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From Chevys to Craft Beer- Four Generations of an American Story
Posted On April 3, 2019 August 7, 2019 In Beer
Jim Jones, co owner of Joymongers Brewing Co, was reflecting on the path that led him to opening a craft brewery. It began over 100 years ago.
THE JONES FAMILY BEGINNING
A photo of Jimmie L Jones in his time working for Ramseur Cotton Mill
At the dawn of the 20th century, Jimmie L Jones, the eventual scion of the Jones family, was working 60 hour weeks at Ramseur Cotton Mill in Randolph County. He was nine years old. This picture of he and his work crew hints at the dirty, dangerous work and the hardships of that time. He is the little guy sitting in the middle of the first row. His work ethic never flagged and he held a series of jobs that led to selling cars for North State Chevrolet, a new dealership that had opened in Greensboro in 1934. By the early seventies, Jimmie and his son, Norman, were the sole owners. Norman’s sons, Jim and Steve, had grown up in this family’s downtown dealership. Jim reminisced “I recently came across my state workers permit from 1970 that specified my job: wash boy. I had just turned 14”. After graduating with a BS in Business Administration from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1978, Jim began 25 years working alongside his younger brother as Chevy dealers.
By the turn of the 21st century, Jim and Steve were looking for a sea change in the family business. “The car business had come to be dominated by large dealer chains and public companies and we either had to expand dramatically or go in a different direction” said Jim. In 2004, North State’s 70th anniversary, the deal was closed to sell the business to another local dealership family. Jim and Steve took most of the proceeds from the sale and bought the dealership’s 6 downtown acres from their father. “We promised one another that we would would never again be a franchisee and let some distant corporation decide our success or failure”. That began a risky plan to develop their property into something that would transform the northwest side of downtown Greensboro. It was a difficult journey that saw multiple deals fall through and barely survived the Great Recession.
WHEELS TO WALLS
Seven long years later, they broke ground on Greenway at Fisher Park, a 196 unit luxury apartment community. “Everything we had learned about customer service and satisfaction, all of our research on urban living, was poured into that boutique business”, said Jim. His daughter, Erin, only a few years out of college, became integral to the lease up and family focus on that project. Quick success led to the opening of Greenway at Stadium Park, three years later, a 68 unit, luxury mid rise community adjacent to FNB Ballpark.
A shot above of the apartments and FNB Ballpark
Jim was in his late fifties but energized with the creativity and challenge of developing new businesses and not ready to retire. Five years earlier, he and his wife Susan had moved to Black Mountain, 20 minutes away from Asheville, and as a lifelong beer fan had immersed himself in the craft beer scene. “After a lifetime in retail and customer service, I constantly discussed with my wife what I would do differently with a craft brewery. At times, Susan would sigh and say, can’t we just occasionally drink a beer without all the analysis?”, but she was also intrigued.
JOYMONGERS BREAKS GROUND
A few years earlier Jim was introduced to Mike Rollinson, Head Pub Brewer at Natty Greene’s, a pioneer in Greensboro’s nascent craft scene. Mike and Jim would spend many hours sipping beer and discussing the industry. “I quickly realized that not only was Mike a brilliant brewer but he understood the business side as well. We pored over notebooks full of his analysis of production costing and pro formas”. At the time Jim was planning Stadium Park and Mike had another brewery development offer so the timing wasn’t right. Two years later Mike’s deal had fallen through and Jim reached out to see if he was interested in a partnership to develop what would become Greensboro’s fifth brewery. Jim’s son, Brian, was looking for a career change from the health care insurance industry and had experience in the restaurant/bar industry. He signed on as the third partner and they were off!
Joymongers Brewing Co in Greensboro
Joymongers Brewing Co opened in downtown Greensboro across from his Greenway communities in late June 2016, a few days after Jim’s 60th birthday. “That was quite a party!”, he grinned. Joymongers was built around a few basic concepts:
constantly changing, authentic beer styles
well paid, experienced bartenders providing friendly service
large, bright, clean taprooms open to generous patios
a community focused, family friendly atmosphere
Joymongers business model was to retail almost all of their beer through their own taps with little outside product distribution. “We wanted to control every aspect of our guest experience, from beer to cleanliness, from service to entertainment. We weren’t prepared to send our beer out to someone who wouldn’t bring the same care, attention and love to our customers”, said Jim. Joymongers became a hub for free, live, local music several nights a week, giving their community a reason to enjoy a fresh beer regularly. “Community breweries could not survive and prosper without regulars who repeatedly visit and bring their friends. Our bartenders know them and cater to their tastes. We are watching kids grow up and pups become loved, family pets”.
EXPANDING TO THE BARREL HALL
Two years in, Joymongers was very successful and the partners wanted to expand. Playing the bar and restaurant distribution game didn’t seem like the right path. They wanted to take their concept and embed it in another great community that would become their second hometown. This location needed to be in a growing, vibrant city no more than 45 minutes from Greensboro so the owners could have daily onsite involvement. “This wouldn’t work if we were seen as carpetbaggers just dropping our beer in to make a quick buck. We wanted to become an integral part of our new community”.
In Winston-Salem, they found a 90 year old GMC truck garage in the historic West End community. Winston is experiencing a Downtown renaissance and has a growing, young professional class. This city would be perfect but this historic building needed a lot of expensive love, care and renovation. They took another major risk. In March, 2018, Joymongers Barrel Hall opened as one of the few facilities with taprooms in the country focused on barrel aging craft beer. Combining their most popular beers from Greensboro with unique, wine and whiskey barrel aged varieties, some unique to Winston, the Barrel Hall is making new friends daily. The partners brought in Scott Hazzard, a gregarious and very experienced industry expert, as GM at the Barrel. Barrel Hall is 6000 sq ft of very cool, industrial space hosting local music and trivia three-four nights a week. As far as expansion goes, Jim says this is it. “We don’t plan to expand beyond our partners’ ability to be directly involved. That is a big part of our secret sauce. We love our staff, our customers and we are driven to provide the best experience for all of them every day. It takes a lot of time and energy to make that happen ”.
Interior of the Joymongers Barrel Hall in Winston-Salem
It’s clear from the response they get in Greensboro and Winston-Salem that their vision is certainly working. “It is the greatest privilege of my life to work with my kids and friends to provide beautiful places to live and great beer and entertainment in two wonderful North Carolina cities”.
Beer Brewery History Interviews
Joymongers Fight to Bring Dogs Back to NC Taprooms
Beer Spotlight: Hefetrit
Beer release
History of the Barrel Hall
Interview with Mike Rollinson
Previous Joymongers Fight to Bring Dogs Back to NC Taprooms
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The Chinese perspective on the PISA scores
Megan K. Stack of the LA Times reports:
Chinese students high scores in international tests come at great cost
... But even as some parents in the West wrung their hands, fretting over an education gap, Chinese commentators reacted to the results with a bout of soul-searching and even an undertone of embarrassment rarely seen in a country that generally delights in its victories on the international stage."I carry a strong feeling of bitterness," Chen Weihua, an editor at the state-run China Daily, wrote in a first-person editorial. "The making of superb test-takers comes at a high cost, often killing much of, if not all, the joy of childhood."
In a sense, this is the underbelly of a rising China: the fear that schools are churning out generations of unimaginative worker bees who do well on tests. The government has laid out an ambitious set of plans for education reform by 2020, but so far it's not clear how complete or wide-ranging the changes will be — or whether they will ease the immense pressure on teens in families hungry for a place in the upper or middle class.
"We have seen the advantages and the disadvantages of our education system, and our students' abilities are still weak," said Xiong Bingqi, an education expert at Shanghai's Jiao Tong University. "They do very well in those subjects the teacher assigns them. They have huge vocabularies and they do math well. However, the level of their creativity and imagination is low.
"In the long run, for us to become a strong country, we need talent and great creativity," Xiong said. "And right now, our educational system cannot accomplish this."
... But Zhang also pointed out the implied embarrassments of the examination results: The Shanghai students who triumphed in the tests enjoy the very best China's uneven schools can offer. Their experience has little in common with those of their peers in rural schools, or the makeshift migrant schools of the big cities, not to mention the armies of teenagers who abandon secondary school in favor of the factory floor.
And even in the rarefied world of the Shanghai high schools, teachers and administrators are concerned about the single-minded obsession with examinations.
At Zhabei No. 8, a public school on the northern edge of Shanghai's downtown, administrators spoke cautiously of the students' success in the international tests. Nearly 200 students took the exams last spring; afterward, they told their teachers that the questions had been simple.
"We are fully aware of the situation: Their creativity is lacking. They suffer very poor health, they are not strong and they get injured easily," vice principal Chen Ting said. "We're calling on all relevant parties to reduce the burden on our students."
I dunno. I've read a lot about creativity over the decades, but it's hard to measure reliably contemporaneously. For example, in Human Accomplishment, Charles Murray only looked at artists and scientists up through 1950 because more recent judgments were too unreliable. So I never know what to think when East Asians go on and on like this about their lack of creativity.
The Japanese poormouthed themselves over their supposed lack of creativity exactly like this several decades ago. Were they right? I still don't know.
By Steve Sailer on 1/13/2011 Labels: PISA
Polistra said...
An awful lot of innovation, both business and science, comes from Chinese emigrants in Western countries. Very little innovation comes from Japanese emigrants in Western countries. I'd say Chinese have the talent; if they're not seeing much creativity internally, the problem has to be the system and culture. There's less evidence of Japanese innate creativity.
Simon in London said...
Japanese cartoons seem to suffer no lack of creativity; Japanese anime and Hong Kong Chinese action cinema are both globally successful.
It may be that a smidgin of Westernisation helps bring out the best in both groups. But too much Westernisation these days could lead to ill-educated University students spouting Critical Theory, so they need to be careful.
Garland said...
It's a good question. A couple of preliminary easy answers:
East Asia produced some tremendous cinema in the last century. How do the other regions of the world compare? I'm not sure but off the top of my head my feeling is East Asian cinema holds its own quite well.
On a lesser but still significant level, the Japanese went in big for videogames in the last few decades and they've demonstrated a lot of genuine creativity there.
Speaking of cinema, let's not forget the creativity of Jewish Americans in Hollywood. Perhaps East Asians and Jews will have the global cinema market cornered one of these days?
Steve Sailer said...
I'm trying to remember the last time I reviewed a Japanese movie. It's been awhile -- I guess Spirited Away about eight or nine years ago. I didn't like it as much as everybody else did. But I don't think I can name a Japanese movie star these days, the way lots of Americans could cite Toshiro Mifune by name around 1970 or so. That's kind of odd.
In general, the American movie industry so overshadows everybody else that it's not funny anymore. For example, I'm looking forward to last year's "Infierno" from Mexico, but there doesn't seem to be anybody else in LA in any hurry to see it.
For example, I'd say the single most creative movie I've reviewed is "The Science of Sleep" by Michel Gondry. This Frenchman's next movie, opening at theatres near you on Friday, is "The Green Hornet."
Let's compare countries and creative achievements in the last 50 years.
How do the Japanese compare to Germans?
I think the Japanese win hands down.
What about Italians?
I still think the Japanese win because of breadth. Japan can count worldwide achievements in everything from architectural design to business methods.
No one can compete with Americans.
I've read some commenters here say that the difference between Asian and Western intellectual accomplishment is due to differently shaped bell curves (i.e. less Asian geniuses). I don't think this is correct and a look at the major mathematics competitions can show you why.
I do think there is something to the cultural differences and I was reminded of this once again by the WSJ article about parenting. You can force your kids to be robots and they will get good grades and test scores. But is this where creativity comes from? I don't know, maybe in some cases. J.S. Mill had a pretty intense upbringing but he also had a nervous breakdown.
I just want to give some examples of great European thinkers who would not necessarily have fit the mold in China.
Roger Penrose:
"How did your father influence your thinking?
The important thing about my father was that there wasn’t any boundary between his work and what he did for fun. That rubbed off on me. He would make puzzles and toys for his children and grandchildren. He used to have a little shed out back where he cut things from wood with his little pedal saw. I remember he once made a slide rule with about 12 different slides, with various characters that we could combine in complicated ways. Later in his life he spent a lot of time making wooden models that reproduced themselves—what people now refer to as artificial life. These were simple devices that, when linked together, would cause other bits to link together in the same way. He sat in his woodshed and cut these things out of wood in great, huge numbers."
"Is it true that you were bad at math as a kid?
I was unbelievably slow. I lived in Canada for a while, for about six years, during the war. When I was 8, sitting in class, we had to do this mental arithmetic very fast, or what seemed to me very fast. I always got lost. And the teacher, who didn’t like me very much, moved me down a class. There was one rather insightful teacher who decided, after I’d done so badly on these tests, that he would have timeless tests. You could just take as long as you’d like. We all had the same test. I was allowed to take the entire next period to continue, which was a play period. Everyone was always out and enjoying themselves, and I was struggling away to do these tests. And even then sometimes it would stretch into the period beyond that. So I was at least twice as slow as anybody else. Eventually I would do very well. You see, if I could do it that way, I would get very high marks."
albert magnus said...
Though it has not much to do with your post I liked this post by James Fallows about Japan vs. China manner of doing things and different manifestations of creativity.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2007/11/-quot-the-quot-way-vs-quot-a-quot-way-japan-v-china-dept/7835/
From the wikipedia...
The term cultural/entertainment superpower describes a country in which has immense influence or even direct control over much of the world's entertainment or has an immense large cultural influence on much of the world. Although this is debated on who meets such criteria, many agree that the United Kingdom[10], United States, and Japan[11] [12] are generally acknowledged as the entertainment and cultural superpowers, given their abilities to distribute their entertainment and cultural innovations worldwide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_in_international_relations
The highest prize in architecture is the Pritzker.
Japanese can claim 4 out of the 32 awards.
Suppose creativity is in part a function of genetics. In 10-20 years, that will also be mutable. But not in the West. So this won't be a problem for China for much longer.
Oy Vey. Chinks and Japs are devoid of any creativity. Okay. {Sarcasm = on}
Seriously, wth Sailer? Have you gone to the "other" side (not just politically, but rationally), or are you desperate for page views? No one remotely rational or intelligent would make such broad, and unjustified claims. The last creative film you saw from as Asian artist was "Spirited Away"? Lol. Okay then, case closed and proven.(?????) Just for instance, NO ONE who cares about the art of film believes that the best films are coming from America and you should know that. It's not political correctness; but jesus Mel Gibson christ, catch up on the zeitgeist of the movie industry. Uh oh, Jews might enter into the discussion, so then again, maybe we should avoid the topic altogether. Btw, email me with some mathematical theories, ideas, whatever...
JSM said...
The "old, discredited stereotype" of Oriental inscrutibility makes me worried that this statement by a head Chinese ed official is really just a ploy to get the West to relax its guard, while the Chinese continue to ever increase its Ivy-educated legions of potential spies.
But on the bright side, it's a great club to bash Yan Shen with, over at Mangan's, heh.
Bjorn said...
East Asians no doubt outscore nearly every region in the world when it comes to creativity. The reason they feel they're uncreative is because they always compare themselves to Westerners.
ummmm look at this histrical record- oriental art vs western art.
Hoksasi was the only reasonably creative oriental, and he was influence/copied from western prints smuggled into japan.
Orientals can only ape western success.
apanese cartoons seem to suffer no lack of creativity;
this is what passes for 'art' among dumbed down westerners. comic books? Are you serious?
There is very little true creativity reoognized by the current art establishment - most innovation these days comes from realists or so called traditionalists - you won't find it chatted up by the NYT art critics (many of them have huge investments (literally, as in bought paintings) in abstract crap). Same goes for architecture- rejecting the current legion of jewish starachitects is close to an act anti-semitism.
Another example of self-pity. Chinese self-pity will forever suppress their creativity and high income. When you think yourself not worthy, you will not believe you can create some thing better and not deserve better. Western superiority is partially result of high self-esteem and comtemp for others. You gonna believe yourself better in order to get higher pay and motivation for creativity. China needs another Chairman Mao who believe Chinese superiorty and give them winning attitude
P Coderch said...
The irony of a totalitarian state complaining about their people's lack of creativity. Isn't this exactly what totalitarian states try to accomplish: thought control? This reminds me on when Sakarov was called in by the Politburo and the bureaucrats complained that particle physics wasn't Marxist enough for their taste, and Sakarov replied that the workings of Nature don't give a damn about Humans and their petty ideologies, and that communist or capitalist bombs are oxymorons.
East Asians are not creative as Europeans because they have higher levels of anxiety, and the basis of creativity is lack of inhibition of thought. People who are anxious are not only more inhibited in action but also in thoughts. Blacks are more creative than whites, who are more creative than Asians. Unfortunately fir blacks, they lack the mental processing speed and working memory necessary for using their creativity to tackle complex things, so their creativity is restrained to low-complexity, low-logic-loaded areas like fashion, slang and these things.
Coming up with a gran unified theory ortackling an unusual problem that no one has seen before has not much to do with ntelligence, but with a wild imagination that allows you to see things in a way no one has seen before. High intelligence allows you to hold a lot of logical variables in your brain at once that allows you to solve a very difficult and unusual math problem, but it does not necessarily allow you to create the new math that this unusual problem is based on. Creating new maths is where creativity comes in, just like creating a new form of art that no one has thought before. Very high intelligence allows you to solve problems created by systems of thought that are already here, but it does not make you have new ideas
east asians demonstrate a good amount of creativity. i've argued this before. it's only a matter of relative creativity. no, they don't exhibit the wild, out of control innovative ability of europeans. who does? that's hardly evidence east asians create little novel material in any field. they do, in plenty of fields.
the chinese in particular though have some kind of deficit along those lines. there's no doubt about that. certainly this culture where every person is shoved into a tiny little box, where the only thing they are allowed to do in life is study a math book, is partly culpable. remove that straight jacket and i expect we would see chinese kids spreading into other fields.
as a group they're kind of falling into the same path even in the US and canada. they barely appear in any field outside of academic ones. that has to be somewhat due to the math book straight jacket.
bjdoubloon said...
Where is the Chinese high school football or basketball team? From my experience teaching/studying in Asia, high school sports are not popular. Sure swimming and gymnastics and ping pong, but those are individual sports supported by the state. American businesses always like too see if their new team players played on teams. Maybe creativity is a team sport too. Requires civil society, which China lacks.
dearieme said...
Mm. But the early Dutch and Portugese navigators, who disagreed on so much, certainly agreed which was the most impressive people they'd come across on their voyages to the Orient: the Japanese.
If this is the biggest complaint China has about its schools, we're in trouble. "Our kids are too smart and do too well but they're not imaginative enough." Oy, we should have such problems, especially with the roughly 50% of schoolkids who are NAMs in the US.
South Korea's movie industry churns out typical fare no better or worse than the cineplex stuff in the US. Search DVD Korean on ebay and see hundreds of titles that never get shown here but which give our stuff a run for its money. Bollywood makes as many movies as the US, just as Japan was doing in the 1950's. Plus they had Ozu and Kurosawa to match our Welles, Kubrick.
I do think our cultural habit of reading (novels) for pleasure is an advantage over East Asian countries, where it's less ingrained. Unfortunately we're short on great novelists so we have subway cars full of 20-somethings reading Twilight and Harry Potter.
There are a lot of very talented Chinese scientists, writers, and artists out there, so I don't think they can be accused of being uncreative. Where the Chinese seem to have a problem is in translating their creativity into technological innovation. Another problem the Chinese face is their ridiculously difficult written language: studies have shown that it puts a damper on innovative scientific thought.
Felix said...
"I carry a strong feeling of bitterness," Chen Weihua, an editor at the state-run China Daily, wrote in a first-person editorial. "The making of superb test-takers comes at a high cost, often killing much of, if not all, the joy of childhood."
And that's precisely why importing "high IQ groups" to America is bad for us. It used to be that if you were smart, you could play sports, go hang out with friends, and have a fulfilling childhood in general yet still get to a good school in the end.
Now if you want to go to an elite university your childhood must be transformed into soul-crushing drudgery to compete with the hordes of single-minded Asian and Indian automatons out there. Perhaps some of the IQ fetishists here can explain to me how the hell is that an improvement? I'd say one of the greatest rewards of creating a highly wealthy, rich nation like the United States used to be is that childhood can be fun and care-free and yet still lead to a productive future. Once you create such a benefit, it's insane to tear it down by importing a bunch of obsessed study robots from E. Asia and India.
I'm trying to remember the last time I reviewed a Japanese movie. It's been awhile...
I think it's the nihilism.
And Spengler's old Rosenzweigian theory has a lot to say here - when the pagan nation has its pride nuked right out of its heart, it doesn't have much spirit left to fall back on.
As Mark Steyn has pointed out, the absolute population of Japan started declining a year or two ago, and they've been in a prolonged recession now for about two decades, simply because they don't have enough young people in the pipeline to provide any economic [or, in this case, cultural] growth with which to move forward.
For instance, look at the towering geniuses which Japan was producing in mathematics prior to Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
Kiyoshi Oka, 1901 – 1978
Kiyoshi Ito, 1915 – 2008
Kenkichi Iwasawa, 1917 – 1998
Yutaka Taniyama, 1927 – 1958
Goro Shimura, 1930 - present
Just off the top of my head, I can't think of a single Japanese mathematician born in the post-war era who can hold a candle to any of those men [all of whom were born as Japan was moving towards the zenith of Shinto cultural chauvinism & military expansionism].
PS: In the cinema, Akira Kurosawa, 1910 – 1998, dates from the same general cultural timeframe.
Come to think of it, this ennui is true even in our own cinematic impression of the Japanese - will Japan ever again seem as "sexy" as it was in 1967, when James Bond was bedding Aki & Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice?
I know that Tom Cruise tried to capitalize on some of the same imagery in 2003's The Last Samurai, and while it is cinematographically a quite beatiful film, it is ultimately the story of the decline and death of Japanese traditionalism.
"No one remotely rational or intelligent would make such broad, and unjustified claims. The last creative film you saw from as Asian artist was "Spirited Away"? Lol."
No one remotely rational or intelligent thinks "lol" is an argument.
Baloo said...
It almost sounds like an attempt to discourage other countries from emulating them. "It's awful down here in the briar patch" sort of thing.
It's really sad that people have to come up with some kind of market-based justification for normal childhood. These kids have had their birthright stolen. They can never replace what's been taken from them. Who fucking cares if letting little kids play leads to "greater creativity?" It's just the right thing to do! You don't need any more justification! And making little kids study for hours is just as wrong as sending them down pit or making them crawl around on their hands and knees cleaning out the bobbins in a cotton mill. If you don't see this there is something wrong with you.
GW said...
I've been teaching part time at the college level for years now. It's a side gig to my day job, which is Director of Design at an architecture and interiors firm.
Many if not most of my students are international, and many if not most of them originate in the far east (China and Japan foremost).
As the teacher for the first in sequence of the upper level design studio courses in an accredited design program, my job is to teach these folks how to unlock their creativity in a systematic, productive way. I should note here that, though there is certainly variance in levels of creative ability, I do very strongly believe that creativity can be taught, and have had a great deal of success and a powerful method for doing so.
The biggest hurdle to teaching creative methods is the vast freight of cognitive and emotional inhibition that each student brings into the classroom, and the my students who have been raised in the more traditional Chinese way, emphasizing rote memorization and relentless conformity, have some of the most rigid and deeply rooted inhibitions of all. To get them to where they can utilize their creative abilities, I often have to spend tremendous effort breaking down their inhibitions. Needless to say, that's impossible to do thoroughly in one semester studio class. Most of them will struggle with that for the rest of their lives.
However, an effective shift in approach for dealing with students with that cultural background is to play all the hooks left in their minds by so many years of relentless conformity and authoritarian parenting/teaching. As an authority figure (me, the professor), I make it very clear that I demand of them that adhere to my nonconformist methodology and that I will actively penalize them if I catch them "playing it safe." This approach doesn't work that well with western students, but with eastern students it often effects magical transformations after a few weeks of utter confusion (and reinforcement...they have to know that I really mean it). Some of my most creative design students have been Chinese/Japanese foreign students, but it took some effort to get them there.
The downside to that is: once I'm out of the picture (no longer demanding such unorthodox thinking from them from a position of authority), many of them soon revert to their old, inhibited thought patterns. I only hope that, having shown themselves they could do it when I demanded it of them, they can find a way in the future to get back to that place on their own.
If the Chinese and the Japanese are claiming that they lack creativity, I would suggest that they are doing so to put westerners off guard.
As a young man in his 20s, I will say the Japanese have been pretty creative in popular culture, notably anime and videogames that exerted such a hold on me when I was a kid right into my teens. I think the problem with Japan (outside of the fact that they're getting beat in the videogame dept by westerners now) is that the media they export the most, cartoons and games, really don't come under notice from cultural arbiters like movie reviewers or art critics, unless its a Murakami exhibit.
"The American movie industry is so dominant..."
This doesen't mean that it produces the best films; it means that most people in the World are morons who like big explosions and car chases. America produces the worst films in terms of writing, dialog and performances. The only area where American films excel are in CGI, and that's it.
nooffensebut said...
Why should we believe in creativity? What is creative expression, other than influences collage creation? Most of what passes for creativity is simply a series of fads that ride the wave of changing technology and technique. Technology advances in movie or music production, for instance, and the cultural creatives simply apply our cultural memes, archetypes, and formulas. Defining creativity is full of prejudices. Now that the Internet has made music and movies free, people can more easily give up their loyalties and appreciate a broader spectrum of genres without sacrifice. Consequently, appreciation of creativity can now be the mere detection of intelligence in composition. So, it is getting harder for me to believe that creativity is significantly more than IQ expression through media made possible by technological advancements. We have this prejudice that, though Asians have high IQ and are capable with technology, they do not send the cultural signals that we are used to receiving from SWPL artists. So, we are not supposed to consider them creative. Sure, Asians have more strict values that might limit their range of media, but that is choice, not aptitude.
"The making of superb test-takers comes at a high cost, often killing much of, if not all, the joy of childhood."
Over the years I've found more joy in work than in idleness. I'm sure my experience isn't unique. By the way, I'm not Asian.
"In a sense, this is the underbelly of a rising China: the fear that schools are churning out generations of unimaginative worker bees who do well on tests."
What's the alternative? Unimaginative slackers? Are they actually implying here that idleness would promote creativity?
"However, the level of their creativity and imagination is low."
This problem has existed in China for as long as records have been kept. Discouraging Northeast Asians from using the one advantage they have over everyone else (work ethic) will not make creativity magically appear among them. In related news, discouraging Mexican fighters from boxing in low weight categories will not lead to a sudden flowering of heavyweight boxing talent in Mexico. It will just reduce the number of championships won by Mexicans overall.
It is worth pointing out that the Chinese schools practice tracking--the one thing that would do the most to improve the performance of American schools. In Chinese cities the schools are divided into 5 levels. You qualify for the upper-level schools by doing well on competitive exams. The top two levels are considered to be about the same. (So many students get into the top level schools by bribery that the level second from the top is considered a more reliable indication of ability.) The bottom level schools have the same discipline and behavioral problems that our worst schools do. As in the case of Japan, private schools are a place of refuge for the children of rich families who can't hack the competitive exams to get into the top schools.
I am no expert on the Chinese educational system, but this is what my wife who comes from a middle-class Chinese family has told me.
The biggest hurdle to teaching creative methods is the vast freight of cognitive and emotional inhibition that each student brings into the classroom, and the my students who have been raised in the more traditional Chinese way, emphasizing rote memorization and relentless conformity, have some of the most rigid and deeply rooted inhibitions of all.
That would be my guess as well. It may or may not be true that Chinese or other East Asians are somewhat less "creative" than Europeans, but I think the far greater factor is that they tend to be very much more socially conformist, and people who are highly conformist are much less likely to manifest whatever creativity they possess. As to how much of EA conformism is innate and who much is cultural, it's difficult to say, though I think it's probably a mixture of both.
Creativity is interesting to me because the term seems to have at least four meanings really, which I can think of, probably more, which are,
1. Wanting to express yourself
2. Liking the arts, and producing the arts
3. Having a lot of imagination and fantasy
4. Coming up with actual new ideas
These aren't that much in alignment (but there may still be a general factor that ties them together, albeit much more loosely than g ties together intelligence subtests).
There are lots of people who really earnestly love to express themselves and love the arts, but the sentiments and ideas they produce are totally generic and aren't novel. On the other hand, lots of people exist who are quite *repressed* regarding personal expression, and are quite philistinic, but tend to have original and uncoventional thoughts within the domains their minds are concentrated on.
The bits of creativity that seem *most* important for an economy are probably to have new ideas and to be passionate about pushing them, but within an area that actually revolves around providing a genuinely new or better good or service (rather than just another "niche"), not necessarily the arts or the realm of self expression.
When we're asking about creativity, which is pretty lazily defined, and not getting answer, it might be a better use of time to focus a bit more on this.
Aaron said...
I think it is quite fair to say that since Asians have been exposed to Western science in a serious, systematic way, they have failed to make any serious innovations or contributions. They have made many small ones, but no large ones, it seems.
One might plausible say that science originated in the West for a particular set of reasons not having to do only with ability, but what is remarkable is that in the past 150 years Asians have had as much science as Westerners, yet have done much less with it.
Economy of method requires us to posit the fewest reasons to explain this, and the reason that makes most sense is that Asians lack a certain mental ability not readily measured by I.Q
Some people like to explain Asian under-performance as a function of personality, but economy of method does not allow introducing an extraneous reason when the facts can be explained more easily by simply saying Asians lack a crucial mental ability.
Consider. Our present knowledge of IQ and what it means is far from exhaustive - we know it measures some kind of mental ability, and we know that it correlates with mental success in some way, but our notions of precisely what and how are still quite hazy. People seem to think that IQ is the last word on intelligence, but our present state of knowledge is incomplete.
If IQ fails to explain under-performance, which it does in the case of Asians, then it makes more sense to admit that our current understanding of IQ is far from complete than to religiously rely on IQ as the last word on intelligence and begin looking for explanations in personality or culture.
Further, studies have failed to find that Asians have less of the personality traits associated with creativity, or thought to be associated with it. Studies have found Asians to have these traits as much as Westerners.
We simply do not know - in our current state of knowledge, it makes most logical sense to suggest that Asians lack some sub-set of mental ability that accounts for creativity.
It seems, further, that real thought-revolutions - the suggestion of new paradigms - requires a level of intellectual ability greater than the working out the details or even the application of these theories in the form of technology. Asians have shown themselves unable to generate these thought revolutions, and this argues for a lack of some poorly understood mental ability.
If IQ tests do not reliably explain certain things we observe in the world, like Asian under-performance in many fields, and we know that our knowledge of what IQ tests measure is far from complete, let us stop religiously relying on the IQ tests and admit that there are aspects to intellectual ability that we do not yet understand.
Reality over theory, always.
There are more Americans than the others and have been for quite a while.
I think the "East Asians lack creativity" meme is now a bit battered.
However... if you think about the cartoons and the movies and their creativity, what's the first thing you think of? Multiple perspectives. Unexpected angles. That kind of thing. The creativity is very visual.
Is creativity just visual? No. How good are East Asians at numerical-verbal creativity? If they're not so hot at that, is that language or their genes?
Ray Sawhill said...
I love, as in l-u-v, Japanese lit, Japanese visual art both high and low, traditional Japanese architecture, Japanese food, Japanese porn, and Japanese movies. Topflight stuff, at least the best of it and the stuff that I've explored. I have a hard time imagining anyone finding Japanese culture uncreative. Hey Steve: try some of Takashi Miike's movies. He's one of the most crazily-talented people making movies these days, IMHO. Two to start with: "Audition" (like Ozu crossed with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") and "Ichi the Killer," ecstatic bloody purely-for-kicks nihilism that makes "Reservoir Dogs" look like "Sesame Street."
An awful lot of innovation, both business and science, comes from Chinese emigrants in Western countries.Very little innovation comes from Japanese emigrants in Western countries.
This might have something to do with the fact there are more than ten Chinese people for every Japanese person, and Japanese people tend to stay in Japan (except for studying overseas). Japanese people in Japan don't seem to have any problem being creative.
I remember people in the '80s saying they would never be able to make better products than US companies because they were all soulless worker bees. The same imagery, even.
I'm not convinced you can actually damage a person's creativity in school. You can probably suppress it for a few years.
The problem with Chinese culture here is probably as much about not being conducive to identifying naturally creative people as it is about not fostering creativity.
On average their population is short but with a large population they have a good number of very tall people like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. But obviously very tall people are easy to identity and foster. You can just look at them and see that they're very tall. Similarly even if on average they're not that creative, with a large population they're likely to have a good number of creative people. But creativity is identified by expression and behavior. Culture that impresses uniform expression and behavior inhibits the variation in creative behavior from being expressed that allows identification and is a prerequisite for nourishing creativity.
josh said...
Good news for guys who seek to seduce Asian women:the men are well-trained but beaten down nerdy grinds.Both sexes prob seek to rebel against their upbringing,but for the female its easier...BTW a true story:At a well known big box store,as I innocently strolled out,cradling my purchase,I saw a lovely little Asian girl crying at the door. I asked,"Are you OK?" She nodded yes. I asked if her mommy was near;she nodded. A Chinese woman suddenly strode into the scene,like a character out of that movie with all the hot Chinese chicks(?). She began loudly berating the little girl.Really yelling at her. Outside I saw them again,and I had to intervene:"You need to calm down,miss" says I. She harshly & loudly replied:"Have you EVER seen such a child! I have never seen such a child!".As the kid sat there,humbled and sobbing. I gave up;whats the use. This is the way they are. Thta mom is prob close to the norm;she just let the mask slip and didnt give a hoot that I was watching!
Paul Mendez said...
I'll echo GW.
"Conformity" is to Asian culture as "Individuality" is to Western culture.
Whether this is nurture (i.e. Confucianism) or nature (natural selection in crowded, low-resource environments for people who don't piss you off so much you kill them) is the question.
In WW2 the Japanese stuck with tactics long after they had stopped working. A banzai charge actually wasn't such a bad idea against poorly trained Chinese with few automatic weapons. But when they ran up against US Marines with orders of magnitude more firepower, the Japanese did not adapt.
Western soldiers, on the other hand, continuously adapted, improvised and overcame.
The Japanese are pretty creative - Nintendo, Toyota, Matsushita, Sony, and all those video game developers demonstrate a good deal of it....
I think the Chinese are more creative than they think. They seem to do well in fields that require creativity (entrapranuership, technology, science, gaming) in the U.S., but suffer at home. I think the mean level of creativity is lower, but it's not abysmal by any means. The Chinese invented a lot of useful stuff (gun powder, magnetic compass, paper) in the past, so they've got something going on.
My guess is that having an environment where kids are drilled and ordered around intensively from a young age, is not conducive to nurturing a creative national culture. If the Chinese eased up a little bit, I think it'd pay a good creativity dividend, but the test scores would probably dip a little bit too.
The ideal situation is to combine Chinese industriousness with Western creativity, which the Chinese-American population does well at. Of the top 100 venture capitalists named by Forbes magazine, 8 are Chinese-American. 12 are Indian. On their own, I don't think either group have the creativity to and openness to experience that well, but when they get here.... they shine in the Western environment that nurtures and encourages bright, educated people.
Hard work is good, but this is ridiculous.
But Zhang also pointed out the implied embarrassments of the examination results: The Shanghai students who triumphed in the tests enjoy the very best China's uneven schools can offer. Their experience has little in common with those of their peers in rural schools, or the makeshift migrant schools of the big cities, not to mention the armies of teenagers who abandon secondary school in favor of the factory floor.
It's still impressive. If we just assume that it's upper middle class kids are being tested, that implies really strong academic abilities among them.
There is something very weird in Chinese failing to colonize Taiwan for centuries if not millennia. Similar to Africans' failure to colonize Madagascar (Taiwan is twice closer to continent though). Clearly not for the lack of IQ but something else. Curiosity? To be creative one needs to be curious.
Truth said...
"And that's precisely why importing "high IQ groups" to America is bad for us...Once you create such a benefit, it's insane to tear it down by importing a bunch of obsessed study robots from E. Asia and India."
Are you the same Felix who is always blathering on about wanting to move to china, and his esteem for Asian chicks?
Whiskey said...
The James Burke "Connections" series from the late 1970's, available on Youtube, makes the same questions. Over and over again, the West, not the East (and China specifically) constantly improved: the compass, printing, paper money, gunpowder, and the like.
The typical story in Connections is, some guy did something interesting that went nowhere, for decades. A great deal of time later, someone else took that something, and another something, and put them together in new ways to make something terribly useful.
EVEN IF IT TOTALLY DESTROYED A FORMER SECTION OF WESTERN SOCIETY.
That to me is key: the Western willingness to totally destroy sectors of society ("creative destruction") in order to get advantage in almost anything. Watt used cannon boring tools to create cylinders with exact diameters, matching exactly the cylinder heads, to create a tight seal. Daimler used perfume atomizers as a carburetor, and Volta's electric pistol as a spark plug for a modern internal combustion engine.
East Asians seem as creative as Westerners, but their society is more rigid and unwilling to say, put socially important sectors out to pasture by adopting new, pieces-together technology that gives advantage. Asian societies seem to value harmony over advantage.
Look at Japanese cinema flowering of creativity. It took place when old power structures were overthrown, and guys like Kurosawa could blend, creatively, John Ford and Howard Hawks westerns with Samurai and Japanese traditions. Kurosawa no more created cinema and things out of whole cloth than Shakespeare did, but he put them together in new ways the way Shakespeare took old stories and put them together (Caesar's assassination plus English notions of liberty plus Elizabethan anti-Catholic feeling = Julius Caesar).
You can see the same with say, Honda leveraging new ways to make outstanding motors work in everything from lawn mowers to cars, or Sony pushing electronics already existing into ground breaking new consumer products: the Walkman, CD player, Betamax (the latter of course failing). Even Mini-Disc continued that tradition.
As Japan has aged and become more ossified, Sony has been unable to match Apple (which just took existing MP3 players like the Iriver and made them better).
Creativity is not Athena coming out Zeus's forehead, it is about putting things together in new ways to create something better. That advantage lies with the West. China is merely copying stuff, not innovating. Their high speed rail stuff is mere copies of Japanese bullet trains, only cheaper. They are not say, taking aerospace concepts, new materials and making something new.
the american population is uniquely selected for variety and change seeking immigrants and, as a result, will always be uniquely creative. It's rarely discussed how China looks to the US as a model, borrowing free market and right of center ideals in particular in an effort to close the wealth and power gap. A Singaporist attempt to engineer creativity might be an avenue for them.
It could be false-modesty-as-virtue so common in Asian culture. Remember the movie GOOD EARTH where Paul Muni calls his son 'worthless' or something like that?
Chinese school in Shanghai is perfectly satisfied with trajectory of China, school, and students.
Westerner reporter with an aura, presence, mind-set, what have you, about CREATIVITY asks about the freedoms the kids have.
Schoolmaster have seen this from Westerners, oh about 1000x, senses the shot and gives routinized response about conformity, rigidity, etc. Just to get the annoying reporter off his case and out of his mind.
Nooffensebut: "We have this prejudice that, though Asians have high IQ and are capable with technology, they do not send the cultural signals that we are used to receiving from SWPL artists. So, we are not supposed to consider them creative."
Further, I would say that whenever we do get a Westernised Asian Artist (with a capital A) they tend to be the SWPL stereotype on stilts - think Yoko Ono.
Gilbert Pinfold.
"I don't think I can name a Japanese movie star these days, the way lots of Americans could cite Toshiro Mifune by name around 1970 or so. That's kind of odd."
Ken Watanabe. Google his name and you get 588,000 hits.
"In general, the American movie industry so overshadows everybody else that it's not funny anymore."
Yes, which is how movies like The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha get made. They're made for Western audiences who don't care if the directors are Westerners and Japanese characters are portrayed by Chinese, Malaysians, etc.
I'll start worrying when they write software
Right, Watanabe is kind of a star in America, even though he can barely speak English. Are there any Japanese leading lady stars in America> They made Memoirs of a Geisha with a whole bunch of Chinese leading ladies.
La Griff du Lion explained it:
http://lagriffedulion.f2s.com/sft2.htm
Angel Eyes said...
Pikachu.
"Westerner reporter with an aura, presence, mind-set, what have you, about CREATIVITY asks about the freedoms the kids have."
I must say, China produced a number of higly creative, expressive, and even great directors since the 80s. And China today makes some of the most honest and hard-biting movies about social reality that puts PC Hollywood to shame--and despite state censorship. Check BLIND MOUNTAIN and BEIJING BICYCLE.
And big dumb Chinese movies are no better or worse than big dumb American movies. Still, generally more adult than Hollywood stuff.
(And if creativity means AVATAR and IRON MAN, please, I've had enough).
When it comes to contemporary art for bobo connoisseurs, Chinese seem to be as clever as their Western counterparts. All the children of Warhol's Mao than the real Mao.
"Are there any Japanese leading lady stars in America?"
I can't think of any off-hand. Certainly none who are as well known to Western audiences as, say, Machiko Kyo was, who still rates 22,000 Google hits even though she made her last film in 1984 or Setsuko Hara, who rates 28,000 Google hits, even though she made her last film in 1966. Even in their heyday, though, their appeal in the West was to the art-house film crowd.
I think most of the Asian actresses who are well-known to Western audiences today (e.g., Li, Yeoh, Zhang) are Chinese and/or Malaysian.
"How do the Japanese compare to Germans?"
Let's see. The Germans invented (or were the first to construct) the car, computer, television, bicycle, printing, jet engine, mp3 file, typewriter, x-ray, contact lenses, V2 rocket, saturn V rocket, sneakers, and asipirin among other things. What other group has a more impressive list?
(I left off the computer)
"Let's see. The Germans invented (or were the first to construct) the car, computer, television, bicycle, printing, jet engine, mp3 file, typewriter, x-ray, contact lenses, V2 rocket, saturn V rocket, sneakers, and asipirin among other things. What other group has a more impressive list?
(I left off the computer)"
But Japanese gave us sushi.
More seriously, Japanese achievements, though more limited, are more remarkable in some ways because they happened in isolation--though there were contacts with the mainland and Westerners.
Germany, OTOH, was situated geographically to draw the best ideas and inspirations from Italy(Rome, Renaissance, modern), France, Poland(which at times was more advanced than Germany), etc. Germany also got something from Jews.
Incidentally, I wonder who the greatest peoples of all time were.
Number one would have to be Greeks or Jews, but I would go with Jews because Greek genius petered out long ago(though their ideas probably had the greatest longterm impact on the progress of humanity).
So, it's..
1. Jews
2. Greeks
3. Anglos(Brits and Anglo-Americans)
4. Italians(for Rome and Renaissance)
5. French
6. Chinese
7. Germanic peoples (great people but relatively late comer to greatness and then lost it pretty quick. I suppose one could argue French, Spanish, Anglos are also of 'Germanic' origin)
8. Hispanics (for golden age of Spain and discovery/conquest of the New World.)
9. Indian Hindus
#10 could be
Arabs for Islam
Blacks for pop music that conquered the world
Japanese for unique culture and for showing the world that a non-white nation could rise and challenge the west
Sumerians, Babylonians, or Ancient Egyptians for the beginning of civilization.
I don't see any evidence that lower verbal IQ is more important to economic growth than overall IQ.
Shirley Yamaguchi was once something of a household name in the US. A noveliztion of her life CHINA LOVER by Ian Buruma is a pure delight, a must-read. Buruma, though something of a liberal, has never been on the side of political correctness and this book vibrates with drama, tragedy, humor, wit, satire. A modern Candide story. Wonderful.
Chaney said...
Beat Takeshi a huge Japanese star among the American arthouse crowd. I love VIOLENT COP, FIREWORKS, and BOILING POINT(one of the most demented movies of its kind).
His American movie BROTHER was a failure but the sight of a runty middle aged Japanese guy beat up a black guy twice his size was like the funniest thing I've ever seen.
ummmm look at this histrical record- oriental art vs western art. "
Great, you picked art. Art is like the most subjective thing you can pick on in terms of making a comparison.
What are you, an Art History Major? Do you get a hard-on by seeing people splashing paint mindlessly on a canvass?
The data btw is real bs. The Japanese were once in the late 80s/early 90s much richer than the US. The Koreans and Taiwanese are still developing. The data for lower GDP per capita in East Asia is just not there.
Are there any Japanese leading lady stars in America
It's a real shame - Japanese women are some of the most beautiful [and graceful] on the face of the earth.
[As regards their beauty, my pet theory is that the Japanese have a fair amount of Scots-Danish blood in them.]
Morton said...
"Are there any Japanese leading lady stars in America"
"It's a real shame - Japanese women are some of the most beautiful [and graceful] on the face of the earth."
Only in the movies. I've seen many Japanese around the NY area, and most are nothing special.
Chief Seattle said...
The biggest deficit of the Chinese is in integrity, not creativity. The whole culture is based on lying and getting away with it. Companies lying to your customers about quality. Governments lying to their people and suppressing speech. Rampant intellectual property theft and then denial of the same.
People talk about the lack of Japanese quality in the 50s and improvement in the 60s and 70s. But I bet it physically pained the Japanese to see their stuff fall apart and they stayed up late at night to make it better. But the Chinese don't give 2c about their quality. If they can chrome plate a lesser metal they will. If they can use a cheaper plastic they will. And there's no incentive to make it better because the HD and WMT buyers just want to shave a few pennies so they can get their bonuses. It's corruption all around. The Japanese take pride in their craftmanship and have for centuries as anyone who's ever seen a samurai sword can attest to. The Chinese merchants take great pride in cheating their customers out of a few pennies.
No Jay, a realist painter. ..and we are talking about... well creativity here, aren't we? can you find a less subjective example than painting?
With painting, it is pretty easy for someone with normal spatial intelligence to see the difference between, say, Van Eyck, Rapheal and Sargent, all of whom were brilliant master in their own way. Only an expert could tell the difference between oriental artists ranging over the same time period. Little changes, and as mentioned Hokasai was largely influenced by western prints smuggled into Japan.
Lastly, someone brought up the rather banal examples of video games. Did the Japs event the concept? no. That's the real innovation, not adding more levels to supermario brothers.
as i mentioned earlier, if you cut orientals were cut off from the west, they would stagnate in a matter of decades.
and again so called 'creative' writers like the oriental amy chan or whatever her name is, are just following immigrant family genres started by the Jews (and they are probably 'handled' and coached by Jewish literary agents, much like that Indian girl caught plagerizing)
Japanese cartoons seem to suffer no lack of creativity
sigh... disney *(the guy) was a creative and innovative cartoonist, orientals are not.
but again all the examples used here - cartoons, video games, third rate starchitecture, are all pretty banal and shallow, like orientals themselves.
I wish my parents had been more the killjoy types. Yours truly was the second of five and my older brother got whatever drive my mother was willing to expend. My father just wanted us to grow up, go away, and earn money, not necessarily in that order.
I decided on my own in grade school that I would go to college, be an archeologist, a writer, a teacher, astronomer (my favorite movie being The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 original) whatever. Many a high-school underachiever owes much gratitude to community colleges. The most joyful times of kidhood, barring Christmas morning, were when I did good work and, especially, when others recognized it. Which didn't happen too often except in reading. Successful work is really more fun than being idle. Children do need free time, but not really that much free time. My god, look at sheer joy of being alive in kids performing some sort of dance that takes concentration, practice, synchronization...and work work work. Joy in mental accomplishment is not a million miles away.
"If they can use a cheaper plastic they will."
Of if the leaded paint is cheaper, they'll use it ON BABY TOYS, which babies put in their mouths, even though the hazards to infants of lead ingestion have been known for decades.
"No Jay, a realist painter."
Wow. Didn't they go extinct with the invention of the Daquerrotype?
Svigor said...
It's also possible that the societies east Asians create for themselves will always stifle creativity relative to European societies.
Simon, when I say east Asians aren't as creative as Europeans, that's what I mean. Not that they're soul-less automatons not capable of producing art.
And incidentally, art isn't really what I'm even talking about. It doesn't take a maverick or an out of the box thinker to go to art school, join an animation company, and color in cells for the rest of your working life.
Yeah, Israel will be the new Hollywood any day now.
I bet self-esteem and such fall right where they "should" on Rushton's scale.
(Very) roughly my thinking as well.
That to me is key: the Western willingness to totally destroy sectors of society ("creative destruction") in order to get advantage in almost anything.
This is what I mean about the maverick thing. Pay any attention to east Asian societies and you see how HYYUUUGE (say it like Donald Trump says it) HARMONY is to east Asians. It's all over their movies, too.
Westerners just don't give nearly as much of a $#!^. Look at Europe over history, a patchwork of people you'd more easily incinerate than unite into a vast state like China. Westerners are much more willing to overturn the applecart. Or more accurately, much less likely to wonder whether they're going to upset the applecart, or care if they realize they are.
This is WAY more what I'm getting at, than some silly conversation about pretty pictures. Yeah, I've seen plenty of kewl pictures/comics/movies from east Asians already (I also note how much more similar all Manga is to other Manga than any given western comic is to other western comics). Not kidding; it's not as if I can't look at G**gle image for hours appreciating all the neat sci-fi images from Japanese artists.
What the yellow supremacists don't seem to get is that some of us are trying to explain things. Like why China, with a middle class almost the size of the entire population of the U.S., doesn't innovate much.
And supremacist really is the word here. We acknowledge yellows have a higher mean IQ, but want to know why China sucks, relatively speaking (don't claim poverty - Chinese middle class is almost as big as American population, remember? And smarter?), and we're the bad guys?
Sheesh. Only thing I'm wondering is, why do so many whites jump on this yellow supremacist bandwagon? Or do I have that wrong? Are all the yellow supremacists here themselves yellow?
"What the yellow supremacists don't seem to get is that some of us are trying to explain things. "
I haven't seen any yellow supremacists here. Just a few trying to address some of the really low level fact gathering and flawed logic of some of the posters.
And the few Asian posters here are smart enough to know that there are attempts at explanations here.
"Like why China, with a middle class almost the size of the entire population of the U.S., doesn't innovate much."
I'm not sure that China isn't moving up the innovation chain really fast.
But if you want answers to the question as you've framed it:
Lots of possibilities.
1. Less money for research.
2. Innovation is not valued culture wide.
3. Creativity is fetishized in the West, in particular English speaking countries.
4. US is multi-racial, multi-ethnic.
5. Karma.
7. Confucian, Taoist conservatism.
8. Creation=destruction.
I can think about a hundred more reasons. Literally. Mostly I think its a combination of 1-8.
Blacks are more creative than whites whoaa... WTF? Show me a black mozart, a black raphael, a black shakespeare..
and as for the anxiety crap theory.. umm look at jews... lots of neurotic anxiety there.
If blacks really are creative, I think we'd expect high IQ blacks to be leading the way in innovation. Is that really the case?
Blacks seem to display a good level of verbal creativity (rap, slang, word play), but there's also quite a bit of conformity in a lot of black neighborhoods. Everybody listening to rap, everybody dressing in an urban brand (FUBU, South Pole, Boss), everybody buying Jordans, everybody watching/playing basketball. Maybe that's owing to the desire to not appear to have given up their culture?
Whites, especially northern Euros, seem to be the craziest in a lot of ways. Blacks and other races are always making fun of them for being so "weird." Maybe the perceived quirkiness of whites is just an indicator of more creativity.
East Asian creativity is increased when they live in the West. Of the top 100 venture capitalists in America, 8 are Chinese and 12 are Indian.
McBain said...
"If blacks really are creative, I think we'd expect high IQ blacks to be leading the way in innovation. Is that really the case?"
There's a difference between expressive creativity and analytic creativity. Blacks have lots of creative energy and some have talent to express it. Hendrix was one bad mofo.
Capt Aiello said...
"East Asian creativity is increased when they live in the West. Of the top 100 venture capitalists in America, 8 are Chinese and 12 are Indian."
Yes and no. If Asian society is completely repressive like Mao's China or North Korea, surely Asians in the West will do more.
But the opposite may be true with Asians in relativley free Asian nations, at least in the area of arts, culture, entertainment.
Generally, Asians prefer to belong and fit in than be the center of attention. For this reason, many Asians in the West may lack enough confidence to express themselves boldly, with chutzpah. (And even when they do, they play it safe by imitating Jewish comedians or black rappers.)
But in Asia, Asians may feel less inhibited because they are among other Asians. Ironically, though Asian societies may be less free, Asians in it might feel freer. It's like a shy kid is more expressive at home even if his parents are somewhat strict than among strangers in a free environment. In fact, a lot of people are most-well-behaved in a completely free environment because they are afraid of 'making fools out of themselves', which is less of a worry among close friends or family members. There has been a number of great original film talents in Japan, HK, and China but the typical Asian-American filmmaker has been the gutless Wayne Wang whose works reek of 'model minority' blandness.
"Ironically, though Asian societies may be less free, Asians in it might feel freer. It's like a shy kid is more expressive at home even if his parents are somewhat strict than among strangers in a free environment."
No need to question stereotypes on ISteve.
You clearly don't speak any Asian language and have never been to Asia.
1. Why?
5. Huh?
8. And?
Over how many centuries must a "cultural" or "religious" or "philosophical" trend persist before we call it persistent? If it's persistent, is it really such a big deal, for the purposes of this discussion, if it's nature or nurture?
I don't see "it's cultural" as being any more rigorous than "it's part nature, part nurture," or "it's the nurture their nature spawns."
I just have to say, the "gee, what could it be" element to this conversation is pretty funny from my end.
Gee, I wonder. Europeans colonized half the world, while the Chinese didn't even colonize Taiwan. The bloody Dutch did!
And people are scratching their heads, lol. IQ != curiousity. IQ != aggressiveness. IQ != agreeableness.
It boggles my mind that people can barely entertain the notion that Eastern Asians are uncreative for so much as a second. Some of you remain oddly oblivious to the vast, prodigious traditions of literature, art and speculative thought they've amassed over the ages.
I think expressive creativity might be a good description of black talent. Blacks seem to excel at on the fly improvisation, like rap battling or manuevering a ball through lots of defenders or word play.
I find that when I'm relaxed and confident in what I'm doing, the expressive creativity flows more smoothly.
Lenny Kravitz represents an interesting, and successful, fusion between Jewish and black. He's got a lot of talents from both ethnic groups.
Wikipedia: "Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads."
They were happy with things as they were? Could be sport.
none of the above said...
Svigor:
I think you're seeing what you want to see in some very ambiguous data. For example, Japan was a very inward-looking society when it was forced open, but by the 1930s, Japan was more than ready to do the conquest and empire building thing. In a world without a powerful US, it sure looks to me like they'd have made themselves a world power doing that. They had little trouble taking colonies away from the great European powers.
More to the point, Japanese art and literary/movie culture sure looks creative as hell, their companies have managed to innovate at pretty impressive levels, their scientists are producing serious research. Given that, I don't see any reason to believe there's some inherent inability of Japanese to be creative or innovative.
A random thought:
Societies that are basically trying to catch up to the first world tend to look (and be) rather less innovative, because when there's already a blueprint for success, innovation is less valuable than following the leader with clever optimizations that you can do because you're building up your industry rather than trying to keep existing industry running.
As you hit the limits of that, you have to switch to innovation, or seize up.
My impression is that S Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore are no longer at the point where they can follow an existing blueprint to get much wealthier, because they're already wealthy industrialized countries. China and India are in a very different state.
The question is, what happens now. Japan doesn't look like an enormously less innovative society than most European ones, though I think the US blows everyone else away. (I wonder how much of that is the genes of people who were risk-tolerant enough to immigrate here, homestead some remote place, etc., and how much is culture.) But we'll have to see, over the next few decades.
I also wonder how demographics affect this. My intuition is that relatively little innovation comes from guys in their 60s, so the shifting of the age distribution toward older people may bring a loss of innovation, as there are just *fewer* smart-assed young guys who are convinced they're smarter than all these old fossils teaching them CS or molecular biology or whatver.
Tex said...
Cultural differences between asian societies and western societies explain their lack of creativity. Alan Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa describe this in their book "Order by Accident: The Origins and Consequences of Conformity in Contemporary Japan"
While the consequences of low social order are well understood, the consequences of high social order are not. Yet perhaps nowhere in the world is social order so well developed as in Japan, which is highly organized, economically successful, and enjoys a safe society. However, Japan pays a price--the loss of personal freedom, and the inability to exploit its citizens' talents.In Order by Accident, Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa discuss the consequences of high social order in Japan.
http://www.amazon.com/Order-Accident-Consequences-Conformity-Contemporary/dp/0813339219%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIRKJRCRZW3TANMSA%26tag%3Dpsychologytod-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0813339219
oh yeah, like that dazzling innovative ottoman empire (what, some poems about boffing boys?) vs 'racist' 'boring' homogenuse Florence, Athens, Edinborough, London, ...
and poor spain they were enriched with muslim divesity, then when they expelled the muslims and jews they became 'boring' producing painters like velasquez, zurburan, ribera, and writers like cervantes..
Yeah, homogenus societies aren't as creative as richard florida's utopian multiculti nations..
Sigh even on isteve people say this crap??
I think you're seeing what you want to see in some very ambiguous data.
Oh yeah, that 95% of modern civilization thing is ambiguous. China sitting on her hands forever is ambiguous.
1.3 billion "cognitively elite" Chinamen...
Maybe people just aren't grasping how many "cognitively elite" east Asians there are? WTF have they been doing for the last 500 years?
Sure, I'm guessing. So is everyone else. At least my guesses don't sound like "legacy of slavery/colonialism/segregation/phantom racism!"
I don't see any reason to believe there's some inherent inability of Japanese to be creative or innovative.
Straw man alert...
Absolutely. In fact, that sounds a lot like my explanation...
It boggles my mind that
Absolutely true. That's part of why I call this a guess. But you'd think with 1.5 billion "cognitive elites"...
Especially in niches. E.g., the Chinese should/could kick our asses in genetic science and eugenics because we're so bloody stupid on the subject, so saddled with taboos. Instead they're picking our pockets.
But really, not only am I not talking about pretty pictures, I'm not even talking about research. I'm talking about behavioral genetics. Did I make up those studies showing east Asian infants are more agreeable than white and black infants? Is that culture, too?
Cultural differences between asian societies and western societies explain their lack of creativity.
Can you explain, in a nutshell, why we can't flip that arrow of causation around?
Maybe I'd have more fun trying to suss out why there's such resistance to acknowledging the non-IQ behavioral differences between east Asians and other races, and weaving them into the explanations of the performance differences?
1. Yellow supremacy; taking east Asians down a peg or two undermines "cognitive elitism" (the idea that the west needs yellow immigration + the must-go-unstated premise that east Asia needs racial homogeneity).
2. Yellow peril; underestimating east Asian potential (something I'm not doing, btw) feeds into western complacency.
3. White guilt; somebody's got to be better than us, so we can deflect charges of white supremacy.
Anyone want to add to the list?
4. IQ-fetishism; IQ is important, and (relatively) easily quantifiable, so it's the only game in town. All competitors must be destroyed.
I'm reminded of some of my conversations about Jews. The things I think east Asians do best (e.g., not do stupid, liberal $#!^ like invite the world into your borders) won't be welcome praise.
adsfasdfasf said...
"Cultural differences between asian societies and western societies explain their lack of creativity. Alan Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa describe this in their book 'Order by Accident: The Origins and Consequences of Conformity in Contemporary Japan.'"
Even so, Japan was culturally as creative and original--if not more so--from 1945 to 1990 than any nation other except for the US.
Can anyone say Germany, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Poland, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, etc. were more creative or original than Japan during this period? Or even UK, which stood out in the 60s and 70s only because of the British Invasion? And Japanese cinema kicked British butt.
sabril said...
"7. Germanic peoples (great people but relatively late comer to greatness and then lost it pretty quick. I suppose one could argue French, Spanish, Anglos are also of 'Germanic' origin)"
It would be interesting to do a genetic assessment to see how much important stuff was done by people with genes from the various Germanic tribes. I would guess that Ashkenazim have a decent amount of Germanic blood. Actually "Ashkenazi" simply means "German" from what I hear.
Also the Angles and the Saxons were originally Germanic tribes.
Japan has been, historically, at least the size of any two of those nations put together, if not more. As for Japanese cinema, you'd have to acknowledge that cinema is a relative weakness of the UK, relative to virtually anyone in Europe(!), as the good directors and writers basically pretty much go to the US. Nevertheless, I do not think Japanese people are uncreative or not open to novelty (they have constant idotic fads, for instance). But I'm not sure about general factor creativity, and there may be important areas in which EAs are less creative. I'm not too sure they are happy with constant creative destruction of social institutions as an ordinary fact of life, relative to the West, but then, I'm not too sure anyone is too keen on that (including Western people).
I've been living in China for 6 years and been teaching Chinese students as well as consulting foreign companies in IT.
The Chinese are great at passing tests, but when it comes to implementation, documentation and problems solving they lack a lot.
These kids have a high IQ and I had students in my classes with IQ's of 130 and up where their Chinese teacher said they were bad students. The reason for this was that they questioned the teachers knowledge.
I've been teaching at one of the foremost IT universities in China and their IT staff as well as professors knew nothing about every day solutions to common IT problems.
Rolling out a simple piece of education software to 75 workstations took 3 employees 3 weeks and 2 days!
I did a similar rollout for a foreign company, only difference was that I did 270 computers in one go and it took 17 minutes. The university had the exact same technology available, they just didn't know how to use it though they were all MCSE Certified.
In China a student can become MCSE certified in three weeks!!!
This student, when starting, knows nothing about IT as such, but they still manage to study all answers and replies.
I also had students who did the SAT with maximum scores but they couldn't communicate nor survive the studies overseas.
I have had students getting a 7.5 in the IELTS but you would not be able to understand what they were talking about and they would not know what you said to them.
China is a study for the test and the grade is important. If a teacher in China gives too low grades, he/she will be told to change the grades or get fired.
If you give the students with very high English grades a normal English test from Scandinavia they would all fail (I tried this once and none of the students reached 70%).
Most foreign managers are not afraid of these kids, because they know that all they can do is; surf all day on the internet, work for their own personal gain and quit if they don't get promoted within the first year.
Young kids also expect to get a high paid job coming right out of school with an MBA or EMBA. They just don't understand that without work experience this "piece of paper" has no value.
Good for Charles M. Blow
Amy Chua, 24/7
Performance-Enhanced Punditry
Who? Whom?
Charles Murray on Amy Chua and his ex-wife
She better have a lot of security guards
How dangerous is the lunatic fringe?
"Me got bullhorn. Me talk. You listen."
Andrew Sullivan calls for calm
"Did anti-Semitism factor into the shooting of Con...
The Sane Assassin
Mother Jones v. New York Times
A certain lack of self-awareness
Who's the leading leading man?
Immigration controversy leads to political assassi...
"Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior"
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Ubisoft Offers Refunds After Might & Magic CD Debacle
Filed to:ubisoft
When PC players ordered the limited edition of Might & Magic Heroes VII, they expected a physical copy of the game and soundtrack, as advertised. But for some players, there was a cruel surprise: an empty hole where the DVD and CD should have been.
Here’s what it looks like, based on melchior1090’s Imgur post about the ordeal:
Sometimes things get missed up in shipment, but a lengthy thread about the collector’s edition on Ubisoft’s message boards suggested it was a lil’ more than that. Everyone in the US who had ordered this version was also lacking discs.
melchior1090 was not alone.
It appears Ubisoft changed the product description for the collector’s edition long after many people had already purchased it, which meant a good number of folks purchased something different than what Ubisoft actually shipped.
Instead of a disc, the box shipped with a digital version of the game. The reason to order these fancy collector’s editions, however, is to have the physical items.
What really upset some players, however, was Ubisoft denying them refunds. Here’s how blackdragon203’s conversation went with Ubisoft customer support:
“Honestly what collector buying a collectors addition wants a digital download? I paid for expedited shipping for this. Why would they even offer expedited shipping if its digital download. I called the Uplay Shop today to ask for a refund. The support representative said he’s already had 5 calls about it today. They gave me the standard run around saying that it could not be returned because it was a digital download. I did not purchase a digital download. It was not listed as such when I preordered it. They tried to tell me I need to call another number and then gave me the exact same number I called (1-888-824-7038). After 40 minutes on the phone they finally transferred me to a ‘managers’ voicemail. Now I received an email stating: Recently you requested personal assistance from Ubisoft Support. We assume your issue has been resolved and have closed your ticket. If you do not need any further assistance with this request, there is no further action needed.”
The complaints culminated in a massively popular reddit thread that seemed to finally catch Ubisoft’s attention, as the company quickly did a complete 180.
In an official statement, Ubisoft said it would offer refunds and a free game:
“Ubisoft regrets any confusion created by the marketing materials from our Might and Magic Heroes VII Collector’s Edition. We understand that some customers in North America were not aware the Collector’s Edition delivered digital versions of the game and soundtrack. Ubisoft apologizes for any frustration and disappointment resulting from these items being in digital format vs. physical format. We are accepting complete refunds from any dissatisfied customers and will be providing a compensation plan of one complimentary digital PC game for consumers that have already purchased the Might and Magic Heroes VII Collector’s Edition from the Uplay shop in North America. Affected consumers will be able to pick one game of their choice from a selection including Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed Rogue, The Crew, Toy Soldiers: War Chest Hall of Fame Edition and Zombi.” We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope the above statement will help to clarify the current situation.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear Ubisoft plans to ship more physical DVDs.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened recently, either. The limited edition of Halo 5: Guardians ran into a similar predicament, with players only being given a digital code for the game. Microsoft has tried to make good on that, however, by allowing people to swap the code for a physical copy.
The quasi-digital future is weird.
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.
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Recruiting Muslims to Team Australia Harder than Recruiting them to Terrorism
By Con George-Kotzabasis August 10, 2014
Reply to ‘Recruiting Muslims to Team Australia’ by Waleed Aly
The Age, August 8, 2014
Waleed Aly, since his acquisition of celebrity status by his prominence, but not cerebral pre-eminence, on the screens of the ABC and the pages of The Age, has prudently hidden his past implicit, if not explicit, support and justification of Muslim terrorism, although in his above piece on the Fairfax press could not as prudently conceal his crypto justification of the holy warriors of Jihad. In his attempt to turn the “short bow” of the government’s new counter-terror laws into a ‘long bow’ of the connection between section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and counter-terrorism—despite the fact that the government ultimately dropped its amendments, unwisely in my opinion, to section 18C on the false assumption that they would be communally and nationally divisive—he exposed himself, not only to a fallacious argument by not taking in consideration that in the long fight against terror one also has to be able freely to criticize the religion, as interpreted by its radical imams, from which the ideology of jihadism emanates, but also revealed himself as an insidious espouser of Jihad by trying to conceal the connection of 18C and counter-terrorism.
The defeat of terrorism is ineluctably twofold, since it is an engagement both in the field of battle and in the realm of ideas, of criticism and counter-criticism. Hence, free expression is an indispensable and necessary ‘weapon” against the devotees of terror. The dumping, therefore, by the Abbot government, of the amendments to section 18C of the Act in the name of the interests of ‘national unity’, is an action of shallow thinking whose unwitting egregious constrain of free expression is a serious error that will gravely weaken the government’s fight against terrorism.
Waleed Aly with his tinsel pop idol status is not squeamish and has no reservations in entering and delving in the abstruse rarefied affairs of philosophy. He insists, that ‘to draw a…connection between 18C and counter-terrorism requires a long bow. But the…attempt to do so (by the government) has intriguing philosophical consequences’ (M.E.). He claims that by this connection, ‘the government is implicitly accepting the social dimensions of terrorism.’ The latter, ‘gathers around feelings of alienation and social exclusion; that intelligence flows best from communities that feel valued and included rather than surveilled and interrogated. This…accords with the best research we have on the psychology of radicalisation and effective counter-terrorism policing.’ But what are these real ‘social dimensions,’ and not the fabricated ones, of Waleed Aly, that are endeavouring to put the blame for terrorism on Western societies whose discriminatory conduct toward Muslims is the cause of their alienation and exclusion, according to Aly? Why this same “discriminatory conduct” to other migrants, such as Chinese, Hindus, and southern Europeans, has not alienated them to the same degree and induced them to become terrorists? Aly in his studious endeavour to shift the blame oddly disregards, or rather hides, the fact, that this ‘alienation’ and ‘social exclusion’ on the part of most Muslims is voluntary and is an outcome of their culture and religion, which according to them is by far superior to Western culture and Christianity, and therefore makes them repugnant to adopt the principles of Western culture or integrate into it; as such assimilation would entail for them the replacement of their superior culture with an inferior one. He also ignores and overlooks the fact that a great number of the perpetrators of terror come from well-to-do families and are mostly well educated. The leader of the suicidal squad of 9/11 was the son of an Egyptian teacher and was educated in a Western university, and the terrorist, who had failed to blow-up Heathrow airport in London, was a medical doctor, who, when he was arrested called Allahu Akbar, God is Great, not to mention others. These people were hardly alienated and excluded by Western societies as all of them received their degrees from western universities. What recruited them to terrorism was their deep hate of Western societies and its Great Devil, America, a hate that was incubated in Mosques and Muslim schools by fanatical imams and teachers, respectively. These are the roots of terrorism, and not the specious psychology of Waleed Aly that connects the “radicalisation’ of Muslims to discriminatory exclusion and alienation by Western societies, as a result of his poverty of thought or his sinister and clandestine espousing of terrorism.
It is also erroneous on his part to believe ‘that intelligence flows best from communities that feel valued and included rather than surveilled, suspected and interrogated.’ The truth is that in free societies all communities are ‘valued and included,’ and Muslims are no exception to this principle and there is hardly any evidence of discrimination against them. The surveillance and interrogation is an outcome of past and imminent terrorist actions as broadcasted by terrorists themselves. It would be gigantically foolish to take these ominous threats not seriously. The government has a huge responsibility to protect its citizens from the fanatical death squads of Islamist terror. It must take relentless and most severe measures to protect Australians from future actions of terror that could kill thousands of them in shopping malls and football grounds. The threat of Muslim fanatics to kill in the future thousands of Australians is an act of war. It is therefore incumbent on the government to enact emergency legislation, as in war, to deprive the right of all Australian jihadists, who had fought in Syria and Northern Iraq to establish a caliphate, to return back to Australia by annulling their passports. As a return of these fanatics back to Australia will incalculably pose a menacing threat to the country and to the lives of its citizens. It would be fanciful and inane to think that once these fanatics return to Australia they will be remorseful and repent about the atrocities they committed on their adversaries in Syria and Iraq and declare their mea culpas for the beheadings on which their rudimentary Caliphate was established.
The Abbot government is beholden therefore to reconsider its withdrawal of the amendments to section 18C if it is prepared to seriously confront the future threats of terror on its soil, because, as I have argued above, free expression is a decisive weapon in the government’s arsenal against terror. This it must do even if the chances of these amendments to pass the Senate are slight. And if the Greens and the Labour Opposition chose to oppose these amendments they will reveal themselves as being derelicts of their duty to protect Australia and playing havoc with the security of the country and the lives of its citizens. The palmy days of Team Australia in its complacency are rapidly ending, as local fanatic Islamists are recruiting to terrorism.
I rest on my oars: Your turn now.
~ by kotzabasis on August 10, 2014.
Posted in australia, iraq, islam, news politics war, terrorism
Tags: celebrity, daring thoughts, government, harder, kotzabasis, palmy days, recruiting muslims, team australia, terrorism, the age, waleed aly
One Response to “Recruiting Muslims to Team Australia Harder than Recruiting them to Terrorism”
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Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, Disabilities Impact Most of L.A. County’s Homeless Population: Analysis
Posted 8:26 AM, October 7, 2019, by Los Angeles Times
Volunteer Barbara Petersmeyer, left, looks at tents during this year’s point-in-time count, run by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.(Credit: Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Mental illness, substance abuse and physical disabilities are much more pervasive in Los Angeles County’s homeless population than officials have previously reported, a Times analysis has found.
The Times examined more than 4,000 questionnaires taken as part of this year’s point-in-time count and found that about 76% of individuals living outside on the streets reported being, or were observed to be, affected by mental illness, substance abuse, poor health or a physical disability.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which conducts the annual count, narrowly interpreted the data to produce much lower numbers. In its presentation of the results to elected officials earlier this year, the agency said only 29% of the homeless population had either a mental illness or substance abuse disorder and, therefore, 71% “did not have a serious mental illness and/or report substance use disorder.”
The Times, however, found that about 67% had either a mental illness or a substance abuse disorder. Individually, substance abuse affects 46% of those living on the streets — more than three times the rate previously reported — and mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder, affects 51% of those living on the streets, according to the analysis.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
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Topics: Los Angeles County
Death Rate Among L.A. County’s Homeless Jumps About 30% in 6 Years
Local News Politics
Gov. Newsom Seeks $750 Million for Fight Against Homelessness
Study: L.A. County Can Help Thousands of Mentally Ill Inmates Avoid Arrest, Homelessness
$500M From Gov. Newsom’s CA Budget Could Keep L.A.’s Most Vulnerable From Becoming Homeless
L.A. County, Planned Parenthood to Open 50 High School Sexual Health and Well-Being Centers
L.A. County and Planned Parenthood Plan to Open 50 Sexual Healthcare Clinics at Local High Schools
Skyrocketing Rents Force Thousands in Los Angeles County to Live Out of Their Vehicles
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Majority of Californians Say They Are Concerned About Homeless People in Their Communities
Central California Inmate Kills Prisoner Serving Life Sentence for Child Sexual Assault: Officials
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Fishers want PM to stop foreign vessels from fishing in Indian waters; demand probe against scientists for false fish resources
Bureau News Marine Industry July 3, 2019
With reports of increased presence of foreign vessels in Indian waters, the fishers in the country have demanded the Centre to take steps against the entry of such vessels in the Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
The All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Association sent a representation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding drastic steps against the entry of foreign vessels in the Indian waters. The Association has given a representation in the wake of ten Chinese fishing, alleged to be fishing in Indian waters, taking shelter in Ratnagiri in Maharasthtra because of Cyclone Vayu. They also alleged that about 200 foreign vessels were in the outer sea to enter Arabian Sea.
In the representation, they also demanded a uniform regulation of fishing boats in the country. The demand has been made in the wake of Kerala bringing in stricter regulations than the other states on fishing vessels.
Stating that the representation was given on Tuesday, AKFBOA general secretary Joseph Xavier said that they were trying to get an appointment of the Prime Minister. “We hope to meet the Prime Minister soon so that all the issues pertaining to the industry could be presented to him,” he said. In the representation, the Association has said that it was only abundance of fish in the Indian waters that had prompted the Chinese vessels to fish in the Indian waters. Noting that the scientific community has failed in giving reliable information about fish wealth, the Association also demanded to probe into the activities of the scientific community. They alleged that when the scientists here cautions against the shortage of fish and also recommends stoppage of all fishing for a long period, the foreign vessels with the help of their own satellite installations locate the abundance of fish here. The Association in the representation has alleged that the marine scientists have entered an unholy alliance with foreign agents. In this context, the Association has demanded a probe by a central agency into the activities of the scientific community.
India in third position in Shark hunting
India takes the third position in shark hunting in world ranking after Indonesia and Spain. India comes third with an average catch of 67,391 metric …
Kerala gets it first state of the art Clam processing Unit
Kerala has got its first clam processing facility at Perumbalam island in Alappuzha, which is believed to add to the economy of about 250 families …
Food safety authority to set standard for naturally occurring Formaldehyde in fish
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is likely to set standards for naturally occurring Formaldehyde in fish by next year. The scientific panel …
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← A Literary Salon
Anniversaries →
My top 3 Sci-Fi/Fantasy books
I’ve read a lot of science fiction/fantasy books in my time. Earliest ones were The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K LeGuin (I’m a sucker for any books with maps – loved the hand drawn archipelago in these books), A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, the Narnia series by C S Lewis, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien (yay, more maps!).
So when I discovered there was such a thing as lesbian science fiction/fantasy, I was immediately in love with a whole new set of characters: female warriors, scientists, pilots…you name it…everything the boys could do, these women could do, and better!
So here are three of my favourites in this truly wonderful genre of lesbian fiction.
First up, Daughters of the Coral Dawn by Katherine V Forrest. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read this book. I even have a ‘first edition’ published in 1984 by Naiad Press. This book and the two that complete the trilogy have been re-released with new covers by Bella Books. And although the new ones have modern-looking science-fiction-y covers, I like this one…with the haunting coral eyes of the woman who becomes the colonists’ leader on their new planet when they escape from Earth, Megan. Not sure about the hairstyle, no doubt very 1980s – but the description of Megan in the book is that she is always dressed in black and white – black pants, mid-calf boots, and white shirt. Very sexy.
My favourite character though, is the narrator, Minerva the historian. Especially when she finds love with a younger woman, when she thought the time for loving another had passed her by.
Second, Return to Isis by Jean Stewart, the first in the series of five, originally published by Rising Tide Press in 1992. One of my ‘go to’ series to reread on occasions when I want a good blast of lesbian sci-fi.
On first reading, there seems to be a clear distinction of the tightly controlled male dominated hetero-normative world of Elysium in the eastern part of the US and the utopian-styled Freeland in the west. But, as with any human attempts at achieving Nirvana, there’s always a snake in the grass, as warrior Whit finds out when she returns to her home colony after a few years undercover in Elysium.
The women in these stories go through a lot as they try to survive in a hostile world, fighting against outside forces as well as contending with their own internal battles of jealousy and intrigue.
I was sorry that the author stopped writing at novel number five in the series. I certainly wanted to read more about Whit and Kali’s adventures.
Third, but not least by any means, is Fires of Aggar by Chris Anne Wolfe, published in 1994 by New Victoria Publishers. This is the second in the series and although I do enjoy rereading the first book, Shadows of Aggar, it’s Royal Marshall Gwyn, the main character in Fires of Aggar who is my favourite. Her bondmates are two sandwolves and the connection the three of them have is a big part of the appeal of this story.
Chris Anne created a fantastic medieval type world with Aggar and the society of Amazons who come from another planet to help the citizens of Aggar through difficult times.
Unfortunately the author succumbed to cancer at a very early age. A group of her friends have continued the series using outlines and notes Chris Anne left behind. But they haven’t really managed to match the tone and style of the first two books, in my opinion.
There is now a vast array of lesbian science fiction/fantasy novels to choose from. But these are my first three picks from a time when lesbian books of any genre were hard to find pre-internet and Amazon. I was thankful for the Silver Moon bookshop in London and the mail order service offered by West and Wilde in Edinburgh, my main book buying sources for lesbian fiction in those days.
I haven’t ventured writing a science fiction/fantasy novel myself. So I do admire those who have managed to create compelling stories that draw the reader into other worlds.
Buying Links:
Running From Love: Affinity Rainbow Publications / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes
The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks /Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/Smashwords / Apple iTunes
Christmas at Winterbourne: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK /Barnes & Noble /Bella Books / Smashwords /Apple iTunes
The Starling Hill Trilogy:
Starting Over: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books /Smashwords / Apple iTunes
Arc Over Time: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/ Smashwords / Apple iTunes
Carved in Stone: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/ Smashwords / Apple iTunes
By jenjsilver • Tagged books, Chris Anne Wolfe, fantasy, Jean Stewart, Katherine V Forrest, Reading, Science Fiction
One comment on “My top 3 Sci-Fi/Fantasy books”
Good choices and I would also add Fletcher Delaney (Cacaphenon) and Erica Lawson’s Chronicles of Ratha – brilliant and funny. Also Linda North
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Five Repentance/Atonement Songs For Yom Kippur
Return to your emo, 90s self. Read More
By Jon Reiss / October 5, 2011
Yom Kippur is about denying yourself pleasure for a day in order to be properly submerged into the despair you’ve cast out into the word with your bad deeds. You wake up, go to shul, stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit and then go home and wait for shul again. If your mom is anything like mine, you mustn’t watch TV, play hide-and-seek, or do anything pleasurable as you wait to return to services.
However, if you’re going to watch TV, maybe watch something appropriate, something with that Yom Kippur malaise, like Lars Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark. As far as music’s concerned, it shouldn’t be too hard to find appropriate tunes to help you ruminate over your bad behavior. Certain genres of music are especially heavy on repentance/atonement-centric songs, while others are almost entirely devoid of them. One is not likely to find many Yom Kippur-appropriate songs in the discography of Brittney Spears. But jump back 20 years and the most popular music of the time was full of atonement. Alternative rock is a treasure trove of sad, sappy music for hungry, weary Jews on Yom Kippur. Emo—old emo—specifically, is also pretty packed with sad, repentant lyrics. (Though modern emo is much too self-obsessed and glammy to dwell on any wrongdoing.) Here are five Yom Kippur-appropriate songs to listen to in between services.
Don’t Hate Me by The Get Up Kids
What better song to listen to on Yom Kippur than one that begins with a sad sounding screechy voice shouting, “Forgive me!” This song is a tad poppy for Yom Kippur, but it’s properly in the spirit of the day, just pretend that god is named “Amy.”
All Apologies by Nirvana
Pretty self-explanatory. I don’t think Kurt wrote this one for Yom Kippur, but Jewish Gen-Xers can probably attest that it makes for a good atonement song.
Unforgiven by Metallica
This list is starting to look suspiciously like the playlist I listened to in the 8th grade when I was being punished for something and angry at my parents. Back then, the notion of atoning for anything I did was totally beyond my understanding. For Metallica fans, this is the perfect song to listen to you’re when feeling guilty about all the illegal music you’ve downloaded. It’s also the perfect Yom Kippur song for the more mature, introspective listener.
Dear Mama by 2Pac
Before you call b.s on this one, take a look at the lyrics to this song. Yes, it’s about Tupac showing appreciation for his mother Afeni Shakur, but at the same time, it’s him asking forgiveness for all the years he spent taking her love and support for granted, and for being such a delinquent youngster in the first place. For those of us returning to our parents’ homes for the high holidays, sleeping in our childhood rooms, and reliving the memories that come along with that, this song should ignite all kinds of issues. Tell yo’ momma you love on her on Yom Kippah.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
Bohemain Rhapsody is the ultimate rock song, but it’s also the ultimate repentance song. The whole thing is sung form the point of view of a man who’s made a mistake and is begging for forgiveness. In the end, he’s not so lucky, so it’s kind of a cautionary tale. If you happen to miss temple this Yom Kippur, try going to karaoke and belting out Bohemian Rhapsody with a friend, then make up for it come Passover.
Tagged with: 2Pac , Atonement , Metallica , music , Nirvana , playlist , queen , repentance , yom kippur
Stop Hitting Yourself Why Are You Hitting Yourself?: Incentives Behind Atonement
Shtickball Presents The Jewish Athlete Dictionary
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The 2018 Jeff Malone Academy Awards
jmunney Best in Film 2018, Best of 2018, Cinema, Oscars Academy Awards, Annihilation, Jeff Malone Academy Awards, Oscars, Sorry to Bother You Leave a comment
CREDIT: Paramount Pictures/Skydance
If I were in charge of unilaterally selecting the Oscars, here is who would be selected. Nominees are listed alphabetically, winners in bold.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, The Endless
Alex Garland, Annihilation
Steve McQueen, Widows
Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You
Paul Schrader, First Reformed
jmunney Best of 2018, Best of Music 2018, Music All the Stars, Ariana Grande, Back Down, Beck, Bob Moses, Boo'd Up, Childish Gambino, Colors, Come on to Me, Dennis Lloyd, Ella Mai, Elle King, God is a Woman, Good Morning, I Feel Like I'm Drowning, Janelle Monáe, Kendrick Lamar, Love It If We Made It, Make Me Feel, Max Frost, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Nevermind, No Place, No Tears Left to Cry, Paul McCartney, Portugal. The Man, Pynk, Rüfüs Du Sol, Shame, SZA, The 1975, This Is America, Tidal Wave, Two Feet, Tyler the Creator, U.S. Girls, Velvet 4 Sale, You Worry Me, You're a Mean One Leave a comment
CREDIT: Ariana Grande/YouTube
These were the singles released in 2018 or that first became hits in 2018 that had the strongest impacts on me.
1. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry” – Has any other singer besides Ariana Grande ever endured so many personal struggles so publicly and on such a massive scale? She still had a lot of heartbreak left to come after releasing “No Tears Left to Cry,” but luckily she was already equipped with and had gifted the world with a timeless anthem for how to insist on finding the joy amidst all life’s turmoil.
2. Dennis Lloyd – “Nevermind” – The ultimate kind of elastic groove to which you can chill out or dance ’til you drop.
3. Ella Mai – “Boo’d Up” – Ella Mai captured the language of infatuation in 2018, but the feelings are eternal.
4. Ariana Grande – “God is a Woman” – Oh, trust me, I believe. I was certain once I heard that first sexy guitar strum.
5. U.S. Girls – “Velvet 4 Sale” – This is the sort of rock music that makes me happy to currently be an adult human.
6. Beck – “Colors” – Is Beck the greatest dance artist of his era? “Colors” makes a strong case.
7. Janelle Monáe – “Pynk” – If we all had our own personal “Pynk” to announce to everyone who we are, the world would be a much better place.
8. Rüfüs Du Sol – “No Place” – I imagine that this is what it will sound like when I drift off this mortal coil.
9. Childish Gambino – “This Is America” – The musical equivalent of getting shot in the head and living to tell the tale.
10. Portugal. The Man – “Tidal Wave” – The force of extreme weather, but going down smooth and easy.
11. Janelle Monáe – “Make Me Feel” – Feeling good should sometimes feel like there’s a worm dancing in your brain.
12. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me” – It’s good to know that some musicians are out here to make sure we’re safe and sound.
13. Elle King – “Shame” – It’s healthy to exorcise the lowdown dirtiest impulses of your humanity through song.
14. Paul McCartney – “Come on to Me” – I know I’d also like to remain this punny and lusty into my seventies.
15. Bob Moses – “Back Down” – An ideal soundtrack for making an unstable night feel just a little bit more stable.
16. Kendrick Lamar and SZA – “All the Stars” – The kind of song that assures you that all the spirits of your community are with you.
17. Max Frost – “Good Morning” – I’m happy to admit when I wake up in a day-conquering mood, and Max Frost has packaged that feeling.
18. Tyler, the Creator – “You’re a Mean One” – Maybe all kids movie theme songs should be crafted by pansexual oddballs.
19. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning” – When the sound cuts out right before the chorus, and then the guitar chimes in so nastily, I feel like I’m drowning, into the Sunken Place or something … and I like it.
20. The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It” – The desire to make it all the way through together really does often sound this urgent, doesn’t it?
Best TV Episodes of 2018
jmunney Best of 2018, Best of TV 2018, Television #MurphyToo, A Boy and His Priest, A Random Killing, Atlanta, Barbershop, Barry, Best of 2018, Better Call Saul, Big Mouth, Bojack Horseman, Canada (1950–Present Day), Chapter Eight: Know Your Truth, Childish Gambino, Donald Glover, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, Giving and Receiving, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Joe Pera Talks to You About the Rat Wars of Alberta, Joe Pera Talks with You, Mac and Me, Mac Finds His Pride, Milk, Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos, MST3K, Murphy Brown, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Pose, Saturday Night Live, Sharp Objects, SNL, South Park, Swipe Right, Teddy Perkins, Thanksgiving and Taking, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem, The Last O.G., The Planned Parenthood Show, The Showstoppe, Winner, Woods Leave a comment
CREDIT: Guy D’Alema/FX/FX Networks
If you’re still catching up on the best TV of 2018, the following playlist would be a great way to go about it.
1. Atlanta, “Teddy Perkins”
2. Saturday Night Live, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino
3. Atlanta, “Barbershop”
4. Mystery Science Theater 3000, “Mac and Me”
5. Big Mouth, “The Planned Parenthood Show”
6. BoJack Horseman, “The Showstopper”
7. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem”
8. The Assassination of Gianni Versace, “A Random Killing”
9. Barry, “Chapter Eight: Know Your Truth”
10. Pose, “Giving and Receiving”
11. Joe Pera Talks With You, “Joe Pera Talks to You About the Rat Wars of Alberta, Canada (1950–Present Day)”
12. BoJack Horseman, “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos”
13. Murphy Brown, “Thanksgiving and Taking”
14. Atlanta, “Woods”
15. Murphy Brown, “#MurphyToo”
16. Better Call Saul, “Winner”
17. The Last O.G., “Swipe Right”
18. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Mac Finds His Pride”
19. South Park, “A Boy and a Priest”
20. Sharp Objects, “Milk”
jmunney Best in Film 2018, Best of 2018, Cinema Annihilation, Best of 2018, BlacKkKlansman, Eighth Grade, First Reformed, Isle of Dogs, movies, Sorry to Bother You, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Endless, Unsane, Widows Leave a comment
CREDIT: Courtesy of the Studios
This post was originally published on News Cult in December 2018.
I saw nearly 200 new movies in 2018, a personal record, and yet, there were still a couple dozen that I wish had more time to see. If you had told me just three years ago how many movies I would see this year, I would assume that everything would be crossed off my 2018 cinema checklist. But as I get deeper and deeper into the world of film journalism and analysis, I become ever more aware of just how seemingly limitless the cinematic landscape is. Despite my shortcomings, I am confident that I managed to put together a top 10 list that at the very least hints at all the storytelling diversity that the medium had to offer this year.
But before we get to that, here are some more 2018 movies that I loved: Assassination Nation, Bad Times at the El Royale, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Commuter, The Death of Stalin, The Favourite, Gemini, Green Book, The Hate U Give, Hereditary, Instant Family, The Old Man & the Gun, Paddington 2, Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Searching, A Simple Favor, Suspiria, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Three Identical Strangers, Tully, and Venom.
10. Unsane – Claire Foy gets totally gaslit about her mental state, while Steven Soderbergh captures the whole charade on an iPhone. It’s more than a gimmick, as he expands his cinematic language, and a disturbing scam gets indicted in the process.
9. Isle of Dogs – Wes Anderson’s Japan-set animated canine adventure navigates some tricky business about cultural appropriateness, but it’s still a whimsical, yet thrillingly dangerous tale with delightfully quirky animation and an evergreen warning against tyrannical government.
8. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The best superhero movie of 2018 was molded by the baggage of history while managing to also be revolutionary in a way that didn’t seem possible anymore in this era of comic book movie overload. Every Spider-Man story has partly been about how we all have the capacity to be heroic Spider-Beings; few prove it as imaginatively as Into the Spider-Verse.
7. Eighth Grade – Eighth Grade is basically anxiety distilled into its purest cinematic form. How could it not be? It focuses on a teenage girl in 2018 whose life is inexplicably tied to her screens, and it’s directed by Bo Burnham, who has captured his own anxiety for the raw material in his live shows. It sounds like a nightmare, and it kind of is, but it is also singularly exhilarating and inspiring.
6. BlacKkKlansman – Colorado Springs’ first black detective picks up the phone and cold-calls the KKK, setting off a batty infiltration that comments on the persistence of bigotry and the inspiration of blaxploitation. If Ron Stallworth’s story weren’t true, would Spike Lee have to have created it? He certainly had to do something to get us electrified in this still-way-too-discriminatory real world.
5. Widows – A trio of women lose their criminal husbands and are left to pull off a multimillion dollar heist in their (dis)honor. Meanwhile, Chicago’s political machine keeps dirtily chugging along. Steve McQueen’s top-notch skills elevate the message and thrills of every single frame.
4. First Reformed – The movie of 2018 that I’ve thought about the most since seeing it. Ethan Hawke plays Ernst Toller, a reverend counseling a man who has grown profoundly fatalistic over the state of a world ravaged by global warming. He catches something from this member of his flock – is it a disease, or perhaps an epiphany? If you’re alive in 2018 and cannot relate to Toller, you’re not paying attention.
3. The Endless – Two brothers are living on their own after escaping from the cult they grew up in, but they cannot quite escape the pull of its gravity. Upon returning for a visit, they discover the elliptical truth of what is really going on, and a new landmark vision of sci-fi horror comes to fruition.
2. Sorry to Bother You – Cash Green uses his “white voice” to become a successful telemarketer, and that’s only the start of capitalism taking him for all that he’s worth. Boots Riley’s incendiary clarion call to workers’ rights is bold, everything-AND-the-kitchen-sink filmmaking.
1. Annihilation – A group of scientists and doctors (who all happen to be female) head into Area X, where a bunch of weird goings-on confound and entrance them. All forms of life in this realm are more or less cross-bred with each other, creating utter strangeness, terrifying abominations, and above all, sublime beauty.
Best Podcasts of 2018
jmunney Best of 2018, Podcasts Best of 2018, Blank Check with Griffin & David, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, How Did This Get Made?, Podcasts, R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME?, Unspooled Leave a comment
Any Best Podcast list curated by one person must include the caveat that only a portion of all the podcasts out there have been listened to by the listmaker. My podcast diet mainly consists of comedy and pop culture, so consider this a list of the best comedy and pop culture podcasts of 2018. (Also, as it turns out, you can [mostly] consider this a list of the best of one particular podcast network.) My choices are not in any particular order, except for my overall #1 selection.
Overall Best: R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: ME? – Four years after comprehensively covering the lovable lads from Liverpool, Adam Scott Aukerman were back to talk about R.E.M. and nothing else in 2018. It truly was The Year of R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: Me?, and we were all just living in it.
Best Episode: “Staind Glass 2” – Todd Glass, the man who has very strong opinions on music but the most chaotic knowledge about the subject, returned for Scott and Scott to see if he knows anything about R.E.M. He also regaled the boys with a story about a wedding he surreptitiously, hilariously attended, and thus a proud podcasting tradition continued.
Blank Check with Griffin & David – Griffin Newman and David Sims’ competitive advantage of being the only two friends to host a podcast together continued delightfully along in 2018, as they examined on the films of even more directors who have been given “blank checks” to pursue their passion projects. In 2018, the lineup consisted of Paul Verhoeven, James L. Brooks, Brad Bird, Ang Lee, Nancy Meyers, and Tim Burton.
Best Episode: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – This episode is perhaps best remembered by Blankies for the envelope gag, but the entire episode is a winner. Frequent guest JD Amato is the perfect addition to examine this confoundingly ambitious entry in Ang Lee’s filmography, as he makes the case that even if this is not a great movie, everyone who considers themselves a film buff should watch it to see what it is all about.
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend – Conan O’Brien takes his deconstructionist approach to the podcast medium, as he wonders if the friendships that have eluded him when interviewing people on his talk show can be forged when they occur on this more longform setup.
Best Episode: Bill Burr – Burr gets personal enough to help Conan along on this journey, but the real reason this episode taking the top spot is the part at the end when Conan lists a bunch of fake (unfortunately so) Pokémon.
How Did This Get Made? – This podcast stalwart had no shortage of awful and bizarre so-called movies to add to its crosshairs in 2018, and I came to appreciate it even more for how it’s just some friends hanging out and having the best time ever.
Best Episode: 200th Mini Retrospective Clip Show Spectacular – The meat of this episode was clips of previous episodes, which doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that some of the best moments of HDTGM? are people just riotously cracking up, you realize the value of just looking back and taking in the memories.
Unspooled – HDTGM?‘s Paul Scheer actually got around to watching and discussing some good movies as he teamed up with critic Amy Nicholson to dive deep into the American Film Institute’s ranking of the 100 greatest American films of all time. Two film nerds digging into movie history and showing off their enthusiasm for canonization (or questioning canonization) is always a good formula.
Best Episode: Duck Soup – Paul and Amy are joined by Marx Brothers super-fan Conan O’Brien, who has some legit comedy nerd theories regarding what Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo are all about.
jmunney Best of 2018, Best of TV 2018, Television Best of 2018, Television, TV Leave a comment
CREDIT: Courtesy of the Networks
I spent much of 2018 despairing over how there isn’t enough time to watch every great show out there, just as I have every year for the past decade or so. Despite that permanent dilemma, I did not struggle as much as I usually do to settle on a top 10. But of course, there are always more than ten great shows that I would like to recognize. So before you continue reading on to my picks of the very best, here are some other shows I loved in 2018: Bob’s Burgers, The Goldbergs, The Good Place, Great News, Homecoming, Jane the Virgin, Killing Eve, The Last O.G., Mystery Science Theater 3000, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Sharp Objects, Speechless, Trial & Error, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
And here are some 2018 shows that I kept hearing wonderful things about, but that I never got around to seeing: The Americans, The Good Fight, Lodge 49, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, One Day at a Time, Random Acts of Flyness, Succession, The Terror.
10. BoJack Horseman (Netflix) – Most BoJack Horseman seasons lead up to some earth-shattering conclusion. Season 5 followed much the same structure but wisely ultimately settled on a more even-keeled note, declaring that people sometimes do good things and sometimes do bad things, and the trick is to do good things more often. Maybe there is equilibrium in BoJack’s future?
9. Joe Pera Talks with You (Adult Swim) – Perhaps the most unique show of 2018, and probably the gentlest in Adult Swim history, Joe Pera Talks with You inspires wonder at all the simple facts of life. As a fictionalized version of himself, Pera presents a well-examined life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that we can all appreciate.
8. Better Call Saul (AMC) – Jimmy continued his path towards fully becoming Saul Goodman, which could really describe any season of this show. And yet by just continuing along its set path, it gobsmacks you evermore with its explorations of identity, duty, and destiny. It just goes to show you that it really is all about the journey.
7. Barry (HBO) – Alec Berg and Bill Hader walked a tightrope every episode as they tracked the progress of hitman turned very bad actor Barry Berkman. They pushed themselves into narrative corners, as violently dramatic consequences bumped up against the foibles of the trenches of showbiz, and yet they always followed through on their trickiest conundrums.
6. Pose (FX) – The push for diversity in television is valiant in terms of representation and employment. But is it also valuable for creativity? Pose is a perfect example to show that yes indeed, it is. This recreation of New York’s 1980s queer ballroom scene opened up groundbreaking avenues for televisual storytelling.
5. Big Mouth (Netflix) – Netflix’s animated tale of burgeoning puberty courtesy of Nick Kroll and company is raunchy and specific in a manner that is uproarious, gross, and a little profound. Hormone and Shame Monsters are the stuff of modern mythmaking.
4. American Vandal (Netflix) – The first season of this Netflix true crime mockumentary was a rousing success, but I had my doubts about the second. The jokes and intrigue around spray-painted dicks made sense, but taking on actual poop sounded a little frightening. Luckily the crimes of the Turd Burglar were treated as terrifyingly as they deserved to be, and we were treated to another fascinating portrait of adolescence, the high school ecosystem, and our online selves.
3. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace (FX) – It was really more “The Killings of Andrew Cunanan” rather than just “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” Progressing backwards and expanding outwards, this was Ryan Murphy’s other exhilarating formal experiment of 2018.
2. Baskets (FX) – The Baskets family went into business together and opened up a circus. It sounded like a great idea, but there are always struggles along the way. If you’re looking for portraits of genuine American families on TV, Baskets is a little odd, but it does the trick.
1. Atlanta (FX) – Atlanta is a landmark achievement in surreal television. It all appears to tie together when watching it, but as I attempt to reconstruct Season 2 in my head, I wonder how Florida Man, a slippery barber, and Teddy Perkins can all possibly hang together. And yet I know deep in my psyche how much emotional sense it all makes. Donald Glover and company followed their muse to dark and exciting corners for our delight.
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Close the Camps (tags)
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Proof that Money is Slavery by Proxy Causes Panic Among US National and Civic Leaders (tags)
The desperation displayed by the recent illegal collusion against Occupy Wall Street by many big-city Mayors proves that US leaders are now in abject panic mode, because a growing number of people finally grasp that Money is Slavery by Proxy.
Lies, Damn Lies, and NATO Claiming Control Across Libya (tags)
Occupations Across America (tags)
The revolution is happening right now. Here is a link to some of the Occupations breaking out across the country with more being added every day.
Israeli Social Justice Protests Continue (tags)
Riots Across Britain: Perhaps More Than Meets the Eye (tags)
The Greatest Depression (tags)
Israel: Rogue State Land of Inequality (tags)
Egyptians Again Rally for Change (tags)
Dismissively Ignoring Hard Times (tags)
Voices of Dissent Spreading Across Middle East, Now Being Raised Against Saudi Kingdom (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES - A four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcast Award for Best Feature in the non-commercial category, this syndicated, half-hour program provides a platform for individuals and spokespersons from progressive organizations generally ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media. Between the Lines covers a wide range of political, economic and social topics.
Tomorrow: March 1st Protest the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra: Don't Harmonize With Aparth (tags)
In the spirit of the people's revolution in Egypt and the protests across the Middle East….
Spreading Activism for Change (tags)
Proposed California budget slashes education (tags)
Amid looming budget deficits, school districts across California are preparing to fire teachers, close schools, cut programs, and increase class sizes, to cover reduced state funding. Like Democratic and Republican governors across the country, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is trying to force workers to pay for the economic crisis, while corporations make record profits. Within the state the richest Californian, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, has a net worth of $27 billion, more than the entire state deficit.
BTL:Coordinated Attacks Target Public Employees Unions Across the U.S. (tags)
With Earth and Each Other (tags)
Supporting peaceful co-existence in the Middle East
WE AGREE WITH YOUR SPECIAL U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER ...PRESIDENT OBAMA !!! (tags)
OUR WEALTHY ELITE RUNNING AMERICA THROUGH THEIR CONTROL OF OUR U.S.CONGRESS NOW APPEAR TO BE HEARING ALL us little people CRYING OUT FOR REAL JUSTICE TO BEGIN TO BE PROPERLY FINANCED IN ALL OUR VARIOUS COURTS OF LAW . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL OF OUR POORER AMERICANS SURELY MUST HAVE A FUTURE OPPORTUNITY TO BE AFFORDED PROPER LEGAL REPRESENTATION PRIOR THE VERY REAL THREATS OF WRONGFULL LOSE OF THEIR THEIR CHILDREN, HOMES, FREEDOMS OR LIVES... FOR OUR SPECIAL AMERICA TO CONTINUE BEING ONE OF THE FAIREST AND FINEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD.FOR ALL OUR CITIZENS TO RESIDE IN.
Hands Across The Sand (tags)
Please join us (Hands Across The Sand & Surfrider Foundation) in drawing a human line in the sand to say NO to offshore oil drilling and YES to clean energy on Saturday, June 26th,11am on Santa Monica Beach (next to Santa Monica Pier) and on beaches all over the world! Please see our national web site: www.handsacrossthesand.com.
Napolitano in Claremont (tags)
CLAREMONT, California - The arrival of Homeland Security Secretary (and former Governor of Arizona) Janet Napolitano to this community at the far east end of Los Angeles county propelled a march and rally of about 300 people in denunciation of the policies of immigration agencies, which fall under her purview.
Leer este artículo en español: Napolitano en Claremont
L.A. P.D. Undercovers @ Nazi Rally (tags)
Photos taken on 4/17/2010 of L.A. P.D. undercovers at the Nazi Rally. In total there were about 15 undercovers working the crowd throughout the event.
Universities for Bread & Roses (tags)
A view from the South on the global rebellion against the neo-liberal university.
OVER 1700 PARTICIPATE IN 21ST ANNUAL (tags)
On Saturday the 19th of December the Say No to Drugs Holiday Classic held its 21st annual and most successful 5K/10K run and 1 mile kids race and stroller walk for over 1700 runners from across the US and other parts of the world.
Youth Walk on United Nations Human Rights Day To Deliver a Message of Non-Discrimination (tags)
On December 10th, 2009, hundreds gathered in Clearwater Florida to take part in the first ever "International Walk for Human for Human Rights" organized by Youth for Human Rights Florida. They walked to promote the message "Embrace Diversity - End Discrimination" in the effort to promote awareness of the importance of human rights as defined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In Solidarity With the California Worker/Student Movement: Statement of the WSA (tags)
Defend and Expand the Campus Occupations!
4th Week Of Clinic Defense Continues Against 40 Days Group (tags)
The Vigil Continues at Downtown L.A. Adjacent Family Planning Clinic
Guinea: Bloody Repression Marks Independence (tags)
Today opposition and labor protesters descended from the main boulevards of the city to the national stadium ("Stade du 28 Septembre"), but were met with a ban order, lines of troops, live fire, and rumors that the military is disappearing captives and bodies of the dead. As many as 80 bodies have been rumored to have been laid out in the stadium itself. If anything like the events of 2007 reoccur, the military would be willing to continue this crackdown for weeks or even months.
Stop the I-9 Audits and use of E-Verify (tags)
George Galloway and Viva Palestina US: Our Convoy to Gaza (tags)
Endorsments continue to pour in for Viva Palestina US - A Lifeline from the United States to Gaza, including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and David Swanson of After Downing Street. Organizations wishing to endorse the Convoy can email in their endorsements here: fatima@vivapalestina.org
Bisexual Forum of San Diego Hosts “Bisexuality Across Cultures” (tags)
The Bisexual Forum of San Diego County hosted an event on “Bisexuality Across Cultures” May 27. Though somewhat overshadowed by the anti-Proposition 8 protests that week, it was a compelling meeting which discussed the greater rigidity with which Americans define sexual orientations and roles than Europeans or Latin Americans. One speaker was a Bisexual living with blindness, who described a “hierarchy of discrimination” with people of color relatively more privileged than Queers, while people with disabilities are at the very bottom and often the subject of out-and-out devaluation of their lives (“I’d rather be dead than be … ”).
TROY DAVIS & MUMIA ABU - JAMAL 2 GREAT EXAMPLES OF FUTURE C*H*A*N*G*E .... IN AMERICA ??? (tags)
THESE TWO HIGH PROFILE LEGAL CASES IN GEORGIA AND PENNSYLVANIA SHOULD ENLIGHTEN US ALL TO THE DIFFICULTIES OUR CURRENT U.S JUDICIAL SYSTEM HAS IN KNOWING BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT THAT THEY HAVE THE REAL CRIMINAL WAITING ON DEATH ROW TO BE EXECUTED!
May Day 2009 Report:Hundred Cities Across US with Hundreds of Thousands Peeople! (tags)
Over Hundred Cities Across The U.S. with Hundreds of Thousands of People March for Justice!
Mexican Drug Cartel members arrested across the U.S. (tags)
The DEA said that they seized $60 million in U.S. currency; 12,535 kilograms of cocaine; more than 16,000 pounds of marijuana; more than 12 pounds of methamphetamine; approximately 8 kilograms of heroin; approximately 1.3 million pills or 500 pounds of Ecstasy; approximately 120 kilograms of MDMA powder; and more than $6.5 million in other assets, including 149 vehicles, 3 aircraft, 3 maritime vessels and 169 weapons.
Earth First in Orange County (tags)
Earth First Roadshow stop at the UC-Irvine campus // Saturday 2/21 11am in Founder's Grove (near Humanities) // Organized by the Radical Student Union at UCI
The Mexican people protesting and want the Army out! (tags)
It was the largest display of discontent against the army's role in an anti-drug crackdown since President Felipe Calderon began deploying soldiers across the country two years ago to fight Mexican drug cartels. About 45,000 soldiers are now spread out across Mexico.
Empowering Thoughts - You Are God (tags)
"I am that I am that I am". The greatest realization of self I have come across in my journey of searching within is the conclusion that I am God
Human Rights Require International Freedom of Movement and Residence (tags)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 60 years old this week, has helped legitimate the supposed right of nation-states to regulate immigration, thus denying freedom of international mobility and residence, and undermining basic human rights in the process.
REVIVAL ACROSS THE LAND!!!!!!!! (tags)
GLORY AND POWER POURED OVER THE PRO-AMERICAN GATHERING IN THE TWIN CITIES THIS WEEK AS VALUE VOTERS HAVE BEEN ENERGIZED!!!!!
Lee Siu Hin Journey to My Home: China and Hong Kong 2008 (Part One) (tags)
Journey to My Home: China and Hong Kong 2008 A Long Waited Trip to My Heartland
Save the Farm. Deadline: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (tags)
On July 2, Angelinos overcame the City-planned divides between rich and poor, cultural differences, and even broke through language barriers in the fight to restore the South Central Farm. When the developer proposed a diesel-spewing warehouse distribution center for the site, Farmers and Farm supporters threw a wrench in the cogs of City Hall and won a round in the fight to force Horowitz to do an Environmental Impact Report: they forced a twenty-one day delay for more public comments, and gained a glimmer of hope to restore the Farm. The fight between the people and developers' grip on City Hall could be decided by this Wednesday, July 23, 2008, the new deadline for public comments and the second hearing, a week or two later on the tenth floor of City Hall, in front of a small advisory board.
Call For Anarchist Solidarity Actions With Immigrants July 21st (tags)
Take Nationally-Coordinated Action To Show Solidarity And Fight ICE on July 21st! We have begun the attack by spraypainting an ICE van with many anti-Migra(ICE) slogans. May our spark spread into a wildfire.
Recap of struggle to defeat Prop. 98 (tags)
An indepth look at the recent struggle to defeat Prop. 98 reveals that tenants across the state and nation need to unite to broaden and strengthen existing tenant protections in California, and across the country!
April 19 Chinese Global Day of Protest Against Western Media Bias and "Tibet Independ (tags)
Largely ignored by corporate media and self-censored by progressive media around the World, there's been Chinese organized global day of protest at dozen cities across the World and China to protests Western media bias and Against political and media bias against China on Tibet--France, CNN and BBC.
Tent City Residents Evicted, Dwellings Bulldozed (tags)
Residents of the Ontario encampment who couldn't prove any affiliation with the city were evicted; those allowed to stay were moved and the site was bulldozed
VOTE PSL in 2008: Federal, state and local candidates across the U.S. (tags)
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is fielding a slate of candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections: Gloria La Riva for President and Eugene Puryear for Vice President. We are also running candidates in federal, state and local races in many areas.
Panama: SUNTRACS Worker martyred at protest (tags)
updates at blog
Campaign in Bedlam (tags)
Below is a transcript of the "special service" held last night at the Screaming Glory Tabernacle in Bedlam Junction, Pennsylvnia.
Super Heroes of the Redwoods (tags)
WOW! With gusts up to 55 miles per hour, it takes a lot of courage and dedication to stay HUNDREDS of feet in the air during hail, thunder, lightning, and severe winds. Even though mother nature and her fury tests treesitting activists, they stay strong in their cause.
Looking back on the Clinton legacy (tags)
Well... according to a few links which I have reciently come across,
March and Vigil to Save the San Francisco Peaks (tags)
The struggle to save the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona from development (which would include recycled sewage for "snow") came to Pasadena on December 11. A march across town preceded the hearing, and a vigil occured outside the courthouse.
Must See: Truth Revolution (tags)
911 Truth Activism
Stop Your Engines! (and leave em at home!) (tags)
Also if gasoline prices are lower,then this will have an effect on lowering prices across the board on a lot of consumer goods and services because the transportation costs re gasoline,are lower as a result.
Gestapo Kidnappings by I.C.E. Destroying American Lives, Families (tags)
I.C.E. and Homeland Security are partaking in gestapo-like kidnappings/arrests in Orange County. We believe it is a direct attack on the Pro-Immigration Movement and all of our communities. Help is needed! Please Support!
Bill McDannell Walking Across the Country for Peace (tags)
Walking From San Diego, CA to Washington, D.C, Former Minister & Vietnam Era Veteran Journeys Across The Country for Peace.
Black Americans Choose: Minutemen Go Home (tags)
More than three hundred Crenshaw District residents joined two hundred migrant rights' supporters and linked arms to keep the minutemen out of Leimert Park, the heart of Black Los Angeles.
LAPD Officers on motorcycles Drive Into Peaceful Crowd On Alvarado (across Metro Station) (tags)
For no apparent reason, LAPD aggresively moved in a small crowd gathered directly across the MacArthur Park Metro Station. The peaceful and happy crowd was enjoying Danza when out of nowhere, LAPD officers began to drive their motorcycles directly into the crowd. Many children were at the center of the circle and there's no way that LAPD Officers were even aware that Children were present and that they were endangering people's lives by driving directly onto the unexpected crowd. Althought the LAPD's actions attracted a bigger crowd, some people began to leave the scene due to a growing number of LAPD Officers regardless of the fact that there wasn't an obvious cause or situation.
Immigrants: 50,000 March for Immigration Reform (tags)
More than 50,000 immigrants and immigrant rights advocates filled the streets of Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, April 7, 2007, to rally support for fair legislation for immigrants; and to protest against the recent White House plan that will further restrict the rights of immigrants across America. The March and rally was one of the largest in recent months and it further demonstrated the growing momentum of the immigration rights movement.
Being a Leftist in the 21st Century (tags)
Each spring the Forum convenes the largest gathering in North America of the international Left. With close to one hundred panels and three major cultural events, the Left Forum brings together organizers and intellectuals from across the globe to share ideas.
http://declarationofpeace.org/ (tags)
The Declaration of Peace Calls for Nationwide Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to stop the occupation of Iraq.
The Homeland War (tags)
Even as they face escalating government threats to their lives, freedom, and human rights, migrant day laborers, with their supporters, face down the cazamigrantes in San Juan Capistrano.
From The Back Of The Bus To Prison (tags)
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus 51 years ago it was the spark that brought about the American Civil Rights Movement; changing the lives for millions of Blacks. For a short while in the mid 60’s and 70’s Blacks made some social and racial gains, however today many Blacks are wasting away their lives in American prisons due to the unjust practice of the Three Strikes Laws.
The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers (tags)
The Farmers open a new center and a new farm, ready to bring their organic produce to South Central. The rest of us might get a taste, too.
Call for October 22nd, 2006 in LA (tags)
Call for October 22, 2006: Eleventh Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
Racists Hang Effigy of Bin Laden Near Mosque (tags)
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, Sunday, September 10, 2006, At 5 p.m., just after all the police left, Ted Hayes and his followers hanged the effigy of Bin Laden in front of a crowd of about 150 people, across the street from the King Fahad Mosque.
Local Soldier, Hannah Lee McKinney, Killed in Iraq (tags)
In pitch darkness early Monday, Army Pfc. Hannah Leah McKinney of Redlands climbed down from a guard tower at Fort Taji, Iraq, and headed across a dusty road to a latrine. She never made it. As she walked across the road, a Humvee drove out of the darkness, ran over the young soldier, then sped away, leaving her small crumpled body lying in the dirt, according to family members.
Nonviolent People Power on the Move in September 2006 (tags)
Direct Action Planned for September 26th & 27th at the U.S. Congress. Peace-loving people are moving to make nonviolent history in September 2006.
Independent Voters Driving Reform Agenda Into California Governor's Race (tags)
San Francisco, CA … IndependentVoice.org, a California organization which promotes the power of the state’s 3.6 million independent voters, launched the next stage of a campaign today to directly invovle independent voters in the upcoming California gubernatorial election by introducing their agenda for poltical reform and challenging all candidates to endorse it.
A Victory for Hizbollah, Syria and Iran: israel Wasn't Hoping for This (tags)
Far from driving the Hizbollah north across the Litani river, Israel has entrenched them in their Lebanese villages as never before.
Problems with Europe's nuclear plants raise worries just as the energy was gaining support (tags)
By Susan Sachs | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Hizbullah, Zionism and the Ideology of late Imperial America (tags)
Awakening the Resistance
NATIONAL EMERGENCY MARCH SATURDAY AUGUST 12TH (tags)
Be counted amongst the tens of thousands who will be in Lafayette Park, across from the White House on Saturday, August 12 at 12 Noon. In addition to the Washington DC-based event, MAS Freedom Foundation local chapters across the nation are also organizing simultaneous protests in Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Open Letter From Mother of Lt. Ehren Watada, Resister of Illegal War (tags)
By Carolyn Ho t r u t h o u t | Statement Thursday 22 June 2006
VIDEO - South Central Farm press conference at night (tags)
Press conference by Darryl Hannah and John Quigley across street from farm, at night on day when farm was raided by police, Tuesday June 13th
Legal and Still Tossed (tags)
JUNE 3 = NO TO A MILITARIZED BORDER (tags)
CALL TO ACTION : JUNE 3 rd @ 1pm LARSEN PARK 455 SYCAMORE RD. SAN YSIDRO
The Real Da Vinci code. (tags)
YO ARE WELLCOME TO NAVIGATE ACROSS THE SHADOWS OF THE LIGTH. http://labyrinthtothelight.blogspot.com/
"Capital Travels Freely - Why Not People!" (tags)
For May 1, 2006, "A Day Without An Immigrant", Women Say "Capital Travels Freely - Why Not People!" A massive movement of grassroots women and men, workers and students, on the streets in the US is demanding that their work be counted and that this be reflected in what they are entitled to.
Boycotters Who Favor Amnesty for Illegal Aliens Shoot Themselves in the Foot (tags)
The Solution to Illegal Aliens So what is the best option for the advocates of illegal aliens? Their best option would be to protest in front of buildings run by the government of Mexico. Like the Mexican Consulate buildings across this nation. They should protest against the extensive corruption in Mexico. Press the leaders in Mexico to remove corruption and address the issues in Mexico. Because while protests are held in America against businesses in America, not only do they hurt their own cause, they also give cover to the corruption in Mexico. If they were to protest the corruption in Mexico and press for change there, they would gain a much larger base of allies, me included.
Doctrinaire Ideologues: Relics of the Past (tags)
It is the overwhelming masses of China that will assert their primacy against minority government and then spill across borders into surrounding regions. Existing maps of Asia and Europe will become redundant overnight. People across the globe will be spurred into action as they drag their corrupt leaders from their lairs to face the quick judgement of the people. The bunkers deep in mountains, designed to harbour criminal elites in times of devastation, have only a finite supply of resources before the inhabitants must emerge to face the final judgement of the people; justice is patient.
LAPD Tickets Elderly 82-year-old Woman for "Crossing street too slowly" (tags)
Mayvis Coyle, 82, was shuffling with her cane across busy Foothill Boulevard in Sunland Feb. 15, carrying groceries, while a traffic police officer watched and waited. Even before Coyle finished crossing the intersection at Woodward Avenue, he had scribbled a $114 ticket for crossing against a don't-walk signal.
For a Worldwide Network against War (tags)
The recent deluge of expressions of “concern” about Iran by Cheney, Bolton, Blair, Rumsfeld et al should be setting alarm bells ringing throughout the world.
Networking: E-mail as slow as snail mail? (tags)
Problems with the commercial Internet.
A Call to Conscience for the U.S. Congress (tags)
A campaign of nonviolent action to compel our elected representatives in Congress to meet the demands of justice and peace:
¡NO MAS! A Day of Anti-Minuteman Protest (tags)
On Saturday, counterprotestors, activists and day laborers, across Southern California coordinated efforts and shut down the Minutemen's attempt at a "secret" day of national anti-immigrant rallies.
South Central Farmers Phone Tree (tags)
The South Central Farmers are asking members of the progressive community to establish phone trees to mobilize activists across the city to defend their beloved and family-sustaining 14-acre farm at 41st and Long Beach Ave. For the last 13 years, these working class Latino families have tilled what was once an abandoned, garbage- and rat-infested lot into a inspirational garden that feeds and sustains over 360 families!
Planned local protests against the Death Penalty (tags)
Planned local protests against the Death Penalty
Nothing Changes After Santa Ana Police Abuse Protest (tags)
What is the purpose of protesting police abuse if not to organize our communities? A tiny band of demonstrators got a good response from the community, but the moment seems to have been lost. Photo and video coverage at the original website: http://www.ocorganizer.com/html/police_abuse.html
Protests planned for 2000th U.S. military death in Iraq. (tags)
Protests planned for 2000th U.S. military death in Iraq.
Free Market Idiocy and Easy Money in the Big Easy (tags)
The federal government is paying $200 billion to bring in outside companies to rebuild New Orleans, while hundreds of thousands of the city’s evacuees languish in shelters across the country, jobless and penniless. What’s wrong with this picture?
California Groups Unite Against Minutemen (tags)
On Saturday, September 17 at 5:00 p.m., groups and individuals from across Southern California are caravanning to Calexico to stop the minutemen.
LAGUNA BEACH COPS TACKLE WHITE SUPREMACIST TO THE GROUND: PART I (tags)
The photograph below is of Baldy, an avowed white supremacist, who allegedly tried to physically attack Naui Huitzilopochtli, a counterdemonstrator, at the Saturday, July 16, 2005 protest that a member of "Save Our State" organized against a day labor center in Laguna Beach, California. In this photograph, Baldy (who identified himself as Robert Floyd of Pearlblossom) is talking to Suzie Harrison, a reporter for The Coast Daily Pilot.
What happened In Victorville (SOS rally) (tags)
The SOS was in Victorville on Saturday. The picture quality is real bad but it's all we've got. Check below for the rundown of what happened.
This Sunday: Jeff Luers/Political Prisoner Event! (tags)
During the Weekend of Resistance, June 10-12th, 2005, social justice activists from across the world will organize to show their outrage about Jeff's imprisonment and the continued abuse and isolation of dissident prisoners across the globe.
Down the Bush and Blair (tags)
British Comedy writers give new spin on American life.
New Year Hitchhiker Happening in Slab City (tags)
A New Year's Hitchhiker Happening in the desert of Southern California is a celebration of the open road and a chance to connect with like-minded travelers. We will also be discussing safety and civil rights, and welcome all for discussion, live music, free camping and more near the town of Niland.
JIMMY WALTER RECEIVES DEATH THREAT (tags)
Death Threats To Anyone Who Speaks The Truth
Nunavut Defense Forces Block Attempt on Bush (tags)
Heroic Bush Saved Again!!!
Re: FBI seizes Global Indymedia Servers.(we told you this would come) (tags)
we alerted you to the fbi raiding individual servers across the US.
This Land Is Your Land documnetary screening (tags)
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND shows that every person can make a difference, even when pitted against the enormous powers of big business. This funny and moving documentary criss-crosses the United States, interviewing experts and individuals about corporate influence on everyday life, hears how people feel their own lives have been affected, and looks at some of the brave, compelling and sometime hilarious ways in which individuals and communities are reacting.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND screens in LA (tags)
Brightness in the Street, Dimness in the Garden (tags)
The intelligence and common sense of New Yorkers, and especially of the people who took to the street Sunday outside the RNC venue, stands in sharp contrast to the stupidity and willful ignorance on display inside the Garden, and at large across the country. The intelligence and common sense of New Yorkers, and especially of the people who took to the street Sunday outside the RNC venue, stands in sharp contrast to the stupidity and willful ignorance on display inside the Garden, and at large across the country.
NYC Police Arrest Nearly 1,000 Protesters (tags)
NEW YORK - Nearly 1,000 protesters were arrested across Manhattan on Tuesday as swarms of activists massed in the streets for marches to the site of the Republican convention — by far the biggest day of arrests since the demonstrations began last week.
One Year On and the Swiss Authorities Try to Jail the Aubonne Bridge Activists they Nearly (tags)
One Year On and the Swiss Authorities Try to Jail the Aubonne Bridge Activists they Nearly Killed while they were doing an action against the G8 in Evian. On the 1st of June 2003, an international affinity group blockaded the motorway in order to stop an official delegation from reaching the g8 in Evian, two climbers suspended themselves from a single rope being stretched across the street. Nevertheless a police officer cut the rope and sent Martin plummeting 20 metres into a shallow, rocky stream beneath the bridge, while Gesine was saved by the quick reflexes of her support team who managed to grab hold of the rope. An anti-repression gathering in Geneva on the weekend before the court case (26th and 27th of June) is being held, bringing together support groups from incidents of legal or physical repression across Europe.
Art Event to Benefit Tre Arrow (tags)
Join us for the Fancy Schmancy Art Event. Amazing art, from across the country and Europe will be on display and up for bidding! In the end, this effort is for the defense, not of just one man, but of JUSTICE!!
ILWU10 Calls For Million Worker Rally (tags)
San Francisco ILWU Local 10 has voted to initiate a call for a million worker rally during mid-October in Washington DC. It will demand an end to privatization, deregulation, the repeal of the Taft-Hartley, Patriot Act and other issues.
Grocery Workers are Still Fighting (tags)
An article about the Southern California Grocery Strike/Lockout.
Building Bridges Radio presents David Rovics (tags)
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Reports presents this 58 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK
EMAIL HOMELAND SECURITY ABOUT THE KOBE THREAT (tags)
I am a concerned citizen who just came across a website that I think fall's under 18 U.S.C., Distribution with Intent.
Real perspective on 9-11 (tags)
Can't wait to hear all the right wing apologists humming the same tune.LOL
What To Do THIS Weekend (tags)
Only 4 days until the 3rd Green Reel Film Festival. Finally... a film fest that the masses can afford to attend!
October 4-5 Green Reel Film Festival in Hollywood (tags)
The Green Reel Film Festival 2003 - Hollywood, California - October 4 and 5 feature films • documentaries • shorts • cartoons • music videos The Green Reel Film Festival 2003 is the antidote to the constant beating of war-drums we are faced with every day in America, from our leaders and especially in our media. The Green Reel is Democracy in action: a true forum for ideas, and an opportunity for the otherwise stifled voices of progressive filmmakers from across the country and around the world to get their message across, whether regarding the environment, politics, LGBT issues, racism, and corporate power. Just a few of the many features this year are: Animated Shorts by Mark Fiore The Carlyle Connection Intimacy Afghanistan: From Ground Zero to Ground Zero Plan Colombia: Cashing In on the Drug War Failure Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election Human Resources A Different World is Possible Who’s Paying the Price? ...and so much more.
People's Paradise Lost (tags)
At 61, he wears a bouffant hairstyle and elevator shoes to add to his potbellied 5-foot-3-inch frame. In public, he tries to appear majestic, but in private he is said to be a man of carnal appetites, famed for his love of Italian cuisine, rock lobster, French wine and cognac. He once brought in two chefs from Milan to make pizza in Italian-made ovens, and is rumoured to be the world's single biggest buyer of his favourite cognac, Hennessy Paradis, which costs $630 a bottle.
Controversial Independent Film Playing in LA (tags)
"Lolita: Slave to Entertainment," the documentary an entire industry doesn't want you to see is playing at the Silver Lake Film festival in LA/Hollywood on Sept. 12th @ 7pm 1822 N. Vermont Blvd. 323/664-2169 Trailer: 1minute 48 seconds.
Libertarian Free-Marketers (tags)
This is absolutely true--I recently ran across a column by an unabashed Free-Marketer decrying our system on public ROADS as an example of CREEPING SOCIALISM...
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PASSES GROUND-BREAKING CLEAN ENERGY POLICY (tags)
The University of California Board of Regents voted unanimously today in favor of a Clean Energy and Green Building policy that sets a new bar nationally for environmental leadership by any institution. This vote follows the year-long “UC Go Solar!” campaign run by students across the state and Greenpeace.
A Day Hopeful and Radiant: The Miami Call to Action (final draft) (tags)
This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. She that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast her neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:' Then will she strip her sleeve and show her scars. And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Crop Circle Update 7-2-2003 (tags)
Crop Circles continue to appear in fields around the world, yet the mainstream press' treatment is basically nonexistent.
Take the Next Step: Join the Global Boycott for Peace* (tags)
Don't let your money flow freely and ignorantly into the pockets of those whose actions you oppose. Disobey with your Dollars!
Dying to work: Humanitarian disaster on the desert (tags)
SASABE, Sonora, Mexico – The Sonoran desert has a delicate, haunting beauty. Hundreds of species of birds, cacti and lizards have adapted to survive its lack of water and brutal temperatures exceeding 120 degrees. The list of these desert-hardy species does not include human beings.
Why the Left will never put its hands up (tags)
Being a leftist means you never have to say you're sorry.
Use Reason - Not Force (tags)
To get your ideas across, use reason, not force. That's what Ayn Rand taught. She also was against religion and government. She was our genius. For more genius, check out Alex jones (www.infowars.net).
FREE SPEECH (tags)
LIMITS ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT
DIE-IN SATURDAY AT PRO-WAR RALLY IN WESTWOOD (tags)
DIE-IN SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1:30PM AT PRO-WAR RALLY IN WESTWOOD.
What A Gas (tags)
Think you're paying too much for gas? You may be right...
Missile after Missile (tags)
Robert Fisk in Baghdad
Report From Baghdad by Robert Fisk (tags)
There was a thrashing of tracer on the horizon from the Baghdad air defences – the Second World War-era firepower of old Soviet anti-aircraft guns – and then a series of tremendous vibrations that had the ground shaking under our feet. Bubbles of fire tore into the sky around the Iraqi capital, dark red at the base, golden at the top.
Into the Darkness - "Above all, do not succumb to despair" (tags)
This article is by William Rivers Pitt of the New York Times Syndicate. This, I think, reflects the fear all of us have over the ramifications of this war. But also, in the last paragraphs, reflects the need in our hearts and consciences to resist and not "succumb to despair." We owe America that much. Read on...
Civil disobedience at Raytheon shows American & Iraqi casualties of war (tags)
Civil disobedience targets weapons manufacturer in El Segundo.
MARCH 5: BOOKS NOT BOMBS! - National Student Strike (tags)
The National Student Strike for Books Not Bombs, will take place March 5th on campuses across the US and the world. The strike is building a wave of campus sentiment against the Bush Administration’s war plans in Iraq. The event was originally called for and is being coordinated by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), a collection of 15 student and youth organizations whose members organizations represent large and diverse constituencies stretching across the US.
UPCOMING EVENTS AT FARMWORKER HUNGER STRIKE AT TACO BELL HQ (tags)
"Musicians United To Win Without War." (tags)
Dozens of Musicians and Music Industry Professionals have formed a new antiwar group... "Musicians United To Win Without War."
INTERNET SMOKE SHOPS RAIDED (tags)
John Ashcroft and his roving band of D.E.A. agents raided 55 different locations across America yesterday, including the home of tommy chong(cheech & chong fame).
The World Says No to War in Iraq (tags)
http://rwor.org - Revolutionary Worker Online http://rwor.org/resistance -RW resource page on resisting the juggernaut of war and repression http://2changetheworld.info - Discuss revolutionary strategy and the RCP's Draft Programme
When the Enemy Is a Liberator (tags)
Bottom line is that the Iraqi people do want GW Bush to go forward with the war
Wal-Mart – the nation’s worst workplace bully (tags)
With $7 billion in profits squeezed from the labor of one million workers at 3,250 stores across the country last year, Wal-Mart deserves its reputation as the nation’s worst “workplace bully.”
