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« Sade: Soldier of Love
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The 2010 Haiti earthquake
Mon Jan 18th 2010 by abagond
In Haiti the 2010s opened with utter tragedy: last week on Tuesday January 12th 2010 at 21:53 GMT the strongest Caribbean earthquake in over 60 years struck Haiti. In the first six days 70,000 bodies were found and, unnamed, have been put into mass graves.
Up to 200,000 are feared dead. That would make it the deadliest natural disaster the world has seen since the tsunami in 2004, which killed 230,000.
The earthquake, measuring 7.0, struck not far from the capital, Port-au-Prince. That is a bad quake, but in a richer, better built city only a few dozen would have died. Even so, the quake killed few outright: instead people have been dying of their injuries because the damage has kept help from reaching them in time.
It destroyed 80% of the buildings in the capital, among them the president’s palace, government buildings, the cathedral, the United Nations mission, the main prison, most of the hospitals, even the main one. The archbishop was killed, so was the head of the UN mission, but not the president and his wife. Surprisingly, those living in shanty towns were less affected: a tin roof falling on you is not as deadly as concrete.
It knocked out the seaport and blocked all the roads, though main roads in the capital are now clear.
The airport is still open but, with only one runway and a damaged air traffic control tower, it is slow going.
People are living in tents and cars: the buildings are no longer safe.
To give you an idea of the scale, at 70,000 dead it is already 15 times worse than 9/11 and Katrina put together.
It is so bad that it is beyond the power of even television to overstate. The smell of dead bodies is everywhere.
America is sending 10,000 troops and air dropping food and water. Many other countries are sending help too, but the damage means getting that help to people will be slow.
The Americans will probably find themselves keeping law and order as well: the government is not in control of the country and it is too much for the police. People are desperate for food and water. On top of all that, 3,000 have escaped from prison, among them infamous gang leaders.
Both France and America will stop sending Haitians back to Haiti for a time. Senegal has offered free land for Haitians who move there!
Haiti has had few earthquakes over the past 40 years. Too few: the fault line that it lies on was locked, the strain on it building to dangerous levels. It was ovedue for a big one of just this size.
Pat Robertson, an American television preacher, saw it differently:
Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and the people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. And they (Haitians) got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the French.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal!”
Postscript: The earthquake killed 159,000, making it the second deadliest natural disaster of the past 30 years and the worst earthquake on record in the Americas.
CNN: How to help
Haiti: a brief history
Posted in 2010, 2010s, haiti, in the news | 126 Comments
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 14:12:56 Mira
What happened in Haiti is such a great tragedy and I don’t think posting my comments on any blog will help those people. So I won’t talk about the tragedy; sad smilies and words “oooh, horrible, I am so sorry” sound disrespectful.
So I’ll just talk about those TV idiots. Excuse me- but what are they talking about? Are some people just plain mean, or idiots, or what?
I am read so many ugly things these days, and it’s just horrible. It’s all down to: “It’s their fault. It’s their fault for being poor, messed, black, evil, had pact with devil, etc. It’s their fault, but fear not, we will help! We will help, because we are good and always there to help those in need!”
I remember somewhat similar thing happened after earthquake in China in 2008. Some people said they got what deserved because they didn’t want to free Tibet.
Also, some even think black people somehow “got what they deserved” in Katrina.
On the other hand, not many people thought America in general got “what it deserved” in 9/11 (plus, it’s the only thing mentioned here that’s not a natural disaster).
See, this is the reason I rarely watch TV. I just can’t stand propaganda.
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 14:38:22 alwaysright101
pat and rush and other republicans need to be careful of the hate they spew…america is home to several different natural disasters (hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, avalanches, wildfires etc).
i don’t want those creeps in my state when karma decides to bite them in the butt for their hateful comments about the haitians.
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 15:06:14 Aiyo
I think it was really great of senegal to offer up free land I was so happy when I read that yesterday. I always thought that all the west african countries should give some sort of free land.;
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 16:57:26 no_slappz
abagond, you wrote:
“The earthquake, measuring 7.0… That is a bad quake, but in a richer, better built city only a few dozen would have died…people have been dying of their injuries because the damage has kept help from reaching them in time.”
There is only one reason for the mass death: Bad Government.
All of Haiti’s problems stem from its inability to govern itself. Without a total change in Haiti’s culture, the same misery will reappear and when the next natural disaster strikes.
St Croix was hit by Hurricane Andrew in 1989. The town of Fredericksted, which is mostly black, is still a mess. Some of the debris from the 1989 storm is still piled where it landed when buildings collapsed.
Will Haitians save their country? Or do the usual nothing?
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 17:03:43 Not a hater
This is so sad this is my mothers country. Haiti already has been through so much. Abagond do you know If there is any aid comming to Jacmel Haiti my uncle in haiti says houses have fallen over there and people are still trapped underneath them. If you find any news that aid is going there please send me a link. Thank you
and I hope that you don’t belive in that garbage pat robertson is spewing.
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 17:26:25 Grena
I am so proud to see Senegal offering free land!! How generous!!
Alot of British and French have gone there and have fallen in love with the place!
on TRIPADVISOR, I read some reviews on it. An american who has lived there for 10 years stated that crime didn’t compare to the western countries and they felt safer in Dakkar than the USA.
It is 2nd as the country with the lowest murder rate.(Iceland was first)
It is also being touted as a place to invest as it is stable.
http://www.investinsenegal.com/US/why_1.html
The culture of the Senegales is fascinating as well, the formality in greeting people, showing respect for elders, the strong family unit. If the Haitians move there, they will never leave! The people will embrace them as their own!!
No_slappz
you fool you have no idea what is going on the in that country right now. More hatian people are freeing themselves out of the rubble than the aid workers who have come to help them. My uncle is their and tells me he sees none where he is.
The media is lying when they say the people are not doing anything. It sickens me to see them exploit all those dead bodies, they are showing dead babies and children, completely dehumanizing them. these are PEOPLE and the families of these people deserve respect. I keep telling my mother not to watch the images they broadcast on television because it would upset her. when I was in haiti 7 years ago I was 11 and saw that there was proverty but it was still a beautiful place. The media keeps mentioning of how they are poor, as if being poor gives them the right to showcase their bodies this way. It is disgusting the way the American media is broadcasting this earthquake!
Sorry for the typos abagond I am typing my posts from my iPhone.
And No Slappz, everyone but the Haitian people controls what goes on in their government. It is sad but true
1. From an iPhone? Cool. I am jealous.
2. No, I do not believe what Pat Robertson says.
3. Good point about the bodies. When was the last time you saw the dead bodies of white people like that on television? It is not like they do not die in natural disasters or something.
4. Jacmel was hit by the earthquake just as hard as the capital, but it does not get any near the same attention and help. There was, however, this story in the Miami Herald:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1428351.html
grena,
Senegal is a muslim country that suffers from the usual African dirty-water problem. There is a huge death toll from bad water, the infant death-rate is astronomical and the median age of the population is 19.
Do you know what that means? Half the population is younger than 19 — and they are ILLITERATE.
The country cannot produce enough of anything to supply its internal needs. People want to leave as fast as possible.
The per-capita GDP is $1,600. That means if you go there with $1,600 you can live very nicely for a year. Or, as nice as it is possible to live in Senegal.
By the way, the Official Unemployment rate is about 50% — Fifty Per Cent. Thus, I do not believe the claims of low crime rates in Senegal. On the other hand, because it is a muslim country, anyone caught stealing probably has his hand cut off.
the lack of empathy makes me want to vomit.
“When was the last time you saw the dead bodies of white people like that on television? It is not like they do not die in natural disasters or something.”
When was the last time there were bodies of large numbers of whites to photograph?
I can give you one example. Jonestown in South America. Do you know the story? 1979.
Here’s another: 9/11, when to escape the flames, people were videotaped jumping from the top floors of the World Trade Center.
Almost 3,000 died on 9/11. I do not remember seeing any bodies on television.
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 18:30:16 J
Nudge-nudge to Abagond ha ha
I thought the Jonestown massacre was predominantly Blacks that took their lives
“I do not remember seeing any bodies on television.”
The bodies were the bodies of people jumping from the top of the World Trade Center. Video was taken by the helicopters nearby and from other cameras in the area.
When the jumpers hit the ground they splattered. Thus, there was no “body” per se for TV cameras to show. But the jumpers were shown leaping into the air from 1,000 feet above the street and plaza where they landed.
As for the 2,700 who died at the World Trade Center, well, almost all of their bodies were incinerated in the collapsed and burning buildings. There were media people everywhere expectings shots of dead and wounded. Instead, there was almost nothing, because all the bodies were consumed in the fire.
You must be joking. Jonestown could have been 100% white. All religious nuts from the US who drank poison and died.
The scene was heavily photographed.
No Slappz said:
They had PLENTY of human remains from the World Trade Center, but they showed none of it on television. Why is that?
And what about the bodies from the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania? Did they all burn up too into nothing?
abagond, here’s a tidbit for you. My office was on the 47th floor of Tower One at the World Trade Center. That was the tower with the big antenna on top.
So here’s what happened. There was complete video coverage and photos of the jumpers. The video was on TV and photos were in the newspapers.
After bodies began hitting the ground near the buildings people on the ground realized it was time to run.
Meanwhile, one thing you cannot see in an aircraft is the ground beneath the aircraft. Photographers in the helicopters could not get shots of the splattered bodies. People on the ground were concerned with staying alive.
When the buildings fell, the area where the bodies had landed was covered in smoldering debris. Thus, unlike Haiti, there was no chance to get close to the dead to take pictures.
The police, fire departments took immediate control of the ares. A couple of hours later the military arrived and set up a perimeter around the area. No one other than rescue personnel was given access after about 11 am.
Second, the fires burned and smoldered for days, consuming most of the bodies in the rubble.
Third, flying around the area was banned. All US aircraft were ordered out of the sky in the first couple of hours after the attack. Thus, no one was taking photos from helicopters flying over the site.
The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was going about 500 mph when it crashed into the ground at a steep angle. It left a hole in the ground and burned, leaving little in the way of human remains. There were no bodies scattered around a field.
At first, searchers were confused because they could not find a big jet. They were surprised and shocked when they found it deeply embedded in the earth. At first no one believed it was in the hole because the hole seemed to small. But there it was.
As with all crashes of commercial planes, the National Transportation Safety agency took control of the site. In this case the FBI was also part of things. Thus, only people with official business were allowed near the site. Official business did NOT include new photographers.
So you are saying the reason we see the bodies in Haiti is because it is beyond anyone’s control to prevent it?
Abagond I agree with you. I have not seen the media show dead bodies of White people, the way they are showing it now after the earthquake in Haiti. It’s dehumanization.
Thanks for the article it scares me to death that aid is not in jacmel my mom reached my uncle 2 days ago and he said it was really bad, imagine how bad it is now.
everytime I watch CNN they keep showing the disaster I want to hear some more survival stories. I am just furious the way the media is showcasing these people, it really sickens me.
That’s about the size of it. Police, fire, rescue and military personnel usually chase away photographers except those who are taking official shots.
We have a free press in the US — that means the government cannot prohibit media outlets from showing graphic scenes. But various security agencies can make it impossible to get close enough to take a decent picture.
A famous NY Daily News photographer — known as Weegee — compiled his best photos into a book. One was a shot of a woman who had jumped off a tall building in Manhattan. She landed on the roof of a car, and he photographed her there, dead.
Photos of bloody bullet-riddled bodies of mafia murder victims in NY City have appeared in the local papers as long as the mafia has been in operation here.
The scene was heavily photographed”
1. The Jonestown Massacre of 1978 by Jim Jones was not a mass suicide but a MK ULTRA mind control experiment using innocent Black people.
Jim Jones got the names of mostly poor, widowed Black women from the San Francisco County Department of Social Services (welfare). He made these innocent but ignorant and poor Black women turn over all their assets to him and his People’s Temple.
Jones had more than 900 Blacks and 200 whites in his cult. The Blacks were the victims (guinea pigs) and the whites served as his government officials.
http://www.blackwebportal.com/nuforums/vm.cfm?Forum=37&Topic=830
Others believe that Jonestown was a racist plot to exterminate blacks, since most of the cult’s leadership was white and most of the followers were black.
http://everything2.com/title/Jonestown+Massacre
3. And the reason for choosing Guyana
[15] Carter said the Temple concluded that Guyana, a predominantly black, English-speaking socialist country, would afford black members of the Temple a peaceful place to live.[15]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown
And just imagine we would have nearly got away with it, if it was NOT for those pesky kids… Scoooooooooby Dooooo
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 23:09:46 peanut
The haitian tragedy is terrible. It’s even sadder because now the world will have to look at the povery and conditions that some Haitian people were forced to live under while no one ever did a thing until something like this happened. I am glad Senegal is offering up free land. The NAACP ought to do something, I’m sure they won’t though. NAACP never does anything, I worked there for sometime they dont’ even answer the phone. Anyway, its great America is doing something atleast. Pat Robeson is senile anyway. Someone ought to shut him up. Really though, my prayers go out to the Haitian people and families and those affected by the earthquake. I hope people give if they can cause they need the money.
This is a depressing topic. Out of respect for the people all I’m going to say is that there are some vides on youtube from September 11th of the jumpers and in some of them you can see that it would be very difficult to photograph the deceased people on the ground that’s all I’m going to say.
It breaks my heart to see all the people affected by the earthquake. I wanted to do all I can to help out so I organized a bake sale with my co-workers at work. All the proceeds will go directly to the local Red Cross to support those in need in Haiti. I wish I could do more.
Pardon my language, but FCUK Pat Robertson and his ilk! This is not about religion. This is about people needing our help. This is about compassion for our fellow man. Screw that man!
I don’t think the Haitian people are innately less capable of governing themselves. They just don’t have the same access to the necessary tools to prevent such a tragedy. When you’re in a coutry where the economy is exploited by foreign countries and coming from a history of exploitation like Haiti, it can be difficult to be at the top of your game in terms of the economy, don’t you think?
Also look at the US and it inability to govern itself during Katrina and there was no excuse for that, we HAD the available means to improve the situation much more quickly than we did. I guess the US had a bad government then too huh?
I’ll bet you anything that Haitian people are doing all they can to work with what they have to improve their situaiton. They are human first and foremost ofcourse you’re going to do all you can to survive and help others survive in a time like this.
Human emotion is human emotion and when in distress its natural to want to improve your situation. I agree they need to show some more Haitian people surviving and overcoming this situation as best they can.
That’s all I am saying to that comment and the like from this point on. Stop criticizing people in a desperate situation. I’m sick of it we’re all human.
on Tue Jan 19th 2010 at 23:42:20 tulio
I notice that no slappz seems to get *angry* if anyone mentions *anything* positive about a black country. Isn’t that interesting? He has some issues, for sure.
I’m sure slappz knowledge of Senegal is about as shallow as spit on a sidewalk and what he knows about the place he probably googled 2 mins before posting. I bet he wouldn’t even know the name of the capital or head of state without first looking it up. Secondly, the point is that Senegal made a generous offer of land to Haitians. Why isn’t slappz praising them for their act of generosity, rather than putting down their standard of living. Besides, the standard of living I’m sure is an improvement if you’re coming from Haiti.
As for the situation in Haiti itself, I would agree with slappz about one thing and that’s that Haiti’s woulds are self-inflicted. If you look at the GDP purchasing price parity of Haiti compared to other black Caribbean islands, is very, very far behind what it should be. Jamaica may be poor compared to the U.S., but the people are well fed, clothed and it has a functioning, stable government. I was looking at the GDPs of other black Caribbean nations and most of them are no worse off than most South American nations or Mexico. Not rich countries, but not destitute either. Haiti is the exception, it cannot pull it together. Race is not the reason. Colonialism is not the reason. Other black former colonial countries in the region have GDPs 10-20x what Haiti has.
What Haiti lacks is both exploitable resources AND lack of human capital. You can have some success with the first. It’s hard to have success without the latter. Ideally a country would have both, like the U.S. Haiti has neither. No oil, destroyed environment, nothing to export. Singapore has nothing, but the people have skills, so they are the human capital. Haiti has no human capital whatsoever. So we can all send our little $10 via text message and think we’ve done our part, but it will be like pouring money into a bucket with a hole in the bottom. I sent my donation anyway, but I don’t expect any lasting change until they deal with the human capital issue.
What makes Haiti different is that it is the only country in the Americas to go directly from slavery to independence. Most went from slavery, colonialism, then to independence. This transition allowed the former slaves to learn western style government and economics. Haitians didn’t. They repelled the French and then you had a country of uneducated slaves that now had to figure out what to do. Sanctions were placed on Haiti by the west and they could not trade anything. It all went downhill from there and has never recovered.
Sending food, water and medicine will help short term, but it’s like putting a band aid over skin cancer. What I want to hear is how will Haiti develop human capital that will allow them to be a self-sustaining nation that is not dependent on foreign aid. I want to hear about a path out of dependence.
Correction: NAACP is doing something for Haiti. What a pleasant suprise:
http://www.naacp.org/news/press/2010-01-13/index.htm
I don’t know maybe I’m just biased against NAACP because I’ve had bad experiences with them and they’re stationed in a predominately black city that also happens to be a city with one of the worst murder rates in the country and I feel they don’t do enough at all. but I gotta congratulate them on being proactiv on this one. Very pleased, hope they can follow through with their plans and do more in the future.
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 00:21:39 J
With regard to a comment made earlier about Haiti. The African-centred perspective would move away from Haiti’s current position being self-inflicted (ie blame the victim syndrome).
To sum it up in a few words as possible:
Haiti’s problem is/was ‘colonialism’ and today it is ‘neo-colonialism’, in the words utilised by the late Kwame Nkrumah
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 09:05:58 Grena
A few reasons why Haitians remained poor after slavery were
France forced them to pay 21 billion dollars (in todays money) for reparations. This debt crippled Haiti and took 120 years to pay off. They actually went a bill (down tothe last cent) a few years ago to France to get the money BACK! They were pursuing France for having the guts to charge them.
2. Thes people had been abused, beaten, illiterate and did not have intact families. Breakdown offamily is breakdown of society.There’s talk here of Broken Britain. The reason? High illiteracy here, high divorce,poverty, breakdown of families,high out of wedlock rates! People are moving out of here running to other countries like the USA and Canada because things are so bad. Britain ranks virtually at the bottom (for European countries) for quality of life, crime,stability,etc…
3. NOBODY wanted to trade with Haiti. Countries would not give Haiti their goods. France also imposed a law where anything coming out of Haiti for export was reduced by 50 percent.
Very very sick!!
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 11:42:26 angel
I’m an avid traveler. One thing I have noticed is that we are always given a slanted view in the news when it comes to race. Black people were called looters but the White people we were told were just trying to feed themselves. I also noticed how Europe is glamorized. But i’ve stayed with wealthy Italians, middle class Switzerland, France, Holland, Uk, etc. A large majority cannot heat up their house(if they can even afford one). Renting cold tiny apartments are the norm till you die in Switzerland, Italy,Germany and many others. Dryers are rarely used. They can’t afford it! Food is also very sparse in restaurants and overpriced so noone can afford to eat out every often. Advice: Never assume because a country is ‘wealthy’ that it has quality of life! As much as I like Europe, the quality of life isn’t good enough for me as a Black person to stay and live permanentl y. It’ll be the Caribbean, Africa or South America for me!!
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 14:14:58 Olivia
‘True story’…….
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 14:57:24 Thaddeus Blanchette
Brazil’s involved in Haiti up to our collective eyeballs: our military commands the U.N. mission there.
Several famous Brazilians were killed or wounded during the earthquake, including Zilda Arns, basically our Mother Teresa…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilda_Arns
Incoming freshmen classes go through hazing rituals here in Brazil. At my university this year, we’re going to paint them up and set them loose in the rich neighborhoods to collect funds for Haiti disaster relief.
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 16:29:15 no_slappz
The people in Jonestown were both white and black. From photos it looks as though the the half the dead were black and half were white.
As for everything else you mentioned, sorry, but it’s all conspiracy-theory nonsense.
Jones was a crazy man who had the charisma to draw thousands into his madness.
j, you wrote:
Yeah. Sure. How long ago did the colonialists in Haiti leave?
Attempting excuse the current ongoing and devasting failure of Haiti by claiming its problems result from colonialism is another way of saying things will NEVER improve.
Since the past cannot be changed, it appears Haitians believe their future is forever doomed.
tulio, you wrote:
“Secondly, the point is that Senegal made a generous offer of land to Haitians.”
The offer is anything but generous. It’s a bad deal. Maybe if Senegal had sent a ship or plane to pick-up Haitians and bring them to their new free homes, the offer would mean something. But offering land — Free Land. Not a free house on free land — means nothing to people who would have to swim the Atlantic to get there. It’s a joke.
“Why isn’t slappz praising them for their act of generosity, rather than putting down their standard of living.”
The offer is nothing but grandstanding. Here’s a bet. I say NOT ONE Haitian will go to Senegal and get the free land.
“Besides, the standard of living I’m sure is an improvement if you’re coming from Haiti.”
Here’s how you compare standards of living — you compare GDP figures. Gross Domestic Product.
For Senegal it is $1,600. For Haiti, it is $1,300. The two nations are almost equally miserable.
Furthermore, the numbers on Haiti are fuzzy. The country gets about one-third of its funding from external sources — like Haitians who live in the US and send money to relatives in Haiti who are unable to get visas to get the heck out.
Both countries are dumps and the people who live in them desperately want to leave. That’s why the Senegalese government can give land — free — to new arrivals. It has no value.
Both countries have terrible disease problems because neither can provide adequate supplies of clean drinking water.
I gave you data, that you could have researched to see whether the premise that most of the people who took their lives in that unfortunate massacre was Black.
Irrespective of the conspiracy theories, it was not my aim to establish the validity of it or not.
However, even you must agree (even if you choose not do it here openly).
The reason why some view it as a conspiracy theory designed against Black people, is because the vast majority of the people who died were Black.
So by a process of logic – most of its constituents must have been Black to make it people claim this to be a ‘Black conspiracy theory’.
And this take us back round full circle. If the vast majority of his members were Black. Then presumably – utilising your logical reasoning here- most who died would have been Black.
My concern is that if most of its members were Black, and
it was they who committed suicide – How is It possible to have all these White bodies on the TV??
peanut, you wrote:
“I don’t think the Haitian people are innately less capable of governing themselves.”
Really? Haiti has 200 years of independent history that says you are wrong.
The country has been independent almost as long as the US.
leigh204, you wrote:
“Pardon my language, but FCUK Pat Robertson and his ilk! This is not about religion.”
Not about religion? I see. So you care about comments from Pat Robertson, who is a gasbag religious leader with no influence on life in Haiti, but you apparently do not care about the fact that half of all Haitians practice Voodoo.
Haitians have big problems because they do nothing to prevent big problems. Instead of learning how to build safe buildings, they practice Voodoo.
This is what happens when people choose ignorance over learning. No big secrets here. Just simple reality.
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 17:14:24 atelierboz
@ no_slappz
So what classifies Voodoo as an ignorant waste of time furthermore are you implying all religious beliefs are a waste of time, or just voodoo?
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 17:17:02 Mira
Well, some cultures did try to ditch religion altogether. It didn’t work well. Personal atheism do exist and can work, but it’s impossible to organize a non-religious country.
Wait… Oh, you were talking about voodoo, not other, “normal” religions, right?
I’ll take a wild guess and say he’s referring to voodoo.
on Wed Jan 20th 2010 at 19:09:14 lucia
I don’t know what to say about Haiti.
Its horrifying.
Can’t imagine what it must be in a situation like that.
All I can hope is that in a few weeks time people don’t forget about Haiti… Its going to take a long time to get the countries infrastructure to a decent level.
There was another earthquake.
Those people need help and unconditional support. Meaning: do not use them for propaganda, do not dehumanize them. Just help- really help, and stfu about it.
We all know good and well that voudou does not cause earthquakes.
According to the Haitian ambassador here in Brazil, it does! 😀
on Thu Jan 21st 2010 at 00:17:37 leigh204
LOL@no_slappz. Some blithering, full of hot air windbag has nothing better to do than to pick apart comments. Blah. Blah. Blah.
on Thu Jan 21st 2010 at 02:03:12 Herneith
@Leigh:
Slappz is trying to get as many posts in just in case he is banned, LOL! If you want real gut wrenching laughs, go to his site and read some of the comments where he is routinely cussed out and told not to return to certain blogs. One particular post, had over one hundred responses in Japanese, that one had me howling with laughter, it was tears inducing and not the ones brought on by sorrow, but hilarity! Since he doesn’t get much responses on his blog, is it a wonder that he chooses to post so much on this one? With this in mind I would either ignore him or make some flippant remark such as the one you wrote. He also seems to be spammed constantly, but hey, freedom of speech right?
@Slappz:
Are you lonesome tonight dar de do dar de dar, tell me slappz are you lonesome tonight? Dar do do dar de da, dar de do dar de da, tell me slappz are you lonesome toniiigght! A little song I composed for you dear!
Slappz, you bring out the tomfoolery in me, thanks!
Slappz is trying to get as many posts in just in case he is banned, LOL! If you want real gut wrenching laughs, go to his site and read some of the comments where he is routinely cussed out and told not to return to certain blogs. One particular post, had over one hundred responses in Japanese, that one had me howling with laughter, it was tears inducing and not the ones brought on by sorrow, but hilarity!
Really? Now that’s funny as hell. Although I’m not interested in what a windbag would say on his blog, I’ll take your word for it! LOL!
Since he doesn’t get much responses on his blog, is it a wonder that he chooses to post so much on this one? With this in mind I would either ignore him or make some flippant remark such as the one you wrote. He also seems to be spammed constantly, but hey, freedom of speech right?
Indeed. no_slappz reminds me of a court jester. A simple clown who would play the fool simply to amuse people. Very droll.
on Thu Jan 21st 2010 at 11:03:48 abagond
I hate it when certain people somehow feel the need to point out how screwed up Haiti is, even at such a terrible moment as this, AND THEN SAY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about America’s hand in Haiti’s history. It is just: “Haiti has been independent for over 200 years” and “It has no building codes”. And, “Look how America is helping Haiti now! What a nice country it is!” Blah blah blah.
It is crypto-racist and crypto-imperialist.
on Thu Jan 21st 2010 at 15:09:05 no_slappz
atelierboz, you wrote:
When the people of a nation devote their energy to following a religion — any religion — over pursuits that can actually improve the quality of life in a nation — like education — then the religious pursuit is a dangerous, destructive and wasteful effort.
When cultures began pushing back against the controlling forces or religion and began to put some faith in human ingenuity, prosperity began to arrive.
This fact is no secret. But it is widely denied in third-world countries. Islamic nations are doing their best to return to the 7th century. Some of them may get there.
on Thu Jan 21st 2010 at 16:03:33 J
I think the question you should be asking is WHEN are the
neo-colonialists (with all their machinations) going to leave Haiti??
You appeared to miss this very important point.
I note the ‘adapative expectation’ or ‘induction’ in your last paragraph.
With regard to that the neo-colonialists surely hope that things will remain the same. However, one thing about the world that is constant…and that is nothing remains the same. We live in a world of changes
And this is one perspective from Jamaica on Haiti
No, Mister! You Cannot Share My Pain!
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Maxwell-Jan-17
And a lovely song by Mutabaruka made in the 90s
Not sure this point came out here
Robertson did apologise by saying that he thought it
was ‘Hades’ (in this context ‘Hell’).
Since there is no country call Hades.
This raises the question of niavety for those who can believe such nonsense.
http://www.creators.com/liberal/andy-borowitz.html
on Thu Jan 21st 2010 at 18:16:50 Thaddeus Blanchette
no_slappz sez:
Thanks for explaining to us what’s going on in the U.S. these days, NS. My question to you, then, is why do you think that the Republicans support this sort of thing?
thaddeus blanchette, you wrote:
I suppose you are asking a serious question, which, by your asking says a lot about what you do not know.
Even though you seem to believe that it means religious issues dominate US life simply because stories tied to religion appear on the front pages of some newspapers, that is not the case.
Religion does not stand in the way of the factors that have made the US prosperous. Science and technology go forward without the slightest drag applied by religion.
Whereas, in Haiti, prosperity is always out of reach because too many Haitians believe life is controlled by imaginary forces.
As for what Republicans support, it is clear you have no idea. Moreover, now that Scott Brown has been elected to the Senate, the dynamics of US politics has shifted, and the shift is bad news for Obama.
“However, one thing about the world that is constant…and that is nothing remains the same. We live in a world of changes.”
A changing world. Except in places like Haiti, where life has been constantly brutal for the 200 years since its independence.
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 04:11:19 tulio
America is one of the most religious countries on earth, so I don’t know where you’re going with this one. The fact that loons like Pat Robertson and those that make up the “religious right” were such a powerful lobby for the last 8 years until Obama says something.
I don’t think you know anything about Voodoo whatsoever. I’m no expect on the topic either, but I do know enough to know that I don’t know much about it and that the popular image of Voodoo that people have is patently false. It’s not much different than Santoria or Candomble in S. Africa, just a mixture of Catholicism and some West African beliefs. The image of Haitians running around sticking pins in dolls and other bullshit came from old Hollywood imagery.
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 12:17:18 angel
Isn’t astrology popular here in the western world? It was said that Ronald Reagan and his wife used astrology to make decisions when he was present. How about the Ouija board? Or how Catholics pray to their Saints and statues(which is looked on as idolatry in other religions). Also rosary beads aren’t Biblical either…Spiritism/voodoo is practiced all over the world. They just have a different name for it.
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 13:03:25 Mira
@tulio
America is one of the most religious countries on earth, so I don’t know where you’re going with this one.
I agree. Well, at least that’s how America seems to me. I might be wrong, though. On the other hand, what are chances of an atheist to become a US president?
PS-I am not an atheist, I’m just asking.
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 13:19:02 Thaddeus Blanchette
So the media is lying and distoprting reality in the case of the U.S., but reporting it 100% honestly in the case of Haiti, is that it, No Slappz?
How is voodoo – rather than, say, lack of any research infrastructure whatsoever – preventing science and technology in Haiti?
Imaginary forces like, say, The Market…? 😀
BtW, Satan has finally weighed in on the Haiti earthquake. I reposted his letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune over on my blog last night:
http://omangueblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/satan-responds-to-pat-robertson-in.html
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 14:05:09 no_slappz
You seem totally ignorant of the difference between people admitting they identify and perhaps follow or practice a religion AND what it means when a religion controls or defines the government.
The US may be home to a huge percentage of people who identify themselves as Christians. But unlike muslim theocracies, there is virtually no connection between the contents of the Bible and the laws we enact.
This is the essence of Separation of Church and State. In muslim theocracies it is the opposite. Laws are derived by interpreting the babble of Muhammad in the Koran and the Haditha.
“The fact that loons like Pat Robertson and those that make up the “religious right” were such a powerful lobby for the last 8 years until Obama says something.”
What did Pat Robertson and the “religious right” lobby for? The fact that a group of citizens sharing a common religious outlook choose to support or promote specific policies and politicians is democracy in action.
Their chief issue is abortion. The religious right opposes it, but, as you can tell, their opposition has failed and will continue to fail. Even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, each state will have the right to establish its own abortion law. Thus, even in a worst-case scenario, almost all states would enact their own laws permitting abortion.
As lobbying forces go, it is obvious the religious right is weak.
What else has the “religious right” supported?
Answer: Nothing Consequential.
Headlines may be factual. Or they may be filled with ridiculous speculation. Some of the headlines from Haiti have been factual — like the headlines citing physical damage caused by the earthquake. Some moved toward speculation — like the early headlines guessing the death toll was as high as 500,000.
Unfortunately, due to the complete lack of healthcare facilities and infrastructure, the death toll will climb. Victims who would live if medical care were to reach them will die from treatable infections, gangrene and other routine medical problems. Still, the death toll will fall far short of 500,000.
Have you noticed the foolish babbling about Global Warming has disappeared. This nonsense filled the headlines until recently when it was discovered that many of the scientists publishing reports about Global Warming had been falsifying their data. Since then, even the UN has acknowledged that Global Warming is a hoax.
A place reflects the beliefs of its residents. Most Haitians believe in voodoo. They do not believe in science and technology, a fact made clear by the low academic achievement of the population.
As a result of the dominance of voodoo and other religions in the culture of Haiti, the Haitians do not study and embrace academic subjects capable of enriching their lives. Devotion to voodoo and other religions has crowded out the knowledge they need. They have demonstrated that their faith is in beliefs that bring societal failure — and despite the obvious link between their beliefs and their economic failure, they do not change.
The productivity of the Haitian workforce is about as low as productivity gets in this world. That is why factories are not built in Haiti. Haitians will work for extremely low wages. But even though they work cheap, their productivity is so low that factory owners cannot earn a profit. Hence, they go to other countries for labor. Like Mexico.
“Imaginary forces like, say, The Market…? ”
Your statement is an admission you know nothing about economics. This is a big problem in the world. It is an especially big problem for blacks who have many bizarre ideas about the functioning of economies. Unfortunately, far too many blacks believe governments can mandate prosperity.
It can’t. Government can provide the environment for prosperity to evolve. And when government establishes the proper setting, prosperity always arrives.
The hapless and incompetent government of Haiti has failed — for 200 years — to correctly set the stage for prosperity. The endless cycle of failure has given the world a country that has fallen apart as a result of a natural catastrophe.
Unless Haiti changes radically, its residents will suffer the same fate the next time Nature strikes.
Have you noticed the foolish babbling about Global Warming has disappeared.
Er, no it hasn’t, Slappies. What color is the sky in your universe today?
Nor have you answered my question, have you? What’s a matter? Was it too difficult or do you juist have trouble staying on target?
Belief in religion does not logically preclude belief in science, first of all. But what I’d like to know is how low academic achievement cis caused by beliefs, say, rather than lack of resources to build decent schools. Explain.
Your statement is an admission you know nothing about economics.
Wrong. “Invisible hand”? Give me a break. The Market is as an imaginary an entity as any orixá. If it weren’t we could directly observe it, right?
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 18:45:36 Nose_laps
I’d like to appologize to all the members of Abagond’s blogging community for my recent bizarre behavior. You see, aside from suffering from Aspergers, I also have a split personality.
Because of this and as partial repayment for my behavior, in the upcoming days I will be translating my other half’s posts into more rational language.
Snuffle, snuffle, lick, lick,lick….
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 18:57:53 islandgirl
They invade those people’s space and get so close up. Yesterday, there was a little boy who was naked with just a little tissue covering essential areas.
That is ridiculous! Give those people some privacy.
on Fri Jan 22nd 2010 at 19:07:00 MerriMay
It’s ridiculous and sad, they show those poor people in the most degrading and undignified ways, and highlight how the mighty British forces should be heralded for pulling out yet another near naked woman from the rubble!
They really do good close up money shots.
I can’t watch anymore, I just can’t
The sky is as blue as it ever was. No sign of change there. The weather, as always, is following the seasonal patterns, though this winter in much of the US it has been colder than average.
The people of Haiti have chosen their religion over academic pursuits. They have chosen ignorance over enlightenment.
“Belief in religion does not logically preclude belief in science, first of all.”
As I wrote above, Haitians have embraced their religions and ignored academic learning. This aspect of life in Haiti speaks for itself.
“But what I’d like to know is how low academic achievement cis caused by beliefs, say, rather than lack of resources to build decent schools. Explain.”
Very simple. People in a culture that maintains its devotion to tradition does not embrace change, especially the personal change necessary to learn, introduce and apply the concepts of science, math and technology to their lives.
Haitians are living proof of a determination to stick with the past, a past that does not work. Yet they persist.
You have now confused the economic concept of the “invisible hand” with something that is “imaginary.”
As I said before, you know nothing about economics, and your latest statement is more proof of that. If you were honest, which you clearly are not, you will at least admit your ignorance to yourself.
However, it is possible you really do believe you know something about economics. That would be unfortunate because that kind of self-deception leads to so many additional misunderstandings that you might never get the hang of the subject.
For your own benefit, get a college economics text and do some reading. The subject is interesting and the topics are usually presented in 20-page chapters that are easy to digest.
Not explicitly of course, but Christian values of what is right and wrong have always shaped law in this country. For example, it was only last decade that anti-sodomy laws were struck down by the supreme court. Legal opposition to gay marriage is also religiously based for most. In some states, adultery is still on the books as a felony.
Bullshit. Republican strategists take it as a given that the evangelicals are as crucial to their electorate as racial minorities are to the Democrats. They NEED the evangelical voting bloc. As for what they lobby for, it goes well beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage. They are a strong pro-Israel lobby which is rooted in their religious beliefs. They were also strongly in favor of the war in Iraq.
tulio,
You are totally confused.
The “religious right” — an amorphous designation, by the way — like any voting bloc, is courted by all politicians. Meanwhile, the issues that motivate voters are NOT issues of religion per se.
The issues of abortion, sodomy and adultery are NOT issues of religion per se. They are societal issues on which every religion has a viewpoint.
In muslim nations, Islam is the official state religion and the Koran is law. Muslims believe their religion is the supreme law of the land. There is no comparison between a nation that derives its laws from the Koran and a nation in which laws are made by the best efforts of the people.
Meanwhile, I see that you also know nothing about middle east politics or the reasons the evangelicals support Israel. Is there something about supporting Israel that troubles you? You should keep in mind that Obama is a former muslim, and it becomes clearer every day that he is not much of a friend to Israel.
Anyway, with your mention of evangelical support for Israel, you have again confused the nature of political support with the issues themselves.
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 00:02:01 J
Haitians Dying By The Thousands – As US Escalates Military Intervention
http://www.countercurrents.org/auken220110.htm
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 00:16:44 Nicia
Senegal is getting flack but Israel has some horrible statistics according to these links
1. low status of women
http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/…/empowering.html
2 Dirty water
http://www.springerlink.com/index/QYHGT1WPX58WK20T.pdf
3. Poverty is widespread in Israel
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israelpovertychildrenyomkippur4831210.html
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 00:25:16 no_slappz
The article, written by the evidently insane Bill van Auken, ends with the following:
“It is only a matter of time before the horrendous death toll caused by the January 12 earthquake will be augmented by victims shot to death by US occupation forces.”
It is lunatics like Bill van Auken who want to spread idiocy. Why? Hard to say.
Even though massive rescue and aid efforts coming from the US government and US citizens are in high gear, screwballs like van Auken are compelled to claim their bizarre hallucinations tell the real story.
After the US completes its usual extraordinary rescue and aid work, and after the Haitian government issues its profuse thanks for American generosity, will this moron admit he was grotesquely wrong?
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 05:44:20 Herneith
I hate it when certain people somehow feel the need to point out how screwed up Haiti is, even at such a terrible moment as this, AND THEN SAY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about America’s hand in Haiti’s history.
Yes, and not a word for the immediate suffering of the people! Instead they go off on diatribes. It’s as if they are saying that the Haitian’s deserved it! How morally bankrupt!
Nose_laps
Apologies accepted! LOL!
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 08:16:41 islandgirl
MerryMay,
Yes, it is very ridiculous! They get so close on the victims that you could see every eyelash. I understand that they have to show some to gain empathy with people so that they will be inspired to donate. But, they could at least get permission and at the very least, make sure the people are presentable (clothes on) before they shoot.
I don’t watch it anymore. I just donate.
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 09:36:04 leigh204
As I mentioned in a previous comment, I organized a bake sale with baked goodies costing $3 a pop. We managed to raise over a grand. I heard a co-worker remark how fast the baked goods sold. (We could barely keep up.) Then she remarked that it was sad people only opened their wallets when there was a national disaster and that people should be helping their own first. I replied, “What do you mean by helping our own? We’re helping those who need our help.” She replied, “There are poor, homeless people suffering here, too. You don’t see others opening their wallets for them, do you?” I agreed with her that charity begins at home, but Haitians needed immediate help. She shook her head and said she would rather help the people at home first (Canada). Unbelievable.
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 11:32:34 Aiyo
congrats on raising money and the nerve of that woman how rude
“She shook her head and said she would rather help the people at home first (Canada). Unbelievable.”
That woman is full of shite. I doubt she really helps anyone and uses this as an excuse not to. In regards to helping those at home, she probably blames them for their predicament. What she is really saying is ‘buzz off”, but instead comes up with the apologia; I’d rather help those at home”. The fact is, she aint helping anyone, if she ever did.
Honestly, I don’t recall her buying a single thing. And what is it with making a comment about helping those at home? It should be a given, I think. I donate canned goods to a local food bank and clothing to women’s shelters whenever I can. In fact, my mother’s homeland (Philippines) was hit by a typhoon in September then a couple of tropical storms afterwards. I was campaigning at work for any donations- clothes, canned goods, supplies, etc. Only a few people responded. I don’t understand some people making judgements like that. People need help not criticisms.
The black population of Canada is about 1% of the country’s 34 million people — 340,000 blacks.
The US is 13% black. Thus, about 40 million out of our population of 308 million.
What makes Canada such a white country?
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 18:44:12 Thaddeus Blanchette
1%, huh, NS? 2006 census says 2.5%.
Jeezis, you can’t even report stats right even when they more-or-less support your position! If it’s 6, you’ll say it’s 10 and if it’s ten, you’ll say 25.
16.20% of Canada’s population is visibly non-white, too. Not as much as the States, but certainly not insignificant, as you imply.
You’ve got some nerve calling people “insane” and “screwballs” when 8 times out of 10, the “facts” you cite are distorted or out-and-out lies, No Slappz.
What does the black population in Canada have to do with this woman’s remarks?
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 19:19:54 Thad
I can’t figure that one out, either.
No_slappz must be hittin’ the ‘tussin pretty heavily.
He’s hitting something.
on Sat Jan 23rd 2010 at 20:12:51 MerriMay
LOL You guys!
Honestly, I don’t recall her buying a single thing. And what is it with making a comment about helping those at home? It should be a given, I think.
But it isn’t. She should have said nothing and kept her opinions to herself. The fact that she felt a need to say these thing to you in particular, speaks volumes. People like this don’t do squat for anyone but themselves. They make these ignorant comments in order to justify their own guilt. After all the fundraiser was for Haiti which needed immediate help, not “helping those at home” which was a different issue altogether. A diversionary tactic if one ever existed. Oh yeah, you should have charged at least five dollars a pop!
People need help not criticisms.
An excellent point! People should put up or shut up. It shows a distinct lack of compassion and empathy. Criticism and remarks such as this woman’s does nothing to alleviate such sufferings. I hear such excuses all too often. Compassion and empathy, two of the hardest attributes to acquire it would seem.
on Sun Jan 24th 2010 at 14:23:27 leigh204
You’re absolutely spot on as always.
I agree. It’s funny (not haha funny) that some people are quick to point fingers at others while not taking a look at themselves. The world should be like one big family and help a family member in need. Sadly, some people don’t have it in their hearts to care.
on Mon Jan 25th 2010 at 22:23:52 J
We Send Doctors, Not Soldiers
By Fidel Castro
http://www.countercurrents.org/castro250110.htm
Haitian Empowerment Must Be The Prime Goal
by Roger Annis Canada Haiti Action Network, Noam Chomsky MIT, Brian Concannon Jr Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, Berthony Dupont Editor, Haiti Liberté, Yves Engler Haiti Action Montreal, Peter Hallward Middlesex University, Pierre Labossiere Haiti Action Committee, USA, Kevin Pina Journalist/film-maker, Jean Saint Vil Canada Haiti Action Network
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/haitian-empowerment-prime-goal
Source: The Guardian newspaper (UK)
Yeah, Castro’s soldiers have their hands full making sure nobody flees that prison island.
And btw, what on earth has Castro done in the last 50 years for Haiti? Hell, black Cubans aren’t even treated well in Cuba. I’ve never seen any person in the Cuban government of any prominence that was black, even though the island is 60% black. Black Cubans frequently complain that they aren’t given the lucrative jobs in the tourism industry that the white and mestizo Cubans get.
I don’t need to hear Castro flapping his gums about equality.
I am not sure I understand the aforesaid post and I am just seeking some clarification here
Is it the ‘message (ie anti US Imperialism) or the ‘messenger’ (ie Castro) here which is the problem??
Especially as there seems to be some ‘convergence’ between the ‘message’ of Castro and the undersigned of the petition viz. Roger Annis Canada Haiti Action Network, Noam Chomsky MIT, Brian Concannon Jr Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, Berthony Dupont Editor, Haiti Liberté, Yves Engler Haiti Action Montreal, Peter Hallward Middlesex University, Pierre Labossiere Haiti Action Committee, USA, Kevin Pina Journalist/film-maker, Jean Saint Vil Canada Haiti Action Network
Or is it perhaps even both the message and the messenger??
Or again some other factor not yet alluded to???
I read that petition and couldn’t help but roll my eyes the whole way through. There’s a certain segment of the left that thinks America is the root cause of all things wrong in the world. Obama’s response to Haiti has been swift and generous by any standard. Yet for the left, it’s never good enough. They demand virtually omnipotent reaction to any crisis that arises. Let’s see Noam Chomsky and these other eggheads climb down off their Ivory Towers and go down to Port Au Prince and hand out food packets themselves if they want to complain about our efficiency in emergency relief.
So just to clarify then its the ‘message’ then…
Specifically the suggestion that US foreign policy is responsible for ‘ALL’ (or nearly all) of the political ills across the world??
on Tue Jan 26th 2010 at 09:21:22 The Great White Man
The Great White men have saved the Hatians once again.
But where is our thanks?
Instead we get whining, conspiracy theories and insults..smh
Afrocentric nutjobs are certified loons.
Whites like to see themselves this way. You see it in their films, books and foreign policy:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/mighty-whitey/
Yes. Unlearning “mighty whitey” stereotype should be a must for all white people. If you want to unlearn your stereotypes, racism, prejudice, it is a good starting point.
on Tue Jan 26th 2010 at 12:22:45 Thaddeus Blanchette
Here, Mighty Whitey: have a cookie.
Um… Was my comment that offensive? I know I used a “forbidden word” but I thought the comment itself wasn’t disrespectful.
Thaddeus & Mira:
“Whitey” is a moderated word
Yes, I know it is. But my comment was in moderation longer than usual. It looks like I must learn to be more patient.
Moderation can last just a few minutes or, in practice, up to six hours. It depends whether I am online or not.
Maybe this whole impatience thing happened because I got a bit angry writing my comment that went into moderation. So I thought the comment was “angrier” than it actually was.
Basically, it has nothing to do with you or your moderation techniques.
Its in fact much more than this, since it also an ‘attitude’ or frame-of-my mind.
Fanon speaks of racism being everywhere, almost like oxygen in the culture.
I am not sure one can completely escape its clutches whether Whites or Blacks. Though obviously some will be better at ‘escaping’ it than others
Do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?
Expect more!
Let me invert that for you. Euro-centric nut jobs are certified loons!
on Wed Jan 27th 2010 at 01:44:57 tulio
J said:
I think what often happens is people see CIA intervention in a country that is a failed state, and then assume that the reason the government of a country(or the country itself) is a failure is because the CIA made it that way. It’s rather the other way around. The CIA exploits the situation because the country is a failed state and too internally dysfunctional to thwart outside influence. Minus the CIA, Haiti would still be screwed up. The CIA assisted Pinochet in toppling the leftist government in Chile, yet Chile has rebounded and is now essentially a first world country despite the CIA’s meddling in their government, meanwhile there are Haitians to this day eating cakes made of dirt. Why is that? Why are some countries failed states ALWAYS. I don’t think simplistically pointing to the CIA even begins to scratch the surface.
It’s one thing to say we as Americans should be informed about the covert operations of our government abroad and what they are doing in our names, with our tax dollars. I think that’s the obligation of any informed American. However, I don’t take it a step further and assume the CIA is the main culprit(or even a significant one) behind Haiti’s status as a failed state.
Then how do you explain ‘other interventions’ that do not directly involve the CIA??
Or can the CIA in the aforesaid be interchanged with ‘US imperialism’??
A Century of US Military Intervention
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html
on Thu Jan 28th 2010 at 13:44:45 J
Hugo Chavez and Russia suggest the worst regarding the earthquake
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116834§ionid=351020104
on Fri Jan 29th 2010 at 11:10:41 Jack
Port-au-Prince is situated right on the fault line between North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. The earthquake was not a surprise for geologists: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1424157.html. But, as always, folks here at Abagond prefer conspiracy theories to science.
on Fri Jan 29th 2010 at 11:35:11 J
And there is also another perspective to ‘conspiracy theories’ namely people are reluctant to believe them (primarily because of the assumption: ‘Our government would not be so wicked to undertake such acts’.
It is with the de-classification several years later and/or some other factors then the ‘truth’ or some other version of the story emerges. However, by then it is really too late to affect any change.
Its funny that today then the former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair is called to give his account and justification to go to war in England.
If we are speaking of ‘conspiracy theories’ and for those who may want to believe in them. It should be clear that there is a difference when an ordinary person comes up with the ‘thought’ and when a Government comes up with the suggestion.
These are some of the considerations, in my opinion, on whether considering the validity of conspiracy claims, especially as any Government is not going to give its citizens the ‘truth’ of events immediately.
J, tell me some examples of conspiracy theories that have turned out to be true.
The illegality of the Iraq War
I don’t think you can call that a conspiracy theory. From the point of view of international law, it was clear from the outset that the invasion was illegal. Give me some more examples.
Well with some people in the UK it was just that a ‘conspiracy’ to justify the war.
Not only was the war illegal but the claims justifying that war at least for the UK were also false – even if many did not believe or want to admit it back then.
on Sun Jan 31st 2010 at 16:11:15 leigh204
Just found this article about ten Americans trying to cross into the Dominican Republic with thirty-three Haitian children.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/30/10-americans-arrested-tak_n_443269.html
on Sun Jan 31st 2010 at 16:36:05 MerriMay
Why am I not surprised leigh?? Hope they name and shame these idiots, make sure they plaster their names ans faces in every news channel.
Yet I have a sneaking suspicion they will be given the benefit of the doubt.
Modern day slavery no matter which way you look at it. Don’t these people have any decency? Geez.
on Tue Feb 2nd 2010 at 01:21:16 leigh204
Apparently, this other article I found showed twenty of the children had parents and siblings. The article also mentions “the parents willingly signed their children over to those Americans” in question. Still, it’s mighty suspicious that these ten American church members had no proper documentation in the first place. C’mon now. Thirty-three children?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/01/eveningnews/main6163733.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea
I’d like to make a bet that those people being detained will pull the religion card.
on Tue Feb 2nd 2010 at 02:18:33 MerriMay
That’s how they are portrayed in England. Religious do-gooders out to save those poor Haitian kids and a little Haitian tape got in the way. The story is being handled with kid gloves, certainly wasn’t a headliner : (
British reporters were all over those Americans to hear their side of it. Haiti is relying heavily on the States for aid, the eyes of the world are on that country, the authorities must handle the yanks with care.
on Fri Jun 7th 2013 at 19:47:04 gro jo
“Haiti has been an independent nation for 200 years. It has received aid from nations, businesses, and individuals for all of that time.”
This statement is a scream. It’s amazing how this person can say the stupidest thing and think himself/herself clever. Haiti, when it was founded, was feared by all the slaving powers in the world. Haitians picked themselves up and made a nation of free men who swore to live free or die. Haiti paid for any service it got from any other nation. A genius like no_slappz needs to explain how Haiti got aid when its very existence wasn’t recognized by any of the “civilized nations”.
“The chief force that defeated the French was Yellow Fever.”
Bullshit, name me one battle between the french and the indigenous army that wasn’t either a draw or a pyrrhic victory for the french? The french “won” the battle at Crête-à-Pierrot by losing a tenth of their army, the death of several french generals and the wounding of Napoleon’s brother-in-law. Peace was negotiated and any plans to restore slavery put on hold. Note that all of Toussaint’s general staff were integrated into the french army with no reduction in rank after they killed so many french soldiers, no doubt you will claim that was done because the french were such “good guys”. By 1811 the northern kingdom of Henry Christophe had recovered enough to do 1,200,000 sterling pounds in trade with the U.K. or the equivalent of over 6 billion dollars in 2011 money. Impressive forts and palaces were built by Haitians, and the kingdom created schools to educate the people. After Christophe’s death these efforts were abandoned and Haiti paid France the blackmail money she was demanding.
“Haitians have big problems because they do nothing to prevent big problems. Instead of learning how to build safe buildings, they practice Voodoo. As a result of the dominance of voodoo and other religions in the culture of Haiti, the Haitians do not study and embrace academic subjects capable of enriching their lives. “
According to this moron vodou and education don’t mix. I wonder what no_slappz has ever invented or discovered? Based on the low intelligence displayed here I’ll guess nothing. A friend of my who is an electrical engineer with 3 patents to his name is also a firm believer and practitioner of vodou. Max Beauvoir, the man who established some kind of vodou hierarchy is a biochemist with degrees from New York University and the Sorbonne another scholar and vodou devotee is Patrick Bellegarde Smith professor of Africology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Ah, so much ignorance and arrogance, before spewing your garbage learn something first.
on Sun Sep 18th 2016 at 22:17:46 gro jo
Sans Souci Palace, built by Haitians in 1813 was air conditioned. This Haitian was considered to be the third richest man of France by 1900. He introduced electricity to a French town that he turned into a major vacation resort. The natives are still grateful to him. He also financed the crossing of the English Channel by plane in 1909. Not bad for a “voodoo” practitioner and descendant of slaves. https://dinardblog.wordpress.com/
on Mon Oct 29th 2018 at 16:03:59 Alberto Monteiro
Do you have local (haitian) sources about the brazilian “occupation” of Haiti?
http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/en/politica-externa/paz-e-seguranca-internacionais/6366-minustah-en
on Sun Oct 20th 2019 at 01:52:18 Alberto Monteiro
There are now over 120000 haitians living in Brazil, most of them legally:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Brazilian
on Sun Oct 20th 2019 at 04:31:05 Origin
Appreciate gro jo’s history lessons on Haiti.
It’s such an unfairly slandered nation and it’s obvious why.
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BREAKING NEWSMoms 4 Housing reaches agreement to purchase vacant home
Donald Trump says no to debating 'second place finisher' Bernie Sanders
(L) Donald Trump at a rally in Billings, Mont., Thursday, May 26, 2016. (R) Bernie Sanders at a rally in Ventura, Calif., Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, Damian Dovarganes)
LOS ANGELES -- Donald Trump has officially squashed hopes for a debate with Bernie Sanders, saying it would be inappropriate to debate the "second place finisher."
Trump released this statement on Friday:
"Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher. Likewise, the networks want to make a killing on these events and are not proving to be too generous to charitable causes, in this case, women's health issues. Therefore, as much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders - and it would be an easy payday - I will wait to debate the first place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be."
Appearing on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Sanders said he was genuinely interested in a faceoff with Trump, saying the pair sees the world in vastly different ways, adding that "the goal would be to have it in some big stadium."
Trump then agreed to Sanders' proposal to debate, but said that the hosting TV network would have to put up millions of dollars for charity.
On Friday, Sanders' campaign released a statement reiterating its interest in debating the presumptive Republican nominee, saying the campaign has received two offers by television networks looking to air a Trump-Sanders debate.
"Both offers include a major contribution to charity," Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in a statement.
Click here for full coverage on the 2016 election.
politicsdonald trumpbernie sanderspresidential raceu.s. & world2016 election
Jimmy Carter claims Russia won Trump the White House
Mueller report: House panel holds AG William Barr in contempt
Mueller tentatively set to testify to House Judiciary Committee
Mueller Report Release: Subpoena issued
Moms 4 Housing reaches agreement to purchase vacant home
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Former President Obama in Oakland for My Brother's Keeper event
By Anser Hassan
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Former President Barack Obama is visiting Oakland this week to mark the first national gathering of the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper Alliance that supports boys and young men of color.
MBK Rising! will begin with a day of service Monday in partnership with Bay Area community-based organizations, followed by the convening of hundreds of youth and community leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday.
They have come to Oakland from across the country to be part of a new solution to the problems facing many young men and boys of color in the United States.
"President Obama asked who will accept the challenge. Not who will participate," says Dr. Anael Alston, who works for New York's Department of Education.
He says he is one of those accepting the challenge. He is leading a team from New York that is part of the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper Alliance, a program designed to close the opportunity gaps faced young men of color.
"We know that children who believe they are going somewhere behave very differently than those who don't. So, we start to put those things together and start funding initiatives," says Dr. Alston.
The MBK Rising is a two-day series of workshops aimed at finding solutions to the many obstacles many young men and boys of color face.
It kicked off with a Day of Service that included cleaning up the campus at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary in Oakland.
Among those taking part is former Oakland A's all-star pitcher Dave Stewart. He says as a black man, it's important for young black men to believe they have opportunities to achieve greatness. MBK Rising helps achieve that he says.
"We are looking out for each other and making sure of the advancement of our youth and minorities. We are making sure we pave a way for them," says Stewart.
RELATED: Former Pres. Obama to join John Legend, Stephen Curry for Oakland event
Stewart says by President Obama backing MBK Rising, it will unite people and make them want to get involved. And that can be the difference from other similar programs. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf agrees.
"What's different, is for the President of the United States to lift this conversation up at a national level, to pull in national resources," says Mayor Schaaf.
Oakland native and high school sophomore, Ivan Garcia, will emcee one of the MBK Rising events. He says too often young men of color are often exclude from the conversations around the challenges that they face. He says MBK Rising gives them a voice.
"I find it extremely necessary to have young leaders, especially young men and boys of color, to be in these conversations and to be able to create that change," explains Garcia.
One of those conversations will be at a Town Hall meeting with President Obama on Tuesday. Other speakers over the next two days include Warriors star Steph Curry and music giant John Legend.
David Harris and his crew from Urban Strategies Council help young men get back on track after getting out of juvenile hall. They are one of only three Bay Area organizations invited to take participate. They were also awarded a $100,000 grant by the My Brother's Keeper Alliance.
He says MBK Rising event puts a national spotlight on some of the more serious issues, which will help their cause.
"If they don't graduate, roughly, about 90 percent of (black men) have some exposure to the criminal justice system. We got to break that school to prison pipeline," says Harris.
Senior Miguel Argumeel, who attended workshops in San Francisco, says a program like MBK Rising finally gives people like him a forum for their voice to be heard.
"If school teaches me that your people were conquered, and your people were enslaved, then that's how I am going to perceive myself. Because that's how everyone else perceives me," says Argumeel.
He hopes MBK Rising teaches him how to write his own history.
The gathering will be held at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive. Mainstage sessions will be streamed live here.
Sessions will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and 9:30 to 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and San Francisco Mayor London Breed are co-chairing MBK Rising!'s host committee.
#1: Particpinats gather for #kickoff to #MBKRising event in #Oakland. Speeches by community leaders and Mayor @LibbySchaaf will be followed by a #dayofservice at #MLK elementary #school. #whereyoulive #woke @abc7newsbayareahttps://t.co/eJy7xouxWd pic.twitter.com/toljFzpDM4
— Anser Hassan (@AnserHassan) February 18, 2019
#2: #MBKRising provides boys and young #menofcolor "with a forum to drive the #agenda," discuss challenges they face and develope #solutions they believe can work. Its lead by the @ObamaFoundation.#community #BetterTogether #Oakland #whereyoulive https://t.co/eJy7xouxWd pic.twitter.com/b25be0YmQX
#3: @RepBarbaraLee explains why the #MBKRising event is so critical. It's about being #heard and #recognized.#woke #mentors #community #whereyoulive #Oakland https://t.co/eJy7xouxWd pic.twitter.com/NcSCNh3mxV
#4: Those taking part in today's #MBKRising #dayofservice include @Athletics former all-star #pitcher Dave Stewart and #Oakland Mayor @LibbySchaaf, who are helping to clean up the school.https://t.co/eJy7xouxWd pic.twitter.com/vawHRgBfpm
#5: A #community resource faire at #MLK elementary school in #Oakland is still taking place and open to all. It's part of today's #MBKRising event. #whereyoulive #buildtogether https://t.co/eJy7xouxWd pic.twitter.com/GYxZTws85C
societyoaklandpresident barack obamaobama foundationafrican americansbay area eventsstephen curryjohn legendculturebarack obama
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Competition Dates and Singles next Round
By AASA Management on 28th January 2012 in Winter League Reports
The Competition dates and the next round of Singles games is published on the right!
Week 11 Match Reports
By AASA Management on 22nd January 2012 in Winter League Reports
‘A’ Section
Ab. Utd. ‘B’
College Oak
‘B’ Section
Ab. Con. Club
Ab.Legion
Ab. Utd. ‘C’
Ab. Utd. ‘A’
Game reports.
Ab. Con. Club beat The Fox 4-2 with leg scores of 14-13, 12-17, 11-10. For Con. Club T.Barrett 12 & J.Castle 7. J.Sims & R.North each hit a ‘Ted Rogers’. I’m sure you can work that one out. For The Fox N.Weston 12, B.Parker 10, N.Nuttall 8 & M.Sheridan.
College Oak beat Ab. Utd. ‘A’ 6-0 with leg scores of 15-9, 17-5, 18-10. For The Oak F.Tracey ‘delivered’ 12 dolls, S.Enock & D.Cross 10 each, P.Soden & L.Clapton 9 each. Their 50 dolls was their highest total of the season. In reply for Utd. ‘A’ Jim & Dave Warrell 7 each. M.Ashmall scored just 2 dolls. He actually hit the ceiling more times than he hit the doll.
Old Masters beat Ab. Utd. ‘C’ 6-0 with leg scores of 13-12, 16-7, 16-9. For OM J.Barguss 12, A.Woolloff 10, T.Downes & M.Hall 8 each & G.Barguss 7. For Utd. ‘C’ S.Martin top scored with 10.
Spread Eagle beat Ab.Legion 6-0 with leg scores of 17-10, 17-8, 13-12. For The Spread J.Simmons 13, J.Bowler & G.Brown 11 each. For The Legion C.Brind 10 & N.Hazell 8. The Spreads 47 dolls was their highest total of the season while The Legions 30 was their lowest.
In the ‘A’ section it looks as if it’s all about the runners up spot as Ab. Utd. ‘B’ extended their lead to 10 points after a 6-0 win over The Penlon. For Utd. ‘B’ D.Bowler & I.Morrison 10 each, T.Ward & D.Davies 8 each. For Penlon T.Lach & the one armed M.Jeffries 7 each.
p.s. I will try to get through the singles tonight as quickly as possible, but some of you will not get a game but that can’t be avoided. Good luck to all.
p.p.s. Anyone want a second hand set of sticks with bag for free, come and see me.
p.p.p.s. Matt ‘The Quizzer’ Ashmall will be holding a Quiz Night on Friday 10th Feb in the Club at 8.00 p.m.. There are cash prizes up for grabs. The club would appreciate your support. For more info speak to Matt.
By James Barguss on 14th January 2012 in Anchorman Blog
I spoke a while back about how the committee decide which teams go up or down a section. It got me thinking, particularly after I overheard someone say that they believed the standard of Aunt Sally to have been better in years before.
It’s always difficult to quantify when or if a certain era was better or for scores in any competitive game. Sure some teams can dominate for long periods and anecdotal evidence always proves the point. Everyone looks back on their careers as perhaps being the best for scores and the breaking of records.
These days because the reporting and results are widely published it’s easy to see what the state of the leagues is.
This post is going to be broken down into two because post 2006 all the results, teams and top dolls are in the digital domain for anyone to look at. After that it becomes more difficult. I’ve got hold of quite a few results sheets from way back when, but it will take me a while to sift through and collate.
For the purposes of this post I’m referring to years 2007 to 2011 summer season only.
What does a team’s leg average need to be consistently to be in the premier or A section?
I took the total number of dolls for every team in each league. And divided by 18 games and then divided it by 3 for the legs.
As you can see the totals remain pretty static for the 5 years that we have data for. If as a team you can average 22 dolls a leg then you will easily make the Premier section. It’s also interesting to note the difference between team averages roughly 2 or 3 dolls per league.
What about the hallowed end of year top ten dolls. How many would you think you would need to get to get into the top 10 of your section?
Top Dolls
I got the above table by taking the top 10 dolls from the last 5 years. Again the numbers appear fairly static. 110 dolls would see you at the top of the C and D section this year.
Perhaps a more accurate comparison of team dolls can be shown below
These numbers are the total number of dolls for the section divided by the number of teams. It gives a better indication as to whether or not the standard of play is better or worse. I think you’ll agree there isn’t much movement here, apart from section H where the standard has got better.
Finally to give some perspective, its all very well averaging out all the scores to give a nice linear pattern. But what are the differences between the top and the bottom.
It’s quite obvious that there is a marked difference between those in the top half and those in the bottom.
As I’ve said before this only really goes back as far as 2007. It’s going to take me some time to go thru the paper copies of years gone by, but it’s something I will do.
Ab. Legion
Ab. Utd. ‘B’ beat Ab. Legion 6-0 ( their first 6-0 defeat of the season). The leg scores were 14-12, 12-9, 17-12. For Utd. ‘B’ D.Bowler & D.Davies 12 each, D.Holmes & I.Morrison 8 each. The Legions 33 dolls was their lowest total of the season. For The Legion C.Brind 9, N.Hazell & D.Sapey 8 each.
The Fox beat Ab. Utd. ‘C’ 4-2 with leg scores of 7-8, 15-13, 14-11. For The Fox B.Parker 12 & N.Nuttall included a blob in his 7. For Utd. ‘C’ A.Gregory & S.Martin 8 each.
College Oaks lowest total of the season (34) was enough to overcome Ab. Con. Club 4-2. The leg scores were 13-8, 9-16, 12-11. For The Oak A.Pocock 9, S.Enock & L.Clapton 7 each. For Con. Club T.Barrett 10, J.Castle & P.Wiblin 7 each.
An embarrassingly poor performance by Old Masters was just enough to beat Penlon 4-2. The leg scores were (you won’t believe this) 7-6, 9-6, 7-10. For OM J.Barguss top scored with 8 dolls. OM’s 23 dolls was their lowest in the last 5 seasons ( I have the records to prove it ). For Penlon T.Lach top scored with 7.
Spread Eagle beat Ab. Utd. ‘A’ 6-0 with leg scores of 12-7, 10-8, 16-10. For The Spread G.Brown 10, J.Simmons 9 & J.Bowler 7. For Utd. ‘A’ Jon Warrell top scored with 10 dolls. J.Bussey managed just 1 doll. You need to get yourself down to Specsavers Joe. If you want a lift, us Old Masters are running a mini-bus.
What a strange night of Aunt Sally. A night that saw J.Simmons failing to hit double figures for the first time this season. Unlikely blobs for the likes of G.Barguss, N.Nuttall, N.Weston & B.Clapton ( well maybe not so unlikely for Brian ), and an absolutely appalling performance from Old Masters. ‘ It’s a funny old game’, that’s why we will all be up for it again this week.
Week 8 Match Reports
By AASA Management on 8th January 2012 in Winter League Reports
ABINGDON & DISTRICT W.A.S.L.
Uummm. Who can I can take the rise out of this week.
Ab. Utd. ‘C’s first 6-0 win of the season came against Penlon with leg scores of 12-7, 8-7, 11-7. For Utd. ‘C’ A.Gregory 9 & S.Martin 8. In reply for Penlon T.Lach top scored with 7.
Old Masters beat Ab. Utd. ‘A’ 6-0 with leg scores of 14-9, 15-8, 14-8. For OM T.Downes 11, G.Barguss & A.Woolloff 10 each & J.Barguss 8. For Utd. ‘A’ Dave ‘The Fox’ Warrell hit 9 dolls.
Spread Eagle beat College Oak 5-1 with leg scores of 14-14, 15-14, 15-9. This was The Oaks’ heaviest defeat of the season. For The Spread J.Simmons 12, G.Brown 11, S.Kinnaird, J.Bowler & J.Driver 7 each. For The Oak L.Clapton 9, S.Enock & D.Cross 8 each & P.Soden 7.
A very close game saw Ab. Con. Club beat Abingdon Legion 4-2 with leg scores of 10-10, 14-14, 15-13. For Con. Club T.Barrett 10, P.Wiblin 9, J.Castle & M.Haynes 7 each. For The Legion C.Brind 11, D.Sapey 8 & N.Tait 7.
Another close game saw Ab. Utd. ‘B’ come from behind to beat The Fox 4-2 and so extend their lead at the top. The leg scores were 15-16, 14-13, 14-11. For Utd. ‘B’ D.Holmes & D.Bowler 10 each, I.Morrison 9 & D.Davies 8. For The Fox D.Butler & N.Weston 11 each, B.Parker 9 & N.Nuttall 8. R.Nicholls throwing like an arthritic Norwegian down hill skier managed just 1 doll. Thought I’d forgotten hadn’t you.
TOP DOLLS (Match 8)
By AASA Management on 3rd January 2012 in Winter League Reports
J.Simmons
B.Parker
T.Downes
L.Clapton
D.Davies
D.Bowler
D.Butler
P.Soden
G.Barguss
D.Holmes
T.Barrett
C.Brind
N.Tait
S.Martin
P.Ealey
P.Wiblin
D.Sapey
J.Castle
D.Harris
T.Lach
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As an editor, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation?
There's been a case of alleged data manipulation in a recent Nano Letters paper (initial report here; now-retracted paper):
You can surely make your own opinion on whether the images have been digitally modified, given the above snapshots (look for gray rectangles around the rods); I was careful to write “alleged” because the paper’s PI threatened legal action against the blogger who reported the issue.
Now, this case lead to a large number of comments here and there about whose responsibility it was to catch this issue (reviewers or editor). I tend to agree that the reviewer should probably have caught it, but this lead me to wonder:
As editor of a scholarly journal, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation? And what about data manipulation? Organic Letters has made the news two months ago when they hired a in-house data analyst. Is that the way to go? Are there other measures one could take to reduce the threat of image and data manipulation?
publications peer-review editors
F'x
F'xF'x
I guess the answer is "None whose benefits will outweigh the costs on the long run". The photoshop gets better every day and the phrase "you can surely make your own opinion on whether the images have been digitally modified" certainly does not apply to me. I would just be cautious of authors with no or bad established reputation and stop there. It is the same issue as with plagiarism, etc. We may run a couple of obvious checks but it is just not our job to ascertain everything beyond any doubt or to defend our statements in the court. – fedja Aug 16 '13 at 21:21
Related for statistical data manipulation, What should raise red flags to detect fabricated data. – Andy W Aug 17 '13 at 1:59
If you are not already doing this, I would insist that all images be submitted and be made easily available online at an extremely high resolution. The size and resolution of images in print will usually not be sufficient for readers to find the manipulations. – Bitwise Aug 19 '13 at 15:21
Well, I was going to comment that the aberrations could simply be artifacts of the image compression algorithm, most likely jpeg. This particular compression algorithm is notorious for leaving artifacts after the compression. However, after looking at the images, I have to agree with the conclusion that they appear edited. And poorly so, I might add. – Jonathan Landrum Aug 20 '13 at 15:31
@JonathanLandrum: I've never seen jpeg rectangular artifacts that were rotated against the pixel x or y directions (unless of course the image was rotated and subsequently stored without further loss). And in the pictures above I'd have expected similar rectangular artifacts along those curved edges. – cbeleites supports Monica Aug 21 '13 at 20:36
I think a search term for this type of manipulation detection is image forensics. Matthias Kirchner: Notes on Digital Image Forensics and Counter-Forensics may be a starting point.
I think a first step is to communicate clearly what image manipulations* are acceptable and which are not:
is it acceptable to adjust brightness and contrast?
correct unequal illumination?
whitelight correction based not on a whitelight measurement but on parts of the image?
digital sharpening or other enhancement filters?
where's the border between an inset picture and a fraudulent manipulation?
Who should detect this?
I agree that the reviewer should have commented and asked about the pictures above, however my experience as reviewer is that I often get pictures in ridiculously low resolution (I comment on that). I'm not sure, but I think that the publishers may ask for high resolution pictures when they spot such problems in the production process. However, that would mean that the reviewers may not have seen the actual picture that is used for printing.
* manipulation in the data analysis sense: calculations that change the information content (e.g. enhance contrast), and cannot be easily undone (as opposed to a transformation where the back transformation is easily possible, e.g. rotation), not in the sense of fraud.
cbeleites supports Monicacbeleites supports Monica
There exist softwares dedicated to this. Journal of Cell Biology seems to have been a precursor in this in 2002.
A first simple check suggested in this paper is to open images in a image manipulation software and change "controls" (I guess: contrast, luminance, etc.) The problematic regions can then appear clearly.
I would say that, like plagiarism, this is the publisher to check or provide software to the editorial board, as this is technical and not scientific assessment.
Benoît KloecknerBenoît Kloeckner
The link seems to be broken. – user107 Aug 27 '13 at 23:39
The link works for me... – Benoît Kloeckner Sep 1 '13 at 16:42
It seems to me the only possibility is to subject all or particularly important images to an analysis detecting variation in noise levels (see examples here; service unfortunately closed). I personally do not know if such an analysis could be automated in an electronic submission system or be used as a tool by the editors. How much effort should be spent looking for fraud will obviously depend on assessments of, for example, how critical images are for the publication(s), the likelihood for fraud (random tests?) and the cost in terms of time and money for doing the testing.
It seems to me there would be much use to have a tool to do such an analysis for all submissions. The problem is of course that the noise level detection also identifies all kinds of manipulation and so it would seem reasonable to ask authors to provide a very detailed account of what has been done to each image so that the analysis can be set in a perspective.
"Kill the chicken, and make the monkey watch"
Institute an editorial policy by which all convicted offenders are banned for life from the publication in question. Convince other publications to share such info, and act in the same way after definitive proof is presented. No second chances.
Publicize these events far and wide.
That will probably take care of 60-70% of the problem, at least the blatant cases such as the one above.
Unfortunately few publishers have the conviction to do that.
EDIT: To answer your question: "Who do you ban among N coauthors?" To first approximation, all of them as co-authorship implies shared responsibility. However, that can be more accurately determined on a per-case basis as the result of detailed investigation.
Detecting instances fraud is trivial if crowdsourced. Blatant image manipulation as the one shown above would eventually have been noticed by a reader of that paper. Same applies to other similar kinds of fraud. Relying on a single overburdened editor and a couple of bored referees for that task makes it much more difficult. Hiring staff to essentially redo part of the research reported in manuscripts submitted to the journal is just laughable.
The point is to demand ethical standards as a publisher, and raise the stakes so high that the penalty of getting caught, guaranteed loss of professional reputation and possibly employment, offsets any gain from publishing a single or a series of papers.
Relying on automatic detection schemes is inherently unreliable. Smart people will always find creative ways to cheat more effectively. To illustrate my point, consider the unending arms race between virus writers and antivirus software companies.
To conclude, and since you seem to be quite green, I suggest you give this a thorough reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schon_scandal
It won't take many Schönen to drive the point home...
Life is complicated, shades of gray rather than black and white. There are questions with any black-and-white policy such as the one your propose, such as: “You have a paper with N coauthors, who do you ban?” I'm not convinced anything this would be enforceable, let alone give positive results. – F'x Aug 21 '13 at 19:19
Well, you did ask how you can PREVENT image/photo manipulation, rather than asking about how to detect it and confront authors about it. :) Emphasizing that manipulating photos like this is WRONG is one way to draw attention to the subject. – Irwin Aug 21 '13 at 22:34
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged publications peer-review editors or ask your own question.
What should raise red flags to detect fabricated data
What happens if the editor cannot find reviewers?
What is the work load of a journal reviewing editor?
Asked editor for review prolongation to do further experiments, can't meet deadline. What do?
Editor indicated that if minor changes are made, paper could be published: what are the chances of publication?
How can editors and reviewers detect data manipulation?
What can cause a delay of several weeks between an editor receiving reviews and you receiving a response from the editor?
What is “teaser image”?
What can one do when emails to the editor go unanswered?
Editor not taking action after I reported plagiarism. What steps can I take?
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Rotary Club of Baldwinsville Privacy Policy
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Ranking College Football's Best & Worst Team Twitter Accounts for 2018-19
By Jasmine Watkins, 12/4/18, 10:00 AM EST
Which CFB squad made a significant mark on Twitter this season?
For the most part it's about what you do on the field, but there are times when a team's Twitter account does the talking for them and some of these teams have a lot to say.
We here at Athlon Sports just wanted to take time out to show some appreciation for accounts we think go above and beyond when it comes to social media. Live-tweeting and other events are made better when team accounts have a little personality.
Disclaimer: This list is supposed to be fun so don't take it personal if your squad isn't here or is outranked.
Without further ado, here are the top 10 college football team Twitter accounts for the 2018-19 season.
School Handle Analysis
1. South Carolina @GamecockFB Graphics, video, and taking risks with content is the name of the game for South Carolina. The account engages with people and makes you want to follow even if you aren't fans of the team. That's talent.
2. Georgia @FootballUGA This could be a surprising pick to some but the Dawgs have been doing an amazing job when it comes to social media. The Dawgs' social squad knows how to put together sharable content and one could make a case for them having the best hype videos.
3. Clemson @ClemsonFB The best social list is never complete without the Tigers. They've been doing it well and consistently for a few years now. Having an interesting coach like Dabo on the sidelines doesn't hurt either.
4. UCF @UCF_Football The Knights probably have one of the funniest accounts by a team on Twitter. From the "National Champions" campaign to replying and stirring the pot with their quick wit, UCF has certainly earned its spot this year.
5. Oregon @oregonfootball The quack attack is serious on social media. From the mascot to the uniform reveals, everything just seems to work for Oregon. The best thing about this social team is that they work hard but aren't afraid to have a little fun as well.
6. Utah @Utah_Football Utah is always a constant. If you ever forget they're around, they'll quickly remind you with a humorous comment on Twitter. The Utes are engaging, have beautifully-shot videos and there's always more to come with this squad.
7.Texas @TexasFootball The strength of the Longhorns lies within their images. Someone puts in major work behind the scenes and the Texas Twitter account is difficult to ignore.
8. West Virginia @WVUfootball It's hard to go a full season without seeing something from West Virginia that will catch your eye. They get the perfect shots, capturing a lot of emotion from the players, as well as intricate details on their images showing they put a lot of time and effort into what they putting out there.
9. LSU @LSUfootball The Tigers have had some funny moments that really helped the Twitter team along. Social is always easier when you have fun players to organically help out.
10. Virginia Tech @VT_Football / @HokiesFB The two-headed attack from the Hokies can be a blessing for all, from the hardcore to the casual fan. You'll find a lot of fun content on one account, keeping the other open for mainly business.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have a few programs that could stand to put a little more effort into their social media presence. After all, Twitter can be fun if you make the time to really embrace it.
1. Oregon State @BeaverFootball It's hard to keep up when you have a social powerhouse like Oregon in the same state but it could also be a blessing in disguise. There is definite room for improvement to make the Beavers' account a bit more fun and engaging.
2. Kansas @KU_Football We have high hopes for Kansas next season. With new head coach Les Miles, the sky's the limit for the content this social team could create.
3. Duke @DukeFOOTBALL Duke doesn't completely suck in the social department but when you look at the rest of the social media accounts from the school's teams, we know there is something better that could come from the football team's timeline.
4. UConn @UConnFootball To keep it simple, there's not a lot of fun happening on the Huskies' account. Obviously, it could be due to a 1-11 record but there are still things to do to lighten the mood a little.
5. Notre Dame @ndfootball The Fighting Irish have been a great football team but there's so much more their Twitter feed could become. In their defense, Notre Dame has always been pretty traditional so this shouldn't be too much of a shock.
College Football Rankings: Top 130 Teams for 2018
Ranking All 130 College Football Head Coaches for 2018
Ranking All 39 College Football Bowl Games: From Must-See to Must-Miss
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4* B&B and
Explore the Skellig Coast
Organic Homegrown Food
Visit the Skelligs
Welcome to Atlantic Villa
The smell of home baking and the wood burning stove greets the visitor, along with a warm welcome from Jackie and Brian. This historic Cablemaster’s house is a 4* B&B with views over the ornamental garden and the sea to the mountains.
Every room is sumptuous – layers of soft bedding and luxury, quality and attention to detail the hallmark of each bedroom which is individually decorated. The house itself with pine floors is an elegant high-ceilinged Cable house which was built in 1873. James Graves who was the first superintendent of the Valentia Cable Station and worked for the Anglo American Telegraph Company for 44 years, lived at Atlantic Villa, would also have enjoyed this old world charm.
More about Atlantic Villa
Tour Atlantic Villa
Explore the Cablemaster’s Residence
Click and drag below to explore a 360° tour of Atlantic Villa B&B
[ipanorama slug=”tour-atlantic-villa”]
Just some of what we offer @ Atlantic Villa
Hot Drinks Facilities
Treat yourself to a cuppa just how you like – our sitting room is stocked with Irish tea, herbal tea or coffee, milk, sugar, kettle and cups so you can brew a hot drink just as you like and relax in the sitting room.
