative plans had been made for both fishing and shopping excursions, and Pam had texted to inform Sookie that she would be leading the shoppers. Suddenly, Sookie felt a wave of amusement flow through the bond from Eric. She looked at him questioningly. He whispered, “Just watch the door. This should be funny.” About thirty seconds later, Bubba entered, with a very serious-looking Thalia on his arm. The short, but deadly vampiress was dressed in jet black from her leather jacket all the way to her boots. The only things of any other color on her body were, in fact, the very edges of her boots, which seemed to be tipped in silver. Sookie managed to contain her snicker at Bubba’s appearance―but barely. He was wearing what Sookie could only label as a cheesy-looking disguise, complete with blond wig and ‘70s mustache. The new pair walked over to the table, and Eric gave Jesus, Lafayette, and especially Jason a warning glance before he spoke. “Bubba, Thalia―how nice of you to join us.” He went around the table introducing Bubba and Thalia to the people they didn’t know. Jason responded to Bubba’s disguise with a tact that seemed beyond him, but Jesus had to squeeze Lafayette’s hand several times to keep him from commenting. The others at the table―except for Luna, who gave Sam a questioning glance, which he answered with a smile and a shrug―seemed oblivious to the fact that the ‘king’ had just joined them. Another comfortable thirty minutes had gone by when Eric received a text from Pam. He quickly checked his phone. Immediately, Sookie felt frustration through the bond. She looked at Eric questioningly. He spoke to the table, “If you will excuse me, I have a bit of business that I must see to for a few moments.” As he got up, he felt some disappointment from Sookie―not that he was leaving, but that he was leaving without her. He immediately sent her reassurance as he reached out his hand to her, “Shall we, min kära?” She took his offered hand and stood up with a smile. “I thought you needed to take care of business.” “Yes,” he whispered to her, “but this is not something that would need to be kept from you, my love. In fact, I crave your help.” He looked at Tray, “Dawson, would you join us for a few moments?” Noticing the serious expression on Eric’s face, Tray rose, “Sure.” As the group passed the bar Sam had returned to a few minutes before, Eric asked for silent permission to once again use his office, which the shifter granted with a nod. Once they were all inside the office with the door closed, Tray was the first to speak. “What’s happened?” Eric grasped Sookie’s hand in his, “A vampire has taken blood from a Werewolf this evening―one who did not consent to be drunk from.” 2 thoughts on “Chapter 012: Unwelcome” i don’t think i could have held in the chuckle at Thalia and Bubba’s outfits…. looking forward to more … KY Oh my god , just how much of a retarded fud nut is Compton , desperation is oozing from his pores . Glad he’s not keeping sheriff business from being attentive to his woman .	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402618
__label__cc	0.725159	0.274841	Instagram accounts with the most followers worldwide 2020 Most popular global mobile messaging apps 2019 Twitter: number of monthly active users 2010-2019 Mobile app usage - Statistics & Facts Internet usage in India - Statistics & Facts Online Video & Entertainment Survey on preferred programs for playing podcasts in Germany 2016 Published by Evgeniya Koptyug, Jan 24, 2018 This statistic shows the results of a survey on the use of programs for playing podcasts in Germany in 2016. Roughly 22 percent of respondents stated they played podcasts on Spotify or Deezer. Which program do you play podcasts on? December 13 to 19, 2016 563 users of podcasts Multiple answers were possible. Most popular podcasts in Sweden as of October 2018, by listens Most popular podcasts in Sweden as of October 2019, by reach Devices used to play podcasts in the United States in 2019 Reasons for not listening to podcasts in the U.S. 2019 Survey on podcast content use in Germany in 2016, by gender Leading reasons for listening to podcasts in the U.S. 2019 Survey on frequency of podcast use in Germany 2016 Share of U.S. internet users who listen to podcasts 2016, by frequency Regular users of audio streaming services in Switzerland in 2014 Survey on preferred payment methods for podcasts in Germany 2016 Global podcast consumption on PC/laptop 2017 Share of time spent listening to audio sources by U.S. podcast listeners 2018 Podcast consumption penetration rate worldwide 2016, by age Podcast ad spending in the U.S. 2010-2020 Podcast download share from Spotify in the U.S. 2018-2019, by state Podcast advertising interest in the U.S. 2015-2016 Podcast abandonment rate by podcast length in the U.S. 2016 Monthly podcast consumers in the U.S. 2019, by gender Sources to download podcasts in the UK 2017 Weekly podcast consumption in the U.S. 2013-2019 Monthly reach of podcast streaming in Canada 2015-2016, by language group Income of podcast influencers in Sweden 2019, by category Music listening time by format in the United Kingdom (UK) 2015 Trust in information found through online videos and podcasts in Sweden 2018 Podcasting Industry Digital Music Radio Industry Online Radio Statista. (January 3, 2017). Which program do you play podcasts on? [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved January 20, 2020, from https://cdn1.statista.com/statistics/668073/preferred-programs-play-podcasts-germany/ Statista. "Which program do you play podcasts on?." Chart. January 3, 2017. Statista. Accessed January 20, 2020. https://cdn1.statista.com/statistics/668073/preferred-programs-play-podcasts-germany/ Statista. (2017). Which program do you play podcasts on?. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: January 20, 2020. https://cdn1.statista.com/statistics/668073/preferred-programs-play-podcasts-germany/ Statista. "Which Program Do You Play Podcasts On?." Statista, Statista Inc., 3 Jan 2017, https://cdn1.statista.com/statistics/668073/preferred-programs-play-podcasts-germany/ Statista, Which program do you play podcasts on? Statista, https://cdn1.statista.com/statistics/668073/preferred-programs-play-podcasts-germany/ (last visited January 20, 2020)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402623
__label__cc	0.716085	0.283915	Lost an ear? replacement tissue may be on the horizon By Staff Writer \| Tech & Digital \| No Comments Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is feasible to print living tissue structures to replace injured or diseased tissue in patients. Reporting in Nature Biotechnology, the scientists said they printed ear, bone and muscle structures. When implanted in animals, the structures matured into functional tissue and developed a system of blood vessels. Most importantly, these early results indicate that the structures have the right size, strength and function for use in humans. “This novel tissue and organ printer is an important advance in our quest to make… Texting at night affects teens’ sleep and school grades Research has found that students who turned off their devices or who messaged for less than 30 minutes after lights out performed significantly better in school than those who messaged for more than 30 minutes after lights out. The study, published in the Journal of Child Neurology, is the first of its kind to link night time instant messaging habits of American teenagers to sleep health and school performance. “We need to be aware that teenagers are using electronic devices excessively and have a unique physiology,” says study author Xue Ming, professor of neuroscience and neurology at Rutgers New Jersey… It’s all in the sweat: What new wearable sensors can reveal from your perspiration By Staff Writer \| Fitness, Tech & Digital \| No Comments Engineers have developed the first fully integrated electronic system that can provide continuous, noninvasive monitoring of multiple biochemicals in sweat. The advance opens doors to wearable devices that alert users to health problems such as fatigue, dehydration and dangerously high body temperatures. Specifically, it is for a flexible sensor system that can measure metabolites and electrolytes in sweat, calibrate the data based upon skin temperature and sync the results in real time to a smartphone. “Human sweat contains physiologically rich information, thus making it an attractive body fluid for non-invasive wearable sensors,” said study principal investigator Ali Javey, a UC… 4 powerful ways technology can help make your health goals happen this year By Staff Writer \| Fitness, Tech & Digital, Workplace Health & Wellness \| No Comments If you have New Year’s resolutions around health and fitness, you’re not alone Most resolutions centre around this area, but sadly most are abandoned by February. But with some clever technology you can up your chances of success. 1. Count calories One of the most popular resolutions is to watch what you eat, and there are a host of tools available to make that really straightforward. Perhaps the most popular is MyFitnessPal, which has a really clever feature where you can input your food by simply scanning the bar code with your camera – this makes logging food really simple… Insider tip: The amazing way people now are tracking their health Want to know yourself better, so you can make healthier choices and feel better? That’s essentially what the Quantified Self movement is all about. Quantified Selfers (QSs) use various self-tracking methods to measure different facets of their life, which helps indicate specific habits that make them feel a certain way. They’ll track anything from sleep to food, exercise, heart rate, mood, sex frequency, and bathroom observations. The goal is to better understand behaviors, which can hopefully lead to certain personal changes and in turn better health. While the QS movement has increased in recent years, it’s not all that new,… Our Top 5 Apps for Doctors In 2014, app downloads topped a whopping 179 billion. Doctors are not getting left behind and are also hopping on the bandwagon and snapping up the apps that have been created especially for them. Here are our 5 picks for the best doctors’ mobile Apps RESOLUTIONMD View patient images (X-rays, scans etc.) and reports from a wide variety of computers and mobile devices. Doctors can collaborate with other practitioners and diagnose from any location. Highly secure, its unique architecture safeguards patient data behind the firewall and Server side and data cannot be moved or transferred to any device. Benefits 24/7 access to images… Why people who wear health trackers are healthier Most of us really don’t know how healthy we are. As long as we’re feeling fine, we assume that we are doing everything right. This is where people who wear trackers are ahead of the game, they have the data to show them what they do, giving them an objective view of their habits. Here is how trackers can help improve your health Somewhere to start and keep going Most of us have no idea what shape we are really in until our waistline is too big or we fall ill Research shows that far too many of us lead… Fitness trackers can improve your kids’ health too By Staff Writer \| Baby & Toddler, Tech & Digital \| No Comments Every parent wants their kid to be as healthy and active as possible. With the rising rates of childhood obesity and lifestyle diseases, the wearable tech industry is sitting up, and we are starting to see an emergence of devices and gadgets to stimulate kid’s minds and get their bodies moving. LeapBand Leapband is a cute fitness tracker for kids with a screen that displays cartoon animals to encourage play. It looks like a large children’s watch and talks to the child through a built-in speaker, with the intention of keeping them moving. Using elements of gamification, the band’s screen… New digital health innovations that will improve the lives of senior citizens Staff writer According to the World Health Organization, in 1900, global life expectancy was just 31 years old; fast forward to 2015 and it sits at just over 70 years old. The trend of living longer means that healthcare needs to meet the needs of a growing number of active and vibrant senior citizens. Here are a few innovations which could help the elderly: Home Sensors Various types of sensors can be installed throughout the home and track patterns of motion to detect falls, wandering and missed medication. Contact sensors can be placed on doors and windows to monitor if… Amazing 3D Healthcare innovations Staff writer The healthcare sector is pouncing on the potential for great innovation using 3D technology, having had success with applications in dental and anatomical models, as well as surgical guides. The industry is now investigating new possibilities including custom prosthetics, implantable devices and Soft tissue and cell printing. Here are some revolutionary products that you could see at your doctor’s rooms soon. Robotic exoskeleton 3D Systems and EksoBionics have developed a 3D-printed robotic suit to get paralysed individuals stand up and move around on their own. This wearable bionic suit is created with very fine details, using high-temperature laser…	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402625
__label__wiki	0.934075	0.934075	LORNA SHORE’s new album, “Immortal”, is nothing short of a shock of blackened, symphonic ambitions and epic intents. It is a milestone for LORNA SHORE, who have built a sizable reputation touring the world alongside the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder, Carnifex and Chelsea Grin. Formed in 2010, LORNA SHORE were quick to surpass “local band” expectations with 2012’s “Bone Kingdom”-EP and it’s follow-up, 2013’s “Malificium”-EP. Through each release, LORNA SHORE continues to prove themselves to be an increasingly formidable force and a ferocious live proposition. 2017’s sophomore LP, “Flesh Coffin” showed a band that had moved beyond mere “deathcore” trappings and had evolved into a modern metal band, as uncompromising and accomplished as any of their contemporaries or influences. “We became the band we wanted to be, rather than just the product of our early influences,” says guitarist Adam De Micco. “’Immortal’ is the latest chapter of that story of us as a band, as players and as people.” Armed with new vocalist C.J. McCreery (ex-Signs of the Swarm), LORNA SHORE has made a record that stands apart from their earlier works. The earliest hints of that have come with the release of album tracks, “This Is Hell” and “Darkest Spawn”, twin deathly salvos released from LORNA SHORE’s early album sessions with producer Josh Schroeder (Battlecross, King 810, For Today) at Random Awesome Studios in Midland, MI. Recording for the album. Label: CENTURY MEDIA Immortal [LP] Artist: Lorna Shore Vinyl - Import 1. Immortal 2. Death Portrait 3. This Is Hell 4. Hollow Sentence 5. Warpath Of Disease 6. Misery System 7. Obsession 8. King Ov Deception 9. Darkest Spawn	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402628
__label__cc	0.6855	0.3145	Soil Investigations for Data Collection in the Delta Water Resources, Department of (California Department of Water Resources) California Department of Water Resources-Delta Conveyance Office Agriculture, Parks and Open Space, Urban and Rural Residential Neighborhoods, Commercial Development, and Scenic Roadways and Waterways. The planned work includes overwater and land-based soil borings, cone penetration tests, and geophysical surveys. The primary objective of the proposed project is to determine the composition, location, and geotechnical properties of soil materials commonly found in the Delta which would inform the design, environmental analysis, and development of alternatives for a potential Delta conveyance project and contribute to DWR's overall understanding of Delta geology. Katherine Marquez 1416 Ninth Street the Legal Delta Alameda Contra Costa Sacramento San Joaquin Solano Yolo 1-5, SR-160, Hwy 4 Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, the Legal Delta Cross Streets: Area from south of the City of West Sacramento to just north of Bethany Reservoir, and stretches from east of Interstate 5 to west of State Route 160 (River Road). Archaeologic-Historic Biological Resources Forest Land/Fire Hazard Toxic/Hazardous California Air Resources Board California Department of Conservation California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bay Delta Region 3 California Department of Fish and Wildlife, North Central Region 2 California Department of Parks and Recreation California Department of Pesticide Regulation California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery California Department of Transportation, Division of Transportation Planning California Department of Water Resources California Highway Patrol California Native American Heritage Commission California Natural Resources Agency California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Sacramento Region 5 California San Joaquin River Conservancy Central Valley Flood Protection Board Delta Protection Commission Delta Stewardship Council Department of Toxic Substances Control Office of Historic Preservation State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Quality State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights California State Lands Commission IS_MND_Soil_Investigations_20191119 PDF 8374 K NOI_Soil_Investigations_20191119 PDF 479 K Summary_Form_for_Document_Submittal PDF 578 K NOC PDF 1543 K 2019119073_SLC_Comment Letter_Soil Investigations PDF 326 K	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402629
__label__cc	0.731371	0.268629	CRASHSpace is a proud member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Alliance https://www.eff.org/electronic-frontier-alliance/allies Five principles that unite the EFF Alliance: Free Expression: People should be able to speak their minds to whomever will listen. Security: Technology should be trustworthy and answer to its users. Privacy: Technology should allow private and anonymous speech, and allow users to set their own parameters about what to share with whom. Creativity: Technology should promote progress by allowing people to build on the ideas, creations, and inventions of others. Access to Knowledge: Curiosity should be rewarded, not stifled. DEF CON 27 \| August 8-11, 2019 \| Las Vegas, NV, USA Had a great time at the Meet The EFA last night with the @EFF panel representing @FutureAda! Thanks to @NaSh12 & the rest of the EFF for organizing! #DEFCON27 #HackerSummerCamp pic.twitter.com/8qBRVYfZbG — Rebecca Long (@amaya30) August 11, 2019 Join staffers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation—the nation’s premier digital civil liberties group fighting for freedom and privacy in the computer age—for a candid chat about how the law is racing to catch up with technological change. Then meet representatives from Electronic Frontier Alliance allied community and campus organizations from across the country. These technologists and advocates are working within their communities to educate and empower their neighbors in the fight for data privacy and digital rights. This discussion will include updates on current EFF issues such as the government’s effort to undermine encryption (and add backdoors), the fight for network neutrality, discussion of our technology projects to spread encryption across the Web and emails, updates on cases and legislation affecting security research, and much more. Half the session will be given over to question-and-answer, so it’s your chance to ask EFF questions about the law, surveillance and technology issues that are important to you. Syndication feeds at EFF.org EFF Updates Virginia Needs a Strong Anti-SLAPP Law to Stop Bogus Lawsuits Help Stop the Sale of Public Interest Registry to a Private Equity Firm Bring Choice to Oakland Tell the Senate: Don’t Let a Quasi-Court Bankrupt Internet Users EFF ACTION ALERTS ICANN Needs To Ask More Questions About the Sale of .ORG EFF Asks the Supreme Court to Put a Stop to Dangerously Broad Interpretations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Tuesday Hearing: EFF Argues in New Jersey Supreme Court That Defendant Can’t Be Forced to Turn Over Password to Encrypted iPhone	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402635
__label__cc	0.660586	0.339414	About Us/ FAQ Coffs Coast Outlook Your alternative Coffs Coast voice Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Independent Media Coffs Coast Business Social media stories Arts/Music/Film Science/Environment Local, Opinion/Comment Is Council’s executive being ‘fair dinkum’ or are they playing a game of semantics? December 4, 2019 4:13 pm by s3-9137-admin It is Thursday 28 November 2019 and at approximately 6.00 p.m. Council are debating a motion by Cr Keith Rhoades as follows; “That all contracts relating to the Cultural & Civic Space proposed for Gordon Street Coffs Harbour in excess of the prescribed tender amount of $250K are to be determined by full council and not under delegated authority.” Debate turns around whether under the NSW Local Government Act you can delegate authority on the sale of council assets. The Acting General Manager, Andrew Beswick (pictured below), filling in for an absent GM, Steve McGrath, appeared prepared for this debate. Andrew Beswick was the Acting GM at the 28 November CHCC Council meeting. Photo; The Coffs Coast Advocate In laymen’s terms he argued that our Council’s very clever General Manager was prepared for this possible argument and highlighted that in the 11 June motion that Councillors are revisiting Councillors hadn’t “delegated”. No, he said, in fact they had “authorised” staff to sell Council assets such as the current Chambers in Castle Street, Rigby House and the Museum. The argument being put by Council’s executive appears to be that because the wording is different the delegation provisions, and any restrictions on them under the Act, therefore don’t apply. So let’s just step back and consider this argument before moving onto what this behaviour may mean among other issues. The NSW Local Government Act has an entire section in it on the ability of Councils to delegate powers. The Act itself does not define the term ‘delegate’ however. On the other hand authorised is defined in the Act but only in respect to who an ‘authorised person’ is under the Act. Namely; “ (a) an employee of a council generally or specially authorised by the council in respect of or whose duty it is to deal with, or to act in regard to, any acts, matters or things in relation to which the expression is used, or (b) a police officer.” The authorised person described under (a) above then has to follow the Act in relation to the powers that can be delegated. Circular isn’t it? But arguably also too clever by half by the Council Executive because the motion first passed by Council on 11 June essentially gave delegated power to authorise a delegate to execute contracts for the sale of publicly-owned assets potentially AT LESS THAN 10% OF VALUATION (which is arguably not legal under the Act) without bringing the matter back to council for approval. Now we think the Executive’s argument is flimsy and quite frankly it has the whiff of semantic cow manure to it. And we suspect higher legal authorities would agree, albeit in less florid terms than the ones we just used. But heck let’s just keep it simple and check out what the dictionary has to say; To delegate = “to give a particular job, duty, right, etc. to someone else so that they do it for you.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/delegate To authorise = “to give official permission for something to happen, or to give someone official permission to do something.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/authorize What are the possible implications of this? We reckon there is less than the depth of a cigarette paper’s difference between those two Cambridge Dictionary definitions. And we suspect that man British judges cite all the time in precedent setting judgements, the man on the Clapham Omnibus, would agree with us too. And yet our Council Executive thinks it is OK on things like this that split votes and a split community should be further split? So what does it tell you about how they are approaching getting the Cultural and Civic Centre going? Is ‘whatever it takes’ the new moral code for them? Inevitably this leads also to these questions too; Is Council’s executive being ‘fair dinkum’ or are they playing a game of semantics? And, Is this the first example of this or have there been other examples too? We’ve argued before that the answer to (b) is ‘No, it’s not the first time’. Way back in 2017 in fact. And then there is the whole breaking conventions on casting votes issue too – however that’s a related, but another, whole ‘can of worms’ in our opinion. Details about Coffs Coast Outlook and its staff can be found here; https://coffscoastoutlook.com.au/about-us-faq/. Author: s3-9137-admin Robert Yandell December 4, 2019 at 4:34 pm · Reply Keep up with your accurate reporting and insightful commentary. Please listen to these 2 radio interviews . There is so much in these interviews . 1. Mayor Denise Knight https://soundcloud.com/jackt-radio/05-03-2013-denise-knight 2.Cr Nan Cowling https://soundcloud.com/jackt-radio/07-03-2013-nan-cowling 1. Mayor Denise Knight radio interview https://soundcloud.com/jackt-radio/05-03-2013-denise-knight 2. Cr Nan Cowling speaks the TRUTH. https://soundcloud.com/jackt-radio/07-03-2013-cr-nan-cowling The LGA need to hear these interviews and hear the TRUTH. Coffs Harbour City Council 2018/2019 Annual Report Section 2 Regulatory Information. Page 37/64. General Manager Steve McGrath Renumeration. The Total amount of the Salary Package $ 360,761.00 My question to the Ratepayers and Residents is this man worth this amount of money???? Page 38/64 Senior Staff Renumeration . The Total Renumeration for Councils 3 Senior Staff Positions as at 30/6/2019 totalled $ 793,350.00 I assume Mr Andrew Beswick it one of these 3 Senior Staff. If he is and a recipent of this Salary .I can now understand him ” grinning like a Cheshire Cat”. Good coin if you can get it. No wonder they are pushing for their new Penthouse Offices in the Gordan St CCCC . Too compliment their Salaries!!! This information was sourced from the Coffs Harbour City Council 2018/2019 Annual Report Section 2 Regulatory Information. Page 37 & 38. Just goes to further demonstrate how slippery the council executive is, who is really running this town and the contempt they have for their critics. Another Christopher Pyne with his irritating voice and slippery ways. The truth will come out in the end. It’s only a matter of time. Anne Streat Beswick’s behaviour is almost amusing – but only “almost”. The oldest Public Service trick is to choose an obscure, insignificant point and promote it as the subject matter. Thereby ignoring and confusing the core facts. Then respond to the ‘plebs’ with condescending insolence. It’s an old relic of English Upper Class arrogance! Whether the sale was “authorised” or “delegated” is not the issue! The issue is; that all sales of land relating to the CCS project MUST NOW BE APPROVED BY COUNCIL. Administrative disobedience would declare WWIII. Dr Janne C Lindrum NOTHING on this earth shines brighter than the TRUTH and TRUTH always finds a way to bubble to the surface. Whilst there are lot of things on this earth for which we cannot be sure, we can certainly be sure of that singular “reality”. Janne C Lindrum December 5, 2019 at 6:56 am · Reply The current Council executive team would be the worst seen in Council history. Their staff don’t trust them, don’t like them and don’t respect them. They keep secrets from appointed Councillors, hide massive legal and consultancy costs and have lost the ability or never had it to engage with the public, employees & contractors. Rikki Bekker Well said Waste Warrior. This current Council Executive strikes one as being consumed with their own self-importance and a misguided sense of excessive pride and self-confidence. One can only guess as to why this is the case because from both up close and from a distance they strike me as being so arrogant they can’t see that they are among the worst bureaucrats ever to have ‘graced’ the Castle Street Kremlin. More than a few of them come across as being hand picked, shadow Mini-Me’s of the GM and with about the same ability to think literally – i.e; none. The story above sums this all up to a ‘T’. Myfanwe December 5, 2019 at 11:00 am · Reply I authorise voters to ‘drain the swamp’ in September 2020 – Yay!!! Budding candidates for council should be quizzed by voters on how they rate the executives’ performance and whether contracts should be renewed. Old Timet GM Steve McGrath’s Total Salary Package for year to 30/6/2019 was $360,761.00 Total 3 Senior Staff Positions Renumeration for the year to 30/6/2019 was a Total $793,350.00 Now they want Penthouse Offices to match their Salaries in the $76 million plus Council Admin / Library/ Art Gallery/ Museum. Time to call in Egg Boy ?!! Interesting the GMs salary.I seem to remember a previous GM(Mark Ferguson) who asked for a pay rise from the council and was refused. He left to become GM of Waringah council.The council then advertised the position of GM for a higher salary.Anybody else heard this ? Also speaking of bona fides/draining swamps the previous employment of our present GM .Does anybody know his track record being GM on Singleton Council? John Cleese the Advocate reported this week that the ICE EPIDEMIC Usage has gone up 1000…yes 1000 %. On the Coffs Coast. Youth unemployment 23 % and rising. Huge increase in crime, domestic violence , mental illness etc etc. They are all linked up. If you take time to speak with the homeless they are the ones who know what is really happening in any community. The Skate Board Park and the abandoned Fishing club are where many deals of this evil drug ICE have been happening they told me. Youth related who are in drug/crime related gangs and it’s way out of control. They are so addicted and the drug is frying their brains. CHCC live in their bubble and never want to address these issues. That’s why they have allowed them to live in the Coffs Community Village as its out of site. Use Google and search Stephen Sawtell the ex GM before Stephen McGrath. Cr Keith Rhoades has a very big part in the SECRETS of the Past and present GMS. Use Google Search. It’s like prospecting. Keep digging and you will find the hidden treasures of Coffs Harbour City Council past history.Built on dirty money and corrupt power players. I enjoy reading your comments John Cleese and the way you observe CHCC. Basil Fawlty Young / Singleton / Morrison Low. It’s all there Not as smart Fergi was being white anted from within, the next GM was Jeff Wright, he was liked by the staff but not by the then mayor,the nexr inline was Steven Sawtell and the last GM not liked or respected by staff (this includes indoor and outdoor staff) unless your in his little clique in my opinion. Rob Trezise Thank you for the tip. I listened to those two interviewers conducted in 2013 on CHY by a young person, who I thought was very keen to see a skate park built with support by the then Editor of the Advocate Graham Singleton. While the interviews were overly long and very generous towards the Mayor, not so polite to Cr. Nan Cowling. The interviews alerted me to the Council Minutes and Agendas that cover the meetings from February 28th 2013 through to March 14 2013. It is quite interesting to refresh our memories of what took place at those meetings and the way it played out. Therein lies some the answers as to why City Hill has been dropped by the Council and an Entertainment Space agenda came into play for the CBD. At the next Council meeting (the last for 2019),see the agenda as released today. There is a report on Performing Art Spaces as assessed by a firm of consultants, Hawkridge Entertainment Services, engaged by Council. In the report, it listed a number of options both indoor and outdoor, including City Hill. However, for some reason it completely ignores the possibility of creating an iconic outdoor venue at the Jetty Quarry. That has the potential to rival the Colorado Red Rocks Arena. This has the best outdoor venue acoustics anywhere in the world according to the performers. Why it was not on the Hawkridge list of places to assess is a question Council should be answering. However, the report, while an interim one does give hope that perhaps City Hill may be back in the frame as a site to compliment the Bunker Gallery extension ? This would add so much to the site for future generations and give the Government food for thought if the Gordon Street impasse is to be resolved and Coffs Harbour will at last have an Entertainment Centre of its own. Rob I am glad you listened to them and got something out of them. What I found interesting was that Mayor Denise Knight , Cr Bob Palmer and Cr Innes left the chamber as they declared a pecuniary interest with in the CBD Masterplan. The reason being as follows. 1. Mayor Knight owned a unit with the CBD location. 2. Cr Bob Palmer’s wife owned a business in CBD 3. Cr Inness also had a Business in the CBD. The Skateboard Park is located at Brelsford Park. In Mayor Denise Knights own words in the interview that is what you do and this is why you leave the Chamber. This Did NOT HAPPEN with Cr Michael Adenorff at July’s Crucial Meeting. He owns 3 properties within the CBD with 1 being 300 metres from CCCC . Own and operates his Law Business and he is the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. What Mayor Denise Knight says in this interview regarding her Skate Park …she did not do in the July Meeting . Such A HYPORCRIT!!! Yes they are lengthy interviews . Unfortunately people are overloaded with information, time poor and therefore miss the Critical information. This is why the CHCC have gotten away with so much ,for so long. GM Steve McGrath received $360,761.00 Total Salary for year ending 2018-2019. The 3 Senior Staff including Andrew Beswick received a total of $793,350.00 It’s such a joke . (Referenced from Coffs City Council 2018/2019 Annual Report Section 2 Regulatory Information). I AGREE WITH ANDREW FRASER statement in Sat Coffs Advocate that CHCC is ROTTEN AS A PORK CHOP. Trust has long gone as well as respect because of their actions and behaviour in all form of Politics in this day and age. Today’s Coffs Coast Outlook Article is proof of this. Like many here, I make an impassioned plea to the mayor and colleagues, in relation to the cultural centre to re consider your position .Aristotle said “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”I listened to a brilliant talk from a writer who explained why people must keep re adjusting the way they see things.He went on to explain why it is instructive to say why you have changed your mind .You will not be ridiculed and may be applauded.This is the sign of a good leader.The intractable position can be resolved with intelligent debate and listening to the communities concerns. Social media links to this site Please select facebook feed. 