WTO 12 trial Feb 10th (tags)
The WTO 12 are about to challange state authority to brutalize it's own citizens and they are doing it in a difficult yet effective way ... in court.
1/17: Latest News From Iraq, Detained Immigrants and antiwar info this weekend (tags)
By: PeaceNoWar URL: http://www.PeaceNoWar.net 1) Iraq 2) January 18-19, 2003 Anti-War Protest Across the World! 3) January 16: INS Orders Men from five more nations to register in U.S.
Activists Convince Staples to go Old-Growth Free (tags)
After feeling pressure from more than 600 protests at Staples stores nationwide, tens of thousands of letters and calls to the company's CEO, and news coverage across the country, office-supply giant Staples, Inc. announced Tuesday that it will meet the demands of the Paper Campaign and move towards forest friendly paper sales
Across the valleys and gorges of south east Tibet (tags)
Across the valleys and gorges of south east Tibet deforestation is causing severe problems of erosion and landslides, while levels of silt in rivers such as the Yangstse have reached the highest world levels.
October 6: Tens of thousands pledge: (tags)
Tens of thousands said it together on October 6--in dozens of rallies and gatherings across the U.S., on banners and T-shirts, signs and songs, in chants, speeches and a solemn common pledge of resistance. Everywhere, on banners, flyers, signs and shirts was that photo of our beautiful planet floating in space--as a symbol of unity across borders and dreams of a better world.
An Amazing Day of Protests Across the Country (tags)
This is helluva link -- to a page on www.indymedia.org that has become a clearinghouse for reports on all of the anti-war demonstrations that have taken place across the country today -- October 6, 2002.
December 20 and 21 days of social disobedience to help Argentina (tags)
CALLING ALL GRASSROOTS GROUPS, COLLECTIVES AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.. December 20th - 21st 2002 - TWO DAYS OF SOCIAL DISOBEDIENCE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE ARGENTINEAN POPULAR REBELLION
DECEMBER 20 &21, days of social disobediece, to help Argentina (tags)
The Disappearing Women of Juarez (tags)
this is capitalism
Sara Lee? Not for me .... (tags)
The United States government is totally enthralled by the anti-democratic zionist lobby and the greed of the oil companies. Just like the white supremacist regime of apartheid South Africa the rules of war, international law and the Geneva Convention appear not to apply to Israel, which has been expanding its borders and building illegal colonies since 1947.
Rally at U.S. Capitol to Stop Yucca Mountain (tags)
Environmental Activists Rally at the U.S. Senate to Protest the Shipping of Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain Nevada.
Garden Grove May Day (tags)
A spirited crowd of youth, pacifists, anarchists, forced Loretta Sanchez to give her staff the afternoon off for May Day. Another victory for democracy!
Democracy Now! (3-12): Workers March Across The Country To Protest Taco Bell (tags)
Hear Amy Goodman's interview with Laura Germino from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) -- from today's (3-12-02) Democracy Now! broadcast.
Brussels: 100,000 trade unionists for people not profit (tags)
Reposting from Indymedia UK: Brussels on Thursday , December 13th, saw possibly the largest ever demonstration of trade union strength across Europe. Well over 100,000 people took five hours (on a working day) to march through the capital of the 'Europe of Profit' under the slogan, "Europe: it's us!"
Are you a Middle Eastern/South or Central Asian Womin Activist? (tags)
tired of being left out? join us for some talk
NATIONAL DAYS OF ACTION: Taco Bell Boycott, Nov. 29 - Dec.1 (tags)
From Thursday, November 29, to Saturday, December 1, universities and communities across the country will be participating in a campaign of three days of action at Taco Bell restaurants.
Desktop Theatre online vigil<3rd screenshot> (tags)
This is the third screenshot of an online vigil against war that took place at several virtual communities. In these online communities, people at home chose a character (avatar) and wonder through virtual landscapes interacting with other avatars.
Desktop Theatre online vigil <2nd Screenshot> (tags)
At various times, these women were participating: karla ptacek, vicki smith & paolo grippa, helen varley Jamieson, adriene Jenik, Ann Snitow, Connie Samaras, Lisa Brenneis. To participate, each woman logged into the virtual community with a cartoon image of a woman in mourning as their avatar (representative) and wandered through the virtual landscape.
Desktop Theater online vigil <2nd Screenshot> (tags)
This is the second scren shot of an online vigil against war that took place at several virtual communities. In these online communities, people at home chose a character (avatar) and wonder through virtual landscapes interacting with other avatars.
Desktop Theater-Women In Black On-line protest (tags)
The following performance stills were taken from a series of "vigils" performed in the public chat space/application "The Palace" specifically in "Mt. Olympus" and "FireBirdz Forest". We performed it three times on 9/15/01 and then a few more times after that. Some of the women are in New York, and some in New Zealand & Italy. We walked a silent vigil across rooms with people in them.
U.S. Army propaganda flyers (tags)
The U.S. Armed Forces are using radio broadcasts and flyers to demoralize the Taliban of Afghanistan. CNN has published a collection of these propaganda flyers currently being dropped all across Afghanistan.
Marchers Across Europe Protest Against Possible Strikes (tags)
A girl holding a leaflet joins some 4,000 peace supporters in an anti-war vigil across the street from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's London residence on September 22, 2001. The U.S. is asembling a massive military force in the Gulf and Indian Ocean for a possible on Afghanistan. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Taco Bell Truth Tour Postponed (tags)
Public Statement Date: 9/12/2001 From: coaimmwkr@aol.com
FOLLOWUP ON G8 SOLIDARITY PROTEST AT ITALIAN CONSULATE IN LOS ANGELES (tags)
follow-up on the G8 solidarity protest at the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles
Guatemala Tax Protests Turn Violent, 83 Arrested (tags)
Guatemalan business men march during a national one-day work stoppage in Guatemala City August 1, 2001. Thousands of banner-waving students, workers and business leaders marched throughout Guatemala (Jorge Silva/Reuters)
Thousands Across Italy Protest Police at G8 (tags)
Demonstrators hold a banner reading " Killers " as they take part in a demonstration following the death of 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani in central Rome, July 24, 2001. Tens of thousands of people, many shouting "killers, killers", protested throughout Italy on Tuesday against the use of police force that left one person dead and more than 230 injured at the G8 summit in Genoa. REUTERS/Paolo Cocco
Update From Century City Protest (tags)
200-300 Angelenos gathered outside the Century Park Hotel to greet Dubya with a simple two word request: PRICE CAPS.
COMMUNITY ACROSS BORDERS - Mexico / New Mexico (tags)
Activists from across New Mexico and beyond gathered in the small border town of Columbus.
COMMUNITY ACROSS BORDERS - New Mexico/Mexico (tags)
Border Evidence - Maclovio Rojas (tags)
Border action ends a20 weekend with plans for the future.
U.S./Mexico Action - Border Game! (tags)
"Let's Play the Border Game!" Guerilla Theatre.
COUP WATCH: Trust The People Rally In Westwood-One of Dozens Across the Nation (tags)
Organized almost entirely over the internet (I know there were some cell phone calls!) Trust The People turned out a decidedly mainstream leaderless protest in Westwood Saturday afternoon.
Police Converge on Convergence Center (tags)
A minor incident brings 120 police to the Convergence Center,where they occupy the street for an hour.
Just passing through (tags)
Seconds before a crowd of over 500 activists moved through the streets, a mother and her child rushed across the intersection. . . the mother focusing on getting across, the child focused on other things.
gonzo for guns (tags)
Converge in Boston to take action at the first presidential debate (tags)
On Tuesday, October 3, thousands of Americans will converge in Boston to take action at the first presidential debate, demanding real democracy and a real debate of the issues ordinary citizens care about. A week of education and community building will culminate in mass marches, colorful parades, and determined direct action designed to send.....
March Across America (tags)
Pro-democracy affinity groups and individuals are reassembling throughout Philadelphia, North America and the world for a caravan across America to protest and challenge D2K (that other Republicratic convention).
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Light Forge Studios
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Secondary Strikes Are Primary to Labor’s Revival
November 04, 2010 / Joe Burns Enlarge or shrink text login or register to comment
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers' dogged campaign against corporate buyers of tomatoes— like Trader Joe's and other grocers—has been a successful recent attempt to get around the ban on secondary boycotts. Farmworkers target big companies instead of their own employers. Photo: AndaLaLucha.
Solidarity is the heart and soul of unionism—the only force capable of confronting power and privilege in society. To revive unionism, we must recover labor’s long-lost tools of workplace-based solidarity.
Today, union activists join each other’s picket lines and hold fundraisers for striking workers. While important, these acts of solidarity are largely conducted away from the workplace.
In contrast, labor’s traditional forms of workplace-based solidarity allowed workers to join across employers and even industries to confront bosses. Such tactics included secondary strikes and industry-wide strikes.
What’s a secondary strike? Say workers at a small auto parts plant in Indiana walked out. If they enlisted the support of the Teamsters to refuse to transport the parts, the United Auto Workers to refuse to assemble a car with the parts, and employees of car dealerships to refuse to sell the cars, their power would be multiplied. The original strike would be a primary strike and the others would all be secondary strikes.
In the past, solidarity tactics allowed workers to hit employers at multiple points in the production and distribution chain. By impeding the flow of supplies into a plant, unions pressured the employer to settle a strike or recognize the union. Similarly, secondary boycotts pressured retailers to stop selling struck goods.
Solidarity tactics expanded the site of the conflict, allowing workers to confront employers as a class. Many of the strikes we know from history, like the 1912 Lawrence Bread and Roses textile workers’ strike or the huge postwar steel strikes, are great and historic precisely because they involved tens of thousands of workers across entire industries.
More recently, the UPS strike of 1997 involved 200,000 Teamster drivers and loaders and captured the imagination of union and non-union alike.
OUTLAWING SOLIDARITY
From the earliest days of unions, workers understood the need to unite with others in their industry to seek common standards. Otherwise, workers winning wage increases at one company would be undercut by other companies that failed to match the raises.
Thus in the 1940s through the 1970s, unions negotiated industry-wide or pattern agreements, at times covering hundreds of thousands of workers. Along with this broad scope of bargaining came major confrontations between workers and employers.
But in the 1980s, in the face of a deep recession and a legal system hostile to solidarity, and with unions failing to mount effective strikes, the patterns and therefore union standards began to crumble. As this publication argued earlier this year, “After a 30-year employer onslaught, national patterns have been largely devastated or have become top-down conduits for concessions.”
Today, the most powerful forms of solidarity are outlawed. Secondary strikes and workers’ refusal to handle goods from struck plants were banned by the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. The Landrum-Griffin Act in 1959 closed a loophole unions had used in the 1950s, in which the union would negotiate “hot cargo clauses” where the employer agreed not to use struck goods.
At a deeper level, modern labor law forces unions to bargain with individual employers rather than establish standards on an industry basis. Over the decades since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, the Supreme Court tightened the noose on industry-wide tactics.
The court allowed employers to unilaterally opt out of multi-employer bargaining and made it an unfair labor practice for a union to insist on such bargaining. So by the 1980s, employers wishing to break free from pattern agreements had the law on their side.
To be clear, the downfall of solidarity cannot be attributed solely to legal factors. Unions willingly agreed to no-strike clauses. Over the years, many focused on just the needs of their own members, failing to embrace a social unionism that looked out for the interests of all workers. In the 1980s and afterwards, unions often failed to defend their pattern agreements, allowing special deals for particular “troubled” employers until the pattern was no more.
And union officials all too often squashed rank-and-file attempts to join together across bargaining units, even at the same employer. So, for example, striking meatpackers at Hormel in the mid-1980s were attacked by the United Food and Commercial Workers International for attempting to expand picket lines beyond the Austin, Minnesota, plant.
GOING AFTER THE BIG GUYS
The best current demonstration of the power of secondary activity comes from farmworkers. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida forced Taco Bell and other huge corporations to increase pay for tomato pickers in their supply chains.
Rather than target the subcontracting growers, CIW pressured the major corporations that purchase the farm produce—companies whose financial interest in the dispute is relatively indirect.
CIW’s work shows the power of an industry-wide approach. Targeting individual growers would not have succeeded, because a grower paying higher wages would not have been able to get Taco Bell to buy its products.
CIW mirrored SEIU’s successful Justice for Janitors campaigns of the 1990s, which made life difficult for all levels of the contracting chain, including the end-users of janitorial services as well as workers’ immediate employers, and sought industry-wide agreements in a city.
For almost 30 years, most union activists have tried to ignore the fact that restrictions on solidarity hamstring our movement. We’ve been told that organizing new members and conducting corporate campaigns can revive the labor movement. It’s not working.
REDISCOVERING POWER
Last month, rank-and-file longshore workers provided a rare example of workplace-based solidarity in action. Fresh Del Monte Produce transferred work from a union pier in Philadelphia to a non-union facility, threatening 300 longshore jobs.
To spread their fight to a much bigger site, rank-and-file workers from Philadelphia set up picket lines at the major New York/New Jersey ports. Workers there honored the picket lines for two days—despite an injunction from a federal judge and the opposition of their international union.
After two days, Del Monte promised to negotiate and workers pulled the picket lines. Workers rediscovered a real sense of collective power, but anemic follow-through from the International means the Philadelphia local is looking at a long fight to win back their work.
Still, workplace-based solidarity and expanding the dispute were crucial. The Philly workers pulled their natural allies, other longshore workers concerned about non-union ports, into the dispute. They made other corporations—all those trying to ship goods into New York or New Jersey—feel pain as well, by tying up shipping for two days.
Longshore workers occupy a strategic spot in the U.S. economy. Their struggle illustrates why workplace-based solidarity is outlawed—precisely because it is so effective.
Reviving solidarity will not be easy. Labor law forbids it. It goes against a union culture based on bargaining with individual employers. Reviving solidarity will require new ways of thinking and, perhaps, new forms of workers organization.
But the labor movement has little choice. As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka noted in the early 1990s, unions need “their only true weapon—the right to strike. Without that weapon, organized labor in America will soon cease to exist.”
Joe Burns’ book Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America (IG Publishing) will be published in May 2011.
A version of this article appeared in Labor Notes #380, November 2010. Don't miss an issue, subscribe today.
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solidarity not
Ilene (not verified) | 11/05/10
then there's the bad example...Teamsters in New Jersey who work at the White Rose warehouse are picketing some Foodtown supermarkets at the Jersey Shore that are switching to an out-of-state non-union warehouse supplier. Not only is the UFCW not honoring the lines, they ran a full page ad in the Asbury Park Press (paid for by the employer) asking people to continue shopping at the stores. And the stores have big signs saying their beloved unionized employees have no quarrel with Foodtown. Anyone in TDU know what's going on here?
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I don’t carry my characters home – Ayushmann Khurrana
ad11min — January 2, 2020 0 comment
Why fit in when you were destined to stick out? Ayushmann Khurrana comprehended this right off the bat in his vocation. What was at first received as an endurance apparatus, has now become a #careergoal for the on-screen character. The untouchable selected the way less frequented to abstain from losing all sense of direction in the skirmish. An unobvious agitator, he picked off center subjects like sperm gift, erectile brokenness, fat disgracing, sexuality of moderately aged guardians, virtual sentiment and as of late the most despicable aspect of hair loss. In his characters, individuals discover a reverberation of their implicit and unsolved questions. With the celebration of Bala behind him, the on-screen character anticipates a riveting 2020 with Gulabo Sitabo and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan… The Ayushmann juggernaut is relentless…
Is this the best period of your vocation?
A year ago, I believed I was in the best stage. This year as well, I’m feeling the equivalent. At the point when I read the content of Dream Girl, I could detect it would be a blockbuster. Simultaneously, individuals had never observed me in a droll parody. I’ve constantly done unobtrusive jobs. Be that as it may, this time round, I was boisterous and OTT. Obviously, masses love these sorts of movies. Each time I endeavor something other than what’s expected, I’m uncertain. Where Bala was concerned, I was certain. It had a strong content. It’s widely appealing film, which is engaging.
Is it safe to say that you were anxious doing Article 15?
Indeed. I was anxious during Article 15, AndhaDhun and Dream Girl. Article 15 was not a business motion picture, it’s a dull film. I dreaded paise kamayegi ki nahin. While AndhaDhun was test.
Was Bala de-worrying in the wake of doing exceptional movies like AndhDhun and Article 15?
Doing each film is the equivalent. Obviously, in case you’re doing a dull film like Article 15, it negatively affects you. While looking into, I read about the oppressed. That left me upset. In any case, playing each character involves a similar measure of difficult work. It’s similarly unpleasant and fun.
What energized you about Bala?
Previously, my movies have investigated various points, even fantastical ones like sperm gift and erectile brokenness. Bala depends on a relatable subject, similar to hair loss, however something not yet investigated on screen. Just about, 50 percent of guys, over the age of 30 battle with a retreating hairline. The film’s about self-revelation, vanquishing your buildings and rising like a phoenix. Bala has got central core. It likewise required a physical change.
You look lean in the film…
I had started shedding pounds for Dream Girl as I needed to wear a lehenga and saree. It proceeded for Bala as in this film, my character’s adventure is appeared from the age of 20 to 30. To look a 20-year-old, I needed to lean down.
Didn’t you consider going uncovered for the film as opposed to choosing horrifying prosthetics?
I thought of going uncovered. Be that as it may, my character experiences various stages in the film. So that didn’t appear to be handy. The prosthetics would take over two hours to be set up. We shot in 45 degrees in Kanpur and Lucknow. Wearing three layers of prosthetics on your head and that too under the sun, was very exhausting. Bala is the hardest film of my life up until this point.
How troublesome or simple is it to do satire?
Parody is constantly troublesome. Be that as it may, it must be novel. I put stock in situational satire instead of verbal parody. The greater part of my comedies from Vicky Donor to Bala have been situational. Once in a while, it’s a blend of parody and incongruity.
Our general public is loaded with taboos. Obviously, individuals living in metros like Mumbai will in general be dynamic. In any case, 70 percent of Indians, living in communities, stay preservationist. So there isn’t a lack of such subjects. In any case, you can’t be doing particular movies constantly. Like Article 15 was not particular. AndhaDhun was a dull parody. In any case, my movies do make the crowds responsive to unthinkable points, not considered as drawing room discussion. It’s a two-way process. Here and there you realize change through film. Or then again you get a change film with regards to the adjustment in the public arena.
You’ve set a benchmark where significant film is concerned…
That is an enormous comment. In all honesty, I’ve gotten support from my scriptwriters and executives. I can’t assume the whole praise. It’s a cooperation. We need to wed substance with amusement. Without amusement, it won’t work. Simultaneously, it can’t be just about stimulation or pretty much workmanship. It needs to hold some esteem. It should welcome dialog.
Has winning a National Award (AndhaDhun) expanded the strain to exceed expectations each time?
It’s a cheerful weight. It settles on me more intrepid in my decisions. It enables me to be progressively radical.
Okay love to do masala films?
Indeed. Dream Girl is the most business film I’ve endeavored. It was droll. It was for frontbenchers. Given an opportunity, I’d love to do masala and activity arranged movies. In any case, a film must be special. It can’t be nonexclusive.
How would you manage innovative weakness?
I switch on and switch off effectively. I like moving starting with one character then onto the next. For instance, I was going for AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho all the while. They were two distinct characters out and out. I don’t convey my characters home. At the point when the camera is off, I’m simply myself.
I don’t get success’ meaning to you?
Achievement is a fine harmony among satisfaction and desire. You can’t be overambitious or over-placated. It must be some place in the center.
How has achievement transformed you?
With progress individuals start seeing you from an alternate perspective. In any case, the thought isn’t to change with the evolving situation. Or maybe keep being your basic self since that is the thing that has worked for me. My movies also are established in all actuality.
Have you marked a film only for cash?
Never. You can go to an occasion for cash. You can perform at a marriage for cash. Be that as it may, you can’t do a film for cash. I’ve never done a film for fellowship or cash. I do them for individual fulfillment.
Whom do you see as rivalry?
Rivalry isn’t with an individual, it’s with your own self. How would you shock yourself? How would you shock individuals around you? The thought is to be steady and shock individuals each time. That is the hardest nut to pop open.
Rajkummar Rao and Vicky Kaushal, similar to you, are vanguard on-screen characters. Your interpretation of them…
They’re gigantic on-screen characters. It’s, where artistes are flourishing with sheer ability. The open doors are abundant for us all. I’m really happy to have been conceived in this time of film.
Do you read remarks expounded on you on the web?
I barely get an opportunity to understand remarks. I simply carry out my responsibility. Karm karo phal ki ichchha tangle karo.
Do you keep pace with universal film?
I don’t watch films. I read books. I tune in to music. I offer need to life over movies. In case you’re doing films and furthermore watching them constantly, when will you live? I take motivation from genuine circumstances, from genuine individuals. The uniqueness originates from real circumstances.
Who’s your greatest pundit?
My better half, Tahira’s (Kashyap) my greatest pundit. She says it obtusely – what’s correct, what’s definitely not. Indeed, even my dad (P. Khurana) and sibling Apar (Aparshakti Khurana) state it the manner in which it is.
Having come to up until this point, what’s something you miss?
I haven’t had the option to find some kind of harmony between my expert and individual life. At the present time, my profession is topping. So I need to buckle down. I miss investing energy with my family.
What’s the best piece of being an on-screen character?
That acting’s not a 9-5 employment. There’s something new occurring in your life each and every day. Consistently is extraordinary. Each film is extraordinary. You get the opportunity to play various parts. That makes it fascinating.
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You are here: Home » News » Cancelled May Meeting » 2014 » November
COURAGE AND CREATIVITY – THE MAGIC OF CONVICTION
A DISCUSSION WITH SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL CO-FOUNDER AND DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER CIRINA CATANIA
“Now more than ever, in part because of new technologies, we have the ability to communicate our thoughts, ideas and stories and share them with others on a very broad scale,” says Filmmaker Cirina Catania. Join us for a discussion with Cirina as she speaks about what drives us as creatives and how to keep saying “Yes” to our instincts and avoid falling into the “No” traps that are thrown at us.
Cirina will also talk about how Blackmagic Design cameras have inspired her and how they have been used recently in two documentaries. She will share some tricks and tips and reveal how she has managed to “get good stuff” without breaking the bank. She will also share her experiences on the road in her work and offer advice for all filmmakers with projects that need pitching, marketing, distribution and building an audience.
This is the perfect opportunity to be inspired to create in the year ahead. We hope you’ll leave wanting 2015 to be the year you cut that documentary on your shelf, shoot that short you’ve been putting off or finish your feature film!
Cirina is the Founder and Lead Creative at The Catania Group and has been involved as a writer, director, producer, cinematographer or marketing exec on over 120 film, television and new media projects for National Geographic, Discovery Channel and similar networks. She is one of the original co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival and former executive at MGM-UA and United Artists. She is currently donating much of her time to producing self-funded documentaries about our wounded veterans and the organizations that help them. You can view her work at www.thecataniagroup.com and at www.filmvault.biz.
Music Editing: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
The temp music soundtrack has been useful for many years in the postproduction industry as a template and music guide for composers, directors, picture editors and producers. Steven Saltzman designed this presentation to share music editing guidelines and tips and tricks for creating an initial temp music soundtrack. Additionally, some demonstration projects will be available to show; as time allows.
In this presentation we will be:
– Explaining a brief overview of the music editor’s work.
– Demonstrating important elements to the successful temporary music sound track.
– Showing approaches to finding the right theme, type and style of music.
– Discussing editing techniques and using crossfades.
– Working with source and songs.
Mr. Saltzman is a certified expert Avid Pro Tools instructor and has created a music-editing course, which h e has been teaching for the past nine years. He has taught at UCLA Extension, Moviola Digital Arts Institute, Video Symphony, Community Colleges in Los Angeles and Riverside, California and is presently an instructor at Musicians Institute in Hollywood and most recently joined the faculty at the Palomar Film Music Workshop. He has recently authored his new book entitled, Music Editing For Film and Television: The Art and The Process and received a Golden Reel Award for his work as a music-editor.
4th Annual LAPPG Food Drive
Join us as we help to bring some holiday spirit to those in need at our 4th Annual LAPPG Food Drive benefiting the Westside Food Bank. Please bring canned and non-perishable items to our December 10th meeting. For each item you will receive 1 ticket to our giveaway. We have a 10 ticket maximum (for food donations) but you can bring an unlimited amount of donations!
Please register by sending an email to rsvp@lappg.com.
@ Sports Complex – Community Room
***Parking lot is on the north side of the Sports Center, at the end of 18th Street; available on a first-come, first-served basis.
(Please do not use Google Maps as it will take you to the wrong location. Click here for the link on MapQuest.)
BLACKMAGIC ANNOUNCES FUSION 7 IS FREE OF CHARGE
November 10, 2014 – Blackmagic Design today announced that Fusion 7, the world’s most advanced visual effects and motion graphics software, is now available completely free of charge.
Fusion 7 for Windows can be downloaded from the Blackmagic Design website now. http://www.blackmagicdesign.com
Previously getting access to high end visual effects tools such as Fusion cost thousands of dollars, so it was more restricted to elite Hollywood visual effects artists. Now with Fusion 7 being available free of charge there is no limit to block anyone from creating world leading visual effects. Blackmagic Design believes this will revolutionize the industry and consumers will be able to watch dramatically better feature films and television shows in the future.
Also announced was Fusion 7 Studio, a complete bundle of VFX and motion graphics solutions with collaborative tools and unlimited network rendering for creative teams and larger facilities. Fusion 7 Studio drastically reduces the cost of setting up multi user studios. Fusion 7 Studio will be available for $995 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.
Fusion has been one of Hollywood’s leading visual effects and motion graphic tools for over 25 years and has been used on thousands of feature film and television projects, including blockbusters like Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, The Amazing Spider-man 2 and The Hunger Games, as well as hit television shows like Battlestar Galactica, Orphan Black and many more.
The free of charge Fusion 7 is a fully featured solution and is not limited in it’s features. It has a massive visual effects and motion graphics toolset that can be used for both personal and commercial work. Fusion 7 features an infinite 3D workspace and an easy to use node based workflow for quickly building unlimited effects. Customers get advanced 3D compositing, paint, rotoscope, retiming, stabilization, titling, an amazing 3D particle generator and multiple keyers, including Primatte. Fusion 7 also lets customers import and render 3D geometry and scenes from other applications as well as create their own elements from scratch.
The $995 Fusion 7 Studio includes everything found in the free Fusion 7 software, plus adds extra high end features such as optical flow tools for advanced retiming, stabilization and stereoscopic 3D production, support for third party OpenFX plug ins, and distributed network rendering so customers can render jobs on an unlimited number of computers at no additional cost! Fusion 7 Studio also includes Generation, a studio wide multi user workflow and collaboration tool that helps creative teams manage, track and review versions of every shot in a production. Customers can also move projects from the free Fusion 7 software to a workstation running Fusion 7 Studio and take advantage of workflow collaboration and unlimited distributed network rendering.
Unlike other software, Fusion 7 Studio doesn’t require annual maintenance fees, subscriptions, a connection to the cloud, or per node render license costs. That means customers don’t get tricked into hidden or on going costly payments for software they’ve already purchased. “Visual effects software has been expensive for way too long and it’s time that this changed. Consumers are screaming for more exciting movies and television programs and so we need to do everything we can to help our customers create stunning visual effects,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “Now, with the free version of Fusion, everyone from individual artists to the biggest studios can create Hollywood caliber visual effects and motion graphics! When combined with DaVinci Resolve Lite, customers can get the world’s most advanced tools for editing, grading, 3D compositing, visual effects and motion graphics, all absolutely free!”
Availability and Price:
Fusion 7 software for Windows is available for download now from the Blackmagic Design web site free of charge. Fusion 7 Studio will be available for $995 at all Blackmagic Design Resellers. Existing Fusion 7 customers and customers on a current Fusion support plan can upgrade to Fusion Studio at no additional charge by contacting Blackmagic Design.
in News /by Wendy Woodhall/#permalink
Band Pro’s One World Open House 2014
On Thursday, December 11, 2014 from 1 to 8pm head to Band Pro’s Burbank Headquarters for:
Band Pro’s One World Open House 2014!
Location: 3403 W. Pacific Avenue Burbank, CA 91505
Each year they feature a cross section of the industry’s best new technology and this year will be no different. Check out over thirty of the top broadcast and cinema equipment manufacturers under the tent outside, with great international cuisine and beverages served inside.
This year Band Pro’s Guest of Honor will be Italian Director Enzo Castellari. Mr. Castellari is known for his work on the original ‘Django’, ‘Any Gun Can Play’, ‘Keoma’, and the original ‘Inglorious Bastards’, among many other films. Currently Enzo is in preproduction on a new film starring legendary Spaghetti Western actor (and ‘Keoma’ star) Franco Nero.
There is no admission fee, and complimentary valet parking is provided. Always a global event, One World continues to draw attendees and press from all over the world, and provides you with a great opportunity for networking and getting hands-on with the newest technology.
Space is limited. To view the full list of exhibitors and to RSVP and reserve your spot please visit:
http://www.bandpro.com/blog/bandpro-open-house-2014/
Band Pro’s tent exhibition space will again be transformed into a dynamic, interactive camera, recording, and workflow environment where products will be displayed as they are actually used on set. Come see our 4K short film ‘Of Rushing Nowhere’ shot on Catalina Island, and other original, exclusive 4K content. Special guests and lots of giveaways make this the perfect kick off to the holiday season.
PVC INTERVIEW WITH EVAN ALLEN SHOWCASING iZOTOPE’S OZONE 6
PVC at AES 2014 – Details About the New Upgrades to Ozone from iZotope
Mixing and Mastering Audio with Ozone 6
By Woody Woodhall | October 31, 201
iZotope was previewing their updated version of Ozone at AES 2014 in Los Angeles and I had a chance to catch up with Evan Allen, Product Specalist at iZotope, who took us through a tour of the redesigned interface and all of the enhancements that have been added to this latest iteration of the software. Ozone 6 is now able to function as a stand-alone application, as well as a suite of plug-ins in your DAW of choice. (Read more and see the video at PVC…)
Focal Press Book Discount
LAPPG Members save 25% on all Focal Press books. The code is FOC25. http://www.focalpress.com
Below click here for step by step instructions:
in Discount Offers /by grooveva/#permalink
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Richard and Linda Thompson-Shoot Out the Lights (gold disk audiop...
Added 2020-01-15 07:14:44 by RonChatt in Other
Richard and Linda Thompson-Shoot Out the Lights (gold disk audiop... Size: 275.9 MB (289302118 Bytes)
Quote:The 1982 record "Shoot Out The Lights" catches all the passion and pain of the soon-to-be-divorced couple for all to hear. Stunning. Richard's guitar was never better, and Linda's voice, particularly on "Walking On A WIre" and "Just The Motion" is fragile but clear, and thoroughly heart-breaking in its weariness. "Don't Renege on Our Love," "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed," and "Wall of Death" all purvey a palpably bitter undertow of frustration, anger and resentment. The beginning of the title song is so ominous it could be the opening track of a blood-soaked revenge movie. That song, "Shoot Out The Lights," has been covered to great affect by the likes of Los Lobos, and even Richard T. many times himself, with a smashing live version on Elvis Costello's "Spectacle" TV show, but one can honestly say that nothing quite captures the dark, murky mood of the original. You can readily see why Rolling Stone cites it as a key track in its listing of Thompson as #69 in its "100 Greatest Guitarists." The raw anger and power spitting out of his guitar on the rockers, or the weeping notes sadly crooning along on the ballads may even convince you that he's been listed far too low. Recorded with stripped-down production values that show both the Thompsons and Richard's usual stalwarts from Fairport Convention to their very best advantage, this is one of rock's finest. There may be only eight songs on this issue, but it is far more satisfying than many other recordings twice as long. For the serious music fan or avid guitar aficionado, this CD is must-have.(amazon review)
YouTube sample track-Shoot Out the Lights
Richard and Linda Thompson-Shoot Out the Lights (gold disk audiop... - (289302118 Bytes)
Torrent: Richard and Linda Thompson-Shoot Out the Lights (gold disk audiop...
Jul 20, 2016 in TV. Verified. 1.04 GB C7DB6C1224180D6FC3347936F273FB7E011C7F6A
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Torrent hash: C7DB6C1224180D6FC3347936F273FB7E011C7F6A
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Show Related Q&As What Is an Associate of Arts Degree? What are the Core Courses Offered in an Associate of Arts Degree? What is a Bachelor of Arts Degree? What Is an Associate of Applied Arts Degree?
What are the Performing Arts?
Art and Design FAQs
The performing arts include dance, music and theater. Many performing artists use their bodies, voices and talents as a means of artistic expression. They include singers, actors, comedians and dancers. This article discusses the performing arts and some of the related careers one might work toward. Schools offering Theatre degrees can also be found in these popular choices.
About the Performing Arts
Performing arts refers to art that is performed before an audience. Professionals usually focus on one aspect of art such as drama, dance or music. Others possessing craftsmanship or technical skills often fill supporting roles such as set designers or sound technicians.
Important Facts About the Performing Arts
Key Skills Athleticism; teamwork; persistence Memorization; creativity; communication Interpersonal; musical; dedication
Required Education Formal training required Helpful, but not required Performers of classical or opera music usually have a bachelor's degree
Work Environment May travel for months at a time on tour Stressful, often living job-to-job Concert halls, arenas, clubs, religious organizations
Median Hourly Pay (2018)* $16.31 $17.54 $28.15
Actors perform on stage as well as in television or film. Others work in less traditional roles in product demonstrations or theme parks. While few start as child actors or transition to this role from other fields, most actors train in the craft and work hard to remain employed. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that actors had a median hourly wage of $17.54 as of May 2018.
Dancers work in musical theater, opera, television shows and commercials, film, music videos and teaching. The intensely physical nature of their work requires continued training and exercise. According to the BLS, as of May 2018, dancers had a median hourly wage of $16.31.
Musicians and singers perform in orchestras, theaters, nightclubs, restaurants and other venues. This performing arts field requires talent or training. Professional singers might further develop their abilities through their participation in workshops, private instruction sessions or educational programs. Per BLS statistics reported in May 2018, musicians and singers earned $28.15 as a median hourly wage.
Supporting Occupations
Many support professionals also work within the field of performing arts, including set designers, make-up artists, composers, arrangers, lighting technicians, costume designers and art directors. These positions require various levels of training. For example, a composer or arranger usually needs a formal music education credential such as a Master of Fine Arts in Music. Such professionals also need experience in the field. Alternatively, a lighting technician may receive training through a vocational school program. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides more detailed information about some of these supporting occupations.
Script and Screenwriting
What Top Universities Offer Performing Arts Bachelor's Degrees?
What Are the Best Performing Arts Colleges and Schools?
Which Michigan Performing Arts Schools Offer Acting Classes?
Full Sail University responds quickly to information requests through this website.
Popular programs at Full Sail University:
MS - Entertainment Business (Campus)
Master - Film Production
Master in Entertainment Business
Bachelor in Show Production
BS - Film (Campus)
Bachelor in Digital Cinematography
Regent University responds quickly to information requests through this website.
Popular programs at Regent University:
M.A. in Theatre
MFA in Film & Television (online)
Winthrop University responds quickly to information requests through this website.
Popular programs at Winthrop University:
Master - Arts Administration
Maryland: Towson
Columbia (D.C.): Washington
Select a Specific Subject Commercial and Visual Arts Dance Film and Video Arts Music Art Studio Art and Fine Art Theatre Arts
Select a Very Specific Subject Acting Crafts, Folk Art and Artisanry Screenwriting and Playwriting Technical Theatre Design Theatre Literature and History Theatre Management Theatrical Directing and Production
1. Full Sail University
Select One... Still in High School High School Graduate GED Attending College Associate's Degree Completed Bachelor's Degree Completed Master's Degree Completed
2. Regent University
Select One... High School GED Some College Associate's Degree Bachelor's Degree Master's Degree Doctorate or PhD Currently in H.S.
3. Winthrop University
Select One... Bachelor's Degree Master's Degree Doctoral Degree Post Doctoral High School Diploma GED Currently Enrolled in High School Some College Associate's Degree
5. Towson University
Which Colleges Have Performing Arts Programs in California? Find colleges in California that offer programs in performing arts. Learn about program...
Visual and Performing Arts Majors Obtaining a bachelor's degree in performing arts is possible in a variety of subject areas. Read...
Which Chicago Schools Offer Performing Arts Degrees? Sing, dance, act, create. Chicago has a variety of performing arts degree programs for you to...
What Are My Degree Options in Performing Arts? There are many degree program possibilities for someone who wants a career in the performing...
Performing Arts Associate Degree Read about associate degree programs in the performing arts, including specific areas of...
Performing Arts Masters Degree Programs Read about master's degree programs in the performing arts, and review the fields of study you...
What Is an Associate of Arts Degree?
What are the Core Courses Offered in an Associate of Arts Degree?
What is a Bachelor of Arts Degree?
What Is an Associate of Applied Arts Degree?
What Can I Do with a Communication Arts Degree?
What Can I Do With a Doctoral Degree in Liberal Arts?
Liberal Arts Degree Options - Video
Culinary Arts Degree Options - Video
The Visual and Performing Arts
Acting Degrees & Programs
Crafts, Folk Art and Artisanry
Screenwriting and Playwriting
Technical Theatre Design Degrees
Theatre Literature and History
Theatre Management Training
Theatrical Directing and Production
Commercial and Visual Arts
Film and Video Arts Degrees
Studio Art and Fine Art Studies
Master of Science in Analytics in North Carolina
What Is a Merchant Marine? - Definition, Requirements & Salary
Medical Schools in Connecticut
Educational Psychology Careers
Medical Schools in Tennessee
Which Photography Schools are Located in Texas?
Where Can I Earn an Online Master's in Communications Degree?
What is the Average Annual Salary for Paramedics?
How Can I Tell if an Online Nurse Practitioner Program is Accredited?
Phycology Schools and Degree Programs
What Does a Sketch Artist Do?
Subscribe to RSS feed for Art and Design FAQs
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Recent News About Consumer Financial Protection Bureau View More
Lawsuit: A federal agency answers to no one and can harass business owners into bankruptcy
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A New Jersey lawyer who operates a debt-collection service has sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying the agency is unconstitutional and has harassed her firm and its clients by seeking privileged communications.
AEI scholar: Evidence shows CFPB doesn't have a case against Navient
SCRANTON, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - American Enterprise Institute (AEI) resident fellow Jason Delisle said a recently unsealed brief showed that Navient Corporation was simply doing its job when offering forbearance as an option to borrowers.
Newly unsealed documents show how CFPB cherry picked evidence in case against Navient
Documents officially unsealed by Pennsylvania’s Clerk of Court on Wednesday detail new evidence that student loan server Navient Corporation had no system in place to direct borrowers toward forbearance despite evidence to the contrary presented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Broker offering high interest credit to veterans settles consumer board charges for $1
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A broker of pension assignments who allegedly violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act by offering high-interest credit to veterans, has settled with the federal government for $1, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
21-state coalition asks consumer board to abandon recent rule changes for regulatory, licensing
ALBANY — A 21-state coalition of attorneys general is asking the federal government to abandon recent proposals that the coalition argues would give financial services companies immunity from certain regulatory and licensing requirements.
Payday lender accused of making harassing calls to borrowers' references settles with government
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — A payday retail lender operating in several states has settled charges by the federal government of failing to prevent overcharges, making harassing collection calls to borrowers' references and falsely advertising services that the company did not really offer.
California attorney general blasts consumer bureau's recent rollback of payday lending rules
SACRAMENTO — California's attorney general has criticized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) recent reversion of its Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans rule, arguing the rule protects against predatory lending.
Consumer protection bureau to revise requirements for payday, single-payment vehicle title loans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced a proposal to take away sections of its "Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans" rule that pertains to underwriting requirements for payday, single-payment vehicle title and long-term balloon payment loans in an effort to increase access to credit for consumers.
Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau wants to oversee lenders to the military
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking Congressional approval to oversee lenders who serve military members and their families to insure Military Lending Act (MLA) compliance.
National bank to pay $15.5 million to settle alleged Transfer Act violations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — USAA Federal Savings Bank will pay approximately $12 million in restitution and a $3.5 million fine to settle charges by the federal government that the bank violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
Coalition condemns consumer protection board's non-oversight of Military Lending Act
SACRAMENTO — California's attorney general is the latest to join a bipartisan, multistate coalition condemning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) decision to eliminate oversight of lender compliance of the Military Lending Act (MLA).
12-state coalition argues financial protection board proposal weakens consumer safeguards
CHICAGO — A coalition of 12 state attorneys general is arguing for the federal government to either withdraw or modify a proposal that would allow companies to offer financial products without compliance with federal disclosure laws.
U.S. settles with company over alleged delayed transfers of customer payments to debt buyers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reached a settlement with Bluestem Brands Inc., Bluestem Enterprises Inc., and Bluestem Sales Inc., (the Bluestem companies) to resolve allegations of delaying transfers of customer payments to debt buyers.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee alleges she earns less than male counterparts
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – A federal employee alleges that she is paid less than her male co-workers with the same experience.
NYC Bar: Lawyers shouldn't split fees with litigation funders
New York City's bar association has decided that it is unethical for lawyers to enter into agreements with companies that finance lawsuits in exchange for a percentage of the recovery.
Payday lending company settles allegations of violating consumer financial laws
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government has reached a settlement in its lawsuit against Hydra Group over allegations the payday lending company violated federal consumer financial laws.
CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: Bureau Of Consumer Financial Protection Settles With Defendants In Hydra Group Payday Lending Case
A federal district court in the Western District of Missouri entered an Order effectuating a settlement between the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) and Richard Moseley, Sr., Richard Moseley, Jr., and 20 interrelated corporate entities controlled by Moseley, Sr. and Moseley, Jr., in the Bureau’s lawsuit regarding the unlawful origination and servicing of short-term, small-dollar online loans to consumers nationwide.
CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Updates Regulation P To Implement Legislation Amending Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) finalized amendments to implement legislation that allows financial institutions that meet certain requirements to be exempt from sending annual privacy notices to their customers.
14-state coalition challenges Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's constitutionality
AUSTIN — Texas is leading a 14-state coalition that recently filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Settles With TCF National Bank
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) filed in federal district court a proposed settlement with TCF National Bank regarding its marketing and sale of overdraft services.
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Max Planck Digital Library Open Access Policy White Paper: “Disrupting the subscription journals’ business model…”
Posted on June 9, 2015 by George David Wilson
Disrupting the subscription journals’ business model for the necessary large-scale transformation to open access
A Max Planck Digital Library Open Access Policy White Paper
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17617/1.3
License: CC-BY 4.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Authors: Ralf Schimmer¹, Kai Karin Geschuhn¹, Andreas Vogler¹
Contact: schimmer@mpdl.mpg.de
¹ Max Planck Digital Library, Amalienstraße 33, 80799 München, Germany
This paper makes the strong, fact-based case for a large-scale transformation of the current corpus of scientific subscription journals to an open access business model. The existing journals, with their well-tested functionalities, should be retained and developed to meet the demands of 21st century research, while the underlying payment streams undergo a major restructuring. There is sufficient momentum for this decisive push towards open access publishing. The diverse existing initiatives must be coordinated so as to converge on this clear goal. The international nature of research implies that this transformation will be achieved on a truly global scale only through a consensus of the world’s most eminent research organizations. All the indications are that the money already invested in the research publishing system is sufficient to enable a transformation that will be sustainable for the future. There needs to be a shared understanding
that the money currently locked in the journal subscription system must be withdrawn and repurposed for open access publishing services. The current library acquisition budgets are the ultimate reservoir for enabling the transformation without financial or other risks. The goal is to preserve the established service levels provided by publishers that are still requested by researchers, while redefining and reorganizing the necessary payment streams. By disrupting the underlying business model, the viability of journal publishing can be preserved and put on a solid footing for the scholarly developments of the future.
This entry was posted in Access to information, Databases, Free Resources, Legal Publishing, Open Access, Professional reading and tagged Max Planck Digital Library Open Access Policy White Paper: "Disrupting the subscription journals' business model..." by George David Wilson. Bookmark the permalink.
About George David Wilson
http://www.stanford.edu/people/gwilson
View all posts by George David Wilson →
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In The Dark is a monstrous collection of all-new original terror tales from the darkest and most brilliant minds in comics and prose. Featuring an introduction by American Vampire, The Wake, and Severed writer Scott Snyder, and a frightful feature on the history of horror comics, through their rotten rise and dreadful decline by comic book historian Mike Howlett!
Viral: A Slasher Comic
Wes Welling is world famous for his viral video "Super-Kid"...the victim of the most visible bullying in history...and he's never fought back. Until now.
What Lives in The Woods
A child is missing. While his mother searches for answers, the townfolk talk of an ancient evil that was long ago said the roam the woods.
Chronicles of Terror
75 Pages of Terror! WP Comics presents Issue 2 of its monthly Horror Publication with special features on artist, writers and great horror stories from creators around the world.
The Shadows of Salamanca
This spine-chilling and multi-layered horror story contains more than one monster lurking in the shadows! PUBLICATION IN 3 VOLUMES - COMPLETED WORK. Sarah and David, a young married couple from New York City, arrive to settle near Salamanca, a small Pennsylvania forest village whose unwelcoming inhabitants appear to be protecting a secret and troubled past. Prey to her own childhood demons, as wel
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10 Tips On How To Write A Press Release
Column by Michael David Wilson August 10, 2015
If you’re running a publishing house or self-publishing, sooner or later you’ll need to write a press release. Sure, there are other ways to get the word out—like door-to-door cold calling, physical theatre and old school intimidation—but the press release is a more traditional approach, and unlikely to land you jail time or judgement… provided you get it right.
So, how to begin? If you’re fortunate enough to receive any press releases from other publications or agencies, you could do worse than to simply take your favourite and adapt it for your own means. But I’ll assume you’re reading this column because you want a little more guidance.
1. Include Essential Information
You’d be surprised at how often publishers and agencies alike omit vital information. Granted they’re unlikely to forget to include the title (though sometimes they don’t reveal it as soon as they should, which FYI is immediately) but other mandatory details are oft missing. Please include the following:
Get your message across as quickly and succinctly as you can.
• Author
• ISBN/eISBN
• Price in all formats and regions
• Release date
• Contact details
• Genre (whether implicitly or explicitly)
• Calls to action (more on this later)
2. Get To The Point With A Snappy Title
Time is money and these days people don’t have much of either, so get your message across as quickly and succinctly as you can. You’re going to need to pack a lot into the first line, but first ensure your email subject and press release headline are on-point. Your first task is to get the right people to open the email. A poor example of a headline is the title of the book. A better example will include more pertinent information. Take for example, ‘Arrow Films announce Home Entertainment release of crime drama Witnesses’. I know the title – Witnesses, the genre, the two parties involved and the purpose of the press release. Opening the email I learn a little more through the headline:
ARROW FILMS ANNOUNCE FRENCH CRIME DRAMA “WITNESSES” RELEASED ON DVD & BLU-RAY MONDAY OCTOBER 5TH
Now I know it’s a home rather than cinematic release and I have a release date, too. There isn’t an obvious call-to-action, so let’s address that now.
Why are you writing the press release? What do you want the recipient to do? Let them know early on. If it’s to run a review, interview or feature on your product, don’t be afraid to state your aim from the off. In the press release for The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud I unashamedly declared, “REVIEW COPIES AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE”. In the Arrow Films press release cited above it isn’t until the final paragraph a timid voice whispers, “If you are interested in reviewing Witnesses, please let us know your disc format preference (DVD or Blu-Ray), and a check disc will be automatically posted to you.” I appreciate in a society of social media shouters—“Buy my book now! Now! Now!”—there’s apprehension to make too much of a song-and-dance over promotion, but if ever there is a time to plug your book and ask people to review it you can bet your bank account it is when writing a press release. (Side note: I appreciate in the case of Witnesses the modus operandi was to announce Witnesses’ DVD release, but I still think they missed a trick in not making a more obvious call for reviews. Incidentally, if the call had been for Kickstarter backers I’d still advocate an obvious call-to-action and link upfront with the meatier justification to follow.)
4. Advanced Praise
In a world adorned by art—good and bad—it can be difficult to stand out from the competition, especially when requesting coverage from well-respected media outlets. Do yourself a favour and garner advanced praise as ahead of time as possible. True, it will be difficult to track down Stephen King or Chuck Palahniuk (though by no means impossible) but a meaningful quote from a well-respected figure or publication in your subgenre will help you stand ahead of the competition. You also want to make sure the advanced praise comes from someone with a higher profile than you. Take for example Richard Thomas, fast becoming a respected author in his own right (and rightfully so). His new release Disintegration received praise from Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting.
5. Succinct Synopsis
You can’t get away without including some semblance of synopsis within your press release (though some will try—I’ve actually read press releases that describe ‘a horrifying new novel’ and leave it at that). The key word here is ‘succinct’. The recipient wants a flavour of your story/film/product, but they’re not looking for an essay. A good rule of thumb is to include as much as you would for the back cover blurb. A few choice lines that conjure up the story’s essence. No synopsis equals no reason to check out your product, but too much and you’ll run into a similar problem. Remember, time is money.
Why are you writing the press release? What do you want the recipient to do?
6. One Page Is Better Than Two
Less is more, so pack as much information into as small a space as possible. Don’t go beyond two pages; do strive to write less.
Include your contact details. Hopefully you’ll include an email and telephone number, but why not go a step further and include social media profiles, websites and even a good old-fashioned postal address. This needn’t be in your face, but part of the footer or signature.
8. Make It Visually Appealing
Make it look good. This doesn't mean trying too hard to get noticed. No wacky fonts, text colours, variable type sizes, gifs, flashing texts or embedded videos that automatically play, please. I’ve seen all of the above and I can assure you they’re more likely to induce a seizure than a favourable response. It’s all about simplicity and functionality. Try hard with your content, not with superficial aesthetics.
What you need is a consistent and recognisable style. Are you italicising or capitalising film and book titles? Are you consistent in your use of bold? How about images? Use them sparingly—an author photo, book cover and perhaps the publisher’s logo, but no more please. Remember your press release is an extension of your brand, so ensure it conforms to the usual rules and style guidelines you’d follow. This isn’t the time for stylistic experimentation. Perhaps you want to play with the content and call to action to assess how well they convert, but do not alter the aesthetic makeup of your brand.
9. Further Assets
I said above to use images sparingly. The same goes for videos, audio files and all multimedia. No one wants their inbox clogged up with unsolicited files, particularly when it’s going to affect the loading time of your press release. My advice is to have a link to further assets on an external website. That way if people want to check out extra images, videos and audio files, they can do so without burdening everyone else. I would also caution against attaching a PDF of the press release. Just keep the text in the body of the email. If there’s a fuller press release just provide a link. ‘Full press release available here’ should suffice.
The one exception to attachments is when providing eBooks for review. If you want people to review your book, make life easier and just attach it. It saves back-and-forth query time. I’d recommend MOBI, ePub and PDF formats to cover all bases. Incidentally, if you do insist on only providing PDF, don’t be surprised if you don’t receive a positive response. Have you seen how small those files come up on a regular sized kindle? And if you watermark the PDF, well, expect it to go straight to the trash.
(FYI: if you have an online link to a film you’re promoting feel free to include the link from the off, too.)
10. Personalisation
While the main focus of this article has been ‘how to write a press release’ (the clue is in the title) it should come as no shock that a little personalisation pre-press release goes a long way. I can tell you both from personal experience and anecdotally of the huge benefits you’ll receive from taking the time to write a few lines personally to the recipient of your press release. Sure you can go for the scattergun ‘Bcc everyone you know’ approach and you’ll occasionally score, but you’ll do much better if you take the time to individually email those people that really matter. For one, everyone can tell whether they’re part of a generic mass mail-out or a personalised message. It also allows you to go deeper with your call to action. What do you want? Why should they do what you want? What can you offer them in return? Answer these questions and make the benefits reciprocal and you are on to a winner. The return offer needn’t be huge or explicitly nailed to the page. A continuation of a mutually beneficial professional relationship or friendship is fine, just make sure there’s something.
Column by Michael David Wilson
Michael David Wilson is a professional writer and editor. He is the Managing Editor and Owner of the popular UK horror website, podcast and small press, This Is Horror. He is the founder of the ancestral health website and podcast, Paleo Minds. A qualified ESL Teacher and graduate of The University of Warwick’s English Literature and Creative Writing Programme, you can connect with Michael on Twitter @WilsonTheWriter.
Follow @WilsonTheWriter
Six Shortcomings of Small Presses
The Spork of Publishing: What to Consider After Finishing Your First Novel
11 Tips For Startup Publishers With A Small Budget
10 Mistakes I Made as a Debut Novelist
The Life Expectancy of a Novel
20 Scary Stories For Halloween That You Can Read Online For Free
7 Supernatural Urban Legends from Japan
Reading Haruki Murakami: A Primer
Taking Your Patreon Game To The Next Level
Places To Read and Listen To Books For Free
Storyville: Show, Don't Tell
Column by Richard Thomas
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Pope Francis, remove pro-gay Fr. Martin as advisor to Vatican
NOTE: After signing the petition, you will have the chance to send a personalized postcard to Pope Francis, requesting he reconsider his appointment of Father James Martin as Consultor to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication.
The Vatican named Jesuit Father Martin a consultant to its communications office in April of this year, a move that shocked and dismayed many Catholics due to Father Martin’s unabashed and continual affirmation of homosexuality.
Since that time, the editor-at-large of America magazine has become even more vocal in his advocacy of LGBT issues.
Father Martin’s homosexual-affirming advocacy has also been amplified since release this past spring of his book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity.
The book is critical of the Church’s handling of LGBT persons, and in it Father Martin calls for an end to firing LGBT individuals from Church employment due to their living in open conflict with Church teaching, despite this being the long established employment expectation in Catholic institutions.
He also says the Church should use the terms of choice of the LGBT community to describe them, such as “gay,” lesbian,” and “LGBT,” as a sign of sensitivity and respect.
Father Martin also advocates in the book for allowing LGBT-identifying Catholics to participate in Church ministry without mention of conversion from any sinful lifestyle.
The book consists of the content of Father Martin’s lecture last fall to New Ways Ministry, a homosexual advocacy group condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the U.S. Catholic bishops for its misrepresentation of Church teaching on homosexuality.
It has been criticized by a number of noted clergy and Church leaders for its flawed premise that the Church has erred on God’s plan for human sexuality.
The following are various other instances where Father James Martin has been publicly in conflict with Church teaching, potentially leading countless others astray:
Farther Martin told the pro-homosexual organization PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in mid-August of this year that God made LGBT persons who they are.
In July 2017 he told CNN that parish priests who identify as homosexual should publicly come out to show their congregations what a gay person is like and how gay people can live chastely.
Around that same time Father Martin told Good Morning America that shock music performer Lady Gaga’s LGBT anthem “Born This Way” was likely inspired by Psalm 139 ('You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made')
In June 2017 Father Martin said the language in the Catechism of the Catholic that refers to the intrinsically disordered nature of homosexual acts should be changed because it’s needlessly hurtful.
Father Martin said on his Facebook page in early May of this year that some saints were probably gay.
In February 2017 he tweeted support for transgender bathroom access.
Father Martin told the dissident New Ways group last fall that some bishops have already called for us to set aside the phrase “objectively disordered” when it comes to describing the homosexual inclination, specifically citing the Catechism, No. 2358. He concurred with this idea, because the language according to him is needlessly hurtful.
This represents a blatant selective application of the Catechism, as the phrase so often used by Father Martin to advocate LGBT issues, “respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” also derives directly from the Catechism, No. 2358.
Please join in petitioning Pope Francis to rescind Father Martin’s Vatican appointment and to correct his public errors regarding Church teaching on human sexuality. Many souls are at risk!
In the next step you'll have the option to send a postcard to Pope Francis.
To: Pope Francis
Dear Holy Father, it is with respect and reverence that we write you with the request to reconsider your appointment of Father James Martin as Consultor to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication.
We also respectfully request you oversee a fraternal correction of Father Martin for his creation of rampant confusion in the area of sexual morality with regard to Catholics and others experiencing same-sex attraction or otherwise identifying as LGBT.
While he presents a plea for dialogue within the Church on LGBT issues, he offers an extremely narrow and selective sampling of the Catechism to support his stances, neglecting the fullness of Church teaching in regard to ministering to persons identifying as LGBT.
Father Martin’s advocacy for LGBT issues gives the appearance that the Church can change her teaching on sexual morality.
His errors mislead people who are in need of the Church’s love and guidance.
The real-life result is Father Martin’s apparent message of accompaniment and dialogue is being used as license for homosexual activity. This puts souls in grave danger.
Father Martin rejects criticism of his advocacy, often prompting his multitude of social media followers to scorn those drawing attention to the error. This invitation for followers to deride opposition to the inaccuracies further leads his supporters astray.
Father has continually scandalized the faithful with his representation of LGBT advocacy.
While he has been pervasive with his message for some time, this has been ramped up in recent months with the release of his latest book.
Consequently and tragically, Father Martin’s curial appointment has served to embolden those who are agitating for the Church to abandon her teaching on sexual morality.
Holy Father, please consider rescinding this appointment and act as soon as possible to counsel Father Martin on authentic love for anyone struggling with chastity, for his welfare and for that of his many followers. Please act so that the positions of prominence he has been given within the Church will no longer be venues of confusion putting many souls at risk.
Be assured of our continued prayers for you in your Petrine ministry.
Fri Aug 25, 2017 - 1:14 PM EST
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December 2020 , 20:50 | Cite as
Implementation of Basic Life Support training in schools: a randomised controlled trial evaluating self-regulated learning as alternative training concept
Christoph Süss-Havemann
Janina Kosan
Thomas Seibold
Nils Martin Dibbern
Anne Daubmann
Jens Christian Kubitz
Stefanie Beck
Part of the following topical collections:
Health behavior, health promotion and society
The Kids save lives statement recommends annual Basic Life Support (BLS) training for school children but the implementation is challenging. Trainings should be easy to realise and every BLS training should be as effective as possible to prepare learners for lifesaving actions. Preparedness implies skills and positive beliefs in the own capability (high self-efficacy).
This randomized controlled cluster study investigates, if self-regulated learning promotes self-efficacy and long-term retention of practical BLS skills. Students in the age of 12 years participated in a practical training in BLS and a scenario testing of skills. In the control group the practical training was instructor-led. In the intervention group the students self-regulated their learning processes and feedback was provided by the peer-group. The primary outcome self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrest after the training and 9 months later was analysed using a multilevel mixed model. Means and pass-rates for BLS skills were secondary outcomes.
Contrary to the assumptions, this study could not measure a higher self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrest of the students participating in the intervention (n = 307 students) compared to the control group (n = 293 students) after training and at the follow-up (mean difference: 0.11 points, 95% CI: − 0.26 to 0.04, P = 0.135). The odds to pass all items of the BLS exam was not significantly different between the groups (OR 1.11, 95% CI: 0.81 to 1.52, p = 0.533). Self-regulated learning was associated with a higher performance of male students in the BLS exam (mean score: 7.35) compared to females of the intervention (female: 7.05) and compared to males of the control (7.06).
This study could not resolve the question, if self-regulated learning in peer-groups improves self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrest. Self-regulated learning is an effective alternative to instructor-led training in BLS skills training and may be feasible to realise for lay-persons. For male students self-regulated learning seems to be beneficial to support long-term retention of skills.
ISRCTN17334920, retrospectively registered 07.03.2019.
Basic life support training Self-regulated learning Self-efficacy School children
Automated External Defibrillator
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Ischemic heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world. According to international consensus, the most important determinant to survive a sudden cardiac arrest is the presence of a trained rescuer who is ready, willing, and able to act [1, 2]. The Introduction of CPR training for school children is an effective intervention to improve bystander-CPR-rates and increased survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest two- to four-fold [3].
Based on the existing evidence the joint-statement “Kids save lives” was released. The statement aims to introduce annual CPR training in the curriculum for all school children world-wide and was endorsed by the World Health Organization in January 2015 [4].
Teachers, physicians, nurses, students and emergency medical staff engage in the training of school children, but the implementation is difficult. The evaluation of nationwide programs demonstrate that not all students were reached and some have been trained only once in their schooldays [5, 6, 7, 8]. Important barriers of implementation in schools are lack of instructors and equipment and assumed high costs [7]. In turn there are some factors associated with good implementation rates. These factors are awareness of mandating legislation and successful implementation at other schools. As well as a person in charge for the implementation and teachers, who feel competent to conduct trainings [5].
There is a need for training concepts, which are very effective and focus on the factors strongly associated with patient outcome on the one hand and simple and easy to realise at the other hand.
Training should focus on skills, because effective CPR is crucial for survival. But skills are not the only constitutional factor of CPR by bystanders [1]. The potential rescuer needs enough confidence e.g. perceived ability to perform effective CPR as well. Training improves the belief of potential-rescuers that they can perform CPR effectively. But even trained people only perform CPR in 30–55% of the given occasions [9, 10]. The main reasons for denying live saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation to a patient are fear and lack of confidence of potential-rescuers [11, 12, 13].
To overcome fear and lack of confidence training methods should focus on positive beliefs and capabilities to master prospective situations. For conceptual design and measurement of effective teaching, self-efficacy (SE - a person’s belief in his/her capability to organise and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments [14] based on the concept Bandura) is a promising target. Schrunk demonstrated that children derive more SE by observing others, who are similar to themselves (peers) succeeding at a task in contrast to observing adults and showed that training concepts which foster self-regulation processes improve SE [15, 16].
Self-regulation processes during learning are not only helpful to stimulate the perceived ability to perform a task but as well for the retention of skills [17]. The literature discriminates between the learning processes relevant for skill acquisition and retention. Immediate feedback of a teacher improves in many contexts learning tempo and higher initial performance. Self-regulation processes like setting learning goals, monitoring the own performance and adapting strategies to achieve these learning goals is positively associated with skill retention [18, 19]. Therefore this study hypothesised that self-regulated practical learning will increase the SE of school children for helping in cardiac arrest immediately after the training and until follow up 9 months later and will have a positive effect on the retention of practical BLS skills.
A randomized, rater blinded, controlled cluster study was performed to evaluate the effect of two different training methods. The trial was conducted in September 2016 and the follow up was performed 9 months later in June 2017.
The participating schools were recruited from the pool of cooperating high-schools of the Department of Anaesthesiology of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. The students of grades seven and eight were randomised class-wise into the intervention- and control arm in a 1:1 allocation ratio. The randomisation was performed in advance by drawing balls of two colours blindly. A cluster was represented by students of one class. All students and their legal guardians were informed in advance about the training and the study goal. Only assessments of students who had their written informed consent to participate on hand were included in the analyses.
Practical skills were evaluated during a 3 min scenario testing using a nine point standardised checklist. The assessment has been developed for school settings and high inter-rater reliability has been shown in a previous study [20]. Demographic data and the self-efficacy were assessed before the practical assessment using a questionnaire. The self-efficacy (SE) was measured with a four-point Likert scale in three dimensions with two questions for each by adding the values of the two questions. The dimensions were helping in general, helping in cardiac arrest and diminished emotional arousal to cardiac arrest. The questionnaire, based on the general self-efficacy scale of Schwarzer and Jerusalem [21] was transformed into a special self-efficacy scale following the authors recommendations (Table 1). The questionnaire was piloted and demonstrated higher SE of students, who were promoted to be a BLS instructor compared to students just participating in a BLS training [22]. Demographic data included age, gender, weight, height and previous CPR training.
Items of the self-efficacy questionnaire
Domain: helping in general
1. I can help other people if I try hard.
2. When I want to help other people, I am certain that I can accomplish my goals.
Domain: helping in cardiac arrest
3. In a cardiac arrest situation I am confident that I could deal efficiently.
4. I can handle the situation if cardiac arrest comes my way.
Domain: diminished emotional arousal to cardiac arrest
5. Thanks to my resourcefulness, I can handle unforeseen situations in a resuscitation-situation.
6. I can remain calm when facing a cardiac arrest situation because I can rely on my coping abilities.
Response format: 1 = Not at all true 2 = Hardly true 3 = Moderately true 4 = Exactly true
Training and initial assessment of the students were part of a CPR training event at the participating schools. The CPR training event covered three school lessons (45 min each) and consisted of three parts. Part one was a 45 min interactive lecture on basic life support and AED use. Part two was 45 min of practical training on BLS and AED skills performed in small groups (16–24 students with two trainers). Part three was the assessment.
The practical training during part two was different between the intervention and control group. In both groups, the practical training was performed by trained medical students or high school students (both in their final year before graduating) in the class rooms of the students and based on the four step-approach established by Peyton. The four steps include 1. demonstration, 2. deconstruction, 3. comprehension and 4. execution of the learned. In the control group the skills were trained following the four step-approach. In the intervention the trainers performed step one and two (demonstration and deconstruction). During step three and four the students guided their learning self-regulated and the trainer supervised and supported the communication process. The students were split into small groups of 8 to 12 students and in turns the children took over the part of the instructor, the executor or the rater of BLS. One student explained how and what to do next, two students performed BLS and the other students evaluated the performance and gave feedback afterwards. To support the evaluating and feedback-process the children used training cards with all relevant BLS items. The trainers stimulated the children to guide their feedback based on the performance parameters on the training cards.
The assessment of the practical BLS skills during part three was structured as an OSCE using MiniAnne-mannequins® (LaerdalTM). The medical students/ high schools students were randomly assigned to an assessment station. The students themselves were randomly assigned to the assessment stations before entering the gym. For assessment, the raters used a structured rating checklist with nine binary items. To pass the practical assessment in total, all nine points had to be rated with yes. All raters were trained in advance to use the structured rating-checklist.
At the initial assessment directly after the training the probability of a rater knowing about the group affiliation differed from 1:6 to 1:2. The follow-up assessment was identical. But medical students evaluated the students and were totally blinded of group affiliation.
All trainers were invited to a seminar prior to the training in schools which included five parts [23]. The trainers were randomised between part four and five to intervention or control group trainers. The randomization was performed by letting the trainers choose a specific class without knowing if the class was randomised to the intervention or control group. In the fourth part the two groups were separated, informed about their training concept and practiced it in a simulated BLS teaching session.
The primary outcome was the self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrest immediately after the training and at the follow-up 9 months later. Secondary outcomes were pass-rates and means for BLS performance immediately and 9 months later.
Sample size calculation
Sample size calculation was based on an estimated difference between the self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrest of 0.25 points (SD ± 1) between the intervention and control. We assumed, that the SE is higher in the intervention group. With an α of 0.05 (two-sided) and a power of 0.8, fifteen classes with 22 students per group had to be analysed assuming an intracluster correlation of 0.01. We decided to include as many classes as possible.
The rating sheets were machine readable, electronically scanned and imported into Microsoft Excel. After checking for plausibility, the data was analysed together with a statistician of the Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology of the Medical University of Hamburg using SPSS, version 24 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA).
Descriptive statistics were evaluated for all randomized students by group. For the categorical variables, the absolute and relative frequencies were calculated. Means and standard deviation (SD) were determined for continuous variables.
Assuming a dependence of SE on gender and the intervention and a dependence of practical skills on time and the intervention, we considered gender and its interactions with group and time additionally in our model. Therefore primary and secondary continuous outcomes were analysed using a multilevel mixed model with group, gender and time as fixed effects, class as random effect and time as a repeated effect. In the initial model the three-way- and all two-way-interactions between the three variables were included. Afterwards a stepwise backward elimination of the not significant interactions was conducted. For the binary outcome (passing OSCE), a mixed logistic regression was evaluated with the same specifications as in the model for continuous outcomes. Mean differences and odds ratios with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported, respectively. Intra-Cluster-Correlations (ICC) were also presented. Two-sided p-values < 0.05 were considered as significant.
847 students were randomized and trained. 247 did not have written informed consent and the data of these students was not included in the analyses. Data of 307 students of the intervention group (20 Clusters) and 293 students of the control group (21 Clusters) could be analysed immediately after the training. 257 of the intervention group students and 237 of the control group students participated at the follow up nine months later (Fig. 1). Demographic data were comparable between the groups and presented in Table 2. The proportion of the variance, attributable to the students, was higher than the proportion of the variance attributable to the classes for all continuous outcomes (Table 3).
Flow-chart of participants according to CONSORT recommendation
Demographic data of the students
Intervention (n = 307)
Control (n = 293)
Age–yr (S.D.)
Male gender – no. (%)
139 (45.3)
Height–cm (S.D.)
Weight– kg (S.D.)
46.5 (8.0)
CPR-training < 1 year – no. (%)
CPR-training > 1 year – no. (%)
No CPR-training ever – no. (%)
Intra-Cluster-Correlations (ICC) for continuous outcomes
ICC of the classes
ICC of the students
SE helping in general (% of total variance)
SE helping in cardiac arrest (% of total variance)
SE diminished emotional arousal (% of total variance)
Number of passed items in BLS (% of total variance)
For the main outcome of self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrests no significant difference between the groups (mean difference for helping in cardiac arrest: 0.11 points, 95% CI: − 0.26 to 0.04, P = 0.135) was found. Mean scores of male students of the control were descriptively higher compared to male students of the intervention and female students of both groups (Table 4). SE for helping in cardiac arrest decreased significantly over time (mean difference: 1.08 points, 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.20, p < 0.001).
Means of self-efficacy and means of passed items of the BLS exam
SE helping in general (mean; SD)
SE helping in cardiac arrest (mean; SD)
6.02 (0 .98)
SE diminished emotional arousal (mean; SD)
Number of passed items in BLS (mean; SD)
For helping in general and diminished emotional arousal to cardiac arrest the control group had significant higher means (mean difference for helping in general: 0.18 points, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.35, P = 0.038), mean difference for diminished emotional arousal: 0.20 points, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.39, P = 0.045).
A significant decrease over time was observed P < 0.001 (helping in general: 0.54 points, 95% CI: 0.44 to 0.65; diminished emotional arousal: 0.96 points, 95% CI: 0.82 to 1.09).
Observed means separated for group, gender and time are presented in Table 4.
A mean pass-rate of 25% of all students without a significant difference between the groups was detected (OR 1.11, 95% CI: 0.81 to 1.52, p = 0.533). The odds to pass the exam declined significantly over time without any interaction between groups. The chance to pass the exam was 2.64-fold higher directly after the training than nine months later. (OR 2.64, 95% CI: 1.88 to 3.69, P < 0.001). Gender had no significant influence on the odds to pass.
For number of passed items in BLS, the interaction between group and gender was not significant with p-value of 0.052. The significance was just missed. In this case, nevertheless, we kept the interaction in the model. Male students of the intervention had passed more items than the female in the intervention (male: 7.35, 95% CI: 7.11 to 7.58, female: 7.05, 95% CI: 6.82 to 7.27, difference: 0.30, 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.55, P = 0.015). In the control group, no significant difference between male and female students was found. For female and male students, the scores did not differ significantly between the groups (female: intervention: 7.05, 95% CI: 6.82 to 7.27; control: 7.10, 95% CI: 6.86 to 7.33, difference: -0.05, 95% CI: − 0.37 to 0.26, P = 0.746; male: intervention: 7.35, 95% CI: 7.11 to 7.58; control: 7.06, 95% CI: 6.83 to 7.29, difference: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.61, P = 0.073). Time had a significant influence on number of passed items (mean difference: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.60 to 0.92, P < 0.001). Observed means separated for group, gender and time are presented in Table 4.
Descriptive analyses (Fig. 2) showed that male students of the intervention had higher pass-rates for correct compression frequency and depth after the training and at the follow-up compared to females of the intervention. Males of the intervention had better results for assessing breathing, compression frequency, compression depth and pauses less than 30 s compared to male students after control at the follow-up. Male students of the intervention performed chest compression after nine months nearly as good as immediately after training. After nine months all groups passed about 0.6 to 0.7 items less; except the males in the control group declined about 1.1 items.
Pass-rates for the BLS-exam and on item level. In the panels at the top the results of the male and at the bottom the results of the female participants are presented. Panels on the left show results immediately after training and on the right nine months later
Independent of the group, the pass rates for checking breathing declined strongly approximately 20% over time. The decline of pass-rates for the other items ranged within 10%.
This study demonstrates that a high percentage of students had self-confidence to help effectively in cardiac arrest after the training and nine months later. Practical skills of the students were high after both training concepts and male students seem to benefit from self-regulated training. Because the instructors used moderation skills but disclaimed feedback based on their clinical skills in the self-regulated training, even lay people may realise self-regulated learning when using videos for the initial demonstration and deconstruction of BLS skills.
Based on the literature we had expected a positive effect of self-regulated learning on the SE for helping in cardiac arrest, because the intervention is grounded on the theoretical concept to support SE developed of Bandura and included recommended instructional strategies to boost SE in the context of medical learning [24]. Evidence based strategies as “setting of challenging and proximal goals”, “providing honest and explicit feedback”, “use of peer modelling” and “facilitation of accurate calibration of SE” were part of the self-regulated concept but did not improve SE for helping in cardiac arrest. Additionally, a significantly lower SE for helping in general was measured in the intervention compared to the control-group, which served as a control variable, and there were also lower scores for diminished emotional arousal.
In our opinion, a possible explanation is the so called “calibration effect”. Immediate feedback that encourages students to shift their focus from actual performance to performance monitoring and evaluation is a strong promotor of self-efficacy calibration and learning [25, 26]. The featured role of peer feedback in the intervention could have resulted in good self-efficacy calibration and reduction of common overestimation of SE in the male group [27, 28]. This thesis is supported by the fact, that the males of the control had the highest SE scores but the lowest scores for BLS at the follow up. The literature reports some evidence, that female students possess and use more self-regulated learning strategies at this age than males [28]. Therefore, a teaching method that promotes self-regulation may be less effective for females at this age.
The results support the thesis, that self-regulated learning leads to good calibration of SE especially in male students but the study missed to measure the accuracy of SE judgment of the students. Cleary [29] summarized methods that allow measuring over- or underestimation of SE. For our setting it would be feasible to let the students estimate if they can perform certain items correctly or to guess the grade they would achieve in the practical assessment and compare it with the actual performance.
Additionally, we recommend using questionnaires to evaluate SE for helping in cardiac arrest with more discrimination power at the upper end for further studies.
In this study the pass-rates of about 25% in the BLS assessment appear low. There are two possible reasons. The students were very young and the assessment was very restrictive.
Students with a mean age of 14 years and a mean weight of 55 kg, who had participated in 2013/14 in our BLS-training with the same training setting and assessment, had achieved pass-rates of about 40% [30]. Compared to the students with 14 years, the 12-year-old students of this study had about 20% lower pass-rates for the items compression depth, compression rate and pauses less than 30 s. This is in line with the literature demonstrating higher physical capacity to maintain effective chest compression with higher age and higher weight [31].
With respect to retention of practical skills, self-regulated learning is only beneficial for male students. The difference between the males and females in the intervention is mainly attributable to long-term retention of practical skills of chest compression. The males of the intervention scored higher than the males of the control because of better retention for breathing check, chest compression quality and less pauses. Up to date there are only some studies reporting an interaction between gender and training method in medical education, because gender is not routinely considered as variable in the analysis [31]. Sopka et al. demonstrated that the training environment interacts with learning of different genders. Female medical students improved CPR skills only in the female only group and not in mixed-gender groups [32].
The study was a randomised controlled trial with a scenario testing of practical skills and an assessment of SE of students including a mid-time follow-up after two different training methods. This study focused on the efficacy of training methods in a real world setting with trained medical students or high school students as facilitors and students of grades seven and eight as learners. The objectivity and reliability of the of the SE- and practical skills assessment can be estimated high because standardised assessment instruments were used, the assessors were blinded for group allocation. The variance within the results for the SE and number of passed items is mainly attributable to difference between the students and not between the classes. The low variance on class level indicates high reliability of the instrument and a slight influence of the trainer on the results. The sample size was high enough to detect a significant interaction between training method and gender on the mid-term BLS performance.
But the study was powered to evaluate the effectiveness of self-regulated learning on the SE to help in cardiac arrest. We expected higher SE of the students after self-regulated learning. There are two explanations for failing to measure a difference. First, all groups scores above 7 (of an eight-point scale) initially and above 6 at the follow-up were observed for helping in cardiac arrest. The discriminating power between the single subjects and groups was limited due to a ceiling effect of the used SE scale.
Second, we probably observed better calibration of the SE in the male group after the intervention. To assess the accuracy of SE calibration additional measures must be added in future studies on self-efficacy. According to the literature good SE calibration is a strong predictor for future successful performance and effective chest compression is essential in resuscitation. The effect of the intervention on behaviour in a real-world situation can’t be tested.
The results depend on how self-regulated learning was realised in this study. If the self-regulated learning concept brings more teachers to become facilitators of BLS training and helps to support the implementation, can’t be predicted. The teachers do not need formal training in BLS to provide self-regulated learning opportunities but must be familiar with the training material and motivated to create opportunities.
This study could not demonstrate that self-regulated learning supports higher self-efficacy for helping in cardiac arrest in students. Self-regulated learning is an effective alternative to instructor-led training in BLS and may be feasible to realise for lay-persons like teachers. For male students self-regulated learning seems to be beneficial to support learning and long-term retention of skills. For female students the method of training seems less important.
We acknowledge the contribution of the students and the trainers. The study could not have been completed without the collaboration and support from the participating schools. Sincere thanks is given to the Vice Deanery for Student Affairs of the Medical Faculty of the University of Hamburg (Organisation).
CSH, SB, AD und JCK designed the study. CSH, JK, TS, ND and SB were responsible for the acquisition of data. CSH, AD and SB performed the analyses of data. CSH, AD, JCK and SB contributed in the interpretation of the data. CSH, JK, TS, ND, AD, JCK and SB were involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content. They all take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. All authors had given final approval of the version to be published.
The Ministry of education of the state of Hamburg supported the training with equipment (CPR mannequins). The Ministry of education had no role in the design of this study and was not involved in the analyses, interpretation of the data, or decision to submit results.
The study was rated by the head of the local Ethic Committee of the Medical Association of Hamburg as a study with humans but not on humans. Therefore, this educational study does not refer to the statutes of the ethic committee (§ 9 des Hamburgischen Kammergesetzes für Heilberufe) and the study was not appropriate for ethic consultation. This study was conducted with the approval of the Ministry of education of the state of Hamburg (Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Hamburg). All students and their parents were informed about the trial in advance. Only assessments of students with a written informed consent of the parents or legal guardians were included in the analyses.
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© The Author(s). 2020
Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
1.Department of AnaesthesiologyUniversity Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
2.Department of AnaesthesiologyIntensiv Care and Pain Management, Kath. MarienkrankenhausHamburgGermany
3.Specialist Center for Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Schoen Clinic Hamburg EilbekHamburgGermany
4.Department of Medical Biometry and EpidemiologyUniversity Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
Süss-Havemann, C., Kosan, J., Seibold, T. et al. BMC Public Health (2020) 20: 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8161-7
Accepted 06 January 2020
Publisher Name BioMed Central
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Artificial Intelligence and Common Sense: The Shady Future of AI
Sreenivas Sremath Tirumala
Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution has recorded more impact than any other revolutions in human history. AI systems have been more far ahead with the recent advances particularity with deep learning that attained state-of-the-art results in almost all Machine Learning (ML) tasks. However, AI systems are venerable but are highly vulnerable which demands timely human intervention. Further, AI systems can easily be tweaked and misguided to produce misleading results that are far from the reality. It is high time to address this susceptibility of AI since reliance on AI systems is keep growing exponentially. AI lacks the key aspect of human intelligence—common sense that guides humans to take better action and decision based on consequences and makes humans more adaptable. This missing aspect of AI inspired the researchers to work toward Artificial general Intelligence (AGI). AGI research involves developing AI systems with human-like consequential and conscious learning. This paper presents the theoretical and practical vulnerability of AI through literature, examples, experiments. The literature and examples concentrates on famous and popular AI systems like deep learning, Google Translate, visual cognition, etc. The experiments are carried out using two datasets; a gene expression dataset for prediction and image dataset for object detection and scene recognition. The experiment results reassert the weakness of AI and the requirement of AGI.
Deep learning Artificial general intelligence AGI
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lvgaldieri
Louis V. Galdieri's blog
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Tag Archives: humility
Steel — and Snow — In The Air
“We have been blessed with good weather” in the Upper Peninsula, Lundin Mining CEO Paul Conibear told a small group of analysts on the 3rd Quarter earnings call last week; “I think Indian Summer has arrived.”
We’re well, well advanced on concrete. Lots of steel in the air. The warehouse facilities we have are chockablock full of equipment that’s been delivered, just waiting for the concrete to cure to start placing.
Conibear says he was in the UP with the Lundin Board of Directors and an entourage of analysts and investment bankers at around the same time I was, but they probably didn’t venture far from Marquette. There, it still felt like October. Mornings were cold and damp. Days were mostly sunny.
In the Keweenaw, hail and snow and rain would fall, and then the sun would burst through the clouds and the sky would clear — all in the space of an hour or two. Before I reached Bessemer, big flakes of snow were falling steadily, and it had started to blow. I asked the woman wearing a Packers jacket behind the counter at the gas station if she thought it would stick. “Already is,” she said.
Lundin needs to keep moving ahead. Though it boasts of having “no high risk, major capital projects,” it’s clear that when it comes to Eagle Mine, high-powered analysts like Pierre Vaillancourt of Macquarie Securities are looking for “any opportunities to decrease the capital intensity a little bit.” Conibear had to admit there wasn’t much room to maneuver:
We’ve inherited a project [from Rio Tinto] that was 50% constructed and designed and 99% complete and permitted, and the clear instructions to the team is you don’t touch anything on the project that has any risk of requiring permit complexity. So yes, the bus [sic, not the train] has already left the station on being able to change any physical aspect in any significant way. You know if we were given a blank sheet of paper would it be designed differently or would it have a different flow sheet or something? Probably, but that’s years ago.
I can’t help but wonder how deep these misgivings about the design of the Eagle project run, especially given the flaws mine engineer Jack Parker and others have pointed to, and if Conibear and his engineering crew are pushing ahead with Rio Tinto’s design and flow sheet despite serious flaws. It’s hard to tell just from these remarks.
In any case, they’re “going as fast as possible” at Eagle. By pushing the schedule, Lundin Mining hopes “to get some capital cost improvement”: “the sooner we bring it in for sure the less overhead there is.”
Delays – and, I imagine, any protracted controversy over the Eagle haul route — will be costly. On site, big ore bins need to be installed before winter. The mechanical electrical piping contractor is already at work. Lundin has “modified the contracting strategy” around the Eagle project to take advantage of “a very competitive contracting marketplace” in the UP, and now “there’s quite a buzz going on” at both the mine and the mill sites. Progress underground is ahead of work on the mill. Conibear seems confident Lundin can commission the mine before the end of Q2 2014, and have the mill running and first ore shipped by the end of next year.
And yet, despite even the best-laid plans, winter is on its way. I saw the first signs of its approach around Lake Gogebic. The next day, in Minnesota, when I cut west on Route 1 from the Palisade Head, the big pines on either side of the road were dusted with snow. It all looked so gentle and dreamlike and the places I drove through had dreamy, faraway names: Finland. The Baptism River. This could not have been the harbinger of the “severe winter” Conibear talked about on his earnings call. It presented itself with quiet grace, like a spell to lull the world into long, deep sleep.
Nature can be the miner’s undoing: “all it takes is one mother nature event to throw you out,” Conibear explained. Whatever cost efficiencies Lundin achieves by speeding up the schedule or managing contracts at Eagle may be foiled by storms or snows or other forces beyond its control. In Andalusia, where Lundin has the Aguablanca mine, “it rains like hell starting about this time of year.” In 2010, it rained so hard that a collapse – a slope failure — shut down Aguablanca until August of 2012.
This entry was posted in Business and Society, Lake Superior, Louis V. Galdieri's Blog, Prosperity and tagged Aguablanca Mine, Andalusia, capital intensive, capitalism, collapse, Eagle Mine, efficiency, engineering, Gogebic County, heedlessness, hubris, humility, keweenaw, Lake Superior, Lundin Mining, mine collapse, mining, nature, patience, Paul Conibear, Pierre Vaillancourt, recklessness, snow, speed, weather, winter on November 9, 2013 by lvgaldieri.
People In the Way
It’s good to see that Jane Catherine Lotter’s obituary in the Seattle Times has gone “viral” — whatever that is supposed to mean anymore. I suppose if something in the culture — a meme, a song, a fad or a bit of slang — manages to reach me, it must have pretty wide circulation: I don’t keep up.
Lotter wrote it herself, as she was slowly dying, noting that “one of the few advantages of having Grade 3, Stage IIIC endometrial cancer, recurrent and metastasized to the liver and abdomen, is that you have time to write your own obituary.” She faced death with humor, courage and grace.
I was especially struck by what Lotter had to say to her children, Tessa and Riley. “May you, every day, connect with the brilliancy of your own spirit. And may you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path.” I’ve certainly come across the thought before; I suppose we all have. De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, and don’t come to obituaries looking for poetic or philosophical originality. Besides, it’s more interesting to reflect on the reasons why the thought has stayed with me over the past few days.
First, because I have been trying to get a big new project together, and I always struggle when starting a new project to take the little steps that will get me to the big place I see in the distance. When I am struck by an idea, excited by a project, or even when the first words of a piece of writing come to me, I can easily forget that eureka is just the start of the journey. I am impatient and I want to rush ahead; I look for shortcuts, end up taking detours and don’t take in the sights because I am so focused on where I think I am heading. And since I never end up exactly where I first intend to go, I would learn a lot more if I would allow myself to experience the trip.
It gets worse than that. Every difficulty I encounter seems like some kind of grand injustice the universe, or some evil deceiver, has visited upon me. Every time I stumble or fail to make progress — which is more often than I care to admit — I risk falling into the trap of blaming myself, thinking I have betrayed myself, or just feeling sorry for myself because I am up against insurmountable odds. When others don’t see things my way or express doubts, or don’t sufficiently rally to the idea in which I have fully invested my ego and imagination, or simply say they don’t get it, whatever it may be, they can become my persecutors and enemies, even though their intentions may have been friendly.
I am exaggerating (a little) to make a point: the emotion that takes over at such moments is powerful and undeniable. At root, I suspect, these feelings stem from a sense of vulnerability: new ideas, new plans, new projects — all make you newly vulnerable, because they are disorienting and will more likely than not fail.
The pursuit of an idea, a plan or a path entails great moral risk, especially when we come up against others. Just consider how often you hear, or how often you think, that people are in the way. It’s hard not to feel this way, at some point, if you live in New York City. I’m heading down the stairs to the subway platform, and someone in front of me is moving slowly, lumbering, limping, tired, breathing heavily, grunting, dragging a granny cart or leading a toddler down the stairs, cute little step by adorable little step by sweet little step. I can hear the train coming into the station. Not the train: my train. Get out of my way! On the sidewalk, badly dressed, slow-witted tourists, sweating and bloated with their deep-fried lunch, walk four and five across, gawking and without any sense of direction. Single file! Don’t know how to merge at the Holland Tunnel? Honk! People line up six, twelve, twenty-four deep at checkouts, taxi stands, restaurants — nearly everywhere you go. End of the line.
So in our rush, in our huff, when we are inspired, wired and just plain tired, we reduce people to inanimate objects or obstacles in our way. That puts us in the same moral ballpark as seeing people as means to our ends, instruments of our will — the outrage is that they are not mere extensions of our will — but it’s a little more sociopathic and depraved. People in the way need to be shoved aside, eliminated or made to disappear. They are not human beings but mere blocks; they might as well be sawhorses, sandbags or Jersey barriers — and it’s all the more irritating that they are not cast from concrete and set down by government order; they are alive, with all the appearances and behaviors of intelligent humanity, and yet they are very much in the way.
Sometimes we say that people are in the way when they are not even there, in front of us; they are in the way because they are obstinate, or don’t see things our way, or because they are creating difficulties of one kind or another. This is the more interesting case, and it involves risk of a different magnitude. For starters, it’s a strange abuse of language to talk about these people being “in the way” when there is no way apparent — no road, no staircase, no sidewalk or path. We speak as if there is a single orientation in the world — as if there were a way, the way, my way, as if the right way for all people were established by one person’s willing it. My way or the highway. Why doesn’t she get with the program? “The way” even has a whiff of providence about it, as if it reflected some higher order, and echoes of messianic religious vocabulary.
It also suggests we know where we are going — which of course we do not. And this is perhaps the greatest risk we run: to think that we know the path before we have traveled it, and that we have secured our ends simply because we have set out toward them. Stephen Covey advised highly effective people to start with the outcome they want to achieve, but the more important lesson is that you are most likely to achieve something other than what you set out to do. That’s a basic truth about human action, and a pretty good reason to set your sights on something other than being highly effective. This is especially so if you think of yourself as a leader. The leader who cannot or will not admit his vulnerability and uncertainty about the best way forward will probably just end up getting in everybody’s way.
This entry was posted in Language, Leadership, The Power of Asking and tagged arrogance, creativity, Death, ethics, habit, human will, humility, in the way, Jane Catherine Lotter, language, leader, leaders, leadership, my way, obituary, obstacles, orientation, path, power, Stephen Covey, the path, the way, uncertainty, vulnerability, will on August 9, 2013 by lvgaldieri.
What’s Mozambique to Michigan?
Tom Albanese has stepped down from his position as CEO of Rio Tinto, after the mining giant announced a $14 billion dollar writedown. While most of those losses were connected with Alcan, the aluminum business, the company also lost $3 billion on a coal project in Mozambique. That’s by far the more interesting aspect of the story, and it’s one that deserves attention not just from investors, industry analysts and Africa watchers, but also from those (like me) with an eye on the company’s operations around Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Here’s how it all went down in Mozambique. A couple of years ago, Rio Tinto acquired Australian-based Riversdale Mining for $4 billion. Riversdale had a number of coal projects going in Mozambique near Tete, “the coal capital of the world.” Logistics – moving coal in significant quantities from the mines in the Moatize Basin – was a challenge. Some coal mined at Benga could move by rail, pending “final approval by government authorities.” Still, that was only a partial solution; “long term logistics,” as a Rio Tinto presentation [pdf] put it, would be required once the Zambeze and Tete East projects were in full swing.
The company proposed moving Zambeze coal by barge on the Zambezi River. Barges would travel from Tete to the port of Chinde, on the Indian Ocean. The promised solution would not only make the coal business boom in Mozambique; it would also allow for “future growth” and “provide a catalyst for further socio-economic development in [the] region.” The company sought approval for its Zambeze River project by autumn of 2011 and planned to start coal barging by 2014.
All very well, except the Mozambique authorities never approved the transport of coal on the Zambezi.
How could the Mozambique authorities refuse Rio Tinto? After all, the company’s own Environmental Impact Report showed that coal-barging on the Zambezi would have no “significant” environmental effects.
Mozambique Transport Minister Paulo Zucula saw things differently: “the impact was seen to be very negative, and there were no plans for mitigation. As proposed it is not doable,” he said. Barging would adversely affect the river’s fish and dredging would increase the likelihood of floods: “every four years we have problems with flooding and killing people. So if you’re going to dredge the river, expand the banks, we will be in trouble.”
Zucula suggested Rio Tinto move its coal by rail. He has championed the construction of a new railway line from Moatize to the port of Nacala, and helped secure a $500 million investment in the $1.5 billion project from the Dutch government and the European Union. So Zucula may not have been solely concerned with the fate of the Zambezi’s fish or the people living along its banks. But the purity of Zucula’s motives is really not at issue. The issue is that Rio Tinto seriously miscalculated and overplayed its hand in Mozambique.
A blogger in the Financial Times today sees here “a useful lesson for other mega-project investors in emerging markets.” He doesn’t say what that useful lesson is. I’m certain it’s something more than the need for prudence, and that it extends beyond emerging markets. It has to do with overconfidence – hubris, even: “Rio knew what the challenge was. It just couldn’t find an effective answer.” And yet, it forged ahead, certain that it would prevail upon the authorities in Mozambique to see things its way. That was just plain arrogant.
Sam Walsh, the new CEO of Rio Tinto, should take this $3 billion lesson in humility to heart. At the very least, he and the board of directors might ask whether the company’s failures in Mozambique are the outcome of behaviors that are in evidence elsewhere.
In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the company is developing the Eagle Mine, it faces a set of challenges of the same kind if not of the same magnitude as those it faced in Mozambique. The mine is being built on a site sacred to Native Americans and will be situated in the heart of the Yellow Dog Watershed, which feeds into Lake Superior. The company has run roughshod over Native American claims and issued familiar and predictable assurances that it will be a responsible steward of the environment – whatever that means when you’re extracting sulfide ore in the middle of a fragile watershed ecosystem. As for logistics, Rio Tinto was banking on the approval and construction of County Road 595, despite local opposition and concern from environmental regulators, just as it banked on the approval of the barge plan in Mozambique.
What could possibly go wrong? Rio Tinto had big Michigan politicians on its side: Debbie Stabinow, Dan Benishek, Rick Snyder, Matt Huuki. Even the Romney campaign was for County Road 595. But the EPA along with local environmental groups objected. After much wrangling, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality denied the wetlands fill permit for the new road just a couple of weeks ago, on January 3rd: the road did not meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. Rio Tinto has now had to shift financial support from this $82 million project to improving and upgrading existing roads. It’s as if the company’s blunder in Mozambique found a faint but telling echo in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
This entry was posted in Business and Society, Comment, Governance, Leadership, Louis V. Galdieri's Blog and tagged arrogance, coal, copper, governance, hubris, humility, Lake Superior, Michigan, mining, Mozambique, overreach, Paulo Zucula, Rio Tinto, Sam Walsh, Stefan Wagstyl, Tom Albanese, UP, Upper Peninsula on January 17, 2013 by lvgaldieri.
A Brief Note to Close the Year
On the Boundary Waters, Top Interior Department Lawyer Gets the Historical Record Wrong
Interior Still Hiding the Role of Political Appointees — Update on the Boundary Waters FOIA Case
Posner is Right About Why Friedman is Wrong, But…
Boundary Waters FOIA on Fox 9 “Investigators”
@sz_duras Mine would be “celebrity is a political toxin.” 1 hour ago
I have no idea what the consulting jargon means here— “more aligned” (with what?); “dynamic” (?) — nor do I know i… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 17 hours ago
@moon_app_minor Yes I think that gets the balance right. It was also comical, a little pathetic. 1 day ago
Anyway I included a couple of screenshots in this post. I have some others. lvgaldieri.com/2019/07/25/new… 1 day ago
@moon_app_minor I don't think I'd get very far pressing the matter in court, but I wondered about the ethics of maintaining that account. 1 day ago
1913 Massacre
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non-coercive power
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serious conversations
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Twin Metals
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FTC News
MADE IN USA NEWS
ALL THE NEWS YOU NEED FOR EVERYTHING MADE OR PRODUCED IN THE U.S.A.
Tariff on Chinese solar panels raises fear of trade war
Currency Manipulation
8 years ago admin
Solar World and others have seen their market share plummet as sales of inexpensive Chinese panels have skyrocketed. The Commerce Department found Chinese companies are guilty of dumping panels on average 31 percent below fair market value.
By Dan Springer
The Obama administration, still smarting from controversial investments in solar power firms like the now bankrupt Solyndra, has sparked fears of a trade war between the U.S. and China, as the Commerce Department signals it will likely slap a 31 percent tariff on all solar panel imports from China.
While some, frustrated by the high U.S. unemployment, want punishment doled out to China, others say protectionism only hurts the consumers who are forced to pay more.
Such a tariff has been pushed by companies that manufacture solar panels in the U.S., including Solar World, which has a plant in Hillsboro, Ore.
“It’ll basically allow us to compete on technology,” Solar World president Gordon Brinser said, “just like everybody else in any other industry.”
It’s a charge China’s Suntech, the world’s largest solar company, rejects.
“The way the costs have come down so much and become so competitive is we’ve globalized,” Suntech’s chief commercial officer, Andrew Beebe, said. “We manufacture in China, we manufacture in Japan, we manufacture in the United States.”
While still a tiny piece of America’s energy portfolio, the solar industry has seen substantial growth as the price of panels has fallen. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s most recent annual report says solar-generating capacity in 2010 quadrupled in the utility sector and went up 60 percent in residential in just one year.
But many U.S. solar companies that don’t make panels fear the tariff will drive prices so high, consumers will stop buying. Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, said manufacturing panels account for a mere 3 percent of the 100,000 U.S. jobs tied to the solar industry.
“The U.S. now is becoming one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and this just puts a headwind on that,” Shah said.
The Brattle Group did a study for the coalition that predicted a 50 percent tariff would cost the U.S. 14,000 solar industry jobs. Manufacturers would initially see a small increase in employment, but as sales slowed, engineering and installation jobs would suffer.
Critics of the tariff also point to massive government subsidies given to solar companies in the U.S.
Solyndra received a $530 million government loan in the stimulus package only to later file for bankruptcy. Solar World has reportedly received close to $100 million in state and federal tax breaks. Some states, like Washington, pay residents a premium per kilowatt hour rebate if they buy from the two instate manufacturers. Last year the rebate cost Washington state taxpayers $1 million.
The tariff is not a done deal yet. Commerce is scheduled to come out with a final ruling later this year, and then President Obama will weigh in.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/04/us-solar-panel-trade-war-with-china/print#ixzz1x1JJvkpl
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NAFTA/CAFTA
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Gracious Lady
Thai Hand Knotted Pearl and Peridot Beaded Necklace, 'Gracious Lady'
Peridot's lush green hues evokes nature's beauty in this design by Anusara. Knotted by hand, the gems clustre with natural white pearls in an opulent necklace. The clasp is bathed in sterling silver.
.925 Sterling silver plated brass clasp and extender
Cultured freshwater pearl, peridot, sterling silver plated brass clasp
Lobster claw clasp
High polish finish
Necklace:40 cm L x 1.2 cm W
Necklace:15.75" L x 0.5" W
Extender:5 cm L
Extender:2" L
Jewellery Necklaces Birthstone Jewellery Pearl Jewellery Peridot Jewellery Brass Jewellery Silver Plated Jewellery Beaded Jewellery Choker Jewellery
This item was created by Anusara in Thailand
Anusara
"I feel love and pride for all of my artwork. I'm proud of my designs, proud of creating them, proud to wear them and proud to sell them."
"Hi, my name is Anusara Konkam. I was born to a small but very warm family consisting of my father, mother, my older brother, and myself. I love art and nature and consider myself a 'natural' woman. I like to create embroidered works and grow flowers at home.
"When I was a child, I wove jasmine garlands to sell in the morning market, making them in my free time after school. I chose the most beautiful blooming jasmine blossoms. But first I had to finish my homework and reading before I was allowed to weave jasmine garlands. These garlands didn't bring a high price at the market, but my work helped my family to save money to support my studies.
"I participate at every local festival in our town. Sometimes I'm a Thai dancer, leading the parade to the temple. Sometimes I compete as a noppra-mad girl. Once I almost won first place, but that was only in a village contest. This is my personal challenge, and it is great fun and a good experience for me. I like to study and play northern style music and perform northern style dance (the sword dance, spear dance, and so forth), and I play the sa bud chai drum. This drum is played before a soldier goes to war, and again upon his return. The villagers play the sa bud chai drum to lift the soldiers' spirits, and a woman can play it. Every year at the Loy kra thong festival, I weave a floating basket from banana leaves to sell that evening. I want to help preserve nature and our environment; so that it will remain with us. I don't like to use unnatural materials. Banana leaf baskets are very beautiful. Have you ever seen them?
"About my handcrafts, I feel love and pride for all of my artwork. I'm proud of my designs, proud of creating them, proud to wear them and proud to sell them. In the future, I'd like to have a small shop of my own, in which to sell my jewelry. Now, Novica is my little shop, open to all who love jewelry and stones.
"With some of my income, I'd like to help conserve the natural world and the original Northern Thai culture that I love. I don't want it to disappear. And I want to keep some of my income to help underprivileged children in my hometown, so as to give something back to my city. This place holds many things that have meant a lot to me for a very long time."
This item was handmade in Thailand. Unicef helped thousands of children across Thailand keep learning after the 2004 tsunami destroyed their schools.
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Facebook’s Campaign Budget Optimization is coming. Are you ready?
The time to start testing CBO is now, says Michelle Morgan of Clix Marketing.
Amy Gesenhues on October 17, 2019 at 2:20 pm
Facebook will soon be transitioning advertisers to campaign budget optimization (CBO), which automates budget optimization across the ad sets in a campaign. Originally scheduled to happen in September, the company pushed the move to February, giving advertisers more time to test it.
“With this shift, the budget will be set at the campaign level, much like search campaigns are now,” said Michelle Morgan, director of client services at Clix Marketing, “Facebook will then, in real-time ‘optimize’ the campaign by giving budget to the ad-set that is performing best out of all within the campaign.”
Morgan, who will be speaking about CBO and paid social tactics that drive conversions at SMX East in New York next month, says early tests her team has run have shown inconsistent results but that testing is critical.
What should advertisers expect with CBO?
“Where things are better or flat, we leave CBO in place, and where things are worse, we revert and try to organize again for a new test,” said Morgan. She’s found that about 40% of the time, campaigns switched to CBO come out ahead or remain flat — but about 60% of the time, campaign results end up being worse, forcing the agency to reconsider the campaign’s structure.
Morgan does think CBO will make it seem simpler to set up a campaign, and that it will make for an easy jump from search to social for advertisers. She said she doesn’t see it as an inherently good or bad move on Facebook’s part, but does believe that the algorithm, and optimization itself, needs work.
“At the moment, I’m seeing very mixed results with it and I’ve heard from many that their traditionally budgeted campaigns are out-performing CBO on the regular.”
It’s time to starting testing now
For advertisers who haven’t started testing CBO campaigns yet, Morgan said it is imperative they do so now.
“Even if performance isn’t better, this is going to be the way things are in the future, so get some data under your belt and know what to expect,” said Morgan.
In cases where campaign performance diminishes, Morgan recommends implementing minimums and maximums on your ad-sets. “Facebook still allows for that as a way to control the budgets — just in a different way.” However, she doesn’t recommend setting minimum and maximums for campaign-level budgets, “If you try to hold the system down too much, it can also get stuck by not being able to learn and test new things.”
If an advertiser isn’t seeing improvements using a minimum/maximum strategy, Morgan suggests it may be time to revisit the campaign structure altogether.
“Although it will make for a bulkier account, it might make sense for advertisers to shift to a more broken out campaign strategy, where a campaign that normally contained six ad sets is now six campaigns — each with only one ad set.”
Give the platform time to learn
Morgan points out advertisers may need to be patient — and put more time into managing their campaigns — if they’re not seeing the results they want.
“If you’ve recently switched to CBO and performance drops, take a look at where CBO is spending your money. Is it on the same ad sets it was before, or has it shifted? Once you have a feel for that, start setting the minimums and maximums to try and regain control, but do so gradually,” said Morgan.
“If a campaign with two ad sets used to split the budget 50/50, but now is at 90/10, set the minimums to guide spend to 80/20. Wait a few days and then shift to 70/30, etc. Give the platform time to learn and adjust as you guide it back to 50/50 or potentially look to break the ad sets out into their own campaigns for better control.”
Keep your eye on the goal
“It seems like a small tweak to the platform, shifting the budget from ad set to campaign level, but it has more implications than that,” said Morgan. She uses the example of an ad test with one creative asset that runs way with impressions. “Sometimes it’s the one generating the most conversions, engagement, video views at the lowest cost — and sometimes it’s not. It’s the loss of control for the ‘sometimes it’s not’ scenarios that makes this a large shift.”
So start testing CBO now and keep an eye on overall performance — continually evaluating whether campaign performance is getting better or worse.
This story first appeared on Search Engine Land. For more on search marketing and SEO, click here.
Channel: Social Media MarketingFacebookFacebook: AdvertisingFacebook: MarketingInterviewsSMX conferenceSocial Media MarketingSocial Media Marketing: Advertising
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Home Board index Writing Martin's Minutes (humor)
Martin Hash
Post by Martin Hash » Mon Sep 16, 2019 8:28 am
Route 66 TV Show.png
When I was a kid, there was this TV show called “Route 66” where two young, handsome guys drove along Route 66, the old road to Los Angeles from Chicago for people seeking to increase their lot in life during The Depression by moving to California. Route 66 doesn’t formally exist anymore, all of its section have been renamed to State highways, but the mystic of Route 66 is as big as it’s ever been: the gas stations, restaurants and motels have been restored to their mid-20th Century grandeur, and thousands of people every year go to Chicago just to relive times past.
Of course, I wanted to drive Route 66, but I wanted to go all out and drive a same Corvette they did in the show. To that end, with my imagination overwhelming my common sense, I went so far as to actually get my wife, Gwynne, to buy me a 1958 Corvette, the year I was born. I even bought a special jacket for the trip, a vintage 1990 In-N-Out Burger collector's item I had to have shipped from Australia, that had my car on it.
Martin's In-N-Out Jacket s.jpg
The age of the Corvette is important because I’m old enough to remember when cars were undependable and driving long distances in them was a feat, but over the years had forgotten this important fact. When Gwynne and I blithely took our first long ride, 20 miles maybe, it was clear that 2600 miles was going to be an issue because Gwynne was going to have to drive too; maybe she should practice? I waited for a sunny day, and polished the car up, even though it was already gleaming, and suggested we go to Walmart. Gwynne squinted her eyes at me even though she always likes to go to Walmart, but she was a good sport and came out to the car. First thing, she couldn't press hard enough on the door knob to get it to open so I had to come around and do it; next, the seat wouldn't go close enough to the pedals so she had to put a big pillow behind her; and without power steering, she couldn't get under the porte cochere without multiple forward-and-reverses, but this led to the issue that even though the car had an automatic transmission, it was Old School with Reverse between Park and Drive so the car lurched back each time she tried to go forward. Worse, there's no power brakes either so she had to use both feet on the brake pedal. There's another thing about old cars she didn't quite get; they have to be babied, and her test drive was horrendous. I wanted to be supportive so I kept my head to the side so she couldn't see the horror on my face, and I used all my willpower not to push my feet on the floor and keep my voice calm when I spoke. Obviously, we only got a couple miles before the car died.
“Pull over,” I said calmly since I totally expected this to happen.
I fiddled with the car, got it running, it was a babying thing, but she wouldn't get back in the driver's seat and wanted to go home. We didn't say anything on the way back.
“We'll try again tomorrow,” I said, hopefully.
Gwynne just went into the house without looking back. I knew in my heart she was never going to try again. With due regret, I gave up my Route 66 dream. It was a long night, and I didn't sleep well. Gwynne was gone early the next morning; I moped around the house, went out to polish the Corvette. Later that day, a car I didn't know pulled into the driveway. Gwynne had driven up to Kelso and bought herself a brand new AWD Prius, saying she'd drive Route 66, and pay for the thing from the savings in gas & repairs.
Gwynne's New Prius s.jpg
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3 Netflix Shows Earn 6 Golden Globe Nominations
By Brian Anthony Hernandez 2013-12-12 18:30:22 UTC
HBO earned nine nominations, the most for a TV network, for next year's Golden Globes on the strength of its Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra. Online streaming darling Netflix wasn't too far behind, snagging six nods during Thursday's nominations ceremony.
Netflix — which made history in September when its original series House of Cards became the first web-only series to win an award during a Primetime Emmys — grabbed four Golden Globes nominations for the political thriller, including Best Drama, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Actress (Robin Wright) and Best Supporting Actor (Corey Stoll).
See also: 10 Memorable 'House of Cards' Quotes
Netflix's Orange Is the New Black earned one nod for Best Actress in Drama (Taylor Schilling), and Arrested Development got one nod for Best Actor in a Comedy (Jason Bateman).
Meanwhile in the movie races, 12 Years of Slave and American Hustle dominated with seven nods each. Nebraska earned five, while Captain Phillips and Gravity each received four.
Notably for tech lovers, Her, which tells the love story between a man (Joaquin Phoenix) and an "artificially intelligent operating system," snagged three nominations.
Here is the full list of nominees for the 71st Golden Globes, which airs Jan. 12 on NBC:
Television Cateogories
Best TV Comedy or Musical
Best TV Drama
Best Actress in a TV Drama
Julianna Marguiles, The Good Wife
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Taylor Schilling, Orange Is the New Black
Kerry Washington, Scandal
Robin Wright, House of Cards
Best Actress in a TV Comedy
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Lena Dunham, Girls
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
Best Actor in a TV Drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Michael Sheen, Masters of Sex
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
James Spader, The Blacklist
Best Actor in a TV Comedy
Jason Bateman, Arrested Development
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Michael J. Fox, The Michael J. Fox Show
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Andy Samberg, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Best Miniseries or TV Movie
Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Helena Bonham Carter, Burton and Taylor
Rebecca Ferguson, White Queen
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Helen Mirren, Phil Spector
Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake
Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dancing on the Edge
Idris Elba, Luther
Al Pacino, Phil Spector
Best Supporting Actress in a TV Show, Miniseries or TV Movie
Jacqueline Bisset, Dancing on the Edge
Janet McTeer, White Queen
Hayden Panettiere, Nashville
Monica Potter, Parenthood
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Best Supporting Actor in a TV Show, Miniseries or TV Movie
Josh Charles, The Good Wife
Rob Lowe, Behind the Candelabra
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
Corey Stoll, House of Cards
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan
Best Musical/Comedy
Inside Lleweyn Davis
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Best Actress in a Drama
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Kate Winslet, Labor Day
Best Actor in a Drama
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Idris Elba, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford, All Is Lost
Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo Di Caprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Joaquin Phoenix, Her
Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Enough Said
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl, Rush
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Spike Jonze, Her
Bob Nelson, Nebraska
Jeff Pope/Steve Coogan, Philomena
John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave
Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell, American Hustle
The Great Beauty
“Atlas,” The Hunger Games, Catching Fire
“Let It Go,” Frozen
“Ordinary Love,” Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
“Please Mr. Kennedy,” Inside Llewyn Davis
“Sweeter Than Fiction,” One Chance
Alex Ebert, All Is Lost
Alex Heffes, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Steven Price, Gravity
John Williams, The Book Thief
Hans Zimmer, 12 Years a Slave
To see last year's winners of the 70th Golden Globes, click here.
BONUS: 13 Iconic Movie Quotes With Internet-Obsessed Twists
13 Classic Movie Quotes Updated for the Digital Age
Image: Imgur, Paul Gale
2. Gone With the Wind
3. The Graduate
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
5. The Wizard of Oz
6. The Sixth Sense
9. Oliver!
10. Sunset Blvd.
11. Titanic
13. Jerry Maguire
Images: Netflix; Fox Searchlight Pictures; Warner Bros.; Columbia Pictures; Disney; Fox; ABC; Gregory Peters/AMC; FX; ABC
Topics: 71st Golden Globes, arrested development, Entertainment, Movies, Golden Globes, house of cards, Music, netflix, Orange is the New Black, Television
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The Indecency of Killing Ants: Thoughts on Vivek Shanbhag’s Novella
Laura Knicklebine April 16, 2017 Reviews
Georgiana Paraschiv
Shanbhag’s novella begins on an exhale. A nameless narrator sits in refuge at a coffee house. He pins his gaze to the exchanges at other tables in attempt to distract himself from his own disquietude. Thoughts of Chitra, an old flame, knock him out of his daze. So does the inescapable pull he feels to return home for the day. He searches for peace of mind in Vincent’s far between utterances, a waiter whose calm and gentle composure seems to offer the narrator a desperate glint of enjoyable human interaction.
It’s the narrator’s refusal to name himself that hints that there’s a lot intentionally buried in this book. It’s a claustrophobic story, after all. On the surface, a lower middle class family lands in sudden luxury when Uncle Chikkappa spice company takes off. But wade knee deep into the details, to realize a deeply dysfunctional dynamic. The family becomes knotted in animosity and greed. The narrator thinks he can free himself from what seems to be a patriarchal infrastructure built on flawed morals. But he chooses to be equally dependent on wealth. Instead of their troubles melting into rupees, the family sinks back into the same kind of malevolence as before, as if the ants that infested their previous home were reincarnated into bad omens.
The familial grudge against ants is a deep rooted part of their history. The swarm is part of the house. They ants crawl over their belongings and steal first tastes of meals, leaving food tainted and unhallowed. Amma, the narrator’s mother, calls the ants evil spirits, pin sized nesting in bowls of curry, impossible to get rid of. If an ant dies under her thumb, two more will take its place. Her madness toward the ants is magnified and projected onto any outsiders that approach the family. No one is welcome. No one is greeted with hospitality.
The narrator has a family made out of gunpowder. Wealth doesn’t simplify the family dynamic, it tangles them with materialism and indolence. Like feral animals dressed in jewels, the family guards Chikkappa at all costs, because he’s the sole earner of the household. Money is a peculiar, and disturbing force in the book. Even in observance a dissociated step away, the narrator isn’t detached from this monetary disease that eats away at his morals and leaves the family in emotional ruin.
He seeks refuge again. This time by marrying Anita, an honest and industrious woman Instead of sinking into an abundant and effortless lifestyle, she’s disgusted to learn her husband and his family mooch off a single individual. Anita’s harsh wisdom and candor disrupt the narrator’s comfortable avoidance of reality. She cries sweetly when the narrator explains he’s killed of a lifetime of innocent ants and abandons him shaking in thought. Anita leaves him running his hands over her few dresses, forcing him into a symbolic lesson on the foreign concept honest, admirable living.Anita unveils the phrase Ghachar Gochar, childhood terminology that translates to hopelessly tangled.
Short of 30,000 words, this claustrophobic little book brings the narrator back to where he started, at the Coffee Shop. By the end, the family is in knots and breaking apart. He’s left pondering the phrase Ghachar Gochar. Instead of reaching a point of comfortability amongst their privileged new lifestyle, they drown in selfishness and hostility to the point where they can’t untangle themselves. Skillfully intertwining humor and heaviness, Shanbhag’s translated story invokes an intimate glimpse of Indian society, and a family cursed into moral decay.
You can buy Vivek Shanbhag’s book here: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539201/ghachar-ghochar-by-vivek-shanbhag/9780143111689/
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Laura Knicklebine
Laura is a writer in Northern Chicago, most recently published in Literature Emitting Diodes. In daylight, she slings coffee and writes poems and lists on the back of receipt paper. Off the clock, she participates regularly at The Moth Story Slam, and a few other open mics. She loves magical realism, Thai food, and foreign films.
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Berlin Postpones Sprinkler Decision After Public Hearing
Nov 26,2010 by DispatchAdmin
BERLIN – Whether Berlin will decide to exempt itself from installing mandatory sprinklers in new one- and two-family dwellings is still up in the air after Monday’s public hearing.
After more than an hour of presentations on both sides of the debate by fire marshals, realtors and private citizens, the Mayor and Council delayed making a final decision on residential fire sprinklers until its Dec. 13 meeting.
“There are a lot of myths and falsities about sprinklers,” said Worcester County Fire Marshal Jeff McMahon. “Sprinklers save lives.”
McMahon supported his argument that the council should not opt out of the mandatory statewide installation of sprinklers in new homes with statistics, case studies and a nine-minute video showcasing the effectiveness of sprinklers.
“The sprinklers activate in 90-seconds,” McMahon said. “It’s like having your volunteer fire company arrive on scene immediately. … You’ll need about 300 gallons of water [for a sprinkler to put out a fire], compared to thousands if the fire department needs to show up.”
McMahon compared the 90-second sprinkler response time to the nationwide firefighter average response time, which was between 16 and 20 minutes before water would actually start flowing on scene. He admitted that Berlin’s centrally located fire department had a slightly better average, but that it was still nowhere near the 90-second mark.
Supporting his colleague, Maryland State Fire Marshal Jeff Barnard also addressed the council in support of mandatory sprinkler installation. He also stressed that while smoke-alarms may get many people out of the house, those who are incapacitated, either through handicap, age or a situation such as intoxication, might not be able to escape the fire even if alarmed. With a sprinkler system, however, the incapacitated would be much better protected.
As for the occasional malfunction with sprinklers and ensuing water damage, Barnard did not believe it should sway the council.
“Everything dries out, but nothing un-burns,” he said.
Berlin Fire Chief Derrick Simpson lent his support to the fire marshals, going on record for the mandatory installation of sprinklers.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, local realtors made their own presentation, this time against making the systems mandatory. Their main argument was that the cost would be too high, especially with the terrible housing market, and that whether a home has a sprinkler system should be a decision left to the owner, who could choose whether to deal with the additional expense.
“I strongly support the safety of the community, but not at the cost of making homes unaffordable,” Coastal Association of Realtors President Pat Terrill said.
Terrill ventured that smoke-alarms and the central location of the Berlin Fire Department were more than enough practical protection and that attaching more cost to a home in what has been some of the slowest real estate sales months in decades could be crippling.
John Kotoski, president of the Eastern Shore Building Association, agreed and pointed out that Berlin would not be unique by opting out of the ordinance.
“Twenty-seven states have opted out of the mandatory sprinkler ordinance,” he said. “Only two, Maryland and California, have opted in. Twelve states are pending and two haven’t brought it up yet.”
Kotoski reinforced the high cost of sprinklers should be a choice left to the owner. Additionally, he cited that there would be extra costs associated with a sprinkler system that the fire marshals did not think of, such as the expense of simply working the systems into the design of buildings and complications that could be generated during construction.
Kotoski listed some statistics of his own, saying that there was a 99.45 percent chance of surviving a home fire if hardwired smoke-alarms were installed.
“The problem is not homes without sprinklers,” he stated. “The problem is homes without working smoke-detectors.”
Berlin resident Joe Sexauer addressed the council in favor of mandatory installation.
“The state allows exemption from the ordinance for peculiar circumstances,” he said. “I don’t believe just having a central fire department is peculiar enough to justify an exemption. … the overall scheme of things this is a no-brainer.”
When it came time for the council to finally vote, most appeared to still be on the fence. Councilwoman Paula Lynch asked those in attendance to raise their hands if they were Berlin residents and approximately half of the audience put hands in the air. She then asked those residents if they would install the system optionally to again raise their hands; fewer went up this time, but there was still a scattering.
Lynch said she “wrestled with the mandate.” Councilwoman Lisa Hall agreed, but did admit that she was impressed by the sprinkler systems
“I would put one in my house,” she stated.
In the end, the council tabled the vote hoping to find more information on the possibility of insurance reductions and other pertinent data, and also to allow the council time to digest the sheer amount of information presented.
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The AiMIE (Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: Inclusion & Equity) Symposium recognizes and seeks to explore how AI and technology can help address the deeper problems of access and inequity in healthcare. The Stanford Presence Center is grateful for funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and our partnerships with the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).
Engaging physicians, scientists, public health professionals, humanists, ethicists, technologists, policy leaders, activists, legal professionals, non-profits, funders, patients, and the larger community, we plan to focus on the hope, the hype, the promise, the peril of AI in medicine, with a specific focus on equity and inclusion. Topics will include (but are not limited to): demystifying the ABCs of AI and ML (machine learning); the current realities of poverty in America; the need and importance of improving the evidence base through data diversity; neutralizing the algorithmic bias and related problems; the barriers and challenges; the possible power of AI/ML in Medicine.
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No[remove]16
MSS. Eng. hist. (English history)[remove]16
You searched for: Collection MSS. Eng. hist. (English history) Remove constraint Collection: MSS. Eng. hist. (English history) Decoration No Remove constraint Decoration: No Type manuscript Remove constraint Type: manuscript
MS. Eng. hist. a. 2
Charters and papers (The Crawford Charters) — 10th century - 18th century; English
MS. Eng. hist. b. 119
Articles of impeachment against the Duke of Suffolk, 1449-1450 — 16th century, early; English
MS. Eng. hist. b. 192/1-2
Accounts relating to the king's works — 16th century, first half (temp. Henry VIII); English
Account of the funeral of Elizabeth of York, 1503, Account of the coronation of Richard III, 1483 — 16th century; English
Court rolls of the manor of Beaumanor with Woodhouse and Quorndon, Leics., 1513-39 — English
Inventory of the goods and chattels of Simon Burley in London — 14th century; English
MS. Eng. hist. c. 10 (R)
Acts of the Parliament of November 1487 — soon after 1487; English
MS. Eng. hist. c. 30
Letter from Sir Edward Wotton, treasurer of Calais, to Lord Cobham, deputy general of the same town, about supplies, 23rd Nov. 1544 — English
Documents relating to Ireland, 1450 - 1728 — 15th century - 18th century; English
Historical fragments — c. 1515-1713; English
MS. Eng. hist. c. 267 (R)
Household accounts of William, 3rd baron Dacre, 1541-2 — English
MS. Eng. hist. c. 380
Thomas Walsingham, Henry Knighton, etc. — 16th century, first half; English
Legal treatises; English, 16th century
Inventory of the treasure of Richard II, 13 May 1378 — English
MS. Eng. hist. e. 29
Historical collections; English, 16th century
Orosius — 11th century, first half; English
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South Dakota Is One of the Best Places to Refinance a Mortgage
When it comes to approving home mortgage refinance applications, South Dakota banks love to say yes.
Yahoo! Finance is quoting a new LendingTree study that says roughly 80 percent of refi applications are approved in the Mount Rushmore State. That's the third-highest rate in America, behind only Utah and North Dakota.
The numbers are based on a look at 10 million mortgage applications using the most recent available Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2018.
On average, three-in-four applications are accepted nationwide, 16 of the top 20 in the west, while 31 of the bottom 35 states are in the east.
South Dakota's ranking in two key areas helps bolster the state's higher than average approval rate - credit score and home value appreciation. The Mount Rushmore State and North Dakota lead the United States with an average credit score of 724, while the state's home value appreciation rate is 32 percent.
New Mexico has the worst refinance approval rate at slightly less than 70 percent.
The latest numbers from the Mortgage Bankers Association show that refinance applications nationwide were up 169 percent from last September to this September.
Filed Under: Economy, South Dakota
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Embed this project in your website or blog
Copy the code below and paste it into your website or blog:
<a href="https://moneyonlineinvestment.com/stocks/AMC"><img src="https://moneyonlineinvestment.com/stock/AMC.jpeg" border="0" title="App making central" width="200" height="335"></a>
Link this project in your website or blog
https://moneyonlineinvestment.com/stocks/AMC
App making central
We just need funds to buy softwares! You need an app?
by Ky Jeffery
appmakingcentral
$ 2.00 per share
Reputation: 100.00% (positive +0, 0)
Credit Rating: A-
$0.00 (0.0%)
Weekly Dividend: $0.05
Annual Return: 85.71%
Total shares: 4,189
Shares for Sale: 613
Estimated Profit...
Do you have an awesome app idea, either a game, youtube channel app or just a normal app and you really want it to be fully designed, engineered, created and published to all of the platforms? Well your in luck and you have found a qualified application developing group. We build apps for individuals and businesses for reasonably cheap prices! We will quote you on your app idea and we can negotiate the price. We will write back to you shortly.
what do we need
We are in need of funds to pay for the newest softwares to develop the apps for the custumers. We have allready raised a lot of money, but now we are selling shares. You will need to buy the shares quickly, because the price is going to go up a lot really quickly.
We are a fully qualified application developing team who knows how to do stuff the right way. We have built some really well structured apps for people and companies. We now build Quality Apps and Useful apps for peoples everyday lives. Check Ky Jeffery's apps out, the CEO of App Making Central, in the Google Play Store.
1 share ($3.00) benefits:
Post in Discussions (no more than 100 posts per month)
Perform jobs (like Write article, Review article, Post article)
Chat (no more than 100 chat messages per month)
5 shares ($15.00) benefits:
Take position of Regional Representative
Take position of Chat Moderator
Take position of Blog Moderator
10 shares ($30.00) benefits:
Raise proposals
100 shares ($300.00) benefits:
Take position of Proposals Moderator
Take position of Customer Care Manager
Take position of Sales Manager
Take position of Customer Care Coordinator
500 shares ($1,500.00) benefits:
Take the CEO position
1000 shares ($3,000.00) benefits:
Be elected to the board of directors
Total Duration: 0 hours
Total Cost: $0.00
Ends: 31 Dec. 1969
Articles of Smart Contract
a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (project)
The total number of shares, which this project is authorized to issue is four thousand one hundred and eighty-nine (4,189), each with a par value of $2.00 USD.
Authority is hereby expressly granted to the Board of Directors to authorize the issuance of one or more series of shares and with respect to each such series to fix by resolution or resolutions providing for the issuance of such series the designation of and number of shares comprising such series, the voting powers, full or limited, if any, of the shares of such series and the preferences and relative, participating, optional or other special rights, and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof, of such series.
Yearly, in respect of each financial year, and to hold the board of directors election, this project holds an annual voting.
Any voting shall require the affirmative vote of the shareholders of not less than 67% of all the votes entitled to be cast thereon by the shareholders of this project, voting together as a single voting group.
The Chairperson of the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive Officer, the President or the Board of Directors may call special votings of the shareholders. Further, prior to the Termination Event, a special voting of the shareholders may be called upon request by holders of not less than 25% of shares.
Each shareholder participating in the voting has one (1) vote per one share.
A member is not entitled to vote at any voting unless all calls or other sums presently payable by the member in respect of the project have been paid.
The total number of authorized directors constituting the Board of Directors shall be fixed from time to time solely by the Board of Directors pursuant to a resolution adopted by a majority of the Board of Directors. The number of directors which shall constitute the whole Board of Directors shall be nine (9).
The directors shall be divided into three classes, designated as Class I, Class II and Class III. Each class shall consist, as nearly as possible, of one-third of the total number of directors constituting the entire Board of Directors.
At annual voting of shareholders the term of office of the Class I directors shall expire and Class I directors shall be elected for a full term expiring at the third succeeding annual voting following such election. At the second annual voting of shareholders the term of office of the Class II directors shall expire and Class II directors shall be elected for a full term expiring at the third succeeding annual voting following such election. At the third annual voting of shareholders the term of office of the Class III directors shall expire and Class III directors shall be elected for a full term expiring at the third succeeding annual voting following such election. At each succeeding annual voting of shareholders, directors shall be elected to succeed the directors of the class whose terms expire at such annual voting for a full term expiring at the third succeeding annual voting following such election. Each director shall serve until his successor is duly elected and qualified or until his earlier resignation or removal.
Any shareholder, which holds at least one thousand (1000) shares may be nominated to the board of directors.
The right to cumulate votes in the election of directors shall exist with respect to shares of this project.
The holders of a majority of the outstanding shares may remove directors at any time with cause; and prior to the Termination Event, at a voting of shareholders called expressly for that purpose, one or more directors, including the entire Board of Directors, may be removed with or without cause by the holders of the shares entitled to elect the director or directors whose removal is sought if the number of votes cast to remove the director exceeds 50% + 1 votes.
Notwithstanding any provisions, prior to the occurrence of a Termination Event, any shareholder then entitled to designate or nominate one or more directors may nominate persons for election as directors without complying with any advance notice provisions.
A director of this project shall not be liable to this project or its shareholders for monetary damages for conduct as a director.
Decision-taking by Directors
The business and affairs of this project are managed by the directors, who may exercise all the powers of the project.
A directors' voting at which at least 5 of directors are presented may exercise all powers exercisable by the directors.
A decision of the directors may only be taken at a directors' voting; or in the form of a directors' written resolution.
Any director may call a directors' voting.
A directors' voting is called by sending notice of the voting to the directors.
Notice of a directors' voting must indicate its proposed date and time.
Notice of a directors' voting must be given to each director.
A decision is taken at a directors' voting by 50% + 1 of the votes of the participating directors.
Each director participating in a directors' voting has one (1) vote.
Procedure for declaring dividends per share
This project may at annual voting declare dividends per share, but a dividend must not exceed the amount recommended by the directors.
The directors may from time to time pay the members interim dividends that appear to the directors to be justified by the profits of the project.
A dividend may only be paid out of the profits.
Unless the members' resolution to declare or directors' decision to pay a dividend, or the terms on which shares are issued, specify otherwise, it must be paid by reference to each member's holding of shares on the date of the resolution or decision to declare or pay it.
Before recommending any dividend, the directors may set aside out of the profits of the project any sums they think fit as reserves.
The directors may apply the reserves for any purpose to which the profits of the project may be properly applied.
The directors may also without placing the sums to reserve carry forward any profits that they think prudent not to divide.
This project shall have not more than five (5) executive officers, who shall be elected by the board of directors.
Any shareholder, which holds at least five hundred (500) shares may be elected as the executive officer.
The executive officers shall perform determination of the execution of the operations of this project that were delegated by a resolution of the board of directors.
The executive officers shall perform execution of the operations of this project.
The term of office of executive officers shall expire at the time of conclusion of the first voting of board of directors convened after the annual voting of shareholders.
The board of directors may release executive officers (including former executive officers) from liabilities for damages of due to negligence of their duties.
Start-up Summary
Start-up Expenses
Total Start-up Expenses
Start-up Assets
Total Start-up Assets
Sales Forecast
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Total Sales
Personnel Plan
General and Administrative Personnel
Sales and Marketing Personnel
Total Payroll
Production Payroll
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Sales and Marketing Payroll
Total sales and marketing expenses
General and Administrative Expenses
General and Administrative Payroll
Total general and administrative expenses
Total other expenses
Number of shares:
() per share
10 Days 2 Weeks 1 Month 2 Month 6 Month 1 Year
dividend:
Price Growth:
These calculations are for reference purposes only. All figures are estimates only and are not guaranteed any profit.
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Vedanta gets interim relief as Indian court stays state’s land allotment cancellation
US focused on building international consensus following attacks in Middle East
Saudi Crown Prince meets deputy head of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council
Governing body FINA says it wants more athlete input
UN to meet on threat of military action against Syria
Palestinians & Israeli Affairs
Saudi Arabia kick-starts IPO of world’s largest oil company
- November 3, 2019 November 3, 2019
DUBAI/DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s state oil company kick-started its initial public offering (IPO) on Sunday, announcing its intention to list on the domestic bourse as the kingdom seeks to diversify and create the world’s most valuable listed company.