Library and TV room
Relax by the open fire and enjoy the view from the bay window overlooking Valentia Harbour and Beginis Island or immerse yourself in a good book from our well-stocked library.
Free wi-fi access throughout the main house
Sauna available in the house to B&B residents to relax and revitalise your body after a day of exploring Valentia Island and the Skellig Coast on the Wild Atlantic Way
Curl up in front of the stove in the sitting room after a day exploring the Skellig Coast and Valentia Island
Sea views from the house or garden – experience the Wild Atlantic Way overlooking Valentia Harbour, Beginis Island and Valentia Lighthouse @ Cromwell Point. Why not kick back in the garden chairs or the arm chairs and soak up the scenery?
Free off-street parking accommodating cars, bicycles and motorbikes
Bootroom and Drying Line
We have a bootroom and drying area available for your use to clean and dry your clothes and shoes after a day of walking, biking and exploring on the Skellig Coast
Check out our packages
Rooms & Cottages
Choose from B&B in the main house or self-catering in our cottages – just click on a picture below for rates and booking enquiry
“An incredible, impossible, mad place. I tell you the thing does not belong to any world that you and I have lived and worked in; it is part of our dream world.”
When George Bernard Shaw wrote these words back in 1910, he had just returned from a visit to one of the most remarkable and best preserved archaeological sites. Situated on a narrow ledge, six hundred feet above the water, the little monastery remains virtually the same as when it was first built, more than 1,400 years ago.
Recently Star Wars crew used The Skelligs as an ideal location to film portions of ‘Star Wars VII – The Force Awakens’ and the yet to be released ‘Star Wars VIII – The Last Jedi’. Skellig Michael and Little Skellig are Special Protection Areas and Nature Reserves under the management of the National Parks and Wildlife Service due to the birdlife that migrate through the islands including being home to approximately 30,000 breeding gannets.
Explore the Skelligs
#SkelligCoast in Lonely Planet's top 10 regions to visit
The Edge of the Abyss
“That Edge of the World Feeling”
In Ireland’s beautiful southwest with mountainous spines stretching in to the Atlantic Ocean, The Wild Atlantic Way winds along long distance trails and circular routes. Hugging the coast allows breathtaking views to appear at every turn. Valentia Island, the most westerly inhabited island in Europe is as far west as it gets with that edge of the world feeling. Visitors find themselves kayaking with the dolphins, jumping off the pier or swimming in crystal clear waters, landing on a deserted island with Viking remains, exploring the visitor experience at Cromwell point lighthouse and the life of the lighthouse keeper, imagining back 385 million years ago with the oldest fossilised Tetrapod tracks, walking along the coastal cliffs, enjoying spectacular views, discovering the internet of the 19th century, and savouring the taste of fresh sea food in the pubs and restaurants.
Islands of the Wild Atlantic Way
Valentia Island is situated on the Skellig Coast of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way – the world’s longest defined road touring route that stretches over 2,500km along Ireland’s West Coast. Breathtaking scenery, hidden gems, traditional Irish culture and hospitality!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgx1lREq2Hk
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CARB Compliant Parts and E.O. Search
Executive Order D-174-5
The Magnetizer Group, Inc.
ARB >
Executive Orders >
Executive order D-174-5 was approved by the California Air Resource Board on December 8, 1994 for emissions compliance and installation on vehicles in New York and California. This executive order approved parts marts manufactured by The Magnetizer Group, Inc. /.
View Executive Order Document [PDF]
Approval Details
This Executive Order approved the specified parts on on December 8, 1994.
As of Monday, January 20th, 2020 this Executive Order has not been overturned or superceeded.
Approved Parts
AFE-1 1995 and older model-year gasoline and diesel powered vehicles.
This Executive Order may be listed as:
C.A.R.B.E.O. D-174-5
Executive Order 174-5 / D174-5
ARB # D-174-5
Executive Order No: D-174-5
C.A.R.B. No. D-174-5
Resolution D-174-5
For Free CARB Executive Order Status verification, email an image of the device Executive Order label as well as the Year/Make/Model and Test Group # of the vehicle to [email protected]
Download: Executive Order D-174-5 PDF
D-174-5 Document:
https://arb.parts/Executive-Order/D-174-5.pdf
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Arcana.fm
Putting a spark into classical music…
2020 Beethoven
Switched on
Vilde Frang, BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo: Anna Clyne, Britten & Beethoven ‘Pastoral’
Posted on April 3, 2018 by arcanafm
Vilde Frang (violin), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo (above)
Clyne This Midnight Hour (2015) [London premiere]
Britten Violin Concerto, Op.15 (1939)
Beethoven Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68, ‘Pastoral’ (1808)
Barbican Hall, London; Wednesday 21 March 2018
Written by Richard Whitehouse
You can listen to the broadcast of this concert here, available until 20 April 2018
Most concerts by the BBC Symphony still feature either a world or national premiere, and tonight’s concert began with a first London outing for Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour. Drawing inspiration from poems by Juan Ramon Jiménez and Charles Baudelaire, this 12-minute piece duly alternates between energetic and more ruminative music in a ‘stretto’ of accumulating impetus. A pity the climactic stage loses focus in an amalgam of waltz-like flaccidness and folk-inflected jejunity – suggesting this as not one of Clyne’s better pieces.
Britten’s Violin Concerto has certainly come in from the cold over recent years. Vilde Frang was a little tentative in the initial Moderato, with its interplay of wistful lyricism and driving impetus, but the central scherzo was finely judged through to a seismic climax then dextrous cadenza leading into the finale. The earliest among Britten’s passacaglias, it makes plain his feelings over the demise of the Spanish republican movement, and Frang (below) had the measure of its sombre inwardness and high-flown rhetoric prior to a recessional of haunting eloquence.
As so often, Sakari Oramo was an astute and attentive accompanist – thereafter putting the BBCSO through its paces in a fluent and often searching account of the Pastoral Symphony. In this, as in Beethoven’s music overall, Oramo was his own man – omitting the exposition repeat in what was an incisive but never headlong reading of the first movement, followed by an Andante whose rhapsodic unfolding was accorded focus by the flexible underlying tempo and fastidious shading of string textures as has long been a hallmark of Oramo’s conducting.
The last three movements proceed continuously and if the scherzo was a little too streamlined for its verve and humour fully to register, the ‘Thunderstorm’ made for a powerful interlude before (and climactic upbeat to) the finale. As disarming melodically as it is difficult in terms of pacing, this unfolded with a sure sense of its developing variation; allied to a lilting motion which evokes a cosmic dance offered as thanks for peace in time of crisis. Maybe the closing cadence was just a touch over-emphatic, but the sense of a journey fulfilled was undeniable.
You can watch Vilde Frang talk about the Britten Violin Concerto in a BBC video here For more information on the BBC Symphony Orchestra, head to the orchestra’s homepage – and for more on their chief conductor Sakari Oramo, click here
Meanwhile you can listen to Vilde Frang’s disc of the Britten and Korngold Violin Concertos, recorded for Warner Classics, on Spotify:
This entry was posted in In concert and tagged Anna Clyne, Barbican Hall, BBC Radio 3, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Britten, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sakari Oramo, Vilde Frang by arcanafm. Bookmark the permalink.
© Ben Hogwood and Arcana.fm, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ben Hogwood and Arcana with appropriate and specific direction to the original content
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Laura Chapman, stonemason
Laura Chapman has travelled from the far ends of the Earth (Britain) to continue her stonemasonry experience in New Zealand.
While in high school Laura always imagined herself working in a hands-on career even though the trades were not actively promoted for women. Laura appreciated the many stone buildings in the villages surrounding her and once she had set her mind to it she pursued a Stonemasonry apprenticeship opportunity. With her family’s encouragement of her career choice Laura successfully secured a position.
Laura has continued to work in the stonemasonry industry in both Australia and New Zealand since qualifying in Banker Masonry. She says that people are surprised to hear that she is a stonemason but once she explains what she does and shows them what she can do it becomes obvious that she has both experience and skill in her trade of choice.
Laura believes it is important to keep the stonemasonry skills alive and to learn as much as we can from how things were done in the past. She looks forward to adapting and learning new techniques as technology grows.
Heavy lifting is part of the job, but Laura says that there are techniques and equipment available to counter that. She finds the accurate decorative work rewarding and enjoys producing a good finish on the stone she has shaped. Laura hopes to keep learning about different types of stone from around the world and the different ways to shape and present them.
While in New Zealand she has been part of the beautiful heritage restoration work at the University of Victoria, Wellington, with employer Ben West of Stoneworks who have been involved with major restoration work at Victoria University on and off for over 10 years. Ben says that Laura is “pretty clued up and good at what she does.”
Laura believes that to be successful in stonemasonry “you need to have patience as the work is sometimes hard, slow and tedious. However, the finished product is rewarding and should be around for hundreds of years, so getting it right is important”.
Mana in Mahi a winner says Master Painter
Gavin Lambert, New Zealand Master Painter of the Year 2019, knows a good worker when he sees one and he reckons taking on 22-year-old Yonier Moralas as an apprentice, through the Mana in Mahi programme has been a winner.
Sports stars juggle skills, books and tools
Professional sports players often wonder where to leap after their first careers – and the building and construction industry is helping them jump into life after sports.
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Guides & Deals
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The LGBTQ+ community is expanding every day, with more awareness meaning hundreds of businesses are wanting to cash in on a very lucrative market. Casinos are no different, with many flying their rainbow flag with pride. Whether that’s by hosting gay events, adding statement décor or hosting drag shows aplenty, there are plenty of hotels and casinos to choose from where you’ll be welcomed with open arms.
The gay community is hugely attractive audience for casinos, with many offering specialist packages and discount deals. As a largely child-free market with a lot of disposable income, it makes sense for casinos to make visiting as appealing as possible for gay people across the globe by hosting parties and events aplenty.
While most casinos should of course be gay-friendly, we’ve put together a list of those ones that have gone the extra mile to welcome the gay community. Unsurprisingly, many of these gay-friendly venues can be found in the capital of glitz and glamour – Las Vegas. While everyone probably thinks of Caesar’s Palace as one of the gay hot-spots, with its lavish décor and hunky centurions, but it’s actually some of the other hotels which have fully embraced the gay community.
The Luxor, Las Vegas, USA
The Luxor chapel is a popular hotspot for same sex commitment ceremonies.
The Egyptian styling is to die for, with every wall and surface shimmering with gold and hieroglyphics, but it’s not just the décor that makes this hotel worth visiting. Regular gay events, including a weekly pool party named ‘sun kissed Sunday’ and a fashion show, will have every fun-seeking traveller feeling adventurous. Their chapel caters for same-sex ceremonies and there’s even a Pride discount to take advantage of.
The casino is housed right in the centre of the pyramid providing a stunning view of your surroundings, including the impressive diagonal lifts which carry patrons up the glass sides to their hotel rooms. With everything from slots to blackjack, roulette to poker, the casino caters for all thrill-seekers and luck-chancers.
Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, USA
Head to Planet Hollywood’s dazzling casino for a night you won’t forget.
More centrally based along the famous Vegas strip, Planet Hollywood is located near some of the best gay nightlife in the US, including alternative club Krave. A whole host of gay bars are within easy walking distance of the hotel, making it a great base to rest up in when you need a break from dancing. The vibe is 100% Las Vegas glamour, with over-the-top décor and resident performers like Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys guaranteeing you have a fabulous time.
If the thought of a whirlwind trip to Vegas is daunting and you’d rather stay at home in the comfort of your pyjamas, you can get a feel for the atmosphere and sample the casino stylings online by visiting an online casino. With its retro Vegas theme and a classic look from the 50s, you can experience the exhilaration playing at a real life casino when you check out the excellent online experience offered at 777 casino and enjoy playing a wide variety of the most engaging online casino games.
The Empire Casino, London, England
Located in Leicester Square, the Empire Casino is perfectly situated for visiting London’s best gay bars afterwards.
In the centre of Soho, London’s famous gay district, lies the Vegas-style Empire Casino. The venue makes good use pf a converted ballroom and performance space to create a luxurious, decadent gaming room where you can find pretty much any game you desire.
There isn’t a hotel associated with the casino, but being in central London, there are several good choices nearby. Not that you’d want to sleep when you’re surrounded by burlesque clubs, gay bars and world-famous theatre. London is an amazing city to visit, and if you’re going to try your luck in a casino while you’re there, it might as well be the biggest!
Renaissance Casino, Oranjestad, Aruba
Aruba’s coastline has many dazzling hotels and casinos for visitors to the exotic island.
If you fancy more of a tropical backdrop to your holiday, then Aruba is probably your best bet. Out of all the Caribbean Islands, it’s the most gay-friendly and the Renaissance Casino has a great location – right on its own private beach – as well as world class facilities including a spa and beauty centre. The resort is split into two, with a family-friendly section and an adult-only section, meaning that you can feel free to have the kind of holiday you want, without having to worry about disapproving families.
The casino itself is truly a spectacle to behold: crystal chandeliers, gold columns, Italian marble…nowhere else will make you feel as much like a star. Aruba also has a buzzing nightlife in the surrounding areas, with the gay District 7 one of the hottest places to party. There are multiple bars and restaurants, from low-key gin bars to lavish drag shows.
Mohegan Sun, Connecticut, USA
Connecticut’s casinos are gay friendly and have also hosted to some of the world’s most famous celebs.
If you’re looking for somewhere a little quieter, where everything you could need for a wonderful vacation is all under one roof, then the simply stunning Mohegan Sun resort and casino could be the perfect getaway venue for you. ‘Upmarket’ doesn’t come close to describing the style, with everything about the Mohegan Sun designed to make you feel like a visiting Prince. There are three on-site casinos where you can try your luck at hitting the jackpot, as well as a 10,000-seat arena that has hosted the likes of Jay-Z and Britney Spears, as well as major sporting events.
If you’re in the mood for something a little more relaxing, there is an 18-hole golf course, a slew of designer boutiques and the fabulous Mandara Spa, with a full menu of indulgent treatments.
More and more worldwide hotels and casinos are signing up to be gay-friendly. Everyone wants a holiday where they can totally relax and be themselves and by proudly flying their rainbow flags, gay-friendly venues can almost guarantee they won’t have a shortage of customers flooding through their doors.
That’s especially true of the hotels and casinos mentioned above, who have not only gone out of their way to make the gay community feel welcomed but have also recognised that we are a distinct group of individuals with different needs and tastes. Venues are actively catering for these by providing a varied programme of events, their proximity to and knowledge of local gay establishments and their choice of entertainment.
From romantic breaks to party weekends with friends, or even a honeymoon, if you want somewhere to truly relax and play to your heart’s content, you have plenty of great casinos and hotels to choose from.
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B105 Staff
Bayfront Country Jam Code 1
B105 is excited to give you the chance to win tickets to Bayfront Country Jam on July 5, featuring Chris Janson, Joe Nichols, Chase Bryant and Whiskey Trail. There will be chances each weekday between May 24 and June 7 to use this exclusive password (below) to call in and win tic…
B105 Free Money Payday Contest Rules – Spring 2019
KKCB-FM (B105) Listeners will have the opportunity to call in for a chance to win 2 passes to a listener party at The Other Place Bar & Grill on East Calvary Road in Duluth. The party will be held Wednesday, May 22.
A cue-to-call will air each weekday during the 6:00 a.m.,...
B105 Country Music Concert Calendar
See all the upcoming country music concerts in the Duluth - Superior area, as well as around our region.
Cloquet Police Report Body Discovered In Yard
Cloquet Police responded to a call about a body discovered Friday in the 700-block of Poplar Avenue in Cloquet.
10 Artists Added To WE Fest 2019 Lineup
WE Fest revealed 10 more country stars who will be joining the lineup at its 37th annual festival on Aug. 1-3, 2019, in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
B105 Brings Commercial-Free Christmas Music to the Twin Ports
Cold is in the air, snow is on the ground, and the holidays are on people's minds. To celebrate the season, B105 is bringing back our 24/7 commercial-free Christmas Music to our website and mobile app.
The B105 Country Christmas Ticket Party Contest Rules
THE B105 COUNTRY CHRISTMAS TICKET PARTY
Contest Dates: 11/12 – 12/10
Contest Synopsis
B105 will host a 2-hour party on Thursday, December 13 at the Barkers Island Inn in Superior, Wisconsin. Listeners must listen win their way into the party by listening for a special ‘cue-to-call&Clo…
Keith Urban + Brooks & Dunn Join Chris Stapleton As 2019 WE Fest Headliners
WE Fest announced today that country superstar Keith Urban and the legendary duo Brooks & Dunn are joining Chris Stapleton as headliners for the 2019 festival.
WE Fest Tickets + Campsites Are On Sale Now
WE Fest tickets and campsites are now on sale, and the festival is offering $99 General Admission tickets for one day only.
B105 Big Money Montage Cheat Sheet
We're putting a couple of your favorite things together - country music and cold hard cash!
B105 Big Money Montage 2018 Contest Rules
KKCB-FM will create music montages that will include short audio clips of anywhere from 3 to 10 country songs. The first person to name the songs in a montage in order wins the cash prize assigned to that montage. Both the artist and the name of the song must be identified...
Play Our 2018 Pro Football Pick ‘Em for a Chance at $10,000
Think you’re the top football expert in the Twin Ports area? Make your picks here for every regular season pro football game this year.
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Imagin Medical i/Blue imaging system on schedule for design verification
Jennifer Poland
Imagin Medical (CSE:IME; OTCQB:IMEXF) is making progress towards design verification of its i/Blue Imaging System functional product.
The company has purchased and received components from established suppliers to meet its custom specifications for the initial build of i/Blue functional units.
Currently, components are being assembled for the control unit, which will integrate the dual wavelength light source with the dual camera handpiece, allowing simultaneous streaming of white light and blue light images to be projected side-by-side on the display monitor.
The i/Blue Imaging System consists of a controller that houses the light and energy sources; dual camera handpiece; optical light cables; medical-grade equipment cart; and medical-grade printer. The system is used with a third-party cystoscope.
i/Blue is designed to dramatically improve physicians’ ability to visualize cancerous cells. Working in conjunction with fluorescing imaging agents, this advanced, ultrasensitive imaging technology combines sophisticated opto-electronic functions and near-infrared fluorescence to deliver images far superior to conventional white light systems. High-definition images that highlight not only cancerous cells above the bladder wall, but also pre-malignant lesions, flat tumors and tumor tissue along the margins will produce more successful surgical outcomes.
In a statement, Jim Hutchens, president and CEO, said the functional units are on schedule for design verification, leading the way to pilot production runs. “Throughout this process, we continue to work with the FDA to determine the final requirements for obtaining marketing clearance.”
He said in-depth evaluation of the system will be performed by an independent testing lab to confirm electrical safety, radiated emission and susceptibility compliance, as well as other requirements.
Data from these independent lab tests will be combined with data from internal testing performed by Imagin’s opto-electronic design firm, Optel, engineering calculations, component suppliers and competitive device analysis, all of which will become the basis of the company’s verification report, he added.
As previously announced, Imagin expects this work will be in process prior to the end of 2019.
BriaCell to present clinical findings at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
Cellular Biomedicine receives going private proposal
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12 articles tagged as uplink
Introversion launches Defcon VR prototype
Hints at fully playable version to come.
The Big Steam Amnesty: Uplink
Joe digs out one of his unplayed Steam games, and finally comes face to face with Uplink...
Introversion Interview: Big in Britain
As part of Made In The UK week, which explores the issues facing Britain's games industry, we talk to Introversion's Mark Morris to learn how the company is faring and what fans can expect from the team's recently announced new game, Subversion
Kicked Out Of The Bedroom
Introversion developing Defcon for DS
Introversion is currently looking for a publishing partner to help publish a DS version of Defcon.
Multiwinia Hands-On Preview
Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest is the latest game to come out of Introversion Software, the British indie developers who first made it big with Uplink. Now we look at Multiwinia, the PC and Xbox 360 multiplayer strategy game to see how it fares in the latest incarnation...
How To Start Your Own Games Studio, Pt 4
Introversion's Mark Morris has gone through how to develop an idea, prototype it and approach publishers. Now, you're ready to negotiate a deal and Mark is on hand to give you a guide on what to expect, complete with some entirely fictitious examples...
Introversion's Mark Morris is at the microphone again, sounding off about how to start up your own development studio. Last time he covered the basics of forming an idea and developing it.
All gamers have had an idea for a game, but many don't know how to launch their ideas off the ground. Now, Mark Morris of Introversion kicks off a new series examining how to launch your own independent studio.
Mark Morris of Introversion Software, makers of DEFCON and Darwinia, writes in this weeks developer column about publisher pressure, how all the characters in Darwinia almost had smiley faces on them and why it's good to be indie.
UK developers need government support
Should the UK government offer more support to games developers? Free Radical thinks so.
Defcon and Uplink released in a box
Introversion Software's strategy hit, Defcon, is now seeing a retail release alongside Uplink.
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Exposure to domestic violence and abuse and consultations for emergency contraception: nested case-control study in a UK primary care dataset
Joni Jackson, Natalia V Lewis, Gene S Feder, Penny Whiting, Timothy Jones, John Macleod and Maria Theresa Redaniel
British Journal of General Practice 2019; 69 (680): e199-e207. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp18X700277
Joni Jackson
National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West (NIHR CLAHRC West), University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, and Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol.
Natalia V Lewis
Professor in clinical epidemiology and primary care Centre for Academic Primary Care, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol.
Gene S Feder
Penny Whiting
Timothy Jones
Centre for Academic Primary Care, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol.
Maria Theresa Redaniel
Background Evidence of an association between exposure to domestic violence and abuse (DVA) and use of emergency contraception (EC) is lacking in the UK.
Aim To quantify the association between exposure to DVA and consultations for EC in general practice.
Design and setting Nested case-control study in UK general practice.
Method Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, the authors identified all women all women aged 15–49 years registered with a GP between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2016. Cases with consultations for EC (n = 43 570) were each matched on age and GP against four controls with no consultations for EC (n = 174 280). The authors calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between exposure to DVA in the previous year and consultations for EC. Covariates included age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, pregnancy, children, alcohol misuse, and depression.
Results Women exposed to DVA were 2.06 times more likely to have a consultation for EC than unexposed women (95% CI = 1.64 to 2.61). Women aged 25–39 years with exposure to DVA were 2.8 times more likely to have a consultation for EC, compared with unexposed women (95% CI = 2.08 to 3.75). The authors found some evidence of an independent effect of exposure to DVA on the number of consultations for EC (OR 1.48, 95% CI = 0.99 to 2.21).
Conclusion A request for EC in general practice can indicate possible exposure to DVA. Primary care consultation for EC is a relevant context for identifying and responding to DVA as recommended by the World Health Organization and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines. DVA training for providers of EC should include this new evidence.
postcoital
Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) encompass ‘any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members’.1 Although experienced across the sexes, health consequences of DVA are reported as being worse among women, mainly impacting on their mental and reproductive health.2 Two systematic reviews have found an association between exposure to DVA and reduction in use of regular contraception.3,4 The authors’ recent systematic review found some evidence for a positive association between exposure to DVA and use of emergency contraception (EC).5 However, none of these reviews included UK studies.
The negative impact of DVA on health results in higher presentation of women exposed to DVA among healthcare service users compared with general populations. Between 7 and 17% of female patients in general practice reported experiencing DVA in the previous year.6–8 National and international health organisations identify primary care providers as an important point of contact for victims of DVA and survivors.9–12 Patients perceive healthcare professionals as being well placed to enquire about DVA and respond to disclosure.13 World Health Organization (WHO)12 and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)11 guidelines recommend a case-finding or clinical enquiry approach to DVA identification, prompted by clinical conditions associated with DVA. Recommended initial response to disclosure should follow the WHO LIVES principles: Listen, Inquire about needs and concerns, Validate, Enhance safety, provide Support.14 A number of DVA resources for healthcare professionals are available in the UK,15–18 including the Identification and Referral to Improve Safety (IRIS) model — a training, support, and referral programme for general practice19–22 and sexual health services,23,24 currently implemented across 30 administrative areas. None of the existing DVA training sources includes presentation for EC as a condition associated with DVA that should trigger clinical enquiry. As the association between DVA and use of EC can be influenced by the country context, such as access to EC,25,26 it is important to obtain the UK evidence to inform national clinical guidance and training resources on DVA. New evidence will inform clinicians’ decision making on DVA clinical enquiry, and potentially lead to more women with experience of DVA accessing evidence-based interventions.
Professional awareness of clinical associations of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a first step towards the evidence-based healthcare response recommended by the World Health Organization and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. This study’s findings fill the gap in evidence from UK primary care on the association between exposure to DVA and increased use of emergency contraception (EC). This study found that a request for EC in general practice can indicate possible exposure to DVA. A consultation for EC is an appropriate context for asking about DVA, responding supportively, and offering referral to specialist DVA services.
This study aimed to fill a gap in the UK-based evidence by quantifying the association between exposure to DVA and general practice consultation for EC. The primary objective was to estimate the association between exposure to DVA and consultations for EC. The secondary objective was to estimate whether there is an association between exposure to DVA and having multiple consultations for EC. The authors hypothesised that exposure to DVA is associated with an increase in EC consultations.
The authors conducted a nested case-control study in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), which contains anonymised electronic primary care records for approximately 17 million patients registered at 718 participating general practices in the UK.27 Patients registered during any time period and meeting quality criteria monitored by the CPRD (about 15 million) are considered broadly representative of the UK population with regards to age, sex, and ethnicity. The time from the date when practice data were considered to meet CPRD standards for quality and completeness is defined as the period of up-to-standard (UTS) registration. CPRD data are recorded by general practice clinicians using version 2 Read codes, a hierarchical clinical classification system containing >96 000 codes.28 Prescriptions are automatically recorded with a product name and British National Formulary code.
The authors used CPRD data on patient demographics, consultations (medical codes), and prescriptions (product codes) recorded by clinicians as part of their usual medical practice. For each variable, one researcher ran searches and compiled a draft list of Read and drug codes,29 which was revised by two academic GPs and cross-referenced with comparable code lists from the online clinical codes repository30 and the authors’ previous studies,19 leading to the final version of codes for data extraction (further details are available from the authors on request).
The authors identified female patients aged 15–49 years (the WHO definition of reproductive age)31 with any period of registration at a general practice between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2016. From this cohort, the authors identified all women with at least one record of EC consultation within the study period (cases). The date of the first EC consultation was defined as the case’s index date (or index consultation).
Each case was matched on age (year of birth ± 2 years) and general practice, with up to four controls who had no record of EC consultation within the study period and were randomly selected from the study population. Controls inherited the index date of their matched case. All patients were required to have at least 1 complete year of UTS medical history before their index date.
Potential controls were excluded if they had any indication that they would not have been eligible for, or needed, EC. The full list of inclusion and exclusion criteria, with justification, is available from the authors on request.
Exposure and outcomes
Primary outcome (an index consultation for EC) was the first occasion on which any EC Read or drug code from the authors’ list was entered in the patient medical record. Secondary outcome (multiple consultation for EC) was defined as having more than one consultation for EC, occurring >1 week apart and within 12 months after the index consultation (to increase the likelihood that records relate to separate events occurring within a relatively short time period).
Exposure to DVA was defined as the first retrospective record of any CPRD code for DVA within 12 months before the index consultation for EC, to meet the UK Home Office definition of DVA and allow an adequate window for exposure to affect the outcome (further details are available from the authors on request.
The authors extracted CPRD and linkage data on known factors that affect women’s use of contraception.4 CPRD covariates included age (year of birth) and history of alcohol abuse (Read codes for any records of alcoholism, alcohol dependency, or alcohol induced disease since the age of 15 years), or depression (Read and drug codes for any records of depression or depressive episode within 2 years before the index date)30 (further details are available from the authors on request).
Other covariates were extracted from datasets linked to CPRD. Information about patient ethnicity (white, black, Asian, mixed, other) was obtained via linkage to the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) dataset. Socioeconomic status (quintiles of Indices of Multiple Deprivation [IMD]) was identified via linkage to the 2015 English IMD32 (2011 lower layer super output area [LSOA] boundaries). Information about number of pregnancies was obtained from the CPRD pregnancy register, which contains details about all pregnancies identified in the CPRD using an algorithm developed to identify and maximise the use of records relating to the timing and duration of pregnancy, the type of pregnancy outcome (live birth, stillbirth, or pregnancy loss), and additional features pertaining to the pregnancy. The authors identified the number of children for each woman using the CPRD mother–baby link, which contains data on mother–baby pairings, linked using an algorithm that matches live births to maternal records in the CPRD. No restrictions relating to use of data from UTS time only within a practice are imposed, and therefore may include children born before the practice became UTS and those who initially registered at a different practice after birth, but subsequently joined the current practice.
Statistical analyses were performed using STATA version 15. The authors used univariable and multivariable conditional logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between record for DVA exposure and consultations for EC. The choice of analysis allowed the authors to take into account matched sets of cases and controls, among whom unmeasured confounders are assumed equal.
Multiple imputation for missing ethnicity or socioeconomic status was not performed, as the necessary data to inform the imputation were not available. The authors conducted an analysis of all subjects, excluding ethnicity and socioeconomic status from the model, and an analysis of complete cases adjusting for all covariates.
Secondary analysis used univariable and multivariable logistic regression to model the association between exposure to DVA and multiple consultations for EC among cases.
The authors identified 43 570 eligible cases and 174 280 matched controls (Figure 1).
Flow diagram reporting numbers of patients at each stage of the study.
CPRD = Clinical Practice Research Datalink.
EC = emergency contraception. UTS = up to standard.
Cases and controls were similar in terms of age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (Table 1). Cases tended to have had more pregnancies and to have more children, and were more likely to have a history of depressive episodes.
Demographic and patient characteristics of women who had a consultation for emergency contraception (cases), and women who did not have a consultation for emergency contraception (controls)
In the year before the index date, 0.35% of cases and 0.10% of controls had one or more record of DVA (Table 1). Compared with women with no record of DVA, women who had experienced DVA within the year before their index date were more than three times likely to have had one or more consultations for EC (OR 3.59, 95% CI = 2.88 to 4.47) (Table 2).
Association of domestic violence and abuse and other covariates with having a consultation for emergency contraception, univariable analysis
When included individually, potential confounding factors changed odds ratios for exposure to DVA by percentages ranging from 0.8% to 38.2%, with number of pregnancies producing the largest change. After adjusting for all covariates, women who had been exposed to DVA were two times more likely to have a consultation for EC than women with no experience of DVA (OR 2.06, 95% CI = 1.64 to 2.61) (Table 3).
Association of domestic violence and abuse with having a consultation for emergency contraception, multivariable conditional logistic regressions models
There was a positive interaction between exposure to DVA and age, with the odds of EC consultation being 2.8 times greater among women aged 25–39 years with exposure to DVA, compared with those without such exposure (OR 2.78, 95% CI = 2.08 to 3.75) (Table 3).
When restricted to women with complete data for all covariates, the overall pattern of results was similar to the main analysis, that is, women who had been exposed to DVA were more than twice as likely to have a consultation for EC than women with no experience of DVA (Tables 2 and 3).
In the 12 months following their index date, 12.8% of cases had multiple consultations for EC. Demographic and patient characteristics were similar between cases who had a single consultation and cases who had multiple consultations for EC (Table 4).
Demographic and patient characteristics of cases who had multiple consultations for emergency contraception and women who had a single consultation for emergency contraception
In the 12 months before their index date, 0.32% of cases with a single consultation for EC had one or more record of DVA, compared with 0.54% of cases with multiple consultations for EC (Table 4). Compared with women with no record of DVA, women who had experienced DVA within the 12 months before their index date were 1.7 times more likely to have had multiple consultations for EC (OR 1.68, 95% CI = 1.12 to 2.50) (Table 5).
Association of domestic violence and abuse and other covariates with having multiple consultations for emergency contraception, univariable analysis
The addition of potential confounding factors to the model individually produced little change in odds ratios for exposure to DVA. When adjusted for all covariates, there was some evidence of an independent effect of exposure to DVA on the number of consultations for EC (OR 1.48, 95% CI = 0.99 to 2.21) (Table 6).
Association of domestic violence and abuse with having multiple consultations for emergency contraception, multivariable logistic regressions models
The positive interaction between exposure to DVA and age remained, with the odds of having multiple consultations for EC being 1.7 times greater among women aged 25–39 years with exposure to DVA, compared to those without such exposure (OR 1.67, 95% CI = 1.03 to 2.70) (Table 6).
In this nested case-control study of UK general practice data, after adjusting for covariates, women with exposure to DVA within the past 12 months were two times more likely to have had at least one consultation for EC, compared with women with no exposure to DVA. There was also some evidence that, after adjusting for covariates, women with exposure to DVA within the past 12 months were >1.5 times more likely to have had multiple consultations for EC, compared with women without such exposure.
The main strengths of this study are the coverage and quality of the CPRD data, and the representativeness of included cases. CPRD data are entered by clinicians during routine consultations in general practice, rather than for research purposes. As practice-based prescribing is generally electronic, prescriptions for EC will automatically be captured by GP software systems, leading to good ascertainment of cases. In addition, data quality for patients and practices are monitored by CPRD internal processes for validity and completeness, and active patients (as are included in this study) are generally representative of the UK population in terms of age and sex.27
This study’s main limitation is the under-recording of DVA in electronic medical records, which could attenuate the association between exposure to DVA and consultations for EC. The first UK study on DVA in primary care found an 83% under-recording of DVA exposure when comparing rates in electronic medical records with patient’s self-reported rates.33 Another study found that, although multiple Read codes exist for DVA, recording practices vary considerably across UK general practice.34 Additionally, there is a potential misclassification of controls, due to the increasing availability of EC from varied providers during the past 10 years.35 Though the authors’ cases sought EC through general practice, the controls could either have not used EC (true controls) or obtained it elsewhere (misclassified controls). The authors also did not adjust their models for misuse of substances other than alcohol, known to be associated with DVA.36 Their findings are also restricted to consultations for EC provided by clinicians in general practice. Data from other sources of EC provision, such as sexual and reproductive health services and community pharmacies, could not be linked to CPRD due to regulatory, technical, and logistical reasons. The authors estimate that they have captured around 30% of the total provision of EC.37 Considering these limitations, the authors anticipate that the true association between DVA and EC is higher than the results they have presented here.
This study supports the recent systematic review of cross-sectional studies that found some evidence for an association between exposure to DVA and increased use of EC.5 The two main reasons for seeking EC are women’s fear that the contraceptive method they used would not work, and women’s fear of unintended pregnancy after unprotected intercourse.38 A recent meta-analysis suggested a causal relationship between exposure to DVA and reduction in women’s use of regular contraception.4 The authors can further speculate that, due to the reduction in use of regular contraception, women exposed to DVA are more likely to have unprotected intercourse and therefore might need more EC compared with women unexposed to DVA. Another mechanism connecting DVA and unprotected intercourse is reproductive coercion — a pattern of male behaviour aimed at controlling women’s reproductive outcomes through birth control sabotage or pregnancy coercion.39,40
The authors’ findings are in line with the US study on the effect of DVA on contraceptive patterns, though their effect estimates are much smaller.41 Fantasia et al analysed medical records from four family planning clinics and found that exposure to DVA in the previous 12 months was associated with a 6.5-fold increase in use of EC (95% CI = 3.8 to 9.3).41 Several factors could contribute to the difference in the effect size: study settings, national differences in the provision of EC, and methods of identifying and recording exposure, outcome, and confounding variables.
The authors found some evidence that women exposed to DVA can seek EC from GPs on multiple occasions. This suggests women exposed to DVA may use EC instead of regular contraceptive methods, which they cannot access because of reproductive coercion, coercive control, or economic abuse. This is in line with the US survey in five family planning clinics which showed that women who had experienced DVA and reproductive coercion were two times more likely to report multiple use of EC in the previous 3 months (OR 2.40, 95% CI = 1.41 to 4.09).42 Reproductive coercion was not captured in the present study, which could have resulted in the smaller effect estimate. However, the authors considered the temporality of the exposure versus outcome, which was not possible in the US study.42
Implications for research and practice
Future studies should use data linkage from core providers of EC (general practice, sexual and reproductive health services, and pharmacies) to analyse the total provision of EC.
DVA interventions for primary care (for example, IRIS in the UK) should be updated to include new evidence on the association between exposure to DVA and increased use of EC. All providers of EC should be aware that a request for EC can indicate possible exposure to DVA. A consultation for EC in general practice is an appropriate context for asking about DVA and responding to disclosure in line with the WHO LIVES14 principles.
The authors wish to thank academic clinical fellows Claire Hawcroft and Kate Pitt for revising CPRD code lists.
This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West (NIHR CLAHRC West) at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. Natalia Lewis was supported by NIHR CLAHRC North Thames at Bart’s Health NHS Trust, and Avon Primary Care Research Collaborative. Gene Feder and Natalia Lewis were supported for this study by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Protocol for this study was approved by the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) for MHRA Database Research (ref. 16_293, 1 March 2017).
Joni Jackson and Natalia V Lewis are joint first authors.
Contribute and read comments about this article: bjgp.org/letters
Revision requested July 26, 2018.
Accepted September 20, 2018.
This article is Open Access: CC BY 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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(2014) ClinicalCodes: an online clinical codes repository to improve the validity and reproducibility of research using electronic medical records. PLoS One 9(6):e99825.
(2006) Reproductive health indicators: guidelines for their generation, interpretation and analysis for global monitoring (WHO, Geneva).
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Stanley N,
(2017) Br J Gen Pract, Juggling confidentiality and safety: a qualitative study of how general practice clinicians document domestic violence in families with children. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X689353.
(2017) FSRH CEU clinical guidance. Emergency contraception, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FSRH RCOG, London) https://www.fsrh.org/documents/ceu-clinical-guidance-emergency-contraception-march-2017/ (accessed 23 Oct 2018).
Bacchus LJ,
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Devries K
(2018) Recent intimate partner violence against women and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. BMJ Open 8(7):e019995.
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(2009) Contraception and sexual health 2008–9 Opinions Survey Report No. 41. A report on research using the National Statistics Opinions Survey produced on behalf of the NHS Information Centre for health and social care (ONS, Newport).
Daniels K,
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(2013) Use of emergency contraception among women aged 15–44: United States, 2006–2010. NCHS Data Brief (112):1–8.
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(2018) Reproductive coercion: a systematic review. Trauma Violence Abuse 19(4):371–390.
Miller E,
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(2010) Reproductive coercion: connecting the dots between partner violence and unintended pregnancy. Contraception 81(6):457–459.
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(2012) Chronicity of partner violence, contraceptive patterns and pregnancy risk. Contraception 86(5):530–535.
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(2015) Use of reproductive and sexual health services among female family planning clinic clients exposed to partner violence and reproductive coercion. Mατερν Child Health J 19(7):1490–1496.
You are going to email the following Exposure to domestic violence and abuse and consultations for emergency contraception: nested case-control study in a UK primary care dataset
Joni Jackson, Natalia V Lewis, Gene S Feder, Penny Whiting, Timothy Jones, John Macleod, Maria Theresa Redaniel
British Journal of General Practice 2019; 69 (680): e199-e207. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp18X700277
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Aquaman Review
A fun, exciting, imaginative, occasionally silly but undoubtedly epic adventure that establishes an incredibly rich new cinematic world.
Through no real fault of his own, Aquaman's status on the contemporary superhero landscape has been that of a punchline. His powers -- breathing underwater, communicating with fish -- aren't exactly intimidating. Zack Snyder and Jason Momoa chose to present their Arthur Curry as more of an ex-jock Frat bro, rather than a majestic king with royal blood. Plus, a running joke regarding James Cameron's Aquaman on the HBO series Entourage contributed to the DC's hero's whipping-boy reputation.
So there's a delicious irony to the fact that James Wan's epic, visually arresting and badass Aquaman movie -- an adventure built around this ridiculed and meme-friendly savior -- is the first DCEU feature to convince me that Warner Bros. and DC Comics finally are taking their contemporary comic-book properties seriously.
Let's shower Aquaman with praise, and get all of the water-based puns out of the way. With James Wan captaining this massive ship, Aquaman sails through a colorful high-stakes adventure that plunges audiences into a vibrant, sci-fi-inspired deep-sea world. While connected to the overarching DCEU, Aquaman wisely branches off into its own unique corner of this universe and fills in its undersea world with eye-popping creatures, sleek space crafts and rarely-seen environments that reward a viewing on the biggest screen possible.
Jason Momoa, meanwhile, is given the opportunity to dive into the surprising depths of this previously superficial character, and the actor seizes the hero's arc presented in this story. Aquaman also will make a massive splash at the box office, proving that DC should continue to explore rousing solo adventures for its unique superheroes (instead of foolishly chasing the shared universe model dominated by Marvel).
Aquaman serves as an origin story, not just for Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), but for the world he represents. We learn how his mother, Queen Atlanna of Atlantis (Nicole Kidman), fell in love with surface dweller Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison), and produced a child who'd have qualities of both worlds.
Under the sea, Shakesperean drama bubbles up as Arthur's half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson), launches a scheme to convince the seven kingdoms that it's finally time to rise up and show the land citizens the power of those who occupy the water. Orm needs to unite all of the kingdoms if he's to inherit the title of Ocean Master, giving him full control of the forces of the sea.
Orm's job becomes much more difficult if Arthur should ever return to reclaim the throne that is his birthright. But as we saw in Justice League, Arthur's content to bum around the coastal towns of our planet, drinking the equivalent of his body weight in stout beer and performing the occasional heroic act.
Two events change Arthur's mind. First, Orm launches an attack on the surface, putting Arthur's beloved father in danger. Mera (Amber Heard) uses this as motivation to guilt Arthur to finally return to Atlantis and challenge Orm for the throne. Secondly, a new threat in the form of the pirate Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) rises, giving Aquaman a legit foil we expect will be explored in future movies.
Hiring James Wan is the key to Aquaman's success. The Conjuring director fearlessly embraces everything that comes with the hero, figuring out how to effectively stage underwater action, and choreographing impressively fluid fight sequences both on the land and in the sea. Water is integral to Aquaman's story, and I'm certain there came a point when Wan got sick of everything having to be so wet on this set. But this movie plunges us into Aquaman's realm, and it's supremely effective.
Jason Momoa, meanwhile, eventually won me over as Arthur Curry. Without abandoning his "Bro-seidon" personality (Arthur Curry's swagger is DC by way of the WWE), Momoa shoulders the cartoonish aspects of Aquaman -- I mean, soldiers ride into battle on gigantic sea horses here, so c'mon people -- and we begrudgingly accept the silliness of it all as Curry learns to embrace it.
Can the film tip too far into camp? You better believe it, and there certainly are eye-rolling moments and misguided laugh lines that thud, usually because Momoa's comedic timing isn't razor sharp. At one point, he describes himself as a blunt instrument, and the movie reduces itself to his simplicity every so often (but never enough to derail the swashbuckling adventure for any extended period of time).
Basically, Aquaman does what these DC solo movies should have been doing all along, which is celebrating what makes the hero in question unique, and dedicating all available resources into creating a vibrant, liveable world in which audiences will want to get lost (and return). Halfway through James Wan's feature, I secretly wished that beneath the surfaces of our own oceans, an army of neon-glowing soldiers actually were riding sharks into battle with a platoon of crusty crab monsters, while a yellow-and-green warrior darted through the depths with his glowing trident, fighting to bring unity to a massive yet divided kingdom. In other words, I bought fully into the mythology that Wan and his team brought to the big screen, and what bigger compliment can one pay?
In a nutshell, Aquaman is a fun, exciting, imaginative, occasionally silly but undoubtedly epic adventure that establishes an incredibly rich new cinematic world and helps DC and Warner Bros. right their comic-book ship.
Sean O'Connell
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television Bachelor Spoilers: What Does Chris Harrison Tell Peter At The Final Rose Ceremony?
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Blockchain Awards Europe
Blockchain for Enterprise (Day 1)
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How blockchain and virtual reality can make for surprisingly natural bedfellows
By: Steve Jones
If you take a look at Gartner’s most recent hype cycle for emerging technologies, blockchain sits astride the peak of the cycle, while virtual reality (VR) is off in the distance on the ‘slope of enlightenment’. Yet these two seemingly disparate technologies, both with different temporal outlooks, have a lot in common when it comes to potentially solving business pain points.
Take the music industry. Benji Rogers is the co-founder of startup Dot Blockchain Music. He argues that “no new technology encapsulates the potential for positive change for this suffering music industry more than the blockchain.” This certainly makes sense; as songs have different performers, writers and producers – sometimes with usage rights crossing over into multiple territories – then untangling the web with one single database sounds ideal.
But where does VR fit into it? The answer is through a .bc codec, with ‘bc’ standing for blockchain. Let Rogers explain, through a Medium post penned late last year. “In virtual reality and augmented reality, I believe that we are about to see the world’s largest deployment of a new format since the CD, DVD or BluRay, and there is as yet no standard or format for this new technology,” he writes. “There is, at the present time, a singular moment in the cycle of technology to create and adopt a fair trade format and roll it out through VR & AR.”
Rogers describes VR as the “Trojan Horse” to seed the new format. Taking the theory further, a VR player would not be able to play content which did not have a unique blockchain address or permissions built in, while the codec will have a set number of plays, and if it hits that number, users would need to buy or rent more.
Given the amount of industry players who would need to be singing from the same hymn sheet, Rogers accepts the project would be “pretty hard” to pull off, although at the time of writing the project is live on GitHub.
When it comes to more general society, Simon de la Rouviere, author of The Blockchain: Mapping the Decentralised Future, notes that ‘the great thing about all blockchain tech is…it just immediately works in VR as well.’ “The more I think about it, the more I’m sure that once VR hits the mainstream, the blockchain will almost suddenly thrive much more in VR than in real life,” he writes.
How so? If VR goes mainstream, so the theory goes, virtual experiences will move from localised environments to centralised worlds. Yet what would stop a developer, for instance, changes a virtual world for their own personal gain? One of blockchain’s key tenets is trust and decentralisation, which fits this concept like a glove.
de la Rouviere calls it ‘survival of the fittest’. “Virtual worlds can die, and are allowed to die,” he explains in an LFB article. “We can experiment, and we can actually ‘live’ in those realities since porting over value to the real world will be easy. Value will only be ported over if constraints are properly in place so that the system can’t be exploited.”
The example given is of space travel. A Mars colony can be simulated through VR, and through blockchain smart contracts are the only form of governance. Real people can ‘live’ there full-time, and important information will be gleaned. This also fits in to what de la Rouviere discusses when it comes to a ‘more equal virtual world’.
Naturally, these projects are all some distance off. But it does give a glimpse into what could happen if blockchain and virtual reality were combined.
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The Blocks, Blockchain Awards
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Kid's Book Clubs
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When Charlie McButton Lost Power
Books about being brave
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The Definitive Guide to
Written by Suzanne Collins and illustrated by Mike Lester
Published by Puffin Books
- Bookroo Rating
Goodreads Rating - 4.1 / 5.0
Target Age
Buy on Amazon Buy on Books-A-Million Buy on IndieBound
What's This Book About
Publisher Summary
Charlie McButton likes computer games so much, he never plays with anything else. When a thunderstorm knocks out the electricity, his tech empire comes tumbling down, and his whole world loses power. Charlie needs batteries?FAST! But the only triple- A?s he can find are in his little sister?s talking doll. Will he resort to desperate measures and cause his sister to have a meltdown of her own? Or will he snap out of his computer craze long enough to realize his sister might be fun, even if she doesn?t come with batteries? Collins and Lester team up for a hilarious and timely tale that will crack up young computer addicts and those who love them!
What Kind of Book is When Charlie McButton Lost Power
Trusted Reviews & Ratings
The Book Snob Mom
Mom, Avid Reader, Austen Fangirl
I’m going to commit blasphemy here and say that Suzanne Collins’ (of The Hunger Games’ fame) rhyming in this book is on par with Dr. Seuss (only with fewer made up words)—it’s seriously such a fun read-aloud that trips right off the tongue. Initially, the illustrations weren’t my favorite, but after reading it several times, I think they add a delightful pizzazz and sense of chaos that really adds to the story. With the prevalence of technology, the message that relationships can be strengthened and fun had without turning to electronics is lovely.
Mr. Staccato
Spent many carefree hours hunting clues with the Hardy boys and defending Redwall Abbey.
A true hidden gem. Don’t judge this one by its cover.
B is for Bookworm
Human Development Degree, Book-loving aunt
A wonderful book about unplugging and using your imagination and spending time with those you love! :) I didn’t love the illustrations at first, but they’ve really grown on my and I think they, and the rest of this book, are so fun! I especially think all of the wording and rhyme is fantastic.
Three little boys who love books about dragons, whangdoodles and magic.
Lemony Snickers
Reading contracts all day long. Not bad, but not quite as fun as reading about hobbits.
Readerly Mom
Bay Area mother of two, world traveler, book lover, picky reader
I can see how this book might be useful for some families when dealing with the issue of finding moderation in technology use for kids, but it was just so incredibly heavy-handed. My kids are too little for screens, so nothing about it was appealing to them, and if kids are old enough for some screen time, I can’t imagine this feeling fun or funny or anything other than preachy.
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Who Wrote When Charlie McButton Lost Power
In 1991, Suzanne Collins began her professional career writing for children’s television. She worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! with her friend, Peter Bakalian, which was nominated for a WGA Award in Animation. Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days,and a freelancer on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author and illustrator James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try.
Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in urban surroundings. In New York City, you’re much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you’re not going to find a tea party. What you might find…? Well, that’s the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part fantasy/war series, The Underland Chronicles,which became a New York Times bestseller. It has been sold into 21 foreign territories.
Her next series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, is an international bestseller. The Hunger Games has spent over six years to date on The New York Times bestseller list since publication in September 2008, and has also appeared consistently on USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. It has been sold into 56 territories in 51 languages. In 2010 Collins was named to the TIME 100 list as well as the Entertainment Weekly Entertainers of the Year list.
Lionsgate released a film adaptation of THE HUNGER GAMES on March 23, 2012, directed by Gary Ross who also shared screenplay credit with Suzanne and Billy Ray. It broke multiple box office records and went on to become the 14th highest-grossing North American release of all time on its way to generating nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office. Lionsgate released the second installment THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE worldwide on November 22, 2013, directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael DeBruyn and bringing back stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Willow Shields, Paula Malcomson, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz along with new cast members Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone and Jeffrey Wright. It was the highest-grossing domestic box office release of 2013 and the 10th highest-grossing domestic release of all time. Lionsgate will release THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 on November 21, 2014 and THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 on November 20, 2015, also directed by Lawrence. All four films are being produced by Nina Jacobson of Color Force and Jon Kilik.
In September 2013, Suzanne released a critically acclaimed autobiographical picture book, YEAR OF THE JUNGLE, illustrated by James Proimos. It deals with the year she was six and her father was deployed to Viet Nam. It has been sold into 12 territories in 11 languages. Her first picture book, WHEN CHARLIE MCBUTTON LOST POWER, about a boy obsessed with computer games, was illustrated by Mike Lester and came out in 2005. It has been sold into 4 foreign territories.
Her books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. (Bio via http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm)
View Author
Who Illustrated When Charlie McButton Lost Power
Put a kid in a room alone with nothing but pencils, paper, his own imagination and you get me.
By normal standards I should be an anti-social home pest exterminator by day and WWF fan by night. But I’m not. I’m a cartoonist and for two reasons: I could not hit the curve but I could hit a nerve.
I am classically trained to be able to find the classical station when I need to. Beyond that, I’ve been making it up since I was in that room alone.
Truth is, God was in there with me just like he is today and we’ve managed to knock out some pretty decent work in a number of different areas working with some incredibly talented people and for some great clients.
There are more wooden plaques on the wall than I ever imagined. All of them spelled my name right and frankly, I deserve them. But my beautiful wife, my two children, Mom, cat and completely untrainable dog I do not deserve. They are simply a blessing for which I am thankful everyday. (Bio via mikelester.com)
View Illustrator
What Has Suzanne Collins Said About This Book
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What Has Mike Lester Said About This Book
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Books Bücher 91 - 100 von 144 in And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into...
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
The Christian's defence against the fears of death, tr. by M. D'Assigny ... - Seite 222
von Charles Drelincourt - 1732
Vollansicht - Über dieses Buch
The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated Out of the ...
1840 - 852 Seiten
...The purchase of the field and of the caTe that it therein, was from the children of ll.-ili. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded np the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. CHAP. L. 1 Tkemonming for Jacob. 4Jotepkgettetklea*e...
Sixteen Sermons Preached in the Parish Church of Iffley, Oxon
William Jacobson, William Jacobson (bp. of Chester.) - 1840 - 330 Seiten
...displeasure which he entertained towards the twelve Patriarchs respectively, as they stood around him, before he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. At a much later period, when the thoughtless and ungodly youth...
Popular Commentary of the Bible: The Old Testament, Band 1
Paul Edward Kretzmann - 1923 - 808 Seiten
...burial-ground, lest they make any mistake about it or neglect the speedy execution of his dying wish. V. 33. And ed us, by an unendurable oppression, Ex. 1, 11. 12, and afflicted us, and laid upon us h for he had been sitting on his couch, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his -people,...
...burial-ground, lest they make any mistake about it or neglect the speedy execution of his dying wish. V. 33. And at time the plants of the field had not yet started to grow, to sprout and to bud; they for he had been sitting on his couch, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people, the...
The Authentic Literature of Israel: From the Exodus to the Exile
Elizabeth Czarnomska - 1924
...the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is it which their father spake unto them and blessed them. Then he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost; and he was gathered unto his people. IV OF MOSES, THE LIBERATOR OF HIS PEOPLE A. His birth and...
The Everyday Bible
Charles M. Sheldon - 1924 - 640 Seiten
...blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him,...
Last Words of Saints and Sinners: 700 Final Quotes from the Famous, the ...
Herbert Lockyer - 240 Seiten
...a saint as he leaves time for eternity! When Jacob had ended the instructions to his sons we read, "He gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost" (Gen. 49). What a lovely way to end one's pilgrimage! It is said that Philip of Macedon commanded...
Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - Über dieses Buch
The Reader's Bible, a Narrative: Selections from the King James Version
Roland Mushat Frye - 1978 - 640 Seiten
...32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Ileth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,...gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. !>(J And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon...
...32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. 33 And eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand ghost, and was gathered unto his people. AíD JOSEPH fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him,...
Filled with the Spirit
John R. Rice - 2000 - 555 Seiten
...Jacob so he could tell his sons "that which shall befall you in the last days." And he told them, "And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,...gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost" (Gen. 49). The'Apostle Peter was inspired to write, "Knowing that shortly I must put off this...
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Genome size database of the Greater Cape flora
Endemism
Non-endemic
Chamaephyte
Cryptophyte
Geophyte
Hemicryptophyte
Phanerophyte
Therophyte
Red list categories
Vegetation types
Albany Thicket
Azonal
Fynbos
Renosterveld
Strandveld
Succulent Karoo
Holoploid genome size (Greilhuber et al. 2005) was estimated by means of propidium iodide FCM. For each plant, a piece of intact tissue (usually leaf or stem or ovary) was chopped together with an appropriate amount of an internal reference standard using a new razor blade in a Petri dish containing 0.5 ml of ice-cold Otto I buffer (0.1 M citric acid, 0.5% Tween 20) (Otto 1990, Doležel et al. 2007). The resulting suspension was filtered through a 42-µm nylon mesh and incubated at room temperature for at least 5 min. After incubation, the suspension was stained by using 1 ml of Otto II buffer (0.4 M Na2HPO4 · 12 H20) supplemented with the intercalating fluorescent dye propidium iodide, RNAase IIA (both at final concentrations of 50 µg/ml) and β-mercaptoethanol (2 µl/ml). Samples were stained for 5 min at room temperature and analysed using a Partec CyFlow cytometer (Partec GmbH., Münster, Germany) equipped with a 532 nm diode-pumped solid-state laser Cobolt Samba (Cobolt AB, Solna, Sweden) as the source of excitation light. Fluorescence intensity of 5000 particles was recorded, and data were analysed using Partec FloMax Software version 2.4d. Pisum sativum ‘Ctirad’ (2C = 8.76 pg; Doležel et al. 2007) served as the primary reference standard. Additional secondary standards (see table below) were used either to avoid a large difference in genome size between the standard and examined sample, or if the primary standard was unavailable. Nuclear genome sizes of all additional standards were recalibrated using Pisum sativum, based on repeated measurements on different days.
Additionally, AT-selective DAPI dye was used for the estimation of base composition. Sample preparation was exactly the same, but propidium iodide and RNAase were supplemented by DAPI dye at a final concentration 4 µg/ml. Analyses were conducted on a Partec Space cytometer (Partec GmbH., Münster, Germany) equipped with UV-led chip (365 nm). Computation of the base content followed Šmarda et al. (2008) via a publicly available excel spreadsheet.
The database is still under heavy development, several important features are not implemented yet and user interface is not finished. If having some feature request or any other comments, contact developer.
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Archive for the ‘Object technology’ Category.
This Wednesday in Nice: survey talk on the Eiffel method
The “Morgenstern Colloquium” at the University of Nice / INRIA Sophia Antipolis invited me to give a talk, next Wednesday (18 December) at 11 in Sophia Antipolis, in the aptly named* “Kahn Building”. The announcement appears here. I proposed various topics but (pleasant surprise) the organizers explicitly asked me to lecture about what I really want to talk about: the Eiffel approach. I will give a general presentation describing not specifically the language but the unified view of software construction embodied in Eiffel, from modeling to requirements to design, implementation and verification. Here is the abstract:
With society’s growing reliance on IT systems, the ability to write high-quality software is ever more critical. While a posteriori verification techniques have their role, there is no substitute for methods and tools that provide built-in quality (“correctness by construction”) and scale up to very large systems. For several decades my colleagues and I have been building such a method, based in particular on the concept of Design by Contract, the associated tools and the supporting language, Eiffel. The scope is wide, encompassing all aspects of the software development process, from requirements and design to implementation and verification. I will present an overview of the approach, show what it can yield, and discuss remaining open issues.
This talk is meant for everyone, whether from industry or academia, with an interest in practical techniques for engineering high-quality software.
No registration is required. The presentation will be in English.
*Gilles Kahn, a brilliant computer scientist who died too young, was for a while director of INRIA.
Category: Agile, Concurrency, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Seminar, Software engineering, Software process, Software verification, Software design, Talks | Comment
Formality in requirements: new publication
The best way to make software requirements precise is to use one of the available “formal” approaches. Many have been proposed; I am not aware of a general survey published so far. Over the past two years, we have been working on a comprehensive survey of the use of formality in requirements, of which we are now releasing a draft. “We” is a joint informal research group from Innopolis University and the University of Toulouse, whose members have been cooperating on requirements issues, resulting in publications listed under “References” below and in several scientific events.
The survey is still being revised, in particular because it is longer than the page limit of its intended venue (ACM Computing Surveys), and some sections are in need of improvement. We think, however, that the current draft can already provide a solid reference in this fundamental area of software engineering.
The paper covers a broad selection of methods, altogether 22 of them, all the way from completely informal to strictly formal. They are grouped into five categories: natural language, semi-formal, automata- or graph-based, other mathematical frameworks, programming-language based. Examples include SysML, Relax, Statecharts, VDM, Eiffel (as a requirements notation), Event-B, Alloy. For every method, the text proposes a version of a running example (the Landing Gear System, already used in some of our previous publications) expressed in the corresponding notation. It evaluates the methods using a set of carefully defined criteria.
The paper is: Jean-Michel Bruel, Sophie Ébersold, Florian Galinier, Alexandr Naumchev, Manuel Mazzara and Bertrand Meyer: Formality in Software Requirements, draft, November 2019.
The text is available here. Comments on the draft are welcome.
Bertrand Meyer, Jean-Michel Bruel, Sophie Ebersold, Florian Galinier and Alexandr Naumchev: Towards an Anatomy of Software Requirements, in TOOLS 2019, pages 10-40, see here (or arXiv version here). I will write a separate blog article about this publication.
Alexandr Naumchev and Bertrand Meyer: Seamless requirements. Computer Languages, Systems & Structures 49, 2017, pages 119-132, available here.
Florian Galinier, Jean-Michel Bruel, Sophie Ebersold and Bertrand Meyer: Seamless Integration of Multirequirements, in Complex Systems, 25th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshop, IEEE, pages 21-25, 2017, available here.
Alexandr Naumchev, Manuel Mazzara, Bertrand Meyer, Jean-Michel Bruel, Florian Galinier and Sophie Ebersold: A contract-based method to specify stimulus-response requirements, Proceedings of the Institute for System Programming, vol. 29, issue 4, 2017, pp. 39-54. DOI: 10.15514, available here.
Alexandr Naumchev and Bertrand Meyer: Complete Contracts through Specification Drivers., in 10th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering (TASE), pages 160-167, 2016, available here.
Alexandr Naumchev, Bertrand Meyer and Víctor Rivera: Unifying Requirements and Code: An Example, in PSI 2015 (Ershov conference, Perspective of System Informatics), pages 233-244, available here.
Category: Computer science, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Publication announcement, Requirements, Software engineering | 2 Comments
Why not program right?
(Originally published on CACM blog.)
Most of the world programs in a very strange way. Strange to me. I usually hear the reverse question: people ask us, the Eiffel community, to explain why we program our way. I hardly understand the question, because the only mystery is how anyone can even program in any other way.
The natural reference is the beginning of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: when entering an insane asylum and wondering who is an inmate and who a doctor, you may feel at a loss for objective criteria. Maybe the rest of the world is right and we are the nut cases. Common sense suggests it.
But sometimes one can go beyond common sense and examine the evidence. So lend me an ear while I explain my latest class invariant. Here it is, in Figure 1. (Wait, do not just run away yet.)
Figure 1: From the invariant of class MULTIGRAPH
This is a program in progress and by the time you read this note the invariant and enclosing class will have changed. But the ideas will remain.
Context: multigraphs
The class is called MULTIGRAPH and describes a generalized notion of graph, illustrated in Figure 2. The differences are that: there can be more than one edge between two nodes, as long as they have different tags (like the spouse and boss edges between 1 and 2); and there can be more than one edge coming out of a given node and with a given tag (such as the two boss edges out of 1, reflecting that 1’s boss might be 2 in some cases and 3 in others). Some of the nodes, just 1 here, are “roots”.
The class implements the notion of multigraph and provides a wide range of operations on multigraphs.
Figure 2: A multigraph
Now we turn to the programming and software engineering aspects. I am playing with various ways of accessing multigraphs. For the basic representation of a multigraph, I have chosen a table of triples:
triples_table: HASH_TABLE [TRIPLE, TUPLE [source: INTEGER; tag: INTEGER; target: INTEGER]] — Table of triples, each retrievable through its `source’, `tag’ and `target’.
where the class TRIPLE describes [source, tag, target] triples, with a few other properties, so they are not just tuples. It is convenient to use a hash table, where the key is such a 3-tuple. (In an earlier version I used just an ARRAY [TRIPLE], but a hash table proved more flexible.)
Sources and targets are nodes, also called “objects”; we represent both objects and tags by integers for efficiency. It is easy to have structures that map symbolic tag names such as “boss” to integers.
triples_table is the core data structure but it turns out that for the many needed operations it is convenient to have others. This technique is standard: for efficiency, provide different structures to access and manipulate the same underlying information, with some redundancy. So I also have:
triples_from: ARRAYED_LIST [LIST [TRIPLE]]
— Triples starting from a given object. Indexed by object numbers.
triples_with: HASH_TABLE [LIST [TRIPLE], INTEGER]
— Triples labeled by a given tag. Key is tag number.
triples_to: ARRAYED_LIST [LIST [TRIPLE]]
— Triples leading into a given object. Indexed by object numbers.
Figure 3 illustrates triples_from and Figures 4 illustrates triples_with. triples_to is similar.
Figure 3: The triples_from array of lists and the triples_table
Figure 4: The triples_with array of lists and the triples_table
It is also useful to access multigraphs through yet another structure, which gives us the targets associated with a given object and tag:
successors: ARRAY [HASH_TABLE [LIST [TRIPLE], INTEGER]]
— successors [obj] [t] includes all o such that there is a t- reference from obj to o.
For example in Figure 1 successors [1] [spouse] is {2, 3}, and in Figures 3 and 4 successors [26] [t] is {22, 55, 57}. Of course we can obtain the “successors” information through the previously defined structures, but since this is a frequently needed operation I decided to include a specific data structure (implying that every operation modifying the multigraph must update it). I can change my mind later on and decide to make “successors” a function rather than a data structure; it is part of the beauty of OO programming, particularly in Eiffel, that such changes are smooth and hardly impact client classes.
There is similar redundancy in representing roots:
roots: LINKED_SET [INTEGER]
— Objects that are roots.
is_root: ARRAY [BOOLEAN]
— Which objects are roots? Indexed by object numbers.
If o is a root, then it appears in the “roots” set and is_root [o] has value True.
These are my data structures. Providing such a variety of access modes is a common programming technique. From a software engineering perspective ― specification, implementation, verification… ― it courts disaster. How do we maintain their consistency? It is very easy for a small mistake to slip into an operation modifying the graph, causing one of the data structures to be improperly updated, but in a subtle and rare enough way that it will not manifest itself during testing, coming back later to cause strange behavior that will be very hard to debug.
For example, one of the reasons I have a class TRIPLE and not just 3-tuples is that a triple is not exactly the same as an edge in the multigraph. I have decided that by default the operation that removes and edge would not remove the corresponding triple from the data structure, but leave it in and mark it as “inoperative” (so class TRIPLE has an extra “is_inoperative” boolean field). There is an explicit GC-like mechanism to clean up deleted edges occasionally. This approach brings efficiency but makes the setup more delicate since we have to be extremely careful about what a triple means and what removal means.
This is where I stop understanding how the rest of the world can work at all. Without some rigorous tools I just do not see how one can get such things right. Well, sure, spend weeks of trying out test cases, printing out the structures, manually check everything (in the testing world this is known as writing lots of “oracles”), try at great pains to find out the reason for wrong results, guess what program change will fix the problem, and start again. Stop when things look OK. When, as Tony Hoare once wrote, there are no obvious errors left.
Setting aside the minuscule share of projects (typically in embedded life-critical systems) that use some kind of formal verification, this process is what everyone practices. One can only marvel that systems, including many successful ones, get produced at all. To take an analogy from another discipline, this does not compare to working like an electrical engineer. It amounts to working like an electrician.
For a short time I programmed like that too (one has to start somewhere, and programming methodology was not taught back then). I no longer could today. Continuing with the Hoare citation, the only acceptable situation is to stop when there are obviously no errors left.
How? Certainly not, in my case, by always being right the first time. I make mistakes like everyone else does. But I have the methodology and tools to avoid some, and, for those that do slip through, to spot and fix them quickly.
First, the type system. Lots of inconsistencies, some small and some huge, which in an untyped language would only hit during execution, do not make it past compilation. We are not just talking here about using REAL instead of INTEGER. With a sophisticated type system involving multiple inheritance, genericity, information hiding and void safety, a compiler error message can reflect a tricky logical mistake. You are using a SET as if it were a LIST (some operations are common, but others not). You are calling an operation on a reference that may be void (null) at run time. And so on.
By the way, about void-safety: for a decade now, Eiffel has been void-safe, meaning a compile-time guarantee of no run-time null pointer dereferencing. It is beyond my understanding how the rest of the world can still live with programs that run under myriad swords of Damocles: x.op (…) calls that might any minute, without any warning or precedent, hit a null x and crash.
Then there is the guarantee of logical consistency, which is where my class invariant (Figure 1) comes in. Maybe it scared you, but in reality it is all simple concepts, intended to make sure that you know what you are doing, and rely on tools to check that you are right. When you are writing your program, you are positing all kinds, logical assumptions, large and (mostly) small, all the time. Here, for the structure triples_from [o] to make sense, it must be a list such that:
It contains all the triples t in the triples_table such that t.source = o.
It contains only those triples!
You know this when you write the program; otherwise you would not be having a “triples_from” structure. Such gems of knowledge should remain an integral part of the program. Individually they may not be rocket science, but accumulated over the lifetime of a class design, a subsystem design or a system design they collect all the intelligence that makes the software possible. Yet in the standard process they are gone the next minute! (At best, some programmers may write a comment, but that does not happen very often, and a comment has no guarantee of precision and no effect on testing or correctness.)
Anyone who takes software development seriously must record such fundamental properties. Here we need the following invariant clause:
across triples_from as tf all
across tf.item as tp all tp.item.source = tf.cursor_index end
(It comes in the class, as shown in Figure 1, with the label “from_list_consistent”. Such labels are important for documentation and debugging purposes. We omit them here for brevity.)
What does that mean? If we could use Unicode (more precisely, if we could type it easily with our keyboards) we would write things like “∀ x: E | P (x)”: for all x in E, property P holds of x. We need programming-language syntax and write this as across E as x all P (x.item) end. The only subtlety is the “.item” part, which gives us generality beyond the ∀ notation: x in the across is not an individual element of E but a cursor that moves over E. The actual element at cursor position is x.item, one of the properties of that cursor. The advantage is that the cursor has more properties, for example x.cursor_index, which gives its position in E. You do not get that with the plain “ of mathematics.
If instead of ∀ you want ∃ (there exists), use some instead of all. That is pretty much all you need to know to understand all the invariant clauses of class MULTIGRAPH as given in Figure 1.
So what the above invariant clause says is: take every position tf in triples_from; its position is tf.cursor_index and its value is tf.item. triples_from is declared as ARRAYED_LIST [LIST [TRIPLE]], so tf.cursor_index is an integer representing an object o, and tf.item is a list of triples. That list should consist of the triples having tf.cursor_index as their source. This is the very property that we are expressing in this invariant clause, where the innermost across says: for every triple tp.item in the list, the source of that triple is the cursor index (of the outside across). Simple and straightforward, I think (although such English explanations are so much more verbose than formal versions, such as the Eiffel one here, and once you get the hang of it you will not need them any more).
How can one ever include a structure such as triples_from without expressing such a property? To put the question slightly differently: am I inside the asylum looking out, or outside the asylum looking in? Any clue would be greatly appreciated.
For the tag ( “with_”) and target lists, the properties are similar:
across triples_with as tw all across tw.item as tp all tp.item.tag = tw.key end end
across triples_to as tt all across tt.item as tp all tp.item.target = tt.cursor_index end end
We also have some properties of array bounds:
is_root.lower = 1 and is_root.upper = object_count
triples_from.lower = 1 and triples_from.upper = object_count
triples_to.lower = 1 and triples_to.upper = object_count
where object_count is the number of objects (nodes), and for an array a (whose bounds in Eiffel are arbitrary, not necessarily 0 or 1, and set on array creation), a.lower and a.upper are the bounds. Here we number the arrays from 1.
There are, as noted, two ways to represent rootness. We must express their consistency (or risk trouble). Two clauses of the invariant do the job:
across roots as t all is_root [t.item] end
across is_root as t all (t.item = roots.has (t.cursor_index)) end
The first one says that if we go through the list “roots” we only find elements whose “is_root” value is true; the second, that if we go through the array “is_root” we find values that are true where and only where the corresponding object, given by the cursor index, is in the “roots” set. Note that the “=” in that second property is between boolean values (if in doubt, check the type instantly in the EIffelStudio IDE!), so it means “if and only if”.
Instead of these clauses, a more concise version, covering them both, is just
roots ~ domain (is_root)
with a function domain that gives the domain of a function represented by a boolean array. The ~ operator denotes object equality, redefined in many classes, and in particular in the SET classes (“roots” is a LINKED_SET) to cover equality between sets, i.e. the property of having the same elements.
The other clauses are all similarly self-explanatory. Let us just go through the most elaborate one, successors_consistent, involving three levels of across:
across successors as httpl all — httpl.item: hash table of list of triples
across httpl.item as tpl all — tpl.item: list of triples (tpl.key: key (i.e. tag) in hash table (tag)
across tpl.item as tp all — tp.item: triple
tp.item.tag = tpl.key
and tp.item.source = httpl.cursor_index
You can see that I struggled a bit with this one and made provisions for not having to struggle again when I would look at the code again 10 minutes, 10 days or 10 months later. I chose (possibly strange but consistent) names such as httpl for hash-table triple, and wrote comments (I do not usually need any in invariant and other contract clauses) to remind me of the type of everything. That was not strictly needed since once again the IDE gives me the types, but it does not cost much and could help.
What this says: go over “successors”; which as you remember is an ARRAY, indexed by objects, of HASH_TABLE, where each entry of such a hash table has an element of type [LIST [TRIPLE] and a key of type INTEGER, representing the tag of a number of outgoing edges from the given object. Go over each hash table httpl. Go over the associated list of triples tpl. Then for each triple tp in this list: the tag of the triple must be the key in the hash table entry (remember, the key does denote a tag); and the source of the triple must the object under consideration, which is the current iteration index in the array of the outermost iteration.
I hope I am not scaring you at this point. Although the concepts are simple, this invariant is more sophisticated than most of those we typically write. Many invariant clauses (and preconditions, and postconditions) are very simple properties, such as x > 0 or x ≠ y. The reason this one is more elaborate is not that I am trying to be fussy but that without it I would be the one scared to death. What is elaborate here is the data structure and programming technique. Not rocket science, not anything beyond programmers typically do, but elaborate. The only way to get it right is to buttress it by the appropriate logical properties. As noted, these properties are there anyway, in the back of your head, when you write the program. If you want to be more like an electrical engineer than an electrician, you have to write them down.
There is more to contracts
Invariants are not the only kind of such “contract” properties. Here for example, from the same class, is a (slightly abbreviated) part of the postcondition (output property) of the operation that tells us, through a boolean Result, if the multigraph has an edge of given components osource, t (the tag) and otarget :
Result =
(across successors [osource] [t] as tp some
not tp.item.is_inoperative and tp.item.target = otarget
In words, this clause expresses the compatibility of the operation with the “successors” view: it must answer yes if and only if otarget appears in the successor set of osource for t, and the corresponding triple is not marked inoperative.
The concrete benefits
And so? What do we get out of making these logical properties explicit? Just the intellectual satisfaction of doing things right, and the methodological guidance? No! Once you have done this work, it is all downhill. Turn on the run-time assertion monitoring option (tunable separately for preconditions, postconditions, invariants etc., and on by default in development mode), and watch your tests run. If you are like almost all of us, you will have made a few mistakes, some which will seem silly when or rather if you find them in time (but there is nothing funny about a program that crashes during operation) and some more subtle. Sit back, and just watch your contracts be violated. For example if I change “<=” to “<” in the invariant property “tw.key <= max_tag”, I get the result of Figure 5. I see the call stack that I can traverse, the object run-time structure that I can explore, and all the tools of a modern debugger for an OO language. Finding and correcting the logical flaw will be a breeze.
Figure 5: An invariant violation brings up the debugger
It will not be a surprise that I did not get all the data structures and algorithms of the class MULTIGRAPH right the first time. The Design by Contract approach (the discipline of systematically expressing, whenever you write any software element, the associated logical properties) does lead to fewer mistakes, but everyone occasionally messes up. Everyone also looks at initial results to spot and correct mistakes. So what is the difference?
Without the techniques described here, you execute your software and patiently examine the results. In the example, you might output the content of the data structures, e.g.
List of outgoing references for every object:
1: 1-1->1|D, 1-1->2|D, 1-1->3|D, 1-2->1|D, 1-2->2|D, 1-25->8|D, 1-7->1|D, 1-7->6|D,
1-10->8|D, 1-3->1|D, 1-3->2|D, 1-6->3|D, 1-6->4|D, 1-6->5|D
3: 3-6->3, 3-6->4, 3-6->5, 3-9->14, 3-9->15, 3-9->16, 3-1->3, 3-1->2, 3-2->3, 3-2->2,
3-25->8, 3-7->3, 3-7->6, 3-10->8, 3-3->3, 3-3->2
and so on for all the structures. You check the entries one by one to ascertain that they are as expected. The process nowadays has some automated support, with tools such as JUnit, but it is still essentially manual, tedious and partly haphazard: you write individual test oracles for every relevant case. (For a more automated approach to testing, taking advantage of contracts, see [1].) Like the logical properties appearing in contracts, these oracles are called “assertions” but the level of abstraction is radically different: an oracle describes the desired result of one test, where a class invariant, or routine precondition, or postcondition expresses the properties desired of all executions.
Compared to the cost of writing up such contract properties (simply a matter of formalizing what you are thinking anyway when you write the code), their effect on testing is spectacular. Particularly when you take advantage of “across” iterators. In the example, think of all the checks and crosschecks automatically happening across all the data structures, including the nested structures as in the 3-level across clause. Even with a small test suite, you immediately get, almost for free, hundreds or thousands of such consistency checks, each decreasing the likelihood that a logical flaw will survive this ruthless process.
Herein lies the key advantage. Not that you will magically stop making mistakes; but that the result of such mistakes, in the form of contract violations, directly points to logical properties, at the level of your thinking about the program. A wrong entry in an output, whether you detect it visually or through a Junit clause, is a symptom, which may be far from the cause. (Remember Dijkstra’s comment, the real point of his famous Goto paper, about the core difficulty of programming being to bridge the gap between the static program text, which is all that we control, and its effect: the myriad possible dynamic executions.) Since the cause of a bug is always a logical mistake, with a contract violation, which expresses a logical inconsistency, you are much close to that cause.
(About those logical mistakes: since a contract violation reflects a discrepancy between intent, expressed by the contract, and reality, expressed by the code, the mistake may be on either side. And yes, sometimes it is the contract that is wrong while the implementation in fact did what is informally expected. There is partial empirical knowledge [1] of how often this is the case. Even then, however, you have learned something. What good is a piece of code of which you are not able to say correctly what it is trying to do?)
The experience of Eiffel programmers reflects these observations. You catch the mistakes through contract violations; much of the time, you find and correct the problem easily. When you do get to producing actual test output (which everyone still does, of course), often it is correct.
This is what has happened to me so far in the development of the example. I had mistakes, but converging to a correct version was a straightforward process of examining violations of invariant violations and other contract elements, and fixing the underlying logical problem each time.
By the way, I believe I do have a correct version (in the sense of the second part of the Hoare quote), on the basis not of gut feeling or wishful thinking but of solid evidence. As already noted it is hard to imagine, if the code contains any inconsistencies, a test suite surviving all the checks.
Tests and proofs
Solid evidence, not perfect; hard to imagine, not impossible. Tests remain only tests; they cannot exercise all cases. The only way to achieve demonstrable correctness is to rely on mathematical proofs performed mechanically. We have this too, with the AutoProof proof system for Eiffel, developed in recent years [1]. I cannot overstate my enthusiasm for this work (look up the Web-based demo), its results (automated proof of correctness of a full-fledged data structures and algorithms library [2]) and its potential, but it is still a research effort. The dynamic approach (meaning test-based rather than proof-based) presented above is production technology, perfected over several decades and used daily for large-scale mission-critical applications. Indeed (I know you may be wondering) it scales up without difficulty:
The approach is progressive. Unlike fully formal methods (and proofs), it does not require you to write down every single property down to the last quantifier. You can start with simple stuff like x > 0. The more you write, the more you get, but it is the opposite of an all-or-nothing approach.
On the practical side, if you are wondering about the consequences on performance of a delivered system: there is none. Run-time contract monitoring is a compilation option, tunable for different kinds of contracts (invariants, postconditions etc.) and different parts of a system. People use it, as discussed here, for development, testing and debugging. Most of the time, when you deliver a debugged system, you turn it off.
It is easy to teach. As a colleague once mentioned, if you can write an if-then-else you can write a precondition. Our invariants in the above example where a bit more sophisticated, but programmers do write loops (in fact, the Eiffel loop for iterating over a structure also uses across, with “loop” and instructions instead of “all” or “some” and boolean expressions). If you can write a loop over an array, you can write a property of the array’s elements.
A big system is an accumulation of small things. In a blog article [5] I recounted how I lost a full day of producing a series of technical diagrams of increasing complexity, using one of the major Web-based collaborative development tools. A bug of the system caused all the diagrams to reproduce the first, trivial one. I managed to get through to the developers. My impression (no more than an educated guess resulting from this interaction) is that the data structures involved were far simpler than the ones used in the above discussion. One can surmise that even simple invariants would have uncovered the bug during testing rather than after deployment.