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__label__wiki	0.690689	0.690689	USA Track & Field National News Competition schedule updated for 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field \| 11/6/2019 Competition schedule updated for 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field Abdirahman’s marathon record earns him USATF Athlete of the Week honors \| 11/6/2019 Abdirahman’s marathon record earns him USATF Athlete of the Week honors Adam Peterman and Chessa Adsit-Morris win 2019 USATF Trail Marathon Championships \| 11/4/2019 MOAB, Utah -- Cold greeted the almost 700 runners from all over the United States to the sixth consecutive USATF Marathon Trail Championships on Saturday, November 2. Although Moab, Utah, was experiencing unusually cold weather, the desert highlands were sure to warm as the sun approached the canyon floor. Rotich, Rowbury earn impressive victories at the USATF 5 km Championships \| 11/2/2019 NEW YORK CITY, New York – Incredible fields once again led to thrilling wins on the USATF Running Circuit, as Anthony Rotich won his first USATF title and Shannon Rowbury kicked to victory Saturday morning in New York City at the USATF 5 km Championships, hosted by the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K. Olympians look for big wins in the Big Apple at the 2019 USATF 5 km Championships \| 11/1/2019 NEW YORK CITY – Olympians Shadrack Kipchirchir, Stanley Kebenei, Shannon Rowbury and Emily Infeld lead talented fields ready to clash Saturday morning at the USATF 5 km Championships, hosted by the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K. Voting now open for 2019 USATF Jesse Owens, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Wing Awards \| 11/1/2019 INDIANAPOLIS -- Voting is now open for fans and media to help USATF select 2019's best U.S. athletes and performances with the Jesse Owens, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Wing Awards. USATF will present all awards at the 2019 Night of Legends on Saturday, December 7, as part of the Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada. The event will also include the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, Class of 2019, induction ceremony. USATF Announces Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Medical Staff \| 10/31/2019 USATF Announces Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Medical Staff Herron’s world best earns her USATF Athlete of the Week honors \| 10/31/2019 Herron’s world best earns her USATF Athlete of the Week honors USATF Announces Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Coaching Staff \| 10/30/2019 INDIANAPOLIS — Rose Monday and Michael Holloway will serve as head coaches of Team USA for track & field, marathon and race walk at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, USATF announced Wednesday. Tyler Andrews and Devon Yanko Victorious at 2019 USATF 50 Mile Road Championships \| 10/29/2019 Tyler Andrews and Devon Yanko Victorious at 2019 USATF 50 Mile Road Championships	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402647
__label__wiki	0.846687	0.846687	The Columbia Chronicle CFAC 12 park platforms are celebrating Chicago’s diverse community By Kendall Polidori, Staff Reporter Steven Nunez Chicago Ideas launched a new program, titled “Platforms in the Park,” that will run from June to August. Across the city, 12 different parks will have yellow platforms where Chicagoans can hold events. Platforms placed in parks throughout the city are drawing Chicagoans to gather, perform, discuss and create ideas including a celebration of the 50 year anniversary of Pride. Twelve parks on the North, West and South sides will be part of the Platforms in the Park free program put on by the Chicago Park District, Chicago Ideas and Xfinity. This program runs through August, and comes in advance of Chicago Ideas Week, Oct. 12–17, a festival with over “200 global thought leaders and innovators speaking on a variety of topics.” Vanessa Buenger, director of marketing and content for Chicago Ideas, said when planning the kick-off for the platform initiative planners wanted it to center on the queer community since this year marks 50 years of Pride. “Chicago has some really deep roots with the queer community, having one of the first gay rights groups in our country founded here nearly 100 years ago,” Buenger said. That group was Society for Human Rights, founded in 1924. Twelve parks were selected that represent communities across the entire city, Buenger said. “The main goal of this was to empower Chicago citizens to come out to the platforms and share their voice,” Buenger said. “Chicago Ideas is a platform for everyone. What [better] way to showcase that than by bringing together such an important community to the core fabric of this city.” Buenger said Chicago Ideas is working with the community partner network to highlight the good work and innovations emerging from the neighborhoods where the platforms reside, as well as to showcase the diversity of thought and experience the city has to offer. Content Editor for Chicago Ideas Kevin Beerman hosted a Platform event on June 26 at Revere Park, 2509 W. Irving Park Road. Kevin Beerman, content editor for Chicago Ideas and poet, was one of many people who was center stage on the platform in Revere Park, 2509 W. Irving Park Road, for the kick-off event “Pride in the Park: A Celebration of Chicago’s Queer History.” The event included speakers, discussions and art performances. Beerman said the significance of having a platform for the queer community, particularly during Pride, is that the queer community is immense, allowing different perspectives. “This partnership … is giving us the chance to share the variegated perspectives we all have living in Chicago, living as queer people and the different experiences we have in that capacity,” Beerman said. Buenger said they knew they were kicking off the initiative during Pride month and wanted to invite the queer community to the platform to take ownership and have a moment that was their own. “I have had the unique pleasure of working on both sides of it … I have been working on bringing the Platforms in the Park initiative … to the parks in Chicago from the beginning,” Beerman said. “They were generous enough to give me a space to express my perspective as being a member of the queer community.” Kevin Sparrow, literary manager for Nothing Without a Company, has previously done work in Douglas Park with the community, and heard about the initiative while attending one of Douglas Park’s monthly Cultural Council meetings earlier this year. While the community had done work in other mediums, Sparrow said they did not hear much about performance and wanted to do something to bring theatre art in the community forward. As part of the initiative, on July 6, Sparrow hosted the first community organized event in Douglas Park, “Play and Play Again: Making Theater from Community Stories.” Sparrow said the event allowed community members to stand up and tell their personal stories to be considered for a potential play in the future. They said Douglas Park was the perfect location to hear a variety of voices and stories because it is in the middle of North and South Lawndale and near Little Village; they added it is important to hear the differences and similarities of the communities. “There are a lot of organizations in these communities, [like in] Douglas Park … [there are] a lot of creative people, people with ideas, people with things they want to share and all they need is a platform to do that,” Beerman said. Sparrow said it is important to them to get people involved and show the community the platforms are a spaces that exists to be used. “Every invention, every movement, every business idea starts from one spark of an idea,” Buenger said. “If ideas are reserved for people of a certain income, education level or zip code, then we are cut off from what could be if everyone had a platform. All an idea really needs is a platform.” Anyone can sign up to host their own event at one of the participating parks until August, and events can also be spontaneous as long as the platform is not being used. “Platforms are for Chicagoans; they are for anyone that is walking by and [feels] compelled to share a story,” Buenger said. Upcoming events include: July 10: Wake Up in the Park: A Morning of Movement with aSweatLife \| 7-8a.m. \| Shedd Park (3660 W. 23rd St., Chicago, IL 60623. July 11: Culture in the Park: A Celebration of South Asian Heritage \| 2-3:30 p.m. \| Ping Tom Park, 236 W. 19th St., Chicago, IL 60616. July 16: Cooking in the Park: Bravo “Top Chef” Edition \| (Time TBA) \| Navy Pier, Polk Bros Park, 600 E Grand Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. July 17: Reading in the Park: Interactive Storytime with Open Books and Chicago Poetry Center \| 6-7:30 p.m. \| Pasteur Park, 5701 S. Kostner Ave., Chicago, IL 60629. park platforms Kendall Polidori, Managing Editor kpolidori@columbiachronicle.com Steven Nunez, Photojournalist snunez@columbiachronicle.com Chicago’s fourth Women’s March, in photos Column: Stepping through the Chronicle doors led to the world of journalism for this young reporter Review: A tropical vacation in January: Divino Niño holds sold-out show Staff union negotiations ‘productive’ despite delays Chicago’s March for Life attracts anti-abortion supporters, counter-protesters and white nationalists Fresh finds at Wicker Park’s indoor farmers market Chronicle FYI: Where the world stands on the climate crisis ahead of 2020 Volunteers deck the halls of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Health & Tech Latest community-run mental health center opens on West Side Yo cuento: Some Chicago neighborhoods ‘hard to count’ in census Chicago climate group rallies as U.N. discusses global environmental crisis ‘Yang Gang’ rallies in Chicago City Grange holiday pop-up blooms in Beverly just in time for holidays WCRX FrequencyTV Echo Magazine Chicago Talks Austin Talks	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402648
__label__wiki	0.838618	0.838618	Services & Apps » Are you a last-minute holiday shopper? Here's an app for you Procrastinators can rejoice! This year there are more apps and services than ever before to help last-minute shoppers.AP \| December 24, 2015, 17:02 IST ATLANTA: Procrastinators, rejoice. This year there are more apps and services than ever before to help last-minute shoppers. Apps like Curbside deliver orders directly to the trunk of your car, more retailers are offering incentives to buy online and pick up in store, and Amazon Prime Now and other same-day delivery services have vastly expanded this year. "In some sense, same-day delivery is going to become the new gift card," said Daphne Carmeli, CEO of Deliv which works with retailers to offer same-day delivery. "It used to be 'uh-oh, too late, here comes the gift card.' Now you've got two hours before the cutoff if you want something from national retailers." That's good news as on-demand services have trained people to put off things until the last minute. This year, 44 percent of shoppers said they planned to wait until December or later to shop for holiday presents, up from 39 percent five years ago, according to Deloitte. And as of Dec. 15, an NRF survey found the average holiday shopper has completed 53.5 percent of their shopping, up from 52.9 percent seen by that time last year. Only about 10 percent of those surveyed had finished shopping. Jaron Waldman, CEO of Palo Alto based Curbside, said that demand for the service, which delivers packages from stores like Target and Aeropostale to the trunk of a shopper's car, has skyrocketed. The service, which serves the Bay Area and Los Angeles in California and New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Chicago, is seeing about seven times the orders it did last year. Target, Best Buy, CVS and other retailers offer the service. "It's definitely a way to shop to have the certainty you're not going to miss any kind of shipping window," Waldman said. Target spokesman Eddie Baeb said the company has been pleased with results from Curbside and expanded the stores that offer the service from 20 in San Francisco last year to 120 stores, adding the New York, Chicago and Philadelphia areas this year. The curbside delivery is "easier and more convenient, knowing how busy people are," at the last-minute, he said. Other retailers are adding incentives so more people choose "buy online, pick up in store" options. For example, Macy's offered a $10 e-gift card on a purchase of $50 or more when an online order is picked up in store via coupon aggregator RetailMeNot, said Brian Hoyt, RetailMeNot vice president of communications. The option lets retailers save on expedited shipping costs and cuts down time for last-minute shoppers, he said. RetailMeNot's mobile app lets shoppers take advantage of last-minute deals in store too. The app uses a combination of GPS and WiFi signals to pull deals from stores you are in or nearby when you opt in. "More consumers are using mobile devices versus desktop computers to shop, and that's opened the door to save not just online, but in-store as well," Hoyt said. Those seeking deals on same-day delivery will find them, too. Shopify, which provides merchants with online checkout services, said last week that its retailers were partnering with Uber to provide free same-day delivery until Christmas Eve. And for members of Amazon's $99 annual Prime loyalty program, it's same-day Prime Now service has expanded drastically this year, after launching a year ago in Manhattan only. This holiday season it serves 20 metropolitan areas and is offering free two-hour delivery until midnight on Christmas Eve. All of these added apps and services are good news for people like Katie Bagley, 23, who lives in Mount Olive, N.J. She shops mostly online and pays close attention to shipping cutoff deadlines. But there's always more shopping left to be done after the cutoff dates have passed, she said. With Christmas approaching, she bought a bartender gadget online at Bed Bath and Beyond for her father and picked it up in the store on the same day she ordered it. "I come from an entire family of last-minute shoppers," she said. Scan & pay: HDFC Bank readies to take on Paytm Delhi-Mumbai in 70 mins @ Hyperloop? Cybercrime-as-a-service a growing threat to India: Experts Fund transfer via feature phones set to get easier SWR’s security app is defunct for 7 months Now, block debit, credit cards via apps Tags : Services & Apps Most Read in Services & Apps How Accounting Software can save your crucial business hours Valeo to unveil autonomous electric delivery droid at CES 2020 This robotic trunk to aid patients with spinal cord injury Apple has removed this chat app from App Store for allegedly spying on users	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402665
__label__cc	0.689412	0.310588	ERROR: type should be string, got "https://oco.co.uk/\nM-LS by O.C.O Technology: a carbon-negative limestone aggregate created with residues from waste to energy residue\nO.C.O Technology Limited\nThe company O.C.O Technology Limited recycles a hazardous by-product of waste incineration in order to produce a carbon-negative material for the construction industry.\nGiovanardi - Sara Selmin\nSara Selmin\nRaytent: high-quality yarns and fabrics made from solar tents industry cut-offs\nRaytent is a green economy project based on the recycling of acrylic fabric deriving from the awning industry, designed to create high quality yarns for the world of furnishing, sun protection, fashion and industry.\nhttp://www.feica.eu/information-center/good-practices/food-packaging-ii.aspx\nAdhesives industry: water-soluble adhesives facilitate return and reuse bottle schemes and end-of-life recycling\nTürmerleim\nTürmerleim is a company that produces adhesives, including for reusable bottles. Its adhesives have a high level of alkaline solubility, making them easy to remove and so promoting the reuse and recycling of bottles.\nhttps://www.dick-moby.com/pages/story\nEyewear made of recycled and oil-free materials\nFounded in 2012 with the objective of creating high-quality eyewear from oil-free or recycled materials, producing Dick Moby sunglasses and eyeglasses follows a circular approach: lowering environmental compared to similar fashion accessories.\nhttps://www.raytent.it/en/how\nGiovanardi recycles technical acrylic textiles from solar protection industry, to create the Raytent line of high-quality yarns and fabrics.\nGreenrail - Dawid Janik\nDawid Janik\nGreenrail: innovative & eco-sustainable railway sleepers\nGreenrail is an Italian company that has developed an innovative and sustainable railway sleeper, offering excellent technical, environmental and economical features for the railway sector. The technology developed by Greenrail allows the production of railway sleepers with secondary raw materials, using a blend of rubber collected from ELTs (End of Life Tyres) and plastic from urban waste.\nThe company handles the whole process of design, prototyping and testing of the products, collaborating with primary research centres and industrial partners.\nhttps://laververt.be\nLaverVert: recycling wood ash for an all-natural laundry detergent\nLaververt\nLaverVert is an organic detergent whose ingredients are 100% natural, with a circular cleaning agent. It is produced with wood ash recycled from industrial pellet stoves, reviving a traditional practice to use wood ash for its ability to bind with fats in creating an all-natural soap.\nhttp://www.fairplasticalliance.org/\nThe Fair Plastic Alliance: give plastic a second life - and people a better one\nSerioplast\nMulti-stakeholders\nItaly, Other (Nigeria, South Africa)\nThe Fair Plastic Alliance believes that plastic waste management based on a not-for-private-profit business model is a powerful solution to generate a positive impact on the environment and on the society as a whole, in both developed and developing countries. It is a multi-stakeholder network spreading social responsibility in plastic waste management, especially in low-income areas and adverse contexts, to achieve social as well as environmental sustainability.\nhttp://www.greenrailgroup.com\nGreenrail Group Srl\nGreenrail sleepers consist of an outer cover made of a blend of ELTs and recycled plastic, and an inner core of pre-stressed, reinforced concrete.\nRifò - Niccolò Cipriani\nNiccolò Cipriani\nLessmore - Giorgio Caporaso\nItalian design with maestria: these stylish pieces of furniture are modular, repairable, recyclable\nMater‐Biopolymer - industrial regeneration and recovery of production residues in biopolyesters industry\nMater-Biopolymer is a company based in Patrica (Central Italy), 100% owned by Novamont, dedicated to the production of Origo-Bi, biodegradable biopolyesters of renewable origin, and to the development of new biopolymers.\nThe industrial site is the result of the reconversion of existing infrastructures and skills of an abandoned production plant for PET. It is a highly efficient plant able to ensure the highest quality and safety requirements and is equipped with a complex system of utilities, which contribute to minimizing costs and waste through recovery and reuse.\nhttps://www.alisea.it/en/corporate-communication/\nAlisea: corporate gifts can be circular and promote your image in style\nAlisea Recycled & Reused Objects Design\nIt is by combining design with recycling that Alisea has found an original place on the corporate gifts market. Its range include beautiful, personalised items that thanks to innovative transformation process, include secondary raw materials such as paper, metal, textile or even graphite.\nhttp://www.rifo-lab.com\nRifò - regenerating noble textile fibers into timeless pieces of clothing\nRifò srl\nRifò regenerates noble textile fibers, such as cashmere, using a proven technology developed in the textile district of Prato (Tuscany) over a hundred years ago.\nhttps://www.tyrebirth.com/\nA new pyrolysis process for ELT delivers high grade secondary raw materials at a lower environmental cost\nTyrebirth S.r.l.\nTyrebirth has developed a new technological approach for the management of ELT (end-of-life tyres) through the production of microwave pyrolysis plants. The process uses microwaves and infrared radiation to activate the pyrolysis on the tyres, generating second raw materials with an extremely low environmental impact.\nhttp://www.lessmore.it/\nLessmore, the Italian ecodesign brand, produces and trades a collection of furnishings and accessories designed to ensure maximal repairability and recyclability, and minimal environmental impact.\nhttps://www.ideaplast.com/\nIdea Plast: decades of design and production experience bring playful new life to recycled plastics\nIdea Plast Green Projects\nIdea Plast is an Italian company specialising in the design of plastic parts since 1987. It aims at providing clients with a full service for new plastic manufactured goods, including design, prototyping, testing and best options for end-of-life recycling.\nhttp://www.prespaglia.com\nModular straw-based eco-modules meet economic, insulation, safety and recyclability requirements\nPrespaglia Italia s.r.l.s.\nPrespaglia offers a product line of modular blocks of pressed straw for the construction sector. The modular eco-blocks are made of straw, clay and pozzolan lime, making them entirely recyclable and biodegradable.\nhttps://www.favini.com/gs/en/fine-papers/crush/cartacrusca-case-history/\nFavini pairs with Barilla to create CartaCrusca, using up bran residues from the mills\nFavini Srl\nThe \"CartaCrusca\" project consists in recovering bran residues from the milling of Barilla wheat, not usable for human consumption, and subsequently processing them, together with cellulose, for the production of paper.\nhttps://klimiscoal.gr/en/\nFrom the production of agricultural lime to summer barbecues, olive pits make a perfect circular fuel\nKLIMIS\nKLIMIS has been using the woody part of Greek olive pits as heating fuel for its kiln in order to bake lime stones since 1968. In 1992, it developed a patented process to recycle the residual material from this combustion into highly-efficient, low-emission barbecue briquettes.\nhttps://kavat.com/\nLove them, wear them out, wear them again: full repair service is part of this eco-responsible shoe line\nKavat produces durable and high-quality shoes made of sustainable materials by resorting to eco-friendly manufacturing processes, and also offers a shoe repair service."	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402666
__label__cc	0.630094	0.369906	From reflex to strategy Game design and learning Level one: Frontline reviewer Level two: Regional supervisor Level three: Chief compliance officer Robert Clark (rclark@traceinternational.org) is the Manager of Legal Research at TRACE International in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. When you’re a compliance officer, staying on top of your company’s gift, travel, and hospitality expenditures is a never-ending task. The basic principle is straightforward: Small tokens of graciousness and appreciation are an appropriate part of business, but too much generosity may be an inappropriate attempt to bribe one’s way into favored treatment. The actual job of drawing the line between an innocuous gift and a nefarious bribe requires significant training, experience, and judgment. In the face of real-world complexity, we can step back and find pleasure in simpler recreation—the games, sports, and stories that help us relax and keep us entertained. But these forms of play have a serious side as well, mirroring real-world scenarios and challenges and subliminally preparing the player (whether child or adult) for eventual reengagement. How broadly can this principle be applied? For example, could managing gifts and hospitality somehow be turned into a game? What would that look like? Would it be fun? Challenging? Instructive? With nothing to risk but strained credulity, let’s see what we can come up with. First off, we should note that a game doesn’t need to be complicated to reflect something about real life. For example, my organization recently developed a casual video game to mimic and reinforce a proper understanding of corporate gift-giving. It’s nothing fancy—basically a spin-the-wheel defense game, with a base in the center, a rotating shield, and a bunch of small discs flying at you. The base is your “client gift box,” and your job is to make sure nothing inappropriate gets through. It’s easy to tell what’s what: Acceptable gifts are bright green, and unacceptable bribes are dark red. Each little ball also has an picture on it that signifies a specific kind of gift—a simple meal, a birthday present, or a cup of coffee on the one hand; a fancy car, a tropical island getaway, or a stack of cash on the other. You’ve got to let the permissible gifts through, or they’ll just keep bouncing across the screen, but if you allow the bribes to pass, it’ll soon be game over. The game is simple and so is the message for compliance personnel: You don’t want to block everything, it’s important to identify and catch the problematic items quickly, and you’ll be overwhelmed if you let things get too cluttered. Of course, this sort of arcade-style game is just a starting point. We’re more interested in a kind of strategic simulation. Think of board games like Risk or Diplomacy in which the players struggle for global military dominance, or computer game franchises like Sim City or Civilization where the goal is to establish and nurture a thriving metropolis or nation state. The key in designing this sort of game is establishing the right level of detail, and computer-based simulation allows a nice middle ground of complexity. The mass of individual actions or battles that constitute the game world can all be richly plotted and nuanced, rather than reduced to a simple roll of the dice. This is done with artificial intelligence elements: in-game agents occupying the same role as the human player and making their own decisions in the face of each one’s distinct circumstances. With the CPU managing such agents by the thousands and tracking their interactions and responses to the player’s own decisions, a well-designed game can feel alive in its dynamic development.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402667
__label__cc	0.695348	0.304652	Make Your Donation to the CTE Prevalence Study How common is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)? We don't know, but the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) is ready to find the answer - with your help. Scientists need to understand the prevalence (rate) of CTE in the general population to appreciate the scope of the problem. However, because science does not yet have an accurate diagnostic test for CTE in the living, we have to rely on brain banks. But brain bank samples are well-known for having what's called acquisition bias: your family is more likely to donate your brain if you had neurological symptoms, which could lead to an overestimate of the prevalence. Therefore, scientists still debate whether CTE prevalence is as low as ~0% or as high as 12%. CLF has identified one brain bank that has the ideal sample for estimating the global prevalence of CTE: the prestigious Biobank for Aging Studies at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, a member of the CLF Global Brain Bank. For years, a team of scientists including neuropathologists Dr. Roberta Rodriguez and Dr. Lea Grinberg have been recruiting brain donors for a study on normal aging, which has already produced groundbreaking results in the field. Donor families have been approached regardless of symptoms and told that every brain is equally valuable. They now have 1,500 brains of Brazilians age 50+. We have an unprecedented opportunity to advance our understanding of CTE by learning the global burden of disease by studying this cohort, and at a fraction of the cost it would take to study in the US. Each brain can be studied in Brazil for just $100. In the US it easily costs >10x as much - and due to the popularity of soccer and Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, we anticipate the CTE rate will be similar to other countries, like the US, where contact sports are popular. CLF has committed to raising $50,000 to study 500 male brains for CTE over the next year.* We are starting with males as CTE is more prevalent in men due to a longer historical exposure to contact sports and military combat. We are honored that Stu Porter, CEO of Denham Capital, has agreed to provide a Matching Gift Challenge up to $25,000, which will cover 250 brains. We need YOU to help fund the additional $25,000 by July 1st to study the remaining 250 brains and unlock Stu's generous gift! Here are two ways you can get involved: 1) Donate Now: Making a $100 contribution will fund the study of one (1) brain; $500 to study five (5), or $1,000 to study TEN (10)! Give $100: receive a Concussion Legacy Foundation T-shirt. Give $500: receive a Concussion Legacy Foundation T-shirt and a signed copy of CLF CEO Dr. Chris Nowinski Ph.D.'s book Head Games. Give $1,000: receive the above gifts PLUS a copy of Dr. Robert Cantu's book Concussions and Our Kids, a hat, and a mug! 2) Start a Facebook Fundraiser: You can multiply your gift by creating a Facebook Fundraiser and asking your community to help you support this study. Facebook fundraisers are safe, easy, and effective! Since 2016, over 170 Facebook fundraisers have raised more than $120,000 to help CLF spread awareness, support patients and families, and advance research. Please follow the instructions in this PDF or contact Brandon Boyd if you have any questions. Raise $100: receive a Concussion Legacy Foundation T-shirt. Raise $500: receive a Concussion Legacy Foundation T-shirt and a signed copy of CLF CEO Dr. Chris Nowinski Ph.D.'s book Head Games. Raise $1,000: receive the above gifts PLUS a copy of Dr. Robert Cantu's book Concussions and Our Kids, a hat, and a mug! Start a Facebook Fundraiser › *If we are successful, it will open the door for an additional mirror study on the 1,000 female brains currently at the brain bank. Donate to the CTE Prevalence Study How common is CTE? We need your help to find out. Start a Facebook Fundraiser for the CTE Prevalence Study You can help us find out how common CTE is. Start a Fundraiser ›	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402668
__label__wiki	0.84495	0.84495	The No. 1 Source For Breaking Music, Film, and TV Headlines Matthew McConaughey is a stoned, bongo-playing poet in teaser for Harmony Korine’s Beach Bum: Watch The filmmaker's Spring Breakers follow-up hits theaters next year by Randall Colburn In 2008, well before the McConaissance took hold, Matthew McConaughey starred a shitty, direct-to-DVD movie called Surfer, Dude. It seemed like a lazy, oblivious goof on his stoned, sun-baked persona at the time, which was characterized by a well-publicized report in which he was arrested for smoking marijuana while playing the bongos naked. Now, thanks to director Harmony Korine, both McConaughey and audiences are getting the movie that should’ve emerged during that period of “strife.” It’s called Beach Bum and, per its first trailer, it looks to be as hip, sleazy, and neon-soaked as Korine’s previous effort, 2012’s Spring Breakers. The short teaser introduces us to Moondog (McConaughey), a drug-addled poet, and his orbit of friends and critics, which are played by the likes of Snoop Dogg (who famously swapped McCanughey’s fake weed for real weed while on set), Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Jimmy Buffett, and, holy hell, Martin Lawrence. There’s also weed and bongos aplenty. Watch it below. Beach Bum hits theaters on March 22nd of next year. AlunaGeorge announce new EP, Champagne Eyes, share “Superior Emotion”: Stream Paul McCartney performs “Come on to Me”, surprises fans on Fallon: Watch 10 Most Anticipated Indie Rock Albums of 2020 [fu-upload-form form_layout="media" title="Submit Your Photo"][input type="hidden" name="ugc" value="1"][/fu-upload-form]	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402670
__label__wiki	0.58313	0.58313	curb complex Books within Borders Articles from the Northern England Series Writing Elsewhere The Nest of Ivan Turgenev Posted on July 3, 2017 March 19, 2018 by Liam Bishop The Nest of the Gentry Ivan Turgenev (translated by Michael Pursglove) Alma: 224pp.: £7.99 rrp. The home, the nest: are the lessons we learn there healthy? We leave and we retreat to it, sometimes wisely sometimes not. There’s a time in life when we’re confronted with the fact that we’re going to leave the nest, and we can choose either to really leave and create our new nest and trust our own nature, or not. This, at least for me, has been a difficult quandary. Sometimes consciously, sometimes not, we can go on recreating the nest we’ve left, and enter into the same, sometimes, debilitating patterns. It is the latter of these that can tell us the best stories. Admittedly, this could be a narcissistic statement from a man who has read too many books about self-defeating narcissistic males. I immediately think of Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom from Updike’s Rabbit novels, or even though Saul Bellow had different protagonists each time, there’s not much separating Joseph from Dangling Man and the later, exemplary Moses Herzog, of which the novel gave its name (one suspects that there is not much to separate them from Bellow either). Although a slightly different texture here – early nineteenth century Russia – and where the omniscient narrator reigns supreme, The Nest of the Gentry suggests a place where the Rabbit might return: but are the lessons learnt there positive ones? It is amiable Lavretsky who has returned home. Turning his back, according to the book’s jacket, on his European lifestyle and unfaithful wife, he is going back to the town he was born in, O-. The notes suggest that this is Orlyo, Turgenev’s own birthplace, and like Lavretsky, one wonders if Turgenev was returning to his own nest and indeed, why? Some expected home-spun wisdom and recuperation? A re-setting of the morals and reminder of what matters in life? The nest is a powerful metaphor for Turgenev clearly, who according to the introduction (my first reading of Turgenev, so we’ll have to trust it), frequently used imagery from the natural world. Familial, security, simple naturalness in nature certainly broods in the idea of the nest, but the first few pages suggest that this isn’t such a simple matter. Whilst Lavretsky might have spent some time in the socialite (and infidel) Europa, the different ways that might have been learnt there, don’t seem to count for much in Turgenev’s novel, yet there’s not a plenitude of honesty in the naturalistic settings of the country either it seems. What is acute then is that sense of rigidity and almost a fear. With Lavretsky coming back, we’re poised with a person who is on the outside-looking in but at the same time, not. Feelings for his cousin, Lizaveta, percolate. She already has two suitors in in the dandyish Panshin, and the brooding Lemm. This is a short novel though, and with a cast befitting of a Russian epic (no character list supplied in this edition from Alma: I think character lists should be compulsory in every Russian novel), there is a sense that the nest is purposefully crowded. You think of the chicks fighting for the mother’s rations on the return to the nest and slowly secreting is the idea that within the nest, as homely as it is, it can be quite a vicious place, as people battle for love and affection. The ones that are battling though, are the men for the affection and approval of the Mrs Bennett figure of Marya Dmitriyevna; the sage, yet wry, Marya Timofeyevna; and the aforementioned Lizaveta, Bathsheba Everdene-like with her triumvirate of suitors. But unlike Hardy’s novel also set in the country, and what perhaps makes Turgenev’s more accomplished than it, is that she will not get as much agency as Bathsheba. As Lizaveta and Lavretsky’s feelings develop for one another, the stricture of which they’re in becomes apparent. It’s intense and muddled, reaching its epitome when Panshin proposes to Lizaveta, and attains subsequent approval of the elders in the nest. It’s around the same time Lavretsky has heard about the fate of his wife. Love isn’t possible, yet they feel it. Turgenev constructs a masterful scene at this point. The six page chapter is almost entirely dialogue and it comes down to the steady accumulation of affects by Turgenev, the repression of the powers that lie beneath the two characters and their inability to confront it. Laveretsky “does not know what he is feeling at the news” and would have felt more upset if’ he’d found out two weeks earlier. A tear holds in his eye as he speaks about it, a recurring image, that suggests what? Restraint? The need or necessity for them to withhold their emotions to the rest of their families and themselves? “I learnt what a pure womanly soul means, and my past fell away from me even more”. At the news Lizaveta retreats, but Lavretsky follows her and feels he owed something as honest from her. Frankness, decides Lizaveta then, is the only way. “Did you know I got a letter today?” “From Panshin?” “Yes, from him…how did you know?” “He asked for your hand?” “Yes,” said Liza, looking directly and seriously into Lavretsky’s eyes. Lavretsky, in his turn, looked seriously at Liza. “Well, and what reply did you give him?” he said finally. “I don’t know how to reply,” returned Liza, unfolding and lowering her arms. “What? You love him, don’t you?” “Yes, I like him. He seems to be a nice man.” “You said the same thing in the same terms three days ago. I want to know whether you love him with that powerful, passionate feeling which we’re accustomed to call love?” “As you understand it – no.” “You’re not in love with him?” “No. Is that really necessary?” [Author’s emphasis]. It’s going to be tough for Lavretsky, especially when Lizaveta’s mother approves of Panshin as well. This mattered back then, but we’d foolish to say that it didn’t matter now; it just works in different ways. Or is it just a case of Lavretsky’s European ways imdebting him with ridiculous conceptions of love? If that’s the case, he’s not quitting on those ways now: “Obey your heart: it will alone tell you the truth,” Lavretsky interposed. “Experience, reason – that’s all dust and ashes! Don’t deprive yourself of the best, the only happiness on earth.” Hopeless romantic or an unashamed truth? Much too fancifully French for these rural Russians? But there is that pertinent feeling within that pervades the novel and is leaked out in that admonishment of experience and reason, as ‘dust and ashes’. Death and dust, something that we’re all fated for, whether we’re religious or not. One can see why somebody like Hemingway admired the novel so much; the way Turgenev keeps the surface bubbling, direct and honest, yet that thing that cannot be named (that even the most manly of Hemingway’s characters cannot confront) unavoidably influences that. It’s almost so restrained, yet so desperate, that they appear to be speaking to themselves through one another – “you said the same thing, in the same terms, three days ago.” Lizaveta cannot comprehend the fact that Lavretsky has ‘loved’ before and indeed this is the question she appears to be battling with. There’s a reason that they want to keep Lizaveta at the nest and there’s a reason that she is sceptical of Lavretsky’s proclamations of love. Perhaps this is Turgenev’s scepticism and he has returned to the nest to write this story. “Bitterness filled her soul: she had not deserved such humiliation. Love had not made itself felt as happiness: for the second time since the previous evening she wept. This new and unexpected feeling had only just been engendered in her heart, but already how heavy the price she had paid for it, how crude the touch of the alien hands on her cherished secret!…As long as she had lacked understanding of herself she had hesitated, but after that meeting, after that kiss, she could no longer hesitate: she knew she was in love, that she had fallen in love honourably and seriously, had committed herself firmly and for life, and was not afraid of threats – she felt that this union could be broken by force.” This would seem a tone of valedictory from Lizaveta, but in the passage quoted prior to that, Lizaveta also embodies a feeling “akin to terror [that] had taken her breath away.” There’s not many moments of seclusion in the novel, but this is one of them, and it feels like something is falling through, giving away, in this acute moment of privacy. Who knows what made Lavretsky and indeed, Turgenev, go back to the nest. But although the force may feel like a return to safety, it could in fact be the force that bred there in the first place. As Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom is drying his wife’s hair for her, he notices “Nature is full of nests”. There’s a reason he’s called Rabbit. Posted in Books, Culture, History, Identity, Society, UncategorizedTagged classics, Nineteenth Century, russia, Russian Fiction, Russian Literature, Turgenev Published by Liam Bishop View all posts by Liam Bishop Previous Post #8 The 40 Year Old Virgin Next Post In Need of a Hero: A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402679
__label__cc	0.561327	0.438673	Brilliant Products Oleo Sponge Can Soak Up 90 Times Its Own Weight in Spilled Oil Written by Joanie Faletto Any middle school science student can tell you oil and water don't mix. But when it's oil spills and ocean waters, there are a number of reasons the two can not—and should not—ever meet. But before you get too sad about marine life in peril, a material has been developed that can clean up spilled oil way, way better than ever. Argonne postdoctoral researcher Ed Barry wrings out a sheet of Oleo Sponge during tests at Argonne. Mark Lopez/Argonne National Laboratory Argonne scientists tested the material in saltwater at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility in New Jersey. Tests showed that Oleo Sponge successfully collected both crude oil and diesel from the water column. Spongebob Oilpants You probably remember the catastrophic BP oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, when over 130 million gallons of crude oil infiltrated the area. It's considered the worst oil spill in US history. Part of what makes oil spills so bad is the fact that they're really hard to clean up. But scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory invented Oleo Sponge, a material that almost seems too good to be true in terms of oily cleanup. This material, described in a study in Journal of Materials Chemistry A published in January of 2017, can absorb 90 times its own weight of spilled oil. When it's all soaked up, just squeeze it out and reuse the stuff hundreds of times. A few different factors make Oleo Sponge different from traditional methods of oil spill cleanup. For one, it can soak up oil that has dispersed into the water column, not just the slick stuff sitting on the surface. (The underwater oil was the bigger issue in the BP spill, for reference.) The sponge is also durable enough to be used and reused hundreds of times, whereas other methods are only good for one-time use. Once you squeeze Oleo out, too, the oil is totally recoverable. How does this miracle material do it? The Argonne scientists took a common polyurethane foam full of English muffin-esque nooks and crannies, and gave it a new surface chemistry laced with oil-loving molecules. Near the interior surfaces of the sponge is a sort of glue that holds the oil once the oil-loving molecules suck it up from the water. Voilà! Oleo Sponge can be wrung out, the oil collected, and the material reused—it has stood up to dozens of cycles without breaking down. One Little Sponge, Many Applications Things are looking good for Oleo Sponge—in tests at a giant seawater tank, it successfully absorbed diesel and crude oil from both below and on the water surface. The material could also be regular tool for harbor and port cleanup, where diesel and oil can build up from ship traffic, said John Harvey, a business development executive with Argonne's Technology Development and Commercialization division. But why stop there?! "The technique offers enormous flexibility, and can be adapted to other types of cleanup besides oil in seawater. You could attach a different molecule to grab any specific substance you need," said Argonne chemist Jeff Elam. We don't want to call this stuff a miracle material, but the future is lookin' pretty clean. The New Material That Mops Up Oil Spills New material mops up oil spills – New Scientist Written by Joanie Faletto March 20, 2017 Mr. Trash Wheel Is The Eco-Friendly Plastic-Picking Device Cleaning Up Harbors A Dutch 22-Year-Old Came up with an Out-Of-The-Box Answer to the Ocean Trash Problem Environment Pollution	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402680
__label__wiki	0.70402	0.70402	Jeffrey Toobin; A.I.G; 'Gone Girl' Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's chief legal analyst, reports on the cases the Supreme Court will hear for the upcoming term. Aaron Kessler from The New York Times and Leslie Scism from The Wall Street Journal examine the A.I.G. bailout lawsuit. Author Gillian Flynn, director David Fincher and actors Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck talk about their film adaptation of Flynn's "Gone Girl." Leslie Scism Ben Affleck Jeffrey Toobin Gillian Flynn David Fincher Aaron Kessler Rosamund Pike Entertainment Books Law A.I.G. Case Aaron Kessler from The New York Times and Leslie Scism from The Wall Street Journal examine the A.I.G. bailout lawsuit. 