Aramco did not give a time frame or say how much of the company it would sell, but sources have told Reuters the oil company could offer 1%-2% of its shares on the local bourse, raising as much as $20 billion-$40 billion.
Aramco said the IPO would be split into two tranches: one each for institutional and individual investors. The percentage of shares to be sold and the purchase price would be determined after the book-building period, it added in a statement.
Confirmation of the share sale in Saudi Arabian Oil Co, or Aramco, as the oil giant is usually known, comes about seven weeks after crippling attacks on its oil facilities, underlining Saudi Arabia’s determination to push on with the listing regardless.
Aramco said it does not expect the Sept. 14 attack on its oil plants will have a material impact on its business, operations and financial condition.
The attacks targeted the Abqaiq and Khurais plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, causing fires and damage and temporarily shutting down 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of production – more than 5% of global oil supply.
The company did not specific any additional security measures.
The IPO of the world’s most profitable company is designed to turbocharge Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic reform agenda by raising billions to diversify the kingdom, whose dependency on oil was highlighted by the production impact of the September attacks.
“It is a colossal public offering that could potentially generate more than 10 years’ worth of proceeds raised through IPOs in the country,” said Salah Shamma, head of investment, MENA, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity.
He said some local investors could be selling other shares in order to shift their investments to Aramco, but this could well be a case of “short-term pain for long-term gain.”
LONG-AWAITED IPO
Aramco plans to release the IPO prospectus on Nov. 9, Chief Executive Amin Nasser told a news conference in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Aramco chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan told the news conference that the valuation for the company should be determined after the roadshow.
At a valuation of $1.5 trillion, Aramco would still be worth at least 50% more than the world’s most valuable companies, Microsoft and Apple, which each have a market capitalisation of about $1 trillion.
But a 1% sale would raise “only” around $15 billion for Saudi coffers, less than the $25 billion generated by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in its record-breaking IPO in 2014.
It would rank Aramco as the 11th biggest IPO of all time, Refinitiv data show. (For a graphic on the top 10 largest global IPOs.
A sale of 2% of Aramco shares at a $1.5 trillion valuation would make it the biggest IPO of all time, beating Alibaba’s.
The prospect of the world’s largest oil company selling a piece of itself has had Wall Street on tenterhooks since Prince Mohammed flagged it three years ago.
BONUS SHARES FOR SAUDI INVESTORS
Aramco said in Sunday’s statement that it posted a net income of $68 billion during the nine-month period ending on September 30. Revenues and other income related to sales for the same period amounted to $244 billion, it added.
To help get the deal done, Saudi Arabia is relying on easy credit for retail investors and hefty contributions from rich locals.
Aramco said the Saudi market regulator, which approved its application to list on Sunday, had issued an exemption for non-resident institutional foreign investors to subscribe.
Saudi investors would be eligible to receive bonus shares -a maximum of 100 bonus shares for every 10 allotted shares.
Saudi nationals would be eligible to receive bonus shares.
It said the government will forgo its right to receive a portion of cash dividends on Aramco’s shares, giving priority on such distribution to new shareholders.
Aramco is cutting the royalties it pays to the Saudi government – to give comfort to investors.
Aramco said that, effective Jan. 1 2020, it will adopt a progressive royalty scheme, with a marginal rate set at 15% up to $70 per barrel, 45% between $70 and $100, and 80% if the price rises higher.
The listing announcement had been expected on Oct. 20 but was delayed after advisers said they needed more time to lock in cornerstone investors, three sources told Reuters.
VALUATION CHALLENGE
Although Prince Mohammed put a $2 trillion valuation on the company in early 2016, bankers and company insiders say Aramco’s value is closer to $1.5 trillion.
A growing movement to fight climate change and embrace new “green” technologies have put some fund managers, particularly in Europe and the United States, off the oil and gas sector.
Initial hopes for a blockbuster international listing of about 5% were dashed when the share sale was halted last year amid debate over where to list Aramco overseas.
Aramco said the IPO timetable was delayed because it began a process to acquire a 70% stake in petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp.
IPO preparations were revived over the summer after Aramco attracted huge interest in its first international bond sale, seen as a pre-IPO relationship-building exercise with investors.
The bond sale forced the secretive company to reveal its finances for the first time, including net income of $111 billion, over a third bigger than the combined net income of the five super majors Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP, Chevron and Total.
Oil majors have been raising payouts to shareholders to counter rising pressure from climate activism.
Aramco said on Sunday it intended to declare aggregate ordinary cash dividends of at least $75 billion in 2020.
At a valuation of $1.5 trillion, this would mean a dividend yield of 5%, below that offered by rival Royal Dutch Shell. Shell’s dividend yield is over 6%, according to Refinitiv data.
More than two dozen banks are handling the blockbuster IPO.
Among them, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, NCB Capital and Samba Capital & Investment Management Co are joint financial advisors, joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners.
Al Rajhi Capital, EFG Hermes, GIB Capital, Riyad Capital and Saudi Fransi Capital have been appointed by the company as domestic joint bookrunners.
Lazard Frères SAS, M. Klein and Co and Moelis have been acting as special advisors to the company, the Aramco statement said.
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Home » NEWS » Southern Baptist leaders call on Crystal Springs church and pastor to reject racism
Southern Baptist leaders call on Crystal Springs church and pastor to reject racism
Posted by: Megan Wright in NEWS, Technology 07/30/2012
Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson say the church where they planned to get married turned them away because they are black. In this image taken from video and provided by WLBT TV, shows Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson in their home in Crystal Springs, Miss.
JACKSON — Southern Baptist leaders called Monday for a Mississippi church to reject racism after some congregants prevented a black couple from getting married there.
Leaders of the Mississippi Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention said Monday that preventing Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson from marrying at First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs was wrong. Baptist churches are autonomous, so they want the congregation to chart its own course.
Jim Futral, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention board, said the organization was praying for the church and is ready to help. William Perkins, a spokesman for the group, said the church has not contacted state officials.
>> SHOULD THE PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF CRYSTAL SPRINGS BE FIRED?
“Our entire country, and especially here in Mississippi, has been on a long journey for right racial relationships,” Futral said in a statement. “Mississippi Baptists both reject racial discrimination and at the same time respect the autonomy of our local churches to deal with difficulties and disagreements under the lordship of Jesus.”
Crystal Springs town officials planned a racial unity rally Monday evening.
The Rev. Stan Weatherford, pastor of the church, married the Wilsons earlier this month at a predominantly black church in Crystal Springs, a small town south of Jackson. The wedding was moved to that church after some congregants told Weatherford they opposed allowing black people to marry at the First Baptist Church he leads.
Charles Wilson has said congregants threatened to fire Weatherford, though the pastor has said only that he was trying to make peace and avoid conflict. Some church members said Sunday that they were not consulted and disagreed with the decision to block the wedding
The Southern Baptist Convention was born in the split between north and south before the Civil War, a split that also occurred in other Protestant denominations. After being slow to reach out across racial lines, Southern Baptists have made increasing efforts in that direction in the past two decades. Nationwide, about 19 percent of 45,000 Southern Baptist churches are majority-minority, including 3,500 that are majority black.
Earlier this year, the convention elected its first black president, the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. At the same meeting, delegates voted to give churches the option of calling themselves Great Commission Baptist churches, for those who wish to break free of the baggage of the Southern Baptist name and reach more followers.
“We are all saddened when any sin, including the sin of racism, rears its head,” said Southern Baptist Convention spokesman Sing Oldham. “Part of our gospel is that we are being redeemed. We are flawed, failed creatures and redemption is a process.
Oldham said “a sizeable number” of Baptist pastors are fired or forced to resign each year in conflicts with church members. Most seminaries teach that pastors should be fired only for moral failure or theological error, but Baptist officials say many ministers are fired for personal conflicts or other reasons.
“Unfortunately, most of the members of the church don’t read those books,” Oldham said.
Mississippi Mississippi Business Journal Racism Southern Baptists 2012-07-30
Megan Wright
Tagged with: Mississippi Mississippi Business Journal Racism Southern Baptists
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Analysis: Troubled prison system requires intense attention
Everyday,I see signs that nothing have really changed here in mississippi.No longer are there sheets on the heads but a cleaned cut well shaved face ,one that pretends to be God fearing .I believe if given the chance all of us would be sent somewhere we have never been(Africa).I am sorry to say at this time in my life I feel really no different that i did in the sixty’s .WHEN WILL MISSISSIPPI WAKE UP ?!!!!
Gmoon
Just goes to show that many of those who feel this way and profess to be a Christian are instead simply hiding behind their religion. I hope the God that I believe in who said “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as theyself” takes vengence upon them here and in their afterlife.
1. I don’t understand how the people of the church have more power over the Pastor who is leading the church. The Pastor had to stand his ground and shephard his congregation into a new era. The Pastor is weak and should step down. You really can’t say sorry when the damage has been done in this situation.
2. I have a theory that the reason Mississippi continues to be in the poor state it is in mentally, financially and spiritually is because of the refusal to open their eyes and accept that the world has changed and they will not prosper until they stop accepting ignorance/discrimination/ and hate as a way of living.
Joce Marie
Wow that is so messed up. Why would a church do something like that. Everyone has the right to get married, even people who are colored.
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Mississippi prepares for avian influenza
Information Possibly Outdated
The information presented on this page was originally released on July 31, 2015. It may not be outdated, but please search our site for more current information. If you plan to quote or reference this information in a publication, please check with the Extension specialist or author before proceeding.
Animal Health, Poultry, Avian Flu
Ms. Linda M. Breazeale
MSU Extension Service
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi’s officials seem sure the state is experiencing the calm before the storm as the poultry industry anticipates the arrival of bird flu later this year.
Tom Tabler, poultry specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said no new reports of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza have occurred in the United States since June 17. Most 2015 outbreaks occurred in Minnesota, Iowa and surrounding states.
“Unfortunately, that area is a nesting ground right now for the migratory waterfowl that will be flying south this winter,” he said. “While not typically sickened by the virus, these birds could carry highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, to our commercial and backyard flocks.”
The current strain of bird flu in the U.S. that has been killing turkeys, chickens and raptors has not caused illness in humans.
Dr. John Clifford, deputy administrator of veterinary services in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, provided a sobering forecast to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition at a public hearing July 7.
“Today, we are facing the largest animal health emergency in this country’s history,” Clifford testified. “We are dealing with an unprecedented outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza that is taking a heavy toll on the poultry industry.”
USDA officials are reporting 48 million turkeys and chickens impacted in the first six months of the 2015 outbreak. MSU veterinary and poultry science professors, including Tabler, are working closely with the Mississippi Board of Animal Health to provide educational programs targeting consumers, growers and others connected to the poultry industry.
“The poultry industry is always aware of biosecurity issues, but HPAI will take growers’ efforts to the next level -- way beyond normal,” Tabler said. “Instead of having shoes, hairnets or other protective clothing designated for one farm, we are recommending a different set for each poultry house on a farm.”
Tabler said owners of backyard flocks will need special attention. Signs prohibiting access to poultry areas should be visible for meter readers, delivery services and other visitors.
“Commercial growers have company representatives who will guide them throughout the outbreak, but backyard growers may not understand the nature of this highly pathogenic virus,” he said. “It won’t take much for this virus to spread and quickly kill all the chickens on a farm. It will also be easy for it to move from a backyard to a nearby commercial flock before anyone can react.”
Tabler said in addition to intensive biosecurity measures, backyard flock owners will need to report outbreaks immediately. Symptoms include nasal discharge, swelling of the head, changes in bird behavior, puffy or watery eyes, a decline in water and feed consumption, and a decline in egg production or increase in the number of misshapen eggs.
“Normal daily mortality is nothing to be concerned with and should not be reported as it will only overwhelm officials and slow things down in determining the extent of any potential outbreak,” he said.
However, any drastic change in health status or sudden significant increases in mortality should be reported promptly.
“There are no benefits from a delay. Infected birds will die quickly, so reporting a potential outbreak will help us contain the virus and protect neighboring birds and the state’s poultry industry,” he said
Growers should recognize the difference between low pathogenic bird flu and other illnesses because of the death rates. The highly pathogenic form of bird flu can kill 90-100 percent of a flock within 48 hours.
Dr. Jim Watson, state veterinarian with the Mississippi Board of Animal Health, said sick or dead birds should not be removed from their home farm.
“If growers suspect the highly pathogenic virus, they should call the Board of Animal Health at 1-888-722-3106 for instructions,” Watson said. “We will have teams available to conduct depopulations, cleaning and disinfections as needed.”
Watson said if or when Mississippi chickens test positive for this virus, quarantines will go into place to help protect the state’s $3 billion poultry industry.
“Strict biosecurity practices are our best first line of defense,” Watson said. “We are all in this together.”
Contacts: Dr. George Thomas Tabler
Photos for publication (click for high resolution image):
News Story Contact
Dr. George Thomas Tabler
Dr. John Emerson Linhoss
Dr. Jessica Benoit Wells
Asst Clinical/Ext Professor
Mississippi agriculture nears $7.4 billion
Thermal images monitor poultry house heat issues
Poultry sees high demand for eggs, larger production
Use precautions to keep backyard chickens safe
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Calibrating Poultry Litter Spreading Equipment
Fan Selection for Poultry Housing
Why the Rapid Growth Rate in Today's Chickens?
Minimum Ventilation Can Challenge Broilers
https://msucares.com/news/feature-story/2015/mississippi-prepares-for-avian-influenza
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The Ohio State University Marching Band Celebrates All Things SpongeBob at Halftime
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? For the halftime show during today's (Saturday, October 26, 2019) football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers, it was The Ohio State University Marching Band!
SpongeBob: The Great Buckeye Chase pulled music and moments from Nickelodeon's beloved animated series. If nautical nonsense be something you wish, this performance delivered.
The marching band took a deep dive into the hits from the series, including the “SpongeBob SquarePants Theme,” “Campfire Song Song” and “Bikini Bottom Boogie.”
Marching band director Christopher Hoch designed the drill that included a pirate ship sailing across the field, Evil Plankton stealing a buckeye and appearances from SpongeBob and his friend Patrick Star. The show closed out with a formation of SpongeBob, absorbent and yellow and porous is he, returning home to his pineapple under the sea.
Brett Weimken, a city and regional planning major from Napoleon, was the i-dotter this week.
Fans of the marching band have the opportunity to vote on social media for their favorite halftime formation after each new performance. Follow @TBDBITL on Twitter to vote on Monday mornings.
SpongeBob: The Great Buckeye Chase
Drill design: Dr. Christopher Hoch
Arranger: Lisa Galvin
Best day ever. Assistant drum major and TBDBITL taking a sweet victory lap. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/W6tcC68iRz
— The Ohio State University Marching Band (@TBDBITL) October 26, 2019
SpongeBob SquarePants Theme........Harrison and Smith, perc. Reynolds
Goofy Goober Rock...................................... Drymon et al., perc. Reynolds
The Best Day Ever........................................... Kenny/Paley, perc. Reynolds
The F.U.N. Song........................................................... Cohen, perc. Reynolds
Ripped Pants....................................................Strauss/Tibbit perc. Reynolds
Campfire Song Song..........................................Povenmire, perc. Reynolds
Now That We’re Men..............................................Schaefer perc. Reynolds
Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight.......Sherman/Lewis perc. Reynolds
Bikini Bottom Boogie...........................................Tyler/Perry perc. Reynolds
1. Pirate ship sails across the field (“SpongeBob SquarePants Theme”);
2. SpongeBob says hello (“SpongeBob SquarePants Theme”); 3. Gary the snail
traverses the field (“The Best Day Ever”); 4. Evil Plankton steals the buckeye
(“Ripped Pants”); 5. Patrick Star with a mustache (“Now That We’re Men”);
6. SpongeBob returns home to his pineapple under the sea (“SpongeBob
SquarePants Theme Reprise”).
Ohio State vs. Wisconsin
Saturday, October 26 • 12 p.m. • Ohio Stadium
SpongeBob SquarePants, which was recently greenlit for a 13th season, has reigned as the number-one kids’ animated series on TV for the last 17 years, while generating a universe of beloved characters, pop culture catchphrases and memes, theatrical releases, consumer products, a Tony award-winning Broadway musical which is now touring North America and a global fan base. SpongeBob SquarePants is seen in more than 208 countries and territories, translated in 55+ languages, and averages more than 100 million total viewers every quarter. SpongeBob SquarePants is created by Stephen Hillenburg and produced by Nickelodeon in Burbank, Calif.
Nickelodeon's is currently in the midst of the network's "Best Year Ever", a year-long global celebration of one of the most iconic TV series and characters ever created. The “Best Year Ever” launched with the premiere of “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout,” an original mixed live-action and animated special earlier this summer, and leads up to the Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies theatrical, The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, coming May 2020.
A CG-animated prequel spin-off series, Kamp Koral, following 10-year-old SpongeBob SquarePants during his summer at sleepaway camp, is also slated to premiere during Summer 2020.
More Nick: 'The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!' to Debut on Nickelodeon in December 2019!
Originally published: Sunday, October 27, 2019 at 00:22 BST.
Original source: Ohio State News; Additional source: ESPN.
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon and SpongeBob SquarePants News and Highlights!
Labels: Best Year Ever, Nickelodeon Music, Nickelodeon News, Nickelodeon Shows, Nickelodeon Tributes, Nickelodeon USA, Nickelodeon Video Clips, NickSports, NickToons (Animation), SpongeBob SquarePants
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fish & wildlife links ----------------------- About Us E-mail Lists Fishing Hunting Regulations Wildlife Feature Articles Education Merchandise Employment Volunteering Links Contact Us
New Jersey 2005 Black Bear Hunting Season Results
Hunters harvested a total of 298 black bears during New Jersey’s six-day bear season last December, the Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife reported in its final results of the 2005 hunt.
Of the total harvested, there were 125 males and 173 were females. During the hunt, which ran concurrently with the six-day firearm buck season, sportsmen and sportswomen took bears in five of the seven counties open to black-bear hunting. The hunter success rate was 7 percent, and no accidents were reported.
Hunters killed 93 bears (30 percent of total) that had been tagged earlier by Division personnel; 49 of those bears were tagged during 2005. Nineteen of the tagged bears had been previously captured at nuisance sites. Seventy percent of the harvested bears were untagged, similar to the numbers that Division biologists handle in research activities.
The season produced a harvest rate of 20 percent, consistent with the Division’s strategy to reduce and stabilize the bear population. The sex ratio (42 percent male and 58 percent female) is also similar to that found in the wild in the Garden State. As Fish and Wildlife biologists predicted, the sex and age structure of the harvest matched that of bears captured during research and control activities.
Of the total harvested, 196 bears were killed in Sussex County, 43 in Warren County, 32 in Passaic County, 26 in Morris County and 1 in Bergen County. Hunters killed 129 bears in Zone 1, 58 in Zone 2, 103 in Zone 3 and 8 in Zone 4. Hunters recorded bear harvests in 31 of the 105 municipalities open to black-bear hunting; Sussex County’s Sandyston Township tallied the highest, with 36 bears taken. Division biologists also anticipated those results, based on land area and bear density.
Approximately 90 percent of the hunters used shotguns to harvest their bears. Of the total, 115 bears (39 percent) were taken on private property, 120 (40 percent) on state property, 44 (15 percent) on federal property and 19 (6 percent) on county or municipal land.
The average field-dressed weight of females over 1 year old was 161 pounds, with a range of 75 to 280 pounds. The largest adult female bear had an estimated live weight of 327 pounds (280 pounds dressed) and was taken in Montague Township, Sussex County.
The average field-dressed weight of male bears over 1 year old was 263 pounds, with a range of 90 to 632 pounds. The largest adult male had an estimated live weight of 739 pounds (632 pounds dressed) and was also taken in Montague Township.
Sixteen male bears taken by hunters had an estimated live weight of 500 pounds or more, including 4 weighing more than 600 pounds and 2 tipping the scales at more than 700 pounds.
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08 Aug How long for my stocks to double?
Posted at 10:27h in Ask NJMoneyHelp, Retirement by njmoney
Photo: pippalou/morguefile.com
Q. I remember reading something that said stock market investments double approximately every seven years. It had to do with retirement savings projections. How can that be true?
— Investor
A. You’re talking about the “Rule of 72.”
The rule is an easy way to determine how long an investment will take to double based on its return, said Roy Williams, president and founder of Prestige Wealth Management in Flemington and Millburn.
“You divide 72 by the annual return to come up with a rough estimate of how long it takes for an investment to double,” Williams said. “It was long thought that the average investment return of the stock market was 10 percent, hence using the rule your investment would double in 7.2 years.”
Unfortunately, for those of you just beginning to invest today, this is likely an unrealistic expectation going forward, Williams said.
He said while the market did return 10.4 percent per year on average from 1900 to 2000, it only returned 1.07 percent from 2000 to 2010.
“Most economists expect our economy to grow at a moderate pace going forward at somewhere around 6 to 8 percent,” he said. “Taking a 6 percent return and applying this rule of 72 states that you’d double your money in 12 years.”
Williams said from this rule, it is easy to conclude that even small changes in rate of return can have drastic changes in how quickly your money grows.
He said a financial planner can help you better understand how to project your savings and investments over time to ensure you have a realistic plan in place to reach your goals and objectives.
“Remember, the most important thing is to invest early and often as time can create wealth,” Williams said.
Email your questions to moc.p1579535804leHye1579535804noMJN1579535804@ksA1579535804.
This post was first published in August 2016.
NJMoneyHelp.com presents certain general financial planning principles and advice, but should never be viewed as a substitute for obtaining advice from a personal professional advisor who understands your unique individual circumstances.
investing, rate of return, rule of 72, stock market
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Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Plot: After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once more in order to undo Thanos’ actions and restore order to the universe
After 10 incredible years of the MCU, it seems that every single moment has led up to this film. Fan or not, you have probably heard of the staggering success of this film the last weekend – 1.2 billion dollars within one weekend. It is absolutely insane, yet no one seems overly surprised. I am not. I got my ticket for the first release in South-Africa. I get grumpy with spoilers but I don’t have meltdowns, yet I suspected I would have one if someone spoiled this form me. I will keep this review as spoiler free as possible, because if you have eagerly awaited each of these films as I have, you deserve to have it unspoiled for you.
Overwhelmed, emotional, shaken, surprised. That is pretty much how I felt. It became inevitable with the lead up to this film not to ask if a major superhero would die, but which one would. I will tell you that whatever happens feels completely right for that character, like they were always written for it. It is sad, but it feels like the perfect ending.
There are two character developments which feels… weird, even for Marvel. The one I will literally never be able to unsee but the actor involved handled it with charm and comedic ability. But still. It felt like a personal attack on the most beautiful character. The other one was quite hilarious but showed good character development. I am sorry, I am not really making any sense, am I?
It is a mammoth film, with a running time of three hours and 1 minute. It is a feat that I in particular didn’t feel that the film was drawn out, it is written well enough and is entertaining enough that the film runs without ever feeling that unnecessary time was wasted.
What worked well in this film is that the focus was very much on the original 5 superheroes. The Avengers crew has become way too large over the last couple of years and Avengers: Infinity War’s ensemble cast was large enough to host a high-school reunion of a really robust year. I don’t think it is too much of a spoiler to mention that when the rest of the avengers return, it is worth it and at the exact right moment. It is also really beautiful with the focus on one character’s reaction specifically, and you will have to have been dead inside for a thousand years not to be touched by it.
I will probably return with another review once the spoilers are out everywhere. Further than that, it was good and powerful and I enjoyed it. It has been a wild ride, and a beautiful one.
Love you 3000 😉
April 29, 2019 by Natasha Categories: 2019, Avengers, Movies, movies, Review, Reviews, Series, UncategorizedTags: Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Black Widow, brie larson, Bruce Banner, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Wilson, Evangeline Lilly, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Jeremy Renner, Joe Russo, Karen Gillan, Mark Ruffalo, marvel, Marvel Comics, MCU, Movies, Natasha Romanoff, Paul Rudd, Robert Downey Jnr, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Steve Rogers, Tessa Thompson, The Hulk, Thor, Tom Holland, Tony Stark, Zoe Saldana 4 Comments
Movie Review: 28 Thoughts while watching Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Plot: With many people fearing the actions of super heroes, the government decides to push for the Anti-Hero Registration Act, a law that limits a heroes actions. This results in a division in The Avengers. Iron Man stands with this Act, claiming that their actions must be kept in check otherwise cities will continue to be destroyed, but Captain America feels that saving the world is daring enough and that they cannot rely on the government to protect the world. This escalates into an all-out war between Team Iron Man (Iron Man, Black Panther, Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, and Spiderman) and Team Captain America (Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, Sharon Carter, Scarlett Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant Man) while a new villain emerges
DON’T READ IF YOU ARE AVOIDING SPOILERS!
Why isn’t this titled Iron Man: Civil War? Was that the first fight between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark? (The lame comments gets worse, promise)
Let’s just focus for a few seconds on the fact that this entire fight starts with Tony signing something, The Captain refusing and because they are both pigheaded, a big brawl starts. MEN.
When did Rhodie become an Avenger?
That scene with Tony Stark and the lady at the elevator at MIT is really very sad.
Vision is like the strict dad. No fun allowed.
Can I please learn to Sparta kick like Captain America?
I will also pay a lot of money for fighting skills like the Black Widow.
And also – her hair in time of upset – it remains perfect and I want her secret.
Black Panther!!! How great does he look? I love it.I didn’t expect him to be Prince what-what, that was a surprise. Also, the country/area’s name is Wakanda? American source material, I tell you.
On a serious note – I love that the cast is looking more diverse these days.
But on another note – how are only TWO of the Avengers women? That is not very diverse – are the Avengers Donald Trump supporters?
Let’s play a drinking game – every time you spot an Audi onscreen you take a shot of Jagermaster.
Is there a slightly love vibe between Vision and the Scarlett Witch? For interest sakes, does he have… all… the equipment of a man or how does that work? And isn’t he something like Tony’s best brain parts? Does that mean that Tony also fancies Scarlett Witch? So many questions!
How does Steve feel to have dated a girl and her grandmother’s sister? Steve is a fox!
Captain America in sunglasses and a cap. (hehehe for my pun) – it works really well.
The fight scenes were incredible, well choreographed and not over the top. Although, the buses flying everywhere at the helipad? That was the height of preposterous. Does Stark Industries cover the bill for all the damage the Avengers wreck?
Bucky Barnes. Such a great character and Sebastian Stan brought everything to the table as usual. Sebastian broke my heart with all his sad and soulful looks, though I loved the camaraderie between Steve and Bucky.
How sad is Penny’s funeral? Seriously, how much must our guy handle? Penny’s inclusion broke my heart because she’s the only thing that Steve had left from the world he existed in and new well.
PLOT TWIST! As mentioned above, how does he feel that he does a cross generational dating vibe going on?
Steve can pull me closer like he did that helicopter. MY GUY.
I want to bitch and moan that husband Chris Hemsworth is not in this, but really, there are about ten million characters already in here. Same goes for the green guy – I ADORE Mark Ruffalo and think he’s great as Dr. Bruce Banner. But I don’t think the posters would have been big enough for the cast if they were included.
I really liked the Black Panther. He looks great. The character is also really solid – there is a goodness in him that was definitely missing from the havoc the Scarlett Witch wrecked in Age of Ultron.
Daniel Bruhl! Great appearance by a solid actor.
Some Martin Freeman too. I hope he has some more time in future movies – Marvel can do with some of his experience and class acting.
I need to watch Ant Man really soon – I wish I could have seen the film before I saw Civil War – because my cutie pie Paul Rudd is his cute self.
The new Spiderman… why is his aunt Marisa Tomei and why is he so young? I just can’t.
Spiderman’s talking is only second to Tony Stark’s incessant talking, and if I have to be honest there is only enough space for one talker in the franchise.
I enjoyed the end and appreciated that it didn’t end with a truce because everyone’s mother is named Martha. Not that I’m pinpointing to anything else.
Ultimately, Captain America: Civil War is Marvel at its’ finest. What did DC think in sending in the substandard BvS when it was so obviously made to go up against this? There is no competition. Marvel has established its’ characters and they follow a successful if generic formula, and it works every time. I thought the story was a bit rushed and Daniel Bruhl did not get nearly enough show time or even a few flashbacks. Only when he’s achieved what he wanted to achieve you get insight into why he is doing what he’s doing.
Civil War is also sporadically like a Game of Thrones episode – there are too many characters to follow and you end up looking at things like how nice the costumes are and the action sequences. Captain America has always been the best Marvel films in terms of material, and this one slipped just a bit in that aspect.
However it does not change the fact that Civil War is a fine piece of work – the action sequences are thrilling and authentic looking (except Audis flying here there and everywhere). Of the new appearances I enjoyed Black Panther the most, and Spidey way last because really, why a reboot when the last cutie pie Andrew Garfield movie was released only last year or something?
Anyway, good job, Marvel. You entertained me really well.
Also, these arms:
May 3, 2016 May 2, 2016 by Natasha Categories: 2016, Avengers, Movies, movies, Reviews, UncategorizedTags: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Anthony Mackie, Avengers, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain America: Civil War, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Daniel Bruhl, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Jeremy Renner, Marissa Tomei, Martin Freeman, Movies, Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, peggy Carter, Reviews, Robert Downey Jnr, Scarlett Johansson, Scarlett Witch, Sebastian Stan, Spiderman, Steve Rogers, The Black Panther, The Winter Soldier, Tom Holland, Tony Stark, Vision, William Hurt 6 Comments
Movie Review: Age of Ultron (2015)
Plot: When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.
Avengers: Age of Ultron, had the extremely difficult task of living up to its’ predecessor. My love for the first movie is well known, and I’ve reviewed it on my own site as well as on Rob’s for his Genre Grandeur.
I was extremely excited to enter the Marvel universe on Friday night, and I was not disappointed.
Age of Ultron immediately starts the action. The Avengers are united (although they sadly never share HOW the Avengers got back as a team), and they are kicking ass. Invading the Hydra building in Sokovia, they briefly meet the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and it is very clear that they are impressive enemies. Then Tony Stark is Tony Stark and uses fellow genius Bruce Banner, to set loose Ultron, a powerful creature with artificial intelligence whose main goal is human extinction.
Age of Ultron feels like one huge act. The action never stops, and the scenes flow into each other. I really enjoyed that and thought it also worked well with the slightly less over the top fighting scenes. I really enjoyed the character development. My big issue with the first Avengers were that the characters aren’t really developed – some you know because of their stand alone movie but the first Avengers is just packed with vague references and smart mouth comments between the team.
Age of Ultron tries to give you an idea that these are (mostly) people. I found the story line on Hawkeye the most interesting and never thought that would be in the books for him. I also really enjoyed the character development Natasha Romanoff got – she’s the only female Avenger from the first movie and it is clear that she’s had a sad and unsavory past, but no further background was provided. Her story is intense enough to draw outrage and sympathy on her behalf, and also endear her to the female audience.
The humor in AOU is a lot less forced and thus funnier than in the first movie. It is not only Iron Man (Robert Downey Jnr.) who crack the jokes, it is everyone, and it makes the movie a lot more humorous. I liked the testosterone fight between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Iron Man. I also really enjoyed that Thor got more lines and that he actually spoke every once in a while, showing he had more potential than looking good – which he does, excellently. One of my favorite scenes is where everyone tries to lift the hammer, and Thor only gets uncomfortable when Captain America (Chris Evans) has the hammer twitching – proving that he is the only worthy Avenger of the hammer except Thor. Captain was also once again the sad guy that kills us with his desolation of having to live without Peggy Carter – just kill me already with that, okay?
Bruce Banner is played by Mark Ruffalo and I think it is one of the best casting choices they made. I work in an academic environment and let me tell you, he does the scatter brained scientist really really well. He is also very heartbreaking when dealing with his anger issues and his heartbreaking lifestyle choices. #lovetheguy
I also really appreciated Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver. He has that mouthy and badass vibe of what you would expect of him, but he also has an authentic quest for vengeance and I appreciated that.
THEN: OMFG I LOVE THE SCARLET WITCH. Elizabeth does an absolutely amazing job as the female part of the Maximoff twins. Her attitude is fierce, her quest for vengeance is pure, she looks like such a bad ass and the way her powers are brought to life on screen had me in such a fangirling in the cinema. YAY to Marvel for bringing in such an impressive character in the Avengers franchise (I might add that brings the total females up to three, and the males six thousand).
The romance in Avengers came unexpected but not unwelcome. I don’t really think it was necessary because it is not a rom-com, but it is still welcome and surprisingly sweet. The two characters involved surprised me because I would never have grouped them up, but it worked out really heart twisting in the end.
I really liked the villain. Ultron is surprisingly funny and embodies the darker side of Tony Stark’s thought. Ultron is multi-layered, extremely intelligent, not alien (good to Marvel for not going that route again) and he had me worried a lot of the time for the level of destruction he could cause. His cause was initially so noble and good, and enales great discomfort because Ultron really has something right – the human race has no idea how to maintain peace.
I thought AOU did so many things better than the first one did: humor, pacing, character development. I still like the first one more, but can’t really pinpoint why – perhaps it is Loki’s deadly charm that pushes it to the top. Age of Ultron is an excellent job done by Joss Whedon and Marvel, and the characters individually shine and as a team. It is definitely worth paying a ticket for!
April 27, 2015 April 26, 2015 by Natasha Categories: Avengers, Movies, ReviewsTags: Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Widow, Captain America, Chris Evans, Elizabeth Olson, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Jeremy Renner, Natasha Romanoff, peggy Carter, Quicksilver, Robert Downey Jnr, Scarlet Witch, Scarlett Johannson, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark 12 Comments
Five Things Friday: Five stars who completely changed my opinion about them in the last few months.
Happiest of Happies, dear readers! I do hope that you had an amazing NYE and had loads of fun.
Today, for our first FTF post this year, I bring a list of actors and actresses that changed my opinion of them during the last few months. I might have disliked them for their bratty appearance or been indifferent to them overall, but hey, ladies and gents, you can rest assured now that Natasha of LOTCG likes you know (I do know that they can’t sleep at night knowing I disliked them :D)
I mainly hated Jolie because my ex boyfriend loved her (yeah, I was real grown up back then), so when I went to see Maleficent I was like “Okay fine, I will just take a gracious hit for the team”.* The movie isn’t really her best movie, but she is good in it, and I really enjoyed her as the evil woman I had always secretly been fascinated by in the Disney world.
Ah, Chloe Grace. I thought you were such a brat. Well, you probably are, but since I based my perception of you on the character you played in the disastrous Barnabas Collins: Dark Shadows, I do apologise and am sorry. Carrie and If I Stay are both movies that endeared her to me. Her performances are solid and I could find nothing wrong or irritating about it. You go girl!
I do think Bkushi would defriend me if I ever hated on McAvoy, so I am so relieved that I never did, although I was very indifferent to him. Then, I saw X-Men, and I felt glorious sunshine over my face as I was awakened to his brilliance.
One of my favorite genres are superhero movies, there is no two ways about it. However, save a few exceptions, they are not overly deep and the characters are very one dimensional. James McAvoy takes his Professor and makes you believe that he is who he says he is, not just some oke wanting a paycheck. Anything with his name on is what I will be watching next, because this guy is heading to my favorite actors list so fast it’s not even funny.
Despite the fact that I can’t ever manage to type her surname correctly, and always have to go back and effing fix it, I realized that Scarlett (note lack of use of damn surname) isn’t nearly as bad or talentless as I always said she was. I really, really liked her kick ass retaliation retribution in Lucy, and her Black Widow in Captain America, Winter Soldier, was better than the annoying Black Widow she sometimes plays.
What is it with these ridiculous surnames? Anyhow, I read a lot of celebrity news on the internet (as a vice and when I don’t want to work). The Beefster REALLY loves his attention so I felt very MEH about him because I hate attention ho’s. I watched Lawless and was reminded that even though he was a twat and probably a bit of a narcissist, he could act at the end of the day.
What is your opinion about these stars? Do you have anyone else you would like to add to this list? Let me know! 🙂
January 2, 2015 January 1, 2015 by Natasha Categories: Five Things Friday, MoviesTags: Angelina Jolie, Black Widow, Carrie, Chloe Grace Moretz, If I Stay, James McAvoy, Lucy, Maleficent, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LaBeouf 10 Comments
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52 bodies of migrants found after boats capsize off Djibouti
Rescuers search for survivors on the beach after two boats carrying migrants capsized off the shore near Godoria, in northeast Djibouti Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. More than 130 migrants were thought to be missing after the two boats capsized Tuesday off the East African nation of Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration said. (International Organization for Migration via AP)AP
Cara Anna
JOHANNESBURG — The remains of 52 people have been found after some 130 migrants went missing off Djibouti when two boats capsized in rough waters, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday, as body bags were laid out on the sand.
Sixteen survivors were recovered, and the tiny East African nation’s coast guard continued a search and rescue operation after Tuesday’s accident, the U.N. said in a statement. Witnesses said large waves caused the overloaded boats to tip over about a half-hour after departing.
An 18-year-old survivor told the migration agency he had boarded one of the boats with another 130 people, including 16 women. There were no immediate details on the second boat.
Thousands of migrants from the turbulent Horn of Africa region set off every year from Djibouti to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait for the Arabian Peninsula with hopes of finding work in rich Gulf countries.
The vast majority of the migrants are Ethiopian, young and male, the migration agency says.
The crossing is dangerous, with smugglers in some cases forcing migrants overboard before reaching their destination. Other boats have been fired on as they approach Yemen, where fighting continues between pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels.
“This tragic event demonstrates the risks that vulnerable migrants face as they innocently search for better lives,” said the migration agency’s Djibouti chief of mission, Lalini Veerassamy.
The agency’s Missing Migrants Project says at least 199 people have now drowned off the Djibouti coast near Obock, where the latest capsizing occurred, since 2014.
More than 700 other deaths have occurred further off shore on the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, according to the project’s data.
The route also sees a flow of migrants from Yemen toward the Horn of Africa as people flee war.
Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP–Africa
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Kansas ministry connects church to greater community
by | 08 Aug, 2019
There are two brightly painted buses parked outside Central Church of the Nazarene in Lenexa, Kansas. These two buses are part of the church’s Heaventrain KC ministry — one of which is a chapel-on-wheels, and the other is a professional mobile kitchen.
Every Saturday from May to November, the buses visit various communities by partnering with local churches to serve and build relationships with the community members throughout the Kansas City area.
“As the buses approach a site, a train whistle sounds,” said Julie Stevens, Central Church pastor of children and families. “Kids literally come running! We build relationships through activities like face painting, parachute play, and football, and then children and families are invited on the chapel bus for a high energy worship service. After learning Bible stories, ministry and message come together when a hot healthy meal is served from the food bus.”
Each site is strategically selected to connect with families from many different financial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, and the buses visit the same communities every week. Some of the partner churches and volunteers focus on sites where they are present each week, while others serve at all the sites for either one day or once a month during the season.
“We strive for a consistent presence,” Stevens said. “We’re passionate about teaching the transformative Word of God and building and inspiring leaders within the community.”
Heaventrain KC started nearly two years ago when the church staff felt a call to extend their reach outside of the church.
“We sensed a holy urgency to get outside the church and invest in the community,” Stevens said. “God rallied His people to pray — funds were raised to purchase and renovate two buses. After several months of preparation, God’s vision became a reality. In October 2017, we hit the streets!”
Though Heaventrain is a relatively new ministry to the Kansas City area, the original idea is deeply connected to Stevens’ call to ministry.
“My friend and mentor, Pastor Phil Batten, began Heaventrain in Cleveland, Ohio, about 37 years ago,” Stevens said. “As a teenager, my call started on his bus. Though Heaventrain KC is a separate ministry, both of the Heaventrain KC buses have been dedicated in loving memory of Pastor Phil.”
The ministry has expanded its reach over the last two years, breaking down cultural boundaries and connecting with spiritually and physically hungry families along the way. Stevens and the rest of the Heaventrain KC team are really excited about what’s in store in the ministry’s future.
“We live in a world that is desperate for hope, peace, and grace,” Stevens said. “God’s calling us to go the extra mile to spread the Gospel.”
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Tag "Chris Hemsworth"
Men in Black: International – Blu-ray Review
No one knows why Men in Black: International was made. Even with likable stars such as Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, there was no reason for the film to be
Avengers: Endgame – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
When I first reviewed the film, I initially it a glowing review. Even after so many repeated viewings, my feelings are pretty much the same. After eleven years and twenty-two
SDCC 2019: Natalie Portman will play Fem-Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor has been one of the biggest surprises in the last three films he’s been in. Even Hemsworth himself said that Thor: Ragnarok revitalized his love for the character. Good
11 years. 22 films. After the shocking events of Avengers: Infinity War, fans are eager to find out what will become of our fan favorite heroes—both dust and non-dust. Yet
Brie Larson snaps back at Chris Hemsworth’s Tom Cruise comment
Tom Cruise could be considered the new Jackie Chan. The actor has done a lot of his own stunts in the Mission: Impossible films like flying a helicopter, staying underwater
Chris Hemsworth to play Hulk Hogan in biopic
Hulk Hogan is a legend in wrestling who has appeared in movies like Rocky III and Suburban Commando. (Who remembers that one?) Now we have news that Chris Hemsworth is
Bad Times at the El Royale – Blu-ray Review
Bad Times at the El Royale is the second film by writer/director Drew Goddard. Even though Cabin in the Woods put a spin on the traditional horror film, Bad Times
Fans upset about lack of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black: International trailer
Yes, we’re getting a new Men in Black movie titled Men in Black: International, and it’s directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious) and
Thor: Ragnarok gets an Honest Trailer
Man, it’s been a while since we’ve talked about an Honest Trailer. I guess, however, if we were going to start back up, Thor: Ragnarok is a great way to
Thor: Ragnarok – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
Thor: Ragnarok is easily one of Marvel Studios’ most enjoyable films. As you watch the trilogy, the new direction of Thor, Hulk, Loki, and the rest of the crew make them
Thor: Ragnarok Review
After several years of excellence, there was one MCU franchise that simply just alludes the studio: Thor. There’s no denying that there is a legion of Thor fans out there but
Chris Hemsworth asks for Thor: Ragnarok shoot in Australia
Thor: Ragnarok is one of the most anticipated superhero films of the year, bringing back Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk. In a recent statement by
New ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ TV spot has Thor coming up with a team name
This week we were treated to some very cool and colorful character posters for Thor: Ragnarok. And during the NFL’s regular season opener on Thursday Night Football last night, a
Thor: Ragnarok’s Japanese title is self-explanatory
Spider-Man: Homecoming has conquered the box office this past weekend with a $113 million domestic opening. With that said, it’s time to get excited for the next Marvel Studios film,
New Thor: Ragnarok merchandise art
We haven’t seen Marvel’s giant green goliath in some time, coupled with Thor. Although in all fairness, Thor did make a guest appearance in Doctor Strange in the after-credits scene. Other than
EW reveals first look at Thor, Hela, and Valkyrie from ‘Thor: Ragnarok’
For Asgard! Entertainment Weekly has the first look goods on what we can expect from Thor: Ragnarok. Not only do we have some brand new images but some of the stars
‘Thor: Ragnarok’ concept art gives us our first look at Hela and Gladiator Hulk
Thanks to the Digital HD release of Doctor Strange, it’s been a goodie bag of MCU news today. First, it was the Black Panther concept art and now we have our
Marvel Studios releases very first behind-the-scenes video of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
Following Robert Downey Jr.’s Facebook Live session, Marvel Studios has released the very first behind-the-scenes video for Avengers: Infinity War. There is a lot of juicy information here as Kevin Feige
‘Avengers: Infinity War’ directors commemorate the start of filming with set photo
These aren’t the trailers you’re looking for. Today, the Russo brothers shared a photo of a long line of trailers to commemorate the first day of principal photography for Avengers:
Thor: Ragnarok director teases possible Dr Strange appearance
Director Taika Waititi was asked about a recent image from the set which hinted at Dr Strange being a part of the upcoming Marvel film, Thor: Ragnarok. In the tweet below
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Tesla Motors to Launch New Product: What it Means for Mutual Fund Investors (TSLA)
https://mutualfunds.com/news/2015/03/31/what-teslas-new-product-means-for-investors/
Shauna O'Brien Mar 31, 2015
On Monday afternoon, Tesla Motors (TSLA) announced a new product line. Here’s what the news means for investors.
Inside the Deal
Tesla announced that it will be launching a new product line, but the new product will not be a car. This new product will be announced on April 30th. Although Tesla’s CEO did not report what the new product will be, many experts are expecting a home battery system.
Tesla & The Battery Business
Following Elon Musk’s tweet about the new product, shares of TSLA skyrocketed on Monday. Experts know that Tesla knows the battery business, and are very optimistic about products outside of the auto industry.
Mutual Funds to Watch
Investors interested in Tesla may be interested in the funds listed below. These funds currently have the largest stakes in the company.
FCNTX Fidelity® Contrafund® 3.40%
PRGFX T. Rowe Price Growth Stock 1.38%
VTSMX Vanguard Total Stock Market 1.18%
The funds listed above allow investors to gain exposure to Tesla while remaining diversified. Investors interested in Tesla may also be interested in General Motors (GM) or Ford (F).
If you’ve enjoyed this article, sign up for the free MutualFunds.com newsletter; we’ll send you similar content weekly.
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Highlight Event
Richard Flanagan: You Win Some, You Lose Some
RMIT Storey Hall
Is all writing the sum of unspent love? Booker-winning novelist Richard Flanagan has had a compelling life, producing lauded work in literature, film and journalism. But by his own admission he never viewed it in terms of success or failure. In a rare Melbourne appearance he reflects on the vast body of his work, how he almost gave up writing after his first novel initially failed, and muses on future projects. With Toni Jordan.
This session is Auslan interpreted.
PublishingFiction Highlight
Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961. His novels have received numerous honours and are published in 42 countries. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014.
Toni Jordan
Toni Jordan is the author of five novels, including the international best-seller Addition, the Indie award-winning Nine Days, and Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, a bedroom farce inspired by her love of Molière. Toni teaches creative writing at Faber Academy at Allen & Unwin. Her latest novel is The Fragments.
John Button Oration: In the Face of Hatred
Tue 3 Sep, 6.30pm
What does one do in the face of hatred? Deborah Lipstadt (Antisemitism: Here and Now) proposes a way forward in a divided world.
Boisbouvier Oration: Publishing from the Provinces
Wed 4 Sep, 6.30pm
Literary publishing in Australia occupies an outlying territory, which is fiercely independent in its character and values. Ivor Indyk explores its contours.
Ben Quilty: Reckoning
Sat 31 Aug, 2.30pm
‘Anointed saint’ of contemporary Australian art, Ben Quilty talks about the trials and challenges behind his new solo survey exhibition and book.
On Voice and Power
Sun 8 Sep, 2.30pm
Selina Tusitala Marsh and Ali Cobby Eckermann meet to explore how spoken word and poetry can be a means of resistance and connection.
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Auto Tours
Town Hist.
Year-by-year Hist.
Bloody Bill
Cem/School/P.O.’s
The North Lyon County Museum
Discover the fun and unique history of our corner of Kansas
THE MUSEUM COLLECTION
We are hunters and gatherers – of the facts and stories that remain of our history, and of the artifacts that give us a tangible way to understand that history. Our displays are designed to tell the story behind each subject, such as our WWII-era bomb artifact from the local bombing practice range, and the story of how the town of Reading was accidentally bombed one night.
A popular artifact is a slice of the Admire Meteorite shown here, famous among meteorite enthusiasts for its unusual content of olivine crystals. The story of the 1948 Admire train wreck involves dozens of rail cars refrigerated with ice, loads of fresh produce and very hot weather. The Santa Fe Trail and the trail known as the Burlingame Road passed through our area, and they brought with them trade, pioneers and colorful characters; displays share some of the stories and hardships of that period on the Kansas prairie. Other current subjects include local sports, a tribute to veterans, a pioneer woman’s 1867 diary, schools and much more.
MO-Pac train depot, Bushong
Model farm equipment
Plate given away by an 1917 Construction of the
Allen hardware store limestone bridge near Admire
Army surplus equipment for the Miller Fire Dept., 1964
Interior of Reading’s Blue Front Store
Americus, 1921
Our museum shares many stories, which give us glimpses into lifestyles and conditions of the past. An example from the Northern Lyon County Journal, March 17, 1916, excerpted from the memoirs of T.O. Hill, who came to NE Lyon Co. as a young man with his pioneer parents: “You have heard the expression, ‘as easy as falling off a log.’ In the fall of 1857, I started to cross a little stream of water. An old cottonwood had fallen across it. I mounted and started across. All of a sudden the bark slipped and I went on all sides of the log. I got up and was rubbing my bumps, which were too numerous to mention. Looking around, I found something. It was not Indians or border ruffians, but enough bed bugs to supply a county. These insects are a double half-cousin to the chinch bug. It was one of the standard jokes of the old times, that when a traveler put up at a hotel, when the book was handed to him to sign, that these bed-fellows would come onto the page to find out the number of his room.”
Come share the past and our rich history with a visit to the museum!
All content – 2017 © North Lyon County Historical Society of Lyon County, KS and its representatives. All rights reserved.
100 E 3rd street, Admire, Kansas 66830
Ride Into History
Flint Hills Nature Trail
Stotler Cemetery
City of Admire
Library at Allen
KS county plat maps
Kansas State Historical Society
Lyon Co. Historical Society
RESEARCH WEBSITES
Newspapers of all states
Kansas Heritage Group
1912 Cyclopedia of Kansas
County plat maps
1883 Andreas/Cutler Hist. of Kansas
Facebook, N. Lyon Co. Museum
Facebook, N. Lyon Co. Veterans Memorial
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Officials Buried a Key Analysis in Tip Rule Change That Could Cost Workers $5.8B
By Sissi Cao • 02/01/18 4:49pm
Back-of-house restaurant workers are not likely to benefit from the proposed tip rule change, economists say. GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images
The Department of Labor (DOL) came under fire Thursday morning when several current and former employees told Bloomberg Law that the department had intentionally left out an economic analysis in a labor rule change proposal that showed tip workers could lose billions of dollars a year under the proposed regulation.
Sources told Bloomberg Law that a DOL official wasn’t happy with the amount of economic impact shown in the first analysis and ordered the DOL staff to revise the research methodology to lessen the impact.
Although the second calculation was significantly lower than the first one, the department was still unsatisfied and ended up removing the analysis in the final proposal, which was published on December 5 for a public notice-and-comment period.
Bloomberg Law wasn’t able to obtain specific numbers in the analysis, but the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., estimates the amount to be “well into the billions,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the EPI, said in a press conference on Thursday.
An EPI-conducted analysis shows that the DOL’s proposed rule change would allow employers to take $5.8 billion of tip income a year from their workers.
The amount represents about 16 percent of the total tips earned a year by workers in the U.S., and 80 percent of the impact will be on women workers. Shierholz said the analysis used the same data as the DOL and a similar methodology.
“This is an outrageous process violation, and completely overturns 40 years of consistent interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act,” Shierholz said.
The DOL proposal seeks to change a section of the current tip regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Current tip regulations prohibit employers from taking tip income from employees in order to protect workers who make sub-minimum wages. (Employers are allowed to count the sum of base wages and tips to fulfill the federal minimum wage requirement.)
The DOL proposed to lift the tip-sharing ban for employers who pay minimum wages before tips.
As a result, under the proposed changes, employers (who pay minimum wages) will be allowed to take the tips received by their workers, in what’s called “tip-pooling.” The DOL argues that such a change could benefit low-wage workers who don’t regularly receive tips, such as restaurant cooks and dishwashers, because the new rule would allow employers to redistribute pooled tips to these group of people.
Economists counter that the rational conflicts with the law of economics.
“The term ‘tip pooling’ makes it sound more egalitarian for back-of-house workers, but basic economic rule suggests that employers are not likely to distribute the pooled income to back-of-house workers.“ Shierholz said.
She added that restaurant owners would be much more likely to use the money for upgrading their restaurants and keeping for themselves.
Saru Jayaraman, president of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a nonprofit representing more than 25,000 restaurant workers, said the rule change was pointless in the first place, because existing tip protection law already sees a high percentage violation rate.
“The new rule would only exacerbate the problem by making it legal for employers to take tips from workers.” she said.
Jayaraman advocated that both tip protection law and minimum wage law need to exist to ensure workplace safety. ROC United researchers found a strong correlation between pay legislation and workplace sexual harassment.
States which have both a tip protection law and a minimum wage law record much lower sexual harassment offenses than states that have only one of the two, or neither.
Filed Under: Business, Economy, Politics, Policy, News, department of labor, Economic Policy Institute, Saru Jayaraman, Heidi Shierholz, tip pooling, tiptheft
SEE ALSO: Google’s Waymo Leads the Pack in California Self-Driving Car Tests
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Joséphine Lebas-Joly
Role: Sophie à 8 ans
Thibault Verhaeghe
Role: Julien à 8 ans
Mathilde Verkinderen
Screen Time: 2%
Role: Charlotte à 8 ans
Love Me If You Dare (International: English title)
Directed: Yann Samuell
Genre: Comedy, Coming of Age, Romance
As adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.
Comparing this fateful love story with "Romeo and Juliet," the enemy of the protagonist-lovers is not their feuding families as in Shakespeare's tragedy, but each other. The instrument of mortality isn't a knife but a game. And when the game that was so much fun as children develops a competition that rules over trust and developing emotions, the game wins. Or so director Yann Samuell wants us to buy into.
As an 8-year old, Julien (Thibault Verhaeghe) can't accept his mother's (Emmanuelle Gronvold) mortality as her cancer steals her life away. It devastates him and his reality when she finally passes and he loses the parent he was closest to and needed most. He focuses his energy away from his heartbreak and, when 8-year old Sophie (Josephine Lebas Joly) becomes his playmate, her mischievous imagination leads them both into a world of amusement. That world includes destructive pranks and dirty words in class, each the response to a game of "Dare."
Visually symbolizing the state of the game, a colorful tin box that Julien's mother gave him as a parting gift, passes from one to the other as they take on the dare. The possessor of it is obliged to increase the level of the prank, making it more unexpected, riskier, ever more irreverant and scandalous.
At college age, Julienne (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard) are involved with other people but continue the game. By now, the level of invention and psychic damage is a barrier to trust that becomes more impregnable with each "Gotcha!" The emotional tie they feel for each other, which we sense could trump any other in their respective lives, is never verbally expressed. Julienne nearly chokes on his tongue when he tries. They have become emotional cripples in a state of monk-like denial.
The portrayal of this process is rich in detail and talent even as its focus on unfulfillment becomes exhausting and hopeless. In his showcase of cleverness, writer-director Yann Samuell finds every shaded note that will support his premise, but it results in increasing audience estrangement. Every failure of the couple to connect emotionally draws blood from the body of the story.
What started out as warm, compelling drama contrives its way to something cold and antiseptic. The residue of interest is fascination with the eventual outcome between the uncompromising pair, but there's little feeling left for a relentless study in mutual self-destruction.
It may be a finely made exercise in the futility of gameplaying, and praise should be heaped on both sets of actors involved, children and adult, but daring is not a replacement for caring. In the end, our lovers' flaw is the quicksand of misplaced priorities they've stepped into, and getting stuck in emotional limbo. Samuell's was in making it a gloomy and calculating exercise in despair rather than a credible experience. Shakespeare had it right and did it better.
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Novel Planet
The Mech Touch
Chapter 775 Heavy Landfall
Chapter 776 A Heavy Burden
Chapter 777 Heavy Pressure
The Mech Touch Chapter 776 A Heavy Burden
Ves supervised the intake of mechs sent down to the surface of Aeon Corona VII from a prefab bunker that functioned as a temporary headquarters for Captain Byrd and all of the staff.
Due to screw ups in the loading order and the irregular streams of astral winds that made it unsafe to fly to at some times, plenty of mixups happened that needed to be untangled.
The wrong mechs got sent down first. The transports brought down spare parts for spaceborn mechs instead of landbound mechs. They brought down too much shuttle-grade fuel and too little mech-grade fuel. A handful of landbound mechs collided against each other and incurred some awful dents when a transport almost lost control during the descent.
Because the Flagrant Vandals sent down almost two-hundred-and-fifty mechs and enough supplies and equipment to make them mostly self-sufficient, logistical matters became the number one concern for the allied forces.
While Captain Byrd assigned mechs on patrols and scouting missions and prepared her entire available force of mechs against any possible attacks, nothing threatening showed up so far. Only bacteria and perhaps some errant bushes lived in these arid parts.
The barren, ore-rich region they landed in never hosted any life from what they could gather. This sounded perfect for the Flagrant Swordmaidens as they sorted out their various problems in peace.
Both the Swordmaidens and the Vandals also needed to become acclimatized to the foreign environment. Anytime someone looked up their heads, the sky became dominated by the constant flows of astral winds. It reminded Ves of Cloudy Curtain, but only much more cheerful.
One peculiarity about the astral winds was that they did not obscure any stellar objects. The small dots that signified one of the five moons or the three suns radiated through the higher-dimensional particles as if they resonated with each other in some way.
Not even the astrophysicists had come up with an explanation for that phenomenon. They were all hard at work trying to make sense of the astral winds themselves and how a battleship with a malfunctioning FTL drive could even release so much of the stuff.
From an engineering standpoint, Ves had some questions as well. For example, how could that leaky FTL drive remain operative after three-thousand years of continuous operation?!
Any machine this complex would have broken down after a couple of months of continuous operation due to sheer wear and tear. In the longer term, corrosion and other possible influences became greater concerns.
"Is there someone or something maintaining the operation of the malfunctioning FTL drive?" Ves wondered.
No matter what the deal was with the Starlight Megalodon, the truth would be revealed once they reached it. They just needed to get there, and that was a massive operation in itself.
The Flagrant Swordmaidens needed to cross tens of thousands of kilometers through hostile terrain and unknown threats. In the meantime, they continually had to fight against Seven itself, its crushing gravity continuing to loom over them and only staved off by their technological countermeasures.
Besides logistics, Ves worried deeply about the performance of the landbound mechs outside the base's antigrav field envelope.
The Vandals tested each of their landbound mechs. Each of them underwent a raft of modifications to prepare them for their deployment on a planet like Seven. Through the preceding months, Ves had inspected each landbound mech's individual design and put his stamp on them, assured that they'd be able to hold up against six times normal gravity.
Yet calculations and simulations only went so far. The true test came when the actual mechs subjected them to the planet's gravity in all its glory.
Fortunately, the mechs held up. Mostly.
As Ves switched his console to a feed that depicted various mechs stepping inside and outside the base, he noticed that most of them did so under the influence of their heavy-duty gravitic backpack modules.
The backpacks the Vandals and the Swordmaidens procured on Harkensen III did their jobs as advertised. They lighted up the influence of gravity just enough to make them able to move and fight as if they moved on a planet close to standard gravity.
Of course, all of this performance came at the cost of expending huge amounts of energy. The backpacks barely lasted an hour of normal operation. The energy expenditure of running close to five-hundred landbound mechs by both the Vandals and the Swordmaidens would drain them dry of energy after a month!
In the meantime, continuous long-term operation wore out some of its components quickly, so it was essential for the Flagrant Swordmaidens to set up a dedicated department that serviced the backpacks as they slowly degraded in performance.
"Still, that's not as interesting as seeing mechs attempting to move with the backpacks turned off."
He switched to another feed where the Vandals conducted a test with an average spearman mech. The machine in question fell within the middle of the medium weight class, and therefore served as a good guide to how the other mechs might fare under the same circumstances.
The test area in which the mech stood suddenly lost its antigrav field, subjecting the spearman mech to the full might of Seven's gravity. The mech's weight suddenly multiplied by six, causing the machine that was as tall as a small office building to falter and strain as its mech pilot frantically tried to adjust.
The antigrav fields came back online after a few minutes had passed.
The test ended early because the mech pilot risked blacking out!
Ves dove into the logs and the preliminary results of the test. It turned out that while the mech barely possessed the power to move, it largely held up against the strain. Most of the modifications that Ves had pushed through safeguarded its delicate components against the persistent effects of heavy gravity.
The weak point turned out to be the mech pilot. The heavy gravity curtailed the mech pilot's heart from pumping a sufficient amount of blood to the head, thereby starving it of the oxygen it desperately needed to operate the mech!
As the act of piloting a mech essentially centered around interfacing the mind of the mech pilot with the mech in question, a starved mind wouldn't have the energy to effectively control a mech!
"Damn." Ves cursed. "These upright piloting seats may be ergonomically optimal, but they're fatal when it comes to heavy gravity environments."Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.
While the cockpit and the piloting suit incorporated smaller antigrav modules that lightened the gravity the mech pilot was subjected to, they hadn't been activated during this test. It appeared that a mech which turned off its gravitic backpack really couldn't do without any gravity compensation for the pilot!
"I can't believe I overlooked this fault." He grumbled. He should have implemented a modification that allowed the mech pilot to recline on his back while piloting.
While this would be an easy change to implement for some mechs that make use of less rigid neural interfaces, others required a lot more effort in order to implement such a change.
It would be especially challenging to push through such a change for light mechs as their cockpits sometimes didn't have enough space to accommodate a fully reclining mech pilot.
"I'll have to discuss this idea first with the other mech designers and chiefs." He decided. "Maybe I can discuss this further with Mayra as well."
They definitely needed to do something. Ves wouldn't contemplate such a change if the Flagrant Swordmaidens only intended to stay for a week or so. That wasn't the case though, as a trek involving tens of thousands of kilometers took them at least half a month to a year according to most estimates.
"There's going to be times when running an antigrav field may not be possible or advisable."
Antigrav fields didn't mix well with strong spacetime distortions. In addition, they functioned like beacons in the night on gravitic sensors. While the astral winds limited their long-ranged detection range, they would have no trouble finding mechs over the horizon if they ran a sufficiently strong antigrav field!
Therefore, trying to find ways to cope with the heavy gravity became everyone's overarching concern. There were too many chances of equipment failure and they plainly lacked the energy budget to keep all of the backpacks running.
"Even deploying less mechs won't help that much, because how are we going to move them in the first place?"
Right now, the Vandals and the Swordmaidens focused much of their limited industrial capacity on expanding the base and constructing cheap legged transports.
These huge machines that resembled six-legged hexapods could carry a mech or two or a handful of containers on their backs.
While they boasted a lot of carrying capacity and the ability to move without under the influence of an antigrav field, they came with their own downsides. For one, they progressed forward at a snail's pace, and expended enormous amounts of energy or fuel by doing so.
Fortunately, these legged transports didn't require any high-quality fuel to run. The Vandals brought down plenty of cheaply synthesized fuel to run these crawlers as the Vandals called them in an efficient manner.
Still, their fuel ran out eventually, so the Vandals needed to secure another source of fuel eventually. Everyone involved with logistics wracked their heads over the deficiencies in their energy budget. In the headquarters, Ves heard Lieutenant Commander Soapstone talking to everyone about this issue.
For now, nobody came up with a viable solution except to abandon the transports one by one as their supplies slowly dwindled over time.
"This journey isn't going to be easy." Ves shook his head.
After a long stretch of work, Ves ended his shift by scheduling a meeting for the next standard day. He wanted to meet every mech designer and chief technicians sent to the surface and discuss the various issues that have cropped up during this time.
Ves knew that if they wanted to last the entire journey to the Starlight Megalodon, he needed to keep a tight lid on the mech designers while making sure the chief technicians were all on the same page.
The chief technicians might not necessarily fall in line with Ves. They were part of a separate hierarchy and technically Ves was merely an advisor to them. He did not intend to let the chiefs do whatever they wanted, especially since some of them had recently been elevated to their ranks after the Acolytes of Haatumak assassinated their predecessors.
Ves was determined not to tolerate any screw ups under his domain. Advisor or not, Ves wanted the chiefs to be firmly under his thumb by the end of the week. Nobody except him was more capable to lead the complex maintenance department of the Vandal groundside forces.
The actual chain of command be damned, this was his kingdom!
Ves was absolutely certain that nobody else among the Vandals understood mechs more than him. Without Major Verle looking over his shoulders, he felt less constrained in his actions. Taking on a bit more authority than he officially had been granted with may not be very kosher, but he doubted anyone among the Vandals cared.
"I'll have to sound out Captain Byrd and see what I can get away with under her." He cautioned himself. "From all accounts, she's a conservative leader. I shouldn't rock the boat too much at first."
Ves already heard some grumbling from the servicemen about her elevation to the commander of the Vandal groundside forces. With the astral winds preventing any direct communication between the landed troops and the fleet orbiting far above the glowing sky, Captain Byrd wielded sole authority over every aspect of their unit.
The Vandal ground force lived and died by her decisions.
That concerned Ves a bit, because unlike someone such as Captain Orfan, he had never come into contact with Captain Byrd nor experienced how she exercised her commands. Was she a careful, meticulous thinker and diplomat as the rumors had said, or was there something more to this quiet mech captain that somehow gained Major Verle's appreciation?
"I should have a meeting with her as well."
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Remember the Bigfoot Pizza from 90’s Pizza Hut?
Yesterday (March 15) just around lunch time, Pizza Hut posted a cryptic status picture teasing the return of a legend.
For a moment, the nostalgia center of my brain lit up and I had a flashback to the 90's.
Remember the Bigfoot pizza?
"A legendary value", it says in the commercial. Legendary!
That pizza was a big deal when I was a kid in the 90's. Everything seems amazing when you're a kid with all the energy in the world, hormones blasting through your brain at lightspeed, and a heart not yet painted black by adult cynicism. There was something radical about that pizza that meant you HAD to have it at your birthday party.
I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but that ad somehow stuck to the inside of my brain matter. I let myself get my hopes up, but then I followed the link in Pizza Hut's Facebook status and, well...I don't think Bigfoot is coming back.
I could be wrong. It could be a fake-out or I could be incorrect in my assessment of what I'm seeing, but the peak behind the curtain doesn't look Bigfootish to me. Looks more like a Hot Pocket. I think it's their P'Zone, which was like a mix of a calzone and a flaky fruit pie (without the fruit, obviously).
I don't want to bash on Pizza Hut. They make a good pie. But they need to think before they post. They need to consider what using the phrase "A Legend Returns" will do to people who grew up in the 90's and remember when a rectangular pizza with six topping only cost $10.99.
You're killin' me, Pizza Hut! You're killin' me!
And for anyone who wants to take an extra deep dive into 90's nostalgia, here's another thought I had: Was the Pizza Hut logo the shape that was flying behind the Black Lodge curtains in Twin Peaks? "That pizza you like is going to come back in style," I hear The Arm saying. (Backwards, of course.)
Ok, maybe I'm getting a little too carried away here.
We've got 1 day and 10 hours (as of this article's publication) until Pizza Hut tells us what's going on. Until then, I'm going go back to YouTube and binge on some sickly-green tinted 90's commercials. Gotta kill a weekend somehow.
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Categories: Articles, Video
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Journal of Sensors
Journal of Sensors / 2018 / Article
AbstractIntroductionResults and DiscussionConclusionsData AvailabilityConflicts of InterestAcknowledgmentsReferencesCopyright
Remote Sensing of Sustainable Ecosystems
View this Special Issue
Volume 2018 |Article ID 2075057 | 12 pages | https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2075057
Spark Sensing: A Cloud Computing Framework to Unfold Processing Efficiencies for Large and Multiscale Remotely Sensed Data, with Examples on Landsat 8 and MODIS Data
Hai Lan ,1 Xinshi Zheng ,2 and Paul M. Torrens1,2
1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
2Center for Urban Science + Progress, New York University, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
Academic Editor: Victor Mesev
Received26 Apr 2018
Accepted08 Jul 2018
Published23 Aug 2018
Inquiry using data from remote Earth-observing platforms often confronts a straightforward but particularly thorny problem: huge amounts of data, in ever-replenishing supplies, are available to support inquiry, but scientists’ agility in converting data into actionable information often struggles to keep pace with rapidly incoming streams of data that amass in expanding archival silos. Abstraction of those data is a convenient response, and many studies informed purely by remotely sensed data are by necessity limited to a small study area with a relatively few scenes of imagery, or they rely on larger mosaics of images at low resolution. As a result, it is often challenging to thread explanations across scales from the local to the global, even though doing so is often critical to the science under pursuit. Here, a solution is proposed, by exploiting Apache Spark, to implement parallel, in-memory image processing with ability to rapidly classify large volumes of multiscale remotely sensed images and to perform necessary analysis to detect changes on the time series. It shows that processing on three different scales of Landsat 8 data (up to ~107.4 GB, five-scene, time series image sets) can be accomplished in 1018 seconds on local cloud environment. Applying the same framework with slight parameter adjustments, it processed same coverage MODIS data in 54 seconds on commercial cloud platform. Theoretically, the proposed scheme can handle all forms of remote sensing imagery commonly used in the Earth and environmental sciences, requiring only minor adjustments in parameterization of the computing jobs to adjust to the data. The authors suggest that the “Spark sensing” approach could provide the flexibility, extensibility, and accessibility necessary to keep inquiry in the Earth and environmental sciences at pace with developments in data provision.
Data provided by remote sensing have long presented as a critical resource in monitoring, measuring, and explaining natural and physical phenomena. Indeed, remote sensing might justly be characterized as one of the first “big data” sciences [1]. Steadfastly, for the advances in the sensing capabilities of remote, Earth-observing platforms have continued to produce more and more data, with increasing observational breadth and finesse of detail. These developments carry a dual benefit and problem: analysis and inquiry in the environmental and Earth sciences not only are routinely awash with data but also often struggle to match pace in building empirical knowledge from those data because the data are incoming with such haste and heft. Strategies to manage big remotely sensed data are required to fully exploit the benefits those data hold for applied scientific inquiry, and the topic of how computing might be leveraged to ease pathways between science and sensing holds significant currency across many fields, with particularly rapid adoption of high-performance computing [2] and cloud computing in the geographical sciences [3].
Remote sensing imagery is a commonly used source to support those studies of sustainable ecosystems, such as ecosystem dynamics, grassland degradation, and urban ecosystem restoration, especially in large areas [4]. Traditionally, studies with pure remotely sensed data involved only a few scenes of data in a limited study area, or they rely on low-resolution remotely sensed images in large-area experiments [5]. Those traditions are changing as new data have dramatically altered the underlying substrate for analysis. For example, in the past few decades, the space-borne and air-borne Earth observation sensors are continually providing large-volume datasets. For example, Landsat 8, the latest Landsat mission launched in 2013, can collect more than 700 images per day, corresponding to approximately 86 terabytes of data per year [6], which is 14 times as much as that in the 1980s [4]. Processing the massive volume of remotely sensed data is now not the only problem: the intrinsic complexity of those data is also an important issue that must be considered.
The sensors that are actuated in remote sensing are usually designed to serve specific requirements of analysis for different fields of study. To fulfill those different needs, sensors are usually tasked to capture images at different resolutions. For example, high-resolution satellite sensors such as WorldView-4 can produce imagery with a spatial resolution of 0.31 m in panchromatic vistas and 1.24 m spatial resolution in multispectral vistas [7], while the QuickBird platform can image the Earth with 0.61 m spatial resolution in panchromatic form and 2.44 m spatial resolution in multispectral form [8]. These resolutions, on the order of fractions of a meter to a few meters in spatial resolution, presented significant opportunities to monitor the Earth and represent the state of the art in Earth-observing imaging detail.
Concurrently, other remote sensing platforms are tasked with refreshing observations of the whole Earth’s surface, aiming for coverage of large areas with temporal consistency, rather than small-area detail. For example, relatively medium-resolution sensors, such as Landsat, and relatively low-resolution sensors, such as MODIS, are deployed as long-term Earth observatories. Landsat provides 15 m panchromatic and 30 m multispectral imagery, which is very widely used in studies of large-area grassland degradation and urban land cover dynamics [9]. MODIS offers 250 m multispectral imagery and can build a mosaic view of the entire Earth once every few days. MODIS data has been widely adopted in global-scale research studies, particularly those trained on studying vegetation canopies for investigation of worldwide forest cover dynamics [10].
Many sensors support multispectral imaging. For example, WorldView-4 data includes four spectral bands, and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS provides 11 spectral bands. For some spectrally sensitive studies, higher spectral resolution imagery is required. In those studies, hyperspectral sensors (such as Hyperion, which generates 220 bands between 0.4–2.5 μm [11]) can produce detailed spectral data over a very small wavelength range. Furthermore, different sensors offer different temporal resolutions in their rate of imaging as well as the timing of their coverage of subjects under their purview. For example, the WorldView-4 satellite is capable of revisiting views every 4.5 days (sometimes sooner), while Landsat can deliver repeat views every 16 days [12]. Higher temporal resolution in return views facilitates the study of dynamics on the Earth surface, so that the time series and the time interval between visits become significant attributes of the observation, alongside the spatial resolution and spectral range. Therefore, methods to streamline a feasible, effective, and efficient approach to processing archived and continually incoming multispatial, multispectral, and multitemporal remote sensing data are an ongoing requirement across many potential applications of remote sensing to applied scientific inquiry.
In this paper, possible scalable solutions are introduced to address issues of processing multiscale large-volume remote sensing datasets in multispatial, multispectral, and multitemporal cases. The aim is to implement a tool that can process different proposed remote-sensed tasks with only minor adjustments rather than fully rebuild new toolkits. Furthermore, this solution should be fully capable of exploiting benefits from cutting-edge cloud computing technologies, resources, and platforms to help researchers process and analyze large remotely sensed datasets that are difficult to process on local machines in an effective and efficient manner.
1.1. Cloud Computing as a Resource for Big Data Processing
Many researchers have made significant progress in advancing feasible, effective, and efficient processing for multiprong attributes of remotely sensed data, using developments in computer engineering. In particular, research into how graphical processing units (GPUs) and cluster-based high-performance computing (HPC) might be leveraged to advance image processing for remote sensing has been particularly fruitful [13]. More recently, cloud computing is increasingly being considered as a resource in processing remotely sensed imagery, largely because of cloud computing’s native abilities to scale computing in kind as the data being processed also the scale. Furthermore, significant cloud computing resources are now available commercially, on a “pay as you go” model, from providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) [14], Microsoft Azure [15], and Google’s Compute Engine [16]. These resources can be brought to bear on image processing tasks as IaaS (infrastructure as a service), PaaS (platform as a service), or SaaS (software as a service).
Cloud computing is useful in providing some of the flexibility required to match pace between incoming data, large existing data silos, and evolving analytical needs in image processing that authors alluded to in the introduction. Cloud computing affords this flexibility by allowing users to allocate and share software and hardware resources on the Internet in a distributed fashion, by splitting large computational tasks into many small parallel computing tasks, then assigning them to as many computing instances as are required to achieve computing goals based on data size, data fusion, resource use, or computing time. After all the distributed nodes of the cloud service have completed their assigned tasks, the results are bundled and returned to the users’ local database. In this way, virtual instances, applications, and software are provided on an as-requested basis, and users may pay for those services as demanded. This affords a user access to a theoretically limitless size computing capacity (although very strong limits of available financial budgets to pay for the services quickly dock theoretical capacities to tangible practical realities in many real instances).
A promising community of computing frameworks has codeveloped alongside cloud computing hardware, and several of these frameworks hold significant promise for processing remotely sensed imagery of the Earth’s surface. For example, MapReduce was introduced by Dean and Ghemawat [17], ten years ago. In the decade since, a number of open-source implementations of the MapReduce model have emerged as promising frameworks for mediating the computing between image processing for remotely sensed data and cloud resources that are available to distribute and/or accelerate that computing on commercial (or user-run) clouds. Chief among these open-source implementations of MapReduce is Apache Hadoop. While Hadoop MapReduce relies on reading and writing data to a disk, another variant, Apache Spark [18] maintains data partitions in memory (a so-called in-memory computing framework). Spark also provides a network buffer for each reducing task, rather than merging outputs into a single partition, with the result that Spark can be one hundred times faster than Hadoop MapReduce on some big data tasks [19]. Nevertheless, one advantage that Hadoop might hold over Spark is that Hadoop allows parallel processing of large amounts of data that are bigger in physical storage size than the available memory. In fact, many remote sensing datasets are of a size that is so massive that they exceed the memory available in local machines or small clusters. Furthermore, physical disk resources are usually much less expensive in financial cost (of owning or accessing) than memory resources are. So, in cases for which limited memory may become a constraining factor, Hadoop presents as a better option in some cases for processing large amounts of remote sensing data.
However, cloud computing frameworks are agile relative to resource constraints. And that novel advances in cloud computing technologies and cloud platforms allow Spark to leverage resources from and across different cloud computing platforms, with the possibility that memory limitations may no longer loom as large a constraint for big remote sensing data processing scenarios. Consider memory as a resource that can be drawn upon on an as-needed basis, researchers can access theoretically unlimited memory on the cloud. Furthermore, Spark can run on a single workstation, as well as local computing clusters and cloud platforms. And Spark could access diverse data sources, such as Amazon S3, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), Cassandra, and HBase. In other words, Spark not only can access local private data warehouses but also can reach cloud-stored big remote sensing datasets and do so via the cloud platform directly, with the ability to process those data on the cloud and then stream back the required results.
1.2. Cloud Computing for Processing Remotely Sensed Images
One of the common computing solutions to the burden of processing, analyzing, and managing large-scale remote sensing data is to parallelize the remote sensing processing tasks: to spread the burden over multiple computing units to reduce the overall processing time [6]. For example, Huang and her colleagues used the message passing interface (MPI) as a computing framework for their work on dust storm simulation and forecasting on the Amazon EC2 commercial cloud service [13]. They deployed MPI on the Amazon cloud and applied loosely coupled nested models to process a high-resolution dust storm dataset. Their performance tests showed efficient and economical results. Cavallaro et al. [20] used GPUs to implement a support vector machine (SVM) classifier with MPI and openMPI frameworks. As an alternative to using HPC computing frameworks, other researchers have developed their own bespoke parallel large-scale remote sensing data processing platforms. For example, Wang et al. [21] developed pipsCloud, which is a cloud-based HPC approach to process remote sensing on-demand and in real time. To further enhance performance, Wang et al. [21] used Hilbert -tree indexing.
The turn toward development of tools by remote sensing scientists, for remote sensing scientists, leveraging computing techniques but departing in ways that are special to remote sensing applications, is a wonderful development for remote sensing science. Nevertheless, bespoke solutions (particularly in academic settings) cannot feasibly contribute to the massive levels of computing available now commercially, with the result that absolute performance will always lag behind that which might otherwise be available on the marketplace. Also, applying MPI or self-developed systems often requires significant research and development effort into programming, debugging, and tuning the computing system and environment, and one might perhaps make an argument that the time devoted to these tasks could be used on the applied science instead. In some cases, building these systems on a bespoke basis is very challenging. For example, consider MPI, programming tasks designed for serial computing and converting them to parallel form can be significantly burdensome and particularly so for some complex image processing algorithms. Moreover, the networking security, near ubiquitous availability, and fast-moving hardware compatibility (e.g., in shared memory clusters) of commercial platforms offer significant practical advantages. Some existing work points to the potential advantages that are obtainable in cloud processing of big geospatial data. For example, Chen and Zhou [22] demonstrated that Apache Hadoop can be leveraged for partitioning using a mean shift algorithm. With a local mode test, they successfully increased the processing speed by ~2 times [22]. Also, Giachetta [23] introduced a Hadoop-based geospatial data management and processing toolkit, AEGIS, which he compared against many existing MapReduce-based frameworks, such as SpatialHadoop, Hadoop-GIS, HIPI, and MrGeo with spatial join, query, and aggregation operations [23].
Compared to MapReduce-based approaches, solutions based on Apache Spark can usually generate results at higher efficiency, as mentioned in “Introduction.” For example, Sun et al. [24] used MLlib in Spark to test the multi-iteration singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithm on high-resolution hyperspectral remote sensing images. Compared with the Apache Mahout (MapReduce) approach, they found that the Spark approach can essentially trounce MapReduce in their tests, once Spark is able to access enough hardware resources. Another study using Spark to process massive remote sensing data, by Huang and his colleagues [25], demonstrated a series of comprehensive performance tests, using Spark to implement different types of algorithms in remote sensing. Huang et al. [25] discussed the performance of each of the tests on different running environments, including local, standalone, and yet another resource negotiator (YARN). They also proposed a self-defined, strip-based partitioning approach to replace the default hash partitioning method [25].
2. Methodology and Data Sources
In this paper, authors propose to extend upon recent developments in cloud computing as a resource for processing remotely sensed imagery. Specifically, a Spark-based large-scale remote sensing image processing tool that can be deployed on cloud platforms will be introduced. In the following sections, authors will discuss how to design experiments by applying two commonly used classifiers—normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI)—as a testbed to assess the feasibility and performance of our tool. A scheme for designing a change detection scheme based on classification results generated by the proposed tool on a time series will be also introduced. One of the key advantages of this approach is in its ability to easily and straightforwardly support users’ access to processed land cover changes within a large set of spatial-temporal images. Moreover, the paper will demonstrate a visualization approach to save text-based output from the analysis in common picture format, allowing users to examine results easily and quickly.
The approach presented in this paper is based on the YARN cloud environment. The goal, in using YARN, is to facilitate the availability of the processing environment in ways that are widely applicable to real-world scenarios. YARN has been widely used in many current cloud environments [26]. Unlike traditional versions of Hadoop MapReduce, YARN allows for allocation of system resources as containers to the various applications. In other words, different computing frameworks can be deployed on a single physical cluster in a noninterfering manner. In YARN mode, a Spark framework is composed of a master instance and many workers. The master instance is responsible for negotiating with the YARN Resource Manager to request enough computing resources, as needed, by analyzing the Spark applications submitted by clients. Once the master instance is loaded, it will schedule the tasks to executors with allocated containers. Until all tasks have been finished, Resource Manager will revoke all allocated resources for further possible tasks.
Resilient distributed datasets (RDD) form the basic abstraction of a dataset in Spark. RDDs can be created from an external dataset, or from existing RDDs. For cases in this research, RDDs will be created from the original remote sensing images stored in HDFS. For each image, three RDDs will be created for green, red, and near-infrared bands for NDVI and NDWI land cover classification at the initial stage. RDDs contain the data partitions and the metadata records. According to the Spark mechanism, RDDs will go through a series of transformations and action operations to process the data partitions in a distributive manner. The transformation operations of RDDs will be executed on individual partitions of an RDD and those operations will return a new RDD. Action operations will summarize information from an RDD by user-defined functions and return a result. For example, the joining operation, as a commonly used transformation operation in Spark, involves joining partitions belonging to two RDDs and creating a new one. In this case, the data blocks will not be moved at the current stage because of the lazy mechanism. However, action operations, such as count, will process the data partitions in RDD and perform real computing.
Based on the features of Spark, a workflow has been designed as illustrated in Figure 1. The first step in that workflow is to extract each band of a raster dataset by using the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL), which is an open-source translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats [27]. Each line of the extracted data contains the geographical coordinates and the digital number (DN) value of the raster cell in the original raster dataset. These files are then put into the HDFS as data input sources for distributive processing.
Spark-based remote sensing image processing workflow.
The second step is to perform parallel processing of image classification and land cover change detection. As introduced before, for each image that must be processed by this tool, three RDDs will be created for its green, red, and near-infrared bands. The basic units of the RDD are key-value pairs. In this case, the geographical coordinates are set as the key, and the DN value of a raster cell will be the value. In this manner, parallel land cover classifications can be conducted across many computer units in a cluster. The extent of parallel processing depends on the Spark application configuration and the cluster hardware specifications. Because the basic parallel processing unit is pixel-wise, this method can be highly flexible and scalable, allowing raster datasets to be partitioned in any manner, regardless of the spatial structures of the raster. However, partitioning strategies still must be seriously considered, because an appropriate partitioning strategy will help to optimize the performance with better usage of the computing resources of the cluster. Spark supports hash partitioning and range partitioning by default; these applications are appropriate for many cases in the real world. However, according to the results of the study of Huang et al. [25], the partition scale cannot be too small or too large. A very small partition scale will result in low-performance computing and even increase the fault recovery cost. A very large partition scale may lead to the out-of-memory error. Inspired by their strip-based partitioning method, splitting data into chunks with a configured HDFS block size is needed in following experiments.
In Algorithm 1, the detailed algorithm of using NDVI and NDWI as classifiers on remote sensing images has been illustrated. Several transformation operations are performed on each partition in RDDs. For input GeoTiFF remote sensing images, the algorithm will first parse the dimension of them. Moreover, those created RDDs will be marked by a time sequence in the time series. For each data chunk, in each pair of image RDDs (e.g., a pair of images in 2013 and images in 2014), the NDVI and NDWI classifier will be applied to each pixel to calculate the indicated values. The NDVI [28] can be calculated according to its definition as
1: Input= ; Dimension =
2: For to do:
3: Input
5: For to 2 do:
6: For in 1 to
7: For in 1 to :
12: endFor
17: endFor
NDVI/NDWI classification and changing detection.
The range of NDVI is from negative one to one, which can use different ranges to denote sparse vegetation, dense vegetation, barren rock and sand, and water. However, NDVI may not always correctly distinguish the water body, especially when there is a noisy signal in the water area (e.g., mud). To further improve the accuracy of classification, NDWI is applied according to McFeeters [29] as follows:
NDWI can distinguish the water feature with the positive value indicator. From the perspective of algorithm implementation, RDDs of three bands will be joined as a single RDD for NDVI and NDWI calculation of each raster cell with mapping operations. Land cover classification can, therefore, be conducted in parallel by using calculated NDVI and NDWI results. Once the land cover features are classified by NDVI and NDWI indicators, each feature can be labelled with a class ID and pass those IDs when changing the detection function. The changing detection function will compare the feature IDs from each image pair and summarize how those land features change from the former year to the current year.
The final step is to visualize land cover change, as illustrated in pseudo code in Algorithm 2. With all numbers of land cover change results generated by Algorithm 1 for each image pair, visualization images are created in PPM format from the obtained output RDD, which is a lowest common denominator color image file format [30]. Although redundant, PPM is an easy format to write and manage text-based outputs into human-readable figures. The two RDDs of land cover classifications for two images from Algorithm 1 will be joined as a single RDD, and the values of key-value pairs will be converted to colors according to a user-defined RGB color scheme. This joined RDD will then be sorted to the original order and reduced in a manner such that each key-value pair represents a row of the original raster image. Finally, to produce a PPM-format image, this RDD is appended to the PPM file header to create a complete PPM image.
2: For do:
5: Sort by two dimensions
7: Reshape
9: Save to files
An overview of how the whole process works is illustrated in Figure 2. Four steps are applied in this design: (1) read and parse each pair of input images and create RDDs for green, red, and near-infrared bands; (2) split data into chunks and process them in parallel; (3) gather results and assign labels to each pixel; and (4) reconstruct whole images by sorting output RDDs and visualize them in PPM format.
Detailed workflow for image classification and changing detection.
To prove the applied utility of the proposed scheme, three experiments are performed, and two different remote-sensed imagery datasets are involved. The first experiment is using the Landsat 8 operational land imager (OLI) dataset in three different scales to test the workflow of classification and change detection and visualization algorithm with Spark on local cloud environment. To further study the tuning performance of this scheme, the second experiment is designed to run this tool under different execution configurations with the same Landsat 8 dataset. The last experiment is set to prove this tool can consume different source remote-sensed imagery datasets with only minor parameter adjustments. By using the same algorithm presented above, a MODIS dataset on Amazon EC2 which is a real commercial cloud platform is processed.
Landsat 8 scans the entire planet surface in a 16-day period [31]. Equipped with the latest OLI sensor, Landsat 8 provides unprecedented spectral information with two additional spectral bands in the whole Landsat instrument family. In addition to offering a 15 m panchromatic band and a 30 m multispectral band, as in many previous products, Landsat 8 also includes a quality assessment (QA) band to support pixel-based cloud, shadow, and terrain occlusion filtering. A relatively short revisit period, medium spatial resolution, and seven spectral bands make Landsat 8 OLI products a commonly used freely accessible remote sensing imagery datasets for science that relies upon spatial, spectral, and temporal Earth attributes for environmental research. Furthermore, the Landsat 8 dataset is currently open to the public on cloud platforms, such as Amazon S3 [32] and Google Earth Engine (GEE), making it a great data source to serve cloud-based large-scale remote sensing processing in the cloud.
Like Landsat 8 OLI, MODIS satellite datasets are landed on as Amazon S3 [33] and GEE since 2017. MODIS provides a variety of planet observation products with daily temporal resolution. In this paper, MODIS/Terra Surface Reflectance Daily L2G Global 1 km and 500 m SIN Grid V006 (MOD09GA) will be used as second data input, which can provide 7 band surface spectral reflectance with 500-meter spatial resolution. Besides, a bunch of 1-kilometer resolution observation and geolocation statistic bands are offered in this product.
The coverage of each of the datasets that are used is illustrated in Figure 3. Three scales of Landsat 8 imagery datasets of small, medium, and large scale were used in experiments, as the input data source. This multiscale approach allowed us to assess whether our tool can perform multiscale remote sensing image processing with only minor parameter adjustments, to assess whether a wide array of remote sensing imagery datasets can be processed by our proposed framework in real scenarios. Because of remote sensing images, which are collected by different sensors at different spatial resolutions, with various bands of spectral information, and at diverse temporal scales are essentially formed by pixels, pixel-based algorithms implemented via Spark in the cloud should be capable of performing a very wide array of pixel-based processing and analysis. However, to further prove the presented tool can handle multisource remote sensing images in real cases, a MODIS dataset that fits for the exact same coverage of large-size Landsat 8 dataset is imported.
Landsat 8 image dataset in three different scales.
To generate a time series for change detection, one image per year has been chosen from a dataset spanning 2013 to 2017. The small-size images and medium-size images are approximately in one single scene of a Landsat image. Hence, those images that were acquired on a similar date for each year are preferably selected to reduce the land cover changes caused by seasonal variation factors. However, a large dataset is formed by over 15 scenes of original images. In this case, it cannot guarantee that each tile of this dataset can be filled by same-date images for each year. Hence, by broadening the filter criteria to the month level, obtaining enough tiles can be ensured to form the whole area. Another important factor is that the chosen images are preferably high quality to reduce the cloud and haze problems. For MODIS dataset, with relatively coarse spatial resolution and large coverage per scene, it takes about half of single scene to fit the large-size Landsat dataset coverage. Also, the acquisition time of it follows the date of the small- and medium-size Landsat dataset because MODIS can provide daily products. The detailed acquisition time of each dataset is listed in Table 1.
Landsat_small 4/29 3/31 4/19 3/4 4/5
Landsat_medium 4/29 3/31 4/19 3/4 4/5
Landsat_large Apr Mar Apr Apr Apr
MODIS 4/29 3/31 4/19 3/4 4/5
Detailed acquisition time of each dataset.
The reason for the choice of the study area shown in Figure 3 is that, in the Suez Canal area, the land cover mainly includes sparse and dense vegetation, a natural water body, the Suez Canal (with water), and bare sands and rocks. Thus, the study area is a great test area for our NDVI/NDWI classifier to detect detailed land cover and generate relatively accurate change detection results. Another reason for the choice of the study area is that Suez Canal was expanded since 2013 to build another branch [34]. This project can be clearly monitored by the presented change detection process.
In those experiments, all remote sensing image datasets were exported from GEE, which is a cloud-based platform that can serve remote sensing data source with customized criteria [35], for example, setting (1) the region boundaries to acquire data belonging to our study area and (2) the cloud mask to filter the cloud pixels on images before exporting the data to our cloud drive. Landsat 8 and MODIS (MOD09GA) both provide surface reflectance produced on GEE. If other datasets are used, a strictly image-based atmospheric correction should be followed to remove the haze impact on those images [36].
2.3. Experiment Environment
Two experiment environments are involved in this research for local cloud environment test and real commercial cloud platform test, respectively. The local computing cluster contains a total of 20 nodes. Two of them are master nodes, which equipped with 2 Intel Xeon E5-2680v4 2.4 GHz CPUs and 256 G memory each. 18 computing nodes are equipped with 2 Intel Xeon E5-2690v4 2.6 GHz CPUs (28 cores) and 256 G memory each. 10 Gbit network is assigned. In total, there are 1008 computing vcores and 5.12 Tb memory available. 2 Pb HDFS is configured and the block size is 128 M as default. Linux (Centos 6.9) is running on this cluster. Java 1.8.0_152 64-Bit Server VM is installed. Spark version is 2.2.0 with Cloudera release 1 and CDH 5.12.0.
The Amazon EC2-based computing cluster is another computing environment. Based on the computing needs of the third experiment in this paper, a 3-node cluster is built with 1 t2.xlarge instance with 4 vCPU Intel Broadwell E5-2686v4 2.3 GHz as master nodes and 2 t2.large instances with 2 vCPU Intel Broadwell E5-2686v4 2.3 GHz as slaves. All nodes are involved in computing. The total number of vcores is 8 and the overall memory is 32 G. 20 G storage per node is attached with default 128 M block size. The default HDFS replica is set as 3. Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS (HVM) is the operation system. Similar to local computing cluster, Java 1.8.0_152 64-Bit Server VM, Spark 2.2.0 with Cloudera release 1, and CDH 5.12.0 are configured.
In the following parts of this paper, how authors applied the aforementioned workflow on real multiscale and different source remote sensing datasets to test the performance and feasibility of the Spark-sensing scheme will be discussed. The performance of the tool and the visualization of the experimental results will also be shown. Moreover, the flexibility, extensibility, and accessibility gleaned by using a Spark-based solution in remote sensing image dataset processing will be further discussed.
The first experiment is performed on a 20-node YARN computing cluster. In this experiment, a multiscale remote sensing image dataset with the Spark-based classification and change detection algorithm has been successfully processed.
The detailed data size and processing time are shown in Table 2. The processing time is recorded under configurations with default block size, 50 executors with 20 cores each, and 20 G executor memory. Note that Spark can offer highly efficient processing for remote sensing images. Especially for a relatively large cluster, a sufficient computing resource can support the entire distributed computing process, ensuring that the processing time does not significantly increase as the data size increases. From the perspective of algorithm design, by anatomizing the overall processing time in each operation time-consuming segment, the joining operations are found to be very time-consuming, especially for a dataset with large pixels. In contrast, mapping operations for classification and change detection are much faster in comparison to joining operations. Hence, designing an image processing algorithm with fewer join operations and appropriate partitioning to reduce the data block moving may enhance the performance. Besides, repartitioning operations should also be avoided because it will result in a very time-consuming shuffle process.
Scenes for each year Size Processing time
Small ~0.15 ~1.2 G 67 s
Medium ~1 ~10 G 276 s
Large ~15 ~107.4 G 1018 s
Landsat data size and processing time.
Except enhancing the overall performance from algorithm design, the second experiment is developed to further study if the execution configurations may effect on the processing performance. Only the large-size Landsat 8 dataset is applied in this experiment to assess the processing time with different configurations. According to Spark performance tuning official documents [37], the executor numbers, executor, cores and executor memory are three main factors that may effect on performance of Spark-based applications. Budgeting available computing resources in advance is usually needed for users to gain satisfying processing performance. Here, three different configuration sets are assigned as follows: (1) 10 executors with 100 G memory and 100 cores each as set 1, (2) 50 executors with 20 G memory and 20 cores each as set 2, and (3) 500 executors with 2 G memory and 2 cores as set 3. Those three configuration sets are designed with the same total computing vcores and memory. It is also worth to point out that block size may sometimes effect on performance as well. As discussed above, repartition operations (especially for increase partitions) usually should be avoided to eliminate unnecessary shuffle process. Under this circumstance, partitions will be mainly decided by block size during I/O process when RDDs are created. If the block size were too small, massive number of partitions will be created especially with very large input dataset, which will lead to increasing the overhead of task management, though coalesce operation may be applied to decrease the partitions sometimes without shuffling in some cases. If the block size were too large, only a few partitions will be created so that not all the cores in the available computing resource can be sufficiently utilized. In other words, the feature of parallelism is not fully exploited to enhance the performance. Here, three different block sizes are set during the experiments. In Figure 4, the performance of processing the dataset under different execution configurations and different block sizes is represented. The shortest run is offered by 50 executors with 20 G memory and 20 cores each under default block size. With the same executor configuration set, the performance shows a bit lower with 64 M block size, which may result from the total task number which is increased with a smaller block size. However, the execution time for each task is not significantly reduced with corresponding settings. The performance of the same configuration set with 256 M block size is also beaten by it with a default block size. The reason is the partitions generated under this block size are too few so that parts of the executors are not active during processing. This problem shows more obviously when applying configuration set 3, because the number of executors is far more than the tasks under this case and too many computing resources are in idle, which leads to the lower performance. The execution configuration set 1 shows very similar performance with set 2 under each block size setting. However, by monitoring the core utilization of set 1, it is lower than it is with set 2. This may present that the increasing number of executors and decreasing the cores per executor may lift the utilization of cores and may also help enhance the overall performance in some cases especially for very large dataset with relatively limited computing resources.
Processing time of large-size Landsat dataset under different configurations.
Here, the land cover feature is defined in four classes: dense vegetation, sparse vegetation, rock/sand, and water. In the legend of Figure 5, colors are set for the changes of each pixel in the study area from one feature to another. For example, “rock to water” indicates that the land cover feature was observed to have changed from sand or rock to water body in the past year. Conditions of no change indicate there are no detected changes in the past year. Others indicate those parts in the images with no data or with erroneous data. In Figure 5, the changes for each pair of images can be clearly seen. Moreover, users can generate a “final” result directly from 2013 to 2017 with a single parameter change. Taking the changing map of 2014 to 2015 in Figure 5 as an example, users can monitor the new branch of the Suez Canal being built and filled with water. It also shows that some new vegetation is growing along the Canal; such vegetation may be a new farmland because most of the vegetation regions are in artificial-like shapes.
Changing detection visualization results of 2013 to 2014, 2014 to 2015, 2015 to 2016, and 2016 to 2017.
As discussed before, the presented tool can be deployed on commercial cloud platform with no change (if the hardware configuration is highly different, strategies of balancing workload may need to be reconsidered). The third experiment is designed to use the proposed framework on Amazon EC2 to process MODIS dataset. Different from Landsat 8 products with band 4 as red, band 5 as NIR and band 3 as green, MODIS (MOD09GA) product sets red band as band 1, NIR as band 2, and green as band 4. Except changing the band index for input, the processing tool is ready to launch with no additional adjustment needed in coding. This experiment run on the 3-node Amazon EC2 cloud computing cluster. By applying 2 executors with 2 cores and 4 G memory each, the experiment is successfully completed in 54 seconds. It is worth to point out that 54-second processing time is not fast with such a small input dataset and that ~0.5 scene MODIS image is only about 50 M. Because in this case, lots of time are occupied by job submission, task management, resource allocation, and so on, the performance of Spark applications can only show significantly with relatively large dataset. However, this experiment still proves the idea that the proposed framework can be deployed on real commercial platforms to process multisource remote sensing images with only minor parameter adjustments.
Those experiments represent a robust solution for constructing remote sensing image processing tools for multiple purposes that are flexible (the ability of the tool to fit multisource datasets in different scales), extensible (the ability of the tool to grow in size and accommodate the volume of computing to resolve), and accessible (the ability of the tool to access data from multiple storage platforms and locations on local resources, data centers, and the cloud). All tested image datasets in those experiments are Landsat 8 with 30-meter spatial resolution and MODIS with 500-meter spatial resolution. However, the reader should note that the input dataset can be any raster-based images in different spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions, because the algorithm implemented in our experiment is a pixel-based processing algorithm. Following a similar mechanism, all pixel-based algorithms can be implemented by processing the DN values of each pixel to generate required results under this framework. Hence, regardless of applying it to an existing large amount of data or filling it with a next-horizon dataset that will be collected in the future with current sensors or new sensors, this solution is capable of handling the tasks with only minor change in coding, thereby saving the high cost usually invoked in reprogramming different tools for different research goals.
With the Spark-based implementation, as demonstrated in the experiment, the main structures of this tool do not require modification as the volume of dataset changes. For example, it is becoming possible that, even if a Landsat 8 dataset covering a whole year (47.33 Tb) [6] is involved in processing at the same time, by the support of cloud platforms, users can always gain sufficient computing resources (memory especially, for Spark) in theory. Consider that Amazon EC2 now provides the “x1e.32xlarge” instance, which contains 128 virtual CPUs, ~4 Tb memory, and ~4 Tb storage. Users can apply fewer than 20 instances to implement in-memory computing with Spark-based approaches for this dataset in many different processing purposes. Nevertheless, to maintain the high performance of the tool, the partitioning strategies should be tailored based on real execution environments, especially for clusters with unevenly distributed computing resources and networking performance.
As discussed in the introduction, Spark-based approaches can easily access HDFS, Amazon S3, Cassandra, and HBase. Benefitting from cloud storage and management development, an increasing amount of data has been stored in the cloud and is open to the public. The approach as demonstrated provides cloud-based data resources to support users in performing a “pure” cloud analysis and in creating new products from it, without transferring unnecessary original and intermediate data to local storage before the final results are generated. This solution can also support data from multiple sources at the same time. For example, users can access cloud-stored public data as part of their data source and can also access and load their private data stored on local HDFS in a single Spark application.
In this paper, authors argue that the current state of the art for big data remote sensing, involving massive datasets being generated from existing and next-generation satellites and observation platforms, is, in many cases, proceeding at paces that outstrip our analytical capabilities to keep up with information products atop those data. While data and analysis are out of alignment, researchers perhaps miss opportunities to build the necessary science that might otherwise be attainable if data and analysis could be better connected. In this paper, authors discussed the current widely used approaches that have been developed by existing studies as a means to cater to the call of the community for the development of an effective and efficient large-scale processing framework to process large-volume remote sensing datasets. Based on the reviews of a comparison with other possible approaches, using Spark to build a robust scalable tool on a cloud environment is possibly an important and practical option to match data with analysis at pace. To this end, a Spark-based multiscale large remote sensing classification and change detection tool has been introduced, and its successful deployment and experimental testing in a cloud environment have been shown.
The approach in this paper suggests several promising advantages. First, the scheme for Spark-sensing offers considerable flexibility for processing big remote sensing datasets in multispatial, multispectral, and multitemporal cases. Indeed, shifting between resolutions and spectrums is possible with slight adjustment, thereby significantly saving the time cost of reprogramming brand new toolkits for different purposes. Second, this scheme makes it possible to exploit the benefits of cloud platforms to gain (theoretically) unlimited computing resources, with highly efficient performance. Third, the presented approach is natively highly accessible to multisource data storage, even in the cloud, which is useful in reducing data transformation costs.
The tool discussed in this paper is obviously just a prototypical framework. Thus, significant improvements could be made. The work here serves to prove the general principle and mechanisms necessary to get going with experiments in this area, and hopefully it can encourage others in the community to build on this foundation. An obvious extension of our approach could include the implementation of more complex remote sensing image processing algorithms, especially in classification, to better match the real cases in different research areas. Another improvement could be explored in designing better partitioning strategies to further enhance the computing performance. Moreover, using a dataset from the cloud directly may reduce the unnecessary data transferring from the data source to the cloud environment, which may better fit the usage habits in real-world problem solving.
The Landsat 8 surface reflectance data used to support the findings of this study have been deposited in the Google Earth Engine repository (https://explorer.earthengine.google.com/#detail/LANDSAT%2FLC08%2FC01%2FT1_SR). The MODIS/Terra Surface Reflectance data used to support the findings of this study have been deposited in the Google Earth Engine repository (https://explorer.earthengine.google.com/#detail/MODIS%2F006%2FMOD09GA).
The authors are grateful to Professor Huy T. Vo in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at New York University for his advice in building the partitioning components of the work.
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Marvel (Captain America: Civil War & More)
DC (Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, & More)
Everyone On Twitter is a Robot: We Have Proof! [INFOGRAPHIC]
Twitter, YouTubers
2:52 pm August 7, 2012
Posted on... 2:52 pm August 7, 2012
There is a dark corner of the Internet where, with enough money, you can buy fame, prestige and fortune. This shadow-filled digital alley is not what you think it is. It is not the deep morass that is 4Chan or any number of subreddits frequented by mustache-clad weirdoes. In fact, this black-market is used by billion dollar companies, prominent public figures and even presidential candidates.
Have you ever wondered how some people on Twitter have so many followers regardless of their lack of personality and interesting commentary? Or why companies like Coke have over half a million followers with tweets like this one:
It turns out that the market for buying and selling Twitter followers is much larger than any of us thought. Security vendor Barracuda Networks recently published a study detailing the alarming amount of falsified Twitter accounts on the micro-blogging site. The details of the report state that:
This is certainly not the first time Twitter’s account recognition algorithm has been brought to attention. Last year, digital languages professor Marco Camisani did a study, which showed that 46% of Twitter users following major corporations are automated or bots.
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was also brought into question in the Barracuda study for his recent increase in Twitter followers. The study reports “on July 21st, his [Romney] follower number went from 673,002 to 789,924 representing a gain of 116,922 or 17%.” No hard evidence exposing Romney’s alleged bought Twitter followers have surfaced yet, but a 17% increase in one day seems condemning enough.
With so many falsified accounts, it seems like Twitter is turning a blind eye towards these deals. In actuality, the people selling fake followers have developed specific methods to avoid detection by Twitter. Many sellers, according to the study, are following famous and non-famous people as well as posting random tweets to avoid being shut down. In addition, it seems that these sellers charge different amounts depending on the level of authenticity associated with their accounts.
With so many fake Twitter accounts out there you would think that NMR’s Executive Editor Alan Van would have more than 35 followers. Follow our real Twitter account @NewRockstars. I swear we’re not robots…. or maybe I was just programmed to say that. Error…system malfunction (explosion).
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Making Your Videos Go Viral Is Easy -- Just Pay Buyral To Do It For You
[…] right — all of them are fakes, and we have proof. Lurking right under our noses is an ominous video black market where, for the right price, online video creators can reach viral […]
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Twitter Too Free For Your Liking? Give Pheed A Try...
[…] scheme is simple: Rather than solicit a humongous fan-base, many of whom are casual enthusiasts (or bots?) like a Lady Gaga-style Twitter feed, instead focus on die-hard fans and give them premium […]
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[…] Share on TumblrIn this age dominated by creepy trolls and inanimate bots, meaningful Internet discussion is a distant memory. Websites like YouTube are trying to halt the […]
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3 Signs Your Twitter Followers are Fake (and an App that can figure it out too!)
[…] If you said “yes,” be careful. It might not be uncommon to have days where your number of followers on your Twitter increases dramatically, but you have to ask “why.” The vast majority of Twitter users like me aren’t going to see a dramatic increase in followers — by that, I mean 10 or more followers a day — on a regular basis. If you’re getting followers with the standard egg profile photo and little or no tweets, chances are that you’re mostly dealing with bots. […]
Like . Dislike . August 15, 2012, 3:26 pm .
Andy R.Schwartz
Ok you dont have to ask me twice, ill follow this article on twitter with my many hundreds of fake account bots and random real tweets so it looks legit….!
Like . Dislike . August 7, 2012, 5:30 pm .
Star Wars Rogue One: Kyle Katarn & Thrawn?
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© 2014, New Media Rockstars
NewMediaRockstars is an online publication whose mission is to empower, inspire and promote the independent new media community.
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Art Industry News: Bitcoin Takes Baby Steps Into the Art Market + More Must-Read Stories
Plus, Beijing Gallery Weekend's CEO departs and victims of the Grenfell Tower fire are honored with a London mural.
Artnet News, July 25, 2017
A "physical Bitcoin" (which is sort of a gimmick, but exists). Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images.
Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know this Tuesday, July 25.
NEED-TO-READ
Man Hawks $600K in Stolen Art at Flea Market – The thief, who worked as an art handler for a New York-based company that manages a collection of Native American and African art, had stolen more than 70 works of art during his time there. He now faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. (Patch)
Frick Invites Famous Authors to Write on Collection – The novelist Hilary Mantel, the filmmaker James Ivory, and the artist and author Edmund de Waal are among the first participants in the new series Frick Diptychs, a new series of small books published by the museum. (The New York Times)
Critic Michael Fried Turns to Poetry – The Art and Objecthood author has published his first book of poems with David Zwirner Books and nonsite.org. Titled Promesse du Bonheur, it features encounters with art and old friends like Clement Greenberg and Frank Stella. (The Art Newspaper)
Berkshire Museum Plans to Sell 40 Works at Auction – The 114-year-old museum in Massachusetts will auction 40 works from its collection, including two Norman Rockwell paintings, to fund a $40 million endowment and $20 million refurbishment. The American Alliance of Museums says the move violates its code of ethics. (TAN)
London’s Breese Little Gallery Shuts Down – The gallery, founded and directed by Josephine Breese and Henry Little, will close its doors permanently after seven years on July 29, coinciding with the closure of its critically acclaimed show “31 Women.” (Press release)
Is Bitcoin Infiltrating the Art Market? – Cryptocurrencies, most notably Bitcoin, are starting to be accepted in some commercial galleries, pointing to a growing acceptance of digital currencies in the $60 billion global art market. (BBC News)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Founding CEO Leaves Gallery Weekend Beijing – German artist and writer Thomas Eller, who last year founded the Chinese version of the successful Berlin event, will leave Gallery Weekend Beijing after only one iteration. In an email sent to press, Eller explained that the majority of the shareholders decided “to take the project into a different direction.” (Mass Email)
Philanthropist Robert Loder Has Died – The English collector known for promoting South African art cofounded the Triangle Network together with Anthony Caro in 1982. In 1994, he launched the London nonprofit Gasworks. He died at the age of 83. (Artforum)
BAM Names New Director of Cinema – Ashley Clark, who has been putting on cinema programs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music since 2015, has been appointed its senior programmer of cinema. (Artforum)
Tate Liverpool’s Managing Art Handler Honored With Show – As he prepares for his retirement, Ken Simons, who has worked at the museum since 1988, will get a show in the institution’s ground-floor gallery featuring his favorite pieces from the Tate’s collection. (TAN)
Inside Hong Kong’s Artist Studios – Studio visits with some of Hong Kong’s leading artists provide some insight into how they deal with the fast-changing landscape of their city. (ARTnews)
Mural Honors Victims of Grenfell Tower Fire – Street artist Ben Eine and Booker Prize-winning writer Ben Okri have collaborated on a mural in Holywell Lane, Shoreditch. The tribute, part of the Paint the Change project for street art and social justice, features the phrase “You saw it in the tears of those who survived,” taken from a poem Okri has written in response to the tragedy. (Paint the Change)
#Repost @double.jeremy (@get_repost) ・・・ Fresh mural from @einesigns for #grenfell #benokri #streetart #london #benein #woostercollective #shoreditch @paintthechangeglobal
A post shared by Ben Eine (@einesigns) on Jul 20, 2017 at 11:16am PDT
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Pussy Riot’s New Immersive Theater Project Will Show You What Russian Prison Is Really Like
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Printer Friendly Français Site Map Contact Government
News Release - Manitoba
PROVINCE ANNOUNCES INCREASED FUNDING FOR HIP, KNEE AND CATARACT PROCEDURES TO REDUCE WAIT TIMES FOR MANITOBANS
$5.3-Million Investment Will Significantly Add to Number of Surgeries Performed: Friesen
The Manitoba government is investing more than $5.3 million to significantly increase the number of hip replacements, knee replacements and cataract surgeries in Manitoba in 2019, Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Cameron Friesen announced today.
“Manitoba patients deserve better health care sooner and that includes reducing the time they wait for priority procedures,” said Friesen. “As we streamline services, co-ordinate better service delivery and adopt innovative ideas that improve patient care, we can invest in additional hip, knee and cataract surgeries for Manitobans.”
More than 4,100 hip and knee replacements and 12,900 cataract surgeries were performed in Manitoba in 2017-18. The new investment will ensure at least 1,000 more hip and knee replacement surgeries are performed in 2019, a number which represents a nearly 25 per cent increase, the minister noted. The new investment will also fund at least 2,000 additional cataract surgeries next year, a 16 per cent increase, he added.
“Our orthopedic and cataract surgery teams in Winnipeg have done an excellent job in increasing the number of procedures possible with existing resources, while ensuring safe and quality care,” said Réal Cloutier, president and chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. “This important investment by the Manitoba government leverages their efforts and will make it possible for patients to get access to these high-demand services sooner.”
Additional cataract surgeries will take place at Misericordia Health Centre while additional hip and knee surgeries will be performed at Concordia Hospital, Grace Hospital, Health Science Centre Winnipeg and the Boundary Trails Health Centre in southern Manitoba.
“With efficiencies come opportunities. I commend the outstanding work of our Boundary Trails Health Centre team, which has provided a solid foundation to build on,” said Jane Curtis, chief executive officer of Southern Health–Santé Sud. “Today’s announcement represents yet another opportunity to partner together and build a sustainable health-care system that will meet the needs of residents, now and into the future.”
Increasing the number of hip and knee replacement surgeries and cataract surgeries was previously recommended by the Wait Times Reduction Task Force as a means to reduce wait times for care.
“The reality is that we are seeing an increased and sustained demand for these procedures as our population ages,” said Dr. Jack McPherson, co-chair of the priority procedure wait times reduction committee of the Wait Times Reduction Task Force. “We are very pleased the government of Manitoba adopted our recommendation, and believe it will significantly augment the progress we have made to date in completing more procedures and ultimately reducing the amount of time patients currently wait.”
The minister noted today’s announcement is part of the province’s work to improve how care is delivered in Manitoba. Innovative changes implemented since 2016 are also enhancing Manitobans’ access to care. Those innovations include offering cataract surgeries using freezing rather than sedation to patients who meet the clinical criteria, offering same-day hip surgery to reduce long hospital stays, and implementing a hip and knee clinic to reduce the number of people referred for surgery.
“The health system transformation process allows the opportunity to look broadly at what services are offered and to create a plan focusing on increasing capacity and improving outcomes for all Manitobans,” said Friesen. “This will help ensure the long-term sustainability of the health-care system by providing consistent, reliable care and enhancing access for families.”
For more information on wait times in Manitoba, visit www.gov.mb.ca/healthcaresooner/waittimes/index.html.
For more information on the health system transformation, visit www.gov.mb.ca/health/hst/.
Public information, contact Manitoba Government Inquiry: 1-866-626-4862 or 204-945-3744.
Media requests for general information, contact Communications Services Manitoba: 204-945-3765.
Media requests for ministerial comment, contact Communications and Stakeholder Relations: 204-945-4916.
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New tenants moving into Plaza Las Américas
Plaza Las Américas in Hato Rey will reopen partially today.
Plaza Las Américas in Hato Rey is welcoming new tenants in coming months.
The Plaza Las Américas shopping mall is ushering in several new tenants in coming months, including Zapaventura, BienLatino, a second store Starbucks and Olive Garden.
Zapaventura will open in the coming weeks, while BienLatino and Starbucks are scheduled to begin operating in August and September, respectively. In the case of Olive Garden, construction will start later this year, with an opening scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.
Zapaventura, chaired by former general manager of the Chiquitín children’s shoe store, will open in the same place that former popular chain occupied until earlier this year when it closed. It will sell the same shoe lines previously offered, mall officials said.
Bienlatino, specializing in sandwiches, soups and salads, will move into a space of more than 2,100 square feet across from Applebees, on the first level of the south corridor. The new, 1,500 square-foot Starbucks store will be located next to the Banco Santander bank branch. Olive Garden, a 7,700 square-foot restaurant, will be on the third level of the Central Atrium, across the corridor from the Tierra del Fuego Argentinian restaurant.
Last year, Plaza Las Américas completed the restoration of a massive skylight and north panoramic elevator, the facade of the La Terraza food court and the connecting corridor between La Terraza and the third level of the central atrium, where Walgreens is located.
“We’re now remodeling the elevators for La Torre de Plaza and will soon start remodeling the area in front of Banco Santander and Red Lobster,” said Rafael Ruiz-Comas, director of corporate leasing for the shopping center.
A new Red Lobster restaurant — Puerto Rico’s first — will begin construction soon, occupying some 8,000 square feet of space where the Banco Santander branch used to be, as this media outlet reported.
Related tags : Hato ReyPlaza las AmericasPuerto RicoRed Lobsterstores
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Hey Buddy!, I found this information for you: "New tenants moving into Plaza Las Américas". Here is the website link: https://newsismybusiness.com/tenants-moving-americas/. Thank you.
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Power of flowers: Aromatherapy boosts health, happiness and sex drive
Karen Turner, Ottawa Citizen
Less is more when it comes to essential oils, says Ottawa aromatherapist Heather Garrod. C.Y. Ronnie. W / Fotolia
An increasing number of people are turning to the ancient power of essential oils as a way to lead a more “natural life” and relieve pain, reduce stress and jolt lagging libidos.
“Some have been used for thousands of years,” says Heather Garrod, a certified aromatherapist and owner of Planet Botanix, a shop specializing in natural health care products and wellness services on Bank Street. “They’re tried and true.”
Extracted from plants, flowers and herbs, Garrod says the potent essences were used by ancient civilizations to improve health — physical, mental and emotional — and overall quality of life.
Ottawa aromatherapist Heather Garrod says ‘less is more’ when it comes to using essential oils./
The highly fragrant scents of these concentrated oils are inhaled through diffusers, sprays and steamy baths or diluted and rubbed on the skin. Their uses are many: from treating sunburns, relieving anxiety and improving circulation to sanitizing dirty toilets, fighting colds and boosting your sex drive.
According to the Canadian Federation of Aromatherapists, they “contain the life force of the plant and have the ability to strengthen our immune system and to stimulate our body’s natural healing abilities.”
The Canadian Cancer Society even supports aromatherapy as a way to help manage the ill effects of treating the disease.
“Aromatherapy is often used as a complementary therapy with conventional cancer treatment to improve a person’s quality of life,” according to the society’s website. “There is some evidence that aromatherapy helps reduce anxiety, tension and pain in people with cancer. For example, lavender oil is promoted to relieve anxiety, muscular tension and trouble sleeping (insomnia). Some reports also suggest that inhaled peppermint, ginger and cardamom oil may relieve nausea caused by chemotherapy and radiation treatments.”
Lavender can help relieve stress and help you sleep.
Elana Millman, author of Aromatherapy for Sensual Living: Essential Oils for the Ecstatic Soul (see review), has used essential oils “every day for every aspect of life” for more than 20 years, firmly believing “they are indispensable, simple tools that amplify health and vitality.”
A Toronto-based holistic healer and aromatherapist, Millman says aromatherapy is “so much more than a candy-coated cure-all achieved by simply placing a few drops on a tissue or in an oil burner to get the promised relaxing or stimulating effect.”
She says it’s a way to connect with the natural world and tap into its therapeutic powers.
“I use essential oils every day and in every way, from stimulating my love life to healing a broken heart to brushing my teeth to treating a wound and even flavouring my food,” she says.
It can take large volumes of plant material to get small amounts of essential oil.
When it comes to using essential oils, Garrod says: “Less is more.” She also recommends reading labels carefully to ensure the oils you’re buying are pure and not petroleum based and trying different combinations since aromatherapy is “not an exact science.”
But unlike Millman, Garrod doesn’t recommend adding them to food and drinks. “They’re too strong for cooking,” says the mother of two, adding it can take large volumes of plant material to get a small amount of essential oil. Instead, she suggests using the actual plant to spice up recipes.
Ideal for students, rosemary improves focus and concentration.
Garrod’s five essential essential oils
1. Lavender: “first-aid in a bottle,” it helps you sleep, relieves pain and stress, speeds healing
2. Thyme: anti-bacterial that prevents infections, improves circulation, relieves cramps
3. Bergamot: extracted from the citrus rind, it’s an antidepressant, relaxant and cure for urinary tract infections.
4. Rosemary: improves focus and concentration, sooths dry, flaky scalps, tones skin
5. Frankincense: reduces stress, relieves indigestion, tightens skin (anti-aging), heals minor cuts and bug bites
No difference in care from sleep-deprived doctors, Ontario study finds Egan: Only two or three years to live. What to do,...
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Quiz: Which Character from The Lion King Said It?
If you’re anything like us, you’ve seen The Lion King something like … eh … 400-500 times. Does that sound accurate? You may know every rock and tree and creature, but we’re here to bring you a challenge of a different sort. These are not those iconic quotes that have defined the movie for years, but rather, little-known statements and phrases that come together to create this masterpiece of a film. Ready to walk on the wild side?
“See, I told you having a lion on our side wasn’t such a bad idea.”
Shenzi
“Look Simba. You’re in trouble again.”
Sarabi
“Let me get this straight. You're the king? And you never told us?”
“So where is this really cool place?”
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.”
“So where are we going? It better not be anyplace dumb.”
“Your son's awake.”
“I'm the king! I can do whatever I want!”
“I'd say brownish-gold.”
“Pumbaa, I don't wonder; I know.”
“You see? He lives in you.”
“You're so weird.”
“Not so long as I'm around.”
“What am I going to do with him?”
“You know you're starting to sound like my father.”
“Betrothed. Intended. Affianced.”
“Nothing. What's a motto with you?”
“I don't believe it. He's gone back.”
“No wonder we're dangling at the bottom of the food chain!”
“I told the elephants to forget it, but they can't.”
You got {%result value%} out of 20!
Did you have your morning antelope today? Take a refreshing walk around the watering hole and give it another try!
Lay off the grubs and hit the books instead, you’ve got a bit of catching up to do. But hakuna matata—you can always take the quiz once more! If you’re up for another yet challenge, see how well you fare on The Ultimate The Lion King Trivia Quiz!
The great kings of the past are smiling down on you. Think you can do even better? Try taking the quiz once more! If you’re up for another yet challenge, see how well you fare on The Ultimate The Lion King Trivia Quiz!
You got a perfect score!
Scream it from the summit of Pride Rock—YOU ARE VICTORIOUS. Up for another challenge? See how well you fare on The Ultimate The Lion King Trivia Quiz!
It’s time for The Lion King to take its place among your favorite Disney classics. The Walt Disney Signature Collection edition of The Lion King is now available on Digital & Disney Movies Anywhere, and is coming to Blu-ray August 29.
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Mona Lisa Overdrive
Autor: Gibson, William
Disponibilitate: Livrare din stoc
The final volume of Hugo and Nebula Award-winner William Gibson's seminal Neuromancer Trilogy.
The ghost was her father's parting gift, presented by a black-clad secretary in a departure lounge at Narita.. Mona is a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is turned upside down when her pimp sells her to a plastic surgeon in New York and overnight she's turned into someone else. Angie Mitchell is a famous Hollywood Sense/Net star with a special talent.
And despite the efforts of studio bosses to keep her in ignorance, Angie's started remembering things. Soon she'll discover who she really is . . . and why she doesn't need a deck in order to enter cyberspace. From inside the matrix, plots are set in motion and human beings are being played like pieces on a board.
And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yazuka, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes. Or so they think . .
Orion Publishing Co
Recenzati:Mona Lisa Overdrive
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“A Gift from God”: Adolescent Motherhood and Religion in Brazilian Favelas
Liza G. Steele
in Sociology of Religion
Published on behalf of Association for the Sociology of Religion
Volume 72, issue 1, pages 4-27
Published in print January 2011 | ISSN: 1069-4404
Published online November 2010 | e-ISSN: 1759-8818 | DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srq079
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/socrel
See details in Oxford Index
Show all results sharing these subjects:
This study seeks to understand how young, unmarried mothers and mothers-to-be in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have experienced religious morality as applied to themselves and other adolescents in their communities, as well as how religious leaders grapple with the moral issue of unmarried adolescent maternity in their midst. Drawing on more than 50 interviews conducted in Rio with young mothers, Catholic and evangelical religious leaders who work with the poor, and staff members of non-governmental organizations, this paper seeks to understand the acceptance—or even...
This study seeks to understand how young, unmarried mothers and mothers-to-be in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have experienced religious morality as applied to themselves and other adolescents in their communities, as well as how religious leaders grapple with the moral issue of unmarried adolescent maternity in their midst. Drawing on more than 50 interviews conducted in Rio with young mothers, Catholic and evangelical religious leaders who work with the poor, and staff members of non-governmental organizations, this paper seeks to understand the acceptance—or even approval—that unmarried pregnant teens and adolescent mothers usually encounter, which casts doubt on whether the issue is actually posing a moral dilemma for these religious institutions. The realities of everyday life in Rio's favelas, most prominently the ever-present specter of violence, high rates of teen motherhood, strong popular opposition to abortion, the high value accorded to motherhood, and the intense competition of the religious marketplace appear to influence the ways in which favela residents and religious leaders understand and interpret morality. More generally, this study offers an example of how religious groups working in impoverished communities throughout the world might adapt traditional moral codes to suit their circumstances.
Keywords: adolescents/youth; Brazil; Pentecostalism; sexual behavior; morality; ethnography
Journal Article. 10451 words.
Subjects: Religion ; Sociology of Religion
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65-year-old pregnant with quadruplets in Germany
A 65 year-old woman is currently carrying quadruplets after undergoing IVF. At her advanced age, she and the babies face numerous risks that make obstetricians all over the world concerned and upset.
Giving birth is hard at any age. But is it safe at 65?
A 65-year-old primary school teacher has caused an international uproar after intentionally impregnating herself so that her youngest daughter could be an older sister. Already a mother of 13, Annegret Raunigk, underwent In vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant as she is currently single and in menopause.
Raunigk is the oldest mother to give birth and conceive naturally in Germany at the age of 55 and has been reported to have basically raised almost all of her children alone.
IVF has its own risks.
IVF: Illegal for her age in Germany, perfectly fine in Ukraine
The journey to this point wasn’t easy for Raunigk. Germany does not allow women of Raugnik’s age to undergo IVF treatments, especially if they would need donor eggs and sperm to conceive.
According to reports, these restrictions are what prompted Raunigk to go to Ukraine where a lot of women who want to get pregnant go for IVF. While there, Raunigk received both eggs and sperm along with an undisclosed number of hormone treatments in order to conceive.
But why did she have quadruplets? Due to her age and slim chances of her getting pregnant, doctors used four eggs for her IVF treatment. They never expected all four to be fertilized. Initially, Raunigk considered keeping one baby and putting the others up for adoption but has since changed her mind.
International uproar
Not only have German medical professionals called Raunigk irresponsible and unwise, but State politician Karl Lauterbach made it a point to make an example of Raunigk by announcing that her case should not be an aspiration for any woman to follow.
Dr. Arthur Caplan, founding head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, called Raunigk’s actions unethical and sees her pregnancy as a publicity stunt to gain attention, fame and revenue by willfully undertaking a risky pregnancy.
“The fact that IVF is illegal in Germany for women her age should have been indication of the risk and danger that she can face with such a procedure,” says Dr. Caplan.
Raunigk, on the other hand, dismissed her critics by saying that no one can dictate what she can and cannot do at 65 years old and that people should stop interfering with her life.
Click ‘Continue Reading’ to see what health risks Annegret Raugnik may be facing.
Annegret Raunigk, carrying quadruplets. Photo from The Guardian
In an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. Holger Stepan, head of Obstetrics at the University of Leipzig, shared that the body of a 65-year-old woman is not equipped to handle pregnancy, much less carry four babies full term.
Most triplets and quadruplets are born 11 weeks early, according to statistics, so it’s quite possible that Raunigk’s babies won’t reach full term. Furthermore, she risks facing one of these distressing health risks:
High blood pressure and pre-eclampsia. Since menopausal women usually have high blood pressure, it’s easier to develop chronic hypertension that can result in pre-eclampsia symptoms.
Pregnancy diabetes. Developing diabetes during pregnancy can translate to a difficult birth and lots of risk to the infant during and just after birth.
Preeclampsia. One of the most feared pregnancy complications, this can happen at 20 weeks of gestation and can put both the mother and child at risk. The only cure for this condition is delivery of the baby. If Raunigk acquires this, she might have to choose between her life and the babies’ especially if it’s too early to birth them.
The risks above simply outline the pregnancy complications a woman on menopause faces, and does not include the risks that IVF brings about which are miscarriage, low birth placenta, pre-term labor and ectopic pregnancy.
The quadruplets face risks on all fronts.
Children at risk inside the womb
Aside from her own health, Raunigk’s quadruplets – having been conceived through IVF – face health risks of their own:
Pre-term birth
Being stillborn
Cerebral bleeding
Optical and olfactory problems
In order to prevent complications and premature labor, Raunigk was informed that she may have to be admitted into a hospital earlier than her August due date. Also, while critical of the doctors in Ukraine who enabled the multiple pregnancy,Raunigk’s gynaecologist said that the 65-year-old’s “prevailing positive psychological mood” would contribute much to the pregnancy’s outcome.
Update as of May 25, 2015: According to reports, Annegret Raunigk has given birth to healthy quadruplets via c-section, 3 months earlier than they were due. Annegret has three boys named Dries, Bence and Fjonn, and one girl named Neeta. The babies weigh between one pound and seven ounces and two pounds and two ounces.
Although it’s been reported that the four newborns stand a “strong chance of survival”, they are still susceptible to complications as they were born premature.
What do you think of getting pregnant at such an age? Share your thoughts in the comment box below!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dana Santos
If you have any insights, questions or comments regarding the topic, please share them in our Comment box below. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Google+ to stay up-to-date on the latest from theAsianparent.com Philippines!
Danielle Ann Abesames-Santos
Buntis ba ako o delayed lang?
Kainin ang prutas na ITO kung gusto magka-baby boy!
4 na bagay na dapat gawin para sa healthy na pagbubuntis
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Routledge History of Philosophy Volume Vii: The Nineteenth Century
C. L. Ten (ed.)
Routledge (2013)
The Nineteenth Century provides a broad, scholarly introduction to nineteenth-century philosophy. It also contains a glossary of philosophical terms and a chronological table of philosophical and cultural events
19th Century Philosophy, Miscellaneous in 19th Century Philosophy
ISBN(s) 9780203030660
Google Books (no proxy)
The Renaissance and Seventeenth-Century Rationalism.G. H. R. Parkinson (ed.) - 1993 - Routledge.