Talking about deployment and tools used directly on the cloud: the action in software engineering today is in DevOps, a rapid develop-deploy loop scheme. This is where my perplexity becomes utter cluelessness. How can anyone even consider venturing into that kind of exciting but unforgiving development model without the fundamental conceptual tools outlined above?
We are back then to the core question. These techniques are simple, demonstrably useful, practical, validated by years of use, explained in professional books (e.g. [6]), introductory programming textbooks (e.g. [7]), EdX MOOCs (e.g. [8]), YouTube videos, online tutorials at eiffel.org, and hundreds of articles cited thousands of times. On the other hand, most people reading this article are not using Eiffel. On reflection, a simple quantitative criterion does exist to identify the inmates: there are far more people outside the asylum than inside. So the evidence is incontrovertible.
What, then, is wrong with me?
(Nurse to psychiatrist: these are largely self-references. Add “narcissism” to list of patient’s symptoms.)
1. Ilinca Ciupa, Andreas Leitner, Bertrand Meyer, Manuel Oriol, Yu Pei, Yi Wei and others: AutoTest articles and other material on the AutoTest page.
2. Bertrand Meyer, Ilinca Ciupa, Lisa (Ling) Liu, Manuel Oriol, Andreas Leitner and Raluca Borca-Muresan: Systematic evaluation of test failure results, in Workshop on Reliability Analysis of System Failure Data (RAF 2007), Cambridge (UK), 1-2 March 2007 available here.
3. Nadia Polikarpova, Ilinca Ciupa and Bertrand Meyer: A Comparative Study of Programmer-Written and Automatically Inferred Contracts, in ISSTA 2009: International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, Chicago, July 2009, available here.
4. Carlo Furia, Bertrand Meyer, Nadia Polikarpova, Julian Tschannen and others: AutoProof articles and other material on the AutoProof page. See also interactive web-based online tutorial here.
5. Bertrand Meyer, The Cloud and Its Risks, blog article, October 2010, available here.
6. Bertrand Meyer: Object-Oriented Software Construction, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 1997.
7. Bertrand Meyer: Touch of Class: Learning to Program Well Using Objects and Contracts, Springer, 2009, see touch.ethz.ch and Amazon page.
8. MOOCs (online courses) on EdX : Computer: Art, Magic, Science, Part 1 and Part 2. (Go to “archived versions” to follow the courses.)
Rating: +8 (from 10 votes)
Category: Computer science, Design by Contract, Eiffel, Essay, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering, Software process, Software design | 3 Comments
Mainstream enough for me
Every couple of weeks or so, I receive a message such as the one below; whenever I give a talk on any computer science topic anywhere in the world, strangers come to me to express similar sentiments. While I enjoy compliments as much as anyone else, I am not the right recipient for such comments. In fact there are 7,599,999,999 more qualified recipients. For me, Eiffel is “mainstream” enough.
What strikes me is why so many commenters, after the compliment, stop at the lament. Eiffel is not some magical dream, it is a concrete technology available for download at eiffel.org. Praising Eiffel will not change the world. Using EiffelStudio might.
When one answers the compliments with “Thanks! Then use it for your work“, the variety of excuses is amusing, or sad depending on the perspective, from “my boss would not allow it” (variant: “my subordinates would not accept it”) to “does it work with [library that does not work with anything else]?”.
Well, you might have some library wrapping to do (EiffelStudio easily interfaces with C, C++ and others). Also, you should not stop at the first hurdle: it might be due to a bug (surprise! The technology is not perfect!), but it might also just be that Eiffel and EiffelStudio are different and you have to shed some long-held assumptions and practices. What matters is that the technology does work; companies large and small use Eiffel all the time for long-running projects, some into the millions of lines and tens of thousands of classes, and refuse to switch to anything else.
What follows is a literal translation of the original message into English (it was written in another language). Since the author, whom I do not know, did not state the email was a public comment, I removed identifying details.
Subject:Eiffel is fantastic! But why is it not mainstream?
Dear Professor Meyer:
Greetings from [the capital of a country on another continent].
I graduated from [top European university] in 1996 and completed a master’s in physics from [institute on another continent] in 2006.
I have worked for twenty years in the industry, from application engineer to company head. In my industry career I have been able to be both CEO and CTO at the same time, thanks to the good education I received originally.
Information systems were always a pillar of my business strategy. Unfortunately, I was disappointed every single time I commissioned the development of a new system. This led me to study further and to investigate why the problem is not solved. That’s how I found your book Object-Oriented Software Construction and became enthusiastic about Design by Contract, Eiffel and EiffelStudio. To me your method is the only method for developing “correct” software. The Eiffel programming language is, in my view, the only true object-oriented language.
However it befuddles me — I cannot understand — why the “big” players in this industry (Apple, Google, Microsoft etc.) do not use Design by Contract. .NET has a Visual Studio extension with the name “Code Contracts” but it is no longer supported in the latest Visual Studio 2017. Big players, why don’t you promote Design by Contract?
Personally, after 20 years in industry, I found out that my true calling is in research. It would be a great pleasure to be able to work in research. My dream job is Data Scientist and I had thought to apply to Google for a job. Studying the job description, I noted that “Python” is one of the desired languages. Python is dynamically typed and does not support good encapsulation. No trace of Design by Contract…
What’s wrong with the software industry?
Category: Design by Contract, Eiffel, Language design, Object technology, Software engineering | 2 Comments
LASER summer school on software for robotics: last call for registration
21 June 2017, 10:50
Much of the progress in robotics is due to software advances, and software issues remain at the heart of the formidable challenges that remain. The 2017 LASER summer school, held in September in Elba, brings together some of the most prestigious international experts in the area.
The LASER school has established itself as one of the principal forums to discussed advanced software issues. The 2017 school takes place from 9 to 17 September in the idyllic setting of the Hotel del Golfo in Procchio, Elba Island, Italy.
Robotics is progressing at an amazing pace, bringing improvements to almost areas of human activity. Today’s robotics systems rely ever more fundamentally on complex software, raising difficult issues. The LASER 2017 summer school covers both the current state of robotics software technology and open problems. The lecturers are top international experts with both theoretical contributions and major practical achievements in developing robotics systems.
The LASER school is intended for professionals from the industry (engineers and managers) as well as university researchers, including PhD students. Participants learn about the most important software technology advances from the pioneers in the field. The school’s focus is applied, although theory is welcome to establish solid foundations. The format of the school favors extensive interaction between participants and speakers.
We have lined up an impressive roster of speakers from the leading edge of both industry and academia:
• Rodolphe Gélin, Aldebaran Robotics
• Ashish Kapoor, Microsoft Research
• Davide Brugali, University of Bergamo, on Managing software variability in robotic control systems
• Nenad Medvidovic, University of Southern California, on Software Architectures of Robotics Systems
• Bertrand Meyer, Politecnico di Milano & Innopolis University, on Concurrent Object-Oriented Robotics Software
• Issa Nesnas, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, on Experiences from robotic software development for research and planetary flight robots
• Hiroshi (“Gitchang”) Okuno, Waseda University & Kyoto University, on Open-Sourced Robot Audition Software HARK: Capabilities and Applications
The school takes place at the magnificent Hotel del Golfo in the Gulf of Procchio, Elba. Along with an intensive scientific program, participants will have time to enjoy the countless natural and cultural riches of this wonderful, history-laden jewel of the Mediterranean.
For more information about the school, the speakers and registration see the LASER site.
Category: Computer science, Concurrency, Conference, Education, Eiffel, General technology, Object technology, Programming techniques, Robotics, Software engineering | Comment
The perils of feature interaction
One of the most delicate aspects of design is feature interaction. As users, we suffer daily from systems offering features that individually make sense but clash with each other. In my agile book [1] I explained in detail, building on the work of Pamela Zave, why this very problem makes one of the key ideas of agile methods, the reliance on “user stories” for requirements, worthless and damaging.
A small recent incident reminded me of the perils of feature interaction. I used my Lenovo W540 laptop without power for a short while, then reached a sedentary location and plugged it in. Hence my surprise when, some hours later, it started beeping to alert me that it was running out of battery. The natural reactions — check the outlet and the power cord — had no effect. I found the solution, but just in time: otherwise, including if I had not heard the warning sound, I would have been unable to use the laptop any further. That’s right: I would not have been able to restart the computer at all, even with access to a power outlet, and even though it was perfectly functional and so was its (depleted) battery. The reason is that the problem arose from a software setting, which (catch-22 situation) I could not correct without starting the computer [2].
The only solution would have been to find another, non-depleted battery. That is not a trivial matter if you have traveled with your laptop outside of a metropolis: the W540 has a special battery which ordinary computer shops do not carry [3].
The analysis of what made such a situation possible must start with the list of relevant hardware and software product features.
HA. This Lenovo W series includes high-end laptops with high power requirements, which the typical 65-watt airplane power jack does not satisfy.
HB. With models prior to the W540, if you tried to connect a running laptop to the power supply in an airplane, it would not charge, and the power indicator would start flickering. But you could still charge it if you switched it off.
HC. The W540 effectively requires 135 watts and will not take power from a 65-watt power source under any circumstances.
SA. The operating system (this discussion assumes Windows) directly reflects HC by physically disabling charging if the laptop is in the “Airplane” power mode.
SB. If you disable wireless, the operating system automatically goes into the “Airplane” power mode.
SC. In the “Airplane” power mode, the laptop, whether or not connected through a charger to a power outlet of any wattage, will not charge. The charging function is just disabled.
SD. One can edit power modes to change parameters, such as time to automatic shutoff, but the no-charging property in Airplane mode is not editable and not even mentioned in the corresponding UI dialog. It seems to be a behind-the-scenes property magically attached to the power-mode name “Airplane”.
SE. There is a function key for disabling wireless: F8. As a consequence of SB it also has the effect of switching to “Airplane” mode.
SF. Next to F8 on the keyboard is F7.
SG. F7 serves to display the screen content on another monitor (Windows calls it a “projector”). F7 offers a cyclic set of choices: laptop only, laptop plus monitor etc.
SH. In the old days (like five years ago), such function keys setting important operating system parameters on laptops used to be activated only if you held them together with a special key labeled “Fn”. For some reason (maybe the requirement was considered too complicated for ordinary computer users) the default mode on Lenovo laptops does not use the “Fn” key anymore: you just press the desired key, such as F7 or F8.
SI. You can revert to the old mode, requiring pressing “Fn”, by going into the BIOS and performing some not-absolutely-trivial steps, making this possibility the preserve of techies. (Helpfully, this earlier style is called “Legacy mode”, as a way to remind you that your are an old-timer, probably barely graduated from MS-DOS and still using obsolete conventions. In reality, the legacy mode is the right one to use, whether for techies or novices: it is all too easy to hit a function key by mistake and get totally unexpected results. The novice, not the techie, is the one who will be completely confused and panicked as a result. The first thing I do with a new laptop is to go to the BIOS and set legacy mode.)
By now you have guessed what happened in my case, especially once you know that I had connected the laptop to a large monitor and had some trouble getting that display to work. In the process I hit Fn-F7 (feature SG) several times. I must have mistakenly (SF) pressed F8 instead of F7 at some point. Normally, Legacy mode (SI) should have made me immune to the effects of hitting a function key by mistake, but I did use the neighboring key F7 for another purpose. Hitting F8 disabled wireless (SE) and switched on Airplane power mode (SB). At that point the laptop, while plugged in correctly, stopped charging (SC, SD).
How did I find out? Since I was looking for a hardware problem I could have missed the real cause entirely and ended up with a seemingly dead laptop. Fortunately I opened the Power Options dialog to see what it said about the battery. I noticed that among the two listed power plans the active one was not “Power Saver”, to which I am used, but “Airplane”. I did not immediately pay attention to that setting; since I had not used the laptop for a while I just thought that maybe the last time around I had switched on “Airplane”, even though that made little sense since I was not even aware of the existence of that option. After trying everything else, though, I came back to that intriguing setting, changed to the more usual “Power Saver”, and the computer started to charge again. I was lucky to have a few percent of battery still left at that point.
Afterwards I found a relevant discussion thread on a Lenovo user forum.
As is often the case in such feature-interaction mishaps, most of the features make sense individually [4]. What causes trouble is some unforeseen combination of features.
There is no sure way to avoid such trouble, but there is a sure way to cause it: design a system feature by feature, as with user stories in agile development. The system must do this and it must do that. Oh, by the way, it must also do that. And that. User stories have one advantage: everyone understands them. But that is also their limitation. Good requirements and design require professionals who can see the whole beyond the parts.
A pernicious side of this situation is that many people believe that use cases and user stories are part of object-oriented analysis, whereas the OO approach to requirements and design is the reverse: rise above individual examples to uncover the fundamental abstractions.
As to my laptop, it is doing well, thanks. And I will be careful with function keys.
Reference and notes
[1] Bertrand Meyer: Agile! The Good, the Hype and the Ugly, Springer, 2014, Amazon page: here, book page: here. A description of the book appeared here on this blog at the time of publication.
[2] Caveat: I have not actually witnessed this state in which a plugged-in laptop will not restart. The reason is simply that I do not have an alternate battery at the moment so I cannot perform the experiment with the almost certain result of losing the use of my laptop. I will confirm the behavior as soon as I have access to a spare battery.
[3] It has been my systematic experience over the past decade and a half that Lenovo seems to make a point, every couple of years, to introduce new models with incompatible batteries and docking stations. (They are also ever more incredibly bulky, with the one for the W540 almost as heavy as the laptop itself. On the other hand the laptops are good, otherwise I would not be bothering with them.)
[4] One exception here is feature SB: switching wireless off does not necessaril y mean you want to select a specific power mode! It is a manifestation of the common syndrome of software tools that think they are smarter than you, and are not. Another exception is SE: to let a simple key press change fundamental system behavior is to court disaster. But I had protected myself by using legacy mode and was hit anyway.
Category: Computer science, Eiffel, General technology, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering, Software process, Software design | Comment
AutoProof workshop: Verification As a Matter of Course
The AutoProof technology pursues the goal of “Verification As a Matter Of Course”, integrated into the EVE development environment. (The AutoProof project page here; see particularly the online interactive tutorial.) A one-day workshop devoted to the existing AutoProof and current development will take place on October 1 near Toulouse in France. It is an informal event (no proceedings planned at this point, although based on the submissions we might decide to produce a volume), on a small scale, designed to bring together people interested in making the idea of practical verification a reality.
The keynote will be given by Rustan Leino from Microsoft Research, the principal author of the Boogie framework on which the current implementation of AutoProof relies.
For submissions (or to attend without submitting) see the workshop page here. You are also welcome to contact me for more information.
Category: Computer science, Conference, Design by Contract, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering, Software verification, Software design, Testing | Comment
Design by Contract: ACM Webinar this Thursday
A third ACM webinar this year (after two on agile methods): I will be providing a general introduction to Design by Contract. The date is this coming Thursday, September 17, and the time is noon New York (18 Paris/Zurich, 17 London, 9 Los Angeles, see here for hours elsewhere). Please tune in! The event is free but requires registration here.
Category: Computer science, Concurrency, Design by Contract, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, General technology, Object technology, Programming techniques, Publication announcement, Software engineering, Software verification, Software design | Comment
Detecting deadlock automatically? (New paper)
To verify sequential programs, we have to prove that they do the right thing, but also that they do it within our lifetime — that they terminate. The termination problem is considerably harder with concurrent programs, since they add a new form of non-termination: deadlock. A set of concurrent processes or threads will deadlock if they end up each holding a resource that another wants and wanting a resource that another holds.
There is no general solution to the deadlock problem, even a good enough general solution. (“Good enough” is the best we can hope for, since like many important problems deadlock is undecidable.) It is already hard enough to provide run-time deadlock detection, to be able at least to cancel execution when deadlock happens. The research reported in this new paper [1] pursues the harder goal of static detection. It applies to an object-oriented context (specifically the SCOOP model of concurrent OO computation) and relies fundamentally on the alias calculus, a static alias analysis technique developed in previous publications.
The approach is at its inception and considerable work remains to be done. Still, the example handled by the paper is encouraging: analyzing two versions of the dining philosophers problem and proving — manually — that one can deadlock and the other cannot.
[1] Bertrand Meyer: An automatic technique for static deadlock prevention, in PSI 2014 (Ershov Informatics Conference), eds. Irina Virbitskaite and Andrei Voronkov, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2015, to appear.; draft available here.
Tags: Aliasing, Deadlock, SCOOP, Static analysis
Category: Algorithms, Computer science, Concurrency, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Object technology, Publication announcement, Software engineering | Comment
Programming language features
InfoWorld is currently publishing a series of programming language assessments:
9 Things We Hate About Objective-C, 4 June.
15 Things We Hate About Java, 6 March.
10 Features Apple Stole for the Swift Programming Language, 9 June.
Notable in these articles is what they do not mention: Eiffel has most of what the author misses in Objective-C and Java; and most of what Swift “stole” it stole from Eiffel.
In this article let us concentrate on the nine Objective-C complaints, by Peter Wayner [1]; subsequent articles will examine the Java “hates” and the Swift “steals”.
Criticism 1: “It is a little too different“
“Objective-C lovers tout that Objective-C is a strict superset of C: If you can do it in C, you should be able to do it in Objective-C. But it doesn’t go the other way, so you’re stuck wondering, “Should I use an Objective-C method description or a C one?” Achieving portability to C programs requires constant vigilance and forethought.”
This is what happens when you mix language paradigms. Eiffel has a close relationship with C, but the two sides are clearly separated. You can call C from Eiffel, and the other way around. You can declare an Eiffel routine as “external C” and even include the C code inline: in other words an Eiffel “method description” can have a C implementation. The structure is always object-oriented (no need to fear that a novice programmer will revert to a C style for the design) but for access to low-level system mechanisms and small functions that should be optimized to the byte and microsecond you use C directly, in its ideal role.
Criticism 2: “It’s still mostly just plain old C“
“For all its object-oriented coolness, you don’t get much else from Objective-C. It’s more of a way to organize your code for large systems than a way to write better code. You’re still responsible for pointers. You’re still responsible for keeping track of memory. “
Eiffel is object-oriented all the way. You are not “responsible for pointers“. References are tame: no pointer arithmetic. You are not “responsible for keeping track of memory“: objects are garbage-collected
“The C programmers loved to call their software a ‘portable assembly code’, and the same is true for Objective-C … except it’s only portable from the Mac to the iPad.”
“Portable assembly code” is exactly what C provides, and hence an excellent target for an Eiffel compiler. As to Eiffel, it runs on all platforms, from Windows to Linux to Solaris to VMS to the Mac.
Criticism 3: Stuck in the 80’s
“Parachute pants, big hair, ‘The Breakfast Club’ — and the NeXT machine: Objective-C is like a time machine in programming-language land.”
Eiffel has undergone constant evolution, innovating on all fronts of programming constructs and integrating the best of known techniques.
“The primitives aren’t first-class citizens. Garbage collection, that wonderful idea that sustained Lisp, was adopted by Java ages ago. Objective-C got it in 2006. The same goes for properties and closures.”
All this has been in Eiffel forever. Agents (closures) were introduced in 1999, long before Java, C# and other OO languages had anything of the sort. Eiffel’s assigner commands are vastly superior to properties (no need to write all these boring getter functions).
Criticism 4: “Punctuation“
“The cool modern kids writing Python, Ruby, and CoffeeScript can craft billion-dollar companies without using brackets, braces, and parentheses. You’ll be wearing out your punctuation keys writing Objective-C. Colons, at-signs, asterisks? Is there any character that the language doesn’t use?”
Come on. How can one be so misinformed? The semicolon has been optional in Eiffel for fifteen years. The high-priest style of C, Objective-C, Java, C# and so many others, with its piling up of strange symbols, is something that Eiffel users never had to suffer.
Criticism 5: “Modern syntax“
Not modern syntax, that is:
“Objective-C”s syntax is like Coke: They tried to modernize it in the ’90s, but it never stuck.”
Eiffel’s syntax is clear and simple. Total beginners, including high-school students, pick it up just as easily and naturally as advanced programmers, and as application experts who want to concentrate on their problem, not on learning strange language conventions going back to the nineteen-sixties.
Criticism 6: “No namespaces“
Here Eiffel does not provide what the journalist wants: it is “post-namespaces” (as in “postmodern”). The Eiffel community has decided that the complexity of namespaces was not worth the trouble (what happens when you move packages around?) and prefers simple mechanisms for resolving class name clashes.
Criticism 7: “It only runs in Apple’s corner of the universe“
” Variety is the spice of life. It’s even more important in a world where not everything is an iPhone. If a Windows or Linux shop recruits you, you can forget all of those extra Objective-C extensions you learned because they’ll be of no use.”
Eiffel is not tied to any manufacturer, computer architecture or operating system. If a new processor comes out, or a user needs an exotic platform, a port can usually be produced in a matter of hours. The compiler and the entire environment to which it belongs, EiffelStudio, are written in Eiffel; the supporting runtime is in a highly portable form of C, which requires very little customization, if any, for a new platform. (Here “the compiler” means the Eiffel Software implementation, but other implementations also put a strong emphasis on portability.)
Criticism 8: “XCode is your only choice“
“In the Objective-C world, you get really only one choice. Why do you need to be different, comrade?”
Besides EiffelStudio other compilers and tools are available for Eiffel.
Criticism 9: “Apple’s benevolent dictatorship“
“Do you want to give out more than 100 copies of your iPhone app? Forget it. Do you want to “think different” with your UI? Please go back and read the user interface guidelines. You can’t do anything without Apple’s permission because Apple uses strong crypto to lock down everything — and fanatically tyrannical policies to lock down the rest.”
The Eiffel language definition is steered by a standards committee under Ecma (the organization behind many of the major standards in IT), which anyone can join. EiffelStudio itself is available in open source. The Eiffel world knows nothing like the close control Apple exerts over its product; it welcomes all contributors.
Maybe someone should talk to Mr. Wayner and help him broaden his scope of programming language knowledge.
[1] Peter Wayner, 9 Things We Hate About Objective-C, InfoWorld, 4 June 2014, available here.
Tags: C#, Java, Objective-C
Category: Eiffel, Language design, Object technology, Software engineering | Comment
New article: passive processors
The SCOOP concurrency model has a clear division of objects into “regions”, improving the clarity and reliability of concurrent programs by establishing a close correspondence between the object structure and the process structure. Each region has an associated “processor”, which executes operations on the region’s objects. A literal application of this rule implies, however, a severe performance penalty. As part of the work for his PhD thesis (defended two weeks ago), Benjamin Morandi found out that a mechanism for specifying certain processors as “passive” yields a considerable performance improvement. The paper, to be published at COORDINATION, describes the technique and its applications.
Benjamin Morandi, Sebastian Nanz and Bertrand Meyer: Safe and Efficient Data Sharing for Message-Passing Concurrency, to appear in proceedings of COORDINATION 2014, 16th International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages, Berlin, 3-6 June 2014, draft available here.
Category: Computer science, Concurrency, Conference, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Publication announcement, Software engineering, Software design | Comment
LASER 2014 (Elba, September)
2014 marks the 10-th anniversary (11th edition) of the LASER summer school. The school will be held September 7-14, 2014, and the detailed information is here.
LASER (the name means Laboratory for Applied Software Engineering Research) is dedicated to practical software engineering. The roster of speakers since we started is a who’s who of innovators in the field. Some of the flavor of the school can gathered from the three proceedings volumes published in Springer LNCS (more on the way) or simply by browsing the pages of the schools from previous years.
Usually we have a theme, but to mark this anniversary we decided to go for speakers first; we do have a title, “Leading-Edge Software Engineering”, but broad enough to encompass a wide variety of a broad range of topics presented by star speakers: Harald Gall, Daniel Jackson, Michael Jackson, Erik Meijer (appearing at LASER for the third time!), Gail Murphy and Moshe Vardi. With such a cast you can expect to learn something important regardless of your own primary specialty.
LASER is unique in its setting: a 5-star hotel in the island paradise of Elba, with outstanding food and countless opportunities for exploring the marvelous land, the beaches, the sea, the geology (since antiquity Elba has been famous for its stones and minerals) and the history, from the Romans to Napoleon, who in the 9 months of his reign changed the island forever. The school is serious stuff (8:30 to 13 and 17 to 20 every day), but with enough time to enjoy the surroundings.
Registration is open now.
Category: Computer science, Concurrency, Conference, Education, Empirical Software Engineering, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Software engineering, Software design, Talks | Comment
Negative variables: new version
I have mentioned this paper before (see the earlier blog entry here) but it is now going to be published [1] and has been significantly revised, both to take referee comments into account and because we found better ways to present the concepts.
We have endeavored to explain better than in the draft why the concept of negative variable is necessary and why the usual techniques for modeling object-oriented programs do not work properly for the fundamental OO operation, qualified call x.r (…). These techniques are based on substitution and are simply unable to express certain properties (let alone verify them). The affected properties are those involving properties of the calling context or the global project structure.
The basic idea (repeated in part from the earlier post) is as follows. In modeling OO programs, we have to take into account the unique “general relativity” property of OO programming: all the operations you write are expressed relative to a “current object” which changes repeatedly during execution. More precisely at the start of a call x.r (…) and for the duration of that call the current object changes to whatever x denotes — but to determine that object we must again interpret x in the context of the previous current object. This raises a challenge for reasoning about programs; for example in a routine the notation f.some_reference, if f is a formal argument, refers to objects in the context of the calling object, and we cannot apply standard rules of substitution as in the non-OO style of handling calls.
We introduced a notion of negative variable to deal with this issue. During the execution of a call x.r (…) the negation of x , written x’, represents a back pointer to the calling object; negative variables are characterized by axiomatic properties such as x.x’= Current and x’.(old x)= Current.
The paper explains why this concept is necessary, describes the associated formal rules, and presents applications.
[1] Bertrand Meyer and Alexander Kogtenkov: Negative Variables and the Essence of Object-Oriented Programming, to appear in Specification, Algebra, and Software, eds. Shusaku Iida, Jose Meseguer and Kazuhiro Ogata, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014, to appear. See text here.
Tags: general relativity, Negative variable
Category: Computer science, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Publication announcement, Software engineering, Software verification, Theory | Comment
Reading notes: strong specifications are well worth the effort
This report continues the series of ICSE 2013 article previews (see the posts of these last few days, other than the DOSE announcement), but is different from its predecessors since it talks about a paper from our group at ETH, so you should not expect any dangerously delusional, disingenuously dubious or downright deceptive declaration or display of dispassionate, disinterested, disengaged describer’s detachment.
The paper [1] (mentioned on this blog some time ago) is entitled How good are software specifications? and will be presented on Wednesday by Nadia Polikarpova. The basic result: stronger specifications, which capture a more complete part of program functionality, cause only a modest increase in specification effort, but the benefits are huge; in particular, automatic testing finds twice as many faults (“bugs” as recently reviewed papers call them).
Strong specifications are specifications that go beyond simple contracts. A straightforward example is a specification of a push operation for stacks; in EiffelBase, the basic Eiffel data structure library, the contract’s postcondition will read
item = x /A/
count = old count + 1
where x is the element being pushed, item the top of the stack and count the number of elements. It is of course sound, since it states that the element just pushed is now the new top of the stack, and that there is one more element; but it is also incomplete since it says nothing about the other elements remaining as they were; an implementation could satisfy the contract and mess up with these elements. Using “complete” or “strong” preconditions, we associate with the underlying domain a theory [2], or “model”, represented by a specification-only feature in the class, model, denoting a sequence of elements; then it suffices (with the convention that the top is the first element of the model sequence, and that “+” denotes concatenation of sequences) to use the postcondition
model = <x> + old model /B/
which says all there is to say and implies the original postconditions /A/.
Clearly, the strong contracts, in the /B/ style, are more expressive [3, 4], but they also require more specification effort. Are they worth the trouble?
The paper explores this question empirically, and the answer, at least according to the criteria used in the study, is yes. The work takes advantage of AutoTest [5], an automatic testing framework which relies on the contracts already present in the software to serve as test oracles, and generates test cases automatically. AutoTest was applied to both to the classic EiffelBase, with classic partial contracts in the /A/ style, and to the more recent EiffelBase+ library, with strong contracts in the /B/ style. AutoTest is for Eiffel programs; to check for any language-specificity in the results the work also included testing a smaller set of classes from a C# library, DSA, for which a student developed a version (DSA+) equipped with strong model-based contracts. In that case the testing tool was Microsoft Research’s Pex [7]. The results are similar for both languages: citing from the paper, “the fault rates are comparable in the C# experiments, respectively 6 . 10-3 and 3 . 10-3 . The fault complexity is also qualitatively similar.”
The verdict on the effect of strong specifications as captured by automated testing is clear: the same automatic testing tools applied to the versions with strong contracts yield twice as many real faults. The term “real fault” comes from excluding spurious cases, such as specification faults (wrong specification, right implementation), which are a phenomenon worth studying but should not count as a benefit of the strong specification approach. The paper contains a detailed analysis of the various kinds of faults and the corresponding empirically determined measures. This particular analysis is for the Eiffel code, since in the C#/Pex case “it was not possible to get an evaluation of the faults by the original developers“.
In our experience the strong specifications are not that much harder to write. The paper contains a precise measure: about five person-weeks to create EiffelBase+, yielding an “overall benefit/effort ratio of about four defects detected per person-day“. Such a benefit more than justifies the effort. More study of that effort is needed, however, because the “person” in the person-weeks was not just an ordinary programmer. True, Eiffel experience has shown that most programmers quickly get the notion of contract and start applying it; as the saying goes in the community, “if you can write an if-then-else, you can write a contract”. But we do not yet have significant evidence of whether that observation extends to model-based contracts.
Model-based contracts (I prefer to call them “theory-based” because “model” means so many other things, but I do not think I will win that particular battle) are, in my opinion, a required component of the march towards program verification. They are the right compromise between simple contracts, which have proved to be attractive to many practicing programmers but suffer from incompleteness, and full formal specification à la Z, which say everything but require too much machinery. They are not an all-or-nothing specification technique but a progressive one: programmers can start with simple contracts, then extend and refine them as desired to yield exactly the right amount of precision and completeness appropriate in any particular context. The article shows that the benefits are well worth the incremental effort.
According to the ICSE program the talk will be presented in the formal specification session, Wednesday, May 22, 13:30-15:30, Grand Ballroom C.
[1] Nadia Polikarpova, Carlo A. Furia, Yu Pei, Yi Wei and Bertrand Meyer: What Good Are Strong Specifications?, to appear in ICSE 2013 (Proceedings of 35th International Conference on Software Engineering), San Francisco, May 2013, draft available here.
[2] Bertrand Meyer: Domain Theory: the forgotten step in program verification, article on this blog, see here.
[3] Bernd Schoeller, Tobias Widmer and Bertrand Meyer: Making Specifications Complete Through Models, in Architecting Systems with Trustworthy Components, eds. Ralf Reussner, Judith Stafford and Clemens Szyperski, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, 2006, available here.
[4] Nadia Polikarpova, Carlo Furia and Bertrand Meyer: Specifying Reusable Components, in Verified Software: Theories, Tools, Experiments (VSTTE ‘ 10), Edinburgh, UK, 16-19 August 2010, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 2010, available here.
[5] Bertrand Meyer, Ilinca Ciupa, Andreas Leitner, Arno Fiva, Yi Wei and Emmanuel Stapf: Programs that Test Themselves, IEEE Computer, vol. 42, no. 9, pages 46-55, September 2009, also available here.
[6] Bertrand Meyer, Ilinca Ciupa, Andreas Leitner, Arno Fiva, Yi Wei and Emmanuel Stapf: Programs that Test Themselves, in IEEE Computer, vol. 42, no. 9, pages 46-55, September 2009, also available here.
[7] Nikolai Tillman and Peli de Halleux, Pex: White-Box Generation for .NET, in Tests And Proofs (TAP 2008), pp. 134-153.
Tags: Eiffel, ICSE
Category: Computer science, Design by Contract, Eiffel, Empirical Software Engineering, Object technology, Programming techniques, Reading notes, Software engineering, Software verification, Software design, Testing | Comment
Presentations at ICSE and VSTTE
The following presentations from our ETH group in the ICSE week (International Conference on Software Engineering, San Francisco) address important issues of software specification and verification, describing new techniques that we have recently developed as part of our work building EVE, the Eiffel Verification Environment. One is at ICSE proper and the other at VSTTE (Verified Software: Tools, Theories, Experiments). If you are around please attend them.
Julian Tschannen will present Program Checking With Less Hassle, written with Carlo A. Furia, Martin Nordio and me, at VSTTE on May 17 in the 15:30-16:30 session (see here in the VSTTE program. The draft is available here. I will write a blog article about this work in the coming days.
Nadia Polikarpova will present What Good Are Strong Specifications?, written with , Carlo A. Furia, Yu Pei, Yi Wei and me at ICSE on May 22 in the 13:30-15:30 session (see here in the ICSE program). The draft is available here. I wrote about this paper in an earlier post: see here. It describes the systematic application of theory-based modeling to the full specification and verification of advanced software.
Tags: ICSE, VSTTE
Category: Computer science, Conference, Design by Contract, Formal methods and proofs, Object technology, Programming techniques, Publication announcement, Publications, Software engineering, Software verification, Software design, Theory | Comment
Multirequirements (new paper)
As part of a Festschrift volume for Martin Glinz of the university of Zurich I wrote a paper [1] describing a general approach to requirements that I have been practicing and developing for a while, and presented in a couple of talks. The basic idea is to rely on object-oriented techniques, including contracts for the semantics, and to weave several levels of discourse: natural-language, formal and graphical.
[1] Bertrand Meyer: Multirequirements, to appear in Martin Glinz Festschrift, eds. Anne Koziolek and Norbert Scheyff, 2013, available here.
Category: Computer science, Design by Contract, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Publication announcement, Requirements, Software engineering, Software design | Comment
Negative variables and the essence of object-oriented programming (new paper)
In modeling object-oriented programs, for purposes of verification (proofs) or merely for a better understanding, we are faced with the unique “general relativity” property of OO programming: all the operations you write (excluding non-OO mechanisms such as static functions) are expressed relative to a “current object” which changes repeatedly during execution. More precisely at the start of a call x.r (…) and for the duration of that call the current object changes to whatever x denotes — but to determine that object we must again interpret x in the context of the previous current object. This raises a challenge for reasoning about programs; for example in a routine the notation f.some_reference, if f is a formal argument, refers to objects in the context of the calling object, and we cannot apply standard rules of substitution as in the non-OO style of handling calls.
In earlier work [1, 2] initially motivated by the development of the Alias Calculus, I introduced a notion of negative variable to deal with this issue. During the execution of a call x.r (…) the negation of x , written x’, represents a back pointer to the calling object; negative variables are characterized by axiomatic properties such as x.x’= Current and x’.(old x)= Current. Alexander Kogtenkov has implemented these ideas and refined them.
In a recent paper under submission [3], we review the concepts and applications of negative variables.
[1] Bertrand Meyer: Steps Towards a Theory and Calculus of Aliasing, in International Journal of Software and Informatics, 2011, available here.
[2] Bertrand Meyer: Towards a Calculus of Object Programs, in Patterns, Programming and Everything, Judith Bishop Festschrift, eds. Karin Breitman and Nigel Horspool, Springer-Verlag, 2012, pages 91-128, available here.
[3] Bertrand Meyer and Alexander Kogtenkov: Negative Variables and the Essence of Object-Oriented Programming, submitted for publication, 2012. [Updated 13 January 2014: I have removed the link to the draft mentioned in this post since it is now superseded by the new version, soon to be published, and available here.]
Category: Computer science, Concurrency, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Publication announcement, Software engineering, Software verification, Theory | Comment
8 October 2012, 20:03
Alexander Kogtenkov pointed out to me that precursor work to my papers on the Alias Calculus [1] [2] had been published by John Whaley and Martin Rinard [3]. There are some significant differences; in particular my rules are simpler, and their work is not explicitly presented as a calculus. But many of the basic ideas are the same. The reason I did not cite that paper is simply that I was not aware of it; I am happy to correct the omission.
[1] Bertrand Meyer: Towards a Theory and Calculus of Aliasing, in Journal of Object Technology, vol. 9, no. 2, March-April 2010, pages 37-74, available here (superseded by [2])
[2] Bertrand Meyer: Steps Towards a Theory and Calculus of Aliasing, in International Journal of Software and Informatics, 2011, available here (revised and improved version of [1].)
[3] John Whaley and Martin Rinard: Compositional Pointer and Escape Analysis for Java Programs, in POPL 1999, available here.
Category: Computer science, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering, Theory | 1 Comment
Domain Theory: the forgotten step in program verification
Program verification is making considerable progress but is hampered by a lack of abstraction in specifications. A crucial step is, almost always, absent from the process; this omission is the principal obstacle to making verification a standard component of everyday software development.
Steps in software verification
In the first few minutes of any introduction to program verification, you will be told that the task requires two artifacts: a program, and a specification. The program describes what executions will do; the specification, what they are supposed to do. To verify software is to ascertain that the program matches the specification: that it does is what it should.
The consequence usually drawn is that verification consists of three steps: write a specification, write a program, prove that the program satisfies the specification. The practical process is of course messier, if only because the first two steps may occur in the reverse order and, more generally, all three steps are often intertwined: the specification and the program influence each other, in particular through the introduction of “verification conditions” into the program; and initial proof attempts will often lead to changes in both the specification and the program. But by and large these are the three accepted steps.
Such a description misses a fourth step, a prerequisite to specification that is essential to a scalable verification process: Domain Theory. Any program addresses a specific domain of discourse, be it the domain of network access and communication for a mobile phone system, the domain of air travel for a flight control system, of companies and shares for a stock exchange system and so on. Even simple programs with a limited scope, such as the computation of the maximum of an array, use a specific domain beyond elementary mathematics. In this example, it is the domain of arrays, with their specific properties: an array has a range, a minimum and maximum indexes in that range, an associated sequence of values; we may define a slice a [i..j], ask for the value associated with a given index, replace an element at a given index and so on. The Domain Theory provides a formal model for any such domain, with the appropriate mathematical operations and their properties. In the example the operations are the ones just mentioned, and the properties will include the axiom that if we replace an element at a certain index i with a value v then access the element at an index j, the value we get is v if i = j, and otherwise the earlier value at j.
The role of a Domain Theory
The task of devising a Domain Theory is to describe such a domain of reference, in the spirit of abstract data types: by listing the applicable operations and their properties. If we do not treat this task as a separate step, we end up with the kind of specification that works for toy examples but quickly becomes unmanageable for real-life applications. Most of the verification literature, unfortunately, relies on such specifications. They lack abstraction since they keep using the lowest-level mathematical objects and constructs, such as numbers and quantified expressions. They are to specification what assembly language is to modern programming.
Dines Bjørner has for a long time advocated a closely related idea, domain engineering; see for example his book in progress [1]. Unfortunately, he does not take advantage of modularization through abstract data types; the book is an example of always-back-to-the-basics specification, resorting time and again to fully explicit specifications based on a small number of mathematical primitives, and as a consequence making formal specification look difficult.
Maximum computed from both ends
As a simple example of modeling through an abstract theory consider an algorithm for computing the maximum of an array. We could use the standard technique that goes through the array one-way, but for variety let us take the algorithm that works from both ends, moving two integer cursors towards each other until they meet. (This example was used in a verification competition at a recent conference, I forgot which one.) The code looks like this:
The specification, expressed by the postcondition (ensure) should state that Result is the maximum of the array; the loop invariant will be closely related to it. How do we express these properties? The obvious way is not the right way. It states the postcondition as something like
∀ k: Z | (k ≥ a.lower ∧ k ≤ a.upper) ⇒ a [k] ≤ Result
∃ k: Z | k ≥ a.lower ∧ k ≤ a.upper ∧ a [k] = Result
In words, Result is at least as large as every element of the array, and is equal to at least one of the elements of the array. The invariant can also be expressed in this style (try it).
The preceding specification expresses the desired property, but it is of an outrageously lower level than called for. The notion of maximum is a general one for arrays over an ordered type. It can be computed through many different algorithms in addition to the one shown above, and exists independently of these algorithms. The detailed, assembly-language-like definition of its properties should not have to be repeated in every case. It should be part of the Domain Theory for the underlying notion, arrays.
A specification at the right level of abstraction
In a Domain Theory for arrays of elements from an ordered set, one of the principal operations is maximum, satisfying the above properties. The definition of maximum through these properties belongs at the Domain Theory level. The Domain Theory should include that definition, independent of any particular computational technique such as two_way_max. Then the routine’s postcondition, relying on this notion from the Domain Theory, becomes simply
Result = a.maximum
The application of this approach to the loop invariant is particularly interesting. If you tried to write it at the lowest level, as suggested above, you should have produced something like this:
a.lower ≤ i ≤ j ≤ a.upper
∃ k: Z | k ≥ i ∧ k ≤ j ∧ (∀ l: Z | l ≥ a.lower ∧ l ≤ a.upper ⇒ a [l] ≤ a [k])
The first clause is appropriate but the rest is horrible! With its nested quantified expressions it gives an impression of great complexity for a property that is in fact straightforward, simple enough in fact to be explained to a 10-year-old: the maximum of the entire array can be found between indexes i and j. In other words, it is also the maximum of the array slice going from i to j. The Domain Theory will define the notion of slice and enable us to express the invariant as just
a.lower ≤ i ≤ j ≤ a.upper — This bounding clause remains
a.maximum = (a [i..j ]).maximum
(where we will write the slice a [i..j ] as a.slice (i, j ) if we do not have mechanisms for defining special syntax). To verify the routine becomes trivial: on loop exit the invariant still holds and i = j, so the maximum of the entire array is given by the maximum of the single-element slice a [i..i ], which is the value of its single element a [i ]. This last property — the maximum of a single-element array is its single value — is independent of the verification of any particular program and should be proved as a little theorem of the Domain Theory for arrays.
The comparison between the two versions is striking: without Domain Theory, we are back to the most tedious mathematical manipulations again and again; simple, clear properties look complicated and obscure. This just for a small example on basic data structures; now think what it will be for a complex application domain. Without a first step of formal modeling to develop a Domain Theory, no realistic specification and verification process is realistic.
Although the idea is illustrated here through examples of individual routines, the construction of a Domain Theory should usually occur, in an object-oriented development process, at the level of a class: the embodiment of an abstract data type, which is at the appropriate level of granularity. The theory applies to objects of a given type, and hence will be used for the verification of all operations of that type. This observation justifies the effort of devising a Domain Theory, since it will benefit a whole set of software elements.
Components of a Domain Theory
The Domain Theory should include the three ingredients illustrated in the example:
Operations, modeled as mathematical functions (no side effects of course, we are in the world of specification).
Axioms characterizing the defining properties of these operations.
Theorems, characterizing other important properties.
This approach is of course nothing else than abstract data types (the same thing, although few people realize it, as object-oriented analysis). Even though ADTs are a widely popularized notion, supported for example by tools such as CafeOBJ [2] and Maude [3], it is generally not taken to its full conclusions; in particular there is too often a tendency to define every new ADT from scratch, rather than building up libraries of reusable high-level mathematical components in the O-O spirit of reuse.
Results, not just definitions
In devising a Domain Theory with the three kinds of ingredient listed above, we should not forget the last one, the theorems! The most depressing characteristic of much of the work on formal specification is that it is long on definitions and short on results, while good mathematics is supposed to be the reverse. I think people who have seriously looked at formal methods and do not adopt them are turned off not so much by the need to use mathematics but by the impression they get little value for it.
That is why Eiffel contracts do get adopted: even if it’s just for testing and debugging, people see immediate returns. It suffices for a programmer to have caught one bug as the violation of a simple postcondition to be convinced for life and lose any initial math-phobia.
Quantifiers are evil
As we go beyond simple contract properties — this argument must be positive, this reference will not be void — the math needs to be at the same level of abstraction to which, as modern programmers, we are accustomed. For example, one should always be wary of program specifications relying directly on quantified expressions, as in the low-level variants of the postcondition and loop invariant of the two_way_max routine.
This is not just a matter of taste, as in the choice in logic [4] between lambda expressions (more low-level but also more immediately understandable) and combinators (more abstract but, for many, more abstruse). We are talking here about the fundamental software engineering problem of scalability; more generally, of the understandability, extendibility and reusability of programs, and the same criteria for their specification and verification. Quantifiers are of course needed to express fundamental properties of a structure but in general should not directly appear in program assertions: as the example illustrated, their level of abstraction is lower than the level of discourse of a modern object-oriented program. If the rule — Quantifiers Considered Harmful — is not absolute, it must be pretty close.
Quantified expressions, “All elements of this structure possess this property” and “Some element of this structure possesses this property” — belong in the description of the structure and not in the program. They should appear in the Domain Theory, not in the verification. If you want to express that a hash table search found an element of key K, you should not write
(Result = Void ∧ (∀ i: Z | i ≥ a.lower ∧ i ≤ a.upper ⇒ a.item (i).key ≠ K))
(Result ≠ Void ∧ (∀ i: Z | i ≥ a.lower ∧ i ≤ a.upper ∧ a.item (i).key = K ∧ Result = a.item (i))
Result /= Void ⇔ (Result ∈ a.elements_of_key (K))
The quantified expressions will appear in the Domain Theory for the corresponding structure, in the definition of such domain properties as elements_of_key. Then the program’s specification — the contracts to be verified — can rely on concepts that make sense to the programmer; the verification will take advantage of theorems that have been proved independently since they belong to the Domain Theory and do not depend on individual programs.
Even the simplest examples…
Practical software verification requires Domain Theory even in the simplest cases, including those often used as purely academic examples. Perhaps the most common (and convenient) way to explain the notion of loop invariant is Euclid’s algorithm to compute the greatest common divisor (gcd) of two numbers (with a structure remarkably similar to that of two_way_max):
I have expressed the postcondition using a concept from an assumed Domain Theory for the underlying problem: gcd, the mathematical function that yields the greatest common divisor of two integers. Many specifications I have seen go back to the basics, with something like this (using \\ for integer remainder):
a \\ Result = 0 ∧ b \\ Result = 0 ∧ ∀ i: N | (a \\ i = 0) ∧ (b \\ i = 0) ⇒ i ≤ Result
This is indeed the definition of what it means for Result to be the gcd of a and b (it divides a, it divides b, and is greater than any other integer that also has these two properties). But it makes no sense to include such a detailed mathematical property in the specification of a program element. It belongs in the domain theory, where it will serve as the definition of a function gcd, which we can then use directly in the specification of the program.
Note how the invariant makes the necessity of the Domain Theory approach even more clear: try to express it in the basic mathematical form, not using the function gcd, It can be done, but the result is typical of the high complexity to usefulness ratio of traditional formal specifications mentioned above. Instead, the invariant that I have included in the program text above says exactly what there is to say, clearly and concisely: at each iteration, the gcd of our two temporary values, i and j, is the result that we are seeking, the gcd of the original values a and b. On exit from the loop, when i and j are equal, their common value is that result.
It is also thanks to the Domain Theory modeling that the verification of the program — consisting of proving that the stated property is indeed invariant — will be so simple: as part of the theory, we should have the two little theorems
i > j > 0 ⇒ gcd (i, j) = gcd (i –j, j)
gcd (i, i) = i
which immediately show the implementation to be correct.
Inside of any big, fat, messy, quantifier-ridden specification there is a simple, elegant and clear Domain-Theory-based specification desperately trying to get out. Find it and use it.
From Domain Theory to domain library
One of the reasons most people working on program verification have not used the division into levels of discourse described here, with a clear role for developing a Domain Theory, is that they lack the appropriate notational support. Mathematical notation is of course available, but we are talking about programs a general verification framework cannot resort to a new special notation for every new application domain.
This is one of the places where Eiffel provides a consistent solution, through its seamless approach to integrating programs and specifications in a single notation. Thanks to mechanisms such as deferred classes (classes that describe concepts through detailed specifications without committing to an implementation), Eiffel is as much for specification as for design and implementation; a Domain Theory can be expressed though a set of deferred Eiffel classes, which we may call a domain library. The classes in a domain library should not just be deferred, meaning devoid of implementation; they should in addition describe stateless operations only — queries, not commands — since they are modeling purely mathematical concepts.
An earlier article in this blog [5] outlined the context of our verification work: the EVE project (Eiffel Verification Environment), a practical approach to integrating software verification in the day-to-day practice of modern software development, with the slogan ““Verification As a Matter Of Course”. In this project we have applied the idea of Domain Theory by building a domain library covering fundamental concepts of set theory, including functions and relations. This is the Mathematical Model Library (MML) [6, 7], which we use to verify the new data structure library EiffelBase 2 using specifications at the appropriate level of abstraction.
MML is in fact useful for the specification of a wide variety of programs, since almost every application area can benefit from the general concepts of set, subset, relation and such. But to cover a specific application domain, say flight traffic control, MML will generally not suffice; you will need to devise a Domain Theory that mathematically models the target domain, and may express it in the form of a domain library written in the same general spirit as MML: all deferred, stateless, focused on high-level abstractions.
It is one of the attractions of Eiffel that you can express such a theory and library in the same notation as the programs that will use it — more precisely in a subset of that notation, since the specification classes do not need the imperative constructs of the language such as instructions and attributes. Then both the development process and the verification use a seamlessly integrated set of notations and techniques, and all use the same tools from a modern IDE, in our case EiffelStudio, for browsing, editing, working with graphical repreentation, metrics etc.
DSL libraries for specifications
A mechanism to express Domain Theories is to a general specification mechanism essentially like a Domain Specific Language (DSL) is to a general programming language: a specialization for a particular domain. Domain libraries make the approach practical by:
Embedding the specification language in the programming language.
Fundamentally relying on reuse, in the best spirit of object technology.
This approach is in line with the one I presented for handling DSLs in an earlier article of this blog [8] (thanks, by the way, for the many comments received, some of them posted here and some on Facebook and LinkedIn where the post triggered long discussions). It is usually a bad idea to invent a new language for a new application domain. A better solution is to rely on libraries, by taking advantage of the power of object-oriented mechanisms to model (in domain libraries) and implement (for DSLs) the defining features of such a domain, and to make the result widely reusable. The resulting libraries are purely descriptive in the case of a domain library expressing a Domain Theory, and directly usable by programs in the case of a library embodying a DSL, but the goal is the same.
A sound and necessary engineering practice
Many ideas superficially look similar to Domain Theory: domain engineering as mentioned above, “domain analysis” as widely discussed in the requirements literature, model-driven development, abstract data type specification… They all start from some of the same observations, but Domain Theory as described in this article is something different: a systematic approach to modeling an arbitrary application domain mathematically, which:
Describes the concepts through applicable operations, axioms and (most importantly) theorems.
Expresses these elements in an applicative (side-effect free, i.e. equivalent to pure mathematics) subset of the programming language, for direct embedding in program specifications.
Relies on the class mechanism to structure the results.
Collects the specifications into specification libraries and promotes the reuse of specifications in the same way we promote software reuse.
Uses the combination of these techniques to ensure that program specifications are at a high level of abstraction, compatible with the programmers’ view of their software.
Promotes a clear and effective verification process.
The core idea is in line with standard engineering practices in disciplines other than software: to build a bridge, a car or a chip you need first to develop a sound model of the future system and its environment, using any useful models developed previously rather than always going back to elementary textbook mathematics.
It seems in fact easier to justify doing Domain Analysis than to justify not doing it. The power of expression and abstraction of our programs has grown by leaps and bounds; it’s time for our specifications to catch up.
[1] Dines Bjørner: From Domains to Requirements —The Triptych Approach to Software Engineering, “to be submitted to Springer”, available here.
[2] Kokichi Futatsugi and others: CafeObj page, here.
[3] José Meseguer and others: Maude publication page, here.
[4] J. Roger Hindley, J. P. Seldin: Introduction to Combinators and l-calculus, Cambridge University Press, 1986.
[5] Verification As a Matter Of Course, earlier article on this blog (March 2010), available here.
[6] Bernd Schoeller, Tobias Widmer and Bertrand Meyer. Making specifications complete through models, in Architecting Systems with Trustworthy Components, eds. Ralf Reussner, Judith Stafford and Clemens Szyperski, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, 2006, pages 48-70, available here.
[7] Nadia Polikarpova, Carlo A. Furia and Bertrand Meyer: Specifying Reusable Components, in VSTTE’10: Verified Software: Theories, Tools and Experiments, Edinburgh, August 2010, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, available here.
[8] Never Design a Language, earlier article on this blog (January 2012), available here.
Category: Education, Essay, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering, Software process, Software verification, Software design | 5 Comments
Aliasing and framing: Saint Petersburg seminar next week
In last Thursday’s session of the seminar, Kokichi Futatsugi’s talk took longer than planned (and it would have been a pity to stop him), so I postponed my own talk on Automatic inference of frame conditions through the alias calculus to next week (Thursday local date). As usual it will be broadcast live.
Seminar page: here, including the link to follow the webcast.
Time and date: 5 April 2012, 18 Saint Petersburg time; you can see the local time at your location here.
Frame specifications, the description of what does not change in a routine call, are one of the most annoying components of verification, in particular for object-oriented software. Ideally frame conditions should be inferred automatically. I will present how the alias calculus, described in recent papers, can address this need.
There may be a second talk, on hybrid systems, by Sergey Velder.
Tags: Aliasing, ITMO
Category: Computer science, Design by Contract, Formal methods and proofs, Language design, Object technology, Seminar, Software engineering, Software verification | Comment
A carefully designed Result
In the Eiffel user discussion group [1], Ian Joyner recently asked:
A lot of people are now using Result as a variable name for the return value in many languages. I believe this first came from Eiffel, but can’t find proof. Or was it adopted from an earlier language?
Proof I cannot offer, but certainly my recollection is that the mechanism was an original design and not based on any previous language. (Many of Eiffel’s mechanisms were inspired by other languages, which I have always acknowledged as precisely as I could, but this is not one of them. If there is any earlier language with this convention — in which case a reader will certainly tell me — I was and so far am not aware of it.)
The competing conventions are a return instruction, as in C and languages based on it (C++, Java, C#), and Fortran’s practice, also used in Pascal, of using the function name as a variable within the function body. Neither is satisfactory. The return instruction suffers from two deficiencies:
It is an extreme form of goto, jumping out of a function from anywhere in its control structure. The rest of the language sticks to one-entry, one-exit structures, as I think all languages should.
In most non-trivial cases the return value is not just a simple formula but has to be computed through some algorithm, requiring the declaration of a local variable just to denote that result. In every case the programmer must invent a name for that variable and, in a typed language, include a declaration. This is tedious and suggests that the language should take care of the declaration for the programmer.
The Fortran-Pascal convention does not combine well with recursion (which Fortran for a long time did not support). In the body of the function, an occurrence of the function’s name can denote the result, or it can denote a recursive call; conventions can be defined to remove the ambiguity, but they are messy, especially for a function without arguments: in function f, does the instruction
f := f + 1
add one to the value of the function’s result as computed so far, as it would if f were an ordinary variable, or to the result of calling f recursively?
Another problem with the Fortran-Pascal approach is that in the absence of a language-defined rule for variable initialization a function can return an undefined result, if some path has failed to initialize the corresponding variable.
The Eiffel design addresses these problems. It combines several ideas:
No nesting of routines. This condition is essential because without it the name Result would be ambiguous. In all Algol- and Pascal-like languages it was considered really cool to be able to declare routines within routines, without limitation on the depth of recursion. I realized that in an object-oriented language such a mechanism was useless and in fact harmful: a class should be a collection of features — services offered to the rest of the world — and it would be confusing to define features within features. Simula 67 offered such a facility; I wrote an analysis of inter-module relations in Simula, including inheritance and all the mechanisms retained from Algol such as nesting (I am trying to find that document, and if I do I will post it in this blog); my conclusion was the result was too complicated and that the main culprit was nesting. Requiring classes to be flat structures was, in my opinion, one of the most effective design decisions for Eiffel.
Language-defined initialization. Even a passing experience with C and C++ shows that uninitialized variables are one of the major sources of bugs. Eiffel introduced a systematic rule for all variables, including Result, and it is good to see that some subsequent languages such as Java have retained that convention. For a function result, it is common to ignore the default case, relying on the standard initialization, as in if “interesting case” then Result:= “interesting value” end without an else clause (I like this convention, but some people prefer to make all cases explicit).
One-entry, one-exit blocks; no goto in overt or covert form (break, continue etc.).
Design by Contract mechanisms: postconditions usually need to refer to the result computed by a function.
The convention is then simple: in any function, you can use a language-defined local variable Result for you, of the type that you declared for the function result; you can use it as a normal variable, and the result returned by any particular call will be the final value of the variable on exit from the function body.
The convention has been widely imitated, starting with Delphi and most recently in Microsoft’s “code contracts”, a kind of poor-man’s Design by Contract emulation, achieved through libraries; it requires a Result notation to denote the function result in a postcondition, although this notation is unrelated to the mechanisms in the target languages such as C#. As the example of Eiffel’s design illustrates, a programming language is a delicate construction where all elements should fit together; the Result convention relies on many other essential concepts of the language, and in turn makes them possible.
[1] Eiffel Software discussion group, here.
Category: Computer science, Design by Contract, Eiffel, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering | 2 Comments
TOOLS 2012, “The Triumph of Objects”, Prague in May: Call for Workshops
2 February 2012, 22:38
Workshop proposals are invited for TOOLS 2012, “The Triumph of Objects” tools.ethz.ch, to be held in Prague May 28 to June 1. TOOLS is a federated set of conferences:
TOOLS EUROPE 2012: 50th International Conference on Objects, Models, Components, Patterns.
ICMT 2012: 5th International Conference on Model Transformation.
Software Composition 2012: 10th International Conference.
TAP 2012: 6th International Conference on Tests And Proofs.
MSEPT 2012: International Conference on Multicore Software Engineering, Performance, and Tools.
Workshops, which are normally one- or two-day long, provide organizers and participants with an opportunity to exchange opinions, advance ideas, and discuss preliminary results on current topics. The focus can be on in-depth research topics related to the themes of the TOOLS conferences, on best practices, on applications and industrial issues, or on some combination of these.
Submission proposal implies the organizers’ commitment to organize and lead the workshop personally if it is accepted. The proposal should include:
Workshop title.
Names and short bio of organizers .
Proposed duration.
Summary of the topics, goals and contents (guideline: 500 words).
Brief description of the audience and community to which the workshop is targeted.
Plans for publication if any.
Tentative Call for Papers.
Acceptance criteria are:
Organizers’ track record and ability to lead a successful workshop.
Potential to advance the state of the art.
Relevance of topics and contents to the topics of the TOOLS federated conferences.
Timeliness and interest to a sufficiently large community.
Please send the proposals to me (Bertrand.Meyer AT inf.ethz.ch), with a Subject header including the words “TOOLS WORKSHOP“. Feel free to contact me if you have any question.
Workshop proposal submission deadline: 17 February 2012.
Notification of acceptance or rejection: as promptly as possible and no later than February 24.
Workshops: 28 May to 1 June 2012.
Tags: Object, TOOLS, Workshops
Category: Conference, Education, Empirical Software Engineering, Formal methods and proofs, General technology, Language design, Object technology, Programming techniques, Publications, Software engineering, Software process, Software verification, Testing, Theory | Comment
“Touch of Class” published
My textbook Touch of Class: An Introduction to Programming Well Using Objects and Contracts [1] is now available from Springer Verlag [2]. I have been told of many bookstores in Europe that have it by now; for example Amazon Germany [3] offers immediate delivery. Amazon US still lists the book as not yet published [4], but I think this will be corrected very soon.
The book results from six years of teaching introductory programming at ETH Zurich. It is richly illustrated in full color (not only with technical illustrations but with numerous photographs of people and artefacts). It is pretty big, but designed so that a typical one-semester introductory course can cover most of the material.
Many topics are addressed (see table of contents below), including quite a few that are seldom seen at the introductory level. Some examples, listed here in random order: a fairly extensive introduction to software engineering including things like requirements engineering (not usually mentioned in programming courses, with results for everyone to see!) and CMMI, a detailed discussion of how to implement recursion, polymorphism and dynamic binding and their role for software architecture, multiple inheritance, lambda calculus (at an introductory level of course), a detailed analysis of the Observer and Visitor patterns, event-driven programming, the lure and dangers of references and aliasing, topological sort as an example of both algorithm and API design, high-level function closures, software tools, properties of computer hardware relevant for programmers, undecidability etc.
The progression uses an object-oriented approach throughout; the examples are in Eiffel, and four appendices present the details of Java, C#, C++ and C. Concepts of Design by Contract and rigorous development are central to the approach; for example, loops are presented as a technique for computing a result by successive approximation, with a central role for the concept of loop invariant. This is not a “formal methods” book in the sense of inflicting on the students a heavy mathematical apparatus, but it uses preconditions, postconditions and invariants throughout to alert them to the importance of reasoning rigorously about programs. The discussion introduces many principles of sound design, in line with the book’s subtitle, “Learning to Program Well”.
The general approach is “Outside-In” (also known as “Inverted Curriculum” and described at some length in some of my articles, see e.g. [5]): students have, right from the start, the possibility of working with real software, a large (150,000-line) library that has been designed specifically for that purpose. Called Traffic, this library simulates traffic in a city; it is graphical and of good enough visual quality to be attractive to today’s “Wii generation” students, something that traditional beginners’ exercises, like computing the 7-th Fibonacci number, cannot do (although we have these too as well). Using the Traffic software through its API, students can right from the first couple of weeks produce powerful applications, without understanding the internals of the library. But they do not stop there: since the whole thing is available in open source, students learn little by little how the software is made internally. Hence the name “Outside-In”: understand the interface first, then dig into the internals. Two advantages of the approach are particularly worth noting:
It emphasizes the value of abstraction, and particular contracts, not by preaching but by showing to students that abstraction helps them master a large body of professional-level software, doing things that would otherwise be unthinkable at an introductory level.
It addresses what is probably today the biggest obstacle to teaching introductory programming: the wide diversity of initial student backgrounds. The risk with traditional approaches is either to fly too high and lose the novices, or stay too low and bore those who already have programming experience. With the Outside-In method the novices can follow the exact path charted from them, from external API to internal implementation; those who already know something about programming can move ahead of the lectures and start digging into the code by themselves for information and inspiration.
(We have pretty amazing data on students’ prior programming knowledge, as we have been surveying students for the past six years, initially at ETH and more recently at the University of York in England thanks to our colleague Manuel Oriol; some day I will post a blog entry about this specific topic.)
The book has been field-tested in its successive drafts since 2003 at ETH, for the Introduction to Programming course (which starts again in a few weeks, for the first time with the benefit of the full text in printed form). Our material, such as a full set of slides, plus exercises, video recordings of the lectures etc. is available to any instructor selecting the text. I must say that Springer did an outstanding job with the quality of the printing and I hope that instructors, students, and even some practitioners already in industry will like both form and content.
Front matter: Community resource, Dedication (to Tony Hoare and Niklaus Wirth), Prefaces, Student_preface, Instructor_preface, Note to instructors: what to cover?, Contents
PART I: Basics
1 The industry of pure ideas
2 Dealing with objects
3 Program structure basics
4 The interface of a class
5 Just Enough Logic
6 Creating objects and executing systems
7 Control structures
8 Routines, functional abstraction and information hiding
9 Variables, assignment and references
PART II: How things work
10 Just enough hardware
11 Describing syntax
12 Programming languages and tools
PART III: Algorithms and data structures
13 Fundamental data structures, genericity, and algorithm complexity
14 Recursion and trees
15 Devising and engineering an algorithm: Topological Sort
PART IV: Object-Oriented Techniques
16 Inheritance
17 Operations as objects: agents and lambda calculus
18 Event-driven design
PART V: Towards software engineering
19 Introduction to software engineering
PART VI: Appendices
A An introduction to Java (from material by Marco Piccioni)
B An introduction to C# (from material by Benjamin Morandi)
C An introduction to C++ (from material by Nadia Polikarpova)
D From C++ to C
E Using the EiffelStudio environment
[1] Bertrand Meyer, Touch of Class: An Introduction to Programming Well Using Objects and Contracts, Springer Verlag, 2009, 876+lxiv pages, Hardcover, ISBN: 978-3-540-92144-8.
[2] Publisher page for [1]: see here. List price: $79.95. (The page says “Ships in 3 to 4 weeks” but I think this is incorrect as the book is available; I’ll try to get the mention corrected.)
[3] Amazon.de page: see here. List price: EUR 53.45 (with offers starting at EUR 41.67).
[4] Amazon.com page: see here. List price: $63.96.
[5] Michela Pedroni and Bertrand Meyer: The Inverted Curriculum in Practice, in Proceedings of SIGCSE 2006, ACM, Houston (Texas), 1-5 March 2006, pages 481-485; available online.
Tags: Design by Contract, Hoare, Introduction to programming, Touch of Class, Wirth
Category: Computer science, Design by Contract, Education, Eiffel, Formal methods and proofs, Object technology, Programming techniques, Software engineering | Comment
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The Criminalization of the Jewish State
Filed under: Anti-Israel,Anti-Semitism,Anti-Zionist,Arab Appeasement,Arab Authority,Arab World,Bible,Consequences,Coverup,Divided Jerusalem,Donald Trump,Elections,European Governments,European Pressure,European Union,Foreign Funding,Foreign NGOs,France,Great Britain,History,IAF,IDF,Islamic Pressure,Israel,Israeli Capital City,Israeli Interests,Jerusalem,Jewish Home,Jewish State,Jews,Judaism,Judea,Judean Hills,King David,King Solomon,Knesset,Leftist Pressures,Liberate Occupied Lands,Media,Muslim Expansionism,Nationalist Pressures,Non Binding Resolution,Old City,Old Testament,Palestinian Pressures,Paris,Politicized Findings,President Obama,President Obama Pessing Freeze,Promised Land,Samaria,Secular Interests,Security,Settlements,Temple Mount,Torah,United Nations Presures,United States,United States State Department,World Pressures,Zionism,Zionist — qwertster @ 3:16 AM
Tags: anti Semitism, Anti-Israelism, Anti-Zionism, Arab Jobs, Arab State, Arab World, BDS, Boycott, Divertment, Israel, Israeli Communities, Jewish Communities, Judea, Palestinian Authority, Popuklation Growth, Samaria, Sanctions
Thank you President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Power as well as members of the United Nations Security Council, China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela for your thoughtful nonbinding UNSC Res. 2334 and especially your special efforts expressing in uncertain references that the world was now free to economically and politically attack Israel with the world’s blessings. Thank you the many areas in the world, especially in Europe as depicted more politely than we would be able by Giulio Meotti in his editorial in Arutz Sheva titled Welcome to Europe’s “Israel Free” Cities and it listing a sampling of these open-minded, progressive, free-thinking and anxious cities vying to be amongst the first to boycott all things Israel. We find ourselves fortunate that you are not sending representatives to Israel to paint “Jude” on the storefronts of Israeli retail outlets and manufacturers to further enlighten the world that they should be shunned and boycotted. We would like to say that we were surprised, shocked even, but we knew you were just waiting for President Obama to make hating and boycotting Israel popular and made “kosher” as well, if such a reference does not upset you as being too Jewish. It is our best of hopes that every Israeli and many Jews decide that visiting your hospitable climes or Jews simply find residing in your loving, warm and caring cities an affront and move somewhere they will be accepted and loved. We have plenty of room here in Israel and will hopefully soon have a whole lot more.
The good news is many European Jews are finding the spiteful atmosphere just a tad too hateful and have moved up their decision for making Aliyah and returned to their true home, Israel. Perhaps these cities, towns, municipalities and even entire swaths of the countryside, as in Spain, deciding that a boycott of Israel is in their best interests will place the hint to the Jews residing within areas where the Jewish State is considered something to be spited and blacklisted might not be the most advantageous or even the place where their future may not prove healthy and get the itch which will be given to many by Hashem in the near future and come home before their friendly neighbors decide that a Jew is too Israeli for them. The world is slowly deciding for the Jews that they need to return home to Israel where they will find a happiness unlike any they have ever experienced. All of a sudden being a Jew becomes something easy and so comfortable as you are no longer the other, the outsider, the Jew which will be tolerated as long as it does not act too Jewish. The world may not want things made in Israel, but they actually depend daily on things Israeli and they will not give up those items which make their lives not only easier and richer but in some cases make their lives possible. Their cell phones depend on Israel. If they have stents in the heart they likely were made by Israel. Their instant messenger coding was initially written in Israel. Many agricultural technologies such as drip irrigation which saves water while increasing crop health was invented in Israel. But in order to assist these haters across the world who decide that all things Israel and those things tainted by Israel must be boycotted, allow us to help with this list of ten products you will need to avoid or simply remember all the items from Made in Israel for a more complete list. The thing you won’t need to give up is Stock 84 brandy as it is so good we do not export this gem so you will need to actually visit Israel to enjoy this delicious cordial.
Sometimes one need make fun of what is happening, even make jokes about it as the reality is so disgusting and unacceptable that being completely honest and serious all the time becomes tedious and disgust builds. There is little difference between the Nazis painting “Jude” on shop windows and then one fateful night the anti is raised and windows are smashed and stores ransacked with their inventory either stolen or destroyed and even entire blocks in Jewish neighborhoods are set to the torch and blaze throughout the night. From there we know what came next. Defenseless Jews whose weapons had been confiscated using the lists of gun ownership from the Weimar Republic who required gun licensing which they promised would never be used for confiscation. Well, that went completely wrong as the Nazis broke that promise taking the guns from German citizens to keep order and remove any possibility of public threat to their complete domination of the society. This left the Jews, the Roma, and others who the Nazis labeled as undesirables or submerses completely defenseless allowing for the rounding up, mass transfer of entire communities and entire populations leading eventually to the extermination camps. That is where this path leads whether anybody has the nerve to admit this is where the world is heading. There is a difference this time; the Jews you are targeting cannot be disarmed as long as they have Israel. Wait, that makes things all the clearer, doesn’t it.
Eretz Yisroel the Israel Solution to Problems is One State Solution with Citizenship for Anybody Who Desires Living in Peace with Equal Rights Responsibilities and Worshiping as One Pleases
First weaken Israel with a subversive group claiming lands which the world through the League of Nations and so many treaties and even the promise of the United Nations within Article 80 of the Charter guaranteed all the British Mandate lands west of the Jordan River. The world is attempting to force Israel to give away these promised lands because unless Israel agrees to part with the lands, then they belong to Israel, period, and the world knows this. They refuse to say what they know is the truth because once again they believe they can force the Jews to be disarmed, this time through the destruction of Israel under the barrage of rockets from an Arab terror state carved from Judea and Samaria taking the high ground overlooking all of Israel. That was what UNSC Res 2334 and the follow-on Paris conference were presumed to allow, nay, force. President Obama could singlehandedly push through the UNSC Res 2334 which defined all the lands beyond the Green Line as reserved for that Arab State which now Israel is presumed to be bound to granting. There is one problem, that resolution is no more than a UNGA Resolution like so many that have passed there or the condemnations from the menagerie of Human Rights groups and the presumptuous gifting of the Temple Mount to Islam denying the Jewish and Christian historic and previous claims and ties by UNESCO. The United Nations can pass whatever they decide they think will disposes Israel of her claims and lands but none will stand before any honest court of law, including the International Criminal Court. We have discussed this quite a bit lately and shown even an Egyptian judge sitting on the court stated as an addendum to a decision which the UNGA had requested as stated towards the end of this article. The land belongs to Israel as long as Israel demands so and that is where this must remain.
The latest events have had a striking effect which was the opposite of their intention. Right now it matters little what Prime Minister Netanyahu may think or what the government currently sitting in the Knesset might claim, the Israeli people will have the final say and that will be exclaimed with pride that Judea and Samaria along with East Jerusalem are the Jewish ancestral heartland and we will never surrender that land. Any government attempting to give away these lands will crumble and fail with new elections being demanded by the Israeli Zionist majority. The best that the Arabs can hope to gain is the right to behave as semiautonomous governance where they care for their people and rule their cities but under Israeli oversight and protection without anything beyond a police security force, not an actual military. They will never steal the ancient heart of Israel and never ever again tear out eternal capital city of Jerusalem in half and steal the Temple Mount or Old City from Israeli rule. Our annexation of Jerusalem is as final as is our annexation of the Golan Heights. There actually need not be any formal annexation of Judea and Samaria as they are already Israeli and will remain Israeli. There will be no debate and the world can yell, stamp their feet, shake their fists, boycott our goods and in the end they will willingly accept the miracles we discover and the advances in computers, telecommunications, agriculture, medicine, drugs, treatments and other advances across all fields because they will want these items and their people will want these items. Just as the boycotters are not surrendering their cell phones, having their stents replaced, avoiding instant messaging, endoscopy in a capsule, clean geothermal power already built in more than twenty countries, the solar window providing power generation and transparency, cherry tomatoes, BabySense’s device which monitors a baby’s breathing and movements through the mattress during sleep, EpiLady which made the first electric hair remover, Rav Bariach introduced steel security door or any of these other forty-five items. The Israeli people are starting to reach the end of their patience and will soon be demanding action that the government will need heed or else a new government will soon be elected which will listen as the Zionists in Israel and will make their voices heard and their presence felt. Their patience has about run out on the empty promises and knows that the time has come as of a few hours from this posting and probably by the time you are reading this. The time has come and the world can react and do whatever they think is required. We have seen how attempting to work with the world gets us; hate, boycotts and threats from every corner. We have reached the point where we are willing to state, “What is the world going to do, hate us? Been there and received that and really do not care as the world will get over it, or not.”
The Hidden Trap in UNSC 2334, Israel and Palestine
Filed under: 2016 Elections,Administration,Anti-Israel,Anti-Semitism,Anti-Zionist,Arab Appeasement,Arab Authority,Arab World,Assimilation,Binding Resolution,Calaphate,City of David,Coverup,Donald Trump,European Governments,Executive Order,Foreign NGOs,France,Francois Hollande,IDF,International Politics,Islam,Islam,Islamic State,Israel,Israeli Interests,Jerusalem,Jewish Heritage,Jewish State,Jews,Jihad,John Kerry,Judea,Judean Hills,Kurdistan,Kurds,Leftist Pressures,Meaning of Peace,Muslims,Non Binding Resolution,Palestinian Pressures,Paris,Peace Process,PLO,Politics,President Obama,President Obama Pessing Freeze,Progressive,Recognize Israel,Samaria,Settlements,Six Day War,Threat to Israel,United Nations,United Nations Presures,United States,United States State Department,World Opinion — qwertster @ 2:59 AM
Tags: Conference, Denounce Jewish Settlements, Israel, Israeli Defense Forces, Judea, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority, Paris, President Harry S Truman, President Obama, President Trump, Protection, Samaria, Secretary of State Kerry, Seventy Nations, United States State Department
The entirety of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 can be found at the end of the article for those willing to suffer through its tedious and tendentious prose and are welcome to peruse the entirety of the document. The one saving grace is it is not that long a read. The first item is that the preface, the longest section of the article, completely undermines the rest of the resolution. Had this in any way been reflective of its claims for reaffirming Res. 242, Res. 338, Res. 446, Res. 452, Res. 465, Res. 476, Res. 478, Res. 1397 and Res. 1515; then it would have called for negotiations to establish borders which would provide Israel with defendable and defined borders. If, when mentioning the settlements, it would have only pressed for limited or no additional settlements and limitation on expansion of existing settlements only to accommodate population increases, there would not have been the attempt to criminalize the settlements nor would it press for their dismantlement as was the seeming intent. Further, there would have been no mention of using the 1949 Armistice Lines, the Green Line, as the basis for any future borders. Finally, the resolution flies in the face, as did all the previous other than Res. 242, of the United Nations Charter as according to Article 80 of said Charter, the United Nations was considered the enforcing power for the Mandate System inherited from the League of Nations along with all other agreements and resolutions produced under the League of Nations which would define Israel’s borders to the east as being the Jordan River, period and end of discussion unless Israel decides to grant any claims of the validity they seek. Let us stress, that is validity they seek, not claim. The truth of the matter and the only decision under International Law any court can reach is that Israel owns all of Judea and Samaria and the Palestinian Authority and any other entity have no valid claim to one inch of the lands west of the Jordan River. This is more than our opinion as it was also the decision of the Court of Appeal of Versailles, France. Then there is the advisory opinion from the Honorable Justice El Araby, an Egyptian who sat as an adjudicator on the International Court of Justice when they were requested to make a ruling on the Israeli security barrier and whether it could be legally placed as designed. He warned the UNGA and others that filing further ran some risks, as he stated,
“The international legal status of the Palestinian Territory (paras. 70-71 of the Advisory Opinion), in my view, merits more comprehensive treatment. A historical survey is relevant to the question posed by the General Assembly, for it serves as the background to understanding the legal status of the Palestinian Territory on the one hand and underlines the special and continuing responsibility of the General Assembly on the other. This may appear as academic, without relevance to the present events. The present is however determined by the accumulation of past events and no reasonable and fair concern for the future can possibly disregard a firm grasp of past events. In particular, when on more than one occasion, the rule of law was consistently side-stepped. The point of departure, or one can say in legal jargon, the critical date, is the League of Nations Mandate which was entrusted to Great Britain.”
The entire reason for the presage of UNSC 2334 by President Obama and his administration was in order to set up this current Paris conference where his plan is to press for them to advise for the recognition of a state for the Arabs. This would need to be pushed and be ratified and presented officially before noon EST of January 20, 2017 and then taken for a near immediate vote by the UNSC on a resolution recognizing such state, setting its borders as probably the Green Line, President Obama’s wildest dream, and making it a Chapter Seven Resolution which is enforceable by military force. Such a resolution would make any attack upon Israel for the stated purpose of forcing them from the lands that the United Nations gave to the Arabs for their state as legal and fully backed by the nations of the world. Such a resolution would also place any nation aiding Israel is such a war as vulnerable to being brought before the International Courts and sued to cease and desist or face sanction and possibly military force to end their support. Basically, such a resolution would tie the hands of every nation to turn their hand against Israel bringing the Biblical prophecy of the world turning its hand being against Israel and every nation becoming the enemy of the Jewish State. We hope we do not have to remind anyone of what follows as there are four horsemen in the New Testament and the Messiah in the Old Testament and the following is not pretty at all. But that is the direction that the European Union, President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, other select people from the Administration and many of the Arab World all would like to see become reality. President Obama is in such a rush because first he wants to get even with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for opposing the Iran treaty and not respecting President Obama and bowing to his desires at every turn and because he realizes that since Hillary Clinton did not win the election as expected, that President Trump is not going to continue the war against Israel and might change things away from the current direction making this the last time in the foreseeable future that forcing this solution and the making of a new Arab state possible. President Obama is aware that such an opportunity to force this issue is now or never and he cannot rest without giving it everything he is able.
The reality is that the political winds are changing and are going to blow for a while in a completely different direction and it is very probable that the world’s attentions will be swinging away from the Middle East and become more centered on economies and containment of the troubles plaguing the Middle East to only the Middle East which will also bring the refugee immigration, or should we say invasion, to a quick and unmerciful end. The war in Syria is likely to be brought to a close with whatever agreement is necessary being imposed and likely the nation made into three states; one Alawite under Bashir al-Assad; one Kurdish which may even include some of the lands from northern Iraq included and the state of Kurdistan, which had been a promise that the British made during World War I but found oil more important than their promises, finally brought into fruition; and the final a Sunni state which could very easily be divided between Turkey and central Iraq leaving southern Iraq as either the remnant of Shiite Iraq or merged into Iran. These divisions would respect tribal and ethnic division with the Sunni with the Sunni, the Shia with Shia and the Kurds finally realizing their independence. Such a strategy would also provide the Middle East with much needed ethnic borders and potentially greater security and peace, imagine that.
That leaves Libya which could be divided into so many smaller states except that would create the problem of constant wars between the tribes or a larger problem of a neighboring state of terrorist forces taking hold of this dysfunctional area. This is already a problem but even the terrorists found attempting to establish a safe area in Libya to be next to impossible. Sometimes conflict is unavoidable and Libya has been a cauldron of trouble ever since the Romans and Carthage fought their wars there and during the Caliphate and Ottoman eras with the Barbary Pirates and even up to the time Thomas Jefferson sent the United States Marines into Tripoli taking the harbor and forcing an end to the pirating of American vessels, well, until the next time they thought America had been weakened and had to be taught again that they were mistaken. These were the Barbary Wars, 1801–1805 and 1815–1816, bracketed the War of 1812 where the British attempted to retake their former colony and failed. The Barbary Pirates figured such a war had weakened the United States and needed to be shown otherwise. The Italians were given Libya after World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire until 1947, approximately the time many of the European nations resigned from their colonial holdings. For more on Libya and its problems through the ages, one can go here, and hopefully that will be sufficient coverage of Libya.