09:37 'Gone Girl' Entertainment, Books Author Gillian Flynn, director David Fincher and actors Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck talk about their film adaptation of Flynn's, "Gone Girl." 36:58 CNN's chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reports on the cases the Supreme Court will hear for the upcoming term. 05:15 Henry Paulson; 'Hank' Entertainment, Politics, Business Henry Paulson, Josh Tyrangiel, and Joe Berlinger discuss a new film about Paulson, "Hank: Five years from the Brink." 53:59 Interest Rate Cuts; Howard Stringer A panel discusses the Federal Reserve's unprecedented coordinated interest rate cuts; Sony's Howard Stringer on the economic crisis. 53:41	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402682
__label__cc	0.631282	0.368718	Emerging Markets in Transition : Growth Prospects and Challenges Luis Cubeddu, Alexander Culiuc, Ghada Fayad, Yuan Gao, Kalpana Kochhar, Annette Kyobe, Ceyda Oner, Roberto Perrelli, Sarah Sanya, Evridiki Tsounta, and Zhongxia Zhang After a short-lived slowdown in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis and a swift rebound, emerging markets (EM) are now entering a period of slower growth. In fact, growth is now lower than the post-crisis peak of 2010-11, as well as the rates seen in the decade before the crisis. This raises the question of whether EMs can bounce back to the growth rates seen in the last decade or whether their prospects are dimmer than thought a few years ago. This SDN we will explore the drivers of the slowdown, how changes in external conditions that supported high growth in EMs will affect them over the medium term, and the policy priorities needed to sustain the growth rates seen in the past decades. In doing so, the paper differentiates EMs along various dimensions (e.g. degree of commodity dependence, trade and financial openness) to highlight the need to tailor policy priorities. Emerging Markets in Transition: Growth Prospects and Challenges Emerging Markets in Transition Why Was Emerging Market Growth High in the Last Decade? Why Are Emerging Markets Slowing Down? A. External and Domestic Demand Factors B. Cyclical and Structural Factors Medium-Term Prospects for Emerging Markets Policy Priorities Going Forward A. Macroeconomic Policy Priorities B. Rebalancing Growth C. Improving Growth Prospects through Structural Reforms A. Supply-Side Decomposition of Growth and Estimating Potential Growth 21 B. Impact of External Factors on Emerging Market Growth 25 C. Domestic and External Factors Explaining the Current Slowdown 28 Real GDP Growth 1/ EM Convergence Favorable External Conditions and Increased Integration, 1990-2012 EM Fundamentals Contribution to Real GDP Growth Trading Partner Growth Elasticities Elasticity of EM Growth to BRICS vs. other EM trading partners Elasticity of EM Growth to Terms of Trade Changes Current Account Deficit 2008 vs. Growth 2008-12 Share of EMs Decelerating Simultaneously, 1993-2013 1/ Contributions to Slowdown Composition of the Recent Growth Slowdown WEO Projections of Medium-term External Conditions, 2014-18 Potential Growth Rate Range Estimates Trade Partner Growth Elasticity by Degree of Export Dependence 1/ U.S. Interest Rate and EM Growth 1/ Impact on average EM growth from 1 percent worsening in terms of trade Median Growth Impact of a 100 bps Increase in Long Term Real U.S. Interest Rates Total and Sectoral Productivity Growth Human and Physical Capital Measures, 2012 Chile: Change in Growth Engines Chile: Growth Headwinds China: Contribution to Growth by Input China Reform Payoffs: Potential Increase in Average TFP Growth 1 Poland: Contribution to potential growth Gross domestic expenditure on R&D by sector* South Africa: Real GDP and Domestic Demand Growth The last decade provided strong external tailwinds that, when combined with broadly improved fundamentals, helped EMs grow robustly. The surge in productivity enabled EMs to restart closing the income gap relative to advanced economies. However, the overall strong EM performance masks important heterogeneity across countries, reflecting differences in external linkages and also policies. EMs went through a growth spurt in the last decade and now account for half of global output. After suffering important setbacks during the 1980s and 1990s, starting with the Latin American debt crises of the early 1980s and continuing with the Asian crisis of late 1990s, EMs enjoyed strong and robust growth in the 2000s. EM growth increased by an average of 4¾ percent between 2000 and 2012, about 1 percentage point higher than the average observed during the previous two decades (Figure 1).2 This strong growth performance was fairly broad-based, with 60 percent of EMs having higher growth in the 2000s compared to the previous decade. Moreover, this growth spurt took place when growth in advanced markets (AMs) remained stable. As a result, EMs now account for about half of global output in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms and have returned to a convergence path to higher income status (Figure 2). Figure 1.Real GDP Growth 1/ Source: WEO and IMF staff calculations. 1/ Dash lines represent decade average growth. Figure 2.EM Convergence Source: Penn Table 7.1, WEO and IMF staff calculations Favorable external conditions, along with improved policy frameworks, played a major role in driving this strong growth performance. During 2000-12, except for a short-lived setback during the global financial crisis, EMs benefited from (i) rising global trade, reflecting expanding supply chains; (ii) easy financing conditions driven by low interest rates in AMs; and (iii) high and rising commodity prices (Figure 3). These favorable conditions, coupled with continued trade and financial liberalization, facilitated a surge in capital flows and investment, resulting in higher productivity. In addition, many EMs also used the decade to implement structural reforms, strengthen policy frameworks, reduce vulnerabilities and build buffers. These efforts resulted in lower public and external debt and sovereign spreads, improved international reserve coverage, and more flexible exchange rate regimes in a number of EMs (Figure 4). Figure 3.Favorable External Conditions and Increased Integration, 1990-2012 1/ The 2000-12 average is weighed down by 2008-09, when trade collapsed becuse of the global financial crisis. The 2000s average is higher than the 1990s excluding these years or excluding post-2008. 2/ Financial openness is defined as total external assets plus liabilities. Trade openess is defined as total exports plus imports. Figure 4:EM Fundamentals Source: AREAER database, Bloomberg, WEO and IMF staff calculations. 1/ FX regime index is from 1 to 10. No separate legal tender=1, Free floating=10. Higher productivity growth facilitated the leap in convergence. Using a production function approach to decompose growth, we find that higher total factor productivity (TFP) explains 1½ percentage points of the 1¾ higher average growth rate in EMs in the last decade compared to the 1990s (Figure 5; see Analytical Appendix, Section A).3 In fact, TFP growth turned positive in EMs across all regions over the last decade after declining in both Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the 1990s. Notwithstanding this boost in TFP, factor accumulation remained the main driver of output growth in EMs throughout the 2000s. Strong terms of trade growth and easy financing conditions in particular facilitated higher investment, and thereby capital accumulation, in a number of EMs (Tsounta, 2014). Figure 5.Contribution to Real GDP Growth (Simple average, in percent) Source: Penn World Table 7.1, WEO, and IMF Staff Calculations The increase in productivity growth likely reflects a number of factors, including (i) gains from reforms of earlier decades (e.g., increased trade and financial liberalization, labor market reforms, deregulation); (ii) reallocation of factors to higher productivity sectors; and (iii) spillovers from increased direct investment (in turn facilitated by favorable external conditions).4 Such productivity gains are likely to be temporary to some extent, since productivity measures tend to be procyclical and are often overestimated during boom years (Basu and Fernald, 2001).5 More importantly, the impact of each of these factors to EM productivity varies substantially across countries and has been analyzed in other studies, including a recent Staff Discussion Note (Dabla-Norris, et al., 2013). That said, more work is needed to understand productivity growth and its procyclicality in EMs. Favorable external conditions explain nearly half of the leap in EM growth. Using long-term growth regressions, we estimate the historical impact of external factors on EM growth. The approach follows Arora and Vamvakidis (2005) and uses a panel dataset of 66 EMs for the period 1990-2010, in which variables are averaged over consecutive five-year periods (see Analytical Appendix, Section B). Key dependent variables include trading partner growth, changes in terms of trade and in long-term U.S. interest rates, country-specific fundamentals like the degree of commodity dependence, trade and financial openness, and public and external balance sheets. Focusing on five-year averages allows us to analyze longer-term relations and avoid endogeneity issues.6 Broadly speaking, we find that external demand (facilitated by rising liberalization), lower global interest rates, and higher commodity prices accounted for about half of the increase in growth across EMs in the 2000s relative to the 1990s. We differentiate our results by economic fundamentals below. External demand was an increasingly important growth driver, particularly in more open economies. Rising global trade volumes, coupled with further trade liberalization, boosted growth in more non-commodity export-oriented EMs. We estimate that about 25 percent of the higher growth registered in the average non-commodity EM in the 2000s (compared to the previous decade) was due to contributions from external demand—a combination of increased trade openness and marginally higher trading partner growth. As expected, this share rises with the country’s trade openness. For example, EMs in the top quartile in trade openness (i.e., exports above 35 percent of GDP) grew on average 2 percentage points more in the 1990s, and nearly 40 percent of this increase can be explained by higher external demand. Reflecting the trend of continued trade liberalization, the sensitivity of EM growth to demand from trading partners has been rising since the 1990s (Figure 6a). The higher sensitivity is found with respect to both AM and EM trading partners, the latter reflecting rising trade with EMs (Figure 6b). Figure 6.Trading Partner Growth Elasticities Source: WDI and IMF staff calculations. Demand from AMs continued to matter more for EM growth. While the sensitivity of EM growth to EM trading partners rose rapidly over time, EM growth remained more sensitive to demand from AMs (a one percentage point increase in AM trading partners’ growth would increase growth by around 1 percentage point). Demand from AMs continues to dominate, since rising within-EM trade partly reflects growing supply chains that ultimately meet final demand from AMs. For commodity exporters, demand from large EMs played a more prominent role. We assess whether the rising sensitivity of EM growth to EM trading partners reflects Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa’s (BRICS) growing prominence in the global economy. Our long-term historical regressions yield, on average, no significant difference between demand from BRICS or other EMs in explaining EM growth (Figure 7). However, this average result conceals an important finding: commodity exporters’ growth is found to be highly sensitive to demand from BRICS countries, confirming the growing importance of these large EMs’ demand on global commodity prices.7 Figure 7.Elasticity of EM Growth to BRICS vs. other EM trading partners Favorable terms of trade helped commodity-exporting EMs. The large and sustained increase in commodity prices raised investment and GDP growth in most commodity-exporting EMs, many of which enjoyed an unprecedented income windfall. For the average commodity-exporting EM, the 5¼ percent annual improvement in terms of trade over the last decade contributed to a ¾ percentage point increase in growth – about a quarter of the higher growth seen in the 2000s. On the other hand, the rise in commodity prices did take a toll on growth for the average commodity importer, whose growth was nevertheless supported by other factors (Figure 8). Figure 8.Elasticity of EM Growth to Terms of Trade Changes Easy financing conditions boosted investment and growth in financially open EMs. Lower global interest rates and tightening of borrowing spreads (the latter also reflecting improved fundamentals) helped to boost domestic demand in EMs, particularly in the more financially open EMs. For the median financially open EM, we find that the 170 basis point decline in global real interest rates in the 2000s (as proxied by the 10-year U.S. T-bond rate) raised GDP growth by ¼ of a percentage point – about 15 percent of the higher growth these countries saw in the 2000s. Again, the impact varied widely across countries depending on their financial openness; those in the top quartile of financial openness grew on average by a ½ percentage point more in the last decade owing to these lower global interest rates. However, EM performance since the global financial crisis has been affected by how well they have managed these “good times.” As has been documented in other studies (e.g., Blanchard, Das, and Faruqee, 2010), EMs that allowed the buildup of financial and external imbalances and vulnerabilities have seen much weaker growth since 2008. Specifically, countries that entered the crisis with excessively large current account deficits, like those in Eastern Europe, have taken a much longer time to recover as they deleverage and repair their balance sheets (Figure 9).8 Countries that had less procyclical policies in the lead-up to the global financial crisis were able to use their policy space and recover faster. Figure 9.Current Account Deficit 2008 vs. Growth 2008-12 Growth in most EMs has been slowing since 2010-11. Their recovery from the global financial crisis peaked in 2010-11, and since then growth has been decelerating across EMs. In fact, 80 percent of EMs decelerated in 2012, and by end-2013, EM growth was on average 1½ percentage points lower than in 2010-11. This synchronized slowdown is comparable in its breadth and persistence to earlier crises, when growth in over 70 percent of EMs slowed at the same time for a period of 4-6 quarters (Figure 10). What is different this time, though, is that the episode is not due to a crisis. While the synchronized nature of this slowdown points to potential common factors, such as weaker external demand and/or the normalization of domestic demand from post-crisis peaks, its persistence suggests that structural factors may also be at play. There are also important differences in the magnitude of the slowdown across countries. For example, since 2010-11 China’s output growth slowed by 2¼ percentage points (to around 7¾ in 2013), Brazil’s slowed by 2¾ percentage points (to a mere 2¼ percent), while South Africa’s deceleration has been more tamed. Figure 10.Share of EMs Decelerating Simultaneously, 1993-2013 1/ Source: Haver, WEO and IMF staff calculations. 1/ Blue bars show periods when the share of EMs’ decelaration is larger than 65%. What role did external and domestic factors play in explaining the recent slowdown? To answer this question, we estimate a pooled panel ordinary least square (OLS) regression for a sample of 24 EMs for the period 2010-13 (see Analytical Appendix, Section C).9 We study how the size of the slowdown is explained by external and domestic factors. External conditions are proxied by a trading partner’s real import demand, the change in terms of trade, the U.S. 10-year bond yield, global risk aversion (measured by the VIX index), and capital flows (measured by the ratio of the financial account balance to GDP). Domestic conditions are proxied by the fiscal policy stance (measured by the change in the cyclically adjusted primary balance to potential GDP), the monetary policy rate, and the exchange rate regime. Initial conditions (in 2010) include each country’s exchange rate deviation from fundamentals, the output gap, and the degree of financial openness (measured ratio of external assets and liabilities to GDP). Controlling for initial conditions also allows us to analyze the slowdown in growth beyond what would be implied, if any, by the natural convergence process. Our analysis suggests that much of the slowdown is explained by weaker external demand. The growth slowdown since 2010-11 is largely explained by lower demand from trading partners through 2012 playing a smaller (yet still statistically significant) role in 2013 (Figure 11).10 When trading partners are split into AMs, China, and other EMs, we find that AMs and China explain most of the change in external demand for EMs. Other external factors (changes in terms of trade, and external financial conditions), were not statistically significant in explaining the growth slowdown during the 2011-13 period, even after controlling for the degree of commodity dependence, financial openness, and the exchange rate regime. This is likely due to the annual averages of terms of trade, VIX, and U.S. 10-year yields being relatively stable during this period. Figure 11.Contributions to Slowdown Domestic factors also played a role in explaining the recent slowdown, although their contributions varied across time and countries. The role of fiscal policy in particular changed over these years; policy stance turned contractionary in 2013 in many countries, reflecting the unwinding of stimulus enacted in response to the global financial crisis. After controlling for initial conditions in 2010, EMs that were overheating prior to the slowdown (proxied by positive output gaps and overvalued exchange rates) were also found to experience sharper growth slowdowns. Other idiosyncratic factors not found significant in the regression (the unexplained component in Figure 11), such as the monetary policy stance, were important for a group of EMs, especially in 2013. The persistence of the slowdown would depend on whether it is driven by cyclical or structural factors. A slowdown driven by structural factors (i.e., a decline in the economy’s potential growth rate) would be harder to reverse, and thus more persistent, while a cyclical downturn would be more temporary. However, discerning the extent of structural and cyclical factors is a complex exercise and subject to much uncertainty. It requires estimating an economy’s potential growth rate, which is unobservable and time varying. Potential growth tends to be procyclical, rising during good times as investment and capital accumulation rises and TFP also improves, and similarly declining in bad economic times. Notwithstanding limitations, we attempt to decompose the current slowdown into cyclical versus structural components (see Analytical Appendix, Section A and Tsounta, 2014). We estimate potential growth rates for 70 EMs individually over 1980-2018 based on standard (Solow-style) growth accounting methodologies (Sosa, Tsounta, and Kim, 2013). First, we decompose the sources of actual output growth into accumulation of factors of production (capital and quality-adjusted labor, that is, human capital) and TFP and make assumptions for the path of factors or production and TFP based on historical trends and demographic projections for the period 2013-18. To obtain potential growth estimates for each year, we then use a battery of commonly used filtering techniques to measure the trend of the subcomponents of output (namely, capital, labor, and TFP), smoothing out cyclical fluctuations. The structural component of the slowdown is estimated as the change in the potential growth rate from a historical average (e.g., 2000-12 versus 2013-18). The cyclical part of the slowdown is the residual from the change in actual growth rates (between 2010-11 and 2012-13) and the structural change.11 We find that, on average, cyclical and structural factors are equally important in explaining the recent growth slowdown in EMs.12 This result implies that some of the slowdown would be transitory—the cyclical component—and that stronger growth would resume as growth picks up in trading partners (mostly AEs). In contrast, the slowdown due to lower potential growth rates is more persistent and would require concerted policy efforts to counter. As noted earlier, the decline in EM potential growth is more difficult to explain, and likely reflects country-specific factors, the unwinding of very simulative external conditions, and the permanent impact of the global financial crisis on growth potential in EMs or their AM trading partners. Having said that, the relative roles of cyclical versus structural factors in explaining the slowdown varies significantly across EMs (Figure 12). For example, structural factors appear to weigh more on growth in Emerging Europe, where the gains from liberalization may have raised the level of potential output rather than growth, while cyclical factors appear to be more dominant in Emerging Asia (see Tsounta, 2014, for country-specific analysis). Figure 12.Composition of the Recent Growth Slowdown Source: Tsounta (2014). Over the medium term, external conditions are projected to turn less favorable for most EMs. On the upside, the outlook for the global economy as outlined in the April 2014 World Economic Outlook (IMF 2014c) envisages that AMs will continue to recover from the global financial crisis, albeit at different rates (Figure 13). As advanced economies recover, EMs would also bounce back from the cyclical downturn, drawing strength from higher external demand. At the same time, AMs are not expected to go back to the debt-fueled growth rates seen before the crisis, and the amplifying effects of trade liberalization are likely to be one-off. Potential growth in AMs, particularly in core European countries, may also be lower given the structural impact of the crisis. Moreover, the gradual recovery in AMs will come with tighter global financial conditions as they normalize monetary policies, with bouts of volatility similar to those experienced since May 2013. Commodity prices are also likely to soften somewhat in the coming years, reflecting in part China’s projected gradual slowdown and rebalancing. While this is welcome news for commodity importers, it will take some of the steam out of growth in commodity exporters. Figure 13.WEO Projections of Medium-term External Conditions, 2014-18 These changing external conditions are likely to affect factor allocation and productivity growth. Physical capital accumulation is expected to moderate as the low global interest rates that facilitated large capital flows to EMs start to rise and financing investments becomes more costly. Softer commodity prices would reduce the expected returns from expanding capacity further in the commodity sectors, slowing down investment in commodity-exporting countries. Balance sheet repair in euro zone countries will continue to weigh on investment in emerging Europe, while continued political tensions could affect investment in MENA countries. Further contributions from labor accumulation may also be limited in the coming years by aging populations in a number of EMs and by limits in reducing natural rates of unemployment.13 TFP growth may be lower over the medium term in the absence of growth-enhancing reforms as well, given its cyclical nature. These in turn imply lower potential growth in EMs over the medium term relative to the 2000s. Following the production function methodology outlined in the previous section (and Analytical Appendix, Section A), we estimate potential growth for 2013-17 assuming capital and TFP grow at the same average annual rate for 2000–12, although this assumption might be optimistic given that both TFP and capital accumulation growth were high in the 2000s owing to conditions that are not likely to persist. As for labor, we assume that it grows in line with the working-age population (UN Population Projections database) adjusted by unemployment rate projections (April 2013 WEO). We also assume that labor force participation rates are unchanged and that the human capital component increases at the same pace as in 2005–10. We find that the strong growth momentum of the last decade may not be repeated in the coming years if recent historical trends for factor accumulation and TFP continue, despite this assumption being optimistic (Figure 14). Potential GDP growth rates in EMs are estimated to average roughly 3½ percent during 2013-17, 1¼ percent lower than for 2003-12. Transitioning towards a slower potential growth rate may not be necessarily negative for all EMs, particularly if this means moving to growth rates that are more sustainable and balanced. Figure 14.Potential Growth Rate Range Estimates The less favorable external conditions will lower growth, with the impact differing depending on external linkages. Changing external demand. For many EMs, the recovery of AM demand is likely to outweigh the negative impact of lower EM growth. For the median EM (with exports/GDP of 36 percent), we find that a 1 percent increase in AM trading partner growth would boost EM growth by nearly 0.9 percent, while a 1 percent decline in EM trading partner growth would lower average growth over the medium term by 0.6 percent.14 The impact of trading partner growth also increases with the degree of trade openness (Figure 15). For commodity exporters, lower EM growth (particularly by BRICS) would likely offset any gains from improved AM prospects. Tighter external financing conditions. For the median EM with external assets and liabilities constituting 114 percent of GDP, the 110 basis point increase in the real U.S. 10-year bond rate for 2014-18 (over 2009-13) projected in the April 2014 WEO would lower GDP growth by less than 0.2 percentage points (Figure 16). One channel through which higher global interest rates affect EM growth going forward is higher borrowing costs and lower capital accumulation. The effect of external tightening would be felt in more financially open economies, with EMs in the top quartile of financial openness seeing a decline of about 0.4 percentage points over a five-year horizon. The impact is partial, however, since real rates would rise only when AM growth picks up, which would concurrently support EM growth.15 Softer or flat commodity prices. Drawing on the elasticity estimates presented earlier, the 3 percent decline in the terms of trade for the median commodity exporting EM projected in the April 2014 WEO would reduce growth over the medium term on average by about ½ percent, whereas the impact is estimated to be negligible for non-commodity exporters. The impact on the large commodity exporters could be larger; IMF (2014b) estimates that even with commodity prices remaining at their current levels, commodity exporters in Latin America could see growth lower by 1¼ percentage points relative to the boom years (2003-11). Figure 15.Trade Partner Growth Elasticity by Degree of Export Dependence 1/ 1/ Dash lines represent the 95 percent confidence intervals. Figure 16.U.S. Interest Rate and EM Growth 1/ Going forward, as global conditions turn less supportive, countries will need to rely both on sound macroeconomic policies aimed at addressing imbalances, and on structural reforms to sustain or restore growth potential. While reform priorities depend on each country’s circumstances, some key policy contours are highlighted. Recent market turmoil once again underscored the need to maintain sound macroeconomic policies and buffers. Starting in May 2013, changing expectations about monetary policy normalization in AMs in the context of slowing growth in key EMs led to a sharp re-pricing of EM risks. While the sell was initially broad-based, markets quickly began to differentiate according to economic fundamentals and policy credibility. The immediate challenge for EM policymakers is to strengthen macroeconomic frameworks. In some cases tighter monetary policy will be needed to contain inflation and strengthen confidence. Fiscal policies may also need to be tightened where the fiscal stance is procyclical or adds to funding pressures and where current account deficits are too high. Exchange rate flexibility should serve to buffers shocks, although foreign exchange intervention could be used to reduce excessive volatility where reserves are adequate. Policies can play a role in mitigating the impact of changes in external conditions on growth: Fiscal policy and commodity price shocks. Our estimates suggest that the sensitivity of commodity exporters’ growth to a decline in terms of trade can be reduced by 30 percent for countries able to implement countercyclical policies (Figure 17). This implies that countries that have saved a greater share of their commodity windfall over the previous decade will be in a better position to cushion the effects of declining terms of trade. That said, reliance on demand-side policies should be limited given the persistent nature of lower commodity prices. Exchange rates and tighter global financial conditions. We find that the impact of an increase in U.S. long-term interest rates can be mitigated by a flexible exchange rate regime. For the median EM with a fixed exchange rate, higher U.S. long-term interest rates have a statistically significant negative impact on growth both over a one-year horizon as well as over a five-year period, whereas the impact is not statistically significant for EMs with floating exchange rates (Figure 18). Our findings are similar to others in the literature (Frankel and Roubini, 2001; Reinhart et al., 2001; Reinhart and Reinhart, 2001) that have highlighted the role that flexible exchange rates can play in mitigating the growth effects of external financial shocks. Figure 17.Impact on average EM growth from 1 percent worsening in terms of trade Figure 18.Median Growth Impact of a 100 bps Increase in Long Term Real U.S. Interest Rates Internal rebalancing is needed to reorient economies to more sustainable growth models. Avoiding a buildup of excess demand is one of the priorities to more sustainable growth paths. Excess demand is typically reflected in external imbalances that can lead to volatility or boom/bust cycles. To avoid such trends that can stall or derail the convergence process, different policy agendas are needed in different countries. For example, in China, it requires reducing investment (and credit growth) to more sustainable levels, factoring in permanently lower external demand in the tradable sector, increasing domestic consumption, and leveling the playing field for the domestic private sector (Figure 19). For other EMs whose growth models are built on high public or private consumption financed through external borrowing (e.g., Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa), the priority is to reduce consumption and boost savings to ensure that a larger share of investment is financed domestically, which would also reduce external structural deficits and the risk of boom-bust cycles. Figure 19.Consumption and Investment 1/ Includes Armenia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Morocco, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uruguay. Countries with consumption to GDP ratios near 80 percent in 2012. Revitalizing growth will require structural reforms. Notwithstanding the extensive structural reforms some EMs undertook in earlier decades, the improvements to macroeconomic fundamentals and policy frameworks, and the leap in convergence achieved in the 2000s, most EMs continue to be in the middle-income range. Making the next leap of convergence to higher income levels in the absence of a supportive external environment will hinge on whether EMs can advance their reform agendas. The period of remarkable growth in many EMs masked the buildup of vulnerabilities and may have led reform efforts to languish. Moreover, factor accumulation in countries that have grown on an investment-driven model will hit diminishing returns. For other countries, gains from the earlier wave of structural reforms have been realized and a second-generation of reforms is likely to be needed. Reform priorities are country-specific.16 Policies would need to address the particular structural impediments in each country that inhibit a more efficient allocation of resources, or limit productivity growth and factor accumulation. For example, at lower levels of development, higher productivity and growth can be achieved by adopting already-existing technologies and further accumulating factors of production, while for countries further along the development path, as diminishing returns to factor accumulation would set in, innovation rather than adopting existing technologies will be more important for productivity (Acemoglu et al., 2006). Indeed, the return to various reforms depends on where a country stands along the development path or its distance from the technological frontier (Dabla-Norris et al., 2013). To demonstrate countries’ different reform needs, we explore four country cases—Chile, China, Poland, and South Africa—that are not just at different income levels, but have also experienced different productivity growth and convergence patterns over the decades (see Annex 2 for details). Drawing on the relevant literature and these countries’ experiences, reform priorities can be set along the following key objectives: Raising productivity. For EMs that are closer to the technological frontier (e.g., Poland), sustaining growth will require increasing research and development spending and tertiary education to increase the absorptive capacity of the economy and promote innovation. For others at the lower end of the spectrum (e.g., China), moving up the value chain in production and exports can be facilitated by adopting new technologies. Despite improvements, productivity in EMs remains well below that of AMs and efforts will be needed to boost productivity in the service sector, as economies naturally shift resources from manufacturing toward services. Efforts to address market failures and improve factor allocation, including through increasing flexibility of labor markets and deepening financial sectors, will be important toward this end (Figure 20). Investing in human and physical capital. A more educated workforce and better infrastructure increases the capacity of the economy to absorb and develop new technologies, increasing productivity growth (Easterly and Levine, 2001). For example, in South Africa poor education quality and energy and infrastructure bottlenecks, especially in electricity and railways, constrain growth. Easing these constraints would enable the country to mobilize its supply of excess labor. A better-educated workforce could also increase the labor force participation rate, i.e., there could be deep-rooted issues (lack of education or a skills mismatch between those looking for jobs and those hiring) that cause the low participation rate. Increasing investment in human and physical capital is a low-hanging fruit for a number of lower-income EMs (Figure 21). Facilitating better resource allocation. Addressing structural impediments that constrain labor force participation would add to productive capacity and help offset drags from unfavorable demographics. In the MENA countries, higher growth could come from including women in the workforce. In Poland, reducing structural unemployment would require addressing the skill mismatch problem, including by better aligning the education system to job needs. In Latin America, an overabundance of small informal firms lowers average productivity, and the gains from moving to the formal, more productive economy could be significant (Lora and Pagés, 2013). There is ample room in many EMs for improving the regulatory environment for domestic businesses, particularly small and medium-size enterprises (World Bank, 2013). Further capital market development to mobilize domestic sources to support private investment remains crucial, especially given that external funding is becoming scarcer. In particular, policies that encourage the formation and development of equity, bonds, and securities markets could be effective in facilitating the financing of new capital and innovation. Reducing financial repression (e.g., restrictions on the price or quantity of credit) could also help move resources to more productive uses. Figure 20.Total and Sectoral Productivity Growth Figure 21.Human and Physical Capital Measures, 2012 Source: Penn World Table 7.1, WEO, OECD PISA, and IMF staff calculations. 