Routledge History of Philosophy Volume Iii: Medieval Philosophy.John Marenbon (ed.) - 1998 - Routledge.
The Age of German Idealism.Robert C. Solomon & Kathleen Marie Higgins (eds.) - 1993 - Routledge.
Routledge History of Philosophy.G. H. R. Parkinson & S. G. Shanker (eds.) - 1999 - Routledge.
British Philosophy and the Age of Enlightenment: Routledge History of Philosophy Volume 5.Stuart Brown (ed.) - 2003 - Routledge.
Nineteenth Century Studies.Basil Willey - 1949 - New York: Columbia University Press.
Nineteenth Century Studies: Coleridge to Matthew Arnold.Basil Willey - 1949 - Cambridge University Press.
A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century.John Theodore Merz - 1896 - New York: Dover Publications.
More Nineteenth Century Studies.BASIL WILLEY - 1956 - New York: Columbia University Press.
Philosophy of Meaning, Knowledge and Value in the Twentieth Century: Routledge History of Philosophy Volume 10.John V. Canfield (ed.) - 1997 - London & New York: Routledge.
Routledge History of Philosophy Volume Ix: Philosophy of the English-Speaking World in the Twentieth Century 1: Science, Logic and Mathematics.S. G. Shanker (ed.) - 2003 - Routledge.
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Switch to: Citations
References in:
The Moral and Non-Moral Virtues in Confucian Ethics
Wai-Ying Wong
Asian Philosophy 21 (1):71-82 (2011)
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Confucian Ethics : Universalistic or Particularistic?Wai Ying Wong - 1998 - Journal of Chinese Philosophy 25 (3).details
Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy.Bernard Arthur Owen Williams - 1985 - Harvard University Press.details
By the time of his death in 2003, Bernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Presenting a sustained critique of moral theory from Kant onwards, Williams reorients ethical theory towards ‘truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life’. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy (...) and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge. This edition also includes a new commentary on the text by A.W.Moore and a foreword by Jonathan Lear. (shrink)
Anti-Theory in Normative Ethics
Bernard Williams in 20th Century Philosophy
$5.00 used $186.65 new Amazon page
Bookmark 533 citations
Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy.Bernard Williams - 1985 - Ethics 97 (4):821-833.details
Confucian Ethics: Universalistic or Particularistic?Wai-Ying Wong - 1998 - Journal of Chinese Philosophy 25 (3):361-374.details
The Finality of Moral Judgments: A Reply to Mrs. Foot.Lawrence C. Becker - 1973 - Philosophical Review 82 (3):364-370.details
Moral Cognitivism in Meta-Ethics
The Analects =.D. C. Confucius & Lau - 1979details
Classical Confucianism, Misc in Asian Philosophy
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Francisco Cervelli On Taillon: ‘I Was Surprised He Kept Pitching’
Filed Under:Francisco Cervelli, Jameson Taillon, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB, NL Central, Pittsburgh Pirates
(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) – It was quite the scare last night for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Jameson Taillon as the rookie pitcher took a 105 mph line drive off the back of his head.
Francisco Cervelli had the closest view of the play in just his first game back from injury and joined the Starkey and Mueller Show to talk about that play and getting back on the field.
“I think everybody felt the same way,” Cervelli said. “It’s not fun when you see a pitcher getting hit anywhere in his body, especially the head. I was surprised that this guy stood up and kept pitching.”
Cervelli also talked about Melancon’s second straight blown save and why he isn’t at all concerned.
“I’m not” worried,” Cervelli said. “Every closer in baseball has those kind of games. This guy is a hard worker, a smart guy, he knows what he’s doing. It’s nothing to be worried about.”
Click the audio link below to hear more from Cervelli as he talks about the excitement of his first game back, Taillon throwing everything he told him to and how his mother helped pull him out of a tough stretch in his minor league career.
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Monthly Archives: Feb 2016
Best Of The Represses: Feb 2016
Although I imagine there are plenty of disco/soul/krautrock/industrial fans who will disagree with me, February has not been a classic month for all things repressy. We’re once again in the run up to the dubious pleasures of Record Store Day, and you wonder how many decent re-releases have been held back to fatten that particular calf. Even so, there have been a few interesting bits and pieces here and there. Let’s get down to brass tacks:
I-F: Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (Viewlexx)
The Viewlexx/Murdercapital axis continue to pump out the quality re-releases with this repress of I-F’s seminal Space Invaders are Smoking Grass. Fair enough, it’s probably about the 6000th time this has been put back out, the last occasion being in 2014, but you would have to be a bit of a sod to knock it for that reason. Space Invaders… remains one of the finest tunes of the last 20 years. Its robot vocals, sawing bassline, and scruffy beats hoist all manner of melodies and catchy hooks on their shoulders in a way that neither techno nor electro are usually comfortable doing – or capable of. The rest of the EP is a pretty strong offering. In particular Playstation #2 delights big time with its unhinged acid soaked playground skank. Look, you’ve all probably got this, but buy it again: It really is that good. One of those rare records that’s as important as it is funky.
Paul Johnson: 11PM Music/2AM Music (Dance Mania)
There’s a decent chunk of Dance Mania wax flying around at the moment, and this reissue of Johnson’s 11PM Music/2AM Music is one of two DM records from the Chicago master’s incredible mid 90s period to get the repressed and remastered treatment. It’s top stuff, tying the two prime Chi-town jackers on the A side to the deeper groovers on the flip. The Speaker Buster is guaranteed to do exactly that, while Don’t Stop Movin That Ass slaps out a raw, dirty stomp that’s still snarling after 20 years. The B side carries the tunes deeper, with a couple of ultra-smoothies that float and caress, and equal the A side’s bumptious energy with grace, style and languid mood. This DM repress thing could really get interesting….(DJ Funk’s Street Traxx II next, please.)
Octave One: – The X-Files (430 West)
Just when you thought that getting your eyes on some fresh Mulder and Sculley madness was the pinnacle of X-Files related nostalgia along comes Octave One in the form of 1994’s double EP. A great record, it nevertheless loses points for the fact all of it’s track names appear culled from Star Trek rather than the show in question. Sci-Fi TV grog nitpicking aside, though, this is one of those records which no DJ would have been without at a certain point of time, a fact represented in some silly Discogsing over the years. It represents a period where Octave One really began to hit their stride and really began to move away from their original housey sound towards one that was sharper, more techno, and heavy with deep, snaking grooves. Stand out tunes are the rugged, crashing funk of Dema, and The Neutral Zone’s juiced up, loose-limbed high-tech space soul. A classy reminder of how good a band they are. Please though, 420 West, please sort out whatever license issues there are with the Direct Beat Stuff. We actually, physically need some Aux 88 represses and we need them now.
Friday Night Tune, House, Techno
Friday Night Tune: The KLF – What Time Is Love?
I’m not always the smartest creature on the planet but there are still a few things I’ve managed to figure out over the years, a few tiny observations of life I’ve come to regard as almost transcendentally true. Firstly, the condition ratings you find on Discogs are often works of fiction that give the novels of Tolstoy a run for their money; that ‘human resources’ departments rarely contain much of either; and that awards ceremonies are what happens when great lumps of cosmic evil congeal around the twin stumps of money and fame.
Not all awards shows, I have to say. I have no truck for awards that seek to boost the profile of worthwhile organizations, or give a bit of praise and respect to people who have worked hard with little reward for the benefit of other people. The British Guide Dogs Awards is fine, for instance. It’s a worthwhile cause and features very clever dogs, so it wins all over the shop. That’s cool. I have no problems with the guide dogs. Nah, where I get snarky is with what Billy Crystal described as the sight of millionaires giving each other tiny gold statues.
We’ve already had the yearly bonanza of backslapping bellendery that is the Brits – a celebration of a music industry so middle of the road they should just give out Cat’s Eyes as the awards, and a show that has only been worth watching once (twice if you count the weird Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood match up) – but we’ll get to that in a minute. I won’t even mention the Oscars which will be along before you’ve finished reading this.
The wost of the lot appears to be the soon to be all-to-real Electronic Music Awards which will be hosted in LA in April. I can barely imagine the depths of loathing towards humanity that must exist for something like this to come into being. It’s easy to say that this has nothing to do with us, that it’s about a strand of electronica which is far closer to being about brands and sales than anything that we would consider important. That’s true enough, but it’s also true that it hijacks an entire form of music rich with its own history, flavour and impact – and cuts out all of that, casting adrift everything that matters in exchange for a cold, hard dollar. That it’s being hosted in LA, (and no offence whatsoever to any LA readers) instead of a city with a heritage of electronic music – the Berlins or Londons or Chicagos or Detroits – says an awful lot. As does the fact the nominations seem to contain only one black artist in Carl Cox – an electronic music awards with only a single black nominee? That’s next generation wrongness.
But you know what? It really doesn’t matter because I was right the first time – it has nothing to do with us. Let them do their thing and we’ll do ours. Besides, no awards show is ever again going to be as chaotic, hilarious, exciting and genuinely mind-blowing as when The KLF won Best Group at the Brits in 1992.
They shared the award with Simply Red, which was itself the act of a bloated music industry damning the outsiders with faint praise. The KLF were one of those bands who changed lives even though they would probably loathe the idea that they did. Their entire career was one long snort of derision towards the very people who were now pretending to honour them. Their art-techno-punk shtick rubbed countless people up the wrong way. You could hate their knowing cynicism even though you loved the fact they were absolutely authentic about it. And they spat out some of the most lunatic records to ever get in the charts. They were as mainstream as they could get away with, but they were our sort of mainstream.
They opened the Brits in brilliantly vicious style, playing 3AM Eternal with thrash rockers Extreme Noise Terror and scaring the pets of countless households across Britain. That was nothing compared to when they reappeared later. Bill Drummond limping out onto the stage with a crutch under his arm and cigar in his mouth, clad in a leather greatcoat he claimed had once belonged to Rudolf Hess, before drawing out a vintage machine gun and firing blanks into the crowd, finally leaving the stage to the immortal words ‘Ladies and Gentleman, the KLF have now left the music business.’ They returned later in the night, after the cameras had stopped rolling, to dump a dead sheep outside the afterparty. For a 17-year-old, this stuff leaves a lasting impression.
This What Time Is Love is taken from their album, The White Room (which remains one of the stand out records of the era) and is one of those tracks that don’t seem to exist anymore (and rarely did). It’s extremely radio friendly, a tune for Radio One, but it keeps both feet planted firmly in the underground, and retains a punk spikiness that in a time becoming dominated with the limp rock styling of grunge made it seem that it was the one that actually knew what it was talking about; a real deal clawing itself from a scene that had largely been ignored by the mainstream. The claims they had left the music business were pretty accurate too. After this they deleted their catalogue and only performed together again on a tiny handful of occasions. Enjoy what they left behind. We’ll never get another band like them. I still don’t know whether to applaud that, or break down in mourning. Ladies and gentleman, The KLF.
House, Review, Techno, Uncategorized
Review: Protic – Vector (Unity Glasgow)
Club night Unity Glasgow have been going a while now. Although it’s easy for a night to disappear into the background noise of everything else that’s happening, it’s usually worth paying attention when the next step is taken. In Glasgow, that usually means starting a label and seeing what happens.
Unity resident Protic’s debut is (I think) the young label’s second release, following on from Aita by Nois last year. As an example of any Glasgow sound (itself an ill-defined and expansive thing) Vector tends to shy away from the more openly debauched and experimental side of things, leaning closer to a purer form of dancefloor energy than is sometimes seen here.
Let’s say this first. I’m not sure whether Vector is entirely certain of the direction it wants to take. While the overall feel of the EP is one aimed at a big room sound, it layers in the slighter slink of tech-house, occasionally bursts out in a sort of old-school ravey energy and rounds thing off with a some (very nice, I have to say) synth work that pushes everything towards melodic techno territory, and even dips towards a sort of neo-dub flavouring here and there. While this sort of approach can work – and work well – it takes iron will to stop it from becoming too much of an influence soup.
This is particularly noticeable on Vector itself, which opens with a downward pulling dub groove which never quite let’s go despite the track quickly departing in another direction. It feels too much like several disparate tunes trying to echo common themes for it to entirely come together. It tightens its focus considerably after the halfway mark when it begins to latch on to a slowly rising acidy warble which is all strobes and smoke, finally beginning to pull everything together. Structure suffers less from this initial confusion, and begins in a similar area to where Vector left off, but never strays very far from there. It leaves some interesting ideas languishing in a bit of a tech-house cul-de-sac, which is fine enough, but it needs to electrify its groove to really get things going.
The other two tunes are far stronger, both in terms of knowing what they want to be and understanding how to go about it. Formation delivers some swirling and playful sounds that beckon to the ears as much as the feet. The real star though is a beautifully understated bass line that provides the engine missing from the other two tracks. It grabs the tune early on, pushing and pulling at the synths and drums until it has them just where it wants them to be, and harkens back to an era when techno was still beholden to house music’s way of delivering a soulful groove from raw machine parts.
Best of the lot is Trajectory. Introspective and captivating, it draws on the slightest of electro touches and adds them to shimmering, liquid synths and some clever percussion. That’s all there is to it; for all the feeling of busyness it remains wonderfully sparse, and the simplicity of it is the vehicle which delivers its impact.
Sifting through influences is a skill that some producers never learn, much less understand the need for, but Protic revels in a lightness of touch and understanding of mood that belays some of the more obvious moments on display and is without doubt at his best when he lets his definite artistry guide him instead of his tastes. And while Vector suffers a bit from uncertainty of what it wants to be, there is plenty here to suggest that if this is Protic just getting started, we could be in for something special in the future.
Electro, Friday Night Tune, Techno
Friday Night Tune: Barada – Detach/Observe
It’s been a long while so I can’t remember for sure now, but I think the first time I heard anything by Barada was on one of those CDs that you used to get free with music magazines back in the days when paper music magazines were still a thing.
The quality of these CDs typically ran from pretty poor to shockingly awful, with only a couple of genuine exceptions to prove the rule. The situation was often made worse if it was mixed. I say ‘mixed’ but mostly this was a euphemism for flumping the beginning of one track into the dying moments of the last. Perfunctory doesn’t begin to describe it. Every so often, though, you got lucky and heard something that took you off in a new direction. It was a rare occurrence, but an important one, especially for nerds growing up in the middle of nowhere, with no record shops or easy way to find anything out, and with the infant Internet still many, many years away from becoming the font of all knowledge it is now.
I don’t remember who else was on the CD. Heck, I can’t even remember which magazine it came from. I’d love to say something cool like Jockey Slut – one of the best music publications in any genre ever, and one that was essentially my bible for a bunch of years in the 90s. It was more likely Mixmag. Even in those days Mixmag wasn’t quite as cool as it thought it was. It was Blue Peter to Jockey Slut’s‘ Magpie, Multi Coloured Swap Shop to JS’s Tiswas, and many other clever references to things I am suddenly aware are making me look very, very, very old. Old but cool, right? Oh Yes.
Still, Mixmag wasn’t quite as much of a vacuum back then as it seems to be nowadays, and it was probably a more accurate gauge of most people’s experience of electronic music than any other magazine of the time. It was also never the most underground of publications – but that was less of an issue in an era when the gap between the underground and the big names may have been more apparent than it is now, but was paradoxically far less important. Jockey Slut was always pitched at a different audience (a fact you can’t help but wonder may have contributed to it not being around anymore).
I’ve never been a Chemical Brothers fan, but it was Jockey Slut who first interviewed them. It was the magazine that icons such as Mike Banks chose to speak to. And it may (or may not) have led to Daft Punk adopting their masked robot-head shtick because of a terrible Slut photo shoot. Not bad for a fanzine that started life as a slogan on a T-shirt. Not bad at all.
For those of us who were far too young to even particularly remember the punk era let alone be a part of it, there was always a sense that we had just missed out on something important. But house music, and techno, was our cultural moment in the sun and Jockey Slut felt like it was our own Sniffin’ Glue; written by the sorts of idiots we ourselves were, and far more likely to introduce us to something that would stay with us forever.
The fact is very little stays with us forever. Jockey Slut didn’t. It never became the bloated style mag that some critics claimed it did, nor it really ever become part of the established musical press. There was a faint drift towards bands and themes I wasn’t so interested in, a drift that grew stronger as the years went by. Gradually, I detached myself from reading it; every spare penny I had went on records instead of magazines. And by the time it eventually folded in 2004 it had been several years since I’d even so much as seen a copy.
Barada’s Detach/Observe wasn’t the track from that CD. Rather it is their tune I loved the most. Barada were a good outfit, especially in the early years when they were still tingling from old school acid house. And while that sound eventually took a back seat to one which was far closer to tech-house, they could still put out tracks like this: tight electro, and coloured with IDM, tinged with funky techno. It’s a rubbery, fluid take on all of that. A stand out tune on their first album. And without a crappy, free cover-mount I might never have heard it or of them. I wonder how much else I owe to that form of lucky education? Probably everything, and then some more.
Electro, Review, Techno
Review: VA – Invisible Darning EP (Brokntoys)
House music may make the most noise, and techno the angriest face, but if you’re wanting to spend time with a weird-wired genre that’s still got one eye on the stars then electro is the one. It’s been a great start to the year as well. Albums by Exalted, and Luke Eargoggle and Faceless Mind, plus 12s from Arcanoid, Diffuse Arc, Jeremiah R, VC-188A, Lost Trax and a dozen others have already nudged the scene into new areas, and there seems to be a greater willingness to experiment, innovate and mix up influences than I can remember in a long while.
London imprint Brokntoys has flown under many radars in the couple of years since their arrival, but the blend of electro, techno, IDM and raw experimentalism they favour has put the label right at the front line. While others like CPU and Shipwrec have really readied the troops for a full scale electro assault on 2016, it’s really pleasing to see outfits like Brokntoys delivering something a little bit different. Check out last year’s releases by Marco Bernardi and Rutherford if you still need convinced. If their dreams of gutter-electronics and dirty angels don’t do it for you, well…
This V/A release draws on the common ground between techno and electro to do its thing. The shared influences, sounds and atmospherics are often overlooked just as they are sometimes taken for granted, and it’s useful sometimes to have a little reminder that crossover is healthy, perhaps even essential. While any V/A collection runs the risk of lacking a bit of overarching focus (a natural side effect of enlisting multiple artists) Invisible Darning generally matches the producers up pretty well, each of them delivering strong evidence of a scene in rude health.
It isn’t quite in the same vein as the labels two previous releases, the tone being less grimy than the Bernardi record, and more likely to push past the rugged tumble of Rutherford’s Singularis. What unites the four producers and their individual takes is a slant towards a darkside vibe – one that is very different to the noir-ish mood more typically found in electro. Ground by The Pulse Project, in particular, weaves in something of tech-step’s collapsing star heaviness; the smashed up beats and wirey pads summoning up a devil of slowly unfurling dread. It perhaps lacks a little to alleviate the airless claustrophobia, but it certainly gets under the skin.
Interestingly, while the feel of proper full fat electro is held in check throughout the bulk of the four tracks, each of them manages to broaden the definition in different ways. Both of the tracks built up of 4/4s, Crystal Maze’s Crossroad Blues and Echo 106’s 100M Splutter, ramp up the tension. Crossroad Blues seems ponderous to begin with, but grows into a thick groove as it rides a fiercely primal acidic line right to the tune’s heart. 100M Splutter, retrofits classically electro touches and motifs to a tight, straightened up machine jacker that trades licks between frosty synths and a mean half-formed bass line through a hazy half light.
Dez Williams, an artist having a bit of a stormer of late, delivers a slice of prime Detroit inspired electro that funnels Model 500 and Carl Craig over a fractured yet tough break beat, and douses it with washes of deep, aquatic strings, while layering in little touches which warp its structure, turning it into a lean shadow boxer of a track. Four tunes from a common ideal, with excitingly different understandings of what the music means. Maybe it’s a sign that in 2016 electro will open up, spread out, and take over. I hope so.
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Teaching Thoughts
Up Late with Daryl Gregory’s Afterparty
April 30, 2014 January 30, 2015 pctelanewsafterparty, daryl gregory, science-fiction2 Comments
From Goodreads.com “It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide. Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: she was one of the original scientists who developed the drug. With the help of an ex-government agent and an imaginary, drug-induced doctor, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous in a quest to set things right. A mind-bending and violent chase across Canada and the US, Daryl Gregory’s Afterparty is a marvelous mix of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, and perhaps a bit of Peter Watts’s Starfish: a last chance to save civilization, or die trying.”
Daryl Gregory, an author located in State College, attended the Saturday morning author’s breakfast at our 2013 PCTELA conference. If you’ve ever lived in a college town, the first chapter of this book will perfectly capture what you see on a regular basis. The descriptions are spot-on and, quite frankly, hilarious.
This long-anticipated novel has a brilliant concept with strong, believable characters and a fast-paced plot. I would say it is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Also, there are many witty metaphors and thought-provoking discussions about free will, religion, and drugs. I would say this science-fiction novel set in the near future is not terribly far-fetched. In fact, in the book, Gregory made up an idea of an app to find a homeless shelter, and that app just appeared in real life.
One of my favorite characters in this book is the guardian angel Dr. Gloria, who helps Lyda work through her past and her present relationships. But I’m also enamored with Vinnie, who keeps a herd of tiny buffalo in his apartment. The precision of the language and the originality of the plot make this a must-read for everyone.
Some favorite quotes from the book:
“The human egg is a Mrs. Bennet, desperate to marry off her daughters…It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sperm must be in want of a matching strand of DNA.”
“A BS in any neuroscience without a master’s or PhD was a three-legged dog of a degree: pitiable, adorable, and capable of inspiring applause when it did anything for you at all.”
“Look, you can’t think of a person like it’s one thing, one ‘I’ that decides everything. The brain is a collective, a huge number of all these thinking modules. It doesn’tmake a decision, it arrives at one.”
~posted by Kate, VP for Secondary PCTELA
Top 5 Literary Ways to Procrastinate
April 25, 2014 June 14, 2014 pctelanewsbooks, bookshelves, lists, literary tattoos, up late with jennie and kateLeave a comment
Welcome to Friday afternoon, where all you really want to do is take a book out to the yard and read on a blanket. Unfortunately, you’re still at work…so spend some time thinking about reading with these literary lists:
This is an older list, but a good one. Find a decent book-to-movie adaptation for your weekend: Top 100 Books made into Movies:
Thinking about ink? Check out these 50 Literary Tattoos
Some of these might surprise you: 26 Acclaimed Authors who also Wrote Children’s Books:
Redecorating projects this summer? Check out Beautiful Bookshelves you’ll want in your Home:
And then, the list to end all lists: The List list over at Book Riot
posted by Kate, PCTELA VP for Secondary Schools
Up Late with Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl
April 23, 2014 June 14, 2014 pctelanewsfan fiction, fangirl, rainbow rowell, YA litLeave a comment
From Goodreads.com: “A coming-of-age tale of fanfiction, family, and first love. Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…. But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?”
This is one of those page turners that you devour in all one sitting, where you just want to read one more chapter, turn one more page, to find out if everything turns out OK for Cath. Rainbow Rowell has the gift of creating characters who remind me of my students–witty, clever, vulnerable, strong, human, and ultimately, real.
Some of the passages in the book are supremely true: “In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can’t Google.)” And others make me laugh aloud and wish I was as witty as her characters: “How do you not like the Internet? That’s like saying, ‘I don’t like things that are convenient. And easy. I don’t like having access to all of mankind’s recorded discoveries at my fingertips. I don’t like light. And knowledge.”
This book reminded me of many of my students who read and write fanfiction. It was lovely to see a respectable tribute to the genre of fanfic/slash fic. If you enjoy this book, try reading Eleanor and Park, another remarkable novel. Rowell even has an adult fiction book, Attachments, which is equally un-put-down-able.
posted by Kate, PCTELA VP Secondary Schools (k1a9t7e5 @ gmail.com)
Up Late with Veronica Roth’s Divergent!
April 21, 2014 June 14, 2014 pctelanewsbook reviews, divergent, reading, reading up late with jennie and kate, veronica rothLeave a comment
A student of Jennie’s was awesome enough to write this Monday’s review of Divergent. Thanks, Mallory!
Tris Prior has waited her whole life for the day she gets to choose her faction, and home, for the rest of her life. But when she takes the test she discovers that she does not easily fit into one of the five factions. She is labeled as Divergent, but must keep it a secret as it is considered an anomaly in her seemingly perfect world. Through her new faction she faces struggles and people that either want to help her of kill her. Along the way she meets Four, a secretive initiation leader that catches Tris’s eye. He helps her see the flaws in the world around her, flaws that force Tris to make a choice far harder than any she’s had to make before. By the end, Tris knows little about who to trust and wonders how one choice could possibly transform her life as much as it does.
Action –packed and thrilling, Divergent starts with a fast pace that continues to the very end. The action never stops for even a second and Roth keeps you on your toes the whole time. Tris is a strong female lead and throughout the novel she relies little on others for help. Her character development is immense and she nearly transforms by the end. Four and Tris’s relationship grows and develops and takes a unique turn, as many of her relationships do. There are many surprises along the way that turn the plot down new and unexpected paths. Readers looking for a new type of dystopia will devour Divergent and the rest of the books in the trilogy.
Friday Five: The Top Five Vampire Novels That You Don’t Have To Defend As “Reading For Your Students”
April 18, 2014 June 14, 2014 pctelanewsDracula, I am legend, let the right one in, salem's lot, the radleys, vampiresLeave a comment
So, as a High School English Teacher, I am still asked about the Twilight series. This often comes from my students, and my standard response is that I thought the ratio of “teen romance” and “vampire action” would be a little more “vampire action” than it turned out to be. That all said, I enjoyed the series and anytime you can read something your students are reading, it is a win in my book (pun intended). As a fan of the genre as well as the classic horror movies they inspired, I present to you:
The Top Five Vampire Novels That You Don’t Have To Defend As “Reading For Your Students”
Dracula – by Bram Stoker
Each year, when I teach A Christmas Carol, I tell my students that although many know the story, I doubt any of them have read the original text. For many people, I think this is the case for Dracula as well. Published in 1897, it was by no means the first writings on vampires, which date back to the early 1700’s. Not immediately successfully until the film versions appeared, which then immediately launched the genre. Now regarded as a classic and written in epistolary form, it is a collection of diary, journal, and newspaper entries. As with many novels, it has elements that still could not be presented on film due to content. When fall hits and October approaches, think about getting your hands on a copy and opening it up…you won’t be disappointed.
I Am Legend – by Richard Matheson
Many have seen the recent Will Smith film, where the antagonists are portrayed more as zombies who only come out a night. Before that, it was a Charlton Heston film, The Omega Man. Before that, it was a Vincent Price film, The Last Man on Earth. Many might not know that before that, it was the 1954 novel, I Am Legend. There is no mistaking the creatures as vampires and our hero, Robert Neville, must try to figure out the “cure”. Vampirism is presented as a disease to be treated and cured, which is unique to the genre. Trust me, if you have only seen the recent film, you don’t know the novel.
Let The Right One In – by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Set in the 1980’s and translated from its native Sweden, it tells the story of a teenage boy who is the torment of bullies. Soon, a new girl moves into his apartment complex, who doesn’t know what a Rubik’s Cube is yet can solve it immediately, and only comes out a night. The proper order is to read the book, then watch the Swedish version of the film, then the American remake. All are excellent, and nuanced differently in their mood and tone.
‘Salem’s Lot – by Steven King
I will admit I came to Mr. King later in life (I am now making up for lost time)…if fact, I only read this novel about five years ago. Peter Benchley, in writing Jaws, was intrigued by reports of the 1916 shark attacks off the New Jersey coast. The idea of what would happen if a rogue shark came to a small beach town and didn’t leave. ‘Salem’s Lot is very similar. The idea of what would happen if a vampire bought the biggest house in town, setup “shop”, and didn’t leave. It is a classic ghost story that will terrify you. Bonus read: Find one of the anniversary editions that contains the sequel short story “One For The Road”…completely unsettling and wicked good.
The Radleys – by Matt Haig
Suburban, Modern, Plain English family. Abstaining vampires. Something happens to disrupt their secret and the safety of their children. If vampires did exist and were among us, they would not be the Cullens or those in the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) world, they would be The Radleys. Simply a great read.
Written by Jonathan – Communications Director
Up Late with Andrew Smith’s Winger
April 16, 2014 June 14, 2014 pctelanewsandrew smith, rugby, up late with jennie and kate, winger, YA lit5 Comments
From Goodreads.com: “Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.
With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.”
I took my class to the school library to choose books, and our librarian hands me this book and says, I bet you can’t get through the first three pages without laughing out loud. I took the book skeptically, but he was dead on: I laughed aloud within two. Ryan’s voice is wry, compelling, and at times, heartbreaking. After I read this (staying up way too late when I should have been sleeping–or grading) I went and bought three more copies for my classroom. I have a few rugby players in class and they argued over who got to read it first, so I had to make sure I had some spares. My non-rugby players also enjoyed the read.
This was a perfect book for many of my tenth graders, but because of the prolific f-bombs, may not be great for some students who are not ready for explicit language. The storyline also has mature themes: I cried like a baby at the ending and was utterly devastated to learn of the heartbreaking trauma Ryan experienced.
I think one of the reasons I loved this book so much was the sensitivity Ryan exhibited–here’s a young man with feelings and friendships and frustrations. He also happens to be a rugby player at a private school who is trying to navigate being a friend, being a teenager, being a son, and being a (potential) boyfriend. All of the minor characters seemed fleshed out and real as well.
I also just discovered there will be a second book in this series, which will come out in January 2015, where we will see Ryan in his senior year. I know I’ll be sure to check that book out before my librarian has to recommend it to me.
Written by Kate, VP Secondary Schools, PCTELA k1a9t7e5 @ gmail.com
Up Late Reading Kristen Kittscher’s The Wig in the Window
April 15, 2014 January 1, 2015 pctelanewsbook reviews, Kristen Kittscher, reading up late with jennie and kate, The Wig in the Window1 Comment
Best friends and seventh graders Sophie Young and Grace Yang have made a game out of spying on their neighbors. On one of their midnight stakeouts, they witness a terrifying, bloody scene at the home of their bizarre middle-school counselor, Dr. Charlotte Agford (aka Dr. Awkward). At least, they think they do. The truth is that Dr. Agford was only making her famous pickled beets! But when Dr. Agford begins acting even weirder than usual, Sophie and Grace become convinced that she’s hiding something—and they’re determined to find out what it is.
Soon the girls are breaking secret codes, being followed by a strange blue car, and tailing strangers with unibrows and Texas accents. But as their investigation heats up, Sophie and Grace start to crack under the pressure. They might solve their case, but will their friendship survive? – Goodreads
First, let me say that Kristen has written an awesome debut middle-grade novel. I am super excited that this is the first in a series of Young and Yang mystery novels. Growing up, my grandmother had the entire Nancy Drew mystery series…and guess what? I devoured every single one of them. Although I had read a number of other MG mysteries since, none gave me the feeling I had when reading Nancy Drew (twists, turns, super-suspense!) UNTIL I read The Wig in the Window.
There is just so much to love about this book! Kittscher has created two well-developed, quirky characters that I want to learn more about. Both young sleuths struggle through typical middle-school drama (friendship issues, annoying parents, crazy teachers), that all young readers can identify with. The dialogue between the two friends rings true and is absolutely hilarious. I actually found myself lol-ing at times! This story of friendship and courage is one that readers of all ages will enjoy. Definitely check this one out!
P.S. I love the cleverly titled chapters…(Wigging Out, Stranger Danger, Amazing Grace, etc.).
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Crystal and Arabesque
The visionary architect Claude Bragdon helped shape a thrilling moment in design history.
Sandy Isenstadt
Bragdon, pastel drawing, ca. 1931, showing one still from an unrealized color-music film. [Image credit: Courtesy Peter Bragdon and the New York Public Library]
Does good design encourage good, even righteous behavior? Can manmade patterns of point, line, plane and solid — based upon nature’s own seed, stem, leaf and fruit — nourish an organic and just society? Do geometries of form condition the geometry of society?
Questions such as these troubled and inspired architects, artists and designers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Industrialization was then splintering the western world: urbanization jerked families apart as children followed employment to growing cities; increasing specialization separated workers from the products of their toil; inventions like the telephone connected people — but only by allowing greater and longer separations and accustoming us to a voice separated from a speaker. Even the understanding of time was rewritten, as nature and mankind were transformed from transcendent principles to the mere results of indeterminate consequences of historical happenstance and blind evolution. Selfhood itself, subject to invisible and inherited drives, was besieged by the abrupt and random encounters of everyday life in the big city. As that pioneer sociologist of metropolitan life, Georg Simmel, would observe in the late 19th century, people were unwittingly numbing themselves to protect a semblance of self amid the bombardment of so much frenetic stimulation upon such an unstable organism as the modern citizen.
Artists and architects struggled not only to find forms that would respond to their own volatile moment in history; they also sought ways to rejoin what had been torn asunder. The former track led to modernism, the latter to what has been called anti-modernism. Although opposite and seemingly incompatible, both modernism and anti-modernism alike aimed for new unities of self and society to accord with what appeared to be fundamental and inexorable social reconfigurations. Common to both responses was the desire to reconcile art — its forms, materials and practices — with science, whose burgeoning explanatory powers were doing so much to destabilize the abiding beliefs of centuries. Architects espoused evolution, for example, to think through vexing questions of stylistic change. Underpinned by readings of Darwin, theories of organicism proposed structural relationships among function, form and ornament, and in this way sought to link many historical styles over time. For even the most cerebral and ardent of modernists seeking a uniquely machine-age expression, such new congruities promised a spiritual rebuke to the materialist philosophies of the 19th century.
Bragdon, watercolor stage design drawings for The Merchant of Venice, 1925, and Macbeth, 1921. [Image credit: Courtesy Peter Bragdon and the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Library]
Claude Bragdon qualifies as one of the most synthesizing of such thinkers. Active early in the 20th century, Bragdon was an architect, writer, publisher, illustrator, cartoonist and collector of new graphic design, public speaker and political reformist, stage set and lighting designer, founder of a Theosophical Society chapter and, for many, an inspiring visionary. Simply as an architect he ranged widely, designing private homes, public buildings and ephemeral settings, and, following the Renaissance Revival after the Columbian Exposition in 1893, exploring medieval simplifications of form, dabbling in the colonial revival, and experimenting with Art Nouveau. Growing dissatisfied with all of this, he eventually proposed his own system for generating form and ornament, abstracting harmonic principles (rather than stylized floral motifs) from nature, drawing from a global range of visual sources, and stopping not at the usual three dimensions but including also the fourth dimension.
Until the early 20th century, the fourth dimension was understood less as an element in a continuum of space-time than as a higher order of space that completed and made whole our three familiar dimensions. As such, it suggested the presence of another realm, invisible to the poor perceptual equipment humankind was initially issued, but that could help explain psychic experiences that violated laws of Euclidean space such as, say, astral projection. In a materialist age, the fourth dimension gave spiritual phenomena some purchase in the physical realm. The triumph of evolution, then, for Bragdon and others, was not the descriptive theories of Darwin, nor the evident technological progress spawned by science and distributed broadly by industrialization. Rather it was the prospect of entry, or at least insight, into a formerly unknowable sphere of existence. Just as the three-dimensional world can be imagined as a cross-section through a four-dimensional world, so might individual consciousness be simply a slice of a higher form of conscious existence. However fleeting, knowledge of a fourth dimension promised to release the individual from the prison of his own bounded terrestrial spirit.
From Bragdon, Projective Ornament, 70 (left); engraving of a palace in Agra, India, clipped from a magazine and pasted into Bragdon’s “Architecture, Art, and Decoration” scrapbook #9, (right). [Image credit: Courtesy Peter Bragdon and the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Library]
But how could such knowledge be gained? For Bragdon, intuitions of an unseen fourth dimension could be precipitated through geometry, much as a flat circle might be considered as the two-dimensional trace of a spiral that had passed through a plane. Bragdon’s special talent was in visualizing the geometry of the fourth dimension. The best instance is his system of projective ornament, published in 1915 and reaching its widest audience soon after with his designs for choral singing festivals that aimed to unify sound and color with ornament to spark participants’ perceptions of a beatific world. The progressive part of Bragdon’s form-generating system was his belief that individual encounters with a common aesthetic language would reunite the shards of social life into a composition of community, such as the spiritual fellowship he hoped would result from the festivals he helped stage. For the individual, visual apprehension of rhythms precipitated from the fourth dimension would resonate with patterns otherwise concealed in the mysteries of the self. For society, citizens newly alert to communal bonds would work in concert to achieve the harmonies they intuited in the fourth dimension. Bragdon’s transcendent crystalline ornament, animated by vibrant arabesques, both reflected and sustained a vital contradiction at the heart of democracy: individuals with inalienable rights seeking their own satisfactions and creative expression might nevertheless recognize their collective responsibility to assure a just and stable society.
It takes a uniquely adept historian to keep up with such a subject. Bragdon is posthumously fortunate to have Jonathan Massey write his intellectual, architectural and aspirational biography. Crystal and Arabesque: Claude Bragdon, Ornament, and Architecture, [University of Pittsburgh, 2009], the first book-length treatment of Bragdon and his world, is as clear, complex and compelling as one of Bragdon’s own tesseracts, or four-dimensional cubes. It is historiographically sophisticated — explaining why so inventive and prominent an architect and thinker was abandoned by architectural history, and recovering an earlier idea of a socially directive and progressive ornament ripe with pedagogical value before it was deemed regressive and rejected outright by later modernists. It is contextually rich — reestablishing key contemporaries, such as Irving Pond, reconstructing Bragdon’s role as interpreter and late-career interlocutor of Louis Sullivan, and adding new perspectives on later designers, such as R. Buckminster Fuller. And through his recontextualization, Massey redeems Bragdon’s notion of organic functionalism, which was eclipsed by the axiom, “form follows function.” Bragdon’s version was less a development from within than a projection from above.
Rochester’s New York Central Railroad Terminal, photograph by Albert R. Stone. [Image credit: Courtesy Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University or Rochester Library]
Moreover, Massey is visually astute, vividly making a case for the architectural stakes of Bragdon’s designs. In page after page of careful description that ranges from architectural drawings to finished details to spatial forms, Massey reclaims Bragdon’s New York Central Rail Road Terminal, completed in Rochester, New York, in 1913, as one of America’s most distinctive train stations, far more speculative and abstract than better-known contemporary terminals — such as New York’s Grand Central or the old Penn Station, or the Union Stations of Washington, D.C., or Kansas City — and, as Massey points out, remarkably experimental for a civic monument. Reading Massey on the Terminal is like inhabiting an exploded diagram as he guides the reader past familiar Beaux-Arts elements to reveal the “dynamic circularity” that reigns at every scale and excites intuitions of mechanical energy and constant motion.
While explicating Bragdon’s esoteric philosophies, unfolding the geometries Bragdon hoped to impart, and weaving the architect’s intellectual influences into the life story, Massey is careful to stand critically apart. He sees the ornamental system as a kind of sumptuary regulation, and characterizes Bragdon’s “gospel of higher space” [page 138] as operating in a tradition of “moralizing mathematics” [5, 121] anxious to contain the turbulent changes of the 19th century and employing scientific authority to substitute for devitalized spiritual conviction. He notes commonalities with other totalizing impulses, such as the Gesamtkunstwerk and City Beautiful movements, as well as parallels with Esperanto, and underscores the Victorian preoccupation with class just as the representational power of class was diminishing in the machine age. In short, Crystal and Arabesque places in historical perspective a thrilling moment in design history, a moment fertile with ideas of “pure design” [64-65] that aimed to unify sensual apprehension, a moment when a new aesthetic could be considered not simply as an adornment but an engine for progressive social change
If ultimately the question of whether good design can inspire good civic behavior must go unanswered, there should be no doubt that good design makes for good reading and, in this case, might subtly advance the author’s meaning. Binocular, the New York-based graphic firm that designed the book, was clearly inspired by Bragdon. Colors introduced on the cover and flyleaf are titrated throughout the book, like traces left after the pages had passed through a realm of pure color. Massed into discrete blocks that alternate up and down on verso and recto, the text appears to follow its own internal trajectory, as if asserting an independent graphic volition. In this way, each page becomes not only a transparent window onto the author’s meaning but also an opaque plane of graphic performance. With Binocular’s design oscillating between surface and depth, and Massey’s agile descriptions of Bragdon’s travels through hyperspace, the reader acquires not just a fresh perspective on competing 20th-century modernisms but also an unanticipated ability to add or shed imaginative dimensions at will.
Sandy Isenstadt, “Crystal and Arabesque,” Places Journal, September 2009. Accessed 20 Jan 2020. https://doi.org/10.22269/090916
More in Reputations
Regionalism Revisited: The Case of Francisco Artigas
Keith Eggener
In the mid 20th century, Francisco Artigas was one of the best known architects in Mexico. Today he is largely unknown. It’s time for a fresh look.
“An architecture which is whole”
Introduction by Keith Eggener. Archival Text by Vincent Scully.
Vincent Scully has long been one of our leading architectural historians, and one of the most confident and audacious. Even when wrong he was stirringly, scintillatingly wrong.
Working for the People
Timothy Mennel
Instead of a typical doctoral dissertation in geography, Timothy Mennel wrote a novel. Here, Robert Moses and Frank Lloyd Wright take a drive through Harlem and the Bronx.
Sandy Isenstadt is a professor of architectural history at the University of Delaware, and a columnist for Places.
More by Sandy Isenstadt
At the Flip of a Switch
Metropolis Regained
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Tag Archives: Sam Ciaramitaro
Quick Chat: Utopic editor Kat Pryor on Porsche film
By Randi Altman
Utopic editor Katherine Pryor didn’t grow up a racing fan, but a recent short film for an iconic car company turned her head. New York City-based production company ADDigital and Chicago edit house Utopic teamed up on a documentary-style film for Porsche. Director Sam Ciaramitaro and Pryor worked side by side on the web offering, via agency Cramer-Krasselt Chicago.
The five-minute-plus film, called The Enduring Bond, is the first of two long-form projects Ciaramitaro and Pryor are slated to collaborate on. The second one will shoot at Road Atlanta this fall. The Enduring Bond, which shot over four days this past March, offers a “fly-on-the-wall style and features two personal stories: one showing how much the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race means to the crews and drivers from Porsche, and another following a family that attends the race year after year.
We reached out to Pryor to find out more about editing the project, and working through 25 hours of footage, as well as her collaboration with the director.
How early did you get involved in the project?
I had several conversations with director Sam Ciaramitaro prior to production. I had worked with him before, so when we knew we were teaming up again for this one, he would send me ideas and we would discuss things like music, style and pacing.
Can you talk about how you worked with them before the edit process began?
I was given some “homework” before production. There were a few docs I watched as examples of great techniques for fly-on-the-wall-style documentaries. In addition to that, I had a learning curve for what endurance racing actually is. I had never seen a car race or understood the culture with fans and drivers, so I watched the feature film Le Mans (Steve McQueen) and Senna, a documentary composed entirely of found footage about Formula 1 driver Ayerton Senna. This all helped to get me into the driver’s seat POV, so to speak.
You mentioned that you and the director had worked together in the past. That must have made things a bit easier?
Sam and I have a great short hand. There was a lot of collaboration back and forth during post. Also, it was great to be on set and see him come back from a location excited to tell me what they just captured and what to keep my eyes open for as I looked through footage.
So you were on set, not near set?
The set was the entire track — 3.74 miles — and the surrounding areas where fans were camped out all weekend. We were set up in a room where media and TV people were stationed, behind the grandstand. I was editing on set with my assistant Christen Nehmer. On several occasions we were able to hop in a golf cart and head out to a location for parts of the shoot. I really couldn’t have done this without her there – she was syncing interviews and logging wild sounds right alongside me so I could focus on pulling selects.
It was essential to be there to have a grasp on where and how everything was shot, and how sound was captured. We were also able to go into the pit area to observe. Having been at a race track for four days, I can now distinguish the sound of a Porsche engine from any other race car!
L-R: DP Steven Huber and director Sam Ciaramitaro.
What was the piece shot on, and how did they come to that specific format/camera?
We had two very agile and talented DPs — Anthony Arendt and Steve Huber — who shot on Sony A7s combined with Atomos Shogun 4K. These cameras are great for their small size and ease with getting around quickly. The footage looks fantastic. And with everything at 4K, I had a lot of opportunity to blow shots up and move around the frame.
When did you start getting footage, and what was the workflow like?
We started getting footage on the second day of the four-day shoot. We were set up near the DIT, and as he transcoded the footage, we would then copy to our drives. We worked off of 15-inch Apple MacBook Pros, running Adobe Premiere CC, with 4TB G-Tech G-RAID Thunderbolt drives.
It was a 12-hour race on Saturday, day four of the shoot, so we had lots of footage trickling in as the day went on. We spent most of Saturday organizing the three days of footage we had already gotten. By Sunday morning, we had everything in hand, which was around 25 hours of footage. Then we got on a plane and flew back to Chicago. Sunday night Christen and Jarrad Quadir, another rockstar Utopic assistant, transferred all the footage over so I could continue editing on Monday without missing a beat. Sam came to town Tuesday and by Thursday we had about a nine-minute working cut.
What kind of direction did you get about the edit?
The race itself was never the focus of the piece. Nor was the goal to sell Porsches. The focus was to tell the human side of motorsports. To let the personal stories unfold, side by side. I knew that the meat of this was going to be the family’s story, followed by the driver, Jörg Bergmeister. With this kind of documentary style, there are always surprises. There was no traditional board or script to work from, so I started with the director’s treatment.
How would you describe your creative process on this one?
I watched every frame before I started laying anything into a timeline. I was extremely disciplined. With 25 hours of footage, it would be tempting to skip through a lot of it, but I made sure to screen everything, pull selects and really just digest all of it. With that amount of footage, I wanted to be sure of everything we had to work with.
Next, I started with Sam’s treatment as my roadmap. Everything in his treatment was captured. It came down to finding the most essential and best moments to tell the family’s story, and to balance that with the driver’s perspective leading up to the race. It was also important to fill it in with cinematic moments — like Jörg shaving and then driving to the track with a fellow race car driver. The goal was to create tension and build up the characters, then end with the beginning of the race.
Was there a part that was most challenging?
I think the challenge was what to do once we got to the actual race! Since it was not a focal point, I wasn’t quite sure how to wrap it all up. I felt like we could just keep building and building. Once I saw what an emotional story we had from the Diaz family, I knew we had to end with that. In fact, Sam discussed it with me on set immediately after he shot it — that was the ending… Javier’s tears. So I definitely had that in mind from the beginning when I started cutting.
The actual race result was a bit of a surprise. Porsche ended up having a rough last hour of the 12 hours and they lost despite holding leads throughout the day. Later in the post process it became important to get their message across, which ultimately ties back into the theme of Enduring Bond. Creating the drama of this losing moment but still maintaining their will to win was a bit of a challenge.
What are you most proud of?
I absolutely love this piece. I’m so thrilled to have been brought into this project by Sam, ADD and CK. I would say I am most proud of the sound design that I built with the variety of elements I had — original music, ambience, pit-to-car radio communication, track announcer voices, wild track audio of the race and sync sound from interviews. It was definitely outside of how I normally work on projects. I really pushed myself to build and layer the audio especially during the rough-cut stage. Then, of course, I worked closely with Brian Leitner, Utopic’s sound designer and music composer.
Can you talk more the music?
Before production we created an original music track, based on direction that Sam had given us. I wanted a track to cut with that could eventually be post scored. Instead of doing a traditional music search or getting hooked on a song from a band or soundtrack, I asked Brian Leitner to create something. It turned out to be an amazing piece of music, and perfect for this film.
This entry was posted in Quick Chat and tagged ADDigital, Adobe Premiere Pro, Kat Pryor, Sam Ciaramitaro, Sony A7 cameras, Utopic on July 6, 2015 by Randi Altman.
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VR Audio: Crytek goes to new heights for VR game ‘The Climb’
By Jennifer Walden
Dealing with locomotion, such as walking and especially running, is a challenge for VR content developers — but what hasn’t been a challenge in creating VR content? Climbing, on the other hand, has proved to be a simple, yet interesting, locomotion that independent game developer Crytek found to be sustainable for the duration of a full-length game.
Crytek, known for the Crysis game series, recently released their first VR game title, The Climb, a rock climbing adventure exclusively for the Oculus Rift. Players climb, swing and j ump their way up increasingly difficult rock faces modeled after popular climbing destinations in places like Indonesia, the Grand Canyon and The Alps.
Crytek’s director of audio, Simon Pressey, says their game engine, CryEngine, is capable of UltraHD resolutions higher than 8K. They could have taken GPS data of anywhere in the world and turned that into a level on The Climb. “But to make the climbing interesting and compelling, we found that real geography wasn’t the way to go. Still, we liked the idea of representing different areas of the world,” he says. While the locations Crytek designed aren’t perfect geographical imitations, geologically they’re pretty accurate. “The details of how the rocks look up close — the color, the graininess and texture — they are as close to photorealistic as we can get in the Oculus Rift. We are running at a resolution that the Rift can handle. So how detailed it looks depends on the Rift’s capabilities.”
Keep in mind that this is first-generation VR technology. “It’s going to get better,” promises Pressey. “By the third-generation of this, I’m sure we’ll have visuals you can’t tell apart from reality.”
Simon Pressey
Since the visuals aren’t perfect imitations of reality, the audio is vital for maintaining immersion and supporting the game play. Details in the audio actually help the brain process the visuals faster. Even still, flaws and all, first-gen VR headsets give the player a stronger connection to his/her actions in-game than was previously possible with traditional 2D (flat screen) games. “You can look away from the screen in a traditional game, but you can’t in VR. When you turn around in The Climb, you can see a thousand feet below you. You can see that it’s a long way down, and it feels like a long way down.”
One key feature of the Oculus Rift is the integrated audio — it comes equipped with headphones. For Pressey, that meant knowing the exact sound playback system of the end user, a real advantage from a design and mix standpoint. “We were designing for a known playback variable. We knew that it would be a binaural experience. Early on we started working with the Oculus-provided 3D encoder plug-in for Audiokinetic’s Wwise, which Oculus includes with their audio SDK. That plug-in provides HRTF binaural encoding, adding the z-axis that you don’t normally experience even with surround sound,” says Pressey.
He explains that the sounds start as mono source-points, positioned in a 3D space using middleware like Wwise. Then, using the Oculus audio SDK via the middleware, those audio signals are being downmixed to binaural stereo, which gets HRTF (head related transfer function) processing, adding a spatialized effect to the sounds. So even though the player is listening through two speakers, he/she perceives sounds as coming from the left, the right, in front, behind, above and below.
Since most VR is experienced with headphones, Pressey feels there is an opportunity to improve the binaural presentation of the audio [i.e., better headphones or in-ear monitors], and to improve 3D positional audio with personalized HRTFs and Ambisonics. “While the visuals are still very apparently a representation of reality, the audio is perceived as realistic, even if it is a totally manufactured reality. The headphone environment is very intimate and allows greater use of dynamic range, so subtle mixes and more realistic recordings and rendering are sort of mandatory.”
Realistic Sound
Pressey leads the Crytek audio team, and together they collaborated on The Climb’s audio design, which includes many different close-up hand movements and grabs that signify the quality of the player’s grip. There are sweaty, wet sounding hand grabs. There are drier, firmer hand grabs for when a player’s hands are freshly chalked. There are rock crumbles for when holds crumble away.
At times a player needs to wipe dirt away from a hold, or brush aside vegetation. These are very subtle details that in most games wouldn’t be sounded, says Pressey. “But in VR, we are going into very subtle detail. Like, when you rub your hands over plants searching for grips, we are following your movement speed to control how much sound it makes as you ruffle the leaves.” It’s that level of detail that makes the immersion work. Even though in real life a sound so small would probably be masked by other environmental sounds, in the intimacy of VR, those sounds engage the player in the action of climbing.
Breathing and heartbeat elements also pull a player into the game experience. After moving through several holds, a player’s hands get sweaty, and the breathing sound becomes more labored. If the hold crumbles or if a player is losing his/her grip, the audio design employs a heartbeat sound. “It is not like your usual game situation where you hear a heartbeat if you have low health. In The Climb you actually think, “I’ve got to jump!” Your heart is racing, and after you make the jump and chalk your hands, then your heartbeat and your breathing slow down, and you physically relax,” he says.
Crytek’s aim was to make The Climb believable, to have realistic qualities, dynamic environments and a focused sound to mimic the intensity of focus felt when concentrating on important life or death decisions. They wanted the environment sounds to change, such as the wind changing as a player moves around a corner. But, they didn’t want to intentionally draw the player’s attention away from climbing.
For example, there’s a waterfall near one of the climbs, and the sound for it plays subtly in the background. If the player turns to look at it, then the waterfall sound fades up. They are able to focus the player’s attention by attenuating non-immediate sounds. “You don’t want to hear that waterfall as the focus of your attention and so we steer the sound. But, if that is what you’re focusing on, then we want to be more obvious,” explains Pressey.
The Crytek audio team
The Crytek audio team records, designs and edits sounds in Steinberg’s Nuendo 7, which works directly with Audiokinetic’s Wwise middleware that connects directly to the CryEngine. The audio team, which has been working this way for the past two years, feels the workflow is very iterative, with the audio flowing easily in that pipeline from Nuendo 7 to Wwise to CryEngine and back again. They are often able to verify the audio in-game without needing to request code support. If a sound isn’t working in-game, it can be tweaked in Wwise or completely reworked in Nuendo. All aspects of the pipeline are version controlled and built for sharing work across the audio team.
“It’s a really tight workflow and we can do things quickly. In the game world, speed is everything,” says Pressey. “The faster you get your game to market the sooner you recoup on your very heavy R&D.”
Two factors that propelled this workflow are the collaboration between Crytek, Audiokinetic and Steinberg in designing software tailored to the specific needs of game audio pros, and Crytek’s overhaul of CryEngine where they removed the integrated FMOD-based audio engine in favor of using an external audio engine. Running the audio engine separate from the game engine not only improves the game engine efficiency, it also allows updates to the audio engine as needed without fear of breaking the game engine.
Within hours of Wwise releasing an update, for example, Pressey says their system can be up to date. “Previously, it could’ve been a long and complicated process to incorporate the latest updates. There was always the risk of crashing the whole system by making a change because the code was so mixed up with the rest of the system. By separating them we can always be running the latest versions of things without risking anything.”
Having that adaptability is essential for VR content creation since the industry is changing all the time. For example, Sony’s PS4 VR headset release is slated for this fall, so they’re releasing a new SDK about every week or so, according to Pressey.
CryEngine is freely available for anyone to use. VR games developed with CryEngine will work for any VR platform. CryEngine is also audio middleware agnostic, meaning it can talk to any audio middleware, be it Wwise, FMOD or proprietary middleware. Users can choose a workflow that best suits the needs of their game.
Pressey finds creating for VR to be an intensely experimental process, for every discipline involved in game development. While most members on the Crytek team have solved problems relating to a new IP or a new console, Pressey says, “We were not prepared for this amount of new. We were all used to knowing what we were doing, and now we are experimenting with no net to fall back on. The experience is surprisingly different; the interaction using your eye and head tracking is much more physical. It is more intimate. There is an undeniable and inescapable immersion, in that you can’t look away as the game world is all around you. You can’t switch off your ears.” The first time Pressey put on a VR headset, he knew there was no going back. “Before that, I had no real idea. It is the difference between reading about a country and visiting it.”
Crytek will be presenting a new VR release titled Robinson — The Journey at E3 this month, and Pressey gives us a few hints as to what the game experience might be like. He says that VR offers new ways of storytelling, such as nonlinear storytelling. “Crytek and the CryEngine team have developed a radically new Dynamic Response System to allow the game to be intelligent in what dialog gets presented to the player at what time. Aspects of a story can be sewn together and presented based on the player’s approach to the game. This technology takes the idea of RPG-like branching storylines to a new level, and allows narrative progression in what I hope will be new and exciting territory for VR.”
The Climb uses this Dynamic Response System in a limited capacity during the tutorial where the instructor is responsive to the player’s actions. “Previously, to be that responsive, a narrative designer or level designer would have to write pages of logic to do what our new system does very simply,” concludes Pressey.
Jennifer Walden is an audio engineer and writer based in New Jersey.
This entry was posted in Audio, Virtual Reality and tagged 360 video, Crytek, Jennifer Walden, Oculus Rift, sound design, The Climb, VR Audio on June 6, 2016 by Randi Altman.
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Home / The Blog / Q&A with Katie Ormerod
Q&A with Katie Ormerod
We discuss the Olympics, injury recovery, travelling and gymnastics with Pretty Athletic ambassador Katie Ormerod.
Katie is a British pro snowboarder who was selected to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics, and is an X Games Medallist and World Cup Gold Medallist.
When did you start snowboarding, and when did you realise this was a sport you wanted to pursue seriously?
I started Snowboarding from the age of 5 and fell in love with the sport straight away. I knew I always wanted to snowboard but when I was around 12 I realised that I had the ability to become pro and so that became my goal.
How did it feel to be the first female snowboarder to land a backside double cork 1080 when you were just 16?
It felt amazing! I had just missed out on the 2014 Olympics by 2 spots and so I turned my upset into something positive and decided to become the first woman in the world to do a backside double cork 1080. When I landed it, I felt so proud of myself as I had proved all the people wrong that said women weren't capable of doing that trick and also progressed women's snowboarding. It was an amazing feeling!
Can you describe what a typical day of training looked like leading up to the Winter Olympics this year?
I'd wake up early, go Snowboarding from around 9am to 3/4pm. Then I'd come home and either go to the gym or Gymnastics for an hour before stretching in the evening.
Following your injury earlier this year, we can't wait to see you back on the slopes — how do you feel about competing again and what's your plan moving forward?
I was gutted when I got injured at the Olympics. I'm feeling really excited to get back on my board and start training and competing again...Right now I'm in the gym 4- 5 times a week so I can get back to the mountains sooner rather than later. I really miss it!
Do you have any tips for injury recovery, how do you maintain such a positive mindset?
From my experience I've learnt to just take things as they come, work hard in the gym and stay as positive as possible. It's so easy to feel down after a big injury, so looking at the bigger picture and focusing on getting stronger so I can get back to doing what I love is the thing that really keeps me motivated. I've also set myself some mini goals to achieve whilst recovering, such as writing again and doing more public speaking. This helps to keep me focused on something now, which keeps me positive and excited.
What are your gym bag must-haves?
Water, Red Bull, hairbrush, lifting gloves & shoes, and Pretty Athletic Workout Glow.
With the nature of your sport and competing you have to travel a lot — how do you cope with being away from home so much and staying on top form when travelling?
Travelling is the best as I get to visit new countries and have so many new experiences, but it can be also very tough on my body with lots of jet lag. I'm used to being away from home as I've been traveling since I was 12, but throughout the season, there are times when I just need to come home for a week or even just a few days to properly recover. I always try to listen to my body so if I've been training/ competing/ travelling and my body needs a break, I give it one so I can stay on top form.
When you're not training for snowboarding, what's your favourite way to keep active?
I love doing Gymnastics. I competed and trained 5x a week up until I was 16, so I'm still really into it and do it as much as I can. I also like climbing and have just started to try yoga.
What's your favourite mountain/ resort and why?
I love Perisher in Australia because it has an amazing park with quick laps and it has a strong Spring like feel to it which is great, as Spring is one of my favourite times of the year to ride.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to get serious about snowboarding?
Have fun! The main thing that I have learnt is that when you are enjoying it, you're more likely to progress and learn than if you're pushing yourself too hard.
For more, follow Katie on Instagram and Twitter
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Contains Stem Majors
Total Degrees
Awarded in 2017
declining 1.86%
Median In-State
Public Tuition
growing 3.09%
Median Out-of-State
growing 3.4%
People in Workforce
growing 0.634%
The locations with the highest concentration of Language & Linguistics degree recipients are New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Madison, WI. The locations with a relatively high number of Language & Linguistics degree recipients are Middlebury, VT, Crawfordsville, IN, and West Point, NY. The most common degree awarded to students studying Language & Linguistics is a bachelors degree.
Photo by Thomas Quine
Information about the types of higher education institutions that grant degrees in Language & Linguistics and the types of students that study this field. University of Wisconsin-Madison awards the most degrees in Language & Linguistics in the US, but Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf have the highest percentage of degrees awarded in Language & Linguistics.
Tuition costs for Language & Linguistics majors are, on average, $7,637 for in-state public colleges, and $41,630 for out of state private colleges.
The most common sector, by number of institutions, that offers Language & Linguistics programs are Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above institutions (591 total). The most common sector, by number of degrees awarded, is Public, 4-year or above (20,850 completions).
Institution with the Most Degrees Awarded in Language & Linguistics
Brigham Young University-Provo
The most common sector, by number of degrees awarded in Language & Linguistics, is Public, 4-year or above (20,850 completions).
The following chart shows the share of universities that offer Language & Linguistics programs, by the total number of completions, colored and grouped by their sector.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
State TuitionOut Of State TuitionTotal Graduates
Median Out of State Private
University of Wisconsin-Madison has the most Language & Linguistics degree recipients, with 454 degrees awarded in 2017.
The following bar chart shows the state tuition for the top 5 institutions with the most degrees awarded in Language & Linguistics.
Specialized Colleges
Highest Concentration Institution
Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf
Out of all institutions that offer Language & Linguistics programs and have at least 5 graduates in those programs, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf have the highest percentage of degrees awarded in Language & Linguistics, with 25.8% and 25%, respectively.
Degrees Awarded by County
Counties with the Most Degrees Awarded in Language & Linguistics
New York County, NY
This map shows the counties in the United States colored by the highest number of degrees awarded in Language & Linguistics by year.
Growth in Awarded Degrees
Counties with the Fastest Growing Number of Degrees Awarded
Sebastian County, AR
Gurabo Municipio, PR
Buena Vista County, IA
This map shows the counties in the United States colored by the highest growth in degrees awarded for Language & Linguistics.
Information on the businesses and industries that employ Language & Linguistics graduates and on wages and locations for those in the field.
The average salary for Language & Linguistics majors is $70,950 and the most common occupations are Elementary & middle school teachers, Postsecondary teachers, and Lawyers, & judges, magistrates, & other judicial workers.
The industry that employs the most Language & Linguistics majors is Elementary & secondary schools, though the highest paying industry, by average wage, is Household appliances & electrical & electronic goods merchant wholesalers.
Yearly Income for Common Jobs
Average Wage in Workforce
This chart shows the average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Language & Linguistics majors.
Highest Paying Locations
Yorba Linda, La Habra & Brea Cities PUMA, CA
LA City (Central/Pacific Palisades) PUMA, CA
This map shows the public use micro areas (PUMAs) in the United States colored by the average salary of Language & Linguistics majors.
Note that the census collects information tied to where people live, not where they work. It is possible that Language & Linguistics majors live and work in the same place, but it is also possible that they live and work in two different places.
The most common occupations Language & Linguistics majors, by number of employees, are Elementary & middle school teachers, Postsecondary teachers, and Lawyers, & judges, magistrates, & other judicial workers.
Compared to other majors, there are an unusually high number of Language & Linguistics majors working as Interpreters and translators, Miscellaneous social scientists, including survey researchers & sociologists, and Natural sciences managers.
The highest paid occupations by median income for Language & Linguistics majors are Securities, commodities, & financial services sales agents, Physicians, and Lodging managers.
2018 Workforce
The number of Language & Linguistics graduates in the workforce has been growing at a rate of 3.25%, from 471,403 in 2017 to 486,746 in 2018.
The largest single share of Language & Linguistics graduates go on to work as Elementary & middle school teachers (9.3%). This chart shows the various jobs filled by those with a major in Language & Linguistics by share of the total number of graduates.
The most common industries that employ Language & Linguistics majors, by number of employees, are Elementary & secondary schools, Colleges, universities & professional schools, including junior colleges, and General medical and surgical hospitals, and specialty (except psychiatric and substance abuse) hospitals.
The highest paying industries of Language & Linguistics majors, by average wage, are Household appliances & electrical & electronic goods merchant wholesalers, Software publishing, and Securities, commodities, funds, trusts & other financial investments.
Industries by Share
The industry which employs the most Language & Linguistics graduates by share is Elementary & secondary schools, followed by Colleges, universities & professional schools, including junior colleges. This visualization shows the industries that hire those who major in Language & Linguistics.
Specialty Locations
PUMAS with a relatively high number of Language & Linguistics majors
West Hollywood & Beverly Hills Cities PUMA, CA
Carr 2-Carr 111 PUMA, PR
This map shows the public use micro areas (PUMAs) in the United States where there are a relatively high population of Language & Linguistics majors.
Demographic information on those who earn a degree in Language & Linguistics in the US. The average age of a person in the workforce with a degree in Language & Linguistics is 44.2, and the most common degree type these workers hold is a Bachelors Degree. Female employees are more likely to hold Language & Linguistics degrees, and White students earn the majority (18,823) of the degrees.
Workforce Age
Average Age in 2018
± 0.487 Years
1 Year Change
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Language & Linguistics. The most common ages of employees with this major are 30 and 32 years old, which represent 3.29% and 2.99% of the population, respectively.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Language & Linguistics are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Workforce Degrees
The most common degree types held by the working population in Language & Linguistics are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Professional degree.
Gender Imbalance for Common Institutions
Female (69.7%)
Most Common Gender with a Degree in this Field
This chart shows the granted degrees by gender at the 5 institutions that graduate the most students in Language & Linguistics.
Race & Ethnicity by Degrees Awarded
Most Common Race or Ethnicity
18,823 degrees awarded
Non-resident Alien
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Language & Linguistics for each race & ethnicity. White students earned the largest share of the degrees with this major.
Race & Ethnicity by Gender
Most Common Race/Ethnicity and Gender Combination
Hispanic or Latino Female
This chart illustrates the differences by gender for each race & ethnicity of Bachelors Degree recipients in Language & Linguistics. White Female students, who earn most of the degrees in this field, are the most common combination of race/ethnicity and gender.
People in WorkforcePeople in Workforce (RCA)
Most Common Countries of Origin
9,164 degree recipients
High Relative Number of Students
8.93 times more than expected
There are a relatively high number of people that were born in Belgium that hold Language & Linguistics degrees (8.93 times more than expected), and the most common country of origin by total numbers for non-US students earning a degree in this field is Mexico (9,164 degree recipients).
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Language & Linguistics field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Language & Linguistics majors need many skills, but most especially Reading Comprehension. The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) shows that Language & Linguistics majors need more than the average amount of Active Listening, Writing, and Reading Comprehension.
These two visualizations, one a radial chart and one a bar chart, show the same information, a rating of how necessary the following skills are for Language & Linguistics majors. Toggle between "value" and "RCA" to see the absolute rating of that skill (value) and the revealed comparative advantage (RCA), or how much greater or lesser that skill's rating is than the average. The longer the bar or the closer the line comes to the circumference of the circle, the more important that skill is. The importance of Active Listening is very distinctive for majors, but the Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Writing are the three most important skills for people in the field.
Radar Distribution
ValueRCA
CIP2
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by Patrick J | December 27, 2012 · 6:13 PM
INBOX: The Russian Revolution Edition
David Blatt (Photo brought to you by Alexander Chernykh via Twitter (@chernykh).
…in which Andy G and I break down candidates for the Brooklyn Nets’ coaching vacancy. (We don’t see PJ Carlesimo keeping the job either.)
Patrick J: Moving the Nets to Brooklyn and aggressively changing the team’s branding and player personnel wasn’t enough: Nets owner and Russian oligarch Mikhail Dmitrievitch Prokhorov made another big move today, firing lame-duck coach Avery Johnson. Since I’ve got the floor, I’ll start off the discussion with two words, and then throw the ball over to your court:
DAVID BLATT (!!)
Andy G: Wow, you’ve come out firing the big guns. Blatt would be an awesome NBA head coach for the obvious reason that NBA coaches typically do not scream in star players’ faces. Blatt does. He also got the Russian team to overachieve its way to a Bronze Medal in last summer’s Olympics (Or did he? AK & Shved are looking pretty legit on the NBA floor these days. Maybe that team was just plain talented.) and emphasizes ball-movement sets not unlike Rick Adelman’s.
But let’s be real: Prok is probably not going to sign David Blatt. He’ll be swiging for higher fences than that (read: Somebody who has coached in the NBA and probably somebody who has won championships in the NBA) and plus, Blatt is happily employed by Maccabi Tel Aviv. (!!!)
Names like Phil Jackson and Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Van Gundy and Larry Brown and Don Nelson (!!!) will get floated around because they are big names and Prok only knows bigtime style. But let’s have more fun with this. Let’s assume Prok can’t lure Phil out of his Montana cabin or Nellie out of his Maui cabana, and instead he needs to dig into the NCAA ranks.
Any guesses at what college coach might pique the interest of Mikhail?
Patrick J: Larry Brown would probably be the best of the bunch you mentioned (excluding Jackson, who’s unlikely to be lured from his nudist colony in the northern California redwoods dude ranch in Montana) to coach what’s at best a fringe contender for an extremely volatile owner. Mikhail Prokhorov is not Zen.
College coaches, you ask? Let’s see. Here’s the criteria I think are running through Prok’s mind: Who is a (1) big winner, (2) really famous, (3) reputedly corrupt, and (4) seems like a NYC kind of guy?
John Calipari: Calipari has to be the leader of that competition, at least coming out of the gates. It’d be weird, in sort of the same way it was weird how the Celtics bought Rick Pitino’s services from the University of Kentucky a few years ago. And it’d be Cal’s chance to get redemption for his failed attempt at NBA coaching – which, of course, happened with the Nets.
Jerry Tarkanian: At the same time, I’m having a hard time getting Tarkanian out of my mind, though that’s mostly just because of how recklessly outlaw and successful his UNLV teams were in the 1990s. This is mostly fantasy, and Tark to the Nyets won’t happen. (Eds. note: Check to make sure Jerry Tarkanian is still alive before hitting “Publish.”) Tark is out there, alive and well, but not a realistic candidate at this point.
Other Coaches of Interest (OCoIs):
Frank Martin: For Martin, all that’s really necessary is this: FRANK MARTIN(!)*
Bill Bayno: On a serious note, there’s one (former) college guy I’d hate to see Prok poach for the Nets: Timberwolves assistant and Punch-Drunk Wolves favorite Billy Bayno. Bayno seems like he could be a Prok guy – hard working, (formerly) hard living, with Vegas credentials and a nice resume to boot.
Before we turn it over to the blogosphere, what’s your parting take?
Andy G: First, major props for the Tark the Shark reference. Aside from his (heart-warming) cameo in Chris Herren’s 30 for 30 I haven’t seen anything about Tark in what seems like decades.
So what will Prok do? Sheeeeeeeit, I have no idea. Maybe hire Gene Hackman and force ask him to officially change his name to Norman Dale? Or if he has a better worse taste in film, the same scenario but with Nick Nolte and Pete Bell?
The possibilities are endless. Who else is looking for a job, any kind of job? David Petraeus? Prok’s co-owner, Jay-Z? Locked-out Detroit Red Wing and Russian Hockey Hero, Sergei Federov? All bets are off on this one, but it’s a story to follow. That much we certainly agree on.
Other takes?
*Martin deserves some consideration, if only because he was the last coach to get uber-talent Mike Beasley to play a decent season of basketball.
Tagged as coaches, inbox, new jersey nets
4 responses to “INBOX: The Russian Revolution Edition”
It’s probably worth mentioning that a Cal hiring would be his second with the Nets. Not that Prok cares.
Patrick J
Way ahead of you. (I sneaked that in on further review before publishing the post.) But yeah, Prok may not know, and certainly doesn’t care.
Ah, good call.
Dave A.
Maybe it’s time to get Rubio into the starting lineup again. He’s frustrated with his own play and wants more minutes, according to Mike Max on WCCO Radio today (Friday). Coming off the bench for limited minutes will find him matched up against a defensive role player whose only purchase is the hound Rubio. A defensive role player can do that for limited minutes, but in the starting lineup, this probably won’t happen. Coach McHale did this to Rubio the other night.
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The Ranting Penguin
Waddling Through Geekland
So…Uhm…The Rise of Skywalker
December 28, 2019 Robert Lee3 Comments
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is not a great movie. It’s not a horrible movie either. It is, however, filled with so much pandering fan-service that it’s as if someone took a tee-shirt cannon filled with Star Wars tees and shot it on full auto into your face. Some folks may love that. I did up until a point. Your mileage may – no, it will – very. It serves its purposes only well enough to close out the Skywalker saga — and for better or worse, that’s the end of that. Now can we get on with telling other stories?
I’m going to keep this as spoiler free as possible which is hard since there is so much going on.
In the opening crawl we are told that supposedly dead Emperor Palpatine is still alive. So the return of the Original Trilogy’s biggest villain is introduced via a Star Wars version of a tweet. Kylo somehow tracks down the hidden secret base of Palpatine. Finn and Poe Dameron are off on a mission in the Millennium Falcon getting information from a mole within the First Order and make a daring escape from a squadron of Tie Fighters. Rey is furthering her training in the forest of some planet that is the current home of the Resistance and Leia is her Jedi trainer. Yet she is still haunted by her connection with Emo Ren — I mean — Kylo Ren, and memories of her parents dumping her. This is in the first few minutes of the movie.
What will follow is revelations that yeah, the Emperor is somehow: alive, cloned, magically resurrected by dark sorcery — take your pick because that’s literally how they explained it. Multiple choice. So, the Emperor is not only alive but it turns out he has his own fleet of ships and army called…are you ready? The Final Order! Dude shows a lack of imagination for sure. But he sure knows how to make conplicated and convoluted evil plans. So in a proposed merger between the First Order and the Final Order, details are worked out. There is literally a boardroom scene where someone asks what can they Sith have to offer in trade.
Rey, decides to go off on her own to go kill Palpatine because I guess being a space sorcerer really doesn’t equate to high IQs. Finn, Poe, Chewie, BB8, and Threepio(?) join her because going alone would be stupid, and because — you know, friendship. But no need to worry about Rey, there will be plenty of moments for her to rush off on her own without her friends. Now in order to get to the Emperor who is on the mythical and of course uncharted Sith homeworld of Exegol, they need a map, and in order to get the map, they must go on a mini-quest. They fulfill the mini quest, but in order to decipher the map, they must go on another mini-quest. And along the way we are introduced to more side characters and land on more planets and we have more cameos of actors who get to brag to their kids they were in a Star Wars movie. This is what happens when you have a generation of screenwriters raised on RPG video games.
In the middle of their mini-quest, we also run in that old smoothy, Lando Calrissian who drops in and points the way towards the film’s maguffin. But playa still has some swagger as he says “Give my love to Leia.” Yeah, dude, I know you’re thinking “What’s up, Princess? I heard Han’s gone now.”
There are chases in the desert and even an escape from a Star Destroyer that looks eerily familiar. Now where have we seen this before? And there are quite a few lightsaber duels, more than in any Star Wars movie to date.
Meanwhile, Rey and Kylo Ren still have that Force bond version of Skype going on and so they continue to troll each other with Kylo trying to turn Rey to the Dark Side and Rey saying she’s gonna destroy the Emperor and that Kylo is still Emo.
The characters and their interactions with each other are genuinely good and especially the trio of Rey, Finn, and Poe. There is genuine sense of chemistry between them. Too bad it took three movies to get them all together on screen. These are all top actors doing the very best they can with the material that they have been given. Richard E. Grant as Fleet Admiral Pryde is quite menacing as a First Order leader and just as Domhnall Gleeson seems most comfortable and least over the top in his roll, it’s the end of the trilogy. And of course Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine stands out as well. This time around they at least got the makeup effects right on him as opposed to that monstrosity of a Halloween mask look he had in Revenge of the Sith. And believe it or not, even Anthony Daniels’ Threepio gets a moment. Too bad that moment was given away in the trailer.
But we must address the presence of Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa. She of course died before filming could start on Rise of Skywalker and through many tricks of editing and writing, she was added into the film from unused footage from The Force Awakens and maybe The Last Jedi. It is not entirely seamless but in the end it works. Carrie’s spirit does seem to haunt the film as every scene that she is in is a focus of our attention whether it is intentional or not. If internet rumors can be believed, and of course we should never doubt internet rumors, Leia’s role Rise of Skywalker was supposed to be major. They did the best they could do with what they had. Should they have totally scrapped the idea and gone without Carrie Fisher in it or write her off in the crawl? I don’t know, the answer to that. But I will say it was done respectfully ad with genuine heart.
John Williams returns for what he has claimed to be his final Star Wars score and he does not hold back as the music is exceptionally grand and lush when it needs to be. No matter what fans may end up feeling about the new Disney movies, I think that we can all agree that John Williams’ scores have always been consistently good.
The script by Chris Terrio and JJ Abrams is exactly would you would expect from one of the writers of Justice League and Batman v Superman. It’s filled with odd choices in narrative and plot threads that were unnecessary. New Force powers are introduced that basically locks these guys into the category of space wizards now. I know it’s just fantasy. But I read enough fantasy books to know that good ones have well thought out magic systems. Why do you think that there are so many Dungeons and Dragons rule books?
Yet somehow it works as big dumb entertainment the same way that Aquaman — or even Godzilla King of the Monsters — works as trash . Because once you start thinking about he film everything falls apart. The action and the character interactions are totally watchable. And that is the main reason to watch it. And on a technical level, the film looks and sounds great. The space battle is massive, yet even though it is bigger, still doesn’t compare to the fleet battle in Return of the Jedi.
Does Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker make a fitting entry into the series? I guess it does. It hit the story beats it set out to do and hopefully the studio can move on from the heavy baggage of the Skywalker (and Solo) name, because Rogue One and The Mandalorian are both examples of how well Star Wars can be done without that heavy burden. As it is, there is a line in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman where the main character tells Jimmy Hoffa just before his demise “It is what it is.” That phrase and the meaning behind it about sums up Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Final Score: 7.5/10 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Fantasy, Movies, Science FictionJedi, JJ Abrams, Original Trilogy, Sith, Star Wars, The Force, The Rise of Skywalker
Why You Need to Watch The Mandalorian January 4, 2020
So…Uhm…The Rise of Skywalker December 28, 2019
Review: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King December 5, 2019
Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood December 3, 2019
Re-watch review: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining November 27, 2019
Re-read Review: Stephen King’s The Shining November 14, 2019
Review: Harriet November 14, 2019
Review: The Lighthouse November 6, 2019
Review: Parasite November 4, 2019
Review: Maleficient Mistress of Evil October 30, 2019
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Happily N’Ever After (2006)
An alliance of evil-doers, led by Frieda, looks to take over Fairy Tale Land. But when Ella realizes her stepmother is out to ruin her storybook existence, she takes a dramatic turn and blossoms into the leader of the resistance effort.
Director: Dino Athanassiou, Greg Tiernan, Paul Bolger, Yvette Kaplan
Actors: Andy Dick, Freddie Prinze Jr., George Carlin, Lisa Kaplan, Michael McShane, Rob Paulsen, Sarah Michelle Gellar
Keywords:Movies 2006
The Hurricane (1937)
In the colonial era, island native Terangi (Jon Hall) spends a blissful honeymoon with his bride, Marama (Dorothy Lamour). Soon after, however, their relationship is torn asunder when Terangi is…
MacGruber (2010)
Ex-special operative MacGruber (Forte) is called back into action to take down his archenemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Kilmer), who’s in possession of a nuclear warhead and bent on destroying Washington,…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
The Last Warrior (2017)
Ivan is an ordinary guy who is transferred from modern Moscow to the fantasy world Belogorye. In this parallel universe where characters of Russian fairy tales live, magic is an…
Country: Russia, USA
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The prospects for continuing life on Earth in the year 2058 are grim. So the Robinsons are launched into space to colonize Alpha Prime, the only other inhabitable planet in…
Genre: Adventure, Science Fiction
Invisible Sue (2018)
12-year-old Sue is a lone wolf. Due to a potion invented by her mother, she is suddenly able to become invisible. But when mum is kidnapped, Sue will need the…
Country: Germany, Luxembourg
Boost (2016)
Hakeem and A-Mac are like brothers. Together facing immigrant life in Montreal, while ‘spotting’ cars after school. Boost gives us a glimpse into the awkward adventures of teenage boyhood, then…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Dragon Inn (1967)
After having the emperor’s minister of defense executed, a power-grabbing eunuch sends assassins to trail the victim’s children to a remote point on the northern Chinese border. But that bloodthirsty…
Country: Hong Kong, Taiwan
Ultimate Avengers (2006)
When a nuclear missile was fired at Washington in 1945, Captain America managed to detonate it in the upper atmosphere. But then he fell miles into the icy depths of…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation, Science Fiction
Black Mask II (2002)
The Black Mask must stop a group intent on setting off a DNA bomb that could cause mutations to the human race.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction
Chandu the Magician (1932)
When delusional madman Roxor kidnaps a scientist in hopes of using his death ray to achieve world dominance, he is opposed by Chandu, a powerful hypnotist and yogi.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Sean Anderson partners with his mom’s boyfriend on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.
Walking Tall (2004)
A former U.S. soldier returns to his hometown to find it overrun by crime and corruption, which prompts him to clean house.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Trailer: Happily N’Ever After (2006)
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English Hafan
Mapiau Degwm Papurau Newydd Cylchgronau Catalog Adnoddau eraill
Cymorth Am y prosiect Cysylltu Chwiliad Uwch
Mapiau Degwm
Papurau Newydd
Cylchgronau
Papurau Newydd Cymru
Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru
Hafan Chwiliad Uwch Cymorth
Hanes Chwilio
Gwiriwch eich dewisiadau cwcîs i weld chwiliadau blaenorol.
Clirio Hanes Chwilio
County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser Abergavenny and Raglan Herald Usk and Pontypool Messenger and Chepstow Argus
Issue: 11 Ebrill 1903
Tudalen: 5
11 Ebrill 1903
Rhifyn Cynt
Tudalen 5
Rhifyn Nesaf
Manylion Hawlfraint
Nid yw statws neu berchnogaeth hawlfraint yr adnodd hwn yn hysbys.
14 erthygl ar y dudalen hon Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau
14 erthygl ar y dudalen hon
PANTEG.
Dyfynnu
PANTEG. CRICKET CLUB.—Panteg Cricket Club are look- ;ing forward to another successful season. During -the winter months the grounds have been largely extended, and are now equal to any in Monmouth- -shire. At a meeting of the club the following officers were appointed for the coming season: Captain, Mr R. 1. R. Butler; vice-captain, Mr C. Williams; treasurer, Mr C. Jarrett; captain of the second eleven, Mr E. Thurtle, wirh Mr J. Evans as vice-captain of the Thursday team.
PONTYPOOL.
PONTYPOOL. /Lgtnti—Mi'. J. Hardinj. Hirket Bookstall, Mr Fteldhouse The Market, and Messrs, Jones and Edwards. ACCIDENT.-Late on Monday night a man was knocked down by a horse and trap in Osborne- road, Pontypool. He was a cripple, named John Thomas. His injuries were attended to by Dr Essex, and he was later conveyed to the infirmary. WILL OF THE REV. HOWELL HOWBLL.-The Rev Howell Howell, of the Rectory, Goitre, and formerly of Blaina, died on December 25th, and his will has been proved by Mrs Harriett Griffiths, wife of the Rev Edward Meredith Griffiths, of Clocaenog, Ruthin, the sister and one of the next of kin, by whom the value of the estate is sworn at £ 2,782 16s 8d gross aud £2,377 lis Id net. The sureties are the Rev Hiram Smyth Rees, of the Vicarage, Abertillery, and Edward Meredith Griffiths, of Abercarn Fach, physician. LOCAL WILLS.—Mr Arnold Bevan, of Park Terrace, Pontypool, formerly in business as a woolstapler, who died on January 23rd, leaving an estate of the value of £ 35,501 10s gross and X-,35,320 14s 3d net, appointed Mrs Anne Bevan, the widow; Frederick Montrevor Bevan, of 2, Waltham Villas, Severn Road, Weston-super-Mare, bank manager, the son; and William Collins, of Heatherside, Midhurst, and late of Pontypool, to be the executors of his will, made on November 8th, 1900. The testator bequeathed £100 each to his executors, and left the residue of his property in trust to pay the income thereof to his wife for life, and on her decease as to one-half thereof in trust for his son Frederick Montrevor for life, and then as he shall appoint to his children, and the other half on like trusts for his daughter Paulina Southwood Jones.—The estate is valued at £1,606 of Mr William Thomas, of Dorset House, New linn, near Pontypool, who died on February 25th last, Mr John Tubb Thomas, of Trowbridge, Wilts., physician, the son, is the sole executor. EVGINE DRIVER KILLED.—A fatal accident occurred at the Great Western Railway locomotive yard, Dock-street, Newport, late on Saturday might. William Edwards, aged 53, of 5, Park View Houses, Pontypool, an engine driver, was bringing his engine and train to the Mill-street yard, and at a quarter to eleven spoke on the telephone to Charles Brown, who was in his signal box. Edwards said he was CDmiug down and would see Brown when he arrived. About five minutes afterwards the train pulled up outside the signal box, and the fireman stated that the driver had been run over. Brown went to the spot and recognised the injured man as Edwards. The supposition is that Edwards alighted from his engine before it had stopped, stumbled, and fell iin front of it Inspector James Hart found that life was extinct. Edwards had been badly crushed, and the left leg had baen cut off.-P.C. Huggins was called to the scene, and assisted to take the Ibody to the Pill mortuary.—The inquest on William Francis Edwards was opened by the Borough Coroner (Mr W. Lyndon Moore) on "Tuesday morning. Evidence of identification only was given by his son, John Francis Edwards, an Underground haulier, residing at Coomb Farm, machine house, Pontypool, and the inquiry was 4hen adjourned until Friday, April 17th.
ITREVETIN SCHOOL BOARD. I
TREVETIN SCHOOL BOARD. I Trevethin School Board met on Tuesday, when -the charges brought against Mr G. Millard, head master of the Gardiffaith Board School, a teacher who has been in the employ of the Trevethin School Board for a period of over 20 years, was discussed at great length. At the March meeting of the Board, Mr W. C. Watkins, a member, and who is also a manager of the Garndiffaith School, com- plained that Mr Millard had insulted him in the playground of the school, and had further ridiculed, before the managers, his mode of walking and his manner of speaking when he afterwards complained. Further complaints were received that Mr Millard i jhad not sent to the Board the recommendations of the managers (he being their secretary) and that he did not support the managers and obtain from the pupil teachers an apology for their conduct to the managers, when the latter refused to grant them the use of the schools for a social. The Board at that meeting resolved that they considered Mr Millard's conduct "moat reprehensible" and demanded an explanation. There was a very long discussion, and Mr Millard was asked to send in his resignation in the course of a month, failing which he would be given three months notice. Q
RAGLAN.I
RAGLAN. I Agent-Mr. W. Parker, Photographer. I THEFT BY A Gipsy.-At Monmouth Police Court on Friday, before Colonel Bradney and the Rev L. A. Rees. James Smith, a gipsy, camping out on Treworgan Common, near Raglan, was charged in custody with stealing an oak post, value Is, the property of Mr James Matthews, ironmonger, ,Raglan.-P.C. Daititon stated that be hid himself near a field where wood had been missed, and saw defendant drive up, and take the post which was leaning against the gate, he evidently having .-placed it there with the object of removing it. He admitted taking it when formally charged, but said he undersood Mr Matthews had given him permission to take wood. Being a first offence, "defendant was bound over to come up for judgment sif called upon.
Parliamentary. I
Parliamentary. I In the House of Commons, on Wednesday, Mr Lloyd-George called attention to the speech recently made by the Prime Minister to a depu- tation of licensed victuallers, and charged the Prime Minister with having in that speech com- mitted a serious interference with the adminis- tration of the law by condemning the decisions of magistrates and appealing to Quarter Sessions courts to reverse the decisions of the magis- trates. Mr Balfour replied that be had made no com- ment on any case that was sub judice he had expressed a general opinion upon a general course of public affairs, and he was perfectly ,.entitled to do this. Sir H. Campbell-Baunerman supported Mr ,Xiloyd-George.
Important Discovery at Caerwent.
Important Discovery at Caerwent. An important discovery has been made at 'Caerwent. On the waste land-between the church and school an inscribed stone was found standing upright in the ground. There are eleven liues of lettering, most of which is quite decipherable. The two lower lines are remarkably clear, and are '■as follows: PVBL ciVIT, SILVRVM." The whole stone seems to have been a sort of epitaph to the memory of some Roman officer. The only tetters that appear on the first line are LEG, and en the next N G. The top of the stone is broken ff. This is believed to be the tir..t inscribel stone yet found in Caerwent. In addition, some very fine Roman masonry has been unearthed in the same spot, remains of au important building, ^probably the Forum.
Monmouthshire Quarter Sessions.
Monmouthshire Quarter Sessions. A LIGHT CALENDAR. The Easter Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the County of Moumouth opened at the Sessions House, Usk, on Wednesday mo/niug, before Sir Henry Mather-Jackson, Bart, (in the chair). Lord Tredegar, Sir Arthur Mackworth, Bart., Captain Walters, R.N., Colonel Mansel, Major G. G. Griffin, Major Williams, Messrs. A. A. Williams, H. Humphreys, Raglan T. H. Somerset, C. W. Earle Marsh, G. R. Martyn, W. L. Pratt, T. E. Watson, T. Dutfield, 1. B. Nicholl, &c. I THE GRAND JURY. The following were sworn on the Grand Jury Mesarp. John P. Lewis (foreman), Walter Green- house, George Jones. I. Llewellin, Alfred S. Morgan (Newport), James Beach (Newbridge), W. Budding, W. Howell (Pontymister), W. H. Butt, Edgar James Pri.-e (Abergavenny), David Davies. David Roberts (Pontypool), David Evaus, David Jenkins (Pontnewynydd), Arthur May Finch (Abercarn), W. B. Harrison (Abertillery), Walter Jelf Risca), W. Lewis (Abersychan), W. Rosser (Langstone), Henry Scudamore (Trostrey), and Richard Waters (Goldcliff). THE CHAEGE. The Chairman, in charging the Grand Jury, said he was very glad to say that there were not many cases to come before them, and he did not think that any of them would present any difficulty to them. Having briefly dealt with the three cases on the calendar, Sir Henry dismissed them to their duties. The Grand Jury subsequently returned a true bill in each case. THE LICENSING QUESTION. The Chairman remarked that some of the magistrates had probably seen that Sir A. Littler, chairman of the Middlesex Quarter Sessions, had taken some action in regard to the licensing law, with reference, principally, to the question of compensation to those houses whose licences had been taken away from no fault of the licensees. Sir A. Littler had sent round to a considerable number of magistrates a form of petition to the Home Secretary asking that provision should be made for compensation for dispossessed interests out of a fund to be raised fr.)m those selling or consuming excisable liquors. The petition pointed out that it was only by such an arrangement that the inflic: ion of hardship could be avoided, and the burden of compensation be equitably adjusted between surviving houses. Those principles had the unanimous support of the L'censiug Commission. The Chairman said the two points in the petition were that out of a fund to be raised by some form of taxation upon existing houses compensation should be given to those public- houses which the magistrates might think it necessary, in the interests of law and order, to suppress, and that the magistrates should have the same power over the beerhouses in existence before the Act of 1869 as they now had over the full- licensed houses. There was a copy of the memorial, together with room for the signature of any magistrate who agreed with it, in the Chairman's room, and any magistrate Who desired to sign the memorial would there have an opportunity of doiug S'J. HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENTS. I Mr J. Corner, on behalf of the Magor R.D.C., applied for the sanction of the Court to the borrowing of E65) for the purpose of defraying the expenses of certain improvements in the highways within their jurisdiction, He said the application was made under Sec. 47 of the Highway Act of 1861. The suggested improvements were of two roads—one the road leading from Llanmartin to Magor, at Pwlhead Hill, and the other on the road leading from Hanwsrn to Biahtou, at Llauwern Hill. The es itnate;! cist was, respectively E350 and £ 260, with C-10 for incidentals, and the object of the improvements was to reduce the gradients. Mr Alex. Sutherland, C.E., Newport, gave professional evidence, stating that the improved gradients at the places in question would be one in twelve. The work ought to have been carried out years ago. He produced the plans, &o. The posting of the uecossa-y tioticee in the 18 parishes in the district was provad by Mr A. H. Rees (deputy clerk of the R.D.C.) and others. In reply to the Chairman, Mr Corner said no objection had been made to the proposed improve- ments. Mrs Perry Herrick, the owner of the land adjoining, approved of them. The necessary sanction was given. NEW MAGISTRATE. I The following gentleman took the oaths and I v qualified as a magistrate for the Cbunty — W. L. Thomas, Esq., Tredillion Park, Abergavenny. I TRIALS OF PRISONERS. i BREAKING INTO A RAILWAY WAREHOUSE. I William Nicholas, 25, labourer, was charged with feloniously breaking and entering the ware- house of the Breon and Merthyr Rtilway Company, on the 8th Much, at Peugain, and stealing therein Its lid and three penny postage stamps. Mr Corner appeared for the prosecution. Defendant pleaded guilty, aud acknowledged a pre-conviction of stealing clothes at Tiedegar for which he was sentenced to 6 months hard labour. The Chairman said there were several previous convictions against prisoner, the last one being as recently as December last. He seemed to be hardly out of prison before he got into trouble again, and had twice been sentenced to 6 months' hard labour. He would now be sentenced to nine calendar monthi' hard labour. A YOUNG MORAL DERELICT. Thomas Pringle, 20, painter, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering the shop of Joshua Griffiths and others, at Newport, on the 16th February, and stealing therein one rolled gold watch, four white metal watches, one oxodieed watch, two pocket knives, and other articles, value £ 15. Prisoner pleaded guilty, and admitted a pre- conviction of felony at Swansea Assizes on the 15th November last. The Chairman said there was a long list of previous convictions against prisoner since 1891. He was only 20 years of age, yet there were 15 previous convictions against him. He was a strong man and ought to be able to earn his living in an honest way. He would go to hard labour for 9 calendar months. Prisoner (unmoved): Thank you, sir. KIDNAPPING AN UNUSUAL CASE. Hannah Yaughan, 38, apparently a wanderer, was charged with feloniously taking away one Charles James Fletcher, a cbild under the age of I 14 years, to wit of the age of one year and nine months, with intent thereby to deprive one Ernest Fletcher, the father of such child, of the possession of such child," on the 23rd March; further with forcibly taking away the said child with indent thereby feloniously to steal" the child's clothing. Prisoner said she took the child out of pity, and appealing to heaven avowed her innocence of It he charges. Mr Corner prosecuted. The evidence of the mother of the child went to show that he was playing outside the house in Piiory-road, Abergavenny, on the 23rd March, her dog being with him She missed the little fellow before dinner. In reply to the prisoner witness admitted that when he returned his clothes were as they were before he was lest Francis W. Thomas, a clerk, residing in the same road, sp ,ke to seeing prisoner with the child and the dog going at her at 12.30 p m. on the day in question. That was about 50 or 60 yards from Mr Fletcher's House. Elizabeth Morgan, who occupies the old toll house on the Hereford-road, said prisoner spoke to her as she was passing her house carrying the chil 1 wrapped up. William Price, labourer, Abergavenny, stated that the day was stormy and wet. He met prisoner with the child near the Crown and Sceptre Inn, and after speaking to her they both entered the Inn and shared a pint of beer which he paid for. While there witness understood the woman to tell someone there that the child was hers and was the youngest of eight or nine, but he didn't pay particular attention to what she said. Then Mr Fletcher came in and struck a blow at him and he cleared out of the way. (Laughter.) Prosecutor said to the woman, You have stolen my child." What diti she reply," asked Mr Corner. Witness answered that he could not say, as he cleared off (Renewed laughter.) Mr Fletcher, the father, a blacksmith, sooke to going in search of his boy, and finding him with the prisoner, as stated. Prisoner used filthy language towards him, and said the youngster was s'arving. The Crown and Sceptre was about a mile from his houge. P.O. Powell deposed that the woman told him that she found the child on a seat on the Hereford road, and said that her home was at Poutrilas, where her husband was at work on a farm. Prisoner now reiterated biiat aha took the child, out of pity, from the storm. She was found guilty, and then acknowledged previous convictions. The Chairman said prisoner appeared to have been constantly in trouble. She had been fourteen times convicted in addition to fifteen timos for wilful damage, drunkenness, -vagrancy, &c. This was a serious offence, and she would have to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for twelve calendar months. I AN APPEAL CASE. The Court was occupied for a long time in hearing the appeal of Sidney Brown v Supt Sinclair, of Newport, against the decision of the licensing justices of that town, who had refused to renew to him the licence of the Fishguard Arms Beerhouse, in Etnlyu-street, on the ground that the house had been frequented by loose women, thieves, and persons of bid character, and that to the knowledge of the previous licensee (Mrs Abbott). Those were the grounds upon which the licence was refused by the magistrates at Newport. But now upon appeal there was a further point taken against the character of the present appellant. Mr Corner (instructed by Mr Joseph Henry Jones) appeared for the appellant; Mr Amphlett, K.O., and Mr Bosauquet (instructed by the Town Clerk of Newport) appeared for respondent. The appeal was dismissed, with costs.
Pontypool Rural District Council./
Pontypool Rural District Council. The monthly meeting of the above Council was held at the Sessions House, Usk, on Friday evening in last week, when there were preseat:—Messrs S. T. Griffin, J.P. (chairman), W. Marfell (vice- chairman). Rev W. W. Jones, Messre R. W. Spencer, J. T. Turnar, R. Williams, J. Williams, Jas. Jtmos, W. Newman, H. ü. Knipe, W. H. Charles, Jas. Bevan, T. Watkins (clerk), and R. Derrett (surveyor). REPORTS. I The Surveyor reported that he had carried out the work directed to be done on the Llancayo- road, the Pontpeilth-road, and the Nantybanuo- road. Through excessive traffic on the Coedcwnn wr-road he was requested by Councillor R. W. Spencer to get at least 60 tons of stone placed thereon. This he had done, as the road had become really dangerous, but to be really satisfactory the work should be done in the summer time. He asked for fifteen 12-inch sanitary pipes to put across the road just beyond Llangibby Schools as the old culvert was inadeqaate to carry off the surface water. There was also a spring in the road and he would require about twenty-live 3mch pipes to remedy that evil. In his sanitary report, Mr Derrett stated that there had been an outbreak of measles in the parish of Llangibby, imported from the parish of Tredunnock. The cases had been visited by the M.O H. and himself, and the necessary precautions given. They hoped to disinfect the school on the following day (Saturday), and the assistance of a char-woman was asked for. The question of liability for the repair of the Llr.ngeviaw roads over which there had been ex- traordinary traffic was adjourned for a report from the Clerk. It was decided to get the pipes asked for by the Surveyor. LLANGIBBY TO THE FORE. I Mr W. H Kennett, schoolmaster at L!angibby, wrote under date March 27th, enclosing a copy of the School registrar for the previous four weeks, and pointing out that the cause of the deplorable state of aff tirs existing was an outbreak of measles which broke out at the extreme end of the parish. A second outbreak seemed to be following. He asked what was the meaning of an enclosed ex- tract from a memorandum of the L.G. B., of December, 1901. This memo. dealt with the clos- ing of schools. The Cierk said he had sent a copy of the letter to the Medical Officer, and Dr Jenkins had replied. In tho course of that reply the M.O.H. said he was much surprised at the contents of the letter from Mr Kennett. Although he did not ask straight out for the closing of the schools he (the doctor) took it that that was what he wanted judging by the quotation from the memo. Oo the last occasion Mr Kennett had a conversation with him about the measles epidemic Mr Kennett seemed perfectly satisfied with the way he was acting for the benefit of the School register under Art. 101 of the Code. He (Mr Kennett) also informed him that the Rector was quite agreeable to the School being kept open. However, as the closing of the school during that (the current) week would not have in his (the Medictl Officer's) opinion, checked tho measles, he did not consider it accessary to recommend it, and he did not think it necessary now as th,) children first taken ill should be able to attend school again. He did not know what Mr Kennett meant by a second outbreak. Commenting on the registrar, Dr Jenkins pointed out that children were absent from school from causes other than measles, so that measles were not altogether to blame for the very small attendance shown. Further he was als,' guided in his action in the matter by the remarks of a Government Inspector recently that, the Schools in this district were closed much too frequently, and he thought 6B of the Memo. favoured the course he took. The epidemic was now abtting. In the course of conversation which ensued it was suggested that Mr Iisnnett had probtbly quoted a portion of the Memo, to suit his case, and the Clerk advised the Council that they could onlv act upon the recommendations of their Medical Officer in the matter. The subject, consequently, dropped. In a subsequent communication Dr Jenkins stated, inter alia, that he had pointed out to Mr Kennett that his experience of closing the schools in such circumstances was that it did little if any real good in checking an outbreak. A PRIVATE MATTER. Mr John Moxon, solicitor, Newport', wrote on behalf of Dr Rutlierfoord Harris, whose name, he sairi, had been mentioned in connection with the dispute pending between Dr Boulton and the Rev H. A. Williams, arising out of the recent outbreak of diphtheria at Llangibby. Dr Harris knew nothing whatever about the dispute, and had never spoken to the Rev Williams about it nor expressed any opinion to him or anyone else upon it. If the Council wished it, he (Mr Moxou) would attend and read to them the only letter received and the copy of the reply sent to Mr Williams. Perhaps the Council would let him know if such a report as had been referred to had been circulated about his client. The Clerk said he had replied stating that it seemed to him to be a privaie dispu'e with which the Council had nothing to do. After s-,ine conver-ati ti it was decided that a reply should be sent pointing out that the Council were a ueutral body in the matter. I STEA.M ROLLING: The Rev W. W. Jones brought forward a recommendation from the Llantrissent Parish Meetiug that the Council should use steam rollers on the roads. The Chairman said the same subject was favourably discussed at the Llangibby meeting. It was decided to consider the matter again when the time came for metalling the roads. FONTNEYT^DD R )A.D. The Clerk dealt with the subject of the boundary line on the road the Council propose to widen, with reference to which the Llantarnam U.D.C had been written to. It appeared that for a great many years the Council and their predecessors had been repairing a portion of the road for which they were not liable. The question was deferred for a reply from the Llantarnam authority. PONTHIB WATER SUPPLY. I The Clerk reported the receipt of the plans, &c.. in connection with the scheme for the supply of water to Ponthir and the Wain, and he was reques- ted to send them to the Local Government Board for approval. IAu inquiry will probably be held by a L.G.B. inspector. I FOOTPATH DIVERSION. I Acting on the request of Mr L H. Hornby, solici- tor to the G.W.R. Company, the Council passed a resolution to proceed with the diversion of a foot- path at Pontnewydd, wheruby a dangerous level crossing would be obviated. The Railway Company will bear the cost.
IMr. Hayes-Fisher's Resignation.…
I Mr. Hayes-Fisher's Resignation. I I A PERSONAL EXPLANATION. I On Tuesday, after question time in the House of Commons, Mr Hayes-Fisher rose from the first seat below the gangway, amidst loud general cheers, and, speaking with great emotion, said :— Mr Speaker, I desire, in accordance with precedent, to inform the House that I yesterday tendered to the Prime Minister my resignation of the post of Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and the right hon gentleman accepted it. As it is a matter which involves my personal character, I trust the House will give me the utmost indulgence while I shortly narrate the circumstances which have led to the termination, as I think, of my political career. (Cries of "No, no!") I will ask the House to bear with me if I do not give all the details of the case, because I am hampered by the consideration that the case is still sub judice, and from chivalrous and honourable motives, which will be understood, I am desirous not to say anything which will injure anyone else whose conduct may be the subject of criticism. (Hear, hear). I will first state the salient facts to the House, and as the defence of myself involves others, I am quite sure the House will see that it is difficulty for me to have sufficient control over myself not to be liable to say something which may injure somebody else who cannot state his case before the House, and so I have reduced my statement to writing. (" Hear, hear," and cheers.) In 1896, that ia to say seven years ago, I was approached by Mr R. Wallace, ICO., a gentleman then in very large practice at the Bar in patent cases, and asked to contribute towards a fund of L5,000 required by A PRIVATE SYNDICATE I for the development of an exceedingly ingeuious invention in which he was personally interested. The invention interested me very much, especially as so great a scientific authority as the late respected Dr Hopkinson—(cheers)—whom I consulted, told me that he thought so well of it that he was himself going to contribute £ 1000 of E5,000 required, and that he intended to give it his personal attention. Unfortunately, be was killed shortly after in an Alpine accident. There were four persons who each contributed LI,000 towards the fund required, of whom I was one. One of the essential conditions upon which I con- sented to contribute was that the syndicate should continue to be a private one, that no shares should be issued to the public or parted with to them, no prospectus and no directors' fees, and under these conditions we considered ourselves at liberty to make such arrangements among ourselves as we thought right, and to allow the capital to be allotted accordingly. To show our bona fides, we were offered a largo sum for the patent, but refused to let the public in, as we considered the patent insufficiently developed. In order to determine our share in the said invention, the chairman (Mr Roger Wallace) transferred 2,000 shares to each of us—Professor Hopkinson, myself, and Sir J. Lawrence—and when this transfer was effected every member of the syndicate was fully aware of the fact, and approved of its being done. These shares were part of a number of shares to which Mr Wallace was entitled under some arrangement with the vendor, which was not disclosed to me. I do not understand that had the syndicate remained a private one there was anything in the least degree questionable, objectionable, or unbusinesslike in the course adopted. The vendor, however, parted with some of his shates against our wish, and IN BREACH OF THE ARRANGEMENT I I have mentioned. The shares which he sold had been deposited by him with a foreign banker as security for advances, and were sold by the banker. I did not know of the transfer until some tima after it took place, and immediately protested. It now appears that in the opinion of Mr Justice Buckley when the vendor so parted with some of his shares the distribution of shares by Mr Wallace-to which, when it was done, no one could obiect—assumed in law a different complexion. Other equally eminent judges talses an opposite view. If Mr Justice Buckley is right I can only say that I was totally unconscious of that fact, and that I have been the victim of a breach of the original arrangement; but I cannot, looking back upon the course which I followed, reproach myself with having acted in any way—I would not say unworthily, but even with want of business caution. There is a sec nd matter which his lordship laid to our charge, and that was that during the last few years Sir Joseph Lawrence and myself had left the entire management of the syndicate to the chairman, Mr R. Wallace. It is true that this was done, but I should like to emphasise the fact that the syndicate was not, and never had beeu, a trading concern, and that, apart from the development of the invention (for which I believed the chairman, Mr R. Wallace, K.C., had special qualifications), there was no business to manage, and in tnis connection I would also point out that the money for such development, and, indeed, the only money in this syndicate of any sort, kind, or description, was OUR OWN MONEY. In the result, the syndicate was wound up, being indebted to only a few creditors, and for no very considerable amount. Before the liquidation and since the liquidation, and, indeed, at all times, Sir Joseph Lawrence aud myself have told the creditors that we would pay them, and this we will do but further, Mr Justice Buckley, in his judg- ment last Tuesday, has suggested that we should re- purchase at par the shares which the vendor trans- ferred in breach of the arrangement that no shares should be sold to the public. For those shares, I need scarcely point out, he (the vendor) received the whole price. I cannot myself, under the cir- cumstances, see that there is the least moral claim against us on the part of the purchasers of these snares with whose introduction into the syndicate we were in no way concerned, and from whom neither we nor the syndicate derived any betiefr, and I am advised that there is no legal claim, s that his lordship's suggestion seems to me to !> very much a counsel of perfection. However. ii> has thought right to make it, aud, although I am not a rich man, I will not have it said that anybody has lost money through me. This is a view that Sir Joseph Lawrence also shares, and we yesterday handed to our lawyer cheques for £ 5,0;X). which is more than sufficient to pay every creditor and the shareholders in question. (Cheers.) The judge was good enough to state that, in his opinion, there was no ground for attributing to either of us ANY LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY, and, may I also point out, that we made no profit of any tiort or description, that we drew no directors' fees, that we issued no prospectus of any kind, that I took up and paid for in cash over 1,100 shares, and that I have advanced the company money which I have not been repaid, so that I have lost sums in connection with the matter which to me are heavy and considerable. Now, I think, people may say, Why did you not make this statement before? Well, I was advised by the highest legal authority that I ought not to address myself to the Press, and ought not to make any statement while the case was sub judice and until I had carried out the directions of the learned judge. My own sense of right and wrong told me that the one important matter for me was to pay everyone, so that no person could say that he had lost a penny through me. I have only had a few days-I am not a rich man-and I was not in a position to make a statement to do that until to- day. I can now say that Sir Joseph Lawrence and I have lodged the money, and that every share- holder, every contributor, and every creditor can have back every single penny that is due to him. (Cheers.) I have wronged no man I have myself been greatly wronged—(Cheers)—and I bow to the full force of THE TERRIFIC PUNISHMENT which has come upon me for this error of judgment committed seven years ago. (The hon, member spoke at this point with considerable emotion.) I have resigned, not because I think I am uufitted to hold the high position I held until a day ago in the Government, but because I accept the judgment of those in whose judgment I rely, for we are not always good j udges in our own causes. The censure of a certain judge, to which wide circulation has been given, renders me open to attack inside and outside this House that, in conducting the business of the Treasury, I have become, instead of a source of strength, a source of weak- ness to the Government-(cries of No, no ")—to which I am absolutely devoted, All I will ask from the Prime Minister, to whom I know these proceedings are more painful than perhaps they are to me, is to say that whatever I may have done in my private capacity, however remiss I may have been in my own private business, during the time I have conducted the financial business of this country entrusted to me, I have not been remiss or careless, I have not shown any want of prudence or want of caution, and I have not shown any want of capacity in that matter. (Cheers.) For nearly eighteen years I have been a member of this House, and eight years a member of the Government; and if I have neglected my private affairs it is because I DEVOTED MY WROLE TIME to the Government. For seven years I only missi-d three divisions, which will show that my time and my heart were devoted to this House. I have only to say how deeply touched I have been by the kiud messages that have come to me from my political opponents, who might have said something harsh about me, and how much I shall always treasure those messages. (Cheers.) MR BALPOTTR My hon friend has made an appeal to me to which I respond, not only readily, but gladly If anything could have increased the sympathy which, I am confident, has been felt since these unfortunate transactions were known—if anything could increase the sympathy which has been felt in all quarters of the House with my hon friend, it is the statement he has jut made. (Cheers.) Everyone will admit that ho has behaved under most trying and most difficult circumstances, not merely as we should all have anticipated as a man of high integrity and honour—(cheers)—but as a man who carries scrupu- losity in dealing with those who he thinks have suffered in the transactions to a degree which must, I think, MJVE THE ADMIRATION OF ALL OF U" and of those who will have the opportunity of reading what he has said. (Cheers.) My hon friend has asked me to bear testimony to the zeal and efficiency with which he has carried out his public duties in this House and in his office. That testimony I most gladly give. My hon friend and I have been closely associated together in political work fer many long years. I first came into close political and personal relations with him so fur back as 1887, when he gave me valuable assistance at a very trying and difficult period of my public administrative work. Since then he has been actively engaged in political work. He has, in and out of office, devoted himself with zeal and ability to the labours which this House throws upon the most zealous of its sons, and though he has, necessarily, and as a matter of course—being, as he is, a strong pirtv man—found himself divided by sharp differences from many of those with whom he has sat in ths House, and whom he has addressed to-day, I do not believe my hon friend HAS ONE SINGLE ENEMY I 1 in this Houss. (Cheers.) Few things more painful I have ever happened to me than the events of the last few days, in my political life, at all events, and I can only assure my hon friend that I am quite confident the course he has taken in this House, and outside, in connection with this unfortunate iiffair, all that he has done and all that he has said, will augment the esteem in which he is held by his opponents, and even increase, if that were possihle) the affectionate confidence of his friends. (Cheers.) SIR H. CÁ.lPBEIiL-BANEItYA.N: I It is no part of the duty, nor will it be the desire, of this House to pronounce any opinion upon the legal question which way be still pending in this matter, but there will be a universal feeling in this House of svmpathy with the hon. member— (clieers)-and sympathy increased by the fact that we believe that in the difficult, delicate, and un- fortunate situation he has done the right thing. (Cheers,) The hon. member has addressed us in terms which must engage for him an I INTCREAEE OF RESPECT from everyone who has heard him. (Hear, hear.) His conduct, not only previously in tendering the resignation of his office, but to-day in the recital he has made of the steps he has taken, I think, show us all that we were not mistaken in the belief that he was, in our experience, a man deserving of our respect, regard, and esteem. (Cheers.) I will not d well on the matter it is unnecessary to go further, but, while we deeply regret the circum- stances which have lad t) the interruption of his cueer-his official career—we still hope and feel that he will continue, at all events, to be a member of this House—(cheers)—in which he is so well calculated to do useful service. (Cheers.) Mr Hayes-Fisher at this point rose, bowed to the Speaker, and left the House. MR BLAKE, speaking for the Nationalist Party, echoed the expressions that had fallen from the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition. Me H lyes-Fisher, by his action, had vindicated his reputation and increased the hono r due to him as a member of the House. The subject then dropped.
I The Advantages of Poverty.
I The Advantages of Poverty. When a man is sick and requires a surgical operation, poverty, paradoxical as it may seem, is to be envied, and wealth, so far at least as treatment is concerned, is a positive disadvantage. Now when the poor man falls sick, what does, or can, he do ? He goes to his club or other doctor, and if what he is suffering from is an ordinary medical illness it is duly treated If. however, it is something requiring speeial" treatment or is otherwise a little bit out of the doctor's daily routine, he is promptly advised to repair to the hospital of his choice, and commonly does so. Arrived there, he either patiently awaits his turn, or, if endowed with tact and a little current coin, may secure the porter's favour and early admission to the consulting room. But in either case he obtains that very same day the fullest attention of a consulting surgeon, and if need be is promptly admitted to a building which has been specially constructed for the reception of the sick, and wherein he will receive fiMtn surgeons and properly supervised nurses the very best treatment that the combined resources of money and science can secure for any man. Any arrangements that can possibly be made in a private house arc at the best merely makeshift, while it is doubtful if there is a single nursing home in existence in which conditions are not passed which, in a hospital, surgeons would absolutely condemn. The question of expense, though in some cases an absolute catastrophe to the patient, is not here dwelt on, since the only point it is desired to emphasise is that at present the rich man with all his wealth does 110% and practically cannot, obtain the scientific advantages that the poor man can, and does, obtain for nothing. — The Hospital.
LETTER FROM SIR JOSEPH LAWRENCE.…
LETTER FROM SIR JOSEPH LAWRENCE. M.P. J The following letter appeared in the Times on Wednesday morning: Sir,-I understood that, not being an official Member of the House, it was more becoming of me not to obtrude a personal explanation of my own after Mr Hayes Fisher's impressive state- ment this afternoon. But, having followed him in taking an inter- est in the Telesciiptor Syndicate seven years ago, I should like to repeat publicly7 that I have been proud of having been associated with him, in am prouder to adopt as my own every word i" the imnlv and honourable explanation which t • offered iu the Home to-day. Ü is, pernaps, superfluous for me to add any expressiou of admiration that he should have so quixotically inflicted upon himself a penalty to which no one could have made him submit. I am, Yours faithfully, J. LAWRENCE. House of Commons, April 7th. April 7th.
MR. HAYES FISHER AND SIR JOSEPH…
MR. HAYES FISHER AND SIR JOSEPH LAWRENCE. The following letter his been published from Mr Hayes Fisher — Buckingham Palace Gardens, April 8th, 1903. Sir,-In order to avoid any possibility of misapprehension, I desire to say that in my statement to the House of Commons yesterday, concerning the conditions which had been made to ensure the Telescriptor Syndicate being kept in private bands, and no prospectus issued or public money taken or directors' fees paid, I intended to include my friend Sir Joseph Lawrtnce, who joined the Syndicate on the same conditions as I pointed out. Sir Joseph Lawrence has contributed half the fund which he and I have deposited for the shareholders and creditors. Yours faithfully, (Signed) W. HAYES FISHER.
Isk & Llatigibliy Steeplechases.
Rhestrau Manwl, Canlyniadau a Chanllawiau
Isk & Llatigibliy Steeplechases. The ninth meeiing was held on the Mardy Course on Monday last, and was favoured with fine weather. There was a good ,itteiidaiiee. A mongst those present were Lord Tredegar and Colonel the Hon F. C. Morgan, M.P. Mr R. St. John Beasley, of The Lawns, Usk, right royally entertained a very large number of friends at luncheon, and to refreshments during the afternoon in a tent on the ground. Colonel Morgan's successes were very popular, as also was Mr Hobbs' win. It was regrettable that there should have been a w.o. in the Olwav Hurdle Race, especially as there were eleven entries. STEWARDS:—Lord Tredegar, M: F H., Lord Raglan, Lord Llangattock, Sir A. Mackworth, Bart., Sir J. Lawrence, M.P., Colonel the Ron F. C. Morgan, M.P., Dr llutherfoord Harris, E. Windsor Richards, Esq., Colonel Curre, M.F.H., C. E. Lewis, Esq., Dr Boulton, Col R. H. Mansel, R. P. Jenkins, Esq., F. Phillips, Esq., C. F. Crawshay, Esq., C. H. Firbauk, Esq., R. St. John Beasley, Esq., E. Phillips, Esq., W. H. P. Jenkins, Esq., W. H. Partridge, Esq., R. L. Bsasley, E-'q., W. Pegler, Esq. OFFICIALS :—Judge—Mr John Pratt. Starter- C. F. Crawshay, Esq., Clerk of the Scales-IIIr A. E. Hancock. Clerk of the Course-Mr T. Rees, junr. Stakeholder—Mr A. llivers. Auctioneers—Messrs. W. Marfell and W. S. Poole. Yeterinary Surgeon, Mr Sidney Smith. Hon. Sees.—Messrs. A. Rivers and T. Rees, junr. 2,15-rre LLANDENNY STEEPLECHASE of 40 sovs; weight for age; winners extra; allowances. Three miles. a 12 0 Mr F. C. Morgan's Young Torpedo Mr Deer 1 5 12 6 Mr Partridge's Ferry Las-, 3fr Robers 2 a 12 0 Captain Barker's Chance It Mr C. Garuett 3 a 12 0 Mr E. Emmanuel's Electric F. Parker 0 Betting-13 to S on Ferry Lass, 5 to 2 agst Young Torpedo, 5 to 1 agst Chance It, and 10 to 1 agst Electric. Won by fifteen lengths; a bad third. Electric fell. 3.0-The MARDY SELLING HURDLE RACE of 3') sovs; weight for age winner to be eold for 50 sovs; allowances. Two miles. 4 10 7 Mr W. Hobbs' Felstead .F, Parker I all 3 Mr G. R, Lawrence's Peripatetic D. Davies 2 fi 11 2 Mr J. Lewis's Pride of Leightoll G. Peake -5 a 11 3 Mr Dowdall, jutiii Offertory Mr Happerfield 0 all 3 Mr H. D. Thomas's Lawn Sleeves Mr J. Anthony 0 6 11 3 Mr H. Jones's Dalmorton Owner 0 a 11 0 Mr F. Penn-father's Paysandu Grosvenor 0 6 11 3 Mr Cavill's Blantyre Mr Garnett 0 Batting—6 to 4 agst Felstead, 5 to 2 agst Pride of Leigh ton, 6 to 1 each agst Peripatetic, Dalmortou, and Paysandu, and 10 to 1 agst any other. Won by twenty lengths; a neck separated the second and third. Lawn Sleeves and Paysandu fell. 3.40-The OLWAY HURDLE RACE of 30 sovs. for horses that at the time of closing have not won under N.H. or Irish N.H. Rales weight for age; winners extra; allowances. Two miles. 10 0 Mr Greswolde Williams s Briudisi UrSrnith w.o. 4.20-The LLANGIBBY SELLING STEEPLE- OffASE of 30 sovs; weight for age winner to be sold for 50 sovs; allowances. Two miles.J all 7 Mr W. Horton s Missionary D. Davies 1 a 11 7 Mr W. Hobbs' Witch of the Hills Mr Anthony 2 5 10 7 Mr Hobba' Cadran F. Parker 3 a 11 3 Mr Dter'g Everleigh Owner 0 Betting-6 to 4 agst Missionary 7 to 4 agst Everleigh, 3 to I agst Cadran, and 10 to 1 agst Witch of the Hills. Won by two lengths; same distance between the second and third. Everleigh fell. 5.0—The USK STEEPLECHASE of 30 sovs; weight for age; winners extra; allowance. Two miles. 6 11 10 Mr F. C. Morgan's Prohibition Mr Deer 1 4: 10 3 Mr Dyke Dennis's General Jacoueminot.Mr I. Anthony 2 4 10 3 Capt R. W. Ethelson's The Duiker C, Waller 3 Betttog—C to 4 agst Prohibition. 7 to 4 agst General Jacqueminot, and 3 to 1 agst The Duiker. Won in a canter by twenty lengths; a bad third.
I I Markets.
I Markets. USK, CATTLE, Monday.—Notwithstanding it being race day. there was a fair attendance aud supply, especially of sheep and lambs, at the ordinary monthly market to-day. The demand, too, was fairly pood. Quotations :-Be.st beef 6 to 7d per lb, second Quality 601 to 6fd lamb, I a wether mutton SH to 9J, ewe 7}d to 8d veal, 8d to Ql per It); cows and calves, £12 to C15 LT yearlings, £6 to £ 9 tv™-}'ear-olds, Li-O to fl3 sows and pigs, C7 to £10 strong store, 37s to 4of each; three months old, 21s to 23s weaners, 17* to 20s each; heavy-weight porkers, 9" a scorei light ditto, 9s 6d to 10s a score.
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Tag: Daily Mail
August 26, 2015 August 26, 2015 by rev0107, posted in Newell News International
Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one and in the modern world of blogging and social media it’s never been easier for us to have it and share it. Whether we like it or not.
Take Katie Hopkins, for example, she has a view on absolutely everything, regardless of how absurd or ridiculous it sounds. Remember when she vented her spleen about not naming children after a geographical location because it was uncouth? Well one of her own children’s name is India.
The hypocrisy. You couldn’t make it up.
That’s the beauty of our freedom of expression but also its curse. We have to listen to a lot of crap. And no I do not just mean the extremist, hook handed Muslim clerics the Daily Mail goes on about but also the extremist (and largely unchallenged) views by people in positions of influence that label Palestinians as filthy rodents. Or how about those opinions that suggest we line trade union members up in front of a firing squad when they go on strike? That’s the beauty of our freedom to express ourselves and our opinions, no matter what arsehole it comes from. That includes me and my opinion. You’ll either love or hate it in equal measure but that’s okay because that’s your opinion and you have a right to it too.
But like your arsehole, keep it clean. We can all agree to disagree and if we don’t like someone’s arsehole opinion? Ignore it. Block it or better – debate it. If you feel you really are offended by it, think on the old tale we teach our children about sticks and stones, but don’t censor it arbitrarily. Opinions are linked to our freedom of expression and always remember; the door for controversial opinion swings both ways.
Tagged Daily Mail, Katie Hopkins, news, opinons, sticks and stonesLeave a comment
Not since Alessio Rastani have I laughed that much at the BBC
October 4, 2013 October 8, 2013 by rev0107, posted in Newell News International
Every now and then, TV IS GOD, throws you a bone and last night was one of those nights.
Last night BBC Question Time devoted a considerable amount of time to the recent Daily Mail attacks on Ed Miliband’s father Ralph. They have decided to label Miliband’s late father as an enemy of that state because he dared to write (as a 17-year-old) that Britain could do with being taught a lesson about empire by losing the war. He went on to serve with the Royal Navy and was there at Normandy. Very much a hero for the very freedom of expression I am enjoying right now. Let us not forget that the empire that Britain has desperately fought to protect over the years was built on the blood, bones and tears of people deemed to either be weaker, less human or less important than ourselves and we called ourselves “the motherland”.
The Daily Mail however, as the self-appointed conscience of the UK, decided to take an opportunity to throw mud at Ed Miliband by disgracefully attacking the memory of his father and Quentin Letts, who works for the Daily Mail was mid-flow explaining it was a fair political comment when Mehdi Hasan asked the question: “Who really hates Britain” What followed was one of the most brilliant pieces of television I’ve seen since Alessio Rastani told the BBC that Goldman Sachs ruled the world and that they did not care about us. The endorphin rush I received at that point was worth every minute of staying up for. I had just had a battle with myself on whether I could stomach Question Time and thanks to Hasan I am glad I did.
The Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere courted Hitler in the build up to the war, counting Mussolini as his friend too. They may not have been the only title who printed pro fascist pieces in the 1930’s but for some context on the absurd attack that the Mail have engaged in over Ed Miliband’s, it is priceless.
The Daily Mail loved to tell us of the ‘scum’ dancing around our streets following the death of Margaret Thatcher and have used this is a way of justifying what they are doing with Ed Miliband. What confuses me more is that the very people that tend to read this paper are the very people it hates the most, working class people, that they manage to help convince everyday that they are middle class and above the strife we face on daily basis.
As Mehdi put it, they hate women, bait gay people, smear Muslim’s, encourage the vote for fascists in France, called Mo Farrah a plastic Brit and poured scorn on Danny Boyle for having a mixed race couple during the Olympic opening ceremony. Who hates Britain? The Daily Mail.
Daily Mail overflowing with bile about Britain, Nick Clegg says (theguardian.com)
Thatcher ally accuses Daily Mail of ‘telling lies’ about Ralph Miliband (theguardian.com)
My dad loved Britain, says Ed Miliband as he hits back at Daily Mail (standard.co.uk)
Prescott: Miliband fought Nazis as Mail supported them (itv.com)
Tagged BBC, BBC Question Time, Britain, Daily Mail, Ed Miliband, Grant Shapps, Hitler, Lord Rothermere, Margaret Thatcher, Mehdi Hasan, Miliband, Nazi's, Quentin Letts, Royal Navy5 Comments
Newell News-round up, week 19
August 5, 2013 by rev0107, posted in Newell News International
This week we will just get straight into it.
NHS/Health
VICTORY! Lewisham A&E has been saved this week as the high court over ruled Jeremy Hunt, citing that he acted illegally in his move to close the department. The scenes of euphoria were something to behold and a timely reminder to us all that collectively we can turn back the tide of oppression and austerity we face.
99% of patients were happy with their NHS care, 100% of the Conservative Party want to privatise it any way.
A doctor has prescribed surgery to remove fallopian tubes in a pre-emptive move to beat ovarian cancer. It has drawn some scepticism from Cancer Research who say there is no evidence to support such a suggestion and is another act in a worrying trend of fashionable surgeries to beat cancer. Angelina Jolie recently underwent a double mastectomy to reduce the chances of her developing breast cancer saying it did not affect her woman hood.
Human Rights/Hatred UK
Bradley Manning, found not guilty of aiding the enemy, still faces 130 plus years in prison for not following orders. See what we had to say about that here.
After the hate vans ‘go home’ we had spot checks for immigration visa’s. The BLACK SHIRTS are in town! Of course these were brown people in deprived areas of London town. Wonder if they are going to do spot checks at the local Walkabout bar and check for Australian’s who’s visa’s may have expired? No, just Trenton Oldfield then is it? What kind of world are we living in? You cannot be illegal on your own planet.
Workers rights are being smashed by the not so new phenomenon of the zero hour contract and whilst the public get set to protest the media’s main focus, Mike Ashley and Sports Direct, the frugal Queen with her 52 bedrooms and 78 toilets at Buckingham Palace get away with the same contracts being offered out to her wage slaves without so much as a whimper. This news ‘broke’ only a week after I had written about the Daily Hate Mail front page, stating that firms have a duty to employ British people, echoing Gordon Brown’s comments in 2009 that there should be British jobs for British people.
Lord Howell, George Osborne’s father-in-law, has said we should ‘frack’ the desolate North East..no wait, sorry, the North West. You cannot make it up. Whilst the battle for Balcombe continues we have clowns like this wading in with ridiculous comments. 40 years of shale gas or not, it does not solve a whole list of problems we face regarding energy, what do we do after 40 years? What do we make everything out of? What about our water sources? What about seismic activity?
52% of the UK are now struggling with their bills in 2013. This is an increase of 9 million people who now struggle financially but interestingly only two weeks ago George Osborne informed us that the UK economy was on the mend and before this that we never had a double dip recession. A man also told the Daily Mail that the high street is dead and that the only thing left will be Tesco and Costa.
Terror alert, BE AFRAID. The US announced that there was imminent danger as the end of Ramadan came and they drew back on their drone assault on Yemen, prompting fears that the US embassy in Yemen may be subject to an attack… If you drone bomb innocent people then you may expect them to be upset. The US and the UK are engaged in acts of terror everyday, one way of ending the war of terror is to stop participating in it.
Future king has penis drawn on his forehead, world goes nuts. You cannot make it up.
Why art is crucial to change was discussed by Peter Joseph on Russia Today with Abby Martin. Kill the artist, kill the protest!
Twitter silence started at 00:01 this morning and finishes at 23:59 tonight in an attempt to highlight Twitter’s failings to deal with abuse and ‘trolling’ on the 140 character or less website. There has been much debate about the worth of this act, we wonder whether or not those abstaining from Twitter have also withdrawn from other sources of misogyny and rape culture for the day such as The Sun on Sunday, Facebook, Lynx or anyone of a hundred other items portrayed using rape culture through advertising?