Israel, in the meantime, will eventually be granted all that which was and is still promised her. This means that the eastern border will end up being the Jordan River. The only decision the world need make is how much drama, needless suffering, necessary time to undo the damage caused by the broken promises, and the number of lives, both Arab and Israeli, will be wasted getting to the rightful and just fulfillment of promises. For those who are going to challenge about the British promise to the Arabs that they would be granted a state within the British Mandate, that was satisfied when seventy-eight percent of the British Mandate was used to make the Arab state of Jordan. The remainder, as stated in the Churchill White Papers, was to be granted the Jews for their homeland. Those claiming the division suggested under UNGA Res. 181, that division was merely a General Assembly Resolution which are suggestive in their enforcement and as soon as either side refuses such a resolution it becomes null and void and cannot be resurrected no matter how badly one desires to steal as much land and make Israel so vulnerable as to make her defense impossible just to see Jews murdered and Israel destroyed again. The Arab League refused that solution and invaded Israel on May 15, 1948; the very day Israel came into being with the Jordan River as her legal boundary.
The problem the world is having over Israel can be simplified to one thing; many, possibly most, of the world do not believe nor desire that the Jews be permitted their homeland. The Western World and much of the remainder of the planet are fully aware of the ancient history of the Jewish People in Israel and their Capital city, eternal Capital city, of Jerusalem. These anti-Semitic views desire the Jew to be the tiny minority which is defenseless and can be beaten, stolen from, demeaned and otherwise simply used as a punching bag by any and every nation at their whim. They want Jews not permitted to own land or have any property of their own beyond a suitcase and whatever they can carry at a moment’s notice. They desire the Jew they abused for the past twenty-five-hundred years with the brief exceptions when they revolted and threw off the yokes of Greek Rule and then Roman Rule. They want the Jew to continue to suffer the intended punishment forced upon them by the Romans with their dispersal which was intended to end the existence of the Jewish People. The Jewish fate was to be the same as every other people the Roman treated thusly such as the Carthaginians and various other tribes whose names have been lost to antiquity and are known only to those who study ancient histories and even they likely miss a good number of peoples who have been defeated by the conquering empires from Egypt, Hittite, Minoan, Persian, Babylonian and on through the ages. The Chinese, Mongols, Japanese and Indian in Asia and the Aztec, Inca and others who ruled before the European colonization in the Americas where people who were erased from history as after conquest they assimilated and disappeared. Even the Jews had their lost tribes when the northern ten tribes were carried off by the Assyrians and were never seen again though there are beliefs that these tribes are now returning to Israel from their varied places around the globe.
Some who desire the destruction of Israel believe that it is necessary otherwise their religion is devalued. This was the historic position of numerous Christian religious groups and was even named replacement theology. This form of preaching exists today and was exactly what was preached at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago under the direction and religious teaching of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and what President Obama listened to during sermons for the twenty years he attended this church. His claim to never have listened or heard these preaching has actually made them even more dangerous as their effect was then subliminal and affecting President Obama’s thoughts through subconscious influences and could have been partly responsible for his determination to destroy Israel and thus the Jewish People, just saying. The damages of replacement theology was based on the supposition that the Jews had been cast off by Hashem and were now under the influence of the devil, except there is no devil or hell in traditional Judaism, and thus were replaced by the Christian Church. With time the Christian Church became the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Then would come the Protestant Reformation where the protestant churches each replaced the Catholic Church. Somewhere off on another argument is Scientology but that gets way too complicated. The one item which was necessary for all these replacements to remain valid was for the Jews never to return to Israel as once the Jews returned to Israel, then the promise of their eventual return from exile by Hashem would be fulfilled and thus mean they were still the Chosen People and invalidate their replacement as such. Then there is Islam which basically claims to be the final and only valid religion of Hashem, except now they change the name to Allah, and according to Islam the Christians have joined the Jews as having been replaced. This is the ultimate replacement theology because the Muslim took the precaution of claiming there can never be another religion as they are the final rendition of the Abrahamic faiths. Islam also claims that Allah has promised them they will conquer the world and end all these false faiths through whatever means necessary. It all gets messy after a while but everybody agrees that the Jews are not to return except the Muslims in the Quran do accept that Jerusalem and Israel are the homelands of the Jews, just do not tell the Palestinian Arabs as they would get very upset with you. The one agreement of the Western religions is that the Jews must not be allowed to return and set up home in Israel and especially with Jerusalem as their Capital City; well, until sometime in the late 1960s and early 1970s when many decided maybe there was room to permit the Jews to return home. Thanks.
French President Francois Hollande and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
Anyway, apparently that short allowance has worn out and passed it use-by date and been rescinded. Now the United Nations, European Union, United States State Department (the same United States State Department which advised President Harry S. Truman not to recognize Israel but Harry listened to what his mother taught him as a child, go Mom!), numerous European countries, politicians around the globe, the Arab world, the Muslim world and many in Hollywood (where would we be without Hollywood thespians telling us what to think) and who knows who else, maybe Communists and Scientologists (though who knows anything about the Scientologists) all attempting to uproot Israel or weaken her until she cannot defend herself and find some means to eliminate the Jewish State. Did the world learn nothing from the attempts thus far to eliminate Israel and how miracles have saved her to date? In 1948 Israel did not even have a military, no chain of command, the British had taken every weapon they could find, there was no real Israeli Air Force, an Israeli tank was a car with a large caliber gun and a half dozen Arab nations and seven militias attacked within hours of the sun rising on Israel for the first time in nearly two thousand years and somehow Israel survived. In 1967 Israel was outgunned and outmanned by approximately hundreds-to-one and in Six Days took the Golan Heights, liberated Judea and Samaria from Jordanian occupation (yes, you read that right, Jordanian occupation) and conquered the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula surrounding the Egyptian Third Army. Miracle, come on, you can say it, miracle. The miracles have continued since then as in a recent Gaza conflict where there was one such event as here is one of the many articles documenting this miracle, praise Hashem. Here is what was reported by the actual Iron Dome commanding officer who related the story.
“A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died.”
“We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident.”
“Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that…sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a G0d!’ I witnessed this miracle with my own eyes. It was not told or reported to me. I saw the hand of G0d send that missile into the sea.”
The truth is Israel cannot surrender a single inch of the land the world demands she grant to those sworn to her destruction. Read yesterday’s article and view the pictures there and at the look provided and you can see how if Israel gives the Arabs the Judean Hills all of Tel Aviv to the Mediterranean Sea is visible. The same goes for Haifa and Ashdod and Netanya. The entirety of the central Israeli coastal plain would become uninhabitable as shoulder fired wire guided anti-tank rockets which are guidable could be utilized to target individual structures up to half way across Israel. Rocket and artillery fire could be sight adjusted targeting central downtown Tel Aviv. Jerusalem would be completely cut off from the remainder of Israel and West Jerusalem could be starved into submission. Ben Gurion International Airport would become a shooting gallery and no plane could land or take off with any degree of safety. All of Israel could be brought to a standstill at the mere whim of Mahmoud Abbas, assuming he remained in power. The chance that Hamas or Islamic State would replace the Palestinian Authority would be more than probable; the only question would be which one would move first as that would be the reality Israel would face within months of such an eventuality as is being considered in Paris. Finally, there is one saving grace for as long as the world does not force Mahmoud Abbas or anybody who would follow him as leader of the Palestinian Authority to accept such a peace, they would have to turn down any offer which left anything of Israel intact and should the world manage to remove the Jews, then they would flee from such a situation. The reality is that once Israel is removed from having the IDF provide security in all of Judea and Samaria, then whoever leads the Palestinian authority and the rest of the security and leadership would be dead within six months as whichever terror group replaced them just as what happened in Gaza. Abbas knows this and that is why he may talk of peace but he will never accept any peace as he has enriched himself and plans to live well and spend the stolen funds as do the rest of the Palestinian authority kleptocrats. Ridiculous as it may seem, but Mahmoud Abbas is an ace in the hole as he will never accept peace whether it comes from the European Union, United Nations or whatever council the future provides, and that is something Israel has counted on in the past though few will admit such.
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The New International Version
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Psalm 47a
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 Clap your hands,y all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy.z
2 For the Lord Most Higha is awesome,b
the great Kingc over all the earth.
3 He subduedd nations under us,
peoples under our feet.
4 He chose our inheritancee for us,
the pride of Jacob,f whom he loved.b
5 God has ascendedg amid shouts of joy,h
the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.i
6 Sing praisesj to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth;k
sing to him a psalml of praise.
8 God reignsm over the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne.n
9 The nobles of the nations assemble
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kingsc of the earth belong to God;o
he is greatly exalted.p
About The New International Version
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Foodservice & Industrial
Celtrade is a manufacturer of authentic own brand, Industrial, Food Service and Co-Manufactured products. Our specialties are in cooking sauces, infused oils, vinegars, mayo type spreads, gourmet condiments, and salad dressings.
Celtrade Management
Chris Bouchard
CEO, Celtrade
A strong professional background in Management and Sales has led Chris Bouchard to become President and CEO of Celtrade. Since his involvement in 2013, Celtrade has seen exponential growth year after year and is rooted to his clear strategic direction for the company’s future. This included an own brand strategy, an increase in private label penetration into the U.S, a focus on value-add and premium foods, and assembling a skilled senior leadership team. Chris is a passionate and driven leader, but most of all, a team enabler. He credits the success of the organization to the rock-solid team he built while allowing them to flourish within the company. He values hard work, loyalty, and dedication while demonstrating a high level of intensity and personal feel to management. Chris continues to push the organization forward by emphasizing the importance of innovation and consumer insight to create products that bring value to the market, resulting in superior financial results.
Anne Kim
CFO, COO, Celtrade
Anne is a disciplined and hardworking professional who devotes her time to maximizing a company’s bottom line. With a strong belief in people, Anne is able to consolidate teams and increase efficiency in many areas of the business. She left comfortable executive positions to pursue uncertain futures in start-ups. At 29, she was a key driver in leading a small company to increase their revenue by 1300%, and accounted for 30% of their revenue stream through the systems she put in place. At Celtrade, Anne made her way up from VP of Finance to CFO, proving she is valuable to the company. She enhanced quality control and supply chain systems by utilizing KPIs and creating processes to increase their performance. Throughout the 4 years she’s been here, Anne has increased efficiency by 20% for the company and continues to innovate. Even though her young dreams of unlocking the universe and becoming a physicist did not work out, she instead, found a talent in unlocking business growth and development.
Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Celtrade
David Lewis has brought Celtrade’s unique story and an equitable solution to the United States, ensuring a successful market share opportunity for the company. His resilience and determination has allowed the organization to build valuable relationships with retailers maintaining a stronghold in the private label food sector. David is a self-motivated professional who is responsible for the sales, logistics, finance, marketing, and budget control for Celtrade within the United States. He attributes his life’s success to his family and wife who is his biggest role model. David is a cross-functional leader who relishes in people’s growth and provides the highest praise to his team.
Celtrade is a manufacturer of authentic own brand, Industrial, Food Service and Co-Manufactured products. Our specialties are in cooking sauces, infused oils, vinegars, mayo-type spreads, gourmet condiments, and salad dressings. We cook with high quality authentic ingredients that are sourced from over 50 countries worldwide to ensure the best flavours for your food. Celtrade’s consistent efforts to deliver true innovation, customization, and speed-to-market has led to trusted partnerships with brands, retailers, industrial and food service customers across North America.
Our innovation is driven by consumer insight and market data. We use Mintel, Nielsen and Trend data to develop food that has an economic motivator. We spend time at restaurants and markets and keep up with the latest food trends. We understand our customers’ brands and provide direction on which categories and themes to pay attention to. Whether we modify one of our existing formulas, or create one from scratch, our team of chefs and food scientists can help you anticipate market trends and design unique recipes for your brand. At Celtrade, we are not another sauce manufacturer, we strive to be your strategic partner
Our founder, Ron McAvan, has worked in the food industry his entire career. His passion for quality led him to realize that consumers want the same thing as he does: real food products. He witnessed an opportunity in a growing sector of the business represented by authentic international products. As a result, Celtrade was born in 1990. With the help of a 5-star chef, Ron executed on his vision to create delicious recipes made with the freshest ingredients and to bring authentic dining experiences directly into the consumer’s home. Celtrade has evolved into a premium manufacturer of shelf-stable and refrigerated sauces and condiments using only the finest ingredients and chef inspired cooking methods.
Our roster of recipes and formulas contain over 2,000 product and product variations. Our pantry of ingredients boasts over 3,000 items in our system. Having all these ingredients and formulas on hand allows us to achieve record speed to market capabilities in our SQF Level 2, 55,000 square foot facility. From research to lab samples, taste trials to small batch cooking, packaging to label design, and all the way to a commercialized finished product, we are your one-stop shop for all your product creation needs.
We believe in authenticity and respect for the origin of foods. That means producing products inspired by tastes from around the world without a single compromise to their true flavours. We source as many ingredients as we need to fulfill our creations, like Thai lemongrass and Spanish saffron. We are not afraid to search the globe for the perfect ingredient for each product. While many mass-food manufacturers often use dried flavours mixed with water to create their products, we use culinary techniques and small-batch kettle productions to ultimately deliver the best flavours for your food.
We continuously strive towards consumer-driven innovation and outstanding taste in every product we create. We will partner with you as we develop food catered to your brand and customers. We use consumer-based data, culinary excellence and state of the art manufacturing capabilities to deliver innovative products to drive your sales.
Let’s start cooking up something unique!
info@celtradecanada.ca | Tel: 905.678.1322
Copyright © 2019 Celtrade Canada Inc. | Designed by Orange Keel Brand Strategy & Design
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Tagged / disadvantage
HE Policy Update w/e 10 November 2017
BU research, Fusion, international, policy, Research news, Uncategorized carters
HE Policy Update
w/e 10 November 2017
A research funding crisis?
Follow this link to read the A research funding crisis? summary with all the diagrams and charts.
Or read the summary below without the charts.
Ahead of the Autumn 2017 Budget the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has published How much is too much? Cross-subsidies from teaching to research in British Universities written by Russell Group PG Economics student Vicky Olive. The paper concludes that research within universities is reliant on subsidy by tuition fee funding. As international students pay higher fees more of their fees go towards research than home and EU students. The paper concludes that on average international students contribute £8,000 from their total fees towards research. While the figures vary between universities, in 2014/15 teaching income funded 14% of English university research (approx. £1 in every £7 spent).
The paper argues that although the UK has a leading global research performance (see diagram below) R&D expenditure is well below competitor nations and unsustainable in the long term.
The paper argues that In 2014/15 the UK HE sector had a sustainability gap of £1 billion. This is described as a looming crisis because of a number of factors:
the focus on value for money for students paying tuition fees
Brexit threats to EU research funding
the unwelcoming nature of current immigration policy
the improvement of HE education in countries where the UK traditionally recruits international students
the impact of UK austerity policy which has seen limited science and research budget growth.
The Conservative Government’s has a target to increase R&D spend to 3% of GDP. The paper suggests that to realise this target the following would need to occur:
the UK would need an additional 250,000 full fee-paying international students;
Research Councils and Funding Councils to spend an additional £3 billion on funding research;
industry to contribute an additional £700 million;
charities to contribute an additional £830 million;
government departments to contribute £760 million extra each year.
Current R&D expenditure is 1.7% of GDP (25% of which spend by HEIs, 66% of spend by industry). The Government has announced additional investment of £4.7 billion by 2020/21 for R&D, however, the paper argues this isn’t enough and that other sectors must also increase their investment. The paper summarises recent Government policy related to R&D budgets.
The paper considers, and discards, the notion of only providing QR funding for 4* research.
In addition to her calls to increase research investment the author states her aim is to bring together UKRI and OfS to facilitate a sensible research funding model which neither underfunds or jeopardises research sustainability nor exploits students. The paper also urges universities to push back and recover a greater proportion of full economic cost from industry funders, particularly when the research is not directly for the public good.
Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, commented : ”Anyone who wants to end cross-subsidies must say how they would fund universities’ various roles properly. There are three pressing issues. First, those who fund university research – public and private funders as well as charities – do not cover anything like the full costs. Secondly, the cross-subsidy from tuition fees to research is probably not sustainable at current levels. Thirdly, the Government wants a near doubling in research and development spending as a share of GDP, yet recent funding injections are only enough to stand still.
Our conclusion is that the Chancellor needs to find another £1 billion for research in this year’s Budget, with some set aside for the work universities do with charities. But even this level of additional funding would mean stagnation relative to other countries. So we also need a strategy for increasing research spending to OECD levels over the next few years and German levels thereafter – as promised in the 2017 Conservative manifesto.
The Times covered the report in University research subsidised with £281m from tuition fees.
Separately but relevant to this debate:
THE have written about the latest OECD data stating it shows a levelling off in global numbers of mobile students after the exponential growth of late 1990s and 2000s – read Data bite: international student flows in focus.
As we near the Autumn 2017 Budget parliamentarians have been calling on the Government to support their campaigning interests. This week Vince Cable (Lib Dem Leader) covers education and research and development in his pre-budget speech: “Long term studies by the LSE have shown that the two main determinants of poor UK performance on productivity are lack of innovation (R&D as opposed to basic science where the UK is strong) and low levels of skills. The former problem is being addressed by R&D tax credits and by the work of Innovate UK, in particular the Catapult network, which Liberal Democrats launched in government as part of the Industrial Strategy.
The latter is a far less tractable problem and despite the progress we made in the Coalition in raising the number and quality of apprenticeships, especially Higher Apprenticeships, the programme is now slipping backwards largely because of clumsy implementation of the apprenticeship levy and the neglect of careers advice and guidance….a budget built around the industrial strategy, prioritising education and skills, R&D and infrastructure would, at the very least, send the right signals.”
HEFCE have opened sub-panel nominations for roles related to IDR within REF 2021 aiming to support and promote the fair and equitable assessment of IDR outputs and environment through:
the inclusion of Interdisciplinary Research advisers on each sub-panel
the continuation of the optional IDR flag
the inclusion of a specific IDR section in the environment template
In September HEFCE blogged on the importance of academics within interdisciplinary research culture in What creates a culture of interdisciplinary research? HEFCE described what the new IDR role may look like in Wednesday’s blog REF 2021: Where are we on interdisciplinary research?
Widening Participation and inclusivity
OFFA has commissioned a new evidence based research study: Understanding and overcoming the challenges of targeting students from under-represented and disadvantaged ethnic backgrounds.
HEA and Runnymede Trust will analyse existing practice across the sector and ‘produce a suite of practical guidance to support staff in a variety of different roles within universities and colleges in overcoming the challenges associated with this work’. The project is part of OFFA’s long-term aim to challenge and support universities and colleges to do more to address the differences in higher education participation, attainment and progression to further study or employment that persist between students from different ethnic groups.
Les Ebdon: “Black and minority ethnic (BME) students have been a key target group for OFFA for a number of years. But our research suggests that universities and colleges are struggling to target the activities they deliver through their access agreements where they are most needed…This project will help us understand how activities can be targeted appropriately and effectively towards students from disadvantaged and under-represented ethnic backgrounds, enabling OFFA to better support universities and colleges to accelerate progress in this crucial area.”
Principal Investigator, Jacqueline Stevenson, stated: “Our intention is not just to indicate the barriers institutions are facing, but also what they are able to do to address these entrenched and long-standing inequalities.”
Scope call for inclusive workplaces: Scope has called on the Dept for Work and Pensions to develop universal, industry-standard information and best practice guidance for all businesses to support their employment and management of disabled people. Scope’s new research Let’s Talk found many disabled people struggle to share information about their impairment or condition in the workplace making it hard for them to access the support and adjustments they need to carry out their job.
Question to the Dept for Education: Office for Students
Andrew Percy (Con): Whether the remit of the Office for Students will include anti-discrimination on campus.
Jo Johnson (Con, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research & Innovation): The government has published a consultation on behalf of the new Office for Students (OfS) regarding the regulation of the higher education sector. It proposes that, in its regulatory approach, the OfS will look to ensure that all students, from all backgrounds can access, succeed in, and progress from higher education.
Higher Education (HE) providers are autonomous organisations, independent from Government, and they already have responsibilities to ensure that they provide a safe, inclusive environment, including legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) to ensure that students do not face discrimination.
The OfS, like some HE providers, will also have obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty in part 11 of the Act. This includes a requirement that the OfS, when exercising its functions, has due regard to the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other unlawful conduct in the Act, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations in relation to protected characteristics.
In addition, in September 2015 the government asked Universities UK (UUK) to set up a Harassment Taskforce, composed of university leaders, student representatives and academic experts, to consider what more can be done to address harassment and hate crime on campus. The taskforce published its report, ‘Changing the Culture’, in October 2016, which sets out that universities should embed a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment and hate crime. This includes hate crime or harassment on the basis of religion or belief, such as antisemitism and Islamophobia. The Higher Education Funding Council for England is currently working with UUK to test the sector’s response to the Taskforce’s recommendations and the results of this will be published early in 2018.
House of Lord Questions – Disabled Student Allowance
Lord Addington (Lib Dem) has asked three parliamentary questions regarding the disabled students allowance.
Q1: Whether the evaluation of Disabled Students’ Allowances will include consideration of the need for third party advisers to have clarity of information about the respective responsibilities of higher education providers and claimants of those allowances.
Q2: Whether the evaluation of Disabled Students’ Allowances will include consideration of the benefits of issuing a guide to higher education providers about their responsibilities in relation to students claiming those allowances who fall into bands 1 and 2.
Q3: Whether the evaluation of Disabled Students’ Allowances will include consideration of the levels of information provided by higher education providers to students claiming those allowances about the respective responsibilities of those institutions and students.
The Earl of Courtown provided the same (non-)response to all three questions:
A: The evaluation of Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA) will address a range of factors relating to the efficacy of support for disabled students, including the effect of recent changes to DSA policy.
Question to the Home Office – Visas: Overseas Students
Q -Jo Stevens (Labour): How much was accrued to the public purse from charging international students applying for Tier 4 student visas in each year since 2010.
A – Brandon Lewis (Con, Minister of State for Immigration): Visa income is not differentiated between the various categories in which they are received. Visa volumes by broad category (study, work etc) are published in the data section of this webpage: LINK Fees and unit costs are also published, for example, for 2017/18: LINK
Private Providers
Lord Storey (Lib Dem) has tabled two questions about the quality of private providers:
Q1 – On how many occasions in the last three years the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has (1) raised concerns, and (2) taken action, regarding private colleges and providers of degrees
Q2 – What measures they are taking to provide quality assurance for students studying degree courses at a private college whose degrees are validated by a university
These are due for answer on Tuesday 21 November.
New consultations and inquiries this week:
Two Dept for Health consultations on nursing, and one on regulation and workforce development of the health services
Jo Johnson has announced the sector will be asked for their opinion on two year degrees in a forthcoming consultation
Student Engagement: Guild HE have written for Wonkhe censuring the limited nature of student consultation and engagement proposed through the new Quality Code and critiquing both the TEF and the Office for Students in Engaging students as partners: two steps forward, one step back.
HE Policy Briefings
Awareness of policy is integral to many roles at BU and with HE constantly in the news it can be hard to sort the wood from the trees to keep current. We’re running two short and sharp HE Policy Briefings during November and December; all are welcome so come along to learn more!
The briefings will:
present the latest policy developments for universities and how they may affect BU, our staff and students
cover the next steps for the Teaching Excellence Framework, including subject level TEF, and how this could impact BU
support you to consider actions you could take to prepare for change and challenges arising from these development.
Email organisational development to attend on: Wed 22 November 12-13:00 at Lansdowne or Thurs 7 December 12-13:00 at Talbot (mince pies included!)
Tags: consultations cross-subsidy disadvantage DSA HE Policy Briefings HEPI interdisciplinary research parliamentary questions Policy Update ref 2021 research funding tuition fees widening participation
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End of Assignment
© Maud Veith/SOS Méditeranée
30 Dec 2016 / 3 minute read
Tomorrow will be an emotional day as I disembark my final passengers in my role as the doctor of the MV Aquarius, a rescue ship in the Mediterranean jointly operated by MSF and SOS Mediteranee. I have seen approximately 4,000 people off this ship over the past four months and I always feel uneasy for them as they face their new life but I’m also uneasy about my life after working on this boat – a task that has completely consumed me.
The past four months have gone by quickly, though some days felt as though they would never end. My time on the Aquarius has been as full of peaks and troughs as a sea in a storm.
I remember:
Looking for a boat reported by a plane to be in distress, sinking, with people in the water, and being unable to find it.
Helping our wonderful midwife, Jonquil, deliver a healthy baby on board.
Working with passengers to gather information in an effort to identify people who had drowned when their boat took on water.
Watching the most amazing reunion when a father saw that his children and wife, believed to be dead, were alive and being transferred onto our boat.
Telling women that they were pregnant as the result of rape.
Working with incredible people from around the world who put their lives on hold to try to save lives in the Mediterranean.
Failing to resuscitate a young man who collapsed on deck in the middle of the night.
Hearing that the woman in labour whom we medevac’d off the boat had had an emergency C-section and that mother and baby were doing well.
Diagnosing scurvy and severe malnutrition in several groups of people.
Hearing that passengers had given the MSF/SOS team a standing ovation when team passed by the reception centre on the way to dinner (I missed this by opting for sleep instead of food).
What am I thinking after almost four months at sea? I am overwhelmed by emotion. As with all of my MSF missions, I have seen both the best and the worst of humanity. I remain incensed by the lack of political will to save the lives of those who cross the Mediterranean in desperate search of a better future. I fail to understand why safe passage cannot be negotiated for those trying to live a life without war, discrimination, poverty, stigma, and persecution. I am confused by the money that flows towards tightening border controls rather than improving the lives of people in their home countries.
But I am left with hope. I see the hope in the eyes of the passengers of Aquarius. The hope that their hellish journey across Africa, the Sahara, Libya, and the Mediterranean will lead to some form of a better life. I see the new MSF/SOS team members coming on board each rotation and know that there are other people in this world who are trying to stem the senseless tsunami of deaths in the Mediterranean (more than 5,000 people in 2016). I have hope that beyond my medical skills that my presence has prevented someone from suffering alone. I choose to believe in the words of iconic Canadian politician, Jack Layton:
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.”
With hope,
More from Sarah
Dear Family members and Friends of my colleagues on Aquarius,
All posts from Sarah
"This story has affected me to my core": Life on board the Ocean Viking
“He just kept running, despite the shrapnel wound bleeding”
"We are humbled by their courage": Treating psychological trauma at sea
Mediterranean search and rescue: Six powerful blog posts about saving lives at sea
Search and rescue vlog 11: Arrived
Search and rescue vlog 10: A celebration
Search and rescue vlog 9: "The whole world knows before us"
Search and rescue vlog 8: "Solidarity at sea is at stake"
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Dev Corner
Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 10
Meddler (NA)
submitted in Dev Corner
Hi folks, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Usual Disclaimers** These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/6.24.1/img/champion/Ziggs.png ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Removal of the jungle funneling penalty** As mentioned when it was introduced one of our goals for preseason is to remove the jungle funneling penalty (Monster Hunter). That penalty was added to discourage funneling both jungle and lane farm onto one champion without interacting much in either position with the enemy. Our current belief is that two of the preseason changes should reduce the appeal of funneling enough we can remove Monster Hunter without an explicit replacement: * Bounty scaling - Bounties will now be scaling somewhat off minions/monsters killed, not only off champions killed. That means that focusing farm so heavily on one champ becomes a bigger risk, with greater payout for the enemy if they can shut them down, given better options against funnel strats. * Barricade (temp name) gold - Being able to gain rewards from pushing on a tower even if you can't take it down entirely makes leaving a lane uncontested a higher price to pay. That also reduces the appeal of funneling play in most circumstances. We're still testing whether the combination of those two things should be enough. Looks hopeful so far though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- **How popular are the different queues?** Something I thought it would be good to share was a look at how popular the different queue types in LoL are, both from an overall perspective and looking at how they vary region to region. Chart below showing a % breakdown (hours played in each mode) in early September for a few regions with different habits. https://imgur.com/a/7ClMRFs Looking at the regions shown: * Overall - None of the regions, whether those shown here or the others not listed, is highly representative of the overall average. Every region has at least one queue in which they're noticeably divergent from average play rates. * Korea - Korean players like solo queue a lot more than those from other regions, with low play in normals as a result. They play average amounts of ARAM, but have low interest in other modes compared to players elsewhere (e.g. Nexus Blitz or most RGMs we've run in the past). * NA - NA Players play less Flex than almost every other region. They're bigger fans of non SR modes, with the most Nexus Blitz play of any region and nearly the most TT play (EUW has slightly more TT games). * Brazil - Brazil's a newer region and so players there follow a couple of trends we see on newer servers, with more normal play and Co-op versus AI than average and less ARAM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Some small item/rune changes in 8.21** We’ve got some small adjustments to a few items in 8.21, bit of context: * Essence Reaver - Cutting 200g off the cost as short term help. Might have something larger for it later in the year, want to make it a better regardless now though. * Edge of Night - Cost reduction by 200g as well. No current plans for changing its functionality, think we’ve definitely got it overpriced though. * Time Warp Tonic - We’re looking at different possible ways to nerf TWT, given the amount of health/mana restoration it’s offering is excessive. Current version in testing is a change where instead of offering increased duration and MS during the duration it instead gives some restoration up front, doesn’t change duration at all and still gives the movement speed.
**What's a Dev Corner?** This is a place where League of Legends developers can share thoughts, questions, and retrospectives on all things to do with the game. Please keep discussions focused on the topics at hand - we'll be pretty firm about attempts at hijacking top comments with unrelated content. The plan with the Dev Corner is to pilot various types of communication, ranging from open office hours to 'state of the game' essays. Every month, we'll have 'open forum' style discussions to talk about future ideas. In the future we'll have a calendar up! **Culture & Etiquette** Don't be an asshole. Seriously. Since this is going to be an experimental environment, we ask that everyone do their best to keep the discussions constructive and respectful. Seek to understand rather than demanding to be convinced, and we will do the same. Our long-term goal is to set up a positive environment for developers to engage in quick, constructed conversations. As always, adhere to the Universal Rules.
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2015-16 NHL Uniform and Logo Changes
By BigBubba, January 5, 2015 in Sports Logo News
Morgo 3,480
Location:Calgary AB Canada
Favourite Logos:Wild, Whalers, North Stars, Avalanche
The Avalanche have different 20th Anniversary patches for both the Home/Away and the third jersey:
With the Avs logo on the third jersey patch, I would say its safe to assume that jersey won't feature the Avs logo at all....
Sure it's just lighting, but it looks like the patch on the left has the team's original shade of burgundy while the one on the right has the current
Chewbacca 272
Drop The Orca Vancouver!
Location:Kashyyyk
Favourite Logos:Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota North Stars, San Diego Chargers
I wonder what the Islanders' new alternate is going to look like. I thought their Stadium Series jersey was the best third the Islanders have ever worn. Also, I remember hearing that a lot of people in a poll preferred the Senators' =O= logo over anything else they have had. I hope they switch to that look fulltime. I still want to see a Vintage White road jersey.
tohasbo 491
I have a bad feeling it'll end up being a black and white Islanders alt. Because the last black alternate went over so well...
Brian E 310
it's confirmed that it's a black-and-white third. just no one knows what it looks like...yet...
CubsFan4Life 51
If it's going to be black and white than I don't even care what the design is.
If the Islanders make a black and white jersey similar to the Stadium Series jersey they just retired, I think it wouldn't be all that bad of a jersey, however, I'm hoping that with whatever they have decided on, I really hope that they at least include the blue and orange somewhere on the jersey, and by that, I mean somewhere that isn't just a shoulder patch. If it is just black and white, it could still turn out to be an alright jersey. I know that they want a Brooklyn jersey, that is black and white like the Nets but they are the Islanders and their colours are Royal Blue and Orange and I think that this new alternate should have this teams' main colours somewhere on the jersey.
You're right, it would be even worse.
I've accepted that the new Islanders alt will either be a) ridiculously bland or b ) a complete mess like the last alts. At least they aren't changing the primary uniforms
McCarthy 11,490
what the hell is ccslc?
Location:Cincinnati
Well, it's been a couple weeks and I was hoping the new shoulder patch on the Blue Jackets jerseys would grow on me and it has not grown on me.
It's as annoying to look at now as it was when they dropped it on the draft stage. In the Brandon Saad press conference it looked like they gave him a counterfeit jersey that had the wrong logo on the shoulders. That's what it looks like now, a counterfeit jersey.
That's a damn shame the Stadium Series jersey is being retired. I actually liked that one.
charger77 1,590
My son also happens to be named Bort!
Location:NYDB
The Giant Pacific Octopus 593
Location:Pacific Ocean
I actually liked those jerseys. I'm a huge fan of logos on the front of the jersey as opposed to wordmarks, and I really liked the pipe striping on the arms. I wish they would still use them as an alternate.
Lee. 418
Not affiliated with sportslogos.net
Location:Canada's Vacation Paradise
.... And then those jerseys were used for the Jets when they were brought into the NHL in 1979, sans the Helvetica name and number fonts.
I, too, like the Stadium Series jerseys quite a bit, as does a significant portion of the Isles' fan base. It's very popular here on the Island.
I would tend to agree with former portion of Morgo's assessment: I think you're going to get something super bland. However, I'd love a Brooklyn Americans-inspired look rendered in black-and-whote.
MNTwins 16
Location:Saint Paul, MN
Favourite Logos:Sens primary, Smiling oriole cap logo
Wild 15th anniversary logo per Icethetics
TheOldRoman 1,271
#Grateful
Didn't the Jets literally buy the Rangers' used jerseys and strip them?
tp49 907
Silence Is Golden. Duct Tape Is Silver.
Location:Sacramento
If the Isles put orange and blue on a black third they'll be as much of a mess as the last black third was. If they have to go with a black third then just go black and white like the Nets and wear it very sparingly. Who am I kidding, they'll probably wear it every other game.
I think it was more a matter of John Ferguson bringing them with him from New York when he was hired as the Jets GM. That idea holds some merit, though.
AndrewG70 86
Not quite. The Rangers' 76-78 jerseys were manufactured by New York-based Gerry Cosby & Company, Inc. The Jets' 79-80 jerseys were manufactured by Maska, which, I'm assuming, was based in Canada. Not to mention, besides the crest and name/number fonts, the collar was slightly different on the two uniforms -- there's a white middle stripe in the middle, making the pattern blue-white-blue on the homes and red-white-red on the roads.
Thanks. I thought I remembered hearing that they literally were Rangers hand-me-downs. Considering the timeframe, it was plausible.
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Top MBA Colleges in Kolkata accepting JEMAT score in 2018
Each year Careers360 ranks and rates the Top MBA Colleges in Kolkata accepting JEMAT score. The ranking is based on factors like quality of students, research output, industry interface, publications, academic productivity and so on. Read more here - Ranking Methodology.
State <a href="javascript:void(0);">West Bengal (2)</a>
City <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-jemat-score">Kolkata (2)</a>
Ownership <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-private-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-jemat-score">Private (1)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-government-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-jemat-score">Public/Government (1)</a>
Exam <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-cat-score">CAT (5)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-cmat-score">CMAT (3)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-xat-score">XAT (3)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-mat-score">MAT (3)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-gmat-score">GMAT (2)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-jemat-score">JEMAT (2)</a> <a href="https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking/2018/top-mba-colleges-in-kolkata-accepting-atma-score">ATMA (2)</a>
Year: Year 2020 2018 2017 2016
Kolkata JEMAT
In Govt. Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Kolkata
Future Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata
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Are We Allied to a Corpse?
April 19, 2011 by Linda
Of our Libyan intervention, one thing may be safely said, and another safely predicted.
When he launched his strikes on the Libyan army and regime, Barack Obama did not think it through. And this nation is now likely to be drawn even deeper into that war.
For Moammar Gadhafi‘s forces not only survived the U.S. air and missile strikes, after which we turned the air war over to NATO, his forces have since shown themselves superior to the rebels. Without NATO, the rebels would have been routed a month ago.
And, today, NATO itself stands a chance of being humiliated.
“NATO‘s Bomb Supply Is Running Short,” ran Saturday’s headline in The Washington Post over a story that began thus:
“Less than a month into the Libyan conflict, NATO is running short of precision bombs, highlighting the limitations of Britain, France and other European countries in maintaining even a relatively small military action over an extended period of time. …
“The shortage of European munitions, along with the limited number of aircraft available, has raised doubts … about whether the United States can continue to avoid returning to the air campaign if Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi hangs on to power.”
Only six NATO nations have planes running strikes on the Libyan army, and the French and British, who are doing most of the bombing, are running out of laser-guided munitions. And their planes are not equipped to handle U.S. smart bombs.
NATO air attacks are thus becoming less precise and lethal, as Gadhafi is pounding Misrata, the last rebel-held city in the west, and his army is again contesting Ajdabiya, the gateway to Benghazi.
In short, the war is not going well. Where does this leave us?
If the United States does not get back on the field, the Libyan army will likely crush resistance in Misrata and push the rebels back to Benghazi and Tobruk.
As the rebels lack the soldiering experience or organization to conduct an offensive, and their NATO air arm is weakening, the best they can probably hope for in the near term is to hold on to what they have in the east. Which means a stalemate — a no-win war.
Can Obama accept such an outcome to a war he started, at the outset of which he declared Gadhafi must go? Can he go into 2012 with Republicans mocking him for picking a fight with Gadhafi, then losing it for the United States? Can Obama leave Gadhafi in Tripoli knowing he is plotting terror attacks against America in reprisal?
If Gadhafi survives, does Obama survive?
Can he tell the beleaguered British and French we are not going to double down on our folly of having started this war?
In an op-ed last week in The New York Times, Obama, along with Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, wrote:
“Our duty and our mandate is … not to remove Gadhafi by force. But it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Gadhafi in power. … It is unthinkable that someone who tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government.”
But if it is “unthinkable” and “impossible” for Gadhafi to remain in power, who is going to remove him?
Absent celestial intervention, it is Uncle Sam, or no one.
If regime change is now the unstated NATO mission, who but the United States can ensure the mission is accomplished?
The Post story about Britain and France, the leading military powers of NATO Europe, depleting their smart-bomb supply in a one-month clash with an African nation of 6 million, and begging the Yanks to come back and win the war for them, raises a major question.
Is the most successful alliance in history, which kept the Red Army of Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev from smashing through the Fulda Gap and reaching the Channel, a hollow shell?
Is NATO, without America, a paper tiger?
On the eve of World War I, the German foreign minister, after visiting the aged Emperor Franz Josef in Austria, reported back to the Kaiser, “Sire, we are allied to a corpse.”
Are we?
In the 1990s, we had to pull the British and French chestnuts out of the Bosnian fire. When Serbs fought for their cradle province of Kosovo, America had to break Belgrade with 78 days of bombing.
NATO Europe couldn’t handle a fight in its own backyard.
Though we are still in Iraq, NATO is gone. There are NATO units in Afghanistan, but some have pulled out and others won’t fight.
What benefit does America receive from membership in NATO to justify the cost of maintaining tens of thousands of troops, air and naval bases, ships and planes defending a rich and populous continent that chronically refuses to provide the arms and men to defend itself?
Why are Americans still defending Europe 66 years after World War II ended and a generation after the Soviet Union disappeared?
Isn’t it time we kicked them out of the nest?
Categories Columns Tags Barack Obama, Europe, France, Iraq, Libya, Moammar Gadhafi, NATO, United States, War Post navigation
Obama Blows up the Bridge
Barack Hussein Hoover?
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Energy Savings and Pollution Prevention Benefits of Solar Heat Gain Standards in the International Energy Conservation Code
Bill Prindle, Dariush K Arasteh
LBNL Report Number
LBNL-51426
The International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), published by the International Code Council, the code development orgalization of building code officials, contains new provisions that save energy and reduce air pollution emissions. Its most significant new provision is a prescriptive standard for solar heat gain control in windows in wanner climate zones. Because solar heat gain through windows is one of the largest components of residential cooling loads, this standard reduces cooling loads dramatically, which in turn reduces electricity consumption, utility bills, and powerplant pollution emissions. It can also reduce the size of cooling equipment, a capital cost saving that can offset increased costs for the higher performance windows needed to meet the standard.
This paper documents the potential energy efficiency, dollar, and pollution reduction benefits of the IECCs solar heat gain standard. Using the RESFEN model developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we simulated a typical new home in ten southern states that would be affected the new IECC solar heat gain standard. Our analysis found that in these ten states, adoption of the IECC in its first year could save 400 million kWh, $38 million in electric bills, and 233 MW of peak electricity generating capacity. The cumulative savings from these homes in year 20 would rise to 80 billion kwh, $7.6 billion in electricity bills, and 4,660 Megawatts of generating capacity. In year twenty, the electric energy savings would also prevent the emission of 20,000 tons of NOx and over 1.5 million tons of carbon equivalent.
Extrapolating the calculations in this paper to include other states with significant cooling load reduction from the IECC leads us to believe peak savings from new construction will total 300MW annually. Given that the window replacement and remodeling market is slightly larger than the new construction market (and here the baseline is poorer performing single glazing), leads to the conclusion that savings which include the remodeling and replacement market should exceed 600MW annually. This would eliminate the need to build two average sized 300MW power plants every year. Additional, similar savings could also be expected from applying this technology to windows in commercial buildings, although we have not accounted for these savings in these estimates.
Building Technologies Department, Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Windows and Envelope Materials
Building Façade Solutions, High-R Windows, Windows and Daylighting, W and D: High Performance Windows, BTUS Windows and Daylighting
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Johann Hari: We all helped suppress the Egyptians. So how do we change?
The old slogan from the 1960s has come true: the revolution has been televised. The world is watching the Bastille fall on 24/7 rolling news. An elderly thug is trying to buy and beat and tear-gas himself enough time to smuggle his family's estimated $25bn in loot out of the country, and to install a successor friendly to his interests. The Egyptian people – half of whom live on less than $2 a day – seem determined to prevent the pillage and not to wait until September to drive out a dictator dripping in blood and bad hair dye.
The great Czech dissident Vaclav Havel outlined the "as if" principle. He said people trapped under a dictatorship need to act "as if they are free". They need to act as if the dictator has no power over them. The Egyptians are trying – and however many of them Mubarak murders on his way out the door, the direction in which fear flows has been successfully reversed. The tyrant has become terrified of "his" people.
Of course, there is a danger that what follows will be worse. My family lived for a time under the torturing tyranny of the Shah of Iran, and cheered the revolution in 1979. Yet he was replaced by the even more vicious Ayatollahs. But this is not the only model, nor the most likely. Events in Egypt look more like the Indonesian revolution, where in 1998 a popular uprising toppled a US-backed tyrant after 32 years of oppression – and went on to build the largest and most plural democracy in the Muslim world.
But the discussion here in the West should focus on the factor we are responsible for and can influence – the role our governments have played in suppressing the Egyptian people. Your taxes have been used to arm, fund and fuel this dictatorship. You have unwittingly helped to keep these people down. The tear-gas canisters fired at pro-democracy protesters have "Made in America" stamped on them, with British machine guns and grenade launchers held in the background.
Very few British people would praise a murderer and sell him weapons. Very few British people would beat up a poor person to get cheaper petrol. But our governments do it all the time. Why? British foreign policy does not follow the everyday moral principles of the British people, because it is not formulated by us. This might sound like an odd thing to say about a country that prides itself on being a democracy, but it is true.
The former Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimons spoke at a conference for Israel's leaders last year and assured them they didn't have to worry about the British people's growing opposition to their policies because "public opinion does not influence foreign policy in Britain. Foreign policy is an elite issue". This is repellent but right. It is formulated in the interests of big business and their demand for access to resources, and influential sectional interest groups.
You can see this most clearly if you go through the three reasons our governments give, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, for their behavior in the Middle East. Explanation One: Oil. Some 60 per cent of the world's remaining petrol is in the Middle East. We are all addicted to it, so our governments support strongmen and murderers who will keep the oil-taps gushing without interruption. Egypt doesn't have oil, but it has crucial oil pipelines and supply routes, and it is part of a chain of regional dictators we don't want broken in case they all fall taking the petrol pump with it. Addicts don't stand up to their dealers: they fawn before them.
There is an obvious medium-term solution: break our addiction. The technology exists – wind, wave and especially solar power – to fuel our societies without oil. It would free us from our support for dictators and horrific wars of plunder like Iraq. It's our society's route to rehab – but it is being blocked by the hugely influential oil companies, who would lose a fortune. Like everybody who needs to go to rehab, the first step is to come out of denial about why we are still hooked.
Explanation Two: Israel and the "peace process". Over the past week, we have persistently been told that Mubarak was a key plank in supporting "peace in the Middle East". The opposite is the truth. Mubarak has been at the forefront of waging war on the Palestinian population. There are 1.5 million people imprisoned on the Gaza Strip denied access to necessities like food and centrifuges for their blood transfusion service. They are being punished for voting "the wrong way" in a democratic election.
Israel blockades Gaza to one side, and Mubarak blockades it to the other. I've stood in Gaza and watched Egyptian soldiers refusing to let sick and dying people out for treatment they can't get in Gaza's collapsing hospitals. In return for this, Mubarak receives $1.5bn a year from the US. Far from contributing to peace, this is marinating the Gazan people in understandable hatred and dreams of vengeance. This is bad even for Israel herself – but we are so servile to the demands of the country's self-harming government, and to its loudest and angriest lobbyists here, that our governments obey.
Explanation Three: Strongmen suppress jihadism. Our governments claim that without dictators to suppress, torture and disappear Islamic fundamentalists, they will be unleashed and come after us. Indeed, they often outsourced torture to the Egyptian regime, sending suspects there to face things that would be illegal at home. Robert Baer, once a senior figure in black ops at the CIA, said: "If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear, you send them to Egypt."
Western governments claim all this makes us safer. The opposite is the truth. In his acclaimed history of al-Qa'ida, The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright explains: "America's tragedy on September 11th was born in the prisons of Egypt." Modern jihadism was invented by Sayeed Qutb as he was electrocuted and lashed in Egyptian jails and grew under successive tyrannies. Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, was Egyptian, and named US backing for his country's tyrant as one of the main reasons for the massacre.
When we fund the violent suppression of people, they hate us, and want to fight back. None of these factors that drove our governments to back Mubarak's dictatorship in Egypt have changed. So we should strongly suspect they will now talk sweet words about democracy in public, and try to secure a more PR-friendly Mubarak in private.
It doesn't have to be like this. We could make our governments as moral as we, the British people, are in our everyday lives. We could stop them trampling on the weak, and fattening thugs. But to achieve it, we have to democratise our own societies and claim control of our foreign policy. We would have to monitor and campaign over it, and let our governments know there is a price for behaving viciously abroad. The Egyptian people have shown this week they will risk everything to stop being abused. What will we risk to stop our governments being abusers?
Labels: dictators, Egypt, Islam and Muslims, USA
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Neil deGrasse Tyson and Richard Dawkins: What would aliens look like?
Last Tuesday Howard University hosted a discussion between evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson billed "The Poetry of Science" (a title I love). Their conversation touched on the beauty of science, life and the universe. and - among other topics - aliens.
Journalism grad student Karen Frantz summarizes:
Tyson argued that representations of aliens in pop culture tend to be anthropomorphized, depicting beings with similar body structures and facial features as ours. He said that it’s egocentric to assume that life on another planet would resemble life on our own, and that to him the most plausible alien character depicted in sci-fi was the Blob -- an amoeba-like villain in the classic 50’s flick.
Dawkins countered by saying that life on Earth has followed predictable paths of evolution, and we might very well expect life on other planets to take a similar course. For example, on Earth, animals on separate continents still share similar genes and characteristics -- eyes and stingers, for example -- despite having long ago split apart on the evolutionary chain.
Video of their discussion is being posted by Black Atheists of America - you can watch part 1 and part 2 Those videos are now private. Sorry about that.
Categories: aliens and monsters, scientists on SF
When I try to play the videos, a note comes up stating that they are private.
Peggy K said...
Thanks for pointing that out. They were public when I made the post.
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City Brights: J.D. Beltran
Artists Who Won’t Have to Scramble – The 2011 Stanford University MFA Exhibition
By JD Beltran on June 11, 2011 at 4:00 PM
Jerome Reyes, Only what you can carry, 14 x 22 x 36,” folded vellum, 2011
This weekend offers the last days to catch the work of this year’s graduating students from Stanford University’s Art Department with “Scramble,” an exhibition of work by five graduating artists for their final MFA Thesis. Given the stature of past graduates, Stanford’s program seems to attract that already-accomplished artist who desires the credential of an MFA, which makes its shows a bit different than many other local schools. As it appears every one of the graduating MFA class already possesses a pretty solid track record of exhibitions, grants, and awards, it isn’t surprising the work is at a high level. Artists Boo Chapple, Jacqueline Gordon, Dorian Katz, Sanaz Mazinani, and Jerome Reyes present a very polished thesis show that addresses topics of site, gender, identity, culture, environment, and heritage.
Boo Chapple blends concept with food as her material, creating videos and installations that range from the zen to the disgusting. “Living in American Dreamtime” features video of a performance in the atrium of the gallery, wherein flowing bits of white garbage suspended above were animated by three people with leaf blowers from below. A looped playback of this performance was flanked by a wall of white trash that was again mildly animated by drafts in the space — a sweet and funny piece, in a zen sort of way. In contrast, the videos in “Breaking Bread” appeared to comment on our culture’s obsession with consumption, with its video loop of an unknown hand force-feeding toast figurines to somebody whose face is covered with dough, and a companion video of someone spitting out white dough while their head is encased in a Wonder Bread bag. She adds humor to the installation through embellishing her video monitors with toaster-packaging vacuum-formed plastic bezels and plastic utensils.
Boo Chapple, Breaking Bread, Video Installation, 2011
Boo Chapple, Breaking Bread, Video Installation 2011
Jacqueline Gordon’s work examines the relationship between architectural environment and sound, and how such a relationship affects and colors our psyche. For one of her past works, she states, “I am interested in how the noise patterns of a city reflect natural rhythms and how noise can be perceived and manipulated to create an atmosphere of comfort and stability or invoke anxiety and oppression.” One of her pieces, “Untitled 1,” accomplishes this quite effectively. It’s a 3′ x 3′ low box on the floor that periodically (random) plays a quite loud sound. It appears she was originally going to have two of these boxes, but there was only one installed (one should’ve been playing a car door slamming, the other a tympani drum hit, and the tympani is installed). At any rate, it works — every minute or two the sculpture plays a loud sound that reverberates through the space, compelling one to think about periodic and aperiodic sounds in our lives.
Jacqueline Gordon, Untitled 1, subwoofers, MDF, electronics, 2011
The subversive aesthetic of Dorian Katz’s skillfully executed ink drawings reminds one of Wally Wood in his 1967 “Disneyland Memorial Orgy” appropriation of Disney characters. Many nice touches are included in the work, like echoing the motif in the detailed embellishments on saddle embossing and the hilt of one character’s knife. More intriguing was “Dear Jacks,” an illuminated manuscript of sorts with several small sketches worked around a an interesting letter from a long-running correspondence between the artist and collaborator Marlene Hoeber where each assume alternate identities — Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner.
Dorian Katz, Dear Jacks, Ink, blood, and acrylic on paper, 2011
Also demonstrating polished craft and a sophisticated aesthetic was the work of Sanaz Mazinani, whose work “focuses on the conceptual and formal boundaries of perception and representation as related to site, sight and insight. Concerned with the fractures within the image, (Mazinani) utilizes photographs mined from the Internet as she frames questions on re-presenting conflict.” Her ambitious installation “Room for Disruption” incorporates video, photo-based wall paper, ink and gold leaf drawings, digital displays, collage, and a light box print. The wallpaper was skillfully done, and presented surprises when you examined the patterns up close. Particularly striking was the lightbox print, which was quite beautiful. I did, however, find that the work tended to balance more towards the formal than the conceptual, given her assertion that it was about conflict and war.
Sanaz Mazinani, Room for Disruption, 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, wallpaper, 2011
Sanaz Mazinani, Room for Disruption, 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, wallpaper detail, 2011
Sanaz Mazinani, Room for Disruption, 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, lightbox print
Jerome Reyes’ current interests appear to be in that experience and process when you’re neither here nor there, but in-between — when you check in to board an airplane. Using the unusual materials of fluorescent ink, spray-painted primer, corrective fluid, and painter’s tape, he’s created simply stunning drawings of jetways (those telescoping jet bridges used to board an aircraft) on vellum. Also in vellum, he’s crafted an amazing life-sized carry-on fitting rack along with a companion luggage scale. He’s preserved a tiny vellum jetway as well, in a Plexiglas vitrine, and invites the audience to take home a make-it-yourself version. Overall, I found these works to be amongst the strongest in the show through their whimsical exploration of concept, expressiveness, and obvious command of craft.
Jerome Reyes, Suspension, fluorescent ink, spray-painted primer, corrective fluid, and painter’s tape on vellum, 2011
Jerome Reyes,Abeyance/Paper Airbridge (plans), blueprint ink on vellum, Edition of 500, and Abeyance/Paper Airbridge (Construction), 1 x 1 x 6″ folded vellum, adhesive
“Scramble,” the Stanford MFA Thesis Show exhibition, ends this weekend, with the last day being Sunday, June 12 (tomorrow). You can be sure, however, that with artists of this level of accomplishment, we’ll be seeing their work far into the future. Congratulations to the Stanford MFA Graduating Class!
jdbeltran
A Superabundance of Art, and Even More
Season of the Newest
“Inarguably Uncertain,” the 41st Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition
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Nat Geo’s Genius: Picasso x Society6: Lellopepper Inspired by Dora Maar
It’s time to invert the idea of the muse.
The history of art is full of women who served as muses to male artists. Many of these women were dynamic artists in their own right, but we often don’t hear as much about their achievements—until today.
On April 24th, National Geographic premiered the new season Genius: Picasso. Undoubtedly, he was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and many of the women who filled his life and inspired his work were brilliant creatives themselves.
Now, it’s time to flip this idea of the muse on its head. We partnered with National Geographic to ask Society6 artists Lellopepper, BFGF and Tallulah Fontaine to create a piece of original artwork inspired by the life and work of his muses, thus elevating and celebrating their legacy through the female gaze. Here, we chat with photographer Elise Mesner (Lellopepper) about Dora Maar and her experience with the concept of the muse:
Elise Mesner is a photographer and artist from Detroit who, in honor of Genius: Picasso, created work inspired by the life of Dora Maar. Dora spent ten years as his muse and became the first person to photographically document the creation of a piece of modern art from start to finish with his masterpiece, Guernica. Once a leading voice in surrealist photography, her work was shown around the world in impressive group and solo exhibitions.
Elise’s photo series was inspired by Dora’s photographs, her likeness as captured by Man Ray and the painter’s description of her as “The Weeping Woman”.
What were some of your favorite things you learned about your particular muse, Dora Maar?
It was fascinating to learn how she balanced photography alongside painting. Dora infused commercial photography with true surrealism and was not afraid to transgress traditional boundaries and much of that is personally relatable. I wonder how much surrealism is drawn into her photography from her painting style—a question I’d like to further dig into. It’s nice to have had this opportunity to work closely with her thought and style in mind.
Do you think a woman can serve as a male artist’s muse in a way that is empowering instead of objectifying?
Of course, women have evolved, and the objectified past is more of an empowering future for us all. As generations have progressed, the depictions of idealized females have changed. I believe it’s a choice, you don’t have to be a mute or anonymous object for manipulation, you can have your own identity and represent your female form.
Her Final Pieces:
In that same vein, how can male artists celebrate the feminine in a way that attempts to capture its many facets in a respectful and celebratory way?
There’s an easy connection between female power and fashion/art so the use of femininity in the arts will always be important, but I think it’s imperative to keep messages healthy and un-muddled—making sure art leaves a good message that is conscious of a women’s identity and vice-versa.
What is it about the female gaze that is able to elevate subjects instead of reducing them to their sexuality or their gender?
I enjoy what Hannah Wilke says about her art in the making back in 1976, “There is no one single limited all encompassing definition of the female gaze. Rather, this is a conversation with the hope of opening up the ongoing conversation and a space for reflecting on a very real phenomenon; the world is in desperate need of new narratives, and new ways of creating and sharing those narratives.” I see the “female gaze” as being expansive, and given our present day, there has never been a more important time to understand and cultivate a feminine way of seeing and being in the world.
Photos by Joshua Klausner
Shop Lellopepper:
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Two Laylils Canvas Print
New Episodes of Genius: Picasso / Tuesdays 10/9c
Tagged as Dora Maar, Genius: Picasso, Lellopepper, National Geographic, photography,
Your Monthly Horoscope: September 2019
Home Studio: How Creative Hannah Pobar is Changing the Photography Game
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Joey Quits
Mark Spirek
Joey DeFrancesco quit his job in a fashion many disgruntled workers have fantasied about. He took a brass band into the hotel where he worked in Providence and had them strike up a song as he turned in his letter of resignation to his manager. The video has since almost 3 million views and Joey has started a website for hotel workers to tell their stories of unjust workplaces.
IMAGE: Courtesy of YouTube
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Gone are the days of salarymen and women who join and retire at the same company after 40 years; retaining today’s generation of talent over the long term is much more difficult. Employers in 2019, 2020 and beyond are...
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As we’re growing up, we’re often asked what we want to be. As small children our answer is obviously always incredibly basic and typically influenced by the careers we are frequently exposed to: doctor, police officer...
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Getting a “thanks, but no thanks” from a company you were hoping to work for is never an easy thing to receive. It can make some jobseekers bitter or indignant, which is understandable. However, there are many instances...
Lauren Levine
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Front Page » Archives » February 2012 »
" More on The Maine Republican Party's Stolen 2012 GOP Caucuses - And How It Appears They Did It... "
More on The Maine Republican Party's Stolen 2012 GOP Caucuses - And How It Appears They Did It...
[Now UPDATED TWICE with new details at bottom of article.]
It figures. The one time we're on the road and unable to keep up with things on a minute-by-minute basis, a major election would be stolen outright. And there's not a disenfranchising polling place Photo ID restriction in the world that could have done a thing to stop the thieves.
Despite the reputation The BRAD BLOG has gained in some quarters over the years, I don't believe we have ever outright declared an election as "stolen." That has now changed as the Republican Party of Maine has blatantly stolen the 2012 GOP Caucuses in their state for Mitt Romney, as we detailed yesterday.
That fact is just the latest data point in a remarkable and rapidly expanding spate of GOP election fraud by very high profile Republicans across the nation, as we also detailed in yesterday's report.
The question now: Can it be "stolen back"?
Happily, even though we're on the road, the issue is being covered very well this time around by Rachel Maddow at MSNBC. Her coverage last night honed in on a few additional points in this remarkable story, underscoring the blatant theft and breathtaking hypocrisy in the entire embarrassing, if enlightening, affair.
Among the points she expanded on last night (several of which we'd flagged in our coverage yesterday): the call by a Maine county Republican committee for the immediate removal of the shameless and breathtakingly dishonest state GOP Chair Charlie Webster and how the state party leadership not only seems to have lied to voters about results from postponed caucuses to be held this Saturday in Washington County, but how new evidence from Waldo County suggests the party may have simply just made up "results" out of whole cloth --- and then tried to keep those fake numbers a secret from the public in order to award the race to Mitt Romney by 194 votes over Ron Paul.
All of that, remember, before an entire county --- Washington County, one of just 16 in the entire state --- has even managed to hold their caucuses and vote at all in the statewide contest.
This is remarkable stuff and perhaps made more remarkable by the fact that this isn't currently at the top of every news outlet in the nation...
Here's Maddow's full report from last night...
Of particular note in her coverage last night:
• It has never happened before this cycle that a winner has been announced in a Presidential primary or caucus only to see that result later overturned with a different winner announced instead. That happened earlier this year after the Iowa Caucuses --- when that state's GOP chair similarly announced Romney as the winner, even before all vote counts had been reported accurately --- and it may well happen a second time in Maine if the people stand up and fight for the "winner" of the election to be the one who actually received the most, ya know, votes.
• There has been a call for Maine GOP chair Charlie Webster to be fired. The Waldo County Republican Party voted to ask the state GOP committee to formerly "censure" him, after they were unable to get consensus on the call to fire him outright. Remember, Webster, in addition to prematurely announcing Romney the "winner" last Saturday night, before all of Maine's voters had even had a chance to cast their vote, is the hapless clown who, last year, went on a shameless and embarrassing bender in hopes of trying to keep thousands of legal student voters from being able to vote in Maine at all in this year's Presidential elections.
• Washington County was allegedly told the results of their postponed caucuses would be counted in the final results, originally, only to learn last Saturday night, when the state party issued its statement declaring Mitt Romney "the winner" of the 2012 Republican Caucuses in Maine, that the county's "results WILL NOT be factored into" the final certified results of the contest. When the state committee meets on March 10 (several days after Super Tuesday on March 6), in addition to voting to censure Webster as requested by the Waldo County GOP, the committee could also do the right thing and decide to factor in Washington County's results after all.
• The GOP reported zero votes in a number of towns that, in fact, had reported their votes correctly. Is this what the party did across the state? Never mind Washington County, which is set to vote this Saturday, but did Paul already beat Romney even before Washington votes?
A closer look at this last point is in order, as it demonstrates potential malfeasance beyond simply ignoring voters who have yet to cast their votes. It suggests the Maine GOP deliberately falsified the numbers they reported last Saturday.
In our coverage yesterday, we reported on comments posted to a Ron Paul supporter website from Matt McDonald, the chair of the caucus in Waldo County's town of Belfast. He had claimed that when he called the GOP to give the numbers from his caucus (where Paul had won), they told him that their numbers showed Romney winning there instead.
But when he told the woman he spoke to that they had "publicly counted the ballots" at his caucus, "her ears perked up."
The trouble with all of this? When the state GOP posted their official numbers to their website [PDF], the town of Belfast showed ZERO votes for the entire town!
Ethan Andrews picked up on McDonald's comments and added a bit more in his coverage at Waldo VillageSoup [emphasis added]:
Matt McDonald, chairman of the Belfast caucus committee told VillageSoup Feb. 14 that he personally called in Belfast's results to the state GOP office but was told the party already had the figures. When the woman on the phone read those tallies back, McDonald said they showed Romney winning in Belfast, which he knew was not the case.
"I said, 'Ma'am, I know you're very busy but we publicly counted our votes here in Belfast,'" McDonald said, going on to note the discrepancies. ... As soon as she heard we had publicly counted she said, 'Oh, I'll be sure those numbers are changed.'"
When the official results were released, the line for Belfast contained neither the figures the state party official had quoted to McDonald on the phone nor the revised figures but a row of zeroes, suggesting no votes were cast in the city.
So the "publicly counted" votes --- the type of counting that The BRAD BLOG has been advocating for years as Democracy's Gold Standard --- sent a signal to the GOP that they'd have a difficult time gaming the numbers. Instead of reporting the numbers they had for Belfast, however (the ones which claimed Romney won), or the ones from the actual caucus chair (showing Paul had won), they just reported ZERO votes all together.
They appear to have done the same thing in town after town in their own results posted on Saturday night --- the ones which, at the bottom, show Romney having "won" by just 194 votes.
Did the Republican Party simply ZERO out a bunch of Paul town's in order to give the results to Romney?
Andrews offers more details on this point, noting that some 18 towns held caucuses "a week before the announcement," and yet, "In the official Maine GOP tallies...the results from all but one of those communities were given as a series of zeros below the name of each candidate, as though no one had voted."
According to Mike Quatrano, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, and the person who issued the press release, the omission of the Waldo County votes was not a typo. Quatrano did not offer to review the results, but said simply that what appeared on the press release was what was counted by the party.
The GOP leader noted the deadline for local caucus organizers to submit results and chalked up the rows of zeroes after dozens of towns around the state, including 17 of the 18 that participated in the Waldo County event on Feb. 4, to either a lack of participation or a failure by organizers to submit results.
According to Raymond St. Onge, who organized the multi-town Waldo County gathering, neither was the case.
Speaking on Feb. 13, St. Onge said he submitted the results of the Feb. 4 caucuses to the party immediately after the event, which was held a week before the deadline
"They had the numbers to count," said St. Onge, referring to state party officials. "Why they didn't include them, I don't know the answer to that."
According to figures supplied by St. Onge, Ron Paul came out the winner among the 18 towns that gathered on Feb. 4 with 43 votes, followed by Rick Santorum with 41.
Mitt Romney, who was declared the statewide winner in Maine by GOP officials, took third place with 35 votes, collectively, among the 18 towns.
REMINDER: This is how elections are stolen --- by folks on the inside, by folks who run the elections and/or have access to the reporting of the supposed results. They are not stolen by imaginary "dead" voters showing up at the polls on Election Day (as folks like Webster and the bulk of Republican officials across the country like to claim.) No polling place Photo ID restriction was required for Republicans casting their votes at Maine's GOP caucuses, neither would such a restriction have stopped Webster from declaring Romney the "winner" of the Maine Caucuses as he did last Saturday night (on both a televised announcement and in the one posted to the Maine Republican Party website.)
Similarly, no Photo ID restriction in the world would have kept Iowa GOP Chair Matthew Strawn from inaccurately declaring Romney the winner on Caucus night there either, as he did, even though Romney had not won that state either. That state's GOP, which similarly determined all of their own rules for the caucuses, also chose not to require Photo ID for their own voters, despite attempting to do so earlier in the year in the state legislature for elections in which Democrats might be able to vote. What does that tell you?
Strawn was forced to resign after his debacle. Maine Republicans should demand same of Webster, and I have little doubt but that they soon will.
If the Paul camp is serious about accountability, they should be filing a lawsuit against both him and the party in Maine as well. So should Republican voters there.
In both Iowa and now Maine, it has been members of the public who have been able to step forward to point out the inaccurate totals reported by the state Republican Parties in each state after they tried to award their races to Romney whether he actually won or not.
That's what Paul supporter Edward True did in Iowa. That's what Belfast's caucus chair Matt McDonald has now done in his town.
In both cases, this was possible because paper ballots were publicly hand-counted. Had those ballots been tabulated by a computer, where results can simply be changed with a few keystrokes, there would have been little evidence of theft for anybody to report on, and the corporate media would have simply moved on and declared a site such as The BRAD BLOG, attempting to oversee the elections and point out disparities and anomalies discovered during our investigation, as little more than a "conspiracy site".
The infamous quote attributed to Josef Stalin is oft-used, but far more frequently ignored. But it has never been more apt: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
And again, we should point out that this news site has never outright declared any election as "stolen"...until now.
The 2012 Republican Caucuses in Maine have been stolen --- by the Republican Party of Maine themselves. Now it's up to the people --- yes, the actual voters and those who support them --- to "steal" it back. Thankfully, since the people are allowed to vote on paper ballots that can be publicly counted, that just may happen.
Think they'll have much of a turnout this Saturday for the previously postponed Washington County caucuses?
P.S. Remember to see our previous coverage on the stolen GOP Caucuses in Maine for a quick summary if other recent high profile cases of confirmed and alleged Republican election fraud, including by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and several others that you probably haven't heard about thanks to our terrible corporate mainstream media. And no, none of the fraud has anything to do with either ACORN or "dead people" voting, or all the over stuff and nonsense Americans are usually told (usually by Republicans, but dutifully repeated and misreported by the corporate media) as being the cause of "voter fraud" and stolen elections. You're welcome.
UPDATE 6:56pm PT: From Bangor Daily News tonight:
The Maine Republican Party has reversed course and will recommend that delayed caucus results from Washington County be included in its final presidential poll tally.
“The results of the Washington County caucus will be reviewed at the March 10 Republican State Committee meeting,” Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said in a prepared statement approved by the state party’s executive committee.
“The executive committee voted unanimously to recommend to the state committee that they include the results in the final tally for the presidential preference poll as their caucus had been scheduled to occur by the February 11 deadline, however it was postponed due to inclement weather. “
In addition, the executive committee is working to reconfirm results that were turned in before Feb. 11
Not sure what "reconfirming" means, but that seems to refer to the numbers that were initially reported by the GOP as zeroed out in town after town last Saturday night when Webster initially (and fraudulently) announced Romney as the "winner" by 194 votes.
UPDATE 2/17/12: We may now have some of those "reconfirmed" numbers. And they reportedly reveal Romney's 194 vote lead shrinking to just 157 in advance of tomorrow's final caucuses in two different counties. Full details on the new numbers now here...
Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Iowa, Election Fraud, Photo ID Laws, Accountability, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Maine, Election 2012
« PREVIOUS STORY "'Green News Report' - February 16, 2012"
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"More on The Maine Republican Party's Stolen 2012 GOP Caucuses - And How It Appears They Did It..."
... Rick H. said on 2/16/2012 @ 4:54 pm PT...
Good story on PBS NewsHour tonight about internet voting.
Story's not online yet, but sure to follow.
... Ernest A. Canning said on 2/16/2012 @ 4:57 pm PT...
In an email, Alan Grayson made the following interesting remarks in relation to his assertion that the GOP represents only the interests of the top one percent:
In a state with 1.3 million people, exactly 5,585 of them cared about the Republican nominee for President enough to bother to vote. In an open caucus, not limited to voters who had registered as a Republican.
To show you how low this turnout was, when I ran for Congress in 2008, I got almost 100 times as many votes as Mitt Romney did on Saturday. In a congressional district half of the size of the State of Maine.
Problem is, the totals Grayson is relying upon may have absolutely nothing to do with the total number of votes cast in ME.
... D.Q. said on 2/16/2012 @ 5:29 pm PT...
Sorry if this is a dumb question but ...
How exactly did Charlie Webster & Co. expect the towns whose voters have been disenfranchised to react ?
Did he expect the towns to just "take one for the Republican team" and silently accept the fact that their votes would go uncounted ?
Did he think nobody would notice ???
I don't get it ...
... Thick-Witted Liberal said on 2/16/2012 @ 5:50 pm PT...
Republican only know how to lie and cheat. For them, the end always justifies the means.
PBS segment is online now, with the guys from UMichigan that hacked the DC voting system.
Internet Voting: Will Democracy or Hackers Win?
http://www.pbs.org/newsh...nternetvoting_02-16.html
... Adam said on 2/16/2012 @ 8:36 pm PT...
perhaps made more remarkable by the fact that this isn't currently at the top of every news outlet in the nation...
You have a great sense of humor. As if you'd expect otherwise from the fascism-cheerleading mainstream (though fast being recognized as sewage-stream) media. When has the shameful US mainstream media ever consistently documented the gutting of US democracy by its beloved fascist thugs?
Adam8 (autocratically banned from commenting by Rawstory's dictator Roxanne Cooper)
... Cosimo diRondo said on 2/17/2012 @ 7:42 am PT...
"Censure"? "Lawsuit"? Is this really not criminal? Because it's *only* a primary? Ernest? Please talk me down.
Re: the question about how Charlie Webster expected the towns to take it...two things:
1) The Ron Paul people have not drunk the Koolaid that they have to be polite in order to retain access. They immediately report it publicly and yell about it when these things are done. This kind of thing is done ALL THE TIME but candidates are cowed into behaving themselves with promises of more access, or a position.
2) In any election, all they have to do is get through 10 days and they are home free. There are very few exceptions to this; Bush/Gore 2000, Bush/Kerry 2004, New Hampshire Primary 2008, Iowa/Maine caucuses 2012. In 2000, the media pushed for the truth. In all the others, the truth only came out because of public citizens.
... Randy D said on 2/17/2012 @ 8:25 am PT...
Like Iowa, to a certain extent they have already "gotten away with it" EVEN IF the votes are eventually counted an Ron Paul declared the winner, which looks possible. Romney has avoided the "shame" of losing a state bordering Massachusetts, at least as far as the media's attention goes. It does show how badly our "democracy" has declined that a ham-handed obvious theft does not even draw media attention. With the sole exception of MSNBS.
... Jack Blood said on 2/17/2012 @ 10:57 am PT...
Thank YOU Brad!!!
... Jon said on 2/17/2012 @ 1:01 pm PT...
Trouble is, this doesn't count for any delegates
@Bev Harris,
What I'm not understanding is that in light of the facts 1) that the "Ronulans" spoke out so loudly and clearly, 2) that YOU knew they would and 3) that I knew they would too ... ?
Why didn't whoever perpetrated this election fraud know they --- or SOMEone else like Bradblog --- would ??? Why didn't they try to cover their tracks at all ?
Especially when the head of Iowa's GOP just had to resign over this same problem ??
Anybody ... ? ... because I don't get it.
Also (and with further apologies for my ignorance) what does "all they have to do is get through 10 days and they are home free" mean ? Is that 10 primaries/caucuses ?
(I will, of course, totally understand, Bev, if you have more pressing priorities than continuing to tutor a political neophyte.)
... Philly Todd said on 2/17/2012 @ 2:56 pm PT...
Interesting that this Romney guy keeps getting declared the winner and then there is voter fraud at the highest level. Could it be that he is simply buying off these GOP officials state to state?
... Angry Voter said on 2/17/2012 @ 3:15 pm PT...
Can Romney's accountants do the same trick with the national debt?
No seriously China, we already mailed you a check, your wife must have already spent it or something.
... J.T. Waldron said on 2/17/2012 @ 4:01 pm PT...
You might be on the road this time but you always provide great coverage. Thanks!
... KayInMaine said on 2/18/2012 @ 6:07 am PT...
I live in Maine and I can tell you that the Maine GOP is a joke. Bunch of ninnies. They could not allow the vote tallies to occur naturally. There are no mistakes when it comes to the Maine GOP. They are deliberate thieves and if they have to steal their own caucus to show the nation that they HAVEN'T picked Ron Paul as their guy leading to the upcoming convention, they will do it!
This is the same party who claims voter fraud is rampant in our state and points fingers at liberals and Democrats as being the ones who do it the most. Well, we don't have a problem with voter fraud in this state (2 cases in almost 40 years???????), but how ironic laced with karma that we see the Maine GOP stealing it's own caucus right before our eyes!
They need to arrest themselves to end voter fraud in our state.
Hey, we don't call them "Our Brother Charlie (Webster)" and "Our Other Brother Charlie (Summers)" for nothing! Bunch of criminal bozos....
... Adrian said on 2/18/2012 @ 6:21 am PT...
So far this election, every Republican primary or caucus has been tainted. I'm beginning to wonder if the Republicans don't actually like that.
... american patriot said on 2/18/2012 @ 9:29 am PT...
It's good to see that the Washington and Hancock county votes will go to the total vote count, by why after the Super tuesday?
We want the votes COUNTED NOW and want the MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO RECOGNIZE that Ron Paul was THE WINNER of the MAINE CAUCUSES, and give him fair share of AIR TIME Covergae on FOX, CNN, CNBC, NBC, etc etc. that Mitt Romney got when they determined him the winner when only 84% of the precints were reporting.
The mainstream media needs to wait till most of the votes from each county are in BEFORE discounting any candidate, and especially if COUNTIES WERE NOT COUNTED as were washington and Hancock counties.
The American people look forward to seeing Ron Paul's good news tonight POSTED all along the mainstream media's - Declaring Ron Paul the ACTUAL and REAL winner of the Maine Caucuses!
"REMEMBER THE MAINE!!" --
THIS KIND OF GIVES NEW ADDAGE TO A SLOGAN OF LONG AGO --- AND TO RON PAUL'S PRESIDENTIAL RUN AND TO THE AMERICAN PATRIOT MOVEMENT!!
Remember the Maine!! Ron Paul 2012
... Daniel said on 2/18/2012 @ 10:57 am PT...
Maybe this story would matter if we lived in a democracy.
... AMERICAN PARIOT said on 2/18/2012 @ 3:43 pm PT...
WE NOW LIVE IN A GOVERNMENT NAMED "DEMOCRACY" --BUT, IF YOU READ AND OUR TEACHERS IN OUR SCHOOLS WOULD TEACH --- OUR FOREFATHERS SET FORTH FOR THE PEOPLE A REPUBLIC CONSTITUTION!...WE HAVE A CONSTITUTION SET FORTH BY FOREFATHERS WHICH STOPPED WHAT IS BEING SET AGAINST THE PEOPLE IN TODAY'S TIMES ...OUR FOREFATHERS KNEW OF THE CORRUPTION A "DEMOCRACY " BRINGS! WE ARE A REPUBLIC!! LOOK IT UP!!!!!!!!!
THE UNITED STATES PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: " AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS - ONE NATION , UNDER GOD,.....
WHERE DID THE REPUBLIC GO WRONG ? ..OUR FOREFATHERS WARNED US OF THIS!!!!!! WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY - WE ARE A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC --LOOK IT UP!
... OWN-the-NWO said on 2/19/2012 @ 1:37 am PT...
@ Philly Todd
"Why didn't whoever perpetrated this election fraud know they --- or SOMEone else like Bradblog --- would ??? Why didn't they try to cover their tracks at all ?
Anybody ... ? ... because I don't get it."
We are talking about an establishment run by criminal oligarchs, who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, treason, sedition & stolen more money than any other human being in human history.
Who are openly saying they will use the military on you.
Who are trying to shut down the internet
DO you REALLY need to ask WHY they would blatantly steal elections right in front of your face?
... Brian said on 2/19/2012 @ 8:33 pm PT...
I registered in the state of Maine as a Republican going from Democrat sometime in November or December and wasn't allowed to vote because they said I hadn't registered until Feb 3, which was too late for former Democrats.
... aldrein said on 2/20/2012 @ 10:48 pm PT...
Ron Paul supporters should make a motion to have the ballots read out and tallied in public in every precinct and take a photo of the results. This will pressure the GOP into making sure that everything is counted and reported properly.
... Marta S. said on 2/23/2012 @ 6:33 am PT...
Thanks as always for your splendidly meticulous coverage of election issues.
What to garner from all this is that the Republicans rig elections. Well, duh. And stop at nothing.
So the fact that their guys' machinery determines our election results is being proved again and again.
To really impress that upon most voters might discourage them from going to the polls at all.
Nonetheless they should know.
I'm waiting for my book to come out.
Your page was most helpful.
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Bradley International Airport to Launch New, Nonstop Service to Raleigh-Durham and Orlando
WINDSOR LOCKS, CT – January 9, 2019 – The Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) is pleased to announce the debut of new, nonstop service from Bradley International Airport to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) on low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines.
“We are proud to expand our unique brand of Low Fares Done Right in Hartford,” said Jonathan Freed, Director of Corporate Communications for Frontier Airlines. “Frontier is always looking for ways to make travel easier and more affordable, and our reimagined frequent flier program with family-friendly benefits and attainable elite status, as well as our reduced change fees – free if you make changes more than 90 days before you fly – are the latest examples of what we mean by Low Fares Done Right.”
“We are excited to see Frontier Airlines’ expansion at Bradley International Airport, less than a month after we celebrated the announcement that they will begin operations at Bradley this year,” said Kevin A. Dillon, A.A.E, Executive Director of the CAA. “The nonstop flights to Raleigh-Durham and Orlando are a welcome addition to our menu of nonstop flights. We look forward to the low fares and convenience that Frontier Airlines’ growing presence at Bradley International Airport will bring to our passengers.”
The service to Raleigh-Durham will commence on April 30, on an Airbus A320. It will operate seasonally on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
The service to Orlando will commence on May 1, on an Airbus A321. It will operate seasonally on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
In December 2018, the Connecticut Airport Authority and Frontier Airlines announced the launch of Frontier Airlines’ inaugural service out of Bradley International Airport to Denver, which is scheduled to commence on March 28.
To book tickets, please visit https://www.flyfrontier.com/.
About Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines is committed to offering ‘Low Fares Done Right’ to more than 100 destinations and growing in the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico on more than 350 daily flights. Headquartered in Denver, Frontier’s hard-working aviation professionals pride themselves in delivering the company’s signature Low Fares Done Right service to customers. Frontier Airlines is the proud recipient of the Federal Aviation Administration’s 2017 Diamond Award for maintenance excellence and was recently named the industry’s most fuel-efficient airline by The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) as a result of superior technology and operational efficiencies.
About Bradley International Airport
Bradley International Airport (BDL) welcomes nearly 7 million travelers each year, making it the second largest airport in New England. At Bradley International Airport, we want our passengers to “Love the Journey.” We proudly offer nonstop access to more than 30 popular destinations. Recent efforts to elevate the travel experience through terminal enhancements and new amenities have helped Bradley International Airport earn the #3 spot in the prestigious ranking of best airports in the U.S. by Condé Nast Traveler in 2018. Bradley International Airport is operated by the Connecticut Airport Authority, and its operations are entirely self-funded. The airport contributes nearly $2.6 billion to the regional economy. For more info, visit www.flybdl.org.