1/ The mean math score of China is based on data in Shanghai city, China. After substantial progress in EMs the previous decade, the growth of these economies has slowed. EMs’ higher growth during the 2000s reflected increased productivity, partly as a result of earlier reforms bearing fruit, and was supported by favorable external conditions depending on countries’ external linkages and policies. This strong growth performance facilitated narrowing the income gap with advanced economies, although most EMs remain in the middle-income range. Now that the favorable external conditions of the 2000s are waning, post-crisis stimulus policies are being rolled back, and productivity gains are leveling off, economic growth, has been slowing across the EM universe. Going forward, continuing income convergence will be more challenging. The global financial crisis and its aftermath brought to light how policies in good times determined performance in difficult times. Now, once again, we see markets differentiating among EMs by how well policymakers are managing the transition to an era of less-favorable external conditions. Given the risks of facing a prolonged period of volatility in financial markets, policymakers will need to strengthen their macroeconomic policies and address their vulnerabilities. Sustaining strong growth will require renewed emphasis on structural reforms. Reform priorities will depend on country-specific circumstances. Policymakers will need to identify reform priorities to remove supply bottlenecks, boost productivity, and move their economies up in the value chain of economic activities. For countries at lower income levels, including frontier economies (see Annex 3), the largest gains would come from reforms that prepare the economy to move up the value chain and develop new sectors, whereas at higher income levels, the gains would come from more innovation and technological development. Reforms are also required to reorient the sources of growth away from consumption in some cases (Brazil and Turkey) and away from investment in other cases (China). Challenges from opposition to reforms and implementation constraints cannot be underestimated. The costs of reform are often incurred up front and concentrated on specific groups, whereas the benefits materialize later and are both more diffuse and less predictably allocated. A key challenge, then, is to create the political consensus to break powerful vested interests and the intertemporal problem (short-term pain for long-term gain). Moreover, even if reforms are approved, weak capacity and governance can hinder their implementation. While these issues are outside the scope of this paper, they deserve greater attention going forward. There is a need for decisive and timely policy action. Given the time to reach consensus and implement structural reforms, as well as lags for those reforms to have real effects, rebounding from the current slowdown and reclaiming the higher growth of the last decade will not be quick, easy, or uniform across countries. Early and decisive commitment to tailored reforms will have significant benefits over the longer term. Annex 1. Organizing the Emerging Market Universe: The Role of External Linkages17 We use cluster analysis to develop a taxonomy to organize the highly heterogeneous EM universe along different economic and financial dimensions. These clusters are used in our empirical work to differentiate results across different types of EM groups. Country sample: A total of 53 countries are selected for the analysis, including 43 major EMs, nine newly industrialized economies (NIEs), and two frontier markets. The nine NIEs (e.g., Czech Republic, Korea, Singapore) are currently classified as advanced economies by the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO); they are included as high-income references and as they face similar challenges as EMs. Vietnam and Nigeria are low-income countries included in the analysis as they have relatively deeper financial markets with active foreign participation. The complete country list is shown in Table 1. Table 1.Country Coverage in Taxonomy and Cluster Analysis 1 Algeria 19 Hong Kong SAR 37 Peru 2 Angola 20 Hungary 38 Philippines 3 Argentina 21 India 39 Poland 4 Armenia 22 Indonesia 40 Romania 5 Azerbaijan 23 Iraq 41 Russian Federation 6 Bosnia and Herzegovina 24 Israel 42 Singapore 7 Brazil 25 Jamaica 43 Slovak Republic 8 Bulgaria 26 Jordan 44 Slovenia 9 Chile 27 Kazakhstan 45 South Africa 10 China, Mainland 28 Korea, Republic of Taiwan (Province of 11 Colombia 29 Latvia 46 China) 12 Costa Rica 30 Lithuania 47 Thailand 13 Croatia 31 Malaysia 48 Tunisia 14 Czech Republic 32 Mexico 49 Turkey 15 Dominican Republic 33 Morocco 50 Ukraine 16 Egypt 34 Nigeria 51 Uruguay 17 Estonia 35 Pakistan 52 Venezuela 18 Guatemala 36 Panama 53 Vietnam Organizing EMs: The taxonomy covers seven indicators to reflect differences in financial and trade openness, export destination, and commodity dependence (Table 2). A two-stage approach is taken to identify clusters of countries with similar attributes. In the first step, six clusters are identified for each indicator using Ward’s linkage clustering method in Stata. Using a recursive approach, countries are grouped into clusters that minimize the errors sum of squares (or equivalently, maximize R-square) within each cluster. The numbers of clusters is determined by the choice of dissimilarity level. In the second step, the cluster numbers are refined through the use of judgment, although a robustness test using kernel density estimation is used to ensure consistency of the countries in the different clusters.18 Table 2.Data Source of Taxonomy and Cluster Indicators Financial Openness External assets plus liabilities, in percent of GDP, excluding reserve assets. External Wealth of Nations Database, WEO Database 2000-10 Trade Openness Exports plus imports (goods and services), in percent of GDP. WEO Database 2000-12 Growth of Terms of Trade Annual growth of terms of trade, in percent change WEO Database 2000-12 Export Share to Euro Zone Exports to euro zone, in percent of total exports of goods and services. Direction of Trade Statistics (DoTS) Database 2000-12 Export Share to the United States Exports to United States, in percent of total exports of goods and services. DoTS Database 2000-12 Export Share to China Exports to China in percent of total exports of goods and services. DoTS Database 2000-12 Commodity Exporters Net commodity exports, in percent of GDP WEO Database 2000-10 The final cluster results are given in Table 3. Countries are ranked from highest to lowest value for each of the indicators. Non-colored cells at the bottom represent missing observations. We find 21 countries in the top two clusters of “Net Commodity Exports to GDP.” Table 3.Final Cluster Output Financial Openness 1 (External A+L/GDP) Trade Openness (TX+TM)/GDP Growth of Terms of Trade Export Share to Euro Zone Export Share to U.S. Export Share to China, Mainland Net Commodit Export to GDP Hong Kong SAR Singapore Venezuela Tunisia Mexico Hong Kong SAR Angola Singapore Hong Kong SAR Azerbaijan Czech Rep Dominican Rep Angola Iraq Panama Malaysia Angola Bosnia and Herzegov Venezuela Korea, Rep of Nigeria Jordan Swaziland Algeria Hungary Guatemala Chile Kazakhstan Hungary Estonia Russian Federation Morocco Costa Rica Kazakhstan Algeria Taiwan Province of Ch Slovak Rep Chile Poland Colombia Peru Azerbaijan Estonia Hungary Colombia Romania Panama Vietnam Venezuela Latvia Vietnam Argentina Croatia Nigeria Brazil Russia Israel Thailand Indonesia Slovenia Iraq Thailand Chile Malaysia Czech Rep Peru Algeria Jamaica Malaysia Vietnam Jamaica Angola Romania Slovak Rep Israel Singapore Argentina Chile Slovenia Ukraine Azerbaijan Angola Philippines Indonesia Uruguay Jordan South Africa Bulgaria Peru Indonesia Peru Bulgaria Bulgaria Brazil Turkey Algeria Uruguay Malaysia Argentina Lithuania Kazakhstan Russia Pakistan Argentina Colombia Slovenia Taiwan Province of C Armenia Estonia China South Africa Uruguay Iraq Ukraine Croatia Armenia Philippines Russia Costa Rica Swaziland Latvia Estonia Latvia Jordan India Ukraine Angola Tunisia Lithuania Lithuania Brazil Iraq South Africa Croatia Bosnia and Herzegov Bosnia and Herzegov Kazakhstan Vietnam Pakistan Brazil Slovak Rep Azerbaijan Latvia Egypt Malaysia Costa Rica Guatemala Czech Rep Costa Rica Malaysia Nigeria Hong Kong SAR Jamaica Latvia Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Poland Israel India Venezuela Mexico Russia Jamaica Singapore Iraq Thailand Ukraine Bosnia and Herze South Africa Korea, Rep of Uruguay South Africa Korea, Rep of Panama Korea, Rep of Tunisia Croatia Mexico Brazil Chile Israel Panama Thailand Iraq Panama Chile Indonesia Colombia Dominican Rep Azerbaijan Philippines Morocco Pakistan Singapore Egypt Egypt Ukraine Poland Vietnam Ukraine South Africa Jordan Tunisia Venezuela Israel Czech Republic Panama Armenia Dominican Rep Taiwan Province Philippines Romania Slovenia Uruguay Uruguay Armenia Jamaica Lithuania Morocco Hong Kong SAR India Argentina Algeria Estonia Bosnia and Herzegovi Dominican Rep Hungary Peru Egypt Turkey Romania Peru Armenia Slovak Republic Argentina Turkey Bosnia and Herzegov Poland Morocco Chile Bulgaria Angola Azerbaijan Nigeria Slovenia Korea, Rep of Panama China Philippines Russia Romania Pakistan Vietnam Algeria Egypt Jamaica Lithuania Hungary Philippines Armenia Guatemala Thailand Vietnam Morocco Morocco China Costa Rica South Africa Dominican Republic Costa Rica Estonia Bulgaria Bulgaria Poland Indonesia Israel China Bulgaria Mexico Turkey Egypt Mexico Costa Rica Colombia Hungary Estonia Armenia Algeria China Guatemala Korea, Rep of Ukraine Poland Croatia Romania Russia Philippines Indonesia Croatia Azerbaijan Hungary China Egypt Pakistan Thailand Romania Czech Rep Israel Indonesia Uruguay Korea, Republic of Malaysia Czech Rep Slovak Rep Czech Rep Turkey Turkey Tunisia Hong Kong SAR Latvia Tunisia India Brazil Venezuela India Singapore Slovenia Guatemala Morocco Colombia Peru Turkey Dominican Rep Slovak Rep Slovenia Hong Kong SAR Dominican Rep India Taiwan Province of C Venezuela Poland Latvia Thailand Mexico Argentina Jordan Guatemala Tunisia Croatia Lithuania Guatemala Pakistan Jamaica Mexico Kazakhstan Lithuania Jordan Pakistan Colombia Swaziland Jordan Bosnia and Herzegov China Singapore India Brazil Iraq Swaziland Swaziland Swaziland Iraq Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Taiwan Province of C Taiwan Province of C Taiwan Province of C Nigeria Annex 2. Structural Reforms: Lessons from Four Case Studies19 Background: The contribution of factor accumulation to growth has been broadly stable since the early 1990s, aided by increased labor force participation, especially among women. Total factor productivity (TFP), on the other hand, fell from an annual rate of roughly 2½ percent in 1991-2000 to about ½ percent in 2001-12, in part reflecting the aging of mining operations, and despite strong terms of trade. Going forward, growth will be constrained by subdued copper prices and weaker working-age population growth. Reform priorities: Sustaining strong medium-term potential growth will depend on efforts to boost TFP and foster private investment. Education and labor market reforms could yield simultaneously higher productivity and wider distribution of growth benefits. This will require improving access to high-quality education and training and enhancing labor market flexibility. Strengthening Chile’s energy generation and infrastructure will also be crucial for improving competitiveness and the enforcement of contracts. Background: China’s growth model has relied on extensive factor accumulation and relocation of labor from the countryside to factories. In recent years, growth has moderated, even as investment has risen and reliance on credit has increased, pointing to diminishing returns on capital (the return on investment fell from 25 percent in the early 1990s to around 16 percent in recent years). Demographic trends point to declining labor force growth, which could hamper profitability in the private sector, leading to financial losses and deleveraging, which would in turn generate an adverse feedback loop that hampers employment and growth. Sources: Central Bank of Chile, Ministry of Finance (Dipres) and Fund staff estimates Sources: National Statistical Institute (INE), World Economic Outlook (IMF), and Fund staff estimates. Source:IMF staff estimates. Reform priorities: Reforms are necessary to rebalance China’s growth away from credit-led investment and into consumption, while becoming more reliant on TFP. This requires reforms in the financial sector to contain the buildup of vulnerabilities and excesses. Service sector reform (deregulation and increasing the share of labor employed in services) is necessary to lift productivity growth. Hukou reform could support the urbanization process and boost productivity by enabling knowledge spillovers and specialization. China Reform Payoffs: Potential Increase in Average TFP Growth1 Source: IMF staff estimates. 1 Reforms envisage moving the national average of service sector employment share, contestability, and nonagricultural hukou share of population to the level of Shanghai in 2010. Background: Economic liberalization and prudent policies since 1989 paved the way for Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004. Thereafter, Poland benefited significantly from the inflows of EU structural funds, while continuing to expand financial and trade linkages with the rest of the EU, including successful integration into the German supply chain. Despite Poland’s resilience following the global financial crisis, potential growth is estimated to have declined by ½–1 percent over 2009–12, reflecting a structurally lower capital accumulation (resulting from reduced EU structural transfers) and structurally lower labor force contributions (resulting from an increase in structural unemployment). Sources: Polish authorities; and IMF Staff estimates Reform priorities: Reforms should aim to boost investment and employment, while preserving productivity gains. Further capital market development is necessary to support private investment, and should be complemented by increased infrastructure investment and privatization. There is room to boost labor participation rates (especially among women) and to improve education to address skill mismatches. Reforms to better align special occupational pension schemes (notably for miners and farmers) with the regular pension system should help increase labor participation. Given Poland’s proximity to the technological frontier, pure cost-competitiveness gains cannot last indefinitely—moving up the value chain will require raising R&D spending, which is low relative to the country’s peers. Sources: Eurostat. (*) Data as of 2010. Background: Growth in the post-apartheid era was underpinned by a substantial increase in TFP growth and investment. Removal of sanctions and trade liberalization increased trade and financial linkages with the rest of the world, facilitated technology spillovers, and raised private investment. Institutional change reinforced fiscal and monetary policy discipline, contributing to macroeconomic stability and improved confidence. Over the past decade, South Africa benefited from strong terms of trade, although balance sheet repair since the global financial crisis has been a headwind to growth. Moreover, insider-outsider dynamics and barriers to entry have stifled competition in many sectors, pushed up labor costs, while low education attainment has led to pervasive skill mismatches. Energy and infrastructure bottlenecks are becoming increasingly binding. This has resulted in an increasingly capital-intensive economy, with limited job creation, and rising inequality. Sources: Haver, and IMF staff calculations. Reform priorities: Addressing longstanding rigidities in the product and labor market, strengthening the education system, and easing infrastructure bottlenecks, especially in electricity and railways, would enable South Africa to take advantage of its large supply of idle labor and reap the demographic dividend from improved health outcomes (including declining HIV-aids infection rates). At the same time, reforms to increase product market competition would boost competitiveness and spur greater innovation and investment. Annex 3. Prospects for the “Next” Emerging Markets? Rapid growth in a number of low-income countries (LICs) has positioned them for middle-income status. These frontier LICs have grown rapidly for long periods, overcome periods of growth decline and backtracking, and subsequently made progress on convergence. Going forward, these rapidly growing economies have to ensure that the momentum is maintained so that they can graduate to middle-income status. The lessons from EMs also apply to these frontier LICs. Growth slowdowns are not exclusive to middle-income countries; neither are the types of policies needed to ensure sustainable and strong rates of growth. At the forefront is the need to maintain sound domestic policies, address vulnerabilities in the financial system, implement wide-ranging reforms to increase productivity, and foster private sector development. Reform priorities need to be tailored based on structural bottlenecks: Similar to EMs, the structural characteristics of these frontier LICs emerge as risk factors for a growth slowdown (Table 4).20 Table 4.Risk Factors for a Growth Slowdown in Frontier Low-Income Countries Indeed, estimating the probability of a growth slowdown using a sample of frontier LICs and EMs highlights the following as potential risk factors: Institutions: It has been long acknowledged that institutions are crucial for growth. Recently, progress has been made in reducing the size of government and encouraging the emergence of the private sector, but there is still room to streamline cumbersome business regulations and strengthen institutions that promote property rights. Prudential regulations could limit the build-up of excessive risk in the financial system. Demography: A number of countries are at high risk of slowdown from unfavorable demographic trends due to a high dependency ratio and imbalanced gender participation in the work force. To address this, policy priorities would be combating gender discrimination and pursuing inclusive education and labor market reforms. Infrastructure (communications and roads): The positive impact of infrastructure on growth, especially when countries are moving toward middle-income status, is well established. That said, most frontier LICs stand a higher risk of a growth slowdown arising from lack of infrastructure including communications, transport, and a range of other needs, including energy generation. Structural transformation (output composition): As an economy develops, it undergoes a structural transformation as labor moves from the initially dominant agricultural sector to manufacturing and services. This exposes the economy to a concomitant risk of slowdown. Managing this risk would involve reforms that enhance productivity, particularly in the nonagricultural sector Macroeconomic factors: A large variety of macroeconomic factors are associated with economic growth, although this analysis focuses on the risks from financial openness and overinvestment. Countries that have benefited from strong capital inflows need to be mindful of the risk of sudden stops that may also lower potential output levels permanently. (Cerra and Saxena, 2008). Also, overinvestment in certain sectors driven in part by high capital flows and commodity price gains will need to be scaled back and redirected to increase productivity in other sectors. The lessons from EMs apply to these frontier LICs. These economies need to address vulnerabilities and maintain good domestic policies so that they can ensure sustainable growth and manage the transition to middle-income status while the global economy is going through transitions. Analytical Appendix A. Supply-Side Decomposition of Growth and Estimating Potential Growth21 Potential growth rates are derived following a growth accounting exercise based on the standard Cobb-Douglas production function: where Yt represents domestic output in period t, Kt the physical capital stock, Lt the employed labor force, ht human capital per worker, and At total factor productivity (TFP).22 Using equation (1), we can decompose GDP growth as follows (denoting by x^ the growth rate of a variable x): We use annual data from Penn World Table 7.1 (PWT) for the period from 1980 until 2010 and other sources—mainly the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) database—for the subsequent years. Specifically, data on output, measured by real GDP, are obtained from PWT until 2010 and extended using WEO data for 2011–12. The capital stock series is constructed with investment data from the PWT using the perpetual inventory method until 2010, and investment data from WEO for 2011–12. Our labor input series (measured by employment) refers to inputs effectively used in the production process. The employment series is obtained using the labor force series from PWT and the employment rate (one minus unemployment rate) from WEO. For 2011–12, we assume that the labor force rises in line with the UN Population Projection database (constant fertility scenario) for individuals age 15 and above. To get quality-adjusted labor, we follow Bils and Klenow (2000) and Ferreira, Pessoa, and Veloso (2013) to model human capital as a function of the average years of schooling, using data from Barro and Lee (2010).23 The structural slowdown is represented by the change in the potential growth rate from a historical average, e.g., 2000-12, and 2013-18. The cyclical part of the slowdown is the residual from the change in actual growth rates and the structural change between 2012-13 and 2010-11. To estimate potential growth rates, we first estimate TFP using equation (1). We then obtain trend series for capital, labor, human capital, and TFP (KT, LT, hT, AT) for the period 1980–2017 using the Hodrick-Prescott (for both λ = 6.25 and λ = 100), Baxter and King (1999), and Christiano and Fitzgerald (2013) filters.24 The following assumptions about the behavior of K, L, h, and A in 2013–17 are made: (i) we assume that both capital and TFP will grow by the average annual rate observed in 2000–12; and (ii) to project labor input, we use projected unemployment rates from the WEO and we assume that the labor force grows in line with the working-age population from the UN Population Projection database and labor force participation rates remain constant at their latest observation. Finally, our measure of human capital increases at the 2005–10 average annual growth rate. Potential output growth (YP^) is then computed as follows: B. Impact of External Factors on Emerging Market Growth25 The empirical approach uses a standard setup for analyzing determinants of growth: fixed effects growth regressions using macroeconomic panel data averaged over consecutive five-year periods.26 Time fixed effects (dummies for each five-year period) are introduced to control for changes in global conditions not captured by the model. The regressions take the following general form: Δln GDPPCi,t: First difference in the log of the real per capita GDP, i.e., per capita GDP growth External Conditions: Variables measuring external conditions. We focus on three: External demand, measured by trading partner growth (the two terms are used interchangeably) International financing conditions interacted with the degree of financial openness, measured by changes in the real interest rate on the 10-year U.S. T-bond. Change in the log of terms of trade Xi,t: standard growth regressors (initial level of income, population growth, investment ratio, etc.) and other controls. γi: country fixed effect ηt: time fixed effect The panel covers the period 1962-2011, and regressions are restricted to countries with a population of at least 2 million people, which includes 129 countries: 66 EMs, 21 AMs, and 42 LICs.27 Following Arora and Vamvakidis (2005), partner growth is computed as the weighted average growth rate using as weights each partner’s share in the reporting country’s export basket. Export weights are computed as five-year averages from the IMF’s Direction of Trade Statistics (DoTS) database for 1960-2011. Therefore, export partner growth for country i in year t is computed as follows: In addition, we recover export weights – and therefore partner growths – for countries that started reporting to DoTS relatively recently (e.g., China since 1978, Bulgaria since 1981) by using partners’ import data. AM partner growth rates are computed analogously. However, EM partner growth is computed in two stages. First, an index is computed in a manner analogous to the one for AM partners. Second, the common component of AM and EM partner growths is excluded by running a simple OLS regression of EM partner growth on AM partner growth and only using residuals for subsequent analysis. Other variables in the model (and sources from which they are derived) include: GDP growth series and commodity dependence come from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators. A country is identified as a commodity exporter if net commodity exports (as measured by fuels and metals exports) averaged over 10 percent of GDP in the years 2002-11. The IMF’s International Financial Statistics is the source for select macro variables (current account balance/GDP, investment/GDP, terms of trade), as well as the real interest rate on the 10-year U.S. T-bond, which is used to measure the international cost of capital. Trade data come from the DoTS. Financial integration is computed from the updated and extended version of the dataset constructed by Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2007) as the sum of total external assets and total external liabilities net of international reserves. The exchange rate regime classification comes from IMF’s AREAER Database. The PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset is used to identify episodes of war. C. Domestic and External Factors Explaining the Current Slowdown28 Data sources and sample: The analysis is based on staff calculations using data from the October 2013 WEO, the GEE and AREAER databases, and from the vulnerability exercise. Additionally, public sources (Bloomberg, IFS, and HAVER) are used. The sample uses annual data for 2011, 2012 and 2013 as well as initial conditions for 2010. Regression analysis and variables: The EM slowdown regressions are simple pooled panel OLS. Country fixed effects were not included to allow for country-specific time-invariant initial conditions. Year fixed effects were also excluded due to the short time span of the sample, but changes in global factors/conditions are captured through the change in VIX index variable. The specification is as below (see Fayad and Perrelli (2014) for results): The dependent variable is yearly real GDP growth rate. Domestic factors include policy variables and fundamentals, namely fiscal policy measured by the change in the cyclically adjusted primary balance to potential GDP and the exchange rate regime.29Initial conditions, all measured in 2010, include REER overvaluation, the output gap and a measure for financial openness. We interact initial conditions (FO) with fundamentals (peg). External factors include a trading partner’s real import demand.30Global conditions or global risk aversion are measured by the change in the VIX index. Other factors that were controlled for and that did not pass the significance test include (i) whether or not a country is a commodity exporter; (ii) monetary policy measured by a change in the policy rate; and (iii) additional external measures (such as terms of trade and the current account balance to GDP, as well we the interaction of terms of trade with net commodity exports to GDP). 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G.,2012, “Crisis and Recovery: Role of the Exchange Rate Regime in Emerging Market Economies,” Journal of Macroeconomics, Vol. 34, pp. 470–88. Tsangarides, C. G.,2012, “Crisis and Recovery: Role of the Exchange Rate Regime in Emerging Market Economies,” Journal of Macroeconomics, Vol. 34, pp. 470–88.10.1016/j.jmacro.2012.01.005)\| false Tsounta, E.,2014, “Slowdown in Emerging Markets: A Sign of a Bumpy Road Ahead?” IMF Working Paper (forthcoming). Tsounta, E.,2014, “Slowdown in Emerging Markets: A Sign of a Bumpy Road Ahead?” IMF Working Paper (forthcoming).10.5089/9781498304719.001)\| false World Bank, 2008, Unleashing Prosperity: Productivity Growth in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (Washington: World Bank). World Bank, 2008, Unleashing Prosperity: Productivity Growth in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (Washington: World Bank).)\| false World Bank, 2013, Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (Washington: World Bank). World Bank, 2013, Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (Washington: World Bank).)\| false This paper was presented at the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings Conference on October 8, 2013 entitled “Emerging Markets: Where Are They, Where Are they Headed?” Under the guidance of Kalpana Kochhar, the paper was prepared by a staff team led by Luis Cubeddu and Ceyda Oner and including Alex Culiuc, Ghada Fayad, Yuan Gao, Annette Kyobe, Roberto Perrelli, Sarah Sanya, Evridiki Tsounta, and Zhongxia Zhang. The paper has benefited from comments by the conference participants, in particular, Tim Adams, Anders Åslund, Luis Miguel Castilla, Ricardo Hausmann, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, David Lipton, Manuel Ramos-Francia, and Nouriel Roubini. By focusing on 2000-12, which covers EM crises in the early 2000s, the boom years, the global financial crisis and recovery, we abstract from cyclical fluctuations and analyze the broad trends. TFP measures the efficiency with which factors of production (capital, labor, and human skills) are used in the production process. It is defined as the residual of output growth and the growth in factor accumulation. The structural transformation differed across regions. In Asia (China, Thailand, and Malaysia) the employment shifts have been out of agriculture and into higher productivity manufacturing, while in Europe the shift has been away from central planning towards the previously underdeveloped services sector (World Bank, 2008). Not all favorable external conditions translated into higher productivity. For example, in Chile, despite higher metal prices, TFP growth turned negative in the last decade, in part reflecting the expansion of mining production into areas of lower marginal productivity where production has become profitable due to higher commodity prices. This is consistent with the experience in commodity-exporting advanced economies like Australia, Canada, and Norway. At the same time, the external conditions that we explore could be endogenous with respect to each other, potentially biasing results upward. The significance of BRICS’ growth for non-commodity EMs is sensitive to the estimation period of choice. Figure 7 presents results for the period covering 1992-2011. Research focusing on the more recent past finds a larger role for BRICS, particularly China (IMF, 2014c, 2014d). The same inverse relation is found between the cumulative current account deficits in the five years before 2008 and growth in the five years after 2008. A larger sample is truncated to 24 EMs owing to limited data on output gaps and cyclically adjusted fiscal balances; see Fayad and Perrelli (2014) for details. The importance of external factors in explaining the bulk of variance of growth dynamics in EMs was established in IMF (2014c), based on a VAR analysis on quarterly data for 1998-2013. IMF (2014c) also finds that the influence of internal factors has increased in recent years and that these factors appear to be reducing growth rather than spurring it. Fayad and Perrelli (2014) obtain similar results using growth surprises, rather than growth outturns, as their explanatory variable, and for country-specific decompositions of external vs. domestic sources of slowdown. We use the average for 2010-11 as a starting point since most EMs experienced a slowdown from their cyclical peak, either in 2010 or 2011. See IMF (2013, 2014a) for a breakdown of cyclical versus structural roots of the recent slowdown in the BRICS and ASEAN-5, respectively. Favorable demographics and low participation rates (particularly for women) present opportunities for increasing potential growth rates in some EMs, especially in the MENA and Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) regions. Given the endogeneity between AM and EM growth, the combined effect of growth shocks would be better answered within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework. Studies that estimate the combined effect of higher growth in the United States coupled with higher interest rates find that EM growth would be affected positively in net terms (IMF, 2014c). For a detailed discussion of how structural reform priorities vary across emerging and developing economies, see Dabla-Norris et al. (2013). For more details, see Gao and Zhang (2014). Despite failing the robustness test, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore (economies with exceptionally large values of financial and trade openness) are grouped in a cluster with other economies with “relatively” high values of openness (Panama, Jordan, Hungary, and Taiwan Province of China). Based on inputs by country teams, including Christian Ebeke, Jose D. Rodriguez and Yinqiu Lu. This analysis closely follows the methodology used in Aiyar et al. (2013). For more details, see Tsounta (2014). We assume a capital share of output, α of 0.40 (in line with Gollin, 2002). Our main findings, however, are robust to a range of reasonable values for this parameter. When investment data for 2011-12 are not available from the WEO, we use nominal growth rates in investment and deflate by CPI. When education data are not available we use those of a similar country. We include projections through 2019 to avoid the end-of-sample bias. For more details, see Culiuc (2014). The trade section builds and expands on Arora and Vamvakidis (2005), who analyze the growth impact of trading partner growth. Recent studies building on the same approach include Drummond and Ramirez (2009) and Dabla-Norris et al. (2013). The 2 million population threshold is used in order to eliminate small states, which are much more susceptible to show large output variation in response to events that are hard to capture in a growth regression framework (e.g., the bankruptcy of a single company, natural disasters). The population threshold is close to the one used in the 2013 IMF board paper on macroeconomic issues in small states (1.5 million people). For more details, see Fayad and Perrelli (2014). We use a peg dummy equal to one when the exchange rate classification is below or equal to 8 (i.e., for all classifications except floats and free floats). Given the increased importance of EM-EM trade, we check the robustness of our results to potential circularity between the dependent variable (EM growth) and our measure of external demand (which includes all trading partners). For this purpose, we separate import demand from advanced economies and that from EMs, and include them separately in the regression. Our measure for EM import demand is the part of EM import demand that is not explained by AMs’ import demand. Results, not reported here, show the robustness of our findings to this disaggregation.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402686
__label__cc	0.576813	0.423187	Posted on March 18, 2019 January 19, 2020 by Ronny Alexander Last Updated: Jan. 19, 2020. Jump to the bottom of the page to see 2019 releases that could make it onto the list in the next big update (coming in February or March). Last time we went from a top 5 to a top 20. Well, this time we decided to make a top 40 cooperative board games list to give you even more options! As always, I put the list together and then made some adjustments based on my group’s feedback. We decided to only include fully cooperative board games this time around, so you won’t find any semi-cooperative games, One vs. Many games, or games with potential traitors (like Dead of Winter). Let’s get to it, shall we? These are the 40 best cooperative board games that we’ve played! 40. Deadline – Deadline is a great card game to get if you like the detective genre, though it does play quite differently than other detective games. You can get through cases pretty quickly, yet they still tell good stories and you do feel like detectives throughout. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 39. Escape from 100 Million B.C. – You’ll want to check this one out if you really like the time-traveling theme. You’ll run into dinosaurs, former presidents, and plenty of other cool things from the past in this game. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 38. Magic Maze – Magic Maze is one of the top cooperative real-time games and an excellent family game. It’s pure chaos as you try to work together to move the characters around while not being able to say anything to each other. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 37. Chronicles of Crime – This is another great detective game that came out recently. The cases my group has played through have all been interesting and the app works really well. We can’t wait to check out the newest content that they’re putting out for it. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 36. Forbidden Desert – Forbidden Island also could have gone in this spot as the two games have very similar feels to them, but they do have very different themes. Both are excellent gateway games, though Forbidden Desert has a little bit more going on in it as you attempt to clear sand, find parts, and escape. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 35. Unicornus Knights – Unique theme, unique cooperative gameplay. You work together to try to get the princess back home, but you have to get through a bunch of enemies who all have crazy powers. More people need to play this game. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 34. Batman: The Animated Series – I had a feeling that my group would like this game, but I didn’t know it would end up being such a big hit. It’s a fun puzzle to tackle as you try to use your superheroes’ dice to attack enemies and deal with events that pop up. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 33. Castle Panic – Castle Panic is an excellent cooperative game for families and it’s one of very few really good cooperative tower defense games out there right now. It also becomes a solid gamer’s game once you add in one or more of the expansions. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 32. Codenames Duet – This is one of the best two-player cooperative games and arguably the best version of Codenames that you can buy. If you’re a fan of word games and/or deduction games, you really have to give Codenames Duet a try. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 31. Mage Knight – Still one of the best adventure games, Mage Knight is a big-box fantasy board game with co-op, competitive, and solo scenarios for you to play through. If you don’t mind complex co-ops, it is definitely worth checking out. Also, the newest version of the game, Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition, includes all three of the expansions. (Review \| Buy a Copy) Check out our Top 5 Co-op Deck Building Games! 30. Elder Sign – If you like the Yahtzee dice rolling mechanic, you’ll probably enjoy Elder Sign. Fantasy Flight has also done a great job on all of the Elder Sign expansions they’ve put out, giving the game even more replay value. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 29. Dragonfire – Dragonfire is a very fun deck building campaign game set in the D&D universe. Giving your character new abilities throughout each adventure is just so satisfying. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 28. Hanabi – Hanabi started the recent limited communication craze and it is still one of the best ones out there. I’ve played it about 100 times and I still have a blast trying to put those fireworks in order. It also works quite well as a gateway game. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 27. The Grizzled – There still isn’t anything else quite like The Grizzled. It’s a war game, but it’s really all about working together to survive during World War I. This is a tough co-op card game that always tells a story. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 26. Spirit Island – This is one game where my group’s rankings are all over the place. Some love the game’s complexity while others find it to be a bit too much. Spirit Island is in my personal Top 10 because I’m a huge fan of the asymmetrical spirits and the twist on the colonization theme. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 25. Dungeons & Dragons Board Games – One of the issues that we usually have with dungeon crawlers is that they’re too fiddly, but that’s not a problem with these games. They scratch the dungeon crawler itch yet they play very smoothly. We’ve only reviewed Castle Ravenloft, but we’ve actually played three of the games in the D&D Adventure System Series and they’ve all been great. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 24. Flash Point: Fire Rescue – Most of my group considers Flash Point to be the best cooperative family game. The firefighting theme comes through extremely well and it is an easy game to learn and teach. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 23. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – Every fan of The Lord of the Rings should at least try this two-player card game. The base game doesn’t give you a lot of cards to construct decks with, but there are dozens of expansions that you can add to it if you end up enjoying it. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is also out there if you prefer that theme. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 22. Dawn of Peacemakers – This is another game with a fantastic theme. Instead of fighting in the animal war, you’re there to keep the battles balanced so hopefully there will eventually be peace. Very cool campaign game with a lot of great surprises in the box. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 21. Spy Club – At its core, Spy Club is a cooperative set collection game, but it’s so much more than that. I’ve played through campaigns with multiple groups and everyone has had a blast playing this unique detective game. It always tells a good story and that campaign deck is awesome. (Review \| Buy a Copy) Check out our Top 10 Co-op Games of 2019! 20. V-Commandos – What makes V-Commandos one of the best cooperative board games is that it does a great job of actually making players feel like highly trained commandos. You focus on staying undetected most of the time in this game so you can complete objectives. Very cool. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 19. T.I.M.E Stories – T.I.M.E Stories is an excellent game system that allows you to pick missions you want to go on, time-travel, and try to solve the puzzles that are thrown at you. It’s one of the most thematic games we’ve played and we’re hoping they continue to support it with more expansions. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 18. One Deck Dungeon – This little solo or two-play cooperative game is one of the best games to choose if you really like dice games. It has a simple set of rules, challenging gameplay, fantastic artwork, and it is very portable. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 17. CO₂: Second Chance – This is easily one of the top Euro-style cooperative games my group has ever played. It’s a very challenging puzzle as you have to figure out how to keep the world’s CO₂ levels down, and it feels great every time you end a decade with good numbers. The competitive mode is solid, too. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 16. Shadowrift – One of my group’s favorite deck building games, Shadowrift gives players plenty of options to choose from as they attempt to take down powerful monsters. It’s also the only game that I can think of that that has players building their own decks while also buying cards to add to a neutral deck. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 15. Black Orchestra – I think everyone in my group likes this game even more than we did last year when I posted my review for it. It has a very interesting mix of mechanics, including pick-up-and-deliver and push-your-luck dice play. It’s very hard to assassinate Hitler, but the game is never frustrating because it always tells a memorable story. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 14. Mysterium – Still one of the most attractive cooperative games that you can buy, Mysterium is a great whodunit game. Those dream and location cards look amazing on the table and they do the job of pulling players into the theme. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 13. Legendary Encounters: Alien – This is such a cool deck building game system. Alien is still my group’s favorite one in the series, but Upper Deck has also put out Legendary Encounters games for Firefly, The X-Files, and Predator. The games are very thematic and every deck-building choice you make feels very important. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 12. Burgle Bros. – If you like the idea of trying to pull off a heist with some fellow gamers, Burgle Bros. is a must-buy. Trying to move around without being spotted is quite challenging with those guards constantly moving around you. We’ve played Burgle Bros. a lot and still enjoy it every time it hits the table. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 11. Mechs vs. Minions – If you like programming games like Robo Rally, you really should check this one out. Drafting cards for your mechs is a ton of fun and the missions ramp up in difficulty as you move through them. Mechs vs. Minions also happens to be one of the best-looking games that you can get right now. (Review \| Buy a Copy) 10. 5-Minute Dungeon Year: 2017 \| Players: 2-5 We’ve had so many exiting gaming sessions with 5-Minute Dungeon. I think I’ve personally played it about 40 times and I still haven’t beaten all of the bosses! This is my group’s favorite real-time game right now and something pretty special would have to come along to replace it. If you don’t mind the stress that a lot of these types of games bring, chances are you will have a great time playing 5-Minute Dungeon. It’s challenging, the narration in the app is awesome, and it’s highly replayable. There’s also a Marvel version that came out in 2018. Read our 5-Minute Dungeon review Get your copy of 5-Minute Dungeon 9. Pandemic We’re including ALL of the Pandemic games in this spot, including the original game, the Pandemic Legacy, Pandemic Iberia, Pandemic: The Cure, and all of the other ones Matt Leacock has created. I’d still recommend the original Pandemic (along with the excellent On the Brink expansion) to newer gamers and anyone that hasn’t played any of these games yet, but Legacy (Season 1 especially) is the best overall experience. Read our Pandemic review Get your copy of Pandemic 8. Legends of Andor Legends of Andor is still one of the best cooperative adventure board games around. It has a great look to it, it tells a cool story, and there are some tough puzzles to work through. There are also some excellent Legends of Andor expansions that add in new Legends and/or boards and give the game additional replay value. Read our Legends of Andor review Get your copy of Legends of Andor 7. Gloomhaven I still haven’t written my Gloomhaven review yet, which my group likes to laugh at me about, but I said from the beginning that I won’t review it until I’ve completed a full campaign. We’re “only” about 40 hours into the 120+ hour campaign and it has been a tough one to get back to the table, so it might be a while before that review gets posted. Gloomhaven is definitely one of the top cooperative board games ever made, so it makes sense that it currently sits atop BGG’s rankings. It has arguably the best action-selection system and it’s extremely satisfying watching your characters improve over time. This would probably be my “stranded on a deserted island” game since there is so much content in that huge box and because it plays so well at all player counts. If you have a group that can commit to playing through Gloomhaven, it’s definitely worth getting. Get your copy of Gloomhaven 6. The Mind The Mind has gone over well with everyone I’ve taught it to. It’s my group’s top limited communication game and it was our highest-rated game of 2018. If you read the rules you’ll think it’s too simple to be special, but once you get it to the table chances are you’ll be surprised by how unique the experience is. I think everyone should play The Mind at least a couple of times to see if it’s for them, especially since it only costs about 10 bucks. Read our The Mind review Get your copy of The Mind 5. Too Many Bones Too Many Bones has some of the nicest components that you will find in the board game world, and the gameplay is awesome as well. It does take some time to get used to all of the characters’ unique abilities and the “dice-building” concept, but it’s worth it. Chip Theory Games also recently released a two-player version of Too Many Bones called Too Many Bones: Undertow, which works as both a standalone game and as an expansion to the original. Read our Too Many Bones review Get your copy of Too Many Bones 4. Aeon’s End Aeon’s End has been our top cooperative deck building game for a while now. It has a unique spell-casting mechanic, the variable turn order adds in extra tension, and it plays at a nice pace. This is a great game to get if you enjoy fantasy games and deck building games. There’s actually a lot of other Aeon’s End content out there now, including small-box expansions, War Eternal, Legacy, and The New Age. Read our Aeon’s End review Get your copy of Aeon’s End 3. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective It’s going to take a pretty special game to replace Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective as our top crime-solving game. The cases are tough and memorable and they do a great job of making everyone feel like real detectives. If you’ve been a fan of other detective games, such as Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, or the murder-mystery genre in general, you’ll definitely want to check this one out. Read our Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective review Get your copy of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective 2. Ghost Stories Ghost Stories is still one of the toughest cooperative board games that we’ve played. Our win percentage after nearly 100 games is about 20 percent, but that just makes us want to keep playing it. The artwork is excellent, the game plays smoothly once you know the rules, and the random village layout and random assortment of ghosts help to make each game feel different. If you don’t mind very difficult co-ops, we highly recommend getting Ghost Stories. Update: Also worth checking out is Last Bastion, a tower defense version of Ghost Stories released in late 2019. Read our Ghost Stories review Get your copy of Ghost Stories 1. Robinson Crusoe There still isn’t a better survival game or adventure game than Robinson Crusoe: Adventures of the Cursed Island. After every win or loss (mostly losses), we spend about 10 minutes chatting about the story that played out because the games always seem to play out differently. Even if it only came with one scenario in the box (the newest version has seven), Robinson Crusoe would probably still sit in this top spot. It’s highly thematic, every decision you make feels important, and you have to work hard as a team to have a chance to win. Yeah, it’s amazing. Read our Robinson Crusoe review Get your copy of Robinson Crusoe Potential Additions Below are some 2019 releases that have a good chance of making it onto this list in the next big update (coming in early 2020). Marvel Champions – A must-try for any Marvel fan. (review) Cities: Skylines – Excellent cooperative city building game. (review) Resident Evil 2 – If you like the video game, definitely look into getting this one. (review) Wayward – Great combat game with an ever-changing puzzle. (review) The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth – Fantastic app-driven adventure game. (review) Update: Check out these games and others on the Top 10 Co-ops of 2019 list! What are your favorite cooperative board games? Are there any that you’d recommend that aren’t on this list? Diceborn Heroes Review Deckscape Review Freedom: The Underground Railroad Review Posted in RankingsTagged 5-Minute Dungeon, Aeon's End, Batman: The Animated Series – Gotham City Under Siege, Black Orchestra, board game rankings, Burgle Bros., Castle Panic, Castle Ravenloft, Chronicles of Crime, CO₂: Second Chance, Codenames Duet, Dawn of Peacemakers, Deadline, Dragonfire, Elder Sign, Escape from 100 Million B.C., Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Forbidden Desert, Ghost Stories, Gloomhaven, Hanabi, Legendary Encounters: Alien, Legends of Andor, Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Mage Knight, Magic Maze, Mechs vs. Minions, Mysterium, One Deck Dungeon, Pandemic, Robinson Crusoe, Shadowrift, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Spirit Island, Spy Club, T.I.M.E Stories, The Grizzled, The Mind, Too Many Bones, Unicornus Knights, V-Commandos 13 thoughts on “Top 40 Cooperative Board Games (2019-2020 Edition)” Jacob Lee August 15, 2019 Reply Great list! Glad I found this site. Ronny Alexander Post author August 15, 2019 Reply Joe @ AmazingGameRoom September 2, 2019 Reply Thanks for including Gloomhaven. One of my favorite games, but I actually rarely see it included on a lot of these round up lists when searching for new board games to check out. Ronny Alexander Post author September 2, 2019 Reply Yeah, Gloomhaven is great. I’m guessing it doesn’t show up on a lot of lists because most people want lighter games and/or non-campaign games. Still, I think everyone should give Gloomhaven a four or five-hour try just to see how cool and different it is. Paul September 12, 2019 Reply I’m shocked that Space Cadets Away Missions isn’t on this list because it really needs to be. Maybe you’ve never played it before? Ronny Alexander Post author September 12, 2019 Reply Hey Paul! There are three co-ops from 2015 that are on my list of games to play and review: Space Cadets: Away Missions, Thunderbirds, and Fireteam Zero. Hoping to get those played in the next two or three months. Jennifer Blackstream November 26, 2019 Reply For your list: Harry Potter Battle at Hogwarts (and Fantastic Beasts Expansion) Sentinels of the Multiverse (and all expansions, including the Cauldron fan expansion) Thanos Rising and Deatheaters Rising Stuffed Fables Thank you for making a cooperative game list with no “someone runs the villain” or betrayal mechanics. It’s hard to find lists that are pure coop. Ronny Alexander Post author November 26, 2019 Reply Harry Potter HB, Mice and Mystics, and Stuffed Fables just missed the list. All three are fun co-ops. Sentinels used to be very high on the list, but the app replaced the physical version (same game, less fiddly) for pretty much everyone in my group. Still, excellent game. Thanos Rising didn’t do it for us. We prefer Elder Sign and a few other Yahtzee-style co-ops. I merged all of the Pandemics together, but you’re right. The Cure is great. Horrified was a pretty big miss for us. Love the theme, though! Kriz2318 December 10, 2019 Reply Dead of winter not that good? Ronny Alexander Post author December 11, 2019 Reply This list only has fully cooperative games. Dead of Winter is fantastic, but it’s best when you play with the potential betrayer/traitor. The fully co-op variant is still good, but it’s not as great, in my opinion. GianPaolo December 11, 2019 Reply Hmm, this was posted in March. It’s now December. Shouldn’t it be updated, if needed, due to new co-op games that have come out since then? It’s coming soon! I’m probably going to post the best of 2019 first and then this list will be updated. I added some potential additions to the bottom of the list. Hope that helps!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402687
__label__wiki	0.876056	0.876056	CVNC SUPPORT CVNC Opera, Voce - The NC Opera Consortium Review Print Opera Carolina's Artistic and Box Office Winning Production of Verdi's La Traviata Charlotte -- ( Thu., Feb. 3, 2011 - Sun., Feb. 6, 2011 ) Opera Carolina: La Traviata Performed by Opera Carolina, Joel Revzen, conductor, & Kay Walker Castaldo, director Tickets begin at $16. -- Belk Theater , 704/372-1000 , http://www.operacarolina.org/ By William Thomas Walker February 5, 2011 - Charlotte, NC: Economic downturns bring about even more "bread'n butter" programming from opera companies. Opera Carolina General Director James Meena could not have chosen more core repertoire than La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, probably one of the three or four most popular operas with the public. The company's otherwise satisfying production of the Verdi opera in 2006 had been marred by an indisposed or weak soprano as Violetta [http://cvnc.org/reviews/2006/012006/OperaCarolina.html]. This 2011 version was superbly cast from strength across the board. It well-deserved the enthusiastic applause it received from an apparently sold out Belk Theater audience. A gratifying high percentage of young adults and students were in the mix. The real life love affair of author Alexander Dumas fils with a courtesan inspired his novel La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camelias). This was the source used by Verdi's librettist, Francesco Maria Paive. The story of the courtesan with the heart of gold - the social outcast Violetta, who is redeemed through her love of Alfredo and her selfless sacrifice of his love for the marital aspirations of Alfredo's virginal sister - is well known if incomprehensible outside of bourgeois nineteenth century European society. Soprano Jennifer Black was an outstanding Violetta with the perfect blend of vocalism and acting. Her strong, warm-timbered voice was evenly supported from its lowest, quietest range to its soaring, perfectly focused high notes. She was fully in character at all times on stage as she conveyed Violetta's growth from empty kept woman through her sudden finding of passionate love, to its tragic loss and a death scene worthy of the Greek tragedies. My CVNC colleague was impressed with her Greensboro Opera performance of Violetta in a well-received 2009 production http://cvnc.org/reviews/2009/112009/GreensboroOpera.html. Handsome looks combined with a robust, solidly supported tenor voice made Jonathan Boyd a superb Alfredo. His warm tone and finely focused pitch were combined with a wide palette of color and dynamics. Boyd fully embodied Alfredo's idealistic, impetuous romanticism as well as his mercurial temper. Baritone Mark Rucker's voice had more than enough dark, rich tone to pull off the role of the elder Germont, Alfredo's father. Rucker had the stage presence and gravitas in spades to make the character imposing. This La Traviata performance was dedicated to the memory of Rucker's father, Olney K. Rucker, an accomplished conductor and bass baritone who passed away January 23, 2011. Someone said there are no small parts, and Opera Carolina has always had solid local and imported talent for so-called supporting roles. Mezzo-soprano Jessie Wright Martin was a reliable Flora, Violetta's friend. Davidson College Physics Department Chairman, baritone Dan Boye cam always be counted on to turn in strongly characterized and sung performances, and his Baron Douphol was no exception. Violetta's confidante Annina was sung effectively by soprano Jennifer Reid. This is her seventh season with the company. Tenor John Kaneklides was fine in the brief role of Gastone. Bass John Fortson's sepulchral voice was a bonus in the brief role of Doctor Grevil. It is always a treat to follow singers from advanced student days as they progress in their career. Baritone Alphonso Cherry sang and acted the role of the Marquis d'Obigny superbly. As an A.J. Fletcher scholar, he sang the title role in Donizetti's Belisario in the 2005 University of North Carolina School of the Arts world premiere of the new critical edition [http://cvnc.org/reviews/2005/012005/Belisario.html]. (Belisario deserves to be taken up by professional companies.) Stage Director Kay Castaldo retained the appropriate 19th century Parisian setting for La Traviata, and her arranging of the action was very effective, dramatically. Her staging of Alfredo's encounter with Violetta in Act I beginning with Scene 3 and leading to "Una di felice" ("One Day, A Rapture"), began intimately, with Alfredo on bended knee by Violetta before moving upright for the aria. This was so much more intimately connected than the usual "stand and deliver" approach. Two things seemed like gilding the lily. In Act II, a silent young lady, presumably Alfredo's sister, stands far backstage at the edge of Violetta's street while the elder Germont pulls out all the stops to make Violetta drop his son. In Act III, a carnival dancer in black, perhaps depicting Violetta's delirium or death, takes a whirl with her before almost fading into the stylized walls of her room. Both of these are justifiable dramatically but are they not a bit too much? The chorus was superbly prepared in both singing and acting. Lighting designed by Michael Baumgarten was very effective. The scenery by Lloyd Evans was excellent, from Violetta's salon, with its long, curved grand staircase, to her elaborate country garden in Act II, to the stylized bedroom of Act III. Choreographer Eric Sean Fogel played up the Spanish theme of Flora's Act II party and principal dancers. He and Mahri Relin brought plenty of athleticism and passion to their ensemble dance. Guest conductor Joel Revzen, currently in his 8th season as Artistic Director of Arizona Opera, led a superbly balanced and judged performance. The strings of the Charlotte Symphony glowed and shimmered in Verdi's heart-rending melodies. The woodwinds were strongly characterized, and the trumpets played with extraordinary refinement and subtlety during episodes such as the duet between Violetta and Alfredo toward the end of Act I. Coordination between the pit orchestra and the onstage singers was unusually strong, and the unity of pitch between the two was extraordinary. Edited/corrected 2/7/11. Search CVNC Articles and Events ►Calendar Advanced Search ►Article Advanced Search	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402698
__label__cc	0.749728	0.250272	PEACE Cable Project Enters into Cable and Material Manufacturing Stage October 29, 2018 Africa, Hengtong Group, MENA, Press Release, South Africa SUZHOU, China, Oct. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — PEACE Cable International Network Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of HENGTONG, is pleased to announce today, in conjunction with Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd, that the PEACE Cable project has entered into the cable and material manufacturing stage. The PEACE Cable system spanning 12,000 km will connect Asia, Africa and Europe and is targeted to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2020. Once completed, the high-speed, 200G, 16Tbps per fiber pair PEACE Cable system will offer the shortest routes from China to Europe and Africa, dramatically reducing latency and providing a new information expressway for interconnection between the regions. The system’s open access and carrier neutral data centers will have a big impact in the countries connected to the cable system. This project’s cable being used are from Hengtong Marine Cable Systems, whose submarine cables have been applied globally in recent projects such as the FOA project in Chile, the PNG project in Papua New Guinea, Avassa project in Comoros, the NaSCOM project in the Maldives, the Megacable project in Mexico, and the IGW project in Peru. Sun Xiaohua, Chief Operating Officer of PEACE Cable said, “PEACE Cable has created a new business model in the submarine cable industry that builds a bridge for these regions’ communications and provides connectivity opportunities to players all along the route by investing in the branches and gaining bandwidth on the trunk efficiently.” About PEACE Cable Project PEACE Cable Project is a privately owned cable system of 12,000 km and provides open, flexible and carrier-neutral services for its customers. The system design will adopt the latest 200G technology and WSS technology, which provides the capability to transmit over 16Tbit/s per fiber pair, servicing growing regional capacity needs. This network will provide a cost-effective, diverse route for the escalating demand for capacity among Asia, Africa and Europe, and the topology will substantially reduce network latency by adopting shortest direct route connectivity and enhancing route diversity between them. Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/775365/HENGTONG_peace_cable.jpg CONTACT: Qian Cuihong, +86-13013795273	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402700
__label__wiki	0.840653	0.840653	Amir Khan, Pacquiao showdown unlikely this year ISLAMABAD: Filipino professional Manny Pacquiao has appeared to rule out a possible showdown with British boxer of Pakistan-origin Amir Khan in November, this year. Pacquiao, 40, recently became the oldest welterweight champion in history by defeating Thurman in a split decision at the MGM Grand. Khan claimed earlier in the week that he and Pacquiao had both signed up for a fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 8. But after clinching the 62nd win of his 71-fight professional career against previously-unbeaten American Thurman, Pacquiao said he did not expect to step back into the ring again this year, www.independent.co.uk. reported.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402707
__label__wiki	0.783395	0.783395	Vorläufiges „OK“ der USA zu Joint Venture von American und JAL begrüßt oneworld®, the leading quality airline alliance, has warmly welcomed the decision by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) tentatively to approve the application for anti-trust immunity lodged in February by its member airlines American Airlines and Japan Airlines for their proposed joint business between North America and Asia. The DOT announcement came just hours after American Airlines formally launched its transatlantic joint business with oneworld partners British Airways and Iberia. Subject to final approval by the US DOT - which is subject to the completion of the open skies agreement between Japan and the USA - and to the green light from Japan's Ministry of Infrastructure, Land and Transport American and JAL plan to launch their joint venture in the coming months. Like the transatlantic equivalent, the joint business between American and JAL will deliver big benefits to consumers, with improved flight schedules and route choices, with the airlines more able to launch new routes and sustain existing services. Under the new Japan-US open skies agreement, American Airlines will launch daily flights between New York FJK and Tokyo Haneda from 20 January, while JAL will start dailies between the Japanese capital's downtown airport and Honolulu and San Francisco from 31 October, with the two airlines code-sharing on one another's services. Welcoming the DOT tentative decision, oneworld Managing Partner John McCulloch noted: "Coming just hours after American, British Airways and Iberia formally launched their transatlantic joint venture, this is even more good news for oneworld in what is turning out to be a momentous year for our alliance. Coupled with the expansion in our membership, through the addition on Russia's S7 Airlines, India's Kingfisher Airlines and Germany's Air Berlin, it strengthens oneworld's position still further as the world's premier alliance, enabling us to offer even more benefits, services and value to our customers, making their travel worldwide easier and better value than ever before." Über oneworld oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. Russia's S7 Airlines will join the alliance in 2010 with India's Kingfisher Airlines also a member elect and Air Berlin now lining up to join. Diese Fluggesellschaften: Serve almost 900 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9,500 daily departures. Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers. Carry 340 million passengers a year. Operate a combined fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft. Generate around US$90 billion annual revenues in total. oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges. oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors. oneworld was named the World's Best Alliance two weeks ago in the 2010 World Airline Awards and has been voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the past seven years in the World Travel Awards. It is the only winner of this award since it was introduced in 2003.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402710
__label__wiki	0.947856	0.947856	Latest in Terra Nova Fox Drama ‘Terra Nova’ A No-Go At Netflix Pre-historic drama Terra Nova appears headed to the history books. After two weeks of negotiations, Netflix and Terra Nova producer 20th Century Fox TV could not come to terms on a deal to continue the series on the video streaming service. While 20th TV is not throwing in the towel quite yet as it is not releasing… By Nellie Andreeva Netflix Eyes ABC Drama Series ‘The River’ EXCLUSIVE: Netflix, already in talks with 20th Century Fox TV about possibly picking up recently canceled Fox series Terra Nova, may also be eying another freshman drama facing cancellation: ABC’s The River. I’ve learned that the streaming giant has had conversations with The River producer ABC Studios about the… 'Terra Nova' Co-Star Stephen Lang Calls Fox's Decision To Cancel Series “Myopic” EXCLUSIVE: While Terra Nova star Jason O’Mara took to Twitter moments after Fox cancelled Terra Nova and has been rallying fan support ever since, his co-lead on the show Stephen Lang had not commented on the issue until now. Here is Lang’s reaction to the cancellation in his own words. Meanwhile Terra Nova producer… Mar 8, 2012 5:40 pm Netflix Eyes Cancelled Drama 'Terra Nova' EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is already bringing back one cancelled 20th Century Fox TV series, the Emmy-winning Arrested Development. Now the video streaming giant is taking a look at another, drama Terra Nova. I hear that 20th TV and Netflix have been in talks about keeping the pre-historic drama alive. My sources stress that… 'Terra Nova' Cancelled By Fox: Chernin Series Will Be Shopped To Other Networks UPDATED: There will be no second season of pre-historic drama Terra Nova on Fox. The network’s brass just made the decision after weeks of exploring potential Season 2 tweaks to the series set 85 million years in the past. Fox had to make the decision early so the show could make a fall return if renewed. Despite its… Kevin Reilly On The Future Of 'House', 'Terra Nova' And 'Fringe'; No 'Glee' Spinoff: TCA Fox Launches Animation Unit To Supply Saturday Late-Night Block & Digital Network With so many Fox series in limbo for next season, the network’s entertainment president Kevin Reilly spent the entire TCA executive session fielding questions about the future of veteran medical drama House, low-rated sci-fi drama <a href="https://deadline.com/tag/fringe/" id="auto-tag_fringe"… Jan 8, 2012 12:22 pm Fox’s Difficult ‘Terra Nova’ & ‘House’ Calls UPDATE: Terra Nova Cancelled — Series Being Shopped To Other Networks When Fox’s executives face reporters during the network’s portion of the winter TV Critics Association press tour on Sunday, the futures of two series — freshman Terra Nova and veteran House — are expected to be a popular topic (along with the… 'Terra Nova' Moves To Pick Up Stars Jason O'Mara & Stephen Lang, Add High-Level Writers While Awaiting Renewal Decision Fox has not made a decision on a Terra Nova renewal, but the series’ producers are moving to secure key actors and beef up writer ranks to be ready for production on Season 2. The options on the cast of the prehistoric drama are up on December 31, and I’ve learned that pickups for stars Jason O’Mara and Stephen Lang… RATINGS RAT RACE: 'Terra Nova' Inches Up In Finale, 'Fear Factor' Drops, 'Rock Center' Hits High Against Big 'MNF' Game The two-hour season finale of Fox’s Terra Nova (2.2/6 in adults 18-49, 7.2 million viewers) was up a tenth (5%) among adults 18-49 from last week’s series low and up 4% in total viewers. The performance didn’t boost the prehistoric drama’s renewal chances — but it didn’t hurt them either. With Terra Nova, Fox (2.2/6… Ratings Rat Race: CBS' Repeats Top Night CBS’ all-rerun lineup dominated every hour last night against mostly original competition. A repeat of rookie 2 Broke Girls (3.3/8, 9.2 million) was the top program of the night in adults 18-49, while an encore Two And A Half Men (3.1/7, 9.7 million) was the most watched. Reruns of How I Met Your Mother (2.9/8, 8… RATINGS RAT RACE: 'You Deserve It' Off To Soft Start, 'Rock Center' Hits Series Low With Thanksgiving trips and meals on viewers’ minds, watching TV is taking a back seat as most programs last night were down week-to-week. Additionally, ABC’s lineup is headed to a downward adjustment in the finals as its fast nationals were inflated by local NFL pre-emptions. Even with that, Part 1 of the season… RATINGS RAT RACE: CBS Series & NBC's 'Rock Center' Rise, Fox Dramas Slide CBS’ Monday lineup posted across-the-board gains for a second straight week. How I Met Your Mother (4.5/12 in adults 18-49, 10.4 million total viewers) was up a tenth in 18-49 from last Monday, 2 Broke Girls (4.8/12, 11.7 million) was up 7% from its fast national last week to post its best 18-49 rating in the 8:30 PM…	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402711
__label__wiki	0.608809	0.608809	Loser League Playoff Challenge Meet the Outsiders (new) Meet the Outsiders (old) Fantasy football, the Loser League, and general goofiness "Best-Case Scenario" on Mahomes Injury Injury Proneness of Running QBs is Overstated Jaguars Trade CB Ramsey to Rams Rams Trade CB Peters to Ravens Injury Aftermath: Week 6 NFL Big Data Bowl 2020 Washington Fires Jay Gruden ESPN Upset Watch: Eagles-Cowboys ESPN Upset Watch: 49ers-Rams ESPN: Are the 49ers For Real? ESPN Upset Watch: Cardinals-Bengals ESPN: Best Defensive Starts Ever ESPN Upset Watch: Titans-Falcons ESPN: The New Wave of NFL QB Talent ESPN Upset Watch: Browns-Rams FO Fantasy Podcast: October 17 Off The Charts Podcast: October 17 FO Fantasy Podcast: October 8 Off The Charts Podcast: October 3 Scramble for the Ball: 2019 North Over/Unders Photo: USA Today Sports Images 21 Aug 2019, 10:10am by Follow Email Archive by Bryan Knowles and Andrew Potter Andrew: Hello again and welcome to Scramble for the Ball, where this week your humble Scramble team laments/celebrates (delete as applicable) the demise of the Great Northern Houses of Old. Last year was the first time since 2006 that neither the Packers nor the Steelers made the postseason, whether as a division winner or a wild card. In their stead, the Baltimore Ravens took the AFC North for the first time since their improbable 2012 Super Bowl-winning season, and the Chicago Bears won the NFC North for the first time since the Lovie Smith era (2010). The strong potential for different champions in both divisions this year makes this probably the most interesting pair of divisions on our compass-point whistle-stop tour. Bryan: Yeah, the big question in the northern divisions are whether last year was a fluke, or if we've seen an actual, factual changing of the guard. Many fans of the North would like to pretend the most recent season never happened, and are instead waiting for a better sequel to their favorite show. I meant "teams." I have no idea why I typed "show" there. Andrew: And you had the cheek to call me out... Note: "Last Over" and "Last Under" below list the last time each team went over this year's over/under number. Andrew: This division is traditionally quite suited to adapting the old Gary Lineker quote about soccer as "a simple game -- 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win." Substitute 90 minutes for 17 weeks, and Germans for Steelers, and you get the general idea. However, it should be noted all three professional franchises in this division have won it at least once in the past four seasons, and each of those three has also made the playoffs as a wild card over the same period. This is one of the most competitive divisions in the sport, not just because of the variability in the standings, but also the ... let's be polite and say "no holds barred" mentality of most of the divisional encounters. Bryan: Interesting -- I'm not sure I would have used the phrase "most competitive" here, but I do think it's one of the more fascinating divisions this season. I have a fairly heavy favorite to win the division, but again, the three professional teams playing all have really interesting potential, and even the moribund franchise from Ohio at least has some good storylines going for them. And it isn't even the same moribund franchise from Ohio! Viva la change. Last Over: 2018 (Head Coach: John Harbaugh, Quarterback: Joe Flacco) Last Under: 2015 (John Harbaugh, Joe Flacco) Bryan: Talking about the Ravens without talking about Joe Flacco is weird. Refreshing, but weird. Andrew: The Ravens might be the most curious and even the most variable team in the league this year. It seems like everybody has an opinion on the new quarterback in town, for better or worse, and naturally everybody's assessment of the team is heavily skewed by their opinions on the merits or demerits of that young passer. Bryan: I know preseason doesn't matter (and as a 49ers fan, I am very, very pleased that preseason doesn't matter), but Lamar Jackson and the Ravens' offense has looked a bit more traditional so far. That's good -- not because the Ravens will be more boring, no; I assume they're saving the quarterback runs and whatnot for situations that actually matter. But because it's showing that Jackson has improved as a passer so far, which was vital for the Ravens to repeat last year's success. Jackson running around like Madden NFL 2004 Michael Vick is a lot of fun, but it's nice to see him progressing in 2010s football rather than 1920s style. No, I'm far more concerned about the defense and its mass exodus of talent than I am about the offense. Andrew: Isn't "mass exodus" overselling things a touch? They've lost some big-name veterans, but they haven't exactly been slouches about replacing at least one of those. There aren't many teams who could lose a player of Eric Weddle's caliber and still come out with an upgrade, but that might just be what the Ravens have achieved this summer. Bryan: The Ravens had the second-most loss in AV over replacement on defense since 2003, trailing just the 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, per Football Outsiders Almanac 2019 (cheap plug!). C.J. Mosley, Terrell Suggs, Eric Weddle, Za'Darius Smith, Brent Urban … Earl Thomas is great, of course, but that's a lot of talent to replace in one go. And if the defense crumbles, even an increase on offense might not be enough to save them -- remember, their big run at the end of last season came on the back of the second-ranked defensive DVOA in the league over the last seven weeks. Andrew: Yet I look at the current defensive roster and don't exactly see a lot of holes. In theory, that looks awfully like the best secondary in the league to me -- perhaps a dead heat with Weddle's new employers -- and the Ravens are past masters at replacing departed defensive starters with players they'd developed specifically for that situation. Losing Suggs hurts the edge rush rotation, and they might miss his veteran presence, but Suggs is only five months younger than me, for pity's sake. They were always going to have to make a move there eventually. Bryan: True, but making all those moves at the same time is the issue -- you'd prefer to phase out contributors on a more staggered basis than suddenly "Pop! Surprise, new defense." I still think the defense is going to be good, mind you, but the difference between a good Baltimore defense and a great Baltimore defense might be the difference between January football and January tee times. Andrew: It's interesting that the only two seasons since 1998 (!) that the Ravens have missed the top ten in defensive DVOA are the two seasons Suggs has missed time with an Achilles injury (2012 and 2015), but that record of success to me speaks volumes about the quality of the coaching there -- not just the head coach, as this covers the Brian Billick era too, but the general development and coaching of defensive players. I fully expect the Ravens to be fine at worst, and really much better than fine on defense. If they aren't, then they'll be in a tough spot, but this is a staff that has only failed to reach eight wins once in 11 seasons. It's quite easy to find eight wins on their schedule if -- and I fully accept that this is a fairly major "if" -- Lamar Jackson and company keep up their end of the bargain, and I think there's more room for this team to go over that than under. I doubt they'll go much over -- think 9-7, not 11-5 -- but I'm happy to gamble on that given their long-term record. Over. Bryan: Despite my worries, I tend to agree with you. I think their ceiling is higher than their floor is low, and a .500 record isn't the most difficult mark in the world to hit. I don't expect them to be up with the Super Bowl contenders or anything, but I've got them penciled in as a playoff team myself. Over. Cincinnati Bengals (5.5) Last Over: 2018 (Marvin Lewis, Andy Dalton) Last Under: 2010 (Marvin Lewis, Carson Palmer) Bryan: The Cincinnati Bengals have played exactly one season in the AFC North without Marvin Lewis as their head coach. That is insane. Andrew: There are many, many reasons why that is insane, not least of which is the feeling that Lewis had been living on borrowed time for … actually, for years now, even during their recent five-year streak of playoff appearances. The only thing that made Lewis' departure in January anything of a surprise is the fact that the team finally moved on. Though 2016-2018 was the first time they had recorded three straight losing seasons, Lewis' teams always gave the impression of a wild-card defeat being pretty much their absolute ceiling -- an impression that proved true in the end. Bryan: And now they come crashing back down, where even a wild-card defeat would seem far, far greater than people are giving them credit for -- this is tied for the second-lowest line in the league, just ahead of Miami's 4.5. It's not unusual for us to be talking about an Ohio team with no chance of making the playoffs; it's just odd that it's the one in stripes. They haven't finished 5-11 or worse in Andy Dalton's tenure, so we're talking about expectations for the bottom to fall out entirely. Not that is necessarily a bad thing after the last three seasons of, shall we say, mediocrity, but it's just kind of a weird paradigm shift. Andrew: The line does seem quite low for a team that, for all its flaws, does still have plenty of talent on the roster. A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd aren't the worst pair of targets, Joe Mixon is a talented back, Carlos Dunlap could be a very good edge rusher, they have a strong track record in the secondary -- this isn't a Dolphins or Cardinals situation, where in many cases all you have is the hope that somebody's going to show up. The offensive line is the biggest worry, because they're going through left guards like Spinal Tap drummers and a poor line amplifies all of Andy Dalton's worst traits, but there are enough pieces in place here to make a serious run at 7-9. Bryan: Print that on some posters and sell those season tickets! Bengals fans hope that new coach Zac Taylor can bring some of that Sean McVay magic over to Cincinnati, but the dude has barely even been an offensive coordinator on any level (like, five minutes in Miami and one year in college). Taylor working with Dalton, to see if he can be more than an average quarterback? Sounds good. Taylor working with the entire team? Color me skeptical. This is the only team we're looking at today that I can't see making the playoffs in any scenario -- there's a lot of rebuilding work to be done here; a lot of bad draft picks leading to a fairly weak roster overall. That being said, to go under 5.5 wins, you have to be utterly devoid of talent, like Miami. I don't think Cincinnati is going to go much better than 6-10 or so, but that's enough to get them over a very, very small line. This is going to be a year of rebuilding; of evaluating what's left and beginning a plan to reshape the team. That's good in the long run, bad for now. Andrew: As the rest of what I said here probably communicated, I agree. The Bengals don't look good, but they really don't look that bad either. 