Bees are to be tracked using a new radio antennae with Rothamstead Scientists taking the lead on the project from Harpenden. We do not know why honey bees are dying off but if they die out we are in serious trouble. I hope it has nothing to do with the GMO crops they have been trialling in Rothamstead Park…
Tagged Austerity, Balcombe, Bradley Manning, British people, Buckingham Palace, Conservative, Daily Mail, Fracking, George Osborne, Gordon Brown, Lewisham Hospital, London, NHS, Recession, Sports Direct, Twitter Silence, Zero hour contractsLeave a comment
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Home America Now Why Romney’s Senate Run Is Unhealthy For Republicans
Why Romney’s Senate Run Is Unhealthy For Republicans
by Remso W. Martinez February 21, 2018 7 comments
In 2016, I managed a campaign for an Independent candidate for city council against a four-term sitting Republican councilman. The city council was almost entirely Democrat except for that one lone Republican, who was known amongst the community as a man unwilling to speak to constituents and uncompromising on his ideas, rather than the ideas of those whom he represented, of what was best for the community.
We ran against him for his seat not because of severe policy differences, but because for conservatives to win office in this town we had to have leadership willing to lead instead of sit still. As the election closed, he still won re-election, but drained all available resources from the other Republican candidates in order to fuel his war chest. The council remained essentially the same, but Republican support was almost as empty as their funds after this hollow victory.
Former Massachusetts Governor and two-time Presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced last week his intention to run for the US Senate seat from Utah, a move many didn’t see coming from the seventy-year-old political veteran who lost a large amount of support during the 2016 race when he attacked then-candidate Donald Trump on the campaign trail from his bully pulpit. While many feel Romney’s race is essentially just a walk in the park, I feel that regardless of election results, Romney’s “coronation” as the Utah GOP state chair called it in a public attack on Romney, before recanting his statements, is utterly unhealthy for the future of the Republican Party going forward.
I became an active Republican after the Trump election, seeing an opening for potential liberty conservatives in the footsteps of Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and others cut from the same mold to make a difference in the party and Congress as a whole, much like the House Freedom Caucus has. For the first time in history, millennials are now a majority of the voting electorate in the nation. The GOP needs fresh blood, and Romney is far from fresh in ideas alone, from his foreign policy that mirrors that of Obama and Bush to his social policies that flip-flopped between the “progressive” he was when running for Senate in 1994 against Ted Kennedy and the social conservative he claimed to be in 2012.
Romney has taken an opportunity that could have been give to a potential new leader of the Republican Party, but instead has opted to snuff that light before it had a chance to flicker. Aside from just Romney, Republicans need to spend more time building up new leaders instead of resurrecting the dead careers of those establishment figures who had their moment.
Why Romney’s Senate Run Is Unhealthy For Republicans was last modified: February 21st, 2018 by Remso W. Martinez
Remso W. Martinez
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A Halloween Treat
By Regent Park Focus - October 31, 2013
On Thursday October 31, 2013 the media lab became a Pre-Halloween hangout for kids waiting for darkness to proceed with the always-fun trick or treating. In the Media lab, a new chance at learning was made by having the youth make a blog and a Gmail, if they did not have one. As a new initiative youths that come to the media center on Thursday will be encouraged to post a new editorial in their blog before they are allowed to go on social media websites. This will serve as both a learning media experience and an outlet for stress and the daily troubles of being a youth.
The youth were quite receptive to the blog and many wrote of their Halloween experience at their schools. The youth also talked about the history of Halloween as originally a Pagan tradition having changed over hundreds of years. We also talked about Halloween plans including haunted houses and the export of candy from the neighboring house to their pillowcases and shopping bags. The excitement could hardly be contain…
Resiliency and the Diva Girls
Friday October 25th 2013 the Diva Girls had a guest speaker come in to talk about resiliency, abilitytorecoverreadilyfromillness,depression,adversity,orthelike;buoyancy, and stresses the youth face everyday. The guest speaker, Christine, asked girls to choose their top three stressors and it seemed as though the girls unanimously decided that the top three stressors were, drum roll; School, Parents and Drama. We explored these topics deeper to get a better sense of why these things stress the youth, for example, many of the youth felt that school held all the stressors in their life such as friend drama and the stress of failing/not doing well and having their parents be disappointed. Although some of the youth put on a tough face many of the other youths talked openly about daily stressors like not fitting in and even violence.
The Diva Girls kept an open mind and everyone participated as they learned about ways to deal with daily stressors and ways to approach a problem with re…
Today In The Media Lab
The group reviewed two videos that dealt with stereotypes. The first video was specifically stereotypical behavior from Toronto Youth. In this video we saw three males in different scenarios, at the mall, the barbershop, to name a few places. We heard phrases like, “I’m out here bro,” “beef ting,” and one that seemed most comical, “ yo boom!” The group discussed how the video made them feel and shared past experiences that related to other more serious stereotypes they had faced. This then sparked conversation about social norms and the struggle to fit in vs. the struggle to disassociate from them.
The last video was a segment from the show: The talk. They did a spoof on stereotypes, playing upon stereotypes used against African Americans, Lesbians, Asians, and The British. This was in response to Sophia Vergara an actress on the television show Modern family, who plays the character “Gloria.” Many have complained that her character is a stereotype of a “hot fiery Latina.” Vergara resp…
The World Wide Experience
Last week the youth of the Diva Girls program worked together to create a presentation on a culture that is different from their own. On Friday October 11th 2013 the Diva Girls explored many topics some of which we touched upon last week but didn’t quite understand, these topics included, an article on assisted suicide (which can be found below), the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and experiencing and appreciating others culture. With new girls arriving review an old topic gave the youths a chance to see what has been talked about before and expand the understanding of the girls who were left a little confused.
When the youth came in we did a check in on how everyone was doing with their reading reward system and almost every youth in attendance had read a book/finished a book in that week. The group was also rewarded for filling out a important survey on where Regent Park community funding should go. If your child has not completed this survey and would like to they are available …
Diva Girls-Talking About Teamwork
By Focus Blogger - October 04, 2013
On Friday October the 4th the Diva Girls talked about many topics such as the Quebec Charter of Values and Teamwork. Two need segments were introduced the “What is happening this week?” and the reading initiative which rewards Diva Girl members when a book has been read.
The youth were asked the question “how do they feel about Quebec’s Charter of Values?” after reading an article as linked below. The Charter of Values is a new decree from the Bloc Quebecois that restricts all religious symbols on public sector employees, such as hijabs, large crosses, etc. The group, although young, spoke volumes touching on subjects like human rights, the charter of rights and freedoms and law making in Canada. The youth came to an agreement that not only was the Charter of Values un-Canadian but also against human rights.
The Diva Girls also had time to think about teamwork and what it meant to be a team both in the community, at home and in the world. Split into two groups the youth worked on…
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reasonable hank
Sine caffinum, nihilus sum
About/Comments/Contact/Testimonials
Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968, and the use of public Facebook posts
With many thanks to Luke Weston for summarising Part 3, Division 3 of the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968:
Screenshots and reproductions are permitted under Part 3 Division 3 of the Copyright Act 1968, which allows reproduction for purposes of research, study, criticism, review, parody, satire, and reporting of news.
Please refer to the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968, which is accessible here: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133.txt
Screenshots and reproductions are permitted under Part 3 Division 3 which allows:
Division 3 — Acts not constituting infringements of copyright in works
40………. Fair dealing for purpose of research or study
41………. Fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review…
41A……. Fair dealing for purpose of parody or satire..
Here is the full text of those sections [added April 23 2013]:
Division 3–Acts not constituting infringements of copyright in works
COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 – SECT 41
Fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review
– A fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work, does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the work if it is for the purpose of criticism or review, whether of that work or of another work, and a sufficient acknowledgement of the work is made.
COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 – SECT 41A
Fair dealing for purpose of parody or satire
– A fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work, does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the work if it is for the purpose of parody or satire.
Fair dealing for purpose of reporting news
(1) A fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work, does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the work if:
(a) it is for the purpose of, or is associated with, the reporting of news in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical and a sufficient acknowledgement of the work is made; or
(b) it is for the purpose of, or is associated with, the reporting of news by means of a communication or in a cinematograph film.
(2) The playing of a musical work in the course of reporting news by means of a communication or in a cinematograph film is not a fair dealing with the work for the purposes of this section if the playing of the work does not form part of the news being reported.
Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities – use of public content in screenshots:
So, do not even attempt to claim that screenshots of your publicly available Facebook posts are a breach of copyright, or similar. It is demonstrably not the case, and you agreed to it by signing up to Facebook. Again:
…you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you…
Also, lodging a DMCA take-down notice necessitates that the claimant is signing a legal document. If they sign that legal document, knowing that they are making a false claim, then, they are open to prosecution under the Criminal Code Act 1995. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Especially when Fair Dealing provisions have already been explained to them:
Part 7.4—False or misleading statements
Division 136—False or misleading statements in applications
136.1 False or misleading statements in applications
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if:
(a) the person makes a statement (whether orally, in a document or in any other way); and
(b) the person does so knowing that the statement:
(i) is false or misleading…
…Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months.
23 Responses to Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968, and the use of public Facebook posts
Pingback: Meryl Dorey’s other Pertussis Lie | reasonablehank
Pingback: Monika Milka threatens the internet (oh, and health) | reasonablehank
Pingback: Well done, North Coast Public Health Unit. | reasonablehank
Pingback: Australian Vaccination Network back to censoring critics with fraudulent copyright claims | reasonablehank
Pingback: Meryl – of the family – Dorey versus the TGA (with a little help from her friend) | reasonablehank
tuxcomputers says:
Meryl Dorey has filed vexatious DCMA copyright claims against me I have the screenshots to prove it. Now how would I go about getting her in front of an authority?
reasonablehank says:
Maybe start here?
“A statutory declaration is a written statement that allows a person to declare something to be true.
When you make a statutory declaration, you are declaring that the statements in it are true. If you intentionally make a false statement in a declaration, you can be charged with an offence. The penalty for making a false statement in a statutory declaration is a maximum of four years imprisonment.
If you have concerns about a false statutory declaration or a false witness, contact the Australian Federal Police.”
http://www.ag.gov.au/Publications/Pages/Statutorydeclarations.aspx
Here is Meryl Dorey’s post where she admits filing over fifty illegal DMCA take-down notices on Facebook (I have saved the PDF, in case she deletes the post):
http://nocompulsoryvaccination.com/2011/05/02/hypocrisy-thy-name-is-savn/
Here is a screenshot of the admission:
http://i.imgur.com/ZfeGwXl.jpg
Feel free to use these however you wish.
And don’t forget all of the evidence in this post
https://reasonablehank.com/2012/07/25/australian-vaccination-network-back-to-censoring-critics-with-fraudulent-copyright-claims/
Bron says:
Just speaks to morality doesn’t it .. they are dishonest to the core.
Pingback: Anti-vaccine chiropractors 50 – the CAA Boards Extravaganza | reasonablehank
Pingback: The Chiropractic Messiah Monologues 1 | reasonablehank
Reasonable Hank…Make sure your hands are clean before you start targeting innocent people! How low are you to tag people for liking a post, i was liking the fact that vaccines cause damage (long term and short term)….and that they should not be enforced. I would appreciate you untagging my name from a resource that is not accurate or true!
Pingback: Embedded in the hive-mind of the anti-vaccination ‘cult’ | reasonablehank
Hi, I’m confused with this blog and I’m
Not being a smart arse, do you believe in vaccinations or not?
reasonable hank says:
I support public immunisation and the evidence underpinning it. I campaign against anti-vaccination misinformation.
Thanks, what else do you blog about? Our story you may find interesting Kyran day – Kyrans rule on fb
Leave a Reply to reasonablehank Cancel reply
Australian Vaccination-risks Network posts anti-vaccination billboard in Brisbane
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230 Pioneer St
Ridgefield, WA 98642
Email: city.mail@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Hours: 8am-5pm
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RIDGEFIELD FORM OF GOVERNMENT
The citizens of Ridgefield adopted the council-manager plan of government in 1999. Under this form of government, the elected officials are the community leaders and policy makers who establish a vision for the city and then appoint a city manager to carry out public policy and ensure that all residents are being well served. The council-manager form of local government combines the strong political leadership of elected officials with the strong professional experience of an appointed local government manager.
The City Council consists of seven members who are elected by the citizens of Ridgefield on a non-partisan basis for four-year terms. Elections are arranged so that three or four terms expire every two years. Council members have the responsibility of establishing policy to govern the City, adopting a budget for city revenues and expenditures, and performing all other actions necessary to govern the City, including the passage of ordinances and resolutions.
The Council is led by the Mayor, who is appointed biennially by the members of the Council. The Mayor serves as the chief spokesperson and head of the City government for public and ceremonial purposes. He presides at all Council meetings, votes as a Council member and does not have any veto power. He/she may sign legal instruments and documents on behalf of the City. He has no full-time administrative duties.
In April 2014, Council established an independent Salary Commission composed of five members to set the salary of the mayor and council members. Details about the Commission are in the Ridgefield Municipal Code, Chapter 2.62.
Mayor Don Stose
(Position 4, Term expires 2021) Mr. Stose and his wife Sherry moved to Ridgefield in 2005. He and Sherry have two children who are both married and enjoying their respective families. Mr. Stose retired from Toyota Motor Sales USA after enjoying a very successful career.
He was appointed to the Ridgefield City Council in 2008 and enjoys helping the City of Ridgefield move forward and become a more vibrant and prosperous city.
Contact at don.stose@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Councilor Ron Onslow
(Position 1, Term expires 2021) Mr. Onslow started his journey at the University of Portland where he received a Bachelor’s Degree with a major in Business and a minor in Psychology. Since then, he has managed Onslow’s Restaurant in Vancouver, owned and operated three other restaurants and one deli-bakery. On the side he was a coach for softball, swimming, and football. He also has collected vast board and commission experience as President and Board member of the Northwest Ski Club Council, Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, Miss Washington pageant, American Softball Association, and Advisory Board for the Culinary School at Clark College. Throughout his impressive adulthood, he has been honored as Junior First Citizen of Vancouver, named to the Outstanding Young Men of America and Outstanding Employer for work done with the Vancouver School District.
Contact at ron.onslow@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Councilor Dana Ziemer
(Position 2, Term expires 2023) Ms. Ziemer holds a BS in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology from Western Oregon University. She spent most of her career working with at-risk youth in treatment centers as well as with an outdoor therapy program. Currently, she partners with one other woman in a solely female owned and operated business. Ms. Ziemer moved to Ridgefield with her family in 2011. Since then, she has worked in Ridgefield School District, volunteered on many school and city committees and volunteers for local Ridgefield events. She is a member of the Ridgefield Lions Club and works with the Ridgefield Arts Association.
With her wilderness experience and love of the outdoors, Ms. Ziemer has a special interest in City parks and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Her passion for kids and experience in the schools will be a great asset to the council when partnering and working with the Ridgefield School District.
Ms. Ziemer was elected to City Council in 2020. As a councilmember, Ms. Ziemer will advocate for smart growth plans, support the Port of Ridgefield in bringing quality jobs to Ridgefield and wants to be a mentor and positive example for future women leaders in government.
Contact at Dana.Ziemer@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Councilor Lee Wells
(Position 3, Term expires 2023) Mr. Wells has been in the community over 60 years. He, along with his wife and their five children, is a graduate of Ridgefield High School. To date, he has had nine grandchildren in the Ridgefield school system. Mr. Wells retired from Columbia River Log Scaling & Grading Bureau after 44 years of service. He was President of Ridgefield Junction Neighborhood Association for six years and Legislative Director for Clark/Cowlitz Farm Bureau for six years. Mr. Wells has made several trips to Washington DC to discuss estate taxes, wildlife management and other community concerns. He and his wife, Geri, continue to run the family farm they bought in 1972. Mr. Wells is honored to have served as a Ridgefield City Council member since 2008.
Contact at lee.wells@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Councilor Rob Aichele
(Position 5, Term expires 2023) Mr. Aichele started his career by completing a carpenter’s apprenticeship at the Pacific NW Carpenters Institute in Portland Oregon in 1990. Through skill advancement trainings he became a Superintendent for Skanska where he worked for almost 27 years on complex projects with Intel, PDX airport, Salem Hospital, Canby schools and many others. He then took a position as a Representative for the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters where he worked until his retirement in 2018.
Mr. Aichele married his high school sweetheart Tana and they raised 3 children and have lived in Clark County for over 30 years.
Mr. Aichele moved to Ridgefield in 2015 where he became an active member of the Lion’s Club. Mr. Aichele was appointed to the City’s Planning Commission in 2019 and was elected to City Council in 2020. As a Councilmember his focus is achieving greater employment opportunities, expanding trail and sidewalk connectivity to enhance public safety and to keep downtown vibrant.
Contact at Rob.Aichele@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Councilor Jennifer Lindsay
(Position 6, Term expires 2021) Ms. Lindsay holds a B.A. in Political Science from Portland State University, has more than 10 years of experience working with schools and local government, and demonstrated her leadership skills on the City’s Planning Commission from 2016-2018. In her nine years as a resident of Ridgefield Ms. Lindsay dedicated much of her time to volunteering with service groups such as Ridgefield Lions, the 4th of July Committee and the Booster Club. She is interested in keeping the rural feel surrounding our town as the City grows, a trail system network that creates a draw to the region and maintaining the historical, small town atmosphere of downtown.
City Council Member Jennifer Lindsay was appointed to Council in October 2018 when a vacancy occurred due to a resignation. She was elected in 2019 for a full four year term.
Contact at jennifer.lindsay@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
Councilor Sandra Day
(Position 7, Term expires 2023) Ms. Day has made her home in Ridgefield since 2008 and became a member of the Ridgefield City Council in 2012.
“As a member of the Ridgefield City Council, I am committed to using my business background, community involvement and civic experience to focus on economic development, regional transportation and infrastructure, and in maintaining the high level of city services and quality of life we have come to expect. I believe in managed growth for Ridgefield, one of the fastest-growing cities in Washington State. I have a special interest for parks, trails, and open spaces for quality of life and sustainability. It is an honor to serve the Ridgefield community.”
Since becoming a councilmember, Ms. Day has served with dozens of boards and organizations including Board Member, Columbia River Economic Development Commission 2014-2015; Association of Washington Cities Legislative Priorities Committee 2014-2015; Board Member North Salmon Creek Neighborhood Association where she owns investment property, 2012-2015; President, Rotary Club of Greenville, Texas; Leadership Greenville Graduate; Lions Club of Ridgefield; Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge; American Legion Auxiliary Post 44 Ridgefield; Ridgefield Big Paddle/National Trails Day Event Planning 2013-2015; Clark County Rental Association Member; and active in professional organizations, American Society of Training & Development (chapters in Texas, California, and NW) and Society of Human Resources Management (international).
Ms. Day has also offered her grant writing skills and consulting expertise, free of charge, to a variety of charities in Clark County including two local food pantries and Northwest Battle Buddies, a nonprofit for veterans. She obtained competitive funding for the trails improvement and for the historic mill within Whipple Creek Regional Park and continues to support parks, trails, and green spaces in Clark County by speaking to Clark County Commissioners and volunteering with Clark County Parks actively.
Ms. Day is a graduate of University of Dallas with an MBA. She retired from a major USA corporation in 2011. Her family has kept her hopping across the country since retirement visiting her two sons, six grandchildren, and extended family. She is a Stephen Ministry administrator in her church, caring for people in times of stress. She also spends her personal time gardening, traveling, and playing golf.
In 2012, Councilor Day was appointed to a first partial term (2012-2013) at a time when Ridgefield grew in population and Council was expanded from 5 to 7 members. She has served as an elected member of City Council since 2014.
Contact at sandra.day@ci.ridgefield.wa.us
City Council Updates
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RIFF Magazine
Tuesday Tracks: Your Weekly New Music Discovery – June 4
Chloe Catajan
Clockwise from top left: Laces, Electric Youth, Cat Clyde, Madi Sipes and the Painted Blue, DYGL and Mika.
Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips.
Artists on platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but who has time to sort through all that? RIFF does!
We pooled our resources to find some of the best new singles from all genres and backgrounds, so you can find your newest earworm without all the drama. Enjoy this week’s hidden gems.
Madi Sipes & The Painted Blue, “Heavy Heart” — Madi Sipes’ soulful vocals against the trio’s rich, slow-burning synthpop are to your ears what satin sheets are to your skin. It’s invigorating and soothing all at once. “Heavy Heart,” off the Bay Area outfit’s latest single, follows suit as it muses over an old flame. But to add fuel to the fire, the track launches into a shrilling guitar solo that, while unexpected, feels in sync with the song’s passionate nature.
LACES, “moved” — Formerly known as Charlotte Sometimes, LACES solders the usually buoyant nature of electro-pop and fashions it into a synthetic slow-burner on “moved.” The new project is a fresh start for singer-songwriter Jessica Vaughn, moving on from a youthful approach to a more unabashedly reflective style. And judging by the song’s soul-spilling vocals and tell-all lyrics, LACES is off to a strong start to her new journey.
MIKA, “Ice Cream” — Just in time for summer, MIKA manages to bring both the heat and play it cool on his new single, “Ice Cream.” The English singer-songwriter breaks into the cut with a steamy, nearly whispered first verse, before flaunting his range in the pre-chorus. By the time the refrain hits, MIKA bursts into full color with lush vocal harmonies and playfully smooth lyrics. It’s the lead single off his forthcoming album, My Name Is Michael Holbrook, due on Oct. 4.
Cat Clyde, “So Cold” — Listening to Cat Clyde feels like unwinding with a glass of whiskey and getting in touch with your inner old soul. Even if whiskey isn’t your thing, her warm, earthy and intoxicating singing make the mood convincingly appealing. On “So Cold,” the Ontario, Canada singer-songwriter ruminates a love turned sour to the tune of a smokey blues melody. Her emotive vocals and honest lyrics add an idiosyncratic touch to the timeless sound.
Electric Youth, “The Life” — Electric Youth takes the futuristic aesthetic of ‘80s synth-wave and cleans it up with a modern-day treatment on “The Life.” Bronwyn Griffin’s velvety vocals and Austin Garrick’s galactic instrumentation create an atmospheric glow that’s hypnotizing, but not in a flashy way. Rather, the Toronto duo finds its strength in creating a sound that’s soft and comforting. “The Life” is the first single from Memory Emotion, Electric Youth’s first album in four years.
DYGL, Spit It Out — Driven by the turmoil of tense social norms, Tokyo quartet DYGL lives up to the title of its new single and lets loose with the internal dialog. “Spit It Out” grinds out garage rock fuzz fit for the East Coast DIY scene, but gives a glimpse of growing up in a conservative environment in Japan. “Talking about politics and sexuality … is sometimes offensive to Japanese society, so people try to be quiet but it’s really stressful for everyone,” frontman Nobuki Akiyama said about the cut in a news release. It’s a hypnotic growler that not only gets your heart rate going, but also gets you in touch with such universal experiences.
Chloe’s Pick: I’m all about the dreamy and ethereal aesthetic that Electric Youth evokes. “The Life” sounds straight out of a neon-lit, futuristic universe. Its pulsating synths emulate the mystical and almost daunting possibilities that would be in store. Bronwyn Griffin’s angelic vocals channel that of a utopian chanteuse, riding on a similar wavelength as Julee Cruise on Twin Peaks. Even if the song paints a different picture for you, Electric Youth’s sound is captivating enough to provide a unique experience for each listener.
Follow editor Chloe Catajan at Instagram.com/riannachloe and Twitter.com/riannachloe.
Chloe Catajan is a concert photographer from the San Francisco Bay Area. When she's not in the photo pit or scribbling down notes, you can find her screaming along to every song from the crowd and probably getting a little too emotional over the music.
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Tag Archives: Common Sense
After Globalization
Posted in Academic Stuff, Books, Economic History, Economics, Globalisation
Tagged After Globalization, Books, Capitalism, Common Sense, Critical Theory, Cultural studies, Culture, Economic Crisis, Economic History, Economics, Education, Eric Cazdyn, Global warming, Globalisation, Globalization, Globalization of Capital, History, Imre Szeman, Moriality, Naomi Klein, Neoliberalism, New Books on Globalization, Paul Klugman, Thomas Friedman, Toby Miller, Walter Benn Michaels, World Economic Crisis
Eric Cazdyn and Imre Szeman
ISBN: 978-1-4051-7794-8 – Hardcover – 264 pages
May 2011, Wiley-Blackwell
http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405177942.html
In lively and unflinching prose, Eric Cazdyn and Imre Szeman argue that contemporary thought about the world is disabled by a fatal flaw: the inability to think “an after” to globalization. After establishing seven theses (on education, morality, history, future, capitalism, nation, and common sense) that challenge the false promises that sustain this time-limit, After Globalization examines four popular thinkers (Thomas Friedman, Richard Florida, Paul Krugman and Naomi Klein) and how their work is dulled by these promises. Cazdyn and Szeman then speak to students from around the globe who are both unconvinced and uninterested in these promises and who understand the world very differently than the way it is popularly represented.
After Globalization argues that a true capacity to think an after to globalization is the very beginning of politics today.
“Relentlessly, remorselessly, endlessly, we are told there is no alternative to globalization, whether our lecturers are bourgeois economists, progressive journalists, or imaginative litterateurs. Eric Cazdyn and Imre Szeman dare to go beyond the standard thinking of the day and query the very heart of mobile capital and its impact on daily life. Their alternative vision breathes new life into our sense of evolution and inevitability.” –—Toby Miller, author of Globalization and Sport and Global Hollywood
“Cazdyn and Szeman begin the with the idea that the current economic crisis has historicized globalization, turning it from a process that looked as inevitable as, say, global warming still does, into an episode in the history of capitalism: hence the possibility not just of more globalization but of an ‘after globalization.’ And hence also, they argue, the renewed possibility of an ‘after capitalism.’ In powerful critiques of what they describe as the common sense of capital today they sketch out the terms in which changes more radical than substituting generous and honest leaders for the greedy and dishonest ones we’ve currently got might begin to be imagined.” –—Walter Benn Michaels, University of Illinois at Chicago
Eric Cazdyn is Professor of Cultural and Critical Theory, Psychoanalysis, and Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is author of The Flash of Capital: Film and Geopolitics in Japan (2003) and the forthcoming book, The Already Dead: The New Time of Politics, Culture, and Medicine.
Imre Szeman is Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. He is co-editor of Cultural Theory: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell 2010), author of Zones of Instability: Literature, Postcolonialism and the Nation (2003) and co-author of Popular Culture: A User’s Guide (2nd. ed. 2009).
Rethinking Gramsci
Posted in Academic Stuff, Books, Communism, Critical and Radical Pedagogy, Critical Education, Education Activism, Marxism, Marxist Analysis, Marxist Theory, Politics
Tagged Adam Morton, Antonio Gramsci, Babbitt, Blom and Babbitt, Books, Capitalism, Carlos Nelson Coutinho, Common Sense, Cosimo Zene, Critical Education, Critical Modernity, Critical Pedagogy, Cultural Marxism, Cultural studies, Culture, Cuvier, Dalits, Daniel O'Connell, Dante and Gramsci, David F. Ruccio, Derek Boothman, Esteve Morera, Evan Watkins, Frank Annunziato, G.W.F. Hegel, General Will, Gramsci, Gramsci and Culture, Gramsci and Education, Gramsci and Sexuality, Gramsci and the Dialectic, Gramsci Prison Notebooks, Hegel, Hegemony, Jacques Rousseau, Joseph A. Buttigieg, Joseph Buttigieg, Joseph Childers, Karl Marx, Marcia Landy, Marcus E. Green, Marcus Green and Gramsci, Marx, Marx and Gramsci, Marxism, Marxist Theory, Modernity, Nelson Moe, New Books on Gramsci, Paul Bove, Paula Allman, Peter Ives, Peter Mayo, Philosophy of Praxis, Political Philosophy, Post-Marxism, Praxis, Praxis & Pedagogy, Prisin Notebooks, Race and Culture, Richard D. Wolff, Richard Hwson, Richard Wolff, Socialism, Socialist Education, Stuart Hall, Subalternity, Trade unions, War of Position, William Spanos, Wolfgang Fritz Haug
Edited by Marcus E. Green
New York: Routledge, 2011
Details: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415779739/
Introduction Marcus E. Green, Rethinking Marxism and Rethinking Gramsci
I. Culture and Criticism
1. Stuart Hall. Race, Culture, and Communications: Looking Backward and Forward at Cultural Studies
2. Paul Bové. Dante, Gramsci and Cultural Criticism
3. Daniel O’Connell. Bloom and Babbitt: A Gramscian View
4. Marcia Landy. Socialist Education Today: Pessimism or optimism of the intellect?
II. Hegemony, Subalternity, Common Sense
5. Derek Boothman. The Sources for Gramsci’s Concept of Hegemony
6. Marcus E. Green. Gramsci Cannot Speak: Presentations and Interpretations of Gramsci’s Concept of the Subaltern
7. Cosimo Zene. Self-consciousness of the Dalits as ‘subalterns’: Reflections on Gramsci in South Asia
8. Evan Watkins. Gramscian Politics and Capitalist Common Sense
9. Frank R. Annunziato. Gramsci’s theory of trade unionism
10. Nelson Moe. Production and Its Others, Gramsci’s ‘Sexual Question’
11. Adam David Morton. Social Forces in the Struggle over Hegemony: Neo-Gramscian Perspectives in International Political Economy
12. Richard Howson. From Ethico-Political Hegemony to Post-Marxism
III. Political Philosophy
13. Richard D. Wolff. Gramsci, Marxism and Philosophy
14. Carlos Nelson Coutinho. General Will and Democracy in Rousseau, Hegel, and Gramsci
15. Wolfgang Fritz Haug. From Marx to Gramsci, from Gramsci to Marx: Historical Materialism and the Philosophy of Praxis
16. Steven R. Mansfield. Gramsci and the Dialectic
17. Esteve Morera. Gramsci’s Critical Modernity
IV. On Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks
18. David F. Ruccio. Unfinished Business: Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks
19. Joseph W. Childers. Of Prison Notebooks and the Restoration of an Archive
20. Peter Ives. The Mammoth Task of Translating Gramsci
21. William V. Spanos. Cuvier’s Little Bone: Joseph Buttigieg’s English Edition of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks
22. Joseph A. Buttigieg. The Prison Notebooks: Antonio Gramsci’s Work in Progress
Variant – Issue 41
Posted in Art, Crisis, Critical Education, Critical Education Policy Studies, Critical Theory, Cultural studies, Economics, Education, Education Activism, Education Privatisation, Employment and Unemployment, Higher Education, Journals, Literature, Marxism, Marxist Theory, Neoliberalism, News and Politics, Politics, Sport
Tagged Academic Capture, Academic freedom, Activism, Against Labour, Andrew Dixon, Angela McRobbie, Anthony Ives, Art, Art and Marxism, Art and Politics, Art and Revolution, Arts, Arts Magazine, Capital, Celia Lury, Commercialisation of Higher Education, Common Sense, Cracked Capitalism, Creative Economy, Creative Industries, Creative Labour, Creative Scotland, Creativity, Crisis in Higher Education, CSE, Cultirsal Marxism, Cultural politics, Cultural studies, Cultural theory, Culture, Culture and Sport Glasgow, Daniel Jewesbury, Deskilling, Desmond Fernandes, Diaspora, Economics, Education, Education Activism, Escalate, Feminism, Gesa Helms, Global South, Globalisation, Gordon Asher, Higher Education, Ian Brotherhood, Immaterial labour, Innovation, John Holloway, John Robertds, Kasim Agpak, Labour, Leigh French, Marina Vishmidt, Mark Pawson, Marxism, Marxist Theory, Maurizio Lazaratto, Neil Gray, Neoliberalism, Owen Logan, Politics, Radical Art, Radical Social Enterprise, Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt, Right to Work, Robert Doohihan, Sarah Baker, Scott Lash, Scottish Politics, Sergio Bologna, Skill, social class, Socialism, Sport, Trade Union Congress, Trade unions, TUC, Unions, Universities, University Research, Variant, Working class, Writer Activists
Variant, Issue 41, Spring 2011
… the free, independent, arts magazine. Variant provides in-depth coverage in the context of broader social, political & cultural issues.
Variant: http://www.variant.org.uk
Complete issue:
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/variant41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/Varint41.pdf
Front Cover :
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/cover41.pdf
Letters :
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/letters41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/letters41.pdf
Investing, Advocating, Promoting… strategically
Daniel Jewesbury interviews Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland
A revealing exchange outlining proposals in Creative Scotland’s Corporate Plan:
“We are getting rid of all the art form silos… There will be no art form budgets…we will have generic budgets that are more strategic, much more planned and on a larger scale”.
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/adixon41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/adixon.pdf
Marching for Whose Alternative?
“We are not storming heaven, but being marched precariously close to the precipice. The Trade Union Congress is not our tool for emancipation – and neither can it be. Why are we being so skilfully pacified by ‘our’ institutions?” Escalate is a collective of writers and activists from around the University of London, brought together through protest… http://escalatecollective.net
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/escalate41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/escalate41.pdf
…The Hindrance of Assembly: Notes for a Tralfamadorian ‘book’
Robert (Bobby) Doohihan
“Ian Brotherhood is a cantankerous middle-aged unemployed father of two with no respect for pedants, sophists, and language-mangling panhandlers. Bobby (Robert) Doohihan is/was, a fairer, saner, more humane and optimistic incarnation of the same man. So Ian asked Bobby to write this, and supervised him throughout…”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/ibrotherhood41.html, PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/ibrotherhood41.pdf
Glasgow Life or Death
Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt
“In summer 2008, Variant published an analysis of Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), based on an examination of its key personnel and the consequences for the city’s culture their ethos implies. This research pointed to the subordination of Glasgow’s culture and leisure services to business interests, particularly tourism and regeneration, which was perceived to have a detrimental impact on those working in the arts and on the long-term welfare of the city’s culture and leisure facilities. It built on concerns, already expressed in Variant, that having a private company running the city’s culture and leisure services may prove disastrous as democratic accountability was lost and speculative funding sources failed to materialise. Against a backdrop of public sector cuts and deep-seated discontent among CSG’s workforce, it seems appropriate to assess whether this has proven to be the case….”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/rgn41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/rgn41.pdf
Academic Capture
Kasim Agpak
Affirming that the continuing attack on academic freedom in the UK, at several levels, has not yet brought about an adequate defence of the public interest in the autonomy of university research, Kasim Agpak elucidates Desmond Fernandes’ study which brings together numerous accounts of the unfolding battles which are taking place, providing a powerful account of the way the commercialisation, militarisation and securitisation of the UK academy has developed into a state discourse, not only in the UK but also internationally.
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/kagpak41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/kagpak41.pdf
Comic & Zine reviews
Mark Pawson
This Comix Reader goes from Signs of Change to self-censorship having always been an issue in autobiographical comics, to The Summer of Boundless Optimism and Car Boot Sale that May Fade in Direct Sunlight… but It All Makes Sense.
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/mpawson41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/mpawson41.pdf
In, Against and Beyond Labour
Gordon Asher, Leigh French, Neil Gray in exchange with John Holloway “This exchange with John Holloway follows on from our engagement with his most recent work, Crack Capitalism (2010). Holloway’s work has become well known in and beyond activist circles since Change the World Without Taking Power (2002) was published and widely read. This intentional popularisation has, arguably, tended to obscure Holloway’s previous work while drawing strength from it. … While Holloway’s recent work draws strongly on his interests in the Zapitistas and other movements and struggles in the Global South, where he is presently based, it should also be noted that he was, for some time, based in Edinburgh and wrote regularly for Common Sense: Journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists… The ideas presented in Common Sense deserve a wide readership, particularly at a time when left liberalism in the UK, as Holloway challenges below, seems determined to ‘lock us firmly into capital and close down all alternatives’ through regressive campaigns such as ‘Right to Work’ or the recent ‘March for the Alternative’.”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/jholloway41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/jholloway41.pdf
Re-Thinking Creative Economy as Radical Social Enterprise
Angela McRobbie
“We will soon begin to see the ‘creative industry’ phenomenon as something specifically linked with the Blair and post-Blair years, starting 1997 and in effect lasting for just more than a decade. Such a positioning allows us both to focus on its character and function and to acknowledge that the politics of arts and culture for the present government will be something very different. … It is also likely that a new discussion will arise about how to theorise the position of the universities struggling to survive by themselves entrepreneurialising. … Neither defeatism nor old fashioned militancy will suffice in circumstances such as these. I would like to propose a renewal of radical social enterprise and co-operatives.”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/amcrobbie41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/amcrobbie41.pdf
‘A very complicated version of freedom’: Conditions and experiences of creative labour in three cultural industries
David Hesmondhalgh, Sarah Baker
“This article investigates the experiences and emotional responses of interviewees to their working conditions in three cultural industries (the television industry, the recording industry and the magazine industry). Via semi-structured interviews with a range of workers, it explores working conditions and experiences in the following areas: pay, working hours and unions; insecurity and uncertainty; socialising, networking and isolation. Our research suggests that experiences are at best highly ambivalent, across all three of the industries we studied. We found evidence of feelings of victimisation and anxiety. Building on previous research, especially that carried out on IT workers, we also discerned complicated responses on the part of workers to the freedom and autonomy characteristic of much cultural work. Pleasure and obligation become blurred in a challenging way. Expectations of sociability and networking in these industries were also the object of some ambivalence, and some workers reported feelings of isolation. These findings suggest that creative industries policy has paid insufficient attention to the experiences of creative workers.”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/complicated41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/complicated41.pdf
The Presence of Precarity: Self-employment as Contemporary Form
Gesa Helms
Aligning artistic and academic labour in their shared belief in creative and autonomous practices and work identity formation – the valorisation of one’s self in such relational labour practices – this study, drawing on Maurizio Lazaratto and Sergio Bologna, takes us some way towards unravelling some of the myths around creativity and autonomy in immaterial labour (be it as artists or academics). In doing so it calls into question assumed understandings of class divisions between a culture of (UK) middle classes and working classes: “These, unfortunately, too often remain anything but new in the studies of working class lives and firmly rely on the examination of cultural preference if not socio-economic class indices. Instead, going back to a Marxist understanding of class in relation to the means of production and ownership of these allows us to consider that drinking latte, flat whites, or similar, may not determine one’s class belonging. Consequently, a dismissal of self-employment, or rather freelancing, as the territories of the middle-classes (i.e. not working classes) does not take us very far if we fail to consider how such ‘autonomy’ of self-employment is indeed firmly woven into a process of subsumed labour.”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/ghelms41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/ghelms41.pdf
The Intangibilities of Form
“In The Intangibilities of Form. Skill and Deskilling in Art After the Readymade, John Roberts proposes a challenging model for everyone dealing with contemporary art, both theoreticians and artists. In his rereading of twentieth century art and avant-garde art more in particular, he takes an overtly left-wing, not to say Marxist stand, contributing in a spectacular way to what, he says, is needed in scholarship today: a labour theory of culture. As the title of the book suggests, Roberts finds this model in Marcel Duchamp’s readymade, not so much in its form – which has become commonplace in the art world from the early ’70s on, as in its function as a site of reflection and conflict. Hence the first part of The Intangibilities of Form [the Preface and Introduction is reproduced here] is devoted to the readymade and provides the reader an insight into the key principles of the book.”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/jroberts41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/jroberts41.pdf
‘Through A Glass Darkly’: Performative Practice… Without Border, Without Name
Katarzyna Kosmala
A reflection on Central and Eastern European, diaspora-infused art practice, one which coalesces around a feminist critique of dominant neo-liberal globalisation; a politically charged network-based movement raising social justice issues; a “feminism without borders”. Revealing a cultural tactics that points to alternative modes of instituting and relating to society, individuals and institutions: “These practices appear to afford illusionary hopes to those areas that are disempowered locally by the inertia effects of global capitalism, and yet also allow for distance to be maintained from such ‘utopian’ pursuits. Accordingly, the questions emerge as to whether feminist-infused critiques can become part of broader histories and social and political struggles, and whether feminist histories transgress the market game concerns and celebrity art-lite of international biennials?”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/kkosmala41.html
pdf http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/kkosmala41.pdf
Make Whichever You Find Work
Antony Iles & Marina Vishmidt
“The recent uptake of the post-autonomist immaterial labour thesis draws cultural practitioners closer to the critical self-recognition of their own labour (waged and otherwise) as alienated, as well its formal commonality with other kinds of affective labour at large. Art finds itself in a new relation with abstract value, whether it’s the typical forms of contemporary work or financial mechanisms. This applies both to the structural re-composition of work by ‘creative’ and self-propelled forms of exploitation as well as the inscription of art in social policy agendas tending to enhance market values. In an unprecedented way, art not only reflects but revises the productive forces, shading into forces of ‘non-production’ and devalorisation in an era of debt-financed austerity. However, as art expands to include more and more fields of social action within its imaginative and institutional remit (political activity, work, education), the paradox remains that the social effectiveness of art is guaranteed by its separation from capitalist work. Thus, art’s estrangement from labour continues apace, but, at this historical juncture, coincides with labour’s estrangement from labour: labouring subjects who do not identify with themselves as labour. …”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/ilesvishmidt41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/ilesvishmidt41.pdf
The State of Poetic License
Owen Logan
“What is striking about the books [The Social Impact of the Arts, An Intellectual History, by Eleonora Belfiore and Oliver Bennett; No Room to Move, Radical Art and the Regenerate City, by Josephine Berry Slater and Anthony Iles;Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things, by Scott Lash and Celia Lury] is how class has been abstracted by critical discussions of arts and culture, in much the same way Detroit’s car industry jobs are outsourced. A largely unexamined antagonism, class, now seems to exist as an old fashioned, and sometimes sentimental refrain in cultural theory. This attitude might change as ‘economics’ and academia meet on increasingly unfriendly terms. Nevertheless, the difference in attitude between books written in the past twenty-five years, compared to the outlook of writers before the era of ‘globalisation’ will be obvious in this article. What this difference means is less obvious, and is the subject of what follows.”
Text: http://www.variant.org.uk/41texts/ologan41.html
PDF: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue41/ologan41.pdf
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The Political Thought of Antonio Gramsci
Posted in Communism, History, Marxism, Marxist Theory, Meetings, News and Politics, Politics
Tagged Adam Morton, Antonio Gramsci, Biofuels, Capitalism, Capitalist State, Common Sense, Communism, Cosimo Zene, Gramsci's Political Thought, Gramsci's Politics, Hegemony, Ian Bruff, International Relations, Italian Thoguht, Javier Balsa, Kim Bizzarri, Lenin, Lyons Theses, Manchester Workshop in political Theory, Mark McNally, Meetings, Peter Thomas, Peter Thomas and Gramsci, Political Economy, Political Theory, Political Thought, Politics, Prison Notebooks, Socialism, Subaltern, The Political Thought of Antonio Gramsci
The Political Thought of Antonio Gramsci: New Developments in Theory and Practice
Manchester Workshop in Political Theory
Panel 1: New Debates on Gramsci’s Political Thought
Chair: Ian Bruff
Antonio Gramsci and the Lyons Theses: The Dialectics of Living History
Adam Morton
Democratizing the Alliance: Lenin, Bukharin and Gramsci
Mark McNally
Panel 2: New Debates on Gramsci’s Political Thought 2
Chair: Adam Morton
Gramsci and the autonomy of the political
Thinking in a ‘Common Sense’ Gramscian Way about Capitalist State Practices
Ian Bruff
The Struggle for Signification and the Construction of Hegemony
Javier Balsa
Panel 3: New Applications of Gramsci in International Relations
Chair: Mark McNally
Transnational Capitalist Practices and the Political Economy of Biofuels. A Gramscian Approach to the Study of European Environmental Policy
Kim Bizzarri
Gramsci and Ambekar on Subalterns/Dalits
Cosimo Zene
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Common Sense Journal Now Online
Posted in Communism, Critical Theory, Economics, Journals, Marxism, Marxist Analysis, Marxist Theory, Marxist-Humanism, News and Politics, Socialism
Tagged Common Sense, Conference of Socialist Economists, CSE, Dignity, Economics, Glenn Rikowski, John Holloway, Karl Marx, Marxism, Marxist Analysis, Marxist Theory, Open Marxism, Politics, Socialism, Werner Bonefeld
For me, Common Sense: Journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists was particularly significant in terms of my intellectual development during the 1990s. The work of John Holloway and Werner Bonefeld in Common Sense was especially important for me during that time.
Artlces from Common Sense are now online at: http://commonsensejournal.org.uk
Glenn Rikowski
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Q-and-A with: Aima Warriach, aka @NiqabaeChronicles
by Victoria Shariati September 27, 2018
written by Victoria Shariati September 27, 2018
Aima Warriach, also known as @NiqabaeChronicles, is a Toronto-based activist and artist. The 21-year-old arts and contemporary studies major has been featured in the Globe and Mail, Huffington Post, The Sisters Project and on TedxTeen for her work fighting gendered Islamophobia. Warriach sat down with the Ryersonian to discuss feminism and what it’s like to be a visibly Muslim woman in today’s political climate.
Can you share your personal journey with the niqab?
We came to Canada [from Pakistan] after my parents divorced. My mom raised me as a single mother. On the fifth floor, there was this Muslim couple, and the wife wore a niqab. Through that, my mom became more religious, because they had a teacher-mentor relationship. Her name is Sister Khadijah. She helped my mom navigate her depression and after-marriage blues and made her get a stronghold on her faith. My mom registered us at the local mosque, and over there, all the Muslim women wore their hijabs. Not out of spite, but it was something they were empowered by. They were all educated women. They all had degrees, PhDs, all in diverse subjects. Growing up, I never associated it with anything negative. At the time, I wasn’t using social media and I didn’t really pay attention to the news. I didn’t even know 9/11 had happened until I went to Islamic school, where they talked about Islamophobia.
For Warriach, wearing a niqab evokes feelings of empowerment. (Graphic submitted by Aima Warriach)
A year ago, in your Globe and Mail interview, you said you sometimes feel unsafe on transit. Has that changed?
Actually, it’s gotten worse. You can look at [hate crimes against Muslim women] as sexual assault as well, since they’re trying to rip clothes off their body and see what’s underneath. That’s sexual assault and an invasion of privacy. I personally haven’t had a physical attack yet but there has been verbal abuse. There’s the stereotypical, “go back to your country, you’re a terrorist.” The other day when I was getting off at Dundas, these two girls were calling me a terrorist. It’s becoming more apparent. I just disassociate. I don’t care how people see me. I just listen to music or listen to spoken word and calm myself down. People don’t sit beside me on the subway.
It’s called gendered Islamophobia, and it targets visibly Muslim women. [The niqab] is my choice. This is what I’m empowered by. I’ve never tried to push it on someone else. If you see my Instagram, you see I’m all about sisterhood for all women, not just Muslim women. There’s always so much division when it comes to feminism that’s a result of white feminism. White feminism completely disregards social, cultural and economic backgrounds of women. It’s not a shared struggle for everybody and empowerment looks different for everyone.
Do you feel safe on campus?
I mostly feel safe. There’s the Racialised Students’ Collective, a prayer room, and Muslim Womxn at Ryerson and the Women and Trans space. I’m able to chill and eat in peace. I have a lot of friends from diverse communities that offer their allyship with me, so I feel very supported and very included. Sometimes in the classroom, I do feel like professors don’t want to choose me [to participate] because they have an assumption that I’m not articulate, or maybe I don’t know how to speak English properly. I feel like some professors are a bit ignorant about what it means to be a veiled Muslim woman. We are educated people, even though you can’t see us.
Tell me about your feminism. How does it interact with the different aspects of your identity?
I’m Pakistani, so I’m a brown Muslim woman. I am a niqabi woman, so I’m a minority within the Muslim community. I’m Canadian and grew up here, so most of my cultural identity is based here. My feminism supports a woman’s choice. It’s intersectional. Depending on your social, economic or cultural background, whatever empowers you is going to look different.
If I took off my niqab and hijab, my body would still be policed. It doesn’t matter what black, brown or Indigenous Muslim women dress like, because they’ll still be policed. They don’t want you to take up space, because if you do take up space, you have to do it on their terms.
Warriach said she feels like some professors are a bit ignorant about what it means to be a veiled Muslim woman. (Photo submitted by Charlotte Bibby)
Why did you decide to pursue activism on social media?
It was more of an outlet because I was so depressed about the things I was seeing about Muslim women online. I wanted to create something that would act as a buffer to the negative representation we see [about Muslim women]. At first, it was only for my friends and family, but then it grew. Even non-Muslim women have come up to me and told me they really enjoyed my perspective because whenever they looked for information about Muslim women, it’s not done by Muslim women. I also wanted to let people know that I’m not homophobic or transphobic. People have this assumption that if you dress like me, I’m [bigoted]. I’m not here to impose my views on anyone. If someone passes the mic to me, I’m happy to share my own lived experiences. I have to tell my own story because if I don’t, someone else will write it for me and it’ll be misinformed. It was out of necessity.
What role does Muslim Womxn at Ryerson play on campus?
We’re not sect-based. It’s a safe space for people to have fun, be accepted and included. Nobody has to talk about the politics of their religion, they can just be themselves. We also wanted to tell people about the resources here at Ryerson that can help them if they face discrimination. Our main theme is that we want to do this from an LGBTQ-affirming, intersectional lens. We wanted to provide a place for historically marginalized Muslims to come and discuss their issues and to be able to integrate more into the community. We wanted to collaborate more with people.
Tri-Mentoring, for example, when they found out about our group, told us they needed a club like us to mentor visible Muslim women who were trying to navigate Islamophobia. Those are the gaps we’re filling. It was ratified on Muslim Women’s Day [last spring] and it’s important because in the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), nobody really talked about our issues. There weren’t any events that would have catered to Muslim women who faced gendered Islamophobia. We wanted to create a healing place for women to decompress. We wanted to provide a sisterhood.
Warriach said that she and other Muslim students often have a hard time interacting with professors and course mates, which makes them question if they have to suffer to pursue something they love. (Photo submitted by Jeremy Cohen)
Did you experience any tension or backlash after the group was ratified?
I don’t think the MSA had anything to do with this, but one studentin particular, who was a part of the MSA at the time, asked us how we would protect our community. Susanne Nyaga, who was RSU president at the time, said it wasn’t the job of a student group to prevent harm from coming to their members. So that wasn’t a question we had to deal with. Because I wasn’t that informed on the matter at the time, it felt like he was trying to show that our group was incompetent. After the meeting, [the same student] came up to us and said that he didn’t mean [to upset us], but based on his own religious beliefs, he couldn’t support our group. We provide a space for LGBTQ Muslims and we support them, and because of that, he didn’t want our group to be ratified. It was funny because Muslim women, who need a space, were having the hardest time that day trying to convince this one guy why we should exist. It’s a prime example of men policing our structures and telling us what we need.
Are your needs as a visibly Muslim woman at Ryerson being met?
Not entirely. I’m just talking from my lived experiences, but I’ve had a hard time interacting with my professors because they don’t know how to engage with me. I always take the first initiative. One time, I had this class where the professor would mock me every time I tried to ask a question. I left that class. I didn’t make a complaint about it because I felt like I was being paranoid, but I didn’t know what I was doing in that class. Every time I tried to engage or participate, I was laughed at. I think a lot of Muslim women face anxiety like that. I was studying biology in my first year and these guys I was working with [insulted me] and mocked my niqab when I was trying to get serious about our assignment. That was part of the reason why I switched programs. There was no decompression space. What Muslim women pursue in our degrees or education is something we’re very passionate about. When we face Islamophobia, we question if we have to suffer to pursue something we love. We feel that we won’t be taken as seriously as someone else. I wish I advocated for myself a bit more, but I thought it was just me.
Based on your social media, I feel like your style of activism focuses a lot on sisterhood and open dialogue. Was that a conscious decision?
That was a conscious decision. I have an open channel of dialogue with my followers because the more people I have a connection with, the better. My followers look to me as someone they can reach out to as someone who can provide solidarity or support. Some of them are struggling with the decision to observe the niqab. Some of them are struggling with feminism and Islam and want to know how I resolved that. I feel the two are compatible. Every religion has a misogynistic side because most interpretations have been done by men. Most prominent Islamic scholars are men. I provide resources for Muslim women to feel more comfortable in their skin. They can look at me and see that yes I’m covered up, but I still speak my mind and hold educational workshops and have my art travel. Seeing things like that motivates them to do the things they love regardless of how people perceive them.
Follow Aima on Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.
Victoria Shariati
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ScholarshipDb.Net
Placement Officer (Work Integrated Learning)
The University of Western Australia, Australia
Updated: about 1 month ago
Location: Crawley, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Deadline: 08 Dec 2019
Job no:503504
Work type:full-time
Location:Crawley
Categories:Student Administration / Support Services
Educational Enhancement Unit
Coordinate professional placement opportunities for UWA students
Level 6: $79,200 - $83,763 plus 17% superannuation
Multiple positions available:
Full-time, ongoing
Full-time, fixed-term for 2 years
The University of Western Australia (UWA) is ranked amongst the top 100 universities in the world and a member of the prestigious Australian Group of Eight research-intensive universities. With an enviable research track record, vibrant campus and working environments, supported by the freedom to ‘innovate and inspire’ there is no better time to join Western Australia’s top University.
The Educational Enhancement Unit enables innovation and excellence in teaching and learning across UWA that leads to an improved learning experience and better educational outcomes. The unit supports the implementation of the University’s Education strategy, through the provision of hands-on support to academic staff, facilitating collaboration and sharing of best practice, harnessing pedagogical expertise and working closely with academic leaders to drive a consistent strategy of educational enhancement.
About the opportunity
In this role, you will coordinate professional placement opportunities for students. Your responsibilities will include proactively monitoring and promoting WIL opportunities to faculty students and staff, attending internal events where required, acting as the key point of contact for staff and students and responding to complex enquiries providing factual and accurate information.
This is an opportunity to play a key role in a program that provides opportunities for UWA students to gain hands-on, practical experience and develop work-ready skills. You will be part of a team that welcomes innovative ideas and a proactive approach to process improvements.
You will also possess a special interest in higher education and be passionate about creating opportunities for students. Knowledge of work integrated learning programs for non-regulated placements such as engineering, business and science would be advantageous.
You will possess strong stakeholders management skills, the ability to adapt to change, as well as a mindset for continuous improvements. Prior experience providing advice to students and / or a background in recruitment would be highly regarded.
Please see the position descriptions prior to applying: P19 345 POSITION DESCRIPTION [Placement Officer (WIL)] - Position Number [318494, 318495, 318496] - Level [6].docx
Closing date: Sunday 8 December
This position is only open to applicants with relevant rights to work in Australia.
Application Details: Please apply online via the Apply Now button.
In your application, please provide a resume and a cover letter. A statement addressing the key selection criteria is not required.
Our commitment to inclusion and diversity
UWA is committed to a diverse workforce. We celebrate inclusion and diversity and believe gender equity is fundamental to achieving our goal of being a top 50 university by 2050.
We have child friendly areas on campus, including childcare facilities. Flexible work arrangements, part-time hours and job sharing will all be considered.
UWA has been awarded Platinum Employer Status for being a Top Ten Employer for LGBTI Inclusion by the Australian Workplace Equity Index (AWEI -2019).
Advertised:02 Dec 2019 W. Australia Standard Time
Applications close:08 Dec 2019 11:55 PM W. Australia Standard Time
View or Apply
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Susan R. Davis, Rodney Baber, Nicholas Panay, Johannes Bitzer, Sonia Cerdas Perez, Rakibul M. Islam, Andrew M. Kaunitz, Sheryl A. Kingsberg, Irene Lambrinoudaki, James H. Liu, Sharon J. Parish, JoAnn V Pinkerton, Janice Rymer, James A. Simon, Linda Vignozzi, Margaret E. Wierman
This Position Statement has been endorsed by the International Menopause Society, The Endocrine Society, The European Menopause and Andropause Society, The International Society for Sexual Medicine, The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, The North American Menopause Society, The Federacion Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Climaterio y Menopausia, The Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists, The International Society of Endocrinology, The Endocrine Society of Australia, and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Maturitas
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
Davis, S. R., Baber, R., Panay, N., Bitzer, J., Cerdas Perez, S., Islam, R. M., ... Wierman, M. E. (2019). Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women. Maturitas, 128, 89-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
Davis, Susan R. ; Baber, Rodney ; Panay, Nicholas ; Bitzer, Johannes ; Cerdas Perez, Sonia ; Islam, Rakibul M. ; Kaunitz, Andrew M. ; Kingsberg, Sheryl A. ; Lambrinoudaki, Irene ; Liu, James H. ; Parish, Sharon J. ; Pinkerton, JoAnn V ; Rymer, Janice ; Simon, James A. ; Vignozzi, Linda ; Wierman, Margaret E. / Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women. In: Maturitas. 2019 ; Vol. 128. pp. 89-93.
@article{86947e74a5b14048bf6a4744d48c6f6f,
title = "Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women",
abstract = "This Position Statement has been endorsed by the International Menopause Society, The Endocrine Society, The European Menopause and Andropause Society, The International Society for Sexual Medicine, The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, The North American Menopause Society, The Federacion Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Climaterio y Menopausia, The Royal College of Obstetricians andGynaecologists, The International Society of Endocrinology, The Endocrine Society of Australia, and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.",
author = "Davis, {Susan R.} and Rodney Baber and Nicholas Panay and Johannes Bitzer and {Cerdas Perez}, Sonia and Islam, {Rakibul M.} and Kaunitz, {Andrew M.} and Kingsberg, {Sheryl A.} and Irene Lambrinoudaki and Liu, {James H.} and Parish, {Sharon J.} and Pinkerton, {JoAnn V} and Janice Rymer and Simon, {James A.} and Linda Vignozzi and Wierman, {Margaret E.}",
doi = "10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001",
journal = "Maturitas",
Davis, SR, Baber, R, Panay, N, Bitzer, J, Cerdas Perez, S, Islam, RM, Kaunitz, AM, Kingsberg, SA, Lambrinoudaki, I, Liu, JH, Parish, SJ, Pinkerton, JV, Rymer, J, Simon, JA, Vignozzi, L & Wierman, ME 2019, 'Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women', Maturitas, vol. 128, pp. 89-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women. / Davis, Susan R.; Baber, Rodney; Panay, Nicholas; Bitzer, Johannes; Cerdas Perez, Sonia; Islam, Rakibul M.; Kaunitz, Andrew M.; Kingsberg, Sheryl A.; Lambrinoudaki, Irene; Liu, James H.; Parish, Sharon J.; Pinkerton, JoAnn V; Rymer, Janice; Simon, James A.; Vignozzi, Linda; Wierman, Margaret E.
In: Maturitas, Vol. 128, 10.2019, p. 89-93.
T1 - Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women
AU - Davis, Susan R.
AU - Baber, Rodney
AU - Panay, Nicholas
AU - Bitzer, Johannes
AU - Cerdas Perez, Sonia
AU - Islam, Rakibul M.
AU - Kaunitz, Andrew M.
AU - Kingsberg, Sheryl A.
AU - Lambrinoudaki, Irene
AU - Liu, James H.
AU - Parish, Sharon J.
AU - Pinkerton, JoAnn V
AU - Rymer, Janice
AU - Simon, James A.
AU - Vignozzi, Linda
AU - Wierman, Margaret E.
N2 - This Position Statement has been endorsed by the International Menopause Society, The Endocrine Society, The European Menopause and Andropause Society, The International Society for Sexual Medicine, The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, The North American Menopause Society, The Federacion Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Climaterio y Menopausia, The Royal College of Obstetricians andGynaecologists, The International Society of Endocrinology, The Endocrine Society of Australia, and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
AB - This Position Statement has been endorsed by the International Menopause Society, The Endocrine Society, The European Menopause and Andropause Society, The International Society for Sexual Medicine, The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, The North American Menopause Society, The Federacion Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Climaterio y Menopausia, The Royal College of Obstetricians andGynaecologists, The International Society of Endocrinology, The Endocrine Society of Australia, and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
U2 - 10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
DO - 10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
JO - Maturitas
JF - Maturitas
Davis SR, Baber R, Panay N, Bitzer J, Cerdas Perez S, Islam RM et al. Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of Testosterone Therapy for Women. Maturitas. 2019 Oct;128:89-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.07.001
283074187Final published version, 317 KB
Optimising the health of women at midlife to minimise immediate and long-term morbidity
NHMRC Research Fellowship
Sex Hormones and Heart Disease in Older Women study (The SHOW Study)
Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Younger Women's Health Study
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Research at W3F Intro to Nominated Proof-of-Stake
Research at W3F
NPoS
Availability and Validity
XCMP - Relay chain light client design
Parachain Allocation
Polkadot Runtime Environment Specification
Token Economics
Intro to Nominated Proof-of-Stake Intro to Nominated Proof-of-Stake Contents
Intro to Nominated Proof-of-Stake
Validators and nominators
The NPoS scheme
The election process
1. Overview of results for the NPoS election problem
2. The min-norm max-flow problem
3. The maximin support problem
4. Sequential Phragmén’s method.
5. A Phragmén-like Heuristic
Research Team Members
Intro to Nominated Proof-of-Stake¶
The Polkadot blockchain will implement nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS), a relatively new type of scheme used to select the validators who are allowed to participate in the consensus protocol. In this note we give an intro to NPoS, and a peek inside the research carried out at the Web3 Foundation. We also explain the peculiar way in which validators get elected. So how does NPoS work in Polkadot?
Validators and nominators¶
A couple of times per day, the system elects a group of entities called validators, who in the next few hours will play a key role in highly sensitive protocols such as block production and the GRANDPA finality gadget. Their job is demanding as they need to run costly operations, ensure high communication responsiveness, and build a long-term reputation of reliability. They also must stake their DOTs, Polkadot’s native token, as a guarantee of good behavior, and this stake gets slashed whenever they deviate from their protocol. In contrast, they get paid well when they play by the rules. Any node that is up to the task can publicly offer itself as a validator candidate. However, for operational reasons only a limited number of validators can be elected, expected to be hundreds or thousands.
The system also encourages any DOT holder to participate as a nominator. A nominator publishes a list of validator candidates that she trusts, and puts down an amount of DOTs at stake to support them with. If some of these candidates are elected as validators, she shares with them the payments, or the sanctions, on a per-staked-DOT basis. Unlike validators, an unlimited number of parties can participate as nominators. As long as a nominator is diligent in her choice and only supports validator candidates with good security practices, her role carries low risk and provides a continuous source of revenue. There are other special roles in the Polkadot network, but we focus only on the relation between these two roles.
The NPoS scheme¶
This nominator-validator arrangement gives strong security guarantees. It allows for the system to select validators with massive amounts of aggregate stake — much higher than any single party’s DOT holdings — and eliminate candidates with low stake. In fact, at any given moment we expect there to be a considerable fraction of all the DOTs supply be staked in NPoS. This makes it very difficult for an adversarial entity to get validators elected (as they need to build a fair amount of reputation to get the required backing) and very costly to attack the system (because any attack will result in large amounts of DOTs being slashed).
Our NPoS scheme is much more efficient than proof-of-work (PoW) and faster than standard proof-of-stake (PoS). Networks with deterministic finality must have a limited validator set (the size can be changed with governance). NPoS allows for virtually all DOT holders to continuously participate, thus maintaining high levels of security by putting more value at stake and allowing more people to earn a yield based on their holdings.
The election process¶
How to elect the validators, given the nominators’ votes? Unlike other PoS-based projects where validators are weighted by stake, Polkadot gives elected validators equal voting power in the consensus protocol. To reflect this fact, the nominators’ stake should be distributed among the elected validators as evenly as possible, while still respecting the nominators’ preferences. At the Web3 Foundation research team, we use tools ranging from election theory to game theory to discrete optimization, to develop an efficient election process that offers fair representation and security, and can be applied in the future to any blockchain using NPoS. We explore these objectives below, together with some examples.
Fair representation. In the late 19th century, Swedish mathematician Lars Edvard Phragmén proposed a method for electing members to his country’s parliament. He noticed that the election methods at the time tended to give all the seats to the most popular political party; in contrast, his new method ensured that the number of seats assigned to each party were proportional to the votes given to them, so it gave more representation to minorities. The property achieved by his method is formally known as proportional justified representation, and is very fitting for the NPoS election because it ensures that any pool of nodes is neither over-represented nor under-represented by the elected validators, proportional to their stake. Our heuristics build on top of Phragmén’s suggested method and ensure this property in every election.
The illustration represents a typical input to the election process, with nominators on the left having different amounts of stake, and connected by lines to those validator candidates on the right that they trust (for simplicity, validators have no stake of their own in this example, though they will in a real scenario). Suppose we need to elect n=4 validators. The fair representation property roughly translates to the rule that any nominator holding at least one n-th of the total stake is guaranteed to have at least one of their trusted validators elected. As the total stake is 40 DOTS and a fourth of it is 10 DOTS, the first two nominators are guaranteed to be represented by a validator. In the image below we see three possible election results: one that violates the fair representation property and two that achieve it.
Security. If a nominator gets two or more of its trusted validators elected, we need to distribute her stake among them, in such a way that the validators’ backings are as balanced as possible. Recall that we want to make it as difficult as possible for an adversarial pool to get a validator elected, and they can achieve this only if they get a high enough backing. Therefore, we equate the level of security of an election result to the minimum amount of backing of any elected validator. For the last two election results with fair representation, we provide stake distributions which show that they achieve security levels of 6 and 9 respectively.
The election result on the right achieves a higher security level, and clearly does a better job at splitting the nominators’ stake into validators’ backings of roughly equal size. The goal of the NPoS election process is thus to provide a result that achieves fair representation and a security level that is as high as possible. This gives rise to a rather challenging optimization problem (it is NP-complete), for which we have developed fast approximate heuristics with strong guarantees on security and scalability.
We are excited about the technical developments brought forward by Polkadot, and the possibilities enabled by NPoS and other highly efficient schemes being developed in the blockchain space. To learn more about the operations side of the problem of electing validators in NPoS, go to the technical overview of our results.
Previous NPoS
Next 1. Overview of results for the NPoS election problem
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Other Information & Links
Words Section None Or And Not Near Do search Help This chapter only
Effective 28 Aug 2018
Title XII PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
Chapter 208back to chapter 208
208.156. Hearings granted applicants and suppliers of services, when — class action authorized for suppliers, requirements — claims may be cumulative — procedure — appeal. — 1. The family support division or the MO HealthNet division shall provide for granting an opportunity for a fair hearing under section 208.080 to any applicant or recipient whose claim for medical assistance is denied or is not acted upon with reasonable promptness.
2. Any person authorized under section 208.153 to provide services for which benefit payments are authorized under section 208.152 whose claim for reimbursement for such services is denied or is not acted upon with reasonable promptness shall be entitled to a hearing before the administrative hearing commission pursuant to the provisions of chapter 621.
3. Any person authorized under section 208.153 to provide services for which benefit payments are authorized under section 208.152 who is denied participation in any program or programs established under the provisions of chapter 208 shall be entitled to a hearing before the administrative hearing commission pursuant to the provisions of chapter 621.
4. Any person authorized under section 208.153 to provide services for which benefit payments are authorized under section 208.152 who is aggrieved by any rule or regulation promulgated by the department of social services or any division therein shall be entitled to a hearing before the administrative hearing commission pursuant to the provisions of chapter 621.
5. Any person authorized under section 208.153 to provide services for which benefit payments are authorized under section 208.152 who is aggrieved by any rule or regulation, contractual agreement, or decision, as provided for in section 208.166, by the department of social services or any division therein shall be entitled to a hearing before the administrative hearing commission pursuant to the provisions of chapter 621.
6. No provider of service may file a petition for a hearing before the administrative hearing commission unless the amount for which he seeks reimbursement exceeds five hundred dollars.
7. One or more providers of service as will fairly insure adequate representation of others having similar claims against the department of social services or any division therein may institute the hearing on behalf of all in the class if there is a common question of law or fact affecting the several rights and a common relief is sought.
8. Any person authorized under section 208.153 to provide services for which benefit payments are authorized under section 208.152 and who is entitled to a hearing as provided for in the preceding sections shall have thirty days from the date of mailing or delivery of a decision of the department of social services or its designated division in which to file his petition for review with the administrative hearing commission except that claims of less than five hundred dollars may be accumulated until they total that sum and at which time the provider shall have ninety days to file his petition.
9. When a person entitled to a hearing as provided for in this section applies to the administrative hearing commission for a stay order staying the actions of the department of social services or its divisions, the administrative hearing commission shall not grant such stay order until after a full hearing on such application. The application shall be advanced on the docket for immediate hearing and determination. The person applying for such stay order shall not be granted such stay order unless that person shall show that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result if such stay order is denied, or that such person has a reasonable likelihood of success upon the merits of his claim; and provided further that no stay order shall be issued without the person seeking such order posting a bond in such sum as the administrative hearing commission finds sufficient to protect and preserve the interest of the department of social services or its divisions. In no event may the administrative hearing commission grant such stay order where the claim arises under a program or programs funded by federal funds or by any combination of state and federal funds, unless it is specified in writing by the financial section of the appropriate federal agency that federal financial participation will be continued under the stay order.
10. The other provisions of this section notwithstanding, a person receiving or providing benefits shall have the right to bring an action in appealing from the administrative hearing commission in the circuit court of Cole County, Missouri, or the county of his residence pursuant to section 536.050.
--------
(L. 1967 p. 325, A.L. 1979 H.B. 88, A.L. 1981 S.B. 73, A.L. 1982 H.B. 1086, A.L. 2018 S.B. 975 & 1024 Revision)
(1993) Where action is based on specific facts involving named entities and is a challenge to an agency decision, jurisdiction to challenge decision is vested in the administrative hearing commission under this section. Because action challenged an agency decision and not an agency rule, section 536.050, RSMo, does not allow a declaratory judgment action to be brought in the circuit court. Missouri Health Care Association, EBG III, Inc. v. Missouri Department of Social Services, 851 S.W.2d 567 (Mo. App. W.D.).
< end of effective 28 Aug 2018 >
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R|TRIBE
Provider Log in
Can Being Near Nature Help Teens Dealing With Depression?
Tribers,
Adolescence is unsettling at best, and downright overwhelming for most, with the many physical, emotional, psychological and social changes that accompany this stage of life.
It’s not unusual for teenagers to experience “the blues” or feel “down in the dumps” occasionally.
The peace and beauty of nature has therapeutic benefits for many people, and according to a new study, it can be very helpful for teens combating depression.
rTribe
By David Konow 01/29/18
A new study examined whether nature had a positive impact on the mental health of teenagers.
The Journal of Adolescent Health studied over 9,000 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old, and learned that teens who lived in well-vegetated areas were 11% less likely to have serious depression than teens who weren’t exposed to nature. (This report also states that being close to nature has been especially helpful for middle school kids.)
As Carla Bezold of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health told Reuters, “Prior research has shown that lower exposure to nature is associated with more negative emotional and behavioral outcomes.”
In conducting their research, Bezold examined where teens lived and used satellite information to examine their surroundings, including how close they lived to green and blue areas.
“We saw that living in an area that was greener was associated with lower depression among this population, and that the association persisted using a number of statistical techniques, which gives us confidence that the association is there and so are the benefits.”
As to why this has been beneficial to teens, Mind Body Green reports that researchers feel one factor could be what’s called the attention restoration theory, meaning that exposure to nature makes your mind sharper and clearer after doing something stressful.
Another scientific theory is “biophilia hypothesis,” which is the belief that people want to be outdoors and have an innate need to be in nature.
“There are a number of mechanisms connecting greenness and improved overall health,” Bezold continued. “Prior evidence shows that living among higher density vegetation is linked to reduced stress, increased physical activity and improved incidental contact and social interaction between neighbors.”
And it turns out that teens don’t have to be in the physical woods or outdoors to enjoy the healing benefits of nature. Just looking at nature photography or being next to a houseplant can be helpful because as Mind Body Green reports, houseplants can clean the air by absorbing harmful toxic emissions and gasses in your home.
Bezold adds that urban planners and health professionals may be working in tandem to make areas greener, and mentally healthier, for people in the future. “Design teams have come to understand the importance of having nature in a residential environment because it promotes community health in more ways than one. It’s about more than just aesthetics.”
(used with permission from thefix.com)
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© 2018 The Recovery Tribe, Inc.
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Цитаты известных личностей
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„It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste“
— Генри Форд
Генри Форд59
американский промышленник 1863 - 1947
„You'll never get ahead by blaming your problems on other people.“
— Willie Nelson, The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart
„It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.“
— Stephen Hawking British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942
As quoted in "Return of the time lord" in The Guardian (27 September 2005)
„Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time and you'll have the time of your life.“
— Billy Connolly British comedian 1942
„They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise.
They've been wasting most their time
Glorifying days long gone behind,
They've been wasting most their days
In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise.“
— Stevie Wonder American musician 1950
Song lyrics, Songs In The Key of Life (1976), Pastime Paradise
„Life is a waste of time and time is a waste of life, so let's all get wasted and have the time of our lives.“
— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994
„It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out
of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a
short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.“
— Thomas Hardy, book Far from the Madding Crowd
„People who live their lives by proverbs waste their time doing lots of stupid things. “Getting even is the best revenge” is my motto.“
— George Alec Effinger, A Fire in the Sun
A Fire in the Sun (1989), Chapter 20 (p. 282).
„Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.“
— Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
— Douglas Adams English writer and humorist 1952 - 2001
„Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself“
— Baz Luhrmann Australian film director, screenwriter and producer 1962
„Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.“
— Mary Schmich American columnist 1953
"Wear Sunscreen" (1997)
„Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs.“
— Edgard Varèse French composer 1883 - 1965
Context: Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs. I was the first composer to explore, so to speak, musical outer space. As quoted in Gramophone (1962), Vol. 40, Part 2, p. 389
„It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead I have no way of knowing.
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing.
It's time to move on, it' s time to get going.“
— Tom Petty American musician 1950
Lyrics, Wildflowers (1994), Time To Move On
„If I do not waste time, I am wasting my time.“
— James Richardson American poet 1950
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001), #146
„Ninety percent of paid work is time-wasting crap. The world gets by on the other ten.“
— John Derbyshire writer 1945
Wishing I’d Played the Ponies http://takimag.com/article/wishing_id_played_the_ponies/print#axzz3xNaU2RAk, Taki's Magazine, June 16, 2011.
„It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance.“
— L. Neil Smith American writer 1946
"Empire of Lies" Presented to the Libertarian Party of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 15 June 2003 http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2003/libe228-20030622-01.html.
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The results are in! The outcome of the Grade Change Study – which included parent as well as TDSB input is to “stay status quo” for now and continue to monitor enrolment levels at Runnymede.
This means that there is no imminent plan to move our 7/8’s off site, but that this will be re-evaluated on a regular basis.
Thank you to all of the Runnymede parents that took the time to be involved in this process.
Questions can be directed to our Parent Council Chair, Dale Cadeau.
A Grade Change Study Focus Group meeting took place at Runnymede P.S. on January 11, 2016. At this meeting, Runnymede parent representatives and TDSB staff examined the options available to us and discussed how parents would feel about a grade change that would involve moving Grade 7 and 8 students to another site (ie. Western Tech as a campus).
Parents at the focus group were not in favour of any change at this time.
Due to the boundary change which took place in 2012 and redirection of feeder school students (Howard Public School) to other sites, the current situation at Runnymede is deemed not as urgent as previously thought. Currently enrolment is at 101% capacity which is 100 students fewer than last year. The TDSB recognizes that 85 – 90% capacity is optimal.
Trustee Robin Pilkey anticipates that when the Local Feasibility Team meets after March Break their decision will be that nothing needs to be done for now, but that the TDSB will continue to monitor enrolment and overcrowding at Runnymede. This is good planning, and is a documented part of an overall planning strategy for the TDSB.
Thank you to Robin Pilkey our Ward 7 Trustee, for attending our Parent Council meeting on January 19th to discuss the Grade Change Study publicly with Runnymede parents.
The detailed minutes of the focus group meeting and the Parent Council meeting will be posted on the school and Council websites once approved.
Thank you to the Runnymede parents that volunteered for the focus group, voiced their opinions and came to the Parent Council meeting to hear Trustee Pilkey speak first hand. It is exactly this type of parental engagement which makes Runnymede such a great school.
About the Grade Change Study
The TDSB is doing a number of studies in Ward 7, including one specific to Runnymede PS.
The study affecting Runnymede is slated to begin in January 2016 and will be a Grade Change Study, in which they will consider making Runnymede a junior school from K-6, with all grade 7 and 8 students (both French Immersion and English streams) moving off site. Options being explored are moving students to Annette Jr. & Sr. PS and a campus arrangement with Western Technical School, amongst others.
Superintendent Jane Phillips-Long, attended our Parent Council meeting in November to continue the discussion.
Local Feasibility Team (LFT)
The first step of the Grade Change Study is to form a Local Feasibility Team (LFT). The Team will:
Include TDSB Planning staff, the neighbouring Principals, affected Superintendents, program staff and our local Trustee, Robin Pilkey.
Look at enrolment projection data and explore potential solutions – short- and long- term – to address overcrowding at our school.
A group of 10 Runnymede parents were selected to participate in a parent Focus Group to advise the Local Feasibility Team. The LFT will use the Focus Group findings as input for the work that they do. The first Focus Group meeting was held on Monday January 11, 2016. Minutes of the meeting will be circulated to the school community via this site, when available.
The LFT may conclude one of the following options:
That monitoring Runnymede’s enrolment is acceptable in the short-term, and that a significant change in demographic data will bring the team back together when needed;
That a Program Area Review Team (PART) should be formed to further examine immediate and long-term solutions. If a PART is recommended, this team would include all members of the LFT plus parent representatives (see below)
We expect to hear a decision from the LFT in early Spring 2016. Their findings will be publicly available, via this website.
Program Area Review Team (PART)
If needed, the team would:
Include all members of the LFT plus parent representatives.
Meet at least twice to review the data and discuss solutions.
Hold a public meeting to share information and seek input.
This PART committee would then bring recommendations to staff and to the Director of Education
There is NO grade change proposed for Runnymede PS for 2016-17. This regulated process will ensure all points are considered and in place before any 7/8 students would be moved off site. As more information becomes available, we will continue to update the Runnymede Council website.
If you have questions about the Grade Change Study or the Local Feasibility Team process, please our School Council Co-Chair Dale Cadeau.
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Cricket World Cup Points Table
Home » News » Australia destroy India and win by 9 wickets
Australia destroy India and win by 9 wickets
In the 4th match of the super eights India went down very poorly to Australia losing by 9 wickets. Batting first India suffered an early set back after Gautam Gambhir was dismissed by a cheeky run out. India never really recovered from that blow and the inform Virat Kohli was almost dismissed early. The return of Yuvraj Singh was expected to give India some confidence but that did not happen as he also departed with just 8 runs to his name. Dhoni’s decision to keep out Sehwag and play Irfan Pathan cost the Indian team very heavily because Pathan neither contributed well with the bat nor with the ball. Opening the batting with Gambhir he just scored 31 of 30 balls in what seemed to be a long and tiring innings. Suresh Raina did pull off some boundaries towards the end but that was not enough as India managed to scamper through to 140 in their 20 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. Shane Watson was the pick of the bowlers for Australia picking up 3 valuable wickets. Pat Cummins was also very economical in his spell of overs giving away just 16 runs and picking up 2 wickets in the process.
Australia came into bat with a slight drizzle but that did not stop the 2 openers from firing. They went out and attacked each and every Indian bowler and soon they were scoring at 10 runs per over. David Warner and Shane Watson got sixes and fours of almost every over and the small total of 140 looked even smaller. Dhoni used 8 bowlers in order to get a wicket and Yuvraj was successful but it was too late by that time. All over it was a pretty one sided match and if the Indians continue to play like this then the road to the semi final could well be over for them.
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WORDPRESS IMAGE GALLERY
Poisoned-People
Pesticide Poisoning, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Lupus, Lyme, Neurological, Mold (Mycotoxin), MS, Metabolic Syndrome & All Manner of Environmental & Legal (System) Assaults Upon Human Health.
Tag Archives: carbamate
CHEMICAL & GMO APOCALYPSE: INDUSTRIAL BAD SCIENCE, CORRUPTION & FASCISM, PESTICIDE-CHEMICAL-GMO-TRANSGENE-POLLEN-ENDOTOXIN POLLUTION, & HUMAN HEALTH & BEHAVIOR META-IMPLICATIONS
Leave a comment Posted by poisonedpeople on March 12, 2014
Research Consensus On Pesticide, Endotoxin & Transgene Mobility, Exposures & Toxicity, Environmental Insults, Pandemic Ramifications (Extinction Potential) & Our Dying Civilization. Briefly: The Right Type of Farming & Innovative Non Or Low-Toxic Herbicide Alternatives For Plantations & Crops As A Small, Pleading Signature of Good Sense & Potential.
By Murray Thompson (Bachelor of Applied Science Environmental Health 1998 [Top of Degree Award, Australian Institute of Environmental Health, New South Wales Division]; First Class Honours Social Ecology 1999; Ex-University of Western Sydney PhD Scholarship Sociology Postgraduate Student)
WEBSITES: http://poisonedpeople.com; http://poisoningandlegalaction.com; https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/; http://murraythompsongraphics.x90x.net/ This Essay will be periodically updated (comments for improvements welcome).
PLEASE NOTE: I cannot get WordPress to paste an explicit copy of my text file. WordPress first off leaves out the major formatting of indented quoted material (which I can repair) and absolutely will not save heading position corrections properly.
ESSAY URL: https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/chemical-gmo-apocalypse-industrial-bad-science-corruption-fascism-pesticide-chemical-gmo-transgene-pollen-endotoxin-pollution-human-health-behavior-meta-implications SHORTLINK URL: http://wp.me/p2DVqC-50
Updated: 1 August 2014.
“More people have died because of chemicals than during
World War II” (Ollivry 2013).
Pesticides, like nuclear radiation, represent Extinction Level Event (ELE) material toxins and anti-life dynamics at work. As scientists, industries and whole consumerist cultures, we have oddly chosen mass morbidity and death on so many levels while still professing an opposite desire to somehow evolve into something better. In a swarming corporate rush to grab power and profit we have side-stepped genuinely sustainable, green and life-giving productive means of development in favor of that which can only make us sick and sicker. So, how DUMB are we? How BLIND are we? The answer lies in how SCIENTIFIC we are…
Human development is not a straight-line, nor is it simplistic. There exists a hidden confusion of inherent contradiction inside this great story of a so-called ascendant sentient species. And just when we thought we had conquered everything after the Renaissance, we strangely — and at this late stage in our advance (or decline) — chose an ultimate and certain annihilation over life-giving enlightenment. Missed it by much more than “that much”.
And, even though this Essay represents a largely physical study of Life and Anti-Life on Planet Earth, we can discern, when expanding our vision out much further beyond our tiny individual lives, that a great metaphysical Death Wish (something well beyond mere temporal human thought) is leveraging frightening unknowns in the lives of all peoples. Hence, the toxins, exposures, sickness and corporate intrigues we constantly study and comment on to the point of tedium.
We must wonder if we are all propelled by irresistible immortal forces to poison ourselves out of existence with nuclear radiation, pesticides, pollution, flouride and GMOs! These exotic substances are attacking the viability of Life On Earth, or reproduction. Rapidly advancing global toxicological signatures clearly show there exists the consistent certainty that immediate and long-term environmental and human health markers are now being diminished across-the-board at an accelerating rate. After-the-fact research cannot keep up with the features of destruction that these immensely toxic chemicals leave in their wake.
We have lost control of our thinking and our technologies. Pesticides (generally speaking, but a little more pertinent to this study: herbicides), migrate to poison the natural environment (especially soils), finding us and poisoning our reproductive and other potentials wherever we are. Hence, the emphasis in this report is on the modern, enhanced potential for famine, pandemic and extinction dynamics. So pervasive is this technological stress, that the revealed extensive damage to our Planet’s biosphere demands that we innovate entirely outside industry sentiment and influence, and comprehensively reconstruct the pesticide paradigm (if not all human technological fix conceptualization), using, as a weak base standard at the very, very least, the Precautionary Principle.
Glyphosate, and GMO crops and plantation trees and their associated extensive problems are particularly examined in this study using research that indicates a measure of just the tip of the iceberg in terms of these “Dimensional Rift” kinds of toxic insults on Planetary health. Natural herbicide alternative treatments are briefly addressed.
2.0 ERRONEOUS INDUSTRIAL & INSTITUTIONAL IMPERATIVES
The main (subjective & immediately ‘appealing’) features and errors in the broad (yet shallow) justification for extensive pesticide (including herbicide) use appear to be:
1. Cosmetic appeal (dead or absent weeds) and the diminishment of weed growth and damage (e.g. along sealed roadsides), even if the weeds tend to hold the soil together.
2. Pest ‘health’ concepts and seeming logically reasoned imperatives. The problem here however is that these notions are usually internally flawed because they derive from short-term, symptomatic and technological fix worldviews and responses to multiple other flawed human systems working in concert against human health. Here we witness the broad replacement of a genuinely functional Nature in cities and in agricultural regions, and the loading of these environments with exotic chemicals. These toxic impositions favor ecological dynamics that are well and truly out of balance and distorted with multiple, intertwining chemical and energic insults simultaneously impacting on so many levels and layers of life systems that all we usually end up doing is jumping from one dumb technical quick fix reaction to a stress symptom to another reaction (like experimenting on a patient with medications). There is no real and integrated core sense of order or restitution derived from this materialistic, “one-dimensional”, and mechanistic linear thinking style.
3. Assumed crop growth benefits, but without reference to fully informed, ecologically sustainable and critical long-term soil and environmental health imperatives. Here, institutionalized economic, industrial growth, and impatient profit and control worldviews have unfortunately classically worked against planetary health in favor of (again) short-term profitability notions that ignore:
a/ long-term TOXIC outcomes and
b/ longer-term EXTINCTION TRENDS (the latter is automatically seeded by the former). Critically, spray protocols reference outdated regulatory regimes that are toxicologically and ecologically dumb and inept, and which lead to criminal impositions on human health.
3.0 THE DEVIL IS IN THE SUB-CLINICAL, CUMULATIVE & OVERT POISONING DETAILS (EXPANDING ON THE ABOVE): PESTICIDE MIGRATION, EXPOSURE & HUMAN HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
3.1 WE (THE PEOPLE) DIDN’T THOROUGHLY KNOW
Simplistically, second generation synthetic pesticides’ (Muir 2012) increasing dominance in the world, and the easy spray regimes and protocols that facilitated their ready commercial/public access and use, essentially formed out of the following very general dynamics (not in any particular order):
a/ Our almost uncensored trust in science’s “invisible helpers” (chemicals) on the back of the Renaissance and then the mechanical marvels of the Industrial Revolution (we were a bit innocent and infatuated with ourselves and our inventive capabilities).
b/ Cheaper food (from initial gains made through pesticide use), the availability of apparently effective and inexpensive synthetic pesticides (especially DDT), a lack of documented injuries or deaths, an initial reduction in insect-borne diseases, and apparent safety in contrast to earlier uses of arsenic (Unsworth 2010) were all persuasive arguments in favor of the continuing development and use of pesticides.
c/ The prospect of massive industry profits through quickly applied and quick kill (convenient) chemical ‘fixes’.
d/ Then… came industry’s (and their growing armies of beholden science and political hordes’) avoidance of what they increasingly suspected or overtly knew about chemical toxicities, whereupon developed the necessary “Don’t Mention The War” corporate mentality that officially recognized only the deceptive embrace of rosey chemical potentials re-worked or fabricated as spin, often seen as blatant lies in advertising and MSDS’s. Note:
…industry regulators in Europe have known for years that glyphosate, originally introduced by American agricultural biotechnology giant Monsanto in 1976, causes birth defects in the embryos of laboratory animals…
Even so, the commission’s health and consumer division published a final review report of glyphosate in 2002 that approved its use in Europe for the next 10 years…
…Earth Open Source said that government approval of the ubiquitous herbicide has been rash and problematic.
“Our examination of the evidence leads us to the conclusion that the current approval of glyphosate and Roundup is deeply flawed and unreliable,” wrote the report’s authors. “What is more, we have learned from experts familiar with pesticide assessments and approvals that the case of glyphosate is not unusual” (Graves 2011).
“We can’t figure out how regulators could have come to the conclusions that they did [regarding the safety of glyphosate] if they were taking a balanced look at the science, even the science that was done by the chemical industry itself” (Graves 2011, quoting John Fagan, doctor of molecular and cell biology and biochemistry, and one of the founders of Earth Open Source).
e/ Our general and uninformed demands as spoilt consumers for technical/chemical wonders and symptom fixes, and the inherent toxic backgrounds to these synthesized wonders that we (the people) weren’t necessarily aware of.
• lead in paint;
• PCB’s;
• DDT;
• Agent Orange;
• Thalalidomide;
• Sulfanilamide;
• 2,4-D;
• flouride (see: http://dianabuckland.webs.com/);
• mercury fillings
• Stilnox/Ambien/Zolpidem, Warfarin, Heparin/Lovenox, Pradaxa, Plavix, Paracetamol, Phenazepam (Edlund 2011);
• Propoxyphene/Darvon, Meperidine/Demerol, Guaifenesin/Dilaudid with Hydromorphone, Oxycodone/OxyContin, Tylenol with Codeine, Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen/Vicodin/Norco (Stoppler 2014);
• NSAIDs or Advil/Aleve/Ibuprofen/Naproxen, Cox-2 Inhibitors or Celebrex/Celecoxib (Collins 2011);
• Vioxx, etc.
See “NIOSH List of Antineoplastic and Other Hazardous Drugs in Healthcare Settings 2012” at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2012-150/pdfs/2012-150.pdf. See also the huge listing of medications associated with heart attack at: http://medsfacts.com/reaccover.php?pt=ACUTE%20MYOCARDIAL%20INFARCTION.
However, we should have cautiously and intelligently realized a long time ago, as we began pumping millions of pounds of pesticides into the environment, that the toxics that didn’t obediently stay put at the application site went somewhere (migrated), and did something (poisoned other things), and often persisted and then bioconcentrated (built up in an organism’s tissues), and biomagnified (amplified in concentration up the food chain) (Muir 2012), and even became something else (changed into even more toxic “metabolites”). Since we ultimately sprayed pesticides onto the ground, at the very least we should have suspected that: “Pesticides and fertilizers applied to lawns and crops can accumulate and migrate to the water table” (Source: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/groundwater-contaminants.html). We should have been much more protective and anticipatory regarding the health of our groundwater and our rivers.
I would suggest that a water table and its associated streams are in a state of constant interplay. Further, and dismissing for the moment the concept of chemical diffusion that sees toxins migrating uphill in plumes and even AGAINST water flows (see Endnote #1), the state of a river DOWNSTREAM from a herbicide spray application site must be considered in terms of applied (escaped) chemical affecting wildlife and aquatic life, including platypus (in Australia) and fish stocks. Here, outdated or orthodox/traditional toxicological regulatory regimes tragically fail to anticipate new understanding and thereby continue to allow pesticides to be used almost universally with few real (substantial) restrictions:
“Pesticides are having an effect at 10 to 100 times lower concentrations than traditionally thought,” says Kefford.
He says when authorities try to protect our streams and rivers from pesticides they rely on thresholds, under which it is assumed pesticides have no effect.
For example, the European Union recommends the use of a commonly-used safety factor of 100.
This means if a negative effect on an aquatic organism is only seen at a particular concentration of pesticide, then a safe level of that pesticide is regarded as being one hundredth of this concentration.
But, says Kefford, the latest evidence suggests that this safety factor is too small (Salleh 2012).
Further:
Rachel Carson in Silent Spring in 1963 warned us many years ago about the damaging and unimagined effects wrought by very low level original applications of poisonous chemical substances, such as DDT, entering the food chain. We now know that it is worse even than that. Even minute doses, that appear to be safe to humans, accumulate through prolonged usage to toxic levels, and worse, interact to cause epigenetic cancers and other pathologies. Government testing does not take these cumulative and epigenetic effects into account – and it should.10 (Bound, Biggs & Obendorf 2012).
The above understanding more than strongly suggests that a much larger and broader burden of sub-surface morbidity exists (at least initially as a silent epidemic of sub-clinical poisoning presentations) as a direct and evolved function of an infinite number of small, cumulative exposures to pesticides and other industrial toxins. As well, this much more informed comprehension and acceptance of the deadly reality of technological poisons demands that all pesticide use be severely reduced, if not completely eliminated, immediately and globally. Therefore, all spray regimes need to be thoroughly reevaluated and reconfigured in terms of the CERTAINTY of life-form poisoning and compromise by pesticide. Expanding: short-term spray drift and long-term vapour drift or volatilization, surface flow transport and groundwater/underground water contaminant transport, chemical diffusion and intrusion/trespass onto properties adjacent to spray sites (especially pesticide-chemical diffusion and environmental trespass into residential concrete slabs) should be recognized as a “given”. We didn’t know:
…in a large population with an increasing number of chemicals, there will come a point at which the least protected (biochemically) will be adversely affected while others are not. As the dosage increases, greater numbers will be affected, in ways no longer defined by the toxicity of the individual chemicals (Donohoe 2008).
In other words, there will be synergies amongst the chemical contaminants. The “adversely affected” have what is often called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. It is worthwhile here to explain this condition in some detail:
Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) is an acquired condition in which the sufferer becomes sensitised or abnormally reactive to volatile chemicals following prolonged, recurrent or high dose exposure to volatile chemicals. The most distinctive symptom is “cacosmia”, or a heightened sensitivity and lowered threshold to odours that most of the population find inoffensive or would not notice.
Multiple chemical sensitivities is a condition that primarily affects the nervous system, particularly the brain, and most often has characteristic symptoms, including:
* decreased short term memory,
* poor concentration,
* weakness,
* fatigue,
* dizziness, and
* altered emotional states (emotional lability, often oscillating between anxiety and depression).
Recent published studies demonstrate alterations of SPECT brain scans, central evoked responses (especially visual and auditory), and altered autonomic nervous system function. The mechanisms of such damage remain unclear at present, but direct neurotoxicity is regarded as the most likely cause. There is no current evidence that the condition is reversible, and MCS appears to represent a form of subtle toxic brain damage with the potential for lifelong disability.
The sufferer’s history and clinical state should meet the criteria laid down by Cullen et al, that multiple chemical sensitivities is “… an acquired disorder characterised by recurrent symptoms, referable to multiple organ systems, occurring i[n] response to demonstrable exposure to many chemically unrelated compounds at doses far below those established in the general population to cause harmful effects. No single widely accepted test of physiologic function can be shown to correlate with the symptoms (Cullen M. R. The worker with multiple chemical sensitivities: An overview. Occup Med 1987;2: 655-661). (Donohoe, No date).
And: This and subsequent publications suggest that the critical defining features of multiple chemical sensitivities are that:
* it is an acquired disorder; * sufferers have recurring symptoms; * symptoms involve more than one organ system; * reactions and exacerbations are triggered by many chemically diverse substances; * reactions persist after separation of the person from the original causative agent(s); * reactions and exacerbations occur at very low dose of exposure. (ibid.)
These chemical mobility, exposure and injury truths further demand the heavy, indeed single-minded, promotion of any viable and non-toxic pesticide alternative technologies.
As well, this level of commitment would represent an informed level of innovation and a conscience-driven revolution that, of course, contradicts a mountain of institutionalized inertia, comfort and vested interests. It represents: “systemic changes needed to protect future generations” (Sutton 2009:8) and “…a paradigm shift in the field that integrates various disciplines involved in the study of environmental contamination…” (Crews & Gore 2011).
3.2 WE DON’T WANT TO KNOW
Pesticide mobility, exposures and injuries sit very uncomfortably with industry (although not as uncomfortably as with those, like me, who have been rendered permanently chemical sensitive. Industries don’t want to know about chemical toxicities or, better put, don’t want WE the public to know or care.
3.2.1 BURIED PROBLEMS
However, for the sake of knowledge (let alone justice) past spraying incidents need to be “dug up” (a bit like landmine reclamation…). Note the movie “Erin Brockovich”. Pesticide release and associated injury complications should be evaluated in terms of testing for spray residues and metabolites in any drinking water source. Some companies in Australia test water sources at the Australian Government Analytical Laboratories, but what standards do AGAL administer?
I wonder if, ideally, pesticide residues and possible metabolites should be at least partially identified/calibrated prior to water/soil sampling (with appropriate lab work in relation to local meteorological, plant, soil and geological conditions) so that soil and water analyses is more effective (knowing what to look for, as well as being flexible enough — given the test trials and implications — to be able to identify possible new or unanticipated pesticide-geological chemical combinations and metabolites).
It should be noted here that the Earth’s crust goes down a long way, and great ignorance exists as to geological and plant/animal/other lifeforms at these lower depths. Suffice to say that pesticide infiltration at these depths will not enhance any aspect of “Life Below Earth”, and that we have already lost much unrecoverable knowledge in terms of deep-life geological conditions by virtue of profoundly intrusive planetary pollution.
3.2.2 EPIDEMIOLOGY
Any concerns over indications of the potential poisoning of residents adjacent to spray locations should be followed up by epidemiological and other surveys (hospital admissions, medical records, interviews, etc.). This occurred in terms of the Castlereagh Human Health Study (http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/global/MAIN-Global-Toxicity-Chemicals_A-Worldwide-Nightmare.pdf), which was done in Sydney in relation to pronounced animal and human morbidity surrounding the then named Castlereagh Liquid Waste Disposal Depot (now Castlereagh Waste Management Centre).
Although the Report was something of a whitewash, the correct statistics (ignored by the Report) showed there existed statistically significant morbidity in human populations, particularly between the waste depot and the Hawkesbury River (where the liquid waste plumes tended to move). Landholder experiences over extended time demonstrated clear problems with domestic and farm animal health (particularly after rain where raindrop impact caused burning lesions on animals’ legs and profound levels of stress to the point where a horse impailed itself on a fence while being “burned” [M. Streicher, pers. comm. 1995]). These toxic outcomes were supported by University of Western Sydney Degree student bore water testing showing excessive cadmium levels (Thompson, et.al. 1998) and a later assessment of professional bore water test results (Thompson 1998/2010). And although Epidemiology is a difficult discipline: “Epidemiologists sum it up this way: If they can detect a problem, you know you have a true catastrophe” (Heath 2013).
Of course surveys and studies further alert people to class action scenarios in this unfortunately litigious society, so would be unlikely to be carried out voluntarily by industry. Public upset usually has to motivate those who seek your votes to get a study underway.
In terms of your own local information gathering, one could pick up valuable clues from visitors to your area of chemical contamination concern. Ask them if their children, while holidaying or visiting in that area, have exhibited the classic symptom of pesticide poisoning for kids: anomalous abdominal pain (Dr. Brendan Grabau 2005, pers.comm.). Ask this anyway regarding permanent residents. Their children could generate a trend in abdominal pain that can indicate long-term problems that need investigating. If they haven’t demonstrated these symptoms, however, the new toxicology still does not discount the possibility that poisoning has occurred, but that symptoms have been masked by presenting as sub-clinical. This is importantly understood now, as well as the cumulative and synergistic effects of multiple tiny exposures to multiple toxins over extended time.
Why did the discipline of toxicology have to change in recent years?
…the current system is not based on fundamentally sound science. Our existing commercial and regulatory enterprises are all geared to produce and to accept descriptive data from high dose animal tests… (Boekelheide 2008).
The next part of this same quote is wrong:
…and the process of interpreting this information has, to a large extent, effectively protected our health and safety for many decades (ibid.).
Why wrong?
As of 2005, there were 82,000 chemicals in commerce, with approximately seven hundred new chemicals being introduced per year.[4] There is little publicly available safety data for most of these chemicals, and many of them are produced in quantities of a million pounds or more per year (Zurlo 2012; referencing at [4]: National Research Council, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2007)).
The new toxicology regime will involve:
…toxicity testing based on human cell systems that will be more predictive, have higher throughput, cost less money, be more comparable to real-life exposures in humans, while using many fewer animals. This vision, embraced by leading scientific and regulatory groups, is a paradigm shift from animal-based to human-based testing that signals a major change in focus and promotes the development of new approaches to understanding the toxicity of chemicals in humans (ibid.).
The old paradigm, developed over four centuries ago by Paracelsus, was that ‘the dose makes the poison’. However, for exposures sustained during early development, another critical, but largely ignored, issue is that ‘the timing makes the poison’. This extended paradigm deserves wide attention to protect the foetus and child against preventable hazards (Grandjean, et. al. 2007).
Or, in more detail:
…a growing number of studies show that many environmental toxicants can have significant consequences, including dysfunction and disease, at very low-level exposures. Many of these low-dose studies (including with the pesticides hexachlorobenzene and atrazine) demonstrate that “the timing of exposure is critical to the outcome and that exposures during early life stages (fetal, infant, and pubertal) are particularly important. This recognition of critical windows of vulnerability not only demonstrates the developmental basis of disease but also that the timing, as well as the dose, makes the poison.” In addition, the effects of environmental toxins on the human hormone system, for example, are frequently non- linear such that “high doses may not be appropriate to predict the safety of low doses when hormonally active or modulating compounds are studied.” Birnbaum describes this body of research as responsible for disruptive “paradigm shifts in our understanding of the relationship between environmental toxicants and disease” (Quotes and information attributed to Linda Birnbaum, Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS) 2009).
As noted above, an epidemiological survey can uncover statistically significant burdens of chemically-induced morbidity (the disease state of an individual or the incidence of illness in a population), however LITIGATION REPRESENTS SUCH AN EXCEPTIONALLY UNTIDY, CONFLICTUAL AND ADVERSARIAL POTENTIAL THAT ALL EFFORTS SHOULD GO INTO THE R&D OF ALTERNATIVE WEED ERADICATION METHODS RATHER THAN PAYING FOR THE COLLEGE EDUCATIONS OF LEGAL TEAMS’ CHILDREN. 3.2.3 NO REGULATION, NO CONTROL, NO SENSE As industries and businesses and even whole techno-driven cultures, we may find it inconvenient to recognize the weight of scientific evidence in favor of the toxicity and uncontrollable nature of pesticides, nevertheless the following should prompt any NORMAL human being (one who is not insanely predisposed to putting industrial vested interests or employment ahead of the health future of their progeny and the ecological integrity of this planet) to seriously question our pitiable love affair with these deadly substances:
(Reuters) – Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday (Fox 2010).
Given this DISTURBING type of toxicity, just how smart are we, really, as a supposed sentient species?:
ONLY one in every 100 of the 50,000 industrial, agricultural and veterinary chemicals available for use in Australia today has ever been tested for its potential danger to people’s health and the environment (Jopson & Pollard 2007).
In the US:
90% of 23,971 PMN [new chemicals still within the Premanufacture Notification process] chemicals approved by EPA between 1976 and 1994 were approved with no restrictions on their proposed use and production and with no requests for additional test data, regardless of the amount of data submitted (Chemical Industry Archives 2009).
In practice, almost 80% of chemical additives directly—intentionally—added to food lack the relevant information needed to estimate the amount that consumers can safely eat in FDA’s own database and 93% lack reproductive or developmental toxicity data, although FDA requires feeding toxicology data for these chemicals (Neltner, Alger, Leonard & Maffini 2013).
Eight chemicals have been under review by the Australian regulator the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) for more than 13 years, and some up to 15 years, with use continuing in the meantime (News.com.au 2011).
In Tasmania (Australia):
“State chemical use rules are so lax on approvals and policing, such that it may not be known which lands or land-owners have been recent users of a detectable chemical … What is more important – bureaucratic convenience, political embarrassment or community & environmental health?” (Quote attributed to Dr. Leaman; SourceWatch.org 2013a).
Small wonder that the following is typical of our chemical experience:
At least 17 pesticides are suspected carcinogens, and 48 have been flagged as potential endocrine disruptors which can interfere with hormones in animals and humans, leading to birth defects and other developmental disorders (ibid.).
False claims about the safety of pesticides, combined with flaws in the federal registration process, raise serious concerns about increased exposure to environmental chemicals, when there is lack of information on their reproductive and endocrinological effects, synergy, bioaccumulation, and continual low-dose exposure (Knight 1997).
…policy makers in other countries trust FDA and wrongly assume their assessments are valid. They’re disproved when independent studies are matched against industry-run ones. The differences are startling. The former report adverse affects while the latter claim the opposite. It’s no secret why. Agribusiness giants allow nothing to interfere with profits, safety is off the table, and all negative information is quashed (Lendman 2014).
And even if some regulators maintained at the very least a better appearance or semblance of genuine ‘control’ over substances that, by their very nature, are utterly UNCONTROLLABLE once released to the ground, water and winds, not all regulators or countries necessarily show the same levels of… intelligent concern and restraint?:
A so-called expert independent panel for FSC International has again changed the criteria for determining which pesticides should go on the FSC ‘highly hazardous’ or HHP list. As a result, simazine and terbuthylazine have been removed from the list and no longer require an FSC derogation for use in plantation establishment…
The author also notes that the FSC has listed online a proforma for comments on the latest parameter revisions to be submitted by early August, yet the May document is stated Final Report. That suggests that the FSC is not serious about external input, or the May document would be a Draft. This sort of behaviour and the notification failures are perfidious and arise, in the author’s opinion, from the over-riding arrogance of the FSC and their refusal to acknowledge external criticism…
The second new listing example is ludicrous. The chemical is azafenidin, developed by DuPont, but it was withdrawn globally over a decade ago, when the US EPA identified a secondary metabolite harmful to female reproductive health. It is on the Superseded List in the British Crop Protection Council’s Pesticide Manual. A search did not reveal any evidence that it has been re-introduced. The FSC’s listing is not simply inane, it is insane.
There are numerous other examples in the latest listings where a single parameter is used to justify the inclusion, but often there are over-riding factors including other parameters that are ignored.
Clearly, the armchair idealogues working with the FSC have bastardized the science (Tomkins 2013).
And in (forum) response to the above article: These chemicals are not dangerous to trees but only to people. FSC certifies forests not human beings. Why should FSC care if its global genetically-modified tree plantations are sprayed with chemicals that turn boys into girls? (Stevens 2013; my [ ] emphasis). However:
After many years of community outrage over the use of biocide chemicals in commercial forestry, the Tasmanian government initiated a quarterly water monitoring program for 55 rivers, with 19 chemicals tested… The transport of chemicals resulting from aerial chemical spray drift and contamination of both ground and surface water has been highlighted on numerous occasions (SourceWatch.org 2013a).
If only our stewardship of this planet was fully, ecologically sound. That means NOTHING gets poisoned. Note on page 2 of the document, http://www.twff.org.au/documents/twffprosilvapol.pdf (accessed: 6 Feb. 2014):
With regard to the general principles of sustainability, the following are essential elements of the productive function: • Maintenance of the soil fertility • Guaranteed continuity of the forest ecosystems and timber production • Maintenance of the natural energy and mineral cycles…
India is one of the world’s largest users of pesticides and a highly profitable market for the corporations that manufacture them. Ladyfinger, cabbage, tomato and cauliflower in particular may contain dangerously high levels because farmers tend to harvest them almost immediately after spraying. Fruit and vegetables are sprayed and tampered with to make them more colourful, and harmful fungicides are sprayed on fruit to ripen them in order to rush them off to market…
Kasargod in Kerala is notorious for the indiscriminate spraying of endosulfan. The government-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala aerially sprayed the harmful pesticide on cashews for a period of over 20 years. Consequently, it got into rivers, streams and drinking water. Families and their children have been living with physical deformities, cancers and disorders of the central nervous system ever since…
According to the writer Marie-Monique Robin, whoever controls the food (and pesticide) business controls the world. And Monsanto, backed by the US Government, is setting out to do this through its genetically manipulated (GM) seeds and its pesticides and weedicides.
This is the company [that] has been responsible for manufacturing polychlorinated biphenols that cause cancer, dioxins that lead to chloracne, GM bovine growth hormone that produce mastitis in cattle and genetically modified organisms containing insect toxins, including GM corn, GM soya and Bt cotton, which are strongly associated with a range of health hazards. It also produced Agent Orange which the US dropped on Vietnam to destroy jungle and consequently led to mass death, disease and deformities. In June 2001, adding insult to injury, Monsanto was accused by farmers of Ninh Thuan province of pressuring them to use genetically modified seeds that resulted in corn and maize crop failures and economic ruin. In Indonesia, the corporation bribed more than 140 government officials to have its Bt cotton released without an environmental risk assessment (Todhunter 2012).
…pesticides are strongly linked to birth defects… science will not solve this problem for us. Isn’t it time to consider a human rights approach, an ethical challenge to the poisoners?… The old science-based strategy has failed us. Perhaps a new, precautionary path can get us where we need to go. The precautionary principle says, ‘When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically’ (Montague, 2001).
Or, put slightly differently, the Precautionary Principle:
…or precautionary approach states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an action (Wikipedia 2014a).
So, how does Big Biotech manage to sideline the Principle?
Big Biotech has effectively been in the same position that Big Tobacco was in previous decades — able to defend themselves with the “there’s no conclusive link” argument that sidelines the precautionary principle to embrace the cost-externalising rationalisation that’s typical of the corporate world (Mackintosh 2011).
“There’s no conclusive link” means… We don’t want to know, we don’t want YOU to know.
3.3 THE SLOW, CONSISTENT DEATH PLAN/STRATEGY IN IT’S MANY FORMS
There exists in this world powerful forces pushing us toward the full expression of a background totalitarian scheme embracing all life-forms. It is a gradualistic scheme in terms of its expression over extended time, and it takes on many forms.
3.3.1 META TREND: BACKGROUNDER
And, while Big Poison classically and weaselly obfuscates their monumentally heavy responsibilities through the exhausting repetition of “a universal propensity to radical evil” (Hanson, No date), it excitedly, resolutely, incomprehensibly, and VENOMOUSLY acts on extinguishing viable human life on Earth. Herein lie core attitudes (amplified today way beyond the norm for human greed and unexamined thought), central themes of corporate expansionism that have classically worked for the over-ripe development and calling in of the use-by date of every past civilization.
This essay — while focusing most intently on the material extinction trends set in place by toxic technologies — also maturely posits the existence of a hyper-conflictual background meta trend, or a coherent and motivating background theme, dynamic, or causal agent facilitating a human history of negative outputs: illness, shock, accidents, grief, divorce, marriage…, misunderstanding, hatred, conflict, aggrieved good, greed and corruption of power, violence, rape, psychological abuse, poverty, inequality, vested interests, conflicts of interest, perverted legal and judicial systems, egoism, loss of potential and opportunities, injustices, ignorance, deception, injuries, accidents, Great Disappointments, cultism, murders, wars, genocide, extinction/death (somewhat like moral physical and metaphysical evil [http://www.philosophyonline.co.uk/oldsite/pages/evil.htm]).
“Nothing will shake a man-or at any rate a man like me-out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself” (C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed).
This transcendent-historical meta trend is CONSISTENT over time, extending beyond the limitations of individual human life (our minds appear to have been hacked for millennia). It demonstrates a pattern of evil intent and forethought, execution and maintenance, and purposefully applied power. It is descriptive of a PLAN. Most people living temporal and difficult lives are generally largely unaware of meta themes that stand outside of human mortality. Consistent and acute themes of shelter, family, security and survival; and worse: advancement, accumulation and greed; and worse still: empire, are all set against the distressing prospect of advancing age and debility and the growing potential of permanent injury (such as stroke) or sudden death, all make their mark on overburdened minds, so this leaves precious little room for the development of mature meta-thought that stands outside of individual material life and, indeed, the human presence on this Earth.
However, with observation, converging weights of congruous, repeating and reproducible evidence demonstrate the existence of toxic meta themes even in the essential violence of Nature, and especially inside human thought (especially, again, corporate cognition), themes and powers balanced by heavy and deliberative censorship working against chaos and utter annihilation. The emphasis and nature of those toxic themes also tend to demonstrate how close to the end of a civilization the themes portend. Some of the more obvious evidences are:
a/ The appearance and now total loss of control of nuclear technology: note the immeasurable contamination spreading out from Fukushima (see: http://www.ibtimes.com/fukushima-radiation-now-global-disaster-japan-finally-asks-world-help-two-years-too-late-1416058, http://airth.org/fukushima/index.htm and especially: http://www.scoop.it/t/mapping-participating-fukushima-radiation-maps/ and http://buzz.naturalnews.com/000021-Fukushima-radiation-Pacific_Ocean.html).
b/ Massive increases in exotic and synthetic chemical usage, especially the amplifying use of pesticides and concomitant diseases, and then also the diminishment or outright destruction of sociological (especially farming) frameworks (especially seen in India and anywhere where small farms are replaced by Big Ag), the pandemic of toxic insults arising from MASS MEDICATION such as flouridation (see: http://dianabuckland.webs.com/) and chlorination, and especially again the pesticidal emphasis on the planet killer chemical, glyphosate.
c/ The even more insidious development of corporately sponsored and empowered aberrant thought resulting in the hideously irresponsible insertion of GMOs into world food chains. These GMO contaminants favor:
• an inexorable and unavoidable decline in human health, including resurgent old diseases and anomalous new diseases (suggestion: do a Google Search on “Has Polio Returned To The US?”, and also see: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/healt-cn.htm & http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2749484.html);
• declines in the quality of human mentality (rage, and criminal/sociopathic behavior [Hatherill 1999]) and diminished and distorted reproductive coherence [see: http://www.akaction.org/tackling_toxics/body/reproductive_health.html and http://www.mnn.com/family/babies-pregnancy/blogs/how-chemicals-affect-your- reproductive-health]).
It is almost as if the last two developing extinction measures listed above (b/ and c/) filled in for a strategic gap formerly left somewhat vacant after the temporary demise of the Cold War. Global quick kill measure potential, such as Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) nuclear warfare declined at that point.
However, this deficit was then slowly and very effectively compensated for by industrially-fueled widespread mass medications such as pesticide, flouridation and water sanitization experiments on all and sundry (human guinea pigs) in terms of devious appeals to food production needs, and environmental and human health imperatives. The attitude was: we don’t know the long-term effects of these medications, but let’s apply millions of pounds of the toxics anyway and make lots of profit to funs our elite lifestyles.)
Eventually new, sparkling and ascendant herbicide and GMO technologies have taken center stage in this hateful global play that chemically excoriates real victims. And now, today, we also see the results of the steady revival of the great nuclear threat with the bleeding of nuclear materials (Fukushima) and technologies well beyond the borders and former exclusivity of old nuclear powers (USSR, USA, India, etc.) and into the arms of multiple terrorist threats.
With inevitable crop nutritional declines factored into pesticide contamination and GMO toxicities, the industrial slow death strategy satisfies the needs of any demonically back-grounded, but human-mediated Extinction Level Event worth its salt: that multiple overlapping impacts of these types will ultimately engage massive redundancy through parallel and synchronous appearances of global deficits such as famines and pandemic plagues as an automatic consequence of the metaphysical prompting and perversion of history and the decline of whole cultures.
I imagine that the host of deluded industrialists and elites currently trying to take over the world and clinically control all weather, food, water and life (via chemtrails, Big Ag and shadow depopulation) incidentally manage to rationalize the profound conflict they have authored by proxy: that their health, lifestyle and favored progeny will still amazingly manage to (somehow) manifest and optimize from within a shattered global environment and dying world; and their massive profits will (somehow) continue to obediently and mysteriously hemorrhage into their bank accounts, while they and theirs remain (somehow) toxicologically untouched in their penthouses consuming, of course (somehow), only organic, healthy and uncontaminated produce. Incomprehensible and internally conflicted domination and poison strategies, all the while while they defile.
A long-term industrial slow death meta strategy (or, in more materialistically defined terms: a perfectly consistent and generationally repeating ‘accident’ or disease of human nature)? These kinds of ‘accidents’ and developments usually end up with pogroms and concentration camps. How long before we see the complete censorship of the Internet in favor of industrial interests, and even multiple assassinations of medical, ag and environmental activists (see: 3.3.3, below)?
3.3.2 META TREND: TOXIC AG’S BAD SCIENCE & BAD BEHAVIOR
What other evidence could be slowly introduced to support this meta notion? Starting off, somewhat materialistically:
Another 200 chemicals are known to cause clinical neurotoxic effects in adults. [p.2167]
The combined evidence suggests that neuro developmental disorders caused by industrial chemicals has created a silent pandemic in modern society. Although these chemicals might have caused impaired brain development in millions of children worldwide, the profound effects of such a pandemic are not apparent from available health statistics. Additionally, as shown by this Review, only a few chemical causes have been recognised so the full effects of our industrial activities could be substantially greater than recognised at present.
The consequences of a pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity extend beyond descriptive data for incidence and prevalence of clinically diagnosed disorders.1,3 Increased risk of Parkinson’s disease97 or other neurodegenerative diseases98 is a further potential consequence of the pandemic. [p.2174] (Grandjean & Landrigan 2006)
What’s that? A hint? A neurotoxic dumbing-down of society? Surely noone could actually plan THAT? And:
An article in the journal Hortscience in 2009 indicated falling nutritional values as a result of industrialised agriculture, and various studies point to the health risks from intensive, industrial methods as chemicals and the impact of genetic modifications become prevalent within the food chain…
There are also concerns over dead soil. The Navdanya organisation in India found that Bt-cotton had significantly reduced vital soil enzymes and bacteria, so much so that within a decade of planting GM cotton, or any GM crop with Bt genes, the destruction of soil organisms could be complete, resulting in dead soil unable to produce food. [see Endnote #2 for explicit details]
The biggest beneficiaries of what is currently happening are the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta and Cargill and the associated pharmaceuticals industry, which rakes in massive profits from trying to ‘cure’ us of the resultant diseases. Look no further than the 2009 documentary ‘The Idiot Cycle’ to see the link. The biggest losers are ordinary people and our health along with the many Indian farmers in particular who have been forced into debt and committed suicide en masse (Todhunter 2012).
And THERE’S the perfect clue for the perfect dynamic of the perfectly continuing pay packet: Create disease (and helpful intellectual dumbing-down) through aberrant human hygiene, mass medication and agricultural/GMO technologies, and then offer expensive symptomatic pharmaceutical relief for the accelerating explosion of morbid symptoms amongst the cannon fodder. The perfect pitch sales circle. Chemicals + Wrong Information = Delusion & Ignorance = Wrong Choices = Disease = Appeals To Symptomatic Relief & Toxic Medication Prescriptions & Mega-buck Sales = More Disease = Mega-Mega-buck Sales = Elite Lifestyle (& Organic Food) For The Elite Only. Therefore, no natural cancer, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, MS or other cures are permitted inside this exotic chemical paradigm. And:
When India’s seed economy was forced by the World Bank to become globalized in the late 1990s, economic conditions within the nation’s agricultural sector almost immediately took a nosedive for the worst. …nearly 25 years later, the devastating effects of this corporate takeover of Indian agriculture has resulted in countless suicides, 200,000 of which have occurred just in the past ten years. …many Indian farmers have lost their farms and land over the past several decades. One of the primary causes is failed investments by farmers that banked heavily on the success of newly-introduced GM crops. Multinational biotechnology giants like Monsanto and Syngenta promised farmers that GM crops would bring incredible yields at lower costs, and save the country from poverty. But in reality, many of the crops ended up failing, leaving millions of Indian farmers with absolutely nothing (Huff 2011).
And the failures have not just occurred in India:
A new report is challenging the biotech industry line that GM crops will benefit farmers. Seeds of Doubt, published by the Soil Association, says that increased yields and profits and reduced agrochemical use have not materialised for farmers in the US, one of only four countries where GM crops are grown commercially.
The only independent research looking at the impact of genetic engineering on yields has found that they actually decrease by around 6 per cent, while agrochemical use has increased as farmers apply greater amounts of herbicide to crops that are resistant to it. Profits are being eroded as market prices decrease, because the GM ‘brand’ has lost its international market.
The Soil Association commissioned the report because of concerns about the future of organic farming in the UK. It’s now clear that there is no place for GM technology in organic agriculture. When it was first being discussed, ministers said they would ensure that organic farming was not
compromised by the introduction of GM crops. Now, the Government wants to find out what levels of contamination are acceptable.
The lessons from North America are disturbing. Canada has lost its entire organic oilseed rape industry to GM contamination in a few, short years, and the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate has launched a lawsuit against the GM company responsible (http://www.organicconsumers.org/, no date).
And from the actual report, this:
Perhaps the greatest achievement of the biotechnology industry has been in creating a myth and then transforming it into a political orthodoxy. It has managed to persuade some of the world’s most powerful governments that the ‘white heat of biotechnology’ can bring benefits of higher yields, lower chemical use, food security and, critically, profitability for farmers.
Those who have signed up seem enthralled by the apparent potential of genetic engineering to improve on nature. Yet, despite growing public alarm (generally dismissed as irrational fears born of scare mongering) the accuracy of these claims has not, until now, been put under the microscope.
In undertaking this study of the actual impact of the commercialisation of GM crops in North America, the Soil Association has gathered sufficient evidence to challenge the fundamental proposition that GM technology represents progress.
The evidence we set out suggests that, in reality, virtually every benefit claimed for GM crops has not occurred. Instead, farmers are reporting lower yields, continuing dependency on herbicides and pesticides, loss of access to markets and, critically, reduced profitability leaving food production even more vulnerable to the interests of the biotechnology companies and in need of subsidies (soilassociation.org, 2002).
And further:
There have been many arguments justifying the incorporation of GMOs into the food supply. However, there is evidence that GM foods have an increased risk of causing allergic reactions, and uncontrollable cross-pollination depletes crop diversity which has resulted in resistant “super-weeds” and “super-pests.” It’s clear that the primary benefits of GM seeds are to the seed and pesticide companies, not to growers or consumers. And many risks are as of yet unknown. The best way to avoid GM foods is to choose organic foods (eatherbs.com 2013).
And when farmers and farms fail, it is easier to come in and grab the land:
State and private investors, from Citadel Capital to Goldman Sachs, are leasing or buying up tens of millions of hectares of farmlands in Asia, Africa and Latin America for food and fuel production. This land grabbing is a serious threat for the food sovereignty of our peoples and the right to food of our rural communities (farmlandgrab.org 2010).
Every day there are new stories of companies buying up farmlands. Malaysian palm oil giants buying up lands for plantations in West Africa. Wall Street bankers taking over cattle ranches in Brazil. Saudi businessmen signing land deals in the Philippines. The latest dataset on land grabs claims that 10 million hectares of land have been grabbed by foreign companies on average every year since 2007.
The result is that a small number of people are taking over more and more of the world’s farmlands, and the water that goes with it, leaving everyone else with less, or none at all. As the world plunges deeper into a food crisis, these new farmland lords will hold sway over who gets to eat and who doesn’t and who profits and who perishes within the food system (GRAIN 2012).
Corporate fangs dripping blood… And, even more to the GMO point:
Fresh doubts have arisen about the safety of genetically modified crops, with a new study reporting presence of Bt toxin, used widely in GM crops, in human blood for the first time.
Genetically modified crops include genes extracted from bacteria to make them resistant to pest attacks.
These genes make crops toxic to pests but are claimed to pose no danger to the environment and human health. Genetically modified brinjal, whose commercial release was stopped a year ago, has a toxin derived from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
Till now, scientists and multinational corporations promoting GM crops have maintained that Bt toxin poses no danger to human health as the protein breaks down in the human gut. But the presence of this toxin in human blood shows that this does not happen (Sharma 2011).
And, even MORE to the utterly irresponsible and corrupt conflicts of interest GMO dynamic:
This technology is being promoted, in the face of concerns by respectable scientists and in the face of data to the contrary, by the very agencies which are supposed to be protecting human health and the environment. The bottom line in my view is that… (Quote attributed to Dr. Suzanne Wuerthele, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxicologist; EuphoricOrganics, No date).
Continuing the above quote:
…we are confronted with the most powerful technology the world has ever known, and it is being rapidly deployed with almost no thought whatsoever to its consequences (Quote attributed to Dr. Suzanne Wuerthele, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxicologist; Marsh, No date).
And, even MORE to THE health authority and corporate link theme:
More seriously, in 1989 there was an outbreak of a new disease in the US, contracted by over 5,000 people and traced back to a batch of L-tryptophan food supplement produced with GM bacteria. Even though it contained less than 0.1 per cent of a highly toxic compound, 37 people died and 1,500 were left with permanent disabilities. More may have died, but the American Centre for Disease Control stopped counting in 1991 (Organic Consumers Association 2006).
And the wider environment consideration:
The introduction of crops genetically engineered to tolerate glyphosate poses an additional threat to plant wildlife. Some crops have wild relatives with which they can cross pollinate. There is therefore a risk of introducing engineered genetic material into the wild population (Buffin & Jewell 2001:22).
AND, EVEN MORE TO THE GMO POINT:
The failure to test may provide some protection in the courts against lawsuits by those maimed or crippled by the foods. Most ill effects from food and allergies are not easily quantified until after the disaster. At best, there may be a small but marked increase in autoimmune disease and allergy associated with the foods. At worst, major outbreaks of illness could be observed and will be difficult to trace to the unlabelled foods (Quote attributed to Prof. Joe Cummins, Professor Emeritus of genetics at the University of Western Ontario; ibid.).
This bad science has become both master and handmaiden to unaccountable business corporations driven solely by profit. Together, they will effectively control every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat to the healthcare we can have, the babies we can conceive and give birth to, the human beings we can clone. In the process, they may ruin our food supply, destroy biodiversity and unleash pandemics of drug and antibiotic resistant infectious diseases. They will also undermine every single moral value and ideal that makes us human (Ho 2000).
The above just touches on the subject of GENETIC ENGINEERING CREATING BIOWEAPONS (see: http://globalresearchreport.com/2014/01/04/whats-the-scoop-on-genetically-engineered-and-pandemic-viruses/#sthash.ldoAy31M.dpbs; accessed: 2 Feb. 2014), and expands on the industrial slow death meta strategy of the Perfect Circle. Note:
Bioterrorism exists, perhaps, because science promotes it with genetic engineering research! Ever think of it that way? Humankind, including technology scientists, need to evaluate where technology is taking us because civilization can be sacked either by accident, inadvertent scientific snafus, or sheer and deliberate design. That apparently has happened before, as civilization is a continuum, which science and humans ought to consider seriously from some ancient civilizations’ texts (Frompovich 2014).
So, now, massive corporate greed in terms of ‘small’ plans like owning all food production and water distribution can be augmented by visions of total Earth ownership and stewardship through planetary bio-engineering, and indeed bio-anything (1), so bioterrorism can now be obliquely inserted into the elites’ we-own-all-your-asses ‘skillset’ as yet another means by which the total destruction of a whole Planet can be masterminded, but somewhat below the level of critical, intellectual, activist and immersive consciousness of most poisoned, morbid symptom attention-diverted people not aware of meta plans for, ultimately, Anti-Life on Earth (2). There are TWO PLANS listed just above. The material one (1), and the meta-physical one (2). The latter funds the former, and the latter merges seamlessly and invisibly into the background of the former. And the bio-awful just gets worse:
Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and Yoshihiro Kawaoka from the University of Wisconsin intentionally developed a militarized strain of H5N1 avian flu capable of easily transmitting among mammals…
…they essentially discovered a way to potentially spark a global flu pandemic with the potential to kill or seriously injure billions of people (Huff 2013).
3.3.3 META TREND: INDUSTRIAL TOTALITARIANISM
Pesticides, nuclear power technologies, growth hormones in intensive animal production, and Genetic Engineering to name just a few of the monsters we make. They all represent the core problem of science and industry taking to themselves the supreme authority to ignore Nature, to create new or heavily altered (GMO) lifeforms, to manipulate and invade ecological fabrics or human bodies (e.g. influencing/dictating chemicalized interferences such as leveraged or forced infant/child vaccinations, flouridation [see: http://dianabuckland.webs.com/%5D and psychotropic drugs), and to demand lots of money for products (medications) it says will cure the ills that arise out of technology’s mass-medication of this Planet:
Isn’t GE and GMO ‘technology’ the new god of science that creates organisms, which do not appear in Nature, that are intended to become patented assets for vested interests… (Frompovich 2014).
GMOs have been deployed to privatise knowledge and seeds through Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), which include patents and copyrights. While on the one hand this is blocking public research on plant breeding, on the other it is denying farmers the right to save seeds and to share knowledge and continue the evolution of the seed. IPRs also deny the collective, cumulative innovation of indigenous cultures and promote biopiracy (Shiva 2014a).
And, in consideration of how fascist the new Biotech is becoming:
…will virus and biological genetic modification become similar to what happened early in the 20th century when physicians went hog-wild using children in orphanages and state-run-institutions in New York, Pennsylvania, and other states as human guinea pigs to further what had become the new sciences of “eugenics” and vaccinology? (Luther 2014)
Its seems that this scenario is all too possible given the following. Note the article titled: “Violence and Aggression against Human Rights in the Wake of Agribusiness” (July 12, 2005):
The agribusiness sector concentrates land, water, and income. Its production is mainly for export, creating profits for a privileged elite at a very high socio- environmental cost. The irrigation of monoculture consumes 70% of the country’s water. Its machines are substituted for manual labor in the countryside, in a country [Sth. America] whose greatest problem is unemployment. In the states where agribusiness has expanded, privately-sponsored violence is growing, along with repression through the power of the Judiciary (http://www.landaction.org/display.php?article=272; accessed: 18 Aug. 2008).
See: http://www.landaction.org/spip.php?rubrique35 for multiple examples of agri-business’ military, police, national guard and mercenary fascism against (especially) indigenous protests over corporate land-grabs and pollution of native lands. And:
The fourth violation of the freedom of knowledge and knowledge sovereignty is preventing the evolution of public knowledge about how life works, how we can produce more and better food ecologically through the control of scientific publications as well as the media to promote an obsolete paradigm of genetic reductionism and mechanistic science, and repeatedly making false claims to miracles through genetic engineering (Shiva 2014a).
OK, ignoring my meta-theories above for just a moment, big business might be totalitarian, but hasn’t it always been this way?
The largest German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has today published a shocking article that reveals how Monsanto, the US Military and the US government track both anti-GMO Campaigners and Independent Scientists who study the dangers of GMOs.
In a very detailed article the Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists reveal information on how the US Government “advances the interests of their corporations” using Monsanto as an example.