About The Connecticut Airport Authority
The CAA was established in 2011 to develop, improve, and operate Bradley International Airport and the state’s five general aviation airports (Danielson, Groton-New London, Hartford-Brainard, Waterbury-Oxford, and Windham). The CAA Board consists of 11 members with a broad spectrum of experience in aviation-related and other industries, as well as government. The goal of the CAA is to make Connecticut’s airports more attractive to new airlines, bring in new routes, and support Connecticut’s overall economic development and growth strategy.
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© 2019 - Bradley International Airport
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Breaking News House
Tim Allen On ‘The View,’ Blasts ‘Alarming’ Level Of PC Culture To Joy Behar’s Face
Actor and comedian Tim Allen made a guest appearance on the ABC daytime talk show “The View,” known for its liberal hosts and audience, and tore into the politically correct culture.
Allen, the star of “Last Man Standing,” “Home Improvement” and the Christmas classic “Santa Clause” series, visited the show this week and said it like it is.
“There’s a PC culture out there, makes it really hard,” co hos Joy Behar, a strong liberal commentator, said.
What I got to do sometimes is explain, which I hate, in big arenas, that this is a thought police thing, and I do not like it. But when I use these words, this is my intent behind those words,” the comedian said.
“So as long as you understand my intent — I still get people: ‘Well, just don’t say it,’ and I said ‘I’m not going to do that,’” he said, mimicking the voice of a malcontent.
“I do use some provocative words, but I tell them it’s words I really got from my parents. They said this stuff,” he said.
“And I can’t even say it here. I can’t even point to it. It is an alarming thing for comedians,” he said, but said the majority of his act is about “family and kids and growing up.”
Is Allen correct about PC culture?
He said that when he was younger, he did a joke that involved his grandmother worrying that he was a Democrat.
He said that when he did that joke in Miami, Florida the crowd would laugh and cheer but if he did it in Reading, Pennsylvania it would not get an approving response.
The gist of the joke was that his grandmother would call him a “little Democrat” because “I stole money from my parents, I never worked.”
Behar questioned why he would say that Reading would not welcome the joke, to which he said “Well, it’s a little bit more Democratic.”
Allen, an unabashed conservative and supporter of President Donald Trump, has taken aim at Democrats and PC culture before.
In November, 2018 the comedian said, in an interview with IndieWire, that he liked to poke fun at liberals because them take themselves too seriously.
“I think it’s funny to make fun of people that are full of themselves,” he said in the interview.
“Liberals have a very small window of sense of humor about themselves, so I love poking at it,” he said.
“Two years ago, it was the conservatives, or whatever it is. But right now liberals, particularly progressives, hide behind large concepts,” Allen said.
“If you don’t agree with them, if you don’t agree with that position, then you hate women, and you hate gay people, and you hate pro-choice people, whatever,” he said.
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President Duterte Warns George Soros ‘There Is A Bounty On Your Head’
Democrat Lawmaker And Daughter Caught – Both Are Facing Federal Wire Charges
Copyright © 2019 Breaking News House
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Life History of the Malayan Plum Judy
Life History of the Malayan Plum Judy (Abisara saturata kausambioides)
Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Abisara C. & R. Felder, 1860
Species: saturata Moore, 1878
Subspecies: kausambioides de Nicéville, 1896
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 45mm
Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Ardisia elliptica (Myrsinaceae), Embelia ribes (Myrsinaceae).
Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:
Above, the male is deep crimson brown and entirely unmarked; the female is much paler and has a diffuse white subapical patch on the forewing, and black submarginal spots in spaces 1b, 4 and 5 on the hindwing. Underneath, for both sexes, the underside is paler, and each wing has a pair of diffuse, pale-purplish, post-discal bands. The outer band on the hindwing has a series of black, white-edged, submarginal spots in spaces 1b, 4, 5 and 6, that in space 1b being double. The female has broader and paler transverse lines than the male. In both sexes the hindwing is prominently angled at vein 4.
A female Malayan Plum Judy perching on a leaf.
Another female Malayan Plum Judy
A sunbathing male Malayan Plum Judy in an urban hill park.
Anothe male Malayan Plum Judy in the Southern Ridges.
Left: A male Malayan Plum Judy opening its wings to sunbathe.
Right: Another male with half-open wings, the angle at which light reflected gives the
lustrous blue appearance
Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:
The adults are often seen perching on leaves with half open wings, turning and hopping from one perch to the next. They only take flights on bright sunny days. This species was only sighted in the Island of Pulau Tekong before the turn of the century. In recent years, it has appeared in numbers on the main Singapore island where its host plant, Ardisia elliptica, are thriving. It is now considered a resident species in the Southern Ridges where both of its recorded local host plants, A. elliptica and E. ribes, can be found.
The host plant, A. elliptica, is a large shrub or small tree. The leaves are simple, alternate, grandulate, obovate and leathery, 8-12 cm long and have nearly invisible nerves. The pink flowers occur 6 to 8 in an umbel. In the wild, the plant grows in tidal swamps and muddy river banks. In urban settings, this plant has been commonly cultivated as hedges. The other host plant, Embelia dasythyrsa, is a woody climber with simple, alternate and lanceolate leaves. This plant is found along trails in the Central Catchment Nature Reserves and the Southern Ridges. The immature stages of the Malayan Plum Judy feed on the relatively young leaves of the host plant, typically on the underside. The first instar caterpillars graze on the leaf surface, and the later instars nibble along the leaf edges. Between feeds, the caterpillars of all instars rests on the leaf underside.
Host plant : Ardisia elliptica
Host plant: Embelia ribes.
Left: A mating pair of Malayan Plum Judy; Right: a female Malayan Plum Judy ovipositing
Each egg is laid singly on the underside of a leaf on the host plant, typically close to the leaf edge. Each egg is pale translucent green, somewhat conical in shape with a base diameter of about 0.7mm. The surface is smooth and has a mid-level belt of fine hairs encircling the egg.
Two eggs of the Malayan Plum Judy. Diameter: 0.7mm.
Two views of a mature egg of the Malayan Plum Judy.
Both the mandible and setae are visible through the egg shell.
A time-lapse hatching sequence of a Malayan Plum Judy caterpillar.
The caterpillar nibbles away at the egg shell in clockwise manner
until the hole is large enough for its exit.
Two views of a newly hatched caterpillar, pausing before it goes on to finish the egg shell.
It takes about 4 days for the egg to hatch. The young caterpillar consumes part of the egg shell to emerge. With a length of about 1.9-2.0mm, it has a pale greenish and cylindrical body with long setae dorso-laterally (dark) and sub-spiracularly (white). The body color changes to a brighter shade of yellow with a green undertone as it feeds and grows.
Two views of a 1st instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 3mm
An 1st instar caterpillar showing us the result of its grazing work.
The first instar lasts for 2 days and the body length reaches about 3mm. Prior to the moult to 2nd instar, the body shortens and takes on a pumped up appearance. This shortening routine also occurs prior to each of the subsequent moults.
Before-and-after pic of the moult to the 2nd instar. Top: very late 1st instar;
Bottom: freshly emerged 2nd instar eating the excuvia (shed larval larval skin).
The body color of the 2nd instar caterpillar is yellow with a greenish undertone. Overall, the appearance is little changed from the 1st instar. This instar lasts for 3 days and the caterpillar grows to a length of about 6mm before the moult to the 3rd instar.
Two 2nd instar caterpillars, lengths: 4 and 4.5mm
Two views of 2nd instar caterpillar, late in this stage. length: 6mm.
The following before-and-after pictures features the moulting events for two caterpillars. The upper caterpillar moulted first, and the lower one followed suit minute later.
A sequence showing the moult to the 3rd instar for two Malayan Plum Judy caterpillars.
The third picture gives the time-lapse sequence for one of them.
The 3rd instar caterpillar is yellowish green with a much greater emphasis in green. The body surface is marked with numerous tiny whitish/pale-greenish markings. As the caterpillar grows rapidly in this instar, small dark spots appear dorsally between body segments. Laterally, similar spots also appear, one to each segment. After 3 days in this stage with the body length reaching a maximum of about 12mm, the next moult brings the caterpillar to its 4th and final instar.
Two 3rd instar caterpillars, early in this stage, length: 8mm.
Two views of a 3rd instar caterpillar, late in this stage, length: 12mm
A 3rd instar caterpillar, very late in this stage, prior to its moult, length: 10.5mm
The 4th instar caterpillar resembles the 3rd instar caterpillar but with a much denser set of sub-spiracular setae. The body is mainly green in color. The head, which is colored yellow in the first three instars, is now green/yellowish-green.
Two views of 4th instar caterpillar, early in this instar, lenght: 10.5mm.
Two views of a a 4th instar caterpillar, length: 20mm.
The 4th instar lasts for 4 days and the body grows up to a length of about 23-24mm. On the last day of this instar, the caterpillar ceases food intake and its body shrinks in length. It then finds a spot on the leaf underside where it spins a silk pad and a silk girdle to secure itself for the upcoming pupation event.
Two views of a pre-pupatory larve of the Malayan Plum Judy
After one day of the pre-pupal phase, pupation takes place. The light-green pupa has a diamond-shaped outline, being broad at mid-body and pointed at two ends. The body has two prominent black dorsal spots on the leading abdominal segment and a number of pale green spots, four to each segment, on the remaining segments. Laterally, there are some hairs running along the fringe of the body. Each pupa is 13-14mm in length.
Two views of a fresh pupa of the Malayan Plum Judy
Six days later, the pupa becomes darkened in color signaling the imminent emergence of the adult. The next day the adult butterfly emerges from the mature pupa.
Two views of the mature pupa of a male Malayan Plum Judy.
A newly eclosed male Malayan Plum Judy drying its wings near its pupal case
The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Malayan Nature Society.
Life Histories of Asian Butterflies, Vol. II, Igarashi S. and Fukuda H., Tokai University Press, 2000.
Text by Horace Tan, Photos by Benedict Tay, Mark Wong, Sunny Chir and Horace Tan
Posted by Horace at 11:17 PM
ts said...
Hi, I think the Embelia dasythyrsa shown could be Embelia ribes instead.
Horace said...
Hi Siyang, thanks for dropping by. It is always good to have another expert hand to assist in the plant ID. This particular plant can be found rather readily in Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill Park. I could bring you to have a closer look and collect sample at your convenience. :) You can email me to arrange a meet-up time.
There is also another plant found at an Upper Pierce site which I think is closer to Embelia ribes.
Hi Horace,
Actually, the reason why I asked is that the recent checklist on SG flora put E. dasythrysa as extinct. But I have only seen two species of Embelia before, so I might be wrong.
I don't might dropping by for a walk to collect a sample. But not this week though. Yup, I will email you. Thanks for the offer!
Oops, and I'm not that good to be an expert, just a regular plant lover. haha.
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CES 2020: Smart postbox will stop thieves from stealing your parcels
Rob WaughContributor
The postbox has a thief-proof compartment (Danby)
It’s one of the perils on online shopping - when a delivery person leaves an item on the doorstep, which then vanishes.
But a new postbox by Canadian company Danby could make parcel theft a thing of the past, allowing postmen to deliver packages to a secure box on the doorstep and without gaining access to your house.
The Parcel Guard works in a similar way to ‘smart’ doorbells such as Nest Hello, with a motion-sensing camera and the ability for homeowners to talk to couriers via the app.
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If a customer decides that a postman should be able to access the box, they can open it remotely and the courier can drop a package into it.
The device requires a Wi-Fi and power connection, similar to smart doorbell systems.
Danby has not yet set a UK price for Parcel guard, but it costs $399 in the US.
The Ring Doorbell launched in 2014, after being rejected on American entrepreneur TV show Shark Tank, and heralded a wave of video doorbells around the world.
The CES tech trade show, which has run since 1967 and is where Danby unveiled its product, has a history of being the site of the launch of notable technology, including the DVD and HD television.
Show organisers have also highlighted that the 2020 show will see a number of "non-traditional" companies not known for their work in the tech sector appearing at the event.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Impossible Foods and agricultural machinery giant John Deere are among those confirmed for CES.
Companies such as LG unveiled smart home products (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
CES has committed to continue working to improve diversity at the show, following criticism in recent years that its line-up of keynote speakers has failed to showcase equality.
Jean Foster, the senior vice president for marketing and communications at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which organises CES, said diversity was an industry-wide issue but confirmed CES had created an advisory board to help improve representation among its keynote speakers.
"We take this platform very, very seriously and we want to drive the industry forward," she told the PA news agency last year.
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Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever
December 31, 2012|by Timothy Lutts
Back in 1972, a fellow named Thomas W. Phelps wrote a book about the ultimate buy-and-hold investing strategy. Called “100 to 1 in the Stock Market,” it touts a strategy that can bring you profits of 10,000% or more in stocks.
That’s like turning $1 into $100. Or more impressively, turning $10,000 into $1 million.
The strategy? Never selling. Just buy and hold.
In these days of in-and-out Internet trading, such a strategy is even more radical than it was back in 1972, but there’s sound logic behind it.
And Mr. Phelps was no amateur. He spent 40 years in the investment business. Over the decades, from just before 1929 to the mid-70s, he was an analyst, columnist, financial advisor, private investor and author. In the early 80s, after Mr. Phelps had retired to Nantucket, my father and brother visited him and bought his remaining stock of books, and for years we doled them out as bonuses to subscribers.
Mr. Phelps’ method was not complex. You didn’t have to get in on the IPO. You didn’t need to buy at the bottom. You just needed to be really, really patient. And you needed to have the intelligence to pick the right “forever stocks”.
And these stocks are not that rare!
In fact, Mr. Phelps went back in history and found that, beginning in 1932, there were over 350 stocks in which you could have turned $1 into more than $100. He ended his study in 1971.
Now, starting in 1932 (after the crash) is a little like cheating. But only a little. Mr. Phelps found that in every year thereafter, there was at least one stock you could have bought that could have turned $1 into $100 by 1971. The last one in his study was bought in 1967 and thus accomplished the feat in just four years. (It was Development Corp. of America, which was acquired by Lennar in 1986.)
No doubt there have been hundreds more since.
But why do so few people amass these types of profits? Mr. Phelps said it was because so few people try!
“The reason that more people don’t make 10,000% on their money is that they don’t set their goals high enough!”
And these days, when our perspective is so short, and people are happy with a profit of 20% earned in two weeks, it’s even rarer than it was then. Low commissions and fast-breaking news all conspire to make us sell . . . so that we can move on to the next hot stock.
But there’s one big reason to buy and hold that existed then and still exists now, and that will probably exist decades hence. It’s the taxman. The best way to prevent Uncle Sam from getting a share of your hard-earned profits is to never sell. Pass the stock on to the next generation!
So how do you find these big winners?
According to Mr. Phelps, you look for companies that provide:
1. Inventions that enable us to do things we have always wanted to do but could never do before.
2. New methods or new equipment for doing things we long have had to do but doing them easier, faster or at less cost than ever before.
3. Processes or equipment to improve or maintain the quality of a service while reducing or eliminating the labor required.
4. New and cheaper sources of energy.
5. New methods of doing essential jobs with less or no ecological damage.
6. Improved methods or equipment for recycling the materials used by civilized man instead of making mountains of waste and oceans of sewage.
7. New methods for delivering the morning newspaper without carriers or waste.
8. New methods or equipment for transporting people and goods on land without wheels.
There’s an interesting earth-friendly twist to the list that reflects the sentiments of 1972, and #8 was a nod to maglev trains, but other than that I can’t argue with the list.
Mr. Phelps goes on to point out that a stock should be bought when the company is still small and undiscovered by the masses. Small companies grow faster.
He also dwells on “gates,” which we typically call barriers to entry. Patents and market leadership are valuable here.
He writes about earnings, stressing that you want to find the most profitable businesses, where earnings are growing fast.
And he doesn’t minimize the value of buying when stocks are temporarily depressed … as they were in 1932 and, more recently, in 2002.
The most important aspect of all in the equation, however, is time. Says Mr. Phelps, “Perhaps the greatest advantage of all in buying top quality stocks without visible ceilings on their growth is that when we do so we give ourselves the chance to profit by the unforeseeable and the incalculable.”
To me, these last five words are magic.
So what stocks would you buy today if you wanted to hold them forever … and you wanted them to make you (and your heirs) rich?
Five years ago, I asked this exact same question. And I put my head together with the other Cabot editors and came up with a list of 10 stocks. On July 7, 2007, I published this list, along with a description of each company.
They were:
Baidu (BIDU)
China Security and Surveillance Technology (CSR)
Crocs (CROX)
Ctrip.com (CTRP)
First Solar (FSLR)
Illumina (ILMN)
New Oriental Education (EDU)
Nuance Communications (NUAN)
Taser International (TASR)
Tata Motors (TTM)
And I wrote, “None of these stocks is guaranteed. Any one of them might fall victim to competition, to mismanagement, to national or natural disasters, or to a bear market. But I think many of them will do very well in the long run, and if you had a windfall of $10,000, I think you might do well by putting $1,000 into each one and locking it away for a few decades.”
Since then (July 2007), the S&P 500 has LOST 6%. And the stocks–on average–have done very well!
One of the recommended stocks, China Security & Surveillance, faltered and was taken private by the founder, leaving us down 66%.
First Solar is down 70%, Crocs is down 69% and Taser is down 41%, but none of them are out. Each CAN come back.
Ditto for Ctrip, down 3%. That’s five losers, which are offset by five winners.
Amateurs will conclude we’ve come out even.
But no! Because you can only lose 100% of what you put into a stock, but you can make many times that in your biggest winners. Just see!
Nuance Communications is up 33%.
New Oriental Education is up 50% and is still attractive long-term.
Tata Motors is up 54%.
Illumina (king of genetic scientific equipment) is up 164% and still full of promise.
And Baidu is the champion, up 472%, and just currently completing a well-deserved correction.
The AVERAGE return for these 10 stocks over the past five years has been 52.4%.
And if you’ve done it Mr. Phelps’ way, by never selling, you haven’t paid any capital gains taxes!
Featured Stock Picks
Each write-up features commentary on the picks from one or more of our expert stock market analysts, as well as company details and a stock chart.
Cabot’s Forever Stocks
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100 to 1 in the stock market, Bear Market, BIDU, buy and hold, cabot, COST, earnings, forever stocks, hot stock, investing, investing strategy, investment, investor, IPO, LOW, quality stocks, recommended stocks, share, small companies, stock, stock chart, stock market, stock picks, stocks, the stock market, thomas w phelps, trading.
"Paul, I am very happy to stay in cash and stick with you. I subscribe to several other newsletters, one of which lost 50%. I didn't lose 50% because I set stops but the newsletter didn't recommend stops and still has buys on everything."
-K. Shick, Hoschton, Georgia
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Party Site
Donate Locally
Calgary, Tuesday January 22, 2019
Alberta Party Candidate Andrew Bradley on Sandra Jansen’s withdrawal from candidacy
“In light of Honourable Sandra Jansen’s recent decision to withdraw her candidacy in the upcoming provincial election, I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her seven years of service on behalf of her constituents. At this time there remain two nominated candidates including myself for Calgary-North West.
“I look forward to a healthy, issues-based campaign. Political discourse of late has at times included vitriol, personal attacks, and politics of fear and anger in place of putting forth solutions to the issues we face as Albertans.
“I welcome the opportunity to make a positive contribution to political discourse in the coming days and weeks.
Amy Shantz
President, Alberta Party Calgary-North West Constituency Association
amy.shantz@albertaparty.ca
albertaparty.ca
The Alberta Party is committed to Alberta, and to the values of prosperity, fiscal and social responsibility, environmental sustainability, accountable government, and strong communities.
Alberta Party Political Association © 2018. All Rights Reserved.
PO Box 1045, Edmonton, AB T5J 2M1, Canada
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Writing a resume - traditional vs. simplified chinese
I'd like to know which criteria do chinese use when writing a resume. I know that in Taiwan most people use simplified chinese, but what about the rest of China? Is it common to find both simplified and traditional characters mixed in a resume? The election of one type of writing depends on the education level the person has? Thanks for your help
traditional-vs-simplified
marianamariana
People use TRADITIONAL chinese In Taiwan and Hong Kong, and simplified Chinese in the mainland China. If you are applying for positions in Taiwan and Hong Kong (resp. mainland China), write a resume in traditional (resp. simplified) Chinese – user58955 Apr 7 '14 at 18:16
In Hong Kong, generally, one English resume is enough. You don't need to particularly prepare a Chinese version. – Stan Apr 8 '14 at 1:10
It depends on the intended reader of the text.
In most of the settings, it is not encouraged to mix Traditional Chinese characters and Simplified Chinese characters.
Simplified Chinese normally referred to Chinese used in mainland China. Officially, this varient of Chinese is often called Mandarine. And the term Simplified Chinese is the character set used in Mandarine. The latest standard is 通用规范汉字表2013 (General Standard Chinese Characters Table). Beyond that, Simplified Chinese are also used in some other areas, but not as official language.
Traditional Chinese is used in countries/regions such as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. But there are subtle differences in those variants. You can consider Simplified Chinese as US English and Traditional Chinese TW as UK English, and Traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong as Australian English which follows spelling of UK English in many cases but still there are differences between the two.
Despite the difference in the shapes of characters, there are more complicated differences between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
For example, character 后 in Simplified Chinese has two meanings:
After/behind
However, in Traditional Chinese, there are two characters for these two meanings:
After/behind 後
Empress 后
This is a common mistake made by people in Mainland China who tries to use Traditional Chinese just to impress others but get it backfired on them.
So what I'm trying to say is that conversion between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese is not a simple click-and-done process, let alone the vocabulary and usage differences.
Although most people in above mentioned areas normally can understand other variants of Chinese, since you mentioned using it in a formal document such as a resume, the mix or the two or the wrong use of them would be considered not very professional.
My suggestion is that the resume should be in the variant of Chinese required by the intended organisation. If the organisation do not have such requirement, use the official variant used by the organisation. If the organisation do not have an official variant, at least provide one error-free version in either Simplified or Traditional Chinese. If you want to present an international multilingual image, provide both, but do not mix them (this is the same as many signs in places like international airport, where even sometimes the simplified version and traditional version are the same, both are provided).
Simply depends on region. Put it this way: you use British English when you write resumes in Great Britain (and related regions/countries) and American English in the US. Nothing more than that. As you would not mix British and American English in an English resume, you would neither do so in a Chinese resume.
The places that use traditional Chinese are: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau.
The places that use simplified Chinese together with traditional Chinese: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand(See this). However using traditional Chinese in such regions can't go wrong.
The place that uses simplified Chinese only: mainland China.
xjixji
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged traditional-vs-simplified or ask your own question.
How does Wikipedia's simplified to traditional converter work?
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Welcome to Chautauqua
THEMES | 2020 SEASON • JUNE 27–AUGUST 30 | PLAN YOUR VISIT
150 Forward: The Strategic Plan for Chautauqua Institution, 2019–2028
2020 Season :: June 27–August 30
Book Now at the Athenaeum Hotel
Online Grounds: Lecture and Sermon Archive
Jared Jacobsen, March 18, 1949–August 27, 2019
Six Finalists Named for 2013 Chautauqua Prize
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y., April 19, 2013 — Chautauqua Institution is pleased to announce six outstanding books as the 2013 finalists for The Chautauqua Prize:
Chautauqua Institution Presents “The Romeo & Juliet Project”
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Shakespeare’s timeless love story Romeo and Juliet will be reinvented on Chautauqua Institution’s Amphitheater stage Saturday, July 27, with The Romeo & Juliet Project, an original inter-arts collaboration that brings together CHQ’s signature arts programs for a unique, one-night-only event.
The massive co-production features three sets of Romeos and Juliets — actors, dancers and singers — joined onstage by 86 other performers and a 74-piece orchestra that fuses Shakespeare’s words with music by Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein, Gounod and the Reflections.
The Romeo & Juliet Project is the result of a yearlong collaboration among Chautauqua Institution’s resident arts companies, including the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Theater Company, Chautauqua Opera Company, North Carolina Dance Theatre and Chautauqua Festival Dancers, and Chautauqua Music Festival.
The genesis for the project lies in a directive given by Chautauqua Institution President Thomas M. Becker and the nonprofit organization’s board of trustees to seek out and maximize collaborative opportunities on the CHQ grounds. The Romeo & Juliet Project is the first in a series of collaborative arts productions over the next three years.
“The purpose of this effort is to illuminate the extraordinary artistic capacity of Chautauqua Institution, a community that invests in art and in artists,” Becker said. “We believe that art and artists are keys to a society in touch with the human condition, with a capacity for empathy and open to critical reflection. We believe that unlocking imagination is vital to human development and genuine communication and to global development and competition.”
The director of The Romeo & Juliet Project is Vivienne Benesch, artistic director of Chautauqua Theater Company, who partnered with CHQ’s other artistic directors in shaping the direction of the production.
Benesch said the future of the performing arts around the United States is in the hands of interdisciplinary creations, and she hopes The Romeo & Juliet Project audience will experience “an electricity of storytelling in a totally new way.”
“If we do our job well enough, people are going to crave more of this kind of work and get behind the fact that CHQ has an opportunity to develop something that is a necessity in the cultural landscape of tomorrow,” she said.
Joining Benesch in the collaboration are Chautauqua Opera Company general/artistic director Jay Lesenger, Music Festival managing director Oliver Dow, Voice Program chair Marlena Malas and Voice Program faculty member Donald St. Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, artistic director of North Carolina Dance Theatre and the Chautauqua Dance program. Music School Festival Orchestra music director Timothy Muffitt will lead the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for the July 27 performance.
Muffitt noted that such a production is only possible at CHQ because of the resources available with a resident orchestra, theater company, dance company and opera company, as well as an extraordinary student artist population.
“This is CHQ firing on all cylinders,” he said. “This is something that very much grew out of the CHQ artistic experience.”
Chautauqua Institution Vice President and Director of Programming Marty Merkley said The Romeo & Juliet Project offers a performance audiences have never seen before.
“Much of the audience will know the play, many will be familiar with the different musical selections, but to put it together in one evening is just so unique and really unheard of,” Merkley said.
More information about the The Romeo & Juliet Project is available at chqinterarts.com, including behind-the-scenes videos and interviews with CHQ’s artistic directors.
Chautauqua Institution is a summer community located in southwestern New York state on Chautauqua Lake. It offers a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship, educational programs, and recreational activities. Each summer the Institution hosts more than 2,200 events and 100,000 guests. For more information, please visit www.ciweb.org.
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak wins 2012 Chautauqua Prize
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y., April 23, 2012 — Chautauqua Institution is pleased to announce The Sojourn (Bellevue Literary Press) by Andrew Krivak as the first-ever winner of The Chautauqua Prize.
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Doctor Sleep (2019)
Date: November 11, 2019Author: Christian Stirling 0 Comments
A crass, over-hyped attempt to cash in on the legacy of The Shining, only with boring characters and a dull story.
Having trouble getting to sleep? Tossing and turning at night, unable to find any rest under the covers? Then have I got a movie for you. Billed as the official sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining and based off Stephen King’s 2013 followup, Doctor Sleep continues the story of Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) thirty years later, now fully grown and a recovering alcoholic due to the trauma he suffered as a child at the Overlook Hotel. Dan meets a young girl, Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), who possess psychic powers similar to him – aka “the shine” – only hers is much more powerful.
She’s also being hunted by a cult calling themselves The True Knot, led by the sinister Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). The True Knot feed on children gifted/cursed with “the shine” in order to slow their aging process. I should have followed my gut instinct after not being impressed with the trailer and chosen another movie because Doctor Sleep ended up being drawn out and boring with a plot bordering on the idiotic.
Doctor Sleep starts not long after the events of The Shining while Danny is still a child and living with his mother Wendy Torrance (Alex Essoe) in Florida. By using his “shine”, Danny learns from the ghost of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) how to trap evil entities in special “boxes” in his mind, which is handy as he’s still being haunted by one of the ghosts from the Overlook Hotel. Despite being taught how to use his powers to protect himself from evil spirits, Danny still grows up to be Dan, an alcoholic who uses substance abuse to suppress his “shining”.
After hitting rock bottom, Dan moves to a small town to start a new life where he meets and befriends Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), who helps him establish a place to stay, a job and more importantly, getting sober. Not long after making this move, Dan begins receiving telepathic communication from Abra Stone – a child with very powerful abilities – who he also befriends.
Through the use of her incredible psychic abilities, Abra witness the death of a child at the hands of The True Knot. Their leader, Rose The Hat, senses Abra while the girl witnesses the murder and realizes the enormous power she posseses. With fewer children possessing the “shine” energy they require to feed on as time passes, Rose The Hat becomes hellbent on finding Abra so that her evil family can feed on the vast energy the teenager has. Dan, Abra and Billy must work together in order to face this evil force who outnumber them in order to stop the murderous cult from killing them and other innocent children.
While there are a number of factors that make Doctor Sleep a drawn out dull experience such as a disjointed plot, slow pacing and lame villains – one of the contributing factors to its dullness is the performance of the cast across the board. There are no stand out or impressive performances that would help lift this idiotic story to an enjoyable level.
I’m a big fan of Ewan McGregor and to be honest he was the reason I gave this movie a chance because the trailer was unimpressive. I thought surely McGregor will make this interesting experience but I was wrong. He’s just kind of there. Yes the script is nothing special but there was nothing about him that made me feel like I was watching a leading man. He says the lines and goes through the motions, yet doesn’t seem like the right fit for the role. By the time we reach the climax where he’s imitating Jack Nicholson’s iconic performance from The Shining it just becomes painful to watch. He’s clearly miscast.
While McGregor proved to be a rather dull protagonist he’s met by an equally dull performance by Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) as Rose The Hat. Again, I admit the actors don’t have much to work with but I think what contributes to Ferguson’s vampiric villain being so unimpressive is the casting. She makes an effort to be a sexy, gypsy-esqu, menacing creature but instead comes off laughable. She lacks charisma, presence and acting chops to make this character anything more than a modern bad gypsy wearing a silly hat.
Director Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Before I Wake) – who also wrote and edited Doctor Sleep – has done a great job of recreating the look and feel of Kubrick’s The Shining, which is an accomplishment itself. The aesthetics, the recreation of iconic characters from the original film and camera movements, like in the snow-filled maze, are done especially well. But the story is bloated, boring, disjointed and dumb. So much could have been cut from this film and it wouldn’t have made a difference to the overall plot.
Part of what makes this such a bloated, disjointed story is that it’s never really clear which story is the one that should be told. On one hand we have the story of Dan, a recovering alcoholic who becomes the titular “Doctor Sleep” by helping dying patients accept their fate at the new town he moves to. Then we have the story of the younger Abra who’s still learning to use her powers and being hunted by The True Knot. There’s two very different story arcs here that just don’t work well together.
What also makes this movie a disappointment is that strong plot points set up early in the story, such as the immense power Abra possesses and the realisation that members of The True Knot can be killed by conventional methods, are totally ignored towards the film’s end. Perhaps more cynically, these plot points are ignored so that there is an excuse to revisit the iconic hotel from the first film and give the filmmakers a chance to recreate its more iconic scenes. It’s as crass as it sounds, coming off as little more than a cheap excuse to cash in on The Shining.
Doctor Sleep is just what the doctor ordered – if you’re suffering from insomnia and will take any help they can to nod off. It’s difficult to believe that fans of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining are going to be impressed with this crass, over-hyped attempt to continue the story in this way. In all fairness, Kubrick’s film has its detractors – including creator Stephen King himself – but at least it managed to feature one of Jack Nicholson’s most famous and memorable performances. Doctor Sleep can’t even manage to offer that much, instead hoping you’ll still be invested in these characters without the necessary mania that made this franchise popular.
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Originally published on November 11, 2019 at https://www.popzara.com/movies/movie-reviews/doctor-sleep-2019/
DramaHorror
Published by Christian Stirling
Editor-at-large for www.popzara.com View all posts by Christian Stirling
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15th Annual
Louisiana's Reel Festival
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janoconnell Opening Night film January 22, 2020 @COTBFilmFest @whenwekill @ogshelbylynne @allywalker1 @LafayetteTravel… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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A NEW DEAL FOR PUBLIC ART IN THE FREE STATE / U.S.A. / Louisiana Premiere
SHORT DOCUMENTARY
A film that explores Kansas identity during the Great Depression and New Deal era through stories about conflicts over public art.
Between 1934 and 1943, the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned over 1,600 pieces of public art for newly constructed post office buildings across the United States. In the state of Kansas, twenty-nine of these murals and other artworks were installed in twenty-six post offices, as a part of this New Deal arts program. For eight decades, thousands of Kansans have walked past these public works of art - sometimes in appreciation, sometimes with a nod of familiarity, sometimes without even registering their existence. What can these murals tell about Kansas during the Great Depression era, and how do they continue to speak to Kansans today?
The “Section” New Deal arts project was tasked with making art publicly accessible to all Americans - a kind of democratization of art. Post office artists were directed to create works in the “American Scene” style, with emphasis on the local history, culture, and economy of the communities in which the art was placed. Communities were often consulted by artists about the artwork subject matter, and in some cases, competitions were held where community members were given direct input into choosing a mural subject. Of course, these interactions between artists, the federal government, and local communities did not always run smoothly. Conflicts over Kansas post office murals present a series of historical snapshots that help illuminate American, regional, and Kansas identity during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Graham Carroll, Kara Heitz
1/25/20 3:00pm at Lafayette Public Library South Regional Branch
Copyright © 2016 Cinema on the Bayou. All Rights Reserved.
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/ WWE
WOW: Women of Wrestling
WWE Backstage
WWE SmackDown Here Comes the Pain
Fire Pro Wrestling World
WWE SmackDown Ratings: Viewership Up Slightly This Week
By Ryan Droste - December 7, 2019 02:05 pm EST
This week's WWE SmackDown ratings and viewership figures are in for Friday night's broadcast and the news was a bit of a mixed bag for WWE.
The good news is that viewership was up this week compared to last week. Last week's show was part of a holiday weekend in the United States, so a drop in numbers was expected. The December 6th broadcast drew an average of 2.446 million viewers across the show's two hours, up from 2.336 million last week, according to the overnights published to Showbuzz Daily.
In the key ratings demographics, WWE's numbers saw absolutely no increase this week. The show did a 0.70 rating among 18-49 year olds (identical to last week), as well as a 0.45 rating among 18-34 years (also identical to last week). The bad news is that both of these numbers are down compared to the show two weeks ago, which was the last time SmackDown aired a non-holiday weekend show.
However, the demographic ratings figures are relatively close to what the show has been doing since late October after the initial big numbers the show posted for its debut on October 4th (1.40 with 18-49 year olds and 1.00 with 18-34 year olds). By the third week on FOX, SmackDown settled in to the ratings levels that we have been seeing ever since, with most shows coming in between 0.70 and 0.85 with 18-49 year olds and 0.40 and 0.60 with 18-34 year olds.
SmackDown finished second for the night on cable among 18-49 year olds. The PAC 12 Championship college football game on ABC dominated the night there. In terms of pure viewership, SmackDown was the seventh most watched broadcast on network television for the night. The show went up against several mid-season finales that were airing across network television on Friday night.
For all the latest in the world of pro wrestling, stay tuned to ComicBook.com and give me a follow on Twitter @ryandroste.
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Watch: Batista Spotted at UFC 246 Cheering for Donald Cerrone
Roman Reigns Pokes Fun at Goldberg's Headbutting Pre-Match Ritual
UFC Fighter Attacked After Event in Las Vegas
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The Codcast
CommonWealth Magazine
Visit MassINC »
Drugs/ Politics
Majority of pot board opposed referendum
New cannabis commission seeds concerns about the law’s future
By Jack Sullivan Attorney General Maura Healey, Cannabis Control Commission, Governor Baker, Legal marijuana, State Treasurer 1 Comment Sep 1, 2017
THE NEW CANNABIS Control Commission is now complete but, with the appointment of yet two more members who voted against the ballot question to legalize marijuana, the panel has a majority who opposed the measure and just one proponent, who was one of the drafters of the initiative petition.
Attorney General Maura Healey appointed Britte McBride of Lynnfield, a former assistant attorney general, as her selection to the commission. The final two appointees, Kay Doyle, who was legal counsel to the Department of Public Health and oversaw the medical marijuana implementation, and Shaleen Title, an attorney who runs a staffing service for the legal marijuana industry, were made by a joint decision of Gov. Charlie Baker, State Treasurer Deb Goldberg, and Healey.
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Shaleen Title
They will join former state Sen. Jennifer Flanagan, who was appointed by Baker, and retired business executive Steven Hoffman of Lincoln, who was tapped by Goldberg and named the chair. Flanagan had stated her opposition to the ballot question last fall while officials with the treasurer and attorney general’s office confirmed that Hoffman, McBride, and Doyle all voted against the referendum.
“I think it would be better if it were a balance of people who were pro and against,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University who has studied and written about the legalization of marijuana. “I think it’s somewhat concerning that there doesn’t appear to be a balance.”
Kay Doyle
Beletsky cautioned that some of the members may have voted against the ballot question for reasons other than being opposed to legal marijuana.
“One might speculate folks who voted against the ballot measure are generally opposed to the regulation of adult use but there were issue with the ballot measure, with the way things were formulated,” Beletsky said. “There’s good reason some people argue that things like regulation of marijuana should be pursued through legislation rather than ballot measure.”
But a proponent of the ballot question was more blunt.
Briite McBride
“We’re concerned that 54 percent of voters voted for Question 4 but 80 percent of the Cannabis Control Commission voted against it,” said Jim Borghesani, the spokesman for the ballot campaign. “It would be helpful for us to hear those reasons for why they voted no. We would like to hear each of the people who voted no that their personal position will in not influence their professional responsibilities to implement the will of the voters.”
Baker and Healey, along with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, joined forces to try to defeat the ballot question. Beletsky said the appointments could signal their true feelings.
“The political establishment has a bias against cannabis reform,” he said. “People in positions of power by and large are reticent about these reforms. Whether it’s real or perceived, they see these reforms as being politically risky, with concerns about driving under the influence, increased teen use, social ills. The evidence does not support those concerns, scientific and criminology data do not support those views. It signals to me that perhaps there’s something else behind those arguments.”
Steven Hoffman
But, Belesky said, having skeptics on the commission may not necessarily be a bad thing for regulating a new market centered around a previously illegal drug.
“They’re trying to calibrate regulation of a new entrant to the market of mind-altering substances,” said Beletsky. “Being cautious is certainly warranted but also being cognizant of how marijuana is going to affect the landscape. Marijuana is not risk free but it is much less risky than other behaviors. They’ll try to determine, how do we shape this regulatory architecture to nudge people from more risky to less risky behaviors?”
State Sen. Jennifer Flanagan. Photo from Facebook.
Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor and dean of the school of arts and humanities at Stonehill College, said the appointments may signal the continued opposition by elected officials to the law but he said it also could assure voters that it won’t become the wild west of weed.
“The public might be reassured by having people who were initially opposed to this in charge of overseeing this,” he said. “People feel comfortable they are not rushing toward some form of reefer madness. You can exercise reasonable oversight even if you’re opposed to legal marijuana.”
None of the five members could be reached for comment. Baker, Healey, and Goldberg all issued statements hailing the appointees backgrounds and their offices included statements from the new members. None of the releases noted the appointees’ positions on the ballot question, which were confirmed by aides to Goldberg and Healey.
“I am honored and humbled by this appointment and want to thank Governor Baker, Attorney General Healey and Treasurer Goldberg for the opportunity to continue serving the Commonwealth,” Doyle said in her statement. “I look forward to working with Chairman Hoffman and my fellow commissioners to implement safe and sensible regulations that protect the health and wellness of Massachusetts residents.”
Title, a nationally recognized advocate for legal marijuana, said her focus will be on creating opportunities for minorities as well as those who ran afoul of now-outdated marijuana laws, many of which observers say disproportionately impacted people of color.
“I’m honored to be entrusted with implementing the will of the Commonwealth’s voters in forming a new post-prohibition approach to regulating marijuana in way that will effectively protect public health and safety,” Title said. “I’m especially eager to help Massachusetts set a good example for other states in creating a newly legal market that champions equity, including for communities that have been targeted by past criminalization policies.”
The ballot question was approved by voters last November by a 54-46 margin. A delay by the Legislature pushed back many of the implementation deadlines so now the first shops will be up and running no earlier than July 1, 2018. But the commission must formulate regulations and guidelines for operations not only for retail stores but growers, manufacturers, testing labs, and transportation, all with an eye on federal laws that still hold the sale and use of marijuana to be illegal.
Jack Sullivan
Senior Investigative Reporter, CommonWealth
E-mail @reportah
Bio » Latest Stories »
About Jack Sullivan
Jack Sullivan is now retired. A veteran of the Boston newspaper scene for nearly three decades. Prior to joining CommonWealth, he was editorial page editor of The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, a part of the GateHouse Media chain. Prior to that he was news editor at another GateHouse paper, The Enterprise of Brockton, and also was city edition editor at the Ledger. Jack was an investigative and enterprise reporter and executive city editor at the Boston Herald and a reporter at The Boston Globe.
He has reported stories such as the federal investigation into the Teamsters, the workings of the Yawkey Trust and sale of the Red Sox, organized crime, the church sex abuse scandal and the September 11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the State House, state and local politics, K-16 education, courts, crime, and general assignment.
Jack received the New England Press Association award for investigative reporting for a series on unused properties owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and shared the association's award for business for his reporting on the sale of the Boston Red Sox. As the Ledger editorial page editor, he won second place in 2007 for editorial writing from the Inland Press Association, the nation's oldest national journalism association of nearly 900 newspapers as members.
At CommonWealth, Jack and editor Bruce Mohl won first place for In-Depth Reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors for a look at special education funding in Massachusetts. The same organization also awarded first place to a unique collaboration between WFXT-TV (FOX25) and CommonWealth for a series of stories on the Boston Redevelopment Authority and city employees getting affordable housing units, written by Jack and Bruce.
With the tight deadlines, pot advocates worry that a board made up of mostly referendum opponents will drag their heels and make it difficult for the market to begin next summer.
“As long as the deadlines are met, that’s the key thing,” said Borghesani. “After all of the delays, we at least finally have a commission seated.”
Tagged in: Attorney General Maura Healey/ Cannabis Control Commission/ Governor Baker/ Legal marijuana/ State Treasurer
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Search this Site Search in https://community.uconn.edu/>
The Student Code
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[Adopted March 2008]
The following policy on undergraduate academic integrity was originally formulated by the University of Connecticut Scholastic Standards Committee. It was adopted by the University Senate on March 31, 2008 and modified by the University Senate in December of 2012.
This appendix of The Student Code describes the types of acts that shall be considered academic misconduct by undergraduates, and it presents the process for resolving complaints of academic misconduct.
Student Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct is dishonest or unethical academic behavior that includes, but is not limited to, misrepresenting mastery in an academic area (e.g., cheating), failing to properly credit information, research, or ideas to their rightful originators or representing such information, research, or ideas as your own (e.g., plagiarism).
A. Instructor’s Role
Instructors shall take reasonable steps to prevent academic misconduct in their courses and to inform students of course-specific requirements.
When the instructor of record or designee (instructor) believes that an act of academic misconduct has occurred, the instructor is responsible for saving the evidence in its original form and need not return any of the original papers or other materials to the student. Copies of the student’s work and information about other evidence will be provided to the student upon request.
When an instructor believes there is sufficient information to demonstrate a case of academic misconduct, the instructor shall notify the student in writing of the allegation of misconduct and the academic consequences that the instructor will impose. The appropriate academic consequence for serious offenses is generally considered to be failure in the course. For offenses regarding small portions of the course work, failure for that portion is suggested with the requirement that the student repeat the work for no credit. The written notification shall also inform the student whether the case has been referred to the Academic Integrity Hearing Board (Board) for consideration of additional sanctions. The instructor shall send the written notification to the student and send a copy to the Office of Community Standards (Community Standards) within five business days of having discovered the alleged misconduct. At the Regional Campuses, a copy shall be sent to the Office of Student Affairs (Regional Campus Student Affairs). Cases that are purely technical in nature, without any perceived intent to achieve academic advantage, may be reported at the discretion of the instructor.
In certain cases, the Dean of a school or college or designee may become aware of alleged academic misconduct and may bring a complaint forward to the Board.
The student has five business days from receipt of the written notice to respond to the instructor and/or to request a hearing (see “Academic Integrity Hearing Board”). If the student does not respond within the allotted time the instructor’s sanctions shall be imposed. If the student requests a hearing the instructor shall forward the request to Community Standards or the Regional Campus Student Affairs. If the student and the instructor reach a mutually acceptable resolution of the case, the instructor shall notify Community Standards (or Regional Campus Student Affairs) of the agreement. The instructor shall also notify Community Standards (or Regional Campus Student Affairs) if the instructor withdraws the allegation of misconduct. A student who has been notified about an accusation of academic misconduct may not withdraw from the course in which the alleged misconduct has occurred without the approval of the instructor and the appropriate dean. If a student withdraws from a course during a pending academic misconduct case, any academic sanction imposed will overturn the withdrawal.
If a semester concludes before an academic misconduct matter is resolved, the student shall receive a temporary “I” (Incomplete) grade in the course until the instructor submits the appropriate grade.
B. The Academic Integrity Hearing Board
The Academic Integrity Hearing Board, which is administered by Community Standards, is comprised of two faculty members, two students, and a nonvoting chairperson, all of whom are appointed by the Director of Community Standards. At each Regional Campus, a designee working in conjunction with Community Standards is responsible for the organization and administration of their Academic Integrity Hearing Board. Hearing procedures will be in accordance with the hearing procedures described below. Community Standards will ensure that appropriate Dean(s) and Faculty are kept informed of the status of misconduct cases in a timely fashion.
The respondent or the accusing instructor may refer a case of alleged academic misconduct to Community Standards for it to be adjudicated by the Board. Community Standards will review all academic misconduct cases as they are received to determine if a case needs to be heard by the Board to determine if additional sanctions need to be considered. After receiving written notification of the academic misconduct from the instructor, Community Standards may meet with students to discuss additional sanctions outlined in The Student Code to determine if an agreement about additional sanctions can be reached. If an agreement cannot be reached between a student and Community Standards, the case will be heard by the Board.
C. Hearing on Academic Misconduct
An essential component of any academic integrity hearing is the determination and the weighing of the facts that pertain to the allegation(s). Therefore, it is vital that personal statements and other information be presented clearly and factually. All participants are expected to be respectful of each other’s purpose in the hearing process and to conduct themselves according to the direction of the Board.
Normally, an academic integrity hearing will be conducted within fifteen (15) business days of the respondent being notified of the hearing.
The complainant (instructor or designee) and the respondent shall each have the right to:
Be notified of all alleged violations by means of the address (University e-mail, residence hall address, or permanent address) provided by the student via the Registrar’s Office. Typically, this will be done via e-mail which will provide a link to the documentation.
Review any written complaint(s) and supporting documents.
Be informed about the hearing process.
A reasonable period of time to prepare for a hearing.
Request a delay of a hearing due to extenuating circumstances. The decision to grant or deny any such request is within the discretion of the hearing body.
Submit a written account, a personal statement regarding the incident and/or any relevant documentation or records. All documentation must be provided by the date established by the non-voting chairperson. Documentation will not be accepted past the established deadline and failure to provide documentation by the established deadline will not be an acceptable reason for an appeal. The decision to not present information is not an admission of responsibility.
Provide the names and contact information of incident witnesses, those who have direct knowledge of the incident, and provide a list of questions for any incident witnesses, including the involved parties. This information must be provided by the date established by the non-voting chairperson. Failure to provide witness information by the established deadline will not be an acceptable reason for an appeal. The non-voting chairperson will make every effort to interview those witnesses with direct knowledge; however, the witness cannot be compelled to speak with the non-voting chairperson.
Be notified of the identity of witnesses who have been called to speak at the hearing or who have been asked to provide additional written information by the Board.
Be accompanied by a support person during the portions of the hearing in which the student is participating. A student should select a support person whose schedule allows attendance at the scheduled date and time for the academic integrity hearing because delays will not be allowed due to the scheduling conflicts of a support person.
Be present at the pertinent stages of the hearing process as indicated by the Director of Community Standards. The deliberations of the hearing body are private.
Present a personal or community impact statement to the hearing body upon a finding of “Responsibility.”
An academic integrity hearing shall be conducted by the Board in accordance with the procedures listed below:
Formal rules of process, procedure, and/or technical rules of evidence, such as are applied in criminal or civil court, are not used in these proceedings.
A hearing shall be conducted in private.
Admission of any person into the hearing room shall be at the discretion of the Board. The Board shall have the authority to discharge or to remove any person whose presence is deemed unnecessary or obstructive to the proceedings.
When a hearing involves more than one respondent, the Director of Community Standards may, at the Director’s discretion, permit the hearings concerning each student to be conducted either separately or jointly.
If a respondent or complainant, after receiving notification, does not appear for a hearing, the hearing will proceed without the absent party.
Except as directed by the chair, the support person shall limit his/her role in a hearing to that of a consultant to the respondent or complainant.
The identity of any witnesses must be provided to the Board at least two business days before the hearing. The Board may elect not to permit one or more witnesses to participate in the hearing if the information they are expected to provide is not relevant to any material issue and is deemed unnecessarily redundant of other information already in the record. The party proposing a witness is responsible for any communication with the witness regarding attendance at the hearing. The Board may request the attendance of witnesses not proposed by the parties. The Board cannot compel the attendance of witnesses at the hearing.
The respondent, complainant, and any witnesses will provide information to and answer questions from the Board. Questions may be suggested by the respondent or complainant to be answered by each other or by other witnesses. This will be conducted by the Board with such questions directed to the Board, rather than to the individuals directly. This method is used to preserve the educational tone of the hearing and to avoid creation of an adversarial environment. Questions of whether potential information will be received shall be resolved at the discretion of the chair.
Any additional information may be accepted for consideration by the hearing body at its discretion as long as such information was provided in accordance with The Student Code. Information presented by a student during a hearing that indicates a potential violation of The Student Code may be investigated at a future time.
The Board shall determine whether the respondent has violated the Academic Integrity in Undergraduate Education and Research Policy. The Board’s determination shall be made on the basis of whether it is more likely than not that the respondent violated the policy.
When a respondent has been found “In Violation,” the Board shall examine the student’s academic transcript and student conduct history, accept impact statements by both the respondent and complainant, and then impose the appropriate sanction(s).
All procedural questions are subject to the final decision of the Board.
If the Board finds that the student is “Not in Violation” for the alleged misconduct, the Board shall not impose any sanctions and the instructor must reevaluate the student’s course grade in light of the Board’s finding.
If the Board finds that the student is “In Violation”, the instructor’s grading sanction shall be imposed. The Board does not have the authority to change or influence the grading sanction imposed by the instructor.
Upon consideration of a student’s record of misconduct and/or the nature of the offense, the Board may impose additional sanctions. The Board should apply these sanctions in proportion to the severity of the misconduct. These sanctions may include any sanction as described in The Student Code.
All academic integrity hearings will be recorded and the University will maintain the audio recordings as required by Connecticut state law and are the property of the University. Participants are prohibited from making their own recording. Upon written request, a respondent or complainant may review the audio recording and make appropriate arrangements for it to be transcribed on University premises. Arrangements for a transcriber and all associated costs involved in the transcription will be the responsibility of the requesting individual.
D. Hearing Appeal
The decision of the Board may be appealed to the Provost or designee. An appeal is not a new hearing. It is a review of the record of the hearing.
An appeal may be sought on three grounds:
On a claim of error in the hearing procedure that substantially affected the decision.
On a claim of new evidence or information material to the case that was not known at the time of the hearing.
To determine whether any additional sanction(s), not including academic consequences, imposed by the Board were appropriate for the violation based on the student’s conduct history and/or significance of the violation.
Appeals on such grounds may be presented, specifically described, in writing within five business days of the announcement of the Board’s decision.
The decision of the Provost or designee is final. There will be no further right of appeal.
The Provost or designee shall have the authority to dismiss an appeal not sought on proper grounds.
If an appeal is upheld, the Provost shall refer the case with procedural specifications back to the original Board who shall reconsider the case accordingly.
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Life at Wizards
We Bring People Together Through Their Shared Love of Games
We value all people and perspectives inside our walls, among our players, and in our games. Dragons and elves belong in our worlds, and so do you.
We create shared experiences that form the foundation for lifelong friendships.
We're at our best when we combine our skills. Everything we create represents the achievement of many passionate minds.
We're all artisans of our own craft. We strive to outdo ourselves every day.
We hire and empower people to do what they do best. Innovation, self-expression, and creativity drive our workplace.
We're caretakers as well as creators. We recognize that everything we build reaches beyond ourselves and beyond today.
We're an entertainment company. We're in business to create surprises, build excitement and add to the amount of fun in the world.
Marketing, Brand, and Community Management
These groups develop global marketing campaigns and play experiences to grow our brands and engage our fans.
These groups analyze and share market trends and data, provide finance and legal direction, and recruit and support talent for our organization.
Industry-leading design and storytelling define the creative groups at Wizards and breathe life into our games.
Some of the most iconic and genre-defining games in the world are developed by our army of creative, innovative, talented, and passionate game development employees.
These groups support our network of retail partners and customers by providing information and resources to better sell and play our games.
Our technology groups provide infrastructure and software tools to develop test plans, maintain systems, and manage and support our analog and digital products.
Peter Adkison founds Wizards of the Coast
For its first few years, the company operates out of Peter's basement in Seattle, Washington.
Richard Garfield begins work on a unique new game concept, the foundations of Magic: The Gathering
His idea conflates playing cards and trading cards: players compete with decks they've built by selecting cards from a larger pool.
Magic: The Gathering debuts at Origins Game Fair
The entire print run sells out within a month, and gaming culture is altered forever.
Magic: The Gathering reaches 1 billion cards sold
Twelve expansion sets are released in the first fourteen months alone. Over sixty more have followed.
The first Magic Pro Tour is held in 1996
Players qualified by calling a hotline. Today, tens of thousands battle for one of about 400 berths.
Wizards purchases TSR, publisher of Dungeons & Dragons
Many employees of the legendary company moved to the Seattle area to begin work on the third edition of D&D.
Hasbro acquires Wizards of the Coast
Magic and D&D take their place among the world's most beloved and recognizable entertainment brands, sharing a stable with the likes of My Little Pony and Monopoly.
Duel Masters Trading Card Game debuts in Japan
The game immediately becomes one of Japan's premier trading card games, and it continues to grow.
Magic Online debuts
The game’s four successful versions have connected players on an unprecedented scale, with more than 10,000,000 matches played since Version III alone.
Avalon Hill joins the Wizards of the Coast brand family
Under Wizards’ guidance, new games like Betrayal at House on the Hill join the ranks of classic strategy games like Risk and Axis & Allies.
Magic: The Gathering publishes its 10,000th unique card
Approximately 1,000 cards are added every year across four expansion sets and other releases.
The 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is released
The release of Tyranny of Dragons, the first major storyline for the new edition, marks the game's 40th anniversary, sparking a surge in popularity among fans from young first-time players to veteran Hollywood celebrities.
Magic: The Gathering reaches 20 million players worldwide
For some players, it’s a way of having fun with friends. For others, it’s a way of life.
18 Offices Worldwide
20 Million Magic Players
We could watch this trailer all day- and probably will! Love what we're doing? Come Join us!… https://t.co/S8PsOZiSfu
Magic: The Gathering Arena Officially Launches September 26
After a successful Open Beta, Magic: The Gathering Arena is officially launching the game and removing the Open Beta tag on September 26 with the release of Throne of Eldraine. With more than 1 billion games played during Open Beta and Magic streaming more than doubling over the previous year, we could not be prouder of the game's success. MTG Arena has helped Magic become a true esport with exciting, popular, and accessible gameplay through Mythic Championships and Invitationals that set viewing records for Magic events. We’ll share more details…
WIZARDS OF THE COAST BRINGS BACK FUNDRAISER TO SUPPORT LAMBERT HOUSE
RENTON, WA – April 16, 2019 —Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., is excited to support Lambert House—a center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth in the greater Seattle, WA area – with custom Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons T-shirts and accessories sporting the iconic Rainbow colorway of the LGBT Pride Flag. "At Wizards of the Coast, one of our primary values is inclusivity. We value all people and perspectives." said Wizards of the…
We Strive to Make a Difference
Giving Back at Work
Every adventuring party needs a quest. Ours involves giving back to our community. In addition to offering four hours of paid volunteer time per month, we sponsor several on-site volunteer opportunities, and support sixteen children’s charities through our corporate giving program.
Twice a month, employees meet with local school children for one-on-one mentoring, as part of Big Brother Big Sisters’ “Beyond School Walls” program. Over lunch, employees play games with their Littles, talk about school, and expose the children to potential career paths and a positive work environment.
Vision House
Through on-site collection drives, we donate essentials to homeless families in the care of Vision House.
Each fall, we run marathon sessions of D&D and Magic, to raise money for children's hospitals with Extra Life.
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Along the Ford
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Matt DiFilippo on Building on Frolic’s vision
advant on Concord OKs budget, buys land
Dorothy “Dot” A. Klein of Concord Township
Posted by ChaddsFordLive on March 5th, 2019
Dorothy “Dot” A. Klein, 86, of Chadds Ford, died Thursday, Feb. 7, at Naamans Creek Country Manor. Born in Greenwich, Conn. and raised in Harrison, N.Y., while she had previously resided in Philadelphia. Since the 1970s, she had lived in Concord Township.
Dot graduated from St. Louis University receiving her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She retired with over 30 years of service from the County of Delaware as director of Human Services. Dorothy was a longtime member of the Medical Mission Sisters and was formerly a firefighter and EMT with the Concordville Fire Company.
In addition to her parents, Albert and Elizabeth Klein, she is preceded in death by two brothers, Albert G. Klein Jr. and John “Jack” F. Klein. She is survived by her husband of 32 years, Alexander S. Diamond and a sister, Barbara R. Klein.
A visitation will be held on Saturday, March 9, 10 to 11 a.m. at Elam United Methodist Church, 1073 Smithbridge Road, followed by a memorial service. Interment will be private and held at the convenience of the family.
Donations in her memory may be made to either the Medical Missionary Sisters, 8400 Pine Rd., Phila., PA 19111 or the Elam United Methodist Church, 1073 Smithbridge Road, Glen Mills, PA 19342 or the Concordville Fire Co., P.O. Box 70, Concordville, PA 19331. Online condolences may be made by visiting www.paganofuneralhome.com
About CFLive Staff
See Contributors Page http://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/
Glen Mills Senior Living
all-day Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal ...
Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal ...
1:00 PM NEW! Decorating with Dried Flowers @ Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
NEW! Decorating with Dried Flowers @ Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
January 20, 1:00 pm Join two creators of Winterthur’s renowned dried-flower tree for this hands-on workshop. Participants will make a small dried-flower wreath or candle ring to take home. Discover the tricks the pros use[...]
10:30 AM Storytime in Español @ Rachel Kohl Community Library
Storytime in Español @ Rachel Kohl Community Library
Join us Tuesday mornings at 10:30, to hear stories, sing songs, play games, and more with Señora Mercedes during Storytime in Español! For ages 1+
11:00 AM Block Party @ Rachel Kohl Community Library
Block Party @ Rachel Kohl Community Library
An hour long free play session with a set of wooden blocks of people, vehicles, and animals. Kids will have the freedom to build and play as they wish. (Ages 2-5 years)
7:30 AM Groundbreaking Ballet at Delawar...
Groundbreaking Ballet at Delawar...
Delaware Art Museum Hosts Groundbreaking New Ballet on Jan. 23 Black Iris Project’s solo ballet centers around one mother coping from the loss of her child to a racially motivated murder The Delaware Art[...]
10:30 AM Preschool Storytime @ Rachel Kohl Community Library
Preschool Storytime @ Rachel Kohl Community Library
Come to hear some stories, sing some songs, and have fun! (ages 3-5 years)
Copyright © Chadds Ford Live - Building Community – One Story at a Time
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Tennessee
Memphis teacher groups seek to increase maximum salary up to 18%
By Laura Faith Kebede
Class at Dunbar Elementary School in Memphis.
PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Faith Kebede/Chalkbeat
As local news deserts become the norm, Chalkbeat remains 100% committed to the communities we cover. Get our Tennessee education stories delivered to your inbox.
Shelby County Schools teachers would be able to earn up to $86,000 annually under the highest of three proposals from the district’s two teacher associations.
That would be 18% more than the current maximum salary of $73,000.
The associations want up to a 16% boost to the district’s $43,000 minimum salary for new teachers. But Cheronda Thompson, who represented United Education Association of Shelby County, said increasing the maximum is more important.
“It’s not about how we start, it’s about how we finish,” she said during negotiations Friday afternoon. “We want to retain people. They already start good.”
The Memphis district has been in negotiations with the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association and the United Education Association of Shelby County since February, but have only recently delved into salary talks. They are working toward a new agreement with classroom teachers and licensed professionals such as counselors and social workers on issues such as pay and working conditions.
Research shows that teachers make the most difference in a student’s academic success, but districts nationwide are struggling to recruit and retain effective educators. An often cited reason is salary, especially in states like Tennessee where the average teacher salary trails both regional and national numbers.
Related: Memphis teacher salary average dipped to 11th in the state. Negotiations to change that haven’t progressed.
The highest proposal would cost the district about $19 million in the first year. Shelby County Schools has not yet countered the proposals, but provided cost estimates on each of the associations’ three proposals on Friday:
$19 million for a starting salary of $49,985 and maximum of $86,007
Angela Whitelaw, a district deputy superintendent, said the district is committed to raising teacher salaries, but wants to hammer out a compromise.
Currently teachers making the top salary are only eligible for bonuses if the district offers salary increases to other teachers. Because salary is connected to retirement pensions, the policy caps future benefits too.
Related: As union negotiations continue, Memphis teachers will receive a 3% raise, and some will also get merit pay
Salaries are a particularly sore topic with the associations because the district’s average teacher salary is one of only two districts in the state that have dipped since 2014, according to a state comptroller’s report. The district attributed the drop to higher paid teachers retiring and an influx of cheaper, less experienced educators.
Nearly two-thirds of new teacher hires last school year had less than three years of experience, according to district data presented during Friday’s negotiations. At the same time, about a quarter of teachers who left the district the year before had between eight and 15 years of experience with an average salary of about $53,000.
The groups are scheduled to meet again from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25 and Nov. 1. These negotiation meetings are open to the public by state law.
Laura Faith Kebede @kebedefaith lkebede@chalkbeat.org
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Angela Whitelaw Memphis-Shelby County Education Association Shelby County Schools Teacher pay United Education Association of Shelby County
Chalkbeat is rooted in local communities. Be the first to know what’s happening in education in Tennessee.
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Apple and Samsung fined for slowing down their smartphones
Italian courts have fined the two companies a total of $17.1m for the "planned obsolescence" of their devices
Big DataChief Data OfficerChief Strategy Officer
An Italian investigation into tech giants Samsung and Apple has led to both companies being fined for intentionally slowing down older versions of their smartphones. Samsung has been fined €5m ($5.7m) and Apple €10m ($11.4m) marking the first ruling of its kind against a tech company for planned obsolescence.
The Italian Competition Authorities began the investigation into the firms in January 2018 to attest whether their smartphone software updates where causing older phones to perform worse in an effort to encourage customers to upgrade their phones quicker.
In a scathing statement, the watchdog said: "Apple and Samsung implemented dishonest commercial practices." The body also mentioned that the software updates which were supposed to bring about improvements in the devices instead "caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced performance, thus accelerating phones' substitution".
The Italian investigation, which was launched at the same time as a French investigation into the same issue, followed a barrage of complaints from European customers. Both companies have been handed the maximum fine by Italian courts, but the French investigation is yet to conclude. French law prohibits the intentional shortening of the life of a product and has to power to fine of up to 5% of annual turnover or even jail time for the crime.
Apple was also fined a further €5m as it failed to give its customers what the court deemed "essential" information regarding its lithium batteries. Other than the software updates which degraded batteries, information such as average life expectancy, maintenance and replacement of batteries where never provided to customers.
Apple both admitted and apologized for shortening the lives of its smartphones in December of last year. It claimed it did it in order to avoid sudden shutdown problems, not to shorten its product's life.
Samsung on the other hand maintains that it has done nothing wrong and prior to this decision had never been questioned about its updates.
The company expressed disappointment at the ruling with a spokesperson for the company commenting to The Guardian: "Samsung did not issue any software update that reduced the Galaxy Note 4's performance. In contrast, Samsung has always released software updates enabling our customers to have the best experience possible."
Along with the fines, both companies will now have to display a notification of the ruling on their websites
How to take the risk out of SaaS development
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SIGNUP TO GET INSTANT ACCESS.
Never miss a schedule change or game update, please complete the following information.
Attention: ADs and Coaches! Your existing account and password is now automatically a fan account too.
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"Keep sending prospects our way. You guys are great!"
- NCAA Division I Head Coach
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Bob Dylan Whiskey Distillery To Open Fall 2020 In NashvilleHeaven's Door Spirits will transform the 160-year-old Elm Street Church into the Heaven's Door Distillery and Center for the Arts, featuring the distillery, a whiskey library, a restaurant and a 360-seat live performance venue.
Father Of Waffle House Shooter Travis Reinking Charged With Supplying Son With AR-15 Used To Kill Four PeopleThe father of a man accused of killing four people in a mass shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville last year has been accused of supplying the firearm to his son, Travis Reinking.
Waffle House Shooting Suspect Sent Delusional Text MessagesTravis Reinking writes that his phone is being hacked and people are trying to kill him.
Ward Makes 30 Saves As Blackhawks Beat Predators 2-1Cam Ward made 30 saves in his first start since Corey Crawford was sidelined by a concussion, helping the Chicago Blackhawks top the Nashville Predators 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Judge Orders Mental Evaluation For Suspected Waffle House GunmanTravis Reinking, a native of Morton, Illinois, has been charged with four counts of criminal homicide in connection with last month's shooting.
At Least One Person Shot At Nashville Mall, Suspect In CustodyPolice are responding Thursday to reports of shots fired at Opry Mills Mall in Nashville, Tennessee
Waffle House Shooting Suspect From Morton, IllinoisTravis Reinking is accused of killing four people at random at a Waffle House near Nashville.
Alleged Waffle House Shooter Once Arrested Near White HouseThe shooting ended when a patron was able to wrestle the weapon away from the gunman.
Flight From Nashville To Chicago Canceled After Running Off TaxiwayTrans States Airlines flight 4696 was getting ready to depart for O'Hare International Airport, when its nose gear went onto the grass during a turn on a taxiway at Nashville International Airport, according to spokeswoman Cartiay McCoy.
West Englewood Chess Team Getting Free Flight To SupernationalsThe Earle STEM Academy chess team is getting free airfare to the U.S. Chess Federation’s Supernationals in Nashville.
Entertainment Guide To Nashville, TennesseeNashville offers no shortage of entertainment options for those who know where to look. J.T. Ellison, author of "No One Knows," shares her go-to spots in The Music City.
Best BBQ Cities In AmericaA profile on five of the best BBQ cities in America
A Music Lover's Guide To The SouthGuide to five of the most important cities to visit in the South for music lovers
A Music Lover's Guide To NashvilleNashville is home to everything music, offering visitors an opportunity to explore historic sites, listen to live music and truly experience Southern hospitality at its finest.
Illinois Girl, 7, Survives Plane Crash That Killed Four Family Members A 7-year-old girl who survived a plane crash in Kentucky that killed her parents and two other family members has been released from the hospital, an official said Saturday.
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Aric Holman Devontae Shuler Tyson Carter Reggie Perry Quinndary Weatherspoon Breein Tyree Nick Weatherspoon Sports College basketball Basketball College sports Men's basketball Men's sports Men's college basketball
SEC Mississippi Mississippi State
Weatherspoon, No. 22 Mississippi St get past Ole Miss 81-75
By DAVID BRANDT - Feb. 02, 2019 07:10 PM EST
Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland reacts during an NCAA college basketball game against Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. (Bruce Newman/The Oxford Eagle via AP)
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A handful of Mississippi's players were surrounding the basket during the second half when Mississippi State's Reggie Perry slid between them unnoticed, grabbing another offensive rebound before making a layup.
A few minutes later, Perry was at it again, finding an open spot behind the 3-point line and hitting the jumper that would give the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs the lead for good in an 81-75 victory over rival Ole Miss on Saturday.
The 6-foot-10 freshman has quickly grown from a role player to an indispensable presence for the Bulldogs. He scored a career-high 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds — including seven on the offensive end — to push Mississippi State to its fourth win in six games.
"I just wanted to come out more aggressive," Perry said. "My confidence has been up, pretty much since we started SEC play. My teammates have done a good job of putting me in the right position and keeping me motivated."
Mississippi State (16-5, 4-4 SEC) got some payback after losing to Ole Miss 81-77 at home last month. Quinndary Weatherspoon's game-high 27 points were a big reason for that, but so was Perry, who was starting just his second conference game.
"Reggie was phenomenal," coach Ben Howland said. "This is the type of effort I hope to see every day in terms of productivity."
Ole Miss (14-7, 4-4) led for a big portion of the second half before Mississippi State used a 9-0 run to take a 66-60 lead with eight minutes left. The Rebels pulled even at 73 on Breein Tyree's 3-pointer, but never could regain the lead.
Perry hit a 3-pointer that made it 76-73. He was shooting just 22 percent from behind the arc for the season before making both of his 3-point attempts on Saturday. He posted a career high for a second straight game after finishing with 18 points against Alabama earlier in the week.
Tyree led Ole Miss with 25 points, making 7 of 15 shots, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. It wasn't enough to offset Mississippi State's 40-28 rebounding advantage and overall dominance in the paint.
"We had some chances to win the game," Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. "But eventually toughness won out."
Ole Miss scored 13 straight points midway through the first half in taking a 43-39 lead at the break. Devontae Shuler had 14 points at halftime for the Rebels, making all three of his 3-point attempts.
STATE'S LINEUP CHANGES
Perry started in place of senior Aric Holman, who has been inconsistent over the past few weeks. Howland said he believes Holman has been "pressing too much" and wanted him to relax. Holman had no points and two rebounds against Ole Miss in a season-low nine minutes.
Junior Tyson Carter started in place of sophomore Nick Weatherspoon. Howland said the switch was because of a "discipline thing, not a major thing." Carter finished with five points and four assists in 21 minutes. Weatherspoon came off the bench to score six points in 26 minutes.
Mississippi State: It's an important win for the Bulldogs, who are climbing back into the top half of the Southeastern Conference. Perry's improvement has been crucial. So has Weatherspoon's consistency — the senior has scored in double figures in 19 of 21 games this season.
Ole Miss: That's another tough loss for the Rebels, who also fell to Florida in overtime earlier this week. Tyree had a great game, but everyone else on the roster was inconsistent. Ole Miss was pushed around in the post and needs more production from 7-footer Dominik Olejnickzak, who finished with no points and no rebounds in 12 minutes.
Mississippi State hosts LSU on Wednesday.
Ole Miss hosts Texas A&M on Wednesday.
More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25
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Ryan Finley Christian Wilkins Tyler Jones AJ Dillon Tre Lamar Ryan Guthrie Garrett Bradbury Chris Lindstrom Parker Braun Trayvon Mullen Essang Bassey Andre Szmyt Pressley Harvin III Cameron Glenn Joe Giles-Harris Dexter Lawrence Brian Burns Kelvin Harmon Greg Dortch Tommy Sweeney Mitch Hyatt Tee Higgins Andre Cisco Eric Dungey Chris Dunn Trevor Lawrence Sterling Hofrichter Qadree Ollison Tremayne Anchrum Phil Haynes Stefano Millin Hamp Cheevers Clelin Ferrell John Simpson Travis Etienne Deon Jackson Zach Allen Jakobi Meyers Germaine Pratt Alton Robinson Justin Falcinelli Dabo Swinney Ricky Walker Dino Babers Sports Coaching College football Football College sports
ACC Clemson North Carolina St Boston College Syracuse Georgia Tech Wake Forest Duke Florida State Pittsburgh Virginia Tech
No. 2 Clemson dominates AP All-ACC team again with 11 Tigers
FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2018, file photo, Clemson's Travis Etienne (9) runs for a touchdown against Wake Forest during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Charlotte, N.C. Etienne was picked as the offensive player of the year on The Associated Press All-Atlantic Coast Conference team. released Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — No. 2 Clemson once again dominated the Associated Press All-Atlantic Coast Conference teams and individual awards released Tuesday.
The four-time defending league champions placed 11 players on the two teams as selected by a panel of 14 sports writers who cover the conference.
Five Tigers made the first team, and four were unanimous picks. Offensive tackle Mitch Hyatt was a unanimous pick for the second straight year.
Clemson nearly swept the individual awards. Running back Travis Etienne was picked as the offensive player of the year, defensive end Clelin Ferrell was the defensive player of the year, quarterback Trevor Lawrence was voted the newcomer of the year and coach Dabo Swinney shared the coach of the year award with Syracuse's Dino Babers.
Etienne and Ferrell also were unanimous selections to the first team along with Tigers defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.
Clemson earned its fourth straight berth in the College Football Playoff a day after beating Pittsburgh in the ACC title game.
Etienne led the ACC with 1,463 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns while Ferrell had a league-best 10.5 sacks.
Babers led Syracuse, the preseason last-place pick in the Atlantic Division, to a 9-3 record, a second-place finish in the division and a berth in the Camping World Bowl .
The 2018 Associated Press All-Atlantic Coast Conference team, as selected by a panel of 14 sports writers who regularly cover the league for newspapers or broadcast outlets. Players at all positions are listed alphabetically with name, school, height, weight, class and hometown; "u-" denotes unanimous selections.
Quarterback — Ryan Finley, North Carolina State, 6-4, 212, sr., Phoenix.
Running back — AJ Dillon, Boston College, 6-0, 245, soph., New London, Connecticut; u-Travis Etienne, Clemson, 5-10, 200, soph., Jennings, Louisiana.
Tackles — u-Mitch Hyatt, Clemson, 6-5, 305, sr., Suwanee, Georgia; Tyler Jones, North Carolina State, 6-3, 306, sr., Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Guards — Parker Braun, Georgia Tech, 6-3, 280, jr., Hallsville, Texas; Chris Lindstrom, Boston College, 6-4, 310, sr., Dudley, Massachusetts.
Center — Garrett Bradbury, North Carolina State, 6-3, 300, sr., Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tight end — Tommy Sweeney, Boston College, 6-5, 260, sr., Ramsey, New Jersey.
Wide receiver — Kelvin Harmon, North Carolina State, 6-3, 214, jr., Palmyra, New Jersey; Olamide Zaccheaus, Virginia, 5-8, 190, sr., Philadelphia.
All-purpose player — Greg Dortch, Wake Forest, 5-9, 170, soph., Richmond, Virginia.
Kicker — Andre Szmyt, Syracuse, 6-1, 195, fr., Vernon Hills, Illinois.
Defensive ends — Brian Burns, Florida State, 6-5, 231, jr., Fort Lauderdale, Florida; u-Clelin Ferrell, Clemson, 6-5, 260, jr., Richmond, Virginia.
Defensive tackles — Dexter Lawrence, Clemson, 6-4, 340, jr., Wake Forest, North Carolina; u-Christian Wilkins, Clemson, 6-4, 300, sr., Springfield, Massachusetts;
Linebackers — Joe Giles-Harris, Duke, 6-2, 240, jr., Nyack, New York; Germaine Pratt, North Carolina State, 6-3, 140, sr., High Point, North Carolina; Shaquille Quarterman, Miami, 6-1, 235, jr., Orange Park, Florida.
Cornerbacks — Hamp Cheevers, Boston College, 5-10, 180, jr., Trenton, Florida; Bryce Hall, Virginia, 6-3, 200, jr., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Safeties — Andre Cisco, Syracuse, 6-0, 199, fr., Valley Stream, New York; Juan Thornhill, Virginia, 6-1, 200, sr., Altavista, Virginia.
Punter — Sterling Hofrichter, Syracuse, 5-9, 197, jr., Valrico, Florida.
Quarterback — Eric Dungey, Syracuse, 6-4, 226, sr., Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Running back — Travis Homer, Miami, 5-11, 205, jr., West Palm Beach, Florida; Qadree Ollison, Pittsburgh, 6-2, 225, sr., Niagara Falls, New York.
Tackles — Tremayne Anchrum, Clemson, 6-2, 290, jr., Powder Springs, Georgia; Stefano Millin, Pittsburgh, 6-5, 300, sr., Massillon, Ohio.
Guards — Phil Haynes, Wake Forest, 6-4, 310, sr., Raleigh, North Carolina; John Simpson, Clemson, 6-4, 320, jr., North Charleston, South Carolina.
Center — Justin Falcinelli, Clemson, 6-4, 305, sr., Middletown, Maryland.
Tight end — Brevin Jordan, Miami, 6-3, 245, fr., Las Vegas.
Wide receivers — Tee Higgins, Clemson, 6-4, 200, soph., Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Jakobi Meyers, North Carolina State, 6-2, 203, jr., Lithonia, Georgia.
All-purpose player — Deon Jackson, Duke, 6-0, 225, soph., Atlanta.
Kicker — Christopher Dunn, North Carolina State, 5-8, 177, fr., Lexington, North Carolina.
Defensive ends — Zach Allen, Boston College, 6-3, 285, sr., New Canaan, Connecticut; Alton Robinson, Syracuse, 6-4, 249, jr., Converse, Texas.
Defensive tackles — Ricky Walker, Virginia Tech, 6-2, 300, sr., Hampton, Virginia; Gerald Willis III, Miami, 6-4, 300, sr., New Orleans.
Linebackers — Ryan Guthrie, Syracuse, 6-2, 224, sr., Cumming, Georgia;
Cole Holcomb, North Carolina, 6-1, 235, sr., New Smyrna Beach, Florida; Tre Lamar, Clemson, 6-4, 250, jr., Roswell, Georgia.
Cornerbacks — Essang Bassey, Wake Forest, 5-10, 185, jr., Columbus, Georgia; Trayvon Mullen, Clemson, 6-2, 190, jr., Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Safeties — Cameron Glenn, Wake Forest, 6-1, 200, sr., Stone Mountain, Georgia; Jaquan Johnson, Miami, 5-11, 195, sr., Miami.
Punter — Pressley Harvin III, Georgia Tech, 6-0, 245, soph., Alcolu, South Carolina.
Coach of the year — Dino Babers, Syracuse, and Dabo Swinney, Clemson (tie).
Offensive player of the year — Travis Etienne, Clemson.
Defensive player of the year — Clelin Ferrell, Clemson.
Newcomer of the year — Trevor Lawrence, Clemson.
Voting panel:
Michael Vega, The Boston Globe; Grace Raynor, Charleston (S.C.) Post & Courier; Steve Wiseman, The Herald-Sun of Durham, North Carolina; Matt Baker, The Tampa Bay Times; John Bednarowski, Marietta (Georgia.) Daily Journal; Rick Bozich, WDRB-TV, Louisville, Kentucky; Christy Cabrera Chirinos, The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Brant Wilkerson-New, The News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina; Lauren Brownlow, WRAL.com, Raleigh, North Carolina; Brian Batko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Nate Mink, The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York; Doug Doughty, The Roanoke Times; Norm Wood, The Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia; Conor O'Neil; Winston-Salem Journal.
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Caleb Twyford Sam Pinckney Anthony D. Taylor Joshua Rowland Brandon Wright Dan Ellington Sports College football Football College sports
Texas State Sun Belt Georgia State
Rowland's kick lifts Texas State to 37-34 triple OT win
- Sep. 21, 2019 11:20 PM EDT
SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) — Joshua Rowland kicked a 35-yard field goal and Texas State clipped Georgia State 37-34 in a triple-overtime thriller to open Sun Belt Conference play Saturday night.
Rowland had already kicked field goals of 45 and 34 yards in regulation before his game-winner sent the Bobcats (1-3, 1-0 Sun Belt) dancing off the field in the third overtime.
Georgia State's Brandon Wright knocked in a 20-yard field goal with no time left in regulation to knot the score 27-27 and force OT. The Panthers (2-2, 0-1) Dan Ellington connected with Sam Pinckney for a 13-yard score to open overtime.
Texas State answered when Gresch Jenson ran in from the 1 on a keeper.
Each team missed a field goal in the second overtime.
Jensen completed 16 of 24 passes for Texas State. Caleb Twyford rushed for 119 yards and Anthony Taylor added 54 rushing yards with touchdowns of 2 and 20 yards.