6-10 or 7-9 looks about right; that's a very slight over, but still an over. Last Over: 2007 (Romeo Crennel, Derek Anderson) Last Under: 2018 (Hue Jackson, Baker Mayfield) Bryan: 2007! The last time the Browns were as good as everyone thinks they're going to be this year, they got the benefit of one of the flukiest quarterback seasons in history and then immediately crashed back down to Earth. Since then, they've yet to have even a .500 season. We've seen some atypical historical lines this offseason, but this one not only takes the cake, but the entire Baker-y. Andrew: The Browns have a ton of talent. A massive amount of talent. They're also somehow still slated to be starting Jarvis Landry at wide receiver and Greg Robinson at left tackle, which tells me that the roster building is not quite finished yet. There's a lot to like here, but this is a team that has won more than nine games exactly once in its 20-year history -- ignoring the weird new-Browns/old-Browns franchiseyness thing. Bryan: But if we ignore the new-Browns/old-Browns thing, we can't note that the second-to-last time the Browns beat this mark, their head coach was Bill Belichick! The sheer extent of the Factory of Sadness is awe-inspiring. Like one of those massive prehistoric chalk pictures you can't really get a full picture of without an aerial camera. Andrew: I was about to mention that Derek Anderson has no bearing on this year's team; the Belichick era might as well be the Byzantine era as far as Baker Mayfield and company are concerned. Even the Hue Jackson reign is just a millstone they're glad to finally be able to shed. Still, this is a huge amount of hype for a young team in a tough division under a first-year head coach, playing for a franchise that hasn't had a postseason appearance since before MySpace even existed. Bryan: And you have to go back to Martyball to find any extended period of success. So, yeah, Vegas is asking us to believe quite a lot when they put this line up at nine wins. I can't do it. Not yet. And it's not just because of historical malaise or anything like that. I like Baker. I like OBJ. I am not sure about the offensive line. I don't see a replacement for Kevin Zeitler -- I'm not sold on Austin Corbett. Relying on Greg Robinson on the blind side has not, historically, been a key to success. I'm not sure I fully agree with our projections of the Browns' defense regressing, though all the reasons why (turnover luck, terrible tackling) make sense. I dunno. Asking me to buy a 10-6 team in Cleveland? It's not impossible (and when was the last time we could say that?), but that's a heck of a pill to try to swallow. I've gotta take the under. Andrew: If this line was even half a game lower, I could maybe, maybe be persuaded. Wins against the Dolphins, Cardinals, Bengals, Bills at home, maybe the Titans on opening day ... it's possible to see how that could come. Like a bad MOBA player though, I refuse to push, and the world is not ready for the 10-win Cleveland Browns. I'll be quite happy if I'm wrong on this one, but the line is at last a game and a half too high for my liking. Under. Last Over: 2018 (Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger) Last Under: 2013 (Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger) Bryan: So this is how the Killer Bs end ... not with a whimper, but with a bang. The trio of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Le'Veon Bell never even reached a Super Bowl, much less won one. They played together in just three postseason games, not including the 2016 AFC Championship Game when Bell had to leave early. It is surprising that a group that talented could never get it all together at the same time, bad luck or no bad luck. Andrew: Now, minus two of those B's, the Steelers aren't generating nearly the same buzz. That is perplexing; the Steelers have only gone consecutive seasons without making the playoffs once this century. They haven't had a losing record since 2003. They've only missed out on the DVOA top ten twice over that same period -- the two 8-8 seasons that made up that two-year playoff absence. Ben Roethlisberger has been a top-ten quarterback for a decade now; the offense has been top-eight for five straight years. The Steelers are perennially good, occasionally excellent, yet they aren't clear favorites for the division. I'm not sure I understand that. Bryan: It seems like people want to make this Lamar vs. Baker, and that seems to be an exciting potential for the 2020s ... but it's not like Big Ben crumbled into dust last season or something. And at least the Steelers can move on from last year's drama, with Bell's contract in New York and Brown's helmet in Oakland. I don't think James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster are as good as Bell and Brown, but they are at least very solid replacements, with James Washington serving well as a replacement to Smith-Schuster. People are writing off the Steelers too early; they would have been in the playoffs if Mike Tomlin had started a healthy Roethlisberger against Oakland. ... Mike Tomlin is not the world's greatest coach, is what I'm saying here. Andrew: Neither is he the worst. We've had more than enough Mike Tomlin arguments on this site for one lifetime. Fun Steelers random fact: Ryan Switzer had the second-best catch rate in NFL history (minimum 40 targets) last season. Ryan Switzer finished with -11.1% DVOA. The offense, for all its production, would probably benefit from some strategic tweaking, and that is the one area that does not seem to be Tomlin's strength. Bryan: Randy Fichtner kept up a lot of the sins from the Todd Haley era, including the damnable love of receiver screens on third down -- Brown was targeted on a league-leading 25 screens, and JuJu was tied for fourth with 18 of his own. Combine that with a very unbalanced pass/run ratio -- we're in favor of passing whenever possible, but the Steelers attempted 45 more passes than any other team in football, and threw the ball a league-leading 67 percent of the time -- and it felt like the Steelers didn't get the most out of their offense last year. I think you're dead on -- some strategic tweaking can, and will, go a long way. And, I mean, they were still sixth in offensive DVOA last season; they basically lost out on the playoffs on the margins. I don't see the Steelers having a losing season in 2019. 8-8 maybe, and 9-7 seems possible, but there's just not a lot of room on the under here for me. I think they rebound quite nicely in a quieter and less drama-filled year, get to double-digit wins, win the division, and lose to New England in the playoffs. You know, like they're supposed to. Over. Andrew: We really should disagree at some point, but that pretty much covers it. I'd describe their absence from the playoffs last year as a fluke result of some things that went much worse than expected, and 8-8 has been an absolute worst-case scenario for most of the past two coaching regimes. When 8-8 is the floor, there's not a lot of room for the under. Over. Bryan: This is the second division we've covered so far where I feel any of the four teams could make the playoffs, and any of the four teams could stay at home. Unlike the NFC West, however, where it was because everyone had potential and the division seemed prime to produce multiple playoff teams, this is a much bigger ball of mediocrity, and someone has to win the division, right? I mean, we've looked into that, and that is definitely an NFL requirement, yeah? Andrew: I dunno, I think you're doing the division something of a disservice there. None of the teams has a case for being considered elite, certainly, but three of them have a strong case for being pretty good, and two playoff teams from this division wouldn't be a total shock. Bryan: I don't know, either! But if that strange person from the future who keeps coming back and giving me cryptic messages about the 2019 NFL season throughout these over/under articles told me there would be an 8-8 division winner, this is the division I would peg. It sounds like we will finally, at long last, have some disagreement here! Fun times! Last Over: 2018 (Matt Nagy, Mitchell Trubisky) Last Under: 2017 (John Fox, Mitchell Trubisky) I am picturing this to "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof, and I am cracking up. — Bryan Knowles (@BryKno) June 10, 2019 Andrew: Are you sure this isn't just the 2017-2018 Jaguars with a new paint job? Like really sure, empirically verified and everything? Star pass-rusher came over from a West division bottom-feeder and immediately made a solid defensive front into the best pass rush in the league? Check. Lead the league in turnovers? Check. Way healthier than average by adjusted games lost? You betcha. Creative, but still run-focused offense intent on limiting the young quarterback's opportunity to make mistakes? Check. Said highly drafted quarterback being athletically gifted and mobile, but erratic with accuracy and decisions? Yep. Allen Robinson as prospective No. 1 receiver? All checks out so far. That does not typically bode as well as most prognosticators seem to think it does. Bryan: Living in Chicago this offseason, you would have thought that the '85 Bears were back in town. You can't blame Bears fans; last season was arguably their best year since their Super Bowl run in 2006 (though their 2012 playoff-less season actually had a higher DVOA). They seem to have forgotten what happened immediately after said Super Bowl run, but you know, you can't blame a fanbase for getting pumped after a good year. You can blame them for saying things like Mitch Trubisky being better than Aaron Rodgers, mind you. That's totally fair game to blame people for; it's a Bill Swerski Superfan-level opinion. Andrew: The question with the Bears this year is the same as the question with the Jaguars last year. It isn't "will they regress?" so much as "how far, and what will be the knock-on effects?" A little progress from Mitchell Trubisky shunting the offense into the top half of the league would go a long way toward offsetting a defensive regression that usually finds the previous Big Leap Forward No. 1 defense settling just outside the top five. As we saw with Blake Bortles last year, however, that progress cannot be guaranteed -- it's just as possible that the added pressure and less favorable game scripts could expose the quarterback's flaws, and regression on multiple fronts could snowball into a bad season. There is more reason for optimism for Trubisky than for Bortles, but the situations are not entirely dissimilar. Bryan: Trubisky better make those strides, because I think the Bears defense will drop even more than traditional regression would indicate. Losing Vic Fangio and his flotilla of assistants hurts; Chuck Pagano walks into a room filled with talent, but when you change defensive philosophies, it takes time for everyone to get on the same page. That might be just six weeks or so, and the Bears will be back up near full strength by season's end, but it's a concern. The secondary is also a concern, with Adrian Amos and Bryce Callahan leaving. Trubisky and the offense are going to have to take another significant jump -- he's going to have to be more accurate and read defenses better, and a little bit of extra consistency would go a long way, too. I do not, even in the best-case scenario, see the Bears matching their 12-4 record from a year ago. That's not to say the under is a foregone conclusion or anything, but I think Chicago fans are going to get a significant reality check. It will take a while -- the schedule starts out soft, and a 4-1 record at the bye isn't out of the question -- but the Saints-Chargers-Eagles run immediately after the bye will help sort the contenders from, well … Under. Andrew: This is a story we've seen a few times recently, with the Jaguars as the most high-profile recent example. I don't expect the Bears to collapse quite that far, but I don't expect them to make the playoffs either. Nine wins is too high for a team that is primed for regression toward the mean. Under. Last Over: 2017 (Jim Caldwell, Matthew Stafford) Last Under: 2018 (Matt Patricia, Matthew Stafford) Bryan: It is Football Outsiders Orthodoxy this year that the Lions are going to be Better Than You Think. We called them the most likely team to go from worst to first, and while some of that is due to less-than-superb predictions for the rest of the division, our numbers really do think Detroit is an actual, factual good team. Do you buy it? Andrew: Of course I buy it. I buy our projections every year, in paperback. I ... you know what? I could be persuaded. I really, really like the Lions' personnel on offense. Matthew Stafford has never really been one of the very best quarterbacks, but he's consistently on the fringe of the top third of starters. Kenny Golladay is a potential impact player, and Golladay's emergence as a No. 1 would have me feeling really good about their receiver group. Well, the top end of it at least. I like their offense line, and I'm not sure there's a bigger No. 2 running back upgrade in the league than the Lions going from washed-up LeGarrette Blount to December MVP C.J. Anderson. If there's an issue here, it's depth, and you just never know how much depth will be needed and how it will look until you get there. In theory, this should be at worst the second-best offense in the division. Bryan: There are a lot of Interesting Statistical Reasons for the defense to improve, too -- things like this being the second year of a new defensive scheme, helping override some of the regression from a year ago, or low turnover luck presumably improving just by random chance. Those are always the hardest bits of improvement to really buy into -- it's not adding Top Cornerback Jones or Pass-Rusher McGee, but it's historically accurate, notwithstanding. Andrew: Though a hypothetical 16 games of Trey Flowers is a considerable improvement over a hobbled-when-here Ezekiel Ansah. Bryan: I also like Rashaan Melvin perhaps a bit more than is justified thanks to his injury history. So yes, they've also added talent. Andrew: Melvin, Quandre Diggs, and Darius Slay is three-fifths of a very decent secondary, again assuming decent health. This isn't your talent-starved Lions teams of yore. I like the top of the roster better than I did the Jim Caldwell squads that had three winning seasons in four years. Bryan: That defense may rise to the level of being semi-competent, which would be a pleasant change over the past four years or so. They may be a year away from being more than that, but they added a bunch of talent in the draft; it looks like they at least have a plan there, which is more than we can say about the Caldwell-era defenses. Stafford has a bunch of new toys to play with -- Danny Amendola, Jermaine Kearse, T.J. Hockenson, Jesse James … we're not talking about superstars, but I think they've quietly put together something pretty promising. Maybe not greater than 8-8 promising, but last time I checked, eight was a larger number than seven. Over. Andrew: For me, the question is, "can I find the wins on the schedule?" They have a very rough opening quarter even allowing for the Cardinals in Phoenix, and I would not be a bit surprised to see them sitting at 1-3 ahead of a very early bye. Any better than that, and they're in business: giving them 3-3 in the division plus losses in Philadelphia and a tough December trip to Denver, they'd need to upset at least one of the Chargers, Chiefs, and Cowboys in Detroit to get them over the hump. Still, unless they flunk the division entirely, seven wins is the bare minimum from this schedule, so anything better than the hypothetical worst-case takes them over, even if only slightly. Last Over: 2016 (Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers) Last Under: 2018 (Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers) Bryan: One of the more interesting arguments floating around Analytical Twitter this offseason (Join us! We have the best parties!) is whether or not Aaron Rodgers is actually, you know, good anymore. Or at least, if he's Aaron Rodgers-level good. Fivethirtyeight published a whole piece on his perceived decline, and others have been comparing him to players like Matt Ryan, implying that Rodgers' reputation has not been backed up by his play on the field since 2014 or so. Andrew: We love you, Ben! Seahawks Twitter has even better parties than the rest of Football Analytics Twitter. I'm by no means an expert on either Aaron Rodgers or sports psychology, but it's fair to look at the number of stories doing the rounds from the last few years of Mike McCarthy and wonder what exactly has been going on behind the scenes. Aaron Rodgers has shown in the playoffs that he is still frighteningly good when at his best, whether that's a question of improved gameplanning, motivation, or simply the one-and-done format that often favors a certain personality type. It's very fair to question whether a rookie head coach who has all of one year of play-calling experience will be the man who can bend Aaron Rodgers to his will. If he can, I wouldn't bet against the Packers for anything. Division titles. Conference championships. Trips to Florida. You name it. If he can't... Bryan: There has been some offseason friction between Rodgers and new coach Matt LaFleur, but it's hard to tell how much of that is an Actual Thing and how much is just usual offseason stuff after a disappointing 2018. I tend to think it's just so much sound and fury, signifying nothing, but it's something to at least keep an eye on after Rodgers and McCarthy ended up falling out so hard. You say that when Rodgers is at his best, the Packers can do anything. I don't disagree, but Rodgers hasn't been at his best for at least two years now. Yes, he has had injury concerns and whatnot, but even when healthy, he just doesn't look like the guy who was in the argument for best quarterback in football at the beginning of the decade. A boost in morale for finally getting dragged out of the McCarthy era is great, but I question how far it will actually go. Andrew: The Packers finished seventh in offensive DVOA last year. It's not like Rodgers suddenly forgot how to play, even if he isn't the same soul-crushing juggernaut week in and week out. And while I agree with Ben Baldwin about the comparison between Rodgers and Matt Ryan, that's partly because I believe Matt Ryan is much, much better than he ever got credit for outside that one MVP campaign. The problem in Green Bay, however, isn't the offense, and hasn't been the offense. They haven't had a defense rank higher than 20th in DVOA since 2015, and have only one top-ten defense in the past five years. If Rodgers is being brought back to Earth by anything, it's the Drew Brees effect. I believe in Mike Pettine's ability to fix that in his second year, but it dropped to an even worse level than usual in his first. Bryan: It has to be better, right? There's no way the defense can repeat a year as bad as they had last year; if they do, double-digit losses might be in the cards. Bringing in Preston Smith and Za'Darius Smith to bolster the pass rush has to help, and Rashan Gary has potential (if not college production). They did nothing at linebacker, and I'm not sure what their secondary plans are, but a pass rush helps cure a lot of woes. Still, I don't know. I don't like the defense to rebound. I don't like the offense to get back to that top-five level people expect from Rodgers. This is one place where I'm zigging away from our general projections, which has the Packers as a top-ten team. I'm going with the under, though a push seems more realistic. Andrew: I like the defense to be considerably better than it was last year, with another season of Pettine getting his pieces arranged and his players up to speed. I love the addition of Adrian Amos to the secondary. Matt LaFleur will be smarter than Mike McCarthy about using his best players in their best roles, and will run an offense more in keeping with the modern NFL. There's a lot to like about the roster, even if it does have some holes (particularly in the defensive front), so unless the coach is considerably worse than I expect him to be I would expect at least playoff contention. Nine wins is a tough bar to clear, but I don't see where this schedule gives them fewer than eight. The upside's more plentiful than the downside, which pushes me a tiny smidge over on a tough line. Bryan: Disagreement! At last! See, we're not a hive mind. Kind of. Minnesota Vikings (9) Last Over: 2017 (Mike Zimmer, Case Keenum) Last Under: 2018 (Mike Zimmer, Kirk Cousins) Andrew: If Washington was the low-budget edition, and Denver was the slightly bigger edition, then Minnesota is the AAA edition of the defense-minded team hoping to get enough from its offense to take advantage. A team paying this much to its starting quarterback really ought not to be in the "hoping for enough" bracket there, but here we are. Bryan: Kirk Cousins was better than his numbers showed last year, I thought. Yeah, he was middle-of-the-pack in DVOA and DYAR, and that's not why Minnesota gave him that huge guaranteed contract; a couple mediocre years in a row have Vikings fans understandably miffed. But he was second in the league in passing +/- and third in Next Gen Stats' completion rate above expectation. It wasn't Cousins' fault; it was that offensive line and some questionable coordination. I'd expect Cousins to bounce back some this year. Andrew: It's fair to ask what that "bounce back" would look like, though. Cousins has four seasons as a full-time starter, and has ranked sixth, fifth, 18th, and 19th in DVOA. The biggest difference between the former two and the latter two appears to have just moved from Tampa Bay to Philadelphia. Sure, Minnesota's offensive line was bad last year, but it was even worse the year before and hasn't approached decent in quite some time. Color me skeptical that Josh Kline is the solution to what ails the Vikings offensive front. Now if Cousins does ascend toward the top ten in DVOA, then we're talking about a team with real potential. As currently constructed, the Vikings have an argument to be the most complete defense, man-for-man, in the league. We have three straight years of them being in the top ten in DVOA; only they and the Ravens can lay claim to that. Bryan: That is a bold claim, and I like it. I'd at least have them at the top of the NFC -- sorry, Bears fans -- and Mike Zimmer is exceptional at keeping his defenses ticking, despite losing Sheldon Richardson and Andrew Sendejo, etc. Andrew: The Vikings were also roughly average by adjusted games lost and turnover rate, which are two of our regression indicators. They did have a very high adjusted sack rate in 2018, but were average in 2017 and still posted a superior defensive DVOA. There's a lot to like here. However, there was a lot to like last year too, and 8-7-1 didn't cut it. Bryan: I really do think it comes down to the offensive line. Sacks might be a quarterback stat, but pressures are on the line, and no team in the league blew more blocks last season than Minnesota's 141. (Denver was second with 110.) They couldn't pass-block; they couldn't run-block; they got dominated in power situations. If they can bounce back towards even belo- average, I think the Vikings can win the division. I don't think they'll bounce back. I'm taking the under. Andrew: Nine makes this a tough line. As you frequently note, it's asking whether I think 8-8 or 10-6 is more likely. The answer is "no, I think 9-7 is more likely." Bryan: Whole-number lines are terrible and should have been banned in the Treaty of Versailles. Andrew: My general approach to this division this year is to give each team 3-3 against each other and try to find the rest of the wins elsewhere. Based on that, I have 8-8 as the rough floor for Minnesota -- they have a lot of winnable home games. The trouble is that 10-6 is the rough ceiling, as they have a lot of losable road games. Minnesota is the closest to a complete team in this division, and has the talent to claw out a couple of extra wins from the toughest games on their schedule. I have zero conviction about this whatsoever -- I expect it's the most dart-throw pick I'm going to make in this entire series -- but I'll talk myself into the over for the third time in the division. Bryan: One of us is going to be very wrong with the general direction this division is heading in; I wouldn't be surprised if the division winner had at least seven losses. Andrew: Neither would I, but every line but one is drawn at exactly that 9-7 mark. I can easily see three 9-7 teams here, or a couple at 9-7 and an 8-8. I don't, however, think 8-8 will be enough to take the division; there are too many games against the Raiders and Giants and Washingtonians and, well, each other for that. I'll be glad to see the back of this division, for sure. Next week should be much easier to predict, as we head to the (checks notes) South ... ah dangit. Bryan: What, not excited to think about the Jaguars and Buccaneers of the world? Florida football is fantastic, right? Andrew: We get to talk Andrew Luck mystery injuries, Cam Newton's shoulder, and whether the Saints can recover from a crazy playoff exit. It's the land that time forgot! Bryan: So stay tuned for that as we finish up our over/unders next week! 25 comments, Last at 26 Aug 2019, 6:37pm 1 re: NFC North by justanothersteve // Aug 21, 2019 - 1:14pm I agree the NFC North may be the toughest to figure. I can easily see scenarios for any team winning 10-12 games and scenarios for at least three of them only winning 5-6 games (the only exception would be the Vikings). The writers are accurate in saying the NFC North is a bunch of 7-9 win teams. Detroit may be least likely to win the division, but it is more likely than any of the other lowest ranked teams in any division. Detroit gets the last-place schedule, so Cards and Buccs rather than a likely playoff contender. I'd love to be as optimistic about the Packers as raiderjoe is about his team, but I'm having a hard time seeing it. I think there's a good chance the offense will click again. The RBs look better and last year's rookie WR group has significantly improved (except Moore who looks likely to be cut unless he shows something before the end of camp). The disagreements between Rodgers and LaFleur are largely media hype, especially as reported by Vikings fan/ provocateur Mike Florio. LaFleur has been overly paranoid about playing his offense in the preseason, so the preseason offense has been beyond vanilla with mediocre-on-a-good-day DeShone Kizer mostly running it. (Camp QB #3 Tim Boyle will at best be practice squad and it wouldn't be surprising if they got another QB2 or QB3.) There's a lot of depth except at QB and LT so even a couple injuries shouldn't derail the offense. However there are major concerns about the defense. While few starters have played much, the complete inability to tackle is more than concerning. They should not have cut Mike Daniels; he would not have tolerated this and he would have been harder on the players than any coach. His locker room absence has been noticeable. (The Lions were very smart to sign him.) They may be starting a UDFA at ILB next to Martinez (who hasn't played much this preseason and can tackle). They will also likely start first round pick Savage at FS. They don't have any depth down the middle so a couple injuries would cascade this defense down to last year's levels quickly even with an improved pass rush from the Smiths and Gary. There was talk of cutting K Mason Crosby to save money. Fortunately, that talk has died down as Sam Ficken looks like another strong leg with accuracy issues. Despite Crosby's horrors in Detroit last year and blowing another important kick, his season accuracy was about the same. Both the long snapper and holder were new last year so hopefully that will be more consistent. The Packers cutting Crosby could make the kicker position as unstable as the Vikes and Bears have recently been. Unrelated comment: There's been surprising talk among the Packers press the last few days that given Rodgers age, injury history, and this season's back issues that the Packers should draft a QB in the first couple rounds next year (or 2021 at the latest). If Rodgers goes down again and the Packers go 6-10 or so with Kizer, there will be even more pressure with Tua, Herbert, and Jake Fromm all available. If this happens, it could be the Favre retirement melodrama with Twitter overdrive. Maybe Elway will take in another old QB. 4 "...it could be the Favre… by JoeyHarringtonsPiano // Aug 21, 2019 - 2:30pm In reply to re: NFC North by justanothersteve "...it could be the Favre retirement melodrama with Twitter overdrive." God, I hope not. I still have PTSD from Ed Werder camping outside of Favre's house and giving us daily reports. 2 Enjoyable read, but one… by Guest789 // Aug 21, 2019 - 1:24pm Enjoyable read, but one sentence in particular confused me: "They're also somehow still slated to be starting Jarvis Landry at wide receiver and Greg Robinson at left tackle, which tells me that the roster building is not quite finished yet." Is Jarvis Landry no longer considered a starting caliber WR? I've viewed him for a few years as a strong WR2/borderline WR1. 6 By DVOA and DYAR he is not… by ChrisS // Aug 21, 2019 - 2:36pm In reply to Enjoyable read, but one… by Guest789 By DVOA and DYAR he is not very good. His ranks by DVOA for 2018-2015; 79th, 59th 21st, 63rd and by DYAR: 83rd, 46th, 26th, 57th. By traditional stats he has lots of receptions (100/yr over the same period) but a low catch rate (65%) on pretty short average passes (7yds/target). He has also made the Pro Bowl (cough cough .....) the last 4 years. 7 Not the best for sure, but… In reply to By DVOA and DYAR he is not… by ChrisS Not the best for sure, but also not by those DVOA rankings he's a low-end #2 WR. Not ideal, but not someone you desperately need to replace. Hardly the same level of roster red flag as Greg Robinson at LT. 18 There's also a reasonable… by Noah Arkadia // Aug 24, 2019 - 12:28pm In reply to Not the best for sure, but… by Guest789 There's also a reasonable expectation that lower usage will result in better performance. And it's not his fault he has gotten so many targets on WR screens. I agree with you that Landry is definitely a guy you want starting on your football team. 3 "The Ravens had the second… "The Ravens had the second-most loss in AV over replacement on defense since 2003 ... C.J. Mosley, Terrell Suggs, Eric Weddle, Za'Darius Smith, Brent Urban" Weddle and Suggs were 2nd & 3rd best of this group by AV and at their ages (34 & 36) it is unlikely they will reproduce those numbers. Mosley will be missed and Urban has potential but only one good season (last year AV 9, career AV 14). 5 Obviously I hope you guys… Obviously I hope you guys are right about the Lions, but I'm not so sure. On paper they have a decent team that should have an 8-8 floor, and maybe double digit wins with injury/close game luck, but I remain highly skeptical of Matt Patricia's coaching ability. That's the one wildcard that can throw a real wrench in your projections. I'm also secretly worried that Stafford is at the beginning of the Matt Schaub/Jake Delhomme trajectory of previously above-average QB who becomes toast as he hits his 30's. 9 As a Lions fan I am always… In reply to Obviously I hope you guys… by JoeyHarringtonsPiano As a Lions fan I am always skeptical of any good projections of the Lions. But I agree that they seem to have some pretty good players on the roster and there is a possibility that Patricia can improve as a coach (not sure he could get worse). 10 I guess the dead cat bounce… In reply to As a Lions fan I am always… by ChrisS I guess the dead cat bounce could work for coaches, too. He has no excuse this year. There's much more talent on the roster than what Caldwell had to work with during his last two 9-7 years. 12 I'm not sure there's any… by LionInAZ // Aug 22, 2019 - 5:55pm In reply to I guess the dead cat bounce… by JoeyHarringtonsPiano I'm not sure there's any space for a Lion HC anymore. Jim Schwartz got canned because he was too nuts, even though he built a tough D and got them to the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. Caldwell got canned because he wasn't nuts enough (too Lovie Smith, I guess), even after taking them back to the playoffs. Now we're pursuing the "Patriot Way" in spite of evidence that the Belichick coach tree is barren. I guess Caldwell could have kneecapped Stafford to entice Peyton Manning away from Denver for a year. Mike McCarthy got lots more time despite his coaching deficiencies. 14 "Mike McCarthy got lots more… In reply to I'm not sure there's any… by LionInAZ "Mike McCarthy got lots more time despite his coaching deficiencies." Having a first-ballot HOF quarterback will cover up a lot of deficiencies (coaching, or otherwise). Heck, Caldwell went 24-12 with a Super Bowl appearance when he had a healthy Peyton Manning. 15 re: Mike McCarthy by justanothersteve // Aug 23, 2019 - 11:17am Yes. He also tied for the best start of a career over 25 games (with Joe Gibbs), lost an NFC Championship game in OT his second year, navigated the team through the end of the Favre drama, returned to the playoffs his fourth year, and won the Super Bowl his fifth. He was also credited with helping Rodgers become an HoF-level QB. That buys a lot of good will. Wayne Fontes also lasted too long and wasted the best years of Barry Sanders career after some early success. The question is how long to you keep a coach around if all you're getting back is mediocre. Schwartz and Caldwell were perfectly cromulent coaches who weren't going to the Super Bowl without a P Manning-level QB. 22 Agree with what you said… In reply to re: Mike McCarthy by justanothersteve Agree with what you said about McCarthy. Hard to justify firing a SB-winning coach with his winning pct. But you could see the cracks forming when his teams had to fight and claw to barely make the playoffs in 2015-2016. Schwartz was all fire and bluster, but his teams’ lack of discipline/self-control is what really derailed them. 2011 was a good team (top 10 in offensive and defensive DVOA), but the Harbaugh fight and Suh stomp almost sent the season completely off the rails. I also suspect he shares some of the blame for the coaching staff failing to get on a young Stafford to work on his mechanics (the way Holmgren did for young Brett Favre). Ended up getting him fired after the 2013 late-season collapse. Caldwell is like the coaching version of the running back who will get you exactly the yards the offensive line blocks for. If you give him 11-5 talent, he’ll finish 11-5. If you give him 5-11 talent, he’ll finish 5-11. He’s a perfectly professional and competent coach who won’t embarrass you...but he won’t ever make a team more than the sum of its parts. 