The article states: “It is noticeable that anyone who criticizes Monsanto has their life made very difficult or an invisible hand ends their careers. But who is this Anyone? Targets are scientists such as the Australian Judy Carman. She has made a name for herself with studies of genetically modified organisms. Thus, several websites on which Carman published her studies are regularly the target of hacker attacks – Evaluations of IP protocols show that not only Monsanto regularly tracks the pages of these sites, but also various institutions of the U.S. government, including the military. These include the Navy Network Information Center, the Federal Aviation Administration and the United States Army Intelligence Center” (Sustainable Pulse 2013).
“We have documented time and time again scientists who have been fired, stripped of responsibilities, denied funding, threatened, gagged and transferred as a result of the pressure put on them by the biotech industry,” he added (Quote attributed to Jeffrey Smith, Institute for Responsible Technology; Graves 2011).
On January 4, 1993, 300,000 Ogoni (Nigerian) people gathered to peacefully protest Shell’s environ-mental devastation of their homeland [the Ogoni live in a small area – 404 square miles – in the oil rich Niger Delta]. It was the largest demonstration ever against any oil company. Since that day when the Ogoni began their campaign of nonviolent resistance, over 2,000 of them, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, have died at the hands of a military that is armed by and paid for by Shell (http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/ 2008):
Shell and Chevron are in the spotlight this week, with shareholder meetings and a historic trial.
On May 13, the Nigerian military launched an assault on villages in that nation’s oil- rich Niger Delta. Hundreds of civilians are feared killed by the Nigerian military. According to Amnesty International, a celebration in the Delta village of Oporoza was attacked. An eyewitness told AI: “I heard the sound of aircraft; I saw two military helicopters, shooting at the houses, at the palace, shooting at us. We had to run for safety into the forest. In the bush, I heard adults crying, so many mothers could not find their children; everybody ran for their life.”
Shell is facing a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, Wiwa v. Shell, based on Shell’s alleged collaboration with the Nigerian dictatorship in the 1990s in the violent suppression of the grass-roots movement of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta. Shell exploits the oil riches there, causing displacement, pollution and deforestation. The suit also alleges that Shell helped suppress the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and its charismatic leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa.”
In 1998, I traveled to the Niger Delta with journalist Jeremy Scahill. A Chevron executive there told us that Chevron flew troops from Nigeria’s notorious mobile police, the “kill ‘n’ go,” in a Chevron company helicopter to an oil barge that had been occupied by nonviolent protesters. Two protesters were killed, and many more were arrested and tortured.
Oronto Douglas, one of Saro-Wiwa’s lawyers, told us: “It is very clear that Chevron, just like Shell, uses the military to protect its oil activities. They drill and they kill” (Goodman 2009).
What does Monsanto DO? What are its characteristics, it’s ‘legacy’?
• GMOs
• rBGH or Bovine Growth Hormone (causes extreme distress in cows and is linked to numerous cancers in humans)
• Aspartame or NutraSweet, Equal (causes 94 health issues)
• Roundup (toxic) • Petroleum-Based Fertilizer (destroys soil integrity)
• Atom bomb and nuclear weapons (Monsanto’s Thomas and Hochwalt Laboratories contributed to plutonium purification and techniques to refine chemical triggers in atomic weapons)
• Polystyrene (5th worst generator of hazardous waste)
• Saccharin (carcinogenic)
• PCBs (Cancer: Monsanto knew about PCB dangers from 1956 on…)
• DDT (toxic) • Dioxin (toxic)
• Agent Orange (hundreds of thousands of deaths and birth deformities, human health issues known by Monsanto when it sold Agent Orange to the US government for its war effort in Vietnam) (Fractured Paradigm 2013).
The above represent a consistent pattern of forethought, or a PLAN, not just a series of super-nasty business practices and decisions. The materialistic or physical PLAN is for domination and profit, forever, while the meta-physical PLAN (the one that backgrounds the first) is for total Earth destruction.
3.3.4 META TREND REFORMATION?
If non-stop liars and purveyors of planet-killing technologies like Monsanto and the like are giving the rest of industry a bad name, then why doesn’t industry itself pull together and bring these fascist companies into line? Could an internationally leveraged credit and penalty system be fashioned around a Truth in Research and Precautionary concept? Truth is rewarded, while if a tipping scale (not balance) of peer review finds research truth callously flaunted by rigged results and blatant lies, then a $10 Billion fine is imposed for each infringement. Perhaps better still, a significant infringement (or catalogue of consistent transgression) could see the dismantling of the company, with the assets transferred to companies demonstrating ethical behavior.
If a company’s IP address is established as the source of a hack, then severe penalities should be metered out by the international authority. Though, wouldn’t this international organisation be infiltrated and taken over? Is this too big of a job, too big of an ask. Am I suggesting, really, that the corrupt pretend to censor the corrupt because there is too much corruption? My PhD Thesis (see Endnote # 10) suggests very strongly that there are fatal flaws in the human mind, flaws that cannot be healed by human power. Nevertheless, this is no reason to allow the fully corrupt to do as they will. Perhaps TRYING to be good is THE preeminent reason for this unique, first taste of sentience?
3.3.5 CAN A BAD META TREND PRODUCE ANYTHING OTHER THAN BAD THINGS?
Let’s go a little deeper. Do dirty business tactics really reflect on GMO technology itself? If GMO tech is so inherently or intrinsically wrong, then in what central or core way is it?
“As geneticist Dr Mae Wan Ho said: “Instead of the linear, one-way information flow envisaged in the central dogma from DNA to RNA to protein and ‘downstream’ biological function, there is intricate cross-talk between the organism and its environment at all levels, with feed-forward and feed-back cycles in the epigenetic and metabolic networks of molecular interactions that mark and change genes as the organism goes about its business of living The organism is doing its own natural genetic modification with great finesse, a molecular dance of life that’s necessary for survival. Unfortunately, genetic engineers do not know the steps or the rhythm and music of the dance” (Quote attributed to Dr. Mae-Wan Ho; Shiva 2014b; original source: Ho 2013)
Despite the above, isn’t GMO technology just simply somehow “better” in some way?
US farmers and scientists are growing increasingly concerned about glyphosate’s detrimental effect on soil quality.
Monsanto is recommending additional soil inputs to counter the mineral deficiencies in plants caused by glyphosate – an example of the unsustainable nature of GM technology.
It’s worth bearing in mind… that the yield increases attributed by one commentator to GM are in fact the result of conventional breeding improvements. The GM traits are put into the best germplasm, and the best germplasm is a product of conventional breeding.
A recent study showed that the mostly non-GM farming practiced in the EU was more productive in terms of yield improvements than the GM farming practiced in the US (GMWatch 2013).
Lower yields not a problem for you on your farm? Look at your children, and then read this:
After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.
And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy (Smith 2013).
The Argentine government helped pull the country out of a recession in the 1990s in part by promoting genetically modified soy. Though it was something of a miracle for poor farmers, several years after the first big harvests residents near where the soy cop grew began reporting health problems, including high rates of birth defects and cancers, as well as the losses of crops and livestock as the herbicide spray drifted across the countryside (Graves 2011).
3.3.6 THE DEATH PLAN SPREADS… DEATH!
The following headings are taken from my below-listed WordPress Essay: Direct Links Between Pesticide And Disease. Traveller/Backpacker Pesticide Deaths In South-East Asia. Pesticide Deaths (Human And Animal) Worldwide. Pesticide Deaths And Non-English Speaking Pesticide Use In Australia. Global Disease Patterns on the Tail of Massive Pesticide Use. See: http://wp.me/p2msN0-L for my Essay titled: “DOMESTIC OR COMMERCIAL PESTICIDE USE: COULD YOU KILL OR BE KILLED?”
3.3.7 A BRIEF CURE
What type of farming should we ultimately strive for?
…a new UNCTAD report which states that farming in rich and poor nations alike should shift from monoculture towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilizers and other inputs, greater support for small-scale farmers, and more locally focused production and consumption of food. More than 60 international experts contributed to the report, launched last week (LRAN 2013).
3.4 A NEEDED SAVING FAST CHANGE EVENT (THE MEANING OF EVIL)
Such are the commercial dynamics in this frantically greedy transnational biotech-infused globalist world that the Precautionary Principle does not even get a “look in” when no realistic restrictions on pesticide use are set. This almost total lack of accountability represents no less than the dumbest, most embarrassing and most avoidable Extinction Level Event in the history of Planet Earth! And yet to now try to close the stable door after the toxicological horse has already bolted and galloped past Mars appears to be politically and industrially impossible. Yet, THAT is precisely what is demanded: A SAVING WORLDWIDE TOXICOLOGICAL REVOLUTION, on the back of a profound change in our science, on the back of a profound change in human attitudes.
The generationally consistent, seemingly immortal industrial arguments supporting “progress” or global chemical trespass at any cost are violent, and yet intrinsically weak and unexamined. Supreme corruption and power gluttony here sees industrial and legal/judicial elite power, presumption and wages/rewards contrasting starkly against the usual status of the disenfranchised chemically-raped cannon-fodder poisoning victim: no legal leverage inside a system favoring the might of government and industry.
Industrial, we-own-the-world-and-can-damn-well-do-whatever-we-like (judicial-type) arguments appear to originate via a repeating, pestilent mentality that is anything but weak. Human corporate thought manifests in history as a ‘guided’ quantity, coached through increasing orders of pestilent rationality and organised destructiveness over time as if motivated by some kind of intrinsic background metaphysical dynamic that drives our worst attitudes and notions of invention.
These attitudes are found to be so demonically venomous that they relentlessly superinduce us to repeat error and seek greater, more perverse, intrigues. Therefore, we are always poisoned and brutalized, pushed ahead of a goose-stepping global bad science menace, without any respite from this Toxic Long March. This annihilatory immortal evil now imposes on us a human nature funded pesticide/fertiliser/hormone/additive/GMO/medication oblivion so pervasive and so woven and locked into our every concept and function of modernity that it appears only the imposition of a likewise immortal REVOLUTIONARY will from outside our dark human thoughts could possibly save us. Philosophers and the religious often appeal to this kind of saving grace.
Neither human rights or the industry “owned” EPA/USDA/FDA/AMA/APVMA etc. variants have any worthwhile influence inside the new fascism of the global political bowl of biotech spiders that DESPERATELY wishes to fabricate its horrible version of a brave new depopulated and ‘cleansed’ world where industry controls all information, commerce and law (see Endnote #7). It seems we have to learn passionately difficult lessons on this Kindergarten Earth via the terrible crucible of industry/political bias, subversive advertising/propaganda and mass poisoning in this 21st century era after the earlier, more in-your-face, 20th century Nazi version of pure evil sought to OWN THE WORLD through invasion and slaughter.
“Owning”, now, at this time in history and especially in terms of gross genetic interference (the making of GMO DNA monsters), translates to potentially 2 billion deaths in the next series of worldwide pandemics, soon to appear. Note: “Most of the infectious human diseases today in fact emerged from animals at some point in time; and they now account for over one million deaths and more than one billion illnesses annually” (Karesh 2013). (Also see: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/healt-cn.htm and http://www.news-medical.net/health/Future-Pandemics.aspx). Also:
At a 25% mortality rate the H7N9 avlian flu, combined with modern transportation systems and metropolitan areas housing tens of millions of people, there is serious potential for a globally significant catastrophe.
Should this virus increase its transmission rate we could be looking at a scenario where a billion or more people contract the virus around the world.
The math is straight forward. One in four will perish.
While we’ve had pandemic scares in the recent past, this one really has researchers and global health officials spooked (Slavo 2014).
Could it get any worse? What about an ‘enhancement’ of the current global HIV pandemic storm?
New evidence raises the possibility that the CaMV 35S promoter in practically all transgenic crops grown commercially may enhance multiplication of disease-associated viruses including HIV through induction of proteins required for their transcription (Ho & Cummins 2009:172).
Note too:
Everybody knows a global pandemic is coming sooner or later. Humanity is practically begging
for one with its destruction of the ecosystem, chemical intoxication of the population and
reliance on immune-suppressing medications and food additives.
The very structure of human society — with high-density cities and rapid air travel —
creates a “perfect storm” for the spread of infectious disease. (Adams 2014)
4.0 GOOD CONNECTIONS USED BADLY BY PESTICIDE TECHNOLOGIES
Everything is connected. There is no separation of parts. Everything together acts like a plan because intentionality is found in all design. What occurs in one area resonates throughout and affects everything else. What you do in terms of destructive technology “here” affects “there”. Nothing escapes the attention of toxic invention… Now that might resonate as an old hippy-ish kind of sentiment, however the new physics shows this to be absolutely true.
Ultimately, pesticide/herbicide use:
1. Is destructive to broad ecological frameworks (the negative effects fan outward). Glyphosate is toxic to fish, aquatic organisms and beneficial insect species (Leu, 2007; van der Werf, 1996) (***Interestingly, a test for the presence of Glyphosate in water and urine is now available. See Endnote #3.***) or, multiple layers of the Web of Life;
2. Destroys our critical soil resource (and most valuable material heritage) by wrecking soil composition (glyphosate is toxic to earthworms, mycorrhizal fungi, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, micro-organisms, and arthropods [ibid.]) and ALL life that depends on soil (which is… EVERYTHING);
3. Generates botulism and other pathogenesis potentials (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23396248; http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/crucial38.html; and http://www.netwerkvlv.nl/downloads/2012-Krueger,%20M-glyphosate%20effects.pdf) which spread from soil to plant to animal to human;
4. Creates an ever-enlarging population of those with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance). Note: “Most tragically, suffering, illness and disease surround us today in a way we would not have imagined a half century ago. We have banished some diseases only to have them replaced by a grumbling yet profound toxicity which is stripping our children of their rightful future” (Donohoe, 1998:38).
5. Provides the chemical trespass injury fodder for destructive and stressful adversarial confrontations in toxic (and often heavily corrupted) legal settings (see: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/essays/essay3-diminishing-returns-of-complexity.pdf);
6. Creates monstrous disease scenarios via increased use through herbicide tolerant GMOs:
Lappe and Bailey (8) reported that glyphosate fed to animals at high levels was shown to cause liver toxicity. In a case control study in Sweden published in the journal Cancer, Hardel and Eriksson (9) found that exposure to glyphosate revealed increased risks for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The introduction of glyphosate tolerance to crops has expanded the use of this herbicide. These preliminary studies on glyphosate could be a forewarning that unsuspected hazards may accompany glyphosate resistant crops (Krimsky 2002:244).
7. Sets up impossible meta-poisoning (even pandemic) scenarios that will be more than an “Inconvenient Truth” to everyone concerned (see: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/essays/essay1-worldwide-disease-pandemics.pdf).
Toxic, exotic, synthetic chemicals will give us techno marvels while killing our children and grandchildren. A bad deal all round.
5.0 OVERALL ECOLOGICAL INVASION & REPLACEMENT DYNAMICS: PLANTATION CONSTRUCTION, PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION, PATHOGEN RELEASE, OPERATIONAL ACCIDENTS & COMMERCE/POLITICS
5.1 NATURE INVASION, GENETIC ‘ENHANCEMENT’, PATHOGEN/TOXIN RELEASE & EXPOSURE, & ACCIDENTS
We are stampeding multiple attacks on the ecological integrity of our world. The rush for dumb profit is searingly obvious. The intellectual demand that all stand aside in favor of very bad science is completely fascist.
5.1.1 NATURE INVASION
In terms of the invasion of habitats, it’s not just our pesticide chemicals going on ahead of us on the wind, spreading into pristine habitats and upsetting eco-dynamics. This includes our pollution wastes funding pathogenic alterations: developing REMOTE DRUG/PESTICIDE RESISTANCE waiting for a physical release, waiting for the bulldozers to come in. There’s that GREAT INSULT: it’s US physically entering or invading environments anf then destroying those environments, thus becoming subject to CLOSETED PATHOGENS that introduce new diseases to the human race: “…this might be because we disrupt habitats and come into contact with animals we haven’t been in contact with before” (Smith quote: Jha 2013). The appearance of AIDS and other emerging diseases (as ‘releases’ from a damaged biosphere [Preston 1994:29-30]) and global warming as a function of our greedy and inappropriate world-girdling interference, clearly describes the longer term outcomes of the imposition of perverse global economic theory.
Lyme, as a further specific example, seems to arise, like many environmental imbalances, out of disturbed and chemically affected environments. That is, Lyme demonstrates well “a developing model of infectious disease that shows that most epidemics — AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, Lyme disease and hundreds more that have occurred over the last several decades — don’t just happen. They are the result of things people do to nature” (Robbins 2012) in their typical fracturing of the Web of Life where diseases escape from nature and turn into pandemics (ibid.). Also: “We like to think we discover viruses, but it’s also the viruses discovering us” (Woolhouse quote: Jha 2013).
Particularly, the above theme appears to have coherence in terms of plantations, at the very least in terms of the toxic overload of the invaded environment, and at most in terms of gross environmental instability leading to potential pathogen release into human populations:
The hellish landscape that results from clearfelling – akin to a Great War battlefield – is generally turned into large monocultural plantations of either radiata pine or Eucalyptus nitens, sustained by such a heavy program of fertilisers and pesticides that water sources for some local communities have been contaminated by ATRAZINE, A CONTROVERSIAL herbicide linked with cancer and banned in much of Europe. Blue-dyed carrots soaked in 1080 poison are laid on private plantations to kill native grazing animals that pose a threat to tree seedlings. The slaughter that results sees not only possums, wallabies and kangaroos die slowly, in agony, but other species – including wombats, bettongs and potoroos – killed in large numbers, despite being officially protected species (Flanagan 2007).
And, please slowly absorb this quite spectacular assessment:
We started to see a range of really unique, interesting diseases that were afflicting platypus and wallabies and wombats. And later on, of course, now we’re seeing this horrendous infectious, transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils…
…is it something that we, as human beings, may have done to subtly modify the environment to allow for this relationship to change. Because what disease in wildlife populations tends to be is a harbinger of instability, of a breakdown in normal cycles of a population reaching a stable balance with other animals interacting with their ecology. And perturbations, whether they are human induced, or the fact that we’ve actually through our agency allowed for the introduction of new pathogens. This is the brave new world that we face in the 21st century.
We use poisons to suppress the wildlife that we think are nuisances. We start to use chemicals to support the growth of our particular commodities…
We have a sort of a blind faith that the regulatory processes are going to protect us. And yet, at a sub jurisdictional level Tasmania [Australia] is giving us a lens into a brave new world that is going to be potentially more ridden with cancer and disabling diseases that are going to be linked to in, you know, minute quantities of chemicals that are changing, genetic triggering events within our bodies. Epigenetic factors, hormone disrupting factors…
Surprisingly, you know, and perhaps not surprisingly, we’re finding that [Tasmanian] devils have got residues of significant synthetic, organic pollutants that are from the products that we as a human species contaminated into their environment. And they are, because of their role as a top order carnivore, they’re bio-accumulating those chemicals. We’re talking about dioxins, PCBs, fire retardant chemicals, the PBEDs, the organo chlorines. Now, some of these chemicals are linked to a range of maladies, including carcinogenesis and the potential to impact on cell development and expression of hormones and what have you. So, what we’ve got to really think about is this background impact of these chemicals having an instigator effect on the expression of the index cases of this cancer? And is it changing the immune system of these devils as well. And these are factors that I think really make the devil almost a shocking animal to be like the canary down the mineshaft, the coal mine.
You’ve got to ask yourself the question, why, why all of a sudden do we have all this pathogen stress on wildlife?… …in the last thirty years we’re seeing a range of new diseases coming into our wildlife populations. And it’s impacting on their survival. And with the continuations of the habitat fragmentation and habitat destruction that I was telling you about earlier, this is causing these animals to be under more stress. So the diseases are transmitting more easily in some cases. Stress factors, exposure to chemicals, exposure to other things within the environment may be tipping the balance towards disease expression…
And it’s usually the voiceless, the wildlife, that are your earliest indicators that something is going wrong. There’s something rotten in the state of Tasmania. When wildlife start to develop a range of maladies, it’s saying something is unstable in the ecology. It’s not just that the chemicals are the trigger of that, it’s saying there are multiplicity of factors building here which need to [be] explored and that’s where the Marcus Scammell [see below] example of putting all the cards on the table is really relevant. We must have a dialogue which is asking the critical questions.
…if we continue to do what we’re doing to it, we will destroy it and we will destroy the wildlife, the biodiversity and we’ll probably destroy public health as well (Obendorf 2010).
Dr Bleaney, Marine Ecologist Marcus Scammell and local oyster farmers paid for testing of the George River after concerns arose about human and oyster health.
Dr Bleaney says the tests show the river contains a toxin that comes from a type of plantation tree that’s been introduced to the State, Eucalyptus nitens.
Environmental toxicologist Christian Khalil tested the water on human cells and told Australian Story whatever was in it was toxic to skin, liver and lung cells (ABC News 2010).
When you see large numbers of dead animals occurring all of a sudden, it is screamingly obvious that you have something wrong. That is not a natural event. Animals don’t lie. Ninety per cent of those oysters dropped dead after one rainfall event. They don’t lie. The Tasmanian devils aren’t lying when they’re sitting up and saying we’re sick. They really are sick. In Alison’s population of humans there’s a variety, a much bigger variety of illness than you would normally observe, that you would normally expect. And it’s not that there’s one particular type of cancer that’s sky rocketed; it’s that she’s got so many unusual cancers. They all started to emerge in that north-east corner at about the same time. And it was around about that time that the plantation industry was really starting to take off (Scammell 2010).
As a preface:
Endotoxins are the cell-wall components of gram-negative bacteria, and these compounds are released after the death of the bacteria (Banhazi, et. al. 2008:28).
In March 2010 Bleaney and Scammell released the research findings of their research on the identification of a previously unknown group of toxins in freshwater in the George River catchment… The presence of a range of pesticides registered for use in commercial agriculture and forestry were intermittently detected, the commonest being alpha-cypermethrin, atrazine, simazine, glyphosate, the phenoxy herbicides – 2,4-D, MCPA and metsulfuron-methyl. From water testing came the discovery of several unknown chemicals in the water samples. The presence of these chemicals in water samples made it hazardous to marine and freshwater organisms and to human cell lines. The structure and pharmaco-toxicity of these chemicals is still the subject of research.
The laboratories participating in research and analysis of untreated water from the George River (the drinking water catchment for St Helens, NE Tasmania) concluded that there are toxins in the George River that will kill aquatic organisms and human cells. The laboratories have further determined that the toxins appear to originate from a non-native eucalypt (Eucalyptus nitens) grown in plantation monocultures.
Tree seedling breeding programmes advertise that clonal propagation technologies are used. Also, the current literature on commercial tree biotechnology regularly includes terms such as ‘selective breeding’, ‘elite trees’, ‘enhance pest and environmental tolerance of plantation trees’, ‘genetic enhancement’, ‘supply and propagate superior germplasm’, ‘determine the genes controlling critical wood quality factors’, and include references to areas such as ‘gene association’, ‘gene tagging’ and ‘gene knockouts – RNAi’ technologies… In the 1990s the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxin gene was incorporated into E. globulus and E. nitens and a synergistic effect of the Bt protein and the volatile oil, cineole was shown to exist… Expressed Bt endotoxin was damaging to the midgut allowing cineole to enter the insect haemolymph and exert a toxic effect at lower concentrations than occurred when Bt endotoxin was not present (SourceWatch.org 2013a).
Some say that genetic manipulation of Eucalypts has not occurred in Australia. However, the following quote from a statement made by the then (1992) Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, says something:
I am pleased today to congratulate the CSIRO on the development of a genetically
engineered eucalyptus tree.
CSIRO scientists successfully transferred a gene from a bacterium into cells from red
gum. Each “transgenic” cell has already re-generated into a young river red gum, growing
in sterile conditions in a laboratory.
Genes have been transferred successfully into other plant species, but this is the first
scientifically confirmed genetic transfer into the river red gum.
The harmless bacterial gene transferred into the gum tree by the CSIRO’s Divisions of
Forestry and Plant Industry is simply a “marker” to show that the technology works.
Next, the scientists plan to repeat these experiements using two temperate eucalypts
(Eucalyptus nitens and globulus) both of which are important commercial plantation trees
in Australia. (Keating 1992)
The letter goes on to assert that the technology is safe, and will not result in the escape of genes into wild tree populations.
5.1.2 GMO ATTACK
If you want to feel much safer, then read the other side of the coin, see: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10658. And, although page 2 of this report (see: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10658&page=2) notes the theme “plantations being toxic” (essentially in terms of being used as a negative slogan by environmentalists), one should not just assume that a plantation can be toxic just through the pesticides it may use. What about transgene escape?
There are several important biosafety concerns regarding the release of Bt rice. One of the major environmental concerns regarding the release of transgenic crops is the potential escape of transgenes into wild rice populations (Snow 2002, Ellstrand 2003). Wild relatives host a large assemblage of arthropods, many of which are not pests. Therefore, transgene escape into wild plant populations could affect arthropod biodiversity, abundance, food web structure, and food web stability in natural ecosystems. Transgene flow could occur if Bt rice were released for commercial growth in the countries where wild rice and its relatives co-exist with cultivated rice crops. (Cuong, et. al. 2010:1).
Invasive escape of the transgene can occur at three levels. First, the transformed species itself can escape cultivation and become a weed. That concern is rooted in the experience with exotic tree species in plantation forestry. In the southern hemisphere, for example, at least 19 species of pines have escaped cultivation and invaded other habitats during the past 3-4 decades, at great economic and ecological costs (Richardson 1998). Second, the transgene can be transferred to nontransgenic individuals of the same species through pollination. Recent examples of sexual gene transfer from transgenic to nontransgenic crops (Reiger et al. 2003) or wild-type species (Quist & Chapela 2001) underscore that concern. Third, the transgene can be transferred to a wild relative through out-breeding (van Frankenhuyzen and Beardmore 2004:1170-1171).
On the third point above, please note:
…transgene escape can easily occur via gene flow and may result in potential ecological and biodiversity consequences if significant quantities of transgenes constantly outflow to non-GM crops and weedy /wild relative species (Lu 2008:72).
Another example involves the escape of transgenes from glyphosate-resistant (a herbicide) bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) in the United States. Reichman et al. (2006) detected transgenic hybrids with weedy Agrostis species some 3.8 km downwind of transgenic field trials, in federally-protected grassland. The ecological consequences of such outcrossings are uncertain, yet any decrease in genetic diversity would lead to a change in community structure with the introgressed regions. As a result, in 2007 a federal judge ordered a temporary halt in new approvals of GM field trials, citing an inadequate environmental review of the potential environmental impacts (Quist 2010:12-13).
Further still:
Two incidents of transgenic contamination of wild relatives have been studied in some detail – the transmission of an herbicide-tolerance gene from oilseed rape (canola) to weedy wild turnip hybrids in Canada; and the detection of herbicide-tolerant grasses up to 21 kilometers from a test site in the US state of Oregon…
The incidents of contamination listed in the side box show that gene escape and GE contamination cannot be prevented once GE crops are released. This in turn suggests that the widespread planting of GE trees would over time lead to a persistent contamination of the world’s native forests, with disruptive ecological consequences”.
With current rates of deforestation contributing 20% of global carbon emissions annually, the massive increase in deforestation that will accompany the rise of wood- based agrofuels production will have significant impacts on climate, belying the argument that cellulosic agrofuels will be part of the solution to global warming.
In conclusion, the massive increase in logging and the planned use of genetically engineered trees that will accompany the production of wood-based “second generation”agrofuels make this so-called “alternative energy”one of the foremost threats to forests and forest-dependent peoples across the globe (www.globaljusticeecology.org 2008:3,10).
As an aside, given that “Global warming is at large the result of deforestation, desertification and incessant environmental pollution” (Eshetu, et. al. 2005), the removal of natural forests should be largely prohibited, and the often associated poisoning of whole landscapes by pesticide should be, once and for all, censored.
…Strauss et al. (1995) stated unambiguously, “Gene flow within and among tree populations is usually extensive, which makes the probability of transgene escape from plantations high.” Timmons et al. (1995, 1996) expressed a similar conclusion for Brassica. Likewise, the ecologists Kareiva et al. (1994) concluded that “the escape of transgenic pollen is inevitable.” Williamson’s (1994) analysis of historical records of deliberately introduced organisms, concludes that nearly all escape, and of these 10 percent become established (Raffa, et. al. 1997:251).
If the above is bad, then this is much worse because numerous experts:
…have identified possible adverse effects of escaped transgenes. Some examples include creation of new (or enhanced) pests, harm to nontarget species, and disruptions to biotic communities, natural food webs, and ecosystem processes.
In each of these cases, there are well established mechanisms by which such adverse consequences might arise, and substantial literature providing precedents from analogous introductions. Examples of possible mechanisms include: 1) enhanced competitiveness of a genetically engineered organism (due to pest resistance or physiological environmental tolerance of stress) that displaces existing or subsequent beneficial organisms (Ellis et al. 1984; Moamad et al. 1984); 2) reductions in seed dispersal, pollination, or biodiversity by insecticidal transgene products (Simmonds 1976; McGranahan et al.·1988); or 3) acquisition of traits that enhance competitive status by existing weed species (Windle and Franz 1979) (ibid.:251-252).
Now, let us contrast GMO transgene escapes to pesticide:
A single molecule of DDT [1,1,1,-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane] remains a single molecule or degrades, but a single crop allele has the opportunity to multiply itself repeatedly through reproduction, which can frustrate attempts at containment (Ellstrand 2001:1543).
Given the toxicity of GMO products, GMO stands as an absolute hyper-infectious PLANET KILLER, just a slower and off-greener version of a nuclear holocaust, and with the added interest of likely massive ecological instability and famine preceding the end of the nightmare. And what about in situ and introduced GMO pathogens?
5.1.3 EXTENDED GMO SPECIFICS: ENDOTOXIN & OTHER ATTACKS
5.1.3.1 ENDOTOXIN, PARTICULATE/POLLEN, GASEOUS & FUNGAL BIOAEROSOLS
‘Enhancing’ pest tolerance? What ELSE could a released endotoxin gene ‘enhance’? Note that: “Researchers have determined that microbial contamination, in the form of bacterial endotoxins… [see Endnote #8] and B-1,3-glucan… [see Endnote #9] are linked with SBS [Sick Building Syndrome] in living quarters and office buildings (Wan & Li 1999b: 172)” (Thompson 2000:9). Also:
Other factors may contribute to the symptoms associated with poor indoor air quality, including the presence of organic compounds causing sensory irritation or an unpleasant odour,7 and airborne bacteria and their products including endotoxins.8 (Royal Commission On Environmental Pollution 2007:197)
BACTERIAL ENDOTOXINS essentially equal MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION, which can equate with BIOAEROSOL TOXINS (which, overall, include also mold mycotoxins) causing respiratory problems, nausea (Thompson 2000:9, referencing Koskinen et al. 1999:143-144 [see Endnote #10]) and non-respiratory issues such as “aches and pains, nerves, headache and eye irritation” (ibid. [see Endnote #11]). The fact of the SBS in humans means that, not only do symptoms manifest as a response to toxic chemical vapor (Volatile Organic Compounds, or “VOCs”) exposures from synthetic materials (such as synthetic carpet, particle board, glues, paint, etc.) in the home or office, but that — in terms of the external sourcing of an additional chemical culprit — endotoxin may have migrated into buildings. That is, the endotoxin is AIRBORNE. This is a serious matter in terms of GMO plantations:
Exposure to bioaerosols may occur in many different occupations, especially those in which stored products are handled or where aerosols are created as a result of leaks from equipment intentionally or accidentally contaminated with microorganisms or during particular operations as, for instance, in laboratories and during post-mortem or surgical procedures (Lacey & Dutkiewicz 1994).
The analogue of the above occupational exposures in an open/external environment could be:
• Storms and high winds (including trees blown down or branches snapped off)
• Harvesting operations
• Post harvesting cleanup
• Pollination
• Even ‘passive’ (nothing in particular overtly happening other than GMO plant growth and normal total plant immersion in, and responsiveness to, the local and extended environment).
In regard to the last point, please note:
Members of the Myrtaceae family and most of the world’s plants exchange gases and moisture through stomatal openings which may open and close in response to climatic
…stomatal opening also influences the emissions of a range of terpenes…
…The authors demonstrated that volatile emission changes as a function of stomatal opening or closure. T hey showed that more soluble compounds such as alcohols and carboxylic acids are controlled by stomata. Specifically, they showed that large morning bursts of aldehydes were related to stomatal opening after closure during the night (Gibbs 2006:86).
Many other gas emissions are shown by this author to occur in plants, including alcohols, carboxylix acids, linalool, 1, 8-cineole, monoterpene, ocimene (especially in Pinus pinea), acetic acid, terpenes (including Sesquiterpenes from Eucalyptus viminalis), and eucalyptol, (ibid.:86-90). Note further:
Rogge et al. analysed fine particles from plants in a simulation representing natural leaf abrasion by wind… Fine particles less than two microns shed from the leaves were extracted and analysed by GC/MS…
Particulates from plants can act as vectors for terpenes. Logically, when fungi grow on substrates containing terpenes, there would be some uptake of terpenes and distribution into fungal spores, contributing to the set microscopic particles found in the air. (ibid.:91).
And, by extension, the above particulates will contain GMO endotoxin that will escape AND pollute:
The application of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and the growing of genetically-modified
crops are currently practised to control infestations of crop-eating insects. The
increasing use of these biopesticides could lead to an increase in Cry1Ab endotoxin in
both terrestrial and aquatic environments (Douville, et. al. 2005).
Acute and chronic airway inflammations caused by environmental agents including
endotoxin represent an increasing health problem (Togbe, et.al. 2007:768).
And what of fungi growing on GMO pollen and the other substrates on and emanating en masse as airborne particulates from GMO plantation crops? Given that fungi can feed off dead matter and also act parasitically (ibid.:92), WHY SHOULDN’T FUNGI TAKE ON GMO CONTAMINATION? Note GMO Accident #1:
There is now another fungus, among us this one being an escapee from a genetic engineering laboratory at Lincoln University in New Zealand. The refugee fungus, named Beauveria bassiana, occurs naturally in soils throughout the world and has been employed by mankind as a biological insecticide to control a variety of pests. In a classic case of mistaken identity, scientists confused the GMO fungus with its wild strain already present in the environment. As a result, despite constant reassurances given the public that potentially dangerous organisms are contained securely within research labs, this experiment was not conducted within the required and approved genetic modification containment facilities. The buildings suspected of the leak have been shut down until the severity and extent of the situation are fully understood. Don’t hold your breath, though; almost two weeks after the incident, investigators are still at a loss as to how it occurred. To top that off, both the university and research agency involved had been previously implicated or found responsible for other GE experiment breaches. So much for safeguards and assurances. Tragically, self- propagating genetic pollution is permanent. It cannot be recalled from the environment (Allen 2013).
Note further GMO Accident #2:
1.Horizontal gene transfer at plant-surface sites
Comment by Ignacio Chapela, Berkeley/Tromsø
The careful and understated presentation, beginning with the title, belies research results that I think should be considered a major landmark in the growing evidence demonstrating how little we know about the ecological consequences of transgenesis, in particular the potential for horizontal gene transfer in real field situations. It also shows a definite and probably very important source of concern, the real possibility that DNA vectored into plants could move out, with full reproductive capacity, via a microbial route into the genomic environment far and beyond the immediate space and phylogeny of the host plant. Any environmental evaluation of field releases should now be required to seriously consider this possibility.
The research for this paper is carefully conceived and conducted, using various sources of confirmatory evidence. The frequency of “spontaneous” transformations out of the bacterium and into the fungus (2 out of 17, 1 out of 15, 10 out of 31 and 14 out of 42 trials in various repetitions) is exceedingly high. Although the paper demonstrates the transfer “only” from whole bacterial cells onto fungal spores (or hyphae), a precautionary approach should dictate that the possibility be also considered that transfers could occur through back-transformation, since much of the Agrobacterium wherewithal necessary to accomplish it is present in the transgenic plant. It is also known that whole Agrobacterium can “hide” through the process of regeneration of plants out of callus in the transgenesis process, providing accessible cells for the transformation, and of course encounters of Agrobacterium and different fungi (and other organisms?) at a plant-wound site must be considered common in the field (Chapela, No date).
The above, CRITICALLY IMPORTANT, Chapela article also notes: “For the full text of this important new paper: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013684 University of Bristol press release: http://bit.ly/bezdRp” (ibid.). Note further GMO Accident #3:
2.Bacteria spread genes to fungi on plants Tom Marshall Planet Earth, 27 October 2010 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0013684
A bacterium that’s used to modify plants’ genes can also change the DNA of completely different lifeforms in the wild, new research shows.
If the bacteria come into contact with particular fungi at a wound in a plant’s outer skin, the fungi can come away with new genes from the bacterium. If these help it survive, they could become a permanent part of its genetic makeup.
This is a way genes could potentially escape genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and move into other living things. It underscores the need to make sure these microbes are removed completely from genetically-modified plants before they leave the lab. It also shows that genes can move between organisms in more ways than has previously been assumed.
‘This study suggests that the encounter between this bacterium and a fungus on the plant surface may lead to gene flow in a previously overlooked way, potentially leaking GM genes into the natural world,’ says Professor Gary Foster of the University of Bristol, one of the study’s authors.(Marshall 2010).
And here is an EXTREMELY interesting comment:
And if you hear anyone say the genes won’t spread unless they occasionally confer an advantage, meaning natural selection will take care of the problem so who cares, here is why that is wrong: The genes can be thought of as a virus and the life form merely a host. All they have to do is survive long enough to spread into a new plant.
That whole patch of host plants can die for all this independent pseudo-organism (the string of GMO genes) cares- it is still surviving. GMO genes are going to transcend what we thought of as fitness- they are a fundamentally new kind of life (http://www.gmofreeportland.com/ 2010).
If all environments integrate and are essentially seamless enabling continuous communication, why would we ever conclude that there is an impassable barrier that prevents endotoxin or GMO-infused particulates from exiting a GMO plantation tree and becoming airborne (a bit like the myths that demand that Bifenthrin — a synthetic pyrethroid termiticide — and also glyphosate stay put once applied (see: http://www.docshut.com/ksuutp/bifenthrin-toxicity-mobility.html; http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/reports/MurrayThompson_The-Mobility-Persistence-&-Toxicity-of-Bifenthrin.pdf; http://www.slashdocs.com/mtwrrp/bifenthrin-toxicity-mobility.html; or http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/pesticides/MurrayThompson_The-Mobility-Persistence-&-Toxicity-of-Bifenthrin.pdf)? Continuing with endotoxin. First:
Elevated levels of endotoxin have been measured in agriculture (6), the biotechnology industry (25), office buildings (37), and swimming pools (21) (Walters, et. al. 1993:996).
How widespread are industry exposures?
Exposures to bioaerosols in the occupational environment are associated with a wide range of health effects, including infectious diseases, toxic effects, allergies, and cancer [Douwes er aJ.,2003]. ‘Workers from a large number of industries are potentially at risk including workers in agriculture, meat production, food and animal feed industry waste recycling and composting industry detergent industry wood and paper industry metal machining industries, biotechnology industries, the medical and public health sector, as well as, veterinarians, pet shop keepers, laboratory animal workers, etc.
Another example is exposure to high levels of microorganims and endotoxin such as occur in waste recycling workers (e.g. waste sorting, organic waste collection and composting; [van Tongeren et al., 1997; Douwes et ai., 2000; Wouters et aI., 2002]) causing airway inflammation and respiratory conditions such as “organic dust toxic syndrome”, asthma, and “extrinsic allergic alveolitis” [Poulsen et aI., 1995; Thorn and Rylander, 1998; Douwes et aI., 2000; Wouters et aI., 2002] (Douwes, Thorne & Heederik 2003:39).
Why should we really worry?
There is increasing evidence that diseases caused by organic dusts are mainly of an inflammatory nature. Among the many agents present in organic dusts, bacterial endotoxin is a major candidate for the inflammatory reaction” (Thorn 2001).
…it is now appropriately recognized that exposures to biological agents in both the occupational and residential indoor environment are associated with a wide range of adverse health effects with major public health impact, including contagious infectious diseases, acute toxic effects, allergies and cancer (Douwes, Thorne, Pearce & Heederik 2003:187-188).
Given that:
Insertion of a gene taken from the fast-growing Arabidopsis weed, has created GM- Eucalyptus trees growing 5 metres a year, with 20%-30% more mass than their un- modified counterparts”, and that “They are 27 metres high in 5.5 years [87] (SourceWatch.org 2013b)…
…I strongly suspect that enhanced growth in a GMO plant will make that plant’s endotoxins and other GMO particulates more available for escape to the surrounding environment. How so? First, and more generally, again, everything is CONNECTED:
Headwater streams are intimately connected with the adjacent terrestrial environments. By-products from commercial crop fields have been shown to enter the draining water catchments throughout the agricultural mid-western U.S….
Crop plant residues from Bt corn are known to contain this toxin[96][97] [“bacteria- derived o-endotoxin Cry1Ab, derived from Bacillus thuringiensis”] and recent research has shown some adverse effects of Bt corn by-products on stream organisms.[98]…
…the presence of the toxin in plant residues is potentially significant to macroinvertebrate consumers inhabiting these aquatic systems (SourceWatch.org 2013c).
Further, in terms of ecological attacks, it is known that:
A variety of studies have shown that B.t. applications can disturb insect communities. Research following large-scale B.t. applications to kill gypsy moth larvae in Lane County, Oregon, found that the number of oak-feeding caterpillar species was reduced for three years following spraying, and the number of caterpillars was reduced for two years.68 Similar results were found in a study of caterpillars feeding on tobacco brush following a B.t.k. application to control spruce budworm in Oregon.69 In untreated areas, the number of species was above 30 percent higher, and the number of caterpillars 5 times greater, than in B.t.k.-treated areas two weeks after treatment. The number of caterpillars was sill reduced in treated areas the following summer. In Washington, B.t. applications in King and Pierce counties to kill gypsy moths reduced spring moth populations by almost 90 percent.70 In addition, one rare species appeared to have been eradicated from the treatment zone, and moth populations were “heavily impacted in an area more than double that which was actually sprayed” as moths moved into the treatment zone from surrounding areas.70 In West Virginia, applications of Foray 48B reduced the number of caterpillar species and the number of caterpillars. The year following application, the number of moth species and the number of moths were both reduced. A recent (1994) study in four different Oregon plane communities found that total weight of caterpillars was reduced between 90 and 95 percent by B.t. treatment; the number of caterpillars was reduced by 80 percent; and the number of caterpillar species was reduced by over 60 percent.72 (Swadener 1994).
Also, aquatic insects, birds and shrews were found to be impacted by the toxin (ibid.). Second, and a little more specifically in terms of a RISK ASSESSMENT FOR SHREDDING GREEN WASTE AT MOUNTS PLANTATION, EAST ALLINGTON:
Pathway… Air transport then inhalation… Agitation of composting material causes the release of airborne microorganisms and dust. Continuous exposure to bioaerosols can be harmful to human health (Pope 2011).
Thirdly, and a little more specifically:
Potential human health impacts are only beginning to be known. These health risks include exposure to hazardous chemicals that are applied to plantations of transgenic trees and harmful effects of inhaling pollen from trees that produce a Bt toxin (a o- endotoxin, such as Cry1Ab or Cry1Ac (CHK)…
A series of studies published by scientists from Cuba and Mexico found that Cry1Ac is a potent systemic immunogen (e.g. evokes an immune response), as potent an adjuvant as the cholera sub-toxin, binds to gut cells and is capable of causing changes in the permeability of the gut (e.g. Vasquez- Padron et al., 1999a, 1999b, 2000)…
Finally, the risk of immune response via inhalation is larger than the response from ingestion as inhaled substances are not exposed to gut digestive enzymes as they go directly into the circulatory system… (Global Justice Ecology Project, et.al., No date:1)
Note also:
We do not think that the human health data that EPA currently has are adequate. In particular, EPA seems to have ignored a crucial study that suggests that the Bt delta endotoxin is an inhalant allergen, which could present risks, in an occupational sense, to farmworkers and millworkers that are exposed to dust from the processing of Bt crops (Hansen 2000).
And further, what does escape from crops or a plantation can be trangenically highly mercurial, perhaps including being unpredictable in ways similar to how pesticides can morph into even more toxic metabolite configurations, and certainly being unquantifiable in terms of ultimate impact:
…the phenomenon of post-translational processing, which consists of the modification of a protein after it has been translated from the genetic message. And such post- translational processing can have a significant impact on the structure and function of a gene. Furthermore, post-translational processing can differ between organisms, so that the same gene expressed in different genetic backgrounds may have the same amino acid sequence but may differ in structure and function. Examples of such processing includes glycosylation and acetylation (ibid.).
Put another way:
Further evidence that most if not all commercially approved transgenic lines are genetically unstable and non-uniform has come to light. The transgenic lines fail to satisfy the current EU Directive requirements for proof of genetic stability and uniformity, and are hence illegal. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports.
In a recent study [1] on five commercially approved transgenic lines carried out by two French laboratories [2], all five transgenic inserts were found to have rearranged, not just from the construct used in transformation, but also from the original structure reported by the company. This was clear evidence that all the lines were genetically unstable…
The studies also revealed a discrepancy in regulatory practice. UK’s Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) and the Belgian authority both appear to have allowed Monsanto to submit new molecular data on Roundup Ready soybean when independent analysis revealed its insert had rearranged (Institute of Science in Society 2003).
This everyday extreme variation is proof of the instability of transgenic genomes, their propensity for ongoing mutation, and their changeability in response to environmental factors (“Russ” 2014).
And in terms of tree plantations:
Trees are being primarily engineered for insect resistance (with the Bt gene), tolerance to glyphosate, reduced lignin, and faster growth. The escape of any of these traits into native forests (considered inevitable given the unreliability of sterility technologies), is likely to unleash devastating impacts on native forest ecosystems. Potential impacts include: Contamination with the Bt-toxin insect resistance will decimate insects sensitive to Bt-toxin, such as Lepidopterae (butterflies and moths), and potentially their predators (Hilbeck, 1998) and further impacting on bird populations, ultimately disrupting forest ecosystems for which insects are an integral component. Contamination with the low-lignin gene resulting in forest trees that cannot resist insects, disease or environmental stresses like wind. Escape of the gene for faster growth leading to transgenic trees out-competing native trees and plants for light, water and nutrients and leading to soil loss and desertification (Global Justice Ecology Project, et.al., No date:1).
All the above means nothing less than mass transgene ESCAPE:
…there is general agreement that the most serious concerns arise when genetically engineered organisms could cause self-perpetuating injury to commercial or natural ecosystems beyond the immediate area of release (Raffa, et. al. 1997:250).
And here’s an indication of toxicity to Multiple Chemical Sensitive individuals (like me):
Among the issues are the possible spread of allergens, the invitation which herbicide tolerant crops give to over-use of herbicides, possible adverse effects of new toxins (such as the Bt endotoxin) on some people, and the emergence of antibiotic resistance which may be fostered by the use of antibiotic resistance genes in almost all transgenic crops (Sierra Club 2014).
…animal studies of the effects of Bt published in Natural Toxins found that Bt remains active in mammals that have eaten it and may in fact bind to the intestines, leading to “significant structural disturbances and intestinal growths (Global Justice Ecology Project,et. al, No date:1).
I am one of the MCS “some people”.
5.1.3.2 POLLEN INCLUSIONS
And if the occupational environment is a rural area, then how can people on farms and in towns be protected from the bioaerosols emanating from, for example, a pine or Eucalyptus nitens plantation during storms or operations? The answer is, they can’t. As a matter of the simple and overtly obvious in terms of an organic bioaerosol and wind, locals where I live have testified to almost suffocating on pine tree pollen in the spring. They have experienced a range of morbid irritation symptoms over a period of weeks from the pollen (such as allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis), but the most obvious dynamic is barely being able to breathe out in their paddocks when the wind whips up a massive cloud of pollen as they race back to the house for shelter. It is possible, given the magnitude of these monoculture cloud events, that someone could experience an asthmatic attack or heart attack:
Precocious pollen production has important implications for fertilization and pollen dispersal from young, dense stands. Increasing levels of airborne pollen raise concerns for escalating rates of human respiratory disease (Ladeau & Clarke 2006:541).
“We have no control over the movement of insects, birds and mammals, wind and rain that carry pollen and seeds. Genetically engineered trees, with the potential to transfer pollen for hundreds of miles carrying genes for traits including insect resistance, herbicide resistance, sterility and reduced lignin, thus have the potential to wreak ecological havoc throughout the world’s native forests[“]. –Dr. David Suzuki, The Suzuki Foundation” (Global Justice Ecology Project, EcoNexus, Friends of the Earth International, Global Forest Forum and World Rainforest Movement, No date).
Engineering trees to produce Bt toxin could be far more dangerous. Pines are known for heavy pollination, spreading pollen for hundreds of kilometers. Establishment of plantations of pines that produce Bt pollen could potentially lead to widespread outbreaks of sickness…
G. Sing et al. (1993) found pine pollen in Northern India more than 600km from the nearest pines. Pollen models created in 2004 by Duke University researchers demonstrated pollen from native forests in North Carolina in the U.S. traveling in air currents for more than 1,200km north into eastern Canada. This means that transgenic trees cannot be regulated only at the national level. Transboundary contamination of native forests with transgenic traits is virtually assured (Global Justice Ecology Project, et.al., No date:2).
5.1.3.3 PESTICIDE INCLUSIONS
As a small recap, agricultural and plantation operations can be toxic from the pesticide/herbicide perspective:
Spray operators have been shown to be dermally exposed to paraquat by walking through recently sprayed vegetation and into their own spray, regular adjustment and unblocking of spray nozzles and leakage, and overfilling of knapsack spray tanks. Carriers also received measurable dermal exposure from walking through recently sprayed vegetation and accidental spillage when carrying and loading (Chester & Woollen 1982).
Herbicide applications cannot occur without exposures occurring, both for the operator and the public (via spray drift and volatilization drift). Herbicide use is inherently a messy and highly toxic procedure. Spills will occur, blockages of equipment will occur that need to be unblocked, and people WILL be exposed even to just that spray that has been’competently’ applied without drama. The exposure and poisoning of agricultural or plantationoperators and even people nowhere near the application site does not stop, however, with them:
Several studies link pesticide exposure by both parents and children to leukemia. The pattern of disease suggests that some damage to chromosomes may occur before the child is born (3)…
Several studies have linked leukemia to pesticides. Two recent reviews concluded that pesticide exposure may be a cause of leukemia (10)(11). These reviews report that most, though not all, studies find leukemia was more likely in children whose fathers were exposed to pesticides at work than other children.
Children of fathers with jobs including pesticide exposure had a 2.7 times higher risk of leukemia when compared to controls (17) (www.envirohealthpolicy.net 2001).
And a little more specifically:
The current chronic kidney disease epidemic, the major health issue in the rice paddy farming areas in Sri Lanka has been the subject of many scientific and political debates over the last decade…
Here, we have hypothesized the association of using glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the disease endemic area and its unique metal chelating properties. The possible role played by glyphosate-metal complexes in this epidemic has not been given any serious consideration by investigators for the last two decades. Furthermore, it may explain similar kidney disease epidemics observed in Andra Pradesh (India) and Central America. Although glyphosate alone does not cause an epidemic of chronic kidney disease, it seems to have acquired the ability to destroy the renal tissues of thousands of farmers when it forms complexes with a localized geo environmental factor (hardness) and nephrotoxic metals (Jayasumana, et. al. 2014:2125-2126).
Note also these studies: Séralini, G.; Cellier, D.; de Vendomois, J. New analysis of a rat feeding study with a genetically modified maize reveals signs of hepatorenal toxicity. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 2007, 52, 596–602. Benachour, N.; Sipahutar, H.; Moslemi, S.; Gasnier, C.; Travert, C.; Seralini, G.E. Time- and dose-dependent effects of roundup on human embryonic and placental cells. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 2007, 53, 126–133. Benachour, N.; Seralini, G.E. Glyphosate formulations induce apoptosis and necrosis in human umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2009, 22, 97–105. Gasnier, C.; Dumont, C.; Benachour, N.; Clair, E.; Chagnon, M.C.; Seralini, G.E. Glyphosate-based herbicides are toxic and endocrine disruptors in human cell lines. Toxicology 2009, 262, 184–191. Also:
Throughout the first years of life, children undergo rapid growth and development, and their complex, delicate developmental processes may be easily interrupted and derailed by pesticides. A single pesticide may affect multiple processes and multiple pesticides may affect a single process (Miller et al 2002). Exposures are especially damaging during critical windows of vulnerability in which children are particularly susceptible to damage.
These windows occur from the period around conception until adolescence, depending on the organ system; organ systems undergo rapid change and extensive growth both prenatally and in the first few months after birth, in some cases even for years. But the unborn foetus and newborn are at greatest risk, and interference with their developmental processes can lead to lifelong alterations in behaviour, growth and development, and disease occurrence (Watts 2013:36-37).
Pesticide exposure damage transmits through time and across generations (note other comments in this essay regarding epigenetics). What might just be very appropriate at this point is a very large epidemiological survey of morbidity in children whose fathers/mothers are subject to pesticide handling at work (how many industries would cooperate with this, and how many workers who became involved would be penalized by their employees?). How many “children of the corn” and plantation children would register as bearing a statistically significant amplification of cancers over a control group? However, would it be too embarrassing for too many attempting to measure just how much pain there is out there in our little kids? Could we care enough to reveal whatever the ugly truth is likely to be? Would we, as caregivers of the next generation, want to be burdened with knowing just how much potential has been lost in our little ones due to the supposed NEED to spray toxics with the unexamined assumption that this will make things grow better and earn the company more (what more could you corporately wish for?). What if MORE is actually LESS? And when LESS is measurable in the death of a child here, there, and everywhere, from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, how will we quantify THAT KIND OF “LESS”? Will we still stupidly spout the “balance the pros and cons” techno-chemical philosophical mantra when the LESS is FINALLY intelligently understood to represent A MOVEMENT TOWARD EXTINCTION?
5.1.3.4 BIOSOLIDS, RUNOFF, DUST & HUMAN EXPOSURES
Here, I am looking at the potential for biosolids applied to plantations to affect human health, either by contact with biosolid pathogens on site or later, after pathogen migration. Agricultural and plantation operations can be toxic from a biosolids perspective:
Application of… [wastewater treatment] biosolids to pine plantations is a practice increasing worldwide due to the benefits of biosolids as a soil amendment. The regulations allow biosolids that may contain pathogenic organisms to be landapplied. In the case of pine plantations, the general public is not physically excluded from the area resulting in a situation arising whereby exposure of the biosolids to members of the general public can occur. This potential exposure results in a human health risk becoming present.
Instances of pathogen survival post-application of biosolids have been observed indicating that the risk to human health is certainly present… The airborne pathogen risks through the formation of biosolids dust and the occurrence of plantation burns that may cause pathogens to become airborne in the smoke of a burn, were investigated. E. coli, Salmonella spp. and Clostridium perfringens were the pathogen indicators selected for this study.
The results show that the pathogen levels in the land-applied biosolids pose a risk to members of the public and plantation workers via direct exposure for the first 3 months post-application. After 2 months E. coli was observed to have undergone significant die-off, Salmonella spp. was observed to be at undetectable levels after 3 months. However 11 months post-application in the following winter season, Salmonella spp. returned to high levels that would pose a human health risk. Clostridium perfringens remained at high levels throughout the 1 year monitoring period. During this initial monitoring period, a relationship between moisture content and pathogen populations was observed. Salmonella spp. indicated the strongest relationship with a return in its population from undetectable levels to high levels when an increase in moisture content was observed.
The formation of biosolids dust was an issue raised, and more specifically whether pathogens could become airborne with the dust… Clostridium perfringens was the exception as this pathogen was observed to survive within biosolids dust.
The pathogen risk from direct exposure is present for all individuals who come into contact with the biosolids during the initial 3 months post-application and, due to pathogen re-growth or re-colonisation, the following winter season when moisture levels are increased (Levitan 2010).
This thesis noted that only occupational exposures were likely, however the admission that people could enter plantations automatically means that the public is exposed as well. It should be further considered that movement of pathogens from plantations with surface runoff and groundwater poses risks to creeks and rivers, and human health recreational activities and drinking water also. With canoeing and other activities, contaminated water could be transported to homes where pets or children could gain access. C. perfringens in airborne dust sourcing from biosolids dust could pose risks at distance from the plantation application site, and even during/after a fire or rubbish burn, likely because “C. perfringens spores can survive high temperatures” (CDC 2014).
5.1.3.5 HORIZONTAL Bt GENE TRANSFER ON THE HEELS OF TRANSGENIC MANIPULATION
Here, I am briefly looking at the potential for horizintal gene transfer to create environmental health problems. The implication here is that pathogens from biosolids could accommodate this transfer. Note the following:
Bacillus thuringiensis is the most widely applied biological insecticide… …plants engineered with the cry genes encoding the B. thuringiensis crystal proteins are the most widely cultivated transgenic crops… Escherichia coli engineered to produce the B. thuringiensis insecticidal toxin killed gypsy moth larvae… (Broderick, Raffa & Handelsman 2006:15196).
I believe that information located elsewhere in this Essay (e.g. 5.1.4.1, below) and the above portends the extremely high likelihood that naturally resident bacteria or that introduced via human activities will horizontally take on B. thuringiensis encoding and result in the decimation of massive insect populations. If E. coli can be encoded via manipulation, then that type of gene transfer (and more) will be able to take place spontaneously in nature. This will result in an entirely uncontrollable series of disastrous genetic events affecting soil health, insect and insectivore health, not to mention pollination.
Our data indicate that consecutive cultivation by genetically modified cottons with
Bt and CpT I genes can result in persistence of Cry1Ac and CpT I proteins and
negatively affect soil microbial and biochemical properties (Chen, et. al. 2011:67).
…these [transgenic Cry] toxins may accumulate in the soil in an active form and this may affect soil invertebrates not normally in contact with Bt toxins. Finally, the remote possibility of horizontal gene transfer to other bacterial organisms must also be considered given the greater persistence of the DNA in the environment (Lorenz and Wackernagel, 1996). Assessment of these risks requires both rigorous and independent scientific examination (Sanchis 2010:226).
It should be noted that the warning “rigorous and independent scientific examination” (ibid.) comes well after the technology has already been put to worldwide use… One sees these kind of after-the-fact warnings in scientific literature all the time. For example: “known horizontal transfer activity” and “We recommend including the above-mentioned items into the premarket safety assessment of genetically modified crops carrying transgenes…” (Kleter, Peijnenburg & Aarts 2005:326). These quotes demonstrate clearly that we are interferring deep inside Nature with no realistic or worthwhile reservations whatsoever. There is no censorship of human invention. Only the chase after mega dollars.
5.1.4 EXTENDED GMO GENERALITIES: BROAD PANDEMIC POTENTIAL & MASTER CONSPIRACIES
5.1.4.1 PANDEMIC POTENTIAL
What is the potential for pest infestations and disease to rampage through (and beyond) monoculture plantation crops in the event of the development of widespread insect resistance to GMO plants? What about recombinant DNA dynamics?
The potential for insects to evolve resistance to GM insecticidal plants is considered to be one of the main threats to this technology, since resistance to Bt sprayable products has been demonstrated (Ferre, Van Rie & Macintosh 2008).
…the continued exposure of pests to Bt toxins has selected for many resistant insects (Tabashnik et al. 1990; Talekar & Shelton 1993; Tabashnik 1994; Bauer 1997; Tang et al. 1997; Speight et al. 1999). Such resistance is thought to have developed through continued exposure to sprays on non-transgenic crops, and where these sprays have persisted in the soil following application (Saxena et al. 1999) (Coventry 2001).
In transgenic virus-resistant organisms, recombination between viral transgenes and invading viruses could lead to increased virulence and undesirable effects on wild hosts existing in natural habitats (Snow et al., 2005). Little is known yet on the regulation and activities of the pathogenic microorganisms and viruses inserted in the transgene construct (e.g., CaMV) (Quist et al., 2007), which increases the uncertainty about how they could impact wild fauna and farm animals (Catacora-Vargas 2011:25).
Imagine the famine that would ensue if corn and cotton crops worldwide engage disease and/or insect infestation after their pests gain resistance. Worse, imagine the impact on public health after a potential synergy occurs between ‘normal’ exposures to endotoxin aerosols and the diseases exploding out of the pest resistance? That is: massive and widespread insect devastation of crops releasing monstrous (but likely mostly invisible) organic dust clouds of endotoxin. Famine would follow and would be concurrent with the diseases that would opportunistically amplify on the basis of a low-level immune dysfunction in immune compromised people exposed to the GMO endotoxins for years. Imagine the overlapping devastation. Parallel pandemics (there is much more that could be factored into that nightmare scenario). Just as a small example of how impossible it is to put controls on GE and have any confidence in human ingenuity, note this information:
There is a possibility, however, of gene transfer from B.t. cotton to wild or feral cotton relatives in Hawaii, Florida and the Carribean (epa.gov 2001).
Continuing with the GMO escape theme and ignoring pesticide toxicities for a moment. What else should give us ‘confidence’ in GMO technologies?
A large-scale application of transgenic Bt-plants may result in long-lasting negative impact on the environment. First, the cultivation of these plants leads to accumulation of Bt-toxins in soil. Second, the decomposition of transgenic plants takes significantly longer time compared to that of isogenic lines. Third, the biological activity of soils under transgenic crops is lower than in the control plots. The transfer of o-endotoxin-encoding genes to the genome of agricultural crops affects simultaneously several entirely different traits of genetically modified plants, thus exerting pleiotropic effects. This gives rise to a paradoxical situation: the genetically engineered crops selected on the trait of resistance to herbivorous insects of the order Lepidoptera become more attractive for herbivores from the other order, Homoptera (Victorov 2008).
A little more on “pleiotropic”, and also highlighting a critical aspect of the aberrations in thought that are now standard inside the insane world of toxics ‘regulation’:
Unintended crop attributes. ‘Pleiotropic effects’ may occur when new genes are inserted into plants to give the plants desirable new traits (i.e. more than one change may occur in a plant as a result of the new gene). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy regulating transgenic crops assumes that pleiotropic effects will not occur, and that genetically modified crops are ‘substantially equivalent’ to conventional crops. This policy was implemented despite concerns raised by government scientists that it failed to adequately address risks to the environment or to animal and human health posed by pleiotropic effects.
Memos written by FDA scientific staff indicate that pleiotropic effects may indeed occur when new genes are inserted into food crops: “Until more of these experimental plants have a wider environmental distribution, it would be premature for FDA to summarily dismiss pleiotropy” and “Pleiotropic effects occur in genetically engineered plants… at frequencies up to 30%. Most of these effects can be managed by the subsequent breeding and selection procedures. Nevertheless, some undesirable effects such as increased levels of known naturally occurring toxicants, appearance of new, not previously identified toxicants, increased capability of concentrating toxic substances from the environment (e.g., pesticides or heavy metals), and undesirable alterations in the levels of nutrients may escape breeders’ attention unless genetically engineered plants are evaluated specifically for these changes. Such evaluations should be performed on a case-by-case basis, i.e., every transformant should be evaluated before it enters the marketplace.” Instead of heeding theses concerns, FDA issued biotech food rules that assume no pleiotropic effects will occur, therefore no additional safety testing of transgenic crops is required (Grubinger 2000).
And, in terms of GE trees:
Besides destroying native forests for eucalyptus plantations, the commercial use of cold-adapted eucalyptus could result in the escape of these GE trees (via seed or asexual vegetative reproduction) into ecosystems and forests where they could out- compete native vegetation and displace wildlife. Furthermore, the southern US, where establishment of commercial GE eucalyptus biofuel feedstock plantations is now being considered, is known to be subject to strong storms, including tornadoes and hurricanes, which have the potential to distribute eucalyptus seeds over very large areas from tens to hundreds of kilometres (Petermann 2008).
5.1.4.2 MY SYMPTOMS
As an aside, I have experienced a significant and distressingly painful increase in joint and muscle myalgia in the 13 months I have lived in south to south-west Tasmania after moving from a township to a rural location surrounded by E. nitens and pine plantations (not one of my best decisions). Overt joint inflammation in the knees, right hand and elbows have also featured, along with a considerable increase in chronic fatigue. As well, increasing chest congestion with myself and my son posts up suspicions of bioaerosols affecting our respiratory systems. This is a particular area of concern in terms of my health that cleared up considerably (along with 30 years of asthma) when I first moved from the Sydney Basin’s perennial recirculating air pollution to New Norfolk in Tasmania, but which has now reappeared (along with the other above- and below-listed aggravated symptoms) in my current rural/plantation setting. My asthma is not aggravated in this plantation setting, but respiratory mucous production and joint pains certainly are. To my untrained medical mind this speaks of a strictly toxic rather than particulate air pollution issue.
So here, in a (supposed) “clean air” setting I am experiencing an anomaly: respiratory symptoms that I have historically experienced in my lifetime only associated with heavy air pollution reappearing in what should be a relatively pristine setting. I believe anomalies are critically important in that they represent signatures or maps, and ones that should not be ignored.
Another concern: Our water supply arises from a stream immediately adjacent to plantation areas that may well have been sprayed with herbicides in past decades (and which therefore may harbor a significant reservoir of toxic chemical residue) and which are potentially earmarked for future spraying (hopefully not). My neighbor has suggested that significant spraying has taken place throughout the pine plantation because the plantation exhibits almost no blackberry infestation, this being a very typical and common signature of most other disturbed and waste areas in this location. Due to his concerns he decided to stick with rain water instead of tapping into the perennially available stream water.
As a result of my research, and in contradiction to most authoritative pronouncements, I now have some considerable concerns about the E. nitens plantations (including domestic nitens plantings) in particular because I am (along with my pesticide poisoned son) incredibly and spontaneously chemical sensitive (from initial pesticide poisoning in Sydney; see: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/reports/MurrayThompson_Symptoms-From-Original-Poisoning-17.pdf).
Essentially, I am a barometer of environmental and chemical vapor conditions around me. For example, I can walk up two streets in a township near here and experience horrible chest pains, while not experiencing those pains at all along other streets. If I wear a good quality chemical filter in a respirator, I will not experience those pains in those two streets at all. The streets are on the opposite side of a hill where a waste dump is situated and may well have a direct link via an underground gravel seam (or similar) to leachate sourcing from the dump. This occurred historically and very notably in Sydney at the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre in north-west Sydney (see: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com/castlereagh/Toxic-Chemical-Leakage-Outside-Waste-Depot.pdf).
Still continuing with my now extended personal issue: there are plenty of Eucalyptus nitens in our area, so my aggravated joint pain and inflammatory symptoms could potentially be the result of, not necessarily only the likely low level residues of pesticide spray applications that have occurred both commercially (plantations) and via domestic use, but also endotoxin aerosol exposures from the nitens plantation and domestic trees as well, if indeed they are GMO (see below). I have to ask: and what of the internal (DNA, etc.) nature of the pollen coming off these trees? Recall the Raffa, et.al. (1997) and Global Justice Ecology Project, et.al. (no date) quotes in previous sections.
A worthwhile point to contemplate here in terms of logic and general wisdom: If you molly coddle and manipulate (and by analogy, extreme-breed German Shepherds with bad hips and bulldogs that can’t breathe) a monoculture of trees; that is you plough the road ahead of their planting with pre-emergent herbicides, and then you spray again to ‘protect’ the seedlings from grass weeds, flat weeds and woody weeds with herbicides that promote the development of pathogenic soil conditions… Why would these seedlings not develop immune dysfunction and become a reservoir for developed pathogenic states? What then of the bioaerosols that are discharged from such a sickened monoculture? Would they not be inherently pathogenic to wild life and humans alike, even without an additional GMO status?
I feel that the accurate stereotype of the closeted child — kept indoors from earliest childhood in a “bubble” and prevented from exercising against the vicissitudes and pressures of the outside world — adds valid theoretical and analogical notional content to a monoculture regime dynamic that sees trees set up with a too easy (and artificial) life (a monitored, contrived, ‘adjusted’ and toxic life), one poisoned and sickened through being protected and doctored too heartily by misinformed and institutionalized commercial good intentions.
My son and I are located smack in the middle of a contrived bubble of plantations. Our Sydney Specialist, Dr. Mark Donohoe, has suggested:
Mr Thompson and his son, Daniel, suffer severe and disabling chemical sensitivities,
including sensitivities to a broad range of environmental chemicals such as solvents,
paints, terpenes, glues, cleaning chemicals, chlorine and chlorinated products, plasticisers,
fragrances and more. Of particular concern at present is Mr Thompson’s adverse
reactions to the specific terpenes found in Eucalyptus nitens plantations and the surrounding
area. His health has deteriorated markedly with worsening of his respiratory
and joint/muscle inflammation and pain. (Donohoe, Medical Letter, May 12, 2014)
Shallow and preconceived prescriptions for advancing human activities and profit often produce immature and uni-dimensional approaches to growing biomass. This is where we see an overabundance and concentration of species not seen in Nature. Plantations. Too many of one species is like an unbalanced infestation and infection, and so small wonder that monocultures are subject to the ravages of disease and linked to human disease outbreaks. Further, an overabundance of natural (?) emissions from such monocultures will not be adequately processed because the natural scheme of the greater Web of Life (or, diversity, variability, and integratedness) has been replaced on too large a scale by a simplistic vision that leaves out Nature’s buffer wisdom: it’s sophisticated physiological power.
After a few decades of outright destruction (poisoned and destroyed soil, statistically significant increases in human disease incidence including heightened and looming epigenetic pandemics, wild animal extinctions, etc.), however, it’s always good to see improvements made to these impoverished systems of human conceptualization. A small sampling: this is where weed rows are permitted to grow between crops, where native trees are planted on both historically cleared land (especially to reduce salinity) and former plantations, and wildlife corridors are reinstituted.
5.1.4.3 COMMERCIAL CONTRIVANCES & PREDICTABLE OUTCOMES
It should also be noted that life, commerce and technologies are dirty and complex, and are therefore over time always plagued by inevitable accidents. Pesticide spills can occur during normal spray operations that can add to the chemical burden being absorbed by the pesticide application site and extended region of potential chemical influence, spills that most people never hear of (sometimes these incidents are not reported or documented; see Endnote #5). In terms of the Bleaney/Scammell issue above:
It turned out that five weeks prior to that flood event [linked with the oyster
deaths] there had been a helicopter crash carrying pesticides and herbicides in the
upper catchment, apparently aerial spraying trees. And this was the first that
Id heard about plantations in that area. When we started to look at the size of the
plantations it became apparent that here was a very large source of potential toxic
chemical (Scammell 2010).
As well, with any commercial activity, machinery can spill fuel, oil or brake fluids during these operations, and these contaminants can migrate into streams or concrete slabs especially — but not exclusively (see Endnotes #1 and #4) — downhill from those operations.
As a matter of reminder and recommendation here (where the investigations and discoveries and repudiations of findings never really end), the essential plea in this section is the avoidance of “large acreage, fast-rotation toxic monoculture eucalypt plantations -dependant on pesticides – in our upper and mid water catchments” (TasmanianTimes.com 2011). Although the nature of the problems might not yet be absolutely certain (invisible chemicals and their sponsored imbalances require many veils to be removed in order to reveal concrete epidemiology), the certainty of destabilization of ecosystems in favor of aberrant GMO monocultures should stand as an obvious signature and self-evident warning, wherever these commercial activities have occurred, of inevitable wide-ranging ecological and human health issues arriving after the fact of the bad science stampede.
Could anyone predict the consequences of interferring with the genetics of a plantation species? Yes. You can know now (because of the internal consistency that exists within the heavy burden of after-the-fact research that swings around all our necks) that the consequences of a GMO-ANYTHING will be toxicologically negative in the EXTREME. The negative effect(s) will exist on a continuum somewhere between certain human/ecological morbidity (where even ‘minor’ morbidity is a subtraction from your or Nature’s optimal potential) and an outright parallel pandemic storm.
Endless postmortem analyses ultimately splatter from the fan (and government/industry repudiation of independent eco and human health reports) when we, as a rampantly commercial culture, surrender so utterly and unthinkingly to a glossy infatuation with interference in Nature. When we throw so many commercial invasion/development, GMO and chemical fix spanners into Nature’s works via let’s-get-rich-from-this-and-let’s-worry-about-the-effects-later types of innovation and invention (blundering), all that REPEATS over and over is the usual litany of resulting human health impacts, expensive discovery of causes, victim stress and debility, hand wringing, hired repudiation and official reversals, legalities, politics… and on and on. And yet, all this waste of energy and health potential could have been avoided if we had UTTERLY PRECAUTIOUSLY examined our thinking first before acting on bad science, and then decided we’d be smarter by not throwing the spanners at all!
In other, less discreet, words: we intelligently decided we would not technologically shit where we eat, sleep, reproduce, live, work and holiday…
5.1.4.4 THE HUMAN HEALTH BIO-TERRORISM EXPERIMENT: GMO MASTER CONSPIRACIES
The consistency of operation of a corporation tells you what its character and intentions are. Its actions are a roadmap leading to a series of destinations:
The data is startling and confirms a clear conclusion. The proliferation of untested, unregulated GM foods in the span of a decade is more a leap of faith than reliable science. Microbiologist Richard Lacey captures the risk stating: “it is virtually impossible to even conceive of a testing procedure to assess the health effects of (GM) foods when introduced into the food chain, nor is there any valid nutritional or public interest reason for their introduction.” Other scientists worldwide agree that GM foods entered the market long before science could evaluate their safety and benefits. They want a halt to this dangerous experiment that needs decades of rigorous research and testing before we can know.
Unchecked and unregulated, human health and safety are at risk because once GMOs enter the food chain, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps. Thankfully, resistance is growing worldwide, many millions are opposed, but reversing the tide won’t be easy. Washington and Ag biotech are on a roll with big unstated aims – total control of our food, making it all genetically engineered, and scheming to use it as a weapon to reward friends and punish enemies (Lendman 2014).
5.1.4.5 BACTERIAL-ENDOTOXIN TESTING
And, insofar as the existing lack of standardization in airborne endotoxin testing is concerned, the following should be carefully noted:
Some authors suggest that endotoxin exposure may be underestimated because part may be non-soluble and therefore is not detectable because it is not extracted in aqueous media.
Eduard et al.55) studied the solubility of the endotoxins from Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, determining the amount of 3-OH-FA by GC/FID in the soluble and insoluble fractions separated by centrifugation; it ranged from 9% to 83% and they suggested that the LAL test may underestimate endotoxins in environmental samples because the non-soluble fraction remains undetected.
Rylander56) suggests that the Limulus method detects only about a third of the biologically active endotoxin and that the remainder is present inside the fragments of dust particles/bacterial cells, but still able to exert effects when deposited in the lung. If substantial differences in the proportion of soluble endotoxins in different work environments is confirmed in future studies, the contribution of non- soluble endotoxins must be taken into consideration56) (Paba, et. al. 2013:249).
…plate counts are subject to error because bacteria exposed to the air may remain viable yet lose the ability to form colonies, i.e., they become viable but nonculturable. If airborne bacteria exhibit this phenomenon, colony formation data will significantly underestimate the bacterial populations in air samples. …culture techniques did not provide an adequate description of the bacterial burdens of indoor air (i.e., less than 10% of the aerosolized bacteria were capable of forming visible colonies). It is concluded that total cell count procedures provide a better approximation of the number of bacterial cells in air and that procedures other than plate counting are needed to enumerate bacteria in aerosol samples, especially if the public health quality of indoor air is to be estimated. Indoor air pollution, both bacterial and abiotic, has become a very serious concern (25). …building air is recycled through buildings, resulting in increased numbers of bacteria in the air (26, 28), with the result that ca. 10 to 25 million workers in the United States show symptoms of “sick building… (Heidelberg, et. al.:1997).
I believe that the above issues of endotoxin exposure and bacterial count under-estimation will leave initial excursions into the area of bioaerosol emanation from GMO plants favorable for those hoping that this potential, unexposed, does not add to the already long list of intrinsic GMO faults and liabilities. However, I have no doubts that later research will demonstrate that GMO bioaerosols will be seen to be contributing to Sick Building Syndrome worldwide. What might disturbingly relate to the above issue is this research, especially the CAPACITIES of “non-culturable bacterial enteropathogens” (Colwell, et. al. 1996):
Vibrio cholerae O1 can enter a state in which they remain viable but are non- culturable. Presumably, such bacteria can be pathogenic if they retain the capacity to proliferate in the human intestine following ingestion. Two groups of volunteeers were given inocula containing viable but non-culturable V. cholerae O1 of the attenuated vaccine strain CVD 101 (viable CVD 101 organisms readily colonize the human intestine). Volunteers in one of the two groups excreted viable CVD 101, demonstrating that, in the environment of the human intestine, previously non-culturable vibrios can regain the capacity to multiply. These observations support the proposition that viable but non-culturable bacterial enteropathogens may pose a potential threat to health (ibid.).
And, although the immediately above relates to waterborne pathogens, I see potential for pathogenic bio-aerosols (including non-culturable live bacteria, and not just endotoxins; and one should also not forget the pollen component of Primary Biological Aerosol Particels (PBAP) with high allergenic potential (Pöhlker, et. al. 2013)) from GMO plants to:
1. be inhaled by animals and humans,
2. be underestimated in enumeration,
3. remain somewhat latent inside human hosts (where the bacteria could also ultimately migrate between organ systems).
None of this is good news for GMO .
The KEY POINT is: “Life finds a way” (Jurassic Park, 1993). And the “life” modern GMO science makes is monsters, morbidity and extinctions.
5.1.4.6 BRIEF: PLANTATIONS & ASTHMA
I have left out of the following quoted material information regarding other natural irritants for asthma, of which there are many. In this study the natural chemicals emitted from pine trees produce human health issues. Note:
New Zealand’s incidence of asthma is similar to Australia’s…
New Zealand logging has been a well established industry for more than a century because of the rich endowment of large trees with valuable timber. Planted forests account for 1.7 million hectares and most of it is radiata pine which provide a steady source of pinene and sesquiterpenes as well at flowering time especially. One third of the planted forests are in the central north island.
Figure 6.01 shows a map of high asthma areas…
The areas in the North Island correspond with the forestry areas especially (Gibbs 2006:267-268).
What I wish to highlight here is that you cannot logically expect to get away with the monoculture paradigm without incurring a raft of penalties. We have seen that the invasion of Nature can generate many critically serious problems in terms of disease and even pandemic potential. And this is even without the introduction of GMO plants into the overall unexamined and stampeding mix of perverse human development disasters. And then, when we push this presumptuous envelope further to include:
1. chemically dependent monocultures (see below), with this approach to agriculture and forestry being representative of an extreme corporate demand for technological fix control (denying the truism that “you cannot fix problems with the same mentality that created them” — Einstein paraphrase) and concentration of earning potential, and
2. the additional monumentally ignorant rush for assumed genetic superiority…
…all we are doing is hosting a feverish obsession in the impossible (one that controls US), and all we can accomplish from this is THE USUAL: a passing train wreck of nonsense experimentation that hopes for what it cannot possibly have.
5.2 ECOLOGICAL RAPE & POLITICS
The politics of the matter:
A photograph in a brochure of the important South Esk catchment vividly illustrates part of what is happening in Tasmania’s water catchments.1 The surrounding terrain was cable logged of all vegetation and a plantation of young eucalyptus established that is regularly sprayed with known harm-causing chemicals. These chemicals inevitably enter the water supply. This same brochure reveals:
In the last four years alone, these rivers have been contaminated with poisonous
pesticides: the Duck, Inglis, Bird, Jordan, Montagu, Prosser, Rubicon, South Esk,
George, Little Swanport, Macquarie, Great Forrester, Brumby Creek, Derwent and Liffey
…forestry plantations are now growing in 44 of the States 48 water catchments.
…Water testing by our state government is done sporadically and pesticide detections
rarely result in investigations to find their source
Poisoning water supplies and destruction of soil quality because of chemically dependent monoculture plantations needs to be stopped, as does the continued slaughter of our native forests. The health of people in Tasmania is subject to unreasonable risk by virtue of toxins in our water.2 Yet a Government report cleared the George River (at St Helens) of any toxins, eliciting this response from Dr.Lohrey: ‘This is one of the most dubious reports I have read in a long time. It appears to have been written and made public with one aim in mind – to stifle community debate about water quality in the George River.’3 (Bound, Biggs & Obendorf 2012).
6.0 PESTICIDES’ MISAPPROPRIATED DESTINATIONS: SPRAY DRIFT & MIGRATION
6.1 DRIFT
Once released into the environment, only with extreme difficulty and great expense can these exotic and highly toxic herbicide chemicals and their often more toxic (and all-too-often, UNKNOWN) metabolites be monitored or tracked (lab tests are expensive, and will not necessarily identify all chemical culprits). And, further, most of the herbicide chemical ultimately wastefully and dangerously passes by its target plant:
95% – 98% of applied pesticides miss their target, reaching nearby people and wildlife, waterways, soil and air (Miller G.T., 2004).
Pesticides uniformly end up elsewhere (usually where we are and beyond…) via spray drift or “volatilization drift” (Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pesticide-drift). For example:
“Atrazine can be transported more than 1,000 km (621 miles) from the point of application via rainfall and, as a result, contaminates otherwise pristine habitats, even in remote areas where it is not used,” they [researchers and colleagues from the University of California Berkeley] added, citing other researchers.
“In fact, more than a half million pounds (227 tonnes) of atrazine are precipitated in rainfall each year in the United States” (Fox 2010).
Also, from Australia:
We have been impacted by Plantation aerial spraying a cocktail of chemicals and have Simazine (“A pre-emergence, translocated, root absorbed soil-residual herbicide” [Source: http://www.herbiguide.com.au/Descriptions/hg_Simazine_Flowable_500.htm%5D) in our farms water supply 3 years after the event… Authorities do not enforce the laws and the regulators (APVMA) allow chemical use without stipulating MRL. In our case we find Simazine has no maximum residue level in soil. Water limits are also not clearly defined, eg. 10ppb for catttle 20ppb for humans. Yet in America the limit is 4ppb. Its all a bit hit and miss, and we agree with your articles that we will destroy the earth with chemical poisoning before climate change does, Although we suspect chemical pollution will assist climate change to act faster’ (Anonymous post made to my poisonedpeople1 WordPress account, 2014).
And following up after the above comment, an email:
Recent chemical testing by EPA confirms Simazine (banned for use in Agriculture in the EU) is still flowing off the plantation and through our property albeit [in] low levels (ibid.).
Plantation owners beware. You are leaving yourselves open to litigation if you cannot control the trespass of your chemicals! Note:
Most sprayed plantations lead to pesticide pollution of neighbouring streams. Is the plantation owner accountable for this pollution, or is the spraying contractor or the pesticide manufacturer responsible?…
In September 2012, a contractor aerially spraying over Hancock pine plantations in central Victoria [Australia] was fined $10,000 for spray drift which spread over 200 hectares of neighbouring King Lake National Park and Black Ranges State Forest. The spray event occurred over a 10 day period in April 2010 over lands adjoining several plantations. The vegetation that suffered from the spray drift was recovering from the 2009 bushfires which devastated much of the region. It has since been determined that eucalypts that regenerate after bushfires are far more sensitive to the herbicide glyphosate than previously realised.
Who is ultimately accountable for a spray incident that goes wrong in an FSC certified operation? Hancock themselves were not fined but the contractor working for them was.
If a spray contractor follows current label rates for glyphosate, this may be far more toxic in fire damaged landscapes than previously realised. Will glyphosate labels now have to be amended to incorporate this new possibility? (Amis 2013).
Aerial spraying:
It is too early to tell how extensive the problem will be, but I have looked at several cases involving several hundred acres each. In some, the pilot could not believe the herbicide behaved in the manner that it did. In others, the ground applicator believed the setup he was running would not result in drift under any conditions…
In a couple of the situations I have looked at already, the drift produced symptoms for 2 miles. The applicator has a good reputation and during the time the applications were made, it was not particularly windy. The applications were made over wet soil…
I will remind everyone again of several things. First, there is a 10-mph wind restriction on most glyphosate applications this year.
Second, you cannot blow it toward rice — it will go farther than you think. It does not have to be very windy for it to go a mile or more from an aerial application — especially over a wet soil.
Third, even if you are running air induction tips and low drift in a ground rig, you cannot apply it adjacent to a susceptible crop with the wind blowing across the susceptible crop (Baldwin 2007).
Spray drift damaging a neighbor’s crops?
I’ll tell you how bad one situation was. The farmer and I were looking at his fields, and I was afraid he was going to cry. I knew if he did that I would so I jokingly asked if he were a “drinking man.”He said, “Yes, as a matter of fact I have a couple of warm ones in the back. “His fields looked so bad they made a hot beer actually taste good! (Baldwin 2006).
Drift and migration?
The origin of pesticides detected at the control sites situated within sub-catchments containing land uses not likely to use certain pesticides is unknown. The movement of pesticides is not limited to downstream, as aerial or groundwater drift can potentially transport pesticides upstream or across sub-catchments (Mossop, et. al. 2013:6).
This is scary. What does the above REALLY say? That chemical herbidides are a BAD IDEA and technology from top to bottom and left to right and inside out. The concept of synthetic pesticides represents absolute rubbish science, and it is an affront to human intelligence that so much research goes into analyzing the drift, migration and damage caused by these obscene toxins. Look at what we have to deal with:
The source of phenoxy herbicides at control sites is unclear… (ibid.:49).
Metalaxyl was also detected in low concentrations at the two least pristine potato farming control sites. Potential sources for this are aerial drift or application within the catchment for a non-potato use… (ibid.:48).
The presence of oxychlordane, a metabolite of the banned organochlorine chlordane, is likely to be a legacy of past use in the catchment… (ibid.:49).
The source of tebuconazole in Middle Creek is unknown, though given it can be administered via spraying, there is some potential for aerial drift into the catchment… (ibid.).
The product can be applied through boom or aerial spraying, which could have resulted in aerial drift from a neighbouring catchment into Middle Creek. Alternatively, there is potential for simazine to be transported via groundwater. The process of groundwater movement is generally quite slow, often resulting in long lag times of movement following application. When in groundwater, the half-life of simazine is increased and can be in the order of years (Comber 1999). The source of simazine in Middle Creek requires further investigation (ibid.).
Nickel was also found to be elevated at several sites in the potato farming study area, particularly at the impact sites, however it is not considered to have a high toxicity. The exact source for nickel is unknown, however it may be a natural occurrence. The ISQG guideline for nickel is considered conservative, with samples across the state often exceeding the trigger values (CAPIM, unpublished data). Similarly, the source for isolated exceedences of cadmium, chromium and antimony is unknown, however these are considered to be of low concern (ibid.:50).
Of low concern? I beg to differ: Nickel toxicity: “Nickel (Ni)is a nasty toxic metal and a known carcinogen. It is one of the metals we see most commonly in toxicity tests. It appears stuck onto DNA, stuck on to translocator protein and is often present in blood at high levels. Nickel is a problem because it “looks” like zinc…” (drmyhill.co.uk 2012).
Cadmium toxicity: “Cadmium and its compounds are highly toxic and exposure to this metal is known to cause cancer and targets the body’s cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, reproductive, and respiratory systems” (www.osha.gov, No date).
Chromium toxicity: “Major factors governing the toxicity of chromium compounds are oxidation state and solubility. Cr(VI) compounds, which are powerful oxidizing agents and thus tend to be irritating and corrosive, appear to be much more toxic systemically than Cr(III) compounds, given similar amounts and solubilities. Although mechanisms of biological interaction are uncertain, this variation in toxicity may be related to the ease with which Cr(VI) can pass through cell membranes and its subsequent intracellular reduction to reactive intermediates” (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ 2008). Cr(VI) was the subject of the movie Erin Brokovich.
Antimony toxicity: “Antimony potassium tartrate… Very hazardous in case of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation. Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (permeator). Severe over-exposure can result in death” (ScienceLab.com 2013).
Also: “Industrial chemical and pesticide. Has been used as an anti-parasitic drug… The most toxic trivalent antimony compound. A potent emetic. Ingestion of 0.2 g has been reported to be fatal (Miller, 1982)…” (inchem.org, No date)
6.2 CHEMICAL MIGRATION INTO WATER PIPES
And, further to the above-listed damage to the environment and human health: Pesticides can migrate through plastic water piping (http://www.health.qld.gov.au/ph/documents/ehu/15078.pdf; see: Endnote #4). Pesticides can infiltrate metal joints in water pipes (as petrol does when it leaks from underground storage at petrol stations, contaminating nearby water pipes in residences), and often can be transported into residential living spaces via water vapour moving in from external locations through the micro-pores and fractures in residential concrete slabs:
Baroghel-Bouny (1994) among others showed that water transport occurs in porous cementitious materials through different modes: vapor diffusion, liquid water and air pressure driven transports (Lamour, Haouas & Moranville 2004).
6.3 CHEMICAL MIGRATION INTO & THROUGH BUILDINGS
If you understand that residential concrete is very porous and will draw water from all surrounding areas as well as from below the slab. If this migrating water or moisture passes through any chemicals it will be carried up in to the home to be evaporated into the air (Source: Nelson, C. 2004, Email from admin@concretesealers.com).
It is literally a matter of water vapor picking up the pesticide and then diffusing through the slab into the living space of the residence (house, unit or villa) above the slab. Note also McGrath (2000) who shows that large amounts of water can move through concrete (even apparently dry concrete) in a vapor, gaseous or dissolved ion state (in any direction, depending on flow direction dynamics set up by cooling and heating cycles) from a region of high concentration or high chemical potential through to low concentration or low chemical potential via diffusion. McGrath clearly shows that concrete cannot keep out any chemical contaminant unless it is specially treated:
On the largest scale water or chemicals may move through cracks, rock pockets, construction joints and other large defects or joints in the concrete structure. This scale of flow is of primary importance with respect to “waterproofing” and involves keeping water out or in… (McGrath 2000).
It is therefore clear that chemicals can be transported through concrete in either a liquid or vapor form. The back section of our current House is on a concrete slab and will be available to any chemical applied nearby (and, note too, that “nearby” becomes much farther away when even the minutest amounts of chemicals load a chemical sensitive individual with what he ‘needs’ to go into toxic shock). Ultimately the perpetual dangers of pesticide migration and the subsequent contamination of structures and pipes clearly shows that herbicide applications demonstrate a clear lack of immediate and long-term worth (acute poisoning, longer-term and cumulative poisoning, potential toxic shock, and disastrous epigenetic implications for future generations), are inherently wasteful and represent dangerously obscene, short-term technological fix weed eradication concepts working unsustainably against critical long-term soil health and human health and reproductive imperatives.
7.0 HERBICIDE RESISTANT WEEDS
Herbicide-resistant weeds are on the rise. There are at least 6 glyphosate resistant weeds in Australia now (Annual Ryegrass, Barnyard Grass, Fleabane, Great Brome, Liverseed Grass, & Windmill Grass [Source: http://glyphosateresistance.org.au/GRARG%20Register.pdf%5D), and well over a dozen in the US. Note that: “nearly half (49%) of all US farmers said they had “glyphosate resistant weeds” on their farms in 2012…” (Source: http://www.news24.com/Green/News/US-superweeds-epidemic-implicates-GMOs-20140113). However, the above notes may be inaccurate:
No-Till Farmer, May 2012 reported, “..at least 21 varieties of glyphosate-resistant weeds have been identified in the U.S.” and “Between 2005 and 2010, the resistance problem mushroomed, with some Midwestern states reporting millions of acres of glyphosate-resistant weeds, mostly marestail and waterhemp.” Worldwide the concern is greater with 357 biotypes and 197 species of weeds now reported resistant to glyphosate. (http://www.weedscience.org/In.asp) (Andersen 2013)
8.0 MEGA-PROBLEMS (INCLUDING PESTICIDE TOTAL TOXICITY), REFRAMING FORESTRY & ALTERNATIVE WEED ERADICATION METHODS
8.1 FIRST, A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHAT REALLY NEEDS TO BE ERADICATED: GLYPHOSATE HERBICIDES’ TOXICITY, PERSISTENCE & MOBILITY
8.1.1 CHEMICAL TOXICITY & PANDEMICS
Alternatives to toxic herbicides need to be found in order to reduce poisoning, injury, suffering and debility, and legal nightmares that ventilate all manner of legal and judicial unethical tactics, discrimination, and corruption. Further, the herbicide-mediated destruction of critical soil reserves (and, ultimately, crop productivity) worldwide is a trend leading into famine scenarios. Note that Roundup and other herbicides also kill off desirable microbial populations while perversely enhancing the reproductivity of pathogenic microbial populations in soil. Critically:
…the actual “kill” mechanism of the “herbicide” glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, comes from soil borne pathogens promoted by glyphosate after killing the beneficial microbial competitors and weakening the plant’s immune system (Andersen 2013; quote source: http://cabecahealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/FoodPlaguePrimer.pdf; accessed: 25 Jan. 2014). See Endnote #6.
…evidence began to emerge in the 1980s that “what glyphosate does is, essentially, give a plant AIDS.” Just like AIDS, which cripples a human’s immune system, glyphosate makes plants unable to mount a defense against pathogens in the soil. Without its defense mechanisms functioning, the plants succumb to pathogens in the soil and die. Furthermore, glyphosate has an impact on microorganisms in the soil, helping some and hurting others. This is potentially problematic for farmers, as the last thing one would want is a buildup of pathogens in the soil where they grow crops.
…Huber says these facts about glyphosate are very well known scientifically but rarely cited. When asked why, he replied that it would be harder for a company to get glyphosate approved for widespread use if it were known that the product could increase the severity of diseases on normal crop plants as well as the weeds it was intended to kill. Here in the U.S., many academic journals are not even interested in publishing studies that suggest this about glyphosate…
If Huber’s claims are true, then it follows that there must be problems with disease in crops where glyphosate is used. Huber’s second letter verifies this, saying, “we are experiencing a large number of problems in production agriculture in the U.S. that appear to be intensified and sometimes directly related to genetically engineered (GMO) crops, and/or the products they were engineered to tolerate — especially those related to glyphosate (the active chemical in Roundup® herbicide and generic versions of this herbicide).”
He continues, saying, “We have witnessed a deterioration in the plant health of corn, soybean, wheat and other crops recently with unexplained epidemics of sudden death syndrome of soybean (SDS), Goss’ wilt of corn, and take-all of small grain crops the last two years. At the same time, there has been an increasing frequency of previously unexplained animal (cattle, pig, horse, poultry) infertility and [miscarriages]. These situations are threatening the economic viability of both crop and animal producers (Richardson 2011 [I heavily recommend reading this article]).
And, more generally:
Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide, is destroying human and animal health as a result of disruption of gut bacteria. Two key problems caused by glyphosate in the diet are nutritional deficiencies, especially minerals and essential amino-acids, and systemic toxicity…
An increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and autism has been reported in Scotland. Similar increases have been seen globally. The herbicide glyphosate was introduced in 1974 and its use is accelerating. The manufacturers claim it to be safe, but none of the Regulatory Agencies are monitoring glyphosate levels in groundwater. By courtesy of independent researchers around the world we present evidence that glyphosate interferes with many metabolic processes in plants, animals and humans, and glyphosate residues have been found in all three. Glyphosate is an endocrine-disruptor (as are many herbicides) it damages DNA and it is a driver of mutations that lead to cancer. We present graphs from the US which correlate glyphosate application and the percentage of GE soy and corn crops to the incidence and prevalence of various diseases in those on a Western diet. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients are very strong and highly significant for obesity, diabetes, autism, thyroid cancer, liver cancer, deaths from Parkinson’s, Senile Dementia and Alzheimer’s, inflammatory bowel disease and acute kidney failure. We present Cancer Research UK graphs of upward trends in cancer incidences between 1975 and 2009, which are in line with the US graphs. Other consequences are gastrointestinal disorders, heart disease, depression, infertility, birth defects and other cancers (Mason 2013:2,1).
Further to this issue of cancer in the journal article titled “Cytotoxic and DNA-damaging properties of glyphosate and Roundup in human-derived buccal epithelial cells”:
Comparisons with results of earlier studies with lymphocytes and cells from internal organs indicate that epithelial cells are more susceptible to the cytotoxic and DNA- damaging properties of the herbicide and its formulation. Since we found genotoxic effects after short exposure to concentrations that correspond to a 450-fold dilution of spraying used in agriculture, our findings indicate that inhalation may cause DNA damage in exposed individuals (Koller, Fürhacker, Nersesyan, Mišík, Eisenbauer & Knasmueller 2012:805-813).
This clearly shows that concepts/regulations/laws/protocols that posit or hypothesize safety for human health below a specific concentration for ANY orthodox pesticide/herbicide/synthetic chemical are patently INCOMPETENT. Roundup is advanced by Monsanto as being very safe. Monsanto even described Roundup as being as safe as salt, however: “In 1996 New York State’s Attorney General sued Monsanto for describing Roundup as “environmentally friendly” and “safe as table salt.” Monsanto, while not admitting any wrongdoing, agreed to stop using the terms for promotional purposes and paid New York state $250,000 to settle the suit” (Graves 2011; see: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/fraud.pdf). And yet in extremely diluted form, as shown above, Roundup has been found to clearly NOT be safe. This new appreciation of the likely levels of morbidity that could and do occur with exposure (note that you generally get sick on a continuum before you die, so death is always a possibility after initial poisoning) that was FORMERLY classified as “safe” does not even begin to address:
• multiple individual exposures to different chemicals (additive effects),
• exposures occurring over extended time,
• synergistic effects within those multiple exposures, over time (greater than the sum of the individual exposure effects),
• a second substance increasing an effect generated through a first exposure substance (a bit like an enzyme), but not causal itself (Note: “Unfortunately, few chemicals have been tested to determine if interactions occur with other chemicals” [HESIS 2008]),
• Tiny exposures adversely affecting those with MCS.
• Genetic AND epigentic effects from exposure
On the last point, note:
In vitro, animal, and human investigations have identified several classes of pesticides that modify epigenetic marks, including endocrine disruptors, persistent organic pollutants, arsenic, several herbicides and insecticides. Several investigations have examined the effects of environmental exposures and epigenetic markers, and identified toxicants that modify epigenetic states. These modifications are similar to the ones found in pathological tissue samples (Collotta, Bertazzi & Bollati 2013).
There were significant increases in the incidence of total diseases in animals from pesticide lineage F1 and F3 generation animals. Pubertal abnormalities, testis disease, and ovarian disease (primordial follicle loss and polycystic ovarian disease) were increased in F3 generation animals. Analysis of the pesticide lineage F3 generation sperm epigenome identified 363 differential DNA methylation regions (DMR) termed epimutations. Observations demonstrate that a pesticide mixture (permethrin and DEET) can promote epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of adult onset disease and potential sperm epigenetic biomarkers for ancestral environmental exposures (Manikkam, Tracey, Guerrero-Bosagna & Skinner 2012).
Our conflictual pursuit of profit at any unexamined cost has left unfathomable damage in its wake. And the new toxicology is helping to devastatingly reveal how utterly vulnerable we are to the least amounts of synthetic chemicals we splash around. What we now know is that WE ARE ALWAYS POISONING OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN WITH THE CHEMICALS WE USE. What the following quote shows is that we now cannot stop poisoning future generations and that continually unfolding incidences of adult onset Russian Roulette disease will tragically appear without warning in lives that may not have sustained specific and notably heavy toxic exposures within their experience:
Environmental factors during fetal development can induce a permanent epigenetic change in the germ line (sperm) that then transmits epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset disease in the absence of any subsequent exposure (Manikkam, Guerrero-Bosagna, Tracey, Haque & Skinner 2012).
Back to glyphosate generally:
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body (Samsel & Seneff 2013).
Trees engineered to resist glyphosate-based herbicides (e.g. RoundUp) also pose a threat. Charles Benbrook found use of glyphosate-resistant crops resulting in 300-600% increases in the use of the herbicide. Studies in Oregon found that glyphosate exposure significantly increased the risk of late term spontaneous abortions and De Roos and other authors found an association between glyphosate use and the cancers non- Hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
RoundUp is known to persist for up to 360 days in some ecosystems, and is commonly found as a contaminant in rivers. Additionally, studies have found that inhaling RoundUp is much more dangerous than ingesting it orally. RoundUp is commonly sprayed from the air where it can drift into nearby communities (Global Justice Ecology Project, et. al. No date).
Rampaging immune dysfunction in humans is a silent pandemic. But that story is only the tip of the iceberg. Crops and plantations that have not been sprayed or which have not been sprayed for a significant period are not exempt from glyphosate and other pesticide contamination arising from other locations. These are points of origin for herbicide drift and new disease outbreaks which could generate, over time, cumulative SATELLITE herbicide dynamics, including immune function retardation, leading to either quick satellite infection or satellite threshold breaches and consequent individual and local disease outbreaks. Note:
There are fundamental differences in the way chemical pesticides are used by the Australian plantation industry compared to agriculture. Use in plantations is usually confined to the first two years of a plantation crop cycle (for example a 10-year crop cycle for pulpwood or a 30-year crop cycle for softwood sawlogs); for the rest of the life of the plantation pesticide application is very limited and generally only occurs in reaction to pest or disease outbreaks (Jenkin & Tomkins 2006).
I believe that the “only occurs in reaction to pest or disease outbreaks” (ibid.) pesticide application dynamic will become more and more common as the general ecological strata of the planetary Web of Life achieves more damage and destabilization. Plant, animal, fungal and human disease outbreaks will increase, which will then see quick and heavy emergency appeals to mass medication (e.g. vaccination) and pesticide fixes, but these responses will only further retard overall global lifeform immune function. This represents an accelerating and broad ‘nuclear explosion’ of chemical interventions as authorities are called in to respond and treat more and more disease outbreaks with the same mentality that created them. As such, the chemical interventions are based on old and patently wrong notions that drugs/chemicals and modern medical care have improved human life expectancy:
In all, 86 per cent of the increased life expectancy was due to decreases in infectious diseases. And the bulk of the decline in infectious disease deaths occurred prior to the age of antibiotics. Less than 4 per cent of the total improvement in life expectancy since 1700s can be credited to twentieth-century advances in medical care (Garrett 2001).
My very great concern here is that human, animal and plant immune dysfunction occurring now, EVERYWHERE on the back of industrial pollution and GMO contamination, has established a global web of ecological destabilization and infection susceptibility, leading to what is now unavoidable: massive, ocean-jumping inflammatory pandemic certainties. Note:
…the globalization of trade has substantially expanded markets for industrial pollution” (Davis & Stainthorpe 2002:65).
…author Laurie Garrett discusses the outbreak of Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever in Machupo, as mice were discovered to be the transmitters of the disease. Garrett points out, however, that the infrastructure of the area, decimated by industrialization, played an important role in the increase in the mice population…” (BookRags.com 2014a)
In the Preface, Johnathan Mann of the Harvard School of Public Health discusses how our time in history will be tracked by newly emerging epidemics, such as the human immunodeficiency virus. The vulnerability of the world is increased due to modern travel, huge populations, trading of goods and services, and simply the penetration of modern society into even the most remote areas of the world (BookRags.com 2014b).
The “filoviruses”:
It is the human slate-wiper, the invisible ultimate death, the filovirus named Ebola…
It leaves one to think that Mother Nature will have her revenge on those who make a mockery of her… perhaps the human race, as well, which is destroying the very loins that gave birth to us, the African rain forest.
Are Ebola, and the other filoviruses, antibodies against the “human virus” that is swiftly and thoughtlessly destroying Mother Earth? Are these viruses the “check” on the human K-species that we have been expecting?
Ebola is a deadly virus to humans and primates, and its origin has yet to be uncovered. There is no cure for any of the Ebola sisters: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Marburg, and the most recent Ebola Reston because of their mutation ability. As for there being a solution to the problem, it may lay in the reduction in human interference in nature and destruction of our own universe or perhaps the end of the species that has become such a nuisance to Nature. Scientists, perhaps, should make developers and loggers aware of such consequences, before its too late (Preston 1992).
These monstrous, acute pandemic scenarios go way beyond the scale of the ‘silent’ epidemics that are already horribly resident:
Pesticide exposures seem to give rise to Parkinson’s (REHN #635) – a horrible degenerative disease of the nervous system. Pesticide exposures diminish children’s memory, physical stamina, coordination, and [the] ability to carry out simple tasks like drawing a stick figure of a human being. (See REHN #648.) Pesticide exposures seem to make children more aggressive. Pesticide exposures seem to contribute to the epidemic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD) that has swept through U.S. children in recent years. (See REHN #678.) (Montague 2001)
Additionally:
Indeed, according to Dr. Seneff, glyphosate is possibly “the most important factor in the development of multiple chronic diseases and conditions that have become prevalent in Westernized societies,”including but not limited to: Autism Allergies Cancer Parkinson’s disease Cardiovascular disease Infertility Multiple sclerosis Obesity Depression Alzheimer’s disease Gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, colitis and Crohn’s disease ALS, and more
The rate of autism has risen so quickly, there can be no doubt that it has an environmental cause. Our genes simply cannot mutate fast enough to account for the rapid rise we’re now seeing. The latest statistics released by the CDC on March 20 show that 1 in 50 children in the US now fall within the autism spectrum2,3, with a 5:1 boy to girl ratio. Just last year [2013] the CDC reported a rate of 1 in 88, which represented a 23 percent increase since 2010, and 78 percent since 2007. Meanwhile, I remember when the incidence of autism in the US was only 1 in 100,000— just short of 30 years ago! (Mercola 2013)
And, if there was another classification available in terms of “pandemic”, then it would have to be this:
…In a breakthrough moment of truth for the CDC, the agency now openly admits that prescription antibiotics have led to a catastrophic rise in superbugs, causing the death of at least 23,000 Americans each year (an estimate even the CDC calls “conservative”).
This is the conclusion of the CDC’s new Threat Report 2013 [http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/], a document that for the first time quantifies the number of fatalities happening in America due to antibiotic- resistant superbugs.
What’s truly astonishing about this report is that it admits, in effect, that modern medicine is a failure when it comes to infectious disease. The whole approach of fighting bugs with isolated chemicals was doomed to fail from the start, of course, since Mother Nature adapts to chemical threats far more quickly than drug companies can roll out new chemicals…
…due to the disastrous failure of antibiotics combined with the widespread suppression of human immune function (due to drugs, heavy metals, environmental chemicals and more), superbug deaths will quickly accelerate, reaching 100,000 deaths per year by 2020, nearly rivaling the number of Americans already killed each year by FDA-approved prescription medications (Adams 2013).
And, what happens when superbugs are already resident in the hospital that you need to visit?
“To reiterate,” says Brad Spellberg of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, “these people come into the hospital for a heart attack, or cancer, or trauma after a car accident, or to have elective surgery, or with some other medical problem and then ended up dying of infection that they picked up in the hospital. The number of people who die from hospital-acquired infections is unquestionably much higher now, and is almost certainly more than 100,000 per year in the United States alone” (Buhner 2012).
It is as if we are being purposefully set up for the PERFECT (plant/animal/human) disease STORM, worldwide. And the endless analyses/studies and justification for the continued use of toxic medications (instead of herbal alternatives) and toxic pesticides (instead of non-toxic alternatives) goes on, and on, and on. We are literally “monitoring our own extinction” (Prof. Stuart Hill [University of Western Sydney], 1999, pers. comm.).
8.1.2 CHEMICAL PERSISTENCE & MOBILITY
Note the literature on glyphosate persistence and mobility:
The experimental findings, combined with transport studies on other strongly sorbing pesticides in the literature, support the hypothesis that transport of glyphosate may be caused by an interaction of high rainfall events shortly after application on wet soils showing the presence of preferential flow paths (Vereecken 2005).
…glyphosate leaching seems mainly determined by soil structure and rainfall. Limited leaching has been observed in non-structured sandy soils, while subsurface leaching to drainage systems was observed in a structured soil with preferential flow in macropores, but only when high rainfall followed glyphosate application (Borggaard & Gimsing 2008).
…urban populations are more at risk from [glyphosate] run-off from roads and from spraying of noxious weeds in, or close to, streams (Mason 2013:22).
This is one of the few works related to the analysis of glyphosate in real groundwater samples and the presented data confirm that, although it has low mobility in soils, glyphosate is capable of reaching groundwater (Sanchis, et. al. 2012).
We conclude that phosphate application can cause system pH change with various extents in the soil, which subsequently contribute to glyphosate mobility in different degree (Zhao, et. al. 2009).
Weekly air particle and rain samples were collected during two growing seasons in agricultural areas in Mississippi and Iowa. Rain was also collected in Indiana. The frequency of glyphosate detection ranged from 60 to 100 percent in both air and rain. “According to the report, as linked on the website Green Med Info:
“The frequency of detection and median and maximum concentrations of glyphosate in air were similar or greater to those of the other high-use herbicides observed in the Mississippi River basin, whereas its concentration in rain was greater than the other herbicides” (Disponible en Español 2011).
There is limited experimental evidence of either root to root transfer or true soil residual uptake of glyphosate. It is assumed that all cases of potato seed contamination with glyphosate are due to foliar uptake in the mother crop. • Contamination of the mother stock may be due to:
* Spray-tank or -line contamination with glyphosate due to poor washing out. * Drift from use in neighbouring crops or other vegetation (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2008).
ALTON, Iowa — The puny, yellow corn stalks stand like weary sentries on one boundary of Dennis Von Arb’s field here.
On a windy day this spring, his neighbor sprayed glyphosate on his fields, and some of the herbicide blew onto Mr. Von Arb’s conventionally grown corn, killing the first few rows.
He’s more concerned, though, about the soil. During heavy rains in the summer, the runoff from his neighbor’s farm soaked his fields with glyphosate-laden water (Strom 2013).
Recent studies have cast important questions over the extent to which glyphosate is immobile in soil. One such study has shown that glyphosate can readily desorb from soil particles in some soil types and can be highly mobile in the soil environment” (Buffin & Jewell 2001:15-16).
The use of glyphosate in forestry and agriculture has indirect harmful effects on birds and small mammals by damaging their food supplies and habitat… Roundup containing POEA is lethal to the tadpoles of three species of tree and ground frogs in Australia. The Australian government has banned the use of these products near water… Sub-lethal doses of glyphosate from spray-drift damages wildflower communities and can affect some species up to 20 metres away from the sprayer… The use of glyphosate in arable areas causes dieback in hedgerow trees… Glyphosate residues were found in lettuce, carrot and barley when they were planted a year after glyphosate was applied… In the UK, levels of glyphosate above the EU limit have been detected by the Welsh Water Company every year since 1993. The Drinking Water Inspectorate recommends that glyphosate be monitored, particularly in areas where it is used by local authorities on hard surfaces…
In the field, long persistence of glyphosate has been observed in a number of studies. AMPA has been found to be even more persistent than glyphosate, with a half life in soil between 119 and 958 days7. In water, glyphosate has a long persistence in sediments. Records of glyphosate persistence include47: • 249 days on Finnish agricultural soils. • between 259 and 296 days on eight Finnish forestry sites. • between one and three years on 11 Swedish forestry sites. • 335 days on a Canadian forestry site. • 360 days on three Canadian forestry sites. • two Canadian studies found glyphosate persisted 12 to 60 days in pond water following direct application • glyphosate residues in pond sediment were found 400 days after direct application with the formulation Accord • glyphosate was found to persist for more than one year in studies of pond sediments in the US • studies in Norway have detected glyphosate in surface and ground waters48 (ibid.:1- 2;15-16).
Glyphosate… Persists and accumulates in soils and plants with a half-life reported to be 22.5 years”(Advanced Biological Concepts, No date).
In Hawaiian sugarcane soils, glyphosate was broken down by half in times varying from 18 days to 22.8 years (54) (Julius 2002:7).
The PERSISTENCE of glyphosate (and its consequent buildup over repeated sprayings) is supported:
Glyphosate has a reputation of being nontoxic to animals and rapidly inactivated in soils. However, recent evidence has cast doubts on its safety. Glyphosate may be retained and transported in soils, and there may be cascading effects on nontarget organisms. These processes may be especially detrimental in northern ecosystems because they are characterized by long biologically inactive winters and short growing seasons…
…studies on herbicide residues in boreal environments have demonstrated that glyphosate and the main metabolite of glyphosate degradation, 2-amino-3-(5-methyl-3- oxo-1,2-oxazol-4-yl)propanoic acid (AMPA), can be traced from soils even years after the last spraying [15,17,18]…
…the effects on nontarget organisms are likely to be more pronounced and long lasting in northern ecosystems because of increasing use of herbicides in forestry and agriculture, as well as the cold climate comprising a challenge to glyphosate degradation in the soil. The global issues are analogous to those of excessive use of antibiotics: we must avoid the loss of the long-term efficacy of the world’s most important herbicide (Helander, Saloniemi & Saikkonen 2012:1-2, 5).
Note that this issue will automatically result in a gradual buildup of glyphosate and AMPA over the years. It appears that a “tipping point” or threshold will eventually be breached in treated soils, thus bringing about the stated problems according to Prof. Huber above. And while low volume and concentration applications of glyphosate product might not immediately generate overt and measurable soil microbial issues, a gradual buildup or an undiluted spill of herbicide could do MUCH more:
…a high concentration of glyphosate (100 x field rate) simulating an undiluted chemical spill substantially altered the bacterial community in both soils. Increases in total bacteria, culturable bacteria, and bacterial:fungal biomass were rapid following application. Culturable bacteria increased from about 1% of the total population in untreated soil to as much as 25% at the high concentration by day 7, indicating enrichment of generalist bacteria. Community composition in both soils shifted from fungal dominance to an equal ratio of bacteria to fungi. Functional diversity of culturable bacteria, estimated by C substrate utilization, also increased at the high glyphosate concentration… Apparently the herbicide resulted in an across-the-board stimulation of bacteria… (Ratcliff, Busse & Shestak 2005).
What must be ELIMINATED now is “the destructive and water-poisoning monoculture plantations that have caused so much damage to the water table, to water supplies, and to public health already” (Bound, Biggs & Obendorf 2012). What is NEEDED now is “Forestry reform that acknowledges and values bio-diverse regeneration forestry plantations, that mimic the distribution and ecology of native forests and that not rely on toxic chemicals for their health and growth… The ENGOs must… rule out monocultures. That is basic” (ibid.). Further:
There is a place for replanting bio-diverse regeneration native forests that seek as far as is possible to restore and grow healthy forests approaching their original conformation. This type of forestry is an entirely different kettle of fish to the chemically dependent monoculture plantations of trees that develop poisonous leaves and are bred to be pulped. Bio-diverse regeneration forests are self-regulatory but they are not considered the foundation of a sustainable timber industry because:
Providing companion plantings that deter pests, plus a tolerance of a low level of pests, were all part of a tried-and-true method of control that long predated the war on nature. The trouble was that corporations couldn’t make money from these approaches. With the illusion of a quick and permanent fix, the pesticide companies had set us on a cataclysmic course.9
In other words, giant corporations are determined to make money regardless of the social and ecological costs. Put this with Mike Bolan’s above exposure of the pulp and paper industry [see: http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/article/clean-water-needs-revised-forestry- operations] and we see the explanation for Tasmania’s water problems (ibid.).
8.1.3 OTHER HERBICIDES: PESTICIDE TOXICITY, MOBILITY & CONTAMINATION
And, what of the toxicity and mobility of herbicides that do not contain glyphosate? (Due to constraints, this section is heavily abbreviated.)
8.1.3.1 Sulfometuron
Sulfometuron has long soil residual activity and may move off-site in wind-blown soils (UC Davis Weed Research and Information Center 2013).
Sulfometuron appears to be similar to glyphosate in terms of its residual nature, at the very least. Sulfometuron related herbicides are: Broadstrike, Chlorsulfuron, Crusader, Eclipse, Ethoxysulfuron, Express, Flame, Harmony M, Imazapyr, Intervix, Iodosulfuron 100, Iodosulfuron 50, Lightning, Logran 750, Londax, Mesosulfuron 30, Metsulfuron-methyl, Monza, Muster, OnDuty, Raptor WG 700, Sempra, Spinnaker, Sulfometuron, Titus, Trifloxysulfuron (HerbiGuide, No date). Note:
Sulfometuron methyl-containing herbicides cause eye discomfort, tearing, and blurred vision. In laboratory tests, sulfometuron methyl caused anemia, atrophied testicles and testicular lesions, and increased the incidence of fetal loss. A sulfometuron methyl breakdown product causes DNA damage in the colon of laboratory animals.
Because of limited monitoring, little is known about how often sulfometuron methyl contaminates rivers and streams. However, the U.S. Geological Survey found this herbicide in rivers in the Midwest, and the U.S. Forest Service found it in streams following forestry applications.
Enough sulfometuron methyl to kill desirable vegetation can persist in soil for a year after application.
Minute amounts of sulfonylurea herbicides disrupt plant reproduction. For example, sulfometuron methyl’s chemical relative chlorsulfuron reduces fruit production in cherry trees. This reduction is caused by amounts equivalent to 1/1000 of the typical agricultural rate. Experiments with peas, canola, soybeans, and smartweed had similar results.
Drift from roadside and noxious weed applications of Oust have resulted in widespread crop damage totaling millions of dollars (Cox 2002).
8.1.3.2 Haloxyfop-R methyl ester in Verdict 520 Herbicide
Basic Tox of Haloxyfop: Risk of Serious Damage To Eyes
The toxicological studies were generally performed with pure (>98%) racemic haloxyfop
or haloxyfop-P methyl ester or with neat substances. The toxicokinetic studies
indicate that absorbed methyl ester will rapidly be hydrolysed to the parent acid and
the S-form haloxyfop present in racemic haloxyfop will instantaneously undergo
stereochemical inversion to haloxyfop-P. Therefore, the various compounds used for
testing are assumed to elicit the same systemic effects following administration and
these effects can be attributed to haloxyfop-P. The absorption is rapid (> 80%) and
the excretion extensive. The acute oral toxicity is moderate i.e. LD50 is around 300
mg/kg bw and the dermal toxicity low LD50> 2000 mg/kg bw, proposed classification of
Xn, R22 “Harmful if swallowed”. No acute inhalation toxicity studies are available.
Neither racemic haloxyfop nor haloxyfop-P methyl ester was irritating to skin and
haloxyfop-P methyl ester was not a sensitizer. Haloxyfop-P methyl ester is not
irritating to the eye whereas racemic haloxyfop induced signs of irritation in the
conjunctival sacs and iris and caused corneal opacity covering up to 100% of the
cornea in all animals. Signs of irritation (corneal opacity) persisted for 21 days in
un-rinsed eyes racemic haloxyfop is therefore irritating to the eye and the
classification of Xi; R41 “Risk of serious damage to eyes” is proposed. The relevant
short term NOAEL is 0.5 mg/kg bw/day based on the 1-year dog study which would also be
said to cover the effects observed in the 90-day studies in the dog and monkey at 2
mg/kg bw/day (EFSA Journal 2009:3).
AOEL (Acceptable Operator Exposure Level)
The Acceptable Operator Exposure Level using UK-POEM, in being exceeded at a level of 169%, does not bode well for either the dispenser of the chemical, bystanders, or the public (particularly close-by residences). Note:
The dermal absorption is 7% and 12% for the concentrate and the diluted product,
respectively. The AOEL is exceeded (169%) according to the UK-POEM even with PPE
(coverall) but is below according to the German model if PPE (coverall and gloves) is
applied (12%). The estimated worker and bystander exposure is below the AOEL (ibid.).
Risk Assessment for Herbivorous and Insectivorous Birds and Mammals
High long-term risk, especially where mammals are breeding, has been identified with the use of the herbicide. Note:
The first tier risk assessment for herbivorous and insectivorous birds resulted in TER
values above the Annex VI trigger indicating a low risk. For medium herbivorous and
insectivorous mammals the acute risk is considered to be low, while a first tier high
long-term risk was identified. The Member State experts in EPCO 22 did not accept a
proposed refinement using a higher endpoint from a 16-week dietary study. It was
agreed to use the endpoint of 1 mg/kg bw/day from a 2-generation reproduction study.
Furthermore, since the half-life for residues in vegetation was observed to be longer
than the default value, residue decline data for each crop should be used in the risk
assessment. The resulting TER values were foreseen to be below the Annex VI trigger
indicating a high risk… (ibid:5).
The symptoms of toxicity in rats are reduced food intake and reduced food consumption.
They may also cause liver and kidney damage…
Reproductive Effects: In rats, oral doses of 10 and 50 mg/kg/day of haloxyfop-
ethoxyethyl from days 6 to 16 of pregnancy reduced the number of live offspring per
litter and caused vaginal bleeding in the mother…
Teratogenic Effects: Oral doses of 50 mg/kg/day of haloxyfop-ethoxyethyl in rats
between days 6 and 16 of pregnancy caused developmental abnormalities in the
offspring’s urogenital system and death to the fetus…
Oral doses of 7.5 mg/kg/day of haloxyfop-methyl given to rats from days 6 to 15 of
pregnancy caused delayed bone formation in the offspring…
Organ Toxicity: Doses of 100 mg/kg/day of haloxyfop-methyl caused kidney damage in
adult rats (8). Doses of 0.6 mg/kg/day for 2 years in mice caused reduced body weight
gains and increased liver weights in mice. In dogs, 5 mg/kg/day causes a significant
decrease in serum cholesterol, as well as a decrease in thyroid weight… (Extoxnet
The USEPA put it this way:
Reduced relative kidney weights in F0, F1, and F2b adults; Reduced fertility in the
F1/F2b generation (USEPA 2012).
Aquatic Organisms Risk
Haloxyfop-P methyl ester is very toxic to aquatic organisms, fish being the most
sensitive group of organisms (EFSA Journal 2009:6).
Haloxyfop-ethoxyethyl is moderately to highly toxic to fish. The LC50 (96 hour) is
0.54 mg/l for fathead minnows, 0.28 mg/l for bluegill sunfish, and 1.8 mg/l for
rainbow trout. The LC50 (48 hours) for Daphnia is 4.64 mg/l (6) (Extoxnet 1996).
8.1.3.3 Clopyralid 750g/kg (Group I) in Clomac Forestry Herbicide and Other Products
Official documentation almost hints that Clopyralid is nearly as pure as driven snow, but the real facts and genuine research show up a great deal more dirt. Note:
Health Efects: Causes severe eye irritation and may cause some skin sensitization.
Environmental Efects: Toxic to some beneficial insects. It is very persistent and
moves quickly through soil…
…is slightly toxic to birds…
Some developmental and reproductive effects have been observed in laboratory animals.
Changes to liver and kidney weights as well as, hyperplasia of the stomach lining were
found in rats fed moderate to high doses in a 2-year study… A one year study with
dogs showed increased liver weights and decreased red blood cell count at all but the
lowest dose tested… Another study found that weights of rabbit fetuses decreased at
both low and high doses of clopyralid. Skeletal abnormalities were also observed in
these fetuses at all doses and at the highest dose, accumulation of excess fluid
around the brain was evident, which resulted in small brain and enlarged skulls…
The EPA has identified several endangered species of plants and other non-target
species that are vulnerable to clopyralid, including five species of rare cactus…
Clopyralid is persistent in soil, with recorded half-life of 2-14 months… it does
not readily bind to soil and is highly soluble in water. As a result, it is very
mobile in soil and has the potential to move towards groundwater and contaminate
surface water. Clopyralid has even been found in soil water samples taken at depths of
6 feet, up to 30 days after initial surface treatment… Since microbial activity
decreases with depth, clopyralid has the potential to persist longer at lower soil
depths. Persistence of clopyralid in vegetation was evidenced by the contamination of
composts from harvested lawn and grass clipping sprayed with clopyralid. Clopyralid
has been detected in vegetation 365 days after initial treatments…
In 2000, greenhouse and garden crops were severely injured after application of
compost and manure in Spokane, Washington. Upon investigation it was found that high
concentrations of clopyralid were present in composts made from lawn clippings,
straw, and leaves collected by curbside programs… The Spokane area had a large
residential population that utilized lawn care services, most of whom applied
clopyralid as part of their weed control scheme. Clopyralid, which does not breakdown
during the composting process, stunts the growth of crops such as potatoes, tomatoes,
peas, beans, leuce, pepper, alfalfa and sunflowers at very low levels- even as low
as 1ppb… Organic farmers were also severely affected since they rely of manure and
composts to supply soil fertility. In 2002, the state of Washington banned the use of
clopyralid on lawns and turf in order to keep the chemical from contaminating compost
supplies… That same year, California found that 65% of the composts samples tested
positive for clopyralid, which led to the cancellation of residential uses for
clopyralid in the state (Beyond Pesticides / NCAMP, no date).
Monitoring data indicate that the general population may be exposed to clopyralid via
inhalation of ambient air, and ingestion of drinking water (Toxnet 2013).
These above-listed critical problems with Glyphosate and other herbicides not only indicate a slower moving pandemic of human morbidity, but they also specifically highlight the powerful potential for acute, threshold breaking pandemic scenarios, and leave us all with no excuse whatsoever for the continued use of herbicides!
We may well ask: “How can we move, as a global community, beyond the chemical devastation that is bearing down on us?” (http://www.mcs-international.org/, No date)
8.2 SECOND, PRIME EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS/REPLACEMENTS FOR CURRENT DESTRUCTIVE PRACTICES WHILE THE BOUND, BIGGS & OBENDORF 2012 RECOMMENDATIONS (ABOVE) ARE EMBRACED
8.2.1 MULCH
Please note that the Mulch strategy listed below should be read in terms of the above section titled: 5.1.3.1 ENDOTOXIN BIOAEROSOLS.
First, if enough mulch is applied, weeds will be suppressed. In the case of pine plantations, site preparation might need to be refined (see below). Grass weeds might be mostly eliminated if an extensive mulching operation could then follow and be configured to tap into the pre plant stage (note the below listed possibilities in terms of Corn Gluten Meal [CGM]: trials might be needed to investigate this product’s potential for pre-emergent weed suppression when mixed in with mulch or, likely more possible, its use as a post plant weed control). This might mean using the harvest rubbish to generate the mulch on-site when all the equipment and manpower is focused there. Note:
Elders Forestry has piloted a system of taking harvest residues deposited at harvest landings after in field chip operations and mulching and re-distributing them across the site to provide a mulched layer which suppresses weed growth (Forest Stewardship Council, No date #1)
Hopefully this means the operation posits the most efficient and cost-effective strategy as well, and especially so if this substantial stage then eliminated the need for separate pre-emergent or post plant weed control (either aerial or manual). Not being an expert in this industry (which sometimes means that you are not restricted by limiting knowledge orthodoxies), I can only hypothesize what may or may not be effective. Note:
Cultural Weed control Reduce chemical input at plantation establishment by: – Achieving rapid initial growth – reduces the time availability for weed species to become established – Good site preparation – good site preparation reduces weed growth, maximises the seedling opportunity to survive and grow, disadvantages existing weeds, and reduces the risk of poor planting technique – Planting espacement – close spacing reduces weed capacity to survive (Forest Stewardship Council, No date #2).
Experimenting with polymer coated fertilisers that can be placed in the planting hole in direct contact with the root ball. Early indications are that this may lead to rapid initial growth and hence reduce the need for post plant weed control and browsing animal control (Forest Stewardship Council, No date #3).
What are the possibilities of including CGM as a fertlizer with the seedling root ball? It may suppress grass weeds while simultaneously stimulating seedling growth.
8.2.2 STEAM & FLAME
The deep penetration of steam into the soil profile is undesirable because this will result in the killing off of soil microbial populations. However, steam can kill off above-ground foliage.
In tests/trials: “Both steam and flame were more effective on certain erect-growing broadleaved weed species than on prostrate growing weeds and grasses… Cost estimates of propane use were $41 to 56 ha-1 and $26 ha-1 for the steam and flame treatments, respectively.” (Shrestha, et. al., 2011). Given that grasses remain an issue with these treatments, an effective pre-emergent treatment appears essential before seedlings are planted.
Further: “The benefits of Thermal Weed control are numerous and vary from a competitive alternative to chemical use to the added benefit of providing organic farmers with a way to rid their crops of weeds without disturbing the soil thereby minimising erosion and water loss” (Source: http://www.batchen.com.au/thermal-weeding; accessed: 27 Jan. 2014).
8.2.3 CORN GLUTEN MEAL (CGM)
Note: “A little more than a decade ago, an Iowa State University researcher, Nick Christians, accidentally discovered the herbicidal properties of corn gluten meal. Corn gluten meal is a by-product of the milling of corn and was found to inhibit root growth and also contains 10% nitrogen by weight, thus making it an ideal naturally occurring “weed and feed” product… Among the weeds controlled with pre-emergent application[s] of corn gluten are crabgrass, dandelions, pigweed, and purslane to name only a few. Corn gluten meal is applied to the soil and affects the roots of germinating seeds. It does not affect established plants and therefore can be safely used in turf, ornamental, vegetable, and flower garden situations.” (Link 1999).
To stop feeder weed roots from emerging, try spreading CGM in the same manner as a dry fertilizer (Wagner 2014). Corn gluten is available in granules, pellets or powder. Repeat: it will not kill established weeds or plants (Francis 2014).
However, it should be observed that “…the nitrogen in CGM will benefit existing weeds as well as desirable plants. Therefore, inadequate weed removal prior to treatment can actually result in an increased weed problem” (Chalker-Scott, no date). Further: “CGM is not selective and can inhibit germination of desirable plant seeds as well as weeds… Other environmentally friendly weed-control treatments (such as sub-irrigation, mulch, or soil solarization) are cheaper and often more effective than CGM.” (ibid.)
For excellent research on CGM, see: http://www.hort.iastate.edu/research/gluten.
8.2.4 KITCHEN RECIPES
A mixture of vinegar, salt and dish soap can kill already emerged weeds (Wagner 2014), and could potentially be used prior to planting. Vinegar alone “(Acetic acid) has been found to be (a) useful herbicide for broadleaf weeds and grasses. Generally the acetic acid content in vinegar is about 5% but a level of 10% is needed to treat most weeds” (Farmstyle, no date). A higher acetic acid content than is found in normal vinegar can be found in products available from farmer’s stores (Beaulieu 2014).