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Beta blockers have well established survival benefits in heart failure and after myocardial infarction and have been long used in coronary artery disease and hypertension but have been considered contra-indicated in patients with COPD. A Cochrane systematic review identified 20 RCTs of cardio-selective beta blockers which examined lung function and respiratory symptoms in 278 patients with COPD (Salpeter 2005, Salpeter 2002) [evidence level I]. Eleven studies were of single dose and nine were of prolonged treatment (mean 3.7 weeks, range two days to 12 weeks). The beta blockers included atenolol, metoprolol, bisoprolol, practolol, celiprolol and acebutolol and were used at therapeutic doses. There was no significant overall change in FEV1, increase in respiratory symptoms or change in the response to inhaled beta2 agonists. The authors concluded that cardio-selective beta blockers were safe and should not be withheld, even in patients with severe airflow limitation. However, even with pooled data the absolute patient numbers were small and failed to represent minority groups such as females and the elderly. The longest duration included trial was 12 weeks, and so the meta-analysis provides little guidance about long term safety and potential morbidity of prolonged beta-blocker use in COPD. COPD symptoms are more pronounced during exertion and hence a recent study (Mainguy 2012)[evidence level II] has investigated dynamic lung function in GOLD stage II-III COPD patients during cardioselective beta-blocker treatment. This randomised, double blinded, placebo-controlled cross over trial compared inspiratory capacity (IC) at peak isotime exercise during endurance exercise testing as a measure of dynamic hyperinflation for treatment arms with bisoprolol (titrated to 10 mg) and titrated placebo. Included patients had no recognised indication for beta-blocker treatment and were randomised to treatment sequence. As expected, IC reduced with exercise; this effect was more pronounced in the bisoprolol arm -0.50 versus -0.41 (p<0.01). Exercise duration was non-significantly reduced in the bisoprolol arm, and the change was strongly correlated with the change in IC. However, the absolute difference was modest and of arguable clinical significance and so the groups recommended that cardioselective beta-blockers not be withheld on this basis. Beta-blockers have duration-dependent effects, including effects on beta-receptor regulation, which are important in their efficacy for heart failure and may also be relevant in the airways. The 14-day beta-blocker treatment duration in this study was likely insufficient to fully demonstrate these effects. Despite a paucity of evidence to suggest harm, beta-blockers are still under-utilised in COPD for guideline-based indications such as systolic heart failure (Lipworth 2016) [evidence level III-2]. Australian data from a COPD cohort hospitalised for a COPD exacerbation also reflects this (Neef 2016) [evidence level III-2].
A number of observational studies also lend confidence to beta-blocker prescribing in COPD patients. Du et al’s meta-analysis (Du 2016) of 15 observational cohort studies with follow up ranging from one to 7.2 years suggested that beta-blocker treatment was associated with reduced mortality risk (RR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63-0.83) and exacerbation risk (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.57-0.71). Although there was significant heterogeneity amongst the included studies, sensitivity analysis to account for this did not change the outcome [evidence level III-2]. Beta-blocker treatment did not diminish the beneficial effects of inhaled treatments on post bronchodilator FEV1 or COPD exacerbations. Prospective randomised controlled data is still needed (Dransfield 2018).
Acknowledging that, beyond improving survival, treatments used in COPD patients must not impair QoL, van Gestel’s 2009 study (van Gestel 2009) [evidence level III-2] sought reasons for suboptimal beta-blocker prescription in terms of QoL. The surviving 469 COPD patients of their vascular surgery cohort were subsequently assessed via health-related QoL questionnaire (SF-36) at median follow up of 6.4 (2.9 to 9.3) years. A 70% response rate was achieved. Although 71% of patients were receiving beta-blockers at follow up, compared to 59% at baseline, neither beta-blocker treatment at baseline, nor at follow up, impacted significantly on QoL scores.
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Varsity Lady Cougar Volleyball plays Fulton Science Academy
Cougar Athletics, Volleyball
On Friday night, the Lady Cougars met up with the FSA Mustangs. The first set began slowly with the strong serving from #6 on the Mustang team. She proceeded to serve for 7 points while the Cougars tried to adjust to her strong overhand jump…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-09-08 13:15:592018-10-15 13:17:50Varsity Lady Cougar Volleyball plays Fulton Science Academy
Varsity Vollleyball plays Atlanta Jewish Academy for first time
The Lady Cougars met up with the Atlanta Jewish Academy Jaguars on Thursday evening for some fun on the volleyball court. It was the first match between the Cougars and Jaguars and it was an exciting 90+ minute adventure.Set 1 started off…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-09-07 13:18:462018-10-15 13:20:04Varsity Vollleyball plays Atlanta Jewish Academy for first time
Varsity Volleyball beats Mill Springs Academy
The Lady Cougars met up with the Mill Spring Mustangs at home on Thursday evening. The Cougars were charged up and ready to play after a great practice on Wednesday afternoon.Set one began slowly for the Cougars. They served well but had…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Vball-beats-MSA-Scoreboard.jpg 211 295 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-31 13:20:322018-10-15 13:22:57Varsity Volleyball beats Mill Springs Academy
Varsity Volleyball plays Lyndon Academy
On Tuesday, the Lady Cougars traveled west to Lyndon Academy where they took on the Terriers.Set one began with the Cougars ready and amped to play. The teams spent most of this set trading serves back and forth, keeping the game within…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-29 13:25:482018-10-15 13:27:39Varsity Volleyball plays Lyndon Academy
Varsity Volleyball challenges Brandon Hall Panthers
The Cottage School Lady Cougars met up with the Brandon Hall Panthers on Thursday evening. Rumor has it the Panthers anticipated a quick afternoon visit with the Cougars, however, they encountered a bit more of a challenge than they expected.…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-24 13:27:412018-10-15 13:29:06Varsity Volleyball challenges Brandon Hall Panthers
Varsity Soccer versus Covenant Christian
Cougar Athletics, Soccer
The Cougars bounced back on Friday with a resounding 5-2 win over Covenant Christian. With only 2 days to recover from their hard fought defeat at Brandon Hall, the Cougars got off to a bit of a slow start. After the first few minutes, though,…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VSoccer-TeamPic2018.jpg 969 1752 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-24 12:57:392018-10-16 12:59:11Varsity Soccer versus Covenant Christian
Varsity Soccer Season Opener with AASD
The Cougars opened their season on Friday with a resounding 7-2 win over AASD at Waller Park. Both teams got off to a bit of a slow start, as first game nerves were worked out in the opening minutes of the contest. Then, after a defensive breakdown,…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-18 19:38:232018-10-15 19:55:19Varsity Soccer Season Opener with AASD
Varsity Volleyball meets up with The Howard Hawks
The Lady Cougars took on The Howard School Hawks on Wednesday afternoon. They played a good match but unfortunately did not get the win this time. This match has lit a fire of desire to keep on working and moving ahead. It has also provided…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-18 13:40:082018-10-15 13:42:44Varsity Volleyball meets up with The Howard Hawks
Varsity Volleyball plays first conference match with AASD and gets the win!
On Friday 8/18/18, the Lady Cougars attacked their first conference game against Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, with lots of heart and desire to come out on top. The team was led by seniors and co-captains Bethany Lingle and Julia Baumohl. While we…
https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png 0 0 Stephanie Johnson https://cottageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/35thCrest_fullcolor.png Stephanie Johnson2018-08-18 13:35:352018-10-15 13:38:20Varsity Volleyball plays first conference match with AASD and gets the win!
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Cottage School News
Glitter Gala 2020 – Under the Big Top on March 28January 15, 2020 - 7:01 pm
Elementary School Open House on January 30, 2020January 15, 2020 - 12:54 pm
The Cottage School 35th Reunion and Donor EventJanuary 7, 2020 - 6:11 pm
High School Drama will perform “A Play With Words”October 29, 2019 - 1:30 pm
Cougar Sports News
Cougars defeat Wolves 55-24 for first win of 2020January 16, 2020 - 7:14 pm
Lady Cougars Nip Midtown International Academy – 31 – 30!January 16, 2020 - 6:25 pm
Cardiac Kids of Cottage Defeat Cross Keys High School in Historic WinJanuary 13, 2020 - 6:53 pm
Varsity Boys Basketball Returns to the CourtsJanuary 13, 2020 - 2:52 pm
Cougars dominate Titans with 62-29 winJanuary 7, 2020 - 4:14 pm
Lady Cougars Claim Consecutive Victories to End 2019December 19, 2019 - 3:17 pm
Cougars smother Al Falah with 49-17 victoryDecember 17, 2019 - 1:06 pm
JV Cougars Come Up Short Versus Al Falah LionsDecember 16, 2019 - 8:39 pm
Academics News
Coach Bio
Cougar Athletics
Post Secondary Announcements
The Cottage School is a 501 ( c ) 3 organization that maintains a non-discriminatory policy in all school programs.
700 Grimes Bridge Rd
High School: 770-641-8688
Middle School: 770-640-8037
Elementary School: 678-497-0613
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Review: Boat To Row sail through gleaming comeback show
July 18, 2019 July 19, 2019 Aisling Bruce Boat To Row, castle and falcon, Faux Palms, Katherine priddy
Folk four-piece Boat To Row returned to the stage at a celebratory, fun-filled mid-week gig at the Castle and Falcon on Wednesday 17th July
It’s been quite the year for Boat To Row. After launching a campaign with Pledge Music to raise money for their upcoming album, Rivers That Flow in Circles, the platform fell foul to administration, shamefully taking with it the cash the band worked so hard for.
However, all has not been lost and thanks to local independent record label, Static Caravan, the album is back on, with its release due on September 20th. To celebrate the news – and with thanks to a few favours – the band decided to throw a celebratory mid-week knees up at the Castle and Falcon, headlining the evening with support in the form of Faux Palms and Katharine Priddy. What ensued was an evening of joy, brilliant music and a righteous two fingers up to Pledge Music.
First up was Faux Palms who, even as the first act of the evening, had pulled in quite a crowd. It was difficult to pinpoint the band’s exact style as they rolled through their set list; from the slow and melodic ‘Isn’t Going to Work Out’ to summer-twinged, sway-inducing ‘The Streets Are Always Open’, the four-piece showcased their craft to be able to flit effortlessly from one song to the next, each one with its own tone and its own story.
Faux Palms
Before bidding goodbye, lead singer Rick Wellings highlighted his feelings towards the issues borne of Pledge Music’s decisions. Spoiler: it wasn’t a glowing report.
Next on the bill was Katherine Priddy, whose introduction to herself as ‘the quiet thing in between the two bands’ was as perfectly apt as it was far too modest for her startling talent. Taking her place centre stage with just an acoustic guitar, her lulling tones captured the audience, abating any previous chatter in the room. Sharing anecdotes of her time on the Isle of Eigg which galvanised itself into a song and her love of Greek myths which influenced numbers including ‘Icarus’ and ‘Eurydice‘, it proved to be a simple task for Priddy to hold the room with such a twinkling performance.
Katherine Priddy
Ending her half-hour set humbly, she too nodded to Pledge Music’s pitfalls and encouraged guests to purchase Boat To Row’s goodies instead of plugging her own, recently released EP ‘Wolf’ – a heartfelt example of the unity between the musicians.
There wasn’t long to wait before the four-piece folkies took to the stage. After a short introduction, with a mention about how long it had been since they were last on stage, Boat To Row were straight into their first song, ‘Stranger of Mine’. The feeling was unanimous that their next hiatus shouldn’t be as long.
Boat To Row
Storming through the next hour, they sailed through their tracks from their first album, I Found You Here, for which they were joined by previous bandmates, Billy Moss and Anna Bennett, who added another layer to the band’s already well-mastered depth. The addition of Anna’s backing vocals complimented lead Michael King’s voice beautifully on songs including ‘Whistle and I’ll Come To You’ and ‘Time and Time Again’. The band’s skill was showcased further by the tinkling delight of ‘Spanish Moss’ and the melodic strums of their latest single ‘On Your Own’ which sounds as sunny as it feels.
Albeit a few technical issues throughout, it was clear not a lot would dampen their spirits, with guitarist Ben Gilchrist cracking jokes, calling out for a hand when drummer Lydia Galnville experience issues with her snare.
As the set came to a close, the band made their thank yous to the promoters, the venue and the support acts, all of whom had agreed to play and put on the show for free to help the band get back on their own feet. It’s very safe to say Boat To Row have picked themselves off, dusted themselves off and come back even more sparkling than before with a belter of a final song – a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’.
The Castle and Falcon proved to be the perfect space for a comeback gig, although it’s safe to say Boat To Row are destined for much bigger stages and, hopefully, have even more to celebrate next time.
Photographs by Nikki Rodgers
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Venue guide: The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham
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Snobs boss to open two more bars in Birmingham city centre
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Aisling Bruce
Enthusiastic writer with an eclectic taste in music. Will listen to and enjoy (almost) anything.
← Review: Lady Sanity brings the Noise on latest single
HuffPost School of Journalism to launch in Birmingham this year →
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Right To Information Act, 2005 (Hindi) (English)
Transparency Officer, Nodal Officer, First Appellate Authority and Central Public Information Officer under RTI Act 2005
RTI Guidelines
Guide For Information Seekers
Guide For the Central Public Information Officers
Guide For the Public Authorities
Right To Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005
The Central Information Commision (Appeal Procedure) Rules, 2005
RTI Application Form
Details of fees payable for seeking information under RTI Act-2005
Sec.4 (1)(b)(i): The particulars of organisation, functions and duties
About ICAR-CPRI
Head of the organisation
Functions and duties
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Commitees of CPRI, Shimla
Sec.4(1)(b)(ii): The powers and duties of officers and employees
Sec.4(1)(b)(iii): The procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability
Sec.4(1)(b)(iv): The norms set for discharge of functions
Sec.4(1)(b)(v): The rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records used by employees for discharging functions
Sec.4(1)(b)(vi): The categories of documents held or under control
Sec.4(1)(b)(vii): The particulars of arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the pubic in relation to the formulation of policy or implementation thereof
Sec.4(1)(b)(viii): A Statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public
Sec.4(1)(b)(ix): A Directory of Officers and employees
Telephone Directory of ICAR-CPRI
Sec.4(1)(b)(x): The monthly remuneration of Officers and employees and system of compensation
ICAR-CPRI, Shimla
ICAR-CPRI RS modipuram Campus
ICAR-CPRS, Patna
ICAR-CPRS, Jalandhar
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Sec.4(1)(b)(xi): Budget allocated to each agency including all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made etc.
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RTI Portal (the government of India )
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Munich is perhaps best known today as the home of Oktoberfest, an epic folk festival that sees visitors from every corner of the globe don Bavarian lederhosen and dirndls for riotous days of dancing and beer-drinking. But there's so much more to this alluringly affluent city than unabashed hedonism.
The resplendent Munich Residence is Germany's largest city palace, while the lush nearby English Garden is one of the world's biggest urban parks. The revered Alte Pinakothek museum is home to a priceless collection of Old Master paintings, while sister gallery Pinakothek der Moderne champions cutting-edge contemporary art.
Munich – nenechte si ujít
10 Best Things to Do in Munich
10 Best Things to Do for Couples in Munich
7 Things to Do with Your Family in Munich
7 Things to Do in Munich in Autumn
10 Best Outdoor Activities in Munich
10 Free and Cheap Things to Do in Munich
Munich Travel Kit
Browse Munich by category
Další oblíbené destinace v oblasti Germany
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Quilan 'Cue' Arnold
A Journey of Focus, Excellence, and Mastery.
Build’N Shop
Get Groovy
TGF Podcast
Author: cue4christ
Quilan “Cue” Arnold (MFA) is a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer based out of Brooklyn, New York. Quilan received a MFA in Dance at The Ohio State University and a BA from Penn State University. He has danced for the New York Philharmonic (NY), Little Theatre at Dixon Place (NY), and Rennie Harris’s Puremovement (PA) and Grassroots (CO) dance companies. Quilan’s choreographic work has been presented in a domestic and international milieu including Memphis, TN; New York City, NY; Towson, MD; and Salvador, Brazil. He is a 2017 Artist in Residence at the University of Memphis (TN) and a 2017 Guest Lecturer at New York University (NY). Quilan serves as a faculty member at Mark Morris Dance Center (NY), Dalton Performing Arts School (NY), Gibney Dance Center (NY). Quilan’s research majorly considers the representation of hip-hop dance as it shifts from a vernacular context to the studio, internet, and stage. His journey has inspired the creation of the hip-hop organization, onC.U.E (Create, Unite, Empower), and the online course, Get Groovy. onC.U.E and Get Groovy classes have influenced students in Columbus, OH; New York City, NY; Memphis, TN; Baltimore, MD; and worldwide through online courses.
Straight From The Underground: Performance Review of Showtime NYC @Abrons Arts Center
on November 18, 2019 November 18, 2019 By cue4christ
Soundcloud Audio Version 3 black males in all white clothes. Posing like vogue, Michael Angelo, angels. We can’t go where they reside so, they brought heaven down by breakin' their bones. Shoulders distorting, ankles contorting. 2 black males stand strong, supporting. Brother Qu tip, ping pongs off the shins. Turn around, touch the ground, then [...]
“Maze” Fights to Conquer the Question: How does Street Dance Authentically Exist on the Concert Stage?
on August 16, 2019 August 16, 2019 By cue4christ
Show: “Maze” Venue: The Shed Dates: 7/24-8/17 Co-Directors: Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and Kaneza Schaal Dancers: The D.R.E.A.M Ring and the FlexNYC program Critic: Quilan “Cue” Arnold I entered into a vast black box that felt nothing of the sort. I was transported into a gallery-vibe where the audience members were sculptures of art—standing [...]
“This Is America” Review: The G.O.A.T of Dance Art?
on May 14, 2018 May 14, 2018 By cue4christ
Donald Glover’s (aka Childish Gambino) “This is America” is one of the most genius works of contemporary art in the history of music videos. The piece’s balance between ambiguity, clarity and entertainment throughout its historic commentary on blackness in the United States is unrivaled. I have been seeing multiple responses to the video about how [...]
Dance Debate: 3 Reasons Why Grooving Is A Technique
on February 2, 2018 February 2, 2018 By cue4christ
About a month ago a dance acquaintance of mine posted on Facebook, “Grooving is suppose to be natural, it's not a technique. Listen to the music.” When she posted it, I don’t believe she thought it would ignite a significant debate amongst dance practitioners, but that is exactly what it did. The foundation of the [...]
The Hip-hop Generation Gap: How Black Creations Lose Their Black Face
on December 8, 2017 December 8, 2017 By cue4christ 4 Comments
“I think that we, as the African-American men in hip-hop, have a greater responsibility because we have the ears of so many millions of our young people. And they listenin’.”- Steve Harvey I truly believe that hip-hop dance culture is at a critical juncture in this day in time. As Steve Harvey said, hip-hop has [...]
“STOP IT!” How MADTV Made Me Sane
on October 9, 2017 October 9, 2017 By cue4christ
Link to MADTV skit: “Stop it!” - Bob Newhart (link to skit: https://youtu.be/h046gFGGZkU) Somebody once described depression to me as a heavy, wet long sleeve shirt. The more you struggle to get it off, the tighter it clings to your skin. You’re able to squirm your head out of the top hole just to lose [...]
I Hate Me: 2 Ways to Shift from Selfish to Selfless Love
on February 16, 2017 February 16, 2017 By cue4christ
I hate me. I hate a part of me. I hate the me that selfishly loves. The hidden figure who does seemingly selfless actions in order to get something in return. I hate the shadow in my soul that will cut a person off because they’re not reciprocating the love I give them. I hate [...]
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Kentucky Statutes & Regs
Healthy Topics
CVDHD Events
Healthy Clay
JCHIPS
Rockcastle Healthy Communities
Increased Physical Activity
Improved Nutrition
Restaurant Scores
Shared-Use Agreements
Harm Reduction Services
Discarded Needle Clean-up
Public Health regulations play an important role in attaining public health goals; they serve as a foundation for governmental public health activities. Many of public health’s greatest successes are due to public health regulations, including high childhood immunization rates, improved motor vehicle safety, safer workplaces, and reduced tooth decay. Public Health regulations will continue to play an important role as we address emerging public health threats such as childhood obesity, healthcare-associated infections, motor vehicle injuries, and prescription drug overdoses.
KRS 194A.010 , establishes the Cabinet for Health and Family Services as “the primary state agency for operating the public health, Medicaid, certificate of need and licensure, and mental health and intellectual disability programs in the Commonwealth. The function of the cabinet is to improve the health of all Kentuckians, including the delivery of population, preventative, reparative, and containment health services in a safe and effective fashion, and to improve the functional capabilities and opportunities of Kentuckians with disabilities.”
KRS 194A.030 , authorizes the Department for Public Health to develop and operate all programs of the cabinet that provide health services and all programs for assessing the health status of the population for the promotion of health and prevention of disease, injury, disability, and premature death.
KRS 212.240 , requires that county departments of health shall: “(1) Administer and enforce in the county and in all cities and towns situated therein, except as otherwise provided by law, all applicable public health laws of the Commonwealth and all of the rules and regulations of the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family services and county board of health issued thereunder, (2) Under the general supervision of the county board of health and the Cabinet for health and Family Services, formulate, promote, establish, and execute policies, plans and programs to safeguard the health of the people of the county and establish, maintain, implement, promote, and conduct facilities and services for the purpose of protecting the public health.”
902 KAR 8:160 , establishes minimum administrative and operational requirements for Kentucky’s local health departments.
The authority of core activities exists in the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s statutes or regulations. The authority for preventative services is found in state budget language and in grants and contracts with agencies of the United States Public Health Services. These preventive patient services were added as state and federal governments appropriated the funds. Cumberland Valley District Health Department’s mandated services as a Kentucky Public Health Department:
Seven Core Services required by Kentucky Revised Statute or Administrative Regulation
Enforcement of Public Health Regulation. Local health departments enforce public health regulations by providing oversight, education, and assurance of compliance with federal, state, and local public health laws designed to protect and promote the health of the public. The scope of regulations includes sanitation and safety, vital statistics, medical enforcement, city and county ordinances, and local boards of health regulations. KRS Chapter 39A , KRS 224.1-410, 902 KAR 47:200, 902 KAR 2:020, KRS 211.660, KRS 211.180, KRS 211.905, KRS 213.036, KRS 211.190, 211.990. Food Service: KRS 217.215, KRS 217.125, KRS 217.380, KRS 217.155. Public Facilities: KRS 211.925, KRS 219.021, KRS 219.031. Parks for Mobile Homes and Recreational Vehicles: KRS 219.340, KRS 219.370, KRS 219.380, KRS 211.760. On-Site Sewage (subsurface discharge sewage): KRS 211.350, KRS 211.355, KRS 211.370. Matters related to vector control, rabies control, septic tank pumpers, private water and public health nuisances: KRS 211.350, KRS 211.345, KRS 212.210, KRS 258.075, KRS 211.980.
Surveillance of Public Health. Surveillance is a process of monitoring public health conditions by the ongoing collection, analysis, and sharing of information. The data gained from surveillance are used to develop programs to improve wellbeing and health in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 902 KAR 2:020, KRS 211.902.
Communicable Disease Control. Communicable disease control is the process through which local health departments prevent the spread of infectious disease. The key activities include immunizations, investigations and treatment of outbreaks, and public education. Statutory Authority: KRS 194A.050, KRS 211.090, KRS 211.180, KRS 214.010. Kentucky Administrative Regulations (KAR) and Revised Statutes related to Communicable/Reportable Disease Services: 902 KAR Chapter 2 – Communicable Diseases: KRS 158.035, KRS 158.037, KRS 212.210, KRS214.181, KRS 214.034, KRS 214.036, KRS 214.645, KRS 214.990, KRS 215.520, KRS215.560, KRS 258:065, KRS 258.075.
Public Health Education. A local health department informs and educates individuals, groups, and communities about good health in order to promote healthy lifestyle choices and mitigate health risks. Public health education also provides critical information that safeguards health and safety in response to disasters or other health crises. KRS 211.180, KRS 211.190, KRS 211.904.
Public Health Policy. Public Health policy encompasses the broad standards and framework that govern a community’s public health activities. Policies are based on data from surveillance and the public’s directives, usually from public officials, based on that information. Policies are often initiated at the national level but defined and refined to meet needs identified at the state and local levels. 902 KAR 8:160, KRS 194A.050, KRS 211.005, KRS 211.170, KRS 211.180, KRS 211.901 , KRS212.210, KRS 212.230, KRS 212.240.
Families and Children Risk Reduction. Local health departments reduce health risks and problems in the community by identifying and providing needed services or referring individuals to other appropriate providers. 902 KAR 4:100, 902 KAR 4:120, KRS 194A.050, KRS 211.180, KRS 211.690, KRS 214.554 , KRS 214.187, KRS211.901 and KRS 211.903.
Disaster Preparedness. In collaboration with other disaster and emergency service providers, health departments develop and maintain policies and procedures for responding to disasters. While communities may never actually experience a disaster, some level of preparation is required. KRS Chapter 39A.
Kentucky Revised Statutes and Administrative Regulations for Six Preventative Services for Specific Populations from Appropriated Funds:
Family Planning. Local health departments provide family planning services that consist of educational, medical, and social services to help individuals voluntarily determine the number and spacing of their pregnancies and children. 902 KAR 4:050, KRS 211.090, KRS 211.190, KRS 211.180, KRS 214.185, KRS 211.280.
Prenatal Care. Local health departments provide prenatal care prior to pregnancy, during pregnancy, and for six weeks after pregnancy to promote the physical and mental well-being of the pregnant woman and her infant and family. KRS 194A.050, 902 KAR 4:100, 902 KAR 4:120, KRS 211.690, KRS 211.180.
Well Child Care. A local department provides a series of preventive health check-ups for children from birth through 20 years of age who are not receiving well child care from another health provider. 902 KAR 4:100, KRS 211.180.
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The local health department provides nutrition education and healthy foods for pregnant, breastfeeding, and post-delivery women, as well as infants and children who meet income and health risk guidelines. 902 KAR 18:021, KRS 194A.050, KRS 211.090, KRS 211.180.
Adult Preventive Services. Local health departments provide or arrange for age-appropriate health screenings or services for eligible adults as requested by the individual. Services may include a partial or complete health screening. KRS 211.180.
Chronic Disease Monitoring and Support. Local health departments provide screening for certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The local health department also provides follow-up education and support for people with these conditions. KRS 211.180.
Cumberland Valley District Health Department Job...
Pertussis in Jackson County
Health Department Confirms Pertussis in Jackson...
Cumberland Valley District Board of Health
The CVDHD Board of Health will hold its regularly...
470 Manchester Square, Ste. 200
Manchester,KY 40962
Copyright 2015 Cumberland Valley Health District. Website by The Center for Rural Development.
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Discord ServerCome join us!
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Weekly News – 06/01/20
Hey everyone, CykaDev here!
Look, it’s 2020! So I’m gonna start by saying happy new year to you all! I wish you the very best for the upcoming year, whether in be in your studies, with your family, your crush, your golden retriever or even your toaster. Who knows, these are expensive.
More seriously, I’d like to take this occasion to express how insane everything feels. It’s 2020, and CykaDev has been around since the end of 2017. It’s absolutely crazy to think we’ve come so far, and it absolutely doesn’t feel like so much time has passed since the beginning of this adventure.
Now, I can confidently (I think?) say that our game, SAFE (Yep, I announced the name in the previous post. Check it out if you haven’t yet!) will be coming out this year. After about two years of development, it’ll be done and ready to go!
That means that technically, I’m in my very last rush to finish the writing. I have about one route left to write, and I can see the end of this! As I always say, there’s going to be a crap ton of work after this, but I like to think that the writing was the hardest, longest, most excruciatingly painful one. But it’s fun, so I don’t mind.
This year, I’ll be trying to share more information about the concept of the game. As we get closer to the end of the writing, I feel like the concept is going to fully become ours, and it won’t change much: that means I can finally share information that’ll be accurate and that’ll hopefully satisfy you. And if it doesn’t, I’ll reevaluate my career as a games developer.
Now, first statistics of the year, my friends! We currently have 1.520.000 words (We passed 1.5M!) words, for about 312.500 lines. In terms of hours of gameplay, it’s about 101 hours. And I announced 60 at first…
HOWEVER! You have to keep in mind one thing. As I always say, this is all routes combined: I have no idea on how long one run will take, but rest assured it shouldn’t be a horribly long and boring experience. If it is, you get your money back, it’s a guarantee! (Note: yep, the VN is still free)
Anyway, this is it for me today. It feels refreshing to step into a new year, and I am full of hope for the future of this project, and CykaDev itself.
I’ll see you guys in the next weekly news! Have a great week, stay awesome, and drink water.
See you next week!
cykadev, indie, novel, post, update, visual, weekly
Author paulchartres
Categories Updates
Senpyro
January 17, 2020 at 12:14 am Log in to Reply
DAMN, 101h? This year is going to be great :D
Senpyro on Weekly News – 06/01/20
acacia on Weekly News – 21/10/19
emnil on Weekly News – 29/09/19
Makoto Shinkai's latest movie, Tenki no Ko, was absolutely breathtaking. Pardon my totally biased opinion, but that… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
You know what? I think I'll wait for next Monday for the news, I've been delaying too much :( I've had to go to sev… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Heads up for today, but I have a pretty bad headache right now, so I think I'll be publishing the weekly news tomorrow! My apologies.
CykaDev is a team of three passionate members, willing to bring you the most painful and feels-inducing games.
What originally started with a joke modification for Doki Doki Literature Club ended up leading to the creation of an official studio, now working on its own independent visual novel.
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Topic: Shelby County District Attorney’s Office
There are 16 article(s) tagged Shelby County District Attorney’s Office:
Homicide victims remembered at ‘Season of Remembrance’ event
Families and friends pay homage to homicide victims during the ninth-annual Season of Remembrance event hosted by Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich and her staff.
By Yolanda Jones December 02, 2019
Shelby County deputies justified in man’s shooting death, D.A. says
The officer-involved shooting death of 40-year-old Jason Matthew Hill has been ruled justified by the Shelby County Dist. Atty. Amy Weirich. No charges will be filed against the deputies, who have not been identified.
By Yolanda Jones November 04, 2019
DA: No criminal wrongdoing by deputies in 2018 fatal officer-involved shooting
No charges filed against deputies in the 2018 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Keyshon Parham.
By Yolanda Jones October 17, 2019
Motel closed as nuisance will reopen after owners agree to security improvements
Red Roof Inn, a northeast Memphis motel closed as a public nuisance, will reopen after the owners agreed to hire security guards and install surveillance cameras.
Motel closed as public nuisance after drugs activity, thefts and other crimes
Memphis police responded to 150 calls at the Red Roof Inn on Shelby Oaks Drive over the past year. After four fatal heroin overdoses, thefts, burglaries and other crimes, the motel was declared a public nuisance Friday, Sept. 27 and closed.
By Yolanda Jones September 27, 2019
Symposium for reduction in violent crime draws law enforcement from around the country
Memphis was chosen to take part in a federal program in which local and federal law enforcement work together to fight violent crime. This week, law enforcement officials are in town for a summit on violent crime.
201 Poplar renovation progressing, but completion will take years
The renovation at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center, 201 Poplar Avenue, will take at least 10 years to complete but will upgrade everything.
By Linda A. Moore August 05, 2019
No charges to be filed against MPD officer in 2018 fatal shooting
Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said her office will not file charges against a Memphis police officer in the 2018 officer-involved fatal shooting of a man on Summer Avenue.
By Yolanda Jones June 11, 2019
Family of executed man seeks to have DNA in case tested
The daughter of Sedley Alley, the man convicted in the 1985 brutal murder and rape of Marine Lance Cpl. Suzanne Marie Collins in Millington, is seeking to have the DNA evidence in the case tested, some 13 years after her father was executed for the slaying.
The changing role of the district attorney
I recently heard a retired judge tell a gathering that he started his legal career as a prosecutor.
By Amy Weirich December 04, 2018
January court date set for men charged in Wolfchase Galleria ‘hoodie arrests’
The two men charged in the Nov. 3 “hoodie arrests” at Wolfchase Galleria Mall will have their cases heard in January.
‘Focused deterrence’ crime-fighting strategy offers hope to ex-offenders
On a recent weeknight when most people were just getting home from work, nine men sat side-by-side staring into the faces of law enforcement and community leaders.
Memphis and Shelby County homicide victims remembered with ceremony
Jaylon Cohen was out with friends enjoying Fourth of July fireworks when he was shot in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in Bartlett.
Shelby County DA’s office won’t prosecute many revoked driver’s license cases
For the last seven weeks, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office has quietly dismissed more than 3,000 cases where people were charged with driving on suspended, revoked or canceled driver’s licenses.
V Live club called public nuisance to reopen
A Hickory Hill club closed down as a public nuisance following two homicides is reopening under court supervision and will no longer be a strip club.
‘Every Day in School’ program works with schools, parents to reduce truancy
Siblings were truant at a Shelby County school last year because they had to share a uniform.
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Prize-winning buildings in Budapest you might walk past every day
The Elephant House today
Brexit agreement endorsement sad day for EU, says Orbán in Brussels
Anna Wynn
Numerous buildings in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, have been awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra prize. The UN can award this form of recognition to both built heritage sites and valuable artwork collections. As Budapest is full of beautiful buildings, it is quite possible you regularly walk past these sites without realising their true value.
The Europa Nostra prize is awarded by the UN to cultural heritage sites in need of reconstruction that are significant to a city or country. It was created in 1978; the Council of Europe and other organisations can present this honour in six categories – reports Femina. The winner can be an architectural heritage, an archaeological find, a cultural landscape, an artwork collection, or even a study related to cultural heritage or the accomplishment of an individual or a community connected to the field of heritage protection.
Winners in Budapest
It is a shame to miss out on the full experience and to simply walk past certain buildings without realising their true beauty and unique qualities. A range of establishments received the prize in Budapest, from a library through a cinema to the airport, of all places.
1. New York Palace
A significant building on the Grand Boulevard, the New York Palace, received the prize in 2007. Apart from being an architectural masterpiece, its importance in literary and cultural history also contributed to the win.
2. Elephant house of the zoo
Photo: Wikicommons by Csanády
This building, as well as the main entrance, was designed by Kornél Neuschloss, Hungarian architect and art historian. It was awarded the prize in 2000, a year after its renovation.
3. Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library
Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library
Photo: www.fszek.hu
The Wenckheim Palace is a breathtaking building, both from the inside and from the outside. An additional curiosity is that it hosts the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library. It is also the proud owner of a Europa Nostra prize since 2002.
4. Restoring Kodály Circus
Photo: wikipedia.hu
The plan to restore the palace on Kodály Circus alsó got the approval of the prize.
5. Budapest Airport
Interestingly, Terminal 1 of the Budapest airport won the prize in 2007. The airport was renamed Franz Liszt Airport in 2011. Before that, it bore the name of Ferenc Mayerffy local vineyard owner and beer brewer, but everybody referred to it as ‘Ferihegy’.
+1 Awards to CEU and metro line M4
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) rewarded the new building of the Central European University in Budapest, designer by the O’Donnell + Tuomey Irish company, as well as metro line M4, designed by FŐMTERV-PALATIUM-UVATERV.
RIBA gave out their first international prize in 2016 – reports Turizmusonline. Their aim is to celebrate architecture that inspires innovation and progress. Any kind of architectural masterpiece can win this award – it is a great honour that Hungary won two of the honorary prizes this year.
For more news, check out this article about the new Budapest routes offered by Wizz Air.
Featured image: Wikipedia
Source: femina.hu
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Tripping across the YouTube galaxy
The Daily Psychedelic Video
On Psychedelic Aesthetics
The Roots and Future of Psychedelic Visual Media: How Psychedelic Aesthetics Took Over the World.
If one were to judge the state of the psychedelic visual style in 1980, one would probably consider it to be an obsolete fad which receded into the past. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although decades have passed since the psychedelic sixties, psychedelic elements are today deeply integrated into contemporary visual culture from Avatar to videos by Beyonce and Rihanna.
The story of psychedelic visuals did not begin in the 1960s. It is in fact an extremely long tale which stretches from mankind’s prehistorical mystical visions, through the psychedelic revolution of the sixties, to modern consumerist media society and beyond. In order to understand the appeal which the psychedelic visual style holds for our postmodern culture one must get back to the roots of psychedelic aesthetics in the visionary experience.
Huxley’s analysis of psychedelic aesthetics
“Prenatural light and color are common to all visionary experiences” wrote Aldous Huxley in his Heaven and Hell “and along with light and color there comes in every case, a recognition of heightened significance. The self-luminous objects which we see in the mind’s antipodes possess a meaning, and this meaning is, in some sort, as intense as their colour.”[1]
The origin of intense coloring in the visionary experience. Aldous Huxley.
Visionary experiences has many possible characteristics, but the most common of which, according to Huxley, is the experience of light: “Everything seen by those who visit the mind’s antipodes is brilliantly illuminated and seems to shine from within. All colors are intensified to a pitch far beyond anything seen in the normal state, and at the same time the mind’s capacity for recognizing fine distinctions of tone and hue is notably heightened.”[2]
Huxley’s lengthy discussion about the aesthetics of the visionary and psychedelic experience in Heaven & Hell remains one the most perceptive pieces about the roots of psychedelic aesthetics. His rich background as a scholar of aesthetics, a scholar of mysticism and a pioneering practitioner of psychedelic journeys, allows him to examine the issue of the visual characteristics of psychedelia from a large historical and philosophical perspective which is essential if one is to decipher the true meaning of psychedelic aesthetics.
All psychedelic visions are unique, claimed Huxley, yet they all “recognizably belong to the same species”.[3] What they have in common are the preternatural light, the preternatural color and the preternatural significance, as well as more specific architectures, landscapes and patterns which tend to reoccur across psychedelic and visionary experiences. For Huxley this intense color and light was one of the primary and most indelible characteristics of what he called the mind’s antipodes, the unknown territories to which the psychedelic voyager is transported.
Looking at the traditions of various cultures, past and present, Huxley found a common ground between their accounts of the heavens or the fairylands of folklore and the lands of the antipodes. He noted the existence of Other Worlds, mythological landscapes of fantastic beauty in many of the world’s cultural traditions. In the Greco-Roman tradition there were the Garden of Hesperides, the Elysian Plain and the Fair Island of Leuke. The Celts had Avalon, while the Japanese had Horaisan and the Hindu Uttrarakuru. These other worldly paradises, noted Huxley, abound with intensely colored and luminescent objects which bring to mind the psychedelic visionary experience. “Every paradise abounds in gems, or at least in gemlike objects resembling as Weir Mitchell puts it, ‘transparent fruit.’”[4] Wrote Huxley. Ezikel’s version of the Garden of Eden notes the many various stones in the garden, while “The Buddhist paradises are adorned with similar ‘stones of fire’”. The New Jerusalem is constructed in glimmering buildings of shimmering stone. Plato’s world of the ideals is described as a reality where “colors are much purer and much more brilliant than they are down here”.[5]
Mystical paradises were always glowing with color and light. Avatar.
Huxley introduces many more examples of ancient cultures which establish the import and centrality of glimmering gems and precious stones in various mythologies. The implication he draws from this consistency is that the “otherwise inexplicable passion for gems”[6] must have had its roots in “the psychological Other World of visionary experience”.[7] In other words, “precious stones are precious because they bear a faint resemblance to the glowing marvels seen with the inner eye of the visionary.”[8]
Moreover, Huxley notes, “among people who have no knowledge of precious stones or of glass, heaven is adorned not with minerals but with flowers”. Many more examples follow for the various intensely colored, shiny and often luminescent objects in which man had sought the semblance of the Other Worlds, among them candles, works of jewelry, crowns, silks and velvets, medals, glassware, the vision inducing stained glass windows of churches and even ceramics and porcelain ware. All these, argued Huxley, act to transport human beings into higher realities: “contemplating them, men find themselves (as the phrase goes) transported –carried away toward that Other Earth of the Platonic Dialogue, that magical place where every pebble is a precious stone.” Shiny objects, argued Huxley, remind the unconscious of the mind’s antipodes and so allow us to experience a taste of visionary consciousness.
The human urge to be transported into the numinous realm has found its expression in mythologies and religion, but also in art. Huxley notes a number of artists who used colors in transporting ways such as Caravaggio, Geroges de Latour, and Rembrandt. Indeed, he notes:
“Plato and, during a later flowering of religious art, St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that pure bright colors were of the very essence of artistic beauty”.
Although Huxley argues that this categorical equation of beauty with bright colors leads to absurdity, he also finds this doctrine to be not altogether devoid of truth. “Bright pure colors are the essence, not of beauty in general, but only of a special kind of beauty”: the beauty of works of art which can transport the beholder’s mind in the direction of its antipodes.
Modern taste is often reserved about using intensely bright colors, and prefers the more restrained and undemonstrative palette of minimalism and modernist design. The reason, argued Huxley, is that “we have become too familiar with bright pure pigments to be greatly moved by them”.[9] In the past, pigments and colors were costly and rare. The richly colored velvet and brocades of princely wardrobes, and the painted hangings of medieval and early modern houses were a rarity reserved for a privileged minority, while the majority of the population lived a drab and colorless existence. This all changed with the modern chemical industry and its endless variety of dyes and colors. “In our modern world there is enough bright color to guarantee the production of billions of flags, and comic strips, millions of stop signs and taillights, fire engines and Coca-Cola containers”, and all those objects which in the past might have possessed a transporting numinous quality were reduced by the new industrial consumer market into ordinary banality.
The evolution of psychedelic aesthetics in modern times
The potential of psychedelics to act as powerful catalysts for creativity in general and for visual artists specifically was noted by researchers of psychedelics already in the 1950s. Oscar Janiger who administered psychedelics to artists was immediately flooded with artists enthusiastic to explore their creativity through the use of psychedelics. “Ninety-nine precent expressed the notion that this was an extraordinary, valuable tool for learning about art”[10]. Ron Sandison noted a patient whose style changed completely after a psychedelic experience “and she began to paint in the style she wanted to, which was imaginative”.[11]
Many more anecdotal accounts of the artistic merit of psychedelics appear during these years. However, the great aesthetic shift ushered by psychedelics would only come as a result of their popularization in the mid-1960s. The psychedelic revolution has brought the visionary aesthetic which stood at the center of many works of art and religion back to the foreground of western culture, but now through the prism of the emerging pop culture of the 1960s.
San Francisco psychedelic poster artists such as Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson, Stanely Mouse & Alton Kelley redefined the boundaries of numinous aesthetics by integrating it into commercial psychedelic posters which advertised bands and rock concert. These psychedelic artist, who experimented with colors and forms were inspired to a great extent by the Art Noveau movement of early 20th century and it’s emphasis on organic forms and lines, as well as in the idea of life as art. The aesthetic of these posters would define a new artistic style that would be widely distributed and collected. Meanwhile, psychedelic art flourished outside the poster genre. Visual artists such as Mati Klarwein, Robert Fraser and Milton Glaser designed psychedelic album covers for the likes of Miles Davis, the Beatles and Bob Dylan.
Mati Klarwein’s psychedlic cover to Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew.
Other forms of psychedelic aesthetics have emerged in various cultural domains. Psychedelic fashion was popularized by rock artists and countercultural figures and even introduced into couture by designers such as Emilio Pucci, Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin. Psychedelic light shows by psychedelic light show artists and groups such as Marc Boyle, Mike Leonard and The brotherhood of light became a popular trend in music concerts. (Here one should also note an extremely popular form of psychedelic aesthetics, which is the luminescent culture of Burning Man Festival, whose fascination with glowing colors have turned it over the years into a distinct form of light-worship, a spiritual fest ordered around the heavenly glow Huxley referred to in his work). Psychedelic architectural and inner designs flourished in the communes and were experimented with by a variety of architects and designers as thoroughly documented in the book “Spaced Out”.
What these various genres of psychedelic aesthetics had in common was the use of intensive coloring, extensive use of natural lines, extensive use of op-art as well as of elaborate patterns and designs that sought to transport the viewer into a different state of consciousness. Like the other forms of psychedelic culture, psychedelic aesthetic was a new artistic genre which was rooted in the psychedelic experience and at the same time a cultural artifact which attempted to recreate some of the elements of the psychedelic experiences within the domain of culture.
A distinct form of light worship. Burning Man.
Yet, by the late sixties psychedelic aesthetics have already left the realms of the counterculture, and started being absorbed by the larger culture, as their commercial potential began being tapped into by various enterprises from Pepsi and McDonalds to Campbell and General Electric so that by the mid-1970s, the psychedelic visual style had been largely absorbed into the mainstream consumer culture which the hippies sought to change.
The evolution and reemergence of psychedelic video
Psychedelic art, fashion, design and architecture were all contributed greatly to the creation of a psychedelic culture expressed in various artistic forms. Yet when it comes to reproducing the psychedelic experience, it seems that film and video had an altogether different potential. Psychedelic visions are after all not not static, buy dynamic and related to sound. An effective use of moving pictures and a soundtrack can powerfully recreate elements of the psychedelic experience. This would appear to be part of the reason, why psychedelic film and video would achieve an even greater popularity than did the more static reproductions of the psychedelic experience such as art, fashion, design and architecture.
Already Huxley noted in his Heaven and Hell that the equivalent of the magic-lantern show of earlier times is the colored movie. “In the huge, expensive ‘spectacular’, the soul of the masque goes marching along” wrote Huxley. He was fascinated by various films with visionary properties, such as Disney’s The Living Desert and claimed that film has the power to create a “vision inducing phantasy”. Psychedelic elements have actually emerged on film already as early as the 1920s as could be seen in this short silent animation film from 1926 as well on Disney’s 1940s films Fantasia and Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which both contained elaborate psychedelic sequences, and whose chief visualist is reputed to have participated in Kurt Beringer’s mescaline experiments in 1920s Berlin.
The 1960s psychedelic genre of film distinguished itself through such films as “Psych-Out” (1968), “The Trip”, (1967), “Easy Rider” (1969) and of course the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” (1968) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey which was frequented in cinema by numerous tripping hippies who immensely enjoyed the closing hyper-psychedelic 30 minutes sequence.
And while the attraction and novelty of the psychedelic style seemed to diminish in the beginning of the 1970s, the attempts to recreate the psychedelic visual aesthetic on film kept evolving. Experimental movie makers such as Vince Collins and Toshio Matsumoto explored psychedelic aesthetics throughout the 1970s, while new motion pictures introduced movie-goers to more elaborate and sophisticated cinematic renditions of the psychedelic experience, created about with the help of new production techniques and technologies in films such as Ken Russel’s 1980’s Altered States and Terry Gilliam’s 1998 version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
But while these might seem as solitary examples, a far deeper cultural momentum was at work, advancing the integration of psychedelic aesthetic into popular culture. As I showed above, Huxley already noted the visionary aspect of commercial designs such as colorful printed advertisements or neon lights. As technology and media evolved side by side with late capitalism, psychedelic aesthetic and consumer society would find a common field of resonance. Electronic media, which media theorist Marshall McLuhan described as humanity’s nervous system, and which Erik Davis called a technology of the self, would become a new and most effective form of consciousness altering medium. The visual properties of psychedelics, which expressed themselves not only through color but also through a new and more dynamic approach to video editing, would become integrated into the popular culture, while better, bigger screens and higher resolutions created a distinctly psychedelic hyper-real quality in many of the new clips and videos.
And so, while it might have earlier seemed that psychedelic aesthetic became a thing of the past, a quick examination of today’s popular culture would teach us something radically different. Psychedelic visual style is to be found in the music clips of the many of today’s leading music artists, and not only alternative groups such as MGMT, Chemical Brothers or Birdy Nam Nam but also in the music clips of many of today’s leading pop artists from Beyonce to Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kesha and Nicki Minaj. Psychedelic visionary aesthetic also became an integral part of today’s commercial world from Takashi Murakami’s impeccable Louis Vitton’s commercials to commercials by Sony, Hyundai and Yoplait. Psychedelic videos are being created today, by web users, as well as by commercial firms and popular artists at a higher rate than ever before.
This does not mean that all these videos are psychedelic in the same way. One could distinguish between more superficial use of psychedelic motives characterized mostly by psychedelic coloring, design and editing, which can be found in more mainstream oriented productions, and more distinctly and explicitly psychedelic videos which include more hardcore psychedelic motives such as multi-perspectivism, multi-dimensionality, figure transformation, mandalas and fractalic imagery. In this way one could distinguish between soft-psychedelia and hard-psychedelia.
“the self-luminous objects which we see in the mind’s antipodes possess a meaning, and this meaning is, in some sort, as intense as their color” wrote Huxley. “Significance is here identical with being”. In this, Huxley wished to point out that in contrast to surrealism, for instance, the psychedelic aesthetic is not symbolic of anything else. It is the thing itself. Its beauty needs no explanation, for it is self-evident in its color, richness and harmony. The meaning of the psychedelic visuals is “precisely in this, that they are intensely themselves”.
And this is perhaps what makes psychedelic aesthetics so appealing to today’s popular culture. The psychedelic aesthetic style, which is rooted in the visionary Other Worlds described by the mystics of humanity, is so successful precisely because it is distinguished first and foremost by its “suchness”; because it does not symbolize anything concrete, and can hence be seen as arguably indifferent to content and used for a wide variety of purposes. At the same time the powerful responses it evokes, a result of mankind’s age old fascination with the colors and light which characterized the psychedelic visions of the Other Worlds, turn it into such a powerful mind-altering tool for media.
The future of psychedelic media
One might ask whether the use visionary elements in consumer culture still holds and delievers the deeper psychedelic values, or whether psychedelic visual style has become abused by other purposes. One thing should be clear, however: psychedelic aesthetics in media are here to stay. They are integrated into the cultural production system, and new technologies such as 3D screens and video glasses are about to make them ever more effective and powerful.
The advent of 3D screens, which are making their way into the consumer electronics market these days are one factor which is bound to make psychedelia an even more prominent force in our visual culture. The psychedelic experience has always been about perceiving new and unimagined dimensions, and the addition of a new dimension to media, has an inherently psychedelic quality to it. As a genre which is based on bending our perception and creating rich media environments to inspire awe, psychedelic visuals can benefit greatly from the new possibilities unleashed by the new dimensions. Indeed, Avatar, the most successful 3D film up to date, is distinguished by its extensive use of psychedelic aesthetics. Meanwhile Independent psychedelic video makers have already started to integrate the 3rd dimension into their works with mesmerizing results. The first examples of 3D psychedelic videos are so much more psychedelic and transporting than 2D psychedelic videos that this suggest that psychedelic videos will profit from the integration of the 3rd dimension into media more than any other genre of video.
Meanwhile, augmented reality projects such as the “Google Glasses” suggest that in the not so remote future one might perceive the world through high-resolution 3D screens. This in turn raises the possibility that the augmented reality glasses will be used not only to present useful data, but also to produce visual filter effects (such as changing colors or patterns) which will be screened on reality and allow us to see reality through altered senses, much in the same way that Instagram allows us to manipulate still pictures today. Rich augmented reality environments would repackage our surroundings, freeing us from the visual constraints of the real world and transporting us into other more magical realities which will present themselves from within our glasses. Thus a new market for virtual psychedelic environments and landscapes might emerge.
Psychedelics and electronic media are both powerful mind-altering tools capable at producing awe-inspiring transformational visual experiences. Psychedelic visual culture has had an appetite for using new media to enhance and recreate psychedelic experience since the invention of the strobe light and the days of Stewart Brand’s “Trips Festival”. New developments in technology and media suggest that the wedding of the psychedelic visual culture and electronic media will only become stronger in the years to come.
[1] Huxley, The Doors Of Perception, 48.
[2] Ibid., 45.
[9] Ibid. 57.
[10] Doblin, Beck, and Chapman, “Dr. Oscar Janiger’s Pioneering LSD Research: A Forty Year Follow-up” Available at: http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v09n1/09107jan.html.
[11] Abramson, The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy, 83.
2 Responses to “On Psychedelic Aesthetics”
Jaïs Frédéric Elalouf November 5, 2016 at 3:16 pm #
Thanks for clarifying this. i could add many things i do conferences on the psychedelic aesthetic but the text would be even longer! http://www.thepsychedelicmuseum.net
החיוך המנצח: דיוקן של טימותי לירי « טכנומיסטיקה - May 31, 2012
[…] הקולנועית, העיצובית והאופנתית של אותה התקופה – השפעה שנמשכת עד ימינו. סמים פסיכדלים גם שיחקו תפקיד מכריע בתגליות מדעיות כמו […]
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621 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:49 pm
Via Gleekto (thank you !):
oftaawards.com wrote:
TV: 22nd Annual Television Award Winners
The winners for the 22nd Annual OFTA Television Awards have been announced.
In the movies and limited series categories, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story was the most honored program with seven awards including Limited Series, Darren Criss as Best Actor, Judith Light as Best Supporting Actress, ensemble, writing, production design, and costume design awards. Twin Peaks was also dominant, taking six awards including directing and five creative categories. USS Callister (Black Mirror) won the Motion Picture award along Non-Series Visual Effects. The Actress award went to Laura Dern for The Tale and Jeff Daniels won in Supporting Actor for Godless.
Source: http://www.oftaawards.com/tv-22nd-annual-television-award-winners/
622 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:24 am
The team from The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story in Emmy Magazine (Robert Ascroft)
(Source: m.emmys.com)
623 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Sat Oct 20, 2018 1:31 am
Via Gleekto (thank you!):
Some more pics. I'll post a few. For more pics, go to dc-warehouse.
I especially like the second to last photo where Ryan and Darren looks so happy! (And I'm glad Darren didn't drop his Emmy when he tossed it in the air. ) I also think that Penelope is so sweet, how she looks so happy for Darren.
dc-warehouse:
[UHQ] 70th Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
624 People's Choice Awards 2018 (November 11, 2018) on Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:00 am
People's Choice Awards 2018 (November 11, 2018)
I hope we get a pic of Darren and Harry. Unfortunately, Darren did not win in the catergory he was nominated in ("Drama TV Star of 2018") for his work in ACS Versace. Congrats to all the winners, including Harry Shum winning as "Male TV Star of 2018" for his work in Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments"! Note: Bryan Stevenson (see below pic of Darren with Bryan Stevenson") won "People's Champion Award" for his positive activism in combatting racial dsicrimination in the criminal justice system.
Darren presenting the Movie Of The Year award at the People’s Choice Awards.
Darren Criss attends the People’s Choice Awards 2018 - Press Room held at Barker Hangar on November 11, 2018 in Santa Monica, California.
(Photos by Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Darren at the PCAs, via Ashley Weston’s IG story
Darren Criss, nominee for The Drama Tv Star of 2018, poses in the press room at the People’s Choice Awards 2018 at Barker Hangar on November 11, 2018 in Santa Monica, California.
(Photos by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images)
Darren Criss and Honoree Bryan Stevenson backstage during the 2018 E! People’s Choice Awards held at the Barker Hangar on November 11, 2018
(Photos by Todd Williamson/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
625 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:50 pm
Hunger TV wrote:
Darren Criss on fantasy, fame and the future
For context, it’s one of those intensely hot end-of-July days that everyone in London is complaining about. . . In his perky twang, he gives me “the shorthand” of this: Elsie Fest to organise for autumn, the New York show-tune themed festival he founded; music to work on for Computer Games, the band he started with his brother; marketing for the new piano bar he and his fiancée, Mia Swier, have opened; projects he can’t talk about but is excited about; a wedding to plan “at some point” next year; work on the house; and that general life admin that creeps up on all of us. “Hey, we all got stuff,” he chimes.
And among all of this, he casually slips in: “I’m also reading scripts and trying to get another acting job if I can get one.” Which can’t help but make me laugh. If he can get one? Because, let’s be honest, regardless of the Emmys outcome (a big congratulations if you bagged it and if not, you were robbed!), his portrayal of Andrew Cunanan, as well as a stellar career to date (he replaced Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway to great success, is the mind behind A Very Potter Musical and has starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch), shouldn’t make that too hard. But it’s “cute” – as he would say – to know he doesn’t rest on his laurels.
Darren was terrifying and intriguing in his role as Cunanan, the serial killer who murdered four men before ending his violent spree with fashion designer Gianni Versace in FX’s American Crime Story retelling of the real-life event in Miami in 1997. When it aired earlier this year, I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t watching it. If you weren’t binge-streaming it, you were glued to BBC2 desperate for next week’s instalment to watch the unfolding plot of a story that in many ways is little known, certainly on the Cunanan front.
“The story itself, which is endlessly fascinating, is not only interesting but has significant social weight and things to be discussed and topics that I think are important. It goes on and on and on,” he enthuses. “The role is incredibly nuanced and varied and complex, which is something that actors wake up in the morning for.”
As a viewer, I couldn’t help but find my feelings and point of view change as the narrative revealed Cunanan’s own backstory. “That, to me, is the most heartening thing; that’s the most encouraging thing you could say – that’s the goal.”
His performance has been described as career-defining but it’s not the first time he’s had such an accolade aimed in his direction. Yet you can’t help but think that this one, Emmy nomination aside, might just be the one to carry a little more weight, such was the grit and darkness that came with it and played out by someone we’re more used to associating with the tween spark of Glee.
It seems, therefore, an apt time to ask what his fantasy role would be. “Oh man. I have a pretty wild imagination but I’d like to think that my brain isn’t good enough to imagine the part I’d want,” he says. “And, also, fantasies evolve throughout your life based on whatever situation you find yourself in.” American Crime Story, certainly, he says is the kind of role he’d been working and waiting his whole life to play – which is not to say he dreamt of being a serial killer! “Let’s keep turning left, turning hard rights and hard lefts as much as possible, as long as the story is good. The name of the game for me is variety and versatility. If every time I do a role we have people say that’s a real departure from the last thing that would be awesome.”
For ACS producer Ryan Murphy, it was Darren who codified in the brain. The Glee co-creator had long had him in mind for the part. “People like Ryan have had their eye on the Cunanan story for a long time and we had worked closely in a few capacities.” Darren just had to play the waiting game. “I honestly said just let me know when you want to do this because obviously it would be a huge opportunity for me and I think it would be an incredible story but I don’t really have the keys for that car, man. You’re the driver, let me know when you want to pick me up!” Three years later and that proverbial beep came.
In real life, Darren has to be one of the most modest and upbeat people, armed with an always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life attitude. You imagine he’s not all that good at sitting still, hence his potentially self-inflicted to-do list, which you also get the feeling is built from passion not pain. “I just feel so grateful at every turn of my career; if you’re able to do anything and that there’s any definition at all is a huge win so I’ll take it where I can get it,” he says referring to the praise he’s received in playing Cunanan, one he’s also quick to bring back down to earth with a very grounding analogy. “Every moment of your life is defining. The fact that I decided to have granola this morning defines the rest of the way my digestive system works…” he laughs. He has quite the way with words.
This too is helpful in a Hollywood landscape right now that, post-Weinstein and post-Trump, has found itself in troubling times. “What a big, big topic,” he begins. “It’s the Wild West right now, truly, there are so many things that I think it’s not necessarily Hollywood figuring itself out, it’s our whole society figuring it out as represented by Hollywood. It kind of gets the brunt of it because of its exposure and its influence,” he explains. “There are a lot of good things happening in it for people who have been marginalised and we’re setting new standards for ourselves that we should have set a long time ago, and in that sense it’s really good. But there are unfortunately other things that are happening where it’s hard to draw the line of what’s right and wrong and a lot of questions are being asked that we’ve never asked ourselves before about what’s appropriate.”
Source: https://www.hungertv.com/editorial/darren-criss-on-fantasy-fame-and-the-future/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1542977853
Best TV Shows of 2018
5. 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story'
If the first season of American Crime Story took a story we were all intensely familiar with — the O.J. Simpson murder trial — and made us re-think our reactions to it on the basis of race and gender, the second season focused on the story we didn’t necessarily know about: the Versace murder. The season traveled backwards through the life of Andrew Cunanan (a chillingly perfect Darren Criss), showing not only the making of this murderer but also the effects of a homophobic society on keeping his victims silent and his manhunt stymied. — Joe Reid
Source: https://decider.com/2018/11/26/best-tv-shows-2018/
626 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:50 am
*Jeremy*
Advanced II
So, a new acting role is not one of the projects he can't talk about ?
627 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Tue Nov 27, 2018 4:34 pm
Yeah, what's up with that, Darren?! Inquiring minds want to know your next acting gig! Ryan Murphy sent an instagram message--so that's the green light to talk about it with your fans (at least that's how I would interpret it)!
628 Darren on the Cover of Entertainment Weekly As EW's Entertainers of the Year on Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:48 pm
Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year
Via d-criss-news:
Nice message from Ryan.
mrrpmurphy: Congrats to Darren who works so hard and stays so humble. I couldn’t be more proud.
instagram.com/p/BqxfM5XhFrN/
via d-criss-news
[UHQ] How Darren Criss transformed himself in the eyes of viewers — and Emmy voters
Love that we have the Asian women cast of Crazy Rich Asians and the African-American women of Black Panther, Cardi B and our hapa, Darren!
“And now this! Thank you @entertainmentweekly for always supporting & now including me amongst such illustrious women. I’m not worthy, ladies! Is there a bow down emoji?”
~ Darren via his IG
Darren is one of Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers Of The Year!!
Darren Criss, who graces our third cover, didn’t tackle parenthood, but he did have a completely transformational year. After building a name as a song-and-dance man — thanks mostly in part to his time starring on Glee — he caught the attention of prestige TV fans and Emmy voters alike in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. His portrayal of killer Andrew Cunanan, under the watchful eye of director Ryan Murphy, spooked even the biggest American Horror Story devotees.
Order the magazine HERE. $4.99 per copy plus $4 shipping. (You can get at least 10 and still pay only the one shipping fee!)
You can order the new issue of @EW with Darren on the cover here.
Cost is $4.99 per copy, and it seems you can order at least 10 for a single shipping fee of $4.
(Sorry looks like US ONLY!!)
It will be on newsstands Friday.
~ Henry Goldblatt, Editor In Chief of EW, via IG
He's looking for a project where he can write music for musical theater again. (You hear that Lilikoiluv?) And he's "in a lot of creative purgatory with a lot of different things and it's very exciting"! Like what things, Darren??? And aw, Ryan's faith in and support of Darren is so heart-warming!
Entertainment Weekly wrote:
How Darren Criss transformed himself in the eyes of viewers — and Emmy voters
This was the year Darren Criss went from a teenage dream to an American psycho.
The 31-year-old actor first bounced and snapped his way into our hearts in Glee’s second season as out gay high schooler (and hair-pomade enthusiast) Blaine Anderson, who memorably covered Katy Perry’s ode to young love. Blaine and boyfriend Kurt (Chris Colfer) quickly became pop culture icons to the LGBTQ community.
“The greatest thing about playing Blaine is the fact that this character is so much bigger than myself,” Criss told EW back in 2010 shortly after his debut on the Fox phenom. “What he can stand for and bring to so many people is so much more significant and powerful than me just finally having a steady job.”
Andrew Cunanan, whom Criss played on FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, exists on the opposite, darker end of the spectrum. While Blaine was fully comfortable being his true self, Cunanan, who in 1997 murdered five people including designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez), struggled intensely with his own identity and image. Criss gave a transfixing performance, capturing the serial killer’s seductive charisma and calculated cruelty.
“I think my main interest playing someone like Andrew is, as much as we like to distance ourselves from people we put in the ‘horrific’ box, we have so much in common with these people,” says Criss.
Glee co-creator and Versace executive producer Ryan Murphy fought for Criss to play Cunanan.
“I thought there was a great dramatic actor inside there waiting to come out,” Murphy told EW in March. “He took his responsibilities very seriously, and the best thing I can ever do, having the gig I have, is believing in people and giving them opportunities to shine. I am proud of him and I always knew he could do it.”
Murphy’s instincts and Criss’ talent led to an impressive Emmy haul for Versace this past September with seven wins, including Criss’ for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
“It’s one of the greatest acting gigs I’ve had in my career thus far for myriad reasons,” says Criss, who is currently on tour with his former Glee castmate Lea Michele and will costar with Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, and Mandy Moore in Roland Emmerich’s 2019 historical drama Midway.
“The people involved, the story they’ve talked about, the questions it raised, the complexity of the character — everything that was on the menu was almost unfathomably awesome to me,” Criss says of Versace. “It’s so heartening to know that my pride and excitement and enthusiasm for this project is felt by other people.”
For more on Darren Criss and Entertainment Weekly‘s 2018 Entertainers of the Year, pick up the new issue when it hits stands on Friday, or buy it now. Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.
Source: https://ew.com/tv/2018/11/29/darren-criss-ew-entertainers-of-the-year/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=photo&utm_term=F8CEE4C2-F3F8-11E8-AB6D-73B1923C408C&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew
“Music Tour w/ shows in the U.S., Mexico, Australia & UK. Versace. Emmy. Homework EP. New @weplaycomputers music. @elsiefest year 4. Midway movie. Fashion week in Milan & Paris. Magazine covers & now this. One of EW’s Entertainers of the Year! Gnar. Gnar.”
~ Ricky Rollins via IG
Bonus photos!
Via GregGarry on IG
Aw, Darren made it on the Cover of Entertainment Weekly both in 2010 and eight years later, 2018!!
Darren on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, 2010 & 2018
@DarrenCriss The cover doesn’t really distinguish if I made it to the best or the worst but by golly I MADE ONE OF EM THAT YEAR YESSSSSS #tbt
@DarrenCriss And now this! Thank you @EW for always supporting & now including me amongst such illustrious women. I’m not worthy, ladies! Is there a bow down emoji? A real honor for me all around. Thank you! Bonus TY to the incredible Ruven Afanador for his
Cardi B, Darren Criss & More Hilariously Explain 2018: Mad Libs Style | Entertainment Weekly
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npll7YDr0o8
Last edited by Poppy on Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:00 am; edited 6 times in total
629 Satellite Awards Nominations on Thu Nov 29, 2018 10:05 pm
Satellite Awards Nominations
Darren Criss, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez & ACS Versace nominated for Satellite Awards
And ACS Versace is the recipient of a Special Achievement Award!
Congratulations to the cast, crew & creative team!
See the full list of nominations HERE
Link: http://www.pressacademy.com/2018-nominees/
Daily Cal wrote:
The Daily Californian Arts Awards: Television of 2018
Best Actor in a Limited Series
Winner: Darren Criss,
“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”
Andrew Cunanan was a man of many faces. On the surface, he was a gruesome spree-killer who took five lives, including those of his close friends. Taking a deeper look into his persona, Cunanan was a charismatic speaker and a pathological liar with a knack for manipulating those around him.
It is no surprise then, that watching Darren Criss’s portrayal of Cunanan in “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” feels like watching the same actor in a hundred different roles. Criss goes from a remorseless killer to a sweet-talking lover in the blink of an eye, and it’s that sense of emotional whiplash that keeps the audience on their toes — and fearing for their lives. Criss’s Cunanan is like a bomb that could go off at any second, except in this case, the bomb is deftly trying to convince you that everything will be okay.
Even in his calmest moments, Criss can be delightfully eerie, his well spun words sounding too smooth and his voice too light. The show never lets its audience get comfortable enough to fully sympathize with him, keeping with the undercurrent of violence and rage that drives Cunanan to murder.
All in all, Criss represents the many-sided complexities of Andrew Cunanan with an electrifying confidence, and there is no doubt that his role in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” will be a turning point in his career.
Winner: “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”
After the success of its first season, “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” “American Crime Story” returned to the small screen in early 2018 to once again satisfy our true crime cravings, this time stepping out of the courtroom and into the psyche of spree-killer Andrew Cunanan.
The nine-episode season begins with the murder of Gianni Versace in 1997, working its way backward as it mimics the police investigation. Darren Criss is captivating as the series’s charming and unhinged Cunanan, rounded out by two subtler yet equally emotional performances from Edgar Ramírez and Cody Fern as two of Cunanan’s victims.
What makes “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” so intriguing is the show’s range. The series is unapologetically extravagant in its displays of both extreme violence and extreme beauty, and yet, it’s also rooted in moments of reality that can be more frightening than the crimes themselves. Without all the bloody murders, the series becomes a fraught, emotional drama about failed friendships and the downward spiral of a man who can’t ask for help.
Ultimately, carried by its outstanding performances and bold visual choices, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is a thrill from start to finish and a must-see for all true crime fans.
Source: http://www.dailycal.org/2018/11/29/daily-californian-arts-awards-television-2018/
Added this interview that Darren did at the Festival De Television De Monte-Carlo.
Darren CRISS interview - AMERICAN CRIME STORY - FTV2018
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=M-02K7kbptg
630 Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year on Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:26 am
“It’s top hat weather. The #darrencriss outtakes keep coming. Photo #ruvenafanador photo editor #nataliegialluca styling #anniejaggerstylist sets #charlotte_props”
Via GregGarry, Photo Editor of Entertainment Weekly
People who aren't you.
‘American Crime Story’ Star Darren Criss Dishes On 2018, His Biggest Year Yet
slayediest:
Order Darren’s issue of Entertainment Weekly outside the US
INTERNATIONAL FANS: We have good news!! This site carries Entertainment Weekly and delivers worldwide! (You’ll have to check the cost to your location yourself.)
For now the Nov 30 issue is the current issue, they should have the new one on Dec 5. If you order now you will have to email them to specify the cover you want.
If you order on or after Dec 5, first check this link to see if you can specifically order Darren’s cover.
If not, order the issue (see pic) & email them to specify the cover you want. (We will follow up when the issue is available.)
via Gleekto (thank you!)
Wow, this is impressive!
Source 1, 2, 3
Comments on Darren’s instagram post for EW’s Entertainers Of the Year
via ipwarn (thank you!)
americancrimestoryfx: Congratulations to @darrencriss for being named one of @entertainmentweekly’s Entertainers of the Year for his unforgettable performance in #ACSVersace.
If you missed it, binge every episode now on FX+.
instagram.com/p/Bqxd-4_gTw8/
(via honeysucklepink)
(via flamingmuse)
631 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Sat Dec 01, 2018 4:42 am
EW is one of my information sources about art-related stuff, I'm glad they're paying tribute to Darren. I also love the visuals and Darren's reaction.
632 Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year on Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:51 pm
That's interesting to know, Jeremy, about EW and art. Yes, so great that they are recognizing Darren. I love that the rest of the folks on the cover as Entertainers of the Year for 2018 are women and people of color. The photos are lovely and so great to see Darren's reaction.
Via Bellybutton's tumblr (link to her tumblr: http://belleybuttons.tumblr.com/ ):
Comments and likes on Darren’s, Ryan’s and Ricky’s posts about Darren’s EW Entertainer of the Year Cover
Some nice gifs via Jenndesq (link to her tumblr: http://jenndesq.tumblr.com/ ):
michonnegrimes:
Entertainment Weekly’s 2018 ENTERTAINERS OF THE YEAR: Darren Criss
Source: michonnegrimes
633 Golden Globe Talk on Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:28 pm
So tomorrow, January 6, the Golden Globe nominations will be announced. Many media sites are predicting nominations for ACS Versace, including for Darren in the category of Best TV Movie/Limited Actor. You can watch the nominations on the Website for the Golden Globes, or on their Facebook tomorrow at 8:05 a.m. ET/5:05 a.m. PT.
https://www.goldenglobes.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GoldenGlobes/
There are many articles predicting ACS Versace and Darren and other cast members (Penelope, Edgar) will receive Golden Globe nominations. I'll post a few. Via acsversace-news: (link: https://acsversace-news.tumblr.com/ )
Gold Derby wrote:
Golden Globes predictions by program: ‘Gianni Versace’ and ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ will lead TV nominations with 4 apiece
Over 1,000 Gold Derby users have been predicting the Golden Globe nominations for TV, which will be announced on Thursday morning, December 6, and based on their combined forecasts the two top nominees will be the FX limited series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and the returning Hulu drama “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Our racetrack odds say they will contend for four awards apiece. Do you agree? Scroll down for our complete predictions by TV program with the projected winners highlighted in gold.
“Versace” is the front-runner to win Best TV Movie/Limited Series and Best TV Movie/Limited Actor for Darren Criss, who won an Emmy for his role as killer Andrew Cunanan back in September. We’re also expecting supporting noms for Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz as Gianni and his sister Donatella. This would follow the similar success of “Versace’s” predecessor in the “American Crime Story” anthology, “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” which won two Globes out of five nominations just two years ago. So it appears that “Crime” will pay again for the Ryan Murphy true crime drama.
“THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE”
Best TV Movie/Limited Series
Best TV Movie/Limited Actor — Darren Criss
Best TV Supporting Actress — Penelope Cruz
Best TV Supporting Actor — Edgar Ramirez
Source: https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/2019-golden-globes-predictions-by-tv-program-news-068495713/
Sorry, I'm having trouble with everything being bolded for this article. The article also predicts Edgar will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and predicts Penelope will be nominated for Best Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film,
Which TV Shows and Movies Will Be Nominated for the 2019 Golden Globes?
Best Miniseries or TV Film
As I see it, there are seven top contenders in this category: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Escape at Dannemora, Maniac, Sharp Objects, Patrick Melrose, A Very English Scandal, and The Little Drummer Girl. The first four seem like locks, given their quality and the caliber of talent involved. . .
Predicted nominees: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Escape at Dannemora, Maniac, A Very English Scandal, Sharp Objects
Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film
It’s a tight race this year, but it’ll certainly include Emmy winner Darren Criss from The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Hugh Grant for A Very British Scandal, and Benedict Cumberbatch for his all-in performance of an addict in Patrick Melrose. . .
Predicted nominees: Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story), Benedict Cumberbatch (Patrick Melrose), Jonah Hill (Maniac), Hugh Grant (A Very British Scandal), Benicio del Toro (Escape at Dannemora)
Source: https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/golden-globes-2019-predictions-for-nominations-tv-and-film.html?utm_source=undefined&utm_medium=undefined&utm_campaign=feed-part
2019 Golden Globes: Our Nomination Predictions
BEST LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
Emmy-sweeping The Assassination of Gianni Versace should also be nominated, and might be the shoo-in to win. But this is a tight category. . .
Benicio Del Toro, Escape at Dannemora
Hugh Grant, A Very English Scandal
Richard Madden,
FX’s Fargo usually provides a contender or two for this category, but with Noah Hawley’s star-studded crime anthology out of the running, look for Emmy winner Darren Criss to bring home the statue for FX. There isn’t much threatening him by way of competition, but three Brits might do their damndest. [Hugh Grant, Richard Madden and Benedict Cumberbatch]
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, TV SERIES, LIMITED SERIES, OR TV MOVIE
Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method
Ricky Martin, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal
Henry Winkler, Barry
. . . and honoring Ricky Martin over Edgar Ramirez is just the sort of kooky thing the Globes would do.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS , TV SERIES, LIMITED SERIES, OR TV MOVIE
Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects
Penélope Cruz, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Thandie Newton, Westworld
Yvonne Strahovski, The Handmaid’s Tale
Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/golden-globes-2019-nomination-predictions
Golden Globes 2019 Predictions: What Movies and TV Series Will Score Nominations?
As the first awards show of the calendar year, the Golden Globes is often an opportunity to honor a series or star for the first time. The voting committee of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. often seems to pride itself on celebrating the unexpected and putting fresh faces on the kudos map.
LIMITED SERIES or TV MOVIE
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
It seems like the HFPA always saves a spot for a Ryan Murphy limited series so this Emmy-winning tale of homophobia and violence in the gay community is sure to make the cut.
LEAD ACTOR – LIMITED SERIES or TV MOVIE
Criss captivated audiences with his soulful take on spree killer Andrew Cunanan as he explored the boy he was and the man he became. He won the Emmy for the role in September, so the HFPA would be remiss not to celebrate him as well.
Source: https://variety.com/2018/film/news/golden-globes-2019-predictions-1203066397/
Awards Daily wrote:
A Deeper Look at the 2019 Golden Globe Limited Series Categories
The soon to be announced nominees will be particularly influential this year in the way that they are able to declare a front runner in next year’s Emmy race. We’re only six months into the Emmy calendar, but there are already enough flashy shows to fill the category. . . Or will none of it matter in comparison to Ryan Murphy’s recent Emmy champion in The Assassination of Gianni Versace?
Front Runners
The Assassination of Gianni Versace is everything the Hollywood Foreign Press obsesses over compiled into one show. The second season of the Emmy winning Ryan Murphy anthology series is centered around the sensationalized life and death of Gianni Versace, one of the biggest international designers in the world, while simultaneously cast with movie stars and one undeniable pop sensation. The second installment of American Crime Story also stands out for tackling issues like homophobia and mental illness in a thought-provoking manner that interested audiences and critics. On top of being a contender in the limited series race, it has a strong chance of being the most nominated show of the year with endless acting possibilities in Darren Criss, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez, and Ricky Martin – just to name a few.
Limited Series / TV Movie
Darren Criss, American Crime Story
Jonah Hill, Maniac
Source: http://www.awardsdaily.com/2018/12/05/2019-golden-globe-limited-series/
Also--here are articles that mentions TV shows and stars of 2018:
Digital Spy wrote:
Digital Spy's 25 best TV shows of 2018: Did your favourite make the cut?
21. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Fueled by a transformative performance from Glee’s Darren Criss, the second season of American Crime Story was an intricate murder mystery tinged with tragedy - dark, complex and powerful.
Source: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/g25583/best-tv-shows-2018/?slide=5
US Magazine wrote:
13 TV Stars Who Wow’d Us in 2018
Overall, 2018 was a great year of television. With so many new shows and huge stars, it’s hard to choose a handful of the most talented. However, Us Weekly did just that, gathering 13 stars — both new and returning — that stood out this year.
The Emmy speaks for itself. Criss took on killer Andrew Cunanan in Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story without missing a beat. If you still looked at him as Glee’s Blaine Anderson before watching, you all but forgot the Warbler outfit after finishing this installment.
Source: https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/13-tv-stars-who-wowd-us-in-2018/
From Sarah Paulson to Billy Porter: Creating Ryan Murphy’s Repertory Company
Uber-producer Ryan Murphy has made small screen stars out of A-listers and fresh faces alike.
Criss’ role of Blaine Anderson on Murphy’s Fox musical “Glee” catapulted him to stardom among a young audience and gave him the opportunity to expand his songwriting, earning his first Emmy nomination for music and lyrics for the 2015 song “This Time” from the series. He also appeared in a two-episode arc on the fifth season of “American Horror Story,” subtitled “Hotel.” But it was Murphy casting him as Andrew Cunanan in the second installment of his other anthology drama, “American Crime Story,” that shot him to larger industry acclaim and earned him his first acting Emmy nomination — and win. “There wasn’t even a script when I signed on,” Criss says, “but there were too many boxes to be ticked that were interesting [and] the fact that Ryan was a part of it certainly gives it an amount of credibility.”
Source: https://variety.com/2018/tv/features/ryan-murphy-repertory-players-sarah-paulson-kathy-bates-darren-criss-billy-porter-1203065655/
TV Guide wrote:
These Are the 25 Best Performances on TV in 2018
Here are the actors and actresses who made their shows worth watching!
21. Cody Fern, AHS: Apocalypse and ACS: Versace (FX)
Over the course of the past 12 months, Cody Fern went from an unknown actor to one of the most talked-about rising stars. He kicked off the year with a heart-wrenching and scene-stealing performance in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace as David Madson, a good friend of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) who ultimately became one of his first victims. This performance led to another collaboration with Ryan Murphy, with Fern taking on the role of conflicted (but sexy!) Antichrist Michael Langdon in American Horror Story: Apocalypse. While Fern embodied Michael as the hardened and vindictive spawn of Satan in the post-apocalyptic world, it was the flashbacks to his childhood — where Fern brought to life Michael’s inner conflict between his desire to be good and his unwavering fate to destroy the world — that already has us clamoring for the actor to take his rightful place alongside Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters in future seasons of the horror anthology. –Sadie Gennis
9. Darren Criss, ACS: Versace (FX)
Here’s the thing about Darren Criss: We knew that dude from Glee. Glee! The high school musical where, as Blaine, Criss sang pop songs and did some very fancy prancing. He did some prancing in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story too, albeit while watching a terrified john, bound in duct tape, beg for his life. In Ryan Murphy’s chilling tale of how gay killer Andrew Cunanan came to rob the world of Gianni Versace’s brilliance, Criss became someone else entirely — no, he became two people: a cunning, dangerously narcissistic grifter, and a drugged-up monster addicted to S&M sex and the thrill of taking life. It’s an astonishing performance, one that literally bared everything. Criss deservedly won the Best Actor in a Limited Series Emmy for his portrayal, but more than anything, Darren Criss erased any preconceived notions about who we thought he was or what he could do. –Malcolm Venable
Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/2018-best-tv-performances-actors-actresses/
EDIT: Added this article:
The 10 Best TV Episodes of 2018 From Atlanta and Better Call Saul to Homecoming and Pose.
4. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, “A Random Killing” (FX)
Gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan, played with diamond-eyed avidity by Darren Criss, torments and kills one of his lovers (M*A*S*H’s Mike Farrell), a much older businessman. A merciless depiction of American homophobia and self-loathing in the ’90s, slowly zooming in on the psyches of killer and victim.
“A Random Killing” is available to rent on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.
Source: https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/the-10-best-tv-episodes-of-2018.html
The Guardian wrote:
The 50 best TV shows of 2018: 50-11
14. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace
(FX/BBC Two) One of the performances of the year: against a vividly painted backdrop of US gay culture in the 1990s, Darren Criss seared the screen with a terrifyingly immersive turn as lonely, raging killer Andrew Cunanan.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/dec/03/the-50-best-tv-shows-of-2018
Last edited by Poppy on Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:40 pm; edited 3 times in total
634 American Film Institute Awards on Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:41 pm
American Film Institute Awards
Via acsversace-news:
American Film Institute wrote:
Announcing the AFI AWARDS 2018 Honorees
The American Film Institute has named the honorees of AFI AWARDS 2018, celebrating the year’s most outstanding achievements in the art of the moving image — with 10 films and 10 television programs deemed culturally and artistically significant.
AFI AWARDS honorees are selected based on works that advance the art of the moving image, enhance the rich cultural heritage of America’s art form, inspire audiences and artists alike and make a mark on American society.
AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR
Source: http://blog.afi.com/announcing-the-afi-awards-2018-honorees/
635 Golden Globe Nominations (December 6, 2018) on Thu Dec 06, 2018 1:31 pm
Golden Globe Nominations (December 6, 2018)
Golden Globes nominee pages for Darren and #ACSVersace
(Source: twitter.com)
What wonderful comments from Ryan.
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BrDedOyAANg/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1d15xxh5plu3w
‘Vice,’ ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Lead 2019 Golden Globes Nominations
Adam McKay’s “Vice” and Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” led the nominations for the 76th annual Golden Globes on Thursday
“Vice” scored six nominations, while “Versace” scored four. “The Favourite,” “A Star Is Born” and “Green Book” each scored five nominations in the film categories, while “A Very English Scandal,” “Homecoming,” “The Americans,” “The Keminsky Method,” “The Marvelous Ms. Maisel” and “Sharp Objects” all garnered three.
The 2019 Golden Globe Awards take place Sunday, Jan. 6 starting at 8/7c. Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh will cohost the 76th annual awards show this year.
Source: https://www.thewrap.com/vice-assassination-gianni-versace-lead-2019-golden-globes-nominations/
Darren Criss could join another ‘youngest ever’ list with a Golden Globe victory for ‘Versace’
After becoming the second youngest Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actor Emmy winner in September, Darren Criss could join another youngest list at the Golden Globes. The 31-year-old would be the third youngest champ in the corresponding Globe category if he prevails for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
Much like the Emmy category, Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actor at the Globes, which was first awarded in 1982, is dominated by older thespians. Only two people have won in their 20s: James Franco, the category’s youngest winner at 23 when he won for “James Dean” in 2002, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who was 28 during his victory for “Elvis” in 2006.
Criss would be the 10th person in their 30s to take home the prize and would knock back Anthony Andrews (“Brideshead Revisited”), who turned 35 two and a half weeks before the 1983 ceremony. Tom Hiddleston was also 35 when he won for “The Night Manager” in 2017, but he was a month shy of his 36th birthday. Hiddleston is one of two thirtysomethings who’ve won in the last three years, the other being then-36-year-old Oscar Isaac (“Show Me a Hero”), so this mini trend could be a good sign for Criss.
The actor is currently in first place in our combined odds to win for his performance as serial killer Andrew Cunanan. His unnerving turn has all the makings of being one of those undeniable performances that sweeps the Emmy, Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. But Criss is not the only thirtysomething in the running. Jonah Hill, who will be 35 by the Jan. 6 ceremony, is in fifth place in our odds, behind Criss, Hugh Grant (“A Very English Scandal”) and Benedict Cumberbatch (“Patrick Melrose”) and Benicio Del Toro (“Escape at Dannemora”).
Source: https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/darren-criss-the-assassination-of-gianni-versace-golden-globe-predictions-third-youngest-winner/
636 Golden Globe Nominations on Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:08 pm
Golden Globe Nominations
darrencriss: Growing up I always loved watching the @goldenglobes with family and friends, so just to be in the room is a thrill- but to be nominated is just insane. What an honor to be included with such wonderful actors. Wow. Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Congrats to @mrrpmurphy & cast and crew of @americancrimestoryfx!
instagram.com/p/BrDZRpbhc3e/
I like that Ryan sent his congrats to each of his cast members and made it very personal.
mrrpmurphy: Edgar Ramirez walked into my office two years ago and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. He was nervous about playing Gianni Versace…of living up to the legend. But he dove in and tackled the part with so much research and love and kindness and beauty. Edgar has such a wonderful humanity and love of all he brings to every scene, every moment. Today was he nominated for a Golden Globe for playing Gianni and I’m so thrilled and happy and proud of him. Love you Edgar!!!!
mrrpmurphy: Penelope Cruz is just as wonderful and talented as you think she is. She’s been a friend for years, and I begged her to play Donatella in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” Penelope was hesitant, nervous, as anyone would be. But she gave it her all, and prepared for months with such precision and love and respect. When she showed up on set she WAS Donatella. A consummate professional, always giving her all, today she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her stellar work in “Versace” and I couldn’t be more proud of her. Love you, Penelope!!!!
These are nice messages from Edgar and Penelope thanking Ryan for his support, congratulating the other cast members who were nominated, and giving love to Ricky. Maybe it'll be a good idea for Darren to do something similar?
edgarramirez25: With my IPA in hand I wanna thank the #HFPA for this #GoldenGlobe nomination After a long night of shooting in South Africa, I woke up to this beautiful news. I am so happy and touched to share this honor with my beloved @darrencriss , @penelopecruzoficial and everyone involved in The Assassination Of Gianni Versace - most especially with my brother in arms @rickymartin -. Playing Gianni has been a transforming experience in my life, for which I will always be grateful, and I thank #RyanMurphy (@mrrpmurphy )for the opportunity to embark myself on this journey. I am truly thrilled - Con mi IPA en mano, quiero agradecer a la #HFPA esta nominación al #GoldenGlobe Después de una larga noche de rodaje en Sudáfrica, me desperté con esta hermosa noticia. Estoy muy feliz y conmovido de poder compartir este honor con mis amados #DarrenChris #PenélopeCruz y todos los involucrados en El Asesinato de Gianni Versace, especialmente con mi hermano @rickymartin - . Interpretar a Gianni ha sido una experiencia transformadora que agradeceré toda mi vida, muy especialmente a Ryan Murphy: Gracias por la oportunidad de embarcarme en este viaje. Estoy realmente emocionado.
penelopecruzoficial: I am so grateful to the HFPA for this nomination and even more excited that Edgar, Darren and the show are being recognized as well. Thank you Ryan, you are the king!! Big congratulations to my friends @edgarramirez25 @darrencriss @mrrpmurphy and all my love to the one and only @ricky_martin and to the entire cast and crew of the show.
penelopecruzoficial: Ha sido una semana llena de alegrias. Comenzó con las nominaciones a los Premios Forqué y a los Premios Feroz por la película “Todos lo saben” de Asghar Farhadi y siguió hoy con la noticia de la nominación a los Globos de Oro por interpretar a Donatella Versace ,a quien admiro tanto. Me siento muy afortunada por haber tenido la posibilidad de realizar ambos trabajos. Agradezco de corazón a los Forqué, los Feroz y la HFPA (Asociación de prensa extranjera de Hollywood) estas nominaciones. La ilusión es aún mayor cuando se reconoce además el trabajo de muchos de mis compañeros. Muchísimas gracias.
via FX Networks’ Instagram Story | 6 December 2018
Comments by the ACS Versace cast and crew on Darren’s Golden Globes IG post | 6 December 2018
It's nice that Jon Jon is also congratulating his fellow cast member on AHS, Billy Porter, for Billy's role on Pose! I very much enjoyed Season 1 of Pose.
jonjonbriones: Four @goldenglobes nominations for @americancrimestoryfx Assassination of Gianni Versace!!!
Congratulations @mrrpmurphy @darrencriss @penelopecruzoficial @edgarramirez25
So proud to be part of this amazing show!!!
And congratulations to my fellow #Warlock @theebillyporter for your nomination!!! @poseonfx
It’s a great day!!!
instagram.com/p/BrDkf4vAY3x/
maureen_orth: Now a Golden Globes nominee! Tbt. So excited for Darren Criss for best actor in #ACSVersace The Assassination of Gianni Versace based on my book #vulgarfavors. Also nominated for best limited series and best supporting actors, congrats to wonderful Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz. #edgarramirez25 , #penelopecruzoficial #darrencriss
instagram.com/p/BrDUoKvgpyy/
OUT wrote:
The Queer Guide to the Golden Globes, from Pose to Troye Sivan
Darren Criss, Best Actor in a Limited Series
The Glee alumnus has officially shed his high school teeny bopper persona and is now a bonafide actor. As Andrew Cunanan, the killer of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace in Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he delivered a stunning performance some weren’t sure he could pull off. He won the Emmy for this same award earlier this year.
Source: https://www.out.com/entertainment/2018/12/06/queer-guide-golden-globes-pose-troye-sivan?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=entertainment
Note: The Writers Guild nominations also were announced today.
Writers Guild of America wrote:
2019 Writers Guild Awards: Nominations for Television, New Media, News, Radio/Audio, and Promotional Writing
LONG FORM ADAPTED
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Writers: Maggie Cohn, Tom Rob Smith, Based on the book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth; FX Networks
The Looming Tower, Writers: Bash Doran, Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney, Shannon Houston, Adam Rapp, Ali Selim, Lawrence Wright, Based on the book The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright; Hulu
Maniac, Writers: Nick Cuse, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Amelia Gray, Danielle Henderson, Mauricio Katz, Patrick Somerville, Caroline Williams, Based on the Norwegian television series Maniac by Espen PA Lervaag, Håakon Bast Mossige, Kjetil Indregard and Ole Marius Araldsen; Netflix
Sharp Objects, Writers: Ariella Blejer, Scott Brown, Vince Calandra, Gillian Flynn, Dawn Kamoche, Alex Metcalf, Marti Noxon, Based upon the book written by Gillian Flynn; HBO
Source: https://www.wgaeast.org/2019-writers-guild-awards-nominations-for-television-new-media-news-radio-audio-and-promotional-writing/
Aw, nice message from Michael Feinstein
More nice messages. So nice that Rufus Wainwright also commented.
More congrats from some Glee folks--Harry, Max, Heather Morris--mixed in with ACS Versace folks and other friends. I saw Tyler Oakley's congrats too.
Replies to Darren’s Golden Globes nomination post on Instagram
637 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Fri Dec 07, 2018 12:01 am
A few more articles:
Backstage wrote:
For Your Viewing Pleasure: 2018’s Mini-Series + TV Movie Awards Contenders
There is no shortage of prestige on the small screen these days, particularly when it comes to the increasingly competitive limited series and TV movie awards categories. Many, if not most, of the performances highlighted below represent the actor’s best potential. Here are some 2018 SAG Award contenders that belong on your radar.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Penélope Cruz, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Entrances don’t get more fabulous than the one Cruz’s Donatella Versace makes in this show’s first episode. Clad in black, emerging from a private jet, and projecting an icy grimness that feels distinctly Italian, the legendary designer strolls into the aftermath of her brother’s assassination and Cruz proceeds to steal the show. The actor proved again why she’s a legend on camera—is it too much to hope she comes back to TV?
If anyone can lend a close-up and simple line a seismic weight, it’s Light. “I knew it,” she whispers as cosmetics spokeswoman and entrepreneur Marilyn Miglin reacting to the horrific reality of her husband’s murder. Her mascara trembles with tears, her throat constricts, a world of grief settles on her shoulders. Few actors alive can use their face and voice as skillfully as this legend.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR MINISERIES
Together with creator Ryan Murphy, the Emmy-winning Criss created one of the most complex, compelling gay characters ever on TV in the second outing of “American Crime Story.” The season zeroed in not on Versace, but on his killer, Andrew Cunanan: a sociopathic monster, yes, but one born of an internalized homophobia that we, as an audience watching his intricate devolution, are tempted to blame on the world around him.
Source: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/mini-series-tv-movie-awards-sag-contenders-66247/
The best (and worst) TV shows of 2018
1. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story(FX)
The second installment of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story lured us in with the promise of a lavish retelling of fashion designer Gianni Versace’s headline-grabbing murder, featuring Ricky Martin in tennis whites as Versace’s life partner, Antonio, and Oscar winner Penélope Cruz in a Barbie blond wig as his steely sister/business partner, Donatella. But in a beautiful bait and switch, the show took the story of Versace (brought to life with stunning precision by Edgar Ramírez) and expanded it into a contemplative eulogy for Andrew Cunanan’s previous victims, including a promising young gay architect (Cody Fern) and a closeted naval officer (Finn Wittrock). Anchored by Darren Criss’ wondrous, quicksilver performance as Cunanan, Crime Story turned the clear gaze of hindsight on an era when America tried to “don’t ask, don’t tell” its homosexual citizens into invisibility.
Source: https://ew.com/tv/best-and-worst-tv-shows-2018/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=75D9B65C-F95F-11E8-88C7-27894744363C&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew&utm_medium=social
Another EW cover for Darren!
(Source: share.ew.com)
638 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:44 pm
Just wanted to mention a few other folks who congratulated Darren for his Golden Globe nomination via social media:
Via ipwarn (thank you!)(link to her tumblr: http://ipwarn.tumblr.com/ ):
Love that Max posted 2 or 3 comments to Darren yesterday. Would love to see those 2 on a project one day. Max is such a good guy.
d-criss-news
Comments on Ryan Murphy’s instagram post for his Golden Globe nomination (December 6th, 2018)
(Source: instagram.com, via theshriek)
And this is a nice surprise. I wonder how they met? Through Michael Feinstein??
(via na-page)
This is super sweet of Harry. Happy for Constance, Darren and Sandra Oh for their nominations. And so great that Sandra and Andy Samberg are hosting. Representation matters!
instagram.com/p/BrDjN03loY0/
(Source: instagram.com, via miarren-chill-klaine-coliver)
And of course sweet Ashley.
Also, I saw Hailee Steinfeld's congrats to Darren.
YES DARREN !!!!!!! @DarrenCriss Golden Globes, here you come!!!
— Hailee Steinfeld (@HaileeSteinfeld) December 6, 2018
And this makes me happy-that Pose was nominated, as well as Billy Porter for Golden Globes! Representation.
houseofevangelista:
Pose has been nominated for Best TV Drama Series for the Golden Globes!! And Billy Porter has been nominated for Best Actor in a TV Drama Series!
(Source: hollywoodreporter.com, via slayediest)
I thought this article was interesting. I do hope FX is going to be ok under Disney.
Deadline wrote:
Golden Globes TV: FX Lands Most Nominations In Tight Network Race, Prime Video Leads Streamers
FX is closing its chapter as a 21st Century Fox network on a high note, edging awards juggernauts HBO and Netflix to top the list of networks for the first time with most Golden Globes nominations, 10. It was a very tight race, reflecting the increased competition, with HBO and Amazon’s Prime Video tied for second with 9 noms a piece and Netflix right behind in fourth with 8, followed by Showtime (6).
The top finish today does mark an end of an era for FX in other ways too. Three of the 10 nominations came for the basic cable network’s acclaimed drama series The Americans, the most nominated program this year, which ended its run. Four were for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, from Ryan Murphy who recently left his longtime Fox TV studio home to head to Netflix and has been busy working on his first two series there. There is no new installment greenlighted of Murphy’s ACS or Feud, which have boosted FX’s Golden Globes nominations tallies the last couple of years.
FX, which will be joining Disney in the coming months as part of a $71.3 billion deal, has been planning for a future where it relies less heavily on its MVP Murphy, who has four active franchises on the network, the long-running American Horror Story, fellow anthologies American Crime Story and Feud as well as drama series Pose, which has been renewed for a second season. Pose, featuring the largest cast of transgender actors ever for a scripted series,.made an encouraging entry into the awards circles this morning with two noms, including best drama series.
Source: https://deadline.com/2018/12/golden-globes-tv-fx-most-nominations-network-prime-video-streamers-hbo-netflix-1202515092/
639 Critics' Choice Award nominations on Mon Dec 10, 2018 11:47 pm
Critics' Choice Award nominations
Congrats to Ryan, Darren, Finn, Penelope and Judith and the cast and crew of ACS Versace for their Critics Choice Award nominations!
‘Americans,’ ‘Gianni Versace,’ ‘Escape at Dannemora’ Lead Critics’ Choice Awards TV Nominations
FX’s “The Americans” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” along with Showtime’s “Escape at Dannemora,” led the Broadcast Television Journalists Assn.’s nominations for the 24th annual Critics’ Choice Awards, it was revealed Monday.
“A Very English Scandal” (Amazon)
“American Vandal” (Netflix)
“Escape at Dannemora” (Showtime)
“Genius: Picasso” (National Geographic)
“Sharp Objects” (HBO)
BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Antonio Banderas – “Genius: Picasso” (National Geographic)
Darren Criss – “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
Paul Dano – “Escape at Dannemora” (Showtime)
Benicio Del Toro – “Escape at Dannemora” (Showtime)
Hugh Grant – “A Very English Scandal” (Amazon)
John Legend – “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” (NBC)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Brandon Victor Dixon – “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” (NBC)
Eric Lange – “Escape at Dannemora” (Showtime)
Alex Rich – “Genius: Picasso” (National Geographic)
Peter Sarsgaard – “The Looming Tower” (Hulu)
Finn Wittrock – “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
Ben Whishaw – “A Very English Scandal” (Amazon)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ellen Burstyn – “The Tale” (HBO)
Patricia Clarkson – “Sharp Objects” (HBO)
Penelope Cruz – “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
Julia Garner – “Dirty John” (Bravo)
Judith Light – “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
Elizabeth Perkins – “Sharp Objects” (HBO)
Source: https://variety.com/2018/tv/awards/2018-critics-choice-awards-tv-nominations-list-1203085450/
TV Line wrote:
Performer of the Year: The 20 Finalists
Throughout the last 12 months, TVLine’s Performer of the Week column has honored dozens of thespians for their fine work in dramas and comedies alike.
But who will be named the Performer of the Year?
Continuing a new tradition that we kicked off in 2017, our roundup of the year’s most captivating actors and actresses will double as a “ballot” of sorts. In the attached gallery, we’ve whittled down the embarrassment of TV riches that was 2018 into 20 nominations, all of whom wowed us with their transcendent performances.
On Thursday, Dec. 20, we will crown one of the standouts (and only one) our 2018 Performer of the Year (succeeding last year’s victor, The Leftovers‘ Carrie Coon).
Before The Assassination of Gianni Versace reached its first commercial break, Darren Criss’ haunting portrayal of serial killer Andrew Cunanan had wiped all traces of Blaine Anderson from our minds. But beyond shattering his Glee-ky clean image, Criss’ Emmy-winning performance showcased an impressive versatility, resulting in an uncomfortably unforgettable character as chilling as he was charming.
Source: https://tvline.com/2018/12/10/performer-of-the-year-2018-nominees-finalists/
AV Club wrote:
The Best TV of 2018
14. The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
The first season of American Crime Story established an anthology series template: The People V. O.J. Simpson explored not the crime itself, but the circus that formed around it. The Assassination Of Gianni Versace takes a decidedly thornier and less spectacular approach to the same thematic material. Rather than indicting society by focusing on society, the series delves into the lives of the individual, often marginal people who were part of the lead-up to Versace’s murder—the Versace family, the gay men of Miami Beach, and, above all, the other victims of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Darren Criss’ mesmerizing performance as Cunanan anchors the show, deconstructing the trope of the slick, charismatic gay serial killer and giving executive producer Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith the room to use a reverse-chronological structure and lush visual storytelling to examine a plethora of under-considered, oft-ignored lives. In a roundabout, painful way, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace asks why nobody—not the media, not the police, sometimes not even their own families—cared that these people were gone. Much has changed in the years since Cunanan’s murders, but it’s hard to shake the central conviction of the series: We still haven’t. [Eric Thurm]
Source: https://tv.avclub.com/the-best-tv-of-2018-1830885588
ACS Versace featured in Entertainment Weekly’s December 14, 2018 Issue (source)
Last edited by Poppy on Sat Dec 15, 2018 12:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
640 Re: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:46 am
@cheddar Emmy award-winning actor @DarrenCriss is taking Hollywood by storm. He joins us on #CheddarLIVE to chat about ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ being named one of @EW’s 'Entertainers of the Year,’ & his recent Golden Globe nomination with our @BakerMachado.
Full video is here (sorry, I am unable to copy the video, Darren at 1:10:00. ): https://cheddar.com/videos/between-bells-december-11-2018
Darren Criss on New York Live (12-11-18)
Last edited by Poppy on Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:10 am; edited 1 time in total
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Competitor Report: Katherine Miller
Avg Points per Competition: 10.4 Avg Points per Championship: N/A 3rd Places: 0 DQs: 0
1/19/2019 Central Florida Highland Games Piobaireachd 11 4 4 16
Scot D. Walker
1/19/2019 Central Florida Highland Games 2/4 March 14 7 0
Jeffrey Anderson
1/19/2019 Central Florida Highland Games S/R 13 6 6 8
James D. Nisbet
2/23/2019 NE FL Scottish Games Piobaireachd 10 2 2 18
James M. Bell
2/23/2019 NE FL Scottish Games 2/4 March 12 3 3 10
2/23/2019 NE FL Scottish Games S/R 12 2 2 11
3/2/2019 SE FL Scottish Festival Piobaireachd 6 2 2 10
Patrick W. Regan
3/2/2019 SE FL Scottish Festival 2/4 March 7 3 3 5
3/2/2019 SE FL Scottish Festival S/R 7 3 3 5
Edwin M. Krintz Jr.
3/23/2019 Dunedin Solo Contest Piobaireachd 4 2 2 6
3/23/2019 Dunedin Solo Contest 2/4 March 5 5 5 0
3/23/2019 Dunedin Solo Contest S/R 5 4 4 2
4/6/2019 Dunedin Highland Games Piobaireachd 11 5 5 14
4/6/2019 Dunedin Highland Games 2/4 March 18 3 3 16
4/6/2019 Dunedin Highland Games S/R 15 7 0
Jim Dillahey
4/6/2019 Dunedin Highland Games Jig 15 4 4 12
5/25/2019 Greater Greenville Scottish Games Piobaireachd 8 6 6 6
Joyce E. McIntosh
5/25/2019 Greater Greenville Scottish Games 2/4 March 19 6 6 14
5/25/2019 Greater Greenville Scottish Games S/R 19 4 4 16
7/13/2019 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games Piobaireachd 8 2 2 14
7/13/2019 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games 2/4 March 9 1 1 9
7/13/2019 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games S/R 8 1 1 8
Albert G. McMullin
11/16/2019 Battle of the Bayou Piobaireachd 8 6 6 6
11/16/2019 Battle of the Bayou 2/4 March 9 2 2 8
11/16/2019 Battle of the Bayou S/R 7 1 1 7
11/16/2019 Battle of the Bayou Jig 7 2 2 6
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Sunn O))) share new track “Frost (C)” from upcoming Pyroclasts album: Stream
The companion LP to Life Metal arrives on October 25th
by Jon Hadusek
Sunn O))), photo by Jon Hadusek
During the sessions for the grandiose album Life Metal, released earlier this year, Sunn O))) partook in a daily improvisational exercise either before or after the day’s recording work. Four pieces from those practices were assembled to form a companion LP, Pyroclasts. In advance of the release, the post-metal band has shared the first full track from the album, the 11-minute drone “Frost (C)”.
Derived from modal improv exercises, the track is noticeably more experimental and chaotic than those on Life Metal, resembling harsh noise at times. Recorded by Steve Albini direct to two-inch tape in the same environment as Life Metal, Pyroclasts acts as a sequel of sorts. It presents a duality in performance — the chaotic flipside to the musical restraint of Sunn’s previous album.
For all of the performances on Pyroclasts, Sunn’s core duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson were joined by collaborators T.O.S., Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Tim Midyett (formerly of cult indie rock band Silkworm). With the press release for the album, they shared these zen-like suggestions to the open-minded listener:
“For the listener or recipient/participant there are deep rewards within the patience of pulling down the walls and letting the music feel, and feel the music. To be immersed will reveal great detail and colour, clarify image, encourage a depth of focus and stillness which may lead to a quite profound experience. Sitting inside the space of time. A deep form of elementalism, even atomism, and connection with presence moment, time and reality.”
Pyroclasts, which arrives October 25th, was mastered by Matt Colton through all analog processes straight from Albini’s tape, making the new album sonically interchangeable with Life Metal. Stream the new track below and order Pyroclasts via Southern Lord beginning October 4th. Having recently completed a brief North American run, Sunn 0))) are set to embark on a fall European tour.
Sunn O)))
New Song Release
Reliving My Greatest Hits with Tom Petty
Former SOB x RBE rapper Lul G arrested for murder: Report
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let’s be clear
This Deliberately Transparent Swedish Bank Commercial Is Highly Amusing
By Mary Beth Quirk 12.3.14
While we certainly know when big companies are trying their hardest to be funny, that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable when one of them actually succeeds. In this case, it’s the Swedes who have nailed it, in a new deliberately transparent ad for a bank that in turn, promises transparent services. [More]
Apple, Google, Facebook & Other Tech Giants Pen Letter Asking For NSA Transparency
By Mary Beth Quirk 7.18.13
In the wake of that whole thing where the National Security Agency is reportedly snooping on people, a whole bunch of tech industry giants have banded together with privacy advocates to send a letter to the lawmakers and President Barack Obama asking for some transparency when it comes to government surveillance. [More]
Here Is What The New Health Insurance Labels Will Look Like
By Chris Morran 2.9.12
Back in August, we told you about how the Dept. of Health & Human Services was finalizing a template for new health insurance labels that would attempt to make it clear what a potential customer was buying and what sort of coverage they would receive. [More]
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Afro-Inspirational Artist, TOLU collaborates with BET Sunday Best Winner, Crystal Aikin & Keke Boyd in “Need You”
Nigerian afro-inspirational artist, Tolu, teamed up with Season 1 winner of BET’s Sunday Best, Crystal Aikin, to release a new single, “Need You.” Also featured on the song is Keke Boyd from One Community Church in Dallas, TX.
Produced by LoudCryBeats, the diverse melodies chronicle the comfort of turning to God for guidance in the midst of life’s frustrations and trials. The song is also available on all music streaming platforms:
iTunes | Spotify | TIDAL | YouTube
MORE ABOUT TOLU
Tolu is a singer-songwriter and producer and finalist on MTN Project Fame: West Africa, which led to him to work alongside Mavins, Don Jazzy and Tiwa Savage and many more.
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Congrats, L.A.X!! After building up hype for the past couple of weeks, Rasaki Records‘ head honcho – “L.A.X” finally...
2 years ago | by Idowu Babalola Fresh: Olamide – Owo Shayo (prod. Pheelz)
Olamide has returned to his old self in 2018 by dishing out singles after singles consistently. While appearing on key...
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Australian Actor Felix Mallard To Star In CBS’ Tim McAuliffe/Austen Earl Comedy Pilot
February 27, 2018 4:00pm
Courtesy of CBS
Aussie actor Felix Mallard (Neighbours) has been tapped for a lead role opposite Damon Wayans Jr. in CBS’ multi-camera comedy pilot from writers Tim McAuliffe (The Last Man on Earth) and Austen Earl (9JKL) and The Late Late Show with James Corden executive producer Ben Winston.
Written by McAuliffe and Earl, the untitled comedy revolves around Peter (Wayans) and Claire, a thirtysomething couple who are tired of their mundane life and start to reconnect with their younger, cooler selves when an emerging pop star (Mallard), who is drawn to their super-normal suburban life, moves in. Mallard’s Cooper is a sweet, charming small-town kid-turned-music superstar. He is a very positive guy who sees the good in everyone and everything, as well as being effortlessly cool and youthfully naïve.
McAuliffe and Earl executive produce with Winston via Fulwell 73 and 3 Arts Entertainment’s Michael Rotenberg and Jonathan Berry.
Mallard recently wrapped the starring role of Ben Kirk in Australian series Neighbours. He’s repped by Echo Lake Entertainment, Australia’s Linsten Management and Stone Genow.
This article was printed from https://deadline.com/2018/02/australian-actor-felix-mallard-star-cbs-tim-mcauliffe-austen-earl-comedy-pilot-1202305085/
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1 Star☆☆☆☆
Review by Brian Eggert August 27, 2010
John Luessenhop
Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen, Zoe Saldana
Takers is a cops-and-robbers heist movie about thieves whose motto—“We’re takers, gents. That’s what we do for a living: We take.”—just about sums up the empty-headed level of intelligence moviegoers can expect throughout. Derived from tired clichés, the one-note characters populate a caper whose influences are so obvious that it borders on robbery. The movie, directed by John Luessenhop, is a gangsta-filled version of Michael Mann’s Heat that wants desperately to appear cool and arty, but instead, comes off so artificial that it’s laughable.
B-grade stars fill the screen and do their best to appear as though they have style, in the same way that Sean Combs so desperately wants to be as classy and powerful as Frank Sinatra in those dreadful Ciroc Vodka commercials. R&B star Chris Brown and rapper T.I. receive producing credits, so it becomes apparent that these gentlemen have attempted to make crime classy. Driving stylish vehicles to their chic club, the five members of the movie’s gang of thieves walk together, as though posing for a boy-band photo shoot. They appear dressed in expensive duds, drink expensive drinks, smoke expensive cigars, and live in expensive apartments with a regular inflow of expensive prostitutes. The filmmakers want us to believe that money buys class, though that’s rarely the case.
This wannabe Rat Pack of bank robbers is led by Gordon, played by Idris Elba, the only actor in the cast who can make his simple character deceptively interesting. Paul Walker is Gordon’s second-in-command John; Brown and Michael Ealy play brothers Jesse and Jake; Hayden Christensen is A.J., whose porkpie hat never becomes him. Together they execute a masterful bank robbery early in the movie. This attracts the attention of their former associate recently released from prison, Ghost (Tip ‘T.I’. Harris), who proposes an armored car raid like the one in The Italian Job. Gordon’s crew remains suspicious of Ghost, maybe because he says the word “shit” so much. Or perhaps because he’s angry that Jake took his former “bitch”, Rachel (Zoe Saldana), while he was locked away. Regardless, plans for the armored car robbery proceed, and all the while Ghost plots a double-cross involving a stereotypical gang of Russian mobsters.
Hot on their trail are LAPD detectives Jack and Eddie, played by Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez. Of course, Jack and Eddie each have troubled personal lives, but what movie cop doesn’t? Jack avoids his Internal Affairs department for some off-screen use of excessive force and proves he has issues when he takes his young daughter along on a car chase. Eddie acts like he’s the only honest cop in California, but he has his demons too, and the predictable script makes sure he pays for them. The script’s sense of morality doesn’t apply to the “Takers” however, as those who get away in the end have probably killed cops and armored car guards through the course of the movie. But they’re classy, so it’s okay.
Then there are Luessenhop’s attempts to elevate the material into something serious. He employs worn-out shaky-cam visuals during action scenes and high color saturations in others to replace any need for real style. Near the end of the movie is a big shootout between the various gangs in a cramped hotel room, recalling the finale of True Romance. Luessenhop’s scene plays in slow-motion with orchestral music behind it, as though we should buy this half-baked attempt at operatic grandeur. The overused slow-mo only helps the audience realize how absurdly somber this moment is, and how hard Luessenhop is trying. But, we couldn’t care less if the characters die; the music swells, and as everyone onscreen hangs their heads, we shrug with indifference.
It took four credited screenwriters to conceive Takers, and not one of them with an original idea. This movie was sewn together from bits and pieces of better movies, and that recycled quality never allows the story to take off. When the entire movie feels like an assemblage of clichés, humorless dialogue, and formula plot points, the experience becomes one of unintentional laughter. For fans of Mann’s Heat, Luessenhop’s attempt to borrow the structure of that film proves insulting. And for those still unconvinced, Paul Walker’s presence alone should indicate the kind of movie you’re getting here.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Drive (2011)
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HomeLP VinylReggaeSYMBOL OF REALITY
SYMBOL OF REALITY - GLADIATORS - LP Vinyl
Artist: GLADIATORS
Label: Omnivore BR
SYMBOL OF REALITY - GLADIATORS
Albert Griffiths founded the Gladiators in 1966 after some success on his own. The group scored their first hit, produced by legendary producer Coxsone Dodd, with “Hello Carol” in 1968. During the ’70s the Gladiators made their way through releases on labels like Studio One, Upsetter, Virgin, and Groovemaster. 1980 found the Gladiators working with producer, and pre-“Electric Avenue” hitmaker, Eddy Grant on the album Gladiators, which also featured members of the band Aswad lending a musical hand. On 1982’s Symbol Of Reality, their first for the Nighthawk Records label, they revisited their own catalog of songs re-recording their classics, “Dreadlocks The Time Is Now” (appearing here as “Streets Of Gold”), “Watch Out” and “Big Boo Boo Deh” (returning retitled as “Cheater”) while also paying homage to The Wailers with covers “Small Axe” and “Stand Alone,” both written by Bob Marley. This newly remastered version of the album features the original ten tracks LP tracks in a beautiful gatefold jacket. The original liner notes are also included. Like all of the Nighthawk reissues, this has been overseen by original Nighthawk Records’ producer Leroy Jodie Pierson and Grammy® Award-winning producer, Cheryl Pawelski, and has been remastered from the original tapes by Grammy® Award-winning engineer, Michael Graves, and lacquers cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl/Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis, Tennessee.
1. Symbol of Reality
2. Small Axe
3. Bumping and Boring
4. Cheater
5. Watch Out
6. Mister Goose
7. Streets of Gold
8. Righteous Man
9. Righteous Man Version
10. Stand Alone
11. Not Afraid To Fight
BOB MARLEY LIVE!
JAMAICAN E.T.
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Home Africa
Our Victoria Falls Experience @ Zimbabwe
Planning a trip to Africa? In this installment of our Africa Travel Guide Series, we visited Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
Victoria Falls – One of Seven Natural Wonders of the World
1 Victoria Falls – One of Seven Natural Wonders of the World
1.1 How to get to Victoria Falls from Johannesburg
1.2 Should you join a Guided Tour for Victoria Falls?
1.3 Victoria Falls – The Smoke that Thunders
1.4 Viewing Points of Victoria Falls
1.4.1 Devil’s Cataract
1.4.2 View of Main Falls
1.4.3 Misty Victoria Falls
1.4.4 View of Livingstone Island and Horseshoe Falls
1.5 Zimbabwe and Zambia Border
The Victoria Falls is one of those items in my bucket list. Hailed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world (the other six are: Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis; Grand Canyon; Paricutin Volcano; Harbour of Rio de Janiero; Mount Everest and the Great Barrier Reef), it is undoubtedly splendid in its natural beauty.
Discover Book Travel Recommends:
South Africa / Zimbabwe / Botswana 16 Days 15 Nights Trip Itinerary
How to get to Victoria Falls from Johannesburg
From Johannesburg, we took a one-hour flight to Zimbabwe for a short stay in Kingdom Hotel to view the Victoria Falls.
The Victoria Falls was actually only a short distance from the Kingdom Hotel where we stayed – a 5-7 minutes drive away or 30 mins if you choose to walk.
Memorable Visit to the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
Should you join a Guided Tour for Victoria Falls?
While our guided tour of the Victoria Falls was part of the tour package, it was really not necessary to join such a guided tour if you can arrange your own transport to the falls. For one thing, there wasn’t much value in joining a tour, and yet it causes limitations on the amount of freedom we had at the falls.
Beautiful Panorama Route drive around Blyde River Canyon in South Africa
Victoria Falls – The Smoke that Thunders
Victoria Falls is also known by the natives as “Mosi oa-Tunya” (“the smoke that thunders”) and just like the Niagara Falls is positioned between two counties. In the case of the Victoria Falls, it forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and is positioned almost exactly half way along the mighty Zambezi River that runs along these two countries.
Due to the immense power of the waterfall and its reputation to produce thundering smoke as we had witnessed for ourselves, it is advisable to wear a poncho and bring an umbrella if you want to visit the Victoria Falls. Most times, the mists created by the falls reduces visibility such that only the thunderous roar of the falls can be heard.
At a rare few scenic points, it was possible to get up close with some parts of the Victoria Falls. – this was the about the closest that we can get. The Victoria Falls may be a much more massive waterfall than the Niagara Falls, but unlike the Niagara Falls, the Victoria Falls is relatively undeveloped in terms of its facilities and viewing platforms.
Rainbows are always a common sight at waterfalls…
Victoria Falls was first discovered by a Scottish explorer David Livingstone in the year 1855. He proceeded to name the falls after the then-reigning Queen Victoria of Britain. The land mass in the middle of the river from which he viewed the falls was subsequently named as Livingstone Island in his honour. Livingstone Island is accessible from the Zambia side of the falls and unfortunately not from the Zimbabwe side.
Kruger National Park Safari Review
Viewing Points of Victoria Falls
The second viewing point of the Victoria Falls. This is not the main falls, but even so, it occurs at a much larger scale than the Niagara Falls.
Penguins Galore at Boulders Beach, South Africa
Devil’s Cataract
At the Devil’s Cataract viewing point, where the Victoria Falls (which consists of 5 waterfalls) is at its lowest point in terms of height. This particular waterfall is separated from the rest of the falls by Boaruka Island (also known as Cataract Island).
There are altogether 19 viewpoints of the Victoria Falls – 1 to 15 are on the Zimbabwe side, while the rest are on the Zambia side. Viewing points 4 and 7 continue to show us different angles of the Devil’s Cataract.
From this point, it is very apparent that the waterfall is at a lower elevation than the rest of the plateau.
View point 7 is also the best place to view the main falls as opposed to viewing it directly opposite from the next few viewing points as those points tend to be shrouded with mists from the main falls, hence reducing visibility drastically.
A Day at Chobe National Park Part 1 : Relaxing River Boat Safari Experience
View of Main Falls
Viewing points 8 and 9 are the ones directly opposite the main falls. This is where your raincoats and an umbrella will come in handy for you.
It is with sheer good luck that we manage to catch a clear glimpse of the main falls at times, before it fades into the obscurity of its mists again.
You’ll need to be there to appreciate the sheer magnitude and force of the main falls.
Misty Victoria Falls
This was where the mists start to set in, and it felt as if there was a perpetual drizzle going on. Any hopes of getting a clear picture here diminishes.
Visibility can be almost zero at times. The falls are actually just right in front of this couple.
Viewing Point 10 is directly opposite the main falls and the famous Devil’s Pool, a spot dangerously close to the tipping point of the falls where tourists are able to swim and submerge themselves, prevented from falling by a slippery, submerged lip of rock on the river bed. This is of course, on the Zambian side of the falls and accessible from Livingstone Island.
Johannesburg, Soweto and Apartheid Museum Private Tour
View of Livingstone Island and Horseshoe Falls
Point 11 promises a good view of the Livingstone Island and the Horseshoe Falls, but visibility here continues to be so low that nothing can be seen.
The best view of Livingstone Island at this point. Fortunately for us, the mist cleared for a little while for us to catch a glimpse of something.
Livingstone Island
At this point, the drizzle which was actually the water splutters from the force of the Victoria Falls have turned into a full-fledged shower. Visibility continues to be poor except for the occasional foggy glimpse of the falls.
We must have skipped Viewing Point 14 and ventured straight into Point 15 where the Victoria Falls Bridge is visible from this point. This bridge links Zimbabwe with Zambia, and is today, a busy day for bungee jumpers.
Table Mountain and Half Day City Tour of Cape Town
Zimbabwe and Zambia Border
This walk around the Zimbabwe side of the Victoria Falls took only less than half a day, and we were supposed to spend the next half of the day at the Zambia side of the Falls which would bring us to Livingstone Island and the Devil’s Pool. We soon found that we were the only ones going to Zambia with a local tour guide (talk about getting a private tour!) but that turned out to be a major insecure point rather than a privilege.
That’s the queue to go through immigration at the Zimbabwe border with Zambia. This would be the first immigration check point, after which we had to queue behind the same people to go through the Zambia immigration check point. It was really unsettling to be in stark contrast and to be the only ones standing amidst the locals and being the object of intense scrutiny. It didn’t help that the queue was crawling at a snail’s pace. After 5 minutes of this, we accessed the situation to be unfavourable for us and forfeited this component of the tour which was already paid for, rather than to risk losing our valuables to a robbery instead. Our advice – unless you have the safety of numbers, never embark on a private tour whether intentionally or unintentionally.
This concludes our visit to the Victoria Falls. Join us next as we venture to Chobe National Park for another game drive!
First published 18 Feb 2018
Last updated 3 Feb 2019
Africa Travel Guide
Previous articleHotel Review : The Kingdom Hotel at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Next articleA Day at Chobe National Park Part 1 : Relaxing River Boat Safari Experience
Samantha has been writing for Discover.Book.Travel since 2012. Based in Singapore, she spends most of her time thinking and dreaming of new destinations to visit, and derives satisfaction by planning those trips. When she’s not out exploring the world, she’s penning down her travelogues to share with her community of travel lovers while sipping her favourite beverage.
South Africa / Zimbabwe / Botswana 16 Days 15 Nights Trip Itinerary (updated 2019)
Hotel Review : Hotel Verde Cape Town International Airport, South Africa (updated 2019)
Penguins Galore at Boulders Beach, South Africa (updated 2019)
South Africa / Zimbabwe / Botswana 16 Days 15 Nights Trip Itinerary | Discover Book Travel | Singapore Travel Blog November 6, 2018 At 6:50 pm
[…] Town, Victoria Falls and experiencing an African Safari have been on our travel bucket list for quite some time. So when […]
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Houston SaberCats Foiled By Tasman Mako
Houston SaberCats vs Tasman Mako Match Preview
USA Falcons Exit McDonald’s Coral Coast Sevens After Shield Final Loss
USA Rugby Women’s 2020 Hamilton Sevens Squad
Rugby United New New York Announces Bolton Equities Ltd. as Ownership Partners
Old Glory DC Opens Up 2020 Preseason Against Navy
Seattle Seawolves Shutouts Vancouver Island Crimson Tide
USA Falcons Move to Bowl Quarterfinals at McDonalds Fiji Coral Coast Sevens
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You are at:Home»North America Rugby»Major League Rugby»San Diego Legion Signs Psalm Wooching
San Diego Legion Signs Psalm Wooching
By djcoilrugby December 26, 2018 4 Comments
San Diego Legion signed Psalm Wooching for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. The Hawaii native is 24-years-old (25 just prior to the season beginning), 6’3″, and 235 pounds.
Psalm Fa’afosia Pulemagafa Wooching is from Kailua-Kina, Hawaii and is of Samoan descent. He attended Kealakehe High School through his graduation in 2012, played rugby with the Kona Bulls from 2006-2012, and participated in a rugby training camp in New Zealand in 2011.
While in high school he also began playing football as a linebacker and running back, helping the Waveriders win the BIIF Division 1 title his senior year, rushing for 250 yards and three TDs in a win over Keaau. In his Junior year, he named all-conference and was a finalist for conference player of the year. He also was a sprinter on the track team and a member of the basketball team. Psalm also maintained cultural dance traditions while working at luaus.
Psalm attended the University of Washington on a football scholarship from 2012-2016. He initially played fullback and defensive end before switching to outside linebacker. The team played in the 2015 Heart of Dallas Bowl and in the 2016 Peach Bowl, the semi-final playoff against Alabama. In 2016 he was named as an Honorable Mention to the All-Pac 12 Conference team and as an Honorable Mention Academic All Pac 12 Conference team.
Psalm also played club rugby for the Seattle Saracens in the CDI Premier League in 2016-2017. Prior to the NFL draft, he announced that he had chosen rugby over football, sending shock waves throughout the world.
By April 2017, he had a try out with Pau in France and in May a trial with the Harlequins. He then played with the Hong Kong Scottish 10s as a hooker.
Psalm Pulemagafa Wooching Rugby HL with Pau, Mauritius & Seattle Saracens 15s Serevi 7s
Psalm was also on the national team radar. He was invited to a USA 7s training camp. He played in the 2017 and the 2018 Americas Pacific Challenge for the USA Selects and made his Eagles debut in the 2018 Americas Rugby Championship against Chile on February 17. Eagle 519 has 4 caps and also played against Brazil and Uruguay in the ARC and against Samoa at San Sebastian, Nov 10, 2018.
Psalm also intended to play professionally for Rugby Viadana in the Italian Excellenza for the 2018-2019 season, but the contract was mutually voided. That has provided an opportunity to play MLR rugby for the San Diego Legion in 2019.
San Diego Legion Comments
“Psalm Wooching is the stuff of nightmares for defenders, as his punishing runs saw his rapid selection for the USA Eagles. Off the pitch, his reliability as a teammate and role model make him a welcome addition to the Legion family.”
DJCoil Rugby articles by Doug Coil are also available on Facebook. Other Social Media sites to follow or subscribe include Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for interviews.
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DKIST Glossary beginning with G
Gauss search for term
Equal to 10-4 Tesla (SI Unit). The gauss, abbreviated as G, is the cgs unit of measurement of a magnetic field B (which is also known as the "magnetic flux density", or the "magnetic induction"), named after the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter.
GCM search for term
Generating search for term
Generating, or Generation, is the first step in figuring an optical surface and rapidly removes material using fixed-abrasive grinding.
Geocentric Apparent Place search for term
Geocentric apparent right ascension and declination (α, δ) will be available to assist in recording observations but will not in fact be the interface to the telescope control system. The pole is the precessing-nutating celestial intermediate pole (CIP); the zero point of right ascension will be the true equinox of date and/or the celestial intermediate origin (CIO).
* This is not a spatial coordinate system, but one specifically used to describe a pointing direction; hence there is no radial coordinate.
* Geocentric apparent place differs from topocentric apparent place by being free from diurnal parallax and diurnal planetary aberration. Thus it is a convenient starting point from which another solar observatory could begin the pointing calculation.
Geometrical Axis search for term
A line perpendicular to the center of the back surface of an off-axis mirror. It corresponds in usage roughly to the optical axis of an axially symmetric conic mirror. Since the back surface of an off-axis mirror is typically a best-fit sphere or a flat surface, this definition offers a simpler interpretation than one involving the more complex front surface.
GF search for term
Gregorian Focus
GHS search for term
GIC search for term
Global Interlock Controller
GIS search for term
Global Interlock System or Geographic Information System
GISS search for term
Global Interlock System Status
Global Circulation Model search for term
Calculations used to understand the relative importance of anthropogenic and natural sources of climate change.
Global Coordinate System search for term
The ATST project has adopted the global coordinate system with the origin of coordinates at the “crossover” point of the mechanical altitude and azimuth axes. The x and y axes are in the horizontal plane, and the z-axis is vertical. “Up” is +z, and the mirror is displaced in the +y direction. The positive x direction is determined by the right-hand rule.
Global Interlock System search for term
The GIS provides a redundant, stand-alone safety mechanism for personnel and equipment.
GONG search for term
Global Oscillations Network Group
GOS search for term
Gregorian Optical Station
GPS search for term
Granulation search for term
See "Granules."
Granules search for term
Granules on the photosphere of the Sun are caused by convection currents (thermal columns, Bénard cells) of plasma within the Sun's convective zone. The grainy appearance of the solar photosphere is produced by the tops of these convective cells and is called granulation. The rising part of the granules is located in the center where the plasma is hotter. The outer edge of the granules is darker due to the cooler descending plasma. In addition to the visible appearance, Doppler shift measurements of the light from individual granules provides evidence for the convective nature of the granules. A typical granule has a diameter on the order of 1,000 kilometers and lasts 8 to 20 minutes before dissipating. Below the photosphere is a layer of "supergranules" up to 30,000 kilometers in diameter with lifespans of up to 24 hours.
Grashof Number search for term
Parameter used in convection study to express the ratio of buoyant force to viscous force.
GREGOR search for term
German 1.5-m solar telescope in the Canaries
Gregorian Optics Station search for term
The Upper GOS contains primarily calibration optics (retarders, waveplates, polarizers, etc.). The Lower GOS contains the wavefront sensor, alignment targets, the adjustable iris, and other engineering optics.
Gregorian Telescope search for term
The Gregorian design consists of a concave elliptical secondary mirror, located outside the prime focus and forming an image on the axis of the primary.
Grinding search for term
To wear down, polish, or sharpen by friction.
GTA search for term
Ground Test Accelerator
GTC search for term
Gran Telescopio Canarias
GUI search for term
Gut Ray search for term
That ray in an off-axis optical system that passes through the geometric center of the optical elements. The term corresponds roughly in usage to the chief ray of an axially symmetric optical system.
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Cases filed in Massachusetts
Cases 1 - 10 of 11
MICHIGAN REGIONAL COUNCIL OF CARPENTERS EMPLOYEE BENEFITS FUND v. ASTRAZENECA PHARMACEUTICALS LP et al
Defendant: Astrazeneca AB, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc., RANBAXY LABORATORIES, LTD. and others
Plaintiff: Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters Employee Benefits Fund
Cause Of Action: Antitrust Litigation
Court: First Circuit › Massachusetts › US District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Type: Other Statutes › Anti-Trust
Laborers International Union of North America Local 345 Health Care Fund v. AstraZenca, L.P. et al
Defendant: Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries LTD, Aktiebolaget Hassle, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. and others
Plaintiff: Laborers International Union of North America Local 345 Health Care Fund
Citizens for Consume, et al v. Abbott Laboratories,, et al
Filed: February 1, 2010 as 1:2001cv12257
Plaintiff: Citizens for Consumer Justice , Colorado Progressive Coalition , Congress of California Seniors and others
Defendant: Allergan Worldwide , Astrazeneca US , Bayer, AG and others
Consolidated_plaintiff: Shirley Geller , United Food & Commercial Workers Unions and Employers Midest Health Benefits Fund , Action Alliance of Senior Citizens of Greater Philadelphia and others
Consolidated_defendant: Baxter Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. , Fujisawa Pharmaceut, Monsanto CO. and others
Intervenor_plaintiff: Roberta S. Starks , Kimberly K. Hoover , National Automatic Sprinkler Industry Welfare Fund and others
Amicu: Secretary of Health and Human Services
Intervenor: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Intervenor_defendant: BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY a/k/a BRISTOL-MYERS ONCOLOGY DIVISION/HIV PRODUCTS , GENSIA SICOR, INC., Novartis AG and others
Movant: Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield , Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization, Inc., Neighborhood Health Plan, Inc. and others
Adr_provider: Eric Green, Jonathan Marks
Respondent: Luis E. Cobo
Objector: Patricia Weatherly, James W. Wilson
State of Utah v. Abbott Laboratories et al
Plaintiff: State of Utah, State of Utah, State of Utah and others
Defendant: Abbott Laboratories, Astrazeneca, Bayer and others
Cause Of Action: Federal Question
Type: Contract › Both
In Re: State of Iowa Cases
Defendant: Barr Laboratories, Inc., Aventis Behring LLC, Astrazeneca LP and others
Plaintiff: State of Iowa, State of Iowa, State of Iowa and others
Type: Contract › Plaintiff
The County of Orange v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc. et al
Filed: May 9, 2007 as 1:2007cv10879
Defendant: Sanofi-Aventis, Schering-Plough Corporation, Schwarzpharma Holdings, Inc. and others
Plaintiff: The County of Orange, The County of Orange, The County of Orange
Cause Of Action: Racketeering (RICO) Act
Type: Other Statutes › Racketeer/Corrupt Organization
Oswego, County of v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc. et al
Defendant: Dermik Laboratories, Inc., Dey Inc., Dey Inc. and others
Plaintiff: Oswego, County of
Cause Of Action: Notice of Removal
Type: Other Statutes › Other Statutory Actions
County of Schenectady v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc. et al
Defendant: Ortho Biotech Products, LP, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., Par Pharmaceutical, Inc. and others
Plaintiff: County of Schenectady
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. et al
Defendant: Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., Aventis Behring, LLC, Immuno-U.S., Inc. and others
Plaintiff: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and others
Cause Of Action: False Claims Act
Wangrud v. Astrazenca L.P. et al
Plaintiff: Jean Wangrud
Defendant: Astrazenca L.P., Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP, Astrazeneca Research and Development
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Pirate of the Pacific
Posted by Chuck Welch | 1933, bama, Bantam 013-024, baumhofer, dent, nanovic, Novels, pulp | 9
Not ships but nations are the prey of the sinister Oriental mastermind, Tom Too. Only Doc Savage and his daring crew stand a chance of saving the world from this figure of evil and his lethal legions. On land and sea, in the weirdest corners of the wide world, Doc and his friends plunge into their wildest adventure — against their most dangerous foe!
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I fell in love with Doc Savage back when I was a teenager in the 60's. There was always something about waiting for that Bama cover to show up every month.
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Founded the Hidalgo Trading Company (1997) and The Flearun Discussion Group (1999). Chuck currently serves as Editor for the Bronze Gazette. (The Doc Savage novel synopsis are courtesy of Bantam Books or Altus Press.)
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Barry Ellis on July 21, 2003 at 8:40 pm
Can’t go too far wrong with a “Doc in Asia” story. Put this one in the top 50%.
Andrew Salmon on July 23, 2003 at 8:55 pm
Not one of my favourites. I like the oriental pirates and Tom Too is a great name for a villain but the pacing is just off with this one. I’d say average at best.
Scott Kimball on July 27, 2003 at 2:14 am
For me, this was a good, solid Doc adventure. No big exciting mystery or anything, but the action is almost non stop. Not in my top 10, but well worth reading. I’d rather read this 100 times than read THE SPOOK OF GRANDPA EBEN, or any of the stories in Omnibus 3, just once. (a little off the subject, I know, but I was so bored and dissapointed by Omnibus 3… because I just started buying the Omnibus books, and I hope #3 is not typical of the Omnibus stories… because it is garbage.)
Howard Hopkins on July 30, 2003 at 2:17 am
The first time I read it I didn’t care for it much, but rereading it years later I found it was actually a decent enough tale. Not superb by Doc standards but still entertaining.
Thomas Fortenberry on October 24, 2003 at 1:08 am
I agree with several things said above about Pirate of the Pacific: the pacing is wrong; the action is non-stop; Tom Too is a memorable villian; it still entertains after half a century.
The “still entertains” after all this time aspect is something I want to touch on in more detail. The key to longevity for many of Doc Savage’s tales is not that they are exciting, heroic, or cool, but that they also are among those very rare books that extrapolate plausibly a future ahead of its time. Verne and Wells often did this, for example, hence their works remain fresh in the century following their creation. The Island of Dr. Moreau, for example, chronicled animal-human breeding experiments — or to phrase it another way, as we witness just now becoming possible, it relates mutagenetic manipulations. In numerous Savage adventures he touched on things that are still relevant today: Mideast dictators launching a third world war; or Indian-Pakistani wars and biochemical weapons of mass destruction; etc. They resonate largely because they sound as if they are still on the front page. Furthermore his inventions, weapons, planes, labs, theories, and even villians often predicted the future. An uzi is a good descendent of a machine-pistol. Kevlar makes a good, lightweight bulletproof undergarment.
Pirate of the Pacific is one of this type of tales. The book lacked some finesse, with pacing at times slow and at other times rushed, but its message or the theory behind Tom Too’s non-technical threat is extremely valid, frightening, and in play today. I’ve discussed in on-group before, but will recap some. On p 50 of the Bantam edition it is revealed that Tom Too’s power plan is simple: a secret, massive, relatively bloodless coup of the Philippines (oops I mean Luzon Union) via manipulation of perceptions and the people. The outright removal of current leadership will be a combo of coercion, threat, and assassination, though to the people in general this is twisted inside out so he will ride into town as the hero saving them all, protecting the country, defending democracy and their security. It is the patriot’s trumpcard. This is exactly what has happened and is still happening over and over in the world today. Nation’s are destabilized (often even by coups of “legitimate intent” by organizations such as the CIA)and populations mislead into wars or disasters by Orwellian techniques of societal manipulation in today’s political strategies. Doc calls Tom Too’s actions the modern equivolent of piracy, though of nations not ships (p 89). The book is pretty clear on what is actually occurring and at stake, and is like a modern blackops playbook. It is very realistic in a Machiavellian world. The saddest and most shocking part of all, though, is that Doc makes a deal with the devil to help prop up the cabal of dictatorial rulers and businessmen controlling the nation currently. They are simply the lesser of two evils. So he saves their hides and defeats the Too evil menace.
Switching gears (because of space) I want to note a few interesting moments in the book for Savage fans. 1) this is one of the early books of the series still immediately connected to its predicessor, so it has a lot of continuity. It ends The Polar Treasure and begins with the press eagerly awaiting the return to Manhattan of the Helldiver sub, now manned by Doc and crew as the sole surivors of an ill-fated Arctic mission. Doc shuns publicity and alludes them all neatly, though somehow the Tom Tooan henchmen are there knowingly and attack him full-bore with airplanes, bombs, guns, etc. Doc and guys go literally from the Artic to the Pacific in a nonstop battle. No rest ever for these guys. 2) Doc has a television wristwatch. Is this prior to Dick Tracy or after? 3) Doc is said to weigh far less than Monk and Renny, at just barely 200 pounds. That surprised me, as elsewhere in the series his immense weight or density is often mentioned when badguys try to carry him. Usually takes a whole squad of grunting guys. That doesn’t sound 200-ish to me. Especially with his build if he is far taller than them all. 4) On this same topic, there is a weird mention that Renny’s fists alone weigh about 50 pounds. What the hell? In another scene his fists are said to be the size of four normal fists bunched together! Elsewhere Doc is about to knock out the panels on a heavy wood door but then thinks better about it to preserve his surgeon’s hands and so calls Renny in to do it for him. Smart choice if the man has 4X fists that weigh fifty pounds. That like a wrecking ball arm. 5) In this book the entire polar treasure from the previous tale is said to be used on redesigning and expanding the Crime College in upstate NY!!! So much for charities. 6) Speaking of charities, there is one of those nice touches at the end where the Luzon Union, to acknowledge their debt, builds a Savage Memorial Hospital. I wondered if this is the only one of his many established hospitals in the world actually named after him? What was the one in Chile named, before the blue meteor interrupted the grand opening? Just curious. 7) Doc’s car is a roofless gray 16-cylinder roadster topping out over 150 mph. Wow. So much for discreet. 8) It says that right berside Doc’s office, due to the Depression, there are empty offices on the same floor. The criminals break into one of these and then bore throigh the wall into his reception room. !!!!!!!!! OK. (Must be one of those quirks the writers/editors worked out and later dropped.) 9) Doc’s grenades are said to be big and iron. Guess he hasn’t streamlined them yet into the little silver balls. 10) Finally, as said, this is early Doc, so he is invincible, so fast people cannot even see him move, able to do amazing feats of strength that are truly superhuman, etc. But also this means that this is one of those books where his aids are just bumping guys off right and left without remorse. In one brutal scene that is the model for all Wild West shootouts, Long Tom outdraws a villian throwing a knife into his pal and caps him right between the eyes. Cops are there but do nothing because they hold police commissions. (p 36) Ahhh, the good old days when you didn’t have all those pesky laws to hinder your work.
Anyway, since there is an endless supply of nifty details Ican’t cover, I’ll close by saying maybe the book sound be given more credit, in a different light. Ignoring the “early years” extravagence in action, perhaps the meat lies in the hardcore reality of subversive global politics portrayed in this book.
Thomas Fortenberry
Paul Cook on April 29, 2005 at 12:40 am
This Bantam book has one of James Bama’s very best covers. I remember looking at it for hours. The story is quite good, but not one of the best. There’s a great escape from a sinking ship that I haven’t seen anywhere else and I was awestruck by Doc’s boldness in suggesting it. But, then, that’s Doc: always thinking one step ahead of a fifteen-year-old reader.
Walter Carlisle on June 6, 2005 at 8:11 pm
I enjoyed the first two-thirds of this one, but got a little weary towards the end. There’s not much in the way of a plot or mystery, just the usual runaround Doc action. I like action as much as the next Doc fan but it helps when Dent pauses once in a while to fill in some background. He doesn’t do much of that here; “local color” is limited to a lot of ridiculous characterizations of “slant-eyed Mongol hordes” and “half-castes”.
Still, this is a much better story than “Quest of the Spider”. Dent is starting to use fewer exclamation points in this fifth book, and there aren’t as many awkward word choices.
My biggest complaint is that Monk, Johnny, and Long Tom are “off stage” for most of the book. Doc spends most of his time with Renny. I know this guy is supposed to be a world-class engineer, but he doesn’t act very bright most of the time. (Note that Doc has reinforced the door to the 86th Floor to stop Renny from smashing his fist through it. Hopefully he sent Renny a bill; the Mayans shouldn’t have to pay for stuff like that.
Lee Dorrance on June 17, 2005 at 5:10 pm
I found this read to be a little off pace at times. I enjoyed the first half of the story, especially how it begins on the heels of The Polar Treasure, even going as far as referencing how Doc and the boys put Victor Vail and his daughter (both of whom remain nameless in this novel) onto a passing liner to avoid the press eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Helldiver. The latter scenes, while action packed, seemed to drag at times.
Mark Carpenter on February 12, 2006 at 1:50 pm
I don’t understand all the Doc fans who give this book a mediocre review. I totally disagree! “Pirate of the Pacific” is one of the very best of the early Docs and deserves a place in the all-time top ten. The pacing is NOT off. In fact, from the terrific opening scenes of Mongols dive bombing the Helldiver to the explosive climax on Shark Head Island, Dent keeps the action and plot charging along at a perfect clip. Yet he still has time to put in the wonderful little flourishes that make it a Dent story: the pigeon with the microphone in its tail feathers, Doc’s TV wristwatch, the escape from the Malay Queen. Heck, I was even surprised at the identity of the villain (for a change).
For all you newer Doc fans, don’t skip over this one. Trust me, you’ll love it.
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Jay James nails R&B-fusion with new album "When All is Said and Done"
2 years ago by Claire Ruder
From Ghana to San Diego, Jay James is a multi-instrumentalist producer with influences spanning an impressive range of genres. He has categorized his latest album as R&B: When All is Said and Done. After listening though, unexpected echoes of classical, hip-hop, international, and jazz music are evident throughout.
I was surprised that out of 14 tracks there are only two with vocals— an atypical setup for an R&B project where vocals are usually central. The main structure of the album is laid out with soft piano, but there are hints of flute, saxophone, and different brass instruments spattered throughout. A clear example of this (as well as a strong highlight on the project) is the 8th song "Anxious." It features instruments that ebb and flow, each having a moment of clarity on the reverberating lo-fi backtrack.
The overall sound on the album feels carefully crafted and personal. Some of the other high-points are the shorter interlude tracks "Mourning Prayer" and "Bedtime Prayer." Both are around a minute long and devoid of lyrics; they convey potent fleeting moments of emotion. The occasional impressive vocal additions from Phabo on two of the tracks are a nice touch, but the album would definitely still be impactful without them. The project, which is self-composed, produced, mixed and mastered, also enlists help from Thomas Frye (guitar), Isaiah Davis (sax/flute), Jesse Aaron (guitar), and Julian Davis (trumpet/flugelhorn). James spoke on the multi-faceted nature of his music, saying he "creates lush and cultivating R&B music influenced by [his] environment, current events and musicals styles from all over the world." When All is Said and Done is a perfect representation of this and a great introduction to the rest of Jay James' work.
Connect with Jay James: Soundcloud | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram | Website
Isaiah Davis · Jay James · Julian Davis · Phabo · Thomas Frye
Alternative R&B
Jesse Aaron seeks closure through debut EP "Better Dreams"
Obongjayar sends a message to "God's Own Children"
Duñe X Crayon drop their new single "Pointless" [Video]
by Brianna Lawson
070 Shake shares immersive dreamscape "Guilty Conscience" with gritty video
by Max Pasion-Gonzales
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Opinion: Don’t get rid of the publisher position just yet
May 15, 2017 by Larry Burstein
Larry Burstein is the former publisher of New York.
Would I be the last publisher? I wondered when I noticed a headline in the New York Post in January that read, “Condé Nast Retires Publisher Title Amid Leadership Shakeup.”
Some digital companies like BuzzFeed and Mic are adding the publisher title and redefining it. But in the magazine media sector, Condé Nast, Time Inc, and other companies are using titles like chief industry officer, chief business officer and chief revenue officer to replace publisher. With magazine media, publisher connotes brand ambassador and the broad scope of work that includes. These new titles sound transactional. But maybe that’s the point.
Recently, I ran into a client from a few years back, an advertising director at one of New York’s most prestigious stores. She was curious about how things had changed.
I reminded her how we did most of our work in her office and once in awhile we’d have lunch. At lunch we caught up on our families, social lives, news and movies. When our plates were cleared and dessert and coffee on the way, we got down to business.
I would present my value proposition to gain a greater commitment from her brand, offer collaborative marketing partnerships to support it, and came away with a clear idea of what New York magazine needed to do to further strengthen this client relationship and increase business.
In contrast, when I had recently emailed her successor – now called a chief marketing officer, not advertising director, and invited her to lunch, she responded instantly in email with, “What’s the agenda?”
I typed back to the CMO, “We have some new functionality on the site and I want you to see it before it goes live.” In seconds she responded, “Could you send it over in a PowerPoint?” She’s that busy. I got it. Why leave the office for two hours to talk about something that could take five minutes?
Modern Retail Summit
Everything shifted in the 2008-2009 downturn. One person in an office started doing the work of many. So who had time to meet, no less have lunch. A CMO could pull planning stats off our electronic media kit, and anything beyond that could be put in a PowerPoint and emailed. That’s usually the way it goes now. No need for lunch. No need to see a person. Friendly, calls to clients about their plans are replaced by electronically submitted RFP’s. Questions, problems, challenges are worked out online. It’s a more efficient, more accurate, and a more performance driven way to work. Everyone gets more done.
In lots of ways the skill set required by a publisher has changed. With New York becoming a leading magazine title online, I considered changing my title as the job evolved.
But I liked being the publisher. To change over to chief revenue officer was something I resisted. To me it felt like a company-facing title, an internal position that occupied a useful description in the media company’s own hierarchy. I was gratified to learn that my successor would use the publisher’s title along with chief revenue officer. It’s the best possible combination to signal leadership within the company as well as outside, with clients and the public.
While I handily managed optimizing digital plans, sell through, yield management, ad experience, events, partnerships, and the scope of work of a CRO, my material value came into play in client meetings. When I was able to break through the electronic communication wall to show up and meet a client, there was an authentic exchange. Ideas sparked, proving that the best results occur when you combine human connection and digital innovation.
Image: Flickr
‘A huge advantage’: Inside Policygenius’s in-house agency team
January 14, 2020 by Kristina Monllos
Swedish publisher Bonnier News closes innovation hub
November 27, 2019 by Lucinda Southern
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Ghana: Accra’s Marine Drive Tourism and Investment Project and Nigeria’s Lagos – Eko Atlantic update
Africa, Business, International
Ghana: Accra’s public-private partnership – Marine Drive Tourism and Investment Project
A new city skyline for Accra
ACCRA, GHANA- President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 15 December 2018, broke ground on the construction of a new US $1.2 billion Marine Drive Tourism and Investment Project in Accra.
The Marine Drive Project, from its construction to the operational stage, is expected to employ some 150,000 people, especially those within the catchment area, boost tourism and increase economic growth.
The 10-year project, a Public-Private Partnership, is situated on a total of 248 acres of land on the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf of Guinea.
Video: Marine Drive Tourism Project – Accra
A US $1.2 billion 10-year Public-Private Partnership project situated on a 248 acres land aimed at transforming the coast of Accra.
Video: Full speech: President Akufo-Addo cuts sod for Accra Marine Drive Project (Dec 15, 2017)
Accra today
Accra -Kotoka International Airport new international terminal
Video: Accra, Ghana
Video: Accra construction
Video: Accra coastal views
Video: Views around Accra
Video: Accra- Residential Areas
Video: Accra- Residential Improvements – Saglemi Housing Project
Nigeria: Lagos – Eko Atlantic update
Eko Atlantic is a marvel of modern engineering and technology, and a testament to the rise of Nigeria on the world stage.
Eko Atlantic is an entire new coastal city district being built on Victoria Island adjacent to the mega city of Lagos, Nigeria.
Standing on 10 million square metres of land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean and protected by an 8.5 kilometre long sea wall, Eko Atlantic will be the size of Manhattan’s skyscraper district. Self-sufficient and sustainable, it includes state-of-the-art urban design, its own power generation, clean water, advanced telecommunications, spacious roads, and tree-lined streets. It is being called by some, the Dubai of West Africa.
Click image to enlarge for better viewing. Click your return arrow to return to this topic.
BUSINESS DISTRICT
This district’s main feature is the Eko Boulevard: 2 km long and 60 m wide. The boulevard will be home to inspirational development and a powerhouse for corporate, financial and retail activities. The scale of this Boulevard is an indication of the opportunity available for business growth.
The Marina district is one of the most stunning residential and commercial hubs in Eko Atlantic. Designed for mixed use development. Its sweeping pedestrian promenade encircles the marina offering views from the sleek yachts to the dazzling architecture. Its will become a center for leisure and social activities.
Downtown is the epicenter of Eko Atlantic with highly desirable space for development. This district provides opportunities to develop land for residential use, offering a sought-after style of city life. Surrounded by the canal and providing alternative water transport.
At the center of Eko Atlantic city, Avenues district connects Eko Drive from the North, Ocean Front to the South, and Downtown to the West. Thereby encompassing both residential and commercial properties.
EKO DRIVE
A well-designed mix of commercial and residential developments, providing rapid commuter access between the city of Lagos and Eko Atlantic.
A cohesive blend of commercial and residential developments overlooking the entrance to Lagos Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean.
Stretching along the coastline of Eko Atlantic City, with breath-taking views of the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean Front is a residential area with tree-lined streets and a variety of outstanding facilities for residents and tourists.
Video: What is Eko Atlantic? See for yourself
Video: Lagos, Nigeria skyline
Video: Lagos, Nigeria
Video: Lagos- Mainland Bridge
Video: Lagos-Lekki Ikoyi Link Bridge
Video: Lagos – Victoria Island
Existing Lagos, Nigeria
← NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to target Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Mid-2017 Population estimates for UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland →
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Tag Archives: Turkey’s Manisa province
Media Confirmation about Earthquakes in Turkey and US troops deploy along Syria-Turkish border predicted by Clairvoyant Dimitrinka Staikova in her Ebook and Paperback book : The End of the World – Casus Belli, Operation “J” – Clairvoyant Predictions about : Rex Tillerson, Mike Pence, General Valery Gerasimov, General Joseph Dunford, Recep Erdogan ,Gen. Herbert McMaster, the secrets of Smithsonian Institution, the war in Syria, Turkey, Iraq… Clairvoyants : Dimitrinka Staikova, Ivelina Staikova, Stoyanka Staikova
Media Confirmation about Earthquakes in Turkey and US troops deploy along Syria-Turkish border predicted by Clairvoyant Dimitrinka Staikova in her Ebook and Paperback book :
Buy the Ebook only from the authors –https://sites.google.com/site/dimitrinkastaikova/psychic-news
……..April 2017 starts good for him – a vote in the parliament and receiving a help and money from Germany. April 2017 is a month of internal assault in the political party which support him and temporary remaining of one leader. Then ( around the middle of April 2017) he is turning to USA for help. April 2017 – many american soldiers enter in the airports and the military bases in Turkey. The military offensive against ISIS and kurds on the border is increased. There is intervention of the United Nations. There is made corridor for military actions. Later, the kurds near the border of Iraq will have a statute of community and state.
April 2017 is the bloody month , which Erdogan will leave in the history of Turkey – many turks and kurds will die, because of a bunch of islamists from ISIS, which will remain alive.
May 2017 will be heavy survived….I see blood and tears, rivers of blood….It will be heavy also because of natural disasters, the earth will shake…
1. Earthquake of 5.1 Magnitude Hits Turkey – May 27, 2017
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-05-27/earthquake-of-51-magnitude-hits-turkey-no-casualties-or-damage-cnn-turk
2.Reports: US troops deploy along Syria-Turkish border
https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/reports-us-troops-deploy-along-syria-turkish-border-1.465870#.WSqLaYzqFcs
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Off Topic posts
Mass Shooting at an EL Paso Wal Mart
By Pitcher, August 3, 2019 in Off Topic posts
nstoolman1 11,221
Officially retired. Living in Idaho and Loving it.
Platinum VIP
Location...........Gem State
A little update LGD
https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/management/upload/Firearms-in-IMRparks2-2010.pdf
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5066182.pdf
ladyGrace'sDaddy 44,248
Locationsmack in the middle of it all
Who's Politicizing this event??????????????????
This man is despicable and needs to be locked up in a place for the mentally ill.
8 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:
Wow, and thank you. My incident above was in 2005 and before the new changes.
Again thanks for the info.
Another story that we're most likely NEVER gonna hear the truth about because the
LSM control what is said.
The Dead aren't even cold yet and who's politicizing?
Little Robby who should be in prison and none other that Lilly liver'ed spineless GB.
Just in case anyone wants to know what a REAL HERO looks like
If you own a personal firearm, DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.
I'm always talking about how these kinds of things are Demonic Possession or Demonic control.
What do you see here?
At least two shooters
And just so the Snowflake Buttercup Brigade doesn't claim that I'm only posting comments from
Trump loving Patriots and not actual news people. The Tweet above was from this lady.
Anna Giaritelli
Homeland Security Reporter
Anna Giaritelli is the homeland security reporter for the Washington Examiner. She covers border affairs, transportation security, customs operations, immigration policy, gun control and crime. She graduated from Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky., with a bachelor's degree in journalism and first came to Washington in 2010 for an internship with the Washington Examiner. She has worked for CQ Roll Call, Cox Media Group, and an immigration policy group on Capitol Hill before returning to the Washington Examiner in 2015.
As I've said earlier, some things are pretty much a given with respect to these kinds of events.
Nan and Byron McKeeby August 4, 2019 578 Comments
Mass shooter Patrick Crusius murdered 20 people today at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
Crusius published a manifesto before his shooting spree.
It is clear from his words that he is a PROGRESSIVE white nationalist – what was once defined as a “Nazi.”
This is not to say he’s a Democrat or a Republican, but he is without question a progressive.
All you have to do is read his manifesto to see the obvious tell-tale signs.
Under his section titled “Economic Reasons” for the attack, the shooter states:
“In the near future, America will have to initiate a basic universal income to prevent widespread poverty and civil unrest as people lose their jobs (to automation). Joblessness is in itself a source of civil unrest. The less dependents on a government welfare system, the lower the unemployment rate, the better. Achieving ambitious social projects like universal healthcare and UBI would become far more likely to succeed if tens of millions of defendants are removed.”
Now THAT is some Nazi level stuff right there. Kill the undesirables so we can have our glorious government programs!
His was an act of environmental terrorism as well:
“The decimation of our environment is creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly overharvesting resources.”
Not exactly sounding like a Republican, but this next quote does remind me of one of the parties:
“I am against race mixing because it destroys genetic diversity and creates identity problems….But the idea of deporting or murdering all non-white Americans is horrific. Many have been here as long as the whites, and have done as much to build our country. The best solution to this for now would be to divide America int a confederacy of territories with at least 1 territory for each race.”
Huh. Where have we heard about a confederacy in the past? We’ll have to think on that one.
genx4me 1,518
LocationNC
33 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:
I saw somewhere that said there were 3 suspected shooters. Just that one time, then all other news clips said just one. I found that odd.
I'm gonna have to go with @Karsten on this one. I don't think this monster wrote that manifesto
all by himself.
Karsten 7,011
LocationUtah
A word to the wise, I almost learned this the hard way. Everyone knows that you don't take a firearm onto
Federal property but what few people know is that EVERY SINGLE STATE PARK in America is owned by the
Federal Government. They are only run by the State. Thus it is a Felony to possess or use a firearm within the boundaries of a State Park.
How do I know this? I was caught with a pistol on a State Park. And the only thing that saved my butt was the
Fellow Marine State Trooper that caught me ran my background check and realized that I've never been
convicted of a gun violation or any other criminal violation. So he wrote me a $250 dollar ticket and asked
me to leave the park. I've never been so glad to pay a fine in my whole life.
PLEASE DON'T TAKE YOUR GUNS TO A STATE PARK.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I also keep a machete in the M/H.
I knew of the Firearms restrictions change some time ago. if it would have been an issue where we go camping i would have been in trouble long ago....One DNR Officer was also a local police officer here that I talk with quite often and he knows I carry. then I am constantly helping water the grounds in my spare time and coming into contact with all the other park employees.
This one was from Ohio last night, WARNING GRAPHIC LANGUAGE.
America is under Attack by the
Democratic Socialist Party
Patrick Crusius has a profile on MyLife.com.
MyLife is an American information brokerage founded in 2002 as Reunion.com. MyLife gathers personal information through public records and other sources to automatically generate a “MyLife Public Page” for each person, described by MyLife as a “complete Wikipedia-like biography on every American.”
te Wikipedia-like biography on every American.”
At 2:46 PM today MyLife had this profile for the deranged killer Patrick Crusius.
His original profile at 2:46 said he was a registered Democrat.
At 2:50 PM leftists changed his political affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
At 2:52 his profile was changed again.
His description now says he is a Republican and QAnon member.
By Saturday night his profile includes anti-Jewish slurs and links him to Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and calls him an Evangelical Christian.
No way these are random.
HCSO: no active threat after Gibsonton Walmart evacuated
By FOX 13 News staff
Posted Aug 04 2019 02:09PM EDT
Updated Aug 04 2019 02:49PM EDT
TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - A Walmart in Gibsonton was evacuated due to an unspecified threat, officials said Sunday.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the Walmart on Gibsonton Drive after someone made a threat involving the store.
Deputies said they evacuated the building out of an abundance of caution.
The sheriff's office said there is no active threat and noted everyone is safe.
An investigation is underway in the area.
Don't believe the Fake News Narrative to support their goals of chaos to destroy America.
THREE OR FOUR SHOOTERS
Yes let's kill the assassin before he tells everyone how C Wray's FBI set him in motion
umbertino 11,958
LocationTrento, Italy
More pics & vid
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/03/el-paso-shooting-texas-walmart
Negging this particular article talking about a massacre is OBVIOUSLY very stupid and completely senseless...Probably also Un-American ......Shame on you , coward negger...Start correcting yourself ( if such thing is ever possible....I doubt it....As you neg almost any article carrying my name no matter the content....Very logical on your part....Weirdo )
Edited August 4, 2019 by umbertino
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Home Health & Beauty I’ve frozen my eggs, but women shouldn’t have to solve the ‘baby...
I’ve frozen my eggs, but women shouldn’t have to solve the ‘baby bust’ alone | Dearbhail McDonald
We are having fewer children and living longer than ever before we need to talk about the fertility crisis, writes Dearbhail McDonald
It’s a long road from playing with baby dolls as a small child, fighting with your twin sister over the name of your future first born, to being sedated and wheeled into an operating theatre for your eggs to be retrieved and frozen. That’s where I found myself a few years ago. A woman in her mid-30s, highly educated with a successful and rewarding media career, injecting herself daily with a bespoke cocktail of hormones, and parting with thousands of pounds in a heart-wrenching bid to preserve her chances of motherhood.
Nothing quite prepares you for the emotional rollercoaster of fertility treatment. There’s the grief for the children you might never have; the raking over every personal relationship and career progression, the “what ifs” pounding you like hailstones in a freak storm.
And that’s before you subject yourself to costly, invasive medical procedures (you lose count of how many times a camera is inserted into your cervix) for odds with still stunningly low returns. It is a gamble I was willing to take and“Operation Frozen” – as my friends dubbed the pursuit – was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Freezing my eggs doesn’t guarantee my future motherhood. Nature doesn’t either. Science has offered me the possibility of becoming a mum, preferably with Mr Right, but maybe on my own, a path more and more of my friends have courageously embarked on.
During my treatment at a London fertility clinic, I sought daily sanctuary in the splendour of St Paul’s Cathedral. And in those intensely private, and at times lonely, tearful moments, what I didn’t appreciate was that my dilemma is one facing millions of men and women around the world. It cuts to the heart of one of the biggest social and economic challenges of our times: we are leaving it too late to conceive babies naturally or are having fewer children than ever before.