24 Bosh. McCarthy was one of… by LionInAZ // Aug 26, 2019 - 12:02am In reply to Agree with what you said… by JoeyHarringtonsPiano Bosh. McCarthy was one of the few coaches who lucked into two "HOF potential" QBs. There's no evidence at all that he would have been successful with lesser talent. As for "guiding" the Packers through Favre's "retiring, not retiring" end, I was watching closely at the time, and it appeared to me that Favre guided things more than anyone in management, until the deal that got Favre to the Jets just long enough to get him to the Childress Vikings like he wanted.. It seems ironic that McCarthy's second "HOF" QB is likely the one that got him canned. We can even carry this "can't win without a HOF QB" to it's extreme: there are only two current HCs who have won a Super Bowl without a HOF-potential QB -- John Harbaugh and Jon Gruden. I guess all the others are just pikers. 19 Exactly my concerns as well… Exactly my concerns as well. They're a bit like the Chargers, too, in that you just know something's going to go wrong at some point. 8 I also agree that the NFCN… by Cheesehead_Canuck // Aug 22, 2019 - 10:53am I also agree that the NFCN is very tough to decipher and I think you could make a case for any of those four teams finishing in any position from 1st-4th. The only other division that you could say that about might be the AFCS. However, I don't agree that the winner will be a mediocre 8 or 9 win team. I think the opposite. We could see 4th place as something like an 8 win team and the winner with 10-11 wins. It could be anyone's to take well into December. 13 On the other hand, a… In reply to I also agree that the NFCN… by Cheesehead_Canuck On the other hand, a division with four 8-8 teams would be interesting in a perverse way. 16 I guess that's why they play the games by TomC // Aug 23, 2019 - 1:50pm I am viewing this through inch-thick Bear Goggles, but I am pretty gob-smacked that FO thinks the Lions have a better shot at the division title than the Bears (at least that's what I infer from the Super Bowl odds table on the front page of the site). Those two teams were #5 and #26 in DVOA last season, and even if the Bears regressed to, say, the 8th-best defense in the league and did everything else the same, their total DVOA would be around +10%, which in terms of wins is right around where Vegas has them. The case for the Lions improvement is discussed by their knowledgeable and eloquent fans above. I guess we'll see, won't we. I just hope that Mack and Trubisky stay reasonably healthy all year, so that if the Bears do come crashing down we won't have that as an excuse. 17 re: Bears vs Lions ...I am viewing this through inch-thick Bear Goggles, but I am pretty gob-smacked that FO thinks the Lions have a better shot at the division title than the Bears (at least that's what I infer from the Super Bowl odds table on the front page of the site). Bears play a #1 schedule this year. Lions play a #4. Rams/Saints or Cards/Buccs. The Lions are more consistent on offense with Safford while defense generally is more variable from year-to-year. It's a valid statement. I wouldn't be happy if they reached the conclusion that the Packers would finish last. There are good reasons to think that depending on your reasoning. (The best argument is aging QB with new coach history. Lots of ways it can go downhill. Plus the worst defense in either North.) I'd hope it's wrong and vehemently argue against it. But it doesn't make either of us right. In reply to re: Bears vs Lions by justanothersteve Believe me, I'm not saying I can prognosticate better than FO (or anyone), but I'm just having a hard time seeing the level of regression that everyone on this site appears to take for granted (see Klassen's snarky tweet for evidence that it's COMPLETELY OBVIOUS the Bears are going to regress like hell). Vegas has them 12-1 to win SB LIV; by FO's table they are no better than 50-1. There's some money to be made somewhere. 21 Derrik Klassen being Snarky?… In reply to re: Bears vs Lions by TomC Derrik Klassen being snarky? I’m shocked, I tell you...shocked. 23 Ravens 9: Over. Browns 9:… by Theo // Aug 25, 2019 - 5:10am Ravens 9: Over. Browns 9: Under I have a lot of optimism going into the Browns season, and not so much going into the Ravens season. The division is between the Browns and the Steelers. I would be very, VERY surprised if the season doesn't play out that way. 25 Well, you'd be silly to… by Will Allen // Aug 26, 2019 - 6:37pm Well, you'd be silly to predict good blocking in Minnesota this year, when it hasn't been seen in a decade. I do think, however, that Sparano's awful unexpected death just before camp opened, really set them back, a having Kubiak on staff has a decent chance to really help, along with personnel changes. If they don't block, they'll have to get some luck to exceed 9 or 10 wins, and bad luck may mean 6 or 7 wins. If they block, 12 wins would not be surprsing at all, and 13 only mildly so. Really disappointed that Hughes is still on PUP. I thought last wnter that they might start the season with 4 corners they trust, which hardly any team has, with Hill coming off suspension mid year, giving them corner depth that would allow Zimmer to really wreak havoc on opposing qbs. I think they'll still be good, but that may have been pretty special.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402718
__label__wiki	0.591642	0.591642	THE INAUGURAL RITZY AWARDS An Awards Gala Honoring Our 2019 Season & Your Favorite Shows of the Past 34 Years! Favorite Musical Production of the 2019 Season * A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Favorite Musical Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (2019) * Taylor Darden (Monty Navarro), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Nicholas French (The D’Ysquith Family), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Chris Monaco (Edward Bloom), Big Fish Frankie Rowles (Will Bloom), Big Fish Matthew Weil (Professor Harold Hill), The Music Man Craig Bazan (The Lion), The Wiz Malik Muhammad (The Tin Man), The Wiz Kyle Smith (The Scarecrow), The Wiz Favorite Musical Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (2019) * Megan Ruggles (Sandra Bloom), Big Fish Jessica Ball (Marian Paroo), The Music Man Olivia Paige West (Dorothy Gale), The Wiz Favorite Musical Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2019) * Anthony Joseph Magnotta (Amos Calloway), Big Fish Jared Paxson (Karl the Giant), Big Fish Nicky Intrieri (Winthrop Paroo), The Music Man Joe Kinnon (Marcellus Washburn), The Music Man Alan Krier (Mayor Shinn), The Music Man Darryl Thompson, Jr. (The Wiz), The Wiz Favorite Musical Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (2019) * Trisha Dennis (Miss Marietta Shingle), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Sophie Jones (Sibella Hallward), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Mariel Rosati (Phoebe D’Ysquith), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Jamie Talamo (Josephine Bloom), Big Fish Katy Gentry Hutchings (Mrs. Paroo), The Music Man Patricia Kelly (Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn), The Music Man Danielle Harley-Scott (Aunt Em/Evillene), The Wiz April Johnson (Glinda), The Wiz Siiyara Nelson (Addaperle), The Wiz Favorite Musical Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role (2019) * Michael J. DeFlorio (Inspector Pinckney & Others), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Shawn Hudson (Tom Copley & Others), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Bryce Menard (The Magistrate & Others), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Nicky Intrieri (Young Will Bloom), Big Fish A.J. Love (Zacky Price), Big Fish Malik Muhammad (Don Price), Big Fish Aren Duffy (Tommy Djilas), The Music Man David Epstein (Jacey Squires), The Music Man Marty Israel (Oliver Hix), The Music Man Guy Kirk (Ewart Dunlop), The Music Man Robert Repici (Charlie Cowell), The Music Man David A. Schwartz (Constable Locke/The Conductor), The Music Man Steven Zellers (Olin Britt), The Music Man John Clark (Uncle Henry/The Gatekeeper/Lord High Underling), The Wiz Favorite Musical Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role (2019) * Alyssa Batsakis (Miss Evangeline Barley & Others), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Megan Falasco (Lady Eugenia & Others), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Caroline Milby (Tour Guide & Others), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Lauren Bristow (The Mermaid), Big Fish Rachel Klein (The Witch/Dr. Bennett), Big Fish Colleen Murphy (Jenny Hill), Big Fish Brianna Borouchoff (Mrs. Squires), The Music Man Lexie Chiasson (Zaneeta Shinn), The Music Man Casey Clark (Ethel Toffelmier), The Music Man Kathleen Corvino (Maud Dunlop), The Music Man Mary McCabe (Mrs. Britt), The Music Man Bonnie Leigh Renner (Alma Hix), The Music Man Emma Scherz (Amaryllis), The Music Man Quinn Wood (Gracie Shinn), The Music Man Favorite Play Production of the 2019 Season * The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Favorite Performance by an Actor in a Play (2019) * Jared Calhoun (Jim O’Connor), The Glass Menagerie Taylor Darden (Tom Wingfield), The Glass Menagerie Joe Carlucci (Dr. Karmazin), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor John Hager (Ruggles), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Craig Hutchings (Andrew Sappington), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor John Jackowski (Edwin Sappington), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Andrew B. Kushner (Major Botwright), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Jack Shaw (Lady Blackthorne), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Favorite Performance by an Actress in a Play (2019) * Lori A. Howard (Amanda Wingfield), The Glass Menagerie Sara Viniar (Laura Wingfield), The Glass Menagerie Ginna Higgins (Lady Sappington), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Amanda Lynch Lizzio (Zenobia Sappington), The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Favorite Ensemble Cast of the 2019 Season * The Cast of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder The Cast of The Glass Menagerie The Cast of Big Fish The Cast of The Music Man The Cast of The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor The Cast of The Wiz Favorite Direction of the 2019 Season * Peter John Rios, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Matthew Weil, The Glass Menagerie Matt Reher, Big Fish Katie Knoblock, The Music Man Bruce A. Curless, The Ghosts of Ravenswood Manor Kyrus Keenan Westcott, The Wiz Favorite Music Direction of the 2019 Season * Michael J. Weaver, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Brian Bacon, Big Fish Anthony Vitalo, The Music Man Michelle Foster, The Wiz Favorite Choreography of the 2019 Season * Devon Sinclair, Big Fish Erica Paolucci, The Music Man Devon Sinclair, The Wiz Favorite Musical Production (1986-2018) The Full Monty (2009) Into the Woods (2018) Memphis (2017) Ragtime (2018) Spamalot (2010) Favorite Performance by an Actor in a Musical (1986-2018) John Baccaro (Sonny Malone, Xanadu) (2013) Craig Hutchings (Shrek, Shrek: The Musical) (2015) Paul McElwee (Sir Robin, Spamalot) (2010) Art McKenzie (Sweeney Todd, Sweeney Todd) (1997) Matt Reher (Huey Calhoun, Memphis) (2017) Paul Tonden (John Adams, 1776) (2003) Favorite Performance by an Actress in a Musical (1986-2018) Kemper Florin (The Lady of the Lake, Spamalot) (2010) Carol Furphy (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd) (1997) Jennie Knackstedt-Santiago (The Witch, Into the Woods) (2018) Sarah Pearson (Millie Dillmount, Thoroughly Modern Millie) (2008) Megan Ruggles (Mother, Ragtime) (2018) Martha Wasser (Elle Woods, Legally Blonde) (2013) Favorite Play Production (1986-2018) A Few Good Men (2009) Boeing-Boeing (2013) Lend Me a Tenor (2015) Noises Off (2010) Romeo and Juliet (2018) To Kill a Mockingbird (2017) Favorite Performance by an Actor in a Play (1986-2018) Robert Colleluori (Tito Merelli, Lend Me a Tenor) (2015) Craig Hutchings (Robert, Boeing-Boeing) (2013) John Jackowski (First Lieutenant Jonathan James Kendrick, A Few Good Men) (2009) Paul McElwee (Alan Cowan, God of Carnage) (2015) Favorite Performance by an Actress in a Play (1986-2018) Sophia DiCostanzo (Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird) (2017) Ginna Higgins (Violet Weston, August: Osage County) (2013) Joanne Mullin (Annie Sullivan, The Miracle Worker) (1997) Katie Knoblock (Juliet, Romeo and Juliet) (2018)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402721
__label__wiki	0.54577	0.54577	Category Archives: Eliot Feld March 31, 2017 by danceblogger - 0 comments The DI, Year 1: Ladies Night at Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech as Buffy Miller Becomes the Music & Mucuy Bolles takes charge By Paul Ben-Itzak Copyright 2000, 2017 Paul Ben-Itzak NEW YORK — Less heralded than the Bolshoi’s return to New York this summer, and yet no less a cause for rejoicing, is the return of veteran Buffy Miller to Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech, particularly in her patented virtuoso turn, “Ion,” to the music of Steve Reich. If you want to know what it feels and looks like to be inside the music, you’ve got to see Buffy Miller in this Feld dance, as I was blessed to be able to do last night at the Joyce. “This is the best dance I’ve ever seen,” said my companion, and I’d have to put this artist at the top as well. Miller’s feat here rivals not only that of fellow Reich interpreter Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker, but, I can imagine, that of the first ballerina who ever used her awareness of body and hyper-awareness of music to enter another plane and take us there with her. I reference De Keersmaeker because, like that choreographer dancing to Reich in “Fase” Miller’s physical gifts take on a supernatural dimension. She seems to be doing things no ordinary human would find possible, and with this physical magic transcends the corporeal and becomes an element — an ion — in the music. To receive the rest of the article, first published on August 8, 2000, subscribers can contact publisher Paul Ben-Itzak at paulbenitzak@gmail.com. Not a subscriber? Subscribe to the Dance Insider for just $29.95/year ($99 for institutions gets full access for all your teachers, students, dance company members, etc.) and receive full access to our Archive of 2,000 exclusive reviews by 150 leading critics of performances on five continents from 1998 through 2015. Just designate your PayPal payment in that amount to paulbenitzak@gmail.com, or write us at that address to learn how to pay by check or in Euros. You can also purchase a complete copy of the Archives for just $49 (individuals) or $109 (institutions) Purchase before April 14, 2017 and receive a second, free copy for the recipient of your choice. Contact Paul at paulbenitzak@gmail.com .	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402722
__label__wiki	0.910947	0.910947	Category Archives: London Dance Scene October 6, 2017 by danceblogger Protected: Isadora’s Children: Lynda Gaudreau Documents Modern Dance’s Journey, with help from Benoit Lachambre, Meg Stuart, and Jonathan Burrows June 12, 2017 by danceblogger - 0 comments Hot off the boards…. Aki Tsujita in Darren Johnston’s “Zero Point.” Foteini Christofilopoulou photograph courtesy the Barbican. LONDON — The muffled, thudding beat of Tim Hecker’s ambient sound score reverberates through our bodies — it’s like the noise you might hear waiting outside a cool nightclub. The dazzling bank of lights rotates towards the audience, blinding us before diminishing and plunging both stage and auditorium into darkness. Smoke fills the stage and laser lights shine down on it from above to create giant cones of mist. This is the hypnotically dramatic opening to Darren Johnston’s “Zero Point,” seen at the Barbican on May 26. A male dancer emerges from the claustrophobic gloom upstage and walks meditatively into one of the cones, fluidly progressing through a series of sculptural poses, working within the confines of the translucent edges. He leaves as two women emerge and take up position in the other two cones. In slow motion they sink to the ground then rise up again, turning, then repeat these motions, their mouths gaping open like gargoyles from an ancient civilization. Their physical language mixes Butoh, contemporary and Eastern ritualistic dance. It’s strong and grounded. British choreographer and visual artist Johnston works with perception-altering visual and aural effects in “Zero Point,” which takes its name from Quantum Physics’s notion of ‘trapped’ space. Video projections, motion sensing digital technology, and trancey music transform the stage into another galaxy while lighting effects unzip the darkened stage into geometric sections for the dancers to perform in. Even time seems to be momentarily suspended. “Zero Point” is a work that has been inspired by Johnston’s residency at the Museum of Art in Kochi, Japan. His cast of nine Japanese dancers who collectively draw from a range of disciplines including ballet, contemporary, Butoh, and Qigong are alumni of Tokyo’s New National Ballet, Sankai Juku, Netherlands Dance Theatre, and the Forsythe Company. The mixture of styles is performed with a contemplative quality and presence that is inspired by Buddhism and sacred Japanese ceremonial spaces. Movement flows in repeated cycles, with frozen poses pausing the tempo and the performers embodying a theatrical neutrality and modesty. Energy is contained and protracted through their bodies. There’s a welcome stillness and an aura of calm about them but also a lack of humanity. Sitting in the auditorium, I feel distanced from the performers and yearn for a fuller immersive experience. Loose narratives of re-birth are played out through duets between Yatsutake Shimaji and ballerina Hana Sakai. He carries her onstage then makes her come to life, his hands hovering over her body, commanding her actions as if she’s his puppet. She ascends from the floor and extends to her full height on pointe, before gliding towards him as if under his spell. In their partnering Sakai and Shimaji create imaginative tableaux, but the use of balletic lines, while visually striking in the fractured light, lacks the earthy connection that is seen in the shapes of the contemporary and Butoh dancers. The demanding, ambitious Western associations of ballet jar awkwardly with the selfless Eastern spiritualism of the work as a whole. This balletic duet is also annoyingly patriarchal and while the other women move as equals to the men, with their freer expressions, Sakai does not, restrained by both her partner and her discipline. While “Zero Point” is a reflective and inventive work which can easily seduce, choreographic ideas feel somewhat undercooked. February 1, 2017 by danceblogger - 0 comments Flash Flashback: ‘Everything’ and the (Pet Shop) Boys — The ‘Incredible’ destiny of Javier De Frutos with H.C. Andersen A scene from Javier De Frutos’s new “The Most Incredible Thing,” with an original score by the Pet Shop Boys. Gavin Evans photo courtesy Sadler’s Wells. By Josephine Leask Copyright 2011, 2017 Josephine Leask LONDON — “The Most Incredible Thing,” seen in its premiere earlier this Spring at Sadler’s Wells, was a big event in the city’s dance calendar, attracting more anticipatory press coverage than any other dance happening since the local screening of “The Black Swan.” Pop stars, an infamous choreographer, a fairy-tale, phenomenal dancers and extravagant designs were some of its winning ingredients. Set to an evening-length score by the pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who were inspired to make a work based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the same name, “The Most Incredible Thing” centers on nothing less than the power of art to stand up to human destruction. Tennant and Lowe’s composition is based on their distinctive electronic dance music, here performed by a full orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Direction and choreography is by Javier de Frutos, an inspired choice by ‘The Boys’ and a marriage made it heaven — at least so it appeared from the strength of the collaboration. De Frutos has made a welcome comeback to Sadler’s Wells after having been reviled by some dance critics and spectators for his controversial piece “Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez,” performed as part of “In the Spirit of Diaghilev” at Sadler’s Wells in October 2009. That work, a response to the inventive and flamboyant scenarios and designs of Jean Cocteau, depicted a fictional pope who raped and molested alter boys and raped a pregnant nun. While it was not the first De Frutos work to feature sex and violence, it was so intentionally over the top that while some spectators and critics took offense, others raved about it. However, de Frutos received death threats and a lot of negative press, the final rejection coming from the BBC, which cancelled plans to broadcast de Frutos’s work during Christmas on a program with three other choreographers. To receive the rest of the article, first published on June 2, 2011, subscribers can contact publisher Paul Ben-Itzak at paulbenitzak@gmail.com. Not a subscriber? Subscribe to the Dance Insider for just $29.95/year ($99 for institutions gets full access for all your teachers, students, dance company members, etc.) and receive full access to our Archive of 2,000 exclusive reviews by 150 leading critics of performances on five continents from 1998 through 2015. Just designate your PayPal payment in that amount to paulbenitzak@gmail.com, or write us at that address to learn how to pay by check or in Euros. You can also purchase a complete copy of the Archives for just $49 (individuals) or $129 (institutions) Purchase before February 14, 2017 and receive a second, free copy for the recipient of your choice. Contact Paul at paulbenitzak@gmail.com .	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402723
__label__wiki	0.68028	0.68028	Letting Agents in Gloucester Browse Letting Agents in Gloucester featuring photos, videos, special offers and testimonials to help you choose the right local Letting Agents for you. C G T Lettings 27-29 London Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3HD Naylor Powell Unit C The Barge Arm East, The Docks, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 2DQ 10 Worcester Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3AA Taylors Estate and Letting Agents Gloucester 1b Worcester Street, Gloucester, GL1 3AJ Click here for a free property valuation! If you're seeking property for sale in the South-East of the UK or want to rent or let a property in Central England, Taylors... Surelet The Lodge, The Combs, Bollow, Westbury-on-severn, Gloucestershire, GL14 1QX Surelet Forest of Dean 7a Worcester Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3AJ K J T Residential 8 Worcester Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3AA Residential Estate Agents covering the whole of Gloucester. At All About Homes our reputation for professionalism is extremely... 1 Spa Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 1UY Price Property Unit 52a Morelands Trading Estate, Bristol Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 5RZ Glevum Properties 12 Brindle Close, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL4 4FS 1b Worcester Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3AJ Andrews Lettings and Management Gloucester 5 Worcester Street, Gloucester, GL1 3AJ Trusted for everything property Andrews began in the property business in 1946 and we've been operation in the Gloucester area since 1973. The Andrews philosophy... Farr & Farr 125 Cheltenham Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 0JQ Barton & Tredworth Developments Ltd 99 Barton Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 4HR Residential Management Company Ltd 13 Worcester Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3AJ Letting Agents... Michael Tuck Estate Agents 233 Bristol Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 5TL Swallow Park Management No 1 Ltd 192 Cheltenham Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 0JR 2let Glos Ltd Elmrep House, Eastern Avenue, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL4 6QS Alex Clark Lettings Gloucester The Estate Agency City Chambers, 4-6 Clarence Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 1DX Redbrick Estates 2 St Oswalds Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 2SF A C K Residential Lettings 81-85 Calton Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 5DT C J Hole 40b London Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3NU G L 1 Property Services Ltd 2a Hopewell Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 4HG Michael Tuck & Co Innsworth Technology Park Ltd The Site Office, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL3 1DL Glevum Investments Ltd Capitol House, 18 Capitol Park 135 Pearce Way, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 5YD Micheal Tuck 2 Calton Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 5DY Orritt & Turner Properties 164 Southgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 2EX The Debors Merevale Road Management Co Ltd 1 The Debors, Merevale Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 0QX Selina's Lettings 12b Mercia Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 2SQ Estate Agency, Full Management Service, Apartment Sales & Lettings, Let Only Service Movearound Taylors Estate Agents Quedgeley Unit 18, Local Centre, Thatcham Avenue, Kingsway, Quedgeley, Gloucester, GL2 2GT If you're seeking property for sale in the South-East of the UK or want to buy or sell a property in Central England, Taylors... Andrews Estate Agents Gloucester Martin & Co Ltd 13-15 Worcester Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 3AJ Gloucester Home Stagers Most home buyers are looking for a dream house to fall in love with and "packaging" your home correctly could be the key... Acorn Residential Lettings 106 Westgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 2PE Liquormart Properties Ltd Norfolk House, 105a Southgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL1 1UT Andrews Estate Agents Brockworth Unit B2, Whittle Square, Delta Way, Brockworth, GL3 4BJ Andrews began in the property business in 1946 and we've been operation in the Brockworth area since 1974. The Andrews philosophy... Gloucester Property Centre Ltd Unit A Greyhound Gardens, Longlevens, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 0XP Tania Walters Estate Agents 7 School Lane, Quedgeley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 4PJ 40 Oxstalls Way, Longlevens, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 9JQ Anders Properties Ltd Anders House, Elmgrove Road West, Hardwicke, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 4PU Andrews Lettings and Management Brockworth Andrews Lettings and Management Quedgeley Unit 2b, Quedgeley District Centre, Quedgeley, Gloucester, GL2 4NF The Property Centre 21 Campden Road, Tuffley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL4 0HX 74 Regent Street, Quedgeley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 2BJ	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402747
__label__cc	0.625041	0.374959	A Novel Role for Wnt/Ca2+ Signaling in Actin Cytoskeleton Remodeling and Cell Motility in Prostate Cancer Wang, Q; Symes, AJ; Kane, CA; Freeman, A; Nariculam, J; Munson, P; Thrasivoulou, C; ... Ahmed, A; + view all Wang, Q; Symes, AJ; Kane, CA; Freeman, A; Nariculam, J; Munson, P; Thrasivoulou, C; Masters, JRW; Ahmed, A; - view fewer (2010) A Novel Role for Wnt/Ca2+ Signaling in Actin Cytoskeleton Remodeling and Cell Motility in Prostate Cancer. PLOS ONE , 5 (5) , Article e10456. 10.1371/journal.pone.0010456. Wnt signaling is a critical regulatory pathway in development and disease. Very little is known about the mechanisms of Wnt signaling in prostate cancer, a leading cause of death in men. A quantitative analysis of the expression of Wnt5A protein in human tissue arrays, containing 600 prostate tissue cores, showed > 50% increase in malignant compared to benign cores (p < 0.0001). In a matched pair of prostate cancer and normal cell line, expression of Wnt5A protein was also increased. Calcium waves were induced in prostate cells in response to Wnt5A with a 3 fold increase in Flou-4 intensity. The activity of Ca2+/calmodulin dependent protein kinase (CaMKII), a transducer of the non-canonical Wnt/Ca2+ signaling, increased by 8 fold in cancer cells; no change was observed in beta-catenin expression, known to activate the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. Mining of publicly available human prostate cancer oligoarray datasets revealed that the expression of numerous genes (e.g., CCND1, CD44) under the control of beta-catenin transcription is down-regulated. Confocal and quantitative electron microscopy showed that specific inhibition of CaMKII in cancer cells causes remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, irregular wound edges and loose intercellular architecture and a 6 and 8 fold increase in the frequency and length of filopodia, respectively. Conversely, untreated normal prostate cells showed an irregular wound edge and loose intercellular architecture; incubation of normal prostate cells with recombinant Wnt5A protein induced actin remodeling with a regular wound edge and increased wound healing capacity. Live cell imaging showed that a functional consequence of CaMKII inhibition was 80% decrease in wound healing capacity and reduced cell motility in cancer cells. We propose that non-canonical Wnt/Ca2+ signaling via CaMKII acts as a novel regulator of structural plasticity and cell motility in prostate cancer. © 2010 Wang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This study was funded by the National Cancer Research Institute and Prostate Cancer Research Center, United Kingdom. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. TYROSINE KINASE ROR2, WNT/BETA-CATENIN, BETA-CATENIN, ANDROGEN RECEPTOR, TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR, TARGET GENES, WILMS-TUMOR, WNT, EXPRESSION, PATHWAY UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Cancer Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Cancer Institute > Research Department of Pathology https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/356635	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402752
__label__wiki	0.543502	0.543502	« ASECS 2012 Panels on Digital Humanities and Book History/Print Culture Topics Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) to open April 2013 » English Short Title Catalogue, 21st century (ESTC21): Call for Feedback Brien Geiger, Director, CBSR and ETSC/NA, has recently sent us the following announcement and call for feedback: Big changes are underway with the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), and we need your input. A union catalog and bibliography of English printing from 1473 to 1800, the ESTC has developed over the last three decades into one of the most comprehensive and authoritative bibliographies available. Yet access to ESTC data has evolved very little. Last year the ESTC was awarded a planning-grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to “redesign the project as a 21st century research tool.” For the last nine months a planning committee has discussed how to make the resource more usable to a broad spectrum of researchers and librarians and to harness the knowledge and input of those users to refine and expand ESTC data. The recommendations of that committee are now available online at the estc21 blog. The planning committee welcomes and encourages feedback on our ideas from ESTC users. The ESTC21 website with our recommendations will remain active through April 20. Please support this effort to rethink the future of the ESTC by commenting on the ESTC21 pages and taking the brief survey at the end of the website. Your feedback is critical. From the entire planning committee, thank you for your contributions to this project. Brian Geiger Director, CBSR and ESTC/NA This entry was posted on March 20, 2012 at 11:13 pm and is filed under ESTC, Research, STC, WING. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 21 Responses to “English Short Title Catalogue, 21st century (ESTC21): Call for Feedback” The Mellon award to improve this already indespensible resource and bring it into the 21st century is welcomed news. Just a few posts ago we were discussing how difficult it can be to acquire additional funding to keep resources perceived to be “finished” as up-to-date as possible. A special section, “Forum on Electronic Resources,” in volume 21 of the Age of Johnson (Jan. 2012) features two highly relevant essays detailing possibilities for the ESTC: David L. Vander Meulen, “ESTC as Foundational and Always Developing” Stephen Karian, “The Limitations and Possibilities of the ESTC” The ESTC blog seems well designed and suggests productive directions for ESTC’s future. In addition to the “Overview” page, there are five additional tabs: “Data,” “Searching,” “Curating,” “Future Projects,” and a “Survey.” The Overview lists three goals: 1. to harness the expertise of its users in the ongoing curation and enrichment of its data; 2. to become the “electronic hub” for relevant digitization projects and make the universal corpus of digitized early modern English works accessible to users; 3. to become a resource of new kinds of inquiry by making ESTC data more open to the wider web and more easily accessible for use in other digital projects. These seem like good steps, and they are consistent with suggestions made by Steve Karian in his superb essay on the ESTC in Age of Johnson. The ESTC blog is designed to collect suggestions about the ESTC’s future; it will remain up through April 20, and readers are encouraged to post suggestions there. General discussion of the new ESTC’s promising future can, of course, also take place here. We should note, too, that the ESTC blog will remain active only until April 20. 2012, so everyone has about three weeks remaining to offer comments and suggestions. I’d like to hear examples of how ESTC could use API to open ESTC for use on other sites. Which other sites? EEBO and ECCO? This seems like a helpful development, but providing tentative but specific examples will help highlight its significance. Benjamin Pauley Says: As somebody who’s on the planning committee, I can’t emphasize enough how much we’d like to get feedback from users: we’ve done our best to think about ways that the ESTC could be reimagined, but the more perspectives that are brought to bear on the question, the better. [That much I think I can say in my quasi-official capacity. From here on, it’s just me talking.] One thing I’m especially keen to hear about are the kinds of research questions that we could imagine addressing using the information that’s in the ESTC, but which we can’t really pursue very well right now, given the ESTC’s structure and interface. I spoke to someone, for instance, who noted that she couldn’t easily use the ESTC to identify works published anonymously, because the conventions of cataloguing mean that, when we’ve figured out the authorship of a work, the author’s name gets inserted into the catalogue record (she wanted to get at works that a given author had published without any attribution on the title page). The more examples of this sort that we can get, the better we can think about how the ESTC could be changed. (Steve Karian’s essay, as Eleanor says, offers a really thoughtful critique, and I’ll need to track down the latest Age of Johnson. I read a draft, but would like to see the final version, as well as the other essays in that section). As for Anna’s question about the the ways an API might open the ESTC to other sites, I’ll try to offer a couple of examples (to the best of my pretty basic understanding). One simple case might involve a website accessing the ESTC’s data in what we might call “read-only” mode. If you developed a site dedicated to the life and works of, say, Thomas Middleton, you could perhaps have an embedded view of bibliographical records coming straight from the ESTC, rather than re-creating all that information on your own. Any changes to the ESTC’s coverage of Middleton would then be reflected in your site as they occured (if a bibliographer were to determine that what had been thought to be a single impression was actually two distinct ones, your site would reflect the change). A more advanced case might involve a website that sends queries to the ESTC and presents the results to its users—what we might call “computational” access to the ESTC. There’s a lot of information to be had from the ESTC, and I don’t know that it’s possible to construct a single search interface that would let you query every bit of it in every conceivable way. My hunch is that any interface that tried to be totally comprehensive would collapse under its own complexity. But if there’s a published API, then anybody could develop a more specialized window onto that data. You could develop your own site that draws on the ESTC’s data, or perhaps users could develop specialized tools that could be shared on the ESTC’s site Right now, for example, you can’t really search the ESTC by an author’s date of birth or death. You can search for them by name, and you can search for the year of publication of a work, but you can’t really get a list of, say, authors who were born in 1660, or who were at least 40 years old at the time of the Glorious Revolution. An ESTC API might make it possible to access that information in a way that allows you to figure out (totally off the top of my head, so I make no guarantee how sensible all of these questions might be): How many authors published their first work before the age of 20? Who are some authors who remained productive (or even grew more productive) in the last decade of their lives? How many poets actually display a progression up the Virgilian hierarchy of genres as they age? Are there any booksellers who seem to have published a conspicuous number of young authors? Are there any moments when the average age of authors who were publishing seems to go up or down in an unusual way (was there ever a “greying” of poetry? was there ever a conspicuously youthful enthusiasm for the elegy?)