8.2.5 ORGANIC HERBICIDES 1: OIL-BASED HERBICIDES
Note: Pine oil can be described as a mildly antiseptic phenolic disinfectant (Wikipedia 2014b). It is also “an essential oil obtained by the steam distillation of needles, twigs and cones from a variety of species of pine, particularly Pinus sylvestris” (ibid.).
Further: “Oil based Herbicides are based primarily on pine oil. These sprays remove the outer wax layer of the plant causing it to dehydrate. These sprays also reduce the viability of any weed seeds in the soil that are contacted by the spray. Some of these sprays are registered for use in organic farms” (Farmstyle, no date).
There are some health issues related to pine oil: it has a low corrosion level, but it is an irritant to the skin and mucous membranes and may elicit breathing problems or central nervous system depression (Wikipedia 2014a). Nevertheless, pine oil offers up potential in terms of a worthy, much more natural alternative to orthodox herbicides.
8.2.6 ORGANIC HERBICIDES 2: INCLUDING CLOVE, CINNAMON & COTTONSEED OIL
Note: “Organic herbicides are fast acting (15 minutes) when temperature is high (especially if humidity is low). The short time-frame for effective kill means field workers can observe the effect of their actions without having to return to the field a week later (as with glyphosate)” (TMOrganics 2012). In quick summary, expense and the required high water volumes are disadvantages. Advantages are: safety for operators, and quick action and effect (ibid.).
8.2.7 ORGANIC HERBICIDES 3: BIOWEED PRE-EMERGENT, ORGANICALLY CERTIFIED & PLANT DERIVED HERBICIDE, & OTHERS
“BioWeed” appears to be a substantial and innovative product. See: http://www.certifiedorganics.info/prodbwcindex.html for details. Also available are: “Weed Zap” (with cloves and other ingredients), “Slasher” (a synthetic pelargonium oil), and “Yates Vinegar”. (TMOrganics 2012)
8.2.8 STEAM ON STEROIDS
Steam treatment of weeds can be enhanced: “There is some encouraging evidence to support organic additives with steam, such as fish oil, vinegar, cloves, eucalypt, salt and pine oil to improve efficacy and increase systemic penetration” (J. Winer, Weedtechnics.com, Email, Jan. 2014). This approach to taking out weeds requires ground applications and ready water access. Weedtechnics is happy to “undertake trials and pilot programs” (ibid.) if your company has an interest.
8.2.9 AGRO-HOMEOPATHY
Homeopathy in agricultural settings can potentially reveal ways to bolster soil health and plant health. Note: “Important benefits of agrohomeopathy include economic savings and preservation of the natural ecology. Agro-homeopathy can reduce costs from agrochemicals, and it will not damage the organism, the ground under the plant or its surrounding area and the water that serves as the solvent in the dynamizations” (Moreno 2008).
See: http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/agro-homeopathy-an-alternative-for-agriculture/; http://homeopathyplus.com.au/agrohomeopathy-an-introduction-to-healing-plants-and-planet-with-homeopathy/; http://earthhaven.ca/homeopathy-for-plants-c372.php; http://www.narayana-publishers.com/Homeopathy-for-Farm-and-Garden/Vaikunthanath-Das-Kaviraj/b8241.
It would be a very intelligent company indeed that mastered the art of dealing with environmental health, human health, soil health, plant health and weeds (for none of these are SEPARATE ISSUES) in an entirely non-toxic and ethical fashion.
9.0 TRUE SCIENCE
GENUINE SUSTAINABILITY (rather than runaway herbicide use and irresponsible franken-GMOs framing exclusive, fascist and globalist delusions of food control and massive profits) is the name of the (future, inclusive, democratic and local) game NOW. Why not generously enhance the organic profile of the soil you plant in via excellent composting and mulch creation techniques? That is, build up the health of the soil and the robustness of the crop or plantation product you are developing rather than waging a chemical war against weeds and, by extension, each other and the entire life support system that is this Planet?:
Ecological agriculture is highly productive and is the only lasting solution to hunger and poverty… We need once more to feel at home on the earth and with each other (Navdanya, No date).
We cannot coexist with PESTICIDES and GMOs!
10.0 CONCLUSION
We carry a deadening weight with us from the Industrial Revolution, a dragging burden of toxic assumptions. Quick and impatient chemical and pharmaceutical “bullets” and alluring chemical/product features characteristically stampede our weak and unexamined innovations into our childrens’ and grandchildren’s DNA, brains, future fitness and whole potential. That weight has already, and will further, materialize and amplify as a host of fitful problems jumping frighteningly far ahead of us in time, scheduling a succession of nightmares. Our toxic future is already here, already framed, and we feel it now in our bones, brains, joints, sperm and inside our fractured and sick metabolisms.
If the battle against weeds, pests and assumed issues is only ever fought in a retaliatory or negative, shallow-dimensional technological fix sense, or a toxicologically ignorant sense, or inside a proud and hacked mental framework where we presumptuously assume the immortality of our place in the world, then the destruction of the future is certain. Soil composition and microbial health in agricultural settings will be degraded. This will lead to the consequent weakening and defilement of crop nutrition and health, the programing of disease in stock, the degrading and corruption of plantations and forest ecosystems, the overall devastation of global environmental health, and the more direct sickening of human health and reproduction. If we are only capable of dumbly appealing to toxic chemicals and GMO “foods” as a way forward, then we are not growing but rather waging WAR against the NATURAL WORLD that frames all our best potentials. The only disappointing outcome possible for a global brute-techno ascendancy and stifling of living systems will be OUR CANCER-RIDDEN AND STERILE GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN. And then… NOTHING.
Our local error-prone, convenient (lazy) and careless ‘thinking’ reactions and, worse, GLOBAL ELITIST SCHEMES, are taking us on MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) trajectories. We need to heavily examine those trajectories to see what manner of shiny yet deceitful beast they are, and to appreciate how to change them FOR THE SAKE OF OUR ONLY HOME, our children, and our grandchildren. Look into their little faces… We only get one chance, NOW… ONE WORLD, ONE AMAZING AND HORRIBLE HISTORY.
The loss of material (environmental and human health) potential to toxic chemicals and aberrant agricultural/plantation practices is much more than just an increased predisposition for cancers and eventual human extinction. Every single loss demonstrates a failure to make the right decisions and generate positive character. Every morbid illness of every poisoned person (http://poisonedpeople.com) is a reflection of destroyed character, the greatest loss humans can experience.
What stands in the way of the RIGHT to real life — health and freedom — are the black conscienceless spider eyes of the Biotech Giants. All of ethical and moral motivation and understanding should work together to educate the world about the fatal dangers of bad science:
We’re fighting for our right to live! (Emmerich & Devlin 1996)
However, on the bright side, Big Biotech’s Bad Boy Plan is not as big as the bigger POTENTIAL that sees positive human character spectacularly gleaned out of global adversity, character that — by its very non-material disposition — posits an infinitely greater future expression of transcendent possibilities. There are many that believe this hologram Earth and Universe feature as an infinitely complex staging ground for exponentially expanding creativity of a type this world has yet to witness, an infinity of expressive opportunity seeded inside of a great and largely unknown meta-purpose set for humanity way beyond the blindness and tragedy of a frustrating and disappointing material existence. Winston Churchill had it right:
…I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below… (Churchill 1941).
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1. The amazing power of Chemical Diffusion:
The objective of controlling the hydraulic conductivity is clearly one of limiting advective contaminant transport (ie the movement of contaminants with moving water) through the liner. However, despite more than a decade of research and the existence of good supporting field data, it is only recently that it has been generally recognized that there is a second contaminant transport process which will occur even through a very low hydraulic conductivity clay liner: that process is chemical diffusion. …diffusion may be the dominant contaminant transport mechanism in a well- constructed clay liner. Furthermore, contaminants can escape from a waste disposal site, by diffusion through a liner, even if water flow in the liner is into the landfill (Rowe,1994:219).
2. Note the article: “Monsanto’s Bt Cotton Kills the Soil as Well as Farmers”:
The soil, its fertility, and the organisms which maintain the fertility of soil are a vital aspect of the environment, especially in the context of food and agricultural production.
A recent scientific study carried out by Navdanya, compared the soil of fields where Bt-cotton had been planted for 3 years with adjoining fields with non GMO cotton or other crops. The region covered included Nagpur, Amravati and Wardha of Vidharbha which accounts for highest GMO cotton planting in India, and the highest rate of farmers suicides (4000 per year).
In 3 years, Bt-cotton has reduced the population of Actinomycetes by 17%. Actinomycetes are vital for breaking down cellulose and creating humus.
Bacteria were reduced by 14%. The total microbial biomass was reduced by 8.9%.
Vital soil beneficial enzymes which make nutrients available to plants have also been drastically reduced. Acid Phosphatase which contributes to uptake of phosphates was reduced by 26.6%. Nitrogenase enzymes which help fix nitrogen were reduced by 22.6%.
At this rate, in a decade of planting with GM cotton, or any GM crop with Bt genes in it, could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leaving dead soil unable to produce food.
The ISAAA in its recent release has stated that there are 7.6 mha of Bt-cotton in India. This means 7.6 mha of dying soils (Global Research, i-sis.org.uk, 2009).
3. Note, in terms of a urine and water test for glyphosate:
We have found a USDA certified USA lab that is willing to test urine and water for glyphosate! Test will be offered to MAA [Moms Across America] supporters at a reduced rate from $145.00 each down to $90.00 each from now until Jan 31st 2014 due to the volumn expected. Moms Across America does not receive any financial gain from any transaction connected with this lab what so ever. We simply want Moms to be able to care for their families knowing all the infomation they can.
In addition to empowering families, we see this as a great opportunity nationally to further our cause of health and freedom in America. The EPA analyzes glyphosate again in 2014 and we want to weigh in on whether or not they approve it again. Your test supports our national cause as well.
Click here to follow the guidelines and get your water and/or urine test. http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_testing (Moms Across America 2013, Email).
4. How uncontaminated is your water?
In a report titled ‘Permeation of potable water piping systems’ prepared by an Ad Hoc Committee on Permeation convened by the US Plastic’s Pipe Industry high levels of hydrocarbons (toluene, xylene, petroleum hydrocarbons) in soil have been reported to contaminate drinking water supplies. The report also details the results of testing undertaken that indicates that at ‘high concentrations’ of hydrocarbons permeation can occur through pipe material as well as through material used to join pipes. At ‘low concentrations’ of aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons permeation was found to be similar for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) pipes. Permeation is claimed to be related to the type of pipe, presence of joints and duration of exposure. (http://www.health.qld.gov.au/ph/documents/ehu/15078.pdf)
5. In the former Fraser National Park (now called the Lake Eildon National Park) at Eildon in Victoria, herbicide (likely a 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T form) was sprayed by employees randomly over a hillside in the early to mid-1970s in order to use up their quota so they could quickly go back to base for their “smoko”. This was, to my knowledge, never officially documented. The park borders Eildon Lake, the water supply for the township of Eildon. Within a relatively short period of time from the date of this pesticide ‘application’ statistically significant related morbidity COULD have occurred within the town’s population, which could be supported by a judicious investigation of the former Eildon Hospital’s and then local doctors’ records (e.g. Dr. Austin Tuohy, and others). On the other hand, if the pesticide, instead of being washed quickly into the Lake, made its way into the township’s drinking water supply via the local geology, then morbid results in the townsfolk would likely have dissipated so broadly as to be indistinguishable from all other usual conditions. Nevertheless, toxicologists should be able to identify morbid TRENDS or slants on background morbidity. 6. The hidden truth:
U.S. patent 7,771,736 issued August 10, 2010 was for glyphosate as an antimicrobial. One group of beneficial microbes named in the patent directly killed by glyphosate is the pseudomonas microbes. Pseudomonas soil bacteria are important phosphate mobilizers and suppressors of fusarium pathogenic fungi. Pseudomonas and most beneficial soil microbes additionally have an important function in making soil minerals available for plant use…
…there is a two pronged mechanism occurring with glyphosate, trace mineral chelation and pathogen proliferation. These mechanisms have extended consequence. Not only are nutritive minerals directly chelated out of the system, but the proliferation of pathogens effectively converts additional nutritive mineral to unusable form leading to further nutrient deficiencies in growing crops. This process is occurring throughout the entire food chain as glyphosate residue in food is becoming common. Glyphosate is essentially “rusting away”the fabric of our soils leading to the proliferation of disease pathogens and nutrient deficiencies throughout the food chain.” (Andersen 2013; actual quote source: http://cabecahealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/FoodPlaguePrimer.pdf; accessed: 25 Jan. 2014).
Advancing nutrient deficiencies in soil treated with glyphosate will see crop and plantation yields inevitably decrease. 7. THE famous rat study:
A measure of how desperate the GM proponents are is the recent decision of the journal editor to retract a thoroughly peer-reviewed paper – the famous Séralini study – published a year ago, basically because it found serious health impacts in rats fed GM maize and/or exposed to Roundup herbicide compared to controls. An open letter has been posted for signing to demand reinstating the paper and pledging to boycott the publisher unless and until that is done ([3] Open Letter on Retraction and Pledge to Boycott Elsevier, SiS 61). The letter has already attracted thousands of signatures from around the world. Please sign on and forward widely. We need to stop this unprecedented censorship on scientific knowledge and information crucial to public health and well-being (Ho 2014).
8. Wan & Li 1999b:172 were referencing Rylander, Persson, Goto, et al. 1992: 263-267. 9. Wan & Li 1999b:172 were referencing Rylander & Snella 1983: 332-344. 10. Koskinen et al. 1999 was referencing: Waegemaekers et al. 1989:192-198; Brunekreef et al.1989:1363-1367; Dales et al. 1991:196-203; Dekker et al.1991: 922-926; Brunekreef 1992:79-89; Sprengler et al. 1994:72-82; Timonen et al. 1995:1155-1160. 11. Koskinen et al. 1999 was referencing: Martin et al., 1987:1125-1127, Platt et al. 1989:1673-1678, Waegemaekers et al. 1989:192-198, Dales et al. 1991:196-203, & Braback et al. 1995:487-493. 12. My unpublished PhD Thesis is titled: The Universal Demand for Immortality The Code of Everything inside Creation and Destruction An Investigation of the Human Condition of Fear, Conflict & Unconsciousness, of Creators Who Destroy, Destroyers Who Create & the Hidden Reality of Universal Secrets ========================================== Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health 1998; Honors I Social Ecology 1999; Ex Sociology PhD Student; University of Western Sydney) EMAIL: murraythompsonphd@gmail.com WEBSITES: http://poisonedpeople.com; http://poisoningandlegalaction.com; https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/
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Worldwide Disease Pandemics From Pesticide
1 Comment Posted by poisonedpeople on April 8, 2013
ESSAY #1
MY CHILD & I ARE SICK
AND YET TOXIC CHEMICALS ARE STILL FREELY SPRAYED
This document is: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/essays/essay1-worldwide-disease-pandemics.pdf
Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health with Distinction 1998, Hons I Social Ecology 1999, Sociology PhD Postgraduate student: University of Western Sydney)
New Norfolk TAS 7140
Email: poisonedpeople@gmail.com
Web sites: http://poisonedpeople.com
http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au
“Hundreds of thousands of people are dying around the world each year from the effects of the use, or misuse, of pesticides” (Konradsen, et al., 2003). “Most tragically, suffering, illness and disease surround us today in a way we would not have imagined a half century ago. We have banished some diseases only to have them replaced by a grumbling yet profound toxicity which is stripping our children of their rightful future“ (Donohoe, 1998:38).
BUT THE PROBLEM IS MUCH WORSE THAN THIS. IN THE WORKPLACE, IN OUR HOMES, ON THE FARM & IN THE WIDER ENVIRONMENT, PESTICIDE-INDUCED MISCARRIAGES, ADHD, CANCERS, MOTOR NEURONE DISEASE, INFERTILITY & ANIMAL DISEASE EPIDEMICS SHOW WE ARE STANDING ON THE EDGE OF A CASCADE OF GLOBAL DISEASE PANDEMICS. WE ARE LITERALLY “MONITORING OUR OWN EXTINCTION” (Prof. Stuart Hill, 1999, pers. comm.).
THIS ESSAY (previously sent out worldwide as a letter) ADDRESSES OUR PROFOUND NEGLECT IN TERMS OF GOOD SCIENCE THROUGH EXAMINING LONGTERM CHEMICAL EXPOSURE EVENTS IN SYDNEY & POSITING WIDER RAMIFICATIONS: A GLOBAL, CHEMICALLY-SPONSORED EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT.
Professor Wai-on Phoon, A.M., M.B., B.S., F.R.C.P.,(London, Edin. & Glasgow), F.F.P.H., F.R.A.C.P., F.F.O.M., Hon.F.A.C.O.M., Hon.F.A.F.O.M., D.I.H., D.C.H., D.I.H.S.A., F.R.F.P.S., F.A.F.R.M., F.A.M.S., Occupational & Rehabilitation Consultant, Emeritus Professor of Occupational Health, has described this letter as “well-researched and interesting“, and the problem addressed by this letter as one of “an appalling nonchalance about the possible ill effects on human health from toxic exposures in the general and work environments“ (Prof. Wai-on Phoon, Letter, 12 December 2008).
Dr. Chris M. Reading, B.Sc., Dip.Agr.Sc., M.B., B.S., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P., F.A.C.N.E.M., Environmental & Orthomolecular Psychiatrist, has described this letter as an “excellent article” (Dr. Chris Reading, Letter, 31 December 2008).
The Australian Human Rights Commission noted in response to this letter “[we have] in the past inquired into complaints from people with sensitivities where agencies have undertaken policies that exacerbates their conditions” (Elizabeth Green, Australian Human Rights Commission, Letter, 19 December 2008).
The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) has investigated my complaint and “has informed the Golf Club that under the Pesticides Act 1999, Sections 7 and 10, it is obliged to take note of neighbours’ concerns and take some action in response to them…” (Penny Finlay, Environmental Protection and Regulation, Department of Environment and Conservation NSW, Letter, 1 December 2008).
The Office of Louise Markus, M.P. (Federal Member for Greenway) was investigating my complaint, but then suddenly stopped (including answering my letters).
The SOMA Health Association of Australia Newsletter has stated in response to this letter: “We have received a most impressive set of papers describing the predicament a family find themselves in as a result of environmental contamination… As Murray Thompson’s research wisely points out – chemical contamination targets the brain… If the brain is not centred or balanced correctly, then behaviour is out of kilter” (SOMA Newsletter: Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, SOMA Health Association of Australia, Vol. 30, Number 3, April 2009).
The Journal of the Australian Chemical Trauma Alliance (participating member of the National Toxics Network) has reprinted the above SOMA Newsletter article in its entirety.
The Union of Concerned Scientists thanked me for the comments and ideas expressed in this letter (Laura McKusick, Union of Concerned Scientists, Letter, 5 January 2009).
My name is Murray Thompson. I graduated top of my Degree in Applied Science Environmental Health at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury (Award for Best Overall Graduating Student, Australian Institute of Environmental Health, NSW Division). I have First Class Honours in Social Ecology. Currently I am doing a PhD in Sociology. I am also one of many POISONED PEOPLE (including my pesticide poisoned child) dealing with a raft of pesticide poisoning symptoms that have devastated my life.
THE EXPOSURE OF MY PREVIOUSLY CHEMICAL-SENSITIZED SON ALONG WITH OTHER SYDNEY RESIDENTS TO REPEATED SPRAY APPLICATIONS OF TOXIC HERBICIDE FEATURES HERE AS A SPECIFIC MEDICAL CONCERN. I ALSO ADDRESS THE SCANDALOUSLY GENERAL & WORLDWIDE PROBLEM OF A PROFOUND LACK OF ADEQUATE REGULATORY CONTROLS IN PESTICIDE USAGE, AS WELL AS THE ENDEMIC DISMISSIVE ATTITUDE OF AUTHORITIES & PRIVATE PESTICIDE USERS ALIKE TO CURRENT TOXICOLOGICAL CONCERNS.
THIS ESSAY ASKS THOSE WITH AN INTEREST IN THE VIABILITY OF THE HUMAN RACE & OUR GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT TO COMMENT & OFFER THEIR SERVICES: TO STUDY THE POTENTIALS OF THIS MULTI-FACETED GLOBAL ISSUE OF: THE CHEMICAL PROMOTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION, ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, DISEASE & DEATHS. WE NEED AN INTEGRATED RESPONSE FROM POLITICIANS, EDUCATORS, OMBUDSMAN, POLICE, EPA, APVMA, AGRICULTURE, WILDLIFE PROFESSIONALS, NATIONAL PARKS, THE LEGAL SYSTEM, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, & MEDICAL & OTHER AUTHORITIES WHOSE EXPERTISE INTERSECTS THIS VAST ISSUE.
THESE CARETAKERS OF OUR FOOD PRODUCTION, PUBLIC UTILITIES, SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS, PUBLIC HEALTH REGIMES, HUMAN RIGHTS, ANIMAL WELFARE & DEEPER ECOLOGICAL SENSITIVITIES NEED TO DILIGENTLY WORK TOGETHER TO ADDRESS THIS AREA OF INSTITUTIONALIZED NEGLECT & DYSFUNCTION USING READILY AVAILABLE, QUALITY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH THAT DESCRIBES FRIGHTENINGLY WELL THE MEASURE & INTENSITY OF THIS GLOBAL TOXICOLOGICAL PROBLEM.
A FORUM INVOLVING ALL THESE PARTIES IS DEMANDED BY THE SEVERITY OF THE ISSUE OF WIDESPREAD & ONGOING MASS POISONING! WE NEED TO GENERATE INCREASED UNDERSTANDING, IMPROVED HUMAN RIGHTS & AN INTELLIGENT VIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL & PUBLIC HEALTH.
This letter/essay (as an earlier and slightly less developed version) has been sent to: over 250 recipients GLOBALLY. See the end of this letter for a full address listing.
To all who may be interested in an issue intrinsically more devastating than CLIMATE CHANGE. This subject crosses all frameworks and concerns, and addresses the monumental issue of the survival of all life on earth. It is the AGRICULTURAL, PUBLIC HEALTH, TOXICOLOGICAL, EPIDEMIOLOGICAL, ETHICAL/HUMAN RIGHTS/SOCIAL JUSTICE, ANIMAL RIGHTS/ANIMAL CRUELTY, LEGAL, OH&S, CHEMICAL TRESPASS/CRIMINAL ASSAULT, WORKPLACE SAFETY, PESTICIDE PERMIT/REGULATORY, MEDICAL, INJURY/REHABILITATION & ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE OF CAPRICIOUS, INDEPENDENT AND IRRESPONSIBLE PESTICIDE USE.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF WHICH IS CHEMICAL POISONING ON A GLOBAL SCALE AND A MOVEMENT TOWARD THE ELIMINATION OF NORMAL REPRODUCTIVITY AND LIFE ON EARTH. It is a matter that needs addressing now, because otherwise, and without profound change, we are sentient and yet blind ‘caretakers’ stampeding an entire planet toward a morbid technologically-induced devastation, brutally failing an enlightened intellectual concern for readily available scientific research and its exposition of CHEMICAL CAUSE & EFFECT!
MORE LOCALLY IN TERMS OF THIS MORBIDITY, & TO DEMONSTRATE A REALTIME, PHYSICAL CONTEXT, MY SON & I WERE REPEATEDLY POISONED BY PESTICIDES (in 2000 & 2001 in Public Housing) & THEN FURTHER EXPOSED TO HERBICIDES (from 2003 on in terms of herbicide sprayed by a golf club). YET THOSE WHO ULTIMATELY FORMATTED THESE EVENTS APPEAR NOT TO CARE, & HAVE ONLY REACTED ASSERTIVELY TO LEGAL ACTION & REPROACHES BY ENVIRONMENTAL & POLITICAL PRESSURE ACTING ON MY BEHALF. ‘LITTLE’ PEOPLE DON’T MATTER IT SEEMS IN TERMS OF GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES AND BIG BUSINESS. MY CHILD AND I BOTH SUFFER LONG TERM POISONING SYMPTOMS THAT WE BATTLE EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY.
“…pesticides[1] are strongly linked to birth defects… science will not solve this problem for us. Isn’t it time to consider a human rights approach, an ethical challenge to the poisoners?… The old science-based strategy has failed us. Perhaps a new, precautionary path can get us where we need to go. The precautionary principle says, ‘When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically’. ” (Montague, 2001)
And, on a Chernobyl and Iraq nuclear note:
“What became evident after the accident was that children who received exposure to Chernobyl fallout, while still in the wombs of their mothers, experienced an elevated risk of developing leukemia by the time of their first birthday [6,7]. Relevant to this discussion is the fact that a gene mutation occurring in utero is one cause of infant leukemia [8,9].) In countries where unimpeachable data was collected for levels of fallout deposited in the environment, doses to the population, and the incidence of childhood leukemia, an unmistakable, uniform trend emerged: the studied population of children born during the 18-month period following the accident suffered increased rates of leukemia in their first year of life compared to children born prior to the accident or to those born subsequent to the accident after the level of possible maternal contamination had sufficiently diminished. This was confirmed in five separate studies conducted independently of one another: in Greece [9], Germany [10], Scotland [11], the United States [12], and Wales [13]. Again here is evidence that defects are being induced in fetuses that we are told by the radiation protection community are not possible. According to the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), these results provide unequivocal evidence that the risk model of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) for infant leukemia is in error by a factor of between 100-fold and 2000-fold, the latter figure allowing for a continued excess incidence of leukemia as the population of children studied continues to age [6]…
Further, numerous in vitro and in vivo studies conducted in the last twenty years have proven that uranium is genotoxic (capable of damaging DNA), cytotoxic (poisonous to cells), and mutagenic (capable of inducing mutations) [27]. These effects are produced either by uranium’s radioactivity or its chemistry or a synergistic interaction between the two. These findings lend plausibility to the idea that the observed increased incidence of deformed babies in Iraq is related to depleted uranium munitions [26].”
(Zimmerman, 2010)
Can I alert you to the fact of a new inclusion on my POISONED PEOPLE web site, that being: http://poisonedpeople.com/index8.html#BACKYARDS_SPRAYED_AGAIN. This section of my website shows multiple photographs taken at the back of my son’s Public Housing residence in May 2008 in McQuade Ave., South Windsor, north-west Sydney. These photos are of a very substantial, unknown and highly questionable green coloured plant spray application (probably HERBICIDE) that has occurred without prior warning to at least 25 households along the west side of the street. The spray had been directed against my son’s and other residents’ west-facing back fences situated immediately adjacent to the golf club’s east perimeter 2.5m high wire fence line. This spraying had occurred over a period of years next to peoples’ homes despite multiple written requests by me (see below) that no herbicide spraying take place in this area because of profound public health concerns. I collected samples of grass, golf balls, feathers and other items from the 1 meter gap between the club’s fence and my son’s back fence. All items displayed the green stains. A previous spraying and likewise extensive killing of grass and weeds occurred in the same location in (at the very least) 2005 (Photos located on my website at: http://poisonedpeople.com/index8.html#FAMILIES EXPOSED MCQUADE AV). Is this, especially in light of my multiple letters of objection sent over the years, ultimately representative of irresponsible environmental and public health vandalism? The Paris Appeal: The International Declaration on Diseases Due to Chemical Pollution says:
§9. Whereas, regarding toxicology, a number of these substances or chemicals are hormone-disrupting chemicals (endocrine disrupters), that can be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMRs) for human beings, and therefore susceptible to induce cancers, congenital malformations and/or infertility; whereas some of these substances or products can be, among other effects, allergenic resulting in chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma; whereas some are neurotoxic chemicals, leading to degenerative diseases of the central nervous system in adult[s]… and to intellectual impairment in children; whereas some are immunotoxic, leading to immunodeficiency, particularly in children, causing infections, especially viral infections; whereas pesticides are deliberately spread in large amounts in the environment, while a great number are toxic… for animals and/or human beings and for the environment…
§10. Whereas children are the most vulnerable and exposed to contamination by these pollutants…
§11. Whereas these polluting substances or products can induce diseases in children population, such as those listed in §9; whereas one out of seven children in Europe suffers from asthma, whereas asthma is made worse by city and home pollution; whereas incidence in pediatric cancers has been on the rise for the last 20 years in some industrialized countries; and whereas these considerations all lead to the fact that Children are now in serious danger… (IDEA 2006).
I weeded this spray impact area with bare hands for 20 minutes in May 2008 (and which later displayed dead grass) before noticing the green spray application. During the following days I demonstrated some new symptoms, such as joint pain, although this appeared to be more an aggravation of knee and hip joint pain already established by my original pesticide exposures[2]. Thankfully, I did not ask my son to help me weed.
I DO NOT APPRECIATE MY CHILD’S BACK YARD BEING TURNED INTO A CONTAMINATED WASTE SITE BY HERBICIDE SUBSTANCES KNOWN THROUGH PROFESSIONAL SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY TO CAUSE HUMAN INJURY! MY SON IS NOT TO BE TREATED AS INCIDENTAL COLLATERAL DAMAGE, LIKE AN ABUSED ANIMAL USED IN PHARMACEUTICAL TESTING, INSIDE THE GREAT CORPORATE COSMETIC OBSESSION & IMPERATIVE TO REDUCE WEEDS[3]. HE IS A HUMAN BEING WITH INALIENABLE RIGHTS.
I’VE PUT 17 YEARS+ OF HARD WORK INTO MY CHILD. HE WAS CONCEIVED BEFORE I WAS POISONED IN 2000, SO EPIGENETICALLY[4] SPEAKING HE REPRESENTS A MASSIVELY VALUABLE ‘INVESTMENT’ IN MY LINEAGE, IN ADDITION TO BEING THE MOST PRECIOUS PERSON IN MY LIFE. BUT SOME PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, COUNCILS & BUSINESSES USE PESTICIDES DESPITE PLEAS FOR A RESPONSIBLE APPROACH TO PUBLIC HEALTH, LET ALONE A NORMAL DESIRE TO BE HEALTHY. THOSE WHO DO NOT CARE ABOUT GOOD SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH & BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS ADD THEIR NAMES TO THE SHOCKING BURDEN OF TECHNO-IGNORANCE THAT IS SITUATED LIKE A BLACK DISEASE ON THIS SMALL PLANET (hence, why I have contacted Amnesty International). THEIR ATTITUDES IN VIEWING THIS WORLD ONLY AS A RESOURCE THROUGH WHICH TO BUILD EMPIRES & EXTRACT PROFITS SHOULD BE SEEN AS AN ESSENTIAL PROJECT IN TERMS OF RE-EDUCATION BEFORE ANY HOPE OF PLANETARY REMEDIATION CAN BE ANTICIPATED.
I had contacted and warned the golf club by hardcopy letter 5 times and by email 4 times (over a 3 year period) of, at least, the general nature of pesticide toxicity and, at most (and in most cases), my son’s CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY[5] (letters were sent: May 23rd 2005, January 10th 2006, April 20th 2006, January 25th 2007, May 28th 2007; emails were sent in May 2008). This sensitivity and debility is due to a prior serious exposure to a pesticide treatment forced on me at my Public Housing unit in 2000 (unrelated to this golf club issue). In this instance, my son and I (and my neighbour) were severely poisoned by a termite pesticide. The golf club finally responded to my letters in mid-2009, but only committed to not spraying near my son’s backyard! What about the other 24 households? Currently the Office of Louise Markus, M.P. is investigating this issue. Since 2005 (and likely well before), spraying repeatedly occurred behind more than 25 homes along McQuade Ave. and Cox Street. The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) also investigated the golf club after I alerted them to this issue: “DECC has informed the Golf Club that under the Pesticides Act 1999, Sections 7 and 10, it is obliged to take note of neighbours’ concerns and take some action in response to them” (Finlay/DECC, 2008). The only ‘action’ I’ve noted has been continued spraying over at least a known and documented 3 year period despite my concerns.
HOW ABOUT SOME RESPECT HERE FOR THOSE NEIGHBOURS, INCLUDING MY SON?? HOW CAN SOMEONE SO YOUNG, WHO IS TREATED AS HAVING NO VALUE & NO BASIC RIGHT TO A SECURE ENVIRONMENT & OPTIMAL HEALTH, GROW UP EXPERIENCING DIGNITY IF SOCIETY DOES NOT DEMONSTRATE THIS ETHICAL PROPERTY THROUGH PHYSICAL EXAMPLE? (Does this remind anyone of other, more indigenous issues?) DANGEROUS PESTICIDES NOT ONLY WRECK THE ENVIRONMENT, DEGRADE HUMAN HEALTH & INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL, & MASSACRE THE QUALITY OF THE VICTIM’S PERSONALITY THROUGH NEUROLOGICAL IMPACT (see below), THEIR USE CHEAPENS & DEMEANS THE CHARACTER OF THE USERS[6] WHO EXPRESS AN UNINFORMED & WEAK-WILLED DEPENDENCY ON THE CHEMICAL AGENTS USED! WE ALL LOSE WHEN DRUG ADDICTS USE! Yes, drug dependencies extend to weed/pest paranoia or weed cosmetics ‘OCD’, & even to the vast advertising focus on popular cleaning and anti-bacterial agents used in the home.
In contrast, I have previously applauded the Hawkesbury City Council’s oblique recognition of our health issues. They had stated to me that they would no longer spray herbicide in the public laneway against my back fence in Bligh Park or in the street area of McQuade Avenue in Sth. Windsor (Daley, no date, letter [http://poisonedpeople.com/index8council-may2007medium.html]), areas declared to be “sensitive”. And yet, a resident in McQuade Avenue recently informed me (November 2008) that the Council had sprayed yet again in that street. As well, the Council yet again sprayed at the back of my unit in Bligh Park in late 2010, so “sensitive “ protocols obviously do not work at all (see: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/photos/council/councilsprayresult(27thOct2010)-2.pdf; http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/photos/council/councilsprayresult(27thOct2010)-1.pdf). Why do corporate bodies seem predisposed to consistently failing a responsible, humane and public health Duty of Care? They typically do not demonstrate an adequately precautionary-based, broader and sophisticated scientific (let alone, ethical) appreciation of the implications of the hugely disturbing research that is readily available to all with access to the internet[7]. Specifically, in this case, Council have tended to minimize my warnings of massive environmental risks through appealing to the perceived greater imperatives of “limited funds and staff” (S. Perry 2005, letter). Perhaps it is not convenient to believe the studies showing “genetic damage and abnormal development” in frogs through the use of glyphosate or “Roundup” (Cox, 2004), or “damage to agricultural land, fisheries, fauna and flora [through] chemical inputs such as pesticides” (Wilson & Tisdell, 2001). Further, PESTICIDE-MEDIATED IMMUNOCOMPETENCY, by force of evidence, becomes the most likely mechanism for the limb deformities in frogs (Kiesecker, 2002; Hall, circa 2002) and, thereby, the best morbid theoretical fit for explaining much of our current global frog genocide. Ms. Louise Markus MP and the HNCMA might be particularly interested here vis-à-vis the health of the Hawkesbury River west of Sydney, since “the Hawkesbury River is as important as the Murray-Darling” (Markus, 2008). If we locally and everywhere dispense pesticides freely and incompetently, soon we will find we have nowhere to run to situate ourselves in a healthy environment.
As a result of my original termite pesticide poisoning in Public Housing in 2000/2001, I have had brain damage explicitly revealed through brain scans and at least two extensive batteries of neuro-psychological testing. My neurological deficit includes stress anxieties and huge memory/sequencing problems[8] or, in other words, “confusion, emotional lability, loss of short term memory, delayed reaction times and learning difficulties” (Donohoe 1998:34). As well, I have had or still experience a variety of explosive joint pains, back and neck pain that is getting worse, headaches and nausea, chronic fatigue, EMF Sensitivity (my mobile phone, TVs and power sub-stations make me nauseous and dizzy[9]), various kidney pains, kidney stones, skin irritation, chronic nose bleeds, an echogenic or fatty liver, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), and considerable heat intolerance. I can’t drink alcohol any more (nausea, again); I’m hyper-sensitive to perfumes, deodorants, vehicle exhaust fumes and herbicide residues; my bone density has reduced; my eyesight has deteriorated markedly; my hearing is impaired in the high range; I get constant tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and I’ve been very, very suicidal. Pesticide exposure significantly increases the risk of depression and suicide (Parron, et al., 1995). As well, my reproductive system has been compromised.
Pesticides impair spermatogenesis (Hirsh, 2003), and pesticide exposure = sperm DNA damage (Bian, et al., 2004). My nerves are shot and some days I am completely incapacitated and require large doses of pain killers which have other negative effects. It is pathetic feeling like this when your health goes from just bearable (still inside the MCS syndrome) to suddenly taking a dramatic and unpredictable turn for the worst. It takes massive effort and months for me to put a letter/essay like this together because my brain can’t do what it once could do quickly and efficiently. Imagine living every day within a blur of symptoms battering you around like a cat with a mouse, and yet you appear normal in appearance. I feel like I’m half dead and hanging over the edge most of the time. For those of you who are still truly alive, please intellectually recognize pesticide’s design and purpose (to KILL). Then, translate this characteristic laterally and apply it to the human species. You cannot poison pests and weeds without poisoning OURSELVES. No distinctive intelligence is required to appreciate this truism. Even Homer Simpson said: “What?! Spider poison is people poison?! !” (The Simpsons, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Date Unknown).
It seems it is left to the chemically injured and neurologically damaged ‘walking wounded’ to argue against and sue those who are freely allowed to poison indiscriminately, stupidly, ignorantly, negligently and even callously. Overall, the poisoning of people is permitted by a society and Government institutions that fail to protect their members from the flagrant dissemination of TOXIC SUBSTANCES, with few genuine and meaningful restrictions and precautions in place[10]. I am in my 7th long and utterly exhausting year of litigation against those who poisoned me and my child originally in 2000/2001. This is not fair.
WHY DO THE INJURED HAVE TO FIGHT SO HARD FOR REDRESS WHILE ALSO FIGHTING THE CHEMICAL WARFARE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THEIR OWN BODIES?
Even though my legal team are performing a magnificent job of prosecuting my case and revealing a vast array of critically pertinent information for the upcoming trial (on the 15th November 2010 in the Supreme Court in Sydney, Civil List [http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/supreme_court/ll_sc.nsf/pages/SCO_visitsc]), THE STRESS OF LEGAL ACTION adds immeasurably to the physical pain, the fear, the anger, the depression, and the suicidal ideation that are the legacy of pesticide exposure. This stress can destroy what is left of a family after the toxins have already ruined one’s health and the once better potential to be aware, compromise, communicate, empathize, care, love, be effectively employed, feel like a useful member of society, and excel at what life has to offer. When one’s very intersection with all life processes has become distorted, fatigued and made dysfunctional by chemical impact, there is little left to anticipate with an abused and joyless mind.
PESTICIDE DELETES POTENTIAL ON ALL FRONTS
I AM REQUESTING THAT INTERESTED PROFESSIONALS ADDRESS THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE & THE OVERALL PESTICIDE CONUNDRUM IN LIGHT OF THE TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION IN THIS LETTER. Perhaps University of Western Sydney Environmental Health BAppSc students & staff could analyse my spray samples & conduct an epidemiological survey along McQuade Ave. & Cox Street? I will ultimately forward some of my samples to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and elsewhere for independent testing and post the results on my web site, http://poisonedpeople.com.
Why aren’t those with power and influence, who aren’t poisoned and crippled, doing more to elevate awareness of this massive and expanding EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT, and assertively advancing the making and changing of laws, e.g. Chemical Trespass legislation such as the Tasmanian Chemical Trespass Bill 2004 (defeated). OR ARE WE ALLOWING, THROUGH OUR NEGLECT AND LETHARGY, THE CONSISTENT POISONING AND RAPID DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE PLANET ON PURPOSE AND IN DEFERENCE TO THE WEIGHT AND BLOAT OF DISINTEREST, PESTICIDE MANUFACTURERS’ VESTED INTERESTS, AND PERHAPS A CLIMATE CHANGE IMPERATIVE THAT DOES NOT ADEQUATELY ADDRESS THIS ISSUE? Given the extent to which my son and I were previously poisoned and the increased potential now for developing an ORGANIC DEGENERATIVE DISEASE, I don’t even know if we are going to be alive in 5 years to continue fighting against the irresponsible splashing around of chemical agents that bear a relationship to what has been used in times of war. Roundup (glyphosate) and other pesticides have NERVE AGENT and other toxic properties (see later). They cause NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE. Why? Because pesticides contain solvents, hydrocarbons, surfactants, etc., along with the ‘active’ pesticide ingredients.
THE TARGET ORGAN FOR PESTICIDES IS
(Dr. Mark Donohoe, 2001, pers. comm.).
My beautiful son: he’s older now, but he’s still my baby!
I AM JUST TRYING TO PROTECT MY CHILD. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE WRONG WITH THAT!?
WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO MAKE THESE SPECIAL LITTLE PEOPLE SAFE?
How much damage has to be done to innocent people; how much sicker do I have to get; how many more negative impacts does my child’s body need to absorb into his still developing and maturing hormonal and DNA profile FOR THE SAKE OF MERE COSMETIC CHEMICAL CONVENIENCE before laws will be changed preventing companies (and Councils) from EXPOSING THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO PROVEN HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS?[11]
Theoretical: If I’m standing at my friend’s back fence with my son, and a golf club or council employee, or even a neighbour (who is likely not adequately protected him/herself from herbicide vapours and spray drift[12]) approaches with a herbicide spray pack, must we stand there quietly and allow him/her to spray our faces and arms, and also our clothes through the gaps in the wooden fence? Is there absolutely nothing anyone can do to prevent a person pumping a KNOWN TOXIN all over them, and onto the back lawn where they, their children and their pets walk and play? WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN STANDING IN THEIR BACK YARD ON THE DAYS THIS LONG FENCE LINE IN WESTERN SYDNEY WAS SPRAYED? A toddler? A loved pet? What’s missing from within a society and culture that supposedly champions human rights? Answer = HUMAN RIGHTS!
We have not applied FUNDAMENTAL AND BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS to the ludicrous CHEMICAL WARFARE DEPENDENCY we have dumbly accepted over time, wherein we now allow ourselves the freedom to throw toxic nerve agents at each other! How ridiculous is this?! Reality: The herbicide spray entered private back yards in McQuade Avenue (my photos are proof of this). Directly or indirectly, adults, children and pets have inhaled herbicide vapours and walked through spray residue and taken it INDOORS. Forensic investigation and/or industrial hygiene testing would substantiate what is logically and physically obvious in this case.
IN OUR CULTURE TODAY, COULD YOU EVER SEE IT BEING THE INTENTION OF ANY GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT, CORPORATION OR COUNCIL TO HONESTLY & THOROUGHLY INFORM THE PUBLIC OF AN IMPENDING TOXIC PESTICIDE EXPOSURE EVENT TO SEE IF A CONSENSUS OF FULLY EDUCATED CONSENT BECAME AVAILABLE VIA A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS?
“EDUCATED” here means UNDERSTANDING TOTAL RISK THROUGH BEING FULLY INFORMED FROM AVAILABLE RESEARCH DATA!
BECAUSE TOXIC PESTICIDES ARE IMMENSELY CONVENIENT, AND BECAUSE ORGANIZATIONS WANT THE SUBTLY FASCIST & BUREAUCRATIC FREEDOM TO LIBERALLY SPRAY FOR THE SAKE OF THAT LAZY CONVENIENCE & DOLLAR BOTTOM LINE, WOULDN’T YOU EXPECT THAT THEY WOULD NOT BE FORTHCOMING IN INVESTIGATING & SHARING RESEARCH-PROVEN TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION? THAT THEY WOULD HOPE THAT YOU THE PUBLIC DIDN’T HAVE THE TIME OR ‘HEAD SPACE’ TO BOTHER BEING EDUCATED ABOUT THESE POISONOUS SPRAYS?[13] THIS REPRESENTS A MASSIVE GAP IN OUR HUMAN RIGHTS THINKING! NOTHING LESS THAN TOTAL TRANSPARENCY IS DEMANDED HERE. AND TOTAL SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBILITY. THAT MEANS APPLYING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE.
WHAT IS ILLEGAL IN WAR MUST BECOME ILLEGAL IN PEACETIME!
How many children live in McQuade Ave and Cox Street, South Windsor? How many children live in or walk along Davies or Barnett Roads (next to Bardon Park) in Ashgrove West, Brisbane; Kylie Avenue (next to Keperra Golf Course) in Keperra, Brisbane; Stewart Ave. Blacktown, Sydney (next to Ashlar Golf Course); Lucerne Crescent (next to Latrobe Golf Course) Alphington, Melbourne; or Tunstall Ave (next to the Australian Golf Course) Rosebery, Sydney? How many children WORLDWIDE have their basic right to a SECURE environment taken away from them every single time DNA, non-DNA factors, and immune function and hormone-damaging RESIDUAL chemicals are sprayed near them or even over them through spray drift and vapour drift? In March 2005, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) stated that children are more vulnerable to gene-damaging chemicals than adults, that children two years old and younger might be 10 times more vulnerable than adults to certain chemicals, and that children between the ages of two and 16 might be three times more vulnerable to certain chemicals[14] (Dingle, 2005).
We put so much effort and emotion into protecting our children at crossings. We worry about teen binge drinking, we prohibit smoking near playgrounds[15], and we are suitably disturbed by stalking monsters called paedophiles.
BUT WHERE IS OUR SUBSTANTIAL AND REAL-TIME CONCERN FOR THE SILENCE OF THE INVISIBLE CHEMICAL MONSTERS THAT STALK OUR CHILDREN?
Stalk them with endocrine disrupting and neurological impacts emasculating and reconfiguring little bodies and minds that desperately need a foundation of MAXIMUM HEALTH FOR LIFE AND THE SAKE OF THE FUTURE OF THIS WORLD! This is neither a small nor local matter. It is literally a matter of the survival of humanity. What we allow to be poisoned now establishes a reduced potential for later, and sometimes not that much later.
Effects and debility from pesticide exposure can arrive quickly, OR be hidden for decades for an incomprehensible later regret.
I have provided quite enough research data on my website (http://poisonedpeople.com/) to show unequivocally that pesticides (including weedicides/herbicides) are toxic to all aspects of all life. Further, pesticides promote the classic symptom of abdominal pain in children (Dr. B. Grabau, 2005, pers. comm.), or, “non-specific abdominal gastric pain” (Grabau, 2005) and aggressive behaviour and delinquency in teens (Hatherill, 1999; Tvedten, 1999, 2002:2), as well as cancer, foetal death, miscarriages, and premature births (NCAP, 1999:3; Bonn, 2005; Cox, 2004). In fact, what are usually classified as ‘non-specific’ symptoms can be themselves a characteristic or major signature of pesticide and other toxic chemical poisoning dynamics.
A “study showed there was approximately [a] 2-fold greater risk of having a stillbirth if the mother lived within 1 mile from an agricultural area which used organophosphate – pyrethroid[16] – carbamate – or chlorinated pesticides“[17]
Glyphosate… is a non-selective, systematic herbicide. This organophosphate compound is the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup
[18] (Royal Society of Chemistry 2009).
Perhaps some of the mysterious “cancers of unknown primary site… a special pathological entity with distinctive features” (Bishop, 2008) that “represents 4% of all cancers, but sadly 8% of cancer deaths” (Firth, 2008) in New South Wales (Australia) can be explained through the huge increase in ENVIRONMENTAL SATURATION BY PESTICIDE PRODUCTS? And what does this kind of saturation produce in terms of understanding we presently have? Note: “Two separate studies in Sweden have linked exposure to Glyphosate to Hairy Cell Leukemia and Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. These types of cancers were extremely rare, however non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the Western world. It has risen by 73% in the USA since 1973. Another study has found a higher incidence of Parkinson disease amongst farmers who used herbicides, including glyphosate” (Leu, 2007 citing Cox, 1998; Lehmann & Pengue, 2000; Nordstrom, et al., 1998; Hardell & Eriksson, 1999). NONE OF THIS COULD POSSIBLY BE BECAUSE ROUNDUP IS NOW THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR HERBICIDE, COULD IT???
ROUNDUP, THE MAJOR CAUSE OF, NOW, THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR CANCER!!?[19]
And, in the plant kingdom, are GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEEDS[20] enough of a comprehensive ‘victory’ for this FATALLY FLAWED TECHNOLOGY? No. ENTER, AN IMPENDING GLOBAL HUMAN DISEASE HOLOCAUST.
It should be noted with grave reserve that organophosphates have been implicated by some researchers in cattle becoming more susceptible to Mad Cow Disease [BSE – Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy]. However, opinion on this matter is divided. Certainly, OPs cannot improve any public health issue. Please note that: “the Purdey/Brown chemical poisoning model matches with the epidemiological spread of CJD [Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of BSE] clusters in humans. It also predicts the incidence of BSE-type diseases in animals. The accepted infectious model fits neither” (Dunne 2000, cited by Rotella 2003).
LOOK FOR ANIMAL DISEASE EPIDEMICS AS INFLAMMATORY SIGNATURES OF TOXIC CHEMICAL USE & EXPOSURE! Then apply this principle to us…[21]
Further: “OPs can persist in the environment for long periods of time. Indeed, OPs are detected in soils years after application… conditions can occur in soil whereOPs are preserved and transferred to humans through food. Areview of the literature shows that OPs are highly toxic andthat human exposure is undesirable. Evidence suggests that OPsare mutagenic and teratogenic and that a large number of modern-daydiseases of the nervous and immune system of mammals can belinked to these pesticides. These include BSE (mad cows disease),CJD, Gulf War syndrome, Parkinson’s disease and multiplesclerosis, arguing for a thorough examination of the environmentalfate and toxicology of OPs as well as their use” (Ragnarsdottir 2000).
Further still: “The possibility that organophosphorus (OP) compounds contribute to motor neuron disease (MND) is supported by association of paraoxonase 1 polymorphisms with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the occurrence of MND in OP compound-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN), in which neuropathy target esterase (NTE) is inhibited by organophosphorylation” (Rainier, et. al., 2008).
Cause and effect just become all the more interesting the more links we put together. Therefore… we should all be very afraid.
“Other studies show that GLYPHOSATE and commercial herbicides containing GLYPHOSATE cause a range of cell mutations and damage to cell DNA. These types of changes are usually regarded as precursors to cancer and birth defects” (Leu, 2007; my emphasis). GLYPHOSATE [Roundup] is persistent (NCAP, 2000:2, citing US EPA, 1993-2) and may last up to 3 years (NCAP, 2000:2, citing Torstensson et al., 1989), while its metabolite, AMPA [aminomethylphosphonic acid], may persist even longer, “with a half life in soil between 119 and 958 days” (Buffin & Jewell, 2001, citing WHO, 1994). GLYPHOSATE is toxic to fish, aquatic organisms, soil life (including earthworms, mycorrhizal fungi, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, micro-organisms and arthropods), plants (through disease susceptibility), and beneficial insect species (Leu, 2007; van der Werf, 1996). “Studies show a reduction in the species that build humus, thus [GLYPHOSATE] contributes to the decline in soil organic matter” (Leu 2007). ROUNDUP causes genetic mutations in cell tests (NCAP, 2000:2, citing Vigfusson & Vyse, 1980; Kale et al., 1995; Rank et al., 1993) and is linked to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (Cox, 2004; Vachani, 2007), miscarriages and Attention Deficit Disorder (Cox, 2004). ROUNDUP contains surfactants that are acutely toxic to humans and animals, even potentially causing death in humans (Cox, 1993:4, citing Sawada, et al., 1988; and Talbot, 1991). “Glyphosate tolerant (GT) crops and glyphosate herbicide (commercial formulation, Roundup) poison nitrogen fixing and other beneficial soil bacteria, increase fungal pathogens, undermine plant immunity to diseases, decrease plant micronutrients available in the soil, and more… Research findings over the past decades paint a damning picture of the cropping system that has taken over 85 percent of the 134 million hectares of global agricultural land now growing genetically modified (GM) crops (see [1] Scientists Reveal Glyphosate Poisons Crops and Soil, SiS 47). The unprecedented rise in GT crops has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the use of the glyphosate herbicides worldwide, especially in the US… The ecological disaster has been unfolding amid mounting evidence of the herbicide’s adverse impacts on human and animal health” (Institute of Science in Society 2010. Original research: Ho & Cherry 2010). ROUNDUP has also been heavily implicated in thyroid, liver and pancreatic tumours in test animals (Cox, 1993:4, citing Dykstra & Ghali, 1991), and in poisonings shockingly misdiagnosed as aneurysm, head trauma, diabetic acidosis, severe bacterial gastroenteritis, pneumonia and whooping cough in infants (Reeves, Schafer, Hallward & Katten, 1999:17, citing Solomon & Mott, 1998; Zweinerd & Ginsburg, 1988).
THAT MEANS MANY COMMON ILLNESSES THOUGHT TO ARISE THROUGH OTHER CAUSES ARE ACTUALLY CREATED BY THE MASSIVE QUANTITIES OF GLYPHOSATE USED WORLDWIDE BY AGRICULTURE, STATE FORESTS, NATIONAL PARKS, COUNCILS, RAILWAYS, GOLF CLUBS, LEAGUES CLUBS & PRIVATE RESIDENTS!
And it also means that exposed children may have their entire lives ruined at critical developmental stages by the formula: child + glyphosate = ADHD (Cox, 2004). For adults, a “study of 56 men exposed to organophosphate pesticides detected memory problems and difficulty in maintaining alertness and focusing attention” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Annual Reviews in Public Health, 7:461, 1986 [Sharp, et. al., 1986]).
But, who gives a damn? How interesting it is (in retrospect, now that I understand what happened) that my son’s daily abdominal pains started in early 2001 at age 8 ½ within a few weeks of my unit’s chemical barrier termite pesticide treatment (the treatment that my public housing landlord forced upon me). At that very time my body was being increasingly hammered by extensive joint/muscle pains, eye/skin irritation, chronic nose bleeds, fatigue and incoordination. My son stayed at my place during the school week all that year. His pains were present each and every morning throughout 2001, the period of heaviest exposure to the detectable pesticide odour inside my unit. Because of the abdominal pains, my son had to go to school each morning for the whole of 2001 without breakfast. That meant he ate all his available food (play lunch and lunch) in one hit during recess at primary school and then gorged again immediately after school at his mother’s home. He put on a tremendous amount of weight. This response was somewhat incongruent with his exercise levels increasing dramatically from 2000 on (vigorous swimming lessons, extra swim sessions, and a lot of walking). As well, from 2001 to 2003, my son stayed with his mom at her Cox Street South Windsor public housing unit. And from 2001 to 2005/6, the no less than 10 termiticide treatments (Public Housing Tenant #1[22], 2005, Letter: 15th Dec.) that took place in the public housing unit immediately next door ensured that my child, while at Cox Street, was continuously exposed to episodes of detectable pesticide vapour (Public Housing Tenant #2, 2002, pers. comm.). Then, in 2003 in Grade 5 and at around age 11, he and his mother moved laterally into further public housing to McQuade Avenue South Windsor, next to the golf club. It was then, in becoming exposed to continuous levels of pesticide vapours originating largely from the golf course[23] behind his house, that my son began experiencing negative neurological effects: irrational anger and aggression on a level such as he had never, ever displayed before.
How interesting that this extremely distressing and brand new neurological issue started at that time, likely (#1) as a chemical-sensitive development from previous exposures to, strictly, TERMITE PESTICIDES in my unit and next door to his mother’s Cox Street unit, but also (#2) because of significant and higher exposures to other varieties of pesticides (herbicides), INCLUDING THE ORGANOPHOSPHATE GLYPHOSATE, emanating from the McQuade Avenue environment. And during this year (2003), as I became consistently exposed to organophosphate herbicide through my constant visits to my son in McQuade Av., my mental state deteriorated to where, in 2004, I experienced horrific ‘suicidal ideation’. 2004/5 became the worst years of my life, I believe because of CONSISTENT EXPOSURE TO ORGANOPHOSPHATE HERBICIDE IN MCQUADE AVENUE. (On a lesser, though still very disturbing level, I noticed then as I do now, that if I stay at this residence for a period of hours with the wind direction notably coming from the golf club over the house, I will end up with an extremely painful sore throat.)
In late April 2005, I photographed extensively sprayed and totally dead vegetation between my son’s back fence and the golf club’s east perimeter fence line. The spraying likely occurred in February/March 2005. And that year my son’s aggression became even worse than before, threatening his ability to function at school (only constant reassurance and help from a father who could barely reassure himself saved him). Note: “He [my son] has suffered adverse health effects as a result of accidental pesticide exposure between 2000 and 2002, and this has adversely affected him in a number of ways… reduced mobility and gastrointestinal changes… [and he] is adversely affected by exposure to a range of common chemicals, including pesticides and solvents…” (Dr. Mark Donohoe, Medical Certificate/letter, 17 June 2005). A continuum of exposure to different pesticides (mostly sub-surface chemical barrier termiticide treatments prior to 2003), and then from early 2003 in McQuade Avenue even more obscene surface exposures to large quantities of, perhaps, PERSISTENT ROUNDUP and/or other pesticide agents. And now my son also has tinnitus, EMF sensitivity, a predisposition to joint pains, and a condition perilously close to diabetes (Dr. N. Morris, 2008, pers. comm.)! As well, he has had a liver ultrasound and that did not produce good news. Also, he is extremely ‘jumpy’ at my unit (where his largest termite pesticide exposure occurred), but not at his mother’s. I believe this is analogous to my depression. My constant depressive state is my particular response in terms of my extreme sensitivity to undetectable levels of chemicals in my unit (P. Turner [Occupational Hygienist], 2005, pers. comm.).
A child does not experience years of continuous pesticide exposure without long-term ramifications. And me? Within 2 weeks of pulling the herbicide-laden weeds on May 20th 2008, I developed knee joint pains. Initially they were exactly the type of pain and debility I was afflicted with after my initial Dec. 2000 poisoning with termiticide. Now, longer-term, the joint pains are different, more in tune with MCS joint pains in response, for example, to a tetanus shot. And now in August 2008, I have had the worst chronic fatigue I’ve ever experienced. How interesting.[24]
How many organic (physical) and psychological/behavioural/sociological problems in residents in McQuade Avenue and elsewhere could be linked to the spraying of various pesticide nerve agents nearby[25], given a thorough medical specialist investigation and epidemiological survey?
Note that Ontario farming populations have been subjected to just such an epidemiological study. IT SHOWED THAT EXPOSURE TO GLYPHOSATE CAUSED NEARLY A DOUBLING OF SPONTANEOUS ABORTIONS[26]
Or are these human rights too hard, too politically uncomfortable, or not important enough because the residents may not be upper class or influential? In a country that is supposedly a signatory to conventions enshrining the rights of children, we must STOP imposing disease and psychiatric disorders on our little ones through, essentially, CRIMINAL CHEMICAL EXPOSURE![27] Perhaps a legal test case is what is needed…
In real poisoning cases, a massive component of people’s feelings, emotions, physical suffering and dysfunction is NOT THEIR FAULT! Note:
“Pollution causes some people to commit violent crimes: In our myopia, we’ve neglected this obvious possibility. Yet a rapidly expanding body of research shows that heavy metals such as lead and pesticides decrease mental ability and increase aggressiveness“ (Hatherill, 1999; my emphasis).
This stands as an extreme warning regarding rage attacks and obscene acts of animal cruelty. A polluted society is also affected MENTALLY. Are YOU forever upset or angry and don’t know why (as I was)? Are your emotions see-sawing (like mine did and still do)? Are your kids like this (mine was)? Can they focus on school? Are you tired all the time or too young to be getting joint pains (e.g. in your elbows, wrists, fingers, knees, or ankles)? Do you get aches across your shoulders when simply standing still? Do you have ‘ringing in the ears’ (tinnitus), or muscle pains that change locations? Do you get spontaneous back strains while doing nothing? Do medications make you sick (e.g. Panadeine Forte and kidney pain, or antibiotics and shocking nausea)? Do you have “eye irritation, burning eyes, blurred vision, skin rashes, burning or itchy skin, nausea, sore throat [I’ve had a dreadful sore throat for 8 years!], asthma[28] and difficulty breathing, headache, lethargy, nose bleeds, and dizziness” (Cox, 2004)? Do some people think you’re crazy and assert you should take psychoactive medication for your problems when you know that your symptoms are PHYSICALLY REAL? Are you weary of people locked into outdated thinking disrespecting you and assuming the tired, time-worn, offensive, medically outdated and dumbly institutionalized stereotype… that you’re a dysfunctional hypochondriac?
SUSPECT PESTICIDE!
Now, why should we be suspicious of chemical technologies? Let’s see… 1 in 3 people in England will develop cancer[29]. 1 in 4 people in industrialized countries will die from CANCER, with only about 5 percent of cancers being attributable to genetic susceptibility, and with even this level of susceptibility being likely a product of “environmental insults”
[30]. 1 in 8 women have breast cancer[31]. Over 30 million people in 2002 in the US alone had been diagnosed with asthma, with over 4200 deaths[32]. Over 40 million people in the US alone are afflicted with rheumatic conditions (including arthritis), with this overall condition being the leading cause of disability for those 65+[33]. More than 194 million people worldwide have diabetes[34]. 15% of the US population suffers from MCS[35]. 4.1 million people in 15 of the world’s largest nations have Parkinson’s Disease, with this number predicted by the journal Neurology to double over the next generation[36]. 2.5 million people worldwide have Multiple Sclerosis[37]. More than 5 million people worldwide have systemic lupus erythematosus[38]. So, in other words, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease mortality has soared in the last twenty years. The increase is blamed by researchers on PESTICIDES, industrial chemicals, car exhausts and other pollutants[39].
Let’s live in the REAL WORLD and address this BONAFIDE RESEARCH instead of lazily falling back on a repetitive and corporatized dumb faith in internally conflicted, careless ‘professional practice’ and DESTRUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES.
We need a forum on this issue (which is why I’ve contacted Jenny Brockie, of the SBS program Insight), a very substantial cross disciplinary forum from which we might extract rapid changes to current practices so that THE INJURED ARE NO LONGER FORCED TO SUFFER LONG AFTER THE INITIAL INJURY EVENT THROUGH PROTRACTED LEGAL ACTION! All contributors to the legal system need to participate in this forum with a view to generating profound improvements in the legal process and, thereby, HUMAN RIGHTS! See my essay: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/essays/essay3-diminishing-returns-of-complexity.pdf.
For those with political clout, please address this specific issue, and also more generally in relation to any council’s or golf club’s position within the community and their intersection with broader terrestrial and aquatic environments. Specifically consider past and recent spraying activities (as recorded in the photos on my website) between McQuade Avenue and down to Rickabys Creek, OH&S RESPONSIBILITIES, THE WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT, AND DUTY OF CARE RESPONSIBILITIES TO GOLFERS AND PRIVATE RESIDENTS LIVING NEAR THEM, INCLUDING THE PREVENTION OF CHEMICAL TRESPASS IN RESIDENT’S PRIVATE BACKYARDS.
WHAT’S CHILDHOOD ASTHMA WORTH?
WHAT’S ADHD WORTH?
WHAT’S CANCER WORTH?
WHAT ARE MISCARRIAGES WORTH?
WHAT ARE ALL THESE PESTICIDE-INDUCED & -AMPLIFIED DISEASES WORTH TO A SOCIETY THAT PLACES PROFITS, PHARMACEUTICAL/POLITICAL ALLIANCES & COSMETIC CONVENIENCE AHEAD OF HUMAN RIGHTS? WHAT’S A CLASS ACTION BY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POISONED PEOPLE WORTH?
Those who are responsible for these continuous episodes of pesticide spraying should be required to provide Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for all sprays used in McQuade Avenue and along the club’s east perimeter fence since the start of 2000 (because herbicide residues from applications in this year would have still been present when my son moved to McQuade Avenue in 2003), together with an explicit record of the application/spray dates. It would be responsible to log these identifying details (inc. the composition and toxicology of the sprays) against weather conditions (including wind direction) for those dates and subsequent periods, AS IS REQUIRED BY THE PESTICIDES ACT 1999 & REGULATION[xl]. This information may also be very useful in future epidemiological surveys of the McQuade Ave & Cox Street residents, and the herbicide applicators who used the sprays[xli], studies similar to the Castlereagh Human Health Study (Williams & Jalaludin, 1993) that investigated the increased disease incidence arising through toxic waste leakage from the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre in Londonderry, Sydney. Note in this regard in the areas affected by depot leachate (leaking toxic waste residues): “the Human Health Study found that the “rate of brain cancer in males [is] more than three times the NSW average”, with “the breast cancer rate between 1979 and 1983… two-and-a-half times the State average, with eight cases identified, while three cases of uterine cancer between 1984 and 1988… [were] more than five times the average” (Kerr, 1995:1-3)” (Thompson, 1998:9). Strangely, the study’s politically comfortable ‘inconclusive’ outcome was followed by an “alert status [that was] adopted in relation to [the] health outcomes…” (Williams & Jalaludin, 1993:v).
What rate increases IN DISEASES (or behavioural problems) might we find in McQuade Avenue?
This is, at the very least, the variety of study needed in any location where toxic agents have been used over an extended period of time. As well, behavioural studies could look at any increased incidence of sociological problems relating to chemical exposure, toxic burden AND CONSEQUENT NEUROLOGICAL IMPACT. Societal aggression and anti-social behaviour has a significant TOXICOLOGICAL COMPONENT woven into it. This is where law enforcement needs to become more educated (hence, why I have contacted the New South Wales Police Force, Crime Victims Support Assoc. Inc., the Australian Crime Prevention Council, etc.). We need more knowledge and controls across the board to stop negligent poisoning. I have contacted Windsor Police on numerous occasions and, despite their concerned, sympathetic and cooperative attitude, they are helpless to prevent this kind of poisoning. However, at the suggestion of Windsor Police, I am here using mass media to embarrass those who have put my son’s health at risk (Const. Burns 2008, pers. comm. 6th June).
Disappointingly, the Hawkesbury Council appear resigned to a dream world where they are uncertain that herbicide spray comes out of a pesticide spray nozzle upwind from exposed and unprotected members of the public, including babies in prams. Even though I explicitly photographed this happening on a refreshing and breezy Windsor day (http://poisonedpeople.com/index8.html#SPRAY DRIFT)[xlii].
Certainly, this entire monstrous issue awkwardly straddles political, business, environmental, agricultural, sports, recreational, legal, human health, behavioural and public order concerns. But that is no reason to avoid it.
QUITE THE CONTRARY [xliii]
The APVMA needs to start recognizing and internalizing this readily available research and make PROFOUND CHANGES TO THE WAY THEY THINK AND DO. Note:
“…we need to make a huge shift in the way we regulate chemicals… Our regulators have made yet another mistake and while they will say there are no problems with the existing system and will defend it, along with the manufacturing industry, it will eventually be changed – it will just take 10 or 20 years for it to happen” (Dingle, 2005).
Meanwhile our children get sick and die from pesticide-induced cancers & other illnesses by the truckload[xliv]. These were once illnesses that were reserved for the elderly, but which are now the domain of our precious youth through the flooding of our environment with highly toxic chemicals.
Back to The Paris Appeal:
We call upon national decision-makers, European Authorities, international organizations, and specifically the United Nations Organization (UNO), to take the following measures:
Measure # 1
Banning all products that are certainly or probably carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMRs) for human beings, as specified by competent international scientific authorities and organizations, and therefore applying to these products the principle of substitution; exceptionally, whenever implementation of this principle is not feasible and the use of the product concerned is considered unavoidable, limiting its use to a minimum with particularly stringent measures of fixed quotas,
Applying the precautionary principle to all chemicals that, regardless of toxicity characteristics specified in Measure # 1 (refer to §9 and §13), and because they are persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT) or very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB), constitute an allegedly serious and/or irreversible danger for human and/or animal health, and more generally the environment, without waiting for the definite proof of an epidemiological link, so as to anticipate and avoid serious and/or irreversible sanitary or ecological damage,
Promoting the adoption of toxicological standards or international thresholds to protect people, based on the assessment of risks for the most vulnerable, i.e. mostly children and the embryo.
With respect to the precautionary principle, adopting programs with scheduled deadlines and targets in precise figures so as to achieve elimination or strictly regulated reduction in polluting substances emissions and in the utilization of marketed chemicals, such as pesticides, modeling the reduction in use implemented in Sweden, Denmark or Norway… (IDEA, 2006).
IN THIS INSANE, CHEMICALLY-ADDICTED WORLD IT IS NOT AGAINST THE LAW TO CHEMICALLY ASSAULT A PERSON: TO SPRAY POISON OVER AN INDIVIDUAL VIA THE SHEER STUPIDITY & NEGLIGENCE OF SPRAY DRIFT, OR SPLATTER TOXIC PESTICIDE INTO A FAMILY’S BACK YARD FROM AN ADJOINING PROPERTY. Even if that TOXIC AGENT amplifies behavioural problems, generates learning difficulties, promotes joint pains, fatigue, leg cramps or restless leg syndrome (ruining sleep for hundreds of thousands worldwide)[xlv], or spurs on the CANCER pandemic[xlvi], or ABORTS FOETUSES in humans, or is a potential SLATE-WIPER in the wider environment! Even if the use of these chemicals stands as a statement of profound CHARACTER DESTRUCTION ON ALL LEVELS.
THIS IS THE SIGNATURE OF A TECHNOLOGIZED & BRUTALIZED SOCIETY INFATUATED WITH MONSTROUSLY TOXIC POISONS. A DUMB SOCIETY OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE TRUE REALITY OF A PLANET DEMANDING RESPECT & COOPERATION SIMPLY BY VIRTUE OF ITS INHERENT MAKEUP & DESIGN[xlvii]! WHAT WE ARE DOING WITH CHEMICALS NOW HAS NO PRECEDENT IN HISTORY!
Politicians of Australia & world leaders alike, WE NEED THOSE LAWS. FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Feel free to write or email me should you wish to follow up on this issue.
Murray Thompson, BAppSc Environmental Health with Distinction 1998 (Australian Institute of Environmental Health [NSW] Division Award for Best Overall Graduating Student), Hons I Social Ecology 1999, UWS Hawkesbury
NEW SOUTH WALES CO-COORDINATOR, MCS-GLOBAL WEBSITE: www.mcs-global.org
Postal Address: PO Box 605, New Norfolk, TAS 7140 Australia; Email: poisonedpeople@gmail.com; Websites: http://poisonedpeople.com & http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au
THIS LETTER HAS BEEN SENT TO:
John Aquilina, MP, Member for Riverstone, PO Box 65 Stanhope Gardens, NSW 2768, Australia; Ms. Louise Markus, Federal Member for Greenway, PO Box 855 Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia – Ph: (02) 4577 2631; David Bradbury M.P., Federal Member for Lindsay, PO Box 712 Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia, The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia & PO Box 249, Maroubra, NSW 2035, Australia; The Hon Nicola Roxon MP – Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, GPO Box 9848, Canberra ACT, 2601, Australia; The Hon. John Della Bosca, BA MLC, Minister for Health, Level 30 Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia; Ian Cohen MLC (NSW Legislative Council), Parliament House Macquarie St. Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia; Ms. Sylvia Hale (Greens MP), NSW Parliament, Macquarie St. Sydney, 2000, Australia; Ms. Lee Rhiannon MLC, (NSW Legislative Council) Parliament House Macquarie St. Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia; Senator Bob Brown, GPO Box 404, Hobart, TASMANIA 7001, Australia & Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600, Australia & Hobart Electorate Office, 1st Floor, Murray St Pier Hobart Tasmania 7000, Australia; The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, PRIME MINISTER, PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600, Australia & PO Box 476A, Morningside Qld 4170, Australia; ACTU – Australian Council of Trade Unions National Secretariat, PO Box 6222, Kingston ACT 2604, Australia & Level 6, 365 Queen Street Melbourne Victoria 3000, Australia; Secretary: Matthew Cossey, Australian Labour Party, Australian Capital Territory Branch, GPO Box 3065, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; General Secretary: Karl Bitar, Australian Labour Party, New South Wales Branch, PO Box K408, Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia; Australian Greens National Office, GPO Box 1108 Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; The Greens Victoria, GPO Box 4589 Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia; The Queensland Greens, PO Box 5763 West End QLD 4101, Australia; The Tasmania Greens, GPO Box 1132 Hobart TAS 7001, Australia; The Greens South Australia, 239 Wright Street Adelaide SA 5000, Australia; Rural Health Branch (MDP 91), Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, GPO Box 9848 Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; NATIONAL HEALTH & MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, GPO Box 1421 Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; Terri, Bindi & Robert Irwin, Australia Zoo, Steve Irwin Way, Beerwah, Queensland 4519, Australia; AHEC – Australian Health Ethics Committee, NHMRC, GPO Box 1421 Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; Medical Services Committee, Level 8, 187 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; NSW Scientific Committee, PO Box 1967, Hurstville NSW 2220; NSW Medical Board, PO Box 104 , Gladesville NSW 2111; Pharmacy Board of NSW, LOCKED BAG 2 , Haymarket NSW 1240; NSW Department of Health North Coast Area Health Service, LOCKED BAG 11 , Lismore NSW 2480, Australia; Department of State and Regional Development, NSW Office for Science and Medical Research, GPO Box 5477, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Cancer Institute NSW, Level 1, Biomedical Building, Australian Technology Park, Central Avenue (off Garden Road) Eveleigh NSW 2015, Australia & Locked Mail Bag 1, Kings Cross NSW 1340, Australia & PO Box 41, Alexandria NSW 1435, Australia; Medical Committees (and Sub Committees) under the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act, PO Box 103 , Gladesville NSW 2111, Australia; Poisons Advisory Committee, PO Box 103 , Gladesville NSW 1675, Australia; Nurses and Midwives Board New South Wales, PO Box K599 , Haymarket NSW 1238, Australia; NSW Department of Health, Greater Western Area Health Service, PO Box 4061, Dubbo NSW 2830, Australia; NSW Department of Health, Greater Southern Area Health Service, PO Box 1845 , Queanbeyan NSW 2620, Australia; NSW Department of Health, LOCKED BAG 961, North Sydney NSW 2059, Australia; NSW Department of Health, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, LOCKED BAG 4001, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia; NSW Department of Health – Justice Health, PO Box 150, Matraville NSW 2036, Australia; Mental Health Review Tribunal, PO Box 2019, Boronia Park NSW 2111, Australia; NSW Department of Health, South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service, LOCKED BAG 8808 South Coast Mail Centre, Wollongong NSW 2521, Australia; Sydney Children’s Hospital – Randwick, High Street Randwick NSW 2031, Australia; NSW Institute of Psychiatry, LOCKED BAG 7118, Parramatta NSW 2150, Australia; Prof. Wai-on Phoon AM (Singapore), MBBS (Malaya), FRCP (London), FRACP (Australia), FRFPS (Glasgow), FRCP (Edinburgh), FRCP (Glasgow), FFOM (London), FFPHM (England), DIH (England), DIHSA (London), DCH (England), FAMS (Singapore), Hon. FACOM (Australasia), FAFRM (Australasia), Emeritus Professor of Occupational Health University of Sydney and Consultant Physician in Occupational Medicine and Occupational Rehabilitation, Pymble Medical Consultants P/L, PO Box 818, Pymble NSW 2073, Australia; NSW Institute of Teachers, PO Box A976, Sydney South NSW 1235, Australia; Ministry for Police, PO Box A66, Sydney South NSW 1235, Australia; Police Association of NSW, P O Box A1097, SYDNEY SOUTH, NSW 1232, Australia; NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE FORCE, Locked Bag 5102, PARRAMATTA NSW 2124, Australia; Victim Support Service Inc. (VSS), PO Box 6610, Halifax Street, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia; CRIME VICTIMS SUPPORT ASSOC. INC., PO Box 8150 Ferntree Gully Vic. 3156, Australia; Serious Offenders Review Council, PRIVATE BAG 144, Silverwater NSW 1811, Australia; Youth Justice Advisory Committee, PO Box K399, Haymarket NSW 1240, Australia; Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, GPO Box 2403, Brisbane QLD 4001, Australia; Mr. Herbert Weller, Solicitor, PO Box 184 Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Mr. Trevor Boyd, Barrister, Selborne Chambers, Second Floor, 174 Phillip St., Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Mr. Chris Leahy, Barrister SC, Queen’s Square Chambers, Level 1, Beanbah, 235 Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Mark Chapple (Managing Partner), Baker & McKenzie, Environmental Lawyers, Level 27, A.M.P. Centre, 50 Bridge Street Sydney N.S.W. 2000, Australia; Total Environment Centre, PO Box A176, Sydney South NSW 1235, Australia; Environmental Defender’s Office New South Wales (Ltd), Level 1, 89 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Earthwatch Institute, 126 Bank Street, South Melbourne Victoria 3205, Australia; Department of Justice and Attorney-General, GPO Box 149, Brisbane QLD 4001, Australia; The Executive Director, Australian Law Reform Commission, GPO Box 3708, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia & info@alrc.gov.au; New South Wales Bar Association, Selborne Chambers, 174 Phillip Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia; The Law Society of New South Wales, 170 Phillip Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Attorney General’s Department of NSW, Parramatta Justice Precinct, 160 Marsden St., Locked Bag 5111, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia & Attorney General’s Department of NSW, Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, GPO Box 6, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Attorney General’s Department of NSW, NSW Sentencing Council, GPO Box 6, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Attorney General’s Department of NSW, Victims Services NSW, Victims of Crime Bureau, LOCKED BAG 5118, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia; Attorney General’s Department of NSW, Office of the Legal Services Commissioner, GPO Box 4460, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Attorney General’s Department of NSW, Office of the Sheriff of NSW, PO Box A4, Sydney South NSW 1235, Australia; Judicial Commission of New South Wales, GPO Box 3634, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; NSW State Parole Authority, GPO Box 31, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RESOURCE CENTRE (DVRC), P.O Box 3278, South Brisbane BC QLD 4101, Australia; Brisbane Domestic Violence Advocacy Service, P.O Box 3278 South Brisbane BC QLD 4101, Australia; Premier’s Council for Women, GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Public Interest Advocacy Centre NSW (PIAC), Level 9, 299 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; National Women’s Justice Coalition Inc , GPO Box 3148, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia; Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) Australia Office, PO Box 191, Civic Square ACT 2608, Australia; AUSTRALIAN CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL, Mr. Andrew Paterson, National Secretary and Public Officer, Empower Justice Services, PO Box 242, HAPPY VALLEY SA, 5159, Australia; INTERNATIONAL POLICE ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA, secretary@ipa-australiapolice.com.au; AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE ASSOCIATION, GPO Box 132, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; Juvenile Justice Advisory Council of NSW, Level 24, 477 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales, Level 16, Suite 23, 327 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Department of Corrective Services, GPO Box 31, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; New South Wales Crime Commission, PO Box Q566, Sydney NSW 1230, Australia; Office for Children, Level 2, 407 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia; Children’s Court Advisory Committee, 2 George Street, Parramatta NSW 2150, Australia; Honorable Al Gore, 2100 West End Avenue, Suite 620 Nashville, TN 37203, USA; Amnesty International, Locked Bag 23, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia; Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission, 133 Castlereagh St., Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Department of Justice, Victoria, 121 Exhibition St. Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia; Civil Liberties Australia, PO Box 7438 Fisher ACT 2611, Australia; The Human Rights Council of Australia, PO Box 1071 North Sydney NSW 2059, Australia; INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON HUMAN RIGHTS, ICHRP, 48 chemin du Grand-Montfleury, P.O. Box 147, CH-1290 Versoix, Geneva, Switzerland; HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor, NEW YORK, NY 10118-3299 USA & 64-66, rue de Lausanne, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland & 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 500, WASHINGTON, DC 20009 USA; INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS, P.O. Box 91, 33, rue des Bains, 1211 GENEVA 8 Switzerland; UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS, OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland; Windsor Country Golf Club, McQuade Avenue, Sth. Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; General Manager, Hawkesbury City Council, PO Box 146 Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Western Sector Public Health Unit – Penrith Office, Nepean Hospital, Great Western Hwy. Kingswood NSW 2747, Australia; Sydney West Area Health Advisory Council, Michael Fearnside, Chairman, PO Box 63, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia; Greenpeace (Australia), Level 4, 35-39 Liverpool St. Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Prof. John Bartlett, Head of School of Natural Sciences, University of Western Sydney – Hawkesbury Campus, Building K8, Locked Bag 1797 Penrith Sth. DC NSW 1797, Australia & l.duncan@uws.edu.au; Professor Stuart B. Hill, Foundation Chair of Social Ecology, School OF Education, University of Western Sydney (Kingswood Campus), Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia; Dr. Martin Mulligan, Senior Research Fellow, Global Studies, Social Science &Planning (Room: 32, Level: 5, Building: 37), RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia; Dr. Robert Woog, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC NSW 1797, Australia; Dr. Vladimir Dimitrov, PhD, DSc, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury Campus, Locked Bag 1797, South Penrith DC 1797, Australia; Australian Pesticides & Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), PO Box 6182, Kingston ACT 2604, Australia; Dr. Mark Donohoe MB BS, specialising in the field of environmental medicine, PO Box 328, Mosman NSW 2088, Australia & Banyan Trading Pty Ltd, Suite 224/656 Military Rd Mosman NSW 2088, Australia; Dr. Rob Apathy, Clinical Neuropsychologist specialising in behavioural & learning disorders, and the effects of environmental toxins on children, 41 Antill St, Downer ACT 2602, Australia; Dr Hilton Lowe G.P. MBBS Mac/Nem, 680 Victoria Rd, Ryde NSW 2112, Australia; Dr Chris Reading B. Sc., Dip Ag., M.b., B.S., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P., M.A.C.N.E.M., PO Box 587 Dee Why, NSW 2099, Australia; Dr. Richard Baker, Level 7, 229-231 Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia; CFIDS Association of America, PO Box 220398, Charlotte, NC 28222-0398 USA; ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society of NSW Inc., Suite 204, 10 Help Street Chatswood NSW 2067, Australia; The ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association, C/- ME/CFS Australia, 23 Livingstone Close Burwood VIC 3125, Australia; The ACT ME/CFS Society Inc., C/- Shout, PO Box 717, Mauson ACT 2607, Australia; ME/CFS Society of Western Australia, The Centre for Neurological Support, The Nichs, 11 Aberdare Road, Nedlands PERTH, W.A. 6009, Australia; The Australian Chemical Trauma Alliance Inc., 309 East Bonville Road, Bonville NSW 2441, Australia; ME/CFS Australia (S.A.) Inc., GPO Box 383 Adelaide S.A. 5001, Australia; Mr. Blake Graham, Subiaco Business Centre, Suite 5, 531 Hay Street Subiaco, Perth W.A. 6008, Australia; Dr. Nagwa Morris, South Windsor Medical Practice, 508a George Street, Sth. Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Windsor Police Station, 32 Bridge Road, Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Prof. Constance H. Katelaris, Suite 308, 151-155 Hawkesbury Road, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia; Dr Philip N. Sambrook, Professor of Rheumatology, University of Sydney, Institute of Bone & Joint Research, Level 4 Block 4, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards NSW 2065, Australia; Professor Richard I. Lindley, Western Clinical School, Westmead Hospital, Darcy Road, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia; Professor Warwick J. Britton, Central Clinical School, Blackburn Building, University of Sydney NSW 2006, Australia; Associate Professor John E. Kellow, Northern Clinical School, Royal North Shore Hospital, Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065, Australia; Legal Aid NSW (Civil & Family), 91 Philip St., Parramatta NSW 2150 & 323 Castlereagh St. Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia; NSW Ombudsman, Level 24, 580 George St., Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Prof. Stephen Cordner, Director, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, 57-83 Kavanagh Street, Southbank, Victoria, 3006, Australia; Dept. of Environment & Climate Change (NSW), 79 George Street Parramatta NSW 2150, Australia & 59-61 Goulburn Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia & PO Box A290, Sydney South NSW 1232, Australia; Department of Environment and Climate Change, Marine Parks Authority, GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Department of Environment and Climate Change, Climate Change and Environment Protection Group Environmental Trust, PO Box 644, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia; Department of Environment and Climate Change, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Mrs Macquarie Road, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia; Sydney Catchment Authority, PO Box 323, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia; Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, PO Box N408 , Grosvenor Place, Sydney, NSW 1220, Australia; Lake Illawarra Authority, PO Box 867, Wollongong NSW 2520, Australia; Lachlan Catchment Management Authority, PO Box 726, Forbes NSW 2871, Australia; Chipping Norton Lakes Authority, PO Box 867, Wollongong NSW 2520, Australia; NSW Aboriginal Land Council, PO Box 1125, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia; Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Authority, PO Box 363, Buronga NSW 2739, Australia; Murray Catchment Management Authority, PO Box 835, Deniliquin NSW 2710, Australia; Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authority, PO Box 5224, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650, Australia; Department of Lands, Office of Rural Affairs, PO Box 1314, ORANGE NSW 2800, Australia; Agricultural Scientific Collections Trust, Orange Agricultural Institute, Forest Road, Orange NSW 2800, Australia; National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council, 43 Bridge Street, Hurstville NSW 2220, Australia; Noxious Weeds Advisory Committee, LOCKED BAG 21, Orange NSW 2800, Australia; Rural Lands Protection Boards State Council, LOCKED BAG 21, Orange NSW 2800, Australia; Central West Catchment Management Authority, PO Box 227, Wellington NSW 2820, Australia; Fisheries Scientific Committee, LOCKED BAG 1, Nelson Bay NSW 2315, Australia; Department of Lands, GPO Box 15, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Councillor Leigh Williams, 345 West Portland Rd, Sackville NSW 2756, Australia; Councillor Barry Calvert, 5 Clyde Lane, Kurrajong Heights, NSW 2758, Australia; Councillor Kevin Conolly, P.O Box 5751, STH. Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Councillor Trevor Devine, 81 Woods Rd, Sth. Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Councillor Dianne Finch, P.O Box 17, Kurrajong NSW 2758, Australia; Councillor Christine Paine, ‘Sunnybrae’ 12 Fitzgerald St., Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Councillor Bob Porter, 279 Grono Farm Rd, Wilberforce NSW 2756, Australia; Councillor Neville Wearne, P.O Box 407 Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Councillor Paul Rasmussen, 199 Springwood Rd, Yarramundi NSW 2753, Australia; CRS Australia, Westpoint Office Tower, Level 18, 17 Patrick Street Blacktown NSW 2148, Australia, & 299 George Street Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Workcover NSW, Locked Bag 2906, Lisarow NSW 2252, Australia; Workplace Authority, GPO Box 9842 Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Workplace Ombudsman, GPO Box 9887 Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Workers Compensation Commission, PO Box 594, Darlinghurst NSW 1300, Australia; The Land and Environment Court of NSW, GPO Box 3565, Sydney NSW 2001, Australia; Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority, 68 Mileham Street Windsor NSW 2756, Australia; Rural Press Limited, Bells Line of Road, Nth. Richmond NSW 2754, Australia; Diana Buckland, Founder & Global Coordinator, Global Campaign for Recognition of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, 4 Mia St. Kallangur QLD 4503, Australia; Ms. Carolyn McDonagh, Safety Officer, Richmond High School, Lennox Street Richmond NSW 2753, Australia; NSW Dept. of Primary Industries, University of Western Sydney, Building M14, Castle Rd., Richmond NSW 2753, Australia & 12 Shirley Road, Wollstonecraft NSW 2065, Australia & Locked Bag 21, Orange NSW 2800, Australia & PO Box 100, Beecroft NSW 2119, Australia; Animal Research Review Panel, 161 Kite Street, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia; NSW Dairy Industry Conference, PO Box 833, Mudgee NSW 2850, Australia; RSPCA, PO Box 34, Yagoona NSW 2199, Australia; State Water Corporation Fish River Water Supply, 65 Portland Road, Wallerawang NSW 2845, Australia; Hawkesbury Gazette, 291 Windsor Street, Richmond, NSW 2753, Australia; Penrith Press, 407 High Street Penrith NSW 2750, Australia; The Sydney Morning Herald, GPO Box 506 SYDNEY NSW 2001, Australia & letters@smh.com.au; The Daily Telegraph, 2 Holt Street Surry Hills, NSW, 2010, Australia & news@dailytelegraph.com.au; The GREENS GREENVOICE, editorial@lists.nsw.greens.org.au; Jenny Brockie (SBS), Insight, myka.hoffman@sbs.com.au; angellegna3@hotmail.com; Ms. Marian Streicher, Lot 9, Timothy Rd. Londonderry NSW 2753, Australia; Mr. Steve Krix, 20 Fairfield Av. 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ScienceDaily 2003, ‘Genetic Link May Tie Together Pesticides, ADHD, Gulf War Syndrome And Other Disorders’, ScienceDaily LLC, sciencedaily.com; accessed: 15 August 2008.
ScienceDaily 2008, ‘Best Treatment For Multiple Sclerosis May Depend On Disease Subtype’, ScienceDaily LLC, sciencedaily.com, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701150830.htm; accessed: 22 August 2008.
ScienceAlert 2008, ‘Another pesticide resistant weed found’, in ScienceAlert: Australia & New Zealand, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 , http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082608-17859-2.html; accessed: 20 Sept. 2008.
Sharp, et. al. (Sharp, D.S., Eskenazi, B., Harrison, R., Callas, P. and Smith, A.H, 1986, Annual Reviews in Public Health, 7:461, 1986, ‘Delayed Health Hazards of Pesticide Exposure’.
Shomon, M. 2005, ‘Pesticides Targeting West Nile-Carrying Mosquitos May be a Thyroid Danger. Widespread Spraying Taking Place in New York City and Boston’, http://thyroid.about.com/library/weekly/aa072600a.htm, accessed: December 2005.
Sinclair, W. (M.D.; Board Certified Immunology) & Pressinger, R. (M.Ed.) no date, Home and Lawn Pesticides More Dangerous than Previously Believed, http://www.chem-tox.com.pesticides, accessed: 17 July 2008.
Solomon, G.M. & Mott, L.M. 1998, Trouble On The Farm: Growing Up With Pesticides In Agricultural Communities, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, NY, USA.
Talbot, A.R. 1991, ‘Acute poisoning with a glyphosate-surfactant herbicide (‘Roundup’): A review of 93 cases’, Human Exp. Toxicol. 10:1-8.
The Johns Hopkins University, 2002, ‘Backgrounder: Epigenetics and Imprinted Genes’, in Johns Hopkins Medicine, http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2002/november/epigenetics.htm, accessed: 11th Oct. 2008.
Tracy, E., Glass, P., Roder, D., Currow, D., Jeffs, P., & Bishop, J. 2008, Unknown Primary Cancer in New South Wales, Cancer Institute NSW, April, PO Box 41, ALEXANDRIA NSW 1435.
Thompson, M. 1998, Global Toxicity: Chemicals – A Worldwide Nightmare (Highlighting the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre and its Impact on Londonderry, Sydney), Murray S. Thompson, PO Box 5761 SOUTH WINDSOR LPO, NSW 2756.
Tortensson, N.T.L., Lundgren, L.N., and Stenstrom, J. 1989, ‘Influence of climate and edaphic factors on persistence of glyphosate and 2,4-D in forest soils’, Ecotoxicol. Environ. Safety 18:230-239.
Tvedten, S.L. 1999, 2002, The Bug Stops Here, compiled from The Best Control II – Intelligent Pest Management, Copyright 1998 and 2002 by Stephen Tvedten.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Date Unknown, The Simpsons, Episode #Unknown, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
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van der Werf, H.M.G. 1996, ‘Assessing the impact of pesticides on the environment’, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 60 (1996) 81-96, Elsevier Science B.V.
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Vigfusson, N.V., & Vyse, E.R. 1980, ‘The effect of the pesticides Dexon, Captan and Roundup on sister chromatid exchanges in human lymphocytes in vitro’, Mutation Research 79:53-57.
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OBSERVE THE GENERAL FAILURE OF UNDERSTANDING THROUGHOUT SOCIETY. NOTE THAT THE MONUMENTAL ISSUE OF THE POISONING OF OUR FUTURE (OUR CHILDREN & THE ENVIRONMENT) IS MOSTLY VIEWED INCORRECTLY AS A POLITICAL AND VESTED INTERESTS ISSUE FROM WHICH ALL ELSE MUST FOLLOW.
ON THE OTHER HAND, NOTE THAT THE CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF THIS CONUNDRUM SEES IT AS A HUMAN RIGHTS, TOXICOLOGICAL, EPIDEMIOLOGICAL, PUBLIC HEALTH, ECOLOGICAL & EXTINCTION LEVEL IMPERATIVE.
WHO AMONG WORLD LEADERS IN POLITICS AND INDUSTRY COULD POSSIBLY MATCH THAT LEVEL OF HONEST CRITICAL AWARENESS WITH GENUINE CONCERN, PLUS THE WILL TO ACT AND FORCEABLY CHANGE THE NEGATIVE TRAJECTORY OF HISTORY?
WHO’S ‘REAL’, AND WHO’S LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD WHERE TECHNOLOGY COULDN’T POSSIBLY BE THAT PROBLEMATIC AND TREACHEROUS FOR
AN ENTIRE PLANET IN EXTREMIS.
[1] “Each year an estimated 2.5 million tons of pesticides are applied to agricultural crops worldwide. The amount of pesticide coming in direct contact with or consumed by target pests is an extremely small percentage of the amount applied. In most studies the proportion of pesticides applied reaching the target pest has been found to be less than 0.3%, so 99.7% went ‘somewhere else’ in the environment (Pimentel, 1995)” (van der Werf, 1996:81). The pesticides ended up wherever we are! Note: “During the 1970s and 1980s, increasing numbers of pesticides were found in groundwater (US Environmental Protection Agency, 1977; Cohen et al., 1984; Leistra & Boesten, 1989; Schiavon et al., 1995), causing great concern, as groundwater is a major source for drinking water in many countries. Worries about the movement of pesticides in the atmosphere have arisen during the 1970s and 1980s. Transport and redeposition of pesticides may occur over very long distances, as evidenced by the presence of pesticides in ocean fog (Schomburg & Glotfelty, 1991) and arctic snow (Gregor & Gummer, 1989)… Human pesticide poisonings and illnesses are the highest price paid when pesticides reach non-target areas. It is estimated that there are about 1 million accidental human pesticide poisonings each year in the world, with about 20000 reported deaths (WHO-UNEP, 1989)… Recent evidence indicates that pesticides may damage the immune system (Culliney et al., 1992), and can mimic hormones and may thus disrupt the endocrine system in both humans and animals, causing a variety of disorders (LeBlanc, 1995). Human health issues such as increased incidence of breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, endometriosis, birth defects in the male reproductive tract, and reductions in sperm count have been associated with the presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment (Hileman, 1994; Davis & Bradlow, 1995; Kelce et al., 1995)” (van der Werf, 1996:83-86). Dr. Judy Ford says chemicals are a huge issue in terms of the increasing problem of infertility (Ford, 2008).
[2] As well, in March 2009 I weeded this same area under the assumption that I was simply removing a temptation for the golf club to spray. However, I was exposed to dust from the weeds’ roots (when pulling and throwing the weeds over the back fence for later binning). The outcome of inhaling dust from this previously sprayed area was the development of severe chest pain as I was actually weeding (very rapid onset). I had to stop. I think it was within a day or two that I then developed aggravated (resident) joint pains from my previous 2000/2001 exposure at my public housing unit, and new joint pains (hands and elbows), severe abdominal pain, elevated sore throat, persistent or clinging chest congestion, profound impact on my vocal chords and asthma, severe headache and neck pain, a persistent head cold, and extremely irritated skin. These elevated and new symptoms lasted – in part – for over 2 weeks following exposure, with some very persistent symptoms still presenting in May 2009.
[3] “Presently, there are 72 municipalities in Canada that have implemented by-laws restrictions or have banned outright the cosmetic use of pesticides. These include West Vancouver, Port Moody and Gibsons in BC, and Toronto, Halifax, Montreal, and all of the province of Quebec. Also, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Cumberland and New Westminster all have by-laws drafted but not yet fully in force” (http://www.ncap.kics.bc.ca/8pesticides.html; accessed: 6 Nov. 2008).
[4] “There is far more to genetics than the sequence of building blocks in the DNA molecules that make up our genes and chromosomes. The “more” is known as epigenetics. Epigenetics… refers to all modifications to genes other than changes in the DNA sequence itself. Epigenetic modifications include addition of molecules, like methyl groups, to the DNA backbone. Adding these groups changes the appearance and structure of DNA, altering how a gene can interact with important interpreting (transcribing) molecules in the cell’s nucleus” (The Johns Hopkins University, 2002). Also: “What’s surprising is that scientists are now revealing that these environmental effects can be passed from one generation to the next by a process called “epigenetics,” with far-reaching implications for human health. Epigenetics is showing that environmental influences can be inherited – even without any mutations in the genes themselves[1] – and may continue to influence the onset of diseases like diabetes, obesity, mental illness and heart disease, from generation to generation. In other words, the cancer you get today may have been caused by your grandmother’s exposure to an industrial poison 50 years ago, even though your grandmother’s genes were not changed by the exposure.[1] Or the mercury you’re eating today in fish may not harm you directly, but may harm your grandchildren… The development of epigenetics also greatly complicates toxicity testing, and chemical risk assessment. …risk assessors will have to acknowledge that – so far as epigenetics is concerned – they are flying blind… Of course all this new information makes the control of toxic chemicals even more important than previously thought. The health of future generations is at stake” (Montague, 2005. [Montague’s [1] endnote: “Here we define a genetic mutation as a change in the sequence of nucleotide bases (C,A,T,G). We recognize that epigenetic changes are heritable changes to the DNA, but they are not sequence changes”]). The above makes chemical engineering all the more the worst ‘invention’ in human history, but certainly the ‘best’ and most comprehensive, silent and subtle way to destroy a planet, with most people not being aware its happening, and with industry profits, tied as they are to industrial innovation, suppressing all attempts to enlighten people to the scope of the problem!
[5] “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a clinical phenomenon in which individuals, after acute or intermittent exposure to one or more chemicals, commonly organophosphate pesticides (OPs), become overly sensitive to a wide variety of chemically-unrelated compounds…” (Overstreet, et al., 1996). “The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently recognized chemical sensitivity as a symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” (Mindfully.org 2007, citing: Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2006).
[6] Not only are our attitudes intrinsically flawed when science and technological pursuits are valued above nature, but in not valuing the gems science teaches us about real nature we engage in a compounding insult to ecology and our own intelligence. We thereby destroy our literacy in a world of potential experience and, for too many of us, we may not even be aware of the potentials we have sidestepped (Mulligan 2004:4), as we bludgeon past them with selfish ideas and pursuits.
[7] “According to researchers writing in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, “immense care is warranted in the use of insecticides, because they not only affect the liver, kidney and other organs but also may alter the activity of the endocrine glands.” (J Appl Toxicol 1996 Sep-Oct;16(5):397-400)” (Shomon, 2005). Therefore, being ‘professional’ in dispensing pesticide sprays does not equate with being careful. You cannot be careful with pesticides if you apply them where spray drift, pesticide residues or leachate will eventually find people (or the places they frequent). It is IMPOSSIBLE to use pesticides carefully, simply by virtue of the fact that these toxins are released into the wider environment where they can be neither monitored effectively nor controlled. Trying to accomplish either is like trying to herd cats!
[8] “How much, I wondered, have we managed to lose through this invisible disease? How much intellectual capacity and function have we managed to destroy, gone before we had the benefit of the asset? ” (Donohoe 1998:32).
[9] This is why I have not previously included my mobile/cell phone number with this communication. My head starts to ‘burn’ and ‘explode’ and I become nauseous and dizzy after 20-30 seconds on my phone. As well, the total stress load of this affliction leaves me with no reserves for dealing with anything other than calls from my immediate family.
[10] The Pesticides Act 1999 appears self-contradictory. It says we must not injure people with pesticide, and yet it allows injury through the legal use of legal products!
[11] See: http://poisonedpeople.com/index8.html#SPRAY DRIFT. Also: “The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment has taken a strong position against municipalities using pesticides” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date; citing Steve Rauh, Chairman of the Environment Committee for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg).
[12] All employees have a right to “work in an environment that is safe” (ACTU, 2008).
[13] People “must be empowered, to feel that they have control over their own learning” (Parker 2000:170).
[14] As well note that Parker (2000:91) states: “Pearse & Wright (1999) have discussed chemical assessment and the Precautionary Principle. They state: “it is worth noting that it is scientifically impossible to prove that no harm can ever come from a particular chemical” “.
[15] “You wouldn’t expose your kids to tobacco smoke would you, so why pesticides? They are much more toxic” (Dingle 2005).
[16] Synthetic pyrethroids are used for termite control in public housing.
[17] Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Bell, et al., 2001; my emphasis.
[18] “Many organophosphates are also associated with irritation of the skin and upper respiratory tract… The controversy over whether neurobehavioural effects persist after recovery from organophosphate poisoning has continued for 30 years.11,12 There have been reports of deficits in memory and abstraction on test batteries and subclinical decreases in vibrotactile sensitivity in workers recovering from organophosphate poisoning, but results of clinical and neurological examinations were normal.13,14,15 Among workers who apply organophosphates but have not suffered poisoning episodes, some studies have shown similar types of subclinical neurobehavioural deficits and subclinical electroencephalographic abnormalities,16,17 whereas others had largely negative results18,19” (O’Malley 1997; my emphasis). “Various epidemiological studies have demonstrated that individuals exposed to a single large toxic dose, or to small subclinical doses, of organophosphorus compounds have developed a chronic neurotoxicity that persists for years after exposure and is distinct from both cholinergic and OPIDN effects[50]… Our review of the literature indicated that these studies describe a nervous system disorder induced by organophosphorous compounds which involves neuronal degeneration and subsequent neurological, neurobehavioral, and neuropsychological consequences” (Abou-Donia, 2003). The neurobehavioural controversy exists precisely because, as this information clearly shows, most difficult-to-define poisoning impacts are sub-clinical, or presenting as a condition or illness that is not readily identified by the usual orthodox medical investigations (which are generally fairly obtuse). This is why sensitive neuro-psychological tests and behavioural assessment are necessary for those more ‘gently’ touched by pesticides.
[19] “Doctors at a weekend conference in Winnipeg say there is a disturbing trend when it comes to the rising rate of certain cancers. They say pesticides are to blame for the increase – especially in childhood cancers” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Winnipeg CBC News – June 7, 2004; my emphasis).
[20] “Leading weed scientists are urgently appealing to Australia’s farmers to switch to an integrated weed management (IWM) system as the country records its third glyphosate-resistant weed” (ScienceAlert 2008, citing CRC For Australian Weed Management 2003).
[21] Also see: Submission to the European Review of Glyphosate Products (http://www.mapperleyplains.co.uk/oprus/glyphosrev.htm).
[22] These tenants’ identities have been concealed because NSW Department of Housing Client Service Officers are well known by tenants and some researchers for being capable of significant levels of vindictive behaviour, especially toward the elderly. I am personally aware of this problem.
[23] Golf clubs are known for using fungicides on the putting greens and other pesticides throughout the course (Dr. Mark Donohoe, 16 June 2008, pers. comm.). Also: “Pesticides that are used on golf courses fall into three categories: insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. Insecticides are used to a lesser extent than either herbicides or fungicides. Herbicides, if used for two to three consecutive years, can pretty well eliminate most weeds of concern. Fungicides are used because fungal pathogens can cause severe loss of grass on a golf course.” (Source: http://cmte.parl.gc.ca, no date, “3. HISTORY OF PESTICIDE USE” no date, http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/committee/362/envi/reports/rp1031697/envi01/10-ch3-e.html; accessed: 30 July 2010.)
Also: “THE CONVENTIONAL WAY: There are up to 86 chemicals on the market for golf course use. These are known to have been sprayed while players are still on the course. Pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals are termed safe but when combined with other chemicals used on the course, the resulting cocktails may be deadly.” (Source: Biological Farmers of Australia 2005, “Kabi Golf Farm: A Fairer Way”, http://www.bfa.com.au/_files/kabi%20golf%20farm%20pg37-38.pdf; accessed: 30 July 2010.)
Also: “…but Friends of the Earth is also concerned that a range of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides and fungicides) will be used on the course after construction and also on the turf grass nurseries. These pesticides will have the ability not only to potentially pollute Melbourne’s drinking water, but could also (particularly the insecticides), play havoc with native fish that inhabit the river downstream of the development. One only has to look at what happened to the Warringah Golf Course in 2001 after their misuse of the insecticide Gusathion which led to the golf course having to pay out $500,000 after 10,000 fish (and many species of birds) were killed at Manly Lagoon. (Source: Friends of the Earth Melbourne 2010, “Objection to Eastern Golf Club”, http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/724; accessed: 30 July 2010.)
Also: “The governing bodies of golf and golf course designers have recognised the importance of designing, constructing and managing golf courses in an environmentally sustainable manner. Golf courses can provide significant benefits to the environment if constructed and managed using best management practices. They can also result in water pollution, pesticide spills and the destruction of native vegetation if managed poorly.” (Source: Australian Golf Course Superintendents’ Association 2010, “Establishing Environmental Principles for Golf Courses”, http://environment.agcsa.com.au/resources/environmental_principles; accessed: 30 July 2010; my emphasis.)
Also: “Councils have a responsibility to maintain the appearance and usefulness of golf courses, and doing this involves preventing and eradicating pests. The pesticides used to do this often find their way into the stormwater system.
Pesticides in waterways can result in dramatic changes within ecosystems through direct destruction of organisms and habitats, and more subtly through small doses which may impair reproduction, cause greater susceptibility to disease and inhibit growth. Aquatic animals are particularly susceptible to pesticides because they can absorb them from the water and sediments in which they live.
The chemicals used by councils can enter the aquatic environment through a variety of routes, including direct application, drifting through the air, migration of contaminated organisms, infiltration through the soil into groundwater, spills during transport and application, poor disposal of empty containers, and runoff from treated land.” (Source: Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water 2008, “Stormwater management for golf courses”, http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/stormwater/whatdo/local+councils/golf.htm; accessed: 30 July 2010.) More internationally: “To keep expensive imported grasses green, golf courses need large amounts of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The average amount of agrochemicals used on a golf course is 1500 kg per year. This includes zeolite, which consists mainly of silicic acid, aluminium oxide and iron oxide, which may be carcinogenic.
The soil-coagulating agent used to strengthen the foundation of artificial lakes in golf courses uses acrylamid, a strong poison. Its contamination of underground water has caused severe poisoning and disorders of the central nervous system.
As a result of exposure to chemicals, many caddies, greenkeepers and residents near golf courses suffer eye irritations and skin diseases in addition to allergies, rashes and sores. The APPEN conference heard that at a country club on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, organic copper compounds were spread on the grass to keep it from rotting under the winter snow. When it rained, the chemical was washed into the water system. More than 90,000 fish in a nearby aquaculture project were killed.” (Source: GreenLeft , “Off course: golf in South-East Asia”, http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/6189; accessed: 30 July 2010.)
And, in terms of a better way to maintain golf courses: “METHODS OF GREEN KEEPING: Troy MacLaren, Kabi’s superintendent
greenkeeper, has worked on a commercial golf course. “The members expect the greens to be like carpets,” he says. “Greenkeepers have the mindset that using chemicals is the only way to obtain perfection. When you think about the greenkeeping methods used though, it’s not an efficient process. For example, growth regulators have been known to be used followed by a high input of nitrogen.” Seeing is believing. Kabi is proof that greens and their surrounds can be kept up to the competitive standard without any chemical use.” (Source: Biological Farmers of Australia 2005, “Kabi Golf Farm: A Fairer Way”, http://www.bfa.com.au/_files/kabi%20golf%20farm%20pg37-38.pdf; accessed: 30 July 2010.)
[24] I now believe that the most serious consequences of my exposures will likely not manifest until years after my legal action ends. I have already noted signs of new developmental symptoms, and these have been passed on to my specialists. If I must die from continuous episodes of poisoning from people and corporate bodies that are too bloody-minded and negligent to recognize good science and see reason, then I may as well die fighting and documenting my symptoms, right to the very end.
[25] “An epidemic of developmental, learning, and behavioral disabilities has become evident among children“ (preventingharm.org, no date). And why? “We are inventing and releasing thousands of novel molecules every year in the pursuit of commercial gain” (Donohoe 1998:35).
[26] Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins. See: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GTARW.php (accessed: 13 Jan. 2011).
[27] Note: “Now the Lymphoma Foundation of America has pulled together and summarized in a 49-page booklet all the available studies of the relationship between lymphoma and pesticides.[2] It is an impressive piece of work by Susan Osburn, who directed the project, and a scientific review panel of 12 physicians and lymphoma researchers. The booklet summarizes 99 studies of humans and one study of pet dogs (see REHN #250) in relation to pesticide exposures. Of the 99 human studies, 75 indicate a connection between exposure to pesticides and lymphomas… The Lymphoma Foundation’s booklet lists 12 ways that most of us are routinely exposed to pesticides in our daily lives even if we use no pesticides in our homes: routine spraying of apartments, condos, offices (and the associated lawns), public buildings and public spaces (parks, green spaces alongside highways, power line rights of way), and in motels, hotels, and restaurants… We might well ask, where did these corporations get permission to violate our well-established human right to personal security? And why do we allow these toxic trespasses into our bodies to occur without our informed consent?[4] In other words, we might begin to view pesticide exposures not as a scientific question, but mainly as a question of morals and ethics, a question of human rights… Pesticide exposures seem to give rise to Parkinson’s (REHN #635) – a horrible degenerative disease of the nervous system. Pesticide exposures diminish children’s memory, physical stamina, coordination, and [the] ability to carry out simple tasks like drawing a stick figure of a human being. (See REHN #648.) Pesticide exposures seem to make children more aggressive. Pesticide exposures seem to contribute to the epidemic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that has swept through U.S. children in recent years. (See REHN #678.)” (Montague 2001; my emphasis)
[28] “Exposure to herbicides (weed killers) before the age of one is linked to a more than four-fold increase in childhood asthma” (BeyondPesticides.org 2008, citing Boise, et al. 2004).
[29] DirectGov, 2007.
[30] Laurier, 2003; citing the 351-page report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.
[31] American Cancer Society, 2008.
[32] National Center for Health Statistics, 2008.
[33] CureResearch.com, 2007.
[34] NKDEP, 2005.
[35] Mindfully.org, 2007.
[36] Bio-Medicine.org, 2008.
[37] ScienceDaily, 2008. Like my old school friend who had used a blonding agent for her hair since her early teens and now has MS.
[38] Yb Dato Liow Tiong Lai, 2008.
[39] Clennell, 2004.
[40] For example, on Monday 15th Sept. 2008 I spent time at my friend’s in South Windsor. On that day strong winds came from the west across the golf club and over the residences on McQuade Avenue. For the 8 hours I spent there, my reward was an unusually elevated sore throat (well over and above what I normally experience), precisely the variety of sore throat I and other UWS-H Systems Agriculture and Applied Science Environmental Health students got after breathing chemicalized vapours from contaminated soil on a farm near the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre in 1995/96.
[41] “A growing body of scientific evidence suggests there may be an association between parents’ exposure to pesticides and cancer in their children …Kori Flower of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Public Health and colleagues report the results of their recent study investigating the possibility of INCREASED CANCER RISK AMONG THE CHILDREN OF PESTICIDE APPLICATORS… The team compared the cancer incidence rate in the cohort to that expected in the general population to generate a standardized incidence ratio, and found an increased cancer incidence rate among children of the Iowa workers. The risk of all childhood cancers combined was 36% GREATER IN CHILDREN OF APPLICATORS compared to all Iowa children; the risk of all lymphomas more than DOUBLED, and that of Hodgkin lymphoma was 2.5 TIMES GREATER. Further, the team found an increased risk of cancer among children of pesticide applicators who did not wear chemical-resistant gloves during application, as opposed to the children of those who did” (Hood 2004, citing Flower, et. al 2004; my emphasis). . This represents a massive OH&S issue for all corporate bodies spraying pesticide. Also, what might be indicated here by way of the previously mentioned BSE? This mostly invisible public health disaster must be confronted now BEFORE DISEASE EPIDEMICS IN ANIMAL POPULATIONS BECOME DISEASE PANDEMICS IN HUMAN POPULATIONS! Growing agri-science FASCISM has to be addressed in order to stop pesticide manufacturers continually loading the bases and influencing politics for their financial benefit while a small planet plunges toward a GLOBAL DISEASE HOLOCAUST! For example: “Violence and Aggression against Human Rights in the Wake of Agribusiness, July 12, 2005. The agribusiness sector concentrates land, water, and income. Its production is mainly for export, creating profits for a privileged elite at a very high socio-environmental cost. The irrigation of monoculture consumes 70% of the country’s water. Its machines are substituted for manual labor in the countryside, in a country [Sth. America] whose greatest problem is unemployment. In the states where agribusiness has expanded, privately-sponsored violence is growing, along with repression through the power of the Judiciary” (http://www.landaction.org/display.php?article=272; accessed: 18 Aug. 2008).
[42] “Glyphosate spray drift from both ground and aerial applications has been measured from 400 to 800 meters from the target site… Drift that is one thousand times less than the usual application rates has been shown to damage surrounding vegetation, including the killing of wild plants. This is an important reason why it should not be used in national parks and environmentally sensitive areas for weed control” (Leu 2007). And on any street and in any park because babies and bigger people matter!
[43] “In the long term the best solution is the promotion of alternative, non-chemical methods of pest control. This strategy is also of far more importance to reduce occupational exposure than campaigns to promote “safe use of pesticides”. Such campaigns appear to be irrelevant when farmers are already aware of the hazards and safety precautions. Non-chemical pest control measures are now promoted by the international agricultural research centers and IPM was identified as a key element in sustainable agricultural development by Agenda 21, the blueprint for action prepared by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The next step is for policy-makers to abolish subsidies and other incentives for pesticide use and to strengthen the agricultural extension services for the promotion of IPM” (van der Hoek, et al., 1998). And: “Integrated pest management encourages use of fewer pesticide applications and more environmentally friendly methods of pest control. The most toxic pesticides and those with greatest local resistance are identified; their use is then restricted and a regimen of decreased applications is implemented to protect natural enemies of the pests. This strategy results in reduced pesticide use, increased productivity and profitability, and fewer deaths from poisoning” (Eddleston, et al., 2002). Gee, fewer deaths would be nice, eh?
[44] Note: “A child’s brain is also more vulnerable because of the immaturity of the blood-brain-barrier, which is designed to protect it from toxins. Even in adults this barrier cannot protect the brain from many heavy metals and synthetic chemicals such as solvents and pesticides. In infants it is almost totally ineffective against most modern day chemicals. This dramatically increases the risk of both temporary and permanent damage to the brain. It’s possible that early exposure to some chemicals may permanently reduce the effectiveness of the blood brain barrier, allowing increased passage of toxins to the brain, and increasing the person’s vulnerability to certain chemicals throughout their life” (Dingle 2005). Again, how many children live… anywhere near agriculture, parks and golf courses? Do any of these children matter? Or does only the convenience of NOW matter everywhere for the businesses, Councils and golf clubs that are more important than OUR VERY FUTURE… the future of this world locked inside our children?
[45] Note first: “This study explored the frequency of Restless Legs Syndrome in Parkinson’s Disease. It focused on the clinical differences between patients with and without Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). They used specific scales : Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS I-IV), quality of life (Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire, PDQ 39), sleep symptoms (Parkinson’s Disease Sleep Scale, PDSS), and diurnal hypersomnia (Epworth Sleepiness Scale). Over 20% of people with Parkinson’s Disease were found to also suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). RLS was found to be far more common in women. More than two thirds of those with RLS were women. Those with RLS suffered more from lack of sleep, and body discomfort” (Gomez-Esteban, et. al. 2007; cited by Viartis.net 2008).
Note second: “ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2003) — La Jolla, Calif. – Research at the Salk Institute has identified a gene that may link certain pesticides and chemical weaponry to a number of neurological disorders, including the elusive Gulf War syndrome and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The finding, published in the March 17 online version of Nature Genetics, is the first to demonstrate a clear genetic link between neurological disorders and exposure to organophosphate chemicals… “There have been anecdotal links made between rises in ADHD, Parkinson’s disease and other disorders and exposure to pesticides,” said Barlow, an adjunct faculty member at the Salk. “There also has been suspicion of a link to Gulf War syndrome. But scientists have been focusing on enzymes that act on acetylcholine neurotransmitters. This study shows that there may indeed be a genetic connection that explains how organophosphates can cause these reactions; it’s just not what we assumed it would be.” ” (ScienceDaily 2003; citing Salk Institute; my emphasis) This research shows that even the so-called noncholinesterase inhibiting organophosphate Roundup will become a nerve destroyer via our genes. Parkinson’s disease and RLS become disturbingly linked via genes and organophosphates.
[46] “Another 200 chemicals are known to cause clinical neurotoxic effects in adults. [p.2167]
Solvent neurotoxicity in adults is well known from acute poisoning cases and from occupational studies.68 [p.2172]
The five substances recognised as causes of developmental neurotoxicity show similar patterns in the development of scientific documentation of their risks. This pattern of discovery started in each instance with recognition of adult neurotoxicity, typically in people with occupational exposure, and of episodes of acute, high-dose poisoning in children.
The consequences of a pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity extend beyond descriptive data for incidence and prevalence of clinically diagnosed disorders.1,3 Increased risk of Parkinson’s disease97 or other neurodegenerative diseases98 is a further potential consequence of the pandemic.” [p.2174]
Source: P Grandjean, PJ Landrigan 2006. Developmental neurotoxicity of industrial chemicals. Lancet 2006; 368: 2167–78. Published Online November 8, 2006. http://www.sciencedirect.com. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69665-7. Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. (Prof P Grandjean MD); Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA (P Grandjean); Department of Community Medicine (Prof PJ Landrigan MD); and Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA (PJ Landrigan). http://sciencedirect.com.
[47] A “continuum of expectations” (Liedloff 1986).
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HUMAN HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL & ANIMAL IMPACTS OF PESTICIDES IN GENERAL, & ORGANOPHOSPHATES IN PARTICULAR, INCLUDING ROUNDUP
Leave a comment Posted by poisonedpeople on November 25, 2012
By Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health 1998, University of Western Sydney)
http://indiegogo.com/poisoned-people
http://murraythompsongraphics.x90x.net
http://www.causes.com/poisonedpeople
http://www.change.org/profiles/poisoned-people
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/the-human-right-to-no-pesticide-poisoning
WordPress URL:https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/human-health-environmental-animal-impacts-of-pesticides-in-general-organophosphates-in-particular-including-roundup-2
Essay also available at: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/human-health-and-pesticides.htm & http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/reports/human-health-and-pesticides.htm
1.0 HUMAN HEALTH IMPACTS
1.1 Pesticides Affect Health & Behavior
Pesticides promote the classic symptom of abdominal pain in children (Dr. B. Grabau, 2005, pers. comm.), or, “non-specific abdominal gastric pain” (Dr. B. Grabau, 2005, Private Medical Report). This means that many aches and pains children get may not simply just be “normal”.
This represents a significant problem with regard to herbicide and pesticide use in that mild to moderate pesticide poisoning symptoms can be easily misdiagnosed as stomach-flu, bronchitis or asthma (Reeves, Schafer, Hallward & Katten 1999:17).
“Even severe pesticide poisoning in infants has been misdiagnosed as aneurysm, head trauma, diabetic acidosis, severe bacterial gastroenteritis, pneumonia and whooping cough” (Reeves, Schafer, Hallward & Katten 1999:17, citing Solomon & Mott 1998; Zweinerd & Ginsburg 1988).
Further, pesticide poisoning impacts on the mind. It can lead to aggressive behaviour and delinquency in teens (Hatherill, 1999; Tvedten, 1999, 2002:2). We should here consider pesticides’ contribution to road rage and other attacks, along with the influence of pollution in general on, particularly urban societies.
1.2 Pesticides Are Deadly & Deforming
“Hundreds of thousands of people are dying around the world each year from the effects of the use, or misuse, of pesticides” (Konradsen, et al., 2003).
And when death is avoided, we still find crippling impacts in the form of cancer, foetal death, miscarriages, and premature births (NCAP, 1999:3; Bonn, 2005; Cox, 2004).” In fact, pesticides are strongly linked to birth defects (Montague, 2001).
1.3 Rising Rates Of Disease
“Doctors at a weekend conference in Winnipeg say there is a disturbing trend when it comes to the rising rate of certain cancers. They say pesticides are to blame for the increase – especially in childhood cancers” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Winnipeg CBC News – June 7, 2004).
“Exposure to herbicides (weed killers) before the age of one is linked to a more than four-fold increase in childhood asthma” (BeyondPesticides.org 2008, citing Boise, et al. 2004).
However, cancer and asthma is not enough for this blighted form of chemical technology: “Pesticide exposures seem to give rise to Parkinson’s (REHN #635) – a horrible degenerative disease of the nervous system. Pesticide exposures diminish children’s memory, physical stamina, coordination, and [the] ability to carry out simple tasks like drawing a stick figure of a human being. (See REHN #648.) Pesticide exposures seem to make children more aggressive. Pesticide exposures seem to contribute to the epidemic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that has swept through U.S. children in recent years (See REHN #678.)” (Montague 2001). See: https://poisonedpeople1.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/what-the-hell-are-we-doing.jpg for an image depicting the toxics our children are exposed to.
1.4 Pesticide, Agriculture, Glyphosate & Human Disease/Neurobehavioral Deficits
A “study showed there was approximately [a] 2-fold greater risk of having a
stillbirth if the mother lived within 1 mile from an agricultural area which used
organophosphate – pyrethroid – carbamate – or chlorinated pesticides” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Bell, et al., 2001).
And, further, in terms of organophosphates: Glyphosate… is a non-selective, systematic herbicide. This organophosphate compound is the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup (Royal Society of Chemistry 2009).
“Many organophosphates are also associated with irritation of the skin and upper respiratory tract… There have been reports of deficits in memory and abstraction on test batteries and subclinical decreases in vibrotactile sensitivity in
workers recovering from organophosphate poisoning… Among workers who apply organophosphates but have not suffered poisoning episodes, some studies have shown similar types of subclinical neurobehavioural deficits and subclinical electroencephalographic abnormalities…” (O’Malley 1997).
Further, Glyphosate can have high acute inhalation toxicity (extoxnet.orst.edu 1996), can cause diarrhoea, shortness of breath, vomiting and weakness (pesticideinfo.org 2010), and has teratogenic (monster-making) effects in animals (Paganelli et.al. 2010).
“Two separate studies in Sweden have linked exposure to Glyphosate to Hairy Cell Leukemia and Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. These types of cancers were extremely rare, however Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the Western world. It has risen by 73% in the USA since 1973. Another study has found a higher incidence of Parkinson disease amongst farmers who used herbicides, including glyphosate” (Leu, 2007 citing Cox, 1998; Lehmann & Pengue, 2000; Nordstrom, et al., 1998; Hardell & Eriksson, 1999).
“Various epidemiological studies have demonstrated that individuals exposed to a single large toxic dose, or to small subclinical doses, of organophosphorus compounds have developed a chronic neurotoxicity that persists for years after exposure and is distinct from both cholinergic and OPIDN effects… Our review of the literature indicated that these studies describe a nervous system disorder induced by organophosphorous compounds which involves neuronal degeneration and subsequent neurological, neurobehavioral, and neuropsychological consequences” (Abou-Donia, 2003).
“OPs can persist in the environment for long periods of time. Indeed, OPs are detected in soils years after application… conditions can occur in soil where OPs are preserved and transferred to humans through food. A review of the literature shows that OPs are highly toxic and that human exposure is undesirable. Evidence suggests that OPs are mutagenic and teratogenic and that a large number of modern-day diseases of the nervous and immune system of mammals can be linked to these pesticides. These include BSE (mad cows disease), CJD, Gulf War syndrome, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, arguing for a thorough examination of the environmental fate and toxicology of OPs as well as their use” (Ragnarsdottir 2000).
“Other studies show that glyphosate and commercial herbicides containing glyphosate cause a range of cell mutations and damage to cell DNA. These types of changes are usually regarded as precursors to cancer and birth defects” (Leu, 2007; my emphasis).
Roundup causes genetic mutations in cell tests (NCAP, 2000:2, citing Vigfusson & Vyse, 1980; Kale et al., 1995; Rank et al., 1993) and is linked to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (Cox, 2004; Vachani, 2007), miscarriages and Attention Deficit Disorder (Cox, 2004).
Roundup contains surfactants that are acutely toxic to humans and animals, even potentially causing death in humans (Cox, 1993:4, citing Sawada, et al., 1988; and Talbot, 1991).
It is “a known carcinogen, neurotoxin, irritant, and has been found to kill human embryonic cells, and can cause kidney and liver damage” (BeyondPesticides.org 2012).
“Now the Lymphoma Foundation of America has pulled together and summarized in a 49-page booklet all the available studies of the relationship between lymphoma and pesticides… Of the 99 human studies, 75 indicate a connection between exposure to pesticides and lymphomas… The Lymphoma Foundation’s booklet lists 12 ways that most of us are routinely exposed to pesticides in our daily lives even if we use no pesticides in our homes: routine spraying of apartments, condos, offices (and the associated lawns), public buildings and public spaces (parks, green spaces alongside highways, power line rights of way), and in motels, hotels, and restaurants…” (Montague, 2001).
2.0 ENVIRONMENTAL & ANIMAL-DISEASE IMPACTS
2.1 Pesticide Spray Drift Waste & Damage
“Glyphosate spray drift from both ground and aerial applications has been measured from 400 to 800 meters from the target site… Drift that is one thousand times less than the usual application rates has been shown to damage surrounding vegetation, including the killing of wild plants. This is an important reason why it should not be used in national parks and environmentally sensitive areas for weed control” (Leu 2007).
2.2 Glyphosate Environmental Toxicity
Glyphosate [Roundup] is persistent (NCAP, 2000:2, citing US EPA, 1993-2) and may last up to 3 years (NCAP, 2000:2, citing Torstensson et al., 1989), while its metabolite, AMPA [aminomethylphosphonic acid], may persist even longer, “with a half life in soil between 119 and 958 days” (Buffin & Jewell, 2001, citing WHO, 1994).
Glyphosate is toxic to fish, aquatic organisms, soil life (including earthworms, mycorrhizal fungi, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, micro-organisms and arthropods), plants (through disease susceptibility), and beneficial insect species (Leu, 2007; van der Werf, 1996). As well, “Glyphosate is also harmful to the environment, particularly aquatic life and water quality and has been linked to intersex frogs, and is lethal to amphibians in concentrations found in the environment” (BeyondPesticides.org 2012).
“Studies show a reduction in the species that build humus, thus [glyphosate] contributes to the decline in soil organic matter” (Leu 2007).
2.3 Roundup Leading The Way Into An Era Of Animal/Plant Pandemics & Herbicide-Resistant Weeds
Roundup has been heavily implicated in thyroid, liver and pancreatic tumours in test animals (Cox, 1993:4, citing Dykstra & Ghali, 1991). Roundup is also now shockingly linked to Mad Cow’s Disease (Rotella 2003), and to an increase in plant diseases (gmwatch.org 2010).
As if these issues were not problem enough: “Leading weed scientists are urgently appealing to Australia’s farmers to switch to an integrated weed management (IWM) system as the country records its third glyphosate-resistant weed” (ScienceAlert 2008, citing CRC For Australian Weed Management 2003). Our convenient herbicide “magic bullets” have turned back on us!
“The current massive reliance on glyphosate, which has been promoted by the rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybeans and cotton, is a key factor in this epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds. A report released in November of 2009, for instance, found that since the first 13 years of commercial use of GE crops, they have been responsible for an increase of 383 million pounds of herbicide use in the U.S. (1996-2008)”.
“In Southern states, horseweed, ryegrass and pigweed are a concern for soybean farmers, while horseweed and volunteer Roundup Ready soybeans have become problem weeds for Mississippi rice. In Australia, weed scientists have now documented cases of glyphosate resistance in rigid ryegrass across large areas and are encountering it in other weed species in different parts of the world” (BeyondPesticides.org 2012).
Pesticides in general and organophosphates and Roundup in particular are unqualified slate-wipers of normal life processes in soil, in plants and in humans and, as such, represent a chemically-mediated EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT. We are all being poisoned slowly into oblivion. See: http://indiegogo.com/poisoned-people for my particular intersection with pesticides and its impact on my and my son’s lives.
Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health 1998, Hons I Social Ecology 1999, University of Western Sydney) (http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au; http://murraythompsongraphics.x90x.net; poisonedpeople@gmail.com)
Bell, et.al (Bell, E.M., Hertz-Picciotto, I., & Beaumont, J.J., Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland) 2001 [Online], ‘Fetal Deaths Linked to Living Close to Agricultural Pesticide Use During Weeks 3-8 of Pregnancy’, http://www.chem-tox.com.pesticides (original source: Epidemiology, 12(2), March 2001); accessed: 16 July 2008.
BeyondPesticides.org 2008, FACTS AND FIGURES CHILDREN, PESTICIDES, AND SCHOOL,
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/schools/sepa/SEPA_fact&figures.htm; accessed: 18 July 2008.
BeyondPesticides.org 2012 [Online], “Increasing Documented Cases of Glyphosate Resistance Discussed by Scientists”, Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog; Source: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=3034, accessed: 21 Sept. 2012.
Bonn, D. (Dorothy) 2005 [Online], ‘Roundup Revelation: Weed Killer Adjuvants May Boost Toxicity’, http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2005/113-6/ss.html; accessed: 14 Sept. 2009.
Cox, C. 2004 [Online], ‘Herbicide Factsheet: Glyphosate’, Journal Of Pesticide Reform/ Winter 2004, Vol. 24, No. 4, Northwest Coalition For Alternatives To Pesticides/NCAP, P.O. Box 1393, Eugene, Oregon 97440 USA / (541)344-5044 / http://www.pesticide.org; accessed: 2005.