Nearly half of the world’s countries are facing a baby bust, meaning there are insufficient children to maintain their population size. Global fertility rates have almost halved since the 1950s, from 4.7 children per woman in 1950, to 2.4 children – the replacement rate is 2.1 – by 2017. Last year the number of children born in Britain, which has a fertility rate of 1.7 – and which will now introduce fertility education into its curriculum for secondary school students – hit a 10-year low. Ireland (1.8), the country of my birth, once topped Europe’s fertility league – fuelled in no small part by the coercive control over private life and public policy wielded by the Catholic church – but also recorded the lowest number of births per 1,000 since records began.
The decline in global fertility rates is an extraordinary success story for humanity. Female education and empowerment is the key driver of reduced fertility rates mitigating overpopulation, while reducing child mortality and child poverty. But we cannot escape the fact that, while we’re having fewer children, we’re living longer. And this tectonic convergence is having major consequences for individuals, families, our future workforces – even what it means to be a nation state. The phenomenon of “poor demographics”, of not producing stable, growing populations, also poses challenges for economic growth and stability, with higher interest rates and slower growth rates predicted for most developed countries.
A still from Dearbhail McDonald’s TV documentary, Fertility Shock.
Governments are now navigating declining working-age populations and steeling their voters for the fallout of rapidly shrinking dependency ratios – the number of children under the age of 15 and those aged 65 and over, supported by workers in their prime years. We see the problem played out in warnings about the ability to sustain pensions and health and other social programmes. And we see it in policy responses such as cutting state pension benefits, raising the state pension age or increasing migration – fertility’s greatest wild card and one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time.
Many governments would have to increase net migration by huge numbers to mitigate the effects of the forthcoming waves of retirement. But, as we know only too well from support for Donald Trump to Brexit and beyond, tackling declining working-age populations with ever more open immigration policies is not a simple solution. Just look to Hungary, where last month its anti-immigration premier, Viktor Orbán, announced a lifetime tax exemption for women who have four children or more.
It’s not just Europe that is ageing. The fertility rate is below replacement level in most high-income, developed economies including China, whose birth level fell to its lowest in five decades last year, despite relaxing its one- then two-child policy. In Japan more adult nappies are sold than baby nappies. Vladimir Putin is offering cash-for-kids rewards – days off to copulate and prizes including fridges – to reverse Russia’s steady population decline.
‘In China, the birth level fell to its lowest level in five decades last year, despite relaxing its one-, then two-, child, policy.’ Photograph: AP
Why then is there an incomprehensible failure to see the combination of declining birth rates and longevity – which push those critical dependency ratios lower – through a fertility or equality lens? The vast bulk of developed economies are not doing enough to subsidise the costs of childcare, or tackle housing crises that deter many – men and women – from starting a family sooner because they do not have a home to call their own.
The political is, of course, deeply personal. Increasingly, many women who have pursued meaningful careers, or delayed childbearing because they feel priced out of parenthood – as well as putting in long working hours – are relying on medicine. Ever more advanced IVF technologies are bringing joy to millions all over the world and may be justified on the personal level, as they may one day be for me. But they are no substitute for conceiving children naturally.
The impact of the remarkable fall in birth rates is a revolution in human affairs that women should not have to bear alone. The dramatic decline in male sperm counts in western countries, by more than half in 40 years, should also set alarm bells ringing.
Fertility is a key marker for men’s health, correlated as lower sperm counts are with an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and premature death in men. Indeed, one of the tragic ironies of centuries of placing most of the responsibility for fertility and child-rearing on women, is that we have overlooked what is arguably a looming public health crisis for men. Freezing my eggs has allowed me to have a career and still look forward to a future as a mother. But profound fertility shifts require a radical rethink of government policies and our corporate culture, as well as a sea change in attitudes towards women, childbirth and parenthood by all.
We need to tackle the structural and cultural barriers that still penalise women for having children – there’s a reason it’s called the “motherhood penalty” – and it’s a conversation that men, for their sake and ours, need to join. It’s not easy to talk about one’s private fertility journey. But the time for an informed debate is beyond dispute. The decisions policymakers and business leaders make today could have repercussions for generations to come. So let’s have that conversation now – before it’s too late.
• Dearbhail McDonald’s RTÉ One TV documentary, Fertility Shock, will be broadcast on 11 March. McDonald is group business editor, Independent Newspapers (Ireland)
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New year health kicks are great – but your environment is also vital | Dr Robert Wright
Is modern life poisoning me? I took the tests to find out
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Exhibition chemistry
Migration of coloured ions
By Adrian Guy2007-07-01T00:00:00+01:00
Observe both cation and anion movement in a single compound
There are many examples in the literature of ion migration, such as copper(II) sulfate or potassium manganate(vii), either in solution or solid phase. However, to find an example where both cation and anion movement can be observed in a single compound is relatively rare.
The electrolysis of copper(II) chromate(VI)
Copper chromate is a dark green solid, which can be bought or made by mixing copper sulfate with potassium chromate. Passing an electric current through a specially prepared copper chromate solution results in the migration of two coloured ions. The green solution produces two bands of colour: blue copper cations and yellow chromate anions.
Source: Adrian Guy
U-tube; two graphite rods with slit corks to fit the U-tube
Max. 40 V dc supply; electric cables
Retort stand, boss and clamp
Solid CuCrO4
Ammonia solution, 2 mol dm-3
Make the copper(II) chromate(VI) solution by dissolving solid CuCrO4 in the minimum amount of ammonia solution and then saturating with urea to increase its density. Alternatively, you can mix 100 cm3 of molar solutions of copper sulfate and potassium chromate. An orange-brown precipitate will form by double decomposition. Filter the solution through a Buchner flask and scrape the solid into a beaker containing 200 cm3 ammonia solution
(2 mol dm-3). Stir the solution using a magnetic stirrer until the solid is completely dissolved. Add urea until the solution is saturated. Clamp the U-tube to the retort stand and half fill with the ammonia solution. Using a pipette carefully add the copper chromate down the side of the U-tube beneath the ammonia. Place the graphite rods in the U-tube so that they dip into the ammonia solution and connect to the dc supply. Immediately, bubbles of gas are evolved at both electrodes (H2 at the cathode and O2 at the anode) caused by the electrolysis of water in the solution. After a few minutes a blue band forms near the cathode and a yellow band forms near the anode.
Copper and chromate salts are toxic and may be fatal if swallowed. Potassium chromate is a potential carcinogen. Contact with the eyes can cause long-term damage. Ammonia solution is corrosive and skin contact may cause burns. Concentrated solutions release dangerous amounts of ammonia vapour into the air, a hazard if inhaled. The copper chromate solution in the U-tube should be disposed of as toxic solid waste. Copper chromate is harmful if swallowed, may cause an allergic skin reaction and may cause cancer by inhalation.
Special tips
The trick is to ensure the copper chromate is pipetted to the bottom of the U-tube without any mixing taking place so that the ammonia remains clear and colourless. It is preferable to buy the copper chromate rather than make it yourself, because of the dangers involved in making it.
Teaching goals
This is an ideal demonstration to introduce electrolysis because the movement of ions towards the electrodes is clearly visible. The secondary reaction of the electrolysis of the water which also occurs can be used to discuss electrode reactions in more detail.
CrO42-(aq) + 4H2O(l) + 3e-⇌ Cr(OH)3(s) + 5OH-(aq)
Cu2+(aq) + 2e-⇌ Cu(s)
2H+(aq) + 2e-⇌ H2(g)
O2(g) + 2H2O(l) + 4e-⇌ 4OH-(aq)
The difference between electrolysis of molten or aqueous salts can be discussed and used as an introduction to industrial electrolysis, eg molten sodium chloride or brine electrolysis.
During electrolysis, either a metal or hydrogen is produced at the negative electrode as positive ions gain electrons (reduction), eg in molten sodium chloride electrolysis. At the positive electrode, non-metals such as oxygen or chlorine are evolved as negative ions lose electrons (oxidation), eg in molten sodium chloride.
During electrolysis of aqueous sodium chloride, sodium and hydrogen ions are attracted to the negative electrode. The positive hydrogen ions are reduced by electron gain to form hydrogen molecules. The positive electrode attracts hydroxide and chloride ions. The chloride ions are oxidised by electron loss to give chlorine molecules. The overall reaction is:
2NaCl(aq) + 2H2O(l) ⇌ 2NaOH(aq) + H2(g) + Cl2(g)
With sixthformers, a discussion of electrode potentials and the Nernst equation could lead to an under-standing of why a particular substance is produced by electrolysis and how concentration has a part to play.
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Library /
Content /
Global Conservation Program-Closeout Reports, Achievements, and Lessons Learned Featured February 22, 2011 /
Wildlife Conservation Society GCP
by portaladmin — last modified Jan 10, 2013 11:44 AM
Global Conservation Program Closeout Reports, Achievements, and Lessons Learned
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The Eastern Steppe Living Landscape (Mongolia) The Global Conservation Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservation at a Landscape and Seascape Scale Global Conservation Program (GCP), TransLinks, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Glover’s Reef Living Seascape:Safeguarding Marine Resources and Rural Livelihoods in Belize The Global Conservati on Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservati on at a Landscape and Seascape Scale ... Closeout Report, Coastal and Marine Ecosystems, Global Conservation Program (GCP), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Marine Biodiversity
Maya Biosphere Reserve Living Landscape (Guatemala) The Global Conservation Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservation at a Landscape and Seascape Scale Biosphere, Closeout Report, Global Conservation Program (GCP), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Ndoki-Likouala Landscape Conservati on Area (Republic of Congo) The Global Conservati on Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservation at a Landscape and Seascape Scale Closeout Report, Global Conservation Program (GCP), Conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Conservation Landscape for Peace: Sustaining Wildlife, and Community Livelihoods in the Southern Sudan-Northern Uganda Transboundary Landscape The Global Conservation Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservation at a Landscape and Seascape Scale Global Conservation Program (GCP), Conservation, Transboundary Natural Resource Management (TBNRM), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Livelihood
Greater Yasuní-Napo Moist Forest Landscape Conservation Area (Ecuador) The Global Conservati on Program Achievements and Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Support for Threats-based Conservation at a Landscape and Seascape Scale Global Conservation Program (GCP), Conservation, Forest, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
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Prime minister seeks to calm feud within ruling coalition
Giorgi Kvirikashvili. (Interpressnews.)
TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian prime minister sought to calm down a feud within his coalition on Thursday, detailing his views in a statement posted on Facebook.
Gogi Topadze, leader of the coalition partner the Industrialists, accused the defense minister of having been involved in election fraud, while the minister, Tina Khidasheli, on her part accused Topadze of promoting Russian interests and Stalinism, which further exacerbated the conflict.
In the lengthy statement, PM Gorgi Kvirikashvili criticized both sides, but especially Khidasheli, who represents the Republican Party.
“The Defense Minister is first and foremost a member of the cabinet, and only secondary one of the leaders of her party. Considering her status, I believe it is unacceptable of her to engage in this sort of confrontation,” the statement reads.
Earlier, members of the coalition criticized MP Topadze.
The PM believes it doesn’t matter who started the confrontation and why, as they have to respect people who supported the coalition in 2012 and trusted them with running the country, thus politicians have to be responsible.
Kvirikashvili writes that the best efforts should be made in order to distance Georgian army from political processes.
“For the future of Georgia it is unknown and unacceptable having Stalinist sentiments, radicalism and marginal pseudo-traditions from the Soviet Union,” he continues.
He writes that Georgian Dream is ready to cooperate with any political force that supports the development of Georgia on the way of the integration with Europe.
He called on political partners to resolve their conflicts within the coalition.
“Otherwise I, as prime minister and leader of the coalition, will bring the changes which will provide for the stable functioning of the government and putting the political process in healthy frames.”
The confrontation began in the early February, when Topadze accused Khidasheli of fabricating the by-election in Sagarejo in October. Khidasheli gave a lengthy interview with Rustavi 2 on Tuesday, and said that Topadze is backed by forces in the neighbor country, meaning Russia.
By DFWatch staff| 2016-03-03T18:35:32+00:00 March 3rd, 2016|Categories: News|Tags: by-election in Sagarejo and Martvili 2015, Giorgi Kvirikashvili new PM, Gogi Topadze, Tina Khidasheli|0 Comments
South Ossetia refuses to reopen Akhalgori checkpoint
Georgia’s opposition TV channels’ accounts seized amid growing concerns of government pressure
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Entertaining Welsey Shaw a novel by JOHN GRABOWSKI
John Grabowski’s author site
Order “Entertaining Welsey Shaw”
Posts tagged “Jessica Biel”
Totally recalling when Hollywood tried to make good movies
For several drafts of Entertaining Welsey Shaw I had wanted to state that Welsey was walking away from acting—basically retiring before she was 30—in large part because there were few “properties” as they call them today that she was interested in because they were mindless junk. I didn’t want to say it quite as blatantly as I did just now. I’m a firm believer in the adage if you want to send a message, use Western Union.
So my way of dealing with it was to have her mention that in the first half of her career only a few of her movies were shown on airlines, and in the second half most of them were. When was the last time you saw a really really great film being shown as the in-flight movie? Personally I never pay for the earphones to watch those films, though I’d pay for earplugs to block them out.
Welsey retires from movies because, after establishing herself with some serious films, works of art (the big gamechanger for her is a Miramax-style arthouse flick called Mystery at Alessandro Creek) she finds herself struggling to get other films of that caliber. She gets some, but mostly it’s brain-dead comedies and action or horror flicks.
I thought of this today when seeing the reviews for the “reboot,” to use the term the industry loves, of Total Recall. This new version features female stars Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel, both of whom made their impact in legitimate, “literary” arthouse movies. Beckinsale first attracted our attention with Kenneth Branaugh’s Much Ado About Nothing, and Biel started out in the unusual drama Ulee’s Gold. It’s an interesting dynamic that I see all actors today going through, and in my novel Welsey suffers from it too: break in by making a couple “serious” (real) movies to establish acting credibility. Then, once the world knows your face, go on to make mindless, cape-wearing video game films. Claire Danes is the only actress I can think of who more or less has escaped this fate—we’ll just turn our heads and pretend Terminator 3 didn’t really happen.
Since Ulee’s Gold, Biel has been in a long line of awful comedies. But Beckinsale has been the real sell-out. She’s spent the last ten years mostly in leather catsuits of various sorts, being an action hero(ine) in practically every film, kick-boxing and karate-chopping her way from scene to scene and role to role. I know good roles in Hollywood are hard to come by. But Beckinsale in particular doesn’t seem to want to work terribly hard, unless you consider kicking faux villains in ridiculously tight suitsto be hard work, and I suppose on some level it is. There’s no acting involved. (I still like the way the baddies come at our heroes one at a time and take incredibly long amounts of time to react, just as they did on the 1960s “Batman” TV campfest.) You just have to look cool and sexy as you deliver a string of “cutting” one-liners.
The reviews are in for the newest Total Recall, and they’re awful. As this interesting article points out, the assemblage of cast and crew gathers the untalented and the remarkably even more untalented. They have been involved in strings of weak or underperforming products, both critically and commercially. Yet they don’t seem to have trouble finding work. Jessica Alba? She can’t even act at the level of a student in the high school play. And Becksale’s hubby directed this thing. That’s something that’s occurring more and more: wives in husband’s projects, or the same few “beer buddies” making films, the same films, over and over again to give each other employment. This isn’t like when auteurs such as Altman and Allen and Fellini and Bergman used many of the same actors repeatedly, as part of a theater company-like cast. These are just the cool kids, the popular kids, making closed-door deals that are the same as their last ten projects, to studios which don’t even seem interested in making movies anymore. Gaming companies are actually on the payroll to dictate content on many of these films now. Hasbro has particularly jumped on board. I’ve read a Tonka Trucks movie is in the works. Seriously. But why not, when there was Speed Racer? Remember that supersized bomb? Well, fear not, a sequel’s in the works.
So in the end of my novel Welsey basically, except for a supporting role in a film here and there, made on her time at her convenience, abandons movies. I think it’s the smartest thing she does in the novel. She realizes, without exactly articulating it (Western Union again), that what we have instead of movie studios are closed frat-houses of childishness. And basically dumb audiences happy to spend lots of money to see their product. And even if you aren’t, no matter, they’ll just get the greenlight to make more anyway until they beat you into submission. This is all you’re getting, so you’d better go see it or have nothing to do. And then no one will want to talk to you. (“You didn’t see XXX? Why not?”)
This past weekend I was in a Baja Fresh restaurant in Tahoe and one of the selections they had for soda was, lo and behold, Coke Zero. I was gratified, because it actually tastes very much like “real” Coke, something they never got right in the older Diet Coke formulation. Yet despite this, few restaurants carry it.
A slim and trim woman ahead of me said she hated Diet Coke. Her husband or boyfriend or whomever she was with pointed out the Coke Zero and said how good it was. “Yeah,” she commented, “but I always get Diet Coke.” And so she stuck her cup under the spigot and got it again. So it is with movies today. Most of them are going to be terrible and a waste of money, but enough people will go anyway, because, well, they always have.
I read recently that a planned movie version of A Confederacy of Dunces, the 1980 John Kennedy Toole novel that won him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize, was canceled. The person reporting the news was disappointed. Personally I am not. But I can assure you that Anchorman 2 and the sequel to Paul Blart: Mall Cop are humming along right on schedule.
August 2, 2012 | Categories: Entertaining Welsey Shaw | Tags: blockbuster, Confederacy of Dunces, Entertaining Welsey Shaw, fame, fiction, Hollywood, Jessica Biel, John Grabowski, Kate Beckinsale, Speed Racer, Total Recall, Will Ferrell | 1 Comment
Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and most other book retailers.
Goodbye from here and welcome to my New Site and Facebook page
Encore: My wife
Gone girls
What makes my blood boil…
Entertaining Welsey Shaw
©2012 by John Grabowski.
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Project acronym 321
Project from Cubic To Linear complexity in computational electromagnetics
Researcher (PI) Francesco Paolo ANDRIULLI
Host Institution (HI) POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Summary Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) is the scientific field at the origin of all new modeling and simulation tools required by the constantly arising design challenges of emerging and future technologies in applied electromagnetics. As in many other technological fields, however, the trend in all emerging technologies in electromagnetic engineering is going towards miniaturized, higher density and multi-scale scenarios. Computationally speaking this translates in the steep increase of the number of degrees of freedom. Given that the design cost (the cost of a multi-right-hand side problem dominated by matrix inversion) can scale as badly as cubically with these degrees of freedom, this fact, as pointed out by many, will sensibly compromise the practical impact of CEM on future and emerging technologies. For this reason, the CEM scientific community has been looking for years for a FFT-like paradigm shift: a dynamic fast direct solver providing a design cost that would scale only linearly with the degrees of freedom. Such a fast solver is considered today a Holy Grail of the discipline. The Grand Challenge of 321 will be to tackle this Holy Grail in Computational Electromagnetics by investigating a dynamic Fast Direct Solver for Maxwell Problems that would run in a linear-instead-of-cubic complexity for an arbitrary number and configuration of degrees of freedom. The failure of all previous attempts will be overcome by a game-changing transformation of the CEM classical problem that will leverage on a recent breakthrough of the PI. Starting from this, the project will investigate an entire new paradigm for impacting algorithms to achieve this grand challenge. The impact of the FFT’s quadratic-to-linear paradigm shift shows how computational complexity reductions can be groundbreaking on applications. The cubic-to-linear paradigm shift, which the 321 project will aim for, will have such a rupturing impact on electromagnetic science and technology.
Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) is the scientific field at the origin of all new modeling and simulation tools required by the constantly arising design challenges of emerging and future technologies in applied electromagnetics. As in many other technological fields, however, the trend in all emerging technologies in electromagnetic engineering is going towards miniaturized, higher density and multi-scale scenarios. Computationally speaking this translates in the steep increase of the number of degrees of freedom. Given that the design cost (the cost of a multi-right-hand side problem dominated by matrix inversion) can scale as badly as cubically with these degrees of freedom, this fact, as pointed out by many, will sensibly compromise the practical impact of CEM on future and emerging technologies. For this reason, the CEM scientific community has been looking for years for a FFT-like paradigm shift: a dynamic fast direct solver providing a design cost that would scale only linearly with the degrees of freedom. Such a fast solver is considered today a Holy Grail of the discipline. The Grand Challenge of 321 will be to tackle this Holy Grail in Computational Electromagnetics by investigating a dynamic Fast Direct Solver for Maxwell Problems that would run in a linear-instead-of-cubic complexity for an arbitrary number and configuration of degrees of freedom. The failure of all previous attempts will be overcome by a game-changing transformation of the CEM classical problem that will leverage on a recent breakthrough of the PI. Starting from this, the project will investigate an entire new paradigm for impacting algorithms to achieve this grand challenge. The impact of the FFT’s quadratic-to-linear paradigm shift shows how computational complexity reductions can be groundbreaking on applications. The cubic-to-linear paradigm shift, which the 321 project will aim for, will have such a rupturing impact on electromagnetic science and technology.
Project acronym 3D-PXM
Project 3D Piezoresponse X-ray Microscopy
Researcher (PI) Hugh SIMONS
Host Institution (HI) DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Summary Polar materials, such as piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are essential to our modern life, yet they are mostly developed by trial-and-error. Their properties overwhelmingly depend on the defects within them, the majority of which are hidden in the bulk. The road to better materials is via mapping these defects, but our best tool for it – piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) – is limited to surfaces. 3D-PXM aims to revolutionize our understanding by measuring the local structure-property correlations around individual defects buried deep in the bulk. This is a completely new kind of microscopy enabling 3D maps of local strain and polarization (i.e. piezoresponse) with 10 nm resolution in mm-sized samples. It is novel, multi-scale and fast enough to capture defect dynamics in real time. Uniquely, it is a full-field method that uses a synthetic-aperture approach to improve both resolution and recover the image phase. This phase is then quantitatively correlated to local polarization and strain via a forward model. 3D-PXM combines advances in X-Ray optics, phase recovery and data analysis to create something transformative. In principle, it can achieve spatial resolution comparable to the best coherent X-Ray microscopy methods while being faster, used on larger samples, and without risk of radiation damage. For the first time, this opens the door to solving how defects influence bulk properties under real-life conditions. 3D-PXM focuses on three types of defects prevalent in polar materials: grain boundaries, dislocations and polar nanoregions. Individually they address major gaps in the state-of-the-art, while together making great strides towards fully understanding defects. This understanding is expected to inform a new generation of multi-scale models that can account for a material’s full heterogeneity. These models are the first step towards abandoning our tradition of trial-and-error, and with this comes the potential for a new era of polar materials.
Polar materials, such as piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are essential to our modern life, yet they are mostly developed by trial-and-error. Their properties overwhelmingly depend on the defects within them, the majority of which are hidden in the bulk. The road to better materials is via mapping these defects, but our best tool for it – piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) – is limited to surfaces. 3D-PXM aims to revolutionize our understanding by measuring the local structure-property correlations around individual defects buried deep in the bulk. This is a completely new kind of microscopy enabling 3D maps of local strain and polarization (i.e. piezoresponse) with 10 nm resolution in mm-sized samples. It is novel, multi-scale and fast enough to capture defect dynamics in real time. Uniquely, it is a full-field method that uses a synthetic-aperture approach to improve both resolution and recover the image phase. This phase is then quantitatively correlated to local polarization and strain via a forward model. 3D-PXM combines advances in X-Ray optics, phase recovery and data analysis to create something transformative. In principle, it can achieve spatial resolution comparable to the best coherent X-Ray microscopy methods while being faster, used on larger samples, and without risk of radiation damage. For the first time, this opens the door to solving how defects influence bulk properties under real-life conditions. 3D-PXM focuses on three types of defects prevalent in polar materials: grain boundaries, dislocations and polar nanoregions. Individually they address major gaps in the state-of-the-art, while together making great strides towards fully understanding defects. This understanding is expected to inform a new generation of multi-scale models that can account for a material’s full heterogeneity. These models are the first step towards abandoning our tradition of trial-and-error, and with this comes the potential for a new era of polar materials.
Project acronym 3D-QUEST
Project 3D-Quantum Integrated Optical Simulation
Researcher (PI) Fabio Sciarrino
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
Summary "Quantum information was born from the merging of classical information and quantum physics. Its main objective consists of understanding the quantum nature of information and learning how to process it by using physical systems which operate by following quantum mechanics laws. Quantum simulation is a fundamental instrument to investigate phenomena of quantum systems dynamics, such as quantum transport, particle localizations and energy transfer, quantum-to-classical transition, and even quantum improved computation, all tasks that are hard to simulate with classical approaches. Within this framework integrated photonic circuits have a strong potential to realize quantum information processing by optical systems. The aim of 3D-QUEST is to develop and implement quantum simulation by exploiting 3-dimensional integrated photonic circuits. 3D-QUEST is structured to demonstrate the potential of linear optics to implement a computational power beyond the one of a classical computer. Such ""hard-to-simulate"" scenario is disclosed when multiphoton-multimode platforms are realized. The 3D-QUEST research program will focus on three tasks of growing difficulty. A-1. To simulate bosonic-fermionic dynamics with integrated optical systems acting on 2 photon entangled states. A-2. To pave the way towards hard-to-simulate, scalable quantum linear optical circuits by investigating m-port interferometers acting on n-photon states with n>2. A-3. To exploit 3-dimensional integrated structures for the observation of new quantum optical phenomena and for the quantum simulation of more complex scenarios. 3D-QUEST will exploit the potential of the femtosecond laser writing integrated waveguides. This technique will be adopted to realize 3-dimensional capabilities and high flexibility, bringing in this way the optical quantum simulation in to new regime."
"Quantum information was born from the merging of classical information and quantum physics. Its main objective consists of understanding the quantum nature of information and learning how to process it by using physical systems which operate by following quantum mechanics laws. Quantum simulation is a fundamental instrument to investigate phenomena of quantum systems dynamics, such as quantum transport, particle localizations and energy transfer, quantum-to-classical transition, and even quantum improved computation, all tasks that are hard to simulate with classical approaches. Within this framework integrated photonic circuits have a strong potential to realize quantum information processing by optical systems. The aim of 3D-QUEST is to develop and implement quantum simulation by exploiting 3-dimensional integrated photonic circuits. 3D-QUEST is structured to demonstrate the potential of linear optics to implement a computational power beyond the one of a classical computer. Such ""hard-to-simulate"" scenario is disclosed when multiphoton-multimode platforms are realized. The 3D-QUEST research program will focus on three tasks of growing difficulty. A-1. To simulate bosonic-fermionic dynamics with integrated optical systems acting on 2 photon entangled states. A-2. To pave the way towards hard-to-simulate, scalable quantum linear optical circuits by investigating m-port interferometers acting on n-photon states with n>2. A-3. To exploit 3-dimensional integrated structures for the observation of new quantum optical phenomena and for the quantum simulation of more complex scenarios. 3D-QUEST will exploit the potential of the femtosecond laser writing integrated waveguides. This technique will be adopted to realize 3-dimensional capabilities and high flexibility, bringing in this way the optical quantum simulation in to new regime."
Project acronym 3DSPIN
Project 3-Dimensional Maps of the Spinning Nucleon
Researcher (PI) Alessandro Bacchetta
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA
Summary How does the inside of the proton look like? What generates its spin?
3DSPIN will deliver essential information to answer these questions at the frontier of subnuclear physics. At present, we have detailed maps of the distribution of quarks and gluons in the nucleon in 1D (as a function of their momentum in a single direction). We also know that quark spins account for only about 1/3 of the spin of the nucleon. 3DSPIN will lead the way into a new stage of nucleon mapping, explore the distribution of quarks in full 3D momentum space and obtain unprecedented information on orbital angular momentum. Goals 1. extract from experimental data the 3D distribution of quarks (in momentum space), as described by Transverse-Momentum Distributions (TMDs); 2. obtain from TMDs information on quark Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM). Methodology 3DSPIN will implement state-of-the-art fitting procedures to analyze relevant experimental data and extract quark TMDs, similarly to global fits of standard parton distribution functions. Information about quark angular momentum will be obtained through assumptions based on theoretical considerations. The next five years represent an ideal time window to accomplish our goals, thanks to the wealth of expected data from deep-inelastic scattering experiments (COMPASS, Jefferson Lab), hadronic colliders (Fermilab, BNL, LHC), and electron-positron colliders (BELLE, BABAR). The PI has a strong reputation in this field. The group will operate in partnership with the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics and in close interaction with leading experts and experimental collaborations worldwide. Impact Mapping the 3D structure of chemical compounds has revolutionized chemistry. Similarly, mapping the 3D structure of the nucleon will have a deep impact on our understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter. We will open new perspectives on the dynamics of quarks and gluons and sharpen our view of high-energy processes involving nucleons.
How does the inside of the proton look like? What generates its spin?
3DSPIN will deliver essential information to answer these questions at the frontier of subnuclear physics. At present, we have detailed maps of the distribution of quarks and gluons in the nucleon in 1D (as a function of their momentum in a single direction). We also know that quark spins account for only about 1/3 of the spin of the nucleon. 3DSPIN will lead the way into a new stage of nucleon mapping, explore the distribution of quarks in full 3D momentum space and obtain unprecedented information on orbital angular momentum. Goals 1. extract from experimental data the 3D distribution of quarks (in momentum space), as described by Transverse-Momentum Distributions (TMDs); 2. obtain from TMDs information on quark Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM). Methodology 3DSPIN will implement state-of-the-art fitting procedures to analyze relevant experimental data and extract quark TMDs, similarly to global fits of standard parton distribution functions. Information about quark angular momentum will be obtained through assumptions based on theoretical considerations. The next five years represent an ideal time window to accomplish our goals, thanks to the wealth of expected data from deep-inelastic scattering experiments (COMPASS, Jefferson Lab), hadronic colliders (Fermilab, BNL, LHC), and electron-positron colliders (BELLE, BABAR). The PI has a strong reputation in this field. The group will operate in partnership with the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics and in close interaction with leading experts and experimental collaborations worldwide. Impact Mapping the 3D structure of chemical compounds has revolutionized chemistry. Similarly, mapping the 3D structure of the nucleon will have a deep impact on our understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter. We will open new perspectives on the dynamics of quarks and gluons and sharpen our view of high-energy processes involving nucleons.
Project acronym 3S-BTMUC
Project Soft, Slimy, Sliding Interfaces: Biotribological Properties of Mucins and Mucus gels
Researcher (PI) Seunghwan Lee
Summary Mucins are a family of high-molecular-weight glycoproteins and a major macromolecular constituent in slimy mucus gels that are covering the surface of internal biological tissues. A primary role of mucus gels in biological systems is known to be the protection and lubrication of underlying epithelial cell surfaces. This is intuitively well appreciated by both science community and the public, and yet detailed lubrication properties of mucins and mucus gels have remained largely unexplored to date. Detailed and systematic understanding of the lubrication mechanism of mucus gels is significant from many angles; firstly, lubricity of mucus gels is closely related with fundamental functions of various human organs, such as eye blinking, mastication in oral cavity, swallowing through esophagus, digestion in stomach, breathing through air way and respiratory organs, and thus often indicates the health state of those organs. Furthermore, for the application of various tissue-contacting devices or personal care products, e.g. catheters, endoscopes, and contact lenses, mucus gel layer is the first counter surface that comes into the mechanical and tribological contacts with them. Finally, remarkable lubricating performance by mucins and mucus gels in biological systems may provide many useful and possibly innovative hints in utilizing water as base lubricant for man-made engineering systems. This project thus proposes to carry out a 5 year research program focusing on exploring the lubricity of mucins and mucus gels by combining a broad range of experimental approaches in biology and tribology.
Mucins are a family of high-molecular-weight glycoproteins and a major macromolecular constituent in slimy mucus gels that are covering the surface of internal biological tissues. A primary role of mucus gels in biological systems is known to be the protection and lubrication of underlying epithelial cell surfaces. This is intuitively well appreciated by both science community and the public, and yet detailed lubrication properties of mucins and mucus gels have remained largely unexplored to date. Detailed and systematic understanding of the lubrication mechanism of mucus gels is significant from many angles; firstly, lubricity of mucus gels is closely related with fundamental functions of various human organs, such as eye blinking, mastication in oral cavity, swallowing through esophagus, digestion in stomach, breathing through air way and respiratory organs, and thus often indicates the health state of those organs. Furthermore, for the application of various tissue-contacting devices or personal care products, e.g. catheters, endoscopes, and contact lenses, mucus gel layer is the first counter surface that comes into the mechanical and tribological contacts with them. Finally, remarkable lubricating performance by mucins and mucus gels in biological systems may provide many useful and possibly innovative hints in utilizing water as base lubricant for man-made engineering systems. This project thus proposes to carry out a 5 year research program focusing on exploring the lubricity of mucins and mucus gels by combining a broad range of experimental approaches in biology and tribology.
Project acronym 4DPHOTON
Project Beyond Light Imaging: High-Rate Single-Photon Detection in Four Dimensions
Researcher (PI) Massimiliano FIORINI
Host Institution (HI) ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI FISICA NUCLEARE
Summary Goal of the 4DPHOTON project is the development and construction of a photon imaging detector with unprecedented performance. The proposed device will be capable of detecting fluxes of single-photons up to one billion photons per second, over areas of several square centimetres, and will measure - for each photon - position and time simultaneously with resolutions better than ten microns and few tens of picoseconds, respectively. These figures of merit will open many important applications allowing significant advances in particle physics, life sciences or other emerging fields where excellent timing and position resolutions are simultaneously required. Our goal will be achieved thanks to the use of an application-specific integrated circuit in 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, that will deliver a timing resolution of few tens of picoseconds at the pixel level, over few hundred thousand individually-active pixel channels, allowing very high rates of photons to be detected, and the corresponding information digitized and transferred to a processing unit. As a result of the 4DPHOTON project we will remove the constraints that many light imaging applications have due to the lack of precise single-photon information on four dimensions (4D): the three spatial coordinates and time simultaneously. In particular, we will prove the performance of this detector in the field of particle physics, performing the reconstruction of Cherenkov photon rings with a timing resolution of ten picoseconds. With its excellent granularity, timing resolution, rate capability and compactness, this detector will represent a new paradigm for the realisation of future Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors, capable of achieving high efficiency particle identification in environments with very high particle multiplicities, exploiting time-association of the photon hits.
Goal of the 4DPHOTON project is the development and construction of a photon imaging detector with unprecedented performance. The proposed device will be capable of detecting fluxes of single-photons up to one billion photons per second, over areas of several square centimetres, and will measure - for each photon - position and time simultaneously with resolutions better than ten microns and few tens of picoseconds, respectively. These figures of merit will open many important applications allowing significant advances in particle physics, life sciences or other emerging fields where excellent timing and position resolutions are simultaneously required. Our goal will be achieved thanks to the use of an application-specific integrated circuit in 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, that will deliver a timing resolution of few tens of picoseconds at the pixel level, over few hundred thousand individually-active pixel channels, allowing very high rates of photons to be detected, and the corresponding information digitized and transferred to a processing unit. As a result of the 4DPHOTON project we will remove the constraints that many light imaging applications have due to the lack of precise single-photon information on four dimensions (4D): the three spatial coordinates and time simultaneously. In particular, we will prove the performance of this detector in the field of particle physics, performing the reconstruction of Cherenkov photon rings with a timing resolution of ten picoseconds. With its excellent granularity, timing resolution, rate capability and compactness, this detector will represent a new paradigm for the realisation of future Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors, capable of achieving high efficiency particle identification in environments with very high particle multiplicities, exploiting time-association of the photon hits.
Project acronym aCROBAT
Project Circadian Regulation Of Brown Adipose Thermogenesis
Researcher (PI) Zachary Philip Gerhart-Hines
Summary Obesity and diabetes have reached pandemic proportions and new therapeutic strategies are critically needed. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), a major source of heat production, possesses significant energy-dissipating capacity and therefore represents a promising target to use in combating these diseases. Recently, I discovered a novel link between circadian rhythm and thermogenic stress in the control of the conserved, calorie-burning functions of BAT. Circadian and thermogenic signaling to BAT incorporates blood-borne hormonal and nutrient cues with direct neuronal input. Yet how these responses coordinately shape BAT energy-expending potential through the regulation of cell surface receptors, metabolic enzymes, and transcriptional effectors is still not understood. My primary goal is to investigate this previously unappreciated network of crosstalk that allows mammals to effectively orchestrate daily rhythms in BAT metabolism, while maintaining their ability to adapt to abrupt changes in energy demand. My group will address this question using gain and loss-of-function in vitro and in vivo studies, newly-generated mouse models, customized physiological phenotyping, and cutting-edge advances in next generation RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry. Preliminary, small-scale validations of our methodologies have already yielded a number of novel candidates that may drive key facets of BAT metabolism. Additionally, we will extend our circadian and thermogenic studies into humans to evaluate the translational potential. Our results will advance the fundamental understanding of how daily oscillations in bioenergetic networks establish a framework for the anticipation of and adaptation to environmental challenges. Importantly, we expect that these mechanistic insights will reveal pharmacological targets through which we can unlock evolutionary constraints and harness the energy-expending potential of BAT for the prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes.
Obesity and diabetes have reached pandemic proportions and new therapeutic strategies are critically needed. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), a major source of heat production, possesses significant energy-dissipating capacity and therefore represents a promising target to use in combating these diseases. Recently, I discovered a novel link between circadian rhythm and thermogenic stress in the control of the conserved, calorie-burning functions of BAT. Circadian and thermogenic signaling to BAT incorporates blood-borne hormonal and nutrient cues with direct neuronal input. Yet how these responses coordinately shape BAT energy-expending potential through the regulation of cell surface receptors, metabolic enzymes, and transcriptional effectors is still not understood. My primary goal is to investigate this previously unappreciated network of crosstalk that allows mammals to effectively orchestrate daily rhythms in BAT metabolism, while maintaining their ability to adapt to abrupt changes in energy demand. My group will address this question using gain and loss-of-function in vitro and in vivo studies, newly-generated mouse models, customized physiological phenotyping, and cutting-edge advances in next generation RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry. Preliminary, small-scale validations of our methodologies have already yielded a number of novel candidates that may drive key facets of BAT metabolism. Additionally, we will extend our circadian and thermogenic studies into humans to evaluate the translational potential. Our results will advance the fundamental understanding of how daily oscillations in bioenergetic networks establish a framework for the anticipation of and adaptation to environmental challenges. Importantly, we expect that these mechanistic insights will reveal pharmacological targets through which we can unlock evolutionary constraints and harness the energy-expending potential of BAT for the prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes.
Project acronym ADAPT
Project Origins and factors governing adaptation: Insights from experimental evolution and population genomic data
Researcher (PI) Thomas, Martin Jean Bataillon
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Summary "I propose a systematic study of the type of genetic variation enabling adaptation and factors that limit rates of adaptation in natural populations. New methods will be developed for analysing data from experimental evolution and population genomics. The methods will be applied to state of the art data from both fields. Adaptation is generated by natural selection sieving through heritable variation. Examples of adaptation are available from the fossil record and from extant populations. Genomic studies have supplied many instances of genomic regions exhibiting footprint of natural selection favouring new variants. Despite ample proof that adaptation happens, we know little about beneficial mutations– the raw stuff enabling adaptation. Is adaptation mediated by genetic variation pre-existing in the population, or by variation supplied de novo through mutations? We know even less about what factors limit rates of adaptation. Answers to these questions are crucial for Evolutionary Biology, but also for believable quantifications of the evolutionary potential of populations. Population genetic theory makes predictions and allows inference from the patterns of polymorphism within species and divergence between species. Yet models specifying the fitness effects of mutations are often missing. Fitness landscape models will be mobilized to fill this gap and develop methods for inferring the distribution of fitness effects and factors governing rates of adaptation. Insights into the processes underlying adaptation will thus be gained from experimental evolution and population genomics data. The applicability of insights gained from experimental evolution to comprehend adaptation in nature will be scrutinized. We will unite two very different approaches for studying adaptation. The project will boost our understanding of how selection shapes genomes and open the way for further quantitative tests of theories of adaptation."
"I propose a systematic study of the type of genetic variation enabling adaptation and factors that limit rates of adaptation in natural populations. New methods will be developed for analysing data from experimental evolution and population genomics. The methods will be applied to state of the art data from both fields. Adaptation is generated by natural selection sieving through heritable variation. Examples of adaptation are available from the fossil record and from extant populations. Genomic studies have supplied many instances of genomic regions exhibiting footprint of natural selection favouring new variants. Despite ample proof that adaptation happens, we know little about beneficial mutations– the raw stuff enabling adaptation. Is adaptation mediated by genetic variation pre-existing in the population, or by variation supplied de novo through mutations? We know even less about what factors limit rates of adaptation. Answers to these questions are crucial for Evolutionary Biology, but also for believable quantifications of the evolutionary potential of populations. Population genetic theory makes predictions and allows inference from the patterns of polymorphism within species and divergence between species. Yet models specifying the fitness effects of mutations are often missing. Fitness landscape models will be mobilized to fill this gap and develop methods for inferring the distribution of fitness effects and factors governing rates of adaptation. Insights into the processes underlying adaptation will thus be gained from experimental evolution and population genomics data. The applicability of insights gained from experimental evolution to comprehend adaptation in nature will be scrutinized. We will unite two very different approaches for studying adaptation. The project will boost our understanding of how selection shapes genomes and open the way for further quantitative tests of theories of adaptation."
Project acronym AGEnTh
Project Atomic Gauge and Entanglement Theories
Researcher (PI) Marcello DALMONTE
Host Institution (HI) SCUOLA INTERNAZIONALE SUPERIORE DI STUDI AVANZATI DI TRIESTE
Summary AGEnTh is an interdisciplinary proposal which aims at theoretically investigating atomic many-body systems (cold atoms and trapped ions) in close connection to concepts from quantum information, condensed matter, and high energy physics. The main goals of this programme are to: I) Find to scalable schemes for the measurements of entanglement properties, and in particular entanglement spectra, by proposing a shifting paradigm to access entanglement focused on entanglement Hamiltonians and field theories instead of probing density matrices; II) Show how atomic gauge theories (including dynamical gauge fields) are ideal candidates for the realization of long-sought, highly-entangled states of matter, in particular topological superconductors supporting parafermion edge modes, and novel classes of quantum spin liquids emerging from clustering; III) Develop new implementation strategies for the realization of gauge symmetries of paramount importance, such as discrete and SU(N)xSU(2)xU(1) groups, and establish a theoretical framework for the understanding of atomic physics experiments within the light-from-chaos scenario pioneered in particle physics. These objectives are at the cutting-edge of fundamental science, and represent a coherent effort aimed at underpinning unprecedented regimes of strongly interacting quantum matter by addressing the basic aspects of probing, many-body physics, and implementations. The results are expected to (i) build up and establish qualitatively new synergies between the aforementioned communities, and (ii) stimulate an intense theoretical and experimental activity focused on both entanglement and atomic gauge theories. In order to achieve those, AGEnTh builds: (1) on my background working at the interface between atomic physics and quantum optics from one side, and many-body theory on the other, and (2) on exploratory studies which I carried out to mitigate the conceptual risks associated with its high-risk/high-gain goals.
AGEnTh is an interdisciplinary proposal which aims at theoretically investigating atomic many-body systems (cold atoms and trapped ions) in close connection to concepts from quantum information, condensed matter, and high energy physics. The main goals of this programme are to: I) Find to scalable schemes for the measurements of entanglement properties, and in particular entanglement spectra, by proposing a shifting paradigm to access entanglement focused on entanglement Hamiltonians and field theories instead of probing density matrices; II) Show how atomic gauge theories (including dynamical gauge fields) are ideal candidates for the realization of long-sought, highly-entangled states of matter, in particular topological superconductors supporting parafermion edge modes, and novel classes of quantum spin liquids emerging from clustering; III) Develop new implementation strategies for the realization of gauge symmetries of paramount importance, such as discrete and SU(N)xSU(2)xU(1) groups, and establish a theoretical framework for the understanding of atomic physics experiments within the light-from-chaos scenario pioneered in particle physics. These objectives are at the cutting-edge of fundamental science, and represent a coherent effort aimed at underpinning unprecedented regimes of strongly interacting quantum matter by addressing the basic aspects of probing, many-body physics, and implementations. The results are expected to (i) build up and establish qualitatively new synergies between the aforementioned communities, and (ii) stimulate an intense theoretical and experimental activity focused on both entanglement and atomic gauge theories. In order to achieve those, AGEnTh builds: (1) on my background working at the interface between atomic physics and quantum optics from one side, and many-body theory on the other, and (2) on exploratory studies which I carried out to mitigate the conceptual risks associated with its high-risk/high-gain goals.
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Project acronym 2F4BIODYN
Project Two-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for the Exploration of Biomolecular Dynamics
Researcher (PI) Fabien Ferrage
Summary The paradigm of the structure-function relationship in proteins is outdated. Biological macromolecules and supramolecular assemblies are highly dynamic objects. Evidence that their motions are of utmost importance to their functions is regularly identified. The understanding of the physical chemistry of biological processes at an atomic level has to rely not only on the description of structure but also on the characterization of molecular motions. The investigation of protein motions will be undertaken with a very innovative methodological approach in nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation. In order to widen the ranges of frequencies at which local motions in proteins are probed, we will first use and develop new techniques for a prototype shuttle system for the measurement of relaxation at low fields on a high-field NMR spectrometer. Second, we will develop a novel system: a set of low-field NMR spectrometers designed as accessories for high-field spectrometers. Used in conjunction with the shuttle, this system will offer (i) the sensitivity and resolution (i.e. atomic level information) of a high-field spectrometer (ii) the access to low fields of a relaxometer and (iii) the ability to measure a wide variety of relaxation rates with high accuracy. This system will benefit from the latest technology in homogeneous permanent magnet development to allow a control of spin systems identical to that of a high-resolution probe. This new apparatus will open the way to the use of NMR relaxation at low fields for the refinement of protein motions at an atomic scale. Applications of this novel approach will focus on the bright side of protein dynamics: (i) the largely unexplored dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins, and (ii) domain motions in large proteins. In both cases, we will investigate a series of diverse protein systems with implications in development, cancer and immunity.
The paradigm of the structure-function relationship in proteins is outdated. Biological macromolecules and supramolecular assemblies are highly dynamic objects. Evidence that their motions are of utmost importance to their functions is regularly identified. The understanding of the physical chemistry of biological processes at an atomic level has to rely not only on the description of structure but also on the characterization of molecular motions. The investigation of protein motions will be undertaken with a very innovative methodological approach in nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation. In order to widen the ranges of frequencies at which local motions in proteins are probed, we will first use and develop new techniques for a prototype shuttle system for the measurement of relaxation at low fields on a high-field NMR spectrometer. Second, we will develop a novel system: a set of low-field NMR spectrometers designed as accessories for high-field spectrometers. Used in conjunction with the shuttle, this system will offer (i) the sensitivity and resolution (i.e. atomic level information) of a high-field spectrometer (ii) the access to low fields of a relaxometer and (iii) the ability to measure a wide variety of relaxation rates with high accuracy. This system will benefit from the latest technology in homogeneous permanent magnet development to allow a control of spin systems identical to that of a high-resolution probe. This new apparatus will open the way to the use of NMR relaxation at low fields for the refinement of protein motions at an atomic scale. Applications of this novel approach will focus on the bright side of protein dynamics: (i) the largely unexplored dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins, and (ii) domain motions in large proteins. In both cases, we will investigate a series of diverse protein systems with implications in development, cancer and immunity.
Project acronym 3D-CAP
Project 3D micro-supercapacitors for embedded electronics
Researcher (PI) David Sarinn PECH
Summary The realization of high-performance micro-supercapacitors is currently a big challenge but the ineluctable applications requiring such miniaturized energy storage devices are continuously emerging, from wearable electronic gadgets to wireless sensor networks. Although they store less energy than micro-batteries, micro-supercapacitors can be charged and discharged very rapidly and exhibit a quasi-unlimited lifetime. The global scientific research is consequently largely focused on the improvement of their capacitance and energetic performances. However, to date, they are still far from being able to power sensors or electronic components. Here I propose a 3D paradigm shift of micro-supercapacitor design to ensure increased energy storage capacities. Hydrous ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) is a pseudocapacitive material for supercapacitor electrode well-known for its high capacitance. A thin-film of ruthenium will be deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD), followed by an electrochemical oxidation process, onto a high-surface-area 3D current collector prepared via an ingenious dynamic template built with hydrogen bubbles. The structural features of these 3D architectures will be controllably tailored by the processing methodologies. These electrodes will be combined with an innovative electrolyte in solid form (a protic ionogel) able to operate over an extended cell voltage. In a parallel investigation, we will develop a fundamental understanding of electrochemical reactions occurring at the nanoscale with a FIB-patterned (Focused Ion Beam) RuO2 nano-supercapacitor. The resulting 3D micro-supercapacitors should display extremely high power, long lifetime and – for the first time – energy densities competing or even exceeding that of micro-batteries. As a key achievement, prototypes will be designed using a new concept based on a self-adaptative micro-supercapacitors matrix, which arranges itself according to the global amount of energy stored.
The realization of high-performance micro-supercapacitors is currently a big challenge but the ineluctable applications requiring such miniaturized energy storage devices are continuously emerging, from wearable electronic gadgets to wireless sensor networks. Although they store less energy than micro-batteries, micro-supercapacitors can be charged and discharged very rapidly and exhibit a quasi-unlimited lifetime. The global scientific research is consequently largely focused on the improvement of their capacitance and energetic performances. However, to date, they are still far from being able to power sensors or electronic components. Here I propose a 3D paradigm shift of micro-supercapacitor design to ensure increased energy storage capacities. Hydrous ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) is a pseudocapacitive material for supercapacitor electrode well-known for its high capacitance. A thin-film of ruthenium will be deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD), followed by an electrochemical oxidation process, onto a high-surface-area 3D current collector prepared via an ingenious dynamic template built with hydrogen bubbles. The structural features of these 3D architectures will be controllably tailored by the processing methodologies. These electrodes will be combined with an innovative electrolyte in solid form (a protic ionogel) able to operate over an extended cell voltage. In a parallel investigation, we will develop a fundamental understanding of electrochemical reactions occurring at the nanoscale with a FIB-patterned (Focused Ion Beam) RuO2 nano-supercapacitor. The resulting 3D micro-supercapacitors should display extremely high power, long lifetime and – for the first time – energy densities competing or even exceeding that of micro-batteries. As a key achievement, prototypes will be designed using a new concept based on a self-adaptative micro-supercapacitors matrix, which arranges itself according to the global amount of energy stored.
Project acronym 3DICE
Project 3D Interstellar Chemo-physical Evolution
Researcher (PI) Valentine Wakelam
Summary At the end of their life, stars spread their inner material into the diffuse interstellar medium. This diffuse medium gets locally denser and form dark clouds (also called dense or molecular clouds) whose innermost part is shielded from the external UV field by the dust, allowing for molecules to grow and get more complex. Gravitational collapse occurs inside these dense clouds, forming protostars and their surrounding disks, and eventually planetary systems like (or unlike) our solar system. The formation and evolution of molecules, minerals, ices and organics from the diffuse medium to planetary bodies, their alteration or preservation throughout this cosmic chemical history set the initial conditions for building planets, atmospheres and possibly the first bricks of life. The current view of interstellar chemistry is based on fragmental works on key steps of the sequence that are observed. The objective of this proposal is to follow the fractionation of the elements between the gas-phase and the interstellar grains, from the most diffuse medium to protoplanetary disks, in order to constrain the chemical composition of the material in which planets are formed. The potential outcome of this project is to get a consistent and more accurate description of the chemical evolution of interstellar matter. To achieve this objective, I will improve our chemical model by adding new processes on grain surfaces relevant under the diffuse medium conditions. This upgraded gas-grain model will be coupled to 3D dynamical models of the formation of dense clouds from diffuse medium and of protoplanetary disks from dense clouds. The computed chemical composition will also be used with 3D radiative transfer codes to study the chemical tracers of the physics of protoplanetary disk formation. The robustness of the model predictions will be studied with sensitivity analyses. Finally, model results will be confronted to observations to address some of the current challenges.
At the end of their life, stars spread their inner material into the diffuse interstellar medium. This diffuse medium gets locally denser and form dark clouds (also called dense or molecular clouds) whose innermost part is shielded from the external UV field by the dust, allowing for molecules to grow and get more complex. Gravitational collapse occurs inside these dense clouds, forming protostars and their surrounding disks, and eventually planetary systems like (or unlike) our solar system. The formation and evolution of molecules, minerals, ices and organics from the diffuse medium to planetary bodies, their alteration or preservation throughout this cosmic chemical history set the initial conditions for building planets, atmospheres and possibly the first bricks of life. The current view of interstellar chemistry is based on fragmental works on key steps of the sequence that are observed. The objective of this proposal is to follow the fractionation of the elements between the gas-phase and the interstellar grains, from the most diffuse medium to protoplanetary disks, in order to constrain the chemical composition of the material in which planets are formed. The potential outcome of this project is to get a consistent and more accurate description of the chemical evolution of interstellar matter. To achieve this objective, I will improve our chemical model by adding new processes on grain surfaces relevant under the diffuse medium conditions. This upgraded gas-grain model will be coupled to 3D dynamical models of the formation of dense clouds from diffuse medium and of protoplanetary disks from dense clouds. The computed chemical composition will also be used with 3D radiative transfer codes to study the chemical tracers of the physics of protoplanetary disk formation. The robustness of the model predictions will be studied with sensitivity analyses. Finally, model results will be confronted to observations to address some of the current challenges.
Project acronym 4D-GenEx
Project Spatio-temporal Organization and Expression of the Genome
Researcher (PI) Antoine COULON
Summary This project investigates the two-way relationship between spatio-temporal genome organization and coordinated gene regulation, through an approach at the interface between physics, computer science and biology. In the nucleus, preferred positions are observed from chromosomes to single genes, in relation to normal and pathological cellular states. Evidence indicates a complex spatio-temporal coupling between co-regulated genes: e.g. certain genes cluster spatially when responding to similar factors and transcriptional noise patterns suggest domain-wide mechanisms. Yet, no individual experiment allows probing transcriptional coordination in 4 dimensions (FISH, live locus tracking, Hi-C...). Interpreting such data also critically requires theory (stochastic processes, statistical physics…). A lack of appropriate experimental/analytical approaches is impairing our understanding of the 4D genome. Our proposal combines cutting-edge single-molecule imaging, signal-theory data analysis and physical modeling to study how genes coordinate in space and time in a single nucleus. Our objectives are to understand (a) competition/recycling of shared resources between genes within subnuclear compartments, (b) how enhancers communicate with genes domain-wide, and (c) the role of local conformational dynamics and supercoiling in gene co-regulation. Our organizing hypothesis is that, by acting on their microenvironment, genes shape their co-expression with other genes. Building upon my expertise, we will use dual-color MS2/PP7 RNA labeling to visualize for the first time transcription and motion of pairs of hormone-responsive genes in real time. With our innovative signal analysis tools, we will extract spatio-temporal signatures of underlying processes, which we will investigate with stochastic modeling and validate through experimental perturbations. We expect to uncover how the functional organization of the linear genome relates to its physical properties and dynamics in 4D.
This project investigates the two-way relationship between spatio-temporal genome organization and coordinated gene regulation, through an approach at the interface between physics, computer science and biology. In the nucleus, preferred positions are observed from chromosomes to single genes, in relation to normal and pathological cellular states. Evidence indicates a complex spatio-temporal coupling between co-regulated genes: e.g. certain genes cluster spatially when responding to similar factors and transcriptional noise patterns suggest domain-wide mechanisms. Yet, no individual experiment allows probing transcriptional coordination in 4 dimensions (FISH, live locus tracking, Hi-C...). Interpreting such data also critically requires theory (stochastic processes, statistical physics…). A lack of appropriate experimental/analytical approaches is impairing our understanding of the 4D genome. Our proposal combines cutting-edge single-molecule imaging, signal-theory data analysis and physical modeling to study how genes coordinate in space and time in a single nucleus. Our objectives are to understand (a) competition/recycling of shared resources between genes within subnuclear compartments, (b) how enhancers communicate with genes domain-wide, and (c) the role of local conformational dynamics and supercoiling in gene co-regulation. Our organizing hypothesis is that, by acting on their microenvironment, genes shape their co-expression with other genes. Building upon my expertise, we will use dual-color MS2/PP7 RNA labeling to visualize for the first time transcription and motion of pairs of hormone-responsive genes in real time. With our innovative signal analysis tools, we will extract spatio-temporal signatures of underlying processes, which we will investigate with stochastic modeling and validate through experimental perturbations. We expect to uncover how the functional organization of the linear genome relates to its physical properties and dynamics in 4D.
Project acronym 4TH-NU-AVENUE
Project Search for a fourth neutrino with a PBq anti-neutrino source
Researcher (PI) Thierry Michel René Lasserre
Summary Several observed anomalies in neutrino oscillation data can be explained by a hypothetical fourth neutrino separated from the three standard neutrinos by a squared mass difference of a few eV2. This hypothesis can be tested with a PBq (ten kilocurie scale) 144Ce antineutrino beta-source deployed at the center of a large low background liquid scintillator detector, such like Borexino, KamLAND, and SNO+. In particular, the compact size of such a source could yield an energy-dependent oscillating pattern in event spatial distribution that would unambiguously determine neutrino mass differences and mixing angles. The proposed program aims to perform the necessary research and developments to produce and deploy an intense antineutrino source in a large liquid scintillator detector. Our program will address the definition of the production process of the neutrino source as well as its experimental characterization, the detailed physics simulation of both signal and backgrounds, the complete design and the realization of the thick shielding, the preparation of the interfaces with the antineutrino detector, including the safety and security aspects.
Several observed anomalies in neutrino oscillation data can be explained by a hypothetical fourth neutrino separated from the three standard neutrinos by a squared mass difference of a few eV2. This hypothesis can be tested with a PBq (ten kilocurie scale) 144Ce antineutrino beta-source deployed at the center of a large low background liquid scintillator detector, such like Borexino, KamLAND, and SNO+. In particular, the compact size of such a source could yield an energy-dependent oscillating pattern in event spatial distribution that would unambiguously determine neutrino mass differences and mixing angles. The proposed program aims to perform the necessary research and developments to produce and deploy an intense antineutrino source in a large liquid scintillator detector. Our program will address the definition of the production process of the neutrino source as well as its experimental characterization, the detailed physics simulation of both signal and backgrounds, the complete design and the realization of the thick shielding, the preparation of the interfaces with the antineutrino detector, including the safety and security aspects.
Project acronym A-LIFE
Project The asymmetry of life: towards a unified view of the emergence of biological homochirality
Researcher (PI) Cornelia MEINERT
Summary What is responsible for the emergence of homochirality, the almost exclusive use of one enantiomer over its mirror image? And what led to the evolution of life’s homochiral biopolymers, DNA/RNA, proteins and lipids, where all the constituent monomers exhibit the same handedness? Based on in-situ observations and laboratory studies, we propose that this handedness occurs when chiral biomolecules are synthesized asymmetrically through interaction with circularly polarized photons in interstellar space. The ultimate goal of this project will be to demonstrate how the diverse set of heterogeneous enantioenriched molecules, available from meteoritic impact, assembles into homochiral pre-biopolymers, by simulating the evolutionary stages on early Earth. My recent research has shown that the central chiral unit of RNA, ribose, forms readily under simulated comet conditions and this has provided valuable new insights into the accessibility of precursors of genetic material in interstellar environments. The significance of this project arises due to the current lack of experimental demonstration that amino acids, sugars and lipids can simultaneously and asymmetrically be synthesized by a universal physical selection process. A synergistic methodology will be developed to build a unified theory for the origin of all chiral biological building blocks and their assembly into homochiral supramolecular entities. For the first time, advanced analyses of astrophysical-relevant samples, asymmetric photochemistry triggered by circularly polarized synchrotron and laser sources, and chiral amplification due to polymerization processes will be combined. Intermediates and autocatalytic reaction kinetics will be monitored and supported by quantum calculations to understand the underlying processes. A unified theory on the asymmetric formation and self-assembly of life’s biopolymers is groundbreaking and will impact the whole conceptual foundation of the origin of life.
What is responsible for the emergence of homochirality, the almost exclusive use of one enantiomer over its mirror image? And what led to the evolution of life’s homochiral biopolymers, DNA/RNA, proteins and lipids, where all the constituent monomers exhibit the same handedness? Based on in-situ observations and laboratory studies, we propose that this handedness occurs when chiral biomolecules are synthesized asymmetrically through interaction with circularly polarized photons in interstellar space. The ultimate goal of this project will be to demonstrate how the diverse set of heterogeneous enantioenriched molecules, available from meteoritic impact, assembles into homochiral pre-biopolymers, by simulating the evolutionary stages on early Earth. My recent research has shown that the central chiral unit of RNA, ribose, forms readily under simulated comet conditions and this has provided valuable new insights into the accessibility of precursors of genetic material in interstellar environments. The significance of this project arises due to the current lack of experimental demonstration that amino acids, sugars and lipids can simultaneously and asymmetrically be synthesized by a universal physical selection process. A synergistic methodology will be developed to build a unified theory for the origin of all chiral biological building blocks and their assembly into homochiral supramolecular entities. For the first time, advanced analyses of astrophysical-relevant samples, asymmetric photochemistry triggered by circularly polarized synchrotron and laser sources, and chiral amplification due to polymerization processes will be combined. Intermediates and autocatalytic reaction kinetics will be monitored and supported by quantum calculations to understand the underlying processes. A unified theory on the asymmetric formation and self-assembly of life’s biopolymers is groundbreaking and will impact the whole conceptual foundation of the origin of life.
Project acronym ABIOS
Project ABIOtic Synthesis of RNA: an investigation on how life started before biology existed
Researcher (PI) Guillaume STIRNEMANN
Summary The emergence of life is one of the most fascinating and yet largely unsolved questions in the natural sciences, and thus a significant challenge for scientists from many disciplines. There is growing evidence that ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymers, which are capable of genetic information storage and self-catalysis, were involved in the early forms of life. But despite recent progress, RNA synthesis without biological machineries is very challenging. The current project aims at understanding how to synthesize RNA in abiotic conditions. I will solve problems associated with three critical aspects of RNA formation that I will rationalize at a molecular level: (i) accumulation of precursors, (ii) formation of a chemical bond between RNA monomers, and (iii) tolerance for alternative backbone sugars or linkages. Because I will study problems ranging from the formation of chemical bonds up to the stability of large biopolymers, I propose an original computational multi-scale approach combining techniques that range from quantum calculations to large-scale all-atom simulations, employed together with efficient enhanced-sampling algorithms, forcefield improvement, cutting-edge analysis methods and model development. My objectives are the following: 1 • To explain why the poorly-understood thermally-driven process of thermophoresis can contribute to the accumulation of dilute precursors. 2 • To understand why linking RNA monomers with phosphoester bonds is so difficult, to understand the molecular mechanism of possible catalysts and to suggest key improvements. 3 • To rationalize the molecular basis for RNA tolerance for alternative backbone sugars or linkages that have probably been incorporated in abiotic conditions. This unique in-silico laboratory setup should significantly impact our comprehension of life’s origin by overcoming major obstacles to RNA abiotic formation, and in addition will reveal significant orthogonal outcomes for (bio)technological applications.
The emergence of life is one of the most fascinating and yet largely unsolved questions in the natural sciences, and thus a significant challenge for scientists from many disciplines. There is growing evidence that ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymers, which are capable of genetic information storage and self-catalysis, were involved in the early forms of life. But despite recent progress, RNA synthesis without biological machineries is very challenging. The current project aims at understanding how to synthesize RNA in abiotic conditions. I will solve problems associated with three critical aspects of RNA formation that I will rationalize at a molecular level: (i) accumulation of precursors, (ii) formation of a chemical bond between RNA monomers, and (iii) tolerance for alternative backbone sugars or linkages. Because I will study problems ranging from the formation of chemical bonds up to the stability of large biopolymers, I propose an original computational multi-scale approach combining techniques that range from quantum calculations to large-scale all-atom simulations, employed together with efficient enhanced-sampling algorithms, forcefield improvement, cutting-edge analysis methods and model development. My objectives are the following: 1 • To explain why the poorly-understood thermally-driven process of thermophoresis can contribute to the accumulation of dilute precursors. 2 • To understand why linking RNA monomers with phosphoester bonds is so difficult, to understand the molecular mechanism of possible catalysts and to suggest key improvements. 3 • To rationalize the molecular basis for RNA tolerance for alternative backbone sugars or linkages that have probably been incorporated in abiotic conditions. This unique in-silico laboratory setup should significantly impact our comprehension of life’s origin by overcoming major obstacles to RNA abiotic formation, and in addition will reveal significant orthogonal outcomes for (bio)technological applications.
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eso0111 — Organisation Release
"First Light" for the VLT Interferometer
Excellent Fringes From Bright Stars Prove VLTI Concept
Following the "First Light" for the fourth of the 8.2-metre telescopes of the VLT Observatory on Paranal in September 2000, ESO scientists and engineers have just successfully accomplished the next major step of this large project.
On March 17, 2001, "First Fringes" were obtained with the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) - this important event corresponds to the "First Light" for an astronomical telescope. At the VLTI, it occurred when the infrared light from the bright star Sirius was captured by two small telescopes and the two beams were successfully combined in the subterranean Interferometric Laboratory to form the typical pattern of dark and bright lines known as "interferometric fringes". This proves the success of the robust VLTI concept, in particular of the "Delay Line".
On the next night, the VLTI was used to perform a scientific measurement of the angular diameter of another comparatively bright star, Alpha Hydrae (Alphard); it was found to be 0.00929±0.00017 arcsec. This corresponds to the angular distance between the two headlights of a car as seen from a distance of approx. 35,000 kilometres. The excellent result was obtained during a series of observations, each lasting 2 minutes, and fully confirming the impressive predicted abilities of the VLTI.
This first observation with the VLTI is a monumental technological achievement, especially in terms of accuracy and stability. It crucially depends on the proper combination and functioning of a large number of individual opto-mechnical and electronic elements. This includes the test telescopes that capture the starlight, continuous and extremely precise adjustment of the various mirrors that deflect the light beams as well as the automatic positioning and motion of the Delay Line carriages and, not least, the optimal tuning of the VLT INterferometer Commissionning Instrument (VINCI).
These initial observations prove the overall concept for the VLTI. It was first envisaged in the early 1980's and has been continuously updated, as new technologies and materials became available during the intervening period. The present series of functional tests will go on for some time and involve many different configurations of the small telescopes and the instrument. It is then expected that the first combination of light beams from two of the VLT 8.2-metre telescopes will take place in late 2001.
According to current plans, regular science observations will start from 2002, when the European and international astronomical community will have access to the full interferometric facility and the specially developed VLTI instrumentation now under construction. A wide range of scientific investigations will then become possible, from the search for planets around nearby stars, to the study of energetic processes at the cores of distant galaxies. With its superior angular resolution (image sharpness), the VLT is now beginning to open a new era in observational optical and infrared astronomy. The ambition of ESO is to make this type of observations available to all astronomers, not just the interferometry specialists.
"First Fringes at the VLTI": A great moment!
The moment of "First Fringes" at the VLTI occurred in the evening of March 17, 2001. The bright star Sirius was observed with two small telescopes ("siderostats"), specially constructed for this purpose during the early VLTI test phases. ESO Press Video eso0111 includes related scenes and is based on a more comprehensive documentation, now available as ESO Video News Reel No. 12.
The star was tracked by the two telescopes and the light beams were guided via the Delay Lines in the Interferometric Tunnel to the VINCI instrument [1] at the Interferometric Laboratory. The path lengths were continuously adjusted and it was possible to keep them stable to within 1 wavelength (2.2 µm, or 0.0022 mm) over a period of at least 2 min.
Next night, several other stars were observed, enabling the ESO astronomers and engineers in the Control Room to obtain stable fringe patterns more routinely. With the special software developed, they also obtained 'on-line' an accurate measurement of the angular diameter of a star. This means that the VLTI delivered its first valid scientific result, already during this first test.
First observation with the VLTI
Following careful adjustment of all of the various components of the VLTI, the first attempt to perform a real observation was initiated during the night of March 16-17, 2001. "Fringes" were actually acquired during several seconds, leading to further optimization of the Delay Line optics.
The next night, March 17-18, stable fringes were obtained on the bright stars Sirius and Lambda Velorum.
The following night, the first scientifically valid results were obtained during a series of observations of six stars. One of these, Alpha Hydrae, was measured twice, with an interval of 15 minutes between the 2-min integrations. The measured diameters were highly consistent, with a mean of 0.00929±0.00017 arcsec. This new VLTI measurement is in full agreement with indirect (photometric) estimates of about 0.009 arcsec.
The overall performance of the VLTI was excellent already in this early stage. For example, the interferometric efficiency ('contrast' on a stellar point source) was measured to be 87% and stable to within 1.3% over several days. This performance will be further improved following additional tuning.
The entire operation of the VLTI was performed remotely from the Control Room, as this will also be the case in the future.
Another great advantage of the VLTI concept is the possibility to analyse the data at the control console. This is one of the key features of the VLTI that contributes to make it a very user-friendly facility.
Overview of the VLT Interferometer
The interferometric principle is based on the phase-stable combination of light beams from two or more telescopes at a common interferometric focus.
The light from a celestial object is captured simultaneously by two or more telescopes. For the first tests, two "siderostats" with 40-cm aperture are used; later on, two or more 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes will be used, as well as several moving 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs), now under construction at the AMOS factory in Belgium.
Via several mirrors and through the Delay Line, that continuously compensates for changes in the path length introduced by the Earth's rotation as well as by other effects (e.g., atmospheric turbulence), the light beams are guided towards the interferometric instrument VINCI at the common interferometric focus. It is located in the subterranean Interferometric Laboratory, at the centre of the observing platform on the top of the Paranal mountain. Photos of some of the VLTI elements are shown in Appendix B.
The interferometric technique allows achieving images, as sharp as those of a telescope with a diameter equivalent to the largest distance between the telescopes in the interferometer. For the VLTI, this distance is about 200 metres, resulting in a resolution of 0.001 arcsec in the near-infrared spectral region (at 1 µm wavelength), or 0.0005 arcsec in visual light (500 nm). The latter measure corresponds to about 2 metres on the surface of the Moon.
The VLTI instruments
The installation and putting into operation of the VLTI at Paranal is a gradual process that will take several years. While the present "First Fringe" event is of crucial importance, the full potential of the VLTI will only be reached some years from now.
This will happen with the successive installation of a number of highly specialised instruments, like the near-infrared/red VLTI focal instrument (AMBER), the Mid-Infrared interferometric instrument for the VLTI (MIDI) and the instrument for Phase-Referenced Imaging and Microarcsecond Astrometry (PRIMA).
Already next year, the three 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes that will be fully devoted to interferometric observations, will arrive at Paranal. Ultimately, it will be possible to combine the light beams from all the large and small telescopes.
Great research promises
Together, they will be able to achieve an unprecedented image sharpness (angular resolution) in the optical/infrared wavelength region, and thanks to the great light-collecting ability of the VLT Unit Telescopes, also for observations of quite faint objects. This will make it possible to carry out many different front-line scientific studies, beyond the reach of other instruments. There are many promising research fields that will profit from VLTI observations, of which the following serve as particularly interesting examples:
* The structure and composition of the outer solar system, by studies of individual moons, Trans-Neptunian Objects and comets.
* The direct detection and imaging of exoplanets in orbit around other stars.
* The formation of star clusters and their evolution, from images and spectra of very young objects.
* Direct views of the surface structures of stars other than the Sun.
* Measuring accurate distances to the most prominent "stepping stones" in the extragalactic distance scale, e.g., galactic Cepheid stars, the Large Magellanic Cloud and globular clusters.
* Direct investigations of the physical mechanisms responsible for stellar pulsation, mass loss and dust formation in stellar envelopes and evolution to the Planetary Nebula and White Dwarf stages.
* Close-up studies of interacting binary stars to better understand their mass transfer mechanisms and evolution.
* Studies of the structure of the circum-stellar environment of stellar black holes and neutron stars.
* The evolution of the expanding shells of unstable stars like novae and supernovae and their interaction with the interstellar medium.
* Studying the structure and evolution of stellar and galactic nuclear accretion disks and the associated features, e.g., jets and dust tori.
* With images and spectra of the innermost regions of the Milky Way galaxy, to investigate the nature of the nucleus surrounding the central black hole.
Clearly, there will be no lack of opportunities for trailblazing research with the VLTI. The "First Fringes" constitute a very important milestone in this direction.
[1] The VINCI instrument was built under ESO contract at the Observatoire de Paris (France) and the camera in this instrument was delivered by the MPI for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany). The detector electronics was supplied by ESO.
Appendix A: How does it work?
The principle behind interferometry is the "coherent optical interference" of light beams from two or more telescopes, due to the wave nature of light. The above illustrations serve to explain what the astronomers observe in the simplest case, that of a single star with a certain angular size, and how this can be translated into a measurement of this size.
In ESO Press Photo eso0111, the difference between two stars of different diameter is illustrated. While the image of the smaller star displays strong interference effects (i.e., a well visible fringe pattern), those of the larger star are much less prominent. The "visibility" of the fringes is therefore a direct measure of the size; the stronger they appear (the "larger the contrast"), the smaller is the star.
If the distance between the two telescopes is increased when a particular star is observed (ESO Press Photo eso0111), then the fringes become less and less prominent. At a certain distance, the fringe pattern disppears completely. This distance is directly related to the angular size of the star.
Appendix B: Elements of the VLT Interferometer
Contrary to other large astronomical telescopes, the VLT was designed from the beginning with the use of interferometry as a major goal . For this reason, the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes were positioned in a quasi-trapezoidal configuration and several moving 1.8-metre telescopes were included into the overall VLT concept.
The photos below show some of the key elements of the VLT Interferometer during the present observations. They include the siderostats, 40-cm telescopes that serve to capture the light from a comparatively bright star, the Delay Lines , and the VINCI instrument.
Earlier information about the development and construction of the individual elements of the VLTI is available as ESO Press Release eso9811, ESO Press Release eso0020 and ESO Press Photos eso0032.
Technical information about the photos
ESO Press Photo eso0111 shows the computer screen during the "first fringes" of the VLTI, as presented by the off-line data analysis software. The data displayed represent about two minutes of observation. Fringes are acquired by moving a mirror back and forth around the position of equal pathlength for the two telescopes. One such scan (lasting about 0.5 sec) can be seen in the upper right window, while a combined ('waterfall') display of a total of 200 scans is shown in the upper left window. From each scan is computed a value for the contrast of the fringes (yellow dots).
Andreas Glindemann
Paranal, Chile
Tel: +56-55-43-5000/5240
Email: aglindem@eso.org
Francesco Paresce
Garching, Germany
Tel: +4989-3200-6297
Email: fparesce@eso.org
About the Release
Release No.: eso0111
Legacy ID: PR 06/01
Name: First Light, Instrumentation
Facility: Very Large Telescope Interferometer
Instruments: AMBER, MIDI, PRIMA
PR Image eso0111a
First fringes of Sirius with VLTI
PR Image eso0020b
VLT interferometer principle
Celebrating VLTI 'first fringes'
PR Image eso0111d
Interferometric observations: fringes from two stars of different angular size
PR Image eso0111e
Interferometric observations: change of fringes with increasing baseline
PR Image eso0111f
Aerial view of the VLTI with tunnels superimposed
PR Image eso0111g
Stations for the VLTI Auxiliary Telescopes
PR Image eso0111h
A test siderostat in place for observations
PR Image eso0111i
A close-up of a test siderostat
PR Image eso0111j
Delay line carriage in the VLTI tunnel
PR Image eso0111k
The VINCI instrument in the Interferometric Laboratory
PR Image eso0111l
The VLTI Control Room
PR Video eso0111a
Video News Release 12: First Light for the VLT Interferometer (eso0111a)
Press Releases on iau.org
Press Releases on spacetelescope.org
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http://www.paddypowerbetfair.com/
As the company invests more in technology, Paddy Power Betfair is ensuring efficient procurement processes with spend analytics
Paddy Power Betfair will improve procurement efficiency as part of its digital transformation journey
With the gambling industry continuing to evolve with changing legislation and new technologies, Ireland’s Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) has operations across Europe, America and Australia. The firm manages several brands which have evolved along with the industry. When Paddy Power was founded in 1988, it followed a traditional gambling model with shops on high streets.
As well as growth within its business model, the company has expanded its global presence through mergers and acquisitions. In 2010, Paddy Power acquired Sportsbet, one of Australia’s leading bookmakers. In 2015, Paddy Power and UK-based Betfair agreed to merge. Since the merger, the company has sought to increase its global operations further.
Director of Procurement, Jack McMahon, joined Paddy Power – prior to its merger with Betfair – in April 2015. McMahon has over 20 years’ experience in procurement, operations and supply chain. With this he sought to implement standard processes and procedures to support stakeholders within PPB. “Our focus has always been to support the business proactively in engaging with our supply base. Our job is to maximise value and minimise risk,” Jack says. “Our long term plan is to operate on a common platform for systems, process and procedures. Hence, our Global team can have a standard language and get to best practice. This also helps offer opportunities to staff to transfer between Regions and develop within PPB.”
Colum Colbert joined Paddy Power five years ago. He has been working with the procurement team for the past two years. “Within procurement, my own area of Procurement Services is not about sourcing. Procurement Services manage the procedures, policies and the systems – what I would call the ‘infrastructure’ – that enables and supports procurement.” He argues that procurement has traditionally centered around two things: “The first is security of quality supply, such as arranging supply, making sure that the supply chain is uninterrupted and monitoring quality throughout. The second is achieving good value for money within that supply chain. Now that I’ve worked in the industry in PPB for two years, I think these two activities are part of a bigger picture. I think they both fit into a greater overall context of managing supply chain risk. Besides risks around security of quality supply and value for money, there are also legal, tax and IT security risks.”
The Procurement Services Head suggests that since joining the company, he has witnessed greater embedding of its PO system. Provided by Oracle, Colbert notes that the role of this system in the P2P process has become clearer to the wider business overall. The key message of “No PO - No Pay” is gaining traction for an increasing share of the company’s spend. The PO system has created a greater sense of spend governance in the company’s overall P2P systems strategy.
Colbert also observes that over the past two years, operations within his team have become more concerned with achieving and delivering best practice, policies and procedures.
“With a clearer systems strategy in place, we have been introducing various tools that enable us to achieve procurement excellence, what we call ‘Procurement 2.0’. A good example has been our implementation of spend analytics provided by Efficio. We have achieved global spend analytics with spend categorised according to procurement-relevant taxonomy. This facilitates global category management and savings planning,” comments Colbert.
The partnership with Oracle is enabling the firm to transform its process for contract preapproval, or Deal Sheet. This process helps manage legal, tax, IT security and value-add risks in buying. By using the Oracle cloud technology, with the help of developer Namos Solutions, the betting business is transitioning from a manual to a more automated process. Paddy Power Betfair are also implementing Market Dojo’s eRFx tool to streamline tendering. “Efficiency is critical. We don't want to invest in anything that makes life less efficient,” says Colbert. “I hope that this technology and automation development makes it easier and becomes an enabler for people to engage in procurement activity.”
This concept of partnership with suppliers has been key to PPB’s systems strategy to date. “Many suppliers may claim to be ‘partners’ of their customers. However, this may often be a mere cliché or lip-service”, Colbert states. “On our procurement systems journey, our providers truly have been good to us and for us. I have been astounded by their flexibility and customer service ethic”, adds Colbert. “For example, Market Dojo sold us an eRFx licence. They then stayed with us and ‘held our hand’ as we actually launched successful eRFx events. Efficio, our spend analytics providers, have shown great agility in quickly turning around requests for data loading, analysis and reporting. Namos Solutions, builders of our Deal Sheet tool, invested huge efforts in customising Oracle technology to meet our bespoke requirements. The common denominator among these providers was that they didn’t simply sell and then leave us”, Colbert states. He adds “my advice here is clear and simple: choose your suppliers carefully. They can be critical to your success or failure”.
In the coming years, Colbert expects the company to have a more globally integrated procurement function that collectively encompasses systems, processes, policy, and supplier and risk management. “We will globally integrate more of the procurement activity across the existing Paddy Power Betfair entities. There may even be more entities and brands within our business. If Paddy Power Betfair makes further acquisitions, we would of course have to integrate our procurement function with these new companies too,” Colbert concludes.
Paddy Power Betfair,
Spend analytics,
Digital transformation,
Colum Colbert
Head of Procurement Services at Paddy Power Betfair
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