? As I say, I don’t know whether all (or even any) of those questions would be worth asking, but the point is that an API would make it possible for people with novel questions to get at the bits of the ESTC’s data that they need without having to recreate all that data from scratch. One final case (which might apply to a resource like ECCO or EEBO Interactions) would involve making it possible for a site’s users to “write” data to the ESTC without ever visiting the ESTC’s own site. If you’re doing work at ECCO or EEBO and run across something that needs correcting, you’re probably more likely to make the correction if you can do it without disrupting your work too much. If you have to stop what you’re doing, open another browser tab, go to another site, log in, find the right record, and then contribute your correction, that would be pretty disruptive. What I think we’d like to work towards, instead, would be a system where users’ corrections or comments could be sent to the ESTC without their ever having to leave the site where they’re working—without their even having to know, necessarily, that there is more than one site involved in the experience. I said EEBO and ECCO because they’re big resources with lots of users, but this model could certainly work with smaller, more focused sites, too: a small group of knowledgeable and committed users could well make very valuable contributions in a particular domain. I do have to stress that this is all still in the planning phase, and it’s too soon to predict exactly what forms all of this will take. But I’m hopeful that this effort can open up new avenues for scholarship and new ways of doing scholarship. Thanks, Ben. This is really helpful. Could there be something equivalent to EEBO Interactions, a space or site where users can append useful links or bibliographical or biographical notes. Or could EEBO Interactions, which already exists and is thoughtfully designed, be linked to the new ESTC? The capacity to append additional material–the links, biographical information, and the like–would be quite useful. One way would be to supply links between various ESTC records and the relevant text in EEBO Interactions, but that would not address the problem for those 18th-century texts not in EEBO. Having an “interactions space” within ESTC would eliminate this problem, but such a box should be available for all the records. In turn, however, that creates the potential for duplication of effort in EEBO Interactions and ESTC> Thanks so much for all these fine details, Ben. The sample questions you offer usefully illustrate the new types of queries we might pose and also help prompt other fresh directions. For example, the inability of being able to search for anonymous authors has parallels to finding female printers. Finally, your closing point about the ability to make corrections without leaving ECCO or EEBO seems to be an especially important point. I suspect that without such capability more than a few scholars who fully intended to go to ESTC after finishing the task at hand on the other database would end up not doing so. I’ve been interested in the anonymity problem. Would it work to insert the author in brackets and then have a search function that identified entries with either bracketed names or no name in the author field as anonymous? This leaves out the problem of initials, pseudonyms, and other authorial complexities. I’d like to hear the solution to this problem. I would have to give this more thought, but at the Digital Humanities and Archives roundtable, Mike Gavin’s discussion of designing tagging that addresses the names of characters, actors, different forms/abbreviations of a single name within a given printed play, and the like seems to have some applicability here. TEI does contain a tag for the anonymous author as well as other types of authorship: <author>British Broadcasting Corporation</author> <author>La Fayette, Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de (1634–1693)</author> <author>Anonymous</author> <author>Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</author> <persName>Beaumont, Francis</persName> and <persName>John Fletcher</persName> <orgName key=”BBC“>British Broadcasting Corporation</orgName>: Radio 3 Network (TEI, “Element,” author) One could use the anonymous tag along with other tagging to indicate attribution, established author, and so forth. Deborah J. Leslie Says: Putting an author’s name in square brackets isn’t an option, but ESTC records for books published anonymously include a note. An advanced search for “anonymous?” in Notes retrieves 25,834 records; most if not all of those will be for works published anonymously. So maybe the anonymous thing isn’t a good example of something a new ESTC could do that can’t be done now. Deborah: I searched for “anonymous” 1680-1682, and Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel popped up, as you suggested it would. You are clearly suggesting that searching for anonymous records is not a problem with the current ESTC. Are there other problems that the new ESTC should consider? Good, Anna, I’m glad. Let me hasten to add for others’ benefit that the search term should have a ‘?’ at the end, to allow for retrieval of “anonymously.” We at the Folger are preparing an institutional response to the survey, but I will mention one thing here: a social space for discussion of authors, works, editions/issues, and individual copies. That would require a mechanism to allow such discussions to be associated not only with individual records, but to multiples of records. As Eleanor mentions, a lot could be done with tagged elements; I would like to see gender identification for authors and other associated names. Of course, that information would have to be in the records first (or in linked authority files– in case there are other librarians reading this) in order to be manipulated and retrieved. One thing that came up in our discussions was how there were opportunities to take better advantage of some things that are actually in the MARC specification, but aren’t as fully exploited in the current ESTC as perhaps they could be. One example is uniform titles (something that could help to do at least part of the linking of multiple records that Deborah notes would be necessary—though there would need to be a way of sorting out whether a comment applied to every manifestation of a work, or only to certain ones). Another is the use of the kinds of linked authority files Deborah also mentions, which would (among other things) allow for noting a person’s gender. Now, from what I can see (there may be something I’m missing), things like the gender field aren’t always fully exploited yet in the Library of Congress’s own authority records. Henry Fielding has plenty of pseudonyms, for example, but no gender, while his sister, Sarah, has a gender, but it’s tagged as the 370\|a field, which, if I’m reading correctly, the MARC specification for authority records indicates is for place of birth, rather than as 375\|a, which is for gender. (Again, I could be missing something here.) But this is clearly a really a promising direction to go, because it means that, given an LC number (or a VIAF number) you could reliably link to or draw out anything that the ESTC had about a person. And working within a framework like that one opens the way for lots of interesting stuff. You can, for example (I love this) include more than one gender field, with dates attached, so you could track people whose genders changed over the course of their lifetimes. Perhaps that’s not so pressing an issue for people before 1801, but it’s a fascinating prospect, nonetheless. More practically, for this period, if I understand the MARC specification correctly, you can similarly add multiple occupations and multiple addresses, each with date ranges. So you could imagine following a printer from apprenticeship to mastery, or noting the various addresses he or she used over the course of his or her career. It could be quite a lot of work to flesh all this information out, but it’s work that, once done, could be shared. For me, one of the most interesting exercises has been to try to think about how a new ESTC could best straddle the worlds of library cataloging and of bibliography. How might a new ESTC both leverage and contribute to all the work that’s being done in the realm of library cataloging, while also making its data available in ways that might not always correspond to the ways library catalogs are typically used? How could a new ESTC solicit information from its users that could help to improve and enrich cataloging information without demanding that users learn the ins and outs of MARC before contributing something useful? I’m looking forward to hearing about the feedback that the survey gathers. A new cataloging code for the English-speaking world, Resource Description and Access (RDA) has recently been adopted after a test phase and is beginning to be implemented. Corresponding changes to MARC (for the non-librarians: MAchine-Readable Cataloging, the encoding protocol for bibliographic and authority records) to accommodate RDA have been adopted. The authority record for Sarah Fielding was updated to RDA in September of last year. That is why her record has information like gender, associated language, and such, while her brother and more than 99% of authority records do not. [WordPress apparently only supports replies two layers deep. This is in response to Deborah Leslie’s comment about RDA.] Ah. Thank you very much for that explanation. That helps me to click one of those puzzle pieces into place that I’d heard something about, but didn’t grasp at the time. As somebody who’s not a librarian, I have a lot of those, and find myself in a perpetual game of catch-up. I adhere to the “successive iteration” theory of learning new things. Glad to know that my iteration helped things click! Thanks for the news about the RDA, Leslie; this development is yet another piece of promising news. Being able to search for occupation (including multiple occupations), gender identity, and the like would be real pluses. I agree with Ben that thinking about “how a new ESTC could best straddle the worlds of library cataloging and of bibliography” is an extremely interesting line of thought, and would add only another world–that of book historians. The notion of straddling multiple worlds also recalls a few of Robin Alston’s hopes for the ESTC in his account of its history: It would adopt computer technology to transform traditional methods of compiling catalogues and so encourage other national libraries to recognise the needs of researchers for flexible access to historical sources. It would serve as a nursery for training young staff in a sound and varied knowledge of the collections, … as well as in the possibilities provided by machine-readable records for advancing scholarship. It would bring to light many thousands of items never previously catalogued, … (“The History of ESTC,” The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual 15 (2004), 269-329). One can explore the first set of RDA vocabularies, released this past August, at the Open Metadata Registry. Drawing on David Vander Meulen’s claim that the ESTC is always developing, the new ESTC will need to allow for that development. Along those lines, will the ESTC allow for links to DPLA items? For an update on the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), see Anna’s latest post. I wonder if plans are perhaps underway to link items to digital copies made by libraries that hold their originals. On a different note, having a space dedicated to exchange of information seems especially important. Brian Geiger Says: Thanks for the info on RDA, Deborah. I have a lot to learn about the standard. Our approach with the redesign has been to try to imagine all the kinds of information we might want to collect and the various ways in which users, both people and machines, might want to access that information, create a database blueprint that can accommodate the complexities of the data and use cases, and then map that database to a cataloging standard or standards. I wonder whether or how the eventual adoption of RDA might change that approach. Take for instance the issue of false imprints. Earlier this week I was contacted by an Italian library that they had identified 5 ESTC items (also in ECCO) that they were able to attribute to “the typography Agnelli of Lugano (Switzerland).” The ESTC numbers are T195986, T151607, N52461, T201505, N3464, T26164 (note the first two are different editions of the same work; the second edition being one the Folger identified). The ESTC notes that these are Italian false imprints. There are at two limitations I see with the way false imprints are recorded in MARC, and presumably RDA, though perhaps not. T151607 notes “The imprint is false; probably printed in Italy” and N52461 that “The imprint may be false; printed in Italy?.” These notations might make sense to a human reader, but it would be quite tricky, and probably not very reliable, to create a computer script that could consistently and accurately makes sense of “probably” and “may be.” If I were to start from scratch I would design specific database entries for the particular bits of information about false imprints that I wanted to collect (for ex, yes/no/maybe, country, city, etc) and then map these entries to a MARC field that could be made human readable. The second limitation I see is that though I would like to change the attribution to “Angelli” and “Switzerland,” I would prefer not to lose the original guess of “probably Italy.” At some point a researcher might want to query records that had at one time been assigned Italian false imprints but are now Swiss. MARC, I would suggest, is a flat standard designed to record the outcome of research but not the research itself. It might be possible to “version” MARC, but given the choice I suspect most people designing a cataloging system with versioning would not start with MARC. The bit of “versioning” that we have done in the ESTC to date has been awkwardly placed in the annotation or 500 fields, where it is often difficult for humans or machines to make sense of. Leave a Reply to Eleanor Shevlin Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402758
__label__wiki	0.931615	0.931615	English: Ottawa City Hall Français : Hôtel de ville d’Ottawa (Photo credit: Wikipedia) City Council voted (Item 20) on July 17th to redevelop Main Street into a Complete Street after the City staff’s recommendation was passed by the Transportation Committee on July 5th. Councillors voiced their support and dissent to this motion at Council and the results were very telling in regards to who will lead our city to sustainability. Read more below for insight into your Councillors perspective and priority on developing Complete Streets in our city. Councillor Hubley dissented on redeveloping Main Street into a Complete Street. He explained that he is concerned about constricting traffic flow and increasing congestion on the arterial road. He added that he has a lack of understanding what a Complete Street is, but voiced support for Complete Streets so long as they are located on a community bike path (not an on street bike lane) and not on arterial or main roads. Thumbs Down to Councillor Hubley for his preference for incomplete streets. Contact Councillor Allan Hubley and tell him you would like him to support this issue in the future. Councillor Deans dissented on redeveloping Main Street into a Complete Street. Following her comments at the Transportation Committee (link) she once again emphasized that the definition of a Complete Street is unclear, especially to her residents. She believes that people will only come forward to be engaged against the Complete Street after it has been implemented and two lanes of traffic have been removed. She sees a need to have a set definition of what a Complete Street is. Councillor Deans argued that arterial roads are not the place for a Complete Street, and said that the City cannot just tell people to get onto bikes—the traffic will need to go somewhere and the City is currently lacking North to South routes for private automobiles. For those reasons, Councillor Deans maintained that Main Street is not the right place nor is now the right time to implement a Complete Street. Thumbs Down to Councillor Deans for her lack of support Contact Councillor Diane Deans and tell her you would like her to support this issue in the future. Councillor Egli was supportive of redeveloping Main Street into a Complete Street. He referred to Councillor Deans’ comments when he defined the Complete Street concept as a toolbox, where there are a variety of different options to use and a flexible design that does not have a set definition that is unchangeable. He referred to Councillor Hubley’s ward and emphasized that a Complete Street may appear different in Kanata than it does downtown. Councillor Egli argued that there may be different criteria for what a Complete Street may mean depending on the area, but it is a way to refer to a flexible approach toward a similar idea. He deemed the Complete Street design on Main Street as a progressive and beneficial initiative that he encouraged his colleagues to support. Thumbs Up to Councillor Egli for his support. Contact Councillor Keith Egli to thank him for his work on this issue! Councillor Holmes spoke in support of redeveloping Main Street into a Complete Street. In light of the debates on congestion and traffic she reminded Council of the impact the Transitway has had on downtown. She referred to the Transitway as a major change that can be credited with decreasing the number of vehicles travelling downtown, a trend that will only continue with the construction of the Light Rail Transit line. She framed the Complete Streets concept as an equality issue and argued that all taxpayers should have equal and safe access to the roads whether they are cyclists, pedestrians, or motorists. Thumbs Up to Councillor Holmes for her support. Contact Councillor Diane Holmes to thank her for her work on this issue! Councillor Fleury spoke in favour for the implementation of a Complete Streets design on Main Street. He believes that a Complete Street is a form of protection for various users and believes that it will be incredibly successful despite peoples’ worries. Thumbs Up to Councillor Fleury for his support. Contact Councillor Mathieu Fleury to thank him for his work on this issue! Councillor Hume supported implementing a Complete Street on Main Street. After observing traffic on Main Street he believes that the amount of time motorists are caught in congestion will be the same with the soon-to-be implemented turn lanes and reduced traffic lanes. He believes that a Complete Street will create better places for walking and cycling while keeping traffic time the same. He said that the city will need to have better connectivity for bikes, pedestrians, and cars and deemed this project as a non-major change that will lead to this goal. Thumbs Up to Councillor Hume for his support. Contact Councillor Peter Hume to thank him for his work on this issue! Councillor Hobbs spoke in favour of a Complete Street on Main Street as she described the success of redeveloping Churchill Street in her ward to a Complete Street. She noted the improvements in the area in her ward and is confident a Complete Street on Main Street will have similar qualities. Councillor Hobbs disagreed with Councillor Deans’ argument that citizens do not know what a Complete Street is—she believes citizens are smarter than Deans is giving them credit for as the citizens of her ward knew what a Complete Street was and wanted it. Thumbs Up to Councillor Hobbs for her support. Contact Councillor Katherine Hobbs to thank her for her work on this issue! Councillor Harder was opposed to redeveloping Main Street into a Complete Street. She argued that the area already has a traffic problem, as a result of other construction projects underway. She said that she is not opposed to the concept of Complete Streets, but argued that the timing is wrong. She also proclaimed to be driven by growth, which must be accommodated by roads being built. She also made it extremely clear that she does not want any assumption that there will be Complete Streets developed in the suburbs in the future. Thumbs Down to Councillor Harder for her lack of support. Contact Councillor Jan Harder and tell her you would like her to support this issue in the future. Councillor Wilkinson voiced her support for the revitalization of Main Street as a Complete Street. She argued that Main Street is not the same as a typical arterial road and would like a Complete Street to be developed there (and she would also like a Complete Street to be developed in her ward). Councillor Wilkinson’s support is significant because she represents constituents that arguably would have the same needs as Councillor Hubley—they both represent citizens of Kanata. While Councillor Hubley among other suburban Councillors refused to support a Complete Street on Main Street due to its use by motorists, Councillor Wilkinson’s support indicates that she sees the possibility and necessity for all road users to have equal rights in all communities. Thumbs Up to Councillor Wilkinson for her support. Contact Councillor Marianne Wilkinson to thank her for her work on this issue! Councillor Clark deemed the Complete Street on Main Street as supportable. He sees it as an experiment similar to the Laurier bike lanes to see how they work in our city. Councillor Clark pointed out that if a safe cycling network in this city is desired then it must be done in pieces, and this is a piece. Thumbs Up to Councillor Clark for his support. Contact Councillor Peter Clark to thank him for his work on this issue! Councillor Chernushenko is supportive of redeveloping Main Street as a Complete Street. As the Councillor of the ward, Councillor Chernushenko said his constituents living closest to the street are those most affected by it, and they are strongly in favour. He identified the debate as downtown Councillors against suburban Councillors, and asked for everyone to come together and envision what the community would look like. He noted that everyone wants quieter, calmer, and safer streets. He said a good design makes all the difference, and Complete Streets will make safer and economically viable streets. Everyone will benefit and people will want to be there. He believes implementing a Complete Street is not going to force people to walk or cycle, rather it encourages people who are afraid or feel unsafe walking or biking, to now feel safer. Thumbs Up to Councillor Chernushenko for his support. Contact Councillor David Chernushenko to thank him for his work on this issue! Mayor Jim Watson voiced support for the Complete Street design plan. He said that as a previous Councillor of that area, he understands that the number one complaint was for traffic and speeding. He called the chance to redevelop Main Street as a Complete Street a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and told Councillors to do the ‘right thing.’ He emphasized that this is a progressive initiative that will lead to similar changes to other communities and believes that citizens and Councillors will look back on this positively. He would like to see Ottawa move this way and become a pioneer and leader in Ontario with Complete Streets. Thumbs Up to Mayor Jim Watson for his support. Contact Mayor Jim Watson to thank him for his work on this issue! The motion passed so Main Street will be developed into a Complete Street. Councillors who voted in favour of the motion receive a giant Thumbs Up (Councillors R. Chiarelli, E. El-Chantiry, R. Bloess, D. Chernushenko, M. Taylor, B. Monette, M. Wilkinson, M. Fleury, S. Qadri, P. Clark, K. Egli, K. Hobbs, T. Tierney, D. Holmes, D. Thompson, P. Hume, M. McRae, and Mayor Jim Watson) for passing this progressive act and improving Ottawa’s sustainability. Councillors who dissented (Councillors S. Moffatt, S. Blais, S. Desroches, J. Harder, D. Deans, and A. Hubley) received a Thumbs Down. ← How High? Ontario Greens and Local Liberal Candidate Join Opposition to Pipeline → 2 Comments on “How Did They Do? Councillors Voice Their Opinions on Complete Streets” Pingback: Council Watch Monthly Digest – July 2013 \| Ecology Ottawa Pingback: Barrhaven Bicycling \| Urban Commuter - Bike Ottawa Blog	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402762
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ECOREAL IS ISSUED BY A COMPANY OPERATING UNDER RAK ICC CORPORATE REGISTRY IN RAS AL KHAIMAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AND HOLDS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR CONDUCT AND WILL NOT WITHHOLD ANY TAXES FOR YOU. Participant understands that all sales will be final and non-refundable or redeemed unless expressly stated in the Token Sale Agreement. You understand and agree that ECOREAL token is not a security, is not listed, authorized, issued or traded on any regulated market, and it is not intended to be considered as one. Notwithstanding the above, you understand and agree that it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the applicable laws regarding the purchase of tokens in your jurisdiction. Moreover, you represent that you are aware of all the merits, risks and any restrictions associated with cryptographic tokens (particularly, with their purchase and use), cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based systems. In this sense, you expressly acknowledge and understand that tokens, cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and other associated and related technologies, are new and that they are outside of ECOREAL’s control. You acknowledge that the tokens’ sale price shall depend on the exchanges where the ECOREAL tokens are trading. Tokens available to purchase from the website and/or App, as applicable, may be acquired in exchange for cryptocurrencies, such as ETH (Ether), BTC (Bitcoin) or altcoin, or for fiat currency, at the user’s choice, at any time during ECOREAL’s Continuous Token Sale, as described in, and subject to, the Terms & Conditions available on the website and/or App, as applicable.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402763
__label__wiki	0.756349	0.756349	Calendar for cultural diversity The calendar for cultural diversity promotes intercultural understanding, cultural and linguistic diversity, community harmony and social inclusion across NSW public schools and their communities. The calendar for cultural diversity provides annual dates and information for commemorations, celebrations, national days, international days, religious observances and other key events of relevance to NSW public school staff, students and their families. Through acknowledgment and celebration of these days and events, NSW public schools can lead the way to social harmony by engendering positive interactions between students, staff and community members from the range of cultural, linguistic and religious traditions of Australians. Each year, the calendar promotes a different theme relating to cultural diversity in the Australian context. The following resources provide teaching and learning activities to promote intercultural understanding: About the Lunar New Year Planning Harmony Day Planning NAIDOC week Planning multi-faith visits Planning for multicultural perspectives public speaking competition Racism. No way Roads to Refuge Cultural exchange for schools A different language is featured on each month of the calendar, to reflect the linguistic diversity of NSW public school students who speak more than 230 different languages. Each year twelve languages are chosen to reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of NSW. The language featured in July is Dharawal, the language spoken at the time of the arrival of the First Fleet by the Dharawal Aboriginal people of the greater south-western Sydney area. Their country extended from south of Botany Bay and the Georges River, west to Appin, down as far as Goulburn and to Wreck Bay near Nowra. Organised by family groups as opposed to tribes, the Dharawal people lived harmoniously with the land, moving around with the seasons using both the land and sea as a food source. With the European settlement of Australia came diseases which had a devastating effect on the Indigenous communities in the neighbouring Eora land of Sydney. It is supposed that 50% of Dharawal people died from the smallpox epidemic of 1789 before even coming into direct contact with the settlers. Although verging on extinction in the mid-19th century Dharawal language and culture is now being regenerated by their Elders. With guidance from the Elders and Dharawal language tutors a growing number of primary and secondary schools in the area are developing Dharawal Language and culture teaching and learning programs. Our language comes from our country. Language gives us our identity and makes us strong. How schools can be involved Brainstorm the class for possible interpretations of the theme for the calendar for cultural diversity 2021, ‘stronger together', and consider how these could be presented visually. Contribute student artwork for possible inclusion in the calendar for cultural diversity 2021. Consider how your school student body might celebrate or acknowledge events and festivals. Explore the languages featured in each month including related literature. Each year, NSW public schools are invited to submit student artwork for possible inclusion in the calendar for cultural diversity around a given theme. The artwork selected for inclusion in each calendar represents the creative talents of public school students from across the state. The theme of the 2021 calendar for cultural diversity is ‘stronger together’. Contributions will open in March. Each year, the calendar for cultural diversity includes an inset on the relevant lunar year, and its Australian zodiac equivalent, on the inside cover. 2021 is the Lunar Year of the Ox / Wombat. Schools are invited to submit artwork on this theme. Artwork should: reflect the theme link to curriculum area be A3 or A2 size for reproduction purposes be the work of a single student or a group of students. Possible media includes: drawing – inks, felt pens, charcoal, pastels, crayons electronic – computer software, digital camera, scanner mixed media – collage, photo montage painting – watercolours, oils, acrylic, gouache, poster paints, sgraffito photography – cameras can be conventional, polaroid, digital, disposable printmaking – etching, monoprinting, linocuts. Schools may submit up to four entries. Photographs should be submitted although the original artwork will need to be available for shortlisted schools. The following information should be attached to each artwork: name of student/s year/s name of teacher contact description relating to the work on the relevant annual theme (approximately 25 – 50 words). Email submissions to culturaldiversitycalendar@det.nsw.edu.au For more information please contact culturaldiversitycalendar@det.nsw.edu.au Last updated: 09-Jan-2020 Back toCulture and diversity Cultural inclusion	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402766
__label__wiki	0.576689	0.576689	Hypoglycemic Thresholds for Cognitive Dysfunction in IDDM John D Blackman, Vernon L Towle, Jeppe Sturis, Gary Flewis, Jean-Paul Spire and Kenneth S Polonsky Departments of Medicine and Neurology, and the Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois Address correspondence and reprint requests to Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, University of Chicago, Department of Medicine, Box 435, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637. Diabetes 1992 Mar; 41(3): 392-399. https://doi.org/10.2337/diab.41.3.392 Fourteen poorly controlled insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients (HbA1c 11 ± 0.5%) with a mean ± SE duration of disease of 15 ± 2 yr were studied to evaluate the hypoglycemic threshold for cognitive dysfunction under insulin-induced hypoglycemia. The P300 event-related potential, a measure of cognitive function, and reaction time (RT) in response to visual stimuli under euglycemic conditions and at plasma glucose concentrations of 3.5 and 2.5 mM (63 and 45 mg/dl, respectively) during a constant insulin infusion were recorded. Baseline P300 latency was similar to that of a nondiabetic control group, but baseline RT was greater in the IDDM group. There was no increase in P300 latency or RT under euglycemic clamp conditions or at a plasma glucose level of 3.5 mM (63 mg/dl). However, when plasma glucose was lowered to 2.5 mM (45 mg/dl), there was an increase in P300 latency and a prolongation of RT. As plasma glucose returned to baseline, P300 latency and RT remained prolonged. After administration of intravenous glucose and a meal, P300 latency and RT returned to baseline. P140, an event-related potential reflecting sensory processes, was not altered. Because P300 latency changes paralleled RT changes, hypoglycemia appears to slow decision-making processes in IDDM. This study revealed that 1) baseline P300 latency is not elevated in poorly controlled IDDM patients, suggesting no cumulative cognitive dysfunction; 2) the hypoglycemic thresholds for cognitive dysfunction in poorly controlled IDDM are between 2.5 and 3.5 mM (45 and 63 mg/dl, respectively)and are similar to those found in control subjects, suggesting no maladaptive CNS response to hypoglycemia; 3) recovery of cerebral dysfunction, as judged by alterations in P300 latency and RT, lagsbehind the disappearance of hypoglycemia; and 4) there is individual variability to the adverse effects of hypoglycemia on cerebral function. Received July 15, 1991. Revision received November 18, 1991. Copyright © 1992 by the American Diabetes Association March 1992, 41(3) Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Diabetes. You are going to email the following Hypoglycemic Thresholds for Cognitive Dysfunction in IDDM Message Subject (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Diabetes Message Body (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Diabetes web site. John D Blackman, Vernon L Towle, Jeppe Sturis, Gary Flewis, Jean-Paul Spire, Kenneth S Polonsky Diabetes Mar 1992, 41 (3) 392-399; DOI: 10.2337/diab.41.3.392 Intravitreal Triamcinolone Acetonide Inhibits Breakdown of the Blood-Retinal Barrier Through Differential Regulation of VEGF-A and Its Receptors in Early Diabetic Rat Retinas NIDDM Genes in Mice: Deleterious Synergism by Both Parental Genomes Contributes to Diabetogenic Thresholds Lactate Production in Pancreatic Islets	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402773
__label__wiki	0.787793	0.787793	Abraham Lincoln historical digitization project (1206) + - Illinois during the Gilded Age (3) + - books (1198) + - songs (document genre) (1135) + - biographies (documents) (15) + - sheet music (6) + - Clark, George Washington, 1812- (68) + - Drew, Thomas, compiler (41) + - Dale, William P (29) + - Whittier, John Greenleaf (13) + - Warland, John H (12) + - Bungay, George W. (George Washington), 1818-1892 (9) + - Cull, Augustus (9) + - Chandler (8) + - Pierpont, John (7) + - Wright, Elizur, Jr (7) + - Tucker, Henry (6) + - Hutchinson, Jesse (5) + - Bangor Gazette (4) + - Cowper, William, 1731-1800 (4) + - Dale, William P. (4) + - Burleigh, William Henry, 1812-1871 (3) + - Greeley, Horace (3) + - Greiner, J (3) + - Johnson, Oliver (3) + - Sigourney (3) + - The Emancipator (3) + - The Liberator (3) + - Presidential candidates--United States--History (1206) + - United States--Politics and government--History (1206) + - Mexican War, 1846-1848 (113) + - (-) ≠ F. A. Mills (Firm) (-) ≠ Illinois during the Civil War, 1861-1865 (-) ≠ Wilson, Douglas L., ed. (-) ≠ Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998) (-) = Presidents--United States--History (-) ≠ Prairie Fire (-) = Political campaigns--United States--History 'Independence' in 'The Rough and Ready Songster: Embellished with Twenty-Five Splendid Engravings, Illustrative of the American Victories in Mexico. By an American Officer' 'Leave Vain Regrets for Errors Past' in 'The National Clay Melodist, A Collection of Popular and Patriotic Songs, Second Edition, Enlarged and Improved' 'We Are Come, All Come' in 'The Free Soil Minstrel' Clark, George Washington, 1812- 'Get Out of the Way, Ten-Cent Jimmy' in 'The Campaign of 1856. Fremont Songs for the People. Original and Selected.' Drew, Thomas, compiler 'Douglas and Reform' in 'The Democratic Campaign Songster: Douglas and Johnson Melodies' 'That Same Old Coon' in 'National Clay Minstrel and Frelinghuysen Melodist' Boughton, J 'Harrison Song' in 'The Harrison and Log Cabin Song Book' 'We're for Freedom Through the Land' in 'The Free Soil Minstrel' Robinson, J. E 'Domestic Bliss' in 'The Free Soil Minstrel' Gregg, James The Irish Wide-Awake sheet music, songs (document genre) Palmer, Harry M 'The Soldier of Tippecanoe' in 'The Log Cabin and Hard Cider Melodies; a Collection of Popular and Patriotic Songs, Respectfully Dedicated to the Friends of Harrison and Tyler' 'New Yankee Doodle' in 'The Rough and Ready Songster: Embellished with Twenty-Five Splendid Engravings, Illustrative of the American Victories in Mexico. By an American Officer' 'The American Eagle' in 'The Rough and Ready Songster: Embellished with Twenty-Five Splendid Engravings, Illustrative of the American Victories in Mexico. By an American Officer' Thompson, C. W 'The Liberty Ball' in 'The Liberty Minstrel'	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402775
__label__cc	0.510732	0.489268	The Empiricist VC A data-driven perspective on venture capital, technology startups, and the human side of technology funding. There Once was a Bunny Living in a Bubble Reply We live in a bubble in Silicon Valley. By this, I mean we often forget that outside of Silicon Valley, the larger population experiences technology differently from us and our neighbors. And this we need to remember when investing in new companies and when starting new businesses focused on consumers, particularly worldwide. A recent reminder for me was a conversation with my sister-in-law. An East Coaster, quite intelligent, very educated, she asked if I still use that “Errand Bunny” service I previously recommended. After some confusion, I realized she was referring to Task Rabbit, a service for outsourcing small jobs to people in your neighborhood. Sure, Task Rabbit, like Uber, may be a part of our everyday language, but it’s not necessarily familiar to people outside the San Francisco-based tech industry. Let’s put some numbers around that. One data point: at the September TechCrunch Disrupt event, Mark Zuckerberg told the audience that two-thirds of the world does not have Internet access. The Internet numbers for the U.S. are higher, yet remain a good reminder that Silicon Valley does not accurately represent the demographics of the larger would-be customers: 65% of US population has broadband, which means the remaining 35% has dial-up or no Internet. 51% of adults bank online, which means that half of adults bank the traditional way of in-person branch and ATM visit. 56% have a smartphone, which means almost half aren’t getting up-to-minute Twitter updates and using apps. 81% of young adults (25-34) own a smartphone while only 18% of adults over 65 own a smartphone — remember the age of the customer, too. Source: Pew Internet So both anecdotally and statistically, let’s remember that not everyone in the US — let alone the world — has a smartphone + tablet + desktop/laptop, lives on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, and banks online. Don’t base your customer assumptions on Silicon Valley. On the VC side, we see the less “techy” population outside of Silicon Valley as an opportunity — these are the areas for further growth in consumer services, as well as the underlying Internet infrastructure. My Favorite Business Productivity Apps 3 Overused Startup Terms Alex Rosen, Managing Director of Ridge Ventures I was trained as an engineer, paid for college by writing code, and have been backing technology startups since 1993. My partners and I founded Ridge Ventures, focusing on investing in SaaS and infrastructure solutions for enterprise companies. More on my bio here. Follow @Rosenrosen © 2013 The Empiricist VC	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0097.json.gz/line1402782

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