CRC For Australian Weed Management 2003, Search: glyphosate?resistant weed; http://www.weedscrc.org.au/index_flash.html; accessed: 20 Sept. 2008.
extoxnet.orst.edu 1996 [Online], “EXTOXNET | Extension Toxicology Network | Pesticide Information Profiles | Glyphosate”; Source: http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/glyphosa.htm, accessed: 21 Sept. 2012.
gmwatch.org 2010 [Online], “Brazil battles spread of “mad soy disease””; Source: http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12554-brazil-battles-spread-of-qmad-soy-diseaseq, accessed: 21 Sept. 2012.
NCAP (Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides) Landscaping To Reduce Herbicide Use’ 97440 USA.
Nordstrom M. et al, 1998, ‘Occupational exposures, animal exposure, and smoking as risk factors for hairy cell leukaemia evaluated in a casecontrol study’, BRITISH JOURNAL OF CANCER Vol. 77 (1998), pp. 2048-2052.
Paganelli, A. (Alejandra), Gnazzo, V. (Victoria), Acosta, H. (Helena), Lopez, S.L. (Silvia), & Carrasco, A.E. (Andres) [Laboratorio de Embriologia Molecular, CONICET-UBA, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, 3° piso (1121), Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina] 2010 [Online], “Glyphosate-Based Herbicides Produce Teratogenic Effects on Vertebrates by Impairing Retinoic Acid Signaling” in Chem. Res. Toxicol., 2010, 23 (10), pp 1586–1595; DOI: 10.1021/tx1001749; Publication Date (Web): August 9, 2010; Copyright © 2010 American Chemical Society; Source: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx1001749, accessed: 21 Sept. 2012.
pesticideinfo.org 2010 [Online], “Glyphosate – Identification, toxicity, use, water pollution potential, ecological toxicity and regulatory information”; Source: http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC33138, accessed: 21 Sept. 2012.
Rainier, S., Bui, M., Mark, E., Thomas, D., Tokarz, D., Ming, L., Delaney, C., Richardson, R.J., Albers, J.W., Matsunam, N., Stevens, J., Coon, H., Leppert, M. & Fink, J.K. 2008, ‘Neuropathy Target Esterase Gene Mutations Cause Motor Neuron Disease’, The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 82, Issue 3, 780-785, 28 February 2008, doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.12.018;
http://www.cell.com/AJHG/abstract/S0002-9297(08)00143-2; accessed: 26 June 2009.
Rank, et al. 1993, ‘Genotoxicity testing of the herbicide Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate isopropylamine using the mouse bone marrow micronucleus test’, Salmonella mutagenicity test and Allium anaphase-telophase test, Mutation Research 300:29-36.
Rotella, P. 2003 [Online], “Mark Purdey’s Organophosphate Model of Mad Cow Disease”; Source: http://madcow.pamrotella.com/, accessed: 21 Sept. 2012.
ScienceAlert 2008, ‘Another pesticide resistant weed found’, in ScienceAlert: Australia & New Zealand, Tuesday, 26 August 2008,
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082608?17859?2.html; accessed: 20 Sept. 2008.
Sinclair, W. (M.D.; Board Certified Immunology) & Pressinger, R. (M.Ed.) no date [Online], Home and Lawn Pesticides More Dangerous than Previously Believed, http://www.chem-tox.com.pesticides, accessed: 17 July 2008.
Vachani, C. (RN, MSN, AOCN) 2007, OncoLink, Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania,
http://oncolink.org/types/article.cfm?C=10&s=36&ss=820&id =9539; accessed: 16 June 2008.
This Essay is also located at: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/human-health-and-pesticides.htm or http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/reports/human-health-and-pesticides.htm.
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SIDE-EFFECTS OF PROFIT-BASED FOOD PRODUCTION & POPULATION CONTROL: THE UNEXAMINED GENOCIDE OF EVERYTHING BY INDUSTRIALISTS
1 Comment Posted by poisonedpeople on November 7, 2012
Essay URL: https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/
Short link: http://wp.me/p2DVqC-3t
Varieties of localized and empire-extended civil and military dictatorships have typically ruled over peoples in times past and still do today, despite the fairly recent aberration of government that many of us in the West have grown up with: ‘democracies’ that pretend to be genuine democracies. However, times do change. Corporate industry now boasts vast financial resources, and it uses that new world power to play God in the re-structuring of the entire agricultural, business, population and ecological morphology of this Planet.
A New World Order sees vaccine intrigues, stampeding GMO and herbicide innovations and monolithic and draconian factory farming at the heart of excruciatingly fascist corporate notions of world domination. And these main causes and effects produce side-effects, with one of the most notable being global GMO and pesticide pollution and poisoning on an unimagineable scale. What we are witnessing in this modern era is the forcible alchemic turning of an entire Planet into a profit-based Holocaust experiment: a global pesticide gas chamber and massive Frankenstein genetics waste receptacle.
So, what does this mean to all of us locally? “New European pesticides legislation (article 3, paragraph 14 [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:309:0001:01:EN:HTML]) now recognises that residents living in the locality of sprayed fields are “subject to high pesticide exposure over the long term” (Downs 2012).
Also: “Things are worse than Rachel Carson might ever have dreaded and will certainly get worse yet before there is any hope of improvement. Will any of us have the quiet, dignified, deeply intelligent courage that lay behind her work? Capitalism cannot change track. It is condemned to measuring success and failure in terms of profit and loss” (Don 2012). That being profit and loss that is interpreted in a global market and workforce context and planned for in terms of a New World Order. It is a regime where, it is assumed, power can generate predictable order and profit. Strangely though, those elites who worship at the feet of this power do not appear to understand that utter chaos is the inevitable outcome of every forcing of that anti-Nature governmental, legal, military and, especially, TECHNOLOGICAL control (all for the sake of that faithless anti-Nature sense of control).
And so, while the globalists connive, while industry advertises, and while we still bask in a somewhat unsettling reflected trust in all things science (when we trust in science, the scientists, industries and governments smile back at us…), the slate-wiping effects of science continue: “Hundreds of thousands of people are dying around the world each year from the effects of the use, or misuse, of pesticides” (Konradsen, et al., 2003).
How many? “…Georgina Downs from Sussex who has run a vigorous campaign for over a decade to highlight the dangers of pesticides… estimated in a 2008 World Bank report to kill 355,000 people worldwide each year” (Metcalf 2012).
“So, 50 years on from Silent Spring, why has there been such a lack of action on pesticides?” (Downs 2012). Is it partly because we are too busy living at the speed of life? And working and paying out for what technology says we must own? That we are anesthetized in a type of mesmerized awe at the tangible and “goodies” boon end of technology? That all this distracts us so effectively that we can easily and weakly accept an almost silent capitulation to a largely invisible pesticide horror? And, given that the persistent barking of advertising confronts us with ever more “improved” techno goodies and technological fixes, can’t that easy distraction, forgetfulness and capitulation even extend our dreamstate further into an utter obscenity of apathetic characterlessness, the worst possible waste of a human mind other than conscious and wilfull evil? And on that broad point of the wilfull denial of the truth of toxicant cause and effect (whether the aberration be man-made pesticides and direct human poisoning or man-induced tick over-population through the disturbance of Nature via environmental replacement) I can apply this generously wise quote originally applied to Lyme disease: “one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease” (Liegner 2010).
What of:
BHOPAL: a gas leak disaster in India, “one of the world’s worst industrial disasters”. Potentially, “3,787 deaths related to the gas release”.
THREE-MILE ISLAND: “a partial nuclear meltdown…” that occurred “in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania”, USA.
CHERNOBYL: “a catastrophic nuclear accident…” contaminating “much of Western USSR and Europe… [where] long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for”.
MEXICAN GULF OIL SPILL: “An oil spill… which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and may be continuing to seep… It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)
GMO WHEAT AND BARLEY: An altered protein GM wheat variety could cause serious liver problems, according to some scientists. Enzyme inhibition in the two crops could translate into glycogen inhibition in humans, and could lead to death by age 5 in children born without this enzyme working (Huff 2012).
GMO SOY: Hamsters fed on a GM soy diet suffered growth problems, high pup mortality and sterility, with the third generation growing hair inside their mouths (Smith 2010).
GMO CORN: Rats fed GM corn and trace amounts of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup suffered huge tumours, organ damage and premature death (Adams 2012).
And Fukushima; and 911; and the Exxon Valdez oil spill: “25 to 32 million US gallons” of oil spilled in some estimates (and the Torrey Canyon and Amoco Cadiz).
And the Piper Alpha North Sea oil platform disaster.
And the “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City” in 1911 (more than 100 died).
And the “Kader Toy Factory fire” in Thailand in 1993 (188 workers died, mostly young women).
And the 1906 “Courrières mine disaster in Courrières, France” which killed 1,099 workers.
And the “Benxihu Colliery disaster in Benxi, Liaoning, China” which killed 1,549 workers.
And the “Baia Mare cyanide spill” in Romania which is considered “the worst environmental disaster in Europe since Chernobyl”, released “100,000 tons of cyanide contaminated water”.
And the Oppau fertilizer explosion in Germany in 1921 “killing 500–600 people and injuring about 2,000 more”.
And the 1947 Texas City Disaster where ” minimum of 578 people lost their lives and another 3,500 were injured”.
And the 1976 Seveso disaster in Italy where “due to the release of dioxins into the atmosphere and throughout a large section of the Lombard Plain, 3,000 pets and farm animals died and, later, 70,000 animals were slaughtered to prevent dioxins from entering the food chain”.
And the 1986 “Sandoz disaster in Schweizerhalle, Switzerland, releasing tons of toxic agrochemicals into the Rhine”.
And the 2012 Karachi, Pakistan industrial disaster that saw 289 people die (“workers were suffocated or burnt alive”).
And the Port Chicago munitions explosion of 1944.
And the 1962 Centralia, Pennsylvania coal mine fire (still burning today!).
And Challenger, and the faulty levees of New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/).
And when waste dumps leak (http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au/castlereagh/Toxic-Chemical-Leakage-Outside-Waste-Depot.pdf).
And… my son’s and my (http://indiegogo.com/poisoned-people) pesticide poisoning.
And everyones else’s pesticide poisoning (“HUMAN HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ANIMAL IMPACTS OF PESTICIDES IN GENERAL, AND ORGANOPHOSPHATES IN PARTICULAR, INCLUDING GLYPHOSATE” at https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/).
Further, and even more insidiously than our above-noted dreamstate, is the fully conscious and willful LEGAL (see: http://indiegogo.com/the-good-samaritan), MEDICAL, CORPORATE and GOVERNMENT hiding of real knowledge that would help to protect us from toxic dangers! These irresponsible authorities, corrupted as they are by industrial vested interests, cannot imagine fully identifying our techological woes for what they are, so utterly intertwined with the modern fabric of life are they! Our “protectors” see the repudiation of bad technology and a full accounting of our insidious techno impact on our natural environment as an introduction to smaller paypackets, and perhaps even some form of immediately uncomfortable and undesirable social chaos (large protests over the discovery of the extent of the toxic coverups?).
Deception and ignorance are commodities that are historically “chaos in the bank”, accruing a very deadly form of degenerate ‘interest’ that typically plays out at the end of civilizations: “History shows that degeneration of the criminal justice system contributes greatly to the downfall of states, and is a sign of rot within a political system” (Aulich 2006).
So, we continue to embrace (and are encouraged to embrace) what is also strangling us. And in so completely embracing technology, natural dynamics have been muted and cast far away from us. We have therefore lost ourselves on the treadmill of science. Further, as blatantly obvious our loss of a direct communion with Nature is to so many, and as blatantly catastrophic as the cascade of techno nightmares that confront us is, we still — given the “sins of omission/neglect” deficiencies of Human Nature and the “sins of commission” deceptions of industry and government — tend to ignore the catastrophes in favour of a now tattered hope in scientific salvation. Such are the repetitions of human thought at the ends of ages.
A degenerating civilization indeed: we the people are so paralyzed by our contradictory and conflictual relationship with technology that “we are monitoring our own extinction” (Prof. Stuart Hill, University of Western Sydney 1999, pers. comm.).
But it is time now for us to grow up and be mature and wise and understand that our now dull hopes in toxic technology are funded by mis-information from luminaries that are stationed at our radio, in our governments and regulatory bodies, inside our legal and medical systems, on our TVs and throughout the Internet by corrupt and civilization-destroying industrial vested interests.
Adams, M. [Mike] 2012 [Online]. “New GMO study: Rats fed lifetime of GM corn grow tumors, 70% of females die early”, Alex Jones’ InfoWars.com, September 19, 2012. Source: http://www.infowars.com/new-gmo-study-rats-fed-lifetime-of-gm-corn-grow-tumors-70-of-females-die-early/; accessed 20th Sept. 2012.
Aulich, S. [Graduate of the Lazarski School of Commerce and Law in Warsaw (Master of Laws) and the George Washington University Law School (LL.M.)] 2006 [online]. THE CORROSION OF THE AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, in The Europen Courier, September 23, 2006. Source: http://europeancourier.org/CriminalJustice_9_23_06.htm; accessed:
25th April 2010.
Don, M. [Monty: gardening broadcaster & Soil Association president (http://www.soilassociation.org/aboutus/whoweare/president)%5D 2012 [Online]. Quote in Leo Hickman’s article: “What is the legacy of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring?”, The Eco Audit with Leo Hickman, The Guardian, Thursday 27 September 2012. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/blog/2012/sep/27/rachel-carson-silent-spring-legacy; accessed: 2 Oct. 2012.
Downs, G. [Georgina (UK Pesticides Campaign: http://www.pesticidescampaign.co.uk/)%5D 2012 [Online]. Quote in Leo Hickman’s article: “What is the legacy of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring?”, The Eco Audit with Leo Hickman, The Guardian, Thursday 27 September 2012. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/blog/2012/sep/27/rachel-carson-silent-spring-legacy; accessed: 2 Oct. 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 2012 [Online], Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_industrial_disasters; accessed: 3 Oct. 2012.
Huff, E.A. [Ethan, Staff Writer at Natural News.com] 2012 [Online]. “Children born to parents who eat GM wheat may DIE before age five, warn scientists”; Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/037261_GM_wheat_liver_failure_fatalities.html#ixzz28mmKFkht; accessed: 9 October 2012.
Liegner, K.B. [Kenneth] 2010 [Online]. “LYMEPOLICYWONK: Speaking Truth to Power: Dr. Liegner Lays it Out for the IOM”; LymeDisease.org. Source: http://lymedisease.org/news/lymepolicywonk/554.html; accessed: 5 Oct. 2012.
Metcalf, M. [Mark] 2012 [Online]. “Masking the truth – are residents of Billinge being made ill by pesticides in crop spray”; Fighting Talk by Mark Metcalf, published: WEDNESDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2012; Source: http://writemark.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/masking-truth-are-residents-of-billinge.html?spref=fb; accessed: 5 Oct. 2012.
Smith, J.M. 2010 [Online]. “Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters”, HUFF POST GREEN (The Huffington Post, April 20th 2010). Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/genetically-modified-soy_b_544575.html; accessed: 3 Oct. 2012.
The Human Right To NO PESTICIDE POISONING!
Leave a comment Posted by poisonedpeople on November 7, 2012
TITLE (Note: This is an online Campaign)
By Murray Thompson (BAppSci Environmental Health 1998; Hons I Social Ecology 1999, University of Western Sydney)
http://poisonedpeople.com
Essay URL: https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/the-human-right-to-no-pesticide-poisoning
Short link: http://wp.me/p2DVqC-3o
SIGNATURE TARGET
PETITION TEXT
The ‘legal’ right to freely enforce pesticide applications (without fear of prosecution and charges of negligence and disability discrimination) is currently being stitched up globally, and particularly and perversely in Western nations under the political influence of Big-Pharma. These legal dynamics demonstrate “rot within a political system” (Aulich 2006) and clearly describe the closing stages of a corrupt and technology-obsessed civilization that puts the convenience of pesticides ahead of its literal future.
What Do We Really Want?
Note: “Most tragically, suffering, illness and disease surround us today in a way we would not have imagined a half century ago. We have banished some diseases only to have them replaced by a grumbling yet profound toxicity which is stripping our children of their rightful future” (Donohoe, 1998:38).
Also: “…pesticides are strongly linked to birth defects… science will not solve this problem for us. Isn’t it time to consider a human rights approach, an ethical challenge to the poisoners?… The old science-based strategy has failed us. Perhaps a new, precautionary path can get us where we need to go. The precautionary principle says, ‘When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically’ ” (Montague, 2001).
“Now the Lymphoma Foundation of America has pulled together and summarized in a 49-page booklet all the available studies of the relationship between lymphoma and pesticides.[2] It is an impressive piece of work by Susan Osburn, who directed the project, and a scientific review panel of 12 physicians and lymphoma researchers. The booklet summarizes 99 studies of humans and one study of pet dogs (see REHN #250) in relation to pesticide exposures. Of the 99 human studies, 75 indicate a connection between exposure to pesticides and lymphomas… The Lymphoma Foundation’s booklet lists 12 ways that most of us are routinely exposed to pesticides in our daily lives even if we use no pesticides in our homes: routine spraying of apartments, condos, offices (and the associated lawns), public buildings and public spaces (parks, green spaces alongside highways, power line rights of way), and in motels, hotels, and restaurants… We might well ask, where did these corporations get permission to violate our well-established human right to personal security? And why do we allow these toxic trespasses into our bodies to occur without our informed consent?[4] In other words, we might begin to view pesticide exposures not as a scientific question, but mainly as a question of morals and ethics, a question of human rights… Pesticide exposures seem to give rise to Parkinson’s (REHN #635) – a horrible degenerative disease of the nervous system. Pesticide exposures diminish children’s memory, physical stamina, coordination, and [the] ability to carry out simple tasks like drawing a stick figure of a human being. (See REHN #648.) Pesticide exposures seem to make children more aggressive. Pesticide exposures seem to contribute to the epidemic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that has swept through U.S. children in recent years (See REHN #678.)” (Montague 2001).
My Son & I Poisoned
My son (at age 8) and I were both poisoned (me severely) when we had two pesticide treatments forced on us by the New South Wales Department of Housing (see: http://poisoningandlegalaction.com.au). I, the pesticide injury victim, was blamed wholly by Housing’s Barrister in my trial for our poisoning! See: http://www.indiegogo.com/poisoned-people.
What Do We Need To Do?
We, the people, need to demonstrate true character and tell our politicians that we fiercely object to the present corruption of our legal and political systems in their protection of authorities and government departments from claims of negligence. We want fairness in the assessment of such claims, and we want our basic Human Rights back.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by the U.S. in 1948, says (Article 3), “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution obligates the federal government to protect the citizenry against “domestic violence” which arguably includes modern forms of personal physiological invasion (domestic violence) such as toxic assault/injury and chemical trespass. See
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/Constitution/article04/, or http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A4Sec4.
The Paris Appeal
What Do We Really Want? Health & Perpetuity!
We want our children to be safe from the transnational chemical giants-sponsored, anti-Duty of Care, anti-Precautionary Principle, unexamined and utterly irresponsible, CRIMINAL and worldwide love-affair with toxic and reproductive capacity (fertility)-destroying chemicals. We want this Extinction Level Event stopped! Think this statement is too crazy? Note:
“We’re monitoring our own extinction” (Prof. Stuart Hill, University of Western Sydney 1999, pers. comm.).
“Hundreds of thousands of people are dying around the world each year from
the effects of the use, or misuse, of pesticides” (Konradsen, et al., 2003).
stillbirth if the mother lived within 1 mile from an agricultural area which used organophosphate – pyrethroid – carbamate – or chlorinated pesticides” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Bell, et al., 2001).
Pesticides promote cancer, foetal death, miscarriages, and premature births
(NCAP, 1999:3; Bonn, 2005; Cox, 2004).
“Doctors at a weekend conference in Winnipeg say there is a disturbing trend when it comes to the rising rate of certain cancers. They say pesticides are to blame for the increase – especially in childhood cancers” (Sinclair & Pressinger, no date, citing Winnipeg CBC News – June 7, 2004.
WE ARE KILLING OFF OUR OWN CHILDREN! Most CERTAINLY, we humans are engineering the dumbest Extinction Level Event in the long history of this Planet!
Aulich, S. [Graduate of the Lazarski School of Commerce and Law in Warsaw (Master of Laws) and the George Washington University Law School (LL.M.)] 2006 [online]. THE CORROSION OF THE AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, in The Europen Courier, September 23, 2006. Source: http://europeancourier.org/CriminalJustice_9_23_06.htm; accessed: 25th April 2010.
Bell, et.al (Bell, E.M., Hertz-Picciotto, I., & Beaumont, J.J., Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland) 2001, ‘Fetal Deaths Linked to Living Close to Agricultural Pesticide Use During Weeks 3-8 of Pregnancy’, http://www.chem?tox.com.pesticides (original source: Epidemiology, 12(2), March 2001); accessed: 16 July 2008.
Donohoe, M. 1998, Killing Us Softly, Chemical Injury and Chemical Sensitivity 1.2 (internet Creative Commons release 2008),
http://web.mac.com/doctormark/DoctorMark/KUS.html; accessed: 13/12/2008.
IDEA (Irish Doctors Environmental Association) 2006, THE PARIS APPEAL: International Declaration on Diseases Due to Chemical Pollution,
http://www.ideaireland.org; accessed: 10th October 2007.
Montague, P. (National Writers Union) 2001, ‘#726 – Science, Precaution and Pesticides, 06-Jun-2001’, in http://www.rachel.org/en/node/5340; accessed: 16 July 2008. Reference [2] cited: Susan Osburn, RESEARCH REPORT: DO PESTICIDES CAUSE LYMPHOMA? Available by U.S. mail from Lymphoma Foundation of America, P.O. Box 15335, Chevy Chase, MD 20825. Tel. (202) 223-6181. ISBN 0-9705127-0-8. Available at: http://www.lymphomahelp.org/docs/research/researchreport/rr_2000.pdf.
THE ‘LEGAL’ AND ‘SCIENTIFIC’ DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, PUBLIC HEALTH & PLANET EARTH
Essay URL: https://poisonedpeople1.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/chemical-poisoning-a-greater-threat-to-humanity-than-climate-change/
Short link: http://wp.me/p2DVqC-3d
Even today, with a revolution occurring in the discipline of Toxicology (that includes the recognition that tiny and cumulative exposures to toxins add up ultimately to “toxic overload”), authorities and legal/justice systems everywhere are not only continuing to deny this expanding truth, but are elevating and magnifying their avoidance of basic toxicological fact and the essential human rights that come immediately into play when chemical use causes injury (http://www.indiegogo.com/poisoned-people).
In other words, Western society, in its aberrant and headlong flight away from the truth of chemical poisoning (and potential accusations of negligence or worse), is becoming more intrinsically and subversively fascist and totalitarian in its absolute demand for total freedom in the use of chemical substances.
There are those who either willfully or by tragic omission fail to read the trends of history and understand the nature of corporate and instutionalized perverse thinking inside an over-ripe civilization. They are the people who are attuned to the OCD of profit, convenience and freedom from the need to reference Human Rights. They are the corporates, the legals, the governments and the businesses that have decided to abandon all appreciation of context-dependent and wider human health and environmental concerns in favor of the deathly shroud of short-term convenience.
Particularly in terms of their use of degenerate scientific jargon and legalese, they either entirely side-step the fundamental recognition of the plain truth or they hide behind selfish, manipulative and minimized re-engineerings/interpretations of definitions such as “health”; “odours”, “odour goals” and “the potential impact of odour” (Holmes Air Sciences 2005, “Fox Studios Cumulative Impact FINAL”, page 3); “air quality”; “toxic”; “exposure”; “orthodox” (as in “orthodox pesticides”); “conservative”; “emissions” and “air pollutants”; “nuisance”, “threshold” and the like.
In their wholehearted embrace of convenient lies, these corporate and legal intellectuals have failed to recognize their starring roles in the inevitable destruction of, not just their own civilization as per its fading slide down into toxicological and public health chaos, internal self-destruction and even potential invasion and supplantation, but the now industrial-revolutionized and cumulative poisoning of an entire Planet.
“History shows that degeneration of the criminal justice system contributes
greatly to the downfall of states, and is a sign of rot within a political system” (Aulich 2006).
Whether criminal or civil, the hiding of the truth of chemical poisoning behind insubstantial legal and scientific jargon represents the establishment of a planet-wide death spiral.
CHEMICAL POISONING A GREATER THREAT TO HUMANITY THAN CLIMATE CHANGE
Short link: http://wp.me/p2DVqC-3a
Chemical poisoning is a far greater threat to human health than even Climate Change. While Climate Change will alter weather patterns, displace peoples, bring about droughts and floods and famines, increase the magnitude of storms, increase ocean temperatures and increase sea levels (all of which are certainly EXCEPTIONALLY bad), chemical poisoning (positioned inside our homes by technology, imposed on us by pesticide spray applications, and also released and spread by those destructive storms and floods) is adversely affecting human and animal/environmental fertility at its core.
We can move location if prolonged or permanently situated drought forces us to. We would then be somewhat like war refugees, and in too many cases that would certainly be, especially for the poor, a matter of deathly outcomes. The First World can also adapt to changing weather patterns in some measure by the use of continuously amplified and forced technology, BUT WE CANNOT TURN BACK OR REVERSE DESTROYED REPRODUCTIVE CAPACITY, once it has happened to us via the crucible of chemical poisoning. My sperm were damaged by two pesticide applications forced on me by the New South Wales Department of Housing (see: http://indiegogo.com/poisoned-people) in Sydney, and I am certain that I have been permanently damaged and should NOT reproduce further. When you see studies showing an increased presence of cancers in the children of those using pesticides commercially, you become deeply aware that the weakening and sickening of future generations is a creeping dynamic.
Climate Change, however painful and destructive (see: http://www.readersdigest.com.au/seasick-alanna-mitchell-exclusive-extract), forces at first largely external changes and demands for alterations in all manner of human activities (though, granted, this may well be an under-estimation). However, chemical poisoning, once established, represents an internal, genetic, mutagenic, teratogenic, and metabolic MORBID change in all aspects of human physiological and mental competence and reproductive capacity. This scales up the intrinsic impact of pesticides and other chemicals, therefore, to the level of a dominating, all-pervasive and clinging EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT, one of greater significance than even the burgeoning terrors of the Climate Change that will turn the whole world upside-down!
Uncategorized 2-4-dinitrophenol, Acephate, Acetaminophen, acrolein, ADHD, adipose tissue, advective contaminant transport, ag, aggressive behaviour, aggressive ions, agricultural biodiversity, agriculture, AIDS, air pollution, air pressure driven transports, Ajkwa River, alachlor, allergenic, Alpers' syndrome, AMA, AMPA, animal disease epidemics, antimicrobial, arsenic, asthma, atrazine, autism, autistic, autoimmune rheumatic diseases, automobile emissions, Bacillus globigii, bacteria, Bensulide, benzene, Bifenthrin, Big Ag, Big Pharma, biodiversity, Biotech, bird influenza, birth defects, Bisphenol A, blood brain barrier, blood donor, blood transfusion, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BPA, brain damage, BSE, cadmium, campaign, cancer, Candida albicans, capillary pores, capillary tracts, capillary transmission, carbamate, carbon disulfide, carbon monoxide, carbon tetrachloride, carcinogen, carcinogenic, caustic, cell depository, cement, cementitious, cementitious matrix, chemical diffusion, chemical intolerance, chemical migration, chemical sensitivity, chemical trespass, chemicals, children, chloride, chlorinated, chloroform, chloromethane, Chloropicrin, chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, Chlorpyrifos OA, cholinesterase inhibition, chronic, chronic illness, chronic pain, chronic wasting disease, civilization, CJD, clay, cleft palate, coal, coal ash, concrete, concrete foundation, concrete permeability, concrete slab, contaminant escape, contaminant transport process, contaminated drinking water, contaminated waste site, c
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Guidance and policy documents/
Guidance and policy documents
UEA privacy notices
Data protection: staff guidance
Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations
data protection guidance and policy documents data protection guidance and policy documents
This page lists guidance and policy documents available to UEA staff, and covers issues we are asked about most frequently. This sets out the University's position on data protection matters, but should not be taken as legal advice.
UK data protection law has recently been revised and expanded, and we will regularly add to and update this page to reflect changes to the law.
If you'd like further information on anything in this page, contact the Information Compliance team at dataprotection@uea.ac.uk, or +44 (0)1603 59 2431/1143.
what do you need to know about? what do you need to know about?
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT DATA PROTECTION AT UEA
For a quick overview of the essentials, see our Data protection pamphlet.
Remember, all staff must complete data protection training, which must be refreshed each year. Our online training is available via Blackboard, or this link.
HOW TO WRITE A 'PRIVACY NOTICE'
The University's primary privacy notices should cover most of the ways in which we collect and handle personal data, however there will be occasions where separate privacy notices are required (e.g. because data will be collected for a specific purpose that doesn't apply to a wide range of people). The following guidance and supplementary text is designed to assist staff who need to create a specific privacy notice. The data protection team must be informed of any new privacy notices (see checklist below).
Writing a privacy notice (Word doc.)
Privacy notice checklist (Word doc.)
Template text
the ICO have published a template privacy notice that can be tailored to fit your needs.
Supplementary text
'Further Information' web page (Staff can add this link to any privacy notice they create to ensure that some of the standard information required by GDPR is included in their notice)
Data protection text for web forms (Staff who collect personal data via web forms can use this link when creating a privacy notice for their form)
DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS
See our GDPR data subject rights guidance, and webpage on Your Rights.
WHAT TO DO IF SOMEONE REQUESTS A COPY OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT THEM
People are entitled to request a copy of the personal information the University holds about them. These requests are commonly known as Subject Access Requests, and are handled centrally by the University's Information Compliance team.
This is a fundamental data protection right, and requests can be made verbally, as well as in writing. If you are a member of UEA staff and receive a request for personal information, and this is not something you would expect to handle in your day to day work, contact the team at dataprotection@uea.ac.uk or ext. 2431/1143 as soon as possible. By law, we only have a limited time to respond to these requests, so quick action is required.
Guidance for staff who may hold data required for a Subject Access Request
Information to be recorded by staff who receive a verbal Subject Access Request (Word doc.)
GETTING CONSENT TO USE PERSONAL DATA
See our Consent checklist (Word doc.)
HOW LONG TO KEEP PERSONAL DATA
Data protection law doesn’t define specific time spans for the retention of different types of data, and instead says that personal data must be ‘kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed’. This is known as the 'storage limitation' principle, and is fundamental to data protection compliance.
In other words, if we no longer have a business need for personal data to be held and there are no legal reasons for it to be retained (e.g. someone has made an access request, or we are required by statute to keep the data), then it must be securely disposed of, or anonymised.
To help in making that decision, at UEA, all departments should have Records Retention Schedules. These documents describe the types of information the department uses, and how long that information should be kept for.
If you are a member of staff and need to know more about how to manage work records, contact records.management@uea.ac.uk.
What about email?
Email can cause problems for organisations because almost all messages will contain some kind of personal data, and many people simply never get round to deleting messages, or keep them ‘just in case’.
It might be difficult to justify the necessity of keeping many emails - for example those relating to students who are no longer at UEA - unless your department's Records Retention Schedule says that they must be kept for a specific reason.
There are lots of ways of managing your inbox, but it helps to automate the process where possible. For example, sort messages into relevant folders, then use the ‘Assign Policy’ tool to automatically delete messages in that folder after a certain period.
SHARING PERSONAL DATA - INSIDE AND OUTSIDE UEA
See our webpages on sharing personal data.
PROVIDING REFERENCES
Any member of staff might be asked to provide a written or verbal reference, for example for a colleague or former student. As references will usually contain personal data of both parties, its important to understand the potential data protection implications.
You are not legally obliged to provide a reference, but the University does not prohibit you from doing so
In some Schools there may be an expectation that references will be provided for former students. Check if your School or department has a pro forma document you should use.
HRD may also be able to provide template letters to assist you in writing the reference
The Careers service have published guidance on writing references for students
Any personal information you provide must be relevant and limited to what is necessary
Is the person aware you've been approached to provide a reference?
Sometimes this is not clear. If in doubt, consider contacting the person to explain that you've been approached, and what information you can, and are willing to, provide. Although not strictly necessary, this ensures they are aware of how you will share their personal data.
Are you certain the request is legitimate?
Another good reason for contacting the person is to confirm that they were expecting you to be asked by that individual or organisation. Not all people seeking information about our staff or students are who they say they are: make sure that they have a legitimate need for the reference, and are not asking for unnecessary or excessive information.
Have you been asked to provide sensitive information (e.g. health data)?
There are different rules for using and sharing what is known as 'special category' data. If you are asked to comment on, for example, a person's health (or ill-health) you need to be certain that any information you provide is proportionate, justified, and lawful. Contact dataprotection@uea.ac.uk for advice.
What if you can't contact the person?
It's not always possible or practical to let someone know that you've been approached to provide a reference about them. The Data Protection Act 2018 contains an exemption in relation to confidential references that means we are not obliged to explain how the person's data will be used, so it is possible to provide a reference without consulting with the person beforehand.
For students, we set out the expectation that the University may respond to basic reference requests in our student privacy notice. Our data protection policy explains further that ‘Where the University can confirm employment, student attendance or qualifications, and has not obtained explicit consent, the University will only disclose that information to verified and legitimate enquirers under certain limited circumstances where there is significant advantage to the data subject in so doing.’
Can the person see what you've written about them?
Confidential references are exempt from the right of subject access (people's legal right to request information an organisation holds about them). The exemption applies to the organisations providing and recieving the reference. Organisations are not obliged to apply this exemption, but many will choose to do so.
DATA PROTECTION AND 'LEGITIMATE INTERESTS': WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND DO
The University will, where appropriate and allowed by law, rely on ‘legitimate interests’ as a lawful basis for handling personal data.
In this context, ‘Legitimate Interests’ means the interests of the University in how we conduct and manage our activities. It may also refer to the interest of a third party organisation, or the person whose data we are processing.
We might refer to legitimate interests when we want to use information in a way that we believe will benefit the University and the services we provide. However, as a public body, the University cannot rely on legitimate interests in all cases. Also, we cannot do something we think is in our legitimate interests if it causes undue harm to the person whose information we are using. We need to make sure we get the balance right in all cases.
Where we are relying on 'Legitimate Interests' as our legal basis for processing personal data we must do a Legitimate Interests Assessment (LIA). Our LIA template (Word doc.) can be downloaded and, once complete, sent to dataprotection@uea.ac.uk for review.
See the ICO's Legitimate Interests slideshow for an overview of the key issues.
USING EXTERNAL SOFTWARE (E.G. DROPBOX, SURVEYMONKEY)
We often get asked if it's ok for staff to use commercial software (e.g. Dropbox, Trello, Slack) to collect, store or otherwise process University personal data.
You might have heard that this is not allowed, 'because of GDPR'. Although this is not purely a data protection issue, here's what you need to know if you want to use non UEA-approved software for any activity involving personal data.
Many of these unofficial software tools offer useful – and sometimes free – services, but if they are used to process UEA personal data they can present the University with significant problems in complying with data protection law.
The law requires us to understand and record where our personal data is, how it is used, and who we share it with. It requires us to make sure our data is adequately secured, and that we have the appropriate written agreements with companies that process data on our behalf. We also need to know when our data is transferred outside the EEA, and put steps in place to protect it.
Although it might be possible to do all of the above with the software providers, the University has limited resource and cannot provide technical support and ensure data protection compliance for all potential software solutions.
Just because software is well-known, easy to use, or even free, it doesn’t automatically follow that it can be used for processing UEA personal data – regardless of whether it fulfils a unique or much-needed function. There is a hidden cost to even ‘free’ services.
What to do if you've found software you want to use
If new software is required you must involve ITCS at an early stage to make sure all relevant technical and data protection requirements are considered, and that we don’t replicate costly licences across the organisation. If the software will be used to process personal data, you must also involve the Information Compliance team.
As you can imagine, all of the above can take time to resolve – often several months. Our advice is to plan well in advance, ask for advice, and work together if possible.
There may be a University-approved alternative to the software you want to use. For example, Outlook's FindTime offers an alternative to DoodlePoll, and Forms (part of Office365) can be used instead of SurveyMonkey. Contact the IT Service Desk to find out more about the software available to you. Remember that not all software listed in the Software Centre (Application Catalogue) is suitable to be used for processing personal data.
Consequences of using non-approved software
The Conditions of Computer Use prohibits staff from using the University’s network and IT facilities in a way that would violate the privacy of others. It also states that continuing to use an item of software/hardware after ITCS has requested that such use cease would constitute ‘unacceptable use’. A breach of these conditions of use may lead to disciplinary proceedings and/or disconnection from the data network. In serious cases, this could result in dismissal for staff.
WHERE TO FIND EXTERNAL GUIDANCE
Information Commissioner's Office Guide to Data Protection and Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
European Data Protection Board
Article 29 Working Party GDPR Guidelines (EU level guidance)
UEA policies UEA policies
Data Protection Policy (updated May 2018)
The following policies also relate to the use of and access to personal data at UEA:
Information Classification and Data Management Policy (updated Feb. 2018)
Conditions of Computer Use (updated June 2018)
General Information Security Policy (updated Oct. 2017)
Records Management Policy (updated Sept. 2019)
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Posts tagged “car”
Alexandra’s War Story: When One Door Closes
Alexandra Wills is an ethnographer working at Fuse by Cardinal Health, an innovation center in Columbus, Ohio. She told this story on stage at Midwest UX 2017.
I’ll never forget when I did ethnographic research for a project aimed at helping a car manufacturer learn what Millennials with small children really needed.
The project was hard. Taking on a project at the height of the Great Recession meant navigating a radical change in client engagement from what I had experienced since starting the work two years prior. “It’s Friday at 5 p.m. in Ohio and you want me in Los Angeles on Monday?” Okay. “We’re doing video diaries and in-home interviews and a post-interview ideation session with participants in two cities, all in two months?” Okay.
Added to all that, I had a nine-month-old and simply didn’t want to leave her for days at a time. Over the past few months of work, I had already breast pumped on an airplane and in dirty airport bathrooms. I had already begged flight attendants and fast food workers for ice to put in the cooler carrying pouches of my “liquid gold.” Did I mention it was my birthday?
At one point in the project, I was hanging out with a family in Austin who had a toddler. I knew nothing about toddlers. After all, I had a nine-month-old. Did I mention I am not a ‘kid person’?
We had just returned from running errands in their car. As we got out of the car, they were showing me some specific details about the vehicle. They had a Honda Element – the car with the interesting doors that open and close like a book. I was paying close, close attention to the parents and I had no idea that the little kid was right near me. So I closed the door. Suddenly, we all heard the kid screaming! His parents rushed to his side and looked him over, examining his hands. All I could do was yell impulsively, “I didn’t do it!” I was horrified. I thought, “I hurt a child! This child! A participant’s child! Oh noooooo this is bad. How am I going to fix this? What am I going to tell Melinda (my boss)?” To this day I don’t know if his finger got caught in the door, or if me closing the door just scared him.
There was no blood, no broken fingers. But inside, I wanted to die. I already felt plagued by my own mommy guilt and that feeling spread throughout my body like lava. So, not only did I feel like a horrible mom for leaving my kid, but here I was in Austin, making someone else’s kid cry. What a moment. Needless to say, any rapport I had developed in my time with the family evaporated in that instant.
I stopped recording, stepped back, apologized to the mom and waited for the parents to finish calming down their kid. I waited for them to say, “This is over.” They didn’t. Miraculously, they continued the interview, even if I could feel all their judgment the entire time as we wrapped things up. “Maybe I didn’t traumatize this family,” I thought insecurely.
The icing on the cake was that we used video to capture all our data, so not only did this happen, but my boss got to see the whole thing when she reviewed the video. Later in the project I mentioned the incident and she said, “Yeah I saw that.”
alexandra wills, car, child, crying, door, fieldwork, finger, ouch, rapport, user research, war stories
Mary Ann’s War Story: Be Prepared
Ethnographer Mary Ann Sprague is forced to improvise when one slip changes her plan.
I have always taken great care and a certain amount of pride in always being on time and prepared for field sites and interviews. I thank my mentors for instilling this in me early on. I always made sure I had charged video and audio equipment, discussion guides, contact information, notebooks, extra writing implements, and power cords to carry on despite any possible problems. There have been the occasional failed battery, but I always had a spare, or my coworker had one. It’s never been a serious setback until this spring.
I was meeting my coworker at an elementary school for a teacher interview. Teacher free time is at a premium so I made a point of being on time and prepared to maximize the time we have together. On this occasion I arrived at the school parking lot a few minutes early, so I turned off my car and pulled out my iPhone to check messages. I did a mental check that I had everything in my backpack in the passenger seat. Everything was in order, so I relaxed for a couple minutes.
Just before the meeting time, I put my phone in my pocket, got out of the car, and hit the door lock. I walked around to grab my backpack and the door was locked. No problem I thought, I’ll go back to the driver’s side and unlock it. The driver’s door was locked, and the keys were still in the ignition with my equipment, questions and paper still locked in the car!
I called my husband and he agreed to drive home (luckily it wasn’t too far) to get my spare keys and deliver them (but still a good 40 minute wait). I went into the school to meet my coworker. She had relied on my previous level of preparation and had a notebook, but without the questions or any recording equipment.
Not wanting to reschedule, we met with the teacher. Luckily, the teacher had printed the list of questions I had emailed. I was frustrated because I didn’t want to miss any part of this conversation. The teacher was a wealth of information, but the information came out at warp speed and I worried about being able to keep up.
Thinking about what I had with me, I realized I had my iPhone, so I recorded the entire conversation using the voice messages app and took several pictures, as did my coworker, using our phones. I wrote my notes on the back of the question sheet from the teacher and we had a very interesting discussion. My husband met us in the parking lot just as we left our interview. Later, I was able to retrieve the audio through iTunes and convert it to listen on my PC.
Everything worked out in the end, but it was a shock to my confidence. I have since begun looking at other apps to capture audio on my iPhone so I have a better backup plan for the future, and my coworker now carries audio equipment at least so we are always prepared.
car, documentation, improvising, iphone, keys, mary ann sprague, recording, war stories
In East Harlem, ‘Keep Out’ Signs Apply to Renters [NYT.com] – When in a large city I often look at the residential spaces above dense commercial/retail and wonder who lives there and what it’s like (I once lived above a real estate office of some type – we never really knew what they did down there – and was constantly pestered by couriers and other delivery people) – but the answer may very well be that nobody lives up there. Naively, it doesn’t make economic sense, but the situation appears to more complex than that.
East Harlem has been undergoing a resurgence for two decades, yet the neighborhood is still pockmarked with four- or five-story walk-ups where the ground-floor stores are bustling and the apartments above are devoid of life. Their windows are boarded up, blocked up or just drearily empty, torn curtains testifying to no one’s having lived there for years. Although the vacancy rate in Manhattan hovers at 1 percent, at least some of the landlords of these sealed-up buildings are deliberately keeping their buildings mostly vacant, content to earn income from first-floor commercial tenants rather than deal with the trouble of residents. …At the corner of 106th Street and Third Avenue, the boarded-up windows and the remainder of the five-story building have been sleekly painted a rich taupe, allowing the Chase Bank branch below to escape looking as if it were in a forsaken slum. Still, no one lives in the apartments.
Reinventing Post Offices in a Digital World [NYT.com] – Digital, and all that it encompasses, is remaking every industry. We straddle the opposites of welcoming new services and holding onto traditional ways of receiving familiar services. Nice to see the German post office reframe this away from loss, towards reinvention. The article doesn’t characterize the pain that must have been felt by the organization and the customers but you can imagine it must have been tremendous.
With mail volumes decreasing 1 to 2 percent annually in many countries, European postal services from Germany to Sweden to Switzerland have reinvented themselves over the past decade as multifaceted delivery and information companies tailored to the virtual age. Though Deutsche Post by law still delivers to every address six days a week, it has jettisoned tens of thousands of buildings, 100,000 positions and its traditional focus on paper mail. “We realized that being a national postal provider was an endangered business, that we had to redefine the role of postal providers in a digital world,” said Clemens Beckmann, executive vice president of innovation of the German post office’s mail division. After selling off all but 24 of 29,000 post office buildings in the past 15 years, the German postal service is now housed mostly within other business “partners,” including banks, convenience stores and even private homes. In rural areas, a shopkeeper or even a centrally located homeowner is given a sign and deputized as a part-time postmaster. At the same time, many European postal services, including the one here, have developed a host of electronic services that are increasingly making traditional post offices and mailboxes obsolete. Bills and catalogs can go first to digital mailboxes run by the post office on customers’ computers, and the customers can tell the post office what they want it to print and deliver
Ford reintroduces the 1965 Mustang [Yahoo! Autos] – First I’m hearing that Ford has its own business supporting the classic car market. There are obviously design, performance and legal/safety issues why they won’t sell you an actual 1965 Mustang, but the idea of having someone make you a new version of an old car is very compelling. Who will make me one?
As part of its Ford Reproduction business, Ford revealed today it had approved a new stamping of the steel bodies for first-generation Mustang that buyers could then build into their own 1964 1/2 through 1966 Mustang, using whatever engine, axles, interior and other parts they can find on their own. The first-generation Mustangs rank as America’s most-restored vehicle, and the cottage industry of reproduction parts has grown to where it’s possible to build a Mustang just as it would have appeared on the showroom floor in the mid-1960s, down to the pushbutton AM/FM radio.
car, classic, economics, ford, Germany, harlem, housing, innovation, money, mustang, New York, post office, quickies, real estate, reproductions, vacancy
[from steve_portigal] Bright Colors Struggle to Bloom in South Korea’s Silver-Car Nation [WSJ.com] – [Product aesthetics, over functionality, become highly codified] Car colors around the world have been trending monochromatic. In the U.S., black, white and silver cars now account for about 60% of new-car sales, up from 38% in the late-1990s, according to Kia. But no nation has as high a proportion of the three colors as South Korea does. China and Japan are next, with just under 80% of new cars sold in the three colors. Oh Suk-geun, chief designer at Hyundai, theorizes that the East Asian affinity for muted car colors is rooted in the monochromatic painting, calligraphy and printmaking of centuries past. Layered onto that tradition, older South Koreans remember the limits on self-expression, and even clothing, imposed by the authoritarian government that led the country after the Korean War of the early 1950s. In those days, with the country rising from poverty, most people didn't own cars. For those that did, a color code arose: black for company cars, white for family cars.
car, color, Korea, meaning, quickies
[from steve_portigal] Side View Mirror Project – [Love Erik Dahl's deep dive on the ordinary to find ot the extraordinary, as he has spent years taking pictures of side view mirrors. He discovers some great themes and patterns although he acknowledges he didn't know where it was going to go when he started.] Taking these pictures changed the way I drive. I used to be very end-state oriented when I would drive. When I started taking pictures for this project I stopped thinking about where I was going, and started watching mirrors and looking for red lights. As designers, its important to remember that the goal and orientation of the user dramatically impacts their experiences.
[from steve_portigal] Two years after buying Pure Digital, Cisco ditches the Flip [Ars Technica] – [I always thought this was about driving a consumer-facing innovation culture into the org. Let's hope that this persists even without the specific line of products.] Cisco is killing off the line of pocketable video cameras in order to refocus the company around home networking and video. The news was a surprise to even Flip critics, leaving everyone wondering why Cisco bothered to buy Pure Digital (the Flip's former parent company) for $590 million just 2 years ago. The marriage never fully made sense, but we accepted itmost assumed that Cisco was making its own attempt to compete in the handheld market by simply gobbling up one of the hottest little gadget startups at the time. Two years later, Cisco's feelings about the acquisition have changed. Cisco announced that it's expanding the Consumer Business Group, but that the Flip business will no longer be part of it. There was no formal explanation given as to why Cisco chose to shut the group down instead of selling it.
art, camera, car, cisco, culture, driving, flip, innovation, mirrors, norms, noticing, observation, people, photography, pure, quickies, society, technology
[from wstarosta] Status displays: I’ve got you labelled [The Economist] – [Evolutionary biology helps to explain why luxury branded objects, even counterfeit ones, are so appealing.] DESIGNERS of fancy apparel would like their customers to believe that wearing their creations lends an air of wealth, sophistication and high status. And it does—but not, perhaps, for the reason those designers might like to believe, namely their inherent creative genius. A new piece of research confirms what many, not least in the marketing departments of fashion houses, will long have suspected: that it is not the design itself that counts, but the label.
[from steve_portigal] The Future of Books. [McSweeney’s Internet Tendency] – [As usual, McSweeney's does razor-sharp mockery, but you could read this as straight-ahead prediction and it would sadly almost pass for believable] 2050: Analog Reading Will Be Digitally Simulated. As people spend more and more of time immersed in massively multi-player role-playing games, they will begin to crave some downtime. Virtual simulation worlds will start to include hideaway "libraries" you can lock yourself into. There you'll be able to climb into a virtual bath and lovingly turn the pages of a pixilated representation of one of those dog-eared tomes—reliant on old-school linear narrative— that by this time will have been made illegal in the real world. Perfectly reproduced will be the sensation of turning the pages, the crack of the spine, and even the occasional paper cut.
[from steve_portigal] When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink? [Smithsonian Magazine] – [Fascinating cultural history] The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before WW I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out. In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers. “It could have gone the other way,” Paoletti says..Nowadays people just have to know the sex of a baby or young child at first glance, says Jo B. Paoletti, a historian & author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America. Thus we see a pink headband encircling the bald head of an infant girl. [Via @boingboing]
[from steve_portigal] In Sweden’s frigid north, auto testing is hot [SFGate] – [Obvious car companies do a ton of lab and simulation testing, but they are also big advocates of real world testing] Arjeplog, a region in northern Sweden is is important to car makers eager to optimize their vehicles for driving in extreme weather, This winter, temperatures have hovered around -4 F, making ice on the lakes consistently thick enough for driving. About 180 engineers convened at the test center at one point this season to work on making cars more fuel-efficient in cold weather and to optimize their anti-spin function. While Arjeplog is the world's largest winter testing area, rival locations include Ivalo, Finland; West Yellowstone, Mont.; Carson City, Nev.; and Millbrook, England. Francisco Carvalho, an analyst at IHS Automotive, says such tracks provide automakers with "the ultimate test for the little things they can't detect or predict in a lab." Almost 9,000 car industry officials visit Arjeplog each winter, with about 2,800 engineers working on any given day.
Arjeplog, automative, behavior, blue, books, brand, capitalism, car, children, clothing, cold, color, consumerism, culture, designer, ebooks, engineering, future, gender, history, identity, marketing, parenting, pink, publishing, quickies, reading, reading ahead, satire, simulation, status, sweden, testing, weather
[from Dan_Soltzberg] Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years: A Half-Century of Automotive Eyesores [BusinessWeek] – [Interesting to look at design from a "greatest misses" rather than a greatest hits point of view. Can't say though that I agree with all of the selections for ugliest car – I do have love in my heart for the AMC Gremlin]
[from steve_portigal] Pampers offers Rowley-designed diapers [The Associated Press] – [Interesting to hear a story about this trend on NPR's marketplace, suggesting that this was designed to appeal specifically to the mothers. Obviously since the chooser isn't the user here, that's nothing new in itself, but these brands are making explicit the idea of the product design being a reflection of the mom instead of a projection by the mom – here's who I am instead of here's who my kid is] Popular designer Cynthia Rowley has designed 11 styles of Pampers, including pastels, stripes, madras and ruffles. P&G says they'll be offered in Target Corp. stores beginning in mid-July. Jodi Allen, a P&G baby care vice president, says in a statement Wednesday that diaper performance comes first, but parents consider the look important, too. Pampers is the No. 1 worldwide brand in sales for the Cincinnati-based consumer products maker. Dallas-based competitor Kimberly-Clark Corp. last month launched U.S. sales of Huggies Jeans Diapers, giving babies' bottoms a denim style for the summer.
appearance, auto, car, design, diapers, fashion, identity, image, mom, mother, motherhood, pampers, quickies, rowley, ugly
[from julienorvaisas] New Artisanal Pencil-Sharpening Project [Details Magazine] – [It looks like the artisanal food and craft movement may be fading in cultural relevance if it's subject to this level of brutal skewering.] "What better to complement your collection of limited-edition notebooks, small-batch liquors, and locally sourced honey than a pencil sharpened by a true artisan? David Rees, author of the comic book series Get Your War On and My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, discovered his passion for sharpening pencils while working for the U.S. Census Bureau. Now he's parlaying his old-school skills into a mail-order artisanal pencil-sharpening business."
[from steve_portigal] An App for ‘Despicable Me,’ to Use at the Theater [NYTimes.com] – [Is there a difference between multimedia enhancement and advertising-supported distraction?] Best Buy Movie Mode is being released in connection with “Despicable Me,” an animated 3-D movie in which an aspiring supervillain named Gru inherits three little girls. The marquee feature of the app is called the Minionator, which translates the gibberish of Gru’s little yellow henchmen called Minions. In theaters, the Minionator will work only during the closing credits, but on Blu-ray disc throughout the movie. “It is disturbing to have people doing things that take people out of the movie,” said Patrick Corcoran, director of media and research for the National Association of Theater Owners. Many theaters warn patrons to turn off their phones. Movie Mode tries to appease those who dislike distractions. The app automatically turns off a phone’s ringer and dims the screen to discourage texting. It does not disable the phone. It will still vibrate.
[from steve_portigal] Black Taxis offer tours of Belfast [SF Chronicle] – The Black Taxis of Belfast grew out the height of the Troubles. City buses were subject to bomb and sniper attacks as they passed through the strife-torn neighborhoods. Safe passage had to be arranged via taxi, and the taxi drivers could only operate within, never across, each neighborhood's boundaries, The ads for Black Taxi tours promise a neutral historical narrative. That's a tall order, as many drivers have a genuine history on one side of the conflict or the other. Some lost family members. Everyone lost friends. Still, the mere fact that the murals are now a tourist attraction, rather than a touchstone for violence, may signify that peace has actually arrived in Belfast. "We debated whether to encourage this trend or to downplay it," said Bernard McMullan, a representative of Tourism Ireland, of the popularity of the Black Taxi tours. "But in the end, we decided that it was an important part of our history. There's no point in denying it. Besides, it's interesting."
[from steve_portigal] Nissan adds noises to Leaf electric vehicle as safety precaution [WaPo] – [The design challenge of creating new, yet familiar feedback cues] After exploring 100 sounds that ranged from chimes to motorlike to futuristic, the company settled on a soft whine that fluctuates in intensity with the car's speed. When backing up, the car makes a clanging sound. Nissan says it worked with advocates for the blind, a Hollywood sound-design company and acoustic psychologists in creating its system of audible alerts. Nissan's sound system is the first created by a major manufacturer. The company says it is controlled by a computer and synthesizer in the dash panel. The sounds are delivered through a speaker in the engine compartment. A switch inside the vehicle can turn off the sounds temporarily, but the system automatically resets to "on" at the next ignition cycle. At speeds greater than 20 mph, any car, electric or not, makes significant noise because of the tires slapping on the pavement, engineers say. The noises for the Nissan operate only at the lower speeds.
advertising, app, artisinal, auditory, belfast, car, conflict, culture, device, electric, experience, feedback, film, gru, history, interface, ireland, leaf, mobile, nissan, pencil, phone, quickies, sharpening, smartphone, society, sound, theater, tour, translation, vehicle, violence
While visiting Savannah, GA last week I walked past this display vehicle in front of the police station
This combination of a taxi and a police car has the license NO DUI.
Zooming in for the important details:
This is a powerful visualization between two alternatives: if you have been drinking you can either ride in a cab or ride in a cop car (when you will inevitably be pulled over). The emphasis is on the cost difference between those two choices, rather than (say) the moral obligation to protect others. The binary aspect of the car is a great reframe, suggesting the citizen has the power (via their choice), rather than the police who enforce/catch/punish.
I wonder if there are studies that determine the most effective persuasive messaging, and how choice (i.e., “Click It or Ticket”) works differently than fear or guilt. Intuitively, I would believe that the positive message is more effective, but I’d love to find out more about how these messaging strategies are determined and how the individual messages (such as this car) are created.
binary, CAB, car, cop, cop car, dui, hybrid, ixd10, messaging, persuasion, police car, savannah, split, tax, vehicle, yellow
Changing Lanes, Changing Minds
Locavore iPhone app
Locavore (also localvore) is someone who eats (or tries to eat) food from within a certain radius, typically 100 miles. In 2006, Google opened Cafe 150, a restaurant on its Mountain View campus that only uses ingredients that come from within 150 miles. The 100-mile diet is a book, a website, and a movement.
This is a powerful idea that, as it has taken hold, has entered our vocabulary and shifted our mindset. Even if we don’t do this, we consume the idea. It’s a meme.
Now, here come the electric vehicles. A similarly urgent effort to create change that asks us to fundamentally revisit how we do a primary activity. The fully electric Chevy’s Volt has a much-discussed 40-mile-without-recharging-capacity, based on some data (which of course, is disputed) showing 80% Americans drive less than 40 miles per day.
These two ideas are not parallel. At 41 miles, imagine that your car stops dead by the roadside and you’re stuck with a AAA situation. At 151 miles, your radicchio isn’t quite as local – but you don’t go hungry. Even so, the food people have done a much better job at creating a new story that quickly captures the essence of a new behavior.
Do you know how many miles a day you drive? The EV people, and Chevy especially, would do well to help create awareness at a general level (that people drive this much, on average) and a personal level (here’s how to figure out how much you drive, or how to map a 40-mile capacity against your typical usage). There’s potentially a gap between how well the Volt would work for most people and how well those same people believe the Volt would work for them.
We’ve seen people wearing pedometers to track another unknown distance: how far they walk in a given day. Why not give away car pedometers (yes, cars already contain equipment that provides that information, but the point here is to celebrate and raise awareness)? Where equivalent term to locavore for the daily driving case? 40-milers? loca-motives? Where are the use cases or archetypes that help translate into something familiar? How far does a mom in the ‘burbs drive? How about someone in the exurbs? Or a traveling saleswoman/road warrior? There’s a lot that can be done just on expanding the idea itself, to help set the stage for the coming solutions.
automobile, automotive, brand, cafe 150, car, change, chevy volt, design, driving, electric car, electric vehicle, ev, google, localvore, locavore, meme, mileage, miles, persuasion, radius, scenario, use case
Shudder: Ford is using "Invented characters" to get everyone on the same page – Antonella is the personification of a profile created from demographic research about the Fiesta’s target customer, said Moray Callum, executive director of Ford Americas design.
Ford is using characters like Antonella to bring a human element to the dry statistical research drawn from polls and interviews. Based on psychological profiles, these characters are a more modern version of the “theme boards” that designers once covered with snapshots and swatches of material to inspire a design. They are also like avatars, those invented characters used in online games and forums to symbolize a participant’s personality.
“Personalizing gives context to the information we have. Sometimes the target demographics are difficult to relate to by, say, a 35-year-old male designer.
“We found in the past that if they didn’t understand the buyer, designers would just go off and design something for themselves,” he added.
All of the highbrow talent lavished on lowbrow fare – Frank Bruni riffs on shifting trends in food and tastes as informed (or exacerbated) by the Internet's power to bestow a laser-like focus on the details of the details. Cupcakes, donuts, hot dogs, hamburgers, but what does it all mean?
alignment, automobile, automotive, bruni, car, culture, cupcake, design, dining, donut, eating, food, ford, hotdog, personas, society, trend
Lou Rosenfeld revisits an old engagement where the client sought to dissuade usage – What they told me was that they didn't really want to make it easy for veterans—those people risking their lives for their country—to learn about the health benefits that they were entitled to. And that taxpayers had committed to funding. All to save money—and for what??
IT issue? Not. It was an issue of business model design, and this particular business model was shrouded in a sick morality emanating from the top levels of the VA's management structure. Absolutely immorally, shamefully, and horribly sick.
[With the theme of persuasion, manipulation, and user-centeredness floating around lately, good to consider an example where the organization goals are 180 degrees from the user's supposed goals]
Citations for California drivers not using hands-free are on the rise – Seems like there was good compliance when the law was first passed but the numbers are climbing back up. One might think the best way to drive adoption of a product/service/behavior is to make it legally mandated but people are citing the poor user experience with Bluetooth headsets as a reason/rationalization for ignoring the law. "Sometimes, it can be more dangerous to figure out your Bluetooth than just to pick up the phone."
architecture, bluetooth, California, car, chp, citation, design, drivers, driving, enforcement, headset, ia, influence, information, interaction, interface, law, legal, manipulation, navigation, persuasion, reliability, rosenfeld, site, ticket, usability
Mini places last in J.D. Power quality study – but mfr. thinks this is a good thing? So what is "quality"? – Mini says it deliberately engineers quirks into its cars, like oddly placed dashboard controls or unusual interior lighting, that drag down its ratings in such studies. But Jim McDowell, vice president of Mini's U.S. operations, said those design features are central to the brand's personality.
"Mini has some idiosyncrasies that we engineer into our cars. We want to make our cars remarkable little cars." McDowell attributed Mini's poor performance in J.D. Power's most recent study to design quirks like the windshield wiper control. In the Mini, it's a button that presses rather than a knob that turns. Its cars feature adjustable ambient light colors not an option you're likely to find in your standard Dodge Ram pickup.
J.D. Power says the top five problems reported in the overall study were wind noise, air conditioner or heater control problems, interior scuffing, audio control problems and brake noise.
auto, automobile, automotive, car, experience, interface, mini, problems, quality, vehicle
Mass Customization of the Fiat 500 – A number of folks we recently met in Europe mentioned this new (although an updated classic) car as being perfect for their needs. The variation and customizing, while perhaps not unique in today's marketplace (I'm imaging the Mini's variability is similar if not beyond) was still striking: "The 500 is available with four different trim levels: Naked, Pop, Lounge, and Sport. Customers can choose also between 15 interior trims, 9 wheel options, 19 decals, and 12 body colours. There are over 500,000 different personalized combinations of the 500 that can be made by adding all kinds of accessories, decals, interior and exterior colours, and trims."
Searching for Value in Ludicrous Ideas – Allison Arieff writes about "inventor/author/cartoonist/former urban planner Steven M. Johnson" whose "work tends toward the nodes where social issues intersect with design and urban planning issues." I'm reminded of my formative experiences with Al Jaffee features from MAD magazine where he's describe future products or technologies, or explain (fancifully) the workings of some current product (i.e. bars of soap that are made with quick disappearing stuff on the outside and then a small interior core that takes a long long time to dissolve).
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt – Suggested to me by René Vendrig at the Amsterdam UX Cocktail Hour, after my talk on looking at cultural differences based on everyday observations. He tells me "It is about traffic, but the real subject is human psychology and how we deal with that kind of situations."
It's Not TV, It's HBO – HBO's standard-creating slogan, giving words to the premium experience of their programming.
It's not just coffee, it's Starbucks. – New ad campaign for Starbucks attempts to differentiate on quality, but sounds just a bit familiar.
All This ChittahChattah | Flying the sneaky skies – (see link for screen grab)
While checking in online for a United Airlines flight, you may be offered the opportunity to upgrade to Economy Plus. It’s likely that most people decline upsells in many situations, though. The default would be to click “no thanks” and move on to completing the transaction. But United has done some tricky and manipulative interface design. The bright yellow arrow with bold text placed on the right is almost irresistible. E-commerce sites have trained us to envision a transaction moving from left to right (granted that they’ve landed on that model since it corresponds to how we read and other cultural factors); it’s very easy to click on the arrow and make a purchase you didn’t want. It takes cognitive work to search for the preferred option which is a lowly blue-underlined unbolded text link off to the left.
Evil-interface design in airline website design spanked by European Commission – "Another common problem is the use of prechecked boxes offering services like travel insurance; consumers must uncheck the boxes to remove the unwanted charge." I've written before about United's website being slightly more subtle in their evilness, by offering an upgrade during check-in where the highly visible (colored graphic arrow) button in the default location will cost you tons of money; it's more effort to realize, locate, and decline the offer. Why do we live in a world where major brands want to sell us things that we don't want by tricking us? It's unconscionable that any company can claim to respect consumers and then pull crap like this.
Cyd Harrell of Bolt | Peters reacts to the ludicrous Dell campaign trying to sell computers to women, in 2009 – "…a woman, with the last Dell I will ever own. It’s my current laptop, and I chose it because I needed a computer powerful enough to run screensharing tools and high-res video; I needed mobile broadband to stay in touch with my clients and employees, and not just my kid (heresy!); I needed my screen to look great when I go to meetings with clients. That is to say, I needed it for work. Dell, let’s make it official: you can bite me and the millions of other women who take themselves and their technology seriously."
I love the articulate passion here, as well as the insight into what may have happened organizationally/culturally at Dell (ahem, really crappy research) that leads to such a horrendously offensive sales pitch to HALF of their buying population
advertising, airline, Arieff, behavior, boycott, brand, car, cartoons, checkbox, coffee, critique, culture, customer, customization, default, dell, design, differentiation, Europe, evil, fiat, gender, HBO, ideas, idiocy, insights, interface, interviewing, jaffee, mad, manipulation, marketing, message, offensive, patronizing, persuasion, positioning, provocation, psychology, quality, research, revolt, sales, satire, silliness, slogan, small, sneaky, starbucks, system:media:image, traffic, trim, tv, united, vehicle, web, website
Object Love, Object Lust, and Indifference
I took my last ride in my 1977 Datsun 280Z today. I’ve sold the car, and the new owner is picking it up tonight.
On this last drive, I patted the dashboard and said something like, “Sorry I have to sell you.” Which made me think about how some objects in my life are things I have relationships with, and some are just things.
I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have to give up a pet, or a baby, when I feel sad about just seeing my car go.
I really don’t want to own it anymore-it just doesn’t serve my daily needs-but on a deeper, emotional level, I have a warm feeling towards it, and something significant is going on around giving it up.
This feeling about my Z is totally different from the way I felt when I got an iPhone, which was nonetheless strong as well. I woke up early the morning the contract with my old provider expired and drove right to the Apple store. This was like a consumer electronics booty call. Object lust.
But now my phone is just a thing I use. I feel more emotion about my Swiss Army knife.
And I never felt a thing for my computer, even though I probably spend more time with it than anything–inanimate or animate–in my life.
Actually, I’ve got some pretty good ideas about why all of this is the way it is, but I’d rather hear your comments about things you
lust after
feel indifferent about
apple, car, Datsun, design, emotion, emotional design, iphone, love, object lust, objects, swiss army knife, Z Car
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Wight Vodka Best Bar
Scuttlebutt Europe #3247 - 7 January
Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to
International 14 Teams Racing World Championship
The traditional International 14 Teams Racing World Championship, has acted as a warm-up event, that saw 24 of the 67 teams entered in the Fleet Racing Worlds, out on Corio Bay over the last two days. It gave these competitors a chance to test their equipment and familiarising themselves with several of their competitors.
The friendly showdown was held by host club, Royal Geelong Yacht Club, close to the shoreline where waterfront visitors and office workers were able to enjoy the spectacle of the fast-paced racing.
The Team Racing trophy was taken out by Australia 1 - Brad Devine, Lindsay Irwin, David Heyter and Stuart Sloss - but not before several dramas almost derailed the campaign.
The Teams Racing course was set up close to shore in a different area to what will be used for the World Championships fleet racing which starts on Thursday. The teams raced in anything between six through to 18 knots.
www.international14.org
www.i14worlds2015.com
Banjo Breaks South African Governor's Cup Race Record
Whimsical leading fellow Sydney boat Indulgence on a windy Port Philip. Photo from the International Dragon Class of Australia. Click on image to enlarge.
Kevin Webb, Sarel van der Merwe, and Brad Stemmett sailing Banjo, a Farrier F9AX trimaran, have broken the 1,750-mile Governor's Cup Race record from Simon's Town to St Helena with a time of 9 days 13 hours and 36 seconds.
Webb, van der Merwe and Stemmett arrived in Jamestown, St Helena at 01.53.36 today, in just enough time to shave off five hours from Banjo's previous race record of 9 day,18 hours and 59 minutes set by Frans Loots in 2010.
After an exceptionally lively start from False Bay Yacht Club, Simon's Town on 27 December, when winds gusted up to 40kts, the race developed into a game of tactics with those opting for the more northern route towards St Helena generally benefiting from stronger, more consistent winds.
Webb, van der Merwe and Stemmett weaved their way to an early on-the-water lead soon after the start and were first round Cape Point later that afternoon, which enabled them to slot into a downwind roller coaster ride in the relentless wind that lasted for several days.
Further down the racecourse the conditions are less favourable with many competitors struggling with boat speed in the light airs. With just five days until the cut-off time, the situation looks bleak, particularly for those still with over 700-nautical miles to go.
According the Bram Weller - the Race Officer at the finish line in St Helena - there is a good chance some boats won't make the race deadline. "It is very concerning the wind has dropped so much, and the outlook doesn't look promising either. As it stands at the moment half the fleet is not going to finish the race within the time limit which is 1200 GMT on Saturday 10 January, unless the race committee extends the deadline. At this stage there are just seven boats - Banjo, Black Cat, Avanti, Strumpet, Vulcan 44, Canace, and Revelation, who'll make it, while Carel Jacobs and team of the Baltic 42 Cool Runnings looks like they might miss the cut off by seven hours."
Given the conditions, the overall winner of the Governor's Cup 2014/15 is still uncertain although it is looking more and more certain that it could go to Klaus Wiswedel and team on Avanti (Vikers 41) in Racing division. -- Sue Pelling
governorscup.sh
www.facebook.com/Governorscuprace
SK2. Welcome To The New.
The fast and fun sportsboat with a canting keel. Developed by Swing Keel Sailing Ltd and built by Ovington boats.
The SK2 is equally a capable racer for 2-3 crew or a performance day-sailor with family and friends. Developed as a strict one design class in mind it is equally suitable for a wide range of mixed fleet racing. The SK2 has been shown to live happily and be equally competitive amongst dinghies, sportsboats and more varied inshore club fleets. A true cross-over boat.
SK2's thoroughly developed package provides a new experience. The difference is the canting keel. Easily operate manually the canting keel provides additional righting moment and allows full use of SK2's powerful sailplan. Together this makes the SK2 suitable for a wide range of wind conditions. It also offers an ideal trialling vehicle for those with an eye on something bigger.
Weighing in at only 210kg (hull & Keel) it is towable by any car. At this weight an SK2 is also easily launched by hand like a dinghy from the beach or a boat slip.
The SK2 can be seen on the water this winter in the GJW Sail Juice Series. It is starting to post notable results with a 2nd overall at the Datchet Flyer.
Demo Days - Try it for yourself.
Queen Mary 17-18.01.2015
Register your interest at or
Boat Shows - Come and take a look.
Dusseldorf 17-25.01.2015 Hall 17, Stand B53
London Dinghy Show 28.02-01.03.2015 Stand F30
sk2sailing.com
New Member For South West Shingles Yacht Club?
Photo by David Aisher. Click on image to enlarge.
Membership of the South West Shingles Yacht Club, which has often been referred to as 'the world's most exclusive yacht club,' is by invitation only.
David Latchford started the Club when he actually collided with the South West Shingles buoy, a very large red item which is fairly visible, in broad daylight. Owning up to this unpardonable error for a sailor with a high reputation proved a challenging task, and it gave David the idea for the Yacht Club.
So invitations are issued to those who it is considered have performed a humorous and out-of-place incident afloat, and are prepared to admit it to their peer group ashore. Such invitations are the bailiwick of the flag officers and custodians by mutual agreement. -- from Sail-World.com, www.sail-world.com
This week we have a new entrant for membership. Maybe.
A Hoegh Osaka car carrier was deliberately run aground on the Bramble Bank off Cowes to avoid it capsizing, a press conference was told on Sunday evening.
According to Hoegh Autoliners CEO Ingar Skiaker, the vessel's pilot made the decision to ground the ship at around 9.30pm on Saturday after it began listing severely.
Mr Skiaker said at the press conference on Sunday: "At this stage it's too early to speculate on the cause. All we know is that the vessel developed a severe list as it left the Port of Southampton and the pilot and master of ship decided to ground it on the bank.
A 200m exclusion zone is currently in place around the car carrier for safety reasons and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Counter Pollution Team continue to monitor the situation, but as of yet, there is no sign of pollution.
Hoegh Autoliners have now appointed Svitzer to lead a salvage operation of the vessel.
www.ybw.com
72 Hours Into Leg 3 and Dongfeng Still Leading
Going into day 4 (of what is expected to be a 20+ day leg) Dongfeng Race Team are leading the Volvo Ocean Race fleet by 17 nautical miles with 4,160 miles to go to Sanya, China. Going back to the fact this race is a one-design fleet, a 17 nautical mile lead on day 4 is a not a bad start, not that anyone particularly wants to admit it at this stage for fear of jinxing the situation.
There is currently 23 nautical miles separating the fleet between first and last position. Now past the Iranian exclusion zone they will stay north, close to the Pakistani coast to avoid a high pressure system to the south. Tonight they can expect more winds (15/16 knots) and less drifting as the higher winds mark a change from the light Gulf thermal conditions to the more established monsoon winds of India.
dongfengraceteam.com
Prince Philip Cup Australasian Dragon Championship
Whimsical leading fellow Sydney boat Indulgence on a windy Port Philip. Photo by the International Dragon Class of Australia. Click on image to enlarge.
Arguably one of the oldest one-design class yachtsmen in the world, 88-year-old Gordon Ingate is showing he is still a remarkably talented helmsman by today sailing his International Dragon class yacht Whimsical into the overall lead in the prestigious 2015 Prince Philip Cup on Melbourne's Port Phillip.
Ingate moved up from third to first on the leaderboard with a second and a first place today against a 16 boat fleet from Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Great Britain, following his 4-3 score on day one of the regatta being conducted by Royal Brighton Yacht Club.
Over a yachting career spanning more than 75 years, Ingate has represented Australia at the Admiral's Cup and the Olympic Games and has skippered a challenger for the America's Cup. He won the Prince Philip Cup on Hobart's River Derwent several years back, his first win in what is the Australasian championship for the Dragon class after half a century in the class.
He also went close to wining the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with Caprice of Huon in 1972.
After four races, Whimsical is on 10 points, with fellow RSYS member Wolf Breit in second place in Shapes after placings of 1-1-3-6 for 11 points. Among Shapes' experienced crew is Roger Hickman who last week skippered the ocean racing yacht Wild Rose to an overall victory in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Third overall is the West Australian entry, Wizzardy, skippered by Raymond Chatfield from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club with 16 points from placings of 5-4-5-2.
British yachtsman Robert Campbell and the crew of Indulgence, winners of the Ted Albert Memorial Regatta on Sunday, were OCS in race two yesterday today improved their overall standing to sixth with a first and a third place.
Racing continues Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at Royal Brighton Yacht Club. -- Peter Campbell
www.dragonclass.org.au/prince-philip-cup/
Sailing and Marine Manager - Middle Island Vacancy
The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, one of the oldest sailing and rowing clubs in Hong Kong, is looking for a high calibre individual to fill the post of Sailing and Marine Manager.
This is a full-time contract based in Hong Kong commencing March / April 2015. Reporting to the Marine Services Manager, the successful applicant will lead and manage the sailing development, regatta events and marine activities at RHKYC's Middle Island property. The island is located 8km from central Hong Kong, is accessed daily by a 2 minute club owned ferry ride from the shore. The primary focus of this role shall be to foster and mentor the talents of suitable youth members graduating from the training programs to podium positions at regional and global competition in Optimist, Laser, 29er and 420 classes. The position duties include the supervision of the marina, hardstand, ferry boat services and the repairs and maintenance of a very substantial fleet of club keel boats, sailing dinghies, work boats, rowing and paddling craft. Currently there are 16 full time staff plus casual instructors as reporting staff.
We look for people with:
- Successful results as a participant and coach at ISAF recognized dinghy or keelboat competition.
- Senior management experience in marine operations and preferably sailing school / academy management.
- Experience with special event logistics and international race management.
- Hands on knowledge of fibreglass repairs and deck hardware installation.
- A managerial level of finance and administrative ability.
- A mature and mentoring personality with excellent communication skills.
- The flexibility to work on weekends and midweek shifts.
- An above average level of fitness.
This is a very senior position at the RHKYC. We offer an attractive remuneration and excellent fringe benefits to the right candidate. Closing date for applications is 7 February 2015.
Interested parties should submit a comprehensive CV to The Human Resources Manager, Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Kellett Island, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong or e-mail to
Never Before Seen Images Of The Titanic During Her Launch
These are the astonishing pictures of RMS Titanic as she touched the waters of Belfast Lough for the first time - from a never-before-seen collection.
The series of amazing sepia images were captured by a Harland and Wolff employee as the 'unsinkable' ship moved slowly down the slipway and into the sea on May 31, 1911.
Although snapped more than 103 years ago, the photographs have a remarkable quality and have never been seen in public, until now.
The album contains 116 black and white images taken by John W Kempster when he was a director and senior engineer at Harland and Wolff at the time of the construction of Titanic and her sister ship the Olympic. They include the unpublished pictures of Titanic and the Olympic during their launch and departure from Belfast and have now gone on display at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.
The album contains 13 photographs from Titanic's launch on May 31, 1911 when her prow kissed sea water for the first time.
They include Lord Pirrie, the Harland and Wolff chairman, returning from inspecting the hydraulic rams and the doomed liner descending the slipway into the water, pursued by thousands of excited spectators. -- Harriet Crawford in the Belfast Telegraph
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Tomes Cup Presented By Old Mutual
The Tomes Cup pursuit race, organised by Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and presented by Old Mutual International is the third constituent event in the Club's annual Top Dog Trophy Series, designed to identify the most successful helm over a variety of pursuit race courses and conditions.
The series includes the results for Lipton Trophy and Around The Island Race, together with Tomes Cup and the HKRNVR Memorial Vase, scheduled for 1 May 2015.
The race is held in the eastern area of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, taking in Shau Kei Wan, Tai Koo Shing, Kowloon Bay and Hung Hom in the course of the race which is expected to attract between 60 competitors from Hong Kong's one-design fleets and Big Boat classes.
The slowest boats will start first with the higher rated boats spending the afternoon playing 'catch up' and gradually working their way up through the fleet. The finish line will be set at the mark which will finish the first boat as close to the target time of 1630hrs as possible.
The first boat to cross the line will be declared the winner and will lift the Tomes Cup, one of the Club's oldest pieces of silverware which is inscribed with "Sugar Refiners Cup won by Naomi April 1st 1880" and which was gifted to RHKYC by the Tomes family in the 1960's.
www.rhkyc.org.hk/topdogtrophy.aspx
Featured Brokerage
2008 Mills 43 Custom. Located South Coast UK.
Full refit in 2012, including topsides Vinyl Wrap, full suit of Doyle Sails, and IRC optimization from Mark Mills. She is complete and ready to race anywhere in the world.
See the RaceboatsOnly.com collection at seahorsemagazine.com/brokerage/
Whatever poet, orator or sage may say of it, old age is still old age. -- Sinclair Lewis
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Tag Archives: Darth Maul
5 Spectacularly Awful Sci–Fi/ Fantasy Character Names
Science fiction and fantasy are interesting genres in that they encourage narratives free from association with real–world logic, philosophy, or science. Pretty much anything goes in the land of lightsabers and lazerbeams, and that type of liberal mentality can encourage the worst creative tendencies in otherwise talented writers, especially when it comes to something as simple––and seemingly trivial––as naming characters.
I, along with many others, went to go see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire over Thanksgiving break, and while I enjoyed the movie, I found myself spit–taking my liquid popcorn butter frequently as straight–faced actors called each other things like “Effie Trinket” or “President Coriolanus (Ha! Anus!) Snow.”
Tags: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Anus, Bella Swan-Cullen, Bellatrix Lestrange, Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch, Captain Badguy, Catching Fire, characters, chode, Christopher Johnson, Cumberbitch, Darth Maul, District 9, dystopian, Effie Trinket, fanboys, Fangirls, fantasy, film, Fourteenth of that Noble Name in the Ghiscari Royal Line, Game of Thrones, General Grievous, George Lucas, George R. R. Martin, Greek, Harry Potter, HBO, heinous, His Royal Chodeliness, Hizdahr zo Loraq, J. K. Rowling, Jace Wayland, literature, Magnus Bane, Middle Eastern, Mr. Jerkface, Name Generator, Names, neck pouch, North African, Pacific Rim, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Philosophy, plebians, Plutarch Heavensbee, popcorn, President Coriolanus, Raleigh Beckett, Renesmee Cullen, science, science fiction, Shakespearean, Slartibartfast Phenomenon, snow, Song of Fire and Ice, Stacker Pentecost, Star Wars, stereotypes, Suzanne Collins, Thanksgiving, The Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, Twilight, Voldemort, Word Logic, writers, Wu-Tang
Categories Film/TV, Lists
Author Lumberjack Steve
If Every NFL Quarterback Were a Star Wars Character
Epic duels, shootings in nightclubs, billions of dollars in production values, and the omnipresence of a sinister overlord who everyone agrees is a total queef sampler. The National Football League and Star Wars are more similar than meets the eye (Fuck off, Transformers). And since Roger Goodell and George Lucas are both in the running for the title of World’s Biggest Asshat Who Ruins Everything and Cares Not for the Suffering of Concussed People (well, we nominate them if not), it’s hard not to notice other similarities in their respective beloved, addictive, trillion-dollar monstrosities.
Drama comes down to characters, and the NFL and Star Wars have both in spades (even if the drama of Star Wars mostly consists of the nebulous wet dreams of a prepubescent boy obsessed with trade negotiations and throbbing, glowing swords). And while both universes feature thousands upon thousands of characters, we viewers really only give a shit about a few of them. So, to keep things simple, we’ve taken a look just at current NFL quarterbacks to see who their Star Wars counterparts are. The results represent a disturbance in the Force, which is to say that Brady is dropping a Dooku right now and Peyton is playing like a young Jedi Master despite his frail old body and green skin. Enjoy.
Tags: A New Hope, Aaron Rodgers, Admiral Ackbar, Alex Smith, Anakin Skywalker, Andrew Luck, Andy Dalton, Attack of the Clones, Ben Roethlisberger, Blaine Gabbert, Boba Fett, Boss Nass, Brian Hoyer, C3PO, Cam Newton, Carson Palmer, Chewbacca, Christian Ponder, Colin Kaepernick, Count Dooku, culture, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Drew Brees, EJ Manuel, Eli Manning, Emperor Palpatine, Empire Strikes Back, Ewoks, General Grievous, Geno Smith, Grand Moff Tarkin, Han Solo, Jabba the Hutt, Jar Jar Binks, Jawas, Jay Cutler, Jedi With Tall Head, Joe Flacco, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, Mace Windu, Matt ryan, Matt Schaub, Matt Stafford, Michael Vick, nerds, NFL, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Peyton Manning, Phantom Menace, Philip Rivers, Princess Leia, Queen Amidala, Qui Gon Jinn, R2-D2, Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Sith, RG3, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill, Sam Bradford, Sebulba, sports, Star Wars, Terrelle Pryor, Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Tusken Raiders, Yoda
Categories Film/TV, Sports
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Bodybuilding Motivation: Top 10 Bodybuilder Quotes (Get Motivated)
Julian Elia August 21, 2019 one Comments
Yeah! Lock in. Lightweight. Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder. But don’t nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight. Bodybuilding takes dedication, determination,
persistence and above all – motivation! And in this video we’re going to run through our top 10 bodybuilder quotes best for bodybuilding motivation. For this list we’ve focused on bodybuilders
who have competed in the prestigious… Mr Olympia bodybuilding competition. So let’s get motivated as we look at the
quotes from the first bodybuilder on our list. Number 10: Dorian Yates “Work hard in silence and let your success
make the noise” Nicknamed the shadow for his unexpected wins
at major bodybuilding contests… Dorian Yates is one of the most successful bodybuilders of all time, Winning six consecutive… Mr Olympia competitions. “Small minds just can’t comprehend big spirits” “To achieve something different you have to be willing to be mocked, hated and misunderstood” “Use all negative energy to fuel the engine
of determination within you and stay strong.” “Each workout is like a brick in a building,
and every time you go in there and do a… half assed workout, you’re not laying a brick down…
somebody else is.” Number 9: Frank Zane “Being weak is a choice, so is being strong” Known for his aesthetic physique – Frank Zane held 3 consecutive Mr Olympia wins starting in 1977. Frank is known for having the second-smallest
waistline of all Mr Olympia’s. “Numbers are an abstraction, especially to muscles… You body doesn’t know the absolute
weight of what you lift. It only recognises how heavy it feels. The secret is to make lighter weights feel heavier.” Live your life by the hour, not by the day. What will you achieve in the next hour. “Never give up… great things take time” Number 8: Jay Cutler “I had a goal the be the best since day one” This 4 time Mr Olympia winner began training
at the age of 18 with the ambition… to be one of the largest competitors ever. And weighing 260lbs – it’s clear he certainly
achieved that! “I don’t eat for taste… I eat for function” “We may stumble… But we always land higher and get where we need to be” Number 7: Phil Heath “if you want the victory, then be prepared for the fight” Having won Mr Olympia 7 times from 2011-2017,
Phil Heath is tied with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the third all time number of wins for
the Mr Olympia contest. “Being negative and lazy is a disease that
leads to pain, hardship, depression… poor health and failure. Be pro active and give a damn to achieve success!” my work’s far from finished… It’s just getting started. “Good is the enemy of great. Greatness is reserved for the truly hungry” “If you want something you’ve never had
before, you have to be willing to do something you’ve never done before. Number 6: Shawn Rhoden “it doesn’t matter what your condition
is or what’s going on… You know what you need to do
to get to where you need to be.” Shawn Rhoden began training at the age of
17, however he went through a period… of alcohol addiction, following
his father’s death in 2002. His health declined and he was eventually
admitted to hospital. Thanks to the help and support of his friend
Lenore Carroll, he was able to withdraw from alcohol, regain his strength and return to
bodybuilding. His success grew year on year until 2018,
when he finally won Mr Olympia at age 43, taking the title from Phil Heath. “Smile and wave, because everyone’s a critic. We all know who’s voice we need to be listening to.” You know, someone once called me a one hit
wonder and… it’s like how many times can that one hit wonder hit again. Number 5: Lou Ferrigno “To be a champion you must act like one,
act like a champion” Known by many as The Incredible Hulk from
the TV series of the late 70’s. Lou Ferrigno found popularity in 1977 after the bodybuilding
documentary Pumping Iron. When he competed for the Mr Olympia title
held by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold, Arnold, Arnold, Arnold! “The attitude is very important. Because, your behaviour radiates how you feel.” Number 4: Branch Warren “It took me 20 years of hard training to
get the physique I have today. What you need is what I had – belief in yourself” Branch Warren has won the Arnold Classic twice
and has competed for Mr Olympia many times. He has sustained a number of serious injuries
throughout his career due to the intensity of his workouts, but always bounces back and
continues to train hard. “I would never have turned pro training
like an average bodybuilder. There is no substitute for intensity” “I learned from a very young age that no one owes you anything and nobody’s gonna give you a damn thing… But you can have anything you want, if you
work hard enough for it.” Number 3: Lee Haney “The muscle and the mind must become one. One without the other is zero” Lee Haney (along with Ronnie Coleman) holds
the record the for most Mr Olympia titles, having won 8 consecutive contests from 1984-1991. I’ve proven time and time again, that I
can successfully defend my title… under any odds, under any pressure. Haney retired, undefeated at the age of 31 and to date he is the youngest Mr Olympia to retire. “Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn’t formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them” Number 2: Ronnie Coleman “Everybody wanna to be a bodybuilder, but
don’t nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight” what I’m really try to say is – Everybody
wanna be good, everbody wanna be on top… everybody wanna be the best, but don’t nobody wanna
go out there and make all the sacrifices… that you have to do, to be there. Thought of by many as the greatest bodybuilder
of all time, Ronnie Coleman holds 8 consecutive Mr Olympia’s from 1998-2005, whilst continuing
his career as a police officer. The best thing about working this job?… Is being able to wear shorts. Weighing around 300lbs, Ronnie was a true
heavyweight of the bodybuilding world. Ronnie has sustained a variety of serious
injuries as a result of the years.. of heavy weight training. He’s had two hip replacements, multiple back surgeries and has to use crutches to walk. When asked if he has any regrets – Ronnie said: “If I had chance to do it all over again
would I change anything? Yes… I would change one thing… When I squatted that 800lbs, I would do 4
reps instead of 2, that is my only regret in my career” “The real workout starts when you want to STOP” “The moment you give up, is the moment you
let someone else win” “you can have results or excuses… not both” Next! Number 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger The wolf on the hill, right?… is not as
hungry as the wolf climbing the hill. That’s true… See. He’s not as hungry but when he wants to
food it’s there. “The worst thing I can be is the same as
everybody else.” Thanks to his massively successful acting
career, Schwarzenegger is a household name. However, he found fame in the classic bodybuilding
documentary Pumping Iron. Pumping Iron featured Arnold defending his
Mr Olympia title for the 6th time. With a whole host of classic Arnie moments. So can you believe how much I am in heaven?… I’m like getting the feeling of coming in
the gym, I’m getting the feeling of coming at home, I’m getting the feeling of coming
back stage when I pump up, when I pose out in front of five thousand people, I get the
same feeling. So I’m coming day and night. He later returned to Bodybuilding in 1980
winning himself his 7th Mr Olympia title. “For me, life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist
to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” Just remember “You can’t climb that ladder of success
with your hands in your pockets” You must work your ass off. It’s that simple. “Being paralysed by fear of failure is worse than failure” “You have to remember something: everybody
pities the weak; jealously you have to earn”. Those where our Top 10 bodybuilder quotes
for bodybuilding motivation. Whose quotes were your favourites? Or what other motivational quotes do you like? Let us know in the comment section below! If you’re passionate about fitness and want
to learn about how to become a personal trainer, then visit our website: And if you liked this video click subscribe. Thanks for watching.
Yashmeen Chauhan: India’s Female Bodybuilding Champion | Unique Stories From India
From Rock-Bottom Drug Addict to High-Flying Fitness Star | Jay Maryniak
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Origym Personal Trainer Courses says:
Which bodybuilder quotes were your favourites? Let us know in the comment section below!
Visit our website and learn about how to become a personal trainer!
https://origympersonaltrainercourses.co.uk/
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Monthly Studio Report: March 2018
Welcome to March’s Monthly Studio Report with updates from all our studios to provide insight into what they’ve been working on. This month, the team delivered Alpha 3.1, the first quarterly release of 2018, continued development of Squadron 42, and much more. With that said, let’s get to it.
CIG Los Angeles
CLOUD IMPERIUM: LOS ANGELES
The US Vehicle Feature Team, which includes team members from Tech Design, Engineering and QA, accomplished a lot this past month. They made some vehicle-related performance improvements, such as with the Vehicle Item Thruster and Landing/Spawning Components. From there, they looked into the previous progress made on the Scanning feature. This included some further investigations, planning, and initial tasks to get this large feature moving towards delivery, and the team is eager to press forward on the feature. Finally, a large percentage of the team’s time was spent fixing over 50 bugs, including several game crash issues, in our SC Alpha 3.1 branch.
VEHICLE PIPELINE
The Los Angeles portion of the US Vehicle Pipeline, which includes team members from Art, Tech Design and Tech Art, had a busy March. Working together with other teams outside of LA, such as Animation, VFX, SFX and UI, they launched two new vehicles: the Anvil Terrapin and the Tumbril Cyclone. The Art Team completed their pass prior to March, but continued to provide needed adjustments as other teams wrapped up these two vehicles for the SC Alpha 3.1 release, with all teams working through bugs right up to the release.
Tech Art, being a shared resource, worked on some additional vehicles for the 3.1 release: the MISC Razor and the Aegis Reclaimer. Tech Art not only handled the ship damage, but also the rigging, animation and hook-up for landing gear compression. They can’t wait for players to experience landing the Reclaimer in the ’verse.
Meanwhile, Art and Tech Design moved forward on vehicles that will be released after 3.1. Art made advances on both the Anvil Hurricane and the updated Consolidated Outland Mustang. Tech Design worked on design briefs for some vehicles that will be slated for future release.
The Gameplay Feature Team continued to polish the Character Customizer, with the ordering of options, minor UI tweaks, the introduction of idle animations to give characters a more lifelike representation, and the implementation of preview sprites for customization options available in the initial roll out. This should allow players some personal expression so they don’t look too similar to others, while more advanced tech is being developed to realize the rich vision CIG has for this feature.
After polishing the Character Customizer, the team shifted their focus to cleaning up bugs around core experiences initially released for SC Alpha 3.0., beginning with UI and reliability bugs in the insurance claim flow for vehicles. There was general ship improvement in missiles and countermeasures, including 3D radar UI for missiles and proper locking functionality when switching between targets. Issues with ship repair at Cry-Astro were also addressed. The team ensured weapons and attachments were being fully restored to repaired vehicles and that the proper aUEC was withdrawn. Finally, some light and cargo-related issues recently introduced were addressed to restore previous functionality.
The Narrative Team handled a wide variety of tasks. They delivered lore content to the site every Tuesday, including part one of the new serialized short story One Good Deed about a Vulcan pilot that runs into trouble during a refueling operation. Subscribers got access to a new portfolio focused on the history of Dumper’s Depot. Time was also spent on this month’s issue of Jump Point, delivering content for marketing materials, and filming a new batch of Loremaker’s episodes.
Besides the usual workload, the team turned their attention to building out the narrative surrounding Hurston and the Lorville landing zone. They used the location to set up highly detailed templates that track specifics of a landing zone and its surrounding biomes. As part of this, a Plant and Flora page was designed to catalogue all the different space plant varieties, their placement in-game, and more. One of those plants, the Emperor’s Bloom, even received a brief Galactapedia write-up in March’s Jump Point.
Narrative also began revamping the system for generic NPCs to help breath more life into a location. They also focused on the Xi’an by creating a document that outlines their habitation spaces. Finally, they wrote numerous descriptions for various weapons and special weapons skins.
The Character Team worked on a multitude of assets across both Star Citizen and Squadron 42. The Legacy armor variants for Outlaws and Marines are close to being finalized, while the Hurston and Olisar Clothing Collections continue to be developed and should get into the ’verse soon.
A lot of work went into the principle characters, outfits, and weapons that will appear in Squadron 42, including the fleshing out of various alien species. In addition to all these assets, the team fixed several bugs across different character related features.
CIG Austin
CLOUD IMPERIUM: AUSTIN
ATX Designers helped get Alpha 3.1 out the door, while also planning work for 3.2. In this last month they:
The team wrapped up the last Service Beacon features for the 3.1 release. The final touches included the ability for players to see the required reputation for each Beacon, and their own reputation values, so they can better understand the specifics. Everyone is extremely excited to see how fans receive this, since a lot of games don’t allow for player-created content.
The shopping service was unified under one umbrella, instead of tracking each server’s economic status. Now, all game servers will pull the pricing information from a single source. This was always the original intention, and it fixes a few commodity trading exploits. With this unification, the team also restructured commodities to better represent the flow of goods. Outposts are now the main “producers” of goods, and stations are now the major “consumers” of goods. This presents a complication though, instead of balancing the game for a single server of 50 people, the team must now balance it for the concurrent player base. This will require a few iterations, since designers need to see the amount of goods being traded by a larger segment of the population. The team is looking forward to the first batch of analytics so they can hone this system for you.
On the character front, the Hawkers are back up and running. While there wasn’t the bandwidth to clean up additional animations, designers did hook up the original animations from the demo where they were originally shown off.
They also converted a lot of basic flair items to the Item 2.0 system. Previously, they were using a lot of prefab spawning, but that system has been deprecated for the new object container system. There are known issues with some of the more complex objects, such as the liquor cabinet and the Jukebox, but there should be a vast improvement in the number of flair items working in the hangars.
Finally, the team fixed quite a few trivial issues, and overall, are happy with the Alpha 3.1 build. They hope you’re happy with the progress and look forward to giving you more in 3.2.
The Constellation Phoenix continues through the high poly modeling phase. The current focus is on the Aquarium (interior set pieces) and other corners of the interior, which are being brought up to almost final detail stage. This work includes POMs (parallax occlusion maps) and decals. There has also been work done on ‘fancy’ custom textures to give the interior a luxurious feel.
The F8 Lightning is currently in the final, high poly (detail) phase that applies the POMs, decals, and final geo tweaks. There was also another pass on the ship lighting (exterior and interior) and materials. Finally, the team addressed ship related bugs for the release of 3.1.0.
BACKEND SERVICES
This month, the Server Engineering Team supported 3.1, assisting in work required for the Service Beacon. They also made an extension to Diffusion, which makes some communications between services during startup more reliable.
The team discovered performance issues in the one of the back-end caches responsible for holding player inventory (ships, personal items, etc.). They applied optimizations that will greatly increase the responsiveness of those services, and have also been working with the Platform Team to complete the API between Diffusion and Platform services, allowing for easy and seamless communication.
Finally, they finished “Diffusionizing” the game client. Previously, the game client could only communicate with the services via a legacy communication system, which was very rigid and not so easy to extend. Now that it is using Diffusion APIs, the game client will not only be able to more easily communicate with the back end, but all services can communicate with any game client in ways they were never able to before.
ATX PU Animation focused on finishing two mission givers, Luca Brunt and Wallace Klim, and started on a third mission giver, Recco Battaglia. They are working closely with the Facial Animation Team and providing weekly progress updates to ensure the quality is up to snuff. These animations will next go to Design where they will be hooked into the AI system so players can interact with these characters for new mission content. They are also processing data for mission givers and cinematics, and are working to make sure that the quality control of the data is as close to 1-to-1 as possible. The team is having a blast playing with data from actors Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson.
The ATX Ship Animation Team created new enter/exit animations for the Aegis Reclaimer. There was a strong push to complete the ships featured in the Alpha 3.1 release, as well as various bug fixes for the game. In addition, they made a new Dual Throttle Cockpit Type that will be showcased in an upcoming release.
March was an exciting month for the DevOps Teams. BuildOps made dramatic advances in the stability and performance of the build system with times being again cut in half in certain areas of the build pipeline. Internal build quantity and delivery numbers doubled during the month in support of the 3.1 quarterly release. Publishing Ops worked around the clock most days to identify and deliver the painstakingly detailed performance analytics needed by the dev teams, along with multiple daily internal and external publishes, including Evocati and PTU. It has been highly rewarding to see the dramatic impact of performance work by the dev teams.
March was all about 3.1. At the time of writing, the team has tested over 30 builds as an Evocati or PTU candidate. Each build requires checking of core functionality, the environment, and the launcher to make sure everything is ready to go before backers get access. Each build signed-off for PTU requires additional support after it goes to the environment. They monitor stability, provide reports of new crashes, capture performance data, and hand off everything to the Engineers and Producers to examine the next morning. The day after a publish, UK and ATX QA go over the top bug reports coming from players (via Game Support and Issue Council). They track new issues players are seeing, what is already ticketed, and what new bugs need to be investigated. As you can imagine, it’s a tremendous amount of work for each publish and the team pulled long hours to support the schedule.
Between publishes, there’s also been extensive test passes on actor synchronization, network message conversion, Ship AI, Shopkeeper animations, loadout improvements for Star Marine, outpost updates for the moons, service beacons, and new weapon skins. Ship testers were kept extremely busy as the Reclaimer, Cyclone, Terrapin, Razor variants, and the Nox Kue all come online to test. With the developer sprint teams going full-tilt, testing also started on potential 3.2 content, like the lean system and FPS Combat AI.
The Player Relations Team was all hands-on deck, coordinating with several other teams to get 3.1 through PTU to Live! The 3.1 testing cycle was the first in the new quarterly release schedule, and the team could not have done it without the heroic efforts of the Evocati and PTU testers. While work on features continued, Player Relations primarily focused on troubleshooting particularly nasty server and client crashes and working with DevOps and QA each night to sort them out.
With 3.1 now Live, the team would like to remind and encourage everyone to use the Issue Council to help triage and rate bugs and functionality. They will use that data to prioritize future updates. Plus, Issue Council participation makes players eligible to get into earlier PTU waves.
Foundry 42 UK
FOUNDRY 42: UK
The Ship Art Team continued their work on the game’s ever-expanding fleet. The interior of the Aegis Hammerhead is mostly set out except for the crew dorm and kitchen. Currently, the cargo bay and bridge are receiving a detail pass.
The Eclipse, another Aegis ship, is in full production with the current focus being the exterior. The team is reinforcing its stealthy appearance by tightening the pom (panel-line details), enhancing the materials, and making sure all the moving parts are operational.
The weapon audio system underwent a substantial refactor. Work began on designing full NLPC weapon perspective sets, along with specific sounds for various distances. An environmental weapon report, or tail layer, was added for all weapons on planetside locations to better reflect the environmental response of weapon fire.
Recently, the Audio Team took part in a sound effects recording session at Oscillate Studios, focusing on vibrating various metallic objects using transducers that respond to low frequency sounds. The metals were stimulated via synthesized tones from a MIDI keyboard that played with the pitch to impart different resonances and sympathetic rattles to a diverse range of scrap metal objects. The session’s primary focus was to create source material for ships. This was partly inspired by the sound production on the film ‘Interstellar,’ which used large scale subwoofers to resonate aircraft fuselages, modeling the behavior of spaceships under duress, simulating atmospheric entry and strong gravitational fields, and so on.
The Graphics Team implemented some major performance savings when rendering characters. All characters are split up into many different meshes, not only for swapping out clothing and armor, but also to hide individual portions of an object to avoid interpenetrating geometry. Shaders, textures, and geometry have been organized to render multiple adjacent meshes in one go, which vastly reduces the CPU cost of submitting the work to the GPU and maintains flexibility.
The team improved the quality and legibility of various UI screens with two new shader effects for the render-to-texture system. The first is an edge-highlighting effect for ship targeting displays, and the second is a drop shadow effect to help text and icons stand out against bright backgrounds.
The UI Team researched ways to improve performance by analyzing where the CPU spends its time. Optimizations made to the code of the ECG graph on the visor significantly reduced the CPU cost without effecting visual quality. The ECG graph has a buffer for the heartbeat values. With every update, the game added a new value onto the front of the buffer and removed the oldest from the back, which caused an expensive memory shifting. To prevent this, the team now uses a circular buffer that stores an index to the oldest location in the buffer. When the index reaches the end of the buffer it loops back to the start in cyclical fashion. This is more efficient because memory is only written to rather than being moved around.
Alongside the UI Visual Team, the EU-1 Gameplay Team has had UI involvement with the team focusing on polishing up the VMA and PMA mobiGlas apps. For these two apps, a strong focus has been put on improving the overall user-experience by fixing bugs present in the current iteration, as well as overhauling the mobiGlas layout in general to make more use of screen real estate and breaking the menu layout into a more intuitive structure. On the engineering side, the Star Marine Loadout Customization screen in the Front End has been converted to use the PMA code. This will make fixing issues on this screen much easier, as the PMA replaces the custom code that was previously released.
The second optimization applied to the ECG was to stop redrawing the whole graph each frame. Instead, it now adds the new value to the right-hand side and moves the whole graph along to the left. It uses a clip-window to ensure only the essential parts are drawn, and the graphic data is recycled in a similar fashion to the circular buffer.
GAMEPLAY STORY
AThe Gameplay Story Team organized all the required scenes in Shotgun. Currently, they are working with Design to get the first few scenes implemented in-game and up to standard.
Work is underway on the next generation of space stations. This begins with Rest Stops that are created semi-procedurally, allowing the team to easily populate the PU with many variations. To accomplish this feat, they have focused on developing the tools and workflow needed to achieve it.
The first iteration of the Rest Stop will feature three main location components. The first being an exterior that presents a unique silhouette to maximize readability from a distance. The team also can vary layout and architecture to allow for individual personality and variety between stations. Diverse building materials, color schemes, and ad placement mean that a great number of visual possibilities are achievable through the modular construction of these stations. That means the team can automate layout generation while maintaining artistic control.
Hangars are the second component. Rest Stops will be the first station type to fully utilize the ‘Common Element’ type of hangar, which can be used in every utilitarian hangar in the game. Even though the ‘Common Element’ hangar will share the same core design functionality, they are built to allow for the mixing and matching of walls, entrances, exits and service modules to achieve varied looks across locations.
The third location component is the interior. The development of a procedural layout tool to generate these Rest Stops has been a big, and admittedly challenging, project. Work has advanced to where many layouts can automatically be generated using the tool and a set library of room and connector prefabs. Maintaining visual consistency and coherence, while still making each location appear different, remains an artistic challenge for the tool and team. Like the exterior, the trick is to randomize many of the smaller choices, like prop placement and lighting, rather than alter the larger room forms. This method allows the team to maintain artistic control over the main spaces flow and form.
The Prop Team made improvements to the entity system within data forge. The change allows for one entity to contain both gameplay features and visual keys, while being set-up and controlled using one system. This means a set-up entity dropped it into any level will retain all working functionality. This makes syncing easier between animation and material effects, such as glows or UI elements. This has significantly reduced the number of lights needed to fake glowing materials or flashing lights during different stages of animation.
Another task had the team revising metrics and template assets for usables and interactive props. This makes them easier to understand and allows for improved scalability and functionality support. Building on these tech improvements, they can now create destructible props that mesh swap and update environmental effects, such as lights, VFX, and audio accordingly. These tech developments are still in the early stages, and laying the foundation for future releases.
A new set of “low-tech” medical props are being built out, alongside new medical dressings. Both are planned for use throughout the PU as common medical elements. Finally, the team worked on the sub-items that will be used to customize the performance of ship components. They are also making sure that there is a wide variety of visuals to support the gameplay when the feature comes online.
The Missions Team is in the early stages of replacing the existing AI with an upgraded version. They have been focused on balancing and implementing wildlines for the AI controlled characters. Wildlines are pieces of dialogue that play systemically when the AI receives a trigger, such as damage. The lines personalize each player’s experience, as the AI will communicate with players differently depending on their relationship and history.
As the AI continues to develop, the team also took the opportunity to reassess Arena Commander’s Vanduul and Pirate Swarm game modes. They rebalanced both with the focus on delivering a satisfying experience, rather than an extremely difficulty one. Another exciting creation is a prototype scramble race event, which can occur in space or planetside. These death races have opponents battling to collect randomly generated checkpoints and, more importantly, to stay alive. The races rely heavily on dialogue, so there’s a recording session planned to capture the necessary clips. Finally, the team has been rebalancing the reputation progression system. This was done because it became apparent that accruing a negative reputation was too easy and attaining a positive one too challenging.
The VFX department collaborated with Graphics to improve the GPU particle system. VFX Artists are implementing lean production techniques to prioritize features that will provide maximum impact. Examples would be improved Spawn Inheritance and Curl Noise. Both features create better, cheaper electrical and plasma effects for things like the Coil interior and EMP weapons.
They also worked through a large “snag list” for the Alpha 3.1 release. Tasks tackled included toning down the dust mote opacity in certain environments that underwent lighting updates, and re-adding planet/moon effects to work with the planetary tech improvements.
Tech Design finalized Alpha 3.1 work by implementing and tuning new weapons like the Gallenson Tactical Systems ballistic gatling, Preacher Armament distortion scattergun, and Amon & Reese Co. laser cannon. They also supported the conversion of existing gear to Weapon 2.0.
The team also focused on rebalancing. A lot was covered, including distortion weapons, after fixes allowed them to affect items instead of just shields. Countermeasures were made more effective post Item 2.0 implementation. Iterations of flight balance continued with a focus on atmospheric landing turbulence. Shield setback and regeneration rates were also rebalanced.
At the other end of the pipeline, they worked with Art on exciting new ship concepts. These designs will be revealed throughout the year during Ship Shape segments in Around the Verse.
DERBY ANIMATION
The Derby office continued to expand its operations and prepare for motion capture shoots to further refine the player and AI movement sets. It was a pleasure to welcome several valued backers during the recent Imperator Subscribers event, where developers demonstrated core elements of their workflow, including facial animation, motion capture, and technical animation. The tour also offered the opportunity to scan three more faces that you can look forward to seeing in the ’verse.
Progress was made on R&D for the Vanduul face rig and internal facial rig technologies, along with iterations to female rigs in Maya. The new 1:1 conversion updates to the rig will break a lot of animations that use props so the team has been developing an automated solution to fix the animation files without an Animator having to manually go through and re-work everything.
Finally, the Facial Animation Team was busy finalizing animations on various PU shopkeepers, bartenders, and mission givers. This includes blending all the animations from the same facial poses, so they all play seamlessly from one to another.
Foundry 42 DE
FOUNDRY 42: DE
ENVIRONMENT ART
The Environment Art Team recently wrapped up polishing the existing moons in the persistent universe. Cellin, Yela, Daymar and Delamar all received a visual update that will further enrich the experience at each location for the 3.1 release. With the update of the existing locations completed, the team is shifting focus to Hurston. Hurston will benefit massively from new planet tech updates, and further additions to the planet tech are on the roadmap for the coming weeks. The numerous updates will help make Hurston a unique experience, pushing biomes further than what players have seen so far on the existing moons. The team is also close to wrapping up the whitebox stage of the Lorville landing zone. Layout and locations have been approved by all departments involved, and the team is preparing to start full production to bring the city to its next stage.
The Engine Team regularly works on both long-term items as well as low level bugs and performance, and this month was no exception. They refined the auto performance capture code and tools used to track heavy stalls on both client and server. The tools automatically take performance captures if the frame rate falls below a given threshold for a specified amount of time. They then analyze the captures and optimize code, content, and level set up if necessary.
They made further progress on the performance telemetry system that will submit data so the team can analyze what typically happens on servers and clients, what actions cause performance slowdowns, etc. The data should allow them to tweak the game and improve the overall player experience. They also continued to work on reducing the initial startup time of the game. They found a lot of inefficient data parsing meant that the game would launch slowly, especially during the first startup on HDDs after the computer had been booted up.
The Engine Team worked on optimizations of the physics terrain mesh generation, and optimized data layout and SSE instructions to improve computation speed. They reworked API for component updates to provide more flexibility and opportunity for further code optimizations, batching of updates, etc. The team handled rendering improvements for the vegetation shader. Good progress was made on skin rendering improvements, which included work on rendering eyes, teeth and tongues. An investigation into pushing the quality and fidelity of facial animations was kicked off. Plus, they continued code size and build time investigations. It’s an ongoing effort to uncover the reasons for increased code size and compile times to see what can be reduced. This is an ongoing task and the findings will be applied globally.
TECH ART
The Tech Art Team built a new tool called cigXfer. It helps artists transfer skin data on various meshes, as well as on LOD meshes, without any assistance from a tech artist. This significantly speeds up the art update process, enabling artists to be more self-sufficient. They also implemented a large amount of animations that will be used for Squadron 42 cinematics.
They collaborated with the Weapons Team to complete the previsualization rig and game entity for the Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle. Work was done on a run time physic simulation for a portion of the handle of the combat knife. Research and development was done to refine the alignment of the camera with the sight of a weapon while leaning. They developed content with an additional bone titled “ADS_align” to help achieve the desired results. They are currently testing the new approach on the Klaus & Werner Gallant rifle, and once verified it will be replicated to additional weapons.
The team worked with Art and Tech Design to produce Centurion and Imperator weapon skins for the Gemini LH86 pistol, Kastak Arms Devastator shotgun, and Klaus & Werner Arrowhead sniper rifle. They also continued R&D and implementation of the tools required for the next iteration of the Character Customizer. They primarily focused on consolidating how hundreds of head and head attachment assets (i.e. hair, beards or helmets) are being authored in Maya and then exported into the engine. Since every attachment is supposed to work with every possible head shape, even procedurally generated ones, they had to ensure the head topology remained 100% consistent during export.
The PU Level Design Team had several locations to design, and tech needed for future content building to work on. Lorville, a flagship landing zones, received quite a bit of attention, and is being used as a test bed for numerous systems and Common Elements. These systems include Security, Smuggling, Transit, Air Traffic Control, Hangars, etc. The Common Elements work in tandem with these systems and serve as their representation in the game world: for example, a Security Office and guards for Security, Customs for Smuggling, Train Stations for Transit, and a Spaceport for the Air Traffic Controller and Hangars. To connect everything there needs to be transitional spaces, arrival areas, and terminals to make it feel believable, while being diligent about not inflating the playable space too much. Here are some examples of these transitional spaces:
They also continued work on the Procedural Tool for generating interior spaces. This tool is essential for Level Design to efficiently deliver the amount of content needed for generic locations like Rest Stops, Refineries, Cargo Depots etc. The tool is still in progress and will require more iterations and additions before it’s ready, which is a natural part of the R&D process. Here are examples of two generated layouts seen top down as a comparison:
The Cinematics Team supported Squadron 42 level design efforts that previously had a lower priority. For these chapters, they blocked out and completed quick previs animation exports where level sections are still in the whitebox phase. For locations that are further along, like the Idris (Stanton) and the Bengal carrier, they did performance capture animation exports aligned to geometry and a defined scene root for all actors in the scene. This is an ongoing effort, as each chapter has a huge number of narrative scenes ranging from comms calls, conversations, walk & talk greetings, NPC chatter, and more complex scenes with multiple key characters in full-on filmic cinematics. In addition to the previs exports, they also focused on a handful of scenes featuring Gillian Anderson as Captain Rachel Maclaren. With the Vanduul Kingship bridge almost finished, they did a first camera pass on the cinematic Vanduul character sequences required for the story. This work coincides with a concentrated push for the Vanduul across different departments. Currently, Tech Animation is working on the Vanduul face rig, Character Art and Animation tackling costumes, key poses & silhouettes, and the Weapons Team focusing on Vanduul weaponry.
An important part of cinematics work is to regularly sync with ship and environment artists. The teams discuss issues with the default metrics dictated for mechanisms like doors, displays, chairs and the existing geometry, or address problems that arise when performance capture deviates slightly from metrics or meshes. Most of these metrics were in place for the main shoot, but occasional tweaks or updates must be made to either meshes or the animation. It always requires the teams to carefully weigh what requires the least amount of rework and impact. Cinematics also supported Graphics Engineering to upgrade the human skin shading. They built a test lighting setup that mimicked reference photographs and replicated a PCAP head-camera setup in the engine. Results of this R&D and shading work will be seen in the coming months.
The DE Lighting Team supported the 3.1 patch. Their recent focus was finalizing a new lighting pass on the Echo 11, as changes to the lighting tools and technology have left the Star Marine maps visually out of sync. They’ve also helped the planet team with minor tweaks and polish to the atmospheres and color grading for Crusader’s three moons and Delamar. In addition, they assisted with several 3.1 goals, such as the new mobiGlas PMA/VMA character and item rendering, the Character Customizer, and general optimizations.
The DE VFX Team worked with UK programmers to further improve various tools, such as curl noise. This is a 3D noise field that perturbs the particles as they travel through the field, which creates some very unique and volumetric looking effects. They’ve also been fleshing out the Vanduul tech style, experimenting with the curl noise in combination with vector fields to create a visual style that sets the Vanduul apart.
The DE Weapons Team finished the first art pass for the Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle, and completed the Centurion and Imperator subscriber flair skins for a few weapons.
The DE System Design Team moved forward with the mining system. Their first goal is to get mining functional for planet/moon surfaces, so the Prospector will be fully operational. They will move on to additional mining types once that is completed. Mining is still being prototyped but the current results are promising from a gameplay and visual perspective. They are currently able to shatter mineable rocks, and are working on the harvesting functionality that will transfer resources from those smaller pieces into the Prospector’s mining containers. Once completed, they will integrate mining with other systems like radar and scanning, which will be used to find mineable deposits and analyze their contents.
Progress was made on FPS Combat AI. After solving low cover, they implemented high cover for Human AI, and focused on making the timings and transitions as snappy as possible. Now, they are slowly moving into more complex behaviors like flanking, which allows the AI to work better as a team and force the player to think tactically and constantly adapt to what the AI is doing. They also considered what elements from human combat could be used by alien races, and experimented with ways to make them feel unique, so players must deal with aliens differently than their human counterparts.
The first batch of the reworked ship AI is now in 3.1, though some additional functionality is still outstanding. The system is being built so players can choose how to train and specialize their hired NPCs. FPS AI will use the same system in the future to achieve similar goals. On the non-combatant side of AI, they experimented with creating small story vignettes for locations, focusing on Lorville. This should infuse the location with more life and grant the AI more storytelling ability than walking around and sitting on benches. The hope is for players to experience what the lives of the population in a location are like, sympathize with them, and potentially choose sides. To achieve that, the non-combatants need to become more lively and complex.
Towards the end of the month, the team worked closely with Level Designers and Artists on the procedural location tool. They focused on the functionality needed for the tool to create nice environments and connect gameplay systems, like rooms, oxygen, gravity, security and generated AI populations. The tool must do it in a way that once the location is generated, there will be only minor adjustments before it can be released. The goal with this system is to ensure the team can output quality content at lightning speeds with a minimal amount of menial work. That way the team can quickly fill an entire universe, while keeping it feeling specific, depending on the location.
The DE Build Engineers added a sanity check for the RC to TryBuilder. While engineers work, they may change the Resource Compiler (RC), which can sometimes lead to failed builds. With so many unique asset types, it becomes difficult for an engineer to ensure that nothing is going to break. Additionally, engineers may touch a cpp file without even being aware that it may affect the RC. To alleviate this, they isolated a minimal subset of assets and now have them compiled whenever any code in the main branch changes. Each code change that goes into p4 is checked and the whole process is quick, essentially compiling one sample of every type of assets in the Engine. Now, before starting the process of creating a new a build, the team can check the state of RC. If it’s red (as in, the process described above is failing) they know there’s an issue to address. They also added some powerful dedicated hardware to the TryBuild cluster for profiling speed improvements in compilation. This has brought compilation times down significantly, which shifted focus back to optimizing other steps whose build-times now contribute a proportionally significant amount towards the entire build time.
The above illustrates a Perforce-state caching mechanism and smart querying method for comparing local workspace to the relevant global branch the code is being built on. This simplified state-caching mechanism is used to determine if any further version-control communication is necessary. Initial optimizations removed 30 seconds from any build regardless of the machine’s state. In further precise situations, where the slave is confirmed up-to-date, it skips syncing entirely. That saves an additional 30 seconds minimum, yielding build results that can potentially be as low as 15 seconds total. In addition to adding dedicated hardware and eliminating time-costing checks from bootstrap steps for code validation, the team is now looking at binary caching mechanisms so the code-building machines can simply retrieve the compilation results that have already been processed.
For the DE QA team, most of March centered around Subsumption testing with a new version available to test each week. As new features are implemented into the Subsumption Tool, the team maintains and revamps the existing documentation and checklists to ensure QA covers all necessary test cases for Subsumption testing. DE QA also supported the in-house development team with various requests from simple tests to verify if issues devs have encountered are due to their local files or an actual issue within the current build, to the more complex tests that require custom binaries and comparing differences between builds. One recent request involved testing changes that could potentially affect prefabs within the Engine. Extensive prefab testing was performed using custom binaries and test cases to intentionally attempt to break the prefab system. When an issue was discovered, this was brought to the Engine Team’s attention, and they proceeded to fix the issue and return new binaries to continue the testing. Similarly, the team focused on numerous physics test requests for changes that could potentially break other functionality within the client. These changes contained stability improvements to address various physics crashes that were plaguing Evocati in the PTU. While they normally work in the Game-Dev stream, most of the testing was focused on 3.1 as the live release date closed in.
Focus was primarily devoted to stabilizing the dogfight behavior. Flight AI is a young system, and the team is working on the skill characterization of the pilot’s abilities to balance the overall combat experience. A pass was made on the target chase velocities and attack ranges, two important factors to render the combat dynamics less prone to collide with obstacles or escape the assigned boundaries. The AI team also worked on improving player interaction with combat AI. This comes in the form of new behaviors, internally tweakable parameters (like accuracy and missile usage) for designers, and adding wildlines for PU pilots. For AI FPS Combat, they are currently implementing flanking behavior. Further work was done to update the logic for bullet rain, and improve flinch reactions when an AI’s cover gets compromised and they need to leave quickly or target and shoot. In addition, the team addressed bugs and optimized the code for the 3.1 release.
March saw major developments in Spectrum with a new release to PTU and Public, a new connectivity API between the platform and the game services, and cosmetic upgrades to promotion pages.
Spectrum version 3.7.4 was released to PTU. This version included custom roles, custom emojis and a user block list. The release to PTU gave the team much needed insight, and as a result they created a list of improvements around these features to be included in the live release.
The team had help from the Evocati, who have been instrumental in hunting down bugs and providing direct feedback, in preparation for the live release of 3.7.4. The UX and Design Team has been building interactions for organizations in Spectrum, which includes direct interaction and survey support with Evocati to ensure that the teams are building with community needs at the forefront.
Over the next month, Turbulent’s Spectrum development team will refocus their efforts on the game overlay, work towards 3.2 deliveries, and make process changes to align their efforts with CIG’s internal pipeline.
Some minor changes were made to the Launcher, with the latest version, 1.0.1-alpha, including consistency check and bug fixes that affect the analytics reporting.
RSI PLATFORM
The team continues to make minor adjustments to the site’s new elements. You may notice some changes to readability as well as the resolution of some bugs on IE11.
The biggest platform changes are not visible to the user. The team rebuilt the Backend API to prepare for new services with Diffusion. Although the work is not complete, the team took on this three-week crunch project to build the base required to move forward. The rework will open the door for new features, most notably Spectrum chat.
A new weekly newsletter was launched, with a cleaner sleeker design, includes optimizations for those reading on mobile phones.
The knowledge base designs have been approved and are in development. This project is needed resource for backers and the Player Relations Team. Here’s a sneak peek at the final designs.
The site’s contact form and mobile design are being polished to provide the best possible user experience. The objective is to help citizens find the information they need, and reduce queue times when they need help from Player Relations.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY & 3.1 FLYABLE PROMOTION
The team supported the setup and design for the St Patrick’s and 3.1 Flyable promotion. It was exciting to see all the in-game shots coming from the new 3.1 flyable ships, and integrate them into the design of the sales page.
You can visit the sale here.
And this is how quickly a quarter of a year can pass. After announcing the switch to a quarterly release cycle at last year’s CitizenCon, everyone at Cloud Imperium Games was eager to hit this self-imposed deadline and provide players with a content update. The team even provided the community with a public roadmap updated directly from internal project management tools. The weeks leading up to the Alpha 3.1 release have been hectic, but the team made the deadline and released the first update of 2018!
Thanks to all the dedicated testers who helped make the release of Alpha 3.1 possible. The entire CIG team sincerely appreciates your efforts during the Evocati and PTU phases, and hopes you have a blast playing the latest version on the live servers!
Even with Alpha 3.1 in the hands of all backers, the team isn’t going to rest. The Alpha 3.2 Feature Survey took the opportunity to reassess development priorities with feedback from the community. It let you vote on what features you were most excited to see implemented or improved, ensuring a fun and lasting gaming experience. Voting is closed, but you can check the results on this page.
As always, the team produced content across various social media channels. If you haven’t already, check out the new crowd favorite Calling All Devs, where Jared Huckaby calls developers from his desk to ask questions voted on by the Star Citizen community. Episodes of Around the Verse focused on performance and optimization, the AI on the living Idris, the sounds of science, and a magnificent Ship Shape featuring the impressive Aegis Reclaimer and the nimble Tumbril Cyclone.
Speaking of ships, the Aegis Vulcan was the first concept ship in 2018 and a gateway to a versatile support career in Star Citizen. The team celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with special offers and the Constellation Phoenix Emerald – an appropriate variation to celebrate the spirit of the Irish holiday. Alongside the promotion ran a St. Patrick’s Day Screenshot contest where you had the opportunity to win game packages, including the aforementioned Phoenix. Check out the event thread to see all the entries. Well done everyone and congratulations to the winners!
Also, the team celebrated a marvelous milestone when the number of citizens hit the 2,000,000 mark! Thank you for joining us on this journey. You inspire us every day through your creations, and we’re happy to be part of such an active and creative community.
And with that, see you in the ’verse!
WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…
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← Suddenly Punched by an Idea
Psychoastronomy – a morning of awe with Brian Cox →
An Astronaut Walks Into a Ninja Sex Party
Posted on October 29, 2015 by robinince
When performing in a foreign territory for the first time, I always reckon it is best to start in 2600 seat theatre and ensure you have an astronaut with you. Well, that’s how I did Toronto anyway and it seemed to work. Last night was the first of Chris Hadfield’s Generators. What was Generator? It was woman called Star falling off a bicycle. It was a quadriplegic man called Mitchell walking on stage in a robotic exoskeleton. It was a planetary scientist called Marianne talking about education. It was poetry going into space and it was the Tupperware Remix Party dressing as superpowered beings while playing Tears for Fears. It was an excitement of ideas and a strange A-Ha singalong.
Evan Hadfield had come to Hammersmith with his dad when he guested in one of the Hammersmith Apollo Compendium of Reason shows that I put on with piano man and occasional particle physicist, Brian Cox. In Evan’s words he decided to steal it and put on a version in Canada. It wasn’t real thievery, we didn’t invent mishmashing science, bands and comedy and, anyway, want to see more of this sort of stuff around the world. That is why Brian and I will be going back to do another USA tour next year (but more of that another time).
I was delighted to be asked to come over and MC the show, almost like a hand over, but now my hand has got near the Generator, I hope I can keep it in it. It was a delight to be part of it.
With the exception of some Monkey Cage recordings, I hadn’t done any science-y sort of gigs for about a month. As I like to dabble in many preposterousnesses (not a word, I know that), my mind files away ideas in a cargo haul that can make things difficult to access again. Sometimes the splintered box containing “Bad jokes I performed in 1993 about Robert Maxwell, Sharks and Fox Hunting” obscures the box I need containing “physics jokes from 2014”. Also, when in another country, I have to be a little more methodical than my usual haphazardry (another not word, but I demand it is now), as you can find yourself two minutes into an elaborate routine and, seconds before reaching punchline, a homunculus pops up and says, “you do remember that this punchline relies on a cultural reference that doesn’t travel across water?”.
This heightens nervousness as for at least the first few minutes of performance, your improvisation can be hindered by reminders of “you’re not from around here, things may be different, beware ineptitude creating fury and derision”.
I scribbled nine ideas down in a notebook and thought over what they needed to work while eating celery sticks near a box of Ritz Crackers. As it turned out, I only needed three of the ideas and could soon comfortably dabble and dick around.
The Canadians were friendly to the interloper.
I hope the evening was as fascinating to the audience as it was to me. A highlight was Destin Standlin’s re-engineered bicycle – a bicycle that steers in the opposite direction to the one you turn the handlebars towards. The brain will not let you ride it. The night before, we all tried it round the back of Chris Hadfield’s house after some Canadian Beer. Each person straddled the bicycle, certain they would be the one to grasp riding it, each person fell off with a metre or so. Even an astronaut cannot conquer their brain’s refusal to allow them to be so dangerously counter-instinctual. This is Destin explaining it all.
The bionic body chassis was an astounding feat of engineering that will change lives and, as luck would have it, while Mitchell Brogan was demonstrating it on stage, he was also on CBC’s Dragon’s Den doing a financial deal to develop this even further.
Marshall Jones demonstrated why his poetry is worthy of being sent into space, Canadian comedian Mark Little did a brilliant “TED talk” on stand up comedy before demonstrating an energetic rap folly (intentional) and the Templeton Philharmonic confused the real sound people with their demo on home made radio effects. Oh, and Chris Hadfield talked about astronaut stuff of course, before singing with the band and falling off a bicycle.
Tupperware Remix Party were a superband that also included Ninja Sex Party.
There was much more than this (look up the work of Jer Thorp on making data more human and Marianne Mader on making education alluring). The audience were gleeful, hopefully inspired, and we were left confused when we all had to take part in a finale that involved standing in stage attempting to remember the words of Take on Me, which was being played masterfully by the band. Suddenly, the nerds who had been emperors with powerpoints and words were forced to attempt to clap along in time while being watched by 2600 people. Oh how we fell.
and how good was it all in all, my seven year old son watched the whole three hours from the front row and is now quoting what he saw.
Brian Cox and I will be putting on two more nights at Hammersmith Apollo this December – tickets here
The Dead Funny sequel has been postponed until next year, but I will be still presenting a horror double bill with Reece Shearsmith on 6th November at the Phoenix in Finchley, appearing at the GoFasterStripe Festival on 7th November with Simon Munnery and more, and the first ever live Vitriola shows will be this December
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Chris Hadfield, Destin Sandlin, jer thorp, mark little. Bookmark the permalink.
10 Responses to An Astronaut Walks Into a Ninja Sex Party
Please come to Boston/Cambridge for the Springtime … (apologies, Dave Loggins, for lack of scan).
Spent a very happy birthday in NYC with TIMC last year!
robinince says:
Hope to be back in May and Boston should be on the list
I have been trying to get my 24 year old son to listen to The Infinite Monkey Cage for a couple of years. Last night I took him to Chris Hadfield’s Generator. He walked away inspired and a Robin Ince fan determined to catch up on the podcasts, oh and we got to see a five dollar bill live (astronaut Canadian currency niche joke)
Adam Vertigan says:
Ah so you met the other famous physicist called Brian, Ninja Brian (Brian Wecht)
Joe from Toronto says:
I was at the Toronto show – what a blast. I can only describe it as weird and wonderful. Not being a physicist, engineer, or anything in the sciences, I didn’t appreciate some of more esoteric science jokes, but it was fun to watch the audience react. I will definitely go again and drag along my daughter – a biology major at university – to explain the jokes
sikander says:
You were great and we had a great time!
thank you, see you in 2016
Also, Space Oddity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhXyNI-oBLA
Judy in SATX says:
I was delighted to discover you that evening! I’m looking forward to checking out old episodes of your podcast!
Thanks Judy, I think you can download all the Monkey cage episodes in Canada, any trouble, come back to me and I’ll find the right link
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